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The Cage redefines nomenclature for the uber-wealthy

Who is the one per crore?

Philip Adams is interviewing Brooke Hamilton in repeat as I type. Listen here. They are discussing the theft of wealth by those running the neo-liberal agenda. Both broadcasters keep referring to “the one percent”.

One percent of the world’s population is 70 million people. There are many more millionaires than that in the world, so the 70 million wealthiest people in the world represent a serious pile of gold bars but they are not the ones calling the shots.

The one per lakh, on the other hand, is the 70,000 people who control wealth beyond what you or I can imagine. A lakh is the Vedic name for our 100,000.

In the number system used across South Asia, the next order of magnitude that gets a name is the Crore. The Crore is ten of our million, or 100 lakh, it is written, 1,00,00,000. The Vedic system uses commas ever two orders of magnitude after the first three.

The one per crore, then, is the 700 people who actually control the wealth. The Rothschilds, the British Royal Family and so on. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have probably made it into this particular elite, the oil sheiks and major arms dealers will be in there as well.

The Cage, therefor has decided to talk about the one per crore and the one per lakh when appropriate and use the one percent when we specifically want to refer to the very wealthy 70 million who are stinking rich, but who are really just ordinary people with a lot of money.

30 September, 2016
Climate chaos outpaces all predictions

Hundreds of scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners have published an open letter to governments pointing out that recent data indicates climate chaos is happening much faster than predicted and major economic and political disruption is inevitable.

The 375 scientists openly criticise major world leaders for ignoring climate change and thereby risking significant harm to large sections of humanity.

Hillary Clinton, for example, has not mentioned climate change once since receiving the endorsement of Bernie Sanders.

Top scientists warn of ‘real, serious, immediate’ climate threat

375 of the world’s top scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter: the evidence is clear that humans are causing climate change. The seas are rising, the oceans are warming, the lower atmosphere is warming, the land is warming, ice is melting, rainfall patterns are changing and the ocean is becoming more acidic. These facts are incontrovertible. No reputable scientist disputes them. It is the truth. Despite these facts, the letter reports that the US presidential campaign has seen claims that the earth isn’t warming, or it is only a natural warming, or that climate change is a hoax. These claims are false. The claims are made by politicians or real estate developers with no scientific experience. These people who deny the reality of climate change are not scientists.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/sep/21/375-top-scientists-warn-of-real-serious-immediate-climate-threat

Greenland Ice Sheet

Melt area in 2015 exceeded more than half of the ice sheet on July 4th for the first time since the exceptional melt events of July 2012, and was above the 1981-2010 average on 50 of 92 days. The length of the melt season was as much as 30-40 days longer than average in some areas.

http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/greenland_ice_sheet.html

Much of Greenland is rising far more rapidly than thought

This means 19 cubic kilometres more ice is falling into the sea each year, an increase of about 8% on earlier figures. The faster rebound is thought to be the result of hotter, more elastic mantle rocks under eastern Greenland, a remnant from 40m years ago when the island passed over the hot spot that now powers Iceland’s volcanoes.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/21/greenlands-huge-annual-ice-loss-is-even-worse-than-thought

NASA: Earth is warming at a pace ‘unprecedented in 1,000 years’

Records of temperature that go back far further than 1800s suggest warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium. This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century. Just five more years of C02 emissions at current levels will virtually wipe out any chance of restraining runaway climate change.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/30/nasa-climate-change-warning-earth-temperature-warming

What Factors Determine Earth’s Climate?

https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/faq-1-1.html

Hillary Clinton ‘dropped climate change from speeches after Bernie Sanders endorsement’

While the presidential candidate talks regularly about her plan for the US to become a “clean energy superpower”, in recent months she has rarely made reference to the planetary crisis that necessitates it. On Monday, when she launched her pitch to millennials online, she could find no room for an issue that will affect that voting cohort more than any other.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/hillary-clinton-dropped-climate-change-from-speeches-after-bernie-sanders-endorsement

27 September, 2016
Superbugs make it into UN General Assembly

Harvard Medical School demonstration of bacteria mutating to overcome antibiotics

