This is absolutely brilliant, I strongly recommend that everyone watch 350.org founder Bill McKibben’s sermon delivered on April 28 at the Riverside Church in NY City, on the topic of climate change. I particularly would hope that climate science deniers and “skeptics” like Ken Cuccinelli would listen to people like Bill McKibben, as they are a gazillion times smart, more knowledgeable, and wiser than those fools – and tools of the fossil fuel industry – are. Here are some excerpts from McKibben’s brilliant, inspiring sermon:

…Rather, Job has to answer as all mortals did up until our time, because all of a sudden we’ve gotten rather large. Our first sense of that sudden change in stature came with the detonation of the first atom bomb at Alamagordo in the New Mexico desert. J. Robert Oppenheimer, watching the mushrooming cloud, quoted from the [Bhagvad Gita], from the Hindu scripture – “We are become as gods, destroyers of worlds.”

But the images of those blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were enough to persuade us, so far at least, to go no further down that path, thank god. We could imagine the horror of those titanic explosions. We, so far, have NOT been able to adequately imagine the effect of the explosion of billions of pistons in billions of cylinders every minute of every hour of every day, but those explosions are wrecking the earth just as surely and almost as fast as nuclear war.

Consider that, so far, human beings have burned enough coal and gas and oil to raise the temperature of the planet 1 degree Celsius…the energetic equivalent of exploding 400,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs every day…enough energy so far to melt the Arctic…We’ve taken one of the largest physical features on earth and we’ve broken it, and with the others not far behind. The oceans are now 30% more acidic…The atmosphere itself, because warm air holds more water vapor than cold, is now 5% wetter than it was 40 years ago, which loads the dice for drought and for flood…

…This is the largest social justice issue that we have ever faced...When I started this work, one of the things I’d always heard was that environmentalism was something for rich white people who had taken care of their other problems, and if you worried where your next meal was coming from you wouldn’t be an environmentalist.

What we found as we worked around the world is exactly the opposite. Rich people tend to feel themselves immune from these changes. Most of the people that we work with around the world are poor and black and brown and Asian and young because that is what most of the world consists of. And what do you know, those people care as much about the future as anybody else, maybe more, so because if you are poor in this world right now, the future bears down harder on you than it does on anybody else…  

…As I’ve said, so far we’ve raised the temperature one degree but the same scientists who told us that would happen have shown quite clearly that that one degree would be 4 or 5 by century’s end unless we act very swiftly to get off coal and gas and oil.

And the larger question is why aren’t we doing that? Why aren’t we trying to make ourselves somewhat smaller? Why aren’t we following, say, the lead of Germany, the only major country that’s really pursued renewable power at an appropriate pace? There are now more solar panels in Bavaria than there are in the United States. There were days last summer when Germany generated more than half the power it used from solar panels within its borders and this is Germany. Munich is north of Montreal. Think what a country could do if it had, oh, I don’t know, Florida or Nevada, Texas or California or Arizona to work with!

But we don’t act; and for a particular reason– one that will be clear to those who are used to reading the Gospels. Our richest people don’t want to act because it would reduce their wealth somewhat. The fossil fuel industry is the one percent of the one percent, the richest enterprise in human history. Exxon made more money last year than any company in the history of money. There are far more eminent theologians than me in this room; I’m not a theologian at all. But it is my firm belief that these companies have more money than God.

And so far, they have been able to deploy those funds in political ways to make sure that nothing ever changes. They have bought, in our nation’s capital and many others, a 25-year bipartisan effort to accomplish nothing…

…It’s not that Americans are addicted to fossil fuel; most of us would be just as happy if our power came from the sun and the wind, if our cars ran on electricity. The addicts…are the folks who run the fossil fuel empire, addicted to profits so great that they turn away sorrowful from the knowledge that they’re wrecking the future…

…The man who runs…[Exxon] finally admitted for the first time last summer that global warming was real and caused by carbon emissions. But, he said, it was an engineering problem with engineering solutions. Asked what he meant, he explained, “If we need to move our crop production areas, we will”…Crop production areas are what most of us call farms, and we already have them…The Exxon CEO made plain the reason for his unwillingness to change in a second interview a few weeks ago with Charlie Rose who asked him his philosophy…He just looked at the camera and said, “My philosophy is to make money.”

