The Biggest Obstacles to a Climate Deal at COP16 are Overwhelm and Emotional Disconnect

by greenmedia

In a completely unscientific study, Green Media News has found the biggest obstacles to reaching a global deal on climate change are the massive overwhelm and emotional disconnect that stop climate change issues from becoming part of the national discourse.

Huh?

OK, I'm overwhelmed with all this. And I have a high tolerance for minutia; if I'm overwhelmed, that's not a good sign for the climate movement.

I have to admit I'm torn. I've been reading news from Cancun all afternoon. And I'm tempted to go down the list and talk about all the things that are happening at COP16 and around the world relative to climate change.

Fyi this article was cross-posted to Green Media News at around midnight last night.

continued at Daily Kos....

Most new farmland cut from tropical forests {Earthship Friday}

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: patrickz

Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 101

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

continued at Daily Kos....

Floods in Asia a Result of Climate Change?

by akmk

Whether or not there is a link to the Gulf oil disaster, scientists and news media are now discussing seriously the possibility of severe flooding in Asia being caused by climate change.  Collapsing ocean ecosystems are also being noted.

Severe flooding and unusually dramatic heat waves, all appear to point to global warming and climate change.  And May of 2010 appears to be time of the start of the most dramatic changes.

The Gulf oil spill was in April.  The earth's atmosphere gained a considerable amount of methane.  The ocean's life forms have been subjected to a considerable amount of toxins.

What happens in one part of the planet affects all of the planet.  It's called ecology.

Other human caused factors may be contributing to the flooding in Asia as well.

And there are political implications to all of this.

continued at Daily Kos....

EcoAdvocates: A green model in the Gulf

by Meteor Blades

Five years ago, a natural disaster plus human callousness and ineptitude combined to kill more than 1800 people on the Gulf Coast and plunged an American city into a nightmare from which it has far from fully recovered. Thousands of New Orleanians still live in homesick exile. Four of the hospitals that once served the east side of the city remain permanently closed. Crime is out of control. We had a chance right then, as a nation, to make the catastrophe of 2005 into a flex moment, a window of opportunity not merely to rebuild but rather to go boldly in a new direction, a green trajectory that would restore greater New Orleans and the Katrina-obliterated towns of  Mississippi to ecological health with sustainable economies.

But, of course, the Cheney-Bush administration was in office and it had other fish to fry. Once it had completed the botch-job of its immediate response and handed out a few bucks and a few FEMA trailers, it more or less vanished from the scene. As for spurring a move down a green path in a big way, puhleez. Those were the days when the White House was still in its climate-change denier phase. Local politicians suffered their own form of myopia.

This year’s disaster along the Gulf Coast offers us another flex moment. But we can easily ignore this one, too, if we don’t wise up. And you can already taste that unwise attitude in the air. The attitude which says that the roiling gush of oil into the Gulf will probably never spew from that particular well again so we can just do a little more work with the mops and get back to business as usual. Whew! Sure, residual oil in unknown quantities clings to the sea floor, unknown long-term effects may afflict the Gulf’s water-dwelling creatures, unknown damage may be done to those who depend on those creatures for a living, and a hydrocarbons driller or two may screw up another high-tech puncture. But, every day, with the obvious crisis gone - the one with the camera focused on it - these and other problems will capture less and less attention.

We’re told, obviously so, that the immediate tasks in a disaster are to save lives, save livelihoods and prevent bad effects from becoming worse. Emergencies are no time to start rewriting the CPR manual. The problem with this is that emergencies instantly focus our intense attention but, afterward, when the societal adrenaline from the rescue effort ebbs, so does any thorough public pondering or accounting about how the way we live and consume and are organized contribute to creating these emergencies in the first place. What does get studied typically winds up as a 27-recommendation tome collecting dust somewhere, resurrected 10 or 20 years in the future as a curiosity for some columnist to highlight as what-could-have-been.

The possibilities emerging from flex moments such as Katrina and the BP gusher should be pounced on. “Don’t waste a crisis,” said Rahm Emanuel in the best sound bite I ever heard from him. Use this moment to do something big, something transformative for the Gulf, for the people, the ecology, the economy.

continued at Daily Kos....

Pakistan, & Hugely Unequal Global Climate Change Effects

by Edger

The F Word: Time to Declare Global War on Flooding, Laura Flanders & GritTV, August 13, 2010

More GRITtv

continued at Daily Kos...

Floods, Heatwaves, and Oil Spills... Oh my! {eKos Earthship Wednesday}

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: Hopeful Skeptic

 Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 78

Also please support today's Gulf Recovery Blogathon Diaries and check out Pam's amazing diary on How to Help.

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

continued at Daily Kos...

Massive Loss of Rainforest Species by 2100 {eKos Earthship Friday}

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: patrickz

Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 73

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

continued at Daily Kos...