Four Critical Questions, Four Appalling Answers

Darfuri Child Artist (Source: Mia Farrow, http://miafarrow.org)

 Casino capitalism - aka turbocharged neoliberalism - is ruthlessly destroying the last vestiges of the welfare state and the egalitarian consensus in the industrialized West, possibly with the odd Scandinavian exception. It has established a "New Normal" consensus, intruding into private lives, dominating the political debate and institutionalizing for good the marketization of life itself - the final act of fierce corporate exploitation of natural resources, land and cheap labor. Integration, socialization and multiculturalism are being corroded by disintegration, segregation, and widespread de-socialization - a direct consequence of the David Harvey-coined notion of "dis-accumulation" (society devouring its own). This state of things is what Flemish philosopher and art historian Lieven De Cauter, in his book Entropic Empire, calls "the Mad Max phase of globalization". It is a Hobbesian world, a latent global civil war, a war of all against all; the economic haves against the have-nots; intolerant Wahhabis against "apostate" Shi'ites; the children of the Enlightenment against all manner of fundamentalists; the Pentagon militarization of Africa against Chinese mercantilism. Pepe Escobar, Post-History Strip Tease, Asia Times, 4-26-13

The idea behind the report was simple. Tally up all the world’s natural capital — land, water, atmosphere, etc. — that doesn’t currently have a dollar value attached to it, and figure out the price. But the next step was where it got interesting. Figure how much of that natural capital is being consumed, depleted or degraded without the responsible party paying the cost for that use. The number the study hit on was a staggering $7.3 trillion in 2009 — about 13 percent of global economic output for that year. ... Jeff Spross, Climate Progress, 4-23-13

Four Important Questions, Four Appalling Answers

By Richard Power 

I have very little to say anymore about the fate of this nation, or its sorry lack of leadership.

But just to keep the timeline going, here are four critical questions to ask yourself, along with some worthy commentary to provide context for the appalling answers.

Tell me, do you truly comprehend what is happening in the world around you?

The world is likely days away from a "sobering milestone" in our planetary history. Concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will likely reach 400 parts per million (ppm) for first time in human history, say scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and unless drastic action is taken, we're on track to hit 450 ppm in the near future. "I wish it weren't true, but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400-ppm level without losing a beat," said Scripps geochemist Ralph Keeling, whose father Charles David (Dave) Keeling began the "Keeling Curve" to track daily CO2 levels recorded at Mauna Loa Observatory. The last time the greenhouse gases were at 400 ppm was likely the Pliocene epoch, between 3.2 million and 5 million years ago. The current reading is at 399.72 ppm -- far past the 350 ppm level many, including noted climate scientist James Hansen, have warned is the upper safe limit before the planet hits a tipping point. Andrea Germanos, Climate Collision Course: CO2 Levels About to Hit 400 PPM, Common Dreams, 4-29-13

Do you understand why your political leaders are not doing anything about it?

If you want to see why the public approval rating of Congress is down in the sub-arctic range — an icy 15 percent by last count — all you have to do is take a quick look at how the House and Senate pay worship at the altar of corporations, banks and other special interests at the expense of public aspirations and need ... Sadly, such is the way of Washington, home of the scheme and the fraud, where the unbreakable chain between money and governance weighs heavy and drags us ever deeper into a sinkhole of inaction and mediocrity. Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, The Worst Congress Money Can Buy, Moyers and Company, 4-27-13

In other ages, states sought to seize as much power as they could. Today, the self-hating state renounces its powers. Governments anathematise governance. They declare their role redundant and illegitimate. They launch furious assaults on their own branches, seeking wherever possible to lop them off. This self-mutilation is a response to the fact that power has shifted. States now operate at the behest of others. Deregulation, privatisation, the shrinking of the scope, scale and spending of the state: these are now seen as the only legitimate policies. The corporations and billionaires to whom governments defer will have it no other way. Just as taxation tends to redistribute wealth, regulation tends to redistribute power. A democratic state controls and contains powerful interests on behalf of the powerless. This is why billionaires and corporations hate regulation, and – through their newspapers, thinktanks and astroturf campaigns – mobilise people against it. George Monbiot, Guardian, 4-22-13

Do you understand that the mainstream news media, the Fourth Estate, is now nothing more than a Fifth Column, engaging in disinformation warfare in the service of your Corporatist overlords?

And, the likelihood now is that the Right will consolidate its dominance of the U.S. news media in the years ahead. In the very near future, some of the country’s most prominent regional newspapers may fall under the control of right-wing ideologues like Rupert Murdoch or the Koch Brothers. Koch Industries, a privately owned oil and gas giant which has provided the means for Charles and David Koch to lavishly fund libertarian think tanks and Tea Party organizations, is now exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company’s eight regional newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, the Hartford Courant and the Chicago Tribune ... Without major investments by honest Americans in honest journalism – whether the Old Media of print or the New Media of electronics – the United States will continue to drift into a made-up world of right-wing paranoia and pretend facts. And that is a danger for the entire planet. Robert Parry, It's the Media, Stupid! Consortiumnews, 4-26-13

Do you understand that in this once great nation there is more political will to bestow the trappings of imaginary personhood on giant corporations and tiny fetuses than there is to acknowledge the systematic annihilation of an entire population?

There is in Darfur no end in sight for conflict, murder, rape, assaults on displaced persons camps, agricultural and village destruction, brutal extortion schemes, and continuing violent human displacement. The primary targets of this mayhem overseen by the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum continue to be primarily civilians from African tribal groups surviving tenuously in an increasingly chaotic Darfur; it is the cruelest of counter-insurgency strategies, since the military opponents of the regime are rebel groups that refuse to accept a peace agreement contrived in Doha (Qatar), not ordinary farmers and landholders. Moreover, for several years an increasing number of Arab tribal groups have been drawn into the fighting, often pitting one Arab group against another; this has produced rapidly growing “collateral damage” as Khartoum seeks to subdue Darfur by means of a war of attrition in which impunity, chaos, and inter-ethnic violence serve the regime’s ultimate military and political purposes. The insecurity consequent upon such polices threatens international relief organizations, many of which have already withdrawn or been expelled, and many more are contemplating withdrawal. International civilian protection—publicly called for since 2003—has been disastrously inadequate. The international community, long unwilling to act meaningfully, pretends that a raft of ignored UN Security Council resolutions—filled with “Chapter 7 authority” and various “demands” that have gone entirely unmet by Khartoum—is an adequate diplomatic response. Peace negotiations, under myriad auspices, produced first the disastrously ill-conceived and ill-fated “Darfur Peace Agreement” (2006, Abuja)—an agreement that ensured the fragmentation of Darfur’s rebel movement. More recently (July 2011) the “Doha Document for Peace in Darfur” (DDPD) has served as the diplomatic point of departure, and touchstone for all comments about ending violence in Darfur ... This is so even as the DDPD has been overwhelmingly rejected by the major rebel groups and Darfuri civil society, and whose terms have been almost entirely ignored by the Khartoum regime since the time the agreement was signed twenty-one months. Eric Reeves, THE DARFUR GENOCIDE AT TEN YEARS: A Reckoning, 4-19-13

Listen my friend, even if you won legislative victory after legislative victory on gay marriage, immigration reform and gun control, this once great nation would still be utterly lost in a wasteland of its own making.

