Saturday, June 30, 2007

no more baccy for you now ...



This could only happen in Hartcliffe - a pub called The Baccy Jar! Wonder what it will be called from tomorrow?

Silliest news is the landlord in a Bolton pub who insists he's going to continue to allow his cancerous customers to keep smoking after tomorrow! We'll see - the idiot's only gone and blurted it out all over the papers. So which is the first pub that the police will visit come the ban? He's forgetting - his loser customers will only have to stump up £50 a time, he'll get clobbered £2500 each time! Some businessman!!
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Friday, June 29, 2007

transition towns


Thanks to Robin W of the S&D Railway who's brought this to my attention.

Local initiatives in the UK are bringing about the concept of 'Transition Towns' as a response to Climate Change and Peak Oil. The idea is to relocalise towns so that the economy no longer depends on oil or globalisation. This is a fantastic grass roots idea that every one of us needs to support and get involved in. Start here ...
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nearly sorted ...





LOSERS' GALLERY!
So a few loser smokers are going to challenge the English smoking ban are they? And on the grounds of human rights! What about the rights of the 80% who DON'T smoke, who think all smokers are loser scum and are still getting off light? Just get used to it.

Publicans must be jumping with joy at the latest forecasts, that pub visits will rocket once the smell of stale tobacco has gone, and only 3% of smokers (or under 1% of pub-goers) have said they'll stop going to pubs. Good riddance. No doubt they'll sit at home jacking up, watching Deal or No Deal and decrying the loss of pounds, shillings and pence, foxhunting and capital punishment for witches.

And smokers, guess what? This is only the START. Soon you'll be banned from smoking in cars, on the street and at home. We should follow Bhutan's example and ban smoking and the sale of the drug tobacco entirely.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

busventure!


I had a taste of post-Peak Oil adventure today, when the car started overheating and had to be left in a garage in Frome. That meant I had to find a way to cover the 25 miles back to Bristol. Sixty years ago I could have hopped on a train and been in Whitchurch in under an hour. Of course we've progressed since then. I had to find a bus in Frome, nothing to Bristol, so I went as far as Midsomer Norton (which once had two stations). I then had to wait over half an hour in the middle of the town, until a Bristol bus arrived. I asked whether it stopped in Bristol - 'no, only one a day goes that way, I can take you to Brislington'. Well I'd heard of there so I handed over £4.10. The bus then took the most ridiculous route down little country lanes, at one point we had to drag a woman out of a hairdressers to move her car so we could get past. At some points we passed the old railway. This was progress? I left Frome at 16.03 and got to Brislington, still two miles short of my destination, at 18.35 - two and a half hours to do what I do in the car in 45 minutes and the train did in an hour. Of course there was nothing to eat or drink on the bus, no timetables, no idea where my stop was, unhelpful bus driver (who even stopped the bus for three minutes for - a cigarette!!!!)

No, the sooner we start building new railways and tramways the better. Buses simply don't do the job, and never will. Until I can jump on a train or tram in Frome and speedily get to where I want to go in Bristol I've little choice but to use the car. Unless Sustrans want to get off their arses and build a Frome to Bristol cycleway alongside the new railway of course!
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

floods


Well we shouldn't be surprised. The weather's been odd for weeks, we had a terrific storm here in Bristol last week. Yesterday saw some extraordinary rainfall over huge parts of England and Wales.

What's really sickening is that despite the fact that the Met Office had put out severe weather warnings since Friday everyone just got up as usual on Monday morning, driving to work and school, and many of them got caught up in it. Three of them died.

Now we've got to get used to it - severe weather is getting more commonplace and worse. We used to think that the UK was immune to really severe weather - that complacency should have vanished in 1987. British weather nowadays can be lethal, and we've all got to get used to it. And it's only going to get worse.

When the Met Office first issued warnings the government and local authorities should have ordered schools and workplaces closed, and also closed the most vulnerable roads, rather than let people innocently venture out.

On the Monday morning one of the grown-ups' comics was blaring out 'Worst rain for 50 years' and in the text mentioned a possibility of up to 4 inches. And today we hear that this is exactly what happened. We have to trust the forecasters now, not act like 1970s British idiots who claimed the forecasts were 'always wrong'.

We are entering very dangerous times, no government in the world is seriously tackling climate change, that will be OUR job as private individuals. Government is failing us all. They need to learn from this, but they won't. They're wankers.

My advice - move away from flood-prone areas, learn some real practical skills and invest in silver and gold. Interesting times are coming ...
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

ennui enemy?



