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Climate Code Red – The New Denial And The Failure Of Democracy
Bill Henderson, Countercurrents
A new report based upon state of the art science argues convincingly that climate change is a much more serious and immediate problem than previously perceived by even informed publics – climate change is an emergency that requires urgent mitigation measures not presently possible in our political and economic systems.
No major media outlet acknowledges let alone critiques or comments upon or otherwise covers the report. None. Not AP nor Reuters; not either ABC nor BBC. Ditto the NY Times, Wash Post, Guardian, Le Monde, Asahi Shimbun or the South China Morning Post. Not one major news agency, paper, TV or radio outlet so much as acknowledges the existence of a report on a subject that is life and death for humanity and most of the species with which we presently share creation on this small blue planet.
Conversely, reports on temporal economic subjects, on flaky topics such as steroid use in baseball or Asian access to the internet receive wide coverage. A report on the worldwide increase of GM crops, for only one example, has 184 news articles listed on Google News including all of the above major media outlets. The climate change is a life and death emergency report has 12 news articles listed with the Canberra Times being the only non-net news source listed.
Uh??? What gives?
Sutton and Spratt’s Climate Code Red makes the heretical mistake of insisting that climate change is an emergency requiring an escape from business as usual, from BAU, and this is the ultimate Chomsky, the ultimate threat to the business interests of all those owning and employed by the major media. Sutton and Spratt wrote a report where climate change is more important than BAU, where climate change isn’t just a problem to be solved within the continuing evolution of our present socio-economy but where our vast laminate of personal and corporate plans stretching out into the future is threatened by needed emergency action.
(21 February 2008)
Hunters, anglers join global-warming outcry
Diana Marrero, Arizona Republic
Anglers say trout and salmon are moving upstream looking for colder water. Duck hunters say the prairie potholes where ducklings hatch are drying up. And game hunters say moose populations are migrating north.
Many of these outdoor enthusiasts blame it on global warming. Now, they are lobbying Congress to protect their favorite pastimes.
Nearly 700 hunting, fishing and sporting groups, including several from Arizona, recently sent letters urging lawmakers to support a bill to curb the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.
These are not your typical environmentalists, but they are increasingly interested in environmental issues.
(21 February 2008)
Poor May Need Insurance Against Climate Change
Linus Atarah, IPS News
The poor may need insurance to deal with humanitarian needs arising from climate change, experts say.
Demands for humanitarian assistance will grow significantly, and the biggest cause is likely to be climate change rather than wars and internal conflicts, they say.
In 2006 the world experienced 427 natural catastrophes that affected about 143 million people, and the trend is rising, says Ulla-Maija Finskas, director of the department for humanitarian assistance in the Finnish ministry for foreign affairs.
These included 254 floods and related disasters, 43 percent higher than the 2000-2004 average, says Sir John Holmes, under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator at the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, there is strong evidence to suggest that extreme weather conditions attributed to global warming will force people to leave areas where land has become infertile and water sources scarce.
The IPCC says sea level rise would make large areas, and also some whole countries uninhabitable, and turn large numbers of people into climate change migrants. There are no precise projections, but some researchers say up to 50 million people could flee their places of origin due to climate change within the not too distant future.
(21 February 2008)
