Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced comprehensive legislation on climate change on Valentine’s Day. Sen. Boxer is chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Sanders sits on the environment committee and also is a member of the Senate energy. (From Sen. Sanders’s Youtube Channel).
Naturally, the most greedy bastards on the planet — the Koch brothers — are behind the XL Pipeline that is probably soon to be approved. See the video below for the story.
Am I going to resume podcasting one of these days, you may be wondering. The short answer is, I really don’t know. I’m just too busy to continue it now, but it may be back some day, maybe as a comedy show. This administration’s claims to care about climate change are impossible to take seriously, at least so far.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) - known by its critics as a “corporate bill mill” – has hit the ground running in 2013, pushing “models bills” mandating the teaching of climate change denial in public school systems. January hasn’t even ended, yet ALEC has already planted its ”…
New reports by NASA scientists indicate that the weather is getting hotter and wilder and yes, it’s a big deal, because it is being caused by climate change, and they are now saying that in public. At least, James Hansen of NASA is saying it and writing about it.
And learn all about Paul Ryan, the new GOP VP pick who loves Ayn Rand, from an environmental perspective! More here.
And even more:
Paul Ryan And His Family To Benefit From The $45 Billion In Subsidies For Big Oil In His Budget
The Arctic is still melting, now aided by a huge cyclone.
Linda Moulton Howe lays out climate change facts on one of my favorite camping trip radio shows (Coast to Coast), and it’s a good interview. Her website is Earth Files.
You can find the entire Helen Caldicott interview in the May 2012 show at The Progressive Radio show podcast.
And finally the climate news about What’s Important can be found at Nature Bats Last, the blog of Guy McPherson.
By all means, download the podcast here.
You can also subscribe through iTunes or through the RSS on this page.
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This data is from January, 2012. The GOP presidential/VP candidates are claiming that the current administration is not supporting coal and fossil fuels enough. This graphic clearly shows we are supporting dirty energy far, far too much. Source: Christian Science Monitor (via TYTnetwork.com)
Two broadcasts worthy of hearing, from other sources. The first is from OpEdNews and is a very recent interview with Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, done by Rob Kall.
You may also want to check out the following interesting show I saw the other night. It speaks about the exact type of thing I’m trying to promote, which is getting people to think about the future and getting ready to live in a more sustainable way. “More sustainable” might include things like growing your own food and generating your own power. It’s about thriving instead of suffering in the future, if that is even possible after climate change effects increase and the world population is 9 billion and counting…. I don’t know if it is. This is from TPT Minnesota and is about 26 minutes long. According to the website: “The impact of human life on a delicate planet, and the creative adaptations being considered for our future survival; with the Science Museum of MN.”
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It’s Party Time.
Green Party time, that is. One reason we need the Green Party influencing our electoral process is that the planet is melting. That means sea level rise, insane weather, and other nasty things. So (green) party like your life depends on it, because it does.
New U.S. solar plan creates energy zones, excludes sensitive lands story here.
NASA story about Greenland melting here. Reckoning story by Bill McKibben on the new global warming math is here.
Does President Obama actually care if regular people have AK-47s after all? Maybe.
Here’s the podcast. Download it.
Intro music: Sweeter by Gavin DeGraw. Outro music: Feel it All Around, by Washed Out.
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Back when I was a kid . . . things weren’t quite so alarming.
Will humans go extinct like the dinosaurs did, or will we somehow adapt to a different planet? Ask the Venusians how that worked out for them.
More on this topic and many others in upcoming episodes of Impact Files.
The very alarming and very factual Greenman video can be seen here.
Forget Ron Paul. Learn more about presidential candidate Jill Stein here.
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The name of this podcast has changed to IMPACT FILES but the information will be similar and relevant. The earth and its inhabitants are still in peril due to human activity.
This particular episode was the final Climate Files podcast: One year after BP… and now it’s two years after BP and the Gulf is still not clean and the life in and around the Gulf is still suffering. Below is the text from the original podcast.
A year after the catastrophic BP oil disaster that began on April 20th, 2010, Gulf Coast communities are still struggling to recover — meanwhile, oil companies report record profits and push lawmakers for even more access to drill our lands and waters. Did you know that BP might make money on their horrible oil leak of 2010? The first report was that BP would get a $10 billion dollar tax break for their clean-up troubles. Now the news is even more outrageous — for unleashing the worst oil crime in the Gulf of Mexico in U.S. history, BP stands to gain $13 billion dollars, and might not even pay any taxes at all this year.
You can sign a CREDO petition denouncing this here. Destroying our Gulf should not be a tax write-off.
This episode contains information you probably haven’t heard, about what’s going on down in the Gulf, a year after the oil crime of 2010. More foreign press is covering this than U.S. press, so this is information that is necessary to emphasize.
