President Biden's April 22/23 Climate Summit (also called "Leaders' Climate Summit"), and Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28

I watched most of the first day of President Biden's April 22/23 Climate Summit, and participated in the Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28. There were some tech glitches in both, but overall I'm glad I watched/attended. 

I respect U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry's visit to China before President Biden's Summit, and I appreciate Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping's attendance where he said "China has committed to move from carbon peak to carbon neutrality [by 2060] in a much shorter time span than what might take many developed countries, and that requires extraordinary hard efforts from China." Hyung-Jin Kim reported April 18 at apnews.com "'For a big country with 1.4 billion people, these goals are not easily delivered,' [Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng] said during an interview with The Associated Press in Beijing. 'Some countries are asking China to achieve the goals earlier. I am afraid this is not very realistic.'" Cooperation was noted in the April 17 "U.S.-China Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis."

U. S. President Biden said at his Summit "the United States sets out on the road to cut greenhouse gases in half — in half by the end of this decade."

These statements are important because it has been widely reported the U. S. is the biggest historical emitter, and China is the current largest emitter on an annual basis. India is third, and Russia is fourth.

India's Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said "[ . . . . ] we are among the few countries whose NDCs are 2-degree-Celsius compatible [ . . . . ] India’s per capita carbon footprint is 60% lower than the global average. It is because our lifestyle is still rooted in sustainable traditional practices."

President of Russia Vladimir Putin said, through a translator, "Compared to 1990, Russia reduced its greenhouse-gas emissions in a bigger volume than many other countries. These emissions were reduced by half - starting from 3.1 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent to 1.6 billion tonnes. This was the result of a drastic restructuring of the Russian industry and energy sector, conducted over the past 20 years. And as a result, today they constitute low-emission energy sources mentioned in this connection that make up 45 percent of our energy balance, including nuclear generation. [ . . . . ]  In connection to this I will note that in one of our regions - in Sakhalin Oblast - we are working on a carbon pricing and trading system in carbon units. When accomplished, it will result in carbon neutrality of this region already in 2025."

Other highlights of President Biden's Summit, regarding sincerity and delivery, were from Fiji's Attorney-General and Minister for Climate Change Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum (Fiji was not invited as the U. S. claimed the Summit was for the top emitters, but Sayed-Khaiyum was allowed to speak.), and 19-year-old climate activist Xiye Bastida, Mexican-Chilean climate activist, member of the indigenous Mexican Otomi-Toltec Nation, and a lead organizer of Fridays for Future with Greta Thunberg.  

Sayed-Khaiyum said "In 2016, Fiji was struck by the strongest cyclone to ever make landfall in the Southern Hemisphere, Cyclone Winston. It wiped out one third of the value of our GDP in 36 hours [ . . . . ] We are relocating communities, with six already safely on higher ground. More than 40 others must be moved. Our Climate Relocation and Displaced Peoples Trust is designed to harness multilateral support to bring security to these communities [ . . . . ] [E]ven if the global economy became carbon-neutral tomorrow, we would still have to reckon with a range of water-related crises, from super-storms, to the risings seas, to the changing weather patterns that kill-off crops and steal livelihoods of our farmers [ . . . . ]  Today it is Pacific communities on the frontlines of this emergency. Tomorrow it will be New York City, Houston, and Miami. This crisis is shared, as must be our solutions [ . . . . ] "

Xiye Bastida also spoke at the Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28. At President Biden's Climate Summit she said "You need to accept that the era of fossil fuels is over [ . . . .] [M]ost importantly, all of these solutions must be implemented with the voices of frontline black, brown, indigenous communities as leaders and decision-makers. You will often tell us, again and again, that we are being unrealistic and unreasonable, but who is being unrealistic and unreasonable with unambitious, nonbold, so-called solutions? You are the ones creating and finding loopholes in your own legislation, resolutions, policies and agreements.You are the naive ones if you think we can survive this crisis in the current way of living.  You are the pessimists if you don’t believe we have what it takes to change the world."  Regarding her last point, I recall Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research that was a partner of Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28) said May 4th, 2018 in a video no longer available, "It's all about agency, about who could turn this crisis into a solution. [ . . . .] The CEO of Shell once told me 'The climate problem is real but it is completely intractable. You can not solve it. So, let's get rich quick before the world ends, huh?'"

The award for best humor in President Biden's Climate Summit goes to U. K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson: "[ . . . . ] it’s vital for all of us to show that this is not all about some expensive politically correct green act of ‘bunny hugging’ or however you want to put it. Nothing wrong with ‘bunny hugging’ but you know what I’m driving at."

The award for biggest disappointment goes to Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison which is expected given Australia's fossil fuel resources, and ironic since 2019-2020 fires there killed or destroyed habitat for nearly three billion animals. Prime Minister Scott Morrison stuck "to the country’s 2030 target of a 26%-28% cut compared with 2005 levels" as reported by The Guardian's Katharine Murphy and Adam Morton on April 22. 

At day 1 of the Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28, Jason Box, who I worked alongside at Playa in Oregon, said Greenland is losing "10,000 cubic meters of ice per second. So is Greenland lost? Evidently, it is" [Climate.nasa.gov and nature.com note losing Greenland's ice would mean about 23 feet of sea level rise in a thousand years unless, of course, the process speeds much faster than predicted, which seems to be the trend, and ice melt from the bigger problem of Antarctica is added.]. Johan Rockstrom, a top climate scientist at my 2020 post "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis," said we are in a "climate emergency" but added "Window for a safe landing is barely open [ . . . . ] I am an optimist due to cooperation [ . . . . ] We can act with speed at scale.'  U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said "Six banks just pledged 4.16 trillion dollars into a renewable economy [ . . . .] 2050 net zero [carbon emissions] is the goal." 

In "Closing Remarks on Day One of [President Biden's] Summit on Climate" Kerry added "As I mentioned earlier, even if we get to net 50 – net zero by 2050, [ . . . ] we still have to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. A lot of people don’t focus on that. And that means we need the innovative technologies to do that, or to be able to know that we can store it and – or turn it into something. We haven’t discovered that yet." His last point sounds eerily similar to Abby Rabinowitz and Amanda Simson's December 10, 2017 Wired article "The Dirty Secret of the World’s Plan to Avert Climate Disaster" in which they noted, "without emissions cuts, global temperatures are projected to rise by 4°C by the end of the century. Many scientists are reluctant to make predictions, but the apocalyptic litany of what a 4°C world could hold includes widespread drought, famine, climate refugees by the millions, civilization-threatening warfare, and a sea level rise that would permanently drown much of New York, Miami, Mumbai, Shanghai, and other coastal cities. [par] But here’s where things get weird. The UN report envisions 116 scenarios in which global temperatures are prevented from rising more than 2°C. In 101 of them, that goal is accomplished by sucking massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—a concept called 'negative emissions'—chiefly via [ . . . . ] “bioenergy with carbon capture and storage” [also known as . . . . ] BECCS. And in these scenarios to prevent planetary disaster, this would need to happen by midcentury, or even as soon as 2020. Like a pharmaceutical warning label, one footnote warned that such 'methods may carry side effects and long-term consequences on a global scale.'" This plan seems like building and deploying a huge net at the bottom of a cliff after many have jumped. You must be smart, fast, and able to do this at scale. 

Day 2 of the Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28, it was great to see actor Bill Murray and actress Frances McDormand in the Greek tragedy Oedipus which I taught for about 25 years. Three points: 1) Many scholars believe the character Oedipus’ tragic flaw is hubris (pride) similar to some modern political leaders; 2) Tiresias' character as the “intuitive introvert” is spoken about in an interview with Carl Jung about how this is a real personality type based on Jung's patients, not just fiction; 3) Two ways to explore Oedipus’ emotional/intuitive blindness vs Tiresias physical blindness/reality vision are to ask students to place Oedipus, Creon, Jocasta, and Tiresias on a scale from strong intuitive power to weak intuitive power and 2) ask student groups to imagine what people a thousand years from now will say about us (if humans survive the climate emergency). Students have  always enjoyed these exercises. The film versions I used were here and here. 

Participants enjoyed an interview with with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Here is his prayer at the end of a Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989.

Day 3 of the Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28 I attended "Roots of Change: Empathy as a Collective Responsibility" hosted by DICCE, GenZGirlGang, and ProjectLets. The session began with a guided meditation followed by "speed friending" to create  a sense of community among the approximately 90 participants.  Next, the excellent moderators Phoebe Omonira, Lyne Odhiambo, and Zoe Jenkins, were supported by speakers Julie Fratantoni, Peggy Mason, Joy Buolamwini, Ed Diener, Gary A. Hoover, and Natalia Kanem. Gary A. Hoover, Executive Director of the Murphy Institute and Professor of Economics at Tulane University, spoke about the problem of looking only at data without meeting those affected. Julie Fratantoni, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Center for BrainHealth, part of the University of Texas at Dallas, suggested activist work requires "healthy boundaries, self-care," teaching the right vocabulary, mindfulness, and showing how empathy can be taught by modeling it for students and others. I could write more about this session, but it is best to let the moderators and speakers show you at a future conference. 

Documenting a Vanishing Pacific Northwest Ecosystem and Culture

April 30, 2021 Update -- Yesterday apnews.com reported "California officials will again truck ['more than 16.8 million'] young salmon raised at fish hatcheries in the state’s Central Valley agricultural region to the Pacific Ocean because projected river conditions show that the waterways the fish use to travel downstream will be historically low and warm due to increasing drought."

I'm grateful to MoonPath Press in Oregon for publishing my new book documenting vanishing Pacific Northwest salmon culture. Previously I posted about this from a historical perspective, and this book continues that theme, except it is based on people I met, places I fished, and climate emergency we are experiencing.

The book's MoonPath Press Website reports "a Metro Vancouver BC study noted unless carbon emissions are quickly reduced, 'Vancouver [BC] would be warmer than present-day San Diego by the 2050s' as reported [by Larry Pynn] in the Vancouver Sun in 2017 ." What will that mean for salmon and salmon people?

It mentions my 2016 “Letter” at The Columbian daily newspaper in Vancouver, Washington: "[In 2015] the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife trucked salmon up low rivers to spawn, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife trucked salmon out of Central Oregon due to warm waters, and California trucked smolts to the ocean."  Similarly, "an email from Bob Lackey, Professor of Fisheries at Oregon State University, [noted] 'In a 100 years wild salmon runs south of Canada will be reduced to remnant runs.'"

In response, my book reflects some of the water magic before it may be gone. I wrote about my fishing buddy Slim Bracken, other fishermen, fellow whale watching and charter fishing captains, my time fishing out of Depoe Bay, Oregon and Washington people, "The Wolf in Estacada’s Safari Club," "Wild Trout," "80-year-old sturgeon/cruising river bank" -- in short, many scenic gifts of the Pacific Northwest for 10,000 years.  

The back cover of my previous book Hawk on Wire noted "the INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) agreed to in Paris in 2016 of 3.5° C (6.3° F) over pre-industrial levels are insanely irresponsible to present and future generations of all species." As I wrote before, "Amanda Erickson noted in the Washington Post October 11, 2018, 'Few countries are meeting the Paris climate goals.'" and, according to Datawrapper and  Raftery et.al, 2017, a "4 C + WORLD" means "Deadly heatwaves every summer, hundreds of drowned cities, devastation of the majority of eco-systems, more tipping points are crossed, leading to intensified warming." More people are aware of this than ever before, as shown in U. S. President Biden's April 22/23 Climate Summit, but each year the CO2 numbers keep rising.  

The book's MoonPath Press Website notes my "Manifesto from Poet on a Dying Planet" which includes a Robert Bly quote "It’s a poet’s job to defend nature.” My activism and poetry are part of that.

