By Stephen Fitzgerald
You may have read the AIMN articles Creating conflict, Our best future and Feeding the monster. There is a thread that ties these narratives together. What has been outlined is the state of the world at the moment and where we are headed as a global community. There are two pathways that present themselves for humanities future. One is the marriage between governments and the power brokers controlling fossil fuels and war and the other is a move to a sustainable energy future.
The headlines are shocking beyond belief: There are four warring factions, in Yemen, fighting over 4 billion barrels of oil representing 90% of the country’s exports. For the war machine, arms manufacturers and arms dealers to prosper, you need something to fight over. In the Middle East it’s oil and natural gas. They don’t care about the 85,000 innocent children who have starved to death already, in Yemen. It’s all about money, power and control at any cost to humanity.
There is 1.5 billion barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic metres of natural gas being tapped by Israel. A large proportion of Israel’s fossil fuel wealth lies beneath land under Palestinian control. To suck all that oil out from under the nose of the Palestinians you need conflict and diversion. Once again, the fight for oil and natural gas feeds the global war machine and arms manufacturers. And, makes a few people filthy rich.
The war in Syria. Whoever controls Syria controls 2.5 billion barrels of oil. Once again, it’s the fight for diminishing natural resources that drives these conflicts and once again, it’s the war machine and the oil barons that profit.
So, war and control of depleting oil and gas reserves go hand in hand. There are trillions of dollars to be made from war and fossil fuel. If we transition away from fossil fuel to renewable energy that than takes away the need for warring over oil and natural gas. It also takes away the massive profits from both. Keeping that in mind, against all the scientific evidence, who are most likely to be in climate change denial to protect their own selfish interests?
Anyone associated with profit from fossil fuels and/or the fight for control of fossil fuels will naturally be in climate change denial. It’s where the big money is, and these people don’t care about the outcome or who gets hurt. They don’t care about the death and destruction of societies and the murder of the innocent happening right now in real time.
They most certainly don’t care about what may happen in the future. They don’t care about pending catastrophic climate change and they don’t care about the possible collapse of civilisation as predicted by Sir David Attenborough at the UN climate summit. Those in climate change denial only care about short term profit and screw the planet, screw the rest of us and screw civilisation.
If we let the fossil fuel and war barons drag us down their path to fight over and burn all the fossil fuel on the planet, we won’t have a planet capable of supporting life as we know it. We will have a 9.5 degree increase in average global temperature, melting of the polar ice caps and 200 feet sea level rise, catastrophic and extreme weather events and mass extinction. We may as well have a nuclear war now because, the end result of ignoring climate change will be the same. Destruction of the planet and the collapse of civilisation.
Once again, anyone in climate change denial is all about fossil fuel, war and profit and, what is outlined above is the future they are pushing us towards. It’s catastrophic devastation driven purely by greed. To diffuse this situation, we need a rapid transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This removes the need for fossil fuel wars and safeguards our fragile global environment. We must immediately remove any government that embraces the war machine and we must remove any conservative government that is not 100% committed to the transition to renewable energy.
It’s our children’s future, it’s our grand-children’s future, it’s the future of the planet and all life is on the line. It’s a fight worth fighting. Clean energy from the sun and the wind and, not fossil fuel wars. It’s a pretty simple choice and one that needs to ripple through the community and across the entire planet. Working together we can pressure a responsible progressive governments and we can change our future for the better.
In the conservative belt it’s really easy to say I’m doing O.K Jack, society is working rather well for my family and myself. Why change what’s working, for us? That’s why it’s called being conservative. It’s O.K. right now but, what about the future for our grand-children and beyond. What about looking further than our own back yard. What about looking at the bigger picture and the overwhelming evidence of where we are headed on our current path. What about the common sense and forward-thinking vision one would expect from educated and dynamic people? What about a shift in thinking and a more bipartisan approach to safeguarding the future?
Conservative versus progressive and fossil fuel wars versus renewable energy are the overriding issues of our time. We can save humanity and the natural world if we put aside our political differences, use our heads, meet in the middle, and get moving on this.
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Conservative versus progressive and fossil fuel wars versus renewable energy are the overriding issues of our time. We can save humanity and the natural world if we put aside our political differences, use our heads, meet in the middle, and get moving on this.
Stephen
My hope is that self preservation will overcome the stupidity of the fossil fuel and related vested interests … but not about to hold my breath.
The world conservative movement is an existential threat to the future of the planet and everyone on it. Their insane short sightedness and belief in a sky-fairy that will preserve them is going to get everyone killed
2018 was Australia’s third-warmest year on record (the national temperature dataset commences in 1910). Australia’s area-averaged mean temperature for 2018 was 1.14 °C above the 1961–1990 average.
