The John James Newsletter 210
16 December 2017
Nuclear annihilation is ‘one impulsive tantrum away’
Beatrice Fihn
When the nobility see that they are unable to resist the people, they unite in exalting one of their number and creating him prince, so as to be able to carry out their own designs under the shadow of his authority
Nicolas Machiavelli
We did not quit basic treaties that are cornerstones of the global security, we did not exit from the ABM Treaty or START: The US did it, unilaterally
Vladimir Putin
Stocks look blatantly overvalued. Bonds look even more so. Art has never fetched such big prices. The bitcoin is only an absurd appendage to what is already a bubble in everything
Financial Times
Commercial ships carrying oil, consumables and equipment emit more C02 than the whole of the UK from all sources
UK World Fleet Register
Remove life and planet earth is just an inconsequential wet rock with a poisonous atmosphere revolving pointlessly around an ordinary star on the outer fringes of an undistinguished galaxy
William Rees
Some people with less than 5 hectares own 30% of the farmland but produce 70% of the food. The tragedy is that global demand for crops could double over a generation or two, but the land to grow them will not exist.
George Monbiot
Bitcoin is a potentially catastrophic energy guzzler
The recent upsurge in the price of Bitcoin seems to have finally awakened the world to the massively destructive environmental consequences of this bubble. the most widely used estimate of the energy required to “mine” Bitcoins is comparable to the electricity usage of Denmark, but this is probably an underestimate
Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index
Ever since its inception Bitcoin’s trust-minimizing consensus has been enabled by its proof-of-work algorithm. The machines performing the “work” are consuming huge amounts of energy while doing so.
https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
Bitcoin Frenzy: The Fever Chart Of A Deepening Crisis
The bitcoin mania forms part of a much broader development in the global financial system since the financial crisis of 2008-2009. One of the main factors in sustaining the bubble has been the promise of major corporate and income tax cuts for the for the ultra-wealthy
http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/13/bitcoin-frenzy-the-fever-chart-of-a-deepening-crisis/
US refused N Korea offer to freeze nukes
Earlier this year, North Korea said it would freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for an end to US and South Korean war games, an overture rejected by the Trump administration.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-offers-nuke-freeze/
Daniel Ellsberg Warns of Nuclear Winter and Global Starvation
The inside story of the Cuban missile crisis and the 600 million deaths both leaders were prepared to risk for the sake of pride.
Tillerson’s new North Korea strategy praised by China and Russia — but undermined by Trump
Trump has sought to pressure Pyongyang to surrender its nuclear capabilities. Tillerson’s approach would allow the US and North Korea to begin peace talks without the prospect of denuclearising.
The Big Melt
From 1960 the Alpine snow season has shortened by 38 days—starting an average of 12 days later and ending 26 days earlier. Europe experienced its warmest-ever winter in the 2015–16 season, with snow cover in the southern French Alps just 20% of its typical depth. Last December was the driest in 150 years of record keeping, and the flakes that did manage to fall didn’t stay around long. In the Dolomites, it takes 4,700 snow-blowers to keep trails covered.
http://time.com/italy-alps-climate-change/?xid=homepage
Switzerland Just Had the Worst Month for Skiing in 100 Years
The ski season is a month shorter than it was four decades ago. The Jungfrau ski region, around the resort villages of Wengen and Grindelwald, suffered a 25 percent drop in visits
Are we truly this stupid – its the new normal.
Shrinking Bee Populations
Heavy pesticide use on fruit trees caused a severe decline in wild bee populations, and trees are now pollinated by hand.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/humans-bees-china_us_570404b3e4b083f5c6092ba9
We Can’t Keep Eating Like This
Brexit; the crushing of democracy by billionaires; the next financial crash; a rogue US president: none of them keeps me awake at night. This is not because I don’t care – I care very much. It’s only because I have a bigger question on my mind. Where is our food going to come from?
http://www.monbiot.com/2017/12/13/we-cant-keep-eating-like-this/
UK to bring back beavers in first government flood reduction scheme of its kind
Beaver family will be released in the Forest of Dean to stop a village from flooding. The government may support other schemes to restore the beaver four centuries after it was driven to extinction in England and Wales.
Macron summit touts green finance progress – despite Trump
In the private sector, 225 investors launched Climate Action 100+, a campaign to bring the world’s 100 biggest corporate climate polluters in line with the Paris goals. The announcement followed a day after Exxon Mobil bowed to shareholder pressure and agreed to publish analysis of how its oil and gas assets will fare in a 2C world.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/12/13/macron-summit-touts-green-finance-progress-despite-trump/
Mapping The Stunning Complexity Of The World’s Shipping Routes
You can watch hundreds of millions of individual ships from represented by multi-colored dots float across the world’s oceans over the course of 2012
https://www.fastcodesign.com/3059346/mapping-the-stunning-complexity-of-the-worlds-shipping-routes
Welcome to the Age of Digital Warfare
The internet has made acquiring information near-instantaneous. If a hacker knows where to look for the databases, can break through digital security measures, and can make sense of the data, he or she can acquire years’ worth of intel in just a few minutes. The enemy state could start using the sensitive information before anyone realises that something’s amiss. That kind of efficiency makes James Bond look like a slob.
https://futurism.com/welcome-age-digital-warfare/
How Trump Manipulated Mass Consciousness
This explains why people who would never ordinarily have voted for Trump cast their ballots for him anyway. He is not a moron, and he’s certainly not crazy.
