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<font size="+1"><i>September 16, 2017</i></font><br>
<br>
<i>Before and After image comparisons</i><b> <br>
</b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908322693937864704">A
terrifying before/after Irma on Big Pine Key.</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908322693937864704">https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908322693937864704</a></font><br>
<b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908778153979428864">Just
insane before & after Harvey flooding in Otey, TX.</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908778153979428864">https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908778153979428864</a></font><br>
<b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908331502810910720">Entire
structures gone (debris and all) on Cook Island.</a><br>
</b><font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908331502810910720">https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/908331502810910720</a></font><br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/907809456213311488">Aircraft
hangars at Key West Naval Air Station stood no chance to Irma.</a></b><br>
Flooding seen at Hideaway Beach Golf Course on Marco Island, FL
after Irma.<br>
Before & after on southern coast of Key West.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/907809456213311488">https://twitter.com/weatherdak/status/907809456213311488</a></font><br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://twitter.com/NASAEarth/status/907302733757153281">Hurricane
Irma Turns Caribbean Islands Brown https://go.nasa.gov/2xgaIdY
#NASA</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/NASAEarth/status/907302733757153281">https://twitter.com/NASAEarth/status/907302733757153281</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://newrepublic.com/article/144798/floridas-poop-nightmare-come-true">Florida's
Poop Nightmare Has Come True</a></b><br>
Hurricane Irma caused massive sewage overflows, highlighting the
twin dangers of an aging infrastructure and climate change.<br>
BY EMILY ATKIN<br>
September 14, 2017<br>
"Hurricane Irma will likely cover South Florida with a film of
poop."<br>
Pollution reports submitted to Florida's Department of Environmental
Protection show that, due to power outages and flooding caused by
Irma, human waste has been spilling into streets, residences, and
waterways across the entire state. At the time of this article's
publication, at least 113 "Public Notices of Pollution" had been
submitted to the DEP. Combined, those discharge reports showed more
than 28 million gallons of treated and untreated sewage released in
22 counties. The total amount is surely much more; at least 43 of
those reports listed either an "unknown" or "ongoing" amount of
waste released, and new reports continue to roll in-sometimes as
many as a dozen per hour.<br>
The DEP emphasizes that these notices contain estimates. <br>
...the Environmental Protection Agency "has deployed specialists to
Florida to help get wastewater systems back online." The DEP is
urging Floridians to stay out of floodwaters, and to look for
warning signs posted by local authorities about accidental sewage
releases.<br>
To some extent, sewage overflows are to be expected during big
storms. <br>
It's a trade-off between uncommon events when they occur that pose
a health risk, versus having a really expensive overcapacity that's
not used 99 percent of the time."<br>
At the same time, the nation's sewage infrastructure-particularly
Florida's-is in worse shape than it should be, making it more
susceptible to accidents and overflows. As The New York Times
reported last week, "Much of the state's infrastructure is now
nearing the end of its useful life." Last year, the EPA said $17
billion would be needed over the next two decades just to maintain
Florida's existing systems. And that's nothing compared to the $271
billion the EPA says is needed to maintain and improve the aging,
crumbling wastewater infrastructure across the country. What's more,
climate change is slowly making the problem worse-not only because
of more intense rainfall, but because rising seas cause more leaks
from coastal septic systems.<br>
because Trump is hostile to any policy that takes climate change
into account, there's no plan to make these sewage systems more
resilient to the impacts of global warming. "Trump's approach is not
the right one," Grant said. "We need direct federal spending in our
water and sewer systems." Until that happens, we'll continue to be
knee deep in shit.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://newrepublic.com/article/144798/floridas-poop-nightmare-come-true">https://newrepublic.com/article/144798/floridas-poop-nightmare-come-true</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-window-is-closing-to-avoid-dangerous-global-warming/">The
Window Is Closing to Avoid Dangerous Global Warming</a></b><br>
There's a 50 percent chance that temperatures will rise 4 degrees
Celsius under a business-as-usual scenario<br>
Scientists Yangyang Xu and Veerabhadran Ramanathan found in a paper
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS) that there already exists a 1 in 20 chance that the 2.2
trillion tons of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere could
cause an existential warming threat. This "fat tail" scenario would
mean the world experiences "existential/unknown" warming by 2100 -
defined in the report as more than 5 degrees Celsius above
preindustrial levels.<br>
"We are quickly running out of time to prevent hugely dangerous,
expensive, and perhaps unmanageable climate change," wrote the
report's authors, who include former U.N. Environment Programme
chief Achim Steiner and Mexican chemist Mario Molina, who won the
Nobel Prize for his role in discovering the threat that
chlorofluorocarbon gases pose to the Earth's ozone layer.<br>
Paul Bledsoe, a co-author of the policy report, described the
findings as "pretty disturbing."<br>
"These studies are a wake-up call ahead of U.N. Climate Week - we
must not only zero out CO2 emissions by 2050, but also rapidly limit
superpollutants like HFCs and methane, and even undertake
atmospheric carbon removal," said Bledsoe, a former Clinton White
House climate adviser.<br>
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News.
