http://www.warsocialism.com/unnecessary.htm

Magne,

I suspect it was just stopped by the spam filter and Trinifar had to let it through. The spam filter on WordPress blogs will often stop posts with any profanity in them as that is one trademark of the many porn spams that it stops every day. Links and profanity seem to trigger the filter more than anything else. I occasionally have to approve my own comments when they contain links.

And I feel for the kids as well.

As I said on GIM: this clip really made me stop and think. The psychological reactions among those children — approximately 6 – 9 years of age — were too obvious to see.

Now, I can only hope that we’re actually going to do what one of the people on stage actually cared to say (I think it was the conferansier in London): “We must prepare ourselves for a future without coal and oil.”

Because that’s exactly what we must do. I think the group of little children — quite knowledgeable, too — have understood that much. But will we ever learn?

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(some problems over at Trinifar; impossible to submit a comment there, I’m sorry if I double-posted this).

You know, what saddens me the most, is the blatantly upsetting fact that the toxic rain, the greenhouse effect, and the large arsenals of nuclear weapons were among the first things that were brought to my attention when I was a small boy myself, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I also came to hear about the population explosion. Now, I was curious about many things as a child; then, in my youth I grew ironic about it. Today, an adult, I’m something else. I’m afraid and I’m angry. The wisest thing for me to be, seems to be sarcastic. Because the truth is: the world belongs to big corporations and extremely well organized diplomats from around the planet. These people / organisations are very well protected by laws, rules and big armies of well-paid underlings, both in uniforms and without, wearing suits and ties and funny titles to their names. These people, and all these powerful business corporations and political or diplomatic institutions are not into change, of course. They’re going to try to force humanity to opt for Status Quo. And the fact is: they’re obviously going to succeed. So we’re off to the Moon again. And then, after that, Mars. As I’ve said before: Stephen Hawking says our common future lies among the stars. And there is where the ruling class is heading.

As a matter of fact: I don’t think we’re going to do anything about the CO2 pollution, unless the vast majority of people get seriously afraid of the stuff.”

Yep, at that point, people will do something. The problem is, things could be so bad at that point that the “something” they do may be the kind of thing we’d hope for from our vantage point today.

Hard to tell what the chance is of effective action before that. If we can get people talking about this stuff enough before that, then maybe there’s some real chance of something happening prior before the “too late” stage.

Well, as it’s 7/7/07, I should go look at the news and see what’s happening with the concerts and such. Yeah, Gore is a plus, but when he says things like “Climate change is humanity’s greatest challenge, I’d just like him to substitute something like “our ecological plight” for “climate change,” which is, after all, just one piece — albeit a big one — of the problem.

Welcome. Yeah, I think you’re right that there’s more talk recently about the problem of the push for endless growth on our finite planet. It’s hard to tell sometimes because I’m so close to it, but it does seem that way. I just hope the trend grows.

Very nice science blog you have there!

I really hope the world is more interested in the music event today, than they are in Wimbledon and Tour de France. I don’t know that for sure. I think people might be more interested in sports events that do not force them to think about environmental degradation of almost every conceivable kind, manmade climate change, global warmin, melting ice caps, jungle stress and the rest of it.

And from where I’m standing, on top of little Norway’s soil … one among the worst polluting nations of Western Europe, largely due to oil, gas, shipping, and filthy industry … I’m thinking: we will not allow ourselves to think of global warming, because of all the industrial dollars that keep flowing in …

We’re not serious here. Our politicians are not serious at all, as they’re allowing all those nasty corporations to keep polluting like they do. It’s tragic, really. Sad. Silly.

Do we really need to get seriously afraid of CO2 and actually start to panic before we get able to respond?!!

I think so. — But then, I also think that societies of people can actually get used to hearing about climate change, and choose to opt for the simple option of ignoring all messages anyway; bacause there’s too much money at stake, too many jobs at stake, too many lifestyle inconveniences in the offing, etc. I think societies of people may be quite ready to start facing the End of the World, smilingly, laughingly and saying: “What will be, will be. There’s nothing to do about that. So let’s party.”

As a matter of fact: I don’t think we’re going to do anything about the CO2 pollution, unless the vast majority of people get seriously afraid of the stuff. And the word in the street start going in the lines of: “Fossil-fuels are crazy. Insane. I don’t take it anymore. Won’t use it.”

It’s going to take years. But I’m sure it’s going to happen. A year from now. Five years from now. Ten years from now. Time is Relative. In fact: there’s nothing more relative than time.”

We’ll be going sane again. But it’s going to take a lot of courge. We’re going to have to get able to conclude that the modern industry-based world civilization is insane. Only then will we start to go sane, I think.

“DFID has produced a set of key sheets that examine the impact of climate change on poverty and the Millennium Development Goals. They also explore action that can be taken at country and international levels to manage the impacts of climate change on the achievement and sustainability of the Millennium Development Goals.”

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I think it remains crucial that everyone (not only politicians, economists, diplomats and scientists) stops and thinks about the effects of poverty on environmental issues. This threat is complex, and very real. I don’t know much about social economics, but I think it’s fair to say that the poor masses of this world are being actively expluded from economic activity of any use. Opening the markets for poor people to join in must be among the first things to do, in order to fight poverty and to raise standards of living.

Then comes the issue of education, which might lead to a reduction of child-births.

And I will not forget about the revolutionary idea of issuing people with individual quotas. From a technological point of view, it’s not impossible. I know that it’s a tall order, but I also know that a few other intellectuals are sharing this dream. And not only George Monbiot.

The date is 07.07.07.

Let’s dream.

It seems just in the last couple years there is much more “chatter” about our culture of infinite growth and how that is inconsistent with a finite planet. Let’s hope it doesn’t take a full generation to really sink in.

That scale of growth is already patently unsustainable — as I’m sure you agree, actually.

Magne,

No problem with the lyrics.

As for information overload, it’s there, I think. And the bad part, IMO, is that the information with which we’re overloaded is, for the most part, not the important stuff. Some is fluff, much is propaganda, and some is any of a variety of current problems that people are lulled into thinking are the most important news.

I too hope a new political and economic organization will develop. Something’s got to give, eh?

The gigantic scale and anticipated growth rate of the endlessly expanding political economy on the small, finite planet we inhabit could soon become patently unsustainable.

http://www.algore.com/video.html