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~ Remembering that life is a comedy and the world is a small town.

Larry Muffin At Home

Category Archives: climate change

100 Seconds

23 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by larrymuffin in climate change

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

100 seconds, Atomic, Doomsday clock, Nuclear, pollution

I suppose that 100 seconds is 1 minute 40 seconds, a strange way to measure time but the reason why scientists now measure in seconds instead of minutes on the Doomsday Clock is because we are so close to Midnight which is the end of the World that minutes won’t do anymore. We only have seconds left if our leaders do not act to bring us back from the brink.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said today (Thursday) that the change was due to nuclear proliferation, failure to tackle climate change and cyber-based disinformation.

The clock now stands at its closest to doomsday since it began ticking in 1947. The idea began in 1947 to warn humanity of the dangers of nuclear war. The clock was first created by US scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the world’s first nuclear weapon.

The Board who makes the decision to advance the hands on the doomsday clock is composed of 13 Nobel Laureates in science and this year they are joined in their decision by The Elders, a group of international leaders and former officials first founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007.

The World is now under threat by powerful leaders who denigrate and discard the most effective methods for addressing complex threats. DAVOS Economic Summit is taking place this year and we heard President Trump laugh at Greta Thunberg and dismiss all concerns on climate change. Today he proposed to dismantle more environmental protection in the USA and he gets applause by his base. Humanity is delusional at this point and we are all a little guilty of it.

_110626008_doomsday_clock_hour_clock640-nc.png

What is sad is the fact that so many people are simply unaware of the threat to our survival. In Canada 85% of Canadians are very concerned by Climate change but next to no one wants to do anything about it. Not my problem is the most common comment you will hear from people, won’t pay for change and won’t change consumer habits. So then there is no hope and the end is closer than most people think.  If you go to the BBC News website you can see the full story, does not make for happy reading.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51213185

 

 

Listening

15 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by larrymuffin in climate change

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Crisis, doom, fishkill, Oil, PEI, plastics, pollution, the end

This week CBC radio host Paul Kennedy retires from Ideas after many a years. Ideas as the title indicates is about discussing topics about our world, it is well done with many scholars, writers, philosophers who present their views based often on books or research they have done for years on a topic which affects how our human society functions and evolves. Paul Kennedy has a relaxing, pleasant mature voice, easy to listen to.

Today the topic was Climate Change and was part of his acting as moderator of the Muskoka conference in Ontario. The question was: Are we doomed?

Currently, if several polls are to be believed, some 84% of Canadians are very concerned about Climate Change and what is happening all around us. Here in PEI in the last 12 months we have seen changes with rapid erosion of the soft coast line, projection show that in 50 years the City of Charlottetown and surroundings will have disappeared under water. The Island at most stands about 30 feet above the sea level in some areas and as little as 3 feet in others. The Winter started early in November and ended late towards end April, the Spring Fishing Season was delayed 2 weeks due to storms and the planting Season for agriculture was also delayed to mid-June. The Summer so far has been cool and rainy. This has an impact on fishers, farmers and the tourism industry. The Chamber of Commerce says that tourism is down 50% this year due to poor weather. I believe it, it is abnormally quiet.

All around the world, if you care to read, it’s one big heat wave and huge storms, more unusual than the next. Nature is dying all around us, it is much more than melting ice caps or rising water levels. Entire species have disappeared, over fishing has depleted the oceans, plastic pollution everywhere. The statistics are frightening and still politicians and the public dither.

Despite all this, most people pretend it is not happening or simply cannot cope with the magnitude of the crisis. Some experts in the field believe it is too late to save ourselves. There is no Planet B.

On Ideas, some of the speakers said that if extreme measures are taken we  could slow down the process or reverse it, an example the town of Sudbury in Ontario, pop 164,000 where 100 years of nickel mining had by 1960 transformed the entire area into a moon scape with a strong odour of sulphur, people still lived there. However in the last 40 years an aggressive program of cleaning and reforesting involving intensive action by several groups with the support of the local authorities have turned the tide and now despite having some 50,000 hectares still to be rehabilitated, Sudbury has been transformed for the better. The City has 300 lakes over 25 acres within city limits, natural beauty which is being brought back.

But is is not the case everywhere, in most places there is resistance to doing anything at all. Here in PEI constant resistance against electric cars, the City of Charlottetown turned down the opportunity to develop a bike path through the city core, bought diesel buses instead of electric, allows cancer causing pesticides to be spread to keep lawns green, City Councillors cannot see the importance of saving bees, are putting an asphalt plant in a semi rural residential area, etc.. The easy justification is jobs, it seems that jobs trump every other concern, obtuse thinking rule.

How do you educate a population who refuses to listen, should we just let the crisis take over, it seems human nature learns better when a catastrophe strikes.

Last Thursday the Legislature of the Province passed a bill to reduce CO2 emissions by 1.2 megatonnes by 2030, instead of the Paris Accord agreement of 1.4 megatonnes. Still 6 conservative members of the government refused to go along, they collectively simply do not believe in climate change, it’s a hoax. The majority in this case got its way, now we have to figure out how to achieve this target, won’t be easy. How do you bring on-board towns and settlements when our politicians don’t understand the gravity of the problem.

As it was pointed out on Ideas,  you can build infrastructure to stop flooding and erosion, you cannot save nature when irreversible trends are happening, this we do not control. So maybe we will avert the worse but there is no guarantees and I am not hopeful.

At my age this is not really a concern because if I have 20 years to live, I will be dead and gone by the time the crisis is irreversible. What is sad is for children or anyone under 40 they will live through it.

tarsands.jpeg

Photo; Alberta Tar Sand exploitation and the environmental disaster it creates. Yet some people see nothing wrong with this picture. A picture of death near Edmonton.

Ragnarök

13 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by larrymuffin in climate change

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Canada., Erda, NYT, opera, politicians, Siegfried, World

Love these old songs 1949 Louis Armstrong. It was a simpler time nothing like today.

I was parking at the supermarket today and the radio it was Saturday Afternoon at the Metropolitan Opera. It use to brought to us all by Texaco now it’s a luxury home builder.

The host of the show Mary Jo Heath mentioned that in the Opera Siegfried by Richard Wagner, the wanderer who is Wotan in disguise asked a question of Erda the Earth goddess about the future. Her reply about Ragnarök and the Apocalypse predicts terrible events to come. The Host made the connection with a series of articles in the New York Times this week on climate change and how human behaviour will not change enough to save us all from the great calamity around 2030 which will signal our end.

Just last week an eminent scientist in Canada was interviewed by Radio-Canada on climate change which is happening twice as fast here than anywhere else due to climatic conditions. The experts said when asked about our collective future, that he had NO hope for humanity, in his words it is too late now. This is quite chilling to hear.

So as I walked to the store from my car, this young family came by and I thought these little kids will probably not have much of a future and their parents are probably unaware. Too many people refuse to believe and become agitated when you point out the dangers.

In Canada 84% of the population is quite worried about the climate and the environment but we still have Conservative politicians who bank on ignorance to get elected.

So I listen to the old tunes from a less threatening time, all we had to worry about then was Atomic warfare.

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Journey as an owner of a Chinese restaurant in Montreal

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Life of Yi Zhao, a Beijinger living in Provincetown, USA

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