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TechnoratiA Failure of Leadership: Rapid and Massive Action Needed to Avert Climate Change
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
~Albert Einstein
The super-powered greenhouse gas methane is bubbling out of lakes in the Arctic from melting permafrost, and we have entered the dreaded period where secondary effects of global warming could take the climate challenge completely out of our control. The time for genuine leadership and grassroots action that will effectively reverse climate change is fleeting.
Signals are everywhere that things are getting worse. "The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago -- and could be even worse than that," said David Chandler of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Despite the screaming headlines foretelling disaster, the lobbyist-laden, industry-inhibited Waxman/Markey bill will not reverse climate change. Even though there are some new players in the climate game, manufacturers, power companies, and the oil and gas industry still make up more than half of the 880 total business groups that are trying to influence climate change policy, according to Marianne Lavelle of the Center for Public Integrity.
Oil, coal, utilities and other industries, who do not want a solution to climate change because of an adverse impact on their bottom line, spent 80 million dollars in the first quarter of this year to destroy pending legislation, compared with 4.7 million dollars spent by all environmental groups combined.
A lack of adequate leadership is self-evident in the resulting, odiferous legislation. Daphne Wysham of the Institute for Policy Studies thinks the pending federal climate legislation stinks, saying, "While industry lobbyists may have worked their magic tricks on members of Congress in the name of ‘bold climate legislation,' Planet Earth is likely to remain unmoved by these sleights of hand. At 385 parts per million CO2 and rising, our atmosphere is on a steady course to climate catastrophe unless these charlatans and their henchmen in Congress get real."
We're not getting the requisite leader from the Obama Administration. In their joint article Jeffrey St. Claire and Joshua Frank of CounterPunch say that Obama is refusing to consider strict regulations and that, "Obama's approach to attacking...climate change has been whittled down to nothing more than weak market-driven economics that can too easily be manipulated politically. Polluters will be let off the hook as they can simply relocate or build new infrastructure in places where there are few or no carbon regulations."
Humanity is being slapped with the biggest ultimatum ever, to reverse climate change and get it right. Still, instead of creating it, politicians and green groups on the state and national levels decry "political reality," as a deterrent to a meaningful solution, as though they have never heard of leadership or grassroots organizing.
The fact that legislation is being debated on the state and federal levels is a positive development. And Maryland is to be congratulated for being among a handful of states to try to reduce their own greenhouse gas pollution.
Still, the legislation just passed by the Maryland General Assembly, to cut greenhouse gases 25% below 2006 levels by 2020, certainly should not be lauded as a model for the nation. Incremental steps are not appropriate with the daunting challenge posed by climate change, because it gives the false illusion that the job is done and follow-on action will not likely be sought until it's too late.
Any response to climate challenge will start with a political solution -- led by the people. It is imperative that Americans understand the issue and the need for quick, bold action to reverse climate change. Leadership begins with knowing how to communicate on the issue.
The George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication (known as the 4C) says that millions of people must be constructively engaged "to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, avert the worst potential consequences and prepare for the impacts that can no longer be avoided."
The "Six Americas" study shows that a majority of Americans, 51%, are convinced that global warming is happening, and is a serious problem. But only 18% of those (The Alarmed) are already taking individual, consumer and political action, leaving 33% (The Concerned) to be effectively engaged, perhaps quickly. These groups think that global warming should be a high or very high national priority and neither sees cap and trade as the solution.
The Cautious (19%), The Disengaged (12%) and The Doubtful (11%), a combined 42%, represent different stages of understanding and acceptance of the problem and none are actively involved. The Cautious want more action from corporations, government and citizens, but not much more. One third of The Disengaged strongly support funding research into renewable energy sources and many desire more action to reduce global warming. Even three-quarters of The Doubtful feel that America should make efforts to address global warming.
Only a miniscule minority of 7% (The Dismissive) are very sure that global warming is not happening and are opponents of a national effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The 4C report is complex and deserves close study. A majority to a large majority of people could be mobilized, with the right message, properly delivered. The report explains, "Throughout human history, individuals and societies have mobilized to meet and overcome new challenges, but never before has so much rested on the need to change so many so fast."
Who will be the messenger?
27 Comments so far
Show AllFor what its worth, the author is right. The ice-core record shows that temperatures can change dramatically. This speaks to the likelihood of significant short-term positive feedback mechanisms in the climate forcing quiver. In the long term(a millenia) the feedbacks appear to be significantly negative (i.e. CO2 is absorbed by the oceans/biosphere and everything goes back to 'normal'), but that would be of little use to us, as the planet has shown that 'normal' is anything from covered in ice to covered in tropical forests and greatly underwater.
The short-term feedbacks are significantly positive, notably methane production from melted permafrost and methane-clasts. Hansen is probably being too conservative (hate to say it) and the planet is already on a course for significant change. If you own property in southern Florida, among other places, I really think you should sell before everyone else figures it out. Remember, the real-estate value is pegged to what people think its worth, NOT to whether its underwater or not. Once people realize that low-lying properties are actually and perhaps irredeemably at risk, your property is not going to be worth much.
Other than that, of course we should take action. But, if the record of the last 20 years is any guide...
Until the prices of oil, coal, and gas rise back to their real values instead of being kept artificially low, "climate change" is here to stay. We need to sustain higher prices on fossil fuels to enforce conservation, renewing, and reusing. Otherwise, look what happened last year when the crude oil prices were suspiciously lowered. Suddenly, all the incentives to "go green" vanished and more advertising and selling of gas guzzlers. I hate to say this but we really need Peak Oil to stay permanently.
The problem is so enormous that our traditional task-oriented git r done attitude can't really cope.
Reduce co2 you say, Ms Ardent Activist Strickler? This is not the problem, this is a symptom. You are calling for symptom reduction with a hysterical edge to your voice. You hear the methane bubbles popping and you know global disaster is nigh.
There is no practical solution, no policy change, no legislative initiative that can stop climate change. Can-do American pragmatism is impotent because it is just stupid, blind action. Let's do something! Let's do it NOW!
You've got a Bill Mckibben wringing his hands and organizing a grass roots campaign like an inspired televangelist trying to get the troops to demonstrate against the coal fired power source of the Congress, as though this is going to make any difference. Yes we can!
If CO2 is just a symptom, then the problem is our petroleum-based energy source, right? Our huge carbon-footprint?
No. We do not truly have an energy crisis. We have an identity crisis.
You aren't going to save the world by addressing symptoms, Ms. Strickler, when the cause of these symptoms is our way of life itself, the whole thing taken together, all the ways and means by which we live. More than what we do, this CO2 is a symptom of who we are, and who we are is a product of what we think and what we don't think.
We think that energy supplies are limited; we think that we are binging and we must cut back and make do with "sustainable sources" like wind, solar, thermal, blah blah, even though these sustainables are insufficient to supply our current energy demand.
When you say reduce CO2, you are saying: Stop living as we are living! People ignore you because they LIKE the way they are living and don't want to change. I don't think you know what you are actually saying. You think energy should be limited and we should cut back. That who you are: a "realist". That how you think.
We don't think that energy sources are unlimited and essentially free. We don't think this because we believe in our scientific dogmas that we do not question. One such dogma is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. If we believed that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is not a law at all, but merely a wrong hypothesis, we would understand that "entropy" is not a curse placed upon us by an angry God, that it is actually possible to create more output from a given input and tap into unlimited energy at the quantum level. We would understand that the universe is a slot machine that will always pay off if we insert the right coin in the right way.
But to understand this is to be a different person with a whole different understanding of the world.
We have an identity crisis because we cannot believe that the impossible is actually possible.
CruxPuppy,
You are correct in a general sense in that there are virtually unlimited, and essentially free sources of energy "out there" which can be harvested using only a bit of "outside-the-box" thinking.
