Please

My pleas.

Please keep oil prices high. I do not care if that means corrupt officials and rulers of small oil rich nations stay temporarily rich. The more oil costs, the less we will use, and the more the impetus will come to find alternatives. $200 a barrel by 2030? How about 2015? Please?

Please, sane govts (of whom there are at least a few), look at what a huge number of American voters did very recently. They voted with their feet to say "enough is enough" on a huge raft of issues. A reasonable percentage of that number could be rationally talked to in your own country if you put the breaks on and said you know what? Massive change. Now. It's too late to start worrying, we have to continue acting.

Take note of this article explaining what the IEA is suggesting we have to cope with in their latest projections.

I've said this before and so I must be very dull, but I strongly believe that the time for two party politics is over. For either party politics. For *politics* in the sense that we know them. If I look at my children's future, there's a little "Alice in Wonderland" type door in the back of my brain. I know it's there, it's constantly in the shadows in the corner of my eyes. There's a key in the door and luckily, it is small, not totally overwhelming. If I open the door though, even just a crack, it's just pitch black and filled with "Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!".

We are the luckiest generation in human history, as an overall, within countries where, you know... for example, Govt Ministers are not appointed who preside over the forced slavery of women and girls as punishment, or you know... who might condone the death by live burial of women involved in honour cases... (what the hell is happening in Pakistan? Is it all an anti-American push to the right - a reaction against Musharraf and the war? I'm presuming Yes). So. In the west, even long term unemployed families have access to an almost ludicrous wealth of services, of foods, and of consumer goods, compared to any generation previously. Those who choose to read and engage have libraries, books are relatively cheap and of course, they can have access to this bonkers ideas distribution device, the Interweb. The wars that we are involved with kill comparatively insignificant numbers of people when put up against any major wars previously. Compare this to 10, to 20, to 50 and to 100 years ago, it feels as if  we somehow are at a peak. There are two things we can do: assume that everything will toddle along as normal, in which case a very large percentage of  the human population is going to be alot more than displaced  (not to mention all the other species on the planet, but you know - let's stay in the 'selfish' mind set on this one, shall we?) or paddle, duck like, like crazy, underneath the surface to just at least kind of stay where we are... at least a bit.

Going back to the "Yes we can" effect, or mantra, I was thinking about doing something which could potentially be a totally fruitless, and pointless exercise but sometimes - like marching with 3 million other people against wars in Iraq, for example, the futile gesture is still the only noble course of action. I was thinking about writing to the two UK party leaders with the same letter and saying that now is about the best time you've got - oil prices are going up again, the recession is hitting, but... there has been this brief chink of light and sanity in the election of someone with a sense of drive and intelligence who may actually be able to do things, in a country which still has a fairly big world stage presence to say the least. If they were to ask the British electorate, right now, whilst still basking in the warm, post election glow if they would join in, and fight for cause greater than any war, and they would make visible and clear everything that we need to do, Now, not next year then I do believe that a big enough number of people would stand up and say "Yes we can". But now. NOW.

But it has to come from both parties. It has to be above politics. If it remains a political issue then... well. The voice behind that little door gets louder all the time. I can't actually state what my fears are exactly, because they sound like science fiction lunacy, but I as I wander through this super-inventive, super-human-luxurious environment we've built for ourselves, I almost feel like I can feel  the future breaking through, and in that are James and Nora. And I am frightened in those moments.

By the way, on an entirely unrelated note - and to break the apocalyptic mood slightly, no one has written any comments on here since *August*! I wonder if Ive gone all terribly boring, or if everyone is too busy.

Weird.