Being Green

I watched this video by Just Have a Think’s, Dave Borlace.

Just Have a Think Independent Youtube Channel dedicated to Climate Change issues and mitigation technologies.

I watch most of his presentations. They are easy to digest, and if you skip past the Climate Emergency narrative then there is always something to take away either in terms of awareness of what you do and how it may be affecting the environment or just some whizzy new tech that at some point may start to make it past the vested interests of the fossil fuel industries into the mainstream.

There are some mixed messages in the paragraph above. I caveat that as long as you can skip past the Climate Emergency narrative, there is always something to learn but it is indicative of scepticism. But then go on to say something that looks like I’m not into fossil fuels for the long-term future … what’s going on?

Linked below is a paper from Bjorn Lomborg, wikipedia.org Bjorn Lomborg

Sciencedirect.com Bjorn Lomborg Paper

Well, the thing is, I think both polarised sides of the climate argument have now become industries upon which livelihoods depend, and therefore a certain amount of objectivity has been made absent by default. I’m not going to reiterate either side’s arguments here. There are so many papers, presentations, and arguments, and most of us know them all, as they are on perpetual repeat in all forms of media. What this overload does do is make making informed choices difficult. The advice in the Just Have a Think presentation is sound, however, only in so far as it is affordable. Getting all hair shirt and flagellating yourself is bad for you, bad for your mental health, and probably pretty bad for people around you. You will become an idolater, within an ideology, under the auspices of ideologues.

When I was younger, and before the internet became a thing, I’d been pretty much indoctrinated into the Global Warming cult and the fear of the `End of Days’. However, over time apocalyptic warnings came and went and things stayed `sort of the same', with a few aberrations here and there. Climate Alarmists (just using this for ID purposes) would cite the aberrations as examples of extreme weather events and a symptom of climate change. Climate Change sceptics or deniers (just using this for ID purposes), would suggest that records don’t go back far enough and there are no guarantees that extreme but unrecorded events haven’t always taken place throughout history, sunspots, interglacial periods etc.

So where does that leave me personally? It’s interesting, and the reason I posted the link to the Just Have A Think Video, is because having sat through it, I find that likely as not the indoctrination into the Climate Alarmist branch in practical terms has been stronger than the scepticism but at a subliminal level. Put another way, I've responded to fear of the future at my/our own cost.

What does that mean? In simple terms, almost all the carbon footprint mitigation measures you can take on a day-to-day basis … I/we do.

For instance, nothing sits on standby, we have solar panels and battery (we feed the grid, and the grid dumps excess energy into our smart battery), we don’t waste food, we upcycle, we compost, we volunteer (though that’s more to do with litter picking than climate per se, though nowadays oddly the two seem to have been conflated). We do have four vehicles, the camper still lives, we have the big gas guzzler because it’s still very useful in this part of the world to have four-wheel drive and a shed load of torque and room for guests from far away (seven seat XC90), The Alfa (which is hopefully going soon), and Amanda’s latest addition a little Mazda 2 that sips fuel. We both use it for the nipping about locally. All our lights except in the bathroom are LED -The bathroom light fittings and lamps need to be replaced to move to LED. We have clay cored radiators, and a Defra approved wood-burner, and only burn arboricultural waste (that’s all the grotty offcuts from forestry operations, kiln-dried, and we use it sparingly). We don’t burn coal. We have also replaced all our external double-glazing for a Low-Iron glass, warm seal type. We have also messed about with our loft insulation and plan to do more up the loft and have even thought about losing 50mm off the inside of the outer facing walls to add more insulation.

So, all this said, clearly, I’m a Greeny through and through.

Well, no, not really. I do practical things to save money, to reduce our bills and keep our home environment stable, as much for my abundant house plants as for economics or the external environment. That isn’t to say I don’t care about the environment, clearly, I do ... I go and pick up other peoples discarded litter from beaches, Rhyne’s, Lanes and paths. We garden for insects as much as for ourselves (apparently the entire insect apocalypse thing has been equally overblown in the media over the last decade, more about that another time).

In the paper linked above `Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies.’ There is a counter-narrative to the climate emergency narrative and somewhere between these poles is sanity. Somewhere between these positions is common sense. In essence, people care less about the environment than they do about education and health. If you were to believe the mainstream media the environment is the greatest cause for concern.

 

I am not a Greeny by ideology, but I get that in previous centuries we extracted 220million years’ worth of fallen and compacted trees and burnt them in furnaces to create the modern world and that in many places that burning of coal still goes on. I get that Carbon Dioxide hangs around in the atmosphere for a long time. I also get from an arboricultural perspective that trees are carbon sinks, and of all the plant forms on land they are the largest and support the largest eco-systems individually and as a copse or wood (of any size). Caveat this may not be the case in a plantation … in fact the exact opposite in terms of monoculture.

