#915 – The Expat Files: Climate Change, Plan B, and the Real Stories Behind the News

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play and now I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started Alright today. Let's start with this email from Bruce. I had a dog named Bruce You know when you name a kid Percy or dick or Bruce You're setting them up for an awful time with the kids in the schoolyard parents ought to know better, but dogs They don't care anyway Bruce not to poke fun at your name

[00:47] But I got a feeling you came up the hard way you got into way too many scraps Just because your parents probably your ma decided to give you that cute little name But I digress and so early in the show too, huh? Man, I could tell what this one's gonna be like. Anyway, Bruce from Oklahoma says dear Johnny. What's your take on climate change and global warming? Well Bruce as you know, I've been out of the US for something like 30 years now So I can only give you facts and opinions about climate change and such here in Latin America So is the climate changing? Yes. Are we experiencing global warming? It appears so is it man-made? Well, yeah in a way we all contribute its insect animal plant and man-made every living creature in some small way contributes to climate change and global warming or cooling depending on what segment of history or time you're talking about and of course when people

[01:37] Ask questions like what's your take on climate change and global warming? What they're really asking you because it's a politically charged question, you know, it should be purely scientific But it's heavily politicized what they're really asking is if you think man is the bad guy and all this Ask yourself why it's always about the phrase global warming and not climate change Well, it's because you got the media and you got something like 90% of scientists polled saying we're in a phase of global warming Right now. So do I believe that well, you can go about this a couple different ways one Look at all the scientific data to listen to the politicians bloggers and talking heads Who aren't scientists who are wagging the dog and are sometimes totally fully I'm talking about jerks with agendas who figure out ways to make money off of things like this

[02:23] For example selling carbon tax credits and such and how about all those so-called blue ribbon? Commissions and committees all they are is just giant taxpayer junkets Why are they always at cushy faraway resorts like Mallorca and Cancun? I've seen those personally. In fact last time I was at a big cushy extravagant all-inclusive Resort in Punta Cana Dominican Republic. Who do you think I ran across while checking in a gigantic caravan of international bureaucrats? They were out to fix the world with four days of champagne and caviar on your dime, of course Not theirs in fact over half the resort was booked with pompous bureaucratic dickheads and you know It's amazing how these global warming strategists really know their wine lists and Cuban cigars

[03:10] Wait a minute. Don't cigars contribute to global warming or is it cooling? Hmm amazing how you can make a good case for both and of course They all had to fly in from all corners of the globe many of them the top dogs flying business in first class again On your dime. That's just another reason. I don't believe anything that comes out of the mouths of politicians and bureaucrats I don't care what subject they're bothering about because really when you break it all down It's all about the money with the politicians and bureaucrats. It's not about saving the planet It's about living the high life having an overblown job title getting reelected or reappointed and having and accumulating as many useless Paper-pushing slugs working under you as possible. So now we've got yet another huge malignant bloated bureaucracy Which grew multiple heads like a Hydra from the global warming climate change thing

[04:00] And it really surprises me when I see some very smart folks buying into everything the mainstream media says about global warming and climate change And yet out of the other side of their mouths, they're saying mainstream media is fake news and they don't trust a single thing They say I don't get it But I do know one thing when I'm sitting in the taxi and I do that a lot I like to quiz the local uber and taxi drivers about things like climate change And when I go to those big food and produce markets and I go to those all the time I like to quiz a little lady selling this stuff Yep But it's mostly ladies and I quizzed a little guys bringing the stuff in on pickup trucks And yes, the grunt workers and pickup truck guys are almost exclusively men. Hmm. How sexist and classist, huh? We got to get some gringo do-gooders in here to fix those inequalities. Don't we? Just a little touch of social democratization and that'll fix everything right social democracy

[04:50] Yeah, that's what burnt Bernie and occasional cortex. I call in socialism these days plays better in the sound bites, right? Anyway over the last year or two, I must have asked a hundred taxi uber drivers truck drivers small farmers, etc If global warming and climate change has affected them and if so in what ways and what do they think is causing it? And of course, he's a just straw unofficial man on the street poles But they're the real boots on the ground people in the thick of it These are people who are not getting their news from the idiot CNN talking heads who are just reading words So then what have I been hearing? Yes, there is climate change. The storms are a bit crazier and more severe The droughts are longer and more intense In other words the guys in the thick of it with the boots on the ground are saying the climate change is a bit more

