permaculture

[Misha Gale-Sinex <mgs2369@attbi.com>]

Howdy, all--

Mark wrote:

> This is a good analisys of the problem, but I think we can still 
> aggressively pursue sequestering of C in soils (and oceanic carbon 
> sinks).  we know it's good for the soil, we know how to do it, and 
> we know people will still be burning fossil fuels for the forseable 
> future.  Why not take what we can from a bad situation and move 
> things in the right direction.
> M

Sequestration?

That's like a 690-pound food addict deciding they'll shit in the 
woods, and bury it, because that's better than using the toilet. 
Meanwhile, they're stuffing their mouths while squatting, then 
rolling back to the house to stuff themselves gaggy again.

Regarding human induced climate change, the problem is mining fossil 
carbon out of the earth's crust. Period. It has to stop.

It'll only stop if each of us slashes our fossil fuel use 
immediately. Cold turkey would be good, but if not that, then cutting 
use by 5-25 percent or more per year. Starting now. Not later, not 
someday, not maybe, not when chickens learn to fart folk songs in the 
key of C and science can document it. Now.

This kind of thinking ("Why not just do whatever keeps us complacent 
and busy and on top?") contributes to the problem. It *doesn't* "move 
things in the right direction."

The problem isn't a Sequestration Technology Deficit.

The problem isn't that "We know PEOPLE will still be burning fossil fuels."

The problem is, what are YOU doing about burning fossil fuels, Mark?

Have you set goals for how YOU are going to slash your fossil fuel 
use over the next year, five years, ten years?

What are your goals? What are your fears? What are you willing to 
change? What, when push comes to pop, are you NOT willing to change?

Let's be honest about this stuff--like the fact that most of us are 
perfectly willing to see thousands and millions of people we don't 
know and don't care about, devoured, ground up, by the fossil fuel 
energy system, so we can continue to live like the hogs we have been. 
(And don't even sling horse-dukey at me on that one, because I grew 
up in the refineries, my family worked for and was owned by Sun Oil, 
and we all worked for them, including me. I speak from experience.)

Enough of this vague abstractionalizing about "people" and what they 
do or not. Fossil fuel use is individual and personal. Focusing on 
abstractions and the dream of a technical fix is part of Fly-boy 
Culture. There's always another abstraction to chirp. Another 
technical fix to prosper from dreaming about and promoting. Somewhere 
else to drive or fly. Something else to buy. Another set of feel-good 
things to say. All kinds of ways to avoid dealing with the blunt 
facts of the matter.

That's what happens when you get skygods on the brain. Way too easy 
to zoom up there and lose track of life here on earth. That's what 
happens when you live in the culture/nation that is causing the 
problem by setting the standard for gluttony and engineering others 
to aspire to it. Live in that culture long enough, and it becomes 
second nature to retreat into the plate of cream, and let others 
worry about milking themselves to keep the saucer full.


peace
misha