Discussion on The Restriction of Plastic Water Bottles

http://www.usernetsite.com/society/every-day-millions-of-plastic-water-bottles-are-being-discarded.php

There is always a tension between individual rights and collective rights.

We restrict all kinds of behaviour by law: even though I can make all kinds of money manufacturing and selling crystal meth, the law prohibits me from doing so.  Ditto the manufacture of child porn:   very few people question our laws on child porn .  (Except for Tom Flanagan!)   Slavery isn't legal either.  Here in Canada, we have restrictions on hate speech. Most people would agree with restrictions on       first three:  I'm guessing or hoping  most folks would frown on urging people to kill  LGBT people because their existence is an abomination. We also regularly send folks to a forensic psychiatric hospital in spite of said folks express wishes!

Once we admit that some actions and behaviours are not socially acceptable, and should be sanctioned, the discussion then becomes one of where the sanctions  should be drawn.   We may differ on where that line should be, but will agree that a line should be drawn somewhere that restricts  freedoms.

I think that the issues of environmental degradation/ destruction and climate change are of the same calibre as slavery and child abuse. Humans stand a very good chance of destroying our natural environments as the climate warms: once we do that, then it’s goodbye Charlie for humans.  ( Please watch the video in the immediately preceding post or read Climate Wars by Gwynne Dyer for information on how bad things will get if we continue with business as ususal.) 

Even if one privileges humans over everything else, the choices we make, are causing the climate to change .  We are therefore are killing people right now with our choice of business as ususal : climate change is eroding land in Bangladesh; South Pacific islanders are buying land on larger continents so they’ll have somewhere above water to live; and people are dying of droughts in the Horn of Africa.  I think we have a moral responsibility to alter our choices and actions if our current ones are devastating other people.

So, although banning plastic bottles at the students request at TRU may seem like a small step that arbitrarily wipes out freedoms, I don’t think it is. Plastic bottles are manufactured with oil – are unnecessary for our  health as we have clean drinking water in Kamloops – and their ban would be small step on the road we have to take if we are to survive. If nothing else, the discussion on plastic bottles acts as consciousness raising and symbolizes our collective determination to cut down on affluenza.

Conference Board Rates Canada

Apparently the Conference Board of Canada has been taken over by pinkos - or foreign radicals - or eco-terrorists. 

The Conference Board’s overarching goal is to measure quality of life for Canada and its peers. But a country must not only demonstrate a high quality of life—it must also demonstrate that its high quality of life is sustainable.   There is growing recognition that gross domestic product (GDP) produced at the expense of the global environment, and at the expense of scarce and finite physical resources, overstates the net contribution of that economic growth to a country’s prosperity. Canadians understand that protecting the environment from further damage is not a problem for tomorrow, but a challenge for today. Without serious attention to environmental sustainability, Canada puts its society and its quality of life at risk....Canada ranks 15th out of 17 peer countries and scores a “C” grade on its environmental performance report card. Canada’s poor record in several areas—including climate change, energy intensity, smog, and waste generation—drags down its comparative performance. Only Australia and the U.S. rank below Canada. http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/environment.aspx
 

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions
Climate change is now the most serious global environmental threat.¹ Its potential impacts include global warming, sea level rise, increased extreme weather events, and altered rainfall patterns. Climate change is a direct consequence of elevated greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere and feedback mechanisms. ..Canada is one of the world's largest per capita GHG emitters. Canada ranks 15th out of 17 OECD countries on GHG emissions per capita and scores a “D” grade.^..Despite international commitments to drastically reduce GHGs, Canada has not seen a substantial improvement on its per capita GHG emissions. 

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/environment/greenhouse-gas-emissions.aspx
 

Who needs to criticize  Canadian government policy when  the Conference Board is doing it for environmental activists?

It's Possible

It is possible to take the bus - or any other form of public transit - and do one's errands without noticeable suffering.

Last week, my partner and I fetched our groceries using transit.  We left our house at 10:25 am and walked  six blocks or so to the nearest bus stop.  We heard a bus grinding up Sixth Avenue and just missed it.  Refusing to run, we walked from Sixth to Third to catch for the next bus that runs up Fourth.  Well, Chris walked.  I scampered like a hamster on an exercise wheel to keep up.  Hey , you know what?  The buses run every fifteen minutes on a weekday while the university is in session.  (That means check your bus schedules in the summers!)   And everyone says this is inconvenient!!??!

