Insects - Atmospheric Pesticide Levels - query for data

Insect population declines, are widely reported. And seem obvious on windscreens, here in the UK, and DK. Also reports from far away places, eg Africa seeing declines.

So, a question: "Could the level of insecticides, in the global atmosphere, have achieved gas concentration that is enough to harm/impair/or even kill insects?"

Insecticides such as I wonder, the nerve agents (some quite persistent) with high vapour pressure and hugely toxic to insects (in synthetic pyrethroids; pyrethrins; and organophosphates such as malathion; parathion; dichlorvos; carbamates; phosphine). Or even, perhaps, in neo-nicotinoids (#NEONICS).

A kind colleague, in Cambridge, who measures trace gases thought it was improbable. And observed that it would require (o-o-m) a sample of 200 litres, accumulated by a liquid N2 cold trap, and would be messy/tricky to to get the measurement. So I thought no more.

The marvels of GC-MS, and the ppb levels that might be detected/enumerated, in the sample trapped from 200l would be a possibly interesting exercise. And maybe valuable?

However, other chemicals have achieved rather damaging levels in the atmosphere (and in oceans). One notably caused a large "ozone hole" over Antarctica. And, one might observe, in the days of cold war #MAD there were diagrams of vapour trails across Europe/Eurasia from chemical warfare. But it did not occur to the author, apparently, that actually and inevitably the many 500km-800km "vapour trails" he drew would simply merge, and gas everyone. There might be, on further reflection, similar misappreciations today?

www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2019/february/the-world-s-insect-populations-are-plummeting-everywhere-we-look.html

Climate Justice Politics: some notes

#ClimateJustice politics is, I quote, "in opposition to a failing capitalist system [do you mean an allocation system?/ whatareyougoingtodoinstead?], recognising that such a system is racist, patriarchal, exploitative [yes, but who please is trying to do what? (and who is faking?), mmm, i wonder. And so, please, what is it like in your country / home?] and driven by a logic of imperial ecocide [is it that, in small measure surely, but in extremely large portion it is driven by "it will feed my .." (see below)?]. Through this recognition, climate justice asserts that the victims of capitalism’s oppressions are not going to pay the cost for more of the same."

[This is, in fact AFAICT, a libellous #BlameSomebodyElse / #BlameTheOTHER incitement. As you are (deceived, i imagine) into a #StartAWar strategy. Of someone else, who? While blaming someone else is great to rally the #troops, I suggest it does nothing that will help or address the v v real #problems.]

Development, and Resource Exploitation, Selling or/and Making things, arises from?

• - it will feed my family?
• - it will pay my pension?
• - it will make me rich?

Hence:

• - 380 million tonnes of humans,
• - 470 million tonnes of cattle/like,
• - 140 million tonnes of pigs,
• - 110 million tonnes of sheep/horse/etc,
• - 50 million tonnes of wild mammals,

Source: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/suppl/2018/07/13/1711842115.DC1/1711842115.sapp.pdf

"Climate Justice Politics will be": [it is hoped?]

• #democratic
• #indigenous
• #spiritual
• #africanist
• #popular
• #consciousness to "new" reality
• #solidarity struggles

Which will give the "programmatic mandate", "role", and "orientation", "from the masses" ~ [but whatifwedon'tknow?, or maybe .. ifwedontlike?], being the "social forces" leading to -> "programmatic + mass-based transformation". Which is the "alternative to techno-fixes (nuclear/market)".

"Climate Justice Politics is against":

• NOT !Monopoly [why?: this sounds like you feel "markets" (competing sellers) are sometimes helpful? otherwise this is internally incoherent]
• NOT !ecocidal [yes: we are all wilfully blind, in the extreme, to anything other than own interests, as in ".. it will pay my / etc .."]
• NOT !transnational [bethlehem/bao/peabody?; & demand = i will pay a lot for ../ + #insist and go into #incandescent rage if i don't get it (mmm.. unhh-ohhh!?)]

