(Ann Gibbons of The Six Chix/King Features Syndicate)On Climate Change: ‘The End Is Near’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society March 29, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry, The Environment 49 Comments . The Simplest Way to Save the Earth The simplest way for us to save the earth Would be for women to stop giving birth. For when there are no longer any mothers We’ll solve the problem of too many “others.” The truth in this is easy to deduce: As long as people mate and reproduce As fast or faster than they are deceased Environmental impacts are increased. For animals and plants are not polluters, It’s people who are carbon-spewed commuters. The quickest way to prove we love our planet Would be to cancel intercourse and ban it. Then all whose reproductive rates are zeroes Will be acclaimed and lifted up as heroes. While women who have children will be blamed While also being canceled, mocked, and shamed. With social values all turned topsy-turvy, And pregnancy deemed worse than having scurvy. We’ll know the world’s salvation’s nearly there When we’re reduced to one last mating pair. And when that final human pair have passed, The earth will be restored and healed at last— An Eden, pristine, beautiful and fair— With no one left to see it . . . or to care. . . The End Is Near I think that climate change is true, But . . . is it caused by me and you? A subject I find quite confusing— And both concerning and amusing. Scientists and climate prophets Frighten us while making profits. Here is what I hear them saying: “We’ll all die if we keep straying!” “Save the world and do recycling.” “Take the bus or start bicycling!” Here is some of what I’m thinking (Serious, with one eye winking): Doom is sure, the end is near, For there is no escaping here. Where would we go? The moon? or Mars? Some galaxy beyond the stars? Good luck with that! For what it’s worth, The only home we have, is Earth. Like it or not, we know it’s so, There is no other place to go. It doesn’t matter, cold or hot, The ozone layer will go to pot, El Niño/Niña, come what may, Will either grow or fade away. The polar ice will thicken, thin, Or simply stay the way it’s been Since the last Ice Age came and went. The odds? One hundred ten percent. Atlantic hurricanes are stronger. The four seasons? Each lasts longer! Snowfall? Droughts? Each a precursor Proving this year’s weather’s worser. The ice is melting; seas are rising, Atolls flooded. What’s surprising? Why the ocean’s rising there But isn’t rising everywhere? “Use plastic bags and save a tree” Was once thought good ecology, Then Styrofoam was the solution Till found they added to pollution. Today—although was once a sin— Both paper cups and bags are “In.” You buy them when you’re shopping or You BYOB to the store. Electric cars are de rigueur, Because they don’t pollute the air. But China owns the cobalt trade From which the batteries are made. The microchip is made of stuff Called “rare earth.” China’s got enough Of that as well, while we have zip, So guess who makes the microchip? And solar cells need Gallium, Germanium, Tellurium, And Arsenic, and Indium The U.S.A. has none of them. Atomic power’s out of style, Since on an island called “Three Mile” A nuclear reactor failed And nearly got its owners jailed. On coal and gas we once relied But each has now been set aside, Along with cows (verboten, too, For methane gas) and CO2. No doubt our climate’s in a pickle, But climate change, it seems, is fickle. For whether weather’s hot or cold It’s all our fault, so we’ve been told. An “Inconvenient Truth,” they say, Where Greta Thunberg saves the day! And Gore receives a Nobel Prize While spewing carbon in the skies. Deplorables, like me and you Will pay the bill when it comes due. Dissenters? Subject to contempt. The rich and powerful? Exempt. So scratch your carbon footprint’s itch, Buy carbon credits if you’re rich. Embrace each climate change accord And scrap your 4-2-7 Ford. Let power plants and dams go dry, With power grids now powered by The Green New Deal protocols And wind farms spun by hot-air pols. We’ll know the planet’s saved, no doubt, The day when all our lights go out. . . James A. Tweedie is a retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He has written and published six novels, one collection of short stories, and three collections of poetry including Mostly Sonnets, all with Dunecrest Press. His poems have been published nationally and internationally in The Lyric, Poetry Salzburg (Austria) Review, California Quarterly, Asses of Parnassus, Lighten Up Online, Better than Starbucks, WestWard Quarterly, Society of Classical Poets, and The Chained Muse. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 49 Responses Paul Freeman March 29, 2022 James, you make the end of the world almost seem like something to look forward to. Of course, making the birthrate zero is one way of doing it, but remember one person from the richest of countries equates to twenty-five times the CO2 production of someone from the poorest of nations. Just a note on cobalt. Almost three-quarters of the world’s reserves actually come from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I believe – the ‘Democratic’ part in a country’s name usually indicating it’s anything but. A lot of the cobalt is mined by school-age children in illegal mines to earn enough to eat and send their siblings to school; themselves too, eventually, if the mines don’t cave in. But as long as we have our phones… I appreciate the light-hearted look at climate change you’ve given us, though. It’s a gift to be able to draw from both sides of the issue and create a certain amount of levity. Thanks for the reads, James. Reply James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Thank you, Paul, for pointing out Congo/cobalt matter. My point, thanks to Hunter Biden, was that China controls the “cobalt trade” which includes their control of much of the Congo cobalt production (but see Cheryl’s update on that matter further down in the comments). My list of rare earth production is also in need of comment. The US has gallium deposits but uses imports (mostly from France). A US company is in plans to begin to collect rare earth elements from US sources, aiming at reaching 50% of domestic consumption. For Geranium the US has one non-producing mine in Utah. 25% of Tellurium is domestic, 0% of Arsenic is domestic, and 0% Indium (China produces between 43-66% of the world’s Indium) Reply Mike Bryant March 29, 2022 James, I enjoyed both of these light-hearted looks at doomsday. I’m reminded of a few predictions on Climate Change that were highlighted by John Nolte in 2019… there are still plenty more recent predictions that only need a few more years to be falsified. LIST OF DOOMSDAY PREDICTIONS CLIMATE ALARMIST GOT RIGHT: NONE. ZIP. ZERO. NADA. BLANK. DONUT HOLE. NIL. NOTHING. VOID. ZILCH. LIST OF DOOMSDAY PREDICTIONS THE CLIMATE ALARMIST GOT WRONG: 1 1967: Dire Famine Forecast By 1975 2 1969: Everyone Will Disappear In Cloud Of Blue Steam By 1989 (1969) 3 1970: Ice Age By 2000 4 1970: America Subject to Water Rationing By 1974 and Food Rationing By 1980 5 1971: New Ice Age Coming By 2020 or 2030 6 1972: New Ice Age By 2070 7 1974: Space Satellites Show New Ice Age Coming Fast 8 1974: Another Ice Age? 9 1974: Ozone Depletion a ‘Great Peril to Life 10 1976: Scientific Consensus Planet Cooling, Famines imminent 11 1980: Acid Rain Kills Life In Lakes 12 1978: No End in Sight to 30-Year Cooling Trend 13 1988: Regional Droughts (that never happened) in 1990s 14 1988: Temperatures in DC Will Hit Record Highs 15 1988: Maldive Islands will Be Underwater by 2018 (they’re not) 16 1989: Rising Sea Levels will Obliterate Nations if Nothing Done by 2000 17 1989: New York City’s West Side Highway Underwater by 2019 (it’s not) 18 2000: Children Won’t Know what Snow Is 19 2002: Famine In 10 Years If We Don’t Give Up Eating Fish, Meat, and Dairy 20 2004: Britain will Be Siberia by 2024 21 2008: Arctic will Be Ice Free by 2018 22 2008: Climate Genius Al Gore Predicts Ice-Free Arctic by 2013 23 2009: Climate Genius Prince Charles Says we Have 96 Months to Save World 24 2009: UK Prime Minister Says 50 Days to ‘Save The Planet From Catastrophe’ 25 2009: Climate Genius Al Gore Moves 2013 Prediction of Ice-Free Arctic to 2014 26 2013: Arctic Ice-Free by 2015 27 2013: Arctic Ice-Free by 2016 28 2014: Only 500 Days Before ‘Climate Chaos’ 29 1968: Overpopulation Will Spread Worldwide 30 1970: World Will Use Up All its Natural Resources 31 1966: Oil Gone in Ten Years 32 1972: Oil Depleted in 20 Years 33 1977: Department of Energy Says Oil will Peak in 90s 34 1980: Peak Oil In 2000 35 1996: Peak Oil in 2020 36 2002: Peak Oil in 2010 37 2005 : Manhattan Underwater by 2015 38 1970: Urban Citizens Will Require Gas Masks by 1985 39 1970: Nitrogen buildup Will Make All Land Unusable 40 1970: Decaying Pollution Will Kill all the Fish 41 1970s: Killer Bees! Sorry, Experts… Sorry, Scientific Consensus… Only a fool comes running for the 42nd cry of wolf. Don’t litter, be kind to animals, recycling’s for suckers (it’s all going to end up in the ground eventually), so stop feeling guilty… Go out there to embrace all the bounty that comes with being a 21st century American. John Nolte Reply James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Mike, Let’s not forget the signs placed in Glacier National Park (US) in 2010 that told visitors that the glaciers would be gone by 2020. The signs have now been taken down with more recent predictions declaring that the park’s glaciers will be gone by 2100. I’m not sure if they have put up signs for this yet. Reply Mike Bryant March 29, 2022 Nice catch, James. I guess if you are going to predict something it makes sense to push the date out eighty years or so. That way there won’t be many left who remember the prediction. “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” – Neils Bohr James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Deuteronomy 18:22 “If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and what he says does not come true, then it is not the LORD’s message. That prophet has spoken on his own authority, and you are not to fear him.” The Israelites took the prophesy thing seriously. Especially so when we read what came two verses earlier in Deuteronomy 18:20: “But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.” If Hal Lindsey ever spoke in the name of the Lord he’d be out of a job