Sunday, June 5, 2011

Wildfire!

Wildfire tracker

Back in 2007:

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Some thoughts

I think Hansen said in one of the videos I've posted that it will be strange not having a stable coastline. In the decades to come sea level will change at an accelerated rate. The beach you went to as a kid will no longer exist.

Infrastructure will cost a ton of bucks to replace, e.g. SFO. That money will, therefore, not be available to spend elsewhere... like for health care.

I read a lot of fiction... I am fond of thrillers. Whenever I buy a book I make sure it was not written too long ago. The advent of the internet and cell phone make many of the older plots fall apart.

This will be true in the future as well. Stories that are set in New Orleans or Florida... will have an expiration date, as, in the decades and centuries to come, these places disappear. Even if we succeed in arresting climate change, this is true. What's already begun will continue.

As a species, especially in modern times, we're not used to maps having to be redrawn ever decade or so.

Would you pay $10 for an avocado or an orange?
What will you do when gas is $10/gal?

As food becomes more and more expensive because of drought, flood and fuel prices, what do you think is going to happen to the economy? Will you eat out as often? Where will you trim spending to cover the extra costs of food and fuel? How will that impact your town? Your neighbors? Your job?

Where do you live? Are you in a place prone to flood? Drought? Tornados? Hurricanes? Do you feel safe now? Do you think you'll feel the same in a decade? Two?

It's all connected... and it's all going to change... faster than any of us will be comfortable with. And that is optimistic!

Again:



Thursday, June 2, 2011

MELTDOWN, RESEARCH ON GLOBAL WARMING.mov.flv



Very good overview. Even a couple things I had not heard before (mercury).

2025?

Future historians are likely to identify the Bush administration’s rash invasion of Iraq in that year as the start of America's downfall. However, instead of the bloodshed that marked the end of so many past empires, with cities burning and civilians slaughtered, this twenty-first century imperial collapse could come relatively quietly through the invisible tendrils of economic collapse or cyberwarfare
...
With just a few strokes of the pen and some terse announcements, the "Carter Doctrine," by which U.S. military power was to eternally protect the Persian Gulf, is laid to rest in 2025. All the elements that long assured the United States limitless supplies of low-cost oil from that region -- logistics, exchange rates, and naval power -- evaporate. At this point, the U.S. can still cover only an insignificant 12 percent of its energy needs from its nascent alternative energy industry, and remains dependent on imported oil for half of its energy consumption.

The oil shock that follows hits the country like a hurricane, sending prices to startling heights, making travel a staggeringly expensive proposition, putting real wages (which had long been declining) into freefall, and rendering non-competitive whatever American exports remained. With thermostats dropping, gas prices climbing through the roof, and dollars flowing overseas in return for costly oil, the American economy is paralyzed. With long-fraying alliances at an end and fiscal pressures mounting, U.S. military forces finally begin a staged withdrawal from their overseas bases.

Within a few years, the U.S. is functionally bankrupt and the clock is ticking toward midnight on the American Century

How America will collapse (by 2025)

Not a word in the article about climate change or peak oil... and even without them, this author paints a terrifying picture of America's future.

We need to have a clear picture of the gloomy future to prepare for it, to mitigate, adapt and survive.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Aubrey Meyer: Economics of genocide



Not high quality, and you might get bored... but worth slogging through IMHO.

Some shocking stuff.