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The land of the Lost Trace Gases
Click on any cartoon Chapter Six - Land of the Lost Trace Gases-A Chase of the Traceless
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Blog by Dave McArthur 23 March 2009
Definition of energy efficiency/stewardship practice posted on EElist. Saturday night Earth Hour 2009 and my home will be a blaze of light, a symbol of harmony with the universe, a beacon of hope amidst the darkness, despondency and despair around me in Wellington City New Zealand in this hour.
Click to view photos Surely I must be
a perverse, uncaring individual you are thinking. Why would a person
promote the waste of precious resources like this? Well it might not be
quite what it seems. For a start it
will not be apparent that while my lights blazed for Earth Hour last
year I had my hotwater system turned off for a few days to more than
compensate for my consumption of Bulk-generated electricity. No car sits
in my drive. Indeed only a narrow path leads to my cottage surrounded by
mansions. I am woken daily by the roar of jets from the airport below my
cottage yet despite my love of flying I now never board a jet,
travelling instead by the far more expensive rail and bus modes. This
summer while others holidayed on our beaches I spent my few weeks of
annual leave and discretionary funds stripping the south wall off my
cottage so it is now insulated and weatherised. Year in year out almost
all my “spare” time is filled researching out ways of underpinning
with science our communication of the nature of energy, especially its
manifestation as our climate. See www.bonusjoules.co.nz So please bear
with me as I attempt to explain why my dwelling lights glow so during
Earth Hour. It is not ignorance of the issues. Yes, I am aware that it
would take the resources of several planet Earth’s to make the average
New Zealander sustainable. Each day each 1000 of us destroy 38 barrels
of mineral oil plus a huge array of other mineral resources and,yes, I
am sure this is a significant underestimation of our destruction. If
everyone adopted our NZ lifestyle our global civilisation would have
collapsed amidst war, disease and famine decades ago. As it is I
accurately predicted five years ago that mineral oil prices would be
close to $US80 in 2008 and all our credit systems based on $US20 would
begin imploding on scale. I also predicted that if we continue this
abuse of our carbon potential then global warfare is extremely probable
by 2015. Yes, that’s a grim world I am describing. So where is the
hope? These few
thoughts are a summary of scores of thousands of hours of labour in
which I dug deep into our psychology and the role of symbols in our
lives. In particular I have looked at our contemporary use of symbols
pertaining to energy, power, love, science and climate for I figured
these reflect and generate the hopelessness that pervades our current
culture. See sustainable
uses of symbols. At the heart of
it all I found it is our capacity to experience compassion that enables
the continuing survival of the human species in its current grand form.
This capacity enables the existence of hope and science. When these
exist then we are enabled to create art, language, civics and all that
we know as civilisation Thus science is better understood as a state of
being accessible to all, not as a way of thinking accessible to an elite
of “scientists” as our New Zealand culture believes. See The
Compassionate Curriculum Our lack of
compassion and subsequent perversion of the science symbol is
what enables us to trash the planet as we do. Despite all our talk of
caring and stewardship our actions and symbol uses reveal a lack of
compassion and the reality
is that the welfare of our children not an actual consideration. This denial of
stewardship is not easy to discern. Humans have a vast capacity for
rationalisation and self-deception. Agencies devoted to caring and
stewardship are not devoid of this capacity and indeed I discovered that
for a complex of reasons they are particularly vulnerable to becoming
agents of denial of change and stewardship. One reason is the
agencies are popularly perceived as symbols of stewardship and thus
become the target of sponsorship and infiltration by those who need
indulge in Greenwash
of their activities. Also our culture
makes it very convenient and justifiable to use cars, fly in jets, live
in large inefficient dwellings, buy long haul food etc. So even the most
well-meaning folk in these agencies are vulnerable to experiencing
dissonance between their walk and their conscious talk. This dissonance
is manifest in subtle ways often incomprehensible to us. All to often I
have found that agencies and individuals that most call for change and
stewardship actually deny that what they call for. The World Wildlife
Fund is no exception. Now this capacity
for denial of change/stewardship is imbedded into the very structure of
our psyches. We then project it collectively into our institutions. Any
attempt to expose the denial is fraught with the risk of being accused
of mounting a personal attack on the individual or agency. For instance
over the years I have attempted to alert the WWF here and overseas as to
how its activities may well be counterproductive to its stated
objective: “WWF’s ultimate goal is to build a future where people
live in harmony with nature”. I attempted
direct communication with the WWF and also made public attempts to
initiate discussion of my analysis of its Powerswitch
site and its powerful endorsement of Enviroschools
with the NZ Green Party, the national environmental education
programmes that dominates NZ schools this century. For what ever reason
the framework of Enviroschools was deliberately designed to omit the
atmosphere from key considerations, to equate the energy and power
symbols with Bulk-generated electricity and as you can see even its
title frames the focus on the schoolyard rather than the wider
community. Now there were
signs that overseas my analysis was respected with the central website
being radically altered though it still is full of Banker Speak and
destroys science on scale. See sample analysis below. In New Zealand
the WWF rejected my offers to explain my analysis, I was treated with
considerable hostility and dismissed as a “negative” person. This is
very understandable – I have my personality quirks and failings like
any other human being. So I figured if I could establish a general
principle based in science then people might be able to transcend their
personal dislike of me and my general incoherency. And after many
thousands of hours of research and deep reflection a consistent pattern
of behaviour did become apparent, which I encapsulated in the Sustainability
Principle of Energy:. “When a symbol use works
to deny change it will materially alter the potential of the universe
(energy) in a way that results in a reduction in the capacity of the
symbol user to mirror reality. When a symbol use works for the
acceptance of change it will increase the capacity of the symbol user to
mirror reality.” Put
more simply: "The more we accept
change/stewardship the greater the harmony we know. The more we deny
change/stewardship the greater the misery we know." The
Sustainability Principle is born out of the two great Principles of
Energy - Conservation Principle and the Uncertainty Principle - and if
either are ever proven untrue then Sustainability Principle can also be
dismissed as unhelpful and maladaptive. It is thus based on concepts
that energy is as bountiful as the universe and whether we like it or
not we are stewards of the forms it can be manifest in. One of those
transient forms is human beings and in accepting change we are accepting
our own mortality – something most readers would admit we self-styled
homo “sapiens” are only too capable of denying. I mentioned the
central role of compassion in sustaining us. We each have our limits on
our capacity to enjoy compassion and we each retain a psychopathic
element i.e. an element that simply does not care for the welfare of
other sentient beings. This psychopathy is manifest in our large
corporations. Indeed the movie The
Corporation (Downloadable here at Part
one and Part
two ) makes a very persuasive case that our modern corporations
fit the CIA definition of a psychopath. They are driven by short-term
imperatives and have only token regard for the impacts of their
activities on the balances that sustain our children. They are founded
in a lack of compassion. At the heart of
these corporations is an oligarchy of bankers and their psychopathy is
such that they are driven by desires to control the wealth of our
planet. Their lifestyles are ferociously destructive of the balances and
resources that sustain us. Many readers will now be very aware of the
misery these bankers are generating as they watch their own wealth
rapidly dissipating as credit systems based on lies and deceit collapse. These bankers
take all our great symbols and destroy the science in them for the sake
of short-term profits, including and especially our energy and power
symbols. During the first
half of last century they colonised the power symbol and
redefined it as Bulk-generated electricity – a product that enabled
them to destroy our fossil fuel potential at a maximal rate. Their use
of the symbol “Power =Bulk-generated electricity” now frames
the public discourse of our electrical potential, effectively excluding
a wide range of options from discussion in our schools and communities.
Think of how teachers and our media constantly talk of “power
companies” “turning the power on/off”, “power lines”,
“saving/conserving power” etc. In the second
half of the century this oligarchy of bankers colonised the energy
symbol and redefined it as products they can trade, in particular
Bulk-generated electricity and fossil fuels. Now this definition is
imbedded into the central frameworks of our school curriculum, national
legislation and media. Observe how even the lectures our most
distinguished professors are torrents of Banker Speak as they talk of
“the energy sector”, “energy production” “renewable energy”
“energy companies” “energy derivatives”, “energy
commodities”, “energy trades” and other Energy Gobbledygook.
Now the
Sustainability Principle suggests that long term such confusion of
energy and power with the forms they can take is fatal: societies use
the resources as though they are bountiful as energy and power, fail to
conserve them and so perish. A quick search of WWF websites reveals the
organization, renowned as an authority on stewardship, is a prime agent
in propagating this error. This practice amounts to perhaps the most
serious denial of change/stewardship we can make. It denies the central
messages of the Conservation Principle, which are that energy is so
bounteous that it can be considered a constant and that it is subject to
constant transformation (change). The psychopathy
of this oligarchy of bankers runs deeper than this.
