Mexico´s CO2 Submission Curveball

Mexico’s foreign and environment ministries presented their emission´s goals for 2030, sent to UN “Global War on Climate Change” headquarters.  

The Mexicans claimed their goals represent a 25 % reduction “versus the business as usual case”. I found the slides  (in Spanish) at a Mexican government website, so I can confirm they pulled a fast one. They assumed that “under business as usual” their emissions would increase from 781 (2013)  to 1110 (2030)  million tons of CO2 equivalent. Then they prepared a “goal” for 2030: 829 million tons.

Draw a cartoon in your mind, 781, a line up to 1110, which sits on top of the 829. 

Mexican Mariachis singing a song 

(photo from Reuters, Andrew Winning)

I went ahead and interpolated the 2015 emissions levels: 817 million tons of CO2 equivalent. Their goal, 829 million tons, wow, that´s 1 %,  a teensy bit over the 2015 figure. Not bad for a country full of Catholics and Evangelicals who will have lots of babies and are hoping to grow GDP by a whopping 3.3 % a year.

Blog post written by a US soldier in Iraq

TURNINGTABLES was a blog written by a US soldier located somewhere in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.  The posts were signed "Moja".

Given the growing intensity of the conflicts  in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, and Chad, and the way Netanyahu is goading the US to maintain a hostile posture towards Iran, I suspect things are going to go downhill and we are about to see US  soldiers going to fight in those bullshit places in the near future. I don´t think any of it is worth it, but that´s the way things rock and roll when those who make the decisions don´t put their hides on the line.

So I decided to re-read some of Moja´s posts, and I want to show you one of the last ones:

September 5, 2003:

“i was listening to an ex-marine turned army staff sergeant...and an ex-abrahms tanker turned signal puke...they described the scene as a long stretch of road running through the middle of a small foreign town...fox holes and machine gun nests littering the road way...snipers plugged up in windows...the enemy dug in deep...an assault by ground forces would prove catastrophic...there were very few options that would lead to victory over these circumstances...

US Abrams tanks in Baghdad, 2003 (from Wikipedia)

the good guys brought in the tanks...lined them up side by side facing down the fortified roadway...simultaneously the tanks fired two rounds down range...the rounds created enough of a vacuum that the enemy soldiers were sucked from their fortifications and into the middle of the street...where they were gunned down from a top the turret...or rolled over by tank tread...

I interview Ebenezer Rabbet (ˈrabət)

The Rabbet legend begins with a delightful children’s blog about an orphan rabbit named Ebenezer   – a bunny with a magical destiny.  This rabbit is credited with doing more for scientific literacy than any other blogging  animal on the planet. 

Rabbit with portable computer bag

Rabbits are very common in  amusement parks and petting zoos, but  I interviewed Ebenezer Rabbet at his office in the posh California mansion  he had purchased,  using the cash he gets from Yingli Green Energy for pushing solar energy.

Fernando: So, this is the first time we’ve met.

Rabbet: Yes, it is.

Fernando: And my sources tell me that your real name isn´t really Ebenezer.

Rabbet: (laughing) Yeah.

Fernando: Ebenezer is…

Rabbet:  Is just the nom de plum – well, it’s because my agent, when my first blog post  came out, thought ‘this is a blog that will appeal to autistic males between the ages of 30 and 70’ but they didn’t want the guys to know a rabbit was writing  it. So he said to me ‘could I use your real name but tell them you´re a college professor’ and I said ‘fine’. But I only have one name. Just use something similar - use Ebenezer. 

Fernando: Ebenezer, that´s it.

Rabbet:  Yeah.

Fernando: You  fooled the guys for a while.

Rabbet: Yeah, not for too long.

Fernando: Not for too long.

Rabbet: Yeah – because I started getting my picture in the press and no one could pretend I was a man anymore. It´s the ears, they´re way too long.

Fernando: Yes – and I don’t think the guys have minded.

Rabbet: No – it hasn’t held me back, has it? Clearly not held me back. They don´t really care if I´m just a rabbit. I don´t need a college degree to write a blog. And I´ve done a lot to reduce rabbit hunting. To me it´s cannibalism, if you don´t mind me saying so.

The New Poor Working Class Will Destroy the Established Order

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman versus slave, lord versus  serf, communist party commissar versus  worker, oppressor against the oppressed, have stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in ruin of the contending classes. 

"The Revolution Will Move Forward" 

In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters; in 21^st century socialist societies we have the communist party elite, the military, the security services, and gangsters allied with the regime, all aligned against the people. All of these classes have gradations, the ones at the top live in incredible luxury, while the people suffer in poverty and are subjected to numerous indignities and abuses.

Marvinia Jimenez, on her knees just before she´s 

savagely beaten by Chavista Guards (Venezuela, 2014). 

The modern 21st century socialist or chavista society that has sprouted from the ruins of failed capitalist society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.

Our epoch, the epoch of the 21st century socialist (designated Castro-Chavista henceforth), possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two hostile camps, into two groups directly facing each other — Castro-Chavistas and the people.

We see, therefore, how the modern Castro-Chavista regime is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.