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 15, 2011

Crazy Weather and Climate: Do Dots Connect?

Click here to access article by Bruce Dorminey from Miller-McCune.

Is the extreme weather we have been experiencing related to climate change? Is climate change caused by humans? To answer these questions, the author interviews "Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The climatologist, a leading member on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 when it was awarded to the IPCC."
The thing that is most clear is the increasing temperatures. We can look to sea levels rising, Arctic sea ice and glaciers melting. ...All this is consistent with this warming. There’s also pretty good evidence that when it rains, it rains harder than it used to especially across the U.S. That’s due to anthropogenic climate change, and that’s only going to get bigger.