If We Release a Small Fraction of Arctic Carbon, 'We're Fucked'

Scientists made a disturbing discovery in the Arctic Ocean: They saw "vast methane plumes escaping from the seafloor," as the Stockholm University put it in a release disclosing the observations. The plume of methane—a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat more powerfully than carbon dioxide, the chief driver of climate change—was unsettling to the scientists.

Dr. Jason Box who is currently a professor of glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, has been studying the Arctic for decades. His accolade-packed Wikipedia page notes that he's made some 20 expeditions

to the Arctic since 1994, and served as the lead author on the Greenland section of NOAA's State of the Climate report from 2008-2012. He also runs the Dark Snow project and writes about the latest findings in the field at his blog, Meltfactor.

In other words, Box knows the Arctic, and he knows climate change—and the methane plumes had him blitzed enough to bring out the F bombs.

Now, the scientists in the Arctic didn't fully understand why the plumes were occurring.

Industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'

A new study sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

Civilisation is almost inevitably doomed, a Nasa-funded study has found.

Human society is founded on a level of economic and environmental stability which almost certainly cannot be sustained, it said.

The study used simplified models of civilisation designed to experiment with the balance of resources and climate that creates stability - or not - in our world.

These theoretical models - designed to extrapolate from simple principles the future of our industrialised world - ran into almost intractable problems.

Almost any model "closely reflecting the reality of the world today... we find that collapse is difficult to avoid", the report said.

How Advertising and Entertainment Influence Your Subconscious

They say the subconscious is more powerful than the conscious. Usually, people are more influenced by their innate subconscious desires or intent than a rational and planned decision. This aspect of human nature is heavily influenced by your daily activity.

How Corporations Influence Your Subconscious 

In western society, the subconscious mind of the individual is often subject to a number of heavy influences, through entertainment mediums especially. Television, movies, and music create a profound subconscious effect on the human mind that influences and dictates the choices that they will make to at least some degree.

If you see a certain car advertisement, whether or not you rationally decide your stance on it, you are being pre-programmed to at least accept or acknowledge any claims made by the advertisement itself.

Likewise, the choice of television shows and dramatic elements appearing on TV have a psychological influence on those who watch them. According to statistics, by age 18 the average American youth will have seen over 200,000 simulated acts of violence. The glorification of drug and alcohol use predisposes an individual to rationally accept and sometimes consent to these actions.

Brain damaged society

There are over five thousand species of mammals on planet Earth, but only one of them is insane. It also turns out there is only one species of mammal that intentionally poisons itself (and its children) by injecting toxic, neuro-damaging chemicals into most members of the species. That species is, of course, homo sapiens.

If you look around the planet these days, you see tens of thousands of species of mammals, birds, reptiles and even insects. Five things all these have in common is:

1) None of them eat processed foods. They innately eat raw, unprocessed, uncooked foods from nature.

2) None of them take prescription medications.

3) None of them inject their offspring with toxic vaccines laced with hidden chemicals.

4) None of them practice mechanized chemical agriculture / monoculture.

5) None of them live in delusional, artificial worlds of TV or the internet.

Yet humans, the most insane species on the planet, routinely engage in all five of these things, poisoning their own bodies, minds and children with heavy metals, pesticides, mercury, vaccine adjuvants, mind-altering medications, chemical solvents, GMOs and delusional mind programming.

And so it's not really a surprise to see where this brings us.

Millions against Monsanto!

 The worldwide March Against Monsanto this past Saturday was no mere political demonstration. Rather, it was a worldwide mobilization against corporate greed, the assault on our health and environment, and the oppression of small farmers.

Two million people marched Saturday in 52 countries, totaling events in over 250 cities, all over the world.
"March Against Monsanto" protesters say they wanted to call attention to the dangers posed by genetically modified food and the food giants that produce it.

People marched through the streets of hundreds of cities around the world demanding an end to the

poisoning of our bodies, our children, and our environment.

US House of Representatives passes CISPA cybersecurity bill

The US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act (CISPA).

Lawmakers in the House voted 288-to-127 Thursday afternoon to accept the bill. Next it will move to the Senate and could then end up on the desk of US President Barack Obama for him to potentially sign the bill into law. Earlier this week, though, senior White House advisers said they would recommend the president veto the bill.