[05:38] drastic and more obvious However, almost none of them are saying it's getting warmer year over year nor are they saying it's getting cooler you get it They're saying the climate is changing with colder cold spells warmer warm spells wetter rainy seasons dry or dry seasons But all in all, they're not saying it's getting hotter Of course a few have said that but only because they've heard it on TV and in the news But when talking about their own personal experience, they're in no way saying things are definitely getting warmer year over year Though everywhere else especially up in the first row people are saying it's true. So what do you make of that? Well, I'll tell you what if you look to the first world news every time There's a big crop failure whether it's pineapples coffee or bananas the talking heads say see it's global warming There's the proof meanwhile the guys in the banana and coffee fields will tell you it's because the rainy season was too wet or the dry season

[06:27] Too dry and the man upstairs God just didn't deliver as expected because you know Every time there's a tragedy or something bad happens here in Latin America The local guys and gals will tell you it's in Los Manos de Dios in God's hands And when something good happens, it's because the kid was smart or the guy was good in business or some guy or gal had a lucky break It really doesn't make much sense. But this is Latin America when bad things happen It's in the hands of God and when good things happen, he's got nothing to do with it Now I got to tell you a personal experience I've had talking about rising sea levels, you know, you've heard it Oh in a couple of years so many hundreds of coastal cities and places like Florida, etc Are predicted to be flooded out even non-inhabitable and we see some of that happening right now

[07:13] And of course all the mainstream talking heads, etc Are saying it's because of global warming and glaciers melting adding more water to the sea causing permanent rising levels and such Well, let me tell you what I think is wrong with that assessment and the fly-in the ointment I keep seeing ever since the very first time I went to Venice, Italy back in 1985 that's when I first came upon a very strange phenomena It bugs me to this day now that was before the Internet So naturally I did the tourist thing and bought the folders books and the maps and did the walking tours and took a gondola ride Man, I'll tell you don't do that It's way too expensive with something like a hundred bucks back then and that was just for a half an hour ride with a Dean Martin look-alike in a Renaissance waiters outfit and that hundred bucks didn't even include him singing old solo meal

[07:59] He wanted an extra saw buck for that. I know I know now you're wondering what's that got to do with Latin America We're getting there bear with me Well, the gondola guy proceeded to point out the high water mark on all the 15th century Romeo and Juliet style buildings who were passing as we made our way through the canals and at the time get this He pointed out one particular high water level etched in a building wall. It was marked at six and a half feet above sea level Sea level being the average level of the Adriatic Sea that day the Adriatic Sea being part of the Mediterranean Sea And I said wow, how often does the tide rise that high? He said about every 50 years Then I said, how do people put up with it? How can you live in a place where the tide fluctuates that much?

[08:45] He says well, we call in the army. They know just how to evacuate people he said and then while in the gondola We passed a park then he pointed out a monument the monument to sea and land soldiers Commemorating the help given by the army in the Navy during a catastrophic flood of get this 1882 where the water was eight and a half feet above normal sea level which brings us right back to December 2019 this month if you've been watching the news lately you've seen Venice Where the flood levels this month have reached a 50-year high turns out back on November 4th of 1966 the water rose to 194 centimeters that works out to a high tide level of about six foot four inches above walking street level

[09:31] So what you're reading the paper and seeing on TV today is that Venice has reached catastrophic flooding levels due to of course global warming well, here's the part that I and many scientific types don't get if You do a little research into the historical records of Venice. They always mentioned the dates where they've had disastrous flood levels They mentioned the years 782 840 and 885 the worst seems to have been an 1112 ad Where they record the complete destruction of metamalco? That'd be the building that was Venice's political center There historians wrote that the floodwaters were taller than men albeit Italian men were mighty short back then but still even that Wasn't the worst of it in the 15th century

[10:16] extreme floods and high tides taller than a man were recorded in 1419 1428 1430 1444 and 1445 in 1442 as well then in the 18th century records became more formalized and precise You can see the markings on the walls as you walk through the city. They had high tide floods in 1727 again taller than men 1738 1729 1742 1746 in and Christmas Eve 1792 Christmas Day 1794 However, the Venice flood and high tide that took the cake at least in modern recorded history took place on November 5th 1686 where several chroniclers of the time

