Former UK police officers share their views on XR and the climate crisis | Extinction Rebellion Oct. 5, 2019

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion.

I understand not all are ready for the bravery and sacrifice shown by these former UK police officers, but everyone can explore bank options to stop funding fossil fuel companies and projects. Watch this video, then click " . . . more" below it to see Dave Borlace's list of banking options in the USA, UK, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equador, France, Germany, Greece, Honuras, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Palestinian Territory, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, and Uganda. Now is a good time to repost part of my Disclaimer: "Nothing contained [on this blog] should be construed as investment advice or financial advice of any kind."

Democracy Now! posted a video on 10/8/19: This Is Not a Drill: 700+ Arrested as Extinction Rebellion Fights Climate Crisis with Direct Action.

Two Items from New IPCC Report, "Sky Whale" Poem, and New Book

The above video by Dave Borlace's Just Have a Think is full of great information but I will focus on two items and what 5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial of 1850 means: 1) "It's actually more like about 5 degrees Celsius higher [ . . . . ] within 80 years or so at our current trajectory." and 2) "It's the small island developing states that are getting walloped right now but much of the western coast of America looks like being pretty vulnerable within the next 10 years or so."

3) 4 degrees Celsius, as I quoted before, means severe consequences according to Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Rockström noted "It’s difficult to see how [Earth] could accommodate a billion people or even half of that." Update: The Guardian, at Rockström's request, changed the quote for a 4 C world to "It’s difficult to see how we could accommodate eight billion people or maybe even half of that."

Here is a poem from my forthcoming book Between River and Street:

Sky Whale

After the last whale died

whale-shaped clouds appeared.

Some said “whale spirits.”

Others “just clouds.”

The ones who spoke the latter

were the same who

killed most of the planet.

#

And this is from another poem in the book:

Now, our blue jewel planet undoes 4.54 billion years of evolution
to try again.  In a twist on Plato,
there can never be hope until scientists become politicians

or politicians become scientists.

"Top Five 2019 Summer Arctic Calamities" Increase Geoengineering Pressure

I'm grateful to Dave Borlace's Just Have a Think for these updates. For those in the US, when he says 21 degrees Celcius "about 560 miles from the North Pole," that equals 69.8 Fahrenheit; "Anchorage [, Alaska] sweltered in 32 degrees Celcius heat" equals 89.6 Fahrenheit; and "Markusvinca [, Sweden] reported a temperature of 34.8 Celcius" equals 94.64 Fahrenheit, "the hottest ever recorded in a country above the Arctic Circle." Here is his video on the "Blue Ocean Event" he mentioned. In that video, the "50 degrees Celcius" equals 122 Fahrenheit in major food-growing regions. He says "Our current human activity puts us on a path towards 4 degrees Celcius [. . .] by 2100. [. . . .] The comfortable detachment and insulation we currently enjoy in the West will be pretty much shattered as we struggle to find enough food to feed our populations." 

In a related matter, according to Matt McGrath of BBC.com, Japan, Australia, the US, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia are not participating in "the special UN summit on climate change taking place in New York on Monday." He added, "Perhaps most worrying of all is the data on sea-level rise." He quoted UN Secretary General António Guterres, "on [a goal of] reaching carbon neutrality by 2050." As you can see in the right frame, I have readers from four of those five nations (not Saudi Arabia) so I hope they will pressure elected officials to act in time, which an October 2018 IPCC report notes is about 12 years before humanity loses control and, according to Jonathan Watts of The Guardian, failure will "significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people."

On NPR September 23, 2019 I heard part of this VICE News video Greta Thunberg Rips World Leaders at the U.N. Over Climate Change at yesterday's "special UN summit on climate change taking place in New York."

On September 20 I marched in the Climate Strike with students from San Diego's Mission Bay High School, SanDiego350, ReWild Mission Bay, and an expected million students, and four million people total, around the globe. The timing was good as the September 25, 2019, new UN climate report noted, according to Mark Phillips of cbsnews.com in Monaco, "Tipping points are being reached where some of the more severe consequences of climate change can no longer be avoided [. . . .] In the worst case scenarios as many as a billion people could be affected [. . . .] The report's authors say that we are now in a race between the speed of climate change and our ability to adapt to it, and that it's a race that we're losing."

A Sept. 7, 2019, CNBC video notes "This Bill Gates-funded chemical cloud could help stop global warming [with 'significant risks and uncertainties']"

Last week Corey Gabriel, Executive Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Masters of Advanced Studies in Climate Science and Policy (MAS CSP) gave a geoengineering lecture that showed stakes are rapidly rising for nations to decide how, where, when and if to use this controversial plan to reduce climate impacts.

I was there to give a 90-minute climate change poetry workshop to his students in an attempt to bring a healthy dose of humanity and other right-brain activity to the science. His students were creative and insightful, willing to take risk in their poems, and share responses with the group. 

The geoengineering topic made it clear decision-makers will need the best of their left brains and right brains to find solutions without neglecting climate justice. 

I wrote about geoengineering and climate refugees on this blog, but Professor Gabriel's lecture made me want to know more. I found this 10-minute Sept. 7, 2019, CNBC video featuring UCSD's Kate Ricke, Professor of Climate Science and Policy; Frank Keutsch, Principle Investigator at SCoPEx; Alan Robock, Climate Scientist at Rutgers University (discussing "termination effect"); Mike Hulme, author of Why We Disagree about Climate Change; Stephen Gardiner, author of A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change; Andy Parker, Project Director of Solar Radiation at Management Governance Initiative; and Tom Ackerman, University of Washington.

Gardiner said "No responsible scientist says this is a silver bullet. All the responsible scientists say this is something we could deploy if we had to alongside all the other stuff that we already have to do [ . . . .] This is a real moral horror, especially in a situation where we're not doing all the things that we could be doing to minimize the risks of climate catastrophe now."

Parker added "Whatever happens, we've got to cut our CO₂ to zero."

The CNBC video noted "a 2016 opinion poll conducted by the Harvard group doing solar geoengineering research found that 67% of subjects support its use."

Professor Gabriel said large-scale geoengineering is a challenge because the least expensive method of using sulphate particulates is not currently possible over 1 C above the 1850 baseline when they fall from the sky, and we are at or over 1 C now. Therefore, he believes more research is needed, but small-scale geoengineering will do more good than harm. He wrote "I do think geoengineering could be effective in controlling global mean temperature and I think that it’s possible that the technology, albeit very expensive and complex, could be developed that would allow for geoengineering to be deployed, and then monitored and adjusted as needed, to possibly avoid many of the potential disparate negative impacts that have been discussed.  In the event that geoengineering did cause disparate regional impacts, a regulatory scheme would need to develop that would contain enforceable compensation mechanisms to compensate those who suffer any damages.  Also, I think it’s important to note the relevant comparison to make in the context of whether or not to deploy geoengineering in the future is a comparison between the damages in a world with global warming and geoengineering vs. the damages in a warmer world without geoengineering.  An extra 0.5C-0.75C of warming, on top of, say 2.5C above preindustrial, would likely be very problematic.  Potentially a great deal more problematic than whatever disparate impacts a geoengineering regime would bring about."

Damian Carrington wrote at The Guardian November 22, 2018 "The idea of geoengineering is controversial, with opponents arguing it could seem like an easy solution to global warming and weaken efforts to cut the root cause of emissions. Others warn it risks serious unintended consequences, such as droughts and damage to crops. In October, more than 100 civil society groups condemned geoengineering as 'dangerous, unnecessary and unjust'. [par break] However, many scientists say not conducting geoengineering research would be even more dangerous, because climate change may become so bad that governments feel compelled to deploy it despite not knowing its full consequences." Recent climate data show we are quickly heading to the "so bad" condition so it makes sense to understand the effects of the technology before using it. 

The good news is Carrington added "Spreading particles in stratosphere to fight climate change [could be ‘remarkably inexpensive’ as it] may cost $2bn a year."

The bad news with large-scale geoengineering is the above-mentioned "termination effect" noted by Professor Gabriel and the 10-minute Sept. 7, 2019, CNBC video.