E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and
environmental news at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.eenews.net">www.eenews.net</a>.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-window-is-closing-to-avoid-dangerous-global-warming/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-window-is-closing-to-avoid-dangerous-global-warming/</a><br>
<br>
<b><br>
</b><b> </b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-09-13/trump-administration-will-waste-billions-disregarding-science-hurricane-recovery/">Trump
Administration will Waste Billions by Disregarding Science in
Hurricane Recovery</a></b><br>
By Joe Romm, Climate Progress<br>
The Trump administration is consciously choosing to reject climate
science in its plan to rebuild from superstorms Harvey and Irma. And
that means their reconstruction of Houston and Florida will squander
billions of taxpayer dollars and put Americans who rebuild at risk
in the future.<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-climate-hurricane-rebuilding-8756d7a3a9a6/">https://thinkprogress.org/trump-climate-hurricane-rebuilding-8756d7a3a9a6/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://newrepublic.com/article/144714/weather-not-normal-will-get-worse">This
Weather Is Not Normal. And It Will Only Get Worse</a></b><br>
How many more lives must be destroyed by historic hurricanes,
floods, and wildfires before the government admits that climate
change is a problem?<br>
BY EMILY ATKIN September 7, 2017<br>
The days leading up to Hurricane Harvey's landfall in Texas last
week were some of the most nerve-wracking in meteorological history.
Forecasters <a
href="http://mashable.com/2017/08/30/harvey-flood-left-forecasters-helpless-accurate/#Ms4zTimDXkqj">watched</a>
helplessly as a true monster storm-one that would eventually become
the <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/29/harvey-marks-the-most-extreme-rain-event-in-u-s-history/?utm_term=.6f8132c78fd6">most
extreme rain event</a> in recorded American history-moved toward
Houston, the country's fourth-largest city. They gave the most dire
warnings they could, developing new colors for maps to show
unprecedented intensity, and using more hyperbolic language than
ever before. But there was no avoiding the <a
href="http://www.npr.org/2017/09/03/548105631/harvey-s-devastation-hits-home-as-residents-return-to-flooded-neighborhoods">mass
devastation</a>. Homes were destroyed. At least 60 people died.