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/12/08/Trumps-Manipulation-Of-Mass-Consciousness/
Global Plug-in Deliveries
As one can see from the graph, the major volume driver for PEV expansion has been China, with this country being responsible for almost half of sales this year.
Leave Syria Or Else! ; Iranian General To The US
When the battle against ISIS will end, no American soldier will be tolerated in Syria or they will be considered as forces of occupation. Russia conveyed to the US that Iran will stay in Syria as long as President Assad decides.
In Syria ISIS Is Defeated – The US Is Next In Line
The UN resolution which allowed other countries to fight ISIS within Syria and Iraq no longer applies. But the U.S. military, despite the lack of any legal basis, wants to continue its occupation of Syria’s north-east. The attempt to do so will fail. Its Kurdish allies in the area are already moving away from it and now prefer Russian protection. Guerrilla forces to fight the U.S. “presence” are being formed.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/12/syria-isis-is-defeated-the-us-is-next-in-line.html
US to Remain in Syria Indefinitely, Pentagon Says
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-remain-in-syria-indefinitely-pentagon-officials-say-1512752450
Jared Kushner is wreaking havoc in the Middle East
The entire Middle East, from Palestine to Yemen, appears set to burst into flames after this week. The region was already teetering on the edge, but recent events have only made things worse. And while the mayhem should be apparent to any casual observer, what’s less obvious is Jared Kushner’s role in the chaos.
http://johnmenadue.com/jared-kushner-is-wreaking-havoc-in-the-middle-east/
Congo displacement crisis ‘worse than Middle East’
Conflict has forced 1.7 million people to flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year. It’s a mega-crisis. The scale of people fleeing violence is off the charts, outpacing Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42250230
Gene Extinction Weapon Developed By US Military Can Wipe Out Specific Races
$100 million dollars has already been invested into the “gene drive” research in an attempt to “tweak” the ability to wipe out certain races based on their genetic makeup. If the threat of thermonuclear war with Russia wasn’t harrowing enough, another potentially apocalyptic technology is being weaponized to kill vast swathes of the human population.
US Air Force Admits To Harvesting Russian Tissue
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-01/us-air-force-admits-harvesting-russian-tissue
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions highest on record
Despite massive jumps in wind-generated electricity emissions from transport were at record levels. Carbon emissions are not going to drop until proper climate policy is in place. “If you don’t foster renewable energy, it’s only going to get worse,”
Women Who Have Accused Trump of Groping Speak Out
Women who have accused Trump of sexual harassment and assault came together in New York City on Monday to share “their firsthand accounts of President Trump groping, fondling, forcibly kissing, humiliating, and harassing women” and demand that Congress launch an investigation into their allegations.
What is the true cost of owning a Tesla Model 3?
We compare to the Honda Civic & BMW 3 Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR_ub5eL9n0
What the study of whales and dolphins can reveal about the basis of human intelligence
The relationship between social structure and brain size is partly driven by increasing social-behavioural flexibility It is not merely group size, but the quality of social interactions that correlate with brain size. Culture, behavioral richness and cognition are intertwined and can create a positive feedback loop: larger brains can support a larger social repertoire and a larger repertoire can support a greater carrying capacity, potentially offering learners greater opportunity and variety for learning.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/12/12/ceta-d12.html
Air Pollution Has a Massive Impact on Early Brain Development
The most crucial stage of the brain’s growth comes during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. Air pollution has been found to damage the blood-brain barrier, which can lead to conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease in later life. exposure to air pollution can be linked to weaker verbal and nonverbal IQ and memory, reduced test scores, and various other neurological behavioural issues.
https://futurism.com/air-pollution-massive-impact-early-brain-development/
Environment funding slashed by third since Coalition took office
The programs hardest hit by funding cuts are those designed to maintain biodiversity by protecting ecosystems and shrinking animal and plant populations with deeper cuts promised into next decade.While the federal budget has expanded by $36bn since Tony Abbott took office, funding for the environment has been cut by nearly half a billion dollars so far, an analysis by two conservation groups found.
Parliament and the media cover up the looming climate crisis
There is not one climate scientist in the Australian Parliament. The world’s leading climate research organisations (NASA, NOAA, NSIDC, Berkeley Earth, Potsdam Climate Impacts, Hadley-Met, Tindale, CSIRO, BOM) have confirmed current trends toward a world of +2 degrees Celsius and +4 degrees Celsius above mean pre-industrial temperatures.
http://johnmenadue.com/andrew-glikson-parliament-and-the-media-cover-up-the-looming-climate-crisis/
Burn-offs have almost no effect on bushfire risks
Burn-offs are a routine part of preparations for bushfire season, but modelling suggests fire authorities need to target 30% of land to have any meaningful effect on taming future wildfires. We need to introduce on the outskirts of towns and cities clever landscape designs that included irrigation and green fire breaks in the form of parklands, that could work in conjunction with burn-offs.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/15/burn-offs-bushfire-risks-australia-tasmania
Too big to jail
Criminal money laundering not a crime – if you are big enough. A report on the powers used by a handful of bank intentionally to coerce governments.
https://www.brasscheck.com/video/too-big-to-jail/
Land use per gram of protein, by food type
Average land use area needed to produce one unit of protein by food type, measured in metres squared per gram of protein over a crop’s annual cycle or the average animal’s lifetime. Values are based on a meta-analysis of studies across 742 agricultural systems and over 90 unique foods.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/land-use-per-gram-of-protein-by-food-type
