shifting gears

global climate change is very real and it’s here to stay. we talk much about peace in our time and ending the wars we started in the middle east over oil- and i agree that we should. war is one of the biggest polluters on the planet and is never talked about as such. but there will never be peace in our time unless we address the issues that are going to come up as a result of global warming.

i don’t know much about the rest of the world’s issues with climate change- i do know that oceans are rising and acidifying- and ecosystems from fish, to bees to bats are crashing. i know that china’s gobi desert is growing at an alarming rate- swallowing up arable land faster than anyone anticipated and australia is still in a horrible drought. here in north america, canada’s ice roads melt earlier than ever and in the american west- there are wildfires all year round now. and folks seem to be oblivious.

our way of life is not sustainable and we have marginal coping skills as a nation- at best. many in this country don’t realize what it takes to feed a typical family of four- they just know that they go to the grocery store and buy food and take it home and cook it. or they sit down to take out or go to a chain restaurant. welcome to the new america. around the globe, there have been ongoing food riots that americans know little about due to our corporate owned filtered media. we do recognize that food prices here have seemed to skyrocket along with everything else. well, it is no surprise. there have been wheat and other grain shortages around the globe due to blight and ethanol production and let’s face it- foods don’t grow the way they are supposed to if the climate isn’t right.

there are two basic necessities human beings need to sustain life- water first and then food. global climate change and human pollution and expansion threaten both. the reality is- there are 6 billion people sharing this planet. we have expanded, and polluted ourselves to the real possiblity of extinction within a hundred years. at the very least- billions are going to die. there will not be peace in our time with billions starving or thirsting. and we are not safe from it here. we are in big time denial, however, and prefer to put our heads in the sand and pretend that things will work themselves out. and they won’t.

barack obama and the democratic party are not the panacea- they are a step in the right direction but until we, the people, get serious about grasping the serious nature of this problem- we are at risk. america is rich in resources and when other parts of the world start to fail- in this technological age it won’t take much for those folks to look to us. we already are not well liked globally- and we are seen as resource hogs. it’s a real threat- unlike al quaeda and the other presumed terrorists. those folks have been sharing the same patch of the planet for millenia- and they are already poor. they are not a threat. russia and china- well…….

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canaries

i don’t know if there is a solution to global climate change or not, but the fact that there are so many folks who know how these things work predicting famine and drought for much of the world- gives me pause.

“After all, the wealthiest countries continue to show little or no interest in altering the policies that have contributed so decisively to the food crisis in the first place. Take the United States. It “ties”—places restrictions on—about 70% of its aid. That means recipient countries must use that aid to buy U.S. products, which, of course, will do little to strengthen local economies. Washington has also cut its international agricultural research by as much as 75% at a time when agricultural production is no longer keeping pace with population increases. Add in the $280 billion farm bill that Congress has just passed which, unbelievably enough, provides continued subsidies to “farmers” (read: agribusiness) already benefiting enormously from high food prices. And the European Union, like the United States, is refusing to backtrack on its commitment to boost biofuels produced from grain.”

read article here

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