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  • If the entire industrialized world does not act within the next few years, the Class of 2099 will think the effects of global climate destabilization are as natural as earthquakes are to us today.

  • The United States and Europe, as major contributors of greenhouse gas in the past 150 years, must set clear measures to curb their emissions by 25% by 2012 and 80% by 2020. We need to take drastic measures to roll out at wartime-level pace infrastructure that will allow us to transition towards a carbon-free economy in the next couple decades.

  • Mainland China will soon be the biggest emitter of CO2 per annum, but the United States and Europe are still the largest contributors of CO2 as a whole. Carbon emissions from the 19th Century are still present and the heat that the oceans have trapped will continue to be released for hundreds of years to come. If we do not act in the next couple years, we might as well do nothing at all.

  • *** ''Science FICTION'' novel takes on real CLIMATE issues: FREE

    E-COPY AVAILABLE HERE - PRESS RELEASE!!!

    Hi Professor!

    Thought YOU and your some of YOUR colleagues in the climate community

    might enjoy

    reading POLAR CITY RED

    . a new sci-fi cli-fi NOVEL set in a climate-rocked Alaska of 2080

    A.D. not so far away as all that, and yet far enough away

    as to be pure fiction. I can send you a free e-book of POLAR CITY RED

    by Okalhoma author Jim Laughter (his real name) if you want one.

  • Comment removed

  • 9000 hits and then on to 10,000 - but does this speech make any diffference? Why are people coming here?

  • ''Hi Dan. I looked HERE at your Youtube graduation speech to the class of 2099. -- Moving stuff. -- I try to stay optimistic but people have been encouraged, almost hypnotised, to become stupider and greedier at least since the 1950s when advertising and marketing really started to take off.''

    --

    Nick Palmer

    ''On the side of the Planet - and the people - because they're worth it''

    Blogspot - "Sustainability and stuff according to Nick Palmer"

    nickpalmer

  • SEX BY LOTTERY

    Imagine it's the year 2100 and human reproduction is controlled by a

    lottery. That's part of the premise of a new sci-fi book by Jim

    Laughter, and it's scary.

    he is worried about the

    future holds, and he

    has turned his imagination over to his fears. "I’ve put my heart into this new book,” Laughter says. “It’s for my

    four grandkids. I hope it helps to wake the world up, too!'

  • "Polar City Red" is a book about climate change, mass migrations

    north, polar cities, reproduction by lottery.

    "I am approaching the story as a family man concerned about the future

    of our planet. If my sci-fi story can reach a small audience at first

    and later reach an even greater readership worldwide in translation,

    I’ll be happy," he says.

  • Laughter says ”Polar City Red” is just a good old-fashioned yarn for

    the average lay person, but adds: “Hollywood screenwriters might want

    to take a peek, too. It’s the day after ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ but

    based on global warming rather than global cooling. I think a

    visionary film director could have a field day with this. As for theme

    of human reproduction by lottery, you'll have

    to read the book to find out.”

  • Sci-fi and cli-fi fans will likely be the first and most avid readers

    of “Polar City Red” since it’s set in a “Mad Max” kind of climate

    dystopia in Alaska in 2080 A.D. -- the not so distant future. One

    might think of it as a marriage between Mel Gibson’s “Mad Max”

    franchise and Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The

    Road.”

    Laughter’s book is just an old-fashioned cli-fi yarn, so there’s

    nothing to be afraid of.

  •  Andy and Everyone here: I asked a top sci fi writer in North America, a woman: [What if we

    continue down the road we're already on?]

    She replied: Danny, in that case, species collapse. The earth is not infinitely expandable.

    I asked: How slippery is the slope?

    She replied: Slippery!

    I asked: What are our saving graces?

    She replied: Inventiveness and problem solving; the empathy platform, see deWaal.

    I asked: Who's got the will to stop us?"

    She replied: Us!

  • dan -

    can you send me a copy of your ebook (text format) for reference? i dont have an ereader

    Be Resourceful, Protect the Earth: A Virtual Graduation Speech to the Class of 2099.

    thanks!