Should CISPA earn the president’s autograph, private businesses will be encouraged to voluntarily share cyberthreat information with the US government. The authors of the bill say this is an effort to better combat the reportedly increasing attempts to harm America’s critical computer networks and pilfer the systems of private companies for intellectual property and other sensitive trade secrets.

One of the bill’s creators, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), said during a round of debate on Wednesday that $400 billion worth of American trade secrets are being stolen by US companies every year. Passing CISPA, he said, would be a common sense solution to a threat that’s growing at an alarming rate.

“If your house is being robbed, you call 911 and the police department comes. That’s the same scenario we are looking at here,” he said.




That same day, CISPA co-author Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) stressed that his bill doesn't extend any

"Culture in Decline" Episode #1 - "What Democracy?"

From the creator of The Zeitgeist Film Series, comes a new comedically tragic Web Series that takes on the grand distortion we call "Normality" today.

In Episode #1 of CID, Peter Joseph takes on the coming US Election and, in effect, the global tradition of "Democracy" and asks the question... "Seriously?!"


Watch this 30 min (current) bi-monthly seriesfree online via the Culture in Decline's Official Website 
 or on official youtube CiD channel

The Imminent Collapse of the Petro-Dollars

The official line from the United States and the European Union is that Tehran must be punished for continuing its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. The punishment: sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, which are meant to isolate Iran and depress the value of its currency to such a point that the country crumbles.

But that line doesn’t make sense, and the sanctions will not achieve their goals. Iran is far from isolated and its friends – like India – will stand by the oil-producing nation until the US either backs down or acknowledges the real matter at hand. That matter is the American dollar and its role as the global reserve currency.

The short version of the story is that a 1970s deal cemented the US dollar as the only currency to buy and sell crude oil, and from that monopoly on the all-important oil trade the US dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. Massive demand for US dollars ensued, pushing the dollar’s value up, up, and away. In addition, countries stored their excess US dollars savings in US Treasuries, giving the US government a vast pool of credit from which to draw.

We know where that situation led – to a US government suffocating in debt while its citizens face stubbornly high unemployment (due in part to the high value of the dollar); a failed real estate market; record personal-debt burdens; a bloated banking

Money is Not Needed with Energy Abundance

In order to understand the very basis of money, it is best to contemplate how it developed in the first place.

Once society developed past the clan stage, when barter, trade and so forth arose, it became the practice to place value on the products of human energy expended. If one used one’s energy to build a bow, go out hunting, kill an animal, process the carcass, and transport the meat back to be traded or bartered for, this gave that meat value. The bow components were free, as was the animal. The same was true for the farmer, who expended meaningful energy in tilling, sowing, tending, harvesting, and, if need be, transporting what that farmer produced. The produce had value. Even the gatherer expended meaningful energy in seeking things to gather, then transporting the find back to be used as “money” for other things. The miner expended the meaningful energy to find the (free) ore, hew it out of the earth, and transport it.

From these beginnings, the practice of using coin and other objects arose to represent this meaningful energy expended when transporting large amounts of goods, as well using to acquire something another had but not having the specific thing the other wanted. And from this, humans went on to bills when coins and jewels and other objects became too cumbersome. And, lately, we have added electronic funds, as even bills are cumbersome in million unit, billion unit and trillion unit transactions. But the foundation of all these monetary units is the meaningful energy expended, whether human or resource-based (oil, coal, nuclear, etc.) energy.

There Must Be War Before The Dollar Crash

Global stability remains precarious and will continue to deteriorate steadily as the dollar continues to lose sway as the global financial monolith.

India is being pressured by the US State Department (with staggering hubris) to reduce their oil procurement from Iran. America, a country with a population of 310 million, and consumer of 25% of total world oil production is commanding India, a country of 1.2 billion, to abate their oil imports under US demand.

They're not even giving the courtesy of disguising their pretentiousness that goes along with international politics this time. This is being conducted unilaterally.  Another way of putting it: "Because I say so! That's why!" This could backfire drastically if India does the right thing and begins to make payment in bullion. The rest of the OPEC nations would likely follow suit and begin to exchange their black gold for shiny yellow gold. This would be the end of paper money around the world. Which in itself is not such a bad idea.

