Dear Friend,
Coastal flooding that used to happen once a decade becomes an annual event, or when unprecedented events occur. Venice is a current example. In a rare historic flood its iconic St. Mark’s Square is hip-deep in water. The church itself and its priceless frescoes could be in danger if the water rises further.
Thousands of students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India, who were marching to parliament to protest the massive hike in hostel fees were detained and baton-charged, leaving some of them grievously injured yesterday. The students continued their march but were stopped at many places. The protesters said they would not relent until the government withdrew the fee hike. Officer-bearers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) were detained and taken to an undisclosed location.
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Venice Is Flooded—A Look at Our Coastal Future
Co-Written by Arshad M. Khan and Meena Miriam Yust
Coastal flooding that used to happen once a decade becomes an annual event, or when unprecedented events occur. Venice is a current example. In a rare historic flood its iconic St. Mark’s Square is hip-deep in water. The church itself and its priceless frescoes could be in danger if the water rises further.
Co-Written by Arshad M. Khan and Meena Miriam Yust
If humans have been lucky, basking in the comforting warmth of an inter-glacial period for the last 10,000 years, that luck may be about to turn. Rest assured we are not entering a glacial period. No, our quest for greater comfort has us pumping fossil fuel residues in the air—particularly CO2—warming the earth beyond its natural trajectory. One consequence is melting Arctic (especially Greenland) ice and coastal flooding.
Problematic as that might be, new research holds worse in store… much worse, for the Antarctic has not been a passive bystander. It melted when the north was taking a rest allowing no let up.
The previous glacial age lasted from 125,000 to 118,000 years ago. A paper published November 6, 2019 in Nature Communications (Vol. 10, Article # 5040) has found the Greenland ice sheet melt insufficient to explain the highs of the rise then. In fact, it was the Antarctic ice sheet, previously thought to be inconsequential, that was key. It turns out the Southern Ocean warmed first at the start of the inter-glacial, leading to a change in the circulation pattern of the oceans and to a warming of the northern polar areas to start the ice melt in Greenland.
Temperatures then were up to 1°C higher than now but the same has been estimated for us in the future. However, this time climate changes on earth have been accelerated by greenhouse gas emissions over the industrial period, resulting in more extreme climate changes than in the last inter-glacial.
The research has also revealed that ice melt caused a 10 meter sea level rise above the present level at a rate of 3 meters (about 10 feet) per century, a rate that is 10 times higher than the rise observed in the last 150 years. If 10 ft. per century has a remote feel, try a foot every 10 years!
This is far greater than current projections of sea level rise that anticipate an increase at the most to about 3 feet above 2000 levels by 2100. The predictions, however, do not account for an important natural outcome of ice sheet melt, that of ice cliff instability. The ice cliffs form as the warm water melts their ice under the water, eating away until the cliff shears off and collapses into the sea.
The collapse is a sudden and unpredictable addition to the gradual melt in the ocean. It also means that polar ice sheet melt can affect sea levels far more intensely than has been projected so far, and it could account at least in part for the much higher rise found by the researchers in the prior inter-glacial. Are we in for a surprise!
If incoming solar radiation was greater in the last inter-glacial because of the earth’s position relative to the sun, the CO2 levels were lower, at 280 parts per million as opposed to 410 plus today. Worse, in the former inter-glacial the two polar areas did not warm up simultaneously. Today’s intensive climate change is propelled by greenhouse gases, and the warming is bipolar with the ice melting in both polar regions at the same time.
Another paper also published in Nature Communications a week earlier (Vol. 10, Article # 4844 October 29, 2019) examines global vulnerability to coastal flooding from rising sea levels given new metrics for measuring land elevation. The model currently in use for this measurement, developed by NASA, has a 2 meter vertical bias. Using a new Coastal DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and a mean estimate of sea level rise this century, the authors estimate 190 million people live below projected high tide lines at present. This rises to 630 million by century’s end in the extreme case of high emissions. Increase the sea level rise to 3 meters (10 feet) projected in the other paper above and a billion people could be in jeopardy.
