Why is it that the media simply can't bring themselves to discuss this issue? Are they really in the pocket of the Exxon-Mobils and the Koch brothers? Is it just not sexy enough, doesn't draw ratings, too long-term, too depressing? Too REAL? Increasingly, I lay the blame for our failure to deal with climate change at the foot of the media. They simply don't want to talk about it.
9/30/16
typical
Well, the media is continuing to pretend that the most important issue facing this nation, our species, and our planet-- climate change-- simply doesn't exist. The debate the other night was just the latest example. If Hillary Clinton hadn't brought the subject up herself, it wouldn't have been mentioned at all. Lester Holt never uttered a peep about it.
Why is it that the media simply can't bring themselves to discuss this issue? Are they really in the pocket of the Exxon-Mobils and the Koch brothers? Is it just not sexy enough, doesn't draw ratings, too long-term, too depressing? Too REAL? Increasingly, I lay the blame for our failure to deal with climate change at the foot of the media. They simply don't want to talk about it.
Why is it that the media simply can't bring themselves to discuss this issue? Are they really in the pocket of the Exxon-Mobils and the Koch brothers? Is it just not sexy enough, doesn't draw ratings, too long-term, too depressing? Too REAL? Increasingly, I lay the blame for our failure to deal with climate change at the foot of the media. They simply don't want to talk about it.
9/24/16
the planetarian agenda
1. Planetary consciousness needs to become a
part of day-to-day life. For starters, there should be a picture of the planet should be in every classroom.
2. We have a climate emergency. We need:
a carbon tax
population control. Couples should be limited to two children (‘2 Child Max’), single women to one child (‘1 Child Max’), except in extraordinary cases.
3. A planetarian culture
will be heavily based in math, science, and technology. Literature will be less important. An understanding of basic arithmetic should be essentially universal by the end of elementary school. Specifically, this will include mastery of the multiplication tables between 1 and 10, which will give students the confidence to go further in math.
9/23/16
planetary consciousness
Planetary consciousness should become a part of day-to-day life. Every classroom should have a poster of planet Earth in it. Maybe we should even have some kind of planetary version of the Pledge of Allegiance.
9/12/16
carbon tax
There seems to be a growing drumbeat calling for an outright tax on carbon:
WITH MORE PEOPLE HITTING THE ROAD, IT'S TIME FOR A CARBON TAX
WITH MORE PEOPLE HITTING THE ROAD, IT'S TIME FOR A CARBON TAX
9/3/16
surplus population
The media refers to all these people flooding the southern borders of Europe and this country as 'economic migrants.' I think it'd be more accurate to say that the countries they come from are simply exporting their surplus populations. Given that these countries basically have subsistence agriculture economies, you can plot on a graph how many people per acre they can support-- and it's way fewer than these countries actually have! You can only divide the family plot up so many times before the young'uns can't survive on the postage stamp they've been allotted.
We need to withhold foreign aid from these countries until they come up with and implement a plan to control their populations so they don't have an excess.
We need to withhold foreign aid from these countries until they come up with and implement a plan to control their populations so they don't have an excess.
8/12/16
media, trump, climate change
I'm getting so tired of the media's unwillingness to hold Donald Trump's feet to the fire on the issue of climate change. He has this cockamamie theory-- unique to him, I think-- that it's a hoax concocted by the Chinese to lower the productivity of our economy. Of course, he doesn't have a shred of evidence for this, because . . . there isn't any!
But it's typical of the way the media is dealing, or should I say NOT dealing, with the most important issue facing this planet and our species. It's barely being mentioned. One shouldn't be surprised. This is the way the media has been dealing with it going all the way back to the Bush-Gore race in 2000, when it first surfaced. If it's mentioned at all, it's just one item in a laundry list of secondary issues.
But it's typical of the way the media is dealing, or should I say NOT dealing, with the most important issue facing this planet and our species. It's barely being mentioned. One shouldn't be surprised. This is the way the media has been dealing with it going all the way back to the Bush-Gore race in 2000, when it first surfaced. If it's mentioned at all, it's just one item in a laundry list of secondary issues.
8/5/16
the main thing
The main thing is to get people on a daily basis, as part of their everyday lives, to think of themselves as people riding on this little planet, circling in space. In other words, to create a planetary consciousness. What are good ways to help bring that about?
6/4/16
trump vs. hillary
I'm no big Hillary fan, but from a Planetarian point of view she's the only acceptable candidate here. Trump is a nationalist-- 'America First.' We don't need a candidate who's as anti-science as Trump, at this late date still calling climate change a 'hoax' and a 'phony issue.' Frankly, I don't expect much real leadership from Hillary on this issue-- does anybody really know what she stands for beyond her own personal ambition?-- but at least she's making the right noises.
It's a dismal choice, but in the event I'll hold my nose and vote for Hillary. In the meantime, go to my other blog and punish the Republicans for their willful ignorance of climate change:
dogcatcherpledge.blogspot.com
It's a dismal choice, but in the event I'll hold my nose and vote for Hillary. In the meantime, go to my other blog and punish the Republicans for their willful ignorance of climate change:
dogcatcherpledge.blogspot.com
1/26/16
what WILL they think of us?
I have changed the header background image for this blog to a composite NASA image of the Earth at night, culled from several hundred images taken over the course of several months.
This image seems right because the main point of this blog is this: If visitors from outer space did actually come upon planet Earth at night, they would see something like this (on the half of the globe that was in darkness). They would be initially impressed, no doubt. But once they investigated further, what kind of planet would we like to be able to present to them? Not just how we dealt with our environment, but how we had organized our society both to create prosperity and to ensure just and ethical treatment of members of all species (including, of course, our own). In other words, what would our best society and our best care for our planet look like to these aliens? What would they think of us?
This image seems right because the main point of this blog is this: If visitors from outer space did actually come upon planet Earth at night, they would see something like this (on the half of the globe that was in darkness). They would be initially impressed, no doubt. But once they investigated further, what kind of planet would we like to be able to present to them? Not just how we dealt with our environment, but how we had organized our society both to create prosperity and to ensure just and ethical treatment of members of all species (including, of course, our own). In other words, what would our best society and our best care for our planet look like to these aliens? What would they think of us?
1/13/16
large magellanic cloud
The star-forming region ('stellar nursery') of the Large Magellanic Cloud, ~157 light years away from Earth, in our Milky Way galaxy.
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