Apr 16, 2014

REASON is the Method of SCIENCE; FAITH is the Method of RELIGION - MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS

The origins of Monotheism: The covenant of the Melchizedek with Abraham

The first of two references in the Bible to Melchizedek occurs after Abraham went to war against a confederation of kings. Before reviewing our first scriptural reference, note that this priest in the book of Genesis, chapter 14, was the king of Salem. The word Salem, as defined by Strong's Concordance number #H8004, means peace. This makes Melchizedek the "King of Peace" (Hebrews 7:2).

The first scripture referring to this priest is in the book of Genesis chapter 14, near the middle of the chapter: "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: 'Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.'" (Genesis 14:14, 16-18, NKJV throughout)

The second reference to this priest of God is in the book of Psalms: "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool . . . The Lord has sworn and will not relent, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.' " (Psalm 110:1-4)

Did Jesus say He was NOT inherently GOOD?

Jesus said no one, including Himself, is inherently good [righteous]: ". . . 'Why do you call Me good? NO ONE IS GOOD BUT ONE, that is, God.'" (Matthew 19:17). Melchizedek was the epitome of righteousness, and since no human is inherently righteous, it is evident that he could not be human. If he had been human, he would have been the same as Aaron or anyone else, i.e. a sinner. As the King of Righteousness, he was the image of God's Spirit (Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3). He is also in Psalm 10:4.

Malachi refers to Melchizedek indirectly when he said that the SUN of Righteousness would arise with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2). Malachi did not use the term "SON" for him because that would have suggested that Jesus was in some way a son or a descendant of the priest. This would have implied that the One who became Jesus Christ in the flesh was someone other than the king ofSalem.

In Hebrews 7, the apostle Paul makes some startling statements about Melchizedek. He says: "For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him . . . first being translated 'king of righteousness,' and then also king of Salem, meaning 'king of peace,' without father, without mother, with genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life . . ." (Hebrews 7:1-3). Paul made some amazing statements concerning this priest because he was emphasizing his deity. The One who became Jesus Christ is the father of all life except for one human life - His own. The Most High God is the Father of Jesus Christ the Savior (Luke 1:32).

SO WE FIND MELCHIZEDEK MENTIONED PROMINENTLY IN THE BIBLE 
BUT WHAT DO WE KNOW OF THE MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS?

First and foremost Melchizedek teachings were responsible for the rise of MONOTHEISM across the EARTH – in particular in the covenant with Abraham and the Judeo Christian Tradition. But Melchizedek is also referenced in Oriental religious traditions and scripture. 

These ideas of monotheism matured all over the world not long after the appearance of Machiventa Melchizedek at Salem in Palestine. But the Melchizedek concept of Deity was unlike that of the evolutionary philosophy of inclusion, subordination, and exclusion; it was based exclusively on creative powerand very soon influenced the highest deity concepts of MesopotamiaIndia, and Egypt.
         The Salem religion was revered as a tradition by the Kenites and several other Canaanite tribes. And this was one of the purposes of Melchizedek’s incarnation: That a religion of one God should be so fostered as to prepare the way for the earth bestowal of a Son of that one God. Michael could hardly come to Earth until there existed a people believing in the Universal Father among whom he could appear.
         The Salem religion persisted among the Kenites in Palestine as their creed, and this religion as it was later adopted by the Hebrews was influenced, first, by Egyptian moral teachings; later, by Babylonian theologic thought; and lastly, by Iranian conceptions of good and evil. Factually the Hebrew religion is predicated upon the covenant between Abraham and Machiventa Melchizedek, evolutionally it is the outgrowth of many unique situational circumstances, but culturally it has borrowed freely from the religion, morality, and philosophy of the entire Levant. It is through the Hebrew religion that much of the morality and religious thought of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Iran was transmitted to the Occidental peoples.
1. Deity Concepts Among the Semites

          The early Semites regarded everything as being indwelt by a spirit. There were spirits of the animal and vegetable worlds; annual spirits, the lord of progeny; spirits of fire, water, and air; a veritable pantheon of spirits to be feared and worshiped. And the teaching of Melchizedek regarding a Universal Creator never fully destroyed the belief in these subordinate spirits or nature gods.
           The progress of the Hebrews from polytheism through henotheism to monotheism was not an unbroken and continuous conceptual development. They experienced many retrogressions in the evolution of their Deity concepts, while during any one epoch there existed varying ideas of God among different groups of Semite believers. From time to time numerous terms were applied to their concepts of God, and in order to prevent confusion these various Deity titles will be defined as they pertain to the evolution of Jewish theology:
           Yahweh was the god of the southern Palestinian tribes, who associated this concept of deity with Mount Horeb, the Sinai volcano. Yahweh was merely one of the hundreds and thousands of nature gods which held the attention and claimed the worship of the Semitic tribes and peoples.

