Ideas 19...Global Warming - Climate Change

Global warming has been going on ever since the last ice age came to an end, about 9,700 years ago. The most obvious evidence of this lies in the region between the Black sea and Afghanistan, which was once flooded with melt water from the north polar ice cap, and was used by traders to sail along part of the silk road to China. Evidence from the Bible suggests that the terrain the Israelites walked through following the exodus from Egypt three and a half thousand years ago, was anything but as climatically harsh as it is today. Humans have in fact been influencing the Earth's climate for at least twenty thousand years, firstly and more recently through slash and burn agriculture, originally to destroy impenetrable forests of fallen trees containing poisonous snakes, scorpions and spiders.

In addition there have been a series of industrial revolutions starting in the UK, Europe, USA, Japan, South Korea, PRC, etc. Whilst ash from coal fired power stations have been converted into breeze blocks to make walls, and sulphur dioxide has been removed with scrubbers to stop the formation of acid rain, the treatment of carbon dioxide using CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) appears to be too expensive a solution. In the UK HMG is attempting to build another generation of nuclear fission power station employing the French company EDF. The high subsidies for this will ensure that the electricity overheads for UK based companies will likely make them uncompetitive in the global economy. The opposite actions appear to be the case in the PRC where the government appears not to give a damn about the smog in Beijing and their other cities. I get the impression that they want other governments to subsidize their anti-pollution policy. Ash filters and gas scrubber systems cost money, but then so does the long term health treatment of Chinese citizens with lung disorders. The present savings in order to reduce company overheads are unlikely to make sense in the long term. An estimated 5.5 million people die from air pollution each year worldwide, mainly in the PRC and India. In the UK air pollution is monitored automatically, at ground level, in cities, but anyone living in a high rise apartment will have probably seen a band of different coloured aerosols in the air on a still sunny day at about the seventh to tenth floor level, and these don't appear to be monitored.

Whilst the primary source of electricity in a utopia would be from photo-voltaic, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal, and aqua-thermal (heat pump) sources, this would have to be backed up by nuclear, either fission or fusion, to cover for events such as El Nino, volcanic eruption or encounter with a comet or asteroid, which would cloud the atmosphere for years. In a capitalist world these may not make economic sense, but in a world technocracy they would be mass produced, as a contribution to a cleaner world that people in the near future will expect.

In 2020 Amazonia and thirty per cent of the Pantanal tropical wetland burned freely, with smoke drifting as far south as the city of Sao Paulo. 17 million animals are estimated to have died in the Pantanal as a result of the fires. Thanks to the Brazilian government's prompting, thousands of fires have lit up the Amazon. Who started them? Perhaps we should be asking ourselves,'who is going to put them out?' I suspect that many of these fires have been started by lightning. The Amazon is in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), renowned for its lightning. This tropical rain forest is drying out. Normally rain falls onto leaves and evaporates. Alternatively the ground water is taken up by the trees and evaporates, known as transpiration. Transpiring forests create rising air which enhances this effect. The winds created carry the moisture inland, a process known as a biotic pump. It is carried by the wind and falls elsewhere in the jungle, only to evaporate again. But now the rain is falling on the scorched ground, then sinking into the thin sandy soil. With so many land plots already destroyed by fire, the water cycle is now haphazard, causing the rain forest to dry out, becoming susceptible to fire. So who is going to put out fires covering thousands of square kilometres, and then plant new seedlings? Amazonia is based upon sand. Once the humus has burned into the atmosphere, all you are left with is sand. The river basin will become a huge desert, like the sand dunes along the coast. When this happens there may well be a knock-on effect in the Congo. All of this is plainly beyond the human races' ability to rectify. The only way to protect these jungles is to place them in the hands of the United Nations, and turn them into Global Ecological Zones, banning both agriculture, mining, hydro-electric schemes and all other development. Will it happen....no. Only a WT can save the human race from itself.

It is known that the Australian outback became a desert about 45,000 years ago when large trees were destroyed, presumably by Aboriginal burn back. Lake Eyre was once a huge lake, that is now a salt pan. And all because the biotic pump action was terminated. Elsewhere, in northern PRC, it is now realised that this area gets its water from Europe, the rain going through half a dozen cycles before it gets there. The rainfall in this area is falling, possibly due to human activity in Europe, or simply due to global warming. Should the Greenland ice cap collapse and freeze dry northern Europe, this river in the sky would cease flowing. Transpiration is responsible for half of all precipitation around the globe, whilst the air movements that they create are probably interconnected. This means that water management should not be confined to individual basins, but to the entire world, that only a world order, such as a WT, can manage. Places like California and Australia burn because their keystone species are extinct. Such species would eat the grass thereby preventing forest fires when lightning or overhead power lines arc. A WT would override local concerns and get species (wilderbeast or equivalent) in, in sufficient numbers to solve this problem.

Power generation and slash and burn agriculture like that in Amazonia and Indonesia are not the only causes of pollution. Inefficient and often unnecessary transportation is also a major cause of air pollution. This is why in a WT people will live in biomes, where they will produce their own healthy food, instead of going to a supermarket to buy unhealthy junk food and even flowers imported from another continent. In a leisure orientated society you will also need something, like food production, to keep you occupied and out of trouble. Won't you? Humans will occupy the biomes. Nature will exist outside, in the wilderness, and hopefully never the twain will meet, except for snapshots. Biomes also ensure a more pleasant computer controlled atmosphere, far from the overcast wind swept and soaked UK climate outside. They will accommodate the extended family, where one supports the other. This is how it used to be for thousands of years before the needs of capitalism took over.

Carbon dioxide from power stations and vehicles is not the only greenhouse gas. Far more reactive is methane, which comes from melting permafrost in tundra regions of Siberia and Alaska for instance. As the world warms up, so do these regions, releasing more methane gas, causing roads to buckle as the underground ice turns to water. Methane also originates from council rubbish tips. Some tips are covered with a plastic membrane which collects the gas which is then burnt off, forming carbon dioxide, sometimes for industrial purposes in green industrial estates or community heating schemes. In its wisdom, here in the UK, HMG decided to create more tips, supported by about fifty million plastic wheelie bins for segregated rubbish, instead of burning the nation's trash in plasma furnaces, which would be hot enough to destroy harmful gases. The cost of such facilities would be reduced by replacing bin men with bin lorries that pick up the dustbin and empty it into the lorry, remotely operated by the driver. Both of these technologies have been available in the United States since at least 2010. Living creatures including humans and farm animals produce methane and body heat. The more humans there are on this planet, then presumably the more farm animals are needed to support them. The factory production of synthetic foods, such as Quorn from fungi, is one environmentally friendly way to reduce greenhouse emissions, but ultimately reducing the human population is the best solution.

The sequestration of CO2 directly from the atmosphere is being researched by numerous companies, four of which are listed below.

Plastic is of course another pollutant. In a world technocracy all plastic would be outlawed, all transport vehicles would be taxis vans driven by AI and all electric, and of course there would be no rubbish tips producing methane for decades. This would be an age of plasma furnaces not wheelie bins. Gradually the level of CO² in our atmosphere would decline, whilst the nightmare of the Greenland ice cap melting producing an armada of icebergs off the UK's west approaches causing huge temperature fluctuations and ultimately sea level rise, would become a distant memory.

With thirty per cent of the Greenland ice cap currently melting, it is only a matter of time before that melt water undermines the ice cap, causing it to break up and create millions of icebergs in the North Atlantic Ocean, whose presence over one hundred years or more will plunge much of the northern hemisphere into a mini ice age, the secondary repercussions are likely to be apocalyptic. Vegetation found in a 4 m long Greenland ice core, at a depth of 1,500 m and 61 km inland, proves that the ice cap has melted before from 374,000 to 424,000 years ago when CO2 levels were much lower, allowing forests to grow, and moths and butterflies to prosper. It is estimated that to rid the atmosphere of the greenhouse gasses that have entered the Earth's atmosphere in the last forty years would take thousands of years. To extract it artificially would require enormous amounts of energy that only a world technocracy would be prepared to do. The alternative is the complete melting of the Earth's heat sinks, the polar ice caps, plus radiant heat being trapped in clouds, leading to a runaway greenhouse effect similar to that on the planet Venus.

Most environmentalists would agree that the failure of the human race to act on this issue, is primarily caused by governments. We need a world technocracy managing a world meritocracy, with a global economy where ecologically minded import controls would reduce product ranges, unnecessary transportation and ensure the use of recycled products. The human race would limit its meat consumption to rabbit, chicken and farmed fish, until meat could be produced artificially. It would also have to conform to population control.

