Happy 20- oh f'it

We are well past the midway point of 2019, and weather records across the globe are being broken like each lane in a bowling alley scoring record after record. With the Gulf Stream slowing, Greenland ice sheets and glaciers experiencing record melting, plus a slew of scientific data indicating that we’re more or less fucked. What are governments around the world effectively doing to alleviate the awaiting crisis of having many of their populace sploshing around halfway through the night?

So far, it seems not much. There’s a lot of PR and marketing guff doing the rounds, but when it comes to the nitty gritty day-to-day reduction in waste, inefficiency, switching from fossil fuels to renewables, a whole bucket of snails would beat these hares in a race, and that’s only if the race covered a 10 yard stretch.

There is an increasing awareness amongst the general populace that there is a growing issue taking place with the climate, simply from the increasing reports even on their favourite TV/cables nesshows, that the 500 year and 100 year occuring records now appear to being broken on a monthly basis.

Of course the Gammonistas take it as a matter of pride to ignore all these warnings. As we know, we don't need experts (Mr Gove), regarding anything we know nothing, or very little about. Naturally this is taken to extremes in america, rolling coal, with your breakfast quadruple burger? Helped of course by Trump and his minions taking great pride in rolling back environmental protections. With methane as one of the potent greenhouse gases, what better thing to do than relax the regulations regarding their emissions from oil & gas drilling, as that might save up to $19m a year. With methane approximately 30 times more potent a gas as carbon dioxide at trapping heat, show that you understand the calamity the species is heading towards, by pouring more fuel on the fire. Perhaps they are reptilian after all, and their evil plan is working towards warming the planet up, so they can increase the size of their clutch eggs.

Bolsanaro in Brazil carries on as a mini-me henchman, encouraging the burning of the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon, often called the vital lungs for the world. If burning your lungs weren’t bad enough, we find out that the Democatic Republic of the Congo, home to the largest Ebola epidemic and 38 private armies all battling each other, now has more fires than the Amazon basin. This is a country which is as big as Western Europe… Oh, and it also happens to have the biggest measles epidemic which has so far killed about 5 times as many kids as the Ebola epidemic has killed people. There appears to be no end in sight for any of these catastrophes, and the list only seems to be getting bigger. Any help from the west? Well, there are lots of tut tutting, action plans and promises. Which, as we all know, is the battle nearly won.

A little bit -They're in the money!

The 2019 rich-list popped screaming into the world in february. Looked around for it's platinum spoon. Then sulked off as the vast bulk of the media moved onto the next event.

We are usually informed by presenters, in tones of exasperated wonder, just how much these bestriding titans are worth. Whether they've risen, or how far they've fallen and despite their bad luck which benevolent charity they've donated so much of their wealth to. Nowadays, even that accolade is only confined to those lucky enough to be placed within the highly coveted bracket of minting it, otherwise known as the top five.

As a grouping, the top ten richest people in the world are worth roughly $743.8 billion. Put another way, if you lined up 37,190,000 people (let's say the entire population of afghanistan, or canada) and then proceeded to hand each individual (babies included) $20,000 no strings attached, collectively they would have the same amount as the worthiest ten richest individuals in the world.

If we continue cannon-balling along with this little mind trip, and take the world's 100 richest people (if my slightly watering eyes, and dodgy mathematics are anywhere near correct), they are collectively worth a clip at $3 trillion +/- $32 billion. Put another way, 151,590,000 destitute people could be given $20,000 a year, which they just might find useful. Already the top 26 billionaires own more than 50% of the world's population Of course this doesn't actually do much for a population of roughly 7.7bn and rising, but with exponential advances in technology, rising inequality, and rising hordes of the unemployable (simply down to technology doing so much work faster, better, and cheaper) there should be more talk about the existential and societal crisis which will descend on us. When that unfortunate self-inflected trauma dovetails with the self-inflected upheaval of climate change... well, might just order another bucket of popcorn.