[onlooker]

The big stories of 2017 clustered into five categories:

-Donald Trump and the capture of the U.S. government by fossil fuel interests;
-The destruction of Puerto Rico and its subsequentabandonment by the U.S. government [UPDATE: not quite abandoned yet!];
-The record-breaking and phenomenally destructive hurricane and monsoon seasons;
-The record-breaking and phenomenally destructive wildfiresin western North America and Europe;
-New evidence of tipping points, as human carbon emissions hit another record high
To me the most alarming unfolding event is the continuing Arctic sea ice melt because of the dire implications for the climate of this planet

[KaiserJeep]

SLR (Sea Level Rise) on Nantucket Island, MA, 2018, specificly the first Winter storm on January 4:







Keep in mind that we are not talking about fair weather floods here. A "NorthEaster" storm combines the effects of a hurricane and a blizzard. During parts of these events, even though the island is wrapped by the Gulf Stream, salt spray froze on objects near the flooded areas.

OK, I cheated, this is a 2018 story. For those of you who are curious, my own Nantucket property is on the opposite side of the island in a pine forest, and I am at about 8' elevation above mean high tide, meaning storm driven waves never really overan the beach itself. The worst impact on my home was that the caretaker had to shovel snow away from the window well covers, as the heat leaking out was causing a trickle of water down from one basement window frame. I'll be replacing those window well covers this Spring.

[onlooker]

Just goes to show you, it is not doom until it hits you. In a related story for us in the N.East of the US expect colder more snowy winters because of the Arctic warming

https://news.rutgers.edu/news/warm-arct ... r09BpjD_MI

[KaiserJeep]

I have seen very high tides before on the island, but this storm was unique in my memory. In prior years, the lowest elevation downtown street called "Low Beach Street" used to be covered in sea water, and the beach in the harbor itself disappeared. (In a politically incorrect aside, this beach is called "Black Bottom Beach" as it was once reserved for the use of minority servants on the island.)

This year was different. I don't know if it was the highest water level in recorded history, but the surf did enter the storm sewer pipes and spray out of the street drains on Main Street, Nantucket Town.

[onlooker]

https://www.rt.com/business/407789-us-p ... -yuan/amp/
US ‘Empire of Debt’ will go to war to stop emergence of petro-yuan – Max Keiser

[dissident]

https://www.rt.com/business/407789-us-petro-dollar-yuan/amp/
US ‘Empire of Debt’ will go to war to stop emergence of petro-yuan – Max Keiser

Something has come unstuck. As usual the fake stream media is keeping the world in the dark. I suspect that the energy situation is much worse than the Bakken miracle BS would lead everyone to believe. The financial pathologies from 2008 have not been dealt with as they are structural and related to energy and diminishing returns from the wealth skimming of the developed world from the 3rd world (*). Now all these ducks are lining up in a row and the only solution the bloody elites have is war. That is, throw the reset switch. More constructive solutions are too much of an IQ challenge.

(*) We forget (and the media does not remind us) that centuries of mercantilism (colonial exploitation) have been a big growth factor. Even after all the post WWII de-colonialization, the newly independent states became debt slaves. But population growth and development have depleted the global pool of serf states to exploit. Of course, there are few left here and there (e.g. in Africa) but south Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere are no longer feeding their former masters. In the case of Africa, China is moving in on the west's historical action and this is yet more loss of easy money.

For a brief period of globalist euphoria we had offshoring as a solution to stimulate profits. But this is saturating with China as a prime example. It went from a sweatshop to much better pay for workers. Once again, development is cutting off the mercantilist and post-mercantilist profit flow. Global development is also cutting off cheap energy from the rich countries since there are more buyers who are bidding up the price. (The recent oil price crash is not sustainable).

[Plantagenet]

I have seen very high tides before on the island, but this storm was unique in my memory. In prior years, the lowest elevation downtown street called "Low Beach Street" used to be covered in sea water, and the beach in the harbor itself disappeared. (In a politically incorrect aside, this beach is called "Black Bottom Beach" as it was once reserved for the use of minority servants on the island.)

This year was different. I don't know if it was the highest water level in recorded history, but the surf did enter the storm sewer pipes and spray out of the street drains on Main Street, Nantucket Town.

