Guy's Climate Chaos Presentation
This is the full 40 min. presentation that Dr Guy McPherson has been giving the past several months around the country. It does need to be constantly updated due to the constantly increasing self reinforcing feedbacks. You will see subtitles indicating the updates.
What are self reinforcing feedbacks?
They are positive feedbacks in the climate.
Positive you say? That sounds great!
Nooooo, sorry. Positive, in this case, means bad. Very, very, very bad.
:(
Yes, exactly.
But check out the trailer here to see what it's all about. It's just a minute long.
Trailer
Monday, November 11, 2013
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Working on a Documentary
I'm going to make a documentary... Why? Here's why.
When I first heard Guy McPherson's lecture on Near Term Human Extinction I was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions and thoughts. Here I was, a mom, a teacher, an artist, and an activist trying to do the right thing, trying to turn the tides for all beings, being involved in numerous activities, protests, actions and organizations, especially lately in the Transition Town movement, and then discovering, to my deep chagrin, putting it lightly, than perhaps I should be spending more time playing with my family... Since our days are, most likely, numbered. And soon. Like in maybe even seven years...
What does one do with such news? How does one process information that one is terminal?
I think of my mother who lost her battle with breast cancer 23 years ago. I remember her fight and how many times I wished she could have spoken with me about death and dying. I offered her my ear, my shoulder, my strength but she courageously refused to discuss the possibility that she might actually die. It wasn't an option for her. Apparently the cancer gods thought otherwise and took away my best friend, who died with many secrets and stories untold. She died without sharing her story, the good and the bad of it, because she refused to believe she was going to die.
It's been five months since hearing Guy's lecture and the first was the hardest for me and my friends who also heard Guy's lecture in Mt Kisco, NY. There were many tears and hugs and more tears, and discussions, and connecting and sharing, and more tears. I can imagine the first month of knowing would be hard for any terminal patient, but then you shift and either accept the truth or live in denial, which I hear is not just a river in Egypt. (ba-da-boom, ching! roars of laughter and some hisses from comedy snobs) We went though the Kübler Ross stages of grief and most of us came through the other side to acceptance. Acceptance isn't always an easy stage to be in, however, and it comes with its own variety of crises and emotional turmoil. Also, we tend to shift back to bargaining and anger when we are feeling weak, or frustrated.
Yes, I know some came away with the reaction "That's all crap. No one knows what the future holds."
And even, "He shouldn't be allowed to share that information. It's too terrible and it could be wrong." However, for those of us who have been in the environmental trenches and fighting the good fight and are paying attention, we see the truth of the evidence that Guy displayed for us. We see the connections and the lack of will in the leaders of this nation and the world at large to reverse the trajectory we are on. We see the lost time, the missed opportunities and we see the growing crisis in the global climate, and in the quest for more energy at any cost, even the entire planet.
I keep hoping that a miracle will happen and something we haven't thought of will save us humans or some of the "us" of this beautiful planet, i.e. the billions of creatures that live here alongside us humans. I keep hoping that there are gods, angels, saints or bodhisattvas to guide and protect us, but it seems they've all gone on vacation to another dimension and left us to wallow in our insanity.
There are those who have embraced the techno-miracle rescue-at-the-last-minute, because, well, you know, over the last 30 years of knowing we were burning up the planet no one bothered to come up with any techno-fantasy miracles.... So of course "they," whoever "they" are, will certainly come up with it now in the eleventh hour... Sadly, the only big techno-fantasy solution being bantered about now by the IPCC is Geo-engineering, a terrifying prospect that has obviously never been tried and has potentially more catastrophic results than just leaving everything alone... Because, from the little history I know as a history teacher, anytime humans tried to fix something, they only made it worse... It's wiser to follow Hippocrates' advice and first, do no harm, aka, slowly put it down, and step away from your techno-fantasy toys, boys...
Short of a miracle, what we do have left on our journey into the abyss is each other and what Dr Guy McPherson refers to as the opportunity to live lives of excellence and authenticity, compassion and empathy for all living things, not just us humans. It is this path of excellence, authenticity, empathetic action and courageous acceptance of the mostly inevitable abyss that awaits us that I am keenly interested in and want to document to share with others. Of the many hats that I wear as a human at her mid century age mark, one of them is as a photographer and TV producer. I hold a degree in Radio and TV production, worked for ABC for four years, and directed, produced and developed several Cable access shows here in NY. I have re-donned this hat and have been closely (sort of) following Dr McPherson on his journeys to present this message of living a life of excellence in the face of catastrophe. My journeys have taken me to his fabled Mud Hut in New Mexico, to Taos NM, To Mt Shasta CA where I met another documentarian, Michael Sosebee, who made a film about Guy, "Somewhere in New Mexico, Before the End of Time," and most recently De Pauw University in Indiana, where Guy's presentation that I am editing together, was held.
Thus far I have traveled and worked on my own dime, and singly without assistance, relying on my savings. I use a Canon XA10 to film, and a Canon Rebel DSLR to photograph and shoot some video. These are light cameras, both with 1080dpi, easy to cary into the field and easy on the pocketbook. I have a Rhode camera mic with shot gun capability, and a lavaliere mic which makes all the difference in sound quality. The next journey I am contemplating on joining Dr McPherson on is to a workshop at an agroforestry center, Frutas del Mundo, in Guatemala at the Next Step Seminar.
Such a journey will require considerably more equipment and an assistant to help me. The flight alone for two people will cost approx $2000 round trip. That's what I'm hoping to raise since it will mean time away from home, children, pets, jobs (if we have them), and will require support systems at home as well for both my assistant and me.
Any donation amount helps, no amount is too small. Except for negative amounts. ;)
Just click on the Donate button to the right of this blog to send love and positivity our way!
You can check out my Vimeo page where I have some videos of Guy posted from previous journeys.
And more to come soon.
Thank you for your support.
Pauline
When I first heard Guy McPherson's lecture on Near Term Human Extinction I was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions and thoughts. Here I was, a mom, a teacher, an artist, and an activist trying to do the right thing, trying to turn the tides for all beings, being involved in numerous activities, protests, actions and organizations, especially lately in the Transition Town movement, and then discovering, to my deep chagrin, putting it lightly, than perhaps I should be spending more time playing with my family... Since our days are, most likely, numbered. And soon. Like in maybe even seven years...
What does one do with such news? How does one process information that one is terminal?
I think of my mother who lost her battle with breast cancer 23 years ago. I remember her fight and how many times I wished she could have spoken with me about death and dying. I offered her my ear, my shoulder, my strength but she courageously refused to discuss the possibility that she might actually die. It wasn't an option for her. Apparently the cancer gods thought otherwise and took away my best friend, who died with many secrets and stories untold. She died without sharing her story, the good and the bad of it, because she refused to believe she was going to die.
It's been five months since hearing Guy's lecture and the first was the hardest for me and my friends who also heard Guy's lecture in Mt Kisco, NY. There were many tears and hugs and more tears, and discussions, and connecting and sharing, and more tears. I can imagine the first month of knowing would be hard for any terminal patient, but then you shift and either accept the truth or live in denial, which I hear is not just a river in Egypt. (ba-da-boom, ching! roars of laughter and some hisses from comedy snobs) We went though the Kübler Ross stages of grief and most of us came through the other side to acceptance. Acceptance isn't always an easy stage to be in, however, and it comes with its own variety of crises and emotional turmoil. Also, we tend to shift back to bargaining and anger when we are feeling weak, or frustrated.
Yes, I know some came away with the reaction "That's all crap. No one knows what the future holds."
And even, "He shouldn't be allowed to share that information. It's too terrible and it could be wrong." However, for those of us who have been in the environmental trenches and fighting the good fight and are paying attention, we see the truth of the evidence that Guy displayed for us. We see the connections and the lack of will in the leaders of this nation and the world at large to reverse the trajectory we are on. We see the lost time, the missed opportunities and we see the growing crisis in the global climate, and in the quest for more energy at any cost, even the entire planet.
I keep hoping that a miracle will happen and something we haven't thought of will save us humans or some of the "us" of this beautiful planet, i.e. the billions of creatures that live here alongside us humans. I keep hoping that there are gods, angels, saints or bodhisattvas to guide and protect us, but it seems they've all gone on vacation to another dimension and left us to wallow in our insanity.
There are those who have embraced the techno-miracle rescue-at-the-last-minute, because, well, you know, over the last 30 years of knowing we were burning up the planet no one bothered to come up with any techno-fantasy miracles.... So of course "they," whoever "they" are, will certainly come up with it now in the eleventh hour... Sadly, the only big techno-fantasy solution being bantered about now by the IPCC is Geo-engineering, a terrifying prospect that has obviously never been tried and has potentially more catastrophic results than just leaving everything alone... Because, from the little history I know as a history teacher, anytime humans tried to fix something, they only made it worse... It's wiser to follow Hippocrates' advice and first, do no harm, aka, slowly put it down, and step away from your techno-fantasy toys, boys...
Short of a miracle, what we do have left on our journey into the abyss is each other and what Dr Guy McPherson refers to as the opportunity to live lives of excellence and authenticity, compassion and empathy for all living things, not just us humans. It is this path of excellence, authenticity, empathetic action and courageous acceptance of the mostly inevitable abyss that awaits us that I am keenly interested in and want to document to share with others. Of the many hats that I wear as a human at her mid century age mark, one of them is as a photographer and TV producer. I hold a degree in Radio and TV production, worked for ABC for four years, and directed, produced and developed several Cable access shows here in NY. I have re-donned this hat and have been closely (sort of) following Dr McPherson on his journeys to present this message of living a life of excellence in the face of catastrophe. My journeys have taken me to his fabled Mud Hut in New Mexico, to Taos NM, To Mt Shasta CA where I met another documentarian, Michael Sosebee, who made a film about Guy, "Somewhere in New Mexico, Before the End of Time," and most recently De Pauw University in Indiana, where Guy's presentation that I am editing together, was held.
Thus far I have traveled and worked on my own dime, and singly without assistance, relying on my savings. I use a Canon XA10 to film, and a Canon Rebel DSLR to photograph and shoot some video. These are light cameras, both with 1080dpi, easy to cary into the field and easy on the pocketbook. I have a Rhode camera mic with shot gun capability, and a lavaliere mic which makes all the difference in sound quality. The next journey I am contemplating on joining Dr McPherson on is to a workshop at an agroforestry center, Frutas del Mundo, in Guatemala at the Next Step Seminar.
Such a journey will require considerably more equipment and an assistant to help me. The flight alone for two people will cost approx $2000 round trip. That's what I'm hoping to raise since it will mean time away from home, children, pets, jobs (if we have them), and will require support systems at home as well for both my assistant and me.
Any donation amount helps, no amount is too small. Except for negative amounts. ;)
Just click on the Donate button to the right of this blog to send love and positivity our way!
You can check out my Vimeo page where I have some videos of Guy posted from previous journeys.
And more to come soon.
Thank you for your support.
Pauline
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Guy McPherson's Blog, Nature Bats Last, is down
No explanation. He's trying to fix it. The theory is that it has purposely been brought down,
and that it is under attack. It wouldn't be the first time our govt. trashed the constitution, and impinged on our right to free speech. Here's Guy's most recent article at Transition Voice exposing the indiscriminate spying on American citizens and shredding of our Constitutional rights: Disobedience, The True Foundation of Democracy
Here is one possible reason having this as public knowledge scares the crap out of our fascist govt: Pentagon Prepares for Unrest
Many of Guy's supporters, including Michael C. Ruppert, long familiar with govt interference in his free speech, have suggested mirroring to help Guy get out the truth he shares.
