|
|
June 18, 2013
|
|
|
|
 News at 11: How Climate Change Affects YouPosted on Aug 10, 2010
By Amy Goodman Our daily weather reports, cheerfully presented with flashy graphics and state-of-the-art animation, appear to relay more and more information. And yet, no matter how glitzy the presentation, a key fact is invariably omitted. Imagine if, after flashing the words “extreme weather” to grab our attention, the reports flashed “global warming.” Then we would know not only to wear lighter clothes or carry an umbrella, but that we have to do something about climate change. I put the question to Jeff Masters, co-founder and director of meteorology at Weather Underground, an Internet weather information service. Masters writes a popular blog on weather, and doesn’t shy away from linking extreme weather to climate change: “Heat, heat, heat is the name of the game on planet Earth this year,” he told me, as the world is beset with extreme weather events that have caused the death of thousands and the displacement of millions. Wildfires in Russia have blanketed the country with smoke, exacerbating the hottest summer there in 1,000 years. Torrential rains in Asia have caused massive flooding and deadly landslides in Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan and China. An ice shelf in Greenland has broken off, sending an ice island four times the size of Manhattan into the ocean. Droughts threaten Niger and the Sahel. Advertisement * 2010 has seen the most national extreme heat records for a single year: 17. * The past decade was the hottest decade in the historical record. * The first half of 2010 was the warmest such six-month period in the planet’s history. * The five warmest months in history for the tropical Atlantic have all occurred this year (likely leading to more frequent and severe Atlantic hurricanes). “We will start seeing more and more years like this year when you get these amazing events that caused tremendous death and destruction,” Masters said. “As this extreme weather continues to increase in the coming decades and the population increases, the ability of the international community to respond and provide aid to victims will be stretched to the limit.” And yet the U.N. talks aimed at climate change seem poised for collapse. When the Copenhagen climate talks last December were derailed, with select industrialized nations, led by the United States, offering a “take it or leave it” accord, many developing nations decided to leave it. The so-called Copenhagen Accord is seen as a tepid, nonbinding document that was forced on the poorer countries as a ploy to allow countries like the U.S., Canada and China to escape the legally binding greenhouse-gas emissions targets of the Kyoto Protocol, which is up for renewal. Bolivia, for example, is pursuing a more aggressive global agreement on emissions. It’s calling for strict, legally binding limits on emissions, rather than the voluntary goals set forth in the Copenhagen Accord. When Bolivia refused to sign on to the accord, the U.S. denied it millions in promised aid money. Bolivia’s United Nations ambassador, Pablo Solon, told me: “We said: ‘You can keep your money. We’re not fighting for a couple of coins. We are fighting for life.’” While Bolivia did succeed in passing a U.N. resolution last month affirming the right to water and sanitation as a human right, a first for the world body, that doesn’t change the fact that as Bolivia’s glaciers melt as a result of climate change, its water supply is threatened. Pacific Island nations like Tuvalu may disappear from the planet entirely if sea levels continue to rise, which is another consequence of global warming. The U.N. climate conference will convene in Cancun, Mexico, in December, where prospects for global consensus with binding commitments seem increasingly unlikely. Ultimately, policy in the United States, the greatest polluter in human history, must be changed. That will come only from people in the United States making the vital connection between our local weather and global climate change. What better way than through the daily drumbeat of the weather forecasts? Meteorologist Jeff Masters defined for me the crux of the problem: “A lot of TV meteorologists are very skeptical that human-caused global climate change is real. They’ve been seduced by the view pushed by the fossil-fuel industry that humans really aren’t responsible ... we’re fighting a battle against an enemy that’s very well-funded, that’s intent on providing disinformation about what the real science says.” It just may take a weatherperson to tell which way the wind blows. Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller. © 2010 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate  TAGS:
|
Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Ex-Employees Say
Email 
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation | Google+
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.
By Lyle Courtsal, September 30, 2010 at 10:33 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Dear People, http://www.ieer.org information shows that
Report thiswind/solar/tidal/conservation can completely replace
coal and nuclear for electric power generating.
Recently on a trip to central washington state, I saw
1.8 magwatt wind generators being installed at a farm
going in there. Using ultrasonic beepers can warn
birds away from generator blades too; cool. What is
the emerging new energy resource? Roofspace for solar
panels. This can work, people, lets do it just
because it is the right thing to do. The obstacle to
most homeowners doing this is the high initial cost
of equipment purchase and installation, but this can
be overcome with access to long term financing,
subsidization (carbon/global warming credits
anyone?), and tax breaks, remembering that right now
most middle class homeowners are cash strapped as are
farmers). One farmer put a 750 kilowatt wind
generator on his 170 acre farm; 1/3rd of output
powered farm and other 2/3rds was sold to utility.
