Thoughts on 2012

[biffvernon]

I also wonder about fracking and that alleged supervolcano.

Oh, I thought it was just small earthquakes. Ah well, I guess a supervolcano would sort Lancashire.

[RenewableCandy]

I meant the one in the States. Hopefully Lancashire is safe (enlightened self-interest: it's up-wind from Yorkshire ).

[PS_RalphW]

If my job is anything to go by, the unsustainable can last a lot longer than you would think would be physically possible. At least 5 years longer... we haven't traded a bean for six (nearly seven) weeks and they are still paying me...

[kenneal - lagger]

I notice that the BBC table doesn't refer to the most important story of the year/decade/millennium, the imminent total collapse of the world's economic system. We do have the Royal Wedding and Amy Winehouse (what an apt name, although a great singer when not a winehouse) to add gravitas to the British public's news quota. We live amongst a load of ostriches.

[Ludwig]

I notice that the BBC table doesn't refer to the most important story of the year/decade/millennium, the imminent total collapse of the world's economic system. We do have the Royal Wedding and Amy Winehouse (what an apt name, although a great singer when not a winehouse) to add gravitas to the British public's news quota. We live amongst a load of ostriches.

No we don't, the Government has made plans and those plans don't include telling people what is really going on.

[ujoni08]

Yes, that BBC time-line is conspicuous for what it DOESN'T include...

[jb]

Slightly off topic but thought of it as I read through the thread.
Suppose that the conspiracy theorists are right in claims that oil companies have at times suppressed other forms of energy that have threatened their dominance of the energy market. Maybe what we see now is a period where they placate the public with regards to depleting stocks in oil, since their intention is to provide 'revolutionary' solutions when oil eventually does run out. It could explain why nothing much is being done in reducing our reliance on oil. Climate change would then be an 'unlucky' senario for governments and corporations as they only needed the earth to 'survive' another 60 years of elevated levels of emissions, before the economic benefits of oil could be fully harvested and society could start a rocky but sure transition to reliance on another form of energy. Perhaps exhaustion of oil stocks won't mark the end of our industrialised society, simply a move into energy production that should have been available a long time ago had our twisted economic system been able to allow for it.

[UndercoverElephant]

Slightly off topic but thought of it as I read through the thread.
Suppose that the conspiracy theorists are right in claims that oil companies have at times suppressed other forms of energy that have threatened their dominance of the energy market. Maybe what we see now is a period where they placate the public with regards to depleting stocks in oil, since their intention is to provide 'revolutionary' solutions when oil eventually does run out. It could explain why nothing much is being done in reducing our reliance on oil. Climate change would then be an 'unlucky' senario for governments and corporations as they only needed the earth to 'survive' another 60 years of elevated levels of emissions, before the economic benefits of oil could be fully harvested and society could start a rocky but sure transition to reliance on another form of energy. Perhaps exhaustion of oil stocks won't mark the end of our industrialised society, simply a move into energy production that should have been available a long time ago had our twisted economic system been able to allow for it.

Big Oil is indeed guilty of suppressing research into alternatives, but that was a few years ago rather than now. And it wasn't the only problem anyway - there are physical reasons why it is impossible to replace crude oil with any other sort of resource. Oil (especially light, sweet crude that comes easily out of the ground) is just too useful for too many different things for anything else to come close.

[Ludwig]

Slightly off topic but thought of it as I read through the thread.
Suppose that the conspiracy theorists are right in claims that oil companies have at times suppressed other forms of energy that have threatened their dominance of the energy market. Maybe what we see now is a period where they placate the public with regards to depleting stocks in oil, since their intention is to provide 'revolutionary' solutions when oil eventually does run out. It could explain why nothing much is being done in reducing our reliance on oil. Climate change would then be an 'unlucky' senario for governments and corporations as they only needed the earth to 'survive' another 60 years of elevated levels of emissions, before the economic benefits of oil could be fully harvested and society could start a rocky but sure transition to reliance on another form of energy. Perhaps exhaustion of oil stocks won't mark the end of our industrialised society, simply a move into energy production that should have been available a long time ago had our twisted economic system been able to allow for it.

I used to think the sorts of ideas you suggest were barking. Firstly (I thought), what reasons were there to suppose that alternative energy sources existed? Secondly, why would TPTB keep quiet about them when they might prevent the collapse of civilisation?

Now I'm not so sure - mainly after reading about Tesla's work. Most of Tesla's inventions are still classified, but there is much circumstantial evidence of top secret research into electromagnetic power. I've heard it suggested that Tesla's energy technologies were so powerful that they were kept secret not just for nefarious reasons, but also because it was feared what rogue "mad scientists" might do with them. From what I can tell they almost seem to straddle the boundary between science, and what we call paranormal.

Google John Hutichison. He claims to have to have taken up where Tesla (publicly) left off, and to have had people try to pay him off and to stop his work. It may be a hoax, but even if so, levitating cannonballs are pretty impressive!

