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

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

April 2014 sees atmospheric CO2 at over 400 ppmv

Click here to access article by Soumya Dutta from Climate Connections.
For the first time since ‘modern humans’ originated on planet earth, the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached and stayed at or over 400 ppmv (parts per million by volume), or 0.04% for over a month.  The modern humans (Homo Sapien Sapiens) are said to have originated around 60,000 years ago, and in that short span of time – about four seconds, if we take the earth’s age of 457 billion years as one year – we have managed this remarkable (negative) feat.
Looking at the graph in the article, the trend appears to increase generally through the month of April. 
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