Growth Poleaxes Africa; The Death of Farming

If you like the phrase "starving children in Africa," don't worry, it'll be around and in use for quite a long time. Today's news reveals that overfarming in that dark heart of the planet has rendered 75% of arable land unusable, "afflicting" 240 million souls with hunger (whatever that means...probably some reporters required usage when writing about starvation). Essentially, no crop rotation and little rest for the soil is a formula for disaster in agriculture. (So is overuse of nitrogen-based fertilizers, but that's another story). The study recommends modern "Green Revolution" techniques, brought upon by copious donations (because lack of infrastructure makes transportation very expensive) from Western nations. Interestingly, the story is absolutely devoid of any mention of the underlying problem: too much population growth. Chaos suggests that a population control program would be far more sustainable, at least in a world of limited resources. Neither the reporter of the story nor the authors of the study referenced therein were able or willing to challenge the structural underpinnings of modern society. For clarity, here it is again: if the human inhabitants of Gaia do not stop unlimited growth and the corresponding overconsumption of its limited resources, Gaia will teach them to, in her own harsh way.

Your Constitutional Right to Drive (And Others You Didn't Know About)

Hey, guess what? Citizens of the Empire may have a few more constitutional rights than they realize. At least some of them(17%) believe that the US Constitution gives them the right to drive a car, and a higher percentage (21%) think that they have a constitutional right to own a pet. Less than 1% could name the actual five protected rights: freedom of speech, religion, the press, assembly and to petition the government. On the other hand, 20% could name Bart, Homer, and three other members of the Simpson family. Chaos supposes this is why citizens have so willingly acquiesced in the current government's theft of rights: too much tv. Many serious events are now scheduled to occur in the next few years, only a few of which have been touched upon here. The somnolent citizenry is utterly unequipped to even understand them, much less to take action. As one commentator stated, "don't get too far away from the chairs, you don't know when the music is going to stop."

Have Breakfast With Tom, Please

Tomdispatch, run by the erudite and articulate Tom Englehardt, is a highly recommended stop on the Internet superhighway, especially for valuable perspective on the Iraq War and the Empire. Check out today's post for a different take on peak oil and breakfast, by Chad Heeter. Think you're "doing the right thing" by eating organic? Maybe not so much. Chaos noted with surprise the shocking similarity of Chad's breakfast to Chaos'. An interesting reflection on how truly dependent the Empire is on black gold...

Back to the Future, Again: Climate Change

Another day, another study finding that things are going to get worse than anyone thought. Published today in Science (no, not some crackpot journal), the paper indicates that sea levels are set to rise in response to polar ice cap melting. The result will be conditions last seen 129,00 years ago. "If we don't like the idea of flooding out New Orleans, major portions of South Florida, and other valued parts of the coastal U.S., we will have to commit soon to a major effort to stop most emissions of carbon to the atmostphere." So sayeth David Peck, author of the study. Major effort? Soon? The government ignores, while the public slumbers, dreaming of who will bear Brad Pitt's baby and what's on sale at Sprawl Mart next week. South Florida always seemed kind of trashy anyway.

The Meme of Peak Oil

What is a meme? In short, it is a self-propagating unit of cultural evolution, resembling somewhat a gene. An evolving idea of significance, in other words. The study of memes is called memetics. It might be more easily understood alongside the aphorism "ideas have a life of their own." A fuller explanation of this slippery noun can be found here. Chaos has observed in the last half year or so, how the concept of peak oil has gradually acquired the status of a meme. Recently, two more examples have surfaced. The first is at the nation's cable news network of note, CNN, which ran some brief video interviews (one with Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert) under the title of "We Were Warned." (BTW, check out General Motors whore Bob Lutz, whose "we just make these giant SUVs because Americans want them" and "we got caught with our pants down on the hybrid thing" are classic). The second comes from the Austin Texas South by Southwest Music and Film festival, which featured in this year's addition a striking documentary called Oilcrash. Regretfully, Chaos cannot provide a firsthand account of it, but according to actual viewers, it is appropriately fear-inducing. Look for it at your local megaplex someday soon.

And so, the meme of peak oil advances, grows, becomes stronger...