Some people, I quote, "occlude systemic understandings" [yes indeed: abuse..hurt..deaththreats..murderedfriendsrelatives..+..not-reply/dont-answer] ..who? ..why?

"a Radical Transformation is required in": [yes, absolutely]

• - energy
• - production
• - consumption
• - everyday life

That is "-> #systemic-reforms, in just #deeptransformation"

"Using, through":

• #commons
• #zerowaste [humans, how much waste is intentional, by either consumers or manufacturers? vs incentivised by profit (pay-the-bills/imperative?)]
• #nationalized-utils [= monopolies (in a way!); what will they try to do?]
• #democratic-planning [nimby; status-quo-bias; myopia; distractions; appealing-fantasy's (like this); liars/defectors/cheats (incentives/rewards?)]
• #participatory-budget [experience/tests: bello horizon? above? / .. i'm not sure]

"Not the following, which are failed strategies":

• #greenparty
• #state
• #party

"Based on":

• - democracy
• - values
• - coops
• - education / openscience
• ..
• - food sovereign
• - public ownership/coops [what are they trying to do?]
• - UBI [everybody? .. mmm?]

[it has to be ... ?]

Why would indigenous youth steal CARS?

Theft of cars by youth of the First Nation (indigenous people) was a persistent social feature of life in Western Australia when I lived there. On one occasion, I found I could not drive to work on my first day, as the car had been stolen. They are easy to steal, as you sell more cars that way - and so get a better RoI / salary / working conditions from $GM (errm, this is a perverse incentive: why no action?). The young people (indigenous) who stole it were caught by the police and prosecuted (and fined AU$50, if I remember, if it was paid, if they could pay it), and I got the car back with some good beach towels in it. They must have been going to the beach.

A friend's much smarter large car was stolen (by local indigenous youths) for such "joy-riding" that the gearbox later burnt out.

At one time in Perth some police were believed to have been assassinating (mostly indigenous) joy-riders, by contriving high-speed chases such that the youth indulging in the chase with police crashed. They did not wear seatbelts. Some police also died while car racing (once when racing from the beach to King's Park, in amazing time but sadly hit a tree, the car broke in half).

Some white male's with extremely limited cognitive capacity, like others, do the same and spend lengthy periods in jail. Only to steal vehicles again and again on release. (In cases reported by #ABCradio).

Why do they steal cars? What "meaning", "identity" and "satisfaction" do they get from it: adverts (and "placement" eg Rebel Without A Cause (James Dean)); instincts (for autonomy, capability, status); peers; leaders (role models)?

A cultural practice, known as "Bog Lapping", may also be noteworthy, among (mostly young) men - often of minority ethnic background and the industrial workforce (could i venture "working class", as as far as I know it was not an elite* practice). In which the males drove slowly around and around the block in front of cafe's in the port of Fremantle and Kwinana. In "sporty" (embellished) cars that were often very loud, powerful, and fairly fast (within of course the constraints, of a primates reaction time, and motor-coordination abilities). Sometimes accompanied by young ladies, and-or getting their attention.

Panel vans with a 'bed' fitted in the rear, were very popular among the same in Hobart at one time. A symbol of great status (and mating opportunity, one might venture).

It may be of interest that "bog lapping" (and all similar, or details) is a PROSCRIBED search term (for which "DogFood" results are returned), about which no information - a complete blank in terms of knowledge - is returned (to me?), for some reason. Why, who (cosy auto corruption, maybe)?

* The elite seem to indulge in #spaceflight and #gulfstream (?) "fantasies"

#Solidarity with the #men of #StanmoreHouse

Families: Relatives and Joys

Some observations:

In 1999 my mother, because she viewed what I had been doing negatively and because she thought (?) that the following would 'help' or 'correct' it, punched me hard with a clenched fist on the chest - repeatedly. So I restrained her by grabbing her wrists forcefully. Which bruised them. She reported this.

• So I became classified as a "VIOLENT" offender

Which led to [things]

Money

When my sister died (of the same cancer that got John McCain), in an argument over payments/getting-money/for-who/etc, my mother kicked my father (violently) on the shins.