They have redefined and associated the “energy efficiency”
symbol with deprivation because their short-term profits are maximised
when the forms they describe as energy (Bulk-gen electricity, fossil
fuels, nuclear etc) are used most wastefully. Many NZ readers
will be familiar with a classic example of how they abuse the “energy
efficiency” symbol without realising it. New Zealand’s
electrical potential was reshaped in the interest of these bankers in
the 1990s with our Electricity Industry Reform legislation.
“Energy/Power” corporations (Meridian Energy, Contact Energy,
Genesis Energy, Trustpower, Mighty River Power, Transpower et al) were
formed with clearly defined imperatives to serve the short-term
interests of their major shareholders (the bankers). In this process New
Zealanders were redefined by the legislation from being citizens to
being tradeable commodities. The imperatives of the legislation are
manifest in a regime in which the corporations make the best short-term
profits by stressing the national grid to the maximum – especially
those corporations with thermal plant. Now on occasion,
such as if a major plant becomes inoperative or the storage lakes for
Hydro-electrical plant are low then the bankers’ profits may be
adversely affected. So they institute what they and their Government
puppets call “energy efficiency” programmes in which the average
person is told we are having an “energy crisis” and are at risk of
“power failure”. The bankers urge us to “turn out the lights”,
“turn down your electrical heaters and air conditioners” and
“conserve energy/power for the sake of the nation” if we wish to
avoid complete “blackouts”. It is the classic
drug pusher syndrome: hook the people on an addictive use of a substance
and optimise supply so profits are maximised. The drug pusher wants
people to stick with their addictive habits. The trick is to extort the
maximum of profits out of the addict and this does not happen if the
addict dies needlessly early of the habit. Similarly the Bulk-gen
electricity sector wants people to hook people on wasteful uses of their
product (just as the oil-car sector does) and to be able to manipulate
them so they stay addicted through temporary periods of limited supply
of the product. This use of the
“energy efficiency” symbol is win win win win for them:
This picture may
seem extreme and unfair until I remind you again of the fact that the
behaviour of the average New Zealander is so unsustainable that we are a
certain recipe for the global destruction of humanity if 6.7 billion
human beings adopt our ways. The statistics overwhelming suggest that
our belief in our stewardship is a self-deception. There is serious
dissonance between our walk and our talk. Something is way out of
kilter. What is lacking
is compassion and without compassion there is no hope. The Sustainabilty
Principle of Energy suggests WWF and our local Councils are putting us
all at great risk of misery when they associate caring for our planet
with “power/energy blackouts” as they are doing again this month.
They are reflecting and propagating some of the worst psychopathy in our
culture. At this point I
would like to make it very clear that my own life is a journey of
discovery of my ability to for self deceit and I am constantly amazed
and amused at the sophistication with which I can deny
change/stewardship. I don’t think of myself as a particularly
dishonest person and nor am I saying the WWF officers and others are
overtly corrupt either. I am just saying it is helpful to be constantly
alert to both our capacity for denial of reality and our capacity to
reflect and propagate the denials of those around us – including the
aforementioned bankers. Those who read my
website will be aware that I am not picking on the WWF and I am
certainly not saying its officers are any more psychopathic than the
rest of us. I apply the Sustainability Principle to a wide range of
groups, especially those most associated with sustainability for they
are pivotal in affecting the drivers of behaviour. I use the example
of the Wellington City Council because this is my city, I am very
intimate with it and I worked for a decade for the council. I
experienced at first hand how it decided ownership of the city’s
electrical and transport potentials were not “core council business”
and witnessed in depth what happened to our local electrical grids and
our bus system when they were sold to the TransAlta and StageCoach
transnational corporations. I have recorded in detail elsewhere how
these corporations destroyed most of these potentials. At the same time
the Council refuses to invest in light rail to the new regional hospital
in the city, converted our city’s wonderful wharf potential into
luxury apartment blocks, while pouring cumulative billions of dollars
into jet travel and motorways in the last two decades. To cap this the
city is in the forefront in promoting
the Carbon Trading ethos globally. This “market” driven
ethos is fatally flawed and reveals a contempt for the balances of the
atmosphere that sustain us - as I illustrate in my recent
submission to the Government Review of New Zealand’s Emission
Trading Strategy. And cities that really act as stewards of our carbon
potential know that their electrical grids and mass transit system are
absolutely core, if not critical, to their business if they are to be
able to act sustainably. These technologies are the path to their
successful transition from the wasteful Cheap Mineral Oil/Gas Age to the
Great Solar Electric Age in which we conserve our carbon potential. So I see misery
when I see large ads, paid for by my city taxes and the WWF, featuring a
large area of black space promoting a blackout with associated messages
that this is part of the vision to make the city a “carbon neutral”
city. Am I being unduly
negative or is it the WWF and my council who?