However, it is not necessary to question the validity of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics to realize their potential, nor must one go so far as to invoke the "quantum" or unproven "zero-point-energy" levels. To find "new" energy sources, we must only find places where "entropy" is created (work is lost) and recapture it.
The most abundant energy source we have at our disposition is called CAPE, or Convective Available Potential Energy. This is residual solar energy stored in the troposphere. Entropy is created when updrafts rise unconstrained in the troposphere as they do each and every day.
A current map shows where there is currently "free energy"
http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/model/eta12hr_sfc_cape.gif
--colored areas along Gulf Coast. All other areas are nuetral with respect to CAPE content, but they can also be converted to energy sources by adding to them so-called "waste heat" from industrial facilities or from Urban areas (heat islands).
A device has been invented to "constrain" these updrafts by expanding the air through turbines, in what is called the Atmospheric Vortex Engine. More details can be found at http://vortexengine.ca
Ms. Strickler--you can continue to tilt at windmills (e.g., politicians, AGW deniers, RePo-blicans, corporations) but you will continue to be frustrated and outgunned-Obama and the Democrats are just OBAUs (Obama Business-As Usual) types.
Your best option, IMO, is to get behind the development of the AVE, which will produce cheaper, carbon-free, electricity willingly accepted by China, India who build coal plants and South American countries that are currently building hydroelectric plants which destroy the rain forest.
It's your choice--may the AVE-force be with you.
Thomas More
if there is no proof that climate change is man made there must be no proof that it isn't, which for some is good enough reason to be carefull
and to suggest that anything we do as humans may have no effect on climate is so missing the forest for the trees
I must still suggest that though you may be sure of climate change there is no proof that it is man made or that anything we can do will have any effect it.
When there s such a push to get things thru without proper discussion it usually means the subject won't bear the light of day.
This is beginning to look like that.
Thomas ,my dear son unless you were born long before August 1936, for all my nearly 73 years of my life on this planet, I have witnessed climate change for the worse and since there is already plenty of damning evidence that most of it is indeed man-made, you are dead wrong to say that it is man made or that we cannot do anything to fix it. Climate change is indeed man made. If you replaced all those fossil fuels with bio replacements capable of making the same plastics and fuel out there, you'd notice the difference.
"climate change there is no proof that it is man made "
Thomas More I hate to break it to you but it is man made. It strains credulity that you can believe otherwise. How is contradicting the well established scientific consensus, that we need to reverse global warming before we face cataclysmic repercussions, good for your world, your country or your family?
Whoever you are behind your Nebraska Nathan 1, hidden identity, you have the wrong number. As much as I respect Ralph Nader, I actually not only voted for Barack Obama, but I worked to elect him by helping to turn Virginia blue. I mention it because it shoots your argument, that this is somehow about Obama, all to hell. Finding a solution is dependent on political timelines that are moving far too slowly to keep up with the natural deadlines, which are getting shorter every day. Mother Nature is the one who has no patience. She's the purist. And if you recall: You can't argue with Mother Nature. Obama himself tells us all that we must hold him accountable and he is WAY behind on climate change.
Ms. Strickler,
Let me help you out here. Nebraska Nathan1 is always this way on this site. He's nothing but a corporatist shill. I might also add here that he has a problem with women. Today on another thread on this site, he even showed hate for his own wife just because she was "purist" in his views while he was a corporatist. I hope Mother Nature gives Nebraska Nathan1 a tough whipping before he carries out his plans to grow more corn and degrade the planet's soil and cause more global warming from it.
