Are you among those disturbed that Climate Change was not mentioned in any of the debates ? If not, you probably want to give this post a skip. GOTV !!!!!
If you are, you might find this post interesting, and beyond that, after the election take some action?
Larry King
Larry King moderated a televised third party debate this morning where climate change was discussed as an issue.
LATimes
Third-party debate showcases fresh faces and issues
The three also bemoaned the total lack of attention to climate change in the main presidential contest. Anderson called it "a greater long-term risk to the United States than terrorism."
The article included vid from the debate, transcript not available yet, but an excerpt to give you a taste:
Just how important is climate change?
HT to kossack A Siegel for this amazing vid headsup:
"We broke the Arctic." Bill on Bill: McKibben on Maher+*
by A Siegel
for Climate Change SOS
Wherein McKibben slaps down conservatives/climate deniers,yus!
The vid link in A Siegel's diary no longer works, but you can view it here:
http://www.liveleak.com/...
The Corporations For Presidential Debates
So why was Climate Change not in the CPD debates? Some say the Big Oil and other corporations have far too much influence on both the Dem and Republican parties. Others will point out that it is so controversial given the huge corporate media spin and time given the deniers that it will not move votes.
In addition, it may be the way it is framed by supporters of action on climate change. Roberts has an excellent discussion of this here: http://grist.org/... .
Climate Action
If you agree that climate change is THE urgent issue and that it trumps most others, check this out about 350.org / Bill Mckibben's tour aimed at university divestiture:
Cue the Math: 350’s Roadshow Takes Aim at Big Oil
by Wen Stephenson
It was game time. The Saturday night crowd on the Vermont campus was festive, boisterous, pumped. People cheered and whooped when told that one of their heroes, climate activist Tim DeChristopher — serving a two-year federal sentence for his civil disobedience opposing new oil and gas drilling in Utah — would soon be back on the field.
When the man on the stage, 350.org’s Bill McKibben, said it was time to march not just on Washington but on the headquarters of fossil fuel companies — “it’s time to march on Dallas” — and asked those to stand who’d be willing to join in the fight, seemingly every person filling the University of Vermont’s cavernous Ira Allen Chapel, some 800 souls, rose to their feet.
McKibben and 350, the folks who brought us the Keystone XL pipeline protests, are now calling for a nationwide divestment campaign aimed at fossil fuel companies’ bottom line. Beginning with student-led campaigns on college campuses, modeled on the anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s,they’ll pressure institutions to withdraw all investments from big oil and coal and gas. Their larger goal is to ignite a morally charged movement to strip the industry of its legitimacy.
“The fossil fuel industry has behaved so recklessly that they should lose their social license — their veneer of respectability,” McKibben tells his audience. “You want to take away our planet and our future? We’re going to take away your money and your good name.”
McKibben is mad, and we should be too
As though finally venting emotions long suppressed (he’s a native New Englander, after all), he wrote with trademark but now seething understatement: “I’m a mild-mannered guy, a Methodist Sunday school teacher. Not quick to anger. So what I want to say is: This is fucked up. The time has come to get mad, and then to get busy.”
Divestiture!
In Austin back in the day my wife and I worked with a teacher at public inner city HS who was arrested with others when they took over the by god University of Texas at Austin chancellor's office to protest the university's South African investment holdings back during apartheid. This was part of an international movement and had great effect. Years later they were exonerated, and he went on to become a principal in the DC area.
Why not do the same thing with Big Oil investments?
Here's what's planned:
On November 7th, we’re hitting the road to jumpstart the next phase of the climate movement.
It’s simple math: we can burn 565 more gigatons of carbon and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The only problem? Fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons in their reserves, five times the safe amount. And they’re planning to burn it all — unless we rise up to stop them.
This November, Bill McKibben and 350.org are hitting the road to build the movement that will change the terrifying math of the climate crisis. Join us.
Check out
all the cities coast to coast where the tour being created.
(If its not coming to your city, there are still actions you can take by signing up at the link below.)
Tour Dates & Tickets
View as: Map / List
Burlington, VT 10/13
Seattle 11/7
Portland, OR 11/8
Berkeley 11/9
San Francisco 11/10
Palo Alto 11/10
Los Angeles 11/11
Portland, ME 11/13
Boston 11/15
New York City 11/16
Philadelphia 11/17
Washington 11/18
Durham 11/19
Atlanta 11/20
Columbus 11/27
Chicago 11/28
Madison 11/29
Minneapolis 11/30
Omaha 12/1
Boulder 12/2
Salt Lake City 12/3
[Go to this link to sign up and buy tickets. ]
Don’t see your town on the map? You can still get involved by signing up
here.
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Ready for some action?
Of course now is the time to GOTV and make calls for candidates, but come Nov. 7.......
....join in the fun at 350.org and theDo the Math Tour
because
350.org Rally, Santa Fe, NM, October 2012 by divineorder