How climate change is burning Russia and flooding Pakistan

Disclaimer
This will not be a happy post, but it is nonetheless important, and thanks for taking the time to read it. As I stated here, I am no longer debating whether or not climate change is happening or if humanity has an effect on the climate. Like with evolution and the theory of biological reproduction, an overwhelming consensus of scientists with expertise on the subject have reached the conclusion that yes, the planet is warming, and yes, we are adversely affecting the atmosphere. And we need to move the discussion forward.

I welcome all comments, and understand that in science, new evidence can always overturn old evidence. But just like with climatologists around the Earth, the theory of anthropogenic global warming is established, and findings to that conclusion have been around since 1896. Instead of, "My oil company-funded think tanks disagree with your scientists," the discussion now needs to be, "how can we help?"

Awareness is the first step, and I like to think that's where this post comes in. Hopefully with awareness, comes action. And with action comes solutions.

August's Deadly Heat

"These are the most bitter days of my life."
-Iltaz Begum, 15 year-old Pakistani orphan

In August of 2003, 52,000 people died after a brutal heat wave that spread across Europe. In France alone, 15,000 people died, most of them elderly. Because of a usually temperate climate there, Summers are mild, and even in August, the nights are cool, so air conditioning wasn't seen as a necessity there. But combine 104-degree fahrenheit temperatures with metal and tin roofs on Parisian homes with no air condtioning, and the inside of the home becomes an oven. Bodies cooked and rotted in the August sun, some of them not collected until almost a month after the heatwave, as many government employees were on their August vacation.

In August of 2010, a brutal heat wave has left large swaths of Russia charred from unprecedented wildfires. It's been three weeks, and fires are still raging across the country. Approximately 10% of Russia's land mass was on fire at one point, and 500 conflagrations still blaze through the country's forests. So far, the wildfires have killed 50 people and torched 2,000 homes. A third of the country's wheat crop is gone, which has raised grain prices sky-high across the globe as the Russian government has temporarily banned exports.

But what is being called the worst environmental disaster to date also happened in August of 2010. While Russia burns to the north, 6 million of their neighbors in Pakistan are without a stable water supply after massive flooding destroyed homes and crippled an already unstable infrastructure. Children are without parents, left to fend for themselves in government refugee camps, while rushing waters and a continuous downpour leave 1/5th of the country underwater. 20 million Pakistanis have been affected by the flooding. It's estimated that $460 million is needed for flood relief, but only $93 million has been gathered. Pakistan is in desperate need. These floods are worse than the Haiti earthquake, worse than the 2004 tsunamis, and worse than the 2005 earthquake in the same country.

So why is all of this happening?

Climate Change Comes Home to Roost

"Life was always so difficult, but now we're doomed."
-Abdul Ghani, 14 year-old Pakistani orphan, oldest of seven siblings

Extreme weather patterns are becoming the norm. Heat waves are capable of killing tens of thousands of people used to temperate climates. And in the wintertime, 49 US states all had seen snowfall at one point. Even in Texas. Even in Florida. Even in Mississippi. Some climate change deniers said this was proof that global warming wasn't real, which as Bill Maher pointed out, is kind of like saying the sun doesn't exist at night because it's dark outside.

The millions in Pakistan are the latest of a group we'll be hearing a lot more of- environmental refugees. U.N. figures estimate there to be close to 25 million worldwide displaced because of ecological disasters. And with events like the 2004 tsunamis, flooding in Mozambique, the recent quake in Haiti, and the millions now homeless and wandering Pakistan, that number is on track and is expected to swell past 150 million in the next 40 years. And in 10 years, an ice sheet in Greenland could break off into the Arctic ocean if the temperature rises between 2C and 7C, which could happen under current rates of consumption, fossil fuel use and overpopulation. This would cause sea levels to rise by 23 feet, and that 150 million number could very well double or even triple in size should coastal cities see similar floods.

So, again, how is all of this causing the floods and the fires?

As sea levels rise with things like 100-mile ice sheets breaking off, that causes changes in the jetstream, thus changing the way winds blow. Take a look at the picture below.



On the left, you see wind patterns in the Russia/Pakistan area under normal jetstream conditions. From 1968 to 1996, these conditions remained largely the same. There's a polar jetstream on the Northern side, and a tropical jetstream on the Southern side. But in the 2010 graph, we see a very oddly strong polar wind blowing North of Russia around Moscow, going directly South into Pakistan. So how do these jetstreams affect weather patterns?

The Northern polar jetstream usually brings extratropical lows and cyclones that make up the bulk of the precipitation in that geographical region of the world, and serves as the boundary between cold Northern air and hot Southern air. When it goes suddenly Northward like this past July, that leaves those exposed areas unusally hot and dry and prevented necessary rain, making the area ripe for conditions like the wildfires currently raging in the forests near Moscow.

So where did those rain patterns go? Follow the graphic, and you see that after blowing far Northward, they dove suddenly Southward toward Pakistan, causing heavy rainfall and widespread flooding, in the midst of their already rainy monsoon season.

Conclusion

"There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew."
-Marshall McLuhan

Does anybody see a pattern here? I'll lay it out very simply.

-Excessive amounts of CO2, emitted largely by industrialized countries who burn fossil fuels, are becoming mired in our atmosphere, channeling the sun's heat on the North pole.
-Warming of the arctic causes ice to melt, which causes oceans to become warmer and saltier, which leads to more ice melting.
-Ice melting leads to changes in sea level.
-Changes in sea level lead to changes in the jetstream.
-Changes in the jetstream lead to drastic ecological crises like the fires in Russia and the floods in Pakistan.

If, for some reason, you still doubt the theory of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming, even after reading this post and perusing the links I cited to back up my claims, can we at least agree that our environment is worth preserving for future generations?

Can we agree to bike more, and drive less?
To turn off and unplug unused appliances?
To swear off plastic bottles?
To shut off the A/C when we leave home?
To grow our own food, or buy locally-grown food? Or to eat out less?
To buy cars that get good gas mileage, so we pump less gas?
To call our senators and congressmen and tell them that you, their constituent, support legislation to mitigate the effects of climate change?

True change starts with ourselves and our communities. What are you doing to help?

Former Marine: "I am sorry for the monster I once was."

An Unwinnable War on Terror

"This man was innocent. I don't know his name...He was walking back to his house, and I shot him in front of his friend and father."
-Jon Michael Turner

Picture this, if you can-

It's 3:00 AM in a neighborhood just outside of Baghdad, and you're a 12 year-old Iraqi child fast asleep in your home. Perhaps you're the oldest, and you're sleeping in the same room as your siblings. All of you huddled together to share whatever blankets and pillows you may have.

Then without warning, the wooden door of your home shatters, splinters of wood exploding outward into the living room while giant, hulking men wearing alien clothing and wielding fearsome-looking automatic rifles stomp into your home in combat boots, shouting in a foreign tongue. They look American, but they aren't wearing flags on their shoulders, but instead the emblem of a private corporation that answers to no government.

