Hey, did you hear the one about how the planet is dying quickly and we’re probably all doomed?

[Fast Walker 52]

http://www.salon.com/2016/04/03/the_medias_biggest_2016_failure_isnt_donald_trump_its_ignoring_the_profound_crisis_of_climate_change/

Anyone who’s been watching the 2016 race will know that climate change has taken the furthest of backseats to a host of other issues. It got an indirect injection into the whirl of the campaign on Thursday, when Hillary Clinton angrily accused Bernie Sanders of lying about the money she’s getting from members of the fossil fuel industry. (She wasn’t quite telling the truth in that moment, by the way.) Candidates accusing each other of lying—now that is something the political media can get behind! Summaries of the back-and-forth duly popped up everywhere. Politico even got around to mentioning Clinton’s record on environmental issues—in the last couple of paragraphs of its story. Besides that, any extensive discussion of climate change has been very difficult to find. The lack of attention paid to it at presidential debates has become something of a running joke.

This is all, to put it mildly, insane. At a certain point in this century, the rapid demise of the earth is going to be a problem that is much too difficult and dangerous to ignore. Alarm bells are everywhere—in frequent reports of record-breaking temperatures (it was just 71 degrees in Alaska!); in studies predicting the possibility of sudden, vast chaos and ruin; in pleas with the world to move even more aggressively to combat climate change than it has. The world has no wiggle room.

[Ghost Dog]

1. "much too difficult and dangerous to ignore. Alarm bells..."

It's called cognitive dissonce, in the face of such enormity.

Reason why the putative US-Uk "Empire" is disastrously crashing, before even established.

We here jiving with John Coltrane, live concert France, 1964.

Good evening.

[Fast Walker 52]

2. the corporate media is literally killing us

as are our corporate-bought politicians.

Enough is enough.

[raouldukelives]

15. All bought and paid for by every individual shareholder in the world.

Some work towards a better future, some invest against them.

[Hydra]

3. Yes, and I can't believe the Establishment is trying to sell us on status quo in the face of it

Let's just do nothing! I'm sure it'll all go away by itself...

[daleanime]

4. +1

[Fast Walker 52]

10. exactly... they are so fucking evil

[riderinthestorm]

12. Not just do nothing, hasten it with fracking and disastrous projects like Keystone XL

[Orsino]

16. Elections have consequences.

Change happens when enough of us vote for it and lobby for it.

[daleanime]

5. kick, kick, kick....

[onecaliberal]

6. That's why her fucking finger wagging projection about lies makes me sick

She doesn't even care that her and her God damned friends are going to kill her grandchildren because of their greed. It's sickening to the extreme.

[liberal_at_heart]

7. Oh, she's not killing HER grandchildren. The rich will always find a safe haven.

[Umbral18]

8. The Earth's rapid demise? The Earth is not going to die, all life is not going extinct...

The planet will recover and I doubt that humans will go extinct either. Don't worry be happy, there is no way the 7.3+ billion humans infecting the surface will all survive and those left will likely learn a valuable lesson, or not. My big regret is that I won't be there to rub the faces of the miserable Republicans shits in the mess they forced upon us all. I can only hope they are the first ones cannibalized.

[Arugula Latte]

9. The evolution deniers are going to get a close up look at the process ... very soon.

[Fast Walker 52]

11. Right-- I agree, but it's still a useful frame to portray the urgency of the issue

I guess it does depend how you define "earth". If you define it as the planet plus its ecosystem, then it's probably massively fucked.

[Impedimentus]

13. Too many people here only care about the horserace and not about the possible death of the planet.

Climate change does not seem to be a priority at DU. The survival of future generations and the mass extinction that is happening right now is near the bottom of the priority list here. Horserace analysis of the primaries is more exciting.

Thank you for trying.

FEEL THE BERN - 2016

[Fast Walker 52]

14. thanks-- I hate personality politics

One of the main reasons I prefer Sanders is because he is the only one really talking about the urgency of climate change. HRC is better than the GOP on this issue, of course, but I don't hear the urgency from her. And her policies are much like Obama's-- not good enough by a long shot.