Author: AZStranger

Son, father, brother, husband and human.
Life learner...

Categories
Economics Politics

Just the facts*

For 10,000 years the average global surface temperature remained stable within 1°Celsius.

Stable temperature produced consistent weather patterns that allowed humanity to develop farming. Farming allowed humanity to produce surplus food that supported faster population growth, trade, and ultimately modern civilization.

Carbon, methane and other greenhouse gas pollution in the atmosphere causes global warming.

For every 1,000 GtCO2 of carbon in the atmosphere, the average global surface temperature increases 0.45°C.

Since 1850 (about the beginning of the industrial revolution), the accumulated carbon pollution in the atmosphere is 2,390 GtCO2.

Currently, human activity is putting 40 GtCO2 of carbon pollution in the atmosphere per year.

For all the talk about limiting greenhouse gas pollution, the amount of carbon pollution is increasing each year by an increasing amount.

The 60-year average yearly increase in carbon pollution is 1.61%.

The 10-year average yearly increase in carbon pollution is 2.4%.

The 30-year projected average yearly increase in carbon pollution is 3.5%.

We have all noticed the proliferation of extreme weather events in recent years. Huge forest fires throughout the western and Pacific northwestern US, Greece, and Australia. Torrential rainfall and flooding in Tennessee, Germany, Belgium, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Tropical storms escalating into category 4 Hurricanes in Asia and the Gulf of Mexico. Severe heat waves bringing 115°F weather to Portland, Seattle, and as far north as Saskatchewan (Canada).

All these extreme weather events are due to global average surface temperature increasing 1.07°C since 1850.

We currently have more carbon in our atmosphere than the Earth has experienced in 800,000 years.

By comparison, the last ice age ended 15,000 years ago.

At the rate of annual greenhouse gas pollution, global climate scientist estimate average global surface temperature will increase since 1850 by 1.5°C in 2035.

At 1.5°C, the rate and intensity of extreme weather events will be unprecedented in the historical observational record.

And if you think we have plenty of time to reverse the greenhouse pollution in the atmosphere causing global warming, in order to give the planet a 50% chance not to exceed 1.5°C by 2050, our 30-year average annual carbon pollution cannot exceed 16.67 GtCO2.

That is 58% less than our current annual carbon pollution of 40 GtCO2 per year for the next 30 years.

The climate crisis is real, and it is here. The economy exists within the ecology. Get educated on what sustains human life.

*The source of the data cited here is the science basis of the Summary for Policymakers from the UN’s 6th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Every member country of the United Nations has endorsed the findings of the report.

The Summary for Policymakers is 42 pages long (the whole report in almost 4,000 pages long).

Here is the link for your review:

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#SPM
Categories
Personal Growth Philosophy

You Are a Part of Me I Do Not Yet Know…

Sounds Utopian…I know, but truth often is.

Everyone who contributes to my wellbeing IS a part of me because I would not be me without them.

Let’s take a personal inventory.

Who produced the food we ate today?
Who produced the clothes we wore today?
Who built the house or apartment we live in today?
Who made the bed we sleep on each night?
Who paved the roads we drive on each day on the way to work?
Who built the car we drive each day?
How many people had to do what they do well for us to have a good day?

I hope you get my point.

If you do all that on your own, take a bow.

If not, acknowledge that all those people who support us daily are very much a part of us that we do not yet know.

Next time you meet a “stranger”…remember.

Categories
Personal Growth Philosophy Spirituality

Anatomy of Purpose

Existence is comprised of energy manipulating matter.

Balance is the necessary condition for flow to occur.

Flow is the essential function of energy.

Love is the unimpeded flow of energy.

Wellness is the balance of food, water, rest, and exercise.

Sustainability is the balance of giving and receiving.

Alignment is the balance of experience with wisdom.

Fulfillment is the alignment of sustainable love with wellness.

Purpose is the fulfillment of our existence.

Categories
Personal Growth Philosophy Spirituality

A Virtuous Cycle…

Red blood cells deliver oxygen to all parts of our body allowing us to function, which provides the environment red blood cells need to survive.

When we exhale, we release carbon dioxide into the air. Trees absorb the carbon and use it for photo-synthesis, which produces food as it cleans the air we breathe.

