THE BABY BOOMER LEGACY

Many have said that the election of Barack Obama represents the end of the era
of the baby-boomer generation. I beg to differ. In fact, the election of Obama is the fulfillment of the baby boomer generation.

As we pass the torch of power, boomers can feel a sense of redemption when Obama takes the oath of office. In truth, our moment in history will be recorded as the one that most altered the course of history. Arising from the ashes of World War II, boomers literally rocked the world in the 60's and 70's. Rejecting the ideology of those who came before us, we declared that LOVE' is the answer to all of our questions. We institutionalized our historic commitment to equality for all. From civil rights to gender rights, we broke the back of hatred and bigotry. We said 'no' to separate but equal' and proclaimed that no topic is sacred and beyond question. We raised
the 'red flag’ on environmental destruction. We 'caught a glimpse' of the true nature of our relationship to each other and the world in which we live; but, our failing was that we became consumed by consumption.

As the 'age of technology' took hold we were fascinated by all things new. Gadgets and gizmos, a speeding lifestyle, and life on the go with fast food and fast cars were as enticing to us as it was reported to be to the Atlanteans of ancient lore. We thought we could do both; conspicuously consume and erase our sin by pushing for bottle bills. Money flowed like water from a garden hose as we were enticed to buy more, toss away, and then buy some more. Gold cards, Platinum cards, and equity lines of credit enabled us to spend double, triple our wages. And so what, government was doing it, why not us? To fight rising prices we sent our production to foreign workers who received pennies a day in sweat shops. As long as the gadgets and the credit kept flowing, we could ignore the cries of child labor in remote places of the world. Our money was the standard for the world and our military kept it that way. Mess with us and the newest technology and super weapons would set you straight.

But, in the deep recesses of our memory, we felt the growing pains of the seeds that we planted in the 60’s and 70’s. Something was not quite right. We were haunted by the memories of ‘love-ins,’ the toppling of a president that had gotten out of control, civil rights marches and the recurring dream of Camelot. And even though the never really free market system continued its daily barrage on our senses to spend, spend, and spend – deep down inside – we began to question. What was with all of the new diseases? Why do our children not want to learn? What is happening to all of those species that once populated our lakes, forests and jungles? Why is the weather acting so strange? What is happening to our culture? Why are crime rates getting out of control? What is that spilled oil really doing to our environment? Are you sure those materials are safe? Who really did make that sweater? Where are all of the jobs going? Why is it getting more difficult to pay all of those credit cards?

Our peaceful but shaky world shattered on 9/11. Our attention and questioning was diverted and we rallied to fight the new enemy. But who where the enemy? We could not find them. In a state of fear and paranoia, we gave away freedoms, money and lives. And, as my good friend Marvin Wilson would say, Owen Fiddler came to town. It was time to pay the fiddler, the piper and the ferryman. Stretched beyond our means to a level that only the bankers knew and even encouraged, the money tree was chopped down. We all know the story; it plays out in the news every day. We, the “baby boomers,” brought ourselves to a state of collapse. We made thing so bad that only the most ignorant would say we could stay the course. Had all of this not happened, we would have awakened one morning to find that our ecosystem had collapsed and that there was nothing we could do to alter the continuation of the “Sixth Great Extinction” that would soon include the human species. By bringing our lifestyle to an abrupt halt, we had to take notice.

Barack Obama’s election was our crowning achievement. Not because he is some super human savior that will solve all of our problems, but because he represents the re-emergence and manifestation of the dreams of those aged ‘flower children.’ Because of our errors and our ignorance, we have allowed the Lady of the Lake to return Excalibur. Not to President Obama, but to us. But we are not yet finished. We must still lead our children to the Promised Land, even if many of us will not enter it. This is not in any religious sense, but rather in the sense that we must continue to teach and remind the new generations not to repeat our mistakes. This is our parting gift,our legacy; we have shown the world how not to live.

OIL, SUGAR, SHALE AND PROFITS

What do oil and sugar have in common? The answer is simple, addiction. Americans are addicted to sugar and oil. Americans have reached pandemic levels of obesity on sugar through its insidious use in virtually every food product and oil has led to an addiction to complacency. Unfortunately, our addiction to oil is fueled by short-sighted politicians and those who seem to have a vested interest in keeping hooked on this dwindling, climate altering product.

WASHINGTON (AP, 7/30/08) - President Bush is turning up the heat on congressional Democrats over offshore oil drilling…Bush says if Americans care about the price of gas, "then we better get after finding some supplies of oil and gas."
Critics worry about blackened beaches and argue that any extra oil is years away from hitting the market. They also say oil companies should use the leases they have first.

