Reality Drop: Spread Science about Climate Change, Global Warming. Algore : Congratulations to @Gcastevert,... GCastevert : Ranking #1 worldwide this week... RealityDrop : Congrats @Gcastevert... Global Warming's Terrifying New Math. If the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven't convinced you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States.
That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere – the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe. Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for our nation – in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented the "largest temperature departure from average of any season on record. " The same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet's history. Not that our leaders seemed to notice. Victory at Hand for the Climate Movement? There are signs the climate movement could be on the verge of a remarkable and surprising victory.
If we read the current context correctly, and if the movement can adjust its strategy to capture the opportunity presented, it could usher in the fastest and most dramatic economic transformation in history. This would include the removal of the oil, coal and gas industries from the economy in just a few decades and their replacement with new industries and, for the most part, entirely new companies. It would be the greatest transfer of wealth and power between industries and countries the world has ever seen.
To understand this incredible potential we first have to step back and understand the unique structure of this social change movement, which may rank among the most influential in history. It is simplistic to characterise it as an alliance of grass roots organisations and activists pitched against a rich and well connected adversary. To summarise: Is that it? Bill McKibben: Ahead of Keystone XL Rally, Fossil Fuel Divestment Expands Across U.S. Campuses. This is a rush transcript.
Copy may not be in its final form. AARON MATÉ: We end today’s show looking at a different divestment campaign, this one about climate change. In recent months, college students at over 200 campuses have begun pushing administrators to divest from fossil fuel companies. On Tuesday, Sterling College in Vermont announced it will soon become the third college in the U.S. to divest its endowment from 200 fossil fuel companies identified by the environmental group 350.org. Unity College in Maine and Hampshire College in Massachusetts were the first two schools to divest.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we’re joined by 350.org’s founder, Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Welcome back to Democracy Now! BILL McKIBBEN: Well, talking about this burgeoning divestment movement. AMY GOODMAN: What do mean by divest from fossil fuel companies? Arkansas Oil Spill Drives Families From New Homes. InsideClimateNews.org — It has been more than a month now, and Amber Bartlett has had enough of hotels and apartments and trailer homes.
Of crowded rooms whose thin walls amplify the bickering of her four children. Of piles of toys and clothes overflowing from drawers and suitcases. Of not knowing, day to day, where her life is headed. She wants to be back in her five-bedroom, three-bathroom home at16 Starlite Road North in Mayflower, Ark. Ryan Senia, the Bartletts' next-door neighbor, is plenty ready to go home, too. The Bartletts and Senia are among 21 families who were evacuated from their homes on March 29, after an ExxonMobil pipeline spilled at least 210,000 gallons of heavy Canadian crude oil into their neighborhood. For many of them, buying a home in the six-year-old North Woods subdivision was not only the biggest financial investment of their lives, but an emotional investment as well.
"A lot of people were ecstatic" about moving into North Woods, Senia said. Living in Limbo.