The guy is making money.
By Night-Gaunt, August 18, 2010 at 8:37 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Dianne it is well known and proven that gasses like CO2 and methane, among others, trap heat physicist proven. After the shorter rays of the sun pass throught the atmosphere and reradiate from the earth at a lower frequency the lower wavelengths can’t pass back through CO2 and these other gasses. Just like how glass operates for a green house. Experiments anyone can do with the right equipment.
Report thisBy Planck, August 16, 2010 at 8:28 pm Link to this comment
Most reporting in the USA about anything is really
just about the epiphenomena. They only report on what
is visible to the naked eye. Who what where when.
It is very rare that they can really get to why
beyond what a few of the principle actors in the
story tell them.
It is pretty obvious why weather people with this
bias in their views are selected as they are by the
mainstream media. Same reason Glen Beck or Laura
Schlessinger get picked for Fox or Clearchannel.
The same goes with Journalists who don’t ask the why
questions, or rather don’t dig around to get to why
without asking the players themselves who have
obvious things to hide. Asking outright is also not
going to get real answers.
Journalism school, like the church or organized
religion, is perfectly set up so that the big deep
questions never get asked. All perfect to protect the
ring leaders and instigators from ever being outed.
For example, the goings on of the Dems and Reps every
day is merely political theater. The real story is
who on the state and national committee put those
people there, who paid behind the scenes and will get
whatever they want from these stooges during their
long careers, but will never have to get their name
in the paper over anything that happens.
When journos and weathermen can get to that then
Report thisthey’ve got real news for American voters and
taxpayers. Until then, it is surface epiphenomena
they hyperventilate and get breathless over every
day.
By MarthaA, August 14, 2010 at 7:36 pm Link to this comment
All those in denial of climate change will sooner or later have to face objective facts, as if the poles and the high mountain tops melting aren’t objective facts enough.
Report thisBy Mark S, August 14, 2010 at 10:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Eliminate the need just like the harnessing of electricity eliminated the need for oil lamps as lighting…thus the elimination of the whaling industry since whale blubber was used for these lamps.
It did not happen overnight and no one expected people to wire up their own houses to use the new electric product, they bought new homes with the wires already in place…the same applies with renewable energy. These renewable energy systems are easier to install and much cheaper when included in a building during its construction. A general contractor would get a much better price when ordering 1000 solar panels or wind generators than each one of us ordering one or two here or there. We also need to change the designs of our shelters, Earth Shelters are very efficient at maintaining a constant interior temperature where most of our energy is used and wasted, and use ten percent of the lumber of a stick built home, thus saving the forests. There are no non-biodegradable asphalt shingles on their roofs that have to be replaced every fifteen years, or siding to replace either. We need to build entire subdivisions of these earth/inground shelters, thus reducing the carbon footprint to build each one. The carbon footprint left behind when building an entire subdivision of stick built homes is astounding!
Consumers need turnkey products where the renewable energy systems are already in place, and they need AFFORDIABLE housing with these systems that use less energy to heat and cool for any effects of the renewable energy systems to be applied to other demands. Only than will they be motivated to buy and use the transportation products that run off these systems supplied from their own homes.
What good is an electric car when one has to pay outrageous rates to an energy company that burns coal to charge it?
Report thisBy ofersince72, August 13, 2010 at 2:20 pm Link to this comment
Tobysgirl, after the Clinton blowjob impeachment,
I quit reading anything about current events, OPED,
almost everything.. I had pretty a continuous supscript
to The Nation for almost twenty years, and liked
Cockburn’s Beat the Devil column, then before internet
was widely used , I subscribed to CounterPunch the first
year that it was started.
Once you know what is going on, and how this inept
government operates, you don’t need all the specifics so
it was fairly easy to jump in again. I have noticed
a little “eliteism” from the CounterPunch web, but also
have had some nice correspondense with some of the
contributers. Several months ago , I got no response
several times wanting to talk about the Climate Collapse.
It sounds like you have a good understanding how this
Report thiscollapse is going to come down…It is not a question of
hottest summer, hottest day, coldest day ect..
It is the combination of catastrophes.
By Tobysgirl, August 13, 2010 at 1:48 pm Link to this comment
Yes, Cockburn (Alexander) is a global warming denier and he has some other quaint ideas (such as arming teachers). However, this doesn’t mean that Counterpunch does not have some valuable articles.
You must remember his background, upper-class, isn’t it? Not the most conducive basis for clear thinking all the time.
