Are we going to let capitalism destroy life on Earth? According to 99% of climate scientists - we'll know by the end of the century.

Scientists have agreed for three decades about what is causing atmospheric temperatures to rise - humans are burning Earth's carbon resources to fuel economic activity. But even before we knew what was causing the temperature to rise - scientists warned about the dire global impacts of a two degree increase in atmospheric temperatures.

Earth's climate has been basically stable for hundreds of thousands of years. But that changed during the industrial revolution - when Great Britain realized the potential of coal-powered steam engines. Soon continental Europe and America followed suit.

And over 150 years later - coal, oil, and natural gas dominate the global politics and economics: wars are fought over oil; communities are destroyed for coal; and increasingly scarce water supplies are poisoned by natural gas extraction.

The Earth has already warmed about one degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels -which means we have to change our energy system completely before the Earth warms another degree in order to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Is it possible?

Scientists say "Yes!" - BUT it will require us to take bold and immediate steps towards a completely renewable energy system. The technology exists - the shortfall is in investment.

According to the IMF - oil companies get 5.3 trillion dollars in subsidies worldwide per year. And the oil companies pay only a portion - if any - of the environmental costs of ripping fossil fuels from the ground and burning the CO2 into the atmosphere.

In other words, every living human being and government are paying for coal, oil, and gas companies to profit from the destruction our planet. And that's not a market failure - that's how the market was set up. Capitalism as we know it isn't the solution - it's the problem.

In a report in "Nature Climate Change" - scientists point out that we can keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius - if every country takes bold and immediate action to deploy current clean energy and limit the use of fossil fuels. The biggest failure in our system is that there is no price on carbon. Burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon into our atmosphere has very real costs that corporations aren't paying for - costs that are being kicked down the road for future generations.

In America, we've let the fossil fuel industry become so profitable that it relentlessly funds campaigns and lobbies to keep oil subsidies in place and weaken environmental regulations - all at the expense of our communities and our planet.

Read more here.

-Thom

 

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... "More Action, Less Talk" in Cleveland (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

 

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

 

 

Need to Know: Crackdown on FIFA...can the banksters be next?
- America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire  

 

Screwed: "More Action, Less Talk" in Cleveland
- Benjamin Crump Esq., Parks & Crump, LLC/National Bar Association  
- Gianno Caldwell, Caldwell Strategic Consulting  

 

Big Picture Rumble:
- Patrick Hedger, American Encore    
- Sarah Badawi, Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC)    
- Kevin Martin, Project 21    

Community Square  

 "Ex-Reagan Advisor: Fox News is "Self-Brainwashing" Republicans into a Radical Fringe Party"  

  

Wednesday's Daily Stack 

Hour One: "More Action, Less Talk" in Cleveland
- Benjamin Crump Esq., Parks & Crump 

Article: "Tamir Rice family wants 'more action, less talk' on Cleveland police reform" by Cory Shaffer.

Site: Killed By Police.

Article: "Martin and Brown Attorney: Baltimore Prosecutor Shows Police Are Not Above the Law" by Benjamin Crump.

Article: "Martin and Brown Attorney: How Many More Videos Will It Take, America?" by Benjamin Crump.

Article: "What I Did After Police Killed My Son: Ten years later, we in Wisconsin passed the nation's first law calling for outside reviews." by Michael Bell.

Book: "Unequal Protection: The Battle to Save Democracy" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back" by Thom Hartmann - new updated version out now!

Article: "North Charleston police officer charged with murder after shooting man during traffic stop" by Mark Berman.

 

Article: "Tamir Rice family wants 'more action, less talk' on Cleveland police reform" by Cory Shaffer.

Article: "Fifa corruption inquiries: Officials arrested in Zurich" by BBC.

Article: "6 big U.S., U.K. banks to pay $5.6B in fines in foreign currency probe" by CBC News.

Article: "Exclusive: Lee Atwater's Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy" by Rick Perlstein.

Video: Sanders officially announces presidential campaign.