Robin Westenra has done exactly that on his blog page.
Here is all the truth you can handle, and that the PWTB don't want you to know about.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Letter to my County Legislator, Peter Harckham
I just read a letter from my county legislator, Peter Harckham, a dear friend and excellent public servant. In it he lambasted our Westchester county executive Rob Astorino for not doing his job. You can read it Here.
Here is my reply to Peter:
Hi Peter,
hope you're doing well!
Sorry I won't be able to make your fundraiser, but I'm sending my best to you with my good friend Lisa Silver.
I read your Astorino critique in the local paper and I must agree with you 1000%.
The man is an outrage.
And the people who swallow his fear mongering swill, function out of fear and ignorance.
Affordable housing is for our adult children, our senior parents, our first responders, our teachers, and if he and his swillers can't see that, then it's up to you (sorry) to make that evident to the folks of Westchester, perhaps the most expensive county to live in, in the USA.
My ex and I subsidize our two adult children's living arrangements! It's not fair to any of us! At their age, my husband and I owned our own first home and were starting a small family. They won't have that opportunity for years to come!
Here's the sad catch, however. It won't matter if there are 700 units of 7000 affordable housing units if, as you mention, we don't address waste water, land use, and energy. (Not to mention foreclosure rates!)
As long as we insist on building ANY new homes or apartments with outdated systems (like any house being built right now, for instance) and methods, and not Grey water systems, composting toilets and solar water heaters and pumps, then we are just digging ourselves deeper into the mess of predicaments we are already embedded in.
If we are to make any kind of dent in our collective carbon footprints, and get on the path to some kind
of sustainability (whatever that means anymore) it must come with any new construction.
ALL new construction should be required at the very LEAST, to have grey water systems,
composting toilets, permaculture based grounds and gardens, and solar water heaters and pumps.
Not to mention construction materials should be sustainable and durable to last longer than a decade, and be cold and heat insulating, water resistant and hurricane resistant.
It's just a no-brainer. And I haven't heard PEEP about that from anyone! Not even the greenies!
Surprisingly.
NWEAC and SWEAC barely give lip service to these types of improvements. Everyone seems fixated on solar panels and renewable energy, talk a lot about hydrofracking, but have forgotten our basic bodily functions.
We are perpetual waste machines. It's as simple as that and we need to address that reality… Now.
But that's only if we want to get to the next decade without going extinct…
(We are in the 6th great extinction & it's far more accelerated than the one the Dinosaurs experienced which took 30,000-80,000 years to complete…Some scientists expect ours to take a few hundred years or less!...)
It's that critical! And you know it and I know it.
And anyway, it's probably too late regardless of what we do, but it's worth a try to save SOMETHING of the planet for our girls. Naturally, closing Indian Point before energy collapse happens, is a priority for many of us. It takes energy to run the darn thing. Anything could knock it out. Anything!
EMP, solar flare, earthquake, hurricane, nut jobs, a boring old power outage, etc. What happens when that power grid goes off? Poof. Tens of millions of people and their property gone.
And Entergy owners living far away get to shake their heads at us sadly, "It was inconceivable that could happen!"
Riiiiight. Meanwhile, we subsidize their greed with our lives and our land. Outrageous arrangement.
But I digress..
The climate predictions are dire and the food system is in serious jeopardy. Which is why I say ANY new housing needs to incorporate a permaculture food system. Fruit trees, not ornamental trees.
Berry bushes and diverse evergreen ground covers, not a monoculture of grass, though it should be included.
Zoning to allow for chickens, bees, miniature goats and the like; rather than raking nice people like me over the coals for keeping four pathetic chickens on nearly half an acre.
(Seriously. That was annoying. And I'm still angry and hurt and I won't forget or forgive...)
Perennial plantings that are edible super foods, like Asparagus, Rhubarb, Elderberry,Honey berry, Hardy Kiwi, etc. etc. etc.
And offering people the training to care for their new living arrangements, a truly sustainable living arrangement that bonds them to their community, to their homes and to the land. Actually being LOCAL, and not just tossing the words around. Like so many do.
The old outdated thinking that sees lawns as a sign of prestige, potable water good to waste on human waste, septic tanks as practical, water as coming only from a tap (on site ponds and rain water barrels are alternate sources) & fluoridated and chlorinated, or garbage as something to be disappeared rather than composted, needs to be eviscerated from our minds and from our midst. We need a new fresh start!
But again, only if we want to make it to the next decade… Or maybe even the next year…
I noticed this spring a dearth of squirrels and no chipmunks in Katonah. I saw my first two squirrels finally last week.
Still no chipmunks however and I'm outside a lot. These are the small signs of bigger problems closing in.
The canaries in the coal mine are dropping like flies…
The West is about to hit the hottest temps in history and that won't be good for food crops that
we depend on as a nation. Last year farmers were feeding their cattle candy because they had NO corn or feed. Many slaughtered their cattle prematurely so they would have enough feed for the surviving cattle.
We are in a ten year drought cycle. I remind you that the Dust Bowl drought was only seven years long…
Once the food prices spike, we won't be able to get anything done.
No affordable housing, no composting toilets, no solar panels, no Hilltop Hanover Farm, no parks, no sewers, no deer maintenance, no highway funding, no nothing.
And you know what will happen when oil spikes again…
Great Recession? Ha!
You think we can bear another Great Depression on top of the one we are still in? Regardless of the claims that we have been out of it for a few years, my friends, family and I are just not seeing it. Our many diverse attempts at devising new sources of income can attest to what we're actually seeing, compared to what we are being TOLD we are seeing. You can't fool all of the people all of the time. And I don't mean YOU, personally, I mean the Obama administration.
I have just about run out of hope for our species and need something to hope for.
Peter, my friend, how can we who are connected to the land and to our communities and practicing actual sustainable living methods and local economics help you?
Please let me know, because I can see you guys and gals "running" things need a heck of a lot of help right now…
If nothing else, some need a whack on the back of the head. I'm ready, willing and able for that job.
I am a mom, after all, we get lots of practice whacking kids across the back of heads. Lovingly, of course.
With warm regards
Pauline Schneider
The video embedded features Dr Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of University of Arizona giving a lecture on climate change and Near Term Human Extinction predicted to occur in the next decade or two. You read that right... You can find out more at his blog, Nature Bats Last.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Exeunt Stage Left, or 400 Reasons to Cry
 |
| Dr Guy R.McPherson and the author at the Age of Limits Conference in May, 2013 |
There was that day when I felt an ominous sense of grief overcome me, a deep sinking feeling for no reason at all and I stopped what I was doing to analyze it. I knew in the core of my soul that something was wrong, terribly wrong in the world and that soon the news would inform me of it. I mentioned this to a couple friends so they would remember later.
Barely a day went by when I heard that we had reached a global 400ppm CO2 level and it was then that I knew why my body had reacted with such instinctive sorrow. We were doomed.
I'd had a similar reaction during the morning of 9/11 when the first tower fell.
I was in a Yoga class an hour away from the city and we knew that a plane had crashed into the towers, but we didn't know what kind of plane and we thought it was an accident so we decided to continue our class. However at one point I felt my heart break and I gasped and told everyone in the room that I felt as though something terrible had just happened. It was my Obi Wan Kenobi moment. Everyone stared at me as though I were nuts but when we left the class and turned our car radios on we heard the horrifying news.
I can't explain how I intuitively felt these two terrible events in the core of my being, except perhaps through the spiritual writing of John O'Donohue, in his book Anam Cara where he describes humans as the Earth that has sprouted legs, ears, eyes and arms to walk around and look back at herself and be a witness. If we are Earth, and molecularly we are the Earth the Moon and the Stars, then perhaps there is some deep, emotional or unconscious connection to each other and to our planet and to all its living beings. People wonder why there is so much depression, grief and suicide these days, however, one could ask the opposite, how come there isn't more? When faced with the geopolitical chaos, the climate chaos, the corporate fascist chaos, and the alarming rate of species extinction, one wonders why anyone sticks around for the final act. Ironically, when people do take note of this chaos everywhere, they are often poo poohed and hushed as being nuts, told everything is going to work out, told to be thankful for how lucky they are not to live in Darfur, Bangladesh, Rwanda, China, told there's not enough evidence (despite droughts, fires, floods, hurricanes, etc), and to go check out the ballgame. It's enough to drive a woman (or man) to drink.
If 400ppm CO2 wasn't enough to rock my world, new information I was going to get would be even more interesting; a la Chinese curse, as in, may you live in interesting times.
Just days after our planet got hotter at 400ppm CO2 (the least level it will remain at for 1000 years), I learned a new phrase, Near Term Extinction (NTE), and that we have as little as five (5), maybe ten, or even, optimistically, 20 years of life left on Earth. Complete extinction for all life on Earth is not only a possibility, but more than likely to occur and that any humans left on Earth beyond 2030 would be hard to imagine. I heard this from Dr Guy R. McPherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology who sacrificed his career and a family to tell the truth that no one else will. He's kind of the Jesus of Climate Chaos and often just as crucified for simply offering information that's not even from his own research. Don't shoot the messenger!
Here is a brief talk he gave in Westchester.
Dr McPherson pointed out that the three ways of exiting this chaos will be; Predation, starvation, or suicide. I would add going down swinging, but maybe that's included in the predation part... None of these grand exits are what we expected for our children, or ourselves all those years ago when we were planning our lives, families, futures, retirements (better cash out that 401K). The Dr. planned ahead more wisely and made a conscious decision to not have children. However, as a college professor he probably had more children than the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe, and he thinks of those students every day.
My heart broke at this information, my head spun and I felt like nothing really mattered anymore, at least not anything inconsequential. Who cares if a glass breaks, or kids come over without telling me, or what some idiot on TV said. The only thing that mattered were my kids. So I wrote about that, and my new friend, Dr Guy R. McPherson posted it on his blog. Here it is: When Faced with Apocalypse, What's a Mother to Do?
I now spend a part of my day crying, a part of it paralyzed and rooted to the ground where I stand wondering what to do next, and a part trying to function normally (remember to smile and shake hands). Having a normal conversation with someone who doesn't know about NTE almost makes me want to scream; Because I can't really tell them about it unless they've had the years of ecological knowledge scaffolding to prep them. Most don't have that scaffolding, so don't get it. I've tried. It's like trying to explain Nuclear fusion(fission?) to me. I'm certainly not telling my kids about it, teenager or adult aged. The worst part is talking to a beloved friend and feeling tears well up while chatting about the mundane. They just are so beautiful, these people, to imagine them gone is heart-wrenching.
I found that music, dance and laughter is healing, and I take a break from the harsh reality to release the sorrow and the stress with some great music, dancing around the room, or hearing a comedian (all sources are welcome). I keep wondering if I should be running away somewhere? Fight or flight? All my Peak Oil Collapse preparations seem childish and futile, and I find myself apologizing to the trees around my home, to the birds in them, to the flowers blooming at my feet. "I'm so, so sorry," I say, like Dr Who says to someone he cannot save... Dr Who Saying Sorry I am responsible for my species' bad behavior, and I am really damn sorry.
Many of us in my community are reeling at this information, wondering what to do next, why bother doing anything? Some even denying it, or rejecting the information certain of a techno-rescue of some sort. Some of us are plotting an escape, a clever way around Near Term Extinction. We are wading our ways through Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's stages of grief, but there is an addendum to this path of grief that never existed before; When we are gone this time, there will be no one to remember us, to grieve us, to sing songs about how hard we fought and how bravely we tried to save the planet. We will just be ashes on the bone of space, with only the stars, our creators, to stare coldly back at us. That's quite a pill to swallow.