 

If you take those two bits of knowledge (atmospheric carbon, plants as sequestration devices) and add in the compound word bio-diversity you move in the direction of understanding carbon offsetting. But, not really, and the reason for not really, is because trees are only a tiny part of the bio-diversity part of the equation. And Biodiversity is a stupid term because it tells you nothing. It’s a trendy word, another catch-all that manages to miss the point.

 

Biodiversity; It implies that if you are bio-diverse you have a great many species. Frankly so what. What you are actually interested in is Bio-Mass. Never have two terms gotten in such a mess.

 

Bio-Mass if you ask people about it, would relate to boilers and energy crops (of the seven times it's mentioned in the linked paper, it is in regards to fuel).

 

Bio-diversity. A cynic would suggest that the word diversity has been pushed front and centre just because it allows the word diversity to be used more often. And is a useful way of leveraging opinion about `human diversity' as a parallel to natures raw diversity, by indicating that natural diversity and human diversity are the same things. There are parallels, they aren’t the same thing. But from an identity politics, perspective binding climate to social justice using a common framework of words is a useful strategy (I may have over-thought this).

 

Bio-mass, on the other hand, is the sum of living and dead organic matter, all that matter is sequestered carbon. A tree has roots, those roots are exponentially extended by mycelial structures (Mycorrhiza). In the soil, about and around a root system there is a plethora of sub-soil species from bacteria up the chain to invertebrates and beyond … it’s quite diverse, but for our purposes it also contains mass. The mass is sequestered from the exchange of gases, water and minerals in the soil and above the soil by living organisms and natural processes such as rainfall, weathering, birth and death. These natural cycles sequester and diffuse CO2 from the soil and the atmosphere, it’s called the Carbon Cycle.

 

What happens if you create vast mono-culture crops? You lose biodiversity in an area. But in relative terms you still have biodiversity generally, after all, all the insects that have come to our gardens (front and back) over the seven years we have been here, had to come from somewhere else. They didn’t spontaneously generate by an act of god in the presence of Daffodils or Dahlias.

 

So, what’s really happened in our imaginary monoculture? It’s lost bio-mass in relative terms.

 

While we have been burning coal, we have also been changing soil use, creating more monocultures, losing biomass and losing the ability to store CO2, in all areas from plants in all locations on land and to some extent in the seas, but also from the Chitin in exoskeletons of insects and arthropods to bones and flesh of all living creatures in a given area. When you cut down a tree, you lose a lot more than a tree above ground. Beneath the ground, the change would be slower, but you are still likely to suffer a net loss in time.

 

If you say what I have said above, you will, I will be pilloried because it suggests climate change denialism/scepticism. However, I do believe we have and can change the climate and that global climate changes can influence weather locally, non-specifically, and randomly, be that storms or drought and every permutation in between. What irks me is this fixation on emissions, when from what I can see and find there is very little on biomass in terms of all up annual and decadal net sequestration (in our context, I’m only talking about terrestrial biomass, I have no clue as to the real state of our seas and oceans). All living things are made of carbon in our context. And the worlds great natural carbon sinks are being eaten away (habitat loss), biomass loss. So, while you can do things at home to offset your `Carbon Footprint’, in relative terms, until you are given explicit instruction about natural carbon sinks, you are barely doing half the job required.

 

I look around our town at the vast areas of garden land concreted, paved or gravelled over and think about all those people who haven’t in any way shape or form been persuaded by the green argument to assist the atmosphere by growing stuff, or they have been confused by the messaging solely orientated to reducing emissions, and how putting up a bug hotel is going to save the planet (without supporting infrastructure -plants- a bug hotel is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard).

 

I have no scientific background and I could be so far off the mark here as to be laughable, but having read, having watched, having listened and thought I can’t help but think that climate alarmism isn’t working, and that (excuse the conflation) the same tactic of ramped up fear around Covid, demonstrates that people who are put in fear do less positive things not more, and in some cases actually, push back because they have lost hope. This all said the lifestyle changes in the Just Have a Think video presentation, will save you money in the longer term, and perhaps if it makes you feel a bit warm and fuzzy, you will do more. Positive reinforcement as opposed to the negativity of lost hope.

Video Editing Software

Out in the world of computers, there has been Nerdist current for decades (Nerds are good). I have spent an hour or two trying to find some video editing software because the free Google App I used to use has been retired.

