In yesterday's Washington Post article "White House prepares to scrutinize intelligence agencies’ finding that climate change threatens national security," Francesco Femia, chief executive of the Council on Strategic
Risks and co-founder of the Center for Climate and Security, was quoted
“This is the equivalent of setting up a committee on nuclear-weapons
proliferation and having someone lead it who doesn’t think nuclear
weapons exist [. . .] It’s honestly a blunt-force political tool
designed to shut the national security community up on climate change.”
Happer is an extremely bad choice. If Trump's plan proceeds, I imagine space aliens watching and remarking "It's too late. Their brains are fried." Dennis Silverman, a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine, has a good blog post about Happer.
Today, I'm recalling Cobain, Bowie, and prophetic power of art. U.S. politicians think they are better scientists than scientists. Climate history has shown politicians are not. The above link goes to "Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World (MTV Unplugged)," a song by David Bowie. Lyrics include "Oh no, not me/We never lost control." According to Wiki, Bowie commented about his song on BBC Radio "That song for me always exemplified kind of how you feel when you're young, when you know that there's a piece of yourself that you haven't really put together yet. You have this great searching, this great need to find out who you really are." To this I would add, "The human race is very young. We haven't collectively found out who we are. More quiet times in meditation and nature are needed before quiet times and nature are gone. After that, if those things happen, it will be too late."
I greatly enjoyed this 40 minute podcast because of how it humanizes thought about climate change in terms of the best of us -- creative, playful, humorous, empathetic, honest -- instead of evil anthropocene roller derby twin. Sure, it's almost a year old, but like Socrates and his almost- contemporary Chuang Tzu, still highly relevant (Did I mention I teach World Lit.?) Here are some quotes, "One Buddhist teacher I know said once, 'You can't turn shit into chocolate mousse.'" Morton added "Your lab is your inner space." "I'm terribly keen on not dying." "Art is the future [ . . . .] telling me how to think." The only pause I had was I believe in God, compassionate and just beyond human understanding. As the back cover of my last book notes, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever" (Thomas Jefferson).
Updates Feb. 12, 2019, April 2019, and June 2019 are below.
June 2019 Update: Dave Borlace's Just Have a Think channel provided clear background on University of Alaska Fairbanks Associate Professor Natalia Shakhova's methane position, and her June 5, 2019 paper published by Geosciences. February 2019 Update: Thanks to Dahr Jamail for this update today: "[Dr. Ira Leifer, Chemical Engineering Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, noted] the normal background rate for methane seeps from a seabed in that area is approximately 3000 methane seeps over a thousand square kilometer area. He had, using satellites to measure the methane, [ . . .] found in another thousand square kilometer area, [. . .] there were already 60 million methane seeps [ . . .]"
Leifer was "chief mission coordinating scientist for the NASA effort for airborne remote sensing of the Gulf oil spill."
In my April 29, 2018 blog post "What is the Source of 2017s Increased Atmospheric Methane?" I wrote "A 2014 article in Scientific American reported 'Levels of the potent greenhouse gas continue to rise and scientists aren't sure where most of it is coming from, though likely suspects include fracking, increased coal mining in China and a melting Arctic." I added "Regardless of source, or sources, humanity is moving in the wrong direction, and it's time to reverse course [of carbon burning] whatever the cost."
April 28, 2018, I covered similar conflicting information between Natalia Shakhova, ("Expertise: chemical oceanography") Research
Associate Professor at International Arctic Research Center at The
University of Alaska Fairbanks vs The U. S. Geological Survey / University of Rochester.
In my October 29, 2018 blog post "TASS Reports Russian Scientists Found 'Massive' New Arctic Methane Emissions" I wrote "TASS, noted by Wiki as 'the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide,' reported today newly discovered increase in Arctic methane emissions 'may affect the planet’s climate system.' According to the Ministry of Education and Science, 'Russian scientists have found a new big area in the East Arctic’s seas with big emissions of greenhouse gases. [ . . . ] They also saw that emissions in earlier found areas had become more active.'"
"This news is more important than regular news chatter because details
may determine how, where, and if humans get to live on Earth."
