The John James Newsletter 187
15 July 2017
The problem with political jokes is they get elected
Henry Cate
Dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality
John Lennon
Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science,the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome
Winston Churchill
World Population Growth
A picture of world population in the very long-run fits the pattern of exponential growth (when a population grows exponentially the population increase is proportional to the size of the population). Yet an empirical observation of how growth rates have developed in the course of the last century reveals that this pattern no longer holds. The annual rate of population growth has recently been going down. A long historical period of accelerated growth has thus come to an end; the annual world population growth rate peaked in 1962, at around 2.1%, and has come down to almost half since.
https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth/
Conservatives go completely nuts over battery storage
First they disputed the need to even have clean energy. Then they disputed the costs. Now, faced with the growing reality that renewables and storage are going to be cheaper, cleaner, and smarter and more reliable, conservatives are turning to the one mechanism still at their disposal: To shout very loudly. The announcement of the Tesla big battery storage array to be built in South Australia by December 1 signals a major pivot point for the energy future in this country, and Conservatives, however, are not having a bar of it.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/conservatives-go-completely-nuts-over-battery-storage-70964/
Explainer: What the Tesla big battery can and cannot do
How will it change the energy market? Enormously. This is as significant as the start of the shift from analogue to digital. It will change the way we think about energy, from the old baseload, peak load paradigm, to a new one based around the cheapest form of new generation “base cost renewables” (wind and solar), and then flexible or dispatchable generation to fill in the gaps.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/explainer-what-the-tesla-big-battery-can-and-cannot-do-42387/
The Uninhabitable Earth
Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think. the tropics are already too hot to efficiently grow grain, and those places where grain is produced today are already at optimal growing temperature — which means even a small warming will push them down the slope of declining productivity. And you can’t easily move croplands north a few hundred miles, because yields in places like remote Canada and Russia are limited by the quality of soil there; it takes many centuries for the planet to produce optimally fertile dirt.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html
Earth’s sixth mass extinction event already under way
Researchers talk of ‘biological annihilation’ as new study reveals that billions of populations of animals have been lost in recent decades. A “biological annihilation” of wildlife in recent decades means a sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history is already well underway and is more severe than previously feared,
Australian journalist Chris Uhlmann’s ‘searing assessment’ of Trump
The veteran journalist criticised the US President’s conduct while in office, his awkwardness at the G20 summit and his offhand Twitter tirades. “He was an uneasy, lonely, awkward figure at this gathering and you got the strong sense that some of the leaders are trying to find the best way to work around him,”
Clinton lost election because of growing working class opposition to war
The Democratic Party lost the 2016 election because working class voters in poorer areas hit hardest by military casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan saw the Democratic Party as the primary party of war and militarism. They abstained or voted for Trump as a result.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/08/comm-j08.html
Yemen – Court Battle Exposes UK – Saudi Arms Trade. A Marriage Made in Hell.
One school building in Dhubab, Taiz governorate, has been hit nine times … A market in Sirwah, Marib governorate, has been struck 24 times. It’s sickening to think of British-built weapons being used against civilians and the government has an absolute responsibility to do everything in its power to stop that from happening. But as Ministers turn a blind eye to the conflict … evidence that Humanitarian Law has been violated is becoming harder to ignore by the day.
Massive Wildfires Burn From California to the Arctic Ocean as Temperature Records Shatter
Massive wildfires have forced nearly 5,000 people to evacuate. In British Columbia, 14,000 have fled as more than 1,000 firefighters battle numerous large blazes. And along coastal Alaska and Canada’s Northwest Territory, large wildfires are burning near the shores of an, until recently frozen, Arctic Ocean.
Fukushima’s radioactive water to be released into ocean
Fishermen have reacted with fury to the decision, claiming it will devastate their already struggling industry. Some 770,000 tons (metric) of tritium-containing water is currently stored in 580 tanks at the plant
https://www.rt.com/news/396358-fukushimas-radioactive-water-released-ocean/
CIA Agent Confesses On Deathbed: ‘We Blew Up WTC7 On 9/11’
79-year-old retired CIA agent, Malcom Howard, has made a series of astonishing claims since being released from hospital in New Jersey on Friday and told he has weeks to live. Mr. Howard claims he was involved in the “controlled demolition” of World Trade Center 7, the third building that was destroyed on 9/11.