the Climate Pioneer (est. 2010)

Climate change doesn’t just wreak havoc on your physical surroundings — it affects your mental health too.

Flooding, drought and superstorms cause actual psychological fallout, according to Australian researchers.

“The damage caused by a changing climate is not just physical,” they said in a report released this week by the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Sydney.

“Recent experience shows extreme weather events also pose a serious risk to public health, including mental health and wellbeing, with serious flow-on consequences for the economy and wider society.”

Read more at: Climate change threatens mental health too: study; Droughts, floods have psychological impact.

This is a blog devoted to climate related issues, but every so often something comes up that cuts across so many boundaries of struggle that it must be addressed even if it doesn’t directly relate to climate change issues. The struggle that is going on in Wisconsin at the present is one of those issues.

What we are seeing in Wisconsin is part of a coordinated effort by ultra-conservatives in this country to gut every progressive cause that has ever existed, is currently being contemplated, or will ever be dreamed of in the future.  The drive to bust unions in Wisconsin is simply part of a much larger effort to dismantle the EPA, render ineffective the Clean Air Act, discredit global warming as a hoax, privatize social security, disable Medicare – the list goes on and on.  What we are seeing is the power of big business in action as it attempts to privatize the public sphere and set the stage for corporate dominance for the next 50 years.

Those of us who call ourselves liberal, who call ourselves progressive, who call ourselves human – must take a stand wherever that corporate dragon breathes its fiery breath.  Right now that is in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker is threatening legislation that will remove the public sector union’s right to collective bargain.  He claims that the reason he is taking this action is to balance the budget, yet when the unions have indicated their willingness to make concessions, he has said “No.” He will stop at nothing less than busting the unions.

In response, 14 Wisconsin senators have taken a stand against this threat.  Although outnumbered in the Wisconsin senate, they have elected to simply not show in order to prevent a quorum and make a vote impossible.  Since in Wisconsin, a state congressperson can be “compelled” to return to the legislature to carry on State business, these fourteen senators have had to flee their own state, and have been pursued by state troopers.

This is an incredibly courageous act, and one that must be supported.  If one of these fourteen senators defects and goes back, a quorum will exist and Governor Walker will be victorious in his efforts to destroy the public sector unions in Wisconsin. From there it will be simply a matter of time before other state legislatures will follow suit and the entire edifice of union strength around the country will begin to crumble.

We must encourage these Wisconsin democratic senators to stay strong, and we must send them messages of support and encouragement.

Here are the names of the fourteen senators along with their email addresses:

For what it’s worth, here is a copy of a letter I personally sent:

Dear Senator  _________,

Please take a moment to write.  Write one of them, write all of them, whatever you have time to do. Encourage your friends to do the same.  This is a time to act and to stand up against the corporate machinery that is threatening the very foundations of our democracy.

Thanks you.

Here's what a more "responsible" capitalism looks like.

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. — BP’s compensation fund for Gulf oil spill victims has issued a final settlement payment to just one of the thousands of people and businesses waiting for checks, records show, and that $10 million payout went to a company after the oil giant intervened on its behalf.

BP won’t identify the business, citing confidentiality, but acknowledges it lobbied for the settlement. The amount far exceeds smaller stopgap payments that some individuals and businesses have received while they wait for their own final settlements.

Read more at: Gulf Oil Spill Compensation Fund Issues 1 Final Payment Out Of 91,000 Claims.

Thanks to a powerful and growing New Power grassroots movement, a broad alliance of Kentucky activists sent an electrifying message across the nation today: A just transition to a clean-energy future, even in the heartland of coal country Kentucky, is possible.

Recognizing the spiraling costs of coal-fired plant construction and more practical energy efficiency and renewable energy options, the East Kentucky Power Cooperative has agreed to halt its once fervent plans to construct two coal-burning power plants in Clark County.

Read the entire article at Jeff Biggers: Kentucky Cancels Coal Plant, New Power Movement Electrifies Grassroot Alliance.

“The official inquiry [into "Climategate"] might have exonerated scientists, but attitude changes are needed for science to ensure it holds the public trust.”

This week marks the first anniversary of the worldwide scandal over the release of e-mails stolen from a computer server at the University of East Anglia UEA in Norwich, UK. The server was in the universitys Climatic Research Unit CRU, most of the correspondents involved were climate scientists and the affair will be forever known as Climategate. The scientist at the centre of the storm, Phil Jones, the head of CRU, tells Nature on page 362 that he feels the worst is behind him.I

Read more at Closing the Climategate : Nature : Nature Publishing Group.

After the failures of 2009s climate conference in Copenhagen, a very different set of expectations are building in the climate movement for this years summit in Cancun, and with it, a difficult realization: Change, when it comes, will have to be be built on a popular movement, not a political negotiation.

Read the entire article at Environment | The Nation.

A last-ditch remedy for an ailing planet, or a reckless scheme that could be a greater threat to life on Earth than the problem it aims to solve? Opinions are sharply divided on geoengineering — potential massive interventions in the global climate system, intended to forestall the worst effects of climate change.

Read more at Geoengineering faces ban : Nature News.