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Experts Speak Out Against Suicide in the Name of Climate

November 2, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Green New Deal

Experts Speak Out Against Suicide in the Name of Climate –

Oct. 31 (EIRNS) – Quite a number of seasoned experts on power, carbon, and weather are challenging the premises of the Suicide on the Clyde in Glasgow. Among those who have not yet participated in Schiller Institute and LaRouche Organization events, are Bjorn Lomborg, Robert Bryce, and Richard Lindzen.

Swedish economist Lomborg was quoted in Manila Times: “You’ve probably seen the latest alarming headlines: Rising sea levels from climate change could flood 187 million people out of their homes. Don’t believe it. That figure is unrealistic — and it isn’t even new. It appears in a new scholarly paper, whose authors plucked it from a paper published in 2011. And what the earlier paper actually found was that 187 million could be forced to move in the unlikely event that no one does anything, in the next 80 years, to adapt to dramatic rises in sea level.

“In real life, the 2011 paper explained, humans ‘adapt proactively,’ and ‘such adaptation can greatly reduce the possible impacts.’ That means ‘the problem of environmental refugees almost disappears.’ Realistic assumptions reduce the number to between 41,000 and 305,000 — at most, less than 1/600th of the figure in those headlines.

“Sober scientific findings get less attention than alarming and far-fetched scenarios…. We have more knowhow and technology than ever to build dikes, surge barriers and dams, expand beaches and construct dunes, make ecosystem-based barriers like mangrove buffers, improve building codes and construction techniques, and use land planning and hazard mapping to minimize flooding….”

Bryce, a regular Forbes contributor on energy and power, spent two days with no power in Texas in February. He testified Oct. 27 at the House Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on the American power grid. Whereas from 2000-2007 there were fewer than 100 blackouts in any year around the country, in the past three years there have been 220, 278, and 383 blackouts as interruptible sources have been pushed out and onto the grid. “These policies are not just wrongheaded, they are deeply dangerous,” Bryce told the Committee. “Banning the use of liquid and gaseous fuels will reduce America’s energy security because it will concentrate our energy risks on a single energy network, the electric grid. Furthermore, they would require an electric grid with more than two times the capacity of today’s grid. That’s a largely fanciful notion given that the electric grid is faltering under existing demand.” His Forbes piece is here.

Richard Lindzen is emeritus Professor of Meteorology at MIT. He is quoted, also in Manila Times by author Yen Makabenta. After explaining that the demanded “climate mitigation” measures will have no effect on climate, Lindzen says: “Consider what the climate system actually is. This system consists in two turbulent fluids interacting with each other. They are on a rotating planet that is differentially heated by the sun. A vital constituent of the atmospheric component is water in the liquid, solid, and vapor phases, and the changes in phase have vast energetic ramifications. The energy budget of this system involves the absorption and re-emission of about 200 watts per square meter. Doubling CO2 involves a 2 percent perturbation to this budget. So do minor changes in clouds, ocean circulations, and other features, and such changes are common. In this complex multi-factor system, what is the likelihood that the climate (which itself consists of many variables and not just globally averaged temperature anomalies) is controlled by a 2 percent perturbation in the energy budget due to just one of the numerous variables, namely CO2?

“Believing this is pretty close to believing in magic…. After all, science is a mode of inquiry rather than a belief structure.”

Friday Questions: How Can We Organize People to Recognize the Common Interests of Mankind?

May 7, 2021by Malene Robinson in General, General updates, Harley Schlanger Daily Update

As we are dashing headlong into a systemic economic collapse and a danger of annihilation through nuclear war, how can we organize our fellow citizens to recognize the common interests we share with citizens of all nations?  In today’s Update, we hear the words of President John F. Kennedy from June 1963, shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he presented an approach to peace through dialogue, not a “Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war.”  JFK called on us to “direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved….For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we inhabit this small planet.  We all breathe the same air.  We all cherish our children’s futures.  And we are all mortal.”
As you reflect on these words, remember to register for the Schiller Institute’s online conference on Saturday May 8, at 9 AM, where such themes will be the central topic. 