For me there is no
such thing as carbon neutrality.
And I have concluded that the idea we can “offsett” our
destruction of our irreplaceable fossil fuel resources is a dangerous
delusion. Such beliefs belong to those who deny their roles as stewards
amidst change, in this case as stewards amidst the carbon potential in
which carbon is constantly transformed and flows through all life.
I associate
energy and power with bounty and options, not problems.
I associate them with wonder and awe, not some measly,
misery-mongering banker product. I
associate energy efficiency with the wise use of energy and the
acceptance of my role as a steward, not with deprivation and blackouts.
For me “energy efficiency” and “development” enables me to use
more energy over all, such as the energy from the sun. By comparison the
Wellington City Council’s idea of development is to encourage my
northern neighbours to build out my sun because that increases the
rateable values. Its idea of progress is to tax me heavily to build yet
more motorways and provide subsidised parking for cars – devices
primarily designed to destroy mineral oil in the most wasteful of way.
I associate
energy efficiency and stewardship with light, colour, variety, joy, love
and compassion whereas the WWF and my council associate them with
darkness and deprivation. They associate energy efficiency/stewardship
with the same depravity that is causing the current economic meltdown
– a melt down that each of us who destroys mineral oil is responsible
for. (It is helpful if humbling to acknowledge that the root cause of
the “credit crisis” is the violent explosion of credit based on a
vast undervaluation of a carbon form, mineral oil/gas in which we use
the resource as though it is energy i.e. we have built our systems based
on a valuation of mineral oil at 0.1 cents per man-hour of its energy
equivalent. We have dissipated the wealth inherent in this resource so
it is now just pollution in the atmosphere.
So in this
context I will attempt to make my dwelling a beacon of hope amidst such
dissolution. Sure I would far rather the lights in my building were
powered by dwelling based generators. I have worked for decades to
promote intelligent uses of our solar, electrical and carbon potentials.
Indeed one of the reasons I am now relatively poor is because I
persisted with this work unpaid when the Wellington City Council deemed
such services are not ‘core council activities”. I am also
motivated by the fact that I had the privilege of visiting tens of
thousands of homes and small businesses on a regular basis for twenty
years as a meter reader. I have worked at the interface of our education
systems and our communities and witnessed the failures of our educators.
I remain keenly aware of the family stress, danger, illness, bone-biting
chill and general misery experienced in a nation where surveys suggest
that in many areas up to 40% of the population has been described as
“energy deficient”. Ask me to think
of “black out” and I imagine blood on the walls and floors, the dark
dingy rooms with curtains dripping with mildew, the ice on the insides
of the windows, charred burnt-out rooms, the frigid blue-white hands
struggling to hold a spoon to the mouth, grey worried faces standing by
silent machines in side alleys, the wheezes of the asthmatics and
hacking coughs and above all I see the hardness and lack of compassion
in the eyes of the new breed of managers that now control our reformed
Bulk-gen electricity industry in which service imperatives have been
replaced by short term profit imperatives by law. That is what I
associate the blackout symbol with. It is everything that is not
hope. And as mentioned
I do not seek to dehumanise individuals, even when I talk about the
oligarchy of bankers. Ken (Kenny Boy) Lay of failed Enron and Bernard
(Bernie) Madoff of $US50 Billion Ponzi fame and George W Bush of Iraq
slaughter fame are not all that much different to you and me. We each
cast our most crucial votes for the legislation that enables these
people to do so much damage every time we visit the petrol pump, the
airline counter, plug in appliances into the 230 volt socket etc. They may well be as were/are devoted to their families and friends as you and I are. Bernard is well known for his philanthropic activities in the health arena. Ken sponsored and worked with a wide range of “environmental” groups including the Environmental Defence Fund, the Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace, et al and was a pioneer among corporation leaders in promoting awareness of human activities on climate balances. Enron gave millions to Environmental groups working to “reduce global warming”. The long list of
causes George gives to features in the Chronicle
of Philanthropy Toyota,
a transnational corporation responsible for the vast destruction of
precious carbon resources and balances is top of the list of sponsors
of WWF here in New Zealand. To answer my
earlier question, “Where is the hope?” It helps to embrace the great
principles of energy - the Conservation Principle of Energy and The
Uncertainty Principle. If the notion that information is physical, as
seems likely, then embracing The Sustainability Principle of Energy too
is also helpful. When one embraces these Principles one is filled with a
sense of compassion from whence comes wonder, awe, harmony and hope. The
idea that any individual form is actually energy/power soon becomes an
anathema when our existence is
experienced as a world providing a vast array of options amidst the
constant transformations which our universe(s). That sense of option and
participation is experienced as hope. Acceptance of stewardship/change
is transformed from being onerous to being an honour. Thus, though I am inherently reticent of being the party pooper, I hope to find the courage to have my lights blazing and to risk being condemned as uncaring and a nutcase. I find it very difficult writing this article as I know the fine intent of many of those promoting the Earth Hour blackout. ***
Footnotes*** The
cartoon that accompanies this blog is completely coincidental. It was
first published over five years ago. Our top educators and policy makers
had argued to me that in the education of our children of how our
atmosphere works there is no alternative to evoking images of the
Earth’s atmosphere as a greenhouse. When I created the posters
summarizing the NZ 2000 Climate Change Impact Report for our junior
schools Government officials refused to allow me to use the trace
symbol and insisted on the use of the greenhouse symbol. I soon
established that their beliefs, common to most of the burgeoning Climate
Change industry, lacked science. More
recently I have established that their use of the greenhouse symbol
as in atmosphere =greenhouse and their aversion to employing the
trace symbol as in trace gases are probable manifestations of a
vast denial of change/stewardship. This persistent use of the greenhouse
symbol undermines science in our schools from Level 1 on by obscuring
our atmosphere’s power for thermal convection and our need to
understand how tiny quantities can have immense leverage (chaos theory) I managed to slip the trace gas symbol into the teachers’ guide booklet for the 3000 posters but to my knowledge it was never distributed with them. Instead another booklet was published that denied the trace vision. This booklet has been the subject of the previous panels of this chapter of Bonus Joules and the Knowledge Economy. The cartoon character Bonus Joules characterises our capacity for compassion and acceptance stewardship/change that enables long-term, low-risk considerations to determine our lifestyles. Junk Joules characterises our capacity for psychopathy and denial stewardship/change that enables short-term, high-risk considerations to determine our use of this world’s gifts. ********** ***
Here is an interpretation of a sample of many similar WWF pages (March
09) www.panda.org/powerswitch
(
Power = Bulk-gen electricity) PowerSwitch
( Power = Bulk-gen electricity) WWF's
challenge to the Power ( Power = Bulk-gen electricity) sector is to combat climate change (Climate
change = enemy – actually our use of our climate is the problem) and ensure that the globe does not warm (warming
=bad – actually warming is healthy and enables life, not so warming UP
which involves a change of thermal state and involves extra risk)
too much, WWF proposes a challenge to the global Power (
Power = Bulk-gen electricity) Sector: The power sector( Power = Bulk-gen electricity) should;
WWF’s vision for the world’s energy( Power = Bulk-gen electricity?? Actually energy is the potential of the universes(s) and is all that was is and could possibly be) future leads us away from dependence on fossil fuels such as oil and coal and towards a more sustainable and efficient energy ( Power = Bulk-gen electricity??) future. An
alternative vision for WWF might be: Key
elements of WWF’s vision of how we can better use our electrical
potential are: expanding awareness of the vast array of renewable
resources we have such as solar, wind, tidal and biomass; empowering
communities so they can develop distributed generation and use
electronics to engage in intelligent ways with their local electrical
grids; improving the efficiency of domestic appliances, buildings and
industrial motors; increasing the efficiency of electricity generation
plant through the recycling of waste heat; and making the Bulk-generated
electricity sector and governments more accountable. Compare "Key elements of WWF's PowerSwitch! vision are: expanding the role of renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass; improving the efficiency of domestic appliances, buildings and industrial motors; increasing the efficiency of power plants through the recycling of waste heat; and making the power sector and governments more accountable." Note this alternative vision is consistent with the Principle of the Conservation of Energy in that it retains awareness the all that exists is energy and it does not confuse energy with any of the forms it can take. It acknowledges that energy is by its very nature renewed and conserved and thus no such thing as “renewable energy” exists. This consistency means it propagates acceptance of change and thus increases the possibility of hope and harmony prevailing.*********** I am unable to find meaning
and make harmony of the following statement from Earthhour.org “1,858 cities, towns and municipalities in 81 countries have
already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, as part of the
worlds first global election between Earth and global warming.” Acceptance of
change means we accept the thermodynamics of existence – everything is
subject to continual warming and cooling. For any form to be sustained
for any period in a stable state then the rate of warming must equal the
rate of cooling. The fact
that relatively speaking the rate of global warming of Earth is balanced
by the rate of global cooling of our planet enables life to exist here. The
Sustainability Principle suggests that to equate warming with warming up
is a grand denial of change that puts us all at risk. The above use of
the global warming symbol reveals a denial of life itself.
