The Money Addiction

                                                                                          written 14 April 2024

                                                                                      published 21 April 2024

  

            All human suffering come from believing the illusion of separation in a world that is fundamentally unified.  Nowhere is this clearer than how money operates.

            While capitalism has always suffered from the flawed assumption of "exclusive gain", the idea of who gets included has shrunk.  A century ago, a corporation was expected to serve not only the shareholders, but the suppliers, the employees, the customers, and the larger society.  This is what was taught at the Harvard Business School when it first opened in 1924, whose graduates go on to shape businesses everywhere.

            Over time, as the economics of accounting evolved, the quantification of profit became dominant over the more qualitative social values.  Today a corporation's entire goal is defined as maximizing shareholder return.  This gets more narrowed, prioritizing short term profits over everything else.

            We saw an example locally when MAXXAM corporation used junk bond money to take over the Humboldt county Pacific Lumber company in 1985.  For over a century, this company had been economically, and relatively environmentally, harvesting redwood, but Charles Hurwitz had convinced Houston bankers to front the money for a hostile takeover.  He then raided the pension fund and doubled the rate of harvest, clearcutting as fast as possible to pay off the high interest loans.  Big money "now" was more prized than sustainability.  Two decades later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

            ENRON corporation was formed in the mid 80's, and rapidly grew to become a significant player in energy commodities.  By 2001, it was the darling of Wall Street, held up as an example for all.  However, in October, 2001, it was revealed as a massive fraud, using questionable accounting techniques to make their profits look good each quarter, while hiding significant losses off book.  The stock crashed with the largest bankruptcy due to fraud on record, impoverishing all their employees, and some company officers went to jail.  

            But fraud and bankruptcy are not the only ways companies are damaged by exclusive focus on money.  Boeing corporation began building airplanes in 1917, becoming a major manufacturer during WW2, and continued to grow as domestic airlines expanded after the war, with a corporate ethic of excellence, safety, and ingenuity. 

            In 1997, facing increased global competition, Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, which had a corporate focus on Wall Street.  The merged company chose stock value over excellence, ignoring that making a product safe and well produced takes time.  The result was decreased worker satisfaction, and loss of production quality.  The recent news of parts falling off Boeing planes has hurt the company economically.

            Last year a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, creating a hazardous material fire that burned for days, forcing evacuation of the local community of 4,800 people, with unknown impact on the local environment and water supplies.  This is the result of corporate decisions to make trains longer (1.75 miles in this case), while cutting safety inspectors and train staff, all to save money.  This is typical of the entire railroad industry.  

            Exclusive focus on money has other adverse social impact as well.  In 2004, a second year Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, created the foundation for Facebook, originally a program for comparing which college women were "hotter".  This typically sophomoric, culturally misogynistic goal might fit into a college venue, but Facebook now has almost 3 billon daily users around the world, many of whom get all their news from this source.  Online advertisers, and platform algorithms, keep a viewer locked into their screen time, creating a $500 billion dollar company.  Combined with the explosive growth of smartphones, now almost 5 billion globally, we have seen a significant rise in online bullying, depression, and suicide among teenagers.  

            Closer to home, the drama around the Palace Hotel in Ukiah results from one man buying a derelict property at a discount, expecting to make a profit by doing nothing, rejecting serious bids to restore the building, while holding out for maximum return on his investment, expecting millions of dollars of tax payer funds to make that happen.  Each day the building deteriorates further.

            Money is only a concept, totally elastic when manipulated by those in control, able to be created out of nothing, and disconnected from reality for long periods of time.  However, the experience of life is much more than that.  As long as we sacrifice life for money, we all lose eventually.

 

 

 

Geoengineering

                                                                                            written 7 April 2024

                                                                                      published 14 April 2024

            Humanity has added 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to the atmosphere in the last two centuries, increasing the atmospheric content for 280ppm to 425ppm, a level not experienced on Earth for millions of years.  This change in atmospheric chemistry, at a rate 25 times faster than the end of the last ice age, traps more heat, raising average temperatures about 1.5°C so far.  Not only are we living in a world never before inhabited by humans, threatening our civilization, the rate of change is disrupting all other life forms as well, risking possible human extinction.  Despite the well-funded denial by the fossil fuel industry, more people are beginning to understand that there is no economy if the society crashes.

            We see increased discussion of geoengineered solutions as a way out of our situation.  Most common are proposals which reduce the amount of sun reaching the surface of the Earth.  Such as, orbital solutions of a sunshade (similar to putting sunglasses on the planet), or inflatable silicon bubbles (acting like a cloud), or using mirrors to reflect sunlight away from the planet.  Closer to Earth, there are plans to inject sulphates, salt particles, or water droplets, into the upper atmosphere, to induce a cooling effect.

            All these high-tech engineering solutions raise serious concerns.  They would have to be ongoing, regularly replenished, for if application was disrupted, abrupt heat spikes could occur.  Questions of financing and control are unresolved.  Unintended consequences, such as disrupted rainfall patterns or crop production, are possible.

