On our Doorstep

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magritte 

 

 

 

 

We had four out of five of my partner's brothers for Thanksgiving this year. Besides the usual boisterous cacophony of Idaho testosterone which I have learned to accept if not genuinely enjoy, a new meme has arrived in these circles. For the  American right has embraced the idea that to go forward with our current pace towards artificial intelligence, society must give up on removing carbon from our civilization and instead embrace whatever we must to power the new technological race for superiority in cyberspace. In short, electric power must be nuclear, or coal, or perhaps batteries.

Powering chips with chips powered by the sun, although elegant, is seen as unrealistic.

It was 21 years ago that I posted about the Singularity. 

The concept of a technological singularity as it is known today is largely credited to Dr. Vernor Vinge, a mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction author who is best known for his Hugo award-winning novel, A Fire Upon the Deep, and for his 1993 essay "The Technological Singularity", in which he argues that exponential growth in technology will reach a point beyond which we cannot even speculate about the consequences.

Vinge's essay contains the following frequently-quoted statement:

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly thereafter, the human era will be ended."  Vinge wrote that thirty three years ago. 

In Texas, we have demonstrated that Renewable Energy and electronic stationary storage coupled with electric vehicle mobile storage supported with  modest amounts of legacy energy can meet the needs of an advanced society at a price that we can afford. To prove it, AI factories are popping up everywhere and putting pressure on our 90 GW grid.  And they are impressive consumers of our low prices.

But no Texan voted to bring these behemoths in to suck our affordable power.

This from Oil Price. (yes, Oil Price)

"The Cloud" might be the greatest branding trick in history. It sounds fluffy, ethereal, and notably light.

It implies that our digital lives…our emails, our crypto wallets, our endless scrolling…exist in some vaporous layer of the atmosphere, detached from earthly constraints. But if you actually drive out to Loudoun County, Virginia, or stare at the arid plains of Altoona, Iowa, you realize the Cloud is actually just a very big, very loud, and very hot factory.

We’ve been telling ourselves a lovely story about the energy transition. We were retiring coal plants, building wind farms, and decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions. It was all going according to plan."

But in comes Nvidia and its H100 GPU which uses 100 kW instead of 10 kW 

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity demand from data centers is projected to more than double by 2030. This is the same as the entire annual electricity use of a country like Japan.

The invisible hand is hitting a concrete wall.

We have effectively moved from powering a toaster to powering a neighborhood, all inside the same metal box. Air cooling…fans blowing over hot metal…doesn't work anymore. Air just isn't physically dense enough to move that much heat away.

We are now plumbing data centers like chemical refineries, running liquid coolant loops directly to the silicon die.

The irony is palpable. We spent billions trying to kill coal, only to have the most futuristic technology on earth, AI, throw it a lifeline. In places like Virginia or Kansas, utilities are delaying the retirement of coal plants. They simply cannot risk the grid instability when a gigawatt-scale data center comes online.

The "future" is being powered by the "past."

Obviously, this is the view of an Oil and Gas Journal.

Experts stress that the effects of climate change are not a distant future problem, but a present crisis that requires urgent and wide-ranging measures. And moving to a future where Climate Change management becomes subordinate  is a recipe for not only calamity, but authoritarianism. But AI must still be managed.

Elon Musk has repeatedly called AI “humanity’s biggest existential threat.”  He likens unchecked AI development to “summoning the demon,” emphasizing that once a superintelligent entity exists, controlling it might be impossible if its goals diverge from ours. 

Key points from Musk’s cautionary outlook include:

1. AI Alignment: Ensuring AI goals match human values — no small task.
2. Regulatory Oversight: Musk urges proactive laws and guidelines akin to nuclear safety measures.
3. Human-AI Symbiosis: Through ventures like Neuralink, Musk aims to merge human intellect with AI, perhaps mitigating the risk of obsolescence.