What can one expect? Well, the first signs of trouble will be when coastal flooding that used to happen once a decade becomes an annual event, or when unprecedented events occur. Venice is a current example. In a rare historic flood its iconic St. Mark’s Square is hip-deep in water. The church itself and its priceless frescoes could be in danger if the water rises further.
The increased coastal flooding will be gradual of course. Our children, their children, and so on down the line will be the real innocent victims of our legacy/profligacy.
Note: This article appeared originally on CommonDreams.org
Dr Arshad M Khan (http://ofthisandthat.org/index.html) is a former Professor based in the U.S. whose comments over several decades have appeared in a wide-ranging array of print and internet media. His work has been quoted in the U.S. Congress and published in the Congressional Record.
Meena Miriam Yust is an attorney based in Chicago, Illinois. Educated at Vassar College and Case Western Reserve University School of Law, she published a draft Migratory Insect Treaty with commentary in the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law.
Thinking Outside the Grid
by Steven Gorelick
Systemic change is on no one’s list of “simple
things”: it will require hard work, creativity, and a willingness to stand up to powerful interests. The alternative is to assume that the best we can do is inflate our tires properly and screw in a new light bulb, while allowing the corporate world to continue its quest for limitless power and endless growth, all while destroying the only planet we have.
How citizens can become agents of environmental change? Scientists’ suggestion
by Countercurrents Collective
Science and policy are not enough to solve complex environmental challenges that range from species extinction to water pollution. But actively engaged citizens could tip the balance, according to a new Stanford-led study that provides a blueprint for empowering people to turn the tide of environmental destruction.
Stephen Miller Is a NAZI, Not a So-Called “White Nationalist”
by Revolution Newspaper
The Fact That Millions Are Not in the Streets and Demanding His Ouster Shows How Late Is the Hour
The Fact That Millions Are Not in the Streets and Demanding His Ouster Shows How Late Is the Hour
This week a former associate of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller revealed more than 900 racist emails written by Miller, the mastermind of the Trump immigration policy. In these emails, Miller complains bitterly about Confederate flags being taken down after a white supremacist murdered nine parishioners in a Black church. He promotes an article demanding that the government stop counting Latinos as victims of hate crimes and start counting them as perpetrators. He recommends articles from one website that argues that there are inferior races whose growth needs to be suppressed, and another that claims the “white race” is the victim of a “genocide” perpetrated by people of color and supposedly masterminded by Jews.
This pig promotes The Camp of the Saints—a 1973 novel that depicts Europe and the U.S. being literally overrun by vast hordes of sub-human immigrants, looting and raping as they go, who ultimately extinguish the white “race” and its “glorious” civilization. As we go to press, there has been little outcry, and the Trump regime is not only defending him, they are accusing those who even raise this as an issue of anti-Semitism, because Miller is Jewish.
First of all, whatever his religious beliefs, Miller is a NAZI. Those criticizing him merely for being a “white nationalist” are papering over the reality of his actual program, which at minimum is “ethnic cleansing” of non-European immigrants and has already sunk to the depths of over 80,000 immigrants being held in sub-human, concentration camp-like conditions (including tearing tens of thousands of children away from their families). People have to quit using this sanitized and made-up term, “white nationalist,” to describe bloodthirsty genociders.
Second, the fact that these emails have now come to light is not some kind of sudden revelation. They are totally consistent with Miller’s entire career. Yet years after these policies were put in place, and now days after this openly NAZI shit surfaces, this pig continues to go about his job. The fact that this undeniable evidence could come to light and yet days later there is no massive outpouring demanding that he be gone only shows how much people have allowed themselves to become used to… how complicit they have become.