           El Elyon. For centuries after Melchizedek’s sojourn at Salem his doctrine of Deity persisted in various versions but was generally connoted by the term El Elyon, the Most High God of heaven. Many Semites, including the immediate descendants of Abraham, at various times worshiped both Yahweh and El Elyon.

THE MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS ON RELIGION AND SCIENCE

The fact of religion consists wholly in the religious experience of rational and average human beings. And this is the only sense in which religion can ever be regarded as scientific or even psychological. The proof that revelation is revelation is this same fact of human experience: the fact that revelation does synthesize the apparently divergent sciences of nature and the theology of religion into a consistent and logical universe philosophy, a co-ordinated and unbroken explanation of both science and religion, thus creating a harmony of mind and satisfaction of spirit which answers in human experience those questionings of the mortal mind which craves to know how the Infinite works out his will and plans in matter, with minds, and on spirit.
             Reason is the method of science; faith is the method of religion; logic is the attempted technique of philosophy. Revelation compensates for the absence of a viewpoint by providing a technique for achieving unity in the comprehension of the reality and relationships of matter and spirit by the mediation of mind. And true revelation never renders science unnatural, religion unreasonable, or philosophy illogical.
            Reason, through the study of science, may lead back through nature to a First Cause, but it requires religious faith to transform the First Cause of science into a God of salvation; and revelation is further required for the validation of such a faith, such spiritual insight.
There are two basic reasons for believing in a God who fosters human survival:
Human experience, personal assurance, the somehow registered hope and trust initiated by the indwelling thought adjuster. (our personal understanding) 
           The revelation of truth, whether by direct personal ministry of the Spirit of Truth, by the world bestowal of divine Sons, or through the revelations of the written word.
           Science ends its reason-search in the hypothesis of a First Cause. Religion does not stop in its flight of faith until it is sure of a God of salvation. The discriminating study of science logically suggests the reality and existence of an Absolute. Religion believes unreservedly in the existence and reality of a God who fosters personality survival. What metaphysics fails utterly in doing, and what even philosophy fails partially in doing, revelation does; that is, affirms that this First Cause of science and religion’s God of salvation are one and the same Deity.
             Reason is the proof of science, faith the proof of religion, logic the proof of philosophy, but revelation is validated only by human experience. Science yields knowledge; religion yields happiness; philosophy yields unity; revelation confirms the experiential harmony of this triune approach to universal reality.
            The contemplation of nature can only reveal a God of nature, a God of motion. Nature exhibits only matter, motion, and animation — life. Matter plus energy, under certain conditions, is manifested in living forms, but while natural life is thus relatively continuous as a phenomenon, it is wholly transient as to individualities. Nature does not afford ground for logical belief in human-personality survival. The religious man who finds God in nature has already and first found this same personal God in his own soul.
            Faith reveals God in the soul. Revelation, the substitute for insight on an evolutionary world, enables man to see the same God in nature that faith exhibits in his soul. Thus does revelation successfully bridge the gulf between the material and the spiritual, even between the creature and the Creator, between man and God.
            The contemplation of nature does logically point in the direction of intelligent guidance, even living supervision, but it does not in any satisfactory manner reveal a personal God.On the other hand, nature discloses nothing which would preclude the universe from being looked upon as the handiwork of the God of religion. God cannot be found through nature alone, but man having otherwise found him, the study of nature becomes wholly consistent with a higher and more spiritual interpretation of the universe.
             Revelation as an epochal phenomenon is periodic; as a personal human experience it is continuous. Divinity functions in mortal personality as the gift of the Father, as the Spirit of Truth of the Son, and as the Holy Spirit of the Universe Spirit, while these three supermortal endowments are unified in human experiential evolution as the ministry of the Supreme.
             True religion is an insight into reality, the faith-child of the moral consciousness, and not a mere intellectual assent to any body of dogmatic doctrines. True religion consists in the experience that “the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Religion consists not in theologic propositions but in spiritual insight and the sublimity of the soul’s trust.
              Your deepest nature — the divine Adjuster — creates within you a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a certain craving for divine perfection. Religion is the faith act of the recognition of this inner urge to divine attainment; and thus is brought about that soul trust and assurance of which you become conscious as the way of salvation, the technique of the survival of personality and all those values which you have come to look upon as being true and good.
             The realization of religion never has been, and never will be, dependent on great learning or clever logic. It is spiritual insight, and that is just the reason why some of the world’s greatest religious teachers, even the prophets, have sometimes possessed so little of the wisdom of the world. Religious faith is available alike to the learned and the unlearned.
              Religion must ever be its own critic and judge; it can never be observed, much less understood, from the outside. Your only assurance of a personal God consists in your own insight as to your belief in, and experience with, things spiritual. To all of your fellows who have had a similar experience, no argument about the personality or reality of God is necessary, while to all other men who are not thus sure of God no possible argument could ever be truly convincing.

