As the Hurriquake hit Southern California, critters came out of their usual habitats, looking for places to hide. They even sought refuge in residential areas. This little guy, one of the lethal rattlesnakes I was taught to keep a keen eye out for while hiking in the foothills around Los Angeles as a kid, showed up in a friend’s backyard as the storm was moving in. There he was, on the other side of sliding glass doors that were fortunately shut—after my friends (the amazing Kathy Griffin and her husband Randy Bick no less) had to bring their dogs in because a coyote had shown up.
In CA we stopped saying ‘fire season ‘, it is now all year round! What is so damn frustrating is the GOP politicians refusing to acknowledge climate change and their continued support for deregulation. And gutting the EPA!
Why should Pence make evidence-based decisions when he can follow his 'belief' that exists on his 'faith' that rolls along in spite of evidence? He's ripe for the big oil fix. His message is: "Elect me! I'm corruptible!"
Pence is done, finished, irrelevant-- thank goodness! They are all terrible with the exception of Christie who is just very bad; their next savior-Virginia’s Younkin (spelling?) who masquerades as a moderate but governs as an extremist.
Stay healthy, Joe! Our nation and the whole world order needs you!
It’s not even the right. It’s the 1% who deny climate upheaval for as long as they can get away with it, while raking in all for me, none for you. Their deluded brainwashed believers are on board with the votes, for as long as voting lasts.
As you TCinLA and Your paraphrasing of Bob Dylan, one does not need to vet the two political parties when it comes to climate change/control/adaptation the Demos are all in to varying degrees the Republicans are still climate deniers with their heads in the sand.
The GOP campaign slogan should be Wrong on Everthing.
Their heads are not in the sand. They totally know. Casting doubt on the reality of climate change gives them time to set the money flume flowing their way.
We have no choice but to walk (climate) and chew gum (democracy) at the same time. Both are essential. But it's a marathon instead of a walk, and chewing gum is more like eating an elephant.
I'm taking a "fearless inventory" of myself tonight. I find that climate chaos and Trumpian titilation really have discombulated me. I'm ill at ease and there's a little bit of panic. For the long haul, I am going to have to be more observant, including meditating. "There's no way around it except to go through it." Really, folks, I am being personal but please check your hearts and minds, too. Like Joyce and others who are our calm but wise guides, we need to keep ourselves aware but also be gentle with ourselves. "We are in this together." Be well, keep safe...
I fear it is like the case of the Tobacco executives who knew how dangerous smoking was but made a concerted effort to discredit the evidence. They were all dead before the truth caught up to their industry. And still, despite the fact that smoking has killed far more people than illegal drugs, no one is outraged enough to make smoking illegal. So, before large parts of the earth become uninhabitable, those responsible for misleading the public about global warming will be long gone.
Big Sugar is following Tobacco's playbook. In 1977, then-senator George McGovern published the results of his committee's investigation of the harm of sugar for heart disease, diabetes (metabolic syndrome. While the Sugar Association and Big Sugar members (C&H, General Mills, General Foods, Coca Cola, Pepsi et al) were blindsided by the report that recommended Americans cut their sugar consumption by 40%, they determined to 'neutralize McGovern (their term in what they thought were confidential faxes and letters). These letters have now been discovered and published. Big Sugar paid Harvard researchers, as well as several from Princeton, Yale and MIT $1.2 Million in today's dollars to write publications stating 'fat, not sugar, is the culprit.' And Big Sugar pushed the FDA (with a large payment to the then-director) to gain approval to state that 'sugar is a natural ingredient and complies with GRAS.' The outcome of that has been more than 40 decades of Americans thinking that when they read a label on a product from a health food store or grocery saying a product has 'other natural ingredients' added that something like apple juice has been added. Sugar is in 85% of packaged foods on health food store and supermarket shelves. And some 47.3% of US adults have one of the 8 types of diabetes. More than 75% of Americans are addicted to sugar. And indeed: it is the cause of diabetes. Fat is not, the main culprit although sugar, fat (there are healthy fats btw) and salt in inappropriate amounts are not contributing to a healthy diet. The sugar saga has been published on-line - I have a file of stuff and can post links should you be interested. But Big Sugar today is a major with a capital M contributor to Trump (and other politicians). Two of the largest contributors are immigrants to Florida from the Dominican Republic (?). So money is running the show for sugar the same way they did for tobacco - with a devastating level of harm to unaware citizens. Mark Rubio has been a recipient of Big Sugar money as well. I'm seeing a trend of prestigious medical doctors including cardiologists and heart surgeons on board with counseling patients to eliminate sugar from diets and address sugar addictions (we do need glucose of course but we do not need to feed our habit with cane sugar and sucrose). See Gary Taubes and Cristin Kearns Couzens for starters. They have published stuff on-line and I believe Couzens is a dentist who published a book with an MD researcher from England. So what happened to the FDA crook? Fired I believe, but hired by Big Sugar to lobby for them. There are always a cadre of trained underlings ready to take up the bribe cause in the pipeline as there are those who 'work' for Big Pharma.
We don’t hear anyone question our scientists warning of an approaching hurricane or tornado. But when they tell us to take climate change seriously somehow it becomes a political argument. When will these people realize they have no clue what is happening and leave science to the professionals.
Every president and politician for the last 30 years at least has talk about putting this in place and that in place so we will solve the situation by 2050, now it is 2030 (that's only 7 years away). We need a state of emergency from the Biden presidency to combat climate change and if that means no cars on the road M-F for those who have and can use public transit, so be it. If that mean less air travel, so be it (it's shitty to fly now-a-days anyway). If that means start to put fast rail crisscrossing our country NOW on a fast track DO IT. If it means no more lawns, DO IT. Let's stop pretending we have all the time in the world. BTW, we should also put on a fast track of planting trees, by the millions.
I agree with you on all your points. Having a green grass lawn is a decade past due. Many people here in Southern California have xeriscape lawns w/,native grasses that have succulents designed around some large stones instead of lawns. Biden’s Build Back Better Program was rejected by the GOP. In the plan, every part of government was connected to addressing Climate Change. What he was able to do was the Inflation Reduction Act.
In Northern CA too, where I live, lawns have been replaced by fake grass or lovely plants and succulents. Raccoons literally rolled up our lawn about 10 years ago, looking for grubs. We changed the whole landscape with climate tolerant plants, pea gravel, and succulents. It cuts down on watering which we had very little of in our state until last year. Our county offers non-potable water to be used by residents. You gave to show up at watering stations with gallons of buckets with lids to store the water in. It can only be used on non-edible plants. Saves on water bills. We also compost paper towels, napkins, all leftover foods, bones (meat, chicken), banana peels, etc. The waste company provides a small compost bin to put everything in and then we dump everything into a green can that contains leaves, tree branches, anything like old plants that have died. Later in the year, the county offers free compost to its residents to haul away for their gardens. It’s a win-win!
Thank you for addressing this. It gets lost in the news cycle. How sad is it that a huge swath of our country has absolutely no interest whatsoever in what is happening to our planet (they’d prefer to watch reality TV shows or follow salacious murder trials like that of Alex Murdaugh). Perhaps even more concerning is that they have been convinced that climate change is “woke” or some made up “liberal” ideology. These, of course, are the same folks who think trump won the 2020 election, that ivermectin (horse dewormer) and bleach are safe and effective treatments for COVID, that the January 6th Insurrectionists were actually just tourists visiting our Nation’s Capitol, and that white nationalists who protested in Charlottesville are “some very fine people. You can’t make this shit up. We must do our part to elevate this conversation and demand action for future generations. Thank you Joyce.
I agree wholeheartedly that we all must encourage our friends, family, & neighbors to prioritize to voting for candidates who commit to benefit the common welfare & survival of all Americans, not favor the big donors.
I volunteer w citizen advocacy group American Promise to win a constitutional amendment to limit the huge financial power of unlimited political spending since SCOTUS unraveled our campaign finance system. Here’s my letter to editor in Philly Inquirer of 8/2/23
Highest bidder re: “Climate change? Just chill, Repubs say”
To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, it’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his power and position depend on his not understanding it. Climate change denial is expected behavior from congressional members beholden to their campaign donors who are fossil fuel billionaires. Since 2010, the oil and gas industry has spent $659 million in campaign donations and $1.7 billion in lobbying, per OpenSecrets.org. In 2022, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was the top recipient of campaign donations by the oil and gas industry in the U.S. Senate, likely due to his efforts to block the EPA plan to cut power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions. Why does Big Oil spend big money on politics? Because it buys a big return on investment. As Americans work for energy policy changes to avert a possible climate Armageddon, we must also pass a constitutional amendment to disable the legalized corruption of unlimited political spending.
Just a sec!! Keeping Trump out of the white house is a vital component of advancing climate mitigation action, and maintaining a democracy in which to do exactly that. We certainly can do both - pay attention to the Trump situation, and work hard on climate change initiatives.
Mother Nature seems to be trying to right the wrongs the military industrial complex has worked to wreck our planet. Her bombs are worse than anything men can invent.
I listened to a discussion on MSNBC today about a recent poll of Republicans, indicating that a majority trust Trump over friends and family. How can that be? What is this weird cultish hold that he has over these people? When is this fever going to break? The Republican Party as it is now is a complete waste of space as a partner in government. You’re right, Joyce. We need serious leadership from both parties to address the pressing issues of our time!
I'm convinced that this 'trust' in Trump is due to the capture of the TV markets in large sections of the nation by Sinclair & Fox News where the stream of news has been skewed to brainwash viewers with these RW talking points. The evidence from the Dominion suit against Fox displayed this strategy clearly. With a segment of the population sympathetic to finding a scapegoat for their discontent and a source of propaganda that feeds that need, a cult of personality results. I'm hopeful that the current lawsuit succeeds in trying to prevent the Philly local Fox TV station from having their license renewal approved based on the misinformation they have spewed. It may provide a playbook to hinder the propaganda machine stoking the fever.
In Washington State we do call this fire season. The smoke in western WA has dissipated a little, but we have cancelled plans for a trip to the Redwoods until all is clear.
Actually, it’s much worse than Joyce says. It’s not “merely” that we are preoccupied with Trump. It’s that the entire GOP is dedicated to denial of climate change and to reversing and dismantling the limited steps taken so far to address it.
Insofar as any Republican leaders consider it useful to acknowledge that climate change is real, they nonetheless oppose action to address it.
I find it almost incomprehensible that, for example, there are still Republican voters in Arizona, as global broiling brings that state closer to being uninhabitable by humans during the summer. If they are not in insane denial, they have disconnected the perceived problem with any solution. God help our grandchildren.
Yes Mitchell - you are right on all counts. Anyone who understands what is happening to our world's climate, and why, will regard today's American Republican party as enemy number one to human society as we know it, worldwide. Unfortunately, I think it is going to take bringing the climate past the point of no return for enough people to see it. So instead, whatever human history looks like in decades to come, that history will identify the American Republican party as one of the primary culprits that caused the miserable world being live in at that future time.
In CA we stopped saying ‘fire season ‘, it is now all year round! What is so damn frustrating is the GOP politicians refusing to acknowledge climate change and their continued support for deregulation. And gutting the EPA!
Pence doesn’t want to gut EPA wants to get rid of it altogether .
Why should Pence make evidence-based decisions when he can follow his 'belief' that exists on his 'faith' that rolls along in spite of evidence? He's ripe for the big oil fix. His message is: "Elect me! I'm corruptible!"
Pence is done, finished, irrelevant-- thank goodness! They are all terrible with the exception of Christie who is just very bad; their next savior-Virginia’s Younkin (spelling?) who masquerades as a moderate but governs as an extremist.
Stay healthy, Joe! Our nation and the whole world order needs you!
actually, I read a long article in Politico about Christie. he is just like trump, wants to be king.
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows....
Yes, but if corporate taxes paid for public services, we'd be better prepared for environmental disasters.
The thing is the right wants to keep that money for themselves ie the autocratic piggy bank.
It’s not even the right. It’s the 1% who deny climate upheaval for as long as they can get away with it, while raking in all for me, none for you. Their deluded brainwashed believers are on board with the votes, for as long as voting lasts.
As quite a few seem to be setting up their "safe places" for themselves alone!
Key word being piggy.
Think I’ve heard those words before. Some guy, playing a guitar, blowin’ on a harmonica and singing.
As you TCinLA and Your paraphrasing of Bob Dylan, one does not need to vet the two political parties when it comes to climate change/control/adaptation the Demos are all in to varying degrees the Republicans are still climate deniers with their heads in the sand.
The GOP campaign slogan should be Wrong on Everthing.
Their heads are not in the sand. They totally know. Casting doubt on the reality of climate change gives them time to set the money flume flowing their way.
Yes!
"Keep a clean nose & watch the plainclothes" ... 'you can't win IOWA without scammin' da' Evangelicoes.'
Anybody got a harmonica keyed in E?
Love it!
TC, spot on!
Bob always knew.
We have no choice but to walk (climate) and chew gum (democracy) at the same time. Both are essential. But it's a marathon instead of a walk, and chewing gum is more like eating an elephant.
I'm taking a "fearless inventory" of myself tonight. I find that climate chaos and Trumpian titilation really have discombulated me. I'm ill at ease and there's a little bit of panic. For the long haul, I am going to have to be more observant, including meditating. "There's no way around it except to go through it." Really, folks, I am being personal but please check your hearts and minds, too. Like Joyce and others who are our calm but wise guides, we need to keep ourselves aware but also be gentle with ourselves. "We are in this together." Be well, keep safe...
Thank you.
I fear it is like the case of the Tobacco executives who knew how dangerous smoking was but made a concerted effort to discredit the evidence. They were all dead before the truth caught up to their industry. And still, despite the fact that smoking has killed far more people than illegal drugs, no one is outraged enough to make smoking illegal. So, before large parts of the earth become uninhabitable, those responsible for misleading the public about global warming will be long gone.
Big Sugar is following Tobacco's playbook. In 1977, then-senator George McGovern published the results of his committee's investigation of the harm of sugar for heart disease, diabetes (metabolic syndrome. While the Sugar Association and Big Sugar members (C&H, General Mills, General Foods, Coca Cola, Pepsi et al) were blindsided by the report that recommended Americans cut their sugar consumption by 40%, they determined to 'neutralize McGovern (their term in what they thought were confidential faxes and letters). These letters have now been discovered and published. Big Sugar paid Harvard researchers, as well as several from Princeton, Yale and MIT $1.2 Million in today's dollars to write publications stating 'fat, not sugar, is the culprit.' And Big Sugar pushed the FDA (with a large payment to the then-director) to gain approval to state that 'sugar is a natural ingredient and complies with GRAS.' The outcome of that has been more than 40 decades of Americans thinking that when they read a label on a product from a health food store or grocery saying a product has 'other natural ingredients' added that something like apple juice has been added. Sugar is in 85% of packaged foods on health food store and supermarket shelves. And some 47.3% of US adults have one of the 8 types of diabetes. More than 75% of Americans are addicted to sugar. And indeed: it is the cause of diabetes. Fat is not, the main culprit although sugar, fat (there are healthy fats btw) and salt in inappropriate amounts are not contributing to a healthy diet. The sugar saga has been published on-line - I have a file of stuff and can post links should you be interested. But Big Sugar today is a major with a capital M contributor to Trump (and other politicians). Two of the largest contributors are immigrants to Florida from the Dominican Republic (?). So money is running the show for sugar the same way they did for tobacco - with a devastating level of harm to unaware citizens. Mark Rubio has been a recipient of Big Sugar money as well. I'm seeing a trend of prestigious medical doctors including cardiologists and heart surgeons on board with counseling patients to eliminate sugar from diets and address sugar addictions (we do need glucose of course but we do not need to feed our habit with cane sugar and sucrose). See Gary Taubes and Cristin Kearns Couzens for starters. They have published stuff on-line and I believe Couzens is a dentist who published a book with an MD researcher from England. So what happened to the FDA crook? Fired I believe, but hired by Big Sugar to lobby for them. There are always a cadre of trained underlings ready to take up the bribe cause in the pipeline as there are those who 'work' for Big Pharma.
Where is Madame Defarge when we need her?
We don’t hear anyone question our scientists warning of an approaching hurricane or tornado. But when they tell us to take climate change seriously somehow it becomes a political argument. When will these people realize they have no clue what is happening and leave science to the professionals.
Take away the R’s Sharpies.
Every president and politician for the last 30 years at least has talk about putting this in place and that in place so we will solve the situation by 2050, now it is 2030 (that's only 7 years away). We need a state of emergency from the Biden presidency to combat climate change and if that means no cars on the road M-F for those who have and can use public transit, so be it. If that mean less air travel, so be it (it's shitty to fly now-a-days anyway). If that means start to put fast rail crisscrossing our country NOW on a fast track DO IT. If it means no more lawns, DO IT. Let's stop pretending we have all the time in the world. BTW, we should also put on a fast track of planting trees, by the millions.
I agree with you on all your points. Having a green grass lawn is a decade past due. Many people here in Southern California have xeriscape lawns w/,native grasses that have succulents designed around some large stones instead of lawns. Biden’s Build Back Better Program was rejected by the GOP. In the plan, every part of government was connected to addressing Climate Change. What he was able to do was the Inflation Reduction Act.
In Northern CA too, where I live, lawns have been replaced by fake grass or lovely plants and succulents. Raccoons literally rolled up our lawn about 10 years ago, looking for grubs. We changed the whole landscape with climate tolerant plants, pea gravel, and succulents. It cuts down on watering which we had very little of in our state until last year. Our county offers non-potable water to be used by residents. You gave to show up at watering stations with gallons of buckets with lids to store the water in. It can only be used on non-edible plants. Saves on water bills. We also compost paper towels, napkins, all leftover foods, bones (meat, chicken), banana peels, etc. The waste company provides a small compost bin to put everything in and then we dump everything into a green can that contains leaves, tree branches, anything like old plants that have died. Later in the year, the county offers free compost to its residents to haul away for their gardens. It’s a win-win!
In what county do you live? The composting help they give is a great idea as well as the access to non-potable water to use on non-edible plants.
Thank you for addressing this. It gets lost in the news cycle. How sad is it that a huge swath of our country has absolutely no interest whatsoever in what is happening to our planet (they’d prefer to watch reality TV shows or follow salacious murder trials like that of Alex Murdaugh). Perhaps even more concerning is that they have been convinced that climate change is “woke” or some made up “liberal” ideology. These, of course, are the same folks who think trump won the 2020 election, that ivermectin (horse dewormer) and bleach are safe and effective treatments for COVID, that the January 6th Insurrectionists were actually just tourists visiting our Nation’s Capitol, and that white nationalists who protested in Charlottesville are “some very fine people. You can’t make this shit up. We must do our part to elevate this conversation and demand action for future generations. Thank you Joyce.
Bernie Sanders' Mon Aug 21 op-ed in The Guardian is an important piece from the global perspective. And he points out in a cover note the Republicans must be beaten [for many reasons &] for the sake of earth and future generations. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/21/us-bernie-sanders-china-climate-change-cooperation
I agree wholeheartedly that we all must encourage our friends, family, & neighbors to prioritize to voting for candidates who commit to benefit the common welfare & survival of all Americans, not favor the big donors.
