The GOP Changed

                                                                                 written 17 September 2023

                                                                             published 24 September 2023

 

            Last week, rain flooded Hong Cong (6 inches in one hour), Massachusetts and Rhode Island (9 inches), northeastern Libya (16 inches, 3/4 of the annual average, in 6 hours, bursting burst 2 dams, destroying 1/4 of Derna, killing at least 6,000), and southern China (18 inches).  For the first time in history, all seven of the cyclone basins have produced category 5 storms in the same year.  Farmers Insurance is fourth major company to leave Florida, citing climate risks.

            A local columnist recently wrote that Democratic party goals have degenerated over time while Republican party goals have stayed the same: strong military, lower taxes, and smaller government.  In addition to these traditional GOP goals, the party supported family values, the rule of law, and personal integrity.  The GOP has changed. 

            Strong military: Senator Tuberville is single handedly threatening national security and degrading military readiness by stalling 300 top level military promotions, included Joint Chief of Staff, because of his personal abortion opinion.  No Republican Senator is willing to publicly pressure him to change his stance.

            Lower taxes: Republicans continue to push for lower taxes, but only for the very wealthy.  Not being satisfied with just lower taxes, the IRS was defunded to the point where high value tax cheats weren't being audited because they were too labor intensive.  Under Trump's rule, the national debt was increased by $7T to give tax cuts to the wealthiest, while social services were cut.  Incomes over $160,000 don't contribute to the Social Security system.

            Smaller government: Republicans assert government is a problem, with no social value.  The chaos in the Republican "controlled" House shows no interest in actually governing, choosing political posturing instead, which IS a problem.  The Republican abortion agenda now includes government intrusion into everyone's sex life.  People driving across state lines will be investigated to make sure no abortion is intended.  Miscarriages will be investigated for blood evidence of abortion pills.  Medical procedures around women's health are legally scrutinized.

            Family values: No longer even "pro-life" (now "pro-baby"), the GOP canceled a child tax credit, doubling child poverty in a stroke.  Once a baby is born, the GOP wants nothing to do with it, unless you are rich.

            Rule of law: The party now supports a candidate who has been indicted 4 times for 91 felonies, yet the GOP rallies around him.  Many Republicans feel the Constitution is irrelevant.  One of the standards of our Constitutional system is accepting the outcome of elections and a peaceful transfer of power.  Trump has been described as malignant narcissist, so it is understandable that he is mentally incapable of accepting the reality he lost, but most of the GOP leaders have supported this delusion of a "stolen election", and the insurrection on the Capitol that followed.  Recent evidence shows that Republican leaders have acquiesced out of fear of threats of violence against their families.  Rather than accept responsibility for actions taken, and be tried as an equal under the law, the entire justice system is being is being demonized, accused of being weaponized.   

            Personal integrity: Fox News, an avid Republican supporter and significant in the conservative media landscape, has been found in a court of law to have lied, known about it, and didn't care.  Honesty has no place in the modern GOP if it stands in the way of keeping power.  Shutting down the entire government, reneging on commitments, is acceptable if it makes difficulty for the opposition party.  Anyone who stands up for what they believe, if it is contrary to the "cult of Trump", is demonized, swarmed with hate mail and threats, primaried out of the party, and eliminated for consideration.

            Whatever principles the Republican party once had are long gone.  They have no policy plans that have support of the majority of voters, so they gerrymander the districts, purge the voter rolls, change the rules, lie, and mobilize violence, just to stay in power.  These are the traits of an authoritarian regime.  

            The climate crisis is real, and continues to erode our material civilization as surely as being repeated attacked by an adversary in war.  This is not a malevolent force, but the natural imbalance of our entire way of living on the planet.  These times demand we mature, become part of life on the planet, not just parasitic consumers.  The unity of the world demands recognition.  The modern GOP has nothing to offer.

 

 

 

 

 

What Will It Take?

