And, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Why does the Copenhagen Climate Summit this next week matter to each and every one of us? Time has proven, Bob Dylan says it best
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
UN to release 'Hard Rain' film with Bob Dylan tune on eve of climate talks
Just a week before the United Nations climate change conference begins in Copenhagen, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today it will help release a rare live recording of Bob Dylan performing his 1962 song-poem A Hard Rain"s A-Gonna Fall set to dramatic photographs of shrunken ice caps, barren landscapes, and devastated lives.
Hard Rain: Our Headlong Collision with Nature by photographer Mark Edwards and Mr. Dylan will be released on DVD at the opening of the Hard Rain exhibition in Copenhagen on 6 December " the eve of the climate conference. The release is being done in partnership with UNEP.
Migration is the only escape from rising tides of climate change in Bangladesh
At an impromptu meeting in Moura village on the south-eastern coast of Bangladesh last week, 30 families said that their only hope of survival was to become climate refugees.
"The tides come into the village every two weeks. Twenty years ago the sea was far away. Now it's a few yards and we fear that our children will die. We have lost our farmland and more than 50 people have already lost their homes to the rising sea. The drinking water is salty and there are no fish in the river. We all want to leave but where? We have no money, " said Hayaun Nesa Khatong.
At the rate that this stretch of the Bangladesh coast is being submerged there is little or no chance of Moura or many other nearby villages being habitable in five years. Unless the local government finds increasingly scarce land to evacuate them to, the villagers will have no option but to migrate. Most will go to the slums of Chittagong, 20 miles away, or to the capital Dhaka.
UK should open borders to climate refugees, says Bangladeshi minister
Up to 20 million Bangladeshis may be forced to leave the country in the next 40 years because of climate change, one of the country's most senior politicians has said. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Bangladesh's finance minister, called on Britain and other wealthy countries to accept millions of displaced people.
In a clear signal to the US and Europe that developing countries are not prepared to accept a weak deal at next week's Copenhagen climate summit, Abdul Muhith said Bangladesh wanted hosts for managed migration as people began to abandon flooded and storm-damaged coastal areas.
"Twenty million people could be displaced [in Bangladesh] by the middle of the century," Abdul Muhith told the Guardian. "We are asking all our development partners to honour the natural right of persons to migrate. We can't accommodate all these people – this is already the densest [populated] country in the world," he said.
China and India oppose foreign climate oversight
Giving details of a common front by China, India, Brazil and South Africa at the meeting beginning next Monday, he also said the four opposed global goals for limiting climate change, except for the target of curbing warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
"This is more a framework document that is available for negotiation," according to the top delegate, who has intimate knowledge of the proposal for the December 7-18 negotiations.
"The developing world is seeking an alternate architecture" for a new climate deal, he said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the four nations would only agree to international supervision of their actions to slow climate change when they depended on donor money or technology -- such as imported wind turbines or solar panels.
Is the Amazon Rainforest Worth an $18 Billion Bailout?
New research was recently published in the journal Science which estimates that deforestation of Brazil's rainforest could be halted for a (relatively) scant 6.5 billion to $18 billion bailout. According to the article, "The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," if the harmful practice were to cease, we would see global CO2 levels declining between 2% and 5% from where they are today.
In a world where banks and privately-owned companies have recieved 'lifelines' nearing $1 trillion, can we agree that the push to curb CO2 emissions is "too big to fail" as well?
For the first time, the U.S. delegation will have a U.S. Center at the conference, providing a unique and interactive forum to share our story with the world
· Wednesday, December 9th: Taking Action at Home, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson· Thursday, December 10th: New Energy Future: the role of public lands in clean energy production and carbon capture, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
· Friday, December 11th: Clean Energy Jobs in a Global Marketplace, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke· Monday, December 14th: Leading in Energy Efficiency and Renewables, Energy Secretary Steven Chu
· Tuesday, December 15th: Clean Energy Investments: creating opportunities for rural economies, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
· Thursday, December 17th: Backing Up International Agreement with Domestic Action, CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley and Assistant to the President Carol Browner
Lou
China's climate pledge raises expectations for Copenhagen summit
LA Times
Reporting from Washington and Beijing - China vowed Thursday to steeply reduce the intensity of its greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, a move that environmentalists and the Obama administration hailed as a major, and perhaps decisive, development toward agreement on a comprehensive climate treaty.
The announcement came a day after President Obama unveiled a provisional target to reduce carbon emissions in the United States, and said he would attend climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month.
