King was mocked by Black Power advocates and nicknamed "De Lawd" for his Old School bombastic nature.

Ghandi was assassinated because he stood in the way of Indians who wanted to seize power and really build nationalism.

In the same way, Greens are also an in-between movement.   They are ultimately apologists for the current system.

In a world where Ted Turner, who owns half of Montana, can go around complaining about "global warming" -- something just isn't fair.

J. Bailo Participant Texeme.Construct()

So I guess assassinating Al Gore isn't out of the question for these denialists either? If you can't convince them, if you can't stop them, kill them.

-- bi, International Journal of Inactivism

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Our core belief is three-fold: that interdependence is the nature of the universe; that authentic contemplative practice generates deep insight into interdependence and awakens unselfish compassion for others; and that the combination of contemplative insight and compassion represents the purest and surest force for positive social change.
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The wording raises some logical questions; but nevertheless the effect is very beautiful.

The theme that global warming, with the urgent dangers that can be foreseen to result from it, presents us with an occasion, not so much for dejection and fear, as for joyful acceptance of a unique historic opportunity to do great new things, certainly has been a favorite of Al Gore's.  He used that theme in his speech in Oslo last year when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize; and he used it again, even more enthusiastically, in the speech he gave in March at the TED Institute, which DR posted in the last two days.

It would be interesting to know if he discovered that theme through reading about Mahatma Gandhi and "satyagraha."

A new production of Philip Glass's opera "Satyagraha" is indeed opening (tonight I think) at the Metropolitan Opera here in NYC.  The concept of the opera is wonderful, but I do not think I shall see it; I can take Philip Glass only in small doses.  His soundtrack for "Koyaanisqatsi" was too too much, and painfully distracted from some very good photography.  On the other hand, his musical score for the movie about the young Dalai Lama, "Kundun," is much better.

My understanding is that the opera focuses on the insights that Gandhi received as a result of reading the Bhagavad Gita while he was still a young lawyer in South Africa; the sung text of the opera is composed of Sanskrit verse from the Gita.  That is quite of a piece with what Jonathan Rose has written here: for just as in the Gita, the hero Arjuna is initially perplexed and rendered inactive by what he sees as the confusing array of his moral duties, but then the contemplation-like instruction of his charioteer, Lord Krishna, on the nature of reality brings him clarity and shows him how to follow the one right course of action; so the discovery of "truth force" will also guide our actions in the right way.

As for the words of Einstein, "You cannot solve a problem at the same level of consciousness that created it," I am glad that he said them, and not anybody else.  The concept is not difficult, and all sorts of people might have arrived at it on their own.  But obviously, if you put it in the mouth of the world's greatest cosmological genius, it gets rather more attention that it might otherwise.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

The "Truth Force" does seem to be working, to the point where jabailo...

I don't see where your lack of reading comprehension combined with twisting my words are in any way a form of "Truth"...

Oh, but this is Libland...I forgot.  The place where sustainable means "needs several billion dollars from the government to keep it going".

J. Bailo Participant Texeme.Construct()

Dear Friends,

We need to do something, both individually and collectively, that is different from the way we are doing things now.

Time is short, it appears. Something calamitous could happen soon, much sooner than most people are imagining.

Recently the great man, James Lovelock, reported that he is hoping for 20 more years before "it hits the fan." By 'giving' us twenty years, I suppose he will not disturb the reigning, self-proclaimed masters of the universe among us from my not-so-great generation of elders who have set their sights on rampantly growing the global economy until its unbridled increase becomes unsustainable and produces some kind of colossal ecological wreckage, the likes of which only Ozymandias has seen....come what may for our children, coming generations and for life as we know it on Earth.

Such adamantine willfulness, unvarnished selfishness, unmitigated arrogance, and unfathomable potential for the precipitation of mass destruction are unparalleled in human history, I believe.

Perhaps exemplars like Gandhi and King and many unheralded others can help us find another way forward.

Sincerely,

Steve

These depraved souls, hell-bent on leading an unbalanced and irrational debate that frames human activity as the root cause of global climate change, employ questionable sources and techniques to wrest control of the media, spin an elaborate web of disinformation about the real climate, and ensnare the less-informed and vigilant among us to disastrous effect.

One consequence of their desperate enterprise, forged from the lowest rungs of diplomatic art, is the silencing of any reasonable, alternative explanations posed by climate science contrarians, who they proudly call climate change deniers.

The majority of climate contrarians are professionals of the highest order, who have worked tirelessly for years with little or no funding, and with only a modest acknowledgment of their practice outside their immediate sphere of influence.

But with the resolve to inform the American public that global climate trends are the net result of natural forces, such as changes in solar activity, and not anthropogenic influences, even the most humble of contrarians hold fast to their singular purpose.

And they do this despite the alarmists' rising influence, which like a cloud of liberal gases engulfs us, constrains rational thought, and conspires to undermine the scientific method.