It's stunning so-called world "leaders" waited 60 years to act, putting scientists in a race against the clock to preserve a livable planet with small-scale and large-scale geoengineering attempts.  

Scientist and Forbes writer James Conca noted September 10, 2019, "To bring this home, all you have to do is see how climate scientists are seeking psychiatric help for the depression, anxiety and PTSD that happens when you see a train wreck coming but no one seems to want to do anything about it - and you’re on the train."  He added "The Chinese have specifically said they will do exactly this [solar geoengineering] if things get too out of hand with global warming. And they have a robust research program already underway."

It is like a grizzly bear trapped us in a cave. We can stay in the cave and starve, or fight him by trying geoengineering, and maybe some of us will live. Grizzly tracks, scat, and claw marks on trees were obvious, but our current leaders seem to care even less for future generations than past leaders cared about us.  At best, our situation reminds me of Butch and Sundance's "Off the Cliff Scene" where Sundance says "Next time." At worst, we may be in the final scene of doom before Butch says ignorantly "For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble."

It requires "all hands on deck" everywhere, as Roger Hallam of Extinction Rebellion put it.  

In short, it's time to take the training wheels off the Paris Climate Agreement. In a previous post, I included quotes from Apollo 8 astronauts Bill Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell in the free 29-minute film Earthrise. One was "When I hear people chanting that we ought to go on to Mars, I'm thinking [. . . .] why don't we get our act together here on Earth first, and go to Mars as human beings, not as jingoistic Americans or Chinese or Russians or Indians. Let's just do it as human beings." To do otherwise risks war and decreases our chance for survival. 

Welcome to the Future -- Thoughts and Prayers for Those in Dorian's Path

Today weather.com reported "This is the strongest hurricane to ever go through the NW Bahamas, right now 180 miles an hour maximum sustained winds with gusts to up to 220 miles an hour." Democracy Now! has this Sept. 6 update.

In more bad news, according to Scott Sistek, KOMONews.com Meteorologist, "'The Blob' is back in the Pacific Ocean, but what does it mean?"

Dahr Jamail wrote this update on the global state of climate at truthout.org: "Alaska’s Sea Ice Completely Melted for First Time in Recorded History."

I read Jonathan Franzen's New Yorker article "What If We Stopped Pretending?" with interest. While I strongly disagree with his statement "In the long run, it probably makes no difference how badly we overshoot two degrees," I like his focus on individual and community preparation.  Look, every human life saved, every species saved in land, sea, and sky matters.  Gaia Vince wrote in The Guardian May 18, 2019 "Climate models predict we’re currently on track for a heating of somewhere between 3C and 4C for 2100 [. . . .] A 4C rise in global average temperatures would force humans away from equatorial regions [. . . .] 'We will have lost all the reefs decades before 2100 – at somewhere between 2C and 4C,' says Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany [ . . . .] Higher sea levels will make today’s low-lying islands and many coastal regions, where nearly half the global population live, uninhabitable, generating an estimated 2 billion refugees by 2100 [ . . . .] Rockström doesn’t like our chances. 'It’s difficult to see how we could accommodate a billion people or even half of that,' he says." Update: The Guardian, at Rockström's request, changed the quote for a 4 C world to "It’s difficult to see how we could accommodate eight billion people or maybe even half of that."

My two questions are: 1) What would city planning, agriculture, wilderness preservation, transportation, and colleges look like if our leaders told us this truth? and  2) What potential does humanity have if we stop playing this game of musical chairs with our and nonhuman survival?

What's wrong with this picture?

The Guardian's Naaman Zhou reported today in "Sydney Anglican and Catholic schools system won't back student climate strike" "While [the NSW Government is] thrilled to see our students passionate about the environment, the best way for young people to really make a difference is to receive a quality education. This will provide them with the skills and knowledge to positively change the world as adults.”  The article continues "Students across the country are planning to walk out of school on Friday 20 September, to protest government inaction on the climate crisis."  The NSW Government seems to be saying the climate crisis is not severe enough to justify one day of global unity with other students concerned about their futures.