The promises by the two largest emitters of the gases that scientists blame for global warming dramatically raised expectations for the Copenhagen summit. Until this week, many climate activists considered the prospects for the Dec. 7-18 conference bleak.
China under pressure to play key role at Copenhagen climate summit
CSM
Beijing - As the world's worst greenhouse-gas emitter, China will be under especially intense pressure at next week's climate change summit in Copenhagen to play a key role in cutting the world's carbon emissions.
Beijing, though, is well prepared to defend its corner, Chinese and foreign experts say, in the expected battle between rich and poor nations over who should do what to avert potentially catastrophic global warming.
The steps it is already taking to reduce emissions, along with a new target-setting pledge to do more, put China in "a unique and convenient position in the slipstream behind the US," says Jørgen Delman, a professor of China studies at the University of Copenhagen.
Points of Contention in Copenhagen
Two full years ago in Bali delegates agreed that this December in Copenhagen would be the time and place to finalize an international climate deal. And with very few exceptions (looking at you, Mr. Inhofe), everyone heading to Copenhagen wants to get a deal done. So, after all this time and given the widespread motivation, what exactly is the holdup?
Deep Carbon Observatory
As people gather in Copenhagen for climate change talks, a new project is getting underway to better understand the carbon cycle deep below the Earth's surface. The Deep Carbon Observatory, run by the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, will try to study the nature and distribution of deep carbon reservoirs, fluxes of carbon within Earth's deep interior and between the interior and surface, deep organic synthesis, and the nature and distribution of life deep beneath the surface of the planet.
TIMELINE:Carbon Pledges, Schemes Pile Up Ahead Of Copenhagen
Singapore, a Southeast Asian city-state with high per-capita emissions, will head to global climate talks next week with a pledge to cut carbon pollution by 16 percent versus projected business-as-usual levels by 2020.
The announcement is the latest in a series of pledges to lower carbon emissions made in the run-up to the United Nations Dec 7-18 Copenhagen talks on a broader global climate deal.
Top emitters China, the United States and India have all announced preliminary reduction targets in recent weeks, while New Zealand has passed the world's second formal emissions trading scheme and politicians in Australia have become embroiled in a struggle over a similar scheme.
Jim Webb: Climate Curmudgeon
Jim Webb is not at all happy that Barack Obama plans to travel to Copenhagen next week and pledge that the US will act to halt climate change. In a letter to Obama, Webb argues that the president does not have "unilateral power" to promise anything to the rest of the world. Instead, Webb contends, Obama should sit around and wait for the Senate to do something about the problem.
"I would like to express my concern regarding reports that the Administration may believe it has the unilateral power to commit the government of the United States to certain standards that may be agreed upon at the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark," wrote Webb. "The phrase 'politically binding' has been used."
The old curmudgeons don't get it but our youth do....
Youth Confront FERC Over Carbon-Heavy LNG
Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, staffers from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) were in Oregon to assess the environmental impact that proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals will have on our region. When they got here, the youth climate movement of my home state was waiting and ready to let them know that LNG compromises our future.
A GLOBAL NETWORK OF YOUTH WATER BUSINESSES
The diminishing availability of water resources—linked to the pressures of population growth, loss of natural ecosystems, and climate change—threatens to jeopardize human security in many regions of the world.
The International Youth Water Movement sees the urgent need to create new business models that guarantee the sustainable management of water and increase access by people without it. It is also critical need to advance more collaborative ways of governing water resources around the world.
YouthClimate.org
Climate change is the greatest threat to the survival of humankind in our modern history. It is both the clearest example of where younger and unborn generations’ needs are compromised by the lifestyles of older and current generations’. Youth envision a world with a safe and stable climate. Thus, this is an online youth base made for youth from all around the world by youth. We work in close cooperation with the global youth climate movement to empower youth and take their voices in to decision making platforms.
This week in the Republican War on Science:
Adam Siegel has a great take on Palin:
Sarah Palin’s zombie charm ...
Sarah Palin has weighed in on ClimateGate, using Facebook to jump in with her perspective on SwiftHack. Let’s take a moment to parse this statement.
The president’s decision to attend the international climate conference in Copenhagen needs to be reconsidered in light of the unfolding Climategate scandal.
This is a nice assertion: "needs to be reconsidered." Typically, wouldn’t the call be more direct? Something like, "Mr President, I call on you to reconsider ..."
Lou Dobbs Explodes: ‘Who The Hell Does This President Think He Is!?!’
