Another example of America killing its way to a better tomorrow
We have destroyed the only epoch (Holocene) mankind has ever known. Every cultural, societal, & physical aspect of interacting with our world – often in ways from the very inception of our very physiology - is now gone. In its place is hostility. And if we don’t want to go extinct, it must all be rewritten.
Sadly it may no longer be possible:
“Siberian Permafrost Venting Methane Catastrophically into the Atmosphere”
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“BBC - Siberian Permafrost Melting away - Apocalypse in motion”
The tawny emperor (Asterocampa clyton) female
Ice Age National Scientific Reserve Unit, Wisconsin, USA
2020 7/11 _F2A1145 aaa
“Is climate change happening faster than expected? A climate scientist explains.
One to 2 degrees Celsius of warming can do a lot of damage.”
“As one climate scientist explains, “I think it’s important to differentiate between ‘the climate system is careening out of control faster than we thought that it would’ versus ‘actually, even this amount of warming is a lot more problematic than we thought it was.’””
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America fuels other countries greenhouse gas emissions by selling them cheap dirty fossil fuel, as well as having other countries produce (and therefore emit greenhouse gases) what we consume:
“Record U.S. Coal Shipment to China Highlights Australia’s Pain.”
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“85 Active Fires July 24 2021 Fire Heat Drought - Jet Stream Update - HUMID Heat Dome USA”
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“Northeast Skies Turn Smoky Due to Western Wildfires”
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American Politicians will not respond to the Environmental Holocaust because the 88% is suffering:
“This summer has been a cascade of climate disaster. But we shouldn’t assume that ever-worsening floods and heat waves will spur political change — we need a working-class strategy that can excite and win over people to save the planet.”
“Climate Doom Won’t Save the Planet”
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“To Six, the climate crisis isn’t just decimating glaciers and life on Earth. It’s taking her identity with it. She recently spoke to the Guardian about her changing role on the land she loves.”
“Top US scientist on melting glaciers: ‘I’ve gone from being an ecologist to a coroner’
Diana Six, an entomologist studying beetles near Glacier national park in Montana, says the crisis has fundamentally changed her profession”
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It doesn’t get any worse than validating Trump’s Presidency:
“Leaving Parts of Trump's Pro-Polluter Legacy Intact, Biden Gets C- on Environmental Report Card”
“Expressing alarm over President Joe Biden's support for a number of pipeline projects and his failure to reverse the vast majority of environmental regulatory rollbacks introduced by his predecessor, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund on Tuesday gave the president a grade of C-minus and said he "needs improvement" on its Environmental Report Card.”
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Biden and the DemGOPs are failing mankind:
“We Don't Have Time for Climate Symbolism
As we hurdle towards climate chaos, Democratic leaders remain all talk and no action on serious climate policy.”
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“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are bombing poor black people in Africa’s poorest country because it has tons of untapped oil reserves. They are literally trying to bomb Somalia into political “stability” so American fossil fuel companies can make a killing. Exceeding expectations,”
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Somalia: America is an oil company with an army:
“We’re troubled that no one in the [Pentagon] sought the required legal authorization from Congress for Tuesday’s drone strike in Somalia especially with no American forces at risk—and apparently, did not even check with our commander-in-chief.”
“Biden Admin’s Drone Strike in Somalia Draws Fire From Sanders, Lee and Murphy”
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“U.S. Navy Detonates 40,000-Pound Bomb off Florida Coast”
“Marine mammal experts expressed deep concern over the potentially devastating effects of the U.S. Navy's recent detonation”
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Why? Why not spend it on fixing America’s Human Rights abuses? Action on the Climate?:
“BREAKING: The US Senate votes to add $25 billion to the $743 billion defense budget.”
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“Fossil fuel lobbyists keep stoking the West’s wildfires
The Western United States is burning. Last month Oregon and Washington lived through an unbearable 117 degrees — an all-time high for the region, which averages around 62 degrees this time of year. California is seeing the worst fires on record.
This isn’t a fluke. This is a data point in our new normal: Hot days and short rainy seasons turn our lush greenery and vibrant woods into kindling.
This also isn’t a mystery. We are still powering our country with the fuels that brought us to the brink of disaster. And when we are way past due for investment in a reliable, clean energy grid, Republicans are instead sitting around trying to define the word “infrastructure.” Why?