I found a few free Apps out there but with conditions (trial periods, watermarks, only online etc). All the big names are out there. But, I don't want to pay a monthly subscription or an extortionate one-off fee for something I am going to use rarely. So, I went looking, and I found VSDC video editor. I did think about using Movie Maker from Microsoft, but I need just a little bit more oomph.

As GIMP is to Photoshop, so VSDC is to editing videos (Tech Radar rates it 4 stars). It's a project run by nerds. You get a fully featured video editing suite. If you want to get the professional version you can, but if you are unsure and or just dipping your toes in then this software is for you, and it shares a heritage with all those Shareware gurus that in the dim distant past (the 1980s) made the wider world of computing more accessible, more friendly and grew the base of users, until we reached the point we have today, where everything is monetized, everything requires a subscription, or your most personal details ... or the blood of your firstborn.

If you are willing to put yourself in the hands of people that make great software because that's what they enjoy doing. Then look a bit further than the off-the-shelf stuff, and support people that are interested in making great, accessible rich software, not £billions.

I shall let you know how I get on with it as time goes by.

Video Editing @ videosoftdev.com/

Tech Radar Review (2018)

Title repeated verbatim (Tracking water storage shows options for improving water management during floods and droughts).

I genuinely don't understand how first-world countries manage to get into severe drought conditions in terms of potable water, and essential water for agricultural purposes.

In the UK for instance, we have had two years of spring drought in the south and yet, to coin a phrase `You need to grow webbed feet to live in the North West'. Climate may affect weather patterns and precipitation, but when an estimated 92k-litres of fresh rain water falls on the roof of every house in the Uk annually, and when you have land and technology to create reservoirs (and potentially a water grid ... thinks canal network upgrades), the issue is no longer one of the environment but becomes one of planning, investment and the will to plan and invest.

If nothing else this article proves that common sense is not common.

Tracking storage options droughts

The Joe Rogan Experience (Afghanistan and US Intervention Policies).

In this video, Joe Rogan posits a TinFoil Hat conspiracy theory. I have commented as below.

I think as tinfoil hat conspiracies your one is weak (no disrespect intended). I would argue a more tinfoil hat conspiracy would be that the US has left Afghanistan, and left vast hoards of weapons behind deliberately to arm the Taliban in the hope that they travel to western China to demonstrate their displeasure at the CCP's treatment of Uyghurs.

It seems insane from this distance that the Taliban would consider the US a greater threat to Islam than the CCP. As a thought experiment, drop Israel out of the US/Middle-East equation and then look at the US/Middle-East relationships. Where are the pinch points between the US and the greater Muslim world? Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and yet the greater Muslim world is far larger than that, extending as it does into the Indian Ocean and South Pacific region. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that the US trades with almost all countries that are predominantly Islamic globally (If not by political systems, just as an over-arching religious denomination).

Why then would the Taliban see the US as their main enemy, when right on Afghanistan's border lies the CCP's territory (I don't want to say China explicitly because clearly, the people aren't necessarily the party), and the CCP, is by dint of `alleged' forced sterilisation of Uyghur women (amongst other measures) effectively removing an entire generations ability to reproduce. That is exactly how species become extinct, that is eugenics and genocide.

The conspiracy then is: Allow the Taliban to have advanced weaponry, and nudge them in the direction of the CCP's territory in hope that the CCP gets caught up with cross border insurgency, and is stymied by the kind of terrorism that the US and Europe have suffered for decades.

PS: Love the show.

Joe Rogan (Afghanistan and US Intervention Policies) 

Russell Brand on the `Alleged' Covid cover up (Better known as the lab leak hypothesis).

It's very easy to get caught up in the mele surrounding Covid. It's politicized, has been used as a lever (is being used as a lever, politically and socially and probably many other ways too). On all sides there is culpability, clearly, America outsourced looking at Bat viruses to China. China took the money and ultimately did a shoddy job. 4.5million people have died and that represents a lot of eggs on a lot of faces. No one wants the bill for that in the courts, and no one wants to put the CCP over its knee and spank it with some artillery, in spite of its overt aggression elsewhere.

Like the virus itself, containment of hostilities is the current game. So now we find ourselves in the position that it's actually not in any official person's interest to get to the bottom of things and apportion blame. I don't want to say `we are where we are', but I'd be an idiot not to say it. All we the people can do is let those in control know that the system they use to hold secrets resembles a colander and the truth will out. That truth may be denied by the arbiters of powers, however, if you apply Occam's razor, all the evidence suggests The Wuhan Institute of Virology, made a mistake, the local CCP then went on to compound and confound that mistake (probably for fear of the party rather than the response of the wider world, paradoxically). 