            In addition, these "solutions" only treat the symptom, increased heat, not the cause, increased atmospheric CO₂.  Much of this CO₂ is absorbed into the ocean, which increases acidity, stressing oceanic life forms, increasing their extinction rates, which threatens the livelihood of more than a third of humanity.  Clearly, to actually deal with this issue we must address atmospheric CO₂: stop adding more (decarbonization) and begin reducing what is already there (sequestration).  

            Last year humanity added another 36 billion tons of CO₂.  Efforts have begun to decarbonize the economy, but progress is slowed by vested interests, focused only on their own short-term profit.  Further, this will be a huge change in our energy infrastructure, which frightens people who demand certainty.  However, the increasing destruction caused by the climate crisis, and the growing economic impact of "peak oil", will build further support for decarbonization.

            But sequestering the existing CO₂ is still relatively unaddressed.  We need to return to a climate we know can sustain humans for millennium, the sooner the better, because there are irreversible tipping points that can make the situation much worse quite rapidly.  Last year, I wrote several articles inspired by "Climate Restoration", a book by Fiekowsky and Douglis, which details several viable paths for carbon sequestration.  The goal is to remove 50 billion tons a year above what we are adding each year, for 20 years.  Solutions require using existing processes, as we can't afford to wait.  They need to be affordable, with very low costs, or producing valuable by-products already used in the economy.  They need to be scalable to a magnitude relevant to the problem.     

            While several direct air carbon capture installations have made news recently, these are all inadequate to the task.  Costs are more than $1,000 per ton of CO₂ removed, without mentioning where the energy comes from, while capturing only a few ten thousand tons a year.  

            My favorite Climate Restoration solution is ocean iron fertilization.  In much of the ocean, plankton life is limited by the lack of trace amounts of iron.  When this is strategically added, massive plankton blooms happen immediately, rapidly followed by all kind of higher oceanic lifeforms.  This pulls CO₂ from the atmosphere, and what isn't eaten falls to the ocean floor. 

            This is relatively low tech, powered by sunlight, working with life to enhance more life.  A few small trials have already been accomplished, showing proof of concept.  As with any new large-scale process, there could be unintended consequences, but this is essentially a natural phenomenon.  Iron dust from the land has historically fed the oceans, but has been reduced by man made changes to the environment.  In depth assessments have been made, indicating costs as little as $24-$94/ton of CO₂ captured, including costs of verifying what is actually happening. 

            As the reality of our situation grows, the push for action will increase.  Do we have the political will to act?

The Other Oil Problem

                                                                                        written 31 March 2024

                                                                                        published 7 April 2024

     

            Everything we take for granted in society is the result of abundant affordable energy.  Over the last century, that has primarily been oil.

            Beginning from nothing in 1900, US production grew to 4 million barrels per day (mb/d) by the end of WW2.  At that time, the US produced about half the global oil, all from the lower 48 states.  Since oil is more energy dense and versatile than the coal which had powered the British Empire, US oil powered the explosion of post war economic growth.

            But oil is a finite resource.  In 1950, a typical well would produce 200,000 barrels per day.  Twenty years later, the average well produced only 1/10 that amount.  US domestic production, called conventional oil, peaked in 1972 at 8mb/d, and the US lost control of the price of oil, which produced a decade of extreme domestic inflation.  Conventional US oil production declined to 3mb/d in 2000, and is now about 2mb/d.

            In an effort to replace lost US production, new reserves were developed in Alaska and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.  But both these sources were more expensive to produce.  Alaskan oil peaked in 1985 at about 2mb/d, and has now declined almost to nothing.  Offshore oil still produces about 2mb/d, but as individual wells deplete, drilling moves into much deeper water, and becomes more expensive yet.

            In 2005, global production of conventional oil peaked, spiking the price of oil, which helped crash the global economy in 2008.  At that point, US production was 5mb/d, but the increased value of oil spurred massive investment in tight oil (fracking shale oil), which grew from .5mb/d to 9mb/d, and is now 69 percent of US production.  In 2023, US oil production was 12.9mb/d, 16 percent of the global total, the most of any country.

            Hydraulic fracking uses great pressure to split the rock, and injected sand to keep the rock open, allowing recovery of very small reserves of oil.  But well production declines 80 percent in three years, so the expensive process has to be continually repeated.  The fracking industry lost billions of dollars since 2005.  In addition, seven of the eight most productive U.S. shale basins are already past their peak.   

            Furthermore, fracked oil has a high percentage of light hydrocarbons, with significantly less energy content than conventional crude, which can't be refined into diesel.  Global diesel production peaked in 2015, which is why diesel is now more expensive that premium gasoline.  Global oil production of any kind peaked in 2018.

            As oil becomes scarcer, and more expensive, it makes the rest of life more unaffordable.  But price is only one way of evaluating energy.  To produce energy, it takes energy, so we can look at the "energy returned on energy invested" (EROEI).  Average conventional oil well used to produce 40 units of energy for each energy unit expended, giving an EROEI of 40.  Our technological society needs an EROEI of at least 10, in order to have sufficient energy available to power all the rest of our infrastructure. 