For various reasons sea level rise is occurring more rapidly on the US east coast then in other areas of the world

differences-east-coast-sea

And the rate of sea level rise is accelerating.

Cheers!

[onlooker]

The recent oil price crash is not sustainable).

D, good summary of some key economic history and context. The Capitalists of all stripes and locations are finding that ECONOMIC GROWTH is no longer sustainable. The inherent contradictions and excesses of Capitalism have come home to roost. Full scale exploitation is the basic mantra but this is no longer possible because Capitalism has undercut and undermined the very basis to sustain its growth. It has improverished billions, it has degraded and depleted the natural world and it has burdened the entire planet from the larges entities ie. countries to the smallest ie. Families with excessive Debt. It has also stymied competition in its incessant monopolization of Commerce. So the East cannot substitue for and replace the West for much longer.

But alas that now is irrelevant in that by allowing the population to grow so large in its insatiable need for more workers and consumers and in treating the Environment like a sewer and like an endless thing to be exploited, it has rendered our planet a fast diminishing and degrading place that will be less and less capable through time to support life.

[Cog]

Care to make a wager on US GDP growth first quarter 2018 onlooker? Granted you don't have much to wager with considering you are going to lose your bet on oil price, but I'll entertain whatever you might like to offer.

[KaiserJeep]

The recent oil price crash is not sustainable).

D, good summary of some key economic history and context. The Capitalists of all stripes and locations are finding that ECONOMIC GROWTH is no longer sustainable. The inherent contradictions and excesses of Capitalism have come home to roost. Full scale exploitation is the basic mantra but this is no longer possible because Capitalism has undercut and undermined the very basis to sustain its growth. It has improverished billions, it has degraded and depleted the natural world and it has burdened the entire planet from the larges entities ie. countries to the smallest ie. Families with excessive Debt. It has also stymied competition in its incessant monopolization of Commerce. So the East cannot substitue for and replace the West for much longer.

But alas that now is irrelevant in that by allowing the population to grow so large in its insatiable need for more workers and consumers and in treating the Environment like a sewer and like an endless thing to be exploited, it has rendered our planet a fast diminishing and degrading place that will be less and less capable through time to support life.

The leopard shows his spots again. We beat the topic of Capitalism to death in the thread of the same name, and I finally got you to admit that it was just a label for primate behaviors created by evolution. It breaks out spontaneously in the ashes of all of the attempts to replace such behaviors with any form of a "planned economy". It is the optimal way for primates to relate to one another in any population that numbers more than a few dozen tribe members in an extended family. Any of this ringing a bell?

I know your parents abused your little vulnerable child mind when you were too young to know any better, but you should really try and remember the basics, and forget the nonsense.

[onlooker]

Yes, I do admit it Kaiser, Capitalism has all the attributes of certain characteristics of Primates. It matters not NOW. For the combination of our primate tendencies along with our "smart" brain and opposable thumb unleashing our technological prowess has quite thoroughly checkmated us. We are truly victims of our own inventions. We have met the enemy and it is us. Enuf said.

[KaiserJeep]

Pete, I'm not sure I would even go that far. Me and my descendants are preparing to live in a post-FF world of desperate primates who are scrambling to survive. I will ensure that they have a place to live and a way to grow food and most important of all, an understanding of the way humans behave and why this is so. This will enable them to utilize the skills and knowledge and to pass them on to their own offspring.

It's just what apes do. There is no good or bad about it. If the way nature made us is the right way, and the nurture I have chosen is also the optimal choice, then my genes will persist.

If OTOH onlooker's Marxist beliefs are truly better, then the new/old world to soon be will be settled by those who grew up under Soviet rule for multiple generations, because those (my opinion) paranoid psychos did in fact do their very best to implement the (again my opinion) delusions of Marx and Engels for a very long time.

Perhaps we both have it wrong and the Chinese way will persist and replace both of our visions. They do after all have a head start of about an estimated 1.4 billion people.

I have been re-watching my new favorite entertainment, the Amazon series The Expanse in preparation for Season 3, which premiers April 11. Even amongst the depiction of interplanetary conflict, I can find reasons for optimism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeMIqzIt5lQ

Plus, it's just a kickass story.