With the arrival of Earth Day, a movie and novella come to mind.
Contact is a sci-fi movie involving science, politics and faith.
“Dr. Ellie Arroway is employed in the SETI program at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. She was inspired to pursue a career in science and communication, starting with amateur radio, by her father who has since passed away. Her work involves listening to radio transmissions from space in the hopes of finding signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life.” Contact (1997 American film) – Wikipedia
My favorite line of dialogue in the movie occurs early on. Ellie’s father offers his daughter words of wisdom as her youthful enthusiasm and curiosity about topic of interest innocently overlooks the time and effort required before useful results are encountered: “Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.”
With these simple words, I hear Ellie’s father preparing Ellie for proper scientific method and how not to science: “You’re excited. You want results. Don’t get ahead of the facts. Be patient in your quest for results. And, don’t propose applications born out of your passion, but only out of established facts. There is form and function in place in the cosmos. Don’t get ahead of it and don’t go around it to get results you think you should find. If you focus on one thing going wrong then you’ll miss what works and what is going right. Don’t fixate on one thing to the exclusion of all else. Small moves, Ellie, don’t Greta it.”
Small measured moves in one’s research for factual results – there is no rush (except where motives are compromised) – should also be exercised in the proposed application of one’s findings. Stay away from hyperbole. In other words, don’t fashion computer models with overstated feedback loops that generate hockey stick graphs that are intended to accelerate human, societal and environmental change in a desired direction. That is immoral and unethical. And . . .
“We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.” Christopher Hitchens
“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it, not a sentimental pretense but an idea: and an unselfish belief in the idea–something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to…”
―Marlowe in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness, an 1899 novella by Joseph Conrad, takes place in the Congo. There “the Company”, an unnamed European organization, is running a colonial enterprise – Congolese doing enforced labor to harvest ivory. The exploitation of a land and its people is at the heart of the story.
“. . . while the text is widely recognized as an indictment of the greed and ruthlessness that generally drove European imperialism in Africa, most readers are unfamiliar with the fact that the setting is the event in imperial history so uniquely horrific in its sheer scale of suffering and death that it has been termed the African Holocaust. As Conrad himself would [later] characterize the situation . . . it was “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.”
A. Michael Matin, Introduction to Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction, Barnes & Noble Books, 2003, p. xxxiii
Elephants and native Africans both died as a result of man’s pursuit of ivory. The entire enterprise was rotten at the core. The cruelties and greed at work in this “conquest of the earth” are part of a greater, timeless evil.
Now cobalt, mined by the Congolese (and the Uyghurs in China), is a coveted substance in man’s conquest of earth. And we find, if we dare to look, that Green Energy-based colonialism is no different than the ivory-based colonialism talked about in Heart of Darkness. Both exploit people and resources. “The horror! The horror!
“Some 60% of the world’s cobalt supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where nearly three-quarters of citizens live in extreme poverty.”
“Cobalt is widely used in the production of goods, including batteries for smartphones, computers, and electric vehicles, for which demand is growing. The DRC is a global leader in cobalt production and accounts for over 50 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves. Children routinely work in these mines, often under hazardous conditions. While mining is on the DRC’s list of hazardous activities for which children’s work is forbidden, the majority of cobalt mining in the DRC is done informally, where monitoring and enforcement are poor.”
“Cobalt is essential to power the rechargeable lithium batteries used in millions of products sold by Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla every year. The insatiable demand for cobalt, driven by desire for cheap handheld technology, has tripled in the past five years and is expected to double again by the end of 2020. More than 60% of cobalt originates in DRC, one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world.”
“Around one-fifth of cobalt mined in the DRC comes from small-scale artisanal mines. People, including children as young as 7 years old, work in hazardous conditions without gloves to protect them from contact dermatitis, breathing cobalt-laden dust that is associated with a potentially fatal lung disease. Miners work in unsafe tunnels that are liable to collapse and bury them, all in settings that are prone to violence and sexual exploitation.”
Cobalt plays an important role in renewable biogas technology. Renewable Energy | Cobalt Institute
Cobalt Mining: The Dark Side of the Renewable Energy Transition | Earth.Org
“Products that are fundamental to nearly all global “green pledges” — including electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and industrial-grade storage batteries — require minerals that are produced with significant human rights violations.
A green transition will require the development of advanced technologies which require certain minerals found in mines across the globe. These minerals, though, are largely sourced from regions with few labor and environmental protections such as China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Russia.”