            Global EROEI for new conventional oil is now 17 and declining, wind is 20, solar is 12, deep water oil is less than 10, tight oil is less than 5 (the same as using animal labor), and human labor is 3.  As reserves continue to deplete, it is estimated oil production EROEI will be 2 by 2050.  Oil will be around for decades, but it may not be affordable for long, or energetically relevant.  This is being referred to as the "energy cliff".   

            This isn't a problem that "drill, baby, drill" can solve, any more than politics can bring back old growth redwoods, the historic economic foundation of our local economy.  The oil industry knows this, which is why they are using current profits to enrich stockholders with buybacks, rather than funding exploration. 

            The energy cliff issue, independent of the growing climate crisis, is a consequence of explosive population growth and depleting finite resources, amplified by the consumptive economic concept that the winner is "one who dies with the most broken toys".   

            Our species is at a cross roads, demanding an evolution to a completely new way of doing business, if we want a sustaining civilization and a habitable planet for our descendants.  I am still optimistic, and believe we have yet to explore the full capacity of what it means to be human.

Responding To Change

                                                                                           written 24 March 2024

                                                                                       published 31 March 2024

            The State of Florida, dominated by MAGA "thinking", has prohibited the terms "climate change" and "sea level rise" in official usage.  Don't look up!  But reality doesn't care.

            Consequently, Florida is trying to deal with "persistent sunny day flooding", disappearing beaches, increasingly lethal outdoor summer labor, salt water intrusion into drinking water, home owner's insurance three times California levels (when available), and growing difficulties in home financing.  These are all forms of adverse climate impact. Needless to say, none of the official efforts, some costing hundreds of millions of dollars, have been effective.

            Decades ago, the global re-insurance industry, which insures the smaller national companies, noticed their costs going up.  When the climate repeatedly destroys insured property, insurance rates have to increase in order for the system to remain solvent.  Florida has experienced four destructive hurricanes in the last seven years, and the sea level there is rising faster there than the rest of the US, making storms more destructive.  

            With "business as usual", this impact will increase for decades.  As insurance becomes more expensive and limited, affordable insurance coverage becomes scarce.  Available bank loans will diminish, unwilling to loan for 30 years without insurance.  Even those with cash will be reluctant to invest with the increasing risk of total loss.  At some point, property values could crash in a panic, stranding the poorest, and bankrupting cities and the state government.  All this has already begun.

            Even if Florida wasn't in compete climate denial, imagining an effective response is difficult.  Armoring the coast against flooding is extremely expensive, sacrifices the sandy beaches, and doesn't actually work for long.  Moving all critical infrastructure and buildings away from the coast would be politically problematic, very expensive if done equitably, time consuming, and would force abandonment of much of the low-lying state.  Building storm resistant buildings throughout the state would have similar constraints.

            As easy as it is to critique Florida, California has the same kinds of problems with wildfires, despite having more climate awareness.  California had embraced a Florida like denial by prohibiting risk forecasting when setting insurance rates, demanding only historic records be considered, ignoring a rapidly changing future.  This had short term appeal for the insured population, but it put the insurance industry in a bind.  They couldn't afford it, caught between what they could charge and what they had to pay to re-insure their exposure.  The result was a highly publicized exodus of insurance companies from the state, pinching consumers with increasing costs, or reduced availability of adequate coverage.   

            If allowed to continue, lack of insurance would adversely impact the real estate sales market and bank viability, risking a drop in real estate value and property taxes revenues.  The state relented, and recently allowed the industry to include the changing future risks when setting rates.  A press release proclaimed this would stem the exodus and provide more options for the consumer.  What wasn't stated was that new insurance will be more expensive.  Needless to say, consumer advocacy groups noticed, pointing out that consumers can't afford it.  This is not a whole system solution.

            Mitigation is being considered, such as changing land use practices and shifting building codes to require more inflammable construction materials and methods.  Investment in such changes would be reflected in reduced insurance rates.  But such a transition is expensive and slow.

            While any mitigation is helpful, the scale of the challenge is daunting.  When faced with an ember blizzard, the best advice is to be somewhere else.  What mitigation could have prevented the destruction of 90 percent of Paradise, CA?  How does a town rebuild when all the infrastructure (water, sewer, electrical, telecommunications) must be replaced, with few residents, little commerce, and a diminished tax base? 

            Mitigation may help address the wildfire issue, but not the fundamental climate crisis, and makes the questionable assumption our society can continue as-is, on a rapidly heating planet.  2023 was the hottest year on record, and 2024 has started off even hotter.          We clearly need to stop making the climate worse and actively begin meaningful carbon sequestration.  When enough people feel the direct economic impact of the climate crisis on our lives; when the financial powers see their fiscal peril; when people have voted in enough leaders who feel that impact also; then we might have a chance.  The next election will clarify things.  Like it or not, we are all in this together.

 

Because They Said So

                                                                                           written 17 March 2024

                                                                                       published 24 March 2024

            Two weeks ago, the Ukiah Daily Journal published a letter supporting the primacy of a Biblical view of the world, as God's will.  On the one hand I respect the writer for the courage to write from their obvious passion.  But with the rise of White Christian Nationalism as a political force (which I view as bigoted religious fascism) the issue demands a response.

