Dear Lou: look outside

Lou’s Line-Item Veto: Climate Change

Television

Tonight we investigate the Stimulus bill’s proposed $390 million for climate change research. We pose the questions Americans want answered. How will this $390M stimulate the economy? How many jobs will be created? And who exactly will benefit if the money is spent? Join us tonight for, Lou’s Line-Item Veto: Climate Change.

Lou wants to line-veto the study of climate change from the stimulus package. You've got to be kidding me. Lou: we have over two feet of snow outside our house... here, in Southern Indiana, where we rarely see snow at all. We're literally snowed and iced in. The temperature has only cracked 30 degrees a few days this entire winter. The lowest was -6. It never drops to -6 here.

The last two winters were too wet. Twice the electrical poles washed down the side of the hill due to erosion. Farmers were delayed in their planting by months because their fields had become lakes.

Two years ago, we had mosquito swarms on New Years Day. This winter is too cold; more like Chicago (or the Arctic) than Southern Indiana. Last summer we had an epic flood; our rivers overflowed and drowned several entire cities. No one alive has ever seen anything like it. Late summers have been drifting into drought conditions, killing the corn as it stands in the fields. And realize, this is the corn that was already planted late because of the flooding.

Are you starting to get it?

Our farmers are now struggling to grow corn. You know, corn -- this is the corn belt. Growing corn is what we do. We grow the food the country eats.

Do you live in a city, Lou? Then maybe you haven't noticed the chaos outside your window. Until you do, please leave climate change for the scientists and everyone who does look out the window. That scientific gag has been in place for eight long years, and its past time we found out what we're dealing with here. Those of us in Indiana know something is very, very wrong.

That, and we're now dodging tornadoes as late as Thanksgiving and even Christmas.

Tornado season used to be springtime... now its 'any time.' The one commonality in all of this chaos is that everything we see in the way of weather is extreme. Extremely wet, extremely dry, extremely cold. The rising and falling barometric pressure changes are now so steep - and happen so quickly - that many people suffer from migraines when a front moves in.

As for your claim that there are no jobs in the study of climate change; sure there are. There are jobs in every industry willing to hire American citizens.

I read the news today - oh boy (ongoing...)

McClatchy:

WASHINGTON — For the second consecutive day, the Federal Reserve took bold action Wednesday in hopes of staving off a global financial collapse. And again U.S. financial markets failed to calm, extending losses for a sixth straight day while shrugging off a Fed-led, globally coordinated half-point cut in interest rates.

Crashing market, failing banks, loss of homes and jobs, climate change... are you ready?

We've been here before. Our grandparents lived through this; many of our parents grew up in the Great Depression. How did we fail to learn it's lessons? How did this lesson fail to be passed down to later generations?

"Waste not, want not."

They say if you don't study history, you are doomed to repeat it. Perhaps this time the lesson will stick.

To dust we shall return

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. - George Santayana

Our current and very severe drought in Southern Indiana has for some reason made me think about the Dust Bowl days. The dust storms of the 30s began with intense heat... and drought. And the heat and the drought grew worse and worse, until the soil blew away.

Perhaps it is the sight of the huge, jagged cracks I see opening in my front yard... under the dry moss, beneath the yellowing trees. This is supposed to be a humid, damp area; we usually have big 'elephant ear' plants growing all across the forest floor at this time of the year, not dry crackling leaves and brown, dying plants.

And the dirt... is turning to dust.

As I walk across the increasingly common dry patches in the yard, little plumes of dust rise where my feet have tread... and I think of the dust storms that swept through Oklahoma, and swept away everything in their path: an entire way of life.



Our Local Drought

Perhaps my unease began when I saw large, jagged cracks opening in our front yard... under the now dry, brown moss, beneath the strangely yellowing trees. This is supposed to be a humid, damp area; we usually have big 'elephant ear' plants growing all across the forest floor at this time of the year, not dry crackling leaves and brown, dying plants.

And the dirt... is turning to dust.

Our region is extremely dependent on adequate rainfall; the survival of the wide variety of deciduous trees for which this area is famous (especially in Autumn,) depends on the rain from winter storms and summer thundershowers. Usually the forest floor is very lush and green at this time of the year.

But now the forest is dry and parched; the forest floor brown and dead. Leaves are turning prematurely yellow, the days are searingly hot without a cloud, anywhere in the sky, across the entire state. There seldom any rain in the forecast these days, and when storms do come into the area, they mysteriously slide to the north.

We have already lost some rather large saplings on our property; beautiful trees that towered over my head, but simply couldn't compete for groundwater with the larger trees beside them. Older trees seem to be withstanding the drought pretty well, but even medium-sized trees are now showing signs of stress; their leaves prematurely yellow. Some trees are also starting to show signs of disease and frequent attacks by insect pests. And when I drive into town, dead trees and plants now line the roadside.

We are having the worst drought in decades, after having the wettest winter in, well, decades. It is hotter than Hades most days, with strange dips in temperature at night (sometimes into the 40s.)

Add these to the increasingly long list of unusual weather occurrences in the past 12 months. We lost our fruit crop to a late, long freeze this spring (which wiped out the blossoms, and our winter wheat along with them.) The winter was so warm and wet that we saw swarms of mosquitoes on New Year's Day.

To experience all of these weather oddities within the same calendar year is unnerving. Record rainfall... followed immediately by drought? Climate change isn't a theory here; we can see it happening all around us, every day, as we scan the sky for any sign of rain.

From the Bloomington Herald Times:

About 40 percent of the state is in a “D2” stage of severe drought, National Weather Service meteorologist Logan Johnson said. That determination is made by the weather service along with other agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and fire and weather agencies, he said. They’re looking at things such as the amount of rain, the status of deep groundwater wells and soil moisture for the weekly rating.

Why isn’t it raining? Persistent upper level high pressure systems are keeping away the cold fronts that are necessary for rain. That makes precipitation spotty, Johnson said. For example, they’ve had reports of rain in the northern half of a county but none in the southern.

“The ridge is just so strong it keeps that weather pattern,” he said. “And Indiana drought years typically come with this same weather pattern.”

'Wacky weather,' flooding and large areas of drought now affect much of the country, from California and Arizona through the Midwest and South. While some portions of the country are receiving so much rain that they have experienced record flooding, other areas are parched with ever-worsening drought.

And sometimes the difference between the two extremes is a single county.

Map from the US Drought Monitor

Odd Weather Patterns in the Central Midwest

To give you an idea of how crazy the weather has been across the Midwest this summer, here is some recent data from NOAA.

The current drought report from southern Ohio, from NOAA:

HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON OH
605 PM EDT THU AUG 30 2007

...EXTREME DROUGHT CONDITIONS NOW EXPANDING INTO KENTUCKY AND SOUTHERN OHIO...WITH SEVERE DROUGHT CONDITIONS OVER SOUTHEAST INDIANA...

...VERY LITTLE CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE FORECAST...

ESPECIALLY IN AREAS NEAR THE OHIO RIVER...AUGUST HAS BEEN A RECORD SETTING MONTH FOR TEMPERATURE. THE CINCINNATI/NORTHERN KENTUCKY AIRPORT HAS SET A NEW RECORD FOR MOST DAYS IN A MONTH AT OR ABOVE 90 DEGREES. THERE HAVE BEEN 25 DAYS OF 90 DEGREE OR WARMER HIGH TEMPERATURES AT CINCINNATI...INCLUDING 5 DAYS WHICH HAVE REACHED AT LEAST 100 DEGREES. THIS HAS BEEN COMBINED WITH ONLY 0.53 INCHES OF RAIN FOR AUGUST...WHICH IS 3.03 INCHES BELOW NORMAL.

SUCH EXTREME CONDITIONS HAVE RESULTED IN AN INTRODUCTION OF D3...OR EXTREME DROUGHT...INTO FAR SOUTHERN OHIO AND NORTHERN KENTUCKY. WITH LITTLE TO NO RAIN IN THE FORECAST OVER THE NEXT 7 DAYS...THE D3 CATEGORY WILL LIKELY EXPAND FURTHER WEST INTO INDIANA NEXT WEEK.

WHILE NORTHERN OHIO AND INDIANA EXPERIENCED RECORD FLOODING OVER THE PAST TWO WEEKS...MANY AREAS SOUTH OF DAYTON AND COLUMBUS RECEIVED LITTLE TO NO RAINFALL.

OHIO CORN CROPS ARE EXPECTED TO YIELD ABOUT 20 TO 30 PERCENT LESS THAN NORMAL...ACCORDING TO THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION OFFICE. MUCH OF THESE DECLINES ARE DUE TO DROUGHT IN SOUTHERN OHIO... THOUGH SOME WILL BE A RESULT OF THE RECENT FLOODING IN NORTHERN OHIO. GENERALLY FROM 20 TO 25 PERCENT OF OHIO`S SOYBEAN AND CORN CROPS ARE RATED POOR TO VERY POOR CONDITION. ACROSS KENTUCKY...25 PERCENT OF CORN AND NEARLY 40 PERCENT OF SOYBEAN CROPS WERE REPORTED IN POOR TO VERY POOR CONDITION.

RAINFALL DEFICITS IN THE EXTREME DROUGHT AREA IS AS MUCH AS 12 TO 16 INCHES BELOW NORMAL FOR THE YEAR...WITH MOST LOCATIONS GENERALLY 8 TO 12 INCHES BELOW NORMAL FOR THE YEAR. EVEN WITH NORMAL RAINFALL THROUGH THE END OF 2007...THE CINCINNATI AREA WILL LIKELY FINISH WITHIN THE TOP TEN DRIEST YEARS ON RECORD.

STATISTICS FOR THE 3 MAJOR REPORTING STATIONS ARE LISTED BELOW:

THERE ARE THREE MAJOR CLIMATE STATIONS IN THE REGION: PORT COLUMBUS AIRPORT...DAYTON INTERNATIONAL...AND CINCINNATI/NORTHERN KENTUCKY. BELOW ARE THE OBSERVED RAINFALL VALUES AND THE DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL SINCE MAY 1...WHEN THE RAINFALL DEFICIT LARGELY BEGAN.

FOR CINCINNATI...DAYTON AND COLUMBUS...THE RAINFALL IS AS FOLLOWS:

STATION         SINCE MAY 1        INCHES BELOW NORMAL
CINCINNATI          5.12                 11.32
DAYTON             10.33                  5.19
COLUMBUS           11.93                  4.26

Meanwhile, Kentucky is experiencing record heat:

From NOAA:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
945 AM EDT SAT SEP 1 2007


...LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY BREAKS SEVERAL MORE RECORDS IN AUGUST 2007...

THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 85.0 DEGREES SET FOR AUGUST 2007 AT THE LOUISVILLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SHATTERS THE OLD RECORD OF 83.0 PREVIOUSLY SET IN 1936.

THE 85.0 DEGREES ALSO MAKES IT THE HOTTEST MONTH EVER IN LOUISVILLE HISTORY...TOPPING THE PREVIOUS HIGH OF 84.2 DEGREES SET FOR JULY 1901.

And of course, Indiana:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ISSUES THESE HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK STATEMENTS ANY TIME A PORTION OF THE AREA IS CATEGORIZED AS SEVERE DROUGHT CONDITIONS...WHICH IS QUANTIFIED AS CATEGORY D2 ON THE DROUGHT MONITOR MAP. LOCALLY...THERE HAS BEEN WORSENING SINCE LATE MAY OVER THE REGION...WITH THE MOST EXTREME PRECIPITATION DEFICITS OVER SOUTHERN OHIO...NORTHERN KENTUCKY AND SOUTHEAST INDIANA.

LOOKING AT OTHER INDICATORS...MUCH OF THE UNREGULATED STREAMFLOW ACROSS SOUTHEAST INDIANA...NORTHERN KENTUCKY AND SOUTHERN AND WESTERN OHIO ARE RUNNING IN THE 10TH TO 24TH PERCENTILE. THIS DATA IS REPORTED BY THE US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

MOST AREA WATER SUPPLY RESERVOIRS AND WELL LEVELS WERE RUNNING TYPICALLY ABOUT ONE FOOT BELOW NORMAL...BUT HARSHA LAKE ON THE EAST FORK OF THE LITTLE MIAMI WAS RUNNING 5 FEET BELOW THE NORMAL SUMMER POOL LEVEL.

FOR THE NEXT WEEK OVER THE IMPACTED AREA...LITTLE TO NO RAINFALL IS FORECAST. ONLY A SLIGHT POSSIBILITY OF RAIN IN THE FORM OF ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IS EXPECTED DURING THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. WHILE A SLIGHTLY BETTER CHANCE FOR RAIN IS EXPECTED IN THE 8 TO 14 DAY PERIOD...THIS TOO WILL LIKELY BE IN THE FORM OF SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.

And while the southern counties of Indiana are parched, and our trees are dying, the northern part of Indiana was flooding only a week ago:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTHERN INDIANA
0830 AM EDT SAT SEP 1 2007

...RECORD MONTHLY RAINFALL SET AT SOUTH BEND...

8.88 INCHES OF RAINFALL WAS RECORDED AT SOUTH BEND FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 8.30 INCHES SET IN 1979.

FOR SOUTH BEND THIS RANKS AS THE 7TH WETTEST MONTH ON RECORD AND BRINGS THE SUMMER TOTALS TO THE 4TH WETTEST EVER ON RECORD.

TEMPERATURE WISE THIS RANKED AS THE 13TH WARMEST AUGUST ON RECORD.

...MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS FOR FORT WAYNE...

9.69 INCHES OF RAINFALL WAS RECORDED AT FORT WAYNE FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST. THIS RANKS AS THE SECOND WETTEST AUGUST ON RECORD AND WAS THE 5TH WETTEST MONTH EVER ON RECORD.

So no... we don't believe in climate change here in the Midwest, can't imagine why we would. We're much more likely to believe ExxonMobile and Bush.

All sarcasm aside, one has to wonder. Are we headed back in time? If these crazy weather patterns continue (and they show no signs of ever returning to normal,) can we even survive here? Can we grow food? Will we have enough drinking water?

Can it happen again?

So what caused the Dust Bowl in the 1930s? NASA scientists think they may now know the answer to that question... but we won't like it. Turns out only a slight change in sea temperature can cause a shift in the jet stream, which affects whether we get normal rainfall, droughts or flooding. And we already have both higher ocean temperatures and a shift in jet stream.

Scientists recently discovered that the ocean temperatures in the 1930's were unstable, which affected the jet stream and the normal flow of precipitation across the United States:

Ocean Temperatures in the 1930's Were Unstable

Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center recently used a computer model and satellite data to examine climate over the past century. In the study, cooler than normal tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures and warmer than normal tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures created ideal drought conditions due to the unstable sea surface temperatures. The result was dry air and high temperatures in the Midwest from about 1931 to 1939.

The Normal Supply of Moist Air From the Gulf of Mexico Was Reduced.

Changes in sea surface temperatures create shifts in weather patterns. One way is by changing the patterns in the jet stream. In the 1930's, the jet stream was weakened causing the normally moisture rich air from the Gulf of Mexico to become drier. Low level winds further reduced the normal supply of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and reduced rainfall throughout the US Midwest.

The Jet Stream Changed Course.

The jet stream normally flows west over the Gulf of Mexico and turns northward pulling up moisture and dumping rain onto the Great Plains. As the jet stream weakened and changed course, it traveled farther south than normal starving the Midwest of precious rain.

BioEd Online goes into even more detail:

Megadroughts

The Great Plains get most of their rain in spring and summer. The westerly 'trade' winds that flow around the equator normally carry moisture westwards from the Gulf of Mexico over the United States, keeping the Plains well watered.

But a warmer Atlantic heats the air just above the sea surface, making it less dense and allowing it to rise, explains Bamber. This opens the door for cooler, high-pressure air to sweep eastwards off continental America. So the wet air over the Gulf flows eastwards instead.