The 11-year mean temperature for 2008–2018 was the highest on record at 0.77 °C above average. Only one of Australia’s warmest ten years occurred before 2005, and nine of the last ten years have been warmer than average.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/aus/?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=org&utm_campaign=sm-004-0002&utm_content=vid
If anyone has any doubts that there is Climate Change Deniers in this “government” they only need to check out a few of the “honorable members” Facebook pages, especially the likes of Craig Kelly MP. Hundreds of ‘lifted’ articles related to the anti-science of Climate Change, virtually none related to his Hughes Electorate issues. Surely some of these dinosaurs should be facing charges, “Crimes Against Humanity” maybe?
Meanwhile, millions of fish are dying and the Liberal governments in NSW and Canberra are throwing rocks at each other.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-10/niall-blair-accused-of-ignoring-menindee-locals-about-fish-kill/10701766
I am looking forward to the results of the SA Royal Commission.
Pollution and allowing pollution to continue has to be clearly set into law as a crime, far more than the lip service given to the problem now.
Pollution harms everyone and everything. Bleeding obvious.
@Kaye Lee: This horrendous fish kill is a natural consequence of the policies of National$ Adulterer-in-Chief Barnyard Joke (New England NSW) and his successor David Littleproud, (Maranoa, SW Qld). when both were Minister for Water the alleged broad acre farmers allegedly stealing MDB environmental water flows were protected from prosecution, causing the river to flow upstream to the pumps.
It is alleged that political donations paid to the National$ Party has allowed this long standing destruction of down steam rural enterprises and regional towns to continue for decades.
The solution is simple; each and every pump extracting water from the MDB must have a satellite linked data recording device transmitting continuously to a central office in regional Australia. Any breaches, such as the much referenced interference with the present (inadequate) recording devices, must be met with loss of water rights for a period, especially during cotton boll set and later towards harvest.
Matt Canavan has a solution : turn on you airconditioning powered by electricity from coal : simple !
Both Joyce and Canavan are National party politicians who are supposed to represent regional and rural interests.
‘I’ve considered myself reasonably well up on mid-east issues, including Israel and its “anti semitic” critics, but Fitzgerald’s article blows my mind.
I forgot to mention the war in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has an estimated 946 million barrels of crude oil and 91 billion cubic metres of natural gas worth an estimated 3 trillion dollars. You see, it’s not religion, it’s not different factions, it’s not ideology, it’s not the Russians and it’s not the Americans driving the ongoing conflict, it’s the underlying factor. Once again, control of the oil and natural gas reserve and then profit to arms manufacturers is the catalyst.
The immediate response is: “How do we stand up to that, oh dear, we are doomed!”. We are not doomed. We have had the wool pulled over our eyes by the pro fossil fuel and war economy factions. What has changed is that we are galloping towards catastrophic climate change if we continue to burn fossil fuels. Alarm bells are ringing and we are starting to wake up. Our first step is to take action at home and, that would be installing a government that embraces a rapid faze-out of fossil fuel and a rapid transition to renewables.
J P Morgan stole the notes, records and data models of Nicholas Tesla after he died. Tesla free energy devices could not be metered, measured, nor unitized for pricing purposes.
We now have operational directed energy weapons with navy and air force units of several armed forces, for modifying weather conditions, inducing earthquakes, hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones and more. By 2025 the US Air Force planned to own the weather.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon
We saw an example of a directed energy weapon the night before Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize.
https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2018/08/14/space-based-laser-weapons-could-ultimately-take-out-missile-threats-in-boost-phase/
Man-made climate change is real and directed energy weapons are now space-based!
https://www.boeing.com/defense/missile-defense/directed-energy/
So how will humanity deal with this after we cut down our CO2 emissions?
One step at a time I suppose David. Controlling the weather can be used for good or evil, I think I saw a movie about that somewhere once? Humans have this amazing capacity – If we can imagine something we can probably make it happen. Time will tell with directed energy weapon.
What I imagine is changing the future for the better. We have a right-wing pro fossil fuel and war mongering government. Collectively, Australians have an opportunity to send a powerful message to the rest of the world starting with our next federal election. For that to happen, as many people as possible need to be aware of the bigger picture unfolding here.
It’s not just oil that prompts military action – it’s also currency, namely the US dollar. When you think of oil, you naturally think of OPEC, the oil-producing countries and their cartel. In 1971, Henry Kissinger went to Saudi Arabia and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse – sell your oil only in US dollars (the petrodollar) and we’ll not only guarantee your sovereignty, but we’ll sell you the latest weaponry. It wasn’t long before the other OPEC countries came on board.
