Thank you for this insightful exposé of the predicament and conundrum humanity is facing.
The climate movement in all its diverse forms, strategies and tactics has been sprinting against the relentless “carbon budget” — time running out like sand in an hour glass — and Trump has figuratively shot us sprinters in the thigh severing our femoral artery in so many ways, bleeding out on the pavement.
Each of us can imagine our own allegory, be it a flood of gushing black crude oil, Greenland’s carbon-black-soot-tainted melt water pouring off millenniums-old ice thousands of feet thick slowly killing the life-giving AMOC, allowing flue gases to spew unfettered into the atmosphere in an unprecedented giga-tonne travesty, soaking into the surface of every square meter of the world’s oceans as acidic death to the entire sea life network and food chain … these just a few front and center of my melt-down mind.
Now is the time to buy time applying extraordinary “triage” life saving tourniquet-type interventions. While Trump forces a hiatus on emissions reduction across the board, it is imperative that we take “guerrilla” steps to temporarily save humanity from the evil hellish heat he is unleashing, with cautious means of urgent and crucial climate cooling.
We don’t have the luxury to stand by, to wait and see … we are bleeding out …
We can and must continue installing systems on building where the power is used. Each system installed save carbon emissions and that owner money. We've relied on federal Investment Tax Credit aka ITC (and for commercial projects, accelerated depreciation) while cost of installation was high and utility rates were low. That's flipped.
But losing the ITC is a distinct possibility. It's 30% of project cost and is a credit off owed taxes. Residential electric rates have increased enough that we might still be able to make a strong enough economic case. It'll be much more difficult, maybe impossible, to sell a commercial project as they flat out require under five years payback to even consider buying the system.
Early in my solar career, in 2007, I saw the need to add energy efficiency techs to solar projects. The two goals are to save money and cover annual energy usage. Reducing usage meant installing a smaller solar system. So convert all lights to LEDs. Put a specific brand of power conditioner on the electrical panel to make the electrical system run more efficiently. Etc. The power conditioners reduce peak load so they benefit commercial project economics more than residential.
Anyway, we've been winning the war on a battle by battle level. Currently I do not know whether we'll be able to beat 'em in the near future.
I encourage thinking out of the box and acting with awareness and intention.
While many of the efforts in the months and years to come will be driven by legal challenges that may be out of our hands, there are things that each of us can do. Take shopping, for example, for groceries, household items, supplies for our businesses. Consider the vendor, the manufacturer, the components, the packaging, the impact on your health.
Make mindfully considered choices. Use your economic power to drive the economy. Are you feeding one or more of the dragons with a purchase? Do you need it? Is there are better choice? Are you making a choice that is adding to the problems or driving solutions?
We cannot offload responsibility for our future to others.
Bill has graciously allowed me to post the url of a site dedicated to climate actions.
Climate: Small steps matter. Here's a link to our latest post.
Thank you Bill. In the chaos of news, this real ground zero gets left behind too often. The earth is not a plaything. I have no idea how to tackle these issues personally except by my individual conscious actions to live a lifestyle with as little a footprint as possible. I generate nearly zero trash that isn't organic or recyclable (and that worries me, will support systems erode?). There is no more time to ponder or to waste. And I feel so ineffective against corrupt and insensately evil Goliaths.
The climate can't wait, equality can't wait, the genocide can't wait. Erasure in necessary. This cancer need to be surgically/militarily removed. If the J6er can be pardoned. History will pardon the revolutionaries that save us from fascism. You're call couch potatoes. Sit and be shit on or stand and fight.
Unfortunately our problem has been multiplied by the appeasement that’s been at the core of Democratic Party strategy for decades and reached its nadir in the Biden administration’s clear refusal to punish the GOP’s televised coup.
Any approach to the Dems as potential allies needs to acknowledge this abysmal history and the likelihood that they will continue to approach the conservative movement as if “resistance is futile.”
