I cannot fight...

America: September 2020. Chaotic, criminal mishegaas in the White House. Wilding White Nationalists in the streets. Furious, righteous protests met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and police brutality. A pandemic rages. The real economy – the economy of people struggling to make ends meet – is melting down, while the stock market rises higher and higher, bringing unimaginable riches to a ridiculously tiny slice of the population. California is ravaged by wildfires. Texas and Louisiana are pummeled by a ferocious hurricane that was the strongest to make landfall in the Pelican State in 160 years.

I am a proud resister and progressive, and a lifetime registered Democrat. As a Little, I accompanied my parents to demonstrations. In grade school, I proudly wore an “I was planned” button, and sported a red armband each May Day. In high school, to the derision of my peers, I publicly supported President Carter. In college I joined Greenpeace and marched against nuclear power and for social justice issues.

For the last five years my issue of choice – the issue on which I spend 75% of my time and money – has been climate change. In these parlous times, and particularly since Trump was “elected” to office, some have challenged me on my focus, and accused me of abandoning “more pressing” issues, as if climate change were not THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE of our time.

Think that only the last two sentences in the opening paragraph are related to climate change? Feel that someone who prioritizes climate action has abandoned their work on the other issues near and dear to progressive hearts? Well, that’s off base. Because it is all connected.

This year’s long hot summer of socially distanced protests have been urgent, tumultuous (though 99% peaceful), revolutionary and potentially world-shattering. The demonstrators are lancing a 400 year old boil and not letting the complacent among us look away. You want American heroes? I think the BLM and social justice warriors organizing and demonstrating and making their voices heard are heroes. But remember that among the many and cruel racial disparities in the United States they are protesting are housing, food security and healthcare. Climate change intersects with each of these in ways that put POC at a distinct disadvantage. I cannot fight for human rights and racial equality without fighting against climate change.

Kamala Harris is the nominee for VP. We didn’t manage to elect a woman last time – maybe this time, we’ll vote a woman into the #2 spot. In the meantime, it’s important to note that women will be adversely and disproportionately affected by the changing climate. For example, the widespread drought and crop disruptions that climate change will bring will destabilize our food supply, disproportionately affecting women, for whom food insecurity is a pressing problem. I cannot fight for women without fighting against climate change.

Unions are under relentless attack from the right. Without unions, we the people lose most of our power to demand that we be paid and treated fairly. Even for non-union workers, we must have an adequate minimum wage, that families can actually LIVE ON. I am 100% for a $15/hour minimum wage – or more! – and we are going to need it if folks are shelling out to re-re-re-re-build after the latest hurricane, flash flood, or wildfire. I cannot fight for working people without fighting against climate change.

Poverty is an intractable problem in America: about 12% of us (that is 36,460,000 people!!!) currently live in poverty. While the well-off will deal with the impacts of climate change where they live by buying what they need to survive, or will simply move to more amenable places out of the path of hurricanes or wildfires, poor people will not. They will be left behind in crumbling communities that are in the path of the natural disasters engendered by a warming atmosphere. I cannot fight for poor people without fighting against climate change.

Climate change is the ur-issue of our time. It’s the monster in the closet that has already devoured your neighbors and is just waiting to pounce on you. It’s the top! It’s the Colosseum – it’s the top! It’s the Louvre Museum – it’s a melody from a symphony by Strauss! Well, you get it. It will impact everything. It will change everything. It cannot be ignored, and it should not be fobbed off as “less important” because the link to something more “front of mind” and in the headlines isn’t immediately apparent.

And it is most definitely linked to the upcoming election in November.

We have already lost 4 years of potential government action under Trump. Imagine another four years – and remember: emissions are still going up.

#HairOnFirePeople

Hurricane Laura: The Butcher's Bill, Joe Biden, and Us

Per the New York times as of this morning, since the 1990s the frequency of extreme hurricanes (Category 4 or 5) in the Atlantic Ocean has roughly doubled. Read far enough in the literature and you will learn that the *number* of hurricanes is probably not increasing because of climate change – but the *severity* of each storm is. My layperson’s understanding of this is that warmer water provides more energy for storms. There is probably a third-grade level science experiment that I could do in my kitchen that would prove that. 

Beyond the devastation of lives and the searing human cost – which I doubt anyone could convince a Republican politician to care about, unless a family member of theirs were hit by lightning or washed out to sea – let’s think about how we're going to PAY FOR THIS MESS.  

Hurricane Rita (2005) cost more than $10 billion. The same year, Katrina cost $125 billion. Super Storm Sandy (2012) sent us an invoice for $65 billion. We haven’t got the butcher’s bill – or the contractor’s charges – for Laura yet. All we know is that the cost will be huge. 

So again: how are we going to pay for all this damage? How do local governments cope? How do states pay to keep re-re-re-building along fragile shorelines, on a warming planet where the seas are rising and extreme storms are pounding us relentlessly? 

