"By the Ghost Light" and "The World Remembers" by R.H. Thomson

Book features are something I rarely post. My school projects are way behind the stern of this canoe. The last book I promoted was by my friend John Vaillant, "Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast"  published in 2023. Vaillant's award-winning book is actually a primer on the science and sociological aspects of climate change disguised as an action tale about the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires.

My goal was and remains to encourage people to read and better understand the climate catastrophe. If you can only read 25 pages in 2024, please see Chapter 20 of  "Fire Weather". Those pages summarize a couple of centuries of science and explain a crucial five lost decades of action due to corporate greed and political pandering for power and profit. 

Also see "Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020". Big Oil knew the truth in the 1970s but picked wealth and power over Greannhouse Earth and everything therein. Simply evil.

R.H. Thomson's "By The Ghost Light, Wars, Memories, and Families" is another must-read, especially with Remembrance Day in the offing.  It is a slow read for me. One does not want to miss any nuances in the words. Sometimes it takes two or three times for me to savour a sentence and really grasp the message. 

The dedication "To all those who our wars lost, and then forgot" says it all. 

I am of the same vintage as Robert Holmes Thomson who most will remember as Jasper Dale from "Road to Avonlea". But R.H. Thomson is more than a talented actor as displayed throughout the 331 pages of  "By The Ghost Light". Mr. Thomson has even made it his mission to try to make "The World Remember" - an "attempt to name every soldier who lost their life in the First Great War" regardless of which side they fought for. It might be an impossible task in the face of politicized histories and bureaucracies.  

Historian Johnathan F. Vance agreed with Thomson's goal saying: "We must never lose sight of the fact that history is not the history of nations or ideologies but of people."

R.H. Thomson

Thomson's story is also our tale. We are the Baby Boomers whose grandparents and parents fought in those Great Wars. We were the lucky ones whose mothers and fathers survived, returned home, and were able to build a life. "The Lost Boys" who R.H. Thomson also writes about, did not make it home alive. 

Those who fought the Second Great War have been called the Greatest Generation - and rightly so. A generation of youth answered the call while other siblings remained home to keep the farms and industries working. The homestead was maintained by their parents who might have fought in the First Great War, dreading the arrival of telegrams or any message from the government.

      Amos, Ken and "Nels", my Father, 1942     

"Thomson" could be replaced by any one of hundreds of thousands of Canadian surnames. My family, the "Chadwick’s" saw three sons fight overseas and thankfully, all returned to build lives after witnessing the horrors of war. 

Humans are slow learners and history does repeat itself starting with the quote on the opening page of "By The Ghost Light".

"There were a great number of young men who had never been in a war and were consequently far from unwilling to join this one." Thucydides, 5th century BCE.

Private David Starrett is also quoted at the top of page 142:

"So the curtain fell over that tortured country of unmarked graves and unburied fragments of men: murder and massacre: the innocent slaughtered for the guilty: the poor man for the sake of the greed of the already rich: the man of no authority made the victim of the man who had gathered importance and wished to keep it. We were said to be fighting to stop future war, but none of us believed that. Nor ever will." 

The honest eloquence of Private David Starrett regarding the First Great War was true in the 5th Century BCE and is still sadly accurate today. 

My wartime parents gifted my brother and me with a "Leave to Beaver" type childhood. My older brother was Wally. To achieve that life after living through the catastrophe of the Second Great War is remarkable and evidence of a strength of character that is seldom witnessed.

My father did not talk about the Second Great War. He confided that he never turned over bodies on the battlefield except once, only to discover his cousin.

"Nels" in school at 10 years of age in 1934 to a seasoned soldier of just 19 by 1944. Remember.

My father shared one last memory just before he passed in 2001 - something he had never even told our mother. "Nels" and his buddies were lined up along the front when a German machine gun strafed the trenches. His friends on either side of him were killed by mechanized warfare. Lives were forever lost and tragic memories were etched indelibly in the mind. His chin was quivering with the 57-year-old nightmare just like mine when they had to shoot the "Old Yeller". My father would have been 100 years old for this 2024 Remembrance Day. 

