FOCUS: Bill McKibben | To Stop Global Catastrophe, We Must Believe in Humans Again

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FOCUS: Bill McKibben | To Stop Global Catastrophe, We Must Believe in Humans Again 

Bill McKibben, Guardian UK
McKibben writes: "Because I am concerned about inequality and about the environment, I am usually classed as a progressive, a liberal. But it seems to me that what I care most about is preserving a world that bears some resemblance to the past."
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Bill Moyers

 

Nothing has changed except our knowledge of just how destructive a major offshore oil spill can be, and the visceral memories of watching our lifestyle translate into dead birds and dolphins.

PERSPECTIVES

Five Years After: Deepwater Horizon’s Lessons Go Unlearned

April 21, 2015

by Miyoko Sakashita

 

 

This post first appeared at Common Dreams.

BP Oil Spill in 2010. (Photo: kris krüg/flickr CC 2.0)

Remember that helpless, infuriating feeling watching gallon after gallon of oil spew into the Gulf of Mexico in the spring and summer of 2010?

After Deepwater Horizon – the worst oil spill disaster in US history – came the mantra: Never again.

But now, as we mark the fifth anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster – which killed hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales and other sea life, not to mention claimed the lives of 11 men and fouled hundreds of miles of oceans and beaches – I’m left wondering whether we’ve learned anything at all.

In fact, it seems like quite the opposite: The Obama administration has now launched new offshore oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Rather than heed the warnings of Deepwater Horizon, the administration seems determined to double-down on dangerous offshore drilling.
 

(Photo: Gov. Jindal’s office/ Louisiana GOHSEP/ Flickr CC 2.0)

This reckless pursuit of more fossil fuel comes with major and predictable costs. In the Arctic, an oil spill would be devastating for polar bears, walruses and other wildlife – and impossible to clean up in such harsh conditions. In the Atlantic, even the seismic search for oil will injure or kill 138,000 dolphins and whales, the federal government estimates, including nine endangered North Atlantic right whales.
 

So what did we learn from that nauseating experience of watching the Deepwater Horizon oil flow and flow, more than 200 million gallons of thick, black crude that coated and killed hundreds of dolphins, birds and other wildlife? New studies are showing that the chemical dispersants that were used after the spill are still hurting wildlife in myriad ways that we barely understand.
 

Then maybe we learned better ways to address major oil spills? But we haven’t, because the inescapable reality is that once we spill massive quantities of oil into sensitive ocean habitats, the damage has been done and there’s no going back. Nothing has changed except our knowledge of just how destructive a major offshore oil spill can be, and the visceral memories of watching our lifestyle translate into dead birds and dolphins.
 

Is the lesson, then, that massive oil spills are just the price of living in the modern age? Well, no, because over the past five years we’ve also learned that human-induced climate change is happening faster than we realized and with more dire consequences. The oceans that cover 75 percent of the planet will rise, they will become more acidic and carry less oxygen, and entire life-giving ecological systems will be altered in dangerous and unpredictable ways.
 

So then, I can’t see any lessons that we’ve learned from Deepwater Horizon and our insatiable and reckless pursuit of new oil to burn and cook our planet with, unless it’s this: leave the oil in the ground. That’s where it belongs.
 

The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone, and presented here to offer a variety of perspectives to our readers.
 

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

Miyoko Sakashita is a senior attorney and director of the Oceans Project at the Center for Biological Diversity.

CounterCurrents: Health Of World's Ocean 'Collapsing Before Our Eyes', Bangladesh: 2 Years After Rana Plaza, Workers Denied Rights, Yemen Crisis Is Human Calamity: Hope Sanity Will Prevail

Dear Friend,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents

In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org

Saving Palestine’s Children Under The Arms Trade Treaty
By Vacy Vlazna

http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna240415.htm

Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) released this month a comprehensive and heartbreaking report, OPERATION PROTECTIVE EDGE: A WAR WAGED ON GAZA’S CHILDREN. detailing that places that should have provided children with shelter and safety were not immune from attacks by Israeli forces. Missiles fired from Israeli drones and warplanes, artillery shelling, and shrapnel scattered by explosions killed children in their homes, on the street as they fled from attacks with their families, and as they sought shelter from the bombardment in schools. (DCIP)


Europe’s Feeble Efforts To ‘Punish’ Israel
By Jonathan Cook

http://www.countercurrents.org/cook240415.htm

The question of punishing illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory was considered separately in Europe and Israel last week, with only superficial differences in the conclusions reached. Israel’s near half-century occupation is in no immediate danger, either at home or abroad. Some 16 European foreign ministers sent a letter to the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, calling for the EU to label clearly Israeli settlement products to alert shoppers to their true provenance


Eduardo Galeano Died: Revolution Goes On!
By Andre Vltchek

http://www.countercurrents.org/cook240415.htm

I shared with him my fear that without armed struggle against imperialism, no victory can, most likely, be achieved. He did not say yes or no. He thought for a while, then drilled me with his eyes: “You and I are educated and we know the world. We are in many ways what they call the leaders. And leaders must serve their people. No matter how tough our lives are, we are not victims. Those who are suffering are the robbed, poor, uneducated people. They have to decide whether and when to take up arms and go: they, not we. If and when they decide to fight, we have to obey and lead them. Whether they will fight or not is not up to us to decide.”


Gajendra Singh, Hung By "Democracy"
By Samar

http://www.countercurrents.org/samar240415.htm

The real message from Gajendra Singh’s death, however, is much more sinister. He has shown that the state that has stopped listening to democratic and peaceful voices of dissent has now stopped even bothering itself with their existence. The lives, and even deaths, of the peasantry do not mean a thing to it


Health Of World's Ocean 'Collapsing Before Our Eyes'
By Thalif Deen

http://www.countercurrents.org/deen240415.htm

Collapsing fisheries, mangrove deforestation as well as disappearing corals and seagrass are threatening the marine economic engine that secures lives and livelihoods around the world. The WWF report also warns that the ocean is changing more rapidly than at any other point in millions of years. At the same time, growth in human population and reliance on the sea makes restoring the ocean economy and its core assets a matter of global urgency. The study specifically singles out climate change as a leading cause of the ocean’s failing health


Saudi Warplanes Pound Yemen Despite Talk Of Ending Aggression
By Bill Van Auken

http://www.countercurrents.org/auken240415.htm

Saudi warplanes carried out at least 20 air strikes across Yemen Thursday, just two days after a spokesman for the Saudi Arabian military announced that so-called Operation Decisive Storm, which began March 26, had ended and a new phase, described as “Operation Renewal of Hope,” had begun


Obama Urges Saudi Dictator Abdulaziz To Keep Attacking Yemen
By Robert Barsocchini

http://www.countercurrents.org/barsocchini240415.htm

Obama expressed his desire for Saudi dictator Abdulaziz to continue his illegal assault on Yemen, “pushing for a continuation of the war” and announcing, mafia-like, that “the job is not done”. The dictator has complied, carrying out further attacks on the impoverished and starved country, with a Saudi Prince announcing that he will reward the terrorists physically carrying out the bombings with Bentleys, a brand of ultra-luxury automobile


Yemen Crisis Is Human Calamity: Hope Sanity Will Prevail
By Kashoo Tawseef

http://www.countercurrents.org/tawseef240415.htm

We need to stop being hypocrites and make efforts to wake up the dead souls, and help to shake the conscious souls to raise their true voice about the Yemen situation. How can a Muslim country kill fellow Muslims of other country no matter how much differences they have; how can they provide air space to attack other Muslim country; how can they provide troops to kill fellow Muslims, be that Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and now- Yemen. Last but not least, why to make an "Arab front" to kill fellow Muslims and where was this "Arab Front" when Gaza was being bombarded last year?


Are Leading Economists Corrupt, or Just Mind-Blowingly Ignorant?
By Eric Zuesse

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse240415.htm

Conservative economists favor Republican candidates because it's the way for them to rise in power themselves, but what about ‘progressive' economists: are they psychopaths, too; or do they instead blindly favor ‘Democratic' candidates because of a sincerely oblivious belief that the mere ‘Democratic' Party-label indicates that the given politician is actually progressive?


Postcard From The End Of America: Silicon Valley
By Linh Dinh

http://www.countercurrents.org/dinh240415.htm

In a country where political speeches, elections and even terrorist attacks are but elaborate theatrical productions, California is the longest show running, designed to convince everyone everywhere, and even Californians themselves, that here is the epitome of the American Dream, and that it's surfing along just fine. Just outside the spotlight, however, are all sorts of frightful omens. The next act will be a scream


Indian Muslims : Why Are They Backward?
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan In Discussion With ''India Legal''

http://www.countercurrents.org/khan240415.htm

I have a two-point formula for Muslims. One is, that they must go in, and at the mass level, for education. By ‘education’ I mean secular education. This is really immensely important. Secondly, they must abandon community-based thinking. They must think in terms of the nation, in terms of the good of the nation as a whole, rather than of just themselves and their own narrow interests. So, the simple, two-point formula for the Indian Muslims is: secular education and national thinking. If they don’t follow this formula, they have no future at all


Your India…Our Kashmir
By Rayees Rasool

http://www.countercurrents.org/rasool240415.htm

There are countless movements going on in India. People are resisting for their identities and rights. I know how it feels when the state uses force against you. I am a witness to the pain of torture, fake encounter, and extra judicial killings. I dwell a place where world’s largest democracy has held 12 Million people as hostages on gun point. We witness these things every day. Torture, rapes, killings, disappearances, fake encounters and what not. But, despite being very active over human abuses in the farthest nooks, Indian civil society keeps their status quo over the human rights violations in Kashmir


Bangladesh: 2 Years After Rana Plaza, Workers Denied Rights
By Human Rights Watch

http://www.countercurrents.org/hrw240415.htm

Garment workers in Bangladesh face poor working conditions and anti-union tactics by employers including assaults on union organizers, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. In the two years since more than 1,100 workers died in the catastrophic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory on April 24, 2013, efforts are underway to make Bangladesh factories safer, but the government and Western retailers can and should do more to enforce international labor standards to protect workers’ rights, including their right to form unions and advocate for better conditions

RSN: Ignorance Is Killing Our Earth, Tax Cuts for the Poor and Middle Class - Not the Rich - Create Jobs, Research Shows, Bernie Sanders Forces Delay of TPP Consideration,

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DONOR ON SSI REGRETS SHE CAN'T GIVE MORE: That was one donation we had to give back. The people on SSI are not the people we are reaching out to. It's the people who can afford just $30. We don't need our donors to give more, we need more donors to give. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News

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Robert Parry | We Lucky Molecules

Robert Parry, Consortium News
Parry writes: "In my life's role as a journalist, I have always believed that ignorance presents the greatest danger for humanity touching off such a cosmic catastrophe."
READ MORE

Bernie Sanders Forces Delay of TPP Consideration
Jordain Carney, The Hill
Carney writes: "Sanders objected to a unanimous consent request from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to let the Finance Committee meet, forcing a delay in the consideration of the legislation."
READ MORE

Food Workers, Janitors Walk Out on US Senate
John Verhovek and Dana Bash, CNN
Excerpt: "About 40 contracted workers from the United States Senate walked off their jobs Wednesday morning and joined more than 1,000 labor activists at a rally calling on President Barack Obama and Congress to require federal contractors to pay their workers more."
READ MORE

Holder's DOJ Sided With Police on Every Excessive-Force Case at Supreme Court
Matt Apuzzo and Adam Liptak, The New York Times
Excerpt: "Even as it has opened more than 20 civil rights investigations into local law enforcement practices, the Justice Department has staked out positions that make it harder for people to sue the police and that give officers more discretion about when to fire their guns."
READ MORE

Tax Cuts for the Poor and Middle Class - Not the Rich - Create Jobs, Research Shows
Cole Stangler, International Business Times
Stangler writes: "Tax cuts do, in fact, boost employment and investment, just not when they're directed at the rich."
READ MORE

As Migrant Deaths Rise, EU Mulls Policy Shift
Michael Pizzi, Al Jazeera America
Pizzi writes: "It took the tragic drowning of 900 migrants and asylum seekers, but it appears the European Union has finally determined that its fortresslike approach to the hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants desperately trying to reach its shores has been a disastrous failure."
READ MORE

Ignorance Is Killing Our Earth
Rob Stewart, The Daily Beast
Stewart writes: "Imagine how much has changed on this planet since you were born. Just a moment ago in evolutionary time, this planet was paradise for innumerable species."
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CounterCurrents: The Social Costs Of Capitalism Are Destroying Earth’s Ability To Support Life, Two Degree Celsius Climate Change Target 'Utterly Inadequate, No Ban On Coal Finance As Green Climate Fund Eyes First Projects

Dear Friend,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents

In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


Airstrikes On Yemen Continue: 24 Dead
By Countercurrents.org

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc280315.htm

Saudi Arabia and its allies have launched airstrikes in Yemen against rebel Shiite Houthi forces gaining more ground. The mainly Gulf coalition, which also includes the US, is trying to help embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Twenty-four people were killed and 43 injured as a result of Saudi-led airstrikes over the last 24 hours, Yemen’s Saba state news agency reported the Interior Ministry saying in a statement


Nuclear Threat Escalating Beyond Political Rhetoric
By Thalif Deen

http://www.countercurrents.org/deen280315.htm

As a new cold war between the United States and Russia picks up steam, the nuclear threat is in danger of escalating – perhaps far beyond political rhetoric


The Social Costs Of Capitalism Are Destroying Earth’s Ability To Support Life
By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.countercurrents.org/roberts280315.htm