Because of our collective failure to address the appalling answers to these four critical questions.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at Words of Power and Primal Words of Power, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

A Line has Been Drawn in the Tar Sands, POTUS, which Side will You Stand On? No Middle Ground Down that Line; No Wiggle Room for Compromise. Either You Stand with the Heroes, or With Those Responsible for Planetary Catastrophe

Forecasts of global temperature rises over the past 15 years have proved remarkably accurate, new analysis of scientists' modelling of climate change shows. Duncan Clark, Guardian, 3-27-13

Climate scientists have linked the massive snowstorms and bitter spring weather now being experienced across Britain and large parts of Europe and North America to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice. John Vidal, Guardian, 3-25-13 

How many extreme storm surges like that from Hurricane Katrina, which hit the U.S. coast in 2005, will there be as a result of global warming? New research from the Niels Bohr Institute show that there will be a tenfold increase in frequency if the climate becomes two degrees Celcius warmer. Science Daily, 3-18-13

With data from 73 ice and sediment core monitoring sites around the world, scientists have reconstructed Earth's temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age. The analysis reveals that the planet today is warmer than it's been during 70 to 80 percent of the last 11,300 years ... Space Daily, 3-8-13

A Line has Been Drawn in the Tar Sands, POTUS, which Side will You Stand On? No Middle Ground Down that Line; No Wiggle Room for Compromise. Either You Stand with the Heroes, or With Those Responsible for Planetary Catastrophe

By Richard Power

Climate science denial is a crime against reason, a crime against nature and a crime against humanity.

Those who fund climate change denial are guilty of underwriting a global holocaust. Those in the media who live off that funding by fomenting climate science denial are as guilty as the radio broadcasters convicted for advancing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. And those elected officials who wrap their naked greed in such denial? Well, they are an abomination unto the Goddess.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee has named a climate science denier congressman as the new chairman of the subcommittee responsible for climate change issues. With Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) as subcommittee chair, House Science has no shortage of climate deniers making science their prime target. Rebecca Leber, Climate Progress, 3-20-13

Fortunately, there are still a few heroes in high places. Unfortunately, there may be too few.

[Admiral Samuel J. Locklear, commander of the Pacific Command] met privately with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities on Friday and said that the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region is climate change, reports the Boston Globe, and that significant upheaval related to the warming planet is: "Probably the most likely thing that is going to happen... that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about." Locklear continued: "People are surprised sometimes, [but] you have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17." What's really interesting here is that the US has declared the Asia Pacific region (and all its security issues from North Korea, China, Japan, and the South China Sea) its primary security focus." Julia Whitty, Mother Jones, 3-12-13

Even in the early stages of this self-inflicted Climate Crisis, the impact has proven devastating. Here is just one example.

In October 2010, just months before a Tunisian street vendor self-immolated and sparked what would become the Arab Spring, a prolonged drought was turning Syria's verdant farmland into dust. By last month, more than 70,000 Syrians, mostly civilians, had been killed in the brutal and ongoing conflict between President Bashar al-Assad's dictatorial regime and a coalition of opposition forces; just today, the UN announced that over one million refugees fled the country in the last two years. International security experts are now looking at the connection between recent droughts in the Middle East and the protests, revolutions, and deaths that followed, and building a body of evidence to suggest that climate change played a key role in Syria's violence and the Arab Spring generally.
Tim McDonnell, Mother Jones, 3-6-13 

The implications of failing to come to grips with the Climate Crisis, and the broader Sustainability Crisis behind it (i.e., over-population, food insecurity, water scarcity, sanitation, etc.), are breathtaking in their scope. Consider ...
 
Right now, it takes 1.5 Earths worth of resources to maintain our current economy. By 2050, assuming only moderate growth, we’ll consume nearly 3 Earths worth. But of course, we only have one planet. Those extra worlds we consume represents debt – assets taken from our children. In ecologic terms, it is called “overshoot.” And living systems cannot long survive in overshoot mode.  John Atcheson, Common Dreams, 3-19-13
  
The number of people living in extreme poverty could increase by up to 3 billion by 2050 unless urgent action is taken to tackle environmental challenges, a major UN report warned on Thursday. The 2013 Human Development Report hails better than expected progress on health, wealth and education in dozens of developing countries but says inaction on climate change, deforestation, and air and water pollution could end gains in the world's poorest countries and communities. Claire Provost, Guardian, 3-14-13

A line has been drawn in the Tar Sands, POTUS, which side will you choose to stand on? There is no middle ground down that line; there is no compromise to achieve, there is no way out of it, either you stand with the heroes, or you stand with those responsible for bringing on a planetary catastrophe.

What will you do, POTUS? Who will you decide to be for all time? Because, whether you know it or not, THIS decision is the defining one.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at Words of Power and Primal Words of Power, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

"This is the Beginning of the Change ..." - A Female Water Snake has Coiled Around the Future, One Billion have Risen, & the Legion of Reality & Love has Marched on Beltwayistan

Paul Delvaux - Women Trees (1937)

“When I first came to Africa and I flew over Kilimanjaro, even in the height of the summer there was a great cap of snow. The snows of Kilimanjaro,” she recalled. “I just read the other day that we should rather be talking about the dusts of Kilimanjaro. That is just one signal and this is all around the world that the glaciers are melting,” she went on. For Goodall, one of the world’s leading chimpanzee experts, “something has gone wrong” in the relationship between man and the planet. “We’ve just been stealing, stealing, stealing from our children, and it’s shocking. But is it true that there’s nothing that can be done? No absolutely not,” she goes on, explaining how her latest project, Roots and Shoots, began." Jane Goodall on climate change, Agence France Press, 2-10-13

"This is the Beginning of the Change ..." - A Female Water Snake has Coiled Around the Future, One Billion have Risen, & the Legion of Reality & Love has Marched on Beltwayistan

By Richard Power

Tibetan New Year (Losar), Vietnamese New Year, Chinese New Year have come and gone. Another threshold. Another portal. Another octave. The Mayan calendar ran out months ago. We are into it now. Just as the Dragon Year (2012) brought many of us dynamic change and radical re-alignment in our inner lives, this Snake Year (2013) will ground that dynamic change and radical re-alignment, coiling around it, and threading it into the tapestries of our circumstances with undulating power. Just as this last Dragon Year was fire and air, this Snake Year is water and earth.

Can you feel how the Great Shift as it deepens, settling into the foundations of its axis? I don't know what the scrolls say, but this is what Psyche whispers to me. Yes, we are into it now.

