So here we go...
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| The Mega Jam, courtesy AP |
Imagine that...
The Chinese are publicly blaming road construction and accidents for the jam, but the real problem is hand-over-fist economic growth throughout China. The gridlocked road is used to transport coal from mines in Mongolia. Demand for coal is skyrocketing to fuel growing electricity "needs". Meanwhile, ~2,000 new cars are purchased daily by the people of Beijing. The existing infrastructure just can't keep up.
A wise professor back at Minnesota's SJU brought this inevitability to my attention a decade ago, and I read a National Geographic article touching on the idea several years ago. Nothing is new here. I'm just addressing it in hopes of clueing people in.
Chinese CONSUMERS are buying close to 17 million new automobiles over the course of 2010, a 25% increase over 2009. In 2009, an even more remarkable 49% increase over 2008 sales took place. Mind you, this increase is taking place during a global recession when worldwide auto production as a whole is decreasing ~13% annually.
This not just short-sighted but utterly-blind economic trend is GOOD news for the Chinese Economy (aka WAR MACHINE) because it fuels rapid growth and the eventual eclipse of the United States as the world's largest economy. China recently surpassed Japan, storming into the number two spot. It is forecasted to become #1 around 2017.
Meanwhile, China's Oil Industry has had some catastrophes of their own, including an exploded pipeline in what was recently voted China's "most livable city". As firefighters fought the blaze, over 11,000 barrels of crude leaked out into the surrounding waters. There was so much oil flowing out of control that people were literally drowning in it...
Here in the most wasteful country in the history of the planet, we currently buy ~10 million new cars annually. This is ~7 million less than the Chinese are currently buying. If we got our heads out of our asses that number would drop substantially as we made legitimate strides toward sustainability.
Instead, our economic and political "leaders" are fearful of our inability to match China's ecologically-devastating economic growth. Here in the USA, we're incentivized towards buy new cars. Here in the USA, it's pretty damn hard to live a "normal" life without owning a car.
Why is this?
Throughout the last 60 years, three of the most powerful economic tools here in the USA have been the single family home, the personal automobile, and the television.
The television rots brains, spreads dogma. and breeds mindless consumerism.
The personal automobile is an expensive, infrastructure-intensive, lifestyle-dictating machine that enables additional consumerism. Folks would buy a hell of a lot less if they had to carry all that crap home on their backs.
The single family home necessitates automotive transportation systems. From the shallowest, shiniest (aka deepest, darkest) suburbs you can't get anywhere worth going without a car. Also, the single family home necessitates endless accessorizing, maintenence, energy consumption, and blah blah blah.
All that building, buying, and burning keeps the masses at work. The corporations are enriched. Our government takes a hearty cut off the top and beefs up our collective killing machine.
Perhaps our current Depression is a good thing. At least it's slowing us down.
If you're wondering what accounts for China's rapid growth recently, the simplest answer is that they've followed our American example. By enthroning CONSUMERISM where COMMUNISM once reigned, they've self-motivated into a nation fueled by GREED... and, increasingly, OIL.
China is motivating it's people towards increased productivity with the same false promises we suffer from here.
False promises? Sure. The planet can't support even a few hundred million insatiable consumers... let alone several BILLION. Thus the whole concept of CONSUMERISM is rooted in fantasy. The economic model of UNLIMITED GROWTH is equally unrealistic.
About 300 million people live in the USA. China's population is 1.3 billion. The Chinese are buying, burning, consuming, and polluting more by the day. For reasons that should be obvious, this is really BAD news for anything living and breathing on Planet Earth.
How can anyone sane argue otherwise?
In the war for economic (and thus military) superiority our ARTIFICIALLY
OVERINFLATED "NEEDS" have been the backbone of our strength since the end of WWII. Now China is mimicking that CONSUMPTIVE LIFESTYLE and is quickly becoming wealthier, stronger, and more detached from sustainable reality than even We.
Many rich, old assholes here in the USA find this future unacceptable. They'll send plenty of poor folks off to fight to keep China from eating our lunch. They'll continue trashing the planet in a misguided attempt to retain our global dominance. They're no righter in the head than the Chinese leaders who've enthroned the automobile at a time when any true human realizes it's an obsolete, polluting, and unsustainable transportation system and economic tool.
When China and the US burst out of their britches, the grand scheme future won't be pretty.
We're fortunate to live at a time when such interesting and epochal changes are taking place. The best we can do personally is to embody the change away from wastefulness and consumerism that needs to take hold globally.
Humanity needs to realize it's possible to live OIL FREE: as a species we did fine without fossil fuels for hundreds of thousands of years. In order for folks to embrace this lifestyle, it has to seem like a lot of FUN. Hence OILFREEFUN.