David Ray Griffin has taken on global warming and the CO2 crisis. His book has just been published by Clarity Press, a publisher that seeks out truth-telling authors. Griffin’s book is a hefty 424 pages plus 77 pages of footnotes documenting the information that he presents. Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive The CO2 Crisis? The book is a carefully researched document


No Ban On Coal Finance As Green Climate Fund Eyes First Projects
By Megan Darby

http://www.countercurrents.org/darby280315.htm

The Green Climate Fund has not ruled out backing coal plants after a protracted three-day board meeting in Songdo, South Korea. Tense negotiations ended at 04 20 on Thursday with agreement on seven intermediaries to disburse funds for low carbon development and climate adaptation in poor countries


Two Degree Celsius Climate Change Target 'Utterly Inadequate
By Countercurrents.org

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc280315A.htm

The official global target of a 2°C temperature rise is 'utterly inadequate' for protecting those at most risk from climate change, says a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), writing a commentary in the open access journal Climate Change Responses. The commentary presents a rare inside-view of a two-day discussion at the Lima Conference of the Parties (COP) on the likely consequences of accepting an average global warming target of 2°C versus 1.5°C


The Czech Republic And The Fine Art Of Collaboration
By Andre Vltchek

http://www.countercurrents.org/vltchek280315.htm

The US military convoy will soon be passing through the Czech territory, from the Baltics and Poland, to its permanent base in Bavaria, Germany. That is bad enough. The Czechs should not have allowed the convoy to pass. Provoking Russia and moving closer and closer to the fascist Empire is a shameless and cowardly act


Coming Home
By William T. Hathaway

http://www.countercurrents.org/hathaway280315.htm

From the Book RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War. RADICAL PEACE is a collection of reports from antiwar activists, the true stories of their efforts to change our warrior culture. In this chapter a mother tells of her son's return from combat. She wishes to remain anonymous


Cultural Hegemony And Social Change: 2015
By Jon Kofas

http://www.countercurrents.org/kofas280315.htm

There are conservative analysts who assume that more than anything people crave safety and security. Cultural hegemony rests on the fears of the people who have been conditioned to accept the status quo and avert risk when it comes to securing a new social contract that would represent all people. Some advocates of democracy argue that actualizing their potential is just as important for human beings, but this entails having an institutional structure that permits and promotes those possibilities. I have argued in the past that uprisings are very possible in the 21st century, especially after the next inevitable deep recession, but systemic change is highly unlikely


Damage Limitation Time For Monsanto: Time To Wheel Out Patrick Moore Again... Or Maybe Not!
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter280315.htm

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for Monsanto. The company agreed to pay $600,000 in fines for not reporting hundreds of uncontrolled releases of toxic chemicals at its eastern Idaho phosphate plant. It also paid out a string of lawsuit settlements totaling $350,000 as a result of its GMOs tainting wheat in seven US states. Such amounts represent little more than a tap on the wrist for a company that rakes in sales of almost $16 billion dollars annually


Obama And The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
By William James Martin

http://www.countercurrents.org/martin280315.htm

The Palestinians have little to offer Obama. Do not expect any significant progress engendered by the Obama administration for the rest of his term. If there is to be any change in the configuration between the Palestinians and the Israelis, it will emanated from the International Court of Justice


Brutal Lathi Charge On Workers Outside Delhi Secretariat
By Abhinav Sinha

http://www.countercurrents.org/sinha280315.htm

Complete account of the brutal lathi charge on workers outside Delhi Secretariat on the orders of Kejriwal Government on March 25, 2015


“Bapu Surat Singh: Punjab’s Irom Sharmila”
By PUCL

http://www.countercurrents.org/pucl280315.htm

Human Rights Violations by the Punjab Government and Punjab Police regarding the Surat Singh Khalsa fast unto death

CounterCurrents: Global warming: : Rapid Rise In Arctic Temperatures Linked To Changes In Extreme Weather , Blown Chances In Gaza, Hashtag Genocide: Why Gaza Fought Back,

Dear Friend,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents

In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


Global warming: : Rapid Rise In Arctic Temperatures Linked To Changes In Extreme Weather
By Steve Connor

http://www.countercurrents.org/connor120814.htm

Scientists have linked the rapid rise in Arctic temperatures over the past two decades to weather extremes in the northern hemisphere such as heatwaves in the US and flooding in Europe. Temperatures in the Arctic have risen twice as fast as the rest of the world since 2000, and this could have triggered changes to global wind patterns, which have brought extreme weather to lower latitudes, the researchers said. A study has found that the number of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods and droughts, has almost doubled over the same period and that this increase can be linked with unusual wind patterns in the upper atmosphere, influenced by warmer Arctic temperatures


Cold War Two
By William Blum

http://www.countercurrents.org/blum120814.htm

During Cold War One those of us in the American radical left were often placed in the position where we had to defend the Soviet Union because the US government was using that country as a battering ram against us. Now we sometimes have to defend Russia because it may be the last best hope of stopping TETATW (The Empire That Ate The World). Yes, during Cold War One we knew enough about Stalin, the show trials, and the gulags. But we also knew about US foreign policy


Iraq Unrest Not Shia-Sunni
By Anthony Mathew Jacob

http://www.countercurrents.org/jacob120814.htm

These terrorists are neither Shias nor Sunni rebels (as the western media refers to them). They are ruthless killers trained, funded and supported by Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and their western masters


Campaign of State-Backed Political Persecution Against MK Haneen Zoabi
Press Release

http://www.countercurrents.org/zoabi120814.htm

MK Haneen Zoabi was called for a police investigation in Lod today over allegations from the police that she incited against, and insulted, a public official – a policeman – outside Nazareth’s district court on 6 July. The investigation has been authorised by the Israeli attorney general. The incitement investigation, one of a series being considered against MK Zoabi, follows her suspension on 29 July from the Knesset for a six-month period by the Knesset ethics committee. This suspension is the longest in the Knesset’s history and the maximum the committee can impose under Israeli law


Hashtag Genocide: Why Gaza Fought Back
By Ramzy Baroud

http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud120814.htm

Gaza managed to keep Israel at bay in a battle of historic proportions. Once its children are buried, it will once again rebuild its defenses for the next battle. For Palestinians in Gaza, this is not about mere resistance strategies, but their very survival


Blown Chances In Gaza
By Sandy Tolan

http://www.countercurrents.org/tolan120814.htm

Alongside the toll of death and broken lives, perhaps the saddest reality of the latest Gaza war, like the Gaza wars before it, is how easy it would have been to avoid. For the last eight years, Israel and the U.S. had repeated opportunities to opt for a diplomatic solution in Gaza. Each time, they have chosen war, with devastating consequences for the families of Gaza


An Open Letter To My Palestinian Friends
By Robert J. Burrowes

http://www.countercurrents.org/burrowes120814.htm

As my heart bleeds for those of you suffering in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine, I want to add my voice to those who are encouraging you to consider revising your strategy of resistance to Israeli occupation


Protect Culture, Faith, Livelihood And Natural Resources Of
Indigenous People: Observe Kandhamal Day on August 25, 2014
By V. S Roy David

http://www.countercurrents.org/kandhamal120814.htm

National Adivasi Alliance call upon all the concerned human beings, secular groups, human rights organisations and like minded members of the political parties to respond to the call for action by the National Solidarity Forum for expressing your public concern on the Kandhamal Day on August 25, 2014


Implement United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples
By Indigenous Peoples Forum

http://www.countercurrents.org/ipf120814.htm

Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples Forum, Odisha; on the occasion of International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples, 9th August 2014, After the two decades of UN declaration


Selective Justice
By Abdul Majid Zargar

http://www.countercurrents.org/zargar120814.htm

Maya Kodnani, convicted for killing ninety five Muslims, in 2002 Naroda Patiya & Naroda Gaam case, has been released on bail by Gujrat High Court. In so-called Secular India, The delivery of Justice has been most communal & selective against minorities particularly Muslims

A journalist investigates the planet's 'Sixth Extinction'

Sounds like an interesting book:

A journalist investigates the planet's 'Sixth Extinction'

 

 

 

By Mary Ann Gwinn

The Seattle Times

March 09, 2014

 

Elizabeth Kolbert's revelatory new book, "The Sixth Extinction" (Henry Hold, 319 pages, $28), about the rapid and radical changes man is wreaking on the Earth, is one of those works of explanatory journalism that achieves the highest and best use of the form. After you read it, your view of the world will be fundamentally changed.

 

Kolbert, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has gone all over the world to walk with, talk with and debrief a cadre of eminent scientists who are tracking humanity's transformation of our global home.

Kolbert builds an effective case that the pace of change is proceeding at a rate that imperils all species, including, eventually, Homo sapiens.

Q&A with Elizabeth Kolbert

Q: You started out as a political reporter. How did you evolve into an expert on earth sciences and natural history?

 

A:

 

There's a long tradition of environmental reporting at The New Yorker, and no one was covering it. I moved in to fill that space. Knowledge was gained, as all reporters gain it, by bothering a lot of people and talking to people who know what they're talking about.

