Day: October 31, 2021

Briefings

Background Briefing: October 31, 2021

On By gram

 

Solutions at the COP26 Conference to Remove Atmospheric Methane

We begin and go to Glasgow, Scotland where the U.N. Climate Conference COP26 is due to begin Monday with President Biden and most of his cabinet in attendance minus the leaders of China and Russia. Joining us from Glasgow is Daphne Wysham, the Chief Executive Officer of Methane Action and a fellow at the Center for Sustainable Economy and we discuss how the virulent global warming gas methane, which contributes at least half as much warming as CO2, is susceptible to remediation and removal. As the world leaders wrap up the G20 meeting in Rome where there were plenty of pledges on climate action but few commitments except to stop the financing of coal plants internationally by the end of this year, there are practical solutions that need to be implemented to remove atmospheric methane which is at higher concentrations than it has been at for 800,000 years.

 

Virginia’s Trial Run For the GOP to Campaign on the “Critical Race Theory” Lie

Then with the closely-watched and neck-and-neck governor’s race in Virginia on Tuesday seen as a make or break moment for the Democrats, we will speak with Sidney Blumenthal, the bestselling author of The Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment and The Permanent Campaign whose latest book is All the Powers on Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860. He joins us to discuss his latest article at The Guardian, “The Republican’s racial culture war is reaching new heights in Virginia.”

 

No $3.5 Trillion to Build Back America but the Pentagon Gets $9 Trillion for the Next 10 Years

Then finally, after the still-unresolved and crippling debate among Democrats over whether to spend $3.5 trillion on infrastructure over ten years, we explore the contrast that we are likely to spend close to ten trillion dollars over ten years on the Pentagon and that doesn’t even require a debate at all. Joining us is Andrew Cockburn, the Washington Editor of Harper’s magazine and the author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins as well as the New York Times Editor’s Choice Rumsfeld and The Threat, which destroyed the myth of Soviet military superiority underpinning the Cold War. He joins us to discuss his latest book, just out, The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine.