Tuesday, 20 March
The fourth anniversary of the Iraq war.

Click here for Richard's illustrated review
of where the war is heading.

Cans Seurat, 2007 - Digital C print, 72x110"
Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

CHANGING CLIMATE, CHANGING MINDS
Journal of a Futurist, 6 March 2007

16 reasons to be cheerful:

1. The public has long been ahead of politicians in recognising the danger of toxic emissions and will remain the driving force in rescuing the future. Everyone on Earth can play a role, irrespective of age, income or clout. Such a challenge can be strangely empowering, like the Blitz Spirit. (The wrecking of nature is more of a threat than the Luftwaffe). The outcome will redefine what it means to be human.

2. Shopping will cease to enthral. Buy Nothing Day has evolved to Buy Nothing Month. Recovering shopaholics are exchanging pledges to abstain. Some families refuse to buy anything new until something old is given away. But every so often a bright idea will win hearts, such as this 100% biodegradable, solar powered, I-Pod charging, naturally dyed hemp handbag.

3. No longer master of the universe, the “economy” will be its servant. Today's hi-flyers in Ferraris will get mud on their Armani's, as they plant acres of fruit trees and turn weeds into diesel. A new economics promotes the “good life without money stress, overwork and joyless consumption.” The bean counters will lose their status, unless the beans are certified organic and fairly traded. You will be able to discuss communes, creativity and consciousness with you bank manager.

THINKERS, DREAMERS, INVENTORS

Partial Zoom of the cans, Chris Jordan

4. To think and act both locally and globally will become second nature. Already there is a push for a Global Marshall Plan to restore the environment and to close the poverty gap. In the face of an array of threats, people are asking what can we do for our planet … and for our own community (growers markets are more fun than supermarkets). Today's passive spectators are tomorrow's activists.

5. Failing to own a house with a water view is no longer a matter of regret.

6. The urgency of global repair will unleash a boom of innovation and imagination that will dwarf the Renaissance. Tomorrow is about connecting, collaborating, creating. Solutions depend less on finding a Leonardo or an Einstein than on motivating millions of thinkers, dreamers, inventors.

7. Wind surfers will achieve terrifying speeds.

Actual size

8. The quest for carbon neutrality will transform the built environment. Architects have abolished the need for air conditioning by copying the airflows of termitaries. How did train manufacturers in Japan put an end to the sonic booms caused by engines when entering tunnels? By imitating the design of a Kingfisher's beak. Bio-mimicry is more profitable than bio-rape.

9. New kinds of leaders will emerge. The left/right dichotomy will be transcended by a global mind shift, incorporating intellectual fluidity, empathy, adaptability, foresight. Farewell to actor-politicians mouthing platitudes while secretly colluding with lobbyists. (And Farewell to so-called “intellectuals” who write about global warming but never have time to sort their own garbage - Mrs Neville. RN: Rubbish!).

THE FIRST EARTH BATTALION

Prison Uniforms, 2007
Archival inkjet, 11x23 feet in six vertical panels
Depicts PARTIAL ZOOM of 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal
to the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005

10. The boom in renewable energy will ease the West's addiction to oil and its need to pillage the Middle East. When the human and environmental cost of war is fully revealed, there will be widespread revulsion. Politicians who promote invasions will be run out of town. Tanks will be turned into ploughshares and the only valid mission of tomorrow's military will be to repair the ecosystem.

11. Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib , Bagram, etc, will be re-tooled as renewable energy factories, the labour provided by former war criminals.

12. Fast food will slow down. Vegetarianism will globalise. Obesity will decline.

13. In the race against Global Warming, youth will be the key participants, driven by the knowledge that the future lies in their hands and the joy of Making a Difference. The age of apathy is over.

Actual Size

14. Mass media will play a role in bringing climate change issues home to huge audiences. Instead of entertaining us all to death, they can save species from the brink of extinction. Old warlords are changing their tune. Rupert Murdoch's media empire has long equated environmentalists with reds under the beds, but its editors have been ordered to back flip. News Corp has switched from a state of denial to a state of confusion, which is progress. Murdoch's sons are carbon neutral and the patriarch is learning yoga.

