Climate change.

[Jocko]

Things won't get any better till everybody is honest about it.

I hate to say it, but things will never get better. There is no political will anywhere in the world, other than the few countries who are about to disappear under rising sea levels in the next decade or so.
The people of the UK may say they are all for doing something about it, but the party who tries to introduce the necessary legislation would be out on their ear so quick.
Imagine for a moment that the Greens have formed the next government and they have levied a charge of £1000 per seat on all flights into or out of the UK. And immediately Mr and Mrs Bloggs and their two kids see their package holiday to Tenerife go up by £8000. Do you think the greens would be elected next time?
Why do you think Fuel Duty has been quietly shelved, instead of the planned annual rise? Or a law is introduced that all diesel and petrol car (including hybrids) must be scrapped when they reach 10 years of age and from 2022 the only vehicles we can buy are electric or hydrogen fuel cell, irrespective of the state of technology or limited infrastructure!
And, God forbid, that from 1st January 2020 we must all turn vegetarian or vegan, as the raising of animals for food is prohibited and importing meat is illegal too. Talk about Prohibition. We would be fighting on the streets.

As long as there is a profit in CO₂ production, it will continue.

[peteo48]

I share your pessimism Jocko. Certainly any game changing measures will be opposed as you say.

[Jocko]

I listened to Rupert Read on Politics Live, yesterday, and it was most enlightening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Read

[JimSh]

As long as there is a profit in CO₂ production, it will continue.

Time the World woke up and took a think to itself.
Maybe it's already too late.

"Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."    Cree Indian prophecy.

[Jocko]

"Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."    Cree Indian prophecy.

But unfortunately, as food and water runs out, it will be the moneyed that start to suffer last. The poor souls in the areas of the world that were last to the fossil fuel table, will be the poor souls who suffer/are suffering, first.

[culzean]

As long as there is a profit in CO₂ production, it will continue.

Time the World woke up and took a think to itself.
Maybe it's already too late.

"Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."    Cree Indian prophecy.

The amount of waste that goes on in the world is staggering. One thing is there is too much duplication of products and basically too much choice.........and the EU is not smelling of roses, they encouraged both bio diesel and ethanol, both of which led to massive destruction of rainforest to plant crops to produce oil and sugar producing crops.  Shipping wood pellets across thousands of miles to burn in power stations instead of local coal...etc, etc,..... and the real problems are too much consumption and waste and far too many people on the planet all wanting more..

[Jocko]

Shipping wood pellets across thousands of miles to burn in power stations instead of local coal.

As Germany are doing!

[guest4871]

Shipping wood pellets across thousands of miles to burn in power stations instead of local coal.

As Germany are doing!

And UK!

[Jocko]

It looks like the fund managers are getting jittery about oil if this report in The Times is anything to go by.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/writing-s-on-the-wall-for-oil-firms-say-fund-managers-0fmmrp7bt

[MartinJG]

It looks like the fund managers are getting jittery about oil if this report in The Times is anything to go by.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/writing-s-on-the-wall-for-oil-firms-say-fund-managers-0fmmrp7bt

I say be careful what you read! Slightly tongue in cheek, but as far as I am concerned, the BOE has its own agenda. Carney is an ex Goldman Sucks employee, along with many other paper pushers around the world. Second, it seems to me that renewables are still in nappies. So, if you are a big player, you might like to encourage folk to drop their exposure to oil as part of your shorting strategy. As we know, oil demand has always been used as a litmus test for economic health on the basis that more business activity means more consumption. I think we know the funksters will do everything they can to keep the show on the road which means more fake money. I also feel there is mileage left in the petrodollar game. The cost of R&D in the energy sector is considerable, especially in renewables which pound for pound, is simply not as economically viable as things stand. After all, oil may be a finite commodity but there is still plenty around and it is far easier to both switch on and off and into and out of, given existing technology, than it is to develop a complex structure to support the various speculative sources of electricity generation. The calorific content of a tank of oil is still at the front of the queue for most. A far better plan is to corner the market in the stuff, create a crisis, and hold the world to ransom in much the same way that the Arabs did back in the seventies. This achieves several objectives in one go. First of all, inflation will shrink the trillions of paper to a more manageable amount. Manna from heaven if you are a banker or fat cat corporation with mountains of the stuff on your balance sheet. Second, that shopping list of distressed oil assets at a knock down price suddenly becomes a more interesting and viable economic reality. Third, there are just too many fingers in too many oil pies to walk away just yet. Fourth, in case we forget, it is all about money and power. That should do for now.

[richardfrost]

I say be careful what you read! ...That should do for now.

Great post. But the one factor that you have not covered is the increasing level of unease in the masses with the effect of everything we are doing on the climate. Soon a tipping point will be reached and we will all start to realise that something massive will have to change before we are the victims of the next mass extinction, brought about by our own profligacy. I don't think anyone is sure when this will happen and exactly what the impact will be, but it will have as big an impact as a World War, if it is not in fact a World War itself, on the population, the pace of change and the balance of power.

[culzean]

It is about time all the gods and prophets who are supposed to be looking after us frail and sinful creatures got their heads together and had a summit somewhere to sort this out - they can arrive by luxury jet, stay in luxury hotels and eat the best food, Oh wait a minute that is what the frail humans do,  is there a plan B.

I think Darwin is the best bet,  humans will evolve to live in hotter places with less water,  fear not stranger things have happened before - I saw an article where they had found a whale with legs https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/04/fossil-ancient-four-legged-whale-legs-hooves-discovered   

The Earth has been through this climate change thing before,  I mean all the continents started off as one huge lump with very little water and have been shuffling around ever since,  and they will probably all end up as one big lump in the future,  and then start moving around again...  the latest theory on water on Earth is that it arrived from space - so all we have to do is order some more comets ( giant snowballs ).

[JimSh]

It is about time all the gods and prophets who are supposed to be looking after us frail and sinful creatures got their heads together and had a summit somewhere to sort this out - they can arrive by luxury jet, stay in luxury hotels and eat the best food, Oh wait a minute that is what the frail humans do,  is there a plan B.

I think Darwin is the best bet,  humans will evolve to live in hotter places with less water,  fear not stranger things have happened before - I saw an article where they had found a whale with legs https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/04/fossil-ancient-four-legged-whale-legs-hooves-discovered   

The Earth has been through this climate change thing before,  I mean all the continents started off as one huge lump with very little water and have been shuffling around ever since,  and they will probably all end up as one big lump in the future,  and then start moving around again...  the latest theory on water on Earth is that it arrived from space - so all we have to do is order some more comets ( giant snowballs ).

It is about time the world's leaders took more account of the warnings of the scientists and less of the short term policies of economists and politicians.
The odds against the Earth evolving as it has are astronomical. Why waste such a good thing?
There have been times in the dim and distant past when conditions have been much more extreme than at present but during the last 10,000 years or so since human civilisation has been in existence conditions have been relatively stable.
We have been very lucky but it's time to stop pushing our luck.

[sparky Paul]

I think Darwin is the best bet,  humans will evolve to live in hotter places with less water,  fear not stranger things have happened before - I saw an article where they had found a whale with legs https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/04/fossil-ancient-four-legged-whale-legs-hooves-discovered   

I don't think we will have time to 'evolve' in the Darwin/Wallace sense of the word, we will have to evolve by changing our behaviour.

[Jocko]

We will go the same way as the dinosaurs (they went in a matter of days). The Earth will recover, and some other dominant species will be the next inhabitants. Here's hoping they are not a big @$$es as humans have evolved to be.