  • leigh, what is moldova and where can find it?

  • This video is popular on Moldova

  • WHERE WILL YOU BE IN 2099?

  • 9000 soon

  • James Lovelock, the scientist behind the Gaia Theory, has long

    asserted the only hope for transitioning away from fossil fuels and

    keeping a modern society alive lies with nuclear power — lots of it —

    and not renewables. In the wake of Japan’s post-earthquake/tsunami

    Fukushima disaster, and the subsequent decision by countries like

    Germany to abandon nuclear energy development, that strategy’s looking

    a lot less likely.

  • While 19 percent and growing is good, going cold-turkey on fossil

    fuels is not an option yet. But could it ever be? In his 2006 book,

    Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning, Guardian columnist George

    Monbiot conducted a lengthy thought experiment on what each sector of

    our global economy would look like without oil. His conclusion: modern

    life could go on, though with some serious constraints … and

    conveniences like air travel would be no more.

  • And then there’s the fact that much of our oil

    comes from troubled parts of the world, and that sudden supply chain

    disruptions are both possible and potentially devastating.

    The good news is that renewable energy is now the fastest-growing part

    of our energy mix, with double-digit expansion in recent years of both

    wind and solar energy. In fact, renewables already provide more than

    19 percent of the world’s electricity.

  • Why ask? Well, first, the signs of accelerating climate change —

    costly weather-related disasters, stresses on marine life and growing

    releases of long-trapped methane — are becoming harder to ignore.

    Second, as the IEA and other organizations repeatedly remind us, “the

    age of cheap energy is over”: while there’s still lots of oil to be

    had, our reliance on ever-more marginal sources like deepwater

    deposits and tar sands means the happy motoring days of $2 gallon

    gas are gone for good.

  • Could we quit fossil fuels for good?

    Published Friday, 23rd December 2011

    Coal, oil and natural gas helped power the Industrial Revolution, and

    make life as we know it today possible. But there are plenty of

    increasingly compelling reasons for us to try and quit the fossil fuel

    habit. The question is: Is that even possible?

  • 12 likes, 14 dislikes.....WHY WOULD ANYONE DISLIKE THIS SPEECH? Dish....

  • As Tuvalu goes, so goes the world....

  • locating Haluna Kitazoe in Japan....

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  • Staffan in Sweden, in his early 60s, wrote: "Interesting and lots of food for thought, well done Danny!"

  • 8808....on to 10,000

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  • Connie and I watched your video performance and decided that you definitely have “presence.” The more we watched, the more we believe you are on to something here. BRAVO

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  • onward to 10,000 and year 2099......

  • 7000 !!!

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  • 6000 mark today, two years after putting video up here. Here's to the 10,000 mark in 2012. and 1 million hits by 2099?

  • With Earth Hour on March 26 approaching, I have joined thousands of climate activists around the world who want to do their small bit to “protect the Earth” from environmental and climate damage as air and water pollution and excessive carbon emissions start to make a real mess of things.

  • CCU senior Aremac Chuang (莊知耕) produced a four-minute YouTube video titled “A Graduation Speech to the ‘Class of 2099’ on Climate Change and Tightening the Noose around Coal” and filmed it in the communications department’s blue-wall studio, with National Taiwan University (NTU) British exchange student Deanne Laforet writing a translation in Chinese on a separate blog.

  • People in Taiwan will be observing Earth Hour that day along with citizens of more than 150 other nations, including big polluters China, India and the US. Here in southern Taiwan, a group of students at National Chung Cheng University (CCU) in Chiayi have made a short video about the need to “tighten the noose around coal and oil in the coming decades — or else!”

  • Some people think that symbolic days or events such as Earth Day or Earth Hour don’t amount to a hill of beans and accomplish very little in terms of reversing the harm human beings have been doing to our planet.

    However, many activists believe that there is power in numbers and that more people participating year-by-year will help bring an end to the political apathy that seems to rule in capitals from Taipei to Washington and Beijing to Paris.