This news is more important than regular news chatter because details may determine how, where, and if humans get to live on Earth. Many news sources noted Australia is having a summer so hot fish are dying in rivers, and bats and birds are falling from trees and dying. theweek.co.uk reported January 16, 2019 "Researchers now believe that at least 23,000 spectacled fruit bats
died - around one-third of the total population - over just two days in
and around Cairns, where temperatures passed 42C [107.6 F]."
Since U. S. winter is Australia's summer, will summer 2019 in the U.S. present similar heat when the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun? Last summer, California had it's worst-ever fire, and the summer before was also it's worst-ever fire up to that time. Specifically, July and August 2018 brought the Mendocino Complex Fire in Colusa, Lake, Mendocino, and Glenn counties, and December 2017 brought the Thomas Fire to Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. In addition, November 2018 brought the Camp Fire to Butte County, which, according to Wiki, "was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history to date" killing "86 civilians," some of whom burned in cars fleeing, and destroying "18,804 buildings."
For these reasons, I followed with interest recent conflicting information between Jem Bendell, a Professor of Sustainability
Leadership and Founder of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability
(IFLAS) at the University of Cumbria (UK) vs Carolyn Ruppel, Ph.D, a Research Geophysicist at Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, and leader of the USGS Gas Hydrates Project.
In short, Ruppel coauthored a paper with Kessler in 2017 about the methane threat, to which Bendell responded "key questions at the heart of this
scientific debate (about what would amount to the probable extinction of the human
race) include the amount of time it will take for ocean warming to destabilise
hydrates on the sea floor, and how much methane will be consumed by aerobic and anaerobic microbes before it reaches the surface and escapes
to the atmosphere. In a global review of this contentious topic,
scientists concluded that there is not the evidence to predict a sudden
release of catastrophic levels of methane in the near-term."
Bendell added, "a key reason for their conclusion was the lack of data showing actual increases
in atmospheric methane at the surface of the Arctic, which is partly the result
of a lack such information. Most ground-level methane measuring of sensors
collecting systems are on land. Could that be why the unusual increases in atmospheric
methane concentrations cannot be fully explained by existing data sets from
around the world (Saunois et al, 2016)?"
Ruppel appeared in a January 29, 2019 Yale Climate Connections video "Polar melting: 'Methane time bomb' isn't actually a 'bomb'" in which she noted "People who may not be too aware of the thermodynamics of gas hydrates may believe that once you start triggering warming of those, and breakdown of those deposits, you can't stop it. And, in fact, the thermodynamics helps you a lot on that because of the nature of the reaction [ . . . .] this is a problem when we try to produce methane from hydrates. It keeps shutting itself down, right? So it's not a situation where we trigger breakdown, and [ . . . ] the whole deposit's going to release its methane all of a sudden. That [ . . .] is not a scientifically sound worry."
So is the Arctic methane death bomb unlikely? I don't know. Is Arctic methane still a problem? Yes.
"If we mitigate or reduce human emissions, looks like you can avoid 70
to 80 percent of the permafrost climate feedback. That means the size of
this ecosystem feedback to climate depends almost completely on what we
do." -- Ben Abbott, Brigham Young University
In the above video, Ben Abbott, a Brigham Young University "ecosystem ecologist who studies the permafrost climate feedback,"said "If we mitigate or reduce human emissions, looks like you can avoid 70 to 80 percent of the permafrost climate feedback. That means the size of this ecosystem feedback to climate depends almost completely on what we do. [ . . . .] This is a call to action, not a declaration of defeat."
My concern is the volume to cause trouble for humans may be much smaller than any giant short-term Arctic methane release. This is because, as I wrote before, an October 4, 2016, Siberian Times article quoted Professor Igor Semiletov, of Tomsk Polytechnic University, Shakhova's colleague, "We have reason to believe that such emissions may change the climate.
