My dream can’t be real, I suppose

Spadlet: Maybe you could write something that was informative as well as interesting. Stuff that’s too moralistic or alegorical can get a text sidelided or into cult teritory, but if you could write something that got people thinking……..

– – — -

I don’t know. I don’t think it’s about moralism, it’s about addiction. Fossil-fuels addiction. Not until the majority of the world population recognize that the consumption of oil, gas, and coal is at the heart of the matter as concerns our common future, will stories about the madness of fossil-fuels addiction be received as something other than moralistic and aggressively political pieces of prose. Now, the future is all about continued oil, gas, and coal consumption. Greenhouse gas emissions are going to keep increasing. It’s a sad fact, and not a sad fact that debutants in the art of novel writing can get away with thinking too much about, I guess.

My fucked-up world view works to make me become the greatest loser of all time; that’s what I think. I can feel how all the things that are on my mind make for stories that the sensitive dollar souls of the people belonging to the political, economic, social, and cultural elites of our times are finding too hard to swallow. The fact that authors of prose and plays are dealing with people whose souls are dollaring and hearts are pounding, is simply a given. You are supposed to write a story that can make its way to the market and create some profits to the companies that are involved in the in-house financial record making concerned with the publication of novels. The book you’ve written is not only a piece of art, it is also a commodity: a product that is supposed to be sold to consumers of such products. So you can’t be too angry at the market system, now can you? But of course you can! — If your name is already well-known, that is, and you’ve been writing about and against the consumerist culture for more than just a handful of years already. –

This is the kind of thing that most readers don’t think about. The profit-making aspect of writing. It’s as boring as it gets, I suppose.

It’s a pecuiliar situation, really. In the world of book publishing, Norway ought to be well known for it’s relatively high number of socialist and communist authors. People like Solstad, Michelet, Nygaardshaug, Økland, Wold, Lund, Køltzow (to mention just a few) who have never been in favour of the capitalist system, but still get their novels, plays and poems published. They’ve become money-makers for their publishers, that’s all. –

Now, it’s like a long gone friend of mine said: “Life is research.” And I find that my life turns out to be all about figuring out why it is impossible for people to connect with my simple world view. Or rather: connect in such a way that it’s making it absolutely impossible to relate to me and my world view. ‘Cause I can easily see reasons why some of the older folks are finding it opportuned to associating me with what might be said to be “the end of the world.” While all I’m saying that the world civilization should move to rid itself of its age old addiction to fossil-fuels. And that the people of this world (informed humanity) should start rewriting history in such a way that made it possible top move on from here to a greener future, and that: as soon as possible. I mean: while the window of opportunity is still open, and lifestyle changes might have an effect at all. This is my dream. It’s the strangest dream, of course. All about peace and love. My dream can’t be real then, but all fake, I suppose.

And here I am: pondering the impossibility of dreaming about becoming an author of fiction. Simply because I’m at total odds with the capitalist consumerist system that all of the above mentioned authors have written long stories about and against repeatedly.

My life’s too strange, really. Honestly! It’s an important factor, I know. Too many spiritual things keep occurring around and about my person, I know. And it’s making it impossible for proper book salesmen to buy me. I’m the thing that shouldn’t be. I’m cursed. My personal future could easily involve that of being accused of witchcraft, I suppose? There is nothing new under the sun, of course. I mean: why not? Life’s too social, and people get frightened, so. Oh God. Here I am entering cult territory, am I right?

Life as we know it: an American Lifestyle protection and proliferation campaign

Oh yeah! That’s exactly what’s up here, and happening everywhere. This spiritual and practical activity on the part of modern, westernized humanity has nothing what-so-ever to do with the said importance of natural environments protection. To the contrary, this activity — which, I repeat, has to do with a little more than just physical behaviour — works as the guarantee for faster and faster destruction of the life support systems of the planet. Some people may even think that’s good, as now that we are starting to despair here, and contemplating decades and centuries of climate change awareness, we would equally be better off should we all agree to hurry up and get this whole thing over and done with at a more precipitous speed: the general idea being that the human family has a choice here. Thinking ahead, we can either decide to protect the ecosystems of this planet, and end up having to endure several hundred years (a small eternity) of Weltschmerz due to the shared awareness of manmade climate change and other anthropogenically driven forms of biosphere destruction, or, on the other hand, we can choose to forget about it, and simply pursue the best life possible — which would be (as the majority of humans would have it) the American Way of Life, complete with two family cars, a swimming pool and darn costly hobby activities for the children. ‘Cause as it is: don’t we all essentially want what’s best for our children? –