I volunteer w citizen advocacy group American Promise to win a constitutional amendment to limit the huge financial power of unlimited political spending since SCOTUS unraveled our campaign finance system. Here’s my letter to editor in Philly Inquirer of 8/2/23
Highest bidder re: “Climate change? Just chill, Repubs say”
To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, it’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his power and position depend on his not understanding it. Climate change denial is expected behavior from congressional members beholden to their campaign donors who are fossil fuel billionaires. Since 2010, the oil and gas industry has spent $659 million in campaign donations and $1.7 billion in lobbying, per OpenSecrets.org. In 2022, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was the top recipient of campaign donations by the oil and gas industry in the U.S. Senate, likely due to his efforts to block the EPA plan to cut power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions. Why does Big Oil spend big money on politics? Because it buys a big return on investment. As Americans work for energy policy changes to avert a possible climate Armageddon, we must also pass a constitutional amendment to disable the legalized corruption of unlimited political spending.
Check our website americanpromise.net
Thank you.
If we pay attention to Trump, except to see that he cannot hold any governmental office in the US, and ignore Climate Change who is the bigger fool?
Joyce Vance, thank for drawing our attention to what we must do as human beings.
Just a sec!! Keeping Trump out of the white house is a vital component of advancing climate mitigation action, and maintaining a democracy in which to do exactly that. We certainly can do both - pay attention to the Trump situation, and work hard on climate change initiatives.
Thank you Joyce for your words of wisdom. We definitely have our work cut out for us.
Peace and prayers to those who have lost loved ones to all that Mother Nature is throwing at us☮️🙏🏼☮️
Mother Nature seems to be trying to right the wrongs the military industrial complex has worked to wreck our planet. Her bombs are worse than anything men can invent.
I listened to a discussion on MSNBC today about a recent poll of Republicans, indicating that a majority trust Trump over friends and family. How can that be? What is this weird cultish hold that he has over these people? When is this fever going to break? The Republican Party as it is now is a complete waste of space as a partner in government. You’re right, Joyce. We need serious leadership from both parties to address the pressing issues of our time!
We can’t achieve any of that until maga mania is a thing of the past.
They trust, rightly, that he'll do what they want done.
Think about what it says about their “friends and family” that they trust Cheato more.
I'm convinced that this 'trust' in Trump is due to the capture of the TV markets in large sections of the nation by Sinclair & Fox News where the stream of news has been skewed to brainwash viewers with these RW talking points. The evidence from the Dominion suit against Fox displayed this strategy clearly. With a segment of the population sympathetic to finding a scapegoat for their discontent and a source of propaganda that feeds that need, a cult of personality results. I'm hopeful that the current lawsuit succeeds in trying to prevent the Philly local Fox TV station from having their license renewal approved based on the misinformation they have spewed. It may provide a playbook to hinder the propaganda machine stoking the fever.
In Washington State we do call this fire season. The smoke in western WA has dissipated a little, but we have cancelled plans for a trip to the Redwoods until all is clear.
...a trip to the Redwoods...
I fear the redwoods will be gone before I can see them again. I think I'm going to book that trip sooner rather than later.
If you do it sooner than later, I sure hope they'll still be standing!
I live in Washington state. We’ve been calling this fire season for at least a decade.
Actually, it’s much worse than Joyce says. It’s not “merely” that we are preoccupied with Trump. It’s that the entire GOP is dedicated to denial of climate change and to reversing and dismantling the limited steps taken so far to address it.
Insofar as any Republican leaders consider it useful to acknowledge that climate change is real, they nonetheless oppose action to address it.
I find it almost incomprehensible that, for example, there are still Republican voters in Arizona, as global broiling brings that state closer to being uninhabitable by humans during the summer. If they are not in insane denial, they have disconnected the perceived problem with any solution. God help our grandchildren.
Yes Mitchell - you are right on all counts. Anyone who understands what is happening to our world's climate, and why, will regard today's American Republican party as enemy number one to human society as we know it, worldwide. Unfortunately, I think it is going to take bringing the climate past the point of no return for enough people to see it. So instead, whatever human history looks like in decades to come, that history will identify the American Republican party as one of the primary culprits that caused the miserable world being live in at that future time.