Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was one of the high points not
only of the environmental movement but also of the documentary tradition
in America. He figured out how to use a new medium, PowerPoint, to take
the unavoidably wonkish story of global warming and make it scary,
credible and manageable. It was, perhaps, as important as anything he
could have done as president, and he deserved not only the Oscar but
also the Nobel.
US President Barack Obama came to office
promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in
the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the
climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with
Obama.
Last month, the Pew Research Center released its latest poll of public
attitudes on global warming. On its face, the news was not good: Belief
that global warming is occurring had declined from 71 percent
in April of 2008 to 56 percent in October - an astonishing drop in just
18 months. The belief that global warming is human-caused declined from
47 percent to 36 percent.
Nearly two decades after writing a book that popularized the term "global warming," MoJo contributing writer Bill McKibben founded 350.org. He is chronicling his journey into organizing with a series of columns leading up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen this December. You can find the others here.
There is no point in denying it:
we're losing. Climate change denial is spreading like a contagious
disease. It exists in a sphere that cannot be reached by evidence or
reasoned argument; any attempt to draw attention to scientific findings
is greeted with furious invective. This sphere is expanding with
astonishing speed.
STOCKHOLM — Environmental activists from Greenpeace dumped 18 tonnes
of German coal outside Sweden's government offices Wednesday to protest
against the Swedish state's coal plant ownership abroad.
Swedish
energy group Vattenfall has no coal plants in Sweden but has acquired
12 such plants in Germany, Poland, The Netherlands and Denmark in the
past nine years, Greenpeace said in a statement.
WASHINGTON - Less than two months before a key international conference on curbing climate change, a major U.S. poll has found a sharp drop in public concern about global warming.
According to the survey by the Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press, 65 percent of the public believes that warming constitutes either a "very serious" (35 percent) or "somewhat serious" (30 percent) problem, down from 79 percent in July 2006 and from 73 percent just 18 months ago.
PARIS - Could climate change spark the first worldwide grassroots
movement? Even as politicians dial down expectations for the December
7-18 UN climate talks in Copenhagen, analysts and activists detect a
groundswell of anger, channelled through the Internet and voiced
especially by the young, demanding action on global warming.
Conventional wisdom says environmental issues wax at times of prosperity and wane when belts are tightened.
But these sources believe that adage no longer holds true in the face of the unique threat posed by climate change.
