AN EMERGENCY SITUATION

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION REPORTS  SUBSTANTIAL METHANE  VENTING TO  SURFACE ALONG  SIBERIAN COAST

Methane hydrates releasing methane gas in bubbles in the ocean
Many who are concerned about crossing irreversible tipping points see the release of methane as a possible trigger. It is a greenhouse gas 30 times more powerful than CO2. The National Science Foundation reports that substantial amounts – more than that being released by the rest of the world’s oceans combined – are now venting from the Arctic seabed off the coast of Siberia (NSF press release: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116532&org=NSF&from=news ) . According to the statement:  “Current average methane concentrations in the Arctic are now the highest in 400,000 years……… Release of even a fraction of the methane stored in the shelf could trigger abrupt climate warming.”  The NSF is strongly urging that this situation be closely monitored.

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The following commentary about the willingness of some mainstream environmental groups to allow the fossil fuel industry to control the parameters of climate legislation has been endorsed by renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, who adds the following statement:

“Governments will not put young people and nature above special financial interests without great public pressure.  Such pressure is not possible as long as big environmental organizations provide cover.  So the best hope is this — individuals must demand that the leaders change course or they will lose support.”

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MAINSTREAM GREENS CAVE IN ON CLIMATE:
Dangerously Allow Industry to Set Agenda

“Our friends have become the planet’s worst enemies”                                                                       -  Dr. James Hansen

[  NOTE:  What follows are excerpts. For the full piece, please go to the Climate SOS Updates listed on this page.]

With climate scientists warning that we are in a global emergency and tipping points leading to runaway catastrophe will be crossed unless carbon pollution is rapidly reduced, one would expect groups identified as environmental defenders to be shifting into high gear. Instead, we are witnessing the unspeakably tragic spectacle of a mainstream environmental movement allowing itself to be seduced and co-opted by the very forces it should be vehemently opposing. At the very moment when moral leadership and courage are needed the most, what we see is a colossal failure of both – with potentially irreversible consequences for our civilization.

If Congress chooses an inadequate response to the crisis, policies can get “locked in” which virtually guarantee that these tipping points are crossed.  These organizations are using their significant financial resources to create a public impression that the “environmental community” has given its “stamp of approval” to this policy and to marginalize the voices of the genuine grassroots activists who represent the heart and soul of the climate movement. With nothing less than the future of the planet at stake, these groups must now be publicly challenged and held accountable for their actions………………..

The USCAP “greens” proclaim that their positions are being driven by “political expediency”. But there is a stunning “disconnect” which these groups have been reticent to address.  How does one negotiate with a melting iceberg? Can the inexorable laws of physics be placed “on hold” while emission reductions are scuttled in a process of political “horse-trading”? What is the meaning of “expediency” when it leads to the collapse of society as we know it? John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Reseach, stated at the “4 Degrees and Beyond” conference at Oxford that “political reality must be grounded in physical reality or it is completely useless”……………..

NRDC and EDF have gone far beyond mere silence. While their websites claim a dedication to public service ( NRDC’s motto is “The Earth’s Best Defense”),  they have been actively promoting the USCAP accomodation. If they had not lost sight of their original missions, they would have sought out members of Congress willing to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and used their resources (in 2008, NRDC had an operational budget of 87 million dollars) to throw weight behind them. Instead of emboldening this kind of voice, they have done the exact opposite by allowing industry to define what is “feasible”………….

While some of us lay in the street in nonviolent civil disobedience to block this immoral atrocity of carbon trading (including one of the authors, 5 minute video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHJOOiyZR_s ), NRDC and EDF are sending their own people to promote it at carbon trade conferences…………

The real climate movement – the one with its backbone intact and composed of grassroots activists and principled groups like Friends of the Earth and Center for Biological Diversity – is already in a “David versus Goliath” situation as it tries to confront the most powerful lobby in the country. But that task has been made infinitely more difficult by these big budget groups using their money to isolate and “box in” the smaller ones.

We close this commentary with the following direct appeal to both the leadership and the members of these groups that have chosen the path of accommodation:

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The verdict is in. Your experiment in “corporate engagement” has resulted in a disastrous failure that now threatens the planet. We fully expected the massive campaign from the fossil fuel industry to strip any substance from this legislation. But you have blindsided those of us who are fighting with all our hearts for the future of the earth. Your coffers have grown and now you are using this money to drown us out.

Your stance does not represent those in the grassroots movement, many of whom are young and see the disasters that are looming within their own lifetimes. In your comfortable offices, you do not speak for those willing to put themselves on the line and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience against the very forces you seek to accomodate. The rationale for your corporate “partnerships” was the issue of exerting influence. But the question begging to be asked is who influenced whom?  Though your treasury is more full, what truly has been gained and what has been lost?

Your intentions may have been honorable, but the agenda of “defending earth” has been hijacked.  Along the way, your vision became blurred and you lost sight of this mission. In this “experiment’, you are the ones who have been “had”. It now appears to have been a terrible Faustian bargain, and we are all paying the price. At the very moment of greatest need for an empowered public advocacy in the face of the most overwhelming threat in human history, your leadership is not to be found.

Your accommodation and your defense of abominably weak Congressional legislation has already had a destructive global impact. It was this legislation that set the bar intolerably low in Copenhagen and instigated a “race to the bottom”. The entire world-wide movement for climate sanity has become blocked by the denial, blindness, and paralysis embodied in U.S. climate policy. When you take this stance in the name of “defending the earth”, you are actually creating an insidious and dangerous deception.

For the sake of the planet, we appeal to your organizations to reclaim the integrity of your original visions. The position you presently advocate will squander the precious little time we have to implement true reductions before the irreversible tipping points are crossed. The stakes could not be higher. We ask that you join hands with the grassroots activists and groups and support the following eight points:

1)  Officially recognize that we are truly in a global emergency and that irreversible tipping points are likely to be crossed if humanity does not act in time;

2)  Officially recognize that this emergency is of such a magnitude that a war time level of  mobilization is needed in order to effectively deal with it;

3)  Stand squarely for the necessity that climate legislation be based on the setting of emission reduction targets and a time frame which are defined by the science;

4)  Due to the severe ecosystem damage that will ensue in response to a 2 degree (celsius) rise, an overall goal of no more than one degree (celsius) rise must be sought;

5)  Clearly renounce cap and trade and offsets as false solutions that will squander precious time;

6)  Stand squarely against any attempt in Congress to strip EPA of its authority to regulate carbon;

7)   Support a comprehensive approach to the crisis that combines elements of legislation, regulation, and public investment;

8)   Support a legislative component based on a continually rising carbon fee with a 100% distribution of the proceeds to U.S. citizens, with the amount of the fee determined by an emission reduction schedule driven by science.

We also ask the members of these groups to withhold their organizational support until their leadership recognizes the necessity of these changes. On this defining issue of our time, may we strive to remove the barriers that divide us and work together.

-  Gary Houser and Cory Morningstar

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Gary Houser is a public interest writer, documentary producer, and activist with Climate SOS ( www.climatesos.org ) seeking to raise awareness within the religious community about the moral issues at stake ( http://christianityandclimatecrisis.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/3/ ) and working to create a more empowered climate movement.

Cory Morningstar is an activist (and mom) with Canadians for Action on Climate Change ( http://canadianclimateaction.wordpress.com/about/ )  and has collated latest scientific findings at:   http://timetobebold.wordpress.com/category/why-we-need-to-call-for-a-global-emergency/

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