Trusting My Life and This Planet to Politicians

I don't know whether I was being a bit hard on Blairgowrie Liberal Democrats in my post Just when did you write this? My complaint of their election campaign consisting of 'a' leaflet being probably 5 months out of date. Should I apologise, should I have expected better or more from a political party that wants to be taken seriously. If the Lib Dems think they deserve an apology then have one.



I had read Tartan Hero's Campbell Tests Brown for Coalition Job, basically the "vote Ming get Gordon" ticket, (why is it nearly every time I type Gordon I have to go back and correct Gorgon). Then I had this Lib Dem Focus leaflet. The Lib Dems have set out their climate change policy, to be fair the only ones yet with something I can really assess.



They want to tax heavy polluters then give the money to (via shifting tax burdens) to "hard working and particularly low paid Scots". So who are these heavy polluters, the energy industry, the transport industry etc? We live in a market economy, if you increase these costs, they still get passed on to "hard working......". There is no net gain financially. Even if there was a financial benefit to them what are they going to spend the money on, increased consumerism and foreign holidays? Adding to the problem they tried to resolve.



In my post Carbon Offsetting I did the rough overall calculation for politicians to start basing their environmental policies on. We are damaging the environment, this is a cost, this damage if not repaired and stopped will lead to the demise of us all. These (all) polluters cause damage. What the Lib Dems are not doing is using the tax revenues to repair and improve the environmental situation, they have not recycled the money back to solve the problem of the damage caused. Ergo, they do not have an environmental policy. So why have a "wee pretendy go" that they have.



When I had the discussions with the Government's consultants to run the Millennium Dome as a global environmental management centre these were penetrating and incisive. There again they must have realised I knew my subject, because it was them who wanted to support my proposal. Until that is it may have been undermined, Isn't it iconic. Even 10 Downing Street won't deny the facts. As such I feel I have a right to feel annoyed and frustrated at politicians pretending they have solutions to the environmental challenge. We won't let Roger do it, it is much better for our ego and kudos if we can get the public to believe we know what we are doing. This is putting my life, my families, my friends, every bodies life and the future of this planet in danger for the sake of political posturing.



Sometime I want to get the Stern report and everything a politician presents on the environment, get a red pen mark it and send it back to them with see me on it. There again perhaps that was why the Cabinet Office did want me to proof and comment on their Regulatory Impact Assessment guide. (And produce the outline agenda for the G8 Summit in Perthshire, Climate Change and Africa). Why should I or anyone else with more than 40 years study of how this planet works have any confidence what so ever in someone who wanted to be a lawyer and in the last few months thinks they are an expert in planetary ecology just because it became fashionable to do so. Solicitors and politicians don't fix my central heating boiler or MOT my car so why should I trust them with a planet.



There I was feeling alone in my frustration when I read Doctor Vee's tribute to Chris Lightfoot. "read each manifesto until you encounter something really offensive or stupid, then stop and reject that party." Bye Bye Lib Dems.



I do agree with MacNumpty about negative comments. My view is critique as much as you want, but be prepared to outline the better alternative as well. So Ming, Gordon, Jack, Alex, Annabel, Dave, Nicol, Tony, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all are you going to turn up at Blairgowrie Town Hall at 7.30 Weds 28th March.

Scottish Ship Building Everything is Possible

This is a post from January on how Scotland can have a ship building future, what it's potential is and where the money comes from. The UK Nuclear Deterrent.

It was followed up here, somehow JFK, Apollo 13 and Glen Lyon all got mixed together with Scottish shipbuilding.

Scottish Ship Building Job Losses: You Can Take a Horse To......

All the Scottish media, such as the Herald, have today covered the story of the potential job losses at the Ferguson yard. Yesterday J Arthur MacNumpty covered the ability of an independent Scotland to respond to change, with a follow up here, an ecology of independence.



In April last year every single MSP was sent the consultancy document Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower. That is every single MSP, even the ones the media are quoting and are making statements. I have many replies or receipts. The document specifically outlined the strategy to ensure a secure future, and need, for the Scottish ship building industry.

