new illuminati: climate change deniers

Showing posts with label climate change deniers. Show all posts

Friday, 4 July 2014

Global Warming for Dummies

You remember them, I'm sure you do. How could we ever forget such people? It seems they were just always there. No matter where on this planet you went to school there were always a handful of those smarmy, conceited, opinionated, cowardly little quislings who thru the magic of ego always claimed to be right. It never mattered what evidence there may be to the contrary, not even eye witnesses could prove them wrong.

Even worse than being insufferable, these dilatants of the schoolyard somehow always managed to get protected species status whenever the principal became involved. they were always the ones to start things off, then when it got out of hand, they were somehow just never held accountable, for anything; and never had to show their work. They were a large part of why most of us hated going to school. I took comfort in knowing that the real world beyond the schoolyard would eat those spoiled brats alive. I never dreamed they would be running (and ruining) the planet fifty years later.

Back when I went to school being smart was what it was all about, becoming an educated, intelligent person. I'm not sure about everyone else, but it just seemed to me that the smarter one became; the more advantage they had over the ignorant by choice types. It was why moms wanted their daughters to marry doctors or lawyers: big brain - big bucks! As I entered the workforce it certainly seemed like the smartest and most highly educated were the ones who worked at the management level, while the rest of us punched time cards. Accordingly it just went without saying that that to rise to the highest office in American politics, one must be smarter & more intelligent than the great unwashed masses; it was kind of a prerequisite for the job.

Then about twenty years ago it all began to change, almost overnight it seems. "They" began the great dumbing down of America in subtle little ways at first; the way all good social engineering begins. Moving ever closer to their endgame objectives, the last thing "they" wanted was an educated, intelligent population capable of critical thought.

The groundwork of course was laid with the younger generation. In oh-so-subtle ways the powers that be torpedoed the upcoming generation by hi-jacking their culture and replacing it with the cult of the BCFMO's (Brightly Colored Fast Moving Objects). Before long the ME generation became self absorbed, marginalized and polarized, wanting nothing to do with Washington politics. Exactly as planned.

Leaving nothing whatsoever to chance, the powers that be covered all the bases with dozens of projects & programs which kicked the dumbing down of America into high gear. Things like Chemtrails, GWEN towers, GMO food-like-products, and aspartame to go along with all the fluoridated water. Weather modification became a huge thing, because what good is being able to do a thing, if you don't actually do it. Never mind the consequences to the environment, or children.

Soon, all the legislation to protect the environment from industrial pollution began to disappear; replaced by legislation favoring the polluters, and privatizing water. To top it all off and seal our fates they then installed our first ever truly moronic president, the bemused chimp, "W". Our new role model in chief appeared as a savior to the ignorant and uneducated. He instilled a new found pride in all who cannot speak without embarrassing themselves, or who just make up words when they don't know the correct one. This of course quickly mutated into just making up new facts when the real ones are too inconvenient ~ and if the president can get away with it, then it must be okay.

Somewhere in those eight years of "W" everything got turned on its head and suddenly everyone wanted to be Larry the cable guy so the Tea Party was created so the truly ignorant could be represented in Washington DC.

To me the most frightening aspect of all this was the way those in power suddenly stopped going to extremes to conceal their crime & treason. Where always before dirty deeds were done in dark smoky rooms under a thick cloak of plausible deniability; now they were doing them in broad daylight, for everyone to see...as if they no longer cared! With Dick Cheney & Karl Rove at the helm; a war on perception itself was waged whenever questions were raised.

By simply exchanging the words being used with their own, they sought to bring obfuscation to an actual art form for the ant farm. It worked beautifully. The legislation to protect polluters became the clean air & water act; the government controlled propaganda mill became clear channel and of course, global warming turned into climate change. Change the words, spin the truth, crush the opposition!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlbBrTg2MosS9QmJs4XRcxKXeHlhJWlPebTAm4k2Yn4kl-vY5iue2vtmVnIvpDzyb5xccqJ3q5Yc2eBjrHGcVmdlkF1N5MnOkKdZu8bDK_t8x8EJfrZ5SSMPOlHLp8UxwoDseNgBxGWNYg/s1600/global-warming-polar-bears-.jpg

It never seems to matter nowadays what the facts are; not with the spin doctors & their manicured one-size-fits-all talking points parroted by every talking head on every one of those clear channels.

