In the late 1960’s and 1970’s early computer projections came to the alarming conclusion that the exponential growth of the population would make our planet unlivable. Since that time, the curve has continued. The population of New Delhi in 1970 was 3 million, and today it is 27 million. Even with China’s one-child policy, introduced in 1979, the population has in fact doubled over the last 50 years and is at about 1.4 billion today. And looking historically from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to today, the world population has increased from about 1 billion to over 7 billion. Seems like a problem, right?
However, there is another side to this story. In developed countries. population has increased, because prosperity has increased, collective measures have been taken to improve universal health, and food production has been revolutionized. In developing countries, this is not the case. If you go to a Himalayan village, which can only be accessed on foot, you will find that women marry early, every year they have a child, and families can end up have 10 children or more – just like families in the West 100 years ago. For them it makes good economic sense, especially if they have boys.
Population Explosion? Courtesy of Wikipedia
In developed countries today, there is no population explosion. In fact, growth rates are falling in Europe and Russia, and is even expected to fall in Asia over the next 30 years. In 43% of the world, the birth rate is lower than the death rate, and it is reasonable to assume that as developing countries become more prosperous, this trend will spread worldwide, leading to an overall steady fall in world population by the end of this century.
So, what’s that got to do with global warming? Take a deep breath. People assume climate disaster, because they think societies and individuals will continue to act as if nothing was happening. But people don’t do that – they adapt. If you are the average person in Great Britain, you will choose to have 1.9 children (below the replacement rate), and you will have made this choice for economic reasons, adapting to the cultural trends of the time.
Breathing and Dying
As regards climate, if you are living in Beijing or New Delhi, or Cairo or Mexico City (or any other large city in developing countries) you will currently be struggling for clean air. Pollution levels are mind-boggling, accounting for millions of deaths through respiratory illnesses every year. This has reached such levels in India and China, that the populations are getting restive. One of the major objections to climate change agreements like the Paris Agreement from 2016 is that developing countries like India and China are permitted to increase the amount of energy they produce from coal, instead of cutting back, because of development needs.
But these days, they don’t want to. In May this year India cancelled 14 gigawatts of planned coal-fired power stations (which equals the current capacity in the UK), partly in the face of environmental protests, but primarily because the price of solar power has sunk to such low levels, that coal-fired power is no longer economical. Under new Indian government plans, all cars sold in India by 2030 will be electric. Norway plans to have all-electric vehicles by 2025.
Facts and Alternative Facts
Did anyone have a flat-screen TV in the 1990’s? Does anyone today still have an old-style TV instead of a flat screen? Will you be running around in a noisy, slow, unintelligent, unconnected, multi-cylinder gear-boxed vehicle that relies on a smelly inflammable liquid that must explode in inefficient chambers before it generates power? An engine developed over 100 years ago? Or will you be gliding silently in a vehicle that is replenished with invisible energy, free – a vehicle that can accelerate at speed, and find its own way to your destination more safely than you could drive it? Ford, General Motors, Volvo, Mercedes must adapt or die. Exxon, Saudi Aramco and all the rest of the oil producers can only collapse.
The problem with projections about global warming is that people forget the power of human beings to adapt. They forget how the world has changed just in the last 30 years, with people walking about with smartphones with greater computing powers that the supercomputers of the 1970’s. This can be illustrated by an interesting quote from the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, who wrote an extremely well-researched book called ”A Cool Look at Global Warming”. He points out some interesting facts such as:
…. whilst there is some decrease in the Arctic Ice Cap, there has been a corresponding increase in Antarctic Ice
…. temperatures have been rising consistently by about 0.6C per century since the Little Ice Age from 1400-1859 AD and sea levels rising by about 18 cm per century.
. .. CO2 has increased vastly through the burning of fossil fuels, but whilst it contributes to global warming, it increases food production on a global scale.
He uses these arguments to show flaws in the case for global warming and goes on to point out how ineffectual renewable energy is as a solution for replacing fossil fuels:
“… what is undoubtedly the case is that wind power, even with the help of substantial subsidies it currently enjoys, is nowhere near competitive with conventional power stations.”
Lawson wrote this in 2006, but in 2016 windfarms across the UK generated more electricity than coal power. Wind is now supplying 12% of UK energy. Denmark produces 42% of its energy from wind and some days supplies all the energy the country needs. The point is that people who argue both for and against extreme measures to limit climate change all cherry-pick facts to support their case. There are studies that show sea levels not rising at all, and temperatures rising some places in Earth whilst they are falling in other places. There is plenty of ammunition for climate change skeptics to choose from or interpret in alternative ways.
If only they could look at it all through the lens of astrology.
Historical Cycles
The key marker for environmental change is the conjunction cycle of Jupiter and Saturn. These immense planets have always been seen by astrologers as representing the power of society to organize itself based on a vision for the future, and experience of the past. They may have nothing to do with climate, but they have everything to do with human activity, and its consequences for the planet. Since biblical times these planets have been used to map out long-term developments for civilization because the conjunctions fall in the same element, in the sequence Air, Water, Fire, Earth, for a 200-year cycle, and there tends to be a “maverick” conjunction in the future element just before the transition. For example, in the previous conjunction cycle in Earth signs, there was a maverick conjunction in Air in 1980, presaging the coming cycle in Air.