                                                                                 written 10 September 2023

                                                                             published 17 September 2023

  

            Last week, Atlantic hurricane Lee doubled in intensity, from category 1 to category 5, in 18 hours.  Lake Titicaca in the Andes, the world's highest navigable lake, is drying out.  France hits 104°F, India had the driest August in more than 100 years, 60 million Americans were under heat alerts, Phoenix broke an annual record of 53 days with temperatures over 110°F, and snow was on the ground in Utah mountains.  Intense storms flooded southern Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Istanbul (5 inches of rain in one hour), central Spain (7 inches of rain), southeast Taiwan (11 inches of rain), and central Greece (21 inches of rain in 10 hours), while northeastern Greece still burns.

            Think about that last item for a moment.  Imagine the impact of 21 inches of rain in half a day on your home, or your community.  

            A disaster like this not only devastates individual lives, but entire communities, ecosystems, and major infrastructures are damaged or destroyed as well.  Search and rescue efforts take time and resources, before the cleanup and disposal of debris can even begin, let alone actual rebuilding.  All this has to happen with no functioning local or regional economy, perhaps no electricity, communications, water, sewage disposal, food and material supply, or even road access.  Emergency services, like hospitals, police, and fire services, that weren't damaged, are overloaded, and their personnel might be homeless.  These local impacts strain the larger society, demanding money and resources in order to recover.

            Even if the resources are available, recovery can take years to get back to where things were before the disaster.  After hurricane Sandy hit New York, some systems took a decade to return.  Five years after their fire, Paradise, California, has about 1/3 its former population.  After hurricane Idalia blew through Florida, over 1000 bridges needed assessment.  Flooding cuts into agricultural production and drives insurance rates higher.  Each of these extensive climate events affects the larger economy, adding unexpected costs. 

            This summer was the hottest on record, a mark that will not stand long.  The information is clear and climate impact defines the daily news feed, yet we still dig the hole deeper, making matters worse.  Atmospheric carbon dioxide content increased 2.5ppm this year.  

            Some aren't even willing to try keeping up with disaster response.  FEMA funds have been depleted by flooding in the east and northeast and wildfires like Maui, and need to be replenished to deal with Florida's hurricane recovery. The economic power of the collective society is needed, but Republican leadership has decided the climate crisis is a liberal hoax, and are standing in the way of even helping their Republican voters in Florida.

             In a recent TED talk, Al Gore described the main boulder in the stream hindering effective human response to the climate crisis: the fossil fuel industry.  Fossil fuels, a multi trillion dollar industry, have been a powerful engine for the growth of human civilization, with an externalized cost that is now killing that same civilization.  Those few who control, and massively benefit from, the industry, have no incentive to make any changes, because they are embedded in the idea of "profit over people": their profit versus other people's lives.  They have known about the problem for decades, but don't care, believing only "other people" will be affected.  Addiction to money is a global problem, and the fossil fuel industry applies its power for its own ends, stalling any effective climate response. 

            Despite whatever "greenwashing" you hear, last year fossil fuel companies put just 1 percent of spending into green alternatives, and 40 percent into stock buybacks for investors, while funding climate denial and disinformation.  In the Glasgow COP22, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered the combined representatives of the ten most affected countries.  

            The climate crisis is only a symptom of a deeper problem: the illusion of separation.  This illusion is also the root of racism, misogyny, religious bigotry, economic inequity, and rabid nationalism.  All of these problems are centuries old, and have caused lifetimes of suffering.  But the climate crisis is more recent, and will sweep everything in its path, because despite the entrenched illusion, we are all in this together, and any effective climate solution requires helping everyone.  Republicans obviously have no plan, or intention, to match this challenge, preferring denial and traditional divisiveness to unity.  This next election will tell the tale.  Are human's wise enough to survive much longer?