The flooding has not even fully receded, and now forecasters are
tracking another <a
href="http://mashable.com/2017/09/06/frightening-satellite-images-historic-irma-swallows-caribbean-islands/?utm_cid=hp-n-1#P6DCJ3K4laq0">frightening
storm</a> that they don't quite have the language for.<br>
Through our carbon emissions, humans have already warmed the
atmosphere and ocean roughly 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmer
atmosphere is able to hold more moisture, meaning more water vapor
can fall as rain, snow, or hail when storms occur. The warmer ocean
can intensify hurricanes and tropical storms, because hurricanes
feed on warm ocean surface water. The warming climate also tends to
dry out areas that are already dry, which can exacerbate wildfires.<br>
But this is not an "I told you so" moment. This is a "stop
destroying lives" moment. <br>
We would not have to talk about climate change during storms if the
government were making some sort of earnest effort to fix the
problem. Instead, the Trump administration is ignoring the
problem-and it wants you to do the same.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://newrepublic.com/article/144714/weather-not-normal-will-get-worse">https://newrepublic.com/article/144714/weather-not-normal-will-get-worse</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://fossilfuelresistance.org/5-big-developments-in-pipeline-fights-this-month/">5
Big Developments in Pipeline Fights This Month</a></b><br>
This month was particularly exciting with five major developments in
key fights across North America. Here are some of the stories,
headlines, and landmark decisions. By: Kendall Mackey<br>
Ordinary people everywhere are standing up and fighting fossil fuel
projects across the country. Trump and the fossil fuel industry are
desperate to lock us into decades more of polluting fossil fuels by
building new pipelines and other dirty infrastructure, but their
agenda is being disrupted by grassroots organizing across the
country to protect our water, communities, and climate.<br>
This month was particularly exciting with five major developments in
key fights across North America. Here are some of the stories,
headlines, and landmark decisions.<br>
<b>August 22, an appeals court rejected the federal government's
approval of a natural gas pipeline project in the southeastern
U.S., citing concerns about its impact on climate change</b>.<br>
"In a 2-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
did not properly analyze the climate impact from burning the natural
gas that the project would deliver to power plants.<br>
The ruling is significant because it adds to environmentalists'
arguments that analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act
- the law governing all environmental reviews of federal decisions -
must consider climate change and greenhouse gas emissions."<br>
<b>August 30, regulators in New York </b><b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.recordonline.com/news/20170831/dec-denies-permits-for-cpv-power-plant-pipeline">rejected
key permits for a natural gas pipeline</a></b><b>, saying a
previous federal approval had failed to consider the resulting
greenhouse gas emission</b>s.<br>
The pipeline in question, the 7.8 mile-long Valley Lateral Project,
would supply a <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.cpv.com/our-projects/cpv-valley/about/">680
megawatt power plant </a>that's currently under construction. The
pipeline had already received approval from the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC), but because it crosses several streams
and wetlands, it needed state regulators to sign off, too."<br>
<b>Sept 11, the Minnesota Department of Commerce released an
analysis concluding that Enbridge's proposed new crude oil
pipeline</b> across northern Minnesota, Line 3, isn't needed - and
moreover the aging line it's supposed to replace should be shut
down.<br>
"The report represents a major and unexpected roadblock for
Calgary-based Enbridge in its attempt to replace the 1960s-vintage
Line 3, which shuttles oil from Alberta, Canada, to the company's
terminal in Superior, Wis."<br>
<b>September 10, West Virginia environmental regulators rescinded
approval for building the Mountain Valley Pipeline</b>, which
would carry natural gas down the center of West Virginia for 195
miles.In a letter Thursday, the Department of Environmental
Protection said it's vacating the water quality certification issued
in March, which followed review of the projected impact on the
state's waters and public hearings."<br>
<b>September 7, TransCanada announced it would suspend the
