NAFEEZ AHMED, PHD, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: This is the geopolitics of the future, just as the Cold War, communism, and Hitler's National Socialism dominated the 20th century. The failure to recognize this, and to continue a foreign policy geared to protecting the profits of the few, is going to condemn millions to misery and war.
During his speech at West Point Military Academy earlier this week, President Barack Obama described climate change as a “creeping national security crisis” that will require the armed forces to “respond to refugee flows, natural disasters, and conflicts over water and food.”
The speech emphasised that US foreign policy in the 21st century is increasingly being honed in recognition of heightened risks of social, political and economic upheaval around the world due the impacts of global warming.
A more detailed insight into US military planning could be seen in the report published a couple of weeks earlier by the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Military Advisory Board, written and endorsed by a dozen or so senior retired US generals. Describing climate change as a not just a “threat multiplier,” but now – even worse – a “catalyst for conflict”, the study concluded that environmental impacts from climate change in coming decades:
“…. will aggravate stressors abroad, such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability and social tensions – conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.”
To be sure, the link between climate change and the risk of violence is supported by many independent studies. No wonder, reports […]
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Stephan: Here is a very thoughtful data based assessment of the energy transition. It is very good news. Al Gore has proven himself competent and sensible about climate change. So the facts are what they are, and his interpretation of them I think is spot on.
In the struggle to solve the climate crisis, a powerful, largely unnoticed shift is taking place. The forward journey for human civilization will be difficult and dangerous, but it is now clear that we will ultimately prevail. The only question is how quickly we can accelerate and complete the transition to a low-carbon civilization. There will be many times in the decades ahead when we will have to take care to guard against despair, lest it become another form of denial, paralyzing action. It is true that we have waited too long to avoid some serious damage to the planetary ecosystem – some of it, unfortunately, irreversible. Yet the truly catastrophic damages that have the potential for ending civilization as we know it can still – almost certainly – be avoided. Moreover, the pace of the changes already set in motion can still be moderated significantly.
Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math
There is surprising – even shocking – good news: Our ability to convert sunshine into usable energy has become much cheaper far more rapidly than anyone had predicted. The cost of electricity from photovoltaic, or PV, solar cells is now equal to or less than the cost of electricity from other […]
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MATTHEW ROCCO, - Fox Business
Stephan: Here, from a right wing media outlet, are the words of a right wing carbon energy tycoon. As you read his comments, bear in mind his appalling labor and environmental safety record -- which of course Fox fails to note. Juxtapose this in your mind with the Gore essay that proceeds it.
The Obama administration’s latest proposal to curb carbon emissions at existing power plants threatens to drive up energy costs, Murray Energy chief executive Robert Murray tells FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto.
Murray and the company he founded have filed four lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over regulations that target the coal industry. Four state attorneys general have joined those efforts.
Earlier this week, Murray Energy sued the EPA over a new set of rules that aim to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 30% from 2005 levels.
The proposed regulations raised more questions over the future of the coal industry and electricity rates. Coal, already under pressure from low natural gas prices, accounts for 40% of electricity generation in the U.S., down from 45% in 2009.
In an exclusive interview Thursday on Cavuto, Murray expressed concern over the impact the EPA’s rules will have on his company, one of the largest U.S. coal producers. Ohio-based Murray Energy also has operations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states.
‘It’s a human issue to me because my employees’ lives are being destroyed,” Murray said, adding that coal remains the cheapest way to generate electricity. ‘I grew up poor. Poverty-stricken people are going to be hurt the worst. […]
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LORI MONTGOMERY, - The Washington Post
Stephan: The story of the Outer Banks of North Carolina is the first of what I believe are going to be many sad stories about the effects of climate change on coastal communities. I have spent time on the Outer Banks, have had friends who lived there, and have some sense of what it means to those families, some of whom have been on the Banks for generations. But the the outcome is inevitable because we have failed to respond responsibly for a least a decade to what the data has been telling us. Even now denial dominates. What seems particularly sad is that the other way to look at this is as an extraordinary opportunity to realize a coastal region based on actual ecology, not developer fantasy. An approach which would put tens of thousands to work, and greatly improve the economy. It would also require some state wide or Federal program covering the purchase of condemned properties.
Click through for the very useful graphics and video.
NAGS HEAD, N.C. — The dangers of climate change were revealed to Willo Kelly in a government conference room in the summer of 2011. By the end of the century, state officials said, the ocean would be 39 inches higher and her home on the Outer Banks would be swamped.
The state had detailed maps to illustrate this claim and was developing a Web site where people could check by street address to see if their property was doomed. There was no talk of salvation, no plan to hold back the tide. The 39-inch forecast was ‘a death sentence,” Kelly said, ‘for ever trying to sell your house.”
So Kelly, a lobbyist for Realtors and home builders on the Outer Banks, resolved to prove the forecast wrong. And thus began one of the nation’s most notorious battles over climate change.
Coastal residents joined forces with climate skeptics to attack the science of global warming and persuade North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature to deep-six the 39-inch projection, which had been advanced under the outgoing Democratic governor. Now, the state is working on a new forecast that will look only 30 years out and therefore show the seas rising by no more than eight inches.
Environmentalists […]
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Saturday, June 28th, 2014
SCOTT KAUFMAN, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Almost every day I see stories like this one. They make it clear that something very strange and unexpected has happened to American democracy: One of the parties has been taken over by loons and morons. People who are demonstrably challenged mentally and emotionally, and whose principle emotions appear to be fear and anger. I am just going to run two of these stories in today's edition but you can take them as examplars of a much bigger trend. It is quite notable and almost entirely a phenomenon of the Theocratic Right. This is one of the main reasons the Congress has become a dysfunctional institution productive of almost nothing positive.
It is easy to laugh, and I did, but it is a serious symptom of American decline.
The loser in a recent Republican primary is claiming that his opponent, Oklahoma Representative Frank Lucas, is unqualified for office because he has been replaced by a robot.
Timothy Ray Murray posted a press release – addressed to ‘News Person” – in which he demanded the Oklahoma Board of Elections shift votes from Rep. Lucas to him on account of the fact that ‘it is widely known Rep. Frank D. Lucas is no longer alive and has been displayed [sic] by a look alike.”
Murray claimed that Rep. Lucas was ‘executed by The World Court on or about Jan. 11, 2011 in Southern Ukraine. On television they were depicted as being executed by the hanging about the neck until death on a white stage and in front of witnesses.”
He stated that while ‘it is possible to use look alike artificial or man-made replacements,” such ‘replacements” are not human, and therefore ineligible to serve in office. He also assured the board that he ‘will NEVER use Artificial Intelligence look alike to voice what The Representative’s Office is doing nor own a robot look alike.”
‘Many things have been said about me, said to me during course of my campaigns,” Rep. Lucas told KFOR. ‘This […]
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