tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post9093303074940928030..comments2024-03-28T19:18:40.387-04:00Comments on Northern Reflections: We're In DeepOwen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-84853469795143101782019-11-19T11:01:45.591-05:002019-11-19T11:01:45.591-05:00The problem with a consumer society, thwap, is tha...The problem with a consumer society, thwap, is that it piles up waste. We have reached the point where we are drowning in our own waste. This can't end well.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-336885810275461802019-11-17T13:49:35.807-05:002019-11-17T13:49:35.807-05:00The trouble with dreaming, Mound, is the requireme...The trouble with dreaming, Mound, is the requirement that you remain asleep.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-78502874358587186362019-11-17T13:45:46.778-05:002019-11-17T13:45:46.778-05:00The myths have been proven wrong, Lorne. This is a...The myths have been proven wrong, Lorne. This is a catastrophe of our own making.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-11839670337932118132019-11-17T12:39:26.465-05:002019-11-17T12:39:26.465-05:00It was just days ago that the International Energy...It was just days ago that the International Energy Agency's latest forecast was released. It heralded a massive expansion of renewable energy but predicted demand will grow even faster creating a steady increase in demand for fossil fuels.<br /><br />Rather than being slashed, the IEA sees GHG emissions from fossil fuels growing by 20 per cent by 2040.<br /><br />We know what that means. No point dwelling on it.<br /><br />So, if we're not going to break our fossil fuel addiction, what then? Humanity has three mortal addictions. Cheap fossil energy is only one. It is compounded by our relentless growth in the global population. Those two are then compounded by exponential growth in GDP - extraction/production/consumption and waste.<br /><br />All three of those rise to the level of existential threats. One or more of them will do us in, at least as we now live. The question is reduced to which one - or perhaps two - of them has the shortest fuse. We're burning more climate-bending hydrocarbons than the environment can bear. That stops at some point. We've burdened the biosphere with with our sheer numbers at least twice its carrying capacity. Whole lotta people going to die. And we're using more resources than the planet can sustainably provide - by a factor of 1.75 times and that's growing.<br /><br />If you listen you can hear all three of those fuses crackling, hissing and popping. Nobody is much interested in putting them out - any of them.<br /><br />We had a chance to do this on our own terms but we weren't up for the heavy lifting.<br /><br />Do you realize it was way back in 1975 that Springsteen penned "Born to Run," his ode to the "runaway American dream."The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-34607992647765709392019-11-17T12:29:33.884-05:002019-11-17T12:29:33.884-05:00This is all to maintain a consumerist lifestyle th...This is all to maintain a consumerist lifestyle that is sold to us by a profit-driven capitalist system. <br /><br />I am sincerely proposing that we transition to a leisure society. We spend so much time making, selling, buying, discarding so much that we don't need (and wouldn't even want were it not for the brainwashing campaign known as marketing-advertising).<br /><br />One place where leisure isn't needed is in farming. Cities are full of hands that could go into backyard and community gardens. Paved streets could (some of them anyway) be transformed into fields and orchards. <br /><br />I have for a long time had thoughts about first steps that could be taken towards such a society, but there's been no audience to hear it.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-11107003547214693492019-11-17T12:10:48.300-05:002019-11-17T12:10:48.300-05:00It appears that we have gotten into a bind that no...It appears that we have gotten into a bind that no technological developments can pull us out of, Owen. So much for those counting on a deus ex machina, eh? Lornehttp://politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com