OpenSource Protest

Occupy has become an Open-Source Protest movement for "Social Justice"! Its got that hopeful crazy imagination of true democracy and it just could rattle this "greed is good" economy to its rotten core (i.e the 1%)? It feels about as aimless as Wikipedia, OpenOffice.org, Firefox and Linux!? No-one seems to be in charge but a common good shared by passion and intelligence is driving a powerful theme spreading like an organism for change.

The theme is becoming "income inequality", the API codes are social networking and the endgame is awareness.  Whether its Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Toronto, Occupy Boston, Occupy London, Occupy Europe or Occupy the World?, awareness is on the rise.

Now comes the rub!? Democracy starts to question the wealth accumulation of the 1% and now government begins to question the value of a free internet? According to the Guardian Newspaper, he US Congress is considering a bill that could greatly restrict Internet free speech.Then Mayors try to turf protesters into the cold night and out of their prosperity.

Now awareness becomes a swell of thousands of 99% protesters moving through the streets of New York on Nov.17 as Bloomberg and his 1% may become a catalyst for change. This is getting so interesting!
This could become an historical struggle for equal opportunity and free speech? A protest that causes Bloomberg`s sphincter to tighten as the 1% circle their vaults and cry for control.

This is really about hope and opportunity. Too many people without hope equals social unrest as history shows time and again. "We learn from history that we never learn anything from history." Hegel   
Sometimes I get sucked into the thought, "this time its different and we are truly fracked ", but then I read another internet account of Occupy and the fire is relit. This really is a powerful code! Open source protest!  Keep internet free speech accessible and Occupy the Truth! And the truth is that there is not equal opportunity but that there can be whether they like it or not!

"Occupy all governments with the code of equal opportunity for you and I"

A relevant photo borrowed from Atlantic online!

Solar on the Cheap, Almost!

"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right"   George Harrison

Last night I was debating the necessary advantages of Ontario`s new renewable energy feed-in tarrif as a neccesary first step in saving ourselves from, well ourselves!? You may know my rant, "man-made global warming" solved with man-made global solutions! My debating friends were loud and skeptical and seemed to have no use for higher hydro rates as an acceptable adversary for Global Warming. I guess they`re worried that without cheap coal powered hydro that we won`t be able to afford our next 100 inch flat screen TV. But how much will that TV really cost? How much black carbon can your lungs manage and how many billions in storm damage from "climate change" can we wager on the stuff we want more than we need?

The jury is in and the credible scientific community doesn`t dispute the problem so now it`s fast time to solutions. I wrote previously about Ray Kurzweil`s predictions of 16 years to cheap and abundant solar power but now a Nobel prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, is talking cheap solar. Krugman measures everything that he predicts or recommends and the future is looking pretty clear if we can bear a short term cost for an alternative infrastructure? Here comes the Sun!

http://climaterealityproject.org/2011/11/07/krugman-soon-solar-will-be-cheaper-than-coal/

Solar Fever

"If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'. "     Bob Dylan

Solar power is coming at an historically feverish pace that will probably even raise the investment sphinters of the likes of Exxon and Chevron etc.   It feels too slow to you and me but a genesis is planted and this fossil fuel dependence is growing old at a transendental rate of change!

These photos show the World`s largest Solar Plant in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada (as of Oct.2010 at 80+MW). Of course that status may be changing as the these plants are springing up around the world and Solar moves forward exponentially to eventual dominance in sourcing world energy needs?
But don`t take my word for it. Google "Ray Kurzweil", scientist, inventor and visionary and think about his Solar predictions? He states that (due to progress in nano-technology applied to solar) solar will replace fossil fuels as a cheap and abundant energy generator within 16 years! I hope he`s as right on this as he usually is?

So Ray predicts that cheap and abundant solar power will replace fossil fuels within 16 years!? Now that`s a future with "blue sky" potential. The future looks very bright indeed!

99% of the Future

Whether it`s citizenship or whether it`s morality, things that you want to change in the world have to start inside yourself. You can`t just acquiesce. You can`t be at the mall with a fannypack on, scratching your nuts, buying sneakers with lights in them. You have to be thinking. You have to be resisting. You have to be talking." George Carlin

Sometimes I wonder if 'resistance is futile" but then along comes a protest that never seems to end? Sure the efforts of some of this 99% movement seems less focused than it might but the seeds are being planted and the protests could soon separate the usual economic evangelism from some truth? It could inspire enough pressure to frame a voice for "fair and just economics" that resonates on a global level so fervent that the 1% might consider more prozac and less tax breaks for their angst?

Can non-violent protest move us out of this Corporate crazy casino economy before we drown in a neo-feudalism or environmental catastrophe? Will modern liberalism finally grab the ball and champion equality before its too late? I don`t want to sound a desperate rant from Canada where we seem to believe that we are immune and that our government does it better, but I think these World Wide Occupy protests could be just in time for all of us!  Canada is sitting on a time bomb of consumer debt and growing income inequality that seems to easy to ignore? But are we not an economic model for the world?

