Problems, Predicaments, and Technology

  We are now all familiar with the strategy of most of the industries surrounding the topic of climate change (or any other environmental predicament which can be utilized as a force to provide an income stream through slick PR work, propaganda, marketing, and advertising). Find what is called a "problem" (halitosis, for instance) and provide an "answer" or "solution" (mouthwash) that is within the reach of a large number of consumers or within the reach of government or shareholders (for large scale purchases or subsidies). This tactic works time and again and has made many of the investors in such schemes rich beyond belief and/or provided jobs and benefits for those employed in such schemes. Of course, schemes are mostly precisely what they are because most of them were not truly needed in the first place. There ARE SOME ideas which have provided quite serious benefits for society, but a rather large portion of these "solutions" target human e

  Nate Hagens recently produced a new video here  regarding myths and reality and it is very well done. The video goes into precise detail about many core myths and beliefs, and  I have the video queued up to the part about the myth of "technology solving it" for anyone who still thinks solar panels and wind turbines help reduce emissions in any way (spoiler alert; they actually INCREASE emissions). Once you've seen this part, I recommend going to the beginning and watching the entire video from the start. The entire video is excellent with regard to eliminating commonly held false beliefs generally encouraged by industry and governments in an effort to continue BAU (Business As Usual) and industrial civilization as long as possible. I actually wrote out a detailed critique of the video in the groups I manage, but think that this video deserves a much wider audience, which is why I wrote this post. The video is excellent in explaining why technology can not and will not

 This facade of the main street in Thurmond, West Virginia, looks impressive but hides the fact that this is a ghost town. No businesses actually exist in these buildings today and the entire town only has 4 or 5 residents today. More info can be obtained here  and here . One of the pernicious effects of the mainstream media regarding climate change and indeed, all the other predicaments under the banner of ecological overshoot, is the sheer level of denial presented. This can easily be detected in many articles about different predicaments such as climate change and I found one in particular  (out of thousands; this is just one of the most recent ones) that brings this phenomenon into focus, quote: " Climate experts warn that, without urgent action, climate change will continue to cause an increase in the intensity of extreme rainfall that can lead to severe flooding. An international research team have concluded that increases in  extreme rainfall  and associated flooding are pr

  Advertisement from the mid-20th century I have often used this expression (the title) to describe many things people tend to think of as solutions for one thing or another that either are not solutions or are unrealistic at best in terms of actually solving something. For anyone just joining these articles, this post  will help get you started so as to be able to comprehend what this article is about.  As I have expressed before, my deep passion is to help explain where we are (as a species), how we got here, why we are in this mess, and what can and/or cannot be done to "solve" these predicaments. My very first post explained the difference between problems with answers or solutions and predicaments (or dilemmas) with outcomes. In it, we discovered that predicaments don't have solutions, and that every solution proffered for a predicament winds up causing new problems and/or predicaments or comes with unacceptable costs or just simply doesn't solve anything. The re

Happy Earth Day!! The above picture looking into Glacier National Park was taken last year and is among some of my favorite pictures of the trip.  I've mentioned the book Bright Green Lies several times and now that the movie documentary is out (today!), here is a discussion from filmmaker Julia Barnes on her new documentary. I really like how she points out the obvious hypocrisies within the environmental movement here, quote:  "If people are genuinely interested in protecting the natural world in the environmental movement, a film that points out the harmful industries of things like 'renewables' shouldn't be considered divisive. It should just be something that is information that they're going to take in and that's going to affect the way that they look at these issues, and if someone, if their allegiance is to these technologies above life on the planet, then they were never really an environmentalist to begin with and their allegiance is NOT with t

A new book is now available from Springer by author Alice Friedemann titled Life After Fossil Fuels - A Reality Check on Alternative Energy. The really great thing about this book is the fact that it explains so much about not only how society is powered today, what products are made from this energy, and what the future will look like, but also precisely WHY alternative energy from technological devices will fall way short of the mark with regard to powering society once fossil fuels become impossible to extract because the net energy they provide is equal to the amount of energy required to extract them (making them an energy sink rather than an energy source). Alice J. Friedemann is the creator of energyskeptic.com . Ms. Friedemann is perhaps best known for her book When Trucks Stop Running – Energy and the Future of Transportation published by Springer, and Peak Soil , which was edited by David Pimentel at Cornell, Tad Patzek at U.C. Berkeley, and Walter Youngquist (author of G

At first glance, my thoughts regarding this topic are that I've actually probably covered most of it in my very first blog post here.  However, I decided to try a new twist by asking members of a group I run what they'd like me to write about, and this was the first idea mentioned. There are particular angles of this topic which I have also covered here  under the topic of denial and here  under the topic of optimism bias. It is very important to cover the topic of psychology, because most people are affected in one way or another by predetermined beliefs and feelings based upon their worldview, upbringing, and schooling. No two people are going to agree 100% on everything; but utilizing logic, critical thinking, and consensus can minimize disagreements to a rather large extent. Before I go any further, I need to point out that I am NOT pro-fossil fuels. For some reason, some people have gotten the misguided notion that I am some sort of fossil fuel shill, which couldn't be