We all know that in the future the economy will have to shrink one way or another. Climate Change will result in far less globalisation as CO2 emissions have to drop in the face of mounting climate disaster; goods will have to be produced and sold more locally as diminishing fossil fuels put the squeeze on transport costs, wider resource depletion and poverty will also slow the economy. The world is going to become a harder place for most.

Has this outlook been addressed? I don’t think it has. I reckon it’s at the core of the old Climate Change deniers’ and - now - Peak Oil ostriches’ problem. They simply can’t envisage a world without incessant, redistributive growth. These people are scared. They’ve been sold the idea of progress, the future one of constantly increasing standards (if not quality) of living, a world of peace and prosperity and logic. They forget that it’s all built on one thing - fossil fuels. The very thing that is making the climate hazardous yet also the one thing that we know will run out - and sooner rather than later. That prosperity is an illusion, it is so underpinned by oil and coal that it is as fragile as a butterfly’s wings in a tornado. So the only option for many is to deny, or to retreat into a fantasy world fed by celebrity magazines and Lord of the Rings. To keep on as they have been, and to pretend it’s all just rubbish. Blissfull ...

But if you look certain elements of ‘progress’ have already faltered under the disguise of economics. The Moon landings were probably the highlight of scientific progress, but no-one’s walked on the Moon for over thirty years now. Concorde and trans-Atlantic supersonic travel were once state-of-the-art, no-one travels at supersonic speed now apart from a few military types. And fifty years ago you could catch a train from just about any village in Britain, now for many it’s just a memory. The roads are collapsing. Village services are falling apart - pubs, post offices and shops. Where’s the progress?

But ‘progress’ is built into everything. ‘Nostalgia’ is its darker flip side, there’s no escaping it. A future without ‘progress’ will seem a dark place indeed to those of us that have fallen for the illusion hook line and sinker. Ennui will creep in, a distancing from reality. Conspiracy theories and such like will abound, communities will close in on themselves. Opinions will become polarised, charity will begin - and stop - at home. Militarism will enter civilian consciousness, we’ll stop caring. And gradually everything will unravel ...

Except of course for those of us that are prepared, for those of us that have always understood that ‘progress’ is an illusion itself. That the things that surround us, the science and mystical appliances, the routing of spirituality by non’religions’ like christianity, the hard core of stupid, inventive, rich celebrity scum that so many ache to ape, these things stand in the way of true progress. Progress is an individual thing, not stuff. Sometimes things reach their peak and will never be improved - classical music, sharks, steam locomotives. Our lives (all of them) are learning processes, or will become more so once there’s less static (ambition, wealth, things, leaders) about.

The perfect day isn’t a hard commute on the train to a boring job, with colleagues breathing down your neck, breathing in fumes and pollen, another trip back home on a packed train, strained conversation with the family, an hour or two of Big Brother and a restless night’s sleep.
It’s a half day chopping wood on a cold misty morning, an hour or so picking and cooking food, and a evening of conversation and play with the family. It’s about views and landscapes and stone and wood and water and fresh food and real conversation about real things. And all of that will still be there, long after 'progress' has been consigned to the dustbin of history, or progress as you ennui-lovers like to think of it. Bring it on ....

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

storm!



We've just had an amazing storm in Bristol. This was the sky over Portishead this evening, and there'd already been reports that towns along the Bristol Channel had been flooded. There was real circulation going on in this sky, but we didn't see any funnels or tornadoes.

Mind you, that may be because just a few minutes later another storm hit us. The rain was incredible and the roads were totally flooded in minutes. Then it started coming in the house ...
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Saturday, June 16, 2007

supermarket sweep



Scene outside the new Hartcliffe Iceland. I watched a constant stream of chavs - some were smoking! - load up with junk and walk sullenly back to their cars.

Ignorance is bliss.

Supermarkets will be an early victim of Peak Oil, attacked on both the supply and demand side. Supply will splutter as petrol becomes scarce - a few will get a private rail siding in time, probably, but most will just wither. At the same time many of the supermarkets' customers will simply no longer be able to reach the shop. Local shops will spring up everywhere, selling local produce. We'll miss the supermarkets, but I can't see any way that they will survive, even if they have been building them pretty much exclusively alongside existing and future railways for years now.
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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

phew, what a scorcher!



So, there are still a few climate change deniers (mainly US lefty 'christians') and the world didn't take a lot of notice of the IPCC report a couple of months ago because it was too scary, but now along comes the latest US National Academy of Sciences Report that suggests that things are far far worse than previously supposed, and that atmospheric carbon is increasing by three times as much as it did in the 1990s. How can that be? Okay, the response has been lacklustre, but governments have not only accepted that man-made climate change is happening but many have even made steps to alleviate the problem. So how can the rate of carbon in the atmosphere be intensifying?

