A company will often float itself on the stockmarket to raise capital for its ventures. People can buy a share in that company if they believe that the company in question is going to increase its value. Tesco supermarket chain is one such company, with many corporate and private share holders. When some of those share holders are farmers and other exploited workers then things get interesting.
Yesterday Tesco held its annual shareholder AGM. It's chief executive was hoping for a small bonus of a mere £11 million but got something else instead. Complaints of exploitation of workers. A South African fruit picker who supplies Tesco complained of low wages and the need to beg and borrow even after doing business with one of the world's largest supermarkets. Textile workers from Bangladesh who make cheap clothes for Tesco complained that they don't receive a living wage.
The truth is that when a supermarket boasts about passing on low prices to its customers someone has to pay for them. You might feel good about yourself when saving 2 pennies on a pint of milk but a dairy farmer is struggling to survive. That cheap pair of jeans you just bought was made in the Far East by someone with rags on their back and a half-empty stomach. Meanwhile the real savings, which run into millions end up in the pockets of one or two people. Is that fair?
Guardian - Tesco rocked by shareholders' revolt
What happens when growth stops?
Our economies can't grow forever. That would require an infinite number of people consuming an infinite amount of resources. More often than not people consume using debt. Live for today. Pay tomorrow. US consumer debt is over $2.5 trillion. Borrowing has become too easy. Banks virtually give money away in the hope that we grow the wealth to pay it back.
We, as good little corporate drones, are expected to go out, rape the world of its resources and generate wealth to pay off debt. That is how economies grow. It's like gambling in reverse. You are given the winnings and are then expected to put your life on black 13 and hope the ball drops into your cup.
Our economies have grown wealthy chiefly on one resource, oil. Without which we couldn't get at other resources. Our factories would not be as productive. Other oil based products unheard of. Transportation of goods not as easy. Marketing harder without factory made televisions. We would not have industrial scale farming to produce more food than an acre of land could normally produce. Without that food we would have less corporate drones shuffling to work to pay off the debt.
Oil won't run out as such. It will just get harder and more expensive to find. We will then have to find something else to run our economies on. However, nothing does like oil does. That black liquid has high energy density and is easy to transport around the globe. It cracks into so many different products like petrol, diesel, heating oil and the many other chemicals for the petro-chemical industry. So many products either need oil to be made or have oil-derived ingredients. You move around with oil. You wear oil. You eat oil. We are dependent on it
When the US and the EU find themselves competing with rapidly developing China and India there just won't be enough oil to go round. The number of oil rigs and oil refineries is not growing to meet demand because it would add to the price of oil thus destroying demand for the oil. Therefore there is no rig/refinery growth. A consequence of peak oil.
With not enough oil to go round our economies will begin to stutter and people won't be able to earn the money to pay off their debts. Governments will have fewer income tax and corporate tax monies and it won't have that oil cash cow with which to raise taxes to bail themselves out and pay off national debt. We are therefore looking at the entire globe defaulting on its debt.
Peak oil. Peak growth. Peak lifestyle.
We, as good little corporate drones, are expected to go out, rape the world of its resources and generate wealth to pay off debt. That is how economies grow. It's like gambling in reverse. You are given the winnings and are then expected to put your life on black 13 and hope the ball drops into your cup.
Our economies have grown wealthy chiefly on one resource, oil. Without which we couldn't get at other resources. Our factories would not be as productive. Other oil based products unheard of. Transportation of goods not as easy. Marketing harder without factory made televisions. We would not have industrial scale farming to produce more food than an acre of land could normally produce. Without that food we would have less corporate drones shuffling to work to pay off the debt.
Oil won't run out as such. It will just get harder and more expensive to find. We will then have to find something else to run our economies on. However, nothing does like oil does. That black liquid has high energy density and is easy to transport around the globe. It cracks into so many different products like petrol, diesel, heating oil and the many other chemicals for the petro-chemical industry. So many products either need oil to be made or have oil-derived ingredients. You move around with oil. You wear oil. You eat oil. We are dependent on it
When the US and the EU find themselves competing with rapidly developing China and India there just won't be enough oil to go round. The number of oil rigs and oil refineries is not growing to meet demand because it would add to the price of oil thus destroying demand for the oil. Therefore there is no rig/refinery growth. A consequence of peak oil.
