Why is the U.S. Trying to Block Climate Progress in Durban?
Reprinted from Yes! Magazine (December 8, 2011)
World leaders are stalling on climate action at the 2011 Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa. What needs to happen to get things moving and make a change before it’s too late?
By Jamie Henn
The U.N. climate talks desperately need a crisis. For the last 10 days, negotiations here in [...]
Citizen-Consciousness vs. Consumer-Consciousness: A Paradigm Shift
Anna Haynes (of NCFocus) put me on to this problem, the problem of how most of us substitute individual consumer choice for collective citizen action, then imagine that we’ve done all we can do to address the great environmental issues of our day.
Anna referred me to this excellent essay by Sharon Begley.
“On the 40th Anniversary [...]
James Hansen: “The White House & Tar Sands”
Reposted from ClimateStoryTellers.org.
By James Hansen
Tar Sands Action organized a civil disobedience sit–in at The White House to oppose construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that began on August 20 and will culminate in a big rally on September 3rd. On August 29 I joined 60 religious leaders and other fellow protestors. I was [...]
Bill McKibben Talks About What’s Next in Climate Action
I received this newsletter today from Bill McKibben at 350.org:
Dear Friends—
I’m writing this from the lawn in front of the White House.
In front of me there’s a sprawling rally underway, with speakers ranging from indigenous elders to the great Canadian writer Naomi Klein. In back of me, another 243 courageous people are being hauled away [...]
Hundreds Arrested in D.C., Including Dr. James Hansen, Protesting Tar Sands Pipeline
Protesters are demanding that President Obama decline to issue a permit for the proposed Keystone XL Tar Sands pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Last week Hillary Clinton’s State Department released a report supporting the pipeline, asserting that it will “present no significant environmental problems.” This report could give President Obama “cover” for permitting [...]
Irene, How Bad in NY? Nathan’s in Coney Island Closes!
When I heard that Nathan’s in Coney Island has closed, in preparation for Hurricane Irene, it reminded me of an old quip by Mort Sahl about a science fiction movie called (something like) “The Night That Cantor’s Closed.”
Of course, a heavy hurricane in New York — although extremely rare — is not science fiction, and [...]
Climate Change: It May Be Worse Than We Thought
Kevin Drum, a blogger at Mother Jones, visits his friend, Jeff Park, a geology professor at Yale, and learns about some new work with climate models that suggest it may be worse than we thought, much worse:
The model originally concluded that a doubling of CO2 produces a temperature increase just under three degrees Celsius, [...]
Don’t Think About Climate Change
Here San Francisco filmmaker Stephen Thomson uses the bitterly sarcastic words of Bill McKibben in his recent op-ed in the Washington Post, to show the connection between this year’s extreme weather events and human-caused climate change.
His words are a scathing indictment of climate-change deniers.
Naomi Klein: Climate Change “the Biggest Crisis of All”
Editor’s Note: It’s interesting to watch the evolution in the thinking of Naomi Klein, whose book, the “The Shock Doctrine,” described what she called “Disaster Capitalism,” a system in which “no good crisis ever goes to waste.” Now she is focused on what she calls the “biggest crisis of all,” global climate change. She’s afraid [...]
Today is Earth Day: But Why Isn’t Every Day Earth Day?
The first ever Earth Day in 1970, founded by Wisconsin Senator and dedicated environmentalist Gaylord Nelson (thanks again Wisconsin!), occurred at a time in our history when we were engulfed in the hot issues of war and race and poverty, and some political leaders, like Senator Jacob Javits of New York, warned against letting a [...]
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