More News from Elizabeth May

Top Leaders that have spoken out concerning climate change
:

January 21,
President Barack Obama made the issue a key portion of his second inauguration address. He made reference to superstorm Sandy, the heat waves and record-breaking extreme weather events, and said:

‘We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms…

‘We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise.’

Christine Lagarde, just days later, at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, , delivered a stunning speech. (The International Monetary Fund has done nothing but worsen environmental protections anywhere in the world in which it has delivered a prescription.) Mme Lagarde, having outlined the major threats to global economic stability, stated that climate was a larger threat. Describing it as ‘the greatest economic challenge of the 21st century,’ she said: ‘Increasing vulnerability from resource scarcity and climate change, with the potential for major social and economic disruption; this is the real wild card in the pack.’
 In response to a question from the audience, she said: ‘Unless we take action on climate change, future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried and grilled.’ That would have be a strong statement from the head of Greenpeace; from the head of the International Monetary Fund, it is jaw-dropping.

Jim Yong Kim, within days, the new president of the World Bank,, wrote an opinion piece for the January 28 Washington Post, urging urgent climate action. ‘After the hottest year on record in the United States—a year in which Hurricane Sandy caused billions of dollars in damage, record droughts scorched farmland in the Midwest and our organization reported that the planet could become more than 7 degrees warmer—what are we waiting for? We need to get serious fast. The planet, our home, can’t wait.’


Steven Chu in his letter of resignation from US Energy Secretary, lambasting those who undermined his efforts to promote renewable energy and parting shots from outgoing Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and it is hard not to see that a full court press from the Bretton Woods Institutions has lined up behind the US president to demand climate action.

Who is Max Keiser

Max is an independent financial news journalist.

His viewpoints on the state of world finance are radical but growing in acceptance. In this seminar offered with George Galloway.  His mission is to cure illiteracy, complacency, and incompetence concerning the world's economic system.

Who is Daniel Ellsberg?

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from wikipaedia

In late 1969—with the assistance of his former RAND Corporation colleague Anthony Russo and the staff of Senator Edward Kennedy—Ellsberg secretly made several sets of photocopies of the classified documents to which he had access; these later became known as the Pentagon Papers. They revealed that the government had knowledge, early on, that the war could most likely not be won, and that continuing the war would lead to many times more casualties than was ever admitted publicly. Further, as an editor of the New York Times was to write much later, these documents "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance".^[9]

1. ^ Apple, R.W. (June 23, 1996). "Pentagon Papers". New York Times (New York). Retrieved July 2, 2010. "Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress"

Why is this important?  

Ellsberg identified that the average citizen has as much responsibility in a democracy as the soldier that defends it if they are prepared to go to jail as a very deliberate choice—because they think  it is the right thing to do.

This is relevant to the recent decisions by the Sierra club to participate in civil disobedience.


Caveat:

All charges against Ellsberg were dropped. The courts found the government to be corrupt. Nixon, the president,  later resigned.

The average "Joe bag of donuts" would not likely get such dispensation, rather, Bradley Manning of Wikileaks fame is currently held on treason - he'll likely rot in jail. 

Choose your battles wisely.

What has Ellsberg have to say about Manning?