Of course: no politician in his or her right mind would ever dare to make statements such as these, right out, in front of a TV camera and a long row of microphones. Every politician in his or her right mind will certainly be willing to do almost everything that is within his or her powers to address the situation of global warming and climate change. It’s only that the powers of politicians only reach so far, and it is also that these are not things that any sane person would consider doing all at once and not thinking through these things in advance, and that we are still waiting for a lot of future technologies to become available on the market, and, er … yes: the answer is: of course we will do all that we possibly can to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; just not right now. A substantial reduction of all climate gas emissions right now, like, almost overnight, right, would certainly be an overly enthusiastic and rash decision. You know. –

Now, judging from what happened in Bali in December 2007, it is too easy for me to predict the way of thinking of the powers that be, when, in Helsinki, Finland, in April 2008, their diplomats and political cronies are going to restart the negotiations of a new and stricter climate regime, to be implemented after the Kyoto Protocol’s commitment period draws to a close in 2012. As a matter of standard capitalist world civilization philosophy, a simple, straightforward, and well-meaning term like overconsumption is certainly not going to be heard uttered; not in front of TV cameras and microphone rows, for sure. And the same goes for the meetings scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in 2009: none of those words and terms which are forbidden according to the structural laws of globalized capitalism, will be heard. Well, not so long as the growth cult can continue to call all of the shots here. I think that will last a while. As far as I’m concerned it can equally last forever. And I say that, knowing that there can hardly be no stopping the growth machine so long as it is protected by all the political institutions of this planet, all the armies of the planet, all the banks, ensurance companies, stock exchanges, and other financial institutions, all the loyal servants of the mass medias, and all the likewise loyal servants of the workers unions of this planet: all of whom are there to protect the status quo and actually make sure that nothing bad ever happens to any of the big industrial companies and corporations of this world, on which whole societies, whole countries, and whole populations of loyal and hard working individual human beings depend.

It’s all one helluva a Catch 22 situation, for short: “a situation in which multiple probabilistic events exist, and the desireable outcome is an AND join of these events, however there is zero probability of this occurrence.” I’m thinking this is also going to be the sad case of a Murphy’s Law situation. — “If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.” The simple fact is: even if the politicians wants to do good for a change, there’s no way they can do that if the population in general doesn’t lift a finger to allow anything out of the ordinary to happen. So we allow ourselves to feign ignorance of problems with the atmosphere that we are all well aware of, and of problems concerned with chaotic weather patterns and climate systems that seem to be going crazy; a development that is already felt.

I hear that quite a few people take an interest in what might happen to life as we know it. But what is life as we know it? Isn’t it the everlasting pursuit of happiness, a husband or a wife, three children and a few good friends, plus a good and well paid job, a comfortable house with a garden, a good car in the garage, life, health and property ensurances in order, and the perfect pensions scheme awaiting for idle years to come. And a holiday in the tropics of course. Well, once in a while. If and when you can afford to go. It’s good to have something to dream of.

Does life as we know it have anything much to do with ecosystems protection? Not much. Some of us recycle bits and pieces of thrash, and that’s it really. If at all you own a car, you probably use it more often than you need to. And if, for some reason, you need to travel farther than 500 kilometers and don’t want to go by car, you’ll probably prefer an airline ticket rather than making the trip by train. When you get to your destination you will be going to sleep inside a house or a flat that is fixed up with a refrigerator, airconditioning systems, and burglary proof windows. And all this is if you are a middle class citizen of Dangeria. For the Dangerian working lower class the situation is a bit different, of course. But who’s telling whom to be worried about what, eh? Illiterate people only have themselves to blame, really. Isn’t it?

These days, every people and every nation state of the whole wide world wants to be a little bit more like the United States of America. And all the people of this world are quite ready for such a development, to say the least. Now, the ruling upper classes of all the kingdoms and republics of this world are promising their people to make good progress in the duration of the next few years in order to facilitate for gross Americanization of their societies. There is going to be food for all, of course, but also electricity for all, and also safe water supply, new sewers, new roads, and new airports, and international broadcasting systems available to the people in the countryside. New schools, for God’s sake! And new shopping malls which are going to take over for the outdoor market places. And, of course, new hospitals. New hospitals everywhere. – A guaranteed vote winner, for sure. — And if anybody’s worried about the who’s and how’s all developments payments, they should just shut their mouths up and mind their own business, as the entrepreneurs are indeed talking seriously big business here, alright?! So don’t ask questions. Enjoy.