The Russians and the Chinese are getting irritated with this irrational American exuberance for WWIII. This is not actually what the American people want, but as former Vice President Dick Cheney once remarked in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, when the White House correspondent said polls show that two-thirds of Americans believe the war is not worth fighting, Cheney responded with a 'so?'

On the other side of the globe,

The Venus Project addressed the Occupy Miami

The Venus Project addressed the Occupy Miami group on November 20, 2011. It was almost a 3-hour drive for TVP but they felt it very important to attempt to provide Occupy Miami with their proposed solutions. There was a good turnout, with over 100 in attendance and it was adjacent to Occupy Miami’s tent city. The weather was fantastic other than a short burst of showers that forced everyone to huddle close together under the shelter of a close building.

Roxanne introduced Jacque and he spoke for hours until we had to convince him it was time to go! Jacque’s unyielding dedication and perseverance is still amazing after all this time. Overall the talk went very well and was received with great enthusiasm. We are thankful to Occupy Miami for organizing the event.

This 15 minute video is clips from the full presentation which was approximately 1 1/2 hours.

"Origins and Adaptations" - Peter Joseph's lecture, Zday 2012

Peter Joseph gives a talk entitled 'Origins and Adaptations' at Zeitgeist Day 2012 in Vancouver, Canada.

Part 1 - Origins of our economic system


Part 2 - Adaptations, hybrid economy


Section 1 covers structual psihology - evolution of current social order
Section 2 of Part 1, named Market vs. Tehnical efficency, explains contradictions of free market and natural order.

PART 1:

Consumerism: An Obsession

History

A long time ago, our society decided to make a shift. The shift that we made was to leave behind our farming roots and progress towards an industrial society. This shift is important to examine because this shift quite possibly could have influenced our behaviors as a society. We wanted to involve more machines and less man power in our production of goods. There were many reasons why our society chose to make this shift such as a large increase in population, but a major reason was to increase the amount of products we produced in a certain amount of time.
By converting to this type of system, it allowed our society to not only receive goods at a quicker rate, but also develop an obsession for consumption. In addition, the shift in production also shifted our thoughts to what we want as opposed to what we actually need. Our capitalist society relies on us to spend our earned dollars in order to stimulate the economy and keep it flowing at a good pace. The way capitalism contributes to consumerism is the fact that we must consume things in order for our economy not to fail.

The Consumer
Capitalism relies on us so much that we actually have a title that describes what our behaviors and actions are supposed to look like and that title is called the consumer. Outside of a person or thing that consumes, the term consumer can be defined as, a person who acquires goods and services for his or her own personal needs. The task of the consumer is to find a job, acquire some sort of currency, and then spend it in the economy. This process is often disguised by ideas like the American Dream that hide the true reason and meaning behind our spending.

What is Consumerism?

To this point I have discussed things like capitalism and consumption that contribute to consumerism, but I have not directly described what consumerism actually is. Consumerism can be defined as an economic or social order that is based upon the systematic creation and building a desire to acquire goods and services in increasing amounts. The economic order that the definition refers to is capitalism. The economy thrives when people are spending and acquiring goods. We still operate on the basis of capitalism even though a good amount of people are starting to realize that capitalism isn’t exactly our best bet with a society of our size. It appears that capitalism has shifted our behaviors and that we have been trained by a higher, economic power to have a desire to buy/acquire goods and services.

Our Situation
It appears that we have become the cash cow for the many businesses in our economy. The reason I say this is because we have placed an equal value in mate

MONEY - the perfect tool for Enslavement

They have achieved this through their centrally controlled banks which they manipulate the flow and availability of money available to the public via interest rates. As today’s medium of exchange for goods and services, “Money” is what everyone is striving for in order to obtain the goods and services they require and demand. In today’s materialistic and superficial world and because of our indoctrination that having materialistic possessions will provide us eternal love and happiness, we believe that money is the only way out of our misery and problems. Thus most of us make that our first priority in our lives because all of us want to achieve a better life for ourselves.