With not enough oil to go round our economies will begin to stutter and people won't be able to earn the money to pay off their debts. Governments will have fewer income tax and corporate tax monies and it won't have that oil cash cow with which to raise taxes to bail themselves out and pay off national debt. We are therefore looking at the entire globe defaulting on its debt.
Peak oil. Peak growth. Peak lifestyle.
Two-thirds of the world's people to live in cities
And the best of luck to them. I for one, won't be. Whenever I hear utopians talking about their brave new urban world I can't help but think of Ridley Scott's interpretation in Blade Runner. A squalid heaving mass of people. Soylent Green also comes to mind with the masses eating industrial food, the contents of which you would prefer not to know.
The UN Population Fund talks about "Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth". Why? So everyone can have their bit of squalor. Can work as slaves for the corporations. To live brutal lifestyles where one's only task is to be marketed at and to consume so that the elite can take the cream off the top and hide in their gated villages well away from the rest of us.
Food doesn't grow itself. Neither does it harvest, pack and transport itself. And if the oil-based energy, fertiliser, pesticide and herbicide isn't as available in the future then there are going to be a lot of hungry mouths in those mega-cities.
BBC - One in two 'will live in cities'
The UN Population Fund talks about "Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth". Why? So everyone can have their bit of squalor. Can work as slaves for the corporations. To live brutal lifestyles where one's only task is to be marketed at and to consume so that the elite can take the cream off the top and hide in their gated villages well away from the rest of us.
Food doesn't grow itself. Neither does it harvest, pack and transport itself. And if the oil-based energy, fertiliser, pesticide and herbicide isn't as available in the future then there are going to be a lot of hungry mouths in those mega-cities.
BBC - One in two 'will live in cities'
Royal green
Prince Charles has found himself in the news twice today. First he has been showing his estate's green credentials by converting some of his vast fleet of vehicles to vegetable oil fuel.
He has reduced his carbon emissions to 3425 tonnes of carbon per annum. About 3424 tonnes more than myself but then I don't own Cornwall.
In another story, we hear that Sainsburys supermarket chain has dropped Prince Charles as an organic food supplier. Apparently, the Prince's carrots were going off in transit. Sainsburys don't quite get the meaning of local food and were transporting the carrots hundreds of miles to be cleaned in their carrot washing machine, by which time they were past their prime.
Supermarkets will never be able to sell local food with their current insistence on centralised distribution centres. So their ranges of organic and local foodstuffs is just a marketing con. What else can I say but grow your own or buy from your local farmer.
Reuters - Prince Charles shows off carbon footprint
Guardian - Sainsbury's giant carrot washer, and the rejected royal roots
He has reduced his carbon emissions to 3425 tonnes of carbon per annum. About 3424 tonnes more than myself but then I don't own Cornwall.
In another story, we hear that Sainsburys supermarket chain has dropped Prince Charles as an organic food supplier. Apparently, the Prince's carrots were going off in transit. Sainsburys don't quite get the meaning of local food and were transporting the carrots hundreds of miles to be cleaned in their carrot washing machine, by which time they were past their prime.
Supermarkets will never be able to sell local food with their current insistence on centralised distribution centres. So their ranges of organic and local foodstuffs is just a marketing con. What else can I say but grow your own or buy from your local farmer.
Reuters - Prince Charles shows off carbon footprint
Guardian - Sainsbury's giant carrot washer, and the rejected royal roots
It's your mess, deal with it
Personally, I am glad to see an incinerator planned for building in Dublin. As usual there are NIMBY objectors to the plan. It's Dublin's waste and as such should not be dumped on other people. Landfill sites are near full so incineration is the only option.
The incinerator will generate electricity from the heat. The North Wall power station is set for closure so if Dubliners still want to enjoy switch flicking then an incinerator it is.
If people managed their waste more carefully then there would be a lot less waste. After sorting out glass, metal and recyclable plastics there is very little waste remaining. Food scraps go on the compost heap. Once a month, a little pile of rubbish the size a bucket is burnt. How hard is that?
RTÉ - International consortium to build incinerator
The incinerator will generate electricity from the heat. The North Wall power station is set for closure so if Dubliners still want to enjoy switch flicking then an incinerator it is.
If people managed their waste more carefully then there would be a lot less waste. After sorting out glass, metal and recyclable plastics there is very little waste remaining. Food scraps go on the compost heap. Once a month, a little pile of rubbish the size a bucket is burnt. How hard is that?