And all the while the population keeps growing. More and more people are searching to buy scarcer and scarcer plots of land. The land price is sky-rocketing, and the scarcity of fresh water is not somewhere in the horizon. It’s simply to be discovered as you find that you need to buy water from a tank and store it in the backyard. And the city air is filled with smoke. With smog. With all sorts of particles, toxic or not, but smelling. And the open sewers systems crisscrossing all around the slums. Have you seen the canals and do you know the stench?! The kingsize rats and the mosquitos and the flies, big like fowls!! You’ll need to take a bath at least two times every day. And as the population keeps exploding, so does the pollution of the air and the rivers; not only in the towns and the cities, but in the countrysides as well. The “population” of cars and airline companies also grows. The need for modern highways appear where once (not a long time ago) a dirt track covered the distance the old road is now made to pass. A new road is urgently needed. Useless politicians has made that same promise for years already! And hospitals. New hospitals are needed. The children are suffering from malaria, typhoid fever, sleeping sickness, and what have you? New schools are certainly in demand. The old schools are now crammed with pupils! And in the villages, the erosion of the soil has for a very long time created havoc! There’s crisis all around. Nobody knows what to do about it. And the politicians are all cruel military people and corrupt bastards (just don’t talk all that loudly about it, remember the night has ears), so what on Earth do you expect? Progress? Well, yeah. But slow. Very slow. Too slow. It’s not fair. Just look at this country (hush! hush!): rich with oil and all sorts of minerals, but stinking poor no matter what. This country should have been like America, I’m telling you. — If only our politicians would hear!

Many of your dreams will be destroyed

The world population is projected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050. This means that the world population will rise by a massive 50 percent in the next forty years. Now, that’s a lot. And here we are, discussing humankind’s impact on the ecosystems of this planet. –

Digesting a little piece of experimental mathematics is all that it takes for you to understand that an average of three childbirths in every woman’s lifetime inevitably leads to population explosion. Since the ecosystems of this planet are faced with such a lot of human induced problems, it should be very easy for people to understand that the ongoing population explosion is a very unfortunate natural fact. As a social fact, though, the simple mathematics of population explosion realization, is for the most part absolutely impossible for individual human beings, cultures, social systems, and religions to take in. There are way too many spiritual, psychological, instinctive, intuitive barriers to cross here. Like the general idea that God, the Creator, in making it possible for every female of this world to give birth to fifteen children in a lifetime, as a matter of personal choice and free will, could possibly have made some sort of mistake. I mean: yes. Of course there is a religious dimension to this. And yes: I have been told, straight out, by people unknown to me, who have heard about me and my simple piece of population maths, to “please” get stuffed. Oh, and yes: I know that the kind of natural science I am thinking about here, is the form of natural science that noone ever asked for. As a matter of fact, I know, very well, that this is the kind of natural science that makes a lot of people feel a sudden urge to kill, as a matter of basic principle, or (more likely) pure instinct. Killing the unknown perpetrator of population explosion natural (mathematics) and social (anthropology) science would not make the problem of population explosion go away, but it just might make it easier for a number of people to breathe freely? And go ahead with their free-breeding lifestyles, unabated. That would be a convenient solution, of course. So why not?

– – — – — – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0uoy0krJe8

The IPCC analysis implies that we need to curb fossil fuel use within a decade, but the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts energy use will increase by 50% by 2025, with fossil fuels still the dominant component. The World Energy Outlook report from the IEA predicts that “global greenhouse gas emissions will rise by 52% by 2030, unless the world takes action to reduce energy consumption.” And as it happens, US President George W. Bush ended up, in Bali, in the early part of December 2007, saying “we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.”