Since Losar, two significant notches have been cut into the timeline of this global non-violent evolution, on 2-14-13 and 2-17-13.

On 2-14-13, people in over 200 countries took to the streets for Eve Ensler's One Billion Rising; they danced for an end to violence against women and girls throughout the world. (One out of every three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in this lifetime.) This event shook the earth and shook the human psyche; yes, for it is these women and girls who will lead the self-salvation of the species and the healing of the planet.

Eve Ensler: I could never have dreamed up the diversity of this movement. We have queen of the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the queen mother of Bhutan. We have prime ministers of Croatia and Australia. We have lamas. We have nuns. We have Zumba dancers. We have an extraordinary dancer in Pakistan who will be dancing in Karachi, where it is dangerous. We have women who have never danced before and women who will literally be risking their lives to dance. We have movie stars, and we have domestic workers. We have migrant workers. We have union leaders. We have nurses. We have doctors. We have every type of person on the planet and every person on the planet. And I really believe this day will literally change the mindset, the paradigm and the energy of the planet. Democracy Now, 2-14-13

And on 2-17-20, the forces of Reality and Love, 50,000 strong, descended on the great Mall to confront our political "leaders" on the Climate Crisis, and to specifically demand that POTUS and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry put an end to the Keystone XL pipeline. This action was led by 350.org, the Sierra Club and the Hip-Hop Caucus.

Many strong men (black and white) spoke at this event, including Van Jones ("if it goes through—the first thing that the pipeline runs over is the credibility of the president of the United States"), Bill McKibben ("easiest, simplest, purest action [POTUS] could take is to not build this long fuse to one of the biggest carbon bombs on earth"), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse ("the polluters think they've got it under control, and then you show up") and Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. (who MC'd).

Michael Brune, Executive Director of Sierra Club, put the challenge directly to POTUS, "Mr. President, we have heard what you said, but what will you do?"

But it was the women leaders of the indigenous peoples of North America who defined, sanctified and exalted this moment in human history.

Chief Jacqueline Thomas of Saik'uz First Nation said, "I need someone to stand with me if the bulldozers come. I will lay down my life."

Crystal Lameman of Beaver Lake Cree First Nations said, "We can not eat money, and we can not drink oil."

And Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, blessing that legion of Reality and Love, said "... I see you my relatives, I see you my red relatives back here, I see you my black relatives out there, I see you my white relatives out there, I see you my yellow relatives out there, I see you my thunder relatives, I see you my grass relatives, I see you my four-legged relatives, I see you my water relatives. You could be anywhere, you could be doing anything, that's what my people say, but instead you chose this day to be here, you chose this day to stand in solidarity with each other, the human race. Because we know, our mother, the Earth, with merely a shrug of her shoulders could shake us off; with merely a talk to her thunder nation she could wash us away. But instead she nurtures us, instead she gives us strength, instead she feeds us the power to come together. We are allied with the greatest powers that are. We are allied with the Father Sun, we are allied with the Mother Earth, we are allied with the relatives of the Moon and Stars. And my relatives, you are winners. My relatives, this is the beginning of the Change. My relatives, what you do today makes the difference. And I love you ..."

CASEY CAMP-HORINEK: "THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE CHANGE ..."

Yes. Watching Casey Camp-Horinek: "This is the Beginning of the Change ..." @cspanvl cs.pn/UvyZnw #forwardonclimate #climatechange
— Richard Power (@wordsofpower) February 17, 2013

Yes. We are into it now. May the Goddess bless us all. "This is the Beginning of the Change ..."

There is forward movement throughout the world. But you are not hearing about it from Infotainmentstan ...

Bhutan plans to become the first country in the world to turn its agriculture completely organic, banning the sales of pesticides and herbicides and relying on its own animals and farm waste for fertilisers ... John Vidal & Annie Kelly, Guardian, 2-11-13

Something interesting is happening in Australia. A new study by the research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance has found that unsubsidized renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels like coal and gas. In fact, it’s a lot cheaper ... Thom Hartmann, Time to Take Notice: How Renewable Energy Is Becoming Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, AlterNet, 2-10-13

And there is much POTUS can do, without Congress, much that he MUST do without Congress (because they won't act) ...

The president, McKibben argued, should "put the full power of the federal government behind a crash program to insulate homes, scale up energy efficiency" and move the US toward a renewable energy future immediately. Sierra Club president Michael Brune championed the president's ability to "inspire millions to believe in the possibility of change and the power of hope" and said he should use his position to prove that solving the climate crisis is an incredible opportunity for the country rather than a burden ... Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says Obama must now move from rhetoric to precise action, calling on him to take up a plan offered by the NRDC to use his executive authority and the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to curb the carbon pollution caused by the nation's coal and gas-fired power plants ... The Center for Biological Diversity also urged Obama to move swiftly from strong words to strong action. Acknowledging the impossible congressional scenario for passing meaningful legislation, the group also recommended a push from the executive branch ... CBD urged five specific actions the president could take, which included: setting a national carbon pollution cap; banning fracking and end fossil fuel development on public lands; rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline; protecting the Arctic from offshore drilling; and joining the world in efforts to forge a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty. Jon Queally, On Climate, A Call for Obama to Speak Forcefully and Act Urgently, Common Dreams, 2-12-13

Yes, POTUS, if you do not deliver for the future you will be lost to history, both are now, this IS the future, and this IS the great pivot of history.

"This is the Beginning of the Change ..."

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

A Week After POTUS' 2nd Term Inaugural on MLK Day, Yes, It All Comes Down to the Tar Sands Pipeline

Yves Tanguy - The Sun in Its Jewel Case (1937)

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared. President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, 1-21-13

Barack Obama has ducked a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, a key environmental issue, just one day after delivering a stirring call to action on climate change. In the first test of Obama's renewed commitment to climate, the administration said on Tuesday it was putting off until April a decision on the project, which is designed to pump crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, the White House told reporters that climate change was just "one of a host of priorities" for the president's second term. Suzanne Goldenberg, Obama stalls for time after Nebraska approves Keystone XL oil pipeline, Guardian, 1-22-13

A Week After POTUS' 2nd Term Inaugural on MLK Day, Yes, It All Comes Down to the Tar Sands Pipeline

By Richard Power

No, POTUS, action on the Climate Crisis is not "one of a host of priorities," as your mouthpiece now says 48 hours after your encouraging inaugural address. It is the paramount national security threat of our age (and the next), it is the paramount economic security threat of our age (and the next), it is the paramount public health issue of our age (and the next), it is the paramount human rights issue of our age (and the next). And the Keystone XL pipeline decision is one that will have direct impact on our ability to mitigate the worst of the Climate Crisis. If you fail to stop it you will have allowed an opportunity to do tremendous good to slip out of your hands, and the consequences will be dire, grave, civilization-breaking. And this is a decision that is utterly within your control, you don't need the Senate, you don't need the House, you don't need anything but courage and common sense. You can stop it with the stroke of a pen. Yes, it is that simple. But will you? Surprise me (and Charles Pierce).

