My writings - and those of others.
Never Underestimate - Science Moms
I was originally made aware of the importance of climate scientist Kathryn Hayhoe through the University of Toronto’s School of the Environment lecture series in 2019 where they claimed this outstanding woman as one of their own. A Canadian by birth. Hayhoe began her studies here before becoming the Political Science Endowed Professor in Public Policy and Public Law in the Department of Political Science, a director of the Climate Center, and an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Texas Tech University.
But never underestimate the power of a woman – and a mom – and also a scientist. She has brought the three together as the lead in a new initiative to help us guide the next generation in the important area of climate change. After meeting a young mother frightened about the world of the future for her child, Hayhoe realized they had a common situation and concern. Her approach is creative – channel fears into action. Talk to your family and friends about it – but even more importantly, become an advocate in the places where you have agency – local schools, local governments, churches and local agencies and other levels of government.
Hayhoe recruited five other prominent women scientists and a funding body to begin a ten million dollar educational project designed to educate and empower mothers – grandmothers like me can also join in. It will pay for advertisements featuring the women scientists that will run nationally and follow with ads focusing on states in the US where climate change is already showing significant effect. It’s a long term project that is expected to last for five years and you can read about it here. Its website site includes helpful resources and starts the process with outlining myths and facts.
In a “half the sky” framework, moms matter to politicians and advertisers. Both can tap into their existing concern for climate change. What this project gives them is some straightforward ways to act. Moreover, they will have confidence in the leadership of woman scientists providing them with talking points and the ability to debunk common myths. Among them:
Climate change isn’t settled science.
Climate change is a natural phenomenon.
Climate change is way off in the distant future.
It might get bad but we can handle it.
There is still time to address it (but not too much).
You might check your own response to these statements and see if you are clear on the facts. Next you can view the resources – some for moms and some to share with their children as well as TED talks. There is a sign up sheet for Americans and a similar one for Canadians and other parts of the world would be useful.
The final reminder is that individual small steps are important – but significant action involves government legislation. We have to have the right information and we have to urge those in positions of power to act on it in important and positive ways. Exploring these materials is a really worthwhile way to spend some time during our current lock down.
Misinformation Wars
One of my favorite Dave Frishberg Songs is “Marooned in a Blizzard of Lies”. It seems to have been background music in the past two or three months, but even if we now have a twice impeached person in the American White House for a few more days, I am less confident that we have survived the misinformation wars - even with 20,000 troops assembled to reduce the risk of violence.
Misinformation has never been easier to produce. You can find an image and put a slogan on top of it and disseminate it on social media in less than two minutes and have others share it hundreds of thousands of times. Video editing is a bit trickier but possible. The effects can be visceral – immediate anxiety, increasing to anger and leading to violence. Words and images don’t always lead to violence – but when it occurs, they have almost always preceded it. That should give us pause.
Most us watching from a distance in Canada, but inundated with US news are still confounded by the actions of a rising star like Josh Hawley. How could someone with his credentials – Stanford, Yale Law School, clerking for the Chief Justice be seen raising a clenched fist to rioters and continue to claim a lost election? His local newspaper the St Louis Post Dispatch now claims he has blood on his hands and accuses him of blind ambition. His rise not be as easy for him now as he meets disgust from his own party and a lost book contract. But even blind ambition doesn’t seem to account for something so evil in either intent or consequence.
Katherine Stewart writing in the New York Times sees something deeper accounting for his actions. Citing an article that Hawley wrote for Christianity Today, she views him as part of a religious-right framework that wants America to return to religious roots that are endangered by liberal ideas of freedom. Who knew that the problem was that America had succumbed to the Pelagian heresy? Hawley says conforming to what religious leaders say is correct is how society should be governed – and that includes politics. My own response to that as a person who is still a member of a faith community (Anglican/ Episcopal) doesn’t land me in such a place – that it is okay for a lawyer to pretend an election is stolen to bring in some kind of religious oligarchy - just won’t wash.
