We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Unprecedented Ocean Acidification Underway

Click here to access article by Julia Whitty from Mother Jones. 
A new and alarming paper in the prestigious journal Science [behind a paywall] reports today that the world's oceans may be acidifying faster now than at any time during the four major extinctions of the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring as much as 6 degrees C (10.8 degrees F). 
I keep wondering how catastrophic climate extremes have to become before the political operatives of the One Percent's capitalist system acknowledge that there is a problem which the system cannot deal with. Likewise I wonder how long before the 99 Percent allow the One Percent to go on their merry way destroying our habitat. Should we of the 99 percent allow the growth addicts of the One Percent take us all down because they cannot get enough of their fossil fuel fix?  

It appears that many political liberals don't care enough about social injustice to question the system, but surely they care enough about the human race to question the system! So far they seem to be more worried about "violent protesters" breaking a few windows. (See this.)