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Last week the UK Guardian published a bombshell piece on the origins of the fatefully dreadful decision to try to sell the climate bill without talking about the climate The story describes a March 2009 meeting at the Old Executive Office Building, the White House informed the leading environmental groups that it had decided climate change was not a winning message. The blunt headline: Revealed: the day Obama chose a strategy of silence on climate change

Climate change Crunch time for the climate by Avaaz Team - posted 25 November 2012 12:18 Tweet Youth speaks to power about the climate crisis (Liam Moriarty) You didn't have to go far to find extreme weather this year. North America experienced both brutal drought and a record-setting storm. Extreme weather in Africa, southeast Asia and Europe also caused widespread damage and cost many lives. In fact, as New York state governor Andrew Cuomo noted, extreme weather seems to be the "new normal".With delegates from around the world converging on Doha, Qatar, this week for the 18th UN conference on climate change (COP18), the need for real progress on global warming has never been more urgent. And while there are many obstacles to progress on this crucial problem, there are hopeful signs as well.

Climate and Security 101: Why the U.S. National Security Establishment Takes Climate Change Seriously April 25, 2012 by Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell In a 2007 report by the CNA Military Advisory Board, General Gordon R. Sullivan stated: “People are saying they want to be perfectly convinced about climate science projections…But speaking as a soldier, we never have 100 percent certainty. If you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, something bad is going to happen on the battlefield.” The national security establishment in the United States, including the U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence community, understand that climate change is a national security threat, and that we cannot wait for 100% certainty before acting to mitigate and adapt to its effects. But not only do they understand it, they plan for it – considering it’s implications in strategic documents like the Quadrennial Defense Review, and setting up an office within the CIA called the Center for Climate Change and National Security. But why? Why do those organs of government that the public normally associates with fighting wars, devote time and effort to an issue that is branded as hogwash by many on the right of the political spectrum, and the exclusive domain of environmental activists on the left? The simple answer: climate change is, actually, a national security threat.

I see climate silence as a failure of the mainstream media; a politico-media complex too enthralled by the story lines pitched to them by the campaigns to force either to address an infinitely pressing issue that falls outside its comfort zone. There were no efforts at all to examine the candidates' positions on climate policy in light of the record drought and heat temps, to press either for substantive answers. Climate silence is a product of failed leadership, to be sure, but also of our professional information gatherers and storytellers.

By Monday night, the debate about "climate silence" was in full voice. Al Gore weighed in, tweeting during the course of the debate: "Where is global warming in this debate? Climate change is an urgent foreign policy issue."The Green party's presidential candidate, Jill Stein, who went so far as to label Obama a climate change denier in an interview with the Guardian for his failure to discuss the issue on the campaign trail.Other commentators argued allowances should be made for Obama's failure to discuss climate on the campaign trail, and his middling support for environmental concerns while in the White House.Since the rise of the Tea Party conservatives in 2010, energy and climate change have emerged as among the most contentious issues dividing Republicans and Democrats.

To help the candidates answer a “what will you do about the climate” question, the Presidential Climate Action Project will release the latest of its reports next week on what the President and his Administration can do, with or without Congress.  Among its proposals will be how the next Administration can launch America’s deliberate and historic transition to an advanced energy economy. The bottom line is this: The American people are finding they can’t run and can’t hide from the insidious impacts of global warming. Political candidates should not be allowed to hide from the issue, either.

elow you can see my two-slide Powerpoint explanation for the presidential debates’ resounding #climatesilence (that’s the Twitter hashtag for the failed push to get global warming on the debate agenda). Try to find slide one — depicting the online tussle over climate science and policy — within slide two, which places the first issue in the flow of the moment’s news (via the fascinating newsmap.jp Web site):

On October 2, I led a climate protest inside the offices of the Boston Globe.OK, it was really a meeting in a small conference room with editorial page editor Peter Canellos and members of his staff. But it was, in essence, a protest.I used to be a card-carrying member of the mainstream media; just a few years ago, I was the editor of the Globe's Ideas section. Peter is a former colleague.With me was Craig Altemose, founder and executive director of Better Future Project, a Cambridge-based non-profit dedicated to climate action, on whose working board I serve as a volunteer. We were joined by two members of BFP's advisory board: MIT's Kerry Emanuel, one of the country's leading climate scientists (and, until recently, a Republican); and Boston College's Juliet Schor, a sociologist and economist who is a respected thinker on climate and the economy. Last year, Altemose was arrested protesting the Keystone XL pipeline at the White House along with another advisory board member, Bill McKibben of 350.org, and 1251 other concerned citizens.

That wouldn't be a "new normal." That would be a different planet.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was the latest to get arrested after she brought supplies to activist treesitters attempting to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas. Stein issued a statement criticizing both President Obama and Governor Romney for their policies on fossil fuels: