Rod Oram’s climate delusion, SpinOff’s middle class sulking and Lime Scooter coverage in NZ Herald vs IPCC report that economic apocalypse is upon us

By
Martyn Bradbury
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38
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We deserve to perish don’t we?

We are a two legged virus whose pollution has contaminated our biosphere and our political spectrum simply can’t counter the vested corporate interests enough to stop us spiralling into total oblivion.

And oblivion we shall spiral folks because what ever you think you know about climate change, trust me, it’s far, far, far fucking worse than you can possibly imagine.

The reason why you should have shit your pants in total fear when the IPCC came out with its report last month warning us that we had 10 years left to prevent catastrophic climate change is because the IPCC is notoriously conservative in its rulings. If they say we have 10 years left, we really have 10 years left. I’ve been following their reports on climate change since they began, and the thing that is frightening is that their worst case scenarios are fast beaming the only scenarios.

Here is why we are in totally uncharted waters. Our climate changes all the time due to all types of natural cycles and rhythms over hundreds of years. We know from our climate record that catastrophic changes in climate can occur in the space of decades once C02 has built up over hundreds of thousands of years, what we have managed as a species however is to super heating the planet in the space of a mere 3 centuries, how the feedback loops built into the biosphere cope with that level of radical change is totally uncharted waters.

Previously the heating of the planet has caused massive fresh water loss in Greenland which impacts the Labrador Sea ocean pump which shuts down the ocean current, but what we are seeing now are warning signs  on every possible front that change of a magnitude unseen naturally in our planets history (short of comet strikes and super volcano explosions)…

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So what has been our response to news the end of the world and civilisation as we comprehend it is a mere decade away?

In the NZ Herald there were 7 news stories on the IPCC report, compare that with over 25 news stories for those fucking Lime Scooters. It really says something about us as a people when electric scooters can generate far more attention than the end of the planet as we know it.

On the Spinoff there was middle class angst that no one will care and over at Newsroom Rod’s delusional optimism was, well, delusional.

Both are wishful thinking because the truth is climate change will be far worse than both are claiming. The truth about climate change is the suddenness of the catastrophe will force voters to demand radical change from the moribund political class. Fear, anger and Fortress NZ will be the new touch values of a political revolution that will sweep away the old and demand a new one.

In a social media world of toxic identity politics partisanship, mutually assured destruction from a  climate out of control will bond in a way no amount of kindness or call outs ever could.

It won’t be pretty, it won’t be pleasant – but change will come.

Violently.

 

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38 COMMENTS

  1. Sadly, you are right, Martyn.

    The natural systems that regulated the Earth’s temperature prior to the Industrial Revolution have been overwhelmed by the massive injection of CO2 into the atmosphere that has occurred as a result of burning fossil fuels.

    The financial-economic-political system is totally incapable of responding appropriately to the dire predicament because it is based on continuous economic growth.

    The news gets worse by the week.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/31/startling-new-research-finds-large-buildup-heat-oceans-suggesting-faster-rate-global-warming/?fbclid=IwAR3NCKWwIwGIdTF2Vjt4yswe_pXux6ZtWJEcgn5u7frcZSZHfuYjiaxQkc4&utm_term=.722a0448ef26

  2. Competition for the engorgement of wealth and short term comfort trumps the precautionary principle many times over.

    The stupidity of arguing in support a deeply flawed economic system indicates how scared deniers have little creative intellectual resource as a group.

    Peer consensus to die together and murder our progeny seems neurotic in the extreme.

    I have spoken to Rod about future economic influences and he seem to have little clue of how we should respond to over population and diminishing resources let alone restoring the damaged environment and cutting the use of Non Renewable Natural Resources. Cornucopia lives.

    Rod has little scientific expertise so why is he taken as a relevant spokes person.

    Climate change seems to just be a distraction from the economic causes which are not discussed.

    • Hmm… A huge, powerful, rich country that is nominally a republic but in practice is essentially an oligarchy beholden to special interests, with a culture that endlessly glorifies the military and whose utter fascination with its own exceptionalism and military prowess defines its national and foreign policy and whose military expenses are frankly completely Gomer Pyle?

      The resemblance between America and Rome is prophetic.

      The quality of Roman coinage was directly linked with the quality of its society. When studying monetary history two things become clear. The first is that managed economies always lead to disaster and the second is debasing the currency brings about the fall of Empires and make no mistake. With over 900 bases on every continent America is an Empire.

      So could America enter a period of hyper inflation. Well production costs on oil is pushing up inflation and oil isn’t getting any easier to extract. All of the meddling in markets/nations that America has done has caused a massive loss in confidence.