Birther Lou Dobbs and climate denier Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) are concerned that President Barack Obama is trying to turn America into a monarchy. Appearing on Dobbs’ radio show on Tuesday, Inhofe argued President Obama doesn’t have the authority to make any commitments on behalf of the United States during the international climate treaty negotiations next week in Copenhgen, Denmark.
L.A. Elects First Female Episcopal BishopL.A. Elects First Female Episcopal Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles elected the first female bishop in its 114-year history Friday but ended voting for the day with one of two openly gay candidates still vying for the second bishop's position.
Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce, rector of St. Clement's-By-The-Sea Episcopal Church in San Clemente, was elected Friday at the diocese's annual convention to replace one of two retiring assistant bishops.
FCC Questions Verizon’s Early Termination Fees
FCC want Verizon Wireless to explain why it’s doubling its early termination fees for smartphone customers.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday asked Verizon Wireless why it recently doubled the fees it charges customers when they break their contracts on "smart" phones.
In November, the carrier hiked the maximum early contract termination fee for smartphones to $350 from $175. Like other carriers, Verizon subsidizes the cost of the devices for contract-signing customers, then expects to make that money back in service fees over the term of the contract.
Abortion Battle Shifts to Clinic in Nebraska
BELLEVUE, Neb. — The national battle over abortion, for decades firmly planted outside the Kansas clinic of Dr. George R. Tiller, has erupted here in suburban Omaha, where a longtime colleague has taken up the cause of late-term abortions. Since Dr. Tiller was shot to death in May, his colleague, Dr. LeRoy H. Carhart, has hired two people who worked at Dr. Tiller’s clinic and has trained his own staff members in the technical intricacies of performing late-term abortions.
Dr. Carhart has also begun performing some abortions "past 24 weeks," he said in an interview, and is prepared to perform them still later if they meet legal requirements and if he considers them medically necessary.
Dozens killed in Russian nightclub fire
An explosion and fire apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm early Saturday, killing 101 people, according to news reports.
Regional security minister Igor Orlov said the club had a suspended plastic ceiling that caught fire quickly when ignited by so-called "cold fireworks," which generally are fountain-type displays with lower temperatures than conventional fireworks, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Vets' Homecoming Is Sweet but Temporary
CBS) After 13 months in Afghanistan, 53 combat soldiers hit the tarmac, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky early this morning.
For some, this homecoming is something that they've experienced before. But for Cindy Ballagh and her six children, after 395 days, this is her first reunion and it feels sweet, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.
"Some days are rough," Ballagh said. "I try to cry in the shower."
With every homecoming, somewhere on post there are other troops preparing for deployment.
Here at Fort Campbell, the next wave of soldiers heads out in January.
GM Chairman Whitacre shakes up senior management
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co Chairman and Chief Executive Ed Whitacre announced a broad shake-up of the automaker's senior leadership on Friday, tightening his grip on the company three days after replacing its CEO.
The shake-up suggests that Whitacre, the 68-year-old former AT&T chief who became chairman of GM when the automaker emerged from a government-funded bankruptcy in July, could remain interim CEO for some time, possibly a year or more, analysts said.
"I want to give people more responsibility and authority deeper in the organization and then hold them accountable," Whitacre said in a statement.
Comcast and GE have 12 to 18 months to close deal, depending on D.C. headaches
Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co. have a window that runs from 12 to 18 months to close on the cable giant's deal to acquire majority control of GE's NBC Universal, according to Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen.
Cohen, whose title understates the multitude of roles he plays for Comcast (we like to call him the company's consigliere), said that the merger has a 12-month time limit but that each side can extend it by three months without consent from the other side. He and Rick Cotton, NBC Universal's longtime general counsel, are already in Washington making the rounds with Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. Over the next week or two, look for Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts and Chief Operation Officer Steve Burke to also work the D.C. circuit along with GE CEO Jeff Immelt and NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker.
U.S. factory orders, inventories rise in October
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Inventories at U.S. factories increased for the first time in more than a year in October, while factory orders also rose an unexpected 0.6 percent, the Commerce Department said on Friday, in signs the manufacturing sector is returning to health.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected orders to remain unchanged in October. September's rise in orders was also revised up to1.6 percent from the 0.9 percent originally reported.
Factory stocks grew 0.4 percent in October, after shrinking for 13 straight months, the department said. The inventories-to-shipment ratio, a measure of how long it would take to deplete current stocks, declined to 1.34 months' worth from 1.35 months' as shipments rose.