The climate alarm is sounding more loudly than ever in these early days of 2013. Climate change, we are finding out, isn’t something that only our children and grandchildren and the global poor will wrestle with. We are staring it in the face right now where ever we live on this planet. Here in North America. Hurricane Sandy and the prolonged drought in the U.S. Midwest are a few of the close-to-home wake-up calls. We, and our children and grandchildren, are on a collision course with climate disaster. A new report, The National Climate Assessment, prepared for the U.S. Congress on the effect of climate change on that nation spells this out very clearly, as reported in the New York Times this week:
“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the draft document says. “Americans are noticing changes all around them.
“Summers are longer and hotter, and periods of extreme heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced. Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours, though in many regions there are longer dry spells in between.”
The report cites stronger scientific evidence—developed since the last report of this type was published in 2009—that human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are the primary cause of these changes. It warns that if humanity fails to get a handle on emissions, the changes are likely to accelerate. And it cites numerous ways, from health problems to wildfires to extreme weather events, that climate change threatens human welfare – not in some distant land in some far-off time, but here in the United States, and soon. Click here to read the full article.
And yet Republicans resist the science. Texas Republican Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee (!) had this to say last Friday:
I believe climate change is due to a combination of factors, including natural cycles, sun spots, and human activity. But scientists still don’t know for certain how much each of these factors contributes to the overall climate change that the Earth is experiencing.”
David Horsey tackled this reluctance to face reality brilliantly in the LA Times yesterday, Neo-Confederates in Congress Resist a Rapidly Changing World:
Today, there are quite a few very vocal neo-Confederates who think gun rights, states rights, the protection of white American culture and elimination of “excessive” taxation on the rich are the nation’s preeminent concerns. Their anti-bellum mindset makes it impossible for them to accept scientific reality — climate change, evolution, the true age of the planet — and political reality — America is becoming a more diverse, tolerant nation that does not share their fear-driven philosophy.
Horsey ends with a ray of hope:
Change is constant but our political system always lags behind until the force of change is too great to resist. The fact that those who are now clinging to the past have become so rigid, desperate and shrill is a strong indication that a big leap is drawing close. We have not found our Abe or Teddy or FDR or LBJ, as yet. Barack Obama is more a manifestation of a changing America than he is the agent of a revolutionary shift. But when the shift comes, leaders will rise to the moment and history will call them great.
That is a hopeful thought at a dismal moment in our democracy.
At this crucial moment in history, those of us who recognize it’s time that we ensure that there’s enough for everyone’s need, not everyone’s greed, need to heed the call to be Idle No More. The drumbeat of Mother Earth is calling us to action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=butVxhDmUdg]
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More links:
Major Report Warns Climate Change Could Raise Temperature By 10 Degrees
Neo-Confederates In Congress Resist a Rapidly Changing World
Brilliant synopsis, Christine. Thank you for putting together such a useful collection of links.
Thanks Martin. The reports are getting more and more dire, but the drumbeats are getting louder.
Let’s hope the drums will soon be heard over the accompaniment to the game of musical chairs going on on the deck of the Titanic
http://lackofenvironment.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/deckchair-fight-on-sinking-titanic/
Too much talk – it’s action that is needed.
The only option is to STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS NOW – shock horror ! BUT HOW ?
Legislate against them – penalize their use – incentivize the saving of energy and the harvesting of alternative energy – do this on the scale necessary to achieve emissions reductions to meet the already agreed target of 80% by 2050.
That will change the accounting in favour of action rather then rhetoric. – it will make fossil fuels too expensive to burn and the free ambient energy available to everyone – and in the process achieve permanent reduction in global warming emissions from burning fossil fuels.
At the same time we must find ways to sequester emissions from other sources – animals and tundra methane.
If this sound expensive for treasurers, then oblige them to provide unlimited insurance for the destruction of the environment and property that will be caused by inaction.
The cost of failure will be physical, social and economic chaos – every non zero carbon edifice is a tombstone – every tonne of carbon a signature of human failure.
I agree with everything you say, Keith.
Have you considered joining Citizens Climate Lobby? For action-oriented people who understand the importance of putting a price on carbon, this is a great group to connect with. There’s a intro phone call every Wednesday at 8 pm EST. Go to http://citizensclimatelobby.org/ and scroll down a bit to “Introductory Call” for more info, or email me directly.
Hi Christine, I am based on the UK whilst the Climate Change Lobby appears to be confined to USA and Canada, but yes I am seeking find fellow activists, though by action I mean actually doing physical action creating the sustainable future anywhere on the planet. In my case affordable sustainable housing – to upgrade or replace the tombstones of fossil fuels dependent ones. I am designing ‘spaceships on earth’ to be mass produced in their millions – that is the rate at which change has to be achieved.
I know how to do it – now I seek to bring together those who have the ways, the means and the will to take the leap into the future to make it happen. That is what I mean by action. No more campaigning – just raw mass production of a sustainable future – anywhere and everywhere in the world.
Fossil fuels are too precious to burn, excepting in the forging of the future through production. Free ambient energy is everywhere – to be captured, bottled and recycled – that is where the path to sustainable development lies. Lets DO IT !
Good luck Keith – at this moment in time those of us who are aware of what’s ahead if we continue down the unsustainable path we’re on, need to do what makes our hearts sing. Otherwise, it’s too easy to get discouraged (and feel like Sisyphus pushing that rock uphill!).
That’s what I’m doing this afternoon – gonna get out and be #IdleNoMore!