Yup, these are the very same talking heads who last week acted like Eric Cantor losing an election was a national tragedy, while dismissing the most recent school shooting as one would a rainy day...except we don't seem to be getting many of those anymore! What really gets me is how they even attempt to deny the obvious reality of global warming with their antics of obfuscation & Newspeak. You see "climate change" is a very natural and normal part of life on earth; there have been many instances of climate change throughout history, always preceded by some global event, such as the end of the ice age. Global warming isn't so natural in our case, as it is the direct result of burning fossil fuels; and is tied directly to our conduct upon the planet.

It takes a full year for Earth to take a single breath. We have a record of this breathing going back some eight hundred thousand years. Every ice core sample we take from the arctic regions holds an unbroken record of earth's atmosphere. In all that time, the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels never exceeded three one hundredths of one percent...until the turn of the 20th century. By burning fossil fuels we have turned earth's atmosphere into a dumping ground, with 40% higher CO2 levels than before the industrial revolution. All this additional carbon dioxide has the direct result of trapping heat inside the atmosphere that should be escaping back to space. With our arrogant mindless burning of fossil fuels, humans are dumping far more CO2 into the atmosphere than earth can absorb. As a result, CO2 is building up in the atmosphere, which traps heat in, which is why we humans are responsible for global warming.

Yes, I know there are those who will say it isn't us, but rather the volcanoes on the planet. Well, we can tell the two apart on the microscopic level; and the numbers say that all the planet's volcanoes add 500 million tons of volcanic CO2 to the atmosphere annually. That is less than 2% of the 30 Billion tons of industrial CO2 we dump into the atmosphere every year. The measured annual increase in atmospheric CO2 matches this known amount we create, almost perfectly! If only carbon dioxide wasn't invisible; maybe if we could see it we could abandon our denial. The arctic region is warming faster than anywhere on earth, and the arctic is primarily composed of permafrost which is permanently frozen organic material. With the arctic warming, the permafrost is thawing, melting, and rotting; adding massive doses of CO2 and methane (another dangerous greenhouse gas) to the already polluted atmosphere.

Scientists are concerned about this because the entire arctic region can double the current atmospheric CO2 levels; which in turn could conceivably crank the positive feedback loop into territory the earth might not recover from, ever! If the Earth quits breathing & dies from CO2 poisoning...well, you can extrapolate what that would mean for us. So, why exactly are we still burning fossil fuels? Then there is that whole Fukushima factor, and people dying in the gulf of Mexico from corexit poisoning...Who benefits from turning Earth into Venus' twin?

Then there are those who claim that global warming is a result of the Sun. Well, let's have a look at the facts! First of all, solar output levels have remained stable over a remarkable length of time, no increase that would account for all the warming we're currently seeing. Then, there is the fact that earth is warming more at night than during the day; and warming more in winter than in summer. Exactly what one would expect from industrial greenhouse warming.

It isn't the Sun - but the sun can save us from ourselves, there is still time if we just choose to act instead of deny. In one hour more solar energy falls to earth than all the energy our civilization consumes in a year. Suppose we could harness just a small fraction of available solar & wind power; we could supply ALL our energy needs forever without adding carbon dioxide to the air we breathe. Simple really! So, why do we ignore these facts, and continue to pollute & toxify the only planet we have to live on??

It is perfectly fine to not know all the answers all the time, it's what fuels the thirst for knowledge in the first place. In every case, it is always better to admit one's own ignorance than to believe in something wrong, or not to believe at all. Pretending to have all the answers closes & locks the door to discovering the truth; and it dishonors your soul. The abandonment of reason & logic can only lead us into a second helping of the dark ages, and doesn't that sound perfectly dreamy?

