The Human Race Is King And The King Is Dead

Long Live The King

As the applause for the guest speaker subsided, the static in the air almost crackled. The anticipation of the debate itself had electrified the audience in the comfortable atmosphere inside the auditorium, while the subzero December temperatures in northern Europe persisted outside. In Copenhagen it was cold.

“All this climate change rhetoric. Politically plausible, but it's wrong,” began Dr. Damion Kennedy.

“There is a direct connection between commercial greed and the survivability of both the human race and planet Earth. Unfortunately for us they move in completely opposite directions. Have any of you thought about the growing population? We all breathe out carbon dioxide, but this gas is described as being toxic and destroying the world. What rubbish.” Murmurings of dissent could be heard.

“And compounding everything by our incessant need for paper. Destroying the very trees that sustain us. How can carbon dioxide be a poison? We can't breathe this gas, but trees do and through photosynthesis they create new oxygen for us all to live. The trees are the lungs of the Earth. Mankind's contribution to the climate change debate can easily be defined as it being just a growing population that creates more and more carbon dioxide as the consequence. We are a parasite killing ourselves by staying alive. Now there's a paradox.”

The level of chattering had increased.

“Earth's atmosphere has a content of about 390 parts per million carbon dioxide or 0.039%. The atmosphere on Venus has more than 950,000 ppm. That's 95% carbon dioxide. And it's over 40 million kilometres closer to the Sun so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the atmosphere on Venus has an estimated temperature of over 450°C. Hundreds of degrees hotter than on Earth. The real scaremongers would have it that Earth will become like Venus. That's as ridiculous as it is impossible.”

Voices of derision could clearly be heard.

“The new technology of the wind turbine is doomed to fail, but it generates vast amounts of revenue by taxing the people on the back of a lie. Something that will fail requires something else to be developed later. Another new technology. And almost certainly even more expensive. When that predictably fails, some other scheme will take its place. That’s a definition of regeneration and progress. The global situation continues to deteriorate in the grip of a debt-based financial system, this itself based upon virtual money. Just throwing unreal money at ghosts.”

After a brief and very deliberate pause, Kennedy continued with his presentation.

“So, what's virtual money? When someone gets a loan from a bank an electronic credit is instantly created that attracts payable interest and this then becomes the debt. But before anything is actually paid back the expected total return on this electronic debt is lent onwards in the form of other loans that have further new interest applied. And on it goes. This is the sustainable growth politicians talk about. And no actual money is required. Just a computer and borrowers' accounts. This is only one of the many real reasons for all the crises today and most people are controlled through their personal finances. Then, of course, there are too many people chasing too little work that continues to be hijacked by automation. Again, driven by computers.”

Objectors' shouts were now increasing in their number, but Dr. Kennedy remained quite cool in his composure even though tempers in the auditorium had become heated.

“The burning of fossil fuels is blamed for making more of the natural carbon dioxide. Travel by aircraft continues to increase, every flight dumping vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and politically it doesn't seem to matter. A plane travels from one place to another polluting the atmosphere somewhere else. The problem is moved ever onwards. But the net global pollution continues to increase. The hypocrisy in politics is nauseating.”

Kennedy stopped again. Several moments later he carried on.

“Methane is another natural gas we can’t breathe, though as a greenhouse gas has more than twenty times the capacity of carbon dioxide at trapping heat. The increasing number of livestock to feed a growing population produces huge volumes of methane and this production of methane has become known as the 'fart of the Earth'. This should be the focus of attention. But it isn't.”

Kennedy's voice was raised a few decibels in his attempt to drown out the louder sections of the audience.

“Wealth creation schemes are rife amongst some factions of mankind, like starting wars in already unstable areas and selling their weapons of war to those countries that then need them. Weapons are big business and generate huge amounts of revenue. It's all about money. But the growth of one thing always needs the destruction of something else. Usually people. The core of the Earth is powered by the thorium cycle, a relatively safe generation of nuclear power and the heat generated within the Earth reaches a temperature of about 6000°C, similar to that at the surface of the Sun. Without this power, Earth would have become just another frozen rock in space a long, long time ago, but nuclear weapons of war cannot be made using thorium and this explains why it will never be used to fuel mankind's energy needs. This is never mentioned in the global warming debate. It's always about heat from without and never the heat from within.”

