Shouting at the wind.

There is a phenomena that I call shouting at the wind. That is, saying how things should be but not doing any action to bring it about. It seems to be a national past time. Go ahead, try it. Go to your window and shout something such as, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Go ahead or don't. The result will be nearly the same. The action of ranting about how things should be can be by shouting or more quietly through blog writing as I'm doing now.

When it comes to really changing the world, it takes really good marketing of an idea.I say marketing since many people simultaneously may think of an idea but only a few make a living prognosticating an idea to the extent that it can truly change behavior. For example, in the peak oil world, James Kunstler's "end of suburbia" has caused some people to consider energy issues very seriously. It even changed my behavior such that I have moved to a semi-rural area that has good soil, good water and low-energy transportation in the form of a walkable community. There is just one major problem. There aren't too many jobs where I live....or are there?

Although I might be able to get a regular job where I live, there apparently is a larger opportunity earning money shouting at the wind - or better yet, shouting at an audience! For example, there is story about an engineer who produced wood gassifiers. The technology for energy production can convert wood to electricity. It has lots of potential but it tends to be very fussy, dirty, dangerous and expensive. Yet this engineer created a company and started producing some gassifier units. After a few years of doing that and failing to become filthy rich, he changed course. He took his knowledge of building them and started writing books and doing speaking engagements to tell about his problems encountered. When asked why he let his research stagnate rather than commercializing it, he was credited with saying, "There's lots more money talking about gassifiers than building them."

This pattern of describing a problem to the nth degree and then glossing over simplistic solutions is done over and over. Why does this work? Why are we suckered into going to theaters to see movies such as An Inconvenient Truth? The answer is simple. It's because imagining the benefits of doing any particular task is frequently more satisfying than getting one's hands dirty doing a task.

Stockpile if you must, but consider that gold has only one use...

As money and wealth take diverging courses, some say it's a good idea to have money in the form of useful items or commodities. When currency experiences rapid devaluation, physical items become more expensive. Inflation can be seen in everything from pizza slices to used cars. Since gold is easily stored and doesn't decay, some people consider gold a good store of wealth. However, it can't be eaten nor will it keep anyone warm.  The quantities available are often so small, it's impractical to fabricate anything practical out of any given sample. In fact, it's hard to tell if any particular sample is real or not. For example, the nice looking nugget on the right is "fools gold". For all these reasons, gold's main value may only be that it may be able to be pawned for federal reserve notes. Why is this important?  Right now, federal reserve notes are now the only thing that can directly retire property tax debt.  As annoying as property tax is, it's the only thing preventing your local sheriff from legally looting your home.

When it comes to SHTF buying power, witness what happens in post-hurricane zones.  Gasoline and food have more buying power than gold.  So, in my opinion, instead of waiting for someone to make off with your precious gold bars during a crisis, cash it in now and start a business instead. With almost any product or service, if you focus on quality, you'll have a market since there will always be people who want the best. It could be the best beer, the best donuts or even the best buggy whips. In the past, I have been constantly amazed at how people make money in the strangest of markets - and that was before the Internet!.  As an individual, having the ability to produce the best of most anything can mean making a living serving the tiniest of niche markets.  Then, if you wish, you can trade your skills for gold..

If you decide you absolutely must have gold in spite of it's inflated price, consider this article.
http://shtfschool.com/category/trading/

An unconventional tactic to combat Global Warming

Bill McKibben, one of the most visible celebrities of the Global Warming movement, has written a rather sobering article about how much fossil fuels can be burned before the planet climate changes enough to endanger worldwide human civilization. Unfortunately, his view and mine seem to agree. We'll run out of environment before we run out of fossil fuels.

One number, roughly 565 Gigatons of carbon dioxide, is the tonnage of CO2 that can be put atmosphere by mid-century to have only a 2 degree increase in temperature. Such an increase would still lead to numerous climate disasters but human civilization might just survive in a recognizable form. Keep in mind this summer's disasters were only due to a half-degree increase. However, a much larger number, 2,795 Gigatons, is the amount of carbon that the coal, oil and natural gas industries have in projected reserves. That would lead to a 6 degree increase in temperature which is enough to end much of agriculture as we know it.

From the article in Rolling Stones Magazine:
Here's why this new number, 2795, is such a big deal. Think of two degrees Celsius as the legal drinking limit – equivalent to the 0.08 blood-alcohol level below which you might get away with driving home. The 565 Gigatons is how many drinks you could have and still stay below that limit – the six beers, say, you might consume in an evening. And the 2,795 Gigatons? That's the three 12-packs the fossil-fuel industry has on the table, already opened and ready to pour....Yes, this coal and gas and oil is still technically in the soil. But it's already economically above ground – it's figured into share prices, companies are borrowing money against it, nations are basing their budgets on the presumed returns from their patrimony.

Now, supposing this article is even close to being correct, we're all in big trouble! Crafting legislation to encourage leaving the products in the ground apparently cannot be done without destroying the conventional economy. Put it another way, if the economic system was represented as a little kid and fossil fuel was represented as candy in front of him, telling him to only eat 20% and keep the rest in a clear jar next to his bed would not be an effective long term strategy for thwarting candy consumption.  So, in my opinion, expecting sociopathic companies to be told to just ignore fossil fuel reserves would be an equally ineffective long term strategy. Worldwide government action to enforce carbon quotas also isn't likely since there are very large incentives to cheat the system. For example, sequestering CO2 gas at an industrial scale is doomed to failure for corruption reasons explained in my previous article HERE.

So, what can we do? In my opinion, the problem is now beyond governments to control. The only force now strong enough to save the climate is the power of entropy. Our economic system is set to extract hydrocarbons. The business plans cannot be stopped. However, the use of hydrocarbons can be diverted from uses that would release carbon dioxide gas to uses that would return these hydrocarbons to the ground.

How? One of the easiest ways to do this on a massive level would be to simply stop recycling plastic trash and stop burning plastic garbage for energy. Instead, encourage a culture of demanding throw-away hard to break down products and bury these used items in dispersed landfills. By itself, this type of carbon sequestration will not divert enough newly extracted carbon from being used as fuels. However, this combined with other carbon reducing steps may divert extracted hydrocarbons from atmospheric release to being returned to the ground. It's an icky gross solution.  However, it's effective for insuring that this carbon is not able to be put to additional industrial use.

As a person who cares for the environment, it pains me to suggest this throw away strategy. Adopting a move towards a throw away society is not an obvious win. However, increasing household refuse production seems to be one of the only types of effective activism left to a population that has apparently been mentally crippled by industrial propaganda and demoralized by ineffective protest methods. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure that increasing solid waste is an activity that even the most apathetic of humans can do regardless of intelligence or political affiliation.

Don't believe the seriousness of the Climate Change problem? Judge for yourself:
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719#ixzz22i9l2qRV

Other benefits to this unconventional tactic to combat Global Warming. Check:
Pen-and-Teller's series called - Bullshit

To track just how much the temperature across the country is increasing, check this out.