            I do not identify as a Christian.  For centuries, too many people have been killed in the name of God, by self-righteous people claiming Biblical justification.  I can't abide to join such a club.  However, I am a spiritual person, knowing I am part of something larger than myself.  On my personal quest, I take inspiration wherever I find it, and appreciate Christ's instruction to "love God" and "love one another".  This socialist ideal is massively inclusive, and in line with unity reality.

            Four centuries after Christ, a group of men created the Bible to become the sacred doctrine of Christianity, the state religion of the Roman Empire.  They declared they were inspired by God, and the Pope, the leader of the Church, was God's representative on Earth, just because they said so.  Rome began persecution of non-Christians to assure compliance.

            Since the Bible is a book of words, it is a concept, ambiguous and open to interpretation.  The power of the words is in the experiences these concepts engender in the people who read or hear them.  Many are inspired to emulate Christ with excellence, compassion, peace of mind, and open-hearted service of love.  Christian groups help the poor, hungry, sick, depressed, and abandoned.  Individuals live lives of unconditional love and service, enhancing the lives of everyone around them.  Modern liberation theology worked against social inequities.  Tithing is sharing through collective action.  This is the positive side of Christianity

            Christ set a standard of love, but rather than focusing on the loving goal, some emphasize sin, missing the mark, and use the Bible as a vehicle for control and domination, wielding the power of God as a bludgeon.  This is the darker history of the Christianity.  

            Surviving the collapse of the original Empire, the Church continued to grow in social, economic, and political power, using their limited definition of God's will to control the masses.  Founded in the misogyny of the times, only men were allowed to be priest and determine what is sacred and what is condemned.  The consequences today are the Persistent Pedophile Priest Problem, and Protestant sects torn apart over women as preachers.

            Translation of the Bible from Latin into other languages was prohibited, and literal Biblical infallibility within the Church was maintained by killing "heretics".  Religious intolerance brought centuries of wars against believers of other spiritual traditions, who also claimed to know God's will.  Increased power engendered increased corruption, eventually resulting in the Protestant rebellion, which further divided into sects, beginning centuries of wars between Christians as well.  After the New World was "discovered", 90 percent of the people already living there were killed as unchristian "heathens", making their land and resources available for the taking.  

            These excesses seem to arise within almost all religious organizations.  The first colonies in the New World were fleeing religious persecution in Europe.  When America rebelled, the founders wanted to avoid the abusive oppression of the "divine right" of a king, as well as the intolerance of a state sanctioned religion.  The creation of a democratic republic was a novel experiment, massively inclusive in concept, even if we are still working to fully live it in reality.

            My complaint is the arrogance of a few, claiming they know God's will, just because they say so.  It is also arrogant, and ignorant, to claim that only human life is sacred and worthy of our care and concern.  With a long history of disregard for even human life, if it isn't Christian, it is hypocritical to claim concern for frozen human embryos.  This is the operation of a religion of a little god, created in man's image, seeing sin everywhere, narrowly defined in a whole world of wonder.

            So, I ask all who consider themselves to be Christians to examine how you live your faith.  Are you are uplifted by Christ's love, and share that with your whole world?   If so, then speak out against those who would degrade Christianity into just another form of oppression and intolerance.

 

Affirming Unity

                                                                                           written 10 March 2024

                                                                                       published 17 March 2024

            The 2024 Presidential race is on!  Biden, who supports inclusive democracy, is the oldest candidate ever, walks slowly, stutters, sometimes talks too fast, yet oversaw a robust economic recovery from a devastating pandemic without a recession.  Trump, who supports fascist autocracy, is an oath breaking insurrectionist, showing declining mental capacity steeped in retribution and petty grievance, already convicted of fraud with three more criminal trials in process, supported by a party that wants to "remove voting rights for women".  The difference is clear, but some people think this will be a close election.       

            With complete disregard, the Earth inexorably moves around the Sun.  The vernal equinox is this week, the beginning of Spring for the northern hemisphere, and a time of renewal.  Trees are bursting into flower.  It feels joyful to be alive as nature affirms our common unity.

            Everything material is composed of identical neutrons, protons, and electrons, which combine as only 92 different elemental atoms.  Of these, 99 percent of the human body mass is composed of just 6 elements (oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus).

            These elements form just four different nucleic acids, coded in groups of three in DNA chromosomes to define 22 amino acids, which can assemble into more than 20,000 proteins.  These proteins are the foundation for more than 2 million different species, with uncounted population totals, including 8.1 billion humans.

            However, waking consciousness is only 10% of our awareness.  Therefore, we don't experience these fundamental material and biological commonalities, perceiving only surfaces, certain in our belief we are differentiated, enduring objects.  

            But our bodies are actually dynamic assemblies, changing every moment.  On average, we produce our weight in new cells every 80 days, with the rate of change unevenly distributed.  Our stomach quickly digests itself, being completely replaced every few days.  Skin takes a few months, organs a few years, and bones take a decade.  Overall, we are less like enduring objects, and more like whirlpools of biological expression, constantly different, yet recognizably the same.