They force you and your terrified younger brothers and sisters against the wall with your mother. Your father rushes up to the men to stop them, and they grab him by the throat until he can no longer breathe. Or maybe they slam his head into the wall and he falls to the ground, limp, while the armed men ransack your home, accusing you of terrorism. They leave just as quickly as they had entered, without apology, without explanation. Do you try and go back to sleep after such an experience? Do you stay awake, telling your little brothers and sisters that the men are gone, to stop crying? Do you rush to check on your father's wounds?

What would happen the next day, if you were approached by a man who asked if you wanted to get back at the Americans? That you could join a growing movement to push out the imperialists by force if they chose not to leave? What would you do? Would you go back home, powerless and afraid, always fearful of another late-night invasion? Or would you grit your teeth, nod somberly and ask the man what you could do to help?

The war we are waging against terrorism is unwinnable, because the method in which it is waged fosters more terrorism. The only goal this war is meant to accomplish is to continue feeding our addiction to cheap oil, and the military-industrial complex's addiction to money. The "surge" never worked, it just exacerbated already deplorable conditions. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are dead. 4 million more are wandering refugees. Tens of thousands are jailed without trial and tortured. Women's rights are even more at risk in Iraq than ever before. Health care and education for the Iraqis are still in shambles. Trade unions are banned. Baghdad is now divided by 1,500 blast walls and checkpoints. Utility infrastructure is in complete disrepair. The streets are more unsafe than ever. The U.S. embassy in Iraq is now larger than Vatican City. And as we phase out American enlisted soldiers, we phase in private mercenaries; killing machines paid with U.S. tax dollars who answer to no flag.

This war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be sustained.

Daily Atrocities for Corporate Cash

"We were all congratulated after we had our first kills...my company commander personally congratulated me as he did everyone else in our company. This is the same individual who had stated that whoever gets their first kill by stabbing them to death gets a four-day pass when we get back from Iraq."
-Jon Michael Turner, former Marine

To accomplish the military-industrial complex's goal of sustained warfare, they need a constant supply of fresh, warm-blooded men and women to guard Iraqi oilfields. These young men and women are trained daily to turn off their morality and conscience so they can become effective killers, and continue to kill in spite of no clear end objective and under growing resistance from the local population. While the president states that we're winding troops down, and while that may be true, our permanent occupation of Iraq has just begun.

Last year, a dozen foreign companies won 20-year contracts to control Iraqi oil fields. According to the above article, 60% of Iraq's oil reserves are now under foreign control, and the market can be manipulated to slash global oil prices to the point of breaking OPEC state's control on Middle Eastern oil. We're keeping 50,000 troops there for now for "advising" and "providing security" although most of them are stationed near oil fields, or "protecting U.S. interests," as the Pentagon would prefer us to say.

While the Iraqi government told us that U.S. troops had to be gone by 2011, our occupation will continue through a coming surge of private contractors. When you wage endless wars where an average of 6 die every month with no draft, eventually someone needs to be there to do the dying so oil companies can continue exporting Iraqi crude. So who does the dying right now?

I linked above to a video of Jon Michael Turner, a former Marine who became disgusted with the war and how it transformed him into someone else. He continues, his voice audibly choking up during certain parts.

"A lot of raids and patrols we did at night around 3:00 in the morning...And what we would do is just kick in the doors and terrorize the families...If the men of the household were giving us problems, we'd go ahead and take care of them anyway we felt necessary, whether it was choking them or slamming their head against the walls."

When describing his first confirmed kill, Turner talked about shooting an innocent unknown person he called "the fat man" in the neck, in front of the man's father and friend. He described the man's screams after being shot, looking at his buddy and saying, "Well, we can't have that," and finishing the job with one more shot.

Turner's third confirmed kill was an innocent man riding a bicycle. The entire video is basically him admitting to wanton murder of innocents, but this is particularly chilling.

"We were excited about the firefight we had just gotten into, and we didn't have a cameraman with us...Anytime we had embedded reporters with us, our actions would change drastically...the man on the bicycle was in the street for about ten minutes before we realized we needed to leave where we were...his body was thrown behind a rock wall, and his bicycle was thrown on top of him."

I think it's telling that these enlisted men admit to acting differently when they're being videotaped, and how much differently they must act when there's no media around to videotape any potential war crimes. And it makes me wonder how different the coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are compared to the coverage of the Vietnam war, which spurred massive street demonstrations. When the blood and guts are whitewashed from your TV screen and when corporate media outlets can dictate what can and can't be shown, it's no wonder the media hardly ever does any stories about war crimes that don't come from a wikileaks post.

Late in the video, Turner talks about how after being attacked by insurgents and one of their own suffering wounds, they take their aggression out by shooting up the minaret of a mosque. It's illegal to shoot at a mosque unless you're sure that you're being fired upon from the inside. 6 minutes into the video, Turner shows footage of a minaret being completely decimated by bullets and artillery due to sheer hate and bottled-up aggression, not out of any fear for their own safety. The ex-Marine ended his testimony with tears in his eyes and emotion thick in his voice.

"I am sorry for the hate and destruction that I have inflicted on innocent people...I am no longer the monster I once was."

What Must Follow

"we went to the market where all the hadji shop,
pulled out our machetes and we began to chop,

"we went to the playground where all the hadji play,
pulled out our machine guns and we began to spray,

"we went to the mosque where all the hadji pray,
threw in a hand grenade and blew them all away."
-Marine Ethan McCord, reciting a marching cadence

In a truly free society where Democratic principles were upheld, there would be accountability for sending young men and women off to die in a war that was never meant to end. There would be accountability for stripping these human beings of their humanity, sending them thousands of miles away from their families and reducing them to beasts who kill innocents without remorse. In a free society, anyone who was caught lying or manipulating evidence to justify invading a sovereign nation would be tried in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. A free society would call that imperialism, or colonial occupation. They certainly wouldn't call it freedom.

In a free society and a just world, at least one person would be rotting in jail for putting corporate profit margins above life, culture, family and religion.

And one group of Iraq Veterans is calling for the indictment and prosecution of the Bush administration for doing what they did. From the article above:

"The growing body of evidence, including testimony from British officials in the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry, indicates that Bush officials could be charged with criminal offenses against the United States and violations of international law for making false claims to national self-defense.

"Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution vests the power to authorize use of military force in the Legislative Branch, not the Executive. In order to do so responsibly the Congress must be provided with accurate and objective intelligence. Bush officials' alleged distortion of the intelligence picture created a climate of fear and uncertainty in which the constitutional power of Congress was subverted."

IVAW also comes out swinging against the Bush regime for violating international law in drafting a new Iraqi constitution that favors U.S. corporations, and also through violating Geneva Convention rights given to prisoners. These are all very serious war crimes, and there is more than enough evidence to at least indict top Bush officials, if not convict them.

IVAW further alleges that the Bush administration's alterations to Iraqi laws were made for the intended benefit of U.S. multinational corporations and are illegal under international law. Efforts to pressure Iraqi officials to open up the country's oil industry to foreign investment exacerbated the insurgency and undermined the U.S. military's ostensible mission there.

IVAW finally asserts that senior Bush officials are responsible for the illegal treatment of Iraqi and Afghan officials in U.S. custody and that this treatment was detrimental to the security of American citizens.

If we are to truly repair our international reputation, if we strive to be the free society our founders intended us to be, if we as a people truly value freedom, then we must all collectively demand our leaders be held accountable for their actions. And we must stop deluding ourselves into thinking that oppressing people thousands of miles away somehow makes our country safer.

GOP: More For Me, Less For You

More for Me, Less For You

"This upper-crust of extremely wealthy families are hell-bent on destroying the democratic vision of a strong middle-class which has made the United States the envy of the world. In its place they are determined to create an oligarchy in which a small number of families control the economic and political life of our country."
-Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Andrea Orcel is one of the guys who Republicans are fighting for. He's a millionaire banker who worked for Merrill Lynch for a few days before it was bought out by Bank of America. To reward his few days of work, Orcel was given a $25M golden parachute. He's used that to buy a $37M apartment on Park Avenue in New York City. He made $558M in 2008 alone. Republicans in the House and Senate want to extend Bush's tax cuts, which only really cut taxes for guys like him. And it costs the rest of us hundreds of billions in tax dollars per year to give a cushy tax break for the wealthiest two percent.

Know who the Republicans aren't fighting for? You.

House Republicans unanimously voted down the compromise jobs bill, which included $282B in tax cuts for middle-class and upper middle-class families. Working people with jobs, homes, kids, 401Ks and car payments. It was the largest middle-class tax cut in history, and the money folks like us could have saved from taxes would have gone to local businesses and restaurants, instead of offshore tax havens in Switzerland. Every single roll call vote on the measure was rejected by Republicans in the House. Senate Republicans will likely follow suit after the recess.

Essentially, the party that talks about wanting to cut taxes and the importance of tax cuts will only cut them for the richest 2%, not for you.

Know who the Republicans fight for? Rich tax evaders.
Who aren't they fighting for? 9/11 heroes.

Citing the budget deficit and the potential for a tax increase on the pharmaceutical industries who stash away their holdings in Switzerland, House Republicans also voted down a bill that would provide $7B for health care to 9/11 responders. Despite a wide majority vote, Dems failed to get the 2/3rds needed to pass the bill using the procedure they opted for. While Anthony Weiner (D-NY) gave the GOP a good tongue-lashing over their preference for saving rich tax evaders over heroic firemen and police officers, those folks will be on their own when it comes to injuries they sustained while putting their lives at risk to save others.

Who are the Republicans fighting for? Oil companies and the military-industrial complex.
Who are they not fighting for? Senior citizens, teachers, firefighters, policemen and public employees all over the country.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refuses to let Congress go home until they vote on $26B in state aid that was rejected in the compromise jobs bill that Republicans struck down. The bill would help save hundreds of thousands of jobs that would otherwise be cut due to strained state budgets. Most states are reeling from recession, and drastic budget cuts that put public employees like teachers and police out of work not only endanger our kids and our streets, but also strain local economies with nobody spending any of their money. This state aid bill will help regular working folks continue to do jobs they have been trained for, so they can clothe their children, put food on the table, and prop up local businesses.

House Republicans like minority leader John Boehner (R-OH), in the meantime, don't support that kind of spending, calling it a "special interest bailout." There are lots of teachers who would disagree with Rep. Boehner that they are "special interests" looking for "bailouts."

However, some special interests that Republicans are quite fond of include oil companies like BP. They've kept mum about the $35B in subsidies we collectively throw at Big Oil every year. And a study group representing 116 House Republicans criticized Obama for making BP pay for the disaster it helped create.

Republicans are NOT for helping seniors in retirement; in fact, Rep. Boehner has proposed raising the retirement age by 5 years and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has proposed a budget that would effectively gut Medicare and privatize social security, despite the latter having a $2T surplus and in no need of any reduction in benefits. Boehner has said that the rationing of health care for seniors and killing social security is necessary for fueling wars on two countries that didn't attack us and for giving tax cuts to millionaire bankers.

Oh, but Republicans just don't want to add to the deficit! Right?

Right?

More Republican Hypocrisy

"There's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy."
-Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Mitch McConnell apparently feels he is entitled to his own facts, as well as his own misguided opinions. The CBO established five years ago that tax cuts have a much more adverse effect on the economy than any kind of domestic spending. The bi-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that tax cuts are even more costly than waging wars overseas. While Iraq and Afghanistan have cost us over a trillion dollars so far, the Joint Tax Committee estimated that tax cuts for the wealthy will have twice that much impact. To add to the absolute falsehood of Sen. McConnell's statement about the Bush tax cuts, the Brookings Institute has concluded that those tax cuts have deprived us of much-needed revenue and vastly increased the federal deficit.

Republicans like Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have refused to say how they'll keep paying for the Bush tax cuts, especially when confronted with the fact that they refuse to pay for an extension of unemployment benefits for victims of the recession. And they staunchly agree that they will block any attempt to let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011. Tax cuts and wars are exponentially more costly and add much more to the deficit than any domestic stimulus programs that actually help working folks here in the states. Yet all manufactured concern over the deficit dissipates if it means Republicans can pander to Wall Street, the military-industrial complex and multinational corporations.

Republicans have made it very clear- they are NOT fighting for you, unless you're a multimillionaire banker or corporation. They are NOT fighting for the working poor, the unemployed, the middle class, working families, 9/11 heroes, or senior citizens. Republicans are only interested in carrying on the failed policies of George W. Bush, which voters overwhelmingly rejected in 2006 and 2008.

So in November of 2010, if you'd like to throw the bums out who promise only to fight for the richest and give a middle finger to everyone else, then pull the lever in the vote box for Drive, not Reverse.

Plan on Voting Teapublican in November? Tell Me Why.

(Disclaimer: I'm not pulling any punches here. Teapublicans plan on destroying America, and I'm going to spend this note both calling them out on their dangerous extremism and on proving that the Democrats are our last hope as a society. Regardless of where your politics lie, I want you to read this over, and if you still disagree with me or any of the dozens of links of evidence I have here, come out in the open about it and tell me why. I expect you to have evidence of your own to back up what you say. And I expect your evidence to come from legitimate sources- i.e. not from FOX News or Andrew Breitbart.)

