Archive of Postings to February 2020 |
Changeable Weather |
|
But have no fear an intrepid junior reporter has emerged. One who will stop the evil US president, outwit the scheming eastern dictator and mobilise the youth of the free world to stop climate change before we and all of the Earth’s animals starve, burn or are drowned. Now Grandad remains unconvinced that Grintin has any real solutions and can only act as a voice for others. Hopefully those that have researched the issue in depth. But this leaves the whole climate action programme vulnerable to being hijacked by vested interests. And there are plenty who see their chance to make a lot of money out of phoney climate initiatives. Clearly there are some big issues that need to be faced head-on - with the ever expanding human population being the key driver of almost all of them. Now if Grintin can convince the world to act on that then there is a chance for future generations. But cynics will say that there is no money to be made out of population reduction - so it won’t happen. Not by any human actions that is ... |
|
tags: fires, drought, floods, storms, financial meltdown, virus, defenceless |
|
|
Viral Threat |
|
It is estimated that one deadly strain of avian influenza caused the deaths of 50 million people worldwide. In England it was named Spanish Flu. It broke out here in 1918 so towards the end of First World War.
Each week that a factory in China, normally producing goods for export, remains closed around 2% of its annual production is lost. How many factories in China are already closed? And how many more will follow? How long before they can re-open? Now we can all survive if the launch of the latest smartphone is delayed for months or even years. But the mighty Apple will soon feel the icy blast of recession if it runs out of products to sell. And it’s not just factory products impacted. At the opposite end of the process raw materials like coal, oil, iron ore, etc will experience a big drop in demand. This in turn will lead to a drop in prices and lay-offs in countries far away from the regions infected by the Wuhan virus. There is a serious risk that there will be a collapse in world trade - and perhaps one big enough in scale to surpass the Wall Street Crash of the 1920’s ... And that is yet another piece of 20th century history that no one wants to see repeated. |
|
tags: virus, economy, history lesson, pneumonia |
|
|
A Decade of Change? |
|
With the scoreboard showing 1,314 days since the UK’s vote to leave the European Union the chances of another failure to deliver seem vanishingly small. And so just 3 more days remain for our country as a member. That in itself will be a first time situation for many British people. But then the 20’s seem set to be a decade of change in many ways.
Similarly the children of the 1940’s baby boom will reach their 80’s over the next ten years and fade away in greater numbers than ever before. A statistical fact used by pro-EU vote losers as a crutch to promote rejoining after another vote. Sadly for them this will never occur as both economic factors and bigger world issues will take priority over political manoeuvres in Europe. And the biggest world issue will be climate change - along with the actions we are required to take in response. But that needs a separate posting ... |
|
tags: change, environment, royal family, Brexit, population |
|
|
Beauty and Terror |
|
|
|
tags: sunburnt country, bushfire, extreme weather, hope, determination, recovery |
|
|
The 20’s decade has started out with a roar - with threats of everything from global pandemic to weather chaos; from stock market crash to royal family breakdown.
The current outbreak of Wuhan Virus is being taken very seriously but so far represents just a tiny fraction of the human cost that the pandemic of 1918 incurred. However the big issue that most commentators are not addressing is the disproportionate impact that the quarantine measures are going to have on world trade - and the global economy. In effect the entire world’s factory has been all but closed.
Starting at the top we have a monarch who has served for 67 years and will reach her 100 years in 2026 while her consort the Duke of Edinburgh will reach that milestone sooner - in 2021. A fact of human life is that it is finite - and so we must face the possibility that the 2020’s will be the last decade of the New Elizabethan era. So while Harry makes the headlines today it is the future of the monarchy that will come into question before too long.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FOOTNOTES |
|
1. We don’t claim copyright on any of this stuff. We won’t hassle you if you reuse it. If you don’t like it here then just move on. We don’t use cookies because we never track your actions. Some of this stuff may link to other sites. What they do is their responsibility. We used to have have links that promised to pay us for any traffic generated but the amounts were peanuts. So these are now being cleared out. |
|
2. We haven’t been mis-sold any financial services. We don’t want to make any legal claims against anyone. We don’t want to help you move your offshore funds. We don’t have parcels that could not be delivered. We do have the best deals on utilities. Our web page rankings are not a problem ... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
