We are all capitalists, now.

"We are all big users of capitalism.  Overthrowing capitalism means overthrowing ourselves, doesn't it?"

Explain, please. Capitalism was an advance on Feudalism, but it is an exploitative and oppressive socio-economic system that needs overthrowing. Natural resources are not Capital.

Very many thanks, Bob.  Lovely to hear from you.

All I know about business is that you are supposed to survive by depending on income/sales and not on your capital reserves/savings/assets.  We humans do not survive like that, although we once did before we started ripping into our capital reserves of finite fossil fuels (fff) and every other mineral deposit.

I feel I have benefitted - and guiltily - from my 73 years of capitalism in the sense of living it up with all the finite fossil fuels I have burnt, brought to me by the big oil/gas companies.  They have grown rich and powerful but I, too have grown rich and done things undreamt of before we started exploiting fff so enthusiastically from the start of the industrial revolution in merry England and, Ironbridge (1779), in particular.

We are, in the rich North of the planet, living infinitely on a finite planet and unnaturally on a natural planet.  Very foolish and dangerous behaviour.  Hence, the urgent need for ecosocialism that is about social justice and much more sustainable and light footed lifestyles on the planet, in order to postpone extinction of all life.

Remember, successful business practice I am told is living off income and not capital reserves.

Successful living is not relying on something that is slipping through our fingers and, as we burn them all up, is very likely to be slowly turning earth into venus that has its own runaway greenhouse effect - as we are getting on earth or, now have.

Happy new year to you and yours

LIVING IN DENIAL

The fool has said in his heart there is no ... God/climate change/unintended consequences for our enthusiastic "Go forth and multiply ... fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the earth and every living thing that moves upon the earth."  (Genesis 1 v 28)

Sixth Mass Extinction episode - and that's us, would you believe!  What is happening is a tragedy for humanity.  In the process, we are bringing down all other life forms.

I think, we humans have exhibited hubris, folly and, short-sightedness in thinking that we can live infinitely on a finite planet and unnaturally on a natural planet.  And, thinking it would not have, eventually the most unfortunate of consequences for us all.

We had the intelligence but not the wisdom.

We had the knowledge going back to the 1850s but still failed to take seriously what scientists, Eunice Foote and John Tyndall had discovered - and reinforced and confirmed ever since.

We even had Margaret Thatcher, as here:

How right Margaret Thatcher was when she said, on the 27 September 1988, in a speech to the Royal Society,

"For generations, we have assumed that the efforts of mankind would leave the fundamental equilibrium of the world's systems and atmosphere stable. But it is possible that with all these enormous changes (population, agricultural, use of fossil fuels) concentrated into such a short period of time, we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of this planet itself. (my emphasis)

"Recently three changes in atmospheric chemistry have become familiar subjects of concern. The first is the increase in the greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons—which has led some [end p4] to fear that we are creating a global heat trap which could lead to climatic instability. We are told that a warming effect of 1°C per decade would greatly exceed the capacity of our natural habitat to cope. Such warming could cause accelerated melting of glacial ice and a consequent increase in the sea level of several feet over the next century. This was brought home to me at the Commonwealth Conference in Vancouver last year when the President of the Maldive Islands reminded us that the highest part of the Maldives is only six feet above sea level. The population is 177,000. It is noteworthy that the five warmest years in a century of records have all been in the 1980s—though we may not have seen much evidence in Britain!

FROM: -  https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346

The exploitation of finite fossil fuels was a rush to the blood that is now bringing catastrophe.  Even turning earth into our sister or twin planet, venus seems to be the uncomfortable reality.  Fossil fuels are a mixed blessing, indeed.

A brilliant but brief tenure on planet earth for homo sapiens!

The first book of the Bible is optimistic about our future, that we humans are the top dogs in creation and can do as we like with the rest of creation.  The last book acknowledges that "the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more."  It has the promise of "a new heaven and a new earth" and "the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God ... for the former things have passed away".  (Revelation 21 v 1-4)  The best has yet to come.