It takes a strong draught of malt to get it down...
So what the hell should we do?
I think each of us will have to wrestle with this personal question: How do we choose to exit?
Exeunt is a latin term for a theater direction indicating a group of actors to leave the stage in a particular direction, as in Exeunt Stage Left.
As we watch the trees dying, the oceans acidifying, hydrofracking, deep oil drilling, mountain top removal, and no leadership anywhere on the planet to put a stop to any of this destruction, our options are slim to none and it seems evident that we who accept the science and the horrifying scenario of NTE will need to make some personal plans. We will need to write the final act of our lives, even while still fighting for it with every fibre of our beings. Crafting this final act must include an exeunt at the end, and how that looks will be different for all of us. Maybe thankfully it's highly likely that the planet will get the last direction for us and put us all to a gentle sleep as methane and CO2 levels spike above Oxygen levels. I can think of a worse death.
In the meantime we also need to craft the scenes that get us to this grand exeunt: We can travel, visit friends and family, take an art lesson, make that movie you always wanted to make, go sky diving or bungee jumping, find a lost lover, make peace with your family, etc.
Guy McPherson always mentions at the end of his talk that the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, got it right when he said "What you don't let go of, the world strips away." Guy says to let go of our assumptions we've held onto and to live, as Nietzsche says, as though the day were here. It's the only advice Guy gives and perhaps the only advice we need. It's good advice even if it weren't the end of the world.
Oh, he also encourages resistance, saying "resistance is fertile" and directs people to support groups like Deep Green Resistance, but to give a wide berth to the hopium of 350.org, which perpetrates a lie that we can somehow lower global CO2 levels back to 350ppm in our lifetime. I fell for that hopium.
As for escaping this dying planet? Guy movingly says to that: "I want to live on this planet, it's astonishing!"
He also says "Here we are standing on the shores of doom, at the Last Chance Saloon. Brace for impact."
Which reminds me of this last scene from On The Beach which could easily be our last scene. Last Scene
Let us hold our kids, our lovers, our friends close, for they are the most precious treasure now and let's make these last few years mean something like they never did before. We can Exeunt the stage with grace and love and compassion, whether there are gods or not watching us in the audience.
The stars will always be there.
And should a miracle happen that we are somehow saved, we will feel really good about ourselves.
For more reading:
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Joanna Macy
http://www.extraenvironmentalist.com/2012/10/15/episode-51-culture-dying/
Guy McPherson's Latest Climate Update
Oliver Tickell
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-carbon-dioxide-400-20130513,0,7196126.story
http://www.deepgreenresistance.org/faq-radical-feminism/#more-6987
https://igotsomethin.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/limiting-men/
http://witsendnj.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 7, 2013
Great Links to Fascinating Discussions and Ideas
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/
http://peakoil.com/generalideas/orlov-communities-that-abide-preamble/comment-page-1#comment-46846
http://witsendnj.blogspot.com/
https://igotsomethin.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/strangelove-lives/#comment-242
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization
http://www.amazon.com/The-Language-Goddess-Marija-Gimbutas/dp/0062512439
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/global-temperature-change-the-big-picture/
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
April Stars
April is ended at last. I never thought I'd feel that way. At last! April is over! Phew! Now I can move on to May... April the loveliest and sweetest of months, the month of the birth of my two daughters, 8 years and 9 days apart, the month those alleged showers that bring May flowers (had quite a bit of a drought at first, it was a nail biter), and the month to celebrate Earth day, even though every day is Earth day.
Why the joy over the end of such a lovely month? Dear heavens! It was quite a busy and treacherous month for me! All those birthdays to celebrate and Transition events and Earth day events to plan and participate in and organize and lead and, and, and... And even during all that I managed to acquire a chicken tractor and four young hens. I'm a new mommy! Phew, am I pooped!
So, Sunday the 29th, I stayed in bed all day and did something only 12 year-olds usually do.
This 48 year-old mom played World of Warcraft (WoW)for the better part of the day. For those unfamiliar with WoW, it is a virtual role playing video game on the internet where millions around the world get to interface with each other and battle it out in fantastic armor, magical robes and flying steeds. It's a terrific escape and I turned to it for some solace. I ignored the doomsayers and the peak oil harbingers, the climate change mongers, the Nostradamusites and the 2012 Mayaners... I turned off the boob tube and the radio and ignored the phone (sorry folks). I was going away from it all for a little while and I was going to be a warrior and destroy all evil. I would be triumphant with any or all of my various characters, with magic or steel. Nothing could stop me from my quest to vanquish the cruel and base and help the weak. And so, I played the Cataclysm patch on World of Warcraft and at one point during the play, when my character was really on a roll and I was all excited about getting to the next level where she would be able to do all kinds of new skills, I entered a town called Menethil Harbor that was startlingly and completely flooded from recent cataclysmic storms... (Hence the name of the patch, Cataclysm) There were even townsfolk filling sandbags to hold back the flood since the streets were completely under water. People had to swim from one building to the other. My jaw dropped as I stared at my lap top's screen and the rising waters and buildings sliding into the ocean, the people begging my character for help... My character stood with her two swords hanging limply in her hands... The waters rose.... Good grief! Give me a break!
The last time I'd visited Menethil Harbor in the game it was a lovely harbor town where you could get some great clam chowder and crocolisk soup (A crocolisk, if you didn't deduce yet, is a crocodile-like creature), but that was a long time ago, before climate change hit the video game circuit...
I couldn't escape the dreaded reality even in a video game! Oh irony of ironies! What's a 48 year old environmental activist mom need to do to get a break just for a day from it all?
Jesting aside. These are the "woes" of the comfortable and well situated, though I am certainly not unaware of the genuine plight of real people in the Maldives whose island is steadily sinking (or are the waters rising?), or of the drought conditions in Africa, or of the methane bubbling up in the Arctic Sea or the climate weirding all over the planet causing actual misery to actual people. Everything I do, as I keep telling my youngest child, is for her and the other children of the planet. Unfortunately, everything I do is a pimple on the ass of a crocolisk, compared to the combined work that so many others' do to make a difference, to educate, to repair the damage or just to slow it down... Bill McKibben in his book, Eaarth, says that even if we all started riding bikes and slapped solar panels on our homes it would barely nudge the damage we've already done. For the Earth to properly heal herself enough for our survival (remember the Earth is fine, it's us who are SOL), it will take all hands on deck as well as decades if not centuries to filter the CO2 that's acidifying the oceans and turning it into a cola drink. Grab your straws! It's already bubbling!
The collective global agony that is taking place right now is hard to escape, if you're paying attention. All the mini escapes work only for a short time; the video games, the music playing, the wine drinking, the dance flurries, the meditations, etc. are great to participate in and help keep our sanity.
Saturday night I had a small group of friends over to play music and drum. We played and sang into the night to candlelight. We warmed ourselves to the wood stove and celebrated friendship, food, laughter, life and hope and humanity. For a little while we healed ourselves and salved our deep aches for the suffering world. We need to do more of that.
But back to being a powerless pimple.
I couldn't even get some people to properly dispose of their napkins and cups at a showing of Journey of the Universe that a group of my colleagues and I showed in our village's library. I purposely brought cloth napkins and reusable cups and plates so we wouldn't have waste, and some people still chose the disposables first (I brought them in CASE we ran out of the reusables). And then they threw the paper cups and napkins in the blue plastic and glass recycling bin. Where's a crocolisk when you need one? Or a composting bin? Sheesh...
If you haven't seen Journey of the Universe, you need to. This little film puts hope back in the picture, right where it belongs, with the main character to the rescue being us humans. The film also brings into beautiful focus the deep, molecular relationship all living creatures and inanimate things have; from butterflies to stars, we are all connected in a universe of expanding beauty. Carl Sagan puts it most eloquently, I think, with That dot. This film reveals how we, as stars, can choose to be stars that shine eternally or ones that just go out. Think of Beethoven and Maria Callas, though gone their light still warms and inspires us. We humans can choose to make a difference and shine forever, or step aside and be forgotten in the evolutionary record.
We had a terrific turn out for the film which was followed by a facilitated discussion. We broke into several small groups and each of my colleagues and I sat with a different group as we discussed the film's meaning to our every day lives and what we could do as a community to address its concerns. Then we shared our discussion in brief with the larger group. There were so many great ideas offered; community gardens, support groups, education, more movies, more talking face to face. It was a terrific exercise in creating community and in building listening skills and that's why it made me so perplexed to find paper and food scraps in a plastic and glass recycling bin right after that terrific discussion. I grumbled like a frustrated WoW goblin who can't get her flying trike to not explode on every single, darned takeoff! As I scraped food slime and paper napkins out of the distinctly, and very deep, ocean blue, bag, traditionally indicating PUT RECYCLING HERE, I muttered to a friend who was watching me with a bemused look, "WHAT was the movie we just watched about? Was that a waste of time?" She smiled patiently at me and then said, "People just don't care."
And that, folks, sent me finally the next day to my bed and to a virtual world where video game designers apparently DID care so much that they even designed into a virtual world a terrible cataclysm, freakishly similar to climate change, that caused floods and fires and droughts and volcanic eruptions and storms all across that computerized world, depriving me of just a bit of escapism I so craved. In that virtual world of destruction, of kids chatting, swearing and dueling, of adults flying and questing, of designers designing a virtual world vaguely yet comfortingly similar to our real world, I found hope for the real human race.
There was a sign!
As my character stood in the town of Menethil Harbor, the waters rising around her powerful, armored legs, she looked up at the sky and that's where I saw it. Stars! Filling the virtual sky!
Millions of stars beginning to fill that virtual dusky sky as the virtual sun went down on the drowning village. April Stars. We both smiled.
I know, even though sometimes I feel like it, that I'm not the only one learning and teaching how to grow food, or learning how to raise chickens, or how to reskill on a spinning wheel. I know I'm not the only one keeping my lights off (I had a $17 electric bill last month), turning down the heat, getting an energy audit to see how much more CO2 I can prevent from spewing into the oceans. I know I'm not the only one who sees both of our potential futures as a fork in the road and lays in bed at night wondering which one we will go down, alternating between terror and joy. I know I'm not the only one who looks up at the stars and like the poet, wonders if they look back, if they love us, if they remember us. We are, after all, related, at least for the past 14 billion years. They are in our bones. Without them we don't exist.
I cared enough to look up the other night after tucking my new feathered children into bed, to gaze in awe up at the stars in the inky black sky shared with the crescent moon smiling her sideways smile.
I'll bet they cared enough to look down and wonder to each other: "Do you think they know they are our children?"
Post Script:
If you are considering getting chickens I recommend an electrified fence. Strongly!
Last night a fox came to my suburban home and screamed right outside my window, perhaps in frustration that he/she could not easily access my feathered ladies. Thank you Nan and Peter Zander!
If you've never heard a fox scream at 2am through your partly opened window while you are in a deep slumber, I highly encourage it. Get's the blood rushing!!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Roots & Wings: May 5 Work Morning in the Labyrinth
Roots & Wings: May 5 Work Morning in the Labyrinth: Come and help us replant the Roots & Wings Labyrinth Garden WHO: you! WHAT: Come and help replant the Roots & Wings Labyrinth ...