It just seems every MSP is involved in a blame game against the other parties and not having the courage and vision to make a better future for Scotland, which includes the once great ship building industry. I am pretty certain I heard that there are at present 20,000 ships world wide under construction (will have to check that) and we cannot keep 100 men in a job.



Scotland has the opportunity to respond to the needs of the global ecological revolution and lead the world. Why are our politicians involved in some pointless do nothing round of name calling and not getting on with the programme of making Scotland the world leader in maritime and oceanographic industries? Scotland was once. Why are we not doing it again? The world needs Scotland and the political establishment is not rising to the challenge.



Do you know what the saddest thing was? There was a Jim Moohan from the 'Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions' who was in all the TV and press coverage of the situation. So I thought I would contact him and tell him what every member of the Executive knew and what every MSP knew nearly 12 months ago. So I Googled his union for his contact details, well you try it as well. It's 2007 and the union doesn't have a website, well at least not in the top 100 hits in Google.



I sit here crying, tears flowing from my eyes in numbness and bewilderment. When I left school I did an engineering apprenticeship. Foundries, boiler shops, machine shops, drawing office, fabrication. 2500 of us could make anything you wanted. All gone, and when you see a 100 men making a last stand to protect something so pure and vital, the ability to do, the ability to make, the ability to create something tangible and real. Something that lives, something you have a pride and a connection with, something that when you see it, you can say, "I did that". When you want to help in some small way, you cannot even use the first choice of communication of the modern world.

How can you build a nation if you can't build a ship? How can you build a future if you can't build a ship? How can you put a planet back together and ensure a future for the continuance of all life if you can't build a ship? How can you build hope in a troubled world if you can't build a ship?

Well I suppose you could always build one as a weapon of war and destruction. £25 billion, a bargain, thank you very much. Somehow I think we have our priorities slightly wrong.

An Ecology of Independence

The development of human civilisation is going to be more dependent on ecological and environmental factors influencing it's political, social and economic components. Will Patterson writes a very concise but to me very accurate assessment of a benefit of independence for Scotland at J Arthur MacNumpty.



His conclusion or summation almost halfway through the post. Answer: when trouble does come, an independent government will be better equipped to respond to it than under the present system.



Ecological and environmental factors will now start to affect human civilisation at an increasing exponential rate. Whoever can best respond to these will 1) have the best chance for survival, and 2) be in the best position to take advantage of them. My reasoning is accurate predictions of human systems can best be done using the ecological tools, used to assess the ecological systems which we must now increasingly have to respond to.



One of these assessments is r and k selection. This covers a wide spectrum of applications, here let us just concentrate on the ability to respond to change. Imagine a bare area of ground is suddenly made available. One of the first species to colonise or make use of it will be something like an ant colony. They are straight in, they can multiply quickly, are small and can take advantage or respond to the new situation rapidly. They are an example of a r selected species.



A cow, oak tree, or lion cannot immediately respond, they are k selected. They are slow to reproduce, large have more long terms needs. It is the dinosaur concept. Conditions change. The dinosaurs cannot adapt quickly to the new conditions, they become extinct. The small pre mammals did. They responded quickly and took advantage of the changing conditions. It applies to many things. A small sporty car can respond quicker to the fast bends of a minor country road than an HGV.



The world is now going to change very rapidly, this is the opening of the global ecological revolution. Perhaps the world may not respond effectively or quick enough. There may well be upwards of 5 billion deaths and those that remain live in the 'Mad Max' scenario of the collapse of civilisation and society run by marauding war lords. Or society could respond and sort out the mess the planet is in and there could be some continuation of life as we know it on Earth.



An independent Scotland not slowed down by the clinging inertia of a great clunking UK, could respond quicker and take advantage of the essential global ecological revolution. Both for the advantage of Scotland and of the planet of which it is part.



