Thoughts for 2014

Thoughts for the New Year, 2015

By Denis Frith
This is an update of the essay I produced for 2014. Before presenting an update on background and recommendations, I will comment on the impact of what has happened in 2014 on the premises I put forward. The global awareness of  the deleterious impact of climate change and some remedial measures have grown during the year but, surprisingly, Australian 'leaders', still consider the pursuit of economic growth to be more important! Economic growth has slowed down in many countries due to the combination of a number of economic, social, political and ecological reasons accentuated by conflicts in a number of regions, particularly the Middle East, together with the common financial market games played by powerful interests in Eastern as well as Western countries. The recent drop in oil price will hit many economies (particularly Russia and Iran) and industries (including shale oil producers) hard although the masses here will welcome the cheaper fuel for a while only. This oil price hiccup is bound to lead to tumultuous events in the coming year that will have an impact in this country. The lowering price of iron ore is also going to hit the budgets of industry and government hard in the coming year.Unfortunately, there are no signs that our federal and state politicians have a clue about about how things really work. Employment, health and education are important issues but the holistic one is that the technological systems are irreversibly using up natural resources, producing irrevocable waste and devastating the environment. A commentator blamed the loss by the Liberals of the Victorian election on the failure to emphsise liberal values of small government, individual liberty and personal responsibility. His attitude sums up the reason why civilization is doomed. People do not really have the liberty to consume irreplaceable natural resources and produce irrevocable waste. Responsible people do their utmost to live sustainably with what nature provides but the majority irresponsibly consume. Wise government would seek to provide sound leadership rather than promote economic growth without paying the ecological cost as governments worldwide are doing.
I entered an essay " " in a global competition " " without any success even though a Russian anthropologist gave it ten out of ten because the novel points in my essay were consistent with those raised by  some past authorities with out having any impact on the decisions being made by the powerful. I have now offered a prize for the student of my old school, Launceston Grammar, who provides the best response to the challenges raised in my ELAM essay. The intention is to encourage the students to think about the reality that is occurring rather than the delusion fostered by the mainstream. Maybe in 2015 I will have some success in improving understanding of reality by focusing on novel, unrecognized.basic scientific principles.

In my retirement I have researched what civilization has done to its life support system, the environment and the underground material bounty. I have used the internet to gather information and evidence and to peruse the views of informed people in many fields. I now know the fundamental physical principles governing the operation of all the technological infrastructure of civilization. This operation is an unsustainable process that uses up the limited natural material wealth while producing irrevocable material waste in providing the goods and services that society has become so dependent on.  The harm that this process is doing to the environment is another deleterious consequence of this lust by society for a high material standard of living regardless of the real ecological cost. The fact that the marine ecosystem is also being devastated does not receive the warranted consideration, as yet. The billions who rely on fish for protein are striving to ineffectively cope with this marine predicament. Although climate change is causing widespread concern, little effective adaption is being implemented. These examples are only symptoms of the stark reality, but society does not understand the fundamental physical principle that the operation of the systems of civilization is unsustainable. And there is no reason to believe that the powerful or the masses will take this reality into account until it hits home hard in coming years due to numerous deleterious effects. The impact of climate change is only one symptom of the holistic malaise. Many others are being assessed by scientists in their specific fields. Knowledgeable people talk in terms of the collapse of our civilization. They are referring to a process that is under way now and will take place relatively slowly over the coming decades.  ‘Black swan’ events may precipitate local catastrophes that will hasten the demise. The current population is beyond the carrying capacity of Earth so a horrifying die off is certain this century. Ironically, the inevitable demise of the infrastructure (the cities, roads, ports, sewerage systems etc.) will also be a problem that the coming generation will have to face. How will they cope as the availability of food, fuels, electricity and many other services declines?

Individuals, families and even communities can do very little to ameliorate the inevitable powering down of society as a whole. But they can ease the situation for themselves and associates by making sound decisions and by adopting worthwhile practices. My objective in writing this essay is to pass on useful facets of the knowledge I have gained in my research. Many informed people around the globe have put forward sound proposals. I summarize these below to the best of my ability as I want this to be a useful legacy.

I list below issues you will some time address and I then follow with comments on them if I believe I can provide sound insight.   

1.      Attitude

2.      Outlook

3.      Environmental  issues

4.      Family

5.      Residence

6.      Diet

7.      Health issues

8.      Education

9.      Skills

10.  Technology

11.  Life style

12.  Social issues

13.  Career

14.  Retirement

15.  Communication

16.  Relaxation

17.  Traveling

18.  Managing financial affairs

19.  Prognosis

I will not deign to say much on many of these items.  The search mechanisms on the internet can easily provide back up material for these items. I only provide advice where my research provides understanding of details of how the future will be different to what has happened in recent times and, often, what is the general misleading view portrayed by the powerful in society, governments and the media. I want this understanding to help people cope with the inevitable powering down of Australian society by making sound decisions on the issues listed here.  We live in the lucky country but that does not mean that we can look forward to continuance of the economic growth so beloved by politicians – for now. You cannot expect to have a major impact on what happens overall, but you can influence the prospects of family, friends and your community by your behavior and the understanding you promote.

I find it useful in making points to differentiate the common view of what is happening and why from the reality of what is happening to the physical world. I call the former Myopia while the specialists in affected fields and the few realists understand what is actually happening in the Real world. It is becoming increasingly common in learned circles to regard the natural world as being a great organism, termed Gaia, that has slowly evolved and will continue to do so despite the damage that industrial civilization is now doing to it.  Knowledgeable people are calling our times the Anthropocene Era due to what we are doing to our life support system.  I find it useful to term the temporary inanimate organism that is the infrastructure of our civilization (cities, roads, power stations, etc.) Tityas. Tityas is feeding off Gaia for operation and maintenance in an unsustainable process. It is entering its senescence as the natural resources it thrives on decline. Its decline will ensure the end of the Anthropocene Era and will be causing society to power down.

Now for comments on the items listed above.

1.      The current Myopic attitude of most people in Australia is that they strive to make enough money so that they and their family can enjoy a high material standard of living. As the economy contracts in coming years, smart people will embrace an improved life style with less accent on having things and more on worthwhile activities. They will have a real, progressive outlook rather than being conned by the Myopic illusions thrown up on TV and the conditioning they have been given during the years of economic growth. Smart people will employ the precautionary principle because they understand that the boom this century is unsustainable, so living standards will decline even here in Australia. Only time will answer the question of how rapidly, although sound advice can be found on the internet by carefully sorting the wheat from the chaff. The media hype will be of no assistance! And governments will, as usual, respond belatedly to rising predicaments. The slow, belated and misguided response to climate change is but one current example of their ineptitude. The current  crisis in many manufacturing industries is largely due to financial issues but the impact on the workers in these industries and their families is indicative of what  is bound to be a growing problem as the economy contracts due to Real factors.

2.      The general outlook now in Myopia is for continuing progress. Most people hope that the situation for their family will improve. This hope is based on failure to understand that the operation of the technological systems of civilization is an unsustainable process. They do not understand how the Real world operates. This process that uses up limited stored natural resources, produces irrevocable material wastes and degrades the environment in an unsustainable process that contributes to food production, population and infrastructure growth and consumption that cannot last. Toxic wastes are polluting land, sea, air and all organisms, including humans. Knowledgeable people have tagged this as the Anthropocene Era because human decisions in recent times have had such a devastating impact on how the environment operates that it cannot continue and the era will end. Those who understand the stark reality of what is happening will adopt a cautious outlook and accept a prudent policy based on the precautionary principle. They will go to the trouble of taking into account what experts are saying about what is happening in their fields rather than believe the hype of the mainstream media. They will strive to understand how the Real world operates. The collapse of numerous civilizations in the past three thousand years for a combination of ecological, economic, social and political reasons provides only some indication of what lies ahead for the current industrialized civilization because the giant rapacious Tityas now exists. Ironically, a number of authors have published over the years realistic appreciations of what has gone wrong in past and current civilizations without having any impact on the policies of the public and the ‘leaders’ of society. However, these sound views tend to focus on why societies have gone down a path rather than on what consequently irreversibly happened to the supporting structures and environment. The global dependence on using irreplaceable natural resources adds to the problems that previous civilizations were unable to cope with. They did not have a hungry giant Tityas. The nature and rapidity of the gradual collapse of Tityas will vary spatially and temporally during the remainder of this century. The global financial crisis of 2008, the impact of climate change on typhoons, storms, wild fires, floods and droughts, the health crisis afflicting billions of the young and aged and other creatures, the desperate efforts of the oil and gas industry to supply energy by fracking despite the ecological cost are just some of the symptoms of the holistic malaise of this civilization and its spoilt offshoot, Tityas. Smart people will obtain a more realistic outlook by obtaining understanding of what is actually happening from the experts in the various fields by using the search facilities on the internet rather than the Myopia delusion fostered by government, industry and the main stream media. They will realize that symptoms of the collapse of this civilization and the mass extinction are there for those prepared to look – and think. They will embrace the Real view. They will realize that society is facing a dilemma with regard to supply and demand. The current civilization is demanding the consumption of natural resources at an increasingly high rate as the supply declines. Smart people will cope with the inevitable powering down by being frugal as there is little they can do to ameliorate the holistic malaise.

3.      Environmental issues are receiving more attention for good reason. Society is used to coping with the occasional natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, storms, floods and droughts. These are actually becoming more common due to climate change despite the denial of this aspect of Real by some prominent Myopians and very little remedial action. However, this issue is being compounded by the occurrence of unnatural disasters due to the failings of technological systems in Tityas. Often natural and unnatural disasters combine to provide a catastrophe. The tsunami combined with the ineptitude in the design of the Fukushima nuclear power station has produced on ongoing catastrophe for the Japanese and countless others as the toxic radioactive waste streams away in ocean currents. The Chernobyl nuclear plant failure was another unnatural disaster that had grim consequences for many in various countries for a long time. The precautionary principle has not been applied to the numerous nuclear power stations in the US and European countries. So a number of unnatural disasters of this type are possible as these plants age. Safe disposal of the vast amount of nuclear waste that has accumulated is swept under the carpet by the governments simply because they have no sound disposal plan. The disasters due to radioactive nuclear wastes are building up. Greenhouse gases are already causing atmospheric and ocean disasters. But disasters are not the only environmental issues causing increasing concern. Deforestation, desertification, loss of aquifer water and soil fertility, devastation of the marine ecosystem are some of the growing problems that are being compounded by climate change. Australia is particularly vulnerable as it is the dry continent with a small proportion of fertile soil. All one can do is be aware of what is happening to the environment so one can contribute a little to society coping with the ongoing devastation.

4.      The mutual support within a family and local community has been one of the most beneficial factors in many societies for a long time. This has tended to decline in recent times in most countries, partly as the young have adapted to a progressing economy. Changing values have also had an impact with marriage and having children losing its attraction for many. The unsustainable growth in the global population will exert growing pressure on society as a whole but there is no reason for a couple to take it into account in deciding the size of their family. But they should consider whether they will be able to foster a sound upbringing of their children as times inevitably become more difficult and values change. The increasing alcoholism and drug abuse amongst the young is just a symptom of what is coming as the bewildered lose hope of a prosperous standard of living. An additional problem is that people are living longer while the coming contraction of the economy will place an increasing load on medical and care services. Those families and communities that cherish the values of resilience and compassion and embrace sound living will be in a better position to face these challenges. And understanding of what is really happening will reduce the bewilderment.

5.      When considering moving to another abode bear in mind the following issues:

·         Those homes that are very dependent on heating and cooling appliances for comfort in summer and winter will become most unattractive as energy costs more while climate change increases the demand for comfort indoors. Look for homes that are orientated to take advantage of sunshine, no larger than necessary and also have good insulation.

·         The advantages that apartments may seem to have now will dissipate when inevitably power supply declines.  Imagine what it will be like when residents have to walk up many flights of stairs!

·         Suburban sprawl has become endemic in the major cities and has fostered the growing dependence on the car just as the availability of fuel noticeably declines. Regional cities will become more attractive where there are adequate employment options.

·         Buying a home by getting a large mortgage has become a sound financial move in recent times. Those days are coming to an end as economic growth peaks and can become disastrous for many as the decline sets in. Renting may not be financially attractive but the only possibility. Young couples moving in with parents is becoming increasingly common as the financial situation deteriorates.

6.      Mainstream media provides a confusing mix of dietary and cooking information combined with the promotion of fast foods. The very real problem with obesity is already receiving due attention and that will increase as it is now an endemic problem. However, advice about the emerging danger of eating sea foods should also be taken seriously. Radioactive waste from the Fukushima nuclear accident seems to be combining with ocean acidification due to fossil fuel emissions to deleteriously affect many varieties of fish by altering the marine eco system. There are alternative sources of proteins. Growing your own fruit and vegetables will help ease the diet problem significantly, especially as transportation problems will reduce the convenience of conventional shopping malls. Eating out will become less popular so cooking skills will again be a worthwhile acquisition in households.

7.      Concern about health issues is biased by the impact of commercial presentations on medications and announcements of advances in treatment of such problems as breast cancer, diabetes and alzheimer’s disease. Emerging problems due to the increasing contamination of bloodstreams due to the toxic materials in the air, food and water do not yet receive the mainstream attention that is warranted. Radioactive waste from the Fukushima nuclear disaster can well be a major contribution to the impact of toxic materials. Fracking to extract shale oil and gas is contaminating groundwater yet some state governments are supporting proposals for industry to make money by providing energy by this process.  There is little you can do about pollution other than take into account that it is worse in some overseas regions, including many cities. However, you can enjoy the health benefits of sound food and physical activities. The common obesity indicates how many in society have given in to fast food and sedimentary activities. Watching TV and playing video games is a common ailment now but it will decrease in due course as these facilities become rarer. Ironically, the decrease in these distractions will force people to adopt a healthier life style. There is concern that a plague may occur that will have a devastating impact on the global population. The current bubonic plague in Madagascar is an indication that humans are still susceptible to a problem that led to the Black Death in the Middle Ages. Hygienic practices in developed countries lessen that possibility here but bugs like international travel too!

8.      Education will become increasingly important as the values in society change from the emphasis on increasing material standard of living to improving life style with less damage to the environment and a reduction in consumption. The current trend in fostering living with nature will continue to increase in schools. The courses available in universities are bound to focus more on means of adapting to what civilization is actually doing rather than innovative technology and economics. However, the increasing dependence on information technology is a worrying tendency as it is not sustainable. Smart people will be selective about their learning activities so they will have the resilience to cope with trends not foreseen in the mainstream. There will be reversion to many simpler past practices.

9.      Technological developments have greatly reduced the demand on people to have many fundamental skills. The current throw-away society will be replaced by a society facing the challenge of making do with a much lower material standard of living without having adequate coping skills. Fixing things rather than replacing them will again become the norm, where that is practical. But many items are now so constructed that they cannot be repaired. Gone are the days when car owners could maintain their cars for years. Nevertheless, going to the trouble of learning basic useful mechanical, electrical and wood working skills will pay off in due course. This, of course, is in addition to the worthwhile gardening, storing and cooking skills

10.  Society is addicted to the benefits provided by technology without understanding that technology has never created anything! Society is conditioned to believe inventors have devised means to provide the goods and services that are so much a part and parcel of what happens. All technology has ever done is enable the use of natural forces to irreversibly consume natural resources and produce irrevocable material waste in the process of producing the goods and services so beloved by society. Society blesses (and pays well) inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs now but how will they be treated in the future after the peak of everything? Ironically, there is nothing you can do about this delusion. The role of technology will slowly decline as its sustenance, natural resources, become scarcer.

11.  For decades the powerful in society have promoted the view that the market economy will foster the trickling up of material standard of living so to an improving life style for the masses. That has happened to the middle classes in the developed countries and is happening now in the developing countries such as China and India. It is based on the ability of the systems of civilization to divest natural material wealth at a high rate. That rapacious process is coming to an end. Smart people will adopt a frugal life style based on doing rather than consuming while seeking the benefits of localisation. They will avoid the harshest aspects of the inevitable powering down that will infect most of society and they will also have the advantage that they understand why this decline is happening.

12.  Social issues have always been worrisome due to the actions of the repellent minority, often because they are disadvantaged or have unreasonable beliefs.  There is widespread concern at how criminal activities, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug abuse and other anti-social issues are escalating, especially among the young. This malfeasance is bound to grow rapidly as more people become disillusioned as the progress they have been conditioned to expect dies. Smart people will be able to do no more than promote understanding, especially amongst the young, that society will have to learn to live with nature. It is quite possible that many of the brightest youngsters will rise to the challenge of fostering a sound powering down. The least that the oldsters can do is to foster this positive movement among the smart young. However, that can only slightly ameliorate the disintegration of society as a whole.

13.  Choice of career has always been an important issue for the young but the pressures will be changing dramatically in the years ahead. The need to look ahead is becoming more difficult due to the inevitable ending of economic growth together with the declining material standard of living combined with the aging population. Many of the careers that are currently deemed as being worth striving for will turn out to be dead ends. Airline pilots enjoy an attractive image now but that will not last because airliners are a threatened species. The current chaos in the automotive industry in Australia will get no better even though the number of cars being produced globally is still going up. That production rate will peak shortly and then decline rapidly, mainly because the fuel is running out and the necessary materials becoming scarce. Considering a career in mining, manufacturing or marketing would be unwise. Professionals in the legal and financial fields will be under greater pressure to provide reasonable service at a competitive price. The demand for scientists and engineers will focus on maintenance and remedial activities. The demand for education, health, caring and security services will continue but budgetary constraints in a declining economy could reduce prospects. On the other hand, the demand for electricians, carpenters and other skilled tradespeople is bound to increase as people are forced by circumstances to power down.

14.  Retirement is unlikely to be as comfortable and pleasing as retirees are enjoying now. Superannuation is most unlikely to provide adequate finance for the touring that most people look forward too, especially as cars and airlines will no longer be affordable for many. The aging of the population will put pressure on the governments to fund pension, health and caring services as their budgets are hard hit by reduced taxation income as industry fades combined with the cost of debt servicing rising. Smart people will adopt a frugal outlook now so that their retirement will not be stressful.

15.  Society is happily embracing the information revolution without giving any thought to how long it will be possible for industry to manufacture the vast number of computers, smart phones and other electronic devices by using up the depleting rare earth minerals and other irreplaceable materials. They do not understand that it is an unsustainable process that will be entering its senescence shortly. Banking, on-line shopping, social networking, searching for information, entertainment, learning, education, promoting views and stimulating activities are some of the activities  that people around the globe have become addicted too because they have not been educated about reality. How will they cope with the gradual withdrawal of these facilities in the decades ahead? How long will the National Broadband Network be operational? Most people will say that such a situation cannot occur. They will say that science and technology will come up with solutions but that is because they do not understand that technology has never done more than use natural forces to consume natural resources  while producing irrevocable waste material just to provide humans with goods and services for a while. Most people will find it hard to cope with the decline in the availability of these services and they will not be able to expect much help from governments or industry.

16.  Stress will become an increasing problem as people find it hard to accept that the good times are becoming fanciful images. The ability to relax will, consequently, become a more useful therapeutic measure. But the current emphasis on relaxing by watching TV, playing video games or other measures depending on technological systems cannot continue. There will be a reversion to focussing on artistic pursuits, hobbies, sporting endeavours, games such as chess and social discourse for relaxation. Ironically, the conversion of many redundant shops in shopping malls to meeting places will foster the social discourse that used to be so common in many countries.

17.  The current trend on travelling around the world for pleasure as well as business is built on the facility of airliners. And that will not last. Those who have the desire or need and the means should do it in the near future as the ability to do so will decline rapidly. It would be unwise to put such a move on the agenda for retirement. The Boeing Dreamliner, Airbus 340 and other airliners consume vast quantities of jet fuel during their limited lifetimes. There is not enough acreage for biofuels to meet more than a small proportion of the insatiable appetite of armada of airliners. Land and sea transports will continue to demand their share of this scarce natural resource.

18.  Managing financial affairs will change profoundly in the coming decades. Society has become conditioned by the rapid economic growth of recent times to make financial decisions that they could rue in the not too distant future. The investment boom will have encouraged them to fallaciously believe that their superannuation will finance a pleasant retirement while being able to support the pretensions of their family. The equity in their home will be supporting that unwise presumption. Financial managers will have to become more circumspect in their advice as money loses its potency.

19.  Society has become very dependent on the services provided by the systems of industrial civilization. This particularly so in the cities. The gradual withdrawal of these services in the decades ahead will have a profound impact on many people. The rich elite will have the monetary leverage to cope with the powering down. The smart people will use their knowledge to make sound proactive decisions. But the overall situation will be catastrophic. That is the prognosis based on the understanding of how the Real world operates.

The understanding that I have embodied in this essay is grim but based on the reality of what happens rather than what people want to believe. So let the points I have made here provide you with guidance in the years ahead.

Technology chasing its tail

One of the most amazing and amusing phenomenon for people to contemplate is how many forms of technology have chased their tails over the years. One classic example is the development of fighter aircraft in the past one hundred years. The British Sopwith Camel tackled the German Fokker in the first World War on also even terms.These biplanes could not fly fast or high but they had many lethal contests. Their gunners did the fighting as the pilots concentrated on out maneuvering their foe.Then came the Second World War and Britain had the Spitfire and Hurricane to match the Messerschmidt and the FockeWulf in the sky over England. They were a lot faster and could go much higher and had machine guns in the wings controlled by the pilot. But they were soon old hat. Jet fighters took over with various versions of the Russian MiG  and Su vying with the American Sabre, Phantom, Tomcat. Eagle and Falcon on paper over the Cold War years. Supersonic flight and equipping these aircraft with missiles were common advances as the aircraft companies attempted to better their competitors.

But innovations in specific fields can become redundant due to developments in other fields. The prime naval vessels of the early 20th Century were the battleships but they had been replaced by aircraft carriers by the end of the century. Now these giants are becoming redundant as potential enemies acquire advanced cheap missile systems that can spoil the capability of these costly vessels.

Ironically, it is not potential enemies who are now the greatest threat to the military of the powerful countries. Nature is not to be ignored. It spent eons creating fossil fuels only to have those parasitic humans waste that natural wealth. The war machines have become very dependent on these fuels so their capabilities are declining.

But humans will not be outdone easily by nature. Cyber warfare is becoming the new battlefield due to advances in tangible electronic devices and intangible human and artificial intelligence.

That, however, will be the last throw of the technological dice. All technological systems are made of irreplaceable material from the crustal store. And that is inevitably running out. Natural will bat last!

Quit! It is too threatening.

Society loves the goods and services that the technological systems of civilization provide. Heating and cooling, the ease of transportation in cars and airliners together with electronic facilitating of communication are just some of the measures that many people now take for granted. They welcome what the inventors have done and believe the media hype that this benefaction will continue to grow. They look forward to an improving material standard of living.

Society is like a clutch of smokers. It welcomes the short term benefits and discounts the long term consequences of the cancerous activities. Do car drivers fuming in traffic congestion ever think of the fact that the engines are destroying a product that it took natural forces millions of years to create. Some, no doubt, are concerned that the coal power stations that supply their electricity are also contributing to the climate change that is causing some worry - but little action. The increasing frequency of cold spells is only bothersome so long as heating in the home, office and car is still available. How will the Canadian power cable maintenance personnel do their job in the snow when they can no longer get fuel for their snowmobiles or helicopters? Heat waves are hitting aged people hard in countries such as Australia, America and the EU. The situation will become a lot worse when air-conditioning is no longer available.

Quit smoking is sound advice that has been around for a while so some smart people have taken in board. Quit freeloading on what nature provides is even sounder advice but few have sufficient understanding of what civilization is doing wrong to take that advice on board. Consequently, the infrastructure that provides people with the goods and services they currently thrive on is doomed. The people will be bewildered as their life style goes down the plug hole. They cannot envision the disintegration of New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo and the other cities but their children and grandchildren will experience the horrifying loss of facilities they provide.

Climate change gains some consideration on the media now but its impact will grow exponentially despite the rhetoric of the deniers, even when they are the Australian Prime Minister! Society will eventually encourage industry to quit greenhouse gas emissions but all that will do is slightly reduce the deleterious consequences of the irreversible rapid climate change. This quit campaign is far too late! Most people will have to cope with the impact of rising sea level, loss of sea food due to ocean acidification, more storms, floods, heat waves and cold spells. Coping with manifestations of nature's response to this aspect of what civilization has done wrong will be made harder by the declining availability of natural resources for the operation and maintenance of the technological systems.

So all smart people can do is quit worrying about what will happen to civilization in the future and get on with living life to the full while they can by making frugal use of what nature provides. They will quit being consumers.

Legacy

Most people hope to leave a useful legacy to family, friends or organizations. It enters into their planning as they age. The well off expect that the money they leave will help the benefactors to enjoy a pleasing life style.

That view of legacy is common myopia. The reality is that this generation will be leaving a legacy of:

• a fallacious belief that they can become financially wealthy without their activities degrading the natural wealth that natural forces have slowly evolved 
• a vast infrastructure that ages as it provides society with goods and services by irreversibly using up limited natural resources
• an addiction to these temporary services
• lack of skills to provide basics such as food without depleting irreplaceable natural resources
• a misunderstanding of the consequences of using fossil fuels to provide energy without taking into account what the material wastes produced by this process, including contribution to climate change and ocean acidification
• the failure to understand that technology has only been successful in providing goods and services by irresponsibly using natural laws to consume natural resources. It has not created anything. 
• technological systems that are devastating biodiversity and degrading terrestrial and marine ecosystems
• an addiction to the temporary power of money
• a belief in economic growth even as its foundations disintegrate 

Future generations will find it hard to cope with this legacy. 

Uncertainty and mortality

Society is being assailed by so many innovative measures and conflicting views that they are becoming bewildered with the complexity of every day existence.TV provides such a range of attractive alternatives for everything from food to fashion to holiday destination to car to financial affairs to electronic devices  that the consumer tends to feel impotent about making the range of decisions. Uncertainty is a growing disease.

Smart people cope with this uncertainty by assigning realistic priorities to the maze of life style alternatives thrown at them. Good food and a balanced mix of physical and mental activities, work and relaxation are given top priority. They realistically plan for their mortality because that is not an uncertainty.

But smart people are in a minority. The consolidated decisions made by the masses determines

Robotics

One of the fascinating stories gracing media is the emergence of robotics, the field of expertise showing how clever they are in devising robots that emulate human operations in some respects. The Japanese seem to be leading the field by showing off a number of forms.

Robotics had been the subject of science fiction writing for decades with Asimov being the outstanding author. But developers of artificial intelligence concepts several decades ago opened the way to programming mechanisms to operate in a manner simulating human operations in some regards. Many clever people around the globe are getting on to the robotic band wagon. Competitions are being held to find which of the latest versions have the greatest ability. At the same time, commentaors are advancing the hypothesis that robots will take over from humans in due course.

Quantum computing is an emerging field that is attracting many bright youngsters around the globe. It facilitates gaining understanding from vast amount of data. Ironically, despite the claims of its power, it cannot possibly predict the result of a coin toss or the holisic impact of friction in all relative motion of all gaseous, liquid or solid materials.

It certainly is an enthralling issue for those who do not understand the fundamental physical principles that doom the dreams of proponents of robotics to the dust bin in the not too distant future.

What is irrevocably happening to our civilization

The fundamental problem in operations here on Earth is that humans treat the world as being their domain to be used to meet their needs and wants without physical constraint. This anthropocentric view is commonly regarded in society as being the Game of Life with the objective of meeting the Grand Design. Humans are proving to be the most stupid of the life forms. They create weapons that cannot be used without destroying themselves. They create robots and free trade myths that take away their jobs. They create information technology that destroys their liberty.Dystopias tend to be permanent. The generations born into them never know any different, and the control mechanisms are total.Ironically, people have the view 'I think therefore I am'  while their bodies strive to operate with the goods provided by nature.The common belief is that social and physical science together hold the key to what happens. Social science deals with the intangible decisions made by people. Physical science deals with what happens in tangible materialistic operations. This essay provides insight into the fallacious nature of the duality view: Natural forces always have and always will control what happens in physical operations here on Earth. Social science deals only with the intangible way people think and make decisions about using some of the potential of materialistic operations.The way humans think will change as that stark reality hits home. They will have to learn the hard way that it is an objective, rather than subjective, world. They will have to learn that our civilization is really a dystopia rather than the utopia of their hallucinations.

It is ironical that historians provide some insight into civilizations around the globe in past centuries while cosmologists consider the Big Bang and the nature of development of the universe over billions of years. Anthropologists provide insight to some past global developments before humans started to have an impact. It is quite clear that civilizations last for only a short time in the scale of operations of the universe. Searches for signs of life on other planets do not take into account this time scale. For example what happened on Mars could well have covered a relatively short period well before the developments here on Earth. Attempts to discern signs of life on other planets do not take into account this impact of time scale.

The media is full of what is happening around the globe. Naturally this view is selective as promoting progress makes the lucky people (call them the Pred as they are predators) feel good and ready to do their bit in building up the material standard of living, particularly their's, regardless of the environmental cost! The vast majority (call them the Prey), especially in undeveloped and developing countries, can only rue the bad luck of where and to whom they were born and strive to make do with little capability to get their share of natural resources. The booming stock market delights the Pred investors. The major contagious disease afflicting society (greedily making money) has been around for a long time. The fundamental belief error is that the flow of intangible money drives intangible market forces but that does not take into account the associated tangible degradation of the ecosystems that are the foundations of civilization as well as of the natural world.

Deleterious events like heat waves are reported but not widely linked into the holistic scenario. So the fortunate in society are conditioned to take into account the positive side of the balance sheet but believe the items on the negative side are incidental because they do not consider the totality of what is happening to many societies and the technological, physical, ecological and environmental support systems. In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. Many people, especially in developed and developing countries, will have to deal with cognitive dissonance as the reality of the unsustainable nature of civilization starts to hit hard.Climate change is already causing a range of problems as storms, floods, droughts and wildfires become more common.

Anyone who has spent much time thinking about the combined influence of ecosystem operation, peak oil, global carbon emissions, climate change, ocean acidification and deoxygenation, fertile soil erosion, aquifer water depletion on the economy understands the importance of whole-system thinking.  Whole-system thinking reminds us that our economy cannot be intelligently assessed without an understanding of intellectual and material resources, energy, friction, water and a host of other issues. Society in the main continues to believe in economic growth: one of the crucial factors driving this belief is the attempt, on the part of a great many people, to have their cake and eat it too – to enjoy the benefits of the existing order while claiming to despise its principles. In the future, they will have to cope with cognitive dissonance despite the beliefs they have now.

An example of the false beliefs that even knowledgeable people have is provided by the belief in the role of energy in this quote:

"It is said that you cannot explain water to a fish and I have nearly as difficult time trying to explain energy to people today. We are surrounded by it so completely it is difficult to properly appreciate. But it is in every particle of food you eat, every piece of furniture in your house, every item you wear, and every trip you take -- are all 100% dependent on energy that came from somewhere and subsidizes every single item and action. Fossil fuels provide the vast majority of all the energy we use and, it cannot be repeated enough, they visibly and invisibly subsidize the so-called renewables, too. By that I mean solar and wind power cannot be generated until and unless the components are first manufactured and installed. And those activities are nearly 100% driven by fossil fuels today."

Energy is always a property of materials. Energy flow is necessary for these operations, as described, but they are operating on materials so what happens to the materials should also be taken into account. Most of them will end up as waste when the systems are inevitably disposed of when they are no longer useful. People input and output gaseous, liquid and solid material in order to grow for a while as well as always provide energy for internal and external operations. That is common knowledge. Why is it that reality has not been taken into account in considerations of the operation of industrialized civilization?

Ironically, while it is common to say how energy flow does (positive) work, The fact that there is also associated impact of friction most often doing negative work.Our hearts do positive work to offset the negative work of friction in arteries and veins.

A great many middle-class people in America and other industrial nations are caught in the familiar bind, no longer committed to the ideals of a growing economy, but not yet willing to sacrifice the very tangible material benefits they get from their positions in the established order; rejecting the growth paradigm in their hearts while supporting it with their actions. It’s a very awkward place to be; eventually, it will become intolerable; but until this latter point arrives, a great many people will try to have it both ways. The synergy of some of the issues below will have an anticipated traumatic impact on the infrastructure (termed here as Tityas, delinquent son of Gaia) and on the society (Pred as well as Prey) which is almost totally dependent on Tityas' services although many of Gaia's services are also utilized. An apocalypse is bound to occur as the Prey valiantly strive to power down as Tityas' services disappear down the black hole.

It will help the smart people in society to cope with the difficult times ahead to connect the dots between the host of negative issues to obtain a holistic perspective of the down side. They would recognize the Dependence on Nature Law. Connecting the dots with appropriate weightings could provide a Collapse Index (CI). The CI would vary markedly in communities, countries and regions so would be indicative of the difficulty various communities will have in coping with the inevitable powering down. Some of the deleterious items in the current operation of society (Pred but not Prey) and the systems of our civilization (Tityas) are summarized in the list below. Search engines enable the finding of data and authoritative consideration of each of these items. The list contains only items that are not disputed by specialists in the appropriate fields even though most of them are not yet taken into account by those powerful interests who believe in business as usual for the dystopian society, driven by intangible money flow. But most businesses still aim to seize on opportunities that arise through the demands of well off sections of society, the Pred, regardless of the unintended environmental, ecological and social consequences. So Gaia and the Prey will continue to suffer while Tityas disintegrates.

Numerous organizations are warning of the difficult times ahead without having a significant impact on the outlooks of the influential public or on the policies being pursued by the powerful in society. Code Red is a call for emergency action that falls on deaf ears at this stage even though it connects some of the dots listed below. It is likely, however, that smart young people will found a movement, Earth's Lodgers' Activity Management (ELAM) to provide the sound leadership that their elders failed to do. They will do this because they understand the irrevocable implication of the CI. Smart decisions can only slightly ease the inevitable powering down of the use of natural resources, the increase in the population, the production of material waste, the devastation of the environment and the loss of tangible and intangible services currently provided by the irrevocably aging infrastructure of Tityas.

The issues are:

1. A common discussion is what is the purpose of people. It is asked because many people  would like to believe that their striving is for some useful purpose. It is an anthropocentric question with no answer! All organisms go through a routine largely ordained by prescriptions that originated from some unfathomable source. Asking that question is like asking why are there several hundred elements with their varying properties. Or, how did the information in the DNA of humans, rats, elms, dinosaurs originate? This is knowledge 'beyond our ken'. Those who believe a God created these fundamental physical properties are not providing any real understanding: it is just a widespread personal belief in a number of religions around the globe. 
2. Metaphysical discussions often deal with abstractions but that is not the information (such as that in DNA or governs chemical reactions or provides understanding of the impact of friction in aerodynamics).
3. Advances in computing capacity, speed and power have had a big impact in financial operations on stock markets as this mechanism usurps the human role in many instances. Ironically, this intangible operation on numbers does not have the inherent limitation of the tangible physical operations that are how civilizations have, are and will operate..   
4. Anthropocentrism is the view held by most people that the purpose of nature is to support the operations of humans. The entrenchment of anthropocentrism over many centuries and in many cultures accounts for its pervasiveness and apparent naturalness, yet it is not beyond the reach of the critical inquiry, dissection, and refutation which will be found here. To inquire into anthropocentrism is to ask what kind of belief system it is. The unquestioned conviction with which people uphold the anthropocentric credo belies its characterization as mere belief, because it is in the nature of belief to be open to questioning and relinquishment in the face of a better alternative, the realization that natural forces always have and always will determine what happens in physical operations (including the metabolism of human beings).
5. Many past and even today, some indigenous communities  have not subscribed to anthropocentrism. They believed in living with what nature can continue to provide. Most of these communities have been overwhelmed by the 'advances' in the ability of various developments from farming through to the current industrialized global economy to consume and degrade what is still available from nature. The remaining aborigines of Australia are an example of indigenous people finding it difficult to combine their beliefs with what the main stream consumptive society is doing. This is a well recognized problem in Canada, the U.S. and parts of South America, Asia and Africa. Europeans stimulated the growth of anthropocentrism in recent millennia and it has now spread globally. It is and has been for a long time the dominant culture of the advantaged in the global community leveraged by money and greed.
6. However, there is increasing review of the unjustified historical and continuing genocide of indigenous peoples around the globe.by so called progressive cultures, largely due to colonialism. The focus in these reviews is on the suffering as well as the devastation of a sustainable life style. They do not take into account the simple fact that there are already too many people around the globe. This global community is not possibly sustainable. The infrastructure they have become so dependent on certainly is not sustainable but some communities will survive because they have adapted to a lesser demand on what nature can provide. 
7. The eight hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta by King John at Runnymede in England is being celebrated in some progressive quarters as it was the foundation of the rights of all people It is regarded as a sound basis for the discourse amongst all categories of people and it has been a major factor in social development in many countries. However, it did not deal with the responsibility of people to limit the devastation by their operations of the environment. As economies inevitably contract, violence and all types of crime will escalate because so many people become disillusioned.Society is vainly trying to address rapidly growing violence, including domestic violence, as many revert to violence because of their frustration at trying to cope with their loss of hope.As a consequence of the irreversible use of what is left of natural resources, the demise of industrial civilization is certain and society will have to cope with the inevitable powering down of operations and the escalation of social unrest. The foundations laid by the Magna Carta will only help some in that coping process.
8. Ironically, some academics fallaciously argue that exhaustion of natural resources is a myth.The fact is that processing of specific crustal mineral resources requires the use of available mineral resources, including those providing the necessary energy. The useful amount of the processed mineral is always appreciably less than the total amount of materials used in the process. This low process efficiency inevitably decreases as the resources become more difficult to process as as they become scarcer. So most of these ninety types of resources will not be exhausted. However, the stage will be reached where industrialized machinery can no longer process the remaining low quality resources.    
9. Ironically there is an article that focuses on uncertainties when what is happening is governed by irrevocable certainties, only some of which are widely recognized. Time irreversibly passes, organisms, including people, have limited life times, the Earth revolves around the Sun and rotates. These certainties are common knowledge. The irreversible flow of energy from the Sun is a certainty understood by physicists and many others who know how physical operations occur. They also know how friction does negative work even though this fact is not taken into holistic account. A consequence is that the demise of industrialized civilization is a certainty within a century or so.
10. Time scales need to be taken into account in considering what has happened and what will happen in the future. Cosmologists discuss the universe in terms of billions of years while scientists discuss what has happened on Earth in terms of millennia, three orders of time less.
11. Recent research has provided evidence of varying ocean deoxygenation and the associated consequences. This, along with the warming, pollution and acidification, is having deleterious impact on many marine species. Waste management is now becoming one of the deleterious issues receiving belated attention.
12. The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason) was an era from the 1650s to the 1780s in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. This enabled a rapid increase in understanding of how natural forces operate and how these could be used by the inventions made by people.The consequential Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840 that resulted.from the vastly increased power of people to invent, although often not taking into account the unintended deleterious consequences.The Green Revolution refers to a series of research, and development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1960s, that increased agricultural production worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. It entailed using pesticides, fertilizers, machinery and other synthetic products in a process that is basically unsustainable. Malnutrition and starvation is the inevitable consequence of the inevitable decline in the availability of these aids to food production, especially as soil fertility has declined due to the unintended consequences of the Green Revolution. The flushing of nutrients into rivers and the ocean is only one aspect of the food production problem. Reducing the waste of food in developed countries can only alleviate the problem slightly. Detailed studies at Yale University, Michigan State University and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany.have shown that the production of most forms of food have already peaked for a variety of reasons and that only while adequate fuels are still available. The growth of industrialized civilization around the globe has followed  with the Eastern countries emulating the striving for materialism that the Western countries initiated. Climate change, ocean acidification, pollution, deoxygenation and warming, natural resource depletion, flora and fauna extinction, aquifer water and fertile soil depletion, over population, vast, unsustainable infrastructure are some of the unintended consequences future generations will inherit.
13.       Commentators consider the development of mathematics  was a major factor in the scientific advances that contributed so much to the inventions in the  Industrial Revolution in the Western world. They contrast this to the use of fuzzy logic in China as this appears to have retarded technological developments there for centuries. Mathematics did and still does play a major role in engineering and technology but developments have, often with the use of computers, over come many of the past failings in mathematics. For example, numerical methods have taken the place of a number of analytical methods that only applied to idealizations.
14. Ironically society lauds Albert Einstein for his mathematical theories relating to relativity. They do not understand that while this mathematics applies to operations in the cosmos where the speed of light is a crucial factor, they do not strictly apply to operations here on Earth because mathematics cannot describe the invariable operation of friction in all motion. Newtonian mechanics is more useful in describing operations here although they do not take implicitly into account  friction. They relate the action of forces but the retarding force due to friction is a separate issue. 
15. Some astute commentators argue that powerful interests in developed countries have fostered the Green Revolution as a means of committing the masses in the undeveloped regions to using commercialized forms of farming, including GMO seeds and use of fossil fuels, to eventually reduce population growth among the disadvantaged by starvation and associated problems, including reduced fertility. recent research has found that endrocrine disruptors, found in plastics and countless other products are degrading the sperm in humans and other animals. This could have a crucial impact on population growth akin to the impact of the inevitable future declining food production.The rapid growth of suicide of Indian farmers is only one manifestation of the success of this reputed control policy of the oligarchs. Rising health concerns in many countries due to the increasing toxicity of food products is another symptom of this malfeasance fostered by those seeking to bolster their self esteem by exerting control. Of course, they have to have access to the leverage of money to ensure their slaves implement their policies.Ii is doubtful that they understand that the current operation of industrialized civilization is unsustainable.
16. There are numerous comments about the financial slavery that is so rampant in under developed countries.These wage slaves produce goods wastefully used by the well off in developed countries. The UK Modern Slavery Act addresses this issue and there is pressurize for Australia to now adopt a similar political measure to deal with this problem to some degree..But  ironically slavery it is an unsustainable process as the inevitable demise of globalized trade will kill off this process. However, what will those wage slaves then do?
17. Some academic experts said “What is obvious to us is ... that if humanity is to avoid a calamitous loss of food security, a fast, society-pervading sea-change as dramatic as the first agricultural revolution will be required,” they wrote in their report in the International Journal of Environmental Studies.This is sound in principle but hardly a practical proposition even if it was supported socially, politically and financially.
18. However, this view of supposed control policy of the powerful is really too simplistic. The increasing gulf between the advantaged rich and powerful and the disadvantaged poor and weak around the globe is no doubt due to a complex mix of ambition, greed, selfishness among individuals, the profit motive of capitalism combined with seeking of hegemony by some countries.   
19. Populations grow because the birth rate far exceeds the death rate in some countries. Current projections are for a global population of 9.7 billion in 2050 with the proportion that are aged increasing rapidly in the developed countries. Policies are being introduced to try to counter the growing cost of health care for the numerous aged as the worh force (and its contribution to the budget) declines.  Japan is the extreme example of this predicament and its population is expected to about halve by the end of the century with a high proportion of aged.The projections do not take into account growing limitations in the supply of living essentials such as food, potable water, shelter and care. So these projections are unrealistic. Demographic policies are having little impact on the population growth issue, which really is an unsustainable process. A die off of this dystopian society is inevitable due to a mix of starvation, malnutrition, diseases, impact of toxic pollution, pandemics, epidemics, natural disasters with warfare, terrorism, violence and even culling activities having limited impact. The greatest impact will be on the Prey as they do not have access to many of the essential services provided by the aging infrastructure. The decrease in fertilization and reproduction rates in many developed societies can only slightly ameliorate the over population issue.
20. Wars and rebellions have been a characteristic of the development of civilization for millennia. While some have been for social, political and/or economic reasons, many have been driven by religious intolerance. Radical Islamists are a growing force in the Middle East, parts of Asia and Africa as a response to past demeaning activities of the Western powers in the colonies. However, materialistic wars use up vast amounts of natural resources so they will tend to die out as the resources become scarce. The reducing online communication capability will stifle even the financial warfare that many powers have embraced in recent times.Governments and corporations lead the way in manipulating financial statements to mislead prospective investors as well as the public, although they are really fooling themselves.
21. Japan has in the past to a large extent offset its lack of natural material resources by the benefit of the skills of their human resources. Those days are coming to an end as the population irrevocably declines and ages as the competition for the import of natural resources increases. Consequently, the Japanese economy will contract and the infrastructure deteriorate as social instability rises.  Japan is leading the way down that other developed countries are following because of the unsustainablity of their operations. Developing countries will follow from a lower base.
22. Astute observers believe the powerful in society, the Preds, are silently implementing demographic policies  that will quell the growth of the workers, the Prey, so easing the environmental load and the pressures on them to power down. They can do this as their is less need for workers as the provision of services tends to replace the production of goods.
23. Ironically some economists argue that the trend from the production of goods to the provison of services is facilitating economic growth while reducing the rate of consumption of materials.This selective argument conveys a misleading view as the real cost of divestment of natural material wealth has never been taken into account by economists or society at large.
24. Growing populations increase the demand to construct infrastructure to provides essential and even non-essential services - regardless of the environmental cost and the unsustainability of the process. A current example in the U.S. illustrates the outlook of developers who have in mind how to cope with the increasing demand to see the Grand Canyon.Not only would the project transform a quiet tourist town into "a sprawling complex of high-end homes, strip malls, and resorts only a mile from the Grand Canyon National Park boundary," but it would also require vast quantities of water and could lower the aquifer that feeds springs and streams that support wildlife and recreation on the park's South Rim.
25. The common unrealistic outlook about infrastructure development is illustrated by the current assessment in Australia of means of coping with the funding-financing paradox in the construction of new infrastructure such as the light rail proposal in Queensland. These considerations do not take into account the declining availability of the required natural energy and material resources, the impact of the operation of the infrastructure on the eco systems together with the limited lifetime of the infrastructure. These considerations are based on the fallacious presumption that continuing growth is possible. 
26. The common naive views of government about handling the problem of aging of the population was illustrated by the response of the Australian Federal government to the Intergenerational Report. This Report predicts that the Australian population would continue to increase rapidly without mentioning how this could be possible given the intractable environmental cost. It focused only on the demographic and economic aspects without taking into account real physical aspects.
27. Medical authorities around the globe are striving to determine means to prevent pandemics and epidemics. Smallpox was essentially eradicated decades ago while the impact of flu, malaria, HIV and AIDS have been markedly reduced. There was increasing concern amongst global health authorities that the deadly Ebola would spread from West Africa where the lack of health care facilities was accelerating its spread as most of the populations do not understand what needed to be done when family members exhibit the symptoms. Some experts have brought to the public’s attention the speculative view that Ebola is a genetically modified organism developed in U.S. biowarfare laboratories in Africa. Medication to treat Ebola patients has yet to be proven. A recent  consideration of the complexity of health care in developed countries coupled with the ease of transport between countries has increased the likelihood of a global Ebola pandemic far more than governments believe.  Ebola, Marburg, Enterovirus, Zika virus, dengue fever and Chikungunya are emergent deadly diseases causing grave concern amongst health care professionals. A global problem with respect to malaria, HIV and AIDS is being overcome to a degree with education and better medical capabilities but Ebola could well become a rival to the Black Death of yore in its impact on populations. Plans to produce a vaccine that will control the spread of this virus are widely welcomed as a humanitarian aid. The reality, however, is that the global population is more than can possibly be sustained naturally. A combination of factors will ensure that the global population declines markedly this century, despite the efforts of numerous people and of advances in health care.
28. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set up an emergency response team to address the outbreak of the Zika virus, the mosquito-borne infection that has been linked to severe birth defects and is spreading across the Americas with "explosive" speed. This is the latest widespread health problem gaining attention. Some studies provide evidence that the spread of Zika is a consequence of climate change.
29. There is growing suspicion, backed by some evidence, that powerful interests are fostering the spread of pandemics and epidemics in order to control the dangerous impact on the use of natural resources of over population.
30. Some academic commentators assert U.S. government agencies have a long history of carrying out allegedly defensive biological warfare research at labs in various countries. Guatemalan's ordeal with the U.S. government who deliberately infected people with syphilis many years ago is recorded. U.S. government agencies have a long history of carrying out allegedly defensive biological warfare research at labs in Liberia and Sierra Leone. These assertions have been backed by documentation but are not acknowledged by U.S. authorities
31. The fight against epidemics such as Ebola was driven by humanitarian concerns. Ironically, however, it was exacerbating the problem of over population. Many of those saved from the impact of epidemics will die of malnutrition, lack of potable water, inadequate sanitation facilities or the influence of toxic substances in land, sea, air and in marketed goods.For example, toxic magnetic particles suspected of link to Alzheimer's disease have been discovered in brains of people living in heavily polluted areas

32. Another example, neonics can be used as a seed coating or foliar spray, and they are widely used, despite a body of evidence calling them a threat to global biodiversity and linking them to lethal and sub-lethal harm to bees.They have been found in half of the sampled streams in the U.S. but a range of toxic products are sold in most countries.75% of the world's honey is now contaminated with bee-killing pesticides.Scientists collected 200 samples of honey from around the world, and three out of four samples contained a bee-killing pesticide. Worse than that, nearly half contained a mix of several types of the toxic chemicals.

