Pakistan and the Politics of Weather
Pakistan and other under-aided countries under the stress of environmental calamities can breed widespread problems that are also expensive and threatening to the international community. The alternative to humanitarian aid is closed borders and rising military spending, strategies that make the world less safe, less wealthy and less humane.
Dramatic Depletion of World Food Production Linked to Wildfires
World climate events these past days have been so extreme and have caused so much destruction and loss of life, you might think you’re sitting through a bad disaster movie. But as tragic as the terrible flooding in Pakistan, China and Eastern Europe has been, the heat and wildfires in Russia will have a very serious long-term effect, that of drastically increasing atmospheric CO2 and Methane concentrations and thereby increasing the risk of drought and wildfires in many parts of the world.
Another long-term effect will be that of severely depleting world grain supply, already at a low level. Gwynne Dyer explains the implications of this in his disturbing article for Straight.com, “Gwynne Dyer: Russian response to wildfires gives an early glimpse of climate change impact.”
Dark Commentary by Gwynne Dyer on Failure of US to Act on Climate Change Legislation
On the most optimistic timetable, there might be US climate legislation in 2013, and a global climate deal in 2014, and we really start reducing emissions by 2015. By then, we would need to be cutting emissions by 5 or 6 percent a year, instead of growing them at 3 percent a year, if we still want to come in under +2 degrees C.
Future High Temperature Rise Could Cause Up to 6.7 Million Mexicans To Migrate
Note from Dorothy: Many have long been aware of what the heating of our planet will mean for Mexico as it gets hotter and dryer. The study below, however, shows the direct linkages between crop failure and degrees Celsius of warming. The people of Mexico, who have done the least to cause dangerous climate change, [...]
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.”
Changing Our Moral Consciousness, One Heron at a Time
Robert Kennedy, Jr. files lawsuit against BP. “The leak had been misreported in the media days ago when it was thought that only 5,000 gallons were spilled per day which was again incorrectly report as it turns out the oil is more than 200,000 gallons per day and it is being blown t the south coast shore of the USA.
The suit represents the fishing industry and the first suit was filed by 2 commercial shrimpers from Louisiana which research and experts have said the wetlands will never be rid of the oil – ever. This means the wetlands will be poisoned with oil that cannot be removed at any cost but the clean up alone after the oil is stopped will be into the billions and billions of dollars.”
Warnings of the Approach of Peak Oil and Its Effect on World Food Supply
There’s been a lot of stale argument recently about oil – is it running out? Are we approaching/at/passed Peak Oil (the point when global oil production goes into irrevocable decline)? Business, unsurprisingly, isn’t waiting for the answer; it’s working out what will happen next.
Take the recent report from Deutsche Bank, entitled ‘The Peak Oil Market: Price Dynamics at the End of the Oil Age’. This describes a world where the effect of failing global reserves is compounded by incoherent politics. If the US Government was honest about the cost of oil, for example, it would slap another 50c on a gallon of gasoline to pay the cost of the war in Iraq. Ludicrously, as global oil supplies dwindle, the increasingly precious part that remains is concentrated in the hands of those who give it away to their citizens for almost nothing – Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq.
Governments should be planning how best to manage the limited supply of oil sensibly, for the long-term, the bankers write:
‘We believe, based on the history of the past decades, years, and months, that they will do the exact opposite.’
Pentagon Will Factor Global Warming into Long Term Strategic Planning
he Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilizing force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The Quadrennial Defense Review, prepared by the Pentagon to update Congress on its security vision, will direct military planners to keep track of the latest climate science, and to factor global warming into their long term strategic planning.
“While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world,” said a draft of the review seen by the Guardian.
Relevant today, James Howard Kuntsler’s 2006 Public Testimony at the Vancouver Planning Commission
The Kuntsler session was an eye opener for many at the time and is
still worth watching just to get a feel of what impacts are now
affecting all we take for granted in our current lifestyle and
economic predicament. We cannot continue in our current mode of
linear planning.