World leaders have finally taken heed of the evidence that mutant bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics threaten the basis of modern medicine. The General Assembly of the United Nations last Wednesday discussed the crisis, recognising that the impact potentially threatens major outbreak of disease in humans population and the collapse of global food production. Antibiotics are regularly fed to industrially farmed animals to reduce the diseases rampant in the crowded and unhygienic conditions in which meat is produced. A recent experiment at Harvard Medical School graphically demonstrates the speed at which bacteria mutate to overcome resistance to anti-biotics.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/21/because-were-running-out-time-world-leaders-finally-commit-tackling-superbug-scourge

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/08/492965889/watch-bacteria-invade-antibiotics-and-transform-into-superbugs

‘We’re Running Out of Time,’ World Leaders Finally Commit to Tackling Superbugs

We are losing our ability to treat infections. It threatens our whole ability to handle patients and our ability to grow enough food. “It’s clear that if we don’t begin to reverse it now, it’s going to be much harder in the future”. Antibiotics are overused when they are taken for viral infections like colds and flu, and when they are given as growth promoters in animals and fish.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/21/because-were-running-out-time-world-leaders-finally-commit-tackling-superbug-scourge

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/08/492965889/watch-bacteria-invade-antibiotics-and-transform-into-superbugs

27 September, 2016
Indonesian fires responsible for 100,000 deaths

Indonesia is the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world

Indonesian agribusiness interests are responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths from the after effects of smoke from last year’s forest fires, according to a report released by Harvard University this week.

This time last year, the smoke haze from the fires blanketed South East Asia, diverting aircraft and causing illness in countries from Malaysia to the Philippines and New Guinea.

The Harvard University study identified the tiny smoke particles, less than 2.5mirons in diameter as reaching deep into the lungs and bloodstream of humans, causing a long list of ailments such as decreased lung function, heart attack, aggravated asthma, and premature death.

The 2015 fires caused widespread disruption at the time

Agricultural fires in Indonesia linked to 100,000 premature deaths

Fires associated with palm oil and timber are mostly to blame. Smoke haze from agricultural fires may have caused more than 100,000 premature deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore last fall

https://thinkprogress.org/indonesia-fires-linked-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths-9ea759a4fcdb#.kx7vuz4tx

http://www.monbiot.com/2015/10/30/nothing-to-see-here/

27 September, 2016
DNA study confirms First Australians as most ancient civilisation

NY Times picture of Dr Willerslev at his Institute

DNA studies of First Nations people in Papua and Australia confirm mounting archeological evidence that the First Australians are the oldest civilisation on Earth.

One of four studies on human ancestry published in Nature this week, the study by Prof Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen shows that these groups arrived on the continent about 50,000 years ago and remained almost entirely isolated until around 4,000 years ago.

“They are probably the oldest group in the world that you can link to one particular place,” said Willerslev.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/science/eske-willerslev-ancient-dna-scientist.html?_r=0

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/21/indigenous-australians-most-ancient-civilisation-on-earth-dna-study-confirms

27 September, 2016
Father of Permacuture, Bill Mollison dead

The founder of Permaculture and advocate for sustainable cities and food systems, Bill Mollison died last Saturday. Permaculture is a system of growing food that requires minimum energy, water and fertilizer and works with nature

Founder of Permaculture, Bill Mollison, at his research institute in Tasmania

to reduce the ecological impact of feeding humans.

It has also been applied to greening the desert in places as diverse as the south-western prairies of the USA and the deserts of the Middle East.

Born in Tasmania, Bill Mollison founded the permaculture movement over forty years ago and has been instrumental in countering the industrial approach of corporate agribusiness.

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/news/14748857267497/bruce-charles-bill-mollison-1928-2016

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From the official statement of the Permaculture Research Institute at the request of his widow Lisa Mollison

With deep sorrow, we wish to inform family and friends that Bruce Charles “Bill” Mollison, the “Father of Permaculture,” has passed away. He departed peacefully from this world in Hobart, Tasmania, just before 11 pm AEST, on the 24th of September, 2016.

After founding Permaculture Institute in 1978, he formalized the training of practitioners, which directly impacted hundreds of thousands of lives, and indirectly many millions more. For his service to humanity, he was honored with numerous awards, including the Right Livelihood Award in 1981. But of all the accolades he received, the one he was most proud of was the Vavilov Medal, in large part due to the tenacity, courage, and contributions of the award’s namesake, who Bill considered a personal hero. Bill was also the first foreigner invited and admitted to the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

27 September, 2016