Testimony: China-backed cobalt mines in Congo exploit 40,000 child workers | Catholic News Agency
Child labor in the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo – Humanium
See what mineral Commodities are required for Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, and Batteries:
Critical Mineral Commodities in Renewable Energy | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov)
“A lithium producer for carmakers including BMW AG and Tesla Inc. is beginning work to assess battery metals projects in Xinjiang, deepening links between electric vehicle supply chains and a region at the heart of human-rights allegations against China.”
Chinese lithium giant pulls EVs deeper into forced labor glare – MINING.COM
China uses Uyghur forced labour to make solar panels, says report – BBC News
Copper is used in wiring and construction as well as electric vehicles, solar panels and other green technologies. Electrification is expected to increase annual copper demand to 36.6 million metric tons by 2031 . . .
Copper Shortage Threatens Green Transition – WSJ (archive.fo)
In pictures: South America’s ‘lithium fields’ reveal the dark side of our electric future | Euronews
Environmental Justice?
“While electric cars reduce fossil fuel emissions once they are on the road, the production of the lithium-ion batteries that power them causes more displacement and CO2 emissions than the production of regular gas-powered cars. Disposal of the batteries at the end of their life cycle is also a growing concern.” Lithium: Not as clean as we thought – Climate360 News (lmu.edu)
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Early in my life I asked God for wisdom. And like Solomon of old, I received wisdom and didn’t always make use of it. Folly, foolish impulses and knee-jerk responses followed out a practice of self-deception. You can’t fool wisdom, so consequences followed. Wisdom and her words never left my side.
These days I’m interested in discerning the truth and in not being exploited. I am a Christian realist and not gullible. Before retiring I had worked the last fifteen years in the electric grid modernization division of a stellar engineering company – a global leader in power and energy with expertise in grid modernization, renewable energy, energy storage, nuclear power, and fossil fuels. I am a proponent of nuclear energy. So, when I heard this> Germany shuts down last nuclear power plants, some scientists aghast (cnbc.com) I was stunned. The shutdown of the final three reactors was “a blow to climate advocates who support nuclear energy as a clean, zero-carbon source of electricity”. Fear was the driver of the shutdowns and of an emotionally driven choice.
As a Christian, I have found God’s messaging to be true and faithful. At the same time, I am very skeptical of the world’s messaging, knowing man’s voracious hunger for power, man’s insatiable greed to possess land, people, and goods, and man’s endless capacity for evil. Add to this man’s susceptibility to peer pressure and GroupThink. As such, wise words and small moves are not guiding today’s science towards useful ends.
A rush to judgement and then a rush to be on the side of consensus is not useful, except for those with an agenda. Deceit and drastic moves seem to be the guiding science and populations toward a designated outcome. One recent horrifying example has been burned into our conscientiousness.
Deceit: to avoid oversight and the Obama administration’s ban on gain-of-function research, Anthony Fauci moved the gain-of-function bio-weapon and vaccine research to China. Funding came from the CIA and the Dept. of Defense via money laundering institutions.
We are now aware, despite all of the deceitful media coverup, that Anthony Fauci’s unauthorized gain-of-function nightmare escaped the Wuhan lab. People died from COVID and Fauci lied about gain-of-function research to Congress.
Drastic moves: any enthusiasm and curiosity on the public’s part to know the source of COVID was thwarted with labels of “misinformation” and “conspiracy theory”; doctors and scientists who bucked “the science” consensus were silenced; a constant “the science” narrative permeated the media; fear of death was promoted; business and job-destroying mandates were rolled out; lockdowns; masks; untested mNRA vaccines were pushed endlessly; OSHA was employed to enforce vaccine compliance.
There was a rush to get big pharma’s product to market and keep it there. Hence, the blocking of existing and effective repurposed drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin took place so that an “emergency-use vaccine’ could be employed.
And with the vaccine, lives were lost with sudden deaths occurring and adverse effects are multiplying. Not useful results unless you love profit and power. Not small moves nor wisdom. Rather science used for exploitation.
The COVID psyop did some of the work of enslaving and colonizing people and resources for the Great Reset. Now, there is the myth of apocalyptic anthropogenic-produced climate change. The myth is hyped as an existential threat that requires immediate action. Computer models, media reports and web articles have produced consensus outcomes. Follow the money and the desire to be on the “right” side of the narrative.
Climate change is being advertised with signs and wonders: “consensus” “polar bears” “seas rising” “hockey stick” “Climate crisis” “extreme weather”. Web articles promote the climate change narrative, e.g., Global warming could be juicing baseball home runs, study finds | WVXU; Climate Cultists Blame Global Warming on Rice | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila. The climate change narrative/psop is actively working to get you believe, by mere repetition, that humans represent at least 50% of climate warming and that human behavior and practices must change NOW. No small moves. NOW!
