The Bad News
I’ve got some bad news. The American media, and the international media, along with many scientists, have promoted the notion that the United States was making preparations for the coming effects of climate change.
Spoiler alert: This is not actually true.
We all know that upon Trump’s arrival at the Whitehouse, the new Administration began to swiftly erase any references to climate change from government websites. But you can still find these documents if you dig around a bit. Under the previous Obama Administration, you can still find what work has been done to prepare the country for climate change.
Here’s what I found: lots and lots of words. All told, they add up to nothing much. I’ve not had time to read all the words, but I’ve read enough to realize that what I’ve read scares the living shit out of me. They have no idea what they are truly facing.
They’ve grossly underestimated climate change impacts, the nation’s readiness and dependencies and the need to make truly meaningful preparations that will actually work to reduce widespread suffering and hardship. They’re also using seriously outdated estimates to base all their “actions” on which don’t even include telling you, the American people, that there even is a climate emergency.
I’ve always told my readers that they were truly on their own. Do not expect any help from your government when it comes to issues like collapse and climate change. I meant it and still do.
I used to be paid to write reports like this: Opportunities to Enhance the Nation’s Resilience to Climate Change (46 pages). My job was to distill the information down into a comprehensible format. But I was never allowed to actually “tell it like it is”. I actually worked for several of these agencies in this report. I eventually quit, realizing I’d never be allowed to actually do my job.
These kinds of reports are full of fluff and important sounding activities and effort, taken from many sources of input and contributors. But their reality is very, very different from the real world.
There is always a lot of self-congratulatory claims (generally, a prerequisite for a government publication) and little actual substance. There is no awareness of any pending or future catastrophe or collapse. Response ‘activity’ is correspondingly muted and seriously inadequate. No real urgency, no real emergency.
Government is very good at generating ‘data’ and reams of reports and position papers. Most government jobs are designed around this very process. Most of this paperwork is mindless, useless fluff, designed to be digested by do-nothing bureaucrats and other governmental employees. It’s a strange world that isn’t like what everyone else lives and works in. It’s a bubble, a ‘reality of deception’ reinforced by thousands of paid public employees who’s very jobs and careers depend upon producing these productions by the pound.
The Third National Climate Assessment (841 pages) upon what much of this report was based is much, much better. But it also suffers in many significant ways. Unfortunately, it too is already dated and underestimates the true impacts of climate change upon this nation. Again, no clear global emergency and thus, no effective response towards mitigation or adaption.
Inherent to both of these efforts, is the implication that solutions are in hand and that government, along with the public and private sector, will handily solve the issues discussed in time. Leadership of course, will remain the same: ‘trickle down’ from on high, delegating tasks and responsibilities and responses to everyone else. It’s a poor strategy.
It should be obvious that natural systems and the extreme energy imbalance now underway within the Earth’s climate is not going to be ‘taking orders from the US government’. It should also be obvious that the government organizational structure itself is very poorly designed to rapidly respond to the escalating threat of climate change. Using expired data certainly does not help.
It may be difficult to grasp this incredible disconnect, but it is true. Readers of this blog probably have a better understanding of the climate emergency then the paid professionals who are tasked with informing the public and taking action. However, as I recently discovered, readers don’t know what to do anymore then the US government does.
I have always found myself (well, usually) way ahead of the ‘curve’ when it comes to projections and impacts, understanding what is already hidden within the data. It’s always gotten me in trouble too, because I became an early adopter and vocal proponent of what the trends actually meant. My unpopularity didn’t concern me, but being right always did and still does.
So here it is: the US Government, as depicted in these two reports is grossly unaware and even more unprepared for extreme climate change (despite some minor mentions), and does not appear to even be fully aware of the actual and real threats facing Americans and the rest of the people on the planet. Proposed ‘actions’ are therefore grossly inadequate and will be extremely ineffective in short-order.
Like me, the more ‘extreme voices’ that are out there are not being included in the assessments or the calls to action (which in my opinion, are pathetic, insufficient and will accomplish little to absolutely nothing).
A good analogy would be a baseball game. The score is 23 – 1 with the opposing team (climate) winning. The bases are loaded and it’s almost the last inning. The government team is tired and discouraged, the umpire has just disqualified many of their top players, kicked out the cheer team from the stadium and told their fans to shut the fuck up.
A new substitute batter for the government steps up to the plate, it’s his turn now. He gets to swing away for the next four years… and he hates most of his own team. His head isn’t even in the game, hell – he’s never even played baseball before (and he wears as stupid red hat). All he’s thinking about now is making ‘deals’ with everyone else so that he gets what he wants. He doesn’t even give a shit about the climate. He wants this climate game over so he can go do something else.
So what does he do? He doesn’t even swing… and it’s indeed, “game over“.
