Fun and Games with Bitcoin

The ups and downs of the digital currency, Bitcoin, is generating a vast amount of speculation in financial circles. Most people will have been bewildered by this innovation. They have been used to dealing with real money and have a degree of understanding of how inflation and deflation affects their decisions. The volatility of Bitcoin is beyond their comprehension. Many of those who have tried this digital currency have had their fingers burnt while others are hoping that the price of the Bitcoin they have acquired will make them rich by growing exponentially.

Intangible money is a means of buying tangible goods and services. Speculation in dollars, euros and other real currencies by investors, banks, financial managers and governments does not hide the fundamental usage of money to pay for those goods and services that are available. These goods and services are produced by irreversibly using up the limited supply of natural material resources, including those providing the necessary energy to do the work. That is an unsustainable process. So potency of real money will decline as these resources become scarcer. Economic contraction will set in, despite the protestations of economists.

Bitcoin will inevitably share the fate of real money after causing a lot of confusion amongst those who fallaciously believe it can cope with reality.

The Grand Delusion

The proposal to build a high speed rail link from Melbourne to Brisbane via Canberra and Sydney is being discussed in government and industrial circles with support from the media. The success of such ventures in a number of countries is put forward as a good reason to improve transportation between these major eastern Australian cities. Financial, economic, employment, social and environmental factors have been weighed up in these considerations. The lessons learned in other high speed rail implementations have been taken into account in the proposal. They convey the impression that Australian economy would be markedly boosted by the link without any serious deleterious environmental or social consequences.

This proposal is a typical example of the myopic view of the powerful in society. It takes into account only the practicalities of its installation and the perceived benefits. It does not mention the consumption of vast amounts of the limited stored natural resources for its construction, operation and maintenance. It blithely ignores the fact that the rail system would have a limited lifetime. But, of course, that failure to take into account reality is not an Australian characteristic. It is a global disease. The powerful in society have the grand delusion that technological systems can everlastingly provide human beings with services by conjuring natural resources out of thin air!

Use it or lose it

There are numerous gas basins in eastern Australia and very few of them have been exploited to date. There are moves to install more processing plants as the demand for energy grows while the extraction of oil globally becomes more difficult. The logic that proponents of these developments are putting forward in aiming to get support is 'use it or lose'. This is the logic that has been used by world wide societies for centuries as they have exploited a wide range of natural resources to enable the the production of goods and the construction of infrastructure that have been the hall mark of civilization. The mining of coal, iron ore, uranium and other minerals have contributed significantly to the growth in the Australian economy.

This myopic view is a characteristic of the societies in industrialized countries. It is tantamount to the making use of the value of inputs without taking into account the inevitable waste outputs. Society is only now coming to grips with the rapid climate change that the wastes from fossil fuel providing energy, much of which goes up in fumes in traffic congestion!

But this production of wastes is not the only deleterious impact of this extraction of natural resources. Society is now addicted to the goods and services provided by this unsustainable process. All the implementation gas processing plants will do is maintain this dependence for a while longer and make the inevitable withdrawal even harder to cope with.

The proposal is akin to a tobacco company selling the benefits of smoking!

Earthly Revolution

Around the world, the young are enthusiastically embracing the the flood of electronic devices that enables instant gratification of demand for entertainment, communication with friends and many other services, including on-line shopping and banking. The rush of information is overwhelming for many, especially the elderly. It makes them feel impotent. Many of the young would like the satisfaction of doing something useful with the information handling capabilities and skills they have acquired. Something that they boast about to friends and even their parents! They would like to be like the celebrities they see on TV.

Some of the smart ones are anticipating the explosive growth of the Earthly Revolution. They want to be in the van guard. So they are using the internet to gain understanding of what is really happening. They know politicians adopt only policies that will improve their chances of re-election. They know businesses will do anything to increase their profits. They know the media are out to boost their audience. They know that even the universities have courses educating students into how to make money by marketing goods that will be thrown away to make way for the latest. But they also know there are forums on the internet that provide understanding put forward by the unbiased specialists in the range of fields governing what is actually happening in the operation of our civilization. They do not proffer the hype distortions that abound in the mainstream media.

Moreover, these smart youngsters also know that there are scientists knowledgeable in their fields who have been describing what has been actually happening. Climatologists are just one example.They have copious amounts of evidence of what is happening to sea ice, the marine ecosystem, icebergs, glaciers and xxxx.Anthropologists have described how the societies of many civilizations have collapsed for a vaiety of political, economic, social and ecological reasons. They know the current industrialized civilization is heading down that intractable path.

These youngsters want to address the challenge  of making the best possible use of the remaining natural resources. They want to slow down the devastation of the environment and the extinction of flora and fauna. They want to be proud of making a contribution that their grandchildren will be able to boast about.

The jobs mix: good and bad

People want jobs to earn money to pay for their needs and wants while putting a little aside for retirement. Businesses provide jobs to make and sell their useful and useless products and services to the workers while making profits that will ensure a pleasant retirement. Governments promote economic growth policies that encourage the creation of jobs without taking into account the true value of many of the job categories.

Let us rate the value to society and the environment of a range of job categories. Governments, economists, businesses and the media do not take into account what jobs do to the environment but we will because we are realists and they are illusionists. We will list the categories in our perceived order of value. So most people will need to go towards the bottom of the list to find the category that seems to indicate what they do for a living. That will encourage them to think and maybe they will becomes realists rather than pragmatists.

