Front Line of Climate Change Here & Now; Boston's Planning Canals; Dems Failing on Climate

The Front Line Of Climate Change Is Here And Now. The fate of my country rests in your hands: that was the message which Ian Fry, representing Tuvalu gave at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen five years ago. This is also the message that the Pacific Climate Warriors have come to Australia to bring. We have come here, representatives of 12 different Pacific island nations, which are home to 10 million people, to ask the people of Australia to reject plans to double Australia’s exports of coal and to become the biggest exporter of gas in the world.

How Boston is rethinking its relationship with the sea. Sea levels are rising, the land is sinking. It’s going to become a big problem for some cities on the US East Coast, so in Boston people are thinking the unthinkable – copying Venice and Amsterdam, and becoming a city of canals.

Democratic Party Failing On The Climate Crisis. While some in the Democratic Party acknowledge that the climate crisis is real, human-made and requires action, there has been no significant action taken by Democratic party officials. Instead, there is widespread support for hydrofracking for methane gas, mountaintop removal for coal and extraction of tar sands bitumen as well as seismic testing and drilling for off-shore oil. Democrats continue to financially support nuclear energy even though it adds to climate gases, is the most expensive source of energy, takes years to come online and creates environmental problems at every step, i.e. extraction of uranium, processing of uranium, production of energy and radioactive waste. At the same time, there has been inadequate support for wind, solar, ocean and other clean energy alternatives as well as decreasing wasted energy by improving efficiency.