Climate deniers are creative types. They have to be.
During a committee hearing in the Kentucky State Senate, Republican Brandon Smith argued — in reference to the EPA’s new requirement that power plants cut their carbon emissions by 30 percent in the next 16 years (which he apparently dislikes) — that Mars and Earth share “exactly” the same temperature.
Our objective is to build and strengthen an environmental movement that addresses the root causes of the climate crises; a social-economic system that values profits above people, planet and peace. As the corporate captured UN proposes false solutions like carbon trading and sets meager greenhouse reduction targets, we will show the world what tackling global warming from the bottom up looks like.
Root of Global Climate Change: The Economic System
The NYC Climate Convergence identifies our economic system as the root problem of global climate change. So, here’s what they are calling for:
Millions of jobs in renewable energy, conservation, and public transit
A just transition from fossil fuels and nuclear power
New food, water, and sanitation systems
An emergency transition to a new kind of economy
Tax the rich and slash the bloated military budget
Powerful, revolutionary stuff… and so sensible – it can actually save the planet!
Even if you don’t plan to attend the Convergence, make sure your friends are aware of this important upcoming event, especially if they live near New York City.
You may click the image below to download the NYC Climate Convergence flyer (PDF).
We have a chance right now to keep the giant methane monster that’s lurking under the Arctic Ocean right where it is, and save our planet in the process. Photo credit: Shutterstock
Methane is one of the strongest of the natural greenhouse gases, about 80 times more potent than CO2, and while it may not get as much attention as its cousin CO2, it certainly can do as much, if not more, damage to our planet.
That’s because methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and there are trillions of tons of it embedded in a kind of ice slurry called methane hydrate…
Yesterday, 40% of the surface of Greenland melted.
It was still mid-June, yet a month before melt values typically peak. But a persistent high pressure system over Greenland, a rapidly melting Baffin Bay and warm winds riding up the west coast were enough to spur a surface melting event that shoved melt coverage firmly above the two standard deviation threshold and into record range.
(Greenland Melt Extent as of June 17, 2014. Image source: NSIDC.)
Temperatures along the west coast of Greenland and on through the southern ice-covered tip ranged between 30 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit, while 30-43 degree readings surrounded much of the periphery. Warm winds and rain to mixed precipitation accompanied a moisture-laden storm emerging from Baffin Bay and passing over the western ice sheet to add further and extreme early season melt pressure.
The warm storm and rains compounded already rapid melt pond formation along Greenland’s…
President Obama just announced what the New York Times is calling “the strongest action taken by an American president to tackle climate change.”
This may be the best hope to tackle the climate crisis during the Obama presidency.
If the plan takes effect, this could be the single most important thing he does as president, the thing that our grandkids remember him for.
But that’s a big if- because giant polluters will do everything in their power to make Obama’s climate policy dead on arrival, with waves of misleading TV ads and bogus reports. So it’s incredibly important that we make our voices heard this week.
The EPA is now accepting public comments on the proposed plan. Let’s send a powerful statement of support for climate action. We’ll give reporters a running tally this week as thousands of people sign on, and we’ll share MoveOn members’ powerful personal appeals with them—so they know the President is not alone. We’ll deliver your comment, along with thousands of others, to the EPA headquarters in Washington next month.
Climate change is the challenge of our generation—and if we don’t meet it, it will become the nightmare of generations to come. Today’s announcement was a long overdue step in the right direction. But if we want to win, we’ve got to double our efforts. Today, the fight is on.
… out of the 107 Republicans running for Senate as of right now in the 2014 election cycle, [New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Jim] Rubens is the only one who states that he believes global warming exists on his official website, the Huffington Post reports.
Most people who deny that human activity is warming the planet just dismiss a massive body of scientific evidence as a big hoax.
But there’s a more sophisticated set of climate “skeptics” who make arguments that, at least to the lay ear, sound like they’re grounded in scientific evidence. And because most of us lack the background to evaluate their claims, they can muddy the waters around an issue that’s been settled in the scientific community.
So, as a public service, we gathered eight of the most common of these pseudoscientific arguments and asked some serious climate scientists — all working climatologists who have been widely published — to help us understand what makes these claims so misleading.
(Must-watch NASA presentation finding six Antarctic Glaciers in irreversible collapse.)
Human-caused heat forcing. From the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the world’s oceans, there’s no safe place to put it. For where-ever it goes it sets in place conditions with the potential to unleash gargantuan forces.
Inertia. Namely, the massive inertia in the Earth climate system creating a perceived ability to resist rapid destabilization due to the human insult. It’s the one hope scientists and…
Here we stand at the cusp. At the brink. At the precipice of the crisis that will certainly define this century. An extraordinarily dangerous human alteration of the climate that, at its end, could be far more destructive and deadly than any war. A growing and emerging monstrosity created by us. One which, should we continue to feed it, would plunge us into the heart of one of the blackest climatological eras ever experienced on this planet.
We know there is danger. And we have known it for some time due to the clarity and accuracy of our vision. A vision provided to us by a scientific understanding of our world that is the pinnacle of human progress. For if there is one thing that we should be proud of, that we could all share in as a great victory for our race, it would be the knowledge and understanding…
We have a chance right now to keep the giant methane monster that’s lurking under the Arctic Ocean right where it is, and save our planet in the process. Photo credit: Shutterstock
League of Bloggers For a Better World 