Are we going to let capitalism destroy life on Earth? According to 99% of climate scientists – we’ll know by the end of the century.

Scientists have agreed for three decades about what is causing atmospheric temperatures to rise – humans are burning Earth’s carbon resources to fuel economic activity. But even before we knew what was causing the temperature to rise – scientists warned about the dire global impacts of a two degree increase in atmospheric temperatures.

Earth’s climate has been basically stable for hundreds of thousands of years. But that changed during the industrial revolution - when Great Britain realized the potential of coal-powered steam engines. Soon continental Europe and America followed suit.

And over 150 years later – coal, oil, and natural gas dominate the global politics and economics: wars are fought over oil; communities are destroyed for coal; and increasingly scarce water supplies are poisoned by natural gas extraction.

The Earth has already warmed about one degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels –which means we have to change our energy system completely before the Earth warms another degree in order to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Is it possible?

Scientists say “Yes!” – BUT it will require us to take bold and immediate steps towards a completely renewable energy system. The technology exists – the shortfall is in investment.

According to the IMF – oil companies get 5.3 trillion dollars in subsidies worldwide per year. And the oil companies pay only a portion – if any – of the environmental costs of ripping fossil fuels from the ground and burning the CO2 into the atmosphere.

In other words, every living human being and government are paying for coal, oil, and gas companies to profit from the destruction our planet. And that’s not a market failure – that’s how the market was set up. Capitalism as we know it isn’t the solution – it’s the problem.

In a report in “Nature Climate Change” – scientists point out that we can keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius – if every country takes bold and immediate action to deploy current clean energy and limit the use of fossil fuels. The biggest failure in our system is that there is no price on carbon. Burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon into our atmosphere has very real costs that corporations aren’t paying for – costs that are being kicked down the road for future generations.

In America, we’ve let the fossil fuel industry become so profitable that it relentlessly funds campaigns and lobbies to keep oil subsidies in place and weaken environmental regulations - all at the expense of our communities and our planet.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... GOP Birth Control bill Is An "Insult to Women" (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Need to Know: GOP Birth Control bill Is An "Insult to Women"
- Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood Federation of America/Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Big Picture Politics Panel:
- Marc Harrold, Observations of White Noise
- Sam Sacks, The District Sentinel
- Austin Petersen, The Libertarian Republic

Screwed: Meet the New Normal for Student Debt
- Mark Huelsman, Demos

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "China cuts import taxes to boost consumer demand" by BBC.

Article: "All gave some & some gave all. One earned $39,500,000,000.00" by Vocal Progressives.

Quote: "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, May 21, 1940.

Site: Bernie 2016

Event: Burlington VT, 26 May 5 p.m.: "Sanders details kickoff, ignites endorsement battle" by Adam Silverman.

Article: "Permanent normal trade relations: U.S. and China" by Wikipedia.

Book: Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray.

Book: By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission by Charles Murray.

Article: "Can't Unring That Bell: Jeb Bush Says He's A Fan Of Charles Murray's Books" by Daniel Strauss.

Article: "Jeb Bush’s Favorite Author Rejects Democracy, Says The Hyper-Rich Should Seize Power" by Ian Millhiser.

Article: "Saudi Arabia Planning For Transition To Renewables" by Nick Cunningham.

Article: "China could limit emissions by 2025, lead clean revolution by 2050" by Ilario D'Amato.

Article: "Mitch McConnell: We Must Rewrite The Constitution Because ‘Elections’ Haven’t ‘Worked’" by Ian Millhiser, July 13, 2011.

Article: "Calvinism" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Danger of American Fascism" by Henry A. Wallace.

Article: "They’re all still lying about Iraq: The real story about the biggest blunder in American history — and the right wing’s obsessive need to cover it up" by Heather Cox Richardson.

Article: "Project for the New American Century (PNAC)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Scott Walker Lets Millionaire Donors Know the Outrageous Sum It'll Take to Buy Him Off" by Steven Rosenfeld .

Article: "Scott Walker campaign-finance probe to continue, Supreme Court rules" by Lawrence Hurley.

Law: Posse Comitatus Act (1878).

Strike For South Sudan
- Simon Deng, Hungry For Peace #SimonDeng

Article: "Escaped Slave Calls on President Obama to Speak Out, Halt Violence in South Sudan" by Heather Robinson.

Article: "Why I’m Launching a Hunger Strike for South Sudan: Letter to Obama" by Simon Deng.

Hour Two: Mystery Meat...Landing On Your Plate Soon?
- Curtis Ellis, Obamatrade

Article: "Odds Are Obamatrade Screws America" by Rush Limbaugh.

Article: "Mark Levin Opposes Fast Track – and Congress should, too!".

Site: American Jobs Alliance.

Article: "James S.C. Chao" (Mitch McConnell's father-in-law) by Wikipedia.