R. H. Thomson wisely alludes several times to the current world situation more than a century after the first November 11th Armistice Day. Politicians and leaders have not learnt any of the lessons of the past. War is simply a tool to be used by those in power. 

On page 177 Thomson proposes the following "four articles of faith (for war as a Policy Tool):

1. that the destiny of nations can be determined on the battlefield;
2. that battle is where heroism and manhood are expressed;
3. that the warrior's pride is the tribe's pride; and 
4. that you secure your right to be a nation through victory. 

Warlords and tyrants live by that last one."

All of these "articles of faith" are national in scope and under the control of a very few of the power elite. The stories of the people like my father who comprise history are not even considered, although they pay the full price for the useful "Policy Tool". Shame!

The political and industrial elite continue to accrue unfathomable wealth through authority and graft. They wield their power to remain in their lofty positions apparently above democratic laws - unimpeachable regardless of their crimes. Their simple playbook has not changed over the centuries:

 lie, confuse, conceal, cheat, obfuscate, distract, divide and conquer. 

There is a better way and the hope remains that a real peace which is not just the absence of war can be found. R. H. Thomson mentions the Kellogg-Brand Pact on page 288. It was signed in Paris in August 1928 by almost fifty nations and "renounced war as a policy instrument and sought to solve disputes through peaceful means." Apparently "the agreement was so unrealistic and had no enforcement mechanism, it is no wonder that no one remembers it." Peace need not be unrealistic. 

One simple solution that all can and must exercise is to be well-informed and armed with an inquisitive and analytical mind. Read and don't believe everything you hear or see! Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be incredibly and convincingly deceiving! And always vote wisely.

R.H. Thomson's "By The Ghost Light, Wars, Memories, and Families" put the 20th Century into a context that is tragic but makes sense. Powerful lobby groups with opaque funding continue to undermine facts about the climate catastrophe, established science and the reality of their motives. War is simply another tool in the power elite's bag of tricks. Which explains why history continues to repeat itself.  

The common theme found in both "Fire Weather" and "By The Ghost Light" is that power corrupts and those responsible for their narcissistic deeds lacking empathy, are not held responsible. Captain Gilbert, an Army psychologist assigned to watch the defendants at the 1945-1949 Second World War Nuremberg Trials observed:

"Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

These are important messages and both books are very special and deserve to be read.

This November feature of "By the Ghost Light" by R.H. Thomson is being posted on the approximate first anniversary of its publication, and in time for Remembrance Day on November 11th, 2024. Reminiscing should really be a year-long event lest history repeat itself. 

At the risk of appearing cynical, I have witnessed November 11 employed by pious-faced power elite posing for a few sombre minutes pleasuring the photo opportunities while showcasing the "four articles of faith" mentioned by R. H. Thomson.  War remains as a "policy tool" in 2024.

I prefer to remember all year but certainly during November. The stories of the war victims that come to mind include everyone but also nature and the environment. Whales were mistakenly shot and depth-charged during the Second Great War for fear that they were submarines. My moments of remembering always avoid warmongers and politicians.

Farm life near Napanee before reporting for war, 1941. Nels was 16.
Thankfully Nels was not one of R.H. Thomson's "Lost Boys"

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020

"Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020" is a doctoral dissertation by Benjamin Andrew Franta of  Stanford University, California first published in 2022. The document is available here "https://purl.stanford.edu/hq437ph9153".  It is another important read that must be featured. 

Earlier blog posts like "The Weather Machine A Journey inside the forecast By Andrew Blum",  "A Ground Hog's Lament" and the book feature of  John Vaillant, "Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast" all dealt with climate change. There are many other such posts that discuss atmospheric carbon but these will suffice. 