Obama never made it a promise or a pledge to actually address climate change let alone avert it. President Nader would have actually taken the task of tackling climate change seriously unlike Obama the Clown !
you are right in some ways neb nat1. Obama (first time i ever typed his name), is doing all he can against a system so corrupt that it is hard as hell for anyone to make immediate changes, even him. and i think he really does mean for the best.
but i disagree on your telling the author to shut her mouth. first , it is rude, and second, everyone has a right to their opinion and a right to express it. that's numero uno. get used to it. please
Great comment Souix Rose, thanks for the Quotes from repected sources. and sir alberts quote at the top is prescient too
Sioux Rose
COLD: Thank you for the nod. I would encourage you to analyze more closely the many moves Obama has made to enable the very things people voted for him to alter. If it was one item here or there one could suggest it's a matter of time. Of course there is much armed against justice, decency, fair play and what the majority of Americans want in a VARIETY of areas; but there has mostly been slick talk, my friend. Tragically, the agenda of the banks and MIC and now the insurance companies is what he is protecting, and by these strokes of his pen, selling out the true interests of American citizens. We are too bankrupt to support the war-fare state, and besides, it's AWFUL karma. If people living hundreds of years ago understood this, if the basic credo is writ into every Holy book, the only way to turn people against their own consciences it to tell them GOD wants them to do thus and so. And indeed America hosts an insidious network of religious institutions (similar tactics of course are being done by the Zionists in Israel, and certain right wing sects of Islam) that broadcast this false witness.
I believe in Universal law and it's been clear throughout the history of this planet that when tribes absolutely fall out of accord with Divine principle, a reckoning (in the form of MAJOR weather events) transpires.
Gordon Michael Scallion is a modern clairvoyant who has a newsletter that predicts climate events (or did. I am out of the loop there). In any case he accurately predicted hurricane Andrew and 2 of the major quakes in California. He predicted a 3rd quake and it never happened. The reason he gave was that people learned to work together and that force of unity/harmony/love/cohesion negated the energy that would have caused quake # 3. I believe in this type of thing having witnessed the energy of thought and love alter circumstances. If enough people REALLY gave up the idea of enemies and began to love their neighbors, send contributions to charities that represent those the US has bludgeoned in its spiritual ignorance, we could BEGIN to turn the climate forecasts around. It would be a start, and of course this does not diminish the need to use less, show gratitude for what we have, and help unlock the grip that oil/coal/nuclear have on energy delivery systems. It's not over yet...
coldponder,
Don't listen to Nebraska Nathan1. He's nothing but a paid corporate troll trying to defend Obama's bacon. He even defended Max Baucus's ugly actions against single payer advocates'. Check out his rude trolling on this article:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/22-4
The author should shut her mouth and show some patience. It has only been 4 months since Obama has been in office. He and Congress are trying to repair the damage Bush brought on the environment in the last 8 years. I would also like to remind you that if it were not for these stupid Naderites in 2000, Al Gore would have been president for two terms and the climate crisis would have been resolved. 2000 should have taught us the invaluable lessons of being too much of a purist crybaby. Right now, solving these problems is not easy and there will need to be compromises and negotiations. Obama is doing all that he can. The public will have to learn to cooperate or keep their big mouths shut air tight !
Greetings big bad brother. I know who you are and I've already exposed enough of you in other posts so I won't elaborate here. One thing to say though is I wouldn't be bullying others to shut their mouths. On the other hand, it is YOU who will need to keep your mouth shut because I'm watching you and you have already been a life long bully to me as a brother but as you know, I've been fighting back in the last few years and am not about to stop. Your days of bullying are numbered !
"The public will have to learn to cooperate or keep their big mouths shut air tight" They vill haf to lern to cooperate. Ve haf vays to make them.
Obama has not had time to complete the journey, but sadly Obama is already heading down the wrong road on several critical issues. (War, finance, the environment, human rights). What kind of citizen keeps mouth shut when a leader is taking expediency to a criminal level? A 1933 German would be an example.
Joe
Who the hell are you to tell the author to shut her mouth ? The crisis is for real and your bacon is on the line. Can't you get that through your braindamaged skull? And Nader didn't cost Gore the election. Gore brought it upon himself. And oh yeah, Obama is doing all that he can alright as far as continuing Bush's shit is concerned and he's doing a heck of a job making it an almost 3rd Bush term which I saw coming last year when I voted for Nader.
Sioux Rose
GLENN: That's the karmic catch-22 isn't it? That the military uses tons of fuel in obtaining tons of fuel to continue on its never-ending missions to seize more (or whatever the next coveted resource turns out to be).
