This is an essay from reader wis.dom project who describes his painful personal journey of connecting dots to achieve awareness of our overshoot predicament.
I was born in 1969, at a time when everything still seemed possible. On July 20, two people walked on the moon, which is probably the greatest technological achievement of man to this day. In my youth, I devoured novels by Asimov, Clarke, Lem, Dick and Herbert. The galaxy’s colonization seemed within reach.
45 years later, I realized that I was a victim of mass hypnosis, what I refer to today as techno-utopia – a belief in the limitless human development, genius and almost divine uniqueness of Homo Sapiens. I realized that industrial civilization, like any other dissipative structure, is doomed to inevitable collapse.
In 1972 – 3 years after my birth, a book titled The Limits to Growth was released by the Club of Rome. It was the first scientifically compiled report analyzing future scenarios for humanity. It indicated that unlimited development is not possible on a finite planet. The book was published in 30 million copies and was one of the most popular at the time. Surprisingly, despite the wide range of my readings, the book did not appear on my horizon for a long time. As if it was covered by another intellectual “Säuberung”. In fact, it was the subject of an intellectual blitzkrieg and relatively quickly evaporated from the media circulation. I experienced this myself by talking to several university professors. Every one of them dismissed the LtG concept with a shrug and an unequivocal, non-debatable conclusion that the theory had long been discredited.
Since then, there have been many other events that have offered an opportunity to change consciousness and thus the trajectory of industrial civilization.
On June 15, 1979, during the ongoing second oil crisis, President Jimmy Carter gave a famous speech in which he announced: “The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our Nation. These are facts and we simply must face them”. Photovoltaic panels were installed on the roof of the White House to symbolize a new trend – energy conservation and an attempt to develop alternative sources.
American people responded by choosing Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States, who had the panels dismantled. Before he did so, he announced: “There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.” As a result of the use of “intelligence, imagination, and wonder” American analysts probably came to the conclusion that if we do not have the resources ourselves, they should be organized from a different source. Therefore, on his first overseas trip, Reagan traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he probably proposed the following alternative: petrodollar, protection and weapons for cheap oil… or American aircraft carriers will stay anchored in the Persian Gulf for longer – as in the Al Capone quote: “You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone”. Same logic. Following, we got post-colonial globalization with all the necessary tools like the IMF, World Bank, BIS, and Washington Consensus. Pax Americana in full release. A decade of crises had begun.
In 1980, a group of “loyal Americans” constructed Georgia Guidestones, “The American Stonehenge”. On 4 granite slabs, in 8 languages, the authors recommended 10 commandments of a healthy civilization, including limiting the global population to 500 million. This humanist monument was recently destroyed by fanatical terrorists and then demolished by the county authorities for “security reasons”.
In 1984, the publisher of George Orwell’s famous book, which regained popularity as a result of events at that time, advertised it with the slogan “maybe not 1984, but there is always 1985”. We solved the waves of hunger that engulfed African countries with “Live Aid”. The eastern block began to fall apart.
For the growth protagonists, their optimistic belief in progress was confirmed in the 1990’s, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc and another “gold rush”, this time in the oil fields of Western Siberia. Another wave of globalization had begun. The ceiling of the ecological capacity of mankind was raised again, and the extraction of natural resources accelerated to planet limits. China joined the WTO and “the sky was the limit” again.
The digital revolution restored belief in unlimited development, and Hollywood started showing “happy endings” again after years of dystopian themes. However, the honeymoon of unipolar globalization was short. In 2001, cracks started to appear. US president, George W. Bush, announced that the prosperity of the Americans was not negotiable. Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan clearly showed the intentions of Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “The Grand Chessboard” strategy. After all, the 9/11 organization required remarkable synchronization, and its presentation to the public was another masterpiece of the hypnotic power of mass communication. Undoubtedly, its organizers were aware of the challenges ahead. In 1998, Colin J. Campbell, a highly respected geologist dealing with oil field analysis for companies such as BP, Texaco, Amoco, together with Jean Laherrère published an article titled The End of Cheap Oil. Shortly after, he recalled, gentlemen from the Pentagon / CIA visited him with a proposal to cooperate. They wanted to know more about the impending peak-oil. They knew the matter was serious. Campbell’s relatively precise predictions materialized in 2006, when we reached the peak of conventional oil production.
However, also this time the convulsions of civilization were prolonged. For optimists, the shale revolution, fracking, deep and arctic oil were another confirmation of human genius and the possibility of unlimited expansion of the species. Changing the definition of oil production to ‘all liquids’ and the inclusion of bizarre products such as biofuels once again gave the impression of unlimited resources. For the more inquisitive observers, it was more like “last drops from the bottom of the barrel.” The IEA’s prediction of production scenarios, with a price of $300 per barrel, did not seem to scare the public. For some, they were another opportunity for tempting profits. The oil price reached $147 a barrel in 2007 and has yet to be beaten. However, it had far-reaching consequences in the form of a global financial and economic crisis. In November 2018, we probably achieved the final peak of production of all liquid hydrocarbons. Peak oil has become a fact.
Germany’s Bundeswehr 2010 publication on the consequences of the peak extraction of critical resources has not reached a wider audience. Instead, we got another installment of mass hypnosis in the form of such oxymorons as “renewable energies” (which for semantic precision are not renewable) and “sustainable development” (whatever that means). The energy transformation, changed by all cases, was called a revolution by its followers. Apparently, none of them noticed that revolutions are by nature bottom-up. The current attempt at energy transformation, on the other hand, is a top-down, elite-bureaucratic decree forced into the economy with an enormous organizational, financial and propaganda effort, and has nothing to do with the revolution. Except perhaps the inevitable failure.
Further memes of the Holy Grails of energy appear in the widespread public perception. From nuclear fusion projects, new categories of nuclear reactors, SMRs, large-scale energy storage to the recently very popular multicolored forms of hydrogen. Already every moderately educated inhabitant of Western countries can cite further possibilities of increasing our chance for a vacation on Mars in the near future, a vision presented by Elon, the most popular techno-utopian messiah. The knowledge on this subject is usually so shallow that it only causes confusion. After all, if all these solutions are at hand, why are we living in times of a global energy crisis? Undoubtedly, if not terrorist inclinations, this can at least provoke rage against such inept politicians. Greta is disappointed, as are her millions of unsuspecting millennials. False hope is a source of frustration expressed by aggression. This generation will inspire a wave of radicalism and eco-terrorism in the near future.
So here we are. Pandemic, wars, revolutions, hunger, migrations, financial crisis, stagflation, new cold war, de-globalization – we got a jackpot in this draw.
In 2011, a public opinion research company surveyed Western countries’ populations on the threats to human civilization. 11% expressed the opinion that events that threaten civilization will occur during their lives. I wonder what the result would be today, but I have no doubt it would be significantly higher. Still, the wider population was not frightened by the fact that in 2018 Sweden mailed instructions to its citizens on how to prepare for war, which was also a pocket prepper plan. The city of New York is preparing for a nuclear attack right now. A day like any other, nothing to see here. Yet all over the world there are no reactions, no demonstrations, no prayers for peace. The masses are hypnotized. Most of the younger generation of Western societies fear climate change. Nobody told them that the greatest threat to their welfare is, paradoxically, an end to environmental rape.
A breakthrough on the legendary World3 Model Standard Run is happening right before our eyes. Except the fall, like in Hemingway’s novel: How did you go bankrupt? Bill asked. “Two ways”, Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly”. “Gradually” was already there, now “suddenly” begins. As if we were watching Seneca Cliff live. Yet most people believe this is just a temporary stumble on the way to permanent happiness and prosperity. Almost every statement of people in the media contains hidden optimism when they make plans for 10, 20 or 30 years, visions of smart-cities, hydrogen-economy, electric cars and universal happiness. Even the so-called pessimists that see the crisis and the forthcoming World War III, believe in the following reconstruction and further progress after the victory of the only right one, i.e. OUR SIDE. Spes decedit ultimo, amorem non moritur.
The pandemic, the genesis of which should be sought in biological weapons laboratories, was presented efficiently and with amazing media synchronization as a natural zoonotic epidemic. At the same time, the health service suffered global Münchhausen’s surrogate syndrome and concluded that injecting 5 billion people with experimental gene therapy is a good idea. And this despite the fact that for the vast majority of them the disease is relatively harmless, while gene therapy turns out to be ineffective and risky. I mean, safe and effective. How the “vaccine”, which should be injected in your body 4 times in 1.5 years is effective, no one explained and few asked.
Meanwhile, the frequency of meetings between political elites, presidents, prime ministers, ministers and a whole host of other notables in various configurations has drastically increased. This could hypothetically indicate greater international cooperation, but I am betting that the number of fires to be extinguished has increased instead. And I’m afraid this is just the beginning. Groups from WEF, G7, G20, BRICS, AUKUS, NATO, B&RI, QUAD, RCEP, ASEAN, to the Bilderberg Group meet to agree current positions, preferences, transactions, exchange information and confirm alliances. The chessboard is dynamically reconfigured. Global industrial civilization, like any dissipative structure, bifurcates. The world will divide. We go back in time. Another Cold War has arrived, and as one California senator noted, the truth is its first casualty. The level of propaganda is so advanced that, as in my youth, we will soon be seeing “TV is lying” graffiti. And this is justified. The elites are trying to prepare for the coming crisis, and this requires the right tools of indoctrination, surveillance and control. We can expect more riots, protests, strikes and demonstrations. More state control. More power of brute force. More epidemic passports, debt, digital currencies, vaccinations, bankruptcies, unemployment and migrations. Less money, food, travel, vacation, products, freedoms, and rights. The polarization of opinions is growing, and the spectrum of the narrative is intensifying the schizophrenia of paradigms. Social discontent will grow. As William Gibson stated, “the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed”. Sri Lanka is the proverbial canary in the mine. It’s just a matter of time before it will also show up in my neighborhood. Klaus Schwab from the WEF is supposed to keep me happy, but I only see it in the scenario of Futurological Congress. I can handle “less meat” with pleasure, but a lack of property is a fresh implementation of techno-fascism based on the proven model of CCP. National Socialism has the same imperative regardless of the flag. Klaus’ pupils, the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Canada, are already eagerly implementing the plan heading straight towards Soylent Green. The new techno-utopian prophet Yuval Noah Harari (Noah is quite symbolic in this context) and at the same time faithful to the Great Reset sect defines the challenges facing humanity as, among other things, providing adequate entertainment for these billions of “useless people”. 4th industrial revolution – biotechnology, automation, geoengineering, brain-computer interface, remote control, complete elimination of privacy, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, transhumanism and singularity will save us. In which metaverse, Mr. Harari? Techno-fascism? It looks more like smart-depopulation than smart-dictatorship.