Is it logical or reasonable to continually elect, then ignore politicians who when pressed for accountability always use the same words; "I have no recollection of that at this time."? Does it strike you as odd that following the eight years of "W" we immediately got eight years zero progress on anything? "They" would have us all believe that congress & Washington are in gridlock because of the skin color of the resident president; when the truth is they are using that as a ruse, a ploy to provide the country with street theater while they continue to rob everyone blind and push their endgame agenda. What does it say about us as a species that we give more credibility to the lies about global warming than to what we can observe around us with our own senses? Nothing terribly good, I'm afraid.

So, this is the whirlwind we reap for ignoring those prissy cowards on the schoolyard fifty years ago; when we should have kicked their collective asses. If no behavior modification is applied to spoiled brat children during the formative years, what you invariably end up with is spoiled brat adults who think the rules don't apply to them, because they never have. Sums up our current dilemma rather nicely but unfortunately doesn't offer much in the way of solace at this point. The way out of this quagmire nightmare isn't going to be easy, but it is possible. It comes down, as always to a simple choice. You can choose to know, or to deny. You can choose to act, or be the deer in the headlights. The choice is yours!

Knowledge is power ~ Ignorance is bliss. Pick one!

May the Source be with You

From Augureye Express @ http://augureye.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/global-warming-for-dummies.html

For more information about climate change see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/climate%20change
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Monday, 16 June 2014

Cognitive Dissonance: Why Are We So Complacent in the Face of Climate Change?

by Elizabeth Peredo Beltran

It has rained incessantly recently in the Bolivian Amazon and in the Valleys. The waters that have flooded our territory since January, are thought to be the result of the worst rains in 40 years. More than 60,000 families have been affected—at least 350,000 people have had to leave their homes.

They have lost almost everything they own: their animals, their crops, their daily lives. UNICEF has reported that 60,000 Bolivian children have been affected. Nine hundred schools have had to suspend activities for almost a month due to high risk. More than fifty people have died and some of their bodies have still not been recovered. And we cannot yet tell what the magnitude of the impact on health, food and the ability of communities to rebuild their lives will be as the floodwaters recede and the extent of the destruction is slowly revealed. One small example of how poverty triggers the vulnerability of communities comes from the situation of the indigenous people in the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS) communities.

Though reports speak of huge losses of corn, rice, potatoes, soybeans, vegetables and livestock—with estimates of more than 250,000 head of cattle missing—it remains to be seen in the next few months what the economic impact of floods will be for these peoples themselves, and what the impact will be at both regional and national levels.

In the face of the dramatic situation presented by this disaster both authorities and civilians across the whole country have mobilized to collect food, medicines and everything necessary to bring help to the affected communities. Above and beyond, these good intentions to come together to provide aid for those affected by the floods in the Amazon region and in the Bolivian valleys, we were far from being capable of confronting the dimension of such a disaster. Rainfalls are also far from being recognized as not an occasional event but rather as climate change events that will only repeat more frequently in the future.

Not far from this region, droughts are hitting hard: in both the Chiquitanía region and the Chaco regions of Santa Cruz and Tarija there have been losses of thousands of hectares of crops, which is resulting in a silent forced migration to the cities. Just some months back the Bolivian Defence Ministry reported 247,000 hectares of land affected by the lack of rain, by snow or by fire. Meanwhile the loss of our glaciers is a sorrow to which we are becoming accustomed.

Climate change is not just a scientific issue, nor is it just something which is of exclusive interest to UN negotiations, nor it is a warning for the future: it is already present in our times, in our territories and it comes with violence. Climate change affects people’s lives and it is already claiming many victims.

We share this grief with millions of people across the planet who are suffering the same consequences. Just a few months back more than 11 million people were affected by super typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. A million people were without electricity after snowstorms caused by the late winter polar vortex in the U.S. Thousands of people affected in the UK in what was considered the worst flooding in 200 years. Thousands of hectares of forest burned annually in Australia by the alarming drought and heat.

Thousands affected in Central America, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay and other countries. Twenty-five million souls were driven into uncertainty by water shortages, the result of droughts and heat waves in California. A deadly landslide with more than one hundred people missing in Washington State, the result of heavy rains. Millions of humans and ecosystems at risk in various parts of the world … News that nobody wants to hear, but which we will inevitably be forced to confront in our own lifetimes, even though the news appears first as cold statistics in the press.