So when I read “THIS
IS THE WORLD’S FIRST GLOBAL ELECTION, BETWEEN EARTH AND GLOBAL
WARMING.
On March 28 you can VOTE
EARTH by switching off your lights for one hour. I am compelled to leave my lights on as a symbol of my love of life and my wonder and awe that Earth existence amidst the great flux of thermal energy and as symbol of hope amidst such dissonance and confusion. ******************* Enjoy harmony
with all and know the wisdom in the Sustainability Principle folks.
Photos of cottage as beacon of hope.
Posting
on NZ Environmental Educators forum EElist - Environmentalists
hail Earth Hour as a big success BONN, Germany (AP) — For environmental activists, the message was clear: Earth Hour was a huge success. Now they say nations have a mandate to tackle climate change. "The world said yes to climate action, now governments must follow," the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Sunday, a day after hundreds of millions of people worldwide followed its call to turn off lights for a full hour. From an Antarctic research base and the Great Pyramids of Egypt, from the Colosseum in Rome to the Empire State building in New York, illuminated patches of the globe went dark Saturday night to highlight the threat of climate change. Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries dimmed nonessential lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. WWF called the event, which began in Australia in 2007 and grew last year to 400 cities worldwide, "the world's first-ever global vote about the future of our planet." The United Nations' top climate official, Yvo de Boer, called the event a clear sign that the world wants negotiators seeking a climate change agreement to set an ambitious course to fight global warming. Talks in Bonn this week are the latest round in an effort to craft a deal to control emissions of the heat-trapping gases responsible for global warming. They are due to culminate in Copenhagen this December. … Hi EElisters As the above clip indicates,
“environmental activists” believe Earth Hour was a great success. It
certainly formed a massive education campaign. It is probable that a
majority of our children were impacted by this symbolic act in our
schools and their communities. Last week I
posted a link to my blog in which I outlined why the lights in my
cottage would be shining during Earth Hour on Saturday night. And as
promised, Earth Watch Hour, March 28 2009, my cottage was a blaze of
light. It was a symbolic expression of my sense of stewardship at
that hour when WWF and the leaders of some of the leaders of the most
barbaric cities on our planet were instigating a blackout. Photos of my
symbolic action can be seen now with my blog on the subject. As you can see the
photos reveal that a large yin-yang symbol permanently adorns my
South Western windbreak. It expresses the essence of my symbolic protest
to the WWF black out. As I outlined in my blog our psychopathic
corporations now popularly image “energy efficiency” so that it
associated with darkness, loss, cost and deprivation. The WWF’s annual
campaigns take us down the dark side, deep into the psychosis that is
the world of our merchant bankers. In this context the deeper symbolism of the equation “stewardship =blackout” puts us all at greater risk*. (*In brief, the
unpopular and unwelcome truth is that the current economic collapses are
being caused by our denial of our roles as stewards amidst the carbon
flux. In particular we have built massive systems based on the vast
undervaluation of mineral oil/gas. In the last two decades we have, for
instance, built great systems of financial credit, transport,
agriculture etc based on a valuation of about 0.1cents an hour of the
man-hour labour of the energy equivalent in mineral oil. We use the
enormous power and wealth of mineral oil to do most of our lifting,
pushing, pulling and much of our fertilising. Now that this mineral
resource is becoming depleted all those systems are collapsing – as