…[The fossil fuel divestment movement] is designed less to bankrupt the industry – we can’t do that – but more to take away their social license, to keep them from being able forever to overpower science with money and with political favor. If it’s wrong to wreck the climate then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage. And to say that out loud is an important first step in dealing with the problem we find ourselves in…

…The arc of the physical universe is short and it’s bending toward heat, and doing it very rapidly. If we don’t win this fairly quickly, than we will not win this at all. We’ve waited a long time to get started; the momentum of physics is very large. Having lost the Arctic, we have no room for complacency…

For more on Bill McKibben’s heroic – and growing – divestment movement, please click here. And make sure your college, town, city, county, state, etc. get on board right away. The planet to save might very well be your own!

h/t: Down with Tyranny

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, May 7. Also, check out Stratfor’s analysis of Israel’s recent strikes on advanced weapons (destined for their archenemy, Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah) in Syria.

*Inflaming  a culture war (“The NRA rejects reason  and stokes fear at  its annual convention.”)

*Immigration distortion (“Conservative think-tank report fails to weigh the benefits of legalization.”)

*McAuliffe, in Richmond, urges Democrats to turn out in 2013 (“Asks Democrats for a turnout like a national election”)

*Abortion clinic regulations signed by McDonnell

*Demographics And The 2013 Election (“Voters between 65 and 85 are the strongest Governor year voters, with over 80% that vote in Presidential elections returning to the polls and over 90% of the midterm electorate coming back in Governor year elections.”)

*Why Conservative Crusader Ken Cuccinelli Can Win Virginia

*In Virginia, Terry McAuliffe’s Memoir Comes Back to Haunt Him

*Virginia governor popular with voters, Post poll finds

*McAuliffe, Cuccinelli begin unveiling policy proposals in Va. governor’s race

*Gov. McDonnell, under watch by the FBI, invites it to relocate to Springfield

*Poll doesn’t dissuade McAuliffe

*Cuccinelli says Virginia legislature has never failed to pass a budget (Cuccinelli gets a “FALSE” from PolitiFact)

*Cuccinelli backs fracking in national forest (Cuccinelli, ever the anti-environmental zealot and fossil fuel tool…)

*Air Force Officer Accused of Sexual Battery (“The Chief of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response branch of the U.S. Air Force was arrested and charged with sexual battery in Arlington over the weekend.”)

*In Leesburg, Kaine highlights movement on economic policies

*Kaine and Local Officials Discuss Business Concerns

*Dance and Thompson square off for final time

*Capitals don’t bring enough vs. desperate Rangers in Game 3 of NHL playoff series

*Rain continues to reign over forecast

From OpposeTrapVA

An activist working with Oppose TRAP has submitted a petition calling into question the legality of the current regulations of most Virginia hospitals. Taking Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli at his word, the petition points out the unintended consequences of his position on grandfathering for women’s health centers that provide abortion care, which under 2011 legislation are now defined as hospitals.

In 2011 the Virginia General Assembly passed SB924, defining health care facilities that perform first-trimester abortions as hospitals, requiring they be regulated by the Board of Health. Despite a panel of medical experts’ recommendation to grandfather in existing facilities², the regulations as written by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office required clinics to undergo extremely costly structural upgrades to parking spaces, hallways widths, awnings, etc. These medically unnecessary requirements come from three chapters of a manual called the 2010 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, and are unrelated to women’s health and safety.

These regulations were expected to permanently close the doors of at least 75% of the abortion clinics in the state.¹ After public protest and outspoken opposition from the medical community made clear the dire consequences of Ken Cuccinelli’s position, the Board passed an amendment that would exempt existing clinics from having to meet the new building codes.

In response, Cuccinelli opined that the Board of Health did not have the authority to grandfather existing clinics. He threatened to withhold future legal counsel from the Board, directing it to pass the regulations as originally written.

The Board of Health capitulated, effectively sentencing the closure of most abortion clinics in the state.