In early August it was widely-reported in major news media, "The [UN's IPCC] report, prepared by more than 100 experts from 52 countries and released in summary form in Geneva on Thursday, found that the window to address the threat is closing rapidly. A half-billion people already live in places turning into desert [. . . .]" Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times added "some authors of the report warned in interviews that food shortages could lead to an increase in cross-border migration. [par break] A particular danger is that food crises could develop on several continents at once, said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the lead authors of the report."

In a related matter, Bill McKibben's Twitter page today has a quote from the Sunrise Movement about the DNC's recent refusal to allow "2020 candidates to participate in climate change debate": "Our generation is taking this crisis seriously — we wish the adults in the room were too."

Roger Hallam's Emotional and Intellectual Honesty

I posted the above video because I respect Roger Hallam's emotional and intellectual honesty. I heard him interviewed by Stephen Sackur at BBC Hard Talk and wanted to know more about this co-founder of Extinction Rebellion. I was also curious about the British public and police response in April 2019 while, according to The Guardian, "thousands of protesters use[d] roadblocks and glue to paralyse parts of central London [.. .] in civil disobedience protests, blockading four landmarks in the capital in an attempt to force the government to take action on the escalating climate crisis." It reminded me of when I went to hear  "the Pope's advisers" on climate change March 2, 2018 at a UCSD panel called "Climate Change. What Can Be Done About It?" attended by about a hundred students, professors, and concerned citizens. At the event I asked  Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Dr. Richard C.J. Somerville, and California’s 52nd Congressional District Representative Scott Peters what they thought about nonviolent civil disobedient climate action as a useful response to world governments' inaction on the crisis. Their answers are here.

In the approximately 25-minute BBC Hard Talk video Hallam, a Wales organic farmer and former PhD student in Civil Disobedience at Kings College warned "This October thousands of people will come to the streets of London, and they'll stay in the streets of London. How long I don't know because it will be up to them. But you'll see mass disturbances. It will be nonviolent. It will be respectful. And it will be disruptive. And that's the methodology that we're using. [, , , ,] [Teenagers have] got another 50, 60, or 70 years to live on this planet. By that time there could be only a billion people left. I mean that's 6 billion people that have died from starvation or been slaughtered by law. [. . . .] Journalists are not emotionally connecting with what's happening. The elites and the governments aren't actually going to do anything. They're not going to fulfill their primary responsibility which is to look after the people."

Hallam's concern about only a billion humans surviving mass starvation and being legally blocked from fleeing increased heat was shared by Dahr Jamail in one of his truthout.org articles and in the introduction to my book Carbonfish Blues: "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."  Jamail, winner of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, is author of The End of Ice (The New Press, 2019).

Look to Iceland for "Rude Truth" About Climate Crisis

The site of the former Okjökull glacier, photographed in 2018. Photo by Ragnar Antoniussen.

The memorial for the former glacier Okjökull. Words by Andri Snær Magnason. Photo by Grétar Thorvaldsson/Málmsteypan Hella.

July 22, 2109 Jon Henley in The Guardian quoted Iceland's memorial "unveiled in August" to Okjökull, "the first of Iceland's 400 glaciers to be lost to the climate crisis." The memorial notes "Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it. Agu´st 2019, 415 ppm CO₂” Photos above were used with permission.

Here is a film trailer about the lost glacier. According to Jon Henley in the article above, "the film was made by former mayor of Reykjavik Jón Gnarr" and researchers Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer of Rice University in Houston, Texas. In a related climate matter, I recall Houston was the target of Hurricane Harvey. To be clear, scientists stated climate change does not currently cause hurricanes to form, but it can make them more damaging in three ways: 1) sea-level rise means higher storm surges are possible; 2) increased moisture produces higher floods; and 3) storm intensity increases from added heat energy. It all adds up to say humans knowingly melting glaciers, which is what governments are doing, is a bad idea.

August 18, 2019 Harmeet Kaur at cnn.com also wrote about the lost glacier, and why exactly it's a problem.

Regarding words on the memorial, Iceland showed similar courage in 2010 when it refused to bail out banks on unreasonable terms, and in 2018 when it guaranteed equal pay for women by law for companies with 25 employees or more. I reported on the bank issue as a "Friends of William Stafford Scholar" at a 2014 FOR Seabeck Conference. I wrote "A favorite part of the conference for me was a song Iceland, 2008, by David Rovics.  Regarding background of the song, March 6, 2010, Sarah Lyall of the New York Times reported "With all but 2,500 of the 143,784 votes counted, the authorities said, 93 percent voted 'no' [on the Icesave 'Repayment Plan'] and 1.8 percent voted 'yes' in the first public referendum ever held on any subject in Iceland. [ . . . .] The vote shows the depth of Icelanders’ rage." I added "The news story quoted Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson who reportedly said on Bloomberg Television, 'Ordinary people, farmers and fishermen, taxpayers, doctors, nurses, teachers, are being asked to shoulder through their taxes a burden that was created by irresponsible greedy bankers.'  Sound familiar?"

Emerson wrote "speak the rude truth in all ways" in his essay "Self-reliance" (1840), and Iceland seems to do this much better than most countries. On this blog I try to follow the same advice. Thank you to readers in 90 countries listed on the right.

17-year-old Hardware Store Worker Gets 118.4 Fahrenheit [48°C] While Wealthy Get A/C in Iraq

David Wallace-Wells' (The Uninhabitable Earth) Twitter page linked this story today which, according to Richard Hall of independent.co.uk, "offers a troubling glimpse into a future where only the wealthy are equipped to escape the effects of climate change."

Regarding climate injustice against the young and unborn, judges Murguia, Hurwitz, and Staton have not ruled on the June 4, 2019 case 18-36082 Kelsey Rose Juliana v. USA (Children's Trust Climate Lawsuit Permission to Proceed to Trial Against USA) even though it has been about nine weeks and The New Yorker reported on June 15, 2019 in "The Right to a Stable Climate Is the Constitutional Question of the Twenty-first Century,"  "The judges will take a few weeks to issue their decision." Judges, the world is waiting.

Zoe Sayler at grist.org wrote a good overview of the case July 22, 2019 and noted "It’s looking pretty good for the kids right now — courts typically allow reasonable cases to go to trial, so parties can present their full slate of legal claims, according to University of Oregon environmental law professor Mary Wood."

In a related matter, Ann Carlson, Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law at UCLA School of Law and faculty co-director of UCLA Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, has a great op-ed in the August 12, 2019 Los Angeles Times, "Op-Ed:  Why Big Oil fears being put on trial for climate change." Her article notes "A recent study by the Center for Climate Integrity found that coastal communities in the U.S. must spend upwards of $400 billion at a minimum in the next five to 10 years alone to protect property from sea level rise."

Trees, Ghost Fish, and Dreams? Bristol Bay Watershed's Feared Pebble [Gold and Copper] Mine May Proceed after EPA Removes Salmon Protection Overruling "Top Scientists" According to CNN

This morning I saw the Pebble Mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay area may proceed if Alaska Governor Dunleavy gets his wish. If you click the link, you will hear republican, former New Jersey governor, and "under President George W. Bush, [. . .] EPA [Chief]"  Christine Todd Whitman say "It's mind-boggling that it's still being considered at all." The video notes "Roughly half the world's sockeye salmon come from here [. . . .] EPA scientists [wrote] a mine would result in complete loss of fish habitat that was irreversible."

For years, "No Pebble Mine" round stickers have been on trucks all over the Pacific Northwest. savebristolbay.org notes "Pebble mine threatens one of the world's last great salmon fisheries."  The website adds "February - June 2019: The Army Corps of Engineers released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), launching a key public comment period." and "Close to 700,000 comments were submitted in opposition to Pebble’s plan."

"How It Is [in Greenland]"

August 16, 2019 Update: According to Jon Henley in today's The Guardian "Donald Trump may have expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland for the US, but Denmark thinks the idea is frankly insane and Greenlanders have pointed out their home is not actually for sale." The article continues "'It must be an April Fools’ Day joke … but totally out of season,' tweeted the former prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen." See this Sept. 20, 2018, Greenland Melting (360°) | FRONTLINE interactive video for a "360-degree documentary" report of the melting ice.

Seth Doane at cbsnews.com reported "Søren Espersen, a member of Denmark's parliament joked Friday [. . .] 'Maybe we should buy California.'"

This week Greenland melting is in major news headlines, on video news, and on the radio. Bill McKibben's Twitter page linked a story from DW noting  "The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Twitter that this year's July had 'rewritten climate history books.' And what's more, it came after the hottest-ever June [in Europe]." News media including The New York Times, euronews.com, reuters.com, nationalgeographic.com, and cbc.ca (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) reported that heatwave moved north over Greenland. Jason Box spoke about this August 2, 2019, on Democracy Now! 

As a reminder, President Niinistö of Finland said in a Joint Press Conference with President Trump, August 28,2017, “If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe.” Scientists report a loss of Arctic ice means "less than 1 million square kilometers" [or 386,102 square miles] "because it is very difficult to melt the thick ice around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago" according to Wiki. Loss of Arctic ice brings concerns of rapid global heating and less food production short-term, and increased risk of sea level rise and more climate refugees long-term.

Below is a repost of my poem from my 2015 book Industrial Oz.  As you can see, I was more hopeful in 2015. Below that is a repost of Ludovico Einaudi - "Elegy for the Arctic" Video (1,797,334 views as of August 2, 2019).

In a related matter, here is a video for my friends and students misled to believe sunspots cause climate change.

How It Is

“For several days this month, Greenland’s surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations.”

—Maria-Joseé Vinñas, NASA’s Earth Science News Team, July 24,2012, at www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/greenland-melt.html

Sometimes you forget Greenland exists

like two pages stuck together in a novel

or a speed sign missed on a dark highway.

Then it melts and Holland disappears.

At this point everyone wonders,

“Will humanity survive?”

and I think of Butterfield Concrete Company

when I was a boy, and how,

even in the harshest neighborhoods

with metal bars on windows,

words in sidewalks were mostly about love.

"Deep adaptation is just really a set of four questions . . ." -- Jem Bendell's talk at European Commission published May 30, 2019

In my post "Arctic Methane Debate Rages On" (February 7, 2019) I wrote about conflicting views between Jem Bendell, Professor of Sustainability Leadership and Founder of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) at the University of Cumbria (UK), and Carolyn Ruppel, Ph.D, Research Geophysicist at Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, and leader of the USGS Gas Hydrates Project. To Bendell's presentation, I add my desire for a Planet Passport for Climate Refugees advocated by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber,  Director Emeritus of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Professor for Theoretical Physics at the University of Potsdam, Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and Member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).

Fleeing climate change - the real environmental disaster | DW Documentary (May 1, 2019. "DW is a German Public Broadcast Service." 198, 251 views as of today)

Used with permission of DW.

Earthrise film featuring Apollo 8 astronauts Bill Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

The climate crisis magnifies my respect for the free 29-minute film Earthrise, from the collection "Top 10 Films to Watch This Summer" noted by globalonenessproject.org Executive Director Cleary Vaughan-Lee as "[our] most-watched films used by teachers from this past school year."

For teachers, here is my community-building prompt after showing the film. Ask students "What have you learned from being on Earth today, in the past year, and in this lifetime?" Do this in a circle where, after writing for 10 to 30 minutes, each student around the circle gets a turn to "pass, delay, or respond," and no one is allowed to interrupt those who choose to share. After completing the circle, return to those who said "delay," and give each a chance to speak.

Below are quotes from the astronauts.

"In a hundred lunar distances where it's hardly going anywhere in space [Earth] is like a grain of sand. I got to thinking Is that really the center of the universe? [. . . .] You had better hope we land in the blue part. The target for the reentry was something like a mailslot if the mailman had to deliver your letter from 20,000 miles away. If we were too deep [in our calculations to return], we would burn up. [. . . .] [Viewing Earth from space] boundaries we have are really artificial ones. [. . . .] [People] really don't understand and realize what [they] have here until [they] leave it. [. . . .] When I hear people chanting that we ought to go on to Mars, I'm thinking [. . . .] why don't we get our act together here on Earth first, and go to Mars as human beings, not as jingoistic Americans or Chinese or Russians or Indians. Let's just do it as human beings. [. . . .] But at least for an instant in history, I believe that people looked upon themselves as citizens of the Earth."

