Comments on: Hawking the Technofix: Business as Usual and the Ultimate Genocide http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/hawking-the-technofix-business-as-usual-and-the-ultimate-genocide/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:03:40 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: David Hannaford http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/hawking-the-technofix-business-as-usual-and-the-ultimate-genocide/#comment-28034 David Hannaford Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:57:52 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=3028#comment-28034 If you ask technologists and scientists to fix a problem, they will do as scientists and technologists do ... they will reduce the problem to its simplest form ( 'too much CO2') and offer the simplest technological solution ( 'bury it'). The problem cannot be simplified in that way. We are dealing with dynamic natural processes which are global in scale, and a wholistic approach must be taken. To a certain extent, natural processes take care of the problem for us ... more CO2 means more plant growth means more photosynthesis which means more fixing of carbon as carbohydrates and more oxygen. We humans can accelerate this process by already recognised gardening and agricultural procedures. As a general principle, anything which increases plant growth reduces atmospheric CO2. Examples are fertilising; irrigation, composting, and mulching and greenhousing. Let me give a real life example from my own experiences on the north coast of NSW where we have a lot of organic gardeners, horticulturalists and permaculture gardens : twenty years ago a hippy buys a run-down uneconomic cattle farm. The land consists of bare dirt and weeds and sunlight bakes the earth. The weeds are mown and used as mulch. This shields the soil and retains moisture, enabling the successful planting of nitrogenous shrubs. The shrubs grow and their shade creats a microclimate which enables the planting of trees ( in this case, the trees are an experimental planting of 1000 different exotic fruit trees). The trees grow, photosynthesis occurs on a grand scale, carbon is stored, water is retained, solar reflectivity is reduced, fruits are abundant, land values are increased ... win win win If you know someone who drives a gas-guzzler, dont try to educate them about global warming and the carbon cycle .... buy them a dvd on organic gardening or a potted orchid of great beauty, and let nature take its course. :) If you ask technologists and scientists to fix a problem, they will do as scientists and technologists do … they will reduce the problem to its simplest form ( ‘too much CO2′) and offer the simplest technological solution ( ‘bury it’). The problem cannot be simplified in that way. We are dealing with dynamic natural processes which are global in scale, and a wholistic approach must be taken.
To a certain extent, natural processes take care of the problem for us … more CO2 means more plant growth means more photosynthesis which means more fixing of carbon as carbohydrates and more oxygen. We humans can accelerate this process by already recognised gardening and agricultural procedures. As a general principle, anything which increases plant growth reduces atmospheric CO2. Examples are fertilising; irrigation, composting, and mulching and greenhousing. Let me give a real life example from my own experiences on the north coast of NSW where we have a lot of organic gardeners, horticulturalists and permaculture gardens : twenty years ago a hippy buys a run-down uneconomic cattle farm. The land consists of bare dirt and weeds and sunlight bakes the earth. The weeds are mown and used as mulch. This shields the soil and retains moisture, enabling the successful planting of nitrogenous shrubs. The shrubs grow and their shade creats a microclimate which enables the planting of trees ( in this case, the trees are an experimental planting of 1000 different exotic fruit trees). The trees grow, photosynthesis occurs on a grand scale, carbon is stored, water is retained, solar reflectivity is reduced, fruits are abundant, land values are increased … win win win
If you know someone who drives a gas-guzzler, dont try to educate them about global warming and the carbon cycle …. buy them a dvd on organic gardening or a potted orchid of great beauty, and let nature take its course. :)

]]> By: Donald Hawkins http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/hawking-the-technofix-business-as-usual-and-the-ultimate-genocide/#comment-28025 Donald Hawkins Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:16:55 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=3028#comment-28025 DRAWROF There is one word that explains how to go into the future. The word is "drawrof". We take it letter by letter and relearn as we go. When we get to the last letter of the word we then turn it around well spell it backwards. Who do you think would be best to help us accomplish this little feat. How about people who know the good from the bad and are calm at peace. Passive. People who use there mind for knowledge and defense, never for attack. Try not. Do or do not, there is no try. Always in motion is the future. That was my old friend Yoda of course and who used his or her imagination to make Yoda come alive that would be a human. Don't you think we have heard just about enough nonsense? What I just wrote is it nonsense? Well if you see in those first hundred day's just more of the same go have a nice quiet cup of coffee and think of what could have been. Remember changing the way we produce energy Worldwide is only the first two letters of the word. We need to slowdown who knows we might find that slowing down has many benefits. DRAWROF

