17 Shopping Days Until the End of the World… Again!

It’s silly season again! No really, this time it most certainly is…

I wrote last year in October about the religious nut, Harold Camping who predicted the end of the world on 21 October. This time around its various New Ageists and other assorted crackpots. Most of these wacko’s base their beliefs on the Mayan calendar. Others think that Earth is going to collide with a Black Hole, or the imaginary planet Nibiru. Some even suggest we’re going to be invaded by Aliens.

I know the world is still as crazy as ever; probably even more so than last year. There are all the usual signs. We’ve had them here in South Africa too. Religious nut jobs are still butchering anyone who they deem to be in opposition to their primitive belief systems. Politicians are still defrauding their constituencies with gay abandon. And every freak, thief, rapist and murderer continues to treat the world as their personal property.

And global temperatures are rising.

But I can assure you that I will stop the world from ending on 21 December 2012. The question is, will you worship me thereafter?

The great sardine run, and a temple that glows in the dark

Now that I’ve recovered somewhat from my week-long sojourn down in Durban, it’s time to turn my attention to writing again with some things that caught my attention.

Kwa-Zulu Natal, on the east coast of South Africa, is famous for the annual sardine (alternatively known as a pilchard) run which usually occurs between June and July, but sometimes as early as May. In recent years however, the shoals which have beached in the past, have slowly dried up. There were huge catches in some odd years, but the general trend is that the “greatest shoal on Earth” is slowly becoming a no-show. This year was no different.

While sitting on a south coast beach, waiting with hundreds of other eager sardine-spotters, I pondered why the great sardine run is turning into the great sardine crawl in recent years. It’s really tempting to blame global warming, although how exactly, I have no idea. I overheard one guy on the shore say that the sardines are getting smarter. They’re learning how not to get caught. Who knows? He may be right. Evolution is supposed to be continuous after all. Well, I certainly hope they’re not getting smarter, because they sure make a tasty snack. And it won’t do, to hope it’s because of global warming either. That’s certainly not very smart.

On a slightly more significant note, well only just; last Friday evening while on my way to visit a cousin in my old hometown near Durban, I noticed some rather colourful, bright neon lights flashing up ahead on a hill. Thinking that it was some new club that had opened, I was rather taken aback to discover that they were in fact adorning a Hindu temple. Having followed the religion, many years ago before returning to Atheism, I’m used to Hinduism being rather conservative and dignified, well lacklustre really. This garish display of brightly flashing lights on top of a building that is revered by Hindus, is more reminiscent of a casino.

I actually burst out laughing at the time and afterwards remembered where I had seen such a phenomenon before: about two years ago I saw almost the same neon lighting display (although not in so many colours) on a modern building in Toronto, Canada, which could easily be identified as a church because of the large cross on the side of the building. Is this the way of the future? Religions trying to attract the noticeably dwindling flocks, with a casino-style lure? Or is it just a modern beacon for worshippers who have become lost? I wonder?

Is the Global Warming Threat, a Monster Hoax?

I’ve just returned from a short holiday down in the coastal city of Durban, South Africa. It was hot, really hot, the entire time I was there, even on the few overcast days. I usually visit Durban every December to visit family, and every year it just feels hotter and more humid than the last. And I’m not kidding, it’s a furnace down there.

In the middle of one agonizingly hot day, I remember mentioning to some of my relatives that anyone who does not think that global warming is real, had better think again. They all agreed, that global warming was real. So, imagine my horror when I got back to Johannesburg and logged onto Worpress.com to find a blog post about an article claiming that global warming was one big lie. Written by Harold Ambler in the Huffington Post, the article is called “Mr. Gore: Apology Accepted.” Ambler presents a supposedly scientific essay on why “global warming” and “climate change” is the “biggest whopper ever sold to the public…”

Now, I don’t know where Harold Amber lives, but its surely not Durban. I live in Mogale City, about 650 kilometers from Durban, and even up here at an altitude in excess of 6000 meters above sea level, I’ve noticed that year on year, it just keeps getting hotter. And I’m not the only one whose noticed the increase in temperatures. I’m no scientist, but I just know that something is very wrong with the climate. It may not be because of CO2 emissions, but until I get more scientific corroboration, than Harold Ambler is providing, the jury is still out.

Gore’s Generational Challenge to Repower America

On Thursday former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore issued a bold challenge: that 100 percent of U.S. electricity production come from sources with zero carbon emissions within 10 years.

A video and the full text of his speech given in Washington DC can be accessed from the We Can Solve It website. Although the challenge was issued to Americans, I believe that it is applicable to every country in the world today. I am hoping that our own President (and the one waiting in the wings) will take heed and adjust our own environmental policy to encompass this challenge.