 

Q: You wrote about some of these issues in your 2006 book about global warming, "Field Notes from a Catastrophe." What prompted your decision to write this follow-up?

 

A:

 

Climate change is just one of the ways that people are changing the planet on a geological scale. Climate change is part of a bigger story.

 

Q: What has the reception to the book been in the scientific community? What have you heard from the people you interviewed?

 

A:

People who work in the field of conservation biology are quite desperate ... They want to get this material out to a wider audience. So far the reaction of those guys has been great.

 

Q: It seemed that even the experts you featured were alarmed and surprised at the state of change in their chosen fields.

 

A:

 

One of the things that astonishes people and horrifies them, if that's the word, is that things are happening that they were taught couldn't happen. With the bats, I quote this guy as saying, "If anyone had told me this could happen to the little brown bat, I wouldn't have believed it."

 

Q: Talk about one of the key dynamics in this process: that climate change is forcing movement among plants and animals at the same time man is creating barriers to that movement.

 

A:

 

We know that in the climate changes of the past ... we know by looking at the record, that species can move. What worries scientists about what we're doing now is that we're changing the planet really, really fast ... the world has been colder than now, but it hasn't been this much warmer in a very long time. We're putting up barriers (urban development, deforestation, among others), and we're changing the rules of the game, but we're putting up a brick wall instead of an open playing field. What will happen as a result, to continue this metaphor, is that a lot of species will end up crashed up against that wall.

 

In a lucid and understated style, Kolbert documents the collapse of amphibian populations and of coral reefs. She writes about the mass die-off of millions of bats in the Northeast, most likely done in by a fungus transported around the world by globalization's component parts, travel and trade.

 

She walks in the Peruvian rain forest with researchers tracing the effect of global warming, as they track plants that may move upslope at rates of up to 100 feet a year in search of a higher, cooler climate zone.

 

She tells stories of imminent extinction, such as Suci, the Sumatran rhino in the Cincinnati Zoo that can't ovulate unless she senses there is an eligible male around. In Suci's case, "the nearest eligible male is 10,000 miles away."

 

As "The Sixth Extinction" unfolds, a clear pattern emerges. Mass extinctions have occurred in the past (there have been five, most recently in the late Cretaceous period). But the current rate of species die-off, caused by man's exploration and exploitation of the globe, is occurring at an unprecedented rate in geologic time. Kolbert writes that the exinction rate among amphibians could be more than 45,000 times higher than the "background" rate (expected extinctions in normal times). Furthermore, "it is estimated that one-third of all reef-building corals, a third of all fresh-water mollusks, a third of sharks and rays, a quarter of all mammals, a fifth of all reptiles and a sixth of all birds are headed towards oblivion," she writes.

 

Man's restlessness, his intellect and his appetites are to blame: his propensity to hunt, for instance, causing the elimination of most large mammals. His urge to explore. His will to exploit — the mass clearing of forests, the CO2 emissions that are changing the climate itself. These attributes, which have driven our biological success as a species, have also altered the climate and drastically reduced the range of animal species on earth.

 

Kolbert does not chide or condemn. She chronicles man's indifference (and at times, cruelty) to other life on the planet, but the most disturbing aspect of "The Sixth Extinction" is that most of us are complicit in these die-offs by heedless living — driving cars, farming cleared land, buying goods that require overseas shipping. And, failing to contain a burgeoning human population.

 

In one of the most intriguing chapters, "The Madness Gene," she compares our own species, Homo sapiens, with its close cousin, the Neanderthals.

 

In many respects, Neanderthals were similar to us. But they lacked key attributes, including the ability to figure out how to cross large bodies of water. One eminent student of Neanderthals,

Swedish biologist Svante Pddbo, speculates that we may possess a sort of Faustian gene that drives us to ignore consequences and even danger in our restless explorations and exploitations.

 

" ... there is also, I like to think, or say, some madness there," he tells Kolbert. " ... How many people must have sailed out and vanished in the Pacific before you found Easter Island? ... And why do you do that? It is for the glory? For the immortality? For curiosity? And now we go to Mars. We never stop."

 

We succeeded in eliminating the Neanderthals and are currently on the road to extinguishing our first cousins, the great apes.

 

Kolbert is an astute observer, excellent explainer and superb synthesizer, and even manages to find humor in her subject matter. But "The Sixth Extinction" is an alarming book. The last chapter, "The Thing with Feathers," suggests hope, but it is mostly about an endangered Hawaiian crow.

 

Still — read it. This book gives no easy or even hopeful answers, but it does present some heroes, such as the scientist Tom Lovejoy, a tireless researcher and advocate who has greatly slowed the logging of the Amazon. Maybe this book will put other people of intelligence, heart and will on the same road.