33. Nuclear holocaust is the black swan possibility as far as many in society are concerned but not in the planning of various powers (U.S., UK, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia) who claim it may be necessary to use nuclear weapons as an instrument of peace! The Pentagon has received a budget of over $350 billion to upgrade the US arsenal of nuclear weapons - this nuclear resurgence under Obama is emblematic of a new Cold War with Russia and other perceived global rivals. This false view is fostered by governments and 'defence' industry that building up the nuclear arsenals sufficient to destroy life on Earth many times over. what is the possibility that some false event will initiate nuclear holocaust? The mean exists so all that is needed is some very bad decisions by the powerful. Some prominent people also suggest that a nuclear explosion may help to limit the impact of global atmospheric warming (but not ocean warming, acidification, pollution and deoxygenation). Others point out that the consequences could be that the smoke would cause an increase in the ozone hole, so more ultra violet (UV) radiation to burn up humans and other flora and fauna for several years. Ironically, a nuclear war will be no more than a blip on the time line of the irreversible demise of industrial civilization but it may aid a widespread wake up to physical reality. It is not possible for the available natural resources to sustain the over population and associated vast infrastructure to the end of this century. A nuclear war could well serve to ease the inevitable powering down for those not caught up in it. Many people will suffer in the powering down as their supporting systems disintegrate but that is the unintended consequence of a society that has blindly and greedily ravished its natural life support system to obtain the 'good life'."We face a moment in which policies that benefit a fraction of the world’s population feed conflicts that could precipitate catastrophic wars, even nuclear wars, and in which the power to make war is wielded by largely unaccountable elites."in 'Peace and Planet Mobilization' conveys a sound view which, however, is not helped by the elite!
34. Whilst there is criticism of the damage that many corporations are doing by using natural resources to make money, they  able to do that because of the masses of consumers who strive to lift their material standard of living - and to hell with the consequential devastation of the life support system.Ironically, politicians support economic growth because that will get them the votes of consumers. Of course, they tend to be the greatest consumers of goods and services due to their entitlements.
35. Many commentators, including economists, argue that current signs of slowing economic growth, primarily in Western countries, is only a temporary  result of the GFC but ironically they still do not take into account the irrevocable divestment of natural material wealth and the degradation of the environment. Ironically, they do not deign to take into account what climate disruption and ocean acidification and warming and many other natural operations are irrevocably doing.
36. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indicated a number of measures that Australia should adopt to increase productivity as an aid to increased economic growth. This illustrious body makes the common mistake of not taking into account that increased productivity means increased rate of usage of irreplaceable natural resources, increased rate of production of waste materials and increased rate of devastation of the environment.. Monetary policy generally takes into account one side of the balance sheet - economic growth and employment.The ecological cost of the waste economies produce, the consequential devastation of the environment and eco systems and the irrevocable aging of the vast infrastructure are some items left off the balance sheet. COP21 is a superficial addressing of only one of the resulting predicaments, climate change. It did not cover the associated predicament of ocean acidification, pollution, deoxygenation and warming.  
37. The mass of middle class consumers will be the ones who will be hardest hit as reality hits in due course.They will miss not being able to fly away on holidays. They will miss the convenience of using their cars will  nilly. They will miss the comfort of cheap air conditioning and heating in their homes. The poor will suffer a lesser powering down as they are not so delusional about what the future holds for them.
38. Ironically there are proposals to reduce the growing  traffic congestion in some cities by invoking forms of the user pay principle. Users already have to pay for owning and running their cars. This charge will just make the less well off to be more frugal But the inevitable rise in fuel cost as the availability of crude oil declines will naturally decrease traffic congestion. Both processes will just make travelling easier for the well off. Hardly an egalitarian process!
39. Some seemingly knowledgeable sources discuss black swan events that could end civilization. Nuclear war, genetically created plagues, climate catastrophe or particle accelerator disaster are credible ones on the list of possible events. However, artificial intelligence is also on the list even though it is based on the ridiculous fallacious resumption that that the materials to make these systems will continue to be available. However, this delusion is quite common so appreciable amount of intellectual and material resources are chasing this hallucination. Ironically, many scientists think (without evidence) that there is something fishy about our universe. Something that is 'beyond their ken'. The proponents of artificial intelligence, however, are scientists who do not take into account the fundamental principle that natural material resources are being irrevocably used up by all forms of technical systems: they are ignorant to a degree! 
40. Vast amounts of intellectual and physical resources are being used in the research and development of  artificial intelligence (AI) systems. These advances receive appreciable publicity because they are deemed to show how clever people are. The competition between a Korean and a super computer in playing the complex GO game was claimed to show how AI had advanced. As usual, this looks at only one side of the balance sheet.On the other side, the super computer is the result of the use of vast amounts of expensive intellectual energy and irreplaceable material resources and uses electrical energy for its operation during its limited life time.The super computer can not naturally reproduce! But clever people are the result of natural reproduction combined with a learning process: a sustainable process that will be only dissipated to a degree as the infrastructure inevitably declines.
41. Ironically, computing systems now currently use more electrical energy flow than many of the systems providing society with essential food. These intellectual services do little to improve the longevity of people.
42. Wars have disrupted societies by causing many deaths while damaging infrastructure for a long time. But the impact of wars have grown with population and industrialization. The Great War and World War II of the 20th Century had a horrendous impact in many countries. But, as in the past, society recovered in the intervening peaceful period. But that has been a delusion because sufficient natural resources have been available for the reconstruction while facilitating further construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure. That capability is ending because so  much has already been used up. Unfortunately, that reality has not been recognized by the powerful, especially those who profit from war.
43. Over sixty years ago, Eisenhower warned of the danger of the US military/industrial  system promoting war as it would advance their status and the finances. That is what has happened in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and other countries with horrific civil and military personnel losses together with deleterious economic impact on both sides. But the Pentagon continues to exert unwarranted harmful impact on the operation of countries. There is nothing new about what the Pentagon is doing. It is a disease that powerful figures in many countries have encouraged for ages and it shows no sign of being remedied. Russia and now China seek to balance the scales by promoting their production of a rage of weapons.This disease is fostered  by creating a climate of fear and insecurity from an alleged threat in order to boost military spending It is contagious so even minor countries such as Australia expend unreasonable natural, human and financial resources on their so called 'defence' capabilities which are really offensive capabilities. The Defence white paper calls for a vast expenditure in coming years as the federal government tries to cope with an economy that is showing signs of contraction. It includes acquiring twelve submarines for some incomprehensible reason.
44. Western nations—led by the United States—are selling large quantities of weapons to governments in the Middle East and North Africa, providing little oversight for how these arms are used, and thereby fueling corruption and conflict in countries from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, a new report from the watchdog organization Transparency International finds. This, of course boosts the economies and employment in the arms of exporting countries and the capability for conflict among the importing ones.
45. Surprisingly, Japan appears to be abandoning the pacifism that contributed so much to the prosperity of last decades. Lack of natural resources, particularly oil, combined with antagonism with neighbors appears to be a major factor. So, emulating Israel, seems to be the emerging policy with, no doubt, backing from the defense industry.
46. The continuing focus on economic growth is understandable as the culture conditions people to strive to make money and then to invest some of it while spending on needs and wants. This flow of investment money fosters the industrial use of natural resources in order to make a profit. It also drives the policy decisions of governments because politicians have to respond to what is happening in a fashion that will buy them votes.basically, it is anthropocentrism that does not take into account the continuing dominant role of natural forces.  
47. Aldous Huxley, author of "Brave New World" spoke in academic circles of the conditioning of society by the elite that has fostered unthinking consumption by the middle classes in developed and developing countries. Many commentators have derided capitalism for the manipulation, a policy of corporations seeking monetary profit by fair means and foul, including tax dodging. Tax dodging by a number of often dubious measures is a well established capitalistic maneuver. This includes multinational companies as well as individuals arranging to pay taxes in safe havens rather than in the countries where they obtained the income. For example, there is increasing pressure on the Australian Federal government to do something about this failure to obtain taxes from the clever elite rather than up the taxes on the general public. Ironically, this behavior also occurs in social democratic and communistic countries even though to a lesser extent in the past. But Chinese companies are doing their best to catch to what has become rampant in Western countries.None of these commentators, including Huxley, take into account that the associated materialistic operations are unsustainable. The behavior that Huxley and Co. deride is just accelerating the inevitable and irrevocable demise of industrial civilization.
48. The Chinese have demonstrated their developing engineering skill and capability by building the Macau to Hong Kong bridge: world's longest sea bridge. This served to employ many skilled personnel and use large amounts natural resources because of the  belief that it will cope with the fallacious, copious road traffic during its lifetime. Recharging stations will have to be installed at each end to cope with electric cars. 
49. The Chinese are celebrating another step forward with the historic first flight of their C919 airliner. It is considered as another Chinese dream that has become a reality. It is believed that its production will impact on the current monopoly in the global civil aviation market of Boeing and Airbus which is expected to continue to grow rapidly.It would be interesting to know the views of the engine experts of  the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and those at General Electric, Pratt and Whitney, Rolls Royce, Boeing and Air bus as to what jet fuel will be used by these thousands of airliners in the decades ahead. Crude oil is irreversibly running out so the availability of jet fuel will inevitably decline in the near future. Trials have been conducted by a number of organisations, including the US Air Force, of bio fuel mixes but there is no possibility that sufficient can be produced to meet the demand. Even producing bio fuels to meet a small percentage of the demand of the vast fleet of airliners would have an unreasonable impact on food production.
    Somehow this dose of reality is not getting through to the management of these corporations and the airlines.
50. The Chinese are investing heavily in the modern version of the 'Silk Road' by improving transport integration across Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe. This includes buying ports, laying rail lines and many others projects. Surprisingly, that policy does not take into account the indisputable fact that that the source of the fuel oil required to operate the maritime operation is being irrevocable used up.The same problem will occur in many aspects of the construction of anfrastructre. In the future, they will be left with many white elephants.They seem to be determined to do their best to emulate the Western countries - in going over the cliff!
51. Informed sources (such as Bloomberg) comment on the practice of governments (including Japanese) and banks aiding industrial giants that have become zombies (such as Sharp) at the expense of entrepreneurs who have innovative technical system they try to get backing for. This argument does not discriminate between worthwhile technology and that which is a waste of natural resources. IT innovations are popular, so profitable, even though this popularity is a bubble that will burst. On the other hand, innovative technologies that improve the efficiency in the use of energy should be fostered at all levels of society as they are a truly worthwhile aid to the inevitable powering down. However, these technologies do not change the principle that they are unsustainable in the long term even though society at large does not yet recognise that principle.
52. Informed people have documented ("Too Much Magic" by Jame Howard Kunstler provides some of the detail) how the financial markets have been and are being manipulated in many countries by very complicated transactions by bankers and associates with the U.S. leading the way in recent times. Governments have done little to regulate these operations and, in some cases, have eased the regulations.Trump plans to do more of this in the USA This has been a major factor in the divergence in societies with the small number of very rich getting richer even as the economies stagnate and the bewildered masses wonder what went wrong. Australia is one of the many countries where commentators spell out the dangers (including social unrest and even violence) in this divergence trend But the powerful do nothing to alleviate the problem because of their self interest.
53. The Chinese economy has enjoyed exceptional growth in recent times to the advantage of a rapidly growing middle class. which has gone from about 5m households in 2000 to 225m today. They are not clamouring for the vote, but they are unhappy—financially insecure, and victims of pollution and official corruption. One way or another, the Communist Party will have to meet their demands. Some commentators suggest China will match the Tang and Han dynasties later this century. But this economic growth is slowing as it moves from a export manufacturing to a consumer-led economy.However, that is a typical economist's view of one side of the coin. It ignores the deleterious impact of the rampant financial corruption, air and water pollution as well as the reduction in natural resources and devastation of the environment. The retreat of many of China's glaciers is just one of the many physical predicaments the people of China as well as the government are having to try and cope with.
54. It is ironical that some economists see current economies as being junk as they have reversed the value and price of classical economics and this has accelerated the divergence of the rich from the poor. This anthropocentric view takes into account the cost of labor and the provision of resources but ignores the divestment of the natural material wealth together the irrevocable costly aging of the infrastruture that provides so many services while degrading the environment.
55. The recent rapid growth in the Chinese economy has not been backed by reasonably sound operation of their financial market so unintended consequences are bewildering investors, both locally and globally. This just exacerbates the weakness in global developed, mature financial markets following the GFC in 2008. Of course, this intangible financial chaos occurs even as the tangible, such as population growth, material resource depletion, climate change, ocean acidification, pollution, warming and deoxygenation continue without reasonable remedial action promoted by society, mainly because very little is physically possible.
56. The size of the well educated Chinese community in growing rapidly and while they contribute in many fields, including innovative technology, there are signs, like those in Western countries, particularly the U.S., that the demand for their skills is falling short of the supply. This is to be expected as economic growth (based on the rate of divestment of natural material wealth) inevitably wanes.  
57. Volkswagen has been caught out in emissions manipulation in a large number of cars. This has increased the likelihood of people having health problems due to emissions from cars. It will cost the company billions of dollars in fines and remedial measures while the cost on their reputation will probably grow. People from the CEO down will lose their jobs. They have been caught out but this is but one example of the rampant manipulation of operations in making money whatever the real cost to society. VW being caught out will not cure this disease will it will make many CEO more carefully what they condone.
58. The VW episode is only one of a multitude of cases where corporations have carried out operations contrary to the image they convey, British Petroleum was caught out with the Deepwater Horizon explosion as it showed that they put profits before safety. The current moves by investors to encourage corporations to respect environmental and societal issues is only a small move in the right direction. 
59. The merits and demerits of privatization of projects continue to be argued in many forums, including governments. Financial and effectiveness aspects receive due consideration. Ironically, however, these discussions do not often include the associated destruction of natural material wealth, production of material waste, devastation of the environment together with the limited lifetimes of the proposed systems. Of course, those arguing about these projects will not be around when their wishful dreams turn into nightmares for the population.
60. Many knowledgeable organizations argue that privatization has deleterious physical consequences due to the financial greed of the proponents. This dose of rationality has had little positive effect as in most countries the rich use this as a means of getting richer at the expense of the masses as well as the environment. 
61. It seems that the rampant disease afflicting the celebrities of society, making money regardless of the social and environmental worth of the activity, is out of control. Commentators cite major Silicon Valley corporations as examples of service providers who have let their promotional success  go to their heads! This culture of amorality doesn't set out to be evil, but it also doesn't set out to do good -- it sets out to see what it can get away with, what holes it can find to win and keep winning. Ironically, this disease is a widespread phenomenon afflicting sports people and artists as much as business people with the help of the mainstream media and the gushing support of many of the enthusiastic masses.
62. The rapid growth of income inequality this century is rapidly increasing the leverage of a relatively small proportion of the population to promote their interests at the expense of the masses and of the environment. This is an unsustainable destructive process but, unfortunately, its demise will follow after the inevitable downfall of society at large. But the elite will have to use a lot of their leverage to protect them from the attacks of the disadvantaged young.
63. Another deleterious issue in financial markets is the way governments and corporations often handle the sovereign debt of other countries. The way the problem that the EU is handling the Greek debt is an example of  what behavioral scientists call "altruistic punishers"or, in colloquial terms "cutting off your nose to spite your face". Cyprus and Iceland are previous victims of this financial disease.
64. The UK leaving the EU as the result of the Brexit referendom is having a widespread impact. There is a looming crisis for Europe still reeling after Brexit. Italy’s banks are sitting on about €360 billion ($400 billion) of bad loans. This is not just a threat to Italy’s economy, but also a parable of the tension between rules made in Brussels and the conflicting national politics of member states. This was one of the major arguments of those who proposed that Britain should Leave.  
65. Commentators discuss the role of the IMF and other financial bodies in the management of the Greek debt crisis without pointing out that financial markets are no subject to the self organization and self regulation that have characterized natural operations for eons. People have devised the measures about how financial markets are partially regulated while greedy others have devised measures to manipulate these intangible markets. Despite these dubious operations of a system developed by society over millennia, nature continues to operate in the manner that has evolved. 
66. Some commentators argue that Global Surplus Recycling Mechanism (GSRM) was keeping global economies in the precarious equilibrium and that has broken down in recent times due to the changing strength of regional economies. The Greek trauma is regarded as an example of this weakness in financial operations. These considerations of intangible money operations, however, do not take into account the irreversible tangible operation of industrialized civilization and the associated destruction of natural material wealth.The unintended consequences of this irrational operation of the economies will come home to roost this century. Climate change  and ocean degradation are some of the emerging sign of what has been done wrong. But the maneuverings of financial markets will dominate discussions for a while yet.
67. Whilst the accent is generally on the debtors (borrowers) there is also the associated lenders who stand to lose if the debtors are forced to default. Ironically many of the rich investors (lenders) have often gained the money leverage by dubious measures. This has been a factor in the divergence between rich and poor. Debt default or cancellation will tend to cancel out aspects of the divergence, to the benefit of society. But that remedial measure is sure to be resisted by the rich.
68. Another example of this rampant malfeasance is that a World Bank tribunal could decide whether the tiny Central American nation of El Salvador will have to dish out millions to a Canadian-Australian mining giant -- just for rejecting a destructive gold mine.OceanaGold is suing El Salvador for a whopping $301 million under investor laws that allow corporations to shamelessly sue countries. El Salvador has the right to reject the mine to protect its water and people -- 90% of the country's water is contaminated already, and OceanaGold’s mine would ruin its last remaining sources of clean water.
69. Charities claim that their objective is to aid the disadvantaged in a wide rage of fields from health to the poor. However, it is seen as a good business to many who are obsessed with making money. It is reported that the Cancer Fund of America raised $86.8m for charity but gave just 1% of that to cancer patients. That is but one example of a rampant financial disease in the developed countries. Ironically, this blatant con is keeping Australia Post in business as charities in that country send out copious amounts of material in mail describing their supposed beneficial activities and seeking financial support. 
70. An objective assessment of  the quality of life for the citizens of countries finds that the U.S. is not in the top ten despite its many billionaires, its many celebrities, its vast media and its hegemony. The focus of the media on the ravings of the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, because it is a good way to foster advertising receipts is deemed by many commentators  as just one symptom of the  decline in American society. 
71. Monetary issues dominate discussions by governments, the powerful in society, including bankers and in the media because they have such a profound impact on the decisions made (including the unwise rate of usage of depleting natural resources and devastation of the environment). Booms and busts of the financial market have occurred often in the past (including the Great Depression and the recent GFC) but they have been as nothing compared to what is happening now as the debt has grown exponentially. The operation of the financial market is based on the premise of continuing economic growth (even though the necessary resource use is unsustainable) so commitments can be met. Quantitative Easing (QE) has been used as a palliative in the U.S. without success for the masses but investors continue to grow richer with fiat money. EU countries have had to cope with a major hiccup so they are revering to QE. Japan is now doing the same as the U.S. even though they have a weaker economy so a disaster is most likely. The G20 meeting of many world leaders focused on promoting  economic growth while increasing future measures to limit climate change.At the Bonn climate talks developed countries were criticized for being unwilling to buck the fossil fuel industry and make the necessary rapid transition to 'renewable' energy sources. These advocates did not take into account that fossil fuels do more than provide electrical energy (with fuel for transport and many forms of machinery being a major contribution), phasing out systems that produce greenhouse gas emissions (such as coal-fired power stations) cannot be reasonably closed down rapidly nor the fact that 'renewable' energy systems take time and materials to be constructed and have a limited lifetime. So these advocates at the Bonn conference did not make a rational contribution to assessing what can reasonably be done about coping with climate change.  A recent seemingly authoritative report  states "Action on climate change does not have to come at the expense of economic growth." The inconvenient fact that the operation of civilization irrevocably destroys natural material wealth was not on the agenda because these 'leaders' can engage in Myopia without worrying about any reaction from the mainstream media or the population at large. They all suffer the same delusion about Myopia usurping the Real world. Economic growth comes at the expense of increasing divestment of natural wealth, an unsustainable process as even the rich will eventually learn the hard way.
72. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organisation that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future, and serves as the principal platform for international co-operation, a centre of excellence, and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy. IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy, in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity.IRENA seeks to make an impact in the world of renewable energy by maintaining a clear and independent position, providing a range of reliable and well-understood services that complement those already offered by the renewable energy community and gather existing, but scattered, activities around a central hub. Unfortunately, this seemingly reputable organisation promotes the fallacious delusion that transient technological systems can use weak sources of energy (solar, wind) income as a substitute for the strong energy capital in the fossil fuels 
73. Most discussions about energy do not pint out the vast timing difference between the energy capital (fossil fuels and uranium) and the energy continuing income of wind and solar, Failure to recognize this fundamental principle has contributed to the widespread misunderstanding about the possible role of "renewable" energy systems..
74. http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/energy/energy-outlook/fulfilling-future-supply/future supplies a comprehensive analysis by EXXON of the energy supply situation out to 2040. It expects a practical reduction in the reliance on coal to meet policy decisions to reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emissions.It presents seemingly persuasive arguments and will, no doubt, have an impact on the decisions by governments and businesses. However, by focussing on the energy supply issue and selected associated issues, the assessment ignores how this issue can be seriously affected by some of the multitude of other issues.
75. Germany is currently having problems with integrating renewable systems  into the grid system because their intermittency puts a strain on the base load systems. This is a fundamental physical problem that is widespread to varying degrees.Consumers are encouraged to put solar panels on their roofs in the fallacious belief that they are helping to tackle climate change. These panels can be a sound source of electricity but can only reduce greenhouse gases in principle rather than having a significant impact in practice.Essentially, this is a con by governments suggesting that solar panels are a worthwhile move and by the industries who are profiting from this false selling. 
76. Economists proclaim on the merits of their belief in pursuing economic growth rate of about 3 % so as this increase in production will ensure the employment of the increasing population.Traditionally they only look at one side of the balance sheet. They do not take into account the divestment of natural wealth by using up natural resources, the irrevocable aging of the existing infrastructure and degrading of the environment in the production process. They do not take into account the fact that the goods produced eventually end up as waste, often in land fills that can provide toxic groundwater.. Ironically, despite these deficiencies in their accounting, economists are listened to by political leaders because growth in production is popular with the consumers.
77. Ironically many leaders and commentators in the mainstream media call for impossible action to combat climate change (they ignore ocean warming and associated problems in their prognostications) and lampoon the inability of technological systems to rapidly meet their demands. They have the fallacious belief in the ability of solar and wind systems to use weak solar energy to provide sufficient electricity to meet current requirements. Some reports being released  — including the 2014 Wind Technologies Market Report, published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — suggest that wind is being installed at a rapid rate, that its costs are plummeting, that its technologies are advancing, and that it is creating a growing number of jobs to boot. The report does not take into account the fact that they are made of irreplaceable materials and use resources for their maintenance in their limited life times and that they can only supply some electricity when the wind is blowing..The society leaders and press show that they do not take into account that these 'renewable' energy systems cannot provide fuels for sea and air transportation vehicles, many of the fertilizers to enhance food production or enable the mining, transportation and  processing of the many raw materials such as iron ore.These people just take for granted the many services the existing aging technological systems currently provide can continue indefinitely.Their attitudes will change when, inevitably, they cannot fly round the globe, use road transport willy nilly, cannot rely on trade globalization to provide the goods they want or allow communication online by using electronic devices.
78. The United Nations has set conflicting goals for 2030: combating climate change while providing energy to all. Recognizing the development impact of electricity access, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has championed the idea of “modern energy access” for all, involving universal electricity and clean cooking fuels like natural gas. The IEA claims that the additional electricity consumed by the newly connected (alongside the gas used in clean cooking) would add just 0.7 percent to global greenhouse-gas emissions in 2030. In large part that’s because the organization suggests energy for all would add just 1.1 percent to global energy demand. The energy usage figures that are quoted are completely unrealistic so the UN is not providing the guidance that people expect. Billions of poor cannot possibly expect to have access to even a reasonable amount of energy (electricity together with gas for cooking). But even meeting some of this demand will increase the climate disruption and ocean acidification, pollution, deoxygenation and warming.
79. Young people are being encouraged to embrace the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals defined by the UN following the success of some of the Millennium Development Goals. Global poverty has been markedly reduced while education of the poor substantially improved this century.However, these goals are no more than wishful thinking as they are not based on what is physically possible. The primary objective of sustainable development is not possible because the operations of industrialized civilization irreversibly use up limited natural resources, produces irrevocable waste material and degrades the terrestrial and marine eco systems. This operation is an unsustainable process. The most that sound policies can do is slightly ameliorate some of the seventeen listed predicaments. This, of course, would be admirable and is a remedial policy to be encouraged even though it is based on an anthropocentric delusion. Those who contribute to enabling these processes will have the satisfaction of doing something that is clearly worthwhile. This movement by the young will tend to counter to a small degree the common wide spread aspiration for a high material standard of living regardless of the deleterious impact on the environment and the disadvantaged people. It will give the smart youngsters pride in easing some of the problems created by the unwise decisions of their elders and ancestors. However, they need to understand that there is a practical limit to what can be done in regressing to cope with the identified predicaments. The Sustainable Development Goals are only a pie in the sky!
80. There is a lot of discussion of the role of higher education in the operation of societies. Ironically these disussions focus on the advancement of the frontiers of knowledge without noting how science had not come to grips with the failing to warn of the inherent dangers of using fossil fuels. The current call for hgher education to provide new undersstanding of reality is a belated response to such deleterious consequence of induatrialization as climate change and ocean degradation..
81. Pope Francis, as leader of the Catholic Church, has the power to make pronouncements that many people will take on board. His encyclical on climate change and consumerism  will doubtless cause many people to adopt measures that do less harm to the environment. But more leaders of society around the globe have to point out what the actions of civilization are doing wrong if society at large are to adopt measures to ease the inevitable powering down. 
82. Ironically there is widespread promotion in governments, the media and even academic circles of the value of 'renewable' energy systems without taking into account their very limited capability, ecological cost and limited lifetime. The media in Australia has warned of the misleading views of governments about the worth of wind farms even as Victoria is outlaying a large sum for the installation of a wind farm while South Australia is learning of the problems when the wind is not blowing because they now have to much dependency on wind farms.They will make a worthwhile contribution to electricity supply in some circumstances but reduce the inclination to promote more efficient and more prudent use of electricity. Of course, some industries make money by fostering the delusion that these systems can make a worthwhile contribution to easing the climate change problem by intermittently supplying some electrical energy. 
83. A good current example of  the delusional effect of Myopia is the push by some American, Canadian and Mexican elite for the creation of a North American super economy by amelioration of the three countries.This would bring together cheap Mexican labor and Canadian natural resources under American know how. These pundits do not take into account the influence of Mother Nature so their hallucination will not become a reality.
84. Of course, the European Union was an attempt to do something similar after WWII with limited success for a number of reasons, including economic, social and historical differences in a large number of countries.This weakness is contributing to the decline in the economy as decreasing availability of natural resources starts to hit hard.
85. However, a vast continental group of countries, led by Russia and China, look to grow their economies by using their supply of natural resources. Asian countries have developed rapidly in recent times by following the lead of Japan in making good use of their human resources.The Latin American countries are striving to get from under the yoke of the United States.Proponents claim "Latin America is one of the fronts of the integrated fight for the survival of our Planet." This, of course, is false as the real objective is to catch up with Western powers in robbing the planet to have a good material standard of living.
86. Articles discuss how the rapid economic growth of China in recent decades was fostered by acquirng Western, primarily American, technology and manufacturing capabilities. Other Asian countries have done the same.Trump argues that America should use their know how to usurp the Chinese advances. These proposals do take into account the reality that these manufacturing capabilities irreversibly use up the limited natural resources in an unsustainable process. It will be interesting to see how countries respond to that inevitable reality in the decades ahead. China may lead the way because it is not so dependent on capitalism.
87. A comprehensive study relates the financial cost consequences of greenhouse gas emissions impact on the economy. It makes the common assumption about energy supply being the crucial factor in operations: the materials also irrevocably used are not taken into account. In addition, the study takes the view that people can decide what can be done in the future to improve the situation. The reality, of course, is that there is an existing commitment to use energy and materials to operate and maintain the vast, aging infrastructure as well as producing throw away goods and providing services that are often not useful.
88. It is common to discuss the financial merit of privatizing the construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure without consideration of what is physically possible in view of the nature of these operations. This is an example of the common fallacious belief that intangible money can carry out these tangible operations.As a consequence, for example, the American Society of Civil Engineers have recorded the low maintenance level of many aspects of the vast infrastructure in the U.S. because the powerful are using the leverage of money to promote economic growth- and to hell with the physical consequences.  

1. How energy conversion drives economic growth far from the equilibrium of neoclassical economics is a seemingly knowledgeable view of the operation of civilization.Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics that relates supply and demand to an individual's rationality and his ability to maximize utility or profit It is based on peoples' decisions and does not take into account the limitations of physical operations. But this consideration looks at only one side of the balance sheet. On the other side, energy supply entails the implacable divestment of natural assets while economic growth increases the rate of irreversible usage of natural resources and degradation of ecosystems. Nassim Taleb invokes the term 'silent evidence' in his book "The Black Swan" in referring to what is actually happening to natural resources without being taken into account by societies. Society at large is not yet aware of the decrease of many irreplaceable natural resources because there is only  silent evidence of the depletion of the oil stock, fertile soil, aquifer water,  many minerals and marine, bird, animal and plant species.
2. Commentators in a number of countries are supporting buttressing the financial pillars of society. The financial services industry employs a large skilled workforce to operate banking, provide advice to investors and businesses and many other intangible services while not using an inordinate amount of natural resources. This service industry is in comparison to consumption of natural resources by the manufacturing industries. So, the growth of the financial industry can largely continue even as the availability of natural resources inevitably declines. The financial booms and busts will continue to create many social problems but have limited impact on the irreversible divestment of natural material wealth. 

1. Quite a few seemingly authoritative commentators (such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, US Nobel-prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman, IBISWorld founder, Phil Ruthven) are warning of the possibility that 2016 will be a 'cataclysmic' year, with the slowing growth of the Chinese economy being a major causative factor. Contraction of the economies of Brazil and Russia are also mentioned. This focussing on intangible financial matters without taking into account tangible physical factors is common but can be very misleading. It does not encourage the adoption of measures to tackle over population, the declining availability of natural material resources, fertile soil and potable water together with the devastation on the environment, including climate change and ocean acidification. 
2. Ironically, the school of ecological economists has emerged that fosters the fallacious belief in the possibility of sustainable economies. It does not take into account that the operation of the technological systems of industrialized civilization is not a sustainable process. These systems irreversibly use up the limited natural material resources and produce irrevocable material waste during their limited lifetime. Society will be unable to ignore that reality for much longer. Economists believe in economic growth. Ecological economists believe in sustainable economies. Realists understand that economies will contract as the availability of natural resources declines, the infrastructure deteriorates and the environment degrades.
3. It is indicative of the widespread misunderstanding of physical reality that a book considering the sustainability of the operation of cities puts forward impossible developments. Of course, many seemingly knowledgeable people foster belief in the ability of society to accomplish such impossible tasks.
4. A common assessment of the provision of electricity supply for domestic, commercial and industrial use compares the supply by the various sources and the associated cost. These assessments do not take into account the irreversible divestment of natural resources (oil, coal, natural gas, uranium) supplying the energy. They do not take into account the contribution these operations make to climate change and ocean warming and acidification. They do not take into account the associated pollution of land, sea, air and people with toxic materials. They do not take into account the irrevocable aging of the systems supplying this energy. Yet these biased assessments are presented by business organizations to support the operation of the economy, so their profitability.
5. There is appreciable attention being given to the impact of the emissions from coal-fired power stations on the growth of global atmospheric warming. However, the impact of these emissions on human health is also starting to receive that attention that is warranted. Policies are being adopted in Beijing to reduce this increasingly serious problem. Ironically, authorities in Australia are noting the seriouness of this air pollution even though it is not nealy as bad as in many other regions around the globe. Cutting back on the emissions from coal fired power stations in Australia will have a beneficial impact on human health issues while having an insignificant impact on global warming. This is another example of where politcians lack understanding of physical principles.
6. Three august organizations provided sound insight into the problems society had to deal with following a locailized and short term loss of electricity following flooding of Lancaster in England. they call for appropriate risk mangement to prevent the loss of capabilites in similar circumstances. However, the report does not consider the fundamental deleterious prospects of electricity supply in the long term due to fundamntal physical principles..
7. It is not surprising that European businesses make billions from free carbon quotas. This is just one example of businesses grabbing the opportunity to make money without accepting the responsibility for unintended ecological, environmental or social consequences. They just operate within the regulations in most instances.The manufacture of military equipment is the biggest example of the misuse of material and human resources.
8. Ironically, the carry trade, hedge funds and other activities (including corruption) in the boom in global financial markets is heavily dependent on usage of electronics. Disruptions, such as the GFC, are becoming more likely with the increase in the complexity of the market. But this process cannot possibly continue. The time will come when the availability of electronic systems starts to decline and very powerful forces will be exerted in the competition to maintain access to online communication capability. Wall Street, London and other financial centers will have great difficulty in maintaining their position.
9. Wars have had a significant impact on the development of some civilizations in the past with World War I and World War II being the outstanding examples in recent times although Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and numerous African conflicts have had and are having a disruptive impact. Access to natural resources has been the cause of many. These wars have had a disastrous effect on service personnel and civilians but are the bread and butter of the industrial/military complexes in many countries that are fostered by the hegemony objective.The number of countries with fossil fuel conflicts and wars is increasing. Libya, Sudan, Egypt (Sinai), Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine. The result is that many innocent people die and that actual oil/gas production and its wasteful use drops.Ironically, however, the military have had to adapt their weapons profoundly in recent times for a number of reasons, including the looming loss of fuel together with the growing, but temporary (even though unrecognized), impact of electronic equipment peaking and the declining rapidly. Appreciable effort is going into improving the supply of biofuels but that will only ease the situation slightly. Aircraft carriers are following battleships  and aircraft down into the black hole. Many aircraft carriers are nuclear powered but they will not be useful when there is no fuel for their aircraft. Drones are taking over from some types of manned aircraft. Electronics is having an increasing impact on weapons measures for now. But the Ukraine crisis could possibly lead to the use of nuclear weapons due to ridiculous view of some world leaders. The shooting down of the Malaysian Boeing 777 has escalated the Russian v U.S./NATO confrontation.
10. The form of warfare is changing rapidly. The land, sea and air battles of the past are being overtaken by the combination of online propaganda, economic sanctions, financial manipulations and cyber warfare. Western countries are losing their superiority in warfare without realizing it. The objective in wars has often been the acquisition of natural resources, including land. Access to oil supplies in the Middle East was a major issue in the Great War and World War II that continues. This is a lose-lose situation as the reality is that really it is a war on nature that civilization cannot possibly win. However, that touch of realism is beyond the ken of governments, just as it has been for millennia. They have learned nothing from the demise of many past civilizations, despite the warnings proclaimed by the few intellectuals who have insight into physical reality.
11. Quite a few countries have and are doing well by manufacturing and exporting military equipment with the U.S. leading the way in recent times but other countries  are striving to emulate them. This has been a manifestation of industries for a long time but its deleterious impact on economies and societies has not diminished this century. U.S. and Western European companies together account for 80.3 percent of the arms revenue for the top 100 firms worldwide.The Middle East countries are using many of their petro dollars to buy military equipment from the Western powers although they often lack the ability to use the equipment effectively. Ironically, while conflict between countries shows no signs of decreasing, the nature of warfare is changing while the ability to manufacture military shipment is bound to diminish as the source of energy and materials irrevocably declines. Cyber warfare is assuming some of the role previously assumed to be the province of hardware.Cyber security is an issue receiving increasing attention with proxies compoundint the problem. 
12. Documentation of Pentagon plans of the US Army to cope with the developing global operational situation shows appreciation of many of the problems they will have to deal with to maintain US dominance as natural resources become scarce.Ironically, there is no mention of how they will cope with the loss of liquid fuels for land, sea and air vehicles. Doubtless military bodies in Russia and China also have coping plans as well.   
13. In the view of an astute commentator "A multi-spectrum war is being waged against Moscow by Washington. If there are any doubts about this, they should be put to rest. Geopolitics, science and technology, speculation, financial markets, information streams, large business conglomerates, intelligentsia, mass communication, social media, the internet, popular culture, news networks, international institutions, sanctions, audiences, public opinion, nationalism, different governmental bodies and agencies, identity politics, proxy wars, diplomacy, countervailing international alliances, major business agreements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights, prestige, military personnel, capital, and psychological tactics are all involved in this multi-spectrum war. On a daily basis this struggle can be seen playing out on the airwaves, in the war theaters in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, through the statements and accusations of diplomats, and in the economic sphere. " This is an anthropocentric view that does not take into account the reality that physical forms of warfare are unsustainable because they irreversibly and wastefully use up the limited natural resources.
14. The views of the powerful in the U.S, have changed  profoundly since the trauma of 9/11 as they strive to continue the American hegemony following the Cold War. Laying down their law internally and externally has been a feature of the American 21st Century so far.It is a reminder of the doomed efforts at the start of the 20th Century to save the British Empire, although the state of global civilization is now very different: the natural resources available to operate and maintain the infrastructure is becoming in very short supply. The American hope for the 21st Century is not based on anything that is sustainable despite the rhetoric and the flow of money. Ironically, even the Asian Century is not possible. Nature bats last1
15. Monetary warfare is hitting center stage now with the demise of the petrodollar being possible due to the efforts of Russia, China and their allies. The US and Saudi Arabia are wielding the heavy weapons despite the collateral damage to the fracking (U.S.) and tar sands (Alberta, Canada) industries and to banking.Some OPEC countries are concerned that the low price will inhibit investment as the output  from fields decline so will lead to a drop in supply that will cause the price to escalate. Many commentators  provide sound arguments as to why the fracking boom in the U.S. will bust in coming years. A comprehensive assessment of the various fields in the US provides evidence of the limited viability of these fields despite the impact of improved technical systems. This boom in energy supply will hit the US economy hard when it inevitably busts, possibly in the next few months as many companies involved in fracking can not roll over their loans as their asserts in the ground have lost so much value.The EIA provides convincing evidence that the boom is now over as unwise investors struggle with their losses but most politicians remain silent. They are no longer saying " we were going to be “Number one in the world in oil and gas production?” Of how we would start exporting the stuff and thus bend the rest of the world to our will?"
16. A repeat of the GFC in the Western countries is possibly being accentuated by the growing strength of the SCO.The implosion of the interest rate sector of the derivatives casino could well be a major factor in the bust. It will be a horrendous wart on the senescence of industrial civilization but nature has more lethal weapons, such as climate change and ocean warming and acidification, in play! 
17. Saudi Arabia is compensating for the decline in the output from their supergiant fields by drilling more wells while recruiting expertise to develop their shale oil capability. This is another factor in the trend to increase understanding of how much useful oil will eventually be extracted. This undue emphasis on oil and gas supply to provide energy tends to obscure the many other deleterious issues that are occurring.
18. Saudi Arabia is, with other Middle East countries, cutting back subsidizes on fuel and water usage so they can use the money in a more useful manner for the growing population at large. It is a wise move that Western countries should emulate! Americans on the other hand appear to be entranced with the drop in fuel prices and the 'promise' of energy independence to lash out on SUV fuel gluttons.
19.  Propaganda war between the US and North Korea is another example of how times have changed due to changes in the nature of available weapons and the outlook of society. It is a matter of speculation as to how long it will be before society has to change its outlook as the necessary tools become unavailable.
20. Ironically cyber warfare is no more sustainable than other forms of warfare. They always have and always will dependent upon the hardware that is available to the protagonists.  The demise of electronic systems as just as certain as the demise of other forms of hardware, such as fighter aircraft and warships, even drones. However, this predicament is not yet recognised by governments as they through in more intellectual resources to cope with cyber security as much as possible.
21. As Russia's relations with the West deteriorated over the Ukraine crisis, the European Union and United States imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Russian firms, including oil and gas producers, leaving Moscow forging closer ties with energy-hungry China. The Western policy is back firing as Russia is the leading gas supplier to EU countries. This issue is a tangled web of competing interests involving Russia, Iran and the U.S. on the supply side. These political and financial ramblings occupy center stage while the reality that oil,gas and other natural resources are becoming beyond reach is placed in the too hard basket!
22. Ironically, the ability to conduct conventional warfare is declining yet the military are lagging in their response to this reality, partly because it costs the backing industry dollars to adapt. Governments continue to foster the military defensive (misnomer as it often encourages aggression) capability whilst fostering co-operation in trading. So free grade agreements with potential future enemies are becoming more common as the economies of Asian countries grow.The confrontation between China and Japan is a developing major issue in the Eastern sphere with the Americans sticking their nose in, as usual.
23. The Chinese construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea as military bases does not augur well for relations in the region. But they could well be measures invoked by the government to ease internal tensions due to the developing internal environmental, ecological, economic and social problems. The autocratic government appears to prove their hegemony in the region without taking into account that the materialistic developments are not possibly sustainable.
24. The military in a number of countries are becoming proactive in addressing the impact of climate change on facilities, security, threats and mass migration. Ironically, these activities are contributing to climate change due to the fuel usage. However, governments and the military/industrial complexes argue that these activities are worthwhile -for them - for now. The decline in the availability of fuel will have a significant impact on future military activities.
25. Military budgets are increasing in many countries even though the reality is that the capability of hardware is inevitably declining. For example, the orders for the American F35 multirole fighters are based on the fallacious presumption that the jet fuel they need will continue to be available for decades.Even the most efficient fan jet engines use the concentrated energy in the fuel at a great rate. Natural forces concentrated that energy over eons. Oil is our only source of concentrated energy for use in jet fuel. Any form of weak solar energy cannot possibly act as an alternative irrespective of the technology employed. The demise of the aircraft industry will stem from the inevitable decline in availability of oil. It appears that the powerful in every developed country suffers from that delusion about jet fuel. Obviously it is a transmittable disease!
26. This is not to say that the situation is easing in the Middle East where religious issues vie with the striving to get oil are continuing to make life hell for the masses of all persuasions. The involvement of the military of Western countries has only exacerbated the dire situation while fostering the emergence of extremist Islamic groups. Ironically, Western powers use ineffective, resource expensive air strikes against the 'terrorists' on the ground using less costly but more effective measures,which they display to enrage their opponents.
27. Various forms of terrorism have disrupted civilizations in the past but it has become a major issue in recent times in many global regions because of the enhanced capabilities of the groups due to financing, access to weapons and heightened communication and propaganda measures. Some commentators say that mass surveillance within the U.S. is a corrupt power grab … not an effort aimed at stopping terrorism. However, the reality is more likely to be that countries need to employ more complex measures to cope with the growth of extremism and associated activities. This growth leads to the inevitable loss of resilience that various authors have explained. It is just one of the intractable predicaments that society will have to try to deal with in due course.
28. Imperialistic powers have fomented wars over the centuries to maintain and enhance their hegemony. Peaceful citizens have been transformed into irrational chauvinist militarists through the propaganda of the deed where executive authority disguises its own acts of imperial attacks as defensive and its opponents retaliation as unprovoked aggression against a peace loving nation. It is clear that Plato's not-so noble lie, as practiced by imperialists, to deceive their citizens for higher purposes has led to the use of bloody and cruel means to achieve grotesque and ignoble ends.The repetition of fabricated pretexts to engage in imperial wars is embedded in the dual structure of the nation's political system, a military-driven empire and a broad-based electorate. To pursue the former it has been essential to deceive the latter. Deception has been facilitated in recent times by the control of mass media whose war propaganda enters every home, office and classroom with the same centrally determined message. Imperial policy-making have always refuted the conventional and commonplace notion that the decision making process leading up to war is open, public and carried out in accordance with the constitutional rules of a democracy. Ironically, this imperialism is an unsustainable process as the prognostics are dependent on the continuing availability of the technological systems, and the resources they use, to back their policies. Despite what the powerful fallaciously believe, this century will be called the Destructive Century by their descendants.
29. It is ironical that there are more calls for democracy in many countries as the masses continue to do their utmost to gain a higher material standard of living by consuming natural wealth. Democracy is deemed to be better than authoritarian rule because it improves the lot of many people, but with an increasing ecological cost that is not yet included in the balance sheet. Future generations will have to pay for this free lunch.   
30. Developed countries are involved in numerous (costly using irreplaceable natural resources, particularly oil) wars as they aim to protect their access to supplies of the fossil fuels, particularly oil, that provides the concentrated energy that drives their infrastructure, including their war machines (and incidentally contributes to climate change and ocean acidification). Ironically, this process contributes to ecocide and genocide while doing little to stop the aging of their infrastructure or their population's vain pursuit of a high material standard of living.
31. It is fascinating that the decision makers in society believe that the supply of energy to power the economy is a fundamental principle. They believe economic costs are ultimately an energy cost.They do not understand that irreversible energy flow is necessary, but not sufficient, to do the positive work (on technological systems made of materials).  They do not understand that friction does negative work on the materials at the same time, so producing material waste. They falsely believe that all material can be recycled. Commentators often quote the conservation of mass law without understanding that the real law is the Laws of Massdynamics to complement (the widely recognized in physics and engineering) Laws of Thermodynamics, which deal only with the flow of energy. The Laws of Massdynamics deal with the inevitable associated transformation of materials due to the invariable action of various forms of friction.
32. Proposals to install infrastructure such as dams in under-developed countries to aid development and raise the standard of living of the population are being opposed for environmental reasons. The real worth of these proposals is difficult to assess because they are clouded by the financial interests of the proposers, the problem of over population and the fact that the infrastructure is eco costly to construct, operate and maintain during its limited lifetime.
    
