Three Times Denied?

This weekend many of you will be celebrating the annual festival of Easter - when we commemorate the point at which our nation traditionally goes into ecological debt - consuming beyond our means and damning us and the rest of the planet to a joyful future of instability, expensively shagged soils and dry taps. We celebrate this with over-packaged chocolate eggs to demonstrate that we are blessed with the requisite amount of kiddy-friendly blind faith, and that we really couldn't give a toss.

The prognosis is poor, and we don't have time to "rinky-dink" with half-arsed, poorly financed quarter-measures.

Some folk would have us believe that what we need is to wait for the same people who got us into this mess - respectable, wealthy folks in nice suits - to come up with a new visionary realism that supersedes the green agenda and saves us at the last minute without upsetting anybody. And if they fail? Well, after 3 days we shall rise again....

We are steeped in messianic, exceptionalist thinking.

But on a brighter note - check out Kate Evans' new revamped website for a host of comic goodies.

Cognitive Malfunction

Our closest cousins show definite signs of being... well... our closest cousins, while the Heartland Jamboree keeps churning out the misinformation. There's a lot of it about

I'm not sure whether I'm contravening RealClimate's "Advice to Climate Bloggers" number 6, or adhering to number 13 here. It's a complex situation

Oh, and this story sums us up nicely, don't you think?

Where has all the imaginary money GONE?

Ern is misquoting the Anti-Growth Fetishist Clive Hamilton

They deregulated everything they could get their hands on and used numbers plucked from the air to pump lusts and fictions into every aspect of a globalised world economy. They did away with society and promised us big houses and big bucks and the moon on a stick. They called everybody who questioned their rationale communists, terrorist sympathisers or fools. They made collectivists feel like shit and psychopaths feel like kings. They wouldn't buy my cartoons. They took control of everything and dominated global politics for a generation. "NO BIG GOVERNMENT" was their battle cry (oh how we laughed!)
Can we perhaps do some tinkering now please.

Maybe our tendency, as a species, to seek a dominant (usually male) individual to take all the risks and act as a fulcrum that determines everyone's status extends to our devotion to creed. We seem to throw our lot in entirely with ideologies that have almost no sense in them at all beyond the narrow boundaries of the class or caste that created them. This One God bollocks hasn't helped. I mean -really? One? That's just asking for trouble.


I wonder if we're ready for democracy yet? You know the gig - everybody engaged and on top of their game as active citizens instead of cow-eyed, shopaholic tossers desperate for (please God) just ONE MORE year of (perpetual, star-crazed, lazy arsed, wank-wracked) adolescence.

Obviously, just because the financial elite are now shown to be as incompetent and corrupt as any other elite anywhere, ever, it doesn't mean the revolution is just around the corner, or that capitalism is about to throw in the towel. It's dug in too deep in our collective psyche. But let's surf the irony to a slightly better place, shall we`?

The Fictitious Economy

Introducing Mrs Ebola Congleton - promoted beyond her capabilities into a pivotal role near you, today.



The meltdown continues. As the faithful wonder how all this could possibly have happened, the rest of us wonder how it lasted this long. "I told you so" is such an ugly phrase. The deluded continue to argue amongst themselves about the price of defending capitalism and the cost of a Damien Hirst. Suddenly FDR is everywhere and we're all supposed to pretend that the entire business and financial elite haven't totally f*cked up.

Guillemots are killing each other's chicks as fish stocks collapse (Aaah - they're almost human, you know);The UK gov't tries to wheedle out of its responsibilities on emissions reduction;while the broadcasters concentrate on the US, Cuba and Haiti are devastated by hurricanes caused by the habits of their wealthy neighbour.

It seems the value of money is inextricably tied up in the subjectivity of the rich. As the wealthy flee the field the financial institutions go tits-up, leaving the poor to pick up the bill. As they keep telling us - it's all about business confidence. What a wonderful foundation for a global civilisation. How stable. How secure.

There'll be a lot of arguing over shifting numbers before the realisation hits that's it's actually the principles that have been miscalculated.

Economic Creationism

These things don't always lend themselves to pithy strips.
I'm getting increasingly alarmed, depressed and generally pissed off by the rise of creationism as some sort of "alternative science" that deserves to be considered by sensible people and even taught to our children. Perhaps we should consider teaching Erik von Daniken as well, or maybe Terry Pratchet. It's turtles all the way down, you know. I suppose it's not surprising - seeing as our entire economic system - and therefore our culture - is based on a fairytale that flies in the face of reason. Specifically - Why do we believe we can prize an infinite amount from a finite resource and grow our economies exponentially in perpetuity? Because we want to. Because it's easier to believe that than to face the realities of our situation and because it upsets people to think otherwise. So Bollocks to physics, biology and climatology. They're too difficult. Give us Super Heroes and Father Christmas. Give us cornucopia and abracadabra.
The fact that we persist in this doublethunk mindf*ck under our present economic management - with banks going tits-up left, right and centre - is a remarkable testament to our "faith"

The idea was to seamlessly plait these two threads into irrefutable comic gold. The evidence may point in another direction but, in the spirit of the age, I shall choose to believe I succeeded.


And finally...
Many thanks to Andrew Revkin for pointing readers of his (and the New York Times') DotEarth in our direction. Much appreciated