How do we know humans are heating up the planet? This excellent, easy to understand explanation, demonstrates how climatologists study and analyze global warming. It is not magic, sleight of hand or wishful thinking. Our rapidly warming planet is not due to a "natural" increase. See Global Warming.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's swimming naked.
(Warren E. Buffett)

I think the answer is we all are swimming naked now, even the plutocrats.

What if the “lumpenproleteriat” decided it was time for piano wire and meat hooks and took the elevator up to the corporate penthouse suite? No, it would not be glorious, romantic or bring about the American utopia, anything but. Yet what are we stumbling toward right now?

This past week some 150 businesses from Midwestern states met with officials in Washington, D.C. to push for new climate and energy policies.

A question raised was, “whether or not the U.S. will be a worldwide leader in the next global industry, green technologies.”

Of course the proof, in South Korea or anywhere else, is what concrete actions are taken to demonstrate real change.

But the U.S. has some reason to be concerned if countries in Asia as well as in Europe start to get serious about climate change and energy alternatives. We could be left way behind if we are unable to keep up, compete, and produce an educated workforce.

Will we Americans still be yapping that global warming is a hoax and the fossil fuel industry cannot be inconvenienced? For that matter will we end up being grateful for any sort of work we can find?

C'mon, a comic book that has Bertrand Russell, who grabbed my attention in my senior year of college, talking to Kurt Godel and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The authors are Christos H. Papadimitriou and Apostolos Doxiadis. In this case we ought not to be afraid of Greeks bearing gifts.

Whether or not this works in explaining the abstruse ideas of some of the best minds in the 20th century remains to be seen. It's worth finding out.

Another reason why a literate society is important and has some understanding of basic science.

Only in a dysfunctional society would this story not be a pure work of fiction. Access to affordable health care is a right--and makes really good business sense.

Each day this private health care obscenity continues in the U.S., the less likely we'll recover from much of anything, but we will move closer to becoming a "failed state," which is how we once referred to countries in the third world.

Be optimistic
(Buzz Holling, father of resilience theory)

It's easy enough to blame the public's apathy about climate change on all the confusion sown by the denial crowd and their frequent misrepresentation of facts. Unfortunately, the complexity of climate change is sufficiently “complex” with or without climate denialists.

It is also easy to become skeptical about how soon we can actually transition into alternative energy. It seems to me that one reason for the skepticism is that the “green” solutions were oversold in the beginning.

Yes, of course, it's a manipulation of facts. In this case it is brought to you by a couple of well-heeled fossil fuel executives that wish to prevent the arrival of the 21st century.

It's not the general public they really hope to enlighten but to remind our elected representatives where their money comes from.

Granted, some of our politicians don't understand climate change or realize how greenhouse gases work in the atmosphere and these folks won't need a lot of convincing. All in all it is merely a couple of American patriots expressing their right to "free speech."