This is due to the fact that the reserves of methane under the submarine
permafrost exceed the methane content in the atmosphere [ . . . ] many
thousands of times. If 3-4% from underwater will go into the atmosphere
within 10 years, the methane concentration therein (in the atmosphere)
will increase by tens to hundreds of times, and this can lead to rapid
climate warming. This is due to the fact that the greenhouse effect of
one molecule of methane is 20-30 times greater than one molecule of
CO2." I added "The good news is that even though methane has a much stronger effect
than CO2, the life of methane in the atmosphere is shorter. Duncan
Clark's January 16, 2012 article in The Guardian
noted 'Between 65% and 80% of CO2 released into the air dissolves into
the ocean over a period of 20–200 years' while 'Methane, by contrast, is
mostly removed from the atmosphere by chemical reaction, persisting for
about 12 years.'"
Bendell wrote "Data published by scientists from the Arctic News (2018) website indicates
that in March 2018 at mid altitudes, methane was around 1865 parts per billion
(ppb), which represents a 1.8 percent increase of 35 ppb from the same time in
2017, while surface measurements of methane increased by about 15 ppb in that
time. Both figures are consistent with a non-linear increase - potentially
exponential - in atmospheric levels since 2007. That is worrying data in
itself, but the more significant matter is the difference between the increase
measured at ground and mid altitudes. That is consistent with this added
methane coming from our oceans, which could in turn be from methane hydrates [. . . .] [A] report of subsea permafrost destabilisation in the East Siberian
Arctic sea shelf, the latest unprecedented temperatures in the Arctic, and the
data in non-linear rises in high-atmosphere methane levels, combine to make it
feel like we are about to play Russian Roulette with the entire human race,
with already two bullets loaded."
An April 2019 article in Geosciences (Switzerland) discusses the "Role of Salt Migration in Destabilization of Intra Permafrost Hydrates in the Arctic shelf: Experimental Modeling." Cite: Chuvilin, Evgeny & Ekimova, Valentina & Bukhanov, Boris & Grebenkin, Sergey & Shakhova, Natalia & Semiletov, Igor. (2019). Role of Salt Migration in Destabilization of Intra Permafrost Hydrates in the Arctic shelf: Experimental Modeling. Geosciences (Switzerland). 9. 10.3390/geosciences9040188.
In short, this methane debate is like two people standing on the upper deck of a possible Titanic arguing about damage caused by collision when the ship hit the iceberg. It is clear most scientists agree humans on Earth must switch from carbon to renewable energy as soon as possible. At the end of my April 28, 2018 post mentioned above, I wrote, "In other words, depending on how much Arctic methane is released how
fast, it could be a difficult time for humans and other species if
Shakhova's and Semiletov's concerns become reality. Creon says in the
Greek tragedy Oedipus 'Time is the one incorruptible judge.'"
Thanks to readers from 90 countries including United States, Russia,
Belgium, Germany, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Spain, France, Indonesia, Ukraine,
Turkmenistan, Portugal, Estonia, United Kingdom, South Korea, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Philippines, Latvia, Poland, Ireland, Israel, Slovenia, Georgia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Denmark, Rwanda, Hong Kong, Argentina, Sweden, Switzerland, Lithuania, Nepal, Mexico, Turkey, Palestine, Burundi, Thailand, Mauritius, Ghana, Oman, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, Albania, Azerbaijan, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Norway, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Romania, Singapore, Lebanon, Peru, Uganda, Malaysia, Colombia, Austria, Honduras, Zambia, Czechia, Venezuela, Tanzania, Bahrain, Myanmar (Burma), Mozambique, Chile, Jamaica, New Zealand, Iceland, Jersey (Channel Islands), Kazakhstan, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Cyprus, Finland, Senegal, Suriname, Bermuda, Bolivia, and "Unknown Region[s]."
I and English artist Guy Denning have a new book from Fomite Press in Vermont combining 78 of my climate change poems with 12 of his works of activism, refugees, human vulnerability, and realism known throughout Europe. The book is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.com.au, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.com.br, Amazon.com.mx, Amazon.international (Russia, Ukraine, South Korea, Hong Kong, Turkey), or can be ordered by your local bookseller. Art has always been the global language. The Kindle price is $4.99. Denning made cover art, and three works in the book are pasted below. Thanks to ASLE for posting five poems from my book, promotion in San Diego Reader, and to Amsterdam Quarterly for the review. I'm grateful for permission to use intro quotes by Dahr Jamail, winner of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, and author of The End of Ice (The New Press, 2019), and Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone contributing editor and author of The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World(Little, Brown and Company, 2017),noted by Annie Proulx in The Guardian as one of "the best books to understand climate change." Jamail's words, taken from “Sixth Mass Extinction Ushers In Record-Breaking Wildfires and Heat,” truthout.org, August 20, 2018, are "I’ve spoken to prestigious scientists both on and off the record who believe that sooner rather than later, global population will be reduced to around 1 billion humans." Goodell's words, from his above book, are "Fish will school in classrooms. Oysters will grow on submerged light poles." My book is about this war planetary life is losing to oil companies, and an appeal to all to help reverse this while we can. The text reports local and global scenes of climate breakdown most affecting the silenced least responsible. Thomas Jefferson's warning about injustice of slavery resonates in the book's words and images: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Join my friends with "organic carrot cupcakes / and Dry-Erase pens" fighting big oil and imagining "The night before the stone in his forehead, Goliath had a terrible dream."
I'm also grateful for kind words from Sandra Alcosser, "Kairos, sudden insight, gifts Scott T. Starbuck's poems with lightning-quick vision." and Craig Santos Perez, "Carbonfish Blues explores today's urgent environmental issues with soulfulness, humor, irony, and wisdom. Throughout, Scott Starbuck speaks in a profound human voice imploring us to listen closely to the Earth for guidance, to act conscientiously of our connection to all things, and to sing our common heritage of light." In a related essay, my “Manifesto from Poet on a Dying Planet” is online at Split Rock Review. More of Guy Denning's art can be seen at www.guydenning.org I enjoyed the book launch May 11, 2019, at Broken Anchor's event in Meraki Cafe in San Diego. About 30 people attended, among them many fine poets. If you like our book, please ask your local or university library to order it. Thanks to the following libraries for adding our book, or sending notice they will add it: Cornell University Library (Ithaca, NY), Zentralbibliothek Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland), UC San Diego Library, W.E.B. Du Bois Library at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Los Angeles Public Library, Washington State University at Vancouver Campus Library, San Diego State University Library, University of Arizona Libraries, Multnomah County Library, Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, and Jackson County Public Library (Oregon).
Requiem # 2 (for the now forgotten), Oil on Canvas, 2009
Watching, Just Watching, Conte, Pastel and Gouache on Canvas,7 9/10 × 9 4/5 in; 20 × 25 cm, 2017
Until after the dusts of a million suns, Oil on Canvas, 27 x 41 cm, 2014
Yesterday I remembered Slim Bracken, lifelong logger and one of my best fishing buds who died recently after falling off his bike. Slim was one of those rare anglers who combined great jokes, local knowledge, and uncommon generosity giving me "first casts" through new water. Last year, at age 79, he drove Suz "on a quiet ride through the hills" over 100 miles an hour which made her scream like a banshee. Another time he took me on a cliff edge to his secret fishing spot high above rapids where one wrong step meant instant death. "You're not afraid of heights, are you?" he laughed.
"You go ahead," I said. "I'll try that shallow spot upriver in case one makes it past you."
Slim did not share my concerns about climate change, but he helped me balance those concerns.
I thought of him yesterday at another secret spot. "How's your wife?" asked one angler.
"She drowned netting a big salmon for me on the Columbia," said the second. "But I got the fish!" That was pure Slim, one of the finest spoon anglers Oregon produced, or ever will.
Joy: Northwest Fishing Reports published my latest article, "The Slide Technique," and between now and April 30 I should catch another 20 to 30 steelhead if it's a normal year. After that is spring chinook season, my favorite fish and time of year.
Sadness: Bob Lackey, Professor of Fisheries at Oregon State University, emailed me a few days ago: “In a 100 years wild salmon runs south of Canada will be reduced to remnant runs.”