Schlanger on Caesar Sanctions Posted by Russian International Affairs Council

April 20, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Color Revolutions, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Media coverage of our activity, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), Stop the Sanctions, World war danger updates

Schlanger on Caesar Sanctions Posted by Russian International Affairs Council

April 19: An article by Harley Schlanger, just written for LaRouche publications on Helga’ Zepp-LaRouche’s call to revoke the Caesar Sanctions, and how the U.S. Congress was incited to pass them, has been posted on the RIAC (Russia International Affairs Council) site. In addition, the RIAC tweeted the article to its 9,500 Twitter followers. RIAC is a institution of the Russian Foreign Minister, and is directed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Here is a link to the Tweet.

Sanctions Kill More People Than “Climate Change”

November 2, 2021by Malene Robinson in General, General updates, Harley Schlanger Daily Update

The FLOP26 opened with the expected hyperbole, with BoJo saying “It’s one minute to midnight”, i.e. we are running out of time to stop what Joe Biden called “an existential threat to human existence….”   But the “debate” over whether there has been warming and what is causing it has not been settled, despite what the COP26 “influencers” so loudly assert.  Resistance is building to the devastation which will be unleashed if the “net zero carbon” demand is successfully imposed.  Given the rhetoric from leaders about their “profound concern for future generations”, why are they not calling for lifting the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its NATO allies on nations such as Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe, sanctions which are killing people now, and threatening millions more lives, especially of children, in the future?  

Syria Times Reports Dr. Shaaban Attacking British at Schiller Event

May 11, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Color Revolutions, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Media coverage of our activity, Our conferences, Syria, Syria, World war danger updates

May 10 (EIRNS) – Schiller Institute Southwest Asia representative Hussein Askary reported to EIR that Syrian media is publishing a news item today in which it is made obvious that Syrian government spokesperson Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban used the Schiller Institute conference as a platform to single out the British as instrumental in the propaganda and psychological war against Syria. Dr. Shaaban usually directs her criticism for the military and economy devastation visited upon Syria, at the United States and Saudi Arabia; seldom at Britain. This link is for the English version of the circulating story in Syria Times. The Arabic version was published in several Arabic newspapers and websites, Askary reports.

Presidents of DR, Costa Rica and Panama Urge Immediate Action on Haitian Crisis

September 27, 2021by madeleine in COVID-19, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Haiti, Healthcare

Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22, the Presidents of the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Panama signed a communique announcing the creation of an informal alliance among them, titled the {Alliance for Democratic Institutionality,} which calls on the international community to act swiftly to address the crisis in Haiti. In the communique, Dominican President Luis Abinader, Costa Rican Carlos Alvarado Quesada and Panama’s Laurentino Cortizo Cohen express their “deep concern over the Haitian crisis and its growing impact on the region, particularly its grave migratory consequences.” They have “instructed their foreign ministers to, in alliance with strategic partners such as the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and other friendly countries, immediately devise concrete, comprehensive and sustainable solutions in the framework of respect for [human] dignity and human rights for the purpose of taking on the alarming situation in Haiti.”

All three nations are struggling to recover from the impact of the COVID-triggered economic crisis, made more difficult in the recent period by having to contend with large flows of migrants, largely from Haiti. In a document produced as a result of their meeting, in addition to the communique, the three leaders stress their shared values and “consider it of the utmost importance the exchange of opinions on the challenges our region faces to retake the path of post-pandemic development,” including proposing “joint initiatives that result in the prosperity, sustainable development and the reactivation of our economies.” They stress the importance of reviving regional integration, mentioning “strategic partners” without naming them — all three nations have diplomatic ties with China; and make an obligatory reference to the “green development paradigm.” 

They will benefit from learning about the Schiller Institute’s development program for Haiti, the Caribbean and Central American region to be published in the upcoming {EIR}, which was presented in the Sept. 25 Manhattan Project Meeting, “Reconstructing Haiti is America’s Way Out of the `Global Britain’ Trap.”

Spanish-language communique and document available here.

