end fossil fuel subsidies – Page 5

AMERICA’S MEMORY LOSS: What we knew in ’82.

This is the line STRUCK from NASA’s mission statement after James Hansen’s 1982 presentation to Congress about greenhouse gas emissions.

The greenhouse effect has been well understood for over a century, and by 1982, conclusive proof was delivered to the US Congress that global warming was a real threat, and that our use of fossil fuels was the primary cause. So says former NASA scientist James Hansen, who testified before Congress back in the 1980s. Hansen gave scientific proof back then that greenhouses gasses were acting like a blanket over the Earth, and that increasing levels of carbon would exacerbate both ends of the weather extreme. His report predicted more heat, floods, droughts, fierce storms, rising oceans, melting icecaps, all things happening now as carbon levels continue to rise.

Hansen was attacked for his statements, especially when he pointed out that the White House had altered transcripts of his testimony. “I decided to go back to being a scientist, and leave the communication to others,” he says. But a couple of years ago, Hansen realized that nothing was happening. Our governments were continuing to force us to subsidize fossil fuels. This made Hansen feel he needed to speak out again, motivated by love for his grandchildren, who he said “did not deserve to inherit a climate that was spiraling out of control”.

In a 2012 Ted Talk, Hansen brilliantly proposes a simple fee and dividend system, instead of a tax, that would be paid by the fossil fuel companies directly to the American people. Putting a price on carbon, which more accurately reflects its true cost to the world, Hansen says, is the chief requirement for making a transition to clean energy in time to avoid a collapse of our climate.

Hansen patiently explains that the longer we dither the more expensive and difficult it will become: “If we’d done this in 2005,” Hansen says, “we would have only needed a 2 percent reduction in carbon to regain a balanced environment.” By 2013, he says it would have taken 6 percent. A few more years from now and it will be fifteen percent, which will be very difficult, painful and expensive to accomplish.

This soft spoken Midwestern scientist is asking for all our help in communicating the need to put a price on carbon NOW, before it is too late.

He’s doing it for his grandchildren. I’m doing because I don’t want to be part of the first generation to know conclusively that we screwed it all up, even though the solution was right in front of us.

Hansen’s Ted Talk has under a million views. It should have at least one billion.

Thank you for all the Facebook shares. I hope you and your friends will follow Buckyworld — to help keep these important ideas alive.

WHERE’S BUCKY?

Stanford University owns Bucky’s archives, but does not offer a single course that even mentions his name. At left is number of search hits for “Buckminster Fuller” in online course catalogs of various colleges. It seems hilariously sad and shameful that Stanford’s oil-executive-rich board of trustees bought Bucky’s archives and then did nothing with Bucky’s genius for their own school’s students. The only question I have is did they throw the invisibility cloak over him on purpose or by neglect?

Afterall, Bucky had been calling loudly for a transfer off fossil fuels as far back as 1941. In 1981, President Ronald Wilson Reagan awarded Bucky the Medal of Freedom, calling him “one of the greatest minds of our generation”. Bucky died a couple years later in 1983, and then what? Stanford Univeristy buys Bucky’s archives from the Fuller family in l999, that’s what. And then what? Today, fifteen years later, Stanford offers ZERO classes about Bucky, the man called “the Leonardo da Vinci of the 2oth century”.

Today, Bucky is virtually invisible and unknown to most people.

Where did Bucky go and why?

If you know, please explain. I am perplexed.

(The pubic can access Bucky’s papers at Stanford. Look up the Special Collections DIvision.

Bucky your ideas up to save the world.

Surely we are not just going to sit back watching as the natural world turns against our species of greedy, thoughtless humans, and prepares to sweep us right off the planet, so that she can learn from her mistakes and begin again?

The world cries out for a new, more feminine brand of leadership, a new paradigm in which “governance is nurturance” as Bucky put it. “Livingry” must replace weaponry. This very idea, that we must work together to make the world work for everybody is not communism or socialism, but something relatively new: COMMON SENSE.

Haven’t we all poured too much energy into these human lives of ours to sit back and do nothing? Isn’t it about time for pitchforks and torches in the street, figuratively speaking at least?