This is why I spend time fishing, and as an activist. It's worth repeating the title of my piece in The Columbian June 25, 2016, "Letter: We must become climate activists." The first sentence is "By now it’s obvious, saving climate from catastrophe means saving salmon [and steelhead] from catastrophe."
Yesterday in class, one of my students said Mt. St. Helens could erupt soon taking out part of the western U. S. "You think that's bad?" I asked, "What's worse is how it could destroy my salmon and steelhead rivers!" A fishing student smiled, but others looked like maybe it was time to call the crosswalk guard to get me under control.
I greatly enjoyed the film Low & Clear tonight, mainly because of how Alex "Xenie" Hall reminded me of some of my best fishing buddies, alive and still at it, or gone to where there is no closed season, and no limit.
There is an excellent article in today's The Guardian about 15-year-old Greta Thunberg's solo school strike in Sweden joined by "20,000 students around the world [and spreading] to at least 270 towns and cities in countries [ . . . ] including Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the US and Japan." The article quotes her "I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future. I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.”
Thunberg continued, "Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago. We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with. We have to make our voices heard.”
The article notes Thunberg is a descendant "of Svante Arrhenius, the Nobel-prize-winning scientist who in 1896 first calculated the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide emissions." World leaders at the The UN climate change summit meeting for two weeks in Katowice, Poland, would be wise to listen.
According to The Guardian, Thunberg, who met on Monday with UN Secretary General António Guterres, had her words complemented by presenter Sir David Attenborough:“the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
In a related matter, many around the globe are waiting to hear if the Children’s Trust Climate Lawsuit, Juliana v. US, that was set to begin in Eugene, Oregon, October 29, 2018, will be allowed to proceed. As a reminder, in July the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Juliana v. US going forward. In October, 10 days before the trial, "Chief Justice John Roberts signed an order freezing the trial." In November, Robert Barnes and Brady Dennis reported in The Washingon Post "the Supreme Court on Friday night refused to halt [the . . .] lawsuit." However, the Supreme Court decision did not block a lower court from considering the U. S. government's request to stop the trial. Sophie Yeo of the Pacific Standard reported on November 27, 2018, "Although a permanent stay was subsequently denied, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit then granted another stay, in response to another government request, and, as of November 21st, was deciding whether the case would go to trial."
The U. S. Supreme Court sounds like a confused child while 15-year-old Thunberg sounds clear and confident.
Thanks to visitors this week from United States, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Portugal, Bangladesh, Canada, and South Korea, and recent visitors from Colombia, Cambodia, Austria, Brazil, and Australia.
This morning I read one of my favorite articles about Hawai'i which is also a podcast. It reminded me of when I worked for Greenpeace, and helped San Carlos Apache fight telescopes from being placed on Mt. Graham in Arizona. Here is an epigraph from a poem I wrote about it "Later, when I ask Corbally if he would want to baptize aliens, the painful conflict of the interventionist duties of the Jesuit versus the detached objectivity of the scientist is visible. Corbally knots his legs into rope and wraps both his arms behind his head. His soft voice almost disappears. I must lean forward to hear him murmur that, yes, he would try to baptize them." The part that isn't in my poem is the next sentence in the nytimes.com article "But Corbally adds dolefully, 'I would first want to examine the theological data of their beliefs.'"
I recall how my fellow Greenpeacers howled with laughter when Tucson Bishop / Moreno allegedly wondered how to baptize outerspace aliens if the new telescope discovered any. / "If they live on planets without war, and where everyone is fed, they should baptize us," I offered.
My poem ends:
Over 20 years ago, on a drive through San Carlos Apache Nation, an old man offered me his house so that I could live with him. “You won’t learn about us with books or videos,” he said,
“but only by walking with us in these mountains.” I continued to Mt. Graham then back home
because I had papers to grade, and classes to teach, without much time to contemplate gaps between / knowledge and ignorance, patience and force, spirit and money, life and Lucifer, clean water and coal, / respect and desecration, health and uranium, sustainability and oil, people and policy, blood and gold, / song and silence, and what in our time and place remains wholly real, partially real, barely real, and just / plain bureaucratic illusion.
