CUTTING THROUGH THE HYPE

CO2 is a Smoke Screen

Why don’t we confront the real issues?

The debates go back and forth over how high temperatures and sea levels might rise by 2050, and what the consequences might be. While scientists, politicians and skeptics argue about hypothetical events way in the future, the problems confronting us right now get no attention: the main one is that the earth is straining under the weight of human feet.

It’s the same with clean energy: all the talk of clean coal and new generation nuclear power is about results that are a long way off in the future. Here’s the problem: in the 20 years it will take for alternative energy sources to provide more than a token contribution, the world population will have grown by another 1.6 billion.

Unless we prevent that population growth before it happens, and curb our consumption of goods, gadgets and energy, we’re left in a vicious spiral that’s pushing us ever closer to edge. We must focus on what we must do now if we want our grand children to have a future.

The twin elephants in the room

The world’s population is projected to grow from 6.7 billion today to about 9.5 by 2040. That’s more than 40%, and no leaders or scientists say: wait a minute – that spells disaster. Let me ask a very simple question: What are the chances of us reducing CO2 emissions by 40% in the same period? The way we’re going right now, zero.

I’m not sure if reducing CO2 emissions will address global warming, but I’m utterly sure that reducing CO2 emissions will do absolutely nothing to stop deforestation, depletion of fisheries, soil degradation, desertification and declining food production. Isn’t it obvious that global warming is the symptom here, not the disease? Targeting global warming is like giving a child an aspirin to bring the fever down, which doesn’t address the cause: the infection.

Why are our leaders so silent on these issues?

We’re depleting essential resources right now, at current population and consumption levels. No one is arguing that forests aren’t shrinking along with wildlife and fish stocks, not even Viscount Monckton. You can plot a straight line to the point where we’ll run into serious food and water shortages, the tipping point.

Overconsumption and overpopulation are driving us toward it, but they get little publicity. Why? They’re two major causes we can take action on right now, so why aren’t we? Why aren’t they high on the agenda of political debate? Is it because they take guts and vision to tackle, qualities our leaders are lacking?

You can’t do that!

Almost all that population growth is occurring in the developing world. And almost all of the developing world receives ‘development assistance’ or foreign aid from the north. Surely we have the right to attach conditions to the aid we provide, along these lines: Put in place population control measures, or we won’t come to the party. Stop chopping down your rainforests, or you’ll get no assistance. Invest in alternative energy or we’ll cut your foreign aid.

Yes, I know it’s heresy. We can’t tell people how many children they’re allowed to have, can we? No, we stand for democracy - only communist regimes do that kind of thing. Yes but, during the time China did that, India’s population doubled and Africa’s population increased by 50%. Every day, the earth’s population grows by 200,000. Or by 80 million a year if that helps define the size of the threat. Population growth is out of control but we can’t do anything about that? Even if it destroys the world we leave for our grandchildren? Is that what we’re saying?

We could start by educating people

About contraception, for one. 2 out of 5 pregnancies in developed countries are unwanted – if we could avoid those pregnancies, or a majority of them, we would stop the population spiral. Simple as that. Once again, our leaders would need to grow some balls because they’d need to take on institutions like the Catholic Church who rail against condoms, other forms of contraception and abortion.

That the Catholic church’s position never changed during the African AIDS epidemic defies reason. The AIDS epidemic was mostly media hype but Africa’s growth from 600 to 900 million people in the last 25 years is as real as it gets.

We expect spiritual leaders to lead us to enlightenment, not keep us in total darkness.  We expect our leaders to lead us to a sustainable future, and a future with 10 billion humans on this earth is not sustainable. The same applies to a future of unchecked growth in consumption.

 

Next, we have to re-educate ourselves

Sadly, overconsumption is welded into the tenets of western economic thinking. It’s the Siamese twin of growth, the core premise our entire western economies are built on. No growth = no profits, no wealth, no progress, stagnation.