  • Life today is wonderful and Taiwan is on a nice trajectory in its history as a nation of 23 million people, but what will life be like in Taipei in 90 years, when the NTU class of 2099 graduates? It’s something to ponder on March 26 as Earth Hour is observed here and worldwide.

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  • As a society, we need to reconceptualize our relationship to the atmosphere. From that reconceptualization, a whole range of policy implications will emerge.

    Once we adopt the perspective that it is unacceptable to use the atmosphere as a sewer, we will address issues related to all sorts of emissions: sulfur, black carbon, methane, carbon dioxide, etc.

  • If we are to live on this planet for the long haul without transforming it into what seems like an entirely different planet, we will need to come to the understanding that we can no longer use the atmosphere as a dumping ground for the waste products of modern industrial civilization.

    The scale of our civilization has simply become too large relative to the scale of our atmosphere to go on considering the atmosphere to be effectively infinite.

  • " In contrast, if we eliminated carbon dioxide emissions but did nothing about methane and black carbon emissions, threats posed by long-term climate change would be markedly reduced.

    While this issue of addressing long-lived vs. short-lived drivers of climate change is often posed as a dichotomy, there is a unifying perspective:''

  • Ken Caldiera more: We are concerned about the effect of methane and black carbon primarily because they are exacerbating the threats posed by carbon dioxide.If we eliminated emissions of methane and black carbon, but did nothing about carbon dioxide we would have delayed but not significantly reduced long-term threats posed by climate change.

  • PS. I am reminded of Tom Lehrer’s comment about life: Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

  • Ken Caldeira who studies climate, carbon and energy at Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution, writres a really nice synthesis view on CO2 and other greenhouse substances worth appending here: If carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases were not building up in the atmosphere, we would not be particularly worried about the climate effect from the short-lived gases and aerosols.

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  • Chinese philanthropist Chen Guangbiao and his wife and two

    sons sport climate-awarness and environmentally-sensitive names [and

    nicknames]

    aand says he

    is very environmentally conscious. One of his sons is named “Huanjing”

    or “Environment,” and another son is named “Huanbao” or “Environmental

    Protection." In addition, Mr Chen's nickname is .

    "Chen Ditan,” or “Low Carbon Chen,” and his wife's name is Zhang Luse,

    which means “Zhang green.”

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  • Amazing video. Check out our upcoming documentary showing how you can get off your arse and change the world. Just do it!

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  • Sunbury Press in Pennsylvania releases ebook of this YouTube speech full texxt, google title now on amazon or barnes noble: "Be Resourvceful, Protect the Earth"

  • If nothing else, this speech should resonate well with everyone who is

    in on the fight against climate change and global warming. There is no

    agenda here, other than to serve as a warning call, a wake up call, an

    alarm clock alert, that we need to tighten the noose around coal and

    oil as soon as possible, in ways that are economically feasible and

    enivornmentally sustainable.

  • "Danny Bloom ... is on a one-man campaign to get people to seriously

    consider a worst-case prediction of the British chemist and inventor

    James Lovelock: life in “polar cities” arrayed around the shores of an

    ice-free Arctic Ocean in a greenhouse-warmed world."

    -- Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times

  • Danny Bloom's "Be Resourceful, Protect the Earth" eBook single released by Sunbury Press

  • Soon to be an ebook from a publisher in Pennsylvania, same title, with hot link to this video in the book too. Priced around US$2.99

  • no i mean oblivion, DarthMaul....there is NO afterlife. that is part of the problem!

  • Passed into oblivion? You mean the afterlife, surely. I assume there will be a world federal government based on free market capitalism and limited government by 2099. I'm not sure what people will think about global warming in 2099. It may be a matter of concern, or it will no longer preoccupy people as the scientific opinion changes.

  • over the 5,000 mark now. TIME for a book editor to come forward and start negotiations for a gift book based on this speech, with illustrations, 44 pages or so.

