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Rolla Peace News April 23, 2019 |
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Dear Friends: http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter042319.html In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Have Climate Scientists Discovered Reality? b) Many Progressives Cave to the Military c) Bernie Attempts to Reassert Congressional Authority Over War-Making 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, APRIL 25 2019 We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, APRIL 25 FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM (and most subsequent Thursdays until peace is established). Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be in the 60s. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign. 2. MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Have Climate Scientists Discovered Reality? b) Many Progressives Cave to the Military c) Bernie Attempts to Reassert Congressional Authority Over War-Making HAVE CLIMATE SCIENTISTS DISCOVERED REALITY? Climate scientists are struggling with their new models. It seems that many of these are predicting global warming to proceed at a much faster pace than hitherto believed (by climate scientists) and produce a much warmer Earth. So, what is to be done? Some are even doubting their own models. Andrew Gettelman, a modeler from National Center for Atmospheric Research opines, “The scary part is these models might be right.” While it's nice to see that climate scientists are beginning to predict more realistic results, I can't help wondering what took them so long. The signs are all there, and have been for a while. Look at this graph of overlapping 12 month global temperature averages. The peak anomaly during the 2015-16 El Niño episode was 1.02° C. above the 20th Century average, around 1.29° C. above pre-industrial times.. The previous peak during the 2010 El Niño episode was only 0.72° C. Afterwards, temperature anomalies fell to 0.77° C., still above the previous 2010 peak and have since started to rise again. Looking at the graph, this is unprecedented within the past 30 years that the graph spans. This is an indication that we have crossed a boundary within the past decade and temperature rises are now steeper than previous. Also consider carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas in our atmosphere. Three of the four largest annual increases fall within the past four years. We appear to be heading for another large increase in 2019. And finally consider the reality on the ground — devastating extreme weather events appear to be on the increase. While 2017 and 2018 have been quite impressive, so far in 2019 the entire continent of Australia has been ravaged by extreme heat, fire and flooding. Southern Africa and central Asia have both experienced unprecedented flooding. In Alaska, the spring ice breakup is beating previous records by approximately one week. And the socio-political climate is every bit as bad as the physical climate. We now have heads of state like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro who pride themselves on their anti-environmentalism. And many others, like Canada, who claim to be environmental progressives, yet continue to expand their carbon footprint. And military spending, along with war and conflict, also continues its inexorable rise. The United Nations, like its predecessor, the League of Nations, has become completely ineffectual. Put it all together. We have entered previously uncharted territory. Past assumptions no longer hold. It's nice to see that climate scientists are now incorporating this reality into their models. MANY PROGRESSIVES CAVE TO THE MILITARY The dispute in Congress over the military budget appears to be not whether, but by how much, to increase the already bloated US military budget. Personally, I can't see any valid reason to spend more on our military than China and Russia combined. Even this would be excessive. If we trimmed the military budget, we might even be able to re-learn the lost art of diplomacy. (Donald: diplomacy and bullying are not the same thing.) But, as Robert Koehler points out, “Every war we’ve waged or been a part of over the last seven-plus decades has spewed human and environmental destruction almost beyond comprehension and, at the same time, has failed to accomplish anything remotely beneficial to the country, unless you happen to be a war profiteer.” Sadly, far too many legislators are willing to see the military budget continue to increase without bound as long as there is also money for their Green New Deal. BERNIE ATTEMPTS TO REASSERT CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY OVER WAR-MAKING Congress showed a rare display of courage when it passed the historic Yemen War Powers resolution, which would have ended US complicity in Saudi Arabian war crimes against Yemeni children, 85 thousand of which have starved to death due to this immoral criminal enterprise. Donald Trump, who intends to continue US complicity in this Crime Against Humanity, vetoed the resolution. Now Bernie Sanders is trying to muster support in Congress to override the veto. Bernie urges senators who support military intervention to “bring that perspective to the floor of the Senate, debate the issue, and call for a vote.” Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Grassroots Rolla: at the top of rightmost column). If you don't wish to get notices of peace events in the Rolla area, let me know and I'll take you off this list. If you want to be added to this list, let me know. Wage peace, Helen helenm (at) fidnet.com |