The Rise of the Teapublicans/The Downfall of the GOP

If nobody has yet coined the phrase "Teapublican," then allow me the honor. I think the word is a lot easier than saying "Tea Partier," or "Republican," since the Tea Party and the Republican Party have become synonymous with one another. Tea Party candidates like Rand Paul and Sharron Angle have seemingly spent the last few months trying to outdo each other in who can be the looniest. Rand Paul believes the president criticizing BP on their handling of the Gulf oil gusher is "un-American," and openly advocates lowering already stagnant and insufficient wages for the middle class, but not for the banksters and oil company executives, of course. In Nevada, Sharron Angle has insinuated that she would be in favor of armed insurrection. Concerning her hard-line stance against abortion, she believes that God always has a plan. And sometimes, God's plan includes rape and incest. Hey, she said it- not me.

Rather than denounce such unpatriotic ideology, DC Republicans are embracing the extremism wholeheartedly. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Energy Committee, apologized to the CEO of BP after President Obama told the company to set aside $20 billion to clean up the mess they created. Shortly after that, the Republican Study Committee, which represents 116 Republicans in Congress, couldn't wait to take BP's side, calling the $20 billion escrow account a "Chicago-style shakedown."

House Republican leader John Boehner has openly said that if Republicans retake Congress and he becomes Speaker of the House, he would raise the retirement age by 5 years, and put Social Security, the most successful social welfare program in the history of this country, in the hands of proven professional thieves like Goldman-Sachs and J.P. Morgan. Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, has proposed a budget that would ration Medicare for seniors.

Despite all of the GOP fearmongering about health insurance reform, Teapublicans, to borrow their language, have actually fronted policy that would leave health care for ailing seniors in the hands of government bureaucrats. Essentially, the "Don't Kill Grandma" party is proposing that we pull the plug on granny to save money. The Teapublicans propose the outright elimination of social safety nets for the poor so we can continue to give tax cuts to the richest 1% who don't need them, and fund two endless wars on countries that didn't attack us. And yes, the Teapublicans are still against a $350 a week pittance for victims of a recession that their policies effectively created. Rep. Boehner compared the financial crisis that left 8,000,000 Americans without jobs to an ant while explaining his opposition to reigning in the Wall Street fat cats who pillaged our 401Ks and pension.

So what's the alternative?

18 Months of Progressivism

Teapublicans claim these regressive policies are necessary to end Democratic policies they compare to "Armageddon." But is the world really ending under the Democrats' watch? Is the "stop the spending" mantra really sound economic policy, or brainless fluff?

-After a $17 billion bailout of the American auto industry, the Big Three have come back in full swing, and are making good on paying the government back. And despite the tough recession, these companies are now in good enough financial standing to start sharing their profits with their hourly workers.

-Speaking of the car market and the economy, people are buying cars again. A lot more. Almost as much as during the "Cash for Clunkers" program. July car sales are set to either equal or outdo all of the extra business car companies had after the wildly successful 2009 program. Despite what the right-scream media (thanks, Monty) may have told you, there is good news on the horizon for the car manufacturers. They can credit their successes to federal government intervention.

-Speaking of federal intervention in the market, economic advisers to both Republican and Democratic administrations have concluded that despite how bad things are now, they would be infinitely worse had President Obama not immediately taken direct action with stimulus spending. A new study, conducted by a formal Federal Reserve vice chairman and by one of John McCain's economic advisers, finds that without federal action in this recession, there would be 8.5 million less jobs than there are now, that national GDP would 6.5% percent less than current levels and that we would be experiencing deflation instead of mild inflation.

After just 18 months in office, President Obama has already enacted health care reform legislation, which 7 presidents from both parties couldn't do. He has signed into law the most sweeping financial regulations since the New Deal. His Democratic Congress has passed crucial legislation that has kept the economy afloat, despite an endless onslaught of Republican filibusters at every single piece of progressive legislation. The Democrats have already made astronomical progress.

But because the country is in such dire straits, there is still a long, long way to go before we've fully recovered from the havoc wreaked by Republicans. And this new breed of Teapublican, where the radical fringe right-wing has effectively taken over a major political party, seeks to undo not just the recent progress made, but an entire century of Democratic achievements that lifted up the poor and middle class.

The Teapublican Plan for America

If Teapublicans win majorities in the House and Senate, they have openly pledged to-

-Repeal Health Insurance Reform.
-Repeal Wall Street Reform.
-Get rid of Social Security and Medicare.
-Cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
-Funnel $35 billion in taxpayer money to Big Oil.
-Protect those responsible for the Gulf oil spill.
-Abolish the Department of Education.
-Abolish the Department of Energy.
-Abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.
-Abolish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
-Abolish the Internal Revenue Service.
-Outlaw homosexuality.
-Take away your right to vote for U.S. Senators.
-Give the middle finger to the unemployed.
-Prevent a vote on legislation aimed at making corporate donors to political campaigns identify themselves.

Despite such an anti-American, anti-Democratic ideology, Teapublicans still boast about the majorities they plan to gain in the midterm elections. Through talk radio and FOX News- the echo chambers of hate and fear- misguided Teapublican supporters likely haven't considered the consequences their votes could have this November. In their desperation and ignorance, Teapublican voters have even started to steal campaign slogans from 4chan, a festering pool of porn, gore and racism.

If you support these views and plan to vote for candidates who proudly espouse these principles, just tell me why.

The Trampling of Jdimytai Damour/Corporate Callousness 2.0

Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

(The following story is based on a true event.)

It was a cold, cold New York morning. Jdimytai Damour's belly was still full from yesterday's Thanksgiving Dinner, and his insides had been quite disagreeable since he had woken up that morning for work, for the dreaded Black Friday shift. Damour rubbed a chunk of sleep still glued to his eye, the 2:00 AM din of the alarm clock robbing him of any hopeful feelings about the next few hours to come. The 34 year-old left his apartment in Jamaica, Queens, and boarded the Long Island train, still groggy from the lack of sleep and abundance of food breaking down in his belly. Jdimytai still considered himself young and full of life, and not even an early-morning 12-hour shift could stop him. He'd have plenty of cash to blow after the next check came through, and that kept his spirits up.

Damour, the temporary maintenance worker, had been instructed to arrive at 3:00 AM in anticipation for the 5 AM opening, and stand just inside the door of the Wal-Mart supercenter where he worked to maintain the crowds that were expected to swarm the place for doorbuster deals on plasma screen TVs, video game systems and personal computers. First come, first served. There was a handwritten sign by the entrance clearly marked "BLITZ LINE STARTS HERE." Wooden barricades accompanied Damour at the front.

Damour watched scads of cars fill the parking lot not long after his own arrival. Shoppers clad in thick layers briskly rubbed their hands together, their breath rising in clouds, preparing to wait for hours in the fierce cold of the pre-dawn Long Island November to spend their hard-earned dough on the shiny gadgets that lie inside waiting, marked down for the lucky few who made it there first.

The shoppers got antsy as more of them showed up. The line had started to grow disordely, and Damour nervously chewed his lip, observing his watch as he observed the rapidly increasing crowd, whose patience seemed to dissipate proportionally to the increase of its number.