A Herculean effort is required.

It is long past time for a clean, green, free energy revolution. The “free” is the problem part, of course. How can we expect the existing energy industry to let this happen? The answer is they have no choice — because we, as a species, may have no choice. So, even if there is a huge ransom for our freedom, wouldn’t it be worth it? Could we lease the sun back to the fossil fuel industry, maybe in exchange for development of the clean energy technology they could have given us over thirty years ago?

Where the heck are our solar powered cars already? What’s taking them so long?

Bucky would ask each of us to man our keyboards — the world’s most mighty swords — and speak truth to power. Speak as a mother, a daughter, a sister, a human being. Be a “trim tab” and demand more of our elected officials. Show up. Speak up. Sign petitions. Post on Facebook, Twitter, Email friends.

As Bucky said, the only thing that really matters is the truth. And when you know the truth, you have a responsibility to speak it.

Whether or not humanity passes its final examination is an individual decision.

Getting it right means doing it now.

Buck your ideas up while there’s still time.

And never forget, where there is a will there is no other way.

Humanity’s Race Against Time

Photo credit: www.metalsucks.net — Photo credit: http://www.metalsucks.net

Humanity is engaged in a dramatic race against time to secure its future on planet earth, according to a report from Stanislav Grof entitled “The Current Global Crisis and Future of Humanity” Echoing the ideas of Buckminster Fuller, Grof calls on humans to evolve consciously by expanding our own consciousness. He sets forth our predicament, for which there is no precedent in all of history, in clear and simple terms:

The resources clearly exist to solve our problems.
The only remaining problem is the human personality.
A radical inner transformation of human consciousness is needed.

The question is whether or not this will come about quickly enough to reverse the current self destructive trend of humanity. We need greater emotional maturity, spiritual (not religious) awareness, and profoundly improved ethical values. And we need them all soon.

Our Western Capitalist Society, says Grof, glorifies personal success at the expense of others. We have thus far been unable to appreciate the critical importance of cooperation and peaceful coexistence, necessary for our survival. He calls for a new guiding myth, a new vision which will combine the best of science and spirituality. He doesn’t really spell out this vision, but what he’s getting at is 100% Bucky: We need to develop a deep sense of being planetary citizens first, rather than members of any country, race or religious group. We must drastically expand our understanding of the human psyche and mobilize deep inner intelligence to guide our own healing and transformation. Grof sets forth that we are all damaged, that our experience in the birth canal symbolizes and begins our constant striving to reach a better reality, but that, in Joseph’s Campbell’s words, is like “Getting to the top of the ladder to find it is leaning against the wrong wall”.

Grof stresses the need, as Bucky did, for a unity with nature, as the primary path to this needed enlightenment. We must intuit that every act against nature is an act against ourselves. And just as Bucky said, it all comes down to energy and the environment. Grof calls for massive commitment to the development of alternative energies, saying it deserves the concerted efforts of our best minds, just as the (diabolical) Manhattan Project received in the 1940’s.

The evolutionary progress that is necessary may indeed be Utopian, but it is nonetheless essential, Grof writes. At stake is the future of life on planet earth. “A sufficient number of people must undergo a process of deep inner transformation,” and if we do, Grof says, we might reach a level of consciousness evolution which will allow us to live up the the proud name we gave our species, “HOMO SAPIENS”.

Or as Terrance McKenna said in 1992, “The history of the silly monkey is over, one way or another.”

Clean Energy – what would it mean?

Real FREEDOM is possible if and only if we switch from fossil fuels to clean energy. Clean energy from the sun, wind, waves, geothermal and so forth would be much less expensive, if not altogether free. This would let us work less since we would not have to labor so long for our daily supply of energy. We could also spend more time closer to home, creating a different kind of wealth, of garden vegetables, homemade foods, etc. It would also mean a healthier, cleaner world for us, our children and our grandchildren. Yes, it means the fossil fuel industry will give up some of its profits. But other than that, clean energy is a win, win, win, win, win, win. Without it, the whole world loses. Making this happen is the hard part. It starts with speaking up, showing up, giving up outdated notions about how things cannot change. They can and they will. Demand 100% clean energy now.