Cost of Electricity

                                                                                   written 3 September 2023

                                                                             published 10 September 2023

   

            Last week, Louisiana wildfires became largest in state history, and Greece has the largest fires in the EU.  6 inches of rain flooded parts of West Virginia.  Hurricane Idalia intensified from category 1 to category 4 (briefly) within 24 hours, before making landfall.  Heat in Texas pushed electricity prices to $1.599/kilowatt hour, compared to long term average of $0.066/kilowatt hour.  Exxon, which actively works to undermine climate change efforts, declared climate will warm over 2°C by 2050, a level never previously experienced by humanity, yet called for more oil and gas investment.    

            The climate crisis has been known about for 50 years, but fossil fuel companies poured billions of dollars into denying the truth, confusing the populace, and buying compliant politicians, effectively stalling functional response.  Consequently, the crisis has built to the point that gradual changes are no longer sufficient.  As we have seen in Texas, the result is rising prices.

            In Mendocino county, three companies provide electricity.  Within Ukiah City limits, publicly owned Ukiah Electric has a residential retail rate of $0.185/kilowatt hour, the cheapest in the county, and 80 percent is non carbon.  The next cheapest is provided by Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), at a retail rate of $0.29/kilowatt hour, with 91 percent non carbon power, servicing 80 percent of the rest of Mendocino county.  The most expensive power is provided by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), with a retail rate of $0.31/kilowatt hour.  PG&E claims their power is 96 percent non carbon, but 40 percent is nuclear generated, which is not renewable power.

            Each company offers a 100 percent renewable power option, for an additional premium.  Ukiah Electric charges an extra $0.02/kilowatt hour (11 percent), Sonoma Clean Power's EverGreen charges an extra $0.025/kilowatt hour (8.6 percent), and PG&E Solar Choice Program adds $0.09/kilowatt hour (29 percent).  If you want to leave a habitable planet for our children, then you have the option of 100 percent renewable power for a modest fee increase, except for PG&E customers, who could change over to SCP and sign up for the EverGreen option.

            But some people are concerned that even a 10 percent increase is too much.  To them I would ask that they consider the cost of NOT making the shift, by including the "externalized" costs of continued burning of fossil fuels. These are actual expenses already being paid by society, but not included in the costs of producing electricity.  This is fraudulent accounting, but standard in our economy.  

            One example is the cost of damages caused by a steadily heating planet.  The hurricane Idalia in Florida was one of several recent storms that "rapidly intensified" as a result of very warm ocean water in the Gulf.  This gave folks on land less time to prepare for, or evacuate from, the magnitude of storm that hit them.  The storm was large, very wet, and drove a significant storm surge, causing between $10B and $20B in damages that will be paid by insurance companies, federal and state disaster aid, or bourn by the uninsured home and business owners.  Last year climate damages added up to $170B in the US, and the total keeps increasing every year as the crisis builds.

            Those damage estimates seriously under report the complete economic impact.  It can take years to fully replace everything that is destroyed, which consumes money, time, and resources that would otherwise be supporting and expanding the economy.  Some people never recover, further hurting the community.  

            The International Monetary Fund recently reported that fossil fuels annually received $1.3T in explicit global subsidies, rising to $7T when implicit support is included, such as undercharging for air pollution and other unaccounted adverse climate impacts.  The US is a quarter of the global economy, so our share would be $1.75T, and when damage costs are added, almost $2T.  The population of Ukiah is 16,000, with about 6,000 homes.  On a per capita basis, our city's share of that annual bill is about $94M, or about $1,300 per month per household!

            Since most of Mendocino county carbon footprint comes transportation and heating, shifting away from those energy sources is more expensive that shifting all of our electricity to renewables.  But let's at least begin.  

            To sign up for Ukiah's program of 100 percent renewable power call 707-463-6747, and ask for Lori.  To sign up for Sonoma Clean Power's EverGreen program, call 855-202-2139.  Our children will thank you.

