Green World Rising

In two previous videos narrated by Leonard DiCaprio and available over at GreenWorldRising.org, we’ve seen the dangers that global warming and climate change present for our planet and the human race.
We’ve seen how there’s a giant sleeping monster lurking underground in the form of trapped methane gas, and we’ve learned that, if we continue to do nothing to fight climate change, that methane could get released, causing even more problems for the only planet we can call home.
Finally, we’ve seen how putting a price on carbon could be one of the best ways to help fight climate change and save the future of not only our planet, but of the human race.
Now, the third video in the four-part series has been released, titled Green World Rising.
Green World Rising represents a call to save the human race from the devastating effects of global warming and climate change.
The video focuses heavily on some of the new solar, wind, and geothermal industries that are at the forefront of creating a greener world for all of us.
The threat of climate change is very real, but we have the solutions, knowledge, and ingenuity needed to help save our planet, and Green World Rising talks about how we can put those solutions and that knowledge into action right now.
Comments


In an under regulated capitalist society like ours, the power of big money over shadows all sensibility. If the threat of global destruction isn't enough to get the Carbon Barons to stop their maddness, and our own government refuses to stop them, then in my opinion for their own salvation, countries like Denmark and Germany need to unite and do an intervention on out of control Fascist states like ours. The Kochs may as well be pushing nuke buttons....for a few billion, I'm convinced they would.

Greed is the only thing standing in the way of stoping the constant polution of our planet. I'm afraid drastic change will not happen in the USA until south Florida becomes submerged. Then when an overwhelming outcry to stop carbon polution happens, the carbon magnates will have more money than they can ever spend. But when south Florida goes under It will be too late. Global warming will have gone too far for us to stop it and the Earth will keep warming until all humans are dead. After that it will still keep warming for a while until it starts to cool again. After that, if there is to be any so called intelligent life on this planet, it will be millions of years from now, if the Sun holds out that long. We can prevent this senario, but first we have to stop the greed.

Paying for carbon credits? Let me see......who will make money on this?
Why is 'climate change' being shoved down the throats of other-----more poluting----countries?
How about we continue to find more efficient ways to harness wind/water and solar energy and show that we can maintain our standard of living with them.
I aslo think that you are missing a key to eliminating fossil fuels.....what would happen to the stock market? So much of the market today is tied in some way to oil. What would happen to our stocks and mutual funds if the oil sector came to an abrupt stop?

2950......whats stopping you from relocating to Denmark or Germany?
If our society is so bad what is keeping you here?
Well, after a five-month hiatus, I feel like jumping back into the online think tank here. So here's my 2-cents worth:
Environmentalism presents the perfect opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to come together. It's all in the messaging.
For Democrats, push the "save the world" side of conservation. And the "bring down the corporations" side of it too, if that helps motivate people.
For Republicans, just point out that the less you consume, the less you pay in taxes. I'm about two years away from getting my house "off the grid" with solar panels. And after that comes an electric car. Because I care about the environment? Maybe a little. Because I want to make a statement about taxes - that's the primary motivation.
I've also realized that most of the garbage my house produces, which I have to pay the city government to haul away, is food packaging. So I've started buying from the bulk bins at Whole Foods. (I've had to learn how to cook different things, but it's worth it.) My goal is to get my total weekly garbage down to a single bag, which I can then just throw away at work. So I can stop paying the city to haul away my garbage. Sticking it to the goverment is the goal. Helping the environment is a side effect. So is improved cooking skills. Bulk lentils are very versitile, I've learned.

Reply to #5: Geochand, try a more original argument than "If you don't like it here why don't you leave", ad nauseam. Like that conservative "the climate is always changing" argument, it's old and stale.
By the way, have you ever tried immigrating to another country? Have you even the foggiest notion how difficult that is?! You need lots of money to cover the endless roster of related expenses... that is, IF the immigration authorities of the country you're trying to relocate to decide to let you in. That's the big "if". Before they reach their decision, they examine every detail of your life with a magnifying glass. Misfits with empty pockets need not apply. - AIW

Thom, please mention that people can call from other states this weekend, not just from in state. Progressive Change Campaign, MoveOn, Oregon's GMO labeling initiative 92 and Colorado's GMO labeling 105 initiative are all running calls from out of state.

