Personal Choice

                                                                                                              written 10 Oct 2021

                                                                                                          published 17 Oct 2021

            Biologist E. O. Wilson said: "the real problem of humanity is that we have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology".  

            The paleolithic emotions are the flight/fight response rooted in the limbic system at the base of the brain.  When activated, by either real or imagined events, the body shuts down higher thinking processes and suppresses immune and digestive functions.  When this becomes chronic, we are more stupid, sicker, and weaker. 

            The medieval institutions are tribal structures that fear the "other", working to dominate them and the world through dogmatic rules and punitive social/religious forms.

            The technology created by the scientific revolution amplified this medieval human perspective.  But the rise of quantum mechanics a century ago created a paradigm shift, recognizing that the world is fundamentally whole, in constant resonant relationship.  In the last few decades, technology arising from this physics has given us the godlike powers of total annihilation with nuclear weapons, and instantaneous global connection with the Internet of computers.

            We are biologically and socially inclined to be fearful and insular, within a society shaped by technology reflecting our fundamental connection.  This tension creates the multiple crises of our day, demanding a complete transformation of human civilization, including our personal evolution.

            Philosopher David Spangler writes: "the distinction and boundary between our inner and outer worlds simply is not there.  We cannot foster a whole world if we are divided in ourselves.  We cannot walk our spiritual journey divorced from the physical well-being and wholeness of each other and of our world.  It is a shared path, a mutually dependent path."

            “From this perspective, the climate crisis can be seen as involving both the outer climate of the planet and the inner climate of our minds and hearts.  As wildfires are raging in the world, so also anger and hatred are raging in our inner lives.  As floods are swamping the land, so also fear swamps our inner stability.  It’s not a matter of dealing with one or the other but rising to deal with both.  The wholeness of the world is not divided between human and non-human, organic and inorganic, the spiritual and the material; it is one world sharing one future."

            "What we are facing is as much a crisis of consciousness as of climate.  It is a crisis of who we believe we are, a crisis of changing to be the kind of humanity the planet needs us to become.  In this area where we face the inner manifestations of the climate crisis, none of us is powerless.  Here we can do something to learn, to grow, to change.  In the process, we also discover how to act in ways that will build a new world with a new way of being human within it.”

            The current drama around Facebook is an example of the conflict between divisive form operating in a connected reality.  It began 17 years ago as a program to rate which college coed was prettier, prioritizing superficial form over true worth.  Today almost 3 billion active customers use the connectivity of the program to share information and pictures.  Valued at one trillion dollars, Facebook makes money by capturing customers attention and selling that to advertisers.  The longer it holds your attention, the more it profits.  However, internal company research, which has recently been leaked by company whistle blowers, documents the adverse impact this business model has on mental health of individuals and society.

             While Facebook rightly states that it is not responsible for the content of the posts on its platform, the damage comes from the way Facebook holds your attention by manipulating what you see next.  Their deep analysis showed that sites with higher degree of conflict in the comments are more engaging to the paleolithic flight/fight response, mindlessly holding attention longer.  A powerful computer algorithm selects similar sites as suggestions of what to see next, without regard for the accuracy of the information.  By intentionally amplifying discord, Facebook rapidly spreads inflammatory disinformation, which threatens the fabric of society by increasing political polarization, all in the name of short-term profit.  Godlike power, serving medieval institutions, without regard for consequences.

            While Congress is considering how to respond, we can take individual action by refusing to participate and delete our Facebook account, exercising choice about where we put our attention.  It is a start.

 

 

 

 

Time To Shrink Or Die

                                                                                                                written 3 Oct 2021

                                                                                                          published 10 Oct 2021

                                                

             I said last week that I still have hope for humanity, that "we know not what we do", that we are a young species, still evolving.  But sometimes new information comes that shakes my confidence.

            A recent episode of TUC Radio (tucradio.org) on KZYX was an October, 2019 talk by ecological economist Dr. William Rees.  He discussed planetary overshoot: "the consumption of natural products and ecosystems faster than they can regenerate, while filling natural waste sinks to overflowing."  

            All growth increases consumption of material resources and dissipation of energy.  Modern humans appeared 200,000 years ago, growing slowly to a few million 10,000 years ago, at the beginning of agriculture.  When the industrial age began in 1800, the global population was one billion, expanding to 2.5 billion by the time I was born after WW2, and now approaching 7.9 billion.  

