FYI #2

From Hostility to Pronoia

The 'Hostile Profit' was started more than three years ago as a response to the stupidity that governments get entangled. In this particular case it was the conservative government wanting to build an ethanol plant in an enviromentally sensitive area of the waterfront that had been deemed  important as a 'buffer-zone role in preserving a balanced waterfront, when considering the possible benefit of future development of these lands', by a previous conservative govenrment. (See Economics, Ethics and Ethanol - April 2013).

I felt at the time with the awareness came the responsibility  to myself, my community and the environment to do whatever was necessary to stop the insanity. Fortunately we prevailed and the project died and will not be resurrected, the post will remain as a reference for those interested.

I have recently read Pronoia by Rob Brezsny and feel it is time to park the hostility and move on. There are those who are better writers and have more interest in having their voices heard concerning the environment so I'll leave it to them to do the talking. If at some point I feel I can contribute or offer a different insight I will do so. If anyone wants to contact me you can do so -

Gmail: barry3rdiatgmaildotcom
Twitter: BarryUatGazoble

Happy Trails, Keep Smiling

Are 3 Rs Enough?

We are all familiar with the 3 Rs - Reduce, Recycle and Re-use but the new question is that sufficient for our needs and wants. I propose at least 1 more R - Repair.

Share the Repair, 4thR 

I wanted to share this article by Martin Charter, which demonstrates advantages beyond reusing and recycling which divert from the waste stream and landfill.

 

There are over 1,000 community repair and recycling initiatives in the global Repair Cafe movement. 'Each is a community hub where local residents can bring in broken items and get them repaired for free, as well as network, learn skills, socialise and help others. Local expertise, tools, repair manuals and materials are all on hand. Melding education, social inclusivity, ‘sharing economy’ practices and sustainable action, the cafés have become nodes in the circular economy, teaching its principles from the bottom up.' Lots of benefits in addition to diversion from the waste stream.

Does Stupidity Have a Limit?

Lobbyist Claims Weed Killer Safe to Drink, Refuses to Drink Some When Offered http://bit.ly/1CtKaC0 

Best Wishes for 2015

Creativity is the key to sustainability.

Previous posts have all dealt with the economic, environmental and ethical abuses so I felt I should start off the new year with some solutions, options and better ways of doing things.

Green light for world’s largest planned tidal energy project in Scotland

Though tidal power has been around for a long time, the search for renewable energy has led to increased interest in this energy resource. Energy can be harnessed from the tides in two ways: using the change in height of the tides (potential); and using the flow of the water (kinetic).

The project has the potential to power nearly 175,000 homes through a network of 269 turbines on the seabed at Ness of Quoys in Caithness, north-east Scotland.

Groundbreaking Biofuel Project Could Clean Up Mines Worldwide 

Scientists hope clean-up operation at tin mine will lead to global environmental benefits. If researchers succeed in using algae to harvest precious heavy metals in polluted water and simultaneously producing biofuel, toxic sites around the world could be made clean and ecologically well again.

Assuming the best way to fight the ignorance of economic, environmental and ethical abuses is with knowledge - Great News - Open Culture The best free cultural & educational media on the web. Master List of 1,100 Free Courses From Top Universities: 33,000 Hours of Audio/Video Lectures. 

Greed vs Selfishness

I sometimes  have difficulty accepting a dictionary's definition when they use two words to define each other that have different internalized meanings to me. Such is the case with the words selfishness and greed. To me selfishness is doing what is in the best interests of the self, on the level of basic needs this is food, shelter and love. We are all entitled to the best food shelter and love we can create for ourselves. I don't think anyone has difficulty with the concept that we are all dealt certains cards in the the game of life but it is up to us how we play them. I think the problem we all have is playing with a stacked deck. Greed is stacking the deck, wanting more than enough and that others have less.

Not all rich people are greedy and not all greedy people are rich. Take the the example of Ted Turner who donated a billion + $ to bail out UN programs that make the world better for all of us and then there is the example of the Florida Man Asks Police to Shut Down Kid’s “Illegal” Lemonade Stand.  

Greed is as destructive to our society as any other form of fanaticism and should fight it with the weapons at our disposal our dollars and our votes.

Greed - How much is enough?

For some like the Koch brothers there is never enough, and provide a perfect reason why the ‘Hostile Profit/Prophet exists; environmental, economic and ethical abuses all in one example. While the conscientious are trying to green the environment and save the planet the Koch bros demand a tax on the sun ow.ly/3khVxs    and these idiots in Oklahoma go along with this insanity. Most utilities not only welcome solar supplements from private parties to their grid, they offer subsidies, grants etc. This is because they have reached the capacity they were designed for in normal use, to provide increased capacity for increasing peak demand utilities have to choose between building more infrastructure or acquire less expensive and environmentally friendly energy from other sources. While most utilities take option #2, the Kochs have convinced Oklahomans that these alternate sources should be charged for using the grid to distribute their power, they want to tax the sun so the dirty petroleum they peddle will seem more attractive. My guess is that the Kochs appealed to the Okies fear that somehow going green would threaten their traditionally petroleum based economy. Texans while no greener than Okies by disposition welcome the opportunity to make money in addition to petroleum business not instead of, solar and wind farms everywhere.