"Hawai’ian intelligence, Paul says, is from the na’u, the stomach. Technology has its place, but there are other, more reliable ways of knowing and being; the mind is only a database. Na’u is felt, intuited, learned over time through interaction with the surrounding world. It is about coming to understand the signs around you and aligning your practices and lifestyle accordingly. Development on Mauna Kea, for Paul, is symptomatic of placing too much emphasis on the intellect, forgetting to be in a felt, reciprocal relationship with what is around us. In this sense, astronomy is part of the same mindset that led to the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893. 'You come here, you steal my country, you ban my language, you tell me my church, my religion, is not worth a piece of shit, you put a flag up on a pole and call me yours,' Paul says. 'See, when you’re on that side—when you’re on the telescopes’ side—you don’t know the abuse, because you’re not feeling the abuse. They’ll even say, 'Oh, we agree Mauna Kea is sacred.' Really? Can you please tell me what your interpretation of sacred is? What does sacred mean?”
“'You need to become the place, not expect the place to bow down and become you,' says Lanakila. 'You fit into the natural cycles of the place, you fit into the flow of that land. The land, the way the river moves, the way the wind blows, the trees that grow there, the animals that live there: they are what makes that place alive. Aloha is to love. Aloha is alo he alo, face to face, to know the ha, the breath of life … to recognize individuality, but in individuality, understand connection and responsibility…. It’s not that we don’t know how. We all know how. All of our ancestors, from all walks of life, from every corner of this planet—they knew how.'”
"KEALOHA PISCIOTTA is in the middle of a thought when an eerie, mournful sound fills the room. She apologizes. 'That’s my phone. It’s the lonely whale.' The 52-hertz whale is an unidentified species of whale that sings at an unusual frequency. Kealoha made his song her ringtone. 'I’m not sure what’s happening with him, but I want him to know that we hear him.'" [This sadly reminded me of President Trump's recent decision "to allow seismic blasting harmful to marine creatures."]
"The Kumulipo tells the story of the unfolding of creation, eons of time in which life came into being. 'It’s showing how all things exist and derive from that darkness, from the ocean and from the first coral polyp, or uku, on down to every complex mammal, and then humans. And so nearly everything—every plant and animal—was created before man. It sets up the dynamics of our Creator and the regenerative gods and goddesses that propagate throughout the world along with man…. Mauna Kea represents that po, the entrance way.'"
"Hawai’ians and scientists alike have marveled at the parallels between the Kumulipo and the theories of the Big Bang and evolution. In both cosmologies, everything begins in an infinite darkness with the potential for astounding energy. Much later, life on earth slowly emerges from the depths of the sea."
"Many have argued that the Kumulipo is evidence for the coexistence of astronomy and Hawai’ian culture on Mauna Kea. Kealoha sees it differently." [ . . . . ]
"For Kealoha and the other hui, the telescopes on Mauna Kea have come to represent progress and modernity again overstepping their bounds, trespassing into places they should not go, and asserting rights over something that does not belong to them or to any human being. '[It’s] the machine clanging, attempting to drown out that song of creation … [the] battle going on between the songs of modernity, trying to suppress the very ancient, older songs of our creation and of our reverence for—and the joyousness of honoring—creation.'"
* Excerpts are used with permission.
Steinauer-Scudder's article also reminds me of a challenge from a professor long ago about whether I would save van Gogh's The Starry Night or old woman in a burning museum, and I could only save one. Many bureaucrats would waste precious time searching for a direction manual while soulful people would save the woman. In other words, in the eyes of the Creator, the way we treat each other is more important than human creation.
Corey J. Gabriel, Ph.D., J.D., the Program's Executive Director, wrote "Basically, we are training students to have a strong grounding in both policy and climate science to then go into local, state and national climate policy (and energy, environment al etc.) positions and actually understand all of the important things happening, both on the science side and the politics/policy side. This is challenging to do, the topic is large and complex. That means that we really need exceptionally strong students, with both quantitative backgrounds and some experience in policy or the corporate world, who can then take the job of, for example, implementing a climate action plan, but do so knowing how to interpret the science of sea level rise uncertainty and also be able to understand why getting more electric cars on the road is so important and what the best policy to do that may be. To transform society, we need professionals who can understand the whole problem and then identify the best solutions."