• The steeley-eyed MacMillan nurses (witnesses) advised him to report it and prosecute her
• Many years later, when my mother punched me again repeatedly and bit me (drawing blood), I really hurt her (wounded a foot/brokebones-or-toretendons), saying "you think violence is funny?"

In great desperation, and in great indignation, a while back, needing a somewhere to live my mother said:

• "I wish I had had an #abortion when I had you!!!"
• She really meant it. And was spitting in anger. (But not violent. ... mmm?).

Mercifully she later found a nice flat, as she/I/and my-Elders all had agreed would be best.

Almost every one of the sad-and-serious arguments/fights/resentment/righteous-indignation and not-speaking/disowning among the family have been about money/resources.

Right-to-die?

My sister, with terminal cancer, became distressed at one point and felt she should "have the right" to kill herself (or be able to pay/comission someone to kill her). She got very impassioned about the "right to die", and wrote a fiery piece, which was published in the THES. However, the assisted suicide was not permitted (at the time?), and afterwards she actually took (used/accepted/and-demanded) every single treatment option/possibility that existed at the time (including a brain surgery), and had 3 years of a really high quality (including sailing on yacht to Majorca). After she died, I wrote a little article "by-the-way: she took all the cures/and had 'very happy years of life', after all those things she'd said about her (and the) 'right-to-die'" but the THES editor chose not to publish it. He did not even reply to me, so I said he was just a "murdering bum". #WDYR?

Sex

When I was a teenager, after [X] I came to think it would be fun/good to have sex (rape) another sister. Mercifully, a little observation someone commented to me entirely short-circuited (cancelled/ceased) this unfortunate intention.

Prevention

A conversation could save all sorts of things, or even a life. SEE, SAY, SIGNPOST ... – it’s well worth talking about

Later..

My mom is very dear too me, and I #love her dearly, as she does me.

Just because "she said", or "they said", ... what?

What is Going on: Ecosystem or Economy? (we need the ecosystem..)

In a letter in the Cambridge Independent last year - which was truthful and factual - however (for what I guess must be good reasons) the (rabid/gibberish) response, that they chose to publish, libelled-insulted-and-belittled-me. But, as local colleagues chose not to help with legal action, I gave up on the matter (as I imagined that I must have got it wrong).

But, just now, a few other emails (on 'talk-meetings' / 'protest' / 'green') prompt me to think that maybe the silence is unhelpful. (And that the libel in the paper was perhaps from Dark Forces / Misguided).

It was clear in Perth (WA) that the prawns we caught would soon die off from Lawn Fertiliser (in the 1980's) and that watering Lawn's was utter madness (in a low rainfall area). As is the suicidal use in 2020 of: oil/gas (14.4 kgoilgas/cap/day = 15.5 tCO2/cap/yr + NOx); 600 kg/cap/yr steel (or 8 kg/coal/cap/day = 6 tCO2/cap/yr + NOx); and the 37.9 kg of offal totally wasted (?/afaik) each year per person in the UK. The shocking inequities in this consumption (which is utterly pointless waste, arising from perverse incentives, afaik?), and destruction of habitat, is something that perhaps would merit more realism.

But, when I suggested a photo essay (the allotted per capita per year barrel/s of oil_eq/sacks-grain/pulses/veg-oil/sides-animals/tanks-water/steel/plastic/bricks/appliances/cars, in EU/Aus/NAm and Sri Lanka/Kerala), and got no response, I imagined that it must be a bad idea.

There is Piketty (untrue anyway, but also it's only 'wealth' ie/tokens..), which is important in what people think, but may have little impact on people's aspirations. (Consider: 'if you are in a bus age 35, you can count yourself a failure': as Margaret Thatcher said in 1986, Hansard). Which are also notably absent from the media and debate. And from our local planning (the spec of our footprint parameters, fixed up until 2040 at least: everyone commuting 10 miles each way per day, for eg, stone age construction (?), etc).

The prawns (migratory) have long since died off from that place (?). Every house in Perth still has a lawn, supplied from fossil water and gas-powered desalination.