33. Ironically, the reversal is starting in a developed country, the U.S. The largest dam-removal project in history reached completion last fall, when excavators dredged the final tons of pulverized concrete from the Elwha River channel in Western Washington. Native fish, banished for 100 years from their historic spawning habitat, already were rediscovering the Elwha’s newly accessible upper stretches. Within weeks of the final explosion in August, threatened bull trout and chinook salmon were spotted migrating beyond the rubble. Removal of some of the eighty thousand dams will help to undo some of the environmental damage but at the cost of using skilled labor, physical energy and materials. These environmental beneficial  projects will help employment figures and contribute to GDP to a significant extent only when they become more common.
34. Western countries have led the way in using natural resources to construct infrastructure to temporarily provide society with services, such a electricity, that are now commonly regarded as being essential for their well being. Unfortunately, nature does not agree! Natural forces, such as friction, storms, droughts and wildfires will make certain that society will inevitably have to pay the price. Blackouts in America, Brazil, Pakistan and South Africa are some of the unintended consequences of this failure to understand how natural forces have always operated. The collapse of the crane at Mecca is but one example of what will become common in the future. The rampant forest and peat fires in Indonesia are having dual deleterious consequences in that they are contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate disruption and ocean acidification and warming as well as harming human health by polluting the air. Air pollution in Beijing and New Delhi commands more attention in the Western media! They comment on what is happening without saying that the measures being embraced by the authorities can do no more than slow the growth of this problem.
35. Deep in the northeast Pacific Ocean, The Blob is acting strangely.When the abnormally warm patch of water first appeared in 2013, fascinated scientists watched disrupted weather patterns, from drought in California to almost snowless winters in Alaska and record cold winters in the northeast of the U.S. The anomalously warm water, with temperatures three degrees Centigrade above normal, was nicknamed The Blob by U.S climatologist Nick Bond. It stretched over one million square kilometres of the Gulf of Alaska stretching down 100-metres into the ocean. This but one example of ocean warming that is causing concern because of its impact on the marine ecology.
36. China made its first official announcement about the country's strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), saying the first phase of the government emergency stockpile is storing about 91 million barrels of crude oil, or about nine days of oil use. SPR are stockpiles of oil to meet short term demand if access to supplies is interrupted. The U.S. has used its SPR on one occasion. This policy aims to cope with blips in fuel supply. No country has a policy to deal with the inevitable running out of oil!
37. Events over the past year—turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East and the Russian-Ukraine gas crisis—along with uncertainty for nuclear power and pervading energy poverty worldwide show that the energy system is “under stress,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its freshly released World Energy Outlook 2014. With a name like that it is not surprising that the report focuses on energy supply without taking into account either the sustainability of the source or the maintainability of the systems supplying the energy. So its prognosis is fallacious and is misleading the powerful in society.
38. The pursuit of oil is a major factor in the policies of many countries even though it is a lose-lose situation. Other factors such as climate change, ocean warming and acidification and pollution are just exacerbating the holistic situation even though the powerful do not connect the dots. But scientists are connecting some of the dots.For example, some scientists are turning an eye to the sky to complement on-the-ground data. Using satellite measurements, researchers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and their colleagues have created global maps of ocean acidity that show which areas are most affected.
39. Ironically, the economies of the Middle East are booming due to oil but the untended consequences of increasing temperatures due to global warming are being countered in the growing cities by the unsustainable air conditioning. Studies have shown how vulnerable these societies are to the increasing temperatures but that has not stopped the chase of the delusion of a comfortable life style in that region. However, the powerful in those societies are not much more delusionary than those in most developed countries.
40. Air pollution due to exhausts from industrial operations are causing many health problems, particularly in Asian countries. Measures are being introduced to enable to people to avoid this pollution but this adaption comes at an eco as well as financial cost while having little impact on the holistic air pollution problem..
41. Imperialism has contributed to the genocide that has occurred and is still occurring. The populations of Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos are amongst those that have suffered from this biased application of human power. Ironically this suffering due to genocide has done little to slow population growth and can possibly be eliminated. Ironically, the rampant ecocide does not receive the same publicity even though it cannot possibly be remedied.
42. The riots in Hong Kong were an example of the calls by the masses for democracy. In theory a  system of democracy ensures that people have a direct say in the country's affairs. This is often implemented by giving eligible citizens a vote although it is often biased by vested interests using the leverage of money. Ironically, democracy is an anthropocentric concept that has contributed significantly to the devastation by civilization of its life support system, the environment, by ecocide. Democracy is supposed to support human rights. It does not, however, encompass human responsibilities to operate with the limited natural capital as well as limited natural income. Society tends to believe in free speech even though it generally promotes the anthropocentric right to ravish eco systems. The purpose of the ELAM movement is to foster civilization living with what nature can continue to provide.It embraces understanding of how the real world operates, a fact that most people do not understand as they strive to obtain a high material standard of living - despite the irrevocable environmental and ecological costs.
43. The one country governed by an indigenous majority, Bolivia, held a World People’s Conference in 2010, with 35,000 participants from 140 countries. It produced a People’s Agreement calling for sharp reductions in emissions, as well as a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. These are key demands of indigenous communities all over the world. However, this rational view of a sustainable lifestyle does not take into account the fact that the bulk of the existing population is devoted to and committed to the devastation of Mother Earth and all she has to offer. It is common for concerned groups to present a biased scenario by considering what is happening to the environment without taking into account the unsustainable operation of the aging infrastructure that is doing the damage. They focus on decisions made by people rather than what is actually happening to the aging infrastructure.
44. Crossrail is an addition to the London Underground being built at great financial, expertise and physical resources expense. It appears that it has been presumed that sufficient material resources will continue to be available to operate and maintain the system together with the rest of the Underground far into the future. After all, this process has been under way for one hundred and fifty years. The problem is that the stock of natural resources is now so depleted that the process cannot continue in the next century. The multitude of skills to manage and operate the machinery and other systems required for this massive program will become redundant. Of course, the need for the service provided by the Underground will also have declined.Ironically, at the same time skills and materials are being used to build up the barrages on the Thames to protect London from the expected sea level rise and storm surges.The flooding of Crossrail and other Underground lines would be really catastrophic!
45. One of the few environmental mitigation successes of society was the banning of those chemical products that had been found to damage the ozone layer, so causing the annual hole over Antarctica to increase. This ban has resulted in the size of the hole reducing slowly over the years so less UV radiation giving people dangerous sunburn. However, researchers have now identified other chemical products that are destroying ozone. Those companies that make money by introducing chemical products they can market as having features people will like but do not take into account the unintended deleterious environmental consequences are still rampant. The precautionary principle is a sound idea that has not yet been applied to a significant extent.
46. The loss of wetlands because of unreasonable developments such as the installation of roadways is contributing significantly in some regions to social disruption as well as environmental devastation. Wetlands have often eased the problems caused by storm surges so the residents of these regions are having to cope with the double whammy of more storms and less protection.
47. The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) provides arguments as why populations of organisms peak and then decline. The argument is then applied to the human population without taking into account the influence of the aging infrastructure of industrialized civilization (the vast organism,Tityas) on the operations of the population. The trends suggested by GAS may well apply to the population but the certain demise of components of Tityas will have a major impact that should also be taken into account.
48. Who is prepared to understand that the human race is a parasite as it is contributing nothing to the survival of its host, the environment of Mother Nature? It just employs temporary technology to unsustainably ravish its life support system to provide a false, temporary material standard of living for some of the human species. Technology also provides the means to obtain useful information about natural operations. For example, robots are efficiently gathering and reporting information about ocean underwater storms in the Southern Ocean. But natural forces are causing the storms. Mother Nature freely provides the oxygen in air, most of the water and makes a major contribution to the food supply. However, most of the goods and materialistic services are irreversibly obtained by using irreplaceable natural resources out of crustal store (such as oil and aquifer water) together with naturally recycling material (such as wood).
49. Positive effects as far as society at large is concerned of some technology is often outweighed by the negative effects. For example, a brain scanning device is being used to gain some understanding of the impact of proposed advertisements. This could well contribute to the bottom line of advertisers as well as the providers of the technology. The power of advertising is a major contibution to the consumtion of wants as well as needs.However, the resultant increase in the purchase and consumption of stuff is just one of the many deleterious operations that are not sustainable.
50. Electronic technology has enabled the introduction of the private taxi service, Uber. In principle it contributes to more efficient use of cars (so reducing the draw down of fuel) while slightly reducing the cost to passengers. Its introduction is causing problems for regular taxi drivers as well as for authorities who lose out on the tax money they currently receive. However, it will be deemed by many to be progress and tend to stifle understanding of the unsustainability of car transport because of coming lack of fuel.Belief in the value of Uber is a minor contribution to the inevitable powering down. It is based on sound business principles but other service industries such as Luxe are not so and they will soon die off.
51. Uber is just one example of the emerging sharing economy. Airbub, Lyft, Airtasker are others.They are based on a sound efficiency principle that could aid in the inevitable powering down. However, they suffer from the usual financial manipulations of unscrupulous mangement and lack of understanding of the unsustainability of robbing natural resources.
52. A more fundamental beneficial activity is the growing trend to use a bicycle for personal transport. It is based on sound physical and economic principles, especially in city traffic. It uses a small amount of physical energy (with health benefits) rather than vast amounts of energy capital (in the fuel) to progress mechanical monsters (cars). It is a growing phenomenon with the safety issue being tackled by a variety of measures. But the main impact in the future is bound to be the inevitable declining availability of fuel for cars.  
53. GMO has been successful in making money for the corporations. Monsanto charges for its seeds whereas farmers in the past have freely used the seeds they had accumulated.New numbers show farmer suicide rates in India have reached record highs in rural states as Monsanto's infamous seeds have propagated throughout the country, and it's about to get worse. Now, the new Indian government has opened GMO testing on eggplant, corn, rice and chickpeas, which could mean even more royalties across the agricultural industry.Over the past twenty years global crop yields have only grown by 20 percent—despite the massive investment in biotechnology. On the other hand in recent decades "the dominant source of yield improvements has been traditional crossbreeding, and that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future." 
54. The global resistance to the social and ecological costs of GMO is growing from a small base. An example of this positive trend is"Scotland is known around the world for our beautiful natural environment—and banning growing genetically modified crops will protect and further enhance our clean, green status," declared rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead in a statement. Another example is that not only do people not need genetically engineered mustard, the traits being introduced in the GM mustard in the U.S. are known to be hazardous and are illegal under international and national law. Germany has become the latest country in the European Union to take a stand against genetically modified (GMO) crops in its food supply.However, these wise examples are not countering the global thrust of GMO to a significant extent.
55. Ironically scientists are discussing whether these times should be called the Anthropocene Era.
    
    While humans arrived only recently on geologic time scales, our species already seems to be driving some major plot developments. Agriculture occupies about one-third of Earth's land. The atmosphere and oceans are filling up with chemical signatures of our industrial activity. Whole ecosystems have been reshaped as species are domesticated, transplanted or wiped out.A vast infrastructure has been installed. So these scientists are looking realistically at what has happened. But they are making no contribution to the remedial action by the masses necessary to ameliorate what happens in the future!
56. And the elite in societies use politics, economics, ethic issues and their military to foster imperialism.The outstanding historic examples of unlimited imperialism are the expansionist policies of Alexander the Great, Rome, the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries, Napoleon I, and Hitler and now the United States with support from Europe.1997 saw the formation of an organization called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) which appears to have led to the recent aggressive American policies. These policies all have in common an urge toward expansion which knows no rational limits, feeds on its own successes and, if not stopped by a superior force,will go on to the confines of the political world. Now this US government is emboldened as it recreates Manifest Destiny, the belief that America has the right to control any place in the world at any time. Iran is just the latest of many victims.That view does not take into account the fact that Mother Nature provides a much superior, resilient and ongoing, force. Consequently, the collapse of industrialized civilization this century is certain. The manipulations by the oligarchy are unsustainable, despite their intangible money, often enhanced by tax dodging. The ascendant power in the boardrooms and the backrooms, and of a sense of impunity that accompanies it is a delusion that will die a painful death. Their New World Order is a dream built on nothing more than their ability to promote ethnic conflict and false flag operations by using the power of money in combination with much hype fostered by the media.
57. Astute finance commentators detail how many  international businesses (corporations) avoid extraordinary amounts of taxation, often by using off shore tax havens. The 30 worst offenders in the U.S. account for 65 percent of the total estimated offshore profits, booking as much as $1.4 trillion overseas for tax purposes.Governments still appear to avoid dealing with this issue even though it reduces their ability to finance such societal beneficial measures as sound education and health care. Ironically most of these corporations are producing goods and services wanted by a delusioned public rather than providing a economically useful contribution. The need to tackle this manipulative financial problem is gaining political momentum in a number of countries, including Australia, with it becoming a major issue in the U.S Presidential race..
58. But this only one example of a global trend fostering cheating and other malpractices to help people get ahead by using unethical measures. There is nothing new in this approach but it has grown exponentially in recent times with the help of the services provided by communication technology. But it only a transient disease as they use unsustainable systems.
59. From 2007 to 2012, the two hundred most politically active corporations in the United States spent almost $6 billion for lobbying and campaign contributions. And they received more than $4 trillion in US government contracts and other forms of assistance. That’s $760 for every dollar spent on influence, a stunning return on investment.Lobbying is a service that has grown rapidly in recent times in many countries. There is nothing novel or local in these contributions (bribes) to grease the wheels for lucrative contracts and easy regulation. It has been and continues to be a way for business to gain advantages that the community has to pay for by paying taxes. The military industry is the current leader in many countries but other industries are not far behind. The mining industry is renowned for its contributions (bribes) in resource rich countries such as Australia.
60. Education is not immune to a range of lucrative financial services (manipulations). Vocational educational organizations in Australia  are under scrutiny for the incentives given to prospective students while failing to provide sound education in their courses
61. Ironically, the financial market manipulation is still growing, despite the bubbles that have burst this century. For example, the biggest operator in the new Next Big Thing in the U.S. is the Blackstone Group, the world’s largest private equity firm. (Their job, then, is to find obscene rates of return for obscene amounts of money possessed by the .01% of people who need professional help in thinking what to do with their money.) It is also, through its subsidiary Invitation Homes, the largest single owner of single family homes in the United States, having spent $7 billion for 41,000 houses. Superannuation fund managers in Australia is an example of a costly financial service of very doubtful worth. Financial manipulation is a global crime that is unlikely to be significantly remedied as civilization inevitably declines. Stopping off shore tax havens is only one of the predicaments. It is the masses who will have to bear the brunt of the inevitable powering down.
62. Major operations in economies around the world are powered by the flow of money governing the decisions being made.Unfortunately, the artificiality of this mechanism invites corruption that is having such a deleterious impact on many operations.Many unscrupulous people take advantage of this weakness to make money. Betting is one problematic aspect of money flow. Sport is a field that is being harmed by corruption with International soccer the latest recognized victim following cycling and now athletics and tennis. The corruption in FIFA in the awarding of World Cups received a lot of publicity when the FBI investigation brought it out into the open. Ironically, this corruption is trivial compared to what is happening globally. The Group of Seven (G7) meeting discussed findings of trillions of dollars of various form of corruption, including tax evasion.The OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project report is expected to provide more insight into aspects of  this global problem. However, politics often distorts the perspective about who is benefiting by the corruption. Global Financial Integrity (GFI) regards illicit money flows as being "the most damaging economic problem plaguing the developing world." But little is being done to stifle it because those that benefit have too much leverage!
63. The Panama Papers have created a stir as they disclose how some moneyed elite have used a range of measures, legal and illegal, moral and immoral, to launder money and avoid paying taxation. There is nothing new is this type of money activity but it has increased tremendously since the GFC. Journalists have also provided accounts of the unscrupulous activities of Unaoil.
64. Monetary corruption is a recognized problem but a more insidious problem is the language corruption that marketers use to con consumers to buy their products. They have to do this to boost sales at the expense of business competitors but they do not have to take into account the associated destruction of natural material wealth. This malfeasance has increased rapidly in recent times and it will continue to grow whilst sufficient natural resources are still available to meet the demand - but that will not be long. 
65. Activity corruption is another deleterious issue being addressed by concerned organizations. For example, the women of Sub Saharan Africa spend about forty billion hours per year collecting water. Yet a high proportion of the global population can get potable water by turning on a tap. The main reason African women spend so many hours fetching water is systemic corruption. This difference is taking into account in estimating the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for countries. These authorities say that the answer to this predicament lies in blending values and compliance in public life. That can improve the situation slightly but it does not address the fundamental problem that there are too many people consuming natural resources at an unsustainable rate.
66. The global monetary situation is illustrated by the fact that since 2010, 3.6 billion folks have together lost just over $1 trillion - 41 percent - of their household wealth. The richest 62 of the global billionaire class, meanwhile, have gained $542 billion over that same time. Ironically, the billionaires can enjoy a luxurious life style with a high degree of self esteem but they cannot buy immortality. On the other hand, the poor cannot buy many of the essentials, so some become desperate so desperate that they threaten to cause social  mayhem Illegal migration is only one symptom of the deleterious aspect of this difference growth..
67. A recent book provides insight into some aspects of this monetary manipulation. The author cogently reveals a diabolical world of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain worldwide control over food production.Ironically, labeling of genetically modified (GMO) food is not required in the US and this limits the ability of discerning buyers to identify natural food but aids the profitability of those corporations that produce GMO food. If the book often reads as a crime story, that should come as no surprise. For that is what it is. However, the author does not point out that this is an unsustainable process. Its operation is dependent on the continuing availability of the services currently provided by the temporary infrastructure as well as the fertilizers etc. irreversibly used in commercial farming. 
68. The activities of the World Bank are not commonly regarded as entailing corruption but what should some of their financial projects be called?A new investigation has found the Bank regularly broke its own promises to protect Indigenous rights around the globe by funding projects that displaced or threatened the livelihood of millions of the most vulnerable people on the planet .
69. The power of money to influence decisions at even the highest level is illustrated by the deleterious impact of the current drop in oil prices on the economies of many countries, including, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezuela and even the shale oil industry in the U.S. and the North Sea oil industry in the UK. Venezuela is being particularly hard hit as the export income from their heavy crude falls away so the economy is in crisis. Some commentators argue that the damaging impact on investments in the oil industry in the U.S. and UK will more than offset the gains of consumers due to cheaper fuel. The horrendous impact on the U.S. and Russia economies will lead to numerous political, social, economic and even military side effects. Numerous other countries will be no better off. Ironically the rate of usage of this irreplaceable resource is not varying significantly because the vast array of technological systems are committed to its extraction and usage. The current financial chaos could well be prescient indication of the nature of the inevitable collapse of the infrastructure as oil and eighty eight other natural resources inevitably run out.
70. The glut in oil production (really extraction) is being catered for to some extent by temporarily storing some of the production in tankers, at a cost. This decision is based on the presumption that the tankers will be able to unload when the oil price has gone up, so making a profit. This is just another example of financial risk management by investors.It has very little impact on the rate at which this irreplaceable natural resource is being used up.
71. Ironically, this drop in oil price is deemed in the mainstream media to be largely due to intangible political and religious (principally Sunni v Shiite) decisions with economic contributions. However, some sources blame the manipulations by Wall Street to support the continuation of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. Russian moves to price their oil and gas exports in roubles in the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange could well have a major impact on the future oil price.Sometime early next year China, the world’s second-largest oil importer, plans to launch its own oil benchmark contract. Like the Russian, China’s benchmark will be denominated not in dollars but in Chinese Yuan. It will be traded on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange.
    First appeared:http://journal-neo.org/2016/01/09/russia-breaking-wall-st-oil-price-monopoly/
    First appeared:http://journal-neo.org/2016/01/09/russia-breaking-wall-st-oil-price-monopoly/could well have a significant impact on the oil price in dollars in the future.
72. The drop in the price of oil is having a horrendous impact on various sections of communities. The contraction of many economies in a number of developed countries may well be a contributing factor. The drop in the price of other commodities, such as iron ore is also having a major impact in some countries such as Australia. This is likely to be a symptom of the inevitable contraction of economies that society will have to cope with. The argument in powerful circles that economic growth is powered by energy supply does not take into account the immutable environmental cost of obtaining energy and materials. But society at large continue to be fooled by this assertion so they continue to consume as much as they can pay for now and hopefully in the future!
73. Commentators see the impact on the Australian economy of the low prices for natural resources (iron ore, coal, LNG and other minerals) as the consequences of a slow down in Chinese economic growth. Other commentators see the similar deterioration in the Canadian  oil industry as being a consequence of global oil extraction exceeding the declining demand. Missing from these discussions is the fact that financial markets tend to over react to the perceptions of problems with the extraction of natural resources. Yet, that is only part of the problem. The fundamental basis is that the vast range of limited natural material resources are irrevocably running out. That is the stark reality the industry has been vainly trying to cope with for decades by using innovative technology – at great eco cost – as the commodities go beyond reach. The prices for these natural resources are bound to increase markedly in the long term trend because of  the largely irrevocable demand for them to supply the energy and materials to operate and maintain the existing aging infrastructure. The financial market will have to adapt to that reality in due course even though the prices for these commodities are low Of course, these prices do not reflect the irrevocable destruction of natural material wealth
74. One of the grossest misjudgements of industrialized civilization has been the installation of a vast range of infrastructue in the USA without taking into account the fact that they have irreversibly used up large amounts of the limted natural resources for their construction and now for their operation and maintenance as they irrevocably age. Authoroties suchas the American Society of Civil Engineers have provided list of the infrastructre that is in urgent need on maintenance. Ironically, President Trump recognises the nature of this predicament and talks about the money that will be needed to remedy the situation. Like most people, he is a believer in the power of intangible money when the reality is that the systems in the infrastructure are largely made of irreplaceable tangible materials. The financial costs of the remedial measures will blow out as the difficulty in getting the materials increases.
75. Some authorities argue it is time to dump detritus to recycle the economy. They quote examples such as what has been done in Detroit to build up a viable service industry now that its automotive industry has collapsed.  These worthwhile examples however do not affect the principle that the operation of industrialized civilization is unsustainable. However, they do show that sound decisions can ease the powering down of segments of communities. The ELAM movement can foster this desirable process.
76. Society in general and the powerful in particular still have the fallacious belief that technological innovation will always offset the decline in the quality of the remaining material resources. They do not understand that all technology has ever done is irreversibly use natural resources, produce irrevocable waste and devastate the environment in order to provide society with goods and services together with constructing, operating and maintaining infrastructure that irrevocably ages. Some innovative technologies are more effective and efficient than the technologies they replace but that does not change the principle that usage of technological systesm is an unsustainable process in the long term.Governments and business leaders foster the false belief that technology will sustainably solve developing problems without appreciable environmental cost because business as usual is to their benefit.Seemingly knowledgeable people argue about the advantages to society of such innovative technology as driver less cars without taking into account the reality that the production and operation of cars and their equipment and fuel is an unsustainable process. Commentators are  saying how driver less cars will foster a social revolution as people will not have to own cars and will not have a need for parking space. This is just one of the unrealistic views of what technology can sustainably provide even though they do have advantages..This conning of the population just makes the inevitable powering down harder.It is not that future generations will have to learn how to drive. The production of gasoline-powered cars will have ceased while electricity powered cars will fill a niche role only while batteries and cars can still be produced.
77. Graphene is a synthetic carbon material (produced in a complex technological process) whereas diamonds (produced by natural forces over eons) are a natural one.It is an innovative material that will fill a niche role but have essentially no impact in the holistic collapse of the vast infrastructure created by technology. The global market for graphene is reported to have reached $9 million by 2014 with most sales in the semiconductor, electronics, battery energy and composites industries. Its growth is just one example of the delusion society has about the ability of technology to win the tug'o war with nature.
78. The Skytrain is being sold as the personal carrier for cities that has operational advantages over the car and public transit train and bus systems and is reasonably cheap to install, operate and maintain. They may well prove to be worthwhile alternatives- for a while. But they do age and replacements will have to compete with other requirements when the available materials inevitably are in short supply. Of course, at that stage the priorities of the populations in cities will have changed as they strive to cope without many of the services they are now dependent on.
79. Another example of the power of money to hide the impact of reality was the proposal to build the East West Link tollway road system in Melbourne, Australia. The cost benefit of the proposal is argued while the reality is that the declining availability of fuel will markedly reduce vehicular use of roads even before the construction of the Link was finished. Ironically, opposition to the Link is based on what it will do to famed Melbourne park lands and long established residential areas. It seems that most people still believe the ridiculous hype that technological systems can continue to rape natural resources even as they irrevocably age. The Link would have been a delight for the elite to use as there would been so few cars and trucks only so long as the revolution of the masses allowed this as they struggled to make do. 
80. A common view of thinking people is "Orwell's world suppresses the individual; Huxley's world manufactures the individual. In both cases, mind control - control over what people are able to think - is the strategy of the regime, as its means of social control generally."  This anthropocentric view relates only to the decisions made by people. It does not take into account the fact that natural forces always have and always will determine what happens in the physical world.The best people can do is to make decisions about what is physically possible.
81. It is ironical that the powers in society have learned nothing from the impact of greed of the elite on the collapse of many past civilizations. Conservative parties in the U.S., UK, Australia and Canada are pursuing policies that pummel the disadvantaged (and the environment) for their temporary gain. The autocratic governments of China and other emerging economies doing their best to emulate the Western powers in fostering collapse.
82. The Chinese ghost cities are a manifestation of the failing promotion of the Chinese consumption economy at the expense of exporting of manufactured goods. The promotion fostered the construction industry and the importation of the necessary rare materials, such as iron ore, to meet a demand that has not occurred as economic growth has slowed. In some regards, China appears to be emulating the change in the US economy that has occurred this century. 
83. Scientists have accumulated evidence and provided sound argument for quite a few years to support the hypothesis that the activities of technological systems of civilization have precipitated irreversible rapid climate change. A new U.N. report warns climate change could become "irreversible" if greenhouse gas emissions go unchecked. Doubtless it uses that term in an endeavor to encourage remedial measures. It also said that if global warming is to be adequately contained at least three-quarters of known fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground: a pious hope given the present commitment of industry to use the remaining fossil fuels at a high rate to operate and maintain the existing infrastructure. Industry will resist pressures to reduce the production of fossil fuels as long as they can make a profit by supplying this destructive energy.Incredibly, many governments heavily subsidize the fossil fuel industry, mainly because it is well established with a large workforce and provides an essential product, energy. Fossil fuel companies are benefiting from global subsidies of $5.3tn a year, equivalent to $10m a minute every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund. Moves to encourage organizations to divest their investments in the fossil fuel industries are having a small beneficial impact. It has been claimed that most scientists agree that keeping global temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius of their historic levels is our last chance to avoid the most extreme effects of climate change - any warmer, and the earth could launch into a spiral of terrible storms, droughts, fire, famines, and extinctions. This comment  about global temperature is rubbish as the high atmospheric concentration level of carbon dioxide will ensure the global atmospheric and ocean temperature will continue to rise whatever mitigation policies are adopted. The absorption by the oceans and the reduction in the rate of fossil fuel emissions will only slow the atmospheric warming but ocean heating (with associated sea level rise) and acidification will continue virtually unabated.
84. The Paris Climate Conference (COP21) has the stated objective of getting countries to make a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep global warming to under two degrees Celsius. However, many climatologists argue that the two-degree goal offered in the Copenhagen Accord is more a reflection of what seemed politically feasible than what is scientifically advisable. It is incomprehensible that so many seemingly authoritative bodies believe that  reducing the rate of emissions will stop global atmospheric temperature from continuing to increase. That is not possible: just as stopping ocean acidification is not possible simply because the concentration level of carbon dioxide is so high and no mechanism that society can implement will decrease it.
85. Many laud the outcome of COP21 although they do not understand that the objective to have zero greenhouse gas emissions later in the century is not possibly attainable. Even if carbon capture and storage systems become viable, all they can do is reduce the rate of emissions slightly. 
86. Of course many of the business people who attended discussed the opportunities that would be there for their picking as adjustments are made to reduce emissions.They will endeavor to be amongst the financial winners while many in the public lose some of their investments.
87. The opportunities they believe are coming their way may well be a delusion as the coming declining availability of the fuel oil used by the container vessels hits global trade hard. This issue, apparently was not on the agenda. But that is understandable as who in government or business (or among the public) want to believe how wrong commercial civilization is about consumption.
88. It is intriguing that the thousands who flew to Paris for COP21 were unknowingly making their contribution to the inevitable demise of aviation. Jet fuel is being used up at an unsustainable rate. No reasonable alternative has been defined despite research over decades. Bio fuels are too eco costly to produce to do more power a few airliners (and military aircraft) in the future.
89. The inevitable decline in airline travel will be a predicament for politicians, business people and tourists. But shipping will also be hard hit as the decreasing availability of fuel oil hits."The end of the era of heavy fuel oil in maritime shipping" considers measures to reduce the impact of using this dirty fuel but does not cover its inevitable decline in availability.The consequential decline in global trade in goods will be predicaments for all levels of society (producers, consumers, businesses and workers). It is fascinating that the discussions following COP21 of the consequences of climate change and remedial measures such as renewable energy systems do not take into account the liquid fuels unavailability predicament.    
90. It is claimed by some organizations that the 'Machine To Predict the Future' can provide guidance on the impact of measures on climate change. The development of these verified computer simulations of physical operations is the noteworthy contribution of IPCC scientists. However, they are mathematical models of the operation of natural forces. They can not and do not take into account the decisions made in the future by people. IPCC have produced a range of predictions without presuming which will occur as the decisions about the future use of fossil fuels is unknown. The forthcoming COP21 in Paris could slightly reduce the uncertainty about how severe future climate disruption (and ocean warming and acidification) will be by making decisions about reducing fossil fuel usage. But the 'Machine To Predict the Future' does not know what those decisions will be!
91. Appreciable effort has gone into the international development of global economic modelling with the well known 'Limits to Growth' model being one early example. The consumption of natural resources is taken into account in these models but the basis for the models is the decisions made by people. That is, assumptions have to be made about what and how to incorporate mechanisms that do are not based on established natural forces. So they lack the inherent support that physical models, like those prepared by climatologists, have. Consequently, the uncertainty about their predictions if intrinsically higher despite the claims made about theri veracity. 
92. A successful agreement at COP21 would include a strong package of financial and technology support for developing countries, for both adaptation and mitigation, a requirement on all countries to produce national adaptation plans, and a robust system of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV). This shows a sound perspective of what should be done to mix with the impossible objective. However, the use of the terms 'renewable energy' and 'clean energy' hides the fact that these systems are made of irreplaceable materials and have limited lives. At best, these systems can be a worthwhile alternative supplier of electrical energy for a few decades. They will not contribute to the supply of fuels or other uses of fossil fuels.
93. A comprehensive assessment of Arctic permafrost using data accumulated in recent times has provided insight into its likely future impact. The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. The vegetable matter in the soils is being taken out of the northern freezer and placed on the global kitchen counter to decompose. Microbes will take full advantage of this exceptional dining opportunity and will convert part of these plant remains into carbon dioxide and methane.Yet another giant prehistoric virus has been unearthed in the frozen tundra of Siberia, where scientists warn climate change is melting the permafrost and awakening potentially dangerous microscopic pathogens.The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study provides evidence of the increasing severity of this thawing.The overall conclusion is that, although the permafrost feedback is unlikely to cause abrupt climate change in the near future, the feedback is going to make climate change worse over the second half of this century and beyond.
94. Scientists at 2015 American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco have issued their latest health-check for the Arctic. Compiled by more than 70 authors in 11 countries, the annual Arctic Report Card put together by the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is considered the most comprehensive overview of the state of the polar north.This year’s installment tells the familiar story of an Arctic in serious decline. Temperatures are rising and ice is retreating, with knock-on effects for Arctic ecosystems and wildlife.
95. The carbon-capturing abilities of dirt will be the main subject at the International Soil Not Oil Conference in Richmond, California.Ironically, the aim is spell out what society has done wrong in installing measures that have already profoundly decreased soil fertility around the globe. However, it is drawing attention to one of the major problems that society will have to deal with.
96. Advanced computer-based models are providing insight into the impact of climate change on ocean currents. This improved understanding can, at best, only serve as the basis of decisions about how to try to cope with these unavoidable changes.Ironically, the availability of these models is dependent on the doubtful continuing availability of the hardware and required electrical power.
97. Ironically, scientists are striving to develop super computers that will enable more accurate modelling of the coming impact of climate change. The resources used in these activities will contribute a miniscule amount  to the change in climate but these advanced models will have to include how people respond to the improved knowledge of how the climate will change! The generators of the models will not be able to use mathematics for that purpose.
98.  Increased effects of climate change enable scientists to predict localized changes in weather, such as at least a 13-fold increase in record hot years in England.A trio of phenomena attributed at least in part to climate change—sea-level rise, storm surges, and heavy rainfall—poses an increasing risk to residents of major U.S. cities including Boston, New York, Houston, San Diego, and San Francisco, according to new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Studies have yieled estimates of the deleterious impact of sea level rise on a vast number of cities around the globe.These are examples of the increased knowledge being gained by climatologists and being cited in authoritative articles. That one dealing with the problems New York will face due to sea level rise and storm surges is just one example of the increasing understanding which is only in some circumstamces leading to mitigation measures.
99. Climatologists are finding more examples of what activities  climate change is causing. Published in the journal Nature Climate Change, some research shows that tiny microbes trapped in Greenland’s permafrost are becoming active as the climate warms and the permafrost begins to thaw. As those microbes become active, they are feeding on previously-frozen organic matter, producing heat, and threatening to thaw the permafrost even further. This may not be a significant factor but it is indicative of how nature is responding to industrialization in an unexpected manner. 
100. In a report by the Australian Academy of Science, 60 researchers warn climate change will have devastating impacts on the health of Australians as the world warms by a predicted minimum of two degrees over the next century.They fear extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and cyclones will affect Australia's food security while ecosystem changes will increase diseases such as dengue and E.coli.
101. NOAA once again has to rescale its ocean heat (thermal energy) chart to capture 2014 ocean warming. This chart captures the major aspect of the rapid rise in stored energy as the result of the operations of industrial civilization. This is in contrast to how nature slowly stored energy (input from the Sun) in the fossil fuels.
102. Detailed measurements are providing insight into the variation of the degree of warming and acidification in the oceans. This information is useful to marine biologists considering the impact on the production of shells of oysters and the like. For example, various specialists have assembled a comprehensive assessment of the devastation of a range of marine and bird species in the waters off the West Coast of the U.S.A.  The increasing dying rate of whales off the coasts is believed by researchers of the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to be only one sign of the impact on many marine species of ocean warming.The unusual warm and calm waters are believed to be behind a series of toxin-producing algae blooms.However,  this information does nothing to stop this deleterious process and makes only a small contribution to widespread understanding of what has gone wrong globally.
103. A recent study has found that the significant change to the marine ecosystem and its effect on many species due primarily to emissions will take thousands of years to recover once the effect of the operation of industries has inevitably ceased.
104. One issue causing increasing concern is the impact of climate change on the Gulf Stream, the ocean current that warms Britain. The former UK chief scientist once calculated that it delivered 27,000 times the warmth that Britain’s power stations could supply and, as a consequence, the UK is on average 5°C warmer than it might be, given its latitude. Britons find their winters harsh enough now. How will they cope when it gets colder while the supply of electricity for heating declines?
105. Close to 10,000 hectares of mangroves have died across a stretch of coastline reaching from Queensland to the Northern Territory in Australia. International mangroves expert Dr Norman Duke said he had no doubt the "dieback" was related to climate change."It's a world-first in terms of the scale of mangrove that have died," he wrote.
106. The Amazon rain forest continues to make a major contribution to carbon dioxide absorption but this is now decreasing as young trees are dying due to greenhouse gas emissions.This is a positive feed back mechanism accentuating the damage being done by fossil fuel usage.Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the fate of the huge boreal forest that spans from Scandinavia to northern Canada. Unprecedented warming in the region is jeopardizing the future of a critical ecosystem that makes up nearly a third of the earth’s forest cover.Almost 1 million square kilometres of natural forest disappeared between the year 2000 and 2013, along with its ability to absorb carbon and reduce warming very slighlty. Reducing the global rate of greenhouse gas emissions will lead to greater mitigation of climate disruption and ocean acidification and warming.Climate engineering (CE) projects implemented mid-century may be necessary should mitigation efforts fail in the short term. Some studies suggest that reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations by way of large-scale enhancement of terrestrial carbon sinks is one CE strategy that requires comprehensive scrutiny given its complexity. 
107. The population of north east U.S.A are currently having to cope with unusual snow storms causing many outdoor problems. The mechanism causing this significant increase has been describe by the U.S. National Climate Assessment. But the existing infrastructure means they can manage as they can still retreat to their comfortable homes and offices for now. The aging electricity grid is standing up at the moment while gas and fuel are still relatively cheap. How will they cope with the deteriorating climate as the availability of these technological services declines? Many communities in northern countries will inevitably have similar problems. 
108. Some authorities question how much the operations of civilization (fossil fuel emission, de-forestation, etc.) are contributing to the current climate weirding with solar cycles being cited as a contributing factor. Past climate variations are posited as evidence that what is happening now is primarily due to past bad decisions about these operations. This uncertainty, however, should not be used to bias risk management of the undoubted weirding. The Netherlands are showing a sensible proactive approach by increasing the infrastructure to handle flooding.
109. While not as widely recognized within policy making circles, the steady deterioration of forests across places such as the Amazon and Borneo could be responsible for 6-14% of all human-caused emissions. This is the finding of a new review into the state of the world's tropical forests, conducted by the International Sustainability Unit. While this recognition of the impact of the deterioration of forests adds to the understanding of the cause of climate change, it has not led to measures that will ameliorate the impact of climate change.Western Canadian glaciers, an ancient water bank that maintains stream flow for hydroelectric dams and salmon-bearing rivers, could shrink by 70 per cent by 2100 is another finding that does nothing to stop what is irrevocably happening. Researchers have concluded that the current rate of glacier disappearance is "historically unprecedented" and that "centennial glacier retreat is a global phenomenon." Perhaps most alarmingly, they also found that global warming has led to glacier imbalance that has a momentum of its own.
110. Weather has always being volatile, especially in some regions. Many societies have adapted to the occasional floods, droughts, storms and variations of the severity of seasons, especially winter and summer. However, societies are now having to cope with increasing frequency and severity of this volatility. Two harsh winters in a row for Britain is just one example of what is happening. Climatologists are gaining more evidence and understanding of the causative factors (including ocean and atmospheric currents) of the increasingly disruptive nature of weather volatility.
111. Almost unbelievably, many people, including scientists as well as many who have virtually no understanding of science, argue about what can be done to control climate change. Funding of carbon emissions or imposing carbon taxes are considered for government policies even though all that can possibly do is slow down the irreversible process in the time scale relevant to civilization. Only natural forces can very slowly mitigate what industrial civilization has done wrong. Implementing financial policies is like the prescription of some medication by a GP to ease an emerging health problem being interpreted as providing immortality!
112. It is a symptom of lack of understanding of reality issues in society that the Bank of England is concerned that insurance companies will meet with financial disaster as the consequence of the impact of climate change. Problems with the flow of fiat money will concern a lot of people but climate change will hit many of them harder.The few realists are more concerned with the implementation of measures to cope with what will inevitably happen. Even insurance companies are warning householders on coasts of the danger of sea level rise and storm surges. Mother Nature sent Hurricane Sandy to New York as a warning of physical damage that also hits socially and financially! The mitigation proposals being considered are very costly (in a resource as well as monetary sense). Ironically, the works would use materials and energy, the prime factor in the damage civilization has done to the environment, including causing the climate change that the objective of these proposals is for New York to be able to cope with.Ironically, the discussions about the multitude of proposed infrastructure focuses on the financial cost without taking into account how feasible they will be as the available natural resources, including those supplying the energy, declines. 
113. It is not only society that is confused about climate change. Many natural operations  are going awry. Here is an example of what is going on: researchers in U.K. followed the relationship between a type of orchid and the specific bee species that pollinates it. Thanks to a nifty trick of evolution, the orchids flower each year at the exact time that the bees emerges to do their pollination. But looking back to the 1850s, the team found that rising spring temperatures are messing up both the bees’ and the flowers’ timing — and it’s not doing so equally, meaning that they are now missing one another.The dramatic demise of Britain’s bee population has been variously linked to everything from pesticides, habitat loss and even parasitic mites.Climate change can now be added to the list of threats, after new research revealed that an increase in global temperature could be disrupting the “synchronization” that has evolved over millennia between bees and the plants they pollinate.
114. However, many media and other commentators still dispute this finding about the occurrence of global warming. A recent survey show that Americans lead the way in denying that a human-caused climate change is under way. Ironically many of those who agree with the findings that climate change is underway believe that society can implement measures to control climate change even though this is not physically possible.This quote "We know it’s important not to confuse day-to-day weather patterns with climate, which measure variations of things like temperatures and humidity over long periods of time, but it’s clear that these disasters are made more powerful by global warming. The pain is only going to get worse for us and for future generations, unless we act now. Our governments must reduce those carbon emissions that are heating up the atmosphere before it’s too late." illustrates the common misunderstanding of concerned people. The physics that determines that irreversible climate change is already underway is incomprehensible to most people. An example of this common misunderstanding is that a huge crowd marched through the middle of Manhattan demanding control of climate change. It was almost certainly the largest rally about climate change in human history, and one of the largest political protests in many years in New York.“To change everything, we need everyone,” goes one of the slogans of the People’s Climate March, and that is absolutely right: our movements and solutions must be as varied and numerous as the depth and scope that this crisis demands. The streets continue to resound with the messages of the 400,000 people who marched, the thousands who flooded the People's Climate Justice Summit, and the workshops, teach-ins, and rallies still filling New York. That massive crowd is not only challenging those within the summit. Many participants and organizers are pushing discussions within the environmental movement about social and economic justice and the critical role that front-lines communities—those directly bearing the brunt of climate change—play in leading the struggle to transform society and save the planet. Unfortunately the call there is for 'climate change solutions' when the realistic call should be for 'climate change mitigation and adaption'. The call to 'save the planet' is ridiculous as the planet has slowly recovered from many past natural disasters, including slow climate change. Concerned society needs to focus on managing the operation of the infrastructure to reduce the risk of further devastation. The same arguments apply to the other rallies around the globe. They are more likely to stimulate political action if they show understanding of what is feasible and reasonable. The Chair of Australia's Climate Change Authority suggests achievement of renewables target be delayed rather than cut. That comment has political overtones as the physical reality is that even if Australia were to replace fossil fuel use, it would have insignificant impact on the rate of global warming because Australia produces only about two percent of global emissions. Reducing the global rate of greenhouse gas emissions from industrial systems as rapidly as may be feasible will do no more than slow down the disruptive processes, climate change and ocean acidification. "Out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, climate change has arrived," Marshall Islands president Christopher Loeak says. Loeak cites the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' meeting, which the Marshall Islands hosted last year, as "one of the proudest moments" of his presidency. The Majuro Declaration for Climate Leadership came out of that meeting, calling for the "urgent reduction and phase down of greenhouse gas pollution." Loeak presented the declaration to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in 2013, and vowed at the time to bring the "spirit of Majuro" to the landmark UN Climate Summit. The World Meteorological Society warns on climate urgency as atmospheric concentrations surge between 2012-13. Failure of society to accept that it is happening slightly reduces how people will adapt to the inevitable. The small number of people who use their understanding what is happening to foster adaption and mitigation measures are having little impact as the vast majority pursue business as usual while most movements have the situation out of perspective.
115. One of the biggest problems in current materialistic perations is that most business models do not take into account the ecological cost of irreversibly using up limited natural material resources, the damage these operations do to the environment and the fact that these operation are not sustainable because of the impact of natural forces. 
116. The traumatic cyclonic devastation of Vanuatu is a reminder of the increased likelihood of such events due to climate change. Ironically, Australia is providing a significant relief effort despite the fact that the Prime Minister has expressed his belief that climate change is 'crap'.
117. It is appropriate that Peru is the venue for the 2014 UN climate change conference. Many Peruvians have already adopted measures to cope with the numerous problems stemming from the collapse of the numerous glaciers due to global warming. They are not responding to rhetoric! They are amongst the growing number of societies coping with this aspect of reality. The conference, however, will focus on ineffectual mitigation measures at the expense of the need for adaption to ease coping.
118. A new report by the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International. The report found that current oil and gas explorations by countries risk devastating consequences for world economies and the rapidly warming planet alike. And at $88 billion a year, those countries are spending more than double on finding new regions to drill than the top 20 private oil and gas companies—largely with taxpayer money.
119. Authoritative discussions by climatologists and oceanographers about the meaning of the vast amount of data being acquired is contributing to greater understanding amongst these experts. However, the fact that there is still uncertainty is tainting the view of the powerful in society (who cannot be expected to understand the detail technical ramifications). So the experts can provide some insight into what will happen in the atmosphere and oceans (largely as the result of greenhouse gas emissions) while society will slowly and belated make decisions in response while the aging infrastructure will be clobbered by what is irrevocably happening.
120. One warning of humanity's increasingly deleterious impact on the oceans came from prominent marine biologist Jeremy Jackson of the Scripp's Institution of Oceanography. In a 2008 article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jackson warned that, without profound and prompt changes in human behavior, we will cause a "mass extinction in the oceans with unknown ecological and evolutionary consequences." The plastic rubbish in the ocean is a major aspect of this problem. By the time you’ve finished reading this point, approximately five truckloads of waste will have been dumped into our oceans. Five truckloads. It only takes one plastic bag to kill a defenceless sea creature. Imagine the devastation of an entire truckload of rubbish. Picture this - every single piece of plastic ever produced, still exists today. And all that plastic has to go somewhere, right? Sadly, a huge proportion of it ends up in the bellies of sea creatures like whales, turtles and sharks, slowly killing them or causing painful injuries.And it doesn’t end there. Reports show that microplastics (tiny fragments of broken-down plastic) enter the food chain, consumed by smaller fish, which are then consumed by people. Many marine species do not find it good food! It has been estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic rubbish in the oceans than fish despite efforts to reduce the rate of production of this waste! Ironically the production by industrial and societal operations of forms of waste material, including plastic, does not yet receive the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions despite doing as much irrevocable damage.
121. The Cean Up campaign uses various forms of social media to encourage people to clean up rubbish, especially plastic debris on beaches. The best this can do is slightly reduce the rate at which plastic is irreversibly damagimg the marine eco system.
122. Some scientists believe the widespread adoption of CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology could be a key to any hope of limiting global average temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, the common misleading view of the threshold for avoiding major climate disruption. The realist view of climatologists is measures should be installed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius 'by the end of the century'. There is no physically possible way  for the operation of systems to stop the atmosphere warming and the ocean warming and acidifying already initiating by fossil fuel emissions. The most CCS can do is ameliorate climate change slightly but, of course, it will make money for some and delude many. There are some current examples of this misuse in the U.S. Canada and elsewhere. Some scientists and analysts are touting CCS as a necessary tool for avoiding catastrophic climate change.And, of course, it is being touted by businesses roping in investors.  But critics of the technology regard it as simply another way of perpetuating a reliance on fossil fuels. The most it can possibly do as act as a temporary mitigation measure. The CCS installation at boundary Dam coal power station in Canada is cited by proponents as a commercially successful approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The best that CCS could possibly do is to reduce the rate of emissions slightly with insignificant impact on what is irreversibly happening. The US Energy Department pulling out from the so-called Futuregen 2.0, a public-private partnership carbon capture and storage venture in Illinois is an indication of the dubious prospects of this technology.
123. Advances in human development risk being erased without a renewed global commitment to eradicating inequality, tackling climate change, and providing basic services, according to the UN's 2014 Human Development Report, "Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Enhancing Resilience" This is the common anthropocentric view amongst seemingly knowledgeable people. It does not take into account the fact that many levels of society are very dependent on the unsustainable technological services (providing electricity and transportation energy, shelter, potable water, contributing to food supply, handling of gaseous, liquid and solid wastes).  The reality is that modern society is a slave of technology.So this proposal of a renewed global commitment is a dream.
124. This spurious view of progress is rampant in many discussions by seemingly knowledgeable people. They note that innovative technology has lessened the need for skilled workers (so their wages) to provide goods and construct and operate infrastructure. This process is occurring and it is increasing the income gulf between the workers and management. But it illusory progress because these operations come at an irrepayable environmental cost. There are signs emerging in many countries that this 'progress' is now peaking and economic growth is only a delusion of politicians.
125. An example of the duplicity of many issues is provided by the trend for machine learning to aid in medical diagnosis, especially when the patient is some distance from medicalcentres or hospitals. It is expected by many medical commentators to ease the aging of the population to a degree while also saving lives by producing sound diagnosis more rapidly. However, it is one of those innovative measures that will strenghen the resilience of the community only so long as they are available. In due course loss of this artificial intelligence will be one of the multitude o predicmants that society will haveto ty to deal without many of the services they now takefor granted.
126. Hacking risks for medical implants is just one deleterious impact emerging as medical advances tackle such problems as installing pacemakers and defribillators in heart patients. the long term progonosis for this problem is most uncertain as the consequence of the inevitable loss of so many services presently taken for granted disappear.
127. The citizens of the Brazilian city of São Paulo, home to 20 million people, and once known as the City of Drizzle,are finding the drought got so bad that they are drilling through basement floors and car parks to try to reach groundwater. The drought may break there but the citizens of Las Vegas have to cope with a more fundamental water problem! The post "World Water War I: Already Under Way"  by Tom Lewis provides details of some existing water problems around the globe. The declining supply of potable fresh water is a growing problem having more deleterious fundamental impact on populations than the loss of energy to provide technological services.
128. Scientists with the use of advanced instruments are now providing more accurate measures of the rate of draw down ground (aquifer) water for regions around the globe, mainly for agricultural irrigation. they cannot provides estimates on how long this can continue but the crucial point is that like oil and many other materials it is being irreversibly drawn down in an unsustainable process. Ironically, if the rate of draw down of ground water for irrigation was reduced it would deleteriously impact on food production!  
129. Sports stars constitute a component of elite society that will find the inevitable powering down almost impossible to manage as the availability of the necessary transportation and management services declines at the same time as the ability and desires of their fans is hit hard.
130. Some commentators, recognizing many of the factors contained in this list that are contributing to the unsustainability of industrial civilization, forecast the extinction of the human race in the relatively near future. This is most unlikely as many knowledgeable people, having access to useful tools and living in amenable regions, will make decisions that enable them to power down by adapting to the changing circumstances. The survivors will have found means of coping with the growing social chaos and the loss of most of the services provided by technological systems so they will not be living in the disintegrating cities. They will probably form isolated resilient communities with a frugal life style without having to revert to being hunter gatherers.
131. A joint study by scientists from several North American universities published in Science found that the rate of extinction for species in the 20th century was up to 100 times higher than it would have been without impacts of human activity, such as climate change, deforestation, and pollution. The article suggests the planet is entering a "sixth great extinction" that even the most conservative estimates show is killing off species at rates far higher than the previous five mass die-offs—and humanity is both at fault...and at risk. This is a fallacious, anthropocentric view. People have not done the damage: it is the technological systems they devised that are at fault. Cities take up a lot of the land. Many industrial systems and vehicles produce the pollutants.Fossil fuel emissions from power plants have caused climate change. The resulting aging infrastructure will continue to use natural resources, damage the environment and cause species extinctions in its senescence but its demise this century is certain. There will be a die off of the global population but the survivors will have adopted a frugal life style living with nature in sustainable communities.
132. However, many concerned people have the unrealistic anthropocentric view summed up in this quote "..never has it been more important to embrace a collective demand for ‘system change’ as the surest way to limit global warming and ensure environmental sustainability."
133. The anthropocentric viewpoint of even the knowledgeable people in society inhibits a rational consideration of what should be done to ease what is bound to happen in the future. "The Future of Humanity", a lecture by Isaac Asimov, is a oft quoted example of the anthropocentric view of what has gone wrong with civilization. There are too many people. That is clearly the case. but that is only part of the problem. The anthropocentric view is that the future does not actually exist except as a construct in our minds. The reality is that natural forces ordain what will happen in future materialistic operations. Humans can only decide how to use some of that potential.The major issue, however, is that there is too much unsustainable infrastructure that services the needs and wants of the multitude suffering from influenza. This issue is not being addressed by a biased community but it will hit hard as Tityas inevitably crumbles. The associated human die off will be partly due to the loss of many of the services, such as electricity and water supply, transportation means, hospitals, presently provided by the infrastructure.  
134. The issue of whether water should be a commodity or part of the commons raises the question of the merits of privatization (to make money for some) as opposed to the common good is being addressed around the globe as corporations pursue their nefarious activities at the expense of the environment as well as the public. U.S. government concerns about privatization of meat inspections of Australian exports is only one example of a growing problem as entrepreneurs pursue means of making money without realistically taking environmental, ecological and social issues into account.
135. A comprehensive study has indicated the extreme vulnerability of the U.S. electrical grid system to natural disasters or terrorist attacks. Lack of adequate backup skills and hardware will severely limit responses to problems with this aging complex system. The consequent failure of many of the operations people have become very dependent on would have horrific consequences. It is one of a number of like predicaments that industrialized countries will have to address as their infrastructure ages and climate change consequences hit hard.
136. In the 10 years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana’s losses have overshadowed the restorative steps it has taken.these steps have been very costly financially, socially and  materially. and that is only one localized example of what is happening and can be expected to be more common in the future.
137. Overpopulation is being exacerbated by the changing demographics  in many countries as the baby boomers  are now going into retirement so the  dependency ratio is increasing together with the associated problems that the rapid increase in the proportion of aged persons is putting a heavy load on health and associated services as the proportion of working population decreases.
138. This burden on economies is inflamed by the unrealistic salaries paid to many who do not contribute much to sound operations while those who do have to made do on a lower material standard of living. The oft-quoted employment figures do not take into account the real value of the work being carried out. Those who work in manufacturing throw-away stuff for consumers  and those investors who play the financial markets are deemed by the system to be more worthy than those who care for the populace and provide essential humanitarian services.One of the features of economic growth is the increase of emploment in service industries but this change in roles is not taken into account by politicians and economists although its is having significant social consequences.
139. It is common for knowledgeable people to point out that the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the global environment because the rate of consumption of natural resources exceeds the rate of reproduction of these resources. This is so but it implies that a reduction in population and in the per capita rate of consumption can lead to a balance between reproduction and consumption. That is not so as operations entail irreversible consumption of natural resources, such as oil, that are not reproducing at a significant rate. The consumption of these virtually irreplaceable natural resources is an unsustainable process.
140. David Suzuki is a renowned Canadian environmentalist who has sounded out warnings for decades. He considers the need to understand the future and sees a need for sound technology to address such issues as climate change. Surprisingly, he does not take into account the fact that society is almost totally dependent on the existing technological systems and there is a commitment to use some of the remaining natural resources for the operation and maintenance of these systems during their lifetimes. His failure to address the impact of fundamental physical principles is quite common but it does limit the soundness of his views.
141. The Risky Business analysis provides a comprehensive examination of the expected impact of various degrees of climate change on U.S. operations. However, it is based on the common but fallacious assumption that these operations are sustainable under normal circumstances. So the seven factors covered in the analysis are biased, so misleading.
142. “The world has committed to limit warming to below 2 degrees C, but it has not committed to the practical ways to achieve that goal,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network  (SDSN) and of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. This is grossly misleading as warming (and ocean acidification) will continue to increase while fossil fuel emissions continue and there is no possibility of reducing the emission rate rapidly due to the commitment to use it for the operation and maintenance of existing infrastructure.
143. The commitment for industries to use 'irreplaceable' energy from fossil fuels cannot be changed rapidly by decisions by governing bodies or the populace at large. The commitment to use natural resources to operate and maintain the vast infrastructure cannot possibly be rapidly reduced by decisions made by people but the reduction will come about in due course as the availability of natural resources becomes low.
144. Ironically, the decisions being made by people are very dependent on the services the infrastructure provides so they are committed to an unsustainable extravagant way of life. Social unrest is bound to grow as a symptom of the withdrawal of these services. People will not be happy with the loss of transportation and communication capabilities.
145. Various authoritative bodies have provided data and assessments of the growing environmental, ecological, economic and social impact of climatic events such as droughts, floods, storms and fires. These provide a degree of guidance as to mitigation and adaption measures but have not resulted in much action, mainly because of the belief of many politicians in the continuing need to foster economic growth - regardless of the unintended consequences of the divestment of the greatest asset of society, natural material wealth. The Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction seeks to inform debate on the post-2015 framework both for disaster risk reduction and sustainable development, even though the latter is not physically possible.The materials consumed in operating and maintaining the vast infrastructure is irrevocably 'running out'. However, many commentators base their arguments on economic factors only and they fool governments with their figures and graphs! Do these commentators believe in immortality?
146. Disaster capitalism is the name given to moves made by industry to deal with the impact of natural disasters profitably. Dealing with the impact of Hurrican Katrina on New Orleans is just one example of where busineses made profits by responding to natural disasters. This type of opportunity tends in many cases to outweigh the worth of installing preventive measures to cope with possible natural disasters. It is just another example of the weakness of capitalism's focus on profit rather than physical worth of the process.
147. A systematic consideration of the usage of materials for the construction of systems has determined that many of them will become 'beyond reach'. This is sounder terminology than 'running out' as it coveys the correct impression that the practical problem will be what can still be extracted from earth's resources rather than how much remains. The conclusion is that a mix of material resources will become beyond reach in the relatively near future despite improves extraction systems, possible material substitution and recycling of some of them. Recycling can be worthwhile in some circumstances even though they need expendable systems to do this. So, the undeniable conclusion is that the production of technological systems using these materials is an unsustainable process that can only be slowed down by introducing innovative processes. The current proposal to recycle the lithium in batteries is a current sound business proposal but it will do very little to reduce the decling of availability of lithium
148. The reasons why economic growth is over and contraction setting in in developed countries with rising unemployment is subject to appreciable speculation by numerous authoritative sources. This, no doubt, is due to the combination of a number of factors, some widely recognized and others being swept under the carpet but not here! One of those is that money is an intangible that has value dependent on circumstances while what actually happens is tangible and determined by natural forces. Money followers consider what is happening in the oil market as being an indicator of the health of the economy.The failing U.S.economy is consuming less and less relative to what is being produced. As production is roughly steady, this must imply an economy which is weakening rapidly. However, money markets are only going to be belatedly responsive to the host of physical factors that will ensure that economic growth is over as natural assets are becoming beyond reach.
149. redeployment from wasteful activities (like manufacturing and marketing throw away stuff) to more worthwhile ones  (like caring for the increasing number of aged) will be one of the slow responses to the decline of economies but that will do little to ameliorate the inevitable powering down of the masses.
150. The demise of economic growth is exacerbated by the growing gap between the rich and poor in the developed countries with the U.S. leading the way - down! The rich lose sight of the fact that the health of the economy is very dependent on the ability of the masses to obtain their needs and some wants. The rich are blinded by money even though it does not provide them with real satisfaction. The slow down in the economy contributes appreciably to the wide spread dissatisfaction, so drug usage and violence, amongst the deprived youngsters. It also contributes to the widespread spread of dissatisfaction, so health and care problems, amongst the increasing number of the elderly.
151. Sources argue that "Violent campaigns are more than twice as likely to fail in their objectives as nonviolent ones. Violence is becoming increasingly ineffective, and nonviolence is becoming increasingly effective over time... Civil resistance can be an effective force for change in the world in almost any context." That seemingly sound comment is based on the fallacious belief that society can possibly adopt measures that will stop the irreversible consumption of natural resources, devastation of the environment, climate change, ocean acidification, aging of the irreplaceable infrastructure and over population. Violence is bound to increase as an outlet of the frustration of a large number of people.
152. There is appreciable discussion about the possibility of nuclear war with Western focus on Iran and North Korea. The end of the Cold War has directed attention from the U.S. v Soviet  capabilities even though they still exist. U.S. notes that they are still developing bombs but other countries probably have such programs under wraps. Numerous countries now have nuclear warfare capabilities. India v Pakistan is one particularly worrisome possible scenario for what it could do to the climate as well as the horrendous consequences for the populations. But Japan's stockpile of plutonium is also causing concern, particularly in China as the traditional enmity escalates.
153. Malnutrition due to iodine deficiency in the diet of children is rife in many undeveloped countries, particularly where warfare disrupts normal operations. This deficiency can be easily and cheaply remedied in theory but does not occur in practice.
154. Humanitarian efforts to reduce the impact of such diseases as malaria  are welcomed by society as these efforts are reducing the death rate of the young in quite a few countries. They are battling the increase in mosquitoes due to global warming. However, these efforts are contributing to the unsustainable population growth. Many of those saved from malaria will subsequently die from starvation!
155. Wars have historically had a significant impact on the operation of civilization with the consequences ranging from many casualties in the fighting to use of vast amounts of natural resources by industry in producing war machinery and subsequently repairing the damage. They have been a major factor in the ups and downs of countries with technological developments changing the nature of the conflict. Cyber warfare in the latest temporary innovation. Wars are a transient phenomenon that have long term side effects on the operation of societies even though the damage done to the infrastructure has been repaired by using natural material resources, whilst they are freely available. So the nature of warfare is changing even though the political, religious and social factors leading to wars is a continuing disease. Ironically, wars are humanitarian disasters but they do not contribute significantly to the resolution of the population growth bubble despite the millions of service people and civilians killed.
156. The wars between major powers in the 20th Century are giving way to  conflicts based more on ideological grounds with regimes denouncing the fascism, racism, imperialism, capitalism and colonialism that the powerful countries have exerted over centuries in their striving to maintain dominance and access to natural resources and cheap labor.The endeavors of many powers to maintain their access to oil and natural gas continues to hit the headlines but there is a wide range of minerals that countries strive desperately to ensure supply for their industries. Chromium and the rare earth minerals feature on this list  However, it is inevitable that this trend will be greatly influenced by the declining availability of the natural resources that make up the weapons and the means of conflict.
157. The opening up of the Arctic Ocean due to climate change impact on the ice cover is increasing the likelihood of global conflict for natural resources, particularly oil.The Middle East remains the main theater of this costly game but there are numerous other ones, including the South China Sea, the Falklands and regions in Africa. These are examples of the unsustainable lust of most elements of society for the energy that powers their materialistic life style while destroying the environmental and ecological wealth that has evolved over eons.Britain and Argentine are involved in a bitter conflict over the Falklands because of the prospect of extracting oil in that region. The shale oil prospect in Argentine has attracted the Russian energy giant Gasprom. Maintaining a supply of oil is the reason for these desperate measures. Britain has learned a harsh message from the decline in oil from the North Sea while the Argentine economy needs the boost from oil.. The involvement of the United States in Middle East affairs just continues the lust of Western powers for some of what is left of that easy oil. Russia doe s not have that problem but China does.
158. The focus by governments and the media on the numerous conflicts around the globe is not surprising as these conflicts are having a significant social impact and there are many political implications. Knowledgeable commentators continue to point out the biases in these mainstream presentations. The threat of another world war is often the subject of these discussions. This selective argument  is markedly reducing serious consideration of the fundamental problem, the damage the technological systems of civilization are irreversibly doing to the operation support system, the environment.
159. The increasing complexity of the operations of society, especially, in the developed and developing countries, results in the loss of resilience and democratic policies as authorities vainly strive to cope with naturally growing extremism as well as the increasing power of the masses (due to social discourse via electronic devices). Security organizations have grown exponentially in recent times in response to the perceived growth of 'terrorism'. It is one of the issues contributing to the reduction in the quality of living for the masses. Ironically, the culture is based on the fallacious proposition that humans can decide what happens when it is natural (positive and negative - friction) forces that always determine what is physically possible.
160. Ironically, the increase in the ability of extremists has resulted in an increase in the capabilities of security organizations to fight this problem, at the expense of the loss of privacy for the innocent masses.  Some measures are being introduced to counter this trend. For example, Microsoft are installing data centers Germany to avoid invasions of privacy by the NSA of the U.S. So complexity grows and resilience declines.
161. The fear that Russian submarines and spy ships are operating near the undersea cables that carry almost all global internet communications in apparently causing concern in US security personnel in the Pentagon. This is but one example of the impact of the increasing complexity of the operations of society. These operations are giving employment to skilled Russian and American personnel without in any way improving the outlook for society.
162. Advanced electronic technology is enhancing the ability or terrorists, organized criminals and financial market manipulators to carry out their nefarious activities. This growth is increasing the pressure on security organizations to install improved remedial measures as well as harming the outlook of the public. However, it is one of the unsustainable deleterious activities that will decline as the perpetrators inevitable lose their tools.
163. Nassin Taleb argues that black swan events make prediction of the future operation of society subject to devastating errors. The demolition of the twin towers in New York by airliners on 9/11 is just one example of what to most people was a black swan event. The co pilot flying the A320 into the alps is another one. These horrendous events were unpredictable as far as most people were concerned. Ironically, the demise of the infrastructure of industrial civilization is predictable as it is governed by the operation of natural forces. but it will be a black swan event for most people because they lack understanding of irrevocable physical operations.
164. The increases in complexity of operations in society are seemingly beneficial to some while being detrimental to others. Drug usage can ease health problems while ruining the health of many addictives. It can also ruin the prospects of many professional sports persons. Social networking is enhancing the lifestyle of many young people but also making them vulnerable to cyber bullying. The trend in video gaming to emphapy is regarded as progress in an increasing aspect of the lives of many. However, there is an immutable problem, these increases in social complexity are dependent on the continuing availability of the electronic devices providing the means for these operations. Researchers are investigating a range of possible alternatuves that will enhace the capabilities while reducing the dependence on some materials. This program could well increase the availability and scope of the services these devices provide for a while. Researchers are investigating a range of advanced material and processes but that does not change the fundamental principle.  The continuing manufacture and operation of these devices during their limited lifetime is basically an unsustainable process. Withdrawal of these services later in this century is just one of the immutable predicaments society will have to deal with, as best they are able.Both the young and the elderly will have difficulty in coping while entrenpeurs strive to gain by adaptation. Internet of Everything will fallaciously conince many that continual progress in understaning complexity is the way ahead.
165. Population growth and increasing complexity has given rise to the rapid growth of many forms of extremism, mostly bad. Authorities are trying to counter this growth of various forms of terrorism by increasing police and military capabilities. This is an unsustainable global process that is undermining forms of society from countries down to communities. Ironically, even developed western countries are being affected by this disease, for which authorities have no antidote.
166. Societies have used various forms of drugs to ease aspects of life styles for a long time. Alcohol has been the main one in developed societies for centuries while some indigenous communities have used what is locally available. Opium smoking has been common in Eastern countries for centuries.However, drug usage has exploded globally in recent times, especially amongst the young. The ready supply of a variety of drugs, including alcohol and ice, to those who have the money has been a major factor. Globalization of drug promotion, growth of unemployment, declining hope of a good future have also been contributing factors to this irreparable cancer in society. But it will not be the worst issue to be faced. Sports people have not set a good example as many of them use a variety of drugs to enhance performance.
167. Of course, it is not only people who use artificial stimulants. A range of animals are subject to the interference with natural processes for a range of reasons, from improving the quality of meat to enhancing the performance of race horses and other competitive animals. The use of antibiotics is now seen to have deleterious effects in many circumstances.This misuse of substances is but one example of the increasing complexity of social operations with the associated loss of understanding and resilience.
168. Some commentators note how society has entered a new and even scarier stage of technological innovation: “big bang disruption.” “This isn’t disruptive innovation,” they warn. “It’s devastating innovation.” Things you own or use that are now considered to be the product of disruptive innovation include your smartphone and many of its apps, which have disrupted businesses from travel agencies and record stores to map making and taxi dispatch ".  A study examines the practical and philosophical questions raised by CRISPR, a new gene-editing technology that could make possible the creation of designer babies. It holds great promise in the fallacious views of the 'sales' people. They believe rules are needed to govern its use when reality will ensure it has no future..  These commentators are considering what is happening. They fail to take into account that technological innovation is an unsustainable process.
169. Ironically systems theory has developed in academic circles as a means of addressing this increase in complexity in the operations of society. It aims to increase resilience by taking into account the interdependence of many factors. This approach is analogous to considering the detail design of a skyscraper without ensuring it has sound foundations. 
170. Authoritative sources list a range of cognitive biases in people as an explanation of the decision process that is leading to so many problems. This prejudiced consideration of the situation does not take into account the unsustainable operation of the irrevocably aging infrastructure. The decisions people make about physical operations are limited to what is possible, as always determined by natural laws, even when people do not understand them.
171. A major deleterious misunderstanding is the focus on economic growth by governments with support from the public and the media. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is the financial measure of the size of the economy, the production of goods (made of irreplaceable materials), the provision of services (many of which are luxuries rather than meeting the fundamental needs such as providing the financing for the processing) and the construction, operation and maintenance of the technological infrastructure. The two components of this process are the skills and energy of the workers (at all levels) and the irreversible use of materials (only some of which, such as wood, recycle naturally so can be regarded as natural income. The majority, including those that supply most of the energy, come out of crustal store so are irreplaceable natural capital). The environmental cost of the second component is not included in the GDP! So only one side of the balance sheet is taken into account at this stage. This means that most of the major decisions being made in society are based on a false premise akin to believing in immortality!
172. It is almost laughable that the political leaders in many countries seek to bolster production in order to grow the economy. Are they really that naive that they believe it is possible for industry to produce goods made out irreplaceable material without society having to eventually bear the cost of using up natural material wealth. Of course, the politicians stand to gain from policies that make consumers happy with their material standard of living.
173. Professions such as marketing backed by psychology/psychiatry have emerged that have the objective of influencing the behavior of people so they become rampant consumers. Skinner's concepts of operant conditioning and reinforcement as the explanatory driving force behind behavior also fit neatly alongside Freud's rudimentary tenet that humans are motivated by drives to seek pleasure/reward and avoid pain/punishment. Effects of positive and negative reinforcement have readily been scientifically measured and assessed.The success of the pharmaceutical and IT industries owes much to the success of these social sciences in influencing the behavior of consumers.
174. Marketers have successfully twisted the terminology used in TV advertisements to encourage consumers to buy stuff. But they are not the only ones who twist the language to suit their purposes. Politicians, economists, financiers, CEOs and science denialists have developed their abilities to mislead to a high level. Surprisingly, even some scientists and academics do this for a variety of reasons including financial recompense. For example, many foster the fallacious view that the development of renewable energy systems is a sustainable replacement for the use of fossil fuels to supply energy.
175. Energy is commonly viewed as a commodity that powers the operation of industrialized societies. This is because the focus is on supply (as electricity or in fuels) and how this relates to the operation of the economy. There is no doubt that it has been a major factor in industrialization and will continue to do some time to come. However, the combined operation of many of the factors listed here will ensure that the usage of energy will change as the senescence of civilization inevitably sets in. For example, the use of the declining supply for coping with the impact of climate change, an unintended consequence of the use of fossil fuels to supply energy!
176. The focus on energy by those concerned with the operations of civilization is understandable as energy flow occurs in all materialistic operations. The form of energy is transformed at stages in the flow. For example, the chemical energy in coal becomes heat energy then mechanical then electrical energy in the stages in a power station. The Laws of Thermodynamics sums up what invariably happens in the irreversible energy flows. Energy is conserved but some is progressively transformed to waste heat in the process so entropy increases (order decreases). The 'emergy' (quality) of the energy irreversibly declines.  This fundamental principle is widely recognized in science and engineering. However, energy is a property of materials in all the operations discussed here. It is radiated from the Sun as the energy of photons. Some of that radiation provides the energy that drives all natural and technological operations on Earth.The destiny of this energy flow is always to be radiated back out into space as photons. Stephen Hawking, the renowned English scientist, quotes Einstein's relation between energy and matter to say that mass is a property of energy. That is a fundamental relation but it is not relevant to consideration of what happens in macroscopic operations of systems, the relevant issue here apart from consideration of nuclear energy. The relevant energy (internal, chemical, heat, mechanical, gravitational potential) property of material depends on the situation being considered. It is often termed as 'exergy' in technical considerations to differentiate from energy that does not flow to do work.Economists, of course, have an unrealistic view of energy even though they, personally, need (physical) energy to undertake their prognostications!
177. It is ironical that much is made of Einstein's contribution to theoretical physics of the mathematical formulation of general and special theories of relativity and the relation between energy and matter when they are not very useful in consideration of what happens here.. Relativity deals well with astrophysics but the simpler Newtonian physics is an approximation of relativity that is adequate in those circumstances where velocities are low compared to the speed of light: the situation in all operations here on Earth. Ironically, mathematical formulations such as Newtons Laws have limitations because they do not show the influence of friction on the forces involved.
178. Theoretical physicists have examined the impact of space time in the relationship of gravitation, electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces. This provides some understanding of the natural forces governing what happens in the macroscopic world of interest to us. This is a different issue to people making use of these forces in technological systems.
179. The combustion of coal transforms some of the chemical energy in the carbon to heat energy and transforms carbon to carbon dioxide in the exothermic reaction. Synonymous with the operation of the process, friction operating on the system whenever relative motion occurs transforms some of the material to waste, so irrevocably aging the system. This fundamental principle is not recognized in science although the conservation of mass is. Laws of Massdynamics should  recognize that material in the system is always irrevocably transformed to waste (order to disorder) over time.
180. Physical scientists consider how some natural laws govern physical operations. This understanding has improved markedly in recent times due in part to the availability of improved technology to aid their studies. Due to the very complex nature of natural operations, scientists have to focus of their particular fields without having understanding of the holistic operation.This contributed to the major failing of science in only very belatedly warning about the unintended consequence of using fossil fuels to provide energy to operate technological systems.
181. Prominent British scientist, Professor Brian Cox, surprisingly focussed on the uncertainty of science in his discussion of the impact of science on political decisions.He, clearly, does not understand the simple fundamental physical principles that govern all materialists operations in industrialized civilization. They employ natural forces to irreversibly transform natural material resources to useful devices that end up as waste in an unsustainable process.  
182. This particular failing of science has contributed support to the views of the skeptics of science. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche gave himself credit for being the first modern thinker to tackle “the problem of science itself,” for presenting “science for the first time as problematic and questionable. Many people, including powerful in government and industry, subscribe to that view through ignorance, vested interest or some other failing. Physical science has some failings but fundamentally it provides a sound understanding of many (but not all) physical operations in natural and technological systems. Society has to cope with this stark reality despite the fallacious hype of the denialists. 
183. Ironically, the past Australian Chief Scientist provided a financial analysis of the contribution that physical scientific research has made to the Australian economy without commenting on the often harmful physical consequences. It is a common biased outlook at the contribution of science. The new Chief Scientist believes in the cooperation between science and business in a competitive international (financial) environment. He does not mention that the competition is to provide goods and services by devastating the physical environment.  It is often claimed that physical science is advancing the frontiers of knowledge when what it is often doing is providing understanding of what was previously not known.On top of that it has provided many developments that have had a deleterious impact on operations over the years. Who thanks scientists for the danger of nuclear war, the unintended consequence of the use of fossil fuels (climate change with ocean acidification and warming) and numerous other 'advances' that are really harmful in many respects, including the reduction in the resilience of society.
184. While asset prices soar, the production of goods and services, employment and workers’ incomes are not recovering from the GFC and resuming growth. Instead, Western Europe, North America and Japan are stuck in a longer, deeper crisis than almost anyone expected. It is quite likely that this economic slow down is due to the combined influence of a number of aspects of reality, including the response of smart people, the increasing influence of climate change and the reducing availability of a number of natural resources.
185. Ironically, production is one of those anthropocentric issues that do not take aspects of reality into account. The common view is that productivity is not an easy concept to define. Essentially, it is a measure of the efficiency with which we can turn inputs into outputs, based on new technologies and business models, a capable and educated workforce and effective management of firms and organisations.The inputs are taken to be free in that view when the reality is that production irreversibly uses up irreplaceable natural material resources to provide the inputs.
186. It is doubtful, however, whether the emerging philanthropic organizations can make a worthwhile contribution as they have to use monetary and declining physical resources to get their message out to motivate the masses to change their life styles.
187. Some commentators  point out the problem that governments have as the economy does not grow. Unemployment and the outlay for social benefits increases with the aging of the population adding to this impact on the budget while the income from taxation decreases. A logical remedy is to ensure that the rich and well off make a greater contribution. However, just the opposite is occurring! So the only possibility is increasing social disruption as disadvantaged masses use whatever means they can garner to make do. 
188. Violence has increased markedly in recent times due in part to rising unemployment of the young together with the increase in the use of drugs and alcohol. Authorities are countering this by the installation of CCD cameras in selected spots in cities. This does help to identify miscreants as well as inhibiting bad behavior. Society is getting used to this deterrent. What will happen when, inevitably, these systems can no longer be supplied?
189. This misunderstanding of economics is accentuated by the common belief  that energy is sufficient to do the (positive) work. It is not. Energy is a property of materials. Energy flow is necessary but not sufficient to do work (on things made of materials). Firstly energy is transformed from one form to another in doing positive work while, in many cases the associated material is transformed into waste. The combustion of fossil fuels is the classic example. Secondly, the system through which the energy flows ages (due to friction doing negative work) so the process is unsustainable as its cannot occur without the system. This fact is generally ignored by those fostering operations by paying the intangible financial cost!
190. As is quite normal, there are entrepreneurs who are providing improved financing measures (fintech platforms) to take business away from conventional operators, such as banks. Doubtless this will make a few rich and grab some headlines but it will have negligible impact on what is happening in the operation of civilization despite the hype this innovation gains. Ironically, it is another process that is unsustainable because it is dependent on the continuing availability of electronic devices. It is not a con because doubtless the promoters do not understand physical reality. They fallaciously believe that electricity and replacement materials have immortality. A common delusion is that the fifty-year era of pushing down semiconductor costs through improvements in manufacturing know-how is about to be superseded by a new age of making chips cheaper, faster and better through smarter design, including systems on a chip. In so doing, it is thought that Moore’s law could get a new lease of life. But chips are made of irreplaceable materials so their production is an unsustainable process. Society will  find it very hard to cope with the inevitable demise of electronic devices in the not too distant future.
191. Virtual reality has a very real problem in the view of some experts. With several technology giants preparing splashy introductions for the first VR headsets in 2016, few people own hardware capable of fully supporting Facebook’s Oculus Rift or other systems. Ironically, the very real problem is that VR headsets and computers are made of irreplaceable materials so this innovation is destined to have a short life, to the bewilderment of millions of addicts to online activities. These addicts are in for a very rude awakening in due course as they will be short of the ability to cope with the real realities of nature.
192. Another emerging, but ultimately unsustainable, issue is the use of data processing by companies to measure the performance of workers rather than rely on human intuition to make the decisions of who to hire and fire. This delegation of aspects of human decision making to online services is reducing the capability to make sound decisions to cope with the stark reality that is now inevitable.
193. There is no doubt that money, created out of thin air, has exerted a powerful influence on the development and operations of civilization, but only while sufficient natural resources are available for the physical work to be done. The so-called Masters of the Universe (those with the leverage of billions of dollars) are becoming uneasy as they recognize the likelihood of a financial collapse in the near future. They are worried the edifice will crash down even though they do not understand the weakness of the foundations.
194. Many people argue that that it is smart people who have led the development of civilization, often using the leverage of the money they have accumulated. They argue with a degree of justification that this process means that the improvement in the material standard of living trickles down to the workers.Capitalism tends to widen the difference between the rich and the masses more than social democracy but this (financial) wealth generation process is an unsustainable characteristic of the development of civilization.It is only one side of the balance sheet. The associated destruction of natural material wealth is not yet taken into account realistically but it all have to be as the stark reality hits all hard.
195. Economists provide a range of arguments as to why the GFC occurred and such issues as the impact of the Great Moderation on economic growth. These arguments have a significant impact on the policies of governments, banks, industry and investors as well as the consuming public. This is a biased view because environmental and ecological costs are not taken into account.For many outsiders, Africa’s big animals are among the natural wonders of the world and a major tourist draw but they are really a part of natural wealth.For many Africans, elephants, rhinos and lions — or at least the bloody trade in their body parts, and the proximity of big, dangerous wildlife to their crops, cattle and kin — are part of a wider "resource curse" that has long afflicted the continent.Commodities such as oil and minerals — or elephant ivory — have historically been extracted in Africa in ways that have enriched a few but failed to spread the prosperity. At its worst, the curse has fueled colonialism, apartheid and conflict.
196.  Economic growth has always come at the cost of the decline in the crucial asset, natural wealth. Society will eventually have to pay the price for this indulgence. The impact of climate change is but one symptom of this malfeasance. Ironically, even economists cannot personally avoid  all these consequences despite their monetary wealth. They have a delusion about the creation of wealth even as they irrevocably age!
197. Economists provide cogent arguments as to how economies operate - without taking into account the fact that the technological systems irreversibly use up limited natural material resources, produce irrevocable waste material and devastate the environment. Of course, society will continue to use this process - as long as it can. realist is starting to hit in Western countries while Eastern countries are doing their best to emulate what developed countries have already done wrong to Mother Earth.
198. The use of misleading terms in discussion of what is happening is common. This can be due to historical uninformed biased usage being fostered by vested interests. But it leads to the misunderstanding that is resulting in the senescence of civilization without the knowledge of society! It is common for governments to hype the value of increased 'production' They leave out reference to the immutable eco cost of that 'production' so they are fostering the objective of destroying natural material wealth. The same illogical use of terminology applies to promoting economic 'growth' which also comes at the cost of divestment of natural material wealth. Ironically, it is common knowledge that all organisms grow, reach maturity then go into senescence before demise. Yet the leaders in society continue to foster the belief in the value of 'growth' because it is a necessary consequence of fiat money flow.
199. The global financial scene has been very volatile this century. But that is nothing new although computers have added to the complexity of operations, the difficulty that investors have in making risk assessments and the difficulty that authorities have in dealing with financial manipulations and corruption.International corporations fiddling with where they pay taxes is but one of these manifest financial manipulation but it does have a significant impact on many government budgets.  However, the underlying objective of creating monetary wealth without taking into account the associated greater rate of destruction of natural material wealth continues unabated for now. But time is running out for this biased out look of monetized society even though they are still blind to that reality.
200. Some sound commentators have compared the impact of the hierarchical organization common in society with the common archial organization that has evolved in natural systems. The latter have produced proven self-organizing and self-regulating systems over time. Panarchy is a model that seeks to explain the evolution of complex systems, developed firstly by Buzz Holling through his observation of the adaptive cycle of forests. It has been applied to social and economic policy. Humans have introduced hierarchical systems that tend to foster competition in society with a consequent loss of intelligent operation. Arguments support the hypothesis that hierarchical systems inevitably collapse. This prognosis is based on consideration of the decisions made by society without taking into account that these decisions are largely based on the services available to people by the existing infrastructure. The fact is that the current infrastructure will disintegrate due to the action of physical forces and the depletion of available natural resources accentuated by lack of understanding in society off simple physical realities.
201. It is ridiculous to compare models of the operation of tangible natural systems with the operation of intangible social systems.The former are controlled by the action of long established natural forces. The latter are the result of definitions and assumptions by humans. The former, such as climate change models have a reasonable degree of predictability because of their sound physical basis.The latter, though often used in making political decisions, are often biased by the outlook of their originators. For example, economics modelling is an art form that differs between capitalism and socialism.   
202. Ecological economics is a field of academic research that aims to address the interdependence and common development of human economies and natural eco systems over time and space. It is distinguished from environmental economics, which is the mainstream economic analysis of the environment, by its treatment of the economy as a subsystem of the ecosystem and its emphasis upon preserving natural capital. One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing strong sustainability and rejecting the proposition that natural capital can be substituted by human-made capital. It is surprising that ecological economics has developed as an academic field in recent decades (without having any impact on operating economies) as it does not take into account fundamental physical principles. The 'human-made capital' is what (goods and infrastructure, Tityas) technological systems have produced so is no substitute for the natural capital of Gaia that has been destroyed by the construction, operation and maintenance of these systems in their limited lifetime. So ecological economics is a fallacious doctrine even though it is preferable to the current doctrine of economic grow - regardless of the real cost.
203. Discourse on the operations of civilization are often confusing because of terms that have two meanings: the common one used in many discussions of day by day operations and the other one which is employed by scientists and engineers to describe how natural forces operate. 'energy' is often used to describe the motivation of decisions made by people (so is really intangible intellectual energy) while energy is also a tangible property of materials that irreversibly flows and is transformed in natural and technological processes. The Second Law of Thermodynamics describes what happens to this physical energy but not what happens to intellectaul energy.'friction' also has dual meanings that contribute to misunderstanding. Friction between politicians affects political decisions but friction between the motion of materials results in heat energy being generated and material transformed into waste in the negative work that it does.
204. The confusion is heightened by the common use of the term 'renewable energy' which really is for a system (made of irreplaceable materials which naturally ages) that uses weak energy income (solar or wind) to only intermittedly supply some electrical energy.
205. 'power', 'force' are also terms describing how natural forces operate on systems made of materials that have been purloined by society to describe the unconstrained decisions made by the leaders. There is growing recognition that the financial and material 'wealth' of civilization comes at the irredeemable cost of destroying natural material wealth.
206. Using misleading terms is a major factor in commercial operations as businesses use unethical measures to promote their products in advertising. This characteristic of intangible operations is damaging as it fosters consumption of tangible stuff at the expense of destroying natural wealth. However, politicians are also adept at this use of misleading terms in order to gain votes.
207. Ironically, there are seemingly sound commentators who lampoon politicians and business people for deliberating using misleading terms in a bling message to sell their positions to the public.Yet these commentators do not spell out the reality of what is really happening! They are bolstering their image in some quarters while still fostering the process that is robbing Mother Earth.
208. The Premier of the State of Victoria in Australia in announcing the proposals to install a range of infrastructure in Melbourne commented on how it would grow the economy and provide a lot of jobs. As usual for politicians, he made no mention of the necessary plundering of the eco system to provide the vast range of natural resources to provide the necessary 'irreplaceable' energy and materials. Presumably, he suffers from the common delusion that the supply of these natural resources is inexhaustible.
209. A Houston-based oil company seeking to triple the capacity of its backlogged Trans Mountain Pipeline moving oil from Alberta to British Columbia included in its 15,000-page request to Canada's National Energy Board the argument that spills can have "both positive and negative effects" on the economy because of clean-up jobs! This attitude is common in industry and governments tend to go along with it. Pipeline accidents are becoming more common as they age.Over 300 pipeline accidents have been recorded in the U.S. in recent times. An example of the problem: California Governor declared a state of emergency after an underground oil pipeline ruptured along the south coast of Santa Barbara, California. The pipeline may have leaked up to 105,000 gallons of oil, potentially menacing nearby beaches and wildlife. Leakage of methane from pipelines is another problem as methane is such a potent greenhouse gas.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a figure of 1.5 per cent leakage as the upper limit of what is allowable. Pipeline ruptures in Canada are causing concern in those quarters responsible for their usage.The recent leak is a good reminder that Alberta has a long way to go to address its pipeline problems, and that communities have good reasons to fear having more built. New pipelines would facilitate the expansion of the tar sands—Canada’s fastest growing source of oil and carbon emissions so accelerates the climate crisis even more. These failings have resulted in a financial as well as social, environmental and ecological costs. TransCanada continually states that the Keystone XL pipeline will be the safest pipeline ever built, but that doesn’t mean it is true. A number of corrosion problems shows that their claims are false.Of course, removal of pipelines as their usefulness ends will also have a major impact on the economy in due course. The future environmental and ecological costs are simply ignored: a common practice in society now but reality will hit hard in coming decades.
210. A Canadian political candidate made some comments about basic scientific facts about the deleterious aspects of the tar sands operations.Her comments were immediately seized upon by the political establishment as well as the mainstream media as "anti-Alberta." But environmentalists say that rather than stifle debate over the tar sands industry, Canada's left should be embracing this moment. This production of oil by processing the extracted tar sands is considered to be an economic process simply because the social and ecological costs are not taken into account. Unfortunately this rampant social and environmental abuse to obtain natural resources to meet operational demands of civilization is common around the globe.Mining of uranium in Kakadu in Northern Australia is another example.
211. Worthwhile recycling of some materials is not similar to the natural recycling that had evolved. A temporary system has to be built out of materials by using energy to carry out the recycling of waste materials. It has been found to be worthwhile for aluminum and some other materials. But it is not possible for others, such as hydrocarbons (range of gaseous and liquid compounds of carbon and hydrogen, including petroleum and natural gas, that were generated slowly by natural forces acting underground), despite the fact that deniers of this reality quote the conservation of mass as (falsely) proving recycling is always possible.There is a need to recognize Laws of Massdynamics that parallel the Laws of Thermodynamics that deal with physical energy flows.
212. Some organizations and industries are  taking the opportunity of handling waste management in a beneficial manner. This is a worthwhile niche activity without having a significant impact on the waste problem. It is a delusion that the media and public swallow while the proponents enjoy the financial gains.
213. Recycling of some household and industrial waste material has become quite common. It has the practical benefit of reducing the amount of landfill. It also helps people to feel  better as they are making a positive contribution. They do not consider the fact that they are using up  irreplaceable natural resources, oil and many materials, by eating processed food, watching TV, enjoying heating and air conditioning, driving and flying!
214. Ironically, organizations are now calling on people to reduce household food and packaging waste. That is sound in principle but will have insignificant impact on holistic waste management.In fact this action would make people feel good even as they continue to waste energy and contribute to climate change, ocean acidification and toxic waste generation by flying and driving unnecessarily, overeating fast non-nutritious food and partially compensating by taking too many medicines, often with unintended deleterious consequences.
215. Top scientists have warned that Monsanto's herbicide probably causes cancer. It's huge news and regulators are scrambling to respond. But Monsanto is going all out to get the report retracted!  This is but one example of what is deemed by concerned organizations to be a toxic product but the evidence is refuted by the manufacturers because it will hit their profits.
216. A study has shown that human bodies are rife with cancer-causing chemicals. This is causing increasing concern and calls to limit many of the products. that, of course, is lookiing at one of the negative aspects of advances in how society operates. However, positive aspects of measures that impact on human health have resulted in rapid increases in longevity that are putting a load on society in caring for the increasing numbers of aged people. This problem is most noticeable in Japan.
217. There is growing concern in some political sections of society about the impact of fluorine on human health.This follows that actions to control the use of lead and other toxic materials. However, this is only tackling selected issues in the homogeneous toxic material problem that lack of understanding of chemical reactions has generated.
218. Land fill is becoming a logistic problem for many cities. New York's waste has now to be transported many miles by truck because local landfills are full. The waste treatment industry in the state of Victoria, Australia is being undermined by the trucking of toxic waste 1700 kilometers to dump in Queensland landfills to avoid paying Victoria's $250 per tonne levee for dumping. How will cities cope with waste handling when transportation costs zoom due to the declining availability of fuel? This  is but one of the exponentially growing pollution predicaments.
219. Microbeads releasing pollutants into the fish that are being eaten is another pollution predicament that Chiese and Australian researchers are bringing to the attention of governments so that the toothpaste and face scrub products containing the microbeads are banned because of their impact on human health.
220. Many astute commentators have the view that international capitalism has raised greed to a determinant (intangible) force in world history. Evidence shows that capitalism has widened the gulf between the rich and the poor in the U.S. more rapidly in recent times.This is a global phenomenon with the powerful in the developed countries leading the way. But this a historical issue that the developing countries are emulating - whilst they can. The 'free market' is a misnomer as those with the leverage sate their greed.
221. Busts of financial markets have harmed many naive investors over the centuries. The South Sea bubble, the Great Depression provided warnings that have not been heeded this century. The GFC was indicative of how financial markets have lost resilience as they have grown in size and complexity. But the lesson has not been learned so a collapse of Western economies is becoming more likely. And investors are becoming more vulnerable with their dependence on the 'wisdom' of artificial intelligence devices.But the growing fossil fuel divestment movement gains traction with smart investors around the world. Even the media is encouraging foundations.universities and other major investors to reduce their investments in the fossil fuel industries but this only occurring in Western countries.The University of Hawaii System, the University of Edinburgh, and the Norwegian wealth fund have all answered the growing global call for institutions to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry.
222. The peaking of U.S. sovereign wealth funds based on oil and gas assets could well be just one symptom of the unsustainablity of fiat money driving economic growth. Kazakhstan’s $55 billion sovereign-wealth fund helped pull the country through the 2008 global financial crisis and offered funding for the country’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics but that is now becoming less likely.
223. Entrepreneurs have to take on debt to finance their operations and this is getting out of hand in many cases. Adani's Galilee coal mine in Queensland, Australia may well become a white elephant because the financial manipulations are not robust. This example of the failings in the financial market could well contribute to saving the Great Barrier Reef. and be blessed by those who are concerned with what civilization is doing to its life support system.However, China's coal requirements may spoil that outlook!
224. China has proposed to make their contribution to coping with climate change by using an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to foster new, low emission coal-fired power stations. the success of this move means that the pressure on reducing coal use to meet requirements to reduce emissions has been reduced. It contributes to the fallacious belief that society can deal with climate disruption and ocean acidification and warming.    
225. This indication of the failings of capitalism is a common anthropocentric view that does not take into account the fact that the operation of the tangible technological foundation of civilization is an unsustainable process. How the capitalists will respond when this stark reality hits their hip pockets is open to speculation.
226. The vulnerability of infrastructure to attacks by terrorists was illustrated by the knock out of the California power station in April 2013. Nuclear power plants are seen in some U.S. quarters to be particularly vulnerable to attack. Belgian energy company Electrabel said its Doel 4 nuclear reactor would stay offline at least until the end of the year after major damage to its turbine, with the cause confirmed as sabotage. This does not prevent some countries planning to construct more nuclear power plants as the demand for energy supply drives many irrational decisions, including the ignoring the fact that these plants have a limited life time and their replacement when the time comes will probably not be possible due to lack of material resources.
227. The historical stratification of society from the powerful elite down to the relatively poor working classes is being eroded by the social revolution in which electronic devices temporarily give the masses more power. The elite are fighting this loss of advantage by implementing more restrictive policies.
228. This population growth increases the rate of provision of many goods and services, many of which do not recycle, using irreplaceable natural resources in most instances. This divestment of natural material wealth is an unsustainable process that is not marketed!
229. It also increases the demand for food  at a time when the increase in production due to the Green Revolution technologies use of fossil fuels for pesticides, fertilizers, tilling, transportation and storage is declining as these natural resources run out. Recent research has shown that pesticides sold for their beneficial effects often have a deleterious impact on health of humans and many other organisms because the inert ingredients are unexpectedly toxic. Ironically, plants are responding to the use of pesticides by reducing their inherent historical ability to fight pests. So now people cannot rely on eating the plants and have to fork out to buy artificial products to carry out the remedial process! 

