Friday, November 30, 2012

Invitation to join international online forum on the sidelines of COP 18 climate conference in Doha, Qatar on topic of "Polar Cities as an adaption strategy for survivors of global warming chaos in the distant future, with goal to get Polar Cities on the agenda for COP 19 next year


This blog post is an Open Invitation for you to join an international online forum here on the sidelines of COP 18 climate conference in Doha, Qatar on topic of "Polar Cities as an adaption strategy for survivors of global warming chaos in the distant future, with the goal to get a discussion of Polar Cities Planning on the agenda for COP 19 next year and every year after that for the next 80 years and more.
SEE: for background info and a futuristic novel to read titled POLAR CITY RED by Jim Laughter
that describes possible life in a polar city in Alaska in future years:

http://pcillu101.blogspot.com


[* Can read book free on www.Smashwords.com ]   INFORMATION:   YOUR PARTICIPATION HERE IS WELCOME! Send comments about polar cities pro or con to the comments section below or email me above address: bikolang@gmail.com   I have been working on the Polar Cities Project quietly in Taiwan since 2006, and in 2008 the New York Times profiled the concept on Andrew C. Revkin's DOT EARTH blog, with images done by Deng Cheng-hong, a Taiwanese artist. See www.nytimes.com/dotearth and search window it.   In 2012, we were able to produce two books about POLAR CITIES, one a fiction novel by Jim Laughter in Tulsa  and the other a non-fiction history of the polar cities idea by Stephan Malone in Florida. Both books are now available for readers online via book ordering sites and also free at smashwords. In addition, I can send a free copy of the books to anyone here who requests one. Just give me a shout!   It is my final wish before I die -- and I am going to die soon, heart attack in 2009 and all that -- to see the topic of PLANNING FOR POLAR CITIES appear on the Agenda of future climate change conferences worldwide, be they COP 19 meetings or independent academic forums. So I am inviting you, dear reader here, to participate NOW by sending in your comments about polar cities and how we can start discussing them and planning for them, with no money being spent at all -- just discussions and forum chats.   I will tweet this blog post far and wide and hope to attract eyeballs using social media to this ongoing forum here. Welcome!   -- Danny Bloom (1949-2032)   Director-Founder, The Polar Cities Project (2006 - 3006)  

Monday, November 26, 2012

''Polar City Red'' spotlighted in the Anchorage Daily News on Alaska

            Polar City Red

By Jim Laughter, Tulsa novelist 
(Deadly Niche Press, $12.95)
 Available online orders via Amazon and Barnes Noble as ebook and paperback reader
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!!!!

The blurb: This novel, set in Alaska in the year 2075, imagines a world in the midst of "climate chaos," with millions of refugees trekking northward.

Excerpt: "The explosion ripped through the evening darkness and jarred the sleeping citizens of Polar City Red awake. Thunderous echoes of sound reverberated off the steep walls of granite protecting the city. The destruction caused by the M-72 LAWS (Light Anti-Armor Weapons System) rocket hitting a supply storage bunker sent an acrid cloud of smoke drifting through the city. Shards of sharp rock and metal flew through the air, smashing against any unfortunate structure near the point of impact. "Several rocks hit the Climatron, cracking one of the reinforced panes of glass.

"Shouts of fear rose into the night as lights from candles and lanterns peeked out from shrouded and shuttered windows. Mothers pulled their children close to them and tried to calm their fears. Men carrying an odd assortment of weapons spilled from caves, lean-to houses, underground bunkers, and geodesic domes. Other men in makeshift military uniforms armed with M-16 rifles and other weapons from long ago wars converged on the point of attack. It was still too dark to see the smoke, but the flames caused by the incendiary rocket lit up a secluded section of dried brush on the hillside."  (C) 2012 Jim Laughterwww.jimlaughter.com

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/11/24/2703514/reading-the-north.html#storylink=cpy

  • COMMENTS 
  •                                                                    
    Jim Laughter's novel mentioned above, POLAR CITY RED, was produced by 12-year Alaskan resident Danny Bloom, who lived in the state from 1979 to 1991, most of the time in Juneau and two winters in Nome. The book, while pure fiction, goes into the methane release research of Katie Walters at UAF and mentions UAA professor Robin Bronen's idea which she coined of "climate refugees." The story was set in Fairbanks because Bloom, as the producer and book packager of Polar CIty Red and the founder/director of the Polar Cities Research Institute, [Google it], in 2006, felt that when climate chaos finally hits the world hard, most of the Lower 48 will be abandonned as Americans trek north in search of food, fuel and shelter, -- thus POLAR CITIES as climate refuges for climate refugees in some distant future. Laughter sets the story in 2075 -- and the Tulsa sci fi novelist wrote every single word of the novel, created all the charafters and all the plot lines, and all credit goes to him for writing such a powerful sci fi -- or what Margaret Atwood has called'' cli fi'' -- novel. Yes, it's pure fiction. Laughter is a novelist. But his yarn is based on science and the research he himself did for this book. And it ends in the final chapter, on a hopeful note, that somehow we humans will survive this mess we are in, and if you read just two chapters in this book, start with Chapter One, and end with the Epilogue at the end. Hopefully, you will find time to read the entire book on a cold winter's night in The Great State, the Last Frontier, the state where millions of Americans will be flooding into ...come the Climapocalypse. There is time to prepare and Laughter's book is a good read to prepare mentally, spiritually and politically, for what is coming down the road, in the Long Emerncy to come, what I call the Great Interruption from 2500 to 3500 AD, on my website: ''pcillu101'' in the blogspot arena. Go look. Jim Laugher sets the book in 2075, not so many years away, in order to make the book a NOW book, or an ALMOST now book, rather than some SO FAR AWAY WHO CARES book. Job well done, Jim. If anyone "gets" your book, it's going to be Alaskans. They know what's coming. NOTE: The New York TImes DOT EARTH blog run by Andrew Revkin profiled the POLAR CITIES meme in a 2008 column there. While Jim's novel is fiction, it's based on facts. It's pure entertainment and meant to be read that way. But it's also a prophecy of sorts. Read it and weep. For the world, for the your descendants to come 30 generations down the road, and for what might have been, if we humans had not tried harder to tighten the noose around coal, oil and gas, before it was too late. Now it's too late. Get ready for the food of refugees, Alaska. Jim Laughter has told as it is to be.

    Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/11/24/2703514/reading-the-north.html#storylink=cpy

Saturday, November 24, 2012

The global 'climate art diplomacy' of Vincent Huang from Taiwan

Art diplomacy


Taiwan’s ''921'' earthquake in 1999 -- September 21, 1999 -- inspired Taiwanese artist Vincent Huang to devote himself to environmental and climate-related issues on a global scale. In late November and early December 2012 he travelled to Qatar to attend a major UN climate conference in Doha
  THE TAIPEI TIMES reported here:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2012/11/25/2003548542

PHOTOS, three photos below in color: [Courtesy of Vincent Huang]
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/photo/2012/11/25/2008080513
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/photo/2012/11/25/2008080514
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/photo/2012/11/25/2008080515


For eco-artist Vincent J.F. Huang (黃瑞芳), all the world’s a stage — from the beaches of Tuvalu to the conference halls of major climate conferences. He went to Qatar to attend a UN climate conference, where he was  invited to exhibit his work.



While Taiwan does not have many climate activists working in the international arena, Huang is a climate artist with a vision and he’s out to put his stamp on public awareness issues worldwide. Now in his early 40s, the Nantou County native went overseas to study art in Scotland where he received a master’s degree from Grays School of Art. Huang’s goal is to help wake up the world — and his native Taiwan — about the possible dangers of unchecked climate change and global warming in the future.