4:25. Still more than a half hour to go. The Valley Stream Wal-Mart told Damour that the doors would open exactly at 5:00 sharp, and that he would be the one to usher crowds inside. He was, however, but one man. Other security had been hired to stand by, but that didn't ease the growing fear settling in his gut. The handwritten sign and barricades had since been rendered meaningless; the once-orderly line had now turned into a sea of people slowly budging closer to Damour, who firmly held his hands out in front of him.

"Hey pal, how much longer are we gonna have to wait?" One customer angrily shouted through the glass.
"Let us in! It's cold!" Said another.
"Move outta the way!" Another yelled.

The crowd had now swelled to about 2,000 people. The sign was now on the ground, lying under the feet of the pissed-off shoppers. The cold coming through the glass was no longer an issue for Damour; his blood ran hot, and sweat beaded his forehead from the proximity of the crowd, the unsettling ache of his bowels, combined with a slight delirium from a lack of sleep.

"Just wait," Damour yelled out to the shoppers in front. "The store opens at 5. Please be calm, we'll be opening shortly."

Damour's watch read 4:47 AM. Still far too early for anyone to be up on a holiday, yet the Wal-Mart parking lot was full. Cars buzzed by on the road nearby, undoubtedly heading out to grab early bird deals at other stores hoping to capitalize on the Black Friday rush. All the gloom and doom over the recent economic collapses had really caused the media to amp up "Black Friday" into a holiday of its own, business owners eager to get shoppers inside the stores and keep them there until their holiday bonuses were nestled in the cash registers. Damour's manager had told him that he'd be needed until probably 4 or 5 that day, and to expect more 12-hour shifts as Christmas loomed closer.

It was 4:54 AM now, and the crowd had morphed into a mob. Shoppers no longer cared about the words they used in front of children, or about bumping into and elbowing one another. The doorbuster deals were a straight line to the back of the store in the Electronics department, and shoppers looked prepared to fight one another to be first in line to get a $20 discount on the big screen TV. Still the mob pushed and shoved and elbowed and swore. Other employees, notiving the havoc that was escalating outside, had joined Damour and formed a human chain in front of the stoor entrance.

"PUSH THE DOORS IN! PUSH THE DOORS IN! PUSH THE DOORS IN!" The mob bellowed.

Then, two things happened, almost simultaneously, just before 5 AM.

Damour saw the glass pane in front of him start to bend in the middle from the force of the crowd. He pushed to get it to stay upright, but the glass had bent back too far.

The door burst off its hinges. Damour fell helplessly backward, and the mob pushed on. They no longer noticed the man in the hooded sweatshirt and gloves and blue vest serving as the last barricade between them and the deals that lie beyond the glass. As Damour fell, hordes of boots and sneakers fell upon him, compounded with the weight of the shoppers who wore them. There was nowhere else but the shoppers to go but forward. Shoes continued to pound and squash Damour into the hard tile floor, bloodying his face, breaking his bones, pulverizing his insides as shoppers leapt over one another and on top of the man who lay helplessly on the floor, buried under the feet and weight of thousands.

The doorbusters had been picked up almost as soon as Damour met his swift death. Customers squabbled with each other, punching and shoving those who had made it to the first deals on the shelf. Emergency crews were rushed in to perform CPR on Damour, but even they were not immune to the consumer-hungry rage of the mob still pouring in from the dark, cold New York morning. Even four other shoppers couldn't escape injury from the ensuing mayhem, including a 28 year-old woman eight months pregnant.

Not more than 45 minutes after Damour was trampled, the manager's voice instructed shoppers on the intercom that a worker was killed, that they would have to leave.

"Aw, man! I've been in line since 4 this morning!" One shopper yelled in protest.

The Wal-Mart would re-open that day at 1 PM, and shoppers filled the building within minutes. Damour would not be there this time to help guard the door.

The discounted gifts that customers endured for hours in the cold just for a few bucks off sticker price, like a $798 Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28 and Men's Wrangler Tough Jeans for $8 would eventually be wrapped and placed under trees, and would be torn apart and opened to excited screams and shouts on a Christmas morning that 34 year-old Jdimytai Damour would never see. A morning that his 41 year-old sister Danielle would spend quietly without him, weeping uncontrollably with other grieving family members like 37 year-old cousin Ernst, instead.

Corporate Callousness 2.0

The Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted by Congress in 1970 in the event that if something happened like the event above, there would be some accountability. OSHA has the authority to levy penalties to companies who knowingly put their workers in hazardous situations. Such regulations meant to ensure corporations consider the safety of their employees as the highest priority, even above profits.

29 U.S.C. § 654, 5(a)1: "Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees."

But thanks to decades of the corporate special interest lobbying that has been polluting congress relentlessly, and even much moreso since the Reagan Revolution, these corporations are now only responsible for a mere $7,000 pittance if a "foreseeable death" occurs. The penalty for a "willful death" is $70,000. One Wal-Mart store makes about $250,000 per day. That's a conservative estimate.

However, Wal-Mart, in the ultimate act of corporate defiance of laws, has spent $2 MILLION fighting OSHA's $7,000 fine for a Wal-Mart worker dying on the clock. That's $2,000,000. Spent to not pay a $7,000 fine for something they knew could very possibly happen. They claim that OSHA doesn't have the constitutional authority to levy penalties against private corporations. Which is complete nonsense, as corporate accountability for wrongdoing to workers is precisely why OSHA was created. But OSHA's legal department has complained that Wal-Mart, with its infinite resources and money, is draining OSHA's resources to the point that a full third of their legal department is dedicating all of their time to try and get Wal-Mart to follow the law.

Clearly, this isn't about money. This is Wal-Mart waging a war of attrition against the federal government, in an ultimate effort to discourage them in the future from pursuing large corporations and holding them accountable when they put lives at risk for the sake of profit. Wal-Mart, a company that let a worker die while working for them, is challenging the federal government for having the audacity to make them pay for their callousness.

If this isn't enough to get people to stop giving Wal-Mart their money, I don't know what is.

The Destruction of America: It's What They Want

Introduction

"Government can't solve the problem. Government is the problem."
-Ronald Reagan

No, the title is not referring to the terrorists. At least, not the ones in other countries, who commit conventional terrorism with bombs and airplanes and vans. These terrorists are a small group of elitists who wish to bring America to its knees unconventionally; through the Democratic process, of all things. Not because they necessarily hate their country, but because they love their money, their power, and their campaign contributors more than their country. And if making the country weaker makes them more powerful, you'd better believe they'll do it.

So who are "they?"

The Reagan Revolution

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
-Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform

America's resounding wish 30 years ago materialized through the "Reagan Revolution." One of unfettered, deregulated, unrestrained capitalism, compounded with "starving the beast." The "beast," of course, being government. Even if that beast was educating our children and caring for our poor and our sick, the American people wanted that beast out of their lives. And they elected Ronald Reagan the the presidency by overwhelming margins in both 1980 and 1984, and they even liked him so much that they elected one of his deputies, George H. Bush, after Reagan's two terms were up.

And the two Democratic presidents who have followed both tread carefully when stumping for social welfare programs, because the "GOVERNMENT BAD, CORPORATIONS GOOD" mantra had been stuck in the heads of constituents for a generation and was there to stay.

President Clinton deregulated banks by repealing the Glass-Stegall Act of 1936 in his second term as per the advice of Rubin and Summers, a decision he now openly regrets. And President Obama doesn't dare raise top income tax rates to what they were under other Republican administrations (50% under Reagan, 70% under Nixon, 91% under Eisenhower) for fear of a corporate lynch mob. Barack Obama is already being called every demeaning term under the sun for letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011 (39.6 top tax rate after Bush tax cuts for the wealthy sunset), so it isn't likely he'll impose higher taxes on the richest, at least in his first term.

So the people have spoken, right? Taxes are bad? Government is bad? Corporations, deregulation and obscene profits are all good? If you have absurd amounts of wealth, then you obviously worked for every penny and any taxation on those profits is socialism/communism/fascism/nazism/terrorism? The only reason poor people are poor is because they don't know how to work hard?

Well kids, the Reagan Revolution has come true in every way. We are reaping the fruits of our labor, of the seeds we have sewn three decades ago. I invite all of you to read on, and see just exactly where the Reagan Revolution and 30 years of fiscal conservatism and libertarian unfettered free-market philosophies has led our country.

The Dawn of the Re-Gilded Age

"The only social responsibility of corporations is to make a profit."
-Milton Friedman, economic adviser to President Reagan

Take a look at any economic chart graphing just about anything in this country after 1981, and you'll notice a pattern. That pattern is usually a line that takes a sudden drop, or a sudden rise.

For example, after 1981, when Reagan was sworn in, we steadily went form the world's largest creditor, to the world's largest debtor.

Working people's share of the profits from increased productivity also took a sharp turn for the worst.

This led to increased concentration of wealth at the top.

Because of this, working folks had to deplete their savings just to get basic needs.

Without a reserve of savings, this soon led to increased working-class debt, which has only worsened since the Reagan Revolution.

Obviously, none of this helped economic growth, because the majority of working Americans were cutting back their spending, which hurts local economies and jobs.

Do you see the pattern yet? The source of our economic woes should be painfully obvious right now, but the vested powers that be like it that way, and have plenty of money to lobby Congress so they can make sure the cards remain in their favor. Even if that means the rest of us get the short end of the stick.

So why complain? According to today's conservatives, this sort of economic inequality is not only sustainable, but it is just. And they're going to fight as hard as they can to make sure the status quo stays. But what is that status quo today, after three decades of Reaganomics from both parties?

The Status Quo

"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

"Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred."
-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936

The status quo today is one that is slowly destroying the American middle class, to where nearly one in five of us are unemployed, underemployed, or have just stopped looking for work.

The gap between the richest and everyone else is slowly turning into a chasm, thanks to fiscal policy that fills the pockets of the rich while the working class toil longer hours for lower wages. The debt mentioned in the previous section has grown to such an alarming rate that one in 9 working families can't even make the minimum payment on their credit card debt. The housing situation hasn't improved much since the subprime bubble burst in late 2008; now, one in eight mortgages is either in foreclosure or default, and homes are still emptying all over America today, and it's estimated we'll have ten million more foreclosures before 2012.

While Wall Street bankers used our bailout money to give themselves obscene bonuses, Americans who suffered from their greed had $5 TRILLION of their pension and savings wiped out.

Sure, the 1960's saw a boom where median income rose for working families by 33%, but the economic surge that was celebrated by the end of the Clinton presidency was only a 1.5% jump for folks like us. However, the real gains were made on Wall Street- champagne corks were popping through the latter half of the 20th century as productivity has steadily been on the rise while middle-class wages have been relatively flat since the 1970s.

The top 10% of the country has seen great gains in their wealth since 1980, thanks to Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush policies. However, prices have continued to rise while wages have stagnated for the other 90%. Now, the hunger rate in this country, arguably the most wealthy on the planet, has increased by 37 million in just the past year. And here in the South, it's estimated that nearly half of the children in 15 states are undernourished. And according to the article above, a third of Americans- 100 million people- are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level of $21,834 in annual income for a family of four. And as the author said, that figure really should be adjusted, because that amount of money isn't capable of supporting a family of four today. And as if that wasn't enough, 50% percent of kids growing up today will require food stamps/EBT just to eat three meals a day.

So despite the astonishing levels of disparity and income inequality in America, the likes of which we haven't seen since pre-1929, the Republicans in power and the Libertarians making up the majority of the Tea Party would have you believe that such a lack of income and crippling poverty is your own fault. Their meme is that if you live on food stamps/EBT cards, then you're a lazy, good-for-nothing government mooch. Their reasoning for earning insufficient wages is that you just don't work hard enough.

If that seems like an over-generalization, read on and see just how the Republicans in power feel about the poor and unemployed who survive only on a government-provided safety net. Since the onset of the Reagan Revolution, they have sought to not only abolish all regulatory agencies, but to eliminate all social welfare programs.

They are succeeding.

The Right-Wing War on the Poor

"Tough shit."
-Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) after being asked to drop objections to 30-day unemployment extension

In February, Jim Bunning drew the scorn of Democrats across the country for his callousness toward the plight of America's jobless. Republican senators Jon Kyl and Bob Corker had lukewarm support for his viewpoints, but the rest of the Republican caucus turned their heads in shame, refusing to join their colleague in blocking emergency aid to the poor.

Fast-forward to Thursday, June 24th, when an up-or-down vote on an emergency spending bill to extend unemployment insurance through December 30th was blocked- not just by Sen. Bunning, but by the entire Republican caucus. Conservative Democrat Ben Nelson (D-NE) joined the Republicans, and "moderate" Republicans like Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Scott Brown (R-MA) voted in lockstep with their party.

Along with keeping the safety net for millions of jobless Americans intact, the bill also included $16 billion in state government aid, aimed at preserving public sector jobs that would otherwise be lost. Governors of 47 states, including top GOP strategist Haley Barbour (R-MS) all signed a letter begging Congress to extend them the $16 billion to save their state employees. Already, 231,000 state government employees across the nation have lost their jobs since the beginning of the recession because of severe budget cuts.

As if this wasn't enough, in their never-ending, fruitless effort to reach across the aisle, Senate Democrats even compromised the bill down from $190 B to $30 B. However, Senate Republicans vowed to filibuster regardless of the amount in the bill. The only alternative offered by the Republicans would be to severely cut the budget to where the federal government would effectively shut down for almost 80 days. For the GOP, a compromise means that the Democrats do what the Republicans want.

The GOP casts themselves as martyrs, saying that blocking UI is necessary to save the federal deficit from exploding. However, worrying about the deficit while people are starving and losing their homes is a lot like worrying about the furniture on the Titanic if it gets wet. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joked about the emergency spending bill, calling it the "Deficit Extenders Act."

Mind you, Mitch McConnell is the same deficit hawk who gleefully voted with the rest of his caucus to spend $4 TRILLION that we didn't have on tax cuts for the rich 1%, two wars on countries that didn't attack us, and a Medicare package that put money into the pockets of Big Pharma at the expense of America's senior citizens while George W. Bush was president. He is the same senator who voted to give himself a "cost of living" pay raise while America was reeling from the deficits created by irresponsible spending from those in his party.

Mitch and his Republicans in the US Senate won't cut anything from the $1 trillion spent on wars overseas since 2001, but he draws the line when it comes to keeping a safety net intact for 15 million Americans suffering from an economic crisis created by his party's failed fiscal policies.

It isn't just Bunning being a mean old curmudgeon now- every Republican is now Jim Bunning.

The Destruction of America: It's What They Want

"I want Obama to fail."
-Rush Limbaugh

Eliminating the only source of income left for 15 million Americans will only lead to even more widespread poverty; the lack of money coming into local businesses will have a ripple effect in every state. No longer will the jobless have money coming in so they can buy shoes for their kids, put food on the table, make copays to see the doctor, or change the oil, or even put gas in their cars. The Republicans would like us to believe that this will somehow further enable the jobless to find work, despite the fact that corporate profits are up while hiring is down. The jobs just aren't out there.

When families are pushed out onto the streets because they no longer have UI checks coming in to pay rent, when they lose the money they were getting to gas up their car so they can drive around town and drop off resumes and fill out job applications, when local mom-and-pop grocery stores, hardware stores, shoe stores and service stations go belly-up because there's no money being spent, the economy will likely crash again, just in time for the 2010 midterm congressional elections in November.

The average American doesn't have the time to follow political news- they don't see Republicans crassly voting against emergency aid for millions of families and households. They don't see a vow by the Republicans to filibuster any and all legislation that helps spur job growth. The average American will only see "Congress" sitting on their thumbs, accomplishing nothing while people starve. And come November, the average American will be in an angry, throw-the-bums-out, anti-incumbent fervor. And since the Democrats have the majority, they will be saddled with the blame, despite the Republicans purposefully failing to govern in the people's interest.

This is not about fiscal policy. This is simply the Republicans playing politics with people's livelihoods.

Conclusion

The Republicans seek not to create jobs, or help the economy recover, at least not while the Democrats are in charge of the White House and the Capitol. They want this president and this congress to fail, so they can win more seats in the next election. Their political strategy is to break the economy, increase poverty, widen the gap between rich and poor, and then point the finger at the Democrats and say,

"See? We told you they couldn't get anything done!"

If voters refuse to stay informed on legislative affairs, if voters become apathetic with the political process and decide to stay home on election day, then the Republicans will get what they want. And they will continue to fight against the interests of the working poor as long as Barack Obama is in the White House. They will continue to side with their corporate contributors and Wall Street in their class war against the dwindling middle class and impoverished.

But don't take my word for it- let them say it for you. They are not on your side.

It's a risky political strategy, but they will succeed unless the Democrats come out with guns blazing. The extreme right has taken over the Republican party, and they are waging war with anyone not in line with their philosophy of "screw you, I got mine." The Democrats ignore this partisan warfare at their own peril.

My Final Plea For Your Help

Intro

"Die with your boots on. Gonna try? Well stick around. Gonna cry? Just move along. The truth of all predictions is always in your hands."
-Iron Maiden

I just need to convey a point here. And I try not to be known for vulnerability, but I am openly scared for the future. Not just of this country, or our generation, or our society, but for our posterity and our planet and for all living things. I am frightened, and I'm asking for your help. Why?

Because all logic points to the conclusion that we are accelerating quickly down a path that is becoming rockier and steepier and narrower. Unless we find a way to stop and find a better, safer way to travel, I fear the human species will tumble right off the side. This fall will be gradual at first, but it will nonetheless become cataclysmic, and will remain irreversible for generations. And we will doom this planet's life along with us. This could all happen within a 5 to 10 year window at our current pace.

I'm just going to list some recent happenings in the news, then a few facts afterward. There are many more than what has been listed here, but these are just the few that come off the top of my head from paying attention to the news for the past few weeks or so. Then I will lead you to the extremely logical and simple conclusion I've come to, and hopefully you'll have come to the same conclusion by the time you've finished reading this.

Major Environmental Disasters in America Since 4/20/2010

Ice age coming
Ice age coming
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both
Ice age coming
Ice age coming
Throw them in the fire
Throw them in the fire
Throw them in the

We're not scare mongering
This is really happening
Happening
We're not scare mongering
This is really happening
Happening
Mobiles quirking
Mobiles chirping
Take the money and run
Take the money and run
Take the money
-Radiohead, Idioteque

Mind you, this is simply MAJOR disasters. Since April 20th. In America. I define "major" as one where human beings are killed or injured or otherwise directly affected. I will not be including things like the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska just two decades ago. Or the massive oil spill in the Persian Gulf during the Iraqi/Saudi conflicts back in Saddam Hussein's heyday. Nor will I discuss the Venezuelan oil rig that sank in the Caribbean this past May. Or any of the ten world's worst oil spills, none of which have happened in the USA. Just major happenings, here in the states, in the past 60 or so days.

April 20, 2010
BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded deep in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people. Estimates by the oil company started at 5,000 barrels a day (around 200,000 gallons of oil per day) and then independent and government scientists analyzed the drilling depth, the amount of oil in the well, and the consequences of a major blowout, and placed that figure around 10,000 to 20,000 barrels a day. Now that figure is between 70,000 and 80,000 barrels a day. It could be higher. But it's already gushed more than four Exxon Valdez-sized spills into the Gulf of Mexico. And that's a very, very conservative estimate.

This will effect undersea plant, fish, bird, turtle and whale species, local economies, tourism, and the country's domestic seafood supply very likely for the rest of our lives. And if, God forbid, a major hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico, which scientists say is very likely this year, then imagine miles and miles of concrete ribbons of expressway closed down indefinitely because they're covered in oil. Lost homes. Lost cultures. Lost ways of life. For at least a generation. Maybe more.

June 6 2010
A natural gas well leaked toxic gases into water supplies for 16 hours in Pennsylvania, due to a failure in the well's blowout preventer. A plume of polluted water and gas shot 75 feet into the air at the time of the incident, and crews were evacuated until the next day.

June 7, 2010
A natural gas line in Cleburn, Texas ruptured, ending one worker's life and sending seven to the hspital. Nobody could walk through the area for several hours, and the worker's charred remains were found later in the day, a good distance from the site.

Also on this day, in Moundsville, West Virginia, a natural gas line drilling project ran into a pocket of methane, injuring 7 people. A 70-foot pillar of flame shot from the gas line, and the flames were still 40 feet high several hours later.