      When you’ve got a handful of people deciding what interest rates are they are manipulating the currency and they are manipulating the price of everything. So when people say capitalism is failing us the truth is there is no capitalism, and when they say money is failing us the truth is we don’t have sound money. What we have is cronyism and corruption by special interest groups and lobbyist buying our democracy and it screws the economy and warps the economy and creates all of these artificial bubbles and every one loves living in bubbles and the just want the reserve bank to create the next one.

      What’s happening in Dunedin doesn’t mean The Labour Party delegates and members are going to gain in wisdom and make tough choices which is sort of like getting some one off drugs because people don’t want to get off the drug. Our system is based on debt and inflation and no one really wants to ween themselves off so we have to anticipate this with The Budget Responsibility Rules.

      There is no doubt that America is entering a period of inflation moving towards hyper inflation. The issue is will we move towards totalitarianism or will we keep the fiscal discipline.

  3. I still haven’t seen a detailed explanation of exactly how this scooter thing was allowed to happen. Any takers?

    • Maybe the “free market”. Someone figured out hiring electric scooters is a money maker, there is no need for regulation on how to use them or any requirements for safety gear, because “self regulation” is the best thing. ( refer Pike River ) and we have what we have now.

  6. It never ceases to amaze me how we can be so blind to the facts and let greed get in the way a rational thinking, we spend all of our time auguring of where to place the chairs on the titanic

  7. Yes Martyn, Very correct you are there.

    All this on the day of the (WHO) ‘World Health Organisation’ is opening an “”air pollution conference” in Geneva on the “first conference ever on the reporting that 90% of the world’s children’s health is now adversely affected by air pollution”

    I just wonder if NZ Herald will even mention this global conference and ask if any NZ Government representation was ever made to this historic important event?

    If they fail to cover this event it will be another ‘day of shame’ for our NZ compromised media.

    ; http://www.who.int/airpollution/events/conference/en/ First WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, 30 October – 1 November 2018
    What a “breath of fresh air WHO are as they finally take air pollution seriously” Bravo to World Health Organisation, (WHO).

    WHO are also are focusing on the urban residents who are also health effected by “toxic heavy road traffic air pollution” too.

    WHO are claiming that even schools and busy traffic routes be redesigned away from schools and suburban areas also.

    Quote;
    “First WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, 30 October – 1 November 2018
    Improving air quality, combating climate change – saving lives
    A schoolboy walks through smoke and fumes emitted from a waste dump in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt
    Air Pollution is “the ‘new tobacco…” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general
    If you received an invitation to attend the conference and have not yet registered using the INDICO web portal, then please do so before as soon as possible. The link to the INDICO registration web portal can be found in the invitation email message.
    The first two days of the conference will present evidence, identify gaps and solutions, and will be targeted at practitioners and other technical and political representatives from the health sector and other sectors relevant to the discourse. The third day will be a High-Level Action Day.”

  8. Climate change is happening. The manifestations are dissimilar by continent, region and land and seascape. They are also different over time.

    There might be parts of Earth that may somehow benefit from climatic changes.

    Global data and generalizations are good to understand the magnitude of the events but less appropriate for practical early warning systems and adequate and advanced local preparations.

    A large part of the human (over-) population will disappear but not the whole species, and not in all habitats.

    The presently governing economic and social systems are very slow to adapt and may fail. Something else will take their places, so or so.

    The role of the Green Parties in parliament and ‘green’ extra-parliamentary organizations and individuals is to open up alternatives to these failing systems. Emphasis: adaptive systems, not ‘environment-friendly’ products. No time to waste.

    If this does not happen, the self-driven reactions will be uncontrollable; at different times, through different events and with different consequences.

  9. I think you are being a little unfair on Rod as he was not denying the seriousness of AGW, but merely pointing to efforts that were being made elseware to combat it.

  10. Back in the day i was doing some activism for the Greens when Rod Donald was leading the ship.
    I remember being at a local meeting and the topic of climate change came up from a recent report put together by several top environmental scientists, with all the fore warning of a hotter planet etc etc…then a nice piece that said “reduce emissions now and the planet dodges a bullet” I stood up and said….’I disagree with that last message, I don’t think the people of this world can do that. All we can do is pull the handbrake on and keep trying to get more out of the brakes, because we will crash and there will be casualties, it just depends how many..” the room went dead quiet..

  11. Following the death wish globalisation establishment down the apocalyptic rabbit hole is pure insanity. Bugger the rest of the world. A localised war footing FORTRESS NZ response to the existential challenges we face today is the only sane solution.