15. Involvement with a cause greater than oneself eliminates depression.

16. Countless uplifting initiatives are happening beyond the orbit of Governments. The change of climate is changing the workplace. Corporate foresight is stretching beyond quarterly reports and limited electoral cycles. People are taking into their workplace what they're discussing at home, such is mapping out a new role for business. Even in toxic industries like cement and waste management, there is a determination to be emissions free. No more greenwashing. Despondency is giving way to resilience, daring and a shared sense of purpose. Blitz Spirit 2.

Finally, a goal for humanity beyond getting rich quick by despoiling our environment - both physical and mental - and calling it income.

Plastic Bags, 2007 - Digital C print, 72x86"
Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.
http://www.chrisjordan.com

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Send comments and suggestions to: futurist@richardneville.com.au

“WORLD WAKES UP TO CLIMATE HELL!”
Journal of a Futurist, 7 February 2006

Many have known for thirty years this day would come. Among the ones “surprised” by Warming are media magnates, fossil fuel pushers and deaf politicians. Millions of citizens have long been alert to the ominous inklings of eco-collapse, yet powerless to ignite a change of consciousness. Why? Before we ponder this, a frightening future presents itself. Instead of teary remorse & noble resignations, the politicians who blundered us into the carbon trap are demanding the right to lead us into a sustainable future, one to be achieved with “cleaner coal”, a desalination plant and a change of light bulbs. Yep, that should do it. Let's go skiing.

And where better to ski than in the desert? In fact, where else to ski than in the desert, now that the snows are melting? Welcome to Dubai, where the signs at the airport read Welcome to Tomorrow. People kept asking, why are you going? No history, no culture, no yesterday. Sounds like the future, I said, and there's “a kilo of gold to be won every week”. (Receipts from jewellery purchases are put in a raffle). Half of this enormous insta-city is a construction site, with apartment blocks flung up overnight and a free Jaguar for those who buy off the plan. This puts you in the running for yet another raffle prize, the latest model Lear jet, a replica of which dangles from one the city's many malls. Like Washington, Dubai thumbs its nose at Global Warming, but it's having more fun. In fact, it's so bizarre, I'm starting to wonder if the whole place is an elaborate parody.

BEYOND AL QAEDA.
WHY THE WEST HAS LOST THE PLOT

The Mall of the Emirates mirrors the Mall of America, but goes further. To reach it, you pound forever across the desert in an air conditioned taxi, breaking the land-speed record. The fare's next to nothing, because Dubai is built on an oil glut. (As far as the eye can see, empty motorways are illuminated all night). When you reach the massive Emirates mall, bursting with every brand name you ever heard of, and a million you haven't, you glance at a plate glass wall. Is it a mirage? Yes, like the whole of Dubai, which gives tangibility to the impossible. It's a ski resort. The full quid. Chair lift. Kids zooming in toboggans, immaculate skiers imitating the winter Olympics, huddled onlookers, heaps of snow, real snow. Hard to disagree with another of the city's self congratulatory signs, “Beyond Perfection”. Which is of course ironic.

The road of excess leads to the Palace of the Emirates. Isn't this the message of Dubai? A fake future city without beggars, rubbish or second hand cars. An exaggerated emulation of the Western fantasy of shopping our way out of climate change, even as two islands sink off Bangladesh and Davos economists finally discover ecology. Could the Sufi magicians have knowingly built Pompeii on the slopes of Vesuvius - oil can't last forever - in order to wake us up to the futility reaping more than we sow, to jolt us out of the eternal Truman Show that life in the West has become. A “culture” is being installed through a series of festivals, a huge one now in full swing. Can you guess its theme? A Festival of Shopping. True. On top of the malls, the markets, the souks, the hotel arcades, the airport acres of duty free, etc, there are huge pavilions devoted to promoting the joy of acquisition. The thrill of the discount. One pavilion is called the Global Mall. I tell you, these white robed Muslims are messing with our minds. It's culture jamming on a massive scale. Much more subtle than Al Qaeda, they are choking capitalism with its own cream. Dubai dada. It forces you to find a better way, which brings us back to the mystery mentioned earlier.

DID YOU TURN OUT THE LIGHTS?

For the last thirty years a growing swell of scientists and greenies from many nations tried to alert politicians to the dangers of unmitigated growth. Political parties were formed, countless books published, vivid images of decay filled the airways. Where was a Churchill, a Ghandi, a Franklin D. Roosevelt to take up the challenge? While it is tempting to be angry at today's politicians for missing the boat, and maybe sinking the boat, we still voted them in. Somehow we let them off the hook and went on feathering our nests, living high on the hog and mistaking entertainment for wisdom, conversation for activism. My own recycling endeavours are pathetic, I still leave lights on in the office and avoid the bus. Not to mention the holiday season air tickets.