The future is uncertain but undeniably fast-approaching. By investing in education, ethical governance, scenario planning, and collaborative innovation, we can guide these explosive developments toward a future that enhances human life without undermining it. Whether or not the singularity arrives in 2045 or later, the decisions we make today will shape how these technologies intersect with economics, society, and — ultimately — the core of our humanity. 

The recent ugly bill by the Rs made it illegal for states to regulate AI. We can thank the Plutocrats for that.

AI must be required to comply with  Global Climate Change agreements.

Our leaders must respond or be replaced.

Because the Singularity is on our doorstep. 

And a different World is on the other side. 

The winds of fate await. 

 

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Our Place of the Heart

  

 

 

It's like the very definition of visceral.

A wannabe tyrant destroys a national landmark in a matter of days.

Being the inveterate liar he is, we should have known that the promise to not touch it would be just as true as his statement to sailors in the Far East that 94% of the Gulf of Mexico borders US soil.

The number is closer to 40% depending on whether you think Cuba exist.

Mexico is just over 50%. 

This from Wikipedia and others:

The East Wing Colonnade of the Peoples House was not built 120 years ago, it was built  by President Thomas Jefferson when he added colonnaded terraces to the east and west sides of the White House.

Under President Andrew Jackson in 1834, running water was piped in from a spring and pumped up into the east terrace in metal tubes. These ran through the walls and protruded into the rooms, controlled by spigots. Initially, the water was for washing items, but soon the first bathing rooms were created, in the ground-level east colonnade. President Martin Van Buren had shower baths installed here. 

The East Wing of the White House complex was built in 1902 by Teddy Roosevelt and significantly expanded in 1942 by Franklyn Roosevelt.  It was then that the the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the building was buried deep below the office space for the first lady and her staff, including the White House social secretary, correspondence staff, and the White House Graphics and Calligraphy Office.

The first small East Wing built in 1902 during the Theodore Roosevelt renovation served as an entrance for formal and public visitors during large social gatherings when it was necessary to accommodate many cars and carriages. Its primary feature was the long cloak room with spots for coats and hats of the ladies and gentlemen.

The two-story East Wing was designed by White House architect Lorenzo Winslow and Teddy's coatroom was integrated into the new building becoming the White House Family Theater. 

But it was Eleanor Roosevelt who made it a place for women. 

"It has long been a space of female power and a female niche in the White House," said Elizabeth Rees, a historian and research fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. "With the West Wing being a traditionally male-dominated space, the East Wing was a unique physical space for women to work…and provided them with their own environment in which to flourish." 

In the 1960s, during the Kennedy administration, the first lady's staff expanded rapidly. 

"As mass media is on the rise and there's enormous press interest in this young, glamorous first lady and her small children, that interest necessitates that there is a press arm for the first lady to cover her activities and to spread all this information to the press," said Rees. 

"Betty Ford and earlier First Ladies were pretty much working out of their bedrooms, literally," said MaryAnne Borrelli, author of The Politics of the President's Wife. 

But Betty Ford understood that "If the West Wing is the mind of the nation, then the East Wing is the heart" 

During this time, Ford, a proponent of women's rights, argued for equal pay for her female staff and an end to sex-based discrimination in the East Wing, according to the White House Historical Association. 

However, it was First Lady Rosalynn Carter who in 1977 was the first to establish the Office of the First Lady in the East Wing. 

Modern first ladies have used the East Wing as a base to lead a number of initiatives aimed at improving the country.  Laura Bush led nationwide literacy campaigns out of the East Wing during her tenure as first lady in the early 2000s, while Michelle Obama ran her "Let’s Move" program to bolster public health under her husband's administration.

When the Electoral College cast their votes in 2016 for the candidate who came in 2nd place, many of us knew that he was unfit for the job. I told my partner that the Nation had succumbed to the lower centers of fear and hatred and that misogyny and racism had raised its ugly head from the dark waters of our national psyche. 

When he was removed 4 years later with 7 million more votes, I posted that the Wicked Witch was dead.  And that his memory would forever be scorned as he failed in the attempt to upend our 245 year history of the peaceful transfer of power.

I remember all those R's saying that this was it.

That they have had enough. 

But in his second impeachment,

We needed 10 more of them to put this scourge behind us

Because 57 Ayes against 43 No's was not enough,

And the Scourge returned with a vengeance 

And now he has demolished our Place of the Heart in less than a week.

In its place will stand a 90,000 square foot monument

to greed and wealth.

and Corruption. 

He says it will cost 300 million for 90,000 square feet.

That's 3,333 a  square foot. 

Nothing square about it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wake Up All

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

* 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week, the major renewable energy groups that have brought Texas to be the leading renewable energy state in the country (yes I said Texas...RED Texas) had a luncheon in the Special Events Room at the Austin Public Library.

The  relatively new Library just off Cesar Chavez is worth a visit and the events room can hold several hundred folks handily.  The occasion was the 40th anniversary and formal recognition of the merger of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association and Clean Texas.  Given that it actually happened during the first days of Covid in the spring of 2020, there was not much fanfare for the merger.

Since the mid 80s, TREIA had been the leading proponent of Renewable Energy Policy in the State. Back then, Texas was just turning red, but not the kind of angry RED we have today.  Consequently, with an original push given by Governor Richards, we found open doors for making Texas an Energy state that included all forms of energy.  Those doors remained open even as we transitioned into the administrations of Governor Bush and Governor Perry. 

Consequently, the Renewable Energy Industry was able to make the argument that wind and solar fields from far west Texas should be connected to the Urban Centers in the center of the state, just like we built Farm to Market roads to bring farm products to market almost 100 years ago.  These electric transmission lines were called CREZ lines and their creation and funding was a critical element of the Texas plan. And that Texas plan came out of a series of reports that were created by the Sustainable Energy Development Council.  These reports dealt with energy in all the demand sectors and it estimated the amount of efficiency that could be mined as a result of smart energy management.

Now, Texas has over 50 GWs of Wind, 30 something GWs of Utility Solar, and almost 15 GWs of stationary storage.  This on a 90 GW peak load grid called ERCOT.  Among the greatest achievements TREIA  helped craft was an energy only-market and postage stamp wheeling rates.  That was what our producers needed to become highly competitive in the newly deregulated market and in the Nodal Market that would emerge.

Having been appointed to several state wide positions by Governors Richards and Bush, I was in the thick of all this.  Plus, I was also President or on the Executive Committee of TREIA for many of those critical years. And I was a Co-Founder with Russel Smith.

So the planners of the event honored me with a  Visionary Founder Award. And here are my short acceptance remarks:

40th Anniversary Award Remarks, September 23rd, 2025
 
Thank you…thank you. Thank you Raina, Lenae, Melissa, Hala,
 
And all of you.
 
Awards like this are truly special and they are so appreciated. But in many ways, they are also misleading and even a little bit hard on some. The good work we did 40 years ago was accomplished by more than just a handful of dedicated people.
 
Even though Margaret Meade said: 
 
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
 
It was almost 200 people who met at the Crest Inn in 1985 to start TREIA. It was exciting and there was so much future in front of us.
 
Surely some are here in this room today. (around 30 folks arise and  are recognized)

But even though we are gathered to honor the past, We need to use this time to contemplate the future. For the future  of our Industry faces uncertainty today,
 
Just like it did 40 years ago. 
 
And some of the predictions are pretty dire.
 
But some of them are not.
 
Here’s what the Sept 25 EIA ( Energy Information Administration) Report predicts:
 
We expect that total U.S. generation by the electric power sector will grow by 2.3% in 2025 and a further 3.0% next year. 
 
These growth rates are higher than expected at the beginning of the year when we forecast U.S. electricity generation would grow by an average of 1.5% each year. The higher growth in generation reflects colder-than-expected weather earlier in 2025 along with the incorporation of load growth assessments by grid operators in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and PJM systems.
 
Increasing electricity demand is being met by higher generation from most energy sources in 2025. We expect that utility-scale solar will grow the most, generating 33%, or 72 billion kilowatthours more electricity this year compared with 2024. 
 
New solar projects account for more than half of the new generating capacity expected to come online this year.
 
