The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Remake Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Earth: Dianne Dumanoski

For the past twelve thousand years, Earth’s stable climate has allowed human civilization to flourish. But this long benign summer is an anomaly in the Earth’s history and one that is rapidly coming to a close. The radical experiment of our modern industrial civilization is now disrupting our planet’s very metabolism; our future hinges in large part on how Earth responds. Climate change is already bearing down, hitting harder and faster than expected. The greatest danger is not extreme yet discrete weather events, such as Hurricane Katrina or the calamitous wildfires that now plague California, but profound and systemic disruptions on a global scale. Contrary to the pervasive belief that climate change will be a gradual escalator ride into balmier temperatures, the Earth’s climate system has a history of radical shifts–dramatic shocks that could lead to the collapse of social and economic systems.

The question is no longer simply how can we stop climate change, but how can we as a civilization survive it.

The guiding values of modern culture have become dangerously obsolete in this new era. Yet as renowned environmental journalist Dianne Dumanoski shows, little has been done to avert the crisis or to prepare human societies for a time of growing instability. In a work of astonishing scope, Dumanoski deftly weaves history, science, and culture to show how the fundamental doctrines of modern society have impeded our ability to respond to this crisis and have fostered an economic globalization that is only increasing our vulnerability at this critical time. She exposes the fallacy of banking on a last-minute technological fix as well as the perilous trap of believing that humans can succeed in the quest to control nature. Only by restructuring our global civilization based on the principles that have allowed Earth’s life and our ancestors to survive catastrophe——diversity, redundancy, a degree of self-sufficiency, social solidarity, and an aversion to excessive integration——can we restore the flexibility needed to weather the trials ahead.

In this powerful and prescient book, Dumanoski moves beyond now-ubiquitous environmental buzzwords about green industries and clean energy to provide a new cultural map through this dangerous passage. Though the message is grave, it is not without hope. Lucid, eloquent, and urgent, The End of the Long Summer deserves a place alongside transformative works such as Silent Spring and The Fate of the Earth.

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Dealing With The Zika Threat | On Point

February 10, 2016 at 11:00 AM

Taking on the Zika virus, from tackling the disease itself, to killing the mosquitoes that carry it to the challenge of birth control.

In this Feb. 1, 2016 photo, a technician from the British biotec company Oxitec, inspects the pupae of genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, a vector for transmitting the Zika virus, in Campinas, Brazil. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

The Zika virus is still on a roll. And getting everybody’s attention. U.S. Olympic soccer star Hope Solo says if she had to choose today she would not attend the Rio Olympics this summer. Too much risk to a baby. In Brazil, they’re sending 200,000 soldiers out this weekend to try to and knock back the mosquitos. In the US, President Obama has asked for almost $2 billion to fight Zika. This hour On Point, what it’s really going to take to tackle the Zika virus, here and abroad.

— Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Wyre Davies, South America correspondent for BBC News. (@WyreDavies)

Andrew Pekosz, virologist and molecular microbiologist. Director of the Center for Emerging Viruses and Infectious Diseases at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. (@andrewpekosz)

Megan Wise de Valdez, biologist and zoologist and professor of biology at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Expert on mosquitoes and vector-borne diseases.

Carl Kendall, professor of public health and director of the Center for Global Health Equity at Tulane University.

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Public Health

How To Get Teens To Read | On Point

February 11, 2016 at 11:00 AM

David Denby on the 24 great books that can bring even today’s kids to reading. And maybe you, too.

A sampling of same of the great books author David Denby thinks could help encourage young readers to love books. (National Post / The Publishers)

In the age when everything is digital, quick and dazzling, what’s to engage an American teen in the world of a great book? Of deep reading? New Yorker writer David Denby set out to find out. It’s a real challenge. He worries that without meeting it we face a profound cultural loss. But he also found a way. In classrooms where passionate teachers open great books and young minds. This hour On Point, David Denby, and what it takes to make readers of the hyper-digital young.

— Tom Ashbrook

Guests

David Denby, staff writer and film critic at the New Yorker.. Author of the new book, “Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives.” Also author of “American Sucker,” “Great Books,” “Snark” and “Do the Movies Have a Future?” (@realdaviddenby)

Sean Leon, English teacher at the Beacon School, a public magnet school in New York City.

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SCOTUS Stalls Clean Power Plan | On Point

February 11, 2016 at 10:00 AM,  SCOTUS Stalls Clean Power Plan

The Supreme Court hits the brakes on the heart of President Obama’s push to fight global warming. We’ll dig in.

In this Oct. 21, 2013, file photo, Vern Lund, president of Liberty Mine in central Mississippi near DeKalb, Miss., holds some of the lignite coal planned for use in the nearby Mississippi Power Co. carbon capture power plant. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

The historic Paris agreement on fighting climate change nine weeks ago was based on the premise that everybody was in on the fight. One-hundred and ninety-five countries. The US, right up front with a very public commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has thrown the brakes on the heart of the American promise to the world – cleaning up US power plants. They haven’t killed the plan yet, but they’re signaling they could. This hour On Point, climate change, the constitution, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

— Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Coral Davenport, energy and environmental policy reporter for the New York Times. (@CoralMDavenport)

David Savage, Supreme Court reporter for the Los Angeles Times. (@DavidGSavage)

Jody Freeman, founding director of the Harvard Law School Environmental Law and Policy program. (@JodyFreemanHLS)

Jeff Holmstead, lawyer for coal-powered utilities and a representative of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

See:

 

• Obama climate initiative: Supreme Court calls halt – BBC News February 11, 2016
• Supreme Court Halts Obama’s Coal Plant Rules in Blow to Paris Accord February 10, 2016

 

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Is global warming caused by natural cycles? – Yale Climate Connections

Thursday, February 11, 2016 By Bud Ward
Throughout history, the Earth’s climate has warmed and cooled in cycles because of changes in the Earth’s orbit, ocean currents, and other natural factors.