As the population explosion continues to take place, and (under normal circumstances) there can be no good reason to hope that the world population will begin to stabilize before it has reached the 9 billion mark, there is every reason to suspect that the strictly humanly driven deterioration of the world’s ecosystems will continue. Even if people in general and a number of governments in particular are indeed starting to think about what the fucking hell it seems we are up to here, destroying this planet’s ecosystems by means of such a lot of activities and routines; so long as the world’s population continues to explode, there can really be no hope for a better future in terms of the general state of world’s biosphere. A fast growing third (developing) world human population is definitely going to continue pursuing an American (kingsize ecological footprint) lifestyle, and political leaders from around the world are going to have to continue to welcome such a development, as it will be very good for the world capitalist economy and also very good for the developing countries’ populations, as the development ensures greater prosperity for them; and possibly also a way out of the poverty trap. Meanwhile, the atmosphere of the planet is going to be thickening with a rising amount of greenhouse gases; global warming’s effects on the climate systems of this planet are only just beginning to be experienced as we speak. Deforestation and desertification are other topics of concern. Industrial agriculture is eroding the farmlands. Overfishing is a serious problem all over the world. As is the building and construction boom which is being experienced all over the planet, even if it’s good for the people (for example: how many people are involved in, and receiving payment for work done on the construction sites?). Now, I just don’t feel like listing every possible problem of this ecosystems-studded planet which can be associated with human overgrowth activity. I’m starting to think that it should soon become easier and easier for people to think for themselves. Not that it is going to be of any help. Not so long as humanity insists on being the fossil fuels addicts that we are, and the potential paracitic species of mammals that we currently are to be categorized as. — Oh yes: I am not kidding. It is only that I’m making use of a language that Big Brother (disguised as a sentient being; a thinking and caring humanist, and your best of all friends) disapproves of. Uh, anyway: that is also to admit to the fact that my own Orwellian language skills are poorly developed, of course.

– – — – — – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxuWdEbxAn4

The one thing we can actually do in order to changing things to the better around here, on the spheric globe which is planet Earth, would have to involve the active reduction of general consumption. I have not yet begun to dream of seeing real world changes in this direction, as consumerism seems to be the fastest growing religion of our times, and all things possible are strictly commercial. I’m a zombie lost in the supermarket myself, of course. I’m not buying much. I’m not buying needlessly. But I’m still buying things, and I guess it is bound to remain that way.

I believe it should be possible to arrange for a development that would come as good news to the biosphere of this planet. But it would certainly have to happen in a future which had everything to do with the correction of all the mistakes humanity has made over the past century. The large scale abandonment of the industrial culture of our times would have to be regarded as the first and most important objective. Humanity as a whole would have to get ready for a long range of lifestyle sacrifices. People in the western world would certainly have to lead the way. As I said: it is possible. But as I do not see any movement in the direction of good taking place anywhere near to where I am seated, I can’t say that I am very hopeful on the part of humankind as a whole. We are probably going to allow ourselves the luxury of continuing leading our pantomime lives in this utter make-believe civilization of ours, in which ignorance is strengt, and war is peace. We’ll be waiting it out, I believe. And stop overconsuming when we reach the point when no further growth can be carved out of the natural resource base, which is the biosphere of this planet. Or better still, until we all just give in to a feeling of jolly communal insanity, turn all our television sets off in a swift social movement, and mutter: “No more of this.”

But I do sometimes wonder: as we all ought to know that air travel is the most polluting of all forms of transport, why is it that all of the airline companies of this world are consistently reporting of a rising numbers of passengers every single year? Is it because people are proud to be stupid?!! — Oh yes, I wonder.

Shaken, not stirred

ENGLISH LESSON: definitions from Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary

shake stir

Okay, so I’m not a native of an English speaking country. I’m just an internet idiot leading the zombie life of some kind of a political criminal in the Royal Kingdom of Norway. It is not that I’ve been brought before the courts of law or anything, and it is not that I have a criminal record. It is definitely not that I’m a prisoner. It is only that, as of today, I just might be one of the best versed environmentalists and system critics this country’s government can point its disapproving finger at. And it does. Now, I am being all too emotional in my writing, I guess, and as a consequence of this, I am positively not to be considered sane. Nine years of University education has no bearing on the situation: I remain trapped inside this cell which is known as cencorship. It is a very small country, this. Almost five million people, and that’s it. This country is just about the size of a New York City village, to be exact. Everybody knows about everyone here, and global minded environment or ecology philosophers lacking of an upper class family history had better go and buy themselves an American or a British passport, and get the hell out of here. Because, you see: stupid, unemployed people with the greenest of all intentions are basically not very well off living in countries that are really small and extremely oil rich. There is simply too much money at stake here. And the important thing is, everyone here is familiar with the Law of Jante, written by Aksel Sandemose in “En flyktning krysser sitt spor” — “A refugee crosses his tracks” – a novel first published in 1933.

