Climate change has dropped off the political radar (and this is a big problem)

Posted on April 16, 2016 by GarryRogers

“The aversion to talking about climate change during the election campaign reflects a wider problem: our concern for this issue has fallen even while it has become larger and more urgent.” From: www.abc.net.au

GR: During Friday’s Democratic Presidential debate, Sanders said we needed climate action “yesterday.” He received huge applause. I’d say that keeps the topic on the radar. Unfortunately, more familiar concerns–economy, war, and human problems–receive more media presentation. We need more organizations like The Guardian to help keep critical issues out front.

Washington considers nation’s first carbon emissions tax

Posted on February 29, 2016 by GarryRogers

SEATTLE (AP) — “Washington could become the first state in the nation to impose a direct tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels such as coal, gasoline and natural gas.

“A ballot measure before the state Legislature would create a carbon tax of $25 per metric ton of fossil fuel emissions burned in Washington, while reducing taxes.

“Lawmakers have until the end of the session on March 10 to enact Initiative 732, offer an alternative proposal or automatically pass the carbon-tax measure to voters in November as written. It’s not clear whether lawmakers will approve an alternative by the end of the session.

“The grass-roots group Carbon Washington — which gathered more than 350,000 signatures to qualify the initiative — says a carbon tax is the best way to reduce emissions and tackle global warming. It says the tax encourages people and businesses to switch to cleaner energy by making fossil fuels more expensive.” From: bigstory.ap.org

GR: It might be possible for people to break fossil fuel’s deadly grip on our future. Of course, the industry will spend huge sums on advertising and publicity to confuse voters and block a tax. While we have to be hopeful about the outcome in Washington, we can’t wait to see what’s going to happen. The matter is so urgent that petition drives need to open up in all states.

Physics Doesn’t Negotiate — Climate Desk

Posted on September 1, 2015 by GarryRogers

Bill McKibben: Notes on the dangerous difference between science and political science. Sourced through Scoop.it from: medium.com

GR: I’ve encountered the same mistake in local politics. When a company asks to change a law so it can increase its profits, our politicians try to begin negotiating as if the law was already changed.

Dry Rivers, Low Prices Make a Double Whammy for Tar Sands Oil

Posted on August 25, 2015 by GarryRogers

Let’s hope that Harper’s folly is seen for the disaster that it was. Perhaps a new government can drop the greed act and refocus on protecting the magnificent natural beauty of the country.

(Tar Sands’ hellish landscape of ruined Earth and toxic tailing ponds. Image source Occupy.)

This is Not Cool

Much as water is a critical limiting factor for the supposed infinite fossil fuel development in China and Asia – it’s turning out to be a crimp on Canada’s massive Oil sands projects.

At the same time, slumping global oil prices – which are not projected to recover any time soon, are drying up investments in the expensive “exotic” oils that we’ve been told are going to extend fossil fuel dominance in this century. That story is steadily fraying around the edges…

ClimateProgress:

Dozens of tar sands developers in Alberta’s tar sands have been suspended from taking water — needed for their operations — out of local rivers, after a low flow advisory was issued.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) suspended 73 licenses to temporarily divert water (TDLs) from the Athabasca, Peace, and Wabasca rivers on July 24, after unusually dry weather caused water to fall to at or below…

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Playing Chicken With Hothouse Extinction — Obama’s Shameful Shell Drilling Approval

Posted on August 18, 2015 by GarryRogers

It has seemed all along that Obama lacks background in the natural sciences. He often appears to lack the understanding that would let him fully accept the real dangers of global warming. Instead, he believes the topic is important because of the concerns of his advisers and voters. Thus, it is something that he can use politically for bargaining and negotiations.

robertscribbler

Earlier this week President Obama made one of the worst decisions of his presidency. He decided to ignore the concerns of thousands of protesters and more than 60 percent of the American public over the issue of climate change. He decided to approve a dangerous plunging of new wells into unstable, clathrate-laden seabeds in the Arctic. Effectively, he’s deciding to play a dangerous game of chicken with a natural world that’s been riled and wounded by climate change. And in this game he puts us all at risk.