Here is what needs to be faced:
** Dem leadership wanted Trump to escape timely consequences for his coup attempt:
"Yes…" Clyburn said… when asked about whether impeachment could slow Biden's agenda. "And so does… Pelosi.… Let's give… Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we will send the articles some time after that."
** Appeasement of the GOP’s insurrection was not predicated on the assumption that the MAGA “fever would pass.” Incredibly, Biden began planning for a rematch on his first day as president, two weeks after J6 shocked the nation:
"Since… Biden’s inaugural address… Biden and his inner circle have been drawing up meticulous plans and creating a large legal network focused on… a close election finish, in which (Trump and GOP) launch a scorched-earth, Big Lie–fueled crusade."
What could have motivated Biden and other Dem leaders to ignore their oaths to defend the Constitution? We might hope that it was simply organizational inertia that Trump’s second victory will correct.
However, the longer trend of such appeasement is also the history of the lopsided “bipartisanship” that the party has repeatedly evoked as their greatest political calling, a goal that has chronically undermined their own legislative agendas.
Biden’s refusal to subdue the GOP’s rebellion joined that self-sabotaging lineage when his right-wing eviscerated his 2020 deal with progressives — Build Back Better — through incessant hand wringing over "bipartisan civility" with the gang that had just attempted to overthrow democracy. Biden made no effort to challenge that obscenity and defended the filibuster in its midst.
Reforming the establishment has long been a two front war and will remain so as long as Dem fairytales about unity with conservatives persist unchallenged.
You were correct. But we are now in a completely different terrain. The Enemy is nearly ultimately empowered. They clearly have no intent to ever relinquish the power they stole through election subversion through their many methods.
We must adopt a war footing. The Enemy has known they've been at war with the rest of us for decades. We beat them through 2018-23 and, if we'd beat them in 2024 we'd have finally nailed their fascistic coffin closed. They will not give us another opportunity.
Our war footing requires letting go of any internal divisions and every previous grievance of those supposedly on our side. Embrace everyone not on the side of The Enemy.
So what is to be done? Let's focus on that. There are many many ways. We will need them all.
I agree but for the recommendation to avoid all internal divisions. If we are serious about victory, we must acknowledge leadership's failure and rid ourselves of the self-sabotaging bipartisanship that has become the Democratic Party's holy grail.
Biden's ilk has demonstrated conclusively that they are too committed to bipartisanship to honestly and successfully steer the country past our perfect storm of authoritarianism and climate change.
Strangely, even the left seems unwilling to call out Biden's failure to protect US democracy in the wake of the rebellion. Perhaps progressives don't want to remind folks of their implicit acceptance of Biden's argument that confrontation with the GOP would sink BBB, given that the opposite predictably occurred.
There are only a few years left to prevent effectively unreversible climate change that will gradually break civilization apart. The radical and rapid reform humanity needs necessitates new leadership.
Thanks for your reply. I've repeatedly stated disappointment that Biden wasn't declaring a national emergency and stopping the hostile takeover. But Biden et al would not violate laws and norms of democracy, to all of our great loss. I do not criticize in public, though, as that only aids The Enemy.
I should clarify that yes, such analyses are necessary, but should been done in private. Airing in public serves The Enemy, not us. They get propaganda weapons, plus citizens who just hear tidbits might not align with our cause due to this tainting their decision on whether to resist or not, whether to choose a side.
We must be exceedingly security-driven. The Enemy will peel us off one by one.
Think of the French Resistance. This is where we are headed. But we should be there right now.
As for climate change, having been in the trenches on this for nearly 18 years, built about a thousand systems, I am aware. I am asking everyone to name it global heating not anything softer like warming our the anodyne "climate change".
Global Heating is already the top driver of immigration. That has caused crises across the globe. The Enemy is using these crises against us- both politically and in order to continue wringing record profits from their fossil fuels. Hell, the fascists are probably telling each other that losing a few billion people would be good.