[11:02] reporting that the waters had reached the outdoor floor of Sansovino's Lodge, which is the entrance to the Campanel de San Marco, which means that big flood and high tide in 1686 was around 254 centimeters above today's standard sea level which puts that high water tide level at 8 foot 4 inches That's 2 feet higher than the 50 year high of December 2019 this month so how do you explain that now if as the pundits and talking heads on TV say today Global warming is out of control. They say just look at what's happening in Venice today. It's proof So what do they do? They just cherry-pick the last 50 years and don't go back any farther So explain to me how in the last 500 years

[11:48] Similar high tides and worse have occurred at least 20 times and at least once back in 1686 the floodwaters were almost two and a half feet higher than they are today Now some people even people a little smarter than the average bear might say yeah But Johnny sea level is not the same everywhere It's different in the Adriatic and Mediterranean Sea than it is in the Atlantic where Florida is Well, not so fast You could look it up and find that over a hundred year period The difference between sea level in the Mediterranean and sea level in the Atlantic Ocean can vary as much as 10 inches That's over a 100 year period which blows a hole in that argument So then back in 1686 was it too many factories belching out smoke too much horse manure

[12:34] Decomposing in the Sun too many cow farts. I don't think so The steam engine wasn't even invented yet yet you go to a party in fact I just went to a Christmas party the other day and there were a bunch of college educated people there And the subject of global warming came up and sure enough one of these guys in fact was a gal I started talking about the floods of Venice as proof that human initiated global warming is destroying the planet now Of course me being me armed with a few tidbits of information about Venice myself I butted in but not too abruptly first of all asking any of them if they've ever been to Venice before None of them had it figures That's when I started laying a few facts on them and soon enough their eyes glazed over and they started to inch their way towards The bar so then what do I say these days when someone asks if I believe in global warming and climate change?

[13:23] I say I definitely believe in climate change it happens all the time the rest I can speculate and take a guess on But factually and scientifically that's all I know for sure The thing is you see I also when I get interested in something research the hell out of it in a way That's one of my faults. I will pursue things sometimes to the point of extreme overkill in other words I've been known to piss people off. Let me ask you this What do you do when you're at a party or get together and someone says something? Obviously wrong and you know if you open your mouth you could set things straight But it will ruffle some feathers sometimes it's best to just walk away because it's not worth it Problem is people are so vested in their own opinions and ideas. They just don't want to be confused with the facts Why is it today suddenly there are different versions of the truth and that doesn't make sense. How can that be?

[14:13] Just look at your average pusbag politician when caught dead in a lie They don't apologize and say I was wrong or I lied They say things like I misspoke or I inadvertently acted on erroneous information Man, the jerks today. They've got in media and politics. What a bunch of weenies. They should have all been named dick When speaking of given names that set a kid up for a pretty tough life from day one How come it's always a little boy thing? Seems like girls don't have analogous names like dick that'll set him up for bullying and a lot of future angst By the way, this just off the presses December 6 2019 It says for the first time Mohammed is one of the top 10 most popular baby names for boys in the USA That according to data from the parenting website baby center calm

[15:02] Meanwhile, the name Liam was the most popular name for boys in the US pushing out Jackson Which had spent six consecutive years on the top of the list? Sophia remains number one for girls marking a decade as the number one top choice Speaking of names that your parents picked that are sure to get you an ass whooping once in a while from the kids in The schoolyard consider this do you think any of the following names that are most popular for boys in? 2019 will rate excessive bullying and ass whoopins. All right, here's the list number one Liam to Jackson three Noah for Aiden five Grayson six Kayden Seven Lucas eight Elijah nine Oliver ten Mohammed well, who knows when these kids come of age whether or not they'll be singled out for bullying or ass whooping

[15:49] But if you ask me buy votes on Kayden Oh, and by the way, according to the UK newspaper independent and the parenting website baby care comm the number one boy baby name in England for 2018 Mohammed I Know what you're thinking When just for your information the most popular names for girls in 2019 in the US number one Sophia to Olivia three Emma for Ava Five Aria six Isabella seven Amelia eight Mia nine Riley ten Aliah man, I remember back in the 90s when the number one name for girls was Brittany And I wonder now that those girls have come of age how they feel about being named after a has-been druggie Psych case named Britney Spears Well, it could have been worse could have been Madonna and think about all those newborn kids in the 90s who were named after Kurt Cobain

