Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
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John Quiggin 
Believing that the financial economy and money will drive us to our desired techno-utopia destinations is like believing non-autonomous cars will drive us to our destinations. No! We have to drive. To the extent that the financial economy operates autonomously it only executes the code and commands of those who possess a great deal of capital. The megamachine of neoliberal capital is not geared to meet the needs of the majority of the people nor the needs for a sustainable environment.
Breaking news on dicasteries
Vatican press release https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/biography-of-robert-francis-prevost-pope-leo-xiv.html :
“Prior to his election as Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.”
Among the many questions raised by this news, yours truly is naturally attracted to the linguistic Trivial Pursuit question, what on Earth is a dicastery?
The short answer is that in March 2022, after nine years of work, Pope Francis adopted a wide-ranging reform of the Curia in the apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium. This standardised the name of dicastery in the titles of the fifteen departments of the Curia, including the formerly pre-eminent Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of inglorious memory. so it’s a downgrade for guardians of orthodoxy at all costs. The heads of dicasteries now meet regularly with the Pope, and there is a new office of Revisor [Auditor] General. The substantive and symbolic changes are more significant than the word itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praedicate_evangelium
I have not been able find out where exactly Francis got it from. We do know the ultimate origin. In Periclean Athens, adult male citizens had an onerous obligation to serve as jurors – dikasts – in enormous assemblies ranging from 200 to several thousand. The verdicts were by simple majority, so it was trial by opinion poll, an extreme version of participative democracy. I doubt if Francis was a fan of this.
I speculate that it came from Byzantium, in particular the nerdy attempt by Justinian, not exactly a fan of liberation theology either, to codify the bits of Roman and Hellenic law that fitted in with theocratic autocracy. Google won’t say if the Pandects use the term dicastery. A priori it seems consistent with other Byzantine practice. They had no difficulty in inventing fancy titles for numerous bureaucrats, but kept a few Roman titles going as symbols of claimed continuity: tribounos, praetor (possibly pre-Republican). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_bureaucracy_and_aristocracy
Two charts, needing no comment:
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/14/iea-global-ev-outlook-2025-shows-us-falling-further-behind-on-electric-cars/
https://www.e-solar.co.jp/en/column/post1358
China, or Chinese companies, own Volvo, MG, Pirelli, LDV (Leyland spin off) and Lotus.
When Geely bought Volvo they also bought all the Volvo testing and safety data. Geely claims to prioritise safety, with the construction for the Geely Automobile Safety Technology Laboratory. This year one of their EVs, the EX5 (~$A45K), earned a top-tier five-star rating in both the Euro NCAP and ANCAP safety assessments.
Brands like Geely, BYD, Xpeng and Zeekr are both compelling and competitive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_manufacturers_and_brands_of_China#Joint_venture_manufacturers
Well “dicasteries” is a new word to me. The word “monasteries” occurred to me though I was not sure what an “astery” or a “stery” was. The words “dictate”, “dictum” and “diktat” did not occur to me, though they should have. What really occurred to me was “Where are Monty Python when you need them to pillory a silly word?”
“Etymology: From Ancient Greek δικαστήριον (dikastḗrion, “court, tribunal”), from δίκη (díkē, “right, custom, judgement”).” – Wiktionary.
“Sterion”, it seems, means a court or tribunal.
James W.,
Actually, the two charts do need comment. I am sure you knew I couldn’t resist a comment after that challenge.
The manufacture of 94 million ICE motor vehicles per annum (current total manufactures of all types (ICE plus the others) would not be sustainable due to present and future CO2 emissions. We can agree on that I am sure.
The implied assumption that the manufacture of 94 million EV variants (rising to 100 million soon perhaps) will be sustainable, needs analysis. It cannot be taken as a given. Without a 100% renewables economy, the manufacture , recharging and retiring of these vehicles will still require net CO2 emissions when we have no leeway left. Indeed we already need to be at global net negative CO2 emissions. When will that happen I wonder?
Private motor cars (along with assumptions about endless economic growth) are talismanic and a fetish for most people. Merely quoting or graphing EV and EV variants growth tells us next to nothing about the entire world system. Along with these changes and more growth in production come the mass extinctions, the current wildlife die-offs and potential farm and domestic animal die-offs, to name some related issues.
Re die-offs, I refer mostly to the recent spreading influenza A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b lineage which is evolving rapidly and is already dangerous and becoming more dangerous to many birds and some mammals. If humans are not hit hard directly, our food production systems may well be hit hard. The switch to a mainly plant-based diet may yet be enforced by such developments.
If we graphed global motor vehicle production (as a proxy for medium heavy industrial production and now also for high tech production) from 1900 and also graphed global species extinctions from 1900 we might note a disturbing correlation: a correlation where the mechanisms of the causation chains are well known. The causes clearly run from increasing industrial and tech production to the ever-accelerating mass extinction event and the quite possible extinction of humans also.
When I think of these issues, I am not impressed by graphs of shiny EV care production. Indeed, I strongly suspect they are just more nails in our specie’s collective coffin.
And China making all our EVs? Sarcasm alert! -> Yeah, that will end well. They can simply shut them all down, along with all the other smart devices (when Chinese manufactures are about all we have) and paralyse us. (Though this is another kind of “nuclear option”.) Don’t think they haven’t thought of it. With lunatics like Trump in the Western wheelhouse they have to think about it.