RTÉ - International consortium to build incinerator
Water, water, everywhere
But none of it potable. California is suffering its driest year since 1877. They may even have to stop watering their 100+ golf courses with drinking water. Really?
Keywords; overpopulation and unsustainable lifestyles.
Guardian - Scarce water and population boom leads California to 'perfect drought'
Keywords; overpopulation and unsustainable lifestyles.
Guardian - Scarce water and population boom leads California to 'perfect drought'
The end for US cars?
US cars and SUVS are going to have to travel 35 mpg by 2020 whether the US motor companies like it or not.
It seems to me that the reason why US car manufacturers are in such dire straights is because they don't understand the modern world. They still have the "big is beautiful" and "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality. This leaves the average American struggling to keep an inefficient gas guzzler on the road.
Meanwhile, those of us in the rest of the world are driving our "sub-compacts" (which I believe is a car that obese people can't drive). Ours cars have smaller engines ( I recently bought one with a 1.1 litre engine). Often European car engines are diesels, which are more efficient.
If the US car manufacturers wakeup in time then they might actually be selling 35 mpg cars in 2020. Otherwise, you can "nip" down to your imported car dealer. More likely though, I see the bill being watered down or forgotten.
Guardian - Senate votes for first rise in car fuel standard in 32 years
It seems to me that the reason why US car manufacturers are in such dire straights is because they don't understand the modern world. They still have the "big is beautiful" and "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality. This leaves the average American struggling to keep an inefficient gas guzzler on the road.
Meanwhile, those of us in the rest of the world are driving our "sub-compacts" (which I believe is a car that obese people can't drive). Ours cars have smaller engines ( I recently bought one with a 1.1 litre engine). Often European car engines are diesels, which are more efficient.
If the US car manufacturers wakeup in time then they might actually be selling 35 mpg cars in 2020. Otherwise, you can "nip" down to your imported car dealer. More likely though, I see the bill being watered down or forgotten.
Guardian - Senate votes for first rise in car fuel standard in 32 years
Update
I pulled up a lettuce today, my first crop of the year. It will look lovely wedged between two chicken burgers and a chile. I also pulled up a carrot to show to a friend who came round to buy my trailer. Yes, that lovely trailer I renovated earlier in the year is now gone. Couldn't resist selling it for a small profit. I'll no doubt find another abandoned trailer in a ditch somewhere soon. I have a buyer for the boat trailer too and someone looking for a buyer for my boat.
I see myself living further inland so a boat is not required. I am selling off all the 20th/21st century detritus I have accumulated in the past. My 36-inch widescreen TV with satellite dish and DVD player are sold too. I still have a collection of DVDs and intend ripping them to a storage device so I can sell the discs. Instead of a TV I have a beaten up laptop and a small (easily concealable) TV receiver. No TV licence for me!
Once I have all the cash together I shall be re-allocating my assets. I am considering a bond, gold and small cash mix. When it comes to peak oil, overpopulation, political instability and economic downturn I am very much a pessimist. Nutter too, if you like. But forewarned is forearmed.
I have learnt many new skills since I left the corporate world four years ago. Full of confidence in my ability to cope with whatever the world has to throw at this former 'townie'. With the majority of people on this planet being townies now, it is only a matter of time before Mother Nature gives us up as a lost cause.
I see myself living further inland so a boat is not required. I am selling off all the 20th/21st century detritus I have accumulated in the past. My 36-inch widescreen TV with satellite dish and DVD player are sold too. I still have a collection of DVDs and intend ripping them to a storage device so I can sell the discs. Instead of a TV I have a beaten up laptop and a small (easily concealable) TV receiver. No TV licence for me!
Once I have all the cash together I shall be re-allocating my assets. I am considering a bond, gold and small cash mix. When it comes to peak oil, overpopulation, political instability and economic downturn I am very much a pessimist. Nutter too, if you like. But forewarned is forearmed.
I have learnt many new skills since I left the corporate world four years ago. Full of confidence in my ability to cope with whatever the world has to throw at this former 'townie'. With the majority of people on this planet being townies now, it is only a matter of time before Mother Nature gives us up as a lost cause.
Freeganism
A contraction of the words Free and Veganism. Some are not happy with only refusing to eat meat because of the unsustainable nature of industrialised meat production. In addition they try not to be a part of the industrial/corporate world by dumpster diving. They re-use other peoples' perfectly adequate waste.