Delay it until April if you must, for tactical reasons. But if you don't stop the XL pipeline you will be proven to be, on this most vital of all issues, an utter hypocrite. You have already proven to be a profound disappointment on the struggle against Climate Change, but failure to stop the XL pipeline will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is not simply the impossibility of progressive governance in Beltwayistan, but indeed a willful wrong.

Within a few days of your call to arms (thank you for Myrlie Evers-Williams and the Battle Hymn of the Republic, such symbols have power), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) failed to take meaningful action to end the abuse of the filibuster rule, thereby ensuring that nothing truly good will come from the Senate. Well, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is a fool and a coward. Rachel Maddow explains why. (The "fool and coward" part, that's my language, not hers.)

On the same day as Reid failed us all, 53 U.S. Senators, "Democrats" (note the quotes) as well as Death Eaters from the Zombie Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, have sent POTUS a letter urging approval of the planet-killing XL pipeline. Utter depravity ...

In the coming weeks, months and years of the Climate Crisis End Game, it will be the citizens on the street, hitherto cast as followers, who must lead, and the politicians, hitherto cast as leaders, who must be compelled to follow. We must be Idle No More.

Lest you lose your resolve, whether you "lead" or "follow," consider seven recent stories ...

The Canadian tar sands have been called the “most environmentally destructive project on earth”, with good reason. But what if we told you that a significant proportion of the climate impact from exploiting the tar sands has been overlooked? ... It turns out that analysts have been examining the liquid fuels derived from tar sands bitumen and calculating the emissions associated with producing those light liquid fuels (i.e. gasoline and diesel), and adding the emissions from burning those liquid fuels to derive a “well-to-wheels” analysis of emissions. On this basis alone, the European Commission has determined that the emissions from tar sands derived fuel are 23% greater than fuel from conventional crude used in Europe. Lorne Stockman, There’s coal hiding in the tar sands, and the emissions are not being counted, PriceofOil.org, 1-17-13

In the coming decades, climate change will lead to more frequent and more intense Midwest heat waves while degrading air and water quality and threatening public health. Intense rainstorms and floods will become more common, and existing risks to the Great Lakes will be exacerbated. Heat Waves, Storms, Flooding: Climate Change to Profoundly Affect U.S. Midwest in Coming Decades, Science Daily, 1-17-13

The US space agency Nasa warned this week that the Amazon rainforest may be showing the first signs of large-scale degradation due to climate change. A team of scientists led by the agency found that an area twice the size of California continues to suffer from a mega-drought that began eight years ago. Jonathan Watts, Amazon showing signs of degradation due to climate change, Nasa warns, Guardian, 1-18-13

The glaciers of the Andes Mountains have retreated at an unprecedented rate in the past three decades, with more ice lost than at any other time in the last 400 years ... The looming loss of the glaciers is a major problem for the people living in arid regions west of the Andes, Rabatel said. Andes Glaciers Vanishing Rapidly, Study Finds, Live Science, 1-22-13

The upshot of what they know so far is that Greenland is not only melting—it may be melting faster than anyone expected, including most scientists. And what's more, we may be blowing past a point of irreversibility, where the world commits, irrevocably, to a level of sea level rise that, as it unfolds over the coming centuries, would devastate many coastal megacities. Chris Mooney, Why Greenland's Melting Could Be the Biggest Climate Disaster of All, Mother Jones, 1-24-13

You may recall the shocking World Bank Climate Report from November that concluded: “A 4°C [7°F] world can, and must, be avoided” to avert “devastating” impacts ... Now World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has a strong WashPost op-ed that warns “we need to get serious fast” to avoid the looming “climate catastrophe.” ... What does the physician and anthropologist recommend we do? The world’s top priority must be to get finance flowing and get prices right on all aspects of energy costs to support low-carbon growth. Joseph Romm, World Bank President On Climate Crisis: If There Is No Action Soon, The Future Will Become Bleak, Climate Progress, 1-24-13

In an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Stern, who is now a crossbench peer, said: "Looking back, I underestimated the risks. The planet and the atmosphere seem to be absorbing less carbon than we expected, and emissions are rising pretty strongly. Some of the effects are coming through more quickly than we thought then." ... Had he known the way the situation would evolve, he says, "I think I would have been a bit more blunt. I would have been much more strong about the risks of a four- or five-degree rise." Heather Stewart & Larry Elliott, Nicholas Stern: I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse, Guardian, 1-26-13

Oil Sands Fly Over: My Memory Forever with Jennifer Berezan, Joanna Macy and Anne Symens-Bucher

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

Rage in India, Hope in Canada; Idle No More, One Billion Rising for the Rights of the Great Mother and All Her Daughters

Ekajat, Blue Tara, Ferocious Protector Goddess, Painted by Shri Ram Bahadur Lama,
Lama Thanka Painting School, Bhaktapur, Kathmandu

We are violating the rights of future generations to have the biological resources that they need. They need pollinators. One-sixth to one-third of all the food we eat is brought to us by insect pollination and those systems are now falling to pieces. We need plankton in the ocean. Plankton provides us half the oxygen we breathe and those plankton stocks are now in trouble because of warming ocean temperatures and ocean acidification. It’s our responsibility as members of this generation to safeguard all these things for our children. Sandra Steingraber, Anti-Fracking Activist Discusses the Connection Between Human Rights and the Environment, Truthout, 12-29-12

Indian police have charged six men with murder, hours after a woman who was gang-raped and thrown from a moving bus in Delhi nearly two weeks ago died in a Singapore hospital ... The announcement came as thousands of Indians gathered to mourn and protest the death of the 23-year-old medical student. The woman, who has not been named, sustained serious internal injuries after being violated with an iron bar during the attack, which took place on 16 December and triggered mass demonstrations calling for better protection for women against sexual violence. Guardian, 12-29-12

Rage in India, Hope in Canada; Idle No More, One Billion Rising for the Rights of the Great Mother and All Her Daughters

By Richard Power

The fatal gang-rape of the young Indian medical student in Delhi, the mass murder of the twenty children in Newtown and the sociopathic efforts to deny the truth of the Climate Crisis; all are symptomatic of the same profound spiritual illness.

The patriarchy must fall. It is sick, and it must fall.

There is no more important cause than this, no more urgent mission than this; if you do nothing else for your world, participate in this effort. The struggle to end violence against Mother Earth is not separate from the struggle to end violence against women and girls. And neither can succeed without the other.

One Billion Rising (February 14, 2013) will shake the Earth; and the Earth will shake the human psyche out of the ghetto of ignorance, and into the temple of its own essential divinity.

Empower women and you will shift the center of gravity on every issue from Climate Change to Gun Control.

In the male-dominated societies of these two millennia, we have cut ourselves off from the fullness of life. The human psyche is pathologically out of whack. It has gone off the rails. It is lost to itself. The balance must be restored. A healing must be undertaken.