If it was only the 2yo we'd be fine- he's both lazy and stupid. The predatory billionaires and their allies perpetrated this hostile takeover of our federal government. They're pursuing their agenda, with all the vengeance they can deploy.
Great newsletter! Bill, you've inspired me to talk to folks at both of my financial institutions responsible for sustainability about their goals and commitments. I believe we can make a difference by letting corporations know our priorities. Thanks!
Totally agree on the need "to shift the zeitgeist around energy"
Nowhere is there more potential savings than in our 35-40% food waste farm to fork industry.
'Waste' is made locally, and increased centralized waste hauling methods are not working well in leaders' attempts to enlist essentially 'free labor' for a capitalized product (weaning people from a convenience to do a chore sorting for the compost sold back to gardeners).
But working on the food waste conundrum, there is a small sector of food producers doing 'batch cooking' where the timed out leftovers and prep waste can be gathered before spoilage. These same nutrients are "ReUsed", given to omnivores (esp. birds) capable of digesting and converting into compost.
Combining the positive dopamine actions of feeding animals with preventing waste (labor and materials) is really working.
With the diligent work of 2 volunteers and near 200 hungry animals, One kitchen site alone has diverted 13K lbs since August 2024, saving 403K lbs of water use, and avoiding >16Tons of GHG CO2e Emissions while feeding 12K meals weekly to humans.
All hyper local, clean and tidy.
We've cut our county's 'food waste mile' down from 127miles to within 5-10 miles.
So the public health infectious disease model has been used effectively to inhibit the spread of homicides in communities by acting quickly to curb the possibility of retribution and copy cat killings in the same way as interrupting the transmission vectors of an infectious disease. What if we applied the same principle to what has begun to unfold in the new Administration? It might look a little like this:
Donald Trump's election has introduced a new variant of the totalitarian/oligarchist/authoritarian virus, primarily affecting the United States but with symptoms spreading across borders due to its apparently highly infectious nature. This variant has been initially named TOA-Substantially Trump (or TOAST) due to his well documented incubation and transmission period within the US Republican Party, Trump's first term, and consolidating efforts after January 6, 2021.
The TOAST virus seems to be fairly closely related to emerging variants found in European countries, especially Hungary and Italy. It seems to be a form of self-coronation virus, and while it does not yet appear to be as deadly as the Russian oligarchy, Chinese mass surveillance or North Korean totalitarian outbreaks, which have been largely self limiting, its infectious nature has raised the concerns of the World Health Organization and democratic monitoring organizations around the world.
This variant seems to have developed a combination of strategies to circumvent the nation's set of checks and balances through a blend of allegiance and brand loyalty borrowed and reinforced by other institutions such as professional wrestling and popular star formation institutions, dogmatic faith structures, corporate hierarchical and political party reinforcement structures and multi-generational sports team traditions.
TOAST seems to have found a particularly effective transmission vector that infects large segments of the public by pervasive use of diminished critical thinking skills paired with the perceived safety found in being a member of an easily identifiable group lifestyle and also coupled with a fear of retribution for stepping out of line: a classic symptom of all TOA viruses. Those displaying this symptom are then highly susceptible to no longer being able to detect the presence or importance of differing beliefs found in all communities or see the benefits of having institutions that represent a pluralistic, diverse community.
The spread of the TOAST virus into the governing structures at the local, regional and national levels has been particularly effective in its initial stages as it utilizes the bipartisan, pluralistic nature of democratic institutions to gain a foothold initially, and then quickly overwhelms those structures using media manipulation, fear and retribution casting democratic processes as a sign of weakness and oppression by the educated elite. Ethical behavior and community networks of support are recognized only when they reinforce the new order and identical behavior outside the infected community are suppressed and distorted into actions that threaten the patriotically/religiously aligned.