The question is do the SNP have the policies to implement after independence. Or will they be the political party equivalent of Tony Blair. Great at getting elected, but in retrospect should have handed the running of the party to someone else with at the simplest, thought out long term workable policies.



At present the SNP seem to want to gain independence but then just do the same that has been tried before and also compete with all the other countries of the world. They seem to lack the vision and practical implementation to put Scotland at the front centre and leading edge of the global ecological revolution.




Will The SNP squander the one over riding benefit of independence. The ability of Scotland to respond quickly and effectively to whatever the future throws at it. Squandering that asset like Governments before squandered North Sea oil. A resource that could have been the foundation for the future frittered away on champagne, Porsches and rows of cheap consumer electrical shops in our towns. A billion year old legacy, here today gone tomorrow.



Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower?

Pole Position Articles and Blogs

I've always been into ecology, life and planets since I was a toddler, that was my main interest. Due as was it Bob Dylan said a simple twist of fate, I ended up getting qualified and working as a metallurgist. Once I took a car for a service, the owner of the business which specialised in performance engines and rally cars, finding out I was metallurgist removed me from my vehicle and I was presented with a set of drive shafts for my comments on. One thing lead to another and at one point the works factory vehicles were being shown the view of an exhaust. As a metallurgist the owner thought I should go down south and sit outside the office of Frank Williams or Ron Dennis until they gave me a job. Me, I was more interested in saving planets.

So this week has come as a bit of a surprise. First Honda announce their new 'Earth' livery and second the quality of some of the blogs that have appeared on the subject. One of the things I have found important about blogging is to read other blogs, you end up finding work better than you could have wrote on the subject and saves you time trying to write things. Firstly Shaun's Bicester blog got in touch for comments on the Honda livery, then Doctor Vee pulled out the biggest surprise, having only read him in context of Scottish politics, with his view of the Honda colour scheme and image. All I can add, trying to reconcile cars, politics and planets is the article I did for Dundee based website British Classic Cars. An update last year on an article I originally did in 2000.

My focus, probably influenced by such websites as Scottish blog roundup, is now going to move more into setting up the Scotland:World's First Ecological Superpower project, developed at the suggestion of Perth Business Gateway from the 2001 proposal to use the Millennium Dome as a global environmental management centre. Scottish Blog roundup and links has shown me the quality of political and social commentary writing, as Clint Eastwood said a man has got to know his limitations. This might mean we may have more chance of successfully sorting out the problems of the planet from a Scottish base and for Shaun and Brian I will get the metallurgical analysis of the MSC Napoli done. Though it seems a waste of what I have been taught and done, if anyone does want work doing in metallurgy especially on race cars, I am always open to suggestions.

What can't be ignored though is when politicians and political parties are trying to formulate policy on the environment. If your central heating boiler broke down and you called a plumber and Tony Blair turned up to mend it, "on your bike", might the first thing to say. Tony Blair wants to be a global leader on the environment. You wouldn't want a corporate lawyer fixing your plumbing, so why should we trust them with the planetary environment. It's not just New Labour all political parties are coming up with environmental policy. Unfortunately most is wrong, unworkable, useless or dangerous. Do they know what they are doing is pointless or is the media and public just not well enough informed to know our political masters haven't got a clue on the environment.

Probably the top engine builder outside of Formula 1 Dave Brooks Engines

YouScotland:Let Me Try Again

After the reviews here on the YouScotland website and Doctor Vee's blog and the Scottish blog round up I have been returning every day to see if they have implemented changes. Well this morning they have.

It seems they have left the old forum but added a new one. It seemed random which one you got. I tried to post, this meant I had to login, so did so in the left hand side. This took me via my options page to the old forum. As this was not the one I wanted, I clicked debates on the top which took me to the new forum.

This I then found I was not logged in for it. So did it again in the embedded part of the new forum. I tried 3 times but it kept on rejecting my pass word. I took the option of having my password sent to me under the forgotten password option, (even though I knew I was entering the correct one). The site then told me my email address was not recognised and had to contact the site administrator. There were other pages that said that an error had occurred or page not available and also had to contact the site admin.