The facility guidelines for hospital construction clearly state they are “intended as minimum standards for designing and constructing new health care facility projects.” When it was pointed out that these are not new facilities, and in some cases have been in safe operation for decades, the Attorney General's Office declared that they were new hospitals because the 2011 legislation newly defined them as hospitals.

Since that time, reproductive rights activist Molly Taylor Vick researched the legislation which originally defined general hospitals in 1947, just as SB924 defined abortion clinics as hospitals in 2011. After further investigation she discovered the first Rules and Regulations Governing Licensure of General Hospitals in an unprocessed box of files at an off-site archive of the Library of Virginia; these regulations did grandfather in existing hospitals without requiring them to meet the same standards as newly constructed facilities.

Now, with clinics already closing³ and only a year remaining until some must come into compliance, Molly Taylor Vick has filed a petition that challenges Ken Cuccinelli to defend the legality of his position. This may provoke concern in some reproductive rights advocates, who could feel uncomfortable being associated with a legal process that has the potential to shut down health care facilities. They cannot afford to alienate their allies in the medical community.

Oppose TRAP appreciates these concerns. “Access to health care is something we all value very highly, but this is really about whether people believe in equal application of the law. One argument of pro-choice activists has been that abortion clinics cannot be regulated differently than other facilities; that the law must be applied equally. That is exactly what we’re saying. We are merely pointing out the implications of a decision made by Cuccinelli.” Oppose TRAP continues to explain that after due diligence, they also feel confident that the economic, political and social consequences are so severe that there is not a real threat to general hospitals. “That is the whole point. It is absurd. Cuccinelli needs to explain how it isn’t or own up to what he has done.”

Molly Taylor Vick notes that participation in the public comment period does not equal support for the petition. “People are encouraged to use their voices to express their individual concerns, whether they are in support of or strong opposition to the petitions.”

She further contends that this is taking the fight to where Ken Cuccinelli pretends it is – in the legal interpretation and application of law. “He must own this.”

Cuccinelli can not selectively apply the law:

If existing hospitals CANNOT be grandfathered in under new regulations, this brings into question the legal status of every facility built prior to 2005, many of which will now be forced to undergo the same costly architectural renovations as abortion clinics. This could result in hospitals across the state closing their doors.

If existing hospitals CAN be legally grandfathered as they always have been, then they CAN be legally grandfathered today, and Cuccinelli overstepped his legal and professional authority by refusing to certify those approved regulations. He also overstepped ethical boundaries by threatening to withhold representation if the Board of Health was sued.

VDH must either act to amend hospital regulations to require current construction code of existing facilities or readdress the issue of grandfathering as applied to abortion clinic facilities. 

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, May 6.

*Obama needs to ask himself why even his supporters are growing impatient (“Remember the Mark Twain line that Wagner’s music was better than it sounded? Obama’s program has more to do with growth and opportunity than he usually lets on. If he wants to rally us, he might want to change that.”)

*We have been on a Carbon Binge and are waking up to find ourselves with the mother of all hangovers (It would be great to get some leadership on this as well!)

*If this is early stages of climate change, what’s next?

*UN: Rebels, not Assad, appear to have used chemical weapons (Ee gads, what if President Obama’s “red line” has been crossed, but NOT by the Syrian regime? Then what?)

*Gang of Eight plots path to Senate supermajority (“Senate immigration negotiators are targeting as many as two dozen Republicans for a show-of-force majority – which they believe may be the only way a reform bill will have the momentum to force the House to act.”)

*With FBI probe, Gov. Bob McDonnell loses squeaky clean image

*Poll: Despite FBI inquiry, road funding overhaul, Va. governor still popular

*With friends like these, I need new friends

*Today’s top opinion: Drip, drip, drip

*Norfolk to host GOP candidates, McAuliffe Sunday

*District 19 race could hinge on Botetourt County

*Think bigger on Norfolk budget

*Industrious oysters could clean up Chesapeake, new study suggests

*Justin Bieber sued in Virginia over hit song

*Bryce Harper ejected in Nationals’ win

*Sun to vanish as clouds, showers take over forecast for next several days