Great article and a great excuse to listen to some Pink Floyd.
In Eduardo Galeano's book Upside-Down: A Primer into the looking-glass world, he points out that four of the five biggest arms exporters are also the permanent five in the U.N. Security Council, with the fifth largest down in 7th placel. He says something along the lines of "World peace lies in the hands of the same countries that profit the most from war."
More from my post last week:https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/deep-springboards-to-higher-ground: "We live in a schizophrenic reality. In our civilized reality we are devoted to keeping citizens from hurting one another, while another devotion is to send them off to kill foreigners. The Department of War needs to be The Department of Love. Really."
Dennis Kucinich suggested a Department of Peace when he ran, an idea I loved. However, the predominant message is the world is the enemy. Little kids don't see color, that is taught. In spite of all efforts society is still stratified and misguided hatred encouraged. It's truly a primitive foundational problem.
This is the full passage for context and the quote as Galeano wrote it (the book came out in 2000 so the order he lists has changed slightly, with the U.K. dropping down and China going up):
"Statistics compiled by the International Institute of Strategic Studies show the largest weapons dealers to be the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia. China figures on the list as well, a few places back. And these countries, by some odd coincidence, are the very ones that can exercise vetoes in the UN Security Council. The right to a veto means the power to decide. The General Assembly of the highest international institution, in which all countries take part, makes recommendations, but it’s the Security Council that makes decisions. The Assembly speaks or remains silent; the Council does or undoes. In other words, world peace lies in the hands of the five powers that profit the most from the big business of war.”
What stuns me is how the US on that list is BY FAR the biggest arms supplier to the world. And that gap has increased since I started tracking it. It's utterly shameful.
I agree with you, and a costly trip around the moon does add insult to injury. On the bright side, nitrogen fertilizer poisons many wells and causes cancer. So maybe we can get those wells cleaned up before the end of times.
Blinded by greed, thirst for power, not understanding limits and belief they are superior, therefore entitled to control the rest of us. I do think the limits of physics will stop them from mining the moon though. That's why the oil age will end in the next few decades, energy input exceeding returns. Certainly, it won't be because they wised up or became human.
I agree, psychopaths are despicable. The far right NeoLibs in America seem to be the last of their kind, thank goodness. They always wanted to team up with China, so now that China is doing so well, I think they should all move there and take the big brother AI extremists with them. I hope your right about the moon and oil. It is nice to see that Europe and China are still interested in using clean energy.
Thanks for the courageous takedown of too many humans, using/depleting too many natural resources, and producing too much pollution, including GHGs and climate collapse. Have a blessed evening.
Thank you, Jeff. I became aware of you on Twitter before Musk took over. Shortly after I got tossed for "threatening" a great man, George Santos. Gee, my bad. I am pleased you're here and recently subscribed to you. Getting older isn't all wine and roses, but with less left to lose calling out the BS and connecting the dots simply feels like a responsibility. Give the donkeys an extra carrot for me.
Our modern civilization, much like the rockets we send into the solar system, is propelled on a (mostly) fixed course until it inevitably falls back down to earth. We have burned the majority of our fuel and over-consumed our life-support systems, and now we will inevitably return to the surface; intact or not. While some crew and passengers have sounded the alarm to mutiny and crash land, most seem content to ignore the reality of physics and allow the captain and his sycophants to accelerate the curtain call of this odyssey we call civilization. We could have used the ship to build relay stations, biospheres, energy harvesting on gas-giants, and research; but instead we spent our fuel and time on a 200 year sight seeing and extraction/destruction adventure. Our ship, modern civilization spent its well-stocked reserves entirely on a massive booze-cruise and hunting tour of the planets instead of anything remotely lasting or meaningful.