We should be seriously concerned. In fact, more then a little panic is in order. Beyond what I’ve already read and digested over the years, I do not expect there to ever be any effective response to climate change from the US Government (or State governments for that matter). And if you realize that this was all done under the former Administration who just got done telling us what a great job he did on the climate during his years in office!
This is certainly “not news” to regular readers here. But it does reveal a terrifying lack of national and even global leadership to act swiftly, decisively, accurately and with clear intent to preserving a habitable future. What they’re preparing for I’ve discarded years ago as being ineffective, inadequate and doomed to fail.
They are not going to solve this. They’re not even going to be able to get ready for this. So here is what I want people to do in the years ahead that have opportunity to come back and read this: you are going to have to take matters into your own hands. Your survival, safety, protection, and security are entirely up to you. You should be planning ahead now for the very worst. If you do not, then you and those with you will suffer sooner and it is very likely, there will be no help for you because they’re not planning to help you much either.
This isn’t the last go-around. Not yet. They’ll try again (and again), eventually, but if this evidence is any indication (and it is, of course) then they’ll always be a “dollar late and a day short” and forever fail to get up to speed on the actual unfolding events and what should or could have be done about it. I do not expect any timely or meaningful direction, policy, process or effort to be be coming from this quarter. Nor should you.
An inadequate ‘response’ is almost the same as no response, so it looks like there will be almost no difference between Obama’s climate legacy ‘efforts’ and Trump’s ‘efforts’, however Trump intends to strip-mine, frack and build hotels on the national parks and public lands.
Stop him.
Maintaining present economic arrangements and preventing severe climate change are mutually exclusive concepts.
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/co2_800k.png
‘We’ can have one or the other, but not both.
However, maintaining present economic arrangements is already mathematically impossible, and there is plenty of evidence that present economic arrangements will collapse fairly soon.
Back in the early 1970s the ‘Limits to Growth’ group suggested collapse would occur around 2030.
Richard Duncan independently came up with 2030 for the end of industrial civilization, in the ‘Return to Olduvai’ hypothesis.
The Peak Oil movement of the early 2000s gave a range of possible time frames for collapse, generally in the range 2015 to 2025.
The latest on oil from Nafeez Ahmed suggested 2018 for the start of energy triggered mayhem.
The latest from energyskeptic suggests we have about 6 years before industrial civilization goes over the net energy cliff.
http://energyskeptic.com/2017/we-all-fall-off-the-net-energy-cliff-in-2022-just-6-years-away/
Needless to say, governments are just as incompetent (deceitful) on the matter of energy as they are on climate.
I’ve ‘updated’ comments allowed without moderation to 2 embedded links, if there are 3 it automatically waits for my approval.
Here are a few things that I dislike about these so-called analysis (which I do not agree with, I’ve read quite many over the years).
The implied assumption is that oil is required for our existence as a species; that debt must be repaid; that prices dictate (all) reality; that the current paradigm of our existence (civilization) must be maintained; that dramatic measures won’t be taken to ensure continuity of life; that even such horrifying steps as “global population reduction” won’t be taken to spread the energy decline out further, and so forth.
Many assumptions taken, many “in the box” concerns, few to none out of the box ideas. These are the unknowns – and the unknown unknowns (which apply to climate too). Even the “whole systems replacement” (section 3) fails because of implied assumptions, and inherent (but failing) dependencies (climate for starters).
I don’t even find the “net energy per human head” baseline accurate. There is no reason why this has to be used, or maintained. I’m quite certain that it won’t be (because it isn’t now – think about it, energy is not evenly distributed even in the goods, food, and other uses it represents throughout the world population).
Essentially, what I “see” is a shit-load of hand-wringing that our civilization is going to collapse. Of course it is, now lets move the fuck on to something that offers us an alternative to complete extinction. If at all possible, but try we must. And we will.
We already know that our civilization, industry, production, population, etc., is going to crash very f’n hard, soon. So why even bother dealing with the ‘how’s’ and ‘why’s’ anymore? Isn’t this just pathetically disguised attempts to save this civilization and present living arrangements? We need to move on to acceptance of the crash and how survival might be tried.
That is exactly what I’m working on. Personally, I don’t require more evidence that global collapse will occur. I’m not even going to try and include this evidence, finding it so obvious that it is unnecessary.
There is also many implications that we must save everyone that we can. Absolutely not. That is doomed to fail for many reasons (do I need to list them?).
“Arnoux” offers some sensibility. But in these limited comments, he’s overlooked environmental collapse which he perhaps offers elsewhere. Or not.
You mentioned that ‘we can have one or the other, but not both’. Both will occur. Both are unstoppable for their respective reasons. The real question (for me) is can survival of a limited human population be maintained under the latter (climate) conditions?