In the ancient symbol of the Yin and the Yang, at the center of the swirling Yang there is a drop of Yin, and at the center of the swirling Yin, there is a drop of Yang. The madness that led to the atrocities in Delhi and Newtown originates in the loss of this great balance. Our collective psyche has fallen into a crack in the world made with the blunt instrument of its own ignorance; this crack divides male from female, heaven from earth, human from divine, and light from dark, forcing them into false and warped dichotomies, when in truth they are dynamic aspects of one great whole; each equal, opposite and energized by the perfect tension of having the other at its nucleus. For healing and evolution to take place, women must be empowered and the divine feminine must be exalted.

But there is not only the rage rising from the streets of India, there is also the hope rising from the streets of Canada, because there those with eyes to hear and ears to see are Idle No More. And of course, their actions are being inspired by the vision and sacrifice of a woman: Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation. As I write this Chief Spence in the throes of a hunger strike, in a tepee across from the seat of government in Ottawa. She is attempting to compel Canada's conservative Prime Minister to engage in a dialogue about recent legislation that not only threatens Mother Earth but also the sovereignty of the Native American peoples.

Mr. Harper may relent, scared of the political fallout from letting this great leader die. I dearly hope he does. I want Chief Spence to eat. But I won’t soon forget this clash between these two very different kinds of resolve, one so sealed off, closed in; the other cracked wide open, a conduit for the pain of the world. But Chief Spence’s hunger is not just speaking to Mr. Harper. It is also speaking to all of us, telling us that the time for bitching and moaning is over. Now is the time to act, to stand strong and unbending for the people, places and principles that we love. This message is a potent gift. So is the Idle No More movement – its name at once a firm commitment to the future, while at the same time a gentle self-criticism of the past. We did sit idly by, but no more. Naomi Klein, As Chief Spence Starves, Canadians Awaken from Idleness and Remember Their Roots,Globe and Mall, 12-24-12

I have embedded two videos in this post. First, a Democracy Now! piece on Chief Spence and the Idle No More movement; second, a seven minute Eve Ensler/Tony Stroebel film on One Billion Rising. Remember, one billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women - and men -- dancing is a revolution. Join ONE BILLION RISING at http://www.onebillionrising.org. I urge you to view both of them, and share them with others.

The struggle to end violence against Mother Earth is not separate from the struggle to end violence against women and girls. And neither can succeed without the other. Those who do violence against women, those who slaughter the innocents, and yes, those who finance the denial of the Climate Crisis because acknowledging it would threaten their obscene profits, all of them are cut off from life, from the Earth and from the deepest parts of themselves. All power must be wrested from their hands.

Remember Malala Yousafzai, the fifteen year old who was shot in the head and neck, because she dared to champion the education of girls such as herself, and Neda Agha-Soltan, the twenty-six year old Iranian woman shot and killed in 2009, as she protested the thugocracy's election theft. Remember those twenty little children in Newtown, and that unnamed young woman in Delhi. And yes, remember Gaia Herself, who sustains us all, and suffers us all.

Join One Billion Rising on February 14, 2013. It is a doorway. We desperately need GLOBAL, NON-VIOLENT EVOLUTION NOW!

One Billion Rising


Idle No More: Indigenous-Led Protests Sweep Canada for Native Sovereignty and Environmental Justice


Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

From Newtown to Darfur, from Sandy to Bopha; As 2012 Ebbs Away, Look to Solstice for New Year, & Hopefully, New Age; Look into Mirror for Leaders

Nicholas Roerich - Serpent of Wisdom (1924)

The number of people killed after Typhoon Bopha struck the southern Philippines has risen to more than 1,000, officials say. With nearly 850 people still missing, the toll is likely to rise further ... The storm displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused severe damage to property and infrastructure. BBC, 12-15-12

They found alarming losses of big trees, ranging from 100 to 300 years old, at all latitudes in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, South America, Latin America and Australia ... The study showed that trees were not only dying en masse in forest fires, but were also perishing at 10 times the normal rate in non-fire years. The study said it appeared to be down to a combination of rapid climate change causing drought and high temperatures, as well as rampant logging and agricultural land clearing. Agence France Press, 12-6-12

The worst drought in half a century has brought water levels in the Mississippi close to historic lows and could shut down all shipping in a matter of weeks – unless Barack Obama takes extraordinary measures. Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian, 12-14-12

A group of elephants near Timbuktu makes an epic journey each year in their quest for food and water. Researchers found that they travel across an area of 12,355 square miles (32,000 square kilometers) in the deserts of Mali, marking the largest known elephant range in the world. Live Science, 12-14-12

From Newtown to Darfur, from Sandy to Bopha; As 2012 Ebbs Away, Look to Solstice for a New Year, and Hopefully, a New Age; Look into Mirror for Leaders

By Richard Power

The life of 2012 ebbs away, and each of us, in our own way, prepares for the Solstice. I write this post to assure you that it will guide us into a new year, and yes, a new age (as inconceivable as that vision might seem at this moment). There is so much to say, and yet in a very real way there is so little to say.

Concerning the slaughter of twenty young children in Newtown, Connecticut, I refer you to the insights of Harvey Wasserman and Chauncey DeGraw:

The Second Amendment does NOT guarantee the right of any and all citizens to own any and all kinds of guns. It DEMANDS, in the name of national security, that we regulate it. NEVER let assertions of the so-called "sanctity" of the 2d Amendment bully you into thinking it guarantees unregulated weapon ownership. It does NOT. Harvey Wasserman, Common Dreams, 12-15-12

Per our national script, there are several questions which will go unanswered...just as they always do. As I wrote about in regards to James Holmes , the Batman movie killer, there will be no soul searching about why white men are committing these violent acts. In the present, mass shootings have been almost the exclusive province of white men. Chauncey DeGraw, AlterNet, 12-15-12

Of course, at this very moment, in all too many places on this planet, there are so many children suffering atrocities, and on such a large scale. And yet, these ongoing narratives, e.g., the slow motion genocide in Darfur, are largely ignored by Infotainmentstan and Beltwayistan, those twisted sisters who control "the horizontal and the vertical."

Camps have become free-fire zones, an epidemic of rape continues to plague women and girls, murders are common, and aerial bombardment of civilian targets has been relentless (see www.sudanbombing.org). Perhaps most tellingly, more than 1 million people have been newly displaced since UNAMID took up its mandate on January 1, 2008; and as has been the case since the beginning of conflict in Darfur, the greatest cause of displacement is violence. The scale of this new displacement has never been acknowledged by UNAMID, which prefers instead to celebrate the small-scale “returns” of displaced persons that are optimistically measured in the tens of thousands. And the engine of displacement—ethnically-targeted violence in camps and rural areas, rape, and land appropriation by Arab groups taking advantage of this displacement—continues to race. Radio Dabanga provides daily updates that find no place in the infrequent and disgracefully uninformed and unrevealing reports from UNAMID. Eric Reeves, 12-1-12

Meanwhile, every child on the planet is growing up into a world that will bear little if any resemblance to the planet which even their parents and grand parents inherited from the generations that preceded them. Because we are, in a very real way, stomping the world as we know it to death with our carbon footprint.

Profound spiritual illness and deep psychological dysfunction have allowed such ongoing narratives of horror to continue exacerbating and unaddressed, from the refuge camps of Africa to the schoolrooms of the affluent U.S.A., and from the devastation wrought by Sandy to the horror wrought by Bopha.

If you had told me twenty years ago, at that that first Rio Summit, that by 2012 global carbon emissions would have increased by around 50%, that 1 billion people in the world would be hungry, that fossil fuel subsidies would amount to $1 trillion a year, I would have been horrified. As Lord Stern states in his latest report, 'The overall pace of change is recklessly slow. We are acting as if change is too difficult and costly and delay is not a problem. The rigidity of the processes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the behaviour of participants also hinder progress. And the vested interests remain powerful.' I was appalled by the lack of progress, and deeply disturbed by the powerful special interest being exerted in Doha. The fingerprints of corporate interest were all over the COP18 negotiations. As Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy, Union of Concerned Scientists said at the conclusion of the conference: "There were some winners here. The coal industry won here, the oil industry won here, you saw on display the power of these industries and their short term profit to influence the governments of the world. This wasn't an environmental summit it was a trade fair to see who would share the spoils as we drill in the Arctic, produce tar sand in Canada and mine coal in Indonesia for China..." Bianca Jagger, Common Dreams, 12-12-12

Sadly, if you are looking for leadership, don't waste precious time turning to the White House. Look in the mirror instead. POTUS will not lead on our toughest issues (I would be so happy to be proven wrong), but I have hope that he will follow IF a multitude rises up to lead the nation and the species to the threshold of a brighter future, and a new age. How many beings constitute a multitude? None of us can say what number will deliver the counter tipping point we so desperately need. But we can say with great certainty that each of us only has to count to ONE, i.e., ourselves.

Stand up for this new world, in your prayer, in your meditation, in your interactions with others, in your life-style (as much as is possible given your own circumstances), and in your attitude toward the rest of your life. That is all that is required of any of us.

And when you are in need of encouragement, listen to those voices who are already at the forefront of this assembling multitude.

Women knew that the real value of forests was not the timber from a dead tree, but the springs and streams, food for their cattle, and fuel for their hearths. The women declared that they would hug the trees, and the loggers would have to kill them before killing the trees. Vandana Shiva, AlterNet, 12-10-12

Each has a tough-love message for their own constituency — McKibben for an insular environmental movement that's been woefully ineffective on climate; Klein for a left, including many in the Occupy movement, that has failed to grapple with the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis. Look, they're saying, this is it: science tells us that time is running out, and everything you've ever fought for is on the line. Climate change has the ability to undo your historic victories and crush your present struggles. So it's time to come together, for real, and fight to preserve and extend what you care most about — which means engaging in the climate fight, really engaging, as if your life and your life's work, even life itself, depended on it. Because they do. Wes Stephenson, Boston Phoenix, 12-13-12

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

The Future Hangs on A Single Golden Thread, and We Are That Thread

Frida Kahlo, Love Embrace of the Universe

The Future Hangs on A Single Golden Thread, and We Are That Thread

By Richard Power

Today, here in Norther California, no war is being waged on us, nor has any climate-crazed Super Storm trashed the infrastructure; we have running water, electricity, gasoline, food, and as bad as the economic disparity is, as deep as the poverty runs, and as high as unemployment really is, many of us are still getting by (even if only barely). But you know what? Here and now, in Northern California, we are just a click or two away from catastrophe and a free fall into chaos. And not just because a mega earthquake is overdue.

We are just a click away from catastrophe and a free fall into chaos because the rebuilding of our infrastructure is being blocked by an insane political ideology that fronts for the rapacious greed of the few, and which demonizes much of what is best in government.

We are just a click away from catastrophe and free fall because this insane political ideology and rapacious greed are also blocking our desperately needed conversion to a green economy.

Such a conversion could rescue us from both the devastation of a 4c planetary temperature rise and our deepening economic insecurity in a single righteous blow.

Although it is encouraging that the most psychologically disturbed elements of the corporatist disorder were denied absolute power in the November 2012 election, we are still in grave danger. Will we continue down the road into the madness of so-called "austerity" instead of further economic stimulus focused on infrastructure renewal and green energy? Will we continue to debate whether or not the Climate Crisis is real, instead of debating how to best mitigate its potentially extinction level impact? Do not be deceived. Psychologically disturbed elements of the corporatist disorder still control the horizontal and vertical in terms of our political debate.

Consider the facts.

A new World Bank-commissioned report warns the world is on track to a “4°C world” marked by extreme heat-waves and life-threatening sea level rise. "Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided," (pdf) (eBook version) warns we’re on track for a 4°C warmer world marked by extreme heat-waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and life-threatening sea level rise. World Bank, Climate Change Report Warns of Dramatically Warmer World This Century, 11-18-12

The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2011, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Between 1990 and 2011 there was a 30% increase in radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate – because of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping long-lived gases. World Meteorological Organization, 11-20-12

A United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report released today says that countries aren’t doing enough to keep the world from warming 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels ... “Not only are nations failing to close the gap between their actions and the 2 degrees goal,” [Alden Meyer, Director of Strategy and Policy at UCS] said, “but the gap is actually widening.” Union of Concerned Scientists, Third Report Warns that Leaders' Lack of Action Is Locking In Worst Consequences of Climate Change, 11-21-12

Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations and the World Resources Institute (WRI) identified 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China [363] and India [455]. Darrien Carrington, Guardian, 11-19-12

And yet Beltwayistan (the U.S. political establishment) and Infotainmenstan (the U.S. mainstream news media) continue to hide from the truth and what it demands of us.

"Cognitive dissonance” describes the response of our political leaders. They know we must quickly curb our addiction to fossil fuels to avoid a climate change tipping point. But they open up the Arctic, or the Tar Sands in Canada, to oil companies that want to squeeze out a few more billion in profits while the going’s good. Kumi Naidoo, 11-17-12

Take a break for half an hour and listen to this dialogue between Bill Moyers and Naomi Klein (see embedded video below, or just read the transcript). And then ask yourself what you can do or how you can be, to make a difference in the weeks and months ahead. The future hangs on a single golden thread, and we are that thread.

