access file #83. play.

brookejarvis #FF: @drgrist and @mims are having a conversation that should help kick your week off in the right mood: grim despair.

access file #84. play.

mims Now that dangerous warming w/in our lifetimes is all but certain, enviros need new argument for not emitting http://www.grist.org/list/2011-10-23-dangerous-levels-of-warming-could-happen-in-your-lifetime (I.e. The policy debate should be about what happens when we get to 4, 5 or 6 degrees of warming.)

drgrist @mims Wait, huh? Why?

mims @drgrist I mean the new distinction needs to be between the problems on their way and the even worse problems that could be on the way. (Otherwise “climate change is inevitable” becomes the ultimate denialist fallback.)

drgrist @mims That’s been true for decades, though, no? It’s always been about how much damage, not whether there would be any.

mims @drgrist Yes and no. The debate has been about not exceeding 2degC. Now it’s about not getting to, say, 6.

drgrist @mims I guess I don’t see why that’s new. 2 degrees has always been wildly unlikely.

mims @drgrist Yet 2 is the subject of every international meeting and sets the agenda for the MSM. Not everyone talks to / reads the scientists.

drgrist @mims Even describing the consequences of 2 gets branded “fearmongering.” Imagine if we describe what’s *really* coming!

mims @drgrist True. 10,000 years of serene interglacial climate mean we have nothing, just nothing, to prepare us mentally.

drgrist @mims I’ve been thinking someone (you) needs to push back on the “the climate is always changing” thing. Not during modern civilization!

mims @drgrist That’s an interesting idea. It’s changed a bit (Medieval warm period etc.) but on the whole not much. Hmmm.

Sustainable2050 @mims @drgrist Let’s expose its ridiculosity. ‘What’s all the fuss on the Dow dropping 10% yesterday? It dropped 12% only 50,000 years ago!’

mims @Sustainable2050 Good metaphor. I wonder what global temperatures over past 10k years would look like as a stock price. @drgrist

FLAG: FILE #83 EDITED

access file #83. play.

brookejarvis #FF: @drgrist and @mims are having a conversation that should help kick your week off in the right mood: grim despair.

mims @brookejarvis It’s weird. I’m so far past despairing over this stuff. All I can think anymore is adapt, adapt, adapt.

brookejarvis @mims If only that were a more common response!

mims @brookejarvis Unfortunately on some level maybe it is? Hence less focus on mitigation. “We’ll just adapt.” As if.

access file #85. play.

spylark dear @mims @drgrist @brookejarvis: ‘adapt’ is baked into bankrupt market theory. this century like the last will be what it’s built. #ows

exit.

damn you, who light fireworks w/ your own hands to extol the birth of revolutionary fervor, but other days smother the dark moment’s match.

curse you who gain stature as the answer by means of deceit & treachery, by eliminating faithful questioners on whom good policy depends.

damn you to the very hell we’re making here, a devastated biosphere, our blood & only home from which, like a rat, you pick & hoard & flee.

so long waiting for our stories to account for everything & still end happily, for sleight of hand to be relegated to sideshow spectacle.

this is the place you punish yourself. you know there’s nothing here that’s not also you, and nothing here you can hate w/o being corrupted.

we speak, we dream, we give voice to all, our words alloying every element we wish, and when we’re open & dedicated we make real good tools.

spylark ~american conservatives have abandoned economics: when evidence says market prices are wrong, they attack the evidence~ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/markets-can-be-very-very-wrong/

ok. the credibility gap is incredible. the worst, and worst-timed, that stupid hot money can buy, dragging our civilization over the brink.

and the people asking “are we happy” make me ill. THE STRANGE NEW OCEAN nearly killed diana fucking nyad, and you guys are lighting incense?

corporate worshippers & market whisperers alike HEAR ME: you have corrupted your biophysical world; you have fouled your nest. YOU MUST ACT.

facing many planetary crises, knowing only the crap you were fed, it’s no surprise you want to be saved by a giant green alan greenspan.

you’re wicked proud of your global metafactory but you’ve no clue how to rip its guts for overhaul. your ‘loose nukes’ have more failsafes!

COAL IS WORSE THAN WEAPONS-GRADE PLUTONIUM. ask me why. ask me why. ask me why. BECAUSE EVERY DAY, PEOPLE BID TO DETONATE IT. to get rich.

can we all agree a strategic weapon people are not afraid to use should be categorically banned? we’ve known the coal threat. played dumb.

what @nytimeskrugman said, that conservative ‘economics’ has renounced market failures, stopped short. this is a global STRATEGIC failure.

we attack the future. we are death unleashing devastating biological weapons, casually continuing blood feuds embedded in our architecture.

if we choose not to put full muscle to averting tragedy — i don’t know how i’ll feel — frankly my brain cells’ sentimentality disgusts me.

i hope we can be what i think maybe some of the founders of our country hoped: truly free; truly able to choose a course based on knowledge.

i checked, no new cig holes in mattress.

U-6 UNEMPLOYMENT IN A FEW RECENT BIG OR HOTLY CONTESTED PRESIDENTIAL SWING STATES THAT ACTUALLY HAVE SOME PEOPLE IN THEM (APOLOGIES TO MONTANA)

let’s get the most recent numbers.

