Portside

When we speak of WMD, we usually think of weapons -- nuclear, biological, or chemical -- that are delivered in a measurable moment in time. Consider climate change, then, a WMD on a particularly long fuse, already lit and there for any of us to see. From oil wells to fracking structures, deep sea drilling rigs to platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, the machinery that produces this kind of WMD and ensures that it is continuously delivered is in plain sight.

The climate crisis has such bad timing, confronting it not only requires a new economy but a new way of thinking.

More disturbing than any horror movie, Showtime's Years of Living Dangerously, a nine-part series about climate change, is essential viewing. We need this kind of visible activism. Denial, resignation and despair are not options. By bringing together actors, scientists, journalists and philanthropists, Living Dangerously provides a necessary spark, not just to get a conversation going, but also to put a fire underneath those who have it in their power.

Reader Comments - NLRB and UAW-Volkswagen; Supreme Court and McCutcheon decision; Full employement, jobs, trade, economic policy; Sports, gender and homophobia; NASA study and climate change; Portside discussion - Bernie Sanders for President (Jack Kurzweil); Announcements: Canadian Ecosocialist Ian Angus speaking in Oakland - April 25th

The air pollution in Beijing in mid-February was more than 10 times the WHO-prescribed safe limit. It led to the authorities shutting down chemical, metallurgical and other such industries, besides banning outdoor barbecues and even asking people to stay indoors.

While Obama talks of putting America on the path to a clean, green future, we're flooding world markets with cheap, high carbon fuels

Those who think scientists keep silent on global warming presumably because they fear the barbs of the world demonstrate a peculiar kind of paranoia, especially since what they fear largely does not exist.

We can no longer allow the billionaires and their think tanks or the corporate media to set the agenda. We need to educate, organize and mobilize the working families of our country to stand up for their rights. We need to make government work for all the people, not just the 1 percent.

Most comprehensive climate change review to date warns of risks to children, with Unicef arguing that children have been largely left out of the debate so far.