Hyperinflationary Monetary Policy Starting to Have Serious Results

May 11, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Agriculture, Economic development updates, Finance, General updates, New financial order updates

May 10 (EIRNS) – The central bankers’ “regime change” plotted at the August 2019 annual bankers’ summit – senior partner central bank and junior partner government Treasury teaming up to print vast amounts of currency and direct its spending – has been carried out since that time, and now has triggered the start of a hyperinflation.

Bloomberg’s Commodity Price Index is up 62% from April 2020 to April 2021. These are spot market prices, which means not every buyer is paying them. But, nothing like this has been seen since January 1980, at the end of the 1970s “stagflation” and when Paul Volcker as Federal Reserve chair was already crushing the economy to stop it – 10-year Treasury interest rates were then 13%, not 1.5% as now.

Wall Street and the City are very happy, so far, about this rapid inflation in various forms of producer prices, which their corporate clients are passing on to households across the world whose wage income – at best – is stagnant. At “regime change” leader BlackRock, Inc., its global head of thematic investing Evy Hambro enthused on Bloomberg Television May 8, “There’s still quite a lot of room to go. What we’re really doing is we’re testing the upper ranges of commodity markets to work out what the new price range is going to be.”
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s global food price index rose in April to 120.9, which represents a 30.7% increase in one year. Food inflation last reached this level in 2011. Corn wholesale prices have surged the most, averaging 142% in the past year. Otherwise, sugars and oils are rising in price most quickly. Economists will “explain” that food prices both to the farmer and at the supermarket have been deflating during most of the 21st Century. But that is not the point: A hyperinflationary policy of printing currency and avoiding productive investment has triggered a sudden and rising inflation, as EIR forecast it would last in the Fall and the EIR Alert in late Summer. This inflation is getting started, and it will not be “transitory” unless the policy is changed radically.

In the United States, the price of the median home purchase is 18% higher than one year ago. While rental inflation had fallen quite low during the pandemic (though the lowest-income renters faced the most inflation!), it is now ready to take off. Two very large rental owners, Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent, are raising rents by 8-11% on all new leases and re-leases.

The April Consumer Price Index, defanged of inflation in every way Federal Reserve and Labor Department economists have been able to devise in 35 years of effort, will be published May 12. It tends to shape Americans’ “expectations” of inflation. That survey by the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed today, for example, that Americans expect home price inflation to be 5.5% in the coming year – when it is already 18% for the median home!

NYT Opinion Writer: Biden’s Taiwan Policy “Reckless,” Threatens “Catastrophic War”

May 6, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, United States, World war danger updates

May 6 (EIRNS)–Under the title: “Biden’s Taiwan Policy Is Truly, Deeply Reckless,” the New York Times Opinion writer Peter Beinart warned on May 5 that the Administration’s policy is bringing us very close to war, and quotes experts that the war would become nuclear. He also quotes military experts that the U.S. could not win such a war — simply driving home that such a war would likely become nuclear by a desperate and crazy U.S. leadership.

Beinart writes: “Like the Trump administration before it, the Biden team is now progressively chipping away” at the One China policy, which has prevented war over these past decades. 

He notes: “Last summer, Democrats removed the phrase `one China’ from their platform. In January, Mr. Biden became the first American president since 1978 to host Taiwan’s envoy at his inauguration. In April, his administration announced it was easing decades-old limitations on official U.S. contacts with the Taiwanese government. These policies are increasing the odds of a catastrophic war. The more the United States and Taiwan formally close the door on reunification, the more likely Beijing is to seek reunification by force.”

Beinart quotes Harvard’s Graham Allison: “No Chinese national security official I have ever met, and no U.S. official who has examined the situation, doubts that China would choose war over losing territory it considers vital to its national interest.” He quotes Fareed Zakaria: “The Pentagon has reportedly enacted 18 war games against China over Taiwan, and China has prevailed in every one.” He notes: “Within 500 miles of the island, mainland China boasts 39 air bases. The United States possesses two. To come to Taiwan’s aid, U.S. forces would need to cover huge distances, and China has built an arsenal of advanced anti-ship missiles, sometimes called “carrier-killers,” which are designed to make such a rescue mission hideously costly.” 

