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

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Last year, the oceans warmed at a rate of 12 Hiroshima bombs per second

Click here to access article by Lindsay Abrams from Salon.



When you hear climate skeptics talking about a “pause” in global warming, that’s where the heat is going — 378 million atomic bombs worth of it each year. And as Quartz points out, it’s not like the oceans are just storing all that heat for us and protecting us from the effects of climate change: warmer oceans mean more severe typhoons and hurricanes, rising sea levels and damage to marine life.