It's hard to believe that there are still people who think global warming isn't real, or isn't a real threat, or isn't anything we can do anything about anyway. They may be right on that last point, or at least partially. It may have gone too far to reverse in my children's lifetime.
But going through what is our fourth heat wave of the year here in Jersey with Summer only days old, and watching those wildfires in Colorado on TV, which are only the worst for the moment, and the temperature breaking records across the country that'll exceed last year, which broke more records for heat than any in history, etc.
Why aren't Democrats and "liberals" and "progressives" and in fact everyone challenging the right and their corporate masters the way the right challenges actual scientific evidence as though it's fabricated just to take their gas guzzlers or guns or etc. Even the fact that the oceans are rising because of the melting Arctic ice cap faster than "liberal alarmists" were predicting, especially on the East Coast of the USA because that's where the gulf stream has slowed down, due to global warming, so instead of the two inch rise that has occurred elsewhere and is already causing problems we now have a four inch rise that is eroding beaches and islands and if it continues as predicted will leave parts of lower Manhattan under water by 2020 [by only an inch or so, so the city will probably find ways to deal with it by then, though by 2050 they're gonna have to have a much more ambitious plan]!
Remember only a decade ago when the right was dismissing the threat of anything other than normal weather flucuations as fiction, despite the vast majority of scientists offering endless factual evidence to support their predictions? And how these scientists were warning that by 2015 we would start to see drought and flooding becoming more widespread and lasting longer, and stronger storms and tornados, and rising sea levels and all that? And now it's happening and has been happening for a while, and yet the right and its influence on our media and our politics, as well as the influence of energy company money, etc. seems to squelch any real high level discussion of what we are all living through?
It used to just be the Inuit or some islanders or some country we didn't pay attention to who were suffering through the impact of global warming, but now it's all of us. And yet it doesn't top the news shows or political debates or speeches etc. It's like one of those cheesy horror movies where we all know that it's not a good idea for those teens to camp out all night or whatever because the bad guy is about to start slashing, only the bad guy is global warming and those teens are all of us. Hello! Wake up! Run for help!
No? OK, let's just all be the victims of corporate greed and addictive consumerism until Colorado becomes a desert and Florida is under water and the rest of us are filling sand bags, hiding in the cellar, or fighting over potable water or food because farms can't produce thanks to a lack of rain (the Mississippi is so low that ferries that go from one side to the other in some sections aren't running, there's not enough water!) and heat waves that last a month, or there aren't any more natural seeds just one seed created in a lab by Monsato, or whatever corporation, and the defect in that one genetically altered seed turns out to self destruct, or just hasten our individual demises, if the obesity etc. doesn't do it first.
Talk about heads in the sand. I know readers of this blog are aware of all this, but why aren't we all in the streets protesting what's happening to the planet ala the Arab Spring? I shouldn't write posts when I'm tired, but I have. Maybe after some sleep I'll have an answer.
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Just read that 90% of Michigan's apple crop was lost due to weather...90%. Worst crop loss since the 1940's.
What strikes me even more are the crop and livestock losses in the very so-called red states throughout the South where they cling to their rightwing misinformed perspective despite the evidence of their own eyes and live (not to mention, as you know, the crop losses in Georgia and other states due to the immigration policies and state laws that frightened immigrants away but even out-of-work "Americans" either won't do the job or can't because they find out it's actually not only exhausting labor, it actually takes some experience and skill!).
There is not much doubt for most people I know here in the upper Midwest that we are going through a period of erratic weather due to climate change. The lower peninsula of Michigan is where most of the commercial apple growing goes on. They had a very warm late winter followed by a frosty spring. That did the apples and perhaps some other fruit crops in. Where I live farther North we have seen a pattern of winter ending at the end of February and the beginning of March. We are use to having snow cover into April and sometimes May. The problem with an early spring melt is the lake and river levels drop. There are parts of Lake Superior where was lake bottom is now islands. This kind of weather hurts tourism. No snow, no skiing, no snowmobiling. And summer tourism doesn't start until July. The flooding in Duluth has the city thinking if this is going to be the new weather pattern then they need to build bigger storm sewers. The cost of climate change to agriculture can be huge.
We haven't had temperatures like these since the 1930s. In the interim we have had low temperatures with the Hudson freezing over and we have had high temperatures. From that, genius man made global warming proponents conclude that we should turn the US into a Solyndra economy. By the way another tax payer backed solar company went bankrupt in Colorado this week.
In the mean time my state of Colorado is burning. I received a taped message from the Clear County Sheriff to be ready for evacuation at a moments notice.
10 Years ago the US had 44 air tankers to fight fires. 2 years ago we had 18. Today we have 9. Obama arrived in Colorado Springs to tout how well state and Federal authorities are working together. Unfortunately 3 tankers remained near but on the ground because federal and state authorities did not speak to each other. Many homes have been lost to fires that started on federal land.
