Climate Change - the battle of the facts (#BAD09)

The choice for Climate Change as the subject on Blog Action Day implies there is consensus about climate change, at least that the climate is actually changing to an extent it is affecting our world. There is no full consensus though, nor has there been in the past. There is and has been always, a battle of facts.

A good source for getting informed on the issue, unfortunately, is a podcast lecture series from UCSD, that has been taken off line. It will be back though at some time in the future and therefore I'd advice you to keep your eyes open for it: BILD 18, Human impact on the environment. Last summer, when the course ran and the lectures were available, lecture 10 paid attention to the problems the early believers in climate change had to get their voice heard. Even today, the speaker notes, speaking of climate change and the specifics of fatal pollution, will find politically and ideologically motivated blockades.

Alternately, now that there is a much wider consensus the climate actually IS changing, those who are not so convinced are finding it difficult to be heard. And just as the previous speaker marked how political, ideological and mostly business interests battled the facts, the other side speaks of alarmists. On the UChannel Podcast, one such speaker was Lord Lawson and he not only downplays the actual change of the climate, also he claims that whatever change is there is not human caused change, nor is it as harmful as usually is projected.

Next, I will write about the battle of the price - how much is climate change going to cost and who will pay?

Blog Action Day 2009

Climate Change - Blog Action Day 2009

Today is Blog Action Day 2009. Today we will pay attention to Climate Change.

I will be writing a comprehensive post about the subject and point to the various podcast sources that supply the relevant information. Until I do, you can look around the blog for yourself in search for reviews of podcasts about Climate Change and related subjects. You can use the search field on top of this page, or you could filter posts by using the environment tag.

Atlantic History - NBIH

Here is a quick recommendation about one of the recent episodes of New Books in History. Marshall Poe spoke with Jack Greene and Philip Morgan about the book they edited which is a critical appraisal of a field called Atlantic History.

They explain how at one time the joint histories of Africa, Europe and the Americas was combined into a composite narrative about the exchange that took place between the four continents especially from the age of exploration until the later days of imperialism - though the field could be taken larger than that. What started off as a composite, developed into a field with its various specialties, divisions and opinions.

As part of a series about reinterpreting history, published by the National History Center and Oxford University press, their book came out mapping out this field of Atlantic History. More publications are expcected and they will also be high-lighted in NBIH.

More NBIH:
Political rationalizations in Nazi-Germany,
Whalen / Rohrbough,
Confronting the bomb,
Henry Hudson's fatal journey,
Substance abuse in the midwest.

Edith Cavell - Veertien Achttien

Over de podcast Veertien Achttien (feed) kan ik niet genoeg de loftrompet steken. Inmiddels ben ik wat dat betreft in een steeds ruimer gezelschap. Getuige niet alleen de commentaren op mijn recensies, maar ook de lovende besprekingen bij VPRO's OVT en deze week in het Historisch Nieuwsblad.

De laatste aflevering was ook weer geweldig. Tom Tacken vertelde het verhaal van Edith Cavell, de Britse verpleegster die door de Duitsers werd terechtgesteld op verdenking van spionage. Tacken neemt dze biografie als voorbeeld van nog weer een speciaal fascinerend aspect van de Eerste Wereldoorlog: de propaganda. Meer nog dan ooit was propaganda nodig om de oorlogsmachine draaiende te houden. En het verhaal van Cavell, hoewel ook gebruikt in de Duitse propaganda, speelt toch vooral een betekenisvolle rol in de Britse en Amerikaanse propaganda.

Fascinerend ook zijn uiteindelijk de laatste woorden die van Cavell zijn opgetekend. Juist ook in verband met die propaganda. Daar waar de propaganda juist het middel is om patriottisme te voeden en je onwillekeurig denkt aan analyses die stellen dat nationalisme de nieuwe religie was, stelt Cavell dat patriottisme niet genoeg was. Voor haar werk als verpleegster in oorlogsgebied stelde zij de naastenliefde voorop. En dat roept twee gedachtes op: is de oude religie toch sterker? en ook: Is nationalisme een religie zonder naastenliefde?

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Rudyard Kipling, (speciaal aanbevolen)
Ferdinand I van Bulgarije,
Veertien Achttien in transit,
Pegoud, Grimm - Veertien Achttien,
Emmeline Pankhurst.

Albert Camus - Entitled Opinions

Over the last months I have grown very fond of the podcast Entitled Opinions. The last episode I reviewed is a perfect example of why: the podcast had the audacity to take on the ideas of the Unabomber and take us on a critical tour through his world. This is Entitled opinions: an exercise in culture that is not taking the easy roads and also courageous to dig deep.

And so, because I was thrilled by that issue, I went deep into the backlog and dug up another conversation with the same participants. This time about my favorite writer of all time: Albert Camus. And also with him, they took not the easy road and had the courage to dig deep. Camus, who is so frequently portrayed as an almost saintly visionary, doesn't come out as the great philosopher or the righteous figure. Yet, this tormented man, who died too early, still wrought some influential works that are still relevant today.

They also paid attention to my favorite quote of Camus: If I have to choose between justice and my mother, I choose my mother. This is not taken as the powerful stance, that I see in it, so I will happily turn you to listen to this wonderful episode of Entitled opinions. But let me say that Camus understood that justice was more of an emotion than a rational idea. And I would add, that justice is more of a bundle of principles that require a complex balancing act and that can always surprise in special circumstances - the mother.

More Entitled Opinions:
Unabomber world views,
Byzantine Culture,
Jimi Hendrix,
Nietzsche,
Romanticism.

What is podcasting in 3 minutes

Here is a video that simply explains about podcasting.