Seven thousand #methane bulges (pingos) in Siberia

siberiantimes: "The problem is extensive.

‘Based on satellite data, we have marked 7,000 bulges (pingos) - or even more,' he said.

‘It doesn't mean that every pingo carries danger - but it is still clear that we can draw certain conclusions.'

A dozen new craters have been identified in three years. "

Another pathetic attack on #freetransit from corporate media. [they got nothin']

Alternet: "Which leads to the question: Just who is taking public transit on the free days? If those cities’ citizens are anything like New Yorkers, the folks riding for free are probably the same people who would rather walk or ride a bike than pay nearly $3 to get somewhere."

Probably? That's all you got. We have a whole library listing the benefits of public transportation. One of the main ones is more physical activity.

When is the #marchforourlives against cars?

Death by Car: "In 2016 in the United States, a total of 65,284 people under the age of 25 died, from all natural and artificial causes. Of these children, 24,005, or 37 percent, were killed in automotive collisions. This result was not an anomaly. It is a feature, not a bug, of our socio-economic order. Car crashes are the clear, long-standing #1 killer of American children. It is not a close contest, either."

Opponents of free public transport: "We need that money!"

Paris mayor proposes free public transport to reduce pollution | KTIC Radio: "Valerie Pecresse, head of the Ile-de-France region around Paris and a member of the Conservative Party, criticized Hidalgo, pointing out that “ticket sales bring in 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) a year.”

“We need that money,” Pecresse told French Radio Classique, adding that if travelers did not pay, taxpayers would have to do so."

What is the main objection to the implementation of fare-free public transport? It is the "loss" of revenue from fares. But what is not said is that the reduction in car costs will be far more than the loss of revenue. The list of the externalities, or hidden costs, of the private auto is very long, and represents a lot of money, many millions more that the little bit from payment of public transport fares.

Autosprawl Welfare    Externalities    100 Reasons for Free Transit

Paris [again] ponders free public transport

connexionfrance: "Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo is considering making the capital's public transport free to all Parisians in a bid to reduce air pollution - but her plan faces opposition from the head of the regional transport authority, who said the move would hit taxpayers.

Ms Hidalgo has launched a study into the feasibility of free city-wide transport, and told French daily Les Echos she wanted to debate the issue ahead of municipal elections in 2020. She told the paper: "The question of free transport is one of the keys to urban mobility in which the place of the polluting car is no longer central"."

How to recognize false-flag operations

Syria regime too weak, US changing plan

The US has been standing by, hoping the regime in Syria can keep "stability" ... meaning access to oil in Kirkuk, Iraq.

But the regime cannot even conquer its own capital city.

Now the US has to be more aggressive, maybe take it down and install another puppet.

#Oilwars not necessary, rather wars of choice

From #Ghouta #Syria - A Weird world where you can kill 500,000 Own peoples to get throne. And World is silent . Humanity is ending”. #East_Ghouta #GhoutaGenocide #SaveSyrianChildren #Syrie #SyriaIsBleeding #Assad #AssadPutin pic.twitter.com/oytzyVRzXv

— Soldiers of War (@Pawns30) March 17, 2018

The Curse of Energy Efficiency: The #jevons paradox

The Curse of Energy Efficiency | The Tyee: "Jevons concluded that: “It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth.”

The idea that using fuels and resources more efficiently leads to greater environmental ruin became known as Jevons Paradox. Oil-fired and electrical driven technologies have honoured the paradox with panache.

Modern economists don’t talk much about Jevons Paradox, but they do admit that the problem exists and refer it to “rebound.” Just when you think you’ve actually solved a problem, shit rebounds on you, they calculate with their math formulas. When energy efficiency wipes out 100 per cent of the energy savings, economists call the rebound a total “backfire.”"

What everyone knows, but few will say

The automobile took over US by force before WWII. After the war, it was expanded to create a subsidized, unsustainable, empire of sprawl.

Now it has spread to the world.

Capitalism has all its eggs in this basket.

They plan to bomb, slaughter, starve, and torture until the whole thing collapses.

Everything else is distraction.

Mayor of German city believes fares deter car owners from trying #publictransport

German Cities To Trial Ambitious Free Public Transport Plans | HuffPost: "“If you ask them, they don’t know how the system works and are not prepared to pay 5 euros when they have a car in the garage and can ‘do it free.’ In attracting these people, the price barrier is very important.”

The aim in Tübingen, he says, is twofold: to lower emissions and reduce travel costs for people on low incomes. A municipal memo reportedly put the cost of zero-fee public transport for all at 14.5 million euros ($18 million)."

Fare-free public transit is good. It's intuitively obvious, and studies back it up.

Just stand by a busy highway and watch the traffic. Unless you have been brainwashed it should be obvious that something is wrong.

Recently some major cities have turned to fare-free public transit to reduce pollution. There are many other benefits as well, and mayors are wondering why they can't have them.

But those who profit from the auto system are many and powerful. Sprawled out homes need many more energy-wasting consumer products.

They have launched attacks in the corporate media against fare-free public transit. What is their best argument? They say it doesn't work, that it attracts people who would have walked.

We have a whole library of links that show the many benefits of public transit. There is plenty of evidence that it generates more physical activity. Over 90 percent of bus riders walk to the bus stop.

The anti-transit forces have no legitimate arguments. We even can show that your city will save more money with fare-free public transit than the "lost" revenue. 

Follow truth wherever it leads

The US empire is in deep trouble. It has bet everything on an unsustainable investment of trillions in autosprawl hard assets. Highways, pipelines, ocean tankers, highway tankers, rail tankers, refineries, parking lots, spread out water systems, sewer systems, electrical grid, bridges, and tunnels.

Now they have miscalculated in MENA and cannot guarantee control over the last of the cheap oil, the oil in Kirkuk.They cannot control the transmission of gas from the Caspian to the markets of South Asia.

They cannot care for their own people. They fear rebellion and are working hard to promote racism and other divisions.

This is what is driving US policy. Ignore the corporate media. Turn off the TV.

Monetary policy broken now that cheap oil is over

Our Finite World: "Also, feedbacks don’t come quickly enough to make necessary course corrections. This makes raising interest rates way too much like playing with physics reactions we don’t fully understand. Interest rate increases (like fission reactions) start chain reactions. In an open environment such as the world economy, we have limited understanding of the outcome of these chain reactions."

#autosprawl meltdown

Seoul City caves in to pressure, chooses capitalist profit over human survival

KBS World Radio: "Seoul City has eventually scrapped its fine dust reduction policy of providing free public transport on buses and the subway during rush hour.

This comes two months after the measure was first introduced.

The measure was disputed as wasting municipal budget as it cost nearly five billion won a day for the free rides."

Free public transport is much more than clean air. It threatens to break the monopoly that the auto has on moving people. When that happens people will no longer tolerate the huge subsidies needed to keep the auto system going.