The globalonenessproject.org film When a Town Runs Dry by Joris Debeij shows effects of climate change-magnified drought on a rural California farming town. Another good one is My Enemy, My Brother by Ann Shin which I used with the prompt "Write about a surprise ending." I wrote about the project's other films and resources in my January 27, 2018 post "Rivers and Stories" by Robert Hass, and global oneness project.

Slim Bracken Warned Me "Everything Changes"

"what matters most is / how well you / walk through the / fire" -- Bukowski

If you are just tuning in to the climate crisis, it may be difficult to process "we are already off the cliff" according to reporter Dahr Jamail, winner of the Martha Gellhorn Award for Journalism for his work in Iraq and the Izzy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Media in 2018. It is unknown how hard the crash landing will be. Jamail's July 15, 2019 article "Dancing with Grief" at resilience.org gives details. Using the above quote, Jamail notes "Meanwhile, the business-as-usual economic paradigm continues, and it, too, shows no indication of changing in the radical way necessary. In the U.S., hopes spring eternal that the Green New Deal, or one of the candidates for the 2020 election, or geo-engineering might save us. Yet none of these take into account that we are already off the cliff. Every single one of them is an attempt to try to fix something that is unfixable. [ . . . . ] The reality is, no government on Earth is currently willing to take the dramatic measures necessary that might begin to mitigate what is coming our way. [. . . .] There can no longer be any question that life as we know it, at least for those of us in the privileged West, is now ending."

His section "How to Be" cites "Czech dissident, writer, and statesman Václav Havel [who] said, 'Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.'" Jamail's section "Remaining Connected" quotes Chief Luther Standing Bear: "There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unknown, secret place. The old people came literally to love the soil, and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. [par break] Their teepees were built upon the earth and their altars were made of Earth. The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing. [. . . .] For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him. [par break] This never fails me. And as tragedy strikes, either in my immediate life, or by reading of it afar in the news, I again must remember to be still, get quiet, and listen—listen to the Earth—for what to do next."

Jamail's article reminds me of the end of the poem "How Is Your Heart?" by Charles Bukowski: "what matters most is / how well you / walk through the / fire"

In one of my most-visited posts "PLAYA Climate Change Discussion July 7, 2016" (542 views as of today) I wrote:

"Reflecting on [the climate crisis], I drove to a trout stream and had climate change conversations with ghosts of Socrates, Ed Abbey, Mother Teresa, and Charles Bukowski which I [. . .] put in Hawk on Wire: Ecopoems. I recalled my Outward Bound rock climbing course in the Okanagan Mountains when I was 16, and my instructor Dick Stokes, who later fished with me, saying if the world falls apart he will get his 'last sweet breath in wilderness.'"

"Of the above-mentioned ghosts, Bukowski was least willing.  'Remember, you asked me so I'll speak when I'm damn well ready and not before,' he said.  I forgot about him while catching rainbow trout on a size 10 peacock / mallard nymph, then I rounded a canyon corner past a huge boulder and there he was:"

Ghost of Bukowski Speaks on Climate Change

Yes, it's bleak,
bleaker than sheep snot
on barbed wire

but, hope or no hope,
we must find
some way

to make joy
no matter what.

Below is a new poem I wrote on the Alaska Marine Highway ferry Columbia yesterday in Ketchikan about an earlier trip on the Malaspina. Yesterday, the Columbia captain announced the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific walked off the boat on strike, and passengers would have to either wait or find another way home. I told Suz "Be ready for anything." Earlier at a coffee shop I heard the song "The Funeral" by Band of Horses (36,267,926 views), and reflected how the song fit, though unintended by the band in 2006, the current climate crisis. I watched the YouTube, and the man falling asleep driving is like  "government[s] on Earth" Jamail mentioned above.

On the Alaska Ferry Malaspina 
South of Juneau July 18, 2019

"No Service"
cell phones remark

and people look up
at the sea

and at each other
as it will be

soon with
climate change

like that song
by Talking Heads

that says "My God!
What have I done?"