Fluctuating temperatures and weather cycles are normal, but scientists have proof that current global warming is not caused by natural cycles.

But since the 1970s, the global temperature in the air, the oceans, and on land has risen extremely quickly. Glaciers worldwide are retreating. And in the past ten years, sea levels have risen at twice the rate they did last century. Scientists say a natural cycle could not cause these dramatic changes.

BROCCOLI: “When we look back at records of climate, particularly long records of climate that have been reconstructed from things like tree rings, and ice cores, and coral reefs in the ocean, we see that the variability that has occurred in the past is too small to be responsible for the size of the change in climate that has occurred over the last several decades.”

That’s Dr. Anthony Broccoli of Rutgers University. He says computer models of the climate show that the observed rapid warming cannot be explained by natural causes alone.

That’s Dr. Anthony Broccoli of Rutgers University. He says computer models of the climate show that the observed rapid warming cannot be explained by natural causes alone.

#GlobalWarming not caused by natural cycles – why scientists are certain. Click To Tweet

So climate scientists are confident humans have already caused global warming, and if we continue to release heat-trapping pollution, we’re on the path to an even hotter future.

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
Photo: Copyright protected.

More Resources
Causes of Climate Change
Global Temperature
Climate change: How do we know?
Natural Variability of Climate
Effects of Natural Variability
TITLE
Long-term Natural Variability and 20th Century Climate Change

…(read more).

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Secrets in the Dust – Hunting for the Iceage

Free Documentary

Published on Nov 10, 2015

The Ice Age Hunters
Alfred Rust was a humble electrician in 1920s Germany when he first discovered ice-age tools in a swamp near Hamburg. At that time no-one believed that ice-age man could have survived this far north. No scholar would take this amateur’s views seriously, so in 1930 he set off on a 3,000km bicycle ride to Syria, to learn about ice age civilizations. His studies there made his reputation, and back in Germany he could demonstrate how nomadic ice-age hunters lived from the meat and hides of great reindeer herds whose migration routes led between the glaciers. He even identified two quite separate cultures a thousand years apart, by their changing use of weapons. The first used slings to throw their spears further; but the second had developed the far more effective bow and arrow. These nomads depicted the animals crucial to their existence in engravings on rocks, and they found a way to preserve their meat at the bottom of icy ponds.
Today experimental archaeologists test out ice-age weapons, while geologists use satellite imagery to pin-point the water sources that migrating reindeer – and hunters – would have used.

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North American Ice Age : Documentary on How North America was Shaped by Ice

Nancy King

Published on Nov 22, 2014

The North American Ice Age : Documentary on How Ice Created North America . 2013 This documentary as well as the rest of these documentaries shown here relat.

North American Ice Age : Documentary on How North America was Shaped by Ice . 2013 This documentary as well as all of the rest of these documentaries shown h.

2013 – This documentary and the other documentaries on this channel are very informative, interesting, and even fun. You will see documentaries on important .

North American Ice Age : Documentary on How North America was Shaped by Ice . 2013 This documentary as well as all of the rest of these documentaries shown h.

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Underworld, Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age II

Space And Intelligence

Published on Dec 28, 2014
Visit: http://www.spaceandintelligence.com

Between 17,000 years ago and 7000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, terrible things happened to the world our ancestors lived in. Great ice caps over northern Europe and north America melted down, huge floods ripped across the earth, sea-level rose by more than 100 metres, and about 25 million square kilometres of formerly habitable lands were swallowed up by the waves (2002).
http://www.grahamhancock.com/

When a huge comet struck earth 13.000 years ago, it was stretched out into a chain of fragments by the gravitational pull of the Earth, making it look like a fiery serpent flying through the sky. Is this disaster the origin of all the myths and legends about a fire-breathing dragon or winged serpent?

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Underworld, Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age I

Space And Intelligence

Published on Dec 28, 2014
Visit: http://www.spaceandintelligence.com

Between 17.000 and 7.000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, terrible things happened to the world our ancestors lived in. Great ice caps over northern Europe and north America melted down, huge floods ripped across the earth, sea-level rose by more than 100 metres, and about 25 million square kilometres of formerly habitable lands were swallowed up by the waves. (2002)
http://www.grahamhancock.com/

When a huge comet struck earth 13.000 years ago, it was stretched out into a chain of fragments by the gravitational pull of the Earth, making it look like a fiery serpent flying through the sky. Is this disaster the origin of all the myths and legends about a fire-breathing dragon or winged serpent?

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Obama climate initiative: Supreme Court calls halt – BBC News

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent
10 February 2016

Image copyright AP Image caption US power stations are the country’s largest source of greenhouse gases

President Barack Obama’s plans to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from US power plants have been stalled by the US Supreme Court.

The court ruled that the president’s Clean Power Plan could not go forward until all legal challenges were heard.

Designed to cut US emissions by 32% by 2030, the scheme put huge emphasis on a shift to renewable energy.

It formed the key element of the US pledge at UN climate negotiations held in Paris in December last year.

Introduced by the president last August, the plan set carbon reduction goals for each state and it was up to the states themselves to come up with proposals to meet those goals.

A group of 27 states, utilities and coal miners sought to block the proposal in the courts. They argued that the plan was an infringement on states’ rights.

…(read more).

 

• Supreme Court Halts Obama’s Coal Plant Rules in Blow to Paris Accord February 10, 2016
• SCOTUS Stalls Clean Power Plan | On Point February 11, 2016

 

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