 

 

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140309/LIFE/403090304/-1/NEWSLETTER100

 

 

Perpetuating ignorance

350.org

Wow -- this is what 4 major land masses would look like if *all* the Earth's ice melted.

Maybe we should try to avoid this?

More detail here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/if-ice-melted-map

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Grayson

Pres. Eisenhower: We must never let the military-industrial complex endanger our liberties. Pres. Obama: ???

 

Obama NSA speech on anniversary of Eisenhower warning

news.yahoo.com

It’s a coincidence, White House aides say. President Barack Obama did not deliberately schedule his big NSA speech for Friday to mark the anniversary of Dwight Eisenhower’s warning that the “military-industrial complex” posed a potential threat to American democracy.

 

 

 

Bill Moyers

The percentage of Republicans that believe humans evolved over time has dropped significantly in the past four years. What's going on?

 

The Growing Partisan Divide on Evolution

billmoyers.com

The percentage of Republicans that believe humans evolved over time has dropped significantly in the past four years.

 

 

A Titanic Moment In History

It continues to astound what we as a species ignore as the tsunami heads straight toward us! The evidence and the solution are in front of us.

A Titanic Moment In History

This is a Titanic moment in history! We as species are going through the greatest challenge in the history of humanity with climate change, resource depletion, mindless resource wars, threat of a nuclear winter, ethnic and communal strifes, environmental degradation to name a few of the threats we are facing. The saddest part is that we are going to bring the whole edifice down and about to destroy all life forms on earth. This is the reality. But the question is, are WE aware about this reality? A few of Countercurrents readers may be aware of this and working hard to challenge this existential threat. What about the wider world, those 7 Billion others who are walking towards perdition, led by the pied pipers of Mainstream Media?

The myth of endless growth, and the all pervasive culture of greed has driven us to this predicament. With fast depleting resources, stalling the engine of growth, the hound dogs of capitalism has gone mad. They are forcing ever more wars upon us, starving the poor, destroying lives, occupying the land and the homes, they are curbing our freedom with the threat of a bogeyman called 'war on terror', snooping into our privacy, driving us literally from our homes and our work places, controlling and manipulating our lives with a pimp called Mainstream Media. Where do we go from here? We have only two ways left, 1. to go down without a trace 2. to fight and try to reverse this trend, so that our children will not say we didn't try. I chose the second path. That's why Countercurrents is here, and it will be here, no matter what, until "THE LIGHT GOES OUT OF MY LIFE."

If you listen you'll hear the voices of rebellion and resistance from the Dongria Kondh's of Niyamgiri hills of Odisha, India who rejected mining giant Vedanta's efforts to mine in their sacred hills, from the Chiapas mountain ranges of Mexico, of Zapatista resistance movement, and from Cairo and New York of the stories of Occupy spirit, of transition movement from Totness, UK and the stories of compassion from the streets of Kabul, Baghdad and Gaza. These stories need to be TOLD and RETOLD to inspire people to rise up as a whole to demand justice, not just for humanity and our future generation but for all species on this earth and their future progenies. How do we do this?

We don't own NewYork Times, or CNN. We can not hope that these outlets will ever tell these stories in their TRUEST SPIRIT. Our only hope is that to build and nurture independent media outlets like Countercurrents to tell these stories and do our part to help these stories reach a wider audience.

As you may well know our resistance movements are also hijacked by capital. They do this in two ways, by co-option and subversion. They want us to go begging for their advertisement crumbs falling off their table. You'll NEVER EVER see a Coca Cola advertisement on CC pages. The other way is subverting and controlling the resistance by doling out money through their foundations thereby moderating and controlling the message, palatable to the dominant classes. Countercurrents will not go either of these ways. CC will survive by the collective support of its readers and the sweat of my hard labor. We want CC to be funded 100 % by you - our readers! For that we have developed a unique subscription programme.

Our Subscription Programme

What is unique about our subscription programme is that unlike the usual subscriber based magazines , news papers or websites, CC will be available to non subscribers as well. Our subscription programme is only to raise funds for our survival and to set aside an amount for our future growth, ie, it's not for profit. By our subscription programme, those who can contribute support or subsidise those who can't pay. By paying you are helping CC to reach thousands of others who can't pay.

Our subscription amount is $ 50 a year, and you'll be paying it in two instalments. Once you log in , $ 25 will be charged from your card, and six months later the rest will be automatically deducted from your card. And the cyle will stop and you'll have to log in again to subscribe next year. If you so wish, you can unsubscribe any time you like too.

