"HOT MONEY"...

 with General Wesley Clark & his son, Wes, Jr., & directed by Susan Kucera ("Living in the Future's Past", narrated by Jeff Bridges).  Too bad Clark Sr. wasn't elected President when he ran awhile ago.  It's on Amazon Prime, not the best production for a doc, but the content is on the mark.  It shows precisely why:

1.  the global financial world is so fragile, & why mega banks should be broken up ASAP;

2.  there's so much economic inequality;

3.  most national gov'ts (including ours) are not seriously addressing Climate Change [only some cities & States in the USA are, & that's insufficient];

4.  mostly, the transformation to clean energy is going at a snail's pace;

5.  Climate Change already has started the destruction of the worldwide financial & economic systems;

6.  the new normal will involve mass human migrations never seen before;

7.  too many people apparently fail to recognize the paradigm shift in values which must occur if we are to survive & thrive in the future; and

8.  too many people are wrong when they believe that Tech will save us in time, therefore to them, there's no urgency about any of this, no need to drastically alter politics, the economy, or the financial system...much less our values.

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I imagine this documentary is found not only on Prime, but elsewhere online as well.  Look for it if you really want to understand what's going on currently, and what's required to avoid complete catastrophe.  Off & on, I've been studying this for 50 years (started in 1972 at Arizona State U.), so please believe this:  humans are facing the greatest Crisis in our history, and climate disruption is only a part of it.  The "experts" think we have until 2050 to mitigate the problem & thus avoid total societal breakdown.  In all probability, I believe that benchmark should be moved to the year 2035.  Why?  Because much more than climate is involved.  

It's time for all of us to take this seriously.  Much can be done on the micro scale, & much "lobbying" (of sorts) needs to be done on the macro scale.  Politicians will engage in window dressing efforts unless there's an outcry from the ground up.  History has proven such.

Best of Due Diligence to Everyone

p.s.  STEP 1:  stop believing the Edward Bernays style propaganda put out by most of the Powers-That-Be.  For example, it will take much more than Tech to avoid catastrophe.  Don't believe anyone who says otherwise.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Ten Essentials

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629617304413#sec0080

The article, found in the Journal Energy Research & Social Science Volume 40, is titled "Ten essentials for action-oriented and second order energy transitions, transformations and climate change research".  According to its multiple authors, if we as a species are to transition to a low-carbon and sustainable world, then there must be a paradigm shift in research approaches, entrenched disciplines, institutions, and political systems.  Researchers thus far have been great at grasping the problem and proposing solutions, but not so great at identifying HOW to make the transition happen.

The article at the link above is about three years old.  I'm curious as to whether or not any of the "ten essentials" have been implemented anywhere.  Some of you may know the answer to that.

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Not only my opinion.  Stay Well

"Americans Are Now Getting a Mild Taste of Their [Our] Own Medicine"

 It has come home---

“Americans Are Now Getting a Mild Taste of Their Own Medicine" of Disrupting Democracy Elsewhere | Democracy Now!  

Short, informative interview.

Take note:  Nairn (an alternative, award-winning journalist & author) admonishes us not to embrace the Establishment because of Trumpism.  He's talking about the neoliberal Establishment.  That's what we've had for decades.  Utilizing Edward Bernays style propaganda, it's a softer version of Trumpism... more subtle, classier, and much more effective.  Presently, it's the dominant political & economic ideology in the world.  It's all about "atomizing" society, & having Big Biz be in control utilizing Crony-Casino-Monopoly-Disaster Capitalism.  Gov'ts will exist strictly as window dressing.  We're almost there... just a micron or so away.  Neoliberalism does not favor democracy at all.  It does favor the appearance of democracy in order to mollify the masses.

Notable people have recognized this for years, and they're all across the political spectrum.  Here are only a few of them:  Noam Chomsky, Paul Craig Roberts, Bill Moyers, Barry Commoner, Ron Paul, Rand Paul (to a lesser degree), Naomi Klein, C.W. Mills, Glenn Greenwald, Lori Wallach, Ellen Brown, Bernie Sanders, Ralph Nader, George Monbiot, Jason Hickel, and many more.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

American Totalism

This speaks for itself, and we have only ourselves to blame.

 American Totalism: Technology, Economy, and Nationality (steadystate.org) 

It's past time for a new paradigm.  Tick-tock.

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Not only my opinion.  Stay Well

Sustainability re: transport industry, decarbonization, lithium, magnesium, energy, & a decent living, Plus commentary on world efforts

 2020 research - Two important views---

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211467X20300961

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020307512

At least read the Abstracts and Conclusions.

Commentary on world efforts---

Public officials, researchers, the business community, & others in the EU (in general) - especially in Germany, Ireland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Austria, & Portugal (mea culpa if I left out a country) - AND in other parts of the world are working hard to develop & implement sustainable policies geared toward saving organized human existence on this planet.  Kudos to all of them.

With some significant exceptions, the USA is light-years behind in those efforts.  As we all know, that's especially true for the last four years or so, particularly in the national government.  The current Administration is working hard to reverse gains made in the sustainability arena.  That, along with other egregious actions, has made the USA an object of pity - as well as a laughingstock - in the eyes of most of the world.  On top of all that, our "Leader" has some chance of getting re-elected shortly.  It's truly mind-boggling.  His chances of re-election should be extremely close to zero... or ZERO.  Thanks to Edward Bernays style molding of the public mind plus a huge dose of ignorance, those chances are higher.  It's all very Orwellian.  Life is full of paradoxes, eh?

The human dilemma we face consists of a socio-ecological-economic catastrophe which already has started, coupled with an ongoing belief by too many in the practices of unlimited growth, overconsumption, and overexploitation of resources.  In far too many ways, we've become too anthropocentric, as opposed to ecocentric.  Fortunately, that's beginning to change.  Keep in mind, though -

TICK-TOCK.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"Why Societies Collapse"

by the notable geographer, Jared Diamond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESYMFtLIis
Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs, & Steel and several other books on the human condition.

This TED Talk is all about sustainability.  He uses examples from the distant Past and Modern Day.  The clip is from 2003, and is completely relevant today.
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Despite the deep denial by some people, we clearly are at the beginning of an eco-catastrophe of monumental proportions.  It goes way beyond fossil fuels, or green energy, or recycling, or the literal insanity of nuclear weapons & nuclear waste, or any number of other individual, "environmental" problems. 

This catastrophe also involves aspects of Human Ecology which we largely have been unwilling to face--- 
1.  a lack of ethics,
2.  social and income inequality,
3.  racism,
4.  the anachronistic stratification of social classes,
5.  the misinterpretation of "religion",
6.  a lack of spirituality,
7.  intolerance of "the other side",
8.  shallow values,
9.  ignorance of systems in Nature,
10.  the tendency to embrace opposition rather than cooperation,
11.  failure to recognize the degree to which we are propagandized, and
12.  the utter arrogance of the human species relative to other life forms on Earth.
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Professor Diamond shows us a methodology for analyzing our predicament, and educating others as to a way forward.  It's a hopeful message.
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Not only my opinion.  Stay Well