However, none of us should be helping things along by knowing about the threats facing us but then doing nothing.

To Climate Action Network W Midlands

Dear Simbi

Thanks for the email.

My climate action for the G7 and COP 26 is a mass (more than just me!) letter/email/text/twitter - writing and phoning campaign to names and addresses here

 September 2019 A5 flyer

and many others - to climate educate that, in burning our finite supply of fossil fuels we have unsuspectingly released a Pandora's Box of unintended consequences and horrors. We must now live much more lightly on the planet to minimise travel and maximise simpler lifestyles. "To tread more lightly on the planet" as Jonathon Porritt wrote many decades ago!

Spending = fossil fuels burnt = greenhouse gases emitted = the natural greenhouse effect dangerously enhanced = a runaway greenhouse effect that venus has = THE END! (venus is hotter than mercury even though mercury is nearer the sun)

Therefore, billions of greenhouse gases for extensions to HS2 (£106 bn), Metro (£15 bn), Sprint (£1 bn) is not a good idea when that money should be used, now, to cut greenhouse gases in the medium to long term and not make things even worse - and quite unnecessarily, too!

Or, am I completely wrong, mistaken, deluded? Is there anyone, out there, who agrees with me?!

SEVENFOLD INCREASE IN FOUR YEARS FOR ONLY TRANSPORT!

In only four years, your expenditure on only transport has gone up sevenfold.  This is shocking and disgraceful in the light of the climate emergency you have declared.  Seven times more greenhouse gases to accelerate the runaway greenhouse effect!  This is ecocide.

Spending = fossil fuels burnt = greenhouse gases emitted = intensifying greenhouse effect = runaway greenhouse effect = turning earth into planet venus = THE END.

Please come to your senses.

'Riders on the Storm'

 I love page 198 and on page 22 about "our journeys of understanding".  That reminded me of what my Quaker, spiritual father told me about being true to our lights but, being open to enlightenment from whatever source that comes.

I'm asking, Alastair if you might check out this, below, please.  I wrote, 'deadly greenhouse gases to threaten all life on earth.'  Is it alarmism or being alarming?  True to the science or is it pseudoscience?  And, where do you stand over Wikipedia telling me that Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect?  Should we be talking about a possible runaway greenhouse effect for earth, as well?  The tipping points, too?  Three tipping points left?  Sixth mass extinction now?  Please put me right.

I wrote,  'Trams look green but you and I have to BE green'.  I'm grateful to you about the need to BE green; and "the ground of our being" (Teilhard de Chardin?) being more important than doing.

TOP CLIMATE ACTION REQUEST

People must not be hoodwinked into accepting Metro tram extensions, underground and overground to replace/duplicate buses and even trains! £15 BILLION to 2040 wasted when that money must go for Fare-Free Public Transport and electric buses on bus priority roads.  Please email those exact words to Mayor, Andy Street, at: MayorsOffice@wmca.org.uk

Malcolm.Holmes@wmre.org.uk,

and deborah.cadman@wmca.org.uk

Then forward the reply to timweller1@gmail.com  - me!

THANKS so much.

Every £ we spend = finite fossil fuels burnt = deadly greenhouse gases to threaten all life on earth. 

Trams look green but you and I have to BE green and campaign for commuter/regional and freight TRAINS on our local railway line that doesn't get the 6 Kms of trams and 2 Kms test track.  That STILL leaves 48 Kms of railway "of national strategic significance" on the Black Country Railway between Worcester and Derby, alongside or near to traffic-choked motorways and roads.  And every crossing is built, too - see my photos.  They built the important railway and forgot the trains and nine stations!

