Read Part 1 Here

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Cowards in Our Democracies: Part 2

28 January 2012

Scientists are finding it difficult to persuade the public of the urgency to reduce fossil fuel CO2 emissions. This is in part because people profiting from fossil fuel business-as-usual support disinformation about the science, so that they can expand extraction of fossil fuels despite the evidence that such expansion will push the climate system beyond tipping points, assuring further climate change with impacts that are practically out of humanity’s control.

Scientists attempt to communicate, but are flummoxed by the ability of the profiteers to manipulate democracies.  The scientific method (objective analysis of all facts) is pitted against the talk-show method (selective citation of anecdotal bits supporting a predetermined position).

The tragedy is that a common sense pathway exists that would solve our energy needs, stimulate our economy and protect the future of young people.  Yet people benefiting from business-as-usual are able to block adoption of policies in the public’s interest, via the corrosive influence of money in politics and aided by corporate-dominated media.

Should scientists connect the dots all the way to policy implications?  Profiteers strongly oppose that, because scientists are trained to be objective, and profiteers want no interference with their functioning profit pathways.  Let’s consider that issue after summarizing the situation.

From Jim Hansen, Director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies:



Cowards in Our Democracies, Part 1, a discussion of why I submitted a Witness Statement to an Information Rights Tribunal in the UK, is available on my web site.

~Jim

Cowards in Our Democracies: Part 1

27 January 2012

The threat of human-made climate change and the urgency of reducing fossil fuel emissions have become increasingly clear to the scientific community during the past few years.  Yet, at the same time, the public seems to have become less certain about the situation.  Indeed, many people have begun to wonder whether the climate threat has been concocted or exaggerated.

Public doubt about the science is not an accident.  People profiting from business-as-usual fossil fuel use are waging a campaign to discredit the science.  Their campaign is effective because the profiteers have learned how to manipulate democracies for their advantage.

The scientific method requires objective analysis of all data, stating evidence pro and con, before reaching conclusions.  This works well, indeed is necessary, for achieving success in science.   But science is now pitted in public debate against the talk-show method, which consists of selective citation of anecdotal bits that support a predetermined position.  

TEXT: A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America



Presented by Dr. Jill E. Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, January 2012 ~

Good evening and thank you for this opportunity to talk with you tonight. We’re here to talk about the actual state of our nation, and how we can reclaim the promise of our democracy and the peaceful, just green future we deserve. We have heard President Obama deliver his State of the Union Address.  And we heard the Republican response. Each claims to have the answer, and that the other was an obstacle to progress.

Latest report from Pavlov Katz

Hi folks,

Time marches on, in the constant madness that is Occupy Wall Street, within the constant madness that is New York City, within the constant madness that is the earth in 2012.

I’ve made a point of attending more marches lately, realizing that this is one of the best ways to let people know that we’re still here even though we’re not in the park. One was a march against the NDAA. For those who don’t know, the National Defense Authorization Act allows the government to detain any US citizen and hold him or her indefinitely without trial if they suspect them of aiding an organization which aids al Qaeda or the Taliban. The problem is that they don’t have to prove to anyone this connection, so anyone who criticizes the US government might conceivably fall into this category. There would be no judge or jury to say otherwise.

It’s especially ironic because the US government has given billions of dollars in assistance to the Pakistani government and military, which has aided al Qaeda and the Taliban with millions if not billions of dollars worth of assistance in the form of weapons, trucks, food and cash. So according to the NDAA, anyone connected with the US government, military or weapons industry could technically be held indefinitely without trial. This would include the president and any members of congress who voted for any of these military assistance bills.

From a friend of Steve… Pavlov Katz

Hi everyone,

It’s been a really long time since I last wrote. I left New York for a few weeks in early December, and returned later in the month. The timing wasn’t too good, since very little happened around here during the holidays, and there was a lot of frustrating, idle time. One positive thing that did happen during that time, though, was that a lot of people worked on creating a sense of community among us who are staying at one of the churches in the upper west side. I’d originally thought of it as simply a place to sleep, and to simply leave in the morning and start my real day downtown at OWS. But some more insightful people saw it as more than that, as a chance to develop our identity as a group, a subsection of OWS. The original motivation for this might have been simple necessity– to reduce thefts and conflicts, but in any case, it’s turned into an actual community, an opportunity to meet new people and work together constructively.

Otherwise, things were scattered and thin through late December, until New Year’s eve. Earlier in the evening a few of us went around town, happy to get away from the uninspired atmosphere, but came back to the area and walked into Zuccotti Park around 10 pm. Several hundred people were there, a low-level party. More people arrived steadily, and the absurdity of the situation became embarrassingly apparent. Here we are, 300, 400, 500 of us, in a park we lived in, a park from which we changed world history, until a mere six ago. And now we’re surrounded by standing metal barricades which enforce arbitrary, stupid rules which are arguably illegal. Say, what about these standing metal barricades, anyway?