Tag Archives: stage

NBC’s weak climate questions help make the case for a climate debate

by WileyFregoso49 Posted on June 28, 2019

the youth doth protest just enough

Climate activists protest at the DNC headquarters ahead of the first primary debate

Ten candidates will take the stage at the first official Democratic National Committee debate tonight in Miami, Florida. But a question already looms over the festivities: Should the DNC host a climate-themed debate?

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NBC’s weak climate questions help make the case for a climate debate

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The bizarre and frightening conditions that sparked the Camp Fire

by SanfordMora Posted on November 15, 2018

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The Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise, is now the most destructive to ever hit California and the deadliest wildfire in modern American history. As of Wednesday night, 56 people are known to have died, and 130 are still missing. The last fire this deadly was back in 1918 in Minnesota — before professional firefighting or meteorological science.

“This is the kind of urban conflagration Americans thought they had banished in the early 20th century,” wrote fire historian Stephen Pyne for Slate. “It’s like watching measles or polio return.”

Our unnaturally warming climate set the stage for the return of this type of devastating fire. The Camp Fire, and the escalating onslaught of weather emergencies like it, crystalizes the urgency of the climate challenge: Without radical changes, there will be more fire catastrophes like Paradise.

According to local meteorologist Rob Elvington, the Camp Fire began under atmospheric conditions with “no analog/comparison” in history for the date. Northern California’s vegetation dryness was off the charts — exceeding the 99th percentile for any single day as far back as local records go. “Worse than no rain is negative rain,” wrote Elvington. The land was so dry, it was sucking water out of the air.

That warranted an “extremely critical” fire weather alert by the National Weather Service, which was really an understatement for the direness of the situation. According to the U.S. Forest Service, fighting a fire in such conditions is almost by definition a losing battle: “Direct attack is rarely possible, and may be dangerous, except immediately after ignition. Fires that develop headway in heavy slash or in conifer stands may be unmanageable while the extreme burning condition lasts.”

The Camp Fire burned so hot that it cremated people in their homes and cars. Lizzie Johnson, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter embedded with one of the area’s cadaver search-and-rescue teams, has been candid about her experience. “There are some things you can’t unsee while reporting,” she wrote on Twitter.

Fire disasters on a scale recently considered inconceivable now appear to be the inevitable. Six of the 10 most destructive wildfires in California history have ignited in the past three years. In little more than a year, two other California towns (Redding and Santa Rosa) have been similarly devastated by fires. As long as we continue on a business-as-usual path, it’s a matter of where, not when, another California town will be erased from the map.

Like the Camp Fire, future fires catastrophes are inescapable — on our current path. It may take generations for California’s forests to adapt to the warming and drying climate. Nearly every square mile of the state’s forests may need to burn for that to happen — for new life to emerge and for new tree species to migrate northward toward new water sources and cooler air.

We can’t continue on as if the fate of Paradise was just a fluke. By failing to take appropriate action on climate change, we are actively choosing to create the ideal conditions for future, unfightable fires. The fact that millions of people around the world are being subjected to increasingly extreme weather is a choice we make every day.

We know the kinds of bold, radical plans that scientists say are now necessary to steer the world toward a safer future — including remaking the American economy to rapidly reduce emissions immediately. We have the money, the time, and the knowledge to implement them. Future fires are a given, but we can avoid future tragedies at the level of Paradise. It’s our choice whether last week’s fires become a cautionary tale, or the new normal. It doesn’t have to be this way.

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The bizarre and frightening conditions that sparked the Camp Fire

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A concept you learned in middle school math could save us from climate disaster

by KellieJoris1 Posted on September 13, 2018

A scientist and a diplomat walked into the Global Climate Action Summit on Thursday and unveiled a roadmap for keeping the world at a low simmer. Things look pretty dire, they said, but they’ve also been surprised to see how a few solutions are scaling up.

The task sure looks daunting. The world will have to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half in the next 11 years, and then slash emissions in half again in each subsequent decade just to have a shot at avoiding 2 degrees Celsius of warming.

To do it, we’ll need to double our efforts every decade. In other words, we need more than rapid change; we need exponential change, growing and growing each year. You may have heard this before: It was the conclusion of a paper by scientist Johan Rockström (and others) published in the journal Science last year. Today we have an update, a new report unveiled by Rockström and Christiana Figueres,  a United Nations climate negotiator, at the summit in San Francisco. And that brings us to …

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The good news! We’re already seeing that exponential growth in wind and solar installations. Green bonds (investments that finance a low-carbon future) are also on an exponential trajectory. And perhaps there’s an exponential trend of cities and states pledging to go carbon free.

To be sure, Rockström acknowledged that there are plenty of discouraging trends — coal plants are still getting built, for instance. But emissions have peaked in 49 countries (responsible for 40 percent of all carbon pollution)  and 9,138 cities have committed to the Global Covenant of Mayors committing to major reductions.

“There’s never been such a reason to be worried,” Rockström said. “There’s never been such a reason to be hopeful.”

It’s hard for humans to think in exponential terms, Figueres noted. She demonstrated by striding across the stage doubling her steps: two, four, eight, so far no big deal. But in the next doubling she ran out of space. A few more doublings, and you get a walk equal to the distance around the earth. As hard as it might be for people to grasp, the exponential growth in renewables, green bonds, and pledges offers a reason for hope.

“This is no longer a fantasy,” Rockström said. “It is no longer a utopia.”

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A concept you learned in middle school math could save us from climate disaster

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McMaster: Trump’s Blabbing Was "Wholly Appropriate"

by MyrtisPlace Posted on May 16, 2017

Mother Jones

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National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster at a press briefing this morning: President Trump didn’t reveal anything wrong to the Russians. “It was wholly appropriate to that conversation.”

So there you have it. McMaster refuses to say if the information Trump shared with the Russian foreign minister was classified; whether it came from a foreign partner; whether it had been shared with anyone else; whether it referred to a specific city; whether his own office was in touch this morning with the NSA and CIA about this; or whether anyone has spoken with the foreign partner about what happened. He’ll say only that it was “appropriate” over and over and over.

But at the very end of his Q&A, McMaster (accidentally?) says Trump hadn’t even been briefed on the source of the information he shared. He had no idea where it came from.

McMaster is going to regret saying this. He basically said that Trump blabbed about this stuff even though he had no idea how sensitive it was. And why didn’t he know? McMaster scurried off the stage before anyone could ask, but the best guess is that Trump refuses to read even the bullet points in the one-page intelligence briefings he insists on. So he had no idea just how sensitive this stuff was.

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McMaster: Trump’s Blabbing Was "Wholly Appropriate"

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Hurricane Matthew’s toll continues to climb.

by Robbie4639 Posted on October 10, 2016

The majority of Sunday’s presidential debate involved the candidates trading blows on tax returns, Donald Trump’s so-called “locker room talk” about assaulting women, and Hillary Clinton’s email account. Just when we had given up hope, energy policy got over four minutes of stage time.

Although there was no direct question about climate change, one audience member asked how the candidate’s energy policies would meet the country’s energy needs in a way that doesn’t destroy the environment.

Trump declared affection for “alternative forms of energy, including wind, including solar,” but added “we need much more than wind and solar.” He went on to say: “There is a thing called clean coal … Coal will last for 1,000 years in this country.”

Clinton responded that she has “a comprehensive energy policy, but it really does include fighting climate change, because I do think that’s a serious problem.” She described making the United States a “21st century renewable energy superpower,” while also touting natural gas as a “bridge to alternative fuels.”

This is the third debate in a row (two presidential and one vice presidential) in which environmental issues have been marginalized. The conversation on climate in the first presidential debate amounted to just 82 seconds.

Update: See Grist’s detailed fact check of last night’s energy exchange.