Dahr Jamail’s article BP anniversary: Toxicity, Suffering and Death is on Al Jazeera EN.
Got any environmental “sins” to confess? There’s a website for that.
The sad story about Steven Aguinaga and his friend Merrick Vallian can be heard in this episode and seen here. You can also see the video interview of Lisa Nelson, who passed away in March, here.
Download this episode here, subscribe on the right, or listen right here.
This podcast, originally titled Climate Files, was originally produced in April, 2011 and the podcasts that are earlier than this one are also from 2011 and 2010. I’m bringing the podcast back and associating it with an art project of the same name. The art project will eventually have its own gallery here.
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We’re all worried about the nuclear plant disaster in Japan, which seems to get worse every day. Fallout and radioactive releases from the plants are enough to threaten adult human health in the vicinity, and the water is now contaminated and unsafe for children to drink. Included in this podcast are Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s opinions on this nuclear disaster and what it means.
Radiation Chart 1
Radiation Chart 2
Information on Radiation Levels in Japan
IMPACT:
Also hear a great interview with Elizabeth Kolbert, who explains how climate change caused by humans—building cities, changing the land through agriculture and deforestation, and carbon emissions from cars and industry—has risen to the level of geologic significance. Her article “Enter the Anthropocene—Age of Man” looks at the “Anthropocene,” the new epoch defined by humans’ massive impact on the planet. . . . Read Elizabeth Kolbert’s article here.
Monbiot: Atomized
Monbiot: Going Critical (in favor of nuclear power). Are thorium reactors the answer? For more perspective, consider the following. In America, lots of dangerous things that kill people are perfectly accepted and legal. From the CDC:
Compared to smoking, over-eating, and drinking alcohol, nuclear power looks safer than the various ways human beings attempt to kill themselves. To those who are against nuclear power, I would question whether they are also campaigning to make tobacco use, alcohol use, and over-eating illegal. At the very least, they should be forcefully shutting down radioactive carbon-emitting coal-fired power plants . . . as we all should be doing.
This podcast was originally released on March 23, 2011.
Download this episode here. or you can listen live right here.
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The crude in this episode is the crude oil from Canadian tar sands, sent down to the U.S. in pipelines that are being corroded from the inside out. The rude is the jester of all climate deniers — The British clown “Lord” Christopher Monckton. He’s the go-to guy for climate science fantasy and denialism.
This episode contains information on the pipeline and a new report on the oil and pipeline dangers which you can download here. (Click on link for pdf download). Read more on it here.
The report is a consensus effort of the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation — and the nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust.
Monckton is a professional climate change denier who uses junk science to make his points to audiences all over the western world so he can bask in the adulation of the fearful and paranoid. His type of denier encourages fear of cap and trade and an imagined “one world government” that will result from cap and trade, which is truly ludicrous. Cap and trade isn’t even being considered by the U.S. Senate anymore. They are leaving all the heavy lifting up to the EPA for political reasons, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing at the moment.
The episode plays much of the audio of the BBC’s recent episode of “Meet the Climate Skeptics”. It’s yet another debunking of Monckton’s efforts to turn science on its head, among many others. The professor mentioned in the episode who has debunked all of Monckton’s pseudoscience mumbo jumbo is Prof. John Abraham, and you can read that story here. I have mentioned him in this podcast before. His actual debunking, page by page, can be found here.
Prof. Abraham is from Minnesota, the same state that is already carrying two pipelines used for the Alberta tar sands operations. One is for oil, the other is for dilution solvents for the super-thick crude from Canada.
“Lord” Monckton has not written a single peer-reviewed scientific paper on any topic. This podcast was originally broadcast on Feb. 25, 2011.
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Finally, a Climate Files episode you can dance to! We might as well dance while the world burns, because global warming continues with no end in sight . . .
Obama’s most recent SOTU was, shall we say, vague on energy — and he didn’t even mention climate change. Is there really reason to hope? There may be, if we can possibly keep up with China in their renewable energy plans for 2011, which you can read about here. Also, China leapfrogs U.S. wind power industry. I wonder if the U.S. will bother trying to catch up to China.
Hear some analysis and some reactions to Obama’s energy proposals in this episode. More can be found here.
In news: Carol Browner is leaving as Obama’s energy and climate coordinator, and it’s not clear if anyone will fill her job.
BP says carbon pollution is a wake up call. So why do they continue to drill for oil?
Someone tell T. Boone Pickens’s army: Natural gas is only 25% cleaner than burning coal, at best. At the very least, the benefits of using natural gas have been overstated. We cannot continue to depend on carbon or methane emitting fossil fuels for our energy.
And hear some great commentary on peak oil from Thom Hartmann, Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, and more. The Nation has launched an excellent peak oil video series.
This podcast was originally broadcast on Jan. 28, 2011.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
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