The MoonPath site mentions Robert Wilson’s essay “Will the end of the world be on the final exam?” in the book Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities. One of Wilson’s “teaching assistants [led] a discussion section about climate change: ‘My soul is crushed’ she began. ‘I thought we were going to have this fabulous conversation about framing arguments, the role of science, finding allies and figuring out how to effectively communicate [climate science to the public]. The class – and I don’t just mean two or three vocal people – basically came up with this: all of Bangladesh could die, the temperature could increase six degrees, tons of species could die, and people in other places could suffer from drinking water and crop shortages, and we wouldn’t care at all [ . . . . ]’” This means in addition to making fossil fuel companies pay for mitigation and adaptation, and colleges/universities and pension funds divest, we must also find ways to increase capacity for caring in developed nations before many more human and nonhuman inhabitants globally will be forced to migrate and/or die early and awfully.

Oregon author Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion) wrote a 1993 letter to Allen Ginsberg: "Ancient Advice Left in cave by Wise French Caveman: 'When Bigbad Shit come, no run scream hide. Try paint picture of it on wall. Drum to it. Sing to it. Dance to it. This give you handle on it.' So Twister is my try."

Endorsements for my book are below.

"Mindful of environmental degradation, Scott T. Starbuck's poetry offers those needed songs of redemption, rising from his love of forests, water, and fish. He has composed some of the finest fishing poems I've ever read-vivid, pulsing, and honest-with humble, understated humor and insight expressing great wisdom. Exploring the dynamics between the shared and owned, poor and rich, young and old, ghosts and the living, Between River & Street mediates our divisive, troubled times. Like the mythological Raven of the Northwest, Starbuck is a 'Flamekeeper, ' and his poetry a bright beacon for the wild and sacred."-Henry Hughes, Oregon Book Award-winning poet and author of Back Seat with Fish

"Trust a contemplative fisherman of Northwest rivers to give us a wise poem collection like Between River & Street. Scott T. Starbuck brings the tender respectful eye of the naturalist; the nudge of the environmentalist; the long thoughts of the tribe; the brush of a painter sending exquisite lines of ink down paper. He also has an ear for a good story, scattering characters throughout-not the 'suits' in the street who'd never know 'what the salmon said' or what the ancients knew, but people met or recounted at riverbanks, little bookstores, out-of-the-way cafes, bars. My favorite is 'the woman behind the counter, ' or is it Crazy Lucy and her roller rink in the barn or Maynard who loved his cow more than most? You'll read this book more than once and find your own."-Florence Sage, author of Nevertheless: Poems from the Gray Area and The Man Who Whistled, The Woman Who Wished: A Polish-Canadian Story

"With Between River & Street, Scott T. Starbuck is deep listener, ace observer, shape-shifting storyteller. He's historian, philosopher, climatologist, ecologist, lover, rememberer. He's salmon, and salmon fisherman. Those who know Northwest rivers will want to pass this passionate book to friends. Those streetwise to our environmentally-challenged world will catch these smart, tough poems in order to release as seems right. Like the late Oregon poet, William Stafford, Starbuck writes of place with integrity, authenticity, humanity."-Ken Waldman, author of The Writing Party and Leftovers and Gravy

"Scott T. Starbuck's poems are Oregon poems-humble yet heartfelt, all the way to the bone. Like filets of rosy salmon flesh, cooked on bonfire coals; these words lift easily from the carcass of felt sense. Between River & Street is a collection of mostly short but never simple poems, reflecting a life lived with daily presence and purpose. Starbuck's poems attend to fish and to fish stream-the moss and fern, salal and spruce, wet stone and rivulet-but also the hominids, on the shores and in the quik marts and cafés of classic hometowns from Astoria south to the Siskiyou. These pages honor Oregon existence: good folk whose unfettered reverence plays potent role in the annual cycle of lives lived out in place. Readers, be ready; pull on your waders, step into the stream. Starbuck casts words like caddis flies; these poems hit the heart, like a trout hits the hook, lies briefly in careful hand, caught-and released into gratitude and requisite grief. Travel down the coast and up tributaries of the inland soul. These are poems of a citizen who is denizen, engaged in each damp day, and witness to those moments when clouds part and sun shimmers with 'shadow on the once-magic-waters.'"-Nancy Cook, author of Siltwater, a collection of essays. She teaches writing in Astoria, where for eight years she also served as the editor of RAIN Magazine.

"If you're not concerned about the imminent collapse of the ecosystems of earth, then you should be. Such is the overarching theme of Scott T. Starbuck's Between River & Street. Awareness is a call to action, to give up our citified car culture and rediscover our original home. About that home, Scott celebrates the natural world of fish (especially fish), birds, animals, and the manifold flora of his local ground, the Columbia Gorge and Pacific Coast. Scott's poems tell of some people unaware of that world, while other encounters yield insight on how we really live on earth. Scott's brief poems carry hope for the human future."-Bill Siverly, author of Nightfall, co-editor of Windfall: A Journal of Poetry of Place

Biden, Putin, Xi Jinping, and Obama Should Fish Together Before Biden’s April 22/23 Climate Summit

April 20, 2021 Update -- According to dw.com in Germany, President of Russia Vladimir Putin will attend U. S. President Joe Biden's April 22/23 Climate Summit. Sustraitstimes.com in Singapore reported Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping will also attend.

It was widely reported U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has been in China trying to collaborate on what 34 nations, Scientific American, the United Nations Environment Programme, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer  (D-ORE.) called a "Climate Emergency."  With six days before U. S. President Biden's April 22/23 Climate Summit of possibly "40 World Leaders," invitations to President of Russia Vladimir Putin and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping resulted in a maybe from Putin, and unknown from Xi Jinping. The Climate Summit, according to whitehouse.gov, will be "live streamed for public viewing" with a live video to be posted by clicking here.

Vladimir Putin is a serious angler who fished with U.S. President George W. Bush, Xi Jinping enjoys eating fish, and former U.S. President Barack Obama likes to fish, so why not ask them to fish together?  The fate of island nations, Arctic tribes, and eventually all of us, could depend on it. I understand my plan may get as much traction as when I suggested to "require by international law fossil fuel emissions in all countries be immediately colored purple [nearly white purple to increase albedo] the same way rotten egg scent is added to natural gas to alert homeowners to danger of leaks," but stranger things have happened.