There is one word that explains how to go into the future. The word is “drawrof”. We take it letter by letter and relearn as we go. When we get to the last letter of the word we then turn it around well spell it backwards. Who do you think would be best to help us accomplish this little feat. How about people who know the good from the bad and are calm at peace. Passive. People who use there mind for knowledge and defense, never for attack. Try not. Do or do not, there is no try. Always in motion is the future. That was my old friend Yoda of course and who used his or her imagination to make Yoda come alive that would be a human. Don’t you think we have heard just about enough nonsense? What I just wrote is it nonsense? Well if you see in those first hundred day’s just more of the same go have a nice quiet cup of coffee and think of what could have been. Remember changing the way we produce energy Worldwide is only the first two letters of the word. We need to slowdown who knows we might find that slowing down has many benefits.

]]> By: Gliscameria http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/hawking-the-technofix-business-as-usual-and-the-ultimate-genocide/#comment-28024 Gliscameria Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:53:53 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=3028#comment-28024 What a massive waste of time and money. CO2 is probably the safest thing we put into the atmosphere. Who are we to think we are in control of the global climate? There have been periods of various temperatures and we are entering a new one. We need to adapt to the chances in weather/water/land. Gigantic static cities next to the ocean are not the best of ideas in a dynamic environment. The world is not static and we need to develop housing/water/farms that can adapt. What a massive waste of time and money. CO2 is probably the safest thing we put into the atmosphere. Who are we to think we are in control of the global climate? There have been periods of various temperatures and we are entering a new one. We need to adapt to the chances in weather/water/land. Gigantic static cities next to the ocean are not the best of ideas in a dynamic environment.

The world is not static and we need to develop housing/water/farms that can adapt.

]]> By: russ http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/hawking-the-technofix-business-as-usual-and-the-ultimate-genocide/#comment-28013 russ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:02:40 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=3028#comment-28013 You article seems to miss the most dire of all impacts due to the hundreds of gigatonnes of CO2 already emitted during the fossil fuel age. This CO2 is slowly being taken up mostly by the surface ocean where it will continue to acidify and deplete the planktos of the oceans for the rest of this century. This will occur regardless of whether emission reductions slows the emission of more gigatonnes of CO2. Since this deadly dose of CO2 is sufficient to change ocean life from a richly biodiverse one to one of bacterial slime why aren't you speaking of the desperate need for immediate ocean eco-restoration. While the impacts of climate change are expected to take centuries to dramatically inconvenience life of Earth, CO2 poisoning of the oceans is expected to take mere decades. It seems a strange almost ostrich like behaviour to continue to speak only of climate change and global warming when the 72% of this small blue planet where the majority of life and biodiversity resides right before our eyes from fossil CO2. Twenty years and hundreds of millions of invested public science funds have revealed the means to rapidly restore the ocean ecosystem with technology that can be deployed in a matter of a few years not decades. I guess its all about selling yet another story amongst the endless tomes on the same topic. You article seems to miss the most dire of all impacts due to the hundreds of gigatonnes of CO2 already emitted during the fossil fuel age. This CO2 is slowly being taken up mostly by the surface ocean where it will continue to acidify and deplete the planktos of the oceans for the rest of this century. This will occur regardless of whether emission reductions slows the emission of more gigatonnes of CO2.

Since this deadly dose of CO2 is sufficient to change ocean life from a richly biodiverse one to one of bacterial slime why aren’t you speaking of the desperate need for immediate ocean eco-restoration. While the impacts of climate change are expected to take centuries to dramatically inconvenience life of Earth, CO2 poisoning of the oceans is expected to take mere decades.

It seems a strange almost ostrich like behaviour to continue to speak only of climate change and global warming when the 72% of this small blue planet where the majority of life and biodiversity resides right before our eyes from fossil CO2.

Twenty years and hundreds of millions of invested public science funds have revealed the means to rapidly restore the ocean ecosystem with technology that can be deployed in a matter of a few years not decades.

I guess its all about selling yet another story amongst the endless tomes on the same topic.

]]>