This is truly now a “moment in history”, the like of which doesn't happen too often, a moment to do or die. We've got to get past the “told you so” stage, (as with the Iraqi bloodbath) and realise that no untarnished superhero waits in the wings. We are it. Unless we change our ways at every level, unless we re-energise our dissent, unless we toss the diehard sceptics from office, unless we make huge leaps into a post carbon lifestyle, then the future our children inherit will be uninhabitable. Gucci or Armani won't matter then, nor the 5 star dining, nor the beach front cottage, sinking slowly into the sand. All that we'll have is the pain of knowing it need not have happened.

Time to buy a worm farm.

POST SCRIPT: STILL NOT CONVINCED?

Check out this recent clipping from the emirates newspaper, The Gulf Today Jan 14/07, which was accompanied by an explanatory feature, What is a Hailstone?

If there's such a thing as “world opinion”, I got a bellyfull on my recent trip. The overwhelming unanimity of media comment on America's role in the world took me by surprise, coming as I do from a country that has been slow to face up to the bastardry of the Bush era. From Chile to Mexico, from the Caribbean to Cuba (of course!), in Britain, Dubai and Bangkok, the song was the same - the nation of law is a cesspool of lawlessness, exporting murder and mayhem, while blaming the victims. Now back in Australia, I find the electorate is waking up, largely because of the mistreatment of David Hicks. For the first time in his life, Prime Minister Howard is being forced to face the truth about a regime he has championed ad nauseam. As with climate change, the carnage in Iraq and much else besides, Howard's tactic is follow-ship. Never to take the path of enlightenment, until he is dragged kicking and screaming into the future by the power of an educated public.

Mette Enstrom.

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CLINGING TO THE DEVIL’S COAT TAILS
Journal of a Futurist, 20 December 2006

A bushfire focuses the mind. Trees crackle, embers rain. People with a hose in their hands and a home to protect speak plainly. As the flames engulfed our neck of the woods, the fire fighters often said “this bush isn’t behaving normally”. It flares up even after being hosed down. Its path is erratic, unpredictable. It seems to defy the laws of nature. One night I heard a fire fighter scream,“get out, get out!” as she herded her crew back to the trucks while flames leapt across a wide dirt road and embers soared to the sky, masking the stars and igniting the undergrowth. Experts agreed this was a new type of fire front, “one that is unstoppable and wreaks permanent damage”, a bushfire out of control and redolent with menace, just like the Bush in the White House.

The world at large is now well aware that America’s “commander in chief” is deranged and malicious; a Caligula with nuclear weapons. That he has not been dragged from his throne kicking and screaming is a mystery to anyone not drugged by the mystic aura of his office. To the shame of millions of Australians, our own political leaders feast at his table and pledge teary allegiance. If George Bush were to appoint his horse ambassador of Australia, our Prime Minister would welcome the news. Then he would sell the idea to the electorate. Worse, most would buy it. As long as our massive coal exports keep the economy humming and the planet heating, most of us couldn’t care less who runs the show. Tra la la, time to go shopping again.

Jody Harmon

So often in the last few years I have watched a web-simmering horror story percolate into the mainstream – CIA torture flights, the rape of Fallujah, lies about “rebuilding the infrastructure”, use of illegal weapons, trashing habeas corpus, etc - and thought, oh, now the public will come to its senses, our politicians will apologise and resign. Nope. The killers are still at large, still smiling and pretending aggression is noble. Still kissing babies. What can we do? Shame has become part of our mental landscape.

PARIS & BRITNEY, TOOLKITS & SWEAT

There is no point expressing anger anymore, apparently, as I am supposed to be too mature for that and such an emotion is considered a “turn off”. Instead, we are expected to care about Paris & Britney & gorge ourselves on the fruits of planetfucking - $3 toolkits, a $6 boxed set of mixing bowls, a fantastic vacuum cleaner for $107, all teased out of the earth and built from the sweat of Asian slaves. Tra la la, Christmas is coming, the icecaps are melting and Uncle Sam flogs obscene military hardware like there’s no tomorrow.

As the globe warms up, the blood of our rulers turns colder. Cruelty is endorsed. It doesn’t matter a bit to the foreign minister, Alexander Downer, that the US uses torture “routinely and systematically” in its global gulags, and that at least 460 inmates have so far been abused or murdered. Downer and Condi chortle on CNN about Australia’s unbending support for US actions, no matter what, while the citizens of Baghdad are exploded, brain-drilled and shot each day, as dogs feast on the dead. “Every Iraqi wants to bomb himself because of this shit life”, notes a recent observer, “everyone is sad and crying”. It’s hard to find “someone who smiles”. Meanwhile, the Australian Foreign Minister is smiling, smiling at Condi, who is smiling at the cameras, the smiling Mr Downer who facilitated bribes to Saddam Hussein to buy our wheat, prior to bombing his people, no probs. Just like his father, Alexander Downer, the Australian high commissioner to London in 1964, who cheered on the bombs and the poisons we dropped on Vietnam and beyond. Just like his grandfather, Sir John Downer, QC, who in 1891 triumphantly defended a notorious exterminator of aboriginals, Constable Willshire, on multpile charges of murder (the case funded by 60 racists). After his acquittal, this serial killer re-located to a remote area and “shot a great many more Aboriginal people".

THE POLITICS OF SURREALISM

Maybe cruelty is in the Downer DNA. It’s certainly endemic to the Liberal Party Cabinet. Both Prime Minister Howard and his sadistic side-kick, Attorney General Phillip Ruddock, regard 5 years solitary confinement in Guantanamo Bay as a “fair go”. Whereas it is becoming obvious to even to our docile mainstream that what David Hicks got was an “unfair go”. These Hicks tormentors are the ones who have decreed that aspiring immigrants to Oz should be tested on “Australian values” before being granted citizenship. Easy you might think, so long as you have mastered English and are aware that these values have flip flopped. “What’s a fair go?” People treated equal under the law with a sprinkle of compassion for special cases, you might think. Wrong. “Fair go” now means no Minister gives a shit about your plight unless you’re a tax evading scoundrel who supports the Government. We’re a franchised culture now. Our values are a replica of the values of the Bush administration.

How is it that one man has the right to murder citizens anywhere in the world? Caligula the First was restrained by the terrain and logistics, then murdered by his bodyguards. The lunatic in the White House plans to send more troops into the Iraqi hell-hole. If this happens, thousands more people will die. How can other nations stand by and allow this to happen? Will the UN impose sanctions on Washington? What the whole world is watching is a global gothic horror show in slow motion. A small number of white warmongers with a colonial mindset are endangering the future in order to shore up the status quo, the supply of oil and their own fortunes. They reject inconvenient truths, they usurp human rights, they bypass the law, they torture at will. The message on their Christmas cards will call for Peace in Earth and Goodwill to All, except for those being waterboarded.

You can talk to a thousand people each day without finding a single person who admits to supporting the Bush agenda, so why doesn’t it all fall down in a heap? That’s the mystery of modern times. Everyone knows what going on, but we are much too comfortable to storm the Bastille. Easier to watch the decline and fall of the West on TV, where it provides conversational fodder for dinner parties. The morning after the bushfires had circled my home, I walked down the hill to inspect its impact.

Endless acres of ancient shrubs are reduced to black sticks jutting from the ground, still smouldering. The crash of a mighty tree echoes through the valley, its limbs flying. Spread as far as the eye can see is nothing but bare rock, silvery ash and scorched earth. Is this what the end of civilisation will look like?

Post script

The November bush fires that savaged the Blue Mountains National Park, a World Heritage Area, were started by a couple of lightning strikes. For some reason, these were not quickly contained. When the flames spread, it was decided to “backburn”, in order to deprive the original fire of fuel and save the wilderness, an understandable strategy. But the original fire “got away”. Now there is scorched earth everywhere and heated debates about how the next fire should be handled. In a sense, this scenario parallels the 9/11 strikes on America, except that the White House reaction was hot headed, bloodthirsty, lawless and too long shielded from debate. The Blue Mountains lost half a million trees, many of which will grow back, weather permitting, but Iraq lost over half a million people. And who planned the invasion are still at large.

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From Hype To Hysteria: Fox News Selling Pre-emptive War Against Iran

FASCISTS? Look whose talking