This week has left me with a kind of deep exhaustion concerning the state of humanity. It appears that no matter which way I look, or what “rock” I look under, I find decisions driven primary upon emotion and personal greed (I was going to say “stupidity” but perhaps that is unjust). A few of the things that we in the news lately include:

(ITEM) Off shore wind turbine developers claim that they have no environmental impact because there are no birds flying over the off-shore locations – thus this form of impact won’t happen, and therefore neither will any of the others. I think the reason that they don’t find much evidence of bird kills caused off-shore turbines is that the birds fall into the ocean and usually aren’t found – it almost certainly isn’t because of a lack of birds. In addition to the issue of bird kills, there are many other problems with wind turbines, not the least of which is that they provide little (or no) additional power to the overall grid. They do create power at the point of connection to the grid, but when viewed from point of view of overall cumulative production they do nothing. There are solutions to this problem, but so far those solutions have not been forthcoming. There is almost nothing good to be said about the turbines except that they are an exceptionally fine means of funneling trillions of tax dollars into the pockets of a few developers.

(ITEM) The global telecommunications industry is in the process of launching 150,000 new communication satellites into low earth orbit. There are currently no regulations or restrictions on these satellites so it has become a gold-rush by three companies to take control of global communications before regulations or laws put restrictions upon their rush for riches. What could possibly go wrong with Elon Musk having total control over global communications? What could be wrong with Musk (and a few others) inserting so many satellites into orbit to effectively force out other satellites, such as weather satellites and others? What would be the problem with these guys effectively blinding the world’s large astronomical telescopes, totally hundreds of billions of dollars in science investments? People have a very long history of what happens when a few highly motivated, clever, greedy individuals gain control of the commons (those resources that are shared by all). The results are never pretty.

(ITEM) The rate, and overall numbers of mass shootings in the USA is rapidly escalating. It has become very clear that it is no longer a problem with a few crazy people getting access to high powered, rapid fire weapons. These events have clearly become a terrorist activity energized, motivated and supplied by a large group of extremists intent on creating total havoc leading to the collapse of Society for the benefit of nobody. The Republican leaders continue to promote the solution of hardening the targets rather than control those intent on fostering and implementing these terrorist actions. The Buddhists talk about covering the entire world with shoe leather to protect people’s feet, versus covering the soles of their shoes. Hardening all schools, churches, shopping centers, public buildings, private buildings and shared open spaces is hardly a feasible approach – but it is the one that is favored by at least half of those in power in this country. The idea of preventing the hazard seems to be impossible to even contemplate or discuss.

(ITEM) Hundreds of trillions of dollars are used to subsidize new energy sources, but almost none is spent to reduce the amount of power required to meet our needs/desires. There are enough almost free approaches that could immediately cut the use of energy to less than 1/4 of our current use – and achieve better, more comfortable, more effective solutions to what we currently do. It is pretty clear that an additional 50% reduction is well withing reach if funding becomes available for research and development. The overall impact could easily be a 10 fold reduction in the need for energy, which then can be supplied by local renewable sources (including “roof top” solar and others). The only reason we use as much energy as we do is because it is extremely profitable for the suppliers to do so. There is no big profits if they don’t sell lots of power – therefore we stay stuck in a world of increasing energy use and increasing horrible results from that energy use.

(ITEM) I keep hearing people complaining that the government is causing the steep increase in the price of gasoline and they are therefore failing to do their job. How in the heck is the government pushing up the price of gasoline? This is happening because of the decision to NOT control the prices of commodities such as gasoline, it is the effect of an unregulated (or at least under-regulated) critical commodity. The same people that complain that the government is not controlling the price of gasoline are the same exact people that demand that the government stay out of private industry’s business. In addition, these same people are screaming that gas taxes need to be eliminated to lower the price of gas at the pumps. How in the world do they expect the transportation infrastructure to be maintained without charging for it? If not gas taxes, then what kind of taxes would be better? Taxes are going to have to pay for it, unless the roads are all given to private enterprise, in which case the roads will be paid for through tolls.

I could go on for many pages with all of the crazy ideas that are being implemented without any consideration for consequences, costs, benefits or truth. Rather than worrying about how best to help each other and work together we are rapidly becoming a global society, perhaps most evident in the USA, that is focused upon creating strife, chaos, destruction, and the collapse of civil government. These folks promoting this chaos apparently aren’t interested in truth, fairness, what works, value, the future, the future of their children or anything else – they just want to destroy.

This is becoming very disheartening. For a time I thought the problem was a fringe group bent on causing the destruction of the world. However, as I look at the numbers I realize those that are trying to avoid chaos and destruction are in the minority, they are the “fringe” group. It sometimes feels like a very big, very destructive tsunami has been detected and is heading our way, arriving before the likely end of my life (and I am 75 years old). People look out over the ocean looking for signs of the tsunami and seeing nothing. They shrug their shoulders and go about their normal lives as if nothing is out there. However, tsunami’s are hard to detect in the open ocean – they are deep waves often reaching to the ocean floor, rather than tall waves reaching toward the sky. There destructive power only becomes evident when it reaches the shore. For decades dedicated scientists have been telling us that the environmental tsunami that is rushing toward us is will hit land fall very soon, perhaps it has already come so far ashore that we can no longer run fast enough to outpace it. We all know it is there and bearing down upon us, we all have a pretty good idea of what will happen when it gets here, but we seem to be whistling in the graveyard – assuming that all the bad things will go away if we deny knowing about them. We have had notification of this destructive future for many years, in enough time to take effective actions to forestall or prevent the bulk of the outcomes, but we just keep whistling in the dark.