Decided to leave it alone and come and write this. Perhaps someone else will test it and it might get sorted out. Anyway that was 20 minutes wasted. If anyone has worked out how to use it please could they leave the instructions in the comments here please.

Perthshire View: Snow

It snowed today in England. Roads closed, no schools, chaos, stay at home, warning, dangerous conditions.


It snowed today in Perthshire.

MSC Napoli Part 1 (of many)

First, that is some qualification for a ship to get, OU was it. Right joke's over. Second, this story is going to run and run, so put the Part 1 as we mean to go on. This story is going to keep the media going for weeks or even months, there is so much mileage so many questions, it's about for a while.


Let's start in this article by looking at a previous one from 14 January 2006, The Nuclear Deterrent: An Applied Planetary Engineering Analysis, this contained the line "6) Vast maritime clean ups are required of chemical dumps and dangerous ship wrecks containing cargo and materials which should not be in the oceans". This article referred to the document Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower, sent to all Members of the Scottish Parliament at the beginning of April 2006.This document was produced on the recommendation of Perth Business Gateway as an update for Scotland in 2006 of the proposal for 2001 for the Millennium Dome.


For the start of understanding the MSC Napoli story that with unfold over the next days, weeks, and months, we can only ask or advise for you to read that document. If you do this will give you the grounding and lead to the unfolding Napoli story.


When I saw the beachcombers taking their findings home on the TV news I wondered how these pictures would be viewed around the world. I didn't have long to wait, US main news, ABC, showed them as their 'and finally' slot last night. "Booty and the Beach", "looters" and "hundreds of scavengers" ran the voice over.


It's only by acting 'on the way others see you' that may be the reason suddenly today the beach has been sealed off by coastguards and police. No worries though the MSC Napoli story has got legs to keep running and running, it hasn't even got going yet. Please return for the full implications of the story which will now unfold in the media.

Applied Planetary Engineering Blairgowrie Perthshire

MP2 applied planetary engineering is based in Blairgowrie, the 2nd largest town in Perthshire Scotland. Perthshire was the location for the G8 Summit in 2005, whose main agenda was climate change and Africa.


As MP2 had some influence on this agenda via a contribution to a United Nations Environment and Development-UK report commissioned by the UK Government. An automatic legacy would to carry out leading edge research into the global challenges for effective implementation.


Blairgowrie is ideally situated in this respect. It is just south of the Cairngorms National Park, a sub arctic/tundra area of outstanding beauty and wilderness. While celebrity campaigners travel the globe reporting on the effects of climate change, needlessly contributing to the problem. In Blairgowrie it is only necessary to look out of the window.

Scotland, Trident and the Legacy of JFK

In the early 60s President Kennedy initiated a programme to put man on the moon and bring him back alive before the end of the decade. This was done, but it is the space programme in the 70’s which will give us the example of how to save a planet.

Apollo 13 lost it’s life support system due to a small explosion in the service module. Earth has now but all lost it’s ecological life support system due to economic growth, greed and exploitation. When it finally shuts down about 5 billion or more will die.

The only way the astronauts arrived back on Earth alive was to shut down all non essential systems to preserve sufficient power to enable them to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and land safely.

The only way we can survive is to assist the Earth to rebuild the ecological life support systems of the planet. To do this we must shut down all non essential systems. One of the biggest emitters of pollution and consumers of resources is the global weapons industry.

The results of it’s products bring about destruction further adding to the collapse of the planets life support systems. Repairing the damage and rebuilding towns, cities, infrastructure and countries after war consumes resources and causes pollution, causing more ecosystem collapse.

The weapons industry is a ‘multiplier’, each and every step from production, through implementation and restoring the consequences of it’s actions destroys a little bit more of the planetary systems that keep us alive and the beauty of life, part of the reason for living.

Opposition to the new nuclear deterrent can be justified in that the resources used and emissions released in it’s production are an unacceptable contribution in destabilising the increasingly fragile ecology of the planet.