We caught the 10:45 bus - were whisked up the hill while chatting to various folks - got off just before the grocery store and walked a block.   (Yes, you are seeing a pattern here. )   We whizzed through our shopping, caught the next bus downtown, walked to the United Church and dropped off a cheque,  rented three movies at Moviemart, dropped off a prescription at Manshadi Pharmacy, and walked home. I was fumbling with my door key at 12:04 at my front door.

Conclusions? 

Jesus, Joseph, and Mary - store owners overheat their buildings!  The interiors  felt really, really hot after all that walking.  

It doesn't take any more time to take transit but it does take forethought and organization.  One needs  to check the schedules and organize a great circle route while doing errands on the bus.  Taking public transit is good excercise too - at least for a pudgy, more than middle aged person.  OK - fat - but if I am able to do it, so can most.   Using transit saves one money.

A monthly transit pass in Kamloops per transit site costs:

Adult	$53.00
Senior*	$34.00
Student to Gr. 12**	$34.00
Student, 4 month pass	$100.00
University Student***	$43.00
ProPASS	$528.00/year

http://www.transitbc.com/regions/kam/fares/default.cfm    And monthly transit passes are tax deductible in Canada!  Using a car costs you about $ 600 a month on average - about the same as the coasts of an annual bus pass in Kamloops!   Moreover, everytime you use transit, you lower your carbon footprint and help prevent climate change.

Why not try transit?  We plan to use it more - I'll keep you posted.

Edible Landscaping

I posted on Vancouver's plans to plant more trees several days ago. To refresh your memory:

Plans call for the first batch, including some fruit and nut trees, to be split roughly equally between parks, streets and private property. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/forests-not-just-for-tree-huggers-in-vancouver/article4498724/
 

Weaving edible plants into the landscape is an old idea made new. Rosalind Creasey has been preaching and practicing edible landscaping for years.  I bought her book, Edible Landscaping, back in the Dark Ages.   1982 to be exact......

This is a pic of the plants to the right of my front gate.  I planted rhubarb in this location  this spring as it is in front of a Yellow Ribbon cedar I water quite a bit; transplanted alpine strawberries raised from a packet of seed twenty years ago in front of the rhubarb that have since flung themselves around the yard indiscriminately;  and filled in with some parsley seedlings . It looks very  pretty;  I've eaten  LOTS of parsley from two plants all season, and I'm anticipating picking rhubarb early next spring.

Maybe I'll even have rhubarb  to preserve.  MMMnnnnnnn!  I feel like a Gwen Stefani song at the thought:  yummy from head to toe!  Ding ding!

Rosalind has a website devoted to edible landscaping - with lovely, lovely pictures of mouthwatering gardens. You'll find it at:

http://www.rosalindcreasy.com/

Check it out - you'll be enchanted, I promise.  You'll be inspired to grow your veggies and fruit.   Food doesn't get more local than out of your garden or your balcony - and by growing your own food , you'll reduce your carbon footprint,    prevent climate change, and improve your mood.  


Libertarian Exegesis

I found this video on line and it exerted an awful fascination on me - and I do mean awful! Watch it and weep! 

Seconds in:

 .07 -.18   "The Philosophy of Liberty is based on the principle of self ownership.  You own your life. " Sure - interject the language of commerce into the concept of liberty first thing!  And what does this mean, anyway?  If someone enslaves you, they're not transferring your 'ownership ' to themselves - they are committing a crime and a fundamental injustice.   In fact, selling yourself into slavery is a fundamentally unjust practice.   (Furthermore,  a Buddhist would deny that your 'self" exists.)  My friend Bel says:  Some people are more equal than others so those foreign views don't count for nuthin!  "

.26 "to deny this is to imply that another person has a higher claim on your life than you do."   If you have children,  I'd say your children have a higher claim on your life than you do.  Particularly when they are small, vulnerable, and helpless; your children have a very large claim on your life.   But perhaps libertarians are like Ayn Rand and don't like children.  

.55 "You exist in time.  Future, present , and past. "  Other cultures don't share  the Western sense of time as  linear; and would therefore dispute this vision.    See Bel above.....

1:57 "Property is that part of nature which you turn to valuable use."   This video privileges humans over everything else.   Some folks dispute that this world view is ethical.   What about the rights of non-human entities - possibly including Gaia herself- to functioning ecosystems undisturbed by someone turning said ecosystem  to a 'valuable use?'  One may laugh at the idea that non human entities have rights - but American slave owners scoffed at the thought that slaves had rights.   Or were human......  There may come a time when we regard a mindset that thinks of nature as property with the same horror we direct at those who defend slavery.

2:06  "Property is the property of others which is given to you by voluntary exchange and mutual consent."   Not always - there was very little 'voluntary' about the enslavement of Africans.  See Bel above.....

2:16  "Two people who exchange property voluntarily are both better off or they wouldn't do it." Really?   REALLY! ???   Libertarian have never heard of unequal exchange, apparently.  Or listened to music:  I cain't die cuz I owe my soul to the company store!"  

4:11 "you have the right to seek leaders for yourself but no right to impose rulers onto others."  Ah yes - the old democracy as dictatorship argument.    One hears it everywhere! 

5:47 "Your actions on behalf of others ...is virtuous when it is derived from mutual consent."  Apparently libertarians never send anyone to jail for murder or confine them to a forensic psychiatric hospital as that would be an action on behalf of others NOT derived from mutual voluntary consent.  We constrain the choices of corporations and real people all the time - or did I only dream that the manufacture of crystal meth is illegal?    Would it be practical to remove all  limits on behaviour?  

7:.01 "Having confidence in a free society is to focus on the process of discovery in the marketplace of values."  What the hell is a market place of values?   My friend Bel says "Isn't that between XS Cargo and Papa Murphy's Pizza?  Evidently you and I  just don't get the right fliers!"

7:13 "Using governmental force to impose a vision on others is intellectual sloth."  No, intellectual sloth is not thinking critically about what one views or reads.  Actually, Bel says "  Thank you for clarifying that.  I thought intellectual sloth was a tree hanger, similar to an opossum, that quotes Freud and Nietzsche.  We had them in Parque del Este in Caracas."

 Bel says " Buried here [in this video] is the basic denial that anything is seriously wrong with our natural systems, and that we might actually need a functioning planet in order to thrive."

Ron Paul, an American libertarian, and astonishly, a former candidate for the Republican nominee for President,  believes that:

contrary to the claims of the supporters of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the sponsors of H.Res. 676, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not improve race relations or enhance freedom. Instead, the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty. 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/201211810446786665.html

Making discrimination illegal is an act that reduces freedom?   Successfully lobbying the government to pass laws that  eliminate the production of greenhouse gases is a reduction of liberty?  Sure - right - absolutely. If one lives in an insane world, it is.

A thank you goes to my friend Belinda Darlington for letting me quote her. You rock!  Thanks as always for sharpening my thinking. 

Scream or A Flicker of Hope

Climate change is accelerating.  Climate change models  - much derided by deniers - look pretty conservative.    Arctic summer sea ice is vanishing: we may see an ice free Arctic summers by  2020.

Sea ice in the Arctic is disappearing at a far greater rate than previously expected, according to data from the first purpose-built satellite launched to study the thickness of the Earth's polar caps.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/aug/11/arctic-sea-ice-vanishing
  
Greenland's ice cap seems to be thawing like a popsicle dropped on asphalt on a hot Kamloops day.

 New data compiled by the European Space Agency (ESA) has suggested that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting much faster than previously thought.    Officials said that new satellite images from ice-measuring radar firm Cryosat were combined with NASA IceSat images, which revealed that the landmass is currently losing ice at the rate of around 900 cubic-km each year.  Experts say that although ice melt figures vary greatly, the new results are nearly 50 percent higher than the majority of findings and have sounded new alarms among scientists.

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2012/08/15/greenland-ice-could-be-gone-in-10-years/

But - WHOHOO! open Arctic water means access to oil!