Meanwhile, the war in Europe became a breeding ground for hysterical psychosis, in which a billion people of the Western world decided that preparations for WW3 should begin. Europe has been organizing Seppuku type economic crises on an unprecedented scale since 1929, followed by the depopulation scenario of the anonymous white intelligence agency deagel.com. These two events are another masterful operations on the open brain of global population. Simultaneously the UN forecasts the size of the human population by 2300, and the optimistic scenario predicts 36.4 billion inhabitants of the planet. Are they already implementing Stanislaw Lem’s scenario in their canteens? Is this a pilot?
The process of absorbing this knowledge was painful. The closest analogy is DABDA (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in the book On Death and Dying (also published in 1969). In her description, the stages of dying may occur many times, and their sequences are individual for each person becoming aware of their own mortality. I saw it myself in my loved ones who passed away. This happened to me also in relation to the revelation that industrial civilization is dying. Such awareness is an extremely difficult experience. In addition to its own emotional consequences, it also brings deep alienation. It becomes a natural need to share your knowledge with others, including your loved ones. As much as I could, I tried to avoid it, knowing from the descriptions of others who had previously had such experiences. Sharing such information brings only isolation, mockery, and being labelled as a “depressive-manic supporter of conspiracy theories”. Despite my sincere desire, I did not avoid ostracism and contempt, like many others before me. Kassandra, the social nickname that had been given to me half-jokingly in my social circle, turned out to be only a sign of intellectual gaps of my friends. After all, Kassandra was right in predicting the fall of Troy. I was doomed, like her, to a consciousness that no one would accept. No wonder, eschatology has a long history and the list of Armageddon prophets is long.
As part of my personal DABDA I am trying to decipher the history and its mechanisms. The question “how did this happen?” is lingering. How is it possible that we have brought our species and the planet to the brink of collapse? And there is the question of who was responsible.
The story leading to the LtG conclusions seems quite obvious from my current perspective. David Attenborough provides the simplest explanation:
We have a finite environment— the planet. Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist.
After 30 years of studying economics, I came to a similar conclusion. Modern mainstream economics is a scholastic sect that created pseudo-science describing economic mechanisms without considering any environmental factors in their models. Economists rationalized that any limitations related to demographics, resources and pollution will be resolved by the market, and ultimately by another sect – academy of scientific progress in cooperation with mammon wizards, i.e. rulers of the financial system. I am writing this with great respect and admiration for thousands of great scientists. We are also a brilliant species after all. Without them, we would still be jogging through the Central African savannahs. And probably the debt-engineers also deserve gratitude, because as Lloyd Blenkfein, president of Goldman Sachs said at the height of the previous global GFC financial crisis, “I’m doing God’s Work”. In fact, I cannot disagree. Without sophisticated debt magic the pyramid of industrial civilization would have collapsed much sooner.
The population of the planet grew exponentially, and we just recently surpassed 8 billion people on the planet for a while. Paul R. Ehrlich published The Population Bomb in 1968. The book received similar intellectual reception to LtG and was recognized as a Malthusian propagation of fear and defeatism.
In 1959, Aldous Huxley published New World 30 years later: The divergence report. Even then he feared the consequences of overpopulation. His conclusions are being realized before our eyes. The mixture of Orwell’s 1984 and the original Brave New World is more and more obvious, only the proportions change. Orwell is increasingly dominating though, and “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength” is increasingly evident in current mass media hypnosis.
So who was responsible?
Politicians? People with sociopathic narcissistic disorders voted in to solve short-term problems? The Kissinger Report was published in 1974 for the President Nixon administration reads:
23. The central question for world population policy in the year 1974, is whether mankind is to remain on a track toward an ultimate population of 12 to 15 billion – implying a five to seven-fold increase in almost all the underdeveloped world outside of China – or whether (despite the momentum of population growth) it can be switched over to the course of earliest feasible population stability – implying ultimate totals of 8 to 9 billions and not more than a three or four-fold increase in any major region.
24. What are the stakes? We do not know whether technological developments will make it possible to feed over 8 much less 12 billion people in the 21st century. We cannot be entirely certain that climatic changes in the coming decade will not create great difficulties in feeding a growing population, especially people in the LDCs who live under increasingly marginal and more vulnerable conditions. There exists at least the possibility that present developments point toward Malthusian conditions for many regions of the world.
The politicians knew perfectly well, at least the well-informed ones. As Deng Xiaoping, chairman of the Communist Party of China and architect of modern China, probably concluded that if China does not join the global economy relatively quickly, it will no longer have a chance to end the Age of Humiliation and “take a central position on the world stage”. In 1992, Fidel Castro delivered this speech at the Rio Environmental Conference.
Hunger and riots have been feared by politicians since ancient Egypt. Because who wants to end on the guillotine? Today, an eclipse is not enough to pacify riots. There are much better methods, as progress can be seen in every area. Alternatives to the horsemen of the apocalypse remain. Eugenics, euthanasia, and birth control were supposedly not humanistic enough.
Financial elites? These people were destined to make more money and power. They try their best playing in the sandbox of techno-utopia. The WEF Great Reset does not look promising either. Rather desperate, though logical. Likewise their contingency plans.
Scientists? In search of clues pointing to our destiny, we can also go back to the discoveries of Prigogin, Odum, Georgescu-Roegen and Lotka, great scientists who brought us closer to the knowledge of what life is. And modern authors describe with high precision our dependence on fossil energy to keep the population alive. Joseph Tainter, Matthieu Auzanneau, Craig Dilworth, Charles A.S. Hall, François Roddier, and many others, described how the world really works and the state it is in. They also failed. Apparently the printings were too small. Science has its own limits, regardless of the symptoms of progressive degeneration to which it is subject, like any large organization. Contemporary philosophers, however, dreamed of this future, but apparently they were not invited to breakfast TVs. Yet they were destined to rule Plato’s state.
Humanity? Each of us with internet access had the opportunity to find this knowledge. Some of us, however, preferred to watch cute cats or modern gladiators running on the trimmed lawn. Panem et circenses.
Philosophers? After all, philosophy, as a love of wisdom, was perhaps the most responsible for the awareness of human destiny. The philosophers were proto-scientists, only with progressing specialization migrated to the role of provincial humanists with an inclination to determine the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin. They also failed. As a result, most of humanity lives in Plato’s cave, waiting for the looming vengeance of Thomas Malthus, the first professor of political economy. What an irony.
Or maybe nobody is to blame, and humanity – as in the Greek tragedy – was destined to follow this last journey of Icarus from the beginning?
un-Denial 
How we’ll nuke our enemies after we’ve nuked our enemies.
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Speaking of nukes, NYC Launches New PSA Focused On Preparing For Possible Nuclear Attack.
Surreal. I suppose finding a building to shelter in makes more sense than staggering around slack jawed in the open…
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Surreal is a good word.
Hell of a lot of surreal stuff these days. We seem to be losing our minds.
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That’s hilarious Rob. Ancient Technology 101.
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James smells like MORT today 🙂 .
New quote added to the sidebar: “God makes dissipatives blind to the facts so they’ll finish their task.”
https://megacancer.wordpress.com/2022/07/16/and-then-there-were-none/#comment-1802
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A lurking reader sent me an interesting essay he recently wrote about Dr. Tim Garrett’s theory.
I think his conclusion that the rich are blocking climate change action is true but not completely true. By that I mean the poor and middle class also do not want to hear Dr. Garrett’s message and would not vote for someone promising to save their grandchildren by collapsing the economy.
For me the interesting question is why do the rich, middle class, and poor all deny Garrett’s conclusions in spite of the evidence? I of course think the answer is that we evolved to deny unpleasant realities as explained by Dr. Varki’s MORT theory.
By the way, I think you can tell if someone really understands climate change and what needs to be done about it if they advocate raising the interest rate a lot now (to collapse the economy) and then focusing on population reduction (to reduce suffering and improve conditions for those in the future).
https://www.slipperychimp.co.uk/2022/07/31/is-destroying-wealth-the-only-answer-to-climate-change/
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I love the way Dr. Malcolm Kendrick observes and thinks.
Today he reviews the history of vaccines and points out that the medical profession has always made a living by making shit up.
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2022/08/06/vaccines-how-did-they-come-about/
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Rob said; “For me the interesting question is why do the rich, middle class, and poor all deny Garrett’s conclusions in spite of the evidence?”
It is simple and they will all tell you exactly why if you ask them.
Basically it’s like this; Keep doing your job and everything else BAU and you and your loved ones will continue to not suffer, you will most likly live to the next day, week, month, year, decade. or… stop driving, flying, consuming, working, etc. and you and your loved ones will quickly begin to starve, suffer, and die.
Hmmmm? Which should I choose?
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Of course, but to continue with BAU, one needs to be living in a world of infinite resources and a world that can take any amount of abuse and still support BAU. It appear to be blindingly obvious, from Garrett’s work, among others, that this is simply not possible. But most people are blind to the blindingly obvious.
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Yes, and keep growing the population on this planet of finite resources and everything will work out fine (denial is wonderful).
AJ
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Mike and AJ – You both are stating the obvious and ignoring my comment (or denying the implications of it).
The question was essentially ,”why is no one doing the right thing and instead are doing all the wrong things? And I answered it.
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Right. Understood. And I agree. BAU allows people less pain than living within the planet’s means, so people will try to continue BAU. Of course, that effort will eventually fail and the pain will be even worse.
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Oh, that was me. Somehow I became Anonymous!
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I’ve deleted my LinkedIn account after a melt down sort of similar to your dinner party exchange Rob. A guy who has worked in the sustainability / waste management / consulting space for years and is now a professional director posted with pride about his partners new jewellery business. Handmade gold and silver earrings etc. The post was liked and commented on by several other people working in my old sustainability profession. I couldn’t believe it, my blood boiled and I posted a pretty rude and derogatory comment pointing out the cognitive dissonance in promoting finite pieces of the planet for personal adornments and status symbols when the planet is in a terminal decline. He unsurprisingly blocked me and deleted my comment.
