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Clinton, McCain and more - v - Bush ...
Global warming: Will you listen now, America?
Two of the leading contenders to contest the next US presidential election have delivered an urgent warning to the United States on global warming, saying the evidence of climate change has become too stark to ignore and human activity is a major cause.
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington - Published: 19 August 2005, in the UK's Independent.
Well, will they listen?
That's what the whole rest of the world's been wondering for a long, long while. But maybe Mr & Mrs average American still aren't aware of the enormity of the all-too-true, terrible threat that's now looming so large.
Maybe too many moms and dads are still only watching the faux news from Fox, and still only reading the regularly released rubbish from Murdoch's media monopoly. Eh?
Well, one thing's for sure -- This Old Brit is completely certain that it's not because they don't care about their kids that the coming calamity of catastrophic, climate change isn't being taken seriously. Rather, he believes it's because it's still not been properly explained to them -- neither fully nor truthfully.
So maybe names such as those shown below can grab some sorely needed, mass public attention. It's certainly to be hoped so.
Mr McCain, Mrs Clinton and Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, also went to Barrow, the northernmost city in the US.
Perhaps by simply seeing the sort of things they're saying, all sensible citizens will swiftly 'snap out of it'.
"The question is how much damage will be done before we start taking concrete action," Mr McCain said at a press conference in Anchorage. "Go up to places like we just came from. It's a little scary."
Mrs Clinton added: "I don't think there's any doubt left for anybody who actually looks at the science. There are still some holdouts, but they're fighting a losing battle. The science is overwhelming."
And here's some more of the same.
Mr Graham, a Republican, said he had been moved by what he had seen. "Climate change is different when you come here, because you see the faces of people experiencing it. If you go to the people and listen to their stories and walk away with any doubt that something's going on, you're not listening."
Mrs Collins, a Democrat, was even more convinced. She said the evidence in Alaska represented the "canary in the mine shaft of global warming crying out to us to pay attention".
One doesn't need a Doctorate. Nor does one need a degree. The whole shameful, scary scenario is simply so self-evident.
So lets try to keep things simple.
Lets forget for the moment, most of the jargon used by the special interest, big business boys who make their billions by .... by ..... there's no other word for it .... by blighting all our lives.
So, as I've already said, lets keep it simple -- okay?
Simply, think hole in the Ozone. Simply, think kids. Simply, think grandkids. Simply, think malignant melanoma. Simply, think skin cancer.
Getting the picture now?
Then think on this, too.
President Bush's administration has repeatedly questioned the evidence of global warming and the contribution of human activity to any shift.Look at this link, and learn. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article306881.ece
Mr Bush, who in 2001 refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty on global warming weeks after he took office, has repeatedly been accused of doing nothing to enforce tighter
controls on emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases".
posted by Richard at Friday, August 19, 2005
6 Comments:
simpchimp, please don't apologise. Rather than rant, I'd say everything you said you said well. And you get right to the heart of the matter.
Albeit to a lesser degree over here - so far - our own ignoramuses continue to go forth and multiply. For them, ignorance really is bliss. (Sigh)
Had a discussion tonight w/ intelligent people who say, "Well, what can you do? There's nothing you can do."
If the US would run public interest announcements suggesting ways to conserve, things would change. But this ain't gonna happen, because big business owns the government.
Most people have never heard of the Hubbert Oil Peak, nor do they think about petrol, etc. as a FINITE resource that CANNOT be replaced. They haven't been taught to think that way.
Rush, etc. are on their way out. But the damage they have done is catastrophic. Remember Dial Down (on the thermostat)? Today the r/w and the free marketers and so-called libertarians would jeer and deride that message as a government nanny state intrusion and a liberal negativity jag. Formerly, it was almost unpatriotic to do otherwise. (I'm speaking of US, of course.)
cosmic, I agree it's very, very difficult to change the current 'system' in a hurry.
I believe efforts, in the first instance need to begin at grass roots level. Just as the big boys lobby, the little guys need to do the same - initially at local level.
Maybe lobbying's too grand a word for regular people. Perhaps, haranguing, hassling or even veritable persecuting is a beter word.
But the pols' weakest links are always found at the lowest level. That's were efforts need to be applied 'today'. It took years for things to get to the stage they're at now - it'll take years for them to be fixed. But, if nobody ever starts a job, who's the job ever going to get finished.
I know it's always more easily said than done but, ...... "if you don't have a dream ...... how you gonna have a dream come true?"
(Apologies to Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein.) Heh. :^)
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Sorry I came into this one so late!
Simpchimp brings up a very valid and VERY frightening point. Since about 1985 there has been a "culture of ignorance" growing in America.
In his article The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism, Dr. Lawrence Britt identifies the problem thusly:
"11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked."
What we have been seeing during this time in our country has been this sort of disdain mostly being promoted by the Religious Reich and only marginally by the Far Reich. What I find interesting about this though is that those most rigorously promoting this hostility for academics, intellectuals, and persons of letters are those with higher degrees themselves!
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