Mum's death prompts thoughts of global Alzheimer's disease

My parents had been married for 58 years when my mother died.

That was a terrible loss for my father, then 86 years old, and I was much worried about his health. But I was relieved when I saw that, after a few months, he seemed to have recovered from the shock. He remained active and he could manage his everyday life without special assistance. He could take the bus, alone, and walk alone in the neighborhood. He even made new friends and spent time with them.

However, something was wrong with my father. Terribly  wrong.

Read Ugo Bardi’s story on Cassandra's Legacy - “No ghost in the machine: is humankind suffering of a global Alzheimer disease?”

Aside from diehard deniers, most are conscious of climate change

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part from a small number of diehard deniers, most people are perfectly aware that we have a serious problem with climate change.

The public is just confused by a bombardment of contradictory statements pushed in the media, but probably that all what is needed to change the terms of the debate is just a push in the right direction.

Ugo Bardi.

The Pope's encyclic on climate - expected for this week (this was written by the Pope spoke) - could do just that, reaching a "tipping point" in the general perception of the problem.

After the tipping point, a consensus may be reached that the idea that climate change doesn't exist or is not caused by human activity is not just wrong, but positively dangerous for society.

Something comparable to such ideas as - say - that there is really no evidence that smoking causes cancers, that wearing a seat belt while riding a car is useless, and that crack is no more dangerous than coffee as a recreational drug.

Of course, we can't be sure that the Pope's encyclic will have this effect; but, suppose it does, then what can we expect to happen? Optimistically, we could think that most of the work is done and that, from then on, something serious and effective will be done to stop global warming. Unfortunately, things will not be so easy.

Read the latest posting on the Cassandra Blog by Ugo Bardi - “The coming "tipping point" of the climate perception: enough to solve the problem?”

Ugo understands what is happening and discusses the seven shocking events of 2014

Ugo Bardi with his
latest book, "Extracted".

Ugo Bardi understands how humans have plundered earth’s resources and subsequently seriously disrupted its climate system.

Writing on his blog “Resource Crisis”, Bardi discusses his “Seven shocking events of 2014” listed, as he points out, in no particular order.

Ugo Bardi teaches physical chemistry at the University of Florence, in Italy. He is interested in resource depletion, system dynamics modelling, climate science and renewable energy.

His most recent book in English is “Extracted: How the Quest for Global Mining Wealth is Plundering the Planet”.

He is a contributor for The Oil Drum; president of ASPO Italy, a member of the scientific committee of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) and author of several books, including "The Limits to Growth Revisited".

Our future can be either "good" or "bad" says Ugo Bardi

Ugo Bardi.

Our future can be “good” or “bad” depending on how we react to the collision of events the world is presently experiencing.

The founder and president of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, Italia, Ugo Bardi, has written about the past and possible alternatives that he sees for our future.

In a story on the Peal Oil website, Mr Bardi wrote in a story headed: “Ugo Bardi: The next ten billion years”, canvassed the dilemmas humanity face.

He takes what he describes as a “telescopic sweep of scenario building” in an attempt to help us understand what our future could be like, explaining it in both good and bad terms.

Looked at from the comfortable perspective of today neither is all that encouraging, but until we respond to the unfolding scenario in a way that illustrates that we put the welfare of people ahead of the short-termism of profit, the Bardi’s “bad” outcome appears inevitable.