Apr 1, 2014

A FAMILY PLAN

To the extended BOZEMAN Family with particular concern for the Great Grandchildren of C. Howard and Barbara Bozeman, their cousins, In-Laws and interested friends.

For some time now I have been closely following the Climate Change situation and the political situation concerning Climate Change and Economics. I have the time and inclination to do this and my opinions and suggestions are not shaped or predicated on what passes for “news” in the USA today. I go to the frontline scientific expeditions and reports particularly from the Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctica paying particular attention to the most recognized experts who draw their theories, assumptions and conclusions from the models and studies of the NSF (National Science Foundation)  and IPCC (IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change) 

Way early in my later college and life I chose a very unorthodox path of anti-establishment activity.  I managed to avoid work and career with a conscious choice of entrepreneurial border jumping, concert production, band management, and booking When forced by circumstance and bad partners I took over Mountain Sound and got us through the World’s Fair to financial solvency and then took to the highway as a sales rep and sales manager in the pro audio field finally achieving a place as the foremost sub-woofer guru in the Bass Business.

Another bad partnership choice forced me to NY and then back to Knoxville but I have remained a hippie at heart with strong anti-establishment roots and feelings. That does not make me wrong on this so I pray you will read on and take heed to what I’m telling you. Unlike most of you with jobs, careers, families and social lives; I have the time and inclination to follow the details of climate change and I have watched every documentary and video I could find on the subject while debating numerous deniers online. If you Google “Best recent climate change documentaries” you will find my picture and listing on the first page of results.  Does that make me an expert? NO, but it does show my intense effort to be informed along with the 175,000 plus visits my website has achieved. I am very well informed on this subject and it scares the crap out of me.

Although there is no way to achieve absolute certainty, I side with the 98% of established recognized peer reviewed scientific papers and organizations that theorize man made climate change is real and a clear and present danger to the fabric of civilization as we know it.


Read it with care.

I hope all of you are aware of the political postures of our “leaders” – On the one side President Obama making concerted attempts to construct a plan to try to curb the CO2 emissions that increase greenhouse gasses and exacerbate climate change and in opposition almost every Republican from those who work for big oil claiming Climate Change to be a “hoax” to slightly more moderate stances but none who are willing or interested in doing anything to address the problem (even if they concede it exists)

It’s been over 6 years since I spent 3 months in TN, Colorado and North Carolina doing everything I could to help Barack Obama win the Presidency. In some significant ways his failure to achieve what I hoped he could has led to my recent state of deep depression. Only recently have I begun to emerge from that state of depression with a desire to do something again to help our family survive a future I now contend will be significantly changed from almost everything we have known in our lifetimes.

It’s difficult to imagine that intelligent people cannot come to grips with the idea that you cannot dig up and pump out the accumulated fossil fuels built up in millions of years and spew it out as smoke and gas into our closed atmosphere without significant consequences. But Capitalism has rarely accounted for cost and profit taking into account the long term environmental effects of resource depletion and/or pollution.

We have detailed studies of the environmental and waste byproduct impact of extracting oil from the Canadian tar sands and fracking for natural gas but big business has made it impossible for an elected Congress to establish a fair and equitable cost that accounts for waste and pollution. “Drill Baby Drill” and bring the cost of oil down to insure that business investment in fossil fuel is secure and hire the same people who kept trying to prove that tobacco is harmless to confuse the public about the real costs of oil addiction.

THERE IS NO QUESTION ABOUT IT NOW – CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL and it is close to unstoppable. These things are certain if nothing is done to mitigate the problem. The situation is dire verging on catastrophic and there is no consensus worldwide much less in the US since the Climate Summits have yielded little in the way of results. No will on the part of the US to adhere to any reduction in greenhouse gasses.

1) Greenland and massive parts of the West Antarctic Ice sheets will melt and go into the sea causing sea level rise of 12 to 30 meters

 2) A 2 meter sea level rise will displace 187 Million homes in areas at or near sea level and the shifts in rain and weather patterns will create drought and flood conditions that will significantly disrupt food production.

3) This displaced population will create a strain on national resources even in a country as rich as ours and large masses of displaced homeless hungry people will move inland seeking food and shelter in unprecedented numbers.

4) In the natural cycle of colder and warmer years based on the Earth’s distance and tilt toward the sun we should be in a cooling cycle – but we are warming instead. What happens when Earth heads back into closer proximity to the Sun?

5) Very recent discoveries by OMG and GRACE over Greenland show that the fiords cutting deep into Greenland are far longer and deeper than ever imagined so warmer ocean water can now under cut and melt much more ice than predicted. Back in 2007 Scientists were reticent to include Greenland and the Antarctic in their models showing 2050 and 2100 as the timeframe where sea level rise would become a major problem. Now they are playing catch up with new technology to get more data in order to accurately model the problem. This story about a 3 meter sea level rise prediction in a faster time frame is just making the rounds in the media:

If you have become interested in the information provided in this email here is the link to my 2014 website and my list of “BEST RECENTCLIMATE CHANGE DOCUMENTARIES”   there are some recent additions I included in more recent email to the brothers and Allison including the Bill Maher produced HBO Series VICE  that takes us on a flight over the Antarctic glaciers being studied by NASA and NOAA. This VICE episode is the one thing I think you should watch so you can see the depth and detail of the research that supports my argument that we are in deep trouble. If you don’t do anything else watch this ASAP     Sorry but it appears you can only watch segments of this online for free without an HBO subscription. If you have HBOGO you can watch the entire episode HERE - 

This program is the best thus far at showing first hand how Republican talking points are created and proliferated through the media. Mr Bast who’s claim to fame was holding back legislation that put warning labels on cigarettes by claiming the science linking smoking to cancer was flawed – has taken that “expertise” to the climate “debate”. When scientist show how the west Antarctic glaciers are melting rapidly and warn of the danger the Heartlland Foundation puts out a bevy of talking heads claiming that the “big picture” shows sea ice at record coverage in east Antarctica – as if this is somehow a balance to the melting on land glaciers. Any fool knows this is just plain horseshit but the media thinks it is “fair and balanced’ to promote this as a ‘debate’.  Just put an ice cube on water in a bowl and measure the water level before and after it melts. NO CHANGE. But add more ice to the bowl and the level goes up. That’s the relationship that matters so why is the KOCH supported HEARTLAND INSTITUTE so dedicated to misleading us?  Those of you with some affinity for the Republican Party need to answer that for yourselves.

The American people in the majority want something to be done about climate change. We have reduced our fuel consumption and switched out our light bulbs. We know that we could build massive solar arrays in sun drenched desert locations of power most of our cities. We watch as Germany has led the way in converting a huge percentage of their energy requirement to solar sources. We have the technology and we could create millions of jobs while we convert the country to renewable clean energy. But the big money behind big oil and coal are, will be and have been doing everything they can to keep us dependent on their dirty fossil fuels. They own Congress and the media.

The disconnect between the scientific data and the public awareness of the unprecedented ice melt in the west Antarctic is a case in point. Prominent Republicans spew doubt citing the strong increase in sea ice coverage as evidence of cooling when it’s clear that thin ice atop the ocean has no bearing on sea level rise caused by land based ice going into the ocean. Ice on or in the ocean has no bearing on sea level and the thin expanse of ice on the ocean is the result of a change in wind circulation caused by the warming in the ocean to the west.  This is obvious to even the least educated but Republican politicians seem to have no problem with being obtuse and misleading their followers as long as it suits their benefactors with big oil and business.

By the way  of all of us Sam and Megan in Cambridge are in the most immediate danger of being underwater when the sea level rises. And that danger happens quite quickly at a conservative estimate of 2 or 3 meters. 

Perhaps it’s fitting that a nation willing to be misled suffers the consequences of this willful ignorance – but by in large these people will not suffer the consequences. It is Cullin, Maci, Kent, Owen, Evan and Avah along with Bronwyn, Caleb and Ursula that will bear the brunt of the problems created by this insanity.

We as a family have a situation to consider. What if anything should we do now to prepare for what I predict is inevitable and what no one can rule out as impossible or improbable. I would love to be wrong about this – and I can hope like many do that some solution short of collapse will be forthcoming.  But we live in a country where the preponderance of the Republican party supports Donald Trump for President followed by men like W’s brother and Mr Huckabee.  You can bet that none of these people will do anything to stem the rise of greenhouse gasses. Florida’s governor would see his state submerged before he would go against the oil interests and submerged it will become.

HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE?

We may have 20 years or perhaps even 30 before those neck deep in water in Miami are willing to admit they are drowning. But it is quite possible that 10 years will show us changes that are difficult to imagine.  Katrina and Sandy didn’t wake us up. Why should beachfront in Orlando make a difference? California and Washington State are burning while unprecedented drought in Central CA and Texas cut into agriculture and beef production. But Huckabee wants to use the military to force financially destitute women to carry unwanted embryos to full term as if increased populations of destitute children is the most important thing we can accomplish. Even if a climate change realist is elected President this time around, he or she will be faced with an intractable Congress owned by the fossil fuel industry.

The long and short of all that is that there will be no political solution to this problem. The temperature will rise and the ice will melt – so the only real question is what will that do to ocean currents and the world as we know it? Some see a runaway freight train of rising temperatures that life on Earth will not survive. A second Noah’s flood of Biblical proportions resulting in Waterworld for real.