In addition to this push from the White House, Presidential hopeful John McCain is also a supporter of searching, drilling and mining for more oil. States once avidly opposed to off-shore drilling are beginning to cave into the unquenchable American thirst for oil as prices at the pump, while having backed off a little for the moment, are still double what they were a year ago. To make matters even worse, we want to ravage the west to get oil from shale. But as the Denver Business Journal said recently, “Since the 19th century, we in the West have been trying to extract oil from the vast oil shale riches that lie under our feet. It’s no easy task, and past efforts have failed miserably. Commercial oil shale development would require not only immense financial investments but also an undetermined quantity of (scarce) water from the Colorado River basin and the construction of several multibillion-dollar power plants.” To make matters even worse it is said that producing fuel from the shale would add some 21% to 47% more greenhouse gasses than conventionally produced fuels. It is further noted that production of oil from shale would require massive amounts of water from the Colorado River, a system already under immense pressure just to meet drinking demands. And according to both government and environmental sources, any added supply would not even hit the market until somewhere around the year 2030. What is the point? Increased oil demands from places like China and India will more than consume any increase in production, doing nothing to alleviate gas prices, but doing everything to increase oil company profits.

Speaking of profit, Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest profit from operations ever by any U.S. corporation. Hess Oil reported a 62% jump in second quarter profits and both Shell and BP recorded a 33% increase in profits. It is obvious that increases at the pump have nothing to do with increased costs of production but everything to do with profit. While record profits are made, the average person is sinking deeper and deeper into debt, small businesses are closing and we are nearing a state of economic depression.

If the billions upon billions of dollars scheduled to find and produce more oil were spent on renewable energy resources, our energy problem would be solved and not just delayed. Those in power and those seeking power must push hard to end our addiction to oil. It is running out and the cost to squeeze out the last few drops from the planet are not worth the environmental costs and the effort will accomplish nothing. Too few are making money and too many are losing money in our continued addiction to oil. Any candidate I choose for upcoming elections needs to have a program that focuses on ending this oil addiction pandemic. Keep in mind, off-shore drilling and shale oil are only placebos, and placebos are made from sugar.

WORLD IN CRISIS: THE UP SIDE

What follows is a brief snapshot of some of the events that have been occurring around the world. Add to these events political, environmental, social unrest and the looming food crisis and the picture looks pretty bleak. But as you will see, the news is not all negative.

NEW YORK - Wall Street tumbled Friday, taking the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 400 points, on a pair of alarming economic developments: oil prices that shot up by more than $11 a barrel and approached $140 for the first time, and the biggest gain in the government's unemployment reading in more than 20 years.
And those weren't the only stunning numbers of the day: The government also reported the nation's unemployment rate zoomed to 5.5 percent in May, a monthly rise of half a percentage point, the biggest in 22 years.
Friday's Labor Department report was filled with sobering numbers:
• Employers eliminated 49,000 jobs in May, the fifth straight month of nationwide losses.
• The number of unemployed people grew by 861,000 — to 8.5 million.
• Job losses for the year reached 324,000.
Longer unemployment lines mean even more angst for those seeking work.

EMMAVILLE, Minn. - Strong storms smashed houses, deluged neighborhoods, toppled trees and left thousands without power across the Midwest on Friday in the latest round of fierce weather.

Scientists have discovered their first icequake, if you will - a movement of a huge stream of ice in Antarctica that creates seismic waves, just like an earthquake, and can be felt hundreds of miles away.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies hit record highs in the first quarter as the sharp housing downturn put more American households under financial strain, data released on Thursday showed.
Nearly one in a hundred homes, or 0.99 percent, were driven into a foreclosure proceeding in the first quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said, up from 0.83 percent in the fourth quarter and the highest on records dating to 1979.
As the pace of failing loans quickened, the trade group said the overall share of homes in foreclosure rose to an all-time high of 2.47 percent from 2.04 percent. At the same time, the mortgage delinquency rate rose to a record 6.35 percent, suggesting foreclosures are likely to continue to mount.

HONOLULU - The Caribbean monk seal has gone extinct.

MADRID: Auto plants in Spain were paralyzed and Portugal's main airport banned planes from refueling on Wednesday as a third day of strikes by thousands of truckers caused heightened chaos and shortages.
Haulers in Thailand also threatened to strike next week while their counterparts in South Korea plan to stop work on Friday, as the outrage over soaring fuel prices intensified around the world.