Chi Matt -- Welcome back, I have missed your comments. Everytime I want to challenge a conservative position I think of you. I love that you are totally aware of what the profit driven motive does in the retail sales sector. However, I would now like to discuss taxes and individualism.
TAXES
Did you know that money was created circa 4000 years ago to pay for the use of the commons, AKA as taxes. If we do away with taxes, we can also do away with money.
INDIVIDUALISM
On the third hour of Thom's Oct 28, 2014, show he played a clip of a Mike Wallace interview with Ayn Rand. She said there was no such thing as a society, only individuals. Thom characterized that view as the definition of sociopathy. On the other hand Charles Darwin concluded that the fittest species were those that evolved through co-operation and love.
Getting the Republicans to sign on to anything positive for the environment is a lost cause. However, your intention to go solar and get an EV is the key to a solution.
Change your home's energy to renewable by either installing solar (cheaper than grid power in many states), or by signing up for your utility's renewable energy program. If you drive a car, switch it to one that runs on electricity. Used LEAFs and Volts are selling for well under $15K and still run like brand new.
Doing both of these things reduces the pollution for which you are responsible by over 90%. It also eliminates your giving any money to the oil, coal and natural gas companies.
Do both of these things as soon as you can. Make it a high priority.
Ok say in a perfect world were we cared about the planet and each other is it possible?
Massive wind turbines and massive solar fields and even massive tidal and river generators going. Is it possible to deIiver enough consistant demand of an ever larger growing population with again consistant needs uninterrupted.
I see nuclear as a safe technology in proper hands wher everything has five back ups.
I dont see nuclear going away ever until it runs out. I just hope we put enough resources into renewables so when that time comes we dont have to resort back to coal or diesel or whatever nasty unhealthy fossil fuels left we havnt totally used up.
We will run out of a finite source of carbon fuels. We can only pray we are smart enough
To understand making money now is more exspensive than fixing a planet leter and putting these laws in place to protect our very existance possible.
Not a game of chance really. Not one we can afford to lose.


We thought the video rocked.....until the Carbon Underground came up. Those former corporados (we really do hope they are former, they just don't act like it) are promoting good organic farming principles BUT at the expense of good forestry practices. CU won't address preserving trees, forest & forest soils in any of their materials. We called them on this at a so-called press conference at Rodale, Inc. in NYC the day after The Peoples Climate March and they obfuscated. Yes, we need organic and no-till farming to store more CO2 BUT we also need forest & tree preservation. The Carbon Underground needs to take off the blinders and see the forest for the trees.

Watch this great interview of Senator Bernie Sanders by Bill Moyers about a speech he gave in Richmond, CA about Chevron and its attempt to buy the city council so that it can have its way with the community. Great interview!
Alice - I think you inadvertently supported a Republican argument just now. Countries with better border security and stricter immigration have better social structures within the countries, right? That's just a whisper away from "Immigration, both legal and illegal, is destorying the United States."
Chuck - I appreciate your arguments, and I think they would work well to motivate and persuade an educated populace. I wonder how long you would have to look at a list of the highest-rated TV shows before you came across something that can be considered "educated" in America. I think most Progressive arguments and movements in the modern era fail to take hold primarily because of an ill-educated, yet content, and selfish, and distracted populace. In other words, not enough people care. Enough people will never care. And, in this environment, Individualism (taking care of yourself) is the best option.
I'm generally surrounded by educated adults both at work and in my private life, and even in this Democrat stronghold of Chicago, complaining about taxes is a favorite topic among them. Even without my provoking it. They don't care enough to vote Republican. Sometimes I think they just like griping for the sake of griping about it.
Sadly, I can no longer listen to Thom's show. They moved it to the middle of the day here, when I am working. And I don't have the time or desire to listen to it online. It was nice when it was on when I was driving, which is about the only time I have to listen to anything anymore. But now we have Jeff Santos. I think he might only be on in Chicago, because every one of his callers is from here. I give him a chance every day, and every day I end up just listening to music instead.
But getting back to your point about society and sociopathy - I think the biggest issue that I, like many Conservatives, have with government isn't so much that it exists, but with what level of government the power lies. It's the State's Rights argument. Most social and fiscal issues should only go as high as the state level. The lower on the governmental rung the decisions are made, the better. The reason for this is simple: People feel like their voice is heard more in the smaller setting, and people tend to live around others who share their same values and economic interests.

Douglas M RE #11 -- We (Thom, many membrs of this blog and me) do not want to even use the carbon that is currently in the ground. Why do you not think there is not enough evergy from renewables, solar panels etc?
Nuclear energy can never be a safe technology as long as the profit margin is part of the equation. Also, nuclear has been stopped in Germany and a lot in Japan.