            This paradoxical relationship, fundamentally united, yet individually distinct, is being ignored at the political level, which has polarized into hardened definitions of differences, threatening the survival of us all.  The superficial stance of "winner take all" is not new, and has afflicted humanity for thousands of years, with increasingly adverse impact.  Yet throughout time, the notion of our connection has been recognized and taught. 

            Our current situation can be understood as a great awakening, with a growing experience of the deeper connections, and the transcendence of historic patterns of hate and division.  This is the falling away of the old order, a kind of molting, where old grievances are brought to awareness to be healed.  Another image is the refinement of metal, which is heated to a degree where the light weight impurities can float to the surface to be removed, leaving only the core strength of the material.  

            Most of us have been traumatized, operating under obsolete limitations of "who we are".  But each moment is a fresh opportunity to retell our story, much as our body constantly renews itself.  We are being challenged to look at what people are doing, not just what they are saying, and compare that to our inner truth to see if that is in accord with our social and individual needs and desires.  Does it serve to expand and empower us, or does it serve to contract us in fear?

             I am a spiritual person, believing and experiencing that I am part of something much larger than my limited self.  I am especially offended by the perversion of religious doctrine to justify domination and punitive retribution, presuming the speaker has the "truth" handed down to them alone.   

            Perhaps the biggest mistake of the Christian doctrine is the idea that Christ was THE son of God, rather than A son of God, demonstrating human potential.  Opening to that consideration of inclusive sacred nature changes everything.  It is my life journey to explore the extent of my humanity, and live it as best I can.  That is everyone's birthright as a human.

            Today, consider treating every living being as "kin", arising from the same material source, sharing the same basic DNA code, constantly changing their form as dynamic beings.  This is our heritage.  This is who we came here to be.  This is the society we want to leave for our descendants.

 

Watching a Train Wreck

                                                                                             written 3 March 2024

                                                                                       published 10 March 2024

            The Republican party looks like a bad soap opera.  If it wasn't so disruptive, it would be comical.  After a lifetime of ducking responsibility, Trump faces multiple civil and criminal trials and is running for president to avoid the consequences of his previous actions.  Trump hopes judges he appointed while president will delay his trails until he returns to power, when he will kill the Federal cases.

            In Florida, Trump is accused of willful retention of classified documents.  The trial is overseen by Trump appointed Judge Cannon, a judge with limited experience who has already been slapped down by higher courts for judicial incompetence.  Being a loyalist, she has slow walked the case, such that it may never come to trial before the November election.  

            In Washington DC, Trump is accused of involvement in the January 6th insurrection.  To stall the trial, he appealed, claiming presidential immunity, despite Constitutional clarity that all Americans are subject the rule of law.  The Republican majority on the Supreme Court, half appointed by Trump and demonstrably corrupt themselves, have chosen to delay ruling until mid-summer, raising doubt this trial may happen before the election either.

            However, in a few weeks Trump is facing trial for criminal election interference in a State of New York court.  With no compliant judges at hand, this may be the first criminal case to be heard.

            Trump's transgressions aren't limited to criminal behavior.  Despite pontificating he is rich beyond belief, he is a convicted business fraud, accruing fines over $500M, which he now claims he can't afford.  To avoid payment, he has begun secretly moving funds and companies out of New York, which has jurisdiction in these cases.

            This is the Republican presidential frontrunner, supported by most of the party.  So much for integrity, or law and order.

            But this tragi-comedy is much more than just Trump.  After decades of work, Republicans finally stacked the Supreme Court with fanatical religious conservatives, who overturned the right to abortion.  The stated goal is to outlaw "recreational sex".  What does that leave, just professional sex?  Will women be treated primarily as breeding stock? 

            The next step is to legally declare citizenship begins at conception, therefore prohibiting contraception, criminalizing miscarriages, and halting several fertilization techniques.  Needless to say, these are very unpopular ideas, but Republicans seem mystified about the backlash, claiming Biblical certainty that this will "Make America Great Again".

             The Republicans hold a razor thin majority in the House of Representatives, and their complete incompetence is another dimension of this drama.  They required the most votes since the Civil War to choose their first Speaker.  After the third shortest tenure in history, he was replaced by a zealot with no leadership experience, who is about to be replaced himself, for the transgression of working with Democrats.  

            The 118th Congress has passed just 22 bills, the fewest on record, while spending time trying to impeach the president's son to help twice impeached Trump look less like a criminal.  Of the two key Republican impeachment sources, the first was found to be a Chinese intelligence agent, and the second was recently jailed for telling lies to the FBI, spreading Russian disinformation.  

            The government is approaching yet another shutdown, due to Republican incapacity to actually govern and pass funding legislation.  After weeks of bipartisan work on a bill to deal with the border crisis, giving conservatives much of what they have wanted for years, the House killed the bill because Trump wanted to keep border chaos as a campaign issue.  Despite broad bipartisan support, critical aid to Ukraine is stalled in the House, because Trump likes Putin.

            In the real world, where the rest of us live, 2023 was the hottest on record, and 2024 is already hotter.  The North Atlantic is so warm, weather patterns and fish stock are being affected.  In February, some areas of the mid-west were 40°F above normal for this time of the year.  Over one million acres are currently burning in the largest wildfire in Texas history.  Despite the recent blizzard in the west, most of America had no snow this winter.  Yet Republican dogma is "climate change is a hoax".

            If you care about representative democracy, if you care about the health of women you love, if you care about the climate, the current GOP has nothing for you.  We are better than this, and deserve leadership, not drama queens.

 

 

Embryonic Personhood

                                                                                       written 25 February 2024

                                                                                         published 3 March 2024

 

            The Alabama Supreme Court (6 men, 2 women, all white Republicans) voted 7-1 to effectively extend personhood rights to cryogenically stored fertilized embryos, claiming "sanctity of life" and "Biblical priority" over law.  This is arrogant, hypocritical, theocratic, and punitive.

            The embryos in question consist of 4-8 undifferentiated cells, extras that resulted from In Virto Fertilization (IVF) techniques, a process which helps people give birth.  The ruling makes the disposal of these cells a potential crime, threatening jail time as a result, and has halted all IVF activity in Alabama, with repercussions in other states under Republican domination.

            Put aside the issue that IVF embryos require continued artificial support to live, or that 8 celled embryos in utero require a healthy woman to survive, or that 70 % of all such embryos are regularly expelled by the body before birth.  The White Christian Nationalist movement, which must be contrasted to all those who actually embrace the spirit of Christ, preach the soul of a person begins with fertilization, and must be protected by law, without regard for the desires of the mother.

            I appreciate honoring the sanctity of life, but it is arrogant to include only humans, or in this case, frozen undeveloped embryos.  If we are going to protect artificially supported cells, why not take equal care of all pregnant women and their families?  Why not extend such concerns to the larger living planet?  Einstein said "either everything is sacred or nothing is."  Sanctity of life for unborn cells, without equal regard for all life, is just punitive.

            For example, Republican policies increase childhood malnutrition by cutting food aid for poor children, remove laws limiting child labor, and cut affordable medical care.  It is clear that they are concerned about controlling what happens in a woman's body up to the point of birth, and then they don't care.  This is just another skirmish in the Republican war on women, transforming democracy to Biblical theocracy.  80 percent of Americans support access to IVF, including a vast majority of Christians, making it another unpopular position for the Republican party in a presidential election year.   

            But let's take this to logically absurd conclusions.  If a fertilized cell is really a person, do they count in the census?  Can a family get another childhood tax deduction?  Will all miscarriages be investigated for manslaughter?  May pregnant women use the carpool lane?  Does a storage facility have to meet child care regulations on staffing and bathrooms?  When a frozen embryo is stored over 5 years, does it have to go to school?  If it is over 18 years old, can it vote?  Must it be registered for Selective Service?  

            Growing embryos are especially vulnerable to mutagens, chemicals that adversely affect DNA, and can cause biological defects or death.  There are over 100,000 industrial chemicals in wide spread use today, and over 12,000 chemicals are intentionally added to food.  Yet very few have been tested for mutagenic impact, because of the expense.  

            Plastic breaks down into long lasting microplastics particles, which tend to accumulate mutagenetic chemicals, and are now found everywhere on the planet, even in rainwater.  Microplastic is found in the entire body from the brain to mother's milk.  Food with high fat and protein content have been shown to be mutagenic.  High temperature cooking of meat, such as grilling, produces mutagenetic compounds.  Consumption of tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, or diet sodas have shown mutagenetic effects.  

            If embryonic personhood becomes widely accepted law, every company that produces these items, or businesses that distribute or serve these items, is at risk of being sued for attempted assault or manslaughter.  Stress can also be mutagenic.  Anyone causing a women of childbearing age undue stress would also be at risk.  Furthermore, any pregnant woman consuming the above items, even months in advance of conception, would be at legal risk as well.   

            This would give rise to an oppressive theocratic authoritarian state that monitors every action of women of childbearing age, to insure the "sanctity of life" of any potential unborn.  The cost of all this "protective" monitoring would have to be borne by the state, or it would be complicit through negligence.  This would eventually bankrupt the entire economy, in order to insure the "sanctity of life" of the unborn.

            This insanity is today's Republican party.  Let's avoid this.  We have real problems to address, and need actual leaders, not punitive religious zealots.

Self And Society

                                                                                       written 18 February 2024

                                                                                   published 25 February 2024

            All social ills can be viewed as a dysfunction between the needs of the individual and the whole.  This is clear in several corporate conflicts now unfolding.

            AT&T is planning to abandon their responsibility to provide land lines to every California customer that wants one, with no viable alternative.  They want to terminate this service to save money, eliminating an aging system suffering from decades of deferred maintenance.  In rural Mendocino county, this could be a life-threatening change as we have sparse wireless cell coverage, inadequate to meet critical needs in emergencies.  

            PG&E has begun planning to unilaterally cancel remote electricity customers, if the company decides service costs are too high.  After decades of deferring essential maintenance, their aging infrastructure is prone to igniting fires, so they are reducing service and raising rates.

