Knowledge Brings Fear

Strange days

The world has now been for a long time in a state where you are inclined to think that things could not get possibly more bizarre. Nonetheless things are getting more bizarre by the day. Politics has declined to a helpless struggle to keep the masses quiet while the economic foundations of the world shift with breathtaking speed, nullifying any and all fixed political system of believe. We are running out of oil in the not-to-distant future, wars are fought about access to oil and water, the climate is shifting into Heavy Weather mode and all the while the zealots of scary monotheistic desert religions try convert by force or terrorism those who would rather be left alone and focus on getting things done.

Somehow I am not very sad about every hurricane that hits the USA. In the end, it is the American Way of Life of just 290 million people that needlessly eats up 25% of the worlds energy resources. When they say they want to defend the American Way of Life, they actually say the literal truth. You need the worlds biggest military machine to be able to keep the world record in energy waste. As cynical as it may sound: when the collateral damage of climate change hits hardest where the most can be done about it, it might actually change things for the better in the long run.

Re-insurance companies that see the storms and flash floods as biggest business risk have begun to silently get rid of insurance policies covering high-risk areas. Their internal climate modeling seems to be even more pessimistic then the published stuff. Predictive climate modeling has become a hot topic in several circles where it counts to plan decades ahead. To know when it is time to sell of coastal real estate, or property in cities that will be no longer inhabitable after the sea level raises or the gulf stream (aka. north atlantic thermohaline) stops can yield substantial profits, or at least limit losses to a sustainable level for investors who think ahead.

And: the summer here in Berlin currently is not up to spec. Fortunately I am too busy to not really get depressive yet about the weather. I still hope that climate change not ends up with Berlin hibernating in a permanent state of gray clouds and rain, but chances are slim. On monday in Amsterdam it rained so heavily that the street was filled up to the sidewalks within minutes and the car alarms were going off everywhere from the sheer impact of rain and hail. So, lets hope that we get a decent sunny september before its back to Bladerunner-style Berlin winter...