Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013

Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013.

Read it and do your own thinking.

I said a long time ago,  scientists can’t prove (yet) that we are in the midst of “man-made” global warming. They tricked me once when I was a kid when they were all in agreement that we would all be frozen into ice cubes by now.

At this point in time, I want proof that…

1. People are the cause of global warming.

2. There is something effective that people can do to stop it.

So far, I have not seen enough evidence of either one of those propositions to make me want to do anything about the issue. I’m still waiting…

Maybe if I wait long enough, they’ll decide we’ll be freezing again. I only wish the governments of the world would stop trying to use this issue to force us into their ridiculous ideas of how we need to live.

Yeah, riiiighht, like any of them really know anything about MY life. Or yours (assuming you’re not at least a millionaire). Or even how to really LIVE life. You don’t learn about that when your life’s ambition is to control other people!

Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment

Our Fossil-Fueled Future – Environment – Utne Reader.

Love the picture they start this off with. Right off the bat they make out Exxon as the cause of all the worlds suffering. Yeah, riiiighht…

OK, for the record, I do NOT think we need to stop using fossil fuels! I do NOT think we need to stop the rest of the world from developing up to first world standards. In fact, I think that will be one thing that could help solve everything.

OK, I bet some people are pretty skeptical…

First point: rising incomes = lower birth rate. Lower birth rate + rising incomes = more resources to give a shit about something other than bare survival. So, the first thing we should do if we want to ‘save the planet’ is to help everyone in the world move up the economic ladder asap.

Second point: all of this increase in productivity and rising incomes (time/effort/money spent on other things than energy) depends on CHEAP energy. At this point in time, alternative energy (sources other than fossils) are NOT cheap. They are not anywhere near as efficient and they are not practical (yet). (I DO agree with technology like solar ovens replacing wood burning stoves- that is a GREAT use of solar power in the developing world and a great example of how solar will be able to help)

Third point: they talk about how the entrenched energy companies (meaning fossil fuel companies) earn “staggering profits”, which makes them somehow evil and so they should be either nationalized (BAD idea) or have their ‘profits’ stolen “for the better good” (another really bad idea).

First of all, they don’t make anything like what I would call staggering profits. They only sound like that because of the way they are reported. Which is intentionally to make you feel like something is wrong with it. They are manipulating you to make you want to punish those ‘evil’ corporations. Please read this article to get a more balanced perspective… http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/20/big-oil-isnt-as-profitable-as-everyone-thinks/

And to end my review of this article, I would like to point out my personal favorite way to ‘save the world’ with the least pain and anguish for everyone (and everyTHING) on the planet… start using BIRTH CONTROL!!!

If you really think about it, almost every problem you can come up with is minimized if you cut down the amount of people running around the planet. Global warming for instance. If you say that global warming is caused by the actions of people, then it could easily be solved by reducing the amount of people acting. Right?

YES! So, wouldn’t it be better to just use some birth control rather than kill off the people that are already here (through starvation, disease, war, pollution)???

China has done the world a great service with their one child policy (the only problem is their use of force instead of persuasion). If everyone around the world would think about this and resolve to just have one child voluntarily, it would solve a LOT of our problems. War, hunger, pollution, would all be just about eliminated, or at least minimized to the greatest possible extent.

Yes, it would take a while. But in the same time period they’re talking about 2040, we could make a huge, lasting impact, especially if people really came to value the rest of the planet instead of only humanity.

Personally, I would LOVE to see the use of non-polluting alternative energy sources grow to overtake the use of fossil fuels. I DO value this beautiful earth and all the other creatures living here with us.

I would be happy to use wind, solar, ocean current, fuel cell, or anything else that can match fossil fuels in price and efficiency. I am hoping they will come up with new technology that will allow me to make that choice sometime soon. So far, that day has not come. I’m doing what I can see as feasible in the meantime. No, I’m not going to be a martyr.

 

Here Comes the Story of No Hurricanes

Here Comes the Story of No Hurricanes | Mother Jones.

Here we go again with the global warming… Am I the only one who remembers back in the 70s when we were all supposed to be frozen into ice cubes by now. According to the almost unanimous scientific consensus, we should start shopping for parkas and load up on the firewood! Next it was global warming and now it’s ‘climate change’. Can’t these guys make up their minds?

I actually met one of these so-called experts a couple of years ago. I got off my tuna boat in Kiribati. They were having a meeting where I was staying. Here’s a link to an article written at the time- (http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2010/nov/09/kiribati-climate-change-conference-intro). The reporter even asked me what I thought about it for a man in the street’s opinion piece.

I asked a delegate why should I (or anyone else) believe him when the scientists were more in agreement about global freezing back in the 70s than they are about global warming now. I think I pissed him off. I mean,  disrespecting his so superior scientific knowledge and all that. REALLY??!! He had NO idea what I was talking about! OK, he was a few years younger than me so he probably doesn’t remember all the hysteria personally like I do, but he’s supposed to be an expert. Can’t we expect the experts to know more than just the ordinary guy in the street???

Back 'yard' of the best hotel on Tarawa 2010

Back ‘yard’ of the best hotel on Tarawa 2010

One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever

One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever | Mother Jones.

One weird trick? Seems like this ‘trick’ has been around forever, it’s just our modern factory farming techniques that tend to overlook it.

I don’t really know enough about farming to say with a definite yes or no to any of this stuff. I have been learning more about it lately and I’m coming to find out that contrary to what our government schools are telling us, that no, factory farming is NOT necessary to feed all the people on this planet now.

I always thought that because of the humongous amount of people running around and needing to be fed, that factory farming was the ONLY solution. Now, I’ve been learning, it isn’t. In fact, it is causing a lot of harm. Not only to the animals, but to the water, to the soil, to the plants, to the people involved in the farming, AND to all the rest of us.

Check out the article, read it all the way through and even the comments at the end. If you want some more info, check out this book I read called “Genetic Roulette” on GMOs (they even made a movie out of it). We’re working on showing that one at our local (Campaign for Liberty) meetup groups movie night sometime soon. Or another movie called “Farmaggedon”. There are lots more but those are a couple of good ones that’ll open your eyes and get you started asking questions. I’ve been a fast food junkie my whole life and they did open my eyes to a lot of things. Even tho I’m still eating all the crap food, at least I’m learning 😉

How Robot Swarms and Cloud Umbrellas Could Help Save Coral Reefs | Innovations

How Robot Swarms and Cloud Umbrellas Could Help Save Coral Reefs | Innovations.

I don’t know if there is really anything we can do to save the reefs (other than to limit the growth of the human population on this planet- either start using birth control or find a way to put some of us on the moon). I think its sad that we all just want to live our lives the best we can and we are justified in thinking that way, but we have no sense of how we have advanced our science so much to allow us to overcome all the limiting factors on our population. We use all the benefits of modern technology and so our population has exploded. People do not seem willing to limit their reproduction to 1-2 children (at least until their economic situation improves past a certain point). I do see it starting to happen, I just hope its not already too late with so many billions of us running around already. Personally, I would prefer it if EVERY person alive on Earth could live a decent, happy, productive life with everything they need and want available to them, rather than just keep on producing more and more people just because we’re somehow special and we deserve to live more than all the other things that share the planet with us.