Christmas - Israel and Gaza - 2023: Alaska pipeline sets new low for flow - RFK Junior: make Polio great again

PDF summaries

"The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience" - often paraphrased as "Theories should be as simple as possible, but no simpler."
- Albert Einstein, 1933

Covid lessons

Autism is not caused by vaccines
it's mostly genetic and removing thimerosal additive didn't lower incidence

Contagion movie reviews:
reasonably accurate fictional portrayal of a zoonotic pandemic, a dozen medical experts advised the production

Cops and Covid:
number one cause of death 2020-2022,
African American sheriff from Tuskogee, Alabama urges his community to get vaccinated,
prisoners dying from Covid

Covid Deaths in USA mostly among the unvaccinated,
Covid was number one cause of death in late 2020, decreased due to vaccinations in early 2021, almost a million and a half killed (more than from all wars since 1776, combined)

Excess deaths due to Covid, not vaccines

HIV AIDS denial and the anti-vaccine movement

Hospitals and unvaccinated Covid patients

Hydroxychloroquine:
great for malaria, useless for Covid

Ivermectin:
great for worms, useless for Covid

Lab Leak claims
Zoonotic disease caused by disrupting the last wild bits of Nature: Covid-19, SARS-1, HIV, MERS, Ebola, Nipah, etc.

Masks and other Non Pharmaceutical Interventions to slow the spread of disease

Measles infection
can erase immune memory from previous diseases,
downplayed by anti-vaxxers who promote the lie that measles vaccine can cause autism.

Polio nearly eradicated by vaccines,
anti-vaxxers: make polio great again!

Red Covid: Republicans disproportionately injured and killed due to virus denial disinformation

"doing your own research" doesn't always find correct answers,
if one lacks basic education in the topic, confirmatin bias is a problem

Rights and wrongs:
imbalances between individualism and community responsibilities

School closures, teachers, parents, grandparents and Covid orphans

Smallpox was eradicated by vaccines

Vaccine experts vs. anti-vaxxers

RFK Junior: world's loudest and best funded anti-vaxxer, HIV AIDS denier, polio denier
www.jfkmlkrfk.com/junior.html

Earth, energy, money

Non-Binary Climate Concerns:
two types of climate change denial
climate change is real - three views

Peaked Energy and Climate Chaos
interconnected crises

www.peakchoice.org/pdf/climate.pdf
Peak Energy and Climate Chaos - two aspects of ecological overshoot
recession and covid closures cut energy more than climate concerns
practice for geologic depletion

www.peakchoice.org/pdf/oil.pdf
conventional oil peaked in the USA in 1970, fracked oil and tar sands mining postponed rationing, Alaskan oil in permanent decline (it powers the motors of Oregon)
fracking during the Obama / Biden and Trump administrations postponed energy rationing
fracking peaked just before Covid

www.peakchoice.org/pdf/limits.pdf
1972 "Limits to Growth" study predicted our predicament

www.peakchoice.org/pdf/gas-electricity.pdf
two pages: Unnatural gas and electricity

www.peakchoice.org/pdf/electricity.pdf
electricity in USA peaked in 2018, on a plateau sustained by fracked gas
natural gas is the biggest energy source for the three US power grids - western, eastern and Texas
renewables have increased but are a small percent of total generation
it is not possible to sustain an always on power grid with variable generation sources (unfortunately)

www.peakchoice.org/pdf/gas.pdf
conventional unnatural gas peaked in USA in 1973, fracking is a huge but temporary bubble
72% of USA gas production is fracked
gas is the largest energy source for electricity generation in USA, it powers the western, eastern and Texas grids
the largest use of gas is for electricity

Peak Money: a permanent change

protest on the Titanic

Green New Deal:
great slogan, ignores limits to growth

2018 Energy Pie Charts:
all energy sources, electricity sources

USA Quads: 101 quadrillion BTUs in 2018
about a tenth was "renewable"
(mostly biomass burning and dams)

Energy Information Administration:
peak electricity in USA was 2007 for conventional fuels,
2018 was slightly higher due to fracking
1970: USA conventional oil peaked

What the Frack? Scraping the bottom of the barrel is not good to the last drop

Fracking Postponed Rationing:
conventional natural gas peaked in 1973,
fracked gas now 63% of all gas

Texas: conventional oil peaked 1972, conventional gas peaked 1973,
now most oil & gas is fracked

James Hansen wants more nukes

oil trains and the end of the Alaska Pipeline

 

permaculture

Fractal Permaculture: local, bioregional, global

 

freeway fights and Peak Traffic

Grading on a Curve (highways, peak traffic)

Peak Traffic and Transportation Triage: a new legal strategy to prevent a trillion dollars of expanded highways

www.peakchoice.org/traffic.pdf
Peak Vehicle Miles Traveled sustained by fracked fuels and tar sands
traffic levels declined more due to Covid than climate activism
peak energy conflicts with plans for a trillion dollars in highway expansions across the USA
legal strategy to shift expansion plans toward policies conducive to an energy constrained, climate concerned future
Oregon counties with better public transit (Multnomah, Benton, Lane) had peak VMT on the state highway network during conventional oil
counties with less transit (Washington, Clackamas, Marion, Jackson, Josephine, Deschutes) are at or near a new, higher peak now

www.peakchoice.org/wep.pdf
West Eugene Porkway (1951 - 2007)
Mission Accomplished: No Build decision by Federal Highway Administration in 2007
ecological significance - legal obstacles - energy limits and transportation planning
Mark Robinowitz, Road Scholar

www.peakchoice.org/law.pdf
WEP was one of the most illegal highways ever proposed
West Eugene Transportation, Land Use and Neighborhood Design Solutions (WETLANDS) v. Federal Highway Administration: never filed, FHWA chose "No Build" since they knew they would lose in court

www.peakchoice.org/beltline-126.pdf
ODOT's plans to expand Beltline and Route 126 (Eugene - Veneta) for over a half billion dollars
16 lane widening of Beltline highway, third of a billion dollars (or more), virtually no public awareness let alone opposition to the plans but also no appropriation of funds beyond the Environmental Assessment
federal laws that prevented the West Eugene Porkway (1951 - 2007) do not apply to this project
Highway 126 widening Eugene - Veneta: smaller highway expansion proposed across Fern Ridge reservoir past parkland and rare habitats. No money appropriated. Might have more legal obstacles than Beltline widening.

www.peakchoice.org/portland.pdf
highway plans in Portland, cancelling Mt. Hood freeway enabled start of MAX light rail