My writings - and those of others.
To Start Another Year
Happy New Year!
I am told it is inappropriate to offer such wishes after January 7th - but I don’t know the source of such rules that carry any weight. So Happy New Year to you, as I move into another year well beyond my three score and ten - and celebrate my 39th year of blogging. In those days in 1995 on Blogger, the options were pretty limited to black and white text - and probably the content wasn’t very nuanced either.
The new year has started well with the arrival of a great niece as the first baby to be born in her city. I could continue by quoting from all the year-end reports that promise either relief or disaster for the planet, but I won’t for today at least. What did strike me in one newsletter was encouragement to enter the fight for climate change - in this case by a bunch of seniors against a a major Canadian bank. I wonder about the wisdom of war and battle metaphors for change of any kind. If all our relationships with others, whether individual or corporate, are to be primarily adversarial, is this the right approach? Making war is literally not working out well for many who have life within our planet right now. Is this the right way to move hearts and minds? Are there other and better options? That’s going to be something to explore this year.
Morning Coffee
Reading what comes in via email reflects the world we live in precisely. First one. Several are responding to a letter and a report designed for the same audience. I wrote one them. The purpose of both is to ask for more money from the organization’s supporters and they differ in how to do it. The matter needs action and a further discussion will determine the direction. One view is that a more folksy and emotional approach works better. Another is that maybe we shouldn’t be too forward in asking for money since we will want to do it again later in the fall. Meanwhile the organization is surviving by drawing down its shrinking endowment. The meeting happens tomorrow night,
A second comes from the admirable George Monbiot of the Guardian. The newspaper’s online communications arrive for free and I generally support them occasionally. There is always an ask - and today’s suggestion is that it could start at as little as $2 a month or a one time donation. That’s a rather good way to put it. Is it time to send through the $25 that I occasionally give, with a reminder that I value this organization each month about the same as I do as one cup of my morning coffee. Can do both without sacrifice is a bit ridiculous? Monbiot’s article surrounding this appeal notes the same thing that I did in my previous post. The weight and seriousness of the climate emergency competes with lots of trivia about an affair of a British film producer with 10,000 recent new items - contrasted with five for a serious science report - trivia always wins. The media world is not the real world, but we believe it is. As he says, celebrity gossip is always more important than existential risk,
Third there’s Gas Busters. This is a group that wants to ban gas powered leaf blowers. Most people complain about the noise - and I join them there. I think much less about the air pollution they cause. The Toronto City Council voted to pursue a ban - not pass it even yet. At least that is better than doing nothing, but I am now asked to do more writing to City Councilors and staff. Anther item for the task list.
Then there is the organization of seniors working on climate action - now. They have a coming meeting that conflicts with one of my own. A report of a subcommittee focuses on the allocated number of members, and says that a person who recently volunteered will be excluded because of lack of experience with this spsecific organization. What if that person was one that turned up unexpectedly once in my world - who had just retired as chief geologist for the provincial government. We’ll never know - being a current member matters more. There is also a complaint about more men than women on the committee - six to four. A financial report indicates $65. in new memberships. That means 15 of them, because one of them at $5 per year was mine. Even for a very new organization, Five dollars a year isn’t enough to make it go anywhere,
What comes through is how easily we are distracted by incoming news all with the organizational appeals - and all arguing the side issues, which saves us from having to act on matters we think are important or support them. And the health of the institution or group always ends up at the forefront, not the causes they espouse. How do create our personal priorities? They matter. I might need a second coffee to sort out my own.
Achievement
From Reinhold Niebuhr’s, The Irony of American History:
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”
How might this relate to the climate emergency? Just because we can’t achieve success in our lifetime, it means we have to play a part. We need to have faith in both small actions and join others in taking larger ones. It does seem that in some respects we don’t act because we can’t forgive ourselves for what we as a species have done. It is a paradox that we are also the species who can do so.
Turning up the Heat
People throughout the world are baking in the heat and occasionally there is a faint recognition that this has something to do with climate change. The country that puts the most carbon emissions into the atmosphere is nevertheless stymied by one key player.
One politician, Senator Joe Manchin, says he will not support his party’s climate change initiatives
The US Supreme Court has limited the ability of the government to curb emissions from power plants
The opposition party is against any climate legislation.
The US loses its ability to influence other major emitters, like China. India and Brazil.
The US is not on track to meet its goals for the Paris Accord. It doesn’t provide a great example to other countries.
One man’s action has severely limited the role of the party in power leaving it dysfunctional in a democratic system.
It’s no wonder that E. M. Forster suggested only two cheers for democracy. He expressed his concern for the individual in a world facing totalitarianism, as well as extremism from both the left and the right. He claimed at the time that the title was a joke when his writings included material going back to 1936, the year of my birth. One writer evaluating the collection suggests that it has worn well. He was looking ahead at the time to the rise of Nazi Germany.
Leadership demands morality for the public good. We need it now more than ever.
Disasters
Over the last few weeks I was preoccupied with a convoy of trucks. Now most if the news focuses on tanks and rockets and brave people dying. It’s easy to forget the longer term damage now coming to haunt us, that doesn’t care about how we mess up with trucks and tanks. It deals with how the practices of the first world will affect the two thirds who never enjoy our privileges and now will suffer even more. We have never come to terms with the reality that the planet has a one way irreversible journey and forgetting that impacts our own future - but not fairly. Those who already have the least will suffer the most.
The latest IPCC report still offers a sliver of hope. It’s hard to predict that the first world, already so arrogant and sure of its privilege will suddenly show remorse and change. Our track record isn’t good.
The report is immense in scope - 34,000 studies produced by more than 1,000 researchers and scientists and endorsed by 195 nations. There are things we can agree upon. Here are some of the things to recognize:
Half the world’s population is short of water at some time in the year
One out of three suffers from heat stress. That will grow to 50 or 75% if we fail to act.
A billion people living in coastal areas will be exposed to flooding by 2050
Much farm land is gradually becoming incapable of sustaining crops. A million children in Africa alone could suffer from stunted growth.
Wild animal habitat reduction is causing animals to move and become extninct
We don’t protect land, fresh water and oceans. Instead of carbon capture, we are sending more into the atmosphere.
While the poor suffer most, the first world isn’t escaping. The health of the planet affects us all - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. As the season of Lent begins, we need to grieve our losses, but not stop there. It’s incumbent upon all of us to act individually, corporately, nationally and internationally. The planet isn’t the stage set . The heart of stone must become a heart of flesh.