Boston’s bill for climate change is coming due

Clearly the sight of a dumpster floating down the street in the Fort Point district last January made a lot of Bostonians all too aware that the realities of climate change have become part of their world.

A man walks through a flooded sidewalk off Congress
Street, where water was flowing over from Fort
 Point Channel in the Seaport District on March 2.

“The fact is climate change is already here,” Mayor Marty Walsh told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce this week where he introduced his plan for Resilient Boston Harbor to deal with the city’s 47-mile coastline and the diverse neighborhoods that line it.

“This is about prevention,” he told reporters at an earlier briefing. “We have a lot of different pieces all over the place. This brings it all together.”

Read the Editorial from The Boston Globe - “Boston’s bill for climate change is coming due.”

Robert Manne - using his voice to help people better understand climate change

When Robert Manne was diagnosed with throat cancer he faced a stark choice: have his voice box removed, or die. 

Robert Manne - using his voice to help
people better understand climate change.

A leading public intellectual, he thought at first he’d rather die than spend his life unable to speak. 

But now he’s back in the public domain - and still has plenty to say.

And speaking up he certainly is - Professor Manne has declared that his task from now is to do all he can to help Australian’s understand the realities of climate change.

Robert Manne is an Emeritus Professor of politics and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and is considered by many as leading Australian public intellectual.

He was interviewed on the ABC’s “One Plus One” program by Jane Hutcheon.

Grasping the reality that is climate change is a 'bridge too far' for many

Intellectually grasping the reality of climate change is simply a “bridge too far” for many.

Mentally aligning yourself with the injuries our atmosphere has suffered at the hand of humans demands the surrendering of some fanciful beliefs mostly taken on, almost unknowingly, to preserve values allowing for a life that careful analysis has shown are beyond earth’s capacities to provide.

Science is almost a dirty word and even simple realities appear eschewed from the minds of many.

A report from the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science notes that “1 in 4 Americans thinks the sun goes around the earth, survey says”.

Scott Neumann reports on “The Two Way” for NPR that many Americans believe the sun goes around the earth and not the other way.

Light hearted look at the scary realities

Allow yourself fewer than 11 minutes to watch this SciShow video that provides a light-hearted and yet scary look at the realities of climate change.