We expect wind will generate 4% more electricity in 2025 than it did in 2024, while we expect hydropower generation will grow by 2%.
 
We forecast that natural gas-fired power plants will generate 3% (61 BkWh) less electricity in 2025 than last year. In some regions, such as Texas and the Midwest, increasing generation from solar is also displacing some natural gas-fired generation.
 
Between now and 2026, the Short Term Outlook predicts that Gas will drop from 42 to 40 % of total generation, Renewables will grow  from 25% to 26%, nuclear remains flat at 18%, and coal still dropping falls to 16%.
 
We expect that total U.S. generation by the electric power sector will grow by 2.3% in 2025 and a further 3.0% next year. We expect that solar power will supply the largest share of the increase in both years.
 
They see GDP going up over 2% and WTI going down into the 50’s.
 
In closing I want to point out that some of us old die-hards have created the Historical Foundation for Texas Renewable Energy, also known as the Renewable Foundation, and we are archiving the 40 Years of work that got us where we are today.  Go to  the website and go back to the Newsletters in 92 when we got our first PUC Commissioner appointed, when the Utilities joined our ranks, and how we used the Governors STEPP project to create the policy that brought us an energy only market and the CREZ.
 
We’ve come a long way here in Texas.  We’ve got 40 GWs of Wind and 32 GWs of Solar, and 14 GWs of Storage on a 100 GW system.
 
If we work together we can stand tomorrow’s bad weather, because we know the climate is in our favor.
 
But I think we need to tell our story better.  Most do not recognize the sizable contribution of clean energy to their lives.  We need to fix that through organizations like this and other communication strategies. 

People need to know.
 
Thank you once again for this honor.
 
And now, allow me to do the honors and introduce Russel Smith, the Executive Director of TREIA for 3 decades." 

Yes, the Rs at the Texas State Capitol, and Drumph in DC are doing their best to slow this train down.   But the tracks are laid and the rest of the World knows that our current leadership is an embarrassment in this critical time of Climate Stabilization. 

His speech at the UN on Tuesday, the same day that I received my award will go down in History as colossal quackery    

But Hitler was an embarrassment until he proved that he was actually a menace.

And this Tuesday's likely government shutdown may prove to be more memorable than others. 

But as Yogi Berra said:

It's hard to Predict,

Especially if your talking about the Future. 

For we are in the hands of a foolish and cruel regime. 

I hope we Wake Up soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 * Poster by James Montgomery Flagg 1917

 

It Happened Here

One of my favorite expressions when I want to describe a situation that is really creepy or haunting in a very real sense is to say that the moment feels like the beginning of a Stephen King movie. (And I generally don't like or even watch his movies or read his books.) You know what I'm saying though. The scene might seem somewhat normal to some but to the trained eye, it's the beginning of something really horrible.  

Well, in fact we in the US and in the World are living such a movie.

It's the Dead Zone. 

The theory that Stephen King's 1979 novel

The Dead Zone predicted the rise of Donald Trump centers on the book's populist politician character, Greg Stillson. The comparison is based on Stillson's manipulative personality, his "outsider" appeal, and the way he uses public perception to gain power.  

Who is Greg Stillson?

 

In The Dead Zone, Stillson is a political candidate who presents himself as a man of the people, wearing a hard hat to appeal to blue-collar workers. Behind the scenes, he is a ruthless, corrupt, and murderous psychopath. 

  

Those who see similarities between the fictional Stillson and Drumph point to the following characteristics: 

• The outsider persona: Stillson, like Drumph, positions himself as an unconventional politician who is "outside the mainstream" and willing to say anything to captivate voters.
• Populist appeal: Both characters tap into public frustration by pandering to the "everyman" with promises to fix a corrupt system.
• Manipulation of the media: The novel questions the power of journalism to hold such figures accountable, a theme that has been heavily discussed in the context of Drumph's rise.
• The infamous photo: In the book, a photographer captures a damning image of Stillson using a baby as a human shield, which destroys his political career. However, some observers note that a similar photograph of a real-life public figure might not have the same effect in the current, highly polarized media landscape.  