  • Continued from previous

    Similarly, the beginning of December is not the start of the new year. There was no year zero, there is no month zero and no month begins with day zero. On 2010 September 24 at 5:00 am, the 201st decade had lasted for 9 years, 8 months 23 days and 5 hours. Naming periods and measuring duration are two different things.

    Other clever dicks have used date formats such as ccyy/mm/dd, either mad or oblivious to the fact that year 2010, in the 21st century, becomes 2110.

  • The statement about the 22nd century overlooks the fact that 2099 does not end the 21st century, so named because it ends with the year 2100, but heralds the start of the 100th and therefore last year of that century. Yes, the world did celebrate the roll-over from 1999 to 2000 and erroneously referred to it as the start of the new (3rd) millennium, which only began a year later, when the end of the year 2000 ended the 2nd millennium. (continued ...)

  • ''Video would be stronger with better visuals than the lyrics (some newspaper headlines, front pages, personalities, etc.). ''' -- SB says

  • and CNN iReport by Joe Seydewitz is here: The speaker is American climate activist Danny Bloom, appearing against a blue screen as a v... A Graduation Speech to the "Class of 2099" and of coruse 2010....on Climate Change and Tightening the Noose around Coal

  • said martin in taipei today:

    ''I like it! ......May future earthizens look back at how well they

    turned things around!''

  • Global Warming Solution: Polar Cities in Alaska, Canada, Russia....Climate Refuges Might Also Flee to New Zealand and Tasmania....

    ....

  • @songsterhiragana: I assume you refer to 'climate refugees'; if the melting icecap causes oceans to rise, there may not be much of New Zealand left.

  • Fact! In the last 10 years the global temperture has gone down by 0.05% You may ask, how does he or she know that? Well if you go to your government meterology website and gather all the global satillite temperture observations of the earth, in the past ten years, then plot the data through a least squares linear regression trend, (graph), you will see that there has been virtually zero fluctuations in global tempertures in the past 10 years, fact. For here ends the lesson! Is this guy for real

  • Moving stuff

  • Copenhagen meetings Dec. 8-18, 2009, what will come after? Did you see the movie THE ROAD yet or earlier CITY OF EMBER? 2099 is not so far away....

  • Carol told me: "Hi, Dan, I watched your lecture to the future when you posted it on Kunstlercast and re-watched it again. It was great; however, I think if we have not done anything now, then there won't be any humans in the year you speak to them." [Danny says: YOU ARE RIGHT, Carol, we need to act NOW. NOW! TODAY!]

  • Mary Susan MacDonald, Canadian cartoonist in Toronto, did a good cartoon on this theme too, titled "Tightening the noose....around fossil fuels", worth googling for on her website... Thanks, Mary!

  • 2500 views as of today, a small minor milestone of sorts. Onward little vid

  • Judy Lowe, writing in the Christian Science Monitor online paper, blogs on this video and concldues: "....the video, which is squarely aimed at the Class of 2009. (Will we still be arguing over fossil fuels 90 years from now?) ...What interests me about Blooms efforts is the idea of looking into the future to try to see what it might hold for the next generations. What do you think Earth will be like in 2099? And why?" [ LEAVE COMMENTS ABOVE....]

  • "There was no one left to hear me" -- a climate change poem

    by Anonymous (1949 - 2006)

    "When the ozone hole was reported to be getting larger year by year

    I remained silent because I thought the ozone hole had nothing to do with me

    and I did not drive a huge gas-guzzling SUV

    When the Arctic ice was reported to be melting more each

    summer, year after year

    I remained silent because I thought the Artic Sea ice melt had nothing

    to do with me

    and I did not drive a huge gas-guzzling SUV

  • When glaciers around the world, from Alaska to Switzerland to the

    Himalayas were reported to be shrinking year by year

    I remained silent because I thought the gradual receding of these

    glaciers had nothing to do with me

    and I did not drive a huge gas-guzzling SUV

  • When the parts per million levels of CO2 were reported to be getting

    larger decade by decade, far exceeding the 350 ppm level that was said

    to be where we needed to be,

    I remained silent because I thought the growing CO2 ppm levels had

    nothing to do with me

    and I did not drive a huge gas-guzzling SUV

  • ...