Liquor (booze) is a huge part of our retail economy, and many others...

We talk about these, like talking about it is a meaningful activity. In 'party meetings', 'media debates', 'protests', 'speeches', 'letters', 'greenpeace/friends-of-the-earth/msf/xr', parliament and the UN/etc. But the prawn situation was absolutely obvious, and nothing was done. (So the green party (and greenpeace/etc) was a waste of time! Or was it worse?). But what happened / actions speak loud.

What do you advise? I can't understand.

Secretary of the Interior, UCLA, 1971? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH1cZwSkc94

"We found 1.5 trillion barrells of oil" (1971)
Oil guy: "Let's burn it all!"

Mass Delusions: Insanity?

How does it come about that people believe, and act upon, destructive mass delusions?

We're social primates with strong (and instinctive/primal/programmed) social hierarchies, bonding and behaviours. Including automatic division in "them" and "us", common cognitions, and symbols thereof. In the celebration of the Chinese Communist Party's 100th anniversary everbody placed the four digits of each hand carefully on their knees. In the USA President's inauguration everyone had had their teeth whitened.

In religions mass delusions, sometimes abominable/sometimes very helpful with great adaptive benefits, are common. Social bonding and empathy/committment, expressed and reinforced through accepting delusions in common. Or "those hills are haunted by evil spirits" [They have high levels of accumulating/toxic heavy metal ores].

In the Boer War the British came to believe that they could impose upon on the Boer commandos.

In Afghanistan the USA/NATO/Russia fought wars from the belief that they could do the same.

In the French Revolution of 1789 and in the revolutions of 1848, all across Europe, people/leaders came to believe they would benefit by overthrowing the existing order.

Many people, including decision makers, came to believe that overthrowing Saddam Hussein, Muammar Ghaddafi and Ali Saleh, or attempting to overthrow Bashar Assad, would do good.

Where do these madnesses come from?

#MoreInCommon, #WhatDoYouWant?

THE UK CARBON FOOTPRINT AND GLOBAL HEATING

To achieve sustainable levels of global heating, humanity has to reduce its' "Carbon Footprint" - which is measured in "tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents" (that is heating equivalents) or tCO2eq's per year. These are well established, since 1896 and earlier. And, for the heating equivalents, we now have "budgets", for 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, or for 1.5 deg C of global warming. Set in billions of tonnes of CO2eq that we can afford to add to the atmosphere, to achieve those levels of heating.

Since I was born in 1961, the heating layer has gone from 318 ppm to 419 ppm today. So the "heating layer" - or concentration of CO2 - the main heating gas - has gone up by a third. Thus already achieving climatic records every year, and almost 1 deg C of global average heating. Hotter atmospheres carry more water.

Personally - I have a relatively efficient, small and well insulated home - so I use only 1000kWh of electricity and 3500 kWh of gas pp/yr. Or, in other words, 1.0 tonnes of CO2eq (at current emission factors). Plus 2.1 tonnes for my food (as I don't really eat beef/lamb* and I often have beans or soya). My footprint does however include around another 3 tCO2eq at work (owing to a very draughty Victorian building that, for most occupants, is too-hot and too-cold). But, I don't own a car and haven't flown anywhere for 9 years.

By contrast the averages, per person, for the UK are nearly 3 tonnes for gas+electricity, 5 tonnes for food (with over 3 tCO2eq for the average beef/lamb consumption alone), 3.6 tCO2eq/yr for a car, and over 1.5 tCO2eq for a short overseas holiday.

However according to the World Bank, looking at national boundary emissions, UK emissions in 2016 were only 7.1 tCO2eq per capita per year, whereas, according to what I compiled (above) from good sources, our footprint is more like 11-13 tCO2eq/cap/yr. So really, unless I am very much mistaken, we must "offshore" a lot of our emissions, in food/ manufactures/ and holidays.

*An excellent summary of food emissions may be found at www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714
**Published in "Place Matters, Issue 22, July 2020, DP-URC, Cambridge".