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

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Climate change pushing floods, cyclones to new extremes, with worse to come

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

Extreme weather events are increasingly evident as our planet heads into the future of man-made climate destabilization. Just this morning I woke to a report from my radio of hundreds of people killed in Colombia due to flooding caused by unusually heavy rains at this time of year.
With Australia experiencing the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie and record-breaking rains and severe flooding in south-east Queensland and along the north coast of New South Wales, here’s a look at how global warming has, and will, push floods and cyclones to new extremes.