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
CFCs Versus the End of the World as We Know It
This letter was written in response to an email whining about CFC lightbulbs being forced on us by an "uncaring" government that cares less about foisting dangerous, Mercury laden light bulbs on us, than our own free wills to use old fashioned bulbs that spew CO2 into the atmosphere....The email illustrated the dangers of CFCs with the story of a man who changed a CFC bulb while barefoot, dropped the bulb and stepped on the broken glass,
resulting in Mercury poisoning and necrotic flesh... That's what I call a bad day, but his plight is a Sunday picnic compared to what happens when CO2 levels reach 400 parts per million (ppm) on our planet... And we're getting there folks....
************************************************************************
Yeah, stepping on broken glass can be dangerous...
Whether it's a CFC mercury laden bulb or not...
Bloody hell, lots of things are dangerous. I walked across my lawn and got Lyme disease....
Want to know what's really dangerous? Ocean acidification and climate change. Kind of puts a damper on the day... Ya know?
Seriously, if you don't want to use CFCs don't, incandescents aren't illegal to use. Farmers will always need them for their livestock and Home Depot still has millions on their shelves. Just don't complain about your electric bill and the climate change wreaking havoc around the planet if you don't switch to CFCs.
If you can ignore the droughts, and floods, and melting ice caps, and micro ice ages in Europe, and balmy February's in New York, and all the other global climate weirding, be my guest, keep your head in the sand...
But a head-in-sand position won't save you from what's coming down the pike.
It also won't stop the oceans from acidifying or the coral reefs from dying...
That's all still happening even as I write and as you are outraged about
a knucklehead who stepped on broken glass and as a govt lamely tries to look like they care while keeping manufacturing companies alive... Being in a recession doesn't help things... "sigh"
In case you missed the global memo, the reason incandescents are being phased out is
because they use significantly more FOSSIL FUEL energy than CFCs
(anyone who's switched learns that on the next electric bill)
and they put more tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
In case you haven't read it in any scientific journals or the news lately,
CO2 levels are now way OVER 390 parts per million and rising.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
At 360 ppm, seal coral dies.
If that doesn't scare the shit out of you, you've been watching too many Saw movies...
Or living in a vacuum...
Some pretty damn smart and appropriately terrified people are trying to bring the levels back to a survivable (for humans) 350ppm.
You can join their efforts here: http://www.350.org/
If it's still confusing to some, let me explain why 360 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere is a significant number and why we should all be embracing 350ppm as our dearest number.
I repeat... http://www.350.org/
The Oceans are a natural filter for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and they can process
tons of it and have done so for millennia. However, the Oceans can only process so much at a time at which point the Oceans acidify, (kind of like alcohol poisoning in a college student) which is what is happening NOW!
This college student (Oceans) has been on a forced beer (CO2) binge and is dangerously ill.
When the oceans acidify, the fish die.
When the fish die, we die... Period.. Chain of life and all that.
You can learn more about ocean acidification here: http://www.aseachange.net/
And here's an article from last year before we passed the 390ppm milestone: http://www.examiner.com/christian-perspectives-in-san-jose/have-the-co2-levels-reached-the-point-of-no-return
Maybe changing all the light bulbs on the planet will help, maybe it won't. Let's not find out what happens if we DON'T change them, by working together to reduce CO2 levels globally, rather than worrying about morons who step on broken glass with their bare feet... There's plenty more we have to do besides simply
changing light bulbs to reduce CO2 levels. Lights bulbs are the easy part.
And hopefully the CFCs will be replaced with better & "safer" LEDs, the next big thing in low energy lights.
Still miffed and perploxiflated by being "forced" to be part of the solution?
You could also switch to solar panels and get off the fossil-fuel grid treadmill, alltogether, bypassing those gosh durned govt regulations.
And wear shoes if you're changing light bulbs...
resulting in Mercury poisoning and necrotic flesh... That's what I call a bad day, but his plight is a Sunday picnic compared to what happens when CO2 levels reach 400 parts per million (ppm) on our planet... And we're getting there folks....
************************************************************************
Yeah, stepping on broken glass can be dangerous...
Whether it's a CFC mercury laden bulb or not...
Bloody hell, lots of things are dangerous. I walked across my lawn and got Lyme disease....
Want to know what's really dangerous? Ocean acidification and climate change. Kind of puts a damper on the day... Ya know?
Seriously, if you don't want to use CFCs don't, incandescents aren't illegal to use. Farmers will always need them for their livestock and Home Depot still has millions on their shelves. Just don't complain about your electric bill and the climate change wreaking havoc around the planet if you don't switch to CFCs.
If you can ignore the droughts, and floods, and melting ice caps, and micro ice ages in Europe, and balmy February's in New York, and all the other global climate weirding, be my guest, keep your head in the sand...
But a head-in-sand position won't save you from what's coming down the pike.
It also won't stop the oceans from acidifying or the coral reefs from dying...
That's all still happening even as I write and as you are outraged about
a knucklehead who stepped on broken glass and as a govt lamely tries to look like they care while keeping manufacturing companies alive... Being in a recession doesn't help things... "sigh"
In case you missed the global memo, the reason incandescents are being phased out is
because they use significantly more FOSSIL FUEL energy than CFCs
(anyone who's switched learns that on the next electric bill)
and they put more tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
In case you haven't read it in any scientific journals or the news lately,
CO2 levels are now way OVER 390 parts per million and rising.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
At 360 ppm, seal coral dies.
If that doesn't scare the shit out of you, you've been watching too many Saw movies...
Or living in a vacuum...
Some pretty damn smart and appropriately terrified people are trying to bring the levels back to a survivable (for humans) 350ppm.
You can join their efforts here: http://www.350.org/
If it's still confusing to some, let me explain why 360 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere is a significant number and why we should all be embracing 350ppm as our dearest number.
I repeat... http://www.350.org/
The Oceans are a natural filter for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and they can process
tons of it and have done so for millennia. However, the Oceans can only process so much at a time at which point the Oceans acidify, (kind of like alcohol poisoning in a college student) which is what is happening NOW!
This college student (Oceans) has been on a forced beer (CO2) binge and is dangerously ill.
When the oceans acidify, the fish die.
When the fish die, we die... Period.. Chain of life and all that.
You can learn more about ocean acidification here: http://www.aseachange.net/
And here's an article from last year before we passed the 390ppm milestone: http://www.examiner.com/christian-perspectives-in-san-jose/have-the-co2-levels-reached-the-point-of-no-return
Maybe changing all the light bulbs on the planet will help, maybe it won't. Let's not find out what happens if we DON'T change them, by working together to reduce CO2 levels globally, rather than worrying about morons who step on broken glass with their bare feet... There's plenty more we have to do besides simply
changing light bulbs to reduce CO2 levels. Lights bulbs are the easy part.
And hopefully the CFCs will be replaced with better & "safer" LEDs, the next big thing in low energy lights.
Still miffed and perploxiflated by being "forced" to be part of the solution?
You could also switch to solar panels and get off the fossil-fuel grid treadmill, alltogether, bypassing those gosh durned govt regulations.
(don't you hate being forced to drive in safer cars?)
Or go totally powerless and support your local beekeepers by using candles... I'm not being sarcastic either...
Lots of people are trying that too...
Sharon Astyk's old blog: http://www.casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/2008/01/making-case-for-self-sacrifice.html
Sharon Astyk's new blog site: http://sharonastyk.com/
http://www.highlonesomeranch.com/LivingWithoutElectricity.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish
And around the planet lots of folks have lived "off the grid" for thousands of years and have rich cultures without TV, microwaves and those godforsaken, "dangerous", CFC lightbulbs. They seem pretty happy with their lifestyles...We can learn from them.
Or go totally powerless and support your local beekeepers by using candles... I'm not being sarcastic either...
Lots of people are trying that too...
Sharon Astyk's old blog: http://www.casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/2008/01/making-case-for-self-sacrifice.html
Sharon Astyk's new blog site: http://sharonastyk.com/
http://www.highlonesomeranch.com/LivingWithoutElectricity.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish
And around the planet lots of folks have lived "off the grid" for thousands of years and have rich cultures without TV, microwaves and those godforsaken, "dangerous", CFC lightbulbs. They seem pretty happy with their lifestyles...We can learn from them.
http://www.pygmies.org/
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_people.html
The only thing threatening these people are so called "civilized" people's hunger for
more electricity... Ironic...http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0603-brazil_shame.html
Plenty of options are out there to be part of the SOLUTION rather than
whining about where we're at....We can Join them!
http://www.transitiontowntotnes.org/
http://transitionus.org/
We just have to accept that the world has changed and we're ALL going to have to change too.
Sad, but that's the way it is...
Seriously kids, it's time to grow up and be adults... We're kind of out of any other options.
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_people.html
The only thing threatening these people are so called "civilized" people's hunger for
more electricity... Ironic...http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0603-brazil_shame.html
Plenty of options are out there to be part of the SOLUTION rather than
whining about where we're at....We can Join them!
http://www.transitiontowntotnes.org/
http://transitionus.org/
We just have to accept that the world has changed and we're ALL going to have to change too.
Sad, but that's the way it is...
Seriously kids, it's time to grow up and be adults... We're kind of out of any other options.
And wear shoes if you're changing light bulbs...
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
SOTU Fail!
Last night the president showed us his spunk and verve and some of his cards up his sleeves. He opened with killing Osama and he closed with killing Osama. All the other stuff about killing Osama is window dressing. Basically he was saying "Dude, I killed Osama. Re-elect me."
But there were other things he was saying couched in his hope and change rhetoric. Most of them were mixed messages and showed he was blatantly pandering to both sides. I don't think he got the memo yet that the neo-cons don't care how much he's like them, and no matter how much he caves to them, he's always going to be a socialist, fascist, racist liberal to them.
Only Democrats will vote for this guy and even they are fleeing the hope & change bandwagon. They saw what a bunch of lies it was. And progressives like me are actually starting take up prayer... Not that that ever worked either: Two term Bush vs entire planet praying...
Some of the tweets I saw last night mirrored what I was thinking and feeling about this failed speech.
Oh I know many thought it was home run. It failed, but not for the reasons the fascist Republican party thinks.
Here's a bit of what I noticed:
That he was pissed. How nice for him.
That women should be paid the same as men for the same jobs. Duh. Pass a friggin law to that effect!
And while you're at it, pass a frigging law that requires 50% of congress/senate be made up of women.
This 10% crap is wearing on the nation. Women make up 51% of the nation! WE are keeping it running and without any political power! Imagine what kind or real change a bunch of moms could make!
That you can't encourage creativity in teaching while promoting merit pay, and how do you keep kids from dropping out (though I think that is a great idea to make kids graduate)when they are 18?
That hydrofracking for natural gas is NOT clean energy no matter how many times you say it, and neither is opening up 75% of off shore oil wells to BP again... So when he says he's not walking away from renewables I agree. He's SPEED walking away... Manhattan has 8 million souls living in it so his plan of providing solar and wind power to 250,000 people in our entire nation is, at best, LAME!
That publicly telling Israel you will happily bomb the hell out of Iran is NOT a peace olive branch to anyone!
That touting money making and manufacturing jobs (aka greed) is not caring for those who are unemployed, underemployed, unemployable or retired, and the re-employment program is hopefully more successful than it's been the last few decades, umm it's also known as the unemployment office. The 47% who make so little as to not even qualify for paying taxes are known as the working poor. Oh, they weren't mentioned, never mind.
That making the wealthy pay their fare share is a nice idea, except that they get to make that decision (congress is wealthy and gets to participate in inside trading!)... Hmmm I wonder what's gonna happen?
