transition

We went to our first Transition meeting last night, in Bristol.

Transition have really got a handle on the challenges of Climate Change and Peak Oil, proposing positive solutions and using a ground up approach.

If you're not yet involved then now's a great time to start, either by joining your own local Transition group, or starting the process of setting one up.

earth hour

So did you manage Earth Hour on Sunday?

We had a great time, switching everything off at 8 and then watching the evening develop (some may say degenerate!) into a family sing-song, the sort of thing I haven't done for several lifetimes! I have a video but not sure anyone here would appreciate it going on, but keep looking ...

The biggest point of the evening is that once cast adrift from all the crap we're surrounded by - TV, rubbish consumer goods, the Pussycat Dolls etc - we're perfectly capable of doing stuff, and really fun stuff at that.

And before you tell me 'that's okay for an hour but how about for a week' I did two years in Scotland without electricity back in the early 90s, and it was great. In fact it's even easier over the long term because you learn new ways of coping.

Can't wait for Earth Hour 2009 - and next time let's all of us get our local councils to turn off the street lights. Fuckers didn't do it round here - too many lefties on the council!

tibet crackers

What is China's problem? Why does it need to impose its imperialist rule on poor Tibet? The Tibetans have a total right to self-determination, the settlement of Tibet by ethnic Chinese colonists is a pathetic throwback to the 19th century. These fuckers are planning to hold the Olympics this year - let's totally boycott it. For a start why not join this Facebook group.

James Lovelock has forecast that China will be uninhabitable by 2040. He's usually right. Let's hope that he's spot on. At least then Tibet will be free!

positive signs

Despite the miserable Easter I've been cheered by signs all weekend of real structural change here in the UK. It started with discovering this magazine [free on-line copy available] - from a local garden centre would you believe? Permaculture is a great way forward for food production. The magazine covers the essentials, as well as wider issues like Peak Oil and Climate Change. The articles are very positive and avoid the miserablism of the tory/socialist/hippy concensus.

The shops are full of seeds and gardening stuff, as are the weekend papers. It's as if the supermarkets already know that they're dying and are trying to shift into real stuff. The signs are everywhere.

Look, we all know that the oil economy is coming to an end, just as severe climate change kicks in. It ain't going to be easy, but for those of us prepared, debt-free, with our own gardens, woodland, tools, skills and networks it'll be easier, way easier, than it will be for the socialists, petrol-heads, consumer sheep, meat eater hippies and other assorted losers. So get on board and see it as a challange rather than a threat.

From now on I'll be concentrating on positive action for my readers, but will of course not shy away from having a good laugh at the losers that are trying to convince themselves that nothing's wrong!

moronwatch UK

Oh dear. This idiot government just don't get it.

It's Easter weekend. And what's happening? On the railways there are engineering works leading to delays and (LOL!) bus 'replacements'. And what's the situation on the roads? Two thirds of road works are being LIFTED over Easter.

What message do you suppose this sends to the British Idiocracy? Cars good, trains bad perhaps?

But then what else would you expect from a government where two thirds of the fuckers still use cars that are in the top band for emissions?

Pathetic hippy scum ....

the chickens are clucking

Wow. Down 4% Monday, up 3% Tuesday. The markets are all over the place. This is possibly the start of the first stage of the Collapse. We've been living a fantasy of consumption for the last 20 years, fuelled by easy credit and imaginary house price rises. Already many are cutting back on their credit cards. Unemployment and repossessions are howling from the wings. We have probably the worst possible government for the coming challenges. Today some stupid big aeroplane landed in London - a sure sign that things are on the verge. And mainstream TV is already talking about Depression - recession is old news ...

We all have to draw in the shutters, get rid of all our debts as quickly as possible and begin to think in terms of looking after ourselves first and fuck the rest, or at least those outside of our immediate communities. This is all happening a bit too fast.

Don't sell your gold and silver yet! But it may be worth looking for a safe place to hide it in the woods somewhere.

Can't wait till the markets open tomorrow!

got £3 million - want to lose it?

This was, amazingly, in YESTERDAY'S Independent.

Think about it - this stretch of coast is the most vulnerable in the UK. We flew over it coming back from Prague and it looked so fragile you wanted to hug it.

All of this will be permanently under water within decades. This has nothing to do with sea level rise (that's a little extra) but the effect of land tilting since the last ice age, which results in this part of the country sinking by about a foot a century. Already parts of this coastline are being abandoned.