The alarmists' position is indefensible, and they know that much is true, but it has been thrust upon civilized society by coordinated attack. I dare say how it frightens me to think a veil of fashionable, carbon-light wisdom has taken hold, and may soon prevail.

Presently, when not running climate models within the great halls of their estates that dot the world's coastal communities, the alpha class of climate change activists, emboldened by a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and oxygen, pass their time chasing oceans of DNA, and the whales that swim in it, with megayachts, trailed by support vessels loaded with Priuses and sailboards. Has anyone informed them that there is not enough biomass in the world to float their boats?

Undoubtedly, these high-seas profiteers, hardened by their embrace of the precautionary principal, aim to drown the global economy in their sustainable chic, and redistribute its wealth under their own brand name of product.

Instrumental to achieving this new eco-order, is the use of stealth by impenetrable bureaucratic decree, issued under the direction of a loose-knit confederacy of renegade climate scientists that comprise an international body aptly-named the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC for short--a triumph of human achievement, not unlike directional drilling and mechanized war.

Indeed, with fanatical determination, facilitated no less by an army of sympathetic lawyers and committed financiers, the alarmists' adroitly pluck the IPCC's purse strings, generously subsidized by the American taxpayer, to propagate the message that consensus is scientific fact, when consensus is nothing but consensus.

Which begs the question: Could it be that the world really is flat, that the emperor has no clothes, and the wind whistles and blows through our veins? Could it be that it is time for carbon slaves to unite and counter the ungodly light reflected off the global warming crusaders' shield?  

I believe it is, for a pack of wolves knows nothing of free speech, free trade, and a passion for industry that separates man from beast, and puts meat, potatoes, and bread on the table.

In closing, I leave you with the following poem to contemplate, and put into the context of the carbon slave manifesto, defined by our unswerving fealty to fossil fuels, the byproducts of their combustion, and the declaration of energy dependence we all made long ago--glaciers, polar bears, and the children of Tuvalu be damned:

China's on fire, and India's too
The world is awash with industrial glue
How it strengthens our families
And fixes our shoes
Don't you know what you owe
To industrial glue.

Copyright C2008 by Stephen Koermer. All rights reserved.

Dude, you can deny climate change until your fingers wear to nubs and it's still progressing......

(wait for it)

......"faster than expected."

Wishing on an oil well's just not going to fix it.

You do get points for noticing that biofuels aren't going to allow continuation of the happy motoring utopia, but Kunstler was there first and others before him.

Put the Carbon Back

Bounder: (agreeing patiently) Yes absolutely, yes I quite agree...

Tourist: And being herded into endless Hotel Miramars and Bellvueses and Continentales with their modern international luxury roomettes and draught Red Barrel and swimming pools full of fat German businessmen pretending they're acrobats forming pyramids and frightening the children and barging into queues and if you're not at your table spot on seven you miss the bowl of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, the first item on the menu of International Cuisine, and every Thursday night the hotel has a bloody cabaret in the bar, featuring a tiny emaciated dago with nine-inch hips and some bloated fat tart with her hair brylcreemed down and a big arse presenting Flamenco for Foreigners.

Bounder: (beggining to get fed up) Yes, yes now......

Tourist: And then some adenoidal typists from Birmingham with flabby white legs and diarrhoea trying to pick up hairy bandy-legged wop waiters called Manuel and once a week there's an excursion to the local Roman Remains to buy cherryade and melted ice cream and bleeding Watney's Red Barrel and one evening you visit the so called typical restaurant with local colour and atmosphere and you sit next to a party from Rhyl who keep singing "Torremolinos, torremolinos" and complaining about the food - "It's so greasy isn't it?" - and you get cornered by some drunken greengrocer from Luton with an Instamatic camera and Dr. Scholl sandals and last Tuesday's Daily Express and he drones on and on about how Mr. Smith should be running this country and how many languages Enoch Pow ell can speak and then he throws up over the Cuba Libres.

Bounder: Will you be quiet please

We in the Thirteen Colonies had made our exit a short time before, of course.  No doubt we have by now amply apologized to Her Majesty the Queen for any inconvenience.

In the late 1980s, at a bar in the Canadian Rockies, two high-spirited young English wags were holding forth in voices loud enough to make clear that they were being overheard by one and all; and in fact, being in a goofily Anglophile part of the world (i.e., North America), they were receiving many admiring smiles and much appreciative laughter.  The bartender, giving them change for their payment, presented them with their first "loonie," and earnestly pointed out to them, "You see, on this side there is one of our birds, which we call a loon, hence 'loonie'; and on this side, there is a portrait of the Queen."  They studied it a second or two with narrowed gaze, and then one exclaimed, "Oh bloody hell!, could this be?!  She looks just like Indira Gandhi!"

Back to the Monty Python tour-de-force: One thing I always wanted to know was, Is Watney's Red Barrel really as bad as all that?