Our current path of stubbornly committing to “rebuilding our lives” right where they’ve just been wiped out seems incredibly foolish and shortsighted – not to mention a recipe for eventual fiscal disaster. As climate change continues to worsen, we must collectively wake up to the fact that the costs will continue to rise and so far at least, there seems to have been precious little planning for this. 

And it's not just hurricanes. 

California must rebuild huge numbers of homes and buildings after every devastating wildfire season - and climate change is directly linked to those fires. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/climate-change-and-wildfires 

The recent Iowa derecho caused catastrophic damage to property and crops. According to WaPo, the storms damaged FORTHY-THREE percent of the state’s crops – a staggering cost to that agricultural state. 

How do we pay for that? And who pays? Are we building this virtually certain future cost into budgets? Or we will be robbing Peter to pay Paul – like Trump leveraging FEMA money to give $300 a week to (some) unemployed citizens for a (very) short period of time? (This, by the way, is madness – and seems even more lunatic given that FEMA will soon be mounting an immense, and expensive, rescue effort in the Gulf.) 

There will be other, not-as-easily quantifiable costs, as well. Rising costs for the treatment of asthma, and diseases that can flourish in new territories further north than their original stalking grounds. There will be costs associated with increased immigration: even in a 2^nd Trump administration, refugees displaced by rising seas and desertification will need to be processed somehow – and that costs money. 

Humans react to each disaster as though it’s a standalone that “we can get through!” We rush to help with the mission of “getting better!” or “building back stronger!” (which almost never refers to infrastructure). We tweet hashtags like #HoustonStrong and #WeWillRise and pledge to come together as a community. All that is great and good – but it is not a solution. And it is certainly not a clear-eyed consideration of the future, which is going to include more and worse climate events if we don’t change course IMMEDIATELY. 

Remember – the climate is continuing to warm, despite whatever it is we humans are doing. At the moment, what we are doing is laughably piddly.  

No doubt you’ve seen Amazon’s recent self-congratulatory ad campaign touting their green bona fides: their “green pledge,” taken in 2019. Greenpeace says flatly that it’s “too slow and not enough.” https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/amazons-corporate-climate-pledge-too-slow-and-not-enough/ 

And even if Amazon – a single corporation – were really on the level and doing enough, it is an entirely voluntary effort. And do you – do we here as a community of Democrats – *really* trust modern, unfettered, piratical capitalism to fix this problem for us? I certainly don’t. 

Republicans have been useless on the issue, although I used to cherish the hope that they could be woken up to the danger of climate change if we talked to them seriously about the cost in dollars, rather than the cost to the environment. So far, however, nothing seems to have moved the needle with the GOP, and in this era of Trumpism, they’ve gotten even more recalcitrant and intractable. 

Further, it seems a dubious proposition to assume that a future Republican administration either “believe” in climate change or summon the will to enact any legislative solutions for paying the crushing bills that will continue to mount up. In fact, if we don’t win in November, I can forsee a future in which more money is siphoned off not just from FEMA, but other programs that help (poor) people, like SNAP and CHIP and Medicaid and LIHEAP. 

Our only hope to solve this is to elect a Democratic administration and hold their feet to the fire to enact a Green New Deal – one that includes provisions for funding after fires, hurricanes, floods, and other natural catastrophes brought on by the warming climate. 

We’ve already moved Joe Biden on the concept of the Green New Deal. But we will still have a huge amount of work to do once the Biden-Harris administration (I love typing that!) takes office. We can’t forget that emissions are still going up. And we have perilously little time to start to make a difference. 

#HairOnFirePeople #ClimateAction #VoteBidenHarris2020 /fin 

PS: AO-C’s Green New Deal is worth a read. Here’s just a snip to wet your whistle: “…building resiliency against climate change-related disasters, such as extreme weather, including by leveraging funding and providing investments for community-defined projects and strategies; repairing and upgrading the infrastructure in the United States, including by eliminating pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as much as technologically feasible; by guaranteeing universal access to clean water; by reducing the risks posed by climate impacts; and by ensuring that any infrastructure bill considered by Congress addresses climate change; meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources, including by dramatically expanding and upgrading renewable power sources; and by deploying new capacity; building or upgrading to energy-efficient, distributed, and ‘‘smart’’ power grids, and ensuring affordable access to electricity; upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximum energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification…” 

https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/sites/ocasio-cortez.house.gov/files/Resolution%20on%20a%20Green%20New%20Deal.pdf 

Ruminations from June 2019 (the Before Time)

 

I posted this on the DailyKos over a year ago. The observations are still relevant - because we are STILL NOT DOING ENOUGH about climate change.

Well, of course we're not - that ignoramus and his wrecking crew administration don't "believe" in climate change. Are you planning to vote in November? Are you voting for Joe Biden? If not, you are part of the problem.

Seattle’s Summers Are All Effed Up, Or, The Dizzying Speed at Which Hell Becomes the New Normal.