    When the canaries in the coal mines of climate change were reported to

    be falling silent decade by decade, I remained silent because I

    thought the death of the canaries in the coal mines had nothing to do

    with me

    and I did not drive a huge gas-guzzling SUV

  • ...

    Eventually there was no one left on Earth except me, but I still

    remained silent because I thought that it would be useless to speak

    out about how humankind was destroying our natural home -- the Earth

    -- because there was no one left to hear me.

    And I was right.

  • "Danny, I just listened to this YouTube video. I really appreciate all that you put ino making it. I am not as familiar with all the issues as you are, and in fact I am not even talking so much about the content. What rang out for me is your sincerity, your kindness, and your immense concern for people (living now and living then). ..." -- BJL, a Tufts in the Sixties graduate

  • Won't we all be dead by 2099? If it's such a "crisis" what is the point of this video? Wasn't it a "crisis" in 1976? Wait a moment, back in '76 they were telling us the "New Ice Age" was coming, and that was a crisis! What's next, Manbearpig?

  • All of this practically guarantees the worst case scenarios-because

    nobody's looking for any ways of stopping them.

  • but convince them so vehemently to give in to despair that they would rather

    shout down anyone who even proposes trying to help them, or to help each

    other on more than a miniscule level, rather than take them seriously. Most

    of the people that seem to have internalized the message you're sending

    aren't even looking for chances to make things better:

  • Haarvey tells me: "Danny, I'm going to tell you the truth, and I'm not going to be polite

    about it, because most of the others of your kind weren't polite to me.

    Your approach is a FAILURE. The fruit of your approach hasn't been 'waking

    people up'. Whether it's been in politics, religion, or environmentalism,

    all you have managed to do is not only terrify people into numb submission,

  • we are planning to have this speech transalted into 15 other languages, from Japanese to German. If you help me, please contact me here. Thanks. Deanna Laforet of the UK, currently studying in Taiwan, did the recent translation into Chinese. Thanks, Deanna, and when you go back to Londo, do keep in touch.

  • 我思索著:在你們的世紀尚認識詹姆斯拉夫洛克 (James Lovelock) 和高爾(Al Gore)的名字還是有新的名字取代他們了呢?2006年不願面­對的真相(An Inconvenient Truth) 紀錄片的DVD還在大學流傳? 李奥納多狄卡皮歐(Leonardo DiCaprio) 的紀錄片第十一個小時(The 11th Hour)呢? 你們聽過DVD這個東西還是在你們的時代已經被忘記了?

  • 2099年學生,我要把這十一個字說給你們聽: 我們需要拉緊煤炭的套索

    在1989年 - 一百年前 - 美國洛克菲勒大學的傑斯阿蘇貝爾博士 (Dr. Jesse Ausubel) 寫了這段預言的句子.你們的世界把煤炭和石化燃料的套索拉緊了沒­有?你們已經開始解決人口過剩, 氣候變化和造成永續經濟的難題沒有?全球暖化是否會讓你們的未來­走樣呢?

  • 現在我已經不在了,不過,希望你們能在網絡上看到或可以在大學圖­書館的數位錄音找到我的留言. 祝你們萬事如意!台灣萬歲!

    2099年要畢業的學生,你們處在人類歷史的轉折點.世界正站在­需要做出重要決定的開端,要針對兩個大問題: 一,使用石化燃料的問題,二,在台灣已經習慣的 消費! 丟掉! 燃燒!的生活方式的問題.

  • 你們2099年畢業生即將進入22世紀.你們不僅會把大學的經驗­帶進22世紀去,也會將就業目標,以及處於地球危機時代的公民的­憂慮都帶入未來的新世紀了.我預測這四年來你們肯定經常聽到氣候­危機這個詞彙.不過,我要告訴你們,我在大學的時候沒談論過.那­個時代我們從來沒聽過氣候危機!