Here we go:

1. providing understanding of the damge the operation of the systems of civilization are irrevocably doing to the natural life support system
2. providing the young, aged and disadvantaged in society with aid, care and compassion
3. teaching and lecturing on how to use sound information to develop useful physical and mental skills
4. providing knowledge on how to manage biodiversity to limit the harm being done by human-introduced measures, including irrigation for farming 
5. teaching and lecturing on how society can manage a sustainable life style using a minimum of natural resources
6. providing essential health, policing, information,organizational, management, banking, housing, food, energy and  water supply, sanitation, maintenance, transportation services together with recreational and remedial facilities.
7. promoting beneficial physical and mental activities, including participation in sport, playing musical instruments, having stimulating hobbies and enjoying social groups
8. being an engineer who specializes in the maintenance and prolonging the effective operational life of all forms of infrastructure, including land, sea and air vehicles together with roads, tunnels and bridges.
9. promoting devices to save on using energy on the pretext that will help to stop climate change
10. farming using fertilizers, pesticides and machinery
11. teaching and lecturing on how to achieve a high material standard of living
12. driving trucks through cities loaded with containers 
13. mining irreplaceable natural resources
14. mining coal, oil and natural gas for export to make money for foreign and local investors 
15. promoting, marketing and selling stuff that sales-addicted people do not really want
16. contributing to the design and construction of high rise buildings that will be dependent on the continuing availability of services during their lifetime

Many of the jobs at the bottom of the list will vanish down the black sink hole as realism takes over from the delusion that society has had for in recent times.

climate change bombshell

Climate change has hit the headlines again with the release of the latest IPCC report. Many prominent people, including the Prime Minister of Australia, voice their skepticism of the findings of the report. They do not believe that human activities could have had such a major impact. That is because they are so selective in their views and arguments. They have only to open their eyes to see what cities, skyscrapers, roads, airports, grids and numerous other items of infrastructure  have already done to the environment. The contribution to climate change is just one of the deleterious impacts of this growth and operation of infrastructure. But they will not do that because being realistic is not on their agenda. They mindlessly promote economic growth and to hell with the consequences.

Numerous scientists have devoted their careers to obtaining evidence on what is happening to various aspects of the climate, the associated response of flora and fauna and the impact on terrestrial and marine eco systems. Ironically, many organisms, such as beetles, are doing a better job of adapting to the changing climate than people! Scientists (unlike politicians) subject their findings to s systematic peer group review and this tends to make them conservative.

This has had the unfortunate effect of reducing the pressure on society to implement measures that will ameliorate the impact of the irreversible climate change (by reducing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels) and others that will help society to adapt to increasing storms, more floods and droughts together with rising sea levels.

However, there are bodies of concerned and knowledgeable people who are not so constrained in providing insight into the stark physical realities that will inevitably have to be faced. Arctic News provides insight into just one of these climate change bombshells , the Arctic Methane Monster. This is providing a valuable service, a wake up call. But will the powerful in society hear it above the rustle of dollars?

The demise of civilization

A short history of civilization provides insight into developments and what the future will be. Hunter-gather societies made way to farming communities in many regions thousands of years ago as our ancestors became more knowledgeable and acquired better tools. This development occurred at different rates around the globe for a variety of reasons, including the influence of climate. It led to towns as a greater range of skills were acquired and cities followed. An elite led these developments with the workers providing the diversified labor and skills. The needs of the populace increased from food, water, clothing and shelter to gradually embrace the wide range of goods and services that a high proportion of the current global population now take for granted.

Some civilizations carried this development too far. The Sumerians developed a very knowledgeable society but they went too far in their agriculture using irrigation. Salination spoilt the soil so the civilization went into decay despite their advanced culture and now the country is mainly desert. Easter Islanders suffered a similar fate as they used up limited natural resources, partly to build idols. The Norse in Greenland did not learn from the Inuit about how to obtain food in the harsh climate. They employed unsuitable European agriculture while not being able to catch seals.

However, in the main, the global civilization developed although at different rates. Industrialization enabled the use of stored natural resources such as coal and oil to produce the goods and services that became the foundation of a high material standard living for millions in the developed countries. Society embraced this progress without understanding the real cost. The transient material wealth of civilization was being obtained by irreversibly drawing down the natural material wealth that had evolved over eons.

The current infrastructure provides many in the global community with a range of services that are now taken for granted. Well established cities such as London, Paris, New York and Tokyo have a variety range of services used by their residents and visitors almost unthinkingly while many skilled workers use natural resources for their operation and maintenance. Even the newer cities consume vast amount of natural resources and spew out material wastes day by day.

This infrastructure is like a gigantic organism feeding on natural resources and emitting wastes, seemingly without control. The powerful in society continue to proclaim the advantages of economic growth without taking into account the divestment of natural wealth. But natural forces are extracting the price of this exuberance so civilization is entering into its senescence and its demise this century is certain.

It is ironical that current society has not learned anything from the demise of so many previous civilizations. They enthusiastically embrace the wonders of technological innovations without counting the cost or the unintended consequences. Climate change, ocean acidification and the pollution due to toxic wastes