application for its Energy East pipeline for 30 days</b> and may
abandon the project weeks after Canada's National Energy Board (NEB)
announced a tougher review process that would consider the project's
indirect greenhouse gas contributions.<br>
<i>and</i><br>
<b>Louisiana's floating pipeline protest camp prepares to take on
'the black snake':</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://thinkprogress.org/louisiana-floating-pipeline-protest">http://thinkprogress.org/louisiana-floating-pipeline-protest</a>
… #NoBBP #StopETP @CherriFoytlin1<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://fossilfuelresistance.org/5-big-developments-in-pipeline-fights-this-month/">https://fossilfuelresistance.org/5-big-developments-in-pipeline-fights-this-month/</a></font><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://fossilfuelresistance.org/">Mapping Fossil Fuel
Resistance</a></b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://fossilfuelresistance.org/"><b>A
MOVEMENT IS GROWING TO STOP FOSSIL FUEL PROJECTS ACROSS THE
COUNTRY</b></a><br>
This map has been built by and for the local groups fighting oil and
gas projects in their communities. It began with the desire to
visualize the enormous strength and diversity of the pipeline
resistance movement. While each fight relies on the passion and
leadership of local organizing, we wanted to illustrate that these
aren't isolated fights, but a groundswell of steadfast and
widespread resistance across the continent. Together, we are big
enough and bold enough to break down the power of the fossil fuel
industry, and build the future we want - one that is rooted in
dignity for our communities, stability for our climate, and respect
for the ecosystems we live in.<br>
The website itself was created through a collaboration between the
Power Shift Network and 350.org as a way of providing resources and
national support to the real leaders in this work, in the hopes that
this will be a resource to help organizers find their allies, and
for new folks to find ways to plug in where they're needed most.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://fossilfuelresistance.org/">https://fossilfuelresistance.org/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/15/hurricane-harvey-irma-climate-change-denial/">Will
Harvey and Irma Turn the Political Tide on Climate Denial?</a></b><br>
A turning point in public opinion and policymaking is likely to come
when there is a "focusing event" - something that turns everyone's
attention to a major problem and puts a solution on political
agendas. But it's unclear if this year's spate of global
warming-fueled disasters will rise to that level, she said.<br>
Another clue is whether Harvey and Irma rebuilding efforts will
factor in the future impacts and risks associated with climate
change, said Rachel Cleetus, lead economist and climate policy
manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists.<br>
"Are we making sure that as we rebuild, we're implementing measures
that will keep people safer going forward with those risks in mind?"
she said.<br>
The Trump administration is standing in the way of such efforts,
however.<br>
Trump announced on Aug. 15 that he would reverse a 2015 Obama
executive order requiring federally-funded infrastructure projects
to account for the impacts of rising seas and other climate-related
flood risks.<br>
"While it certainly makes sense that any new construction should
take account of sea level rise, heavier rainfall, higher
temperatures, and other climate change-related impacts, we should
note that just ten days before Hurricane Harvey put much of Houston
under water, Trump rescinded Obama's rule that did exactly that for
any federally funded construction," Hassol said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/15/hurricane-harvey-irma-climate-change-denial/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/15/hurricane-harvey-irma-climate-change-denial/</a><br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/opinion/congress-climate-change.html"><br>
Congress and Climate Change</a></b><br>
To the Editor:<br>
Re "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/opinion/sunday/hurricane-harvey-climate-change.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0">It's
Not Too Late to Learn From Our Mistakes,</a>" by Nicholas Kristof
(column, Sept. 3):<br>
The answer to why Congress doesn't act on climate change is simple
political hydraulics.<br>
The Supreme Court let unlimited money into politics. The fossil fuel
industry has unlimited money and, according to the International
Monetary Fund, a multi-hundred-billion-dollar subsidy to protect.
