six degrees of peter feld

Politics, media pranks, songs, jokes, and NYC revelry. I'm at [my full name no dots or dashes] at gmail. Technorati ProfileAdd to Technorati Favorites
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soupsoup: How low can you go? Let’s take a step back. Close the browser tab with the puppies. Stop arguing about Twilight. We are all fucked. Consider: The market implosion has so many moving parts: the collapse of the financial institutions, the housing freefall, the credit crisis, the auto industry, overall unemployment, the likelihood of deflation which terrifies economists, the massive destruction of wealth as a result of the stock market plunge, the likelihood that this holiday season will be a retail train-wreck, and (near and dear to our hearts) the devastation of the ad and media economy. It is a negative feedback loop. Global warming hasn’t gone away. In fact, it’s too late to stop it - we’ll never get back these last eight years when the US would have needed to show leadership in order to rein in China, India, Africa, and all those who haven’t reached our grotesque levels of carbon emission. They’re fighting over whether we can return to 1990 emissions levels by 2020? In 1990, we were already on the road to hell! This year wasn’t the most critical election of our lifetime - 2000 and 2004 were, and we lost. The oceans will rise, ecosystems like coral reefs will die along with the fish populations that depend on them, and some of the most densely populated (and politically volatile) regions of the planet are in for a massive downward adjustment to their water supply and overall habitability. In Iraq and throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, we have unleashed forces that can’t be put back in the bottle. See above under 2000 and 2004. Meanwhile, Russia is throwing its corrupt weight around, Iran has the bomb, and still-totalitarian China owns much of our debt. All these problems and others feed on each other. Russia and other bad actors will exploit the financial crisis, or be driven into worse behavior because of it. Desperation to get the economy growing will back-burner attempts to control global warming. Global warming will spark political upheaval, violence and terrorism as these vast populations battle for scarce water and food - and there is already a global food crisis. Even Obama can’t help us now. End times. On second thought, go back to the puppies.

soupsoup:

How low can you go?

Let’s take a step back. Close the browser tab with the puppies. Stop arguing about Twilight. We are all fucked. Consider:

  • The market implosion has so many moving parts: the collapse of the financial institutions, the housing freefall, the credit crisis, the auto industry, overall unemployment, the likelihood of deflation which terrifies economists, the massive destruction of wealth as a result of the stock market plunge, the likelihood that this holiday season will be a retail train-wreck, and (near and dear to our hearts) the devastation of the ad and media economy. It is a negative feedback loop.
  • Global warming hasn’t gone away. In fact, it’s too late to stop it - we’ll never get back these last eight years when the US would have needed to show leadership in order to rein in China, India, Africa, and all those who haven’t reached our grotesque levels of carbon emission. They’re fighting over whether we can return to 1990 emissions levels by 2020? In 1990, we were already on the road to hell! This year wasn’t the most critical election of our lifetime - 2000 and 2004 were, and we lost. The oceans will rise, ecosystems like coral reefs will die along with the fish populations that depend on them, and some of the most densely populated (and politically volatile) regions of the planet are in for a massive downward adjustment to their water supply and overall habitability.
  • In Iraq and throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, we have unleashed forces that can’t be put back in the bottle. See above under 2000 and 2004. Meanwhile, Russia is throwing its corrupt weight around, Iran has the bomb, and still-totalitarian China owns much of our debt.
  • All these problems and others feed on each other. Russia and other bad actors will exploit the financial crisis, or be driven into worse behavior because of it. Desperation to get the economy growing will back-burner attempts to control global warming. Global warming will spark political upheaval, violence and terrorism as these vast populations battle for scarce water and food - and there is already a global food crisis.

Even Obama can’t help us now. End times. On second thought, go back to the puppies.

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