Earlier Springs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/09/wildlife-climate-change

As snow flurries continued to cause disruption across the country today, spring may feel further away than ever. But recent winters have been ending earlier than ever before, according to a new assessment of Britain's wildlife that reveals global warming could be disrupting the delicate balance of nature. The analysis confirms that spring and summer are occurring earlier, but also shows that this trend appears to be accelerating. The shift could pose problems for animals, birds and fish that rely on springtime flowering of plants to supply food for their young....The results showed that more than 80% of trends between 1976 and 2005 indicated earlier seasonal events.

Climate change deniers had better look at all the evidence regarding climate change - not just seize upon cranky emails from CRU researchers as proof that global warming isn't happening.  Do they also discount Watson and Crick's findings because those two treated Rosalind Franklin badly?  Not likely.....

Wal-Mart Goes Green - As Does Canadian Tire -Why Don't We?

Per The Globe and Mail, page B2, Monday, February 8, 2010

Wal-Mart wants to swap green thinking with leaders of some of the country's most high-profile business...Wal-Mart has even managed to draw executives from retail rivals such as Canadian Tire Corp. ....to discuss how going green is good for the planet and good for business.  ...by switching to more efficient lighting in its stores, [Canadian Tire] will save about $ 12-million in 2010, or 85 million kilowatts in electricity and greenhouse gas emissions.

$ 12 million dollars ain't pocket change to anyone.  There are numerous win-win situations like the one illustrated by Canadian Tire.  For instance, at home one can use compact flourescent bulbs intead of incandescents, turn one's computer and TV off when not in use, and turn one's heat back at night to reduce one's carbon footprint AND save money.  Why not do so?

The business papers are full of articles indicating businesses take climate change seriously.   Why don't the rest of us?

No Impact Man (2009)

We rented No Impact Man  tonight and loved it.   (Google YouTube and No Impact Man to watch the trailer.) Don't get me wrong - I'm not giving up electricity - especially not living in Canada where we need electrical power or the furnace won't run - but I loved the point the movie made about life being - gasp! - MUCH BETTER without constant consumption.   I highly recommend it....
From his blog at http://noimpactman.typepad.com/

The No Impact Experiment is a one-week carbon cleanse. It is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life. It’s not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern “conveniences” you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money.

Velvet climate revolution, here we come!

Haiti and the Dominican Republic

According to the CIA , Haiti is far poorer than the Dominican Republic.  (No, I'm not privy to their internal memos - they publish this stuff on the Internet.) 
                                               Haiti                                                             
Infant mortality                   59.69 / 1000 live births
Life expectancy @ birth     60.78 years
Literacy                             52.9 %
GDP per capita                 $ 1,300
Pop below poverty line       80 %

                                               Dominican Republic
Infant mortality                     25.96/1000  live births
Life expectancy @ birth        73.7 years
Literacy                                87 %                                
GDP per capita                    $ 8,300
Pop below poverty line         42.2 %


Same island - far different outcomes. Why?  Environmental degradation and poor governance in Haiti...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60I34V20100119

Experts say deforestation in Haiti stretching back to the Duvalier dictatorships -- leaving the nation with less than 2 percent forest cover -- contributes to erosion that undermines food output by the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere....Years of weak government were also a shortcoming.

I'd say the writer of the Reuters article was being kind to the Duvaliers by calling their rule  'weak government.'  However you classify the goverance of Haiti, its current situation is a reminder to us all that we cannot have a healthy, happy culture and people without thriving ecosystems.