With these issues in mind, Huang will travel to Qatar this week to participate in the Qatar Sustainability Expo as part of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP 18), where he will make a plea for more attention to be paid to people of the Pacific island of Tuvalu. In September, Huang visited the island nation where he exhibited some of his works on a picturesque beach and met with government officials.



In a recent interview with the Taipei Times, Huang said that he felt at home there and came back to Taipei impressed by the people of Tuvalu, and their approach to the environment.



“The government and islanders were both very supportive of my two visits, one in 2010 and one this September, and they appreciated the eco-art projects I created to try to draw more international attention to the situation Tuvalu is facing in regard to climate change and rising sea levels,” Huang said.



When asked what kind of impact he feels his eco-art has on viewers worldwide, Huang said that as an artist, he believes in the power of art to effect change in attitudes.



“The art installations can lead people around the world to not only pay more attention to the crisis Tuvalu is facing on a daily basis, but also to picture more vividly the global problems of climate change,” he said.



Setting up art installations on a remote Pacific island and traveling to Qatar takes time and money. Huang received a travel grant from the Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club (台北圓山扶輪社) to fund his two visits to Tuvalu, he said, and for that he’s grateful. Taiwan’s ambassador in Tuvalu, Larry Tseng (曾瑞利), was also very helpful, he said.



However, in general, it’s difficult for independent artists like Huang to get funding in Taiwan since his climate-related works are not for sale or for art collectors.



“It’s ironic that many corporate enterprises here in Taiwan talk a lot about eco-friendly beliefs but very few CEOs want to do things like Britain’s Sir Richard Branson,” Huang said.



“Branson puts his money where his mouth is, and uses his public relations clout and his money to sponsor socially-relevant events and eco-art projects.”



Huang said that most people in Taiwan today don’t believe that what is happening to Tuvalu could ever happen to this island nation. “As an artist, I’m surprised that people here still don’t get it and that is a main reason I am doing my art projects. I want to wake people up in Taiwan, too. We are very much part of the ocean world, too.”




When asked how he goes about the time-consuming and arduous task of contacting government officials in a small country like Tuvalu, Huang said he relied on patience and help from the Taiwanese embassy there in conducting what he calls “art diplomacy.”

“My 2010 eco-art project in Tuvalu helped connect me with governmental ministers there, and those connections enabled me to go there again this fall,” he said.




“It took me about 10 months of communicating back and forth via email with Tuvaluan officials and our Taiwanese embassy. Unfortunately, I don’t always succeed with art diplomacy like this, as the government of China tries to interfere.”



Huang was born in 1971 in the small town of Shuili (水里) in Nantou County (南投). When recently asked what led him to pursue the winding path of an artist, Huang said that what really got him going as a young man was the devastating earthquake of September 21, 1999, noting: “The 921 quake destroyed a lot of buildings and homes in Nantou and other counties — and my home, too, was destroyed.



The earthquake made me start to think hard about the relationships between man and nature. As an art major, as a man who wanted to become an artist, I decided I needed to say something about the destructive power of nature through my work.”



Waking people up



When asked whether he considers himself a climate activist or an eco-artist, Huang said he wasn’t looking for a label. “An artist who has an awareness and a sense of responsibility about social or environmental issues takes action to intervene and wake up the world, to act as a bridge on global issues and to offer people a way to see beyond what they normally see in everyday life. I see my job as being to remind people that we are all global citizens who should be aware of and responsible for current and future environmental problems.”



In Tuvalu, Huang set up an installation art piece on a beach that consisted of a fuel truck nozzle tied in a knot. The 4m by 2m artwork also featured an image of a polar bear relaxing in a hammock, symbolizing “the end of the world’s reliance on oil and a move back toward a life of simplicity,” he said.



An earlier project, The Modern Atlantis Project, featured an aquarium installation and revealed his concerns about the excessive use of fossil fuels.



“The closed aquarium symbolized the Earth, our Earth, from which human beings in the name of ‘civilization’ and ‘capitalism’ consume nature freely and limitlessly, and as my project showed, the aquarium itself will gradually be consumed, too,” he said.



Huang said he wanted to present viewers with the idea that our world is doomed if we go on consuming limited natural resources as if there were no tomorrow, greedily and without regard for what life on Earth is all about.



“I’m not a scientist. I’m an artist, so I can’t predict the future in any real way,” he said. “But as an artist who cares about climate change and its impact, I think we need some new approaches to wake people up.”

----------------------------------------------

Vincent Huang’s work was exhibited at the Doha Exposition Center as part of the Qatar Sustainability Expo.

SEE MORE On the Net: www.qatarsustainability.com






Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Causeway Bay Apple staff in Hong Kong brand Taiwanese writer Giddens Ko an 'idiot'


A famous Taiwanese blogger/novelist//filmdirector says
he was called an "idiot" by Apple's Hong Kong staff when he complained
about copyright infringement of his work.


Giddens Ko said he had noticed stories he had
written appearing illegally in Apple's App Store over the past few
years.



However, the iPhone and iPad manufacturer refused to let Ko put about
50 works of fiction into the App Store in the form of free apps,
because the company said it faced difficulty in determining if he was
the legitimate copyright owner.



Ko -- who writes under two separate pen names -- says he wrote dozens of complaints to the company to no avail,
prompting him to head to Apple's Hong Kong office in Causeway Bay
the other day to pursue the matter in person.



Ko's manager Molly Fang Hsiao-ju said when he arrived staff members
asked him to file another written complaint. They refused to let him
see any staff and would not give him the name of the person in charge
of copyright matters.

Ko decided to write his complaint while he was in the Apple office and
asked his manager to record the process. Apple's staff demanded the
pair leave and delete the footage, Fang said, and security guards were
summoned to see them out.



"We did not film Apple's logo or its staff," she said. "In a voice
recording we made, there was one staff member calling us 'idiots' in Chinese."

Police later arrived at the scene but did not make the two delete the video.



As of yesterday, eight out of 10 apps found on the App Store in the

author's name were copyright-infringing, Fang said. Apple once removed

problematic apps when they reported them, but now new pirate copies

popped up after three months, she said.

Staff at Apple's Causeway Bay office refuse to comment on the issue.
The company's press department also did not respond to a written
inquiry from this blog.


Meanwhile, in related news, Shu Hui, Sabine Cheng and Ann Chen report for the Central
News Agency, a semi-government news agency in Taiwan, in a follow up story headlined "Popular Taiwanese author denies pursuing charges against Apple" that there's more here than meets the apple of your eye.


Ko said he did not pursue
copyright infringement charges against Apple Inc. for approving apps
using pirated content of his works.

He also refuted local Taipei media reports, which said that he decided to drop all
charges against Apple after having met with legal personnel at Apple's
headquarters in Hong Kong earlier this week.

Ko's agent also clarified the situation, saying Apple has
removed seven to eight apps with pirated content of Ko's works after
their visit in Hong Kong.

Ko, author of a popular novel and celebrity ''director'' of the popular film "You Are the Apple of My

Eye" based on the novel, recently told media that he has been filing complaints against

Apple for the past two years as several apps on the iTunes Store,

Apple's app store, had infringed upon his copyrights.



But the complaints were not taken seriously by Apple, he said.



He said Apple cited difficulty in discerning copyright as a reason for
refusing to remove apps allegedly violating copyright of his works.



Ko said he has also filed an application with the iTunes Store to

publish an app he jointly developed with a publishing company to allow

users to download 50 of his novels for free.



But Apple declined his application, citing reasons that the

description of the app was not clear and that it should be listed on

iBook, Apple's platform for e-books, instead.



Ko's agent said Tuesday they are still in the process of negotiating

with Apple for Ko's app to be published on the iTunes Store.
  Where will this brouhaha end? Will Hong Kong's Apple people apologize for calling one of Taiwan's bright lights an "idiot" in both Cantonese and Mandarin? Stay tuned.

