beady eyed shards of a happy new year

Greetings. I’ve been on an irrational vacation. An irrational vacation is where one tries to take some time away to relax, and ends up more stressed than when working. So I’m back on the stick.

Here is some stuff that has been bugging me.


Misplacing the apocalypse via Energy Bulletin
To accept the "doomer" framework, is to assert that there is no way out from the present crisis – and that is to go beyond what the evidence as a whole supports. The evidence is clear that there is a major problem, but to assert that, eg, civilisation will come to an abrupt end is to move from the realm of demonstrable fact (imminent absence of resources on which we presently rely) to a contestable conjecture (there is nothing that we can do to mitigate the situation). At root, then, the "doomer" perspective is a denial of hope, and a denial of the possibility of redemption. It is a theological perspective, not a scientific one.

I enjoyed this essay, but I’ve been at this gig for a while now. The broken metaphor of the apocalypse is played out. As long as religion is on the button, I venture peak oil presents a civilization with the promise and hope of being Born Again – suffering a “little death” as the grand global ponzi economy built around efficiency and mind control crumbles in lockstep with the disintegrating highways and byways. Hallelujah.

If one wants a real apocalypse, than the poison of choice is a change in the weather.


Global Markets Face `Severe Correction,' Faber Says
``In the next few months, we could get a severe correction in all asset markets,'' Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York. ``In a selling panic you should buy, but in the buying mania that we have now the wisest course of action is to liquidate.''
Faber, founder and managing director of Hong Kong-based Marc Faber Ltd., advised investors to buy gold in 2001, which has since more than doubled. His company manages about $300 million in assets.
``Everyday the world is burning more oil than new reserves are added,'' Faber said. ``You wont see $12 dollars again'' for every barrel of oil. ``The trend is likely more to be upside because demand in Asia is going to double over time.''

Just to be clear here, Faber is calling out a global depression, and I concur. The full enchilada, only 179.99 at Taco Bell. Double or nothing every day. The pressure is building, eventually China will reach a point where she cannot be the last one out the door with her dollar reserves and thus will emphatically act first. I don’t care if this seems inscrutable, if there were ever a time for a little auto-didactics-ism this is it. Become the skeptical expert. Why do people ignore physics? What are they teaching in schools these days anyways? Ugh.


South Korea builds world's largest garbage-fuelled power plant
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea has opened the world's largest garbage-fuelled power plant and expects to reduce its imports of heavy oil by 500,000 barrels a year as a result.
The 50-megawatt plant, designed to provide power to more than 180,000 households, began operating on Tuesday. It sits on a mammoth garbage dump in the city of Incheon west of Seoul, the ministry said in a statement.

Ah yes, the power plants built on fetid heaps of stacked up trash, hectares by silos. This is the final, sublime form of industrial civilization, quietly munching recently excreted turds of garbage as the lights dim. Sustainable at last.


Climate Change is Killing the Oceans' Microscopic 'Lungs'
The fear is that as sea temperatures continue to rise as a result of global warming, the loss of phytoplankton will lead to a positive-feedback cycle, where increases in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere leads to warmer oceans, and warmer oceans lead to increasing carbon dioxide concentrations.

Fear these days is actually reality just over the horizon, waiting to be observed. The dead, weed ridden oceans are mocking us from the soon to be, waiting to crown the king of the chimps with a crown of bleached coral and garland of shark fins.


Fuel tankers reporting increased methane venting from sea beds.
According to U.S. maritime industry sources, tanker captains are reporting an increase in onboard alarms from hazard sensors designed to detect hydrocarbon gas leaks and, specifically, methane leaks. However, the leaks are not emanating from cargo holds or pump rooms but from continental shelves venting increasing amounts of trapped methane into the atmosphere. With rising ocean temperatures, methane is increasingly escaping from deep ocean floors. Methane is also 21 more times capable of trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
In fact, one of the major sources for increased methane venting is the Hudson Submarine Canyon, which extends into the Atlantic 400 miles from the New York-New Jersey harbor. Another location experiencing increased venting is the Santa Barbara Channel on the California coast.

I promised apocalypse.

This is one of those WTF stories. A little corroboration is needed, to take this out of the realm of the tin-foil. Yet venting methane in warming oceans is the opposite of unexpected. It is expected. Just seems a little… early. This could ruin our whole century.

Say,
Has anyone asked the boy king about his plans to address global warming?