I know some good fishing spots.

In a related matter, congratulations to Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World and contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine, for one of the best climate articles I have read in months, "‘This is it. If we don’t amp up, we’re goners’: the last chance to confront the climate crisis?" in today's issue of The Guardian.

87 year-old Social Scientist Dr. Mayer Hillman's Warning to Humanity in October 2020

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion.

A 2018 article in The Guardian by Patrick Barkham noted "[Dr. Mayer Hillman] is anxious we are not side-tracked by his best-known research, which challenged the supremacy of the car."  

The article quoted Hillman, "With doom ahead, making a case for cycling as the primary mode of transport is almost irrelevant [ . . . ]. We’ve got to stop burning fossil fuels. So many aspects of life depend on fossil fuels, except for music and love and education and happiness. These things, which hardly use fossil fuels, are what we must focus on.”

Unfortunately for us, Dr. Hillman has an impressive track record of predictions. Barkham wrote, "Over nearly 60 years, his research has used factual data to challenge policymakers’ conventional wisdom. In 1972, he criticised out-of-town shopping centres more than 20 years before the government changed planning rules to stop their spread. In 1980, he recommended halting the closure of branch line railways – only now are some closed lines reopening. In 1984, he proposed energy ratings for houses – finally adopted as government policy in 2007. And, more than 40 years ago, he presciently challenged society’s pursuit of economic growth."

Sir David Attenborough's Warning to Humanity at UN Security Council Feb. 23, 2021

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion.

Michelle Nichols at reuters.com reported "Attenborough, 94, the world’s most influential wildlife broadcaster, addressed a virtual meeting of the 15-member council on climate-related risks to international peace and security, chaired by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.'If we continue on our current path, we will face the collapse of everything that gives us our security: food production, access to fresh water, habitable ambient temperature and ocean food chains,' Attenborough said. 'And if the natural world can no longer support the most basic of our needs, then much of the rest of civilization will quickly break down,' he added."

Nichols gave delegates' responses. "Russia and China question whether the Security Council is the right forum to be discussing climate change. 'We agree that climate change and environmental issues can exacerbate conflict. But are they really the root cause of these conflicts? There are serious doubts about this,' Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua described climate change as a [sustainable] development issue. [ . . . .] Kerry said: 'We bury our heads in the sand at our own peril. It is time to start treating the climate crisis like the urgent security threat that it is. This is literally the challenge of all of our generations.'"

The article noted the need to halt global temperature rise "as close as possible to 1.5C," but, as I wrote below, and Dave Borlace clearly explained, that may not be possible. 

Nichols added, "U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pushed countries, companies, cities and financial institutions to make ambitious commitments to cut global emissions. China and the United States are the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. [ . . . . ]"  She wrote "the United Nations will stage a climate summit in November in Glasgow, Scotland."

It May Be Too Late for Paris Climate Conference Goal of 1.5 C Meaning "a further 70–90%" of Earth's Coral Reefs May Be Lost According to IPCC

Dave Borlace, noted as best "explainer" in my "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis," posted a helpful video on 1/27/21 Is it too late to avoid 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming?. His video notes on 1/8/21 "the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) published a climate update [ . . . . ]." Borlace says we may reach 1.5 C above the year 1850 baseline "as early as the 2030s, and almost certainly no later than the 2050s." This fits the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) post Why are we talking about 1.5°C? noting "If the current warming rate continues, the world would reach human-induced global warming of 1.5°C around 2040."

In my post Two Charts Showing What 2 C, 3 C, 4 C, and 5 C Mean [ . . . . ], I wrote the "IPCC report noted 'Coral reefs, for example, are projected to decline by a further 70–90% at 1.5°C (high confidence) with larger losses (>99%) at 2°C (very high confidence).' I have seen pushback claiming humanity is not in a climate crisis, but tell that to the estimated 500 million to 1 billion people depending on those coral reefs for food and/or jobs that will clearly be lost unless some miracle science, not yet invented, saves them."

Police officers and dancers in "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis" received increased Web traffic on my site which they deserve. 

Why We Won't Just Leave -- What Alaska Is Telling the World About Climate Change, Virtual Opening and Curatorial Talk by Lindsay Carron on February 27th at 4:00 PM PST Presented on Zoom by Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Los Angeles

 

Artworks (Left to Right): Keri Oberly, Photograph of Quannah Chasinghorse Potts and Jody Juneby Potts, 2020 (Partial View); Bill Hanson, ​Broken Blue Ruins at Low Tide​, Digital Image from series “Southeast Alaska: Changing Climate, Changing Landscapes, Changing Life” (Partial View) and; Apay’uq Moore, ​Gram and Girl​, Acrylic on Canvas, 2020 (Partial View).

Text and images require permission.

Please consider attending the above Zoom event. You can RSVP here until the the Zoom room reaches capacity, then it will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook. The event will be presented by Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Los Angeles and features

work and testimonies of 20 artists, community organizers and activists.  It debuts with a curatorial walk-through on Zoom on Saturday, February 27th, 4pm PST. 

The event announcement notes "Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, and climate change impacts range from melting permafrost releasing methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, infrastructure eroding into the ocean, compromised survival of animal species, and changing subsistence patterns affecting food security. Changes in Alaska’s landscape have a global impact. Why We Won’t Just Leave: What Alaska is Telling the World About Climate Change is a virtual exhibition curated by Lindsay Carron [ . . . ] that highlights the responses of Alaskans to their rapidly changing environment. This exhibition delivers messages that are key for us all if we are to reverse climate catastrophe and cultivate a healthy, vibrant future for generations to come. Why We Won’t Just Leave features portraits, paintings, photography, stories, and video profiles of 20 artists, activists, researchers and community organizers responding to climate change in Alaska. From activists delivering testimonies in D.C. and artists revealing truth with beauty, to scientists studying methane released from melting permafrost, Alaska has a message for the world."

