Category: Blog

By Nicole Foss: The Death of Democracy in a Byzantine Labyrinth

It’s good to see Nicole Foss writing again. This is one of the better articles on Greece I have read.

“Crisis may be postponed, but at great cost. It cannot be prevented. Once a credit bubble has been blown, it will eventually implode, as all structures grounded in ponzi dynamics do. When it does, as we have noted before, politics will get much uglier no matter which part of the political spectrum comes to power.”

I agree with every word that Nicole wrote, and yet there is a layer of truth missing.

Everyone is broke. Everyone is living beyond their means. Everyone’s means (energy, climate, soil,  etc.) are in decline. More debt is not a solution for anyone and will only make things worse. The only peaceful path forward is voluntary conservation and population reduction.

Put another way, everyone is drawing down their capital. Those with the most capital (Germany) can extend and pretend a little longer than those with the least capital (Greece).

The Death of Democracy in a Byzantine Labyrinth

All Roads Lead to the Same Destination

Most experts think Greece’s debt is unpayable and must be written down, yet the ECB has to date been unwilling to do so. Why?

I have been arguing from intuition that they can’t. This article provides some data to explain the impossible situation Europe faces.

The Greek Bluff In All Its Glory

Tim Garrett has shown that there’s no way out from catastrophic climate change. I think it’s also becoming clear that we have no way out from a peak oil debt driven economic collapse.

So what’s going to cause us the most pain first?

My bet is on economic collapse. But the climate is putting up a pretty good fight and may pull ahead. Or maybe the climate will trigger an economic collapse.

All roads lead to the same destination.

Greeks and Referendums

Great, let’s have a referendum to decide if we should pay our debts.

Why don’t we all do that? If I vote no, do I get to stop paying my credit card?

The developed countries are filled with people who think they are entitled to a comfortable life. News flash! We’re on the down side of the Hubbert curve.

Each and every year from now on our standard of living will drop.

To the Greeks: why don’t you have a referendum on whether we should discover more oil?

My Certainties and Uncertainties

I’m certain peak debt will result in a financial crisis soon.

I’m certain peak oil will send us back to at best a medieval life style.

I’m certain we’ll experience 2 degrees of warming no matter what we do.

I’m certain 2 degrees of warming will be really really bad.

I’m certain we cannot make climate change less bad without shrinking the economy.

I’m certain we won’t voluntarily shrink the economy.

I’m not certain that dramatically reducing CO2 emissions, regardless if voluntary or forced, will stabilize things at a new survivable level and avoid extinction.

A lot of smart people that I respect think we have already triggered irreversible self-reinforcing feedback loops and it’s too late to stop catastrophic climate change.

It sure would be nice to see more people acting to prove these people wrong.

Popes and Words

Since CO2 emitted is proportional to dollars earned and spent I am very interested to see if the Catholic church withdraws capital from investments and dramatically reduces their expenditures.

If they don’t then the Pope is just spouting ineffective words like almost everyone else that wants to do something about climate change.

We must shrink the economy.

There is no other way to make the future less bad.

Refugees Coming or Going?

I was beginning to worry that refugee Californians would be moving to our already over-populated Comox Valley but now that we are drying out too we have other things to worry about.

It’s time for our local governments to freeze all new business and residential development in the valley.

Hopefully that might encourage some people to leave.

Century of Water Shortage Ahead?

Denial Is An Amazing Thing

Take Paul Beckwith for example. He has done a superb job of bringing to our attention that the reality of climate change is much much worse than that reported by the IPCC and others.

At the same time he thinks we can stop further climate change if we only decided to spend enough money including, among other things, replacing fossil with renewable energy, and imposing a carbon tax. All of which won’t help and will in fact make things worse.

How can we explain this dichotomy?

My theory is that without denial he would be too depressed to continue to research and report on the reality of the crisis.

Much like Tim Garrett now seems to think that fracking will save us for a long time.