Chi Matt RE #16-- I would like to reply in detail to what you say. However, I have a couple of responses I am trying to generate for the CA propositions followed by a couple of the other things. I hope you keep what you said in mind so when I refer to it a couple of weeks from now it will make sense.
For the non-controversial part of your message I have a statement. For only $60 a year you can subscribe to Thom's podcasts. It is the only way I listen to Thom. I just download his programs onto my mp3 player, and listen to Thom in my car and on my long walks on the beach.

ChicagoMatt ~ Let me begin by saying, "Welcome back! We've missed you."
Now back to what you've said to Aliceinwonderland, you could not be more off base. Alice was clearly talking about Americans leaving this country. Perhaps you are oblivious to this because you have never contemplated leaving this country. However, you can take it from those of us who have, that it is not that easy of a task to do.
Personally, as far as I am concerned, I think the GOP should welcome anyone who wants to immigrate here form a third world banana republic. After all, that is what the GOP and their collective sponsors have turned this country into anyway. Where else are they going to find workers to work for them for the starvation wages they want to pay if they do not recruit people from banana republics to do all the work for them?
There really is no way to compare American refugees to American immigrants. If you really want to do that you really should consider writing science fiction novels for the blind and ignorant.You would have them "coming" and "going" if you will. Pardon the pun.
Welcome back Matt! You've been sorely missed!!
Thanks for the welcome back! I've been reading from time to time. I quit responding because I realized I was sending out very negative vibes. I wrote a rather long response that was pretty harsh to the baby boomers. I read it before I posted it, deleted it, and walked away for awhile. No sense sending negativity out into the world.
At any rate, yes, I did once toy with the notion of leaving the US. Specifically, I wanted to go to New Zealand. When I took their online immigration questionairre, I found out that they didn't want me because I didn't have an advanced degree, or enough money to invest in their stock market. Now I have both, but I'm too old to go starting over like that.
Anyway, I was just meshing up some points to come to my conclusion:
1. Other counties have it better than us. Specifically Northern and Western European and Asian countries. (I hear this constantly in my field. American public schools always drag behind Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Singapore, etc...)
2. Those countries also have much stricter immigration laws than the US.
3. Those countries actually enforce their immigration laws. They don't want Americans there, or any other outsiders.
So, my conclusion, which sounds like a GOP talking point:
4. We, too, would be much better off with stricter immigration laws that we actually enforced. i.e. "blame the immigrants".

Quote ChicagoMatt:So, my conclusion, which sounds like a GOP talking point:
4. We, too, would be much better off with stricter immigration laws that we actually enforced. i.e. "blame the immigrants".
ChicagoMatt ~ Actually, I quite agree. Why do you think that is? The way I see it the situation is this way because our Corporations profit too much from immigration work to strictly enforce immigration laws. Let's face it, if we were to shut down the borders today--and deport all our illegal immigration labor force tomorrow--by Tuesday next week we would start running out of produce in our grocery stores.
We exploit foreign labor. We disregard our own citizens. Our entire immigration policy is written by the very interests that it benefits. New Zealand, Japan, and Denmark simply don't write their policy that way.
Why? You might ask?
I might suggest that you look no further than the farewell address by the last real Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who warned about the hidden influence of the military industrial complex on our government and our way of life.
Think about it for a minute. The military industrial complex in this country needs certain things to exist. It needs hard working, gullible taxpayers. It needs strict obedience to public policy. It also needs a populace that is afraid to speak up. Exploiting foreign labor plays perfectly into this need.
What, might you ask, does New Zealand, Japan, or Denmark need? They need a stable and secure country with happy and prosperous citizenry. We cannot have that because the minute our people are happy and prosperous they have the leisure time to pick up their heads and look around. That is when trouble for the military industrial complex occurs.
You see Matt, the problem facing this nation really isn't that difficult to understand. It really isn't as divisive as the powers that be would like us to believe. It is really quite simple. Our military is eating us alive; and, until we come to grips with that fact and join together to do something about it, we are on the menu. Bon Appetit!!
I actually agree on reducing the military. I'd take it a step further, and reduce the tax burden by a proportionate amount. I think, too, that the other smaller, more socialist countries are able to focus on their domestic issues because they more or less gave up on their militaries. They have token armies, but they know that if anything ever happened to them, the US would be there for them. Particularly those European countires who are in NATO. Do you think the Norwegians sleep easy at night because they know their army will keep Russia at bay should Russia decide to attack? Or, do they not even bother trying to field a formidable army, because they know we are on their side?
There was a 20/20 or Dateline special a few years ago where they interviewed a farmer in Alabama. They were asking him about why he uses immigrant labor. He said he still advertises for seasonal help in the local paper, but never gets any responses from the locals. He said you could offer $20 an hour, and no one would still want to do the work. He was faced with two options: immigrant labor, or watching his crop (I believe it was peaches) die on the trees.
Off of the fields, I agree that corporations exploit foreign labor. And the Democrats have made any mention of immigration laws into a racist thing. They are just as guilty in the immigration problem as the Republicans. They make people affraid to say anything about it, for fear of being labeled as "racist".
There is a third option is your "military is eating us alive" theory - do something, get eaten, or, profit from it. Either by joining the military, working indirectly for it, or buying stock in defense companies. I know people who fit into all three of those categories. I'm not saying it's moral. I'm just saying that you can both try to change the world, and still participate in the current system.
On a related note, and back to the point of Thom's blog, I downloaded this awesome App (I saw it on the Colbert Report) that tells you what political parties different companies support. You scan a barcode, and it will tell you how much that company gave to each political party. That way you can speak with your wallet, which will have the biggest effect. They should make similar Apps for pollution, where you can scan a barcode and see how much that company pollutes. Then it might also give you more environmentally friendly options.

Quote ChicagoMatt:There is a third option is your "military is eating us alive" theory - do something, get eaten, or, profit from it. Either by joining the military, working indirectly for it, or buying stock in defense companies. I know people who fit into all three of those categories. I'm not saying it's moral. I'm just saying that you can both try to change the world, and still participate in the current system.
ChicagoMatt ~ Really? Is that really the best you can do? Not that I'm oblivious to those who have done exactly what you've suggested; however, seriously? Isn't that a little like having your dentist pull all your teeth just to treat one cavity? Sure it might make the pain go away; but, at what cost?
No, Matt! When I have a problem, I like to fix the problem. I don't like to mess around making having the problem as comfortable as possible. That is really a bad idea. However, thanks for the suggestion anyway. It kind of goes together with the idea of Halloween--don't you think? Accepting the inevitability of death and celebrating it! I prefer to accept the inevitability of life and fight for it. I really don't care how futile of a fight that is. The fight is all that is important to me. The only thing more important is the fact that I am fighting on the right side. Doesn't that mean anything to you?
I find the secularization of Halloween and St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, all Catholic holidays, mildly annoying. At least with Christmas and Easter, most people know they are celebrating Christian holidays. But ask the average teenager who we're celebrating on St. Valentine's Day, and they won't know. I don't celebrate any of those three holidays really. Fortnuately, my wife doesn't mind.
Anyway...
"I really don't care how futile of a fight that is. The fight is all that is important to me. The only thing more important is the fact that I am fighting on the right side. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
Suppose there were two people who both had Progressive ideals. One spent their life fighting the Military-Industrial Complex: protesting at G8 summits, supporting Progressive candidates, etc. The second person went to work for a defense contractor, and used the money he made there to raise his family, give to charity, support the economy, etc. I'd say both people are equally moral.
I'd also say the second guy is smarter, because if he didn't take that defense contractor job, someone else would have.
Perhaps had I been around in the 60s, I would think differently. To me and my generation, protests have always been these marginal freak shows, not actual movements that made any difference in the long run. During the G8 or IMF (One cancelled, but I forget which one) meetings in Chicago two years ago, there were just as many police as there were protestors. In fact, if their goal was to reduce the military-industrial complex, it backfired. It gave the city a reason to buy more military gear for the police. Perhaps if those people put their money and energy into something else, like organic food or solar panels, they'd get better results. But honestly, I feel like most of the protestors I see are there just to "be a part of something". The same reason people celebrate sports teams when they win the championship. Even if they aren't fans, people like being part of a crowd.
But I'm probably just a jaded, middle-aged guy.

Chi Matt -- One can work for the defense industry and protest. I never was fired.

Reply to #21: Marc, I agree with what you are saying. But you left out one important factor in our immigration problem: our ridiculous "trade" policies. NAFTA is to blame for the surge in Mexican immigration, because it was NAFTA that made it impossible for them to earn a living in their own country. I find that point conspicuously lacking in 99.9% of the comments & discussions about immigration.
People tend to not leave their country of origin unless they've got a damn good reason. Especially if they're poor. - AIW
I think we should use global warming to educate people about science. I was inspired to say this by some climate change denier who challenged Thom to prove that climate change is happening. Science does not try to prove anything; that is what math does. What science does is show the probabiltiy that something is causal. For climate change that probability is now at least 97% (more likely 99.9%). Personally, any number greater than 10% would motivate me to make adjustments, even if it meant risking the global economy.
I should mention, I have no problem with what we are currently doing; that is, using science to inform us about global warming and climate change.