The United Nations ... graphically illustrated how severe the massive floods in Pakistan were by claiming that the number of people who would suffer as a result would exceed the aggregate from three recent major disasters ... worse than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. NewsTime, 8-9-10
Scorching heat and acrid smoke have nearly doubled death rates in Moscow ... as a shroud of smog from raging forest and peat fires beset Russia's capital for a third week. Firefighters battled wildfires covering 1,740 square km (672 sq miles) -- bigger than the area of Greater London ... Russia's worst heat wave for a millennium. Reuters, 8-9-10
“... an ice island four times the size of Manhattan was born in northern Greenland ... The freshwater stored in this ice island could keep the Delaware or Hudson rivers flowing for more than two years ... could also keep all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days...” University of Delaware, 8-6-10
Welcome to the Crisis that will Shape Reality for the Rest of Our Lives; Past Due Time to Tear Down the Concentric Walls of Ignorance, Fear & Greed
By Richard Power
The corporatist grip on the collective mind world has become a chokehold.
It has been two years since the electorate "refudiated" Bush, Cheney, and their successors, the-shell-of-a-man-formerly-known as John McCain, and Sarah Palin, the dangerous woman that the shell-of-a-man-formerly-known-as-John-McCain allowed to be elevated to the national scene in his name. And yet, what is spewing out over the air waves is now actually worse than it was at the height of the Bush-Cheney abomination; Faux News is bolder, and more mind-warping than ever, CNN is weaker and more soulless than ever.
There are two ways in which truth and reality become elusive, one is a sign of spiritual evolution, the other is a sign of spiritual devolution. When you open your heart and mind to the interdependence of all life, an emerging transparency reveals human experience to an intricate matrix of divine paradoxes. But when you close your heart and mind to the interdependence of all life, you lose yourself in a seemingly endless maze built within concentric walls of ignorance, fear and greed.
Unfortunately, humanity in general, and this great nation in particular, seem to be locked into a devolutionary spiral, instead of an evolutionary one.
Welcome to the Climate Crisis, it will shape reality for the rest of our lives. And yet, too many on the right still deny the truth of what's going on. But perhaps, even worse, too many in the center, and on the left, acknowledge the truth, but refuse to treat it as the planetary emergency it is.
While Beltwayistan and Infotainmentstan distract themselves and delude the body politic, and fritter away this precious time we will never get back ...
Climate change could destroy 80 per cent of rainforest by next century: Fewer than one in five of the plants and animals which currently live in the world’s rainforests will still be here in 90 years time ... Climate Progress, Climate change could destroy 80% of rainforest by 2100, 8-6-10
Do you understand the significance of this study? Over half of all plant and animal species on this planet inhabit its rainforests.
Here is a link to some wonderful talking points from Climate Progress' Joe Romm, if you feel compelled to attempt to reason with those who are running off into the maze, with their eyes shut and their ears plugged: Rebutting climate science disinformer talking points in a single line, Climate Progress, 8-9-10
Here is a link to a strong, common sense agenda from 350.org's Bill McKibben, if you want to get a head start on picking up the pieces, because, my friends, we are heading for a great crack-up: We’re Hot as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take It Any More: Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming, Tom Dispatch, 8-4-10
I don't have much more to say at the moment.
A decade of this life has gone by since I started beating this drum.
And here we are ...
"Everybody knows this is nowhere."
For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.
I encourage you to find out why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love: go to 350.org or Google "Bill McKibben" for the answer.
Visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.