For over 10,000 years, global average temperature stabilized to within 1 degree Celsius. Stable temperature produced predictable weather that allowed humanity to evolve beyond hunter-gatherer, nomadic communities to develop farming, produce surplus food & products for trade, and create modern civilization. This period that cultivated extraordinary human development is called the Holocene.

In our modern society, each of us contribute our most marketable skill in exchange for money, which we use to purchase all the goods and services we need to sustain ourselves.

This is the pattern of existence in Nature…

A virtuous cycle of interdependence and mutual fulfillment.

Yet since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (1850), human productivity has raised global average temperatures beyond 1 degree Celsius. As human activities pushed our ecology out of the Holocene, the impact on biodiversity has been catastrophic with species extinctions exceeding a thousand times the normal rate.

Today, we are within one average lifespan of depleting our soil of essential nutrients, savannization of tropical forests, ocean acidification, and melting of the polar icecaps.

The virtuous cycle has been broken.

We now face a choice: innovate a modern economic system that supports ecological sustainability, or participate in the sixth mass extinction event.

Categories
Personal Growth Philosophy Social Evolution

The Matrix Exposed

If you believe you are a stone cold realist who sees truth as it actually is, consider…

Are you free?

Free to choose your life’s vocation unconstrained by how much money you will make?

Free to spend your non-working and sleeping time doing the activities you enjoy most?

Free to invest the time you need to build healthy relationships with family and friends?

Are you independent?

How much of what you do is reliant on what other people have done?

Of all the words you have thought or spoken, which ones did you create?

How much of what you need to survive daily do you (or can you) produce?

Does self-interest really serve you?

Every hurdle you face to all you desire is due to other people advancing their own self-interest.

Is competition really a good thing?

Every person you defeat in the competition for resources is a person you may need to rely on for the goods and services that support you.

The conventional wisdom inherent to each of these bolded questions is the Matrix.

Truth resides in your responses.

Categories
Economics Personal Growth Social Evolution

The Urgency of Now


As Americans, the virtues we are encouraged to use as guideposts for success impede our personal fulfillment because they are at odds with how we exist each day.

Nothing in nature lives independently. By design, we all are interdependent on each other and the natural environment that provides for us.

When the cells in our body compete we call the condition cancer. Humanity is functioning like cancer to the ecology that sustains us.

We can’t experience the luxuries of our modern lives based only on what our family, friends, and people like us produce. Self interest at the expense of the common interest is self defeating.

Once we remember we survive daily based on the contributions of many people we will never know, the well being of all of us becomes as important as our own well being.

Why must we remember now?

We face global challenges beyond the capacity of self interest to mitigate:

1. Climate crisis – we are within 15 years of exceeding average global surface temperature increase since 1850 of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

2. Income & wealth inequality is destroying democratic institutions and destabilizing national governments, which is leading to severe polarization and mass migration of under resourced populations.

3. Nuclear weapons proliferation – Iran will be the next nation to obtain nuclear weapons because their most powerful enemies (Israel and U.S.A) have nuclear weapons. This is not new. India responded similarly to Pakistan obtaining nuclear weapons.

4. Technological disruption due to automation and artificial intelligence is displacing low skilled labor and ultimately highly skilled labor. Since technology is owned by the wealthy elites through control of multi-national corporations, income & wealth inequality is exacerbated because income from automated productivity goes to the owners of technology. Masses of people are becoming economically irrelevant.

While our Earth is abundant, self-interest has rendered humanity impotent in the face of extinction level challenges. 

Yet we still have a choice, if only we remember who we are.

Categories
COVID-19 Personal Growth

Nothing to Fear

Are you sovereign?

You appear free, unencumbered by physical constraints, and in possession of the ability to make choices.

Yet look where we are…

Isolated, socially distant, living virtually, hiding behind masks, fearful of strangers…finding security in the magic injections provided by multi-national pharmaceutical companies who demonstrate they are more concerned about profits than saving as many lives as possible.

Are you safe now? Just long enough to buy the next booster shot. More magic from the Wizard.

How did we get so weak?

COVID-19 is more than a virus…it is a metaphor for all the reasons we are encouraged to give away our sovereignty.