in a hurry! And if “science” was considered to be a god, prophesy in the name of science would be a far more sober and serious matter than it seems to be these days. C.B. Anderson March 29, 2022 The only thing that Marxist leftists are good at is predicting the past. Climate change has been going on ever since the earth developed an atmosphere. Anyone who wants to learn some serious climate science ought to search for any lecture by Richard Lindzen before they are all taken down. One of the best things about you, the retired “preacher,” is that you do not preach, which is so unlike our esteemed confrere, Paul Freeman, who knows nothing about climate science other than what he has heard from politicians and other poseurs. Humor is the best medicine, James, so keep on dispensing it Paul Freeman March 30, 2022 “Paul Freeman … knows nothing about climate science other than what he has heard from politicians and other poseurs.” My apologies for not having the same opinion as you, C. B.. I would never make such a comment about the sources of your knowledge out of common respect. However, thanks for the tip about Richard Lindzen. Wider reading make us all more knowledgeable. Jeff Eardley March 29, 2022 Mike, you didn’t mention the Victorian prediction that we would all be knee deep in horse manure by 1900, and thanks for your list of alternatives to what we English refer to as “bugger all.” Reply C.B. Anderson March 29, 2022 Thanks for this, Mike. As you surely know from your examination of the writings of Karl Popper, the best way to refute a supposed scientific theory is to compare its predictions with actual experiential results. You have done so to great effect, and your lines are well plumbed, which is a tribute to your ability to distinguish clean water from the gray and the brown, and to relegate the various types to their proper station in the grand scheme of things. In so doing, you have separated the crystal stream from the cesspool. Reply Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Thanks, C.B. As a plumber, every pipe I install is a sort of prediction. I have to certify that every system of hot or cold or sewage or gray water, every system of compressed air or natural gas or medical gases is transported efficiently exactly to the place where it is used or discarded in a manner that enhances its usefulness while absolutely guaranteeing the safety of all systems. Mostly that means no cross connections of any systems ever while the sizes of the pipes and tubes are as near perfect as possible and are made of the correct materials and wall thicknesses. The plans, specs, codes and inspections should ensure all those things, but the plumber is ultimately responsible. When my “predictions” fail… I make it right. When theirs do… they are not held responsible, they just push them out a few more years. Shame on those who keep listening to the lies. C.B. Anderson March 31, 2022 You are quite welcome, Paul. Reply Cheryl Corey March 29, 2022 Just last month, Republic of Congo removed (at least temporarily) Chinese leadership of one of the world’s largest copper and cobalt mines over a dispute of billions owed to the Congo by the Chinese owner. Cobalt, from what I’ve read, provides longer battery life. As an aside, China’s negotiating with the Taliban to mine what happens to be one of, if not the, largest deposit of lithium in the world. Reply James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Thanks for the update on Congo/Cobalt. From what I’ve read, nearly every country that has entered trade or development deals with China have been badly burned or burdened with debt. Let’s see how the Taliban does with its hoped-for cash cow. Reply Jeff Eardley March 29, 2022 James, your ponderings on life are a joy to read and none more so than these two. After a price increase of around 85%, I have been asked by my energy provider if I would be happy to pull back the curtains each morning to gaze on a cluster of wind turbines marching across our lovely countryside to “scratch the Carbon footprint’s itch, ” just as we await the calming wind to waft over us from Chernobyl. The world is going mad. Thanks for another blast of fun today. Reply James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Jeff, You’re welcome. Reply Cynthia Erlandson March 29, 2022 Lots of truth expressed in a fun way! Reply Margaret Coats March 29, 2022 Then starve, because your very food Dooms earth with gas the scraps exude. Suggested additional lines, James, if you would like a quatrain rather than a couplet at the end. California residents have been sternly informed that state law requires us to recycle food scraps. No more potato peels or plate leavings or coffee grounds in the trash. Organic trash gives rise to methane from landfills. And this is obviously much more urgent than recycling paper or glass or plastic ever was. Before the full-scale alarm over food and plant residue, the state left these matters to local governments and their waste contractors, who never tried to achieve compliance by threats. Now individuals (yes, family homes) who don’t properly dispose of organic waste can be fined up to $500 per day. This wouldn’t be so bad (would it?) if state oligarchs composted the waste and got rich by producing methane as fuel to meet our energy needs. But look again: compostable materials such as food containers are no longer recyclable and must be put in trash to go to landfills. As well, most formerly recyclable plastics have become trash to go to landfill. Within X years California will explode as methane-producing organic matter blows the state’s non-biodegradable plastic lid to smithereens! Reply James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Yikes! Reply C.B. Anderson March 29, 2022 Or “Yipes!” if one prefers. C.B. Anderson March 29, 2022 One interjection is as good a any other. Shaun C. Duncan March 30, 2022 Nice work, James. The second piece particularly does a great job at cataloguing the absurdities and shifting contradictions of the AGW scam. My personal favourite moment was in 2013 when James Hansen, the former high priest of climate alarmism was asked to reflect on his 1988 testimony to Congress in which he claimed New York would be underwater by 1999. He said he hadn’t gone far enough. That was the moment I realised we were living in a post-truth world. Reply Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Shaun, in their own words… https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/02/05/in-their-own-words-climate-alarmists-debunk-their-science/?sh=26eb1f4a68a3 Reply Shaun C. Duncan March 30, 2022 It’s funny how much of it parallels covid, Mike. Same use of modelling as “settled science”, same tactics to silence the naysayers, same “opportunities to reshape the world economy through global governance”, same players. Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Amen, Shaun… they’re playing all the same games with Ukraine. We are supposed to be willing to start WWIII to save Democracy in Ukraine, the most corrupt dictatorship in the world… Zelensky is in partnership with Soros, Biden and Hunter… all the opposition parties have been dismantled and the leaders are in prison… democracy? Nope… Still, according to a recent poll 35% of Americans are just fine with WWIII to save democracy in Ukraine… the stupidity burns… James A. Tweedie March 30, 2022 Shaun, Thanks for taking the time to comment. You captured my intent quite well. My approach to world events varies from anger to disgust to dismissive laughter at the absurdity of the absolutist burdens people attempt to impose on one another. Often, I simply throw up my hands in helpless disbelief. As far as climate change is concerned I was very serious when I said: I think that climate change is true, But . . . is it caused by me and you? A subject I find quite confusing— And both concerning and amusing. “I think that climate change is true, But . . . is it caused by me and you? A subject I find quite confusing— And both concerning and amusing.” The rest of what I have to say is subsumed under its caveat: “Here is some of what I’m thinking (Serious, with one eye winking).” From that point on it is impossible for me to separate the “serious” bits from the “winking” bits. Of he two approaches to life I prefer winking at the serious things over taking winking things too seriously (see Will Smith as an example of where that can lead.) I remember talking with a young man who passionately opposed North Slope drilling. Among other things he was concerned about the possible effect this would have on the native reindeer. When I mentioned that reindeer were not indigenous to Alaska but were introduced to the Territory by a Presbyterian missionary who imported the first herd from Lapland/Finland in 1890 he looked confused. “Perhaps,” I said, “we should consider the reindeer to be an invasive species and consider the damage their hooves and grazing are having on the tundra.” I thought it was a whimsically amusing moment in an otherwise serious conversation. We need more winking in all of our serious conversations. The alternative is to stand in an endless circle and take turns slapping each other in the face. Reply Shaun C. Duncan March 30, 2022 That’s an admirable approach and a good way to lead others into the maze of internal contradictions present in the their thinking, like the young man in your example. Let them try to sort it all out from there. I agree about climate changing. The shift in terminology from the specific “Anthropogenic Global Warming” to the hopelessly general “climate change” was clearly an attempt to turn the noise into the signal, so to speak. As you so ably pointed out in your poem, any event is now evidence that the theory is true and apparently it’s always worse than we previously thought. Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Global Warming is a convenient fiction used by Globalists to push Globalism to the people they wish to enslave. A few quotes that illustrate this rather obvious truth: “The data doesn’t matter. We’re not basing our recommendations on the data. We’re basing them on the climate models.” Prof. Chris Folland, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research “The models are convenient fictions that provide something very useful.” Dr David Frame, Climate modeler, Oxford University “It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.” Paul Watson, Co-founder of Greenpeace “Unless we announce disasters no one will listen.” Sir John Houghton, First chairman of IPCC “No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.” Christine Stewart, former Canadian Minister of the Environment Now on to the Club of Rome. “The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.” Alexander King Co-Founder of the Club of Rome, (premier environmental think-tank and consultants to the United Nations) from his 1991 book The First Global Revolution “We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination… So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts… Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” Prof. Stephen Schneider, Stanford Professor of Biology and Global Change. Professor Schneider was among the earliest and most vocal proponents of man-made global warming and a lead author of many IPCC reports. He is a member of the Club of Rome. “We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.” Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation and member of the Club of Rome. “Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” “[The Earth Summit will play an important role in] reforming and strengthening the United Nations as the centerpiece of the emerging system of democratic global governance.” “The concept of national sovereignty has been an immutable, indeed sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful. The global community must be assured of environmental security.” Maurice Strong, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Al Gore’s mentor and executive member of the Club of Rome. “I believe it is appropriate to have an ‘over-representation’ of the facts on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience.” Al Gore, member of the Club of Rome and set to become the world’s first carbon billionaire. He is also the largest shareholder of Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), which looks set to become the world’s central carbon trading body. Maurice Strong sits on the board of directors for CCX. Back before he became U.S. President Obama served on the board of directors for the Joyce Foundation when it gave CCX nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” Essentially Obama helped fund the profiteers of the carbon taxation program that he then steered steered through Congress. “The threat of environmental crisis will be the ‘international disaster key’ that will unlock the New World Order.” Mikhail Gorbachev, Former President of the Soviet Union, member of the Club of Rome “We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.” David Rockefeller, Club of Rome executive member, former Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, founder of the Trilateral Commission, executive member of the World Economic Forum and donated the land on which the United Nations stands. Speaking at a U.N. Business Conference, Sept. 14, 1994 “We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” David Rockefeller, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991. “Some even believe we (the Rockefeller family) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure ‘one world’, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” David Rockefeller, Memoirs, page 405 *Other Club of Rome members include Tony Blair, George Soros Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Javier Solana, Kofi Annan, Bill Gates, The Dalai Lama, Hassan bin Talal, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Gro Harlem Bruntland, Robert Muller, Garret Hardin, King Juan Carlos of Spain and his wife Queen Sophia, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Prince Philippe of Belgium and many more people that include wealthy elites, ‘new age spiritualists’, former or current world political figures and former or current U.N. figures. * See this link for much more! – green-agenda.com/globalrevolution.html Link Memory Holed Additional Information Watch Lord Christopher Monckton (Former Adviser to Margaret Thatcher) Speaking in St. Paul on the real purpose of the Copenhagen Treaty – youtube.com/watch?v= Link Memory Holed Beware the UN’s Copenhagen plot -theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/beware-the-uns-copenhagen-plot/story-e6frg6qx Link Memory Holed One World Government The Real Aim of Environmentalism – http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16694 The Marxist roots of the global warming scare – http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/vernon/080616 Al Gore could become world’s first carbon billionaire -telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/6491195/Al-Gore-could-become-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire.html Link Memory Holed Obama’s involvement in Chicago Climate Exchange—the rest of the story – http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/9629 This site provides damning evidence of the agenda – green-agenda.com/ Link Memory Holed Club of Rome’s Depopulation Agenda “The Earth has cancer and the cancer is Man.” Club of Rome, Mankind at the Turning Point, 1974 “… the resultant ideal sustainable population is hence more than 500 million but less than one billion.” Club of Rome, Goals for Mankind, 1976. “A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people…. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions.” Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb. Paul Ehrlich is a member of the Club of Rome. “I believe that human overpopulation is the fundamental problem on Earth Today” “We humans have become a disease, the Humanpox.” Dave Foreman, Co-founder of Earth First! and member of the Club of Rome. “World population needs to be decreased by 50%” Henry Kissinger, , Former National Security Advisor, Former Secretary of State, chairman of Kissinger Associates, member of the Club of Rome. “We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren’t enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage.” Mikhail Gorbachev, Former President of the Soviet Union, member of the Club of Rome “A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.” Ted Turner, founder of CNN and major UN donor, member of the Club of Rome. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it. Jacques Cousteau, French naval officer and explorer. Member of the Club of Rome. “If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.” Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, member of the Club of Rome. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant March 30, 2022 James, I just wanted to say that although these poems appear light in their jovial and musical tones with a couple of lovely, jocular end rhymes – pickle/fickle, I can see you have devoted a lot of thought and research to the subject, and I thoroughly appreciate that. Your Deuteronomy 18:20 observation has really hit home with me. When people look to the false prophets in the government for salvation and push their selfish and destructive agenda, it galls me. I think serious conversations are needed and certainly don’t want to stand in an endless circle where we slap one another in the face… that suits those who wish to divide, but I don’t want to back off either. A “wink” seems too weak… my wink is in my poetry not the comments section. I know meekness isn’t weakness, but I feel the time has come to stand up and speak up. We’re on the brink of losing all of our freedoms and a robust but respectful conversation might help. Am I wrong? Reply James A. Tweedie March 30, 2022 Susan, I have no reason to disagree with either you or Mike. I am familiar with every citation that Mike posted and believe that one can both poke fun at such blovial pontifications (re the “We must do this or that immediately or we are all going to die and damn the cost and if you don’t agree and go along with what we say we will crush you and de legitimatize you and marginalize you and destroy you because . . . because . . . because we have the proof . . . proof that we made up . . . that will make us rich and powerful at your expense . . . proof that you are not allowed to challenge because every scientist in the world agrees with us that this is true so it must be true . . . etc. etc. ad nauseum) and still stand up and seriously challenge, confront, and resist with all one’s heart, soul, and might . . . which I do with my friends, most of whom insist on drinking the Koolade. There are different ways to challenge such things. On this site I prefer to poke at this and other issues with humor, with whimsy, satire and sarcasm. That’s my style. In other venues I use logic, reason, and inconvenient facts to argue the point. Perhaps meekness is a good description of my acquired temperment. Jesus seems to have considered meekness to be a strength strong enough to “inherit the earth” and an attribute pleasing to God so as to be blessed. Clearly he did not think of “meek” in terms of passive withdrawal from the world and neither do I. As far as “global climate change” is concerned, it seems to me that “global climate change” has been the status quo–the norm–since the first day of creation. The very idea of a “global climate stasis” is absurd. That’s why I say that I accept the idea of “climate change.” What I do not accept is the assertion that human beings are the primary cause to the extant that by changing this thing or that thing we can fine-tune the climate the way we tune a fiddle. Nonsense! I think . . . I hope that we are agreed on this. That said, I am content to let you and Mike feel/do/write poetry in whatever way that suits you. And I will do the same. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant March 30, 2022 James, I’m on exactly the same page as you where global climate change is concerned, and I appreciate your explanation on tackling serious issues with others. I am constantly reminding myself not to lose sight of the eternal… Jesus chose to be vulnerable so we could have victory. Keeping one’s mind on the bigger picture is always helpful in understanding the power of being meek. James, just like every poem I write, I’m a work in progress. Thank you for taking the time to reply. Mia March 31, 2022 Thank you for yet again producing great poems that are not just fun but inspirational. I think it is great to look at issues the way you do. I always find myself more lighthearted and trying to compose something after reading your poems. The weather in the UK Is always in a state of change, This morning it was cloudy and warm Then raining sleet by noon, The afternoon is forecast to be freezing And they are blaming it on Putin That we can’t afford the heating Now his gas is out of bounds- How I wish I had a yacht To sail where the sun is hot, As without a vaccination Travelling for a vacation Means I am on a cold staycation. Reply James A. Tweedie March 31, 2022 A “cold staycation” seems to be where the glitterati would like to keep us–in cold storage, so to speak, while they keep the yachts and warm weather for themselves! In any case, Mia, I’m glad you found entertainment, insight and inspiration in my poems. Keep warm, my friend. Summer is a-comin’–although in the UK that doesn’t necessarily translate into sunshine and swim suits on the beach! Keep that last lump of coal handy. You may need it come August! And speaking of climate change, you are no doubt aware that from the 7th century through the 18th century the London Thames would periodically freeze over at which times the city would celebrate with “Frost Fairs” on the ice. In the winter of 1683-84 the river was frozen solid for a stretch of two months! This came at the end of the so-called late Medieval “Little Ice Age.” Prior to this, from around 1000 to 1300 AD was the “Medieval Warm Period” when temperatures in Scotland averaged 2º c. more than they enjoy today. Even today, with the warming effect of the Gulf Stream, there are remnant palm trees still growing in places like Plockton, just to the east of Skye on the rail line to Inverness. So, head to the Highlands instead of the Côte d’Azur this year! “Climate change” is nothing new, either as the world warms (which is the current trend) or when it cools. The cycles are normal and natural and were even more severe and long-lasting before humans had anything to do with it. Reply Adam Wasem March 31, 2022 Tightly written and the wry humor is on point, James. They’re a model of restraint and trenchant wit for me, at least, since I personally find the globalist propaganda on these subjects too annoying to be able to be equable on these subjects. What I find most infuriating is how the endless billions of government funding are used to both push a tsunami of propaganda on the masses and buy off the experts in the field, to the point that trying to counter it with facts and reason is like trying to fight a forest fire with a garden hose. Just watching how since the 70s they’ve somehow shifted the narrative from “global cooling” to “global warming” to “climate change” caused by “particulates” then “methane” and now “carbon dioxide,” meanwhile never admitting they were wrong, and are somehow still in charge and imposing their beliefs on the useful idiots just leaves me in despairing disbelief. My sole small comfort up until now has been that all the globalist garbage is going to be swept away in the coming global financial collapse: No one’s going to care about polluting with invisible odorless CO2 or a COVID virus that the average person not already at death’s door with some other illness has a 99.9% chance of surviving when all of a sudden your life’s savings won’t buy a carton of eggs, but poems like yours offer an additional small humorous respite. Reply James A. Tweedie March 31, 2022 “Small humorous respite.” The highest compliment I have received in a long time! Thanks for the comment. On your recommendation I shall immediately convert my retirement saving to lumps of bituminous coal which I shall stuff into socks and hide under my mattress. Good luck to you! Cheers. Reply Adam Wasem April 1, 2022 No doubt I’m not as generous with my compliments as I could be. Forgive me, our current political predicament puts me in a dire frame of mind wherein compliments are hard to muster. And feel free to poke fun, but I am dead serious. I have been researching a novel on this subject for a very long time, and have done my homework. I don’t like to talk about work in progress, nor do I like to advertise my knowledge, for fear it will make me a target in the aftermath. I was willing to share a bit of my knowledge with you as thanks for the brief respite your poem provided from my awareness of the coming misery. In that spirit, I will answer your mockery with sincerity: In fact, stockpiling coal or any other fossil fuel is pointless, since, as I said, no one’s going to give a hoot in hell about CO2 or global warming after the collapse, the country will be too busy panicking as the dollar is revealed as the worthless paper it already is. You will literally see Weimar-style wheelbarrows of currency in order to buy a gallon of milk. The paper promises of fiat debt will burn, and real assets will emerge from the ashes: Oil, gold, land. The gold bugs are right, I’m afraid. Laugh if you wish, but just remember, when the time comes, you were warned. Yael March 31, 2022 Both poems are very enjoyable and entertaining to read. The 17th stanza in the second poems loops me back to the 4th stanza in the first poem. It reminds me of a man I know well who calls himself an atheist and who is vehemently up in arms against “over population”, complaining about it frequently. He’s raised 6 children, some his own and several adopted. He likes to accuse women who have children of being selfish and “part of the problem”. I naturally assumed that he would approve of women who don’t have children, until I heard him vociferously accusing women who don’t have children of being selfish and uncaring creatures who are part of the problem in this world. Your poems capture this mindset very well in my opinion. Good job! Reply Paul Freeman April 1, 2022 (This limerick is just for raising a smile) The end of the world comes apace, but the media only has space for a middle-aged brat, a celebrity spat and a guy who got slapped round the face. Reply David Watt April 1, 2022 James, your entertaining poems treat ‘climate change’ with the humor it deserves. I recall that we first had ‘global warming’ and now the narrative has shifted to the suitably vague term ‘climate change.’ Mike’s list of doomsday predictions demonstrates that we are quite incapable of predicting anything more than dinner time. Reply James A. Tweedie April 1, 2022 What? Dinner will be ready at 7:00? But we always eat at 6:00! I can’t believe it! (lol) Actually, David, I can’t even predict dinner time most days! Thanks for taking time to add a comment. And “Have a good day, friend.” (Aussie translation, “Guh-die tuh yer, Might!” Reply Paul Freeman April 1, 2022 Just adding to what David says, and this is my heartfelt belief so I don’t need, nor deserve, verbal abuse or pillorying, that the world is indeed warming up much faster than it naturally might have because of human activity. The evidence I’ve seen with my own eyes, read about learned from other sources, is irrefutable – in my opinion. A freak snowstorm is a weather event that skeptics will use as ‘proof’ that climate change is not happening, but I, and many people believe that weather is localised and short term, and climate is a trend of weather over a longer period and a larger area. I do feel that more mature folk tend to pooh, pooh climate change / global warming because otherwise we would have to face the horrors of what we have helped to heap on our children / grandchildren. Anyhow, that’s where I stand and what I believe and no offence is intended by my belief in global warming / climate change. Reply James A. Tweedie April 1, 2022 Paul, Thank you for being bold enough to share your opinion and take a stand on what is one of the most contentious issues of our lifetimes. I have seen the graphs showing that global temperatures have only recently risen slightly above the average temperature of the past 5,000 years. Men and women of good character and sound judgment will study the same evidence and come to different conclusions. I respect that. I also have a number of acquaintances who suffer from such extreme and passionate anxiety over the subject that they have required psychological intervention to avoid functionally debilitating nervous breakdowns. While I support an increase in “clean energy” sources I do not support the radical proposals that will, in the end, destroy the quality of life now being enjoyed by more people than ever before in a way that will elevate one small, self-elected class of people to wealth and power over the vast majority of people whose quality of life will be severely reduced and will likely cause more suffering and death to more people than a rising global temperature would inflict. To be honest, I am far more anxious and concerned over the irresponsible and intractable pollution of the world environment (and our bodies) by irreducible plastics, chemicals, and other human-made detritus–an indisputable situation that I believe will lead to far more extensive and more immediate damage, suffering and death to the planet and to our children than the speculative and unproven correlation between climate change/global warming and human manufactured carbon/CO emissions. I am glad that my poem has opened a door for honest conversation. The world is made up a vast diversity of thoughts, ideas, philosophies and faiths. Conflicts and differences are unavoidable and not all viewpoints can be universally accommodated. It is important that all voices be heard, respected, and considered so that wise leaders who hold positions of wealth and power can make wise decision in matters that affect us all. I am glad that you are a part of SCP and that you have added your voice to the conversation. In the end, it will all come down to whether those who lead the nations and those who seem eager to position themselves to rule the world are acting out of wisdom or out of corrupted self-interest fueled by the mind-bending, delusional lure of power. Personally, I believe I am seeing far more of the latter than the former. Reply Adam Wasem April 1, 2022 James, you can put your mind to rest about “irreducible” plastics too, since it turns out plastic is pretty reducible after all. A study has shown that the ultraviolet light in sunlight combined with wave action dissolves plastic in the ocean into tiny carbon particles that are then consumed by sea life. Which makes sense, since plastic is just stabilized petroleum. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389419310192?via%3Dihub/#! Mike Bryant April 1, 2022 Adam, one of the few sites that has not fallen to fear confirms the reducibility of plastic. Wattsupwiththat.com is the voice of scientists, geologists, meteorologists, physicists, biologists, and climate scientists that have not buckled to the easy money of compliance. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/01/01/yet-another-man-made-crisis/ The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. – H. L. Mencken Please people don’t fall for the next hobgoblin. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 KJV James A.Tweedie April 1, 2022 Thank you, Adam, for your encouraging word. But with two caveats: 1. “Scientists are still unsure whether consumed microplastics are harmful to human or animal health—and if so, what specific dangers they may pose. ” This quote is confirmed on virtually every science-based internet source, including NOA. 2. Plastics take from 100 to 1000+ years to break down into “harmless molecules.” As I said, it is encouraging to know that someday in the distant future they will degrade into oblivion. But between then and now, I’m not so sure what harm they may (be) cause(ing). By the way, with plastics I would also include other such non-(or near-) indestructible fibers as rayon, which have been found in abundance floating in the most remote ocean sites in the world. Imagine a great baleen whale consuming plankton (which tends to be in abundance in the same areas of the oceans where detritus accumulates) and straining and swallowing the microplastics and rayon threads along with the plankton. To no effect . . . perhaps. I am far more concerned, of course, over chemical contamination (including certain suspect medical compounds/solutions) and its cumulative effect on the environment and on those of us who have been ingesting and inhaling them for seventy or eighty years–not to mention the effect they are having on fetal development and children. Oh, well. Soon I’ll be gone and the world will no doubt survive to deal with these issues in a constructive way. Honest conversation and open, uncensored publication of contending research will be essential to that task. Reply Adam Wasem April 1, 2022 Actually, plastics break down in the ocean much faster than 100 years, like I said, because of the UV light which makes it brittle, and the wave action constantly battering it, which breaks it up. Plankton then eat the carbon, which feeds them much better than the CO2 gas they usually have to survive on. More plankton can support more sea life above them on the food chain, which ultimately means more fish to eat. There is no great pacific garbage patch, because the plankton have eaten it all. Maybe the Chinese have it right, and we should be dumping all our plastic in the sea. Anyway, yes, it’s good to have these discussions, as long as you remember that billions of billions of government funding supports the climate change agenda, and that if the researchers don’t produce evidence of imminent climate catastrophe, their grants go away and they have to work day jobs like starving poets. Reply James A. Tweedie April 1, 2022 Plastic . . . food for ocean critters like plankton . . . good (in the long run) for the global environment. Who’d-a guessed. Good news indeed. Mike Bryant April 3, 2022 “Scientists are still unsure whether consumed microplastics are harmful to human or animal health—and if so, what specific dangers they may pose. ” Don’t worry, when the government money starts flowing into the plastic scare, 97% of scientists will be absolutely positive that plastic will kill us all… despite our God in heaven… ah the power of government play money. Reply kate farrell April 19, 2022 Old worlds die as old worlds must. We are longing for we know not what. Each age’s dreams dying or coming into being. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Paul Freeman March 29, 2022 James, you make the end of the world almost seem like something to look forward to. Of course, making the birthrate zero is one way of doing it, but remember one person from the richest of countries equates to twenty-five times the CO2 production of someone from the poorest of nations. Just a note on cobalt. Almost three-quarters of the world’s reserves actually come from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I believe – the ‘Democratic’ part in a country’s name usually indicating it’s anything but. A lot of the cobalt is mined by school-age children in illegal mines to earn enough to eat and send their siblings to school; themselves too, eventually, if the mines don’t cave in. But as long as we have our phones… I appreciate the light-hearted look at climate change you’ve given us, though. It’s a gift to be able to draw from both sides of the issue and create a certain amount of levity. Thanks for the reads, James. Reply
James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Thank you, Paul, for pointing out Congo/cobalt matter. My point, thanks to Hunter Biden, was that China controls the “cobalt trade” which includes their control of much of the Congo cobalt production (but see Cheryl’s update on that matter further down in the comments). My list of rare earth production is also in need of comment. The US has gallium deposits but uses imports (mostly from France). A US company is in plans to begin to collect rare earth elements from US sources, aiming at reaching 50% of domestic consumption. For Geranium the US has one non-producing mine in Utah. 25% of Tellurium is domestic, 0% of Arsenic is domestic, and 0% Indium (China produces between 43-66% of the world’s Indium) Reply
Mike Bryant March 29, 2022 James, I enjoyed both of these light-hearted looks at doomsday. I’m reminded of a few predictions on Climate Change that were highlighted by John Nolte in 2019… there are still plenty more recent predictions that only need a few more years to be falsified. LIST OF DOOMSDAY PREDICTIONS CLIMATE ALARMIST GOT RIGHT: NONE. ZIP. ZERO. NADA. BLANK. DONUT HOLE. NIL. NOTHING. VOID. ZILCH. LIST OF DOOMSDAY PREDICTIONS THE CLIMATE ALARMIST GOT WRONG: 1 1967: Dire Famine Forecast By 1975 2 1969: Everyone Will Disappear In Cloud Of Blue Steam By 1989 (1969) 3 1970: Ice Age By 2000 4 1970: America Subject to Water Rationing By 1974 and Food Rationing By 1980 5 1971: New Ice Age Coming By 2020 or 2030 6 1972: New Ice Age By 2070 7 1974: Space Satellites Show New Ice Age Coming Fast 8 1974: Another Ice Age? 9 1974: Ozone Depletion a ‘Great Peril to Life 10 1976: Scientific Consensus Planet Cooling, Famines imminent 11 1980: Acid Rain Kills Life In Lakes 12 1978: No End in Sight to 30-Year Cooling Trend 13 1988: Regional Droughts (that never happened) in 1990s 14 1988: Temperatures in DC Will Hit Record Highs 15 1988: Maldive Islands will Be Underwater by 2018 (they’re not) 16 1989: Rising Sea Levels will Obliterate Nations if Nothing Done by 2000 17 1989: New York City’s West Side Highway Underwater by 2019 (it’s not) 18 2000: Children Won’t Know what Snow Is 19 2002: Famine In 10 Years If We Don’t Give Up Eating Fish, Meat, and Dairy 20 2004: Britain will Be Siberia by 2024 21 2008: Arctic will Be Ice Free by 2018 22 2008: Climate Genius Al Gore Predicts Ice-Free Arctic by 2013 23 2009: Climate Genius Prince Charles Says we Have 96 Months to Save World 24 2009: UK Prime Minister Says 50 Days to ‘Save The Planet From Catastrophe’ 25 2009: Climate Genius Al Gore Moves 2013 Prediction of Ice-Free Arctic to 2014 26 2013: Arctic Ice-Free by 2015 27 2013: Arctic Ice-Free by 2016 28 2014: Only 500 Days Before ‘Climate Chaos’ 29 1968: Overpopulation Will Spread Worldwide 30 1970: World Will Use Up All its Natural Resources 31 1966: Oil Gone in Ten Years 32 1972: Oil Depleted in 20 Years 33 1977: Department of Energy Says Oil will Peak in 90s 34 1980: Peak Oil In 2000 35 1996: Peak Oil in 2020 36 2002: Peak Oil in 2010 37 2005 : Manhattan Underwater by 2015 38 1970: Urban Citizens Will Require Gas Masks by 1985 39 1970: Nitrogen buildup Will Make All Land Unusable 40 1970: Decaying Pollution Will Kill all the Fish 41 1970s: Killer Bees! Sorry, Experts… Sorry, Scientific Consensus… Only a fool comes running for the 42nd cry of wolf. Don’t litter, be kind to animals, recycling’s for suckers (it’s all going to end up in the ground eventually), so stop feeling guilty… Go out there to embrace all the bounty that comes with being a 21st century American. John Nolte Reply
James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Mike, Let’s not forget the signs placed in Glacier National Park (US) in 2010 that told visitors that the glaciers would be gone by 2020. The signs have now been taken down with more recent predictions declaring that the park’s glaciers will be gone by 2100. I’m not sure if they have put up signs for this yet. Reply
Mike Bryant March 29, 2022 Nice catch, James. I guess if you are going to predict something it makes sense to push the date out eighty years or so. That way there won’t be many left who remember the prediction. “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” – Neils Bohr
James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Deuteronomy 18:22 “If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and what he says does not come true, then it is not the LORD’s message. That prophet has spoken on his own authority, and you are not to fear him.” The Israelites took the prophesy thing seriously. Especially so when we read what came two verses earlier in Deuteronomy 18:20: “But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.” If Hal Lindsey ever spoke in the name of the Lord he’d be out of a job in a hurry! And if “science” was considered to be a god, prophesy in the name of science would be a far more sober and serious matter than it seems to be these days.
C.B. Anderson March 29, 2022 The only thing that Marxist leftists are good at is predicting the past. Climate change has been going on ever since the earth developed an atmosphere. Anyone who wants to learn some serious climate science ought to search for any lecture by Richard Lindzen before they are all taken down. One of the best things about you, the retired “preacher,” is that you do not preach, which is so unlike our esteemed confrere, Paul Freeman, who knows nothing about climate science other than what he has heard from politicians and other poseurs. Humor is the best medicine, James, so keep on dispensing it
Paul Freeman March 30, 2022 “Paul Freeman … knows nothing about climate science other than what he has heard from politicians and other poseurs.” My apologies for not having the same opinion as you, C. B.. I would never make such a comment about the sources of your knowledge out of common respect. However, thanks for the tip about Richard Lindzen. Wider reading make us all more knowledgeable.