Since then, a number of countries made changes to the way their oil is sold. Iraq went from the US dollar to the Euro and got invaded for its trouble. They’ve since reverted to selling their oil in petrodollars. A Libyan bloke named Qadhafi planned a pan-African currency based on the gold dinar. Now Qadhafi’s as dead as his plan. In 2006, Syria went to the Euro instead of the petrodollar and in that same year, the US Charge d’Affaires in Damascus submitted a plan to Washington for the overthrow of the Syrian government. The riots started in 2011 in the which the CIA and US State Departments played a large part. We all know what happened afterwards. Venezuala ditched the petrodollar in September 2017. Venezuala has more than its share of problems, but its action certainly didn’t endear it to the US administration.
Add to that the other countries who won’t (or can’t) trade in US dollars – North Korea, Iran for starters and then add in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and there you have a trading bloc more than equal to the US in size. Because of China’s economic clout, the Yuan is a preferred currency.
Then we have the geo-political situations. Syria favoured an oil or gas pipeline proposed by Russia. The US didn’t. US interests (Genie Energy) are currently engaged in oil exploration on the occupied Golan Heights in Syria, with Israel’s blessing. Some of Genie’s directors or shareholders have names like Rothschild, Murdoch (yes, that one!) and Cheney.
The moral of the story? Don’t let anything undermine the value (i.e. demand) for your currency.
Anning the Nut Case –
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/fraser-anning-to-form-conservative-nationals-party/news-story/bbb22cf326d4d3925291b9de62eaa92f
Just what we need, another Raving Right Wing Nut Job Party. More do with snout and trough I’m guessing.
Murdoch and his clones foster the fear of terrorism and the hatred of muslims, refugees, minorities, the unemployed, those on social support, greenies and anyone ‘different’. They and their associated business interests such as the miners, big banks, the gambling industry and real estate speculators probably fund the hard right populists as they will be their political puppets if their current conservative puppets can no longer win our rigged elections.
Thanks Phil – Enlightening to say the least. The dominant currency, war economy and fossil fuel tapestry will quickly unravel when oil, natural gas and coal are no longer in demand. Let’s hope humanity wakes up and the move to renewable energy doesn’t arrive too late.
Andreas – There is a lot of clear observation and sparkling truth in what you say. Being aware of these things puts us in a position to take action and, we need to use all the tools at our disposal.
The LNP continues its return to the heady days of the 1950’s and White Australia and the donning of the Plastic Raincoats of Pocket Pool whenever the queens name was mentioned –
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-13/federal-government-australia-day-citizenship-local-councils/10711476?section=politics
Now he’s coming across as Jesus Morriscum with this bullshit –
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/14/morrison-to-prioritise-security-and-native-species-as-he-attempts-coalition-rebrand
Will The Potato become his Judas Duttonuci?
Thanks Kay Lee – https://theaimn.com/give-it-up-scott-they-know-you-are-lying/
The countries in disgrace for ignoring global warming in favour of promoting the burning of fossil fuel, as pointed out, are: Turkey (Authoritarian), Russia (Authoritarian), Australia (Right-wing), France (Right-wing), Japan (Right-wing), Indonesia (Authoritarian), Canada (Right-wing), USA (Right-wing) and every country involved in the wars for control of oil and natural gas.
So basically, Australia with a right-wing elitist government is bundled in with dictators, authoritarians and other self-serving right-wing governments. Collectively, they rule with lies, deceit, fear and propaganda. It is shameful beyond belief that this is Australia in the 21st century. It feels like the dark ages but much worse because ignorance is not an excuse.
We are the last generation capable of standing up for the rights of humanity and the protection of the natural world. We have a huge responsibility to fight for and, protect that future.
Girls, Girls, Girls and Women. There is a sisterhood of women and, women talk to each other. There’s proof of that. You gave up wearing fur coats to save the natural world and that message spread globally. We need a transition to renewable energy from the sun and wind and, we need to phase out burning fossil fuels to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The men in power don’t seem to be able to contemplate saving the natural world. They seem to be stuck in no-man’s land when it comes to action on global warming. So, start talking girls, you have the numbers to get rid of the governments who stand against you. Get rid of the governments in climate change denial and, that’s the ones backing fossil fuel.
Once again, change global thinking to save the natural world and, as a bonus, save us along with it. Clearly, the men in power are not worth saving but, lucky for them, our children are.
If you have landed here, you have probably read my stylized on-line book
“ARTICLES: Our Children’s Future – Oil Wars and Ice Melt”.
https://www.hootgallery.com/steve-fitz-articles
It’s themed on the raging wars for control of oil and natural gas and, the global consequences if we burn it all. The solution is to remove the demand for fossil fuels with a rapid transition to renewable energy.