Dahr Jamail interviewed in NZ on abrupt climate change

Dahr Jamail: What will be the trigger to awaken the human species to the dire consequences of climate change?

Dahr Jamail is the chief environmental reporter for Truth-out.org - the large web-based news and current events site from the USA.

GreenPlanet FM

Dahr has been here in NZ checking on some of the key areas and tipping points’ within our localised ecology. The diminishing glaciers in the southern alps being very noticeable. The other being acidic oceans. Plus the strange weather patterns that are skewing the seasons of spring, summer and autumn.

A third of the permanent snow and ice of New Zealand’s Southern Alps has now disappeared, according to our new research based on National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Researchaerial surveys. Since 1977, the Southern Alps’ ice volume has shrunk by 18.4 km3 or 34%, andthose ice losses have been accelerating rapidly in the past 15 years.

Same for the Northern Hemisphere

Methane in the upper northern hemisphere is outgassing from the melting tundra. - in Russia, Canada and Alaska.

Permafrost is decaying rapidly not only in the arctic but right across the top of these northern countries.

Is the science letting humanity down?

There are 2,500 international scientists that are doing projections and they always work to the lowest common denominator. They play it conservatively. This is a problem as many of these scientists are Government scientists and they are beholden to their employers for their pay checks - they are frightened and will not tell the truth as it is.

The Great Barrier Reef

Looking at impacts of global warming and that the reefs wellbeing, recently in Australia and the Great Barrier reef is in trouble … remembering it is ‘an organism’ that due to human impact on the environment – we are causing changing environmental conditions that the reef is being ’bleached’ and there appears to be no end in sight. It is the largest coral event in the history of record keeping. The great barrier reef last year received over 90% of its entirety bleached with between 22% and 25% of it is now lost in one year.

Statistics are leading scientists to saying that by 2050 that 98% of coral reefs globally will be experiencing a ‘thermal stress event’- a bleaching event every single year.

25% of fish species are dependent on the life of a coral reef.

That if the water warms up on a reef and stays warm the coral dies but if it cools down again within- around 6 weeks – the reef will recover.

Already in the Caribbean sea we have already lost 90% of the entire coral reef system. Dahr has also just come from Guam and in the last 3 years they have lost 50% of their coral. So that is how fast it is happening.

The question is, why are the public not receiving this information?

Why is it that in the US, the media is run by basically 6 major corporations all straight jacketed into the vested corporate military banking industrial model – that censors by omission or just gives out fake news - ad nauseam.

The situation today is very serious!

How do we empower people? And emancipate them from the shackles of apathy and the psychological ‘it’s all too much’ - subjugation?

It’s all about connection … to nature and the cycles of nature – until more people go out deep into nature and have connection that is truly intimate – until they get it that we are an extension of our planet we are going to be scratching to get enough uptake to be the change that we wish to see in the world.

Because if humanity does not step up to the plate then near term extermination will come upon us.

If we do not have a clear map to see what is happening – how can we make the correct decisions?

Darhs credentials of putting himself on the line!

Having been in one of the sieges of Fallujah in Iraq, Darh came back with PTSD ‘post traumatic stress disorder’ and came to meet Joanna Macy http://www.joannamacy.net/aboutjoannamacy.html - who follows a Buddhist methodology in dealing with grief and loss and the psychological effect of tragedy - among many other ecological and peaceful matters. However he has been able come through this now, though it still has an affect on him.

Dahr says that not receiving correct and truthful news is a huge problem and that he had to get out of corporate America to obtain news outside their sphere of control and influence to learn the truth and what was really going on.

He said that he realised that the lies and distortions that the US engaged in and that it was involved in an illegal invasion of a sovereign country and broke countless Geneva conventions. However, if he read information coming from the United Nations or (at the time) the ‘Guardian’ or the ‘Independent’ in the UK he got a very different understanding. But where do we go today to get concise truthful information?

The truth about Climate Change

For Dahr states that this on going climate change and progressive warming is going to be the most important of issues especially for each successive day for the billions of inhabitant of our planet, period!

Dahr says this is huge, we are losing the biosphere in chunks and he only covered coral in this interview.

With the massive increase and release of pollutants into the atmosphere changing its composition and altering the chemistry of the oceans that we supposedly evolved from - to realise that our oceans will experience a collapse in fisheries due to overfishing and loss of habitat. Because one billion people derive sustenance from fish that live in and around coral reefs – where are they going to get their protein?

Look at the weather shifts especially the freezing weather winters in the North East USA. With massive fluctuations. Crops are being affected by this extreme situation – and bee pollination too.

In Africa

That in the last 2 months the UN states there are four countries now experiencing famine.

Previously there has been a lot of grain sent from the US to Africa to provide relief - And he is not sure if this will happen under the Trump administration. (I did not get the opportunity to ask if it was GMO grain? Tim) This is only one example of the knock on effect of food production that has to been grown every year to sustain so many lives.

When in Russia it was so warm recently that they had record setting, wildfires – thus the weather patterns has affected their grain growing and instead of being a grain exporter Russia have to keep it all for themselves – but the prices then go up – globally.

Dahr maintains that even the Arab spring is all related directly or indirectly to climate disruptions …

That it was a vegetable vendor in Tunisia setting himself alight – it was an act of self-immolation as a symbolic act because people could not afford to pay for food. Because of drought caused by climate disruption. Dahr states that the same happened in Egypt – people could not afford to eat – Mubarak did nothing and this ignited a situation where he was overrun and his regime fell. Same for Syria – drought affected Syrian farmers that in the end walked off the land into the cities affecting the demographics with poor people igniting an insurrection that lead to Syria erupting in environment. (Tim, there was another component that I did not have time to question and that was a week after 911 in the US, where General Wesley Clark whilst visiting the Pentagon after the twin towers imploded – was told by another army general that the US was going to topple 7 other regimes in the Mediterranean arc - ending with Iran – that for reasons unknown - happened at the same time?). And look what it has devolved into now ….

Critical Information

Dahr, says that if there is one piece of information that he wants to bring home to everyone – “that it is happening now!”

That we cannot fall back on the default that there is still time – or that we can mitigate it or there is still this window … that is is just not true that a lot of governments today (including the NZ government) are banking on this lie.

That we, (the governments) refuse to jettison the fossil fuel economy because of all the strings that have entangled us into this all encompassing, octopus - that envelops the global economy. And though Dahr, feels we are already too late, by jettisoning fossil fuel tomorrow – that would be a starting point.

Tim then says that NZ’s challenge is that we have no politician of note or business person of prestige - who stands head and shoulders above all the other leaders in their field - prepared to speak truth to power relating to the climate change that we are pretending will go away – this is mainly due to the complete disconnect from the cycles of air, water and food production that our planet provides us.

Dahr wants people to halfway through reading any of his books – put it down and walk out into nature wherever you may be – the park, among trees, out in the bush, wade into a river, hike a hill or mountain trail – to just surrender to the elements and drop out of our head and into our heart - that 12 inches of descent into our chest cavity to where our heart pumps oxygen around our body temple. Just make the connection to the sacredness of not only our body – but to the earth that supports under the soles of our feet. To be thankful and grateful that we have an ecology that nourishes us. More so that we are not yet being scorched by the heat of the sun’s searing heat, or being in a war ravaged village or city in the throes of terror.

So with an emersion back into nature – for only when ‘we’ - the collective ‘we’ realise our connection and for a moment in time breathing in that sacredness of that ‘presence of being’.

To reflect that, for example in the US at present – people will not be able to petition those in power to bring about the appropriate change.

People Power at Grass Roots is the Only Way Possible.

Changing from the inside.

We have to get in touch with our own grief to recognise what is happening. In Dahr’s case he had been to war ravaged Iraq and had 5 assignments and had been in Fallujah during one of the sieges and witnessed first hand a lot of US war crimes upon women, children, babies - horrible things

And when he came back to the States he was suffering from PTS - Post Traumatic Stress disorder that Joanna Macy, out of the US says - that we need to get in touch with our grief. However Dahr was at that stage still extremely angry and did not know that he was in grief and couldn’t get in touch with anything as he could not feel much else. Then Dahr says that this, at another level is what so many people in the States are suffering from today - also - because of their exposure to yet another news flash of what preposterous things are happening within the USA be it economic, political, ecological or war.