Ottawa has placed 905,000 hectares of the northern offshore up for bids, clearing the way for energy companies to snap up exploration rights for an area half the size of Lake Ontario. The scale of the offer indicates eagerness in the oil patch to drill for new finds in Canada’s northern waters less than two years after such plans were put on hold following the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico and a major Arctic drilling safety review.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/reviving-arctic-oil-rush-ottawa-to-auction-rights-in-massive-area/article4184419/

And HEY - maybe we can get metahne out of them thar frozen wastelands !  Do you think?????? Ignore that person chittering away about potent greenhouse gases.

The pilot experiment will explore the possibility of ‘mining’ from gas hydrates: cages of water ice that hold molecules of methane. Such hydrates exist under the sea floor and in sandstone deep beneath the Arctic tundra, holding potentially vast reserves of natural gas. But getting the gas out is tricky and expensive.

http://www.nature.com/news/gas-hydrate-tests-to-begin-in-alaska-1.9758
 On my more despairing days I think humanity is too stupid to survive. Makes me want to scream..... But The Joint Review Panel on Northern Gateway did ask for the US NTSB's report on their bungling of the Kalamzoo spill. 

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report was published in July, but Enbridge has not tabled any information about the spill, which leaked 3.3 million litres of oil into the Kalamazoo river, coating wildlife.  Now the Joint Review Panel assessing the company's proposed oilsands pipeline from Alberta to B.C. has tabled a detailed request asking Enbridge to supply the synopsis report and the final report by noon MT on Sept. 4.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/08/15/bc-enbridge-pipeline-kalamazoo-report.html
A flicker of hope in an oil addicted world.....why on earth wouldn't we admit our addiction when we're reduced to scrabbling for  oil with an EROI of 2.41?     How much destruction do we have to cause before we admit this culture and way of life is unsustainable?  We need to change our values.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Apparently we're going to save ourselves by geo engineering the planet. In case you don't know, geo- engineering aims to fix the havoc wrought by greenhouse gas emissions by preventing sunlight from reaching the planet.  

Two Harvard engineers are to spray sun-reflecting chemical particles into the atmosphere to artificially cool the planet, using a balloon flying 80,000 feet over Fort Sumner, New Mexico.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/17/us-geoengineers-spray-sun-balloon

Vandana Shiva and Gwynne Dyer debated the propriety of geo-engineering back in 2010.    Democracy Now posted these videos on Youtube:

Part 1

Part 2

Debated may be a misnomer, don't you think?   As Vandana Shiva points out, geo - engineering is a  fix by the thinking that created climate change.   And, whatever the consequences of preventing sunlight from reaching the earth,  that won't do much to prevent the oceans from acidfying.

The Pacific Ocean is growing more acidic at a much faster rate than anticipated, scientists say, putting everything from corals to mussels in jeopardy.   Researchers say carbon dioxide from the atmosphere forms carbonic acid in the ocean, changing the seawater enough that it can dissolve the shells of coral and shellfish.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/16/bc-ocean-acidification.html?cmp=rss

Can you say Easter Island?    We keep doing the same old things while the bad news rolls in - but it's OK to cut down the last tree because ....otherwise we'd have to change.

Please write the Right Honorable Stephen Harper and instruct him to pass meaningful legislation on  greenhouse gas emissions.  (Yes, government need to do this - just how did your individual actions stop acid rain? Or fix the hole in the ozone layer?  They didn't - international agreements/ laws did.)

Individual actions do count  - especially in a community setting.  So start a Transition Town in your community to smooth our  inevitable carbon descent.   And plant some trees while you're at it.

New Lands in Atlas

We're discovering and naming new land  - thanks to of climate change.  Mapmakers have deemed a new island that popped up due to ice melt  large enough to be named and included in a new atlas.  You can buythe atlas  at
http://www.timesatlas.com/TimesAtlasRange/Pages/AtlasDetail.aspx?IDNumber=63021 for 110 British pounds on sale.
No , I have not purchased it: I read about it at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/15/new-atlas-climate-change .  Naming a new island isn't the only thing that has changed.  From the Guardian:

Sections of the Rio Grande, Yellow, Colorado and Tigris rivers are now drying out each summer. In Mongolia, the Ongyin Gol has been redirected to allow gold mining, while the Colorado river these days does not reach the sea most years. "We are increasingly concerned that in the near future important geographical features will disappear for ever. Greenland could reach a tipping point in about 30 years," said Jethro Lennox, editor of the atlas.

