The hot air networks will isolate soundbites and applause lines, the wire services will emphasize Obama's call for a united front against terrorism, especially in Afghanistan. But Barack Obama's speech today before a quarter of a million Europeans--some who came from Poland and the Netherlands and across Europe to Berlin to hear him--was a call for a greater unity, for a world united to foster equality, freedom and peace.

He used the Berlin airlift of 1948 as his central metaphor--the moment, so soon after the horrific bombings that turned many cities in Europe and Japan into literal holocausts--that wave upon wave of American airplanes dropped not bombs but food, to sustain the people of West Berlin.

And from across the Atlantic, we could hear the chants in Berlin: Yes, we can.

Most media attention to Barack Obama's speech on foreign policy yesterday focused only on Iraq and Afghanistan--two of the five priorities he outlined, in a comprehensive vision that linked foreign policy to the health and safety of America.

The third element--which is also the subject of Obama's latest campaign ad is the control of nuclear weapons.

Today is the 63rd anniversary of the first explosion of an atomic bomb, yet these apocalyptic weapons are still at large, and nothing has been done in the past eight years to control them.  We are in danger of forgetting how dangerous they are--but fortunately, Barack Obama has not forgotten, and he has the courage to make this a priority.

In a few hours, Al Gore will appear on stage in Detroit with Barack Obama, and he will endorse Obama for President. I'm hoping that in his speech Obama will do what he did when John Edwards endorsed him at a big event: use the endorsement to talk about the issues identified with the person who endorsed him. His speech after the Edwards appearance was largely about poverty. I'm hoping his speech tonight will be about the Climate Crisis and green energy.

It's true that Obama has not been saying as much lately about the Climate Crisis as he did earlier in the campaign, and that clear leadership on this is going to be necessary. Other issues come and go in immediate prominence. But the Climate Crisis is all its manifestations is going to dominate the foreseeable future.

Not even World Environment Day could deter the partisan and corporate interest politics that destroyed the climate crisis bill in the U.S. Senate. In some ways all the posturing was a charade within a charade: the bill, too weak to do much good, was never in danger of being passed.

It was at best a dress rehearsal for a real bill and a real debate next year, with a real chance at doing something. But while the debate began to introduce the issues in Congress, it also undressed John McCain's pretend support for doing something about the Climate Crisis. He was for this bill before he was against it. McCain is all talk on the issue.

Well, ok--not just to me. But Jim Hansen--renowned climate scientist and patriot--came to a little community meeting down the street from me to talk about the climate crisis.  

The Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition hosted a tremendous event.  Mark Bowen, author of Thin Ice and Censoring Science, and Jim Hansen spoke to a room full of (mostly) interested, aware, active, and informed neighbors of mine.  I love to go to events like this, because it reminds me that there are a lot of people paying attention.  And, of course, there were a couple of trolls.  But most people were eager to hear this message.

Great news: the whole thing was taped by CSPAN, and is slated to appear on BookTV one of these days.  I'll keep an eye out for that so you can see the whole thing.

Sorry for the late notice and the short diary--I just remembered that this was coming up on Sunday.

The Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition is presenting a lecture by Dr. Jim Hansen (yes, you know who) and Dr. Mark Bowen--author of the book Censoring Science.  

I'm going--would love to carpool with anyone so I don't get my butt kicked in the parking lot for a single passenger vehicle...please help :)

Global Warming Deniers (and their extreme right-wing enablers) are showing their desperation. Rather than continue with simply confusing people with distortion of data (lies, damn lies, statistics, and statistics from Global Warming deniers), we have before us a case of deliberate doctoring of evidence to distort events. For too many in the American right wing, hatred of Al Gore exceeds any ability to or willingness to contemplate reality. Thus, the efforts for the creation of a new "reality" that is more acceptable to the deniers.

As well documented in the WonkRoom, the Business & Media Institutes has made waves with the right wing denial world with a distorted misrepresentation of an Al Gore interview on NPR. The distortion extended to splicing separation pieces of the interview together to create a sentence, comments that Gore never made. Of course, with this being the Right-Wing Sound Machine, the deception didn't stop with BMI, but went to Drudge, Fox, and other venues.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues its deceptive campaign tour to fight any meaningful efforts to deal with Global Warming.