Tens of thousands of truck drivers launched stoppages in France, Portugal and Spain on Monday to demand government help to cope with the rising price of fuel caused by rocketing oil prices, which last week reached almost 140 dollars a barrel.
The protests have paralyzed roads, causing huge tailbacks, and left supermarkets short of fresh produce and some petrol stations without supplies.
The Spanish auto plants of Seat, Nissan, Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mercedes Benz said they had cut or halted production as the strike left them short of parts.

In Belgium, the Volvo and Audi auto plants said they would be forced to close from Thursday due to the strike in Spain.

In Portugal, the strike hit air transport as fuel shortages forced authorities at Lisbon airport to ban planes from refueling, except those on high priority flights.
Portuguese police stepped up patrols after a striker manning a picket line north of Lisbon was run over and killed by a lorry on Tuesday. Long queues formed at many petrol stations as motorists sought to fill up in case the pumps run dry. Several supermarket chains in both Portugal and Spain expressed concern over the shortage of fresh products.
In Spain, the blocked roads meant wholesale food markets in large cities suffered shortages of fresh fish, milk, fruits and vegetables.


Elsewhere in Europe, around 50,000 Polish truckers staged one-hour protests across the country on Wednesday, although without blocking roads, the organizers said.

The British government is also finalizing contingency plans to cope with a four-day strike by oil tanker drivers this weekend.

And Dutch truckers announced plans to block roads at 18 points across the country for 30 minutes on Thursday.

Across the world, Thai truck drivers threatened on Wednesday to go on strike next week and block roads to the capital with 400,000 lorries unless the government helps them pay for soaring fuel costs.

Truckers in South Korea have voted to go on strike on Friday.

In Malaysia, the opposition has planned a series of rallies culminating in a July 12 demonstration which they hope will attract 100,000 people following the government's fuel price hike of 41 percent last week. - AFP/de
AP (6-14-08) G-8 officials, both this weekend and in July, are facing a host of issues that threaten to destabilize the global economy.
Oil spiked to nearly $140 a barrel last week, and several Asian countries, including India, Indonesia and Malaysia, have slashed fuel subsidies, raising prices for millions of consumers. The world is also facing a potential food emergency as prices of corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and other agriculture products rise. The price hikes have set off riots and protests from Africa to Asia and elevated fears of a global food crisis that could cause millions of people to suffer malnutrition. It was unclear whether the meetings produced any concrete measures to address the issues.

So what is the good news? History tells us that there are “early warning” signs when empires are about crumble, the environment is gearing up for a change, and even if revolution is in the offing. Most of the time, people do not see the “signs’ of the times because they are otherwise preoccupied or even too caught up in the changing events. Few Romans believed that their empire was about to collapse. Species that fail to make minor adaptations tended to go extinct. The British and French Kings should have known that revolution was a spark away. Did the Czar of Russia have no warning that he was about to be overthrown? Were World Wars I and II really that much of a surprise? Does the earth give warnings when she is about to erupt? Do the birds not go quiet when the massive storm approaches? When the rivers begin to run dry, or the glaciers melt, are these not early warnings that something is about to change? Usually, the signs come early and then grow in intensity. What is interesting is that once the warnings have run their course, change is often swift and abrupt. When the tipping is reached, the completion of the event occurs rapidly.

The good news is that we, humanity, have been given ample warning that the world as we know is about to reach the tipping point. Change is in the air and little that we do will alter the course of that change. Knowing this, we can prepare to meet change in a state of readiness. There does not have to be political, economic and social disasters as we approach 2012, the year many predict is when tipping points in all aspect of life will be reached. The climate is changing, but millions do not have to suffer as a result. We cannot greatly alter the current climate change, but we can ensure that millions do not perish. We will run out of oil, but we can ensure that alternatives are available to meet needs. Supplies of food are beginning to run short, but we can change our policies and prevent starvation. The list could go on but the point is, we can not only survive change, we can also embrace and use change to our benefit.

All of the events of human history have brought us to where we are now. There is no turning back and we cannot stop the major changes that are currently happening. We have been given the “signs” to adapt, to alter our thinking, our lifestyles, technologies, politics and our relationship with each other and our planet. The warnings have been plentiful, clear and precise.
“Adaptability is defined as the capacity to change oneself to new circumstances easily and to accept new conditions well. Stupid people are not adaptable and the Wise ones are -- they can always avert disaster by changing their circumstances or adapting to changing circumstances. Thus do the Wise survive in the face of repeated adversity.” (http://awordtothewise.info/content/view/536/1/)

Is humanity wise? Will we adapt? Those that do not may well go the way of the dinosaurs who once ruled the planet, but who failed to meet the demands of a changing environment. Maybe they had no choice, but we do.