230. Ironically, French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal recently announced  that she had instructed garden centers to stop putting the herbicide Roundup on the shelves of their self-service aisles, stating, "France must be on the offensive with regards to the banning of pesticides." Apparently they have not taken into account how the plants had adjusted to the use of the pesticide.

      
231. Toxic chemicals are having a deleterious impact in many circumstances because the precautionary principle has not been rationally applied. For example, in West Virginia earlier this year 10,000 gallons of a toxic chemical used to process coal—MCHM—spilled into the Elk River, contaminating the drinking water of 300,000 people. Fear and confusion reigned. Pregnant women were allowed to drink the water one day, and told the next that it wasn't safe. The UCS Center for Science and Democracy organized West Virginia scientists to pressure the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure scientists were being heard, since even first responders didn't know what they were dealing with.And why didn't they? Because U.S. federal law exempts 62,000 chemicals from safety tests. A law shaped by the big chemical companies grandfathered in any chemical on the books before 1977—including MCHM. The last time the U.S. government tried to ban one of these chemicals? 1989, when it banned asbestos—and then saw the ban partially overturned in court just two years later. On the other hand, Australians are coming to terms with the damage asbestos has done to human health in a number of regions.This impact of toxic chemicals is a global problem with very little mitigation under way despite some recognition of what was done wrong in the past. Rachel Carson in her book 'Silent Spring' warned decades ago of the dangers of pesticides such as DDT. However, the understanding that she provided has not resulted in amelioration in the usage of pesticides, largely because the demand for food, regardless of the fact that environmental and ecological costs have continued to grow in response to population and affluence growth.
     
     As a Colorado mine spill sent orange-hued sludge flowing through Colorado and into the San Juan River in New Mexico, the fallout from the massive accident continued to spread, with communities declaring states of emergency and the Navajo Nation vowing to take action against the EPA.This is but one example of the environmental (and social) damage that mining around the globe often causes despite attempts to ensure safe operations.Failures of the precautionary principle are common because of the widespread focus on financial cost of operations.
      
     The World Health Organization says that air pollution is the greatest risk to human health. The residents of Beijing and New Delhi would heartily agree but they are not the only city dwellers suffering from this problem.Experts say it will take long term projects  to improve Jakarta's air quality, including the construction of mass transit systems. About 70% of the air pollution is from vehicle emissions and the number of cars and motorcycles is increasing rapidly. Air pollution killed about seven million people in 2012.The study of 1600 cities found air pollution had worsened since a smaller survey in 2011, especially in poorer countries, putting city-dwellers at higher risk of cancer, stroke and heart disease.Thirteen of the dirtiest 20 cities were Indian, with New Delhi, Patna, Gwalior and Raipur in the top four spots. The Indian capital had an annual average of 153 micrograms of small particulates, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre. The London smog was ameliorated decades ago by the reduction in using coal fires for heating. Initiation of measures to remedy this problem in cities has humanitarian health benefits at the expense of contributing to the damaging population bubble, especially amongst the aged. 
     The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not renowned for its consideration of environmental issues. So its  advocacy of raising fossil-fuel taxes to fight climate change is indicative of the growing concern of what the operation of civilization is doing to the natural process. It, however, supports the fallacious view that reducing (the rate of) fossil fuel emissions will fight the irreversible climate change that has been initiated by industrial civilization. Feasible reduction in the rate of emissions will only slightly reduce the coming severity of the impact of climate change.
      Sound farming practices such as rotating legumes assist in maintaining the health of soil to a limited extent without fertilizers but the loss of nutrients in the food sent to the cities means that the amount of rich soil is decreasing. At the same time, the nutrients being flushed down into the ocean and rivers from the cities are creating dead zones and polluted fresh water. This means of food production to feed people is a double whammy. CSIRO provides information on Australia's infertile soil and how it has been degraded by its use for unsustainable food production. Authorities in Britain have also provided details of how much the loss of soil fertility has hit food production there. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), "Half of the topsoil on the planet has been lost in the past 150 years".  Additionally, "as a result of erosion over the past 40 years, 30 percent of the world's arable land has become unproductive."  Cornell ecology professor, David Pimentel, states the issue succinctly, saying "soil erosion is second only to population growth as the biggest environmental problem the world faces. He does not mention the fact that the infrastructure that the operations of the population are so dependent on are not possibly sustainable. The population needs much more than arable land! How will the cope with the impact of climate change and other environmental problems without oil and many other natural resources? 
     Before 1900 the food production systems delivered more energy in food than it required as energy inputs in the form of fuel and labor as solar energy was the main input. Only as the food system industrialized in many countries in the Green Revolution did today’s energy deficit emerge. This is an unsustainable energy process that accentuates the developing food production problems.Insurance companies are recognizing the factors exacerbating this global problem but that is not dealing with it.
232. Factory farming is widely used to produce cheap chicken, beef and pork that can be afforded by the masses while providing a good income for the producers, at the unaccounted expense of animal suffering and contaminated meat. The use of antibiotics in animals is decreasing the effective of these antibiotics in dealing with human health problems. Studies have highlighted how serious a problem it is but it is not being seriously addressed in the developed countries where it is most serious.For example Antibiotic Research UK director David Browntold the Press Association "It is almost too late. We needed to start research 10 years ago and we still have no global monitoring system in place."
233. Research is showing the understandable correlation between rising food prices and social unrest in many countries. This is an example of a selected argument that does not address associated problems such as population growth and growing difficulties with food production. So this symptom is no help in coping with the disease of declining food per capita in many regions. Sources predict that food riots will grow rapidly. When people are starving in the streets, there is political unrest that can easily turn violent. Because this is a fundamental human reaction, it is just as true in the United States, UK and other first-world nations as it is in Cameroon or India.
234. Electronics manufacturers such as Panasonic, Toshiba, and Fujitsu recently expanded their businesses to include hi-tech vertical farms which produce vegetables such as lettuce, radish, spinach and sprouts.Panasonic set up a farm in Singapore which uses special LED lights to cultivate vegetables in as little as 35 days, a move that meets the government’s food security goals. Toshiba also started cultivating greens like spinach, lettuce and greens in a factory in Japan recently.These initiatives by electronics companies, along with innovative urban farming projects around the world are expected to increase access to locally grown food, yield more energy and resource efficient farming methods, and allow food to be grown faster than conventional farming, outcomes which are likely to make small contributions to global food security efforts. They will be worthwhile temporary measures but do not tackle the holistic problem that there are now to many people. Ironically,such measures foster the delusion that people and their technological systems can solve the problems that the lack of understanding has generated.
      
