Capitalism and Environmental Catastrophe

Capitalism and Environmental Catastrophe

by John Bellamy Foster

John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff at Occupy Wall Street.  Photo by Carrie Ann Naumoff

The Occupy Wall Street movement arose in response to the economic crisis of capitalism, and the way in which the costs of this were imposed on the 99 percent rather than the 1 percent.  But "the highest expression of the capitalist threat," as Naomi Klein has said, is its destruction of the planetary environment.  So it is imperative that we critique that as well.¹




I would like to start by pointing to the seriousness of our current environmental problem and then turn to the question of how this relates to capitalism.  Only then will we be in a position to talk realistically about what we need to do to stave off or lessen catastrophe.

How bad is the environmental crisis?  You have all heard about the dangers of climate change due to the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere -- trapping more heat on earth.  You are undoubtedly aware that global warming threatens the very future of the humanity, along with the existence of innumerable other species.  Indeed, James Hansen, the leading climatologist in this country, has gone so far as to say this may be "our last chance to save humanity."²

But climate change is only part of the overall environmental problem.  Scientists, led by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, have recently indicated that we have crossed, or are near to crossing, nine "planetary boundaries" (defined in terms of sustaining the environmental conditions of the Holocene epoch in which civilization developed over the last 12,000 years): climate change, species extinction, the disruption of the nitrogen-phosphorus cycles, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, freshwater usage, land cover change, (less certainly) aerosol loading, and chemical use.  

Each of these rifts in planetary boundaries constitutes an actual or potential global ecological catastrophe.  Indeed, in three cases -- climate change, species extinction, and the disruption of the nitrogen cycle -- we have already crossed planetary boundaries and are currently experiencing catastrophic effects.  We are now in the period of what scientists call the "sixth extinction," the greatest mass extinction in 65 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs; only this time the mass extinction arises from the actions of one particular species -- human beings.  Our disruption of the nitrogen cycle is a major factor in the growth of dead zones in coastal waters.  Ocean acidification is often called the "evil twin" of climate change, since it too arises from carbon dioxide emissions, and by negatively impacting the oceans it threatens planetary disruption on an equal (perhaps even greater) scale.  The decreased availability of freshwater globally is emerging as an environmental crisis of horrendous proportions.³

All of this may seem completely overwhelming.  How are we to cope with all of these global ecological crises/catastrophes, threatening us at every turn?  Here it is important to grasp that all of these rifts in the planetary system derive from processes associated with our global production system, namely capitalism.  If we are prepared to carry out a radical transformation of our system of production -- to move away from "business as usual" -- then there is still time to turn things around; though the remaining time in which to act is rapidly running out.

Let's talk about climate change, remembering that this is only one part of the global environmental crisis, though certainly the most urgent at present.  Climate science currently suggests that if we burn only half of the world's proven, economically accessible reserves of oil, gas, and coal, the resulting carbon emissions will almost certainly raise global temperatures by 2° C (3.6° F), bringing us to what is increasingly regarded as an irreversible tipping point -- after which it appears impossible to return to the preindustrial (Holocene) climate that nourished human civilization.  At that point various irrevocable changes (such as the melting of Arctic sea ice and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, and the release of methane from the tundra) will become unstoppable.  This will speed up climate change, while also accelerating vast, catastrophic effects, such as rising sea levels and extreme weather.  Alternatively, if our object is the rational one of keeping warming below 2° C, climate science now suggests that we should refrain from burning more than a quarter of the proven, economically exploitable fossil fuel reserves (unconventional sources such as tar sands are excluded from this calculation).⁴

The central issue in all of this, it is important to understand, is irreversibility.  Current climate models indicate that if we were to cease burning fossil fuels completely at the point that global average temperature had increased by 2°C, or 450 parts per million (ppm) carbon concentration in the atmosphere (the current level is 390 ppm), the earth would still not be close to returning to a Holocene state by the year 3000.  In other words, once this boundary is reached, climate change is irreversible over conceivable human-time frames.⁵  Moreover, the damage would be done; all sorts of catastrophic results would have emerged.

Recently climate scientists, writing for Nature magazine, one of the world's top science publications, have developed a concrete way of understanding the planetary boundary where climate change is concerned, focusing on the cumulative carbon emissions budget.  This is represented by the trillionth ton of carbon.  So far more than 500 billion tons of carbon have been emitted into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.  In order to have an approximately even chance (50-50) of limiting the increase in global average temperature to 2°C, the cumulative CO2 emissions over the period 1750-2050 must not exceed one trillion tons of carbon; while in order to have a 75 percent chance of global warming remaining below 2°C, it is necessary not to exceed 750 billion tons of carbon.  Yet, according to present trends, the 750 billionth ton of carbon will be emitted in 2028, i.e., about sixteen years from now.

