We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, March 19, 2012

Heat Wave Sizzles On, Toppling More Than 2,000 Records

Click here to access article by Andrew Freedman from Climate Central.

As the weather extremes become more dramatic, I am wondering how long the directors of capitalist media will continue to ignore any connection between this weather and global warming and fossil fuel consumption. Mostly what I have seen in mainstream media are welcoming comments from some residents in the eastern states of the US who enjoy the early summer weather and low fuel bills.

Olga Bonfiglio offers an explanation for the disconnect in her article entitled, "Some Sociological Explanations for Climate Change Denial" in which she writes:
...deniers are organized by conservative think tanks funded by the fossil fuel industry that attempt to create doubt about climate science and block actions that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create clean energy alternatives.

To do this they use conspiracy theories and "fake" experts with no background in climate science.  They insist on absolute certainty, cherry-pick the data and ignore the larger body of evidence or misrepresent data and promote logical fallacies like "the climate has changed in the past, therefore current change is natural."