Ohh yeah, and we need to stop intimidating, tricking, swindling, fighting, and killing one other out of FEAR and GREED. That sort of shit sends our species backwards.
Stop being a greedy little bitch. Be the change.
A wise professor back at Minnesota's SJU brought this inevitability to my attention a decade ago, and I read a National Geographic article touching on the idea several years ago. Nothing is new here. I'm just addressing it in hopes of clueing people in.
Chinese CONSUMERS are buying close to 17 million new automobiles over the course of 2010, a 25% increase over 2009. In 2009, an even more remarkable 49% increase over 2008 sales took place. Mind you, this increase is taking place during a global recession when worldwide auto production as a whole is decreasing ~13% annually.
Meanwhile, China's Oil Industry has had some catastrophes of their own, including an exploded pipeline in what was recently voted China's "most livable city". As firefighters fought the blaze, over 11,000 barrels of crude leaked out into the surrounding waters. There was so much oil flowing out of control that people were literally drowning in it...
Instead, our economic and political "leaders" are fearful of our inability to match China's ecologically-devastating economic growth. Here in the USA, we're incentivized towards buy new cars. Here in the USA, it's pretty damn hard to live a "normal" life without owning a car.
Why is this?
Throughout the last 60 years, three of the most powerful economic tools here in the USA have been the single family home, the personal automobile, and the television.
The television rots brains, spreads dogma. and breeds mindless consumerism.
The personal automobile is an expensive, infrastructure-intensive, lifestyle-dictating machine that enables additional consumerism. Folks would buy a hell of a lot less if they had to carry all that crap home on their backs.
The single family home necessitates automotive transportation systems. From the shallowest, shiniest (aka deepest, darkest) suburbs you can't get anywhere worth going without a car. Also, the single family home necessitates endless accessorizing, maintenence, energy consumption, and blah blah blah.
All that building, buying, and burning keeps the masses at work. The corporations are enriched. Our government takes a hearty cut off the top and beefs up our collective killing machine.
Perhaps our current Depression is a good thing. At least it's slowing us down.
 |
| New Chinese Suburbs, courtesy National Geographic |
China is motivating it's people towards increased productivity with the same false promises we suffer from here.
False promises? Sure. The planet can't support even a few hundred million insatiable consumers... let alone several BILLION. Thus the whole concept of CONSUMERISM is rooted in fantasy. The economic model of UNLIMITED GROWTH is equally unrealistic.
How can anyone sane argue otherwise?
In the war for economic (and thus military) superiority our ARTIFICIALLY
OVERINFLATED "NEEDS" have been the backbone of our strength since the end of WWII. Now China is mimicking that CONSUMPTIVE LIFESTYLE and is quickly becoming wealthier, stronger, and more detached from sustainable reality than even We.
Many rich, old assholes here in the USA find this future unacceptable. They'll send plenty of poor folks off to fight to keep China from eating our lunch. They'll continue trashing the planet in a misguided attempt to retain our global dominance. They're no righter in the head than the Chinese leaders who've enthroned the automobile at a time when any true human realizes it's an obsolete, polluting, and unsustainable transportation system and economic tool.
When China and the US burst out of their britches, the grand scheme future won't be pretty.
We're fortunate to live at a time when such interesting and epochal changes are taking place. The best we can do personally is to embody the change away from wastefulness and consumerism that needs to take hold globally.
Humanity needs to realize it's possible to live OIL FREE: as a species we did fine without fossil fuels for hundreds of thousands of years. In order for folks to embrace this lifestyle, it has to seem like a lot of FUN. Hence OILFREEFUN.
Ohh yeah, and we need to stop intimidating, tricking, swindling, fighting, and killing one other out of FEAR and GREED. That sort of shit sends our species backwards.
Stop being a greedy little bitch. Be the change.
Lyric of the Day: Grateful Dead, Ship of Fools
Went to see the captain
Strangest I could find
Layed my proposition down
Layed it on the line;
I won't slave for beggar's pay
likewise gold and jewels
but I would slave to learn the way
to sink your ship of fools
CHORUS
Saw your first ship sink and drown
from rocking of the boat
and all that could not sink or swim
was just left there to float
I won't leave you drifting down
but woah it makes me wild
with thirty years upon my head
to have you call me child
CHORUS
The bottles stand as empty
as they were filled before
Time there was and plenty
but from that cup no more
Though I could not caution all I yet may warn a few:
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag
atop no ship of fools
Ship of fools
on a cruel sea
Ship of fools
sail away from me
It was later than I thought
when I first believed you
now I cannot share your laughter
Ship of Fools
No I cannot share your laughter
Ship of Fools