Currently sea levels are rising 3.3 mm per annum, whilst the Earth's atmospheric temperature has risen 0.75°C to 1°C above the long term average. At the United Nations COP 21 conference in Paris, France, it was agreed to limit global warming to 2°C maximum. The Earth's atmospheric temperature during the last ice age was on average just 5°C lower than it is today. There are many causes for global warming, some of which such as El Nino, the eleven year solar cycle, the Earth's elliptical orbit, precession of axis and inclination are beyond our control. The next ice age will be in twelve thousand years time, after this one. Multi-party democracies can only bang so many heads together, a WT can re-educate everyone, who wants to be re-educated that is.

The following paper on the effects of global warming was written in 2009:

At the time of writing, there are moves to make the next prime minister accountable for the effects of global warming, assuming that this is not some pre-election gimmick. I am moved to know that the PM will definitely fall on his sword the moment the Greenland ice cap starts to break up. Her Majesty's Government (HMG) will no longer run away from its responsibilities, like it did over the BCCI banking collapse. With the world consuming 78 million barrels of oil per day, CO² in our atmosphere increasing by 2 parts per million per annum, 20% reduction in Antarctic sea ice over the last twenty years, global mean air temperature risen 0.6°C in last thirty years and 4°C rise in west Alaska, with a predicted 2°C rise in Greenland in the next 25 years, 40% of Arctic sea ice already melted, flash floods in the UKGB, more powerful hurricanes in Florida, plus others in the south Atlantic and off Baja California Peninsula, roads buckling and homes sinking by metres in west Alaska as the permafrost melts, icebergs sighted off New Zealand, sea level risen 30cm off Florida Keys, flooding gardens, in 2019 as increased Gulf Stream expansion brings continuous cloud and rain to the UK, seriously inhibiting plant growth and flowering, and just how do you stop most of Florida going beneath the waves when rising seas cannot be stopped by barriers, because the sea water will percolate through the limestone's sink hole structure? And of course we only hear about the bush fires in Australia and California, when in reality there are thousands of them across the globe at any one time, and becoming more numerous. There are many scientists who believe that the next mass extinction is already underway, caused by the human race itself. Insurance costs due to global warming in the 1980s were $27 billion, with a predicted 500% increase over the next twenty years, it beggars the question, when will the public executions take place, and what good would it do anyway? Of course the death penalty is banned under part 3 article 1 of the Human Rights Act 1998, except in times of war. Is this war? It is certainly more important a problem than the troubles in the Middle East.

The Australian Great Barrier Reef is bleaching due to rising sea temperatures depleting algae that coral feeds on. 1400 miles of dead white coral, ultimately. Of course deep sea coral is unaffected at present, whilst coral reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba emit visible light immediately they intercept ultra-violet light from the Sun, as a means of self preservation. Other creatures are less adaptable, as seen by the ever longer list of endangered species. When they're gone they're gone. I wish I could say that about politicians.

There are many things that governments can do, and here are a few suggestions:

In January 2005 edition of Focus magazine, is a photographic montage taken by ESA's environmental monitoring satellite ENVISAT, showing nitrogen dioxide emissions from industrialized areas of the world. It shows what a right mess our planet is in. It occurred to me that it would make a good invitation card, sent to all politicians in the red areas, with the words, 'thinking of you,' as an invitation to a summit in London on the subject of global warming perhaps. In the photograph the air pollution in north east PRC and north east USA stands out a mile, with a red area from the Thames valley to the Ruhr, via Europort (Rotterdam), plus the Po valley, northern Italy. The only red area in the southern hemisphere is around the mining city of Johannesburg, South Africa. The pollution in China appears to be greater than all other areas put together.

Apart from ridding the UK of much of its polluting heavy industry, 'minor' CO² emission restrictions have been ignored. It should consist of the following:

1 Switch off street lighting from 7pm to 7am.

2 Ban attendance to all public events, which could be watched on television.

3 Ban motor sports that use fossil fuel burning engines.

4 Ban import, manufacture, sale and use of fireworks (Nov. 5th, New Year).

5 Ban import, manufacture, sale and use of illuminations (Xmas, Blackpool, Walsall).

6 Ban import, manufacture, sale and use of floodlighting, except for sport venues.

7 Ban barbecues.

8 Impose 1000 pounds customs charge on each person going abroad on holiday.

9 Ban plasma TFT televisions, and all TV sizes over 47 inch.

10 Make compulsory, time or human sensor light switches in work places.

11 Ban the use of radiant heaters outside pubs and restaurants, etc.

12 Ban halogen lighting, in addition to GLS.

13 Ban cryptocurrency mining.

The implementation of these measures is long overdue. Of course much of this would go against HMG's policy towards promoting the global economy. In my opinion the two are not compatible. In September 2021 the PRC announced that cryptocurrencies are illegal, sighting pyramid schemes, money laundering, gambling, financial disorder, etc. No doubt as a prelude to the introduction of an electronic currency. Cryptocurrency mining also consumes a significant amount of electricity in the PRC, which will now be better used elsewhere. Coupled with an announcement banning the sale and construction of coal fired power stations abroad, the PRC appears to be finally taking the problem of global warming very seriously. Well who's next? As for those that use cryptocurrencies, they should consider that earning them by whatever means may well get your bank account frozen for two years whilst your bank investigates whether it was initially obtained legally and whether sufficient taxes had been paid. Even then, buying a house with it may well trigger estate agents and solicitors to carry out a similar investigation. Sellers are unlikely to be prepared to wait two years. For many however, the wait could be eternal. In March 2022 it was announced that 615 million dollars worth of ethereum had been stolen in a hack on the computer game Axie Infinity, making it the second largest cryptocurrency theft.

HMG could also win over other governments through influencing their local governments around the world. Since 1999 the central US government has been engaged in a legal battle on the subject with twelve US states and three cities, who feel that the Environment Protection Agency is not doing enough to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act. The location of important international meetings such as the European Commission, G8, environment and the World Economic Forum should be considered relevant. Might I suggest the following:

1 The Greenland ice cap, to witness the effects of global warming.

2 Inside the hold of a supertanker. This is no joke, as they are bigger than St. Paul's cathedral. Here you will get some idea of the size of the problem, that the burning of fossil fuels presents.

3 Yellowstone National Park, a source of green energy for the USA.

4 The shores of the drying Aral Sea, the proposed recipient of diverted Siberian rivers.

5 The cliff edge of the Dead Sea valley, created by global warming, and a potential carbon depository.

6 West Alaska, to witness damage to property caused by permafrost melting, since temperatures have risen here by four degrees Celsius in the last thirty years.

7 Manchuria, to witness the state of China's coal deposits, much of which is burning underground.

8 Area 51, where the US president can personally provide a guided tour of the facilities, including a demonstration of US Earth saving technology.

Legal action is not the only way to counter global warming. Here are listed a few ideas, that require substantial funding now.

One way to establish trust, prosperity and ultimately peace in the middle east, would involve the building of a siphon generator across the Holy Land from the Levant to the Dead Sea valley. As originally conceived by Israeli scientists and engineers, it could generate hydro-electricity, but it could also create fresh water by pressurized filtration. The water not diverted for irrigation, would vaporize into the atmosphere, falling as rain in the region. There would have to be several pipes, following lines of latitude, equally spaced across the Holy Land, taking full advantage of the thermal effects that the Dead Sea valley has to offer. The Dead Sea, being one of the lowest points on Earth, has a very dense atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, which is beneficial to plant life. The huge amounts of fresh water generated could be used to irrigate forests of fast growing plants, such as bamboo. This would soak up some of the atmosphere's CO², and hence become part of the carbon trading market, generating wealth for Israel, Palestine and Jordan. It is suggested that this huge construction project be financed by the World Bank. In addition, there exists a plan to construct a desalination plant in Jordan and pump the saline water to the Dead Sea to feed the existing chemical works there. What the resultant chemical reaction would be when sea water is added to the Dead Sea is still questionable.

As the Earth heats up, this would create a mini ice age across northern Europe, due to a huge influx of northward flowing fresh water from Siberian rivers into the Arctic Ocean, and thence into the north Atlantic Ocean. This influx would cool, disperse and eventually stop the warm northward flowing Gulf Stream, which originates from the Caribbean Sea. In normal times, this conveyor is kept going by cold dense sea water which sinks, as fresh water sea ice is created. But the north polar ice cap is now melting, not freezing. Proposed decades ago by Soviet scientists, was a scheme to divert fresh water from these rivers to the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea region for irrigation purposes. This would be a mammoth construction undertaking, comparable to the building of the great wall of China, which could only be financed by the World Bank or EU. It would provide a huge number of jobs for construction workers across Europe. It would also encourage the Russian Federation to join the European Union, and hopefully put an end to unrest in three regions of that accursed land. Once in operation, it would extend the amount of time available for the extraction of excess CO² from the atmosphere.