I’d like to add that my personal thoughts on the Artemis mission are positive, and were planned long before the trump administration. It was designed to precede a moon base, which would have been useful 60 years earlier, but now just seems to be a matter of nationalism. If even a tenth of the budget used on the US military were invested in space exploration and expansion, we could have potentially found life, asteroid mined our way out of several resource shortages, advanced technology to replace fossil fuels with alternatives, and learned how to mass produce automatic biospheres in the process. Now, the best we can hope for is a last confirmation of life on Mars or Europa and a big reflective mirror/array on the moon to bounce signals off once the satellites fall out of orbit it or create Kessler syndrome. At least that way we might have some remaining satellite communication and observation of the earth long after we lose our capability for space travel, which could really help people navigate and know when to evacuate climate disasters when it really sets in.
Even though I despise the civilization that brought about technology I don’t believe there is anything wrong with it, just that we are currently too unconscious to utilize great power for the right reasons. Maybe someday our descendants or some other intelligent life will learn from our mistakes and successes and utilize technology and knowledge in a way to actually use its power for the benefit of all beings. Regardless, this modern experiment is almost over, a catastrophic failure of mixing human ingenuity with primal psychology, I just hope there’s still room for another more well considered experiment.
I understand your enthusiasm. I felt it too, for a longtime. I was definitely a Trekkie as a kid and still favor projects like the James Webb telescope and unmanned probes, although we should put our priorities in resolving our issues of salvaging an inhabitable planet first.
I provided these links from a notable physicist that explain the realities of human space travel well in another comment you made. Thanks for weighing in.
Is your profile specifically anti-space travel? I get that they cause some pollution but there are far greater and sources out there to be upset about. Sure I don’t like the swarms of starlink and commercial satellites but do appreciate the exploration of our solar system and the information brought back through it. The dreams that got us to space are inspiring to billions and represent the frontiers of human ingenuity. Why specifically target that, and not the thousand other more polluting sources? This is a ridiculous take, it’s a tragedy that we won’t continue to explore space.
I recently wrote of the coral reefs now officially declared collapsed by scientists. I also believe the Arctic and Amazon are likely tipped. Climate scientists tend to exhibit an overabundance of caution in issuing these proclamations.
Yes, we have exceeded the window of opportunity to avoid at least RCP 4.5 IMO. This summer with a "super" El Niño bearing down on us will be telling.
It's going to hit 85° in Buffalo, NY today, a temperature rarely reached here in July or August thirty-five years ago when I attended college here. Any of us old enough sees and feels the change.
"As arguments are being made about the rules, so we get war right, I am silently screaming at war not being a primary abomination. If humanity has a future, it figures to be a puzzlement looking back for how it could have been common practice for countries to get their way by harming each other."
That's how my last week's Substack starts: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/deep-springboards-to-higher-ground. I hope you're reading what I'm putting out, which is somewhat of a bookend to you, where you take us to the heart of the problem and I get that heart working on what to do.
There Will Come Soft Rains
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire, Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn Would scarcely know that we were gone.
~ Sara Teasdale
Thank you for this It speaks beautifully to the humility we should feel for the astonishing gift of existing at all.
Great article and a great excuse to listen to some Pink Floyd.
In Eduardo Galeano's book Upside-Down: A Primer into the looking-glass world, he points out that four of the five biggest arms exporters are also the permanent five in the U.N. Security Council, with the fifth largest down in 7th placel. He says something along the lines of "World peace lies in the hands of the same countries that profit the most from war."
Gotta love the term "peacekeepers" when their all armed up to the hilt.
More from my post last week:https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/deep-springboards-to-higher-ground: "We live in a schizophrenic reality. In our civilized reality we are devoted to keeping citizens from hurting one another, while another devotion is to send them off to kill foreigners. The Department of War needs to be The Department of Love. Really."
Dennis Kucinich suggested a Department of Peace when he ran, an idea I loved. However, the predominant message is the world is the enemy. Little kids don't see color, that is taught. In spite of all efforts society is still stratified and misguided hatred encouraged. It's truly a primitive foundational problem.
Love that quote.