Railway destruction for 50 years leads to green field HS2

Phil, the authorities in the W Mids for 50 years, have had the weird idea that homes, shops, offices, roads and, "bus on rails" trams are meant to go on railway lines.  They are still at it by breaking up the UK's only mothballed mainline railway "of national strategic significance" into multi-modal transport with trams, trains, a test track and an extended cycle-walkway.  This is the 120 Kms Black Country Railway being broken up when it is already built as a mainline railway that needs finishing in the middle!  NO WONDER WE NEED HS2, for stopping at a few cities but still need inter-city lines for the existing stations.  And, of course, to nicely accelerate the runaway greenhouse effect as we turn earth into venus, our sister or twin planet.

Response to Colin Dobson's comment on SolarFarm@sheffield.ac.uk

 No preparations for Covid and no preparations for when the oil and gas run out.

No urgency to go down the solar route.

No wonder we seem to be turning earth, with its runaway greenhouse effect, into the one that makes venus uninhabitable and hotter than mercury that is nearer to the sun.

Venus got theirs first!

With an average surface temperature of 462C (864F), Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system today, thanks to its proximity to the sun and its impenetrable carbon dioxide atmosphere, 90 times denser than Earth’s. At some point in the planet’s history this led to a runaway greenhouse effect.
'Guardian' report of scientists' work on venus.

SPEND TO CUT GREENHOUSE GASES, NOT WORSEN THE CRISIS

SPEND TO CUT GREENHOUSE GASES, NOT WORSEN THE CRISIS

It is urgent that we spend NOW on those many projects to reduce greenhouse gases in the medium to long term.  Constructing HS2 and Metro tram extensions is spending NOW to increase greenhouse gases that turn earth into venus with its intense greenhouse effect, say, scientists.  The more we spend the quicker we get to fossil fuel shortages and a similarly intense greenhouse effect as venus.

It is because of its intense greenhouse effect, says Wikipedia that venus, although further away from the sun than mercury, is hotter than mercury.  Venus is called our twin or sister planet.

Be alarmed.  Be very alarmed and act.

to John Davison

9 May 2020

Thanks, John for sending this to me.

My view is that the virus crisis is a foretaste of a greater tragedy and disaster to come unless we think, plan and prepare, now for The Really Big Crisis, ie the complete breakdown of our life support systems from rising greenhouse gases and rising temperatures to copy what happened to venus.  ("Because the bulk of its atmosphere is made of carbon dioxide, an extreme greenhouse effect is warming the surface of Venus." SOURCE: https://www.space.com/15988-venus-planet-weird-facts.html)  Attenborough's warnings, below the coloured paragraphs, will then be fulfilled, I fear.

Hence, the situation is urgent to 'Build Back Better' and to try and retain individual, group and national reductions in greenhouse gases that we are seeing, now from lockdown.  Household carbon allowances might help to keep these gas emissions down.  A more acceptable phrase than rationing of fossil fuels that, of course, it amounts to.

Rationing of fossil fuels is urgent and must be done fairly and quickly.  But how, exactly?  Ration cards/coupons for motorists were printed and sent out during the energy crisis and three day week over 1973 to 1974 (Andrew Marr: 'A History of Modern Britain', pub 2007, page 340 to 341).  It must be done again.

BUILD BACK BETTER

• Prepare for the climate crisis with PV everywhere to provide electricity for the building and cars below.
• Retrofit every building with insulation and efficiency measures to reduce the demand for electricity.
• Digital and working from home as much as possible.  Maximise phone and Zoom working.
• Rediscover cycling and walking with cycle-walkways renovated and made upmarket to encourage their use.  Try out stages 1 and 2 of the Dowery Dell Trail - 6 Kms on, or next to, the Halesowen Railway line to Longbridge.  Adventure walking at its best (and hairiest!) and, right on our doorstep!
• Listen and act on Lord Stern - the future is low carbon economies.  "Don't turn the clock back to the dirty fragile times."
• Don't bail out the airlines.  Discourage travel and redeploy their workers to slash fossil fuel use in every building in the land.
• Go for fare-free public transport (FFPT) - the brainchild of Bob Whitehead.
• Scrap big infrastructure schemes like HS2, the railway equivalent of Concorde.  Build the 24 railway projects chosen last year in the Great British Transport competition of the Taxpayers' Alliance.
• Scrap Midland Metro "bus on rails" trams - the bus equivalent of HS2 and, when it comes to construction, the 2nd most expensive transport mode after HS2 and 2 to 3 times more expensive per Km than motorway building.  Just electrify the buses to avoid the childish obsession with Metro glitz, glam and gold to rack up greenhouse gases.
  