[16:40] A lot of 20-something Kurt's running around I wonder if they even know who their manic depressive rital and ized suicidal namesake was But I digress now as far as the most popular latino and Latina baby names We'll get to that shortly though. I think you're gonna find this next a little bit very interesting Riddle me this what was the loudest sound ever heard by a human? No, it wasn't Michael Moore farting good guess but no cigar now when you think about it You might think it was an atomic bomb turns out on August 27th 1883 just after 10 a.m. The eruption of volcano Krakatoa in Indonesia Was said to have made the loudest sound ever heard by humans when it blew it sent a sound wave around the world

[17:25] Four times with people 3,000 miles away on the island of Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean hearing the noise It was so powerful that sailors out of British ship 40 miles from the explosion Suffered ruptured eardrums with the captain writing in his journal that he believed Judgment Day had come and in Australia 2,000 miles away People thought a war had started now this article in discover magazine says when Krakatoa blew it was so astonishingly loud That it's inching up against the limits of what we mean by sound itself Then you've got nuclear scientists today estimating that Krakatoa had the force of 10,000 to 12,000 Hiroshima bombs Some say twice that equivalent to a 50 to a hundred megaton nuclear blast it caused a 120 foot high tsunami and

[18:16] completely wiped out 165 coastal villages and 36,000 400 people now here's the part that's of interest to us it says Volcanic matter ejected into the atmosphere at the time Filtered sunlight and caused sunset so vivid that people in New York called the fire department Fearing blazes outside the city now here's the part that might make you reassess your thinking on global warming in the year Following Krakatoa's eruption the average global temperature fell by 1.2 degrees Celsius and the earth remained Abnormally cool for five or so more years until the earth itself and its ecosystems brought the temperature back to homeostasis Again, now remember we started this show with an email from Bruce

[19:02] Asking me my opinion on global warming climate change and the human effect the human contribution to said phenomena All right now pay attention According to a continuous study conducted by at NASA's Goddard Institute The earth's average global temperature has risen by 0.8 degrees Celsius or 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 140 years that 140 years is significant because that was considered the very start of the Industrial Revolution When we humans first started creating factories including the air now, of course Nothing good can come of global warming But humans can adapt to that much better than global cooling most all scientists are in agreement on that

[19:48] So here's the point and it's really great stuff when you get into a discussion about global warming, etc If just one big volcano Krakatoa lowered the temperature of the earth 1.2 degrees that means all the dust soot and volcanic ash in the atmosphere Blocked the Sun's rays enough to cause that drop again. That's 1.2 degrees Celsius in one year Meanwhile NASA scientists today say that in the last 140 years Since the Industrial Revolution began the temperature of the earth has risen 0.8 degrees Celsius or 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit That's a smaller effect in 140 years than Krakatoa made in just one year So then what does that do to the proposition that humans are responsible for the greater percentage of climate change in global warming?

[20:37] Look if it took a hundred and forty years to raise the temperature 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit and one year for one Volcanic explosion to lower the Earth's temperature 2.16 degrees Fahrenheit Well, what conclusions do you draw from that now? That's not to deny that humans aren't contributing to global warming, etc Every person animal and plant contribute something to the end result It's just that I take exception to people with zero scientific background or just enough knowledge to make them dangerous Spouting off about climate change as if the books already been written. So are humans the bad guys? Hey, maybe we are We definitely pollute this out of the planet. But in the end, you know, it'll be the planet that survives not us Now I know a lot of you are thinking why in the hell is he talking about that stuff?

[21:25] He's supposed to be talking about Latin America Well, I just thought you know next time you get yourself into a discussion about global warming climate change cow farts and stuff You'll have a little bit more information in your hard drive Just think you'll be able to baffle and amuse the gym locker room and cocktail party crowd Well, maybe not but you know the more knowledge and information you have the better to defend Whatever side of the argument you happen to be on. All right now said about that probably way too much said about that So we'll take a hard right turn here and read an email that comes from Well, maybe it's better. I don't say his name. You'll probably see why as we get into this He says Johnny, you're the real deal a good guy I enjoy your show very much and am readying my plan B problem is I was just served legal