I've yet to read anything that says zero-point energy doesn't exist - as far as I know it's a physical fact, but someone may be able to correct me.

[DominicJ]

See the problem is, theres no such thing as an oil company.

Nintendo, maker of child friendly games consoles, once ran a chain of "love hotels"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_hotel

If BP had the ability to generate mains electricity at virtualy no cost, why would it waste all that effort digging for oil and appologising for spilling some?

Why wouldnt the Soviet Union have carried on Teslas work?
Or China?
Or France?
Or India?
Or South Africa?
Or Brazil?
Or Vanatu for that matter?

[Ludwig]

See the problem is, theres no such thing as an oil company.

Nintendo, maker of child friendly games consoles, once ran a chain of "love hotels"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_hotel

If BP had the ability to generate mains electricity at virtualy no cost, why would it waste all that effort digging for oil and appologising for spilling some?

Why wouldnt the Soviet Union have carried on Teslas work?
Or China?
Or France?
Or India?
Or South Africa?
Or Brazil?
Or Vanatu for that matter?

(a) The US military classified all the work he didn't publish during his lifetime. Which I understand was a lot; he always wanted to sell his work to the military, but presumably they refused to buy it on his terms. There are rumours that because of this, he ended up selling it to the Germans. There are theories that the Germans used his technology to create flying saucers, and that the quiet immigration of German scientists into the USA after the war accounts for the sudden appearance of UFOs in this period.
I'm not saying I know any of this to be true, but I don't see any reason to dismiss it out of hand, and I can see numerous reasons to take the possibility seriously.

(b) Anyhow: who says those countries haven't carried on Tesla's work? IIRC there are 5 or so known facilities for bouncing low-frequency EM beams off the ionosphere, including one in Norway and one in Russia. The purported use of these facilities is for monitoring of weather and crap like that, but no one is able to deny that they have potential as weapons.

[clv101]

We're talking about science - there's no way "The US Military" could censor the world's scientists - thousands of them working away, largely in freedom, in countries all other the world, specifically trying to be innovative, competing with one another. The idea of TPTB suppressing valuable scientific developments is ridiculous in my opinion. It just doesn't sit with my (pretty good) understanding of how science works.

[emordnilap]

Slightly off topic but thought of it as I read through the thread.
Suppose that the conspiracy theorists are right in claims that oil companies have at times suppressed other forms of energy that have threatened their dominance of the energy market. Maybe what we see now is a period where they placate the public with regards to depleting stocks in oil, since their intention is to provide 'revolutionary' solutions when oil eventually does run out. It could explain why nothing much is being done in reducing our reliance on oil. Climate change would then be an 'unlucky' senario for governments and corporations as they only needed the earth to 'survive' another 60 years of elevated levels of emissions, before the economic benefits of oil could be fully harvested and society could start a rocky but sure transition to reliance on another form of energy. Perhaps exhaustion of oil stocks won't mark the end of our industrialised society, simply a move into energy production that should have been available a long time ago had our twisted economic system been able to allow for it.

And so this article will be off the mark. Certainly, the majority of comments seem to think so.

Good economic times will eventually come roaring back and then we will start seeing space exploration as a priority once again.

[the_lyniezian]

I notice that the BBC table doesn't refer to the most important story of the year/decade/millennium, the imminent total collapse of the world's economic system. We do have the Royal Wedding and Amy Winehouse (what an apt name, although a great singer when not a winehouse) to add gravitas to the British public's news quota. We live amongst a load of ostriches.

Do you perhaps mean the name would be more apt if it was Amy Whinehouse?

I think the reason behind the lack of mention of economic collapse is not mentioned on the chart for one simple reason: the chart is recording specific events at discrete points in time, whereas the economic situation permeates the entire timescale- and, let's be frank, has been going on longer than this year. I suggest it could just about be represented by the Budget.

Quite why the death of a popular singer should rank equally in importance to other global events I don't know- an unfortunate loss, to be sure, but hardly comparing to the scale of, say, the Japanese earthquake. It probably says a lot about our priorities and unwillingness to tackle the serious issues. Hardly any conspiricy- it's just what sells papers based on pandering to human instinct. No-one wants to have too much doom and gloom that affects them, and they are more likely to empathise with a person than large numbers of people.

[Ludwig]

Do you perhaps mean the name would be more apt if it was Amy Whinehouse?

I think the reason behind the lack of mention of economic collapse is not mentioned on the chart for one simple reason: the chart is recording specific events at discrete points in time, whereas the economic situation permeates the entire timescale- and, let's be frank, has been going on longer than this year. I suggest it could just about be represented by the Budget.

So why are oil and looming economic collapse mentioned virtually every day on Russia Today? Are the Russian media better informed than the UK? No, but the collapse of the West is good news for them so they aren't scared of mentioning it.