John Kerry at MIT warns of climate ‘catastrophe’: We are in an urgent ‘race against time’
At MIT, U.S. Secretary of State highlights peril of climate change, economic promise of clean energy.Watch Video
Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
January 9, 2017
Amid record temperatures and rising sea levels that stem in large part from carbon emissions, Kerry stated, we must act quickly “to avoid the catastrophe we will inevitably see if we allow carbon emissions to go up, and up, and up.” Moreover, he added, “We need to speed it up dramatically because we are in a race against time.”
However, speaking before a capacity audience of about 250 people in MIT’s Samberg Conference Center, Kerry talked at greater length about the upsides of a prospective clean-energy revolution, referencing the falling prices of wind and solar power and observing that by making renewable energy a major growth industry, “we can put millions of people to work.”
The speech constituted one of the last major public statements Kerry is expected to make on climate change as Secretary of State before he leaves office with the change of administration later this month. Climate change efforts have been a key part of Kerry’s portfolio, and he highlighted the State Department’s recent work on the topic.
Kerry hailed the 2015 Paris Agreement, in which over 190 countries agreed to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and contended that the extensive bilateral U.S.-China climate negotiations, leading to a 2014 announcement of climate cooperation, “changed the whole playing field” by showing how committed the two countries were to an evolving approach on energy.
The Paris Agreement also signaled to entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors that the renewable energy sector would remain a growth industry, Kerry said, and he called on his audience to participate in the transformation of energy.
“Brilliant minds trained at MIT are behind some of the most transformative innovations in history,” Kerry said, suggesting the Institute’s students and entrepreneurs could help mitigate climate change while developing “the greatest economic opportunity the world has ever known.”
Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research, introduced Kerry before
No Joke! Actual NY Times headline: ‘As Donald Trump Denies Climate Change, These Kids Die of It’
We Americans may be inadvertently killing her infant son. Climate change, disproportionately caused by carbon emissions from America, seems to be behind a severe drought that has led crops to wilt across seven countries in southern Africa. The result is acute malnutrition for 1.3 million children in the region, the United Nations says.
Trump has repeatedly mocked climate change, once even calling it a hoax fabricated by China. But climate change here is as tangible as its victims. Trump should come and feel these children’s ribs and watch them struggle for life. It’s true that the links between our carbon emissions and any particular drought are convoluted, but over all, climate change is as palpable as a wizened, glassy-eyed child dying of starvation. Like Ranomasy’s 18-month-old son, Tsapasoa.
Southern Africa’s drought and food crisis have gone largely unnoticed around the world. The situation has been particularly severe in Madagascar, a lovely island nation known for deserted sandy beaches and playful long-tailed primates called lemurs.
But the southern part of the island doesn’t look anything like the animated movie “Madagascar”: Families are slowly starving because rains and crops have failed for the last few years. They are reduced to eating cactus and even rocks or ashes. The United Nations estimates that nearly one million people in Madagascar alone need emergency food assistance.
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The immediate cause of the droughts was an extremely warm El Niño event, which came on top of a larger drying trend in the last few decades in parts of Africa. New research, just published in the bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, concludes that human-caused climate change exacerbated El Niño’s intensity and significantly reduced rainfall in parts of Ethiopia and southern Africa.
The researchers calculated that human contributions to global warming reduced water runoff in southern Africa by 48 percent and concluded that these human contributions “have contributed to substantial food crises.”
Climate Depot Response:
Unfortunately, the New York Times does not have science on its side. Droughts are not worse during the age of “global warming.” Not only are global droughts not increasing, but the notion that you can attribute them to “global warming” is not valid.
Climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer in 2016: “Global warming and climate change, even if it is 100% caused by humans, is so slow that it cannot be observed by anyone in their lifetime. Hurricanes, tornadoes, …
Warmist CNN Chris Cuomo spars with congresswoman in tense exchange over global warming
The questioning of Blackburn came during a discussion on Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency and a skeptic of climate-change science.
Cuomo asked Blackburn, vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, for her views on Pruitt and whether he would “be someone who denies” the “basic science” of climate change.
Blackburn said Pruitt “understands” the “heavy burden” the EPA has placed on businesses across the country through regulation. She said, however, that everyone remained in favor of clean air and water.
“Can you be for clean air and water if you do not believe that man has a hand in global warming?” Cuomo asked.
“Of course you can be a believer in clean air and clean water and realize that when you work at global warming or climate change, as it is now popularly called, that it is cyclical and you have to look at it in terms of centuries, not in terms of decades,” Blackburn said.
The congresswoman added: “And the science around that is not a settled science.”
Cuomo, taken slightly aback, asked Blackburn bluntly if she agreed that human actives “contribute greatly to what is warming our planet over time.”
“Do you accept that?” he asked.
“I think that there are those who would say, ‘No, it is more of a cyclical process.’ There are those that will say that we do think humans have something to do with it,” Blackburn replied.
“It’s not some though, congresswoman,” Cuomo quipped. “You know — it’s an overwhelming scientific consensus on the notion of whether man-made activities negatively impact global warming. It’s not an open debate within the scientific community. It is a big majority and a small group of people that resist it.”
Cuomo reiterated that he was “talking about the basic science” and whether she and Pruitt agreed with it.
“The fact is that there is still debate about that and the participation of human beings in this,” Blackburn said. “We all will agree we want the Earth to stay healthy. We want clean air, we want clean water.”
The congresswoman said, however, that it was important to “make certain that we are able to have the energy that is necessary to fuel a productive economy.”
…Leonardo DiCaprio Meets with President-elect Trump
In case you haven’t seen the DiCaprio climate documentary, I’ve created a 5 minute summary, to save you having to watch the entire film.
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Princeton Physicist: ‘If global warming were any other branch of science it would have been abandoned a long time ago’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCU6bzRypZ4
MP3: http://www.fdrpodcasts.com/#/3521/glo…
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/stefan-molyneu…
Despite all the hype around the global warming computer models and climate science predictions – reality has not confirmed the often repeated doomsday claims. Stefan Molyneux speak with William Happer about the flaws in the climate science models, obvious errors which have been overlooked, the demonization of CO2 and the implicit bias within climate science.
William Happer is a professor at Princeton University in the field of atomic physics, optics, and spectroscopy. He is a Director with the CO2 Coalition and served as the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Director under the George H. W. Bush administration. Dr. Happer will be speaking at the “Global-Warming: An Inconvenient Lie” conference in Phoenix, Arizona from December 2-4th, 2016.
An Inconvenient Lie Conference: http://www.inconvenientlie.com
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Watch: ‘Collateral Damage’ – ‘Forgotten Casualties of the Left’s War on Coal’ – See Human Devastation of Anti-Coal Policies
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
Several months ago, MRCTV sent a camera crew to the southern counties of West Virginia to document the impact of EPA regulations on communities that have historically relied on the coal industry for their livelihood. What the team found was devastating.
The effect of shuttered coal mines and the loss of thousands of coal jobs have trickled down into nearly every facet of these communities, crippling local businesses, destroying housing markets, and forcing desperate families from their homes. Thousands are without work, while still thousands more live under the constant threat of job loss and economic ruin. Local charities struggle to meet the needs of their communities. While the media are focusing on macro issues like “climate change,” hardworking Americans are left to wonder how they will keep food on the table and lights on in houses they’re struggling to hold on to.
Through up-close footage and a compelling series of brutally honest interviews, “Collateral Damage” exposes in stark detail the real, human impact of President Obama’s promised and delivered assault on the coal industry, and on the hardworking American families of Appalachia.
This is a real story about real people. Please help us tell their story by sharing this video.…
Biologist Says Humanity Won’t Survive To See Thanksgiving 2026
It’s time to set the doomsday clock to Thanksgiving 2026 or sooner, according to a university professor who “can’t imagine there will be a human on the planet in 10 years.”
University of Arizona biology professor Guy McPherson thinks human-caused global warming is pushing the world closer to the sixth mass extinction. Based on his calculations, we have less than a decade before civilization comes to an abrupt end.
“It’s locked down, it’s been locked in for a long time – we’re in the midst of our sixth mass extinction,” McPherson told New Zealand’s Newshub.
McPherson believes current efforts to fight global warming are a waste of time since humanity will be gone within a decade. Instead, the biologist wants us to focus on living life to its fullest.
“The problem is when I give a number like that, people think it’s going to be business as usual until nine years [and] 364 days,” McPherson told Newshub.
Western civilization is used to being bombarded by apocalyptic predictions. Remember, 2012? Or Y2K?
Probably the most memorable climate apocalypse prediction came from former French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius who famously said in 2014 the world only had “500 days to avoid climate chaos.”
Well, 500 days came and went with no major global warming treaty being signed and the world hasn’t tipped into a state of unmitigated disaster.
Maybe Fabius should have taken MCPherson’s advice, stopped caring and just lived out the rest of his life.
“I encourage people to pursue excellence, to pursue love, to pursue what they love to do,” McPherson said. “I don’t think these are crazy ideas, actually – and I also encourage people to remain calm because nothing is under control, certainly not under our control anyway.”…
Humans Face ‘Near Term Extinction’ – Warmist prof. predicts mass human extinction from ‘climate change’ in 10 year
Most human-caused greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), are created when fossil fuels combust. Despite CO2 constituting only 0.04 percent of all atmospheric gases, it has been demonized as an evil trace gas that causes droughts, floods, more storms, fewer storms, illnesses, and death. In reality, CO2 is a harmless, odorless, colorless gas essential to all life on Earth.
Why the Media’s Portrayal of Carbon Dioxide Is Often Wrong http://dailysign.al/2cmiPvO via @NiconomistLoris @DailySignal
Why the Media’s Portrayal of Carbon Dioxide Is Often Wrong
The media and the Obama administration alike should stop misleading the public about what carbon dioxide really is.
dailysignal.com