That helping illegal immigrants become naturalized citizens may not be what so-called illegals want. They want jobs that Americans don't want, so offering illegals an opportunity to become citizens rather than offering them real work visas is a false promise of hope and change... Remember that Mexico has a lower infant mortality rate than the US. Who would want to give up a medical care system that values babies for the US one?
Did he mention health care? I was spinning out on the clean Hydrofracking BS for most of the rest of the speech. I agree with him that it's important for the Hydrofrackers to tell the people what kinds of poisons they are using to destroy their ground water with.... That way the local hospitals and Vetenarians will know how to treat the people and animals dying from the poisons. It helps to know what poisons and toxins you're dealing with... (facepalm)
So, it was a terrific speech and yay, four more years of lameness....
Don't get me wrong... Obama is a saint next to the demonic minions campaigning on the other side, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it... I'm not happy about it one bit.
I'll take a lame, caver over an enthusiastic destroyer of worlds (Newt, Mitt, Paul, Santorum).
Any day. "sigh"
But there were other things he was saying couched in his hope and change rhetoric. Most of them were mixed messages and showed he was blatantly pandering to both sides. I don't think he got the memo yet that the neo-cons don't care how much he's like them, and no matter how much he caves to them, he's always going to be a socialist, fascist, racist liberal to them.
Only Democrats will vote for this guy and even they are fleeing the hope & change bandwagon. They saw what a bunch of lies it was. And progressives like me are actually starting take up prayer... Not that that ever worked either: Two term Bush vs entire planet praying...
Some of the tweets I saw last night mirrored what I was thinking and feeling about this failed speech.
Oh I know many thought it was home run. It failed, but not for the reasons the fascist Republican party thinks.
Here's a bit of what I noticed:
That he was pissed. How nice for him.
That women should be paid the same as men for the same jobs. Duh. Pass a friggin law to that effect!
And while you're at it, pass a frigging law that requires 50% of congress/senate be made up of women.
This 10% crap is wearing on the nation. Women make up 51% of the nation! WE are keeping it running and without any political power! Imagine what kind or real change a bunch of moms could make!
That you can't encourage creativity in teaching while promoting merit pay, and how do you keep kids from dropping out (though I think that is a great idea to make kids graduate)when they are 18?
That hydrofracking for natural gas is NOT clean energy no matter how many times you say it, and neither is opening up 75% of off shore oil wells to BP again... So when he says he's not walking away from renewables I agree. He's SPEED walking away... Manhattan has 8 million souls living in it so his plan of providing solar and wind power to 250,000 people in our entire nation is, at best, LAME!
That publicly telling Israel you will happily bomb the hell out of Iran is NOT a peace olive branch to anyone!
That touting money making and manufacturing jobs (aka greed) is not caring for those who are unemployed, underemployed, unemployable or retired, and the re-employment program is hopefully more successful than it's been the last few decades, umm it's also known as the unemployment office. The 47% who make so little as to not even qualify for paying taxes are known as the working poor. Oh, they weren't mentioned, never mind.
That making the wealthy pay their fare share is a nice idea, except that they get to make that decision (congress is wealthy and gets to participate in inside trading!)... Hmmm I wonder what's gonna happen?
That helping illegal immigrants become naturalized citizens may not be what so-called illegals want. They want jobs that Americans don't want, so offering illegals an opportunity to become citizens rather than offering them real work visas is a false promise of hope and change... Remember that Mexico has a lower infant mortality rate than the US. Who would want to give up a medical care system that values babies for the US one?
Did he mention health care? I was spinning out on the clean Hydrofracking BS for most of the rest of the speech. I agree with him that it's important for the Hydrofrackers to tell the people what kinds of poisons they are using to destroy their ground water with.... That way the local hospitals and Vetenarians will know how to treat the people and animals dying from the poisons. It helps to know what poisons and toxins you're dealing with... (facepalm)
So, it was a terrific speech and yay, four more years of lameness....
Don't get me wrong... Obama is a saint next to the demonic minions campaigning on the other side, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it... I'm not happy about it one bit.
I'll take a lame, caver over an enthusiastic destroyer of worlds (Newt, Mitt, Paul, Santorum).
Any day. "sigh"
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Jobs or the environment? It's a no brainer. Farm jobs!
When President Obama killed the Keystone Pipeline (hopefully permanently), millions of people celebrated, including anyone who had marched at the call of Bill McKibben and/or gotten arrested at the White House for standing on the side walk. I am proud to say that I was one of those 1,253 arrested (my first arrest!), and later one of the ten thousand that came back to hold hands around the White House in a big protective, hope filled hug!
Fighting the nasty Tar Sands Pipeline was not just an environmentalist action, it was a human species action. Indeed, it was a member of the planet Earth action. We dodged a bullet as members of this planet. A carbon bullet that would not just put us over survivable Carbon levels in the atmosphere, we're already well over that for ocean coral, it would set in motion an ecological catastrophe that would not be remedied for maybe thousands of years. The ocean can only clean up so much of our messes before she begins to acidify and she's starting to acidify NOW. A Tar Sands carbon bomb would put her right over the edge. A moving but alarming documentary, A Sea Change, shows how fragile the oceans really are.
That's why when I started hearing people whining about the jobs lost because of Obama's, maybe only temporary, decision, I did a double take. You just dodged an end-of-the-world bullet and you seriously are complaining you're upset that jobs were allegedly killed? Are you kidding me???
First of all the jobs "killed" were paltry at best. The overestimation from the FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY & FRIENDS stated something like 250,000 jobs potentially.
Really? 250,000? Sounds really great! All those jobs and taxes would be a great loss. But it sounds too good to be true, and you know when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
A recent CBS story (see previous link) showed a Cornell University Global Labor Institute "finding that the pipeline would add only 500 to 1,400 temporary construction jobs. The authors of the September report also said that much of the new employment stemming from Keystone would be outside the U.S."
So, why are people whining about 500 jobs outside of the U.S.? Because the FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTY TOLD THEM TO DO SO! I can't imagine any other reasonable reason because no person in their right mind would exchange 500 jobs for the survival of our species. You would have to have been mind controlled by the fossil fuel industry to whine about this. Either mind controlled or just seriously and deeply misinformed.
No, but seriously. If you have any conscience about the state of the planet's health and the future of our great, great grand children, and their great great grandchildren (it could take about that long for the oceans to de-acidify), you have to seriously consider why you'd be worried about 500 jobs outside the U.S.
The fate of the planet versus 500 jobs outside the U.S. ?
To me it's a no brainer no matter WHERE those jobs are or how many. I'll tell you why. Me and nearly half the Earth's population are moms or moms to be... We have to think about how to feed our kids and we often think about their kids. We all want to be grandmas someday and most likely we will be. But all those little grand-babies add up.
We're talking 7 billion people today and in 100 years that number goes up exponentially. You do the math. Terrifying. Just think of all the Facebook friends I'd have to reply to invites to! Auuuggh!
It took a hundred years for the planet to grow from a few million to 7 billion. With more mouths to feed and fewer farmers and farms every day, I know what jobs we really should be creating and it's not a paltry 500 unskilled laborers hired to clean up a leaky pipeline. We are going to need an army of millions of farmers across this country and globally if we are going to meet the growing population's needs. Unless of course famine is an attractive option to most. Can anyone say Darfur? Already we are seeing the impact of climate change on crops. Texas pretty much lost all it's corn this past summer. You can look at that loss a couple ways, God is punishing them for electing Rick Perry as governor, or the Earth is punishing them for ignoring climate change. You chose.
Ironically, I sense Texans are the ones whining the most about these lost 500 jobs that were going outside the U.S. Perhaps since the pipeline was due to end in Houston at a refinery there and the fossil fuel companies there will lose out on its profits. But they can afford it, I think.
Though I don't think this Texan will be disappointed: David Daniel in a youtube video I shot down in DC getting ready for our first Tar Sands action. He was forgotten since he would not benefit from the refineries or the shipping of this sludge. The little people are always forgotten in the rich and powerful's lust for more power and riches.
Forgotten also were the millions of people from Canada to Texas and their one water source, the Ogala aquifer that provides drinking and irrigation water to millions across the central U.S. all in the path of the leaky pipeline. I say leaky, because there is a section of it already built. Yeah! Go figure! The exuberance of the fossil industry! And that short length of pipeline has leaked consistently once a month the past year. Like Old Faithful...
Those people have jobs, most of them at least, and some of those jobs require the use of water. Once that pipeline starts leaking though, and the aquifer is permanently contaminated, you can bet those jobs are going away. I'm not talking about car wash jobs, or dish washer jobs, I'm talking about farm jobs, the very jobs we are needing MORE OF!!
Farmers are an endangered species, maybe even more than the coral which is dying due to elevated CO2 levels. In the U.S. there used to be mostly farmland, and 80% of the population farmed even if it was just a little bit on their own property. Today that percentage is down to 1%. The improved farming technologies have helped make up the difference in the shrinking numbers of farmers to meet the exponentially rising numbers of population. But there's a new catch. An unexpected turn of events, well maybe not so unexpected by folks like John Muir, has caused the unprecedented decline in arable and fertile land. The cause? Mainly Climate change and erosion but also urban sprawl. There are 7 billion mouths to feed with fewer farmers, less land, and more unfriendly climate. And people are whining about 500 jobs? Mayor Bloomberg laid off 6000 teachers (mostly highly skilled women) last year. I didn't hear these people whining about those jobs.
Tens of thousands of more highly skilled and exceptionally educated women teachers are being laid off across the country this year. I don't hear the job whiners complaining about that. I won't go any deeper into the irony that teachers also seem to have been disproportionately blamed for the country's economic woes, despite that they aren't bankers or Wall Street executives and pretty much had their hands full educating our nation's kids: a godawful, thankless job with no bonuses at the end of the year and no golden parachutes like CEO's do when they screw up and run a business into the ground.
But I digress. Farm jobs.
Right now there is little to no incentive for a young person, or old, to take up the plow and hoe. Despite the subsidies available and the property tax breaks, the life of a farmer is hard and often lonely. Long hours, hard work, little pay back for the input, make it not one of the most desirable careers to go into, noble though it is. Fortunately a very brave, young army of farmers has taken up the challenge and joined the fight to save the planet and our food supply by becoming Organic farmers, Permaculture farmers and Biodynamic farmers. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity this past week (1/21/12) to attend a conference of the North East Organic Farmers Association of NY (NOFA NY) in Saratoga Springs and meet some of these farmers.
About two hundred plus folks showed up from the state to share in workshops, lectures and seminars on farming methods from growing grain, to orchard care (what I took), to raising chickens, to preserving food. A rich variety of people were there of all ages and all types, some looking all business and others along a mix of bohemian & hippie. Even though I'm not an official farmer, though I've gardened and grown food for two decades or more, I felt quite at home amongst these joyful, tanned, sturdy and amazingly well educated folk. They made conscious decisions to take the path of Organic farming not because it pays well, but because it's the right thing to do. The fossil fuel used in traditional farming is a major reason these folks either switched methods or became Organic farmers. They know the high levels of CO2 are changing the planet, and the way food needs to be grown has to change also. On the NOFA NY website page for Policy work there is an interesting list, a hint of our battles to come.
Current Policy Sub-Committee Areas Include:
Labor
Raw Milk
Meat Processing
Gas Drilling
Food Safety
GMO’s
These are each critically important subjects to all of us, not just to Organic farmers, but it is our Organic farmers who will make the difference for us. If we continue to worry about 500 allegedly lost unskilled jobs that would not benefit us in any way, we will forget the 200 plus highly skilled NY Organic farmers who are working slavishly behind the scenes to secure our food by making it safer and healthier and more local. And water is a big part of that equation. You can't have farms without water. And what doesn't mix with water and never has is oil.
