WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama launched America’s most ambitious attempt yet to tackle greenhouse gas emissions Monday, pushing ahead with tough restrictions on power stations in the teeth of fierce opposition from industry and the Republicans.
With one eye clearly on his political legacy, Obama said he was committing the United States, which relies on coal for much of its power needs, to leading the world on climate change “because I believe there is such a thing as being too late.”
A new book of aerial photographs, Beautiful Destruction, captures the awesome scale and devastating impact of Alberta’s oil sands with stunning colours, contrasts and patterns. The book also includes 15 essays by prominent individuals from environment and industry, sharing their insights, ideas and opinions.
If one were to search for an example of the utterly and inherently life, climate, and economy destroying impacts of fossil fuel burning, they wouldn’t have to look too far. They could look to the rapidly destabilizing glaciers now putting our coastal cities, our island nations in dire peril.
Leftist journalist and broadcaster, Paul Mason, has a new book out at the end of this month. It's called ‘Postcapitalism’. I don’t have a copy but Mason has written a long article in the British newspaper, The Guardian, outlining his main arguments, http://gu.com/p/4ay9c
The following is the text (weblinked) of the book-length papal encyclical concerning the climate change crisis issued by Pope Francis on June 18, 2015.
Encyclical Letter LAUDATO SI’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care For Our Common Home
It’s often said that socialists are latecomers to environmentalism, that until the 1990s, Marxists ignored or rejected the concerns raised by environmentalists. There’s some justice to that criticism, but there were important exceptions.
On Saturday at the Left Forum in New York City, Chris Hedges joined professorsRichard Wolff and Gail Dines to discuss why Karl Marx is essential at a time when global capitalism is collapsing. These are the remarks Hedges made to open the discussion.
"The call came to protestors assembled at borehole 2 on Burnaby Mountain: 'Kinder Morgan has arrived! Get your asses down here.' I ran to the motorcycle and hurried down to Drummond Walk. A few comrades were just starting to follow KM workers -- 2 hardhats with chain saws, a couple management types and a few security guards. I raged internally as I accompanied them into the forest at the ready, but not knowing what the next step was...