I suppose the seller hopes there's some mug out there - perhaps a Sun-reading socialist lottery winner, a racist who's inherited cash or one of those wonderful climate change/peak oil denier hippies - who's stupid enough to fork out the cash.

Perhaps Joe Lewis can cash in his Bear Stearns shares and buy it??

there's always one!

This week's Moneyweek carried - without comment - a short piece referring to Nansen Saleri's article in the Wall Street Journal claiming that the Peak is still 40 or 50 years off. This is dangerous (and terribly unprofessional) stuff, balm to soothe the nerves of the nostalgists, but dangerous ground for anyone trying to make sensible investment decisions NOW for a future that we know is going to be scary without cheap oil.

I always listen to what the 'enemy' come up with. So I checked it out. It was pretty clear from the scant information in the Moneyweek article that this bloke was of the cornucopian school, people that simply don't want to face up to the truth and are prepared to be liberal with the truth to fit their own agenda - remember Climate Change Deniers??

This is the fairest dissection of Saleri's drivel!

The problem for many of the oil forever hippies is that they underestimate us. They ran with climate change denial for so long because the meteorologists really couldn't be bothered with having to talk down to them. But economists and geologists are a tougher bunch! I never realised when studying economics a few years back that I'd be thrust into such an enticing battle - but I'm glad I am.

People are scared. They are already dealing with the very real effects of climate change, now they're heading into the first recession of the post Peak Oil Age, they've had it so good for so long they don't want to face the truth. I suspect Peak Oil Denial will last at least another 10 to 15 years, longer than Climate Change Denial, because it can be buried within complex noise within the economic system.

As always - invest in gold, silver, land, forestry, oil and learn real skills, gather tools and seeds, buy that defensible small property and make strong links in your community.

premature armageddon?

I've got a picture of my mum in front of one of these cars in about 1955, posing in front of it as if she owns it. Back then the very idea of owning a car at any point in the future would have been a fantasy. Little did she know that she was in at the start of the most economically successful period in Earth's history. Fifty years later she lives in a 'nice' bungalow, has had plenty of cars, foreign holidays and few problems along the way. I think we already envy our parents' generation.

Back in 2008 things seem to be going terribly awry. The markets have been disturbed since August 2007 and still have a long way to fall. House prices are on the edge of a precipice. Soon that Thatcher favourite 'unemployment' will become fashionable again. But this time the reasons aren't self-indulgent Thatcherite socialism grinding the middle classes down, but the looming spectre of Peak Oil with its mischievous chum Climate Change in tail. These changes will be permanent and worsening.

There's a classic line in 'The Day After Tomorrow' when Raymond, the Vice-President, announces 'The economy is every bit as fragile as the environment'. He was magnificently correct, though perhaps not in the way he meant. The economy is actually far more fragile, and it is in crumbling economies that the real horrors of PO and CC will hit us all - except for those of us that have been preparing for it for decades of course.

And this current government's madness, supported by an ill-educated and nostalgic public, just keeps compounding it. Adding to the madness of a proposed new runway for Heathrow our socialist masters are now threatening a new runway at Stanstead! Just how are all these new planes going to actually fly? Idiots. A new coal-fuelled power station in Kent has been given the go ahead, and the minister responsible says 'we can't let the lights go out.' Well they will when the coal runs out moron! Nuclear has to be the way forward, supported by a huge increase in sustainables coupled with a massive energy saving programme. This is kids' stuff.

These are the first signs that fear is gripping 'our' 'government' as Peak Oil realities begin to change the very nature of politics. At least they are starting to extinguish democracy, a necessary precursor to putting through workable measures to alleviate the problems. The little sheep, watching the latest storm lash our towns on the telly, are bleating their last little protests as the wolves begin to emerge from the forests ...

cloverfield review

Most of the action takes place here.


The monster is terrific - and very scary.


These parasites were even scarier.

We've just come back from Cloverfield - the current must-see fillum.

It starts at a Greek wedding party where one of the guests is thrown out into the street for being Turkish. One quick mobile phone call and a group of friends invades the party dressed as monsters! It's all very gory and great fun.

Unfortunately the army get it all wrong and begin to attack thinking the dear little monsters are REAL. Cue hilarity, disembowelling and guns. It all ends up with the Turks being cornered in a dear little field but they are saved right at the end as a group of cows - or parasites according to the army - attack the soldiers with their horns.

Eventually all the partygoers cuddle and are friends again, the dear little cows go back to be milked and all the soldiers are dead.

thatcher, tebbitt et al

Thatcher in her 'prime'.