I recounted the exchange to my wife who, as usual, was straight talking and called me out on the wasted energies of yelling into the void of social media to unseen individuals while real issues like our neighbouring farmer grazing stock in our water catchment go unaddressed. An honest reflection told me LinkedIn overall is a waste of my time and bad for my mental health, contributing mainly negative energy and anxiety with its abundance of techno-optimism and hopium.
Time to focus more on the much more local issues, connecting with people around here and getting shit done on the land.
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Hello there Campbell, sorry to hear you’ve had a fraught time but glad all is in better perspective for you now. I feel for your frustration and perhaps more than a little sense of betrayal and loss from your once tribe. These are difficult times when the old falls away and we are re-creating our lives to align best with our truths. Only thing is, there are 8 billion human versions of it! We all hope we can live and let live somehow on this unbelievably precious planet, but maybe for a foreshortened time.
I am finding that in my own life, especially so in the past two years, certain friends have just drifted away, with progressively less contact on both our parts, not necessarily over anything overt but it just seems like a natural progression of the relationship over time. My interests and priorities now are so disparate from many of my friends and family, and the time I need to do what I need to get done has usurped connection time with them, it is just how it goes. I am thinking that Dunbar’s number could be truncated by half and still I wouldn’t be able to keep up meaningful contact, but at the same time, I consider true friendship to be a state of mind, shared from a generosity of spirit that needs nor asks more than one chooses to give. I have come to see everything as a progression in the journey, evolving through stages and through linear time, but at the same time, existing all at once, too, and that sum total is my experience of life up to the moment. It’s so fascinating how the human mind can just make up these perceptions!
Outside of this space, there are very few with whom I can speak freely about overshoot matters. and I hardly ever broach the topic just to keep the harmony. I cannot see the point as I know they will not change and they have not asked me to upend their world in one fell swoop. I try to remember that I once saw the world more or less as they (albeit a very long time ago) and each is on their own path and we all share the same eventual destination of oblivion. I have tried to remind myself when I have been stretched in understanding and patience that the universe is big enough for all of us, at least for this moment and only just! I suppose it’s a practice of empathy for the human condition, to just see where we can find that connection point, if we can at all.
In the meantime, we continue our good labour on the property, yes, I find as you do that purposeful action on the land is the most grounding (literally) and revolutionary thing we can do at this time, something so simple like planting a tree can be amongst our most prominent legacies. And in the garden and the working of it we bring all our cares to the earth and she grants us solace and healing. One simply cannot be anything other than blissful when communing with nature, with the sun’s radiant blessing overhead and the earth’s strong embrace upholding us.
Namaste friends, and thank you for being here for all of us, right here, right now. I am instantly recalled to the Jesus Jones song of the same and the lyrics are pretty fitting for whatever time we’ve gone through, but especially now–
A woman on the radio talks about revolution
When it’s already passed her by
Bob Dylan didn’t have this to sing about
You know it feels good to be alive
I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history
I saw the decade in, when it seemed the world could change
At the blink of an eye
And if anything
Then there’s your sign of the times
I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history
If only we were programmed to wake up from denial!
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Thanks Gaia for your kind and wise response. You’re right about mourning the loss of my “once tribe”. I’m instantly feeling fresher without the distraction of LinkedIn.
Another half dozen fruit and nut trees, along with loads of potatoes planted yesterday with the family. We do live in paradise here on our land.
Nikki’s answer to the cows grazing the roadside that flows to our catchment is to use the cow manure for planting hundreds of pumpkin seeds in so that food takes over the area and can be shared with the neighbours next year. Guerilla gardening.
And I do like that Jesus Jones song. Namaste.
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Is it just me or does any one else think when they hear about someone “peacefully passing away” with no given reason or a nebulous one such as “after chronic illness” or worse, “unexpectedly” that the Covid inoculations may have had an “one foot on a banana peel” effect? Australia is reeling from the back to back deaths of two music icons we are proud to call our own, Judith Durham of the Seekers and Olivia Newton-John. Both were in their 70s, not exactly elderly by today’s standards, and whilst I am sure they had their share of health problems (ONJ was a high profile breast cancer survivor and advocate), you still can’t help but wonder what could have contributed to their demise, knowing that life insurance claims have rocketed into unheard of record territory ever since the initiation of the shots. Also glancing news was a woman who suddenly died on the flight from HK to UK, no known reason. It became news for the sad fact that husband and two small children had to sit next to her dead body on the plane for the remaining 8 hours of flight. If the unbelievable head count of the 14 plus young Canadian doctors who died after Covid shots (6 from one hospital system!) is anything to go by, there would be quite a body count mixed in ordinary circumstances. Call me a sucker for sensationalism but I don’t think we are even seeing the tip of the iceberg of what has been occurring.
I can’t seem to leave the subject of the Covid debacle but almost every day I see a headline here that reeks of worsening disaster. Today, a piece on how people who took Paxlovid, the Covid antiviral, have a tendency for rebound infection which gives further proof that the immune system after inoculation just isn’t coping. So now we have re-infections after vaccination and rebound infections after antiviral therapy, whatever you want to call it, it’s not what should be happening if there’s anything like natural immunity.
And now for something totally different, our RBA has officially announced it will trial digital currency in a limited pilot scheme. “The Reserve Bank of Australia will trial its own digital currency as part of a research project to evaluate the future of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) in Australia. The project, which is expected to take about a year to complete, will involve the development of a limited-scale CBDC pilot that will operate in a ring-fenced environment for a period of time and is intended to involve a pilot CBDC that is a real claim on the Reserve Bank,” the RBA noted in a media release. “Interested industry participants will be invited to develop specific use cases that demonstrate how a CBDC could be used to provide innovative and value-added payment and settlement services to households and businesses.” Here we go, down the rabbit hole!
Meanwhile, it’s a beautiful day and all other living creatures that make up our biosphere are seizing it and doing their thing. As Homo sapiens, we’re still working out what that niche is for us, we may be thinkers, but sometimes we’re slow!
Hope everyone has a good one.
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Your self diagnosis that you “are a sucker for sensationalism” is a distinct possibility. You did not lend stature to your case by citing the death of ONJ and Judith Durham.
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Sad to hear about Olivia Newton John. I recently added her to my music collection.
It’s so hard to to tell what’s going on without statistical analysis of the data by competent people with integrity, none of which we have.
I still believe Bossche will be proven correct. There’s lots of virus circulating with no trend to herd immunity so something’s going to happen.
Anecdotally I had a friend unexpectedly die watching television. No autopsy so we’ll never know, but I it’s the first time I’ve lost someone like that. A few days ago a middle aged woman died while wading in the ocean in front of my place. That’s never happened before in the 6o years I’ve been visiting this beach.
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I really like proffesor Tim Noakes and I’ve listened to quite a few of his talks over the last year. In this short talk he debunks some popular false beliefs.
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Nate Hagens today released part 3 of his interview series with Daniel Schmachtenberger.
I’ve listened to pretty much everything Hagens has done over the last 10 years and this may be his deepest discussion yet about our overshoot predicament. I’ve already listened to it twice and will need another couple listens to fully process but I would say if you are a depressed doomer looking for perspective and a possible path to being less depressed, or maybe even hopeful, then this might be the right medicine.
Looking forward to part 4 when they intend to discuss specifics on what an aware person can to to make the future less bad, or maybe even help create a phase change for a path to a good future.
This old doomer still suspects thermodynamics and genetic denial will prevail but I remain open minded to a better path.
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/31-daniel-schmachtenberger
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David speaks in the first few minutes about how wrong it is to observe bad human behaviour and call it human nature, or biologically oriented, or genetically correlated. I agree 100% with what he says about the fact that humans have been ubiquitously conditioned in an unnatural or weird way.
he starts at about 10:39.
Later when he talks about phase shifts, I believe that humanity has had several opportunities for positive phase shifts but they have been preempted or hyjacked by bad actors. Not only did TPTB stop the phase shift from naturally occuring, they pushed a different phase shift on society. I am not just trying to lay blame. I am working very hard on understand what happened.
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I follow a lot of people that comment on the economy.
Almost all are confused and say nothing makes sense.
Almost none understand that growth is over due to energy depletion.
I expect our leaders are also confused.
Which means we should expect irrational and dangerous responses.
Our genetic tendency to deny unpleasant realities is amazing.
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Rob, I know that you are interested in the absurd complexity of modern everyday life. Do you know the movie Logistics?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistics_(film)
At 51,420 minutes (857 hours or 35 days and 17 hours), it is the longest film ever made and it follows in real time the path of a pedometer from creation in China to a store in Sweden in reverse order.
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I can confidently say I will never watch this haha
Goodness our way of life is beyond complicated
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How about I, Pencil?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Pencil
It’s free.
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I did read that when Alice shared it a few years ago 🙂
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Thanks for the tip, never heard of it. Here is a 72 minute summary.
It seems they missed all the interesting stuff like what it takes mine, refine, and transform minerals into the materials and electronics, using energy that is extracted and refined, to make the pedometer. Movie seems to focus on transportation which is trivial compared to what it takes to make and power the transportation equipment.
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Maybe collapse is a gradual process.
I visited Walmart and Superstore today. Shelves were a little more empty than the last time I visited, which was a little worse than the previous time I visited, etc., etc.
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I bought 3m gates last year for $94. They’re now advertised for $239. Apparently they can’t source the gates from China anymore and have to use locally manufactured gates.
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If there was a theme to the empty shelves I would say it’s that all the good inexpensive stuff is gone.
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Nate Hagens today interviewed Timothee Parrique on degrowth.
How is it possible that Parrique, a PhD expert on human overshoot and the need for degrowth, can talk for over an hour and not even mention population reduction, and can state with a straight face that when we stop using fossil energy, either by choice or force, we will be able to lead comfortable lives by only working 18 hours a week?
It’s of course not possible, unless Dr. Ajit Varki’s Mind Over Reality Transition (MORT) theory is correct, which states that behaviorally modern humans exist because we evolved to deny unpleasant realities.
