This blog posting represents the views of the author, David Fosberry. Those opinions may change over time. They do not constitute an expert legal or financial opinion.

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Our Love Affair With Plastics Will Kill Us.

Posted on 7th March 2024

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This article on Science Alert reports on a small study conducted in Italy which showed microplastics in "more than 50% of plaques from clogged arteries".

The article also reminds us that microplastics are now found in human placentas.

"In the study, patients with microplastics in their excised plaques were twice as likely to have experienced a stroke, non-fatal heart attack or died from any cause after 34 months than people who had no detectable microplastics in the plaques that surgeons had removed."

We desperately need to find a way to manage without plastics. That, however, will not be enough - we need to start getting plastics out of our environment. If we don't, we are likely to start seeing spikes in health problems, including death, due to plastic getting into our bodies.

Rich People Are The Cause Of Our Environmental Problems.

Posted on 26th November 2023

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The argument that rich people are causing disproportionate environmental problems is proven by these two articles:

  • Barron's reports that the world's richest 1% emit as much carbon as the poorest two-thirds of the population. This is extreme, and there are growing calls for progressive tax rates for richer people to redress the balance.
  • Making the same point more personally and explicitly is this report on Reckon News, about 7 rich and powerful people who sacrificed the environment (our environment!) for wealth and power. The list of 7 people contains all the usual suspects (except, surprisingly, Elon Musk); the unusual member of the list is US Democratic senator Joe Manchin, who is not super rich like the others, but who has repeatedly blocked environmental initiatives in the USA because of the dependence of his constituency on coal mining.

If the richest 1% are creating the same carbon emissions as the poorest 67%, then we can solve the climate crisis just by forcing them to cut their emissions by half. It won't solve the problem overnight, but it will eventually.

People who control so much of the world's wealth have, anyway, a duty to take the lead in saving or planet; when those same people are directly responsible for causing the environmental crisis in the first place, it is time to force them to do the right thing.

The Amazon May Be Dying.

Posted on 15th October 2023

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This BBC report shows the parlous state of the Amazon river, one of the largest in the world, with many shocking photos.

The Amazon river provides food, water and transportation for many people living on and near to the river.

If the river dies, then the Amazon rainforest, already severely reduced and degraded, will also die. That would be the beginning of the end for our world.

More On Societal Collapse.

Posted on 1st October 2023

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This report on inews describes one climate scientist's view that society will completely collapse by 2050. He is so convinced of this that he has made preparations, including relocating his family and making his home proof against some of the consequences of such a collapse.

I have written several posts about societal collapse in this thread of this blog: in summary, everything from law enforcement and government services, though supplies of food and water, to the banking system are likely to fail.

One of the things that I and others have predicted is major water shortages, resulting in wars over access to water. Such problems are precisely what is going on in France right now, as reported here on Foreign Policy. Several parts of the USA have, or recently had, severe water shortages, with tensions between private consumers, industry and agriculture; between government and native American tribes; between different states in the USA; and between the USA and Mexico (over the usage of water from the Colorado River). There are water shortages all across Europe. The Panama canal has so little water that traffic through the canal has been limited, which is impacting availability and prices of internationally traded food.

On the financial side, the Daily Mail reports "staggering losses" by a gold-plated pension scheme. There have been bank collapses this year in the USA. Some nation's currencies have major problems; the Turkish Lira, for example, is in free-fall. There is enormous international concern because of some company collapses (e.g. Evergrande) in China (once an economic powerhouse).

Bearing all the above in mind, total societal collapse by 2050 seems somewhat optimistic. The early stages are happening now.

Earth Overshoot Day Shows Just How Screwed We Are.

Posted on 7th August 2023

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Electrek reports statistics about Earth Overshoot. These are statistic of which I was previously unaware, but really bring home how badly we have messed up.

Earth Overshoot Day Graph

Earth Overshoot Day is the day in each year by which we have used up 100% of the resources that become available each year, and is currently the 2nd of August, but getting earlier each year. Another way of looking at this is that each year we are currently using 170% of the resources that the earth provides each year: clean air and water, forest products, fertile soil, pollination, fisheries, land use, etc. The graph to the right puts that all into focus.

In other words, we are living on an overdraft. This obviously cannot continue.

Dishonesty from the pesticide industry

Posted on 10th July 2014

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This BBC story is worrying enough anyway, but highlights some downright dishonesty by Bayer, the maker of Imidacloprid (a Neonicotinoid pesticide).

A Bayer spokesman said "Neonicotinoids have gone through an extensive risk assessment which has shown that they are safe to the environment ...".

No, Mr. spokesman, that is not what science does; science cannot do that. Science can show that some things are not safe. In the absence of proof that things are not safe, it is assumed that they are safe, but being safe is not proven. Recent history is littered with examples of things that were assumed to be safe, but were later shown to be unsafe (DDT and Agent Orange are a couple of notorious examples). Many medicines that were tested (in extensive clinical trials) and used to treat patients, were later withdrawn because they were shown to be dangerous (due to side-effects) or simply ineffective.

The pharmaceutical and pesticide industries are science based, and I find it hard to believe that companies. like Bayer, in these industries do not understand what science can and cannot do: the difference between not proving something is unsafe, and proving that it is safe. So, how about a bit more honesty from such companies? Otherwise the public will start to think you are as bad as Big Tobacco.