I gave innumerable presentations as an Atmospheric Environment Service (AES) and then Environment Canada (EC) meteorologist starting in the mid-1980s. Over the years those PowerPoints became more elaborate and full of climate change facts and predicted impacts. Those lectures continued until around 2005 when I was seconded to produce meteorological training materials with COMET in Boulder, Colorado. School and environmental groups were the main audiences and the presentations were outside work hours using my own equipment. Conservative Prime Minister Harper forbade such activities when elected in 2006.

The cuts to environmental programs actually started under a Liberal government in the late 1980s. EC observational networks were compromised and environmental research was not adequately funded due to ongoing financial and staffing cuts (branded as Program Reviews but the goal was to remove scientists). Even the renowned AES Training Branch was shut down in the early 1990s. The story of political and bureaucratic interference with science can fill another book. Deeds speak louder than words.

The government's reactions to the existential threat of climate change baffled me … don’t teach, observe, research or talk about climate change… These were strange and inexplicable actions for a science and service-based department. 

I am retired now so the truth can be exposed, although any significant response to the climate catastrophe is too late. Franta's doctoral dissertation confirms all of the suspicions I harboured regarding the actions of the political and industrial elite. That's why I focussed on science rather than bureaucracy when employed. Science (and art) actually makes sense

"Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020" is a terrific summary for those who wish to be informed. Franta richly deserved his Doctor of Philosophy with this important research. Here is a very concise "Reader's Digest" version but I encourage you to read every word of his dissertation. 

• The Earth is a greenhouse. 
• The science of atmospheric carbon started in the early 1800s. 
• There are many greenhouse gases. 
• Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide was the result of the combustion of fossil fuels. 
• A warming of 2°C would be reached in the 21st century. 
• Climate and weather would change irreversibly making the Earth uninhabitable.

The following atmospheric carbon impact graphic from Franta's doctoral dissertation was presented to Big Oil by their own scientists in July 1977 just as I was starting my meteorological career. 

     James Black (1919-1988)    

James Black was the Scientific Advisor in the Products Research Division of Exxon Research & Engineering, and one of the top technical people at Exxon Research & Engineering until his retirement in 1983.

Big Oil was made aware of these facts and much more in the mid-20th century. They were faced with a simple ethical decision: 

• investigate alternative energy sources and leave the carbon in the ground or 
• escalate carbon extraction continuing business as usual. 

Big Oil clearly chose "business" and employed the same techniques as Big Tobacco, Asbestos and more recently Opioid. The simple playbook has not changed over the centuries:

• Lie, confuse, conceal, cheat, obfuscate, distract, divide and conquer.
• Employ lobby groups with opaque funding and influence politicians and governments while undermining facts about established science and disguising the reality of their motives. 

Dithering inaction results during which the business of accumulating wealth and power can continue unimpeded, "full steam ahead".

This is a very effective "war" campaign to achieve their business interests - more wealth and power. More and then even some more... and more is never enough. 

Further, Big Oil was and is fantastically rich and can easily afford to "invest" in those who will support their goals.  Pseudo-scientists and politicians violating their oath of office aided and abetted the Big Oil objectives. The extraction of carbon escalated almost exponentially starting in the 1970s. Carbon was mined from ever more challenging environments including the deep oceans, Canadian oil sands and fracking for natural gas. Madness!

Is a greater example of the absence of empathy even conceivable? Wealth and power for a narcissistic few at the expense of the planet and every species therein?  Do these entitled few believe that they might actually survive the climate apocalypse of their own creation? Insanity!

Captain Gilbert, an Army psychologist assigned to watch the defendants at the 1945-1949 Second World War Nuremberg Trials observed:

"Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

The following images of monthly average temperature deviation from the climate average are eerily similar to the early predictions I first saw as a meteorologist in the 1980's. It takes a few months to process the global observational data so July 2024 is the most recent data I have available at the moment. 

