Survival Versus Doom

Still playng catchup. This is from c. March 12:

On Capital Hill, Democratic leaders have announced they’re now abandoning an effort to put limits on President Bush’s authority to take military action against Iran. Democrats had included a provision in the new military spending bill that would have required Congressional approval for any military confrontation with Iran. But the requirement was dropped after several Democrats argued it would take away the use of force as a bargaining tool over Iran’s nuclear program. (From Democracy Now)

For more details, see the AP story and Justin Raimondo’s analysis.

This is old news now, from March 4, but in case you missed it:

CAIRO (AFP) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Sunday that one in eight Iraqis had been forced from their homes because of the bloodshed raging across the country, and warned that the numbers will only rise.

“At the current rate of 40,000 to 50,000 a month, up to 2.3 million might be permanently displaced (inside Iraq) by the end of this year,” Antonio Guterres told the Arab League in Cairo.

Already two million have fled Iraq altogether, he said, while another 1.8 million are already displaced inside the country, which has an estimated population of around 27 million.

The prospects for catastrophic climate change are much more alarming than the report of the International Panel on Climate Change suggests. Highlights of a recent article in the New Scientist:

…the IPCC’s review process was so rigorous that research deemed controversial, not fully quantified or not yet incorporated into climate models was excluded. The benefit - that there is now little room left for sceptics - comes at what many see as a dangerous cost: many legitimate findings have been frozen out….

Dozens of climate scientists, including many of the leading lights of the IPCC study, came together two years ago this month to discuss “dangerous” climate change at a conference organised by the UK government in Exeter. They identified a series of potential positive feedbacks and “tipping points” not included in current models of the Earth’s climate system that could accelerate global warming or sea-level rise. These included the physical collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, rapid melting in Antarctica, a shut-down of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic, and the release of carbon dioxide and methane from soil, the ocean bed and melting permafrost….

Yet last week’s summary report virtually ignored most of the Exeter findings. One concern is that the huge ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica could be close to disintegration. This would cause rises in sea levels that would be measured in metres, but the report restricts itself to noting that sea levels are rising by 3.1 centimetres a decade - still almost twice the rate of the early 1990s. Current climate models assume that the ice sheets will melt only slowly, as heat works its way down through ice more than 2 kilometres thick. But many glaciologists no longer believe this is what will happen.

In reality, they say, ice sheets fracture as they melt, so water can penetrate to the bottom of the ice within seconds, warming its full depth and lubricating the frozen join between ice and the bedrock. Physical break-up of the ice sheets will happen long before thermal melting, they say.

Page 6-9, Issue 2590, New Scientist, 09 February 2007 by Fred Pearce

As the world stumbles along in its orbit, public discourse is dominated by triviality, irrelevance, and irrationality. And the posts at Survival Versus Doom have slackened these past months. Since the last post about seven weeks ago, it has become even clearer that the Cheney-Bush administration wants to unleash war on Iran, and that if this is stopped it won’t be thanks to the Democratic congress.

Institutional plans and acts continue apace to perpetuate the occupation of Iraq until Hell freezes over.

Likewise with the perpetuation of the occupation of Palestinian land on the West Bank, and the perpetuation of deadly animosity between the United States and the Arab and Muslim worlds.

The restoration of habeas corpus, and an end to government criminality, are not on the horizon.

As the United States economy continues dismantling itself, record numbers of people are in severe poverty.

The trials of Guantanamo suspects have begun without a lawyer or reporter in sight.

The construction of vaults in the Arctic is underway, as the prospects for catastrophic climate change are much more alarming than the report of the International Panel on Climate Change suggests.This will be the subject of the next blog entry.

And oh yeah, Seymour Hersh reported that the US is indirectly funding Al-Qaeda linked Sunni Groups (to counter Iran).

So what’s the good news?

Well for one thing, diplomacy is not dead (re North Korea). For another, the United States is still a democracy, and we can bring our intelligence and actions to bear on things. (Hello hello, do you read me? Over.)

Here from the magnificent Glenn Greenwald is a summary of our strategy for survival at the present time vis à vis Washington. (Don’t let Greenwald’s surprising praise of New York Times editorials mislead you.) SUMMARY: Congress is not likely to act on the most urgent matters facing it. These matters would include ending the occupation of Iraq, preventing war on Iran, restoring habeas corpus, abolishing torture and the gulag, restoring lawful government to the United States, and impeaching the president. BUT, Greenwald argued, congress can create momentum for all this by aggressively holding hearings and issuing subpoenas. We should focus on pressing congress to do so.