Subject: Tomgram: Bill McKibben, A Wilted Senate on a Heating Planet
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175281/tomgram:_bill_mckibben,_a_wilted_senate_on_a_heating_planet/
August 4, 2010
Tomgram: A Wilted Senate on a Heating Planet
Where are they now? Last winter, when record snowstorms brought life in the
northeast corridor to a halt, Virginia Republicans launched a web ad, "12
inches of global warming," and the family of Oklahoma senator and global
warming "skeptic" Jim Inhofe built an igloo on the national mall, labeling
it "Al Gore's new home." Now, as Xtreme weather has been setting new
records for pure swelter along that same corridor (and pure drench in the
Midwest), who's building a sweat lodge on the Mall labeled "Jim Inhofe's new
home"? Where are the mocking Democratic web ads? Has the president said a
word? In fact, amid temperatures that hit 105 degrees and above in the
East, has anyone said a word? Do you realize just how rare are the stories
in major papers or on the TV news that even suggest heavily covered weird
weather in our nation and elsewhere could in any way be linked to global
warming in a year that may break world warmth records?
Sweltering New York -- 103 in the shade and getting hotter, it seemed --
with its aging power infrastructure teetering at the edge of serial
blackout, was the drumroll for the start of my 66th year on this planet.
Now, at a moment when you can hardly check out the news and not notice a
weather anomaly that looks curiously like the new norm -- heat of a sort
Moscow has never seen, drenching monsoon rains and floods, killing more than
a thousand people, that are a singular first in Pakistan -- the mainstream
media has largely left global warming in a ditch somewhere, especially when
it comes to weather reporting. Writers at Scientific American may think
that global warming is, by now, "undeniable," but the U.S. Senate,
undoubtedly aware not only of the temperature outside but of the degree of
American media (and public) denial about it, has reached other conclusions
entirely.
Bill McKibben, TomDispatch regular and author of the invaluable new book,
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, assesses our national moment in
the heat and just how wilted we've seemed to be. (And while you're at it,
catch him in Timothy MacBain's latest TomCast audio interview discussing why
the public needs to lead the fight against global warming by clicking here
or, to download it to your iPod, here.) Tom
We're Hot as Hell and We're Not Going to Take It Any More
Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming
By Bill McKibben
August 3, 2010
* According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the
planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the
warmest six months, and the warmest April, May, and June on record.
* A "staggering" new study from Canadian researchers has shown that warmer
seawater has reduced phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, by
40% since 1950.
* Nine nations have so far set their all-time temperature records in 2010,
including Russia (111 degrees), Niger (118), Sudan (121), Saudi Arabia and
Iraq (126 apiece), and Pakistan, which also set the new all-time Asia
record in May: a hair under 130 degrees. I can turn my oven to 130 degrees.
* And then, in late July, the U.S. Senate decided to do exactly nothing
about climate change. They didn't do less than they could have -- they did
nothing, preserving a perfect two-decade bipartisan record of no action.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid decided not even to schedule a vote on
legislation that would have capped carbon emissions.
For more of this dispatch:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175281/tomgram:_bill_mckibben,_a_wilted_senate_on_a_heating_planet/
***
Thanks for posting this important piece. It is timely in the week of the
65th anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
There will be a beautiful 16th annual Sadako Peace Day Ceremony this Friday
night, August 6th, in Montecito at the La Casa de Maria Retreat Center's
"Sadako Peace Garden", 800 El Bosque Road, from 6pm to 7pm. This beautiful
ceremony is sponsored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, commemorating the
65th Anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There
will be award-winning poets reading their poetry and original music by local
artists. This is the most beautiful Peace Garden in the state of
California. This event is Free and Open to the Public. Please come for an
hour of Peace and Remembrance.
For more information, please call the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at (805)
965-3443 or visit http://www.wagingpeace.org .
For Peace,
Lois Hamilton
Progressive Democrats of America
"Activism is my rent for living on the planet." (Alice Walker)
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