Article: "137 Shots, No Convictions: Cleveland Cop Acquitted in Killing of Unarmed African-American Pair" by Democracy Now!

Article: "Investors are playing a ‘greater fool’ game" by George Magnus.

Article: "Burlington Northern Railroad" by Wikipedia.

Article: "My Testimony for the Downing Street Memo Hearings" by Cindy Sheehan, June 16 2005.

Book: "A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House" by George W. Bush, Mickey Herskowitz.

Article: "4th Amendment". "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.".

Article: "Record fines for currency market fix" by BBC.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Article: "14th Amendment, July 9, 1868 (citizenship, representatives, public debt, Equal Protection Clause)

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "Extreme Weather Continues In Houston And Surrounding Areas" by TRNS.

Documentary: Merchants of Doubt.

Article: "Supreme Court to Consider How to Calculate Size of Voting Districts" by Jess Bravin.

Site: Bernie 2016

Article: "Sanders details kickoff, ignites endorsement battle" by Adam Silverman.

Article: "Rand Paul: I'm not being unreasonable" by Nick Gass.

Article: "Obama Advises Senate Return From Recess For Patriot Act" by TRNS.

Article: "McConnell's floor strategy backfires" by Burgess Everett.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 5/26" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Why is Don Siegelman Still In Prison?
- Greg Palast, The Guardian/BBC News

Book: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits by Greg Palast.

Book: Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores by Greg Palast.

Article: "The US Government Told Me Osama bin Laden Read My Book. But What is it NOT Telling us?" by Greg Palast.

Article: "Appeals court denies Don Siegelman's bid for new trial" by Brian Lyman.

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "Karl Rove took active role in U.S. attorney's firing, documents show" by Tom Hamburger and David G. Savage, August 12, 2009.

Article: "Did Karl Rove Chat to Saakashvili about South Ossetia Too?" by emptywheel, August 13, 2008.

Book: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast.

Case: "Roe v. Wade", 1973.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Article: "10 Million Yemenis Face Extreme Food Crisis" by Justin Salhani.

Article: "Asking for help at 80 — America’s new faces of hunger" by PBS.

Article: "Two activists chained to Shell vessel in Bellingham" by Deborah Horne.

Article: "Louisiana Legislature Rejects ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill, Governor Imposes It By Executive Order" by Zack Ford.

Article: "Nokia boss gets record speeding fine" by BBC, 14 January, 2002.

Article: "The GOP's debate problem" by Eli Stokols.

Article: "Medicare Part D coverage gap" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ruptured Pipeline Along California Coast Dumps Crude Oil into Pacific Ocean" by Jon Queally.

Article: "The California Oil Spill Is Even Worse Than We Thought" by Samantha Page.

Article: "Notorious Repeat Offender Behind Oil Spill 'Nightmare' in California" by Nadia Prupis.

Article: "Million-Year-Old Bubbles Reveal Antarctica's Oldest Climate Snapshot" by Becky Oskin.

Article: "Forbidden Data: Wyoming just criminalized citizen science" by Justin Pidot.

Article: "Starbucks Is Moving Its Bottled Water Business Out Of Drought-Stricken California" by Emily Atkin.

Article: "Buddha Belly: Meditation May Ease Gut Ailments" by Esha Dey.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be talking with Juston Danhof of the National Center for Public Policy Research about GMOs

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

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Vote here!

Full Show 5/22/15: What America needs to know about Genetically Modified Organisms

In tonight's Big Picture Rumble Thom discusses the GOP's obvious support for President Obama's trade agreement, the upcoming re-authorization of Section 215 of the Patriot Act that allows unconstitutional spying on Americans, Jeb Bush claiming climate science is "convoluted," Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton not being ashamed of the US invasion of Iraq, and why social liberalism in America is on the rise. Then in tonight's Conversation's with Great Minds Thom talks with consumer advocate and author, Jeffrey Smith about the lack of GMO food labeling in America.

Why is Don Siegelman Still in Prison?

Why Would Anyone Want to Kill Democracy?

Kill Democracy Now!

How Dick Cheney Made Billions off War...

Mystery Meat...Coming To Your Plate Soon?

Thom Hartmann on Economic & Labor News : 5/26/15

Caller: What About a Moneyless Economy?

Caller: Foreign GITMO Workers Paid Less than Min Wage...

Bernie Sanders on dealing with Big Money in Politics...

Bernie Sanders: Free College for All...

TPP vote...did the GOP hold the Export-Import Bank Hostage?

Bernie Sanders: I Continue to Oppose the Patriot Act!

Bernie Sanders: TPP is More Disastrous Trade Policy...

Capitol Gyrocopter Pilot Talks to Thom Hartmann...

Bernie Sanders: I Have Foreign Policy Judgement...