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March 08 2019 Just some randomness while I finish reading 'The Uninhabitable Earth', David Wallace-Wells recent book, an expansion on his 2017 New York Magazine article [1]. Quite an engaging read so far. Alex Smith of EcoShock radio interviewed Wallace-Wells [2] recently. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uninhabitable_Earth [2] https://www.ecoshock.org/2019/02/uninhabitable-earth-david-wallace-wells.html - - Meet Vaclav Smil - by Paul Voosen / Science Magazine - March 21, 2018 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/meet-vaclav-smil-man-who-has-quietly-shaped-how-world-thinks-about-energy I've read some of Smil's work [1] and while he is clearly a very bright guy he is SO dry, one has to wonder why Bill Gates is such a huge fan. Thinking on it more, I've concluded its the lack of conclusions; Smil generates tons of data but rarely seems to take the next step of tying it together into something larger. Data of course is exactly what proponents of all things techno-wondrous want -- feed that data in without preconceptions and see what comes out the other end. Nothing too terrible about that I suppose, though it's hard to imagine positive predictions; Smil's work tends to lend support to many of the more pessimistic forecasts for the planet and of course the current global industrial civilization. The more conspiracy minded might even wonder just what the Gate Foundation is up to in Africa [2], a continent that will almost certainly be one of the first to collapse due to fallout from over-population and global warming. [1] http://energyskeptic.com/category/expert-biophysical/vaclav-smil/ [2] https://www.umhs-sk.org/blog/why-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-has-so-many-public-health-critics/ - - As the World Burns - by Paul Street / Counterpunch - March 8, 2019 https://www.paulstreet.org/as-the-world-burns-hurtling-towards-an-unlivable-planet/ First time I've encountered the phrase "Capitalogenic Global Warming". I think Street's article captures the zeitgeist of these pivoting times, at least within the US, where we basically have an ad profits-driven media continuously distracting the populace while corrupt career politicians funnel the vast majority of what wealth that can still be squeezed out of our energy-fueled growth machine to the elites. Meanwhile the storm clouds gather as we edge towards and beyond various environmental tipping points into a not-so-bright, no-app-for-that [1] future. [1] http://noapp4that.org/ - - The Worlds We Live In - by John Michael Greer / Ecosophia - March 6, 2019 https://www.ecosophia.net/the-worlds-we-live-in/ An interesting essay only indirectly relating to our global predicaments, mainly enlightening (to me anyway) in that Mr. Greer reveals a bit about himself, namely that he's a Huxley College of the Environment [1] graduate, and apparently has Asperger syndrome [2]. Perhaps if I was a more regular reader of Greer's various blogs over the years I would have known this. I was definitely curious as to what his formal background was; other than references to being involved with the Appropriate Technology [3] movement in the 1970s and of course all things Druid, I don't recall much else mentioned in the "about the author" sections of his various books. As for the Asperger's, it perhaps explains some of the preachy shrillness he occasionally exudes. Power to him though; Asperger's has certainly not held him back and quite possibly afforded him some unique points of view of this world we live in. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huxley_College_of_the_Environment [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology - -