Category: Environment
at the Nebraska Public Power District's 'Open House'
Thursday, April 26 at 5:30 p.m.
Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln (the corner of 13th & M Streets)
Nebraskans for Peace has wholeheartedly endorsed this rally organized by the Nebraska Sierra Club and the national Sierra Club's 'Beyond Coal Campaign' and co-sponsored by Nebraska Farmers Union, Center for Rural Affairs, Nebraska Wildlife Federation and the Nebraska League of Women Voters.
PLAN NOW to attend the 5:30 p.m. rally
(and then visit the NPPD 'open house' inside the Cornhusker Hotel to urge them to support renewable energy or contact NPPD by email at: GOAinput@nppd.com )
Read morePosted In: Environment
The Fierce Urgency of Now
by Paul A. Olson
When news of the scientific consensus about human-caused global warming first entered the public eye over 20 years ago, a group of us connected with the Center for Rural Affairs thought the Center should study the findings and the models to see what they said about the future of agriculture in Nebraska. We got a small grant to look at what was out there, and what we found was that the models provided no consensus as to what climate change would mean to the Plains—whether it would be warmer or colder, rainier or dryer. One thing, though, was certain. The weather would become more extreme. That forecasted weather scenario has now become the ‘new normal,’ with extreme drought in the southern Plains, out-of-control wildfires, unprecedented snowfalls and blizzards, flash floods, record river rises (like on our own Missouri), tornadoes in areas that never had them before, and larger hurricane systems. In 2011 alone, the U.S. experienced 14 weather disasters causing over a billion dollars in damage—six more than the previous record set in 2008.
Now we have a book about what this kind of extreme weather is doing to peace in the world. Though Nebraskans for Peace agrees with the Pentagon that global warming is real and an imminent threat to global security, we have not argued that it has already created war after war. But that’s the argument Christian Parenti, an editor for The Nation magazine, makes in his new book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. Parenti does not claim to be a climate scientist, but he focuses on the military effects of phenomena that climate scientists say are outcomes of global warming: extreme weather events and the alteration of unusual major rainfall and drought patterns. Holdover regimes from the Cold War era (originally promulgated by the U.S. and the Soviet Union) and neo-liberal governments under the rule of the International Monetary Fund and other global financial institutions have added to the military destabilization of the global warming-injured ‘Tropic of Chaos’—the latitudes between the Tropics of Cancer and of Capricorn. In this region, the most damaged parts of the globe are East Africa, Asia south of the Himalayas, and Brazil and Mexico in the Western Hemisphere.
Read morePosted In: Environment
Put the 'Public' back in Public Power. This is your chance to make the case for our clean energy future.
Monday, March 26 Gering Civic Center in Gering (2:00-8:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, March 27 Sandhills Convention Center in North Platte (2:00-8:00 p.m.)
Wednesday, April 25 Holiday Inn in Kearney (2:00-8:00 p.m.)
Thursday, April 26 Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln (2:00-8:00 p.m.)
Wednesday, May 2 Divots Conference Center in Norfolk (2:00-8:00 p.m.)
Read morePosted In: Environment
Skeptics of climate change unremittingly contend that the science is inconclusive and the debate is still unsettled. Backed by the coal and oil industry, the skeptic lobby has cast doubt on the human role in global warming and the environmental risk of burning fossil fuels.
The U.S. military, on the other hand, has followed the climate science with a growing sense of alarm.
As far back as 2003 (during the first term of the pro-oil Bush/Cheney Administration), a specially commissioned Pentagon report warned that rapid climate change could “potentially destabilize the geo-political environment, leading to skirmishes, battles, and even war” over scarce food, water and energy supplies.
Read morePosted In: Environment
We need to keep turning up the heat on our elected officials. Attend these citizen events associated with the Special Legislative Session. This information is provided by our friends at Bold Nebraska.
The timeline is tight at the Capitol, and there are crucial days when we need citizens showing up and speaking out.
Citizen Special Session Read morePosted In: Environment
