Slippery Slope

From Democracy Now!:

"While traveling to Vancouver, BC, Canada on Weds., Nov. 25th, to speak at the Vancouver Public Library at a benefit for community radio stations, Amy Goodman and her two colleagues were detained by Canadian authorities. Amy was questioned extensively about the speech she intended to give; their car was gone through by armed border guards, and their papers and laptop computers were scoured. They were detained for well over an hour, and were made an hour late for the event at the Vancouver Public Library."

This is quite chilling. I thought briefly about writing to the Immigration minister Jason Kenney about her detention at the border. Maybe I still will, pointless as it would be. But this is a case of George Galloway all over again. If you recall he was forbidden to enter Canada because he supported terrorists or some garbage. He, in fact, was on a mission to Gaza to deliver supplies to the people there, not even the elected government of Palestine. I wrote the minister on that occasion and have yet to receive a response.

The Conservative government is chilling. The Government of Canada is clearly mad, broking no criticism, even while most Canadians would never dare to challenge the official line on Afghanistan or the Olympics. So what's the concern about people coming to talk? And this is supposed to be a democracy. It's nice when you catch glimpses of what our country actually is all about.

Incidentally, the Dominion has a new special issue out about the Olympics. I encourage you to pick it up and if you like the quality and journalistic integrity of what you read make a donation to the Dominion Media Coop.

Full Fridge

We just bottled probably 30 litres of sauerkraut. Now there is no room in our fridge but it makes a pretty and tasty picture.

Gywnne's World

Thanks to Marya for that nice comment.

I too saw Gywnne Dyer on his cross country tour. And his faith in crazy technological solutions really scared me. There are much easier ways it seems to me: public transit, population control, everyone gardens, only plant fruit and nut trees in cities, no more cars, no more plastic. Population control is of course really the biggest bang for your buck but of course you all know how I feel about that. Gywnne said that the population would stabilize at 9 billion and then drop as everyone becomes more affluent. What does that mean for consumption and the climate though? More people consuming more. Not exactly a good recipe.

Anyway his technological solutions all revolved around the concept of "buying us time". So we'll build some space mirrors, blast some sulphur into the atmosphere and construct wind powered boats that will make clouds over the ocean. And paint all the roads white (oil based paint?).

But the question no one answers, as Marya rightly pointed out, is: what are we buying ourselves time for?

I guess Gwynne's answer is: to come to some kind of international agreement that will allow everyone to prosper but will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stop runaway climate change. Things are going really well on that front. The Copenhagen meetings are basically over before they started. Way to go Dear Leaders!

My answer to the question of buying time for what is a little different. This is about avoiding reality. We are not buying time we are like an addict who puts off quitting or addressing his or her addiction for another day. We must remain deluded at all costs. Focused on endless growth on a finite planet. Believing that we can have it all. That it is our right. We must never remember that we and our shit are our food. That we are material beings, just like a tree or a chipmunk. That we live in relationship with other beings on this planet. We must never accept that we are destroying the planet and that we can stop anytime. Nothing is written in stone.

What do you think we are buying time for? So that we can buy a new car before we can't anymore? So that you can get that new cell phone?

It's time to stop. This civilization is an illusion. Reject it. Walk away. Start now. Smash your television. We can't continue to support this madness.

Engineers to the Rescue

Technology to the rescue. And guess who, it's the engineers who will lead us. Another group is now pushing for technological solutions to climate change: The British Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Some of the solutions on offer include: artificial trees (one wonders what's wrong with the real thing, oh yeah we didn't invent those), space mirrors (old reliable!) and painting the roofs of buildings white (well that one is maybe sensible).

But the most important thing and this demonstrates the average attitude of the civilized human (especially the elites since the regular civilized human just nods along thoughtlessly) is this quote which pretty much sums up civilization's insanity.

"The institution believes it's time to go to war on climate change – the climate is about to attack us and it's time for us to fight back." - Tim Fox

It's almost like real wars where there is no history and nothing came before the evildoers (earth?) decided they wanted to attack the good (civilized humans who just happened to be minding their own business). Time for war. That's a great starting point. That should take care of that pesky climate problem.

These fake trees are quite laughable. Of course they are more efficient, running on renewable energy of course. Hmm, what do these fucking engineers think real trees run on?

Bread or Circuses

I came across this on tsn.ca. Not a good sign.

"A few years ago, we were competing with other teams and entertainment options for discretionary money. Now, we're competing with bread and milk."

- Red Wings VP Steve Violetta on having about 1,000 empty seats at the Joe Louis Arena for a game against Boston Tuesday night.

That's It

So that's it. First the European Union made a valiant but pointless effort to throw some money at the problem. Then Canada decided that there would be no legislation binding Canada at the Copenhagen talks in December (check back a few posts). Now the final nail in the coffin: the US is putting off legislation on climate change until after the talks, when the heat is down.

So that's it. No plan, just marching into the future with a blindfold on. La la la. Let's plan for our retirement and maybe grab a burger later. Ain't life grand?

Seems to me that we need to rethink everything because the state isn't going to act. That much is as obvious as the nose on your face. Do you doubt it? After all you know and have read. If the state won't act and the corporations won't act then the citizens have to act. We have to do whatever it takes, take any step that will protect the planet.

Today I read a National Geographic in an office. It listed a number of the species that are now extinct. They are gone. They are never coming back. Normally that wouldn't necessarily be sad, as some species die and some evolve that's how the game is played. But to read through that list of disappearing beautiful communities was heartbreaking. Worse than any genocide. And it's our fault. All our big homes and roads. We are the problem. The state is not going to be part of the solution.

Resonating

Excerpt from Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood:

Surely I was an optimistic person back then, she thinks. Back there. I woke up whistling, I knew there were things wrong in the world, they were referred to, I'd seen them in the onscreen news. But the wrong things were wrong somewhere else.

By the time she'd reached college, the wrongness had moved closer. She remembers the oppressive sensation, like waiting all the time for a heavy stone footfall, then the knock at the door. Everybody knew. Nobody admitted to knowing. If other people began to discuss it, you tuned them out, because what they were saying was both so obvious and so unthinkable.

We're using up the Earth. It's almost gone. You can't live with such fears and keep on whistling. The waiting builds up in you like a tide. You start wanting it to be done with. You find yourself saying to the sky, Just do it. Do your worst. Get it over with. She could feel the coming tremor of it running through her spine, asleep or awake. It never went away, even among the Gardeners. Especially--as time wore on--among the Gardeners.