If we are to avoid burning the 750 billionth ton of carbon over the next four decades, carbon dioxide emissions must fall at a rate of 5 percent per year; while to avoid emitting the trillion ton, emissions must drop at a rate of 2.4 percent a year.  The longer we wait the more rapid the decrease that will be necessary.  The trillionth ton, viewed as the point of no return, is the equivalent of cutting down the last palm tree on Easter Island.  After that it is essentially out of our hands. ⁶

This takes us to the social question.  The problem we face when it comes to the appropriate response to impending climate catastrophe is not so much one of climate science -- beyond understanding the environmental parameters in which we must act -- as social science.  It is an issue of social conditions and social agency.  We live in in a capitalist society, which means a society in which the accumulation of capital, i.e., economic growth carried out primarily on the terms of the 1 percent at the top (the ruling capitalist class), is the dominant tendency.  

It is a system that accumulates capital in one phase simply so that it can accumulate still more capital in the next phase -- always on a larger scale.  There is no braking mechanism in such a system and no social entity in control.  If for some reason the system slows down (as it is forced to periodically due to its own internal contradictions) it enters an economic crisis.  That may be good temporarily for the environment, but it is terrible for human beings, particularly the bottom portion of the 99 percent, faced with rising unemployment and declining income.

Overall, capitalism is aimed at exponential growth.  It cannot stand still.  The minimum adequate growth rate of the system is usually thought to be 3 percent.  But this means that the economy doubles in size about every 24 years.  How many such doublings of world output can the planet take?

Hence, there is a direct and growing contradiction between capitalism and the environment, a contradiction that becomes more and more apparent as the size of the capitalist economy begins to rival the basic biogeochemical processes of the planet.  Naomi Klein has rightly characterized the age we live in as "disaster capitalism" because of its dual economic and ecological crises -- and due to the increasingly exploitative means the rich employ to enable them to prosper in the midst of increasing destruction.⁷

There are two predominant ways of addressing the climate crisis and the environmental problem generally.  One is to look for technological ways out -- often seen as being spurred by the creation of carbon markets, but the onus is on the technology.  The argument here is that through the massive introduction of various advanced technologies we can have our pie and eat it too.  We can get around the environmental problem, it is suggested, without making any fundamental social changes.  Thus, the pursuit of profits and accumulation can go on as before without alteration.  

Such magic-technological answers are commonly viewed as the only politically feasible ones, since they are attractive to corporate and political-power elites, who refuse to accept the need for system change.  Consequently, the establishment has gambled on some combination of technological miracles emerging that will allow them to keep on doing just as they have been doing.  Predictably, the outcome of this high-stake gamble has been a failure not only to decrease carbon emissions, but also to prevent their continued increase.

The turn to those alternative technologies that are already available (for example, solar power) has been hindered by the fact that they are often less profitable or require changes in social organization to be implemented effectively.  As a result, greater emphasis is placed on: (1) nuclear energy (a Faustian bargain if there ever was one); and (b) carbon capture and sequestration technology for coal-fired plants, which is neither economically nor ecologically feasible at present, and hence only serves to keep coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, going.  

Beyond this the only option that the vested interests (the 1% and their hangers-on) have left is to push for geoengineering technologies.  This involves such measures as dumping sulfur dioxide particles in the atmosphere to block the suns rays (with the danger that photosynthesis might be decreased), or fertilizing the ocean with iron to promote algal growth and absorb carbon (with the possibility that dead zones might expand).  These geoengineering schemes are extremely dubious in terms of physics, ecology, and economics: all three.  They involve playing God with the planet.  Remember the Sorcerer's Apprentice!

Nevertheless, such technological fantasies, bordering on madness, continue to gain support at the top.  This is because attempts to shift away from our currently wasteful society in the direction of rational conservation, involving changes in our way of life and our form of production, are considered beyond the pale -- even when the very survival of humanity is at stake.

The other approach is to demand changes in society itself; to move away from a system directed at profits, production, and accumulation, i.e., economic growth, and toward a sustainable steady-state economy.  This would mean reducing or eliminating unnecessary and wasteful consumption and reordering society -- from commodity production and consumption as its primary goal, to sustainable human development.  This could only occur in conjunction with a move towards substantive equality.  It would require democratic ecological and social planning.  It therefore coincides with the classical objectives of socialism.

Such a shift would make possible the reduction in carbon emissions we need.  After all, most of what the U.S. economy produces in the form of commodities (including the unnecessary, market-related costs that go into the production of nearly all goods) is sheer waste from a social, an ecological -- even a long-term economic -- standpoint.  Just think of all the useless things we produce and that we are encouraged to buy and then throw away almost the moment we have bought them.  Think of the bizarre, plastic packaging that all too often dwarfs the goods themselves.  