Even though global warning is one of the most critical and imminent threats to the future
of our planet, most people cannot grasp your understanding of the urgency to act. It’s frustrating because there are solutions and real everyday choices that people can make to improve upon this situation. I get what you are saying about the protesting but it’s going to take strong, steadfast leadership, major lifestyle changes and commitment from society as a whole in order to prevent further demise. Consider other global “emergencies”-
poverty, education, health- (increases in cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease), violence and hate crimes. There are solutions to all of these and it is mind boggling when so many bury their heads in the sand. On a personal note, the cancer rate is so high in my town (and across the nation) yet focus is on treatment and a “cure” when we are pumping more chemicals and known carcinogens into the food and water supply. We have lost so many friends and young people in my community alone. A close family friend died of an uncommon form of cancer at age 21. My son (26) was diagnosed in Dec with that same kind of tumor. He has had surgery and is being treated at Sloan Kettering where even the most knowledgeable docs say “it’s an unusual coincidence” How can you battle that? To me it’s no coincidence- it’s a no brainer! Fortunately, my son has good insurance
or he wouldn’t even be at Sloan with the latest and the greatest. So problems-YES-we have them. Solutions-YES- we have them too. ACTIONS and better choices - that’s what we need.
Beautifully stated Jen. But just look at the comment before yours to see what we have to contend with: those who are under the spell of their mind control rightwing media and political masters so that even when the evidence of the negative impact of global warming occur in their own backyards they cannot accept it but only see it through the rightwing propaganda filter (imagine believing in a political perspective that blames everything on the federal government and uses their political clout to diminish that government's power and resources and then complains that that restrained and diminished federal government isn't doing enough to help THEM!!!
Obama failed Colorado by depleting the tanker fleet. One of the few enumerated power of the federal govt is.to protect.
double standard all the way. Either you want the federal govt or you don't. If not, do not drive on highways, use post office, hunt in national parkland or call police/fire/paramedics.
Providing for the common defense is what the federal govt is charged with. Robert, it is not surprising that a liberal
would not be familiar with the founding documents
I didn't realize that the Federal government was in the firefighting business at the time of the Founding Fathers. The lack of tankers has been an ongoing problem for years. Our tanker fleet is very old and has been depleted by breakdowns. To order and have new tankers built isn't a put the order in and they;ll be here tomorrow. Either the Forestry people would have to take the money away from other needs or Congress would have to appropriate money for purchasing new tankers or for leasing them. We should have dealt with this years ago and we must deal with it now. We'll see if anyone deals with it at all. Hopefully they will be brought under control and there will be a break before the next outbreak.
oh, and safety concerns resulted in contract cancellations last year. They don't do much good if they crash.
Thanks Tom, and Robert. I was gonna delete but the blatant idiocy maybe should stand for all to marvel at.
A bit too many lies in that one, so the righwing blog stalker gets deleted again.
He naturally evades copping to his lies by misdirection, parroting his rightwing media masters. Everyone's allowed their opinions, but not their lying versions of actual facts on this blog. Fact: in the past few days thousands of heat records have been broken across the country on top of the thousands earlier this Spring on top of the thousands throughout last year etc. etc. etc. etc. et-endlessly-cetera. Obama is not a "socialist" nor was he born in Kenya or anywhere else outside the USA nor does he want to enslave his fellow citizens or arrest them as "terrorists" if they carry a flag other than the stars and stripes, etc. etc. etc. etc. et-endlessly-cetera. And me and other commenters on this blog have never censored the stalker for his political views or opinions but only for his outright lies which he has been called on time and again over the years I've been doing this and all one has to do is go back in the archives and look to find countless lies by him and countless refutations by others specifically highlighting his lies to which he always responds with name calling, misdirection etc. but never with any factual refutation because there never is any. It's too hot and I'm too tired so no more responses from me and no more comments from him for a while so we can enjoy others' takes on actual factual reality and argue over things based on that factual reality (like global warming, hello!).
I think global warming is just a consequence--one of many--that descend from our endorsement of global capitalism.
The industrial revolution pointed us on a path towards destruction. It's just that we didn't see all the effects that would unfold. Marx saw the factory system as the evil expression of the rich exploiting the poor. But the real problems are the environmental effects of overpopulation and overconsumption. China is roughly 150 years behind the West, and its "boom" has just begun.
Global warming can't be stopped. It will roll over us like a tsunami, and no amount of social or political "engineering" can slow it. It will mean vast adjustments in habitation, dependence upon water and food, etc. We will all have to make changes. Maybe not this year, but soon.
The best we can do is bear WITNESS and point out who and how and why, so that (hopefully) something can be learned from the record. Truth may take a while, but eventually it wins out. Unfortunately, that delay is very, very costly.
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