The House Edge

When the FEDs came looking to prosecute those who knowingly profited from toxic transactions many escaped on the basis that they were doing their jobs, making money for their shareholders and boards of directors and did not have direct involvement with toxic transactions. Some have gone to jail, some have had to repay what they stole but all in all this hasn’t changed the attitude of greed and com-modify anything to make a buck, conscionable or not.
Check out this link nyti.ms/14RbU4I  to ‘Wall St. Exploits Ethanol Credits, Prices Spike’.
If this makes you cringe and want to run in the other direction, there are lots of opportunities to invest in peer to peer and crowd sourcing ventures with good returns, conscionable and maybe even fun.

FYI #1

To those who have stopped by to check out ‘Hostile Profit’ thank you. The only direct links to here that I know of are from ‘Friends of the Second Marsh’ and ‘Barry U @Gazorble’ on Twitter. This post is intended to let readers know what has happened, what is happening now and what I hope to have happen in the future.
This blog and Twitter were this introvert's first attempts at social networking and sharing by putting out there and see what comes back. The first post ‘Mad as Hell’ says it all in a general way – fed up with economic, environmental and ethical abuses. The second post ‘Economics, Ethics and Ethanol’ was written as a direct response to the overwhelmingly bad idea of putting an ethanol plant next to a nature preserve. I think this idea died of embarrassment but nothing official so I’ll leave the ethanol posts where they are for future reference.
I am presently building a new web site for my pictures and all things related to visual and digital. I will have this blog hosted within that site with a greater focus on economics, ethics and how we can use our dollars and votes to combat greed and establish a new social contract that works for now. I hope you will return when more interactive and share your feedback. Thanks again for visiting.

The Secret - Dirty Cost of Clean Energy

Green energy drive comes with an unadvertised environmental cost the consequences of which are so severe that environmentalists and many scientists have now rejected corn-based ethanol as bad environmental policy.


http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/businessinsider/%7E3/CucWzUX_7u0/the-secret-dirty-cost-of-obamas-gr

The Numbers are in Ethanol Multi Billion Net Loss and Environmental Harm

The resources diverted to the agricultural-industrial complex to produce ethanol from corn to drive vehicles would have been better employed producing nutritious food for the world's hungry people.
ow.ly/pQPyx 
Based on the above, the subsidy-laden, corn-to-ethanol program, beneficial to farmers and their suppliers, ethanol plant builders and owners, and politicians, appears to degenerate into a multi-billion net loss for the rest of society, and to inflict a net harm to the environment. It appears to be a make-work program for the agricultural-industrial complex.

Nothing From Something

Problem – Greed
Wall St. is at it again creating nothing from something and selling it to idiots who are too greedy to see what is in their best interest. This time it’s a derivative based on Ethanol Credits (RIN numbers). Check out the link http://t.co/39Xg4jVKn1  Consumers will pay their price at the pumps.

Solution – Better Ways
Microbes work to turn waste water into electricity.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=microbe-battery-makes-wastewater-wo-13-09-18

Think About It

"The wages of sin may be high but don't meet the cost of living." - The Hostile Prophet

"Doing the right thing doesn't automatically bring success. But compromising ethics almost always leads to failure." - Vivek Wadhwa

"The Major Problems Of The World Are The Difference Between How Nature Works And How People Think." - Gregory Bateson

“The reason we don’t find solutions to our problems is because the answers to our questions interfere with our concepts” - John Caswell

Concept of Shame/Honor – Owning Actions
Regardless of politics, the G20 in Toronto was an exercise in cowardice by both sides. It really concerns me –that some protesters wore masks and hoods, some police took off their badges so they couldn’t be identified. Is this because they don’t believe in what they are doing, that they are ashamed and won’t own their actions?

Life begins at the end of our comfort zone.

7 Blunders of the World

"Seven Blunders of the World"

1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Commerce without morality
5. Science without humanity
6. Worship without sacrifice
7. Politics without principle

—Mahatma Gandhi

Colin Carrie MP, Ostrich or Turkey?