 

 

 

Considering the Unseen

                                                                                       written 25 August 2023

                                                                               published 3 September 2023

  

            Last week, over 3 inches of rain fell in a few hours in Ohio, 8 inches of rain created flash floods in Las Vegas, and floods devastated 2/3 of Slovenia.  Heat index in Lawrence Kansas hit 134°F, and Greenland was 27°F above normal for this time of year.  Wildfires ravaged northeastern Greece, British Columbia, Canary Islands, Tenerife Spain, and eastern Washington, displacing thousands near Spokane.  Fires in Canada already burned three times the previous seasonal record, set just last year

            Mathematically, a point has zero dimensions, and the quality of existence.  A line has 1 dimension, and the quality of length.  A plane has 2 dimensions, and the quality of area.  A cube has 3 dimensions, and the qualities of volume and density.  Each increase in dimension adds new qualities, not possible in the previous dimensions.  Einstein added time as a dimension, with the quality of endurance.  We now describe material reality as 4 dimensional "space-time".

            We tend to think in terms of integer dimensions (0, 1, 2, 3, 4), but picture a squiggly line on a piece of paper.  If the line never crosses itself, it could be considered a 1.2 dimensional shape, as the line extends into the next higher dimension. If it almost completely covered the paper, it might even be a 1.8 dimensional shape.  Another example is the 2 dimensional surface of the ocean, extending into the third dimension as what we call waves.  The choppier the surface becomes, the more it can be considered greater than just two dimensional.  

            We mostly experience the world as four dimensional.  However, we don't seem to fully experience the fourth dimension of time, but live eternally in the NOW, inexecrable transitioning from the remembered past to the unknown future.

            In mathematics, there are no limits to dimensions, inviting consideration of what higher orders might be.  Quantum physics shows that matter is "non-local", operating within systems that transcend space-time.  A photon, with no mass, travels at the speed of light, which means it experiences no time or distance, arriving when it sets off.  String theory physics postulates 10 or more, dimensions, most of which are curled so tightly that they can't be perceived.  Chaos theory, which describes apparently random complex physical systems, has strange attractors, orderly functions in higher dimensions.  All this suggests that material four-space actually extends into higher dimensions, mostly unseen.

            One of the fundamental assumptions of western rational materialistic science is that matter is the ground of reality, and consciousness arises only within sufficiently complex material form.  This scientific limitation comes from being forced to evolve from under the lethal spiritual dogma of the Church, and leads to viewing matter as "dead" and life as "meaningless".  It presents a significant problem explaining how dead matter can become alive.

            An alternate view is that consciousness is the ground of reality, a quality of an all-encompassing dimension higher than the space-time continuum.  In this view all material form is an expression within consciousness, similar to seeing all waves on the surface of the ocean being part of the same ocean.  If we view consciousness as awareness and volition, we can see it expressed in all living forms, from simple bacteria, which is aware of its environment and moves toward nutrients, on up to humans.  What we conventionally call human consciousness is really self-consciousness, a subset of general consciousness.  Examples of self-consciousness have been documented in many species other than human. 

            Consciousness has also been shown to be "non-local", not limited to space-time, existing in a higher dimension. Australian aboriginal "dreamtime" is a cultural practice of intentionally communicating across space-time. Reincarnation, near death experiences, and all psychic phenomenon demonstrates this as well.  

            Rupert Sheldrake's book "Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home", demonstrates this quality is not limited to humans.  Parrots have reported dreams their owners are having.  Sheldrake postulates morphic resonance, higher dimensional orthogentic fields, which hold information relevant to the formation of growing living systems.  These fields also aid formation of mineral forms, and even information systems.  The more a particular form, or information, exists, the easier it is for that form, or information, to express again.  Inspiration and creativity are individual experiences of 

connecting with this larger, connected consciousness.

            As we open ourselves to the experience of already being part of a conscious, inclusive whole, even if unseen, our lives change and possibilities bloom.