Norman Tebbitt's in the news again. Most of you won't remember this lefty buffoon, but he was one of Margaret Thatcher's most loyal comrades in the 1930s.

His latest slaverings suggest that all boys should be taken on shoots to watch birds being shot, as this will stop them getting in fights or playing 'video games'.

Now I agree, all boys (and girls) should be taught to shoot, but not innocent birds. They need to be able to handle guns so that in the future, when lefty losers like Tebbitt, middle class tossers, chavs and hippies come looking to grab YOUR land when they're starving, they are able to quickly shoot and kill them.

Tebbitt and Thatcher, like all socialist Peak Oil deniers, need to be buried once and for all. Their views are of no interest to real people.

Jeremy Clarkson - hero

We caught Top Gear last night. What a superb programme. Jeremy and his two chums were soaring around Europe in some silly sports cars. Best bit was when they drove from Davos down to Italy, and Jeremy's genius comment about Swiss roads and scenery - 'This is too good for the Swiss. It should be ours!'

The po-faced leftist 'greens' hate Clarkson, mind you they hate everyone! To me he's a hero. He's totally uncool, his music taste would shame my dad (who thinks Snow Patrol are too raucous) and he attacks all the scared cows of the leftist 'greens' whenever possible. But he's actually using irony so sharply that it takes an age to get it, but when you do ... bang!

He's a Tony Harrison for the full bodied community. Treasure him!

tata to the car

So Tata in India is planning to create a 'peoples' car at around £1250. Oh dear ... there is no way that even existing car-ridden nations can keep up this pretence of private transport for all, developing nations will never know mass private transport even at £1250 for a new car. The resources aren't there, either fuel or raw materials, no matter how much we recycle them.

India should instead stay ahead of the pack and develop its fantastic railway system, build new lines, invest in more electrification and develop super quality stock for the future. And look at Maglev.

Only an idiot would even consider investing in cars in this day and age. Sell car makers, buy rail development companies (unless you want to lose billions of course). Perhaps Ratan Tata, the hippy behind this, will end up in the very slums he's hoping to free the masses from ...

the real cost of political posturing

'The average price of a pint of bitter in Britain's pubs could increase from around £2.20 to as much as £4 next year, the industry has warned.

The massive hike, which is also expected to affect cans bought from off licences, is due largely to increased prices of key ingredients barley and hops - in part because farmland is being turned over to environment-friendly biofuels.

But brewers are also suffering from rises in fuel costs and the price of the metals used to produce kegs and cans. Kegs are now so valuable that they have become a target for thieves, who stole 60 million this year to melt down for their metal.' (AOL news, 24/12/07)

So the hippies' obsession with driving at any cost is already having terrible effects. This is also going to drive more pubs out of business. I'm so glad I'm getting a vineyard in Hungary in the next few years. I'll do EVERYTHING to resist turning my land over to biofuels - the biggest con in history. The recipe for biofuels disaster - loads of scarce water + valuable land + 10 barrels (conventional) oil = 8 barrels biofuel + rich farmers + smug (ostrich) politicians. Total madness.

And the second part of the story is also telling. ALL metals are running out, being snapped up to fuel the expansion of China and India. Okay, as an investment ploy metals are great, but otherwise we should all be concerned ...

hungary

The Christmas market in Budapest. This was great fun with loads of stalls selling local products and even real food (vegetarian!) plus regular free shows on the stage.


The castle on the Buda side. This was very impressive, especially at night when it's floodlit. There were no tourists there on a cold December morning, and all the better for it!


Budapest has - inevitably - a superb public transport system. These modern trams run around the city, though other routes have far older trams, a testament to their longevity and superiority over buses! Behind is one of the maon Budapest stations designed by Eiffel.


The largest open air ice rink in Europe, at the City Park in Budapest.

Hungary's a fantastic country - we're planning to move there within 6 to 7 years.

more idiots

Do you agree with the protesters that the price of fuel is too high?
Results:
Votes
Per cent
Yes
32,284
96%
No
1,324
4%
Don't know
171
0%
Total votes: 33,779

This is an AOL poll. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age fully 96% of the population feel that our ridiculously cheap petrol is too EXPENSIVE! Are 96% of the population completely stupid or do they spend their entire lives hidden in basements??