235. Social unrest is growing rapidly for a number of reasons. There was a time when the young in a community were urged to respect the wisdom conveyed to them by their elders. That is no longer the case in developed and developing countries as the elders have been guilty of promoting economic growth and the associated affluenza regardless of the environmental and ecological costs. The bewildered youngsters are trying to find their own way by using the social revolution promoted by Smart Phones and the like. Do It Yourself (DIY) refugee camps like Zaatari will eventually teach municipal governments around the world a few things about unleashing the cooperative capacities of people and making their cities more robust, productive and liveable. ELAM could well develop from this trend.The Fourth International conference on Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, which was held in the German city of Leipzig, is one example of a small number of smart people attempting to promote wiser operation of society together with wiser use of the infrastructure.
236. Farming became the province of elderly people in past decades.The trend for young people to leave the farm to get better paying jobs in cities is now dying out in the developed countries as urban jobs decline. Many smart young people are beginning to view farming and living with nature as being more attractive than the hassle of city life.On the other hand, many of the young in cities are finding it hard to get a worthwhile job and are turning to drugs, violence and even crime.
237. A discussion paper 'Economy in Transition  - Startup, innovation and a workforcce for the future' highlights the impact of technological change on the workforce. It provides details on the current development of aspects of the on demand economy. However, these views are based on the fallacious presumption that the digital future is sustainable even though the devices are made of irreplaceable materials and have limited lifetimes.
238. Chinese are buying up farm land in many countries,(including, U.S.A, Canada and Australia), a consequence to be expected as the Chinese economy and its well off people continues to grow. This is another issue stemming from the progress of the Chines economy that has a deleterious impact but it is unsustainable as it is very dependent on a number of declining operations, including availability of fertilizers and convenient sea and air transport.
239. A few of the elite argue forcefully for a higher minimum wage as a way to lessen inequality and avert a harsh outcome. But really, is there any chance that from today’s paralyzed politics there will emerge a living wage for all? Of course not. the main reason, not understood by even the elite, is that civilization is irreversibly degrading its life support system, the environment. this is an unsustainable process as even the elite will learn the hard way eventually.
240. Concern about the availability of phosphorus, a key fertilizer, centers on the geopolitical issues of those six countries (Morocco, China, Algeria, Syria, Jordan and South Africa)  that are able to extract that depleting resource and those large countries (such as India, the European Union and Brazil) that have a large, seemingly insatiable, demand. The use of the term 'peak phosphorus' tends to hide the fact that, like oil, fossil water, usable sand and other stored natural resources, it is being irrevocably used up at an unsustainable rate.
241. Numerous bodies have examined the continuing availability of phosphorus given its source and crucial usage in food production. Recognizing the limited remaining reserves of phosphate rock, there is appreciable focus on waste management as a means of sustaining its availability for fertilization. However, they do not take into account that most of the phosphorus in food plants are flushed out into the oceans from cities, an unsustainable process. The most these programs can do is reduce that rate at which this crucial element is used up even as population, so food demand, goes up.
242.  Authoritative sources provide the data that indicates 'peak' copper should be added to the rapidly growing list. If electrons are the lifeblood of a modern economy, copper makes up its blood vessels. In cables, wires, and contacts, copper is at the core of the electrical distribution system, from power stations to the delicate electronics that can display this page. Ironically, the installation of the National Broadband Network in Australia reduces the use of copper in landlines but increases the irreconcilable demand for electronic equipment. Out of the frying pan into the fire especially as the vehicles required for dealing with the installations will become rarer partly because of the depletion of copper!
243. Social science examines the factors that influence the outlook and behavior of components of the populace without taking into account the fact that the current population is way beyond the carrying capacity of the environment and that the infrastructure cannot be maintained with the depleting stored natural resources. So their objective cannot produce sound measures for coping with the powering down of society that is inevitable due to the operation of fundamental physical forces.
244. Social scientists have examined why only some people believe the findings of experts on the human causation of climate change. This adds to understanding of the behavior of people but does not contribute significantly to dealing with the problem of instigating measures to cope with what climate change is doing.
245. Studies have provided some understanding of the economic, political, social and environmental reasons for the collapse of numerous localized civilizations in recent millennium. However, industrialized civilization is globalized, very dependent on irreversibly using stored natural resources and has precipitated irreversible rapid climate change and ocean acidification. These factors in combination with the malfeasance of society will ensure the collapse of  this global civilization this century.
246. A recent paper looks at the culprit behind the Permo-Triassic Boundary mass extinction, which wiped out more than 90 percent of marine species and two-thirds of land animals, making it even more severe than the die-off of the dinosaurs. It found that this was caused by emissions comparable in rate and degree to those from our industrialized civilization. Those ancient emissions were due to a natural process, volcanic eruptions. The current ones are due to the decisions made by humans!
247. Studies associated with IPCC have pointed out that climate change is likely to have such an impact on human health as to pose a threat to this species. The authors stated ''Human-driven climate change poses a great threat, unprecedented in type and scale, to well being, health and perhaps even to human survival,''. One concerned with the health issue, Sir Andrew Haines, notes that there are three broad issues in relation to climate change and health. One is the potential impact of climate change on human health and the vulnerability of specific populations. The second issue is how much humanity can adapt to climate change, so whether we can reduce some of the health impacts by policies. And the third topic is the health impacts of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.This is common, selective argument. It ignores the fact that humanity is very dependent on the goods and services provided by the infrastructure. the impact of climate change on the operation of this infrastructure needs to be taken into account in any rational discussion. How much can this infrastructure adapt as it irrevocably ages?
248. The new agreement to be signed in Paris, to take effect in 2020, will essentially replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Unlike Kyoto, the Paris deal will demand action from everyone, and not just from wealthy industrialized countries. But in order to make that palatable for governments, negotiators are moving away from a traditional top-down approach in which scientists dictate what is needed to save the planet and countries are allotted targets accordingly.
249. That factor, however, is only part of the climate change issue. It has already had a significant influence on biodiversity and that is bound to speed up. As permafrost soils thaw under the influence of global warming, communities of soil microbes act as potent amplifiers of global climate change, an international study has shown. Soil is an infinitely complex underworld and inter-dependent web of micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and micro-arthropods That behavior of soil is one indication of the impact on biodiversity. Not only are extreme weather events such as droughts and intense rainstorms becoming more common, climate warming is leading to increased algal growth and more frequent toxic algal blooms. It also affects the entire aquatic food web, including the number, size and distribution of freshwater fish species, It will also have a major influence on the existence and operation of the infrastructure that society has become so dependent on. Researchers are gaining understanding of what causes "rogue" waves in the oceans. They are having a significant damaging impact on shipping and there is evidence that they are becoming more frequent due to climate change.Some humans are bound to survive the impact of climate change despite the problems noted in this report but they will find it difficult to cope without the services currently provided by the unsustainable infrastructure.
250. Ironically, some organizations such as Risky Business discuss the intangible monetary cost of adaptation to climate change along the lines mentioned in the latest IPCC report. They lose sight of the fact that all operations entail the irreversible use of tangible energy and materials. Many aspects of adaptation will not be possible even if vast amounts of money are thrown at them because materialistic adaption is a physical operation governed by natural forces..
251. Most powerful interests are so lacking in understanding of  how physical systems invariably operate that they talk in terms of installing systems that will take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, so reduce the severity of the future impact of climate change. The view in knowledgeable circles is that the most effective way of confronting climate change is reducing emissions through some com­bina­t­ion of switch­ing away from fos­sil fu­els to low-car­bon en­er­gy sources, im­prov­ing en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy, and chang­ing hu­man be­hav­ior. The au­thors added that strate­gies such as for­est man­age­ment and ge­o­log­i­cal stor­age of car­bon di­ox­ide may be use­ful com­ple­ments to emis­sion re­duc­tions. Various forms of climate engineering are considered to not be feasible for technical, environmental and cost reasons.
     
252. Beetles are obliterating forests throughout Colorado and the West in the U.S., draining budgets as property values decline and threatening tourism at national parks, including the home of Mount Rushmore. This is but one example of the impact of climate change.
253. It is interesting that people such as Desmond Tutu regard activities such as the tar sands in Canada as being morally wrong because of the expected impact of fossil fuel usage on climate change in the future. That is a typical anthropocentric misunderstanding. The reality is that fossil fuel usage has already been the main contributor to irreversible rapid climate change (and ocean acidification). Improved morality at large will have little impact as it is technological systems that greedily consume the 'irreplaceable' energy provided by fossil fuels in pursuit  of immoral profits for investors. As conventional oil becomes harder to extract, tar sands and fracking operations are fostered by some corporate power despite their damaging environmental, ecological and social impact together with the financial weakness.According to data obtained from leading oil- and gas-producing states in the U.S., "more than 180 million gallons of wastewater spilled from 2009 to 2014 in incidents involving ruptured pipes, overflowing storage tanks and other mishaps or even deliberate dumping." Exemptions from one of America’s most fundamental environmental protection laws provided the oil and gas industry the immunity it required to develop a highly polluting process on a grand national scale. The precautionary principle was not applied. A recent paper follows numerous scientific findings that fracking poses severe human health and environmental hazards, from contaminated drinking water to earthquakes. A study has also pointed out how fracking often leads to methane release with impact on health issues and climate change.However, governments and corporations manage in a number of states to restrict the opposition of communities to the damage fracking is doing to their lives. The U.S.Environmental Protection Agency has released its long awaited draft assessment of the impacts that fracking has on the nation's drinking water supplies — confirming that the process does indeed contaminate water.The report states“From our assessment, we conclude there are above and below ground mechanisms by which hydraulic fracturing activities have the potential to impact drinking water resources,” For example, the oil and gas drillers ran foul of regulators on average 2.5 times a day in three energy-intensive U.S.states for mistakes such as waste water spills, well leaks or pipeline ruptures during the boom in hydraulic fracturing. However, that has had little impact on the production of oil regardless of the social or environmental cost.The number of health problems in fracking regions is growing rapidly. Measurements have shown that higher levels of cancer causing radon has been found in these regions. For example, the proposal to employ fracking in NSW is being opposed because there is grave danger that it will affect the groundwater in the Great Artesean Basin, which provides water to communities and farms in twenty two percent of Australia. Some of the major oil companies are now divesting from fracking operations as they understand that shale oil extraction this way is a financial bubble that has no future. A recent study proving unequivocally that the assumptions about recoverable oil in a California region were wildly optimistic. Five months later, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued a 96% downgrade of its Monterey Shale oil estimates, and last week, the USGS slashed estimates beyond the original EIA projections by nearly 99%, The current drop in oil price will undoubtedly accelerate the decline in shale oil production as many of the operators flee for financial reasons. Canadian tar sands production is also becoming a liability and its future is now uncertain despite political pressure. The likelihood of a financial crisis in North America is growing rapidly as the oil price drop is causing localized cut backs in employment and operations that are having an impact on the economy.
254. Commentators highlight how the oil price has a major impact on the decisions made by the industry due to the need to adjust financing to pay for future operations based on the uncertainty of future demand. This has a significant impact on investor decisions and is a major topic for discussion in the media. However, the many other deleterious operations of industrialized civilization are not yet receiving the attention that is warranted.
255. Ironically, the drop in oil price has forced the industry to close down many of the activities as there is now a glut of oil in many forms of storage. This volatile process will lead to unintended consequences as the glut is drawn down but the industry, especially in the U.S. and Canada, cannot get the financing to resume supply. This chaotic situation will go with other ecological, economic and social burps to contribute to the inevitable demise of civilization that the masses will have to adapt to as best they can. .
256. In a country like Denmark, however, Total is able to tap into a much more hard-lived myth: namely that of public institutions being solid enough to secure democratic control over any potentially harmful corporate operations. What is happening with fracking in Vendsyssel suggests that such confidence is misplaced. It seems that in the age of extreme energy exploration, even Denmark is not immune to corporate interest overriding democratic concerns.By revealing how even in countries of largely well-established public control multinational corporations are successfully mobilizing strategies to push through their environmentally destructive agenda, this case underscores the omnipotence of corporate power. But as much as fracking is a primary corporate frontier, it is also so obviously skewed towards enriching the few while wreaking havoc on human and environmental health that it is sending many people to the barricades.
257. There is appreciable discussion about the merits of allowing the Alberta tar sand oil to be exported to China rather than being sent down by pipeline to Louisiana in the US. It is like two smokers arguing the merits of their brands of cigarettes even as their lungs crop the damage. Unsustainable physical processes are just that, regardless of the decisions made by people. It appears the pundits are not considering what will be done about the pipelines when the tar sands project ends.
258. Some commentators argue that the oil price drop will lead to a collapse of the Russian economy. Putin, however, could well be winning this chess match with the help of agreements with China.
259. Ironically this boom is having a pronounced impact on Asian economies with LNG (liquified natural gas) exports from the U.S. being in the mix. It has the appearance of the typical short term market response that can only lead to major problems in the future. Japan and China have enough problems without being hit below the belt by the coming problem they will have of importing sufficient fossil fuel energy.
260. It is ironical that three separate LNG projects embracing three plants, three lots of infrastructure, three different work forces are being implemented in Queensland, Australia on the very dubious premise that the exports to China will be a financial boon for the companies and the community in the years ahead. This but another example of lack of understanding in governments and businesses of fundamental physical principles due to their belief in the power of money. The LNG is being shipped from Australia  in special ships using fuel oil: an unsustainable process!
261. Proponents of the use of LNG  in power generation claim it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but only because they stand to gain financially from this transition away from using coal. Industry leaders claim that gas is essential to battle climate change is most misleading.
262. Japan's nuclear power plant restarts represents a victory for pro-nuclear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who insists that the Japanese economy needs nuclear energy to supplant expensive oil and gas imports.Repairing the social and infrastructure done by the Fukushima disaster is costing the economy a lot. 
263. Likewise, at Kashagan, environmental officials have fined the field’s operators $US737m for burning off poisonous gas, which the consortium argues was an emergency measure. An official reckons the fine is a “tool for future negotiations, perhaps to strengthen the national oil company’s presence in the project.” which is way behind in development and way over cost. It is an absolute fiasco despite the rhetoric. This argument may not be the best way to encourage foreign firms to pump in the tens of billions of dollars more that are still needed to develop Kazakhstan’s oilfields. But is is a good example of how industry is desperately trying to develop dubious oil fields as the easy ones have already been ravaged.
264. Various bodies, including the Energy Department in the U.S. have been focusing on the need to explore and develop other sources of oil, including shale, in North America to meet energy demand as the current fields decline. This is a typical example of selective argument. There is no mention of the deleterious environmental consequences  (such as toxic pollution of ground water, devastation of biodiversity) these desperate measures to extract the hard oil. Of course, these energy specialists leave discussion of other problems, such as unreasonable military activities, over population, climate change, ocean acidification, financial market manipulation and irreversible decay of the existing infrastructure to others.
265. Ironically, political issues affect the oil price, as evidenced by the current drop in price which is most likely due to manipulations (primarily by U.S. and Saudi Arabia) aimed at hitting SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)  and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations, particularly Russia, below the belt. Petrobas, the Brazilian oil giant is now essentially insolvent. Saudi Arabia are encouraging buyers to increase volume at the lower price so their income will not drop too much and they have copious financial reserves so they will be able to continue to finance their infrastructure development. However, social unrest stemming from the death of the King Abdullah, 90, could well instigate financial chaos that will spread globally.This oil policy appears to be largely for geopolitical reasons with the Saudis showing their enemies that they have the power.. The sudden large increase in the export of oil from U.S. is almost certainly contributing to the drop in oil price. But this drop does mean that many of the shale oil companies in the U.S. are also being hit below the belt: they are committed to producing oil at a cost exceeding the sale price. Some commentators claim that most of the key companies have sufficient resilience to survive .Venezuela is suffering as their budget is very dependent on the income due to oil exports. This problem is likely to feed across to China which has made major loans to the South American country in anticipating continuing to obtain some of the heavy oil. Extracting oil sands in Alberta in Canada is another industry that is being hit by the price while the off-shore fields in the North Sea are in trouble.
266. Western Canada Select, the most common grade of oil sands bitumen, typically sells for roughly US$15 per barrel less than the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate price. That means oil sands producers are among the first to lose money when prices fall, which will make the sector struggle to attract investors in hopes of funding potential growth. Many Canadians will bless this pressure on oil sands as it could reduce the environmental devastation caused by that operation. Oil price is a complex issue that affects the overall rate of supply slightly but does not affect the principle that the amount that can be extracted in the future is irrevocably declining. Society (including many oil industry companies) has yet to take the stark reality that oil usage is an unsustainable process into account. The current drop in price is only bringing forward the inevitable time when the physical difficulty of extracting oil will hit the operation of industrial civilization hard with many associated deleterious consequences. The political, economic and military maneuverings will only escalate. The bewildered masses will have to make do with less of this useful commodity. Investors and financial experts will continue to throw fiat money around in circles as it spirals down in value.
267. Western leaders deem the deal with Iran embracing the reduction in Iran's nuclear industry in return to the elimination of economic sanctions will bring Iran's oil and gas resources into the EU camp via pipelines at the expense of Russia. Some commentators regard this as a Western delusion and expect the resurgent Iran economy will bolster the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Ironically, neither side understands that global economic growth is unsustainable due to many more issues that the supply of energy.
268. The leaders of the EU are calling for an energy union to ease the problems as the North Sea oil fields run out and the dependence on gas by pipeline from Russia and oil from the Middle East grows. As usual, it is regarded as a political and economic issue without taking into account the irrevocable cost in using irreplaceable natural resources. 
269. Ironically, the SCO and BRIC nations can hit back at the Western powers using monetary weapons (including an alternative to the USD as the reserve currency) and this farcical game is just beginning while the global stock of natural resources continue to go up in flames or into land fills at an unsustainable rate. The financial and ecological of putting waste into land fills is only one of the predicaments that societies will have to cope with as the coping abilities decline.
270. Access to oil supply and the money it  produces is a major factor in the turmoil in the Middle East in association with ethnic, religious and cultural forces. Western military involvement has been and continues to be costly in many regards but is driven by the need to obtain oil from Middle East countries to satisfy the demand to power most forms of indulgent transportation.
271. Commentators point out that many countries face massive fiscal squeezes and regime changes  due to the reduced income from their oil exports. Ironically, this price increase will force the adoption of a number of beneficial reforms, including improved energy efficiency and reduced generation of waste. Oil price is not just a financial issue. It affects the outlook (and decisions) of many powerful people.
272. Writing in The Conversation, RMIT University’s Alan Pears, an indefatigable campaigner for energy efficiency for a long time, decried the national efforts as “the weakest area of Australian performance” in energy policy with “few, poorly-resourced and politically weak government agencies” engaged in this space. He’s not right as he has the common view that it is energy alone that enables the operation of technological systems.Pears expressed the view that both the present Coalition federal government and its predecessor, the Rudd/Gillard regime, deserve the discredit for this when it is really widespread lack of understanding of fundamental physical principles that has led to this common view. The current mob’s setting of a 40 per cent target for improving Australian energy productivity by 2030 ignores the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering’s reasoned call for the goal to be a doubling by the end the next decade. It is almost unbelievable that this professional body promotes a view not based on understanding of how technological systems invariable age due to the effects of friction.
273. Numerous bodies in the U.S. are initiating measures to counter local ocean acidification and its impact on the marine ecosystem but these adaptation measures will have an insignificant influence on this global problem. Climate change features in global discussions with President Obama providing a lead in (rate) of emissions reduction even though all that can possibly do is slightly reduce future impact of climate change.It is advocated that bodies:
     1. Develop strategies to mitigate and adapt to ocean acidification;
     2. Identify the role of each agency in researching and monitoring ocean acidification; and
     3. Implement an information exchange on ocean acidification data.
     when the only realistic measures are to slow acidification down by reducing the rate of emissions while adapting to the devastation of the marine ecosystem. The serious effect of ocean acidification is not yet been seriously addressed on a global scale.
274. John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State said recently "In observing World Oceans Day, we recognized that protecting our ocean is not a luxury. It is a necessity that contributes to our economy, our climate and our way of life. Working together, we can change the current course and chart a sustainable future." However, this sound call for amelioration of many deleterious impacts on the operation of the oceans conveys the fallacious impression that society can now remedy the irreversible damage that has been done by the operation of the systems together with the bad decisions by humanity. The problem is compounded by the increasing global population endeavoring to obtain protein from the declining stock of fish. Mankind’s insatiable appetite for seafood has decimated global fisheries. A disturbing new report from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London reveals that the number of fish and other aquatic animals dropped 49 percent between 1970 and 2012.The recent Washington Post headline “The End of Fish.” provided the community with insight into what is happening to fisheries. Not even the usual weasel question mark at the end to avoid the declarative statement. In mid-June the Global Ocean Commission stated its conclusion that the world’s oceans are on the brink of collapse,
275. Population growth is a major factor in the growth of cities and their associated infrastructure, so in the rate of consumption of the limited store of natural material resources to produce the goods, provide the services for society and to operate and maintain the aging infrastructure. A nighttime satellite photo of populated regions of Earth shows the illumination of numerous cities, an unsustainable process as it is using up some of the limited crustal store of materials providing the electrical energy.The launching of satellites could well cease before these lights inevitably go out!
276. A common view is expressed by this quote, "As we gear up for an era where space travel becomes more common thanks to the efforts of companies like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, territory that was uncharted just a few decades ago could soon become commonplace. Even those with no interest in traveling to space have come to rely on The Final Frontier more so than ever before, thanks to an increasing number of services that rely on satellites orbiting the Earth.Cell phones and in-dash navigation systems rely on GPS satellites, Dish and DirecTV obviously use satellite feeds, and satellite communications systems offered by the likes of Inmarsat and Iridium continue to proliferate across various industries. Just how crowded is it getting up there above the Earth’s atmosphere?" This view does not take into account the fact that appreciable amounts of materials and 'irreplaceable' energy (not money) are used in the manufacture and launching of these satellites and their future is doubtful because there is now so much junk circling Earth. What will people do when they can no longer use the multitude of services provided by satellites?  
277. Society has yet to take into account the depletion of natural resources but is having to cope with the increasing impact of climate change. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change notes that climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen. The fact that it is an irreversible natural physical phenomenon instigated by the operation of technological systems is beyond the ken of economists. Many concerned academics prefer to use the term "anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD)" even though people have only made the decisions about installing and operating the systems.
278. Climatologists  are continuing to gather data and firm up on understanding of the many facets of climate change. For example, a growing number of studies suggest that the melting Arctic is having knock-on effects on the jet stream, the river of air that snakes around the northern hemisphere at an altitude of around five kilometres, and which has a profound impact on the world's weather.The jet stream is driven by the flow of air between the cold Arctic pole and warmer air that moves upwards from nearer the equator. As the warmer air advances polewards, it is swung eastwards by the Coriolis force which comes from Earth's spin, creating a snake-like stream. It's a fast-moving river of air, a very messy creature.The strength of the jet stream depends on the temperature gradient between the regions of cold and warm air – the wider the difference, the faster and stronger the jet stream.
279.  A survey of physical scientists shows that most of them believe little can be done to ameliorate what is actually happening due to the global warming largely brought about by the greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil fuels. The Australian government climate change organization said years ago that the focus should be on adapting to climate change as mitigation by reducing the rate of emissions would do little. In the UK, with much of the country still dressed in waders, the focus has now turned to adaptation to the effects of climate change. On the energy front, around a million homes were affected by power cuts following the recent high winds and floods. Meanwhile a forthcoming report warns of the potential impacts of drought on UK power plants as more extremes of weather become the norm. The recent storms have shown the extreme vulnerability of UK homes, business, agriculture and infrastructure. 
280. The proponents  who put forward measures to 'solve' climate change  are simply reinforcing the widespread misunderstanding of the reality that irreversible rapid climate change is already under way. Studies show the increase in extreme climatic events due to climate change that society will have cope with. The latest IPCC report provides assessments of the likely impact on vulnerable elements of society as well as the environment. These events are affecting human health and well being as well as food and water availability. Fostering the solution delusion just inhibits mitigation and adaption measures. The irony is that by dint of hard work and many measurements over many years, climatologists are still unearthing new understanding of what positive and negative natural forces are doing as a consequence of global warming. The impact of the Polar Vortex on many parts of North America is one of the new pieces of understanding receiving publicity. All that does is encourage smart people to adopt measures to cope with the unusual severity of hot and cold spells.
281. For example, measures to cope with the likely impact of sea level rise and storm surges on the multitude of sewerage systems in the state of Connecticut, USA, are being considered because of the dire impact on human health. This is only one of a host of problems emerging globally as the unintended consequence of misusing fossil fuels to drive industrialized civilization.
282. The jet stream, a wiggly belt of air circling the mid-latitudes meanders in the messy, chaotic atmosphere. As the belt moves south, it pulls cool air from the Arctic toward the tropics. Then it switches direction, pulling warm air from the tropics toward the poles. Measurements are showing how global warming has affected this process, often with deleterious consequences in some regions.The data that climatologists have obtained on the behavior of jet streams over time and in various regions provide convincing evidence of the extreme weather events that will increasingly occur, despite what many powerful, but dumb, people think!
283.  Recent research have provided better understanding of the ocean warming, particularly at depth. This is an important factor as the oceans have absorbed much more heat than the atmosphere so understanding of this factor contributes to the understanding of climate change. Recent measurements and analysis have contributed to the improved understanding of specialists.The oceans are by far the largest heat reservoir on Earth, absorbing a large proportion of global warming. Because of this, accurate assessments of heat uptake are essential to balance the sea level budget, and for observationally-based estimates of climate sensitivity. The network of floats being installed will also help scientists better understand how much ocean warming and freshwater runoff from melting ice sheets contribute to sea level rise and thus model how high and how quickly seas will rise in the coming decades. In addition, the real-world observations will help validate and calibrate models scientists use to forecast future climate change. 
284. Ice shelves are perhaps the most important part of the Antarctic ice sheet for its overall stability. Unfortunately, they are also the part of the ice sheet most at risk. This is because they are the only bits touching the ocean. And the Antarctic ice sheet is not directly threatened by a warming atmosphere – it is threatened by a warming ocean. Increasing understanding of this issue just reduces the uncertainty of the proposition that sea levels will rise dramatically in coming decades.If countries act fast to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research, there is still time to curtail the most cataclysmic Antarctic ice melt.However, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, if fossil fuel consumption maintains its current rate, Antarctica may experience a widespread collapse of its ice shelves, which could spur significant sea level rise.Researchers employed a combination of satellite observations of ice surface melting and climate model simulations under scenarios of intermediate and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Under both emissions scenarios, by 2050, the models indicate a "strong potential" for the doubling of surface melting of Antarctica's ice shelves, which are the "floating extensions" of the continent's ice sheets.When extended to 2100, the trajectories diverge, with the more intense scenario showing "ice sheet surface melting approaches or exceeds intensities associated with ice shelf collapse in the past," and the reduced-emissions scenario showing "relatively little increase in ice sheet melting" after 2050.
285. Recent assessments of sea level rise due to glacial melting suggest it will be about three meters by the end of the century. Such a prediction is much more severe than current estimates contained in reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is interesting that the understanding in academic circles of the complex mechanisms contributing to sea level rise is increasing rapidly as the evidence accumulates. No doubt more governments will initiate adaptive measures in due course.
286. Recent studies have indicated those many US cities and regions most vulnerable to sea level rise over coming decades to centuries.The biggest current uncertainty amongst specialists is considered to be the West Antarctic ice shelf. Many have provided arguments that it will collapse in the near future with disastrous sea level rise this century.
287. The use of technology coupled with innovative use of seals has enabled oceanographers to gain appreciable understanding of the distribution of heat in the oceans and its impact, including its contribution to climate change. This is an example of science advancing the frontiers of human knowledge of natural operations that have been largely occurring for eons. The researchers are rewarded for their dedication to gaining understanding. However, this understanding can not significantly ease the climate change (and ocean acidification) brought on by lack of understanding of the stark physical reality of using fossil fuels without taking into account the associated emissions.
288. "Brave New World" is a TV documentary hosted by the renowned British scientist, Stephen Hawking. It provides fascinating insight into advances being made in the field of synthetic biology. It is viewed as being world changing technology but it does not take into account the fact that all the systems being used are made of irreplaceable materials, dependent on the availability of electricity and have a limited lifetime. No doubt the dedicated scientists who are advancing knowledge in this field give little thought to the fact that their findings will not be able to be applied in the distant future!
289. Driverless cars, pilotless planes, driverless trains and drones are exciting innovative technology in the eyes of the media, the masses and even some technological experts, especially as some applications are up and running. On the other hand, responsible authorities are considering the social, ethical and legal (but not future prospects as liquid fuels run out) aspects of this delegation of responsibility to robotic systems with inherently limited intelligence. Ironically, this increase in the complexity of the operations will not last for long. The developers are aiming to build in a degree of artificial self-organization and self-regulation. This developing is a transient challenging activity because the production of these technological systems is an unsustainable process. The supply of the needed materials will go beyond reach and the skills of the developers will become redundant.This is fortunate as the use of cheap drones by unscrupulous individuals for a range of nefarious activities is not a progressive social activity.
290. Ironically, many industries are working on using robots to do the work previously carried out by employees to improve their financial bottom line. They do not have to pay for this deleterious impact on the economy. Domino's use of robots to deliver pizzas is just one example of the damaging impact of technological systems on social welfare.
291. Ironically, the private use of drones is causing a social privacy predicament in the U.S. which authorities and the legal system have not yet been able to deal with. It is just another damaging social issue that will give ways to others when, inevitably, drones are no longer freely available.
292. Another example of the loss of resilience as systems become more complex is the tendency of cars to have more computer systems to carry out a range of functions. However, many of these systems are vulnerable to hacking by the rapidly growing cyber criminal cult.Car hackers could well leave drivers vulnerable as they would be unable to even brake the car. Cells in the human body have specific jobs to do and that works most of the time. Cancers are uncommon malfunctions of this very complex natural process. But human innovators are not able to successfully emulate nature in their handling of complexity so cancerous operations are very much more likely.
293. Studies have shown how airline computing systems have grown in size and complexity for a number of reasons tied to the growth in airline travel. The resilience of these systems is naturally declining and disasters are becoming more likely while the impact on the travelling masses will become more haphazard. This is what technology cancer does; it grows without restraint until it threatens the survival of its host.'You can’t fix it because it has to keep going, and it can’t keep going unless you fix it. You can’t afford to fix it, and you can’t afford not to.' If its host is the sort who refuses to have surgery because it’s too inconvenient, death ensues.What is irrevocably happening to airlines is just one example of where technology has gone wrong even thugh society embraces it.
294. Robotics are being welcomed by society at large as it is an example of innovative technology providing a useful service. However, while a few people will be employed in the production of these devices, these devices will deny many skilled people of employment.Past automation usefully replaced many manual workers but it has now progressed to the stage whereit is carrying out inyelectual activities. This replacement of skilled workers by machines has been a characteristic of automation for a long time but it cannot possibly continue as  the ability to provide the materials in technological systems inevitably get beyond reach. The robbing by robots of employment for people will die off. 
295. It is not surprising that knowledgeable people are commenting on the limitations of technological progress based on the law of diminishing return. Technical feasibility has to vie with economic viability in their view. Marginal utility, increasing marginal disutility and increasing risk of whole system disruption are regarded as factors limiting further progress. However, the fundamental physical principle governing developments is that technology has never created anything. Not surprising, people apply the term 'create' to both intangible ideas and tangible objects. The latter is not physically possible. Technology has only used natural forces to convert natural material resources into systems that then irrevocably age due to the action of forms of friction. It has also used natural forces to convert natural material resources into eco costly goods useful only for a short time. However, technology has also provided equipment and instruments that have significantly helped people to gain understanding of many natural operations. These benefits of technology do not offset the rampant ravishing of eco systems by technological systems.
296. Technological innovations have in a number of cases resulted in the unsustainable use of natural resources leading to a subsequent crash, as depicted by the  Seneca Curve. The collapse of the North Atlantic cod stocks is an example. This fishery disaster of the early 1990s was the result of a combination of greed, incompetence, and government support for both. Unfortunately, it is just one of the many examples of how human beings tend to worsen the problems they try to solve by using innovative technology. The philosopher Lucius Anneus Seneca had understood this problem already some 2000 years ago, when he said,"It would be some consolation for the feebleness of our selves and our works if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid." This collapse of the North Atlantic cod fishery industry is a good example of the abrupt collapse in the production of resources - even resources which are theoretically renewable. The shape of the production curve landings shows some similarity with the Seneca Curve, a general term to apply to all cases in which there is a rapid decline of the production of a non renewable, or slowly renewable, resource. The use of technology for oil extraction is a prominent example of the what can go wrong. The extraction of shale oil by fracking is most likely to lead to the collapse that economists are unable to understand or predict.
297. University of Sussex professor Andy Stirling  noted that “History presents plenty of examples of innovation trajectories that later proved to be problematic—for instance, involving asbestos, benzene, thalidomide, dioxins, lead in petrol, tobacco, many pesticides, mercury, chlorine and endocrine-disrupting compounds, as well as CFCs, high-sulphur fuels and fossil fuels in general,” he writes. “In all these and many other cases, delayed recognition of adverse effects incurred not only serious environmental or health impacts, but massive expense and reductions in competitiveness for firms and economies persisting in the wrong path. Innovations reinforcing fossil fuel energy strategies—such as hydraulic fracturing—arguably offer a contemporary prospective example.” However, this understanding of some aspects of what technological innovation has done wrong has not yet had the influence in the flow of money that is warranted.
298. The vast computing system in Houston that BP operates in advancing measures to analyse underground formations in the search for oil bearing structures is being promoted as being an example of innovative technology that can contribute to further progress of industrialized civilization.It uses large amounts of energy and materials and employs many very skilled personnel. But that is because it is deemed to be a worthwhile means of increasing the future extraction of oil. That may happen, but declining oil extraction is only one predicament that society will have to deal with. There are about ninety natural resources running out in the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure that the excessive population has become so dependent on. 
299. Nanotechnology is an emerging field that many regard as promising to provide useful devices. It is another example of innovation resulting from research by dedicated, educated people. It could be one of the insignificant positives amongst the midst of significant negatives. Society will be more concerned with coping with the demise of so many major operations to take advantage of what nanotechnology or biotechnology provides.
300. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is another innovation receiving plaudits by those with vested interests (including the Master Builders Association) in the building industry. They, of course, do not understand that this use of digital technology is an unsustainable process: the systems will inevitably wear out and their replacement will not then be possible. Ironically, the buildings stemming from the use of BIM will also wear out and the current skill level for building design will no longer available. 
301. Much is made of the rapidly growing worth of the digital economy due to its impact on productivity as measured financially. Of course, the benefits to consumers is questionable as it does not foster thinking or the application of skills.however, the bottom line is that the digital economy is another bubble that will burst as the foundational technological systems inevitably die off in the not too distant future.    
302. Innovative chemistry transforms natural occurring materials into products used by society, often with unexpected deleterious consequences, including providing toxic materials harming the health of many species, including humans. This process is not creative, despite the common sales spiel. It just uses a temporary system to use a transformation not proven over time by natural processes.
303. The U.S. used Agent Orange as a defoliant in the Vietnam war with horrifying short and long term impact on civilians and soldiers as well as the environment. Agent Orange, with DDT and others, was a product that made money for the chemical industry at a huge social, environmental and ecological cost. But the lesson has not been learned as fracking contributing to toxic materials in ground water  is just one current example. The amount of water used in fracking is having a major impact in those regions where water supply is scarce. 
304. A new report, released from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), identified eight states in the eastern and central U.S. where fracking operations have led to dramatic increases in earthquakes, primarily from the injection of the waste water byproduct of drilling operations into underground wells. This is another deleterious impact resulting from the attempts of industry to provide sufficient oil to meet society's demand for fuel for extravagant land, sea and air travel.
305. Deniers of climate change (ACD - Anthropogenic Climate Disruption) grasp at straws to provide biased arguments. The increase in Antarctic sea ice is one example of selected argument that does not disprove the hypothesis. Climatologists explain the detail associated with this issue. They connect the dots. This phenomenon is consistent with the holistic scenario: irreversible rapid global atmospheric warming is occurring while ocean acidification and warming is also under way. Climatologists provide details of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet (Greenland’s sea level contribution has increased from one-half millimeter per year 10 years ago to one millimeter now due to short-lived lakes absorbing sunshine. That loss rate is expected to double every five to 12 years. The next decade Greenland’s losing two millimeters a year, the one after that four millimeters per year. By the end of the century, at that rate, Greenland alone would be accounting for about one meter per year… “just from Greenland.”) and other contributions to sea level rise without being able to offer remedial measures. Some research indicates the impact of one of the climate change feedbacks. The Dark Snow Project is a collaborative effort between a multidisciplinary, international group of experts. The driving questions are, what is causing the steady darkening of the Greenland Ice Sheet that has been observed in the past decade? Is it an important cause of ice melt? Does it represent yet another climate "feedback" which is accelerating global change? Recent measurements of  the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland and the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica just substantiate the hypothesis that irreversible rapid climate change is under way.A new scientific study has delivered yet another burst of bad news about Greenland — the vast northern ice sheet that contains six metres of potential sea level rise. The ice sheet is "darkening," or losing its ability to reflect both visible and invisible radiation, as it melts more and more, the research finds. That means it’s absorbing more of the sun’s energy — which then drives further melting.“I call it melting cannibalism. You have melting feeding on itself,” says Marco Tedesco, the lead author of the study and a researcher with Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. The research was published in The Cryosphere by Tedesco and five other authors from U.S. and Belgian universities.A group of scientists have evidence that the Southern Antarctic Peninsula, a region where glaciers were previously thought to be stable, is now undergoing sudden—and dramatic—ice loss due to the warming of the ocean.This is another piece of hard evidence to add to the growing list.
306. Recently some 300 miles off the coast of New Zealand, scientists aboard a research vessel  gently lowered two orange orbs into the sea. Soon they disappeared, plunging of their own accord toward the depths of the Pacific Ocean.These were prototypes of specialized robots designed to record temperature and other conditions all the way to the sea bottom, more than three miles down. Every few days since that voyage, they have been surfacing, beaming their data to a satellite, then diving again. In time, a fleet of hundreds like them will be prowling the ocean in a few years, and the great veil of human ignorance about what is happening in the oceans will lift a bit further and the uncertainty about the future impact of climate change reduced.
307. Studies are providing understanding of the significant response of fisheries to the ocean acidification and warming that is a consequence of climate change. This is another example of the irrevocable impact of tangible natural forces to compare with the intangible, and often irrational, decisions made by people.
308. The combination of overfishing and climate change may be putting the oceans’ health—and our own well being—at risk. As State of the World 2015 contributing author Katie Auth explains, protecting lives and livelihoods will require urgent and concerted action to improve the oceans’ condition.“Our sense of the oceans’ power and omnipotence—combined with scientific ignorance—contributed to an assumption that nothing we did could ever possibly impact it,” writes Auth. “Over the years, scientists and environmental leaders have worked tirelessly to demonstrate and communicate the fallacy of such arrogance.”. But little can be done about ameliorating this problem
309. There is still appreciable uncertainty about how rapid the temperature rise will be as the impact of are a number of factors, including methane emissions and ice sheet melting, can well combine to accelerate the rise and the consequential mysterious influence on civilization. There will be a call for crisis management to handle such matters as the impact of marine transgression on dry land and fresh water and the need to replace infrastructure. 
310. Earth system scientists are connecting the dots of data collected and arguments provided by climatologists, environmentalists, marine biologists and other specialists to provide a holistic view of  the harm technological systems are doing to the life support system in temporarily providing society with goods and services. These scientists understand that civilization has  woken up a beast that is now very angry.The renowned scientist, James Lovelock (who has provided convincing argument that the environment is a gigantic organism, now called Gaia) provides appreciable detail of the damage that civilization has done to Gaia and the symptoms, including climate change, of Gaia's response.
311. Detailed assessments have been made of the likelihood of climate change having significant deleterious environmental, ecological, social and economic impacts in South East Asia. This just one example of how scientists are responding to this challenge being issued by disturbed natural forces.
312. The ridiculous attitude of many prominent people in the U.S. to climate change is shown by the support for the Keystone XL pipeline. Authoritative studies indicate that it will cause emissions that will significantly contribute to climate change. Ironically these studies do not take into account the amount of irreplaceable materials used and the damage to the environment in installing, operating and maintaining the pipeline during its limited lifetime. Neither is what will be done with the pipeline when it is no longer conveying shale oil in the not too distant future.
313. Ironically the population and infrastructure growth also increases the demand for fresh water, often at the expense of the use of water for irrigation, so food production. This is a real dilemma as grazing animals use a lot of water but also make their contribution to climate change with their emissions. But a lot of beef is in demand in affluenza society. A main source of water is the precipitation that varies tremendously around the globe and, unfortunately, to an increasing degree of unpredictability due to climate change. Many communities in West Africa, Asia and Australia that were dependent on monsoonal rain are finding it hard to cope with the increasing unpredictability.
314. Gaia has accumulated over time vast amounts of water in underground aquifers such as Ogallala Aquifer in the USA (a fossil aquifer with replenishment rate only 10% of draw down rate), Guarani Aquifer in South America and the Great Artesian Basin (over 1.7 million km² and with a replenishment rate well below the draw down rate even though usage has been regulated for over a hundred years) in Australia.Studies have found that of the world’s 37 largest aquifers, 13 are being depleted, with little to no water re-entering them. The most-stressed aquifer is the Arabian Aquifer System, followed by the Indus Basin in northwestern India and Pakistan and the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa. Fourth is California’s Central Valley There is appreciable uncertainty about how mush groundwater remains but there is no doubt about the fact that it is being drawn down rapidly.This stock of water, like the stock of oil, is running out in being used to meet the domestic, farming, power generation and industrial needs and wants of civilization. However, oil is transformed to the waste material contributing to climate change in this irreversible combustion process while most water from precipitation as well as from the aquifers recycles as it meets biological and civilization's needs. Most aquifers do not replenish as rapidly as they are drawn down despite regulation and their demise will be catastrophic for the population as it is dependent on this water for many operations, including living. However, this ground water is often contaminated by industrial operations, including fracking and the production of many chemical compounds for sale. Arsenic is only one of the contaminants causing grievous problems. Salination often occurs in aquifers near coasts. The increased number of desalination plants is a temporary lose-lose approach being embraced for a number of cities around the globe. Energy is used to run the plants supplying water, while water is used in running the plants supplying the energy. Talk about going round in circles getting nowhere!
315. Once the world’s fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea in Central Asia has been losing water for half a century — ever since Soviet engineers began diverting the two rivers that sustain it, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, in order to grow cotton in the desert. This but one example of how bad decisions are reducing the availability of potable water for the uses of numerous communities around the globe.
316. In the west of USA, Colorado is known as a “headwaters” state because most of the region’s biggest rivers begin in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.The Colorado River. The Arkansas River. The Rio Grande. The San Juan River. The Platte River — North and South. Altogether, they provide nineteen U.S. states with drinking and irrigation water, including the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Denver, among many others. All of the water in those rivers comes from one source: the Rocky Mountains’ snow pack, which is expected to shrink as temperatures rise in the warming climate. 
317. Some cities, such as Las Vegas in the Nevada desert and Phoenix, are dependent on water coming in a pipeline from a distant water source such as a lake (Lake Mead for Las Vegas) so are much more vulnerable to disruptions in supply, such as drought. Lake Mead is at its lowest level ever due to the current drought.Californians are now having their wishes for water denied.The record-breaking drought in California is not chiefly the result of low precipitation. Three factors – rising temperatures, groundwater depletion, and a shrinking Colorado River – mean the most populous U.S. state will face decades of water shortages and must adapt. The drought is exacerbating the conflict between the various users. The latest assessment of the state of the Colorado River basin spells out how serious the problem is in western USA. Drought and water shortages in Syria likely contributed to the unrest that stoked the country’s 2011 civil war. A recent report says "Dwindling water resources and chronic mismanagement forced 1.5 million people, primarily farmers and herders, to lose their livelihoods and leave their land, move to urban areas, and magnify Syria’s general destabilization,” Water problems in numerous other global regions do not get the same consideration - yet. The common view is that water supply is a human right: this is the usual anthropocentric view that does not take into account the often deleterious impact of industrial systems as well natural forces on the results of the hydrological cycle. Ironically, the widespread concern about oil supply does not take into account the global water problem coupled with numerous other natural resource availability problems.Californians will continue to drive their cars to where they can get some of the water they need for various essential services. Many cities will continue to use water to flush the nutrients in sewerage out into the ocean as long as possible. Ironically many people are doing their bit to stop sewerage systems by throwing disposable napkins down the toilet!
318. A comprehensive study has provided an assessment of the damaging effect on the economies of many western states of a marked reduction in the water available from the Colorado river. It calls for a number of remedial measures without consideration of how feasible these may be. so the study provides insight into the severity of the problem  (which is being magnified by climate change) without suggesting practical remedial measures, much less the impractical solution.
319. The city of Phoenix, situated in one of the driest parts of the United States, is kept free from thirst via an intricate infrastructure of rivers, canals, turbines, pumps, and switchboards. droughts are not the only problem that will have to be faced there. The operation and maintenance of the water supply infrastructure is dependent on the continuing supply of a range of natural resources which they cannot rely on as the demand will rise as the supply irrevocably declines.
320. The changes in the Missouri River Basin largely due to impact of climate change on the river flow have far-reaching effects, and not just on farming. Other industries, including tourism and recreation, also depend on water. The Murray-Darling Basin in Australia is another example of this growing problem.
321. The Californian drought is now so bad that it is bound to affect food production seriously because its impact on irrigation cannot be totally offset by drawing down on groundwater. Immigration out of California may also be a deleterious consequence of this manifestation of climate change. Immigration for this reason is another growing global problem.
322. Migration for economic, social and environmental reasons is currently growing rapidly due to the current ease of transportation. Like trade globalization, it is an unsustainable process that will decrease rapidly has the declining availability of fuel hastens the demise of most forms of land sea and air forms of transportation.
323. The California drought is currently receiving the most publicity but it is not the only region to suffer from this natural phenomenon as it becomes stronger and more frequent. The installation of desalination plants (at great energy, environmental and economic cost) has become a common adaption measure of doubtful worth in a number of countries.South America's largest city is nine months into an unprecedented drought, with no end in sight. The water shortage is already squeezing businesses in Sao Paulo and threatens to further undermine the stalled economy in Brazil, until recently one of the world's fastest-growing. The drought is also pushing up pollution levels and raising serious concerns about how Brazil will function in changing climate conditions. Melbourne, Australia had a similar problem some years ago so a desalination plant was installed at Wonthaggi but its water is not being used now that the drought has ended. The point is that these droughts are intermittent manifestations of the climate change that is under way, despite what skeptics believe.
324. The UN has warned that desert cities are living on borrowed time as already high temperatures soar and the available water is used up or turns salty. A landmark study in the journal Nature documents an expansion of the world’s dry and semi-arid climate regions since 1950 — and attributes it to human-caused global warming.This expansion of the world’s dry zones is a basic prediction of climate science. The fact it is so broadly observable now means we must take seriously the current projections of widespread global Dust-Bowlification in the coming decades on our current CO2 emissions pathway — including the U.S.’s own breadbasket. Adelaide in South Australia is very dependent on water from the Murray River even as its flow continues to fall. Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie in West Australia have been dependent on pipeline water from a distant lake so are also very vulnerable as the drought dries up the lake. These are only examples of a major global problem. Naturally, the few in advantageous situations strive to make money (at the expense of others) from these deleterious natural operations. As reserves dry up, some landowners cash in on the water market. This highlight the dangers of granting private control to this essential public resource, water.
325. The development of California in desert was based on the arrogant presumption that the water project would continue to meet demand even when the population swelled and the droughts became more frequent and longer lasting. Reality has now hit many Californians hard and the politicians are bewildered by the legacy they are expected to deal with. The residents of the Central Valley food bowl are faced with a new Dust Bowl compounded by the three year drought and atmospheric pollution. Loss of bees for pollination is just compounding their problems. A group of U.S. scientists write that documented bee declines "are not sustainable," and stress that the pollinators play a crucial role "in our agricultural system and economies." in urging that a federal task force take immediate action on bee-harming pesticides.The latest findings "confirmed what has already been demonstrated by a wealth of scientific evidence: neonicotinoids are a serious threat to bees and to the future of farming." But little has been done to control the sale of the pesticides that appear to be increasing the rate of bee deaths.Jonathan Lundgren was an award-winning scientist for 11 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But once he started publishing data linking pesticides to bee and butterfly die-offs, he was ordered to stop talking. When he refused, he was suspended.
326. Recent authoriatative comments on the state of play with respect to all types of bees indicate that much has been learned but the problem still remains and its deleterious impact on various forms of food production continues.
327. Pollinators worldwide, from bees and butterflies to beetles and bats, are facing a grim state of affairs.Factors such climate change and land use changes are driving many pollinator species—including 16 percent of vertebrate pollinators—towards extinction. For invertebrate pollinators like bees and butterflies, over 40 percent of species may be be threatened locally, a new report shows. Reduced pollination poses risks to the global food supply.The assessment s from the four-year-old Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a UN-formed body similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). IPBES came to its first ever analysis based on a body of existing scientific studies.
328. Absent from the White House (U.S.) plan to save pollinators is any immediate action restricting the use of pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids, which studies have shown to be one of the leading causes of bee deaths. Nor does the plan outline restrictions for pesticide-coated seeds. 
329. It is becoming common to instal desalination plants to provide water for cities. There plants use large amounts of electricity so it is often a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The citizens of these cities would like to have both to cope with heat waves as they become more common due to climate change. Their wishes will be denied!
330. The increased demand for meat in developing countries has resulted in an increase in the methane release from cattle, so contributing slightly to global warming.
331. Ironically the increase in the acquisition of damaged food by many in the developed and developing countries has resulted in increasing physical health problems, including autism, allergies, obesity, diabetes and cancer. The rapid increase in mental health problems, including depression, could well be associated with the increasing complexity of the operation of society. Many people find it hard to cope now! This problem can only escalate as the numerous malfeasances of society hit home.
332. Research is providing more understanding of the deleterious impact of diet on problems such as asthma. Commerce is taking advantage of promotion of this understanding in the media to sell products from around the globe - without mentioning the natural resources, environmental and  ecological costs.
333. Scientific research is a much favored activity as it has advanced the frontiers of knowledge,  provided many innovative goods and services while dealing with some problems that have arisen. The social benefits of science are given great publicity but those arguments that indicate what civilization is doing to the environment are swept under the carpet until the consequences can no longer be avoided. Climatologists have strived hard for decades to convince governments and the population that climate change is the unintended consequence of using fossil fuels to provide energy. This occurred because science had not provided understanding of fundamental physical principles. Scientists have been and are too fond of advancing the frontiers of knowledge without taking into account the foundations. That is because it is the way to advance their careers in a biased society.
334. Ironically,the media strongly promotes the views of the powerful barons in society even though this stimulates the demise of civilization. Their advocacy is much more harmful to society (and the environment) than cigarette smoking but is not as widely condemned, because the consuming masses do not suffer from their delusions - as yet! 
335. Population growth is a major contributor to the growing intractable immigration problem. Those millions in under developed countries who can find the means (legal or illegal) are migrating to regions where they expect they will have better opportunities. This has been an issue for a long time with the United States in the forefront in recent times. But now it is growing exponentially and spreading to all developed countries, largely because of the population growth but  military activities, economic issues and environmental devastation are also fostering this cancerous process. It is a global problem.Human rights experts and have criticized Europe's governments response to the current immigration from Africa—like Hungary's border fence —to the massive influx of those fleeing conflict as neither democratic, productive, nor respectful of human dignity.Germany is now leading the way with humanitarian handling of the European immigration crisis. The unemployment problem in the U.S.is another humanitarian problem but it is not receiving the publicity, or aid, that is warranted.  These anthropocentric situations do not cause authorities to take into account that there are too many people for the available natural resources. Global population growth is bound to end in the near future with the disadvantaged suffering the most.
336. Refugees from war zones, undeveloped economies and difficult climates have had a significant impact on societies for millennia and there are no signs of it diminishing even though it a political hot potato. In fact it has now exponentially growing into a flood of refugees, primarily from Africa, into European countries. It is a real crisis now. It is overwhelming handling measures and dumbfounding the politicians while many residents are resisting the impact on their life styles. Fleeing warfare and adverse political decisions are the main motivations now but climate change and other coming  deleterious natural processes will become the strongest motivation to ease the predicament of over population. But, on the other hand, the humanitarian outlook is helping some of the refugees as they strive to get to where they can have a better living standard at this stage. Politicians in Australia are being no more successful in dealing with this humanitarian problem than predecessors in other developed countries even though the number of boat people is small.Bolstering the refugee intake will stem some of the criticism of the opposition parties but will have insignificant impact on this global problem.
337. Atmospheric pollution from industry and vehicles is compounding with drought to make air almost unbreathable for the inhabitants of such cities as new Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Las Vegas and even in California where drought (the worst in a long time) is compounding the difficult situation. California is in the midst of a drought being exacerbated by record hot temperatures. The record heat has intensified the current drought by about 36%, and the planet will only continue to get hotter.A study led by Benjamin Cook at NASA GISS examines how drought intensity in North America will change in a hotter world, and finds that things will only get worse. Ozone is a pollutant which is a key culprit in most cities. This lung-damaging compound, often formed from chemical reactions involving sunlight and automobile exhaust and other pollution, plagues major cities around the globe.
338. The Chinese authorities are adopting methods proven years ago in England and the U.S. of moving the sources of industrial pollution to regions where the populace have limited leverage of money. The powerful in London were able to ensure the major source of pollution a century ago was the midlands. Now the powerful in Beijing are ensuring the rapid growth in industrial pollution occurs in rural or poor regions. But the scale of this problem far exceeds what had occurred previously in developed countries. China's economic growth comes at a greater (environmental, ecological and social cost) price than that of the Western economies it is emulating.The smog in Beijing and six of China’s northern provinces is having a horrendous impact on the population, animals and on plant growth. Scientists are likening the Beijing smog to a 'nuclear winter'. The authoritarian government shows no sign of being able to handle this industrial disaster humanly.
339. Ironically, the increase in the material standard of living of the vast middle class in China has increased the demand for pork. The increased use of pesticides and antibiotics to increase pig production has added another pollution and health problem. It is another example of the failure to apply the precautionary principle in order to make a profit by meeting uninformed consumer demand.
340. Many of the growing Chinese middle class are investing in housing, properties and farm land in developed areas around the globe, partly, no doubt to avoid problems like the rampant pollution, chaos in the housing sector and financial market in their homeland. Apparently, they do not understand that they will not be able to flit around the globe on airliners for much longer..
341. There are proposals to reduce nitrogen pollution by wiser use of fertilizers and reducing the demand for meat. This gives the fallacious impression that authorities are proposing measures that will ease pollution significantly while sewerage systems continue to dump vast amounts of nutrients into rivers and oceans.
342. Productivity increases also increase the rate of production of non-recyclable material waste, including those greenhouse gas emissions causing global atmospheric and ocean warming, ocean acidification and pollution of land, sea, air and organisms, including humans. It is common for authorities to discuss the means for reducing emissions with the implication that it will help to cope with climate change (ACD). The public are demonstrating in many cities to encourage their governments to adopt policies to fight climate change because they do not understand that it is irreversible in the time scale relevant to industrial civilization. Natural forces will remedy the imbalance at evolutionary rates.after industrialization has finished.The reality is that decreasing the 'rate of ' emissions will only slow down the rate of increase of global warming. The damaging atmospheric concentration level is already too high (as is ocean acidification) and is still increasing at a high rate. And there is no synthetic measure that can lower the concentration level. The ocean will absorb more but with a devastating impact on the marine eco system as well as altering the currents and rising due to the higher temperature.
343. "Unlike marine pollution and overfishing, which require multifaceted solutions, ocean acidification has only one primary cause: excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It therefore has an obvious solution: limit carbon emissions." This suggested solution is not possible. Limiting the (rate of) carbon emissions only slows down the rate of increase of the excessive concentration level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A high proportion of the continuing emissions will be absorbed in the oceans, so increasing the degree of irreversible acidification.
344. "Our sense of the ocean’s power and omnipotence – combined with scientific ignorance – contributed to an assumption that nothing we did could ever possibly impact it”, says Katie Auth, a researcher at Worldwatch and one of the authors of a report providing an assessment on what industrial operations have done to that vast body of water.“Over the years, scientists and environmental leaders have worked tirelessly to demonstrate and communicate the fallacy of such arrogance.” Now they have reasonable understanding of the deleterious consequences but no amelioration is under way!
345. The current focus is on how emissions are affecting the climate and on the production of health harming smog. However, research is also obtaining evidence on the impact of emissions from aircraft jet engines on the health of people beneath the landing flight path. Moreover, the impact of fumes from cars and trucks is a big health problem, especially in some cities.
346. Economic theory drives the growth of the intangible economies of countries even though it does not take into account the divestment of tangible natural material wealth. It is an anthropocentric hallucination fostered by vested interests for now and taken on board by the masses. It is an addiction of the public, who will find the coming withdrawal symptoms hard to cope with. It is, simply, an unsustainable process based on fallacious principles sold to the public by a greedy political, industrial and academic elite.
347. Surprisingly, many academic argue that the problem is economic growth because it is not a sustainable process. They argue that mathematics based on the exponential function means that growth using finite natural resources is not possible.The stark reality, however, is that consuming limited natural resources at a high rate is the fundamental problem.Growth just exacerbates that problem because it speeds up the rate of divestment of natural material resources.
348. This use of mathematics is not the only example of the use of a technique invented by people that can lead to misunderstanding. Mathematics has the advantage of being more deterministic than language. This has been very useful in accumulating knowledge about a vast range of operations over millennia. But it has limitations that often are not widely recognized.It is often an idealization of operations because it does not take into account real effects such as friction. Analytical solutions of linear differential equations has been replaced by numerical solutions of non linear differential equations because they more realistically take into account effects such as friction.However, many commentators quote the 'butterfly effect' as though it represents an interesting dynamic operation. This is rubbish! It is simply a mathematical phenomenon that has no relation to natural operations. Mathematics is a very valuable tool in many circumstances but its application in predicting natural operations should only be done by specialists who understand the limitations inherent in its approximations.Climatologists understand these limitations in assessing the factors causing climate change.
349. There are signs that the economies of some of the developed countries have already peaked and contraction is settling in. Greece is the current prime example. The austerity measures that force a reduction in the material standard of living for most of the population are a sound means of coping with contraction. But they are being resisted by debt manipulation.  This contraction is putting pressure on governments, industry and the people to reduce the wasteful use of resources and to focus more on maintenance of the existing infrastructure while ameliorating the impact of damaging operations. However, this progressive movement has not yet gathered much momentum. Economic growth regardless of the real cost is still the dominant global philosophy.
350. The Greek financial crisis is partly due to the amount spent on buying military equipment from the US, Germany and France to meet a supposed threat, including from NATO ally, Turkey, following the Cyprus invasion. Many of the smaller, east European countries are upping their military spending because of the fallaciously promoted view of the risk of Russian aggression.
351. Indigenous people around the world have grasped the superficial advantages of industrial civilization at the expense of losing many aspects of their traditional way of coping. How will the aborigines of the Australian inland cope with the heat of the southern summer when electricity is no longer available? How will the Inuit cope with the cold of the northern winter without comfortable heated houses and food flown in?
352. Ironically, many concerned organizations focus on sound remedial measures to cope with the needs, particularly food, of the growing population without taking into account the prevailing circumstances. The reality is that urban populations with have to cope with more problems than their rural counterparts. Their habitat, cities, will disintegrate through lack of resources for operation and maintenance and then replacement when their time is up.
353. The need of machinery and structures for maintenance and replacement is common knowledge. The biggest worry in most cases is whether the replacement can be afforded when the time comes. Risk management of the availability of the necessary resources is not on the agenda! Little thought is given to the question of whether the necessary materials will be available. Even business people assume in their business plan that this demand will be met when the time comes. They have, like most people, a belief in the technofix based on what has happened in the past rather than what is bound to happen in the future as the natural resources run out.
354. Society at large are bewitched by the innovative technology sold by the entrepeneurs even when its advantage is limited. However, Enlitic's ability to detect cancer would seem to be really useful. This isolated beneficial advance does not change the holistic prognosis that innovative technology is adding to the disorder of increasing complexity that is doomed because it is using up limted natural material resources.
355. There is a sign that industry is slowly and belatedly waking up to the problems of operating and maintaining the existing infrastructure. Caterpillar in the U.S. and JCB in the UK are cutting jobs as the demand for their heavy machinery declines rapidly. Companies that provide drilling rigs in the U.S. are running into similar problems. 
356. The World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland is the annual meeting of selected powerful government and business people  to discuss what the intangible money is promoting around the globe - without taking into account the other side of the balance sheet, the environmental, ecological and social costs. They enjoy the power that the leverage of money gives over what is happening, other than what is happening to their bodies. Attendees, of course, do their utmost to hasten the inevitable collapse of civilization by flying in and enjoying luxurious accommodation and scrumptious repasts washed down with the best wines. However, the masses are getting up the steam using improved communication measures to squash the capitalism that is enhancing the divide between the rich and the poor.
357. The fact that world debt of $200 trillion stunts economic growth is an issue that caused concern at Davos. However, the participants are so enthralled with the power of money that they still believe in economic growth so are worried that the debt will ultimately destroy emerging market economies and global economies.They have yet to understand that the economies operate by divestment of natural material wealth, as unsustainable process that society will learn in coming decades.
358. According to a Credit Suisse report the world’s total wealth in 2015 was estimated at US$ 250 trillion. By 2016, with ongoing trends, 1% of population will own more wealth than 99% of the world’s populace; and the 1% (some 72 million people) would own more than half of the world’s wealth, meaning about US$ 130 trillion. The trend is alarming, pointing to an ever faster increase of social misery. Ironically, this monetary wealth buys these elite a luxurious materialistic life style - only while they live. It does not, however, buy them the peace of mind gained by  those many middle class people who make a useful contribution in such fields as health, education, caring, recreation, entertainment, science and engineering.
359. Ironically, Davos and Bilderberg are becoming meetings of those who are losing the global economic battle between the powers. They come mainly from the West (U.S.and EU in particular) which is still struggling to recover from the GFC. They are now been rivaled by the St. Petersburg meeting and the Shangri-La Dialogue involving developing nations including BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China). These forums have the objective of fostering economic growth of their enclaves. They suffer the common delusion (led by the U.S. that tangible material growth can be conjured up with intangible money and their delusions of the power of irrational decisions.
360. It is ironical that the growing economies of China and other developing countries will actually accelerate the collapse of industrial civilization as they increase the rate of usage of the limited natural material resources as well as contribute to climate change and ocean acidification.
361. There are emerging signs that Germany will join BRIC to reduce their dependence on U.S. interests and to foster their links with Russia in trade and energy supply. Do the Germans really want to contribute to the demise of civilization is a ridiculous question asked by prominent Americans? The signs are that Russia is winning the tug o'war with the West.
362. Economic growth makes money for investors so they are able to increase their capability to produce and consume goods and services, so the rate of degradation of the natural resources. This parasitic activity brings forward the stage when supply can no longer meet the demand of the bewildered masses. There is good reason to believe economic growth is over in a number of developed countries (particularly in the EU and possibly in the U.S.and Britain) and contraction is setting in. This is a trickle up process which is starting to hit the middle classes hard. Investing one's savings to enable a prosperous retirement is becoming a delusion for many.
363. Pension funds are one of the main investments and the failure of these funds to achieve an adequate return in recent years poses difficulties for their managers and will lead to appreciable social disruption as the baby boomers retire and find it hard to get their money.
364. The rich, on the other hand, continue to find ways to use their money in fair and unfair ways to make more, regardless of the social and environmental consequences. Farmland is the latest focus even though they do not have a clue as to how to use it properly. That is another of their bubbles that will burst with others having to cope with the failings. 
365. This increasing divergence in society due to the rich using unfair measures, including avoiding taxation and off-shore banking, is receiving increasing condemnation by organizations in the U.S. But this corruption by the powerful is common in many countries. A record $991 billion in unrecorded funds left 151 developing and emerging economies in 2012, up nearly 5 percent from a year earlier, according to U.S.-based watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) that exposes financial corruption. that, of course, is only the tip of the iceberg.However, there are signs of the masses, particularly amongst the disadvantaged young, of a rebellion against this malicious behavior of the 1%.
366. Economic growth is fostered by industry producing goods (needs and wants made out of natural material resources) for consumption by the populace together with the construction, operation and maintenance of temporary infrastructure in order to make a (financial not ethical) profit. It is an unsustainable process as it actually entails divestment of natural material wealth, the production of immutable material waste (including many toxic ones harming human health) and the devastation of the environment.
367. Industry often uses economic, political, legal (but not ethical) measures to enable their projects to provide profitable outcomes despite deleterious environmental and social consequences. For example ninety percent of EL Salvador’s water is already polluted, putting families and communities in danger of waterborne illness, food shortages and the added expense of buying bottled water. If OceanaGold gets its way, it could destroy the last remaining river with drinkable water in this Central American country.A major mining company is suing El Salvador for millions -- just for saying no to a dirty mine that would have destroyed its remaining water supply. This is only one example of a common global problem.
368. The financial markets are manipulated by a range of unscrupulous scoundrels around the globe.A recent example of what happens quite often is that Argentina fell in default following the collapse of negotiations between the country and "vulture funds" that are demanding full payment for the $1.3 billion in debt the funds bought up at bargain rates.The fact that so few investors were willing to take those risks allowed vulture funds to buy defaulted sovereign bonds at deep discounts. Many mainstream investors lose their savings in these manipulations but they are really only a side show in the operations of economies as they have little impact on what is happening in the real, materialistic world. 
369. Investors aim to use (their or from other sources) money to make more money by investing in systems (businesses, financial, governments) that are likely to give a good return. This objective is based on the premise that financial wealth can grow due to the combination of the creation of fiat money, the skill of workers, the impact of technology together the (free) use of natural resources and without allowing for the divestment of environmental wealth.This false premise is unsustainable and stark reality will hit the hip pockets of investors in due course. 
370. The fracking for oil in the U.S. is just one example of where naive investors are encouraged by unscrupulous financial advisers to invest their savings in this operation so they will make more money. The advisers get paid for their 'advice' while most of these investors lose their savings.
371. Ironically, many campaigners have warned that humans have used up the natural resources the world can supply in a year in less than eight months. They talk in terms of the carrying capacity by referring only to replenishing natural resources. The major problem, apparently beyond their ken, is that the technological systems of civilization also using up the irreplaceable natural resources, such as oil.
372. Many people who are concerned with what is happening to the eco system blame capitalism, the supporting banks and the profit motive of businesses. This is a contributing factor on the supply side but it would not be happening if there was not a demand from the consumer society, Pred. Environmentalists are mounting opposition to the plans of an Indian company, Adani, to develop the $16.5bn Carmichael coal mine and associated facilities in north Queensland because on the potential harm to the Great Barrier Reef by the dumping of material waste. They argue that Australia has a terrible track record as the worst climate polluter in the developed world even though that is not true.Yet these environmentalists, like all affluent people, are dependent on services that industries provide - at an eco cost that will have to be paid for in the future! These concerned people should turn to ELAM for guidance as to how to ease the powering down.
373. Australian coal, like any other coal, is not good for most Indian people’s health and it will not deliver electricity to those who are currently living in energy poverty, particularly in rural communities. It’s time for the Australian government and coal industry to realize that the era of Australian coal exports is coming to an end. What  the many, poor, rural Indians need is affordable, locally-generated energy by solar systems and wind farms, not grid electricity generated in coal-fired power stations some distance away.However, major projects are under way for the installation of grid systems to supply the south with more power. This power will come from coal fired and nuclear power stations.These are the proposed idealistic plans of the government but there will still be a continuing reliance on dirty coal.So India will still be making a major contribution to increasing the climate disruption and ocean acidification and warming.
374. However, the premise that India can import coal from Australia is based on the unfounded belief that sufficient fuel for the necessary machinery, trains and ships will continue to be available. Shipping coal from Australia to India is just one of the unsustainable processes that governments around the world will have to try to deal with in coming decades.Shipping LNG is another looming problem for Australia and the USA. ironically, Australia will have this export problem for other natural resources, particularly iron ore.
375. The belief that Vale SA has about the becoming more competitive in the market with the development of the world's largest iron ore mine in Para state in  northern Brazil is based on the common misundersanding that mining and shipping are sustainable processes. Ironically the expected destination of most ore shipments, China, has the same delusion.It is questionable as to how long it will be before there is widespread appreciation globally of the reality of the unsutainanility of these physical processes. Which businesses wake up first will determine to a large extent the sufferings of the involved societies.
376. The oil and (natural) gas industry is coping with the decline in the quality and nature of reserves by cutting back on the money being invested to meet future requirements. The big oil companies are getting out of the shale oil business as the costs are too high and the prospects are not good because of the short productive time for these wells. Small companies are surviving at this stage because they can borrow at a low rate but they will bust as the credit boom inevitably dies. The fallacious belief in America of returning energy independence only increases the magnitude of the inevitable crash depicted by the Seneca Curve..
377. The high hopes that natural gas will help reduce global warming because of technical superiority to coal turn out to be misguided because market effects are dominating. The main factor here is that an abundance of natural gas leads to a price drop and expansion of total primary energy supply. Rather than shifting towards increased natural gas production, what is needed are effective mitigation and adaption climate policies to ease what happens in the future. 
378. Another oil price war is under way with Saudi Arabia, as usual, central to the game damaging a number of economies. This is just another of the financial booms and busts that have seriously affected economies for years. However, they have had little impact on the rate of consumption of the irreplaceable natural material resources, including oil, or on the production of the polluting material wastes affecting land, sea, air and organisms as well as contributing to climate change and ocean acidification.
379. In December 15 years ago the dotcom crash was a few weeks away. Veterans of that fiasco may notice some familiar warning signs this festive season. Bankers and lawyers are being priced out of office space in downtown San Francisco; all of the space in eight tower blocks being built has been taken by technology firms. In 2013 around a fifth of graduates from America’s leading MBA schools joined tech firms, almost double the share that struck Faustian pacts with investment banks. Janet Yellen, the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has warned that social-media firms are overvalued—and has been largely ignored, just as her predecessor Alan Greenspan was when he urged caution in 1999.Good corporate governance is, once again, for wimps. Shares in Alibaba, a Chinese internet giant that listed in New York in September using a Byzantine legal structure, have risen by 58%. Executives at startups, such as Uber, a taxi-hailing service, exhibit a mighty hubris.Yet judged by the financial yardsticks of the dotcom era there is as yet no bubble. The NASDAQ index of mainly technology stocks is valued at 23 times expected earnings versus over 100 times in 2000. That year Barron’s, an investment magazine, published an analysis showing that 51 listed technology firms would run out of cash within a year. On December 6th Barron’s repeated the exercise and found only five listed tech firms with wobbly finances.Instead, today’s financial excess is hidden partly out of sight in two areas: inside big tech firms such as Amazon and Google, which are spending epic sums on warehouses, offices, people, machinery and buying other firms; and on the booming private markets where venture capital (VC) outfits and others trade stakes in young technology firms.It is ironical that these intangible financial booms and busts and busts have much in common with the tangible booms and busts caused by technological systems irrationally over using natural resources. as with the cod example. Delayed response in the dynamics of the process is a major factor.
380. Billions in oil investments are at risk from low oil prices. But if fuel prices go up this will hit the economy and the oil companies will have to offset, if they can, against the increasing cost of their borrowings. This dilemma could well be the reason why major oil companies  are getting out of this lose-lose situation. and why the belief in improved energy supply is so dubious. A number of countries are finding the money to foster companies exploring the possibility of extracting oil and gas from the Arctic now that, ironically, global warming caused by using fossil fuels, it is easier to work in the Arctic.
381. Flaring of natural gas has been common where fracking is used as installation of the pipelines to carry the gas to consuming points during the short lifetime of the wells  is often not economic. This has occurred at the Niger Delta and is now occurring in Bakken fields in the U.S. The result is nearly a third of the natural gas produced in the region is being burned to secure crude oil, and subsequently creating thousands of flares. The physical consequences of this destruction of a limited natural resource is not trivial as it is contributing to climate change but it is indicative of the dominance of monetary considerations on the usage of these irreplaceable resources. However, anti-fracking movements are growing, primarily because citizens are concerned about the damage to ground water. Few, however, discuss the practical problem of what to do about pipelines when they are no longer useful.
382. The registered fall off of driving in the U.S. is doubtless due in part to the increase in fuel price in conjunction with the drop in effective income for many but understanding that peak oil has already occurred has probably caused many smart people to adjust their life style. There is plenty of data and argument on the internet to support the view that the global availability (so price explode) of fossil fuels will plummet in the near future, despite the current drop due to political manoeuvrings in the Middle East.. Americans are not the only ones who will have to face up to less driving (and less flying, heating, air conditioning, online communication).
383. It is quite likely that oil supply rate will go over the Seneca Cliff rather follow a Hubbert Curve because the easy oil has already been extracted and gone up in smoke. The giant fields in the Middle East and Mexico are running out so desperate methods, such as fracking are now being employed and they run out rapidly.
384. North America could well be very uncomfortable for many people as the (natural) gas stocks for heating and power generation are unlikely to meet the demand unless the developing el Nino causes a benign spell of cold weather!  Many academic groups are monitoring what is happening to facets of the climate globally but there is still appreciable uncertainty about such issues as the timing and magnitude of el Nino and la Nina. The uncertainty about the severity of the currently expected double el Nino appears to have been heightened by global atmospheric warming. That means two consecutive years of the concentration of warm water in the Pacific Ocean that brings West Coast storms, quiet hurricane seasons in the Atlantic and busy ones in the Pacific. The danger is that this could mean more than a few months of odd weather, but instead usher in a new phase of climate change. Last year was the warmest year on record; 2015 looks set to be even warmer.Authorities provide frequent up dates on the measurements in the various regions because of its potential impact on many activities, including farming.A mature and strong El Niño is now present in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is likely to strengthen further. This year’s El Niño event is the strongest since 1997-1998 and is potentially among the four strongest events since 1950, according to the latest Update from the World Meteorological Organization. However, society has to accept that this variation is a natural process which has been disrupted by the impact of industrialization.
385. The oil and gas industry tends to focus on the extraction side of operations and abandon the fields when they are no longer viable.A Princeton University study has found that leaks from abandoned oil and gas well bores pose not only a risk to groundwater, but represent a growing threat to the climate.
386. There are unsubstantiated claims that the American and Australian supplies of LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) will make a major contribution to energy supply while not contributing sufficient greenhouse emissions to accelerate climate change. Shell is currently having built a floating LNG production facility that will both drill and process natural gas and offload to awaiting tankers. It will be the largest ship in the world. It is being built in China and will be escorted to offshore Australia. It  will probably make a worthwhile contribution to energy supply (for doing mainly worthless positive work) for a while in its limited lifetime. Oil rigs in the North Sea had to be scrapped (at appreciable environmental, skilled labor and monetary cost) when their time was up.
387. It is ironical that the U.S. is the most vulnerable to the harsh impact of reality. It has led the devastation of natural resource wealth in its achievement of a high material standard of living with its associated complex, aging infrastructure. So it has lost resilience. It will have to cope with the increasing impact of climate change and ocean acidification as its vast array of infrastructure immutably ages and the availability of natural resources declines.
388. The social disruption arising from the declining availability and increasing cost of oil is a rapidly growing problem in many countries. It was a major factor in the rebellion in Egypt and is having an impact in the UK. It has been an ongoing problem in Middle East countries for decades.It could well be a major factor in the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Australia is currently coping with the decline in the Bass Strait fields by buying more from overseas whilst it can afford this. Many commentators warn that increasing oil price due to conflicts in Iraq and elsewhere will have an impact on economic growth. They cite what has happened previously but blithely ignore aspects of reality that will have a growing aspect in the future. There is an unavoidable commitment to use oil for the operation and maintenance of many aspects of the infrastructure as well as for the production of goods and the provision of services. Increasing oil prices will reduce demand only where that is feasible. 
389. However, the production mechanism has gone over board in many circumstances. Many chemical products end up as toxic wastes harming health of organisms, including people, after serving the purpose proclaimed in the advertisements. The precautionary principle has not been applied despite being adopted in principle by governments. Money counts more with the companies than what their products unreasonably do. Babies, bees, bats and birds are unable to complain! But, even worse, some companies claim the exclusive right to sell natural products, such as seeds and herbs, including the nigella sativa extract from the fennel flower, that have served useful purposes for eons at no cost.
390. “It is urgent to fully implement the international 'quasi-commons' prescribed by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture”. That is one of the final recommendations from the editors, including Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz, of a recent book published by Oxford University Press on Intellectual Property Rights - Legal and Economic Challenges for Development. In making this conclusion, Stiglitz and co-authors endorse the analysis of Michael Halewod, policy scientist from Bioversity International and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, in his chapter ‘International efforts to pool and conserve crop genetic resources in times of radical legal change’. Halewood examines the challenges encountered by the international community over the last 40 years in its efforts to develop systems to ensure that plant genetic resources are conserved, pooled, and shared in ways that promote food security.  In particular, he focuses in on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty), highlighting its potential to overcome historical tensions that have undermined international coordination efforts. These are sound proposals to offset the efforts of companies aiming to gain monopolies but they are having limited impact at this stage.
391. Smart sections in developed communities have targeted tobacco companies for years in an effort to provide understanding of the dangers of smoking, including causing lung cancer. Quit campaigns are enjoying some success.Vested interests have responded by focusing more on the developing Asian markets so this health problem is still growing.The World Health Organization has projected 1 billion smoking-related deaths in this century. 
392. Ironically the much greater amount of social, economic and environmental damage being done by using fossil fuels has not been subject to a Quit campaign, due no doubt to the power of political, financial and industrial vested interests reinforced by the wants of the public. Economic growth would be stifled if deprived of most of the physical energy that drives it. So would climate change and the fuming in traffic congestion! Moreover, countries such as the USA and Australia would lose the financial benefits of exporting coal and other fossil fuels but gain from the reduction of social problems in rural communities. It would be like giving up smoking! Even China and India will slowly learn that it is not possible to have your cake and eat it too.
393. However, the rapid economic growth of China and other Asian countries is simply exacerbating the dire horrendous rate of consumption of a wide range of natural resources so bringing forward when it will no longer be possible for the demand for these resources to be met so leading to the disintegration of infrastructure and the bewilderment of populations.
394. India already has a major problem in supplying electricity to meet the growing demand. Coal fired power stations are currently the least costly but most damaging with respect to the climate change which is starting to hit the region hard. Nuclear, gas and hydro contribute to the supply but deciding the mix for the future is not easy for the authorities as each has its physical disadvantages besmirched by financial biases.
395. The exporters of energy in oil and gas have to maintain the means of providing the importers with their requirements as it is a major source of income. This means in many circumstances the protection of installation, operation and maintenance of pipelines by tangible military force if intangible political and economic forces are not sufficient. Russia has had to cope with this supply problem by various means in recent years with the Ukraine being the latest. The Keystone Pipeline in North America is another example of the dilemma that proponents of the supply of 'irreplaceable' energy, regardless of the social, enviromental, ecological, energy and material cost, have to deal with as the supply problem gets more difficult.What to do when the pipelines are no longer useful has not entered into considerations. This is but one delusion that society has about the sustainability of the operations of industrial civilization.
396. There are many dilemmas that society will have to deal with (hopefully)  a greater degree of wisdom that what has led to the present deleterious situation. For example, The Indian mining company, Adani, is proposing to finance the development of the Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland, Australia so the coal can be exported to India to contribute to meeting the rapidly expanding demand for electricity. The Queensland government is considering the merits of financing aspects (such as the necessary rail line) of this project. But there is widespread community opposition to the project because the use of the coal will contribute to climate change to an undefined extent. The principals are considering only financial risk management aspects.
397. Some people are learning the hard way that the systems of civilization are doing some unexpected (by other than experts) damage to the environment. Sink holes are becoming quite common in Britain as the result of the heavy rain weakening foundation to houses, roads and even footpaths. Some Americans, particularly in Florida, have had to cope with similar black swan events. Ironically, the (financial) costs of coping with the damage is included in the GDP so contributes to the economic growth so beloved by those authorities who do not see their homes go down a sink hole.
398. According to the most recent projections from the U.S. Department of Energy, global fossil fuel consumption is expected to grow by an astonishing 40% by 2035, jumping from 440 to 615 quadrillion British thermal units.There is no mention in these projections of how much of that energy consumption will have to be used to remedy, as much as possible, the deterioration of natural services and the infrastructure of civilization while driving the difficult extraction processes. These pronouncements reinforce the fallacious view that the systems that supply 'irreplaceable' energy are everlasting! The Department of Energy is no better than the tobacco companies with their selective arguments. Still, with that name, it is not surprising that they convey the wrong impression even though they quantify the supply in barrels of oil (a material that also gives off greenhouse gases) rather than in energy units.
399. However, pragmatists are pursing means of producing alternative fuels, including bio fuels. They realize that the best that can be done is mitigate slightly the loss of oil-based fuels, but they can make a profit from being able to meet some of the demand.
400. The increasing concern about energy supply in various forums is based on an unrealistic view of the role of energy. "If society consumed no energy, civilization would be worthless. It is only by consuming energy that civilization is able to maintain the activities that give it economic value. This means that if we ever start to run out of energy, then the value of civilization is going to fall and even collapse absent discovery of new energy sources.”-  Dr. Tim Garrett, University of Utah. This quote sums up the delusion that many pundits have. Do they think about how their bodies operate? These pundits focus only on the physical reality that energy flow is necessary for (positive) work to be done. They leave out consideration of what happens to the systems (made of materials and aging) and what waste materials, such as greenhouse gases, are produced in some 'irreplaceable' energy flow processes. The reality is that energy flow is necessary (but not sufficient) for (positive) work to be done, but at an irrevocable environmental cost. That is the situation regardless of the source of the energy, weak solar radiation income or capital draw down in using fossil fuels to supply concentrated energy. This regardless of the views of engineers who do take into account that the negative work that friction does always reduces the positive work of energy flow even though they do not use the term 'negative work'.
401. Many commentators decry the lack of concern amongst the powerful in the worth of 'human capital': that is the skill of the workers who do the hard work for corporations. This  realistic concern is based on the knowldge that replacing that human capital by educating youngsters is a costly process. Ironically, these commentators do not express concern about the worth of 'natural resources capital' even though that capital is irreplaceable although it is the unsustainable driver of all system operations.
402. Despite this widespread lack of understanding of the physical limitations of energy supply, the powerful in society continue to use a range of measures, physical, military, economic and political to ensure supply to meet the demand of the entrenched technological systems. It is a factor contributing to the Hamas - Israeli conflict. Israel wants, in fact needs, needs the energy in the Gaza gas fields.
403. Intangible financial market forces are deemed by economists to efficiently drive economic growth.They believe this is a mechanism devised by humans to control operations. They do not realize that organisms, including bacteria, have used this strategy for eons to regulate and organize tangible operations. The theoretical financial market forces beloved by economists do not have adequate self organization and self regulation, so do not explain traumas such as the Great Depression and Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
404.  There exists a mechanism for pricing of oil and everything else. That mechanism is the global marketplace. People may not love it and it is far from perfect in it's actions. But that mechanism gets the pricing job done, regardless of the consequences, the irreversible and unsustainable devastation of the environment. 
405. It is quite laughable - for now - that a range of conflicting market forces produce regional ups and downs with associated impact on employment even as the resources being supplied irrevocably decline. The associated chaos in political and business circles in Australia with regard to gas is but one examle of this mayhem.
406. Bacteria are showing in a number of ways that they are a major factor in many natural operations, even when civilization disturb these operations. The human digestive track is teeming with bacteria, both good and bad. A delicate balance must be maintained for the digestive system to work .The ancient olive groves of southern Italy are being destroyed by a deadly insect-borne bacterium. Authorities are instigating drastic measures at appreciable financial, social and ecological cost to contain this example of what is becoming an increasing type of global problem arising from the response of bacteria..This expressed view sums up the situation without  motivating effective remedial action.

     "Of particularly urgent concern is the development of bacteria that are progressively less treatable by available antibiotics. This is happening in all parts of the world, so all countries must do their part to tackle this global threat."
     A study looked at the rise of antibiotic resistance. Drug-resistant infections take 700,000 lives a year; by 2050 they could claim 10m. If routine surgery and cancer treatment are to remain safe, the world must curb the overuse of antibiotics and sharpen the incentives to find new drugs A so-called superbug immune to all antibiotics was discovered for the first time in a person in the U.S., reports a study published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.The discovery "heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria," the study's authors warned.

407. The misunderstanding of economists is summed up by this quote.“The world can, in effect, get along without resources” is how Robert Solow, the Nobel prize-winning economist, put it. That is not possible, as everyone other than economists know, as all operations involve using material resources. Solow may well have these ridiculous thoughts but his body will continue to use resources.
408. Despite this, many countries continue to play currency games in an attempt to foster their economies - at the expense of other countries and the ecosystems that are being irreversibly ravished!  The role of the U.S. as the global reserve currency appears to be coming to an end as countries such as Russia and China reduce the trading in the USD.
409. A factor here is that the financial system is driven on credit in the money flow that is a component in the production process. This is an inherently unstable process as the interest charged means the leverage of the creditors grows at the expense of the debtors. Inflation only moderates that divergence slightly. This is an intangible process that dominates the thinking of many people while the tangible divestment of natural material wealth continues to speed up due to the pursuit of economic growth - regardless of the physical, environmental  and ecological consequences.
410. This situation is further exacerbated by authorities manipulating definitions and figures. For example, off-shoring manufacturing to Asian countries (to increase the profits of the brand name owners in the West) is falsely deemed to increase the GDP of the western countries. This is a major contributor to the growing divide between the rich and the poor!
411. The GFC, like the Great Depression, had the beneficial effect of slowing down the devastation of the environment by the operations of civilization. Of course, powerful interests do not see this as being beneficial! They continue to press for economic growth by misusing market forces as it is in  their interest. 
412. However, a growing proportion of the community in developed countries  appreciate the many advantages of sharing. The social advantages are augmented by the more efficient use of good and services. Whether this movement can resist commercialization is open to question. Commentators see hope as grassroots groups working on separate issues in their communities find themselves uniting around a common cause: economic, political and social justice. They are resisting the greed and self interest of the financially powerful in society. But they continue to condone the unsustainable ecological devastation. It would be better if the concerned young fostered an Earth's Lodgers' Activity Movement (ELAM) calling for ecological and economic justice supported by social and political decisions. Studies have shown that the young in Western countries are now showing signs of more responsible handling of their affairs following the peaking of drug and sex. This promising trend is bound to accelerate as the understanding of what has gone wrong becomes more widespread.
413. Demonstrations calling on the politicians to tackle climate change are become common, especially in the U.S. However, these efforts of the masses are only likely to foster political remedial measures if they are based on sound, irrefutable physical principles. Calling for the reduction in the rate of fossil fuel usage is meaningless as civilization has a commitment to use fossil fuels at a high rate to power the infrastructure. There is no possible way for millions of cars, thousands of airliners and many ships to rapidly stop using fossil fuel products. The most politicians can do is foster measures that slowly reduce the rate of fossil fuel usage. And everyone will have to cope with declines in services as well as other manifestations of the rapid climate change that is irrevocably under way.
414. Electrically powered cars are fallaciously deemed by some to make a worthwhile contribution  to reducing the impact of road transport on climate change. This delusion is accepted to a degree because the ecological cost of the production and operation of these vehicles is not as obvious as the fumes from gasoline powered cars. Of course, this salesmanship makes money for the promoters!
415. Ironically, there is a move to install more equipment in airliners to aid in investigating crashes  following the disappearance of MH370 with the loss of many lives. This action by industry in response to demands by authorities is presumably based on the fallacious belief that the operation of airliners will continue unabated.
416. However, the global flow of large amounts of intangible money continues to grow rapidly in an unsustainable process as governments and banking interests do their best to balance their books (budgets) at the expense of others. The masses are the victims of these games as the value of money limits their decisions. Knowledgeable people have for years explained the basic fallacies of economics but that has not stopped powerful interests pursuing the dream of conjuring money out of thin air because it is in their interest. You need money to make money is the premise of a society that does not pay the environmental and ecological cost of its ravishing.
417. Budgeting for the cost of infrastructure development and maintenance is on the agenda for goverments in both the USA and Australia. The aging of much of the infrastructure in the USA is a signifant aspect of this issue. But budgeting does not really address the issue as the bottom line is vast amount of irreplaceable materials and energy will have to be employed whilst they are still available.
418. The chaos in the global financial scene has grown rapidly this century with the GFC of 2008 being a warning that the the USD was failing as the global reserve currency. Fostering by China of the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is seen by some commentators as being a substitute the American dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
419. Ecological economists (such as Herman Daly) point out that many social and external costs are not included in the cost of production. For example, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico that result from chemicals used in agriculture are not included as costs in agricultural production. The price of food does not include the damage to the Gulf. However, this comment on economic reality has not yet had a significant impact on the decisions being made by government and corporations, or even the public!
420. Ecological economists see the world differently to the neo-classical economists who think that it is impossible to run out of resources, because they believe man-made capital is a substitute for nature’s capital. Do they also think that they can be immortal? Nature’s capital, such as mineral resources and fisheries, are being irreversibly depleted, and the disposal sinks for wastes are filling up, with land, air, and water being polluted. Every act of production produces useful products and wastes. As external costs and the depletion of nature’s capital are not measured, we have no way of knowing whether an increase in output is economic or uneconomic as well inevitably divesting natural material wealth. All we can tell is whether the costs that are measured are covered by the price of the product.
421. Perhaps the greatest irony in the way that society operates is that investors supply money to finance the operations of organizations that include robbing natural resources, producing goods that end up as waste while devastating the environment. The organizations pay dividends to the rich investors so that they can do more to be destructive of the life support system of the population at large. Greed fosters this unsustainable process. Of course, most of these investors have been inoculated against such harsh reality as climate change and other aspects of the reality apart from their own mortality.,
422. The financial scene is being corrupted by manipulations by a variety of financial organizations including banks and  investors. This includes using computer-based systems for high-frequency trading (HFT) on the stock market. Banks manipulation of  the bank bill swap rates (BBSW) is being challenged in law suits by organizations aiming to protect investors. This is just another intangible money game that does nothing to protect the environment.Off shore tax havens are also on the agenda of many organisations.Ironically, these manipulating investors are using an unsustainable process to make their money. How will they cope when their electronic tools are no longer available? The robo-advice program is aimed to advise retail investors and self-managed superannuation funds. It is another unsustainable tool to temporarily ease the problems people are having in trying to cope with increasing complexity as well as making money for the entrepreneurs.  
423. Satellites play a rapidly increasing part in scientific, communication, and operational measures despite the fact that they have a limited operational lifetime. The decay of these capabilities due to the unavailability of the necessary material resources is one of the major problems that will inevitably have to be faced in the future. Ironically, the contribution they make to predicting weather volatility will be lost as the need for people to cope with it increases.  It will be a problem competing with the loss of the service provided by other components of the infrastructure.
424. Ironically, researchers have found that a wide range of organisms, including bacteria, also use market forces. They have been doing this successfully for eons as they employ self regulation and self organization. Of course, humans are too clever to emulate successful natural operations.They prefer to use intangible money to guide their decisions without taking many relevant tangible factors into account. They thought the antibiotic control of  bacteria would last but are now learning the hard way that this is not so. While accepting a Nobel Prize for discovering penicillin, Alexander Fleming warned of a future in which antibiotics had been used with abandon and bacteria had grown resistant to them. That time has now arrived. Many pharmaceutical firms are supplying antibiotics that have been produced in unclean circumstances so cannot do their job.  Recent cases provide evidence that antibiotics are losing their fight with bacteria. This will have dire influence on human health and what can be done in hospitals, including most forms of surgery. But it will also hit food production. Large amounts of antibiotics are used in food farming. Measurements made in the U.S. show how much antibiotics are found in chickens. pork and beef. This unnecessary usage of antibiotics is lessening their usefulness when needed. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that drug-resistant bacteria infect two million people a year in the U.S. and kills 2300 of them. The figures for the U.S. just indicates the scale of this global problem.
     