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/32-timothee-parrique
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Have only listened to about half of the interview so far and found myself thinking exactly the same thing Rob. He’s a smart guy and laid out most of the issues except population. Maybe he thinks if he paints voluntary degrowth in a rosy light it will at least help to kickstart a few more people in that direction…..until reality bites.
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My old brain struggles to retain details on the history of the covid insanity.
Western Canadian Sheldon Yakiwchuk today provided a nice summary of the last 2 years.
https://sheldonyakiwchuk.substack.com/p/my-first-full-year-200-stacks-deep
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Part 2 of Yakk Stack’s excellent history of 2 years of covid insanity.
https://sheldonyakiwchuk.substack.com/p/my-first-full-year-200-stacks-deep-b84
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Kunstler today with his compact 2 paragraph summary of the insanity.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-meaning-of-incredible/
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You can’t make this shit up.
The new and improved boosters that will be pushed on us this fall are un-tested and manufactured by a Canadian startup with no track record and strong ties to the CIA.
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/08/investigative-reports/rna-for-modernas-omicron-booster-manufactured-by-cia-linked-company/
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Nice crisp summary of Germany’s natural gas situation from Eugyppius.
No mention of diesel. All ok?
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/german-energy-apocalypse-update
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Are people still wearing masks in your country? I feel like our leadership in NZ just forgot to remove the mask mandate. Most people I speak to are sick of wearing masks, but NZers just like to do what we’re told.
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I would guess only about 5-10% of people are wearing masks now. I haven’t encountered any establishments that require them including the dentist which I visited today.
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NZ is a nana nation full of stupid rules that make no sense
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Here in the beautiful PNW (Oregon to be specific) only medical facilities require masks. However, the more liberal the business (food co-ops, etc.) you find a lot of old people still wearing them (makes them feel they are doing something?
AJ
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Of course people would get sick of something that is inconvenient and uncomfortable but is that a good reason to drop the mandate in some settings?
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I think there is a very good reason to drop it, which is that a big % of your pop has already had the disease so the masks are clearly not effective (outside of an N95 worn correctly in a medical setting). There’s always going to be respiratory viruses around, does that mean we should always wear a mask?
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I enjoyed this Planet Critical interview with Max Wilbert. He’s a clear thinker and a clear communicator. I have his book Bright Green Lies in my queue but haven’t found time to read it.
https://www.planetcritical.com/p/bright-green-lies-max-wilbert#details
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Funny rant on USA collapse.
Imagine what he’d say if he understood human overshoot and energy depletion and climate change and biodiversity loss and soil erosion and aquifer depletion and nitrogen imbalance and…
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I rewatched Sid Smith’s “How to Enjoy the End of the World” series.
It’s superb if you have not seen it.
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Thanks to Mike Stasse for finding this must watch talk by Dr. Simon Michaux on why all of our governments’ plans for decarbonizing are pure fantasy and will never happen.
He doesn’t say it but the obvious conclusion is that we should focus on population reduction rather than renewable energy.
Recall that Nate Hagens interviewed Michaux and it was one of the best Great Simplification episodes: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/19-simon-michaux
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Here is full report from Simon. Great work.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351712079_The_Mining_of_Minerals_and_the_Limits_to_Growth
I wonder if some technocrats are studying this analysis.
It unequivocally confirms total inability of “energy transformation”. Isn’t it obvious?
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Thanks for finding his report.
Yes it is obvious. We deny many things that are obvious. Like, for example, that it would be a good idea to leave some oil in the ground for future generations, and that we need to get our population down quickly.
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Today’s interview by Bret Weinstein of Norman Fenton on the covid corruption of Wikipedia is pretty good (but not excellent if you’re short of time).
Also debated is the reason that every covid policy has been exactly opposite of correct which is impossibly improbable to explain with incompetence.
Fenton sees evidence for a Great Reset agenda. Weinstein disagrees and thinks maximizing profits by maximizing injections of a transfection substance is a better explanation.
I still think economic collapse avoidance and prep is a better explanation but because Weinstein and Fenton deny the reality of overshoot and the end of growth they can’t see this possible explanation.
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16 km Puntledge River day hike.
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Hello there Rob and friends,
Thank you for sharing this tranquil photo, just what I need to unwind after a whirlwind 10 days of providing hospitality to some friends from Tasmania who have come up to visit me here in Queensland. I am exhausted physically and mentally, especially overwhelmed by the lack of awareness of the general public gathering in all the touristy spots which I myself had to frequent under the circumstances. I’ve lost count of all the huge newer model SUVs towing even more ginormous new model caravans (I am driving a 20 year old van and cringing with each km clocked and thinking all the while how much energy it would take to push our vehicle, three humans and our baggage uphill and across over 1000km, for shame!) Nowadays, I rarely eat out and daily forays into cafes and pubs for our noon meal became a drudge as I found myself thinking how much real food I could buy with one entree’s cost. Standard tourist attractions have long lost their appeal for me, so thankfully I planned visits to sites of natural beauty (limited by the fact that one of our group was an elderly, mobility impaired lady who needed to be pushed along gravel paths in a wheelchair). But of course I had to take my guests to the requisite gift shops where they partook in smatterings of retail therapy for all the family back home. Call me a party pooper but boy am I pooped!
Now back to finishing up some projects here before heading back to Tasmania myself for Spring, yeah, I’m calling the kettle black by using air travel myself, but I will have to live with that choice and hopefully make it up another way.
I’ve some catching up reading here to do, (didn’t get a chance to even have a peek) anything major happen in the world whilst I was in fantasy land? I see Fauci has quit today, that goes along with the narrative we’ve surmised that something big is happening and rats are jumping ship.
Hope everyone is going well.
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I too struggle with guests these days. Can’t stand vacuous chit chat and subtle status competitions. Just had a group leave. They had a Tesla X which is SUV size with James Bond doors. He insisted I test drive it. First time I’d driven an EV bigger than the golf cart we use on the farm. I was struck by how very heavy it is, something like 6000 lbs! As I drove I thought about the materials needed to manufacture it and the energy needed to push 6000 lbs like a sports car. He plugged into my wall socket to charge. My house power meter showed he drew 1600 watts for several days. That’s more than a toaster except instead of 2 minutes draws for something like 96 hours to fully charge the batteries! He complained about no independent mechanics being willing to work on Tesla’s and parts shortages. Apparently it was recently held in the Tesla shop for a month just to replace worn brakes.
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Kurt Cobb is good today and looks at the intertwined consequences of climate change, energy scarcity, and conflict in Europe.
http://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2022/08/europes-disappearing-rivers-illustrate.html
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Russian energy negotiations. h/t el gato malo
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I like these words from Kunstler today explaining why we’ve lost our minds and what we the aware should do in response.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/crazyland-2/
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I’ve read Kunstler’s books and found them very plausible. Ditto, JMG’s. But Kunstler (though, not alone in this) has been saying something along these lines for a very long time. He’ll eventually be right, of course, but whether it is imminent or not is debatable. He didn’t mention the weather catastrophes which seem just as likely to topple the current world order.
As for “soon” learning about the “deadly con”, I wonder what the time-scale is for “soon”.
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Oops again, that anonymous comment was me. Damn these web sites. I was never a programmer of web sites (just of applications) but I despair at how bad the software is these days.
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There are many things we take for granted in our fossil energy world…
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Un-deniably un-prepping.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-crude-spr-hits-lowest-level-since-january-1985-2022-08-22/
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Thank goodness!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-23/ezy-sauce-returns-supermarket-after-public-outcry/100977062
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New essay from Gail Tverberg today. Not a lot new but she nicely recaps energy depletion points made many times in the past. Main theme is that our leaders are aware of overshoot but cannot discuss it and are carefully controlling the narrative.
Seems to support my hypothesis that covid is cover for collapse prep.
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2022/08/23/why-no-politician-is-willing-to-tell-us-the-real-energy-story/
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Sorry,
I just don’t buy that idea that politicians understand the need for increasing energy supply (at a sufficiently high price) to sustain increasing populations in a growing economy. I just think they are pretty physics, thermodynamics and potential collapse unaware and muddle through with what everyone around them tells them they need to do (just going with the tribe). The few that might be aware appear to be in denial, but they are very few.
But, this was a good summation by Gail.
AJ
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You may be right. I flip flop on this issue. Most days I think our leaders believe:
1) oil is finite but there is plenty left (they don’t understand the affordability vs. extraction cost relationship)
2) we need to stop using oil to reduce CO2 emissions
3) we can grow and lead modern lifestyles and emit less CO2 with PV/wind and batteries
I’m thinking the coming winter in Europe may wake a lot of people up.
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Art Berman today with a very nice short and sweet big picture look at important world affairs.
I did not know Putin’s PhD dissertation was Mineral and Raw Materials Resources and the Development Strategy for the Russian Economy.
I did a little research to learn that Putin’s new ally Xi Jinping has a degree in chemical engineering.
Compare them to Trudeau and Johnson with degrees in literature, or Biden, Steinmeier, Scholz, and Zelensky with law degrees, or Macron with a master’s in public affairs, or Albanese with a degree in economics.
No wonder nothing the west is doing makes sense.
https://www.artberman.com/2022/08/24/saudi-prince-delivers-a-message-about-the-second-cold-war/
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Ilargi today offers a different explanation for the west’s insanity.
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2022/08/eu-controlled-demolition/
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Just read this today,
Easily one of the best pieces he’s written. Explains how like Marie Antoinette, all of the leaders in Europe are clueless about how Russia controls their fate. And the only one who realizes this is Putin and a few of the people who blog on the internet. There will be quite a few different leaders by next spring.
AJ
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Art is wrong on much of this. The USSR was invited into Afgan because they had a mutual defence agreement. Prior to all that the USSR partnered with Afgan and helped build out most of its advanced infrastructure. The US radicalized a small faction of the Taliban known as the Mujahideen who were very extreme already and later became Al Qaeda, then had them attack Afgan gov. This was easy as most in that part of the country then were very poor and the US poured millions into recruiting.
ALso Russia is not withholding any resources from anyone. It is the US that is forbidding everyone from buying Russian FF’s and other resources. Russia will start withholding resources and might have already started as reaction to all the evil the US and NATO are doing.
Art is very intelligent wrt geology and resources but is very limited wrt the bigger picture.