For island of Tuvalu, time is slowly running out -- OPED by Vincent Huang of Taiwan

Vincent J.F. Huang (黃瑞芳), an eco-artist from Taiwan, writes:



As I write these words, I am preparing to fly to an international climate conference in Doha in Qatar,
as an independent climate activist from Taiwan. COP 18 (the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change) is on tap, and I will go there as part of a delegation from the island
nation of Tuvalu, where I have exhibited some of my eco-art installations before.



While Taiwan does not have many climate activists working in the
international arena, it's my goal to put my stamp as an artist on climate issues worldwide. My goal
is to help wake up the world -- and
Taiwan -- about the very real dangers of unchecked climate change and
global warming in the future.



This week in Doha, I plan to make a plea for

more attention to be paid to people of the Pacific

island of Tuvalu. I created several climate-related art installations

over the past few years to draw more

international attention to the situation Tuvalu is facing in regard to

rising sea levels. It's not going to be a pretty picture if worst comes to worst,

and many islanders and Tuvalu officials are worried.



It's take time and money for an independent artist like me to travel to places

like Tuvalu and Doha, without government support. I've been lucky to get some

travel grants from the Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club. (台北圓山扶輪社) for my first two visits to

Tuvalu, and I'm grateful. Taiwan's ambassador in Tuvalu, Larry Tseng (曾瑞利), was also very helpful

to me.



However, in general, it's difficult for independent artists like me

to get funding in

Taiwan since my climate-related works are not for sale or for investment by art

collectors. Many corporate enterprises in Taiwan talk a lot

about eco-friendly beliefs but very few CEOs want to help me or other Taiwanese artists like me.



I was born in 1971 in the small town of Shuili (水里) in Nantou



County (南投), and as a young man I remember very well the killer earthquake of September 21, 1991.

That earthquake made

me start to think hard about the relationships between man and nature,and then later, as an artist, I knew

I needed to say something about the destructive power of nature through

my works."



So here I am in Qatar attending COP 18, and exhibiting some of my art pieces on the sidelines

of the meetings. I see my job to remind people that we

are all global citizens who should be aware of and responsible for

current and and future environmental problems.



My view of the future for the island nation of Taiwan and the entire planet? I'm worried, but of course I cannot

predict exactly what will happen or when. Will parts of Taipei City be under water someday due to rising sea

levels worldwide when major parts of Greenland and Antarctica glaciers melt? It could happen.



We need some new approaches to wake people up. News

reports, visual images on television and blogs about the earthquake

and tsunami Japan and Superstorm Sandy recently in Manhattan and New

Jersey showed just how unpredictable Nature can be. We Taiwanese need to be on

alert, too. Natural disasters can be up close and real as Typhoon Morakot showed.



And for people living in Arctic regions and in a remote

island nation like Tuvalu, future disasters could be real. As a Taiwanese

eco-artist, I feel we

all need to face these issues no matter where we live on this planet

now. That's why I've come to Qatar.



I feel that the economic system of capitalism is one of the

key reasons for the lack of progress at climate conferences in the past, and

I worry the COP 18 might turn out the same.



Sadly, the leaders of both developing countries and wealthy nations

care only about their own economic situations, and they selfishly

refuse to do much or anything to solve our climate or environmental

issues worldwide.



Next year, I am going to work with an international group hoping to protect the

polar regions of our planet and take part in a three-week visit to the Arctic in

September.



I hope Taiwan can

take a more active part in global efforts on climate issues in the

future, and help to put Taiwan on the world map in a new way, too.

Monday, November 12, 2012

KANO KUSO SONG DEMO



SONG TITLE
Come on! -- KANO Style!



LYRICS GO LIKE THIS. AND THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT. ANYONE CAN USE
THESE WORDS IN ANY WAY THEY WANT, A NEW VIDEO, A TRANSLATION INTO

CHINESE or TAIWANESE, A KUSO RESPONSE ON YOUTUBE, ANYTHING YOU WANT TO DO IS OKAY. THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT. THESE WORDS BELONG TO THE WORLD.
---------



We're the team that did it



At Koshien you could feel it



Inning after inning



Winning! -- we were winning!



-----------



But in the final showdown



It was a sorry let down



Despite that we were itchin'



We came so close, so bitchin'



------



We played out hearts out wild, wild!



Come on ------------------- KANO style !!!!



=========



Never give up, never give up

Koshien was our mountain.

We played so hard -- and almost won...

'till the final countdown....



Never give up, never give up

That's our message to you

From past to present, all you need

is a fighting spirit true



======

So come on, come on -- KANO style....

We played so hard, we played so true

Never give up, it's up to you...

If we could do it, YOU KANO TOO....

Thursday, November 8, 2012

For climate eco-artist, time is of the essence as wake up call looms


The '921' killer earthquake in Taiwan in 1999 inspired

Vincent Huang to devote himself to environmental and climate-related

issues on a global scale. This month he travels to Qatar to attend a

major U.N. climate conference in Doha.




For eco-artist Vincent J.F. Huang (黃瑞芳), all the world's a stage, from

the beaches of Tuvalu to the conference halls of major climate

conferences. This month he's in Qatar in the Middle East to attend a

United Nations climate confab, and he'll be exhibiting some of his

works there.



While Taiwan does not have many climate activists working in the

international arena, Huang is a climate artist with a vision and he's

out to put his stamp on public awareness issues worldwide. Now

in his early 40s, the Nantou County native went overseas to study art

in Scotland and received a master's degree from Grays School of Art

there. Huang's goal is to help wake up the world -- and

his native Taiwan -- about the possible dangers of unchecked climate change and

global warming in the future.



With these issues in mind, Huang has travelled to Qatar this week for

COP 18, a U.N. climate conference, where he plans to make a plea for

more attention to be paid to peple of the Pacific

island of Tuvalu. In September, Huang visited the island nation where

he exhibited some of his works on a picturesque beach and met with

government officials there.



In a recent interview with this blog, Huang said in that he

felt at home there and came back to Taipei impressed by

both the islanders and their government.



"The government and islanders were both very supportive of my two

visits, one in 2010 and one this September, and they

appreciated the eco-art projects I created to try to draw more

international attention to the situation Tuvalu is facing in regard to

climate change and rising sea levels," Huang said.



When asked what kind of impact he feels his eco-art has on viewers

worldwide, Huang said that as an artist, he believes in

the power of art to effect change in attitudes.



"The kind of spectacle art installations I do have a visual impact

that can lead people around the world to not only pay more attention

to the crisis Tuvalu is facing on a daily basis, but also to picture

more vividly the global problems of climate change," he said.



Setting up art installions on remote Pacific island and travelling to

Qatar take time and money, of course. Huang received a travel grant

from the Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club. (台北圓山扶輪社) to fund his two visits to

Tuvalu, he said, and for that he's grateful. The Republic of China's

ambassador in Tuvalu, Larry Tseng (曾瑞利), was also very helpful, he

said.



However, in general, it's difficult for independent artists like Huang

to get funding in

Taiwan since his climate-related works are not for sale or for art

collectors.



"It's ironic that many corporate enterprises here in Taiwan talk a lot

about eco-friendly beliefs but very few CEOs want to do things like

Britain's Sir Richard Branson," Huang said. "Branson puts his money

where his mouth is, and uses his public relations clout and his money

to sponsor socially-relevant events and eco-art projects."



"Most people in Taiwan today don't believe that what is happening to

Tuvalu could ever happen to this island nation," he said. "As an

artist, I'm surprised that people here still don't get it and that is

a main reason I am doing my art projects. I want to wake people up in

Taiwan, too. We are very much part of the ocean world, too."