Even the staidly conservative Conference Board of Canada is raising the alarm. The median income of middle class Canadians has risen 5.5% over a 33 year stretch through 2009. That`s less than nothing with inflation adjustments while the wealthy are doing so much better (looks like that stat is probably duplicated around the developed World). And surely these moneyed folk deserve it more than most? Hence why else would Canada`s income gap between the wealthy and poor be rising faster that it does in America?

We`ve all heard the story of CEO`s who make 400 times an average employee (which 30 years ago was 40 times the average grunt) or the extravagant bonuses paid to even those executives that fail. Hence more wealthy folk who are "to big to fail". There must be some strategic value to this that our Politicans understand and that we just don`t get!? After all they always look so competent in the veneer of Corporate suits and experience?

While our Government and Consumer debt have been rising like Wall Street bonuses (Bay Street over here), some cracks are showing in that governing Corporate veneer! The elderly poverty rate is rising steadily since the 90`s (Conference Board of Canada) , many of our Canadian Native population lives in 3rd world conditions,  1 in 7 Canadian children live in poverty (Conference Board of Canada) and that stat has risen steadily since the 90`s. Tie the cost of these problems together with the recent National Roundtable Report that predicts an adaptation cost of $5 billion per year for Global Warming and we are likely looking at a fiscal balancing act that can`t really afford the 1% perks!

That`s what I like about these Protests of frustration. It gives us a chance to openly debate and makes it difficult to ignore some truth. We are failing as "Our Brother`s Keeper`s" and we can`t afford to make the changes that will right these ships of State without some comprehensive reform to the way we do Government for the people. That`s including 99% of the people! If we truly believe in Democracy as "Government for all the People" then we need to raise tax revenue and stop unnecessary spending. Yeah, I know this is not new ground breaking rocket science but it is a bitter truth.

For example, could we all spend less on our "War Machines" and "Penal Colonies" (Canada is looking to spend Billions more on Prisons we don`t need?) and look to more cost efficient solutions in these areas. We can all guess how much we can save here? Enormous dollars! Meanwhile how about "handling the truth" that we need to raise tax revenue to fund a "good society". The rich can pay more in income tax, capital gain tax and dividend tax. Ask Warren buffet? We need a Carbon Tax to fuel our energy future and we need significant tax cuts for the poor and middle class so that equality in opportunity becomes more than empty politics. And plenty of smarter people than I have more to offer in a plan for this "Good and Just Society" that I insist is still possible?

The point of this blog was inspired by the words of one of my favourite free thinkers, George Carlin, but the heart of it is rising in the streets through the Occupy Protests of Frustration going on world wide.  Don`t pay attention to the media crap from Elitists protecting their collectives asses by calling the protests pointless and aimless. These money people are very worried and are starting to realize that they broke a trust. A trust to at least at minimum be their "brother`s keeper". They couldn`t even maintain a minimal trust while they gorged on Bonuses and Bailout money!? I just hope Canada can avoid the absolute political denial of our good neighbours who keep spending without consideration of the need to raise tax revenue to balance budgets. We can`t accept more politicians who won`t or can`t "handle the truth!" These protests are a "candle in the dark"!! A Beacon for a Just Society!

"Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top" Sage

Liars, Deniers and the Ugly Future of Climate Change

"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."  ?

I`m an average tax paying Canadian reading the morning news and mews on a Macbook with my sensory alarms running hot. Today I focus on the Environment and the news is not good! i.e headlines such as "Doctors Claim that Climate Change is the Greatest Threat to Public Health or We`re Beyond the Earth`s Carrying Capacity Now or Global Food prices expected to Climb and get more Volatile because of Global Warming."  But how can that be? The sky is blue, the forecast is cool and life goes on here in "neverland" Canada as it always has. This news must be shite and I`m going to talk my neighbour into idling her Hummer a little longer so that we can get the temperature up where it should be? Where is this damn Global Warming that everyone is whining about?

I`ve got to do a little research on this global warming crap and see what real Scientists are saying? I`ll start with "SkepticalScience.com" which sounds like me. Here`s some of their thoughts:

"the debate on the authenticity of global warming and the role played by human activity is largely nonexistent among those who understand the nuances and scientific basis of long-term climate processes”. (Doran 2009). In other words, more than 95% of scientists working in the disciplines contributing to studies of our climate, accept that climate change is almost certainly being caused by human activities.We should also consider official scientific bodies and what they think about climate change. There are no national or major scientific institutions anywhere in the world that dispute the theory of anthropogenic climate change. Not one.  In the field of climate science, the consensus is unequivocal: human activities are causing climate change."

Ok not good. What about Wikipedia, they usually have the answer?