My husband and I live in Seattle. Have done for almost 20 years. We got here right after 9/11, in which we were both tangentially involved (long story).

Since moving, we’ve become “stuck.” We’re here because we’re here at this point. 

It’s partially inertia – partially the “golden handcuffs” of excellent jobs with the state – partially the fact that we’ve made friends and nested – but it’s also partially because of the glorious beauty of Washington State.

A majestic range of mountains – the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east – rises up like a guardian on either side of the Puget Sound. Looking south to the implausibly majestic bulk of Mount Rainier it’s easy to understand why some indigenous people worshiped her as a god.

After only a short drive from downtown you can choose to hike through deep forests, fish in a brilliant turquoise lake, or kayak across the shimmering teal and emerald waters of Deception Pass.

On a ferry ride across Puget Sound you’ll see cormorants, guillemots, and gulls. Look down over the railing to catch a glimpse of a sea otter, and if you’re very lucky, a pod of Orcas will appear on the horizon, a shimmer of water on broad backs and jutting dorsal fins.

An hour north of town the Skagit Valley beckons, with its seaside towns, broad swathes of excellent farmland, tulips and daffodils, and amazing farm stands.

On the shores of Hood Canal the oysters and clams are just a short scratch down in the sand. Bring a garden claw and a pocket knife. Dig for 15 minutes, then feast on fresh, delicate, briny oysters that will make your toes curl with delight.

Even just trudging around bang-in-the-city-center Green Lake I can feast my eyes on magnificent conifers and see myriad colorful ducks, bald eagles, and spidery, stalking herons.

In short – it’s glorious. The weather is glorious, too.

I know – I know. Everyone says it rains a lot. Not so much. Washington State is only the 29^th rainiest state in the union. Hawaii is number one, and even New York gets more rain.

We do get low gray skies and soft drizzle in the fall and winter. It’s nice. It’s not torrential. It’s good for your skin! But summers are mostly clear, and they are – or they were – utterly GLORIOUS.

It never really gets all that hot. Temps stay in the low-to-mid seventies. Lambent blue skies offer views straight up into Heaven. Everything is moist and green and lush, like a salad on steroids. In fact, much of the Pacific Northwest is a temperate rainforest!

The ecosystem of Pacific temperate rain forests is so productive that the biomass on the best sites is at least four times greater than that of any comparable area in the tropics. In sheer mass of living and decaying material - trees, mosses, shrubs, and soil - these forests are more massive than any other ecosystem on the planet. In part, this is due to the rarity of fire. Unlike drier forests, which burn periodically, temperate rain forests are naturally subject to only small-scale disturbances, such as blow-downs and avalanches.

Well, no longer.

Three summers ago, in 2017, a dear friend of mine journeyed to Seattle on the middle leg of a three-city “where should I retire?” tour. I took her on a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. I wanted to cry. As we chugged away from the dock, the skyline receded into a grimy haze. Within ten minutes the Space Needle was barely visible. A grim shroud enveloped Rainier to the south: it was as if she didn’t exist. My friend tried to be polite about the not-all-that-dazzling scenery, and all I could think of was Mordor.

That was the first summer of wildfires on an epic scale. Records were set. Terrifying, horrifying records for heat and aridity – two things for which the Puget Sound has not historically been known.

On September 5, ash from the Central Washington fires fell "like snow" on Seattle and as far west as Grays Harbor County, which borders the Pacific Ocean.

Again in 2018, the wildfires raged and roared. Governor Inslee declared a state of emergency in July. In July and August the city smelled like a camp fire, and the skies were dull and gray.

The Boylston Fire started on July 19 again shut down I-90 east of Ellensburg for 24 hours. It burned 80,000 acres, mostly on the Yakima Training Center, caused level three "leave now" evacuations, and destroyed five buildings while being fought by three fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopters. Military personnel and equipment to fight the fire were sent from Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the Puget Sound Area.[23][24][25] The smoke caused "unhealthy" air conditions in Spokane on July 20.

The mellow drizzle of autumn was a more than usually welcome relief.

That was two summers in a row. Just two.

It’s June now and we’re on the slide into summer. About a month ago, I saw a TV spot for a local heating and air conditioning company. The voice over brought me up by the short hairs.

The reference to the “smoky air of summer” was dropped in so matter-of-factly, so casually, that at first I didn’t think I’d heard correctly. But I had. To at least one big Seattle company, the “smoky air of summer” needs no explanation. That’s just how summers are around here – buy our superior air conditioners!

THE SMOKY AIR OF SUMMER IS NOT A NORMAL THING. The smoky air of summer is something that did not exist until recently. Summers in the Puget Sound were cool, breezy, lovely. There’d be a few hot days in August when I’d sweat and curse, but never more than a week or two. Never a stretch of days when the forests were engulfed in raging flames and the air was choked thick with smoke. Never.

And now, it seems to be the “new normal.”

“We’re headed into summer, folks! Time to get out your asthma inhalers and make sure your air purification system is working! Gonna be some wildfires!”