   THE TRAGEDY OF TRAMS WRECKING OUR RAILWAY NETWORK
• Bring in annual household carbon allowances to restrict flying, travel and commuting.
• Bring in basic income or citizens' income for all to allow the Gospel/Christ teaching of the parable of the talents.
• Shop for what you genuinely need rather than shop 'til you drop.  Make stuff last.
• Economics to serve ecology.  Nature before economics.  Learn from the more successful civilisations of the past.

Your piece on XR

Dear Peter (Rhodes of the Express and Star)

Is it fair for me to liken the Combined Authority/Network Fail to Extinction Rebellion?

You wrote, last week, "when ... Extinction Rebellion (XR) block a motorway they are, in effect, taking over the lives of thousands of other people without their consent."

Over the last 25 years, we have seen more than a doubling of railway passenger numbers to bring overcrowding on our trains and the continuation of 'Grand Central Shopping Centre and Diesel Perfumed Station Tagged Along As An Afterthought In The Basement Of The John Lewis Store' as one of the worst railway congestion bottlenecks in the UK (BBC Midlands Today reporter, Peter Plisner but my name for Grand Central station).

In addition, the officers and politicians of the Combined Authority (CA) and the VIPs of Negligent Rail (NR) steadfastly insist that they can only finish the 120 Kms Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" with 6.7 Kms of shuttle trams, a trail of trees and an extended cycle-walkway in rural South Staffordshire.  This, on a mainline railway alongside or near to congested, slow moving traffic on the M5/M6 and main roads.

Therefore, am I entitled to say that our railway and transport authorities are acting like XR on nearly every day by refusing to do something positive, practical and helpful to relieve congestion by putting the much needed commuter, regional trains and stations on the middle 56 Kms of the 120 Kms between Worcester and Derby?  Like your XR, CA and NR even more frequently, make life more difficult for us all by deliberately impeding our progress on both roads and railways.  And nicely enhancing the natural greenhouse effect to copy planet venus.  Not a nice model to follow, unfortunately.

Planet Earth turning into Planet Venus

D Poulton wrote about planet venus in your issue dated 1 November.  It is not producing heat that puts all life on earth in danger but producing greenhouses gases in the process of keeping ourselves warm and travelling, frequently, far and fast.  It is our prodigious burning of fossil fuels that puts us in danger.  All fossil fuels give off carbon dioxide that enhances the earth's natural protective greenhouse effect and is endangering all life on earth.  Venus is hotter than mars, even though it is nearly twice mercury's distance from the sun, because of its strong greenhouse effect.  Exactly what we humans are doing to planet earth; foolishly giving ourselves a runaway greenhouse effect and passing all tipping points!  Hence, the urgency of going low carbon in our life styles and, living sustainably.  But we are nowhere near doing that.

Tim Weller

​SOURCE is Wikipedia:

​"​The CO2-rich atmosphere generates the strongest greenhouse effect in the Solar System, creating surface temperatures of at least 735 K (462 °C; 864 °F).^[12][58] This makes Venus's surface hotter than Mercury's, ​​which has a minimum surface temperature of 53 K (−220 °C; −364 °F) and maximum surface temperature of 700 K (427 °C; 801 °F),^[59][60] even though Venus is nearly twice Mercury's distance from the Sun and thus receives only 25% of Mercury's solar irradiance.​​"  Wikipedia​