The same trade winds usually sweep westwards over the continent and the Pacific, picking up moisture from that ocean as they go, before doubling back and carrying their watery cargo back towards the United States in the upper atmosphere. A cooler Pacific disrupts this cycle, so that the air returning to the United States is dryer, flows at a lower altitude, and is less likely to bring rain to the Plains.

Schubert believes his team's computer model should work just as well for the Sahel region, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, where changes in Atlantic and Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures are creating droughts.

At the moment, the model can give about six months to a year advance warning of a drought. Including deep-ocean temperature measurements in the calculations could improve its predictive power, says Schubert.

Modern farming practices, such as improved irrigation, would moderate the effects of any future droughts. "But the basic weather that caused the Dust Bowl will almost certainly happen again," Schubert says. "Over the last 500 years, we've had these kinds of megadroughts about once or twice every century. Historically, these events are very likely."

Megadroughts are a normal, natural weather cycle. If we can expect to get one or two every century, then we are probably due. The big question of course is how drastic these megadroughts will be when we throw climate change into the mix. Hurricanes also go through natural cycles, but we have seen an increase in the number of category 5 hurricanes due to the warming of the oceans. Are we in danger of experiencing an epic national drought, made worse by the unpredictable effects of climate change?

Current (2007)



Dust Bowl (1934)



History has a strange way of repeating itself.

If we attack Iran, we face a possibility of another World War. The stock market is edging closer and closer to disaster, and possibly a crash. And meanwhile, floods and droughts have brought us face to face with shades of danger to come: the epic disaster faced by our grandparents' generation.

If we continue to spew greenhouse gases into the air and refuse to address our current changing weather, there is no telling what will happen; we are literally playing with fire, flood, monster hurricanes, megadroughts and global devastation.


The one thing we seem to be missing... an FDR waiting in the wings to rescue us.

Al Gore has the qualifications and the vision to fill that role. He could pull us all together and move us in a positive direction, and he would definitely surround himself with the best and the brightest (as well as people who understand compassion.)

But Gore has 'fallen out of love with politics.'

I guess that leaves us at the mercy of those who haven't lost their love for government corruption, corporate kowtowing and pork. I frankly don't know how we will get through all of this without a brilliant statesman at the helm: a real leader.

We can maybe still pull out of our collision course with Iran, and somehow pull out of our Wall Street crisis. Although unlikely under our current administration, it is still possible to avoid these calamities. But in the end, Mother Nature will etch the final wording on our collective epitaph.

We have done our great damage here; and given a choice of changing our destructive behavior or continuing down this same, reckless road... we chose short term greed over long-term survival. Now nature - with all of her normal weather patterns juiced up on the steroids of climate change - will decide if our species will survive... or perish.



For more information about regional drought, see the following resources:

Climate Prediction Center - U.S. Drought Assessment
The NOAA Drought Drought Information Center
The U.S. Drought Monitor

Will it ever rain?

The trees all around us look so dry. The grass is brown. Leaves are starting to fall, its hot and there isn't a cloud - anywhere - in the state.

The trees are suffering. I'm starting to worry. When you live in the woods with dry, suffering trees all around you... you worry. Not just about tree survival. You worry about fire.

We're having the worst drought in decades after having the wettest winter in, well, decades. It's hotter than Hades most days, and we lost our fruit crop to a late, long freeze. Our winter wheat as well.

It hasn't been a good year for weather here in Indiana, especially the southern half of the state.

From the Bloomington Herald Times:

About 40 percent of the state is in a “D2” stage of severe drought, National Weather Service meteorologist Logan Johnson said. That determination is made by the weather service along with other agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and fire and weather agencies, he said. They’re looking at things such as the amount of rain, the status of deep groundwater wells and soil moisture for the weekly rating.

Why isn’t it raining? Persistent upper level high pressure systems are keeping away the cold fronts that are necessary for rain. That makes precipitation spotty, Johnson said. For example, they’ve had reports of rain in the northern half of a county but none in the southern.

“The ridge is just so strong it keeps that weather pattern,” he said. “And Indiana drought years typically come with this same weather pattern.”

Time to do the rain dance again. In earnest.

eRain Dance (This better work)

Once again a massive line of storms full of precipitation has passed just to the North of us, leaving our poor gasping forests parched; the bushes brown and brittle, the soil dry as powder. The birds are gone -- probably to the lake. I leave water out for the squirrels. The daytime temperatures have been between 95-100 degrees. We haven't had a drop of rain here at our house in a month.

I see another line of rainstorms approaching from Illinois, but I already know the pattern: North by Northeast, up through Indy and towards the Great Lakes.

We're parched. We need rain.

The time has come to consult with the experts...

The rain dance is still an important part of Native American consciousness, just as we are concerned with the amount of rainfall even in the modern world.

In late August, when it is quite dry, especially in the Southwestern United States, Native American tribes used to do a rain dance. Many Native Americans still perform the ritual today, and it can be seen on several reservations in the United States. Men and women gathered together for a rain dance and wore special headdresses and clothing. The jewels used in the clothing, such as turquoise, had special significance, as well as the patterns on the clothing and the use of goat hair in the headdresses. These special clothes were worn every year for the rain dance, and usually were stored the entire year for this purpose.

Zuni Rain Dance

Last Night the Rain Spoke To Me
By Mary Oliver

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again
in a new way
on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,
smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches
and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing
under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,
and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment
my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars
and the soft rain –
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

Very Quiet Native American Rain Dance

(But notice the clouds above! It's working!)