We humans get used to things really quickly. We adapt. We don’t have particularly long memories, and we forget that what we thought was normal is now a memory, getting ever more distant as the years march on.

But we have to take notice. We have to remember. We have to pay attention and not allow ourselves to slide into a non-reactive state of torpor. Things change — things fall apart — really really fast. It is starting to be TOO LATE.

Wildfires are increasing as the climate changes. That’s a fact. That’s something we know.

Now what the ACTUAL HELL are we going to do about it?

My very first diary on this site was posted May 21, 2015. Allow me to quote myself:

It was late 2012, on a week day, about 5:00am. I’d just sent my husband out the door with his lunch and was brewing myself a cup of tea to enjoy in front of the odious "Morning Joe," when he called to share something horrifying he’d just heard on NPR.

They were reporting that at a recent climate change conference, some leading scientists had stated that 2020 is the LAST YEAR we humans can do anything to reverse the effects of climate change. At that point, said my husband a little breathlessly, everyone on the planet could stop driving cars and it WOULD NOT MATTER. We’d already be toast. Almost literally.

It’s 2019.

Carbon dioxide emissions are going up.

Hair. On. Fucking. FIRE.

 

Ring of Fire

So what’s an old broad to do?

(Whole post here.)

Today it is HOT in Seattle. HOT. This afternoon I will hang out in my cubicle writing a “lessons learned” document and reveling in the combination of delicious A/C and the gusty little fan under my desk.

Tomorrow I will wake up, brace myself for a day of miserable, pungent sweating, and keep on talking, blogging, and activism-ing about climate change. It’s the most pressing problem on our planet right now, and I don’t have any choice.

But tonight? Tonight I will creep home along the baking sidewalks, fling off my work clothes in favor of something loose and cool, shake up a wicked icy martini, and have this delicious, protein-packed no-cook salad for dinner.

Depleted Pantry Salade Nicoise

This recipe is based on a traditional Salade Nicoise and is adapted for what I know I have in my kitchen right now. Have I mentioned that it’s HOT? It’s hot. So I am not making any extra trips to buy ingredients, and I am not turning on the stove!

On a bed of fresh greens – I have romaine and butter lettuces in the fridge – arrange tuna, hard-boiled eggs, olives, green beans, and anchovies (yes, these are obviously optional). Boiled potatoes are traditional, and very nice, but I don’t have any cooked potatoes to hand.

I start by tearing up the lettuce into manageable pieces and tossing them in a basic vinaigrette. Here’s a really easy one from my favorite Swedish Chef, Marcus Samuelsson:

1 plump garlic clove, smashed and minced into a paste

1 generous tsp Dijon mustard

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

Juice of ½ lemon

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Whisk the garlic, mustard, vinegar and lemon juice in a bowl. Drizzle in the olive oil as you continue to whisk. (Or you can just dump everything into a small jar and shake it about madly.)

Toss the lettuces in half the dressing and mix to coat (reserve the other half for drizzling).

Plop the dressed greens on a broad salad plate (in an artful arrangement, if you have the energy).

I open and drain a can of sustainably harvested solid white tuna, but you can use whatever tuna you like.

Flake the tuna into sizeable chunks onto the greens. Use all of it for a protein punch, only half if you don’t want a salad dominated by fish.

Slice a hardboiled egg or two (I think I only have one, but we shall see) and arrange it over the salad.

Toss a few whole or halved olives onto the plate. I have a jar of supermarket salad olives. A good, traditional Salade Nicoise uses excellent French olives (or Cerignola olives, mmmmmmmm) but I am fresh out of those. Manzanilla olives from Safeway will have to do.

Arrange a few cooked green beans on top. I have leftover steamed beans that are-pre-dressed with a little garlic. If you have pickled green beans, those would work a treat!

Finally, drape an anchovy fillet or two over the top and drizzle with the remaining dressing. Eat it accompanied with a hunk of crusty bread. It’s easy, healthy, delicious, and does not require heat.

Bean, beans, the magical fruit!

Talking about FOOD over at Dailykos today. Trying to get my 90% vegan on. Check it out!

I think this looks better than....

THIS. Do you?  :-)

You don't need a weatherman...

Cross-posted here: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/31/1784861/-You-don-t-need-a-weatherman

Charles P. Pierce has a short but stunning piece up today about Kiribati, sea level rise, and ex-situ nationhood. It’s a very good quick read. And together with something Richard Haas said today on “Morning Joe,” it’s got me re-freaked out about the political state of play with climate change.

Haas’s comment, which was pretty throwaway, was also quietly terrifying. I'm paraphrasing, but it was basically,

"I don't want to be pedantic here, but as we continue to experience challenges from extreme weather because of climate change...."

He then continued smoothly talking about how we aren’t taking things like climate and infrastructure seriously as a nation, and sort of, oh heck what can you do?

