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

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Dramatic lessons from the Arctic big melt of 2012: It's already too hot, as Greenland melt record is smashed

Click here to access article by David Spratt from Climate Code Red (Australia). 

While suffering through this summer's heat, you may not want to know this. However, global warming is also having a major impact on arctic ice and threatens to reach tipping points, if it hasn't already. He provides lots of graphs to illustrate what's happening.
The Arctic, the part of the world where global warming is greatest and where some of the most dramatic impacts are being witnessed, is the canary in climate warming coal mine.