Can we do anything to stop the panic ?

 
I am not worried about the future of the planet, but a heck of a lot of thinking Westerners are , and that deeply affects the mood of our nations.
We as westerners are in a jumpy mood and that is not good.


We need IMO, more than anything,  to find a place of rest and sound vistas of hope that will slow down the rush to deal with both real and perceived crisis. Yes,  there are real threats and we must face them and find a more stable and secure way forward. 







In particular we need to find hope in the way we manage the earth and its resources ; The science of earth SE and the science of human belligerence SHB,  I will call them, 
There are many worries and soundly based threats here in our communities and they are complex and interrelated, but one driver stands out. The need to best transition to using less fossil fuels, LFF 

The Fossil fuel focus FF is sound, but the mood of panic about it is not.

The fossil fuel threat must be squarely faced but not with blunt instruments ; not with more hastily chosen swords and targets, but with a process; a process that involves more than a label on a bottle. 
My blog on the drug culture 

The solution is to stop quick fix and commit to slow fix.  The solution is not quick but slow and painful.   The solution is not one cause and driver but many, Our challenges are ecological ( interrelated) not so much technological (as individual causes and solutions)  

What will help the community transition is if our people see that the drive to edge of the cliff started a long time ago . If we  the  citizens see the drug culture for what it is,( and our part in it ) we can safely drive away from it . But we have to do it together. 

  Roads near cliffs are normal but if you go to fast  even the right road won't save you . And then there is the question of which roads will end in disaster and which roads will carry you around disaster. 
   

Can governments help us if we chose the wrong road? Do governments really know which are the best roads. Lots of people know how to drive and not one of us like someone to tell us which roads to drive on , Maybe it would be cheaper and more effective if we were taught how to drive near the edge, 

 

We in the West are moving too fast 

In Australia,  like in the USA , we have leaders and large groups of people who want everything to change quickly. The greens are right about a few things but until they go to confession on the need for slow fix,and avoid the quick fix, they are just part of the problem.    

--USA  Trump wants Tariff control

--AUSTRALIA Bowen wants Net Zero and complete carbon dioxide control. 

--VICTORIA 

Let me use VICTORIA as a example of the ongoing dangers of the drug culture there.

Economically it once was the economic powerhouse of a country that is so rich that it can afford a drug culture; weird but true. 
 A few years ago its leaders drove it to the wall. In June 25,  as I write, Victoria is in great turmoil. Its leaders have blindly again chosen only one drug out of the cabinet ( called renewables ) and while there is a significant amount of that part solution,  they have forgotten that by insisting on only one solution they have depleted the drug cabinet of the energy sources in most short supply - the GAS needed to support renewables when they do not provide power .  To understand just how badly they have botched any transition away from FF read TODAYS news. To understand just how badly they have botched the Gas matters ( in Greenlabor churches you are not even allowed to mention that evil thing called GAS )  Notice how they focus on water heating TODAY when they could have done something to reduce gas space heating ( their next big target surely ) 20 years ago ( see my many  blog posts on this  going back 10 years at least ) 

Andrews wanted complete control of evil things in the State of Victoria. He nearly sent that State broke chasing his own single-minded picture of what he needed to do to deal with a threat ( COVID )

He, like his associates, have yet to realize that they are not only not good economists ( they don't really understand and respect freemarkets)  but also very BAD ECOLOGISTS in practice (they meddle and interfere in markets) 
 

The future is always in being SOUND ECOLOGISTS ( slow fix ) That way we don't end up buying expensive quickfix
DRUGS.  

You don't solve a microbiological threat by killing off (demonizing) one virus or bacteria when many of the other components of the system ( eg various bacteria, fungi substrates) can help reduce the threat posed by one of them.  

You don't solve our coming profound shortages of Fossil fuels by just calling out one factor or one solution .

The solution is always the ECO solution.  A slow fix and never these quick fixes which send us to the edge very quickly 

I have dealt very inadequately in each of the above cases. If you know someone who talks to the drug culture better, please send us the links.  

I went to London to an ARC conference in February in a desperate mood. Not a desperate to change mood ( anything but) but a rather desperate attempt to see whether anyone else was not in a jumpy mood ; to see if any applied scientists were concerned that they weren't being heard in the panic.
Sure enough, we all were , there were but not nearly enough scientist  ( it costs ) and the great range of people were mainly concerned with SHB - how humans react to crisis. i am sure the physicist and biochemists are out there somewhere but maybe with all the simple noise about what they know is  complex, they keep quiet. ---- just like I am told to do.  
It seems that while there is no public service agents saying [CO2] is not the issue, the mood was to reject net zero outright as a crude fixed and ineffective political response that will only send our States broke for no appreciable benefit.
New technology yes , but net zero and the way it half-truths distorts both the problem and the solutions - No. 



Are scientists talking ?     
There were lots of convincing economists and social observers, but not the applied physicists for eg   we need to at least review the decades of dismissal of the lonely voice of Plimer to say [CO2] did not need to be used to drive LFF and the latest incarnation of a plan called Net Zero. 
A review is only proper as the name of the problem has in last 2 decades changed from AGW to CC and the solutions changed from anything to everything; from a few things carbon to denying everything carbon,
For 16 years you can't get a job as a scientist in the public service in Australia unless you agree that Carbon is evil. Such hypocrisy, false authority and thought control breeds the corruption and desperation of those in the public service . 


Are the scientist agreed ? 
Yes we agreed that we need a public service that is truly independent of the political process, Don't often get one but we must strive to get one
.
One great thing about the conference was that we all agreed that we in the West no longer had them and it was harder than ever to keep our research institutions independent when the funding of Western universities was increasingly politically controlled. 
Those who just can the rich for wanting to support research and new schools are not helping. Those who ignore the huge dead weight of so many Universities and schools are not helping either. 

More independent schools are proposed but just having more young people who have studied physics and chemistry working in regions would help. I haven't even mentioned the value of that for mediating discussions about ignorant threats by those who wanna say ---stop the use of chemicals for eg 
While our politics is determined by the ignorance of the Greens we will be served up and have to deal with ignorance.     

Briefly then Here in Victoria here and now 
For me at least, sacrificing our children to try and get to net zero is a quick fix mistargeted aim to change the world that simply will not work. Things that don't work only create more panic. One of my FB pages @conservation that works 

Most of us Aussies at ARC could see the risk of isolated Australians sitting in their bark huts feeling self-righteous and getting cold because their dream of a new type of battery with a solar panel and a windmill outside isn't ever going to work-- on its own. By having more energy sources we can balance the transition, The quick fixers in charge have yet to realize that they have too quickly and consistently cut off their noses (options ) to spite their faces, They don't realize that by ignoring gas as a component of the way renewables will work, they have not planned to get more of it when it and the base loads like nuclear are needed. 

The transition away from coal oil and gas will never be to net zero - that aim will never be a reality or a reasonable goal because we need to respect the role of the carbon economy and use it --  not in some fit of self- righteousness try and avoid it. 

Leaving our children with no options is the opposite of offering them a future