Our indoctrination starts from the day we were born from what we were taught by our parents on how to be “Successful”, the education system teaching us how and who to be in order to be successful, the media ranging from movies, television programmes, magazines, newspapers, advertisements showing us the

STOP A.C.T.A.!

The Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multilateral agreement that recommends international standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

According to the participants the aim is to reduce more efficiently the alleged rise of product piracy. The negotiations are underway since June 2008 and are currently in their 7th round.


Every single negotiation round was held secretly without access for the public or even members of the European Parliament (EP), but industrial lobbyists, like members of the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) had access to the agreement drafts. Such methods are not compatible with democratic standards and are

"Defining Peace" new lecture by Peter Joseph / "Definisanje mira" - novo predavanje Pitera Džozefa

Peter Joseph's 1.5 hour Lecture "Defining Peace"; the end segment of Mid-East TZM Event which occurred on Feb 6th 2012. in Tel Aviv, Israel. 


This lecture is divided into 4 sections.The first is entitled 'The History of Human Conflict and the Human Nature Debate' and which will stubborn concept that we humans are inherently and inalterably aggressive and territorial will be addressed.
Part 2: 'The State Character and Coercion' consider the origin of the modern state and its characteristics. Moreover and more profoundly, the influence of the state on the values of the culture will be addressed especially regarding loyalty, patriotism.
Part 3: 'The Culture of War Business, Ownership and Competition' gives a deeper look at the underlining condition motivation which appears to have created the state and its power and the war propensity itself will be considered. 
The final section, Part 4: 'Defining Peace a New Social Contract'  deduce what societal characteristics support peace, and what do not and how we as a world society can reset our societal condition to allow for this newfound human balance before it's too late. 

Predavanje Pitera Džozefa "Definisanje mira", završnica TZM događaja Srednjeg Istoka, održanog 6. februara 2012. u Tel Avivu u Izraelu. 
Ovo predavanje podeljeno je u četiri sekcije. Prva nosi naslov  "Istorija ljudskog konflikta i debata o ljudskoj prirodi", gde će tvrdoglavi koncepti da smo mi kao ljudi sami po sebi i nepromenljivo agresivni i teritorialni biti opovrgnuti.
Drugi deo: " Karakter države i prinuda " razmatra poreklo moderne države i njene karakteristike. Što više i što dublje gledamo, uticaj države na vrednosti kulture će se otkiti naročito u pogledu lojalnosti, patriotizma.
Treći deo " Kultura ratovanja biznisa, posedovanja i takmičenja " daje dublje u istaknute uslove motivacije za koje se čini da su stvorili državu i njenu moć a takođe ćemo razmatrati i samu sklonost prema ratovanju.
U poslednjoj sekciji, četvrti deo: "Definisanje mira novi društveni profil" zaključuje se koje društvene karakteristike podržavaju mir, a koje ne i kako mi kao svetsko društvo možemo resetovati naše socijalne uslove kako bi dozvolili novootkriveni ljudski balans pre nego što bude kasno.

Paradise or Obvilion, new documentary by The Venus Project, coming in March 2012!

This free online documentary  details the root causes of the systemic value disorders and detrimental symptoms caused by our current established system. This video presentation advocates a new socio-economic system, which is updated to present-day knowledge, featuring the life-long work of Social Engineer, Futurist, Inventor and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco, which he calls a Resource-Based Economy.


The film details the need to outgrow the dated and inefficient methods of politics, law, business, or any other "establishment" notions of human affairs, and use the methods of science, combined with high technology, to provide for the needs of all the world's people. It is not based on the opinions of the political and financial elite or on illusionary so-called democracies, but on maintaining a dynamic equilibrium with the planet that could ultimately provide abundance for all people.


Paradise or Oblivion introduces the viewer to a more appropriate value system that would be required to enable this caring and holistic approach to benefit human civilization. This alternative surpasses the need for a monetary-based, controlled, and scarcity-oriented environment, which we find ourselves in today. 


NOTE: This is NOT the “major motion picture” that The Venus Project is working towards but rather is a 52 minute documentary to introduce the aims and proposals to new people.


More info about the Venus Project: http://www.thevenusproject.com/