These measures alone may not be enough to prevent northern Europe turning into an ice sheet with associated tundra, extending as far south as the Pyrenees Mountains, Swiss Alps and Transylvanian Alps. The expansion of the EU to north Africa, to provide refuge for northern Europeans in the event of a Gulf Stream conveyor failure, should be considered.

Carbon dioxide has to be stored in a liquid under high pressure, to prevent it floating off into the atmosphere. Ideally it should be converted into a solid by fast chemical means. Nature converts it into chalk or limestone, after the minute crustaceans that absorb it, die. CO² has been pumped underground to bring crude oil to the surface in Texas since the 1970s. CO² will readily attach itself to microscopic holes in sedimentary rocks. This makes it impossible for it to return to the surface. The main problem with CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) is the cost of the electricity needed to power the process and pump it underground. A detailed article on the subject can be found in 'Scientific American' magazine Vol. 19 No 2 Summer 2009, pages 52-59.

Bearing in mind that the annual global emission of CO² amounts to 25 giga tonnes, equal to an area the size of the British Isles to a depth of ten metres, makes one realize that prevention is better than cure. Some companies in the oil industry already pump CO² underground, having first extracted it from natural gas to increase its hydrogen content (Norwegian part of North Sea). CO² is also pumped into saline aquifers. In my view pumping CO² down oil wells will merely delay the abandonment of fossil fuel use, whilst the building of so called green coal fired power stations based upon fluidized bed combustion, better scrubbers and underground storage, would mean importing cheap coal from Australia, exacerbating our balance of payment's problems, that will become acute once our fossil fuel exports become insignificant. Greenhouse gases are given off during the mining and storage of coal, whilst more energy will be required to pump the CO² underground. If the growing world population switches to this technology, in a centuries time the planet will be in no better shape, with a run away greenhouse effect assured.

The PRC's recent announcement of the construction of forty nuclear power stations is a step which we should emulate. Their intention to construct two hundred coal fired power stations certainly is not.

Meanwhile unregulated capitalism, continues its unrelenting attack upon the Greenland ice cap. 378 parts per million of carbon dioxide and counting. In my opinion it is already too late to stop the trend. Just a couple of decades ago the Greenland ice cap was increasing in height at the rate of three metres per annum. Now the ice is melting at a net rate of one and a half metres per annum. With black soot precipitating out onto the surface, the amount of sun light absorption will increase, increasing the rate of melt. Cracks in the ice, will no longer be filled with snow, but with relatively warm water. Ultimately the water accumulating at the base could sweep away the moraine, causing an ice slide into the North Atlantic Ocean, and a possible tsunami. Millions of icebergs will be created, making navigation for large ships impossible. The wall of ice and cold fresh water from the melt will stop the Gulf Stream from flowing north and fresh water from rivers flowing south, creating a mini ice age across northern Europe lasting centuries, as the Greenland ice cap slowly disintegrates. Ultimately sea levels will rise seven meters, if the runaway greenhouse effect goes unchecked. Some of these icebergs will be three kilometres deep, having the capability to rip open deposits of frozen methane hydrates located on the edge of continental shelves. This would exacerbate global warming even further. This could also happen when the weight of increasing sea levels causes underwater landslides.

Do not let any prime minister convince you that a drastic change in lifestyle is unnecessary in order to create an ecologically friendly society. Drastic change is necessary. Government legislation is needed to enable the installation of battery recharging points at petrol stations, car parks and pavements outside homes, assuming of course that photo-voltaic technology cannot be incorporated into such vehicles. Numerous other measures would be needed, if HMG is to lead by example, as follows:

HMG hereby offers companies the right to tender for the contract to construct enough prefabricated nuclear power stations, to satisfy the entire need of the UKGB and NI for the next quarter of a century, replacing all existing nuclear and fossil fuelled power stations. This project will be open to tender from abroad, including Japan, USA, South Africa, PRC, Russia and France, and will include any reprocessing and decommissioning costs. Fast breeder and conventional nuclear fission will not be allowed, but pebble, Small Modular Reactor, Travelling Wave Reactor, Tokamak and focus fusion reactors will.

In order to facilitate the possible construction of an evacuation fleet, in the event of a mini ice age, it is hereby illegal to demolish and scrap heavy industry, including power stations, ship construction yards, coal mines, engineering factories and their machines. It is also illegal to export old machinery without a license to do so. All such plant will be secured and moth balled. A government grant will be available to cover all costs.

All existing active industrial units will be converted to symbiotic energy + industrial estates.

Manufacturing processes, or parts thereof, considered not environmentally friendly will require dispensation from the secretary of state, before they can be performed repetitively.

All presently imported food, will be replaced by indigenously grown, using waste heat from power stations, in order to reduce CO² emissions from inefficient global logistics, and to ensure that the knowledge and skill to be self sufficient in food production, is already there when the need to relocate the masses arises.

All new construction will be prefabricated, should it become necessary to transfer these facilities, in the event of the evacuation of the nation.

All new homes will comply with the latest building regulations for environmentally friendly construction, incorporating electricity generating photo-voltaic arrays, hot water producing solar panels, geothermal heat pump system where it makes commercial sense, passive heat recoverable air conditioning incorporating underground air inlet at floor level and venturi outlet on roof, heat retentive triple glazing, self cleaning glazing with water farming capability, TV Internet and telephone communications by both land line and satellite, vehicle battery recharging and electrical inverter home supply capability, electronic locks, burglar and fire proof capability. Three months fresh water tank. Each dwelling must be capable of being assembled and dismantled by the occupants, using an illustrated set of instructions, plus a training course lasting no longer than one week. When dismantled, the parts must fit into no more than three shipping containers, including inflatable furniture, etc.

All road vehicles to be zero emission, by enabling hydrogen fuel cell, lithium ion, Stirling engine/generator or other efficient process. Automobile manufacturers have twelve months to convert their existing designs. A ban on the import of none zero emission vehicles will come into force after three months. Existing garages will introduce recharging points immediately, with recharging under road surfaces at road junctions and certain parking areas. Traditional fuel systems (hydrocarbons) will be replaced within five years. Does not apply to 100% biofuels. Existing road vehicles that have not been converted to green fuels, will be banned from the roads in five years time. In five years time new automobiles will be limited to 400kg weight and must be driven by artificial intelligence, to reduce fuel consumption, and accident costs, which presumably will be covered by the Ministry for Insurance, due to the anticipated collapse of the private insurance industry. All new cars will be hired vehicles using Internet Zip car technology.

Commuters living within two miles of their place of work will either walk or use bicycles.

Commuters living more than two miles from their place of work will use Zip cars (vehicles hired via the Internet, using GPRS and RFID technology), except where exempt.

Car owners will be required to have a full set of approved wheel chains, Arctic clothing, compass, lamp, first aid kit, citizens band radio, maps, heat source independent of vehicle engine, emergency food and drink rations to MOT compliance. Owners must also have a cold weather survival course certificate.

people working for major employers will have their working hours determined by the Ministry for Environment, to reduce traffic congestion and improve fuel efficiency of commuting vehicles.

All homes and businesses will have broadband communication.

All office workers will work at home, communicating with colleagues via Internet Relay Chat (video conferencing), such as Skype and Zoom.

All sales and marketing will be via the Internet, only using sites approved by HMG.

There will be no street lighting and no entertainment centres (public houses, night clubs, brothels, theatres, concert halls, etc.) will be open between the hours of 1900 and 0600, each day.

Like GLS, halogen light bulbs will be banned from UK production and sale.

Television will be reduced to four channels, news, movies, sport and theatre /concerts. These channels will be state supported. There will be no advertising industry and no TV license.

Standby power use on domestic appliances is now illegal, enforced with an automatic 1000 pound fine, except for refrigerators and alarm clocks. This applies to all DVD, television and computer equipment, including that connected to broadband. An estimated 10% of generated electricity is wasted by appliances on standby. Battery powered computer keyboard and mice is also illegal.

All publications will henceforth be on the internet only, and down loadable onto portable e-INK (Librie digital electronic paper) units and computers. Public access to councils, libraries, museums and hospital visits to patients, will be via the internet only. This is partly to conserve energy (building & transportation) but also because it will eventually be necessary to move the state archives, possibly to Australasia or Africa. It will also enable hospitals to be kept cleaner, reducing risk of MRSA infection. To encourage the take up of E-INK HMG will promote the creation and porting of data via an open source foundation. Volunteers should contact the Department for Information Technology. This will apply to world archives, plus education and training material.

(This file was produced on open sourced, and therefore free, Open Office, supported by Apache Software Foundation, the commercial equivalent being Microsoft Office, provides technical back up for a small fee.)