            Such exponential population growth in just 8 generations (out of 10,000), is now considered "normal", but resulted from a one-time access to the stored energy in fossil fuels.  The nature of exponential growth means half of the fossil fuels ever burned were consumed in just the last 30 years.  After being stable for 8,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide has increase by half in the last two centuries, a third of that in the last 30 years.  Economists optimistically expect this rate to double by 2050!  

            However, we hit planetary overshoot 50 years ago, consuming 100 percent of the annual productivity of the Earth, and are now in 170 percent overshoot.  Humans constitute 34 percent of mammalian biomass and our domestic animals are another 60 percent, leaving little room for other mammals.  We are no longer citizens or stewards of the Earth, but act like parasites.  Our culture seems willing to destroy the planet trying to keep the economy growing.  But that is the self-centered growth model of a cancer killing its host.

            The relatively sudden climate change is creating increasingly expensive ecological disruption.  Last month the European Central Bank released a report beginning to put cost estimates on the growing emergency.  Climate disasters are already threatening the economy and delaying a response will only increase those disasters and make the eventual attempted solutions even more extreme and costly.  While cost estimates of global decarbonization exceed $20T, we have more than $1,000T at stake, with the added risk of human extinction.

            Dr. Rees concluded his talk with a list of actions necessary to insure a habitable planet.  We must reduce atmospheric carbon emissions by half before 2030, with complete decarbonization by 2050, requiring a global green energy transition.  But atmospheric carbon isn't the only symptom of an economy out of tune with a finite, living world.  Resource consumption is destroying whole ecosystems that are critical to life.  We must accept the end of growth as a cultural/economic model and develop sustainable lifestyles, constrained by the regenerative capacities of our natural systems.  The remaining carbon budget must be allocated to essential uses: re-localizing economic activity, especially food production.  We must plan a global population descent to 2-3 billion people.  And all this must be done with social justice awareness.    

            The magnitude and speed of the current destruction disturbs me the most.  Considering the list of significant social changes required to create a sustainable society, I am saddened to contrast that with the social/political constipation that now afflicts this country and most of the world.  

            Einstein said, "we can't solve a problem from the same mindset that created it".  A flawed internal perspective has manifested a dysfunctional society.  For millennium, humanity has been in the grip of a narrow egoic perspective, defined by tribalism, fear, limiting concepts, and domination fantasies.  This was barely tolerable when the population was small and had modest technological power.  But access to the massive energy in fossil fuels amplified this dysfunction to the point where life on Earth is now threatened.  The self-centered ego mind has run amuck.  

            Because we already have global effect, we must evolve from tribal to global perspective.  Everyone is constricted by their unexamined ego, so we all contribute to humanity's current suicidal path.  By waking up, we change our experience, and reduce our participation in that insanity.  Without this intense inner work, no matter what else we do, we have no hope of savings the species.  If not now, when?

 

 

 

 

Climate Refugees And Migrants

                                                                                                            written 26 Sep 2021

                                                                                                          published 3 Oct 2021

                                            

            A recent report from the World Bank projected that before 2050, planetary climate change will produce "more than 200 million internally displaced people".  Placed comfortably three decades in the future, this may be a rosy underestimate.  As the climate emergency grows, more areas of the planet are already being disrupted.  Just this summer over 100 million people were affected by flooding in central China.  When regions become uninhabitable, people who have lost everything become refugees, and climate refugees are changing the world today.  

             A drought in the middle east, the worst in 900 years according to NASA researchers, began in 1998.  It became extreme about a decade later, and is linked to the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.  Over 6 million Syrians left, about a quarter of the country, creating social disruption throughout the region and into Europe.

            In October, 1998, hurricane Mitch stalled over the eastern mountains of Honduras and Nicaragua, and dropped 3-6 FEET of rain in less than 3 days.  This area was already poor, with aging and inadequate infrastructure, and most people lived on subsistence farming.  The deluge destroyed the society, hitting Honduras hard, setting the country back a half century, with widespread crop damage, destruction of two thirds of the infrastructure, while making a third of the population homeless.  Continued immigration from this part of Central America has stoked political division in the US.

            Drought in Africa is causing migration and fueling conflict.  In Southern Africa, the drought that began in 2018 is the worst in centuries.  Grain production is down by half and herds are being culled.  Further north in eastern Africa, drought has exacerbated armed conflict, and famine is spreading.  In western Africa, the desert is expanding from the north, drought reduced water resources are stressing traditional food production, and sea level rise is threatening the heavily populated coast.  Overall, more than 10 million African are displaced annually, impacting neighboring countries, even driving migration across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.

            These people are climate refugees, having been forced out of their homes, but there are also climate migrants, who still have resources and are moving by choice.  

            Climate change has amplified California's normal water problems.  1200 years of tree ring data shows soil moisture peaked in 2000, dropping to levels today that rivals the worst drought recorded.  Reservoirs and snow packs are at historic lows, while heat keeps building.  Some communities in the Central Valley are already bone dry, and the Mendocino Coast is dependent on trucked in water.  The impact on fisheries and farmers will be harsh, but the economy is being affected by more than increasing agricultural losses.  As the fire season expands the fire insurance industry is growing nervous, as is the mortgage industry, with climate disaster foreclosures expanding.

            California fires during the last five seasons account for more than half the top 20 for area burned, loss of life, and loss of structures.  Some who were burned out moved to the coast or out of state.  Witnessing the trauma of fire survivors has prompted others to move before they lose everything.  Anxiety about fires during the longer fire season, and the real health consequences of breathing smoke-filled air, have many more thinking about leaving.  These are climate migrants.

            Scientists have been warning about climate change for decades, but they have been ignored because the powers currently profiting off the system have yet to recognize that they will be affected as well.  However, each year more people are concerned about the climate, especially the young, who will bear the brunt of it.  But the inertia of the system is large, and the magnitude of any effective solution will have to be massive and swift, given how long we have denied reality.

            This will take much more than a technological "fix", although that is necessary.  If humanity is to have a future, we must change every aspect of our society and economy: how we power our infrastructure, how we treat the finite resources of the Earth and all the other living creatures, how we treat each other, and how we define "success" and "happiness".  Despite the mess we have made, and the current toxic polarization of our society, I am still optimistic about humans.  We have no idea what we can be when we finally grow up.

 

 

The Inertia Of Bad Economics

                                                                                                            written 21 Sep 2021

                                                                                                        published 26 Sep 2021

                                                

            We recently learned of a plan to reopen the rail line north from Willits in order to ship coal to Asia out of Eureka.  This is an example of the financial inertia of a collapsing business model.

            Coal is the most abundant of the fossil fuels, but the most limited, only good for external combustion industries like electric power production and steel.  Burning coal produces more climate changing carbon per unit energy, spreads toxic mercury and sulfur downwind, and leaves hazardous coal ash.  Renewable energy and natural gas are cheaper alternatives, so coal is an economic loser, and can't compete in the market place in countries that care about their environment and public health.  Consequently, coal plants are closing down in the US, and consumption is even falling globally. 

            But the corporations that own coal deposits are unwilling to accept the environmental and economic bankruptcy of their investments.  With diminishing domestic consumption, coal has to be exported to countries that are still in denial about killing their people and our planet, primarily in Asia.  However, less than 10 percent of coal is shipped from western North American ports and those communities vigorously oppose allowing new or expanded export of coal through them, not only for global environmental concerns, but because the shipping process itself is dirty and toxic to the local area.  It is understandable that coal exporters want to open Eureka as another outlet, but reality may precludes their fantasies. 

            Apart from political opposition to such an operation through a very blue part of California, there are physical and economic barriers.  The harbor in Eureka is about 40' deep where it is dredged, and the turning basin can only handle ships less than 400' in length.  Coal is only economically shipped in vessels which are 900' long and draw 75' of water.  The Humboldt Bay Harbor District is committed to a "green harbor", and wants nothing to do with exporting coal.  The corporation that plans to open the railroad to Eureka claims to have $1.5B in funding, but estimates to rebuild the line north of Willits are more than $3B.  Such a construction project would take years, and the economics of coal export could be quite different before completion.  To even get a train to Willits, it would have to travel across tracks owned by Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART), which has invested millions upgrading their infrastructure for high-speed rapid transit trains.  Operating long slow unit trains of coal would quickly destroy that investment, so SMART would be unlikely to agree to such operations.  

            But corporations have a history of ignoring reality.  It is hard to admit that you have bet on a losing proposition, and only a few are shrewd enough to cut their loses early.  We are witnessing a similar issue locally. 

            A Ukiah developer who owns tracts of raw land outside the City limits in the hills west of Ukiah wants to maximize his profits with low density, high value residential development.  This kind of wild-land urban interface development is causing increasing concern in the fire insurance industry.  State fire codes and regulations are in flux as more California communities burn to the ground each year, but at this point the County is not prohibiting such development, and construction is proceeding with boundary line adjustments, avoiding the more rigorous planning scrutiny of a formal subdivision.  

            Rather than risking the threat of an even worse project, the City has considered buying land for open space and approving development of 54 acres as residential, allowing at least 14 high end homes, just outside of the recently constructed shaded fuel break, accessed by a single road.  The City is expected to provide access, power, water, sewage, and fire response.  The concept of the project was approved last week, but the deal has fallen apart over access across a third part land.

            This project is a fiscal gain for the owner, but puts the rest of our community at risk, just as the coal train would benefit a very few at the expense of everyone else.  Because our culture prioritizes individual profit above all else, and refuses to recognize cumulative impact on the interconnected whole, we risk losing it all.  At some point we will evolve our fiscal models or die in bankrupt denial.

Spirituality And Religion

                                                                                                            written 12 Sep 2021

                                                                                                        published 19 Sep 2021

                                                                                                

                                                                                              

            Spirituality can be understood as an individual's quest for the experience of our divine birthright and religion can be understood as an organization that grows up around a particular spiritual orientation.

            In unity perspective, everything expresses from the same interconnected whole, which is aware, potent, and wise.  The foundation of evil is any denial of this unity.  Once some portion of unity is defined as "other", all forms of violence can enter.  That is why variations of the Golden Rule are so globally universal, directing us to love the other as a way of honoring the divine unity.  

            As humans, our waking awareness of self generates a tendency toward division, which distracts from the experience of our deeper unity.  Yet the yearning is always there, because it is from the unity level that personal meaning and context arise.  The history of human civilization can be viewed as an evolution of spiritual experience.

            Despite whatever limitations our karma, culture, and family overlay on us, we are always expressions of the divine, with constant opportunity to explore that connection.  This is an inherently personal journey.  Since each person is unique, their exploration will be unique as well.  However, we have unity in common, and can benefit by sharing our experiences, helping each other as we struggle.  Everyone has something valid to contribute, despite different levels of experience.  In this way a spiritual community forms for mutual growth.

            Religions arise when the human tendency toward division and structure is overlaid on a spiritual community.  The religious organization can intrude on the personal experience of the divine, inserting interpretation and judgement.  A fundamentally personal experience becomes codified and regulated, with structure imposed "for the spiritual good of the community".  Sharing of spiritual experience becomes a top-down conversation.

            Over time, such organizations can accumulate secular wealth, political power, and social dominance, attracting leaders desiring personal power and wealth out of balance with the rest of the community.  In extreme cases, a religion will sacrifice its members to preserve the business of the religion.  It takes inspired intention to avoid such excesses, but there are successful examples in the larger world, such as the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Unity Churches.

            The Catholic Church is the oldest religious organization in the western world.  Without casting aspersions on their faithful parishioners, it began as a spiritual community of political outcasts, but became the official religion of the Roman Empire over 1600 years ago.  Despite an Old Testament commandment not to kill, and New Testament direction to love one another, the Church waged Holy war against Islam and the Eastern Orthodox branch, instituted the Inquisition against heretics, directed explorers to "convert or kill" heathens around the world, and began killing other Christians after the Protestant Reformation.  More recently, the Church killed residents at Indian boarding schools, just now coming to light.  

            Whatever the spiritual rational behind these actions, accumulation of wealth, property, and power were a consequence.  The Church exercises political power to this day, currently distorting the US Supreme Court, prioritizing the business of the Church over the spirituality at its core.  The ongoing cover up of the persistent pedophile priest problem prioritizes protection of the corporate brand over practitioner's welfare.  