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Reader comment: “Anyone who isn’t saying, “Oh, shit,” is not paying attention.”
https://theethicalskeptic.com/2022/08/20/houston-we-have-a-problem-part-1-of-3/
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The noose is tightening.
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I don’t know why but I’m kind of shocked of the European natural gas and electricity market. 792 euros a megawatt-hour in Germany, 900 euros per megawatt-hour in France. Natural gas prices are also sky high. It’s insane. Or at least never seen before.
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And it’s still warm weather.
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No awareness of overshoot but nevertheless a very interesting discussion on Europe.
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Chuck Watson, the most knowledgeable and trustworthy source on Ukraine and Russia, today gave his best guess on the status of the war, and the implications of the recent Dugin assassination on Russian internal politics.
https://blogenkiops.wordpress.com/2022/08/26/an-assassination-in-moscow-and-the-continually-escalating-crisis/
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I usually like everything that Chuck Watson writes. And this was no exception. I thought his analysis in the last couple of paragraphs about how Putin is going to have to escalate was the most insightful I have seen any analyst of Russia put forward. Hopefully any escalation doesn’t lead us to nuclear war.
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Alice Friedemann today on the mining of minerals required for our renewable energy dreams.
https://energyskeptic.com/2022/why-how-mining-metals-for-renewables-will-destroy-the-planet-not-prevent-the-energy-crisis/
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New public domain paper on the causes of heart disease by its most trustworthy expert, Dr. Malcom Kendrick.
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2022/08/26/a-new-paper-by-me-please-share-widely/
https://journals.lww.com/co-endocrinology/Fulltext/9900/Assessing_cardiovascular_disease__looking_beyond.21.aspx
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After reading Kendrick’s book and the passage of time . . . I am conflicted about with my thoughts about him and his “hypotheses”. I agree that he probably has a more accurate take on what causes cardiovascular disease (the other “LDL” hypothesis has too many conflicts of interest – selling statins that aren’t effective, etc.). My problems with him and his book are when he veers off into diet and anthropology. His diet is basically a slightly modified “Atkins” diet (low carb, high fat & protein). I have always been suspicious of the Atkins regimen in that it forces the body to metabolize protein and fat for energy (ketosis anyone?). On a paleo-anthropological basis our distant ancestors (monkeys and then primates) were mainly frugivores (sugars, starches and fiber). Our more recent ancestors were probably more like extant hunter-gatherers that eat mostly complex carbs with occasional extremely lean meat. Sure there are Eskimo people, but that just shows how no rule is without exceptions. I would agree with Kendrick if basically said that simple carbs (sugars, simple starches, and alcohol) should be avoided in favor of complex carbs (unrefined starches – i.e. those that take a while to digest) with protein and fat in moderation. The rise in CVD seems to correspond to the rise in industrial agriculturally processed foods (sugar drinks, chips, everything choke full of sugar). Did the Sumerians, Incas, Egyptians, Greeks, etc. suffer from CVD and obesity? Probably not. The first time I went to China, 40 years ago all we could eat in the village was lots of greens on rice with a few little pieces of chicken to flavor it and there were no fat people around (everyone in the village worked hard on the land). The next time (post-Deng Xioping) I went 15 years ago there were many more fat people in the city.
So, admission . . . I have been a lean ovo-lacto vegetarian runner for 45 years. My diet consists of minimal alcohol, lots of complex carbs (oats, whole grains, vegetables, nuts) with some eggs, cheese and almost no deserts other than some fruit.
So, I think diet is outside Kendrick’s area of expertise.
AJ
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Very interesting, thanks. I have not paid much attention to Kendrick’s diet views. Sounds like he may have some chaff with his wheat. I’m allergic to all extreme views on diet. I think we evolved to eat pretty much everything (except large quantities of industrial refined carbs and fats) and we uniquely use fire to predigest our food.
My diet includes pretty much everything but I’m trying to eat more veg with smaller servings of meat and I have a few vegetarian recipes in my rotation. For fats I use olive oil, coconut oil, and butter avoiding as much as I can seed oils. I quit alcohol a decade ago but still enjoy ice cream. I take D & C as supplements and I eat 2 meals a day and fast between 8:00pm and noon.
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Hello AJ and Rob and everyone else who eats,
This is the perfect time to add my two cents (or two beans) to the dietary discussion. Whilst there is evolutionary evidence that Homo sapiens can process many different foodstuffs but I think for a majority of the modern humans today there is an increasing rationale for eating more plant foods in their least processed form.
For an encyclopedic cache of bite-sized nutritional videos (pun intended) please see Dr. Greger’s site http://www.nutritionfacts.org which hosts thousands of videos all peer-reviewed research based on any topic of nutrition available. Dr. Greger wrote the best-selling How Not to Die book which systematically looks at every major western ill and shows how a plant-based diet is the cure in every case. The references are 1/4 the book’s pages so there is plenty of science to follow-up, and most interestingly, he describes just how any study can be twisted to fit the narrative, especially when it comes to the egg, diary, and meat councils funding them. Just search under the topic Egg and you’ll soon see what I mean. It’s a labor of love begun by Dr. Greger who decided to become a doctor when his grandmother was diagnosed with end-stage heart disease, angina pain so great she had to be in a wheelchair and told by her doctors to go home to die. Just at that time, Nathan Pritikin was espousing his rather extreme low fat, plant based diet and she checked into his clinic as a last ditch attempt to save herself. Three weeks later, she was able to walk 2 miles a day without chest pain and lived into her mid-nineties, long enough to witness her grandson graduate from medical school. This is not an isolated case by any means, well known doctors including Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn have all reversed severe coronary heart disease with plant diets, the only diet proven to be able to do so.
Animal fat and protein put our bodies into an inflammatory state and in different people it manifests in all manner of Western disease. Heart disease, cancers and diabetes are prime killers, and now degenerative brain disease is causing untold suffering. Prior to the western diet of more meat, sugar, and processed grain, heart disease was virtually unknown in countries that ate traditional high fiber (only found in plants) and unprocessed foods, and since most people in most countries were poor, meatstuffs was rare and only reserved for special occasions. And of course, westerners like our early pioneers who did eat mainly meats and fats also performed extreme amounts of physical labour which may have mitigated some of the effects but then again, they were not known to live long and healthily either. It is an interesting myth that the Inuits live well on whale meat and blubber, yes, they lived to procreation age but many succumbed to early heart disease, this is not generally known because it is one of the mainstay “proofs” that paleo and ketosis diets are our natural ones. Given that the total current population of Inuits now is under 150,000 and probably not much more than that in the past, that is not a robust n number to generalise what is the ideal diet for all Homo sapiens living in much less extreme environments. Yes we have adapted to all environments and eating all kinds of foodstuffs but the longest lived and vital amongst us today in the Blue Zones, (one of which is Loma Linda, California for its high population of Seventh Day Adventists who are by and large (or by and not-obese!) vegetarians), eat mainly plants and have a more balanced lifestyle which is of equal importance for well-being.
I knew nothing and cared nothing of this in my first 30 years, and that included time during my training as a physician, someone who is supposed to know a little bit about nutrition and how it relates to health. I was born into a Chinese family and that naturally meant everything that moves is game for eating, there’s a saying that the Chinese will eat anything with 4 legs except a table. Growing up in the States in the late 70s and 80s saw me revel in the proliferation of fast food and takeaways, and I cringe now to reflect on how many nights we called for cheap and greasy Dominos pizza to be delivered to our dorm in college. I was a disaster waiting to explode, not just the freshman 15 pound gain but my organs were slowly but surely being compromised as well as my immune system. Every single family member, especially on my mother’s side, who migrated to the States and adopted the high fat, meat and dairy diet were diagnosed with high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes by their early 40s, one of my uncles had his first bypass surgery at 40, and later had over 20 stents placed until his final demise at 69. All my maternal uncles eventually had bypass surgery and multiple stent procedures. It seems that our Chinese genes do not take well to such a change in diet within the same generation. My mother was on blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes meds in her mid 40s and gaining weight with every year. Her cardiologist never mentioned diet as a contributing factor, and for that matter, neither did I, as a medical student. These things just happened to one because of family history and genetics, nothing you can do about it, but thankfully we have drugs for that. I began to experience quite debilitating constipation, like not having a bowel movement for up to 10 days (!!!!) and relying to enemas to get things moving–this started when I was 17. There were other troubling signs and symptoms (like recurring abcesses) that showed my body in a toxic state from not being able to expel waste matter and I am sure I would have developed all the markers of cardiovascular disease in due course.
Fast forward to migrating to Tasmania when I was 28. By happenstance, it was after a fit of indulgent eating on a cruise holiday to New Zealand (cringe, cringe as I recall this, I mean the hedonistic experience, my one and only cruise, not NZ which is stunningly majestic) that my body told me in no uncertain terms that something had to change, I returned so utterly sick of rich food that I only craved plain rice and vegetables and it was then my husband and I decided to become vegetarian, mainly then for our health as he had ballooned out to 216 lbs with back and knee problems already at age 32 as a result of all the sausage rolls, cheese, biscuits and pastries that our newly adopted land seemed to encourage down our gullets (no, no, it wasn’t our fault that everyone invited us to afternoon tea and we just had to eat what was offered). The transformation in body, as well as mind and spirit was well, transformational. Weight dropped off like water off a duck’s back, I became regular for the first time in my life, allergies disappeared, skin cleared, aches and pains gone, energy increased and brighter mood–all within the first year. After a few years of eating progressively more healthily and less processed foods, my body told me I was ready to just leave animal products all together so I became vegan about 13 years ago and saw another level of positive changes in every aspect. And this time, I was well aware of the ethical issues emmeshed with eating animals and their natural offerings. The whole thing boils down to the irrevocable fact that they can suffer and we do not need to put them through suffering for our pleasure, tradition, or convenience if there is another way to keep our own organism alive and healthy (and guess what, there is!) I encourage everyone to consider spending a couple hours reading an outstanding little book written by two academic ethicists, Eat Like You Care, an Examination of the Morality of Eating Animals by Gary Francione and Anna Charlton. Check out the website http://www.eatlikeyoucare.com or you can find a free pdf here https://archive.org/details/GaryFrancioneAnnaCharltonEatLikeYouCare They go through every moral angle in a way that one cannot awaken to it and not see what the moral choice (if one thinks we even have a moral obligation to ourselves and the world around us) has to be. It could be one of the most life-changing reads so do prepare yourself before doing so as you will be faced with a challenge you can’t easily walk away from.
