The global consumer-capitalist machine is well-programmed to consume the planet in its quest to produce ever-more stuff. Avoiding pollution is incompatible with its present functioning. If we want to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions we need to know how to get inside the machine and turn it off, or transform it. [Published 6 Nov by… Read More Why are climate warnings ignored?
So I looked for a more recent performance and found the Esmé Quartet doing it on YouTube, from 2022. Never heard of them, but let’s hear what they’ve got, these four oriental women. When I was discovering classical music at university long ago Schubert quickly became a favourite – the Unfinished Symphony, the Trout Quintet,… Read More Esmé string quartet playing Schubert’s last
Your actions are inconsistent with the weight of scientific advice and with the wishes of the majority of voters. Do you understand that we are now at serious and imminent risk of tipping irreversibly into a hellish future?… Read More Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Australia
Its purpose is to hold, impart and add to knowledge. Some of the knowledge is not popular with authorities or vested interests, such as pollution created by mining or the difference between antisemitism and objections to the actions of the state of Israel. Indeed to many politicians these days any knowledge seems to be a threat.… Read More Universities: dead, buried and cremated?
The tech world is oblivious to the foundations of our being. We are, still, intimately and intricately a part of the organic biosphere that embraces this miracle planet of ours.… Read More Artificial cleverness is polluting the essence of our humanity
Beethoven must have felt he was in the wrong life, one of the most gifted musicians ever, being overcome by deafness. Surely the gods would not so cruelly tease and condemn a person. So: torment, rage, pathos, and also desolation. And then reality crashing in, repeatedly.… Read More Beethoven’s ‘Tempest’ sonata: exile?
Deregulation basically allowed the financial system to break out of its relatively small, useful role and become a huge parasite, sucking wealth to the already-wealthy and depriving the poor and middle class.… Read More How Ronald Reagan Started the Ruination of the USA
Wind, solar and pumped hydro energy storage can provide all the electrical energy we need, on demand, cheaply, quickly, with minimal carbon emissions.… Read More The cut-through message: wind, solar and pumped hydro are all we need, and cheaper
A 2021 paper by Bin Lu and others in Blakers’ group at ANU uses detailed modelling to conclude that a 100% renewable energy system, replacing 80% of Australia’s carbon emissions, would cost $70-$100 per MWh (megawatt-hour).… Read More Off-river pumped hydro energy storage – summary and sources
To properly stop the machine we need to look more carefully, to find the off-switch. Only turning the machine’s engine off will finally stop the destruction. Where is the engine, the beating heart of this global materialist-consumerist-industrial civilisation?… Read More Unconstrained competitive markets are the heart of the planetary problem