Rain Dance (Art Video with actual rain)


American Indian Flute - Rain Dance


African Rain Song

Rain Song
Imvula, Imvula (eem-voo'-lah)
Chapha, chapha, chapha (c=click sound with tongue in back of Chapha,
chapha, chapha front teeth,like the sound of exasperation) (cah'-pah)
Imanz'impahla yam'
Imanz'impahla yam' (ee-mahn'zeem pah'hla yahm)
Gqum, Gqum, Liyaduduma (q=click made when pulling tongue down Gqum, gqum, liyaduduma from roof of mouth) (gqoom lee-yah doo'-mah)
Imanz'impahla yam'
Imanz'impahla yam'

note: this is a very old and traditional rain song. The translation goes like this:

"It's raining, it's raining
Chapha, chapha, chapha
Chapha, chapha, chapha (sound of the rain falling)
My clothes are getting wet,
My clothes are getting wet.
Gqum, Gqum (sound of the thunder)
There's the thunder!
Gqum, gqum,
There's the thunder!
My clothes are getting wet,
My clothes are getting wet!"

Modern Rain Song

(Can be played in conjunction with Very Quiet American Indian Rain Dance above)



I'm dancing my feet off here in Southern Indiana... come on rain!

...

P.S. If I get desperate enough, I'm going to have to post THIS:

Proof that I will go to any lengths for rain

(Because yes -- you can find literally anything on YouTube.)

Get me to that parallel universe

I was just reading about the news that the Artic ice is now at an all-time low and melting at an astonishing rate, much faster than anticipated. I started wondering, again, about that 2000 election. Would Gore in office have made a difference? Or was it already too late? Or maybe he is making a better, more global impact right where he is?

Don't you wish sometimes that you could get to that mythical 'alternate universe' where life is good, everyone is taking care of the planet... and we are at peace? You know - the one in the SNL skit:

You can't say you don't know

A powerful message from Greenpeace

Professor Al speaks about "The Assault on Reason"

AL GORE: The Assault on Reason - 5.29.07 Full Speech

Live Earth Concert Has Begun!

Don't hang around here... get out and watch it!



Sign the Live Earth Pledge:

I PLEDGE:

1.To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;

2.To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"

3.To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;

4.To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;

5.To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;

6.To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,

7.To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

Al... you could end this nightmare

This letter has been writing in my mind for a long time, but today I've reached my threshold. Al... you could end this nightmare. All of it.

Al wrote an Oped in the New York Times today, upping the ante on climate change (the very climate change we're already doing nothing about, because we've got a president who seems hell bent on destruction.)

Without realizing the consequences of our actions, we have begun to put so much carbon dioxide into the thin shell of air surrounding our world that we have literally changed the heat balance between Earth and the Sun. If we don’t stop doing this pretty quickly, the average temperature will increase to levels humans have never known and put an end to the favorable climate balance on which our civilization depends.

Thanks for the warning Al... but if you really want to help us fix this... RUN FOR PRESIDENT.



I don't know if you've noticed, but you are the only 'FDR' or 'Lincoln' or 'Washington' our generation is going to get. We're in dire times here, dire straits. Our government has been overrun by jackals in high office, looting the coffers and gutting our federal agencies -- including the EPA.

You want us to step up? I'm doing everything I can here at our house, with our income constraints... but we need a massive, rapid change in direction on a national level. The people want this -- we're not stupid, we want to live and we want the next generation to have a chance. But we continually run into roadblocks from our government and the hulking corporations standing in the shadows. Do you think we wouldn't all be using solar power by now if it were cheap and readily available? How about solar cars?

And what is stopping us? Corporations. Their interests, not ours. So much for government of the people. Words are fine, but the reality is quite different these days.

Hell yes, we all need to do more to stop climate change. And to do this, we need strong, devoted, moral leadership. We need another Lincoln, who will speak to the 'better angels of our nature,' and reunite this house divided. We need a Kennedy who will entreat us to "ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country." And then the planet.

Our current leaders want us to live in fear. They spy on us, and steal our freedom in tiny, barely noticed increments, while misdirecting us with propaganda media. The frog is nearly boiling now. They are fanning the flames of hatred both here and abroad; and while we are distracted, they are eating away at the most basic framework of this government that has stood for over 200 years.

This is not the way out: it is the way of chaos, destruction and despair.

Step up, Al. You've done so much already -- there must be a reason you didn't take office in 2000. Perhaps you 'lost' because you had other, more pressing work awaiting you. Perhaps you were being forged in the fires of life; traveling your own 'hero's journey,' so that you would grow into the magnificent and fearless leader that you are today.

If you had been just another politician, just another corporate tool, you would have become a lobbyist after leaving office. Instead you chose to teach, and then to travel the world warning of impending climate change. This is not the behavior of a politician. This is the behavior of a leader!

You are now exactly what this nation needs: not just our nation, but the entire world. Your country is calling, and never has our need been greater. It is time for you to take that office we elected you to hold in 2000, bringing all of your fiery passion, leadership skills, intelligence; your knowledge of government, Constitution and history; and yes... political courage with you to the White House.

We need our FDR. We need a president who will say NO to fear and hatred and divisions between blue and red, and instead say "there is nothing to fear but fear itself." It will take every one of us working together if we are to get this done.