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In Solidarity,

Binu Mathew
Editor
Countercurrents.org

'Worst' Of Climate Predictions Are The Most Likely

By Jon Queally

01 January, 2013
CommonDreams.org

 

Groundbreaking research on cloud behavior and global warming says 'catastrophic' increase of 4°C or more by 2100 should be expected

 

New research by a team of scientists looking at the impact of cloud behavior on planetary climate change says that "the worst" and "catastrophic" predictions offered by previous studies on the rate of global warming this century are much more likely than the less severe scenarios offered by others.

 

According to Dr. Steven Sherwood, lead author of the study and a specialist in climate and cloud formations at the University of New South Wales in Australia, cloud patterns in an increasingly warming world are likely to exacerbate global temperature increases overall, not mitigate warming as some models have suggested.

 

"This study breaks new ground twice," Sherwood explained in an interview with the Guardian. "First by identifying what is controlling the cloud changes and second by strongly discounting the lowest estimates of future global warming in favor of the higher and more damaging estimates."

 

The research predicts that global temperatures will likely rise at least 4°C by 2100 and potentially more than 8°C by 2200 if carbon dioxide emissions are not reduced and serious actions by governments and society are not taken.

 

Such drastic increases, Sherwood told the Guardian would be "catastrophic rather than simply dangerous."

 

Specifically, the study looked at how already warming temperatures impact the ability of clouds to form at high altitudes, because that ability can greatly impact the way in which large clouds help the planet reflect or absorb the sun's heat. One of the long-acknowledged shortcomings of other climate computer models—which drive much of the work of climate change predictions—is the difficulty of accurately projecting cloud behavior under complex, future conditions.

 

By tackling that problem, say Sherwood and his colleagues, their research "cracks open one of the biggest problems in climate science."

 

As the Syndey Morning Herald reports:

Will Steffen, an adjunct professor at Australian National University and a member of the Climate Council, said the paper was ''right out on the forefront of the sort of research we need to do on clouds''.

''The more we get research like from [Professor Sherwood] and his group, the more confidence we'll have in being able to say where in that range [the temperature increase] is likely to fall.''

The CO2 level of the atmosphere in 2012 was 393 parts per million, or 41 per cent higher than in pre-industrial times, the World Meteorological Organisation said. The level is rising at an accelerating rate - more than two parts per million a year - as humans burn more fossil fuels and cut down forests.

Global temperatures have risen about 0.8 degrees since about 1880, with system lags and air pollution reflecting sunlight partly explaining why the rise has not been higher.

''We've been hoping for the best and not planning for the worst,'' Professor Sherwood said.

''And now it's looking like the best is not very likely.''

In 2012, a study by the World Bank—an institution not typically known for sounding the alarm over industrial, human-caused global warming—also said that a 4°C temperature rise was not only possible, but likely if humanity did not change course. According to Kim Yong Kim, the bank's president, the resulting impacts of a planet that warm would likely "make the world our children inherit a completely different world than we are living in today."

 

And those kinds of warnings only mirror the consistent and nearly unanimous consensus of the international scientific community when it comes to temperature increases that exceed the 2°C increase that world governments have set as the benchmark not to exceed this century. The problem, of course, is that no agreements or promises have resulted in actual emission reductions. In fact, annual global emissions continue to increase even as the warnings escalate

 

 

http://www.countercurrents.org/queally010114.htm

 

 

The rest of CounterCurrents:

 

Dear Friend,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents

In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


Biggest Threat To World Peace: The United States
By Sarah Lazare

http://www.countercurrents.org/lazare010114.htm

Over 12 years into the so-called "Global War on Terror," the United States appears to be striking terror into the hearts of the rest of the world. In their annual End of Year survey, Win/Gallup International found that the United States is considered the number one "greatest threat to peace in the world today" by people across the globe


From Egypt To Afghanistan : Who Is My Enemy?
By Hakim & Sherif

http://www.countercurrents.org/hakim010114.htm

Who is my enemy? Satan? Terrorists? ‘The other person' of ‘another' faith or ethnicity?


Why Activism Needs The Sacred
By Carolyn Baker

http://www.countercurrents.org/baker010114.htm

Cherishing the sacred in our activism and in our visions of revolutionized communities and cultures increases the likelihood that we will resist from our hearts and not simply from our heads. As a result, the new paradigms out of which our visions are realized will engender authentic transformations with more enduring resilience as opposed to reinventions of formerly oppressive systems


Every Person Has A Name
By Neve Gordon

http://www.countercurrents.org/gordon010114.htm

In Israel illegal immigrants from Africa are not given even the basic human right of a name