Buy Organics Because Shit Doesn’t Explode

First let me state that the victims and their families of this explosion and of the recent explosions in Boston have my deepest sympathy and condolences.

What We Know About the Huge Explosion at the West, Texas, Fertilizer Plant

Wednesday’s fire came one day after the 66th anniversary of the worst industrial accident in American history—the Texas City disaster, another fertilizer explosion that left 581 people dead when a French vessel hauling ammonium nitrate caught fire.

God Made a Factory Farmer??!!?

Dodge trucks made what just might be the worst Stupor Bowl ad ever. If not, I don’t want to see what’s worse. But, Funny Or Die made a good parody of it. Unfortunately, to get the parody, you must first waste two minutes of your life watching the original ad. If you’ve already seen the Dodge Trucks Stupor Bowl ad, by all means, spare yourself. You do not need to watch that crap again.

UN Predicts: Global Food Crisis 2013

I’m sure many who read my blog have been convinced for a while that I’m somewhat of a fear monger with respect to climate change and overpopulation. Perhaps. Before you make up your mind, read this:

UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013

The figures come as one of the world’s leading environmentalists issued a warning that the global food supply system could collapse at any point, leaving hundreds of millions more people hungry, sparking widespread riots and bringing down governments. In a shocking new assessment of the prospects of meeting food needs, Lester Brown, president of the Earth policy research centre in Washington, says that the climate is no longer reliable and the demands for food are growing so fast that a breakdown is inevitable, unless urgent action is taken.

Good thing climate change is just a hoax. Dig hole in sand. Insert head. Fill in hole. Ignorance is bliss.

“Armed aggression is no longer the principal threat to our future. The overriding threats to this century are climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages and rising food prices,” Brown says.

Collapse 2030: Mark Your Calendars

All the times that I said that I hoped that global civilizational collapse would begin late enough for me to live out my life expectancy I had hoped that I was just disasturbating. No such luck.

100+ Years of Electric Cars

Here are some seriously classic fully electric cars from over 100 years ago.

7 Electric Cars Over 100 Years Old

So:

• 1891 – 50 mile range, better than Chevy Volt’s pure electric range
• 1901 – 57 MPH
• 1902 – fully electric bus
• 1906 – regenerative braking, like my 2011 prius
• 1909 – 100 miles on a charge

Now, I must ask, what the hell happened?

The Last Taboo

The old elephant is still hanging around the room … has been getting bigger … and is getting seriously pissed off. But, can we mention the elephant yet? For most of us, the answer is no. As usual, Mother Jones created a great cover for this one.

Population: The Last Taboo

Spill Baby Spill

As I write this, a huge catastrophe is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. 5,000 barrels (200,000 gallons) of oil per day are spilling into the gulf and wreaking tremendous environmental devastation.

Rather than detailing this particular catastrophe that is so forefront in the news these days, I would like to point out something even more important. This is a catastrophe. This was an accident. No one meant for it to happen.

However, oil spills are not only foreseeable, they are an inevitable consequence of our horrifyingly devastating substance abuse and addiction.

Stephen Hawking Asks Big Questions About the Universe

I don’t know that I agree with him on all points, especially about other civilizations. But then, he’s Stephen Hawking and I’m not even making mud pies yet.

Let’s Talk About Population

This is the elephant in the room. This is the taboo subject that even most environmentalists won’t discuss. And yet, all of the other severe problems facing humanity stem from this one issue. We may discuss carbon footprint, but not the number of feet. We may discuss the risk of thermonuclear war but not the population pressure that increases both the size and severity of warfaring. We may discuss poverty and starvation but not the fact that reducing population automatically reduces poverty.

Please join in the Global Population Speak Out.

Why is it that we can discuss all of the symptoms of severe human overpopulation but not the root cause?

Good Thing Global Warming is a Hoax …

… otherwise, the few hundred peer reviewed articles summarized and referenced in this pre-Copenhagen summary showing, once again, that climate change is worse than the uber-conservative IPCC has been estimating might really scare me. I mean, what if it were really true that these few hundred recent peer-reviewed articles show that:

Madoff Goes Global

Here’s an excellent write-up that describes the ways in which we are stealing from future generations to feed ourselves and the parallels between doing so and any other Ponzi scheme.

