It's turning into a hot climate summer in two ways, only one of which you can measure with a thermometer.
Amidst the deepening drought, the summer's fourth heat wave, and the continued western fires, there's something else breaking out: a siege of citizen uprisings at key points around the country all designed to keep coal in the hole, oil in the soil, gas... underground.
Ever since the mass arrests protesting the Keystone pipeline last summer (the largest civil disobedience action in the U.S. in 30 years) there's been renewed interest in confronting the fossil fuel industry and its political enablers. Some have been following this path for years, of course -- late next week, beginning July 25, opponents of mountain-top removal coal-mining will resume their long-standing (and increasingly successful fight), with a week-long Mountain Mobilization that will likely include civil disobedience.
A few days later, activists from around the country will descend on D.C. for a rally against fracking -- perhaps the fastest-growing wing of the environmental movement. That gathering won't lead to arrests -- but others will.
Earlier this week, for instance, Ohio protesters chained themselves to the gates outside a so-called injection well, not far from where earlier this year disposal of fracking water had helped trigger a swarm of earthquakes. And just yesterday Josh Fox and Mark Ruffalo announced plans for an August 25 gathering designed to keep fracking at bay in New York State.
From August 10-20, Montana protesters will hold a multi-day sit-in designed to stop opening up of massive new coal mines -- and across the Pacific Northwest others are joining in to fight the proposed ports that would send that coal to Asia for burning.
And just so oil doesn't feel left out of the party, Texans in August and September are planning civil disobedience to block the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, the part that's been given a green light by the Obama administration.
Taken one by one, these might seem like mosquito bites against the tough hide of the planet's richest and most politically connected industry. But taken together, they show an ever-savvier movement that's figuring out the choke points that make fossil fuel corporations vulnerable. If you can't pipe tar sands oil to the ocean, there's no reason to mine it in the first place; if you've got no port for your coal, you might as well leave it in the ground.
And here's the thing -- each of these actions is magnified by the temperature, multiplied by the humidity, underscored by the smoke in the sky. "Long hot summer" has two meanings now, and they amplify each other.
Follow Bill McKibben on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmckibben
John W. Boyd Jr.: Worst Drought Since the Dust Bowl
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Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide as well as methane, nitrous oxide and other gases. They are emitted from fossil fuel combustion and a range of industrial and agricultural processes.
The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.
http://www.aps.org/policy/statements/07_1.cfm
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The Earth's climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system—including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons—are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century…
In the next 50 years, even the lower limit of impending climate change—an additional global mean warming of 1°C above the last decade—is far beyond the range of climate variability experienced during the past thousand years and poses global problems in planning for and adapting to it. Warming greater than 2°C above 19th century levels is projected to be disruptive, reducing global agricultural productivity, causing widespread loss of biodiversity, and—if sustained over centuries—melting much of the Greenland ice sheet with ensuing rise in sea level of several meters. If this 2°C warming is to be avoided, then our net annual emissions of CO2 must be reduced by more than 50 percent within this century.
http://www.agu.org/sci_pol/positions/climate_change2008.shtml
Publishing in the scientific journal “the Rolling Stone” pretty much sums up his academic and scientific qualifications.
He never claimed to be a scientist -- he's a journalist with a long and distinguished track record.
And he accurately reports what the scientific community is telling him.
Thank you.
Your generous gift will help Greenpeace protect our oceans and defend the whales, work to stop global warming and safeguard our forests and ensure a healthy and peaceful planet where ours and future generations can enjoy clean air and water.
Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice - it needs solutions, it needs change, and it needs action. You stand with nearly 3 million supporters worldwide, dedicated to giving our planet that voice. Thanks to the support of people like you, we continue to win major victories on behalf of the planet.
Thank you again for standing with us.
For a green and peaceful future,
We are past the tipping point; and the extremes are yet to come; this is just the beginning of what will become a living nightmare. The warning was given and ignored. I am sad indeed for those children that will suffer; because they had nothing to do with this.
Arrogance by the elite or the ignorance of the many that have followed this path makes no difference in the outcome. The planet will heal itself; how long that takes is the very important question that we may not know the answer to.
The way we have lived is no longer going to be an issue; how we survive and move forward will be.
These are some of his recent profiles, mostly removed now for trolling.
netdr
NGC2623
Hoosier-Daddy25
leesburg-larry
neptune2
Ptolemy101
Texas-Titan
Texas-Husker
ceasar200
Larry Schneiderwind
falconia
zillaii
ptolemyii
Saturn1
platoii
mars222
jupiter5
mercury999
soctates
earth999
saturn999
Plano-Husker
Pluto-
Neptune-
Bills-
skepticalone-
Netdr-
LarrySchmidt
Plato-
Texas--Husker
Titan-
net-dr
Texas--Titan
Hoosier--daddy
Ceaser-
astroturfing
http://www.monbiot.com/2011/02/23/robot-wars/
And being anti-fracking is fairly absurd too (that is if you care about things like US manufacturing and CO2 emissions). It has been going on in earnest for a decade without a single major piece of environmental damage. Now I am all for making sure that we have appropriate regulations in place and that agencies have the teeth to enforce them, but being just plain old anti-fracking is absurd.
The glut of cheap gas is revitalizing the US chemical and manufacturing industries by providing extremely cheap feed stocks like ethylene that are needed for the manufacture of plastics and other petro-chemical products. That has significantly lowered the cost of doing business here for many manufacturers and is causing chemical giants like Dow to bring expand their operations here.
Cheap gas has also lead to a marked shift in US power generation from coal to gas which has lead to the US reducing total carbon emissions by 450 million tons over the past five years. European emissions have continued to grow despite their much "greener" policies.*
* http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3aa19200-a4eb-11e1-b421-00144feabdc0.html#axzz214zafkxE
but the health of the planet, the biosphere come first as without the very things that support life on the earth are being destroyed and it's taking on a life of it's own. the last thing that's going to give me a warm fuzzy is hearing Dow Chemical is expanding anywhere.
you cannot ignore math. math is apolitical. math does not care if you like the answer. we will reach peak oil/peak coal/peak gas, at least in terms of weighing extraction costs against damage to the environment, in the near future. human population is beyond the planets carrying capacity for the lifestyles we wish to retain in america.
a very fascinating and informative lecture, including humor and some very frank observations is one by professor albert bartlett. if you are so moved, i suggest you take a look at what our options are as we move towards peak everything. it's titled 'arithmetic, population and energy' and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_VpyoAXpA8
You have pretty much nailed the real science behind global warming and the enviromental movement -
but the job, the key function of our mainstream media today is to keep us distracted. it is to enable these corporations to sell us things we don't need or even want until they manipulate us into thinking we must have them.
any protest against the status quo is ALWAYS marginalized by the media. the numbers of attendees are under reported. ANY violence, property destruction or any negative actions are what are always focused upon. agent provocateurs abound within these movements to assist in making certain there will be a distraction from the main event. just think back to the RNC convention in Minneapolis in 08: 'pre-emptive arrests' and all those people charged with 'conspiracy to riot'. most charges were dismissed but the point was to grab THAT headline and reduce the effectiveness of the message of the protestors.
as a result, you are correct. we MUST have actions that are bigger, bolder and everywhere.
So dont buy their malarkey.
Dont buy a Hummer.
You still have to live in this society.
Tread as lightly as you can.
Too bad most folks let their house catch fire before they flee the flames.