The Empire Becomes the Glass House

The US State Department issued its annual report on human rights around the world, specifically excoriating China for its "poor" record, noting instances of "harassment, detention, and imprisonment" of those opposing the government. Also noted were torture, physical abuse leading to deaths of detainees, forced labor, coercive birth policies, trafficking in women and children, restrictions on free speech, assembly, religion, and severe government corruption. This is hardly a new phenomenon; in fact, it pretty much occurs every year. This year, however, the defensive response of China and other governments criticized has particular resonance. "No country should exclude itself from the international human rights development process or view itself as the incarnation of human rights that can reign over other countries and give orders to the others" said Premier Wen Jiabao's cabinet. Other countries responses were in accord. Particular mention was given to the Empire's tendency towards torture (Abu Ghraib), indisciminate killing of civilians during military operations, and of course, the famous legal "black hole," Guantanamo. The dribbling away of the US's international standing in human rights is the natural effect of the rulers here who thought that the ends justified the means. It seems that the Empire's actions, once again, have come back to haunt it.

The "Bond King" and the US Economy

If Warren Buffett is perhaps the premier stockpicker in the known world, Bill Gross of PIMCO is surely the number one poohbah in bonds. It doesn't hurt to have a scorching record either. Since this man, like Buffett, has managed to beat the odds over long periods of time, his insights are well worth listening to, and Bill Gross has had enough of the current government and its financial mendacity. Taking on the Economic Report of the President, Gross excoriates the calculated Pollyanna statements regarding the international competitiveness of US students in math and science (US students rank very low by high school), health care spending (high and going ever higher), unfunded future liabilities (think Social Security and Medicare), the current account deficit (importing more than we export; becoming a debtor nation), and the astounding government and personal deficits (the savings rate has dropped to zero). None of this is new or has been insufficiently explored by others (in fact, here's more on this). Gross's conclusion, however, is that dollar devaluation is inevitable and investments might better be deployed overseas. Quite a jolting conclusion from one who has made his fortune in domestic markets.

Melting Ice in Antarctica

Not that this is particularly news anymore to readers of this blog (it seems like we cover this ground about every two or three weeks, whenever new findings appear...) but here's the latest on climate change caused by humans: new study in Nature today finds that ice caps in Antarctica are melting faster than previously known. As you might guess, melting ice leads to higher entropy in the form of higher sea levels, and, we find from the study, disappearance of rivers and lakes in Africa. Chaos believes that the willy-nilly dumping of millions of years of sunlight deposits in the atmosphere by humans is the climatological equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire (albeit in slower motion).

Fascism in the Empire

To some people, these historical characteristics of fascism may be old news, but on the offchance that some are unaware (and that’s what we’re all about here at the Edge, news for the unaware…) here they are again:


1.) Powerful and Continuing Nationalism: Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2.) Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights: Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3.) Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause: The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4.) Supremacy of the Military: Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5.) Rampant Sexism: The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
6.) Controlled Mass Media: Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7.) Obsession with National Security: Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses
8.) Religion and Government are Intertwined: Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9.) Corporate Power is Protected: The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10.) Labor Power is Suppressed: Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11.) Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts: Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
12.) Obsession with Crime and Punishment: Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations
13.) Rampant Cronyism and Corruption: Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections: Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

To read more on this subject, see this piece with underlying contemporary examples on all points. Kinda makes one think, doesn’t it?

Peak Oil Today : Increasing Awareness, More Lies

Catching up on the slowly growing awareness of Peak Oil, we find the bleeding edge news program The Daily Show featuring guest Peter Tertzakian, author of A Thousand Barrels a Second (which Chaos has not read, nor heard of prior to the airing). Peak Oil on The Daily Show! OMFG! (Kindly excuse the vulgarity...) Only for five minutes or so, and some of that sacrificed to Stewart's jocularity, but still, an important milestone in media awareness.

Meanwhile, on another front, the "Official Energy Statistics From the US Government," the Energy Information Administration (known as the EIA), has released it's latest report (suggest reading the "Overview"pdf file). What would be the odds, do you think, that this report has realistic projections of oil and gas production and prices? Congratulations if you said "not very good," because in fact this report is filled with delusional figures and projections. For example, US lower 48 oil production is projected to magically rise between now and 2016, defying the gradual and continual decline that has gone on since 1970. Oil prices are projected to increase to $54.08/barrel in 2025 and $56.97/barrel in 2030 (for reference, yesterday's oil price was $57.25/barrel). A rosier picture of our energy future can hardly be found, and one seemingly calculated to drive the country completely off the cliff when reality begins to set in.

Avian Flu Marches Forward

Here's the newest and most important news on avian flu to date: migration to Nigeria. Unlike in the previous regions, Africa is ideally suited for an epidemic: large population of fowl, primitive conditions, uneducated natives who resist killing off "valuable" livestock, poor health conditions, very little veterinary support. If this virus is going to jump from bird to human, it will almost certainly happen here, where it can exploit the conditions. Nigeria, apparently, lies in the migratory path from central Asia--how unfortunate. Just a little more entropy in the world to start the day...

Somnolence in the Republic

Chaos has long considered the citizens of the Empire to be rather, shall we say, sleepy regarding some of the most pressing issues of the day. Apparently, though, waking unconsciousness is quite common, but actually falling asleep is less so. In today's paper of record we find that 42 million prescriptions for sleeping pills were written last year. Could it be that the stress and strain of having to "run in place," economically speaking, contributes to the sleeplessness, or is it just that Big Pharma spends so much money on convincing the sheep that there is in fact, a pill which covers every ailment? Chaos observes that a drugged citizenry, while it may be a happy citizenry, is not a particularly well-informed one.

Best Take on Imperial Speech

From poster Twilight at The Oil Drum, commenting on the Emperor’s speech on energy and its subsequent retraction by Imperial officials:

     “The things that are said by these people mean nothing.  Their commitments mean nothing.  There is no truth, only spin.  Facts and propaganda are indistinguishable to them.  Their strength is that people listen to what they say and attempt to ascribe meaning to it where none exists, and expect them to behave according to traditional conventions - but that means nothing to them.  Merely by hearing them you are at a disadvantage.
     But we as a society are so used to the constant barrage of lies called advertising, that we don't expect anything more - we're not alarmed by it at all.  When you combine this with the lack of education and curiosity of the public, you get situations like this - where the POTUS can stand before the nation and say something preposterous, and then the next day his staff can retract it, and no one will care.
Do not listen, watch the actions instead.”
In this instance, Chaos has nothing to add…

Peak Oil Around the World

"Exporting oil is an act of treason"-- Heitor Manoel Pereira, president of AEPET in Brazil, January 06, 2006.
Uh-oh. Does that sound anything like “you need us more than we need you” that we heard from Iran last week?

Back to the topic at hand, first we stop over at one of the most respected news organizations on the planet (if you thought it was Faux News, you have come to the wrong place, sorry), the BBC. Blazing across the front of their website is…wait for it…peak oil! A darned fine little synopsis; one could do worse to start an education on cheap energy with this.

Next we have a ray of hope from Sweden. The cantankerous and unconventional residents of this “social democracy” have decided to reduce their dependency on oil by 2020 to…almost nothing. Figure on one of the Scandanavian countries to show the most awareness of the greatest challenge to mankind ever. These are the kind of ambitions and conversations that citizens of responsible nations need to be having to survive in this very interesting of times.

By the way, Chaos has a theory of how peak oil will play out, and here it is: the most prepared, least oil-dependent nations, regions within nations, and communities will be the most successful; conversely, the most oil-addicted, most in denial, least prepared nations, regions and communities will suffer the most when the long decline begins. Guess which country is most vulnerable? If you said the United States of America, you really have come to the right place and have been paying attention. If you said “what?” you need to do some reading (Chaos realizes it’s not a popular or modern practice, but nevertheless…).

Finally, and to bring it back home, here's a blazingly funny editorial on just how bad it is over at "The General," #1 maker of Imperial Nation's SUVs. Sad to say, the Great American General is now a shadow of its former self; market capitalization is less than Harley-Davidson's, and it is sinking fast. A true example of entropy, along with good old 'merican stupidity and resistance to change.

Just One More From Professor Bartlett

"Democracy cannot survive overpopulation..."