All retailing will be from approved web sites, with warehouse to door delivery. All delivery companies would be part of a consortium. This way delivery companies would not compete against one another in the same area, thereby reducing pollution through inefficient logistics. This monopoly would be limited to 5% profit pa, being monitored by a government body.

Competing products will be limited to no more than three, each approved by the Ministry for Environment.

There will be a total ban on the import of timber and timber products, including that from the EU.

Utility companies will be required to install energy saving technology to the homes of their clients, as follows:

Electricity suppliers will install photo-voltaic arrays, 5kWhr (kilo Watt hours)per home.

Gas suppliers will install solar panels, for the generation of hot water.

Water suppliers will install atmospheric condenser panels, and water conserving measures to existing toilets, of all customers.

Utility suppliers will fit meters at all branches of their networks, and monitor for leaks automatically.

Local Authorities will fit thermal insulation materials to all existing domestic properties, to ensure an overall U value of less than 1.5.

A water national grid, linking the nation's reservoirs, will be built to compensate for the expected fall in precipitation as atmospheric temperatures fall. Power stations will use cooling water from these reservoirs in order to prevent the nation's water supply from freezing up, as overall temperatures fall.

The electricity national grid will become super conducting, the moment the technology becomes available, to reduce transmission loses.

Since it will be impossible to predict what state the global economy will be in once the expected global economic collapse takes place, it is only prudent to make society as self sufficient as possible:

There will be no import of anything except essential materials.

The design and manufacture of all items using integrated circuits or software, will require the approval of the Ministry for Information Technology. Self sufficiency and standardization are paramount.

Of course, if these measures are not implemented by major polluters, as seems likely, then the next step is a foregone conclusion, or is it? With increasing fresh water in the north Atlantic flowing south, the increasingly warm water from the Caribbean could also end up flowing south, possibly resulting in global current reversal, causing Antarctica to melt faster.

Alternatively with the Arctic ice cap gone by 2038, warm current from the Pacific Ocean could stray as far as the west coast of Greenland, sending millions of icebergs down the Davis Strait into the North Atlantic, heating the Greenland ice cap on the way.

Either event could create the expected mini ice age across the northern latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Due to a redistribution of mass (snow and ice) across the Earth's surface, the planet's tilt could change. NASA noted this on the planet Mars recently, due to sublimation of water ice at the equator. On Earth, an increase in tilt would result in a change to sea currents and atmospheric distribution. The weather patterns could change so much that they would be detrimental to agricultural output, resulting in the deaths of millions of people.

Redistribution of mass, namely water from the Greenland ice cap into the Atlantic Ocean, would create uneven pressure on the world's tectonic plates. This could result in massive earthquakes along subduction zones creating tsunamis and numerous volcanic eruptions. Recent research suggests that such melt waters would remain in the Atlantic Ocean for ten to thirty years, before distributing around the globe, due to the effect of ocean currents. The rapid creation of a large fissure in the Earth's crust in northern Ethiopia in 2006 shows that geological events can be massive and rapid. The earthquakes off western Sumatra in Xmas 2005 and Sichuan 2008 may well be examples of such events.

A British satellite detected radio waves from the Sichuan earthquake. Maybe the fitting of this equipment to the ESA Galileo global positioning system would provide a better understanding of the movement of tectonic plates and warn of associated earthquakes.

Clearly, rising sea levels and their flooding effects, upon Bangladesh and Oceania, are not the only factors that governments should consider.

Extreme measures would then be called for:

HMG formerly declares that the Ministry of Survival (MOS) is hereby created.

Following the implementation of martial law, a twelve hour six day working week will be enforced. The restrictions imposed by the EU Working Time Directive will no longer apply.

Young people presently working in education and the nursing of the elderly, will be transferred to manufacturing (the elderly will be looked after by the elderly), as will all the unemployed, civil servants in the barycentre's and benefits agency, CSA, etc., plus 'volunteers'.

The MOS will be responsible for:

The creation of the evacuation fleet, its maintenance and crewing.

Due to the inevitable sequence of events, HMG will authorize the acquisition or construction of 400 x 250,000 tonne ships. Half will be used as people carriers, transporting 100,000 people at a time. The only furniture will be hammocks, with tables and chairs in the canteen. The other ships will transport homes and places of work, desalination plants, nuclear power stations, etc. All ship construction must be completed within three years.

The construction and installation of prefabricated harbours, similar to that used on D-Day 1944, Mulberry.

The dismantling, transportation and erection of utilities, factories, hospitals and other prefabricated buildings.

The dismantling, transportation and erection of dwellings.

The transportation of UKGB citizens, including feeding and health needs.

The MOD will be responsible for relocating all defence systems, including buildings. Twenty extra aircraft / commando carriers will be built for the task.

The National Trust will be responsible for relocating national treasures, using the world's merchant fleet.

The Department for the Environment will be responsible for the plugging of all oil and gas wells, and the dumping at sea, off the continental shelf, of all nuclear waste, since no other country will take it, and there is insufficient time to put it underground.

The relocation of Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Whitehall, Westminster, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, etc. have low priority, as it is not expected that the glacier will extend that far south. They will however, all have to be removed, for the sake of tradition, and also because it is extremely unlikely that UKGB citizens will want to return. Rising or falling sea levels however, may make the recovery of some of these buildings impossible.

Negotiations through the Foreign Office, in partnership with our Scandinavian allies, with prospective recipient nations regarding the acceptance of ethnic minorities, economic migrants, asylum seekers, those with long term medical needs, those of no economic worth (the elderly) and people with serious criminal records (30% of adult males have criminal records), will be on going.

Scientists worldwide now admit that the situation is worse than first thought, having realized that the plethora of jet vapour trails in the sky is resulting in global dimming, which has reduced solar energy to the surface by 10 to 30% in various parts of the planet, thereby reducing the full effect of greenhouse gases thus far. Meanwhile, as American scientists admit that the Earth is radiating out into space less heat than it is receiving, an indisputable indication of global warming, the price of petrol goes beyond 85p per litre. Bad news for motorists. Rising sea levels could produce a similar outcome, particularly as their increased weight is likely to generate earthquakes and resultant tsunamis, undersea landslides caused by melting methane hydrates. Maybe turbulent nature is the reason why homo sapiens have advanced appreciably during the last three millennia. The ultimate triumph of the will.

Recently, a report has been published about the ecology of the UK, titled 'State of Nature Report. This reports the state of 7000 species found in the UK. Compiled by 70 organisations, it states that one in seven species are facing extinction, with 41 per cent having experienced decline since 1970. Most people and organisations within the UK are environmentally aware, so this comes as a damning shock to us all. If we can't get it right, then who can? It's clear that we need consultants, but where are they going to come from; outer space?

Weather wise 2020 is now one of the top six warmest years since records began in 1850. The Siberian Arctic is now 5C above average. In answer to this obviously potentially disastrous state of affairs the companies ACWA Power, CWP Renewables, Envision, Iberdrola, Orsted, Snam and Yara have now joined forces to create the green hydrogen catapult, a fifty fold increase in hydrogen within six years, reducing the cost of the fuel to two dollars per kilogramme. Hydrogen's main use will be in road, rail and air based vehicles due to its high energy density, but it could also be created by sequestrating natural gas for space heating, rather than producing it from electrolysis. It remains to be seen whether it can compete with advanced photo-voltaics and ground or air sourced heat pumps.

In March 2023 Scientists at RMIT University, Australia announced the discovery of the cost effective production of hydrogen from sea water. Evidently it does not release carbon dioxide and chlorine in the process. Naturally occurring white hydrogen has also been extracted in Nebraska, USA, in 2019, by the company Natural Hydrogen Energy. Hydrogen is produced underground by the interaction of water with iron ore. It can be found at various purity all over the world, though often at a greater depth than natural gas.

I don't need to read the above reports on the ever declining biodiversity on this planet, because I well remember what it was like sixty years ago in my parent's garden. There was wildlife in plenty, insects galore. Today it's depressing to see so little of it in my garden, a garden based upon a brown field site where thanks to global warming, it's difficult enough to get the plants to bloom, never mind promote insect life. It's painfully obvious to me that for many species time has run out. Prolonging the loss of pollinating insects will ultimately have a serious impact on the world food situation. Coupled with fresh water loss and degrading soil, the effect upon the global economy will be dire. It appears that the only solution to saving biodiversity is to render extinct the species that is causing it. I'm certain that not even world war three could restore the balance. Apathy, incompetence, greed, over population, irresponsible product promotion, failure to switch to environmentally benign products and materials. The list of failures is endless, and it appears that it will go on and on. Only with the switch to intelligent, determined (preferably obsessive, compulsive) and honest technocrats in a WT will anything change for the better, whilst the eradication of capitalism is absolutely essential in order to eliminate the greed element that perpetuates the couldn't care less attitude amongst many people, towards responsible living. Will it happen? I don't think so. I believe the human race will ultimately destroy itself, simply because most humans are not selfless idealists, determined to create a utopia. It is a terrible epitaph to type, but true. Only global constitutional reform, a WT, plus the scrapping of capitalism, along with all the greed it promotes, can solve these problems. But who has the guts to do that, and hence blindly step into the unknown. I know that I am right, and I also know that most of you are wrong. You've had at least fifty years to solve this problem. Improvements have come along, too little, too late. It's time for a no nonsense breed of person to take over. One with a big stick. The alternative is a sparsely populated, high tech civilisation, living on a barren planet, with no wild life of any kind. Forbidden planet!

In October 2020 the British Prince William and naturalist Sir David Attenborough announced the creation of Earthshot, an award winning contest for scientists and engineers designed to encourage solutions to environmental problems. There will be fifty million pounds awarded in prizes in the ten years to 2030. That's five one million pound prizes per annum. Designed to motivate politicians, governments, businesses, communities, innovators, land owners, technologists and entrepreneurs. Only time will tell whether it succeeds. And how do you clean up the world's oceans, recycle the world's rubbish tips, reduce our human population, engage in global forestation, impose product controls on company research departments and stop brainless idiots from destroying our wildlife and heritage? Is one million pounds enough to motivate a politician? If present trends continue, the human race could end up being dominated by a dictator with an intense desire to rectify all of these problems, not with a big stick, but with weapons of mass destruction.

Most of the finalists websites are listed here, since it began in October 2021.

One not listed here is the Republic of Costa Rica for its forest regeneration, as I could not find the website.

The Earthshot short list for 2022 is as follows:

In May 2021 the Iranian government announced the banning of cryptocurrency mining for two months. This was because the practice was consuming 2GW of electricity per day resulting in power cuts. Iran mines 4.5% of cryptocurrencies, and the practice is likely to continue here and everywhere else, because capitalism comes before ecological responsibility. The PRC is the world's leader in cryptocurrency mining. Electricity consumption there is expected to peak in 2024 at an incredible 297 terawatt-hours. Until capitalism is abolished, the problem with our environment is likely to persist.

June 2021 saw a huge and intense heat wave across north-western United States, which lingered in the form of numerous forest fires in Washington, Oregon and California. The smoke drifted across the states, generating a health warning in New York city. In August 2021 the Dixie fire in California, which had been raging for 26 days, became the largest at 489,000 acres with ten thousand firemen fighting to contain it. In mid December 2021 numerous tornadoes struck the mid west powered by a 3C rise in temperature of the Gulf of Mexico. One tornado travelled 200 miles north-east behind a storm front into the state of Kentucky. Around one hundred people are thought to have been killed by tornadoes that day. It was unexpected since most tornadoes appear in the summer, not the winter.

A heat wave in Siberia saw large stretches of forest go up in flames. 1.5 million hectares of tundra forest in Yakutia region burned above the frozen perma frost. Western Europe proved not to be immune from this event, which appeared to encircle the globe. In mid July 2021 a huge down pore took place in south-west Germany. Two months of rain fell in just a few hours, creating landslides, sweeping away roads, bridges and homes. At least 182 lives were lost in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. It was caused by a loop in the jet stream, coupled with a heat wave. After fifty years of prevarication and self denial, for once politicians were saying it was due to global warming. Attempts are however being made to save the world's perma frost which currently covers one quarter of the Earth's land mass. Some of this perma frost is melting because the trees growing above it produce a micro climate and act as an insulator. This was not the case 15,000 years ago when wooly mammoths roamed the tundra. It is scientists like Professor George Church in the USA that are trying to bring them back from extinction. The mammoths can bring down the trees and thereby create grass lands. Perma frosts across the northern latitudes contain 1,600 million mega tonnes of carbon, twice what is in the atmosphere. 1400 mega tonnes can be found in Alaska, but the creation of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, when the frozen methane all goes up in flames, is not the only problem. The underground fires will ignite deposits of fossil fuels making the greenhouse effect far worse, and release deadly germs, such as bacillus anthracis, anthrax. The rejuvenation, in July 2023, of a new species of 46,000 year old nematode from Siberian perma frost, suggests that there are other more deadly germs just waiting to be released, that have no known antidote.

A flood in the city of Zhengzhou in Henan province was created by a years rain in three days. 200mm of this rain fell in just one hour, amounting to one third of its annual rainfall. 14 people drowned in a subway, 302 overall, with 50 missing. 9000 homes were destroyed. The army had to carry out a controlled explosion on a dam that was about to fail, whilst an aluminium plant blew up. Meteorologists called it a once in a thousand year event. Forest fires were to continue, later sweeping across Turkey, Greece, Sicily and Algeria. In Sicily the air temperature reached 48.8C, possibly a European record. Over the last 30 years the UK had become 0.9C hotter and 6% wetter. The year 2020 was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest, stated the UK State of Climate Report. One day we will witness these events, only they will not stop. They will only get worse. The human race will have triggered a runaway greenhouse event, with thousands of square kilometres of methane hydrates in flames, and no one having the vaguest idea about how to stop it. All eyes were now on COP 26, an environmental meeting of major nations, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31st to November 12th. Would the forces of reality now overcome the forces of capitalism, apathy and distrust. The event came and went with little confidence in the future.

The following year, 2022, was to see heat waves in the UK and much of the rest of Europe. Spain and France were suffering from prolonged draughts as depressions moved further north, hitting the British Isles more frequently with greater intensity due to a warmer North Atlantic Ocean. Repeated floods hit Australia as a biblical flood also hit Pakistan. Just how much heat had to be applied before the general public screamed in protest and demanded an ecologically friendly world technocracy?

What are heat pumps? That's what many people are asking in the UK, since HMG appears to be determined to replace our gas powered combi-boilers with them in order to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions....

Heat pumps are an expensive white elephant dreamed up by politicians whose motto is, 'spend, spend, spend', usually billions not millions. As for thousands, "your joking aren't ya?" I use to work at Serck Heat Transfer, a manufacturer of heat exchangers, as a draughtsman, so I know what a heat pump is. One of the first was installed in the Royal Festival Hall, London, which extracts heat from the adjacent River Thames.

It is not possible to fully insulate most homes in the UK because they are antiquated terraced housing whose heat passes out through the party wall whilst the neighbours are either away at work, or simply can't afford to switch on their heating. Then of course there is the problem of cowboy builders, like those that failed to install my loft insulation adequately. HMG will inevitably use them to install heat pumps, rather than spend time and money retraining gas fitters. There is also the problem of upgrading the electricity supply to most homes. Domestic electricity supply is limited to 100 Amps. This is OK for homes that supply electricity to one electric car charger (11 to 32A) and a heat pump (4 to 16A). My gas combi-boiler has a small 24kW output. In a heat pump, for every 1kW of electricity, 4kW is generated. A domestic heat pump is from 4 to 16 kW output. This is far less than my combi-boiler because it's assumed that the home is modern and well insulated, which most homes are not. However, if like my neighbour you have 3 cars, then you will exceed the 100A electricity supply limit. To upgrade the electricity supply could cost you almost £15,000 assuming your network supplier is prepared to upgrade at all. There is also the noise factor. A ground heat pump generates 42 decibels, whilst an air type produces 40 to 60 dB. This is important in the case of terraced housing. One of my neighbours has a noisy fridge freezer, and that's bad enough. Also, because the temperatures are much lower than that from a gas fired combi-boiler, the radiators have to be much larger in order to put out the same amount of heat.

Whether a heat pump costs £6,000 or £20,000 is irrelevant to most people, as they simply cannot afford to buy them, and would certainly never vote for any political party ever again that introduced them. So what are the alternatives?

Well there is hydrogen, which will have to be separated from natural gas (methane), with the carbon dioxide pumped back underground, known as sequestration. This assumes that suitable rocks are available underground to contain the gas. Needless to say it will be more expensive than natural gas. Then of course there are the maintenance costs, which for me already run at about one hundred pounds per annum, not including the cost of replacement of my combi-boiler at £1000 for natural gas, but probably more for hydrogen as it burns at a higher temperature (2045C v 1957C for methane). Should the nation switch to hydrogen then all gas appliances will probably have to be converted, just as it was when switching from town gas to natural gas decades ago. Since hydrogen is a lighter gas it can penetrate through steel pipes and pressure vessels. It also burns with an invisible flame and produces six times more nitrous oxide when burnt, making it more dangerous to use than natural gas. So what's the alternative?

Once upon a time, in the early eighties, I had a modern brick and breeze block constructed bungalow. The builder had fitted electric radiators, so I had fitted an off peak electricity meter for them. The radiators came on during the night and heated up the walls and concrete floor, radiating the heat out during the day. The system worked great. Unfortunately almost all suppliers in the UK no longer provide off peak electricity due to the replacement of large coal fired power stations with quick reacting gas fired plant, renewable energy, and the provision of peak demand pump storage at Dinorwic, etc. Fortunately Octopus Energy UK and Green Energy UK do provide off peak deals for electric car charging and storage radiator heating. Eventually the nation will be all electric, powered by photo-voltaics, hydro, mini hydro, tidal, wind, geothermal, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion....and maybe even plasma balls.

Research in Spain and South Korea in developing thin film photo-voltaics is concentrating upon an efficacy of 9%. I have 2.75 kW of PVA panels on my roof. It cost me £4,700 in February 2015. Although the output is only about half of that stated by the salesman, it's still better than leaving the money in the bank earning no interest. HMG's plan would require me to use this electricity to power a heat pump, which in my opinion is a con. Heat pumps operate in the reverse manner to that of a refrigerator. It takes masses of heat out of the air or ground and compresses the liquid to produce a relatively smaller amount at a higher temperature for space heating. They are as large as air conditioning systems. Imagine that lot on the walls of tower blocks of flats and offices, with cables and pipes strung everywhere. We'll look like a third world nation. And as for taking the heat out of the ground, imagine the effect it's going to have on your plants, particularly in the winter.

In October 2021 HMG announced that it would hand out a subsidy of £5,000 to 90,000 households in England and Wales over three years, starting in April 2022, to jump start this crazy policy, estimated to cost £3.9 billion. No gas combi boilers can be purchased after 2035. There is a nagging fear that once approved by parliament HMG won't be able to cancel this project any more than they could with HS2. This heat pump (heat exchanger) project will be introduced in 2022 with nuclear fusion possibly on line in 2025 to 2040. That's a gap of only 3 to 18 years, during which time the heat pumps will be built, installed, maintained and decommissioned, and at every stage there will be an adverse environmental effect, at the end of which just about all home owners will want cost effective electric central heating installed. With at least six companies working on nuclear fusion, all wanting their playboy mansion, you just know it won't take much longer than that. It is estimated that this heat pump project will cost HMG 200 million to one trillion pounds overall to add to our existing national debt that is increasing at the rate of £5,000 per second, amounting to £70,000 per person (2021). And that of course does not include corporate and personal debts. With HB11 expected to produce electricity just one quarter of that from a coal fired power station, everyone will switch to electricity the moment it's available. Does this heat pump project therefore make sense to you? HMG appears determined to drag us all down into the financial abyss that it's already in. It's time the British electorate woke up and at the very least wrote a letter of protest to their MP, and wrote again, until this project is dead in the water. I have already done so.

In April 2022 HMG came up with a new energy plan. It intends to build 8 nuclear fission power stations. There was no reference to advanced photo-voltaics, tidal barrage electricity generation, sea current generation nor mini hydro electric. HMG was sitting on its hands as the unbelieving working class groped into their pockets to find the funds to pay off their enormous energy bills. It would be 50GW of wind power soon and nuclear in about 15 years time, by which time fusion would be here to make these fission plants uneconomic. Even the energy companies were calling for more government intervention now.

Now when you look at all the new power sources listed above you realise that they all have one thing in common. They all produce electricity. The most dramatic method is that from HB11 nuclear fusion, that obtains electricity direct, without the need for steam turbines and whirling generators. Such an advance would revolutionize civilisation. The latest IPCC report on global warming states that immediate action must take place in order to prevent a rise in global temperature of more than 2C which would likely cause a runaway greenhouse event. Described as a 'code red for humanity', massive global action must be taken before 2030. HMG could install more renewable energy, or modular nuclear fission as proposed by Rolls Royce, were such a development not held up by legal appeals. Alternatively, a fleet of free floating tidal energy generators or the long awaited barrier could be placed in the Severn estuary. Unfortunately we have politicians around the world that cannot even admit that capitalism is finished due to AI, automation and resulting low wages, any more than they can admit that global warming is created by human activity. Global warming is not so much an ecological problem but a political one. The human race urgently needs the sort of rapid response to this problem that governments gave to the production of Covid-19 vaccines. Unfortunately there is too much distrust between governments. They would rather spend billions on weapon systems. They can see dictators and out of control societies. They can't see greenhouse gases, no matter how many speeches they hear and diagrams they see. What is worse, is that few of them have an understanding of hysteresis. This is a graph showing a loop indicating that to screw up the atmosphere can be done in a relatively short time period, but to get back to where you started takes considerably longer. We need a new order, a world-technocracy-now. Earth will take ten million years to recover. The human race will not. Don't you think it's time we had a new constitution based upon professionalism and vision, that is determined enough to create a science based civilisation? Deep down you know that these clowns must go.

In September 2021 it was noticed for the first time in recorded history, that it was actually raining in Greenland, whilst the number of weather events where the air temperature somewhere on Earth had reached at least 50C, had now doubled since the 1980s. Numerous indicators like these suggest that a runaway greenhouse event is about to commence. There are now twelve thousand coal fired power stations on this planet, mainly in the PRC, USA and India. In 2019 there were 70,000 fires in the Amazon basin, slowly turning it into a desert. This has caused droughts in the Sao Paulo area resulting in protests. Most of these fires are to clear land for the raising of cattle, of which there are now 1.5 billion worldwide. The methane produced by these animals is responsible for 15% of the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Four billion tonnes of crude oil is produced each year, resulting in more CO2. Since 1950 CO2 has risen from 310 to 405 ppm (parts per million). 38 billion tonnes of it were produced in 2017. There are now 444 working nuclear reactors in 2019. The sixth largest consumer of electricity is the internet, much of it used for the mining of cryptocurrencies, displaying pornography, or the playing of computer games. It has been proposed that orbiting powerstations supply electricity to orbital computer data centres. This would be a carbon zero approach, since the coldness of space could also be used to keep the electrical components cool. There are 37 large aquifers worldwide, all of which will last no more than another one hundred years, as governments fail to replace this inefficient system with energy and water saving hydroponics. The ecological problems facing the human race are huge, and they're not going to be solved by amateurs trying to appease their electorates.

October 2021 saw natural gas prices skyrocket, due to restrictions of supply to Europe from Russia. There appears to be no short term solution, since coal and oil fired powerstations have been scrapped and nuclear fission plant takes too long to build. Nuclear fusion is at least ten to thirty years away, whilst there does not appear to be any more existing gas wells that can be turned on, nor any new ones that can be created within a reasonable time scale. This incident shows just how fragile the world's energy supply is during this transitional period towards a zero carbon clean energy environment. On January 3rd, 2022 I learned from Bloomberg that there were 30 LNG carriers crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe over Christmas. As a result the bulk price of gas collapsed to twice its level last March. Was this due to my gas tweet on Twitter a few days earlier? Actually it had collapsed a couple of days earlier but I hadn't noticed.

Meanwhile Insulate Britain protesters defied four court injunctions to block the A40, linking the M25 London orbital motorway with the M40 motorway in west London. Insulate Britain's homes appeared to be the only thing HMG could do to reduce families energy bills, but HMG did nothing on the subject. What was the point of fitting heat pumps to homes if they were not well insulated first? And of course there needed to be a means of supplying fresh air to homes via a heat recovery system, and a means of keeping temperatures down during ever more frequent heat waves. And who wants their neat housing estate festooned with these expensive monstrosities, that are likely to get stolen?

In the run up to the COP-26 environment summit in Glasgow in November 2021, there were almost daily warnings issued on global warming. UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) Emissions Gap report stated that the world was on course for a 2.7C rise, not 1.5C, in global warming. The UN framework convention on climate change aims to finalize the rules relating to the Paris accord. The aims are to achieve net zero by 2050, adapt to protect communities and natural habitats, mobilize finance to the tune of $100 billion per annum, and to work together to deliver according to the Paris agreement. The COP series of meetings began in 1995 to solve the problem of global warming, and yet since the industrial revolution starting in 1750, carbon dioxide levels have increased 149%, methane by 262%, and nitrous oxide by 123%. Oceans have become more acidic due to their absorption of CO2. It now has the lowest ph level in 26,000 years with sea levels rising 4.4mm per annum in the last 8 years with the rate increasing due to melting of glaciers, and the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps. With Russia, PRC and India stating that a solution by 2050 is not possible, it has caused the UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles to call this 'one minute to midnight' 'at the last chance saloon'. Whilst forty nations pledged to phase out coal by 2050, Russia, India, PRC, USA and Australia decided not to, the first three countries being the largest consumers, whilst Australia is the largest producer of coal.

