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, January 15, 2011

The Koch Brothers’ Climatologist

by Russ Baker from Who What Why. 

This excellent investigative journalist illustrates how US mainstream media, in this case USA Today, covers climate change issues by using a climate change denier posing as a "climatologist" who is supported by a well-funded, conservative think tank in their report. 
The other day, USA Today ran an article reporting that 2010 had tied 2005 as the warmest year  since record-keeping began in 1880. That’s disturbing data, or course. But what really caught my eye was who they chose to question the significance of the news: a climatologist with….the Cato Institute. That’s a policy outfit heavily funded by the very companies whose emissions heat up the earth’s atmosphere.
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