Pursuing the Truth Further

Or, why the Empire has become a dictatorship:

Congress is a cesspool of legalized bribery and influence peddling. The big players with money prevail time after time. The cast of characters may change, but the same game is still played over and over. Bush and his minions have done more to expand the power of the US presidency than any executive since Nixon, to the point that the executive can successfully flout the laws of the nation without any penalty whatsoever. (Reserving the right to torture or spy on citizens without warrant, hold them without charges or trial, take your pick). Surely the right to disregard whatever laws the leader deems necessary is the essence of dictatorship. Unbelievably, none of this is secret; it can be read on the front pages of the national newspapers without protest or comment. The somnolent public has long ago ceased to listen or care, content to indulge in mindless shopping, celebrity-watching, and binge eating. It might be enough to observe that the public has traded civil rights for security, except that this would imply some sort of conscious decision, of which it is obviously not capable of rousing itself to make.

Why Citizens of the Empire Don't "Get It"

It rained here Sunday. Not a lot, just a little bit, and certainly not enough to make up for the lack in this semi-arid region. But plenty enough for the denizons of the World Capital of Ignorance to crash their vehicles, forgetting in their zeal to "get somewhere" that the driving conditions had changed a bit. Read all about it here in the local rag. Chaos' question is thus: how can one reasonably expect people to understand mildly complex issues discussed on this blog(take, for example, the tragic state of healthcare in this country, or social security, or peak oil, or whatever) when they don't even realize that slowing down when it rains might actually be a good driving practice?

Dmitry Orlov: Surviving the Soviet Collapse

This Russian author, an observer during the collapse of the Soviet Union, has written a series of three essays describing the differences between the two major superpowers and in particular, how a collapse might unfold here in the Empire. In comparing the two, he writes: "the Soviet Union and the United States are each either the winner or the first runner-up in the following categories: the space race, the arms race, the jails race, the hated evil empire race, the squandering of natural resources race, and the bankruptcy race." Part One is here.

Reading Orlov is a distinctly refreshing experience, largely because of his unhindered view of the US. He begins Part Two with an apt description of American racism, astutely noting that "glazed over with a layer of political correctness, at least in polite society, [racism] comes out again when observing whom most such Anglo-Saxon people actually choose to marry, or date." If part of your chosen task is to "take the red pill" and begin to strip off the layers of fantasy and ideological muffling which surrounds the citizens of the Empire, Orlov will help. Part Two is here.

Part Three concludes with several suggestions for surviving a collapse, some of which may be counterintuitive and surprising. A particular concern is how utterly dependent citizens are for the barest necessities: "suppose you live in a big city, in an apartment or a condo. You depend on municipal services for survival. A week without electricity, or heat, or water, or gas, or garbage removal spells extreme discomfort. Any two of these is a calamity. Any three is a disaster. Food comes from the supermarket, with help from the cash machine or credit card slot at the checkout station. Clean clothes come from the laundromat, which requires electricity, water, and natural gas. Once all the businesses have shut down and your apartment is cold, dark, and smells like garbage (because it isn't being collected) and like excrement (because the toilet doesn't flush), perhaps it is time to go camping and explore the great outdoors." Orlov sniffs around a most interesting idea: that societies and regions that are the most cheap energy dependent today will be the hardest hit in a collapse. Ask yourself which countries those might be. Try Orlov; he's a blast of fresh air...

Spook Capital of the Nation

Well, well, well, what have we here (literally)? The NSA, recently infamous for its illegal spying activities on innocent Americans, is now doubling its presence in the World Capital of Ignorance. Spending $100 million of your tax dollars to spy on people like you sounds like the "good clean industry" that city leaders are looking for. As one noted, "it's a quiet giant." Yeah, quiet. Typically, the agency would neither confirm nor deny that it was expanding, how many people it employs, or anything at all. Chaos guesses that from now on, the atmosphere will be "spooky" year-round, not just at Halloween. Scary stuff.

Population Growth in the Empire

Sam Roberts, author of commentaries on the US Census, takes on the issue of the 300 millionth resident of the Empire in today's paper of record. The consequences of overpopulation are faintly sketched, but can be seen towards the end of the the article: "By the time the 300 millionth individual gets to adulthood, many of the cities today we considerto be small and nice to live in won't be so nice." Of note is the projection that in 40 years, the Empire's population will reach 400 million. Not so nice indeed, and not a surprise to those who have listened to Dr. Bartlett.