Third, while a few politicians tweeted statements of outrage (oh, how daring!), and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez initiated a pitiful petition calling for Miller’s resignation, nobody has done anything of actual substance to get this NAZI removed. And as of November 17, only about 80 out of 235 Democrats in the House of Representatives had even signed Ocasio-Cortez’s token-effort petition, and it has not been signed by leadership figures like Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, Hakim Jeffries, and Jerry Nadler.
The leadership of the Democratic Party is all too willing to let this blow over. They do not want to talk about immigration because they, too, represent the same system of capitalism-imperialism as Miller, but with a more refined program. Think about it: Obama was in fact the “Deporter-in-Chief,” and still holds the record for deportations; Bill Clinton initiated the militarization of the southern border, causing thousands of deaths as immigrants were forced further and further into the desert in their flight to hoped-for safety; and Nancy Pelosi led the party to vote funding for Trump’s border wall and his concentration camps.
Even the self-styled socialist Bernie “BS” Sanders said last year:
“[I]f your point is you open the borders, my God, you know, there’s a lot of poverty in this world, and you’re gonna have people from all over the world. And I don’t think that’s something we can do at this point. We can’t do it.”
And more recently, Sanders said:
“We need border security, of course we do. Who argues with that? That goes without saying. I happen to believe that there are more cost-effective ways to do that than simply building a wall.”
These Democrats do nothing but go through the motions and make bullshit promises because they have no answers and cannot have answers. Why? Because their system, the one they defend and run for office to “serve and protect” (and yes, someone like the phony “socialist” BS would also have to serve and protect if somehow he were allowed to assume office), has no answers—other than constructing a more sanitized version of the “gated community” against the hundreds of millions this system has plundered who now seek refuge. They make noises about opposing Trump, and some of them even promise to abolish ICE—and make no mistake, these fascist policies of Trump take what was already intolerable and excruciating about this situation to a much more terrible level—but again, they have no answers.
And by the way, the reason they won’t call pigs like Miller (and Trump, for that matter) what they really are—NAZIs—is because if you reckon with that reality, then it is clear that one day of NAZI power is extremely dangerous and utterly intolerable and must be opposed with all-out measures, including massive nonviolent but utterly determined protest of the kind now going on in many other countries whose rulers are far less dangerous than the demented fascist with his finger on the nuclear button and his cabal of Christian end-times lunatic theocrats like Pence and racist hitmen like Miller. So they call him a “white nationalist,” put out a press release, and move the agenda to the next candidates’ debate.
The fact that this is all that has happened shows the lateness of the hour, the seriousness of the situation, and the urgent need for people to get off their couch and into the streets.
Revolution newspaper/revcom.us, the voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, provides the foundation, guideline, and organizational scaffolding for the whole process of carrying out its strategy for revolution. Through publishing works of Bob Avakian, and through many different articles, interviews, letters, graphics, and other features, Revolution enables people to really understand, and act to radically change, the world.
Originally published at revcom.us
Ram Janmabhoomi on the moon
by Siddhartha Mitra
A satirical take on Ram Janmabhoomi verdict
The era emerged from “Ruwan Weli Saya”: Aftermath of Presidential Election in Sri Lanka
Co-Written by Punsara Amarasinghe and Eshan Jayawardane
In analyzing the election results, it is evident that Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory in Sri Lankan presidential elections was mainly attributed to the votes of Sinhalese Buddhists and this simply reminds of the victory of Modi in India from Hindu majority votes and Orban’s victory in Hungary from the votes of the Catholic Magyars.
Funeral in Kashmir
by
Nayeema Ahmad Mahjoor
Kill me here,
I wish for dignified funeral,
Then die,
They fire,
Enjoy big funeral.
Police Brutally Attack JNU Students
by Countercurrents Collective
Thousands of students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India, who were marching to parliament to protest the massive hike in hostel fees were detained and baton-charged, leaving some of them grievously injured yesterday. The students continued their march but were stopped at many places. The protesters said they would not relent until the government withdrew the fee hike. Officer-bearers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) were detained and taken to an undisclosed location.
J. N. U.
by Sutputra Radheye
A poem on JNU
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