Fishin' Solution

Yesterday my landlord informed me my hot water heater broke and flooded my apartment so there is mold to the ceiling and water everywhere. Most things I owned had to be taken to the dump. Now tell me the bad news, I thought. It gave me more compassion for families in New Orleans and Houston. To work off the stress about my flooded apartment, I went fishing. The fish was estimated at 160 pounds.

(Nonviolently) Sabatoging Oil and Gas Leasing in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

September 16, 2019 Update: Democracy Now! published an interview with Subhankar Banerjee: 
 “Biological Annihilation”: The Danger of Opening Alaska’s ANWR to Oil & Gas Drilling.

July 26, 2019 Update: politico.com published "How Science Got Trampled in the Rush to Drill in the Arctic" by Adam Federman with photographs by Nathaniel Wilder and video by Peter Elstner. The article notes, "Documents leaked to POLITICO Magazine and Type Investigations reveal that the work of career scientists has at times been altered or disregarded to underplay the potential impact of oil and gas development on the coastal plain. Moreover, DOI has decided it will undertake no new studies as part of the current review process, despite scientists’ concerns that key data is years out of date or doesn’t exist."

"Many junkies, before hitting bottom, stoop low enough to steal their mothers’ jewels. That’s what’s happening at a national scale on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska" (ANWR) begins this New York Times article by William deBuys on oil and gas leasing there opposed by republicans according to insideclimatenews.org "including EPA administrators under presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush," and I recall democrats, and Gwich'in people many years. I will be forever grateful if my republican friends call their senators and representatives today, and tell them they want ANWR protected for their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, and great great great grandchildren. You get the idea.

Suz and I are halibut fishing in Alaska, and meeting great people.

I'm grateful for my yoga.

No matter what else happens in my life, I can say I stood in Kake, Alaska.

Andrew Critchlow's July 9, 2019 S&P Global Article "OPEC is playing into Thunberg’s hands on climate change"

 Andrew Critchlow's July 9, 2019 S&P Global article is "OPEC is playing into [16-year-old] Thunberg’s hands on climate change." Here are gems from the article:

"The head of the oil cartel [OPEC’s Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo]– which pumps just under a third of the world’s crude – was quoted last week saying that attacks leveled at producers by a 'growing mass mobilization of world opinion' had become 'perhaps the greatest threat to our industry going forward. [. . . .] children have been mobilized to demonstrate [. . . .] They are beginning to infiltrate boardrooms and parliaments.'"

"All music to the young ears of Thunberg. The Swedish teenager described the comments as 'our biggest compliment yet' in a brief tweet to her army of 723,000 followers on the social media platform."

"Invited to the UN in New York this September, she plans to get there without air travel to minimise her carbon footprint."

"Thunberg managed to inspire an estimated 1.6 million children to walk out of school classrooms around the world in March to demand action on climate change. Her influence has grown impossible for most democratic governments to ignore."

"Doors will get harder to open for Barkindo and an oil-producing industry that is increasingly being branded as toxic by investors and politicians alike. Access to capital is very slowly being choked off by investors [ . . . .] For example, Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund is actively ditching most of its oil-producing investments. [. . .]  Japan’s gigantic $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund has placed an emphasis on applying ESG principles to its portfolio and is actively involved in the Group of Twenty Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures."

See the Thunberg videos I posted December 4, 2018. Harlan Howard's 1950s comment about country music seems to fit here: "Three Chords and the Truth"

In 2007 Serge Planton of Meteo-France Warned of European Heatwave "Every two years after 2017"

Many have heard of the June/July 2019 European heatwave, heat records in Alaska, and recent California tidal mussels cooked in shells. Regarding background, according to BBC Studios "3000 people died in Paris on one excessively hot Monday in 2003," and according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), that event "was the hottest in continental Europe since at least 1540." According to a Wikipedia cite, "Peer-reviewed analysis [placed] the European death toll [for the 2003 event] at more than 70,000." What is most haunting about that event is Serge Planton of Meteo-France's 2007 warning "Of course the heatwave of 2003 is very exceptional. What is projected now from our simulation is that we should have such an occurrence of a heatwave every two years after 2017."