As President Obama tours the Arctic to raise awareness about global warming, we're getting new evidence about just how dire a situation our planet is in.

In preparation for this fall's big climate talks in Paris, 56 countries have come out with their own national targets for cutting greenhouse gasses.

And while a bunch of countries getting together and taking action against CO2 emissions certainly sounds like a good thing, there's a catch.

According to new data from the Climate Action Tracker, the targets those 56 countries have come out with would result in an atmospheric temperature rise of 3.1 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels by the end of the century.

Since the official goal of this year's climate talks is to prevent warming from exceeding the very dangerous level of 2 degrees Celsius, this means that the current national targets are, well, inadequate, to say the least.

That's a really big deal.

After we cross the 2 degrees Celsius tipping point, global warming will lock in with devastating consequences for every single living thing on this planet.

This could happen as soon as a few decades.

Michael Mann, a frequent guest on this program and one of the world's leading climate scientists, estimates that we only have until 2036 -- 21 years -- to prevent the Earth's temperature from warming to 2 degrees above where it was before we started using fossil fuels.

And here's the thing, even that 2 degree Celsius benchmark might be not be enough to hold off environmental devastation on a scale we haven't seen in millennia.

Two degrees Celsius warming is what the world's climate negotiators have decided is "possible" and "acceptable," but according to former NASA scientists James Hansen, even that little warming is a recipe for disaster.

He explained why in a recent interview with Australian radio.

Hansen now says we have to limit ourselves to 1 degrees Celsius warming - a number we're already dangerously close to reaching.

So time really is running out to save the planet.

At this point, there's really only one thing we can do to prevent a total climate catastrophe: we must keep carbon in the ground.

Read more here.

-Thom

 

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Both Obama and Shell Head For the Arctic (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

 

Big Picture Rumble:
- Charles Sauer, Economist/The Market Institute  
- Neil Sroka, Democracy for America    
- Horace Cooper, Attorney/National Center for Public Policy Research  

 

Green report: Both Obama and Shell Head For the Arctic
- Cassady Sharp, Greenpeace USA    

 

Best of the Rest: Does Windows 10 Include Spyware?
- Gaius Publius  

 

Community Square  

 "Another Disabled Person Abused By Police"  

  

Wednesday's Daily Stack 

Article: "Sen. Barbara Mikulski becomes 34th Democrat to support Iran deal" by Jake Miller.

Article: "Clinton is not only the smartest and the toughest person in the race... " by Howard Dean.

Article: "Tom Cotton Pledges To Stand With Netanyahu To Subvert American Foreign Policy" by Rmuse.

Article: "Black man is stopped by Ohio police for making 'direct eye contact' with officer" by Evan Bleier.

Documentary: The Forgotten Bomb.

Article: "DNC chair refuses to budge on debate schedule, despite pressure from party" by S.A. Miller.

Article: "Romney Is Horrified by Trump - and That's Restarting 'Mitt 2016' Talk" by Gabriel Sherman.

Article: "Reporters Scoff At James O'Keefe's Big New 'Scoop' To Destroy Hillary" by Tierney Sneed.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Law: "Telecommunications Act of 1996" by Wikipedia.

Site: Haaretz.

Article: "Obama renames Mount McKinley as Denali on eve of Alaska trip" by Josh Lederman and Mark Thiessen.

Article: "No, 'Denali' Is Not a Kenyan Word For 'Black Power'" by sufrommich.

Petition: "Remove Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, effective IMMEDIATELY, as chairwoman of the DNC, Democratic National Committee" by .

Article: "We Need to Talk About the Democratic National Committee Chairperson" by Charles P. Pierce.

Hour Two: Conservatives Blame #BlackLivesMatter For Cop Killings...?
- Carl Pittman, Project 21/ 

Article: "The number of police officers shot and killed is down this year, and half killed are black" by Shaun King.

Article: "A Perspective on Harris County Deputy's Death by a Project 21 Member Who Served with Him" by David W. Almasi.

Article: "The Deadliest Jobs in America" by Blkoomberg.

Site: Killed By Police.

Article: "Encyclical Letter: Laudato Si'" by Pope Francis.

Site: Interfaith Caucus.

Article: "Bernie Sanders: Laughing All The Way Through The Media Black Out" by Philip David Morton.

Article: "Wisconsin gave financial boost to firm using fetal tissue" by Jason Stein.

 

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Luke Vargas 

Article: "CNN Just Found A Way To Get Carly Fiorina Onto The Debate Stage" by Danielle Kurtzleben.

Article: "Judge orders Rowan clerk to appear in court Thursday after she again denies marriage licenses" by John Cheves.

Article: "Italy's Eni discovers huge gas field off Egyptian coast" by BBC.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 9/2" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 9/1" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Is the New Cold War Ramping Up?
- Professor Stephen Cohen, The Nation Magazine/Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives 

Article: "Ukraine crisis: Deadly anti-autonomy protest outside parliament" by BBC.

Article: "NATO kicks off naval drills in Black Sea with Ukraine" by RT.

Article: "Putin responsible for Ukraine violence caused by anti-Putin forces, Nicholson says" by David Pugliese.

Article: "Minsk Protocol", 5 September 2014.

Article: "Minsk II", 11 February 2015.

Article: "2 More Officers Die in Violent Protest Over Autonomy for East Ukraine" by Andrew E. Kramer.

Article: "The Interview: Henry Kissinger" by National Interest.

 

Article: "Trump Supporters Think Obama is A Muslim Born in Another Country" by PPP.

Article: "Kent State shootings" by Wikipedia.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia.

Book: The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi.

Movie: "The Prosecution of an American President".

Article: "Andrea Mitchell Desperately Tries to Make Bernie Sanders Criticize Hillary" by Matt Wilstein.

Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

 

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

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

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Thom

    

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