Article: "It's not your everyday Americans at Bernie Sanders' kickoff rally" by Jonathan Topaz.

Case: "Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896 (separate but equal).

CD: "Light Side: The Dark Side" by Dick Gregory.

Article: "The Bell Curve" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Watts riots" by Wikipedia.

Site: Bernie 2016  

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Hour Two: Who will protect us from GMOs?
- Justin Danhof, National Center for Public Policy Research 

Article: "Golden Rice Opponents Should Be Held Accountable for Health Problems Linked to Vitamin A Deficiency" by David Ropeik.

 

Article: "Glyphosate's Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases" by Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff.

Article: "GM food toxins found in the blood of 93% of unborn babies" by Sean Poulter.

Article: "Sanders Convenes Social Security Caucus" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "14th Amendment, July 9, 1868 (citizenship, representatives, public debt)

Article: "Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign has more support than Graham, Jindal, Fiorina and Kasich combined" by Philip Bump.

Quote: "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people" attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

Article: "Koch Brothers' Budget of $889 Million for 2016 Is on Par With Both Parties' Spending" by Nicholas Confessore.

Article: "Active Ingredient in Roundup Herbicide Is Probably Carcinogenic" by Mother Earth News.

 

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney 

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 5/27" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 5/26" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "137 Shots, No Convictions: Cleveland Cop Acquitted in Killing of Unarmed African-American Pair" by Democracy Now!

Article: "DoJ And FBI Charge FIFA Officials" by William McDonald.

Article: "Obama's immigration order strikes out at 5th Circuit" by Jennifer Rubin.

Article: "Supreme Court to Consider How to Calculate Size of Voting Districts" by Jess Bravin.

Article: "Cleveland, DOJ announce changes in police force" by Evan Perez.

Hour Three: Crackdown on FIFA...can the banksters be next?
- America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio (Ring of Fire now airing nightly on FSTV at 8:30pm ET...check local listings)  

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Article: "Qatar World Cup construction 'will leave 4,000 migrant workers dead'" by Robert Booth.

Law: "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act", 1970 (RICO).

Article: "Elizabeth Warren is winning: How the progressive icon is remaking politics - without running for president" by Elias Isquith.

Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956", August 20, 1956.

 

Article: "Meet the Latest Secret Free-Market Group That Wants to Take Over Your Public School" by Sarah Lahm.

Article: "Here's how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP bill" by C Robert Gibson and Taylor Channing.

Article: "Obama signs 'Monsanto Protection Act' written by Monsanto-sponsored senator" by RT, March 28, 2013.

Quote: "Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!" - Movie Speech: "Malcolm X" (1992).

Movie: The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

Movie: Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971).

Article: "Electoral fusion" by Wikipedia.

 

Case: "Brown v. Board Of Education", 1954 (Segregation in public schools) (overturned Plessy v. Ferguson).

Article: "United States Environmental Protection Agency", 1970 (EPA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Hillary Clinton Was the 11th Most Liberal Member of the Senate" by phenry.

Article: "Tammany Hall" by Wikipedia.

 

Article: "The 1997 law that limits compensation to victims of railway accidents" by Amel Ahmed.

Article: "Attorney General to Use Bank Settlement Cash to House Homeless" by Will Bredderman.

Article: "Kansas' Governor Destroyed The State Budget With Massive Tax Cuts And Now Kansans Are Paying The Price" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "Los Angeles Lifts Its Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour" by Jennifer Medina and Noam Scheibermay.

Article: "7 countries where Americans can study at universities, in English, for free (or almost free)" by Rick Noack.

Article: "Citing Soaring Student Debt, Sanders to Pitch Tuition-Free Higher Education" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "Today - Sen. Bernie Sanders Introduces Bills for Free Education And to Rebuild and Heal America with a Robin Hood Tax" by US Robin Hood Tax Campaign.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Has a Plan: Tax Wall Street and Make College Free" by John Nichols.

Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET 

 

I'll be talking with Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times Journalist / PBS Producer (Emmy) / Author of several books, latest Who Stole the American Dream

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

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Sincerely,