It’s a bad move that sends all the wrong signals. It demonstrates an attachment to the old, limited resource dominance based, policies that cause so many problems and that keep us dependent on fossil fuels for far too long.

(Shell is now approved to poke holes into the Arctic seabed in a mad, climate-destroying, quest for oil. The Arctic, overall, is…

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Control Major Anti-Nature Corporations (CEFIM)

Posted on December 17, 2014 by GarryRogers

Pursuit of Profit by the CEFIM

Nature conservation requires participation in politics. Here’s the outline of a political problem to consider: Large multinational corporations often pursue profits without regard for the consequences. We can limit corporate impacts in three major ways: We can divest our holdings in the largest chemical, energy, finance, insurance, and military corporations (CEFIM), we can stop purchasing their products, and we can support politicians (yes there are some) that oppose corporate power over government.

Divesting, boycotting, and voting. I listed brief bits of useful information for CEFIM corporations below. If you want to get involved, you might wish to pick one industry and follow links to gather information and find top protests to support. Then pick your politicians and go to work!

Chemical Industry

On everyone’s mind just now are the pesticides that are killing the bees and butterflies. A social media push to block toxic pesticides is using the hashtag, #BeeKindObama to call on the president to halt the massive poisoning that the major chemical companies are promoting. The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) produced an info-graphic concerned with pesticides, seeds, and other biotechnology. It shows how a few chemical companies dominate the global market. If pesticides are your thing, go to PAN to find ways to take action.

Chemical Cartel

Energy

If energy and it’s pollution of air, land, and water are of interest to you, you might want to help make Global Divestment Days (February 13, 14, 2015) a society-shaking event. Fossil Free Indexes website ranks energy corporations by their potential to release CO2. The short list below includes the worst of the worst, the top tar-sands companies. Go to Fossil Free Indexes for information on other companies.

2014 Ranking	Reserves Holder	Potential Emissions (Gt CO₂)
1	ExxonMobil	0.660
2	Suncor Energy	0.623
3	Imperial Oil	0.503
4	Canadian Natural Resources	0.425
5	Royal Dutch Shell	0.338

Finance

Occupy Prescott U. S. financial institutions constantly lobby to become “too big to fail” so that they can have tax money to cover their losses. Congress just passed a bill to allow just that. Elizabeth Warren strongly opposed the bill. Top U. S. banks include Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and US Bank. Use local banks instead. Credit unions are often the least expensive. The Banks Around the World website lists banks and other financial institutions.

Insurance

Here I’m focusing on health insurance corporations responsible for inflating costs across the health-care industry. They’ve all been involved, but the largest companies are: WellPoint, CIGNA, Aetna, Humana, United Healthcare, and BlueCross BlueShield. As the Affordable Health Care Act (Obama Care) brings prices down, you might want to shop for smaller providers less likely to exert pressure on politicians to guarantee their profits. Perhaps our next president will again try for a single-payer system.

Military

Irontriangle Armed conflicts waste significant amounts of the Earth’s resources. We’ve all heard about the political influence of the military-industrial complex that is sometimes more correctly called the military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC). The MICC “. . . comprises the policy and monetary relationships which exist between legislators, national armed forces, and the arms industry that supports them. These relationships include political contributions, political approval for military spending, lobbying to support bureaucracies, and oversight of the industry” (Wikipedia).

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the 2013 top five arms and military services corporations were all American: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman. The U. S. companies are big, but there are other large arms corporations in many countries. The 2013 top ten arms exporting countries in approximate order of total revenue: U. S., Russia, France, U.K., Germany, Israel, China, Turkey, Netherlands, and Sweden. This list is approximate because records of arms exports are not well reported.