In reference to the article ‘Mayor Meets May’ in the April 3^rd edition (Oshawa Express) you quote Colin Carrie MP – in a previous letter that the decision to build the plant (Ethanol) was solely that of the OPA (OshawaPort Authority) “The Federal Government had no part in selecting or recommending the port as a potential biofuels facility,” “I am really disappointed that groups who are aware of these facts are intentionally misrepresenting them for their own political gain.” I couldn’t believe it, is he that much of a turkey (a bird so full of sh*t  that it can’t fly) or maybe an ostrich with his head so far down where the sun don’t shine that he can’t see the light of day?
The Oshawa Port Authority is under the auspices/jurisdiction of Transport Canada i.e. the federal government, five of the seven board members are appointed by the federal transport minister. Three members of the federal government sit on the board and ‘Farm Tech’ (by collusion) thus four out of seven OPA board members have a direct vested interest in seeing an ethanol plant proceed.  For Mr. Carrie to say ‘The Federal Government had no part in selecting or recommending the port’ is just a crock.
I didn’t vote in the last election because I wasn’t happy with the selection of candidates, my mistake, it won’t happen again. Next election I will vote and it won’t be for Colin Carrie.

Economics, Ethics and Ethanol

Incompetence, Ignorance or Scam

One would have to be incompetent, ignorant or corrupt to not know that building an industry next to a nature preserve is fundamentally wrong. With that said I feel there is a scam being perpetrated on the people of Oshawa, Durham Region and all Taxpayers by the federal gov't and individuals with a vested interest to build an Ethanol plant in the backyard of an unwilling host (there is a willing host).
I've done some research, the farm equipment required to plant the corn doesn't run on ethanol, the trucks that truck the corn and fuel don't run on ethanol, growing corn depletes the land, tying the price of fuel to food will drive up the cost of corn and fructose corn syrup (packaged prepared foods). As far as I can tell the major reason it is legislated in the U.S. is to save the gov't money by not having to pay farmers subsidies for not growing corn.
Why is that municipal, provincial, state and federal governments spend a fortune re-mediating waterfronts from industrialization that our government Transport Canada (Port Authority) wants to industrialize next to a provincial park and recreational waterfront?
To Quote Transport Canada,
Recommendations for the Future of Oshawa Harbour,                                                                                 Report by The Honourable David Crombie, P.C., O.C. February 21, 2008
Gifford Farm Lands
“The so-called Gifford Farm Lands provide a valuable physical barrier separating and, in effect, containing the industrial activities of the Port of Oshawa to the west from the environmentally sensitive marshlands to the east, known as Second Marsh.
The City should be mindful of the importance of that buffer-zone role in preserving a balanced waterfront, when considering the possible benefit of future development of these lands.”
The city of Oshawa is mindful of the importance ‘of that buffer zone’ rather those that were responsible for the report, Transport Canada (Port Authority) that is mindless.
Still not sure if its incompetence, ignorance or scam? Check out the following:
The first link is to Olivia Chow's appeal to the Ethics Commissioner to probe the procedure - the commissioner didn't see any collusion even though Farm Tech sits on the Port Authority board. The second link is to a story that broke in the U.S. about scamming the system RINs (Renewable Identification Numbers) for ethanol credits which were falsified and never delivered. The third link is for the original story from CBC about a train load of ethanol being repeatedly shipped back and forth without ever being unloaded with the knowing participation of CNR.
1. www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/09/19/pol-oshawa-port-ethanol-flaherty-ethics-commissioner.html
2. www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/12/20/the-biofuel-subsidy-scams.html
3. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/12/19/mystery-biodiesel-train-credits.html
Is it possible in the wake of the gas plant fiasco in Oakville that this is all a scam which will cost tax payers another fortune to not go ahead with the project? Is it preventable?
Is it incompetence, ignorance or scam? I fear the worst, all three.

'Mad As Hell!'

Hello and welcome to the first posting of my first blog – ‘Hostile Profit’, hosted and moderated by yours truly the ‘Hostile Prophet’. I was considering call it ‘Friends of Howard Beale’ but I’ll reserve that as a heading for those likeminded that I follow. You guessed it 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'
So what is it that makes me mad as hell and what am I going to do about it? I have no more tolerance for cowards, liars and thieves – especially bankers and politicians and those that would benefit at the expense of others and the environment– Greed Is Not Good! Don’t get me wrong I think capitalism is good, business is good, sales, margins and profits are great but it has to be a win/win situation where the consumer gets value in goods or services in exchange for money- no more of the house taking a cut on a rigged game. It is unconscionable to keep shuffling toxic assets between institutions and taking a commission on the valueless to the point of destroying the system, a lot of bubbles could burst.
My understanding is there are maybe a dozen or so of these institutions ( RBS, Lloyds, Barclays, UBS, HSBC, Morgan Stanley) that hold the vast majority of the toxic debt. Here is an idea – make them use the funds they scammed to buy back and eliminate the debt. Reduce them in size from big banks to small banks, send the crooks who scammed the most to prison. If the rest of the world has to adopt austere measures to survive so should the financial institutions at least then we could start to rebuild on a level playing field. Next time maybe we’ll get it right on a ‘peer to peer’ basis instead of a hierarchy based on greed.