And so, U.S. and European Union governments, the U.N. and WEF have made drastic pledges of our tax money for a so-called green transition away from fossil fuel dependence and toward renewable energy production in an effort to stave off “cataclysmic climate change”. This despite the fact that fossil fuels, namely crude oil, natural gas and coal, continue to supply more than 80% of the world’s energy needs and the electric grid, power generation plants, and EV chargers are nowhere near ready to supply electric power needed to support the people of the world. Their answer: there should be less people and use children to do what we want.; that’s why we have open borders.
(FYI: a SpaceX rocket is not powered by an EV charger.)
Based on my examination of the climate change topic, I’m a climate realist. Climate change is occurring but at a small level – not at catastrophic levels. Some of the warming may be due to coming out of ice age not long ago. Computer models DO NOT tell the whole story of climate change nor should they be used as (end-of-the world) predictors. There are too many moving parts in our ancient biosphere to account for. Most important: should we exploit land and people to “save the planet”?
Now consider these well-known facts: inflation Is not under control, the southern border is out of control, government spending is out of control, the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine is not under control. Democrat cities are not under control. The same people in charge of these things tell you that the “climate crisis” is real and they will work to control it. I would not entrust the earth and my life to these people. They have mismanaged and destroyed what they are responsible for, including lives in their charge.
Small circumspect moves, not based on hyperbole and overstated feedback loops but based on factual information, in the direction of mitigating climate change is a wise Christian position. There is no climate emergency no matter how times it is repeated in the media.
You can listen to a climate emergency debate at this link Yes, the Climate Is Changing. No, It’s Not an Emergency | Opinion (newsweek.com) (Note: the “crisis” advocate Heather speaks from a hyperbolic viewpoint. She repeats “the science” without including science facts and insists that what she relates about global warming is “not debatable”. She goes on to call for a “systemic transformation”. I immediately sensed that she has been socially-emotionally schooled in the climate narrative and is therefore has been made its communications director.)
Not only are children being exploited to supply metals for Green Energy mandates, children are also being exposed to climate change trauma in their schools. Why? Why traumatize kids and create stress, anxiety, and depression in our children about a supposed “existential threat” to the planet? Where are the adults?
Greta is a prime example of a child that has been traumatized by the climate change narrative. The narrative stole her childhood.
Why exploit children by programming them to repeat narrative words “crisis” and “the science” like the “crisis” advocate mentioned in the podcast above? Why are children being taught that science involves accepting “the science” narrative and forming a consensus (groupthink)? Why are children not being taught that science involves curiosity and inquiry?
We Must Address Trauma Caused by Climate Change | Psychology Today
ISTSS – Public Resources Climate Change and Trauma
“The results of this study add to the growing body of evidence that higher domain-specific knowledge is associated with lower domain-associated anxiety. They also contribute to the emerging literature on the construct of climate change anxiety, which so far has focused on demographics, attitudes, and personality characteristics as predictors and neglected the role of environmental knowledge. . .”
Environmental knowledge is inversely associated with climate change anxiety – Watts Up With That?
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The Frankenstein climate change narrative “lives” if social media has its way:
“The changes, which will go in effect on April 21 to mark Earth Day, will crack down on “misinformation” (information harmful to powerful interests) about climate change and elevate “authoritative information” (information amplified by powerful interests invested in pushing the man-made climate change hoax).”
TikTok To Censor Content That Challenges Global Warming Dogma – Summit News
You’ll likely hear these words: “Our climate is changing at an unprecedented and alarming rate with profound impacts on human life.” Please don’t buy into this lie. Be skeptical of such hyperbolic claims.
WCD-version-06272215121.pdf (clintel.org)
Below are four podcasts and links with viewpoints to help you discern what is true and moral and just this Earth Day:
Podcasts:
Climate Imperialism: Clean for Me but Not for Thee – The Heartland Institute
Climate Change Madness Tournament – The Heartland Institute
New WUWT Global Temperature Feature: Anomaly vs. Real-World Temperature – Watts Up With That?
Giant Wind Turbines Keep Mysteriously Falling Over. This Shouldn’t Be Happening. (msn.com)
A resource to better understand the background of the climate change religion:
“Unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that can keep abreast of our technological genius, it is unlikely that we will save our planet. A purely rational education will not suffice.”
― Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
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William Happer: Noble Lies and the Evil They Allow – YouTube
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Kingdom Venturers 