Naomi Klein: We have to plan. We can't leave everything to the free market. In fact, climate change is, I would argue, the greatest single free-market failure. This is what happens when you don't regulate corporations and you allow them to treat the atmosphere as an open sewer. So it isn't just, "Okay, the fossil fuel companies want to protect their profits." It's that it's that this science threatens a worldview. And when you dig deeper, when you drill deeper into those statistics about the drop in belief in climate change, what you see is that Democrats still believe in in climate change, in the 70th percentile. That whole drop of belief, drop off in belief has happened on the right side of the political spectrum. So the most reliable predictor of whether or not somebody believes that climate change is real is what their views are on a range of other political subjects. You know, what do you think about abortion? What is your view of taxes? And what you find is that people who have very strong conservative political beliefs cannot deal with this science, because it threatens everything else they believe. Bill Moyers Interviews Naomi Klein, 11-16-12

Bill Moyers and Naomi Klein: How Climate Change Is an Historic Opportunity for Progressives


Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

The Final Days of Fear and Loathing in 2012; "Oh, A Storm is Threatening My Very Life Today, If I Don't Get Some Shelter ..."

Photo Credit: Gary He/Reuters 

Photo Credit: John Minchillo / AP

Unfortunately, Sandy is only the latest in a line of recent extreme weather events that have severely afflicted Americans in the past two years. Other disasters include the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, record-breaking temperatures across the nation, and severe thunderstorms and tornadoes across the Midwest. Farmers in the Midwest are expecting to harvest just a fraction of their corn and other crops this year, leading to record federal crop insurance payments due to the worst drought in 50 years that plagued two-thirds of the nation. Vicious heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes, and severe storms left hundreds of people dead and injured. These are the extreme weather events that scientists predict will become more frequent and/or severe if the industrial carbon pollution responsible for climate change remains unchecked. Joe Romm, How Does Climate Change Make Superstorms Like Sandy More Destructive?, Climate Progress, 10-31-12

The Final Days of Fear and Loathing in 2012; "Oh, A Storm is Threatening My Very Life Today, If I Don't Get Some Shelter ..."

By Richard Power

No, I don't have anything to say about "Superstorm Sandy."

I have said it all for TWELVE YEARS. James Hansen and Al Gore have been saying it for even longer.

I love New York, it is where I came from, and this is personal. So for the second time, the loud, sooty, crowded, concrete and steel lotus blossom from which I emerged, has been hit horrifically hard, because of bad governance.

It was bad governance, criminal negligence really, that led to the slaughter of the innocents on 9/11. Bush-Cheney willfully ignored urgent and repeated warnings that we were about to be hit.

Likewise, with "Superstorm Sandy." Bad governance led to the flooding of the subways in lower Manhattan, the raging fire in Queens, and the utter devastation in New Jersey.

"Ooh, see the fire is sweepin' / Our very street today ..."

Many millions of people blacked out. Tens of billions of dollars in losses. Bad governance. Political cowardice in Beltwayistan, and moral bankruptcy of Infotainmentstan.

So I don't give a damn that in Sandy's AFTERmath, billionaire NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed POTUS for re-election, citing the urgency of the Climate Crisis as a significant reason. And I don't give damn that in Sandy's AFTERmath, the cover of Businessweek declared: It's Global Warming, Stupid.

Too little too late. I don't mean too late to mitigate the worst of what is to come; we can still make a profoundly positive shift for future generations. I mean too little too late to earn any respect from me. Not after TWELVE YEARS.

"The floods is threatening / My very life today ..."

OK, I guess I did have something to say about "Superstorm Sandy."

Whatever happens on Tuesday, it will not be POTUS, or Billionaireberg, or Businessweak that will lead; it will be others, like Darryl Hannah, and Bill McKibben (who is earning a Nobel Peace Prize whether he ever wins one or not) ...

How are we in the US and Canada addressing these crises? Not through the co-opted political system, but with heroic acts by the ordinary citizens of North America. People have been putting their bodies on the line and risking arrest in order to protect our future, to acknowledge climate change disasters and to protect access to basic necessities such as uncontaminated water, soil and food. We are seeing an exponentially growing number of nationwide rallies, protests and acts of civil disobedience just to protect these fundamental life support systems. The threats are exacerbated by the looming death throes of an outdated and finite fossil fuel industry struggling to stay relevant in the 21st century, despite its current economic might. It's hard to reconcile the fact that the fossil fuel industry is struggling when their unprecedented profits make them the wealthiest of corporations in the history of mankind, even in this devastated global economy – but the times, they are-a-changing. Darryl Hannah, The battle against Big Energy's rush to ruin our planet, Guardian, 10-31-12

The question Hurricane Sandy really raises, then, is how long Big Oil will be allowed to hold the government of the United States hostage. How long will Exxon-Mobil’s business plans take precedence over the wellbeing and indeed survival of our children? Neither of the two presidential candidates provides great inspiration on this point, though Obama is at least willing to talk about the problem, as when he advocates eliminating some taxpayer subsidies to oil companies. (Romney, for his part, thinks Big Oil has not been favored enough by Washington.) But no president can cross Big Oil in the way that is required to defuse the climate crisis without the help of a powerful and sustained popular movement. If Hurricane Sandy contributes to building such a movement—and McKibben and his fellow activists at 350.org and allied organizations are launching a national tour shortly after Election Day that aims to do just that—America might still avoid the curse of Cassandra by heeding her warnings at last. Mark Hertsgaard, Can Sandy Help Jolt America Out of Climate Change Denial? 10-31-12

Do not mistake my intent.

POTUS must be re-elected on Tuesday. There is no alternative. And I am grateful that Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg agree.

Remember Katrina? POTUS has done an admirable job in the aftermath of Sandy. The Hollow Man and his FEMA would have simply done what Bush and his FEMA did, i.e., exercise malign neglect.

Yes, POTUS has been disappointing on Corporatism and Militarism. But he has been strong on Misogyny, Homophobia and Racism. It is not a principled stand to protest Corporatism and Militarism by rewarding Misogyny, Homophobia and Racism, and if you throw your vote away or don't vote, that is what you will be doing - rewarding Misogyny, Homophobia and Racism.

"Rape, murder! / It's just a shot away ..."

Furthermore, even on the issues of corporatism and militarism, there are profound differences between POTUS and the Hollow Man. POTUS delivered Dodd-Frank (weak as it is) and elevated Elizabeth Warren to the national stage; and in response, Wall Street gave money hand over fist to the Hollow Man. And in regard to Iran, make no mistake about it, if the Hollow Man is elected, we will be at war with Iran within a year, just as we would have been if the shell of a man formerly known as John McCain had been elected.

"War, children, it's just a shot away / It's just a shot away ..."

I do not expect POTUS to lead on the Climate Crisis, but I do know that he will act in response to a strong, broad movement from below. And as much as we have accomplished, the numbers have to be larger than they have been so far.

"I tell you love, sister, it's just a kiss away / It's just a kiss away ..."

Hopefully, POTUS will be re-elected and sworn in, but whether or not he is, those of you who disagree and will vote for Jill Stein instead of POTUS, I assure you, we will be on the same side of the barricade in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.

Consider this concerning Social Security and Medicare ...