When asked how he goes about the time-consuming and arduous work of

contacting government officials in a small country like Tuvalu, Huang

said he relied on patience and help from the Taiwanese embassy there

in conducting what he calls "art diplomacy."



"My 2010 eco-art project in Tuvalu helped connect me with governmental

ministers there, and those connections enabled me to go there again

this fall," he said. "It took me about 10 months of communicating back

and forth via email with Tuvaluan officials and our Taiwanese embassy.

Unfortunately, I don’t always succeed with art diplomacy like this, as

the government of China tries to interfere."



Huang was born in 1971 in the small town of Shuili (水里) in Nantou

County (南投). When a reporter asked what led him to pursue the winding

path of an artist, Huang said that what really got him going as a

young man was the killer earthquake of September 21, 1991, noting:

"The 921 quake destroyed a lot of buidlings and homes in Nantou and

other counties -- and my home, too, was destroyed. The earthquake made

me start to think hard about the relationships between man and nature.

As an art major, as a man who wanted to become an artist, I decided I

needed to say something about the destructive power of nature through

my work."





When asked whether he considers himself a climate activist or an

eco-artist, Huang

said he wasn't looking for a label but that "an artist who has an

awareness and a sense of responsibility about social or environmental

issues takes actions to intervene wake up the world, to act as a

bridge on global issues and offer people a way to see beyond what they

normally see in everyday life. I see my job to remind people that we

are all global citizens who should be aware of and responsible for

current and and future environmental problems."





In Tuvalu, Huang set up one installation art piece on a beach that

consisted of a fuel

truck nozzle tied in a knot. The 4m by 2m artwork also featured an

image of a polar bear relaxing in a hammock, and according to the

artist, was set up to symbolize "the end of the world’s reliance on

oil and a move back toward a life of simplicity."



An earlier project, titled ''The Modern Atlantis Project'', featured

an aquarium installation, already showed his concerns about the excessive use of

fossil fuels.



"The closed aquarium symbolized the Earth, our Earth, from which human

beings in the name of 'civilization' and 'capitalism' consume nature

freely and limitlessly, and as my project showed, the aquarium itself

will gradually be consumed, too," Huang said. "I wanted to present

viewers with the idea that our world is doomed if we go on consuming

limited natural resources as if there was no tomorrow, greedily and

without regard for what life on Earth is all about."





"I'm not a scientist, I'm an artist, so I don’t think I can predict

the future in any real way," he said. "But as an artist who cares

about climate change and its impact, I think we need some new

approaches to wake people up."   MORE & FULL TEXT====   TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- November 1, 2012 webposted on blog for private viewing until publication day:   If Taiwan has a climate activist working in the international arena,

it certainly

is Vincent J.F. Huang, a climate eco-artist with a vision. Now

in his early 40s, the Nantou County native went overseas to study art

in Scotland and received a master's degree from Grays School of Art

there. Now his sights are set on trying to wake up the worldm-- and

Taiwan -- about the possible dangers of unchecked climate change and

global warming.



With these issues in mind, Huang is in Qatar this week for a United

Nations climate conference, where he plans to exhibit some of his work

and make a plea for more attention to be paid to peple of the Pacific

island of Tuvalu. He flew to Tuvalu in September where he exhibited

some of his works on the beach and spoke with government officials

there.



When asked how his work was received there, Huang said in a recent

interview that he felt at home there and back to Taipei impressed by

both the islanders and their government.



"The government and islanders were both very supportive of my two

visits, one in 2010 and my second one last September and they

appreciated the eco-art projects I creared to try to draw more

international attention to the situation Tuvalu is facing in regard to

climate change and rising sea levels," Huang said. "I hope to go back

to Tuvalu one day soon, too. I'll be exhibiting some of my

Tuvalu-related work on the sidelines of the meeting this week in

Doha."



When asked what kind of impact he feels his eco-art has on viewers

worldwide, via newspaper articles and photos distributed worldwide via

blogs and the Internet, Huang said that as an artist, he believes in

the power of art to effect change in attitudes.



"The kind of spectacle art installations I do have a visual impact

that can lead people around the world to not only pay more attention

to the crisis Tuvalu is facing on a daily basis, but also to picture

more vividly the global problems of climate change," he said.



Setting up art installions on remote Pacific island and travelling to

Qatar take time and money, of course. Huang received a travel grant

from Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club. (台北圓山扶輪社) to fund his visits to

Tuvalu, he said, and for that he's grateful. The Republic of China's

ambassador in Tuvalu, Larry Tseng (曾瑞利), was also very helpful, Huang

said.



But it's difficult for independent artists like him to get funding in

Taiwan since his climate-related works are not for sale or for art

collectors.



"It's ironic that many corporate enterprises here in Taiwan talk a lot

about eco-friendly beliefs but very few CEOs want to do things like

Britain's Sir Richard Branson," Huang said. "Branson puts his money

where his mouth is, and uses his public relations clout and his money

to sponsor socially-relevant events and eco-art projects."



While Taiwan is not facing the same kind of environmental or climate

crises that Tuvlau does, as an island nation, it still must be on

guard. When asked if Taiwan's

coastline might be threatened if sea

levels rise in the future, with one scientist in Taipei already warning that

parts of Taipei City could be under water by the year 2100, Huang said

he wouldn't be surprised if Taipei was flooded by sea level rises in

the next 100 years, noting: "It used to be a lake some 500 years ago."





"Most people in Taiwan today don't believe that what is happening to

Tuvalu could ever happen to this island nation," he said. "As an

artist, I'm surprised that people here still don't get it and that is

a main reason I am doing my art projects. I want to wake people up in

Taiwan, too. We are very much part of the ocean world, too."



When asked how he goes about the time-consuming and arduous work of

contacting government officials in a small country like Tuvalu, Huang

said he relied on patience and help from the Taiwanese embassy there

in conducting what he calls "art diplomacy."



"My 2010 eco-art project in Tuvalu helped connect me with governmental

ministers there, and those connections enabled me to go there again

this fall," he said. "It took me about 10 months of communicating back

and forth via email with Tuvaluan officials and our Taiwanese embassy.

Unfortunately, I don’t always succeed with art diplomacy like this, as

the government of China tries to interfere."



Huang was born in 1971 in the small town of Shuili (水里) in Nantou

County (南投). When a reporter asked what led him to pursue the winding

path of an artist, Huang said that what really got him going as a

young man was the killer earthquake of September 21, 1991, noting:

"The 921 quake destroyed a lot of buidlings and homes in Nantou and

other counties -- and my home, too, was destroyed. The earthquake made

me start to think hard about the relationships between man and nature.

As an art major, as a man who wanted to become an artist, I decided I

needed to say something about the destructive power of nature through

my work."





When asked whether he considers himself a climate activist or an

eco-artist, Huang

said he wasn't looking for a label but that "an artist who has an

awareness and a sense of responsibility about social or environmental

issues takes actions to intervene wake up the world, to act as a

bridge on global issues and offer people a way to see beyond what they

normally see in everyday life. I see my job to remind people taht we

are all global citizens who should be aware of and responsible for

current and and future environmental problems."





In Tuvalu, Huang set up one installation art piece on a beach that

consisted of a fuel

truck nozzle tied in a knot. The 4m by 2m artwork also featured an

image of a polar bear relaxing in a hammock, and according to the

artist, was set up to symbolize "the end of the world’s reliance on

oil and a move back toward a life of simplicity."



An earlier project, titled ''The Modern Atlantis Project'', featured

an aquarium installation, already showed his concerns about the use of

fossil fuel.



"The closed aquarium symbolized the Earth, our Earth, from which human

beings in the name of 'civilization' and 'capitalism' consume nature

freely and limitlessly, and as my project showed, the aquarium itself

will gradually be consumed, too," Huang said. "I wanted to present

viewers with the idea that our world is doomed if we go on consuming

limited natural resources as if there was no tomorrow, greedily and

without regard for what life on Earth is all about."