[22:11] Separation papers by my wife for 27 years last week. So I'll be paying out of the nose for some time I have one child at home and two others who are on their own now Johnny My soon-to-be ex is still a great-looking gal at 52, but probably won't marry off for quite a while So she says and as for me when I turned 60 in four years I'd like to head your way south of south of the border Personally, I've enjoyed south of the border extended stays with real people off the gringo tourist trail And I'm certain that kind of a plan B setup will work for me. Of course, you know with a divorce I'll have half as much money to spend as planned, but I just want to say thanks for all your advice Johnny But on to the point of this email in listening to your November 29

[22:58] 2019 and December 1st 2019 podcast you gave out much good info on EMF equipment I too am an engineer Johnny an aerospace engineer and here's my question Are there any Shieldings available for cell phones that don't outright block signal and I can't believe that those little sticker style Gumdrop things do anything to protect the wearer of a cell phone when it's in close contact. And yes, Johnny Unfortunately, I know a guy personally who got cancer in the quad muscle Exactly where he pocketed his cell phone for years this guy my friend being a fellow aerospace engineer, too Then he says also Johnny your listener named Sue in the so dated podcasts I mentioned requested a bunch of links and info etc

[23:44] If you did by chance send her an email addressing all of her requests, can you please send me all that? She asked for two One more thing Johnny Unfortunately with a divorce my money is in limbo now Otherwise, I would have loved to have attended your seminar that's coming up. Then he finishes by saying Johnny I really appreciate all your help signed and we'll call him. Mr. AE for aerospace engineer now get this The email comes from Gulfstream aerospace corporation a division of general dynamics Coming out of the structural design division just a little note here, you know, mr AE works for one of the biggest military contractors in the universe general dynamics But we won't hold that against him cuz he is working on a plan B Now, of course, many of you have probably heard of Gulfstream. They make all those really great personal and business jets

[24:35] Learjet, you know is their competition Anyway, the reason why I'm pointing this out is to mention that it's a fact I get an unusual amount of email from engineers Scientists nerds cops and members of the US military all of them either thinking about a plan B or somewhere on the timeline Of a plan B now you gotta ask yourself Why would so many people working for the US government or contracted by the US government? Why not get the hell out of Dodge? Doesn't that strike you a bit odd? Well, I'm sure it does to Joe lunch bucket Yeah, right as if Joe still carries a lunch bucket. Yep, poor Joe average You got to feel sorry for him plugging away at his treadmill popping his five meds at 50 Just looking to pay his rent every month his credit cards and his Netflix bill

[25:20] Well, unfortunately a plan B is never gonna be part of his game plan or universe Which brings us back to the question of why I get so many emails from professionals scientists engineers Military and government workers some of them well entrenched in the system who you'd never Expect and want to get the hell out of that not to mention they've been in the game a long time and looking forward to pretty Good pensions yet so many of them are thinking about and working on their plan B's Seems like for a lot of these guys the closer they are to the head of the beast The more they want to get far far away because they know they'll never be able to slay the dragon So all you guys and gals on the fence about your plan B right now. Think about it What do these guys and gals professionals inside of government know that we don't well one things for sure The ones with a brain know how fucked up things really are and they want to get the hell out of Dodge now

[26:11] but unfortunately as with the case of mr AE other things in life often to screw up your plans and the other problem I see is that so many people are hanging on a few more years to get the most out of their pensions In other words, they've set a goal and a timeline into the future somewhere based on what their pensions are gonna Put out hoping their world will remain somewhat stable until then that I think is a big mistake Because all those tipping points that are near to crashing and burning are so close at hand I really think it's a big mistake to think that things are gonna remain somewhat stable even a year or two out In other words, I believe it's imperative that you're not just thinking about a plan B that you're somewhere along that timeline already In other words, you've got some boots on the ground in Latin America Have selected a place or a country have hooked up with a lawyer and hopefully have a bank account and have started your residency process

[26:59] Because you know those windows of opportunity are closing fast And you know as mr AE mentioned in his email he's getting hit hard in the wallet by his impending divorce Otherwise he'd be coming to my January 2020 seminar He might not be able to make this one But you can still get a two to five year head start on your plan B by coming down to my expat insider seminar Which kicks off in about three weeks now starting January 10th So do check it out Just go to www.theexpatfiles.com and click on Johnny's seminar link for complete information and sign-up details You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com

[27:44] And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com Nos vamos