Similarly, in the year 1802, after the 200-year cycle in Fire, there was a maverick conjunction in Virgo, leading to the Earth sign cycle of Jupiter and Saturn that commenced in 1842 and is effective to this day. These periods from maverick conjunctions to the commencement of the new element cycle are transitional, and are reflected by huge upheavals in society as it makes the necessary adjustments. What happened from around 1800 to 1842 was the industrialization of western society. Prior to this, in the 200-year Fire cycle from 1663-1822, the energy was expansive and was reflected by travel to the four corners of the world and empire-building. With industrialization came centralized factories, migration from countryside to city, and huge population centers.
With the advent of the conjunction cycle of Jupiter and Saturn in Earth signs, industrialization led to the creative exploitation of Earth’s resources to an extreme extent. Coal, oil and every mineral useful to man have systematically been removed from the Earth and burned or smelted, using vast amounts of energy driven by the plentiful supply of fossil fuels. At first, nobody cared about the vast amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere; they were too enamored of the amazing advantages that industrialization brought. Like supermarkets, hot water on tap and central heating, comfortable travel, nice clothing and café latte. Industrialization brought freedom from hunger. The population increased by a factor of 10 as a result.
The Disappearance of Fossil Fuels
The relentless burning of fossil fuels has led to a huge increase in CO2 far more than normal historical fluctuations, a fact that can be documented by examining ice borings from the arctic. It is assumed that this has led a slight rise in temperature of less than 1C in the last century, and that the rate of warming is increasing. Government awareness of this warming has led to an encouragement of the use of renewable energy, but it is in fact market forces which will provide all the encouragement needed, as fossil fuels become uneconomical and as unfashionable as old TVs.
This movement from fossil fuels to renewable energy reflects the transition from the Earth cycle of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions to the Air cycle, which was presaged in 1980 and begins in earnest in 2020. Individuals born in this period will have a mindset designed to engineer this transition. Consciousness of global warming is just one factor in several other factors, like radical new technologies, which will inspire these individuals.
The Amazing Elon Musk
Take someone like Elon Musk, who is driven by a vision for humanity, which is constantly been ridiculed by business and science. Musk wants to die on Mars, and he probably will.
Elon Musk. 28 June 1971, Pretoria. Time Unknown
His obsession with Mars can be seen through the position of Mars in Aquarius, conjoining the North Node, which is quite appropriate for building a colony on Mars. It is an amazing fact that progressed Mars went retrograde when he was 13, and that it turns stationary direct when he is 73, and that progressed Mars will be trine progressed Uranus from the age of 69 to 85. He says he does not want to take his wife and kids to Mars because of the risks, but he will go himself, and astrologically, it seems likely.
Musk started SpaceX, which built almost every part of its rockets from scratch in its own facilities. Despite many crashes, he ultimately succeeded in building rockets that are superior to the Space Shuttle, and that carry out regular missions to the Space Station. He is currently having success with a rocket booster that, instead of being discarded after each launch, can land again vertically, be refueled and sent off again within a short space of time.
Musk is an outsider, who is extremely demanding, fanatical, and who uncompromisingly drives the people who work for him to extreme performances. He consciously chooses people who are unmarried and without kids, and who share his obsession, and the best minds in the USA are queuing up to work for him. When you look at him on YouTube, he clearly takes a delight in shocking his audience with outrageous but achievable ideas, which is probably connected with his Sun/Mercury conjunction square Uranus. Clearly his Jupiter/Neptune conjunction indicates his unlimited imagination, whilst the opposition to Saturn shows the work he is prepared to put in to realize his vision.
Tesla and Free Fuel
When Musk built the Tesla electric car, nobody expected him to succeed. He did this at the same time as working on SpaceX, and both projects nearly drove him bankrupt in 2008. At the last moment, NASA gave him billions of dollars to work on a replacement for the space shuttle, which miraculously saved him from bankruptcy. People did not trust the Tesla and were concerned that its resale value would be low, so he promised to make up the difference in price between the Tesla and other luxury sedans at resale. There we no dealerships for his cars and to promote sales, service was free.
Then he set about building super-charging stations along highways, with about 5000 already in existence, planned to double to 10,000 in 2017. These are solar powered, and you can charge your Tesla for free.
Tesla Charging Station
Elon Musk suggests however, that you charge your car for free at home. Together with his cousin, he has established SolarCity, with the idea of creating a seamless connection between solar power and electric cars. Long-term costs will be cheaper than conventional electricity. As an extension of this, a huge new factory called the Gigafactory has been built in Nevada, which manufactures batteries and electricity storage devices for electricity storage at home called Powerwalls. New solar roofs are being made, which cost no more than traditional roofs, which can provide all the energy for domestic and transport needs that a family could require.
This is just what one man with a vision can do. Technological revolutions like this have not been factored in to most projections about climate change. But the transition from the Earth era to the Air era, which takes place at the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction on December 21st, 2020 will bring the rapid demise of fossil fuels as an energy source. Oil-driven cars will disappear very fast. Fossil fuel power stations will take a little longer, but by 2050 there will probably be none. Emissions will approach near zero. Human influence on global warming will be non-existent. Cities ravaged by air pollution will be a thing of the past.
Clearly the dawn of the Air era – the Aquarian Age – will lead to an enormous boost in the quality of life. Transport will be automated, electric and cheap. Populations will stabilize and decrease. Workers will cede their jobs to machines. People will be connected – and a little bit disconnected as virtual and so-called real worlds merge. This is going to require a special kind of human. With a bit of luck I will live to see electric cars, but as a member of that old Age of Pisces and the Earth era, I’ll never get to understand this new age.
Adrian Ross Duncan
June 19th, 2017.
Note 1. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/06/uk-wind-power-coal-green-groups-carbon-taxes