environment Politics: 2012 American exceptionalism assholes denialists idiots Republicans
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 4: There Is A Reason The Biggest Tag In My Cloud Is “idiots.”
The June 19 issue of the Christian Science Monitor notes the Republican lineup is filled with denialist dingalings, although they describe it somewhat more politely:
There was a time when Republicans were at the forefront of efforts to investigate – maybe even do something about – the impact of human activity on global climate.
John McCain was an early and persistent supporter of cap-and-trade efforts to reduce the greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide) associated with climate change. So was Newt Gingrich, who went on to make a YouTube video ad – with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, no less – where he said, “Our country must take action to address climate change.”
Now, Republican presidential hopefuls seem to be racing in the opposite direction – disavowing their past support for policy measures on climate – even any sense that there’s a problem to be addressed.
Sheesh.
Sent June 19:
For all their fulsomely patriotic homilies, Republican presidential aspirants seem deeply reluctant to advocate anything that would restore America’s status as a leader in the world community. Instead, they offer tax cuts and an end to government regulation as universal panaceas, accompanying a vision of the future as myopic as it is dystopic. Since the climate-change crisis requires responsible action on multiple fronts, the GOP’s 2012 lineup prefers to deny that the problem exists, instead taking refuge in bizarre conspiracy theories and liberal-bashing tropes that play well to their anti-science, anti-tax base. A genuinely robust response to global warming is necessary to avoid catastrophic outcomes, and would give an enormous boost to our economy. The Republican platform? Stick our fingers in our ears, reject scientific expertise, and wait for free-market solutions to the laws of physics. Their version of American exceptionalism? We’re number one — when it comes to ignorance and irresponsibility!
Warren Senders
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs bhajan Marwari geet
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: M.L. Choudhury and Sunita Devi
Gradually moving through my complete collection of 78 rpm discs on Marwari Records, we come to the duet team of M.L. Choudhury and Sunita Devi, who perform a long piece in two parts. This is identified as a “Shiv Lila Bhajan.” I would welcome clarification of the nature of this music in the comments — any experts out there?
As always, I love, love, love that tiger!
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs Marwari geet
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Parvati and Party of Udaipur
More Marwari geets in the vivid low fidelity that appears characteristic of the output of “Marwari Records.” Parvati and Party get a nice groove going, and it is enjoyable to listen through the distortion to get a picture of what this music originally sounded like.
Lo-fi they may have been, but you’ve got to admit that Marwari Records had a damn cool label. I love the tiger, don’t you?
Listening to these 78 rpm discs is a wonderful experience. It’s like falling in love.
environment Politics: corporate irresponsibility extreme weather media irresponsibility United Nations
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 3: Painful.
The June 18 issue of the China Daily sounds an alarm:
Christiana Figueres, the official responsible for overseeing United Nations organized climate negotiations in Bonn, has admitted that a gap in enforcing the emission reduction regime is already unavoidable. Even if countries are willing to sign up to new reduction targets in December, they will still require legislative ratifications by governments around the world, which is unlikely to be completed by 2012.
The discrepancy between the stance adopted by developed and developing nations makes reaching an agreement extremely uncertain. While poor nations have put a high priority on renewing the Kyoto Protocol, some industrialized countries, such as Japan and Canada, have voiced a clear intention to walk away and build up a new architecture for global emission cuts, and the United States, the world’s largest economy and carbon polluter, did not ratify the protocol in the first place.
But the time we have to save the planet from the disastrous consequences of global warming is fast ticking away.
I have been thinking long and hard on the nature of our collective insanity these days. Not much fun. It would be nice to have more music.
Sent June 18:
In the year 3000, as humanity continues its fight to recover from the effects of a huge increase in atmospheric carbon a thousand years before, scholars of ancient history will be baffled by the inability of the world’s nations to act in a timely fashion to avert a grave catastrophe. They will look back and wonder, noting that we had ample notice of the consequences of the greenhouse effect; ample time to change our energy infrastructure, keeping millions of years’ worth of fossil carbon in the ground instead of burning it. They will shake their heads in amazement at the failure of our communications systems — at the globe-spanning media that remained focused on trivialities and gossip rather than a civilizational threat requiring concerted action. For all the technological and cultural accomplishments of this time in human history, we will probably be remembered, and reviled, for what we failed to do.
Warren Senders
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs Indian folk music Marwari geet
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Dhirasen of Jodhpur
My wife and I were in Udaipur in 2000, and we discovered a tiny little out-of-the-way junk shop that just happened to have a big stack of old 78 rpm discs for sale. I picked up as much as I could carry. None of the names were ones I recognized; these were all regional songs in Rajasthani, Marwari and Urdu.
Here are two Marwari songs by a lady about whom I know nothing, Dhirasen of Jodhpur. The distorted sound is on the disc; Marwari Records was obviously not a top-of-the-line operation.
I find these recordings mysteriously evocative.
environment Politics: American exceptionalism Bangladesh Bonn Conference Industrialized nations
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 2: We’re Number What?
The Bonn talks conclude today, June 17; Mexico and Papua New Guinea have a proposal on the table:
After years of incremental progress in U.N. climate talks, a proposal is on the table to change the rules.
The joint initiative from Mexico and Papua New Guinea is meant to break what some delegates call built-in deadlock, where a handful of nations — or even a single delegation — can stymie agreements.
The plan is to allow the 193 nations to adopt decisions by an “overwhelming” majority vote.
But the proposal faces Herculean obstacles from countries both large and small who jealously protect their power to influence, delay and ultimately block
I figured this was a good time to play the shame card, and I did it by exploiting the news that Bangladesh is amending its constitution to give its government the powers needed to address climate change. Unlike America, where we’re reluctant to admit that our government has any powers at all, unless it’s to bomb brown people or read our own citizens’ mail. Sheesh.
Sent June 17:
The appalling political stalemate on display at the Bonn Climate Conference is a demonstration of systemic failure on the part of our governing institutions; not just those of the United States, but of industrialized societies worldwide. The inability of the richest and most developed countries to take responsibility for the side-effects of their own successes is a grotesque object lesson for the rest of the world — especially those nations which have the most at stake in the battle against the effects of global heating. Nations like Bangladesh, which plans to amend its constitution to include a provision outlining the government’s responsibilities in addressing climate change. By seizing the initiative, the poorest and most vulnerable members of the international community have shamed the rest of the world. To be first of the nations where partisan gamesmanship has rendered meaningful policy essentially impossible is an especially tragic sort of American exceptionalism.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: scientific consensus wildfires
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 1: Who Burned Cock Robin?
When it comes to those disastrous forest fires (still raging as this is being written on June 16), the experts are reluctant to point the finger of blame:
The fires searing parts of the West are an eerie echo of the past, a frightening reminder of a once terrible danger that had been held largely at bay for decades.
The number of large wildfires has been rising for roughly the past 25 years, and they are lasting longer during fire seasons that also last longer.
Is it global warming? Experts won’t say that, pointing instead to a variety of factors, including weather, insect infestations and more people living and camping in the woods.
Fortunately, I’m not an expert.
Sent June 16:
The unwillingness of climatologists to assert that global climate change has caused the Arizona wildfires says a lot more about scientific integrity than it does about the way those conflagrations got started. Ethical and responsible scientists are reluctant to describe a complex situation in simplistic ways; a climate specialist who asserted direct causality between global warming and increased forest fires would be rightly criticized by his or her professional colleagues. But when we dig a little deeper (something our media often forgets to do), we discover that these same scientists have been predicting for decades that an accelerating greenhouse effect will create conditions likely to bring more frequent fires, floods, snowstorms, tornadoes, and any other extreme environmental event you can imagine. While professional responsibility prevents scientists from stating unambiguous causality, moral responsibility demands that our politicians stop wasting time on trivialities, and address the looming threat of catastrophic climate change.
Warren Senders