  • 全球暖化和環保意識的台灣的大學2099年畢業講稿 ..........大家早安. 2099年畢業生,我不能親自來跟你們講話,因為我早就死了.不­過,1971年美國波士頓大學畢業生之一的我,想把這個關於全球­暖化和氣候變化對台灣和全球的影響的短演說,從過去的日子說給未­來的你們聽. ....

  • thanks to environmental activist Deanna Laforest at NYU and TEPU in Taiwan for leading the translation team on this: 全球暖化和環保意識的台灣的大學2099年畢業講稿

  • video produced and directed by Aremac Chuang in the communications department at Chung Cheng University in Taiwan (thanks, Aremac, which is CAMERA spelled backwards, cool!) -- DANNY

  • DOT EARTH, the New York Times blogged run by science reporter Andrew C. Revkin, has now linked to this video speech to the class of 2099 on the "Meet Your Neighbors" page on the Dot Earth blog. Google "dot earth" + "Meet Your Neighbors' to see the post there: Andy Revkin wrote: UPDATE, 5/17/09: Heres a commencement speech addressed to the Class of 2099 by Danny Bloom, one of Dot Earths most avid contributors and a proponent of Polar Cities as a response to global warming"

  • OBAMA: "For we gather here tonight in times of extraordinary difficulty, for the nation and for the world. The economy remains in the midst of a historic recession, the worst we've seen since the Great Depression; ,.. as we spent beyond our means and failed to make hard choices. (Applause.) We're engaged in two wars and a struggle against terrorism. The THREATS of CLIMATE CHANGE , ...[HE DID NOT MENTION TIGHTENING THE NOOSE AROUND COAL BUT HE KNOWS HE KNOWS...]

  • Following is the text of President Obamas commencement address at Arizona State University on May, 13, 2009:

    "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ASU. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you -- please. Well, thank you, President Crow, for that extremely generous introduction, for your inspired leadership as well here at ASU...."

    AND HE ALSO SAID WE MUST TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE IN THIS GENERATION!

  • Clinton encourages graduates to remain optimistic

    Secretary of State Hilary Clinton delivered the commencement

    address to New York University's class of 2009 at Yankee Stadium Wednesday...

  • Text: President Obama's Commencement Address at Arizona State University

    "And I want to say to you today, graduates, Class of 2009, that despite

    having achieved a remarkable milestone in your life, despite the fact that

    you and ..."

  • A top conservative writer in Boston tells me: "Danny -- I have no doubt that the Class of 2099 will look back at the

    Great Global Warming Scare of the early 21st century as just another in the

    many examples of human beings' ability to spook themselves over nothing.

    Climate changes. Climate has always changed. It isn't caused by human

    activity, and it isn't going to be stopped by starving ourselves of energy."

  • This is a good question. In fact, I am really addressing the class of

    2009, today, and next year's class of 2010, and after that the class

    of 2011, for the next 90 years, but I really wrote this speech, and

    made the video, for today's graduates -- now in 2009! But I wanted to

    frame the speech as a speech to the future, in order to give readers

    and listeners some food for thought,.

  • SIX questions:

    1) Why address the class of 2099 and not 2009?

    2) Do you think the same issues will be around in 2099 or do you think?

    3) Won't changes that are made now change the issues you address?

    4) Will fossil fuel and coal still be the main source of power?

    5) What changes could be made today that would make this speech to the graduating class of 2099 completely obsolete?

    6) Do you think that the computers of the future will resemble our computers or what will they be like?

  • Lee Clarion: Class of 2009 looks to the future

    By Sara Dawson

    Lee University held its 146th graduation exercises this past weekend.

    Chances of rain moved the ceremonies into the Paul Dana Walker Arena,

    although the rain held off long enough for the processional parade as the

    class of 2009 gathered ...

  • Miami graduates eager to start 'next chapter of our lives'

    Middletown Journal - Middletown,OH,USA

    Staff photo by Samantha Grier Allie Flynn of Cincinnnati waves to her

    family as Miami University's 2009 Commencement is held at Yager Stadium on

    Saturday, ...