We dodged a bullet and so did all our farmers across the nation. Let's not worry so much about the made up job numbers the fossil fuel industry gives us, like the hyped job numbers we're also getting from the hydrofracking industry, let's focus on the real jobs that exist, the farm jobs, and that need us to support them so that they can keep feeding us and in turn teach US how to grow food too. Organically!
Fighting the nasty Tar Sands Pipeline was not just an environmentalist action, it was a human species action. Indeed, it was a member of the planet Earth action. We dodged a bullet as members of this planet. A carbon bullet that would not just put us over survivable Carbon levels in the atmosphere, we're already well over that for ocean coral, it would set in motion an ecological catastrophe that would not be remedied for maybe thousands of years. The ocean can only clean up so much of our messes before she begins to acidify and she's starting to acidify NOW. A Tar Sands carbon bomb would put her right over the edge. A moving but alarming documentary, A Sea Change, shows how fragile the oceans really are.
That's why when I started hearing people whining about the jobs lost because of Obama's, maybe only temporary, decision, I did a double take. You just dodged an end-of-the-world bullet and you seriously are complaining you're upset that jobs were allegedly killed? Are you kidding me???
First of all the jobs "killed" were paltry at best. The overestimation from the FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY & FRIENDS stated something like 250,000 jobs potentially.
Really? 250,000? Sounds really great! All those jobs and taxes would be a great loss. But it sounds too good to be true, and you know when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
A recent CBS story (see previous link) showed a Cornell University Global Labor Institute "finding that the pipeline would add only 500 to 1,400 temporary construction jobs. The authors of the September report also said that much of the new employment stemming from Keystone would be outside the U.S."
So, why are people whining about 500 jobs outside of the U.S.? Because the FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTY TOLD THEM TO DO SO! I can't imagine any other reasonable reason because no person in their right mind would exchange 500 jobs for the survival of our species. You would have to have been mind controlled by the fossil fuel industry to whine about this. Either mind controlled or just seriously and deeply misinformed.
No, but seriously. If you have any conscience about the state of the planet's health and the future of our great, great grand children, and their great great grandchildren (it could take about that long for the oceans to de-acidify), you have to seriously consider why you'd be worried about 500 jobs outside the U.S.
The fate of the planet versus 500 jobs outside the U.S. ?
To me it's a no brainer no matter WHERE those jobs are or how many. I'll tell you why. Me and nearly half the Earth's population are moms or moms to be... We have to think about how to feed our kids and we often think about their kids. We all want to be grandmas someday and most likely we will be. But all those little grand-babies add up.
We're talking 7 billion people today and in 100 years that number goes up exponentially. You do the math. Terrifying. Just think of all the Facebook friends I'd have to reply to invites to! Auuuggh!
It took a hundred years for the planet to grow from a few million to 7 billion. With more mouths to feed and fewer farmers and farms every day, I know what jobs we really should be creating and it's not a paltry 500 unskilled laborers hired to clean up a leaky pipeline. We are going to need an army of millions of farmers across this country and globally if we are going to meet the growing population's needs. Unless of course famine is an attractive option to most. Can anyone say Darfur? Already we are seeing the impact of climate change on crops. Texas pretty much lost all it's corn this past summer. You can look at that loss a couple ways, God is punishing them for electing Rick Perry as governor, or the Earth is punishing them for ignoring climate change. You chose.
Ironically, I sense Texans are the ones whining the most about these lost 500 jobs that were going outside the U.S. Perhaps since the pipeline was due to end in Houston at a refinery there and the fossil fuel companies there will lose out on its profits. But they can afford it, I think.
Though I don't think this Texan will be disappointed: David Daniel in a youtube video I shot down in DC getting ready for our first Tar Sands action. He was forgotten since he would not benefit from the refineries or the shipping of this sludge. The little people are always forgotten in the rich and powerful's lust for more power and riches.
Forgotten also were the millions of people from Canada to Texas and their one water source, the Ogala aquifer that provides drinking and irrigation water to millions across the central U.S. all in the path of the leaky pipeline. I say leaky, because there is a section of it already built. Yeah! Go figure! The exuberance of the fossil industry! And that short length of pipeline has leaked consistently once a month the past year. Like Old Faithful...
Those people have jobs, most of them at least, and some of those jobs require the use of water. Once that pipeline starts leaking though, and the aquifer is permanently contaminated, you can bet those jobs are going away. I'm not talking about car wash jobs, or dish washer jobs, I'm talking about farm jobs, the very jobs we are needing MORE OF!!
Farmers are an endangered species, maybe even more than the coral which is dying due to elevated CO2 levels. In the U.S. there used to be mostly farmland, and 80% of the population farmed even if it was just a little bit on their own property. Today that percentage is down to 1%. The improved farming technologies have helped make up the difference in the shrinking numbers of farmers to meet the exponentially rising numbers of population. But there's a new catch. An unexpected turn of events, well maybe not so unexpected by folks like John Muir, has caused the unprecedented decline in arable and fertile land. The cause? Mainly Climate change and erosion but also urban sprawl. There are 7 billion mouths to feed with fewer farmers, less land, and more unfriendly climate. And people are whining about 500 jobs? Mayor Bloomberg laid off 6000 teachers (mostly highly skilled women) last year. I didn't hear these people whining about those jobs.
Tens of thousands of more highly skilled and exceptionally educated women teachers are being laid off across the country this year. I don't hear the job whiners complaining about that. I won't go any deeper into the irony that teachers also seem to have been disproportionately blamed for the country's economic woes, despite that they aren't bankers or Wall Street executives and pretty much had their hands full educating our nation's kids: a godawful, thankless job with no bonuses at the end of the year and no golden parachutes like CEO's do when they screw up and run a business into the ground.
But I digress. Farm jobs.
Right now there is little to no incentive for a young person, or old, to take up the plow and hoe. Despite the subsidies available and the property tax breaks, the life of a farmer is hard and often lonely. Long hours, hard work, little pay back for the input, make it not one of the most desirable careers to go into, noble though it is. Fortunately a very brave, young army of farmers has taken up the challenge and joined the fight to save the planet and our food supply by becoming Organic farmers, Permaculture farmers and Biodynamic farmers. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity this past week (1/21/12) to attend a conference of the North East Organic Farmers Association of NY (NOFA NY) in Saratoga Springs and meet some of these farmers.
About two hundred plus folks showed up from the state to share in workshops, lectures and seminars on farming methods from growing grain, to orchard care (what I took), to raising chickens, to preserving food. A rich variety of people were there of all ages and all types, some looking all business and others along a mix of bohemian & hippie. Even though I'm not an official farmer, though I've gardened and grown food for two decades or more, I felt quite at home amongst these joyful, tanned, sturdy and amazingly well educated folk. They made conscious decisions to take the path of Organic farming not because it pays well, but because it's the right thing to do. The fossil fuel used in traditional farming is a major reason these folks either switched methods or became Organic farmers. They know the high levels of CO2 are changing the planet, and the way food needs to be grown has to change also. On the NOFA NY website page for Policy work there is an interesting list, a hint of our battles to come.
Current Policy Sub-Committee Areas Include:
Labor
Raw Milk
Meat Processing
Gas Drilling
Food Safety
GMO’s
These are each critically important subjects to all of us, not just to Organic farmers, but it is our Organic farmers who will make the difference for us. If we continue to worry about 500 allegedly lost unskilled jobs that would not benefit us in any way, we will forget the 200 plus highly skilled NY Organic farmers who are working slavishly behind the scenes to secure our food by making it safer and healthier and more local. And water is a big part of that equation. You can't have farms without water. And what doesn't mix with water and never has is oil.
We dodged a bullet and so did all our farmers across the nation. Let's not worry so much about the made up job numbers the fossil fuel industry gives us, like the hyped job numbers we're also getting from the hydrofracking industry, let's focus on the real jobs that exist, the farm jobs, and that need us to support them so that they can keep feeding us and in turn teach US how to grow food too. Organically!
"The New Elders" by Danny Martin
http://www.dannymartin.org/
And you can read my response there too. :)
And check out these amazing elders.The Elders
And you can read my response there too. :)
And check out these amazing elders.The Elders
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Patrick Sullivan of Transition Missouri writes about the Occupy Movement
This was such a great article/blog post I had to share it.
http://transitionmissouri.ning.com/profiles/blogs/transition-missouri-and-the-occupy-movement
http://transitionmissouri.ning.com/profiles/blogs/transition-missouri-and-the-occupy-movement
One of my colleagues here at Transition Missouri left a very interesting post on our Facebook page the other day related to Occupy Wall Street (I'm not sure exactly who it was since administration of the Facebook page can be done by any one of four of us but the edits all show up under the quasi-anonymous "Transition Missouri" heading). In that post the author talks about his or her conviciton that the answers to the challenges of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis must come on the local level, since any movement on the larger-than-local scale eventually becomes co-opted into supporting the status quo.
Then, "[a]long comes the Occupy Everything movement," says the author, "which is global and national and local, all at the same time, and which brings with it real hope that the economic catastrophes which have affected so many of us is resulting in a political sea change. It sets the stage for the blossoming of Transition communities, recognized and supported by whole nations, where before I feared nothing but resistence."
The post concludes with a link to a special on Democracynow.org called Occupy Everywhere, which includes the following panel discussion about the nature of the Occupy movement (it's an hour long, so don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing right this minute):
{video has since been removed by owner}
If I'm reading the post correctly, then I am of a very similar mind toward the Occupy phenomenon. I believe that the changes that we are seeking, and that in the end we will probably have no choice but to make, will come primarily at the local level. In the end, that's really the only place they can come from. But that doesn't mean we should ignore or down-play what is happening in public spaces all over America and the world.
I am encouraged by the existence of these various and mostly peaceful "Occupations" both here and abroad. Say what you will about this movement's supposed lack of a coherent message. Point to the questionable behavior of some of its participants if you want, and make all the jokes you care to about drum circles and patchouli-funk and white college kids in dreadlocks; if nothing else, this movement shows that there are a lot of people out there who aren't inclined to quitely accept a system that seems to offer them only joyless consumption, gaping inequality, ruinous public and private debt and bitter alienation in the place of meaningful opportunities for social mobility, healthy communities, and lifestyles that don't depend on sacrificing the well-being of future generations. To me it is an understanding of this reality and a genuine desire to change things for the better that fuels this movement.
Beyond that, I'm still not really sure what to think of Occupy--or perhaps I should say I'm not really sure how much hope I should invest in it. One thing we can say without a doubt is that even if this movement were to utterly vanished into thin air tomorrow, they will already have acheived a very real and major victory: they have finally forced a conversation about the fact that a tiny percentage of the richest and most powerful elements of our society have for decades been enjoying a stratospheric expansion in income, wealth and influence while the vast majority of Americans fall further and further behind or, if they're lucky, manage to break even. Though this fact has been self-evident for many years, it was not until the coming of the Occupy Movement that it started to receive more than minimal attention in the national media.
But in the end merely making people more aware of the problem isn't the same as getting to a solution; people may finally be talking about inequality of opportunity, but that doesn't mean we don't still have a government that has been carefully molded so as to be essentially incapable of doing anything that might actually benefit anyone but the investor class, or reign-in the corruption and avarice of those who have turned our society into a mechanism for centralizing wealth and power in the hands of a tiny corporate and economic elite.