Where is the photo or image that will bring Drumph down? Is it his many pictures with the serial molester of children and best friend Epstein?  Or his picture with the Porn Star he paid before the 2016 election?  No, the picture that probably elected him in 2024, was his blooded face rising with his clenched fist below a giant flag hoisted by a crane quickly orchestrated and produced by an opportunistic campaign flack.

  

Novelists have long imagined, and warned of, the threat to liberal places from totalitarian rule. British writers of the 20th century, including George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Robert Harris, won mass audiences for their depictions of anti-democratic dystopias. 

 

All owed a debt, in turn, to a disillusioned Russian revolutionary, Yevgeny Zamyatin, whose novel “We” described a dictatorial “OneState” of the 26th century, in which humans become mere “Numbers”—automatons who prioritise efficiency over freedom. 

 

His book, published in the early 1920s, provided an inspiration for Orwell’s “1984”. Authors across the Atlantic have fretted no less than Europeans about threats to democracy. Margaret Atwood, a Canadian, imagined America becoming a repressive religious republic, Gilead. 

 

Sinclair Lewis, who wrote soon after the Nazis were elected to power in Germany, told a story of the rise of populist, fascist government and the failures of ordinary American citizens to resist it. His book "It can't happen here" could now be renamed it happened here. 

 

Now, except for the those house media sources that are part of the ruling junta, the administration is now called a regime.

 

The question is moving quickly from one of condition to one of what can be done.

 

This from the Globe and Mail:

 

To call what is happening a “slide” into authoritarianism, as if it were something anarchic and uncontrolled, would not be apt. It is more like a cementing. Having slipped back into power by the narrowest of margins, Mr. Trump and his acolytes have been steadily expanding from that beachhead, each new power serving as the means to acquire still more.  

  

Often these powers have been acquired illegally, in brazen defiance of the Constitution. But so long as no one holds them to account for it, and so long as the administration refuses to be held to account, they become ratified by convention, or practice, or sheer nerve, the de facto rapidly congealing into the de jure.

At some point, American democracy will find it is caught, immovably, a colossus in quicksand. 

The examples pile up by the day. In recent days, weeks and months, Mr. Trump and his officials have:

• Installed National Guard troops and other military forces in the centre of major American cities, first Los Angeles, then Washington, and soon (if Mr. Trump’s threats are to be believed) Chicago, Baltimore and New York. 
• Seized thousands of suspected illegal immigrants off the streets, the snatchings carried out by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents without badges, their victims bundled into cars without markings, to be sent in some cases to barbaric foreign prison camps, in some cases to their domestic counterparts, without trial, without even charges. ICE is increasingly seen as Mr. Trump’s personal police force.
• Initiated criminal investigations into various of Mr. Trump’s antagonists, from Letitia James, the Attorney-General of New York who prosecuted him for fraud, to Jack Smith, the special counsel who prosecuted him for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and for his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, to John Bolton, his own former national security adviser who has since become one of his severest critics, to Adam Schiff, the Democratic Senator and lead manager on his first impeachment. more

 

It has happened here.

 

Chicago is responding,  

 

California and New York are crafting their own executive orders,

 

the Appeals Court finds his tariffs illegal,

 

And it's time for Americans to begin talking about a Soft Secession. 

 

And it's time for the Plutocrats to  step off the train.

 

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King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war three.”

King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war

 

King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war three.”

tus quo and sick of it. Voters saw a vast and overloaded apple cart lumbering past them. They wanted

tus quo and sick of it. Voters saw a vast and overloaded apple cart lumbering past them. They want

King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war three.”

King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war thr

King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war three.”

King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war three.”