The fossil fuel industry used its unlimited money (and related
threats) to capture the Republican Party. Climate change then became
"partisan" and untouchable.<br>
It's actually not that complicated.<br>
The Supreme Court's Republican appointees got in the habit of doing
what they were told by the forces that appointed them (which include
the fossil fuel industry, which asked for the Citizens United
decision), and in a fateful combination of obedience and political
ignorance, they wrecked our politics.<br>
Before Citizens United there were multiple bipartisan climate bills
every year; afterward, none.<br>
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE<br>
NEWPORT, R.I.<br>
The writer, a Democrat, is a United States senator from Rhode
Island.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/opinion/congress-climate-change.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/opinion/congress-climate-change.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/12/16295246/wildfires-air-quality-map">Map:
where Western wildfires have made the air outside too dangerous to
breathe</a><br>
Particulates from smoke have drastically impacted air quality in
areas of several states.<br>
Updated by Casey Miller and Umair Irfan Sep 13, 2017, 1:10pm EDT<br>
Unusually bad wildfires have been blazing in the Western United
States, leaving areas across Oregon, Washington, Montana, and
Wyoming choking on harmful levels of smoke and shrouded in a cloudy
haze.<br>
Fire officials anticipate some relief this week as a weather system
is expected to bring rain to some of the smoldering states. But the
fires will also continue to burn through dry woodlands.<br>
On Wednesday, NIFC was reporting 62 large fires across nine Western
states that had already taken about 1.6 million acres. And 2017 is
on track to be one of the worst years for wildfires in the US on
record, with a total of 8.1 million acres burned as of September 13
- already well above the annual to-date average of 6 million acres
for the past decade.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/12/16295246/wildfires-air-quality-map">https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/12/16295246/wildfires-air-quality-map</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.facebook.com/CCANActionFund/videos/1944584159149252/">Nineteen
Virginians Arrested In Richmond Protesting Gov. McAuliffe's
Fracked-Gas Pipelines during Final Day of "People's Pipeline
Protest" Statewide</a></b><br>
RICHMOND, Virginia– On September 14, hundreds citizens across
Virginia gathered for the final day of the "People's Pipeline
Protest," featuring two days of action at all seven of Governor
Terry McAuliffe's controversial Department of Environmental Quality
offices. During the protest in Richmond, activists engaged in a
peaceful sit-in at the Richmond DEQ office, effectively blocking the
office entrance for over an hour, and resulting in 19 arrests. <br>
Those arrested today included landowners, physicians and faith
leaders opposed to the pipeline. Governor McAuliffe plans to make a
final decision on water permits for the controversial pipelines this
autumn. He has the full legal authority, under the Clean Water Act,
to stop them based on the massive impact the pipelines would likely
have on drinking water and rivers and wetlands across 1000 miles of
their proposed pathways. Protesters today asked the Governor to deny
the water permits sought by Dominion Energy and other energy
companies. The sit-in arrestees were released by Richmond city
police after receiving misdemeanor trespassing charges. <br>
The protests and vigils this week aimed to honor the victims of
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma while protesting the pro-fracking and
pro-pipelines policies of Governor Terry McAuliffe that make climate
change worse. Opponents of two controversial gas pipelines called
the events the most ambitious and creative environmental protests
ever organized in Virginia's history. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.facebook.com/CCANActionFund/videos/1944584159149252/">https://www.facebook.com/CCANActionFund/videos/1944584159149252/</a><br>
And here are some Tweets to share out: <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/ccanactionfund/status/908370678130380802">https://twitter.com/ccanactionfund/status/908370678130380802</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/priceofoil/status/908373642182094848">https://twitter.com/priceofoil/status/908373642182094848</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/350loudoun/status/908372209890201601">https://twitter.com/350loudoun/status/908372209890201601</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/collinrees/status/908384490380242944">https://twitter.com/collinrees/status/908384490380242944</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/third-coast-climate-change-survival-odds/Content?oid=21833024">Chicago
is better poised to survive climate change than New York or LA </a></b><br>
Compared to other major American cities, Chicago is uniquely
positioned to weather the ravages of global warming.<br>
he principal climate-related challenge Chicago itself faces is heat.
Environmental Protection Agency researchers predict that the midwest
as a whole will experience significant increases in temperature
throughout the 21st century, with Chicago experiencing summer
temperatures akin to those of present-day Atlanta before 2100.
Projected decreases in summer and fall precipitation will render
this heat particularly problematic. Fortunately, Chicago needn't be
as concerned about drought and dwindling water supplies compared to
other major cities due to its sizable neighbor, Lake Michigan. David
Archer, a climate scientist at the University of Chicago, says Lake
Michigan is enormously useful in a hotter and drier world, going so
far as to call the Great Lakes region "the Saudi Arabia of
freshwater" owing to the vast quantities we have of the wet stuff.<br>
"We're much better off than NYC, which has real sea level [rise] and
hurricane problems," Archer says. "LA is definitely in a precarious
water situation, along with much of the rest of the southwest.