National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed the current scientific opinion, in particular on recent global warming. These assessments have largely followed or endorsed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) position of January 2001 which states:   An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system... There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.^[1] No scientific body of national or international standing has maintained a dissenting opinion; the last was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, which in 2007 updated its 1999 statement rejecting the likelihood of human influence on recent climate with its current non-committal position.^[2][3] Some other organizations, primarily those focusing on geology, also hold non-committal positions.

All right! Finally some common sense and as usual it comes the "American Association of Petroleum Geologists". I mean if you can`t trust Exxon then who the hell can you trust? They are a true Bullwort in the fight against "scientific nonsense"!

Just as I feel my Oily confidence getting real this damn "National Roundtable of Canada" comes out with their government sponsored study claiming that man-made Global Warming will cost Canada billions of dollars in damage by 2020? They`re saying we`ll have to spend $5 billion per year adaptation costs at that point and $43 billion per year by 2050!? Shite what will that cost the Americans if Canada gets dinged that hard? How did our government let these guys publish this dubious report?

Luckily our Environment Minister has this covered. He says Canada is putting $58 million away per year to cover this problem. That gives us 464 million adaptation dollars in the bank by 2020. Ok, so that`s only a tenth of the first year`s cost but I`m sure Kent and Prime Minister Harper have a plan. Probably they`ll print more dollars at 0% interest until our needs are met. Simple strategy. We`ve learned it well from the "Greatest Nation on Earth" and the deserved needs of our pampered civilization are met once again.

And if the printing press fails to satisfy our needs the Government has other obvious options. These "think tank" Science guys just don`t understand modern economics. We`ll just bring in some "Wall Street" brainiacs and put that $464 million into a government sponsored "Hedge Fund" that invests in "Oil and Gas Derivatives" that make so much money we won`t be able to understand its worth. Awesome, its like a free slot machine that you keep rolling until you get what you want. As Michael Moore might say "Capitalism is our Love Story" and Wall Street is our girl friend! You gotta love it!

Sure, you`d think the odds aren`t good with less than 5% of Scientists on my side and Roundtables or Intergovernmental Panels stacking up on the side of Scientific probability, but I`ve got help. Fox news, Rush Limbaugh, Rex Murphy at the CBC, the National Post and plenty of good sensible U.S. Senators are disputing these silly Scientific Truths more vehemently than I am. This gives me that warm and Oily confidence that Exxon will continue to make the most profit in the history of capitalism and that our Governments will print their asses off to maintain the status quo. This scientific truth nonsense doesn`t have a chance in this mighty Oil and Coal Kingdom! Praise the future of Climate Science!

"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. "      Carl Sagan

Back to the Future with Solar Power

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems." Mahatma Gandhi

Not long ago, on a slow night in a Panama City Bed and Breakfast, I was reading through a stack of old National Geographic magazines. In a 1979 edition, I happened on a full page advertisement on the future of Solar Power sponsored by the Exxon Corporation. Yeah, I know it sounds like a hallucination but this really happened, Exxon talking Solar.

Meanwhile, at that same moment in 1979, the US President Jimmy Carter, was installing Solar panels on the Whitehouse. This was shaping up as a pivotal moment in history with America leading the world into a Greener Future where even Exxon was considering the profit of alternatives. But suddenly it was 1980, a new President (Regan) was elected and the Oil industry was to become more heavily subsidized than the Planet might endure. An opportunity was wasted as we stepped back in time.

Stepping forward, circa 2011, the Sun is shining as I watch a Utube rendition of a US President`s State of the Nation. Obama speaks of America`s "Sputnik" moment as an opportunity to create Green jobs for a stronger, future economy. I`m getting a little excited after too many debates with friends regarding Canada`s need to go Green. These days Canada has become a follower, we can`t wipe our butts unless America does their`s first, and we need some help scrubbing the Oil from our eyes. Oil is going to be part of our future but does it need to be all of our future?   Is this finally a revival of Jimmy Carter`s Gaian moment 22 years late? Has America seen the light? Will Canada finally consider a future beyond the Oil Sands and Climate Change?

Now the US Energy dept is talking "Sun Shot" in the same light as John Kennedy`s inspirational "Moon Shot" talk of the 1960`s. Their "Sun Shot" goal is to reduce the cost of Solar energy by 75%. According to a noted Scientist and Visionary, Ray Kurzweil, this is not only achievable but inevitable. He sees nanotechnology applied to Solar leading to exponential growth in Solar delivery that will provide 100% of our energy needs in 16 years.

This sounds like a wake up call for the future ride of energy? If Obama can make this happen, the world had  better get on board or move to the back of the bus for this "Solar Shot" rocket. The science is coming and if America is onboard we`ll probably be landing on the Sun sooner than later!

 "I`d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don`t have to wait till coal and oil run out before we tackle that."       Thomas Edison