Talks Thurs and Fri eve - Steingraber on "Living Downstream" , Mach on climate & Calif's vulnerability

We've got two upcoming talks this Thurs and Fri eve - Sandra Steingraber ("Living Downstream") on Thurs, then Katharine Mach on the IPCC, climate change & California's vulnerability (snowpack, water...) on Friday.
 Steingraber had this piece in Orion last fall.

This a.m, planning for May 5 Climate Impacts Day, on climate change & extreme weather - connect the dots

We were hugely fortunate to have Bill McKibben come here last week (Tue 17th) and speak to a packed house about global warming, and about the "global weirding" of weather that we've seen over the last several years. (If you haven't seen the talk, an edited-down version will air on NCTV, on the Occupy Nevada County program.) His most trenchant statement was essentially this:

Working to green your local community is important; just don't make the mistake of ONLY working on those things - because this won't be nearly enough to tackle the scale of the problem.

He also spoke a lot about "global weirding", the spate of wild weather that's hit our world over the last few years - record U.S. heat in March, "the French heat wave, the Chicago heat wave, the Australia heat wave, the Russian heat wave, the Texas drought"; the Pakistan and Phillipine floods...

A quick summary of 2011 [New England] weather highlights would read approximately like this:  Devastating snowstorm, devastating snowstorm, blizzard, heat wave, heat wave, torrential rains, hurricane (more torrential rains), floods, hurricane remnants (even more torrential rains), worse floods, even more devastating snowstorm—and that only takes you through October.  (link)

 The climate group that McKibben and seven Middlebury College students started, 350.org, is holding a worldwide action May 5 to stand in solidarity with communities and workers (including Vermont small farmers) impacted by this wild weather - and we in Nevada County will participate.  Our planning meeting is at 8:30 a.m. this (Sat.) morning at Sierra Mountain Coffee Roasters; and the event itself will be next Saturday afternoon, 3pm.  Stay tuned...

Citizens Climate Lobby

This group looks good: Citizens Climate Lobby, "Political will for a livable world."  And I do like their "Ask Me How to Make $1,500 and Get Clean Air" tagline, which needs to be a bumper sticker.

"The fundamental problem of climate policy is on the political leadership and corporate power side", Rick Piltz of Climate Science Watch points out; so it's more effective to focus energy there, both on the "political will for climate action" part, and on the "reform politics to make it work better" part.

(Or at least that's my perspective du jour; stay tuned.)


(The other consideration is, what if you speak like Paul Graham but don't write like Paul Graham?  How do you weigh your strengths and preferences against the biggest needs in the "move America forward" ecosystem?)

Aldo Leopold, visionary - we need him now

Did you see Green Fire?
We need Aldo Leopold a hell of a lot more now, than we did when he was alive.

PRWatch - Grassroots vs. Astroturf, checklist of differences

"The "Occupy Wall Street" movement is providing a real-time case study of the difference between a true grassroots movement and a corporate-backed astroturf movement. ..."Read here.

Steve Sanfield "Freedom Riders" quote

"Back then, they thought we were crazy... People then thought the Freedom Rides were a useless venture, but they did change things. And it taught me that if you believe in something deeply enough, you can bring about change."
- from Liz Kellar's Storyteller shares tale of freedom in Civil Rights era

Got friends/family in Alaska, Arizona or Florida?

We need their help to identify the Senator that placed a secret hold on whistleblower protection.

It's easy - and they don't have to tell their senator to do anything*, only to ask some simple questions.

* I'm still allergic to telling mine what to do.

An appreciation - Tom Grundy, and Reinette Senum of APPLE

APPLE - our local Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy - came out against Proposition 23 last fall, and Tom Grundy [speaking for APPLE at the time] stepped up to the plate and spoke effectively against it on KNCO. And Reinette Senum's just a powerhouse in making things happen - the Alpha building renaissance, our Saturday morning Farmer's Market, local educational events, etc. I also commend APPLE for their educational efforts in bringing Richard Heinberg and others to speak to our community. Thank you, folks.

But...

Stop going green. PLEASE. For your children's sake.

"No more compact fluorescent light bulbs. No more green wedding planning. No more organic toothpicks for holiday hors d'oeuvres. ..."

Instead, two things. Read Mike Tidwell's To really save the planet, stop going green (published Dec. 6 here in the Washington Post). Then, if you get it, send it to your friends.

(The problem with most save-our-climate outreach is that it ignores our built-in single-action bias – so the people who it reaches take an action, typically a personal-carbon-footprint one, and then feel that they’ve pitched in. But if we're going to do one thing, it had better be the the thing that matters – and Tidwell's column makes it clear what that is.)

Get your friends and neighbors on board (if they’re not there yet, give them a subscription to a science magazine this Christmas), then share the column with them.

And you could help encourage its spread by sharing the book What's the Worst That Could Happen?, which exhorts us to:

Be the virus.
(and transmit the column)

Gore, Doerr and activism

You heard it here last: Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize. Today's NY Times editorial -

[I]t shouldn’t have to be left to a private citizen - even one so well known as Mr. Gore - or a panel of scientists to raise that [climate crisis] alarm, or prove what is now clearly an undeniable link, or champion solutions to a problem that endangers the entire planet.

