Perversely, part of me wants to see what would happen if the sea levels rise a couple of metres, the coastal cities get swamped, the rainfall dries up, the power goes out, the militias take to the streets. Part of me would love to see these squawking indignant right-to-luxury dickwipes learning how to live in the dust, scraping out dried plants from the earth and hoarding their remnants from the Beforetime. It’ll be a sight if it happens. Dirty red skies will rise up from the ground each morning like a curse. The only creatures that seem to thrive, the cockroaches and carrion birds, will swarm black against the sand and the sunset, rasping dry songs with their throats and with their legs. The water will be gone. The world will not remember ice floes. And for her sins, for ten dollars a week from each and every one of us, Julia Gillard will hang from the garret at the gates of Troy.Read the whole post on HeathenScripture
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Ten dollars a week too much for privilege of planet earth?
Monday, July 11, 2011
On course to suffer global warming of four degrees
On course to suffer global warming of four degrees: "We have already warmed the planet by 1 degree, relative to pre-industrial times, and are almost certainly experiencing an associated increase in costly, extreme weather events to say the least. In Australia, while it is impossible to be definitive about the cause of any single weather event, a list of prime suspects includes last decade's crippling drought, Victoria's Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 and this year's devastating floods.
Not scary enough for some, but as our chief climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, warned earlier this year, ''if we are seeing an intensification of weather events now, you ain't seen nothing yet''."
Not scary enough for some, but as our chief climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, warned earlier this year, ''if we are seeing an intensification of weather events now, you ain't seen nothing yet''."
MUSC, College of Charleston students and staff to keep getting free CARTA bus fare
The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) has struck a deal to continue its transportation agreements with the Medical University of South Carolina and College of Charleston.
This is the sixth year that MUSC has had a partnership with CARTA and the eighth year for CofC of offering students, faculty and staff of both institutions unlimited rides with their organization identification card.
The result is free bus service to these riders, with costs covered by MUSC and College of Charleston.
“Our constant focus is to encourage use of public transit throughout the Charleston area,” said Christine Wilkinson, interim executive director for CARTA. “These two partnerships further our continual pursuit of that goal. We encourage other Charleston area businesses to consider how CARTA can help their employees and staff.”
CARTA also has ongoing partnerships with the City of Charleston, Charleston County School District and Roper St. Francis Hospital.
On average, as many as 65,000 trips per month are taken by MUSC and CofC ID holders. In addition, more than 30,000 riders take the Express routes each month, which are heavily utilized by MUSC and CofC.
“Continuing this important partnership is not only a benefit for our students, faculty and staff, but an investment in the community,” said John Runyon, director of business services at Medical University of South Carolina.
The partnerships offer a number of other benefits, which include:
- Reduce traffic and congestion in the Charleston area
- Reduce need for additional parking on campus
- Accommodating to students and faculty – provides safe travel as well as bike racks for transportation around their respective campus
- Brings the benefit to staff, faculty and students while increasing ridership and encouraging public transit
- Increase in ridership enables CARTA to acquire additional federal funding for equipment and upgrades
- Continuing a strong relationship with two valuable partners and involvement in regular events such as MUSC Green Fairs and CofC Orientation
- Provides a valuable service to a diverse community
Monday, June 27, 2011
Cars make it hard to keep in touch
Human Transit: the car vs. personal technology (quote of the week): "'They can stay connected on a bus or a train. They can bring the office with them. They can bring their study with them. They can bring their friends with them. They can't if they're driving.'"
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunshine Coast Queensland -- free public transport for pensioners
Payroll Tax & Public Transport Reform at Centre of PolicyLaunch | Sunshine Coast Queensland: The Queensland Party will also work with councils across Queensland to implement a program of free public transport for pensioners between the 9am and 2pm. This will assist those in our community who often find it too expensive or difficult to travel,” added Mr McLindon.
...The revenue loss for such a policy is minor compared to the benefits of increased mobility and the associated economic activity of Queensland’s older generations. This measure will also assist to reduce the number of cars on the roads and the beauty of it is that when pensioners can travel in off-peak periods.”
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Capitalism’s war on the planet
GreenLeft Weekly: Sunday, April 3, 2011
Climate change is often called the greatest environment threat facing humanity.
The threat is very real. Unless we cut carbon pollution fast, runaway climate change will worsen existing environmental and social problems, and create new ones of its own.
But it’s no longer enough to simply refer to the climate crisis. Climate change is one part of a broader ecological disaster, brought about by an economic system that relies on constant growth, endless accumulation and ever-deepening human alienation.
A 2010 study published in Nature revealed some of the extent of this ecological crisis.
The study, which was led by Sweden’s Johan Rockstrom and included US climate scientist James Hansen, identified nine “planetary boundaries” that are critical for human life on the planet.
Along with climate change, these boundaries are: global freshwater use, chemical pollution, ocean acidification, land use change, biodiversity (the extinction rate), ozone levels in the stratosphere, aerosol (or small particle) levels in the atmosphere and the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles that regulate soil fertility (and hence food production).
The study said three of these critical planetary boundaries — climate, the nitrogen cycle and biodiversity loss — had already been crossed.
A further four — land use change, the phosphorus cycle, ocean acidification and freshwater use — are emerging problems. The scientists said these boundaries had not yet been breached, but could be soon if nothing is done.
The state of the ozone layer, which regulates the ultraviolet radiation from the sun hitting the Earth, was the only good news. A global treaty to phase out ozone depleting gasses, such as chlorofluorocarbons, seems to have made a difference.
The study’s authors said they didn’t yet know enough to measure the planetary boundaries for chemical pollution and aerosol levels.
In their 2010 book, The Ecological Rift, US Marxists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark and Richard York remark on this study: “The mapping out of planetary boundaries in this way gives us a better sense of the real threat to the Earth system.
“Although in recent years the environmental threat has come to be seen by many as simply a question of climate change, protecting the planet requires that we attend to all of these planetary boundaries, and others not yet determined.
“The essential problem is the unavoidable fact that an expanding economic system is placing additional burdens on a fixed earth system to the point of planetary overload … Business as usual projections point to a state in which the ecological footprint of humanity will be equivalent to the regenerative capacity of two planets by 2030.”
Capitalism, a grow-or-die system, must ignore the planet’s boundaries. But we cannot afford to: not if we are to secure a safe planet that can sustain human civilization.
As Foster, Clark and York conclude: “No solution to the world’s ecological problem can be arrived at that does not take the surmounting of capitalism, as an imperialist world system, as its object.
“It is time to take the planet back for sustainable human development.”
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Free public transport to reduce traffic: Mick Gallagher - Elections - News - Hornsby & Upper North Shore Advocate
The former Hornsby mayor said free public transport would reduce traffic congestion, fuel consumption, noise and stress."
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