(A response to the “No Pressure” Video)

Bill McKibben “” some-time guest blogger and the author most recently of the must-read book Eaarth — has asked me to post this response to a noxious video that some irresponsible folks in the UK put together.

I just climbed off an airplane at Boston’s Logan Airport. The day began in Monterrey, Mexico–and though I was tired, I was also feeling pretty good. Our big day of action on October 10th has been building to a crescendo: we yesterday broke our record from last year, registering more than 5500 actions for the big Global Work Party.

But I’d barely turned on my computer when that good feeling turned to a kind of quiet nausea. There were emails from people all saying the same thing: Have you seen this? This was a gross video making its way around Youtube, purporting to show people being blown up for not believing in climate change. It’s been “pulled” from Youtube by its creators, the British climate group 10:10, but of course nothing is ever really “pulled” from Youtube. If you want to watch it bad enough, I’m pretty sure you can find it. Or you can look at the stories by climate deniers assailing it as the latest example of eco-fascism.
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“It is likely that 2012 will reach a record high global temperature.”

Our top climatologist has a must-read, chart-filled analysis, “How Warm Was This Summer?”

The two most fascinating parts are

1. Hansen’s discussion of how scientists should answer questions about the recent record-smashing extreme weather events
2. Hansen’s analysis of what is coming in the next couple of years.

Let’s start with the extremes:

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Gulf waters contain high levels of carcinogens linked to oil spills

University researchers said on Thursday they recently found alarming levels of cancer-causing toxins in an area of the Gulf of Mexico affected by BP’s oil spill, raising the specter of long-lasting health concerns.

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It’s not the gadget””but what we do with it.

A GOOD magazine repost by CAP’s Bracken Hendricks.

Last year, nearly one in four of the world’s six billion people lived in extreme poverty. A quarter of all human beings on the planet had no electricity. Nearly a third did not have reliable access to safe drinking water, and even larger numbers subsisted on wood and charcoal instead of modern fuels. Just under 800 million adults were not able to read or write last year. And, close to nine million children died before their fifth birthday.

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Our guest blogger is CAP’s Ben Kaldunski.

A large step forward for federal sustainability came this month as the White House released its Strategic Sustainability Performance Plans for nearly every Federal agency.  This is the first time that all the agencies have submitted plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

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Schwarzenegger: “Prop 23 is a job killer that will crush California’s fast growing clean energy economy and result in more pollution. We must send a strong message to the greedy Texas oil companies by voting No on 23.”

Today at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Latino business groups and leaders from around the Southland met to denounce Proposition 23.  The business interests at the event represented the strong support in much of California’s business community for A.B. 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act.  This support stems from the increased opportunities in research and innovation that A.B. 32 has created for California through promoting renewable forms of energy.

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