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

I am imagining that your questions are rhetorical ones.

You ask,

"Why are politicians and skeptics so willing to risk their future and everyone else's future on blindly clinging to a course of action that has a high probability of leading to a seriously crippled future? If you even suspect that global warming represents a serious risk to your survival (and we have far more than suspicion these days), why wouldn't you do everything protect and conserve your planet?"

It would please me to hear from others; but from my humble perspective the "answers" to your questions are all-too-obvious.

First, the leaders in my generation of elders wish to live without having to accept limits to growth of seemingly endless economic globalization, of increasing per capita consumption and skyrocketing human population numbers; our desires are evidently insatiable. We choose to believe anything that is politically convenient, economically expedient and socially agreeable; our way of life is not negotiable. We dare anyone to question our values or behaviors.

We religiously promote our shared fantasies of endless economic growth and soon to be unsustainable overconsumption, overproduction oand overpopulation activities, and in so doing deny that Earth has limited resources upon which the survival of life as we know it depends.

Second, my not-so-great generation appears to be doing a disservice to everything and everyone but ourselves. We are the "what's in it for me?" generation. We demonstrate precious little regard for the maintenance of the integrity of Earth; shallow willingness to actually protect the environment from crippling degradation; lack of serious consideration for the preservation of biodiversity, wilderness, and a good enough future for our children and coming generations; and no appreciation of the understanding that we are no more or less than human beings with "feet of clay."

We live in a soon to be unsustainable way in our planetary home and are proud of it, thank you very much. Certainly, we will "have our cake and eat it, too." We will fly around in thousands of private jets and live in McMansions, go to our secret clubs and distant hideouts, and risk nothing of value to us. Please do not bother us with the problems of the world. We choose not to hear, see or speak of them. We are the economic powerbrokers, their bought-and-paid-for politicians and the many minions in the mass media. We hold the much of the wealth and the power it purchases. If left to our own devices, we will continue in the exercise of our `rights' to ravenously consume Earth's limited resources; to expand economic globalization unto every corner of our natural world and, guess what, beyond; to encourage the unbridled growth of the human species so that where there are now 6+ billion people, by 2050 we will have 9+ billion members of the human community and, guess what, even more people, perhaps billions more in the distant future, if that is what we desire.

We are the reigning, self-proclaimed masters of the universe. We have no regard for human limits or Earth's limitations, thank you very much. Please understand that we do not want anyone to present us with scientific evidence that we could be living unsustainably in an artificially designed, temporary world of our own making...... a manmade world filling up with distinctly human enterprises which appear the be approaching a point in human history when global consumption, production and propagation activities of the human species become unsustainable on the tiny planet God has blessed us to inhabit..... and not to overwhelm, I suppose.

Third, even our top rank scientists have not found adequate ways of communicating to the family of humanity what people somehow need to hear, see and understand: the reckless dissipation of Earth's limited resources, the relentless degradation of the planet's frangible environment, and the approaching destruction of the Earth as a fit place for human habitation by the human species, when taken together, appear to be proceeding at a breakneck pace toward the precipitation of a catastrophic ecological wreckage of some sort unless, of course, the world's colossal, ever expanding, artificially designed, manmade global economy continues to speed headlong toward the monolithic `wall' called "unsustainability" at which point the runaway economy crashes before Earth's ecology is collapsed.

Sincerely,

Steve

Psychological question: which is more important: 1) the idea that by helping people to make small steps, green shopping strategies like BLUE will lead people who would not ordinarily care to deal with global warming to be more concerned, eventually leading to a greater level of consciousness; or

2) that there would be a cognitive dissonance, that on the one hand, people are saying the planet could ...well, you laid out it out quite clearly above; but on the other hand, by saying that you can start by doing small things, it sends a subliminal message that the problem really isn't that big.  

It seems to me that real solutions would involve spending trillions of dollars, shifting from defense, corporate/superwealthy tax breaks, etc.  or do you think a change of consciousness is a prerequisite to that sort of radical program?

Sincerely,

Steve

i've seared your skies with my evidence
i've stole your seas as well
i've wrecked your land, with my monstrous command
might as well be you as well. . .
the stories i could buy and sell.

Lyrics by Stephen Koermer. Copyright C2008. All rights reserved.

The composition titled "Carbon Slaves Unite! Carbon Slaves Re-form!" was written in May of 2007, in honor of the virtuous, industry-funded, climate change skeptic.

The lyric displayed in the preceding post was composed in the summer of 2004. This modest exercise, with its changeable nature, was the result of digesting disturbing climate change news that raged throughout our overgrown 2003-04 wildland-urban interface. Who would guess such an expression represented yet another decisive inflection point along our road to riches. Trapping the heat for future generations. . .

Sincerely,

Stephen Koermer
csu::a humble carbon slave::csu

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. GBS