Another art piece that Huang designed features images of polar bears

squeezed into oil drums, a concept that he says was inspired by oil

giant Royal Dutch Shell’s plan to drill for oil in the Arctic regions.

When asked if he think Shell is listening to him or even aware of his

artwork,, Huang replied: "No single individual can fight against a

huge company like Shell, but at the same time I have tried to connect

with NGOs who also care about these issues and with artists with the

same concerns. Hopefully, together, we can make it to Kyoto where the

Kyoto protocol was signed."



Huang's view of the future? He's worried, he said, but he cannot

predict exactly what will happen or when.



"I'm not a scientist, I'm an artist, so I don’t think I can predict

the future in any real way," he said. "But as an artist who cares

about climate change and its impact, I don't think that statistics or

research papers and scientific reports -- even by climate activists or

top climate scientists -- can catch public attention or concern in a

meaningful way. We need some new approaches to wake people up. News

reports, visual images on television and blogs about the earthquale

amd tsunami Japan and Superstorm Sandy recently in Manhattan and New

Jersey showed just how unpredictable Nature can be. We need to be on

alert. Most people think these things can never happen to them in

their safe homes in the modern world. But natural disasters can up

close and real. For people living in Arctic regions and in a remote

island nation like Tuvalu, future disasters could be real. I feel we

all need to face these issues no matter where we live on this planet

now."





During his trip to Tuvalu in 2010, Huang waded out to a reef

where you erected a small sculpture of an ugly and sad-looking mermaid

made of dried coconut shells and tiny pieces of palm

trees. The images caught the media's attention in Taiwan and in Tuvalu, and

government officials there invited him to visit the island again and

also asked him to come along as a delegate to the Qatar meetings going

on now.



"I'm looking forward to meeting climate activists from around the

world on this new trip," Huang said. "I hope to get some good feedback

from fellow artists and acitivsts this month on my earlier Tuvlau

projects. We shall see."





Acitivists and scientists keep putting hope in new climate confernces,

and while some progress has been made, there is still a long way to go

to fully protecting the Earth -- and humankind -- from climate-related

disasters in the future.



Huang has strong feelings about this and says that ''capitalism is the

key reason [for the lack of progress at climate conferences]''.



"Sadly, the leaders of both developing countries and wealthy nations

care only about their own economic situations, and they selfishly

refuse to do much or anything to solve our climate or environmental

issues worldwide," Huang says.



But the Taiwanese eco-artist charges on, and remains optimistic.

He has been selected by an international group hoping to protect the

polar regions to take part in a three-week visit to the Arctic next

September where he will present a new art piece and do some

media-related outreach upon his return to Taiwan.



There's also hope at the Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club, Huang said,

noting that a past president of Taipei Rotary, Gary Huang, has been

selected to be global president for Rotary International in for

2014-2015



"I hope to discuss some eco-art events or ideas of mine with Mr. Huang

when he takes the helm of Rotary International for two years, not only

for Tuvalu, but for Taiwan as well, Huang said. "I hope Taiwan can

take a more active part in global efforts on climate issues in the

future, and help to put Taiwan on the world map in a new way, too."

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Jason Sisley Virgin Selling Virginity News Story was Fake PR marketing gimmick

EXPOSED AS FRAUD AND FAKE NOW
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/catarina-migliorini-playboy_n_2339665.html


======================================


Catarina Migliorini ALLEGEDLY Put Her ''Virginity'' Up for ''Auction'' and News Readers of World got ''taken'' on their ''virgin gullibity'' for this PR marketing gimmick:  (Update - News STory was faked and no money has changed hands period and it did not sell for $780,000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GgqQ5yi840&feature=related

davide bean said on November 4, 2012 at 00:09 (EDT) (6172)


QUOTE" This "news" story is most likely a marketing gimmick and PR stunt aka hoax, and there will never be a movie and Natsu does not even exist. Another example of Internet memes and media picking up anything with sex or money in headlines. Watch: this stunt will never cum to Fruition, so to speak. and then what? Jason Sisley punked the world on this one, got his 15 min of fame and funding for his next work. Natsu does not exist.

HAS anyone bothered to ask the director Jason Sisley in OZ if this is a true news story or a mere marketing PR gimmick for his work? SEE? and the girl is a pro model, this was all to advance her career. ''NATSu'' means ''summer'' and eggplant .....GET IT? ..... in Japanese and he does not exist. Wake up news readers of the world. you have nothing to lose but your virgin gullibility!
see?

she was putting up her videos severael months before this WIN, from Jason the OZ director. to this fake model from Brazil, to the Natsu, which means EGGPLANT in nihongo and who does not exist, the entire story is faked, fake, punked, false PR, a PR stunt. Wake up people and read POLAR CITY RED, a real book about coming apocalypse. not apocaLIPS but real thing.

RE: fake news below, read with caution now that you know the truth. It was all PR marketing gimmick.
No truth to any of it at all!

==================================

Catarina Migliorini became a viral sensation last week, when news


broke that the beautiful 20-year-old Brazilian student was auctioning

off her virginity to raise money for impoverished families in her

country. At least that's what was thought at first, but after talking

to the promoter, and director of the Virgins Wanted documentary, the

story was a bit different.



"I was surprised she said that because in all my dealings with her,

she made it clear that it was a business decision for her. Now, given

how big this story is in Brazil, she's trapped. If she doesn't give

any money to charity, she's going to look bad." Australian filmmaker

Justin Sisely said in an exclusive interview.



Virgins Wanted is a documentary following the lives of virgins getting

rid of that virginity. As part of the project's climax, Sisely has

been holding a pair of online auctions in which people can bid for the

chance to deflower Migliorini, 20, or Alex Stepanov, a male.



The auction will be ending on October 15th, and if I thought any of

you would have a shot at winning the bid, I wouldn't have talked about

this story. It's just the stupidest thing ever, why would you pay

$250,000 (which is what the bidding is at now) just to have sex with a

virgin. Even stupider is paying to have sex with a male virgin, he

will be awkward, won't know what to do, and will finish in less than a

minute. I guess that's why the bidding on Alex Stepanov sits at

$1,300. But still, that's a lot of money for disappointment.



But what do you think? Is there anything rediming about this project?

Would you ever do something like this?





FULL Video: http://youtu.be/_lSLTBCw1PU





Source(s):

http://huff.to/ORLWGM



Girl Sells Her Virginity for $780,000, Proceeds to go to Charity

Thu, Oct 25, 2012 10:00 EDT (7461)

Posted by capnasty



The Huffington Post reports that Brasilian Catarina Migliorini has

sold her virginity to a mysterious Japanese man for a quarter of a

million dollars. The proceeds will, reportedly, go for charity. And,

looking at the math, one vagina is worth 260 penises.



The 20-year-old Brazilian woman has been auctioning off her virginity

online for the past few weeks and a man from Japan known as "Natsu"

came out on top with the winning bid.



Natsu beat out five other bidders after a feverish final day where the

price of Migliorini's virtue jumped from $190,000 on Oct. 23 to the

final $780,000 price tag.



The news wasn't so good for her male counterpart, Alex Stepanov, whose

virginity only racked up $3,000 from a woman in Brazil named "Nene B."




Friday, November 2, 2012

Why Climate Denialists are in Denial

Dear Sir

You as a polar cities climate activist may not be familiar with James Lovelock's current views. He recently said “The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened”. He also said "The retreat will be toward the poles," and "I have seen Dan Bloom's POLAR CITIES ideas on his website, and it may very well happen someday, but not until 500 or 1000 years. Still, it will happen."