In other words, the U.S. can not win such a conventional war. Beinart notes: “Some of America’s most experienced China experts — including former ambassador to Beijing J. Stapleton Roy and Chas Freeman, who served as Richard Nixon’s interpreter on his 1972 trip to China — believe such a conflict would risk nuclear war. He adds that, according to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 85 percent of Republican leaders support defending Taiwan militarily, but “only 43 percent of Republicans among the public agree.”

 He concludes: “What’s crucial is that the Taiwanese people preserve their individual freedom and the planet does not endure a third world war. The best way for the United States to pursue those goals is by maintaining America’s military support for Taiwan while also maintaining the “one China” framework that for more than four decades has helped keep the peace in one of the most dangerous places on earth. Hawks will call this appeasement. So be it. Ask them how many American lives they’re willing to risk so the United States can have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan.”

Beinart is a professor of journalism and political science at The Newmark School of Journalism at The City University of New York, and is editor-at-large of the “progressive” Jewish Currents..

Global Times Editorial Defends Developing Nations’ `Industrialization’ vs. Climate Geopolitics

April 20, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Green New Deal, New financial order updates, Power & Energy

Global Times Editorial Defends Developing Nations’ `Industrialization’ against Climate Geopolitics 

April 19 (EIRNS) — The unsigned editorial in the April 19 Global Times, “To deal with climate change, China-US cooperation is important and sensitive,” takes the global anti-Malthusian resistance shown by India and others to another level. The developing nations’ 2009 resistance to population reduction and genocide, effective in Copenhagen then, is revived.

The unsigned editorial (indicating a Politburo statement) begins with reserve, pointing out that it is “fair to say that China and the U.S. have communicated quite effectively and achieved some results. China has not yet announced plans for its top leader to attend the climate summit; analysts are waiting for things to become clearer.” The editorial likewise points out that “the general environment among the big powers is not good. The U.S. wants to show leadership by working with China and Russia to address the climate challenge, while it is also obstructing China and Russia in other spheres. That is not what normal relations among great powers should be like.”

But then the principles of economic development against environmental extremism become very clear indeed. “UN climate action involves the fundamental interests of humanity, and the specific arrangement for reducing emissions concerning all countries’ major development interests,” says Global Times. “The developed countries have completed industrialization, while developing countries are still in the process of industrialization, and some have just started this process…. People’s living standards are still low in these countries, and it is particularly important to create more resources to improve people’s livelihoods through further industrialization.” The article states that the U.S. has used its power to force more obligations on countries, while taking benefits.

“In an extreme scenario, if the world is about to promote carbon neutrality today, then the world’s economic development pattern will be perpetuated as it is today. The development gap between the developed and underdeveloped countries will become permanent.” The newspaper reminds that while the American elite fight over many issues, they agree on U.S. hegemony. “The current U.S. administration is trying to play the role of a leader and thus squeeze developing countries’ room for growth, as the previous U.S. administration desired.

“China and the U.S. are both the largest emitters; the two countries have huge differences in population and economic development, but the U.S. wants China to take more responsibilities in reducing emissions. It is worth observing the relation between such [environmentalist] pressure from the U.S., and the U.S.’ geopolitical move to pressure China.”

It concludes: “We should promote that the common interests of humanity are jointly defined by the interests of people from all countries, rather than by a handful of countries that want to monopolize this definition.”

Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche suggested today that the editorial has a clarity that would not have come without the LaRouche movement’s organizing and reports exposing the Green New Deal. She called it the strongest statement since the 2009 announcement of the G77 nations that they would not sign the Copenhagen “suicide pact” of population reduction.

Prince Charles Calls for “War-Like Mobilization” Against Humans at FLOP26 Summit

November 5, 2021by Malene Robinson in General, General updates, Harley Schlanger Daily Update

Friday Questions:
1. What are the implications of the merger of the global Green New Deal with the Great Reset presented yesterday by Prince Charles, Mark Carney, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and others,  in the context of the COP26 “climate” summit? 2. Is Virginia Gov.-Elect Youngkin a Bush-RINO Republican?
3. Will the Federal Reserve raise interest rates, and what will happen if it does?
4. What are the strategic implications of the Chinese hypersonic missile launch?

Send your questions to HARLEYSCH@gmail.com

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