That said, can we stop talking about temperature only as an indicator of global warming? Forget temperatures; look at weather patterns: storms, floods, winds, etc. We’re now having tornados in Maine on a fairly regular basis.
Report thisBy ofersince72, August 13, 2010 at 8:48 am Link to this comment
Nice try…........won’t work with you either!!!!!!!
Report thisBy Night-Gaunt, August 13, 2010 at 8:40 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Nice limited view prosefights however in Argentina for instance the snow isn’t being replenished on their mountains so eventually no more or very little fresh water for them very soon. The same with all the mountain rangers on earth.
98% of glaciers are shrinking or are all but gone.
It is well known that the Eastern Antarctic is gaining some on ice while the west is losing large amounts of it. Blame the Coriolis and the giant cloud of pollution causing the “solar dimming” in parts of Oceana as it shifts around in size and density.
Australia is approaching permanent desert conditions of the drought lasts any longer. (10 years)
* The first half of 2010 was the warmest such six-month period in the planet’s history.
Yes that must have been a misprint,/i> it should have added <i>“recorded” because it can’t be correct. Just check out the Permian Extinction or the average temps of the Silurian Period- much hotter than today but something we could get if it does reach 6 degrees Celsius. Inhospitable would be an understatement.
kerryrose are you that singleminded? Aren’t there other things you agree with at “Counter Punch” or are you such a fundamentalist that if it isn’t 100% it is nothing? I would suspect your avenues of information will shrink to nothing very soon. The world is made up of more than the Aristotle either/or neither/nor. Have some flexibility.
Report thisBy drklassen, August 13, 2010 at 8:40 am Link to this comment
@ofersince72: You’ve never studied atmospheric science or physics, have you?
“Rising temp + Melting H20 = Evaporation”
OK
“Evaporation = clouds”
No. As the temperature increases, the atmosphere can ‘hold’ more water as vapor. Which, incidentally, is also a greenhouse gas…
“Clouds = Albedo”
Again, no. Or rather, not necessarily. Ever notice that if the day was sunny but the night cloudy, the night is *warmer*? So only some clouds have a net cooling (albedo) effect while others have a net trapping effect.
Also, Venus has an albedo of about 0.70 yet its surface temperature is 900°F. Always.
Report thisBy ofersince72, August 13, 2010 at 7:15 am Link to this comment
The Reality is Tropic Girl, you are right in some
respect.
The Government has been trying for three decades to
Report thisfind a way to make money off the climate and C02 crisis.
They have covered for industry for at least that amount
of time. The Cap & Trade idea has been booted around
and debated since the seventies, it is not a new concept,
nor one that I believe in, nor do I believe in James
Hanson’s slick trick approach that is also nothing but
a money maker for ,not us, and will do nothing to repair
the Climate Collapse just as Cap&Trade; won’t..but
.........\
the reality is, we are in a C02 crisis, and that the
C02 is way, way, above all recorded levels of the last
two million years of the Ice Age.
By tropicgirl, August 13, 2010 at 6:59 am Link to this comment
You expect me to believe that a government that can’t and won’t stop polluting
the entire ocean, plans on assisting the world banks in bringing down freedom all
over the world, might blow us all up with a nuke, and attends the regularly
mandated secret, depraved, play-parties at Bohemian Grove are going to do
anything else but use a climate shift to tax people into oblivion and exert further
control of their sick little world and the victims of it?
Reality check, please.
Report thisBy ofersince72, August 13, 2010 at 3:40 am Link to this comment
kerryrose,,,,,,,thankyou for sharing that with me,
I didn’t know that about Cockburn…....
If that’s the way he is, SCREW EM, I will cancel my script
too.
Thank You, OFER
Report thisBy kerryrose, August 13, 2010 at 3:36 am Link to this comment
I used to read Counterpunch with Alexander Cockburn because I thought the articles were intelligent and pointed. Until I found out Cockburn was a staunch denialist. I just couldn’t get over it. He believes that climate change is a conspiracy by the ‘powers that be’ to milk the public.
His denialism makes the validity of all his theories questionable. I deleted Counterpunch from my bookmarks because just going to the site makes me sick now.
Report thisBy Dianna, August 12, 2010 at 8:51 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
It is physically IMPOSSIBLE for CO2 to affect the climate of the earth. The heat transfer in the atmosphere is utterly dependent on two things. The incoming energy from the sun, and Water Vapor. In the Energy Fluxes, CO2 has no place whatsoever. The earth warming up is solely dependent on the incoming energy from the sun. The Equilibrium of the Greenhouse Effect has been proven by Dr. Ferenc Miskolczi. That equilibrium is measurable and is something that CO2 or methane, or any other trace greenhouse cannot ever effect.