  • Jackson State graduates told to give life their all

    Jackson Clarion Ledger -

    Commencement speaker Randall Pinkston, a CBS news correspondent and Yazoo

    City native, talks to graduates during the Jackson State University

    Graduation at ...

  • Alumni, student speakers inspire class of 2009

    Indiana State University

    Davis said Indiana State University has given all its graduates a chance

    to stride into successful futures and I know that these shoes will last a

    lifetime ...

  • Four years after the storm, Class of Katrina graduates

    Boston Globe

    By Kevin McGill

    May 10,

    2009

    NEW ORLEANS - In the months after Hurricane Katrina swamped the

    University of ...

  • Parton wows UT graduation with rendition of 'Rocky Top'

    Knoxville News Sentinel - Knoxville,TN,USA

  • Flu scare means no handshakes for IUS grads

    Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville,KY,USA

    By Ben Zion Hershberg • • May 8, 2009

    Students at the Indiana University Southeast Graduation Monday won't get

    their hands ...

  • 'Make your lives count': U. graduates advised to face their fears

    Salt Lake Tribune - United States

    By Brian Maffly The University of Utah 2009 Commencement ceremonies begin

    with a flurry of mortar boards at the enter the Huntsman Center on Friday.

  • Biden to give first commencement speech

    USA Today - USA

    "Vice President Biden represents the best of Syracuse University, and who

    better to send off our spectacular 2009 graduating class? ...

  • The Curse of the Class of 2009

    Wall Street Journal - USA

    By SARA MURRAY

    The bad news for this spring's college graduates is that

    they're entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years. ...

  • ADvice to 2009 grads

    Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Learn to cook, Take risks. One word: plastics. That was the advice given Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, circa 1967. Ha-ha.

  • My face in the mirror

    Isn't wrinkled or drawn.

    My house isn't dirty.

    The cobwebs are gone.

    My garden looks lovely,

    And so does my lawn.

    I think I might never

    Put my glasses back on!

  • Julia and Caitlin at Tufts added these questions too:

    4. Climate change has caused many people to rethink their priorities and look towards the future. How long do you think it will take for people to understand that our actions not only effect the climate but also the well-being of future generations?

    5. The Waxman-Markey Energy Bill tries to take into account many issues including the economy and environmental issues. Do you think its effects will be generally positive ?

  • Julia and Caitlin at Tufts asked me these questions for a story they are doing on this speech:

    1. Why did you decide to write a graduation speech for the class of 2099?

    2. Is there a particular reason you chose 2099?

    3. What was the general theme of the graduation speech at Tufts in 1971? Do you feel that it is still relevant today?

  • ALAN: "Whenever I give a seminar or speech, someone always poses the question, "Is time running out? Can we still make the transition to sustainability?"

    If I believed the answer was no, there would be no reason to organize this summer's Master Class in Sustainability Change Agentry (17-23 August - Early Bird registration is now open - Click here for more info!)

    Still, being optimistic that we can make the transition does not mean I'm not worried.

    Time is truly of the essence.

  • The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is global warming.

    The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.

    Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about our deteriorating atmosphere.

  • Larry Page of GOOGLE, who received a bachelor's degree in engineering with a concentration in computer engineering from U-M in 1995, said his roots at U-M run deep.

    "This is way more than a homecoming for me. It's not easy for me to express how proud I am to be here," Page said. "It's an amazing institution that is responsible for my very existence."

    What will Page's grandkids say in 2099?

  • In a sentence, what's the secret to changing the world? When Google co-founder Larry Page spoke to the University of Michigan's freshest crop of graduates Saturday - many whom are entering the job market in one of the toughest economies in decades - the answer was simple.

    "Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting," Page told about 4,000 graduates and an estimated crowd of 35,000 to 40,000 people at Michigan Stadium during U-M's spring commencement, alluding to this 2099 speech.

  • "Lam toc goi dau / Ong noi gi toi o hieu"

  • "Just Say No-Coal!"

    "Just Say No-Coal!"

    "Just Say No-Coal!"