Be it old furniture, clothes or food that is only just past its sell-by date. It all gets re-used. Today I was reading an article in the New York Times about a group of Freegans in an article entitled Not Buying It
It has me thinking about my next steps. Though I have downsized an awful lot since my days in London, I believe I can take it further. Coming up to the half-year point, I have only spent 2200 euros (about $3000 or £1500).
With the tourist season in full-swing I might spend a few months blending in amongst the tourists with a tent. I shall be vacating this house in three weeks time and will be travelling around Ireland and Northern Spain to see what is on offer by way of land.
I have been mortgage, debt and credit free for five years. I have my health, a big belly of home-grown food, the interest on a healthy bank account and no suit to associate me with my corporate past.
Be it old furniture, clothes or food that is only just past its sell-by date. It all gets re-used. Today I was reading an article in the New York Times about a group of Freegans in an article entitled Not Buying It
It has me thinking about my next steps. Though I have downsized an awful lot since my days in London, I believe I can take it further. Coming up to the half-year point, I have only spent 2200 euros (about $3000 or £1500).
With the tourist season in full-swing I might spend a few months blending in amongst the tourists with a tent. I shall be vacating this house in three weeks time and will be travelling around Ireland and Northern Spain to see what is on offer by way of land.
I have been mortgage, debt and credit free for five years. I have my health, a big belly of home-grown food, the interest on a healthy bank account and no suit to associate me with my corporate past.
Why do I do it?
"What are you, a tree hugger?" I love planting trees but not to hug them. It's the cutting down of trees that I love because I can burn them for free heat. That's why I plant trees. Replacements for those I have burnt
"You look silly on that scooter! What do you have against cars?" I don't like spending money on petrol and making fat oil men fatter still.
"Why plant food in the ground? I can buy anything I want at the supermarket." Ah but it doesn't taste like mine and the seeds only cost me 10 euros for the year. That amount of money wouldn't buy me a week's worth of vegetables.
The common thread here is my lack of wasting money. It took hard work gathering the money so I am none to keen on frittering it away. Going to work and earning money is not something I enjoy so I don't do it anymore. I don't like working for a salary because as I have said before, waged and salaried people never get paid the full value of their labour.
People are lazy and love having others do for them what they think they can't do for themselves. Look at all those bills. Wouldn't you rather spend all that money on yourself rather than wasting it on middlemen? Be more self-reliant, save for a rainy day.
"You look silly on that scooter! What do you have against cars?" I don't like spending money on petrol and making fat oil men fatter still.
"Why plant food in the ground? I can buy anything I want at the supermarket." Ah but it doesn't taste like mine and the seeds only cost me 10 euros for the year. That amount of money wouldn't buy me a week's worth of vegetables.
The common thread here is my lack of wasting money. It took hard work gathering the money so I am none to keen on frittering it away. Going to work and earning money is not something I enjoy so I don't do it anymore. I don't like working for a salary because as I have said before, waged and salaried people never get paid the full value of their labour.
People are lazy and love having others do for them what they think they can't do for themselves. Look at all those bills. Wouldn't you rather spend all that money on yourself rather than wasting it on middlemen? Be more self-reliant, save for a rainy day.
The joys of scootering
I spent the last two weeks scootering with a snapped throttle cable. It was temporarily repaired when I connected a piece of mains cable to the end of the throttle cable. I was able to loop it over my thumb and accelerate the scooter. Hurt like hell though.
A spares dealer was tracked down on the Internet and a new cable purchased. It came in two parts as the single cable from the throttle has to split in two. One linkage to the carburettor and another to the 2-stroke oil pump. That made installation easier as only the single cable to the throttle had snapped. I didn't have to replace the linkages to the engine and pump so I left them alone.
I prefer two-wheeled transport as the vehicles are simple to repair. I don't need a workshop full of fancy tools. Nor do I need copious manuals on the fine points of each anonymous component. Having been a bicycle racer in my youth, I learnt how to maintain my cycle and a scooter is just a cycle with a simple engine. There is so much added complexity on today's cars that I wouldn't know where to begin.
I get better mileage from two-wheels than any car can provide. The only time I would use a car is when pulling a trailer. Also two-wheeled vehicles are not covered by the NCT (National Car Test). It should be called the National Con Tax. It's just a way of keeping car spares dealers wealthy and getting old cars off the road so car dealers can sell you their latest cash sink.
