This July 2nd, 2019 edition — episode 128 of Nature Bats Last features a conversation with Rory Varrato, who invited Professor Guy McPherson to testify before the New York City Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection. A day after Guy and others testified, New York City declared a climate emergency.
Rory Varrato is a founding member of Extinction Rebellion New York City. He is also a Ph.D. student and research assistant in the Philosophy and Education Program at Columbia University. There’s more: He is also Graduate Coordinator for the Freedom and Citizenship Program in the Center for American Studies at Columbia University. And there’s even more: Rory is also Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University.
Rory, welcome to Nature Bats Last on the Progressive Radio Network.
Todays episode is embedded here:
Co-host Kevin Hester mentioned the luncacy of relying on nuclear energy in a time of abrupt climate change and the fact that this week nuclear plants were facing closure as a heatwave grips Europe. So much for nuclear being a ‘solution’ to burning hyrdo carbons. The nuclear lunatics see climate change as an ‘Business Opportunity’; French NPPs Face Threat of Shutdown as Water to Cool Nuclear Reactors Sizzles Due to Heat Wave
We discussed a recent presentation by Dr James Hansen with him lauding the merits of nuclear energy in a time of abrupt climate change, the nuclear insanity know’s no limit and the fact that he thinks a carbon tax will make a difference at this very late stage is patently nonsense and a non starter. Professor McPherson critiques Hansen’s position and points out that he isn’t qualified to comment on the evolutionary consequences of non-linear warming. The presentation is embedded here: James Hansen, Ph.D. – The Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity – Offstage
I discussed the following quote’s first from Jem Bendell :“Getting busy with action can be a distraction from full acceptance of our predicament, where our predicament is that we don’t know. We don’t know what the best things to do are anymore and we don’t know whether what we do with the best intentions will work.”
The source of the quote and a wonderful interview with Jem is embedded here;
Then I quoted Ruppert Read: “If people are feeling paralysed right now, I think it is probably because they are stuck between false hopes. On the one hand, there is the delusive lure of optimism, the hope that there will be a techno-fix that will defuse the climate emergency while life more or less goes on as usual. This is, I believe, in a desperately-dangerous way keeping us from facing up to climate reality.” ‘Civilisation is finished’
That’s a rap folks, good luck everyone,time is extremely short.
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I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
Once again, wordpress demanded I LOG IN AGAIN! When I did they AGAIN DELETED MY POST!
Outside, I hear a bird loudly cheeping, it’s been cheeping for hours. I suspect it’s in such distress because someones dam OUTDOOR CAT has killed it’s mate! As much as some people hate them, house sparrows are very good parents & they care for each other.
Most humans couldn’t care less.
The insects are in steep decline all over the world, birds are starving to death, “my” swallows haven’t been able to breed for years because their just aren’t enough insects to feed them & their young.
Soon, I will never see a swallow again.
The ignorant, duped masses don’t realize that without insects there will be no flowers, no fruits, no veggies, no nuts, no birds, no lizards, no fresh water fish, most life will be wiped out including the worse animal to have ever evolved here – HUMANS!
Heat waves, drought, endless rains with flooding, hail storms in the tropics, what’s next?
I read of black vultures eating baby livestock alive, masses of locusts eating up crops.
Migrants from all over the world are now coming to the US, their coming from Haiti, Cuba, Central america, Libya & Nigeria with their hands out expecting us to care for them when we won’t even help our own needy.
Here we have illegal migrant CHILDREN separated by FORCE from their parents & held in CAGES, fed frozen food & made to sleep on a cold concrete floor & covered with a plastic “blanket”, elsewhere a thirsty illegal migrant women was told to get a drink out of the TOILET BOWL!
How much lower can we go?
Even though they came here illegally, we should at least treat them with some compassion & kindness before DEPORTING THEM WITH THEIR CHILDREN!
We simply cannot be the welfare office for the worlds poor!