How long is Canada going to do absolutlely nothing about climate change?
Forever, if we don't generate the political will to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Climate change is a pyschological issue - not an environmental issue.   Win -win solutiosn exist ( you save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions) but collectively we don't implement them.   Denial is such a cozy blanket .....
Check out the site below and be arrested in Ottawa on September 26, 2011 (after taking the train to get there!)  if you're tired of writing letters.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/08/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-ottawa-tar-sands-action-call-out-%E2%80%93-sept

UPDATE:
Apparently the atlas is published by Rupert Murdoch - and is inaccurate.  Quelle surprise!   However, climate change is happening in the Arctic - and Canada should be taking steps to prevent and mitigate climate change.  Even if Rupert Murdoch's empire publishes inaccuarate information. ....

Great Green Transportation Tune-UP

Great Green
TRANSPORTATION  TUNE-UP

Travel $marter, Live Better

The Kamloops 350 Environmental Association, is partnering with the City of Kamloops and BCSEA to present the Great Green Transportation Tune-up from September 26 to October 1, 2011. 

The Great Green Transportation Tune-Up is a week of events that provides Kamloops residents with many ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. By promoting vehicle efficiency, removing barriers to transit use and providing fun ways for citizens to "test-drive" alternative modes, the Tune-Up will increase overall awareness of the issues and facilitate an eventual transition to a sustainable transportation future. 

The Great Green Transportation Tune-Up will:

·         Encourage residents to increase the efficiency of our vehicles through maintenance, trip reduction strategies and carpooling,

·         Increase familiarity with our City's transit options by providing incentives and free access,

·         Promote alternative modes of travel; including walking, cycling, and other "clean " ways of getting around, and

·          Give residents a chance to dream a bit about what an ideal future Kamloops transportation system might look like.

Activities include:

·         The Reel Sustainability Film Fest on Friday, September 23 to Saturday, September 24, 2011 at TRU. (There are too many movies to list individually.)

• How to Boil A Frog will be shown Tuesday , September 27 in the evening - downtown at the Paramount or at TRU. (venue uncertain at this time.)  
• BCSEA will present a panel discussion on "The Future of Transportation" at TRU on Wednesday, September 28, 2011.  Panelists are John Kenney and Erin Felker.
•          The Transit Treasure Hunt - participants become eligible for prizes as they travel the City by bus all week, picking up clues as they go.
•          Tire pressure checking mobs will distribute vehicle efficiency information at parking lots everywhere.
•          The Green Your Transportation Pledge - if you reduce your vehicle use by car pooling, biking, walking, or taking transit for one week, you will be eligible for prizes. 
•          Cool Wheels - a  show featuring hybrid & electric cars, and one solar car,  as well as scooters and bikes.
•          The Transportation Imagination Station -   a place where people can describe their vision of a sustainable Kamloops.
•          Bike , Bus or Boogie challenge - a multi-modal challenge where each participant uses a different means of transportation to complete a set of errands.

Check it out at     http://www.kamloops350.com/

Legal Innovation

Environmental Regulation

Environmental regulation is often cast as a burden on business. Clean air standards smother firms in red tape and stifle economies already facing tough times, opponents say. But what if environmental protection actually boosted economic performance? A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that reducing ground-level ozone (a main component of smog) significantly improved worker productivity. “Our results indicate that ozone, even at levels below current air quality standards in most of the world, has significant negative impacts on worker productivity, suggesting that the strengthening of regulations on ozone pollution would yield additional benefits,” the authors note.

How big are those benefits? A back of the envelope calculation suggests that a 10 ppb reduction in the EPA’s ozone standard would translate into an annual cost savings of $1.1-billion, Mr. Neidell said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/daily-mix/why-environmental-red-tape-may-be-good-for-business/article2042951/

Economic benefits from smog free air at ground level?  Who'd have thought clean air could improve productivity?

Perhaps  Robert Owen would have thought so. - he bought a mill named New Lanark quite some time ago.  A couple of hundred years or so....

New Lanark became celebrated throughout Europe, with many leading royals, statesmen and reformers visiting the mills. They were astonished to find a clean, healthy industrial environment with a content, vibrant workforce and a prosperous, viable business venture all rolled into one. Owen’s philosophy was contrary to contemporary thinking, but he was able to demonstrate that it was not necessary for an industrial enterprise to treat its workers badly to be profitable. Owen was able to show visitors the village’s excellent housing and amenities, and the accounts showing the profitability of the mills.