Haas is a Republican. I don’t know if he’s gone on record as a denier in the past, or not. It was the almost calculated smoothness of how he rolled climate change out as an unassailable fact, and how he said he didn’t want to be a “pedant,” that sent up a warning flare.

Why that flare? Because I can vividly imagine a scenario in which all of the “it’s a Chinese hoaxsters” and climate change deniers in the GOP make the cold, calculated decision to unobtrusively roll over, throw up their hands, and decide to admit that yep — the climate is changing. Without a break in stride, just deciding that the denial battle has been lost, and they’re gonna flip — with no fanfare, and no big announcement.

I can hear them already, talking in their smooth, “reasonable,” oleaginous voices about stricter immigration policies to deal with climate change refugees, harsher controls on displaced people arriving from island nations and places like Bangladesh, and fiscal and tax policies designed to protect the rich and their property from sea level rise and wildfires.

It’s not even a tiny stretch to imagine going from the current debate between us in the reality-based community and the congressional deniers being paid by the fossil fuel industry, to complete acceptance on their part, with no middle ground where they wake the FCK up and decide we need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

This is the perfect time and political space for that change to happen. There’s a blazing orange fire in the White House to rival the wildfires in California (and Sweden!) and everyone’s attention has been absolutely riveted for the past 18 months on what will happen next with Mueller, Russia, Manafort, Papadopoulos, Jarvanka, Junior, Trump, and Stone. Climate change? What climate change? There are battalions of other shoes to drop! Ghouliani’s on CNN, rambling incoherently about Michael Cohen — pay attention to that!

In the meantime, the weather right now (and no, weather is not climate) is being extremely convincing on the subject of global warming-driven changes to “normal.” Fire! Flood! Hurricane season is upon us, and who knows what devastation might be unleashed this year?

So it’s a perfect time for Republicans to use the cover created by the Trumpstorm to noiselessly change their tune on climate change from flat out denial and contempt to sudden tacit acceptance. They can then use that new-found acceptance (“of course the climate is changing… look around you!”) as a very convenient excuse for policy making. Which is to say, for the making of regressive policies: piss-poor policies that prop up and protect the wealthy at the expense of the poor, the brown, and the displaced.

Frankly, I think that eventuality – about which I fervently hope I am wrong – is more insidious, and much worse, than if the majority of the GOP were to stay flat-out deniers. At least folks with an opposing position can be argued with. Some Republicans have even changed their minds when confronted with the evidence!

But now, just six weeks into his tenure as NASA administrator, Bridenstine stated that he has "evolved" on climate change.

“I don’t deny the consensus," Bridenstine said at a NASA town hall meeting. "I believe fully in climate change and that we human beings are contributing to it in a major way.”

When asked why he changed his mind, Bridenstine told The Washington Post, “I heard a lot of experts, and I read a lot. I came to the conclusion myself that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, that we've put a lot of it into the atmosphere, and therefore we have contributed to the global warming that we've seen."

But a GOP that soundlessly makes the change to acceptance of the facts, without putting the slightest thought or effort into policies that would help limit some of the worst effects of the warming climate, could be an unmitigated disaster.

These are, after all, the folks famous for their “I’ve got mine, Jack” attitude. They’re the “God ‘n’ guns ‘n’ country” hacks who fight to grow an already bloated military budget while paring back the laughably few dollars the federal government spends on the National Endowment for the Arts. They’re the wretched ghouls celebrating every bite they manage to take out of Obamacare. They’re the dead-eyed bureaucrats who thought that separating children from their parents was a swell idea that would deter future refugees from darkening our doors at the southern border.

It’s becoming unavoidably apparent that something is going very wrong with our climate. It’s becoming blindingly obvious that it is going to cost one hell of a lot of money to rebuild, dig out, harden coastlines, and deal with waves of displaced people seeking terra firma as their nations drown.

If the GOP realizes which way the wind is blowing, why wouldn’t their adaptive strategy be to drop the pretense of denial and start working to saving their own – and their rich donors’ – asses? The party hasn’t done anything in the last 40+ years to convince me they’d act for the greater good. Not even Jim Bridenstine’s reversal at NASA gives me the warm fuzzies about how the GOP writ large might act, if they make a political decision to accept facts and act in concert to save their own skins (and wallets).

It’s a chilling thought. And I am taking bets on how this all plays out. After all, you don’t need a weatherman…

The Last Big Push

In calendar 2017, I suggest we pivot to climate together. What am I rambling about? I'm asking that all of the social, environmental, and climate justice organizations that came together for the People's Climate March in September of 2014 come back together for ALL of 2017, and spend at least 50% of their time and treasure that year on climate change:

• Outreach
• Action
• Lobbying
• Education
• Advertising
• Web presence
• Social media

This is the last year. This must be the big push. Let's #PivotToClimate!

If we act fast, we may be able to seize and take advantage of one of those rare windows of opportunity that comes at the exactly right time - when we are close enough to disaster that we can see it looming up on the horizon, and yet have JUST enough time to grab the wheel and yank it around, narrowly avoiding what might otherwise have been inevitable.