I fear things can only continue to get WORSE, most of our RULERS are still pushing for MORE GROWTH & MORE DRILLING FOR MORE OIL, now they want to drill in the Arctic wilderness, no “protected” land is safe under Trump & his GREEDY GOONS!
Another round of FAKE, RIGGED “ELECTIONS” is coming in 2020, I’m not going to bother to “vote” in FAKE, RIGGED “ELECTIONS” when the only choices our RULERS ALLOW will be WARMONGER #1 OR WARMONGER #2, THAT IS NOT A CHOICE!
Sure the dems have over 24 candidates running in 2020 but the only one allowed to “win” will just another dam WARMONGER!
The situation is indeed hopeless, may as well get STONED & STAY STONED!
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I now remember to COPY & PASTE my posts to “NotePad”! That’s why I was able to post my drivel even though WordPress had DELETED IT.
WHY DO THEY DO THAT?
They know who I am, but they still demand I log in again so the can DELETE MY POST? GGGRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
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Not really on topic (but given who it’s coming from) seems worth sharing:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/07/02/unhappy-thoughts-for-the-fourth-of-july/
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“On the Fourth of July brainwashed Americans will wave the flag and chant: USA, USA, USA.”
Not me, I TORE UP the paper flag included in my 2X weekly paper as I do every 4th & I certainly won’t be bleating “USA USA USA” anytime soon either as I am NOT A SHEEPLE!
It’s very frustrating being a sentient human in a nation of SHEEPLE!
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“Then I quoted Ruppert Read: “If people are feeling paralysed right now, I think it is probably because they are stuck between false hopes. On the one hand, there is the delusive lure of optimism, the hope that there will be a techno-fix that will defuse the climate emergency while life more or less goes on as usual. This is, I believe, in a desperately-dangerous way keeping us from facing up to climate reality.” ‘Civilisation is finished’”
Today on a local radio station they were discussing EV’s, their energy needs, charging station availability & how “green & clean” they are.
We in the Pacific NW have most of our energy generated by hydroelectric & some nuclear, so called “renewable” energy.
Most of us will not be able to have charging stations in our garages or Ev’s there because most folks here are low income working or retired people & most are RENTERS
.
We have one level 2 charger north of us & a Tesla fast charge south of us but that charging station is ONLY for a Tesla. The only new vehicles I’ve seen for sale here are PICKUP TRUCKS & SUV’S, rarely their might be a tiny “smart” car.
They talked about how long it takes to charge a EV battery pack on home level 1 120kv charger, a level 2 charger or a level 3 “fast” charging station that takes only a “few” hours to charge a EV.
I can just see the long lines of angry, frustrated EV owners waiting in line for HOURS for the privilage of spending more HOURS charging their EV!
No body mentioned how they will cope with the fast growing demand for more electricity & more “fast” charging stations, they did mention that when demand exceeds their supply they have to get electricity from the outside that’s generated with NATURAL GAS!
Folks, we here know this isn’t going to “fly” we will have neither the raw materials or energy necessary to produce or charge all the EV’s that will be needed to replace ICE vehicles & most working class people are too poor to afford such vehicles.
The RICH will have their high tech toys, the “masses” will be left out.
That won’t “fly” either.
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Good thing I had the above on Notepad, because WordPress DELETED IT AGAIN!
Anyone trying to post here had better SAVE THEIR POST on a word processor or WordPress could IMMEDIATELY DELETE IT without posting it!
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Somehow the link I posted for EV charging times was missed, here is that link –
clippercreek(.COM)charging-times-chart/
For the chevy Bolt, it’s 43 HOURS on a 120, level 1 charger & 8.5 HOURS on a “fast” charge.
Tesla 3 standard, it’s 35 HOURS on a home charger & 6.5 HOURS on a “fast” charger.
EIGHTH TIME TRYING TO POST THIS, DELETED THE (HTTP, WWW & THE .COM.)