The arms industry and the nuclear deterrent are one of the non essential systems that need immediately shutting down on the space ship that is this Earth. The peace of the planet and the security of Scotland then comes down to the mutually assured destruction of the 21st century.

As Marshall McLuhan said, on spaceship Earth there are no passengers only crew. The resources allocated by the Government previously for nuclear weapons, now go into the creation of making Scotland a world leader in planetary management.

All life on the planet is now threatened. Scotland takes a global lead in maintaining that life on the planet. So who will threaten Scotland? Any threat to Scotland reduces the viability of Scotland to ensure the continuation of life on Earth. Any potential aggressor risks their own demise by their course of action.

The only weakness that if the carrying capacity of the planet is reduced so much one group may decide to reduce the population of the planet by the mass killing of others to try and give themselves a better chance of survival.

Though by the stage that this scenario is reached chaos and anarchy on a global scale will be so rampant it will be difficult to identify one particular enemy, each part of humanity will be at conflict with the rest over the scraps of existence that remain.

Soon the soils of Scotland will dry out in searing summer heat, fires will burn through the mountains uncontrolled. Winter winds will blow the dust of Scotland across the surface of the Earth. That remaining will be washed down by storms into the rivers choking and blocking them. Flood waters spilling through villages, towns and cities.

What has taken millennia to create will disappear. No longer will we have to travel to the moon to see barren desolation, the lunar landscape will be brought here. Glen Lyon, Cairngorms, Rannoch Moor, everywhere denuded and gone. Deposited in the streets and houses of towns.

There is no point in having a nuclear deterrent to protect nothing. Use those resources to create the future. Through the flip flops of fate Kennedy left us the legacy of how life is sustained on a stricken space craft. Get rid of or shut down all none essential systems. Trident first, free the resources.

Scotland: The World's First Ecological Superpower

The UK Nuclear Deterrent: An Applied Planetary Engineering Analysis

Synopsis

The UK cannot have a new nuclear deterrent due to the resources used and CO2 emitted in it's production and implementation. Costs to the environment which are not covered or payed back later. The budget approx £25 billion should be used to produce ships, equipment, training and research making Scotland a world leader in oceanographic research and marine management. These jobs and investments will be sustainable both for the benefit of Scotland and the planet as a whole. This is in line with the Scottish: Ecological Superpower summary sent to all MSPs at the start of April 2006.

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On the 12th January 2007 Prime Minister Tony Blair said he wants the UK to be a warrior nation for decades, (and in so doing demonstrates that he doesn’t know the true meaning of warrior). On 20th April 2006 Chancellor Gordon Brown at the World Bank said he wanted the environment to be at the centre of policy.

Both want a new nuclear deterrent for the UK, indicating that neither understand the environmental challenge and agenda. The Scottish National Party oppose the nuclear option on moral grounds, but many are concerned this with also cause job losses in Scotland.

One aspect of planetary engineering is foresight. This situation, as a win win scenario, was covered in the consultancy document and executive summary, Scotland: The World’s First Ecological Superpower? Produced at the suggestion of Perth Business Gateway in February 2006, as an update from the original 2001 proposal to use the Millennium Dome as a global environmental management centre. The document was sent to every Member of the Scottish Parliament at the start of April 2006.

So Tony Blair and Gordon Brown want a nuclear deterrent. Well they can’t have one. The reason? They have given that themselves. Climate change is the greatest threat to the international community. (It isn’t, planetary ecological life support system collapse is, which climate change is a symptom of, but that’s another story).

The process of a £25 billion defence project consumes resources and emits CO2. A consequence of which is the moving of the Extinction Horizon (EH) closer to the present. This is a point of no return sometime close in the future. After this date, the degrading of the planet’s ecological life support system will occur reducing it’s capacity to support life. This includes human society, civilisation and individuals. The ‘Mad Max’ scenario.