            But to be fair, the Catholic Church is not the only example of a contrast between a religion and its spiritual roots of unity love.  Protestant intolerance in Europe drove much of the early settlement in the New World.  The Methodist Church is currently breaking apart over gays, and the Baptist Church is coming apart over women.  In New Mexico, evangelicals hold rallies with armed gunmen shouting "death to Democrats".  

            Islam, which also reveres the teachings in the Bible, has been in lethal internal conflict between branches of the Prophet Muhammad's family ever since his death 1400 years ago, creating the Shite/Sunni split.  The Muslim/Hindu conflict tore apart the Indian subcontinent last century, and Buddhist fundamentalists slaughtered Muslim Rohingya people in Myanmar a few years ago.

            A 2020 poll showed less than half of Americans now associate with any organized religion, but a strong majority are spiritual.  Since religions tend to accentuate divisions, and the core of spirituality is unity, I consider this a hopeful trend.  When you look around, all our dysfunctions come from believing the illusion of separation within a profoundly unified reality.

 

Smell That Change In The Air

                                                                                                              written 5 Sep 2021

                                                                                                       published 12 Sep 2021

                                                      

            Uniformitarianism expects tomorrow will be much like yesterday, assuming a linear, slowly changing world, where small movements produce small outcomes.  Because it is easy to understand and makes future planning simple, it is seductive.  However, such planning has little bearing on complex non-linear systems, where small movements can create abrupt outcomes.  Climate is a massive, non-linear, complex system, currently experiencing rapid global changes, demanding more nuanced planning.    

            One example of this is how floods are classified.  Historical and geologic records are used to determine how often an area has been inundated, then flood zones are designated by the probability of repeat flooding.  A 100-year flood zone has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year, assuming climactic forces are stable over time.

            In 1992, a friend bought a vineyard in Minnesota which had just experienced a 500-year flood.  Over the next 14 years, they had two 100-year floods, and just after she sold it, they had a 1000-year flood.  In 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought a 500-year flood to the Houston area, which had been preceded by 500-year floods on Memorial Day in both 2015 and 2016.  Climate is clearly no longer stable.

            In the 20,000 years between the last ice age and the beginning of fossil fuel usage, atmospheric carbon increased 55 percent.  In the 200 years since then, humanity has added another 50 percent, 13 percent in the last 20 years.  This increase is so rapid that the Earth's temperature has yet to reflect the full extent of the impact.  Since warmer air holds more moisture, the current 1°C warming supports a 7 percent increase in atmospheric water vapor.  Consequently, the frequency and intensity of extreme flooding events is increasing.  

            NOAA reported in 2018, that from 2010 to 2017 the US experienced 25 separate 500-year flooding events, nationwide.  Last month the national Weather Service reported 17 inches of rain fell in Humphreys County, Tennessee, in less than 24 hours, shattering the state record for one-day rainfall by more than 3 inches.

            Two days before hurricane Ida made US landfall, it was a category 2, but then it traveled over unusually warm water in the Gulf of Mexico.  By the time it destroyed the Gulf Coast it had grown to category 4, with wind speeds of 150 mph, and a diameter of 400 miles.  A few days later, the remains of Ida dumped 6"-10" in the New Jersey and New York area.  Central Park in Manhattan recorded 3" of rain in one hour, drenching streets and flooding subways.  

            While the Midwest and the East are getting flooded, the West is experiencing drought and fires.  In the last five years, California has experienced 6 of the 20 deadliest fires (by people killed), 10 of the 20 largest fires (by area burned), and 13 of the 20 most destructive fires (by structures destroyed), since the State began keeping records.           Here in Ukiah, we have been fortunate this summer, so far.  The fires are far enough from us that we aren't under direct threat, and the air quality is only moderate, as opposed to the hazardous air of last year.  Yet we aren't escaping the impact.   

            Water shortage on the coast has stunted essential local tourism, already affected by the ongoing pandemic.  Overall tourism in the State is affected by air quality and roads closures due to fires, and all the National Parks are closed.  At least two more California towns have been burned to the ground (Greenville and Grizzly Flats), and South Lake Tahoe is being threatened as I write this, further depressing summer travel.

            Real estate transactions are finding more fire insurance problems, even for coastal sales.  The wine industry is dealing with smoke taint contamination, described as "tasting like a used ash tray", which degrades the value of the wine.  The heavy smoke last year cut the value of the crop by 2/3. 

