I was 19 yrs old when Blair Peach was murdered 38 years ago today.
“The anti-fascist protester Blair Peach was almost certainly killed by police at a demonstration in 1979, according to a secret report released today.”
“Documents published on the Metropolitan police’s website shed new light on the death of Peach, a 33-year-old teacher from New Zealand, whose death marked one of the most controversial events in modern ( British) policing history.”
“A campaigner against the far right, Peach died from a blow to the head during a demonstration against the National Front in Southall, west London.” Full report embedded below;
I started getting involved in anti-apartheid demonstrations in 1980/81 but was out of the country when the most intense resistance took place culminating in my close friend Marx Jones “Flour Bombing Eden Park”
Aotearoa New Zealand has an extremely chequered racial history but one of the great ‘Take outs’ of our highly successful anti-apartheid struggle is that we were forced to confront the endemic racism we had in Aotearoa N.Z. Linton Kwesi Johnson’s tribute to Blair is embedded below; Linton Kwesi Johnson – Reggae fi Peach (Tribute to Mr. Blair Peach) – LIVE in Paris
Had he not been murdered I don’t doubt that Blair would have been a driving force in our anti-apartheid struggle. 1981 Tour Badge Photo Credit Naani Abercrombie Gone but Never forgotten Blair.
This Play was written by my dear departed friend Dean Parker, R.I.P. who can be seen sitting to the left of stage, wearing a blue shirt, with his signature grey hair and beard. Dean connected me with wonderful members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Belfast during the war. I don’t doubt for a second that he kept me save with that gesture. Adventures of a Member of the Diaspora in Occupied West Belfast
Myth busting on the road to armageddon and the inevitable and imminent collapse of the biosphere.
For many years we have been sold the lie that a global warming target of 2C was both Safe and Achievable It was never safe nor achievable under the yoke of Industrial civilisation and unfettered capitalism. The IPCC has been used as the ‘Standard bearer’ for our green house gas emissions targets and there in lies the rub. Since it’s inception, the IPCC has compromised the science in the interests of political expediency and consensus. This has become a pathway to ecological collapse whilst being championed by the large NGO’s and even the large “Green”party’s world wide including the Green Party of Aotearoa who continue to parrot these myths. Instead of being honest about the severity of the crisis, they defer to political expediency, in the vain hope of electoral success at the expense of telling the truth which they either know and can’t face or are blissfully/willfully ignorant of. Time has run out for that strategy and the biosphere and most if not all complex life that depends on it.
From David Wasdell of the Apollo-Gaia Project;
“It is with the utmost concern that we draw your attention to the fundamental methodological flaw in the determination of the value of Climate Sensitivity that is embedded in the Summary for Policymakers of the Scientific Workgroup of the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC. The error was replicated in the Reports of Workgroups 2 and 3 and carried forward into the Synthesis Report. It has been used as the given basis for every subsequent publication. Our radical analysis of Climate Dynamics has generated a new and robust value of “Earth System Sensitivity” which has profound implications for:
• The relationship between temperature change and cumulative carbon emissions.
• The calculation of “available carbon budget”.
• The evaluation of the INDCs.
• The terms of reference of COP21 in Paris (30 November – 11 December 2015).
• The future global strategy for climate stabilisation.”
David Wasdell explains his concerns in this excellent interview on Radio Ecoshock . Wasdell refers to himself as not being a “Doom-munger”!!! Many of these otherwise brilliant scientists peer over the precipice we are now tumbling down and refuse to accept that we have crossed the multitude of “Tipping points” they have been warning us of for decades.This is where cognitive dissonance kicks in and the desire to continue to receive large salaries and research grants. For me Michael E Mann is the ‘champion’ of this cognitive dissonance. He and his colleagues identified the “Hockey Stick Theory” and now that it has manifest he can no longer see it!!! This is the privilege of the wealthy elites in the west, infinitely less for our cousins in Africa, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East where habitat is collapsing now, not long off in the future.
A large portion of the blame for the severity of the crisis we find ourselves in is the reliance on ‘Models’ as opposed to the much more expensive but reliable Field Research. Peter Wadhams drew attention to this dichotomy in a recent interview on Extinction Radio
For the first time in human existence we have now crossed 410ppm of carbon in the atmosphere, factoring in the 10 to 30 year lag between cause and effect the warming from most if not all of the carbon emitted this century is baked in but yet to manifest.
We have raced from 369.68ppm in 1999 to 410ppm at the time of writing (22/04/2017). The warming from 10% of all carbon dumped into the atmosphere has yet to manifest.
