12/15/2007 Community Gumbo

Listen Democracy Now (12/11/07)

• Headlines for December 11, 2007


• “It Is Time to Make Peace With the Planet”–Al Gore Accepts 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
  Chair of UN Climate Panel Says Nobel Peace Prize Signals a “Clarion Call for the Protection of the Earth”


• Mitch McConnell, George Bush, Dick Cheney Are “Climate Criminals”–Environmentalist in 99th Day of Climate Emergency Fast Blasts GOP

Listen | Torbjörn Törnqvist: Linking slushy Greenland to swampy Louisiana -- A bumpy ride into the greenhouse future? (re-broadcast)

(Visit the original post for more photos)

Delegates from nearly 190 countries concluded two weeks of intense talks in Bali, Indonesia today with a two-year timetable for reviving the Kyoto protocol signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

The agreement calls for "urgency" in addressing climate change, recognizing that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required," but still doesn't bind the United States or any other country to reducing greenhouse gases.

Prior to the talks in Bali, the Bush administration dropped its stubborn opposition to formal negotiations on climate change.

And just this past April, the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's claim that carbon dioxide wasn't a pollutant, and ordered the administration to re-examine the case for regulating carbon dioxide. Dozens of states are moving ahead with caps on greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, melting of the Greenland ice sheet in 2007 increased from 30 to 150 percent above the previous 19 years, with melting occurring on 25-30 more days than the previous average, according to research published by NASA's Earth Observatory last week.

And as Al Gore was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo this week, NASA reported that the amount of Arctic sea ice reached an all-time low in recorded history this year.

If the Greenland ice sheet alone were to completely melt, sea levels might rise to 23 feet -- an event which wouldn't just affect south Louisiana. In fact, 53 percent of the U.S. population lives in a coastal area.

Professor Torbjörn Törnqvist arrived in New Orleans to teach at Tulane University just days before Hurricane Katrina, evacuating from the city less than a day after he arrived. Deciding to "stay the course," rather than "cut and run," he recently addressed the 2007 class of Tulane freshmen in a lecture drawing a comparison to a climate change event 8200 years ago, and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, providing evidence that global warming is worse now than was originally anticipated when the first predictions were made in 1990. Törnqvist argued that Hurricane Katrina accented both danger and opportunity for Louisiana in an era of climate change. As the one of first areas of the world experiencing the consequences of climate change, he called upon students to use their educations to accept the challenge of solving the climate change crisis in whichever discipline they choose.

Announcements:

The Big Easy Roller Girls

The Confederacy of Punches v. Crescent Wenches; and the Marigny Antoinettes v. the StoryVillains. Doors open at 6 p.m. at Mardi Gras World; Action starts at 7 p.m. Featuring halftime entertainment by Quintron and Miss Pussycat! Afterparty at d.b.a., 618 Frenchman Street.

Music Played:

Six Organs of Admittance, "Shelter from the Ash"

Mariee Sioux, "Two Tongues"