There have been many waves of the TOA virus in the past, with most communities across the planet showing its devastating impacts in their social DNA. There are a number of other regions with the TOA virus endemic in their populations including the regions mentioned above, in the recently deposed Assad regime in Syria, in Iran and elsewhere, as well as the 20th Century outbreaks that killed an unprecedented number of people around the world.
As with all outbreaks of the TOA virus, regularly cleaning the mind of the stream of infected misinformation is essential. This can best be accomplished by sitting down and listening to the full spectrum of conditions in the local community and using non-partisan critical thinking skills to address the identified issues and solutions, sharing food and finding common ground wherever possible. It is also essential to minimize exposure to clearly identifiable media sources who have monetized lying and misinformation, and find/create local sources of reliable independent journalism to listen to as well, and to immunize through education and example against misinformation in order to be able to recognize purveyors of it and incorporate ways to give voice to those who are being suppressed.
Our social systems have evolved to weather such viral attacks in the past; with each successive wave, the attacks are smarter and have evolved to make end runs around existing defenses, so communities must be creative in developing new ways to defend democratic institutions to counter these assaults while the cycle plays itself out. We are a resilient species; we need to put aside our impulses to blame and get to work to adapt, protect ourselves and heal, before we're all TOAST.
Absolutely agree on leading with hope! Also delete the big tech apps and use socials that aren’t owned by billionaires, it’s the easiest way to protest in an attention economy.
I am trying to get over the depressive apathy that descended upon me after the election of the brutes and reactionaries. Your keeping on keeping on helps me. I'll continue staying connected to this movement.
44 climate experts urge the Nordic Council of Ministers to believe that the AMOC will weaken due to freshwater forcing by Greenland ice sheet meltwater. They believe in freshwater forcing, having never tried to slow saltwater flow with a bucket of fresh water. They have not observed fresh river water spread out over the denser briny water, not impeding the current. They believe that a hairdryer may warm coffee. They believe that a pint glass of black coffee set next to a glass of milk on a sunny table will become warmer than the milk. They have measured massive amounts of meltwater puddled a foot or two deep in wind rows on top of the Greenland ice sheet but do not know if more or less than 50% of the water will refreeze in October. No substantial increase of freshwater flowing into the sea has been recorded, probably due to increased plant growth with longer, warmer summers. Greenland’s surface ocean water has the familiar salty taste of oyster liquor, about 36 parts per thousand salt.
Meanwhile, in 2011, the Gulf Stream meandered onto the Continental Shelf, dissipating excess energy closer to Rhode Island. The Gulf Stream flowed stronger in 2007 when it surfaced in Svalbard, warming the land and commencing the melting of glaciers.
I urge you to look at NASA’s animated video of the Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2024. In the spring, ice melt usually begins along the shore. In the Arctic, the melt begins along the Greenland Sea. The warm West Spitsbergen Current flows into the Arctic Sea. It veers right due to the centrifugal motion, the Coriolis Effect, of the Earth rotating east. When spring comes to the Arctic, the warm water is coursing counterclockwise—the first open water arcs around the shore. The thickest ice remains fast to the shores of Canada and Greenland, while a field of icebergs crowd the North Pole.
Reading the landscape reveals that a terrible tipping point was crossed when too much vegetation and soil were removed and replaced by hard surfaces. Annual rainfall remains unchanged. Yet, more stormwater runoff is sluicing to the sea, strengthening the AMOC and changing the Arctic climate.
We don’t need more cowbell—more verdant vegetation and spongy soil!
They believe in Albedo because there was not enough energy in the air to melt Arctic Sea ice, not knowing that the ocean cools our summers and warms our winters.
Bill, what a fine essay. Thanks.
Fight and leave your ego at home.
Bill,
Thank you for this insightful exposé of the predicament and conundrum humanity is facing.
The climate movement in all its diverse forms, strategies and tactics has been sprinting against the relentless “carbon budget” — time running out like sand in an hour glass — and Trump has figuratively shot us sprinters in the thigh severing our femoral artery in so many ways, bleeding out on the pavement.