Simple minds think along these lines. Surely, if we can send a man to the moon and unravel the entire human DNA, we can come up with an economic model that doesn’t deprive our children of a habitat. Nothing is inevitable, but we can’t keep acting as if those two elephants didn’t exist or as if there were nothing we can do about them. The first thing we must do is open our eyes to the reality that is around us right now.

 

Kim

Beef Stroganoff – dead easy old favourite

 

This is a dead-easy and quick meal that tends to impress the pants off guests because it sounds and looks exotic. Once you’ve bought the ingredients, it takes about 5 minutes prep time and 10 -15 cooking time. It all happens in a frypan, and the result is traditionally served with rice or pasta. However, it’s perfectly fine to substitute beans and/or asparagus if you prefer high GI options.

 

This is for two, so just up the quantities for more people, but don’t try to make more than four people can eat at once.

 

500g rump steak or Scotch fillet

1 onion, thinly sliced

Clove of garlic, chopped fine

3 shallots, chopped course

1 1/2 tsp paprika (not too hot)

300g Swiss brown mushrooms (sliced)

olive oil or butter, as needed

200ml sour cream (light if preferred)

3 tsp red pesto or tomato paste

Half cup Bourbon or Whiskey or Brandy

Salt and pepper

Fresh parsley, chopped

 

Optional: fresh green peppercorns

 

You know how to cook the rice or pasta or beans – best to do that beforehand and warm up in the oven because, the first time you do this, it must have your full attention.

 

§    Fry the onions and garlic in olive oil or butter.

§    Cut the beef into strips about 2 inches long but not too thin.

§    Sprinkle paprika over the beef like flour and roll to cover.

§    Add beef to frypan, sear on fairly high heat, then turn to medium heat.

§    Add green peppercorns (optional)

§    Add sliced mushrooms, stir, add more oil or butter if necessary

§    Add red pesto/tomato paste

 

Timing is important here: onions first, steak 2-3 minutes later, mushrooms 5 mins after steak, add Bourbon 5 mins after that. You need a long match and take care because you want to burn the alcohol off (this is the part that truly impresses guests). When the flames go out, add the sour cream (a little at a time – don’t want the colour to go grey-brown), then the parsley, then stir and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook gently for another minute until everything hangs well together.

GLOBAL WARMING SPLITS ICE SHELVES AND FRIENDSHIPS

In a previous post, I mentioned that my best friend had fallen in with those who see global warming as the biggest hoax since the Piltdown Man. Our friendship has survived serious differences, in politic leanings for one – he’s conservative and I’m liberal. Of late, I’m troubled by the venom that has crept into his language: they’re gonna get these guys (the climate change fraudsters), he keeps telling me, almost rubbing his hands in anticipation.

Yesterday he forwarded me an email from a like-minded friend, headed ‘Inhofe taking action’ (Inhofe is a US senator attempting to lay criminal charges against 17 IPCC scientists). The email said: This is getting good! If the Democratic senate majority blocks Inhofe's attempts we will only have to wait for the mid-term elections in November when the Democrats will be decimated.

Scientists framed as criminals

He added this link http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/climategate-and-the-law-senator-inhofe-to-ask-for-congressional-criminal-investigation-pajamas-mediapjtv-exclusive/

The piece talks about charging 17 IPCC scientists with fraud, and dragging Al Gore in front of a Senate Hearing to demand that he hand back his Nobel Prize, since all the data in his documentary are fabricated.

Now, you’ve probably had discussions with people like my best friend who swear the polar ice caps are growing, not shrinking, and that the world is cooling, not warming. How do you respond? You run around the internet, find half a dozen articles from reputable sources like the BBC and NASA and send him links to articles variously headed: last decade was the warmest since records began, glaciers shrinking for last two decades, North Pole ice retreating, polar bears under threat. And so on.

