I get it! ...it's 'cause they're from iceland! Right??
i went to see Leo Di's new movie (Leo Leila & Nadia's movie; The 11th Hour. Pretty impressive. Lots of Bioneers doing what they do best -explaining the situation (or most of it- he doesn't go that deep into climate change), and examining the multi-causal planetary breakdown that is now starting to happen. And by the last third of the flick, it's peppered with solution on top of solution. And with 52 interviews, while everyone only gets a few moments here & there to push the -well structured- parts of the essay, it does present a cohesive argument for action and optimism. And it's full of archival imagery, and a total buzzclip intro (i guess if you know me, you'd know i dig that).
And cool music. At one poignant moment --a peaceful lull after a particularly tense earth-in-crisis montage, there was even some Sigur Rós with whom to fly-over ice-fields i was thinking 'Wow Ágætis byrjun, what an odd choice'... but now i get it! they're from Iceland! And at the time, the visuals were these relaxed pan-o-rama ice shots from greenland. which is a land full of (that melting) ice... cute
And just like i like it, they really looked at as wide an angle as they perhaps felt they could (Meat was shockingly absent in this movie). Which is really the best way to deal with climate change, omnilateraly, right? But they are not just looking at climate change -thought it's a big part of it, but almost everything. Almost to the point like what i was accused of back in the day (getting chewed out by a documentary legend); that you can't try to solve all of the worlds problems in one movie. And i am sure some critics will accuse these Directors/Writer/Producers of just that (if they stop harping on his flight patterns). But fuck 'em Leo, personally I agree that that is the way the story ought to be told. This is about our evolution or sticking to a lifestyle that east its young till theres nothing left... why pussyfoot around that? Why deal with CO2s and NOXs when it goes so much deeper and people really have to "get it" if they're going to commit to it. At one point someone quotes someone else (sorry for being vague but with 52 interviews in 90 minutes its hard to remember who said what, i just remember he said it was a quote: After asking what we are really looking for with all this hyperconsumption: "One can never really be full, if they're filling themselves with things that they don't really want" or something like that. And that and climate change are in as much of a dance, as emissions or cows or hurricanes...
Their view of stuff like the rainforests was obviously different than mine as there's room for hope and optimism even there, but all in all, it is a moving eye opener for anyone who is somewhat aware, and especially the ones who aren't but will be compelled to go for Leo Di (or soon to be converts) or from the soon-to-be Leo Di army (mark my words. Leo Di army). And even for the choir who wants to be preached at, by the third part you will be happy to see so many green techs you know everyone and every kid in America ought to know exists (like the Tesla, living machines...). And you may just learn a new one or two (while i dig the Fungi Perfecti guy Paul Stamets a lot, and heard him talk about those mushrooms that eat up heavy metal spills an such, i never heard the words "mycofiltration" and "mycorestoration" before. Awesome!
And again i particularly like is that it even take that extra bold step, asking the question that really lies even at the heart of the entire climate change thing. What is it that is really happening deep at the core of us that is out of whack. Because it's not just about CO2, but about what our species has become... and where we are (very able and) headed kudos to Leila Connors Peterson, Her Sister Nadia Connors and of course Mr. Leo DiCaprio (that's not him. That's Kenny Ausable founder of the Bioneers (and founder exCEO of Seeds of Change, and filmaker).
Oh heck. go see the movie when it hits your town! and in the meantime, the website they have is pretty good to see what it's all about, including everyone interviewed and much much more... go!
IPCC's Fourth Assesment lures eco-fundamentalist out of the woodwork Its always neat-o when those teeny tiny cars stop in the middle of the three rings, and not one not two but almost a dozen clowns come out of the vehicle...always brings a smile to *most* kiddies' faces (most because actually a lot of kids HATE clowns, right?).
Well after the IPCC released the new AR4 (or Fourth Assessment report) it seems that the media has been having a climate field day-- i mean after 20 years it is interesting to note the QuoteUnquotes are off (no longer "greenhouse gasses" and no longer "climate change" at least in the MSM. not exacly in the EconoFundamentalist papers but more on them later...). I guess for the most part, once your readership is convinced of something, you might as well toe the line... It is amazing to see every paper tout themselves as bearing the burden of bringing us the climate truth for decades now(!) And usually they seem to be the only ones who were "daring" to tell the truth all along. They're still printed on virgin tree pulp, they're still chock-full of car and tire ads, and of course they are the very same ones who would pit the very same 3 climate skeptics (Lindzen Singer & Michaels...) into every debate since the 80's... But they're banking that no one has memories that long, and that they can now come out smelling like roses, all concerned about global climate change... w/e ..Now the bigger irony is with this much press going to climate change, there's even more pulped virgin forest being inked about climate than ever before(!)