Each of us can imagine our own allegory, be it a flood of gushing black crude oil, Greenland’s carbon-black-soot-tainted melt water pouring off millenniums-old ice thousands of feet thick slowly killing the life-giving AMOC, allowing flue gases to spew unfettered into the atmosphere in an unprecedented giga-tonne travesty, soaking into the surface of every square meter of the world’s oceans as acidic death to the entire sea life network and food chain … these just a few front and center of my melt-down mind.
Now is the time to buy time applying extraordinary “triage” life saving tourniquet-type interventions. While Trump forces a hiatus on emissions reduction across the board, it is imperative that we take “guerrilla” steps to temporarily save humanity from the evil hellish heat he is unleashing, with cautious means of urgent and crucial climate cooling.
We don’t have the luxury to stand by, to wait and see … we are bleeding out …
Cheers,
Doug
Doug-
We can and must continue installing systems on building where the power is used. Each system installed save carbon emissions and that owner money. We've relied on federal Investment Tax Credit aka ITC (and for commercial projects, accelerated depreciation) while cost of installation was high and utility rates were low. That's flipped.
But losing the ITC is a distinct possibility. It's 30% of project cost and is a credit off owed taxes. Residential electric rates have increased enough that we might still be able to make a strong enough economic case. It'll be much more difficult, maybe impossible, to sell a commercial project as they flat out require under five years payback to even consider buying the system.
Early in my solar career, in 2007, I saw the need to add energy efficiency techs to solar projects. The two goals are to save money and cover annual energy usage. Reducing usage meant installing a smaller solar system. So convert all lights to LEDs. Put a specific brand of power conditioner on the electrical panel to make the electrical system run more efficiently. Etc. The power conditioners reduce peak load so they benefit commercial project economics more than residential.
Anyway, we've been winning the war on a battle by battle level. Currently I do not know whether we'll be able to beat 'em in the near future.
Thank you Bill for framing this for us.
I encourage thinking out of the box and acting with awareness and intention.
While many of the efforts in the months and years to come will be driven by legal challenges that may be out of our hands, there are things that each of us can do. Take shopping, for example, for groceries, household items, supplies for our businesses. Consider the vendor, the manufacturer, the components, the packaging, the impact on your health.
Make mindfully considered choices. Use your economic power to drive the economy. Are you feeding one or more of the dragons with a purchase? Do you need it? Is there are better choice? Are you making a choice that is adding to the problems or driving solutions?
We cannot offload responsibility for our future to others.
Bill has graciously allowed me to post the url of a site dedicated to climate actions.
Climate: Small steps matter. Here's a link to our latest post.
https://karenleemardicrane.substack.com/p/cut-carbon-emissions-by-staying-healthy
We are seeking subscribers, writers, people who will share and help us recruit more readers.
Subscriptions are free but payments will go to spreading the word.
Thanks so much, as always. The next four years will test the sanity of all well-meaning people!
Thank you Bill. In the chaos of news, this real ground zero gets left behind too often. The earth is not a plaything. I have no idea how to tackle these issues personally except by my individual conscious actions to live a lifestyle with as little a footprint as possible. I generate nearly zero trash that isn't organic or recyclable (and that worries me, will support systems erode?). There is no more time to ponder or to waste. And I feel so ineffective against corrupt and insensately evil Goliaths.
The climate can't wait, equality can't wait, the genocide can't wait. Erasure in necessary. This cancer need to be surgically/militarily removed. If the J6er can be pardoned. History will pardon the revolutionaries that save us from fascism. You're call couch potatoes. Sit and be shit on or stand and fight.
Unfortunately our problem has been multiplied by the appeasement that’s been at the core of Democratic Party strategy for decades and reached its nadir in the Biden administration’s clear refusal to punish the GOP’s televised coup.
Any approach to the Dems as potential allies needs to acknowledge this abysmal history and the likelihood that they will continue to approach the conservative movement as if “resistance is futile.”