Why do such views gain traction at all? Hawley was not alone. In another article Stewart wrote, the religious right is estimated as 28 percent of the US population who identify as white evangelical or born again Christian; 76% of them voted for Trump. Stewart cites several reasons why they prevail and why they are likely to continue to do so. Economic inequality exists and it can be used to foster discontent. Paradoxically much of this is financed by wealthy individuals who fund the religious right to protect their own wealth. Persons in smaller communities receive much of their news through local or regional religious publications that reinforce their views. Religious organizations of all types are well organized and networked. For these reasons, views on subjects like abortion, appointment of judges and religious freedom and can become key issues to organize around. A president’s appointment of 220 court judges and three to the Supreme Court is worth overlooking obvious shortcomings of misogynous bullying, racial tweets or conspiracy narratives of stolen elections.
Stewart notes:
“While many outsiders continue to think of Christian nationalism as a social movement that rises from the ground up, it is in fact a political movement that operates mostly from the top down. The rank-and-file of the movement is diverse and comes to its churches with an infinite variety of motivations and concerns, but the leaders are far more unified. . . . (They promote) a radical ideology that is profoundly hostile to democracy and pluralism, and a certain political style that seeks to provoke moral panic, rewards the paranoid, and views every partisan conflict as a conflagration, the end of the world. Partisan politics is the lifeblood of the movement.”
Are there solutions for the rest of us? Another Times writer suggests we can ask questions such as:
Who is the author?
What is behind the information provided?
What is the evidence?
What do other sources say?
When we encounter a meme that seems suspicious, we can check the original image. We can avoid using social media as a news source. We can also resist the impulse to “share” and “like” which enhances dissemination. We can also make decisions about what we choose to be our trusted sources of information.
But how do we convince others to do this? David Brooks, writing this morning is somewhat pessimistic:
“The split we are seeing is not theological or philosophical. It’s a division between those who have become detached from reality and those who, however right wing, are still in the real world.
Hence, it’s not an argument. You can’t argue with people who have their own separate made-up set of facts. You can’t have an argument with people who are deranged by the euphoric rage of what Erich Fromm called group narcissism — the thoughtless roar of those who believe their superior group is being polluted by alien groups.”
He goes on to cite another writer whose prescription is to separate leaders from the group. If Stewart’s analysis is correct this may produce some hope in a new era of government.
The Coming Decade's Work
Bill McKibben has changed the narrative from the incredible events of the past week that have been termed surreal – and only now have to be recognized as all too real.
The good news that a black man from the American south finally can be elected to the Senate was swamped by a riot and what to do about it as well as increasing hospitalizations and deaths from the pandemic. At the same time we forget that we are now we have passed the half way mark for dealing with the climate crisis.
The following were milestones:
Prior to 1990 scientists and oil companies study the effects of climate change
1988: James Hansen testifies to US congress
1990: Climate change is recognized as a problem by the public1992: The Rio Earth Summit initiates attempts to deal with it as an international problem
2050 becomes the target year for carbon neutrality
McKibben goes on to say that the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century were basically a waste of time in addressing the issue. Oil companies and politicians united to make nothing happen and the Copenhagan conference in 2009 failed, as did the US Cap and Trade legislation in 2010.
But after that evidence was hard to ignore. We could not ignore rising temperatures, fires and floods. Solar energy and wind power developed and became cheaper. Activism started from the ground up and politicians now had another force than oil companies. The Paris Conference in 2015 had new commitment internationally. The US president didn’t help but momentum was there.
It has to continue. Scientists tell us that to keep on track we have to cut emissions by half by 2030. Moving the goal posts simply won’t do. That means several changes
An end to new fossil fuel infrastructure – which McKibben says may include the closing down of Alberta’s tar sands
Retrofitting of buildings to make them more energy efficient
Changes in transportation – including how we move ourselves
Stopping of Deforestation
Less use of carbon in food production Elimination of tax support of fossil fuel industries
These things have to happen now – and everywhere. There are some positive changes, including the diminished size and strength of many oil producing companies, the growth of electric cars, and positive responses from governments, especially the incoming Biden team. It’s the next 500 weeks that have to make the difference.
There is encouraging news. United by dealing the pandemic, cities of the world are uniting to work together as well as pressuring other levels of government to act. You can find out more about the organization here and watch the brief video below.