"The key component of this degree is the Capstone project (mini thesis). Examples of Capstones within the last year include a new county by county climate change scenario dependent west nile virus vulnerability map for the California Department of Health and creating and implementing a new Climate Change Studies Minor at UCSD."
It's like we're on a ship headed for a bleached coral reef, and scientists and activists are unable to persuade captains to change course to avoid major impact that will increase suffering beyond what these captains, and publics they serve, can imagine. Today's issue of The Guardian has an article by Oliver Milman noting "'without significant reductions, annual average global temperatures could increase by 9F (5C) or more by the end of this century,' a previously released chapter [of the US National Climate Assessment] states." As a reminder, one recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 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)."
Similarly, Bill McKibben has an excellent article in the November 26 issue of The New Yorker, "HOW EXTREME WEATHER IS SHRINKING THE PLANET," noting "The [recent IPCC] report did not mention that, in Paris, countries’ initial pledges would cut emissions only enough to limit warming to 3.5 degrees Celsius (about 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, a scale and pace of change so profound as to call into question whether our current societies could survive it. [. . . .] The extra heat that we trap near the planet every day is equivalent to the heat from four hundred thousand bombs the size of the one that was dropped on Hiroshima. [. . . .] Alex Steffen, an environmental writer, coined the term 'predatory delay' to describe 'the blocking or slowing of needed change, in order to make money off unsustainable, unjust systems in the meantime.' The behavior of the oil companies, which have pulled off perhaps the most consequential deception in mankind’s history, is a prime example."
Violence is not acceptable, but neither is public apathy. As Asimov said in a Bill Moyers' Interview, "A little [effort] is better than nothing. [. . . .] I have to say I can’t wait until everyone in the world is rational, just until enough are rational to make a difference."
Many of my friends and colleagues wish I read this article long ago. As with climate solutions, better late than never. In last night's Honors Climate Change Poetry Seminar, I used this Soylent Green film scene "Sol Goes Home" with the poetry prompt "Letter to the Future." In other words, some solutions are better than others.
Bill McKibben's Twitter page offers some of the best climate updates. Today I saw his update about California's Butte County Fire now known as the Camp Fire. As a reminder, this climate is from carbon dumped in the air about 30 years ago, and we've dumped in much more since then. Take a moment to close your eyes and imagine your loved one burned to death in a car because he or she could have been. The linked article noted "The blaze — fueled by bone-dry humidity and winds topping 50 mph — exploded from nearly 1,000 acres to over 10,000 acres in a matter of a few hours Thursday and completely overwhelmed Paradise — a town of about 30,000 residents. [par break] Homes burst into flames, fast-food restaurants, markets, businesses and gas stations were reduced to ash and the community’s hospital was turned into rubble." In other business, the Children's Trust Climate Lawsuit is "on hold" again. 6:41 p.m. Update: "At Least 9 Dead In Butte County Fire; 6,500 Homes Lost, 90,000 Acres Burned"
At least when Titanic hit the iceberg, lifeboats left about half full. With "a handful of oil companies, including BP, Chevron, and Koch Industries," according to Robinson Meyer at The Atlantic, spending nearly "$31 million" to kill Initiative 1631, lifeboats this time are all being destroyed on our watch. I'm still meeting people who believe "We haven't hit an iceberg. We can keep on as usual. Our boat is fine." I don't know what planet they inhabit, but it's not this one. As Pubali said in his sutras thousands of years ago, "Wake the fuck up!"
Robert Barnes and Brady Dennis reported in The Washingon Post "the Supreme Court on Friday night refused to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on climate change, turning down a request from the Trump administration to stop it [10 days] before trial."
The article quoted Julia Olson, the youth's attorney, “We have overcome everything the government has thrown at us. It is not luck. It is the strength of the case and the strength of the evidence and the strength of the legal arguments we are making.”
I said a prayer driving over the Chehalis River again in Washington this would happen. The article continued "Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch would have stopped the suit. The other justices did not indicate how they voted on the government’s request."
TASS, noted by Wiki as "the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide," reported today newly discovered increase in Arctic methane emissions "may affect the planet’s climate system." According to the Ministry of Education and Science, "Russian scientists have found a new big area in the East Arctic’s seas with big emissions of greenhouse gases. [ . . . ] They also saw that emissions in earlier found areas had become more active."
Last year, it was Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria; damaged islands of Barbuda and Puerto Rico; fires in California, British Columbia, Oregon, Montana, Sibera, Greece, Sweden, Portugal, and Spain; and millions enduring floods in Bangladesh (widely reported as 1/3 underwater), Peru, Nepal, India, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Canada, Iran, Norway, England, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, and other places. This year, so far, it's Lane, Super Typhoon Mangkhut, Florence, Leslie, and Michael with maximum winds reported at 155 mph, California and other major fires again, and more feared in October or November.
Climate scientists note these heat-enhanced conditions are from carbon and other greenhouse gases poured by humans in the air about 30 years ago, and we've poured in much more since then. Eventually, probably sooner rather than later, pillars of economic, food, water, housing, family security will be severely eroded, or gone, depending on where and how one lives. It looks like the billion or so coral reef fishers are out of luck, according to scientists, as heat gets 2 degrees Celcius above 1850 (pre-industrial) levels. The New York Times reported October 7, "Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040," but reporting for the last 10 years, at least, has strongly underestimated speed, scope, and magnitude of damage. It's like a doctor telling a patient "You have a scratch on your leg, but some antbiotics could work." then, "Sorry, but we must amputate." then "Uh, do you have a legal will?" Since many of my readers live in countries where the grain crop failed or may soon fail, I will give practical advice, and a story. My advice, if you can afford it, is to get oxygen-free rice which allegedly can be stored for "10+ years" as a sort of insurance policy. You can give it to a food bank if, by some magic or miracle, world leaders have a change of heart and take real steps. You may also want to order an opener and BPA-free strainer. Utah State University Extension noted, "The best temperature to store grains, including rice, is 40°F or below; however, rice stored at a constant 70° F with oxygen absorbers will store well for up to 10 years. In cooler storage areas rice sealed in oxygen-free containers can be stored for up to 30 years. A BYU study sampling polished rice and parboiled rice stored from 1 to 30 years found that both types of rice will keep their nutrients and flavor up to 30 years."
My story is from a Whidbey Island friend. He mentioned in Cambodia a monk was told by the teacher this monk, and others, would travel to a refugee camp. The younger monks protested, "We don't have food or medicine to help. What is the point?" The teacher said they were going anyway so they walked about three days in silence to the camp. Upon arrival, the teacher sat in the middle of the camp, and began chanting "Om." Soon, the entire camp was chanting "Om." That was the gift he brought, and it was a much-needed gift.
Thanks to fellow fisher / writer Cameron Pierce and artist Barbara Temple Ayres for allowing me to post their work above. I saw their broadside at The Word and Image Show at The Hoffman Center in Manzanita, Oregon, when I had work there as I noted below. The free exhibit will be on display throughout the month of October 2018 during the gallery’s regular hours — 1 to 4 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Congrats to Pierce on his new book Live Bait.
Last night I enjoyed reading at The Word and Image Show at The Hoffman Center in Manzanita, Oregon. I was one of twelve writers paired with twelve artists to respond to each other's work, meaning two poems and two images. I'm grateful I worked with Karen LaGrave Small whose painting The Fear Fly is above. The free exhibit will remain on display throughout the month of October 2018 during the gallery’s regular hours — 1 to 4 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Here was my writer's statement:
"In the landscape of human experience fear and love seem to be universal, and many times in that order. Love seems to be the older, wiser force. In conversation with the artist, and meditation on the image, that was the journey of my poetic response. A Grandfather Time figure in the Vancouver, WA coffee shop where I am writing this just said 'The light could go out for any of us any time, which makes worry unimportant.'"
Regarding Oregon opportunities, I am also grateful to PLAYA for interviewing me on their blog Edge Effects.