The audience remained quite noisy, with shouts like 'quiet, you moron' and 'shut it, creep', but directed to other members of the audience. A definite mood change had entered the atmosphere.

“The real Earth-bound problem comes down to an ever-growing population that depends more and more on energy. Political desire is to create more uranium-based nuclear power stations, though however safe and secure such a building may be, and however small the chances of a natural disaster, the beast contained within the cage will escape. It cannot be destroyed. You can't burn it. You can't chemically neutralise it. Only bury it or try to encase it in some other form of cage, but once the beast has been created the process cannot be undone. Nuclear waste is only a side product of nuclear fuels. A mutation, though still capable of decimating all living creatures. And it will survive for thousands of years. It's almost biblical. The Devil. And that's wherein lies the detail. And none of this even touches on the enormous resources of Earth's gases. And amongst them?” Kennedy stopped and waited.

“Methane.”

The effect was immediate. A scuffle had broken out at the back of the theatre and the voices of dissent became silent.

“Have you ever thought about the prevalence of cancers today? Cancer is simply an uncontrolled growth. Like the population on Earth. The human population is Earth's cancer. Until humankind opens its eyes to see its fate closing in, the inevitable must happen. And all of this can be blamed squarely at the door of human greed, bad and wrong information. And stupidity. The 'tipping point' is when it's too late to correct an error. Time's up.”

Dr. Kennedy continued to a now mostly captivated audience, though some obviously disagreed with him.

“The Moon offers the most promise. It's been up in the sky for billions of years quietly looking down on Earth like a parent watches over a child. Controlling the tides. Water has sustained the Earth and all forms of life since they began on this planet. The Moon will probably be around for billions of more years and should be seriously examined as a priority for a long-term and highly sustainable source of energy in the form of tidal power. And it's free. It costs nothing to allow the Moon to operate itself. If the global population were being properly informed, it would probably quite gladly fund developing such a sustainable and free energy source instead of some business simply profiteering. To use existing tax revenue to pay for a means of survival and not contribute to the profit of a commercial concern.”

Kennedy stopped once again and for several moments very slowly looked around the audience.

“Maybe we should really start with the ignorant and money-orientated politicians who know little except controlling the people and helping commercial enterprises make money. Increase their growth. Maximise profits. Perhaps that's inciting anarchy, though education should be a more peaceful way forward. And much more effective.”

The cheers began.

“Remember, money isn't created, but wealth just redistributed away from the people to the already rich. Delusion is borne out of complacency and a nuclear-powered future is a certain way of increasing our chances of destroying ourselves. But to make fissionable materials like plutonium and create nuclear weapons of war, a nuclear power station is necessary. It's both the laboratory and production suite all rolled-up into one. This 'elephant in the room' is just hiding behind the need to energise an ever-growing consumer population. More and more new developments need electricity and this can only make the situation worse by more people needing more power. Even more profit for the rich. Will everything will be all right? No. It can't be.”

A mixture of cheering, foot-stamping, screams and whistles forced Kennedy to pause and he wasn't able to continue for several minutes.

“The irony here? Mankind destroys itself and the planet recovers and starts again. Earth can wait a few millions of years while it heals itself without any interference from an extinct species. Earth is alive and tectonic subduction will eventually take every trace of a human existence deep inside itself.”

Another calculated pause.

“But these are still only the arguments on the periphery. The reality is that the Earth‘s annual orbit is gradually changing. A move closer to the Sun at any time in that year will result in raised temperatures. Further away will produce lower temperatures. The tilt of Earth also changes over thousands of years altering the heat-capturing capacity of the planet. The single land mass of Asia, Russia and China will absorb more of the Sun's radiation if tipped towards it as it revolves. The result is more of what has already begun. Politicians like to call it global warming and tax it. The climate is definitely changing, though only because of planetary motion. Nothing else. Certainly, burning oil and gas is just adding to Earth's misery, but before the oil runs out, the human race will have destroyed itself anyway. And there's nothing that can be done to stop it.”

One hundred and fifty kilometres above the Earth in near space, the nuclear missile began its descent towards northern Europe.

© Louis Brothnias. v 2.3 (2011)

Creative Acre