Chasing Ice

Denial becomes harder and harder to maintain....

Empathy

I’ve been struggling with the concept of empathy lately - empathy as it relates to climate change.  

 I’ve been wondering if I am ethically required to have empathy for climate deniers who tend to be older white straight males vigorously defending their privilege.   Am I required to vicariously experience their feelings?  Will my empathy assist me in changing their actions?

I’m not suggesting yelling at anyone or abusing them in any way :  although, if doing so got action on climate change, I would recommend it!

If I have empathy for the beleaguered and battered earth, does that eliminate a necessity to have empathy for the people who are destroying her?  Lower it?  How about if their destruction is unconscious?  How far am I permitted to go in waking them up?    Especially if they have a tonne of privilege (yes, somewhere there's  a scale that weighs it!) and revel in their privilege......

How do I decide what my actions should be?

Humanity doesn’t seem to be smart enough to take the steps we need to take to survive:  instead, articles in the business pages discuss the profits to be made from oil extraction in an ice free Arctic.

Persistently high oil prices are also making the huge engineering challenges of working in such a hostile environment look more worthwhile. In addition, the climate change that burning hydrocarbons contributes to has pushed back the ice, opening up access to, and markets for, the hydrocarbons there.  http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/17/shell-admits-arctic-drilling-defeat-for-now/

What the fuck?  Are we mad and suicidal and determined to take every ecosystem with us as we kill ourselves?

Sharon Butula writes about her conviction that we are walking on the mind of a sentient being when we walk on the earth.  (page 127 , The Perfection of the Morning, 1994)  She wonders

What if I am walking inside the mind of a creature - call it what you will - what if the earth really is a living being and my presence here is only on sufference? If I am learning new things about myself and extrapolating from these things to his natural world....then it behooves me to wlak carefully, to pay attention, to show my growing respect in every possible way.  I stopped picking wildflowers; I went around rocks instead of stepping on them...I did not glance at plants or lichens on rocks or on the gound, I studied them. 

What of the rest of us who do far worse than pick wild flowers? 

I have a friend who says:

“No one is perfect, and the fact that some people can’t wrap their head around climate change doesn’t make them any less deserving of being treated with respect ( and empathy).  So yes, you are called to show empathy for all sorts of cretins every day in the world It’s easy to feel empathy for the earth.  The hard part is showing empathy for those destroying her.  But if we show no empathy, we don’t stand a chance at changing their minds.”

Is that true?  Or is showing empathy a way of procrastinating?  A way of demonstrating solidarity - so we don't actually havae to take action on climate change?

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.

Resolutions Passed!

A big thank you to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kamloops that passed the following resolutions today!  Please fee free to borrow from the links or other information if you need  it.

 

Support guide for anti-pipeline resolutions

prepared by UU-SEA committee

Using this guide: Text of the “whereas” preamble is printed in red, followed by additional supporting information.  Footnotes (most with clickable web links) are at the bottom of each page. 

A.       WHEREAS the effects of climate change are real, and we must immediately lower  carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels;

Evidence for warming. “The idea that Earth is warming partly because of the emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere is one of the most certain concepts in natural science. The idea that greenhouse

gases increase radiative forcing is an old idea that has withstood a variety of analyses to emerge intact

(an accessible history is available on the Web site of the American Institute of Physics at www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm ). The peer-reviewed papers that provide the evidence that human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases over the twentieth century have led to increases in temperature and changes in rainfall, wind, humidity, sea level, ocean acidity, snow cover, etc. have been assessed rigorously through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a series of reports. No serious academic body, significant institution, or national government doubts the basic science (e.g., Somers 2009).”  [1]  

Effects: Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, and causing record low Arctic sea ice levels,  droughts, wildfires, earlier springs and later falls, and increasing acidification of oceans.  For more details on these effects, click on these links:

 

http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/more-vids.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%932012_Southern_United_States_drought

http://www.biodivcanada.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=4E014B36-1&offset=2&toc=show

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification 

we should approve no new pipelines in the absence of a comprehensive federal carbon dioxide reduction plan;

 

Current plans: An international assessment of countries' performance in fighting climate change has placed Canada near the bottom (54th of 61) among the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.  Only Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkey, China, Poland and Russia were ranked lower. [2]  Our country’s current plans to reduce the “intensity” of emissions and store carbon dioxide are completely inadequate to the problem – they will do nothing to solve the problem of climate change.   “The carbon in Alberta’s economically recoverable oil sands reserve would release 69 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide if it was all extracted and burnt - the equivalent of a hundred years of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions. British Columbia has adopted a leadership role and it is essential that Canada do the same, to accept our moral responsibility and demonstrate leadership to the rest of the world.”  [3] 