    -- new slogan of anti coal protesters, soon to be a new YT video

  • "Dear Danny,

    Loved the video and it's ideas. Glad you're a fan of Jim Lovelock. Me too!"

    -- Stuart

  • Oh dear.

  • and now SWINE FLU........ouch......

  • While it seems that things are collapsing all around us — and on many fronts they are (global warming, humans messing with genes, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars, etc.) - it's also possible for us to do something about it and create a world that will work for our children's children.

    "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" details the damage done to biosphere, the reasons our culture would do such damage, and how we can fix the problem.

  • Kenny Ausubel ".... You know, the great micro-biologist Lynn Margulis has said that she studies microbes and bacteria, and she says that perhaps the real purpose of human life on Earth is that we're such great hosts for the bacteria, you know, that they were here long before us, they'll be here long after us. You know we face massive fresh water shortages, the crash of oceans and marine life, and, I mean, the list goes on and on and people are too familiar with the litany, so..."

  • Danny Bloom notes:

    I don't know why, but every time I paste the link to my imaginary graduation speech to the class of 2099 on Youtube here, the hits go through the roof. So Dot Earth really brings in the eyeballs. Take a look here:

  • Ben Ho is an economist. His doctoral work at Stanford consisted of a statistical examination of the role apologies play in medical malpractice lawsuits. He also did some work on how fads and fashion are used to signal identity — there was nary a kilowatt- hour nor a molecule of carbon dioxide in sight. Nevertheless, Ho claimed at a conference last November that it was social scientists like himself who held the key to saving the world from climate change.

  • Line up a dozen environmentalists, ask them to conjure up an image of the sort of scientist who might save the planet from global warming, and its a safe bet none of them will imagine somebody like Benjamin Ho.

    For one thing, Ho worked for a time in the Bush White House. For another, hes not even a climate scientist. He doesnt study global sea rise or Arctic ice melt,.... Nor does he have suggestions for technological solutions to the problem.

    Ben Ho is an economist.

  • any day now, this video will go viral via the New York Times Dot Earth Meet Your Neighbors contributor's corner, as graduation season opens nationwide, we expect his to go through the roof, or at least UP, after that happens, maybe reaching 10,000 hits by end of the year...... no hurry, this is not a race.....this is for real......

  • Hamish MacDonald in Scotland tells me: "I'm reading an article you might be interested in:

    ITS UP TO SOCIAL SCIENCE TO MAKE US ACT IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS WAY. BUT CAN WE TRICK OURSELVES INTO SAVING OURSELVES?

    in SEED magazine website.....

  • Dr. David Orr of Oberlin College, a top professor there who also appeared as a speaker in Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary "The 11th Hour" told me today in an email: "

    Danny, very interesting video speech to class of 2099! Thanks for the message. .."

  • University of Dayton - News Article

    Graduation 2009. A record 1770 graduates will be honored May 2 and 3 in

    commencement ... officials to be the largest graduation in the University's

    history. ...

  • South Carolina State University's Spring Commencement Ceremony will be held

    at 7 pm Friday, May 8, in the Oliver C. Dawson Stadium. Nearly 500

    graduates ....

  • Ashwani Vasishth of the  Institute for Sustainability in the USA says: "Good to hear from you, Danny, and about your own work. Good luck with all that.".

  • An Israeli writer living in Singapore tells me: "....... I think 2099 is so far in the future that it's so hard to even imagine what they'll be doing.

    They might not even know what a DVD is, just like many people now have no idea what a lithograph is.

    I think more powerful would be an apology from us to them for what we did to their planet...."

    DANNY REPLIES: GOOD IDEA!

  • NOTE: "On the cusp of the 22nd century, the globe will either be in Lovelock-type meltdown because we didn't act soon and forcefully enough (or because it was already too late even in 2009, which is what Lovelock thinks); or the C02 levels will have stabilized and gone down because our wise or courageous political leaders did the right thing so that nine billion people could survive on Earth in harmony and peace.

    Now, I ask you: which scenario do you think is more likely?"