Here is what needs to be faced:
** Dem leadership wanted Trump to escape timely consequences for his coup attempt:
"Yes…" Clyburn said… when asked about whether impeachment could slow Biden's agenda. "And so does… Pelosi.… Let's give… Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we will send the articles some time after that."
NBC News https://t.co/fn9Sf2NMl3
** Appeasement of the GOP’s insurrection was not predicated on the assumption that the MAGA “fever would pass.” Incredibly, Biden began planning for a rematch on his first day as president, two weeks after J6 shocked the nation:
"Since… Biden’s inaugural address… Biden and his inner circle have been drawing up meticulous plans and creating a large legal network focused on… a close election finish, in which (Trump and GOP) launch a scorched-earth, Big Lie–fueled crusade."
Rolling Stone https://t.co/EFYLZgPNjL
What could have motivated Biden and other Dem leaders to ignore their oaths to defend the Constitution? We might hope that it was simply organizational inertia that Trump’s second victory will correct.
However, the longer trend of such appeasement is also the history of the lopsided “bipartisanship” that the party has repeatedly evoked as their greatest political calling, a goal that has chronically undermined their own legislative agendas.
Biden’s refusal to subdue the GOP’s rebellion joined that self-sabotaging lineage when his right-wing eviscerated his 2020 deal with progressives — Build Back Better — through incessant hand wringing over "bipartisan civility" with the gang that had just attempted to overthrow democracy. Biden made no effort to challenge that obscenity and defended the filibuster in its midst.
Reforming the establishment has long been a two front war and will remain so as long as Dem fairytales about unity with conservatives persist unchallenged.
You were correct. But we are now in a completely different terrain. The Enemy is nearly ultimately empowered. They clearly have no intent to ever relinquish the power they stole through election subversion through their many methods.
We must adopt a war footing. The Enemy has known they've been at war with the rest of us for decades. We beat them through 2018-23 and, if we'd beat them in 2024 we'd have finally nailed their fascistic coffin closed. They will not give us another opportunity.
Our war footing requires letting go of any internal divisions and every previous grievance of those supposedly on our side. Embrace everyone not on the side of The Enemy.
So what is to be done? Let's focus on that. There are many many ways. We will need them all.
I agree but for the recommendation to avoid all internal divisions. If we are serious about victory, we must acknowledge leadership's failure and rid ourselves of the self-sabotaging bipartisanship that has become the Democratic Party's holy grail.
Biden's ilk has demonstrated conclusively that they are too committed to bipartisanship to honestly and successfully steer the country past our perfect storm of authoritarianism and climate change.
Strangely, even the left seems unwilling to call out Biden's failure to protect US democracy in the wake of the rebellion. Perhaps progressives don't want to remind folks of their implicit acceptance of Biden's argument that confrontation with the GOP would sink BBB, given that the opposite predictably occurred.
There are only a few years left to prevent effectively unreversible climate change that will gradually break civilization apart. The radical and rapid reform humanity needs necessitates new leadership.
Thanks for your reply. I've repeatedly stated disappointment that Biden wasn't declaring a national emergency and stopping the hostile takeover. But Biden et al would not violate laws and norms of democracy, to all of our great loss. I do not criticize in public, though, as that only aids The Enemy.
I should clarify that yes, such analyses are necessary, but should been done in private. Airing in public serves The Enemy, not us. They get propaganda weapons, plus citizens who just hear tidbits might not align with our cause due to this tainting their decision on whether to resist or not, whether to choose a side.
We must be exceedingly security-driven. The Enemy will peel us off one by one.
Think of the French Resistance. This is where we are headed. But we should be there right now.
As for climate change, having been in the trenches on this for nearly 18 years, built about a thousand systems, I am aware. I am asking everyone to name it global heating not anything softer like warming our the anodyne "climate change".