The Second American Revolution

A story of what could be, inspired by Buckminster Fuller.

“Middle Americans held their own economy hostage, then came together and created a clean energy world. It was brilliant!”

2035 – America’s second revolution was painful, but worth it. It began about twenty years ago, in 2015, with a series of events that today’s historians call The Middle American Movement (MAM), which is also a play on the fact that this was a movement led mostly by women; females of all ages, nationalities, and political leanings came together and led with common sense, compassion and a global sense of community.

There was wide sweeping social and political upheaval, which resulted in the successful transference away from fossil fuels and the long-awaited creation of a clean energy world. Bucky started calling for this in the early 1940’s, just as World War II was starting.

A clean energy world held magic for humanity. Because carbon levels dropped and everything green flourished, United Spaceship Planet Earth became a healthier and more relaxed place. We gave up the specious notion that everyone had to “earn a living”, and came to understand that we could thrive if we only paid a little more attention to nature, and her needs. This was another part of the new feminine paradigm of leadership that came to pass in the early 2020s.

The opening of the Second American Revolution is traced to a small neighborhood’s show of solidarity for a popular Midwestern family. The family was losing their home. Armed guards showed up at the door one unusually warm evening in early summer. The family had posted on Facebook and Twitter that they were not going to answer the door, that they would rather die than be forced out of their home of 20 years, and would kill themselves if guards forced their way in.

When bank guards arrived, friends and neighbors were waiting, many of them also armed. After a long standoff on a warm summer evening which eventually involved a group of neighbors showing up with fresh margaritas and grilled burritos. Faced with the burritos, the guards, who were also marginalized middle Americans, sympathized with the family, relaxed and enjoyed dinner and a margarita and they all went home to think things over.

Not a single shot was ever fired. There was a celebration in the street that warm night and the next, and became the “not-a-shot” heard round the world.

Americans everywhere, all recruited through the new digital democracy of social media, took to the streets to protect their neighbors like it was their job.

The line “we’d rather die than lose our home” ended up symbolizing much more than a fight against the banks. It was also overthrowing corporate rule of the American government, focused on big oil’s environmental degradation and our complicit government. People knew development of solar, wind and other technologies was being sabotaged by the fossil fuel industry. They struck in protest.

The very idea of “home” grew to be about planet Earth itself. Herself. A highly educated generation of humanity rose to a more highly evolved conscience, through which they placed Earth’s needs first.

In this simple peaceful revolution, Middle Americans learned how to create a new and sustainable world. We traded for things, shopped at second hand stores, stayed close to home and learned how to grow our own food, create our own energy, and share our resources. In cities, neighbors come together to build high rise greenhouses, and even floating community gardens. Cooperative farms popped up all over the country. Seeds became more valuable than money for awhile, especially ones that were clean and not genetically modified. (People finally figured out it was not such a good idea to eat grains that were engineered to blow up inside an insect’s stomach.)

Wind, solar, geothermal and wireless electromagnetic energy are now everywhere. The fossil fuel reserves are in safely in the ground, our nature’s saving account, in case of planetary emergency, just where Buckminster Fuller always said we should put them.

The whole world has been intentionally greened up like a Chia Pet. Lush green carbon sinks installed in all the big cities help immensely. Even China is all greened up these days. Huge storms, droughts and rising oceans are still happening, but the carbon numbers are dropping and things are starting to settle down. as we drop to a record low 250 ppm. Oil spills and water contamination from fracking are gone for good. The world is a much healthier place now that women’s ideas about governance and nurturance are now in place.

The most remarkable result of this revolution is how many people never had to go back to their meaningless jobs. Our high unemployment rate is now something we brag about – 38% and climbing, and soon, no one will have to “work” unless they really want to, otherwise it is no longer necessary to “earn a living” since energy is now free, and we have learned how to sustain ourselves even without money.

Creating a good life and raising happy families is what humans were always meant to do. In the new world, we all pitch in to educate our children through cooperative schools. We can turn out creative thinkers, not just non-thinking robots like we used to do.