WA 18.7%
MO 15.0%
MI 19.6%
IN 15.9%
PA 14.0%
OH 15.6%
VA 11.8% (virginians vote themselves all the direct employment they need)
NC 17.5%
GA 17.4%
FL 18.4%

source http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm

and i closed with

mostly i’m wondering if & when this approach gets into the top pundit territory, or if they stay w/ comfy aggregate numbers.

ok so…

http://elections.firedoglake.com/2011/09/28/the-economy-in-the-swing-states-of-america/

first site i saw do like this, about 9 months later.

wasn’t really watching for it.

Extreme weather such as droughts, flooding, and record temperatures are only some of the indications that Earth’s climate is changing even faster than expected.

The science is clear that our fossil fuel pollution is harming the ecology of our planet, and that to protect our food, our water, our wildlife, and our future, we must deeply cut this pollution as well as better manage our natural resources.

Someday soon we may want to confront this crisis aggressively and even though our national politics is uncomfortable working on the problem now, we can still study our options, for when that day of action comes.

If we develop a 20-year national blueprint for reducing our climate impact by 80%, and keep that blueprint up to date, we will be both more ready and better informed for the future.

won’t YOU add your supporting signature? http://wh.gov/4yV !!

(it needs 150 signees to be visible to the searching public)

leave that, let’s just get the twitter convo written down.

RL_Miller Interesting contrast between #movingplanet and #occupywallstreet protests today. 1 protest angry, chaotic, confrontational; other, hopeful, organized, respectful, photogenic.

spylark @RL_Miller “#movingplanet vs #occupywallstreet” —quitting coal & replacing oil much easier than refusing money itself by damping FIRE sector

RL_Miller @spylark you really think that quitting coal and replacing oil is easy? ummm.

spylark @RL_Miller i said “much easier than refusing money itself” from banking sector

RL_Miller @spylark are you suggesting that we need to refuse money itself? what’s your alternative? I’m a little lost.

spylark @RL_Miller goldman complicit in housing crash, in banks-first recovery plan, in euro crisis. as toxic as exxon or peabody, but TBT-confront.

RL_Miller @spylark Wall St crisis isn’t existential threat to humanity. Climate crisis is. Hence, my priority.

spylark @RL_Miller right… nice people have the decency to ignore how finance-driven austerity measures are raising climate risk…

RL_Miller For new followers: yes, I’m a #singleissuehawk. Yes, I think my issue is more important than yours. Deal with it. Or unfollow.

RL_Miller @spylark Indirect connection btw finance-driven austerity measures, climate risk; very direct connection btw oil/coal, climate risk.

spylark @RL_Miller i can see how a moral person concentrating on rules could miss how chasing fat returns could lead the amoral to socialize risk

*crickets*

———

spylark i don’t see us going green w/o transforming finance. so watching democrats spit on #occupywallstreet is like watching the future piss away.

http://fdlbooksalon.com/2011/09/18/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-dean-baker/

…is a pretty good conversation about dean baker’s effort to change the angle of liberals’ attack.

unfortunately for my poor question i asked it using my known name, and also it took me 20 minutes to get registered and compose the sucker, as usual barely making it before the lights shut off.

dean:

your book focuses on the need for fair-deal types to counteract markets built by ‘flood-upwards economics.’ james k galbraith has said for years that the big federal category error is ‘fiscal responsibility’ aka the household budget metaphor. stiglitz of course champions fixing market failures, including ecological impact.

ok. al gore just finished a giant sales pitch for his 3000-strong crew of presenters, all around the world.

i realize the VP has a big budget, but a) would you consider a project along those lines, reintroducing progressive econ to a union-less party-less america; and b) what would be your main topics?

*crickets*

after the crickets finished they said maybe the first paragraph was too pushy, and the “union-less party-less” came off glib. i tried to explain to the crickets that i meant those institutions no longer had social presence but they’d already left to see a movie.

———

when i erased stiglitz’s warfare cost analyses, i meant no disrespect to the dead or grieving. i think of massive war as a psychic market failure.

http://inhabitat.com/nyc/the-insert-here-project-paints-bright-yellow-arrows-around-the-city/

haha i’ll send that funny thing

insert WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY to build a great economy — with CLEAN energy… DIVERSIFIED transport… & ZERO waste — but DO WE HAVE THE GUTS? here

hmm, let’s us rules hard & play by the work, as the man sez

insert NATIONAL CLEAN ENERGY SUPER GRID here

insert PETROLEUM-FREE FARMING here

insert SWIFT SILKY SIPPY BUSES here

insert 100% SELF-PROPELLED BUILDINGS here

insert BATTERY-ASSIST BICYCLES here

insert ZERO INDUSTRIAL WASTE here

insert PENTAGON-SCALE COAL PHASEOUT here

insert WILD OCEAN PROTECTION here

insert EASY HONEST SOLAR FINANCING here

insert HEALTH WEALTH & WISDOM here

insert WOMAN POWER here

insert MORE VEGETABLES here

insert NON-TOXIC PROSPERITY here

insert PLANETARY THINKING here

insert VIEW OF DISTANT OFFSHORE TURBINES here

insert EASY BREATHING here

insert INVENTION IN PLACE OF EXTRACTION here

insert FUTURE FORWARD VISIONS here

insert URBAN FOREST here

insert NEW CENTURY RULES here

insert COMMON CAUSE here

insert COMPOSTABLE TAXIS here

all done g’night

———

do you want to see others? they sparkled less, in the night.…

————

oh http://evemosher.com/2008/insert-_____-here/

ah http://insert-here.org/

these were meant to be literal local greenization improvements.

art & infrastructure…

http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/2011/09/infrastructure-has-another-meaning-too.html

beltway & barrio…