With the leaders of Russia and the PRC staying away from COP26, and the US President Joe Biden turning up in at least a twenty vehicle convoy, after being seen in a one hundred vehicle convoy the day before at the G20 meeting in Rome, things do not look great, especially as the rest of them turned up in about 400 aircraft. There were 20,000 to 25,000 delegates and visitors from 193 nations, with 503 lobbying for the fossil fuel industries. As for the initial introduction, the walls were bare, when they should have depicted photos of people dying in weather related disasters. I didn't see any stands shown on BBC news relating to zero carbon technology, nor hundreds of civil servants from around the world trained in ecology by the UN. Were any? And where are the UN sponsored movies on global warming? Repeat after repeat of The Day After Tomorrow is wearing a bit thin. The whole setup looked amateurish to me. And when it comes to global problems like this, you can guarantee that there is one solution they will definitely not be discussing, that of a new global professional government, a world technocracy. The protests were well organized and supported, but I got the strong feeling that what was really needed was a global take up of alternatives to plastic, wood, cement, a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle for all, population control and HB11. The latter would kill off the oil and gas industry, along with dams, turbines, alternators and the national grid. Nature will retake the countryside. When will it happen?

In November 2021 Nineteen UK energy companies ceased trading due to the rising cost of natural gas that had now settled at 200p/therm, whilst there were rumours that HMG had secured assurances from Qatar that we would get natural gas from them no matter how much money the PRC was prepared to pay for LNG. At COP26 20 countries agreed to stop fossil fuel projects abroad by 2023. Back in the UK the nation's supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Co-Op and Marks & Spencer agreed to reduce their packaging, deforestation, food waste, and carbon dioxide emissions by half by 2030, to be monitored by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). It was also announced that a course similar to the Duke of Edinburgh's award would be set up covering the environment and climate change, in model curriculum science, by 2023 in the UK.

>As if pollution on land, lakes, rivers and in the air wasn't bad enough, big business has now decided to reshape the ocean floor by mining for nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper and other precious metals on the ocean floor in the form of polymetallic nodules the size of tennis balls, deposits of sulphur from hydrothermal vents, and 100mm crust found around the base of seamounts. Mid ocean ridges, where tectonic plates are created, is largely a desolate volcanic region. However in the 1970s, where hot water rises from the ocean floor, rocky chimneys or vents were discovered, around which various life forms were found which live off the sulphides emitted from the vents. Pompeii worms, named after the high seawater temperatures they are found in, exist in large numbers and form the base of the food chain. They live off the bacteria that consume the sulphides. Crabs, mussels and shrimps prey the area in large numbers. The vents last just a few decades, causing these life forms to adopt a nomadic existence. Another anomaly found in 1990 on the sea floor in the Caribbean Sea, are cold soups. These are depressions in eroded limestone, with methane up welling present, that create a lethal gaseous zone of dense water for marine species to swim into. The depressions are surrounded by mussels and bright red worms.

On August 3rd, 2022 it was announced that PFAS chemicals could be found in rain worldwide in dangerous amounts. These chemicals are used in fire fighting foam, non-stick pans and water repellant clothing.

If one looks at the graph on the SciTech Daily website '66 million years of Earth's climate', you see that there was a stable period 14 to 34 million years ago, when the global mean temperature was 4C above 1961 to 1990 levels. The temperature hockey stick which you see in most graphs is placed on the right for comparison. This implies that the tripping point for a runaway greenhouse event lies above this horizontal line at 4C. In the 14 million years since, temperatures have been falling, which implies that methane gas deposits have been rising consistently. This suggests that when temperatures rise above 4C there is likely to be an irreversible temperature rise above the tolerance of human beings, which stands at 35C. Humans can however withstand a temperature of 28C at 50% humidity for prolonged periods. Unfortunately, once the tripping point is reached, frozen methane deposits in permafrost and on the edge of continental shelves, will boil off with no hope of stopping it. This hothouse could last 10 to 100 million years, depending upon methane reserves, etc. Without technologies for air conditioning and food production in biomes or underground, the human population on this planet will collapse. Whilst it could be possible to counter this trend by placing a space mirror at Legrange 1, there is nothing to suggest at the moment, that the necessary intergovernment cooperation would be forth coming.

In September, 2022 it was announced that more than 1700 environmental activists had been killed in the last decade whilst protesting about mining, illegal logging and oil drilling. It was now expected that global air temperature would rise 3C to 5C this century, resulting in a sea level rise of 6 feet by the year 2100. Analysis of sea coral over the last 20,000 years, by Rutgers University, shows that sea levels rose 20m in 500 years. Sea level rise in the twenty-first century is expected to be in the region of 15 to 20 feet. The worst global warming was 50 million years ago when sea levels rose an additional 230 feet, when CO2 levels increased 3 fold, causing polar ice caps to completely melt.

Owing to HMG totalling screwing up the UK's energy industry, I reluctantly decided to upgrade my existing photo-voltaic system, which consisted of 11 panels on the roof amounting to 2.75kW installed 8 years ago. Whilst looking at the performance figures I realised that I should have installed a battery at that time, since my array can produce 8kWh in summer and hopefully 4kWh in winter per day. I live on my own and consume only 1kWh per day. That would leave 3kWh for the electric fire in the lounge in the evening. That may sound tough but I remember living in a B&B in Birmingham in 1972 for at least 6 cold months when there was no central heating, no electric blanket nor hot water bottle and no house insulation. Since I could live on that 3kWh for space heating, weekly shower and monthly washing machine duty, it made me ask the question,'why hadn't I fitted a battery between the panels and inverter when they were first installed? No doubt many PV owners are asking themselves the same question. At the time I did it simply to make money, and no other reason. Now, HMG could offer PV owners a subsidised upgrade. That would reduce the load on power stations and gas installations. It would no doubt also improve the health of many, both physically and psychologically.

I then decided to fit an additional 1.2kW panels on the front wall of my house and get a lithium-iron battery. A battery that would store one days production (7kWh) would cost me about £3,000, and last 20 years. This is based upon what a 4 person family would need, should I choose to sell the property. The vertical PV panels on the front wall were for winter time, since my roof slopes at 68 degrees off vertical, whilst the ideal angle would be 22 degrees off vertical.

A few weeks later I realised that my plan to go off grid had failed. I contacted a number of PV installers, but they were not interested because the contract, just 3 panels, was not large enough. I eventually found out belatedly that you cannot connect new panels to old ones due to a mismatch in voltages. Also I would need to replace my inverter with a hybrid inverter, that would include a battery controller and at least 4 batteries, each costing about £500. Unfortunately the industry had run out of batteries and was now awaiting a delivery from the PRC expected in November. I now felt apprehensive as I had already given notice to SSE. My accounts would close on October 10th, so I quickly wrote to them cancelling the cancellation. Would they? I had also cancelled their standing orders with my bank, and I didn't know how to reverse that. So why hadn't HMG, electricity suppliers and the PV industry warned me before the photo-voltaics was fitted?

If global mean temperature is directly linked to the amount of greenhouse gases CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane) in the Earth's atmosphere, then according to the above chart, the human race and just about all land dwelling creatures are doomed, unless these two gases can be reduced to normal levels immediately. How do we do that when it won't be before 2035 that nuclear fusion by laser ignition can go into mass production. Sustained nuclear fusion within a Tokamak will probably take a similar amount of time. Even when it's viable, there is no guarantee that governments will allow their fossil fueled power stations to be converted or replaced. CO2 and CH4 levels have gone stratospheric. It will take 150 years for these amounts to get back to normal by natural means, during which time atmospheric temperatures will increase. As that happens, a tripping point will inevitably be reached, resulting in methane deposits in the tundra regions and on the world's continental shelves to boil off. Nothing can be done to stop it. The hysteresis forces of nature are likely to outweigh any forces that the human race can mount against it. The boil off may last centuries. It all depends upon how much vegetable matter has been stored by nature over the millennia, since the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago, and possibly beyond that. The Arctic ice cap will disappear by 2050, resulting in an ever warmer climate for Greenland, whose ice cap is already melting, and will inevitably collapse over a period of about one century, creating a huge number of icebergs. This will cause problems for shipping from icebergs, with container and oil terminals handicapped due to sea level rise. Off-shore wind farms could be toppled.