July 2024 was the 14th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures worldwide

The willful and deceitful obstructions by Big Oil were even financed by politicians around the world. In fact, Canada continues to heavily subsidize the oil industry. An article from March 26, 2024, indicates that over the last four years (since 2020), the total amount of financial support to the oil and gas sector from the federal government was at least $65 billion - a lot of tax dollars that could have been allocated to green energy and the environment.  Let that astronomical sum sink in and then consider that the current Canadian population is just 40 million. 

One quickly realizes where a significant portion of the "temporary taxes" first imposed 1917 were going. Recall that "The Income War Tax Act" received royal assent on September 20th, 1917 to pay for the efforts of the First Great War. Those taxes accelerated from zero to 50 percent in the next 100 years. Also see the scholarly Fraser Institute document published on April 6th, 2017, detailing Canada’s personal income tax (PIT) system.

Simply, the political and corporate elite have decided that personal taxes must support Big Oil, perhaps to even purchase votes. This funding continues to fire the exploitation of fossil fuels and the release of carbon into the ecosystems. Follow the money and one can quickly identify the political and business elite who play key roles in this travesty. 

Franta's doctoral dissertation is meticulously researched and well-written. It is an essential read if you wish to be informed. Sources of the information are painstakingly included. 

Politicians, lobbyists and climate deniers who might dispute the science and the facts as presented in this doctoral dissertation must have other motivations for their inexplicable reactions. Frankly, the laws of thermodynamics and physics hold sway over any man-made laws they may wish to exploit in their ongoing pursuit of wealth and power.  

The following chart summarizes atmospheric carbon back to 500,000 years ago. The science required to obtain these values would fill several books. The take-home message is that the atmospheric carbon concentration is at an obvious all-time high and accelerating out of control as fossil fuels continue to be exploited. This is very bad news for Greenhouse Earth.   

The current global average concentration
of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the
atmosphere is 421 ppm (0.04%)
as of May 2022. 

The Industrial Revolution has released eons of carbon back into the earth's ecosystem within an ecological heartbeat. Fossil fuels formed from ancient plants and organisms during the Carboniferous Period approximately 286 – 360 million years ago. That carbon is rapidly being returned to the atmosphere in the Industrial Age of humans. The rate of atmospheric carbon accumulation continues to accelerate. Even if fossil fuel exploitation ended today, the inertial momentum of the climate system will continue to change the globe making it uninhabitable for countless species including man. It is already too late for any meaningful response to this crisis. The 2015 Paris Agreement's "one-point-five Celsius" limit has likely already been surpassed but the data is still being processed.

Political and bureaucratic dithering under the "Net Zero by 2050" slogan permits a few more decades of wealth and power accumulation by Big Oil while the world burns in the 21st century of fire. Sadly, it is business as usual. 

The Big Oil war campaign for wealth and power continues as the world bakes with record-high temperatures. Consider the recent promotion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a cleaner-burning gas that Big Oil touts as an important “bridge” fuel and even a “climate solution”. Really? 

The Canadian Federal government even bought into this new Big Oil deception by purchasing the Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion for $4.5 billion (full market value) in 2018. The Feds came to the rescue of Big Oil when Kinder Morgan threatened to abandon the project in light of justifiable and ongoing opposition in British Columbia. As of February 2023, the total costs for LNG Canada's Phase 1 were estimated to be at least $ 48.3 billion. That is an unfathomable amount of money for something worse than coal! Some of that cash is bound to originate from taxes and subsidies but the percentages are unknown. 

"Exported gas produces far worse emissions than coal, major study finds ; The greenhouse gas footprint of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exported from the United States by Robert W. Howarth"

This peer-reviewed research, (yet another must-read) was published in October 2024  in the Energy Science & Engineering journal. The science challenges the rationale for a huge surge in LNG facilities along the US Gulf Coast dedicated to shipping gas in huge tankers to overseas markets (for big profits). The research has determined that LNG is 33% worse in terms of planet-heating emissions over 20 years compared with coal. Drilling, moving, cooling and shipping gas from one country to another uses so much energy that the actual final burning of gas accounts for only about a third of the total emissions from this process. Those activities also leave behind a devastated environment.