Life is filled with many possibilities; some good and some bad. What actually happens in our lives is a function of choices we control and choices beyond our control. When a challenge like COVID-19 appears in our lives, we can choose to put our focus on the choices we can control or defer to choices outside our control.

We can make the choice to support our immune system. COVID-19 preys on compromised immune systems. For healthy, fully supported immune systems, COVID-19 is less dangerous than driving your car.

Or we can succumb to the fear that we are unable to protect ourselves without the paid assistance of a for-profit manufacturer who denies the magic injection to billions of people unable to pay their ransom.

What could go wrong?

For those of us with compromised immune systems, take a look at your medicine cabinet. Notice how what ails you never gets cured? Medication is designed to maintain you in relative ‘comfort’, just for as long as you keep taking it…forever. Will you ever get tired of being someone’s revenue stream?

This is what happens when you give your sovereignty away.

Yet you still have a choice.

Our bodies are designed to heal. Find out what your body needs to produce wellness and do that.

The moment we reclaim our sovereignty, we will realize we have nothing to fear.

Categories
Personal Growth Philosophy

When Less is Truly More…

Wisdom teaches us the only thing we actually know is the truth we are finally ready to realize.

Everything else is opinion tainted by a lifetime of subjective experiences.

As such, the more we know, the more we realize we don’t know.

Yet through this epiphany we discover authentic humility, which slows judgment long enough to create space for more truth to be understood.

Categories
COVID-19 Personal Growth Social Evolution

The Elephant in the Room

We are all victims of cognitive dissonance, inspired by a society based on lies that our souls know aren’t true. Time to call a spade a spade so we can all find peace.

We are not free. If we were, we would spend our time doing what brings us joy.

We are not independent. If we were, we would produce our own air, water, food, shelter, atmospheric pressure, biodiversity, language, and everything else we need to survive.

Competition is toxic when you must compete to eat. Currently, 12% of American households report food shortages. COVID-19 revealed in the competition for resources to take care of ourselves and our families, we are defeating the essential workers of our society…who are amongst the lowest earners in America.

Self-Interest is self-defeating. How long would any of us survive if we had to rely only on what our family and friends produce?

What is true is humanity grew to dominate our planet by working together against our predators. And now that our predators are defeated, we are defeating each other and the natural ecology that sustains us.

To wake up from the nightmare we are living, all we need to do is remember who we are and how we survive each day.

Had enough of this nightmare? Time to wake up and participate in co-creating a world worth living in.

Categories
COVID-19 Economics Social Evolution

Thoughtlessness…Our Persistent Pandemic

How do we get to a place where we fear/hate/harm the hands that serve us?

Democrats hating Republicans…
MAGA hating the establishment political parties…
Rural people hating City Slickers…
Wall Street hating Main Street…
Rich hating Poor…
Capitalists hating Environmentalists…
Us hating Them…
Everyone hating Anyone who hates them first…

Thoughtlessness.

How do we come to accept popular virtues as truth when they are disproved by our actual experience?

Independence…None of us live independently.

Freedom…Financial freedom only buys what other people produce.

Competition…When our bodies produce cells that compete we call it cancer. As such, humanity is a growing cancer in the ecology that sustains us.

Self interest…produced the richest family in America, who employs hundreds of thousands of people that qualify for food stamps.

Thoughtlessness.

When we consider America’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic…

We exercised our freedom to wear a mask or not;

We asserted our independence by socially distancing or not;

We demonstrated our insatiable competitive spirit by reopening local economies far too early;

We revealed the dominant self interest by directing trillions of dollars to Wall Street while a third of all small businesses failed, working class employment plummeted 20%, and 12% of American households report food shortages;

And the culmination is 600,000 pandemic related deaths and counting, 33% of US households expecting eviction or foreclosure due to unemployment, while Wall Street booms (Nasdaq Composite up 43.6% in 2020 vs. 2019) and the billionaire class gained a trillion dollars in new net worth.

Thoughtlessness.

Can we find our way out of the swamp of thoughtlessness?

Absolutely.

Our persistent thoughtlessness pandemic will end the moment a critical mass of us remember who we are…

One human family, interdependently reliant on each other and the natural environment that sustains us.