Global Heating is already the top driver of immigration. That has caused crises across the globe. The Enemy is using these crises against us- both politically and in order to continue wringing record profits from their fossil fuels. Hell, the fascists are probably telling each other that losing a few billion people would be good.
In practical terms, which NGOs would you advise supporting?
ah, are you willing to wait for part 2?
Just what the hell did we expect from the mind of a 2yo?
If it was only the 2yo we'd be fine- he's both lazy and stupid. The predatory billionaires and their allies perpetrated this hostile takeover of our federal government. They're pursuing their agenda, with all the vengeance they can deploy.
Great newsletter! Bill, you've inspired me to talk to folks at both of my financial institutions responsible for sustainability about their goals and commitments. I believe we can make a difference by letting corporations know our priorities. Thanks!
Totally agree on the need "to shift the zeitgeist around energy"
Nowhere is there more potential savings than in our 35-40% food waste farm to fork industry.
'Waste' is made locally, and increased centralized waste hauling methods are not working well in leaders' attempts to enlist essentially 'free labor' for a capitalized product (weaning people from a convenience to do a chore sorting for the compost sold back to gardeners).
But working on the food waste conundrum, there is a small sector of food producers doing 'batch cooking' where the timed out leftovers and prep waste can be gathered before spoilage. These same nutrients are "ReUsed", given to omnivores (esp. birds) capable of digesting and converting into compost.
Combining the positive dopamine actions of feeding animals with preventing waste (labor and materials) is really working.
With the diligent work of 2 volunteers and near 200 hungry animals, One kitchen site alone has diverted 13K lbs since August 2024, saving 403K lbs of water use, and avoiding >16Tons of GHG CO2e Emissions while feeding 12K meals weekly to humans.
All hyper local, clean and tidy.
We've cut our county's 'food waste mile' down from 127miles to within 5-10 miles.
But here are obstacles and power plays. Ugh...
So the public health infectious disease model has been used effectively to inhibit the spread of homicides in communities by acting quickly to curb the possibility of retribution and copy cat killings in the same way as interrupting the transmission vectors of an infectious disease. What if we applied the same principle to what has begun to unfold in the new Administration? It might look a little like this:
Donald Trump's election has introduced a new variant of the totalitarian/oligarchist/authoritarian virus, primarily affecting the United States but with symptoms spreading across borders due to its apparently highly infectious nature. This variant has been initially named TOA-Substantially Trump (or TOAST) due to his well documented incubation and transmission period within the US Republican Party, Trump's first term, and consolidating efforts after January 6, 2021.
The TOAST virus seems to be fairly closely related to emerging variants found in European countries, especially Hungary and Italy. It seems to be a form of self-coronation virus, and while it does not yet appear to be as deadly as the Russian oligarchy, Chinese mass surveillance or North Korean totalitarian outbreaks, which have been largely self limiting, its infectious nature has raised the concerns of the World Health Organization and democratic monitoring organizations around the world.
This variant seems to have developed a combination of strategies to circumvent the nation's set of checks and balances through a blend of allegiance and brand loyalty borrowed and reinforced by other institutions such as professional wrestling and popular star formation institutions, dogmatic faith structures, corporate hierarchical and political party reinforcement structures and multi-generational sports team traditions.
TOAST seems to have found a particularly effective transmission vector that infects large segments of the public by pervasive use of diminished critical thinking skills paired with the perceived safety found in being a member of an easily identifiable group lifestyle and also coupled with a fear of retribution for stepping out of line: a classic symptom of all TOA viruses. Those displaying this symptom are then highly susceptible to no longer being able to detect the presence or importance of differing beliefs found in all communities or see the benefits of having institutions that represent a pluralistic, diverse community.
The spread of the TOAST virus into the governing structures at the local, regional and national levels has been particularly effective in its initial stages as it utilizes the bipartisan, pluralistic nature of democratic institutions to gain a foothold initially, and then quickly overwhelms those structures using media manipulation, fear and retribution casting democratic processes as a sign of weakness and oppression by the educated elite. Ethical behavior and community networks of support are recognized only when they reinforce the new order and identical behavior outside the infected community are suppressed and distorted into actions that threaten the patriotically/religiously aligned.
