Environmental Protection Agency

It may not be dessert sands that are in your future. It may be floods, it may be asthma, it may be starvation. But the future is not bright if people don’t take action on climate change. It’s not everyone who needs to speak out, just enough people to get their voices heard.

Dahr Jamail gives us fair warning:

In January, NASA released data confirming that globally, 2016 was the hottest year on record for the third consecutive record-breaking year.

Birds, fish, forests, crops are dying off at terrifying rates.

Extreme flooding around the world is becoming commonplace. In the US, there were more floods in 2016 than any year in recorded history. In Europe, disastrous flood have more than doubled during the last 35 years. Floods kill.

South America has been beset with a deadly increase in droughts, accompanied by an deadly increases in fires.

For the first time in millions of years, global atmospheric CO2 concentrations exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm).

As the U.S. Global Change Research Program (GlobalChange.gov) explains in detail, these changes are not good for your health. (I wonder how long that agency will be allowed to do its work. I suggest you visit its site soon and download the report.)

There remains little debate among climate scientists that the major contributing causes to these problems are rooted in human behavior–i.e., anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD).

Many decades of inadequate and counterproductive governmental (non)response have led to this point, but my focus here is on the response of the government in 2017. Dahr Jamail also provides disturbing information about that response:

In his first week as President, Trump ordered all references to ACD to be deleted from the White House website; it was done.

Trump also ordered the EPA to cut the climate page from its website; it was done.

Do you think his next step will be to stop US military from pushing ahead with its plans to protect its bases and assets across the globe from sea-level rise and other ACD-related impacts? I kind of doubt it.

To learn more, please read Jamail’s complete article.

Ultimately, violence to the environment is a war on life. Don’t fall for the propaganda demonizing scientists who speak truth to power. Resist. It’s your right.

At least that’s what the politicos are telling us.

By now, everyone must have heard something about the debates about the new U.S. budget. You may know that to address the deficits that have accrued since former President Bill Clinton created a budget surplus, powerful forces in Congress seek, among other things, to

Gut the Environmental Protection Agency
Block spending for health care
Cut food and other assistance programs for children, the elderly, and the disabled

U.S. Institute of Peace building — U.S. Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C.

But did you know that while declaring funding for the Pentagon off-limits for budget considerations, a majority in the House of Representatives also voted to eliminate funding for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)?

The USIP, established by Congress in 1984, conducts research and training designed to prevent and end wars and to promote international peace, stability, and development. In recent years it has engaged in mediation and conflict resolution activities in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Colombia, Iraq, Kashmir, Liberia, the Korean Peninsula, Nepal, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda.

Despite the fact that the U.S. spends as much on what is euphemistically called “defense” as the rest of the world combined, Congress wants to end this independent nonpartisan organization with a budget that is only one tenth of one percent of the State Department budget.

The previous budget for USIP was minuscule compared to the spending in Iraq and Afghanistan (approximately $42.7 million every 142 minutes according to Congressman Dennis Kucinich).

What message is Congress sending to the American public? To the rest of the world? Why is there so much more commitment to the arms industry than to peace?

Please send us your answers—and consider becoming an activist on behalf of peace and justice.

For inspiration, check out this BBC video and consider how we are all one people and if we want to survive in all our commonalities and all our uniqueness, we need to support efforts for peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Heads out of the sand time

The federal budget: Invasions, yes! Peace, no!