$4.90/GALLON!

We just received our contract price for fuel oil for next heating season and the price was $4.90/gallon. Our contract price for the 2007-2008 heating was $2.79/gallon. We used around 1,000 gallons to heat our home. We are not going to pay it! We have purchased a wood pellet furnace and bought 5 tons of pellets which should cover the majority of the heating season. Our pellet furnace, which is listed as carbon free, will be paid for in savings in one season! The pellets, at current prices, will save us some $3700/year. Assuming costs will rise proportionately, the pellets will always save us thousands of heating dollars every year while at the same time adding basically 0 carbon to the atmosphere.

Consumers are going to have to change their spending habits. Since the pellets are produced in Maine, it makes sense to alter our spending and use what makes sense for our region. This same approach would be wise to follow elsewhere. We have become so accustomed to mega-solutions that we have ignored a more rational regional approach to meeting our energy needs. While solar is certainly viable just about anywhere, at least as back-up power, it would seem to make sense to use it as a primary power source in sunnier regions. Wind turbine generators may be more viable in certain regions as would hydro in others.

It is no longer a question of being weaned off of oil imports. That option has passed. We have been hit upside the head by the oil rig 2x4 and the consumers must respond accordingly. While we can hope that a new administration will help our transition to more viable and environmentally friendly power supplies, don’t hold your breath. It could take years before the politicians, regardless of who is elected November, to make any kind of transitional financial support available. The power of oil is too entrenched to think that all will be right when we have a new president. Time is not on our side. If we wait for Washington to act, we will have lost the planet to the cockroaches. Smart money says bite the bullet and find alternative energy sources now. Buy high fuel efficient cars now-unfortunately they will probably have to be foreign since Detroit is still in its own dream world. And, while auto-makers are cutting back on making the big gas eaters, along with job losses, they do not get high marks for coming out with an affordable line of fuel efficient cars. Some of their hybrids to not get as good fuel economy as regular foreign imports and as usual; they will lag behind in innovation. Not sure what will come of it but the BBC had a report of a British auto-maker producing a gas vehicle that gets 80mpg. Apparently this is done by drastically reducing weight by using carbon fibers for the body work. Perhaps this is what we can do with all of the excess carbon, make cars with it.

On another front, the soaring cost of food has at least partly been attributed to the rise in the use of bio-fuels. “The food price index of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) rose by a steep but manageable 8% in 2006, but then much more sharply - by 24% - in 2007, and 53% in the first three months of this year alone - an unprecedented rise.” If you have shopped recently it is clear that prices are going up and as you know, once they are up, they tend not to come down too far. With gasoline basically at $4.00/gallon and a forecast of $5.00/gallon by September, it is clear that the consumer must act now to head off their own demise.

According to Michigan Business (5/31/08) “The steepest run-ups in food prices since 1990 are hurting grocery shoppers, restaurants and school cafeterias, but they're making others rich.
The winners in the new food economy include crop farmers selling corn and wheat for near-record highs after years of crushingly low prices. Ingredient makers like Cargill and ADM are rife with profits. Fertilizer and tractor companies are cashing in. Hedge funds who made big bets on rising wheat, soy and corn were spectacularly correct. Oil and gas companies, too - it takes natural gas to cook those Wheaties and diesel to haul them around the country.” Rising food and fuel prices are here to stay and there may even be spells of shortages. The American consumer will feel the bite, but they do not have to take the pain. Prudent and wise spending decisions now can soften the economic blow that lurks very large around the corner. Australian wheat is suffering under drought conditions and who knows what calamities are in store this summer.

Remember, you cannot rely on government to deal with these issues effectively. Just look at Louisiana and the toxic homes FEMA gave to those poor residents as housing. The recent NPR report about formaldehyde poisoning in the FEMA trailers should be a heads up regarding reliance on government. In my book, RAPING LOUISIANA: A DIARY OF DECEIT, government incompetence in dealing with disaster is well documented. Between energy and food issues, it would be wise to plan on how you will get through a not so short term period of economic contraction and transformation. With the power of the purse, the consumer can drive the changes in a way that makes sense. Time to wake up, read the signs of the times and take control of your life.