Think of military spending, running in reality at $1 trillion a year in the United States.  Think of marketing (i.e. corporate spending aimed at persuading people to buy things they don't want or need), which has reached $1 trillion a year in this country alone.  Think of all the wasted resources associated with our financial system, with Wall Street economics.  It is this kind of waste that generates the huge profits for the top 1 percent of income earners, and that alienates and impoverishes the lives of the bottom 99 percent, while degrading the environment.⁸

What we need therefore is to change our economic culture.  We need an ecological and social revolution.  We have all the technologies necessary to do this.  It is not primarily a technological problem, because the goal here would no longer be the impossible one of expanding our exploitation of the Earth beyond all physical and biological limits, ad infinitum.  Rather the goal would be to promote human community and community with the earth.  Here we would need to depend on organizing our local communities but also on creating a global community -- where the rich countries no longer imperialistically exploit the poor countries of the world.  You may say that this is impossible, but the World Occupy Movement would have been declared impossible only a month ago.  If we are going to struggle, let us make our goal one of ecological and social revolution -- in defense of humanity and the planet.

Notes

1  Naomi Klein, blurb to Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster, What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2011).
2  James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009).
3  See the discussion (and sources cited) in John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the Earth (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010), 13-19.
4  Malte Meinshausen, et al., "Greenhouse-Gas Emission Targets for Limiting Global Warming to 2°C," Nature 458 (April 30, 2009): 1158-62; Heidi Cullen, The Weather of the Future (New York: Harpers, 2010), 264-71; "On the Way to Phasing Out Emissions," Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, April 30, 2009.
5  Susan Solomon, et al, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. 6 (February 10, 2009): 1704-1709; Cullen, Weather of the Future, 264-71.  It should be noted that even a target of stabilizing the climate at less than 2°C increase in global temperatures, or 450 ppm, would be inadequate.  Hansen indicates that we will reach critical tipping points, e.g., related to sea level rise, even before that stage.  If we truly wish to avoid such effects and maintain a stable Holocene state, he argues, we will need to stabilize the climate long-term at 350 ppm carbon concentration, or approximately 1°C increase in global average temperature -- a point that we have already exceeded.  See Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren, 160-71.
6  Myles Allen, et al., "The Exit Strategy," Nature Reports Climate Change, April 30, 2009; Cullen, Weather of the Future, 264-71; Myles R. Allen, et al., "Warming Caused by Cumulative Carbon Emissions Towards the Trillionth Tonne," Nature 458 (April 20, 2009): 1163-66; Malte Meinshausen, et al., "Greenhouse-Gas Emission Targets for Limiting Global Warming to 2°C," Nature 458 (April 30, 2009): 1158-62; TrillionthTonne.org; Catherine Brahic, "Humanity's Carbon Budget Set at One Trillion Tonnes," New Scientist, April 29, 2009.
7  Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York: Henry Holt, 2007).
8  On the systematic role of waste (economic and ecological) under the regime of monopoly capital and the freedom which that gives us to reshape economy and society in a sustainable direction, see John Bellamy Foster, "The Ecology of Marxian Political Economy," Monthly Review 63, no. 4 (September 2011): 1-16.  On military spending levels see John Bellamy Foster, Hannah Holleman, and Robert W. McChesney, "The U.S. Imperial Triangle and Military Spending," Monthly Review 60, no. 5 (October 2008): 9-13.  On marketing see Magdoff and Foster, What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism, 46-53.

---

John Bellamy Foster is the editor of Monthly Review.  He is the author of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism (with Fred Magdoff), The Ecological Rift, The Ecological Revolution, The Great Financial Crisis, Marx's Ecology, Ecology against Capitalism, and The Vulnerable Planet. 

This is a reconstruction from notes of a talk delivered at a teach-in on "The Capitalist Crisis and the Environment" organized by the Education and Empowerment Working Group, Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park (Liberty Plaza), New York, October 23, 2011.  It was based on a talk delivered the night before at the Brecht Forum.  Fred Magdoff also spoke on both occasions.

From Monthly Review @ http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/foster291011.html

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How I learned to stop worrying and love the space aliens

WooWoo-do, Time Delay Epiphany, Consensus Churn, 0r how I learned to stop worrying and love the space aliens

by Clif High

“Dude! What’s up?” You barely hear it through the roar of the rushing torrent of blood pounding in your ears.

“Dude! Hey! You ok there, man?”

Finally you shake it off internally, lift up your glazed eyes toward the young man gently shaking your upper arm trying to rouse you from the stupor of it all, and nod. “Yes. Fine. I’m ok. Thanks”, you mumble, and sort of smile, moving off in the direction you were heading before being struck insensate by the wonder of it all.