It goes like this:

1. Thou shalt not believe thou art something.
2. Thou shalt not believe thou art as good as we.
3. Thou shalt not believe thou art more wise than we.
4. Thou shalt not fancy thyself better than we.
5. Thou shalt not believe thou knowest more than we.
6. Thou shalt not believe thou art greater than we.
7. Thou shalt not believe thou amountest to anything.
8. Thou shalt not laugh at us.
9. Thou shalt not believe that anyone is concerned with thee.
10. Thou shalt not believe thou canst teach us anything.

These ten sentences are the guidelines to how ordinary nobodies are supposed to think. If they don’t do that they must certainly be trolls, and will invariably end up with all of their heads chopped off. With an axe or a sword. — You choose. — If this was the year 1647, I would certainly have ended up dead on a stake and a mighty bonfire, I guess. But this is not the year 1647, of course. I guess I will only have to wait and see what becomes of me. An advanced nut case, eh? Or something entirely else that figures?

As far as I’m concerned the year is 1984, and Big Brother is oil rich, power drunk, armed to his teeth, and in total and complete charge of everything. Big Brother cannot be moved. He is not a living soul. Heartless and brain dead, that is what he is. He has framed people into believing that he is everybody’s best friend, and that he can actually be touched. But it just isn’t possible. Big Brother is nothing more than the complex but still very straight-forward mechanisms of industrial, financial, legal, and military power that he wields. With the social and cultural institutions of the mass media at his service – television channels, radio channels, newspapers, health and fitness magazines, science magazines, sports magazines, fashion magazines, computer magazines, boats, cars and motors magazines, etc., etc. – Big Brother is also in charge of the social production of knowledge and societal concern. Money is, in the broadest sense, the only subject of real concern amongst the citizens of all these Big Brother controlled political and social zones known as countries or nation states. Now, we are talking about more than 200 different pieces of worldly landmass, all neatly joined together and strictly kept apart from one another by national borders (lines written in the sand and geographical coordinates stretched across ocean waters), all of which are complete with a national flag, a national seal, a national anthem, a national currency, a national government, and a national football team which the citizens of each and every country are supposed to watch and support, as a token of patriotism, general well-being, and jolly sanity. More than 200 national entities complete with more than 200 different national laws, national judicial and legal systems, national and local police and law enforcement agencies, armies, navies, and air forces, that control and direct the lives of everyone; — all the human beings of this planet. Big Brother is not only associated with the nation state. He is also known to make certain multinational, international, and transnational moves. The United Nations are full of him. Every single business corporation of this world is full of him. Every bank in this world, every stock market in this world, every other institution and organization of this world is full of him. The IOC is full of him! FIFA is full of him! Big Brother is everywhere, but nowhere to be seen. Remember: he is not made up by flesh and blood. He is nothing more than a picture, a scetch of an image. Big Brother is a spirit: a benevolent spirit which does not care about what problems it is causing, and which will prove extremely difficult to conquer. “God moves in mysterious ways,” they say, and I say: Big Brother moves inside a cold labyrinth of dark corridors laid out in a chaotic pattern. And beware of this ghost, as it is moving terribly fast or horribly slowly, depending on which way you see things, especially when it comes to environmental and homeland security measures: you know, nothing is more relative than time. Big Brother doesn’t think, he only does, and he expects nothing less and nothing more of you, either: so long as you perform your duties as a good and lawful citizen, an honest and loyal servant of the system which is Big Brother, you’ll be alright. — You’ll be doing exactly the same thing as everyone else is doing, and that is very reassuring. It only means that everything will be okay. So long as you do what is expected of you — nothing more and nothing less — the ultimate goals of business-as-usual and status quo will certainly be achieved. Even if it is not good for you. But that, of course, is in the long run, so not to worry.

– – — – — – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8LpalUelY

I believe you ought to be worried. Especially when it comes to human overgrowth activites. Our species is going insane. The biosphere itself, under the guise of Mother Nature, presently resorts to all sorts of catastrophic signals of warning (increase in extreme weather events, peculiar seasonal weather patters, extended periods of floods and draughts, rougher monsoons, and increased hurricane and tornado frequency; in other words: climate chaos), thereby indicating to us that the human species, which was always supposed to taking good care of this planet and it’s ecosystems, has now reached the point at which some kind of a time-out would be just splendid. A period of peace in which humanity would wisen up just a little, and readjust itself in relation to the needs of the ecosystems … it would be splendid, I say …

Splendid!