Now people have more time to read and write and think, and there’s a renaissance of thought underway, a homespun enlightenment of mind and spirit.

Thank Nature we woke up in time! Oh, that was the other big change: Religion evolved when it dawned on humanity that God is Nature and Nature is God. In every area of life, once we learned to play by Nature’s rules, everything fell in place and Nature supported us.

“In Nature we Trust!” was the proclamation that officially acknowledged the revolutionary Middle American Movement. That’s exactly how it’s written on the new one dollar bill. Right under President Chelsea’s picture. Life is sure good in 2035!

Watch a quick video on saving the human race.

How to start a revolution

My self appointed task is to bring back Buckminster Fuller’s important ideas and serve them up in meaningful bite size pieces, so that average individuals can use them to help change the world. I believe this is do-able, because true genius is actually quite simple. Take Einstein’s E = mc2 for example. It’s easy to understand if explained simply: E represents units of energy, m represents units of mass, and c2 is the speed of light squared, or multiplied by itself. Because the speed of light is a very large number and is multiplied by itself, this equation points out how a small amount of matter can release a huge amount of energy, as in a nuclear reaction. The core of Bucky’s genius is even more simple. It’s all about triangles. Bucky’s Synergetic Geometry explains that a triangle is the fundamental building block of the universe, the strongest structure in existence. Modern science is proving him right. But what difference does this big scientific idea make to “ordinary little individuals” like you and me? Can a basic understanding of the physical realities of the universe actually affect our daily life? The answer is yes, if, that is, we want to survive as a species.

Bucky knew that if we understood how nature worked, we could use that knowledge to design a world that’s livable for humans and also works for nature. Nature is, after all, the perfect designer. She has been on the job for billions of years. Any living thing that doesn’t abide by nature’s rules becomes extinct. This is the pathway that many scientists fear the human race is on right now. To change that path, Bucky called for an “Anticipatory Design Science Revolution.” It sounds like an monster of an idea, but breaking it down makes it much more simple:
Anticipatory – Figuring out which way things are headed.
Design – Creating technologies and artifacts that work with that future.
Science – Accepting the absolute truth and priority of nature’s principles.
Revolution – Turning things upside down if necessary to make it happen.

The good news is that Bucky’s Design Science is happening. Designers all over the world are using nature’s design principles to inspire breakthrough inventions. Solar powered butterfly wings are teaching us how to make more efficient solar panels. Shark skins inspire better bathing suits. Velcro imitated prickly burrs. It’s become a whole new exciting field of design science, called Biomimicry. The question is whether or not the “revolution” part is happening. Is it scaling up quickly enough? There is no longer a question as to whether or not fossil fuels are contributing to our increasingly precarious relationship with mother nature. As Bucky put it so simply, using fossil fuels is “like burning up the house to keep the family warm.” The fact that we are currently allowing, even subsidizing, more and more desperate measures to extract fossil fuels (through fracking and Tar Sands and building huge new pipelines across continents) is surely evidence that the revolution has not yet begun. As Bucky put it in a myriad of ways, because tax-hungry government and money hungry corporations have not figured out how to place a meter between us and the sun, we are not allowed to enjoy the vast supplies of free (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, etc) energy that could be powering the world.

A recent study by the Nature Conservancy shows that the older generation still puts the economy first, ahead of the environment. Younger people are smarter. Young people instinctively know that economic cycles come and go, but that environmental change is forever. Nearly 70% of teens say the needs of the environment should come first, ahead of the economy. If our leaders were listening to them, the revolution would be well under way.