We need to connect the dots to realise that climate change is a phenomenon that challenges us to overcome short-term visions and the empty rhetoric of “Mother Earth,” devoid of concrete actions. Climate change is a consequence of the violent exploitation of nature, of endless economic growth systems based on fossil fuel consumption, understood as an irreplaceable condition for human “welfare.” This obsolete idea has been inculcated into our lives on a social, a psychological and on a cultural level.

What can we do to finally get on board that the emissions from burning fossil fuels, of large scale cattle exploitation and of deforestation emissions—both in the North and in the South—are destroying our atmosphere? Where are the effective means of caring for the common goods kidnapped by corporations and the global addiction to unlimited growth? How long do we have to wait till the polluters begin to stop poisoning us and prevent worse consequences? When and how will there be compensation for the damage? (almost 71.5 percent of global emissions are from developed countries where only 17.3 percent of the world population reside). What can we do to avoid the likelihood that the so-called “development” of the global South will repeat that same destructive patterns (disguised by the promises of progress and of happiness)?

Unfortunately—and not only in Bolivia—this theme has become distorted. It became an issue of political and economic interest, rather than simply being recognised as a matter of life or death, a challenge for survival.

The Fifth IPCC report has established in an unequivocal way that climate change is caused by human activity and that it is causing climate chaos everywhere. This report has warned that climate change presents enormous risks related to the access to water, food and livelihood. Some scientists and activists have been highly critical of this report for being—when all is said and done—conservative in nature, especially when it comes to expressing the urgency of the matter. They note that climate change is occurring faster than the IPCC scenarios had indicated, and that the Arctic ice-melt—and its consequent methane release (one of the greatest global threats)—has been underestimated due to pressure mounted by the rich nations and by the oil lobby. Other voices are questioning the possibility that the IPCC report has opened up opportunities for false solutions like geoengineering and unproven technologies, instead of insisting in a stronger way on the restriction of the use of fossil fuels.

Denialism Around the World

In the context of this global emergency, surprisingly, a political/ideological current called “denialism” has emerged. Denialists claim that these phenomena do not correspond to the saturation of the atmosphere as a direct result of human action, rather they claim that it is simply due to the planet’s “natural cycles.” Denialists, as if we have need of such a service, have devoted their activism to denial of scientific reports. They have become a strong global current that accompanies the rhythms of economic development and investment, blaming environmentalists for creating unnecessary uncertainty. Their position is in essence linked with the corporate oil lobby, large corporations and private capital dedicated to the continued exploration for—and exploitation of—fossil fuels. Their political/industry alliances are indestructible.

Bill McKibben, activist founder of 350.org has claimed that if oil reserves recognized by the world stock markets were exploited, this would consume five times the remaining atmospheric carbon budget. A calamity! Meanwhile, denialism among U.S. Republican representatives commands an impressive lobby so that the U.S. doesn’t even contribute to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) nor the UN platform on Economic and Social issues (ECOSOC), even more: they promote the “persecution” of their country’s scientists who assert that anthropogenic climate change is a reality. James Hansen, a NASA scientists, is one of their favorite targets.

Denialism does have definite concrete political realities as describe above, but the term also describes an attitude in society, a broad social space of indifference to both global and climate change. This attitude holds significant weight in civil society because people find it very difficult to change their lives in order to prevent global disaster. They prefer to close their eyes to the future. In the field of social psychology this is called “cognitive dissonance.” Clive Hamilton, Professor at the Australian Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, has concluded that denialism is an expression of the failure of humanity to confront this crisis of global dimensions.

Another form of denialism—although they don’t much like it mentioned—is that which comes from governments and from other circles of power and decision-making who disregard the urgent need for action despite the information is available to them. Through their decisions they deny the urgent need to change the current model of development, the energy grid and the management of the response to the crisis of global climate change. The alarming information provided by science is available to governments first hand.

