Sunday, January 05, 2003

Working Together Timothy Wilken, MD writes: Cooperation is an old word with lots of different meanings and feelings attached to it. Similar words are uniting, banding, combining, concurring, conjoining, and leaguing. Individuals who cooperate are affiliates, allies, associates, or confederates. To some cooperation seems a losing word associated with socialism and communism. This is not what I mean. Co-Operation in synergic relationship means operating together to insure a win-win outcome. Co-Operation is the mechanism of action necessary whenever an individual desires to accomplish a task beyond his individual abilities. Imagine, you and a friend are moving a heavy piece of furniture. Neither of you are strong enough to move the furniture by yourself. You decide to co-operate. You decide to operate together during the lifting. You would negotiate to insure that both of you win – to insure that both of you are helped. The conversation might go like this, "Are you ready?" "OK." "Ready, 1.. 2.. 3.. lift!", and if things are going well that is fine, but if one end gets too heavy then synergic co-Operation requires that you also protect each other from loss. "Whoops! Set it down." This is the synergic veto. This is the true meaning of co-Operation. The negotiation to insure that both parties win, and the synergic veto to stop the action if either party is losing. (01/05/03) The Fossil Fuel Depletion Crisis Timothy Wilken, MD writes: Capitalism and the Great Market are features of Neutrality. Neutrality requires unlimited resources. Humanity has had unlimited resources in our endless supply of fossil fuels. Our present economic crash, which is now being compared to the Great Depression, is the result of approaching end of fossil fuels. As of August 2001, 23 out of 44 nations [representing 99% of world oil production in 2000] have passed their production peaks. Most of humanity is unaware of this approaching crisis, but the governments of the world are aware and are now acting to control the last of the fossil fuel on the planet. This of course is the real purpose of America's coming war with Iraq. Our leaders are trying to secure control of the Iraqi oil. ... The electrical power crisis in California during the summer of 2001 drew national and world attention to a shortage of crude oil and natural gas. The exposure of  the ERON corporation's fraudulent manipulation if the energy market has lead some to believe there is no real problem. I wish this were true. Fossil fuels are currently the primary source of the cheap energy that powers our modern Industrial Civilization. If we are running out of crude oil and natural gas, as some of the best scientists and engineers in the energy field are telling us,  we have big problems.  Think back for a moment to the year 1801, only two hundred years ago, that was a time when there was no gasoline, no refined oil, no natural gas, and no electrical power derived from oil and gas. As a thought experiment, try to  imagine what life was like at the beginning of the 19th century. If you were transported back two hundred years, how would the lack of petroleum affect your lifestyle?  (01/05/03) Bombings kill 20 in Israel CNN World News -- Twin bombings in downtown Tel Aviv killed at least 20 people today and wounded 10 others, Israeli police said. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the terror attacks at a closed bus station in central Tel Aviv.  "We have two serious terror attacks in Tel Aviv, the downtown area of Tel Aviv, which has seen a number of terror attacks," Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said. The militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the terror attacks in a statement issued from Beirut, Lebanon. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel.   (01/05/03) Martial Law in Venezuela ? CNN World News -- President Hugo Chavez is considering imposing martial law to quell the crisis in Venezuela after two people were shot dead and dozens wounded during a march aimed at ousting him. The violence erupted Friday between supporters of President Hugo Chavez and striking opposition groups. Police, national guard troops and army soldiers fired tear gas to try to contain the violence. ...  Opposition leaders called on Venezuelans to "dig in" and urged them not to pay sales taxes after weeks of strikes have crippled the economy and the oil industry of the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. The clash marked the 33rd day of demonstrations against Chavez by groups who have accused him of grabbing power and ruining the country's economy almost since he was elected four years ago. His opponents want him to resign or to call early elections.  ... Late last month Chavez bought a tanker of gasoline from Brazil to provide emergency fuel for the country. Two other tankers were lying off the coast of Venezuela and a Russian tanker was said to be on its way. (01/05/03) Feds Shut Off California's Water New York Times -- LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz., Jan. 4 — Three of the eight pumps that tap into the glistening reservoir of Colorado River water near here are sitting idle, by order of the federal government. With the pumps switched off since 8 a.m. New Year's Day, less water is churning down the 242-mile aqueduct toward coastal Southern California, where 17 million people rely on snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains for washing dishes, flushing toilets and watering lawns. This is a pivotal moment in the contentious history of water in the arid West, which more often than not has pitted California's unquenchable thirst against that of its smaller but equally parched neighbors. For the first time since it was given the authority four decades ago, the United States Department of the Interior has said no to California's dipping into the Colorado River for more than its allotted share.  Nudged on by six other states that draw from the river, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton described the enforcement last month as "a turning point in the history of the Colorado River." ... mean cities and farms in Southern California could be denied nearly 650,000 acre-feet of water from the river this year, enough to meet the needs of about 3.8 million people or a city roughly the size of Los Angeles. (01/05/03) Courts Move to Protect the Wilderness New York Times -- Environmentalists have had so little to cheer about in the last two years that any victory is worth noting. In recent weeks they have prevailed in two important court cases that represent potentially major setbacks to the Bush administration's aggressive efforts to open up big chunks of the West to development by the oil, gas, mining and timber industries. Nobody is under the illusion that two adverse rulings are going to change the administration's fundamental bias toward commercial exploitation. But it's reassuring to know that there are still a few judges left who care about the niceties of environmental law and the needs of nature. In the first decision, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a Clinton-era rule banning new road construction in 60 million acres of national forest. The rule is intended to prevent logging, mining and oil and gas drilling on nearly one-third of all national forest land, including parts of Alaska's Tongass National Forest coveted by loggers for their old-growth trees. Though the Bush administration never publicly opposed the rule, it did nothing to defend it against legal actions brought by timber companies and several Western states. In the second decision, a federal district judge blocked the Interior Department's plans to explore for oil near Utah's Arches National Park, rebuking the government for failing to consider the project's impact on the environment. The protected area is relatively small, only 23,000 acres. Nevertheless, environmentalists hope the ruling will embolden opponents of Mr. Bush's drilling policies elsewhere. The importance of these two decisions arises from this basic reality: The courts may be the last best hope for stopping the administration's assault on the environment. Mr. Bush's pro-development policies have virtually no dissenters within the administration, and the environmentalists in Congress, including many moderate Republicans, appear to be outnumbered. It is entirely possible, however, that the administration in its zeal will commit enough legal mistakes to make a counterattack in the courts not only a plausible strategy but a successful one. Several environmental groups have already sued to block a much bigger exploration project in Utah, covering two million acres, partly on grounds that Interior has not conducted proper environmental reviews. And they are likely to challenge, on similar grounds, the administration's plan to develop as many as 77,000 coal-bed methane wells in Wyoming and Montana. (01/05/02) 7:02:22 PM

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