When we need to look at gratitude and look at where we are, and the amazing place where we live – look at the good people that we have in our lives and the things that we can be grateful for and secondly we need to look squarely and honestly to exactly see what is going on. Plus, how progressed we are on theses destructive paths.

We have to realise that we have already lost large areas of ecosystems. Such as by 2100, Mt Everest may have hardly any glaciers on it. Same for Western Canada the glaciers will be no more. Sci fi movies have not gone there yet, - however we are in it and with the recently rain and flooding in Auckland largest city, (March 2017) we are witnessing climate change first hand.

He says that we have to not only get it intellectually – but also be emotionally engaged – this is where we experience what we are collectively doing to our great sustainer, our planet. We need to feel everything that goes with this … the rage at the people responsible – the rage at our own blindness to it until now – the sadness at what is being lost and the grief and despair and the feelings of powerlessness as to what has been happening - and finally from this place we can start to see things a lot more clearly and finally reconcile with the fact as to what actions do I need to now take.

Listen to Dahr as he takes the next steps …

That it is not an intellectual discussion any more – he says we have all the data – it is how do we take that incredibly long journey from the head to the heart – 25 centimetres and this is where he is writing his book - on the state of our planet and biosphere.

Finding a place of solace – and cherishing that place and caring for it, and making sure it remains because what happens when that place is gone? Then, what you can do to make sure that this natural beauty is here for the long term – our children … perpetuity - it’s about what is offered to us freely - clean air – pure water – a healthy food chain …

Joanna Macy’s work … called ‘the future beings’ is an exercise. She breaks the workshop into half. With one half of the group are here in present day and the other half are 200 years in the future – but the 1st assumption is that there are beings 200 years into the future and our planet has no more ice in the arctic – not much in the Antarctic and Greenland is basically a puddle Ocean levels are 100 feet higher and parts of our planet look like Mad Max. Sitting in front of you is a person who is huddled in a small community somewhere on our planet that is still habitable, endeavouring to survive as a species.

And to the group that is in today – we still have much of our biosphere basically intact – ice though retreating is still here in both poles and a good part of the great barrier reef is still present. But, what are you doing?

Listen to how Dahr responds when faced with confronting the refugees of 200 years into the future … Hint – a small act now can make a huge difference in the future – (A stitch in time saves nine). That NZ can be the trim-tab factor for our planet – per Buckminster Fuller). 

Intent comes up and following through on doing what is best for the greater consciousness – in bettering the whole … being fully alive.

Tim’s critique

At present there are collectively tens of thousands of scientists who know that we are racing off the cliff, however they are not prepared to put their money where their research is showing them.

They do not want to collectively put a miserly 10 thousand dollars, from their own well-off pocket into a collective kitty to enable a couple of million dollars be put into a greater fund for a number of really hard hitting, high quality documentaries that tell it - as it is.

But, more so to empower us to action as the seed of this living planet ‘Gaia’ and show that we can wake up and flower as a race if we only tapped into our inner potential. (See Tom Campbell).

Do we have to leave it up to a movie star, Leonardo DiCaprio, and his timely movie ‘After the Flood’ to wake up the world? What are these scientists doing with their money. What are these billionaires that seem to be a dime a dozen - what are they doing with their money? Why are they not financially supporting the evidence and doing the right thing?

I would also like to mention that New Zealander Kevin Hester was instrumental in bringing Dahr Jamail to NZ and it has been Kevin’s unrelenting drive to keep this urgent climatic subject in the news here in New Zealand.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22521-climate-disruption-dispatches-with-dahr-jamail

What we are also up against: 
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/28/arctic-researcher-donald-trump-deleting-my-citations

Dahr Jamail is the chief environmental reporter for Truth-out.org - the large web-based news and current events site from the USA.

An award winning writer of books such as:

THE MASS DESTRUCTION OF IRAQ
THE DISINTEGRATION OF A NATION: WHY IT IS HAPPENING, AND WHO IS RESPONSIBLE

THE WILL TO RESIST
SOLDIERS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

BEYOND THE GREEN ZONE
DISPATCHES FROM AN UN-EMBEDDED JOURNALIST IN OCCUPIED IRAQ