Black is white and white is black

And what comes back? They’re using the wrong measurement for polar ice, polar bear numbers are out of control, glaciers are just shifting not shrinking. When we come to rising  temperatures, a sinister plot unfolds: the measuring stations are too close to buildings or plant that put out heat, tarmacs of airports and more. Here’s a sample where the writer blames ‘inoperable vehicles and abandoned appliances’ for the heat. ‘Such big chunks of metal have thermal retention, which means that heat is retained past sunset and re-radiated near the sensor. This may bias overnight lows.’ http://www.norcalblogs.com/watts/2007/06/how_not_to_measure_temperature_11.html .

And yes, the climate scientists, in order to fudge the data, have decommissioned all the gauges that used to measure temperatures at higher altitudes and now only read those on level ground.

Politics and science don’t mix

As I was wondering how to respond to my friend’s email, I came across an article that confirms something we’ve long suspected: how you view global warming is more to do with your political leanings than the data in front of you. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124008307&ft=1&f=1007

So I ran around the internet some more and checked on where radicals like Rush Limbaugh, the Rev Jerry Falwell and Sarah Palin stood on this issue. Hit the jackpot with that idea: Palin is the mildest by far, likening climate change to other natural phenomena like gravity. Falwell is way out there, and I mean waaayyyyy out there.

 

My Response went like this:

Guys, I can’t imagine why you sound so cheerful at the prospect of the Democrats being decimated in the mid-term elections. Do you really want another 8 years where US politics is hijacked by rednecks like Bush and crooks like Cheney? Or bimbos like Sarah Palin? More riggged 9/11s and fake wars and more torture and Wall Street scams of undreamt-of proportions?

It’s true that the IPCC scientists have screwed up, in part because they’re sloppy and in part because they’re a loose conglomeration of people managed by the UN who couldn’t run a chook raffle. They sure underestimated the highly organised campaign of the conservative side – politics, media, big polluters and all – to discredit them. For heaven’s sake, most of these scientists put their hands up in good faith, and Al Gore’s movie was designed to draw attention to the plight of the planet.

And the plight of the planet gets more serious with every day that passes, and this is a sore point that the side you’re beating your chests with is strangely silent about. And I worry about the company you’re keeping, guys: Rush Limbaugh? And Jerry Falwell? And where’s the Ku Klux Klan on this issue? Let me guess.

Falwell said the global warming idea was ‘Satan’s attempt to redirect the church’s primary focus from evangelism to environmentalism.’ That puts him just in front of the Pope who still won’t let his flock use condoms when we desperately need population control. And the Pope, as far as I know, hasn’t said anything about the plight of the planet because he still believes that God gave us the earth to plunder and pillage to our hearts content.

Please have a look at the company you’re keeping, my friends. And when you’ve done that, think about the fact that you’re all barking up the wrong tree and ask what you can do to draw attention to the real plight of the planet, the destruction taking place right now of our forests and our oceans and the addition of 80 million more people every year. Here’s an illustration:

Nigeria’s population has tripled in the last 50 years, while its livestock populations grew 12-fold. These unrelenting pressures on Nigeria’s ecology have seen it lose 867,000 acres of cropland and rangeland to the desert every year. The story is similar in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan. It’s not that the Sahara is expanding southward, it’s that human activity yields more cleared land to the Sahara. Either way, desertification is reality for the people there. Yet the populations are growing relentlessly in that old cycle of poverty and ignorance, with no leadership from governments of any world, first, second or third.

It’s the same in the countries around the Amazon. 22,000 km² of rainforest are cleared every year, for cattle or soy beans or timber. From 1991 to 2000, the total area of forest cleared in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km². That’s the same size as the US state of Georgia, and the pace of clearing will accelerate given the highway being built right through the Amazon to Peru. Rainforest soil is very poor and not very deep. Without the canopy of leaves and the frequent rain, the land soon becomes useless for agriculture.

That’s the plight of our planet, and that’s why I see no joy here to beat my chest about. We don’t need 5,000 climate scientists to tell us what more people and more destruction will do to our children’s future. Why don’t the scientists on all sides look at what’s happening around them instead of trying to second-guess the long term future?