Plan B

Lester Brown is the Earth Policy Institute president and he's written many books that appeal to rationality and science, which have been ignored by Democrats and contradicted by Republicans. But the Plan B series of books make good reading and it's part of my research for the Santa Cruz book to include as many details about the declining condition of the Environment and people's ignorant self-destruction. Oggy's character is totally obsessed with the science of reform but he's unable to plot out a path to resolution. All the scenarios end up in war and apocalypse so he spends his day compulsively running through virtual models of civilization with different variables...

Well, the main problem with Brown's 'Plan' is that in 270 pages he does not specifically mention world peace as a requirement for success, but the omission of any kind of conflict from his Plan sort of implies that in order for this Plan to proceed then Russia CAN NOT drop nuclear bombs on the Ukraine. I mean that if we are still at the nuclear war stage, then reforestation projects and 'eating lower on the food chain' are so fucking far gone and not remotely within the reach of humanity that it's fantasy to mention them. So, World Peace, literally a Utopian human species that loves and respects one another and never fights on a national level, IS REQUIRED before any kind of progress can be made on the level of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, renewable energy sources, switchgrass ethanol powering generators for electric bike motors, etc, etc. all of this is predicated on the assumption that Mankind initially ceases all warfare or military commitments. How is that going to happen?

This is my "I'm pretty sure we're fucked" expression.

And I'm not really exaggerating because this is 270 pages that tries to cover ever minor angle to the environmental crisis on the horizon. The book was published in 2009 (It took 4 years for me to read it) but he's writing about the year 2020 as a goal to reduce CO2 omission by 80%. Brown and his staff present the evidence that this isn't a "lofty moral goal" but rather a "scientific requirement to avoid extinction". That's an important distinction. These might be goals Brown would champion even if mankind were NOT in danger of self-extinction, but it happens that the evidence suggest extinction is exactly what is at stake if these goals are not met. It's not like we'll get fined a couple hundred dollars. No. More like millions will die in the streets from starvation, Tennessee will be oceanfront property, the rich will attempt to enslave millions but every human will die by the year 2060 if we do not radically transform our relationship to The Earth. That's why it's called "Earth Policy Institute". Brown says, "First we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask if it's possible." These are inspiring words. I must be an asshole if I think Nuclear Annihilation is much more realistic than World Peace.

A prerequisite of this plan is World Peace. See, a world united in pursuit of a stable climate can not also be a world at war. These are incompatible. They are mutually exclusive. The reckless approach to The Earth of the last 2 centuries is because of the frequent wars. More warfare will mean more exploitation, not less. If we have world war, then not only do we probably have massive resource exploitation in pursuit of victory, but we have the opposite of global cooperation to stabilize the climate. We have division and willful violence and eating lower on the food chain* will again return to the lowest end of human priorities. You can probably see where I'm going with this if you read the news. There is absolutely no evidence even on a local level that people are going to cooperate. Humanity is far from prioritizing their dinner's place on the food chain and are actually at the level of insulting people they are obese or blind or have a wasting disease. So, in one or two million years mankind has evolved to the place where we can insult one another with reasonable ease, and in the next 40 years we have to evolve into Spock or Gandhi...AND the entire global economy must be transformed according to a feasible plan Brown has written out...including sending 1/4 of the current global military budget to failing states. That's all. Do that and we'll be fine. Otherwise we all die.

It's feasible, but implausible because humanity is not going to unite in world peace within the next 40 years, nor are they going to agree on 'mobilizing to save civilization' when basic respect of neighbors does not even exist. So, the science suggests that mankind will die off in the process of making miniscule efforts toward sustainability but the majority of humanity was consumed by loathing and wanton destruction. There will definitely be a few months where "everyone takes this seriously" but those will be quickly followed by years when "we all know we're fucked" and anarchy reigns.

Plan A is suicidal, but Plan B requires a transformation that will only happen if Jesus Christ returns from the dead, settles all religious debates on globally broadcast television, in which he fluently speaks about 130 languages...and then decrees that Mankind follow every word Lester Brown wrote...all while levitating in mid air...and healing the sick with a gesture. If that happens then maybe Brown's Plan will be followed. We literally need the one true Messiah/Prophet to return or we're all fucked. It's Semana Santa this month so maybe this is the year. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray for His return.

*This is a reference to the 7 Kg of grain required to make 1 Kg of beef protein, but 3 Kg for pork and 2 Kg of grain required for chicken and less for fish...and an almost equal ratio if we simply eat the fucking soybeans that we feed the cows, who we then slaughter and eat like barbarians.


 Woody Guthrie talks while Sonny Terry demonstrates the classic Whopin' the Blues harmonica style and I think Brownie McGhee is strumming guitar. This was back when musicians were genuine. I have to learn how to do this before the world ends.