Land Grab for "Climate"? Land Confiscated from Midwestern Farmers
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Land Grab for "Climate"? Land Confiscated from Midwestern Farmers
Carbon pipeline companies are telling the farmers to go away.
This story is about an event that is extremely important and historically deep. According to Ice Age Farmer, a large amount of land is currently being confiscated from American farmers in the Midwest, using eminent domain. The farmers are given an option to accept a modest compensation and go away “voluntarily”—but if not, they are threatened with the prospect of losing their land anyway under eminent domain.
This is done to give way to a massive carbon sequestration pipeline (actually, two of them) and processing facilities going through the heart of the Corn Belt. (You guessed it, this is done in the name of “saving the planet.”)
Notably, the project allegedly requires removing top soil (!!!) in an area spanning thousands of miles—an agriculturally important area—which is, of course, a great way to save the planet!
The upcoming “alternative energy” bubble was written up in a seminal 2008 Harper’s Magazine article and reported on extensively by Cory Morningstar and others. At this point, we can say with confidence that building pipelines “for the planet” is shameless scam.
See how they’ve replaced the simple and obliging concept of NOT polluting the environment with abstract carbon-themed verbal macaroni, reassigning the meanings of important words once again? This is just a more egregious rendition of the same old act of robbery. And no, this has nothing to do with the planet. If the investors in those pipelines were worried about the planet, they would consider such daring and unthinkable measures as leaving the existing trees alone or maybe (OMG) ending the lucrative pollution. After all, the investors in this “new green future” are the same entities who got us into this mess to begin with, poisoning everything for money. So they really shouldn’t be thinking of themselves as saviors.
At best, this is an expression of a desire by the unwise and the broken to imprint—their ignorance and their anxiety—on the world. But frankly, I don’t think they are that stupid so as to believe their own bullshit, so I am hesitant to give them even that amount of credit. I think it’s just metaphorical gluttony. They are destructing the natural world obsessively and don’t want to stop until they preside over the entire artificial castle, and people have nowhere else to go. (May they be stopped before it can happen!)
Importantly, this “alternative energy” setup takes up a giant amount of space, even comparing to the existing rather destructive setup. Like, miles and miles and miles of ridiculous structures, built with toxic materials, that deteriorate quickly and poison the land. And no, I don’t like oil pipelines, either—but the solutions proposed by the greedy ones are crappy solutions—and the investors in carbon pipelines and similar “alternative energy” tech are shamelessly lying about their products’ ability to do anything good for the planet. And no, I don’t care if they fancy themselves to be saviors or know very well that they are strictly after control and money—I just don’t like the prospect of my home planet being destructed with even more hubris than before—while we are eventually reduced to eating bugs.
Speaking of land, here’s from a recent Bloomberg article titled, “The U.S. Will Need a Lot of Land for a Zero-Carbon Economy”:
From there the Bloomberg article continues:
The most land-intensive plan eliminates all fossil fuels and nuclear plants. Wind and solar provide 98% of electric power by 2050. The U.S. energy footprint quadruples in size. Wind farms occupy land areas equivalent to Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
How about storing carbon deeply under the Earth’s surface? What a great idea! Never done before, never properly tested, nobody has any idea what it can disturb—and yet, the useless EPA says it’s “safe.”
What companies are planning to build carbon pipelines through the heart of the Corn Belt?
Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC and Summit Carbon Solutions.
What are they telling the farmers?
According to a letter from Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC, shared by Linda Hasche with Ice Age Farmer, they are telling the farmers the following: “Our goal is to reach voluntary agreements with all landowners along the Project route, though if we are unable to do so we may need to request the right of eminent domain.” As far as the deal they are offering, the language is kind of vague, but when it comes to compensating the farmers for loss of crop income, the letter mentioned a “one-time settlement payment of 100% of crop loss value in the first year, 80% of crop loss value in the second year, and 60% of crop loss value in the third year.” Seems like that is it, although I am sure the devil is in the detail.
What are they telling the public and the investors?
A recent press release by Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC mentions that they have secured the Board’s approval to go ahead with the pipeline project. It also says:
In addition to the initial Heartland Greenway build out, Navigator is actively creating incremental capability to allow its customers to maximize the value of their commercial participation. Navigator will be creating an affiliated marketing company to assist customers with tracking emissions and monetizing their environmental attributes [emphasis mine]. This will enable Navigator customers to benefit from the centralized scale and analytics of the Heartland Greenway. Navigator is also in discussions with multiple parties that consume CO2 who would desire delivery interconnection points to provide a ratable, consistent source for CO2 acquisition.
Here is the recent video by Ice Age Farmer, thanks to which I found out that this is happening.
And here are cows in masks—to reduce emissions.
I wonder how fast the virtuous “people masks” go from being mandated to stop-spreading-COVID-you-grandma-killer to being mandated to stop-carbon-emissions-you-planet-killer. (See my older story about smart masks.) At this pace, it’s around the corner!
CONCLUSION: We need to wake up—and we need to do it quickly and do it with fearless love because as hard as it is, fearless love is the only thing that will get us out of it. I am convinced of that. And we need to remember at every moment that we are love.
Links and references
Why Totalitarianism
Interview with Steven Newcomb on the System of Domination (it addresses the historical irony of what’s going on today)
The Great Reset for Dummies
Hello, Smartmask? Hello, New Normal?
On Existential Mystery and Robber Barons Masked as People's Reformers
The U.S. Will Need a Lot of Land for a Zero-Carbon Economy (Bloomberg)
Des Moines County supervisors learn about proposed Navigator Heartland Greenway carbon capture pipeline(Hawk Eye, an Iowa newspaper)
Carbon-capture pipelines offer climate aid; activists wary (ABC News)
Navigator Greenway Fact Sheet (marketing brochure PDF)
How entrepreneurs are persuading Americans to eat bug protein (CNBC)
The Explosion of Insect Protein (Interesting Engineering)
The Next Bubble (Harper’s Magazine) - archive here
Navigator Approved To Proceed With Development and Construction of Heartland Greenway System in Midwest (press release)
Cargill Backs Cow Masks to Trap Methane Burps (Bloomberg)
Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why? (The Guardian)
Land Grab for "Climate"? Land Confiscated from Midwestern Farmers
I do not support or approve of eminent domain for any reason, however, once this land grab is done, wouldn't it be more logical and cheaper to simply cover the whole area with trees, irrigating them if necessary? Trees are natural carbon intakes, "breathing" it in and giving off oxygen. But then, there is no money to be made in planting trees.
"Seems to me", as the James Gang could have put it, "they don't want to talk about it."
I feel a sense of urgency to love as I have never loved before... to love this life, this planet & every species that exists, including the wonderful, eclectic group called humanity - despite the obvious flaws and nefarious actions of the small handful of those who do not know what love is, and are demonstrating that in spades through actions like what is described here 🙄😑.
And that love requires boots on the ground push back from all of us, with every fibre of our being. Lordy, people need to wake up in a hurry! 🙏🏻