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Hurricane Matthew’s toll continues to climb.

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Now: The Physics of Time – Richard A. Muller

by Myrna Posted on September 24, 2016

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Now: The Physics of Time

Richard A. Muller

Genre: Science & Nature

Price: $14.99

Publish Date: September 20, 2016

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


“Now” is a simple yet elusive concept. You are reading the word “now” right now. But what does that mean? What makes the ephemeral moment “now” so special? Its enigmatic character has bedeviled philosophers, priests, and modern-day physicists from Augustine to Einstein and beyond. Einstein showed that the flow of time is affected by both velocity and gravity, yet he despaired at his failure to explain the meaning of “now.” Equally puzzling: why does time flow? Some physicists have given up trying to understand, and call the flow of time an illusion, but the eminent experimentalist physicist Richard A. Muller protests. He says physics should explain reality, not deny it. In Now, Muller does more than poke holes in past ideas; he crafts his own revolutionary theory, one that makes testable predictions. He begins by laying out—with the refreshing clarity that made Physics for Future Presidents so successful—a firm and remarkably clear explanation of the physics building blocks of his theory: relativity, entropy, entanglement, antimatter, and the Big Bang. With the stage then set, he reveals a startling way forward. Muller points out that the standard Big Bang theory explains the ongoing expansion of the universe as the continuous creation of new space. He argues that time is also expanding and that the leading edge of the new time is what we experience as “now.” This thought-provoking vision has remarkable implications for some of our biggest questions, not only in physics but also in philosophy—including the ongoing debate about the reality of free will. Moreover, his theory is testable. Muller’s monumental work will spark major debate about the most fundamental assumptions of our universe, and may crack one of physics’s longest-standing enigmas.

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Now: The Physics of Time – Richard A. Muller

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Scott Baio Is About to Speak at the GOP Convention. Here’s What He Has to Say About Hillary Clinton.

by SilasZfo410 Posted on July 18, 2016

Mother Jones

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In the days leading up to the 2016 GOP convention, Donald Trump reportedly had a tough time securing the kind of all-star celebrities he once promised would take the stage in Cleveland to lend glittering support to his candidacy.

It appears, however, that in the end he triumphed. On Saturday, Trump revealed that none other than distinguished actor Scott Baio would address the convention on Monday evening. Yes, that Baio of Charles in Charge and Happy Days fame.

Just days before the news, in what perfectly captures the tone of this year’s GOP convention, the not-quite-A-list actor tweeted the following thoughts on Hillary Clinton:

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Scott Baio Is About to Speak at the GOP Convention. Here’s What He Has to Say About Hillary Clinton.

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This Is How Crazy and Bizarre the Trump Convention Is

by JuanaA940633085 Posted on July 18, 2016

Mother Jones

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This has never happened at a national party convention: At a rally for the party’s presidential nominee, an adviser to that nominee claims that the nominee of the other party broke the law by moving a dead body in order to mount a cover-up. And this has never happened at a national party convention: At a rally for the party’s nominee, a rousing speech in favor of the nominee is given by a man who believes the last president from that party killed thousands of Americans to start a war. That is, until this week’s Republican convention in Cleveland.

On Monday afternoon, several hundred supporters of Donald Trump, many wearing “Hillary for Prison 2016” T-shirts, gathered by the Cuyahoga River to cheer on the reality-television mogul. A parade of tea party speakers hailed Trump and blasted Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, the US government, and the mainstream media, and the mostly older and white crowd applauded. The group Bikers for Trump provided the security for the stage, as Trumpers celebrated the downfall of the Republican establishment. The event captured the profound bizarreness of the Trump enterprise.

The headline speaker was Roger Stone, the veteran political hit man who has long been an adviser to Trump. He now says he has no official connection to the Trump campaign, but he was a chief organizer of this rally, which was originally planned when Stone and other Trumpsters feared the #NeverTrump movement might find a way to stop Trump at the convention. The always-dapper Stone—this day decked out in a beige double-breasted suit—took to the stage in front of a distinctly non-dapper crowd, and he apologized for being late. He said he had just been in meetings with Trump’s staff. Then Stone, a proud conspiracy theorist (who believes LBJ killed JFK) and author of a book excoriating the Clintons, launched into a tirade against Hillary and Bill.

The Hillary Clinton seen in public, he insisted, is not the real Hillary Clinton. She is, he exclaimed, “a short-tempered, foul-mouthed, bipolar, mentally unbalanced criminal.” (“And a reptile!” a member of the audience shouted.) One problem, Stone noted, is that the public doesn’t know about Vince Foster. He was referring to the senior White House aide who committed suicide during the Clinton presidency. Stone went on to revive the Foster conspiracy theory that was once a mainstay of the Clinton-hating right. Foster’s body was discovered in a Virginia park outside Washington, DC. But, Stone asserted, no mud or dirt was found on Foster’s shoes. However, he added, there were carpet fibers. This means, he claimed, that Foster was rolled up in a carpet and removed from the White House, and, he said, Hillary Clinton had ordered this cover-up. Her goal? To make sure that Foster’s office—which contained papers proving her illegal deeds—did not become a crime scene.

Of course, the official investigations of Foster’s tragic suicide concluded he killed himself at the park. But here was a Trump operative, fresh from huddling with Trump’s lieutenants, promoting an unfounded notion. The crowd lapped it up. (In May, Trump himself said there had been something “very fishy” about Foster’s death.)

Stone continued, maintaining that Bill Clinton had raped several women and Hillary had protected him. He asserted that the Clintons had taken money from the Chinese, the Russians, and the Saudis “for treason.” He exclaimed, “We demand the prosecution of Bill and Hillary Clinton for their crimes.” He even assailed Chelsea Clinton for being “nasty, greedy, foul-mouthed, corrupt.”

It was quite the performance, and Stone was received like a celebrity. This was no surprise, since many in the crowd were fans of Alex Jones, the nation’s No. 1 conspiracy theorist and a Trump fan. Jones was there, too.

Before Stone spoke, Jones, a sponsor of the rally and perhaps the most prominent 9/11 truther, jumped on the stage. His followers in the crowd went wild and rushed down the hill toward the stage. Throughout the event, they shouted statements demonstrating they were devotees of Infowars.com, Jones’ conspiracy-mongering website. “Go ahead and do a false flag, Obama, we’ve been waiting for you,” one attendee yelled at the sky. Jones fanned those flames, claiming Hillary Clinton is a “foreign agent of the communist Chinese, the Saudi Arabians, and others; no news carried that because it was absolute truth and would destroy her.”

Jones is a peddler of a variety of tin-foil-hat conspiracy theories. He has suggested that 9/11 was an inside job pulled off by the Bush administration, that the Sandy Hook massacre was orchestrated by the US government, and that Obama has plotted to round up dissenters in FEMA camps. Yet Trump hasn’t shied away from associating with Jones, appearing for an interview on Jones’ radio show last December. At this rally, Jones gave a full-throated endorsement of Trump. “Once the general public understands the paradigm, it’s game over!” he shouted to cheers. “Worldwide, globalism and the New World Order are in trouble.”

“The establishment, George Soros, and others have done everything they can to shut down our free speech,” Jones bellowed.

Jones was interrupted midway through his speech by comedian Eric André, apparently filming a bit for his Cartoon Network show. André had been asking questions of attendees near the stage, and Jones invited him up. Jones accused André of being from The Daily Show (perhaps confusing him for another African American comedian). “Oh no,” Jones said sarcastically, “the Democrats are never violent, like at the Black Lives Matter events.”

André went into a weird comedy route, handing Jones a key to his hotel room and asking him to have sex with his wife. He goaded Jones: “Who put the bombs in Tower 7?” Jones replied, “Well, I’ve exposed that.” Yes, an event promoting Trump for president briefly turned into a showcase for 9/11 trutherism.

Once he got André offstage, Jones warned the crowd about the master plans of the shadowy forces of globalization, noting these evildoers will try to swipe the election from Trump. “But even if they’re able to steal the election,” he said, “it doesn’t matter, because the public is waking up to their tricks, and at the state and local level people are understanding that globalism is making us poor, globalism is about controlling us, globalism is about us not being able to have our own destiny, and all over the United States and all over the world, people are saying, why can’t I have guns to protect myself?” In Jones’ view, either Trump will be elected or the New World Order globalists will succeed with their dark plots. With many members of the crowd echoing his words, Jones shouted one of his catchphrases: “The answer to 1984 is 1776!”

Jones and Stone are not outliers in Trump’s world. Stone has been tight with the mogul for decades, and he indicated he’s advising him this week. Trump, when he appeared on Jones’ radio show, praised him, saying, “Your reputation is amazing.” The fact that Jones and Stone were the heart and soul of the main pro-Trump rally of the week shows how far Trump has pulled the GOP and the Cleveland convention into the fever swamps of the right.

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This Is How Crazy and Bizarre the Trump Convention Is

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See how the Sierra Club’s leader is trolling Republicans

by TorriMoreno Posted on June 29, 2016

See how the Sierra Club’s leader is trolling Republicans

By on Jun 29, 2016Share

The head of the Sierra Club is having some fun trolling the GOP.

The Republican National Committee reportedly can’t find enough willing speakers to fill time at its convention in Cleveland a few weeks away. Politicians like Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) have refused the spotlight because they think the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, is toxic.

So Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, emailed RNC chair Reince Priebus on Wednesday and generously offered to step in during the party’s time of need.

“I heard that you are having trouble finding speakers for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland,” Brune writes in his email. “Don’t worry — I’m here to help. I’d be happy to take the stage at the Republican National Convention, and discuss the future of energy policy in this country. Name a time.”

Brune suggests that he’d “be telling much of the crowd exactly what they want to hear,” as 72 percent of Republicans want to see increased use of renewable energy. “Jobs in clean energy production are being rapidly added in Georgia, Texas, and other traditionally red states.”

It’s not the first time that Brune has reached out to Republicans. In May, he penned an open letter to Charles Koch after a Koch spokesperson said he believed that humans were contributing to climate change: “I wanted to write to welcome you into the not-very-exclusive club that includes the strong majority of Americans, 99+% of scientists, nearly all Democratic candidates and a growing number of conservative Republicans, who all believe the same thing. We’re happy to have you!”

He’d be happy to welcome Republican politicians to the fold too, if they’re willing. For now, he’ll just troll them.

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See how the Sierra Club’s leader is trolling Republicans

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Watch a burning house float away in an epic flood

by Tina270173925682 Posted on June 24, 2016

Rain of Terror

Watch a burning house float away in an epic flood

By on Jun 24, 2016Share

West Virginia’s deadly deluge just took a turn for the apocalyptic. A burning building was swept down a creek after significant flooding in the small town of White Sulphur Springs.

The video leaves us with a major cliffhanger: What happened after the house hit the bridge?

We don’t know — but we do know that a storm dumped up to nine inches of rain on parts of West Virginia (eight inches on White Sulphur Springs) during a 24-hour period leading up to Thursday night, which set the stage for this alarming vision. The floods prompted a state of emergency in several counties around the state and caused at least four deaths.

From Paris to Houston, we’ve witnessed more than the world’s fair share of formidable floods in recent months, from the devastating to the truly surreal. Case in point: Earlier this week, a D.C. subway station escalator essentially turned into a waterfall after extensive rainfall in the area. Though it’s hard to pin the blame for any one extreme weather event on climate change, a shifting climate means heavier deluges in some areas and longer dry spells in others. Looks like West Virginia is getting a whole lot of the former.

Hey, can we at least take a raincheck for the apocalypse?

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Watch a burning house float away in an epic flood

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