Killing For Power And Profit

                                                                                                              written 24 Oct 2021

                                                                                                          published 31 Oct 2021

                                         

            Two weeks ago, John Arteaga commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 attack.  I spent the day watching the news, feeling an ominous shift in the world.  Years later, details surfaced that were contrary to the official version, some mentioned in Arteaga's article.

            In the history of steel framed skyscrapers, only three buildings have completely failed due to fires, and they all happened in New York on 9-11.  The wide spread news coverage shows that all three buildings started to collapse at the top, and then fell into their own footprint at free fall velocity.  Only two of the buildings were struck by planes.  Despite this rare failure, no detailed structural investigation was conducted.  The owner made a 40:1 return on his investment.

            Even questioning the official story is treated as pushing conspiracy theories, lumped in with flat Earthers and those who doubt the moon landing really happened.  When I have tried to discuss this with people, a common response is "who would do such a thing?"  Obviously, someone with no regard for the "other", in a quest for exclusive gain of power and money.

             History is rife with examples of killing for political gain, going back to the beginning.  It is the last escalation in the domination game and the foundation of war.  After the 9-11 attack, President Bush the younger, who squeaked into power by a Republican Supreme Court power play (dramatic foreshadowing?), was suddenly popular, and even won the popular vote in 2004, the only Republican to manage that in 32 years.  The country lurched to the right, civil rights were curtailed, and we poured $7 trillion into the military industrial complex, destroying stability in Afghanistan and the middle east.  While not proof of government involvement, the attack did advance key Republican goals.

            There is also a long history of individuals and corporations killing people for profit.  In the 50's, the tobacco industry aggressively denied the hazard of smoking, despite copious in-house research.  Smoking still kills almost 500,000 Americans per year.

            In the late 70's, Ford had a design problem with the Pinto gas tank, and fifty-nine people died.  The company decided it was "cost effective" to pay the resulting law suits, valuing a human life to be worth $200,000, rather than recall the Pintos and make the $11 repair. 

            In the 80's, the fossil fuel industry used not only the same play book as big tobacco, but even the same public relations firm, to sell climate denial in the face of in-house research showing fossil fuel combustion damaged the environment.  Current estimates are that at least 250,000 die each year from the degrading climate, with an increasing risk of near-term human extinction.

            In late 2020, after more than 500,000 died from opioid overdose in the previous two decades, Perdue Pharma admitted "knowingly conspiring to dispense medication without legitimate medical purpose".   

            A very recent example is Fox News.  In mid-June, new COVID cases in America had declined to 10,000 people a day, with about 300 people dying each day.  The vaccine had become widely available, and it looked like the economy could begin to recover.  Businesses were opening to customers, and masking restrictions were eased.

            Fox News decided to demonize the vaccine in order to enrage their conservative base.  They not only popularized false information about the vaccine and urged viewers to NOT get vaccinated, but also railed against vaccine mandates by governments and businesses.  The result was a slowing of vaccination rates at a time when the delta variant was sweeping the country.  Daily cases and deaths peaked again in mid-September and are slowly drifting lower. 

            Since the beginning of the Fox tirade in June, another 135,000 Americans have died, and our daily death rate is still 1,700, which is a 9-11 death toll every 42 hours.  Most of those dying are unvaccinated, and a large percentage are Fox viewers.  Fox contributed to killing their own viewers in order to energize their political base and maximize their right-wing viewer share, which is the point of their business.  The irony is that Fox News instituted a vaccine mandate early on, and all the on-air hosts shouting against vaccination were already vaccinated themselves.  

            Who would do such a thing?  Now we know.  It is baked into the economic system which believes the fiction of exclusive gain.

 

 

 

 

 

Not So "Just-In-Time"

                                                                                                              written 17 Oct 2021

                                                                                                          published 24 Oct 2021

                                             

 

            Our society suffers from the fundamental flaw of perceiving the world as separate parts, and the economic limitations of capitalism are symptomatic of that error.  These express as: degrading every value other than fiscal, social disruption from extremes of exclusive gain, destruction of natural resources, and increased economic risks from chasing short term profits.  The rise of "just-in-time" supply system, which arose in Japan in the 70's, is an example of the last. 

            Previously, businesses needed to have adequate in-house supply of parts and materials to ensure their own production flowed smoothly.  This inventory, and the required warehouses for storage, tied up funds.  Toyota began reducing this expense by coordinated production throughout their supply chain, so parts were produced and delivered as they were needed: just in time.  The savings were significant enough that the practice eventually expanded globally.  This approach depends on good estimates of product flow, a reliable global delivery structure, and a stable economic environment, but reduces resiliency to unexpected changes: short term gain with increased long-term risk.

            As "just-in-time" was expanding, the manufacturing world was concentrating into fewer and fewer companies and facilities.  In some cases, a single plant would be producing an item critical for a host of industries around the world, increasing the vulnerability to unexpected events.  In 2011, an earthquake in Japan caused a fire in a plant that produced a majority of the global supply of an epoxy critical to the manufacture of semiconductors.  This caused widespread disruption and price hikes while other companies scrambled to ramp up production. 

            The COVID pandemic affected the entire global economy, with business closures and social lockdown occurring everywhere at the same time, with little warning.  All levels of businesses were hit by a simultaneous loss of workers and loss of customers.  The resumption of business, as the surges passed and the vaccine arrived, has been spotty at best.  Just being open for business doesn't mean customers show up, and not all businesses resumed production at the same pace.  The smooth functioning of the just-in-time system has yet to return.

            One example is the backlog of ships waiting to unload at west coast ports.  Before COVID, LA would have one or two ships anchored offshore waiting for one of the 60 berths.  Now there are over 80, with little developed infrastructure for such magnitude.  The recent southern California oil spill was caused by an anchor snagging a buried oil pipeline, causing it to rupture.

            Odd shortages are now normal.  A friend on the coast, working on a plumbing project, said he couldn't find PVC elbows anywhere.  Glass is in short supply, and lack of bottles has affected many businesses, from small vendors to big ones, like McCormick spices, which has slowed production due to lack of the glass jars they need.   

            One of the largest disruptions is in the automotive industry.  When travel shut down, the rental car industry sold off their inventory, to save money.  Now that people are beginning to travel again, demand has increased.  However, the automotive industry hasn't been able to ramp up production fast enough, so there is a shortage of rental cars, and used car prices have leaped.  One of the limiting issues is a shortage of the semiconductors needed for these modern vehicles.

            The most powerful computer chips are only manufactured in Taiwan, even though the technology was developed in the US.  It takes about 9 months, from beginning to end, for one of these chips to be created.  When the economy shut down, so did the chip manufacture.  When the economy began to recover, the demand was greater than their ability to respond.  In addition, Taiwan is suffering a climate change induced drought, creating serious water shortages.  The semiconductor industry requires massive amounts of very clean water, further slowing production increase.

            Our previous economy was based on a stability that is no longer.  Increasing resource depletion, accelerating climate change, and ongoing geopolitical upheaval threaten to continue and enhance the disruptions we are now experiencing.  We will have to re-localize our essential systems, produce more of our critical needs within the US, and within our county.  We have to economically reward people who are doing "essential" services, rather than exporting the labor overseas, and curtail the economic excesses of exclusive gain, which bankrupt the country and create social unrest.

 

 

 

 

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.