By using my scooter as much as possible I can ensure that for the 1 day in 730, when the government insists my car is in tip top condition, it does not fail the NCT. So far this year I have spent 80 euros on petrol and 300 euros on spares, taxes and insurance. Big oil won't get rich with me!
A spares dealer was tracked down on the Internet and a new cable purchased. It came in two parts as the single cable from the throttle has to split in two. One linkage to the carburettor and another to the 2-stroke oil pump. That made installation easier as only the single cable to the throttle had snapped. I didn't have to replace the linkages to the engine and pump so I left them alone.
I prefer two-wheeled transport as the vehicles are simple to repair. I don't need a workshop full of fancy tools. Nor do I need copious manuals on the fine points of each anonymous component. Having been a bicycle racer in my youth, I learnt how to maintain my cycle and a scooter is just a cycle with a simple engine. There is so much added complexity on today's cars that I wouldn't know where to begin.
I get better mileage from two-wheels than any car can provide. The only time I would use a car is when pulling a trailer. Also two-wheeled vehicles are not covered by the NCT (National Car Test). It should be called the National Con Tax. It's just a way of keeping car spares dealers wealthy and getting old cars off the road so car dealers can sell you their latest cash sink.
By using my scooter as much as possible I can ensure that for the 1 day in 730, when the government insists my car is in tip top condition, it does not fail the NCT. So far this year I have spent 80 euros on petrol and 300 euros on spares, taxes and insurance. Big oil won't get rich with me!
Why I don't vote
I thought I would explain myself after having been castigated for not voting in the recent Irish general election. It's because my vote doesn't matter one jot. There is no real change when you vote one political party in or another out.
The only electable parties are the ones fighting over the centre ground. A centre ground that is governed by powerful corporations that will pay any amount of money to fund a political party that will claim that centre ground. Is that what you call democracy?
The recent G8 summit demonstrates what a stagnant political system we have in the west. No meaningful agreement on saving the planet. Corporations either want to see the planet close to death, or want to create markets where they can make money from the planet's suffering, before they will permit their political puppets from making any decisions.
Voting is a waste of time. What is now needed is a revolution to clear away the current order. We have removed religion from politics, why not business? No corporate donations! No businessmen lobbying. No business in politics!
We appear to have refined our political system to such a degree that any party that wants to get elected is as similar to any other party that wants to get elected. So let's ban political parties altogether and have referenda on single issues.
If the people are worried about global warming, sustainability, energy then they should vote solely for the purpose of finding people to cure those problems. Voting for political parties and their corporate backers achieves nothing.
I will not vote in the current political system. If we all refused to vote and agitated for a new way then we will see the political parties as they are. An elite of business people who are more interested in making money off the rest of us.
Maybe then our revolutionary fervour will return. It will certainly return when energy, other resources and water dwindle. When there are no goods in the shop with which to buy our silence. We will then be in the same position as our ancestors who removed the "ancien regimes" of the past.
The only electable parties are the ones fighting over the centre ground. A centre ground that is governed by powerful corporations that will pay any amount of money to fund a political party that will claim that centre ground. Is that what you call democracy?
The recent G8 summit demonstrates what a stagnant political system we have in the west. No meaningful agreement on saving the planet. Corporations either want to see the planet close to death, or want to create markets where they can make money from the planet's suffering, before they will permit their political puppets from making any decisions.
Voting is a waste of time. What is now needed is a revolution to clear away the current order. We have removed religion from politics, why not business? No corporate donations! No businessmen lobbying. No business in politics!
We appear to have refined our political system to such a degree that any party that wants to get elected is as similar to any other party that wants to get elected. So let's ban political parties altogether and have referenda on single issues.
If the people are worried about global warming, sustainability, energy then they should vote solely for the purpose of finding people to cure those problems. Voting for political parties and their corporate backers achieves nothing.
I will not vote in the current political system. If we all refused to vote and agitated for a new way then we will see the political parties as they are. An elite of business people who are more interested in making money off the rest of us.
Maybe then our revolutionary fervour will return. It will certainly return when energy, other resources and water dwindle. When there are no goods in the shop with which to buy our silence. We will then be in the same position as our ancestors who removed the "ancien regimes" of the past.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)