In short, the Chamber of Commerce is falsely asserting that it is impossible to do anything meaningful about Global Warming in the near term, that tomorrow's technology is the only answer to today's urgent problems, and that we must drill and mine our way to even more use of polluting energy.

In short, the USCOC is pursuing truthiness, by distorting the issues, rather than truth.

In short, the USCOC is fighting for a path that would recklessly endanger the future for America, Americans and humanity.

Al Gore announced today that he will make a sequel to the Academy Award winning film An Inconvenient Truth.

The former US Vice President said: "I will make a sequel to the 2006 documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' and despite earths 'rising fever', I am hopeful for a happy ending".

Priorities.

"Our" government is spending $434 million per day, $3 billion per week and $13.2 billion per month on Iraq. And still no one can tell us why, not even it's architects

As Americas infrastructure crumbles, as the Iraqi government builds a surplus. As New Orleans languishes, still destroyed, still hanging on by a thread, still essentially abandoned by both government and the Republican lauded "private sector." (Please read commonscribes diary
on the insurance industry and NOLA!)

Crossposted from Docudharma

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If you haven't seen this lecture yet, I urge you to do so. Scientists now believe that the climate crisis is happening more rapidly than previously thought.

http://www.ted.com/...

Apologies for the short post.  I just watched Al Gore's most recent presentation on the climate crisis and felt it needed to be shared.  Please check it out.

Al Gore's Climate Talks

This is not a major departure from what most of us have heard previously, but there are some interesting new comparisons, and a pretty good analysis of how this global crisis is being prioritized in our political discussion.

This year, Passover begins the night of April 19 and includes Earth Day on April 22. And today, the greatest danger of destructive plagues comes from the global climate crisis and the top-down, unaccountable power-structures that are pushing us ever closer to the edge of climate disaster.

So this year, it makes sense to focus on the elements of Passover that call us to free and heal the earth and our society from that danger.

The notes below can be used in your Passover Seder, in congregational newsletter columns, and as teaching points for sermons.

Al Gore is about to step forward, back into the news again  The Washington Post reports

Former vice president Al Gore will launch a three-year, $300 million campaign Wednesday aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history.

Gore sees a need to educate the public about what is needed to address the climate crisis.  I am quite impressed at the plans for various ways of getting the information out to the public.  The key need is to have real policy changes be enacted.

Today I attended a conference in Boston, down:2:earth.  It was the first incarnation of this conference as far as I could tell.  It was small, but had some very nice support and some well-known speakers--including Bill McKibben and Frances Moore Lappé.  

There was certainly a bit of "oh, we'll buy our way out of this current problem" as my friend called it.  Some products and vendors seemed legitimately interested in providing services and products that may help us.  I know where I can get local worm poop now (but I also attended the session that taught me how to get some worms doing that for me in the garage--even more local).  I really think the solar panel folks knew their stuff.

Passover commemorates and relives the moment of spring when new barley, new lambs, and new flowers rise up against winter; the People Israel and the earth itself rise up against Pharaoh (in what we call the "plagues"); and the unaccountable, top-down, self-addicted power of Pharaoh collapses.

So ---  many aspects of Passover speak to our global climate crisis.  

The Shalom Center has made available both Passover  guides & supplements, and a "pocket Haggadah" for public on-the-street Sedarim aimed at pockets of danger to the global climate.

The Shalom Center has also crafted a unique 60-page booklet bearing a new intergenerational "Covenant of Elijah" ceremony and curriculum on the climate crisis -- for use by and with Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrants and confirmation-age families.

I usually avoid "Morning Joe" on MSNBC. I almost always find it horribly annoying, especially Joe Scarborough. On occasion his co-host Mika Brzezinski makes some good points. And unlike Joe she doesn’t make my ears bleed.

This morning, however, there was a momentary glitch in the toxic "Morning Joe" formula. A glitch in the good sense of the term, that is. So I decided to watch...

Coal is a booming business, with price increases even exceeding those seen for oil. Fossil Fuels and the polluting of the atmosphere are, we can hope, burning their last embers of extravagant enthusiasm.

But, progress in the fight against polluting coal is uneven across the globe and across the nation.

Virginia is not one of the nation's or globe's leaders toward a prosperous, climate friendly society.

cross-posted from Energy Smart.