 

B.      WHEREAS the other environmental costs and risks of these projects are unacceptably high; 

Spills: Enbridge pipelines have a history of spills with poor responses. The US National Transportation Safety Board went unusually far in criticizing the Enbridge response to its massive Michigan pipeline spill.  Citing pervasive organizational failures, failure to correctly identify deterioration of the pipeline and poorly trained staff in the Edmonton control centre who ignored safety procedures, the NTSB likened the Enbridge response to the Keystone Kops.[4]  Perhaps more seriously, Enbridge resisted pressure to include documents detailing the Kalamazoo spill and response until the review panel demanded this information be included.  Although the Michigan Kalamazoo River spill was the most serious of Enbridge spills, it’s important to note that it was not an isolated event.[5]  Kelly Marsh, a Kitimat millwright, crunched Enbridge's own numbers and found that the risk of at least one medium or large spill over 50 years is around 82%.  Even Enbridge acknowledged an 18.8 per cent chance of a full bore rupture during the expected life of the pipeline.  [6]   

Once a dilbit pipeline ruptures, it is no ordinary oil spill, especially if it comes in contact with water.  Because tar sands oil, or bitumen, is too thick to flow, it needs to be mixed with a thinner, or diluent.  The mixture is referred to as diluted bitumen, or dilbit for short.  When exposed to air, the diluent evaporates and the remaining heavy oil sinks in water, instead of floating on the surface, making clean-up very difficult . The EPA reported in October 2012 that large amounts of oil are still accumulating in three areas of the Kalamazoo River, and asked Enbridge to dredge approximately 100 additional acres. During the original cleanup effort, dredging was limited to just 25 acres because the EPA wanted to avoid destroying the river's natural ecology.  [7]

Tankers:  The waters of Douglas Channel (the waters where tankers would pick up oil form Northern Gateway's terminus) are very dangerous.  Mal Walsh, a Master Mariner with 40 years of experience in the international oil exploration and shipping industry, has called Enbridge's tanker routes “flawed and dangerous.” [8]   The tankers in Vancouver picking up oil from Kinder Morgan's terminus would sail through a very busy port, alongside heavily populated communities. The Kinder Morgan pipeline project would result in a quadrupling of tanker traffic from the Burnaby terminal.[9]  Officially, there is still a moratorium on oil tankers on BC’s west coast, although it is already being ignored.

Effects of pipeline building on pristine environment: The Northern Gateway pipeline threatens woodland caribou. Scientific literature suggests that “linear disturbances actually contribute to population decline,” said Elena Jones, a wildlife biologist with Resources North, a joint government-industry organization based in Prince George, B.C. She has studied caribou in the region for a decade. “They don’t co-exist well with development,” she said.[10]

Environmental deterioration through expanded tar sands: The  mined tar sands in Alberta are never as biodiverse as untouched land.  One study compared 20 reclaimed areas (with an average age of 16 years since reclamation) to 25 undisturbed sites.  Seventy per cent of the reclaimed sites were in poor ecological health: lower biodiversity, less-productive plants and more land exposed to erosion.[11]  Also, plant communities and carbon cycling in reclaimed wetlands around the world average about three-quarters of what they would if undisturbed — even after a century. And the colder the climate, the slower the recovery. In addition to site quality, the quantity of reclaimed land plays a role.  Year after year, we see the gap between disturbed land and reclamation increasing at an exponential rate. [12]

 Uncertain benefits: There is a solid body of evidence that suggests the benefits of pipeline construction are overstated.[13]  Moreover, "Enbridge gives a much rosier picture of growth in oil production in Canada in its pitch for the pipeline than it gave to its investors at a shareholder meeting." [14]   There is also doubt as to whether the pipeline capacity is even needed before 2025.[15]  In addition to all the environmental risks, economic risks in the event of a major spill are a real concern.  Questions have been raised as to whether the oil companies could be held liable if the insurance they carry proves inadequate.[16]  This may leave taxpayers are on the hook for the costs of any oil spills.   Finally, the energy return on investment for the Enbridge project is very low: we get 2.41 barrels of oil out for every 1 barrel of energy we expend getting the oil.[17]   Energy return on energy investment (EROI) is becoming an accepted approach to determining the viability of energy projects. In this case, we assert that such a high-risk project cannot be justified by such low returns. 

