And now, for today's rant:



Like Hans Solo and Don Quijote, Agelbert would never get out of bed if his actions were predicated on his chances of success. As long as God is for me, I am unconcerned about the Empathy Deficit Disordered Reprobates who are against me! Giddap!



Jared Leto Takes You on a 360º Virtual Tour to See First-Hand Effects of Climate Change

Agelbert Comment:

Why Dianoia is sine qua non to a Viable Biosphere

Cole Mellino | October 7, 2015 3:08 pmThe Sierra Club, Environmental Media Association and RYOT launched today the first-ever virtual reality climate change public service announcement, which offers 360 degree panoramic shots that catapults viewers into the heart of the Arctic to explore frontline communities and melting glaciers.The video, which is being released just two months shy of the UN climate talks in Paris, aims to encourage world leaders to take meaningful action on climate.The climate negotiations present a unique opportunity to take on the climate crisis and take action for a strong and just clean energy economy, said Michael Brune, Sierra Clubs executive director.Climate change affects all life on this planet, said Academy Award-winning actor Jared Leto, who narrates the PSA. It is literally altering the face of the Earth and displacing communities. I hope world leaders recognize that people around the globe want and need them to step up and work together starting at the UN Climate Summit and beyond, to fight the climate crisis. Humanity depends on it.To us, this is by far the most exciting use case for virtual reality technology, said Molly Swenson, COO of RYOT and an executive producer of the film. When youre standing in the middle of a glacial ice cave, watching and hearing it melt rapidly from the inside out, you not only understand that climate change is real, but you feel compelled to do everything you can to halt and reverse it. VR is the best tool weve found for turning passive viewers into active participants.Let's get something straight, shall we? A crime has been committed. Somebody made a lot of money committing that crime. We KNOW who they are. They USE that money to DICTATE energy polices, both foreign and domestic.They will be the first to disingenuously claim that "we are all to blame, so we all must pay". They will use a thoroughly distorted Fragmentation of Agency defense to try to socialize the costs of amelioration of the deleterious effects of climate change while they continue to laugh all the way to the bank.Since these polluters KNOW they can no longer deny SOME liability for the daily multi-species killing polluting of our biosphere, they will be sending their Empathy Deficit disordered LAWYERS to the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) for the purpose of passing MOST of the BUCK to we-the-people.SNIPPET from my article on(Aristotle's term for "Thinking Things Though"):One of the themes about human history that I have tried to communicate to readers over and over is that predatory capitalist corporations, while deliberately profiting from knowingly doing something that causes pollution damage to the populace, always plan AHEAD to socialize the costs of that damage when they can no longer deny SOME liability for it. Their conscience free lackey lawyers will always work the system to limit even PROVEN 100% liability.When 100% liability is blatantly obvious, as in the Exxon Valdes oil spill, they will shamelessly use legalese to limit the liability. ExxonMobil pulled a fast one on the plaintiffs by getting "punitive", rather than "compensatory" damages. See what the learned counselor said, "The purpose of punitive awards is to punish, not to destroy, according to the law". Ethics free Exxon and its ethics free lawyers KNOW how the Court System "works". JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW [Vol. 18:151] The purpose of this comment is to describe the history of the Exxon Valdez litigation and analyze whether the courts and corresponding laws are equipped to effectively handle mass environmental litigation..While the profits are rolling in, they will claim they are "just loyal public servants, selflessly providing a service that the public is demanding", while they laugh all the way to the bank. When the damage is exposed, they will claim we are "all equally to blame" (i.e. DISTORTED Fragmentation of Agency).This is clearly false because polluting corporations, in virtually all cases, AREN'T non-profit organizations. If they were NOT PROFITING, THEN, and only then, could they make the claim that "we all benefited equally so we all are equally responsible to pay equally for the cost."Those who presently benefit economically from the burning of fossil fuels, despite the scientific certainty that this is ushering in a Permian level mass extinction, will probably be quick to grab on to a severely distorted and duplicitous version of the 'Fragmentation of Agency' meme, in regard to assigning the proportionate blame for the existential threat our species is visiting on future generations.Privatizing the profits and socializing the costs is what they have done for over a century in the USA. They have always gotten away with it. That is why, despite having prior knowledge that their children would be negatively impacted by their decisions, they decided to dispense with ethical considerations.They assumed that, with all the profits they would accumulate over the last 40 years (or as long as the populace can be blinded to the truth of the existential threat), they could protect their offspring when things got "difficult".They know that millions to billions of people, in all probability, will die. But they think their wealth can enable them to survive and thrive.As for the rest of us, who obtained a pittance in benefits in comparison to the giant profits the polluters raked (and still continue to rake) in, we can expect an army of corporate lawyers descending on our government(s) demanding that all humans, in equal portions, foot the bill for ameliorating climate change.The lawyer speak will probably take the form of crocodile tears about the "injustice of punitive measures" or, some double talk legalese limiting "punitive damage claims" based on Environmental LAW fun and games (see: "punitive" versus "compensatory" damage claims).This grossly unjust application of the 'Fragmentation of Agency' is happening as we speak. The poorest humans are paying the most with their health for the damage done by the richest. The richest have avoided most, or all, of the deleterious effects of climate change.When the governments of the world finally get serious about the funding needed to try to clean this mess up (present incremental measures ARE NOT sufficient), the rich plan to continue literally getting away with ecocide, and making sure they don't pay their share of the damages for it.