The world, no the entire universal view, you thought you knew is gone in an instant of inescapable logic that rolls through your mind as a wind through wheat, rustling many millions of small pieces of chaff into a cacophony like a chorus rudely, roughly whispering….”It IS so…”

Of course you feel like an ass, standing glassy eyed and wonder struck in the middle of the mall parking lot, but you start shuffling away from your wonder moment, and continue to experience the after effects. Your mind reels…so much to discard. Nearly everything you have ever been taught is wrong. The universe is so far away from what the common consensus view that, again, and only for a moment, your body involuntarily stops as all your energy goes into your mind furiously working trying to comprehend just what the hell is actually real. And how much of your whole life has actually been lived in a gigantic lie.

For the next few years or decades, your mind churns up all your knowledge, examining it all in the new light of understanding. The mental churn takes huge amounts of your energy. Your daily life suffers. You annoy the hell out of everyone you know trying to bring them to your understanding. You pester them with endless entreaties to just ‘read this one book’ (of the many that you sucked down in the subsequent years), or to ‘just go read this one site’… and it is all useless. Or it can be even worse than useless, as you find your personal contacts abandoning you to your new mental illness as though you had a visibly contagious disease with which you were actively trying to infect them! Friends and relatives run at the mere sight of you, and that is when you know….you are now in the woo-woo world.

That’s right, your friends are saying that you went woo-woo on them. Slipped down the rabbit hole, ate the red pill, and nothing is the same. Of course, it did not happen suddenly, and, in fact, the wonder struck epiphany moment was actually the result of the accumulation of some number of small anomalous data items that pester your world view, attacking it like pebbles cracking your windshield until one day, seemingly suddenly, the whole of the glass gives way flooding the cab with an unobstructed view of reality. The initial cracks are always small, and could have come from anything….chance observation of chemtrail planes, seeing a ufo on video, strange political machinations, odd symbols in popular entertainment, reading the right wrong book…. anything could start the process of the breakthrough of your universe view as so much of it was based on lies.

And as the truly crazy know, once the patterns are seen, they are observed, and you cannot un-see the seen. The patterns exist. That’s when you really get it….when you look out and recognize that you are down the rabbit hole, and the whole of your old universe is gone. Wiped out by new understanding. Then you know you are woo-woo, and doomed. The good part is that at that point you finally also get it that you cannot tell people into enlightenment, and you stop trying. That at least removes some of the strains and pressures from your life just as you will need the extra energy as the rest of your life will be spent (apparently) trying to rebuild a universe view that is based on at least some facts. When you realize that the whole of the rest of your life is involved, you have taken the first step over to woo-woo-do.

In the world of advanced martial arts, there is no art more extreme than woo-woo-do. As linguists we note that the ‘do’ ending on the name of any martial art means ‘way’ or ‘path’, and carries the sub text of implied ‘way (to/toward) enlightenment’. Mostly the ‘do’ tag is applied to Japanese, (aikido, judo, iado, kendo….) or Korean (hopkido, taekwando….) martial arts, but we can take it as a standard that those martial arts, from any culture, where the whole point of the art is the ‘defeat of self’ are representative of being a ‘path’.

The Japanese so perfected (from the Chan Buddhism of china) the process of following paths to enlightenment, that their language grew to accommodate the thinking involved. In extreme martial arts such as woo-woo-do, the place in which the ‘way’ is practiced is known as a ‘jo’. So such places where aikido or judo are practiced are called ‘dojo’. The dojo is considered a very special place, in most cultures, it becomes an amalgam of the sweat, and the sacred. This comes from the basic tenet of the martial arts that ‘there is no enlightenment without work’. And when the work actually works, it can also produce the sweet perception of the sacred amidst the smell of work sweat.

Within the world, there is no more extreme martial art than woo-woo-do.

Welcome to the WooJo. Within the very few mat rules of woo-woo-do, the key is flexibility of thinking to allow for the absorption of new facts many of which will alter your universe view yet one more time.. This takes lots of energy, and will require lots of pies and other tasty carbs to maintain a sound mind in an energized body.

To aid with your flexibility of mind, we learn to roll.

Prepare for forward rolls. Aikido style, with ki extended out to universe through your finger tips, with the arm in a natural, unbendable state….

Why ask for disclosure? That merely means desiring ‘official’ acknowledgement of your reality? From a politician? Please….not to put too fine a point on it, politicians, in the Piscean age, are liars. That is their job. They are very petty, manipulative, and manipulated minions of a vastly more powerful class of beings that does not give a rat’s ass about humans at any level, let alone as far down the power curve as those involved in woo-woo-do.

· Humans, as a species, are not alone.
· Humans have never been alone.
· Modern humans are most likely the result of genetic manipulation.
· Modern humans genetic structure has most likely been altered by parties unknown for agendas also unknown to humans. Claims to know details about the genetic history of the human species are most probable spurious and not to be accepted without serious due diligence.
· Religions are a tool of the manipulators and their controlled minions.
· Religions are a tool to make the masses of humans, via social and cultural pressures, accept control by minions of the actual owners of planet earth.
· Religions are control tools, and most modern religions are the result of claimed channeled material.
· “Channeling”, as an activity, is Piscean in nature, and will not survive into the Aquarian age where ‘analysis’ will be a key component of the personal awakening of humans en masse. Accepting information without personal verification and analysis is also a Piscean form of thinking that will not survive into the coming age (2012 ->). The Piscean ‘acceptance’ of information supports both religion and channeling among other control system tools.
· There is most probably a break-away civilization from Terran humanity which is close to obtaining, or has obtained, Type One status. How they feel about their recent antecedents (us terran humans left behind) is anyone’s guess.
· There is most probably some form of space warfare underway at this moment over your head. The amount of earth orbit space activity visible with 3rd generation night vision goggles will alter the local universe view of anyone who gets a chance to observe on even a few chemtrail free nights. The reason de guerre, and the participants are unknown. Those claiming to know are speculating or delusional or both.
· There are huge levels of conspiracies in existence now which are detrimental to most (90+ per cent) of terran humanity. Examples include chemtrails, deep underground military bases, doomsday vaults (more than just seeds), known space alien bases, and the list goes on…
· The ‘unawakened masses’ are NOT your friend. They prefer their controlled lives, and universe view, and WILL defend it. Remember, that approaching those outside the woo-jo, and inviting them, or even insisting that they join, will not work. To the unawakened you are attempting to kill off their comfortable existence. It is like teaching a pig to sing, it will not work, and will only annoy the pig. It is up to universe whether any specific individual shifts over to an awakened state. Repeat…it ain’t up to you.
· The agendas of the Powers That Be and their minions can be ascertained (to some extent) by the evidence of their actions. Some of the evidence points to an attempt toward planetary human population control, however, there are some deep evidentiary points which suggests that the ‘kill-off’ scenario just may be a feint, and part of the ‘keep them distracted while we prepare for the end of civilization’ plot.
· The agendas of the powers that be are being pursued with increasing speed that has recently taken on something of a desperate quality.
· The agendas of the powers that be include the use of toxic chemicals and planetary level saturation with electromagnetic and other energies against the planetary populace.
· Research provides evidence for periodic (11 thousand 500 year cycles – more or less) cataclysms which kick humanity back to near barbarism each time. The Powers That Be know about these cycles.
· Research provides evidence that the powers that be (TPTB) are preparing today (and for last 4 decades at least) for one of these cataclysmic cycles. Further research points to the cataclysm being here within 3 three years or less. Note that attempts are underway to shift the 2012 date outward in the mind of the awakening public by TPTB disinfo agents that are now, and will be in future, quoting “out to 2017”, and 2020 as the dates for concern. Or alternatively, the disinfo agents would be emphatically stating that the ‘cataclysmic timeline’ has been derailed or changed by some human activity.
· There are certainly ancient bases on our Moon and Mars. There are likely current bases and habitations throughout our solar system, including Moon and Mars, as well as various moons of other planets within the solar system.
· There are certainly deep underground bases here on terra. Some of these may not be terran human ‘owned’.
· Space Aliens must be assumed to have agendas not favoring terran human interests. Space Aliens must be assumed to be lying foreigners until proven not. Any other stance is absurd given the vast amount of unknowns. Space Aliens must be assumed to be inimical to humans and life here on terra. Just common sense to keep a little paranoid in this universe which has demonstrated its nature here on earth.
· A power structure exists here on terra that is controlled by a very few individuals. Neither the systems within the power structure, nor the few people who control give a rat’s ass about you or your family or friends.
· The power structure here on terra is unraveling as its secrecy is shredded over time. The rate of shred is increasing. This is leading to larger numbers of aware individuals who go do their own poking around, and thus increase the rate of secrecy shred. The secrecy shred is causing fear among The Powers That Be and their minions.
· Terra is an increasingly unstable planetary environment for humans and other life. The causes of both the inherent instability and its recent increase are open to speculation, and are not definitively known. However, both are evident in recent human experience. Things are shaking all over, and this is likely NOT a good sign for life here on Terra.
· The Powers That Be are having strange damn stuff done all over this planet, and as evidence shows, none of it favors the regular human. This includes polluting the ‘food body’ of the planet with genetic experimental foods, as well as inserting questionable commodities such as HFCS.
· There is evidence that ThePowersThatBe are not their own masters, and further evidence that their fear levels are increasing daily.
· The US Military/Corporate Complex rules the planet from the ‘shadow world’. The creatures that run the USMILCORPCOMS are not necessarily of terran origin, nor homo sapiens sapiens.

In order to provide a graphic view of how the universe is balanced, we have provided a small graphic in a PDF file that needs to be printed to be read. To obtain this file, click on the lick and choose "save file as".....Clif's Whirld View

Diversions and related digressions

There are statements out and about in the wild that the Mayan long count day calendar which ends on December 21, 2012, has no accompanying texts, and merely is described by the Mayan’s themselves as ‘the end of cycles’. This is actually incorrect. There are several (3/three known for sure) codex tablets in western museums which have statements relative to the Long Count end date. None of these are positive about the end of cycles and humanity. One includes a reference to the ‘great harvest of souls’ which will begin at the time of the ‘end of cycles’.