Get this thickos - petrol is cheaper now than it will ever be again. It is ludicrously cheap, hardly allowing at all for the environmental costs it incurs. Climate Change means we'll all have to produce less CO2. The idiot communist USA isn't even committing to keeping temperature changes under 2 degrees, even though scientists state that any rise above 2 degrees will be catastrophic. Perhaps our dim friends across the Atlantic should look that up in a dictionary (Webster's if neccessary). We don't have the option of over 2 degrees - it will lead to mass extinctions and runaway positive feedbacks. Listen to the scientists - they know what they're talking about. David Handley, the commie christians and the brickie in the pub DON'T!!

And in any case the harsh economics of Peak Oil are upon us, which will decrease the availability of petrol by 7% per year from now on. That will be reflected in prices, idiots. And this is just the beginning.

more idiots ...

'The United States will reject demands to commit to internationally binding cuts in global warming gases at the UN climate conference in Bali, the chief US climate negotiator said.'

More hippies from dying semi-nations burying their heads - and economies - in the sand. Why not join this facebook group if you think all Americans are communistic, christian morons!! Apart from those heading Peak Oil groups, survivalists and Pagans of course, who are well mint.

gloves off ...

'China has refused to accept mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the West should lead the climate change battle by being less extravagant.'

Have they indeed? Well, if you read the above statement you can see there's the potential for some stunning internal logic.

Let's bring the Chinese dream to life by being less extravagant and NOT BUYING any Chinese products! That will reduce their economic growth and with a bit of luck start the break up of China as a future superpower.

Climate Change is now far worse than even the very worst scenarios predicted. The tropics have ALREADY expanded to the point predicted in the WORST scenarios for the end of this century. There are already massive population dislocations. Nobody, especially some tin pot COMMUNIST third world pigsty, is in the position to decide it ain't going to join in the prevention attempt. Even Australia, hippy communist third world Foster-drinking joke, has now agreed to Kyoto (big deal!)

As Jarvis Cocker once sang so eloquently, 'Something Changed'. It's just a few dinosaurs, hippies and commies still haven't realised it.

No more Chinese junk for me ...

time to disengage

Thousands of Sudanese, many carrying knives and sticks, have taken to the streets of Khartoum calling for the execution of British school teacher Gillian Gibbons, jailed over a teddy bear.

I seriously think it's time the world split into two mutually exclusive camps. That this world of ours can produce such lunacy appalls me and every decent person. Religion is a HOBBY, it's not actually real. And even if it were it has nothing to do with the rest of us. I'm sorry but only a certifiable maniac would suggest that naming a teddy bear anything is courting death. It's pathetic.

We have the decent, civilized, secular world, scientific and advanced and kind, we have the dark third world where people are killed for their beliefs, or elevated to the status of gods. Sudan, North Korea, the USA - they need to be isolated from the real world and we should disengage totally from them. They have nothing we need, and we have nothing that they can learn from. We show our soft side too much. I think the hippes should be ghettoised, for their own good. They've gone too far ...

I wonder what's happened to the teddy?

france looks ahead

With riots in the Paris suburbs and the best cheese in the world, France is always cool.

And with a policy of using nuclear power they are looking ahead to life after oil. But, amazingly, they are also looking even further ahead. 70 French towns are now using horses to take kids to school and to pull recycling carts and dustcarts. They are claiming it's because of Climate Change, but of course it's really because of Peak Oil. It works, economically, already when we still have incredibly cheap petrol! This is the future, and it's already happening.

France has also built over THIRTY new tramway systems in the last 10 years. Makes you ashamed to be living in the UK really ...

(Okay, the picture above is Zermatt, but it was the closest I had to a horse-drawn vehicle!)

the ultimate madness

Look at the slogan on this machine. 'Turn Your Coins Into Cash'. Er, coins are cash fuckface!

I've actually seen people using these machines. You pay in £1 of real money, cash, yours indeed - and you get out 85p. The supermarket gets 15p! Well, they obviously need it and you don't!

I know the average chav hasn't got two brain cells to rub together, but how on earth have we de-evolved this far?? How did this machine ever happen? What makes somebody so STUPID that they use a machine like this?

fucking morons

'The UK population could almost double by the end of the century, according to Government projections.
The figures from the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) suggest that with high immigration and fertility rates, the population could reach 108,723,000 by 2081.'

LOL! Is this the same government that intends to increase capacity at Heathrow Airport? The same government that lost 25 million personal records? The same government that really, seriously believe that the British people will accept COMPULSORY ID Cards??

I project UK population in 2081 to be around 5-8 million.