That should be, and must be the job of governments. And governments - above all the Bush administration - have failed miserably.
...
We cannot afford to squander any more time.

Video of Gore's press appearance, after winning the Nobel Prize -

He's not ruling it out.


I have maintained previously that I'm not an activist, but for some causes that's a luxury we can't afford - "Don't expect to live in a democracy if you're not prepared to be an active citizen.*" So for the most important concerns - our climate, and our freedoms - activism it's gonna be. I'll be out collecting signatures for the Draft Gore movement.

"Entrepreneurs do more than anyone thinks possible with less than anyone thinks possible."
See this video of Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr's TED talk, Seeking salvation and profit in greentech - it's powerful, and offers a different perspective from what we typically see in Nevada County. Doerr cares about his daughter's future, and has the financial tools to play a significant role in shaping it, and exhorts us to join him in doing so. Excerpts -

There is a time when panic is the appropriate response, and we've reached that time. We can not afford to underestimate this problem.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it; the second best way is to finance it.
...[his co. is] investing $200 million in a wide range of technologies for disruptive innovation in green technologies...
geothermal could supply us for a thousand years; yet the fed budget calls for only $20 million R&D in geothermal
...
We need to reduce CO2 emissions by 1/2, as fast as possible
...
[A representative from China pointed out:] "Americans use 7 times the CO2 per capita as Chinese. Why should China sacrifice our growth so that the West can continue to be profligate and stupid?" does anyone here have an answer for him?

Energy is a 6 trillion dollar business worldwide, it is the mother of all markets. Do you remember the Internet? Green technologies, going green is bigger than the Internet - it could be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.

[and if we don't do it...]

Several persons - your correspondent among them - were not dry-eyed at the end.

In Gore's U.N. speech he made the point that decades from now our children will be asking us one of two things:

What were you thinking - why didn't you act?
or
How did you find the moral courage to rise and solve this crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?

Let's get moving. Our house is burning.

Sun. update - since the demagogues' smear-o-rama can't abide leaders, the smears on Gore have returned - read about them here.
Also - see what Gore did during Katrina; and, if you'd like, compare and contrast...

Who's an activist, part 2

abashed April 10 update: maybe the difference between an activist and me is that activists have good social skills and can reach and persuade people...

On the April 3 NCFocus Crowdsourced journalism in Nevada County post, Russ Steele commented (in reference to Who's an activist?) "If you are not a activist, what is this post all about."


I've been chewing on the answer for several days now.

With the caveat that this could be a rationalization, here it is:

I think the reason Russ (and other activists) view this differently from me, is that activists classify behaviors/actions differently from me, because of differences in temperament and values.

People who are fighters classify actions based on outcomes: if I take an action that affects a contested outcome, then I'm a combatant.

Whereas to me the process is what's important - fix the process, and the outcome will take care of itself.
(and by temperament I'm a chronicler and researcher, not a fighter - yes I care about the outcome, but I'm not comfortable working directly on it, and to do so feels like a hack.)
So I classify by "do you work on fixing the process, or the outcome?"

To me process vs. outcome is like science vs. public relations (for insight on this, see Goofus and Gallant do science)

So to answer Russ's literal question, here's what the Inconvenient Truth project is about:
I believe that our elected officials should be aware of crucial problems facing our society, if they aren't already. There are two ways that this can come about: either our current elected officials become aware, or voters can be given the info they need to replace these officials with "aware" candidates, should they choose to do so.
The I.T. project covers both of these possibilities: it encourages public figures to see the film, and it publicizes who does and doesn't choose to see it, and their take-home impressions.
After that, it's up to the voters to decide whether this issue is important to them and decide accordingly.

It's as close to activism as I'm comfortable getting - a bit too close, actually, but this is more than a life-or-death issue.

I was hoping our elected officials would see the film, but I don't intend to push; I want to make it as easy as possible for them, but the choice is up to them. Likewise, if they choose to stonewall when asked about it, or if they wish to state that they don't think this info should be public knowledge, that's also their choice. My focus is on reporting the results.

Who's an activist?

(edited*)
Someone recently informed me that I'm an activist, or at least that others see me as such. I responded that I'm not, that "they" are wrong, and that I don't plan to accept a role that others have bestowed upon me.

But what if I'm wrong? Given the human mind's propensity for self-delusion, the idea's worth mulling over - can you be an activist and not [be willing to] know it?

To me, activists are fighters. They're organized and they work toward a common goal, and they're ready and willing to march and chant and do what it takes to reach that goal.

I respect these people, I'm well aware that we'd be up the creek without them. But I don't belong to that species - I'm not a fighter, not particularly goal oriented, and not overfond of taking marching orders that aren't apropos, particularly from someone I'm not working for. Plus marching and chanting just aren't in my behavioral repertoire.

Ergo, I am no activist. Curious, concerned, and sometimes dogged, but no activist.