At this point, civilisation as we know it will start to collapse. These icebergs will initially drift towards the Greenland-Iceland-Faroes-Orkney-Pentland gaps, ultimately blocking them. The icebergs will fill the north Atlantic Ocean, freeze drying the south-westerly winds that blow over northern Europe. This will cause temperatures to oscilate wildly, making farming impossible. The icebergs will create a physical barrier, stopping the gulf stream. The north Atlantic drift will be no more. An ice sheet will then form making road and rail communication impossible inland. Evacuation to the south will be dependent upon large scale desalination, due to water shortages in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It is likely that civilisation will collapse due to constant high temperatures in excess of 30C. This mini ice age will last 100 years, during which sea levels will rise due to the melting of Antarctica. Coasting habitats will be flooded, whilst a substantial number of species will become extinct, unless organisations provide underground refuges. The entire human species may have to live underground for centuries, employing hydroponic techniques to grow food, until temperatures have reached acceptable levels. It may well be that humans will have to be bioengineered to withstand high temperatures. It may take nature five to ten million years to return the Earth's ecosystem to how it is today, unless the human race provides massive assistance. Unless a world technocracy is created, all this sacrifice will have been for nothing.

This global disaster is primarily caused by the failure of politicians to realise that the problem is fundamentally caused by rising levels of CO2 and methane, not air temperature. The failure of governments to extract these gases from the atmosphere, now, and stop creating more by shutting down major construction projects, like the wall in Saudi Arabia, and the global economy, clearly shows that our leaders are not intelligent and authoritative enough to solve this problem. Extracting CO2 and CH4 from the atmosphere will require huge amounts of cheap energy to power CCS (Carbon Capture & Storage) facilities, but that is no more available than is global cooperation on other matters.

In mid 2023 it was announced that ships using the Panama canal would be restricted for 36 to 32 per day, with a restriction on the maximum draught of the vessel, due to a drought in the region. The warning came too late for many shipping companies, as by September 2023 there were 100 ships at both ends of the Panama Canal waiting for permission to enter. With the emergence of El Nino in the Pacific Ocean the situation is likely to get worse. Mid 2023 also saw record atmospheric temperatures in USA, PRC and the Mediterranean Sea region of Europe and north Africa. At the same time there was also serious conjecture as to when the north Atlantic drift (an extension of the gulf stream from the Caribbean Sea) would cease functioning, due to melt waters cooling it from the Arctic and Greenland. The average ocean temperature on planet Earth had now risen to a record 20.96C. That's roughly a rise of 0.3C per decade. it's now known that photosynthesis ceases in some plants and trees at a temperature of 46.7C, and in some parts of the world heat waves already reach that. 96% of animals on the planet are either human beings, their pets or farm animals. Environmentally acceptable alternatives for meat, wood, cement and the like, are long overdue, but these decisions are held up because governments will not abandon capitalism. And as for population control; this is not going to correct itself, since many large families are large for religious reasons.

As if global warming wasn't bad enough, there will soon be a shortage of phosphorus, which forms a major part of fertilizer. It is not recyclable, although it could be recovered from human urine. Phosphate mining could last for 80 years, after which there are organic alternatives.

Please, also read section 8 in the introduction, on the subject of global warming, including alternatives to concrete and plastic. Also 28...Zero Carbon Requires Drastic Change In Lifestyle

Forty countries have agreed to reduce their carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. It remains to be seen whether they achieve that aim, and whether it comes soon enough. So just how many new and converted power stations would you need to produce the existing levels of electricity without producing any more greenhouse gases. I asked Bin AI:

Copilot: To reduce greenhouse gas levels to those seen in 1900 within 10 years, we need to take significant and concerted actions. Let’s break it down:

Current Emissions: Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased significantly since 1900 due to industrialization, population growth, and fossil fuel use. In 1900, emissions were much lower compared to today.

Challenges: Achieving such a drastic reduction in a decade is extremely challenging. We need to consider not only power stations but also other sectors like transportation, industry, and agriculture.

Power Stations: Let’s focus on power stations. To estimate the number of 1.6 GW power stations needed, we'll use some assumptions: Assume that all power stations are zero-emission (e.g., nuclear, renewables). We'll calculate based on direct CO2 emissions avoided per 1 GW of installed capacity.

Emission Reduction: According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 1 GW of installed capacity can avoid approximately 2.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually 1. To reach 1900 emission levels, we need to reduce emissions by a significant amount.

Estimation: Let’s calculate: 1900 global CO2 emissions: Not precisely available, but significantly lower than today. 2020 global CO2 emissions: Approximately 37 billion metric tons 2.

Reduction needed: 37 billion - X = 1900 emissions (where X is the emissions from the new power stations). Math: Let’s solve for X:

X = 37 billion - 1900 emissions

X = 37 billion - (1900 emissions)

X ≈ 37 billion metric tons

Power Stations Needed:

Each 1.6 GW power station avoids 2.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.

Number of power stations needed:

37 billion / (2.5 million) = 14,800 power stations.

Reality Check: Building and deploying 14,800 power stations in 10 years is unrealistic due to infrastructure, funding, and environmental considerations. We must also address emissions from other sectors.

Holistic Approach: Achieving 1900 levels requires a holistic approach: Energy efficiency. Renewable energy adoption. Carbon capture and storage. Behavioral changes. Policy support.

Conclusion: While the specific number of power stations is challenging to achieve, we must work collectively to reduce emissions across all sectors and transition to a sustainable future. Remember, this is a simplified estimation. Real-world efforts involve complex interactions and trade-offs. Let’s continue our journey toward a greener planet! 🌍🌱

Learn more: 1...iea.org 2...weforum.org 3...gov.uk 4...brookings.edu 5...news.un.org 6...gov.uk

1.6 GW is the output of one nuclear fission reactor at Sizewell C in the UK, which is very large compared to other reactors. The net output of electricity from ITER Tokamak is projected to be 200MW, but in reality will output only heat as it is experimental. It's clear that we need a production line of reactors made from relatively small components. The laser ignition HB11 fusion reactor currently being designed by HB11 Energy in Australia may fit this requirement. Whether a flat pack Tokamak design can materialize in the near future remains to be seen. This calculation does not consider the extraction and sequestration of greenhouse gases currently in the atmosphere. So I asked Bing AI:

Copilot: The total amount of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere is typically measured in carbon dioxide-equivalents (CO₂e). This metric combines the effects of various greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and smaller trace gases like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆).

As of recent data, the total global greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 amounted to approximately 6,677 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent 1. To put this into perspective, each part per million (ppm) of CO₂ in the atmosphere represents roughly 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon or 7.82 gigatonnes of CO₂2.

In other words, the Earth’s atmosphere contains an immense quantity of greenhouse gases, and their impact on our climate is a critical concern. Efforts to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change are essential for the well-being of our planet. 🌍🌿

Learn more: 1...19january2021snapshot.epa.gov 2...en.wikipedia.org 3...ourworldindata.org 4...oee.nrcan.gc.ca 5...epa.gov

6,677 million metric tons represents 267 nuclear power stations over 10 years. Do we have the necessary raw materials to make the super conductors and lenses? It is likely that the reactors would be much smaller, and hence more needed, probably by a factor of 4. It would probably take nature 150 years to reduce this to 1900 levels otherwise. But do we have 10 years, plus of course all the prevaricating from governments in the mean time? They are fighting terrorists and amongst themselves instead of fighting to reduce greenhouse gas levels. And how long will it take for the technology to go into mass production? There is a likelihood that a methane boil-off from the tundra regions and from the edge of the world's continental shelves, will precede such an outcome. There is no way that the human race can stop this boil-off by conventional means.

Should the Greenland ice cap collapse and trigger a mini ice age across northern Europe, it could stop most, if not all, of the boil-off. Failing that, it will probably be necessary to nuke Greenland with hundreds of atomic bombs, say one per month. Northern Europe would be a right off, but then the entire human civilisation would be written off if governments did nothing. There is of course the nuclear fall-out to consider. The northern hemisphere could well become uninhabitable, with the detonation of say 1000 nuclear warheads over time. There is an alternative, but again it requires politicians to press the nuclear button. They could target supervolcanoes to cool down the entire northern hemisphere. Yellowstone, Canary Islands, Bay of Naples (Phlegraean Fields), Santorini, etc. Chapter 20 lists 33 sites, some of which maybe extinct, whilst others are in the southern hemisphere and may therefore not be relevant. It is unlikely that nuclear fusion technology will be available in time. A global effort should therefore be made to build huge PVAs (photo-voltaic arrays), geo-thermal power stations and wind farms to power CCS (carbon capture & Storage) facilities. Focusing in on a national effort is not good enough. Trading in carbon credits only lengthens the process and distracts from the overbearing seriousness of the situation.

This threat has the capability to wipe out most life on this planet. Even if humans survive, what kind of a world will we inherit? Major construction projects should be stopped now. The global economy must be scaled back. It's time politicians had vision, to see beyond the thermometer, to realise that even after the greenhouse gas levels have fallen, the hysteresis effect will ensure that it will take many years for our oceans and atmosphere to cool down to safe levels. We all live on just one pale blue dot. There is no planet B.