            In both cases, despite decades of economic advantage from being public monopolies, these utilities have prioritized stockholder returns over commitment to maintaining their essential infrastructure, choosing private economic gain over service to society.

            A similar situation is happening in the fossil fuel industry, where a few corporate monopolies, knowing their basic raw material (oil) is depleting and becoming more expensive, are choosing to gouge customers while they still can (currently $1.60 per gallon in California).  They fund lavish stock holder buy backs, while pouring billions into climate denial, stalling any attempt to shift the energy economy in response to diminishing resources and the deteriorating climate caused by their product.  

            This choice of exclusive profits over social viability is threatening the entire economy.  

            According to Forbes, in 2023, the wealth of the 20 richest Americans increased by $311B, a 30 percent increase of $34.4M per hour, around the clock.  But we can't afford secure emergency communications, an electrical system that doesn't burn down communities, or affordable transportation fuel.

             Acceptance of such economic inequity is a cultural choice, not a fundamental of nature.  In cultures that understand the inherent kinship of all people, such financial extremes are signs of ignorance or mental illness, not to be emulated, but healed.

            This same prioritization of the individual over the collective is the root of the climate crisis as well.  While our economic system has little consideration for other people, it has absolutely no regard for the natural world that is the foundation of society.  The economy treats the world as a source of raw materials and a universal waste dump, not an essential living system. 

            A living planet is hard to kill, but we humans are numerous, and have become technologically powerful beyond all historic norms.  To be so ignorant of our connected fate, is foolish, like an individual wave on the ocean choosing to ignore the fact that it arises out of the same ocean as every other wave.  

            We see this foolishness every day.  A real estate agent, running for local government office, states that climate change doesn't exist, despite the fact that the fire insurance crisis, a consequence of the changing climate, is disrupting the entire housing market.  In an attempt to avoid the worst of the climate crisis, California set a goal of decarbonizing the economy by 2045, but some people deride the effort as onerous governmental over-reach.  In the US presidential race, one party is spending millions of dollars to defend a multiply indicted, convicted fraud, abandoning the rest of their party candidates.

            There are specific policies which could address some of these problems: public ownership of essential services like telecommunications and electricity, or a maximum wealth limit.  However, these would only deal with the symptoms, not the cause.  The culture is dominated by the illusion of separation.  There is no economic value put on peace of mind, being in harmony with nature, helping people, or being kind in every day situations.  

            Our economic model is an incomplete concept, regularly divorced from reality.  Expected future income (debt) is created from nothing, funding any questionable endeavor that has the proper support.  If it fails, the company is allowed to declare bankruptcy, avoiding responsibility for their previous actions.  It is even acceptable to externalize costs, making someone else pay, despite receiving no benefit from the deal.  Capitalism only works because the society pays for cleaning up the failures.

            This insanity is coming to fruition.  The climate issue is the ultimate inclusive force.  We will solve this for the benefit of all living beings, or it will all implode.

 

Sea Level Rise

                                                                                       written 11 February 2024

                                                                                   published 18 February 2024

   

            "California Against The Sea", written last year by Rosanna Xia, is an in depth look at the fact of rising sea levels, how it is already impacting California cities, and what people are doing in response.  

            Sea level rise is caused by melting of land-based ice, expansion of warming ocean water, and coastal land subsidence.  From 1880 to 2022, the ocean rose an average of 9 inches, but that was not uniform around the globe.  The US east coast experiences higher rise impact than the west coast, because the Atlantic is warmer than the Pacific.  Florida and the Gulf coast have the highest domestic rise impact, because the North American tectonic plane is still rebounding from the loss of the 3 mile thick sheet of ice that melted 12,000 years ago.  As the northern edge of the plate continues to rise, the southern edge sinks.

            Plate tectonics aside, the primary driver of sea level rise is the rapidly warming planet, a consequence of our energy policy.  90 percent of planetary warming goes into the ocean, the energy equivalent of seven Hiroshima bombs every second, 24 hours a day, all year long.  And this is accelerating.  Barring unforeseen increases, sea levels are projected to rise another few feet by 2050, and more than 6 feet by 2100.  But problems are already here in the form of greater storm surges and accelerated coastal erosion.  

            In the last 50 years, "nuisance flooding", also called "sunny day flooding", is 9 times more frequent.  The City of Imperial Beach, south of San Diego, spends a significant percentage of their annual budget clearing sand from the roads after high tide events.  But increasing sea levels means large portions of the city will become flooded and uninhabitable.  

            Coastal erosion has always been a California fact of life.  Encinitas used to have 7 streets west of highway 1, but now the western most is 4th street.  As the sea rises, another 130 feet of bluff retreat is expected by 2100.  In Pacifica, houses are falling into the sea.  In Del Mar, the rail link between LA and San Diego is threated by erosion and landslides.

            Over geologic times, sea level has changed from 200 feet higher to 400 feet lower, but human civilization grew in a time of relative stability.  Trillions of dollars of invested infrastructure are now threatened by changing reality.  In a conflict between human desire and the will of the ocean, the water wins.  The choices are to fight the facts, or plan for resilient adaptation.