His ideas didn't spread even though he prospered while and becuase he treated his employees well .( For one thing, he paid them in coin of the realm instead of in tokens.   For another , he didn't employ children of three.) 

Often, ideology trumps our own interests - and we behave in self-defeating ways.

It would be in our long term  interests to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.   Why don't we?

We Can Do Things Differently

We can do things differently - we've proved that in the past. 

The British made the slave trade illegal.  In 1807.  And abolished slavery in most of the Empire in 1833.  Of course, the pro-slavery lobby worked furiously to prevent this.

Arguments made then against abolishing slavery have a curiously modern tone.

 The most approved Judges of the Commercial Interests of these Kingdoms have been of the opinion that our West-Indian and African Trades are the most nationally beneficial of any we carry on... That Traffic alone affords our Planters a constant supply of Negro Servants for the Culture of their Lands in the produce of Sugars, Tobacco, Rice, Rum, Cotton, Fustick, Pimento and all our other Plantation Produce: so that the extensive Employment of our other Shipping in, to and from America, the great Brood of Seamen consequent thereupon, and the daily bread of the most considerable of our British Manufactures, are owing primarily to the Labour of Negroes. http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/audio78797-abolition.html

In other words, the writer of the pamphlet arguing for slavery felt that British manufacturing was uneconomic without the slave trade.   Of course, he was wrong.

The folks arguing that it is uneconomic to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are wrong as well. 

Current economic difficulties presented an opportunity not a hurdle to move towards a low carbon economy, said Lord Stern, an economist at the London School of Economics who authored an eponymous report in 2006 on the costs of climate change. "The case for urgent action is not just powerful, its also attractive," he said, adding that emerging countries such as China had increasingly grasped this while others, like the US, were moving backwards. http://euobserver.com/884/31778

So please reduce your own greenhouse gas emissions.  Educate others - with loving kindness.  And lobby your politicians.

PS I started thinking about doing things differently when I read the following article in the Globe and Mail. 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/radar-like-inner-vision-helps-blind-learn-to-navigate-beyond-preconceived-limits/article2035203/

 Daniel Kish has no eyes, but can ride his bike down the street and walk through an unfamiliar airport on his own. 

OK - Now I'm Depressed.

The video is from Al Jazeera.  http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/05/2011530195212675595.html

Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency.  The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius – which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" – is likely to be just "a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/carbon-emissions-nuclearpower?intcmp=122

Sigh ......well, no point in being depressed.  It won't help. 

So ------Write your Congressperson - MP - Senator - and tell them this is a serious problem and we expect decisive leadership - not a craven grovelling at the feet of the fossil fuels industry. 

The New Normal

Heavy rains, deep snowfalls, monster floods and killing droughts are signs of a "new normal" of extreme U.S. weather events fueled by climate change, scientists and government planners said on Wednesday.

It's a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University told reporters. "We are used to certain conditions and there's a lot going on these days that is not what we're used to, that is outside our current frame of reference," Hayhoe said on a conference call with other experts, organized by the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists.Hayhoe, other scientists, civic planners and a manager at the giant Swiss Re reinsurance firm all cited human-caused climate change as an factor pushing this shift toward more extreme weather.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/19/floods-droughts-extreme-weather-us_n_864046.html

So when will we, as a society , act on ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions?    Are we just going to keep living in denial?

 Write your Member of Parliament and ask them to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.  Hell, ask them to start riots in the streets  - we should be very concerned about the world our children will live in.

The Ethics of Climate Change

I am a Unitarian Universalist.   Recently , our minister preached  - yes, big surprise - that's what ministers do!  She explored  the subject of " neighbours."

Well, I believe that we are all connected - people, animals, insects, viruses, plants, fungi, stars - you get the idea.   So my answer to the question "Who is  my neighbour? "   is -  everyone and everything.  Therefore, it behooves me to look after my nieghbour - or not to actively harm them.   Therefore, I must  act to prevent  climate change as well as work to persuade others of the necessity of acting.

I'm not the only person who has arrived at this conclusion.