    My appeal to genuine radicals & concerned citizens from across the political political spectrum is to unite – shape & articulate an adaptive vision that will generate widespread support – seize power by any means necessary – form a national unity government – suspend elections for 10 years – take our country back from foreign & fifth column forces – develop & implement a 10 year future proofing plan that will ensure our independence & long term survival.

    Happy Guy Fawkes day comrades. It has been said that G.F. was the only guy to enter the English parliament buildings with honest intentions.

  14. ‘Climate change is a very real threat as spelled out in the latest UN report, as these greenhouse gases, trapping the heat of the sun, are causing the melting of polar ice, rising sea levels, more frequent and more intense storms, flooding and droughts. In some places agricultural yields are decreasing, fuelling human displacement and conflict. How come the most intellectual creature to ever walk Earth is destroying its only home?’

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/03/the-most-intellectual-creature-to-ever-walk-earth-is-destroying-its-only-home

  16. Climate Change has gone exponential. More and more we are starting to realise the Sixth Mass Extinction caused by us will also take us out too. Other than a load of waffle we haven’t a clue what to do because there’s nothing we can do. I find it pathetic that the biggest existential issue to challenge our short sighted disputatious species has so few comments. All we can do is ” shoot the messenger” and encourage hopium to lull the masses back to their consumerist trance.We fucked the Planet now the Planet will fuck us!

  17. Following the death wish globalisation establishment down the apocalyptic rabbit hole is pure insanity. Bugger the rest of the world. A localised war footing FORTRESS NZ response to the existential challenges we face today is the only sane solution.

    The only worthwhile course of action is for radicals & concerned citizens from across the political political spectrum to unite – shape & articulate an adaptive vision/plan that will generate widespread support – seize power by any means necessary – form a national unity government – suspend elections for 10 years – take our country back from foreign & fifth column forces – develop & implement a 10 year future proofing plan that will ensure our independence & long term survival.

    Happy Guy Fawkes day comrades. It has been said that G.F. was the only guy to enter the English parliament buildings with honest intentions.

  18. The motivation to believe in humanity runs deep in Mr Oram.
    I think the planet is screwed and will turn into a Mad Max situation.
    I like his business opinions myself.

  19. Here. have a brand spanking new fossil fuel [Diesel] guzzling twin cab ute.
    Everybody is buying the bloody things. More traffic, more pollution, more oil, more resource wars.

  20. F..k TDB; looks like my radical FORTRESS NZ views are too rich for the moderators stomach. Not surprised as this really is a very conventional blog site with many conservative commentators. All it does is reflect the pathetic, mediocre, unimaginative & gutless notions of our childish little insular nation. Good bloody riddance.

    • There appear to be days where the moderator of TDB is busy with other matters, or takes a break, and has no replacement to look after comments. I know, it is very frustrating, and one wonders, what is the point of having a blog when comments are not updated for a whole day.

      But perhaps it would help in future if this is better explained to us, as to why this does occasionally occur.

      • Yes you’re completely right about this. My overreaction is unjustified, see some us don’t mind being wrong.