June 8, 2010
Two men digging clay out of a pit in the Texas panhandle were killed when a natural gas line suddenly exploded. Three other workers bulldozing near the blast were hospitalized.

June 13, 2010
Creeks and nearby water supplies were polluted after a Chevron oil well dumped 33,000 gallons of crude oil near Salt Lake City, Utah. Chevron takes responsibility for this one, and reports are surfacing of oil-soaked wildlife emerging from surrounding waterways.

June 15, 2010
A natural gas pipeline exploded in the Dallas area, taking a man's life and injuring 8 others. Authorities are still trying to figure out what caused the fatal blast.

Rapid Climate Change

"Can you read signs? Can you read stars?
Can you make peace? Can you fight war?
Can you milk cows, even though you drive cars?
Can you survive, against all odds?"
-Damien Marley, "Patience"

At the Bonnaroo music festival this year, in a treeless field an hour South of Nashville, Tennessee, one attendee actually died from the heat. I remember heat indices reaching past 100 on Friday, and climbing steadily on Saturday and Sunday. The brief rain we got Saturday just compounded Sunday's wet, sticky humidity, not to mention exacerbating the prevalent stink of 80,000 unwashed bodies of myself and other hormone-ridden hipsters, rastas, peaceniks and other such scalawags in Manchester.

But that's something we're just going to have to get used to, just like these environmental disasters that keep sticking their ugly heads up in the news each day. Because this year is on track to be the hottest year on record. The facts are bearing out all over the place.

-Did you know that global surface temperature records have been shattered every week since the second week this past January, when compared to the year before?

-Did you know that ocean temperatures are currently at their second-hottest of all-time, other than 1998? And that record temperature anomalies are now being reported on all of the world's majorly-populated continents?

-Did you know that arctic sea ice volume has drastically declined over the last two months, far beyond what would be considered normal in the planet's climate cycles? That temperatures in the arctic are ten degrees fahrenheit warmer today than the norm? And that this past brutal winter and what is predicted to be an historically destructive hurricane season are being directly linked to this arctic meltdown?

-Most importantly, did you know that scientists are estimating that half of the WORLD will suddenly find themselves in a severe water shortage 20 years from now?

This cycle compounds and becomes worse, exacerbated by an overabundance of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere, which lingers above, absorbing sunlight and focusing it on the arctic areas. Before the industrial revolution's onset, the Earth naturally equalized atmospheric CO2. Now, the Earth has far more CO2 than it knows what to deal with. When arctic ice melts, seas grow warmer and ice becomes more isolated. Warmer, saltier water then flows into the arctic from the North Atlantic, which causes more ice to melt. Lather, rinse, repeat.

These greenhouse gases, largely put in the air by humanity's industrialization, consist of carbon dioxide and methane. Both of which humans excrete just by sitting still, which the Earth can normally equalize if kept at manageable levels. But with so much rapid melting of sea ice, methane pockets in the Siberian shelf are starting to seep into the atmosphere. Methane stays in the air for much longer and channels much more heat than regular CO2, and climate scientists warn that this is steadily increasing global temperatures incrementally over the years, to where we are literally starting to see catastrophic effects of climate change take place worldwide before our own eyes.

-Like the Aral Sea drying up to a fraction of what it was just twenty years ago.

-Like glaciers collapsing in Argentina, killing three tourists and their guide.

-Like water supplies in one of the world's most populous countries suddenly drying up because of rapid glacial melt.

-Like how we're already seeing conflicts in the hottest parts of the world not over religious, ethnic of political differences, but because there's not enough food and water to go around.

Like the recent environmental disasters, the effects of climate change are numerous in the media, and I could devote pages to just sharing links and figures and data. But that isn't what I came here to do tonight. I came to ask for your help.

My Final Plea For Your Help

"Come mothers and fathers, throughout the land.
And don't criticize what you can't understand.
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.
Your old road is rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one,
If you can't lend your hand,
For the times, they are a-changin'."
-Bob Dylan, "The Times, They Are A-Changin'"

This is usually the part where I ask you to call your congressmen and senators and urge them to push for strong climate legislation for the sake of our planet. But I'm going to just start small here, and hope you, the readers, will take it upon yourselves to make a collective call to action in government and society. My plea?

Climate change is NOT to be up for debate any longer.

Evolution used to be an issue up for debate. As did the Earth being the center of the universe. Or the Earth's shape. Or the origin of the universe. But eventually, a scientific consensus concluded that the facts were overwhelmingly on their side, and they moved on.

This is the part where the deniers come out of the woodwork and link me to studies put out by the Heritage Insitute, or the Heartland Institute, or some other think tank funded with oil company money scoffing at proven climate science. Or to a petition from the religious right-wing's Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, where 30,000 scientists who DON'T study the climate deny that climate change is man-made, or that it's even happening.

Or maybe the deniers reading this are fuming under their breath, preparing a lengthy response chastising me about ignoring the economic implications of a strong climate bill. Please don't waste your time. Any economic implications of a carbon tax or ban on oil drilling are outweighed by far by the economic implications of 3 billion starving people in Africa and Central/Eastern Asia. Or by every major coastal American city underwater by the midpoint of the 21st century.

It could be that the climate change deniers are about to post links to the "climategate scandal" at the University of East Anglia, where tens of thousands of private emails between climate scientists were illegally hacked and taken out of context by those working in the interests of Big Oil. Where, in reality, the actual conclusions about drastic climate change came to by a consensus of climatologists were never thrown into question, despite so much manufactured outrage and nonsense.

Or maybe it's just the sad cry of the FOX news watchers and Glenn Beck-ites and Rush Limbaugh dittoheads of "B-b-but...AAAAALLLLL GOOOOOOORRRRREEEE!"

I've wasted far too much time repeatedly debunking those petitions, those studies, those faux scandals and those organizations and I'm tired of debate, for once. I'm thirsty not for debate, but for action, and our planet needs us. And I'm moving on. We all must move on.

We must plead for our media to stop pitting scientists vs. non-scientists against one another and framing it as a legitimate debate. The debate is over. Like evolution, climate change is no longer up for debate. It is happening. It is real. Our actions are directly influencing the climate's rapid change. And incidents like the ones above are all indicative that we are very quickly hurtling down an unsustainable path, and that the only thing that can come of it will be a very swift, sharp, painful end for all of us.

Conclusion

"What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
-Henry David Thoreau

Our generation will either be remembered as the ones who finally swallowed our pride, wised up and organized a collective effort to reverse our planet's inevitable decay before it was too late, or the ones who got lazy, who consumed with reckless abandon, who spat in the faces of the more knowledgeable among us. And if a fraction of humanity does survive the pending crises that will already await us in the not-too-distant future, they will look back on us with scorn, and tell their progeny of how our laziness and apathy caused species to die off en masse, for soil to only become fertile again once our decomposed corpses were taken back into the Earth.

I'm asking for your help. What will you do for the planet? For yourselves? For your grandchildren?

How will you be remembered?