I see Occupy Wall Street and its many regional variations as more a sort of public primal scream than an organized political movement. I don't really mean this as a criticism. Wanting to scream is kind of a natural reaction when you have finally had enough of a political system that seems incapable of representing your interests and a culture in which even social movements that dress themselves as anti-authoritarians iconoclasts--like the Tea Party--actually demand more deregulation and lower taxes, i.e. a fresh showering of rewards upon those who steered us into this mess in the first place. The passion and fervor of the Occupy Movement in response to this situation is perfectly understandable. The question, however, is where we go from here.
Progressives have had a tough sell in America in the last few decades, and I don't believe that the Occupy Movement will be an exception to this rule. One lesson that the wealthy power structure in this country--and the army of political personalities, media outlets and think tanks it supports--learned and learned well a long time ago is that Narrative matters in the minds of most people a whole lot more than facts.
I believe it's safe to say that most Americans--myself included--are just fine with the notion that through hard work, intelligence, determination, and luck, some people will experience more financial rewards than others. Even if we are talking someone earning many times what the average worker earns, I really think that very, very few people in this country would have a problem with that so long as there is true equality of opportunity. We are by nature an optimitic, can-do culture that believes rewards should come to those who deserve them. What I think most of us are not okay with is the notion that a person's economic and social standing should be so heavily influenced by the mere accident of his or her birth so as to tend to eclipse every other factor. That would be like living in some decaying feudal society governed by an Old European-style aristocracy. Only the fact is, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is actually easier in tax-crazy socialist hell-holes like Sweden or Denmark than it is here in the U.S, where your wealth and power have a much stronger correlation to who your father is than they do in the "Old" world.
This fact doesn't gel with the Narrative to which a lot of Americans--maybe even the majority--still cling, i.e. the Narrative in which the vast majority of people who work hard will eventually enjoy at least a certain amount of success and security, and anyone who isn't enjoying success or security probably only has themselves to blame. This is an easy narrative for a lot of people to believe in, because many of them actually have had to work very hard to achieve what modest success they have enjoyed. Understandably, a 55-year-old guy who still gets up at 5 a.m. every day to run an HVAC business doesn't feel like he's been handed anything. He probably has a modest background of his own, so in his mind anyone who doesn't have what he has probably just isn't willing to make the sacrifices that he has made. When he starts to get that creeping feeling that despite all his efforts things are ultimately not working out the way he thought they would, either for himself or for the majority of those around him, it's probably easier to buy into the notion that "they"--the poor, immigrants, bleeding-heart liberals, the usual suspects--have been working to take away what he has legitimately worked hard to earn than it would be to question his deepest beliefs about the system under which he has labored and the dogma he has cherished his entire life. If you try to explain to him that despite his limited success he too is a part of the 99%, his gut-level reaction will be 'maybe so but I continue to work hard and sooner or later I will be in the 1%.' Trying to explain to him the statistical unlikelihood of this scenario coming to fruition will be like trying to explain the actual odds of winning to someone who has bought a lottery ticket every week of his life.
This mindset is why Progressives have a tough sell in America, a place where historically (though not lately) social and economic status has been more fluid than in the rigid, class-oriented societies of the old world. And this is why the Occupy Movement--much like the Transition Movement--has its work cut out for it. It seeks to tell people a very uncomfortable set of truths: the system in which they have put their hope and faith, and to which they have given blood and sweat and years of their life, is now in actuality heavily weighted against the financial success and well-being of all but the top tier. Far too many people hear these truths as nothing more than defeatist nonsense, complaints from a lazy bunch of losers who can't make it in the real world and are jealous of those who can. This attitude is so deeply ingrained in many quarters of our society that I believe it makes the sort of wholesale, nationwide changes sought by the Occupy Movement all but impossible. That's why I spend my time and efforts focusing on what I can do right here and right now in my own community, taking more of a "be the change" attitude rather than trying to change the whole world.
But that doesn't mean that I'm not watching what's going on with great interest, nor that I would be unwilling to lend a hand if it were needed in some positive way. I wish the Occupiers well in their efforts, and for all our sakes I hope they find success.
Then, "[a]long comes the Occupy Everything movement," says the author, "which is global and national and local, all at the same time, and which brings with it real hope that the economic catastrophes which have affected so many of us is resulting in a political sea change. It sets the stage for the blossoming of Transition communities, recognized and supported by whole nations, where before I feared nothing but resistence."
The post concludes with a link to a special on Democracynow.org called Occupy Everywhere, which includes the following panel discussion about the nature of the Occupy movement (it's an hour long, so don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing right this minute):
{video has since been removed by owner}
If I'm reading the post correctly, then I am of a very similar mind toward the Occupy phenomenon. I believe that the changes that we are seeking, and that in the end we will probably have no choice but to make, will come primarily at the local level. In the end, that's really the only place they can come from. But that doesn't mean we should ignore or down-play what is happening in public spaces all over America and the world.
I am encouraged by the existence of these various and mostly peaceful "Occupations" both here and abroad. Say what you will about this movement's supposed lack of a coherent message. Point to the questionable behavior of some of its participants if you want, and make all the jokes you care to about drum circles and patchouli-funk and white college kids in dreadlocks; if nothing else, this movement shows that there are a lot of people out there who aren't inclined to quitely accept a system that seems to offer them only joyless consumption, gaping inequality, ruinous public and private debt and bitter alienation in the place of meaningful opportunities for social mobility, healthy communities, and lifestyles that don't depend on sacrificing the well-being of future generations. To me it is an understanding of this reality and a genuine desire to change things for the better that fuels this movement.
Beyond that, I'm still not really sure what to think of Occupy--or perhaps I should say I'm not really sure how much hope I should invest in it. One thing we can say without a doubt is that even if this movement were to utterly vanished into thin air tomorrow, they will already have acheived a very real and major victory: they have finally forced a conversation about the fact that a tiny percentage of the richest and most powerful elements of our society have for decades been enjoying a stratospheric expansion in income, wealth and influence while the vast majority of Americans fall further and further behind or, if they're lucky, manage to break even. Though this fact has been self-evident for many years, it was not until the coming of the Occupy Movement that it started to receive more than minimal attention in the national media.
But in the end merely making people more aware of the problem isn't the same as getting to a solution; people may finally be talking about inequality of opportunity, but that doesn't mean we don't still have a government that has been carefully molded so as to be essentially incapable of doing anything that might actually benefit anyone but the investor class, or reign-in the corruption and avarice of those who have turned our society into a mechanism for centralizing wealth and power in the hands of a tiny corporate and economic elite.
I see Occupy Wall Street and its many regional variations as more a sort of public primal scream than an organized political movement. I don't really mean this as a criticism. Wanting to scream is kind of a natural reaction when you have finally had enough of a political system that seems incapable of representing your interests and a culture in which even social movements that dress themselves as anti-authoritarians iconoclasts--like the Tea Party--actually demand more deregulation and lower taxes, i.e. a fresh showering of rewards upon those who steered us into this mess in the first place. The passion and fervor of the Occupy Movement in response to this situation is perfectly understandable. The question, however, is where we go from here.
Progressives have had a tough sell in America in the last few decades, and I don't believe that the Occupy Movement will be an exception to this rule. One lesson that the wealthy power structure in this country--and the army of political personalities, media outlets and think tanks it supports--learned and learned well a long time ago is that Narrative matters in the minds of most people a whole lot more than facts.
I believe it's safe to say that most Americans--myself included--are just fine with the notion that through hard work, intelligence, determination, and luck, some people will experience more financial rewards than others. Even if we are talking someone earning many times what the average worker earns, I really think that very, very few people in this country would have a problem with that so long as there is true equality of opportunity. We are by nature an optimitic, can-do culture that believes rewards should come to those who deserve them. What I think most of us are not okay with is the notion that a person's economic and social standing should be so heavily influenced by the mere accident of his or her birth so as to tend to eclipse every other factor. That would be like living in some decaying feudal society governed by an Old European-style aristocracy. Only the fact is, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is actually easier in tax-crazy socialist hell-holes like Sweden or Denmark than it is here in the U.S, where your wealth and power have a much stronger correlation to who your father is than they do in the "Old" world.
This fact doesn't gel with the Narrative to which a lot of Americans--maybe even the majority--still cling, i.e. the Narrative in which the vast majority of people who work hard will eventually enjoy at least a certain amount of success and security, and anyone who isn't enjoying success or security probably only has themselves to blame. This is an easy narrative for a lot of people to believe in, because many of them actually have had to work very hard to achieve what modest success they have enjoyed. Understandably, a 55-year-old guy who still gets up at 5 a.m. every day to run an HVAC business doesn't feel like he's been handed anything. He probably has a modest background of his own, so in his mind anyone who doesn't have what he has probably just isn't willing to make the sacrifices that he has made. When he starts to get that creeping feeling that despite all his efforts things are ultimately not working out the way he thought they would, either for himself or for the majority of those around him, it's probably easier to buy into the notion that "they"--the poor, immigrants, bleeding-heart liberals, the usual suspects--have been working to take away what he has legitimately worked hard to earn than it would be to question his deepest beliefs about the system under which he has labored and the dogma he has cherished his entire life. If you try to explain to him that despite his limited success he too is a part of the 99%, his gut-level reaction will be 'maybe so but I continue to work hard and sooner or later I will be in the 1%.' Trying to explain to him the statistical unlikelihood of this scenario coming to fruition will be like trying to explain the actual odds of winning to someone who has bought a lottery ticket every week of his life.
This mindset is why Progressives have a tough sell in America, a place where historically (though not lately) social and economic status has been more fluid than in the rigid, class-oriented societies of the old world. And this is why the Occupy Movement--much like the Transition Movement--has its work cut out for it. It seeks to tell people a very uncomfortable set of truths: the system in which they have put their hope and faith, and to which they have given blood and sweat and years of their life, is now in actuality heavily weighted against the financial success and well-being of all but the top tier. Far too many people hear these truths as nothing more than defeatist nonsense, complaints from a lazy bunch of losers who can't make it in the real world and are jealous of those who can. This attitude is so deeply ingrained in many quarters of our society that I believe it makes the sort of wholesale, nationwide changes sought by the Occupy Movement all but impossible. That's why I spend my time and efforts focusing on what I can do right here and right now in my own community, taking more of a "be the change" attitude rather than trying to change the whole world.
But that doesn't mean that I'm not watching what's going on with great interest, nor that I would be unwilling to lend a hand if it were needed in some positive way. I wish the Occupiers well in their efforts, and for all our sakes I hope they find success.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
check out this blog page of political writers that I was just invited to. Very cool. http://politicsanonymous.com/
check out this blog page of political writers that I was just invited to. Very cool.
Don't Buy The CRAP!
Yesterday was Black Friday. Indeed. What more need be said for a day so commercialized that it gives Christmas a run for its commercialized status. After a day of thanksgiving for all the bounty of the earth and the products of our hands, came a day of mobs, pepper spraying, non-stop advertising from corporations and news stations (yeah, even the newscasters go in on the scam), and stores and malls from the California coast to the purple mountain majesties of the East, and across the fruited plains down to the sweaty gulf coast, filled to bursting with the excitable and panicked shoppers whose stress hormones filled the air like a mild form of pepper spray. I only know this because yesterday for the first time in my life I ventured into a store on Black Friday to be part of a whirl. You know what that is, right? It’s where a group of people pushes empty grocery carts around in a long line of silent awareness raising for them personally and hopefully for those around them. After walking in a line of kindred “stop shoppingness” for several minutes, snaking through a store’s isles and becoming aware of how much crap is on the shelves around you, a person develops self empowerment and a resistance to the advertiser’s hypnotic chant of “buy this cheap crap!”. I don’t care how cheap your cheaply made piece of crap is, it’s still crap and I DO NOT NEED IT! Seriously, no one needs that crap.
