We've lost Jimmy Carter
POSTED BY: THG
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 4, 2025 04:28
VIEWED: 1824
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The Time Jimmy Carter Probably Saved The World And Almost Nobody Noticed
Possibly the most important act of Jimmy Carter’s presidency has been almost entirely forgotten, even by his supporters.
By Stephen Luntz | Dec 31, 2024
https://www.iflscience.com
The story starts in 1974 when Professor F. Sherwood Rowland proposed that CFCs, whose use was rapidly expanding, might pose a threat to the ozone layer. Rowland would subsequently share the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for this work, but at the time, CFC manufacturers hit back that the claims were “purely theoretical”. Technically speaking they were right. No one really knew if CFCs would actually have these effects in the upper atmosphere, a region of the planet we had barely begun to study.
Unfortunately, others pointed out, if the theory was right, damage to the ozone layer would expose the surface to so much ultraviolet radiation, little life would survive above ground or in the upper layers of the ocean. Even lifeforms not directly under threat depend on more vulnerable species for food or pollination – total ecosystem collapse was a real possibility.
Doing nothing would be the ultimate gamble.
The manufacturers established lobby groups arguing no action be taken until we had proof. DuPont’s chair called the idea CFCs might damage the ozone layer “science fiction”. Carter, and the majority of the US Congress, feared by the time the evidence was in it might be too late.
Once the legislation passed, Carter had the Environmental Protection Agency pursue it vigorously. Now the incentives had changed, manufacturers quietly set about finding alternatives, even as they continued to voice opposition. When Ronald Reagan defeated Carter at the 1980 election his administration refused to implement the Act, and his energy secretary suggested people wear sunscreen instead of keeping the planet habitable. However, finding replacements turned out to be much easier than expected. DuPont was well on the way to developing alternatives for many uses by the time it became clear the laws wouldn’t be enforced.
Much more at https://www.iflscience.com/the-time-jimmy-carter-probably-saved-the-wo
rld-and-almost-nobody-noticed-77415
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Or maybe we'd all be super mutants now and we missed out on the next step of human evolution.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Wow TWO good find, good post. One more thing to thank President Carter for.
T 
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T
Jimmy Carter's Consequential 4 Years
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Check out Omama playing keeper of the gate to allow everyone else to ignore Trump. In the beginning of the video watch the Bush's walk right by Trump. Then the Clintons do the same. Poor Al Gore, an earlier video showed he got stuck. Too funny...
T
Obama, Trump sit together, talk before Jimmy Carter funeral
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When Carter met Kim - and stopped a nuclear war
By Tessa Wong
Asia Digital Reporter, BBC News
January 10, 2025
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpee202y907o
Three decades ago, the world was on the brink of a nuclear showdown - until Jimmy Carter showed up in North Korea.
In June 1994, the former US president arrived for talks in Pyongyang with then leader Kim Il-sung. It was unprecedented, marking the first time a former or sitting US president had visited.
But it was also an extraordinary act of personal intervention, one which many believe narrowly averted a war between the US and North Korea that could have cost millions of lives. And it led to a period of greater engagement between Pyongyang and the West.
All this may not have happened if not for a set of diplomatic chess moves by Carter, who died aged 100 on 29 December.
"Kim Il-sung and Bill Clinton were stumbling into a conflict, and Carter leapt into the breach, successfully finding a path for negotiated resolution of the standoff," North Korean expert John Delury, of Yonsei University, told the BBC.
In early 1994, tensions were running high between Washington and Pyongyang, as officials tried to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear programme.
US intelligence agencies suspected that despite ongoing talks, North Korea may have secretly developed nuclear weapons.
Then, in a startling announcement, North Korea said it had begun withdrawing thousands of fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor for reprocessing. This violated an earlier agreement with the US under which such a move required the presence of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog.
North Korea also announced it would withdraw from the IAEA.
American suspicion spiked as Washington believed Pyongyang was preparing a weapon, and US officials broke off negotiations. Washington began preparing several retaliatory measures, including initiating UN sanctions and reinforcing troops in South Korea.
In subsequent interviews, US officials revealed they also contemplated dropping a bomb or shooting a missile at Yongbyon - a move which they knew would have likely resulted in war on the Korean peninsula and the destruction of the South's capital, Seoul.
It was in this feverish atmosphere that Carter made his move.
Much more at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpee202y907o
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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He had a busy 4 years. And after that, he really got busy. Go Jimmy Carter...
T
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He was a good negotiator and should be remembered as such. A man who lived by the dictates of his faith. Not many Christians can say that.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
He was a good negotiator and should be remembered as such. A man who lived by the dictates of his faith. Not many Christians can say that.
Agreed Brenda.
T
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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