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Now the Work of Movements Begins Email    Print    Share x RSS Feed Digg Facebook TwitThis StumbleUpon Reddit YahooBuzz Email BlinkList del.icio.us Fark Furl Google LinkedIn Mixx MyShare NewsVine Propeller SphereIt Technorati http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myre

Three Climate Change Actions For Obama’s Second Term By Climate Guest Blogger on Nov 12, 2012 at 11:39 am by Kevin Kennedy, via WRI Insights With President Obama’s re-election, he has the opportunity to extend his legacy and take on big challenges. Climate change stands high on the list of issues that need to be addressed. As the President said in his acceptance speech: “We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”

In just the last two months of the campaign, outside groups linked to dirty energy sources or the promotion of a dirty energy agenda spent more than $270 million on TV ads in the presidential, House, and Senate races and industry ads promoting oil, gas, and coal interest, and more than $31 million was spent on energy-related ads, according to a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis of data from Kantar Media’s CMAG. This includes more than $109 million spent in congressional races with $21.7 million on energy-specific ads. During that time, more than 59,600 spots ran on energy and environmental issues in the presidential race and key House and Senate races.

Why I’m Voting Green Email    Print    Share x RSS Feed Digg Facebook TwitThis StumbleUpon Reddit YahooBuzz Email BlinkList del.icio.us Fark Furl Google LinkedIn Mixx MyShare NewsVine Propeller SphereIt Technorati YahooMyWeb

No matter what the polls or pundits say, it's all about voter turnout and unlikely voters (especially youth) actually going to vote. And we're not just talking about the Presidential election. This is about Congress, and all the critical state and local races and ballot measures too. No matter what the polls say, voter turnout in the next few hours is the whole ball game.

Noam Chomsky has said, "I’m not a great enthusiast for Obama, as you know, from way back, but at least he’s somewhere in the real world."

He stated that the 2012 candidates are "Off the International Spectrum of Sane Behavior."

As I write this, President Obama and Governor Romney are preparing for their final pre-election debate in Boca Raton. Though Governor Romney has used climate change as joke material, it is no laughing matter in Florida, a place that has been called "ground zero when it comes to sea level rise." More than 120 city and county officials, scientists and concerned citizens are calling on the candidates to discuss their policies on this issue, so it's safe to assume that both candidates are rehearsing a response to the climate question.

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.

One topic is, what are the most important issues that we face? The second topic is, what issues are not being treated seriously—or at all—in the quadrennial frenzy now underway called an election? But I realized that there’s no problem; it’s not a hard choice: they’re the same topic. And there are reasons for it, which are very significant in themselves. I’d like to return to that in a moment. But first a few words on the background, beginning with the announced title, "Who Owns the World?"