Once a person becomes aware that they are being peddled crap in one department, it becomes easier to see other types of crap. Like political crap being peddled by both parties, albeit especially the fascist Republican party. Crap like the Super Committee, which was an exercise in how much smoke they could blow up the nation’s ass and still look like they actually cared. Or the pleading from the DCC to donate to their campaign to fight off the onslaught of the right who are so well backed by pharma and big oil. Tell me again why I should donate to an organization that has members (Blue Dogs) who blocked the Public Option and would deny 51% of our nation (% of women in the USA) their human right to choose whether to be pregnant or not? Smells like a load of crap to me. Or the disingenuous, and very stupid suggestion from the Righties that we should trust corporations to self regulate and that would be so good for the country. Right… That worked so well for us at the turn of the century. Plain old CRAP! Or that we really need two dozen GOP debates to determine who to vote for, as if we actually get to choose our presidents. CRAAAP! And that the news on TV is actually news and not spin, aka, bald faced lies. CRAPOLA!! Or that the economy is on the mend. HOLY CRAP! Or that women and minorities are finally equal to their white brothers and we no longer need any kind of affirmative action. HOLY F’ING CRAP!
Yeah, that whirl was really enlightening, it’s like a whole veil of lies and deception has come down off my eyes and opened my awareness to the crap everywhere. Okay, I lie a little bit, the veil came off a very long time ago but it did begin with making the connection with the garbage on store shelves to the garbage coming out of the mouths of politicians. It’s all the same crap; fabricated cheap plastic crap, polluting our world and poisoning our minds and our lives. When we stop buying all the crap we’re being peddled, then we will be free citizens.
Here’s a great way to begin the freeing of your mind: Tomorrow, Sunday, 11/27/11, at 2pm the Reverend Billy http://www.revbilly.com/will have a show at The Highline Ballroom, on 431 West 16th St, NY city. And if you can’t get there, you can watch his film, “What Would Jesus Buy” on instant watch on Netflix. A guaranteed crap free experience.
Read his blog on nonviolence here http://www.revbilly.com/chatter/blog/2011/24/nonviolence-is-creative
Here’s a great way to begin the freeing of your mind: Tomorrow, Sunday, 11/27/11, at 2pm the Reverend Billy http://www.revbilly.com/will have a show at The Highline Ballroom, on 431 West 16th St, NY city. And if you can’t get there, you can watch his film, “What Would Jesus Buy” on instant watch on Netflix. A guaranteed crap free experience.
Read his blog on nonviolence here http://www.revbilly.com/chatter/blog/2011/24/nonviolence-is-creative
And check out this blog page of political writers that I was just invited to. Very cool.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Newt’s Right Wing Monster
November 24, 2011
Newt’s Right Wing Monster
By Pauline Schneider
In the fascinating horror story by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein’s Monster, we see a deranged, albeit well meaning, scientist attempt to defeat the ultimate fate that we all will meet and in so doing he unleashes an unspeakable horror that eventually turns on him and those he loves in one the most terrifying and grizzly scenes imagined in perhaps all of literary fiction. If you want to watch a true life version of this story taking place right now, just keep a close eye on Newt Gingrich and his right wing monster that is beginning to devour him, limb, sinew and bone.
If anyone has any doubt about whose monster is out there raging in congress and tearing up the fabric of our society, all one need do is take a stroll down memory lane and view the mad experiments of Dr Gingrichstein.
Perhaps a few American citizens are aware that the Newt started out his humble beginnings as a historian. His dissertation was on "Belgian Education Policy in the Congo: 1945–1960", and that he was an assistant professor at West Georgia College. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich#cite_note-18 We all know how that “education policy” turned out with the Rwandan genocide.
Now, being a history teacher myself, I have a soft spot for other historians and professors of the ancient art first championed by my ethnic ancestor, Herodotus, however the historian known as Newt took his talents to a whole new level of madness in 1993 when he taught a class titled “Renewing American Civilization”, at Kennesaw State College in Georgia.
In a NY Times article from 1997 titled, “The ‘Teacher of the Rules of Civilization’ Gets a Scolding, “ the author describes an easel sheet from one of Newt’s lessons as “having a drawing of concentric circles in Mr. Gingrich's distinctive scrawl with "Gingrich" at the center; "Staff, Key Members, Key supporters" in the next innermost circle; "Members, Media, Interest Groups, Constituents, Other Staff" in the next innermost circle, and "public" in the outer circle. “ The Newt saw himself at the center of the civilized universe, something psychologists refer to as the Emperor complex usually grown out of by the age of 5 years. You can see the entire New York Times article here on how that class he taught cost him $300,000 in ethics fines for misusing tax-exempt funds for partisan purposes and providing untrue information to a House committee. The most severe fine in ethical violations ever… There’s also a very sweet critique by an actual history professor who called the course “bland, vague, hortatory and lacking in substance…If this is not to be a course but instead a sermon, then you should get a preacher to comment on it.”
You know it thrills me to watch history grinding along and repeating itself as predictably as Newt’s path to his demise does. Remember this is the man who created the Contract with America, often referred to as the Contract ON Americans… This is the man who in the same unethical course on how HE defined civilization (with him at its core), advised conservative leaders to rally the unwashed legions with their anger and fear:
“Encourage everyone who has a disagreement with the Democratic program to join a grand coalition. At the optimum the anti-gays-in-the-military anger, anti-tax-increase anger and the anti-government-waste anger should all be drawn into a broad front of opposition. . . . Every time the Democrats cheat on ethics, the law or simply act secretly and in defiance of the public anger against Washington, we must highlight it and protest it. We are the guardians of the public's right to know.” Well, at least the public’s "right to know" what HE wants to tell them to think…The beast is being designed!
The Newt was exceedingly successful at designing and creating this beast, perhaps because fear and anger are the easiest emotions to manipulate in people en masse. I can think of a couple other men who took advantage of people’s fear and anger and of course that resulted in global catastrophes. Taking advantage of people's emotions in hard economic times is truly the lowest a person can go. Newt goes even lower.
Before I knew the Newt was a historian I was outraged by his recent comment that child labor laws should be repealed because they “harmed” poor children. Now that I have learned that he was a historian I’m dumbfounded how he dismissed an entire period of our progressive history that fought to protect our poor children from the abuses of the Robber Barons who happily employed them in coal mines and other horrific conditions. Was this some lost golden era in Newt’s mind? An era when poor children, so marginalized and neglected by adult men who led our nation and were the captains of industry, that they were left with the only option but to work as child slaves for the elite and powerful?
How Newt can dismiss this shameful era and the resulting positive, progressive changes that brought our poor children out of the coal mines and glass shard factories and into schools and given some sense of dignity, finally protected from corporate abuse, is beyond my comprehension. But he’s taken that radical perspective, stitched it shabbily to his creature and run with it. Close behind him, however, also runs the creature following him, doggedly reminding him of his madness, his arrogance and his lies, “I have not had lobbyist relations with that company!” he screeches in terror. “Puhleese,” the creature moans in horrific disgust, “stop lying!” So he throws the beast a bone to silence it's rebukes, "Those Occupy Wall Street kids should get a job, right after they take a bath!" The beast howls in temporary pleasure at the feast, but it won't be long before it's hunger takes grip again.
It is always important to learn from history so as not to repeat past mistakes and have future attempts result in failure and Newt, as a historian, seemed destined not to fail. His huge success in congress serving ten consecutive terms in Georgia would attest to his historical & political prowess as well as his architectural prowess in designing a Contract withAmerica. However, the monster he was very successfully creating, a vast right wing army crafted from a patchwork of fear, anger and mistrust, has now, at long last, turned on its architect… EN MASSE. And I’m tickled pink over it, because there's nothing more wonderful to a feminist than prophetic feminist fiction actually coming to life!
The Creator Missteps
At the GOP debate the other night, Newt entered the final stage of his political career by revealing he actually had a heart. Well, this is debatable since it could have been just another political ploy to attract the very large and motivated Hispanic vote rather than a genuine show of compassion for deeply marginalized brown workers. I must remind the reader that this is the man who served divorce papers to his wife while she was in the hospital receiving cancer treatment so that he could marry (3rd marriage) the woman he was having an affair with. There is much doubt to the actual ability of this man to feel any compassion. Perhaps his creature sensed this, because Newt's “compassionate” response to a question on illegal immigrants was unacceptable to the monster he had created and has elicited a harsh response from his beast. His comment: “I don’t see how the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century,” Gingrich said during the CNN debate.
On the Free Republic website, an organization dedicated to all things conservative and right wingy, (see here for it’s founder, Jim Robinson’s, fascinating diatribesque description of the Free Republic’s “philosophy”) there is an article on Newt’s stance where the author actually “concurred” with Newt’s soft ideas on immigration. However, the comments following the article reveal a conservative party prepared to eat its own tail and even their architect. Here’s a little back and forth:
“So in Newt's grand vision, the longer you have broken this country's immigration laws, the more law-abiding you are,” then a response to that:
“There's ignorant and there's just plain downright dishonest, which are you? I'll bet you haven't even bothered to read the Krieble Foundation's Red Card plan, but you're ready to attack Newt without informing yourself,” followed by:
“So in Newt's grand vision, the longer you have broken this country's immigration laws, the more law-abiding you are,” then a response to that:
“There's ignorant and there's just plain downright dishonest, which are you? I'll bet you haven't even bothered to read the Krieble Foundation's Red Card plan, but you're ready to attack Newt without informing yourself,” followed by:
“Hey, maggot - try refuting what I have posted. You can't, jackass. You're just an apologist and a shill for the worst tendencies of the Beltway GOP.” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2811854/posts
It’s really a progressive’s wet dream to watch the radicalized right wing begin to devour itself from within. We all know how nasty they can be so it’s sure to be a good show! Don't forget the popcorn!
However, perhaps we should feel some sympathy for this uber-radicalized right wing monster. It was created through a rigorous agitation of the forces of hate, anger, fear and a large dollop of contempt for anything different (gays, feminists, socialists, education), but scratch the surface and it is actually constructed of human beings with all the basic needs of any human just like Shelley’s creature; the parts of it are in essence our friends and neighbors, albeit with a twist of irony and madness. In Shelley’s story we get the sense that she feels more pity for the creature than for it’s creator and she even gives the monster a deep sense of wisdom, and a broad historic perspective that seems wholly lacking with the Newt.
The creature laments, "I heard about the slothful Asiatics; of the stupendous genius and mental activity of the Grecians; of the wars and wonderful virtue of the early Romans-of their subsequent degenerating-of the decline of that mighty empire; of chivalry, Christianity, and kings….There was non among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery."
There is no sense of kindness indeed to anyone, a typical conservative ethos for anyone even slightly divergent from them, and certainly none for its creator, Victor, (Newt boy) who later warns a colleague: "Learn from me . . . how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow." I remind the reader of the concentric circles with Newt in the center, indicating his aspirations of greatness and surrounded concentrically by the rest of the world. The beast, which is the general public, is on the furthest circle, as far from the grand emperor Newt as possible... Almost as if Newt knew he was creating a monster and wished to be removed from it.
Ahhh, poor Newtie, seems like he would have done better to study feminist author, Mary Shelley and turn-of-the-century fiction, rather than actual history, whose lessons he wholly ignored.
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