Hurricane Irene is yet another wake-up call about the urgent need to combat climate change:

Hurricane Irene caps a summer filled with unprecedented extreme weather events and ominous news about the climate, from historic dust bowls sweeping across America to revelations that a mass extinction unprecedented in human history is well under way. Yet, as with most of these events, if you followed the mass media’s coverage of Hurricane Irene you probably heard very little about global warming, except from right-wing propagandists railing against the very idea of it.

As a New Yorker I was spared the worst. My neighborhood experienced little damage, and my family and I even drove into Manhattan with little difficulty to get dinner. But many others weren’t so lucky. Just ask the people of Vermont how things went. According to Gov. Peter Shumlin, “We’re experiencing flooding now in many areas of Vermont that is unprecedented in record keeping.” The storm wiped out bridges that had been up for hundreds of years and survived the Great Flood of 1927, flooding and eating away at buildings that are well over 100 years old. Read the rest of this entry

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 5:48 pm

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Check out tarsandsaction.org if you want to get involved and protest the Keystone XL pipeline proposal

Bill McKibben, co-founder and director of 350.org, explains the connection between climate change, Hurricane Irene, and overall extreme weather (democracynow!)

A reporter who tracks solitary confinement in America condemns Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to not evacuate Riker’s Island, leaving prisoners stranded in a scenario that could have mirrored Katrina, when many prisoners were left to die in their cells

New study finds that climate cycles, particularly el nino, create civil wars, accounting for “one-fifth of the 240 civil conflicts since 1950″

Politifact:  Warren Buffet is correct when he says, “The “mega-rich” pay about 15 percent in taxes, while the middle class ‘fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.‘”

Politifact:  ”Wall Street hedge fund managers “pay a lower tax rate than does a sheet metal worker in Parma or a school teacher in Cleveland.” 

Politifact: 53% of black wealth has disappeared in the downturn

2012 might see the end of the presidential public financing system

The Keystone Oil Pipeline proposal is yet another big test for Obama, but his record of fighting corporate interests doesn’t inspire much confidence:

The Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline proposal is one of the biggest tests of Barack Obama’s presidency. The major oil corporations, from Exxon Mobile to Koch Industries, are lobbying hard to compel the administration to issue a license for a new, massive pipeline that will transport tar sands oil from Canada to refineries in Texas. The choice is entirely the President’s, as he needs no Congressional approval to issue or refuse a license, according to environmentalist Bill Mckibben. If he is at all serious about combating climate change and protecting the environment, he will oppose this pipeline. If he fails to act, this will be yet another nail in the coffin for “hope.”

It is true that, as the American Petroleum Institute and other right-wing propaganda outlets argue, we are better off obtaining oil from Canada than from virtually all the other prime sources of petroleum imports, such as the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea basin, which are extremely volatile regions. But this argument misses the point and provides small consolation compared to the tremendous dangers that accompany the pipeline. Read the rest of this entry