I would have to say that after reading the book, even if there were no health benefits in abstaining from animals and their products, I would still choose to be vegan from my ethical perspective. But as it turns out, at least for us, our dietary choices mesh with environmental ones for our well-being. My husband and I are considered fit and thin to most (and very thin to many who do not recognise what a healthy weight can be, as I am now 51kg at 164cm and he is 70kg and 185cm) and I feel in the best physical health now than any previous age, we shall see how this maintains if we are lucky enough to get older, it’s a grand experiment all around. I do not take any medications, in fact I have not seen a doctor for 22 years for any complaint, possibly because I am one and can read my own body better than anyone. I had a few what I call healing crises, meaning the body purged deep seated toxins, including a ferocious bout of flu which turned into pneumonia (I just stayed at home breathing and coughing and fevering, and let the body take care of what it needed to do), and since that time, I have never gotten a cold or flu again, it’s been 14 years. If our experiment has the chance to continue to evolve, I hope that one day we could be nearly self-sufficient in our foodstuffs, and with every passing year, I appreciate more and more real food in its natural form so that will help with the great simplification in eating whilst at the same time we can still partake in a wide variety of plant foods and in season, too.
I am not saying a complete vegan diet works for everyone in the same way, there is plenty of evidence that many do well with some animal protein and fats and it may even be necessary for their greatest health. But not anywhere near the amount we are in the habit of consuming, so much so, that in effect it is still a plant-dominant diet that seems to be the one we modern Homo sapiens are most easily adapted to. Everyone has to find out for their own self what is the best and right food they want to eat, it’s a decision we can make and re-make several times a day. But why not try going vegan as an experiment, say give it 3 weeks or so? Mind you, there is healthy vegan and very unhealthy vegan–you can eat only fried chips and non-dairy based ice cream and call oneself a vegan! Dr. Greger in his site gives a very good guideline on what healthful eating can look like–he calls it his Daily Dozen, including lots of leafy greens, beans, whole grains, fruit (especially berries), nuts, and exercise. If one sticks to that even 80% of the time, I think you would have the best chance to reap the bounty of good health
And now in these transition days of our western civilisation, it seems ever more fitting to consider that we can do something that will alleviate suffering with every meal we partake. My initial reason to change my traditions in food choices, for that is all it really was, was solely for my own comfort and health, but now it encompasses the health of other sentient earthlings (and my microbiome universe) and the biosphere itself. That seems like a very fulfilling (once again, pun here) responsibility and I am most grateful for it.
Well, that’s much more than two beans worth from Gaia here, more like a 20kg sack of lentils! If anyone has any favourite vegetarian or vegan recipes to share or peak experience meals to describe, I’m all eyes and stomach! Go well, everyone (bowelwise and lifewise!)
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I don’t know why my latest thesis was posted as Anonymous, you all know it reeks of Gaia gardener! So here I take full responsibility for what I wrote. Namaste.
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Gaia,
Interesting. Long comment. I don’t know where to start. First, let me say I was raised in an extremely religious household and in my teens came to the conclusion that most people’s religion depended on what tribe they were born into. I sought to remove that subjectivity from my life and found that the only philosophy that appeared to be self-correcting was a Rational approach with the scientific method. I still hold to that conclusion. Religion is the opiate of the masses and is illogical.
That said, I followed a similar path on diet and basically adopted the Pritikan diet when it soon came out and have been a vegetarian ever since. But I’m open to new information. I was introduced to Dr. Greger last year, and followed his diet(vegan) for a while until Rob posted that interview with the person(I can’t remember who) who demolished Dr. Greger. Although Dr. Kendrick might be incorrect on diet, he at least appears to hold to the scientific method. Meanwhile, Dr. Greger has never that I have seen admitted that he has a serious conflict of interest in that he is a member of the Seventh-day Adventists and it looks like receives most of his funding from them. In addition, if the site that Rob had referenced is correct, all of his research supporting his militant veganism is suspect because it comes from captive journals that are funded by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Hence, I can’t believe anything he says, it’s all religion serving.
I can appreciate your veganism as an ethical choice with regards to other animals. However, I do not believe that unbiased nutritional science supports it. It appears to me that nutritional science is even more corrupted than pharmaceutical science- hard to believe!
AJ
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Geez my brain is getting old. I don’t remember that thread.
I’m trying to learn to cook and eat vegetarian because I expect in the not too distant future I won’t be able to afford animal protein and/or it won’t be available.
I like to study traditional peasant recipes and then take the best ideas to create something that works for me. Here is my favorite recipe so far:
Rice & Lentil One-Pot Dal
Makes 2 servings.
Sauté in coconut oil:
• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp curry
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder (or 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 mushrooms, sliced (or dried mushrooms)
• 1 carrot, diced
Add and briefly sauté:
• 1/2 c lentils
• 1/2 c basmati rice
Add, stir, bring to boil, and simmer with lid on about 20 minutes (30 if brown basmati), stirring occasionally:
• 2 c boiling water
• 1/2 tsp salt
Add, stir, and simmer for about 15 minutes until veg is tender:
• 2-4 tbsp butter
• extra hot water if too dry
• assorted chopped vegetables (don’t skimp, lots is good):
○ carrots
○ broccoli
○ cauliflower
○ cabbage
○ celery
○ tomatoes
○ etc.
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I love the wisdom in peasant recipes.
Balanced nutrition with cheap ingredients that don’t require refrigeration and lots of flavor.
A single pot with modest energy use and flexible heat sources.
If company shows up just before you’re about to sit down and eat, just add hot water to stretch the dish.
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Why lentils?
Lentils have the highest protein content of all pulses and they are small and quick cooking which means much less fuel to cook than other beans.
Why Basmatti rice?
Basmatti rice has the nicest flavor of all rice types and has a lower glycemic index which makes it easier on your blood sugar. Basmatti rice (especially brown) retains more of its structure in a one-pot dish which provides a nicer mouth feel.
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Rob,
My son, who suggested Dr. Greger (? – not so much after a year); recommended Black Lentils (more phyto nutrients). I used to eat lots of different beans and lentils, but after trying Black Lentils they are my preferred legume now. And they are done in my InstaPot (used gifted acquisition) in 7 minutes of cooking time. Yum.
AJ
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Thank you for the tip. I’ve got a bad feeling that the stores I shop at don’t carry black lentils but I’ll look for them.
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Mouth-wateringly delicious just reading the recipe, well done and thank you so much for sharing, Rob! I, too, love peasant type food, which is the ultimate comfort food and nothing beats a good bowl (or two, or three) of some sort of beans with some sort of grain. Your liberal use of spices is excellent, for flavour as well as health benefit as they are nutritional powerhouses. Do you ever try extra ground coriander (the dried seed) in the recipe, but then again it’s already in the garam masala. I know there are two types of people when it comes to fresh coriander, those who love it and those who hate it, I’m certainly a coriander devotee. You may also try sauteeing some fennel seeds in the initial mix, that could add an extra dimension. I would say that since becoming vegetarian/vegan I have enriched my repertoire of foods rather than depleting them of animal products, for one thing I can eat a lot more and there’s never enough vegetables for me, I think they must have CRISPred rabbit or cow genes into my DNA somewhere.
I’m a huge fan of tubers as in future I am thinking grains will be scarcer as they are so energy intense to grow and process. You may already know that just cooling and then eating the humble potato increases the resistant starch component which is what your gut microbes especially love and that will give your immune system a boost.
How is your potato harvest shaping up? I know you had earlier issues with too much rain, have things dried off this late summer to get things ripening? By now you should be rolling in tomatoes, zucchini, and beans and maybe corn and pumpkin?
I am quite taken by this simple recipe for a corn chowder, it’s all a bit rough with the proportions (I tend not to measure anything but just go by what looks and feels about the right amount) but whatever you do will come out fine.
Cut kernels from 2 cobs of corn, dice 2 potatoes, chop 1- 2 ribs celery and 1 red pepper. Saute 1 small finely chopped onion (and garlic if desired) with 1/4 tsp fennel seeds in a bit of olive oil (I use macadamia oil) until slightly browned, add the rest of the veggies and 1/2 cup rolled oats and cook to sear everything. Add water (boiling is good) to cover for soup consistency, a pinch of salt, and 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast (you can find this in health food shops or now it’s pretty mainstream and in most grocery stores, it gives a savoury flavour), and simmer until veggies are softened to your liking. Take out 1/2 of the veggies with enough liquid to puree in a blender, then add back into the soup. Add a dash of apple cider vinegar, maybe more salt to taste, dash of white pepper, and the main thing is a goodly amount of fresh chopped dill or dried dill, this really gives it a distinctive flavour.
You can see I dictate recipes in the same run-on sentence style as I write, I am sure that’s even more aggravating and I apologise.
To your health and happy plant-eating everyone!
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Help me out here Rob,
My brain is old too.
There was a thread where many of our friends from Australia and New Zealand commented on how the Sanitarium Health Food Company was one of the largest food companies in Australia, and how they are owned by the 7th Day Adventist church. There was also discussion of Ancel Keys and how he corrupted U.S. nutrition science. You (or maybe someone else) posted a video (YouTube or TED talk) by someone who debunked Dr. Greger. A Google search brings up lots of people critical of him and his methods. I just don’t know how to find the thread?
That said, my personal complaint is that Dr. Greger does not disclose that serious conflict of interest and by not disclosing, IMHO means he is on an agenda and not to be trusted. Dr. Kendrick appears not to have any such conflicts.
AJ
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I think this is the thread.
https://un-denial.com/2022/06/29/the-great-reset-an-alternate-theory/comment-page-1/#comment-64872
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Hi Rob. I tried your recipe tonight with a few minor changes / additions. All vegetables, except carrots, and tumeric and ginger from our garden. Gaia will be happy as I added Jerusalem artichoke tubers for gut health. It was delicious. Definitely my kind of easy tasty meal. Cheers
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Glad it worked out. I made it last night.