"Hey Rocky! Watch me pull an island out of my hat!" "not again...." Lohachara Island was in the Indian part of the Sundarbans, a vast mangrove delta where the Ganges empties into the Bay of Bengal on the Indian-Bangladeshi border. Was not is. Rising sea levels have swallowed the island (home to 10,000 people) whole. Welcome to the greenhouse waterworld. It's not the first time, according to Salshdot, "eight years ago the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves." And as you might remember I was writing about the low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, tat were evacuated as a precaution a while back ...and of course out .tv's will help the Tuvaluvians find a new home (heck, who wouldn't invite them and their dotTV to relocate... but this latest one Lohachara has a lot of people worried... it's a big change. Probably won't be the last time we hear of islands disappearing.
Don't Worry, Be Happy, it seems that there us no such thing as climate change. Apparently from the new video with decades-old (discredited) info. It's like a Patrick Michaels retro party!
This 25 minute video will "amaze and astound you" see, it turns out, there is no such thing as anthropogenic climate change.... isn't that good to know? At a news conference held in Ottawa, some of North America’s "foremost climate experts" provided evidence demonstrating that the science underlying the Kyoto Protocol is seriously flawed; a problem that continues to be ignored by the Canadian government. (((um, this is a bit dated the present administration totally takes these flaws seriously~~ why we're now canceling all our programs and erasing any mention of climate change from government websites)). Even if this entire 25 minute video's theory is bunk, "Scientists" ((doenst that make it seem like it was some consensus based body? not a few well paid freeaks with tar-sand greasy lined pockets)) called on the Canadian government to delay implementation of the Kyoto Protocol until a thorough, public review of the current state of climate science has been conducted by climate experts (really, it's from the Friends of Science. And with friends like that....)
Wow. 4 months ago I posted two movies on line, and kept it pretty much friends-only. But still already 2432 people have watched (at least part of) it, and 173 people have downloaded it. One has even reviewed it (or rated it, 4 star!!) and while i haven't really been promoting it, it is encouraging that even 4 months after my (friends-only) publicity (and a tiny bit more at hugg) it's still going strong...like yesterday, 21 people watched it and 5 DL it. OK thats not AL Gore numbers, but then again, my movies focus on solutions not winning the very moot argument...
all i can say is thanks whoever starred me, thanks googlevideo, and thanks to everyone who's been watching it!
~lee
[note: 5 months later (almost 12/26/06) and am happy to say that more people watch them everyday... so far a little more than 8,600 people have watched them, and if you are onf of the 8,600--- THANKS!!]
Ocean PH levels are 30% higher than ever* before please read this article by Martin Mittelstaedt of the Globe/Mail. Many have been discussing it, Forbes has talked about it, even Fox News mentioned it, but this is a great explanation. And it;s a serious issue, based on this report that came out earlier this month from Joan Kleypas and her krewe at Boulder's NCAR.
Basically 1/2 of the CO2 we've 'allegedly' been pumping in to the atmosphere has been winding up in the oceans. which is good cause it slowed down global warming (imagine if there was twice as much CO2 there already) but the HORRIBLE thing about it is that it is turning our oceans into acid. And faster than has probably ever happened before on the planet. There is already a 30% higher PH level in the oceans, than there has been since the industrial revolution (actually 30% higher than its beein in over 600,000 years). And that's bad news for shellfish, as the acid eats their shells, and also deadly bad news to the coral reefs (as if they already weren't having enough problems) and of course, that is bad news for over 25% of the Oceans species who live at least part of their lives in the corals... ok and bad news for every animal who eat that 25% once they leave the reefs...
its the opposite of the old high school experiment where one would take some vinegar (acid) and some cacium (baking soda) and it would produce bubbling CO2... here you take the air's CO2 and the Shellfish's calcium and get acid. And it ain't pretty.... What do we do to stop this?