Climate change is changing our world. Not only is it changing our physical world, but also our intellectual, social, and moral worlds, in ways that we could not have imagined a  generation or two ago. The science of climate change, and the political impasses associated  with dealing with it, demonstrate that we are in a profoundly unsafe, interdependent, and uncertain world....[Therefore] be willing to take an ethical stand on climate change.  There is no place to hide form this....Regard economics as being about provisioning - that is, the way socities organize themselves to provide for the sustaining and flourishing of life. http://www.e3network.org/papers/Ethics_and_the_Economist_033111.pdf

So what do I do to live ethically and to prevent and mitigate climate change?

Little and big - in no particular order:

• I walk to work.  If you cannot do that, take transit.  Or car pool! If everyone drove to work with one aother person, you'd reduce vehicles on the road by one -half and greenhouse gas emissions accordingly.
• I shop at the local farmers' market and freeze and preserve food  for the winter.  Trucking and flying goods generates a lot of greenhouse gases.
• I am a vegetarian.  Eating meat raised in the agri biz is not only cruel to animals, and  destructive to the environment,  but the industry  generates almost 20 % of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
• I buy fair trade food.  (OK - it's trucked in  -but at least shade grown coffee doesn't destroy the environment. And as soon as I find coffee that arrives om the Bluenose, I'll buy that.)
• We have cut our electrical bill to one- half its former total by turning off lights/ appliances/ clock radios  and installing CFLs.  We replaced our washer , dryer , and dishwasher with European models that use very little electricity or water.
• We(me and my partner)  turn our heat backto 15 C at night and up to 17 C during the daytime.  Walking around in a sweater isn't a hardship.  And snuggling is fun!
• We installed a solar hot water heater.   Lots of susnshine in the Interior of BC.
• We don't fly anywhere.
• I write letters to politicans and urge them to to take action on climate change ( and perahps salvage Canada's reputation in the process.)  
• We donate to climate action groups.
• We help organize climate change rallies and vigils - in fact, we volunteer a lot of time.  Not only do we work for a good cause, we enlarge our community of friends.  And have fun.
• I educate myself  on the issue and on the psychology of climate change denial.
• I meditate to grow my loving kindness and to generate more love in the world.

Anyone can do some of these things.  I / we didn't begin by doing all of them at once. Just begin! 

If you can only choose one, please choose creating more love in the world - for yourself as well as all others. After all, Gandhi said  "Be the change you want to see in the world."   I say once we learn to love the world and ourselves, we will not destroy it  - we will  create a velvet climate revolution.

PS The picture was taken at a candlelight vigil for the Copenhagen Conference - the action was suggested by the folks at
http://www.350.org/             Check the website out - lots of ideas for actions in the fall of 2011.

Look Your Last On all Things Lovely

Globally warmer seas, rising carbon dioxide emissions and local factors like over-fishing have pushed the threat level on the world's coral reefs into the danger zone, environmental advocates said on Wednesday. "Mounting pressures on land, along the coast and in the water converge in a perfect storm of threats to reefs," Jane Lubchenco, administrator at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a briefing. "Since the last 'Reefs at Risk' report ... threats have gone from worrisome to dire." "It's pretty clear that reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, is absolutely necessary if we want any hope of preventing a lot of the dire situations that are presented in the report," Lubchenco said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/23/us-climate-reefs-idUSTRE71M5TL20110223

Looks like we won`t have coral reefs in our future unless we reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Changing Minds

People do change their minds occasionally. About what to wear - or where to holiday. Changing one's mind seems to be a rarer thing on issues where people are heavily invested emotionally. Think abortion.... Or climate change.Mother Jones has an interesting article on this at

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/denial-science-chris-mooney?page=4

The writer of the article describes how an emotional investment can skew our reasoning by discussing relationships. Ze says

We all understand these mechanisms when it comes to interpersonal relationships. If I don't want to believe that my spouse is being unfaithful, or that my child is a bully, I can go to great lengths to explain away behavior that seems obvious to everybody else—everybody who isn't too emotionally invested to accept it, anyway.

Ze goes on to demonstrate, that, since this emotional skewing happens to everyone,  it is virtually useless to argue with people over the facts .