Jeff Eardley March 29, 2022 Mike, you didn’t mention the Victorian prediction that we would all be knee deep in horse manure by 1900, and thanks for your list of alternatives to what we English refer to as “bugger all.” Reply
C.B. Anderson March 29, 2022 Thanks for this, Mike. As you surely know from your examination of the writings of Karl Popper, the best way to refute a supposed scientific theory is to compare its predictions with actual experiential results. You have done so to great effect, and your lines are well plumbed, which is a tribute to your ability to distinguish clean water from the gray and the brown, and to relegate the various types to their proper station in the grand scheme of things. In so doing, you have separated the crystal stream from the cesspool. Reply
Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Thanks, C.B. As a plumber, every pipe I install is a sort of prediction. I have to certify that every system of hot or cold or sewage or gray water, every system of compressed air or natural gas or medical gases is transported efficiently exactly to the place where it is used or discarded in a manner that enhances its usefulness while absolutely guaranteeing the safety of all systems. Mostly that means no cross connections of any systems ever while the sizes of the pipes and tubes are as near perfect as possible and are made of the correct materials and wall thicknesses. The plans, specs, codes and inspections should ensure all those things, but the plumber is ultimately responsible. When my “predictions” fail… I make it right. When theirs do… they are not held responsible, they just push them out a few more years. Shame on those who keep listening to the lies.
Cheryl Corey March 29, 2022 Just last month, Republic of Congo removed (at least temporarily) Chinese leadership of one of the world’s largest copper and cobalt mines over a dispute of billions owed to the Congo by the Chinese owner. Cobalt, from what I’ve read, provides longer battery life. As an aside, China’s negotiating with the Taliban to mine what happens to be one of, if not the, largest deposit of lithium in the world. Reply
James A. Tweedie March 29, 2022 Thanks for the update on Congo/Cobalt. From what I’ve read, nearly every country that has entered trade or development deals with China have been badly burned or burdened with debt. Let’s see how the Taliban does with its hoped-for cash cow. Reply
Jeff Eardley March 29, 2022 James, your ponderings on life are a joy to read and none more so than these two. After a price increase of around 85%, I have been asked by my energy provider if I would be happy to pull back the curtains each morning to gaze on a cluster of wind turbines marching across our lovely countryside to “scratch the Carbon footprint’s itch, ” just as we await the calming wind to waft over us from Chernobyl. The world is going mad. Thanks for another blast of fun today. Reply
Margaret Coats March 29, 2022 Then starve, because your very food Dooms earth with gas the scraps exude. Suggested additional lines, James, if you would like a quatrain rather than a couplet at the end. California residents have been sternly informed that state law requires us to recycle food scraps. No more potato peels or plate leavings or coffee grounds in the trash. Organic trash gives rise to methane from landfills. And this is obviously much more urgent than recycling paper or glass or plastic ever was. Before the full-scale alarm over food and plant residue, the state left these matters to local governments and their waste contractors, who never tried to achieve compliance by threats. Now individuals (yes, family homes) who don’t properly dispose of organic waste can be fined up to $500 per day. This wouldn’t be so bad (would it?) if state oligarchs composted the waste and got rich by producing methane as fuel to meet our energy needs. But look again: compostable materials such as food containers are no longer recyclable and must be put in trash to go to landfills. As well, most formerly recyclable plastics have become trash to go to landfill. Within X years California will explode as methane-producing organic matter blows the state’s non-biodegradable plastic lid to smithereens! Reply
Shaun C. Duncan March 30, 2022 Nice work, James. The second piece particularly does a great job at cataloguing the absurdities and shifting contradictions of the AGW scam. My personal favourite moment was in 2013 when James Hansen, the former high priest of climate alarmism was asked to reflect on his 1988 testimony to Congress in which he claimed New York would be underwater by 1999. He said he hadn’t gone far enough. That was the moment I realised we were living in a post-truth world. Reply
Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Shaun, in their own words… https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/02/05/in-their-own-words-climate-alarmists-debunk-their-science/?sh=26eb1f4a68a3 Reply
Shaun C. Duncan March 30, 2022 It’s funny how much of it parallels covid, Mike. Same use of modelling as “settled science”, same tactics to silence the naysayers, same “opportunities to reshape the world economy through global governance”, same players.
Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Amen, Shaun… they’re playing all the same games with Ukraine. We are supposed to be willing to start WWIII to save Democracy in Ukraine, the most corrupt dictatorship in the world… Zelensky is in partnership with Soros, Biden and Hunter… all the opposition parties have been dismantled and the leaders are in prison… democracy? Nope… Still, according to a recent poll 35% of Americans are just fine with WWIII to save democracy in Ukraine… the stupidity burns…
James A. Tweedie March 30, 2022 Shaun, Thanks for taking the time to comment. You captured my intent quite well. My approach to world events varies from anger to disgust to dismissive laughter at the absurdity of the absolutist burdens people attempt to impose on one another. Often, I simply throw up my hands in helpless disbelief. As far as climate change is concerned I was very serious when I said: I think that climate change is true, But . . . is it caused by me and you? A subject I find quite confusing— And both concerning and amusing. “I think that climate change is true, But . . . is it caused by me and you? A subject I find quite confusing— And both concerning and amusing.” The rest of what I have to say is subsumed under its caveat: “Here is some of what I’m thinking (Serious, with one eye winking).” From that point on it is impossible for me to separate the “serious” bits from the “winking” bits. Of he two approaches to life I prefer winking at the serious things over taking winking things too seriously (see Will Smith as an example of where that can lead.) I remember talking with a young man who passionately opposed North Slope drilling. Among other things he was concerned about the possible effect this would have on the native reindeer. When I mentioned that reindeer were not indigenous to Alaska but were introduced to the Territory by a Presbyterian missionary who imported the first herd from Lapland/Finland in 1890 he looked confused. “Perhaps,” I said, “we should consider the reindeer to be an invasive species and consider the damage their hooves and grazing are having on the tundra.” I thought it was a whimsically amusing moment in an otherwise serious conversation. We need more winking in all of our serious conversations. The alternative is to stand in an endless circle and take turns slapping each other in the face. Reply
Shaun C. Duncan March 30, 2022 That’s an admirable approach and a good way to lead others into the maze of internal contradictions present in the their thinking, like the young man in your example. Let them try to sort it all out from there. I agree about climate changing. The shift in terminology from the specific “Anthropogenic Global Warming” to the hopelessly general “climate change” was clearly an attempt to turn the noise into the signal, so to speak. As you so ably pointed out in your poem, any event is now evidence that the theory is true and apparently it’s always worse than we previously thought.