C.      WHEREAS we wish to demonstrate solidarity with the over 100 First Nations, the Union of BC Municipalities and many other groups who have publicly opposed these projects; 

A majority of folks in BC are opposed to the pipelines.[18]  First Nations are opposed.[19] ,[20]   The UBCM passed a resolution opposing pipeline projects like Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan's twinning that would expand tanker traffic in coastal waters.[21]  The municipalities of Burnaby and Vancouver are on record opposing the twinning, which would result in 5 times as many tankers in the port.[22]  The Vancouver Unitarian Church passed a resolution stating their opposition to the proposed pipelines.  Kairos holds that the Northern Gateway project is “inimical to respect for God's creation.”  They say the Gateway project poses threats of contamination, and  contributions to increased carbon emissions and in turn climate change, that would disrupt eco-systems critical to shared survival.[23]

BE IT RESOLVED  

1.       THAT we, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kamloops, oppose the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, BC and the proposed expansion of the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline to Burnaby, BC; and

2.       THAT we encourage our members holding financial instruments containing Enbridge or Kinder Morgan stock to divest or cancel those financial instruments, informing the companies or managers of mutual funds of the reasons for these actions.

SECOND RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the President of our Fellowship, with the help of the Social and Environmental Action Committee, communicate this resolution to elected officials, selected First Nations and journalists, as well as selected financial, environmental, social justice and faith groups in Canada, including the managers of the Canada Pension Plan.

 

---

[1] The Psychology of Global Warming: Improving the Fit between the Science and the Message by Ben R. Newell and Andrew J. Pitman, American Meteorological Society, August 2010

[2] Climate Change Performance Index 2012, Germanwatch (funding from European Union) http://germanwatch.org/klima/ccpi.pdf

[3] Guy Dauncey, Founder, BC Sustainable Energy Assoc. http://www.bcsea.org/blog/guy-dauncey/2012/06/13/alberta-oil-pipelines#_edn3

[4] National Transportation Safety Board press release, July 10, 2012  http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2012/120710.html

[5] A Decade of Enbridge Spills, Watershed Sentinel http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/enbridge-spills

[6] http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20121019/PRINCEGEORGE0101/310199996/-1/princegeorge/millwright-proponent-crunch-numbers

[7] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-12/epa-worries-dilbit-pipeline-spill-still-threatens-kalamazoo-river-.html 

 

[8] http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/master-mariners-critique-proposed-enbridge-tanker-routes

[9]http://www.surreyleader.com/business/147227875.html 

[10] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/12/bc-enbridge-northern-gateway-hearings.html

[11] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/rebuilding-land-destroyed-by-oil-sands-may-not-restore-it-researchers-say/article552879

[12] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/rebuilding-land-destroyed-by-oil-sands-may-not-restore-it-researchers-say/article552879

 

[13] http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/enbridge-northern-gateway-pipeline-new-reality-check-employment-numbers-finds

[14] http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/enbridge+overstates+economic+benefits+northern+gateway/7262534/story.html

[15] http://www.albertasurfacerights.com/upload/files/HUGHES_Northern_Gateway_Pipeline_November_2011.pdf

[16] http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/06/05/Gateway-Oil-Spill-Insurance

[17] http://www.bcsea.org/sites/bcsea.org/files/webinars/20120522-Peter-Jacob-Gateway-EROI-Webinar.pdf

[18] http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/47051/opposition-to-northern-gateway-remains-high-in-british-columbia

[19] http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/first-nations-who-oppose-enbridge

[20] http://wcel.org/sites/default/files/First%20Nations%20that%20have%20declared%20opposition%20to%20proposed%20Enbridge%20tanker%20&%20pipeline%20project.pdf

[21]http://www.albernivalleynews.com/news/171558991.html 

[22] http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Vancouver+Burnaby+mayors+decry+Kinder+Morgan+pipeline+expansion/6457014/story.html

[23] http://www.kairoscanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SUS-RE-NorthernGatewayEthicalFramework.pdf

Lessons Learned

No, I don't have a vote in US elections.  I'm a political junkie. And American elections matter to Canadians -  their political decisions affect us.    Bigtime, actually.    When Barack Obama won in 2008, I cried and wrote poetry because I was so relieved Mr. Bush was gone.  Yes, yes,  that euphoria has worn off - for me - and for progressive Americans.  But still, like most Canadians, I'm glad the president was re-elected.   And yes, there are  lessons to be learned from the events of the past week and a bit.  Here they are  - in no particular order:

• Women matter.  Making pig ignorant comments about "legitimate rape" and "rape pregnancy is a gift from god"  terrifies most women.  Having someone run for the Republican nomination  who complains about public access to contraception is off putting, to put it mildly.    Yes, I mean you, Mr. Santorum.  Women vote.   And don't really want to live under a regime that resembles an Atwood dystopia. (BTW,  sorry, pigs!)
• Spewing porkies about gay marriage harming straight marriage is less effective than it was - if that campaign is countered with time, money, and energy. Being out and proud matters:  it's harder  for folks to believe mindless fear laden drivel when they know people in the LGBT community.  Hurrah to Washington, Maryland, Maine, and Minnesota!   Date for first gay marriages in Washington is December 9th - if you get your marriage license December 6th. 

