The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > 2010: the year for getting serious? > Comments

2010: the year for getting serious? : Comments

By Peter McMahon, published 8/1/2010

The two great hopes of 2009, US President Barack Obama and Copenhagen, proved to be disappointments.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. All
Get serious Peter,

"Hopefully, with the failures of 2009 in mind, a shift towards such institutional change can seriously begin in 2010."

Why should 2010 be any different from any other year? People will still be doing the "hopefully" dance 10 years from now. As Kurt Cobb put it so well in his essay "Hope, hopelessness and faith" (http://www.energybulletin.net/51101):

"For those involved in issues of sustainability, peak oil, climate change, and relocalization it might be better to feel a certain hopelessness in our situation. For hope implies dependence on forces outside ourselves. Once we abandon that hope, we can get down to the tasks at hand, the tasks that need to be done--for which we need to ask no politician or government official permission--tasks that we can get started on today. In this way hopelessness concerning the current political and economic arrangements becomes an ally."

Stop wasting time hoping Peter and do something constructive.
Posted by michael_in_adelaide, Friday, 8 January 2010 9:23:58 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Michael, Do no be so harsh on Peter, besides which you have no idea as to what he does altogether.

Meanwhile there is great resistance all over the world by "conservative" interests to the necessary changes that need to occur.

The entrenched power groupings in Iran and their brutal crushing of dissent and change. And the resistance to change in Islamic countries altogether, especially Saudi Arabia.

Plus the mirroring of the above examples (of resistance to real change) in the USA via the hysterical right-wing response to the election of Obama and his politics of hope.

Meanwhile these related references affirm and extend the ideas and actions that Peter writes about.

http://www.globalcooperationproject.org

http://www.dabase.org/GCF.htm

Note that in the GCF reference there are hardly any (even none) outfits and organizations that are on the right or so called conservative side of the culture wars divide.

Also: http://dabase.org/p4formula.htm
Posted by Ho Hum, Friday, 8 January 2010 11:44:17 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Micheal: I wrote: Hostname: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3349&page=3

(I commenced my career as a farmer on my family farm. I remember once standing along side 2 empty semis, facing about 500 bales of hay, the temperature was around 90°F and was expected to top 105. My father climbed onto the trailer, signaled the driver to commence, looked ot my grandfather and I and said.

"It's not gunna get loaded, by standing here lookin at it")
Posted by Wybong, Friday, 8 January 2010 12:17:46 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Stopping the Global Govt at Copenhagen was a brilliant success.Many more people are questioning AGW because of Climategate.

Let's get serious about giving liberty back to ordinary people.This means stopping the wars,and spending arms money on education in developing countries.Educated people have small familes and know how to look after the environment.We do not need eco-facists running our lives.

A world centralised Govt will be our worst nightmare,especially when we will not have single vote on the decisions they will be making.
Posted by Arjay, Friday, 8 January 2010 12:26:51 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
An excellent analysis of the challenge facing us Peter.

Obama has had trenchant opposition from broken, out dated and out of control institutions that at best pay lip service to the common interest.

To change the status quo, Obama needs to create the right conditions that will enable him to terminally weaken these archaic obstructionists.

The trisk is to sap their power whilst at the same time building effective alternative decision making structures that you mentioned in your article. A key step will be to engage the people who can help him deliver the changes that are urgently required.

Obama is already pursuing some promising new pathways. For example, his demand for a major cultural change to a pro-active disclosure of information by government and an active on-line enagement with the public by public servants.

In my view he also needs to counter the megaphone of Murdock's Fox empire's constant attacks with a massive boost to public broadcasting resources similar to that given to the BBC to produce top draw journalism and programs.

By engaging the powerful regulatory controls through the EPA, he has an opportunity to curb greenhouse gas emmissions without dealing with senate obstructionists. He can work with change agents to transform the energy landscape in the US and show the kind of world leadership expected from him by his core election base and his supporters elsewhere.
Posted by Quick response, Friday, 8 January 2010 12:41:18 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I am going to agree with every one.

I agree with Micheal about hope, hope implies despare, and using hope to solve despare will not work as hope does nothing. (I aplogise to all those people named Hope)

My father occasionaly fell from that semi's trailor I spoke about as it rode across the rough paddocks. He would dust himself off, and get back up.

Peters statement "The national representatives who failed to find a solution to the global warming threat at Copenhagen were operating within a 20th century paradigm. This was the way of bargaining for self-advantage, not the common good." just about sums it all up.

We have farmers wanting the government to compensate them for not being allowed to dam and re-route every last drop of water that falls on their properties. Would they compensate the landholders downstream if they could, I don't think so.

Oil and fuel companies have grown rich and fat since the industrial revolution, they have done little to ensure the sustainabilty of anything except their profits.

They have even had the arogence to say that pricing now reflects the fact that reserves are not unlimited so we need to get a greater profit now while we can.

Oil companies want to be compensated for having to "clean up their act", do they compensate small independant fuel suppliers they undercut.

Power companies too, what happened to capitalism, survival of the fitest, growth, development, creating sustainable enterprise, serviceing you customers, research. All the things that capitalists rave on about.

Oh no, they are only too happy to have "The State" bale them out. Large corporations that pay their senior execs pornograhic sums of money just before they crash into oblivion, and just EXPECT "The State" to pay out their employees entitlements.

The problems are clear, in general, we are a bunch of arogant, self centred, greedy, lazy buck passers.

Lets get off of our RRRRs, dust ourselves off and get this bloody hay loaded, don't you know it's going to reach 105°F
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3349&page=3
Posted by Wybong, Friday, 8 January 2010 1:08:02 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy