Many folk are wondering just how to get the seriousness of this thing across to a willfully ignorant section of society:

Monbiot

Nicholas Kristof

Randy Olsen

Permafrost is not so permanent after all – here, here and here.

This strip, from June 2008, fits just as well into today’s news.

With oil running out, and biofuels not being the answer, perhaps humans should grow and trade their food closer to home.

Perhaps we suffer from collectively traumatised amygdalas.

Should corporations have the same rights as individuals? Should corporations, many of which have a greater turnover than entire countries, be free to finance the politicians they favour – in direct competition against little ‘ol you and me? Well, the Supreme Court of the United States thinks so, and has ruled this into law. This means the term ‘Corporate America’ is now completely accurate. Corporations now effectively own the U.S. (We already knew this, but now it’s law.)

Can we expect virtue, compassion, wisdom and foresight to overcome great odds in a presidential race, when the sky is the limit for funding its profit-centric opposition? Of course we cannot. This law must be overturned!

The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it. – Edward Dowling

That’s right, step right up folks – democracy is going cheap here. Get it while it’s hot. Get it while you can!

Further Watching/Reading:

• The Roots of Change – in Ourselves, or Government and Industry?
• The Corporation

The moral of the story is if it’s not on paper, it doesn’t exist.

Click for larger view
Courtesy: Throbgoblins

This cartoon was a response to a suggestion by Craig Mackintosh of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia – who has been a valued supporter of Frank over the years. Craig points out that what should be on the negotiating table at Copenhagen is:

• How to build a participatory democracy network (see here, here, here and here) that ensures full bottom-up representation and information-sharing and which encourages participation. (The information-sharing aspect involves shifting, carefully, from a competition mindset – everyone working in their own self-interest, which is the basis of capitalism – to everyone working cooperatively for the good of all.)
• How to conserve remaining oil supplies and to best use what’s left to speed a transition to a post-fossil fuel society, and to commit to leaving newly discovered oil in the ground
• How to invest in re-educating the masses worldwide in sustainable farming practices appropriate for their own climate and soil type
• How to invest in re-educating the masses in all the other activities crucial for our existence (like localised clothing manufacturing, passive solar buildings, etc.)
• How to shape policies to incentivise a resurgence in small scale polycultures (and how to accommodate the above through a staged and bloodless land redistribution) rather than the ‘get big or get out’ agricultural policies we’ve had over the last several decades
• How to shift funds from the present subsidising of large profit based corporations into financing small research centres in different microclimates to study and improve agricultural and other life-critical systems, for the public good
• How to carefully stage the above steps so our present vulnerable, globalised system doesn’t experience wholesale collapse during the transition, with its associated famine, disease, war and a return to violence based feudalism, etc. The emphasis here needs to be on broad spectrum education
• How to keep nations working cooperatively to achieve all the above
• … etc. etc.

Here is day eight at Copenhagen. Problems with uploading solved by someone pointing me at the right button. A pdf, as ever, and a jpg below.

Click for larger view

]]> http://permaculture.org.au/2009/12/16/franks-shovel-and-day-8-at-copenhagen-update/feed/ 2 http://permaculture.org.au/2009/12/01/back-from-the-brink-and-the-climate-slamdown/ http://permaculture.org.au/2009/12/01/back-from-the-brink-and-the-climate-slamdown/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:49:25 +0000 Craig Mackintosh http://permaculture.org.au/?p=2073
Click for full view
Courtesy: Throbgoblins

I don’t know about you, but I was getting quite concerned about the health and whereabouts of our good friend Cantankerous Frank. We haven’t seen him around these parts for a few months now. A couple of times I thought I saw him lurking in the shadows, but it was probably just my wishful thinking and some branches moving in my periphery.

If he was alive – why didn’t he call?

But, look what the cat (or fox, as the case may be) dragged in (see above).

Despite his unruly appearance, the cartoon genius Marc Roberts quickly got Frank cleaned up and back to work. I am astonished at the comeback. The Copenhagen climate shenanigans are made all too real in the following ‘Climate Slamdown’ – a comic masterpiece of almost epic proportions. And there’s our Frank in the thick of it….

It’s like he never left.

Welcome back Frank – hero of people and place.

Click for full view, and for subsequent parts (big files, so be patient)