There are two big debates on sea level at the moment. The first debate - is sea level increasing at a rate of 2mm/year or 3mm/year. You can find reputable scientists on both sides of this debate, but anyone can calculate either rate would not create a difficult problem. The second debate is about the future. The range at 2100 is much larger, 20 cm to 2 meters. Obvioulsly an increase of a meter would be more difficult to deal with. Naturally this rate will depend on the future of temperatures. The range for that is also wide, but no one thinks it will rise signicantly in the next decade.



People is Tuvalu have a real issue to deal with, giant, open-air garbage pits (see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10... ). Couple that with the low availability of jobs and I would say they have more important issues to worry about than a few cm of sea level rise.

Less than 4,000 Days Left to Surf the Maldives?

Andrew Coleman,  an Environmentalist/Surfer/Blogger , writes:

October 16, 2012



According to Michael Mann, a top climate scientist, we may have less than 4,000 days to savor those idyllic reef breaks and – more seriously – about 400,000 people will be looking for a new home.


Here’s a sad idea for surf tourism companies, and I’m not sure I should even suggest it: selling trips to spots which are going to disappear within a decade.



Michael Mann, a top climate scientist, has predicted that small island nations will have to be evacuated within ten years as sea levels rise and saltwater infiltrates drinking water supplies. Mann largely cites the melting of Arctic sea ice at rates much higher than the models upon which the governments have predicated their assumptions. Others, like James Lovelock, have also criticized the models for not including the effects of greenhouse gases released when the earth and seas warm. And others, like Danny Bloom, predicts that only POLAR CITIES for survivors of climate chaos worldwide in the future, will save humankind. READ Jim Laughter's new novel POLAR CITY RED on Kindle or Nook now to see a fictional take on all this!

http://pcillu101.blogspot.com



The low-lying islands that are threatened include Kiribati (population 78,000), the Maldives (population 269,000), the Marshall Islands (population 58,000), Tokelau (population 2,000), and Tuvalu (population 9,000).



Michael Mann hopes that the immediate threat of climate change refugees and the loss of ancient cultures may provide a wake-up call to the world’s governments. I’m not so sure that this argument will have any effect. Wasn’t it the US that leaned on Britain to evacuate Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to set up a military base without thinking about the effect on the refugees?



My optimistic side wonders if the world’s top surfers and their sponsors could react to the possibility of losing the Maldives and countless other photogenic surf spots they use to sell themselves to pressure governments, corporations and people to take urgent action on reducing climate change. Perhaps they’ll feel a moral responsibility to the climate change refugees because surfers are partly to blame for the climate change since they’ve been flocking to these islands by the polluting plane-load?



Otherwise we may only have less than 4,000 days to savor those idyllic reef breaks and – more seriously – about 400,000 people will be looking for a new home.



Lifting the curse of Apollo: Climate change as metaphor and reality


The threats posed by global warming are situated primarily in the future, despite some claims of present harm. RICHARD FALKS WRITES:

09 Oct 2012 08:55




Global warming is producing a series of disastrous effects like extreme weather, polar and glacial melting, droughts and flooding, ocean warming and acidification, desertification, destruction of coral reefs and fisheries [EPA]

The fertile mythic mind of ancient Greece gave us a tragically relevant tale, told in different versions, of how the Greek God Apollo cursed the beautiful and humanly engaging Cassandra.



According to the myth, Apollo was so captivated by Cassandra's beauty and charm that, he conferred upon her the gift of prophecy, which enabled her to foretell the future with startling accuracy.



But the gift came with a rather large macho string attached: Apollo expected in return that Cassandra would become his willing love partner, but she by tradition and disposition, was unwilling to abandon her virginity and refused Apollo's crude entreaty.



Angered by this defiance, Apollo devised a cruel curse which haunted the virtuous and talented young woman. She would enjoy the ability to foretell the future, but henceforth she would never be believed.



Such a twin destiny in time drove Cassandra insane.



Surely, a classic miscarriage of justice was deliberately produced by a vain and petty god. Or is it the lesson that we humans, as mere mortals, are expected always to cast aside our morals and virtues whenever the gods so demand?



Prophesy in the pre-modern world





The sad story of Cassandra's destruction is suggestive of the dilemma confronting the climate change scientific community. In modern civilisation, interpreting scientific evidence and projecting trends, is a close equivalent to the role of sanctified prophecy in the pre-modern world.





In-depth coverage of the COP17 in Durban, South Africa

Just as Hellenic oracles were often wrong or so vague as to be of little guidance, science can be misleading or even mistaken, but its interpretations of trends is treated by the modern mind as a reliable foundation for shaping policy and making decisions.



Modernity has generally proceeded on this basis, applying knowledge via technology to bring greater material benefits to humanity, including longer and healthier lives.



The culture has placed its highest trust in the scientific community as the voice of reason, and modernity has been shaped by allowing scientific truth and instrumental reason to supersede superstition and religious revelation.



Galileo's capitulation to the authority of the Catholic Church is the insignia of the pre-modern worldview that made religion the incontestable source of truth and treated contrary scientific assertions as punishable by torture, even death.



Of course, science also complicated the human condition in adverse ways, especially in the setting of conflict. The most notorious example, dangling a sword of Damocles above human civilisation, is the development, use and deployment of nuclear weaponry.



Overall, science and scientists have helped society decide how to develop most efficiently and have helped most persons lead healthier and longer lives.



The world scientific community has spoken with as much authority as it can gather in relation to climate change. The UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), drawing on the work of thousands of climate specialists around the world, has concluded that the continuation of greenhouse gas emissions at current rates, as a result of human activities, is almost certain to cause a disastrous level of global warming, that is, above 2 degrees centigrade.



Such a result will produce, and is already producing, a series of disastrous effects on planet earth that cannot be adequately explained by natural weather cycles: extreme weather; polar and glacial melting; droughts and flooding; ocean warming and acidification; desertification; destruction of coral reefs and fisheries.



Among the predicted societal effects, already felt in various places, especially sub-Saharan Africa would be food insecurity, ethnic conflict, environmental migrants and climate refugees, and recourse to coercive patterns of governance.



Well-evidenced warnings ignored





Depending on how much global warming takes place over what period of time, there are even more dire predictions being made by reputable observers (James Hansen, Bill McKibben and James Lovelock), of civilisational collapse and even threats to the survival of the human species.







Counting the Cost - The cost of climate change



Why is the strong consensus of the scientific community so ineffectual on this issue? Why are its well-evidenced warnings being ignored? The full story is complicate and controversial, and not without some ambiguities.



There are several underlying explanations. States primarily look after national interests and are reluctant to co-operate when expected burdens on economic prosperity and the profitability of capital are likely to be heavy. This is particularly true when the complexities of an issue make it almost impossible to agree upon an allocation of economic responsibility for reversing the buildup of greenhouse gasses over the course of several centuries.



Ordinary people are mainly reluctant to give up present gains to offset alleged future risks, especially when the sky that they daily see looks no different, massive poverty exists and most of the current harm is being experienced either as random events (a storm or drought here and there) or far beyond the limits of national sovereignty.



Further, politicians are far less moved to action by risks that will not materialise for some decades, given the short cycles of political accountability that almost totally judges performance on the basis of immediate results.



In addition, the worst current effects of global warming are taking place in countries like sub-Saharan Africa which make only minimal contributions to emissions, and so there is a mismatch between the sites of greatest emissions and sites of maximal current harm.



Finally, those with strong vested interests in refusing to curtail present uses of fossil fuels, have the incentive, as well as the resources, to fund a counter-narrative that contends that the asserted threat of global warming is nothing other than a hoax designed to deprive ordinary people the benefits of economic growth.



It must be admitted that the threats posed by global warming are situated primarily in the future. Despite some claims of present harm, there is always an element of uncertainty as to the reliability of predicted effects.



This makes it almost certain that there will be some scientists who sincerely dissent from the prevailing views, and this seems more likely if their research is funded by those with an interest in promoting climate skepticism.



There is also a corporate mentality that remains genuinely convinced that a technological fix will emerge in time to address whatever truths are embedded in predictions of harm from global warming. Already there are some expensive geo-engineering "fixes" being funded at the blueprint stage, which may or may not work as proposed and may cause great harm as unintended side effects of interfering with atmospheric chemistry.



Climate change negotiations





The blind faith in a technological rescue, however, is deeply embedded in the economic and political consciousness of many of those that exert influence upon governments making it even more likely that scientific guidance will continue to go largely unheeded.



What then is the relevance of the curse of Apollo? By making the political process in a world of sovereign states primarily responsive to the siren call of money and technophilia, the guidance of science is marginalised.



More explicitly, when money in large quantities does not want something to happen, and there is no countervailing monetary resources to offset the pressures being exerted, knowledge tends to be subordinated to special interests. The dismal truth seems to be that most societies around the world in the course of becoming modern adhere more to the premises of materialistic civilisation more than to those of scientific civilisations.



This picture is somewhat blurred by the fact that the scientific consensus is endorsed by most governments at the level of rhetoric, but without the accompanying political will needed to change the relevant pattern of behaviour.



If we look at the declarations being endorsed by governments at the annual UN climate change gatherings, we might be surprised by the degree to which political leaders are willing to affirm their acceptance of the scientific consensus on climate change. Their language even recognises the urgency of taking drastic action in response to the climate change challenge.



At the same time, these same governments in their diplomatic roles use every trick at their disposal to make sure that no obligations are imposed. And so the no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at levels in accordance with the recommendations of the scientists, and in fact, the saturation of the atmosphere intensifies and may have already crossed thresholds making even emergency action too late.



The case of the United States is exemplary. It remains the largest per capita emitting country, although surpassed for the last couple of years by China in relation to aggregate total emissions. It remains the world leader in relation to the formation of global policy on problems of planetary dimension.



It has been led in the past decade by one president who was distinctly anti-environmental and another who once talked the talk of environmentalism, and yet the approach of these two American leaders has been basically the same - avoid all binding commitments that might encroach upon present or future economic growth.











Inside Story - Is climate change a global

security threat?



In effect, it has been the US, more than any country - even during the Obama presidency - that has poured ice water on international climate change negotiations.



Bemoaning the onset of a tragedy?





There are some explanations for this disappointing de facto official American accommodation to the position of the climate skeptics, thereby wasting valuable adjustment time: an economic crisis at home and abroad that makes it politically difficult to weaken in any way economic prospects for jobs or growth by invoking environmental concerns, a reactionary Congress that would block appropriations and national commitments associated with climate change, a presidential leadership that tends to shun controversial issues, and a public that cares about its immediate material wellbeing while being rather dismissive of asserted worries about the future.



The long struggle to discourage smoking due to its health risks illustrates both the frustrations of the scientific community, the ambivalence of politicians and the powerful obfuscating tactics of the tobacco industry.



But smoking was easier: the health impacts could be addressed by individual action in response to what the scientific community was advising; there were few societal effects produced by a refusal to heed the warnings; time was not a factor except on a personal level; and adverse results were often concrete and afflicted the rich almost as much as the poor.



In this sense, unlike climate change, there was a correlation between the harmful activity and the adverse effects on health, and less need for governmental action. A more hopeful note is that over time, the scientific view prevailed at least to the point where the health hazards of smoking are beyond dispute and the distribution of cigarettes is heavily regulated and taxed.



Apollo's curse, then, can be understood either in terms of the undue and destructive influence of money, undue faith in technological innovation, or as the cool aid of unconditional economic growth under present conditions of global warming and some additional issues of ecological sustainability.



The warnings of the scientific community, while not quiet voices in the wilderness, do increasingly seem shrill shouts of frustration that are only likely to intensify in the years to come as the evidence mounts and the heedlessness persists. Whether this induces civilisational madness remains to be seen.



Perhaps, it is more likely, that most scientists will begin to feel as if members of a classic Greek theatre chorus that bemoans the onset of a tragedy while recognising their helplessness to prevent its unfolding before their eyes.



Perhaps, it is easier to remain sane if part of a chorus than fated to make the life journey alone, an experience that undoubtedly added to the inevitability of Cassandra's personal tragedy.



Richard Falk is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.



'Memoirs' by Mr Kuo recall Japan’s wartime rule over Taiwan in the 1940s

LETTER TO EDITOR


TAIPEI TIMES

November 3, 2012

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2012/11/03/2003546750




Wartime lessons help us all

DEAR EDITOR

Thank you for Dan Bloom's culture article headlined “Memoirs recall Japan’s wartime rule over Taiwan in the 1940s” (Nov. 1, page 12), and thanks to Mr Tony Kuo (郭天祿), who translated into English his father’s memoirs of life under Japanese rule and as a soldier for the Japanese.
This type of research needs to be carried out to enlighten us to a fascinating and under-studied period of World War II and the years prior to the war.
Tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Imperial Japanese Army. As in Tony Kuo’s father’s diary, their story needs to be told.
I have always been interested in the US bombing of Taiwan. At the National 228 Memorial Museum in 228 Park there is an exhibit on the bombing of Taipei by the US. The Presidential Office and Longshan Temple were just two of the many buildings bombed in those air raids in an effort to defeat the Japanese occupiers of Taiwan.
I recall religious Taiwanese friends’ stories that some of the bombs dropping from the air were caught by “guardian angels” of the people below. If only those stories were true: So many suffered during the war, on all sides of the conflict.
Let us tell the stories of those who lived through those times in the hope that such violence will never happen again.
Academic research, oral histories and newspaper articles such as this can only enlighten us to those terrible times.

 

Sincerely,
Dave Hall
in Taipei

Superstorm Sandy and POLAR CITIES in the future

Anyone who lived through Superstorm Sandy or has seen the images released by media worldwide of sea level rise due to storm surge can no longer DENY that when CLIMATE CHAOS comes to the EARTH in the next few centuries, and billions die and millions survive in POLAR CITIES in the north, it will look alot like SUPERSTORM SANDY did in 2012. The October storm served as a global wake up call for what is coming, and Jim Laughter's novel POLAR CITY RED, read it today, describes it all very well IN FICTION.

Superstorm Sandy was not fiction, she was FACT. Jim's book is mere fiction, but there are TRUTHS inside the book as well. READ IT and WEEP. READ IT AND TAKE ACTION NOW to prevent climate chaos from happening.

http://pcillu101.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Interview with Polar Cities Research Institute Director Dan Bloom -- conducted by Jim Laughter

Note to readers: As author of the new climate thriller, ''Polar City Red'', that was inspired by climate activist Danny Bloom, I had the opportunity to pick his brain about the current state of the Earth’s ecosystem. Danny has long been a proponent of the theory that global warming will eventually render the Earth’s atmosphere uninhabitable, causing the near-extinction of the human race if we are not careful and do not take steps to alleviate the problems now. I wrote ''Polar City Red'' based partly on his ideas, and centered on much of the research that he provided to me. With this in mind, I want to dig even deeper into the mind of this climate activist and unravel a few of his inner thoughts. Hang on. I have a feeling this is going to be an exciting ride!

-- JIM LAUGHTER,
author of POLAR CITY RED
www.jimlaughter.com

JIM LAUGHTER: Dan, you were the inspiration for my novel titled ''Polar City Red'', and have been privy to every step of its development. Now, six months after publication, what's your take on the message of the book, and does it fall in line with how you see global warming affecting the Earth in the future?