Take, for instance, the question of whether Saddam Hussein possessed hidden weapons of mass destruction just before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. When political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler showed subjects fake newspaper articles (PDF) in which this was first suggested (in a 2004 quote from President Bush) and then refuted (with the findings of the Bush-commissioned Iraq Survey Group report, which found no evidence of active WMD programs in pre-invasion Iraq), they found that conservatives were more likely than before to believe the claim.

Uh huh.  The stronger the evidence against their belifes, the more the subjects clung to their beliefs.  Gad -  what's a poor climate change or environmental activist to do in that case ? Arguing doesn't change anyone's mind. Presenting  facts entrenches beliefs! Aaagggh! One ray of hope remains:

Conservatives are more likely to embrace climate science if it comes to them via a business or religious leader, who can set the issue in the context of different values than those from which environmentalists or scientists often argue.

So sell climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas emission reduction to deniers on the basis of their values - using someone they already respect as a spokesperson if possible. Couch measures in patriotic language and present said maeasures as business opportunities.

Another ray of hope. sometimes people change their minds on the basis of their experiences. A conservative Christian campaigner against gay amrriage in the US changed his mind and recanted his opposition to gay marriage.

between what I had witnessed on the marriage tour and RJ’s post about marriage equality, I really came to understand that gays and lesbians were just real people who wanted to live real lives and be treated equally as opposed to, for example, wanting to destroy American culture. No, they didn’t want to destroy American culture, they wanted to openly particulate in it. I was well on my way to becoming a supporter of civil marriage equality. My name is Louis J. Marinelli, a conservative-Republican and I now support full civil marriage equality. The constitution calls for nothing less.

http://louisjmarinelli.com/politics/i-now-support-full-marriage-equality

The trick is gonna be changing enough folks' minds -  in time.   Tick, tock, tick, tock.......

Why Just On August 27th?

http://www.crazysustainablecommute.org/

Canada: Accountable and Transparent Government

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/emissions-reductions-10-times-less-than-governments-projections-report/article1591784/

Environment Canada overestimated by 10 times the amount of emissions reductions that result from government measures when it reported last year on its efforts to meet this country’s obligations under the Kyoto protocol. .... What is more, although Ottawa started handing over the first installments of a five-year $1.5-billion Clean Air and Climate Change Trust fund to the provinces in 2008, the federal government cannot monitor them or verify whether they are being spent for the intended purpose.

The federal government gave out money to the provinces and cannot verify what the provinces did with it? Isn't this the party that promised open, transparent, and accountable government?   And who told them  a prize existed for the most greenhouse gas emissions per capita?  They appear to be attempting to said prize..... *sigh*.

Addicted to Oil

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/panel-reveals-litany-of-failures-on-oil-spill/article1566781/

A litany of failures in the blow-out preventer led to the catastrophic spill from BP’s leaking Gulf of Mexico well, a powerful Congressional investigations panel revealed on Wednesday, suggesting that BP and Transocean officials overlooked warning signs and then disagreed on what to do about them. “Our investigation is at its early stages, but already we have uncovered at least four significant problems with the blow-out preventer used on the Deepwater Horizon drill rig,” said Bart Stupak, the Michigan congressman who chairs the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ energy committee.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-fought-safety-measures-deepwater-oil-rigs/story?id=10521078

BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.  In a letter sent last year to the Department of the Interior, BP objected to what it called "extensive, prescriptive regulations" proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. "We believe industry's current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs…continue to be very successful."

We don't let corporations and individuals manufacture and sell crustal meth or crack cocaine if we can prevent it.  We consider it immoral or unethical - no matter big the profits.  Period. If I could pass regulations, BP would have cause to complain about "extensive, prescriptive regulation!"

Why aren't we regulating drilling for oil / mining the tar sands/ and the uses of oil ?  We've only got so much of the stuff left - why waste it? We're gonna need lots of energy in the near future to save something form the wreckage.  We need  to use the energy  from oil  to build light rapid transit -  move our coastal cities inland or shore up defences such as levees and dikes - and create wind farms and solar energy farms.  Climate change is already happening  - we need to deal with it.   And we need to deal with corporations that pollute the environment and ignore worker safety.  Eleven men died on the Deepwater Horizon -   think about  ecosystem death and destruction in the Gulf of Mexico - and for what?  Higher emissions of greenhouse gases from our Hummers?