Friday, May 6, 2011

No Cause For Alarm

There were 312 tornadoes counted during that apocalyptic storm that covered 1800 miles and demolished Tuscaloosa. Me and the dog were hiding in the basement as a patio set flew over the fence. But under no circumstances should we change anything in our lifestyles. No. Ignore the fact our power company probably gives away cfl bulbs or sells them at low cost. Just look up your energy company and see for yourself. The climate is totally unrelated to energy consumption and pollution. Right? It's nature!

312 tornadoes in one day is not natural!

Dear god, that end of the world movie "The Day After Tomorrow" didn't even have 312 tornadoes happen in one day because it would've been too many to be plausible.

The climate change hippies keep saying it's going to take an apocalyptic event to change anyone's mind. Well, they're wrong. 312 tornadoes is apocalyptic and it was eclipsed in the news by the royal wedding and Osama's death. Did you see the town of Tuscaloosa? No, of course you didn't. I'm sure there were a million better things to do...and until the hurricane from hell knocks at your front door then it will be business as usual.

No, clearly the status quo will prevail. If Dali Lama isn't going to walk then why should we? In fact, even I don't think it matters anymore what we do. It takes centuries for rain forest acres to regrow and we're cutting it down like goats in a field of lavender. It will take a total collapse of society to rethink the climate and that collapse is right around the corner and it's probably unavoidable. CFL bulbs or no bulbs the atmosphere is over 450 ppm of carbon and climbing while 350 ppm is the upper limit of safety. What happens at 450 ppm? 312 tornadoes in one day. This is cause and effect.

I'm going to have to walk to Labrador and when I get there all the wolves will be marching south. "You don't want to go up there," they'll say.
"Huh?"
"It's totally fucked."
"Well, you haven't seen where I come from."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

the end of days starts may 12 or maybe the 20th.
swellesley

Oggy Bleacher said...

To clarify, so, it starts this year and the apocalypse continues for one year and next may the end of the world happens?

I just want to get it straight so I can schedule it in my phone.

Oggy Bleacher said...

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/07/136053462/is-the-end-nigh-well-know-soon-enough

It's all at NPR. Yes, the world ends in 12 days. I will do a Live blog for your amusement. And then 153 days later the universe will be destroyed.

and you wonder why I didn't get a job at Home Depot this winter?

Oh, and while you are at NPR check out
http://humanosphere.kplu.org/2011/05/geek-heretic-technology-cannot-end-poverty/

it's not my usual critical analysis of contemporary events. No. It supports the core of my beliefs that true change is very difficult to achieve. If you think an iPhone application will address social problems then you are wrong. In fact, it probably widens the gap between rich and poor.

There was a wise book called "Round the Bend" written by Nevil Shute. In it, a Muslim Imam (holy man?) makes important decisions for the people of the village. One of those decisions is to refrain from paving the roads even though they had the money....because it would be an artificial improvement. It would not be accomplished by the whole community (foreign money and contractors wanted to do the job) so it was not a root benefit of the community.

It would be like giving arctic wolves solar heated caves.

This really is a chasm of difference from the American thought process which suggests a road built is a road built and thus good unequivocally. But is it? Is a product from China anything but artificial? I say no. It's pure artifice. Public opinion disagrees and says if it is in demand then it must be a benefit. This is a philosophical argument as to our goals on earth.

Well, read what Kentaro Toyama has to say and he's smarter than the both of us put together. He doesn't suggest the rich ought to do nothing for the poor. He just suggests REAL contribution is very hard. There can be no cutting corners. It's like if you've ever taught English as a second language. It's very easy to teach it in such a way that no one learns any English.

I hope to address this with my long awaited Santa Cruz novel. All the social service crew and city council wanted quick fixes. Well, there are no quick fixes ever. And the process of trying to fix things quick only delays anything getting fixed as things get worse and worse. Then the police get their riot gear out and guess what? NOTHING GETS FIXED. Then Oggy enters the mix and tries to get to the root of the problem and that is also nearly impossible to do and will break all but the strongest men.

But I'm just an asshole living in a straw hut. And Toyama is a dummy too I guess.

Creative Commons License
Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.