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Greetings.
My name is Dave McArthur and I was privileged to spend my childhood
amidst virgin forests, sparkling clean streams and pure air of
Waiorongomai by Lake Wairarapa, New Zealand. As a young man the work of
the Club of Rome
resonated deeply in me and I have been involved in what is now
known as the Green Movement for over forty years. For instance in the
early 1970s I helped set up what is now known as a “transition
community” and for two decades I worked in the “Power Industry” as
a “powerman” or meter reader. In this role I was privileged to share
the lives of tens of thousands of households representing a complete
cross section of New Zealand urban society. Thus I gained profound
insights into industry and community practices unattainable by academia.
1n
1998 I trained as a teacher and became very aware that the
Anglo-American education system is fatally flawed. This is proven, for
instance, by the fact that the New Zealand education system produces a
nation of literate and numerate people who, on average, destroy global
resources at over five times the rate that the planet can produce them.
We lack civics on scale and are profound non-conservatives.
In
particular I observed a chronic lack of science underpinning the
communication of the nature of energy in general and climate processes in
particular. Two things became very clear to me by 2001:
- This lack of science in Anglo-American and similar economies has
resulted in abuses of our solar, electrical and carbon potential
that could result in the catastrophic collapse of global society in
the near future.
- I had long been, despite my fine intentions as a Green Movement
member, my own worst enemy.
It is essential to discover what enables this self-deceit and learn
how to transcend it.
Since
2000 I devoted my life to researching and ensuring our communication of
the nature of energy and climate processes is underpinned by the state
of science. New Zealand provides an excellent case study of
unsustainable behaviour: it has a small, literate and intimate (4
million) population, it has been a pioneer in Electricity and Carbon
Trading for two decades and the associated re-engineering of our prime
symbols is very evident. The nation invests heavily in promoting itself
as 100% Pure Clean Green and this provides unique insights into the
self-deceit process.
Naturally
there is no funding for my work in this environment and I sustain myself
working as a school janitor. Thus this website is the product of perhaps
20,000 hours of unpaid research, which includes attending and analysing
hundreds of lectures by top “energy experts”, climatologists and
“environmental educators”. More recently Google’s search
algorithms have provided an invaluable research tool into national
psyches.
I
would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the above experts plus the
media, corporations and those on the Internet who have provided material
for this website. They enabled the Sustainability Principle of Energy
and this website. They are too numerous to be acknowledged. I am
particularly indebted to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which is why I
provide a link to it in the header to each page.
This
website is based on a dense mass of references and it would be possible
to provide myriad links to examples of symbols used in acceptance and
denial of stewardship/change. However in order to promote a state of
stillness and deep reflection while you are here, minimal references and
links are provided.
Find a place or have with you some object you associate
with peace, magnificence and beauty as you browse this work. The
greatest reference is a spirit of openness and inquiry. The finest aid
is compassion, for it sustains us with a sense of humour as we realise
the ingenious ways we deceive ourselves and deny our roles as stewards
amidst the flux.
Enjoy
compassion
Dave
McArthur
davemcarthur1@gmail.com
Updates
and Additions
18
May 2014
Energy?!
Chapter eight -The Ego and Energy Efficiency
Our notions of
energy efficiency simultaneously reflect and generate our world view -
for worse and better.
19 February
2014
Reflections
on Shake Up - the NZAEE National Conference in Christchurch
Maybe, just
maybe, there is hope our New Zealand schools could embrace civics.
15 August 2013
Energy
?! - Chapter seven -The Ego and Power
When
we understand that there are as many forms of power as there are forms
of energy we are opened to a vast sustaining potential.
18 July 2013
Energy
?! - Chapter six -The Ego and Greenhouse World
Our
likening of the processes of Earth's atmosphere to the operations of a
greenhouse is a giant conceit that puts humanity at great risk.
21
June 2013
REVIEW:
350.org Do the Maths
Reflections on Bill McKibben's show in Wellington and why Bill is a
genius.
18
May 2013
Energy
?! - Chapter five -The Ego and Global Warming
Our confusion of warming with warming up deprives us of a
wonderful, vital dimension of the thermodynamics of the universe(s).
16
April 2013
Energy
?! - Chapter four -The Ego and Potential Energy
Our estrangement from the universal potential by our division of
kinetic energy from potential energy.
5
March 2013
Energy
?! - Chapter three -The Ego and Forms of Energy
The grand confusion of forms and perspectives of energy.
26
Jan 2013
Energy
?! - Chapter two -The Ego and the Conservation Principle of Energy
The
incredible inconvenience of this great principle.
8
Jan 2013
Energy
?! - Chapter one -Introducing The Ego and Energy
A cartoon exploration of our psychology and the the nature of
energy.
22
Sept
2012
The
Sustainability Principle of Energy
and
The Compassionate Curriculum.
      
(An Illustrated Essay - A brief
Historical Overview)
3 August
2012
Towards
a sustainable education system
A graphic
comparison of the New Zealand Curriculum Framework with the
Compassionate Curriculum Framework with brief comment
31
January 2012
A
Practical Guide to Enjoying True Hope
An essay
exploring how the great principles of physics can help identify false
hope and enable the experience of sustaining hope.
5 October 2011
"An
Orwellian Climate"
Letters to
Australasian Chief Science Advisors explaining contemporary confusion in
climate care communication (Prof Peter Gluckman, Prof Ian Chubb, Prof
Tim Flannery, Dr Andrew Glikson )
15 September 2011
The
2011 New Zealand Election Campaign
(A
letter to New Zealand people alerting them to the dangers of the huge
hidden yet in-your-face advertising campaign promoting the sale of our
national assets.)
16 March 2011
Thought
Experiments re the Carbon Trading Ethos
(Originally
designed for the Office of the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner
for the Environment.)
26 February
2011
Letter to Radio
NZ
(Contains
reflections on broadcasts and ratings of the sustainability of a wide
range of its programmes.)
29
November 2010
The Joy in the Art of Civics
(Brief reflections on this state of being and the dangers of
Environmental Education)
24
November 2010
Celebrating
Our Climate
(Draft one: A climate education framework founded in the Sustainability
Principle of Energy offering an alternative vision of how we can
communicate the role of humans in Earth's climate processes.)
13
October 2010
Conversation
with NZ Minister of Education (Anne Tolley) re the
sustainability of the national education system. Read the Minister's
letter and reflections on the flaws inherent in the Education Ministry's
response.
4
November 2010
Letter
to the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
Introduction to the Sustainability Principle of Energy with
discussion of the nature of science.
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