Tag: Climate Change

Time has come and gone

Yesterday Chris Hedges posted his weekly column over at TruthDig, This Hero Didn’t Stand a Chance, where he interviewed Tim DeChristopher. And very true to form, his piece didn’t stray too far from what I’ve come to expect from him and respect about his writing. He doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t fuck around. Time for that bullshit has long since passed.

For those who are unaware — it’s getting ridiculous, borderline criminal, how much news fails to be reported in the media these days — Tim is an environmental activist who, in the dying days of the Bush Administration, was successfully able to disrupt a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auction of over 100,000 acres of federal land, in Iowa in December 2008, to the oil and gas industries for drilling. But it wasn’t until the Obama Administration came into office, who saw fit to “invalidate” the auction for reasons other than Tim’s participation — locking the public out of the decision to sell public land, for instance — took it upon themselves to charge Tim with a crime.

Long story short, he was found guilty of violating the “Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act,” in March of this year — seeing how the administration took nearly 2 month’s, after the auction was cancelled to charge him, I imagine it took prosecutors that long to find that provision to charge him with. And he’s facing a $750 000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. Even though he was able to subsequently raise the funds to pay for the land he had won, and offered payment to the BLM, they rejected it claiming Tim didn’t bid “under normal circumstances,” so they couldn’t accept. A somewhat valuable piece of information his jury conveniently wasn’t allowed to know.

And he’s still awaiting sentence…

Continue reading Time has come and gone

Better Late Than Never, I Hope

In recent weeks I’ve really taken to reading The Dissident Voice. I’m nearly caught up, speaking from when I first subscribed to their feed, ’til now — with special thanks, in large part, to Mac OS Xs Voice Over Utility. And given what I’m writing about today, it’s somewhat ironic that technology is so beneficial.

Yesterday, on the aforementioned website, I came across a particularly compelling article, labelled Earthbound. Which ended;

“As the oil age recedes in the mind’s rear view mirror, science fiction will become a genre about the past. Pondering those who needed machines to do just about everything, from brushing their teeth, to writing, to self pleasure, future readers will be amused, disgusted and only seldom envious. Imagine a world where music was a nuisance because it had become repetitive and could not be silenced! Imagine people who could barely walk, yet flew!”

Which got me thinking. About many things, but the current state of the economy and our environment, in particular…

Continue reading Better Late Than Never, I Hope

Very Compelling and Obnoxiously Informative

On this morning’s CBC The Current, David Suzuki, guest hosted the show. And what a show it was. I learned more about global warming, in said hour and a half, than I think I was aware of previously. Not only that, but all of the information presented was extremely relevant, and will be ridiculously useful.

But what was most interesting was the surprizing ineptitude of my governments actions, or more accurately their lack of action, concerning these issues. And the dead-end and potentially problematic solutions they’re investing in. Being carbon capture and sequestration? You need to hear the 3rd part on Geoengineering, specifically, for the caveats of these technologies. I don’t know what you’ll get out of it, but I’m not convinced such are workable answers. In fact, I’ve heard enough to say we shouldn’t rely, or go anywhere near these technologies, ever!

I encourage, not only Canadians, but anyone to log on and hear all 3 parts, in their entirety…

More Prevalent?

With The United Nations Climate Change Conference, quickly approaching, and the situation growing more and more dire with each passing day, stories like the one I heard on Tuesday’s Democracy Now broadcast are going to become much more prevalent;

“In Canada, about 200 young people staged a protest inside the House of Commons Monday forcing lawmakers to shut down the question period. The activists were calling on the Canadian Parliament to pass a bill setting out deep cuts in carbon emissions. Six people were reportedly detained, and the police beat at least one protester.”

Or, at least, it’s my hope it becomes more prevalent. The protests, I mean, not the brutality. Even if it is the inevitable, not to mention expected, knee-jerk reaction from a lethargic government hoping to quell civil disobedience…