Some such as James Lovelock believe we have already passed this point of no return, and the deaths of billions is now inevitable. The reason billions aren’t dying at this exact moment is there is a lag time between reaching that point and it’s physical manifestation. This is the ‘time zone’ we are not occupying as a human society. The end of days. This extinction of human society may be true if taking a passive approach, allowing the Earth’s ecological systems alone to recover after the extinction of human civilisation has reduced the loading and destruction imposed on them.

Taking an interventionist approach, which is where human society and civilisation works with and assists the earths ecological systems to recover, could move this Extinction Horizon to some time into the near future as opposed to being at some point in the recent past. The interventionist approach involves massive and immediate applied planetary engineering implementation. The time frame which we are working to is the period between the non assisted extinction horizon, which is in the past, and the point in time of it’s physical manifestation.

Climate change and the overemphasis on reducing CO2 emissions is a convenient political over simplification sound bite, which does not address the true situation. An analogy would be having a vehicle and in preparing it for an MoT or other vehicle inspection test, talking of and only concentrating on the tyres. These may well be essential and important to the vehicle passing the test, but they are not the only important thing. The vehicle as a whole must pass the test and that includes brakes, steering, suspension and every other component and system involved in the safe an continued progress of the vehicle on the highway.

The test and objective of applied planetary engineering is to grab this Extinction Horizon, which is behind us, in the time frame of planetary evolution. Having grabbed it, move it into the present, then push it away into the future. Applied planetary engineering is about moving the Extinction Horizon further away into the future. Each and every action, by one degree or another is moving this Extinction Horizon relative in time to where we are now.

If we move further into the time zone of the lag time between potential extinction and physical manifestation, we can no longer grab behind us in time and move the Extinction Horizon into the future. Game Over.

Applied Planetary Engineering is the development and implementation of the strategies to move the Extinction Horizon further into the future.

Now assessing Tony and Gordon’s desire to have a new nuclear deterrent in terms of applied planetary engineering, this is a none starter.

1) The resources used and CO2 emitted do not push the Extinction Horizon into the future. The results of the project bring and make more inevitable the ecological backlash or Armageddon due to it’s contribution to the destruction and destabilisation of the Earth’s ecological life support system.

2) This is a long term project. By the time the new nuclear deterrent is ready, this point in time will be after the physical manifestation of the Extinction Horizon, if not resolved, which the resource use and emissions released in building a nuclear deterrent will have contributed to. We cannot afford the luxury of any large projects which do not contribute to moving the EH further into the future. There will be nobody left to make war against.

3) Every single person and most species of animal and plant are now under threat from global ecological life support system collapse. This is the great unifier. We must all work as one, as one planet to rescue our collective future. If we do not do this, there will be no future in which to fight each other in. When we are as one with one common cause, why do we need weapons of mass destruction?

4) Production of military products do not pay back the initial resource use and pollution footprint in their creation. Use resources in waste water treatment for example and this improves the stability of the ecosystem, giving a stability return on the projects initial environmental cost. Military projects do not do this, and jaw jaw is less detrimental than war war.

5) Strategy to manage the planet and push the Extinction Horizon into the future will require climate and oceanographic monitoring, research, assessment and implementation. The £25 billion can finance the new generation of ships and research vessels to do this. Building these in Scotland still provides jobs which push the Extinction Horizon into the future, not moving it into the past.

6) Vast maritime clean ups are required of chemical dumps and dangerous ship wrecks containing cargo and materials which should not be in the oceans. The oceanic ecosystems are not just under stress and hence losing stability and productivity due to climate change, they are being affected by pollution. This needs cleaning up. The £25 billion can go towards the ships and technology required to do this. Jobs will be created in Scotland which will contribute to the continuation of the sustainable evolution of the entire planet.

The executive summary Scotland: The World’s First Ecological Superpower gave the main areas for investment. Applied Planetary Engineering needs the tools to do the job of ensuring a future for all of us and this planet. Make that investment.

If Tony and Gordon go for their nuclear toys instead, it will be over all our dead bodies