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

Friday, April 20, 2012

Do Emissions Cause Tornadoes? Climate Service Would Know

Click here to access article from Bloomberg editorial. 

Even the people at this premier Wall Street financial news service would like to know the answers, but the Neanderthals in the Republican party are keeping their heads firmly in the sand. Referring to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the editorial reveals that...
The agency has for years wanted to create a National Climate Service that would track and assess climate change, figuring out whether it is to blame for specific extreme weather events such as tornadoes, floods, droughts, heat waves and hurricanes. In this and other ways, it would help people -- farmers, insurance companies, policy makers -- plan for changes in the growing season, coastal erosion, water supply, human health and so on.
In November [2011], however, Republican members of the House of Representatives killed that plan, even though it would have required no new funding at all.