Because our earth cannot take any more of this nonsense
Submitted by vl baker on Mon, 05/23/2016 - 6:09am
There are so many good reasons to support Bernie, but IMO the greatest is his understanding of the crisis of climate change and his commitment to address it with urgency.
Clinton is so blinded by her greed (and her donations from the fossil fuel industry), that she is unable to give the needed response to the greatest threat facing humanity.
Because our earth cannot take any more of this nonsense. pic.twitter.com/hedXtLwZ1a
— Tim Robbins (@TimRobbins1) May 18, 2016
Comments
There is something in the air...
Many things in the air we don't want. I do what I can, I am sure we do what we can, individually, but some massive effort and change must happen 5 years ago.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Nothing has been done about climate change....
Nothing has been done about climate change because of our corrupt campaign financial system. As long as US politicians can receive money from the fossil fuel industry the status quo will continue.
Bernie's primary issue of removing special interest money from political campaigns will solve many of our most crucial problems.
We humans are idiots and don't realize the anvil over our heads
People think, whether 1%ers or not, "It may happen but I'll be alright. It will only affect someone else." Selfish stupid human animal
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams
Sorry if this sounds selfish...
but I am glad I do not have children. I saw a family here in the politically red part of my state the other day . They had four children all under 12. I told my husband that I sure hoped that those parents are voting for their future. I also told him that this planet probably would be better off if the dinosaurs had survived and not the mammals. I fear for this planet...
Here too...
So it's not just us. We live on a corner, spring is here, and lots of strollers are going by everyday. My husband was talking with someone the other day, and he told her the same thing, got a strange look of course. We probably have that discussion at least every other day. Maybe the planet will evolve into something else, as it has done in the past. Hopefully humans will never again be in the mix. We are going to see many many changes in another decade. By the end of the century timetable, there will only be a few refugees. If these greedy people had any care for anything but more money, they certainly would not reproduce.
Homo sapiens not very sapient.
:-0
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Nothing will be done about climate change --
at least not yet -- because the idea of "climate change" has itself been made into another excuse for corporate profit. Please see this piece:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/camila-moreno-lili-fuhr-dan...
Here's the key passage at the beginning:
Unless we actually understand that climate change is an issue of how much capitalism the planet can stand, "climate change mitigation" will always have as its primary goal the generation of nice-looking statistics so that corporations can continue to profit (and capitalism can continue to operate) while things get worse. Even with a carbon tax we are still in the trap of homo economicus, the idea that tweaking our role as consumers (while leaving us as consumers) will solve the problem. Tweaking our role as consumers might help a bit, insofar as we still have any money for consumption (and mine is going to be drying up) -- but it's a tiny thing to do when what really needs to be done is a dramatic reordering of civilization itself.
Eventually Sanders will come to this realization. Clinton won't. Trump won't.
'French theory is a product of US cultural imperialism." -- Gabriel Rockhill
There is indeed something in the air!!
'French theory is a product of US cultural imperialism." -- Gabriel Rockhill
What's in the Dew, Ain't Dew No More - Capt Beefheart
Climate change and nuclear proliferation are the two existential issues facing us. Either can render the earth uninhabitable.
Senator Sanders has a long record, a long positive record, on both and I think he can be trusted. A reasonable person cannot say that about Secretary Clinton.
It is essential that Sanders be elected president, for the earth's sake.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Marvin said it, generations ago.
Woo ah, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east.
[video:https://youtu.be/U9BA6fFGMjI]
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
yep, we've known about climate change for generations...
but the money in politics and the power of the fossil fuel industry because of that money has prevented action. Devastating.
The key year, I believe, is 1983.
That's when a series of reports from the US National Academy of Sciences and the EPA suggested it as a real hazard. The whole history is related in Spencer Weart's The Discovery of Global Warming.
As for the relationship between increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and increased average global temperatures, Svante Arrhenius put forth the theory in 1894 -- thing was, however, that Arrhenius thought it would be a good thing because, he hypothesized, a warmer Earth would open up large stretches of Canada and Siberia to agriculture. It's only recently that the scientists have understood how fast it was coming, how thoroughly it was caused by (capitalist) industry, how disruptive it will be, and why it has to be mitigated.
'French theory is a product of US cultural imperialism." -- Gabriel Rockhill
I was working with materials that described climate change--
still global warming then--in the late '80s at The Nature Conservancy. No questions among scientists there. The org. (which has some corporate heavy hitters on its board) roared ahead with land banking and protection of natural forests. Then again, TNC does well with Charity Navigator but doesn't rate unanimous praise in conservation circles (http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/the-group-of-ten/the-nature-conservancy/).
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti
If you were working on those 1983 reports --
that would have been even earlier.
'French theory is a product of US cultural imperialism." -- Gabriel Rockhill
True; I didn't arrive at TNC 'til several yrs later
Conservation work was my reward to myself for years working in the health and biomed arena with a bunch of Beltway Bandits. What a relief it was to be with an organization whose clients--endangered plants and animals--couldn't talk back.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti
Known it for generations?
Someone posted this 1958 clip (it's about a minute).
Not to be doom and gloom, but if we stopped now and left it all in the ground, we might still be past the tipping point. I heard not long ago, we need to act like climate change is WWIII, and unite the world fighting it. I agree, but I just don't see how.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
(No subject)
Unfortunately that's not a theory of abrupt climate change.
Though I suppose that if you wanted to discuss how humans (and please let's put the sexist usage "mankind" to bed, or maybe we should just refer to our species as "womynkind") have changed the climate, you could start with the relationship between the Little Ice Age and the vast dieoff of residents in the Americas (due either to slaughter or to smallpox) after the Spanish invasions of the 16th century CE...
'French theory is a product of US cultural imperialism." -- Gabriel Rockhill
My
profuse (as in plentiful) apologies for using the term "mankind"(as in human beings considered collectively; the human race) It was not my intent to denigrate (as in disparage)(as in of being of little worth) women. I shall edit (as in change) my use of mankind to "the human race" (as in all people, female and male). But then again my reference to the ancients (as in long ago) didn't suit you so I may as well delete my whole comment.
Will there be anything else? You see I'm quite easy to get along with;)
I kinda lean humankind
to make a designation between Homo sapiens and the rest of kind, animal, vegetable, mineral, whatever. Just realized AVM includes no mention of energy imput, water and many other things (garbage out) that H sapiens does to Earth.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Humanunkind
is what e e cummings called us.
I like your witch hazel flowers, riverlover.
Hillary's "free" trade agreements also will destroy governments' abilities to enforce environmental laws if they cause any corporations to gain less profit.
Much of my understory now.
Dogwoods (property name, when we were young and increasingly small-scale wealthy) went locally extinct IN MY 30 YEARS HERE due to dogwood anthracnose. One of my last fall flowers Cheery. Macrolens flowers appearing now in spring.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Where I lived in the southern mountains on
the eastern continental divide, with plenty of productive springs, Witch Hazel was the last native flower, some of which could persist into December.
The first native flower was usually Spicebush. We had both on our acreage and felt lucky to have them.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Yes, there have been solutions for decades....
I've been writing about fast solutions to climate change for about 10 years. Need to post some pieces on this site as soon as I can make the time. But, yes there are things that can be done that will be a fast solution to the most serious threat of climate change. Stay tuned!
I know it was just a subset
of your overall climate activism, but I wish you would revive Meatless Mondays here. I am not a vegetarian, but I would like to eat less meat. I found your Meatless Mondays series very enjoyable and inspiring.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I think the idea of one day a week
living a little further down the food chain is a great idea, both for our bodies and for the earth.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Bill Clinton used to triangulate on issues.
Hillary, being piss poor at politics, can only angulate. Like a one legged bar stool, her positions are highly unstable, and swing from one direction to another at the slightest breeze. She does not make decisions based on what is right or what is wrong, but, rather, on what benefits her in the short term.
As a major power player in the world (for worse)
I do believe it is our last world duty to come up with ideas and works to dig us out. Last gasp of American exceptionalism. We have to approach as humble but mobilized.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Tweeted and recced
We cannot say this enough.
Hillary = Bad for the earth
Bernie = Good for the earth
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
My favourite Bernie T
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Exactly why NOW is the Time, not n 2, 4 years....
This is the Point. Thanks for the essay. Great essay.
We are OUT of Time. Bernie said this himself at the close of the MI Debate: We are past the point where we needed to do something for the Planet, and corporations may already be too strong to defeat.
People talk about 'planting the seeds' and 'starting a new political movement' if/once Bernie loses the DemConv.
We don't have 2, 4, 6 years to build a Movement and a Party. We do not have a Political Establishment/system in teh US which would EVER allow upward mobility of Movement candidates.
The iron is red-hot ...now. This Spring has shown that the majority of Americans were ready to hear Bernie's message, and to actually get off their butts this time.
Time to succeed is NOW, 2016.
pedal to the Metal. We all may have to Push Bernie into it, however. Maybe, maybe not. Hard to tell what his campaign has up its sleeve. if they are bluffing, again, the People will need to push him into the Gen'l Election race.
George
agreed, vl baker. agreed.
“There are moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory… ”
― Lawrence Durrell, "Justine"
Homo sapiens stupidicus erectus
Will not fix things, face it, the way things are done, the ones who want to fix the climate/ecosphere do not have the resources, those who have the resources are too busy making profits to give a shit. Homo sapiens stupidicus is a dead end of evolution. 6th extinction has begun, and Humankind will drag other species on Earth with it to oblivion.
So long, and thanks for all the fish