Please feel free .. .

Coming back from an appointment I stopped to look at a paper surrounded by sticky tape and left on the sidewalk. It said, “Please feel free to take it”. My guess is that it was originally posted to something left on the street. It’s not uncommon for folks to leave something near the sidewalk that they don’t want any more. If someone else can use it, that’s a good thing.

But the slogan made me think of how we treat the natural environment. Earlier in the morning I was reading Marilynne Robinson’ new book, Reading Genesis, where she points out that unlike the Babylonian culture that existed when the book was written, that creation was a gift, and that the gift was also supported by promises of continuity, even when the recipients behaved badly. We appear to be slow learners. We still feel free to help ourselves.

Communication

I’ve been impressed for some time by Climate Outreach in the UK. Their small team studies effective ways to deal with the climate crisis - and a couple of my own recent presentations show how other writers use ones that provide hope. Here are some of the key findings from their 2024 report on how Britain Talks Climate. Read the full report.

• They found that no demographic or segment of the general population opposes climate change as a reality that requires action.

• People believe climate change is the job of government - without necessarily feeling that their current government is doing enough.

• They want to work with others in tackling it - not just on an individual basis.

How we talk about it matters:

• Don’t assume that others don’t think it matters. They do. They will differ on the process, but they do care.

• Don’t make people more worried. They are already anxious enough.

• Talk about the progress that is already underway and its benefits.

• Make the connections - a healthy planet, a resilient nature, our own well being.

• Recognize that for many change is scary and times are hard.

Things to avoid

• That climate change is all about more hardship and sacrifice.

• Drastic approaches that are against common sense

• Pitting different aspects of nature and climate change against each other.

The also have good ideas about images and what ones work like the one used here.

Real News

We’ve been so immersed in Fake News - and my schadenfreude has been operating overtime as I read about how the National Enquirer, beloved of the supermarket checkouts a couple of decades ago, helped to provide some to get “You Know Who” elected in 2016. Who knew who the originators of such Fake News really were? It’s surprising that the instigator didn’t take the credit.

Last evening a few of us online in a climate centered group asked how we best engage others to attention to the climate crisis. I an watching a local seniors advocacy group become angry at banks and oil companies, and we are all watching the young follow the tradition of sixties protests because, like us, they can’t help reacting to the never-ending bad news around us on TV and social media. The issues are long-standing and complicated. The response of the young can’t be nuanced; they are not looking through the eyes of times they did not live through. I admire can their courage even when protesting involves misunderstanding and recklessness. But the perspective of my more than eight decades, I’m not sure that it is the only approach - or that of the seniors who imitate them. For now, I choose to look at positive things that are happening and put my support there.

One such is from Solved, referenced in the previous post. Here’s a quote:

“City-led climate action, because it is real, effective, and timely, can offer hope that we can address climate change. Why? Because taking proven solutions underway somewhere. and using them everywhere is the best - and increasingly the only- way to act with the urgency that science shows we must.” p.16. Solved, Paperback edition

See the book under resources here and get a copy. You will be encouraged and find ways to act.

Influence

This past Monday I participated in a conversation with a friend over a summary of Thomas Homer-Dixon’s thoughtful book, Commanding Hope. It was a good way to celebrate Earth Day and it was pleasing to hear that several participants were involved in local initiatives. We talked about the challenges of where to enter the climate conversation without becoming completely discouraged about the lack of inaction.

So it was worthwhile to stop by my local independent book store - it is their day tomorrow on April 27th by the way - and I try to patronize them when I can. It was good to find a book by Toronto’s former mayor, David Miller, who moved on to work with several major cities in the world and tell a positive story of what cities are doing. He reminds me of what a former colleague used to say about the arts. It’s important to act locally where the action is.

After all, these things are the local government responsibilities: planning and development, clean water, parks and recreation, housing, public transit and public health - and more. They affect our lives directly every single day. Miller also looks at how city concerns and responsibilities connect with the major environmental issues; official plans, energy and electricity, existing buildings and new ones, and management of waste. Miller provides lots of evidence of how cities worldwide are dealing with these matters in a positive way. Since these are places that most people in the world live, they matter. The book is called Solved and an earlier edition has just been reissued. It’s a worthwhile read.

I know my local city councilor through his excellent monthly newsletter and I have met him in person. He has my support. A friend remarked that another one never answers calls or responds to questions. There is a solution to that one. VOTE!

The Power of Words

We are seeing how words can mislead, wound, charm and heal these days. A phrase that some use to seek justice make others feel threatened. Words can suggest a context that excludes. Historians have pointed out that the first characters that some children met in books caused the readers of Dick and Jane to feel excluded, because their lives were not like those of middle class suburbia Nearly all such books were boring. There wasn’t much to observe except to see Dick run. Jane and Sally apparently didn’t.

But one author changed everything. Instead of green lawns with no weeds we were catapulted into the world of an invasive cat who made a mess of the house when a mother left for the afternoon – and not even a fish in a bowl could save it.  It didn’t take a ton of words to tell an interesting story for us and a different Sally – and rhymes made The Cat in the Hat memorable using only 222 different words. In a later triumph, the legendary Dr. Suess won a bet of fifty dollars when Bennett Cerf challenged him to write a book using only 50 words.  He did even better by using only one word of more than one syllable – anywhere.  Remember Green Eggs and Ham?

The Beginner Books were fun – both for parents to read and children to listen to at first -and then recite. It changed the children’s book publishing in terms of illusrations and it made reading fun. I notice that many Suess books can be downloaded and listened to on a tablet rather than being read by absent mothers and fathers. That’s rather too bad when those early readings created family bonds and bouts of laughter and maybe the Cat should point that out.  The Suess texts later became much more sophisticated and handled topics like disarmament and the environment.

They still come back to me with a line or two from Too Many Daves whose mother lacked imagination in giving her twenty-three sons the same name – which meant they never came when she called them. Some more interesting alternative names were suggested . . .

“And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey.

And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey.”

The last word here was always well received – but my all-time favourite was – and still is:

“Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face.

Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.”

 It was good to imagine calling people funny names - even insulting ones in a story, even though you weren’t supposed to do that in real life.. Maybe the other lesson was that Mothers didn’t always get it right,