Wait and See; No Longer An Option:
Good Morning Middle America, your King of Simple News in hot off the press.
This is an article submitted to the King of Simple News and worth the read.
by Mark D. Hartman, Hillsboro, New Mexico
Exponential Growth is one hungry animal and works in a very insidious manner. Our government’s refusal to reverse this policy is worse than any lie they could ever possibly tell us.
However, I also believe our government has also been lulled into a false sense of security, believing we still have ample time to come up with a plan. But it is not until the end of the exponential function that all hell breaks lose.
Exponential as compared to linear growth creates a doubling effect over a given period of time; such as the pond lily example that we discussed a while back.
If the pond lily doubles daily, and given the time period of 30 days to cover the entire pond, on day 28, just two days before the pond becomes completely covered, the pond lilies only cover 25% of the pond, leaving one to believe that there was ample time to deal with the problem (25% on day 28, doubling to 50% on day 29 and doubling to 100% on day 30). So it is with everything that operates via the exponential function. Math is not always humane, but it is always the exact science.
The sustainable carrying capacity for planet earth is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 - 2 billion people. We are at least 4.5 billion humans heavy in this area right now, with no plan in place to correct the number in the future. This issue is not even discussed by those elected to public office.
Peak Oil was reached 38 years ago in the US. and in 2005 globally. The term Peak Oil has never been used by any president or presidential candidate (at least in public). And knowing that our entire infrastructure is based on oil, our leaders (did I say that) have done nothing to prepare for the end of oil, a process that will take a very long time.
We will be increasingly importing more oil from now on, until other countries begin suffering from shortages in the near future due to production downturns. This will create great global unrest. Yet we hear our representatives talking daily about breaking our dependence on foreign oil as if that was even a possibility. Please remember, they have been talking about it since 1973!!
The price of oil will continue to trend upward until total depletion.
The high oil prices will cause greater inflation as time passes.
We have folks like T. Boone Pickens ramping up a campaign for wind power for our nation today. This is a great project and many more of these programs should have been started 35-40 years ago. These projects will however be an effort in futility unless our elected representatives drop our economic policy of exponential growth immediately and begin a policy of sustainable development.
US net energy from oil could fall to “0″ by as early as 2022 and as late 2030.
When this happens, whether it is 2022 or 2030, food production will drop sharply and quickly, due to the lack of fuel for equipment and oil based chemicals to fertilize crops for maximum harvest, which will lead to massive soil sterilization.
Transportation for food products will be at a stand still. Wide spread world wide famine will set in and resolve the population problem. The details are available to those interested in researching how totally dependent agriculture is on oil.
There are many other ramifications if we choose to wait for our government to make a smart move. The list is long, and I could go on, but my point is that if we choose to sit and wait for our elected representatives, this procrastination will (not maybe) create something you and I can barely imagine at this time, in the very near future.
If our government and its people began acting on these issues today, I do not believe we could make the required changes without moderate to heavy pain. If we persist with our present attitudes, inactivity and ignorance, for even a few more years, we will have no options left to us. At that time, great pain will cure what ails us today, but leave nothing for us to build another tomorrow.
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So, to ease the pain for the wreck we are going to have just up the the raod, we need to encourage as many of our family and friends to call write and e-mail their representatives (from local levels to the national level) and :
Demand a complete change from our present economic policy. Explaining to them that increasing population in any manner’ in an attempt to out pace the exponential function, will only intensify the crash when the function plays out over a very small period of time. And hope we get large masses of our nation invloved in this process.
Demand that we immediately begin an agressive program for alternative energy in every sector.
Make sure that our representatives realize their votes are at risk, if they chose to ignore the core of our economic and social problems today.
And this year would be a perfect year to use the power we possess as citizens of our nation. We can refuse to vote for either of the candidates running for the liberal and conservative parties. A vote just this one time for America, not party affilifations might bring the awarness we need in our country at this time. A vote for any other candidate would make a huge statement. An educated vote for another candidate could create the momentum we need to move forward.
Going to the pond lily example above, even if we ignore the growth of them. They will rapidly cover the pond on the last two days. The two top candidates running for president are no different. They choose to ignore our core problem in this country and keep referencing symptoms of this grave problem. Their ignoring the issue will not keep the exponential function from playing out. It will in fact intensify the crash when it does play out. And when we finally see that the exponential function is beginning to reach it’s zenith, we willl have no time to react to the consequences that will follow.
I too choose to write in Ron Paul this November. It is not a wasted vote, because it is the right thing to do.