I found curator Lindsay Carron's work in an interview at American Federation of Teachers' (AFT) sharemylesson blog, and asked for permission to include part of it below along with five of her art pieces. The site about her ART FOR HUMANITY : ART FOR THE EARTH notes "She travels to remote areas of the planet to document wild lands and human relationship to them. Her intricate ink drawings offer viewers an opportunity to connect to their own wild hearts. [ . . . . ] Carron has empowered communities with murals, portraits and arts education in Kenya, Mexico, and Alaska." She has served as an "artist in residence with US Fish and Wildlife Service" and "partnered with [ . . . ] The Whale Museum of San Juan Island."

The interview, a Kindred Spirits guest post, notes: 

"KS [Kindred Spirits]: Sometimes when considering the toll humans have taken on the environment, when cataloging damage to land and sea, it is easy to feel overwhelmed or as if one person can’t make a difference. Do you ever feel this way? How would you advise others to push through such feelings?"

"[Lindsay Carron]: All the time! Yet my experiences have taught me that even through the greatest destruction, life persists. Nature has an incredible way of remaking herself and persevering, just as humans do. My greatest lessons have been from the simplest experiences in nature. For instance, while traveling with a group of artists in Kenya, we hiked outside a remote Maasai village in the middle of the desert. We came upon a field that was literally shimmering in the low sunlight. As we approached, to my horror, the shimmering was coming from the light on thousands of plastic bags caught on branches of shrubs blowing in the wind. So the next morning, we decided to simply start picking up the trash that was all around us on the ground. Within minutes, the kids of the village caught on, and joined in the new fun game of picking up trash with the mzungus. Instead of being solely devastated by the reality, we took action, and it caught on! Home in Los Angeles this week, I rescued a tiny baby bird, still featherless and completely helpless, that had fallen from a nest in high winds. It cracked my heart wide open, put a halt to any other work I may have been doing, and tamed my focus for that night and the following day on the survival of that tiny being. The bird survived, and I was left with the simple lesson that all life matters. So when I feel debilitated from the weight of the devastation of our environments, I remember to simply do the kindest thing in the moment. It doesn’t have to be a big, heroic feat, but sometimes it may be. Environmentalism is not a competition. I learned through both of these experiences to come back to the present moment and the immediate environment and put my skills to work. I use my unique talents and gifts to sing my soul alive. Innately, I begin to see that from this state of being I impact my environment around me in positive ways and begin to see the magic that is present even in the destruction." 

Five of Lindsay Carron's art pieces are below:

Tundra Woman (Yup’ik Eskimo Elder Sophie Sakar Berry Picking on Alaskan Tundra)

Ink and Colored Pencil on Paper, 4.5 x 7 feet 2019

North 1.3: The Gateway

Ink and Colored Pencil on Vintage 1952 Alaska Topographic Map 23 x 30in

Raven

Ink and Gouache on Paper, 12 x 12″ 2017

North 3.1: Medicine

Ink and Colored Pencil on Vintage 1951 Alaska Topographic Map 23 x 30in

“The Arctic Miracle of Life” 2017 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Featuring Betty Brower and Isaac Akootchook of Kaktovik

Representative Mike Simpson's (R-Idaho) Plan to Remove Four Lower Snake River Dams

Thanks to Columbia Riverkeeper for an email about "Representative Mike Simpson ['s] (R-Idaho) historic proposal to remove the four Lower Snake River Dams and create jobs and prosperity throughout our region. Rep. Simpson’s proposal would save Snake River salmon from extinction; protect the rights of Tribal Nations; help starving orcas; and re-invest in infrastructure, agriculture, and clean, reliable energy throughout the Northwest. [par break] There are pieces of this proposal that we will work to improve, but we can’t let this historic opportunity slip through our fingers. With Snake River salmon approaching extinction, the communities and species that depend on them are also at risk. It’s time to act."

As I wrote in my post below, "Next, I hope we can help orcas and salmon by legally removing the lower four Snake River dams."

Regarding the salmon issue, I'm grateful to fisher/writer Henry Hughes, Alaskan fiddling poet Ken Waldman, and Oregon poet Florence Sage for endorsing my forthcoming book Between River and Street (MoonPath, 2021). I was outfished by Hughes in 2016, and greatly enjoyed his recent Harvard Review fishing story "Rocky and Rose." After reading it, I wrote him the story reminded me of my "social awkwardness due to my obsession with reading water and chasing fish—even when fishing partners, men and women, were troubled, ill, or had enough fishing for the day as I was just getting started with many holes, runs, undercut banks, etc to explore before dark. I’m grateful my wife, Suz, who was raised fishing the Molalla and Clackamas Rivers, fishes with me, and tolerates my fishing obsession. I may have told you about my friend Slim Bracken’s fishing bud who was late to his own wedding because fishing was good that morning. 'Don’t make Suz a fish widow' Slim warned me, explaining his friend was soon divorced after his wedding because he made his bride 'a fish widow.'"

Oregon and Washington Win Big

Congratulations to many activists who helped stop, for now, the Jordan Cove LNG terminal in Coos Bay, Oregon, and proposed world's largest Kalama, Washington methanol refinery. According to Ted Sickinger, at The Oregonian/OregonLive, Pembina Pipeline Corp. can reapply to build the LNG terminal, but recently "Federal regulators deliver[ed] [a] potentially fatal blow" to their plans. According to Troy Brynelson (OPB), "NW Innovation Works, the company behind the [Kalama refinery] project, has 21 days [from January 19, 2021] to file an appeal." He quoted Laura Watson, Washington Department of Ecology Director, who said "At the end of the day, we know with certainty that this proposal would result in significant, new greenhouse gas emissions.” and it "would not benefit the environment, like some people are claiming.” 

 I, and 88 others, attended the Kalama Methanol Pre-hearing Rally and Comment Workshop organized by Sierra Club, and I wrote an Open Letter to Director Watson and Washington Dept. of Ecology to Please Do a Climate Analysis of Northwest Innovation Works’ (NWIW) Proposed Fracked Gas-to-methanol Refinery in Kalama. Columbia Riverkeeper reported "a broad coalition of over 30 community organizations representing tens of thousands of people from across the Northwest urged the Washington Department of Ecology and Governor Jay Inslee to deny the refinery." 