PONZICONOMY: Our global pyramid scheme

I’ve read Plan B 2.0, an excellent book, and notice that there is a link to a new version Plan B 4.0 by Lester Brown.

Don’t forget, the article doesn’t even mention the fact that not only is the oil at the pump a subsidized and limited resource, so is the oil we pour on our corn as fertilizer.

That’s right, industrial fertilizers are petroleum products. We’re eating oil!! That can’t be good for either our health or our long term prospects in terms of a very large population dependent on a fossil, non-renewable, resource.

The fallacy of climate activism

This may appear to undermine a number of my earlier posts. However, in this case, I think the point is extremely important. We must begin to recognize and tell the truth of the true nature of our problems. That said, we must also use every weapon in our arsenal to fight for the preservation of the environment to the best of our ability. Most likely the only tool that will actually be worth a damn will be birth control. Yet, we must still do all we can to reduce our ecological (including carbon) footprints while at the same time taking action to reduce the number of feet. The regulars on this blog will remember that I have already argued that the planet cannot support even 300 million of us, let alone 6.7, 8, or 9 billion. So, in that sense, this article is still somewhat consistent with my prior posts. However, I cannot recall previously gotting to the point of wording the issue such that climate change is a mere symptom of a much larger problem, one that involves not only too many people, but people with a completely failed view of the finite planet on which we depend for our very lives every single day.

The fallacy of climate activism

Welcome to the NYC Free Subway System

Here’s an interesting plan to solve two of New York City’s current problems in one fell swoop. First, the subway would be free, at least during off peak hours, and possibly ultimately around the clock. Second, vehicular traffic into the city would be expensive. This new Kheel plan from a long term veteran of conflict resolution promises a wonderful solution to the problems of a transit system in financial crisis and a city clogged with traffic.

Being the pessimist that I am, and looking at what happened to the Bloomberg plan for congestion pricing, I don’t really have much hope for this. However, this just might be exactly what New York needs.

Kheel Plan 2 Seeks to Plug MTA Budget Gap

For the full Kheel plan in PDF as well as an overview of the Theodore W. Kheel’s awe inspiring credentials, click below.

The Full Kheel Plan

Thanks to my wife for a great find.

Slumburbs!!

Damn!! I wanted to be the one to coin the term when I thought of it this morning after reading this Atlantic Monthly article The Next Slum. However, I found that the term was already in the Urban Dictionary. Oh well. Regardless of the fact that I didn’t create the term even though I had not heard it before, it seems to describe the coming situation all too well. The urban dictionary does not seem to note that this has two wonderful interpretations though, one is that the suburbs will become slums. The other expresses their sleepy and boring deathstyle in terms of slumber.

Life After the Tipping Point (i.e. Today?)

If this article, Beyond the point of no return, is correct, we’ll be seeing even more really bad effects of climate change very soon. I’m still hoping to live out my life before the start of the Great Human Die-Off. This article gives a number of reasons not to be so hopeful. However, it also advocates some real and significant changes to the human mind-set.

This is not something I had considered previously.

Toxic Ocean Resembles the Precambrian

You’ve probably already heard that the ocean fish stocks on which we depend are already 90% depleted. Well, this L.A. Times article, A Primeval Tide of Toxins, not only confirms that, but also discusses the effects of this on the rest of the ocean. The chemical and biological content of the ocean is even beginning to make people sick just from getting hit by a nice sea breeze. What the hell are we doing to this poor planet and the rest of its inhabitants? Is the current mass extinction so bad that we are reverting the planet or even just large swaths of it to their Precambrian state? Read the article and find out.

Ten Better Commandments?

Richard Dawkins has made the point that if God were so perfect that he could have come up with ten better commandments than the ones in the Bible. Depending on your particular flavor of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion (singular as always for me), the ten commandments may differ slightly. Here are the ten commandments on wikipedia with a good write up, including the original text of the Bible, which is either 16 or 15 paragraphs, depending on whether you prefer to take the version from Exodus or the version from Deuteronomy. That there are two versions and that they differ should immediately strike any thinking person as signifying that the Bible just may not be quite as perfect as many people assert anyway.