But this is esoteric blather, I know. Just me being a creep. Never mind.

I’ve spent the last couple of years on the internet trying to raise awareness on the enormous topic of global warming. This is an issue which doesn’t seem to be of any real concern to Big Brother. It may even be because Big Brother simply isn’t a living soul, but a robotic, motoric or mechanic means of societal organization; who knows? Big Brother is as dead as can be, and the environment is something that can only be of concern to living creatures. Big Brother can do without it. All he needs to survive is a lot of robots plodding at control buttons, fixing and handling the machines. The environment is an issue which concerns only the animals of the forest. The simple fact that this includes the species of mammals that reside on the top of the foodchain, is of no concern to Big Brother. So long as all these wheels keep turning, he’ll be feeling just fine by that.

Environmental issues are problems that Big Brother is incapable of solving. He is barely capable of acknowledging the fact that any such problems exist. Big Brother isn’t interested in any such thing. He is only interested in whatever seems to be going on inside the societies, the cultures, the nation states, the international markets, and all other regions of interest that are of any use to him. Big Brother only cares about symbols and metaphors. All things natural or spiritual is beyond him. If ever he is confronted with something of a natural or spiritual quality, Big Brother freaks out and instructs some of his loyal servants — human beings like you and me — to pick up the nearest weapon and move to exterminate.

This is the reason why we need to get rid of Big Brother. And we need to do so urgently. As a consensus of climate scientists is making it crystal clear that the window of opportunity is relatively short (only 8 -10 years), and that “allowing the window of opportunity to close would represent a moral and political failure without precedent in human history.”

The unfortunate fact is, however, that most of the people who are alive today depend on Big Brother for their existence. Big Brother is that shadowy entity which arranges for jobs and career opportunities, wages and salaries for such a lot of the people who inhabit the various regions in which Big Brother takes charge of most everything and exerts total and complete control. In this sense, Big Brother serves the society in ways that the people can both appreciate and enjoy. Big Brother can also be understood as the engine of social and cultural machineries that people depend on in order to lead a life that is normal, as people with local identities, languages, dialects, moral grounds, ethical rules, and value systems, etc.

For reasons such as those I just mentioned, there is no use thinking about the evolution of systems in which no symbols and metaphors exist, and no instruments of control can be of value. What is needed, though, are systems that are capable of connecting facts of nature to wisdom as well as reason. What is needed, instead of Big Brother, is perhaps a Little Sister? One who is able to care both for the family, the local community, and the hard, natural reality of her surroundings. But here I am, dreaming again. What am I thinking?

Right now, I am thinking that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) did one hell of a job shaking us all up in the duration of the previous year. What started out, in February 2007, as the beginning of a final warning, ended up, in December, as something like a dotted line and an electricity bill. It feels perfectly fair to say that the world has been shaken in the most fundamental way, but that it has yet to be stirred to action.

As it happens, the IPCC analysis implies that we need to curb fossil fuel use within a decade, but the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts energy use will increase by 50% by 2025, with fossil fuels still the dominant component. As it happens, The World Energy Outlook report from the IEA predicts that “global greenhouse gas emissions will rise by 52% by 2030, unless the world takes action to reduce energy consumption.” And as it happens, US President George W. Bush ended up, in Bali, in the early part of December, saying “we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.”

Addressing the delegates to the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Bali, as well as a global television audience, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Al Gore made use of surprisingly harsh language as he started out by stating the obvious: “I am not an official of the United States, and I am not bound by the diplomatic niceties. So, I am going to speak an inconvenient truth. My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that.”  

So here’s for the dotted line and the bill: nobody seeks to undermine economic growth.

Now, all you need to do in order to begin to understand the ecological problems concerned with unbridled economic growth activites, is sit yourself down and study John Feeney’s marvellous site, Growth is Madness! — an excellent archive on all problems concerned with population growth, economic growth and a seemingly endless list of ecological problems connected to the former.

Now, I wonder what is going on in the minds of all these people who are at work inside the public sector of civilized societies, in work places where absolutely nothing is done to curb greenhouse gas emissions, no matter what the people of the Ministries of Environment might be saying to the members of the press. — I have my mind fixed on lines like this one: “Industrialised countries need to continue to take the lead in climate change abatement.”

While not a single lightbulb in any single office building of the entire nation state is being changed.

We are great pretenders.