Next, I hope we can help orcas and salmon by legally removing the lower four Snake River dams.

Regarding the above photo, there are few things sadder than when your wife chooses a lure "because it is pretty" and outfishes you.

Tahlequah's Baby by Dakota/Salish Artist Robert "Running Fisher" Upham

Order here.

Dakota/Salish Artist Robert "Running Fisher" Upham wrote "Tahlequah is an orca, part of the 'J Pod' which spends part of each year off the northern coast of Washington State. Her story became known to the human community in 2018, when she carried her calf for 17 days, refusing to let her baby go to the Spirit World. There was something about her life and her baby’s death, which spoke to human hearts. Particularly women were moved. It felt at the time, that there was a collective grieving with her. Anyone who’s ever lost a loved one that you did not want to let go of can understand this mother’s grieving. Especially a young, sacred one, who has died too soon. It felt that she was calling heart to heart. The story brought attention not only to her child’s death but also to the very difficult times in which her nation has fallen. The imbalance which pits orcas and sea lions and salmon for the same resources is a microcosm of ecological disease. The human nation, particularly those who see our mother earth as merely a source of 'resources' is under indictment by the simple act of love of a mother for her baby. This drawing, 'Tahlequah’s Baby' is the moment when she finally allowed her beloved to move on to the Spirit World. There are many helpers assisting her to lift her baby to its final moments in this world."

Upham continued, "I had heard of Tahlequah and her baby, and several people asked me to do a ledger of her story. But it wasn’t until a young woman understood the meaning and intent behind the signatures on my ledgers, and she sparked my creativity by saying, 'You should do a piece honoring the names of all the orcas who have died.' And, just like that, the idea for this piece was born."  Other examples of his ledger art and paintings are here.

Upham's art brought focus to learning from the nonhuman world. He gave me permission to include his art and text above. Tahlequah, noted by scientists as a Southern Resident orca, showed the importance of real grieving before moving on. National Geographic authors Lori Cuthbert and Douglas Main wrote August 13, 2018, "The death of another calf is a significant blow to J Pod, which hasn’t seen a successful birth in three years. Combined, the three pods have 75 members, and time is running out to maintain its viability. Ken Balcomb, founder and principal investigator at the Center for Whale Research, gives it five years [ . . . . ] to have viable offspring [ . . . . ] 'We have long demonstrated that these fish-eating whales are getting skinnier and skinnier, and the death rate is increasing,' [Balcomb] writes on the center’s website. 'Whales in this endangered population are dependent upon Chinook salmon for their primary food source. Unfortunately, Chinook salmon are also endangered.'"  

My May 2, 2019 post "Epic of Gilgamesh and Climate Change" cited a report from The Guardian, "The Lummi Nation is dropping live salmon into the sea in a last-ditch rescue effort" to save starving orcas. I included the Dammed to Extinction Trailer, about a minute long, showing the best way to help orcas, as Dr. Deborah Giles said, "is to breach the lower four Snake River dams." The post links to the anthology FOR LOVE OF ORCAS. Editors Andrew Shattuck McBride and Jill McCabe Johnson noted "proceeds from sales of the book will benefit the SeaDoc Society's efforts to restore the Southern Resident orcas and their extended ecosystem."

Climate Scientists Plan for Their Families, COVID Scientists Struggle to Help in December 2020, as I Again Recall Words of Isaac Asimov

The video below is a repost of my May 20, 2018 list "Climate Scientists Expressing Nightmare/Anger/Fear/Gratitude/Other Feelings."  

I was reminded of it after reading Hanna Krueger's December 4, 2020 Boston Globe article "‘Makes you ask why the hell we even bother.’ Infectious disease experts face disillusionment as COVID-19 pandemic worsens."

Krueger's article quotes a former Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, epidemiologist and Harvard scientist Michael Mina: "At almost every step of this pandemic, we have failed magnificently as a country. And in ways that we just really didn’t need to fail.”  Mina continues, "I’m just astounded by the dysfunction, the willingness to just stay the course as hundreds of thousands of people die, and the unwillingness to innovate in literally any way.”  Mina "has been advocating for widespread at-home rapid antigen testing since March with little success." He said “I’ve realized that when we need to rise up as a country, we have truly no moral capacity to do it. It’s just the most mind-bending, complete 'Twilight Zone' experience that makes you ask why the hell we even bother.”

I respect Mina's emotional honesty, sincerity, and frustration. He is knowledgeable, hard-working, and has retained, so far, capacity to care.  The article notes "And Mina, in all those hours spent not sleeping each week, continues his crusade to universally distribute at-home rapid tests." The article ends with Mina's words "I just see a lot of people dying. And I really want this pandemic to stop. I really want people to not die so much."

Similar emotional honesty of four Australian climate scientists was show in the video below:

The video notes "Among climate scientists, the conversation is turning to their personal plans." The scientists say "And you can cope with extreme heat much better if you've got cooler nighttime temperatures to sleep. [ . . . . ] I don't think there will be any safe places. [ . . . .] So my approach is to be as mobile, as flexible, as possible to be able to adapt to whatever is going to happen. My children are bilingual and we're working on a third language. Both children have three passports, and they actually have the freedom to be able to study and work either in the European Union, or in Canada, or in Australia. [ . . . . ] I've done what I can to protect my family. I can't protect them from changes in the global economy. I can't protect them from [ . . . ] mass migrations." 

Regarding the need to educate and respond, Isaac Asimov said, "Well, it’s perhaps not important that every human being thinks so. How about the leaders thinking so? How about the opinion-makers thinking so? Ordinary people might follow them. If we didn’t have leaders who are thinking in exactly the opposite way; if we didn’t have people who are shouting hatred and suspicion of foreigners; if we didn’t have people who are shouting that it’s more important to be unfriendly than to be friendly; if we didn’t have people shouting somehow that people inside the country who don’t look exactly the way the rest of us look, that something’s wrong with them."

