This is just so wrong, and on so many levels too.

A twelve-year-old in Prince George County, Maryland outside D.C. died from a toothache. His mother had no insurance, had lost Medicaid, and couldn’t find a dentist in time. The tooth abscessed, it spread to his brain. After two operations and six weeks in the hospital, he died.

“Whatever we’ve got is broke,” [past year's president of the Maryland State Dental Association Arthur] Fridley said. “It has nothing to do with access to care for these children.”

We need health care for all. That a boy dies a hideous, avoidable death because his mother can’t afford a dentist to pull a tooth is a grotesque example of the abysmal lack of health care in the US for the poor.

No Comments »

A secret report [commissioned by the Pentagon], suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

This is from a Pentagon report, military reporting to military, not from enviros… Astounding, isn’t it?

An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is ‘plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately’, they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.

“As early as next year”? Yikes. And these floods will be very different because the water won’t be receding. What happens when major port cities suffer rising waters that can not be stopped?

‘You’ve got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you’ve got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It’s pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,’ said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.

Yet another reason to Impeach Bush. He is beyond incompetent, he is delusional. We can’t wait two years to get rid of him.

4 Comments »

From CarbonTradeWatch.com comes this important report, “The Carbon Neutral Myth - Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins”

Carbon offsets are the modern day indulgences, sold to an increasingly carbon conscious public to absolve their climate sins. Scratch the surface, however, and a disturbing picture emerges, where creative accountancy and elaborate shell games cover up the impossibility of verifying genuine climate change benefits, and where communities in the South often have little choice as offset projects are inflicted on them.

This report argues that offsets place disproportionate emphasis on individual lifestyles and carbon footprints, distracting attention from the wider, systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken to tackle climate change. Promoting more effective and empowering approaches involves moving away from the marketing gimmicks, celebrity endorsements, technological quick fixes, and the North/South exploitation that the carbon offsets industry embodies.

ClimateandCapitalism adds

When companies like Climate Care and the Carbon Neutral Company sell the public carbon offsets, carbon savings expected to be made in the future are counted as savings made in the present. Offset companies give the idea that emissions are instantly “neutralised” when in fact the supposed “neutralisation” can take place over periods of up to a hundred years. Regular offsetting worsens the problem because the rate at which carbon emissions are “neutralised” is far slower than the rate at which they are generated.

So, it’s really just smoke and mirrors, isn’t it? An unverifiable system of trading credits that pretends to neutralize carbon, but doesn’t actually do so. It’s another loony “market-based” solution that will do little to stop global warming. Like something as complex and earthbound as stopping climate change could somehow be prevented by the equivalent of trading futures. This is like thinking that drinking Diet Coke after eating a pizza will magically offset the calories in the pizza.

Thus, carbon trading it is actually worse than doing nothing, because it pretends to be a solution but actually distracts from the real work that needs to be done. This work is systemic and will involve changing political and economic structures, rather than being a little spritz of greenwash feel-good juice that solves nothing except for making a few capitalists wealthier.

Download the report (80 pg PDF)

[tags]carbon trading, carbon neutral[/tags]

No Comments »

“In the ’50s and ’60s, 80 percent of world’s maple syrup came from the U.S., and 20 percent came from Canada,” said Barrett N. Rock, a professor of natural resources at the University of New Hampshire. “Today it’s exactly the opposite. The climate that we used to have here in New England has moved north to the point where it’s now in Quebec.”

And in 100 years, the climate of Vermont may be like what Virginia is now. Which means Virginia will be, what, like the Florida Keys? Yikes.

Hey, Sue explains our recent move to friends saying, “Connecticut, it’s the new California” even if this is serious business to maple syrup aficionados like me. I use it as a sweetener in coffee, granola, yogurt, as well as on pancakes. Just bought a gallon of excellent quality maple syrup from a local farmer for $42 at his honor system stand - most the stuff you buy at chain stores is low-grade and expensive.

(The photo shows the old way of sugaring, a tap and a pail. The newer way involves plastic piping between the trees with a suction pump at the end drawing out the sap.)

No Comments »

The South Carolina couple who transported our two cars across the country on their carrier picked up our cars in LA, dropped another car in Houston, three more in Memphis, and still made it to Connecticut in six days. I gave them a tip, said go buy yourself a nice dinner, she said thanks and I have no idea when we’ll have time to have a nice dinner - and off they sped.

The moving van driver loaded us up in LA, picked up more in Phoenix, dropped some in Chicago where it started snowing and he said it snowed the entire way from there to Rochester where he got snowbound for a few hours before unloading one shipment when it was 17 and blowing 40 mph. He plans to be at our house Wed. to unload, a day or two later than projected but with that kind of weather (Rochester has had 12 feet of snow this winter) I’m surprised he made it that fast.

And I thought rock and roll bands led a gypsy life…

No Comments »