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Ha! Snarling rant as usual, Sheila! But with Siberia on the Arctic ocean hitting 95’F along with a burning up Alaska and Anchorage at 90’F, France at 114’F, parts of India at 123’F, yeah guess a rant at the stupidity makes sense!
Up here I’m having a less-hot summer so far. Kind of. Still in official drought. Last year was worse though there has been 97’F temps in June again and this month already. That started in May last year but May this year was mostly 80s. Strange wind patterns, blowing down from the north a lot instead of from the sw/west like normal which brings big T-cell cloud masses. Then it switches to normal summer patterns but those masses keep coming through, too, with scattered showers or once in a while pounding deluges. But it’s all localized and not adding to the rain totals. Fire danger on the new Loon Lake fire station has been at HIGH for over a month but the temps are low 80s expected into the 70s this week.
I’m assuming everybody saw the Deranged Jet Stream pic on arctic-news, yes? Holy Shit!
Somebody dumped a cat that showed up a few days ago. Damn creature is the stalking the nesting birds that are raising chicks right now! Mountain bluebirds are still hanging out, lots of robins, even a brilliantly colored Western Goldfinch male and mate along with the usual run of swallows and junkos and mountain finches etc etc. I have an amazing number of Calliope and Rufus hummingbirds this year, too! I’ve had to add extra feeders but now the property is completely covered with flowers and they are all over those, too. I’ve seen at least 4 different types of bees, from little hairy one to big fat bumble bees. No poisons sprayed over this property for as long as I’ve owned it! The Chinese Knapweed weevils have done an amazing job the last 11 years when I let them go as bio-control. I walk down to the gate in the evening to close it and it’s like walking into a perfume factory! Flowers are reds and pinks and blues and purples and orange and white and cream and and. You get my drift! I can’t stop what it happening around the world but I have managed to change this 8 acres a bit. For a small period of time at least.
This will be the second cat that has showed up in the last 15 years since mostly what I see dumped on the dirt road running by are dogs or puppies… The dogs look so lost, abandoned-by-their-pack. Obvious trauma on their faces but the cats go feral immediately. Waiting for my chance to take care of the problem like the last one. So far when it sees me it lays down its ears and runs like hell so I haven’t gotten close enough yet. I found a dead squirrel the other day in front of the stairs obviously attacked and killed. Didn’t even eat it, just killed it. Goddam domestic cats!
As for electric cars and hybrids, my retired biology teacher and his Reiki masseuse wife just bought a hybrid that recharges batteries by driving. Some kind of wheel-generators that automatically cut in and out. No plug-ins. When the batteries start running down it switches to gas for a while until they are charged back up. They’re getting over 60mpg in that thing! It’s a tiny little car, a KIA from Korea, but they can drive down to the city on a gallon of gas. I get over 35mpg in my old-ass 1980 Toyota Corona summer driving car. I will never be able to afford one of those. They are way out of my budget.
I’ve never signed up with wordpress so I have no idea of the problems associated with that site but I now can’t get into Disqus because their ‘captcha’ thing won’t load on this computer. I don’t know if it’s because I’m on dial-up or because this is an XP operating system. I’d probably have just as much trouble with wordpress. Ah well. Computers suck, too, though I do admit they are certainly easier to write and edit with!