This is the full passage for context and the quote as Galeano wrote it (the book came out in 2000 so the order he lists has changed slightly, with the U.K. dropping down and China going up):
"Statistics compiled by the International Institute of Strategic Studies show the largest weapons dealers to be the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia. China figures on the list as well, a few places back. And these countries, by some odd coincidence, are the very ones that can exercise vetoes in the UN Security Council. The right to a veto means the power to decide. The General Assembly of the highest international institution, in which all countries take part, makes recommendations, but it’s the Security Council that makes decisions. The Assembly speaks or remains silent; the Council does or undoes. In other words, world peace lies in the hands of the five powers that profit the most from the big business of war.”
What stuns me is how the US on that list is BY FAR the biggest arms supplier to the world. And that gap has increased since I started tracking it. It's utterly shameful.
I was born just a short time after you and watching the moon landing is one of my first favorite memories.
I feel your pain brother
That was an incredibly exciting day for this little boy. Little did I understand the hubris or stupid competition with the Soviet Union.
Ditto. Neil Armstrong was a hero to this little boy.
I agree with you, and a costly trip around the moon does add insult to injury. On the bright side, nitrogen fertilizer poisons many wells and causes cancer. So maybe we can get those wells cleaned up before the end of times.
Who cares about that? What's really important is establishing the first lunar shopping mall before China does.
Moon minerals are already being mapped for mining. We will probably see this happen in our life time.
I am highly doubtful of that. The energy expended would far exceed the return.
Lol. You know as well as I do that those blinded by greed never include the true cost of their goals.
Blinded by greed, thirst for power, not understanding limits and belief they are superior, therefore entitled to control the rest of us. I do think the limits of physics will stop them from mining the moon though. That's why the oil age will end in the next few decades, energy input exceeding returns. Certainly, it won't be because they wised up or became human.
I agree, psychopaths are despicable. The far right NeoLibs in America seem to be the last of their kind, thank goodness. They always wanted to team up with China, so now that China is doing so well, I think they should all move there and take the big brother AI extremists with them. I hope your right about the moon and oil. It is nice to see that Europe and China are still interested in using clean energy.
Thanks for the courageous takedown of too many humans, using/depleting too many natural resources, and producing too much pollution, including GHGs and climate collapse. Have a blessed evening.
Thanks, Greeley, they can come and get me. If my voice disappears, readers will know why. Solidarity brother.
Woo. Geoff. This one is powerful. Not that any of your work is wimpy, but ...
Woo. Hoo.
Thank you, Jeff. I became aware of you on Twitter before Musk took over. Shortly after I got tossed for "threatening" a great man, George Santos. Gee, my bad. I am pleased you're here and recently subscribed to you. Getting older isn't all wine and roses, but with less left to lose calling out the BS and connecting the dots simply feels like a responsibility. Give the donkeys an extra carrot for me.
Another insightful and informative read.
Thanks, Jonathon. I'll never be a high volume publisher, but I try to be a quality one.
Our modern civilization, much like the rockets we send into the solar system, is propelled on a (mostly) fixed course until it inevitably falls back down to earth. We have burned the majority of our fuel and over-consumed our life-support systems, and now we will inevitably return to the surface; intact or not. While some crew and passengers have sounded the alarm to mutiny and crash land, most seem content to ignore the reality of physics and allow the captain and his sycophants to accelerate the curtain call of this odyssey we call civilization. We could have used the ship to build relay stations, biospheres, energy harvesting on gas-giants, and research; but instead we spent our fuel and time on a 200 year sight seeing and extraction/destruction adventure. Our ship, modern civilization spent its well-stocked reserves entirely on a massive booze-cruise and hunting tour of the planets instead of anything remotely lasting or meaningful.