A vote for either of the two front runners is not only wasted, it is damaging to us all. It can be likened to paying someone to beat you up. Really!!!!
Gila,
I have written an article for tomorrow that goes very much to your point.
Trading a lame horse for blind one is not an improvement, but rather a new set of problems.
Inflation reports were up today and home foreclosures surged by 55%, two important indictors going in different directions.
This is the equivalent of two cars crashing head on at 60 MPH, the result is a collision force equal to 120 MPH. Yet, the stock market is up! False, false, false.
I still wish I could believe that we can work with our present form of government.. But, I am not sure that trying to pressure our representatives is progress.. It might be false hope, and a waste of precious time.. A government official that needs five hundred million dollars to run a campaign is not going to work for the best interest of anything except the money they so desperately need..
We need a new way to select our leaders, then write them.. First, we need an honest media that will spread information, instead of propaganda…
This problem will never be fixed by this form of government… WmA..
Our form of government worked very well up until the time we decided to ignore the core of it’s existence; the Constitution. So, I too would have to agree with anyone who says our present form of government will not work. It will in fact create the largest government collapse in history if it persists.
This is precisely the reason that voting for either Obama or McCain is a continuation of our core problem. And the reason we all need to wake up and select the leader who is commiteted to return us to our Constitutional roots. To do otherwise is as un-American as one could possibly be. Unethical also in relation to future generations. And just flat immoral.
Media plays no roll of value in politics. It never has. They have always ridden on the edge of truth with a very large sack of half truths and white lies. This is partially the reason we are where we are today,. The majority of our population usees the sound bites and media spin to perpetuate the exponential growth policies our government is pushing on us today. We are basing our very existence, literally, on these TV sound bites and the government promoted media spin.
Until we decide to take the time (and we do not have time to ignore this task) to truly educate ourselves in the flawed policies our present leaders are using to lead us to our demise. And until we decide party affiliaton is for losers ( and if we don’t we will all surely be losers). We will continue our march to the irreversible 3rd world status we are headed for at this time.
And as with every exponential functon that has ever played out in the past, we will acquire this bottom feeding status in a very short period of time. -bb
We all have to remember that the root of the problem is that our system of economics was never designed to work long term and by golly…it didn’t.
We also badly need campaign finance reform and term limits. Politics have become a lucrative career as has the judicial system. There is no justice in the U.S. just some darned good jobs provided by tons of tax money and the unfortunate citizens who have to donate to the system through legal fees.
I agree with most of what has been written here; however, going back to our constitutional roots won’t solve the problem, and it is unlikely we will take any action until it is too late.
The reason has to do with how the human brain works. To make a long and technical story short, a quote from Cordelia Fine’s “a mind of its own”, will help. Cordelia has degrees in experimental psychology, criminology and a Ph.D in psychology from Cambridge University.
In layman’s terms…”our brain (is) vain, emotional, immoral, deluded, and bigoted - pushes, pulls, twists, and warps our perceptions….each of us has a slew of mind-bugs and ordinary prejudices that prevent us from seeing the truth about the world, the people around us, and ourselves.”
It is not our fault, these qualities were good adaptions in the environment that humans evolved in for millions of years. Unfortunately, it doesn’t serve us so well now.
By the way, it isn’t just Cordelia Fine who believes this, if you are interested, I can provide you with a long list of books that are based upon decades of research by experimental psychologists that will destroy your belief in our presumed objectivity and conscious will. It is a brutal assault on our most cherished illusions.
If you don’t believe it, just watch the way that many people drive their cars! But don’t think for a minute that you and I are are different, if you do, you are hopelessly delusional! We aren’t special, and you and I have no immunity.
So why does it matter? Until we understand and confront the real problem; our human nature and our evolutionary heritage, we are doomed to implementing stop gap measures that fail to solve our problems.
The problem isn’t technical, it is our delusional brain and our unwillingness to confront it. Source references provided upon request.
Greg,
Our brains have evolved to react to situations based on programing from our youth to the present. That’s the subconscious mind running our lives when we aren’t conscious. [about 95% of the time] The good news is if we pay attention to what’s going on in our mind ,we can take charge of our thinking and as a result, our actions. In other words, if your brain can be programed, it can be re-programed.
That’s my opinion, for what it’s worth.
Greg,
I wrote a post for tomorrow that I think will help to answer some of what we are all trying to get at.
It goes to your suggestion that we operate in the moment, on near motor nerve and it takes a serious jolt to to the system to change that.