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Hi AJ,
Thanks so much for taking the time to digest my post, and I really appreciate the time you gave in your reply. No, I am not aware that Dr. Greger is Seventh Day Adventist but I don’t believe that all his research review conclusions are from journals funded by that organisation either. There are 176 pages of tiny print references representing thousands of individual journal articles in his How Not to Die book and I can see from a very cursory review they span all the high profile peer-reviewed journals. From what I understand, his team reviews from all the current nutritional journals available for their videos and yes, you can make a scientific case for just about anything but it’s the quality of the study and reproducibility of the results that give it validity. I guess we would have to read through all the thousands of articles on any topic ourselves to begin to have a unbiased opinion (assuming we have the capacity to understand the topic) but that’s why we farm out to peer review, in hopes they will have the scientific rigour to do that for us. Yes, that is dubious in this day and age and the funding by Big Broccoli just doesn’t compare to Big Pharma when it comes to spruiking their respective benefits. However, I don’t think anyone else (certainly not any of the food councils or academia) has even come close trying to collate in any form the mass of nutritional data that he has, and if he has managed to produce a guideline that is supported by the literature, then it would be worth a look see, if our health and relation to diet is a topic we are interested in.. Since you yourself have benefited greatly from the plant-based lifestyle, and I assume you would know of other published doctors who extol the virtue of whole plant foods (like Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn), I don’t quite understand why you have vented your distrust on Dr. Greger in regard to the same message. I can totally understand how organised religion has left a bad taste in your mouth, and I have a somewhat similar experience. I think you are saying that because Dr. Greger may (or may not?) be a member of a religious organisation that happens to be amongst the healthiest people on the planet, that confounds with bias whatever he says, especially since you believe he has not come out with this admission and you believe he is funded by the church to promote health through their dietary guidelines. Even if he is Seventh Day Adventist that does not negate his credibility, at most it infers that he practices what he preaches, most professionals are part of a guild that exists to benefit them. Nonetheless, it is not disputed that members of that organisation live longer and healthier lives than most other populations of human beings, and their dietary and lifestyle habits should be a point of focus if we want to work out why.
I would like to see the video to which you refer where the interviewer demolished Dr. Greger. Perhaps Rob could find that, if it was posted in the last year? I only joined up this happy little band 6 months ago, and I don’t recall seeing it. Anyway, in the final analysis, the proof of anything is in the pudding. If you are in excellent health, and that encompasses not only physical but also emotional and social well-being, then continue to do whatever it is you’re doing because you’re thriving on it! If you desire changes in any aspect, then you may wish to ask different questions to fill knowledge gaps as you seek new answers to help you get to where you want to be, This is our one own unique life to experiment with! Thank you everyone for comparing notes and just hanging out in this cool space.
Thanks again, AJ for your thoughts. I admire your devotion to running–good on you for keeping it up all these years! I wonder if your wife is also vegetarian, I know it is quite difficult for most of my Chinese relations and friends to get their heads around the fact I don’t eat everything that they enjoy so much. They think I’m depriving myself and it’s some form of torture I must face daily to abstain from delights like fatty pork belly, all manner of succulent seafood, and unctuous chicken feet. Been there, done that, it was pleasurable then, but I am more than content now.
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Gaia,
You should watch the link that Rob gave above, it is enlightening.
You asked about my wife. She is quintessentially 1st generation Chinese. She eats a standard N. American diet, high in protein, fat and simple sugars. About the only improvement I have been able to make in her diet is that after 40 years she now prefers Brown rice. My mother-in-law was even worse than my wife; emigrated here in the late 1940’s in an arranged marriage so she could be the “anchor” to bring her extended family over to “Gold Mountain”. She constantly argued with me that being a vegetarian was unhealthy and that I needed meat to eat. It always surprised her that I wasn’t dead from my “unhealthy” eating habits.
AJ
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Thanks for that, AJ. Thank you Rob for finding the link, I did miss it the first time around. I will watch it and keep an open mind–I do agree with you that just about everything now is irreconcilably biased one way or another and in the spirit of scientific enquiry, we just have to test theories out for ourselves and hopefully find what works. I’m glad to know you’ve been keeping up your “unhealthy” diet with great effect all these years despite goading from a very provocative Chinese mother-in-law, that probably deserves a special medal right there! I can totally understand what you must have endured to keep the harmony of the household. So I assume that in your house you and you wife cook separate meals, or can you modify the dishes to suit? I’m first generation ABC like your wife (just 1/2 generation or so younger from my estimate) and pretty much had her same diet until I had my epiphany 20 years ago or so. My parents believed that milk, meat, and white bread were god-given blessings of living in the new land and foisted as much of it on me as possible as I was growing up. They really had no clue of nutrition, and how our family would develop a propensity for cardiovascular disease. Thankfully, they also believed vegetables were important, too, otherwise who knows what deficiencies I would have developed.
Hope you and your family are enjoying the end of summer and your harvests are bountiful.
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Hi there AJ, I did watch that link and I must admit it was hard to stomach. It went against the grain (ha, ha) of everything I have found out for myself that works for me, and here I qualify that everyone must do their own health journey and there are different paths for different people, naturally. I knew I was going to be in trouble when I saw a logo that said NO Fructose on every one of his slides. Anthropological evidence aside, which does tend to give credence to our evolution as frugivores, I practically live on fresh fruit and thrive on it, and it has been my life’s mission to plant as many fruit trees as I can cram into our properties. I think there’s nothing so refreshing and delicious to our human senses than perfectly ripe fruit picked from a tree.
The speaker claims that our failing health began when we started to eat more grains, fruit and veg and less meat, as advocated in the tainted dietary guidelines. I do not begin to believe that the Western population is following the recommendations, especially for fruit and vegetables, which are modest at 5 serves a day. Most Americans and Australians struggle to get even half of the 5 serves daily, and fried potatoes count as a vegetable, the most common one. I reckon I consume at least 15 and sometimes more serves of fruit and veg daily, and that is finally approaching the amount of fibre of the healthy tribes of Africa who have never had any heart disease. As for consumption of dairy and meat, well, there is more than enough research out there (most likely funded by rabid vegans!) to corroborate that less is generally better for most. Have you come across The China Study book by T. Colin Campbell (I can’t vouch for conflict of interest but I’m sure one can find it)? Never mind if you haven’t read this landmark work but I think you already hit the nail on the head with your own eyes when you saw how the general shape of Chinese changed in the past 20 years once they adopted a more Western diet. I think it’s constructive to look towards the populations who exhibit the state of health we wish to achieve rather than try to work backwards from very unhealthy stock and try to pick apart what they may be doing right amongst all the other trends.
I do absolutely agree that processed foods (and for me this includes refined vegetable oils, in fact all oils can still be considered highly processed) are a major culprit to our decline, it’s what you eat as much as what you don’t eat that makes up the full nutritional equation. I am sure there are some people that can do well and live long on significant portions of animal proteins and fats, but this cannot be the majority in our species and never was meant to be. It’s our huge brains that allowed us to become more efficient hunters and later domesticators and now we have turned over the planet to keeping our domesticated feed animals housed and fed. The current state of meat, egg, dairy eating today of the wealthiest of nations and the wealthiest in the poor ones, still necessitates keeping 1.5 billion cattle, 28 billion chickens, 1 billion pigs, 1.2 billion sheep, 1 billion goats, and nearly 1 trillion fish set aside for our consumption each year. If more meat eating was necessary or encouraged for better health, and I assume we would want all people around the world to share in this boon, then I can’t even imagine how many more billions of animals that would take. It’s so obviously not sustainable that we can throw out that theory for general health right here on this ground alone.
Now I realise your schtick isn’t about what the best diet for humans in general is, or at least you don’t subscribe personally to the high animal protein, low carb model, and your main point is accountability and transparency, which of course is ideal. That’s hardly followed in anything, from government to medicine to education to pharma, I mean they might sign off in small print somewhere but it’s as good as nothing because nobody reads it nor does it change the effect. Everything the good Dr. Fettke said about bias and conflict of interest could be turned around to describe the meat, dairy, egg boards as well, for all the research they have funded that extols their said product. I also wondered if there might be a common chord struck with abhorrence to any religious sway, if only Dr. Greger would come out and confess his association with the Adventists would that place him back in your good books? Funnily enough, I was born in an Adventist hospital in Los Angeles, that’s the only association I have with them! Yes, Sanitarium brand is a mainstream health food line here in Australia started by the Adventists, just like how Kellogg’s began in America. I totally understand your position about transparency, if only every doctor came forward to say how their practice depends upon prescribing name brand drugs that their patients come to expect from TV adverts, and every hospital came out to say how much extra they got for every Covid patient admitted and ventilated, well, that would certainly change some perceptions.
Well, that concludes this rant from a rabid vegan! I hope everyone is happy and healthy with whatever they choose to eat and may we all find our way through the coming challenges which will include food scarcity in some degree, no doubt. As the Chinese say as a greeting, “Have you eaten rice yet?”, I hope our bowls can be full and nourishing. Do you also know the Chinese saying that every grain of rice represents a bead of sweat on the farmer’s brow? That encouraged me as a child to eat every single grain in the bowl, and still does!
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Hi Gaia,
Yes, my wife and I eat basically separate meals. We occasionally collaborate (tofu on brown rice). But she too has familial high cholesterol and takes a ton of meds (and is not overweight). She tells herself it is genetic and there is nothing she can do about it. One brother has had multiple stents and open-heart surgery. Her siblings (all 7) refuse to change their diet or significantly exercise.
After all the years of being a vegetarian I still think that the evidence, especially paleoanthropological supports what Michael Pollan said in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” – Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Our ancestors evolved on the savanna eating roots, berries, fruits with occasional lean meat. I just skip the lean meat myself.
The video above just brought home to me how duplicitous Dr. Greger is. Not to disclose serious conflicts of interest makes one suspect. At the same time your criticisms of Dr. Fettke are also valid. I think nutrition is fraught with agendas.
For ethical, some environmental and health reasons I will stay with being a vegetarian (eggs and cheese in small quantities are ok). If collapse comes and I am alive all calories are ok.
And I am familiar with the eating of every grain of rice in your bowl message. Heard it.
AJ
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Today’s Joe Rogan interview of Alex Berenson on covid insanity is excellent.
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The best evidence I’ve seen that the purpose of the universe is to consume energy gradients as fast as possible…
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I just want to see this tractor pull when there are no more fossil fuels left! How many of these yokels is it going to take to pull that thing? Not that these Southern boys are any more yokels than the people who run this country or who are in the medical “industry”, or are in finance. Insanity and denial abound.
