When political “conservatives” (the term is in quotes because there’s nothing at all conservative about any of their positions) finally get around to admitting the existence of climate change, they have a variety of options when it comes to causes, consequences, and mitigation. Causes: Is climatic chaos the result of greenhouse gas emissions from industrial […]
Our continuing hunger for illusory cheap energy is the enabling force behind the corporate sociopaths who are spilling the Earth’s blood over the land. North Dakota, the nation’s No2 oil producer behind Texas, recorded nearly 300 oil pipeline spills in less than two years, state documents show. None was reported to the public, officials said. […]
Why we have to speak out: Nations have so dragged their feet in battling climate change that the situation has grown critical and the risk of severe economic disruption is rising, according to a draft United Nations report. Another 15 years of failure to limit carbon emissions could make the problem virtually impossible to solve […]
When you have a climate-change discussion with someone who either hasn’t been paying attention, or who’s swallowed the corporate media’s denialist message, you’re very likely to hear these two arguments: “It’s all part of a natural cycle.” — the argument that the Global Weirding we’re now experiencing is just a manifestation of natural variability. But […]
Black Elk said that. “…the Power of the world works in circles.” This power came to a tribe, to a people, circularly: in the form of “the sacred hoop of the nation”; and its living center, nourished by the circle of the four directions, was a flowering tree. As long as the sacred hoop remained […]
The state-owned oil company of Trinidad, Petrotrin, has been tied to at least (at least!) eleven separate oil spills that have closed miles of beaches in Trinidad and Tobago, crippling tourism, killing fish, and turning an island paradise into something far uglier. “Over the past month, the company has confirmed at least 11 spills and […]
Climate Messenger Sean Frenette shows how it’s done: Gave the Climate Message at The Sivananda Ashram in Nassau, Bahamas; one of the many ground-zeros for the coming changes in sea level and storm intensity/frequency. It was sobering to give the message in such a place and especially poignant that after I gave the message a […]
Uh-oh. CHARLESTON, W.Va.—Officials in Kentucky and Ohio were preparing Monday for the arrival of a slow-moving, 60-mile-long chemical plume drifting toward them down the Ohio River, after its accidental release prompted a five-day water ban here. (snip) While many said they didn’t foresee a major problem, they also weren’t taking chances after the release of […]
It’s been almost two centuries since Svante Arrhenius discovered the greenhouse effect, and more than fifty years since Arctic ice melt caused by increased atmospheric CO2 was predicted in a 1953 edition of Popular Mechanics. Over time, climatologists have been steadily developing analytical and predictive tools of ever-greater precision and sophistication, as evidenced by their […]
When you talk to people about climate issues, you’ll constantly be battling against the well-oiled (grim pun intentional) denialism machine described in this Guardian article: The conservative media may currently be the single biggest roadblock to addressing the threat posed by human-caused climate change. There is virtually no support for any sort of climate policy […]