some of us have predicted they must. We have converted our wealth to air
pollution. It’s a multiple whammy risk.) Stewardship and
our survival rests on our capacity to begin making far more intelligent
uses of our solar and electrical potentials and the Earth Day blackout
teaches quite the opposite – turn off the light, turn off electrical
technology. Also analysis of
websites such as WWF’s reveals implicit support for the “Market”
driven status quo, including support for the current “Electricity
Market” regime and the movement to impose a So perhaps it is
a good time to ask, “Just exactly what is
“stewardship/energy efficiency?” if it is not what the WWF et
al teach it is? This is my understanding: Put most
concisely, energy efficiency is what occurs when one’s life is lived
in the state of science, a state we are all capable of experiencing. In this state the
individual enjoys a sense of acceptance of their role as a steward
amidst change. Energy efficiency is understood to be about reflecting and being in
harmony with reality i.e. with the constant transformation, which is our
universe(s). In this state people are most able to make wise uses of resources. They
are able to continually review and reflect on their actions, to
acknowledge and embrace perceived flaws in their practice and errors are
viewed as opportunities to learn how to best conserve our resources. In brief, “energy efficiency” is stewardship. As mentioned the symbol
has been perverted and redefined by our psychopathic element. In fact it
is so mangled now it is probably more helpful to avoid its use and talk
of “stewardship of resources” instead.
Here is what energy efficiency (stewardship amidst change) is
not: “Energy efficiency is about using less.” Comment: The association of the symbol with deprivation is unhelpful
because the wise use of resources involves using them in such a way that
we remain in harmony with the flows and balances that sustain us. We may
well use more resources and experience greater wealth. A simple example
is the embedding in the statute books of legislation promoting the
siting and construction of dwellings so they make more effective uses of
our solar resources. As a result we can use, on balance, far more
kilowatts, our houses are warmer and we use fewer fossil fuels. More
joules of energy are used while carbon balances are impacted less. “Energy efficiency is about using less energy”. Comment: See above comment. On a deeper level the Sustainability
Principle of Energy suggests this is a significant denial of change as
defined in the Conservation Principle of Energy. It thus puts us all at greater
risk. This is especially true when energy is equated with a particular
resource e.g. mineral oil or Bulk-generated electricity. Energy is so bounteous it can be considered a constant. It comes in
myriad forms, many of which can act as resources for us. Our challenge
is to remain open to the opportunities they represent. “Energy efficiency costs more.” Comment: The above-mentioned oligarchy of merchant bankers and their
acolytes in our schools, universities and media teach that the costs of
‘energy efficiency” increase in a linear way i.e. every additional
measure is an increased expense with lessened returns. Certainly the separate investments in insulating your dwelling,
installing heat stores and glazing to the sun may have small returns
individually. However cumulatively their returns can be high as suddenly
a wide range of technology (heat pumps etc) become very economical and
the nation does not need to be taxed to build huge dams, fossil fuel
burning plant and wind turbine complexes to provide electrical products
at periods of peak demand. Similarly the decision to use light rail instead of cars can have very
high benefits/cost ratio in the community. “Energy efficiency is about conserving energy .” Comment: There is no more destructive act of science and the future of
our children than to teach that human beings can “conserve energy”.