AJ
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My little poll suggests opinions are diverse on the cause of covid insanity.
On the other hand, depending on how you squint at them, the Great Reset and Collapse Prep can be viewed as the same thing, so maybe there is a consensus.
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The noose tightens…
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HHH @ POB always has interesting things to say.
https://peakoilbarrel.com/opec-update-august-2022/#comment-745309
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Mmm, Iraq, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, is collapsing into civil war.
Didn’t see that coming. What else am I not seeing?
Time to buy more supplies.
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Gadzooks, it is looking rather grim out there. I suppose being hit by an asteroid would qualify as the most blatant event that we didn’t see coming (but actually, we would see that assuming all the equipment keeps working). Funny, I couldn’t find any news of Iraq on the front page of the MSN here, you’d think that would qualify for a header. I did find a couple photos of the Yangtze drying up, juxtaposed to one of Pakistan under water. I think you’re absolutely right to buy more Basmati rice as most of that is grown in Pakistan and they’re probably not going to be exporting what they don’t have for themselves. Any food crop coming out of China will be seriously curtailed, too, so that’s going to be scary to see how the drought has affected their harvest this year. I can’t imagine that any country would be exporting if they can’t feed their own population. What are the main staple crops that Canada grows besides wheat and other cereal grains? Let’s continue to sing the praise of Lentils, and yes, the little black ones are yummy but any lentil in the pot is the best variety.
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It will be tough to eat local and vegan in Canada. Grains, potatoes, dairy, eggs, meat, and in the summer some veg and fruit but not enough without imports.
Do you follow the advice of many “experts” and store long-term white rice in oxygen free containers? I’ve got the gear to do it but have been taking my chances without using it. So far no problems.
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Hi Rob and all who are squirelling away food,
Here’s a little tip to create an oxygen free zone for your grains and pulses. For your bulk storage, fill a 5 gallon (or smaller) bucket that has a tight lid with your staple to nearly full and bury an empty tin can (label removed and thoroughly dried) into the goods with a tealight inside. Keep the top above the grain level so it doesn’t overflow into the can. Then light the tea candle and seal the bucket tightly. When the oxygen level is depleted, the flame will go out and you will have created an oxygen-free environment for longer storage. I decant a couple liters worth of goods for immediate usage into assorted glass jars to keep from constantly opening the bulk supply, and each time you do, just re-light the tea candle before closing the lid.
I guess this goes under the category of “prep-tips”, hope it’s useful.
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That’s a good tip that I’ve not heard before. Might not work with mylar bags but excellent with air tight buckets. I have some oxygen absorbers but they have a limited shelf life and probably won’t be available at some point.
Do you think it’s necessary to store white rice in an oxygen free environment?
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For longer term storage, it wouldn’t hurt, I would think. For brown rice, I would say it’s a very good idea as there’s more to oxidize with the bran and extra fat. Another thing besides reducing oxidation, a low/no oxygen environment should discourage bugs like weevils and moths from eating your grains. There can be insect eggs in bulk grains/rice and whilst you can freeze it for a few days to kill them, that’s not practical with larger quantities so the sealing in a tight bucket with the candle could be another method. A few dead bugs and their poo in my grains/beans are actually not a real concern for me–they are opportunistic protein and B12 for this otherwise vegan eater!
Now I am going to drop this little bombshell on all rice-eaters, have you considered that modern day rice is very high in arsenic due to the fact the rice plant concentrates it from the soil and water which has been so polluted in most countries. The level can be so high that there are some recommendations that one should only eat one serving of rice once a week! This is tragic news! Even more concerning is the high levels in processed rice foods, think all the pasta, crackers, rice cakes. It is hard to know which rice grown where has what level of arsenic without testing, but it’s safe to assume that it’s a problem world wide and especially with US grown rice. Basmati and jasmine white rice is supposed to have the least levels, so that’s good news. Brown rice is the worst unfortunately, as more of the bran means more arsenic. You may be able to reduce the level by thorough soaking (overnight) and washing of rice prior to cooking (one site recommended changing the wash water 6 times!), or boiling it in lots of water (1 cup of rice to 12 cups water!), all of which kind of destroys the starch consistency, certainly not going to be like the fluffy rice as a result of the time tested absorption method. If I had to wash and cook rice to death, I think I would definitely eat less of it.
I prevaricated on the rice question for a long time (I first heard about this to my greatest dismay several years ago, I mean, I’m Chinese and couldn’t live without my daily rice!) but after much deliberation, I decided to increase my intake of other grains like buckwheat, millet, polenta, and quinoa and enjoy rice occasionally but when I do, I don’t worry about it and eat as much as I want. I stopped eating rice crackers and cakes, no more rice flour for baking, and no rice-based pastas.
Please don’t be too cross with me, I’m only the messenger. I know it’s hard to take, and you would be completely in the right to adopt a big dose of denial now, I certainly did the first time I heard this. I hope I haven’t ruined your day. But, hey, let me tell you all about my new friend, quinoa! This is a tiny grain (seed) that really packs a punch nutritionally, has a very pleasant, almost corny taste with a hint of grass (really much nicer than that sounds) and can cook up in 15 minutes to fluffy perfection and no arsenic in sight! Quinoa is the new rice!
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Thanks Gaia. I agree brown rice does not store well due to the oils in its bran so I only keep what I can eat in a year or two.
I agree oxygen free storage might be better for white rice but I’m looking for an opinion from someone who has tried both methods. It’s a lot more work and much less convenient to use rice that is packed oxygen free so there needs to be a very good reason to do it. My experiments so far with the clean rice I buy in my climate suggest it’s not required.
I’m aware of arsenic in rice. I read up on it and tried to find data on the Kokuho Rose medium grain I stock without success. I did decide to increase my intake of Basmatti for this reason and also because it tastes nicer. I eat rice about every other day with Basmatti being about 2/3 of my rice consumption. In the end I decided given that I’m old without a lot of years left that I would take the risk for a low cost delicious carbohydrate that stores extremely well.
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Good onya, Rob. You must have been Asian in a previous life to revere rice as much as you do and I totally agree. In the past year I’ve increased my consumption of rice as well, you’re right, time’s too precious not to enjoy what comfort food we can, and we sure could use the comfort factor! I adore all types of rice, Basmati, Jasmine (white or brown), and glutinous are my favourites, and I am also partial to congee, which is basically cooking medium grain rice in lots of water until it’s a starchy porridge. You can then add different condiments to it, like pickled veggies but I love it just plain with a touch of salt. The Chinese believe that’s a very digestible food (good for the young, infirm, and elderly, but basically everyone) and many eat it for breakfast. It also has the benefit of being able to stretch your food further with the just add water trick. Risotto is another favourite meal, takes only 5 minutes to cook without any stirring in the pressure cooker. I think pressure cookers are one of the best inventions, especially if you eat a lot of beans and grains. What used to take hours to cook now only takes 35 minutes (for the toughest beans like kidney) and usually way less (especially if you soak overnight which is the best method)–7 minutes for lentils. Think of the energy savings there! It’s a must-have item for one pot meals. I have a Kuhn-Rikon 6L pot (Swiss made) which we’ve owned for 29 years, only changed the gasket twice. It’s cooked thousands of meals so worth every penny.
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I too love pressure cookers. I have 4 covering a wide range of size.
Pressure cookers are brilliant for several reasons. They cook in less time with less heat loss from steam and therefore use much less total energy to cook a meal. I also like that not a drop of anything is wasted. When I cook a pot roast nothing goes to waste as the cooking liquid becomes the gravy. Finally, cleanup is quick because nothing sticks to the pan.
It’s no wonder that the most popular wedding gift in poorer nations is a pressure cooker.
I live alone and wondered what type of small pressure cookers are popular in poorer countries. I searched India and bought this 1.5L model which is perfect for a single serving of rice or beans.
The design is super simple and very tolerant. With the spare gasket I bought I expect it will outlive me. It cooks Basmatti with only 3 minutes of pressure.
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Wow, Rob, you are even more of a pressure cooker fanatic than I am! That 1.5 L cooker is adorable, I never thought of needing a personal-sized one but I can see the appeal for a quick pot of rice or quinoa. I usually cook in bigger quantities (even though my household is only 3 persons) so I have at least a day of leftovers and maybe a meal to freeze. It seems it would be more energy efficient to just reheat a meal than to cook one from scratch, at least it’s more energy efficient for me! Do you use gas, electric, induction or perhaps wood to cook? I have used all the above and although it’s time consuming to prepare the fire and there are many tricks to cooking with wood heat, it’s the most satisfying in my view (and it may be the only method available to us in the near future).
I am going to assume that you would also be a fan of vacuum flasks (I always say Thermos but I know that’s a proprietary brand but still, it’s synonymous with the article) for keeping liquids cold or hot. I have a Thermos pump carafe that keeps water hot for tea (and coffee in your case) for at least 12 hours. I think having a few of these in different sizes is a very good idea, much better than boiling the kettle every time, even if you only boil what you need. Ever since we got our solar generator, I am watching the electrical output of my appliance usage like a hawk. Electric kettles are definitely out! It’s actually surprising how much power my computer (a 7 year old Toshiba) draws, the battery capacity has long expired but I think I will get another battery as that will be useful on cloudy, low PV days.
I won’t blame your site for my extra computer time this past half year; if I could only write more succinctly that would save power, too!
Hope everyone is going well and enjoying the change of seasons.
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I cook on an old style electric range top complemented by a small counter top oven for roasting that uses less energy than a large oven and is perfect for one or two people. I also have backup cooking stoves that operate on propane, butane, naphtha, gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and alcohol.
I use vacuum flasks all the time for taking hot lunches to the farm. I also have a counter top water heater for tea that is popular in Japan and China and it’s one of the better ones with a vacuum flask design that only requires about 10 watts to keep water hot. I turn it off at night to save a little power.
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Good tip. I guess the oxygen is converted into carbon dioxide?
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Dr. Tim Morgan’s essays tends to be repetitive however today he has some fresh words on the scale of the financial problem we face.
https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2022/08/30/238-money-and-the-end-of-abundance/
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Tim Watkins is really good today.
You can’t make this shit up…
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2022/08/30/net-zero-is-dead-so-what-now/
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