You will notice the current administration is doing the exact opposite: sowing discord and distrust. Divide and conquer. I have never seen the people so divided, into 'blue' and 'red;' conservative and liberal.

And while we are all busy fighting each other, the Executive Branch is busy amassing power, gutting our CIA, discrediting our FBI, has thoroughly embarrassed FEMA, made a mockery of the EPA, a laughing stock of the DoJ. Now they are privatizing our army (actually, they are creating their own army,) while our National Guard is destroyed overseas; doing tour after tour after tour. Our army is being systematically broken on the rocks of Iraqi civil war, as our government is quietly being outsourced at home.

If our hamstrung, ineffective Democratic 'majority' can't or won't do anything to stop this downturn, we will need a master of leadership to bring our country back to something again resembling a constitutional democracy and government of the people. And this is assuming there is still time... that we are even still a Republic in 2009. Our forefathers made no such promises that this democracy would last through time, without our own vigilance and a strong citizen media.

Lincoln's great fear has come to pass: corporations have been enthroned, and the Republic is on it's last gasp. You are the only life-support that many of us can see anywhere on the horizon. You are the only person who truly cares and possesses the knowledge and the leadership to bring us through this mess. And yes, you do care; and Al, we can all see that you care, about us and about life on this planet. We also know that you grasp the challenges (those of us who have read "The Assault on Reason.")

Al: we will need you to restore our federal agencies, reign in these rampant corporations and lobbyists, restore corporate oversight, bring our troops home and then rebuild our military. We will need you to somehow restore the trust of prospective enlistees, so they will know that their leader cares about them, and will have their back while they defend our country. And all this, while fighting climate change and weaning America off of oil.

This will require a herculean effort, and you are the only person in the country completely qualified to step up to this task. Al; I cannot stress this enough. We need you.

There is no one else, Al. No one else who can do this job. You are our best, our greatest, and maybe our only hope. Please... put on the mantle you were born to wear, the one you have been groomed to wear -- not by your political training and career, or even by the popular vote in 2000... but by the trials, disappointments and struggles of life itself.

Save our country: then give us the tools and leadership so that we can work with you to save our world.

This time we really mean it

Yes, it turns out climate change is not only real, it could wipe us all off the face of the planet.

And yes, some of us were already aware of this fact. For the rest (including the Bush White House,) scientists in the United States, speaking via the UK (where newspapers will actually report this news) have stated the civilization is in "imminent peril:"

Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.

They also implicitly criticise the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for underestimating the scale of sea-level rises this century as a result of melting glaciers and polar ice sheets.

Instead of sea levels rising by about 40 centimetres, as the IPCC predicts in one of its computer forecasts, the true rise might be as great as several metres by 2100. That is why, they say, planet Earth today is in "imminent peril".

Well actually they say that the planet is in peril, but I'm guessing the planet will still be here; it is we who will be missing from this watery picture.

The unnatural "forcing" of the climate as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatens to generate a "flip" in the climate that could "spark a cataclysm" in the massive ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, the scientists write.

Dramatic flips in the climate have occurred in the past but none has happened since the development of complex human societies and civilisation, which are unlikely to survive the same sort of environmental changes if they occurred now.

"Civilisation developed, and constructed extensive infrastructure, during a period of unusual climate stability, the Holocene, now almost 12,000 years in duration. That period is about to end," the scientists warn. Humanity cannot afford to burn the Earth's remaining underground reserves of fossil fuel. "To do so would guarantee dramatic climate change, yielding a different planet from the one on which civilisation developed and for which extensive physical infrastructure has been built," they say.

Basically -- this means that we have to stop using that oil we keep fighting over, and we have to stop using it now.

Yes, now: even before we completely run out. Yes -- before 'peak oil.' And yes, even before Exxon, Chevron, BP and Halliburton are done making their a killing on it. It appears mass planetary extinction and a total annihilation of civilization trumps most financial killings, even when the profits are going to bloated, greedy oil companies.

Ah, if only we mere mortals could get their attention...

Dr Hansen said we have about 10 years to put into effect the draconian measures needed to curb CO2 emissions quickly enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperature. Otherwise, the extra heat could trigger the rapid melting of polar ice sheets, made far worse by the "albedo flip" - when the sunlight reflected by white ice is suddenly absorbed as ice melts to become the dark surface of open water.

The glaciers and ice sheets of Greenland in the northern hemisphere, and the western Antarctic ice sheet in the south, both show signs of the rapid changes predicted with rising temperatures. "

The albedo flip property of ice/water provides a trigger mechanism. If the trigger mechanism is engaged long enough, multiple dynamical feedbacks will cause ice sheet collapse," the scientists say. "We argue that the required persistence for this trigger mechanism is at most a century, probably less."

(Bush leans back in his chair and grins at Dick. "Well heck - we got like, maybe a whole century before this happens, right? I mean - before everybody dies? I know I won't be around. Dick - you won't be around either, right?")

I am obviously not the only one depressed...

Just read a scary (although nothing I didn't know, or haven't thought about) essay about the failure of the G8 -- everything from global warming spiraling out of control to nuclear war:

The heads of the richest nations could not agree to keep global warming this side of two degrees centigrade, and despite Vladimir Putin pledging to point his nukes at European cities once again, they didn’t even talk about reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world. This means that the odds of mankind making it out of the next few centuries alive just shrank a little bit more.