It is a complete denial of Conservation Principle which states that
energy is bounteous and is conserved i.e. can be neither created nor
destroyed. To teach, as so many did this Earth Hour, that we can and
need to conserve energy is the ultimate denial of our roles as stewards
amidst change. To teach and preach as they did is to fracture our sensibilities and
place us in dissonance with the reality of the universe(s). Such beliefs
in the power of humans to create/destroy/conserve energy are born of and
reflect our capacity for arrogance, greed and generating misery. Energy efficiency (acceptance of our roles as stewards amidst change) is about conserving resources (individual forms) and opportunities. It is not about conserving energy. “Energy efficiency is about saving energy" Comment: Teaching this equation is equally as destructive of science as teaching that "humans can conserve energy". See all of above comment. How can anyone save energy when it is as bounteous as all the potential of the universe(s)? “Energy efficiency is about using renewable
energy”. Comment. See the comment above re "conserving energy" and the
Conservation Principle of Energy. As much as it is very convenient to
believe in “perpetual motion machines”, “elixirs of youth” and
“renewable energy” all the evidence suggests they do not exist in
our universe(s). Acceptance of change is to accept that all energy is
constantly renewed. Thus it is unhelpful to speak of some forms of
energy being “renewable energy” and some “non-renewable energy”. And how does the yin yang symbol contain the essence of
stewardship/energy efficiency? The wiki on the
yin yang symbol suggests: "Yin
and yang are complementary opposites within a greater whole. Everything
has both yin and yang aspects, which constantly interact, never existing
in absolute stasis." Essential ideas include our acceptance of universal change, of seeming
good coming from seeming bad and vice versa and being in harmony with
all. In this state we experience balance, humility, openness to learning
and, in general, greater compassion. Footnote: the story of how I came to this understanding of “energy
efficiency” may be of interest to some. For decades I was employed in
the Bulk-generated electricity industry and thus visited thousands of
homes. My experiences of the interface of our education system and our
communities made me aware of and gave me insight into a great
disjunction between what was believed to have been taught and what had
actually been learned. In 1998 I trained as a primary teacher, which gave me considerable
insights into how and why this disjunction between the theoretical
objectives of our education system and the real outcomes occurred. These
insights were complemented by my experience of how the Economic Reforms
affected both the Bulk-generated electricity industry and our education
system. I found myself uniquely placed to witness how our most vital
“energy” and “power” symbols were re-engineered to serve the
interests of the oligarchy of merchant bankers I mentioned. In 2001 I came to conclusion that our educators, including our
Environmental Educators, were failing us badly and their visions of the
nature of energy were fatally flawed. So I determined to go back to
basics and, as best as I could, start again allowing any and all
possibilities. I created a cartoon character embodying the “energy efficiency”
symbol. I assumed the symbol contains an ideal which involves the wise
uses of energy and a generosity of spirit in which one’s actions are
motivated by long-term, low-risk concerns. The cartoon character was
shaped to personify this ideal. I sent this character, Bonus Joules, forth on a journey of exploration of
the nature of energy. After some chapters I became aware that Bonus
Joules was always accompanied by a another presence – one
characterized by arrogance, wasteful ways, meanness of spirit and whose
actions are motivated by short-term, high-risk concerns. This presence
emerged as a separate cartoon character I called Junk Joules (from junk
bonds). At one point I drew Junk Joules embracing Bonus Joules and did not see what I had drawn for some weeks. Then one day it hit me -together these two spirits formed the Yin Yang symbol
and when I looked up the origins and meaning of the symbol I
realized my exploration of the nature of energy may well have
considerable integrity. The symbol is supposed to have been discovered
by the Chinese millennia ago when they placed an 8 foot stake in the
ground, recorded the shadows it cast over a full year and based their
agriculture and civics on the symbol formed. Thus arose a culture better
reflecting reality and in greater harmony with our solar system. The truth of the nature of “energy efficiency” had been staring me in
the face for weeks from my drawing board a few centimeters away and I
was unable to see it for weeks. I now see that our culture experiences
this same blindness and the WWF blackout is an elegant symbolization of
it. I remain hopeful that this great global act on Saturday night can now be
an opportunity for us all to review how we can most truly reflect
reality and be in harmony with the balances and flows that sustain us.
This I believe will generate greater prosperity as we make wiser uses of
our electrical, solar and carbon potentials. Enjoy harmony Dave The Sustainability Principle
of Energy “When a symbol use works
to deny change it will materially alter the potential of the universe
(energy) in a way that results in a reduction in the capacity of the
symbol user to mirror reality. When a symbol use works for the
acceptance of change it will increase the capacity of the symbol user to
mirror reality.” From the Sustainability Principle we get: "The more we accept
change the greater the harmony we know. The more we deny change the
greater the misery we know." **Brown
urges free markets to exercise decency Tuesday
31 March 2009 06:42:01 - Breaking News - Source: Reuters
LONDON
(Reuters) - The new global economic order must be guided by everyday
values cherished by all rather than the self interest of the few,
according to the text of a speech Prime Minister Gordon Brown will give
on Tuesday. In
a speech to faith leaders and charity workers ahead of the G20 crisis
summit in London on Thursday, Brown will reaffirm his support for free
markets while urging policy-makers to overhaul the rules that govern
them. "Our
task today is to bring the imperatives served by our financial markets
into proper alignment with the values held by families and business
people across our country -- hard work, taking responsibility, being
honest, being fair," Brown will say, according to extracts of his
speech.
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