Epiphany
Some quotations:
Save me, Oh Lord – for the waters have risen above my neck ( Psalm 69.1)
From Wikipedia: An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphanea, "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of a sudden and striking realization. . . Epiphanies are relatively rare occurrences and generally follow a process of significant thought about a problem. Often they are triggered by a new and key piece of information, but importantly, a depth of prior knowledge is required to allow the leap of understanding.
And also this:
Western churches generally celebrate the Visit of the Magi as the revelation of the Incarnation of the infant Christ, and commemorate the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6.
Some news stories were hard to find on television on Wednesday. US Congress was no longer dominated by a single party. Covid 19 hospitalizaed cases and deaths reached the highest numbers ever. There was nothing about Epiphany as a celebration of the visit of the Wise Men until a message announcing a link to a live streamed service at my parish church came via email. I left CNN to attend it online. With the strains of Gregorian Chant, sung by single alternating voices complying with the rules of public health and an engaging homily, and the noting of the passing of two friends – one far too early from cancer and the other probably only from advanced age - it was a moment of Kairos in a world of Chaos.
*I lived for three years in Manhattan in the early 60s. My eldest son came into the world as an American by birth. It is a country I have admired and loved ever since my first visit as a young child. I have been totally mystified by its support of a president who seemed to have no qualifications for office and gained notoriety as a reality TV celebrity who in real life cheated on wives, businesses, banks and taxes. As someone who had inherited milions he was an unlikely saviour of people who felt left out and disadvantaged, but were eager to become his disciples. But like everyone else I fell captive to news in print and social media that was all Trump all the Time. His ability to capture out our attention Trumped all.
I’m not complicit in marching, vandalizing or believing conspiracy theories. But if there is a personal epiphany, it is in realizing how much attention I gave to this person. I read of a refusal of a sitting president to concede his loss in an election and his many attempts to contest it in the courts with baseless or non-existent claims. I thought that press accounts of correction were enough. I thought that resignations of colleagues was enough. I thought that invitations to protest by a sitting president to overthrow the government were disgraceful, but that law enforcement and curfews were enough. I thought that even though some politicians wanted to engage in spurious theatre without risking the outcome - and a chairman adhering to the constitution was enough. I was wrong.
While those who were making those claims, thugs were invading and desecrating the Capitol, urged on to violence by the defeated president, his family members and their cohort. It appears to have been a wake-up call for some members of congress to have a similar epiphany – a sudden realization of what they have supported and how close they came to death – perhaps their own – but certainly that of democracy.
What happens to a man or woman who runs for office with a view to making the world a better place and then loses any sense of what it true - just to stay in power? What young person is going to undertake a position of office to risk being spit upon, called unspeakable names or even murdered? How do you deal with someone using a Bible as a prop after tear gassing peaceful protesters - and then goes on to love thugs and domestic terrorists?
I’m not suggesting that hanging out at an online church service is the answer. Religions of all kinds have much to answer for. But however we find it, the sense of decency and sacredness of places and institutions has to be part of reality however one can find it.
And I’m not about to join those condemning the leader of the senate and the vice president and others for finally doing the right thing as too little too late. Sometimes epiphanies take a lifetime – including my own. What makes the difference is a distinction between habits – some chosen, but more often learned and assumed unconsciously – and practice, which involves choices. I along with others have choices to make – in terms of time and energy and focus and determine what I value. It’s a new day.
A New Year - and a New Decade
The United Nations has declared 2021 as the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration - preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems world wide. It will officially launch on World Environment Day, June 5, 2021.
The symbol reminds us of the importance of water, vegetation and soil and the necessity of their restoration if we are to survive as a species. It can help reduce poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinction. You can learn more here and become a part of it.
The timing is concurrent with the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development goals as the last change to prevent the devastating results of climate change. With a both-and strategy, it encourages us to make small changes in our own lives and at the same time advocate for changes in policies of governments and corporations, without which large impacts cannot be controlled.
I have always found the latter challenging because of my lack of knowledge. While the calendar part of this site has fallen into disuse during the pandemic, I am returning to list events curated from various sources that cross my desk. There is no shortage of quality information available without charge and the only requirement is to discipline myself to make time for learning. You can find the calendar with regular updates here.