Bill McKibben: We’re Hot as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take It Any More
By Bill McKibben
Cross-posted from CommonDreams.org:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/04-1
Published on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 by TomDispatch.com
Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming
Try to fit these facts together:
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months, and the warmest [...]
Dr. James Hansen’s Report from Norway, of Interest to Canadians
Dr. James Hansen’s experience in Norway, including a letter to the Prime Minister and the government response, have been posted to Dr. Hansen’s website. He condemns the Norwegian government for supporting Statoil’s development of the Canadian Tar Sands.
Burning Our Forests For Fuel Will Doom Our Planet
Bioenergy is an urgent problem that requires a real and immediate reduction of CO2 emissions. Burning wood to replace fossil fuels will increase CO2 output for several decades. And there is no assurance that energy from wood-fueled power would replace energy from gas-fired plants; it may just all be additional to the CO2 loading.
Gwynne Dyer Speaks About Climate Wars on Democracy Now
A new book by geopolitical analyst and columnist Gwynne Dyer imagines what the politics and demographics of the world might look like if temperatures continue to rise. Dyer writes ‘In this world our worries are not just hotter summers, bigger hurricanes, rising sea levels, and polar bears swimming for their lives. We’re trying to avoid megadeaths from mass starvation and quite possibly from nuclear wars and the odds aren’t good,” he writes.The June 1, 2010 edition of his book is called “Climate Wars: The Fight for Survival as the World Overheats.”
Long Term Effects of Global Warming Will Be Far Worse than Gulf of Mexico Catastrophe
Although the BP oil spill seriously threatens those who live along the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. intransigence on climate change threatens the entire world; a fact that is causing rising anger around the world. Yet the U.S. Congress continues to resist action on climate change on the basis that it will harm some U.S. economic interests, while ignoring our duties, responsibilities, and obligations to others to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to the U.S. fair share of safe global releases. For this reason, while the BP oil spill can be rightfully be understood as a disaster, U.S. Congressional inaction on climate change must be understood as a huge moral failure leading to an even greater disaster.
Oil Drilling Disaster Potential For Canada, Nigeria, Brazil and China
Four Possible BP-Style Extreme Energy Nightmares to Come
The disaster in the Gulf is no anomaly. It’s an arrow pointing toward future disasters.
By Michael T. Klare, Tomdispatch.com
June 22, 2010
Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, TomDispatch.com regular, and the author, most recently, of Rising Powers, Shrinking [...]
Methane in Some Areas of Gulf of Mexico Now 1 Million Times Normal Level
As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create a dead zone, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday
People in Rural Communities of Nigeria, Which Supplies 40% of US Crude, Now Only Live to 40 Years
With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.
Opinion: We Must Not Allow Oil Drilling in the Canadian Arctic
There is extreme danger in exploring for oil in the Canadian Arctic. Even with same-season relief well equipment at the ready, there’s no guarantee winds wouldn’t shift the ice during the short Arctic summer and make efforts to repair a well blowout impossible.
Not only would an oil spill in this region be catastrophic, but the response of some concerned with preventing this, as you’ll see below, falls short of what many of us believe is truly needed:
A moratorium on all offshore oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic, by all circumpolar nations, including Canada, pending the negotiation of an international treaty to protect its resources, its people and its environment.
Video: UBC Professor William Rees on Humanity’s Need to Reduce Consumption
An eight part video of Dr. William Rees, professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning, talking of humanity’s survival depending on an 80% reduction in energy use.