  21. I’ve just popped over to SpinOff. I popped right back. Reading it was like watching drizzle falling on Rolleston of a Sunday but more boring. It’s a place, it seems to me, where middle class, middle of the road, mostly beige, house work fetishists go to read instruction manuals for cake mixers. Anything SpinOff reports on should be the things we shouldn’t take seriously.
    I would agree. We are a two legged virus but we’re here now so…? Might as well get on with it. We must be very careful to not lose our sense of humour.
    During the Falklands war, when a British war ship was fatally struck by an Argentinian Exocet missile, the crew on board stood to attention and sang “ Always look on the bright side of Life” as the ship sunk beneath them.
    Is this The End then? Well, it had to happen sooner or later I suppose. I’d a preferred a bit later myself but oh well. Never mind.
    On that cheery note; Did I mention that I have a suspicion that a culling’s on the way? A pandemic? A virus which just so happens to strike when all seems lost? And obliterates 80% of the human population? Except the riche and fancy? The virus, it might seem, is highly sensitive to Botox and viagara? And couldn’t make it to NZ before it suddenly and mysteriously became inert? Wishful thinking perhaps.
    The thing I’m most sad about is that the wee beasties must suffer for our silliness. Our silly wee selves, puttering around telegraphing our poor mental health. Demanding this and that. Wanting ever more. Bleaching our arseholes, waxing our perineum’s, sucking out our fat, injecting fat back in, getting cheap and cheerful tooth jobs done in Vietnam so that we may smile more broadly, and more falsely, with greater confidence? Having our wrinkles pruned off as if that’s going to make us ugly fuckers more attractive. If I had all my wrinkles pruned off, I’d be nothing more than a pair of knee caps. The wee beasties, it has to be said, fit in. They fit with this planet. We don’t. If we were to disappear, this planet and it’s beasties wouldn’t skip a beat… Or would they?
    No, actually.
    I was trying to think of how humans might, indeed, fit in somewhere so as to be missed. But we don’t. What we are, is a higher order of casual observer here, and and we fucked it up. We went to the zoo and we shot all the animals. We went to the museum and we smashed everything. We went to the art gallery and we slashed and burned it and now? We wander about in our gluttonous greed wiping our arses on the carnage we’ll leave behind.
    That sounds like small town Nu Zillind during bogan mating season on a Friday night?
    I read, on a Clutha river mouth white baiting hutch on a wee sticker stuck to the door.
    “ The only true wilderness area in New Zealand is between a ‘Greenies’ ears.” Is that irony?
    My neighbour has just sprayed several paddocks with glyphosate. It’s only been a couple of days and they’re already that ominous yellow/sick green colour.
    The Labour Party is everywhere that doesn’t really matter.
    What Labour should be doing is courting the farmer who farms the wee beasties and the land…
    Sorry…. Losing my concentration. Might have a cup of tea and a sandwich… But no tea, no fresh water, no sugar, no milk, no bread, no butter, no ham, no salad…Got my BMW, my flat screen Tee Vee, got my iPhone 99986836486816161664817824182734, got my interweb so porn so yay, got my go pro, got my drone but I’ve not got my sandwich nor my cup of tea…
    Two Weeks later.
    “ God!? Hey man? S’up? Yeah… Earth an’ that? Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Got a cup of tea and a sandwich for a Bro? What you mean? ‘Fuck Off!’ What…? You mean that? Fuck off! Where to ? I’m here now so… Hey! Who’s that dude? That mother F…. ! Look at his feet Bro! Hooves ! WTF? And what’s that? A ‘pitch’ what? Fork!? A pitch fork!? Get away from my bleached arsehole with that thing dude ! Dude! Dude! Wait! No! Yeeeeeaaaarrrrrrgrgrgrggrrhrhrhhr rhrh rhr rhrrrhrh rrhhggghh ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !”
    While I’m no God botherer you do get the picture, right?

  22. This is all very true, Martyn but yet again no one talks about the fundamental issue of overpopulation. There is no hope if the population problem is not fixed. There is some hope if overpopulation is addressed urgently. Dont ask me what we should do about it because the most obvious solution is not up for discussion.

  23. Hi ho Marty — given the circs I’m getting familiar. We’re in the trenches like my grandfather. 3rd para sums it up. Why have you waited til Trotter trotted it out ?

    • There’s bags of shit (yes, technical term, FED poo pooing everywhere) with most polls being complete trash. I mean how many people are walking around giving expert advice who where saying Hillary Clinton would win and Winston Peters would go with the National. And now we’ve got mass people claiming The Republican Party will receive utu in the Mid Terms.

      So welcome to volatility, welcome to the end of a significant correction month and for a lot of people this has been a rather painful experience. Personally I’m running aspects of what is exposed to the NZ billion trees strategy because as Iv learnt in the money market universe you’re never quite short enough or hedged enough. So this is a painful two months for everyone trading the traditional markets.

      One of the things that are setting up another painful month is American trade is doing 20% better than China and that’s a reason to sell off. It’s not the level of change its the velocity that rates change. America is an island of outperformance destined for reasons to sell and the FED doesn’t set long term rates they set short term rates which is kind of head scratchy for long term trade in general. You can say MAGA is responsible for some of that performance but last month was a good revenue month that caught every one trying to down play America.

      Those are things every one will be hoping calms down but there’s a set up to be worried about in the U.S. Mid term elections and it’s always nice to get a peek from all this by people who are a little further away.

  24. Oram has practice in believing in what suits — he’s a Christian. Despite , obviously, his championship of reality in the economics field.

    I still believe he’s better than me despite my rationalism. But I can see the cliff.

  25. The problem the IPCC now faces is that they told us we had only ten years left over ten years ago, yet here we are. 😉

    They and their fellow travellers in the environmental activism game have cried wolf so many times that they’ve lost credibility.

    They’ve had to ‘reassess’ their temperature predictions downward so many times now, their climate models are becoming a bit of a joke.

    But few want to point out that the king has no clothes because there is an *awful* lot of money involved in the climate game. Unless they’re tenured and near retirement, scientists won’t call it for what it is because it’s a recipe for termination.

  26. more dumb shit spread by a inconstant non investigative jorno, do some of yer own research instead of reprinting overseas lies designed to enrich the u.n., you sheep

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