In the April 2015issue of Scientific American, this appeared: "Greenpeace, a leading environmental advocacy group, says we have until around 2020 to significantly cut back on greenhouse gas output around the world—to the tune of a five percent annual reduction in emissions overall—if we are to avoid so-called “runaway” climate change.

This was when, as the article also noted,

"Currently the atmospheric concentration of CO2 (the leading greenhouse gas) is approximately 398.55 parts per million (ppm). "

And

"According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal scientific agency tasked with monitoring the health of our oceans and atmosphere, the current average annual rate of increase of 1.92 ppm means we could reach the point of no return by 2042."

In September, we crossed the threshold of 400ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere.

To quote from a recent piece on ThinkProgress:

"In the late 2000s, climate scientist James Hansen argued that the world needed to stay below 350 parts per million to avoid the worst impacts of climate change (his warning is what gave 350.org, the global climate activism group, its name). Three years ago, Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide levels first exceeded 400 parts per million, but those levels quickly dipped back below the threshold, as atmospheric carbon dioxide waxes and wanes with the seasons.

Which is why the fact that atmospheric carbon dioxide is still above 400 parts per million at the end of September is a worrying fact: September is usually the time when concentrations are at their lowest, as trees in the Northern Hemisphere have grown all summer, sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. In a blog post, Ralph Keeling, current head of the Scripps carbon dioxide measurement program and son of Charles Keeling, wrote that it is “almost impossible” that CO2 levels will drop below 400 in October.

“Concentrations will probably hover around 401 ppm over the next month as we sit near the annual low point,” he wrote. “Brief excursions towards lower values are still possible but it already seems safe to conclude that we won’t be seeing a monthly value below 400 ppm [parts per million] this year — or ever again for the indefinite future.”"

The first year of the new Clinton Administration will be the most propitious time - the time with the most potential for radical change - that we will have until… well, until it is likely too late.



The energy from pulling off a win could propel the new administration to take bold, aggressive action on climate change during Hillary Clinton's first year in office - especially if all of the players from the 2014 People's Climate March get back together (we're getting the band back together!) and focus her attention on the people's will.

If we act fast, we may be able to seize and take advantage of one of those rare windows of opportunity that comes at the exactly right time - when we are close enough to disaster that we can see it looming up on the horizon, and yet have JUST enough time to grab the wheel and yank it around, narrowly avoiding what might otherwise have been inevitable. Let's PIVOT TO CLIMATE - TOGETHER.

#PivotToClimate - #StrongerTogether

Deconstructing the Democratic Party Platform...

Well, just the sections that address climate change and clean energy.

I'm doing this not just for my own amusement and edification, but also to find out what's been proposed/promised, so when it's time to hold the Clinton administration's feet to the fire, we know what they committed to in the platform.

Hair On Fire People annotations are in italics below the paragraph they comment on.

And so without further ado.... from the Democratic Party platform, 2016...

Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure Environmental Justice

Climate change is an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time. Fifteen of the 16 hottest years on record have occurred this century. While Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” 2016 is on track to break global temperature records once more. Cities from Miami to Baltimore are already threatened by rising seas. California and the West have suffered years of brutal drought. Alaska has been scorched by wildfire. New York has been battered by superstorms, and Texas swamped by flash floods. The best science tells us that without ambitious, immediate action across our economy to cut carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases, all of these impacts will be far worse in the future. We cannot leave our children a planet that has been profoundly damaged.

This is a pretty good preamble. Just two notes:

We won’t just “leave our children a planet that has been profoundly damaged” – we must live in that damage ourselves. Talking about children allows wiggle room for procrastination.

The “planet” will be fine, whatever ultimately happens. What we should focus on is damage to the climate and the biosphere. The rocky ball that revolves around the sun will continue on apace – even without us, and even with wildly changed climatic conditions. But OUR survival in a radically altered climate and biosphere is not guaranteed, nor is the survival of our fellow travelers, the rest of the biomass of Planet Earth – nor is the survival of the food webs that keep us alive. We may be facing down extinction. And that should terrify us.

Democrats share a deep commitment to tackling the climate challenge; creating millions of good-paying middle class jobs; reducing greenhouse gas emissions more than 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050; and meeting the pledge President Obama put forward in the landmark Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global temperature increases to “well below” two degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We believe America must be running entirely on clean energy by mid-century. We will take bold steps to slash carbon pollution and protect clean air at home, lead the fight against climate change around the world, ensure no Americans are left out or left behind as we accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, and be responsible stewards of our natural resources and our public lands and waters. Democrats reject the notion that we have to choose between protecting our planet and creating good-paying jobs. We can and we will do both.

More scientifically literate types than I am can probably parse this paragraph better, but just at first blush it occurs to me that only a couple of years ago our “target” was reducing greenhouse gas emissions more than 80% below 1990 levels – not 2005 levels. Is this new research? Is this a different benchmark? How is this different? http://grist.org/climate-energy/yes-the-u-s-can-reduce-emissions-80-by-2050-in-six-graphs/

Mentioning both that Paris Agreement’s aim of keeping global temperature increases to “well below two degrees Celsius” as well as noting “efforts to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius” is heartening, because it keeps 1.5 degrees in the platform as a goal.

Pivot To Climate

So just what is #PivotToClimate?

Simply put, we (the members of the Hair On Fire People community) are asking that environmental and justice organizations such as the Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, World Wildlife Federation, Oxfam and Unicef - that is, the pantheon of progressive activist groups that made up the People's Climate March in September of 2014 - join together again and pledge to dedicate at least 50% of their time and treasure to climate change during the 2017 calendar year (coinciding with the first year of the Hillary Clinton administration).

We ask that these groups recoalesce around the idea of a #PivotToClimate so we can combine our separate, individual rays of light into a super-charged floodlight trained squarely on the most pressing crisis of our - or any - time.

We ask that with their time and money, these groups collaborate on redoubled, concentrated efforts to educate, organize, mobilize, advertise and lobby for climate action.

In 2014, Business Insider reported that: 

"Last year, the global economy needed to slash world carbon emissions by 6 percent in order to stay on target, but we only managed a dismal global average of 1.2 percent. That means starting this year, we’ll need to cut 6.2 percent of our emissions every year for the rest of the century if we want to meet our 2 C goal."

Also in 2014, Michael E. Mann, writing in Scientific American produced new calculations indicating that:

"if the world continues to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, global warming will rise to two degrees Celsius by 2036, crossing a threshold that will harm human civilization."

 

In short: we are rapidly running out of time.

So what that does time limit have to do with a #PivotToClimate?

Do you remember the People's Climate March in September of 2014? A throng of marchers more than 250K strong took to the streets in NYC and cities across the globe, roaring for climate action. We were that many strong because we were inclusive not just of climate change activist groups, but of a panoply of progressive activist organizations and individuals.

Everyone joined forces and took to the streets together: indigenous peoples groups, LGBTQIA groups, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, soccer teams and parents pushing strollers, nuns and priests, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (I think they were there), folks from Save the Wales, contingents from Greenpeace, and representatives from Oxfam, Avaaz, the World Wildlife Federation, the Teamsters, and 350.org.

There were labor groups, anti-corporate groups, peace and justice groups,  environmental justice organizations and other communities, food and water justice groups, interfaith groups. There were folks dressed as polar bears. There were people on stilts. There were hippies and hipsters and Millennials and Boomers and Gen Xers and various assorted cranky olds and cheerful youngs (and vice versa).

It was amazing. And despite a shocking lack of coverage on the day, it made a difference.

And now, we have to do it again - but this time, for an entire year. I am convinced that if every environmental and social justice group worked together just on climate change for one full year, our voice would be so loud, and the pressure we could exert would be so mighty, that things would change, and fast.

This of it this way. We seem to be a little stuck. It's like when your car gets stuck in the mud, and you can't push it out yourself. You and a buddy can't push it out together. But when a van full of folks pulls up and there are 10 of you pushing - voila! The car comes unstuck.

In upcoming posts, I will lay out my - admittedly still somewhat half baked - plans for what a year of concerted, multi-organization climate action would look like. If you have suggestions, please add them in the comments! This is our work in progress. I appreciate your ideas.

And, as always, please stay tuned!

It pays to advertise...

Energy companies – fossil fuel conglomerates – oil and coal and gas companies – run ads.  The “I’m Maggie, and I’m an Energy Voter!” ads.  Exxon Mobil ads that talk a disingenuous blue streak about all the alternative energy options they have in the pipeline.  The “We Are Koch!” ads that make it sound like the Brothers Koch are a caring, sharing pair of hippies who march in the front lines in solidarity with climate change activists.

These folks have money.  They have reach.  And they have talented minions cranking out advertising for them that is DESIGNED to obfuscate and spread mis- and disinformation on climate change, their role in it, and how an “all of the above” approach is a sane, sensible solution to a problem that they’re loathe to even admit exists: anthropogenic climate change.

We in the climate activism community need an advertising campaign, too.  That’s part of my year-long #PivotToClimate proposal, in which I am calling on the majority of environmental and social justice groups to spend 50% of their time and treasure, at a minimum, on climate change in calendar 2017.

If we just had a pool of money – money already raised by the Sierra Club, Greenpease, 350.org, Oxfam, and the like – to use on advertising, we could move the dial of public opinion in a HURRY.

We need to advertise – that is, to use the lingua franca of these United States – to inform, energize, and mobilize the American people on climate change.

The messaging I propose should be designed to hit people like they’ve been gut shot, and let them know that years of inaction by foot-dragging, heavily-lobbied, and bought-off politicians has led us to our current perilous position, facing a future of hellish heat waves, devastating droughts, rampant “once in 1,000 years” storms, epic deluges, terrible public health challenges, inundated coastal cities, and hordes of frantic climate change refugees.

