Politics Blogs - Blog Top Sites Blog Flux Directory Green Assassin Brigade: October 2007

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

New Peak Oil Data




The energy watch group has released a new paper on global oil supply the conclusion of which is quite grim.

The conclusion of the paper basically says it all the end is nigh and most agencies dealing with energy are not admitting the truth.

Conclusion
The major result from this analysis is that world oil production has peaked in 2006.

Production will start to decline at a rate of several percent per year. By 2020, and even more by 2030, global oil supply will be dramatically lower.

This will create a supply gap which can hardly be closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative energy sources in this time frame.

The world is at the beginning of a structural change of its economic system. This change will be triggered by declining fossil fuel supplies and will influence almost all aspects of our daily life.

Climate change will also force humankind to change energy consumption patterns by reducing significantly the burning of fossil fuels. Global warming is a very serious problem. However, the focus of this paper is on the aspects of resource depletion as
these are much less transparent to the public.

The now beginning transition period probably has its own rules which are valid only during this phase. Things might happen which we never experienced before and which we may never experience again once this transition period has ended. Our way of dealing with energy issues probably will have to change fundamentally.

The International Energy Agency, anyway until recently, denies that such a fundamental change of our energy supply is likely to happen in the near or medium term future. The message by the IEA, namely that business as usual will also be possible in future, sends a false signal to politicians, industry and consumers – not to
forget the media.


So we have supply dropping by several percent while demand is growing. There is little to no excess capacity in the system and western governments are doing nothing to prepare or brace us for the impact.

This really makes you wonder what the people at Export Development Canada have been smoking Oil prices are not going to weaken and unless the Bank of Canada torpedoes the interest rates a strong Canadian dollar is the new norm. The Gov the media continues to sing their happy tunes like Nero while modern society burns, (or is that, stops burning!)Recommend this Post

Monday, October 15, 2007

GREEN PARTY Policy Paper Released


In twinned announcements by Elizabeth May in Ottawa and Deputy-leader Adriane Carr in Vancouver the 160 page VISION GREEN Policy document was released today encompassing solutions and policies on all aspects of Canadian life.

May Invited the Prime Minister to read the document to see what “what real solutions look like”

The depth and detail of this release should prove to the Canadian populous and the media the Green Party of Canada is not a one issue party but rather a one party solution for Canadian voters.

That said 160 pages is oh, about 159 pages longer than the average attention span of voters, I hope the media gives a fair and accurate review of the material. Hell, I’ll be surprised if the media actually mention it.Recommend this Post

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Ethanol's threat to Water supply


The National Research Council reports that corn based ethanol production can pose a serious threat to U.S. water supplies.

This can only mean a growing U.S. dust bowl, eventual food shortages and more demands from the U.S. for water diversion projects along Canadian borders.Recommend this Post

Gagged, Ignored and Discounted




Despite the 8% showing by the Green party I once again find myself feeling empty and depressed at the end of an election. 3x growth in popular support is nothing to baulk but at the same time Frank De Jong did not get to debate the other leaders, Ontario did not get to learn that the Green Party was the only party that sides with 70% of voters on eliminating Catholic school funding and creating one secular system. TVO spent nearly 1 hour discussing faith based funding last night yet no one mentioned the Green stand even after mentioning that one public system was voters preference

Ontario did not get to discus global warming, the economy, transit at all and health was barely mentioned. Most importantly my voice and those of 8% of voters will not be heard in the legislature.

I think the low point of my evening was my inability to reach through the TV and bitch slap Olivia Chow as she smugly discounted Green Growth as Vote Parking, closely followed by Mike(Fat Fuck)Duffy stating the Greens had much farther to go before they deserved a future debate spot. I'm sure if we had won that one seat they'd write it off as "a fluke and not indicative of a trend", RAT BASTARDS the lot of them!

Gagged, Ignored and Discounted, yes Democracy is Grand!

P.S. Should you ever use google to search for an image of a gagged person, (especially while at work) don't use gag ball as a search word.... opps.Recommend this Post

Thursday, October 4, 2007

MMP, FACTS, FEAR, FOOLISHNESS AND FAITH

I don’t claim to be an expert on politics or electoral reform but I can’t help but get pissed off at some of the crap I’m hearing on MMP.

Fact:
List members will be chosen just as democratically from within the various parties as riding candidates are chosen now. If you support a party that partakes in parachuting candidates into ridings you have no right to complain the lists will be filled with party hacks. What you do have is a problem with your party, complain about them, become active in that party and fight for it to become democratic, that or move on.

Fact:
Most people don’t belong to a party.
Parties don’t allow members to belong to more than 1 party
This means we already have a system where most people have no say in who is their candidate, MMP neither makes this aspect of the game better or worse.

Foolishness: “Why should be we reward losers?”
I would respond, why should we reward winners who did not win. 37% for Bob Rae = Majority, 44% for Mike Harris = Majority.
Canada has had provincial votes where the higher popular vote did not win the election, what the fuck is that about?


Foolishness: “The list will be full of party Hacks!”
What the hell is a party Hack?, a member who is probably actively involved?, An insider?, of course they bloody are. Who the hell do you think is going to run for a party anyways? It’s not going to be a non member who does nothing for the party, duh!
What you might get with MMP is a brilliant but uncharismatic list member, a qualified but overlooked aboriginal, an incorruptible poor women member, the kind of members that would actually understand and represent the average person experience, what we don’t need is more of the same; lawyers, ex CEOs , bankers etc.

Fear: “we will be overrun by fringe parties”
People don’t change that much. Each of the major parties has a floor of support; do you honestly think that so many pre-programmed voters are suddenly going change their beliefs that there will be 20 parties overnight?
Face it you’ve got 2 parties that never drop below 25-30% that’s good for 50-60% of voters minimum; the dippers don’t fall below 11% or so, Greens we will give 6% for a total of 67-77%. This leaves 23-33% swing voters to be divided up among all of the old parties and any of the new “Fringe” parties. The assumption is we will be tripping over all of the new parties so lets guess 11 new parties (33% of swing voters/3% cut off for seats)
My guess is that at least half of the swing votes will swing towards the existing parties leaving 12-16% of voters split between our imaginary 11 wacko parties. At worst 5 “fringe parties would get the minimum % to get seats, statistically none of them get any seats, so what is the problem. Each new party decreases the likelihood of any fringe party getting a seat at all, it’s quite self limiting.

Faith: Canadians are not radical. I do not fear a deluge of nut parties taking over the province. First of all most of them would never get a seat, secondly the light of day on their beliefs would quickly marginalize most of them, and finally the large parties would not give them credibility by inviting them into a collation. Even if the do get a few seats I don’t fear new ideas or new voices brought to the table, the ones we have now do a piss poor job so a little fresh blood might be a good thing.

So screw their arguments, I say YES to MMP!Recommend this Post

the Poor Rich are falling behind


In The Know: Are America's Rich Falling Behind The Super-Rich?

Perhaps we can have a charity event for them, maybe a bake sale!Recommend this Post