Mike Bryant March 30, 2022 Global Warming is a convenient fiction used by Globalists to push Globalism to the people they wish to enslave. A few quotes that illustrate this rather obvious truth: “The data doesn’t matter. We’re not basing our recommendations on the data. We’re basing them on the climate models.” Prof. Chris Folland, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research “The models are convenient fictions that provide something very useful.” Dr David Frame, Climate modeler, Oxford University “It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.” Paul Watson, Co-founder of Greenpeace “Unless we announce disasters no one will listen.” Sir John Houghton, First chairman of IPCC “No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.” Christine Stewart, former Canadian Minister of the Environment Now on to the Club of Rome. “The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.” Alexander King Co-Founder of the Club of Rome, (premier environmental think-tank and consultants to the United Nations) from his 1991 book The First Global Revolution “We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination… So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts… Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” Prof. Stephen Schneider, Stanford Professor of Biology and Global Change. Professor Schneider was among the earliest and most vocal proponents of man-made global warming and a lead author of many IPCC reports. He is a member of the Club of Rome. “We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.” Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation and member of the Club of Rome. “Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” “[The Earth Summit will play an important role in] reforming and strengthening the United Nations as the centerpiece of the emerging system of democratic global governance.” “The concept of national sovereignty has been an immutable, indeed sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful. The global community must be assured of environmental security.” Maurice Strong, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Al Gore’s mentor and executive member of the Club of Rome. “I believe it is appropriate to have an ‘over-representation’ of the facts on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience.” Al Gore, member of the Club of Rome and set to become the world’s first carbon billionaire. He is also the largest shareholder of Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), which looks set to become the world’s central carbon trading body. Maurice Strong sits on the board of directors for CCX. Back before he became U.S. President Obama served on the board of directors for the Joyce Foundation when it gave CCX nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” Essentially Obama helped fund the profiteers of the carbon taxation program that he then steered steered through Congress. “The threat of environmental crisis will be the ‘international disaster key’ that will unlock the New World Order.” Mikhail Gorbachev, Former President of the Soviet Union, member of the Club of Rome “We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.” David Rockefeller, Club of Rome executive member, former Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, founder of the Trilateral Commission, executive member of the World Economic Forum and donated the land on which the United Nations stands. Speaking at a U.N. Business Conference, Sept. 14, 1994 “We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” David Rockefeller, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991. “Some even believe we (the Rockefeller family) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure ‘one world’, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” David Rockefeller, Memoirs, page 405 *Other Club of Rome members include Tony Blair, George Soros Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Javier Solana, Kofi Annan, Bill Gates, The Dalai Lama, Hassan bin Talal, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Gro Harlem Bruntland, Robert Muller, Garret Hardin, King Juan Carlos of Spain and his wife Queen Sophia, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Prince Philippe of Belgium and many more people that include wealthy elites, ‘new age spiritualists’, former or current world political figures and former or current U.N. figures. * See this link for much more! – green-agenda.com/globalrevolution.html Link Memory Holed Additional Information Watch Lord Christopher Monckton (Former Adviser to Margaret Thatcher) Speaking in St. Paul on the real purpose of the Copenhagen Treaty – youtube.com/watch?v= Link Memory Holed Beware the UN’s Copenhagen plot -theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/beware-the-uns-copenhagen-plot/story-e6frg6qx Link Memory Holed One World Government The Real Aim of Environmentalism – http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16694 The Marxist roots of the global warming scare – http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/vernon/080616 Al Gore could become world’s first carbon billionaire -telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/6491195/Al-Gore-could-become-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire.html Link Memory Holed Obama’s involvement in Chicago Climate Exchange—the rest of the story – http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/9629 This site provides damning evidence of the agenda – green-agenda.com/ Link Memory Holed Club of Rome’s Depopulation Agenda “The Earth has cancer and the cancer is Man.” Club of Rome, Mankind at the Turning Point, 1974 “… the resultant ideal sustainable population is hence more than 500 million but less than one billion.” Club of Rome, Goals for Mankind, 1976. “A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people…. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions.” Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb. Paul Ehrlich is a member of the Club of Rome. “I believe that human overpopulation is the fundamental problem on Earth Today” “We humans have become a disease, the Humanpox.” Dave Foreman, Co-founder of Earth First! and member of the Club of Rome. “World population needs to be decreased by 50%” Henry Kissinger, , Former National Security Advisor, Former Secretary of State, chairman of Kissinger Associates, member of the Club of Rome. “We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren’t enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage.” Mikhail Gorbachev, Former President of the Soviet Union, member of the Club of Rome “A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.” Ted Turner, founder of CNN and major UN donor, member of the Club of Rome. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it. Jacques Cousteau, French naval officer and explorer. Member of the Club of Rome. “If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.” Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, member of the Club of Rome. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant March 30, 2022 James, I just wanted to say that although these poems appear light in their jovial and musical tones with a couple of lovely, jocular end rhymes – pickle/fickle, I can see you have devoted a lot of thought and research to the subject, and I thoroughly appreciate that. Your Deuteronomy 18:20 observation has really hit home with me. When people look to the false prophets in the government for salvation and push their selfish and destructive agenda, it galls me. I think serious conversations are needed and certainly don’t want to stand in an endless circle where we slap one another in the face… that suits those who wish to divide, but I don’t want to back off either. A “wink” seems too weak… my wink is in my poetry not the comments section. I know meekness isn’t weakness, but I feel the time has come to stand up and speak up. We’re on the brink of losing all of our freedoms and a robust but respectful conversation might help. Am I wrong? Reply
James A. Tweedie March 30, 2022 Susan, I have no reason to disagree with either you or Mike. I am familiar with every citation that Mike posted and believe that one can both poke fun at such blovial pontifications (re the “We must do this or that immediately or we are all going to die and damn the cost and if you don’t agree and go along with what we say we will crush you and de legitimatize you and marginalize you and destroy you because . . . because . . . because we have the proof . . . proof that we made up . . . that will make us rich and powerful at your expense . . . proof that you are not allowed to challenge because every scientist in the world agrees with us that this is true so it must be true . . . etc. etc. ad nauseum) and still stand up and seriously challenge, confront, and resist with all one’s heart, soul, and might . . . which I do with my friends, most of whom insist on drinking the Koolade. There are different ways to challenge such things. On this site I prefer to poke at this and other issues with humor, with whimsy, satire and sarcasm. That’s my style. In other venues I use logic, reason, and inconvenient facts to argue the point. Perhaps meekness is a good description of my acquired temperment. Jesus seems to have considered meekness to be a strength strong enough to “inherit the earth” and an attribute pleasing to God so as to be blessed. Clearly he did not think of “meek” in terms of passive withdrawal from the world and neither do I. As far as “global climate change” is concerned, it seems to me that “global climate change” has been the status quo–the norm–since the first day of creation. The very idea of a “global climate stasis” is absurd. That’s why I say that I accept the idea of “climate change.” What I do not accept is the assertion that human beings are the primary cause to the extant that by changing this thing or that thing we can fine-tune the climate the way we tune a fiddle. Nonsense! I think . . . I hope that we are agreed on this. That said, I am content to let you and Mike feel/do/write poetry in whatever way that suits you. And I will do the same. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant March 30, 2022 James, I’m on exactly the same page as you where global climate change is concerned, and I appreciate your explanation on tackling serious issues with others. I am constantly reminding myself not to lose sight of the eternal… Jesus chose to be vulnerable so we could have victory. Keeping one’s mind on the bigger picture is always helpful in understanding the power of being meek. James, just like every poem I write, I’m a work in progress. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Mia March 31, 2022 Thank you for yet again producing great poems that are not just fun but inspirational. I think it is great to look at issues the way you do. I always find myself more lighthearted and trying to compose something after reading your poems. The weather in the UK Is always in a state of change, This morning it was cloudy and warm Then raining sleet by noon, The afternoon is forecast to be freezing And they are blaming it on Putin That we can’t afford the heating Now his gas is out of bounds- How I wish I had a yacht To sail where the sun is hot, As without a vaccination Travelling for a vacation Means I am on a cold staycation. Reply
James A. Tweedie March 31, 2022 A “cold staycation” seems to be where the glitterati would like to keep us–in cold storage, so to speak, while they keep the yachts and warm weather for themselves! In any case, Mia, I’m glad you found entertainment, insight and inspiration in my poems. Keep warm, my friend. Summer is a-comin’–although in the UK that doesn’t necessarily translate into sunshine and swim suits on the beach! Keep that last lump of coal handy. You may need it come August! And speaking of climate change, you are no doubt aware that from the 7th century through the 18th century the London Thames would periodically freeze over at which times the city would celebrate with “Frost Fairs” on the ice. In the winter of 1683-84 the river was frozen solid for a stretch of two months! This came at the end of the so-called late Medieval “Little Ice Age.” Prior to this, from around 1000 to 1300 AD was the “Medieval Warm Period” when temperatures in Scotland averaged 2º c. more than they enjoy today. Even today, with the warming effect of the Gulf Stream, there are remnant palm trees still growing in places like Plockton, just to the east of Skye on the rail line to Inverness. So, head to the Highlands instead of the Côte d’Azur this year! “Climate change” is nothing new, either as the world warms (which is the current trend) or when it cools. The cycles are normal and natural and were even more severe and long-lasting before humans had anything to do with it. Reply
Adam Wasem March 31, 2022 Tightly written and the wry humor is on point, James. They’re a model of restraint and trenchant wit for me, at least, since I personally find the globalist propaganda on these subjects too annoying to be able to be equable on these subjects. What I find most infuriating is how the endless billions of government funding are used to both push a tsunami of propaganda on the masses and buy off the experts in the field, to the point that trying to counter it with facts and reason is like trying to fight a forest fire with a garden hose. Just watching how since the 70s they’ve somehow shifted the narrative from “global cooling” to “global warming” to “climate change” caused by “particulates” then “methane” and now “carbon dioxide,” meanwhile never admitting they were wrong, and are somehow still in charge and imposing their beliefs on the useful idiots just leaves me in despairing disbelief. My sole small comfort up until now has been that all the globalist garbage is going to be swept away in the coming global financial collapse: No one’s going to care about polluting with invisible odorless CO2 or a COVID virus that the average person not already at death’s door with some other illness has a 99.9% chance of surviving when all of a sudden your life’s savings won’t buy a carton of eggs, but poems like yours offer an additional small humorous respite. Reply
James A. Tweedie March 31, 2022 “Small humorous respite.” The highest compliment I have received in a long time! Thanks for the comment. On your recommendation I shall immediately convert my retirement saving to lumps of bituminous coal which I shall stuff into socks and hide under my mattress. Good luck to you! Cheers. Reply
Adam Wasem April 1, 2022 No doubt I’m not as generous with my compliments as I could be. Forgive me, our current political predicament puts me in a dire frame of mind wherein compliments are hard to muster. And feel free to poke fun, but I am dead serious. I have been researching a novel on this subject for a very long time, and have done my homework. I don’t like to talk about work in progress, nor do I like to advertise my knowledge, for fear it will make me a target in the aftermath. I was willing to share a bit of my knowledge with you as thanks for the brief respite your poem provided from my awareness of the coming misery. In that spirit, I will answer your mockery with sincerity: In fact, stockpiling coal or any other fossil fuel is pointless, since, as I said, no one’s going to give a hoot in hell about CO2 or global warming after the collapse, the country will be too busy panicking as the dollar is revealed as the worthless paper it already is. You will literally see Weimar-style wheelbarrows of currency in order to buy a gallon of milk. The paper promises of fiat debt will burn, and real assets will emerge from the ashes: Oil, gold, land. The gold bugs are right, I’m afraid. Laugh if you wish, but just remember, when the time comes, you were warned.