This is Andrew Revkin. He shot this self portrait around the time he was shooting the cover for his latest book "The North Pole Was Here." Revkin has been writing about climate change for over 20 years, he rocks. He's also been writing for the New York Times on climate for these decades.. So one can imagine that anyone who shoots-up petroleum is not going to like him. In fact Senator James Inhofe was so incensed by Revkins latest book that he hit the podiums and microphones before he took the rubber tie off his arm. Veins a-poppin' Inhofe was foaming at the mouth about a book he obviously hand't read (Inhofe, who BTW, was a "fact" checker for Rush Limbaugh before becoming a senator). He really didn't like the title (probably the only thing he read in the whole book) as it's alarmist and making people think that climate change will affect them. So in this awesome Grist interview* Andrew Revkin explains that the title is actually from reality, they mapped the north pole, then the ice started sliding, and then the sign that said "North Pole is Here" was changed to 'was' it's not like it was a mad prediction of future climate changes... it was simply reporting a current event. But the interview is a classic, Revkin has many great climate one-liners... it made me laugh, i hope you enjoy it!
[Grist Interviews Andy Revkin] PS: he also has a band, you can hear it on his Myspace (seriously how many other climate reporters have a myspace?? Revkin rocks, even on the mandolin!)
OK well for years now they have been saying "it's likeley that they will get bigger and badder, but you can't say that hurricane katrina or hurricae hugo were embiggened by greenhouse gas global warming, per se". BUT NOW: Climate researchers at Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology separately reported new evidence Tuesday supporting the idea that global warming is causing stronger hurricanes. The Purdue scientists found that their results matched earlier work by Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert at MIT. Emanuel has argued that global warming, specifically the warming of the tropical oceans, is already increasing the power expended by hurricanes. Wow who woulda thought?? ((that pic BTW is form the devastating Hurricane Carter, who as Dylan once said; "could take a man out with just one punch"))
wasn't i just talking about Arilngton Virginia's newspaper for the intellectually-handicapped (USAToday)? Well according to them, Florida is the Canary in the coalmine when it comes to these "So-Called Greenhouse Gasses" (would love it if they added So-Called to every scientific discovery since that time... 'so called gravity' "so called internal combustion" buah hah). Anyway, according to America's Coloring Book, don't worry it may suck for Florida, but it wont really suck until around 2099 or 2100 (so says teh crystal ball). Whiel they mention real actual people, even Kunstler and the Weatrhermakers, they stick to this 2100 thing, and besides, as they say: "But most, including Edmonds, think of climate change as an uncertainty-plagued risk-management problem. People didn't deal with acid rain, remove lead from gasoline or start protecting the ozone layer until the benefits of doing so were understood."
Where's the pea? Everybiodies a winner! Step right up!
--lee, fix the layout here, or r u making fun of chaos?? smartass.. it's Climate Chaos week on the BBC the highs and lows of this seasons 'hottest' drama! facts sure to stun and amazine you (amazine you that governments who knew that this was basically on the horizon for decades now have done nothing about it for so long), and good news, including the kids! 9 young lads and lasses who are doing something about it! Here's Tony and the kids (and yes that is his 'bro 10 year old Zoneb Khalil walking with him): So if you have sattelite and get BBC, or live in the uk, be sure to catch some of it, and if you don't well, their website is still pretty chock full of info and ideas, so enjoy!
David Attenborough made some amazing documentaries in his life. The Private Life of Plants is Mesmerizing and educational (and if you VJ-- it's great matrial for remixing). But he's always been cool calm and reflective. ....This week we'll see a different Attenborough. He goes critical, assuming the mantle of a wrathful prophet as he enters the battle for the planet against climate change. Attenborough had remained silent on the subject of global warming during the debate on its validity. “I was very sceptical,” he admits. His outlook changed when climatologists showed him graphs linking the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with rising temperatures. The result of his conversion is a two-part BBC1 documentary starting on Wednesday as part of the corporation’s Climate Chaos season, in which he looks at the future impact of global warming and discovers what steps can save the planet from dramatic change. It is another luminous production by the BBC’s natural history unit, but this time infused with a stark warning. Attenborough discovered a compelling reason for sounding the alarm. “How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew about this and I did nothing?”
The White House says President Bush will veto the fiscal 2006 emergency supplemental appropriations bill the Senate passed by a vote of 78-20 because it contains funding for disaster assistance for farmers and other non-war and hurricane-related measures.
Zoheb Khalil, 10, from Halifax, was one of nine winners chosen from 600 entries following a competition asking them to use different types of media to communicate the threats of climate change in their regions. He made a DVD explaining how the world is getting hotter. The competition was part of the Government's Climate Change Communications Initiative, "Tomorrow's Climate, Today's Challenge" Zoheb said he was delighted to have met Mr Blair. He said ''Tony Blair said: 'well done'
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