In any election campaign, point out the bigoted and hateful things candidates say.  Make sure the electorate knows the horrible truth .  Write letters to the editor, tweet, Facebook, and blog if you don't have the money to advertise/

• Young folks voted.   Perhaps not with the same euphoria they had in 2008 - but they voted.  Maybe Canadian progressive activists should be working on getting the youth vote out.  Hell, maybe we should be working on getting any vote out!  "Only 38.8 per cent of Canadian youth (eligible voters aged 18-24) cast a vote in May, in contrast with only 37.4 per cent in 2008." http://www.ipolitics.ca/2011/11/24/canadas-youth-vote-edges-up-in-2011-but-still-a-drag-on-the-total-turnout/       "Young people cast ballots , about 50-per-cent voter turnout in that demographic. " (Page A 9, Globe and Mail, Thursday, November 7, 2012.)   Look at that difference!  If young Canadian voters turned out in the same numbers as Americans did,  the Right Honorable Mr. Harper might not be re-elected.
• The zeitgeist has shifted regarding taxes. Proposition 30 passed in California.  Even  many high income earners voted yes. (  Page A13, Globe and Mail, Thursday, November 7, 2012.) Voted yes to tax increases, that is.   
•    
• Climate change matters.     "The long term picture offers less scope for confidence.  There have been three extraordinary weather events in the past two years in the Northeast.  As storms become more severe and the limitations of the country's antiquated infrastructure become more apparent, power will gain ground as a political issue.  Voters will favour officials who promise to regulate unresponsive monopolies.  "  ( Page B20, Globe and Mail, Thursday, November 7, 2012.)  Wow - the business pages of a conservative newspaper are mentioning extraordinary weather.

The last lesson:  working on any social justice or environmental issue is working on them all.  We each can only do what one person can do  but we can do something.    We're all in this together - each of us matters.  Our efforts matter - especially now - always have - but now that the zeitgeist is shifting and climate change denial is almost impossible to sustain - they matter more than ever.

As Martin Luther King said, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.                                                                                                                                               

Romney Vs. Hurricane Sandy

And what is the difference between helpig families and preventing and mitigating climate change?

There's a Thing Called Climate Change That maybe We Should Worry About

All it took was s superstorm and climate change is mentioned in the North America media - mentioned as a BIG problem.   Under the title "It's Global Warming, Stupid."   In the MAINSTREAM media!   
From:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupid

Global warming “particularly affects formation of heat waves, droughts, intense precipitation events, and in the long run most probably also tropical cyclone intensity,” Munich Re said.... In his book The Conundrum, David Owen, a staff writer at the New Yorker, contends that as long as the West places high and unquestioning value on economic growth and consumer gratification—with China and the rest of the developing world right behind—we will continue to burn the fossil fuels whose emissions trap heat in the atmosphere.
 

President Obama received an endorsement from someone who is hardly his natural ally, Mayor Bloomberg,  thanks to climate change.

Mr. Bloomberg, a political independent in his third term leading New York City, has been sharply critical of Mr. Obama, a Democrat, and Mitt Romney, the president’s Republican rival, saying that both men had failed to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation. But he said he had decided over the past several days that Mr. Obama was the better candidate to tackle the global climate change  that he believes contributed to the violent storm, which took the lives of at least 38 New Yorkers and caused billions of dollars in damage. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/nyregion/bloomberg-endorses-obama-saying-hurricane-sandy-affected-decision.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 

So, thanks to an unprecedented storm, we can see a crack in climate change denial.   Let's take advantage of said crack to prevent the extremely stupid Northern Gateway pipeline; the proposed twinning of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline;  et. al.  

What can you do?

Donate to organizations fighting the pipelines.  Write letters to your MPs and MLAs outlining your opposition.  Drive less.  Volunteer with environmental organizations.  Meditate.  Talk to your neighbours.   Talk to your boss - climate friendly initiatives save money.  Lobby your pension plan - ask them to de-invest in Enbridge et al.

And keep working - hope is a moral imperative!

PS   (For an analysis on the reasons North America lags the world in climate change action, please read Why Is North America Behind The Curve On Climate Change and Energy? at http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/10/18/why-north-america-behind-curve-climate-change-and-energy )