It is feasible that this Northern Hemisphere summer we could see the first Sea Ice Free summer in the Arctic which will trigger the albedo feedback loop which will lead to more warming and more melt in a vicious feedback that could well lead to the discharge of the 50 gigatonne methane burst or more as predicted by Shakova et al from the University of Fairbanks Alaska. Shakovas’ presentation filmed by Nick Breeze is embedded here;
I spent 25 years of my life as an ocean sailor, during which I completed 16 ocean passages on yachts varying in size from 37 ft to 65 ft. On well over half of those voyages I was the ‘Skipper’.
One ominous role of the Skipper is to always have a well thought out strategy in the event of catastrophic failure or loss of the vessel. My personal belief system is to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to my crew and fellow passengers.
I detect a very stark comparison between the sinking of Titanic and the collapse of the biosphere. When the Titanic was sinking the affluent (effluent) continued to dance and drink champagne whilst the working class (The same ones who had built industrial civilisation and the wealth to afford the champagne) were locked down in the lower ‘steerage’ cabins drowning. Had I been the skipper on the Titanic, the moment I knew the ship was doomed to sink I would have released all of those hard working people, briefed them on the severity of the predicament and enlisted all of the able bodied to build rafts from the ample furniture and ropes and I would have launched the insufficient number of lifeboats with the young, infirm and elderly with the newly constructed liferafts available for the remainder.
Denial of the severity of the crisis means these liferafts which would at least provide psychological comfort would in some small way mitigate the Tsunami of Grief baring down on us. Alas denial and fascism rule at the end of the human epoch.
In 2014 and 2016 I was privileged to tour NZ with Professor Guy McPherson one of the very few scientists on the planet who is prepared to face the severity of the predicament in it’s totality. Most of the NZ presentations and interviews are embedded here;
Professor McPherson and his colleague Mike Sliwa have an excellent radio show on PRN.FM. The archive is embedded here
Recently I had Dahr Jamail, the man that I believe to be the worlds leading climate journalist staying at my home on Rakino Island Aotearoa New Zealand whilst we both did research for his forthcoming, latest book “The End of Ice”. Dahr writes climate dispatches for TruthOut.org links to his speaking truth to power are embedded here;
The situation is as always infinitely worse that we are being told. This post is an attempt to speak truth to power. “At the edge of extinction, only love remains” GMP.
(Purple waves wash over the Oregon beach of Neskowin on August 15. A form of hydrogen sulfide consuming bacteria is known to color water purple. Is this an indicator that the deadly gas is present in Oregon’s waters? Image source: Jeanine Sbisa and Beach Connection.)
A Dangerous Beauty
Oregon beachgoers and ocean researchers alike are flummoxed. There’s something strange in the water. Something that’s coloring the waves of Oregon’s beaches purple even as the off-shore waters are painted…
As runaway abrupt climate change and it’s brutal reality bares down on us with the speed of a tsunami, another little discussed side affect is grief. I shall try to cover it in this blog and provide some avenues for readers to seek solace and solidarity below.
Those of us who are monitoring the unraveling of the biosphere will be fully aware of this aching phenomenon already but our numbers are relatively few (sic) due to the lies and obfuscating taking place regarding the severity of the crisis, yet when the awareness of the imminent demise of our species dawns on the afflicted planets populace, all the symptoms of grief will manifest on a monumental scale!
Sadness, depression, anger, denial, resignation, pick your poison (sic), try and be gentle with yourself and those you interact with. Embrace your grief, acknowledge it, share it with those you trust. Support those of your friends, colleagues and neighbours who are suffering, it really is best shared.
In recent times renowned climate bloggers have been courageous enough to admit in public how their research has driven some of them to the edge of despair, you are not alone;
Michael Slezak writing for The Guardian Environment; My professional detachment has finally turned to panic “One day in his office, he reviewed a new study about the release of methane from the ocean floor and saw, more starkly than ever before, the conundrum the world faced. It wasn’t simply that they needed to consume less, to bring humanity’s impact on the biosphere under control, it was that there were just too many people, and even allowing for technological change and economic restructuring, the planet was on a collision course with disaster. In the United States and India floods covered millions of square kilometres, in Africa and Europe the heat was growing ever more intense and in Indonesia and Brazil and Malaysia the forests were burning, yet he and Ellie were trying to have a baby. What sort of world would that child inherit? Were they really doing the right thing by bringing another life into it?” More on the much under reported methane risk here; Arctic Methane Emergency Group
“Dr. Maria Salta, a biological oceanographer and lecturer in environmental microbiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, echoed this dire outlook on the state of the oceans.””For shrimpers, 80 percent of everything caught is bycatch and thrown back for dead. It is a mode of mass marine extinction.”
“It is clear that if we continue like this, in a few years time, there is not going to be much left,” she told Truthout, speaking about the impacts of ACD, pollution and overfishing. “We are losing species every day without ever knowing about them. Sometimes humans can be like a plague to the environment.” The rest of Dahr Jamails’ great article is embedded below;
Another case in point Neven Curlin from the Arctic Sea Ice Blog; “But a problem was emerging — Curlin wasn’t just tracking the change, he was feeling it too. As he wrote in 2012, shortly after the record fell:….this stunning melting season has made me even more acutely aware of the gravity of what is taking place….To be able to watch and write about the Arctic sea ice, I used to block out the realisation of risks, so that I could make a joke here and there and be scientifically reticent in my own amateur way, keeping up appearances, acting objective.But my bubble has burst. I’m already watching past the minimum. As the melting season ends, it feels as if things are only beginning. The age of consequences.”
From the excellent climate blogger Eric Holthaus; “There are days where I literally can’t work. I’ll read a story & shut down for rest of the day. Not much helps besides exercise & time.”
On our recent NZ wide speaking tour Professor Guy McPherson and I spoke to audiences in university’s and public venues and a very important aspect of the tour was addressing the emotional response to our message as the cold hard reality of what we have collectively inflicted on the biosphere sunk into our audiences psyche. They were to a large degree already aware of the severity of the crisis but often feel isolated due to the grief denying culture many of us live in. Most of the N.Z. presentations have been embedded below by my dear friend and colleague Wolfgang Werminghausen. Schneller als gedacht / Faster than previously thought
From Professor McPherson’s website; “I’ve received many requests for a workshop focused on emotions rather than evidence. Such a workshop is described here . It is available in your hometown and also in Belize.”
A number of Facebook groups have been established to help people come to terms with their grief for our afflicted biosphere. For the sake of brevity I have embedded a number below in no particular order. If joining please ensure you observe the philosophy of the groups and remember we are there to support each other in any way we can. Much respect to the diligent, hard working admins.
To those of my many darling friends, especially my ‘Tribe’ on Rakino Island who often ask how I am feeling, chronicling the unraveling of the biosphere, I must quote my dear friend Professor Guy McPherson; “I have a long list of people I would like to see dead, my name isn’t on it”. “At the edge of extinction, only love remains”. Be gentle with one another, starting with yourself. Aroha Nui. Much love, be gentle. K
I’m editing this blog on 13/03/22 to include this magnificent discussion on Grief from two of my closest friends on the planet;
There are a body of scientists and researchers that have been warning that we have crossed a multitude of tipping points and have slipped into runaway abrupt climate change.
Myself and Robin Westenra interviewed N.Z. climate scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winning IPCC panel member Dr Jim Salinger in November 2015 when he stated he believes we have been in abrupt climate change since 2010 at least.
The first person to bring it to my consciousness was Professor Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of the University of Arizona. McPherson has been vilified and ostracised for speaking about the imminent extinction of the human race. “Shoot the messenger”, a time honoured response from despots to un-palliative news.
As every day passes more evidence is appearing that runaway abrupt climate change is underway and McPherson’s dire predictions based on synthesizing a multitude of positive reinforcing loops is becoming more and more impossible to refute. Please note that I spent the first 2 years after learning of McPherson’s analysis trying in vain to disprove his conclusions.
” New research suggests the Earth’s climate could be more sensitive to greenhouse gases than thought, raising the spectre of an ‘apocalyptic side of bad’ temperature rise of more than 7C within a lifetime”, covered here in The Independent. This latest mainstream media article makes the point that we could have a 7C temperature rise within a generation, myself and Professor McPherson believe we are well into that window already.
Nonlinear climate sensitivity and its implications for future greenhouse warming as detailed in a paper at advances.sciencemag.org
Where would a 7C temperature rise leave planet earth?
In a well researched 2008 article in The Guardian, Oliver Tickell surmised; On a planet 4C hotter, all we can prepare for is extinction .
The extinction of the human race will leave this planet bathing in ionising radiation from the melt-down of 450 nuclear plants and the subsequent 1200 spent fuel pool fires which will aerosol radionuclides into the atmosphere in a firestorm of heat and radiation yet to be witnessed on this planet.Perhaps our most long lasting legacy.
The below photo was taken at the crater edge at Tana, Vanuatu on one of my ocean passages.
What can we do now that we are in runaway and a climate change denier is the President elect in the second largest emitting nation on the planet? Trump has called global warming “bullshit”
Hope for the best, plan for the worst,as we face the perfect storm.
Another pressing ‘Tipping point’ will be the collapse of industrial civilisation once all faith is lost in the dire situation we find ourselves in. This event could unfold with one single climatic event like the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf or the discharge of the 50 gigatonne methane burst as predicted my Dr’s Shakova and Semiletov of the University of Fairbanks Asaska. This makes everything we love and hold dear a day to day proposition.