Today the University of Cumbria published "International Scholars Warning on Societal Disruption and Collapse." The post notes this "public letter signed by over 500 (updated 2/8/2021) scientists and scholars from 30 countries, calls on policy makers to engage more with the growing risk of societal disruption and collapse due to damage to the climate and environment. The letter invites focus on how to slow, prepare for, and help those already suffering from, such disruptions. The signatories are specialists in a range of subject areas that relate to this challenge, who commonly believe it is time to listen to all the scholarship on humanity’s predicament."  The Guardian published a short version here. 

"UN Secretary General: Without the US in the Paris Agreement, Humanity Faces Climate ‘Suicide’" by Mark Hertsgaard in The Nation, Dec. 2, 2020

Quotes from Hertsgaard's article in the Dec. 2, 2020 issue of The Nation include: "In an extraordinary, if largely unheralded, diplomatic achievement, most of the world’s leading emitters have already joined the UN’s 'net zero by 2050' coalition, including the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and China (which is the world’s largest source of annual emissions and has committed to achieving carbon neutrality 'before 2060'). India, meanwhile, the world’s third largest annual emitter, is the only Group of 20 country on track to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, despite needing to lift many of its people out of poverty, an achievement Guterres called 'remarkable.'"

"[Global average temperature above year 1850 baseline . . . ] could be limited to 2.1 C, the group said—higher than the agreement’s target of 1.5 to 2 C, but a major improvement from the 3 to 5 C future that business as usual would deliver."

"[T]he 26th Conference of the Parties, or COP 26, was supposed to take place this week but was postponed because of the pandemic."

"A total of 110 countries have joined the 'net zero by 2050' coalition [ . . . . ]"

"I’m totally convinced that a lot of the oil and gas that is today in the soil,” [UN Secretary General Guterres] said, “will remain in the soil.”  

Guterres' belief is interesting because a Feb. 15, 2020 investopedia.com article "What Percentage of the Global Economy Is the Oil and Gas Drilling Sector?" reported "According to market research by IBISWorld, a leading business intelligence firm, the total revenues for the oil and gas drilling sector came to approximately $3.3 trillion in 2019. This sector is composed of companies that explore for, develop, and operate oil and gas fields. It is also sometimes referred to as the oil and gas exploration and production industry, or simply E&P. With 2019 global GDP estimated to be $86 trillion, the oil and gas drilling sector alone makes up around 3.8% of the global economy."

In contrast, Bill McKibben wrote a Nov. 15, 2019 article at yesmagazine.org, "Big Oil Needs to Pay for the Damage It Caused," noting "Indeed, the high-end estimate for economic damage from the global warming we’re on track to cause is $551 trillion, which is more money than exists on planet Earth. Even that figure is notional: How do you compensate the generations of people yet unborn who will inherit a badly degraded world? Even if Exxon et al were to disgorge every dirty penny they’d ever made, it wouldn’t pay for relocating Miami, much less Mumbai [ . . . . ] But at this point, even the best-case scenarios are relentlessly grim; lots of damage has been done, and far more is in the offing. We’re going to have to remake much of the world to have a chance at survival. And if we’re going to try, then that repair job shouldn’t repeat the imbalances of power and wealth that mark our current planet. Justice demands a real effort to make the last, first this time around."

My question is "What will be the value of the oil and gas drilling sector if humans are extinct?"

What is the Best Way to Explain the Climate Crisis?

Yale Climate Connections recently published an audio/text article by psychologist/researcher/journalist Renée Lertzman, "Why frightening facts don't always move people to action on climate change." The article noted "Ask people what they know and want to learn. Then have a conversation [ . . . because] it can get results faster." She said “When we take a compassion-based approach, we are actively disarming defenses so that people are actually more willing and able to respond and engage quicker. And we don’t have time right now to mess around, and so I do actually come to this topic with a sense of urgency…. We do not have time to not take this approach.”  

With some groups, especially those at or under the age of 16, I agree. However, in general with those 17 and above, I prefer writer James Baldwin's quote, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."  In the 2016 documentary film Before the Flood, astronaut and former Director, Earth Sciences Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Piers Sellers says "the ice is melting, the Earth is warming, the sea level is rising – those are facts. Rather than being, 'oh my god, this is hopeless', say, 'OK, this is the problem, let’s be realistic and let’s find a way out of it'. And there are ways out of it. If we stopped burning fossil fuels right now, the planet would still keep warming for a little while before cooling off again." At the time he says this, he has "pancreatic cancer, stage four," and dies December 23, 2016, about two months after the film is released October 21, 2016.  I observed people close to death get rare perspective and honesty, and Sellers gives both. He said his experience in space made him "immensely more fond of the planet [ . . . ] which I never thought about when I [ . . . ] just lived on the surface. And also kind of fond of the people on there too. It's like being taken away from your family and coming back. And [ . . . ] I wish it all well."

In the past four years, however, climate news has grown much worse. In the reposted video below, Dahr Jamail says "At this point, knowing all of the science as I know it, it's really hard to see how humans make it through this." and "Today's carbon dioxide levels [in May, 2019, of 412 ppm] are already in accordance with what historically brought about a steady state temperature of 7 C higher globally [above year 1850 baseline]. [NOAA's climate.gov site noted "The global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2019 was 409.8 parts per million (ppm for short), with a range of uncertainty of plus or minus 0.1 ppm. Carbon dioxide levels today are higher than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years.] Jamail continues, "We're losing 2.4 percent of global insect biomass every year. [ . . . ] There will be no insects within a hundred years. No insects basically means no humans." and "The International Energy Agency stated that preserving our current economic paradigm virtually guarantees a 6 C rise in Earth's average temperature before 2050."

According to Jamail's Website, his book The End of Ice was "one of Smithsonian Magazine’s 10 Best Science Books of 2019, and was a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2020." The book's Website notes "Jamail embarks on a journey to the geographical front lines of this crisis—from Alaska to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, via the Amazon rainforest" and includes "the tundra of St. Paul Island where he meets the last subsistence seal hunters of the Bering Sea and witnesses its collapsing food web." Jamail, a fourth-generation Lebanese American, received the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Award for Journalism, The Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship, the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, and five Project Censored awards.

Regarding the often-heard "People are too stressed to think about climate change," I recall Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone contributing editor and author of The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, in a Comedy Central interview, "We can do more than one thing at a time. We're not like one-year-olds. It's possible to think about two, maybe three things, simultaneously, and I think that climate change should be one of them."

At 42:10 in the video below Jamail asks "What do we do knowing all of that, [ . . . ] and I think more importantly, how are we going to be in what we do?" He suggests Cherokee Elder Stan Rushworth's point about "rights vs obligations." Jamail said, "I am obliged, no matter what, to serve future generations, and to serve the planet. [ . . . . ] Since we've never been here, we don't know what's going to happen. [ . . . . ] One of the stories that I write about is being up on a peak in the Deception Basin area in the Olympics [ . . .] at 7,000 feet, roughly 2000 feet above treeline, [and] there is this tree growing [ . . .] out of this [ . . . ] crack in this rock. [ . . . ] Given half a chance, life is going to persist. [ . . . . ] The two questions I'll send you home to ponder are: 'Where do you go to listen to Mis Misa [healing, and centering place]?' and 'When was the last time you went there to listen?'"

When Suz and I visited trails near Mt. Shasta (Mis Misa), I took the photos below Jamail's video.

On the Trail to Avalanche Gulch

Castle Lake

Castle Lake from Above

Gateway Peace Garden

"What Biden will and won’t be able to achieve on climate change" by James Temple at MIT Technology Review

James Temple's subtitle is "Passing aggressive climate laws will be highly difficult without Democratic control of the Senate. But there are other ways to make progress." See the November 6, 2020 article here. 

Temple wrote "A Biden administration would [ . . . ] be likely to quickly remove the roster of climate deniers, fossil-fuel lobbyists, and oil executives that Trump placed in positions of power throughout federal agencies; end the suppression of scientific reports; and restore the federal government’s reliance on scientists and other experts to make critical decisions on climate change (and other crucial issues like the covid-19 pandemic)."

For the Sake of Our Only Planet: A Nonprofit’s Fight Against Economic Growth by Richard Tibbetts

I invited Richard Tibbetts, Communications Specialist for the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), to write a guest post because I was impressed with CASSE's steadystate.org Website, and saw writer David Orr on the Executive Board.  It seems CASSE Mission's second point of "promoting the steady state economy as a desirable alternative to economic growth" is nearly impossible, but I like what Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Fridtjof Nansen, known for helping hundreds of thousands of refugees, said to a group at the 1925 League of Nations, "the impossible is that which takes a little longer." I respect CASSE's vision, team, and work, and, in a related matter, I chose Manfred Max-Neef as the top economist in my Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis.  Please visit CASSE's podcast The Steady Stater, and share on social media, to help speed inevitable change global governments will make, or be forced to make, at a greater loss of biodiversity than necessary. 

For the Sake of Our Only Planet: A Nonprofit’s Fight Against Economic Growth by Richard Tibbetts

What do most economic publications, forums, and scholars have in common? A fixation with endless GDP growth. Mainstream, neoclassical economics posits that an economy can grow infinitely and that this growth is always desirable. In other words, the higher the GDP, the better off society becomes. 

 Unfortunately, proponents of this view ignore the reality that all economies are undergirded by a finite ecological base. As an economy expands, it requires evermore natural resources — such as timber, soil, water, oil, metals, plants, and animals — to sustain its growing size. This ecological structure guarantees that the more an economy grows, the more damage it inflicts on the environment.

 Leading the fight against GDP growth is the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), a small non-profit in Arlington, Virginia. Environmental protection is at the core of CASSE’s educational mission. However, instead of leading with a message of recycling or clean energy, CASSE advocates for a steady state economy with stabilized population and consumption, not just in some vague manner but as an explicit policy goal.

 In 2003, CASSE founder and current Executive Director Brian Czech created the nonprofit to counter the fallacious and dangerous rhetoric that “there is no conflict between growing the economy and protecting the environment.”  The “win-win rhetoric,” as Czech calls it, was prominent in American politics and even within the U.S. government. Czech was serving in the headquarters of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and had been prohibited from speaking on the conflict between growth and wildlife conservation. This prohibition was the impetus for the establishment of CASSE.

 Czech’s efforts are rooted in the growing field of ecological economics, which recognizes that economic activity is inextricably linked to — and limited by — the natural world. He asserts, “Mainstream economists with no background in the environmental sciences continue to promote the fallacy of perpetual GDP growth. It’s about time that fallacy is challenged.” In recent years, a sizeable number of CASSE advocates — better known as “steady staters” — have formed in countries around the world, but Czech still faces an uphill battle convincing those in power to adopt his line of thinking. “Pro-growth rhetoric is the status quo in economics, business, and politics,” says Czech.

 CASSE seeks to disrupt the status quo by creating a groundswell of public support for a steady state economy through multiple educational outlets. For example, the nonprofit posts high-quality weekly articles to its blog, The Steady StateHerald, publishes books out of its inhouse publishing company, Steady State Press, and shares daily steady-state content on its social media pages.

 Most recently, CASSE added a new public education tactic to its arsenal: The Steady Stater podcast, hosted by Czech and produced by CASSE Communications Specialist Rick Tibbetts. The podcast covers a range of topics, including limits to GDP growth, the implications of a steady state economy, salient current events, sustainable solutions, and the burgeoning degrowth movement. Most episodes feature guest appearances from prominent steady staters, like the current Secretary of State of Wisconsin Doug LaFollette and CEO of the Global Footprint Network Laurel Hanscom. New episodes air Mondays at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and are available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, and the CASSE website.

 You can help make CASSE’s vision a reality by following the The Steady Stater, signing its online position statement, and becoming a member. Structural change does not come easily, but with your support, CASSE can achieve a smarter, fully sustainable economy for the betterment of our planet — and the people who have no other planet to occupy.