Another of Bucky’s favorite rules of nature is leverage, which explains how even a little individual can have great power. No matter what your age or station in life, you have power to influence others. Even if you cannot vote, you can post, you can tweet, you can speak and you can influence those who can and do vote. Bucky would have loved Facebook. In fact, Bucky knew the democratization of media technology was coming. When I met with Bucky in 1982, he explained a couple of times that in the future “We would be able to vote just by thinking.” I gave him my stupid blank look, thinking he meant we would all soon become psychic and that government would read our minds and carry out our will. Social media brings us pretty darn close to realizing the same objective of communicating instantly with each other and the world. Now if we could only figure out how to get people in power to listen to the will of the people. But wait, there are signs that this is also starting to happen. There was the whole Arab Spring thing, where students used social media to spread the word about when and why and how to gather in Tahrir Square in Egypt. In the 2011 elections in Nigeria, Africa, an estimated one million young people on smart phones connected with one another, even in areas where there is still no electricity. When Planned Parenthood let the world know that the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s had withdrawn their funding, the outcry on Facebook and Twitter was so great it only took four days for the Komen Foundation to reverse its decision. The anti-slavery You-tube video called KONY2012, aiming to stop a brutal man named Kony, got a million views faster than either Gaga or Justin Bieber ever had. If Facebook users were a country, it would be the third largest, behind China and India. The United Nations, which provided that statistic, also predicts that virtually everyone on the planet will have access to mobile technology by the year 2015.

This is affecting media too. People don’t just tweet and post about what’s going on, we comment about how the media is covering it. This is creating a whole new check on our government. These kinds of ‘checks and balances’ were the whole idea behind America’s new government back in 1776. The three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial, would keep checks on each other. And the fourth estate, the Media, would keep checks on it all. But then the other great power, the corporations, took over the reigns. By using their dollars to buy legislative representatives who would pass the right (wrong) laws and appoint the right (wrong) executives and judges, the checks and balances have been weakened. Social media can help build them back up. We can be the fifth estate. We can take power into our hands every time we pick up our phones. We can voice our opinions louder, quicker and easier than ever before. We can demand that government support technologies to create a clean energy world. We can demand a focus on the environment to create a better working relationship with our undeniable boss, mother nature. And guess what? All this will also create real jobs and a better economy.

If Bucky were alive today, I think he would ask us all to make political expression part of our daily routine. Twice a day: Brush your teeth, comb your hair, and speak your mind. Speak out about something you care about. Put some of that time you spend on digital media to work for the planet and the future and your fellow humans. Focus on the environment, peace and justice, whatever you care most about. If even a small percentage of the (seven plus billion) of us started doing this, the revolution would be underway in no time. Just like Einstein’s law, such a big concentration of something very small could release a huge amount of energy. Let’s get this revolution started.

Let’s give away the sun to the fossil fuel industry.

Since everyone except the fossil fuel industry seems to agree about the need to phase out fossil fuels as soon as possible, and the industry, understandably, has no interest in committing suicide, it is probably time for some big crazy ideas.

Here’s one, inspired by my attendance at the amazing Fuller Future Festival at Southern Illinois University: Let’s use some carrots in addition to the sticks and incentivize the fossil fuel industry to develop solar.

Let’s wrap the sun in a big petroleum plastic bow, and give it to them, at least for a while.

We would offer them a free, long-term lease, of, say, fifty years, in exchange for their leaving fossil fuels in the ground; and instead developing solar, wind and other clean energy technologies.

Of course, it sounds crazy. Most good ideas do at first. But how hard would it be really? We could craft an agreement that requires outstanding performance by the industry in developing clean energy technologies. In exchange, we would continue to pay for all of this new energy, and keep giving them the billions (now trillions?) in subsidies which taxpayers are now paying in order to subsidize our own demise.

The industry would be required to commit to developing solar and wind with the same reckless abandon they are now putting behind fracking and tar sands and other desperate measures. Those ridiculously risky activities would of course cease at once.

The industry gets the profits it needs. The rest of us get to survive. It’s a win win.

As Bucky said, “We can’t keep burning up the house to keep the family warm.”

Let’s give away the sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, anything it takes to buy our way out.

If anyone’s got a better idea, please share it. Time’s a wasting.

End Fossil fuel subsidies — before they end us!

It is long past time to cease altogether the $52 billion (or more) in subsidies and tax breaks paid to the US Fossil Fuel industry. Sign this quick petition to President Obama. With just 25,000 signatures, it will land on his desk! Put those billions into alternative energy development and we could start to steer this sinking ‘united spaceship planet earth’ onto a whole new course.

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