There are other Mayan historical sites which have carvings that relate to the 2012 end date for the Mayan Long Count. There are Mayan historical figures of some gravitas who have made statements about 2012. One of the more important of these is the personality whose title and name we translate as “Lord Pakal Ahau”. The curious linguistics of the title for Lord Pakal aside, his legacy to us provides a substantial amount of information about 2012, and the reasons that the Maya were so set on its study. Some of his quotes are below:

“End of Long Count (2012) is Eternity, Brother.
This is the end of that line.
No one can return.
Then is forever.”

It also needs to be noted that the word ‘line’ has meaningful contexts to the ancient Maya that do not exist today. The Maya had very effective methods of counting which involved drawing lines, usually in ‘plates of sand’. These lines were used in lieu of calculators to provide arithmetic functions for very large numbers. Examples can be found on line (hmmmm, contexts abound): Mayan line counting method

There are several other extra contexts to the word ‘line’ as it is used within Lord Pakal’s statement. None of these ‘line’ contexts are considered (usually) by today’s readers. The ‘end of the line’ statement as it is used by Lord Pakal includes the mathematics or arithmetic function meaning that can be translated as ‘final sums’, or ‘finishing the summation’, or …..”reaching the conclusion”.

And specifically about the End of the Long Count day, Lord Pakal says (via funeral prophecy):
“Resurrection (of life) shall come by Solar Cycle (ending).
At that moment, the Stone Gate of Time will close, it (in) so (named/found) is mine.
None shall follow the end of cycles.
Then (is the face of ) Eternity.”

Referring to the actual timing of the Long Count end, Lord Pakal has several images symbolic of hyperdimensional reality. These include the intertwined tetrahedrons, as well as clear ‘torsion field’ glyphs. These ‘words’ have been translated toward a religious meaning by many, but if taken at their ‘word’ and treated as descriptors of actual physical components of reality, the interpretation could be read as follows:

“…beyond (the end of the long count) resurrection changes. Universe bares its hyperdimensional form as the action (of colliding universes) is completed. Finishing action (begins with) solar activity. A huge harvest of souls happens in all of an instant (moment). Time ends. Eternity begins.”

There are many other statements within already translated material from a number of Mayan sites, which, if retranslated as expressing hyperdimensional physics and planetary astronomy, and not religious themes, specifically focus on 2012 and the end of the Long Count calendar.


Some of these include the “9 underworlds”, which, given the nature of the glyph involved, can easily be transliterated as ‘9 planets’, and thus thereafter the references are focused on our solar system. If so focused, then some of the other glyphs easily have new, and rather practical meanings. As an instance, the glyphs describing the ‘end of the 5 cycle’ which presumably meant a temporal cycle, then can be read as focusing on ‘out to the 5th planet, which is another way of saying ‘out as far as Jupiter’. So a possible interpretation of the ‘end of the fifth world age’, would change to ‘the end of the worlds out to the fifth planet’. Hmmmm. A bit of a difference there.

As the Mayans, like ourselves, can have no damn idea of what far distant progeny may use for a language, it cannot assumed that the name ‘Jupiter’ would be meaningful. Therefore to speak to distant not-yet-born beings about our solar system, it is assumed that references to the orbits of the planets from the sun outward would be the best approach. Taken in this light, much of the translated ‘religious’ material from the various tombs and other buildings and stellae, actually are discussing physical effects within the solar system. There is even on the ground (pun you will get in a minute intended) support for the idea, as several ancient Mayan cities are laid out according to the orbits of the planets relative to the sun.

Nonsense and nonesuch

If you ever hear it stated that “no one can predict the future”, you may instantly reply “bullshit!” and be absolutely assured that you are correct. We all make accurate future predictions daily…hell, pretty much constantly. Imagine trying to drive a car in major road system without making future predictions. True, the predictions are basically only seconds or perhaps minutes ahead, but they are there. You predict that the light will remain yellow just long enough to scoot through the intersection. You predict as a pedestrian just how long you have to get across the street before the light changes.

These days some smart intersection control lights are providing a 10 second count down to assist the ‘predictively challenged’ pedestrians. In the main, millions, perhaps even trillions of accurate predictions about future manifesting reality are made every second of every day by humans here on terra. And it is not just humans. Animals also exhibit future predictive behavior. It is constantly used on both sides of the predator and prey relationship.

While such future predictive behavior usually is in the range of only seconds, perhaps up to minutes, there have been many famous cases of the ability of humans and animals to predict major events out many hours, even some days. Many animals are earthquake sensitive and no more famous a case than the Banda Ache earthquake/tsunami need be cited. Animals did not die in the tsunami. They knew it would manifest and got out of its way. Very successful use of accurate future predictive behavior.