Simple, the long forecasted positive feedback mechanisms are beginning to kick in. If true there really isn't anything we can do now to stop major climate change throughout the globe and massive human die-off as a result.

But in the meantime enjoy the hot weather, invest strategically, read everything you can and get ready for the thrill of climatic disaster!

And all this before Peak Oil kicks in!

And what does the UK 'government' do to prepare? Back airport expansion ...! LOL!

heilegendamm and scum



Heilegendamm probably means something very different to me than it does to the scumbag 'anti-capitalist' deadbeat hippy losers that caused so much trouble in Rostock a few days ago, in their pathetic yearning for a return to the 60s.

To me it's a lovely place I stayed in for a few days in 2004. It's the walk along the seafront past the abandoned factory, a monument to the very lefties that now try winding us up. It's the pizza place right next to the beach and a very friendly campsite. It's also a station on the fantastic Mollibahn.

And what is it now? A dumping ground for world 'leaders', a place under siege with a 7 mile fence around the perimeter and a magnet for every unwashed, lefty, anarchist middle-class loser that's in the business of winding up their rich parents by 'protesting' against capitalism.

Capitalism won losers, get used to it. Only the market will solve the twin problems of climate change and peak oil, and violence never solves anything. Let the pampered 'leaders' waffle for a few days and leave them in peace. Your anti-capitalist rhetoric is meaningless and a total anachronism. The left can never claim the high moral ground on anything, especially climate change. In England the left, in the form of trade unions, are SUPPORTING airport expansion and why? Fucking jobs, that's why. You're all a bunch of hypocrites, or should that be hippycrits? You're no better than the 'leaders' you profess to be against. You're all from the same stock, middle class prefect SCUM.

In a few months Heilegendamm will be quiet and peaceful again, and real people can go about their business there. Who knows what will happen in the meantime, as middle-class protestor attacks middle-class 'leader', kept apart by middle-class police?

Green? You haven't got a fucking clue ....

Sunday, June 03, 2007

dinosaur watch UK



The No 10 petition site is great fun. It's obviously never going to make any difference to policy, but it is an excellent site for sidesplitting laughter, when you go on a dinosaur hunt.

The best dinosaurs are those that obviously are having problems coming to terms with Peak Oil and even Climate Change.

Here are a few prize ones (clue to spotters - try to find those with 10 or less votes!)

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Implement a pilot scheme throughout Northern Ireland to drive on the right instead of driving on the left-hand side of the road. 1 vote.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make it illegal to charge for parking. 2 votes.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to STOP MOTORWAY CONGESTION. 3 votes.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop the raising cost of learning to fly due to air fuel tax. 3 votes.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to tarmac over all railways, and make them into super hyways. 3 votes.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Keep Motorway Lights On. 4 votes.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to 1.) stop subsidising the uneconomic rural rail networks in Scotland and other outlying regions, 2.) use the savings to fund improved public transport infrastructure in crowded areas where demand is highest (London and major cities). 4 votes.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Scrap cars over 20 yrs of the roads. 4 votes.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Compensate 4x4 owners for rendering their vehicles unsaleable due to the extortionate new car tax rate for so-called ' gas guzzlers' . 5 votes.

... and perhaps my favourite ...

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to scrap speed cameras. 24028 votes!!! Oh dear ...

But if you are going to sign a petition - make it this one! This looks forward rather than back.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

location, location, location



The big question - where to live as the world runs out of oil ... and heats up?

Clue 1 - not anywhere like the above! This is Littlehampton seafront, benign enough on a warmish May day with no wind. But look behind the prom and the lands slopes DOWN. This prom is actually Littlehampton's only line of defence against rising sea levels. If breached by heavy seas in a big storm the sea will spill over into the town, possibly wiping it out altogether. It's not a question of if but when ...

Clue 2 - not the cities or suburbs! These are totally unnatural environments - just think tower blocks. There is nowhere near enough space to grow food or wood. And the services will be unmaintainable, the whole area will soon break down. Roaming gangs of scavengers will make life impossible for the survivors.

What's left? Isolated farmhouses - plenty of space for wood and food but possibly difficult to defend. Villages - better, but possibly more of a target for scavengers and too small for some of the specialist services needed in the post Peak Oil world.

It may be that the very best location is - a small market town with a rail connection (essential!), on a river, preferably with easily defended borders and a fertile hinterland and woods (for defence and fuel). Within that the ideal home would be a medium sized house with a spring, woods close by and half an acre per person for food. Expect these homes to become very valuable in the future - and be ready to sell seaside property, city centre property and isolated indefensible farmhouses bereft of real land. And put your cash into gold, silver and oil company shares - bank accounts etc will become valueless as the economy collapses.
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