Just remember the Philippine climate change negotiator who moved a global audience to tears during the climate talks in Poland 2013, demanding “an end to this madness,” after super-typhoon Haiyan devastated part of his country. Though negotiators responded to his words with minutes of silence and expressions of solidarity, negotiations continued as if nothing had happened. Business continued “as usual,” and the production and consumption of fossil fuels throughout the world continued “as usual.” Convention agreements fall paradoxically by the wayside; the dictates of the capitalist system are at once stronger and more binding than the multilateral agreements. Negotiators seem to speak in unison: “We can vouch for what we have accomplished in the negotiations, but not for the policies in our own countries.” The big decisions—those linked to the economic system, to the energy matrices and to capitalist production, that permanent engine of depredation—are kept in place by regional governments at the territorial and local levels.

Bolivia and the Challenge of Climate Change

Photo credit: USAID/Flickr

The recent floods in Bolivia have brought us one step closer to these big questions. To a greater or lesser extent, our understanding is framed by the controversies that are taking place across the globe. We observe the impacts of the climate crisis: polarisation, crisis, demands, the taking up of positions and proposals that go beyond the scope of the climate negotiations.

In Bolivia this has also brought about controversy. This is mediated by national and regional political tensions. Thus the people from the Amazon villages wonder: “What do we do now? What will sustain our families? Are we less important than cattle?” The tensions unleashed by the floods demonstrate how far we are from responses on the scale that is required. Distancing oneself from that which the government says, from local government demands, from Brazilian silence (motivated by the possible causal effects of recently constructed mega-dams), from the political declarations … what really matters is the construction of a society which is resilient to these global changes, and, therefore, a society able to build a new world based on solidarity and empathy.

There are some lessons that I venture to pinpoint from the dramas that we have lived through in the recent floods in our country:

We do not need heroes, nor do we need the usual political battles. Rather, we require a long-term view that takes into account climate change and other global changes, seeing the incorporation of cross-cutting measures as critical at every level of public administration and of public life. Nurturing nature and the human rights of the population, especially the poorest people, should be high priorities.

While negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) are now the only multilateral scenario for global commitments (though they are near to collapse due to their own inefficiency), today local priorities are more important than ever. This is where we can see whether or not we are making progress in stopping this catastrophe and changing the world to care for and regenerate life.

Resilience must be considered in a multi-dimensional way, from what it means to meet the challenge of sustainable energy and to restore harmony, to the development of technical skills in agriculture, water management, human settlements, etc. Resilience also means ensuring a healthy social tissue, strengthening solidarity, respect and mutual recognition.

Resilience means also developing a more complex viewpoint that redefines “development” for these times of global changes. To face properly climate change, states must take seriously the fossil fuels use menace. They have to think how to stop and change “fossilized” economies and societies.

The care and restoration of nature should become an obsession for all—particularly for governments—learning from the capability of the people (amply expressed in those days of rain) to give solidarity. Learning from Mother Earth itself and from its diversity, from the local knowledge of each people and town from the positive progress of mankind.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

We need to neutralize “denialism” as a collective attitude; it is not an unalterable condition. It is simply because people are unable to change their depredatory habits, because the channels for proactive and restorative activity are blocked by the systems of political power, by energy systems and by the markets that surround us.

There is a growing global consciousness which is looking for ways to activate itself; it is trying to pave the ways to do so and to enable people to build resilient communities not just using technologies and systems, but also in more intimate fabrics—solidarity, love, compassion—which strengthen the possibilities for healthy interactions, and feed the desire to heal nature, nourishing empathy and sentiments for others.

Climate change is challenging humanity. It demands a huge effort from all of us to restore and heal the planet. This requires discipline, rebelliousness and creativity in order to confront a truly global emergency with substantial implications for life and civilization. It is an emergency that by whatever political calculation—from wherever it comes—is simply… unacceptable.

Elizabeth Peredo Beltrán is a Bolivian Social Psychologist, researcher, activist and author. She promotes and coordinates the Blue October Campaign for Water as a Common in her country, Elizabeth belongs the APMM (Mountain People’s Association) and is a member of Food and Water Watch’ board of directors in Washington DC.

Translation and edition in English: Thanks to Tony Phillips and Monica Stopplemann

From Ecowatch @ http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/23/complacent-climate-change-extreme-weather/

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8334/8393994975_da921c3bbf_h.jpg

For more information about climate change see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/climate%20change
- See ‘Older Posts’ at the end of each section