Methane Hydrates, Extended interview with Natalia Shakova by Nick Breeze
The situation could not be more dire, I can say that without a hint of hyperbole.
Professor McPherson and I will be touring NZ speaking about this predicament. Readers world wide can follow the tour via Facebook as we will live-stream some of the Keynote Presentations from the universities where we will be speaking.
Over the years I have completed 16 ocean passages on small yachts, over half as skipper. One of the over-riding responsibilities of a captain is to keep his passengers, crew, vessel and anyone who can come into contact with it safe at all times and when disaster strikes be brutally honest with the truth, which enables everyone to prepare as best they can.
I believe we should be declaring a Global Climate Emergency, it will be one of the key aims of our forthcoming tour to pressure the political parties of NZ to face the reality of our predicament, most especially the Green Party of Aotearoa N.Z.. Valuable time is being lost in the denial of abrupt climate change.
At the edge of extinction, only love remains.
“The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements.”
What has the IPCC achieved in 28yrs?
As in all global agreements there is an enormous amount of haggling between nation states that are never equal. The larger the power base, either economic, by population or obscene military power, the more influence those nations wield, often like a club or a battering ram.The COPS have evolved into a talk-fest of epic proportions that make grandiose claims to have achieved agreement on emissions reductions that are both voluntary and Guarantee that the biosphere will collapse. Even the IPCC admits that their agreements will not spare us the worst effects of climate change.
We are patently in a Global Climate Emergency yet there is not one nation with perhaps the exception of Kiribati, that is prepared to declare an EMERGENCY.
Our planet is ruled by a global capitalist ideology that is in an eternal pursuit of growth, when it is patently clear that it is impossible to have infinite growth on a finite planet.
The pursuit of that unobtainable goal has led to a level of Ecocide that now threatens all complex life on this planet.
Myself and Professor Guy McPherson, Professor Emeritus of the University of Arizona are about to commence a nation wide tour of Aotearoa New Zealand.
The purpose of the tour is to break through the cognitive dissonance that controls the narrative around abrupt climate change and to expose the extraordinary danger we are now facing as we tumble over the precipice of planetary armageddon.
I have recently had a conversation with Meteria Turei New Zealand member of Parliament and the female co-leader of the Green Party alongside James Shaw. I asked that she discuss with the party executive the merits of declaring a Global Planetary Emergency.
Whilst I like co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa as a person, I am dismayed at the total lack of urgency being shown by the party and their clinging to an out dated strategy and Climate Change Policy . The position that was conveyed to me by Ms Turei is that the party believes if they address the potential for collapse as I see it, people will no longer feel the need or motivation to mitigate personally. I believe that assumption is both erroneous and patronising to those of us who care and fails to understand that no matter what we do now as individuals the biosphere is in early stage runaway and can’t be stopped. Of course what we can do is take our foot off the abrupt climate change accelerator and slow down the armageddon, declaring a Climate Emergency is a first and logical strategy to force the powers that be to face our predicament.
My critique of the Green Party position is detailed Here
The ongoing failure of both the Green Party of Aotearoa and leaders world wide to accept that we have crossed a multitude of Tipping Points as detailed in Professor McPherson’s Monster Climate Change Essay ensures that our communities are left unprepared for the chaos that is about to unfold in N.Z. and is already unfolding in small Polynesian nations and parts of the Middle East, that are already becoming uninhabitable Now, not far off in the distant future.
Professor McPherson and I are about to set sail on our nationwide tour, Facebook Events have been created to allow people to share information and to stimulate the debate. Many thanks to my unarmed army of helpers whose names are to many to mention here.
People world wide can follow the tour as we will livestream the keynote events and Documentary maker Pauline Schneider the producer/ director of Going Dark a previous documentary on Professor McPherson’s work, will film the tour and produce another documentary. Come to the presentations in person, follow via livestream and be a part of the revolution to launch “The Case for Declaring a Global Climate Emergency.”
“At the edge of extinction, only love remains” GMP.
On the 10th of May 2015 myself and my dear friend Barbara Folkard had the good fortune to be able to play a small part in the rescue of a surfer off the West Coast of New Zealand.
Details of the search and rescue are embedded here
Kevin Hester is currently living on Rakino Island, a small island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand, monitoring the unravelling of the biosphere and volunteering at the Rakino Island Nursery is currently developing a proposal to create a marine reserve near by. The Island has no grid tied electricity or reticulated water. I catch my own water from the roof and generate my electricity from the ample solar radiation on the island.
My Submission to the Ministry of the Environment
Kevin Hester, Dropping Anchor in an Exponential World
Kevin Hester 