Too many posts from me I know, but this item demands it: China’s CO2 emissions are falling. It’s not some random old blogger saying this, but respected analyst Lauri Myllyvirta https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/15/clean-energy-shifts-chinas-co%e2%82%82-emissions-from-growth-to-decline/:
” The data from Carbon Brief indicate a roughly 1% decline in China’s total CO₂ emissions for the year ending March 2025 compared to the previous year.”
It’s to
o early to say if this means that global emissions have peaked, but with China joining the EU and the USA in the camp of the shrinking, it’s a strong possibility. My two charts are the capsule explanation: solar energy is beating out coal, and electric vehicles are beating out gasoline. You go to war with the army you have, starting from the beach you landed on. Neither are ideal. The question is whether they are good enough to win. The answer looks like yes. It did not look like this a year ago.
On the inside, I am emitting a high-pitched squeal of happiness! Also there is a goofy dance.
Thank you again, James!!
Hope is alive.
Here’s a good news story that gives me hope: hope for Australia and hope for the world. I think it’s an exciting possibility that could tick a number of important boxes. It’s a use for current, overabundant overburden from Aussie mining operations and for waste grit and dust from crushed road base material (“blue metal” basalt). It promises CO2 reduction long term and a new supply of cheap inorganic fertiliser for Australia’s ancient, impoverished soils. Please note, I don’t think only about negative possibilities.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-17/basalt-rock-fertiliser-carbon-trials-queensland/105299634
That Landline story on crusher dust is a bit of a furphy and has been around for years, Landline is a great source of feel good farm stories that often have a tenuous grip on the facts.
Studies have found that the most if not all basalt degradation was from existing soil acidity which in turn led to an improvement in pH. Reducing acidity can lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions from soils.
I should add that Landline is very popular with the Nats.
A German-Brazilian CDR startup called InPlanet claims to have spread 200 kt of crushed basalt on farms in Brazil. https://inplanet.earth/ That should be enough to get realistic numbers on costs and effectiveness. Brazil has a powerful farming lobby, But SFIK it’s not populated by denialists.
Hi Iko, there’s basalt and there is basalt. There no doubt are loads of fines near blue metal quarries but there are few places like Buckland. Has your trader son been watching the following companies? I’m just an interested a watch ‘n waiter since 22 with no interest in it yet:
Man who made a fortune getting gas from the ground now has a plan to bury it
“Rio Tinto is now looking at a similar project in the US and Cottee said the Queensland project could be a game changer.
The basalt formation is right next to coal and gas projects and “would underpin a leading global hub for negative emissions technology including energy, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and bioenergy while enhancing forestry and agricultural productivity across large tracts of central and southern Queensland”.
“We are of the opinion that we can conservatively sequester half a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through the Carfix (Iceland) process, (on site)” Rockminsolutions said.
“Alternatively, if all of this basaltic material were to be finely crushed and spread on agricultural land, over 15 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide could be drawn down by enhanced chemical weathering while at the same time increasing crop yields and soil fertility.””
Buckland Basaltic Sequence at DuckDuckGo
Rockminsolutions at DuckDuckGo
State Gas, Rockminsolutions join forces on carbon management – Energy Today
State Gas | Gas Exploration, Queensland
(ASX: GAS)
Rockminsolutions Pty Ltd
unlisted
ROCKMINSOLUTIONS PTY LTD – ABN 70642143780 – ACN 642143780 – Business Profile / Credit Report
Spreading crushed rock over farmland can remove CO₂ from the atmosphere if we do it right
Svante,
Well, my trader son’s investment fortunes went down and he got himself a job. He’s now working for a software and firmware engineering company in Melbourne. I think he still has some investments on the side but I am not sure in what. He lamented drily, “When my investments got to their peak, I should have taken the lot and put it down as a house deposit. But I thought that market had peaked.”
Without a lot of research, who can believe what any company says about its prospects? I would extend that statement. Without a lot of research who can believe what anybody says in any field? I have pretty much come to the conclusion that almost the entire human race is just a giant pack of liars.
I am trying to deal with various trades now as I attempt to maintain, enhance and harden my property against the ravages of time and unleashed climate change. Plus, I am trying to set things up in a low maintenance mode for the (near) future now I am only able to potter around and not able to do serious and extended amounts of physical work.
If there is an honest, competent and dependable tradesperson left in S.E. Qld, who does not also overcharge and price gouge, in a number of key trades (for the householder) I have not met such a person. Is it that bad? Yes, it really is. It’s systemic and I could write a lot more about what is happening to our society and economy.
The working class, the middle class and even the upper middle class up to something like the 90th percentile are all in big trouble. None of their financial and living arrangements will prove sustainable for much more than a decade longer. They simply won’t be able to maintain their lives or their assets. A huge, grinding and protracted collapse is coming. There will be little left afterwards.
Iconoclast, I hear you loud and clear, in neoliberal ponzi Big Australia we are descending into another second world country without hope, and certainly “A huge, grinding and protracted collapse is coming. There will be little left afterwards.”
I likely may go before then. Oblivion is its own reward. If just thirty years younger I’d be carving out a green cooperative self-sufficient survival option somewhere high in the country well away from cities, but sensibly, more likely perfecting Spanish and moved to a Patagonian holding like the 1% but without the private jet. So it goes.
the second world – by el gato malo – bad cattitude
Svante,
Two persons might each theorise global civilization is collapsing. However, each might have very different theories on reasons why it is collapsing. My theories and bad cattitude’s theories on the reasons do not agree on any point.
Differing overlapped data sets.