I’d like to add that my personal thoughts on the Artemis mission are positive, and were planned long before the trump administration. It was designed to precede a moon base, which would have been useful 60 years earlier, but now just seems to be a matter of nationalism. If even a tenth of the budget used on the US military were invested in space exploration and expansion, we could have potentially found life, asteroid mined our way out of several resource shortages, advanced technology to replace fossil fuels with alternatives, and learned how to mass produce automatic biospheres in the process. Now, the best we can hope for is a last confirmation of life on Mars or Europa and a big reflective mirror/array on the moon to bounce signals off once the satellites fall out of orbit it or create Kessler syndrome. At least that way we might have some remaining satellite communication and observation of the earth long after we lose our capability for space travel, which could really help people navigate and know when to evacuate climate disasters when it really sets in.
Even though I despise the civilization that brought about technology I don’t believe there is anything wrong with it, just that we are currently too unconscious to utilize great power for the right reasons. Maybe someday our descendants or some other intelligent life will learn from our mistakes and successes and utilize technology and knowledge in a way to actually use its power for the benefit of all beings. Regardless, this modern experiment is almost over, a catastrophic failure of mixing human ingenuity with primal psychology, I just hope there’s still room for another more well considered experiment.
I understand your enthusiasm. I felt it too, for a longtime. I was definitely a Trekkie as a kid and still favor projects like the James Webb telescope and unmanned probes, although we should put our priorities in resolving our issues of salvaging an inhabitable planet first.
I provided these links from a notable physicist that explain the realities of human space travel well in another comment you made. Thanks for weighing in.
Mars trap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGrLCNpJNSQ
No alien contact
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4uFZshzEpc
Octopus??? Tell me they aren't aliens! 😂
Is your profile specifically anti-space travel? I get that they cause some pollution but there are far greater and sources out there to be upset about. Sure I don’t like the swarms of starlink and commercial satellites but do appreciate the exploration of our solar system and the information brought back through it. The dreams that got us to space are inspiring to billions and represent the frontiers of human ingenuity. Why specifically target that, and not the thousand other more polluting sources? This is a ridiculous take, it’s a tragedy that we won’t continue to explore space.
Consider the physics. This video by Nobel Prize winning physicist explains some of the hard limitations of human space travel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGrLCNpJNSQ
This is worth a watch, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4uFZshzEpc
Nothing gained is on the time scale we have to mitigate the worst of the coming climate catastrophe.
I recently wrote of the coral reefs now officially declared collapsed by scientists. I also believe the Arctic and Amazon are likely tipped. Climate scientists tend to exhibit an overabundance of caution in issuing these proclamations.
Yes, we have exceeded the window of opportunity to avoid at least RCP 4.5 IMO. This summer with a "super" El Niño bearing down on us will be telling.
It's going to hit 85° in Buffalo, NY today, a temperature rarely reached here in July or August thirty-five years ago when I attended college here. Any of us old enough sees and feels the change.
https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/coral-reefs-declared-collapsed
The melting permafrost is enough to put us into tropical poles...
The permafrost issue alone will make the planet uninhabitable. CO2 lingers for hundreds of years even if we stopped burning fossil fuels today.
IDK if you read this, from nearly two years ago.
https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/permafrost-maybe-not
No more Space travel, no more launch and re-entry pollution through my atmosphere, I'm not sharing it any more. Dreams got us to this point. Enough.
"As arguments are being made about the rules, so we get war right, I am silently screaming at war not being a primary abomination. If humanity has a future, it figures to be a puzzlement looking back for how it could have been common practice for countries to get their way by harming each other."
That's how my last week's Substack starts: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/deep-springboards-to-higher-ground. I hope you're reading what I'm putting out, which is somewhat of a bookend to you, where you take us to the heart of the problem and I get that heart working on what to do.
I've concluded, not happily, that we're hard wired to do war. I think it would be preferable if we had to do it with sticks and stones.
great piece!
I have no words this round. I'm too depressed.
Walking away for a while is okay and necessary. I run out of words, too.
"Set the controls for the heart of the sun."
"Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do."
David Bowie of course.