What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh;
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard—
The treble of heaven’s harmony—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good—
His blessings on the neighborhood,
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land—
A nation’s growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP11 is being held in Le Bourget, Paris, from November 30 to December 11.
It is the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.
2498 academics from 75 countries signed this Open Letter calling for world leaders meeting in Paris to do what is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Prominent signatories include Noam Chomsky, Naomi Oreskes, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Michael E. Mann, Ursula Oswald Spring, Bill McKibben, David Suzuki, and Peter Singer.
Open Letter from Academics to World Leaders ahead of the Paris Climate Conference 2015
Some issues are of such ethical magnitude that being on the correct side of history becomes a signifier of moral character for generations to come. Global warming is such an issue.
Indigenous peoples and the developing world are least responsible for climate change, least able to adapt to it, and most vulnerable to its impacts. As the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris approaches, the leaders of the industrialized world shoulder a grave responsibility for the consequences of our current and past carbon emissions.
Yet it looks unlikely that the international community will mandate even the greenhouse gas reductions necessary to give us a two thirds chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. At the moment, even if countries meet their current non-binding pledges to reduce carbon emissions, we will still be on course to reach 3 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
This is profoundly shocking, given that any sacrifice involved in making those reductions is far overshadowed by the catastrophes we are likely to face if we do not: more extinctions of species and loss of ecosystems; increasing vulnerability to storm surges; more heatwaves; more intense precipitation; more climate related deaths and disease; more climate refugees; slower poverty reduction; less food security; and more conflicts worsened by these factors.
Given such high stakes, our leaders ought to be mustering planet-wide mobilization, at all societal levels, to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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Google Images
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We undersigned concerned academics, researchers and scientists from around the world recognize the seriousness of our environmental situation and the special responsibility we owe our communities, future generations, and our fellow species.
We will strive to meet that responsibility in our educational and communicative endeavors.
We call upon our leaders to do what is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. With just as much urgency, we call upon our fellow citizens to hold their leaders responsible for vigorously addressing global warming.
For the full list of signatories please see below.
Around the world, people from all walks of life are standing together to demand a strong climate agreement in Paris and a healthy future for the planet. When the world speaks with one voice, our leaders have to listen.
So we’ve put together this Open Letter with one very clear message: DEAR WORLD LEADERS: TAKE CLIMATE ACTION NOW.
People from around the world are affected by climate change today – right now. And they’re calling out to world leaders to demand real action this year at the UN climate talks in Paris.
PAUL MCCARTNEY, BON JOVI, FERGIE, MORE COME TOGETHER FOR
‘LOVE SONG TO THE EARTH’
Whether you’re a devout environmentalist, you believe that global warming is a myth (like these people), or you think the planet’s changes are part of its natural way and humans are only concerned because it bothers their clean place to live (*cough* George Carlin), it’s hard to deny that sorting your recyclables and trying not to produce as much smog is a positive thing.
Those and larger issues will be the focus of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which takes place this December 2015 in Paris. Paul McCartney and other musical powerhouses are trying to drum up attention for the important summit, so they released a new promotional single called “Love Song to the Earth”.
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Google Images
~~GALLERY~~
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Aside from the former Beatle, the song also features contributions from Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Paul, Leona Lewis, Goo Goo Dolls’ Johnny Rzeznik, Angelique Kidjo, Nicole Scherzinger, Kelsea Ballerini, Krewella, Victoria Justice, Christina Grimmie and Q’Orianka Kilcher. It was written by Toby Gad, John Shanks, Bedingfield and Paul.
The song’s website says of the track:
“Every time the song is purchased, streamed, or shared, the royalties go directly towards the efforts of Friends of the Earth to keep fossil fuels in the ground and lower carbon emissions, and to the work of the U.N. Foundation to inspire international action on climate change.”
While promoting the longevity of our species’ survival on this planet is excellent, we might be more excited that said planet has finally given us the much sought-after Paul McCartney-Fergie collab we never had the audacity to dream of.
Official Love Song To The Earth Lyric Video directed by Jerry Cope and Casey Culver produced by Jerry Cope & Toby Gad, Nature Cinematography by Louie Schwartzberg
Featuring Vocal Performances by Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Paul, Leona Lewis, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Angelique Kidjo, Nicole Scherzinger, Kelsea Ballerini, Christina Grimmmie, Victoria Justice, Q’orianka Kilcher
Now we need you to lend your voice to the Earth and help catapult the Love Song into a global hit. Because it’s our world.
Politicians Discussing Global Warming
This image of a installation performed by Isaac Cordal in Berlin in 2011 became viral on the internet under the title Politicians discussing global warming although really is part of its series called follow the leaders.
Isaac Cordal (born 1974) is a Spanish artist whose work involves sculpture and photography in the urban environment.
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time (i.e., decades to millions of years). Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as “global warming“.
Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record — extending deep into the Earth’s past — has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and peri-glacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels.
More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on the physical sciences, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.
State environmental officials ordered not to use the terms “climate change” or “global warming” in any government communications, emails, or reports.
The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in this country, according to scientists. Sea-level rise alone threatens 30 percent of the state’s beaches over the next 85 years.
But you would not know that by talking to officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the state agency on the front lines of studying and planning for these changes.
DEP officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
The policy goes beyond semantics and has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy in a department with about 3,200 employees and $1.4 billion budget.
“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’” said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013. “That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.”
Kristina Trotta, another former DEP employee who worked in Miami, said her supervisor told her not to use the terms “climate change” and “global warming” in a 2014 staff meeting. “We were told that we were not allowed to discuss anything that was not a true fact,” she said.
This unwritten policy went into effect after Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011 and appointed Herschel Vinyard Jr. as the DEP’s director, according to former DEP employees. Gov. Scott, who won a second term in November, has repeatedly said he is not convinced that climate change is caused by human activity, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
Vinyard has since resigned. Neither he nor his successor, Scott Steverson, would comment for this article.
“DEP does not have a policy on this,” the department’s press secretary, Tiffany Cowie, wrote in an email. She declined to respond to three other emails requesting more information.
“There’s no policy on this,” wrote Jeri Bustamante, Scott’s spokeswoman, in an email.
But four former DEP employees from offices around the state say the order was well known and distributed verbally statewide.
~~Florida Bans The Phrases ‘Climate Change’ And ‘Global Warming’~~
~~Published on Mar 16, 2015~~
“Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks discusses the move by Florida officials to ban the use of the term ‘climate change’.
Officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have been told that the words ‘climate change’ when used together has been banned, according to former and current employees including attorney for DEP’s Office of General Counsel Christopher Byrd.
Byrd stated that along with climate change that the words ‘sustainability’ and ‘global warming’ was also banned.
Chief officials of the DEP refused to answer why. The policy went into effect after Florida Governor Rick Scott came to office.”
The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in this country, according to scientists. Sea-level rise alone threatens 30 percent of the state’s beaches over the next 85 years.
But you would not know that by talking to officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the state agency on the front lines of studying and planning for these changes.
DEP officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
The policy goes beyond semantics and has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy in a department with about 3,200 employees and $1.4 billion budget.
“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’” said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013. “
That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.”
This unwritten policy went into effect after Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011 and appointed Herschel Vinyard Jr. as the DEP’s director, according to former DEP employees. Gov. Scott, who won a second term in November, has repeatedly said he is not convinced that climate change is caused by human activity, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
Groundhog’s Day (Canadian French: Jour de la Marmotte; Pennsylvania German: Grundsaudaag, Murmeltiertag) is a day celebrated on February 2.
According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will persist for six more weeks.
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Thanks to Believing in imaginary friends and fairy tales is outside of my age bracket for sharing.
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time (i.e., decades to millions of years). Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as “global warming“.
Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record — extending deep into the Earth’s past — has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and peri-glacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels.
More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on the physical sciences, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.
There is one single industry destroying the planet more than any other.
But no one wants to talk about it …
COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secret is a groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary following an intrepid filmmaker as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today – and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it.
As eye-opening as Blackfish and as inspiring as An Inconvenient Truth, this shocking yet humorous documentary reveals the absolutely devastating environmental impact large-scale factory farming has on our planet.
This is the film that environmental organizations don’t want you to see.
A: Our goal with this film is to have the largest positive impact on the world as possible. In order to do that we sincerely believe the film needs to be seen as a legitimate documentary, and in our consumerist, capitalist society, people devalue things they get for free. It is extremely important for our goals that the film be taken seriously by the movers and shakers of the world, and we need to present it in as traditional a manner as possible, which means theater screenings and DVDs … to begin with.
Additionally, making Cowspiracy took a great deal of time and money (we were the sole financial backers for Cowspiracy and our production team was incredibly small, meaning we worked 10 to 15 hour days for over a year to make this film) and in order for us to make more films like it (as we plan to), we need to have the funds to do so.
The money we make from screenings, DVDs, merchandise and donations goes into the non-profit Animals United Movement and is put toward promotion for the film and the making of our next documentaries.
If you care about the message we’re trying to spread, please support us by organizing your own screening, request Netflix to carry this film by searching for “Cowspiracy” on their site, and by (when available) buying DVDs to give your family, friends, library, church, etc.,
These are the wise words of one of the followers who stop by:
“I hope this film has an impact. Factory farming is not only bad for the environment but for the millions of poor defenceless animals who live wretched lives until the day they are killed to provide humans, usually the more affluence here in the west, with a food they really do not need and is not natural. Factory farming plays a role also as one of the causes of the starvation of millions as land which could grow crops is used to grow fodder to feed factory farmed animals. A very timely film as there is an increase in the demand for meat with the growth of the population and the increase in popularity of meat in China. Thank you for an interesting article. I hope one day we will all wake up to the atrocities that are inflicted on animals in factory farms and bring an end to the misery of these unfortunate animals. Maybe this film will go some way in bringing this about.”
~~Cowspiracy Indiegogo Trailer~~
~~Published on Apr 22, 2014~~
This documentary will be as eye-opening as Blackfish and as inspiring as An Inconvenient Truth. It follows the story of Kip, a passionate environmentalist and filmmaker, who is discovering the biggest secret that even the most powerful environmental organizations are too scared to talk about.
“Sei vorsichtig mit dem, was Du weisst. Damit beginnen Deine Probleme” 🍀 “Be careful of what you know. That’s where your troubles begin”
🌷
Wade in The 3 Body Problem
It Is What It Is 