We know the oceans are in trouble from over fishing and increased acidification. It seems likely that the greatest CO2 sink on the planet (the ocean) is reaching a saturation point and that saturation coupled with the warming is causing significant decrease in phytoplankton and krill – the base food that supports life in the seas. The Adelie penguin population in the west Antarctic is down 85% in the past 5 years and other penguin colonies in the area seem poised to follow suit. These birds and the krill are the canaries in the Antarctic coal mine.

In fact the polar regions are the bell weather indicators of what is coming and the news is ALL BAD. You should become conversant with the term “tipping point” and understand that once these cycles take hold the collapse could be sudden and overwhelming. The ice melts in the arctic areas and the lack of ice removes the reflections that bounce a lot of solar energy back into space. Instead the darker oceans absorb the heat and this increases the melting of ice.  As the ice melts and the temperatures inside the Arctic Circle increase the permafrost begins to thaw. The permafrost is made up of peat and other organic material high in methane. As it thaws the methane is released and methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 – this increases the greenhouse effect and thus increases the warming.  The points where these effects become unstoppable and less reflection – more heat absorbed – thawing of permafrost – methane release – more warming – theseare “tipping points’ launching the climate into unknown and unpredictable territory.

NASA has launched OMG to study Oceans Melting Greenland and already scientist are surprised and dismayed to find things to be far worse than predicted. There is enough ice on Greenland to raise the ocean by over 6 meters and the rate of the melt is accelerating as the permafrost in the north is now thawing. Turns out the rather dire predictions from 2007 were nowhere near dire enough. Warmer ocean water is headed under the ice in fiords that are much deeper than anyone knew and the glaciers that feed those fiords are now much more vulnerable than thought.  The loss of 20% of Greenland’s Ice and the west Antarctic glaciers could combine for a 2 meter sea level rise in a much shorter than anticipated time frame. 2030 instead of 2050. The best place forscientific data on Greenland comes from the NSIDC (National Snow and Ice Data Center) 

NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adm) is the best place for pure data on the annual Greenhouse Gas Index 

There remains a serious range of probabilities regarding sea level rise and the models in Antarctica for instance. Many now predict a 2 meter rise probability – enough to flood 187 million homes worldwide. But measuring sea level is tricky business. We do not live on a static planet and the oceans are not like a bathtub. The oceans shift and flow as winds pile up massive amounts of sea water.

A current item for increased concern are the conditions now present for an El Nino event on the order of the 1997 - 1998 El Nino thatcaused billions of dollars in damage across the west coast   In normal years the winds push water along the equator from California toward Asia piling up huge amounts of sea water away from our west coast. El Nino occurs when the wind from the west dies so the warmer water remains off the CA coast resulting in extreme rainfall on California – something that is much needed at present.

An interesting aside to this entry is the Godzilla trailer  that accompanies this article. This is one of two trailers I redid with Wiley Statement of Soundeluxe for the Cary Grant Theater presentation at Sony attended by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Stargate, Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC, White House Down, and 2012). We spent a week outfitting 2 rows in the theater with Aura Bass Shakers and an omni-directional overhead speaker to substitute for the Right and Left Center speakers of 5 behind the screen in the SONY SDDS digital sound system. Wiley and I spent 2 nights remixing the sound for the trailers in Hollywood so the seats would shake when Godzilla’s foot hit the ground and the rain and lightning sounds came from above.

All the bigwigs from SONY PICTURES filed into the two rows for the demonstration and they all stood up and applauded at the end of each trailer. Talks immediately began about outfitting 40 or 50 top theaters across the USA with the shakers and the overhead and I was tasked with mapping out a business plan that could accomplish this in 90 days. I was seeing visions of taking the state at the Academy Awards to receive my Oscar with Wiley for Technical Achievement in Sound. Then Dean and Roland went a million over budget and a 6 month delay and my big chance fell by the wayside.  But I digress.

Despite a clear realization of the relationship between greenhouse gasses *CO2 and the increase in temperature leading to the problems considered above, we are increasing our output of CO2 quite dramatically. The increased awareness of conscious humans concerning the damage possible from this warming trend has accelerated the use of less power for light bulbs and the purchase of more fuel efficient cars. So as individuals who vote with their wallets the people are willing to do what they can. But our leaders who control policy concerning power generation, mass transportation, alternative energy applications on the large scale, incentives, and the exportation of dirty coal to China are clearly not in step with average American consumers. They are moved by big contributions from big oil – not the will or desire of individual constituents.