EcoPyschology

I witnessed a soul retrieval healing for a friend recently.  While my friend and the healer were journeying, the beat of the drum proved almost hypnotic.  I wrote the following:
The healer suggested "outside, in nature find a stick...."
Are we not nature?
Not if we live in a linear world - a poverty stricken world without mess, change or growth.
And we do everything we can to destroy life and growth: spiders, bacteria, mice ....
We clean furiously,
lay traps,
sweep away cobwebs...
and we spray pesticides and weedkiller outside.
We detest life.  We detest change.
We wish to end the cycle of life - death - life.
Oh - to be a machine......
We are not machines.
We are life. Stardust . Divinity. Energy.
We scintillate and shimmer and dance  and coruscate and change and
die and are born once more.
From this we create balance.
We are ordered tension.
Crystals growing - decaying - shifting - changing.
When we prevent change we prevent life.
We wish to die  -  permanently.
That is why we try to kill Gaia.
We desire sterility.
Complete.
Utter.
Final.
END.
No change. When we achieve that, we too will be gone.
We want that.  We hate ourselves.
If we learn to love ourselves, we will  save the world.
She is a part of us - we are a part of her -we need her.
So -
when we are healed of self hatred, we will be healed of world hatred.

I wrote the above before I read Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind; Edited by Theodore Roszak, 1995.

Ecopyschology suggests that we can read our transactions with the natural environment - the way we use or abuse the planet - as projections of unconcious needs or desires , in much the same way we can read dreams and hallucinations to learn about our deep motivations.

Climate Change, Conflict and Fragility

The US Pentagon has acknowledged that climate change increases the possiblity of conflict around the world.  "The Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilising force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The Pentagon, in acknowledging the threat of global warming, will now have to factor climate change into war game exercises and long-term security assessments of badly affected regions such as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/31/pentagon-ranks-global-warming-destabilising-force

 International Alert, an independent  peace building organization funded by the European Union,  has spent twenty years attempting to create peace.  "Effects of climate change such as more frequent natural disasters, long-term water shortages and food insecurity could combine with other factors and lead to violent conflict." http://www.international-alert.org/press/Climate_change_conflict_and_fragility_Nov09.pdf

 In spite of these two organizations' diametrically opposed missons, they agree on the security implications of climate change. Unlike the Pentagon, International Alert attempts to understand and  prevent conflict. They conclude that, by instituting good governance,  peaceful solutions to the problems caused by global warming are more likely to be created.  Do you doubt their conclusions?   Fragile states are characterized by an elite that controls economic and political opportunity - think of Guatemala.  Conflict risk is increased when  resources are hogged by by elites and the poor have no access to institutional structures through which their grievances can be addressed.     Hmmmnnnnn  - now I'm wondering if the BC pipeline bomber feels he has no other way to express grievances besides violence.     (Goerge Monbiot did call Canada a thuggish petro state.)

I conclude that climate change activists must be politically aware and work towards increasing participation in democracy if a velvet climate revolution is to be successful.

Hockey Stick Graph

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/03/climate-scientist-michael-mann

The board of inquiry at Pennsylvania State University said it found no evidence that Michael Mann, a leading climatologist, had suppressed or falsified data, tried to destroy data or emails, or misused information. ....It also cleared Mann of purposely hiding or destroying email relating to an IPCC climate change report.

Can we now get on with dealing with climate change?  

A Very Interesting View from Davos

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-sad-state-of-the-world-and-other-themes-from-davos/article1453817/

But the financial meltdown and recession are arguably symptoms of a bigger systemic crisis and deep institutional failures.  ...Then sustainability became a matter of competitiveness and cost reduction, by capturing efficiencies such as reducing waste and energy use. CEOs everywhere at Davos said we've now arrived at the point where sustainability must be integrated into business strategy – what a business is, and how it operates and relates to the rest of the world.   ....There is growing agreement that gross domestic products and gross national products are flawed tools for measuring the health of country, and we should instead emphasize the idea of Gross National Well-Being or something similar. ....Just as some companies have moved to “triple-bottom line” reporting for their impact on society, many economists argue that GDPs and GNPs measure activities that are detrimental to society and ignore activities that are beneficial.

Read Don Tapscott's entire articles at the above website.   I find it hopeful that, at an elitist event like the World Economic Forum,   themes such as those listed  emerge.  An ever-increasing awareness that the world we live in is flawed is the precursor to improving it.  We cannot create a more egalitarian and more sustainable way of life until we admit the system we have doesn't work for the poor and for the eocysystems we exploit.