            We are in a new, rapidly changing climate reality, and we ignore that at the risk to our life and our economy.  However, some people are still planning as if tomorrow will be like it used to be.  The Ukiah Planning Commission recently voted 4-1 to approve residential development in the Western Hills based on "historic patterns of development". The longer we deny reality, the shorter the odds of avoiding catastrophe.

 

A Worthwhile Effort, part 4

                                                                                                           written 29 Aug 2021

                                                                                                          published 5 Sep 2021

                                                 

 

            The climate crisis is already here and growing.  To avoid economic collapse within a few decades, we must begin with a 50% reduction of carbon emissions by 2030.  This is the fourth part of a description of what that might look like in Mendocino county.  In addition to installing distributed renewable energy production and storage, and beginning the shift to electric vehicle (EV) transportation, there are two other important elements required to actually reduce emissions: a green hydrogen economy and a trained labor force.

            Batteries are adequate for storing energy on a daily basis, and EV's work for most short distance transportation needs.  But saving summer sun for winter use, long distance transportation, commercial heating, and heavy industry all require another form of energy storage.  The emerging candidate is green hydrogen, which uses non-carbon energy sources to split water.  The released hydrogen can then be stored as compressed gas, cooled to a liquid, combined as a chemical hydride, or converted to a Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC), such as ammonia (NH₃).  Each method has an energy and infrastructure cost, but all provide shippable long term energy storage.  Quick refueling times make hydrogen attractive for long distance road transportation and industries needing around the clock operations, without EV charging downtime.  Hydrogen can also power the shipping, railroad, and airline industries.  

            The transformation has already begun.  Around the world, trillions are being committed to infrastructure construction.  UPS, FEDEX, and Amazon warehouses are investigating moving to hydrogen, attracted by quick refueling times.  Ten automotive corporations are currently developing hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, including Toyota, GM, BMW, Daimler, Mazda, and Hyundai.  A hydrogen powered ferry has begun operating in the Puget Sound.  A residential backup power system using hydrogen storage is now on the market, in competition with the Tesla Powerwall battery.  Demonstration projects using hydrogen for residential heating are ongoing in Scotland, Japan, and Sweden.  The heavy industries of cement and steel can't operate on electric heat, but hydrogen will work, and Sweden has just shipped the first batch of steel produced by hydrogen.  Several bus lines now have arrays to produce their power, which run hydrogen electrolysers supplying fuel cell busses. 

            A possible Ukiah hydrogen economy could start with MTA as a first customer.  Hydrogen would be produced using excess array production in the summer and lower cost overnight grid power.  Once hydrogen is available, the MTA bus fleet could begin transitioning to fuel cell busses.  In addition, having hydrogen available along the 101 corridor would aid the expansion of all types of fuel cell powered transportation.  A local fuel supplier could begin retail residential deliveries as homes begin shifting away from propane.  Local businesses that have commercial heating needs could install arrays and electrolysers at their locations.

            The other required element is a large trained labor force.  If we are to succeed, this will be a war time like mobilization.  To increase annual renewable installations by a factor of four, build an entire hydrogen economy, and convert every home and business away from carbon-based power will require a pool of skilled labor far beyond what exists today.  Mendocino College, in combination with the local high schools and all the various local contractors, should develop a training program to accomplish this worthwhile effort.  Shifting the country away from fossil fuels will take decades, so we are talking about creating long term employment in meaningful work: creating a habitable planet for our grandchildren.  This is the kind of commitment that allowed cathedrals to be built over centuries, giving meaning to the lives of the people doing the work. 

            Such a massive infrastructure shift requires significant and prolonged investments.  But doing nothing risks complete economic collapse, with the added possibility of human extinction.  There are people who still doubt this, and require certainty before they act.  However, certainty is an illusion, and making large social change is slow.  Waiting for certainty increases our risk of failure.

            One of the biggest barriers to accomplishing this is the investments of the fossil fuel industry.  Given how they have convinced people to invest in the bankrupt fracking industry, we see that only compete economic collapse, like Enron, will get their attention, like an addict in denial hitting low-low.  But the entire planet is at risk to their addiction and we really can't wait.