Author Archives: Lucky Jim

Did Davos 2016 save the planet?

Group picture of Swiss hostesses on the stage of the plenary hall at the beginning of the Annual Meeting 2016 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2016. (Photo: Valeriano Di Domenico/Flickr Creative Commons)

As we watch the world’s stock markets take another lurch into the red-figure zone, and oil nearly underwater at below $30 a barrel, we have to wonder where all this is taking us. So looking for some enlightenment, I’ve been following that annual jamboree of the “much too rich” at Davos to see if they could help me figure it out.

Rather grandly calling themselves The World Economic Forum, this annual get together is the 45^th of these events and as always, it states as its aim, and I quote, “To build a better world”. How will it do this? By involving people with power to change the world (political leaders, CEOs and other world leaders) so as to set challenges and define solutions and measures while always having “society’s best interests at heart”. I really like that last bit, which is such a load of arrogant b***-s****.

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Part 2: Rise and fall of North British Rubber Company

The North British Rubber Company started life in January 1856 when an American investor called Henry Lee Norris arrived in Scotland as a passenger aboard the SS Harmonia. The ship was carrying as cargo some rather specialised equipment, and among the other passengers were four skilled American workers called Louise Dixon, Sophia Terry, Hannah Dixon and Walter P. Dunn. With the specialised equipment, these five people were to found the first vulcanized rubber plant in Scotland for the manufacture of India-rubber boots and overshoes.

The Three Founders of North British Rubber All were American Citizens involved with the Rubber industry in the USA. (Image: NBR Wrinklies)

As I was researching for the book I came across a rather interesting copy of the labour contract which was entered into by one of the American workers, Louise Dixon, and her employer in 1855. It gives a revealing glimpse of the working conditions at the time, and were probably considered to be quite reasonable back then in 1855.

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COP 21: Paving the road to hell?

French_Foreign_Minister,_UN_Secretary-General_Ban,_and_French_President_Hollande_Raise_Their_Hands_After_Representatives_of_196_Countries_Approved_a_Sweeping_Environmental_Agreement_at_COP21_in_Paris_(23076185424)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius – President of the COP21 climate change conference – raises his hands along with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande on December 12, 2015, after representatives of 196 countries approved a sweeping environmental agreement during a multinational meeting at LeBourget Airport in Paris, France. (Image: U.S. Department of State/ Wiki Commons)

Having gone through the COP 2 Agreement a number of times, it seems to me that it’s like “The Road to Hell”, and is just paved with good intentions. I find its only redeeming feature is that at last the world leaders appear to accept the fact that we do now have a big problem.

During the Cold War back in the 1950/60s when Russia and America faced each other, with fingers on their respective nuclear buttons, we knew that if one or other of these buttons was pressed, the other side would immediately follow, and the resulting nuclear holocaust was described very simply as M.A.D, being short for Mutually Assured Destruction.

Global Warming has now taken over as the one activity which has the capacity if left un-checked to wipe out all flora and fauna on our planet, and that includes us. It no longer matters which of our countries is pumping out the most or the least amounts of CO2, the effect will be global and once again the resulting M.A.D will be the same for all of us.

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Misleading reporting on CO2 emissions

On the 5th December I published a post on this blog: Some of my thoughts on COP 21 – Keep it simple.

I’ll now just repeat below one of these particular thoughts which I had on the role of the media.

We must all now accept that atmospheric global warming is definitely caused by CO2, and we must get the media on-side and persuade them that their daily reporting of the world stock markets is not nearly as important as a daily update of the Keeling Curve which shows the CO2 levels and is published daily in co2.earth. Increases in world stock markets will only speed us down the Road to Armageddon, but a daily showing of the Keeling Curve will keep us informed as to whether we are making progress in saving this much abused planet of ours or not.

(Image: CO2.Earth)

Although the owner is not one of my favourite persons, I take the Sunday Times every week, and on Sunday 7 December, the large bold front page headline read – Revealed: greenhouse gases to fall. Just to be sure I was keeping abreast of Global Warming developments, I went into co2now.org and got the hot off the press month of November graph which I show on the right.

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Some of my thoughts on COP 21 – Keep it simple

30th November 2015, Paris: More than 150 world leaders meet under heightened security, for the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Image: Presidencia de la República Mexicana/Wiki Commons)

As the Global Warming Conference gets under way in Paris, I hear nothing in the opening speeches by world leaders that make me confident that this time we’ll get it right. We are simply not getting the message across that 2015 must be seen as the turning point. It must be the year when we stop the talking and start to take the necessary drastic action.

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