“In a public lecture delivered last week and published online Tuesday [5/10/16], award-winning Canadian author and social justice activist Naomi Klein argues the dire situation of climate change, coupled with failing political and economic systems, is creating a world where nobody will be left unaffected.
‘It is not about things getting hotter and wetter but things getting meaner and uglier, unless we change the corrosive values that are pitting people against each other,’ Klein said last Wednesday as she gave the 2016 Edward W. Said London Lecture at the Royal Festival Hall in London.”
Dr. Anthony Ingraffea and his colleagues at Physicians Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy have been working for years to create an archive of the science that reports on fracking. It’s no surprise that the preponderance of evidence shows unacceptable harm to people and the environment. This is not hype or rhetoric. It stands in sharp contrast to the slick whitewash of the energy industry PR copy.
PSE Healthy Energy has studied this literature and provides you with an overview that’s understandable in layperson’s terms. Browse the site – it’s eye-opening and rigorously accurate.
“Global warming is, in the end, not about the noisy political battles here on the planet’s surface. It actually happens in constant, silent interactions in the atmosphere, where the molecular structure of certain gases traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space. If you get the chemistry wrong, it doesn’t matter how many landmark climate agreements you sign or how many speeches you give. And it appears the United States may have gotten the chemistry wrong. Really wrong.” [emphasis added]
Bill McKibben opens his compelling overview of the US response to the threat of global warming with these grave words in his article that appeared in The Nation. This is not news to our regular readers but McKibben does a masterful job of making the case. As founder of 350.org, a Schumann Distinguished Scholar, and winner of the Ghandi Peace Award, McKibben has long been a credible source. He translates his panoramic knowledge of environmental science into terms the rest of us can grasp.
December 9th, 2015, 9:15 am. In just a few minutes I will be leaving home to testify at the Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC) business meeting. These five people representing New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and the US Government grant permits for projects that impinge on the watershed or the Delaware River itself. So they decide about pipelines, drilling of wells, and industrial processes on the river banks. They have a moratorium in place on shale gas extraction permits in the basin. But they are considering allowing pipelines to cross the watershed and the river. Here is what I plan to say:
DRBC
I am Richmond Shreve, of Newtown, PA. I’m a grandfather concerned for his grandchildren’s future and I’m here to speak for them. I want to be sure that each of you is mindful of the effect of your decisions on their future not just in terms of stewardship of the Delaware River, but in terms of global environment.
Only half of the 9,000 shale gas wells already drilled in Pennsylvania are in production. Yet the glut of domestic gas has driven the price per million BTU as low as $2 and forecasters don’t see it going above $3.40 until 2020 or later. And 16,000 more drilling permits are already approved.
These numbers tell us the market is already in oversupply with more is coming on line. We are moving from an energy boom to an energy bust.
Sure, Japan and other countries may pay a premium price to buy and burn some of the excess. But you and I know that atmospheric carbon is changing the climate. The world’s present known reserve of fossil fuels represents five times what it will take to exceed the 2 degrees centigrade tipping point and trigger a century of catastrophic global warming.
We must not burn all that carbon fuel. If we do, our grandchildren’s prospects look grim. So when you are asked to permit more pipelines, or to allow more fracking, or to accept toxic waste facilities I beg you to be mindful of all the consequences. You are like the legendary Casey Jones at the throttle of a colossal engine racing toward a train wreck.
Don’t leave your grandchildren to say, “They didn’t see it coming. They couldn’t stop it.”
Public comments like mine are allowed only two minutes, sometimes less. So I will have to read fast. I’m hoping my words will speak to their hearts and stiffen their resistance to the enormous pressure to get gas out of the ground and sell it to the highest bidder. If you share my hope, print this post and attach it to a handwritten note to your legislative representatives both state and federal. Perhaps what can’t be acknowledged for political reasons will be acknowledged for personal ones.
I was at the live presentation and I highly recommend that you watch the video. Professor Ingraffea, like so many brilliant scholars, makes his talk interesting and at times amusing despite its complexity. This lecture is very accessible and rigorously grounded in factual information. You can trust Ingraffea’s analysis, and if you are skeptical, you can go right to his sources. I’m eager to get this link up on the site now, and hope to make time to review it and quote some highlights later.
Many people see stewardship of our environment as a moral issue. The world’s great religions call their followers to love one another and be stewards of all creation. Climate disruption has moral and social justice implications that are the common concern of all faithful people. The forum announced in the flyer below affords a great opportunity to explore and discuss how faith informs our efforts to ensure a safe healthy planet for future generations.
The call to environmental stewardship is nearly universal. Citizens Climate Education has published a book of statements by world faith leaders titled Faith Based Statements on Climate Change. Copies are available from them – 1330 Orange Avenue #300, Coronado, CA 92118; 609 437-7142.
132 Page book of Statements by World Faith Leaders.
That oil and gas interests might be reluctant to accept information pointing to the end of the fossil fuel era is completely understandable. But the just released report by the Union of Concerned Scientists titled The Climate Deception Dossierdocuments decades of deliberate deception aimed at sewing doubt in the media and the public’s perception of climate science. The report reveals industry internal secret documents that prove there has been a strategy to hide the truth. It’s little wonder that so many politicians today find it easy to deny the opinion of 97% of the scientific community. They’ve been blinded by money and duped with lies.
Proof of decades of deception by fossil fuel industry: Union of Concerned Scientists.
I can’t improve on the summary that appears in the summer issue of UCS’s journal, so I urge you to read it for yourself and then browse through the report that it announces. Although those few who have been close to the issue for years knew of various elements of the deception, the strategy was largely successful and history may yet look back upon the years since 1988 as the beginning of society’s greatest and most disastrous propaganda lies.
For those who follow NoFrackingBucks.net there is a disturbing confirmation that the oil and gas industry is ruthless and unrelenting in its hunger to expand regardless of the cost to society and future generations. Although our focus is very local, the menace is global and it will touch everyone – especially the poorest and most vulnerable nations.
We must consider both actions and words in weighing arguments about fossil energy. On the fracking issue, the industry has gotten legislation to exempt itself from regulations aimed at protecting the environment, and has succeeded in getting other legislation that severely limits the ability of local government to protect municipalities from the ravages of gas and oil extraction. These self-serving legislative campaigns are perverse and destructive. The deception and amoral (some might say psychopathic) campaign to discourage society from acting prudently in the face of a clear danger is a disgrace. If you agree, take the time to phone your state representatives and your US senators and congressman. Tell them to read the evidence and see for themselves how we all have been duped. Demand that public policy reflect climate reality.
and social justice activist Naomi Klein argues the dire situation of climate change, coupled with failing political and economic systems, is creating a world where nobody will be left unaffected.
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