425. Many powerful people in banking and corporations use manipulation, corruption and other unethical practices in the profit-driven natures of the financial market system. These unregulated operations have caused a number of bubbles but are unsustainable so leading to an economic and social crisis. Many commentators note how this monetary disease is growing and spreading rapidly. Ironically this intangible monetary crisis is only one of the deleterious terminal operations of industrialized civilization. Even in the most unlikely reasonable handling of financial affairs, the range of damaging physical operations will ensure the demise of this civilization.
426. Ironically, many sports are being corrupted  by insidious manipulation of physical capabilities by doping to improve performance but also for financial gain by the proponents. It is a growing issue despite the remedial endeavours of authorities around the globe. This disease in cycling hit the headlines years ago and that has opened up symptoms in soccer, athletics and other sports. Australian Rules Football is the latest one but it is minor and localised compared to others like that of Russian athletes and concerns about participation in the Olympic Games in Brazil in 2016.
427. This is but one example of the deleterious development of cultures as more people are able to pursue fame and richness in a variety of fields by fair means and foul. And the mass of society applauds the achievements of these celebrities, even though often their activities are not beneficial at large.
428. The impact of sovereign debt on chaotic movements in the global financial market is causing appreciable concern amongst authorities who lose sight of the intangible power of fiat money compared to the tangible power of the irreversible consumption of limited natural resources.
429. Economic growth has enabled the exponential growth of the rich and powerful celebrities, financial wizards, media and film stars and sporting winners, so beloved by the media and society at large. This addiction to the fallacious  power of money is a disease corrupting the operation of society. Are the rich proud that their legacy will only be intangible monetary wealth? 
430. Ironically, a high proportion of the manipulation of financial markets is carried out by using computer based algorithms to decide to buy or sell before humans can react (HFT). This use of electronic technology is an unsustainable process and the speculators who have being gaining an unfair advantage by this means will have to devise other unfair means. Pen and paper will not do!  
431. A major driver of economic growth by governments is the objective of providing full employment of  the citizens - without taking into account how worthwhile the work may be. Market forces are considered to provide the discerning ability. Workers who manufacture, transport, market and sell stuff made of scarce natural resources to conned consumers are deemed to be as useful as those who provide valuable selective education, health, engineering and other useful services. Many commercial organisations (particularly oligopoly) use a range of unfair measures (such as product differentiation) to gain competitive advantage at a lower cost. 
432. Ironically, the thrust by the powerful to foster education in schools and universities and the conduct of research shows lack of understanding of what civilization is irrevocably doing to its life support system, the environment. Who is going to educate these powerful people so they will implement sound policies to ease the inevitable powering down?
433. The fact that a Mars probe has found evidence of water is exciting, for those who consider only the achievement of the engineers and scientists (and their backers) in this selective issue. A small number of people may eventually go to Mars at a great ecological cost. 
     Those intellectual resources would provide a much better return if they focused on providing understanding of fundamental physical principles affecting billions here on Earth. More understanding of the fact that the infrastructure of industrialized civilization is irreversibly using up limited natural material resources, that it is irrevocably aging while producing material waste with such deleterious consequences as contributing to climate disruption and ocean acidification and warming as well as degrading bio and geo diversity.
     However, the sound employment of those intellectual resources is only likely to occur when reality starts to hit so hard that it wakes a lot of people up. The education system has to start providing that understanding if any real progress is to occur.
434. It is ironical that improving the education of the population increases both the ability to use natural resources and the associated demand for the products that are made. So improving education really has negative ecological value, although society does not yet recognize this. However, it is a factor that is starting to have an impact in developed countries as many highly educated young people cannot find gainful employment as the delusion of economic growth gives way to the reality of economic plus ecological contraction.
435. International studies have shown that even the children in poor families in China are doing better in their studies than those in professional families in the UK. Clearly this will help future economic growth in China - at the expense of the divestment of natural material wealth and the degradation of the environment  that is already making the life style of many millions almost unbearable. A good education does not help to cope with Beijing's smog although it helps many to have a high material standard of living at the expense of the environment!
436. Many couples in undeveloped and developing communities do not have the capabilities available to give their numerous children reasonable prospects of doing their part in devastating the environment to the extent that the well off children take for granted!
437. It is ironical that the education of most people in the developed and developing  countries is deemed to be good yet most of these 'educated' people do not understand that what their civilization is doing is unsustainable. They do not even believe irreversible climate change is already under way. They tend to believe the economic preachers as they are unable to deal with reality.
438. A number of authoritative commentators have discussed the likely collapse of the existing industrial civilization in the light of the collapse of prior civilizations. They discuss the decisions, good and bad, being made and the likely consequences, in their limited view. Almost unbelievably, these commentators do not take into account the fact that now there exists a commitment to supply some of the limited remaining natural resources to operate and maintain the existing vast global infrastructure of cities, highways, ports, etc. Decisions that people make are and will continue to be greatly influenced by this materialistic reality. The inevitable powering down of society that these commentators fore shadow will go hand in hand with the demise of the aging infrastructure and the associated technological systems.
439. Doubtless the Khmer population of that grand city, Angkor Wat, believed several centuries ago that in their city that they could continue to enjoy their pleasant life style. But climate change and its influence on their water management systems of canals was not anticipated.  Now the remains of that city hidden in the jungle are a tourist attraction for people who have little understanding of the forces of nature combined with the deleterious impact of civilization.
440. The population of São Paulo in Brazil are enduring a harsh dose of that reality now. Logging in the Amazon rain forest is only one of the factors contributing to the water supply deficiency they are now having to cope with. Climate change could well be a contributing to the atmospheric current  in a region that normally enjoys a heavy rainfall. Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Melbourne are some of the other cities that have had similar insoluble water supply problems. Melbourne installed a desalination plant to supply fresh water that uses electricity from a coal-fired power plant that needs fresh water for cooling purposes! Only politicians and economists can go around in circles like this.
441. Ironically, governments continue to adopt policies to install new infrastructure to meet their spurious projections of demand for services as the economies grow - and the available material resources decline. Their decisions are based on whether they can manage the financial cost within the budget rather than the real demand in the future for the services. So new highways, airports and seaports are planned even though the future demise of land sea and air transports is certain.On the other hand, engineers provide details of the problem of maintaining and replacing existing aging infrastructure as the availability of necessary material resources declines.
442. The decisions to close down the making of Holden, Ford and Toyota cars in Australia is another example of the outsourcing resulting from trade globalization under Free Trade Agreements (FTA).  It goes with the problems of SPC in fruit canning. There are many other examples in the U.S. and EU. This outsourcing is facilitating the growth of the Asian economies at the expense of manufacturing in developed countries. It is encouraging workers to turn from manufacturing to health care and financial services. However, it is based on the false premise that cheap international transportation of goods is a sustainable process. Container vessels consume fuel oil at a high rate that cannot continue despite the desperate (and eco costly) attempts to extract shale oil in the U.S. and elsewhere. Ships, like airliners and cars, are doomed technological species for lack of appropriate materials as well as declining availability of fuel. It is ironical that airliners such as the Boeing 757 are being cast off because of their low fuel efficiency so material is being wasted (little of these airliners will be recycled) to slightly reduce the rate of jet fuel usage. This is happening because the decision makers do not understand the stark reality that all usage of material is irreversible, even when some is recycled (at appreciable energy and material cost). They also do not seem to understand that the availability of jet fuel is in irreversible decline.
443. Even the most efficient fan jet engines use the concentrated energy in the liquid fuel at a great rate. Natural forces concentrated that energy over eons. Oil is our only source of concentrated energy for use in jet fuel. Any form of weak solar energy cannot possibly act as an alternative irrespective of the technology employed and the natural resources used, often at the expense of food production!. The demise of the airline industry will stem from the inevitable decline in availability of oil.
444. The Australian government (and the media) are welcoming the signing of the FTA with China because of the perceived prospective benefits for numerous local produce (mainly food) and service (including education and hospitality) providers. It is based on the fallacious premise that the vast transportation of people and goods by air and sea can continue to be conducted economically. Globalization is a doomed process while re-localization will grow rapidly.
445. Some commentators in Australia decry the biased nature of some of the issues in the proposed  Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) involving Australia, the United States,Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam. The view is held by many in the U.S. and Australia that approval of the TPP means sacrificing democracy and right to manage markets and resources for the public good. Many organizations in the USA are concerned that it will impact food safety provisions and health care. Business interests in USA are concerned that advocated climate change measures will be too costly (for them). These contrary sentiments are echoed in other countries. And what is the gain attributed to TPP? To secure rights for corporations and businesses to exploit the peoples and resources of other countries that have signed the same nefarious agreement. The TPP  includes a provision known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, which would allow private corporations to sue governments if they believe laws or regulations are impeding their ability to make profits or adequately compete in a market. However, nowhere in these discussions is there any mention of the fact that the logistics of globalized free trade is not a sustainable process as it is so very dependent on fuel hungry container vessels. The inevitable decline in the movement over long distances of food and goods from the producer to the commercial outlet will hit many pocket books hard while robbing obese people of some of their favored food. The TPP will just make coping with the inevitable return to localization just that much harder. 
446. The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) is regarded by many commentators as a major advance that will aid economic growth in both countries by increasing the efficiency of use of resources and skilled personnel. This belief is based on the false premise that cheap transportation of personnel and goods between the countries is sustainable.
447. Ironically, automobile industry is so committed to production that there are vast areas in developed countries devoted to storage of unsold brand new cars. Stopping production would have a drastic impact on employment and other aspects of economies so the car parks just grow.  Of course, car production is irreversibly using up vast amounts of the limited natural resources and producing vast amounts of waste in their operation and eventual end in the junk yard.And this growth is happening while cheap fuel is still available. What will the automotive industry do when the sales of new cars inevitably collapse?
448. Boeing has predicted a rapid growth in the production of airliners in coming years. They seem to believe that airline will be able to conjure jet fuel from some source other than the depleting supply of oil.The best that biofuels can possibly do is provide a small amount of jet fuel so not many aircraft will be able to fly.A session in the 2015 AIAA Propulsion and Energy Conference dealt with Aircraft Electric Propulsion. It dealt with the aims to develop this concept using batteries for the necessary energy storage.There was no indication that this proposal has got any further than being the subject of initial research. It is an indication of the desperation in the industry'
449. Ironically this understanding of the difficulty of powering future airliners as the availability of jet fuel declines does not seem to have reached the upper level of Boeing management. They are now planning to set up airliner manufacturing in China.
450. Thousands of redundant airliners are now parked in the desert at the expenditure of human and material resources as well as financial cost. The world's largest plane parking park is at the edge of the Mojave Desert in California. The park alongside the runway of Alice Springs  Airport, Australia is the worlds newest aircraft "boneyard". Ironically, these airliners are being parked primarily because of misjudgement of economic factors in a growing global economy with fuel cost having an impact. The inevitable demise of the airline industry is not yet on the horizon for those entranced with the way flying machines emulate birds - without having the ability to reproduce naturally.
451. The intention of FTA to foster the production of goods and services at the least financial cost (without taking into account the environmental and ecological cost) is a major manifestation of the money disease. An example of this deleterious operation of society is the fact that the Costa Rica government in being sued by a company because they will not authorize the company to carry out toxic mining in their admirable forests.
452. This common misleading view of mining is based on the belief that industry is free to irreversibly use natural material wealth. For example, an Australian economist did the sums on the supposed cost (financial, labor and associated activites) without tking into account the irreparable divestment of natural material wealth. This is tantamount to robbing the future!
453. Canadians are learning this lesson the hard way as a middle-of-the-night breach of the tailings pond for an open-pit copper and gold mine in British Columbia sent a massive volume of toxic waste into several nearby waterways, leading authorities to issue a water-use ban.
454. Skyscrapers and other high rise buildings use up vast amounts of natural resources for their construction, operation and maintenance. So most of them are also doomed. Many buildings, particularly cathedrals and castles, have been around for many years simply because the resources have been found to maintain them. But now the resources have been depleted while the number of these edifices grow exponentially simply because of the flow of money. This is just one of the unsustainable processes that all levels of society, including the elite, will find it extremely difficult to handle as a multitude of these predicaments hit hard.
455. Ironically a number of Asian companies are vieing to see which can come up with the fastest elevators for the cloud busting towers. Of course, these companies are not responsible for the future doubtful existance of these towers or the unsustainable contuing provision of electricity.
456. Class has a profound influence on the education obtained by young people in many countries. This has been a major factor in Britain for centuries while it has significant impact in the USA despite its democratic aura. However, the magnitude of this seemingly deleterious issue in communistic China comes as a surprise to those who have examined this issue. This means that a high proportion of the population are unable to reach their potential to influence operations. That is, a high proportion of the global population is unable to make a significant contribution to the unsustainable devastation of the natural life support system. This deleterious situation is growing rapidly because most education focuses on improving the operation of civilization without fully taking into account the associated environmental and ecological costs. Conditioning people by media marketing to be consumers continues unabated despite it being a process that divests natural material wealth.  Authorities in developed and developing countries are concerned that their young people are not acquiring the established capabilities to make money by destroying eco systems!
457. Education is going through a revolution into the digital world, which, however, is unsustainable. Students are being taught to become dependent on electronic devices  for knowledge acquisition, storage and communication by people who do not take into account the transient nature of this phenomenon. There is a growing fallacious belief that the increasing fuzzy knowledge in society will not be forgotten. The extraction of wisdom from the vast amount of digital information is not on the agenda because people are not wise enough to know what they do not know!. Although security agencies and commercial organizations do their best to extract information about personal beliefs and behavior from internet exchanges.
458. "The Digital Revolution and the New Economy" is an example of the fallacious view of people who do take into account basic physical principles. The digital revolution is unsustainable simple because these devices inherently age and are made of irreplaceable materials.
459. Having access at home, work, school, or a public center really changes what opportunities are available to people A common view is that it is time to think seriously and creatively about how to fund systemic, sustainable changes to get low-income households connected to the resources they need—in every community.That view is based on the false assumption that online connections will continue to be available far into the future!
460. Recent economic growth  has rapidly exacerbated the extremely serious air, land and water pollution (much of it toxic) in China due to the emissions from industries with the consequential grievous impact on life style as well as human health. Ironically it takes a lot out of the convenience of having a car to make its contribution to pollution! London eased its smog problem over sixty years ago by banning household coal fires. But that lesson has not been learned, as the residents of Beijing are learning. Even the residents of the Latrobe Valley in Australia are learning the hard way that natural forces cannot deal with toxic emissions from the systems of civilization. Winds just transfer the toxic smoke from the coal mine fire to the residents of Morwell.These emissions are harming people as well as the climate! Ironically, the proposed closure of the Hazelwood power station will cure that smog problem but also create an employment problem.
461. Water pollution is a major problem in many countries, including such developed countries as the U.S. It is currently estimated that five million Americans are drinking polluted water that can lead to health problems. Fracking is only one industrial procedure contributing to this problem.Attempts have been made over decades to regulate operations with limited success. So now Americans are confronted with the abysmal failures of the regulatory system at the state and federal level, along with the tepid responses to the latest pollution disaster in Lake Erie. This water pollution is minor compared to the problems in India, particularly in the Ganges due to human religious behavior.
462. Ironically, the leading industrial polluter in the last century, the USA, is now having to cope with various forms of pollution coming across the Pacific from the developing Asian countries. Health authorities are warning of the growth of a number of problems, including congenital hypothyroidism, cancer, .
463. Pollution has been a major problem in various regions around the globe (such as industrial areas in developed countries) for a long time with remedial measures having had limited impact. Lead, arsenic, mercury, boron, asbestos are just some of the toxic materials. Fluoride has now joined the likes of lead, arsenic, methyl mercury, toluene, tetrachloroethylene and other chemicals known to damage brain tissue. Increased cancer, infertility are other symptoms of the unintended consequences of producing unnatural chemical products for profit.
464. Many products readily purchased by a society believing in progress without understanding the environmental and ecological cost have provided beneficial personal and cleaning services but have the destiny of toxic contamination of ground and river water, especially in developed countries. The recent ban on microbead in products in New York state because of its impact on Lake Erie is a rare example of the emergence of a small amount of rationality.
465. Ironically, contamination of water by fecal matter is a major problem in under developed countries. Adequate sanitation is not given the highest priority there by politicians favoring the spectacle of economic growth while the social and ecological costs are swept under the carpet (or in to the rivers).
466. Plastic items thrown out in the rubbish is having a profound deleterious impact in many regions and to many organisms. The recorded regions includes the upper reaches of the Thames River in England and in the gyre of floating plastic in the north of the Pacific Ocean (the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) and numerous other ones in the oceans. Teams from a number of countries continue to gather data on what has already been irreparably done.The organisms that have been harmed by eating plastic include turtles, whales and sea birds.An international study estimates more than half of the world's marine turtles carry a burden of plastic debris. Livestock choking on plastic bags—from camels in the United Arab Emirates to sheep in Mauritania and cattle in India and Texas—have led communities to consider regulation. Currently 100 billion plastic bags pass through the hands of U.S. consumers every year—almost one bag per person each day. Laid end-to-end, they could circle the equator 1,330 times.Various programs have been initiated around the globe to lessen the impact of plastic debris but irreparable harm has already been done and the production of plastic continues almost unabated. The recycling of plastic items in many households does little to alleviate this problem despite the popular belief (fostered by governments) that it is making a useful contribution.
467. A major effort is to be mounted to clean up plastic in the 'Great Pacific garbage patch' by towing a gigantic V-shaped array. This costly remedial measure will do no more than slow down the deleterious impact on the marine eco systems slightly. However, it is a positive move stemming from a growing understanding of the damage that waste production is irrevocably doing.
468. Marine debris, which includes plastic, is a recognized global problem that is alleviated to only a limited extent by regulation.Volunteers can do little to ease this problem other than help to publicize its deleterious impact on the marine biological spectrum and this unintended consequence of the high material standard of living beloved by society at large. .
469. Physical scientists in a wide variety of fields learn how natural forces operate, have operated for eons and will continue to operate. Ironically they focus on positive forces that do positive work but tend to discount the impact of negative forces (friction) even though in some circumstances that operation has a significant impact. The vast increase in scientific findings in recent times has been due to greater numbers of scientists and improved techniques, instruments, means of communication together will the aid provided by computers. Rather than advancing the frontiers of knowledge as often claimed, this scientific revolution is indicating  how little was known in the past and what understanding is still needed. Scientists in many fields are obtaining knowledge of the unexpected response on many natural operations to the innovative, and often destructive, operations of the systems of civilization. Mutations of bacteria and viruses are raising concern amongst specialists. This is just one example of people learning how nature responds to invasive operations.
470. The emerging field of bioelectronics seeks to exploit biology in conjunction with electronics in a wider context encompassing, for example, biological fuel cells, bionics and biomaterials for information processing, information storage, electronic components and actuators. It is one of many examples where clever people with access to advanced instruments are striving to provide innovative techniques that will provide benefits to a few in society only so long as the technological systems continue to be available..
471. It is ironical that science has provided understanding of what happens in a large number of fields but has yet to provide understanding of the fundamental physical principles that govern all of these operations. This is understandable to a large extent as all individuals have a limited field of understanding, no matter how clever they are.The hypothesis is that all systems, natural and technological, have an  input of material, including those supplying energy, and an output of waste material and waste energy (heat) in the irreversible process of doing positive and negative work or serving a useful purpose. The operation of the human body is but one example of this process. Yet science does not recognize that hypothesis for some bewildering reason although the pressure on scientists to contribute in their specialist fields does inhibit consideration of the holistic underpinnings of what happens. Our belief that science is the best tool to combat perils such as climate change should not be rooted in a vision of the process as infallible. Indeed, such a vision - that we can know, that we can prove beyond doubt -is fundamentally antithetical to scientific inquiry. Science cannot assure us of a solution. It can only provide the best possible guess. Though acknowledging this uncertainty can evoke anxiety, and turn some into conspiracy theorists, a little bit of doubt that the world is under our control might be the most effective call to action. After all, there’s a chance the future could be a lot worse than science currently predicts.The axioms forming the proof of the hypothesis above are common knowledge but society does not connect the dots! It is infatuated with the power of fiat money so does not concern itself as to how what has happened has really been possible without paying the ecological cost. People appreciate the infrastructure edifice without taking into account the unsound foundations. They are happy with the hallucination - for now
472. Technological systems only employ natural forces to irreversibly use limited natural material resources to supply temporary goods and services, only some of which are really worthwhile. However, they do inevitably produce material waste that can cause major problems.They do not create any useful material although they do create delusions in the populace while transforming material in chemical reactions! Most people laud technological innovations because they do not understand the fundamental physical principles that ensure the eventual destructive nature of these innovations. They do not take into account what friction is always doing, even though they could not walk if friction did not exist!
473. Skilled personnel are engaged in R&D (research and development) in an endeavor to provide innovative technological systems and useful services for the use of society. Careers in these activities are generally well paid and looked upon kindly by society even though in many cases the benefits of the advances are over sold and the environmental and ecological costs not fully taken into account. Vested interests often determine the direction of the R&D because it is to the advantage of business even though it entails the wasteful use of natural resources as well as skills of the researchers. Corruption is manifest in some quarters. Yet is is common for commentators and governments to promote R&D to aid their economies, even though often the innovative measures come at an ecological cost that is not taken into account. Ironically science is often focused on advancing the frontiers of knowledge while not taking fundamentals into account.The all embracing impact of various forms of friction in all materialistic operations is just one fundamental that is not taken always reasonably taken into account.
474. A major failing is the lack of understanding in society, as indicated by the support for technological innovation without taking into account the irrevocable ecological cost. It has been a focus in most Western communities since the beginning of the Industrial revolution and had been enthusiastically embraced by Eastern communities in recent times. The young are encouraged to pursue education in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) without providing understanding that technological innovation is rarely really worthwhile for ecological and environmental reasons as it entails using up natural resources. However, the social benefits of innovation are welcomed - for now. 
475. Many seemingly authoritative bodies (including government organizations and academic bodies) discuss the (financial and sometimes ecological) cost of the developing supply and demand for 'irreplaceable' energy (without consideration of the real worth of the usage). It is treated as a commodity with the 'irreplaceable' energy capital that comes from crustal stores (such as fossil fuels) being regarded as being free. The energy income (solar radiation) is termed 'renewable' in the obfuscation that confuses not only the public. It probably is the biggest con foisted on the public as many are now forking out big dollars to get solar systems that will only provide power for a while.Systematic studies cast doubts on the worth of solar systems because of their environmental and ecological cost during their limited life time. But that does not stop a lot of people from being conned into installing solar systems. If the confusion is to be avoided, the concentrated energy supplied by fossil fuels and nuclear power stations would be qualified as 'irreplaceable' energy being provided by irreplaceable systems.
476. The Saudi Arabia Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi said the Kingdom envisaged the fact that fossil fuels could become unnecessary before the middle of the century and was investing in renewable (solar) energy for that reason. This is a typical misunderstanding of physical properties that are leading to many unwise decisions around the globe. 
477. Denmark has gone a long way down the track of using 'renewable' energy systems (wind farms) to replace fossil fuels in the supply of electricity. Measures have been implemented (including innovative technology) to deal with the volatility of the output from wind farms. Wind farms are no different in principle to coal fired power stations in temporarily supplying electrical energy at an irrevocable environmental cost although they do less harm.No doubt maintenance of the systems is being taken into account in financial considerations but the irrevocable natural resource cost means that the process is unsustainable. What will the Danes be doing towards the end of the century as climate change makes for harsher winters and the supply of electricity for heating and cooking declines?
478. The term 'renewable' energy is short hand for a technological system that transforms solar or wind energy into electrical energy. However, this term hides the fact from the non-technical that this form of energy supply comes at an environmental cost and is not sustainable. The systems irrevocably age and use materials (including those supplying energy) for their maintenance. The wind will continue to blow and the sun to shine long after these systems are in the scrap heap. However, many authorities around the globe are fostering the 'renewable' energy delusion as they want to appear to be doing something about countering the impact of fossil fuel emissions on the climate. That is a proven way to buy votes.Of course there are also many businesses that make money out of selling 'renewable' energy systems to a gullible public.
479. Despite the unsustainability of these 'renewable' energy systems, many governments, industry and the media proclaim success in the increase these systems are making to electricity supply. This fallacious view is only contributing to the difficulty that society will have in eventually powering down This promotion of 'renewable' energy in many countries makes money for some components of industry. fosters the delusion that governments are tackling climate change, makes some people feel good about their contributions to solving a problem while lessening the demand for measures that will reduce electrical energy usage.
480. These 'renewable' energy systems do promote the delusion in society that technology can solve the problems - that it has created! They have also created an unsustainable dependence on the services they supply. How will people cope when the electrical grid inevitably fails? How will they cope when they can no longer rely on motorized transportation? How will they cope when they can no longer get food from the supermarket or store it in the refrigerator?
481. Germany leads the way in using 'renewable' energy systems to meet some of the demand for electricity. Britain also fosters these innovative technological systems without taking into account that they can only make a worthwhile contribution during their lifetime. Commentators call for a more effective energy system in the EU to boost the economies. However, the stress test being conducted by EU authorities are not very credible as Russia really does have the whip hand. Solar systems are being installed in many homes around the world. They are likely to make a useful contribution to energy supply for a time while contributing to the delusion that energy demand can continue to be met, without taking into account the real cost.The question as to what systems will be able to meet the future demand for energy is not addressed, probably because it is not understood that 'irreplaceable' energy supply using technological systems is an unsustainable process in the long term!
482. Ironically, the solar eclipse in March 2015 may cause appreciable hiatus in those European countries that have become dependent to a large degree on solar power systems ( particularly Germany). There is no way of predicting whether it will be a cloudy day so it will be a black swan event. Remedial contingency plans may well be insufficient or unnecessary!
483. There are plans to capture wave energy because, in the eyes of the proponents it is 'renewable' energy. It joins with wind farms and solar systems as 'pies in the sky'. These systems may provide a small but worthwhile amount of energy for a limited time at a significant energy and material cost. But, of course, they could make money for the proponents and ease worries of governments and users! Many long term and short term energy storage systems are being proposed and implemented to cope with intermittent energy sources and/or energy demand. The environmental cost of these measures can be worthwhile for a limited time only.
484. Technological systems have made a major contribution to the increasing complexity of the operations in society. Innovators of technology gain from the short term economics of scale and no responsibility for handling disposal of the inevitable waste . But the consumers pay the price of the long term concentration of risk. The precautionary principle has been cast aside in pursuit of illusory progress blighted by financial incentives, false adulation and lack of understanding of the inevitable physical consequences.
485. The irrationality of considerations about the installation of technological is highlighted by the decision of a company to not go ahead with the installation of a wave energy system off the Australian coast. because in their judgement it was not commercially viable.  A rational decision would have been based on the fact that the system would have to be made of irreplaceable materials, would use 'irreplaceable' energy and material for its maintenance and would supply 'irreplaceable' energy for a limited time only. Using skilled engineering personnel for the project could well be worthwhile if the decision was based on these rational considerations. But the price tag is what governs most decisions! Ironically, however, even billionaires cannot buy immortality.
486. In recent years a fundamentally new class of technologies – made possible by developments in hardware, software and networking and informed by social psychology – are enabling the emergence of novel forms of feedback on resource consumption and environmental quality. But as these technologies are not sustainable they only temporarily heighten the delusion that people can be in control.
487. Cars are one of the major products of technology that is a doomed inanimate species. Most run on oil products (gasoline, diesel) that will be declining in availability. Electric cars are being promoted as a sound alternative to those driven by internal combustion engines. Tesla has grandiose plans but although battery technology is improving rapidly they are still made of irreplaceable materials that will become beyond reach as demand increases.But those plans also entails a major development of the supporting infrastructure for charging the batteries using up valuable resources for a temporary mitigation of the transportation demand. Cars and trucks are made of irreplaceable materials and recycling some of these materials will not stop their numbers dropping rapidly in the future.
488. It is fascinating that the major reason for the promotion in a number of countries, including most cities in Germany, of electric cars and trucks is that they do not have air polluting exhausts.The fact that they are using up irreplaceable materials is not taken into acount because of the common policy of only considering the production side of the balance sheet.
489. Ironically the rapidly increasing dangerous practice of using mobile phones whilst driving will decline as both cars and mobiles become unavailable for most people.
490. How will society adjust to the inevitable decline in airline services? Airliners use a very specialized fuel obtained by processing oil and they are made of irreplaceable materials. The supply of reasonable alternative fuel (such as biofuels) in sufficient quantities is not feasible due to its production being so dependent on natural processes. The replacement of the current fleet of airliners as they wear out will not be feasible for physical reasons as well as not being pragmatically justifiable. They are another doomed inanimate species.The inevitable demise of airliners will have a profound effect on political, commercial and social (including tourism) activities and outlook.
491. Ironically, the contribution of the emissions from airliners to global atmospheric warming will also decline. That will please some authorities even though its impact will be physically insignificant. The reduction in the emissions from road transport (for a similar reason) will also be physically insignificant although welcomed by many people.
492. The production of biofuels for aircraft is being pursued but at best they will fill only a small part of demand at the expense of a deleterious impact on food production although creating profit for the corporations involved. Research into using bacteria to produce biofuels without using farmland may be useful publicity but the systems needed can only produce a negligible amount for a while at appreciable financial and materialistic cost.
493. The decline in the availability of jet fuel was widely recognized in industry decades ago so feasible alternatives were considered. Liquid hydrogen was on the list because of its high energy density but many technical factors ensured that it would be crossed off the list.
494. Industry has been examining possible replacement aviation fuels for decades with liquid hydrogen having already been discarded. Synthesized hydrocarbons have been produced in complex systems using energy and materials. It is another example of worthless biomimicry, the attempt by society to use technology to do rapidly what it took natural forces ages to accomplish. This example is a much more ecological costly process than refining oil. Bio fuels also involve a major ecological cost and the limited supply cannot possibly meet the need. It seems that powerful interests, including the aviation industry, will continue to promote the furphy that bio fuels can meet the demand, possibly because they cannot cope with the reality that airliners will cease to fly if sufficient very specialized aviation fuel is not available.Plans for future airliners do not mention the fact that these will only take to the air if their fuel can be plucked out of thin air! Solar powered aircraft are an interesting innovation but will have little impact on the demise of the airline industry.
495. The military are having to face the same dilemma, not having the fuel to operate most of their machines. Even the operation of drones is not a sustainable process. and cyber warfare is dependent on the continuing availability of electricity and the necessary materials. Ironically, good and bad drone use is growing exponentially to add to the complexity, so loss of resilience, in the operations of society. Private use of drones is increasing rapidly because they are so cheap. This growing complexity in operations is increasing management problems that various organizations are trying to tackle.
496. For example, the proposed metadata surveillance system appears to have failed before it even got to the encryption stage. The 'terrorists' were able to organize the simultaneous attacks in Paris without the security people becoming aware of what was being organized.
497. Ethanol has been a constituent in fuel for cars in a number of countries for some time but its ecological cost (despite the financial subsidies) ensures that it will never fill more than a niche role even as oil based fuels disappear down the black hole. It makes no difference to the principle that cars (and other vehicles and machinery using fuel) are grievously threatened inanimate species.
498. Cars and airliners have captured the people transportation sector but ships still convey most of the goods around the globe. They use fuel oil at an unsustainable rate so those thousands of container vessels that infest the oceans and cram harbors are another doomed inanimate species. The financial advantages of global trade will go down a black hole. Localization will take over from trade globalization The widening of the Panama Canal will be good for the local economy for only a few years then the acute depression will set in as the paying vessels fail to come over the horizon. The duplication of the Suez Canal was done to aid the Egyptian economy but that will also be a failure. The proposal for a Nicaraguan canal with Chinese backing is most unlikely to go ahead as reality gradually sinks in to the thinking of the Chinese entrepreneurs. Ironically, the opening up of the famed north-west passage to shipping due to climate change decreasing Arctic Ocean sea ice will make a major contribution to the redundancy of improving the Canals for only a short time as shipping will die off due to lack of fuel and the irrevocable aging of the ships.
499. The possibility of using LNG powered ships is being assessed due to the expected decline in the availability of the vast amount of fuel oil required for existing ships. Meeting the demand for shipping  the goods in globalized trade is a major factor. 
500. It is ironical that the mining industry (doing a good job of robbing natural material wealth) is enthusiastically embracing the use of driverless and autonomous trucks and trains to improve competitiveness, so profitability, without taking into account that they can only be viable in the short term.
501. The demise of these transportation vehicles will have a tremendous impact on (financial) market forces and the decisions made in all levels of society. One of those deleterious impacts is the resulting lacking of employment opportunities for many skilled personnel. Forcing airline pilots, truck drivers, ships' crews to seek lower levels of employment will have a spreading horrendous effect on society.
502. This dependence on skill level and available career opportunity will be hit in all fields that are dependent on the continuing availability of the machines and equipment. Hospital workers at all levels will be no better off than workers in the transportation field. Even those, investors and bank workers, in the monetary field will not be immune to the devastation as the value of dollar dives. 
503. The rapid increase in global warming at high latitudes is increasing the  melting of permafrost - and the release of ancient viruses. Whether they will they have a serious impact on human health is a serious question.
504. Energy extracted primarily from the limited crustal stores of fossil fuels and uranium (nuclear fission) has been the driving positive force in the development of industrialized civilization but the signs that this supply will decline is fostering the development of alternatives as the operation and maintenance of the existing infrastructure is dependent on the availability of vast rates of supply of energy to do the positive work and offset the negative work of friction. This commitment has stimulated research into what is called 'renewable' energy, so hiding the fact that energy flow is irreversible from the non-technical politicians and management. Countering the impact of friction continues to be a specialist engineering field gaining a minimum of financial support. Weak solar energy is free and reliable but systems (such as wind turbines and solar panels) made of materials by using concentrated 'irreplaceable' energy are needed to use this energy supply to do the positive work of the operation and maintenance of technological systems. This misinformation about 'renewable' energy will hinder the efforts to make more effective use of the limited supply of 'irreplaceable' energy from out of store (concentrated energy capital) and the continuing sunshine (weak energy income).
505. The commonly mooted replacement of some of the current means of supplying electrical energy by wind and solar systems  does not take into account the magnitude of the task or its implications. The proponents base their arguments on the energy being harnessed as being free energy income while the process does not produce the material wastes that are deleterious features of  coal, oil and nuclear power stations. They ignore the fact that wind and solar systems are also made of irreplaceable materials by using large amount of 'irreplaceable' energy capital for  construction, operation and maintenance in their limited lifetime. Installation of some of these systems is proving to be a temporary means of providing a small but worthwhile supply of energy but it is an unsustainable process despite the hype of the vested interests.
506. There is growing interest in installing systems to harness geothermal sources of heat energy in appropriate regions, such as Iceland, around the globe. These systems can in many cases be worthwhile suppliers of electricity for decades but, despite the contrary views, they are not a sustainable supplier of energy and come at appreciable resource, ecological and economic cost. Ironically, the worth (as judged by proponents) of proposals is generally based primarily on the financial rather than the real, long term, cost and worth.
507. The proponents of thorium power stations provide comprehensive technical arguments  to support their assertion that these stations can solve the developing energy supply problem. The Chinese are making progress in the technological problems. As is common, the selective arguments do not take into account that these plants will also have limited lives. They could possibly make a worthwhile contribution to the energy supply problem for many decades.This misleading attitude will hinder realistic policies to cope with the inevitable powering down due to the host of problems. Despite the arguments that energy supply governs what happens it is only one of a number of issues.
508. A fundamental problem with wind and solar systems is that they provide intermittent supply that does not fit with the demand for electricity. Hydro systems are used in some convenient situations to provide the necessary balance. There are also unrealistic proposals to use liquid metal batteries for the requisite energy storage. Financial costs of the proposed batteries is deemed reasonable by the proponents but they do not take into account the fact that the system has a short life so would convey the false impression that it can make a continuing contribution to the energy supply problem.  
509. U.S. Department of Energy’s Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource MKR) Assessments provides realistic views of the technical, environmental, regulatory, social and financial limitations of the range of mechanisms (such as wave or tidal power) that could extract energy from environmental sources to meet some of the demands of industry. It provides sound reasons for the very limited scope for these systems. However, it does not take into account that these systems have a limited lifetime. It does not address the issue that civilization will continue to be addicted to using energy as the supply declines.
510. As the easy oil has already been extracted from the giant Middle East and Mexico fields, the industry is employing more damaging and costly methods to grab some more of this natural bounty. China is erecting huge industrial complexes in remote areas to convert coal to synthetic fuel that could make the air in its mega cities cleaner but this does not realistically take into account the ecological and social costs of this expediency..
511. Tests have been carried out in the Plowshare Program of the effectiveness of nuclear devices in fracking rocks to release oil and gas. It was noted that nuclear explosives would create more and bigger fractures “and hollow out a huge cavity that will serve as a reservoir for the natural gas released from them.” Project Rulison, named after the rural community of Rulison, Colorado, was a 40-kiloton nuclear test project in the  United States on September 10, 1969. This method of fracking has been superseded by using water under extreme pressure, partly because of the recognition by global authorities of the side effects of nuclear explosions but also because of the radioactivity in the gas produced. However, it has been found that this latest form of fracking contributes to the emissions fostering climate change and measurements have shown it can also cause seismic events.
512. In an ironic footnote to a devastating introduced (by technology) global cycle—wherein the burning of fossil fuels drives climate change, resulting in extreme new weather patterns that impact millions worldwide. A new study finds that global oil demand is depleting freshwater supplies in water-scarce regions across Asia and the Middle East.
513. Appreciable amounts of intellectual, financial and material resources are being expended on providing the system to enable nuclear fusion to supply energy (like the Sun does). The hype that fusion will be able to meet the energy demand of civilization for a long time has fostered the delusionary expenditure of money for decades. The fact that a working system must be made of irreplaceable materials and will have a limited lifetime is not mentioned in the hype as it would sound the death knell of this R&D project. It really is another major con by academia and industry that has been going on for decades without doing anything but eat up money and give some bright scientists a remunerative career. It is probably the most blatant delusion about the ability of technology to emulate nature.As science writer Charles Seife pointed out in his thoughtful book Sun In A Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking, the history of the quest for fusion power has more in common with the quest for a working perpetual motion machine than today’s enthusiasts would like to admit; it may be that we simply don’t yet know the laws of nature that make the quest for fusion power a fool’s errand. The complete laws of nature are clearly beyond the ken of even the intellectuals of society.
514. Pundits advocate employing geothermal systems to supply energy in those regions where hot rocks are near the surface. The fact that this source of energy can only fill a small niche role at best does not deter the companies that can see the dollar reward for their initiative. They arbitrarily dismiss the possibility that this geological disruption will cause earthquakes, despite the evidence obtained by seismologists.
515. Ironically many of the aging pipelines criss-crossing countries will no longer need replacing when they are worn out as they will no longer be needed. Oil and gas pipelines head that list. But removing them will entail using some of the remaining resources at a time when the demand for other purposes will be high. However, water and sewerage pipe lines are not in the removal category. Maintenance of these pipelines will have a high social priority. However, as Americans are finding out, that does not mean that aging water and sewerage pipelines are being replaced in a timely manner.Various commentators point out the danger of oil and gas pipelines in various regions being destroyed by military or terrorist activities with a traumatic effect on economies. These are possibilities. The certainty is that natural forces will ultimately degrade the usefulness of pipelines and associated equipment. This, of course, is only one of the traumatic events that are contributing to the inevitable collapse of industrial civilization.
516. It is possible that the Keystone Pipeline will be installed to send shale oil from Alberta in Canada to the distribution center in the USA at great ecological and social cost to temporarily boost the supply in the U.S. of the energy in oil so that that myriad of land, sea and air transportation vehicles can carry on their destruction of a valuable natural resource for a while longer. Installation of this pipeline is a political hot potato now but maintaining and then removing it when the shale oil can no longer be dug out of the ground at great (ecological ) cost is an intractable problem (to go with many others) that will confront a future President of the United States.
517. Shale oil is not the only way that industry is desperately using or planning to use to supply energy to  communities willing to pay almost anything to sustain their addiction. Underground combustion of coal is another means of obtaining gas to meet some of the needs and wants of the spoiled homo sapiens. The Dantean inferno of underground coal gasification (UCG) has already been running for 50 years in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan. Other applications of this damaging mechanism are in place around the globe while even more are proposed. This is another example of how intangible market forces are ensuring the collapse of the physical support to the operations of civilization for the sake of providing wasteful 'irreplaceable' energy for a short period.Government and industrial policy decisions are based on the supply of energy to do the (positive) work of the systems of civilization without taking into account the negative work of friction, associated transformation of irreplaceable material to waste together with the degradation of the environment. 
518. Oil has been the main source of concentrated 'irreplaceable' energy for the various forms of transportation in  the past century with gigantic oil fields in the Middle East and Mexico playing a major role. The decline in the amount being extracted from these easy sources and the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Bass Strait (Australia) has forced industry to employ more eco costly measures to extract shale oil despite the environmental degradation, contamination of ground water and localized social disruption.
519. The extraction of shale oil in the U.S. has temporarily reduced the need to import oil and falsely boosted the confidence of government in energy independence. However, the Bakken  and Eagle Ford shale oil fields will be productive for only a short time so they bolster the economy and the use of oil for wasteful purposes at vast ecological and social cost. Even now the financial cost is becoming too much for investors to bear. It is a Faustian bargain that, surprisingly, other countries seem keen to emulate, probably because they are desperate to feed industry and commerce with essential energy, whatever the source and the environmental consequences. They have yet to learn the stark reality that this means of robbing the earth benefits no one.
520. At the same time, governments and industry are using extreme measures, including corruption, to develop conventional and unconventional oil fields that are eco and socially destructive. The Niger Delta  and Alberta oil sands are examples of a growing disease. A new study suggests that naturally occurring upward flow of groundwater in the oil sands region is creating fractures and weaknesses that may explain a series of catastrophic events for the controversial mining industry.Attempts to find oil fields in the Arctic Ocean as the ice recedes is another. Ten major oil field disasters have done little to impede the oil industry from chasing dollars regardless of the social and ecological cost. After all, the masses demand fuel for cars, trucks, airliners and ships to support their high material standard of living.
521. Politicians, industries and investors are jumping on to the wind energy, wave energy and solar energy band wagons because they believe the hype that these systems can make a continuing contribution to the energy demand for the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure. They are taken in by the ridiculous spam that it is 'renewable' energy.The Ivanpah solar power plant in California is the world's biggest but the hype about its contribution to California's energy demand does not spell out how long it can operate and the means of maintaining the complex structure. India has moved closer to a scheme to encourage large solar farms as China made a start on its 2014 target while, elsewhere, Sunpower and VW partnered on storage. These systems may make a worthwhile contribution for a while if the management, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance issues are handled adroitly but they will inevitably have limited lives. Doubtless, the thinking is that the 'irreplaceable' energy and materials required for the construction of their replacements will be available when the time comes. That is a grand delusion of governments, managers, investors and other powerful interests, including the well-off masses.
522. However, the major delusion sponsored by the powerful vested interests in mainstream media, academic circles is that the market forces of the flow of intangible money sponsors progress. This biased view of the balance sheet does not take into account the divestment  of the natural material wealth stored under ground as well as in the biology and geology of the terrestrial and marine eco systems.
523. What happens when small farmers in Guatemala save seeds from one year to the next, as they have for centuries? They get up to four years in prison.That’s according to the “Monsanto Law,” which was recently struck down by Guatemala’s highest court. But now Monsanto is saying the law is required under free trade deals, and it's likely only a matter of time before it launches a wave of lawsuits to force Guatemala to give in. This is but one example of how corporations are misusing the system for their monetary advantage while contributing to the degradation of irreplaceable natural systems that  people need. 73% of seed crops are now ‘owned’ by 10 corporations – while community and grassroots initiatives are working to keep global diversity alive.
524. Free trade deals are formulated, according to the economists, to improve the efficiency of the supply of goods, so the material standard of living (for the well off). The social inequities of using cheap foreign labor to bolster the money made by the business people is increasingly being noted in influential circles. However, the increasing consumption of natural resources to produce material waste (when the goods are discarded after a short time) does not enter into these considerations. Producing the goods is regarded as the beneficial result of this process. Dealing with the waste and other deleterious aspects of this process is the responsibility of others! 
525. These selective financial market forces have always bred corruption that advantages a few at the expense of the majority. However, it has grown exponentially in recent times with the assistance of  electronic information processing. It will die off as those being corrupt inevitably lose their tools! 
526. There is criticism in knowledgeable circles of the deleterious impact that the rich are increasingly having on the operation of society. Ironically, this diverge of wealth is reducing the ability of the masses to ravish the natural life support system. On top of that, the wealthy will leave a withering intangible monetary legacy and, increasingly, an aura of greed..
527. Solar systems are increasing rapidly in many countries while very large ones like Desertec in North Africa are gaining support. Maintaining the panels by various cleaning measures, often when water is not readily available, are being researched. However, these activities will only contribute to the energy supply demand for a short period. Sufficient 'irreplaceable' energy and materials to replace them at the end of their lives will have to compete with other demands (such as the operation of cities) when the supply is very limited.
528. Movement such as TED have the objective of promoting measures that will remedy to some extent the damage that has already been done by the operations of civilization. They can be worthwhile but they convey the false impression amongst the small involved minority that humans can remedy past malpractices by installing technological systems.
529. Desertification of grasslands has been widespread. Programs to reverse this process are under way in some regions because the eco cost there is worthwhile. But that process is not treatment of the holistic disease and certainly can not tackle climate change, despite claims to the contrary by promoters of the programs.
530. Logging is a significant industry in quite a few regions despite its impact on carbon dioxide emissions that are contributing to the imbalance that has caused climate change. Planting trees does not overcome this problem but it does delude many people and makes money for some. Tasmanians are fighting hard to limit the logging of their old growth forests for reasons other than the impact on climate change. Known for its natural beauty, Canada now tops the world in forest degradation - thanks to climate change, logging and energy development. But clearing in Malaysia and Congo is more disturbing on a global scale.
531. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that the felling of tropical forests creates optimal conditions for the spread of mosquito-borne scourges, including malaria and dengue. Primates and other animals are also spreading disease from cleared forests to people.This is an example of the deleterious consequences of the degradation of the environment by the operation of industrialized society.
532.  Climate change happening now, and for the last few decades,  has been demonstrably bad news for many of Europe’s forests, an international team of researchers say in a report from the European Forest Institute. It points out that climate change is altering the environment, and it is long-lived ecosystems like forests that are particularly vulnerable to the comparatively rapid changes occurring in the climate system.The report shows that damage from wind, bark beetles, and wildfires has increased significantly in Europe’s forests in recent years. More than 65 large wildfires are presently burning across the West of the USA endangering homes, lives, and livelihoods, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says. And they consider situation may grow more perilous. Climate warming from increasing greenhouse gas emissions is forecast to dramatically increase the risk of very large, damaging wildfires over the next several decades, a new NOAA-funded study says. Wind throw − the wind’s effect in damaging or uprooting trees − is an increasing problem. However, the report is indicative of a growing global problem.
533. Unsustainable growth in the amount of infrastructure (cities, roads, sewerage systems, etc.) to meet the increasing demand of the population for services is one problem yet to receive the warranted attention..
534. This construction increases the rate of irreversible usage of limited natural material resources, including those that supply the 'irreplaceable' energy to do the (positive) work.
535. This growth exacerbates the ecological cost of operating and maintaining the aging infrastructure. For example, the American Society of Civil Engineers have provided a detailed list of bridges, highways and other infrastructure components that are now in urgent need of maintenance. This list will grow even as the resources needed for the work declines. A report notes that New York's 6,300 miles of gas mains are 56 years old and that leaks in the system cause Con Ed to lose more than 2 percent of the gas it sends to customers every year. Additionally, 60 percent of New York gas mains are made of unprotected steel or cast iron, which are no longer used in gas main fabrication because they spring too many leaks.  And that is only one example of an intractable problem that does not hit the headlines - yet! Think of the hidden problems in those old European cities.
536. Irrevocable devastation of the environment by mining to provide materials to meet the needs and wants of society for disposable goods and useful services as well as the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure during its limited lifetime. This process is irrevocable but also unsustainable.A massive mining waste water spill in the interior of British Columbia highlights a new global trend: tailing dams that hold waste are not only getting bigger, but posing greater risks to watersheds and communities downstream.Drawing upon recent industry reports and presentations made by engineers living in the province, it's clear that the complexities of the industry have multiplied and with them, risks to water are escalating. This is an example of another growing global problem. The greater risk of these tailing dams failing, the toxic materials in the waste water and the demands on the water supply are all grievous consequences of the mining boom to meet the material wasteful wants of society and the profit lust of the corporations. 
537. Mining of many forms of natural resources has made and is making a major contribution to the economies and material standard of living (and production of material wastes) of many countries. However, it is now carried out by large machines using up some of the remaining oil to provide the fuel. This unsustainable process is still deemed to be financially and socially worthwhile while being irrevocably ecologically destructive.
538. Mining companies have to cope with the problem of the inability of their operations to respond quickly to the demand and supply pressures exerted by the users of what they supply. Those companies that have the foresight and financial leverage to respond more quickly than their competitors will be able to reward their executives and investors and earn the plaudits of governments and the media. That is what is happening when the mining of the resources is relatively easy. But those days are ending for many resources. Striving to make fracking to obtain shale oil pay is one example of the irrevocable impact of physical reality on mining operations. Mining executives will be challenged to out think the opposition in their endeavors to satisfy the lusts of consumers, the needs for infrastructure operation and maintenance as well as the desires of investors at the expense of the environment. Some smart executives are now getting out because they do not believe the growth hype.
539. The difficulty in extracting oil in many fields is hitting the headlines and the considerations of governments and industry. But many other minerals are getting beyond reach without being noticed outside of a small circle. Zinc is just one example of this intractable holistic problem that is emerging but the data on a wide range of materials is available for those prepared to look. 
540. Ironically, most discussions about the mining of the vast range of minerals deal with the quality of the remaining resources and the financial cost and return of the ongoing process. Iron ore in Australia and copper in Chile are two programs receiving a lot of consideration that does not take into account the declining availability of the machinery and energy to carry out the mining. They are bound to become stranded assets to a large extent as the RRORU (resource return / resource used) becomes less than1 because the iron or or copper obtained is deemed to be less valuable in the operation of the technological systems of civilization than the resources, largely fossil fuels,used up in the mining process.
541. The easing mining on land is part of history so many companies are investigating the new horizon, harnessing natural mineral treasures from the seabed. Protagonists point out its environmental advantage (and their financial gain) but blithely ignore the fact that it is heavily dependent on irreplaceable concentrated energy and materials. It may make a (financially and socially) worthwhile contribution for a limited time only.
542. The power of money continues to ensure the mining of coal despite its production of emissions harming the health of many humans as well as that of the climate and other aspects of environmental operations. The toxic fumes from the coal mine fire in the Latrobe Valley resulted in many respiratory problems in the population of Morwell. Increasing coal mining and export in Queensland, Australia is producing a good (financial) return for the government as well as foreign investors at the expense of the coral of the Great Barrier Reef and the fish that call it home. These are examples of the real cost of providing energy for the operations of the infrastructure that delivers services to humans.
543. The Australian Government's plan to stop dumping silt that can harm the Great Barrier Reef while allowing the opening up of coal mines with their attendant need for port expansions, channel dredging, and container ship congestion is bizarre. However, it is based on the ridiculous presumption that this coal mine development will continue as capability to do the work declines due to unavailability of material resources while the opposition to the use of coal (contributing to climate change) grows.  
544. The contribution  of coal usage to climate change is causing increasing concern so there are moves amongst investors (big and small) to ensure many coal reserves become stranded assets through lack of financing. However, major companies such as BHP are still pursuing the development of new coal mines using the impact on the local economy, including providing jobs, as justification. Apparently, they do not believe that the emissions from using coal will contribute to climate and ocean disruption. Ironically, many coal deposits will become stranded assets for physical reasons even if other factors do not cause coal to be left in the ground. Coal mining, transportation and processing uses vast amounts of machinery and fuel so cannot possibly continue for long. So coal's contribution to climate change will irrevocably decline (for physical as well as financial reason), together with its contribution to electricity generation.
545. Studies have provided indications of what proportion of the remaining fossil fuel (oil and gas as well as coal) reserves should become stranded assets if the rate of emissions are to be reduced sufficiently to keep global warming to under 2C by the end of the century. The studies do not deal with the economic and social feasibility of industry managing destruction and replacement of the technological systems involved.
546. The high rate of emission of greenhouse gases has been a major contributor to the rapid irreversible climate change and ocean acidification that is giving rise to many environmental, social and political problems. Despite a lot of research there is still appreciable uncertainty about the ability of the wide range of sea creatures to adapt to the measured acidification although has been evidence off some deleterious consequences.The considered judgment of the thousands of climatologists contributing to the IPCC reports is being backed by evidence of numerous anomalous events in combination with natural fluctuations such as el Nino and la Nina. The unusual behavior of the jet stream could be just one symptom of climate change. Current expert views that el Nino will make 2014 the hottest year on record just adds fuel to the fire. Ironically, a vast amount of data has been collected (and is available on the internet) on the nature of the developing situation without any discussion on what can be done to prevent its consequences - because this an unstoppable natural event. Civilization has unleashed fossil fuels without having any means of remedying the unintended consequences. Concerned Australians are too busy coping with heat waves, looking after the aged and fighting bush fires to take notice of what the experts are saying. Californians are worrying about drought while those Americans in the south east try to cope with unusual cold and the English have more reason than usual to complain about their weather as they shelter from the storms and continuing rain. Authorities in the UK are now placing more emphasis on measures to adapt to the deleterious consequence of climate change. Improving the barrages on the Thames is just one adaption measure being carried out.Not only are extreme weather events such as droughts and intense rainstorms becoming more common, climate warming is leading to increased algal growth and more frequent toxic algal blooms. It also affects the entire aquatic food web, including the number, size and distribution of freshwater fish species, according to the latest research. This in combination with the consequences of ocean acidification. Ironically, while el Nino has gained a lot of publicity in Australia, academics are now  highlighting the fact that the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) will have a greater impact by contributing to more frequent and more severe droughts and bushfires in Australia, Indonesia and East Africa. Increased air pollution from bushfires is among the rising threats facing residents as global warming makes blazes more likely.
547. Research measurements are showing that the warming of oceans at depth is absorbing most of the heat input so reducing the rate of atmospheric warming. Surprisingly this heating at depth is more pronounced in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans rather than the bigger Pacific and Indian Oceans.
548. Hot, sultry conditions in much of India before the summer monsoons are especially hard on the high proportion of the population that do not have access to air conditioning. el Nino just make the situation harder. Ironically, the monsoons provide cooler days but the associated flooding has devastating consequences. Climate change in association with a growing population just means that this problem is growing rapidly with no feasible amelioration policy.
549. Forest fires (and bushfires) have been one of nature's ways of renewal of biodiversity for eons. Civilization has corrupted that process to a degree for centuries by clearing forests by logging and clearing for farming or construction of infrastructure. Forest fires have had a deleterious impact on operations in many regions in recent times but the situation appears to be getting out of control due to the impact of climate change. There was a time when renewal of a region after fire had swept through would occur within years. Now there are regions, such as in south west USA, that have been so devastated by forest fires that renewal may not occur this century. 
550. Technology has been used to increase the ability to fight forest fires. The increasing use of water bombers of various sizes to aid the ground firefighters has helped communities in various countries to cope with the increasing possibility of fires damaging settlements. Now drones improve the ability to monitor what is happening. This is but one example of society becoming dependent on an unsustainable technofix. Resilience is being degraded as the fire problem gets worse
551. The sulfurous emissions from volcanic eruptions are contributing to the warming hiatus of recent years is another natural factor recognized by climatologists. It does not affect the hypothesis that irreversible rapid climate change is under way, despite the claims of skeptics.
552. The disruption to regional airline travel due to the recent eruption of Mount Sangeang Api is an indication of the impact of natural forces on operations of society. These black swan events will have an increasing impact as the complexity of civilization grows and its resilience declines.
553. Electrical engineering experts are divided on the possible severity of blackouts caused by “Coronal Mass Ejections,” or magnetic solar fields ejected during solar flares and other eruptions. Some believe that outages would last only hours or a few days because electrical collapse of the transmission system would protect electricity generating facilities, while others fear blackouts could last weeks or months because those transmission networks could in fact be knocked out and need replacement.Extreme space weather events occur often, but only sometimes affecting Earth. The best-known geomagnetic storm affected Quebec in 1989, sparking the electrical collapse of the Hydro-Quebec power grid and causing a widespread blackout for about nine hours. This is another possible black swan event.
554. Some commentators have discussed what could happen in various susceptible regions due to major earthquakes and the associated tsunamis. Their views are based on past experience of similar black swan events but there is appreciable uncertainty about if, when and how serious they will be. The authorities and residents of the vulnerable regions do no more than adopt some mitigation measures - and hope.
555. Measures aimed at moderating these natural phenomena by reducing the rate of greenhouse emissions from fossil fuel combustion are being inhibited by powerful climate change skeptics without reasonable justification. On the other hand, climatologists gather data and gain understanding  of the changes in climate, particularly in the northern hemisphere that are creating coping problems.There is no potential to stop the ocean acidification that has already had a major impact on the marine eco system. Coral reefs (including The Great Barrier Reef) are suffering from this ecological damage and to heat waves. The resident fish find it hard to cope. The governments, of course, have more important matters to deal with, like the construction of harbors near the Reef to export coal so the Chinese can continue to make their contribution to the devastation!
556. Climatologists  have provided over decades sound arguments backed by evidence to show that rapid, irreversible climate change and ocean acidification are under way due to the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel usage. Skeptics have slowed the widespread acceptance of that reality. Desultory efforts are being made to reduce the use of fossil fuels in a vain effort to mitigate the climate change that is already on the horizon. A few measures have been implemented to cope with some inevitable effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels. Barrages on the Thames  to reduce the likelihood of rising sea levels causing catastrophic damage in London are being considered. The flooding of the Underground is a horrific possibility to be avoided, what ever the monetary cost. The existing Barrier, installed in  1982 and operated 108 times to counter the effect of storm surges and the rising sea level, is now deemed to be insufficient to cope with increases in these natural events until the end of the century. New York is considering a similar remedial program: eight new sets of barrier islands to be installed is one of the costly proposals being considered. Flooding of the Subway is a possibility to be avoided! The measured increase in storm tides  in recent times provides evidence supporting this program. The Dutch are using their renowned expertise with dikes to use the Sea Engine to improve the ability of the Netherlands to cope with the sea level rise in a program called Delta Works. Venice is also considering what should reasonably be done. No doubt engineers in many other vulnerable cities are stressing the need for proactive action, despite the continuing hype of the powerful for economic growth.New research suggests that the probability of flooding in cities and megacities built on river deltas is on the increase and over time, the Mississippi and the Rhine may become up to eight times more at hazard from rising tides, storm surges or catastrophic downstream floods. The study, published in the journal Science, calculates the challenges ahead for 48 major coastal deltas in the Americas, Europe and Asia, right now home to populations of more than 340 million people.
557. The latest studies of sea level rise indicate the rise will be greater in the Northern Hemisphere for a number of reasons but it will vary appreciably regionally.
558. Many coastal cities are assessing the likely impact of sea level rise and what measures need to be put in place to ease the situation for residents. For example, authorities in Melbourne, Australia have produced charts showing how much suburbs will be affected by the flooding due to estimated level rise. The government, however is committing resources to the introduction of additional roads to cater for the transient flood of that doomed species, cars.
559. Ironically, many coastal cities are more likely to suffer from subsiding land than flooding from sea level rise. This subsidence comes about due to use of groundwater. Tokyo and Venice have stopped using groundwater to stop this extremely dangerous cause of flooding. But it means that the residents have to be provided with other sources of drinking water. Bottled water, however, just adds to the plastic problem.
560. The largest single contributor to global sea level rise, a glacier of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, may continue thinning for decades to come, new research suggests. However, as it is only one of a number of factors, the uncertainty about its contribution does not change the prognosis that the sea level is irreversibly rising.
561. Atmospheric warming combined with industrial gas pollution from the eastern U.S. is having a marked effect on the North Atlantic ocean currents. That is not the only ocean currents that oceanographers find are changing rapidly.
562. Of course, 'clever' people are proposing that geo-engineering be used to cut back on the greenhouse gas emissions that are making such a contribution to global warming. They have a greater prospect of extracting money from investors than they have of extracting CO2 from the exhaust plume from coal-fired power stations.
563. Climate change has advanced so rapidly that the time has come to look at options for a planetary-scale intervention is the view of the U.S. National Academy of Science.
     The scientists were categorical that geo-engineering should not be deployed now, and was too risky to ever be considered an alternative to cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.But it was better to start research on such unproven technologies now – to learn more about their risks – than to be stampeded into climate-shifting experiments in an emergency, the scientists said. These scientists are not taking into account the fact that such technological systems would be made of irreplaceable materials and would age. The best that they could do is make a temporary contribution to amelioration of climate change.
564. In a test that began in 2012, scientists in Iceland had injected hundreds of tons of water and carbon dioxide gas 1,500 feet down into layers of porous basaltic rock, the product of ancient lava flows from the nearby Hengill volcano. Now the researcher, Sandra Snaebjornsdottir, a doctoral student at the University of Iceland, is looking for signs that the CO₂ had combined with elements in the basalt and become calcite, a solid crystalline mineral. So now there is the irony that technological systems are being used to transform CO2 to rock in order to counteract as far as possible the transformation of hydrocarbons in fossil fuels (generated over eons by natural forces) to CO2.
565. It is ironical that the coal-fired power stations that are making a major contribution to climate change are vulnerable (like nuclear power stations) to the impact of climate change on the supply of cooling water. This negative feedback will lessen the degree of climate change only very slightly but the power shortages will accentuate social problems.
566. Pressures are being exerted to encourage the use of natural gas in the place of coal or oil to supply energy because of dubious claims that such a change would significantly impact  on the degree of climate change. The uncertainty about the degree of impact is based on a range of technical arguments. This wishful thinking is causing confusion in governments, industry and in the public. The reality, however, is changing the mix of fossil fuels used will have an insignificant on the nature of climate change although its impact on business and social activities will be profound.
567. Climatologists have gathered evidence that indicates methane emissions resulting from warming Arctic permafrost and ocean floors is providing a positive feed back that will markedly exacerbate climate change. Russian scientists have determined that a massive crater discovered in a remote part of Siberia was probably caused by thawing permafrost. Scientists sent to the site are now providing first-hand data showing that unusually high concentrations of methane of up to 9.6 percent were present at the bottom of the craters. There is still uncertainty about the methane emission from a number of sources and the varying rate of concentration level increase but the prognosis is not good, especially as nothing can be done to halt the increase in rate of emissions.
568. Global warming is melting Arctic Sea ice to the extent that industries are promoting the exploitation of the oil and gas resources in this region to fill their pockets with dollars and to increase their contribution to climate change! The Arctic isn't nearly as bright and white as it used to be because of more ice melting in the ocean, and that's turning out to add to the global warming problem that industries cannot fix and polar bears cannot cope with. The loss of albedo is providing an irreversible positive feedback accentuating climate change and recent results are showing that its deleterious impact is worse that previous results had indicated.
569. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in the U.S. has reported that the 6th-lowest minimum Arctic sea ice extent on record has occurred in 2014. This is substantiating evidence for the hypothesis that irreversible rapid climate change is under way due mainly to the emissions from the use of fossil fuels.
570. The current extremely cold weather in regions in North America, heat waves in Australia and flooding in Europe are expected by many climatologists to be but some of the symptoms of climate change. The winter rains in Britain are the heaviest for centuries. The monster waves hitting sodden Britain are almost unbelievable, especially by the climate change skeptics!
571. The organizers of the Sochi Winter Olympics  had to protect the snow fields from the impact of global warming! Snowboarding and the like would have been hard with just the current low natural snow fall. Ski resorts around the globe are having to cope with the decreasing snow falls as best they can. Competitors are finding the soft snow difficult, even dangerous.There is the common fallacious belief that cutback in the rate of fossil fuel emissions will allow historical snow falls to resume.
572. The Winter Olympic Games was one of the major global sporting events that shows of the abilities of exceptional sporting people from around the globe to their multitude of fans. These demonstrations of the advances in selected aspects of society are very dependent on the availability of  a vast range of advanced technology from the airliners down to electronic recording equipment. So they cannot possibly continue far into the future in their current form.
573. The Games also demonstrate on TV to the masses the advantage of financial leverage gained by competitors and fans even though the ecological cost and social disruption are not on the balance sheet. An increasing minority are tending to take out this manifest unfairness in a number of punitive measures using the electronic tools increasingly available to them. The resolution of this conflict is a matter for speculation as both processes are unsustainable.
574. The soccer World Cup in Brazil is another example of the masses gaining power through IT to rebel against the manifest unfairness of the affluent from around the globe enjoying the luxurious facilities installed at the expense of rudimentary fundamental services for the many poor.
575. The ability of communities to cope with  hot and cold spells will be sorely tested as the availability of services such as heating and air conditioning declines with the natural resources used in their operation. They will have to relearn how to cope without these services.
576. These fossil fuel emissions have also been a major contributor to the ocean acidification and warming that is accentuating the degradation of the marine food chain. The amount of heat in the oceans is rising exponentially. Warmer oceans mean more severe typhoons and hurricanes, rising sea levels as well as damage to marine life. The measured degree of warming at depth compared to the surface is causing oceanographers to speculate on the coming dire consequences compounding what has already gone wrong.Studies have shown that oceans have absorbed about 93% of the heat that has accumulated in recent times due to the blanketing by greenhouse gas emissions.
577. Rising sea level is a complex issue entailing more than the heat absorbed in the oceans and the melting of ice. However, the large amount of research has provided experts with understanding of the short term and long term impact of these issues.There is now high confidence that the sea level is irreversibly rising and the rate of increase is most likely to continue to rise.  
578. The world's oceans face irreparable damage from climate change, ocean acidification, pollution and overfishing, with a five-year window for intervention, an environmental panel has proclaimed. Specialists have examined a range of rapid changes in the marine food chain as the result of industrial operations. There is good reason to believe that worrying diagnosis but a plausible and effective remedial treatment is not on the agenda of the global powerful.
579. Studies have shown the dire consequences of over fishing on the marine food chain. For example, m
     