Yael March 31, 2022 Both poems are very enjoyable and entertaining to read. The 17th stanza in the second poems loops me back to the 4th stanza in the first poem. It reminds me of a man I know well who calls himself an atheist and who is vehemently up in arms against “over population”, complaining about it frequently. He’s raised 6 children, some his own and several adopted. He likes to accuse women who have children of being selfish and “part of the problem”. I naturally assumed that he would approve of women who don’t have children, until I heard him vociferously accusing women who don’t have children of being selfish and uncaring creatures who are part of the problem in this world. Your poems capture this mindset very well in my opinion. Good job! Reply
Paul Freeman April 1, 2022 (This limerick is just for raising a smile) The end of the world comes apace, but the media only has space for a middle-aged brat, a celebrity spat and a guy who got slapped round the face. Reply
David Watt April 1, 2022 James, your entertaining poems treat ‘climate change’ with the humor it deserves. I recall that we first had ‘global warming’ and now the narrative has shifted to the suitably vague term ‘climate change.’ Mike’s list of doomsday predictions demonstrates that we are quite incapable of predicting anything more than dinner time. Reply
James A. Tweedie April 1, 2022 What? Dinner will be ready at 7:00? But we always eat at 6:00! I can’t believe it! (lol) Actually, David, I can’t even predict dinner time most days! Thanks for taking time to add a comment. And “Have a good day, friend.” (Aussie translation, “Guh-die tuh yer, Might!” Reply
Paul Freeman April 1, 2022 Just adding to what David says, and this is my heartfelt belief so I don’t need, nor deserve, verbal abuse or pillorying, that the world is indeed warming up much faster than it naturally might have because of human activity. The evidence I’ve seen with my own eyes, read about learned from other sources, is irrefutable – in my opinion. A freak snowstorm is a weather event that skeptics will use as ‘proof’ that climate change is not happening, but I, and many people believe that weather is localised and short term, and climate is a trend of weather over a longer period and a larger area. I do feel that more mature folk tend to pooh, pooh climate change / global warming because otherwise we would have to face the horrors of what we have helped to heap on our children / grandchildren. Anyhow, that’s where I stand and what I believe and no offence is intended by my belief in global warming / climate change. Reply
James A. Tweedie April 1, 2022 Paul, Thank you for being bold enough to share your opinion and take a stand on what is one of the most contentious issues of our lifetimes. I have seen the graphs showing that global temperatures have only recently risen slightly above the average temperature of the past 5,000 years. Men and women of good character and sound judgment will study the same evidence and come to different conclusions. I respect that. I also have a number of acquaintances who suffer from such extreme and passionate anxiety over the subject that they have required psychological intervention to avoid functionally debilitating nervous breakdowns. While I support an increase in “clean energy” sources I do not support the radical proposals that will, in the end, destroy the quality of life now being enjoyed by more people than ever before in a way that will elevate one small, self-elected class of people to wealth and power over the vast majority of people whose quality of life will be severely reduced and will likely cause more suffering and death to more people than a rising global temperature would inflict. To be honest, I am far more anxious and concerned over the irresponsible and intractable pollution of the world environment (and our bodies) by irreducible plastics, chemicals, and other human-made detritus–an indisputable situation that I believe will lead to far more extensive and more immediate damage, suffering and death to the planet and to our children than the speculative and unproven correlation between climate change/global warming and human manufactured carbon/CO emissions. I am glad that my poem has opened a door for honest conversation. The world is made up a vast diversity of thoughts, ideas, philosophies and faiths. Conflicts and differences are unavoidable and not all viewpoints can be universally accommodated. It is important that all voices be heard, respected, and considered so that wise leaders who hold positions of wealth and power can make wise decision in matters that affect us all. I am glad that you are a part of SCP and that you have added your voice to the conversation. In the end, it will all come down to whether those who lead the nations and those who seem eager to position themselves to rule the world are acting out of wisdom or out of corrupted self-interest fueled by the mind-bending, delusional lure of power. Personally, I believe I am seeing far more of the latter than the former. Reply
Adam Wasem April 1, 2022 James, you can put your mind to rest about “irreducible” plastics too, since it turns out plastic is pretty reducible after all. A study has shown that the ultraviolet light in sunlight combined with wave action dissolves plastic in the ocean into tiny carbon particles that are then consumed by sea life. Which makes sense, since plastic is just stabilized petroleum. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389419310192?via%3Dihub/#!
Mike Bryant April 1, 2022 Adam, one of the few sites that has not fallen to fear confirms the reducibility of plastic. Wattsupwiththat.com is the voice of scientists, geologists, meteorologists, physicists, biologists, and climate scientists that have not buckled to the easy money of compliance. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/01/01/yet-another-man-made-crisis/ The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. – H. L. Mencken Please people don’t fall for the next hobgoblin. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 KJV
James A.Tweedie April 1, 2022 Thank you, Adam, for your encouraging word. But with two caveats: 1. “Scientists are still unsure whether consumed microplastics are harmful to human or animal health—and if so, what specific dangers they may pose. ” This quote is confirmed on virtually every science-based internet source, including NOA. 2. Plastics take from 100 to 1000+ years to break down into “harmless molecules.” As I said, it is encouraging to know that someday in the distant future they will degrade into oblivion. But between then and now, I’m not so sure what harm they may (be) cause(ing). By the way, with plastics I would also include other such non-(or near-) indestructible fibers as rayon, which have been found in abundance floating in the most remote ocean sites in the world. Imagine a great baleen whale consuming plankton (which tends to be in abundance in the same areas of the oceans where detritus accumulates) and straining and swallowing the microplastics and rayon threads along with the plankton. To no effect . . . perhaps. I am far more concerned, of course, over chemical contamination (including certain suspect medical compounds/solutions) and its cumulative effect on the environment and on those of us who have been ingesting and inhaling them for seventy or eighty years–not to mention the effect they are having on fetal development and children. Oh, well. Soon I’ll be gone and the world will no doubt survive to deal with these issues in a constructive way. Honest conversation and open, uncensored publication of contending research will be essential to that task. Reply
Adam Wasem April 1, 2022 Actually, plastics break down in the ocean much faster than 100 years, like I said, because of the UV light which makes it brittle, and the wave action constantly battering it, which breaks it up. Plankton then eat the carbon, which feeds them much better than the CO2 gas they usually have to survive on. More plankton can support more sea life above them on the food chain, which ultimately means more fish to eat. There is no great pacific garbage patch, because the plankton have eaten it all. Maybe the Chinese have it right, and we should be dumping all our plastic in the sea. Anyway, yes, it’s good to have these discussions, as long as you remember that billions of billions of government funding supports the climate change agenda, and that if the researchers don’t produce evidence of imminent climate catastrophe, their grants go away and they have to work day jobs like starving poets. Reply
James A. Tweedie April 1, 2022 Plastic . . . food for ocean critters like plankton . . . good (in the long run) for the global environment. Who’d-a guessed. Good news indeed.
Mike Bryant April 3, 2022 “Scientists are still unsure whether consumed microplastics are harmful to human or animal health—and if so, what specific dangers they may pose. ” Don’t worry, when the government money starts flowing into the plastic scare, 97% of scientists will be absolutely positive that plastic will kill us all… despite our God in heaven… ah the power of government play money. Reply
kate farrell April 19, 2022 Old worlds die as old worlds must. We are longing for we know not what. Each age’s dreams dying or coming into being. Reply