Because fossil fuel apologists such as the American Petroleum Institute and the American Gas Assn. are actively campaigning against clean energy proposals. They’re lobbying against cheaper energy for consumers, lobbying against the changes that will make our grid more reliable, more equitable and sustainable for the clean energy future that we know must come.
Hoping for the U.S. to continue its dependency on oil, natural gas and coal, fossil fuel lobbyists are drawing from the same playbook Big Tobacco used to push cigarettes to kids, and that playbook of deception was recently revealed by Exxon Mobil’s top lobbyist. For more than a decade, oil companies have spent tens of millions of dollars each year spreading misleading slogans, adapting their message to fit the political and cultural moment — from “Thanks to Natural Gas, the Air Up Here Is Cleaner” to “We can produce the energy America needs and protect the environment.”
We can see through their greenwashing.
Top oil companies spend $195 million a year on media campaigns touting their commitment to climate action, even as oil and natural gas extraction expands. After Joe Biden outlined his climate plans, the American Petroleum Institute spent an average of $24,000 a day targeting millennials on Facebook with ads portraying gas as a climate solution. The fossil fuel industry is funding disinformation campaigns across the country through dark money groups. The goal of all these strategies is the same: to trick us into thinking that fossil fuels are some sort of climate solution that will grow the economy. They aren’t, and they won’t.
Here’s the truth. Over the last decade, the industry drilled 85,000 wells, doing irreparable harm to our air and water and driving climate change. State officials sued the Biden administration over recent efforts to limit oil and natural gas leasing on public lands, even though gas and oil companies are sitting on millions of acres of leased unused land. This lawsuit was bought and paid for by fossil fuel companies: Louisiana Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry, who led the lawsuit, has taken $739,182 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. Meanwhile, gas and oil companies happily took billions in stimulus-related tax breaks and laid off 16% of their combined workforce.
As Congress continues to debate how to act on climate, we should expect disinformation campaigns to continue and lobbyists to do more dirty work behind the scenes. While the fossil fuel industry continues to say it supports climate goals such as those laid out in the Paris Agreement, Big Oil and Gas are sure to issue press statements and talking points to political allies threatening oil shortages if clean energy investments continue.
We should prepare to hear them cry foul in the media over public land leasing reforms that would cost us, the taxpayer, billions of dollars in lost royalties. We will hear them call clean energy tax incentives unfair as they continue to take billions in taxpayer-backed subsidies.
As extreme heat makes air quality worse, the American Petroleum Institute will say it’s an environmental justice advocate, even though pollution threatens communities of color far more than white communities. The upcoming rollout of clean car standards and electric vehicle investments means we should be ready for Big Oil to make big spends on misleading advertising about how the government is trying to take your car away.
These lies are dangerous, and if we choose to believe them, the United States will continue to be torn apart by drilling and pipelines, and the threat of climate change will only become more severe. We will miss the opportunity to lead, to reap the benefits of climate technologies and innovations, and to save the planet.
Source- Los Angeles Times
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“25 Dead in Catastrophic Flooding in China as Nearly a Year of Rain Falls in 3 Days”
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“Heat Drought Fire Flood - July 23 2021 Climate Apocalypse”
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Bobolinks are Great:
I take photographs at two parks here in Southern Wisconsin that destroy Bobolink nesting habitat, sometimes before the young even fledge. They claim the problem is that legal restrictions on land acquired for the park stipulate that these short grass “clover fields” (to feed livestock) must be made available to mowing by farmers. One of these parks is the same that mows bottle brush milkweed to control invasives,…regardless of the number of Monarch caterpillars munching away at it:
“Vanishing: Song for the Bobolink
In the diminishing refrains of a bird’s call, signs of our world disappearing around us.”
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“Key articles addressing range of changes in ‘New Arctic’
An aggregation of especially worthwhile reporting on extent of changes making the Arctic unlike anything history long has known it to be.”
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Why doesn’t Washington fuel a sense of competition with these countries on these topics - only China? In order of appearance:
“Country Ratings Worldwide
Safest Countries: Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands
Highest Quality of Life: Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Denmark, Canada, Finland, UK, Iceland
Best For Children: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Austria
Best Healthcare: Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Hong Kong, Australia, Israel, Germany
Why are so many Americans under the illusion that the United States is the best place on Earth?
Most Americans cannot vacation abroad. If they did, they’d quickly discover they’re being screwed. Unfortunately, they don’t get enough paid time off and/or make near enough money for such a trip.
It’s NOT unpatriotic to want to make things better.”
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