Chicago is the place to be, it seems."...<br>
The possibility for a massive reduction in automobile use is
extraordinary, with 80 percent of the jobs situated within city
limits accessible by public transit. Additionally, Chicago is ahead
of the game when it comes to green-fitting its skyline. Illinois
ranks first in the country in Leadership in Energy &
Design-certified building space; Chicago has been cited for having
the greatest number of LEED-certified buildings of any American
city.<br>
Changes are coming, whether we welcome them or not. Thankfully,
Chicago has the natural resources, alongside the social, cultural,
economic resources, to become the sort of sustainable,
climate-change-resistant metropolis we will inevitably require in
the future. If city officials continue to pave the way for greater
resiliency, the "Second City" could be second to none in a world
where Los Angeles runs dry and Manhattan is washed clean by storm
surges. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/third-coast-climate-change-survival-odds/Content?oid=21833024">https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/third-coast-climate-change-survival-odds/Content?oid=21833024</a><br>
<br>
<br>
(comic) Climate Denial Crock of the Week with Peter Sinclair<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug">The 5 Categories
of Climate Denial</a></b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug">http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaAsBjoaj8">This Day in
Climate History September 16, 2009 </a>- from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
September 16, 2009: On MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," former
fundamentalist Christian Frank Schaeffer explains right-wing science
denial:<br>
"…[T]he mainstream-not just media, but culture-doesn't sufficiently
take stock of the fact that within our culture we have a subculture
which is literally a fifth column of insanity that is bred from
birth, through home school, Christian school, evangelical college,
whatever, to reject facts as a matter of faith… [W]hat we're really
talking about is a group of people that are resentful because
they've been left behind by modernity, by science, by education, by
art, by literature. The rest of us are getting on with our lives.
These people are standing on the hilltop waiting for the end."<br>
Further, Schaeffer noted:<br>
"You don't work to move them off this position. You move past
them. Look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the
village idiot. It's as simple as that. And we have to understand,
we have a village idiot in this country, it's called 'Fundamentalist
Christianity.'<br>
"And until we move past these people-and let me add, as a former
lifelong Republican, until the Republican leadership has the guts to
stand up and say it would be better not to have a Republican Party
than have a party that caters to the village idiot-there's going to
be no end in sight…<br>
"There is no end to this stuff. Why? Because this subculture has
as its fundamentalist faith that they distrust facts per se. They
believe in a young Earth, 6,000 years old, with dinosaurs cavorting
with human beings. They think that whether it's economic news or
news from the Middle East, it all has to do with the end of time and
Christ's return. This is la-la land.<br>
"And the Republican Party is totally enthralled to this subculture
to the extent that there is no Republican Party. There is a
fundamentalist subculture which has become a cult. It's fed red
meat by buffoons like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other people
who are just not terribly bright themselves and they are talking to
even stupider people. That's where we're at. That's where all of
this is coming from.<br>
"And it's becoming circular. It's becoming a joke. Unfortunately,
a dangerous joke because once in a while, one of these 'looney
tunes,' as we see, brings guns to public meetings. Who knows what
they do next. It's a serious thing we all have to face, but the
Democrats and sane Americans just have to move past these people,
say, 'Go wait on the hilltop until the end, the rest of us are going
to get on with rebuilding our country.'"<br>
He concluded:<br>
"Look, in the year 2000 I worked for John McCain, to try to get him
elected in the primaries instead of George Bush. But John McCain
sold out by nominating Sarah Palin who comes directly from the heart
of this movement and carries with her all that baggage. So, he sold
out. I don't see anybody on the Republican side of things these
days who has the moral standing to provide real leadership, or who
will risk their position to do so."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaAsBjoaj8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaAsBjoaj8</a></font><br>
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