Wet Wet Wet

Sea levels will be rising faster than previous calculations predicted

The outgoing President's place in infamy is secure, whilst the incoming one has his team assembled

There's no need for language!

First of all - a fond farewell to Oliver Postgate, creator of Noggin the Nog and more




George Monbiot has something to say about talking bollocks and the road ahead.

Things continue to deteriorate to such a point that lawyers may soon be rubbing their hands in anticipation of a nice little earner.
Personally I don't think this is a sensible road to go down, as those worst affected can't exactly afford the price of law.

DECC Press Release

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LONDON (8 December): Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (1),
Ed Miliband, today announced the scrapping of all proposed nuclear and
coal-fired power stations in the United Kingdom. Britain's energy
security will instead be augmented by a massive array of renewable energy
sourced from his own back-pedalling.

In a retrofit indicative of the government's ongoing commitment to
insulating against power loss from both its houses, Mr Miliband stated
that people- especially the Plane Stupid activists who occupied a taxi-way
at Stansted this morning (2)- had misconstrued what he told the
Environment Agency (3) and the Gaurdian (4) about the necessity of “people
power” to pressure politicians. “That is not what I meant at all. That is
not it, at all” he said. “I've always been considered one of the dynamos
of the Cabinet, and with this new back-pedalling generating scheme, I have
the chance to show just how much I can achieve.”

DECC plans to have Mr Miliband chained to an exercise bike (possibly a
tandem with his brother the Foreign Secretary). The bike will then be
hooked up to the national grid. The Chief Scientific Adviser, John
Boddingtons, has calculated that the energy produced by their collective
back-pedalling should generate approximately 24MW, enough to avoid the
construction of the controversial coal-fired Kingsnorth power station.(5)


HaHaHa

Complex and novel problems require complex and novel solutions from a trans-disciplinary perspective. Prof Stuart B Hill at Celsias has some useful suggestions.
Another bunch of pertinent suggestions HERE

An afterthought - For anyone unfamiliar with the narcissus reference (due to the steady improvements in our education system) this will explain.

Thanks to Niel Bowerman of ClimaticoAnalysis for this most amusing link

Popular Mobilisation?

Congratulations on a job well done.
"Plane Stupid" activists manage a high profile inconvenience and some high security embarrassment. Is this the Popular Mobilisation that Ed Milliband called for as the only way to secure change? It is. But he will, no doubt, wriggle away from it as fast as he can.

The nuclear industry , despite admitting that it has neither the expertise nor the money to make itself safe, has proclaimed itself "sexy".
Hmmm. Don't fancy yours much.

Fashion victims

Consumers will pick up the bill for the green energy revolution. I suppose it will make a change from picking up the bill for the beach houses of speculators or the yachts of oligarchs - or even the long lunches of share-holders.
Personally I find most people's houses unbearably hot in winter, and most people's energy consumption really quite bafflingly high. If you want to sit around in your underwear eating ice-cream in the dead of winter whilst watching a 12 foot home cinema and tumble-drying your thongs, then yes -you will have to pay for it. Tough.
The vulnerable must be protected - that should go without saying -and capital should be policed for abuses, but the days of cheap energy are over. Get over it.
How did people imagine it was going to happen? Magic?
These are cultural as well as practical and political problems

Speaking of winter in the north of England; A few inches of snow and the world grinds to a halt around here. We are now so completely encased in the mental and technological bubble of our fabricated lives that the fiction we inhabit is bolloxed by entirely predictable seasonal variation. God help us when the real weather hits.

Here's an entirely predictable seasonal repost;



Thanks once again to Andrew Revkin at DotEarth at the New York Times for his support.

Dreaming of electric sheep.

As people with more time than sense fantasise their lives/marriages/divorces away in cyberspace (whoops -hypocricy warning), millions are being made out of thin air. We are a gullible species, deceived (or otherwise) by the compelling narratives that we spin for ourselves. Perhaps we need a new one.
Coal is a case in point, wherein folks that scoff at AGW models fall headlong into the improbable sci-fi of perpetual CCS.


This video is, apparently, a youtube phenomenon. I am late, as ever. Very well done, though

Doors of Perception

The supermarkets seek to save a percentage of their energy costs and pretend that they give a shit about their carbon footprint by putting doors on some of their fridges. They are worried, however, that this might baffle some of their customers, who are apparently used to simply reaching in and hoiking chilled offal straight down their necks. Throbgoblins International suggest the prominent display of instructional diagrams illustrating correct door usage - with helpful pointers towards arse and elbow.

Elswhere Opec tops up its coffers and the UK government actually plans some investment in a more sensible infrastructure, whilst a leading conservation organisation plans to head off the species crunch.

Congestion explained

On my way to work this morning I was obliged to abandon the bus in gridlocked traffic and walk the last mile or so. As I passed junction 17 of the M60 I saw a poor deluded soul parading throught this belching impromptu car park wearing a sandwich board declaring his opposition to the Manchester congestion charge, and handing out leaflets to the thousands of stranded drivers. I crossed the motorway bridge and looked down on the stalled traffic, breathing in the poison and the frustration, and observed that at least 90% of the vehicles were occupied by single individuals all ruthlessly enjoying the freedom that personal transport brings. I must admit that I was temporarily overwhelmed by a combination of pity, despair and contempt that boiled briefly over into loud swearing and gesticulation before collapsing back into the general bewilderment that characterises my working day.

The sad fact is that most people get a car because "it's what you do, innit?"
We'll get the future we deserve.

(Thanks to Marc Hudson for the monkey/bottle idea)

The public gets what the public wants

I was looking through a survey the other day that sought people's opinions on difficult subjects requiring specialist knowledge and a broad command of a range of complex issues. It wasn't child's play, and it's purpose was serious. But it's tone reminded me of the tone of appraisal documents the world over - Are you satisfied, very satisfied, unsatisfied, very unsatisfied, not bothered, suicidal etc. As if how the respondent felt about the situation was the important thing.
I might be reading rather too much into this, but - We find ourselves strapped into a car that's hurtling up the sharp incline of half a dozen exponential hockey-stick graphs towards almost certain calamity on a roller coaster without breaks - and we are being asked if we're comfy. Something is amiss. Maybe it's just me, but I think it might be time to put our feelings on the back burner and concentrate on issues for a while. Maybe we should be saying to ourselves, "Never mind how you feel - read a few books and have a bit of a think. Leave the comfort zone. You don't have to like it, and you probably won't. Grow up and put your fairy tales away"
Maybe we could all specifically ponder...
How does one run a democracy when no one is paying attention? When most of the people think that more and more people can have more and more forever?; when most of the people think that the looks and style of a politician are the most important considerations?; when most of the people are watching X-factor?: when most of the people want a Beamer, a boob-job and a McMansion?: when most of the people spend more time cultivating their appearance than their understanding? when most of the people are under the impression that they are only here to have a good time and that some supernatural superbeing tucks them in at night? Can serious and necessary work be undertaken under those conditions? And if not, how do we change those conditions? Or do we wait for circumstances to change them for us?

Fucked if I know.

Anyway - I colourised these old strips for a Brasilian biofuel-awareness campaign, which gives me an excuse to re-up them, and an opportunity to cheer the demise of the Hummer that was so recently considered acceptable in some quarters