Bill McKibben, boatsie and I would love for you to join us next week for a blogathon at Daily Kos to raise public awareness of the climate change impacts happening NOW. Our August 20-24 blogathon will feature top U.S. and world climate scientists, lawmakers and political activists as well as our very special kossacks writing about climate change. Some blogathon participants will also write about the interrelationship of climate change with human rights, environmental justice, natural resources, civil rights, culture, economy, jobs, food security, health care, etc., to provide a realistic picture of the so-called "external costs" of climate change impacts that also affect our lives.
For years, the right-wingers and teabaggers have convinced many Americans that climate change is a myth or, if it does happen, it will be decades down the road, so why worry about it now.
THEN this summer happened: Heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and freak storms that are "climate change in action" and a "window" or sampling of our future. The media reported with headlines like this:
"Extreme summer heat linked to climate change, scientists say" As James Hansen states:
The deadly European heat wave of 2003, the fiery Russian heat wave of 2010 and catastrophic droughts in Texas and Oklahoma last year can each be attributed to climate change. And once the data are gathered in a few weeks’ time, it’s likely that the same will be true for the extremely hot summer the United States is suffering through right now.
"Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change: Researchers have for the first time attributed recent floods, droughts and heatwaves, to human-induced climate change"
"U.S. Declares the Largest Natural Disaster Area Ever Due to Drought"
"US wildfires are what global warming really looks like, scientists warn: The Colorado fires are being driven by extreme temperatures, which are consistent with IPCC projections"
It is not a matter of what will happen in the future. Native American and Alaska Native communities are already being hit hard with coastal erosion, droughts, and environmental changes that affect, for example, their health and lives, traditional food, sacred sites and cultural ceremonies as well as forcing relocation to higher lands.
If you had any doubts about climate change, or did not fully understand the climate change impacts and how they are interrelated with most every important issue of our lives, or did not fully appreciate the importance of climate change, please listen and participate in our blogathon. Write about this issue, spread the word with your families, friends, and community.
Also let everyone know that if Romney wins, all he will offer are some flip flops and self-proclaimed climate change illiteracy that could delay addressing climate change for years.
When he was governor in 2004, climate change was real enough to prepare a "detailed plan to curtail the state's carbon pollution." Even in June 2011, Romney told voters that humans contribute to global warming so "it's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases."
Then Mitt announces in 2012 that he will approve the monster Keystone XL tar sands pipeline his first day as President even though NASA Goddard Institute scientist James Hansen says if we fully exploit the Canadian tar sands, it will be "game over for the climate."
Romney is making deadly decisions about climate change even though he admits he is climate change illiterate:
“I don’t know if [rising temperatures are] mostly caused by humans,” he told another New Hampshire crowd last summer. “What I’m not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don’t know the answer to.”
And his buddy Paul Ryan, a "favorite of the Koch brothers," is fixated on climate change conspiracies, and has voted against government efforts to address climate change or even study climate change:
Ryan has consistently voted against government efforts to tackle climate change. Like many House Republicans, he has voted to block efforts by the EPA to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions. He approved an amendment that would bar the Department of Agriculture from studying how best to adapt to a warmer planet. Ryan voted to defund various climate-advisory positions within the White House. He also voted for an amendment, proposed by Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), to cut $50 million from funding for ARPA-E, which funds long-shot energy research and development.
The Romney-Ryan team is also aided by press secretary Andrea Saul, who has her own climate-denier rap sheet, including working for a "lobbying firm that worked to undermine climate science on behalf of corporations like ExxonMobil, according to a detailed new report from Greenpeace's Polluter Watch project."
Who do you trust with your life and the well-being of your family, loved ones, friends, and community as well as our precious natural resources and wildlife? That's the key question for this election and the answer is as obvious as who would you trust with the care of your cats and dogs.
In April, President Obama stated truthfully that "those who have looked at the science of climate change are scared" and asserted that climate science would be part of the 2012 election campaign -- it is past time to make it so.
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