There have been many waves of the TOA virus in the past, with most communities across the planet showing its devastating impacts in their social DNA. There are a number of other regions with the TOA virus endemic in their populations including the regions mentioned above, in the recently deposed Assad regime in Syria, in Iran and elsewhere, as well as the 20th Century outbreaks that killed an unprecedented number of people around the world.
As with all outbreaks of the TOA virus, regularly cleaning the mind of the stream of infected misinformation is essential. This can best be accomplished by sitting down and listening to the full spectrum of conditions in the local community and using non-partisan critical thinking skills to address the identified issues and solutions, sharing food and finding common ground wherever possible. It is also essential to minimize exposure to clearly identifiable media sources who have monetized lying and misinformation, and find/create local sources of reliable independent journalism to listen to as well, and to immunize through education and example against misinformation in order to be able to recognize purveyors of it and incorporate ways to give voice to those who are being suppressed.
Our social systems have evolved to weather such viral attacks in the past; with each successive wave, the attacks are smarter and have evolved to make end runs around existing defenses, so communities must be creative in developing new ways to defend democratic institutions to counter these assaults while the cycle plays itself out. We are a resilient species; we need to put aside our impulses to blame and get to work to adapt, protect ourselves and heal, before we're all TOAST.
Absolutely agree on leading with hope! Also delete the big tech apps and use socials that aren’t owned by billionaires, it’s the easiest way to protest in an attention economy.
Dear Bill:
I am trying to get over the depressive apathy that descended upon me after the election of the brutes and reactionaries. Your keeping on keeping on helps me. I'll continue staying connected to this movement.
44 climate experts urge the Nordic Council of Ministers to believe that the AMOC will weaken due to freshwater forcing by Greenland ice sheet meltwater. They believe in freshwater forcing, having never tried to slow saltwater flow with a bucket of fresh water. They have not observed fresh river water spread out over the denser briny water, not impeding the current. They believe that a hairdryer may warm coffee. They believe that a pint glass of black coffee set next to a glass of milk on a sunny table will become warmer than the milk. They have measured massive amounts of meltwater puddled a foot or two deep in wind rows on top of the Greenland ice sheet but do not know if more or less than 50% of the water will refreeze in October. No substantial increase of freshwater flowing into the sea has been recorded, probably due to increased plant growth with longer, warmer summers. Greenland’s surface ocean water has the familiar salty taste of oyster liquor, about 36 parts per thousand salt.
Meanwhile, in 2011, the Gulf Stream meandered onto the Continental Shelf, dissipating excess energy closer to Rhode Island. The Gulf Stream flowed stronger in 2007 when it surfaced in Svalbard, warming the land and commencing the melting of glaciers.
I urge you to look at NASA’s animated video of the Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2024. In the spring, ice melt usually begins along the shore. In the Arctic, the melt begins along the Greenland Sea. The warm West Spitsbergen Current flows into the Arctic Sea. It veers right due to the centrifugal motion, the Coriolis Effect, of the Earth rotating east. When spring comes to the Arctic, the warm water is coursing counterclockwise—the first open water arcs around the shore. The thickest ice remains fast to the shores of Canada and Greenland, while a field of icebergs crowd the North Pole.
Reading the landscape reveals that a terrible tipping point was crossed when too much vegetation and soil were removed and replaced by hard surfaces. Annual rainfall remains unchanged. Yet, more stormwater runoff is sluicing to the sea, strengthening the AMOC and changing the Arctic climate.
We don’t need more cowbell—more verdant vegetation and spongy soil!
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5382/
They believe in Albedo because there was not enough energy in the air to melt Arctic Sea ice, not knowing that the ocean cools our summers and warms our winters.