As noted, humans also exhibit such behavior. Obviously, since we are in this universe, the future predictive behavior potential range among humans is vast. It extends from the doofus end where the statement “no one can predict the future” originates, out to the naturally talented future predictive individual at the extreme edge of sensitivity. Some individuals are able to absolutely ‘know’ a number of years ahead, that ‘war is coming’, and to make successful preparations well in advance of stressful manifesting circumstances. Other examples include those individuals who know when threatening weather such as tornadoes and thunderstorms are pending, sometimes several days ahead of their arrival. The ability to be predictively sensitive extends out both in duration, and in area of focus.

It is worth noting that almost invariably, accurate future predictive behavior is related to threat conditions. As with our software, it would appear that humans and animals can much more easily ‘feel’ a threat coming than a blessing. It is likely very true that humans in general owe continued species existence to accurate future predictive behavior.

Courage, mon ami
As strange and threatening as these times are, we need to remember a few key points.

Universe rewards courage. Count on it. Courage is continuing in spite of the fear. Universe gets a big kick out of personal acts of courage, and will let you know.

Something else you can count on; universe is geared in cycles. These cycles should be thought of not as circles, but rather the peaks and valleys of waves. Just when things get to their most extreme state in the wave, either top or bottom, is also when things change and start moving the other way. Learn to notice this, and then harmonize with it.

Harmonization with universe means that universe directs, we agree, and amplify. In so doing a link between the goals of universe and our puny ass little selves is formed such that in order to defeat us, an enemy would have to defeat universe itself. Count on this too….that ain’t gonna happen.

Remember that poems penned passionately periodically proclaim pertinent points of perception:

With apologies, a slight rewrite….

“Humans of earth,”….

"Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number-
Shake your chains to earth like
dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many-they are few."
— Percy Bysshe Shelley (The Mask Of Anarchy: Written On Occasion Of The Massacre At Manchester)

Of all of the impacts of woo-woo-do, it is the focus on personal liberation, and mental strength that makes this a true martial art and a part of the long tradition of budo. {Budo = path to enlightenment through personal martial discipline or the greater collection of all martial arts}.

The newest of the budo arts, woo-woo-do has yet to define its core, though there is no need as, during the transition of the planet into the ‘new order of the age’, the woo-woo-do-ka (those persons pursuing woo-woo-do) are busily employed mapping the Path. Care to explore with us?

Welcome to the mat.
Make it yours.
Demonstrate your arts.

clif high

copyright to HalfPastHuman. All rights reserved.

From HalfPastHuman @ http://halfpasthuman.com/woowoodo.html

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Proof that Your Own Thoughts and Beliefs Can Cause Self-Healing

Proof that Your Own Thoughts and Beliefs Can Cause Self-Healing

If you are struggling with any major health concern, it is important to realize that your mind can sometimes be your own worst enemy, or it could be the main reason for treating a problem.

Increasingly, it is being recognized that a ‘mind over matter’ approach can actually produce noticeable results in your health.

Numerous studies abound on the nature of the mind-body relationship, and how your mind can affect your biological functions. Much like how a hypochondriac may convince himself that he is sick, and subsequently ‘find’ (or make up) symptoms of his illness, a negative or even apathetic mindset may induce you into a lesser state of health. Conversely, having a generally positive disposition or outlook with regards to your health may actually make you healthier.

In clinical studies where patients are given placebos, they often will respond positively to them due to the expectation that they are receiving some form of beneficial medicine. Although not talking about placebo sugar pills specifically, this kind of self-treatment can be seen in one case where a woman’s own thoughts made her lose nearly 112 pounds. 

Proof that Your Own Thoughts and Beliefs Can Cause Self-Healing

What makes these test subjects have a positive response? Definitely not the sugar. An assumed belief that they are being positively affected by whatever they may have been given is what actually causes the change. If this is the case, then it means that your mental state plays a vital role in how your health progresses, or degenerates.

The power of the mind is immense. Its influence can literally bend reality to match its perspective. You can often influence a situation more by thinking about it meticulously, as opposed to simply acting. If you believe something to be true, you will conform the world around you to match this expectation.

If you believe that your illness is getting worse, it will probably get worse. If you believe that your treatment is helping you, you could actually cause massive self-healing to occur. Assuming a disposition will automatically prejudice your mind, and therefore cause your body to react either positively or negatively.

This applies to all things, not just health and wellness. Assuming a positive attitude and an optimistic demeanor will actually help you to overcome your trials in life, whether they are physical, mental, or emotional.

Though we face these trials, let them not be overwhelming or intimidating. Meet them with optimism and enthusiasm, expecting all the while to overcome them.