DAN BLOOM: Jim, from the moment I began reading your novel chapter by chapter as you wrote it last year and this, I felt that finally someone has put the concepts of what polar city life might be like inside the covers of a fiction novel. The arguments and statistics that scientists use to illustrate climate change and global warming --and the arguments by the climate skeptics and climate denialists to say that climate change is a hoax -- can only go so far in convincing the public it is real and to take action. But to put the ideas and emotions into a fiction novel with real characters interacting with time and space and climate science, you are a pioneer in the science fiction field, what I like to call CLI FI for climate fiction. Your book puts all the science and stats into a work of fiction and makes it all even more real. Your book touched me deeply. I do hope it finds a wide audience world-wide, and someday in translation as well for readers in Japan and Germany and Sweden, among other nations.


JIM: Dan, according to your ideas, and taking into consideration humanity even back to the prehistoric caveman days, there have already been about 180,000 generations of humans on this planet. Now you predict the Earth can sustain only another 30 generations before the ecosystem causes humanity to become extinct or near extinct, with maybe just a few hundred thousand humans left on Earth. If this is true, what is your analysis, and more importantly, what is the solution to fix the problem?

DAN: You know, Jim, I cannot see the future, I can only guess and estimate and put forward some ideas. I do believe that we have about 30 generations left to fix the problems OR ELSE. And I am hopeful that we will find a way to fix the Co2 emissions problems and stop our use of coal and oil, and all fossil fuels. I am an optimist, and even as your novel ends in the epilogue on a positive, optimistic note, I also agree that humans can solve the problems future generations face, but it's going to take some serious work.

QUESTION: Dan, you’ve developed an idea that once global warming destroys the Earth’s ecosystem, the human race will be forced to escape to the Arctic Circle and other frigid areas of the world to survive, and they’ll do it living in what you’ve termed Polar Cities. Please explain how these polar cities will be established, how they’ll be governed, and how they’ll be maintained to ensure the survival of the human race.

DAN: Good question, Jim! Again, I am just postulating. I cannot "see" the future. But the way I see all this unfolding is this: Slowly, over the next few centuries, the global temperature of the Earth warms up 4 to 7 degrees . Life in the central regions become impossible for humans due to lack of growing seasons, lack of food, lack of power and fuel. Drought is imminent. As a result, slowly, individually and in waves, people start making the trek north to Alaska and Canada. They find refuge as climate refugees in polar cities. They will be governed by the USA, Canada, Russia, etc., and also by the UN, which will by then be based in Greenland. Who will get in and who will not be admitted will become vexing questions. I do not have the answers. I see a kind of scary sci fi scenario pretty much as you wrote in your novel, complete with marauding bands of scavengers and other murderous elements. It won’t be very pleasant. Life will be difficult, but at least it will be life.


QUESTION: Global warming to many people is like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. We’ve heard about them all of our lives but no one has ever actually seen them. What can you say to convince the average person on the street that global warming is real, and that it will eventually affect everything in their lives or the lives of their future generations?



DAN: You know, Jim, there is not much I can say to wake people up. They need to wake up on their own. We cannot force people to wake up. Nature might do it, as the recent Superstorm Sandy showed amazing images of destruction. Your book is a big wake up call. We need movies, TV shows, college courses about polar cities. But all that comes later. I do not know how to wake people up. But I am sure that anyone who reads your book cover to cover will never be the same.


QUESTION: When I wrote Polar City Red, I did it strictly as a fictional account of one possible outcome caused by global warming. How close to you think I got to reality?



DAN: As a mere reader, I think you hit the nail on the head! You used your novelist's imagination to take all the scientific statistics and theories and turn out an emotional adventure thriller that would make one hell of a TV movie of the week or even a National Geographic "what if" kind of documentary.



QUESTION: You’ve been an ardent student of Dr. James Lovelock, a prominent advocate of global warming; a man that has written books about global warming, and who predicted the almost immediate end of the human race due to the effects of global warming. Now Dr. Lovelock has revised his theory and says the end of humanity may come much later than his previous predictions. As his student, how has his change of heart affected your personal outlook on the dangers of global warming?



DAN: Good question. Actually, Lovelock, who has seen my polar cities website and images and wrote back to me saying, "this may very well happen and soon", still believes in climate change and global warming. But he just moved the time frame from 2100 AD to around 2500 AD or 3000 AD in his opinion. And that's fine. Nobody knows the real time frame. But it will happen. Climate chaos threatens the human species, but it won't happen real bad for another 100 to 1000 years. I am with Dr. Lovelock and he is with me. He said the best retreat is toward the poles. I got that idea from him. Polar cities, the concept, comes from Dr. Lovelock, directly. He is the genius here.


QUESTION: I saw an article that describes your vision of what Polar Cities will look like in the future. According to the pictures, they will be mostly underground structures designed for single and multiple families and will be sustained by geothermal energy and other non-fossil fuel energy sources. How do you propose to tap the energy sources of the Earth without causing further damage to the atmosphere and ecosystem?



DAN: You keep asking good questions, and I don't have the answers to that. But I can tell you this: we need to stop depending on coal and oil as soon as possible. We need to tighten the noose around coal and oil soon, yesterday! But to answer your questions, scientists can answer that best of all. You are a novelist and your novel answered the questions very well. I am just a dreamer with a sense of public relations. But I am not a scientist. I do hope wind and solar and ocean tide energy can be harnessed soon. No more oil or coal use, please!





QUESTION: If your Polar Cities theory becomes reality and humanity is forced to evacuate the lower hemisphere for a more northern climate, do you predict the surviving humans will live in an advanced technological state, or do you predict we’ll regress to a pre-industrial lifestyle? What is your reason for either answer?



DAN: Another great question! I predict that we will regress to pre-industrial lifestyles, and people will live very much as people lived in the 1500s. It won't be a pretty picture. But some of our descendants will survive and make it through. I am an optimist. I see your book as an optimistic book. The ending is perfect.



QUESTION: In my book, Polar City Red, I’ve drawn attention a number of governmental conspiracy theories where the U.S. and other worldwide governments have been creating underground cities since the 1950s in order to save the wealthy elite of the world, leaving the rest of us poor slobs to slug it out for ourselves. If your Polar City theory becomes reality, how will you ensure that the average citizen is deemed worthy to survive?



DAN: You are so right, and your novel describes it well. Polar city life will be run by those who power and connections, and the average Joe will not get in. It will really be the scavengers against the polar city residents. Humanity will descend into chaos, and there will be billions of dead people. From a world population of say 10 billion or even 25 billion when the bad stuff happens, maybe at most 200,000 will survive in polar cities. I do hope people read your book and wake up. No more business as usual. And again, Superstorm Sandy, while not caused by global warming, is a wake-up call, too. Or the images from it should be a global wake-up call about sea level rises and disaster preparedness.


QUESTION: Dan, what's next for you and your Polar City project? Will you continue to hammer away at the politicians and scientists that have their heads buried in the sands of denial, or will you think to yourself, “Hell, I’ll be dead and gone before all of this crap hits the fan. Let the future generations fend for themselves?”



DAN: Jim, this is now my life's work. I will continue 24/7 until I am dead. And then I hope others will carry on the Polar City ideas. I care about the future. I care about people 500 years from now. I don't know why, but I do. I really do care. I think it's because I love life so much and I love what human beings have achieved, too. I don't want to see this human species end. It would be a shame if it did. So I am speaking out until I am dead. Your book will last a long time, perhaps for 500 years in print and in electronic archives.


FINAL NOTE FROM JIM LAUGHTER: Thanks, Dan, for letting me pick your brain. I hope you enjoyed ''Polar City Red'', and I hope other people around the world will buy it, read it, enjoy it, and heed its warning.




-- Jim Laughter