            Since coastal California is some of the most expensive real estate in the country, many landowners choose to fight, trying to armor the coast with sea walls.  Where seawalls are built, the beach is destroyed, as waves scour the sand away.  Seawalls can cost millions, and the protection is temporary, eventually being over topped, or undermined, some destroyed in a matter of weeks.  

            Low lying areas trying to defend with sea walls find the rising ocean forces the inland water table to rise as well, causing fresh water flooding.  A seawall might delay the demise of a home on a coastal bluff, what about infrastructure that has to be at sea level for commerce and transportation?

            Sea level rise is forcing a re-examination of our entire notion of property rights.  Native people knew we don't "own" the land, but are transient guests, and lived in ways that accorded with the changes of nature.  Western civilization killed off those naive ideas, and made lots of money selling "rights" to the land.  Our culture is rigidly rooted in certainty and endurance, which is in conflict with the dynamic reality of nature.  The coast line is a fixed concept, but a moving reality, always changing, sometimes very slowly, and other times in rapid transformation.

            Much like the foolish king who commanded the tide to halt, humanity is confronted with a situation that can't be forced into submission by application of money or power.  We need to become more pliable, learning to work in harmony with nature, not be at war.  This is a profound social transformation, but the ocean is inexorable.  Most coastal California communities have begun discussion and planning for how to address the issue.  California Against The Sea describes some of the emerging solutions, none of which have yet to be been applied on a larger scale.  But the discussion has begun.

 

The Change Is Here

                                                                                         written 4 February 2024

                                                                                   published 11 February 2024

            I began writing this weekly column 7 years ago, early in the Trump administration, before the regular parade of big California fires and PSPS concerns.  My focus has been the illusion of separation, and how that illusion gives rise to the accelerating climate crisis.  

            The intervening time has brought things into clearer focus.  The polarization of everything is separation in action, and the result is corrosive to our society.  None of the "isms" are new to these times, some in effect for thousands of years, but they have been given permission to surface, no longer hidden, demanding to be dealt with.  What feels like a disaster is an opportunity to look within, acknowledging our own pain and trauma, which begins the healing.  Rather than following revenge addicted leaders, we can choose to become the best of what we can be.  

            There are fundamental realities that affect everyone, transcending what we believe.  All life is connected and we are all kin.  The connection extends beyond the limitation of just human interaction.  We are guests here, not owners, whether we like it or not.  Suffering comes from being at war with a fact.  Chronic suffering debilitates the system, leading to exhaustion, collapse, and death.  This outcome is true for individuals, civilizations, and ecosystems.

            The climate crisis is the physical manifestation of denying that universal connection, being at war with nature.  All life on Earth is adversely affected by the rapidly changing climate, and human civilization is responsible.  For decades, the changes have been going on at the margins, mostly out of sight, while the population boomed, civilization expanded, and technological marvels became mundane.

            But the impact of weather extremes is increasing, making news everywhere.  Last summer, Greece endured 21 inches of rain in 24 hours.  Acapulco expected a tropical storm, but it more than doubled in strength in just one day, arriving as a category 5 hurricane, which damaged the entire city.

            Drought and wildfires alternate with inundation and floods.  Twelve of the twenty largest California fires have happened since 2017.  The ocean is becoming more acidic and getting warmer, fueling stronger storms, while the rising sea is destroying and flooding more populated areas.  The atmosphere is at record heat, affecting food production and transportation, and beginning to make outdoor summer labor lethal.  Species extinction accelerates, including many critical to human food production.  In some areas, fire insurance is becoming unaffordable, if attainable at all, and real estate lending in areas of repeat disasters is now more questionable.  

            Some people give up, thinking it is already too late.  But we are still alive, and know what needs to happen: stop making the problem worse (economic decarbonization), and repairing what we have damaged (atmospheric carbon capture).  Without a doubt, this will be expensive and disruptive to the status quo, in part because we have delayed effective action for decades.  But as the fiscal cost of disaster management and recovery grows, avoiding climate response risks economic collapse and possible human extinction.  Realizing we are losing our habitable home, we can become mobilized to action.  

            In the last seven years, awareness of the climate crisis has grown.  The Redwood Valley and Tubbs fire storms got attention, showing it is no longer a "future" problem, but already here.  Everyone in the community was impacted, or had family or friends who were.  Storm damage, accentuated by sea level rise, has generated commissions all around the State working out how to address the issue: armoring the coast, planning managed retreat, or something else. 

            A large majority of voters support addressing climate change, despite the best efforts of the fossil fuel industry.  Only the most partisan still deny the reality of the crisis.  I expect the next election will confirm this.

            But we are still left with the question, "what can I do?"  Start with a deep breath, and think about what it is you most love in your life, and would least like to lose.  For me, I want to have a habitable planet, with access to electricity, the most versatile of technological energy.  I vote in every election, as if it might be the last, supporting people whose policies align with mine.  I structure my social activism toward my chosen goals, finding groups working in that direction, or starting the conversation myself.  This action helps me feel empowered in the middle of this turbulent change.  You can too.