We are forewarned and we must act now to make clear that we will block the Great Betrayal and crush at the polls any member of Congress who supports it. Do not concede the phrase "grand bargain" to the proponents of the betrayal. We should heed Camus' warning that it is essential to call a plague by its real name if one is to resist it -- and it is essential to resist the pestilence. "[W]hen you see the suffering and pain that it brings, you have to be mad, blind or a coward to resign yourself to the plague." We must refuse to resign ourselves to being betrayed by Democratic leaders. Our actions must make it clear that we are not mad, blind, or cowards. We refuse to fall for their faux moral panics. It is our leaders who are all too often mad, blind, and cowards. William K. Black, The Great Betrayal – and the Cynicism of Calling it a Grand Bargain, Naked Capitalism, 10-30-12

"A kiss away / A kiss away ..."

Angélique Kidjo & Joss Stone - Gimme Shelter (2007)

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

300 Million Being Led Off A Cliff, 7 Billion In Dire Peril, 1 Billion Rising - Here Are 3 Dates On Which You Can Make A Stand For The Future

Gustav Klimt, Water Serpents (1907)

300 Million Being Led Off A Cliff, 7 Billion In Dire Peril, 1 Billion Rising - Here Are 3 Dates On Which You Can Make A Stand

By Richard Power

[NOTE: I am honored that this post has also been cross-posted as a Buzzflash Commentary at Truthout.org. Buzzflash and Truthout are great bastions of our progressive citizens' online media, and I am happy to have contributed to them throughout the years we have all utilized the Internet to counteract the dumbing-down and disinformation of the corporatist media.]

The months ahead will offer three profoundly meaningful opportunities to be the change you seek in the world. Here they are in reverse chronological order.

February 14, 2013: One Billion Rising

Plutocracy, like Patriarchy, is a counter-evolutionary force within the collective psyche. It is life-negating. Conversely, the rise of women is one of the principle drivers of the global non-violent evolution we so desperately need. It is life-affirming. Likewise, green energy. The fossil fuel industry is one of the three pillars that the Patriarchy and the Plutocracy stand upon, the others are the predatory banking system and the war racket. This truth is a naked one now. The Emperor has no clothes, and it is an ugly sight to behold. Kick any one of these three pillars away and the edifice collapses. Hasten the rise of women and the edifice is dismantled from inside, because it does not answer the simple test of being nurturing unto the seventh generation. (Oh, of course, there are grotesque exceptions: e.g., heartless CEOs like Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, reactionary politicians like Sarah Palin and Margaret Thatcher. The phenomena similar to that of Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, Allen West, etc. But it has always been thus. After all, in his guide book to the Inferno, didn't Dante consign the traitors to the lowest rung of Hell?)

Please view the three minute Eve Ensler film embedded below, and share it with your friends via Facebook and Twitter. One billion women violated is almost incomprehensible abomination; but one billion women (and men) STRIKING for a day - to DANCE in the streets - is certainly an act of GLOBAL, NON-VIOLENT EVOLUTION.

Join us. Be the change. Strike. Dance. Rise.

One Billion Rising
[If you receive Words of Power via e-mail, just clink on the link above to go to the video.]

November 14, 2012: The Dirty Weather Report

The Climate Crisis is our greatest national security threat, our greatest economic threat and our greatest human rights issue; and as insane as it will seem to the future (if there is a future), the four men running for the highest offices in the U.S. government just spent a collective 6 hours of prime-time debate avoiding any mention of it (so did the so-called "journalists" who moderated).

Ironically, the man elected President in 2000, but whose rightful place was usurped, has spent the last twelve years traveling the world, training people of courage and clarity of mind, organizing, and marshaling resources (including his own cable news network).

Yes, Al Gore has earned his Nobel Peace Prize.

On November 14, 2012, you can join us for the second annual 24 Hours of Reality, which will be broadcast live in its entirety over the Internet, and from all around the world, including man-on-the-street reports, music, and most importantly, stories from communities moving forward with solutions.

To learn more, visit the Climate Reality Project. But before you do, watch the video embedded below and then share it with your friends and colleagues via Facebook and Twitter.

Al Gore Announcing 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report
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November 6, 2012: Defeat Romney, Without Illusions about Obama

No, it's not a choice between the "lesser of two evils" (we have no time for such adolescent formulations), this is yet another choice between REASON and MADNESS.

In a recent Words of Power I shared the rational, responsible perspectives of Noam Chomsky and Rebecca Solnit (see Fear & Loathing 2012: POTUS Lets the Messenger of A Monstrous Future Get Up Off the Mat; Meanwhile, Chomsky and Solnet Speak for the True Grown-Ups in the Room); in this post (which may well be my last before election day), I offer you the rational, responsible perspective of Daniel Ellsberg:

It is urgently important to prevent a Republican administration under Romney/Ryan from taking office in January 2013. The election is now just weeks away, and I want to urge those whose values are generally in line with mine -- progressives, especially activists -- to make this goal one of your priorities during this period. An activist colleague recently said to me: “I hear you’re supporting Obama.” I was startled, and took offense. “Supporting Obama? Me?!” “I lose no opportunity publicly,” I told him angrily, to identify Obama as a tool of Wall Street, a man who’s decriminalized torture and is still complicit in it, a drone assassin, someone who’s launched an unconstitutional war, supports kidnapping and indefinite detention without trial, and has prosecuted more whistleblowers like myself than all previous presidents put together. “Would you call that support?” My friend said, “But on Democracy Now you urged people in swing states to vote for him! How could you say that? I don’t live in a swing state, but I will not and could not vote for Obama under any circumstances.” My answer was: a Romney/Ryan administration would be no better -- no different -- on any of the serious offenses I just mentioned or anything else, and it would be much worse, even catastrophically worse, on a number of other important issues: attacking Iran, Supreme Court appointments, the economy, women’s reproductive rights, health coverage, safety net, climate change, green energy, the environment. Daniel Ellsberg, Defeat Romney, Without Illusions about Obama, Common Dreams, 10-18-12

Vote on November 6th, vote AGAINST the Hollow Man and the maniac running with him; vote against them in the only way you can truly thwart them. Vote because there is a difference on who gets appointed to SCOTUS, a difference on whether or not Planned Parenthood gets funding, a difference on whether or not women's reproductive rights are protected, a difference on whether or not GLBT citizens are allowed to live their lives to the fullest, a difference on whether or not women achieve economic opportunity in the workplace, a difference on whether or not the E.P.A. is dismantled, a difference on whether or not teachers and nurses are demonized, a difference on whether or not science is devalued and disregarded, and on and on. And it makes a difference on whether or not we launch another foolish military adventure in the Middle East. Make no mistake about it, you won't ever again see the Hollow Man who just agreed with POTUS on foreign policy in that final debate; the Hollow Man's foreign policy brain trust is led by Dick Cheney and John Bolton, and we will be at war with Iran within one year from the grim, world-splitting day he is sworn in.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.