Friday, November 2, 2012

Any questions now?

Four political debates, zero questions on climate change.
11-1-12  Any questions now?

Climate change is not politically controversial.  It is decades accumulation and ongoing of research by thousands of scientists, around the world.  Yes, the science is overwhelming, that's the way accumulated scientific studies and peer reviewed papers are.  There are so many specialists in very defined fields (climatology, oceanic studies, marine biology, geophysics, atmospheric studies, plant biology, entomology, arctic studies, . . . ) in every college and university, and in federal and state governments research and private research, in America and around the world.

You get my point of how expansive the scientific research is in reality.  Heck, it was difficult for me to keep up with in my small field in developmental neural substrate cell biology (the more adjectives in the title, the more specific the study gets), and yet hundreds of scientists are studying just this subject.  Do you get my point?  Scientists are not out there fabricating lies for a bottom line in a financial report!  Every day, they are curious and driven by seeking truths and work tirelessly and often unrecognized outside of their field.

Unrecognized and denied by the leaders of governments and the businesses lobbying to see their bottom line increase for the sake of "free market".  And we get statements such as, "Climate does fluctuate. It goes from hot to cold. We have ice ages." that are no better than a fourth grader can say about climate, from one of the wealthiest man in fossil fuels, david koch, who is force feeding the deniers in governments.  State and local governments that must serve all people, beyond businesses, in our democracy.  There are too many links I could provide for quotes regarding climate change denial.  You know what they sound like.  I dare anyone to go into any university atmospheric science department, or department in any of those fields that I mentioned above, and say to anyone in research that climate change is a hoax!  Go ahead.

We need not be afraid of asking questions and reading studies (a little at a time).  To start, here is a compressed timeline of study, climate/timeline .  And we cannot be afraid of the answers. science-of-global-warming-impacts-guide

We need to demand this investigation from our children's teachers as well.  Do you know how much, and if, they are teaching your children about the earth's communities and atmosphere and species and environmental interdependence?  Are they teaching about air and water pollution and what can be done to keep this pollution out of our environment?  Are they silent?  Why?  Will you stay silent when your children need your guidance.  Will you stop reading when it gets too depressing?  Will you ignore the connections between corporate business leaders and the politicians they want to influence for their own financial wealth?  Need I say it, will you ignore the excesses of the fraction of one percent of our country's population, who are buying their way into the halls of congresses and onto the airwaves and into the media (yes, mainstream, so called "liberal" media)?

I will continue reading current, reputable, highly researched work about changes in our climate and in our environment and how these are being caused.  I will make choices, becoming self aware and an environmentally literate citizen, working to make small changes for good causes, and educating my child.  And because I can, I will choose to support people, whether by work or simply my vote, who I know are working in truth to understand the one world we are given stewardship of (not irresponsible dominion over) by the divine.

Even though I am deeply saddened by friends and family choosing to stay hidden from these life changing realities of the world we live in, I am hopeful and fearless of the awesomely complicated mysteries, our fragile life on earth present.  And when at times, hope fades and fear rises, I simply live in the present, awake, and love and give thanks.


Gender Gap in Pay

"My passion on this issue is actually me making a factual argument on it."  ~ Rachel Maddow

the-problem-of-working-from-different-facts

cnn-rachel-maddow-meet-the-press-fact-check

scott-walker-wisconsin-equal-pay-law

Protest movement

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11040-the-quebec-student-protest-movement-and-the-power-of-the-radical-imagination

and add in Howard Zinn and Chris Hedges

"Care!"


the-moral-of-maurice-sendak

"Do parents sit down and tell their kids everything? I don't know. I don't know. I've convinced myself — I hope I'm right — that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth."  ~ Maurice Sendak