Conveniently now, attention has been dragged kicking and screaming away from Covid to Afghanistan, where I rather suspect the next level of proxy war will be battled out online. Covid will fall off a cliff unless an actual `virulent' variant emerges. And thanks to the mainstream media's perverse handling of the CCP's misinformation as truth because `Orange Man Bad'. They too have so much egg on their face, it's far better to sweep `cause' under the blanket, and find a new crisis to see us through to Autumn, in the hope that vaccination ends Covids dominance of the headlines.

 Russell Brand on the `alleged' Covid cover up.

Obesity research

Another fascinating article. I keep a fairly close eye on this sort of material. Obviously, obesity is a massive issue (no pun intended) for individuals and healthcare systems. With the recent focus on gut flora and fauna deficiencies, it seems that the contention that obesity is the product of a sedentary lifestyle and greed may be far wide of the mark. 

Moreover, there is early-stage research that suggests poor or deficient `good' gut flora may be allowing the proliferation of bad gut flora, which may, in turn, be releasing neuro-chemicals into obese peoples bodies, that make those people ingest things that feed the bad gut flora. 

The consequence of this is that a person gets obese, and may not have any real control over the process because they are being driven by a parasitic third system.

I will try and find the article and post a link to it. 

Neuro-immune-interactions-deep-fat

Nuclear Fusion

I'm not going to wibble on about nuclear fusion, I'm just posting a link to an article published on Phy.org yesterday regarding the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US achieving ignition at their facility. 

In summary, Ignition is the fusion state, at which point the fusion becomes self-sustaining and potentially outputs more energy than is input. This is a big deal, read the article to find out more follow the link below.

Phys.org article about nuclear FUSION ignition.

Lately.

Aside from the post below, all I have done for the last four or five months is write, read, fill in forms and do housework.

I have over a hundred thousand words in one novel, and close to twelve thousand in another. This is why blogging has fallen by the wayside in the main. It’s not that I don’t want to write for the blog, after all, there is so much to talk about at the moment personally and in the wider world. The issue is time, eyestrain, and the ability to concentrate.

I shall leave this post at this point here and try to elaborate some more later. The one thing I will announce is that I have a new desk chair. This is will hopefully assist with writing novels, blog posts, etc, but will also allow me to make some Metal Earth models I’ve had for close to two years gathering dust.

Afghanistan and the Taliban's return (what should the west do now?).

Should the west, UK, Europe, Canada, US, Australia open the doors to all Afghans that want to leave Afghanistan? (and other oppressive nations)? Thus, rather than allowing those people to fall to resentment and misery under oppressive regimes, just drain their home nations blood by non-violent means.

Let Darwin do the rest, after all, what with a preference for male heirs, and minimising education, these medieval cultures are on the slow road to self eradication anyway.

An Afghan nurse, plumber, architect, shopkeeper, estate agent, banker is an asset, but not if they are not allowed to leave their home without a chaperone. It's a waste to leave these people to the Taliban.

I get the sleeping terrorist worry. But, there are going to be two likely outcomes from the Taliban takeover. Mass refugees leaving, living wasted existences on borders elsewhere, or subtle unreported massacres.
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I'd love to be wrong. I'd love for the Taliban to bring stability and peace to the region after what must be close to four decades of strife since the Russian invasion, never mind the decades of internal strife prior to that.
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This is one of those opportunities if it can be framed right. Uplift all those who want out and drop them into free societies, where they can have their cultural identity in the mix of all other cultures, and prevent the likely genocide which will ensue if the Taliban are true to form. 

The Taliban will have their Ideological Utopia, and they will invariably murder their way to it. Why not for the first time in umpteen decades, defuse it? Just rescue those that don't want to be treated no better than farmyard animals. And leave the new Afghanistan to the ideologues.
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Yes, there could be a counter-insurgency, and if people want to stay and fight, crack on. But those that don't want to fight, and just want to live a life, have kids, hobbies, friends, whatever. Just pick them up and demonstrate why the western way is better in spite of its faults. And give the miserable religious Luddites their land to fuck up as they will. And when their infrastructure has crumbled, their intelligentsia has left and all the weapons they looted at this time are worn out, they can look on the wider decadent world, and how well it's doing and contemplate rethinking their thinking.
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The alternative if we get involved again is decades more war, trying to repatriate people back to their native lands from shitty camps in `nowhere and no prospect' land. And all the while there could be genius being lost or wasted through living hand to mouth. 

Just the existence of refugees at this juncture of history demonstrate how far we have yet to climb on the civilisation ladder.

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

The Taliban