I would like to bring two quotes from very distant sources into the forum today. Not only do these echo the spiritual sentiment embedded into the Bible's story of the great flood, they show the relationship between massive weather events and how human beings behave.
The first comes from a speech given by the spiritual teacher, Yogananda. This was part of a speech given at the United Nations in l949:
"We have made the world beautiful, and we have the power to destroy it. When we desecrate the world, the environment undergoes a violent change, which is called partial dissolution. Such upheavals have occured many times--one example is Noah's flood. These partial dissolutions are due to the wrong actions and ignorant errors of mankind. Don't think the happenings of this world are going on automatically without Divine knowledge. And don't think that man's actions have no effect on the operation of Cosmic laws. Everything that has happened throughout the ages is recorded in the ether. The vibrations of evil that mankind leaves in the ether upset the normal harmonious balance of the earth. When the earth becomes very heavy with the disease of evil, etheric disturbances cause the world to give way to earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters."
(The above comes from: "A World in Transition" by Paramahansa Yogananda.)
Recently I have begun another book in a search to understand the larger aspects of climate change. I will offer a quote from this book, "The Cycle of Cosmic Castastrophes" bu Richard Firestone, Allen West & Simon Warwick-Smith.
It is a Hopi legend/prophecy:
"For a long time the people were happy that they had been spared (at the onset of what the Hopi refer to as the "Second World") and they remained grateful to Creator, but gradually changes occurred. No longer satisfied with what they had, they began to trade and barter with other tribes to acquire rich clothing and ornaments. Before long some people began to belittle those who had less than they did. Year by year the people became more contentious, and more isolated from each other and from the Creator. Then finally no longer content with trading, some people decided to take what they wanted, so wars broke out between the tribes. Before long, warfare was everywhere and the people became crazed with violence. Those who spoke against war were ridiculed or killed for their peaceful words."
Wow! Is that not a recipe for what's taking place right now? And we think time is linear, that these circle dances of the orbiting spheres do not draw us back to the same thematic places on the dial of shared experience. Why do sources from India to America's Indigenous teach the same basic moral lesson: how we treat one another impacts the entire fabric of creation. And now much more so as bombs tear the very fabric of matter apart so violently.
Much that I share in this forum comes from HIGHLY spiritual sources. Thank you.
'No longer satisfied with what they had, they began to trade and barter with other tribes to acquire rich clothing and ornaments.'
This is very close to root cause, and illuminates the way forward, or backward, if you will...
So where do you get all that fuel to power up your stupid portable home and the computer your typing on to ramble on your spiritual and astrological crap ? From the military industrial complex, hypocrite ! LOL !! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!! LOL !! HAR HAR HAR !!
I wouldn't be laughing like that if I were you. As the economy worsens with more job layoffs and more evictions from people's homes due to the lack of funding needed to pay their monthly bills, you too could end up having to live in a trailer home if you even have enough money left to buy anything that is.
The banksters are sitting on one million empty houses that have been foreclosed on. There are more empty HOUSES in the US than homeless people. This is while the banks get TRILLIONS of dollars of free money from the Federal Reserve and US taxpayers.
Climate Change mitigation will demand that this kind of routine grift from the government stop completely and we commit to restructuring our economy.
We do it early and grumble or we do it late and suffer greatly. One way or the other we will adapt to Climate Change. How many of us survive the process is dependent upon how soon we start.
I would like more publicity for the huge carbon footprint of war.
-------- Transport and Missions ---------
------------- Production of Arms --------
-------------Maintenace and Supplies -----------
---------Explosions and fires ---------
--------- Deaths and Life long medical for 100's of thousands disabled.
------------ Rebuilding ------------
--------- Violent Reprocussions -------------
Good list. Ending militarism and perpetual war is the key to saving the environment and ending poverty.
Joe
No to CO2lonialism
http://earthpeoples.org/blog/?page_id=296
Glenn, You are on the right track. This is the connection that needs to be made.