Friday Morning

02011-03-11 | Uncategorized | 13 comments

For nearly twenty years Al Gore has spoken about Climate Change. Most people don’t seem to listen, especially politicians. Drought in Australia, then devastating flood a month ago. The earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, happened only a couple of weeks ago. Now Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. Horrible devastation.

Will we simply continue? Will people go on as if nothing is happening, while allowing their policticans to continue to delay writing Climat Change legislature in order to please the large corporations?

This is what you can do right now:

The EPA is accepting comments on their New Source Performance Standards, a set of rules used to limit the global warming pollution from big fossil fuel industries like coal plants and petroleum refineries.
The big polluters will be pressuring the EPA to slow down the rulemaking process and issue weak, watered-down rules. The EPA needs to hear from you, too.

Tsunami hits Japan (YouTube)
Skyscrapers swaying (YouTube) – amazing feat of Japanese engineering.

The Atlantic (photos)
MSNBC Photoblog (photos)
BoingBoing (photos)

The end of News TV? How would I know, I don’t have TV…
Exhibit one
Exhibit two

I saw this yesterday. Very disturbing.

NYT and “torture”: Searching for a justification – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com
So according to The New York Times, it’s journalistically improper to call waterboarding “torture” — when done by the United States, but when Nazi Germany (or, more generally, China) does exactly the same thing, then it may be called “torture” repeatedly and without qualification. An organization which behaves this way may be called many things; “journalist” isn’t one of them.

We need a serious old-media shakeup. Or maybe they are just giving people what they want and what we need is a culture shakeup?

My thoughts are with the people in Japan. The aftershocks in the region continue to be more powerful than the devastating Haiti earthquake.

13 Comments

  1. Luz

    I watched the vid of the skyscraper shaking–such a feat on engineering and design! I will be reaching into my pocket book and making a donation to the Red Cross for the people of Japan. Fellow fanmenca Kyiomi was talking on the phone to her mother when the earthquake hit and they were disconneted but thankfully she was able to hear back that her mother is ok.

    Reply
  2. yumi

    Thank you, Ottmar.

    Reply
  3. Carol Anderson

    That’s an incredible disaster. I have a couple nephews in Hawaii, and a niece in Japan. How many people await word from their loved ones.
    But I don’t belive peoples emissions caused that.

    The earth is always changing.

    Reply
  4. Ottmar

    Carol: continue to keep your head firmly in the sand and you will be fine. There is no human induced or accelerated climate change. That’s just an invention of 95% of the world’s scientists.

    Reply
  5. Carol Anderson

    Ouch! That hurt. You’re certainly frank. I didn’t say that, Ottmar. I said this one was a Natural disaster. They happen too. And the thing we can do about this kind of disaster is to learn from them….like Tokyo and San Fransisco’s building felon moving high rise buildings.
    My nephew had a friedn take him to the airport and he took off just a few moments before the earthquake struck and then the airport was washed away.He nothing about it until he got to Denver. His friend was caught in it. My other nephew is safe, but he’ll be having a long vacation it looks like.

    Reply
  6. marijose

    The Guardian had an article less than two years ago on the effect of climate change on the geology of the Earth -http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/06/global-warming-natural-disasters-conference .

    Reply
  7. James

    A causal connection between climate change and an increase in earthquake/volcanic activity may seem far-fetched, perhaps due to our limited understanding of all the mechanisms of the earth, and how air, water and rock interact on a global scale. There is scientific research going on in this area – here is a synopsis of a recent conference on the subject of “Climate forcing of geological and geomorphological hazards”:
    http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/368/1919/2311.full

    Reply
  8. Steve(brokerbiker)

    In the Barnett Shale formation in northern Texas, seismic activity has increased markedly with water & chemical injection (fracking) to free up gas pockets. This work is being started in South Texas & has been done in other areas of the US. Why does ‘energy independence’ mean more production not more conservation – because the energy companies don’t profit from the latter. Politicians profit from that too, of course.

    Reply
  9. yumi

    A call from a friend who said that the power was restored two hours ago. The new apartment he was moving to is no longer there. The aftershocks were tremendous.

    It was good to hear his voice.

    Reply
  10. yumi

    To Ottmar p.s.

    I may have the opportunity to learn about music, travel, photography, philosophy, and the interaction and ideas that abound, but it is the sense of humanity that has most likely kept me reading and even rarer, to comment.

    Thanks to marijose and James for sharing those article links in this journal. Appreciate that.

    Reply
  11. Carol Anderson

    We have so much to learn from Japan about preparing for disasters and for having such organization when disasters happen. We know the help will get to where it’s needed as quickly as the world can get it to Japan.

    Reply
  12. Carol Anderson

    It knocked the Earth’s axis off 6.5 inches!

    Reply
  13. Carol Anderson

    I love you all and get so much from Ottmar and his friends, and I promise to be qiet and listen and learn…after this

    Reply

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