     odern industrial fishing operations are threatening the Antarctic ecosystem by vacuuming up massive quantities of Antarctic krill. Krill are the main food source for whales, penguins, and seals and a critical link in the global oceanic ecosystem.
580.  The state of the high seas is deteriorating. More Arctic sea ice is melting away in summer with the proportion of old ice declining. Dead zones are spreading.Global warming will expand the world's "dead zones," a new study has found.The study looked at over 400 of these aquatic dead zones, which refer to areas where the levels of oxygen have dropped and cannot support marine life. Two-thirds of the fish stocks in the high seas are over-exploited, even more than in the parts of the oceans under national control. More than three quarters of the world's fisheries are in a "state of collapse," according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. And strange things are happening at a microbiological level. The oceans produce half the planet’s supply of oxygen, mostly thanks to chlorophyll in aquatic algae. Concentrations of that chlorophyll are falling. That does not mean life will suffocate. But it could further damage the climate, since less oxygen means more carbon dioxide.  Numerous plans can well make worthwhile contributions in some regions but the holistic problem remains as the demand for fish grows. Research suggests some conservation measures are failing and that global warming is deleteriously affecting fish in tropical waters.
581.  Aquaculture is filling a niche role in the provision of protein from fish but this process has had unintended consequences that will limit its expansion.Organisms are mutating due to the change in the environment and they are having a deleterious impact on the health of the fish in many circumstances with this problem being recorded in Danish and Tasmanian fish farms.
582. Widespread policy for moderation of fishing of shark, tuna, salmon has resulted in a slight decrease in the catch, so a significant decrease in the per capita fish protein to add to the food supply problem in many countries.
583. Mercury exposure through seafood consumption has been a health concern for decades, but now, more than ever, it is contributing to human health problems arising from toxic pollution. 
584. Deforestation is also contributing to the increase in the atmospheric concentration level of greenhouse gases which is providing the blanket causing atmospheric global warming, so climate change.
585. Legal and illegal logging is making a negative contribution to carbon dioxide absorption as well as have a direct damaging impact on the local climate and communities while making money for business people. 
586. The contamination of groundwater by toxic waste chemicals from many commercial products is growing rapidly because of lack of effective regulation of what is put on the market. The precautionary principle is not applied as it would erode the money making capability of many companies.
587. The impact of toxic wastes (lead and arsenic in particular) from industrial processes has been considered by authorities in many regions and some palliative measures implemented. Recent research suggests that lead tends to accentuate the use of violence by people. Mounting data that suggests taking lead out of gas and paint has played a critical role in the reduction of violence in the U.S.
588. Ironically even toxic wastes from farming fertilizers are harming water by causing toxic green algae growth. Toledo  is not the only city having to cope with this problem. Along most of its coastline, in its bays and estuaries, and in many of its rivers and lakes, America in under mounting attack by another enemy of its own making — toxic green algae.The closure of many beaches in Florida is serving to warn people about this growing predicament, which is most pronounced in deveoped countries because their citizens use more of the products that end up as toxic wastes.
589. Many marine species do not understand that the vast amount of plastics in the oceans are toxic wastes they should not eat- so they are doing off.
590. There is now good reason to believe that environmental toxins produced by industry (pesticides, flame retardants, fluoride, dioxin, other chemicals) are contributing to the rapid increase in Alzheimer's  disease in aged people and to the increase in autism and dyslexia.
591. A number of carcinogenic toxic compounds (gaseous, liquid, particulate and solid) have been identified and their impact on human health assessed but that has not impacted on their sales to the uninformed populace - as yet..
592. The contamination of groundwater by the chemicals used in the fracking to extract shale oil and shale gas in an ineffective process to provide a fuel that goes up in smoke in traffic congestion! A study has shown that most of the fracking being carried out in the U.S. is in regions with water stress. Engineering studies have indicating the high probability of leaking from wells and, in some cases, methane emissions contributing to climate change. A study shows that the reactivation of faults from hydraulic fracturing, waste water disposal and other processes such as CO2 sequestration occurs by increasing the pore pressure and therefore reducing the effective stress within a fault zone: this can result in earthquakes. The increased pressure allows elastic energy stored in rock to be released more easily, much like removing weight from a box to make it easier to slide along the floor. Injecting fracturing fluids or waste water underground can intersect a fault zone directly or transmit a pulse in fluid pressure that reduces the effective stress on a fault.The fracking process is obtaining oil that will be destroyed in running cars at the expense of contaminating water where it is needed for many essential services in rural communities. But, off course, this makes money for the corporations and their shareholders, or so they hope! While governments pronounce the value of improving energy supply!
593. The EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2015 reference case suffers from even greater optimism than the previous year—raising what were already highly questionable projections for cumulative shale gas production in the US through 2040 by nine percent.apparently it presumes that technological innovation will offset the rapid decline in existing wells and that the impact on ground water will be tolerated by the communities that have to put up with this desire of industry to obtain a source of energy - regardless of the consequences for others.
594. Energy supply is a resource, technical, economic and policy issue. Summer is over and many Europeans may have to keep warm this coming winter by thinking about their summer holidays while wrapped in blankets, praying for a short winter or for the world to come to its senses. It both cases, they may well be disappointed. The doubt about the continuing supply of Russian gas is primarily the political issue relating to Ukraine.
595. A draft government report, titled, "Shale Gas Rural Economic Impacts" published by the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (or Defra), has information redacted 62 times in just 13 pages. This report, considering fracking in the UK, has been heavily censored by the government which is favoring this method of supplementing energy supply to reduce its dependence on importation. The government has to be seen to be tackling the emerging energy supply problem - without taking into account the long term viability of the policy they adopt.
596. Some companies are specializing in difficult task of obtaining water for fracking and then treating the contaminated waste water. This is not easy in many regions.
597. Research is showing that proximity to fracking is increasing the possibility of birth defects. Fracking well explosions are also causing problems for the local community. There is also evidence and argument that fracking is causing increased seismic activity and ground water disruption in a number of regions, including Oklahoma  and Colorado. This causation evidence is sufficient for some governments to outlaw the use of fracking. Seismic events in Alberta, Canada have caused the authorities to order shale oil operators to report events over 2.0and to shut down operations when they exceed 4.0.These problems are just  examples of the unintended consequences of industry disrupting the environment without understanding all the ramifications. Industry has not been obliged to apply the precautionary principle so they have to cope with the unintended consequences.
598. Ironically, temporary pipelines are now being installed (at great ecological and social as well as financial cost) to convey the the produce of fracking  to cities removed from this devastation! What happens to the pipelines when oil is no longer worth extracting is a problem for the future that others will have to cope with!
599. To make matters worse the transportation of crude oil by train is increasing despite the inherent dangers of this practice. Pipelines play an important role in getting oil, and gas, from the fields to where it is refined into gasoline, jet fuel, fuel oil and other products. Maintenance of these multitude of pipelines is an emerging problem that will become much worse as the output from fields decline.
600. Much is made of the policies in many countries to stockpile oil to provides Strategic Petroleum Reserves. The U.S. has 800 m bbl in their SPR. China is building theirs up to that level while the oil price is low. Ironically, these SPR can only be useful in reducing the impact of volatility in supply as they can contribute to demand for a very limited period. Yet this measure contributes to the failure to adopt measures that will cope with the inevitable decline in oil availability.
601. The extraction of oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, is an example of the desperate measures adopted by industry to make money and provide fuel that vessels will burn to contribute to climate change. The indigenous people do not take kindly with their traditional homeland being despoiled for this purpose but the politicians go along with this deleterious process as it improves their short term career prospects.
602. The contamination of rivers by sewerage in regions where the population exceeds the requisite services is common in several, particularly Asian, countries. This way of robbing of nutrients from the soil in providing food to the people in cities,is only one of the deleterious impacts that are currently growing rapidly but it is another unsustainable process. 
603. Systems to treat the sewerage emanating from cities to provided useful fertilizer is an example of a synthetic system to carry out a process that got out of hand with the growth of civilization.  These systems can only temporarily slightly mitigate the loss of soil nutrients. The fertilizers they supply can only slightly replace the synthesized fertilizers provided by industry.
604. The temporary dependence of most food production on the irreversible use of fertilizers and pesticides from a limited crustal stock (fossil fuels, phosphorus, nitrogen, etc) is an immutable global problem created in the 'developed' countries but subject to globalization.
605. A new study by Newcastle University on organic versus conventional crops confirms that organic farming methods do have a positive impact on health. Results found substantially higher levels of antioxidants and lower levels of pesticides in organic crops versus conventional crops. Antioxidants have been linked to a lower risk of cancer and other diseases in humans. Plants naturally produce antioxidants to defend themselves against pests and diseases. But when pesticides are applied, plants lose the need to generate antioxidants for their own defenses. So the introduction of pesticides in food production had the unintended consequence of reducing some of the benefits of food.  Over half the food tested in the U.S. is contaminated by pesticides. It is just another example of technology misusing natural forces due to lack of understanding by humans. Of course, there is no possibility of organic farming now feeding the large population. The pharmaceutical industry makes a pretty penny with products that emulate the natural antioxidants to some extent but often with unintended deleterious consequences.
606. Nanoparticles are being used in some varieties of food to improve their appearance and shelf life without the precautionary principle being applied. After all, this meddling with food is done to increase its sale-ability, so profits, without any regard for the unintended health consequences. some authorities are taking belated steps to assertain how big a health problem it is.    
607. The Haber process has been a major contributor to the production of the fertilizers that have enabled the Green Revolution to produce vast quantities of food. However, the Haber process is a complex one involving high pressures and temperatures in the specially constructed plant that has a limited life time. Conventional logic resolves around the financial cost for construction, operation and maintenance of the operation when the reality is that it is an unsustainable process and food production will fall drastically as the availability of fertilizer declines.
608. Genetic modification of seeds by commercial organizations for a range of reasons is having positive and negative impact on farming. Some smart authorities are countering this and related threats by safe haven seed banks to ensure future generations will have access to proven seeds. Seeds banks of different kinds have been established in a number of countries. Organic farmers do not take kindly to winds blowing GMO seeds onto their fields.
609. The decline in some types of food production due to the devastation of the bee population, so pollination, is increasing as effective remedial measures have yet to be implemented.
610. Unequivocal findings indicate that: increased atmospheric CO2 hinder plants' ability to absorb nitrogen - a nutrient critical to plant growth and health. This but one example of how the operation of civilization has affected natural operations. Its impact has not been large but it is indicative of the principle that measures have been adopted without understanding of the unintended consequences.
611. The dependence of agriculture on fertilization, mechanized tilling, irrigation, harvesting, storing, transportation and refrigeration on the unsustainable use of fossil fuels is just one of the multitude of problems created by lack of understanding..So called 'renewable' energy systems can make a small contribution to only some of those food production issues during their lifetime..
612. The loss of most horticultural skills, particularly in the developed and developing countries,  will have a grievous impact on food production and on society as mechanized agriculture inevitably dies off.
613. In just 500 years, humans have been the cause of 322 animal extinctions, with two thirds of those occurring in the last century alone.A study has shown that the operation of civilization has wiped out half the world's wild life since 1970.But that is only one of the set of extinctions brought about by civilization. The consequential loss of biodiversity is profound even though its impact on the interdependence of the operation of the vast range of organisms is not accounted for in economics and largely ignored by the masses seeking higher material standard of living - despite the ecological consequences..
614. Decline of Monarch butterflies in Mexico (down 44% in the past year) is just one example of the widespread response of flora and fauna to the modification of biodiversity by the operation of the infrastructure of civilization. Many scientists have theorized that deforestation is at the root of the population’s decline: as loggers have continued to remove trees from the Sierra Madres, cooler air has swept into the forests and killed the insects, which are sensitive enough to cold temperatures that they huddle together in great masses to conserve warmth. Mexican scientists are striving to plant oyamel fir trees at higher altitudes in an effort to save the species, as well as its fluttering iconic winter visitor — the migrating monarch butterfly — from the devastating effects of climate change. Other scientists blame agricultural pesticides in the United States and Canada that the monarchs encounter on their journey. Monsanto's Roundup (impact on milkweed plants) and genetically modified crops are harming everyone's favorite butterfly. The butterfly's decline has been linked to the proliferation of glyphosate, a primary ingredient in Roundup and one of the very few herbicides that kills milkweed. The monarch exclusively lays its eggs on plants in the milkweed family. Still other evidence seems to point the finger at extreme weather events as the main reason that so many butterflies are a no-show in Mexico.
615. One of agricultural biotechnology’s great success stories may become a cautionary tale of how short-sighted mismanagement can squander the benefits of genetic modification. After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have documented the rapid evolution of corn rootworms that are resistant to Bt corn. This another unintended consequence of an industrial development that did not meet the precautionary principle.
616. Decline of grassland butterflies in Europe is another example of what industrialization is doing to biodiversity..
617. Decline of farmland birds in the UK is just another one of a multitude of recorded irrevocable species extinctions..
618. The Watchlist Indicator provides data  on the decline of a range of UK species.
619. Numerous species are in danger or have been exterminated by direct human action. All seven marine turtle species are currently listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. That is but one example. Marine biologists are recording an unprecedented die off of a wide range of fish species, from the sardine up, around the globe. Reasons are being put forward but the bottom line is that the operations of civilization have grossly disrupted many natural operations.
620. The current rate of species extinctions due to human activities is 1000 times the natural rate. Biodiversity experts have dubbed it as the Sixth Mass Extinction although it is the first due to human activities. Technology can provide measures to cope with this predicament in very limited circumstances. That would be a worthwhile usage of technology. However, most technology effectively degrades Mother Earth in providing society with ecocostly temporary good and bad goods and services during its limited lifetime.
621. Many creatures are installed and raised in artificial environments such as zoos, food farms, etc  for a range of purposes such as feeding and entertaining people - and providing work and income. The deleterious impact of taking creatures from their natural environment has been assessed for some killer whales. The forced life style of most chickens is causing increasing concern even though circumstances tend to make this necessary to food the growing population and their changing appetite.
622. The role of pollination of crops by bees in food production is being seriously compromised  in many countries by CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). Researchers are gaining evidence on the pesticides that appear to be causing this problem. UK researchers delivered yet more evidence that a widely used pesticide class called neonicotinoids might play a decisive role in declining bee health. British research measurements show that bees are collecting 57% less pollution with a devastating impact on many crops.  Bayer has sued the European Commission to overturn a ban on the pesticides as apparently they believe it is more important for them to make money than for bees to get on with their job. More than half of the plants being sold at major garden retailers in the U.S. under the guise of being "bee-friendly" are treated with bee-killing pesticides, according to a recent report. In the largest examination to date following a landmark 2013 study, scientists with Friends of the Earth (FOE) and the Pesticide Research Institute tested plants purchased in eighteen cities across the U.S. and Canada. And despite being branded as "bee-attractive" plants, the research revealed the "widespread" presence of the neonicotinoid pesticides, or neonics, in these plants. Campaigns are being mounted to stop the sale of the damaging pesticides but that is but the start of the remedial action.
623. Call it the Return of Silent Spring. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book of that name aroused the world to the dangers of soaking the world with insecticides. Her dark vision of a spring in which no birds sang nor insects buzzed gave impetus to the environmental movement. Half a century operations are back where they started going wrong. According to a major new study the world is so saturated with insecticides (especially these days, the pervasive neonicotinoids) that bees , birds and earthworms are vanishing. As they go, they will take part of the food supply with them.
624. Genetically modified (GMO) crops are making money for some corporations such as Monsanto at the expense of the resilience of food production now and in the future. The artificial modification of many types of food to make them more commercially attractive is having unintended consequences: affecting human health. The harmful impact of gluten is only one of many that people are finding hard to deal with despite the increasing promotion of expensive medication. Most countries do not apply the precautionary principle to the marketing of GMO products despite being signatories to the precautionary principle which was adopted by the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1988.
625. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's decision to approve two new genetically engineered crops is being denounced by watchdog groups as a false solution to herbicide-resistant weeds and a move that threatens human and environment safety alike. This is another example of vested interests being able to avoid the precautionary principle as money wins over natural forces again - for a while!
626. Ironically, the UK government is supporting the use of GMO due to its slight impact on food production even as various other factors (loss of fertile soil, climate change) decrease the capability more.  This support is despite the accumulating evidence that GMO crops are not more productive than natural methods in use for hundreds of years.
627. Invasive species of flora and fauna are having a deleterious impact on biodiversity in many regions. This lack of understanding of the unintended consequences of introduction programs is extracting a high (ecological as well as financial) cost. Australians are striving hard to cope with the problems with rabbits (originally from England) and cane toads (from South America). These are examples of the multitude of problems generated by this lack of understanding
628. These are just some examples of the irreversible devastation of global biodiversity in a time scale relevant to our civilization. Gaia will very slowly recover from this devastation using measures that have evolved over eons but Tityas is doomed by the multitude of things that have been done wrong by misunderstandings of the populace combined with the ravishing activities of the systems of civilization..
629. The reduction of soil fertility by transporting the nutrients in food to be consumed in the cities and so subsequently to be flushed down into rivers and the ocean to poison waterways and form dead zones (Mississippi Deltas and Baltic Sea are two large ones) is growing as the populations in cities grow and remedial measures are not on the agendas of the powerful. The lack of oxygen in the dead zones kills off many marine species.
630. Soil microbiologists have learned that plants know what nutrients they need and if they are not available the plants are deficient. For example, the bananas grown in Queensland using common farming methods, including fertilizers, are not as valuable source of nutrients as those grown in the fertile soils in Africa. So Australians need to buy nutrients to make good that deficiency (and line the pockets of the chiefs of pharmaceutical companies)
631. The reduction in arable land by various forms of paving, infrastructure development and, in recent times, for various forms of oil extraction from shale and other difficult sources continues unabated. For example, long established market gardens north of Sydney have been taken over for housing development. The easy oil has already been extracted from the giant fields in Saudi Arabia and Mexico and has made its contribution to climate change in the process of sating the lust of the well off for land, sea and air transportation from here to there.
632. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis are having a growing impact on the operation of the infrastructure and society as they become more frequent due to the strains that the infrastructure and climate change have imposed. They are unpredictable black swan events even for the specialists so there is little that can be reasonably done to cope with their impact on the environment although evacuation of population is sometimes possible if warning can be provided. In March 2015, Japan will host the 3rd world Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, where a new global commitment to tackle the threat of disasters around the world will be signed. This may lead to adoption of measures to reduce the impact of these black swan events but at an ecological cost.The eruption of Vesuvius killed off most of the population of Pompeii. There is the possibility that Naples will suffer a similar fate at some unexpected time in the future. Ash from volcanic eruptions have temporarily cooled the climate in the past with a devastating impact on food production. Coping with these problems will strain resources especially when they impact on heavily populated regions. San Francisco and Tokyo lie on fault lines on the Rim of Fire so the probability that they will be hit by earthquakes at some unpredictable time is recognized as being high and measures have been taken to lessen the likely casualties and damage impact but this does not stop population growth in these cities. Nepal is also on a fault line and the risk was recognized but sufficient action was not taken in this poor country. so the recent earthquake was extremely harmful socially as well as in the damage done to infrastructure.  The Japanese have led the way in preparation for natural disasters but that did not help much when the tsunami hit Fukushima. Istanbul is also on a fault line but measures have not been taken to ensure resilient buildings and proven emergency procedures.
633. Many natural disasters are quite unpredictable. However, there are many circumstances where blame can be attached for  industrial disasters. Despite British Petroleum's claims that the Gulf of Mexico is making a robust recovery in the wake of 2010's Deepwater Horizon disaster, an annual study of the ecosystem and its inhabitants shows that the effects of the catastrophic explosion and subsequent oil spill are still being felt—and in many cases, are not yet fully understood.the failings that led to this disaster have been identified but that does not mean that similar disasters will not occur in the future. The oil industry in particular is becoming desperate to make money by fair means or foul.
634. New York authorities implemented many emergency measures to cope with the impact of super storm Sandy as it approached. There was the belief that their plans were sufficient to cope with what nature could throw up. They were wrong! The storm specialists did not appreciate how much the operations of civilization have disrupted natural atmospheric operations. The path and strength of Sandy was beyond their ken.
635. Atmospheric scientists understand that the increased heat and water vapor in the atmosphere due to global warming, the stronger the  dissipative structures , like  tornadoes, and hurricanes. This is now recognized as a factor influencing the strength of Sandy and of Cyclone Hudhut hitting India.
636. Meteorite strikes due to an asteroid breaking up in the atmosphere are common but major ones are remote possibilities. The recent one in Russia was relatively minor compared to the ones that caused large craters in the past. Despite increasing monitoring of the orbits of asteroids and the improving ability to anticipate strikes, there is nothing that can be done to prevent them. There is the very slight possibility that a major one will have a devastating impact on life on Earth some time in the future. Ironically, such a strike would not be a black swan event as instruments would provide astronomers with the warning!
637. Sink holes are natural catastrophic events caused by water acting on limestone deposits that have built up over many years. Geologists know that Florida is a very vulnerable region but it home to many people who expect to enjoy the pleasant climate. They are bewildered as some of their homes are devastated by sink holes.
638. Volcanists are attempting to provide better predictions of when eruptions will occur to aid population movements. But that will not affect the physical consequences of eruptions which can be quite dire.
639. Unnatural disasters (such collapse of the grid) due to failures of aging infrastructure or bad decisions by humans  are becoming more common as the size and complexity of the infrastructure grows, so resilience declines. 
640. Solar flares are irregular occurrences that can affect many electricity and electronic systems very seriously. They are 'black swan' events because even the experts cannot predict when they will occur, their severity and whether they will hit Earth. Recent ones this year have had relatively minor impact but there is a comparatively high probability of a major one having a catastrophic impact on electrical and communication systems, so how society operates, this century. The exponential growth of the dependence of the operations of society on electronics has greatly increased the possibility of a solar flare having catastrophic consequences. There has been a limit to risk management measures that could reduce the consequences of a major flare. Warnings were sent out hours before a recent flare that enabled organizations such as airlines to activate precautionary measures that would not have prevented catastrophic consequences had the flare been a major one. Fortunately it was not. It had little impact for reasons that were not predictable.
641. The space revolution of the past fifty years has resulted in a vast array of satellites - and junk - circling the globe. They now play an important part in the communication, defence and operations of most communities. But it is a development that has got out of control and could well lead to catastrophes despite the attempts by organizations to monitor the trajectories of the thousands of items and anticipate when they may collide. Many government and private agencies are considering means to deal with this problem but little has been done to stop it growing. Ironically this surveillance capability is likely to decline through lack of supporting energy before the amount of space junk stops growing. Society will be bewildered when the services currently provided inevitably disappear!
642. Most space past activities were carried out by government agencies as they were so costly and required so many skilled people in a range of fields. However, private organizations run by billionaires are jumping on to the band wagon. They are fueled by the belief that money will propel hardware into space! They underplay the risk despite the launch failures.Still, their money will be welcomed by many skilled personnel - for a while. The irreversible waste of natural resources will not be welcomed by future generations!
643. The European Space Agency launched the Rosetta space probe ten years ago to intercept a comet orbiting the Sun and it is now approaching the comet. A successful landing to gather information on the material construction of the comet is now a strong possibility. This is an extreme example of the cleverness of humans and how they have used science and technology in a bewildering manner. Of course, the project has irreversibly used up natural material resources but society will probably consider it as being worthwhile. They ignore the fact that this usage of natural resources is an unsustainable process. What will happen to the probe launching know how when launches are no longer physically possible?
644. The disposal of nuclear waste is a perennial problem in many countries with temporary unreasonable storage being the interim measure adopted for want of something better. Hanford in the U.S. with 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste left from decades of plutonium production is just one example of the problems that governments are still having to belatedly handle.There are around 50,000 containers of radioactive waste in globally significant ecosystems. Growing appreciation of the nature of this disposal problem is limiting efforts by industry to increase nuclear energy in countries such as Britain and the U.S but not in developing Asian countries.
645. The Nuclear Fuel Cycle royal commission in South Australia believes that permanent storage in the desert of nuclear waste from a range of countries would be a sound economic proposition. This view is based on the premise that the transportation of the waste, by ships from distant countries and across long distance on land, will continue to be possible. The commissioners apparently have the common false belief that the supply of the necessary liquid fuels is sustainable.
646. It is ironical that society will inevitably have to wake up to the double whammy of what industrial civilization has irrevocably done to its ecological support system. The divestment of a wide range of natural material resources, including the fossil fuels, is coupled with the production of a range of material wastes, including radio active ones. There is no way that nature or industry can deal with these problems. The handling of long life nuclear waste is already proving to be a problem in a number of countries. Of course, coping with rapid climate change and ocean warming and acidification is another intractable problem for society because natural forces can only very slowly carry out remedial actions.  
647. It is being slowly established that radiation produced by a range of operations initiated by humans (from  Hiroshima, to Bomb tests, to Chernobyl, to Fukushima to even medical x-rays) interferes with the metabolism of animals as well as human beings. Governments and industry strive to prevent society from understanding these immutable consequences of this misuse of natural forces. Pregnant women should not have x-rays as it increases the likelihood of leukemia in their unborn child. Governments appear to be withholding understanding of the seriousness of the coming impact of Fukushima emanations on the health of humans over a large region. Fukushima is considered to be much worse than Chernobyl according to the journal Environmental Indicators.Tepco has been developing robots, which can swim under water and negotiate obstacles in damaged tunnels and piping to search for the melted fuel rods.But as soon as they get close to the reactors, the radiation destroys their wiring and renders them useless so the region is still uninhabitable. Ironically, work is still underway in housing the damaged Chernobyl structure while the resulting human health problems are still emerging.
648. Ironically, despite the range of problems stemming from Fukushima, China and India are installing nuclear reactors to supply electrical energy rather than coal-fired power stations. The increasing demand for electricity coupled with policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is fostering this dangerous development.Many of the nuclear reactors closed down after the Fukushima disaster have now resumed operation, largely because Japanese industry is so dependent on domestic sources of energy.This is despite the warnings of Japanese nuclear experts. Nuclear power will supply some electrical energy but they will still have to import oil to provide fuel for land, sea and air transport as long as possible! The aging of Japanese society is another symptom of the malaise that will gradually afflict countries as they continue to use up natural material wealth in the vain pursuit og the material standard of living that goes with economic growth.
649. The Fukushima nuclear disaster may be having an impact on various marine species but the evidence to date is inconclusive. The radionuclide spewing into the Pacific Ocean can harm all living things. The melting starfish is only one of prominent examples of a range of unusual marine phenomenon being examined by specialists. The mass die-off of twelve starfish species is unprecedented.Theories for the cause of the starfish die-off include ocean acidification, warming ocean water making starfish more susceptible to infection and even radiation from the Fukushima power plant disaster. This problem is also affecting coral and shellfish.
650. These unusual marine events include giant Lion's Mane jellyfish found in Tasmanian waters. As foremost jellyfish expert Lisa-ann Gershwin describes in Stung!, the jellyfish population bloom is highly indicative of the tragic state of the world’s ocean waters. They have caused numerous problems including having a serious impact on aquaculture and clogging the cooling water system of a nuclear power plant. Jellyfish are likely to be the supreme survivors of the marine ecosystem catastrophe. The situation with regard to sardines, salmon, sea lions, orcas, seals and other ocean animals are also being examined. Mass Scallop Die Off a 'Red Flag' for the World's Oceans is the view of some marine experts. Oysters are no better of. A massive school of anchovies, looking like an oil slick, that appeared recently near shore off La Jolla, California amazed marine experts.The death of polar bears by starvation is another possible symptom of the deleterious consequences of this human made disaster although loss of sea ice due to climate change is deemed to be a contributing factor.
651. Numerous studies and gathering of evidence in such programs as World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic Program.are providing insight into the impact of climate change for those prepared to look. The sudden demise of polar bears, including the low survival rate of cubs, is regarded as just one of the canaries warning of what has gone wrong. Some thoughtful people have the view "The world does not fit into the rational boxes we construct. It is beyond our control and finally our comprehension. We have lost the capacity for reverence. We slew those who tried to warn us. Now we slay ourselves." This profound view of reality has been help by a small number of rational people in various communities for millennia without appropriate remedial action by anthropocentric societies. They will have to wake up to that reality during this century.  
652. UN authorities (Environment Program (UNEP) have assessed the ongoing deleterious impact of climate change on coral reefs in the Caribbean and South Pacific and the associated social (in the 52 Small Island Developing States who have not contributed to the onset of climate change) and biosphere consequences. Many Australian bodies are concerned with the impact of climate change and industrial activities on the Great Barrier Reef off the north-east coast.
653.  Evidence is being collected on the impact on the health of humans (including birth defects) and other organisms (including the die-off of bald eagles) in North America from the radionuclids flow across the Pacific from the Fukushima fallout. It is causing concern in many quarters. Defined by seven decades of deceit, denial and a see-no-evil dearth of meaningful scientific study, the glib corporate assurances that this latest reactor disaster won’t hurt us fade to absurdity.
654. Pollutants linked to 450 percent increase in risk of birth defects in rural China is another indicator of the deleterious impact of industrial operations on aspects of human health. Numerous global studies have provided evidence of the growth of this worrisome issue.
655. Studies have shown that the risk of more nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima is much higher than governments and the nuclear industry are prepared to admit. For example the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) suggests that even a small nuclear reactor pool fire could render up to 9,400 square miles uninhabitable, displacing more than 4 million Americans. The long term damage to human health over a wide area resulting from Chernobyl has not received the publicity that is warranted.Even now, new born children have congenital heart disease due to radio activity from that nuclear disaster. Three Mile Island (U.S.) and Windscale (England) received some publicity but there have been about one hundred nuclear power plant accidents and there is a high probability of more major ones in the future.
656. The unsustainable production of electronic devices because of the limited ability to extract from the crustal stock the many rare earth minerals needed is an unanticipated problem as yet. China has been the main supplier of the seventeen elements  in the rare earth category but their remaining resources are of lower quantity so their extracting and processing is not so ecologically as well as economically viable. many commentators focus on the financial aspects of the supply and demand of these irreplaceable materials. A common mistake is to consider only these two issues when what is physically viable can be the deciding issue.The mining is not environmentally friendly but it also entails the use of natural resources to supply the 'irreplaceable' energy and materials. Stocks of rare earth minerals will become frozen assets as the availability of mining machinery declines. They will become beyond reach, as with many other natural material resources, including oil. Society will have to up to the withdrawal of the associated information processing and communication services.
657. The modern digital revolution—with its hallmarks of computer power, connectivity and data ubiquity—has brought iPhones and the internet, not crowded tenements and cholera. But, as a report explains, it is disrupting and dividing the world of work on a scale not seen for more than a century. Vast wealth is being created without many workers; and for all but an elite few, work no longer guarantees a rising income. Ironically, society has yet to realize that this is an unsustainable process. The ability to supply and operate the devices forming the basis of this revolution will decline rapidly in the future.
658. Isis has turned the internet into the most effective propaganda tool ever only because the means of doing this promotion of their views is temporarily common and cheap.
659. The mad rush to buy the latest form of TV to watch shows on a multitude of channels is one of the indicators of the insanity that well off consumers have acquired by dent of the diet of propaganda that has been served up; Their ancestors did not have such a luxury and their descendants will also have to do without. They will have to relearn how to entertain family and friends by doing something.
660. Artificial intelligence is commonly regarded as a developing science for clever people by those who do not know that it really is artificial. It does not have the embedded self organization and self regulation that have evolved in natural organisms, particularly, but not exclusively, homo sapiens. Also it is being installed in systems made of materials and running on electricity that have limited lives. So artificial intelligence (AI) is a delusion of homo sapiens that will not last.
661. The limitation on the production of digital devices means the demise of the digital revolution this century with the consequential unimaginable impact (good and bad) on information storage, communication, banking, security and relaxation slowly hitting society in the years ahead.
662. The latest innovation is printable robots. Doubtless many people will become entranced with this capability without realizing that this fad cannot last. Those clever people who have developed robots who play football are in for a disappointing time as their innovative devices inevitable expire and cannot be replaced. Smart people will have avoided becoming dependent on robots to any degree.
663. Some innovations, such as the UBER which is transforming urban transportation, are very worthwhile improvement in available services. Travelers will become addicted to its convenience but how long technological innovation will continue to be available is questionable.
664. The ready availability of online services has had a tremendous influence on social activities, particularly for the young although oldsters are not immune to this easy means of communication. It is a feature of the extravagant operation of civilization that is similar to the delight in driving and flying. How will society cope with the demise of these endangered activities?
665. The emerging possibility that terrorists will use a wifi virus to disable the operations of communities will die off as their technological means disappear. However, their emerging power is currently creating havoc in many, particularly Euopean, countries. This is but one example of increasing risks resulting from the growing complexity. This is another unsustainable process because of its dependence on temporary systems.
666. The growing concern amongst the masses that their affairs are being monitored by security and commercial organizations will be alleviated as the ability to process vast amounts of data  inevitably declines some time in the future. So one problem eases just as others become more worrisome.
667. Ironically this intractable decline will coincide with the demise of the Green Revolution as the use of fossil fuels in the food production process runs out. 
668. The growing conversion of hard copies of historic information to a digital form is based on the fallacious assumption of  the continued existence of digital systems and of the electricity to operate them.
669. Moves are afoot to reduce the financially losing postal services in a number of countries because the digital revolution has decreased  the demand for letters. These moves are based on the fallacious presumption that the digital revolution is sustainable. And re-installing snail mail services in the future will post a demand on natural resources that will be hard to satisfy.
670. Vast amounts of  digital information is being secretly collected and processed to gain personal knowledge for commercial and security use in an erosion of values. But that cannot last for fundamental physical reasons  seemingly beyond the ken of these gatherers of information. They are absorbed in the problem of extracting knowledge from the trillions of bytes so have no wisdom themselves!
671. While the knowledge embedded in electronic systems is transient, the knowledge obtained over centuries and contained in tangible form in books and documents is not necessarily transient. The British Library is just one of many stores of acquired knowledge that can possibly survive the inevitable decline as these stores are more robust than the electronic ones. No doubt the preservation of the stocks in libraries will be fostered during the powering down but that will be in competition with other needs.
672. Trolling on the internet is a rapidly growing insidious operation of the minority of maladjusted individuals. The current ease by which they can relieve their frustrations by using electronic devices, however, is a transient phenomenon. Their withdrawal behavior as the devices inevitably die off could well pose other problems.
673. The internet does facilitate realistic journalism without the common media constraints at a time when these realistic views can make a significant contribution in the developing difficult times. Organizations are using the internet to present realistic views on what is happening rather than the biased views of the mainstream media. There are moves to continue to support independent analysts in their battle against mainstream media disinformation. However, their positive influence is very dependent on the continuing availability of the technology. So this supply of valuable information is not sustainable! How much it can contribute to the inevitable powering down of society is open to speculation.
674. The latest innovative technology is M2M (machine to machine) devices that automatically convey information from one device to another, so saving people from having to decide mundane activities. No doubt naive people will fill the pockets of the those selling these devices - for a while. Unfortunately, do not have one human characteristic. These devices do not naturally reproduce! They are made by other machines from irreplaceable natural material resources under the direction of skilled people who make money as a consequence.
675. The evolution of the internet has given birth to hackers who delight in proving how clever they are by manipulating digital information in a manner that embarrasses governments down to individuals. Ironically, their demise is as certain as that of their weapons of mass delusion.
676. Cyber crime and cyber warfare are rapidly growing fields of endeavor for clever people who do not understand that it is an unsustainable activity as the demise of the tangible digital devices that host their algorithms is certain in the not too distant future. But viruses such as Stuxnet are already causing problems. The attack on the Sony Pictures film "The Interview" by untraceable hackers is a current example of the exponentially growth of this social malfeasance that will inevitably peak and then contract due to doses of physical reality. The people guilty of this warfare will become bewildered as their weapons die on them.
677. Ironically, cyberchondria is a rapidly growing disease that will be treated by the demise of online technology sometime in the future.Many people believe that they can use online search engines to get cheap answers to their health issues. Authorities in various fields are considering how best to deal with this problem. The cure, however, is out of their hands as the demise of the electronic device foundations in coming decades is certain.It is to be hoped that the medical profession  rises to this challenge as health issues grow due to the aging population.
678. 3D printers are an innovation that is stimulating many worthwhile manufacturing activities as they are more efficient in the use of skill, materials and time whilst they are available. It is a process that has similar characteristics to automation in that it produces goods more effectively. However, this does not take into account the two facts that the goods are made of irreplaceable materials and that they irrevocably age and will end up as material waste.The time will come when the printers will no longer be produced while the knowledge and processes they replaced will have been lost.
679. Robotics is a blossoming field now because the proponents have the object to harness the outcome of their intelligence. They do not worry about the fact that the manufacture of these short life devices out of materials and the supply of electricity to operate them are  unsustainable processes.Their cleverness is myopic.
680.  Neurological researchers have gained a sufficient  understanding of how the extremely complex human brain operates to know that computer based artificial intelligence cannot possibly emulate this natural process. Computer scientists, however, beg to differ and laud what has been achieved while down playing unintended deleterious consequences.
681. "Like typing and touching before it, Perceptual Computing promises to deliver the next stage in the evolution of the human-machine interface." is the type of comment seemingly knowledgeable people say. The reality, of course, is very different. The development (not evolution) of the human-machine interface is not a sustainable process. Human naturally reproduce. Machines do not.  They are made of materials out of the crustal store and then end their short lives as scrap material.
682. Many operations are now dependent on GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, which have limited lives. The dependence on these systems is increasing rapidly even though they are, like all electronic devices, unlikely to exist next century. How will society cope with the withdrawal of the ability of these devices to provide information and guide operations?  What will be done when the power grid fails because of loss of the GPS synchronizing or the banking system goes down?
683. biomimicry or biomimetics is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature by people for the intended purpose of solving complex human problems.These emulations, however, generally lack the self-organization and self-regulation that have evolved in natural systems. They stem from the delusion that humans are clever enough to beat the natural forces that have evolved. Society acclaims the benefits of aircraft being able to fly like birds. However, they ignore the fact that birds gather the energy to fly from naturally reproducing food while aircraft use fuel out of the depleting crustal store. Also, birds naturally reproduce while aircraft have to be constructed out of a range of depreciating materials.
684. The Australian fire beetle has the intriguing ability to tell from a distance where a bushfire is occurring and then head to the fire. They then procreate in the embers where they have no reason to fear predators. Fire services would dearly love to be able to emulate the fire sensing ability of these beetles.
685. The military are changing their strategies in response to developing circumstances with the use of drones as a weapon becoming quite common despite the fact that they are only a temporary expedient as the ability to conduct mechanized warfare declines due to lack of materials in the crustal store while the form of opposition changes. Cyber warfare is rearing its ugly head.
686. However. the military/industrial complexes still exercise unrealistic influence on economies and ecology as they do not take into account that the forces of Mother Nature are the real opposition to the malignancies in civilization.
687. Whales cannot cope with the sonar emissions that countries employ in looking for enemy vessels in the oceans. Despite whale hunting being an activity of various countries for a long time, they are not an enemy of society! However, they do occupy a place in the marine food chain. They have to try to cope with the rapid changes being wrought by the operations of industrialized civilization.  

Of course, many of these deleterious events will have only localized impact while others will become globalized. Some, such as climate change, are already causing a degree of concern that will grow rapidly as it is a major natural trauma. Many of these events will only be temporary as people devise means of rectifying them. Others, however, are irreparable. Only some of these events will have sufficient impact to affect the views of society and how they behave in the short term. Liebig's Law of the Minimum has been fallaciously quoted as a factor in determining what will happen. Many of the listed factors have a degree of interdependence. But the holistic situation is that the irreversible physical operations in aggregate will ensure the demise of the infrastructure of industrialized civilization, Tityas, this century with a consequential die off of the population. The best that society can do is to install measures to ease the inevitable powering down without reliance on unsustainable technological innovation.

Some government and non-government organizations are already addressing a number of these issues in a positive manner. The purpose of this list is to encourage thinking people to make a contribution to this remedial process as it will ease the inevitable powering down for some although it cannot remedy the holistic malaise. Smart young people could well foster the Earth's Lodgers' Activity Movement (ELAM), a means of encouraging people to live with what nature provides.

It will encourage smart people to bear in mind the positive measures that have been and are being implemented in endeavors to remedy some aspects of the malfeasance of our civilization. The list below of these positive measures is bound to grow as groups of smart people use their intelligence to be innovative

1. The Club of Rome published "Limits to Growth" in 1976 in which a mathematical model of the operation of the economy indicated that it would peak and then contract as the availability of the natural resources that it used declined. Subsequent comparisons of predictions of the model with what has actually happened have shown that its principles were sound. However, economists argued that it was unsound and governments and businesses have ignored the prognostications. They still encourage  policies to promote economic growth - without taking into account the immutable ecological cost..

1.   A Transition town, or more generally a "transition initiative", is a grass root community project that seeks to build resilience in response to "peak oil", climate change, and economic instability by creating local groups that uphold the values of the transition network. Local projects are usually based on the model's initial '12 ingredients' and later 'revised ingredients'. The first initiative to use the name was Transition Town Totnes, founded in 2006. The socioeconomic  movement is an example of fiscal localism. Since then, many Transition groups have started around the United Kingdom (UK) and, in recent years, the world. The Commons Transition Plan is waiting for its next iteration, in which the knowledge commons are not the only commons to be considered a priority, but would be rather seen as a more general, fully physical, transformation towards a commons economy based on the commonification of land, money and labor as well.