So we are seeing unprecedented ice loss in the west Antarctic and Greenland that followed unprecedented glacier loss in high elevations. We are seeing the death of coral reefs caused by acidity and bleaching and the decline of basic ocean food stuffs and fisheries. We are seeing unprecedented storm surges and droughts, fires and winds. But our political system is deadlocked by men who are owned by the interests of business as usual never mind the signs. There is NO LIKELIHOOD of a political solution to our situation  

SO WHAT CAN WE DO? WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

The only solution I can come up with is a plan to give our grand children and their families a fighting chance to survive and thrive in a very dangerous situation. If there is a 2 to 5 year period of upheaval caused by mass migration and massive food shortages with very restricted law and order it will be necessary for good people to find a place where they can store enough food to supplement what they can grow and protect it from starving masses and gangs.  Food, shelter, seeds, animals, firearms and ammunition will be necessary and in a place that is difficult to find and easy to defend. It’s the only way to have a chance in a world where government and order have broken down.

Imagine a situation where the eastern seaboard is flooded along with half of Florida and all of the Gulf Coast up the Mississippi to Memphis. Imagine 30 million homeless hungry people headed for higher ground at a time when grocery stores no longer receive shipments of food. Forget restaurants or Pilot convenience stores.  Who holds an army or police force together when they are trying to fend for their wives and children or their parents? Imagine the most powerful entities to be right wing survivalists and gun nuts armed to the teeth with children to feed?  

The first things to go will be access to your cash at any ATM or bank if your cash is actually worth anything. Even if you have it where will you find food? Power will shut down and there will be no more TV or news. Neighbors with generators and stores of food will be forced to defend their houses against neighbors who failed to store up anything but will die rather than see their kids starve. Armed thugs will have the best chance at survival in a world without law enforcement and individual good people will die along with their families. The more remote and the better prepared for life off the grid you are, the better the chance for survival.

Small remote towns with cohesive populations will do better. Even some communities that can act together for protection might make a fight of it but a family tied by blood on 200 acres way off the beaten track with solar power generation and 50 acres planted in vegetables and fruit with cows, goats, llama, chickens and sheep and 2 years of stored foodstuffs like rice, flour, dried and canned goods could ride out the upheaval alive and well. We have Doctors and could store up medicines and vitamins to keep well.
Dr Charlie, David and Sam with Linda, Gena and Megan (Susan, Pat?) Ben, Devin, Scott, Chad, Bryan and Caleb with Alison, Leslie, Sarah, Bronwyn and Ursula (Becky)
Cullin, Kent, Maci, Owen, Evan, and Avah make 24
How many of Ben’s, Devin’s, Scott’s , Megan’s, or Gena’s families might join us?
100 acres with 20 in crops could feed and shelter 60 people with a clean spring fed water supply. In fact 50 or 60 would be a good number for protection and sharing the workload.

20 solar panels with battery storage and an ample supply of hardwoods for wood stoves would supply the energy and heat and light. Small game, fish and deer could supplement the diet. And we all could become more proficient at tasks done routinely by our ancestors.

If I sell or get a reverse mortgage on this house I can come up with $65,000 and provide a significant amount of the tools we might require.  Charlie already owns a significant number of items that would be very useful. Given enough time there might be time to transport his trailers from Douglas and the river to provide additional shelter. If we could acquire a farm with a sizable house and barn it would be much easier to get started.

A $300,000 farm with a reasonable 30 year mortgage would give us plenty of property and if we had 10 or 12 people contributing $100 a month for the mortgage it could be substantial. People like Donnie, Timbs Jones, The Pipkins, etc could increase the contributors to 10 or 12 and we are looking at 2 years emergency accommodations for survival – not luxury or extreme comfort. A bed in the barn would be fine by me but as things become more clear participants could make deals for campers to provide lodging.

If we can find a suitable small farm with water somewhere off the beaten path away from significant populations we could make it accessible by our families and those who want to participate with us. Over the next 10 to 15 years we make it a retreat and each year we increase the stock of food and materials while learning the geography and terrain and making improvements. Once the signs become stronger we make certain those who have to travel to get there over some distance have plans in place to make it.  

A precise budget for something like this would be difficult to provide but I could make use of the $65,000 reverse mortgage or sale price of this house as a $60,000 down-payment on a $300,000 farm with a monthly mortgage cost of 1,266 at today’s rate. With a dozen prime participants we would have $100 each a month. 

We could take advantage of some Solar credits to purchase and install a $30,000 Solar System and perhaps Chad and I could take up residence there on a permanent basis in order to work on the property to make it suitable for the 20 acres in garden and accommodations for the animals. We would allocate suitable locations for separate trailers, campers or camps up to the individual to make suitable for their use and would bring in a back hoe and PVC to pipe water to the locations.

A rifle and archery range would be built and the barn and animal pens made ready. A small tractor would be acquired to prepare the soil for the plants and fruit trees would be planted – all from my deal with Kinsey.

All of my computers and electronics would be used for communication, documentation and entertainment and we would turn the property into a pleasant retreat for our members on a rotating basis for use until everyone has their own suitable shelter devised or brought to the property.