By Andre Evans

Why the Power of Mind Over Matter is Important

Human World Order

Have you ever wondered how powerful your mind really is?  Have you ever considered that if one human can achieve the most amazing feats then we all possess the same potential?

There are indeed amazing feats of mind over matter like the Yogi in India who lives without food and water, the story of Coral Castle where one man cut and moved solid stones larger than those used in the pyramids, or the proven telekinetic powers of Nina Kulagina.

These cases, and others involving transcending the material world like cases of extrasensory perception (ESP), are typically viewed as paranormal events. However, these seemingly impossible phenomenon may become more widely accepted as we better understand the implications of quantum mechanics.

Quantum physics has proven that all matter at the subatomic level exists in wave form, and that matter only appears solid when we, as the observer, use our senses to decode and perceive the wave patterns in space and time.  Significantly, thoughts, especially concentrated thoughts, also form measurable wave patterns.  And thought waves have proven to affect observable matter in the physical world.

Droplet with "Thank You"

In his book called The Hidden Messages in Water, Masaru Emoto explains his experiments on water crystals which proved that droplets of water form different shapes when frozen with words associated to each sample. For example, the sample droplets would have phrases like I love you, thank you, or I hate you written next to them.  The frozen droplets would form glorious snowflake-like crystals with the words love and thank you, but a nasty oil splotch-like design next to the word hate.  As stated in the movie What the bleep do we know?, "If thoughts and words have that much power over water, imagine what they do to us," as we are formed of between 60%-80% water, based on our age.

If our thoughts have the power to manifest changes in the physical world, then controlling our thoughts would seem to be of utmost importance.  As popularized in the book and movie The Secret, thoughts will manifest into reality.  Simply put, thoughts become things -- even negative thoughts.  The examples laid out in The Secret are mostly about people attracting wealth, health, or relationships to themselves through positive thinking and visualization exercises.

Droplet with "You make me sick. I will kill you"

What's more, physicists have also discovered that at the quantum level all particles (matter) seem to somehow be connected to all other particles through what they call entanglement.  Tests show that particles that were created together will react instantly to the same stimuli presented to one of them no matter how far apart they are in perceivable space.  And assuming the Big Bang theory is correct, then all particles that created the known universe are forever entangled.

This detectable connection between all particles represents profound implications.  First, this would seem to mean that on the subatomic level we are scientifically one with everything and everybody.  And second, this connectivity and oneness would seem to provide unlimited power for the individual to imprint changes to the whole with his thoughts. Lastly, it may ultimately solve many paranormal mysteries.

This connectivity would appear to help explain the mechanics behind extrasensory perception (ESP), which is now a statistically measurable phenomenon on average humans.  So much so that a recent Cornell University study on ESP has been published in the prestigious Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Psychological Association.

If we are connected to all things past, present and future -- and all things are frequency ranges that cannot be destroyed -- then space and time does not exist as we think of it.  So, in a sense, we are connected to the dinosaurs who still technically exist, only in a undetectable frequency range.  In turn, all human souls, or intelligent consciousnesses if you prefer, consistently exist in a timeless, space-less frequency range.  It is this concept that may help explain precognition, channeling, reincarnation, telepathy, etc.  In other words, people who have these abilities and experiences may simply be tuning into a different frequency on their extrasensory dial.

As outrageous as it may be to believe, we all would seem to possess these great powers of the mind to transcend and effect the physical world.  Minimally, each of us clearly plays a distinct role in creating, not only our personal reality, but also collective reality through our thoughts and beliefs.  These thoughts, if conditioned to focus on negative or fearful feelings, will likely result in more manifestations of negativity in the world through more economic collapse, natural disasters, wars, suffering, and other events that feed off our fears.

Although most fears propagated by those with an agenda are an illusion, even seemingly legitimate fears that help us survive in the material world may also be fictitious.  After all, if the energy of our being, by laws of nature, cannot be created or destroyed, death is nothing more than a transformation of our eternal frequency.  Therefore, not even death should be feared.

The lesson is that if each of our minds has great power over what manifests in the world, it would seem to nullify the blame game of all problems in the world.  Incidentally, each of us, by way of connection on the subatomic level and fear-bound complacency on the physical level, are partially responsible for all global atrocities.  To place angry blame on a specific group who represents a given atrocity would only seem to feed the darkest manifestation of what this group promotes.

This idea was highlighted by Gandhi who stated that a movement is much more powerful when it promotes what it stands for, rather than fight against what it opposes.  Hence, those who seek to make the world a better place would be far more effective by focusing their energy and thoughts on solutions to what they oppose.  This is not to say we should not acknowledge our distaste for unsavory events like war, environmental disasters, economic injustice, and the like.  However, we should not allow our anger to become hatred of the perpetrators themselves, but rather to help concentrate our focus on manifesting the world we wish to see around us.

From Activist Post @ http://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/proof-that-your-own-thoughts-and.html and http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/why-power-of-mind-over-matter-is.html

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