Amy, do your research next time.
Report thisBy Frank Castle, August 12, 2010 at 5:10 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
“The first half of 2010 was the warmest such six-month period in the planet’s history”. Are you kidding me? Amy does know the planet is more than 100 years old right? Where did she get this magical weather data from 4.5 billion years ago?
Report thisBy ray, August 11, 2010 at 10:31 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
we passed the point of ‘no return’ a few years ago.
Report this‘move to the mountains he said & prepare for ur own needs on an independent basis’.
‘selfish as good’ will soon replace ‘greed is good’.
america will no longer exist as a nation long before 2020.
if your counting on government solutions- ur in for a rude & fatal awakening!
the saying ‘survival of the fittest’ will soon become an anthem expressed by all remaining sooner than the world picture now presents!
By ofersince72, August 11, 2010 at 8:18 pm Link to this comment
Much has been said of the glacial melting in the Arctic.
But little to nothing said of the gaining of mass of
Report thismany glaciers in the Antarctic.
By ofersince72, August 11, 2010 at 8:15 pm Link to this comment
Thanks for all the updates prosefights.
The Climate Collapse is getting ready to set in.
In just a few years man will be mostly immobile,
that is why the race to the resources now.
Rising temp + Melting H20 = Evaporation
Evaporation = clouds
Clouds = Albedo
We can’t stop it. When the massive expotintial
Report thisevaporation starts, all hell gonna break loose.
It’s already started, but we ain’t seen nothin yet.
By prosefights, August 11, 2010 at 7:56 pm Link to this comment
Urban survival reports
August 6: Sacramento running 10 degrees below average
August 5: Snow in Brazil, below zero in the River Plate, tropical fish frozen. For a second day running it snowed in Southern Brazil and in twelve of Argentina’s 24 provinces including parts of Buenos Aires.
August 3: Coolest July in San Francisco since 1971
August 3: More than six million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles, dolphins and other river wildlife are floating dead in Bolivian rivers, the cruel aftermath of the extreme cold in South America.
August 3: Argentina colder than Antarctica
August 1: Peru declares state of emergency
August 1: Worst flooding in Pakistan history
July 31: July rainiest month in Mexico history
July 29: Record cold in San Diego
July 10: Record cold at LAX
Report thisBy REDHORSE, August 11, 2010 at 2:14 pm Link to this comment
The consequence of major environmental doom will fall on our children and grandchildren. There may or may not be a “plan” by US/NATO to kill X Billion humans, but that’s the sure result of continued inaction. Most here express a them/us perspective. For them, there is no “us”. They’ve manufactured a private machine for perpetual war, and there are no noncombatants. “We”, like those designated by Hitler, are expediently expendable. American social and world chaos “we” experience as evil, is the moral vacuum in American leadership, that allows it to view the American future and its’ citizens, as nothing more than footnotes, to their financial bottom line.
If willing destruction of an entire planets population and natural resources for a f@#kin’ dollar bill isn’t full blown psychopathic narcissitic megalomania, what is? Remember when they caught the fascist Cheney/Bush oil boys cookin’ the scientific books? They’re insane. It’s that simple. Their vision of the future is a cushy compound where Xe mercs hold the dying rabble at gunpoint while they polish off the last of the food and water. Hell, Monsanto is well on the way to seizing control of seed production and Republithugs are starting the mumble to seize control of all water. (That’s YOUR grandchildren at gunpoint!!)
This and the countless other bellyaches we twist our minds over at TRUTHDIG tells us all we need to know. World consciousness is calling for new vision, realignment of technology and population to balance natural ecosystems, and social systems based on human moral conduct and dignity. That’s not rocket science, it’s just common sense. That’s at least an attempt at human evolution, do you think the “gold sacks” monkeys would allow it?
Report thisBy Steve E, August 11, 2010 at 1:41 pm Link to this comment
The only way out regarding energy resources that come from the planet owned
Report thistheoretically by the people is to nationalize its production and distribution but that
entails creating a public service that again would be self serving because of
incompetence and corruption.
By Victor, August 11, 2010 at 10:27 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Let’s look at Exxon Mobil, which each of the last three years has made more money than any company in the history of money. Its business model involves using the atmosphere as an open sewer for the carbon dioxide that is the inevitable byproduct of the fossil fuel it sells. And yet we let it do this for free. It doesn’t pay a red cent for potentially wrecking our world.
Report thisBy Night-Gaunt, August 11, 2010 at 9:55 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The good thing about a global depression is that less pollution will be created, the bad news isthat more wood will be burned instead.
We are at a crisis point that started in the 1970’s but we did not heed its warning. Now when the full effects are in motion dithering and the same old activity is given to us. Wasting prescious time we need. The poor will feel it first but then so will all others—only the rich and those prepared may do better, the rest of us not so good.
Climate effects are going on now and affecting us now too. Talk of our grand children feeling its effects from Democrat and Republican alike is still a way to avoid what is going on now.
That “dimming of the sun” is a maassive cloud over parts of Asia to Australia and is constantly shifting both in density and size. A side show.
Try http://www.350.org, I think is the address, Bill McKibben is also a good place for clear unbiased information. His recent book too is illuminating.
Balkas where do you get that info? At that temperature all human life and most animal an plant life would die. Insanity it is and you are ill informed.
However I can say that the oligarchs here would use to higher temperatures to rule us will a titanium hand for certain. A dangerous game they play with the earth an all its life.
Report thisBy ofersince72, August 11, 2010 at 9:44 am Link to this comment
drklasson..
We are in agreement with that….
I very much believe in ecological responsibility and
practice it.
I also believe in preparing for the Climate Collapse.
To do this properly, a proper education of what is
happening and what will be happening is needed.
But unfortunatly, we really can’t predict exactly
Report thiswhat the outcome will be, the C02ppm has never reached
this level in the Ice Age, which the planet has been in
for the last two million years.
By balkas, August 11, 2010 at 7:47 am Link to this comment
US-nato plans to kill at least 5 billion people. The best way to do it would be by increasing global temperatures.
An increase by 6 celsius ought to kill all afrikans, most asians and s. americans.
By constantly threatening china and russia with total destruction by n-bombs, US and friends are forcing china and russia into unnecessary industrialization and thus resulting in excessive pollution.
And then nato-US could blame godless chinese and godless-godful rusians, khazaks, uzbeks [but never khazars]for causing catastrophies and getting approval from domestic serfs to attack the two evil empires and wipe them off the Earth.
Report thisYou can believe me or the American Way and US constitution! tnx
By Charles Barton, August 11, 2010 at 5:57 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Amy Goodman is to be commended for her strong statement on Anthropogenic
Report thisGlobal Warming, However Goodman is no friend of the judicious use of reliable
technology to mitigate AGW. Goodman has frequently signaled her alliance with
the irrational anti-nuclear camp. Goodman is all to willing to overlook the very
significant flaws of solar and wind energy solutions. Global warming can only be
fought with reliable energy sources, and nuclear power is by far the most effective
reliable energy sources. Goodman is an enemy of solving the AGW problem until
she figures this out.
By drklassen, August 11, 2010 at 5:25 am Link to this comment
@ofersince72: Your are correct that scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere is very, VERY, difficult. That’s why, even if we stop all our emissions now, we’re still in for a bumpy ride. But, the sooner we stop, the less horrible it will be.
Report thisBy ofersince72, August 11, 2010 at 5:20 am Link to this comment
I have been to realclimate,,, don’t particuarly like it.
But then, I have had a head start on the C02ppm crisis.
One has to remember, all climate studies since the 1970s
have been controlled to make favorable to industry, and
may I add , with PH.D James Hanson’s help.
Get it through the head, man cannot bring down the
Report thisC02ppm, not one point even if we were to shut down all
man emissions this minute.
By shemp333, August 10, 2010 at 11:39 pm Link to this comment
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em…
Report thisBy Ray Duray, August 10, 2010 at 11:07 pm Link to this comment
Jeff Masters blog is outstandingly informative:
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html
And those who want to dig deep into the climate
change wilderness might also consider Climate
Progress hosted by Joe Romm, a Clinton White House
enviro-staffer:
http://climateprogress.org/
Real Climate blog has some erudite info from real
climate scientists:
http://www.realclimate.org/
And for those with a penchant for pricking sacred
corporate cows, Peter Sinclair provided “Climate
Denier Crock of the Week”:
http://www.youtube.com/user/greenman3610
Report thisBy knobcreekfarmer, August 10, 2010 at 7:26 pm Link to this comment
I’m not a scientist, nor do I play one online, but I recently re-watched
Report this“Dimming the Sun” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/) and
started to wonder something. If particle pollution, from the burning
of fossil fuels, can actually reduce the sunlight striking the earth
thereby reducing the effects of Global Warming, then would it not
stand to be true that a global economic slowdown would reduce the
amount of fossil fuels burned and thus decrease the particle
pollution and the resulting cooling effect? Would this then not cause
accelerated Global Warming?