This outlay of $$$ would be completely recoverable and members could sell their membership if they opt out on the basis of acceptance by the group of the replacement. Once we’ve determined by trial the maximum capacity for the retreat based on food production and water/power/shelter and room we could offer additional spaces to new members with a blackball system in place where any member could vote to exclude potential members.

If we set a yearly contribution cost at 2000 to 2500 per family unit we could vote on acquisitions of equipment, buildings, and stores of non-perishable foods to insure food survival in case of garden or animal failure.

A 1 year 4 person food supply is sold by Overstock for $3700 providing 20,711 servings of 1300 calories thus my one year supply or a supply for myself, Alison Ben and Cullin for 2 full years would be $7,500. The garden and animals would extend this to 3 or 4 years. Thus each participant would be looking at 2500 per year in mortgage and equipment fees and 3700 per year in food supply for a party of 4 or 6,500 to insure the survival of themselves and their family of 4 with most or all of that recoverable if for any reason we choose to sell the property when a miracle cure for climate change is found.
Augason Farms 4-person, 1-year, Emergency Food Storage Kit
NOTE: These 3700 food kits are for reference and I’m certain we can find less expensive alternatives like 50lb sacks of long grain brown rice for $60. There are numerous groups selling bulk staples for long time food storage and as a Social Security minimum individual I can take advantage of food banks and a number of federal and state programs to purchase this kind of food for storage as ridiculously low prices.  In fact I’m almost certain we can cut the stored food cost by half with judicious planning.



AN EXAMPLE OF A TYPE OF PROPERTY FOR OUR RETREAT and REFUGE:
Ed Kinsey owns a farm near Roan Mountain where he grows the Rhododendron and Azalea plants for his nursery. This 200 acre farm is north across the highway that runs from Elizabethton to Banner Elk near the NC line and includes a large barn with one 4 BR house one 2 BR house and a one BR cabin. There is a well stocked lake entirely on the property with sites that were formerly used for camper trailers prior to his purchase of the property. The tilled area used for the nursery plants could easily be adapted for vegetables and a large amount of the property is forest with huge hardwoods. The lake is perfect for canoes or paddle craft along with the fishing.  Dad and I took Mom for an overnight visit a few years ago.

As you can see the location is isolated from the main highways in the center of an undeveloped section of mountains and is at the end of a dead end road that is difficult to find an well hidden from any casual passerby.  This is the perfect kind of property for this kind of endeavor because it is a wonderful place to be in good times as a retreat. Beautiful, isolated, with a good sized lake for swimming, fishing and unpowered watercraft. It is well suited for DirecTV and satellite internet or DSL from the phone lines and a fantastic weekend retreat for folks living in Knoxville. Trucks can get into the property since Ed picks up truckloads of his plants to distribute to his nursery including a well built gravel road around the lake to get trailers or campers to the sites at lakeside.

Two of the participants could pay more to cover the cost of the houses on the site and that could make up the difference in what I think Ed and his family might take for the property. The main house is very nice and the 2 BR house is quite new (under 12 years) The barn is used for Ed’s farm equipment and needs some work but the property is already set with water supply from springs and septic systems for waste from the houses.

This is just an example of one possible approach to being prepared. Most of us males are Eagle Scouts for whom “Be Prepared” is a mantra of familiarity. What I propose is that we collectively discuss and plan a BE PREPARED solution for our children and grand-children. These changes are coming and it seems to me after a year of concentrated study that they are coming much faster than expected.  What we thought might take 50 to 100 years might well start to happen in 10 to 30 years.  The eldest among us might have 15 to 25 years left and the Ben, Allison, Leslie, Devin, Scott, Sarah, Chad, Bryan, Bronwyn, Caleb and Ursula generation has up to 50 to 70 years. Cullin, Kent, Owen and their cousins have 80 years or more.

In my opinion discussion and planning need to commence immediately in order to get ahead of the curve on preparedness. More and more groups are beginning to purchase and stock refuge locations and there will be a limit on availability so costs will increase dramatically as it becomes more apparent that time is running out and changes come more rapidly. 

Some of you may be more optimistic that there will be some solution to the problem that will be able to reverse the trend of warming and sea level rise but I don’t see much evidence of that in a country that has become complacent with our use of 25% of the world’s energy and chants “drill baby drill” while fracking away expending huge amounts of energy to reap oil from tar sands and shale. The sheer economic and political power of the fossil fuel industry will continue to thwart the scientific solutions. They killed the electric car in the 80’s and they will hold back conversion to renewables as long as they can. All they care about is short term profit.

The KOCH brothers and oil magnates won’t have any problem buying retreats away from the seething masses of starving dispossessed families who will be forced to flee their seaside homes in the greatest exodus ever seen but those of us who live in the real world will not have that capability unless we plan and prepare for it sooner rather than later.

My intention is to have this document begin a thought process and a discussion of what we might do to prepare a family retreat that would double as a refuge if what I predict comes to pass. Co owning a remote farm – vacation retreat could be a decent investment without a crisis to consider. If we could collectively purchase and improve the Kinsey property near Roan Mountain it will certainly increase in value with the passage of time and be a wonderful place to gather as a family to enjoy the beauty of that pristine mountain lake removed from the mainstream. That’s not a bad idea without the prospect of needing a retreat and refuge in the face of catastrophe.

I want a place where our children, grand children and great grandchildren can survive if climate change sees a more rapid rise in sea level and a breakdown in our civilization as a result and I am willing to provide every dollar I can raise and all of my time to provide this opportunity to be prepared for any eventuality.  As remote as it is the Kinsey property is only an hour from Johnson City airport and 2 hours from Knoxville

But this property is just one example of the type of location that would provide some security – the reason to start this process of discussion and consideration is to give us time to find an affordable desirable location, decide about including friends, and seeing what we might come up with in terms of commitment.

IMPORTANT SUPPORTING EVIDENCE FOR POTENTIAL CATASTROPHIC WARMING  all AUGUST 2015 Recent Data






Check out the 3-D map of the Greenland Ice Sheet – it is spectacular

Most informed people think the sea level rise will be very gradual giving coastal areas some time to construct Netherland style dikes to mitigate the effects of storm surges and this will be accompanied by significant migration away from coastal areas in a steady but manageable exodus. Thus property values in higher elevations will increase steadily while coastal properties will decrease in value.  Although it will be very costly to construct barriers to the rising seas and that construction will likely provide only a temporary decade or so of relief, it seems politicians do have the will to expend our tax dollars for these types of temporary solutions like rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina or the efforts underway to rebuild parts of Long Island and Jersey shore areas post Sandy.

Like throwing 800 Billion at Wall Street to avert financial crisis these costly plans to keep the coasts above water will drain national financial resources but they will not solve the problem because a 2 or 3 meter protection barrier won’t hold back 4 to 6 meter sea level increases.  Greenland alone has over 6 meters of sea level rise trapped in ice but Antarctica holds 90% of the worlds fresh water in ice and the collapsing west Antarctic glacier mass holds more ice than Greenland..

So there remains this tipping point problem that starts with melting ice added to the fact that warming seas expend and become less capable of absorbing more warmth and carbon from emissions. Add to that the problem of thawing permafrost and the release of millions of tons of methane (a far more powerful greenhouse gas) and the potential for a catastrophic rapid collapse becomes very real. 

One way this could manifest would be a compressed warming spike and flash melt that would expand sea level by 3 meters over a single summer spawning a series of hurricanes and cyclones that send flood waters deep into Boston, NY, Newport, Portland, Atlantic City, and even Washington DC not to mention the most populated areas of Florida and cities like Houston, TX.  This would be like 30 Katrina events over 3 months.

We all saw how unprepared FEMA was for Katrina and there is no way it could begin to handle Katrina to the 30th power. And the rest of the world will suffer even more than the US. Holland will be gone along with Belgium and the Baltics and Denmark in northern Europe,  China’s major cities like Beijing, Kowloon, Guandong and Shanghai will displace 50 million and Mumbai and Calcutta in India will be worse. Great Britain will suffer the loss of London and Tokyo will be significantly submerged along with Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and much of Indonesia and the Philippines. This kind of worldwide loss of life, food production and shelter will collapse world order at the same time our military capabilities will be severely retarded. The chaos would be epic and self reliance will be key to survival for every American  

All of the above becomes possible – even probable – at a 3 degree rise in temperature and this is not outside the parameters of predictability.  Some of our most prominent climate scientists speak with moderation while privately holding the view that this kind of catastrophe is inevitable. They only disagree with the “WHEN” variable and pray that we have 30 or 40 years to get some control. This is beyond any “HOLY SHIT” revelation. If you carefully read and combine the accumulated data it is quite easy to provide evidence that this is coming and coming sooner than anyone could have expected 4 or 5 years ago. We are not slowing down on CO2 emissions – far from it those emissions are increasing. China and India are adding over a million combustion engines a year to their highways and China is putting a new coal fired power plant online every month.

SO WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO TO PROTECT OUR KIDS FUTURE?  

2 NEW MUST READ ARTICLES FOUND AFTER COMPLETING THE ABOVE :

THE POINT OF NO RETURN - ROLLING STONE AUG 2015

JAMES HANSEN'S BOMBSHELL ANNOUNCEMENT ON SEA LEVEL - SLATE 2015 

SCIENTIFIC PAPER FROM ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS ON ICE MELT