“The idea that coal is worse for the climate is mistaken – LNG has a larger greenhouse gas footprint than any other fuel,” said Robert Howarth, an environmental scientist at Cornell University and author of the new paper.

“To think we should be shipping around this gas as a climate solution is just plain wrong. It’s greenwashing from oil and gas companies that has severely underestimated the emissions from this type of energy.”

There is “no need for LNG as an interim energy source”, the paper says, adding that “ending the use of LNG should be a global priority”.

My own experiences within AES and EC and these LNG observations are all consistent with Big Oil pulling the strings of their politician puppets for profit and power. Let's not "beat around the Bushes", how many Presidents, Political Leaders and Prime Ministers around the world have had strong perhaps concealed ties to Big Oil?  Improper collusions for power and profit would constitute crimes against not just humanity, but Greenhouse Earth. Investigative reporters could turn that information into another best-selling book and another must-read.

A meteorologist friend reminded me that 

"we are wrong to expect any corporation to act for the good of the public.  It is always an unreasonable expectation. It is our governments that we should expect to act for the good of the public and it is to them that the harshest criticism should be levied."

Quite true and something to ponder. The goal of these blogs has always been to encourage people to read and be informed... and of course, vote wisely. 

To summarize, the world is going to exceed the 1.5°C target for global warming soon if it has not already. It takes time to process the voluminous amount of data that is currently available. Inertia in the climate system will carry the planet into uncharted weather and feedback mechanisms that can't be reversed. Global empathy is needed now more than ever! Leaders, scientists and people of the world need to work together using every innovative resource conceivable to solve the climate catastrophe. 

The September 2024 temperature at 2 metres deviation from climatic normals.
There is nothing normal about this!

As briefed to Big Oil by their own scientists in July 1977, Greenhouse Earth is entering "thousands of years" of a "super-interglacial" period as a result of "uncontrolled fossil fuel use". James Black's forecast was perfect. The red dashed line is mine for the intensity and duration of the predicted "super-interglacial" period. No one will remain alive to know for certain. Was James Black's abrupt downturn in temperature simply based on the extermination of humans? We will never know.

That Big Oil would deliberately take the path leading to the annihilation of the paradise of Greenhouse Earth and all therein is evil. That government would help fund these existentialist efforts is criminal. That these actions were taken in the pursuit of wealth and power is inconceivable. Shame is not enough. Vote wisely. 

Imagine instead if just some of those taxes used to prop up Big Oil were applied instead to energy research and creative and imaginative science during the dithering fostered by Big Oil and government inaction.  An entire Green Industry might have been created and implemented in those lost six decades of climate opportunity. Greenhouse Earth would be looking at a very different and positive future in 2024. 

Continued extraction and mining for rare earth minerals for batteries and EVs is as unsustainable as mining for carbon.  In sharp contrast, hydrogen fuel cells charged using solar energy might be the practical answer and could be the topic for another blog. 

The cost of solar energy continued to drop during the six decades of dithering. The future could have been bright and maybe still can be with government support. I prefer to end a post on a positive note!

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

PS: This effort has been weeks in the making ... I even hesitated to post about Big Oil and the government as I prefer to share only happy news. The doctoral dissertation by Benjamin Andrew Franta of Stanford University, California was published in 2022 but I only saw it this summer.

PSS: The sun is the source of all energy on Greenhouse Earth. We need to use it more directly and not through intermediaries like fossil fuels. A great start would be to install solar panels on every roof with exposure to the sun. There is also tidal energy available by harvesting energy from the gravitational pull of the moon.