New Documentary: Headwind"21
Wow, I was taken aback somewhat by this new documentary just released in September. Of course, I've known for quite some time that the "green" and "clean" and "renewable" labels affixed to different projects are nothing more than hype and PR. However, the fact that the people in charge of all of this actually know that this is all a wasteful energetical and resource throughput which does nothing more than attempt to continue BAU (which everyone will discover is impossible without the concentrated energy provided by fossil fuels to power the infrastructural platforms of civilization) is fairly jaw-dropping.
In the end, it is fairly apparent that industries and governments have jumped on the bandwagon of climate change simply to make money. Demonstrating that this is all bread and circus reminds me of the drama playing out in Rome during its own collapse. Rome's collapse, however, wasn't global and it wasn't fostering anywhere near the predicaments unfolding now.
Just as interesting as the film itself is the Q&A interview regarding the documentary explaining some of the scenarios which happened during the filming and some topics which were left out that are important to understanding the complete situation. Very similar to Bright Green Lies and Planet of The Humans, this documentary provides more insight into the banking industry and how these projects are funded and how many times the permitting process allows corruption into the mix. While this particular film focuses on wind turbines, the same predicaments are unfolding within ALL energy industries, which therefore includes all the industries which supply these energy industries - the steel industry, the plastics industry, the cement and concrete industries, the copper industries, the rare earth mineral industries, and on and on. Inevitably, the fossil fuel industry also benefits, and as I have pointed out before due to Jevons Paradox (studies and descriptions available in this post), these devices do NOT reduce emissions but encourage even MORE emissions.
Another issue related to all of this which is beginning to gain recognition is the reduced winds due to climate change - something most likely not taken into consideration when most of the plans for wind farms were originally unveiled.
One of my friends commented on my post about this video, quote:
"His/my dream of going back to nature and getting by with much less money, working directly for yourself and in a way that is sympathetic with nature, with other people. And then a wind farm gets dumped on them. And then an industrial tree plantation takes the place of the native forest next door. This/his place is relatively untouched no more. After 3 crop rotations of industrial monoculture trees, the soil will be dead. After the fossil fuels are gone, will the huge wind generators go back up?"
My reply:
" 'Tis the insanity of bargaining with the predicament of ecological overshoot rather than accepting it. The hubris of not realizing that we are a PART of nature and not separate from it is where wetiko and colonialism begin, and which results in extinction, where it ends."Wetiko and colonialism are part of a mindset that leads us into a trap. These types of mindsets are generally never given much critical thought; they are an integral part of our lives, culturally programmed and indoctrinated into us at an early age. As such, these traps are almost unconsciously walked into. Many other traps are walked into due to Thorndike's Law of Effect which is once again based upon the same hits of dopamine as described in my article detailing our lack of agency. Only those people who are aware of these facts have any means of avoiding these traps, which means that most of society is walking blind right into them. Because of the benefits to a few people pulling the puppet strings, it does not serve their interests to notify the rest of society what is going on behind the curtain. So, the likelihood that this "radical transformation of humanity" that often gets thrown around will occur is fairly remote. How many other civilizations transformed before they collapsed? Despite the fact that we have had more than ample warning, especially regarding climate change, pollution loading, and ecological overshoot, I see no evidence of any serious behavioral changes for contraction and degrowth, even though this is now the only possibility.
In my last post, I described what surplus energy is and pointed out the energy cost of energy, along with the fact that our entire economic system depends utterly on energy - the very value of money itself is based upon future energy; precisely why the value of money constantly declines along with the EROEI of energy stocks. Tim Watkins explains why the so-called "war" on climate change isn't working and won't work, quote:
"So the math here is simple: to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, the world would need to deploy 3 Turkey Point nuclear plants worth of carbon-free energy every two days, starting tomorrow and continuing to 2050. At the same time, a Turkey Point nuclear plant worth of fossil fuels would need to be decommissioned every day, starting tomorrow and continuing to 2050.“I’ve found that some people don’t like the use of a nuclear power plant as a measuring stick. So we can substitute wind energy as a measuring stick. Net-zero carbon dioxide by 2050 would require the deployment of ~1500 wind turbines (2.5 MW) over ~300 square miles, every day starting tomorrow and continuing to 2050.
It goes without saying that we delivered nothing like this between 2019 and 2021, so the rate of deployment has to increase. And nobody in their right mind imagines that the world leaders meeting in Glasgow next week are going to sign up to anything even close to as ambitious as this. Instead we are going to get another round of false promises based on technologies which not only don’t exist, but physically cannot exist, to pretend that they are doing anything more than imposing eco-austerity on the poor while doling out eco-socialism to the rich.
By giving the impression that a Second World War-style mobilization against climate change is possible, campaigning journalists like Monbiot distract us from the stark reality that the only sensible option left to us is a process of managed de-growth. And even this is unlikely while we continue to squander the last of Earth’s accessible energy and resources on some version of a green new deal which can never work in practice."
So, one of the real questions I often think about is how to develop messaging to inspire action on changing personal behavior. Change comes from within, and society will most likely not change until those of us who comprehend the issues do so first. The REAL Green New Deal is an excellent site which divulges the same facts I have communicated here in my blog regarding ecological overshoot, technology use, and the truth regarding energy and resource decline. Likewise, the people who have put this together realize the obstacles we (society at large) are up against. This quote highlights the tasks:
"We are not naïve about the predicament in which humanity finds itself. The extent of civilizational complexity and decay, the level of corruption, the lack of widespread understanding about where we are and what we face after fossil fuels, the limited amount of time left in which to act, and the sheer scale and magnitude of action required, all collude to present obstacles so formidable that a managed contraction of the human enterprise seems highly improbable.
As Lawrence Lessig has said about our crisis of democracy, “I’m actually not convinced that there is a happy story to tell here. But…we have to try. Regardless of what we think is possible, we have to act as if success is possible and give this fight everything we can. We must commit every ounce of energy to the battle.”
We share that sentiment and believe in the moral imperative of fighting for what is right, regardless of the odds of success or the seeming impossibility of the task before us."
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