And patriotism? This popped up at 4th of July (no, I don’t celebrate it or religious holidays) and pretty much covers it as does anything written by Fredrick Douglass:
The American Dream Drives a Tank Down Pennsylvania Ave.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/04/the-american-dream-drives-a-tank-down-pennsylvania-ave/
Sheila: And I’ve been commenting back to the same neoliberal ‘Democrat’ (another name for idiot) and again have been just having to tear his stupid shit up. Oh MY did he put his freaking foot down his throat the other day. I was actually sitting here laughing at the screen when I read his reply. Guffaw? Chortle? Belly laugh? I’m not sure which fit but I responded a day later just to help. If you are interested the short article was about the Cannabis bus that picks up people to take them to a seriously corporate cannabis ‘superstore’ and brings them back to the beach. The publisher of the online local leftie beach news is the original publisher still, from 1970 when it was heavily anti-Vietnam anti-nuclear anti-corporate anti-segregation anti-racism left-wing newspaper. LINK:
https://obrag.org/2018/02/aboard-the-magic-bus-from-ob-to-a-marijuana-superstore/comment-page-1/#comment-466318
KEVIN: yeah it is starting to look even more dicey for time left, isn’t it? So much bad shit is going on worldwide it’s hard to even keep up with it. The destabilization of the Arctic seabed is…Permian, DUDE! And I’m with the Jem Bendell quote, I don’t know what action I can take, if anything I’ll do is freaking worthwhile, or if it’s all a waste of time. But I keep doing stuff anyway even if I am NOT an optimist whatsoever. A doctor a few weeks ago laughed when he labeled me an “intelligent cynic” as we discussed ongoing climate collapse. He said it’s why he didn’t have kids… We agreed that there just isn’t any Techno Fix coming, things have gotten too far over the cliff. I gave him the arctic-news.blogspot link. That probably rattled him a bit more….
Civilization is finished and what’s left to come is looking very, very dark…
Nothing else for now. Do something fun every day
sealintheSelkirks
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Gee, I thought I had dialed back the “snarling rant” a little last time. There is just so much to rant about these days.
I’ve been wondering which “Selkirk” you “sealed in”? The Scottish Selkirk who was left on a deserted island off Chili or the town & royal burgh in central Scotland?
Which ever one it was, the Selkirks were an interesting bunch of Scotts who specialized in wool when they weren’t fighting for their king & getting badly beaten.
I hope you will soon be able to “take care” of that dam CAT! Have you tried a live trap or do you know how to make a snare to catch & kill that cat? A 22 rifle can also make short work of that “domesticated” killer! There are lot’s of instructions on how to make snares & traps for “wild” animals.
Down here on the SW Oregon coast, it’s been FOGGY & chilly, the Swallows are still around but their DEAD BIRDS FLYING, if they don’t breed soon they will be EXTINCT here!
I have only a few hummingbirds, some chestnut backed & black – capped chickadee, black headed grosbeaks, brewers black birds, house finches, house sparrows & starlings have had young here, I have heard Cali quail & a few surviving gulls & I have a few American goldfinches & band tailed pigeons at the feeders. There are virtually NO INSECTS other than a few domesticated bees.
I did find, after years of looking for them, ONE Painted lady larvae yesterday on a thistle & today it’s preparing to pupate!
The neighbor behind me has one of those dam, little, yippy, yappy, squealing DOGS that just won’t STF up! I also have outdoor CATS that hunt birds, if it get’s in my TRAP – – – !
Why do people get pets & then when they get tired of them, just dump them on the doorstep of somebodies farm, doorstep or just dump them alongside the road?
Like you said, the dogs are lost without their “pack” leader, the cats just go back into hunting mode if they ever left it, too many people keep “outdoor” cats, I see them from time to time as flattened, bloody, “rugs” next to the road.
All we have here is a worthless animal shelter that just “fixes” the feral cats then turns them loose to KILL OUR WILDLIFE AGAIN! The BIG RACCOONS in the jetty looks well fed.
I wonder if the “cat lady” that comes to feed them knows that she’s also feeding RACCOONS?
Sunday was suppose to be a day when ICE rounded up some illegal immigrants who already had & had ignored their deportation orders.
They need to round up about 20 MILLION illegal immigrants here that are illegally taking our JOBS,OUR HOUSING OUR EDUCATION & GETTING WELFARE they aren’t entitled to, our own homeless & jobless need those housing & jobs they now have.
We have a bunch of “bleeding hearts” who feel sorry for those poor migrants but we already have MILLIONS OF POOR, NEEDY, SICK, UNEMPLOYED & HOMELESS PEOPLE HERE who we are NOT helping, why don’t these people who want to violate our laws by protecting those who came here illegally care about the poor, needy HOMELESS people we already have & who are DYING ON OUR STREETS? WHAT ABOUT THEM?
Then they need to PUNISH the employers & landlords who rented to them & make E-verify manditory for any job, housing, education or social services they apply for so they can be DENIED getting them.
I am appauled at the way Trump is “caging” their children that were forcabley taken away from their “asylum” seeking parents, most are there because their POOR, UNEMPLOYED, UNSKILLED & NEEDY & they expect us to take care of them & their small children they dragged along with them as a “get in free” card, that’s another loophole that needs CLOSING!
If we can’t detain them humainly, just turn them around at the border & point them south or east as we are now getting illegal migrants from Cuba, Haiti & countries in Africa!
We are not the worlds welfare office, we cannot take care of millions of poor, needy, unskilled people who sneak in here to stick out their hands for “freebees” we cannot afford as we have ILLEGAL WARS we “must” fight for PROFIT!
ILLEGAL WARS FIRST, suffering poor people last is our “motto”. (sarc!)
As for trying to stay “happy” in this collapse, I have an idea for you too, get a DAB RIG if you don’t already have one. I just drove up to Cave Junction about a 75 mile drive through a narrow, twisting Smith river canyon on H197 to “Wild Bills” head shop & got a “rig”, a titanium “nail” & E-nail that’s just a temperature controlled coil that fits over the “nail” & of course some concentrate at a local dispensery. Talk about getting HIGH! A dab rig will get you higher than the moon! Go easy on those dabs!
Vape pens are nice for those times when you would just like to sit down & chill in the woods.
I’ve been spending some time in the yard, yesterday I scythed part of the back yard along the fence to chop down some berry vines, salmon berry & salal, I also dug up & hauled dirt from the back to the front to fill in the low areas that had collapsed over the gopher holes, today it was watering the front of the house & watching the birds at the feeders, listening to the house sparrows young in a nest box by the back door, there is another nest in a nestbox in front. I would rather have swallows raising young here not alien house sparrows.
I’m glad I have an extensive book library full of art, science, history & adventure books, no fiction here! I can read about everything from astronomy to zoology, stories written by adventurers like Sir, Ernest Shackleton, Reinhold Messner, & Voytec & Mathew Henson the often overlooked “black” man who made Perry’s trip to the north pole possible thanks to his navigation skills. The art books show what the world looked like before we destroyed so much of it, what a lovely world it once was.
I just bought a book “End of the megafauna” that shows the many animals we KILLED as we migrated out of Africa to all over the planet, killing, cutting & burning as we went unaware that we were destroying a unique ecosystem & it’s wildlife. Then when Europeans “discovered” the “new” world, more advanced killing began of both the first nations peoples & the wildlife they hadn’t killed, yet.
The earth will heave a great sigh of relief when we collapse & stop killing her.
To me the parties are “repugliCON” & “demaCRAP” parties, neither is worth “voting” for in our FAKE, RIGGED “ELECTIONS” where our only “choice” is oligarch warmonger #1 or oligarch warmonger #2, that is NOT a “choice” & it’s not worth trying to “vote” in FAKE, RIGGED “ELECTIONS” anyhow! I don’t have a TV so I missed our RULERS ranting & now the demaCRAPS want to have OPEN BORDERS! WTF!!
If they do that, we won’t have a country any longer, it will become like the wild wild west,no laws, shoot to kill the “invaders” as they try to sneak over the STATE borders as the USA won’t exist any longer as a country.
It seems our RULERS get crazier every day!
Keep the “Selkirks” sealed in ,their a tough bunch & could escape but their king is gone & their reason for fighting is also gone. Have a great week, have fun, get wasted, stoned & stay safe.
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