This sounds, at first glance, hysterical, I know. What’s three degrees of warming? A little extra sunscreen and a new pair of Gucci sunglasses, surely. But the overwhelming scientific evidence tells us something very different. The maximum figure of two degrees of warming on the global thermostat was not plucked randomly by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who tried to drag the other leaders towards it. No - it is calculated by virtually all the world’s scientists to be the threshold beyond which our planet’s fragile natural systems will begin to unravel rapidly .

The environmentalist Mark Lynas pores through the scientific studies to explain why in his new book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. The Amazon rainforest has no resistance to fire, because it is constantly humid. If the world hits three degrees of warming, that humidity dries out - and the Amazon, the lungs of the earth, burns to the ground. Without the Amazon acting as a vast carbon sink, the world gets warmer still, rising to four degrees. This causes the Siberian peat-bogs to melt and burp out their massive store of methane into the atmosphere. This pushes us up to five degrees - and on.

Once we hit six degrees, we reach humanity’s end-game, played out on an unrecognisable planet scarred by crop failure. The last time the world warmed by this much was 251 million years ago. The result was that 95 per cent of everything on earth died. The only survivors were a pig-like creature called Lysotorous, who had the land to himself for the next 50 million years, and a few clams in the oceans.

Staying this side of two degrees is the most urgent cause of our time. But why couldn’t we even get agreement on that?

Excellent essay, but it didn't do much for my gloomy mood tonight. You know, the Mayan calendar is supposed to just run out, end, kaboom, in 2012. And some other calendar... the Hopi maybe? I'm beginning to wonder if we'll even make it that far. Every day feels iffy.

Another long-term threat - just as serious, if less discussed today - was even more neglected at the G8. The response from Western publics to Putin’s nuclear threats was mostly bemused: didn’t the mushroom cloud disappear in the rubble of the Berlin Wall? In fact, in the short period since the fall of Soviet tyranny, there has been at least one time when their nukes were very nearly fired.

One morning in January 1995, Boris Yeltsin was awoken from an alcoholic stupor to be told that the United States had fired a nuclear missile at Russia and he must immediately retailate. It turned out the Russian computers were on the blink - a perrennial problem, given the gradual decomposition of the bits of the Soviet nuclear arsenal that have not been stolen. This mistake was only realised at the last moment, just before Yeltsin gave the order to incinerate millions.

The dangers of nuclear exchanges - accidental or deliberate - are multiplying across the globe, as hot-spots turn into Cold Wars. It is only four summers since Britain told its citizens to evacuate India and Pakistan because they were so close to a nuclear war. Even today, there is no nuclear hotline between the rival powers, and Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf is on the brink of being toppled - to be replaced by … who? If these two countries alone exchanged their nuclear arsenals, there is evidence suggesting there would be a nuclear winter, blocking out the sun’s rays and killing us all.

Far from draining the nuclear pressure, the Bush administration is perversely ramping it up. The current moves towards a nuclear missile shield have been misrepresented. No such shield could ever work against incoming nukes, as every test has shown. But what it can do is shoot down non-US satellites. Satellites are now essential for military communications; if you can take them out at will, you have massive and unrivalled power. That’s why Putin is asserting his own power in response, and why Bush will decline his offer of a shared base. The Bush administration is choosing to increase its own power, even if the cost is an increase in nuclear danger.

Dear God: what is wrong with these people? Has everyone lost their minds? Just seven years ago it seemed the entire world was celebrating - together -at the dawn of the new Millennium. We were so happy then. What went so terribly wrong?

Oh, I remember. Bush.

When hope melts

The good shine from afar
Like the snowy Himalayas.
The bad don't appear
Even when near,
Like arrows shot into the night.
-Dhammapada, 21

So what does it mean when the 'snowy Himalayas' melt?

Will the good (still) shine from afar? Or will 'the good' also pass away with the glaciers? Will all hope melt with the pure, white Himalayan snows?

There is a danger in knowing too much. There is an old mob saying: "You know too much; I'm gonna have to kill ya." I sometimes think that knowing too much will kill you anyway. Eventually, it kills your spirit.

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."
- Frank Zappa

Does anyone really want to know how 'low we can go?' How corrupt, how greedy, how devoid of any empathy our government, our corporations and their 'think tanks' really are?

Aren't we raised to believe in the American myth; America, the 'good guys?' The 'land of the free, home of the brave?' Are we really ready for the truth?

Ron Paul has amassed a staggering number of devoted followers - I heard them in action on Bill Maher - because he tells the truth. But can 'truth' get elected? Or are the powers that run our nation just too strong now? They certainly own both parties in our two-party system. They appear to now own the courts, including the highest court in the land. They own the media, outright. Do they also now own the minds of the people?

A Guantanamo detainee committed suicide yesterday. Soldiers in Iraq just want to know when they can come home. Cindy Sheehan gave up the peace movement in despair, saying that "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months." Meanwhile prominent neocon Norman Podhoretz wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he 'hopes and prays' that President Bush will bomb Iran.

And still it goes on. This violence, the war lust, the greed, the insanity. Nothing changes.

There is a theme here. Loss of hope.

I share in Cindy Sheehan's recent loss of hope. I am searching for it everywhere, but it escapes me. The glaciers are melting (US federal government won't lift a finger to do its part, in spite of a grassroots effort to bring about this change.) The seas will rise. Democracy is dying and Lincoln's greatest fear has come to pass: corporations have been 'enthroned.'