King’s most presciently crafted Trump-like character appears in his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. “Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins,” a sequence of events that repeats itself when he runs for the House of Representatives and then for the presidency — a rise foreseen by the story’s hero Johnny Smith, granted clairvoyant powers by a car wreck. “He realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war th

 

The Time is Now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few weekends ago, we ran into some long-time friends at our local fresh fish restaurant.  Norman came by as he was leaving and he placed his hand on my shoulder in a loving and caring way.  "It must be very hard having to watch a  public felon try to lay waste to your life time of work in the wind and solar industry." (not to mention all my early work in water conservation and energy efficiency)

"He's slowed the Industry down here in the US of course", I said.  "But the World is moving full steam ahead with renewable energy, stationary battery storage and the electrification of transportation. He is just making America greatly anachronistic." But I added, "however, his technological speed bump has slowed the World down in controlling climate change in a critical way."

Indeed the most recent peer reviewed report states:

A recent report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) indicates that climate change is accelerating, with 2024 marking the first year that global temperatures exceeded 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. The report, which analyzes data from 101 countries, highlights record-breaking temperatures, greenhouse gas concentrations, and sea levels. It also emphasizes the irreversible impacts of climate change, particularly on weather patterns and ecosystems. 

 

Key findings from the WMO report 

Record-breaking temperatures:

2024 was the warmest year in the observational record, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. 

  

Accelerating climate change:

The report shows that climate change is intensifying, with some impacts becoming irreversible over centuries. 

 

Increased extreme weather events: 

The report links increased extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and flooding, to climate change. 

 

Irreversible impacts: 

The report highlights the growing concern of irreversible changes to the planet, including rising sea levels and melting glaciers. 

 

Social and economic upheaval:

The report also notes the massive social and economic consequences of extreme weather events, impacting livelihoods and economies. 

 

The report underscores the urgent need for action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) stating that "climate crunch time is here". The WMO is calling for global cooperation to address the escalating risks and safeguard the planet and its inhabitants.

 

It was 10 years ago that I went to Paris as the Chairman of the Electric Utility Commission in Austin, Texas, along with our Mayor, a City Council Member, and a County Commissioner.  There, most of the Cities and Nations on Earth agreed to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (well below 2 degrees C) to avoid the worst of what the loss of a stable climate would bring to the almost 8 billion inhabitants of our spaceship.  

 

And now we have the loss of a stable government in the US.

 

And we are shooting well beyond our International Agreement even as the Drumph once again withdraws from it. 

 

I would like to say that such a recoil from the growing global understanding of the challenges of climate change was unexpected.  But it was not.  I wrote about it 25 years ago in my book Lightland, Climate Change and the Human Potential.

 

I warned that the Prometheans,  (the Worshippers of Fire) would fight a great battle with the Olympians. (the believers in Light). This great battle called the Titanomachy would result in Apollo and his twin sister Artemis winning the struggle for humankind to evolve to a more advanced state where freedom and justice become twin pillars of a new world of art and beauty,  music, and science.

 

The story was originally told by Hesiod in his Theogony. 

 

So, as the Republicans leave early for a long holiday to avoid a vote to release  the pedophile file and our top intelligence officer declares that the President with the least scandals in a hundred years did something very ominous in determining whether or not the newly elected failed Casino owner was Krasnov,  we find that our government is not governing, but on a massive heist of the nation and its riches even as it accelerates its retribution tour. 

 

Soon, we will go from an unstable government to something new for Americans, but known on many continents in many ages.

 

A failed government.  

 

And then add climate failure. And that may very likely result in a far right authoritarian regime that is supported by the oligarchs of our time.  

 

The time is now to get in front of it.  Not just the fight for climate, but the fight for freedom and Democracy. Add a little dose of AI and the urgency is complete.

 

I'm in the last pages of Timothy Snyder's  new book On Freedom. 

 

On page 231, he writes, "The space between what is and what ought to be is where we roam as free people, extending the borderland of the unpredictable. We decide which values to affirm, in what combination, for what reasons, and at what time.  Then we try again. With practice, we attain our own human form of grace."

 

And as we  struggle to be something more than what we have become, we will need to follow an Olympian blueprint to create an ethical and prosperous global community.

 

It is not a choice,

 

It is our Clear Path. 

 

And it is our grace. 

 

The Time is Now. 

 

 

 

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