Posts tagged President Barack Obama
And the 2012 Rubber Dodo Award goes to…Climate-change Denying Senator James Inhofe
Oct 26th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Environmental News
TUCSON, Ariz.— Senator James Inhofe, one of Congress’ staunchest deniers of climate change and stalwart human obstacle to federal action on this unprecedented global crisis, is the lucky recipient of the Center for Biological Diversity’s 2012 Rubber Dodo Award, which is given annually to those who have done the most to drive endangered species extinct. Previous winners include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2011), former BP CEO Tony Hayward (2010), massive land speculator Michael Winer (2009), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2008) and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (2007). When it comes to denying the climate crisis — the single-greatest threat now facing life on Earth — James Inhofe has few peers. The Oklahoma Republican is the ringleader of anti-science climate-deniers in Congress and a driving force behind the tragic lack of U.S. action to tackle this complex problem. 2012 saw the publication, to resoundingly little critical acclaim, of Sen. Inhofe’s book, The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, by WND Press, an entity also known for its “birther” campaign against President Barack Obama. “As climate change ravages the world, Senator Inhofe insists that we deny the reality unfolding in front of us and choose instead to blunder headlong into chaos,” said Kierán Suckling, the Center’s executive director. “Senator Inhofe gets the 2012 Rubber Dodo Award for being at the vanguard of the retrograde climate-denier movement.” This year is on track to become the warmest on record; some 40,000 temperature records have been broken in the United States in 2012 alone, while Arctic sea ice has melted to a record low. The year has also seen record droughts, crop failures, massive wildfires, floods and other unmistakable signals that manmade global warming is tightening its grip, threatening people and wildlife around the globe. “Senator Inhofe’s pet theory that climate change is an elaborate hoax would be hilarious, if only he weren’t an elected representative of the American people,” Suckling said. “If he were, say, a performance artist, it’d be really funny. But sadly he has the power to affect U.S. climate policy. The United States has a chance — and a duty — to take significant steps to slow the climate crisis, and a brief window of time before it’s too late for us to do so. Deniers like Inhofe, in positions of leadership, are dooming future generations of people to a far more difficult world.” More than 15,000 people cast their votes in this year’s Rubber Dodo contest. Other official nominees were Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who put a rider on a must-pass bill that stripped Endangered Species Act protection from wolves, and Shell Oil, a company bound and determined to pursue dangerous oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Background on the Dodo Its trusting nature led to its rapid extinction. By 1681 the dodo was extinct, having been hunted and outcompeted by humans, dogs, cats, rats, macaques and pigs. Humans logged its forest cover while pigs uprooted and ate much of the understory vegetation. The origin of the name dodo is unclear. It likely came from the Dutch word dodoor, meaning “sluggard,” the Portuguese word doudo, meaning “fool” or “crazy,” or the Dutch word dodaars meaning “plump-arse” (that nation’s name for the little grebe). The dodo’s reputation as a foolish, ungainly bird derives in part from its friendly naiveté and the very plump captives that were taken on tour across Europe. The animal’s reputation was cemented with the 1865 publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Based on skeleton reconstructions and the discovery of early drawings, scientists now believe that the dodo was a much sleeker animal than commonly portrayed. The rotund European exhibitions were accidentally produced by overfeeding captive birds. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. |
President Obama weekly TV address from Colorado Fire
Jul 1st
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Fires, Floods, Snow extremes
“President Barack Obama intends to publish a weekly video address every Saturday morning of his presidency.
Weekly Address: An All-Hands-On-Deck Approach to Fighting the Colorado Wildfires
President Obama speaks to the American people from Colorado, where he toured areas impacted by the devastating Waldo Canyon fire and met with first responders as well as families affected by the fires. The President thanks the brave firefighters and countless volunteers who are providing food, water, and shelter to those in need, and makes clear that his administration will continue to bring all resources available to assist efforts to combat the fires.”
Peace Corps director to visit CU Jan. 25
Jan 24th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in CU News
Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams will give a short presentation at the University of Colorado Boulder on Wednesday, Jan. 25, to share stories of CU alumni who are currently serving overseas and discuss the importance of the Peace Corps in the world today.
The presentation will begin at 1:30 p.m. in Old Main Chapel and is free and open to the public.
Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009, Williams is the 18th director of the Peace Corps and the fourth director to have served as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Williams served as a volunteer from 1967 to 1970. He served two years in a training program for rural teachers in Monte Plata, Dominican Republic, and then extended his service for a third year to work as a professor of teaching methods at the Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in Santiago, Chile. After completing his service, he became coordinator of minority recruitment and project evaluation officer for the Peace Corps in Chicago from 1970 to 1971.
For the first time in its history, CU-Boulder was ranked No. 1 in the nation for graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers last year with 117 undergraduate alumni serving around the world. Overall, CU-Boulder is ranked the No. 5 all-time school for volunteers with 2,369.