Instead of bogging down Durban last week in a bureaucratic roundabout of denial and delay, negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Conference should have jumped a cargo plane to the Inupiat village of Kivalina, on the far reaches of Alaska.
Thankfully for us, and the world, science author Christine Shearer made such a journey in 2008, and her extraordinary chronicle of a native Alaskan village's demise and inevitable relocation due to climate changes, a breakthrough lawsuit for accountability, and the harrowing legacy of misinformation and deceit by multinational corporations, ranks as one of the most timely and important books to be published in 2011 -- and in the past decade.
Written with the verve of an investigative journalist and the insight of a scholar, Kivalina: A Climate Story should be required reading for all power brokers in the climate change debate -- in particular, President Obama and his special envoy for climate change Todd Stern, and the dawdling U.S. Congress and its embarrassing numbers of climate change deniers.
But Shearer's book also presents an important cautionary tale and wake up call for all Americans: "Although climate change is often discussed as an environmental problem, its root causes are social." And its consequences, as Shearer expertly unfolds through the lives of the Inupiat villagers and their advocates, are not simply accidental or part of an uncertain forecast, but a present-day calamity and humanitarian crisis that foreshadows our future.
There might not be a better strip of land to demonstrate the reality of climate destabilization than the barrier reef of Kivalina, between the Chukchi Sea and the Kivalina and Wulik Rivers, where receding sea ice formation has led to erosion and flooding, and literally placed more than 400 indigenous villagers on the edge of survival:
Shearer sets the scene:
Standing on the tiny island, only a few feet above sea level, we were completely surrounded by water. Janet walked me toward the Chukchi Sea. The western side of the island was a mess of bulldoxers, trucks and construction workers, working tirelessly to expand the shoreline, which was steadily eroding. The southern end was being armored with a seawall made of large rocks, and sandbags were spread about ground.
Providing a historical background and investigation of changing climatic conditions, the rise and role of fossil fuel industries and increasingly misleading corporate campaigns of denial, Shearer places the Kivalina village on the frontlines of both the global warming crisis and the grassroots efforts to halt our world's destabilizing slide into a point of no return.
In 2008, she writes, the tiny Kivalina village made a dramatic move:
"... and filed suit against twenty-four fossil fuel companies for contributing to the village's erosion through large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, and for creating a false debate around climate change. The lawsuit was filed in conjunction with environmental justice and indigenous rights organizations as one of several steps in a broader push for climate justice, aiming to help Kivalina residents draw attention to their situation and call for action from government and corporate officials that had so far largely ignored them."
Drawing on interviews with Kivalina residents, lawyers and government personnel, and an analysis of legal and government documents, Shearer provides a groundbreaking and riveting read on the dangerous role of corporate power and politics in one of the most important issues of our times.
Two weeks ago, the Kivalina residents and their attorneys brought their case before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
"Defendant companies argue that climate change is not a matter for the courts -- the problem is too big, and we are all responsible," Shearer noted in an article for The Conducive Chronicle. " Yet we have not all embarked on multi-million dollar campaigns to fund our own research and prevent change. It is these secondary claims that could be the crux of establishing whether fossil fuel companies will eventually bear liability for harm from greenhouse gas emissions."
No matter who bears the responsibilities, the Kivalina residents and their devastated homeland are a reminder of who is paying the price for the denial of our own future.
Jon Rosales: Alaska's New Climate: Act Now, or Await Disaster
Christine Shearer: My Journey Into Kivalina v. ExxonMobil et al.
Climate Change in Kivalina, Alaska
Kivalina, Alaska Weather and Climate Information at Fizber.com
Nonfiction Review: Kivalina: A Climate Change Story by Christine ...
From Amazon….
"Blooming brilliant. Devastating" - Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist
"...shines a hard light on the rotten heart of the IPCC" - Richard Tol, Professor of the Economics of Climate Change and convening lead author of the IPCC
"...you need to read this book. Its implications are far-reaching and the need to begin acting on them is urgent." - Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics, University of Guelph
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) performs one of the most important jobs in the world. It surveys climate science research and writes a report about what it all means. This report is informally known as the Climate Bible.
Cited by governments around the world, the Climate Bible is the reason carbon taxes are being introduced, heating bills are rising, and costly new regulations are being enacted. It is why everyone thinks carbon dioxide emissions are dangerous. Put simply: the entire planet is in a tizzy because of a United Nations report.
This expose, is the product of two years of research. Its conclusion: almost nothing we've been told about the IPCC is true."
http://www.amazon.com/Delinquent-Teenager-Mistaken-Climate-ebook/dp/B005UEVB8Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1318551567&sr=8-4
The IPCC report on the climate remains an excellent summary of recent science. It is consulted by policymakers and referred to by scientists. No wonder that the fossil fuel interests and their followers are continually bashing it. Orkney here, as a fossil fuel apologist, has zero science with which to refute climatology, so insted she must resort to cutting and pasting from a hit piece.
Clear and intentional disrespect of Huffington Post and its readership is shown here. Orkney continually gets these posts deleted yet pops up nearby with more spam. To Orkney, Huffpost is an audience which must be manipulated over to the fossil fuel side.
The claim came in a HarperCollins press release on the publication of the 13th edition of the atlas, stating that global warming was "turning Greenland 'green.'" The gradual melting was also depicted in the atlas itself, as cartographers carved out huge chunks of ice to reflect the apparent results of a warming planet.
That was a mistake, scientists say.- fox news