So many Americans are still asleep. What will it take to awaken them -- and do they really want to be awake? Mainstream media works 24/7 to lull them into a dormant trance; a trance in which 'don't worry, be happy' is directly tied to 'buy this product, it will solve all of your problems.'

I honestly don't blame folks for escaping into 'American Idol.' Who would want to know all of this... devastation really exists, this heart of darkness beneath the surface of the American experience?

The East Coast is washing away

Weather's getting a bit sucky, wouldn't you say? The East Coast is pretty much washing away - 8 inches of rainfall in Central Park, NYC? I remember Westchester Co., from the last time I was in New York. The residents are being rescued from their houses by boat?

Yikes.

I keep waiting for something to hit Washington D.C. and bring the gravity of the situation home to our Capitol. Don't they get severe weather in D.C.?

God knows the rest of us do. Here in Indiana, we had 'another ho-hum freeze' - another day of not planting. The blossoms have fallen off the trees - given up for this year. I'm starting to wonder if we'll even have any leaves.

Is the jury in now Mr Bush? Because we really don't care if its inconvenient for you and your oil buddies... its getting a little inconvenient for us too. But its here.

By the way, our Step It Up for Climate Change went very well Saturday, even though we had to bring it inside the City Hall Chambers and out of the pouring rain, rather than hold it outside in the Farmer's Market. Rep. Baron Hill spoke, along with our Mayor, who issued a special proclamation honoring Step It Up. Author Scott Russell Sanders read a very moving 'letter to his children' that brought many in the crowd to tears. Every gathering should have their bard... we had more than one. We also had music! Carrie Newcomer sang, along with the a cappella group Kaia. Many City and Environmental organizations had booths set up all through the City Hall Chambers, and demonstrated many ways that each of us can cut our carbon footprint. Afterwards, many braved the rain and planted trees outside our Public Library.

From watching the ticker on the National site, it appears the movement was a huge success all over the country. There were 11 events in Indiana alone!

Requiem for baby harp seals

It appears we won't have to boycott Canadian seafood again this year to 'encourage' Canada to halt their brutal, annual seal hunt. Most of the baby seals have drowned.

"The conditions this year are disastrous. I've surveyed this region for six years and I haven't seen anything like this." said Sheryl Fink, a senior researcher with IFAW. "There is wide open water and almost no seals. I only saw a handful of adult harp seals and even fewer pups, where normally we should be seeing thousands and thousands of seals."

You see, there is no ice. A mother seals give birth on ice, and apparently it is on that ice that the off-season fisherman come to club these newborn, baby seals to death. No ice... no mothers giving birth, no babies being nursed, no seal hunt.

This is a terribly sad, depressing story. I wish it were the only one. Depressing, horrific stories are popping up all over. Better get used to it.

And mail them all to Senator Inhofe.

Sir, you cannot stop us

Senator Inhofe, you are a joke. Your small-minded petulance is sad at best, and useless now against this tide. Its far too late to stop the momentum, turn back the clock, or put back the genie.

The truth is out: you cannot make this truth into another lie.

Thousands of multi-national scientists attest to the warming of our planet, and the role we humans have played in this damage to our climate. Record breaking temperatures for the past 10 years have underlined this crisis - and this 'winter' was ridiculous.

A wave of anti-warming activity is sweeping across this nation - and you dare to call our Live Earth concert at the Capitol, a 'partisan event?' And you - of all people - a republican talking to us about partisan!

Entire communities across the length and breadth of this nation are planning Step It Up rallies for April 14th... I suppose every one of these communities is 'partisan' as well. If so, then we are partisan to life, sir. Not oil... life. Not greed and politics. We'd simply like to live. If you don't care - that is your choice. But you will never make that choice for us.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, the first word is LIFE. It is pretty hard to have the rest, if you don't have the first.

Get over the Al Gore thing already - its pathetic. Why so threatened by Al? Is it that you just can't stand it... that he gracefully exited the political stage and did something meaningful with his life, rather than take a high-paying lobbyist job (as you no doubt mean to do when you retire, or finally get tossed out of office.) Al is that goody-two-shoes who makes the rest of you rats look bad... is that it? Or are you... pardon me for using your words... simply unable to let go of your 'partisan' antipathy towards him because he is a Democrat?

Sir - I hate to break this to you, but we do not care what you think. You may block the concert at our Capitol with your connections and your pull. But you cannot stop us.

Your oil lobbyists cannot stop us. Exxon cannot stop us. Shell cannot stop us. The coal companies cannot stop us. The White House cannot stop us.

We will rally in the streets, we will rally in town squares, we will replace light bulbs, we will hold concerts, we will plant trees, we will sing, we will write letters, we will cut emissions and our carbon footprints, we will make our cities Kyoto cities, we will eat locally grown food, we will install solar panels, we will carpool, bicycle, and walk -- we will do whatever it takes to save our planet and ourselves... and you sir, and your army of oil men... you cannot stop us anymore.

You are irrelevant. Your damage here is done.

Mr Gore, please move the concert to the Lincoln Memorial. I think Mr. Lincoln would enjoy the show. That Capitol no longer belongs to the people of this nation; men like Mr Inhofe have locked the doors against us. But Mr. Lincoln's temple stands open to the air, the wind and to all citizens. Mr Lincoln will always be ours... and 'We the People' will always be his.

Al Gore: Global warming testimony before Congress

Added March 21, 2007 to YouTube By Politicstv