This isn’t the time for business as usual.  It’s not the time for long explanations.  It’s not the time for nuance and for coaxing people along with rational explanations for why carbon dioxide can, yes, be a very good thing (in moderation) for our friends the plants, but at higher concentrations in the atmosphere begins to trap more heat which can lead to more moisture in the atmosphere, much like the effect you might feel in a greenhouse, which is why we call it….. zzzzzz…..

The years of teaching and educating and imploring and exhorting Americans to get worried about polar bears and shrinking ice sheets at the far reaches of our globe just hasn’t mobilized enough of us.  Yes, it’s mobilized some.  I am not overlooking all the excellent education and communication that’s been done.  The dial is moving… but it’s moving far, far too slowly.  I feel momentum – but I fear we need even more engagement, even faster.

Our “leaders” in DC are very well aware that most of us simply aren’t fussed enough about climate change for them to pay it much heed, either.  They read the polls.  They see where public opinion sits.  So they know they can keep on taking the money and lying like rugs (looking right at you, Senator McConnell) and not get voted out of office.  They know full well that they can hem and haw, splutter and obfuscate, deny, declare they’re not scientists, throw snowballs, and suffer no consequences.  And so while the dial has been moving recently – and President Obama has been raising a bit of a ruckus all by himself – we’re not moving in the right direction fast enough.

It’s time to crank it up to 11.

We need an electorate that’s furious at government inaction on climate change and will vote for politicians who promise to take immediate action.  We need an electorate who won’t put up with their lies any longer and who demand that their representatives do their will on this most urgent and pressing of issues.  We also need a population that is fired up enough to take the personal actions required, like giving up or rationing meat, driving less, buying green and renewable and local products, and more.

We need all Americans to be fired up and marching in the same direction – which is roughshod over the folks like Paul Ryan and Lamar Smith and Mitch McConnell and the Koch Brothers and the Heritage Institute and the big fossil fuel corporations who want to stand in the way of us saving the precious Goldilocks climate of our one and only home.

So… here’s my question.  If you worked in an advertising agency, what messaging would YOU propose to set the American public’s hair on fire?  How do we communicate urgency and get people angry that they’ve been shamelessly lied to for so many years?  We need ZING! and POW! and ZOWIE! messages!  What would they look like?  What would we say?

Please add your excellent ideas in the comments.  And thanks!

Paul Ryan vs Science

I think it is fair to say that Paul Ryan would lose... but he, alas, does not know that.

Posted at Dailykos on Brexit and Climate Change Awhile Back...

That post is here.

Since then, the world has been an even meaner, uglier, more horrifying and violent place than just a few weeks ago.

Still... even with everything else terrifying that's been going on...

Break Free!

It's time to break free from fossil fuels.  Massive and widespread actions are apparently being planned... or have occurred?

I haven't heard a peep on the local news, and I live in Seattle, where we do a lot of kayactivism.  I haven't heard a peep on the other news shows I watch - Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, either.

Apparently there have been actions and marches in the UK, the Philippines, and Australia.  If I hadn't read the story at the link above, I would not have known.  Not only have I not felt a tremor in the Force, I haven't seen a headline, seen a crawl at the bottom of a screen, or seen any tweets about all of these "mass actions" that are theoretically taking place.

There's a round-up off all the actions here on The Hill, of all places.  I read it with interest - and a bit of amazement.  I'd had no idea such a lot of action was going on!

So I hit up Google for the news that I had clearly been missing - news of all the myriad protests, marches and actions going on all around me.

And I turned up hits... from Deutsche Welle, The Nation, Morocco Wold News, National Catholic Reporter, the Northwest Herald, EcoWatch, Islands' Weekly, Waging Nonviolence... see a pattern?  Those are the top news hits for my search on "break free actions."

Except for The Nation, there's not one instance of the "MSM" reporting on people-powered actions to bring attention to this most urgent existential crisis of our time!

I did turn up reports from local news - KOMO News and KING5 - both on page 2 of the search results.

My plan is to tune in tonight and see what KOMO and KING5 have to say - and, of course, to watch Rachel Maddow and see if she has an item related to the break free protests.  Given what else is going on right now, I rather doubt it. Today's news is nothing if not juicy. Release of the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Bridgegate case has been delayed. The attorney in the DC Madam case may be dumping his list of contact information for her clients - a list he said may have bearing on the Republican primary process. And there's that silly game Rachel plays every Friday, the Friday Night News Dump quiz show - a waste of a segment if ever there was one.

So in short - the reaction of the major news outlets to "Break Free!" appears to be...

#ExxonKnew

This blog post by Bill McKibben, writing at the Huffington Post today...


BLEW UP MY HEAD.


I knew that Exxon lied.  Of course they did.  But the sheer stunning immensity of their sociopathic disinformation campaign and...

Well, read the post, linked below at the hashtag.  But please, take your blood pressure medication before you do!

#ExxonKnew