I have no doubts about the former – this civilization and its corresponding energy consumption is absolutely not required for human life. But I do have serious doubts about human survival under climate chaos.
Personally, I think that all these chess moves are a waste of time. There are clearly thinkers out there working on conceptual scenarios, but they’re still failing in the big picture.
Moreover, they’re not going to get what they want anyway – as the world will continue to do what it has always done – seek growth, expansion and energy consumption, which guarantees collapse of civilization from an energy perspective anyway.
This is what I’ve meant by leaping ahead of these concepts and efforts because I believe they are doomed already. We need to build human communities for survival and forget about the rest (which we have no control over) and the angst of how and when and why it is all going to play out.
I agree. I just post links to demonstrate that a lot of people have been thinking, writing and speaking about collapse for a long time, and ‘nobody’ listens. And even as the warnings become ever more urgent, ‘nobody’ listens.
Not listening is particularly true of politicians and bureaucrats- which is why I regard them as utterly evil: they cannot prevent energy collapse or the shift to a very difference global environment but their efforts are always entirely devoted to making our collective predicament WORSE, and to INCREASING the suffering that is to come, when they could implement policies that would reduce future suffering.
I see the ‘Green’ movement as totally phony because all the majority of ‘greens’ want to do is maintain a substantial portion of present living arrangements via slight tweaking of the system.
I have a lot of ‘enemies’ because I reject all the pseudo solutions to the predicament on the basis of geological and geochemical realities, and I reject all the commonly-believed narratives or religion and economics.
For many years I have suggested the populace is dividing into those will (or may) survive and those who are certain to perish. Such a narrative is utterly unacceptable to the majority of people living in ‘Christian’ industrial nations, of course.
Feel free to add to this list of people I am in conflict with::
1. Religious nutters who think they will be raptured to a new kingdom during end times.
2. Religious nutters who think God will intervene at the last moment (change the laws of physics and chemistry because he is omnipotent) and save ‘true believers’.
3. Religious nutters who think there has to be a final battle between various sects of humanity because the Bible foretold it.
4. Economic nutters who think that money is required to solve environmental problems (predicaments)which are generated by the desire to acquire money.
5. Promoters of fossil fuel use who regard any mention of of limits of any kind as heresy.
6. Climate change deniers who say (maybe they actually believe) the Earth has gone through similar events in the past and that humans will not be particularly affected by what is happening now (or in the future).
7. Techno-fantasists who think (maybe actually believe) that humans can control geochemical processes via mechanical/chemical intervention.
8. The ‘politically correct’ mob who want no mention of reality because it will upset their emotional well-being.
9. The ‘greens’ who think that if we just install more solar panels and start using biofuels we can maintain most present living arrangements.
10. Banks and corporations that are dependent on perpetual growth to maintain their Ponzi schemes.
11. Government officials whose prime role is to maintain present dysfunctional systems.
12. The military, who see bombing the other side as the solution to everything.
13. True doomers, like Guy McPherson and his acolytes, who say the human species will cause its own extinction in less than 10 years.
14. Those who know we are on a path of self-destruction but don’t think about it because they believe there is nothing they can do.
There are probably a few other groups I’ve overlooked.
An Upton Sinclair quote comes to mind:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something
I can only thing of one other to add to this great list:
15. People who think that they are going to just quit trying to survive and therefore, are convincing themselves that they should ‘give up’ now.
Not intending to argue but I keep claiming that “CC” – Climate Change’, Civil Chaos, Collapse of Crapital, Calamity Conjunction, … – is NOT a problem, it is a predicament (actually multiple correlated existential predicaments). Halting CC or slowing or whatever is no more likely than stopping the tides (gravity).
It all ‘comes down’ to (results from) Physics folks. CC is equally as real and inevitable as is a bullet coming at your head at 2000 fps IS going to make a hole on the way through (whether you see it coming or not) and you will not to ‘like’ (survive) the mess it makes.
Predicaments do NOT have solutions. The Predicament for biology is chemistry and the chemical-world (aka matter aka physical reality) is a function of and universally subject to Physical Law – all of them every fkn time -) (aka cause and effect, aka the really big Reality)). The Laws of Physics are immutable, unchangeable, unstoppable, not subject to debate or modification regardless of how well accepted, understood, recognized or convenient or NOT. Predicaments have causes producing effects (aka consequences) with inevitable outcomes.
Life is a chain reaction. So is death … yours, ours and the entire planet.
The catalyst in this ‘experiment’ was (not is, WAS) us, The elements (of our doom) have all been assembled and have been activated (energized) – note PAST tense.. The reactions are underway, cannot be stopped, the transformations (outcomes) are inevitable, equilibrium will result – eventually, with – but far more likely- without us
Now, if one can accept Reality (‘big’ R): that consequences (for you, us and every living ‘thing’) are inevitable, happening now and escalating in both frequency and severity. then one may have some chance of minimally delaying the severest of outcome(s) at the local/personal level. One cannot change global outcomes anymore than you could decorate your kitchen with a black hole. Instead of denying and/or complaining about past causes and/or present circumstances, the time is NOW (or before) to accept that we (you) are fkn fucked and decided whether or not you want lubrication on that existential vibrator as its inserted into your puckered sphincter..
ALL is NOW. THEN is NOT. BE There.
PS “No matter how cynical I get, it is impossible to keep up.” ~ Lily Tomlin
Government ‘tried to bury’ its own alarming report on climate change
The Government has been accused of trying to bury a major report about the potential dangers of global warming to Britain – including the doubling of the deaths during heatwaves, a “significant risk” to supplies of food and the prospect of infrastructure damage from flooding.
The Government also recognised that climate change “will present significant risks to the availability and supply of food in the UK”, the report said, partly because of extreme weather in some of the world’s main food-growing regions.
The report also said the public water supply could be affected by shortages and that the natural environment could be degraded.
Food Asset has had only 4 orders for food for the month of January, pretty similar to what occurred in December. So almost nobody is serious or even paying attention to the growing food shortages or preparing in anyway with long-term foods. And we all know climate change is a non-issue now for the Orange Cheeto & Company.
I did an experiment – I added up all the calories purchased: 646,085 for January. My software here can do this, and compute how long this will last: 1 person, 310 days (non-strenuous activity) or 77 days for just 4 people.
I detect a large and growing problem here. Everybody had better have a good supply of steak-knives handy and plenty of bbq sauce. I’ve heard it tastes like chicken.
We’ve plunged so far down the proverbial ‘rabbit hole’ and crashed through the ‘looking glass’ so long ago that no amount of wish fulfillment lunacy and/or degenerate panic could ever make the remaining journey any greater than terminal velocity or the destination other than oblivion. Plan accordingly. Have a nice die-off.
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Cougar tastes like a cross between chicken and pork. Monkey tastes like beaver ( a large rodent). But I’d better serious money that anus apes tastes like jackass sphincter – not that I’d possibly know or ever intend to find out.
Short list of predicaments (not problems)
population overshoot
resource limits – every type
energy constraints and pollution
rejection of science, rationalism and logic
climate chaos (solar flux imbalance, albedo, hydrologic, circulation disruption
alteration of atmospheric and oceanic composition, methane bomb'(s)
mass extinctions (loss of habitat incl. for simians)
soil destruction (multiple sources)
oceanic acidification/plankton die-off
religion(s) – magical ‘thinking’
fiat currency/commerce
nationalism
unimaginable income (‘power’) disparity
education (systematic failure and disinformation)
opinion (prejudice) trumps fact (at every level/point)
abandonment of critical thinking (& zero effort)
weapons of mass destruction (under ‘control’ of ideologues and lunatics)
NWO (0.00001% ‘control'(dictate) events/resources)
ubiquitous mass surveillance of every possible transaction and thought
Orwellian/fascistic police state apparatchik – thought crime
No Habeas Corpus – no such thing as rights or privacy’
WILLFUL Ignorance and MASS stupidity
hyperbolic temporal discounting (fuck the future to maintain the now)
loss of global dimming (+3C within days)
1200-plus ‘spent nuclear fuel’ pools and 450 nuclear fission reactors
NTM 20,000 + warheads
biomagnification (trophic amplification) of a million-plus biotoxins
Et cetera ad nauseum ad infinitum
Good luck with that ! ! ! ! ! ! !
bye bye bipeds
I meant what I said – if you are uninterested in offering helpful suggestions, then you need to leave. This is the last post I will allow here that does not do this.
Not that I’m “uninterested” _ I have/know of none .
If you do, let them rip
BTW, this post was “the bad news”
Most of your list are not ‘predicaments’, they are problems. However these are predicaments listed:
climate chaos (solar flux imbalance, albedo, hydrologic, circulation disruption
alteration of atmospheric and oceanic composition, methane bomb'(s)
oceanic acidification/plankton die-off
loss of global dimming (+3C within days)
biomagnification (trophic amplification) of a million-plus biotoxins
The rest are actually problems with solutions. Drastic ones, but doable.
Global dimming is also borderline ‘predicament’, it could be solved with drastic actions. That leaves 4 major predicaments (from this list, which is not all-inclusive).
These are the solutions to the problems: Education, die-off, restoration, preservation, planned destruction and abolishment, etc. All unlikely to happen of course, but certainly possible if we’d all stop acting like we cannot do anything about any of this.
There is little interest in solving these problems. None of these ‘problems’ will kill us directly, but cumulatively, they spell doom for humanity. Obviously, much need to be done about that.