July Drought, Loss of All German Alpine Glaciers in "15 Years," Inflation Reduction Act, and Pakistan Government Requests Help

Donated to Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation.

My July clay art is about drought in a previous year, good for the next two ice ages if anyone is here to see it.  Some of my other pieces are at this link.

My favorite climate video I recently watched was How Earth’s Geography Will Change With Climate Change [in a 4 C World] with about two million views in the past two years. I recall a poem I read years ago where a man responded to environmental crisis by singing on a mountain. It seems there is more than one way to sing.

In addition to flood, fire, drought news this week, WION Climate Tracker made an August 23, 2022 video noting Germany's five alpine glaciers will disappear in the next 15 years according to Glaciologist Christoph Mayer of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He also noted, "The majority of the glaciers in the Alps will disappear in the next 55 years." As many reported, Germany's Rhine River had serious drought/transportation issues this summer.

People I met in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington expressed hope for President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act's response to our Climate Emergency. I had to say, as I said after the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, "Not even close given rate of change." I'm grateful to Masada Disenhouse, Executive Director and Cofounder of SanDiego350, for writing July 28, 2022 "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Quick Takes on the Surprise Federal Climate Deal ." 

The Government of Pakistan requested $300 million in immediate assistance for flood survivors. August 25, 2022, WION Gravitas reported "900 killed, 1300 injured: [as] Floods devastate Pakistan." The YouTube noted, "the EU has agreed to provide $348,000. China [also suffering severe drought and floods] plans to send some 25,000 tents and $300,000 in emergency cash. Pakistan needs all the help it can get at the moment." Today the UK government noted it will provide "up to £1.5 million" [$1,759,950.]. Pakistan OBSERVER reported August 26, 2022, on a tweet from U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, "[ . . . . ] In addition to $100,000 in immediate relief, the U.S. announced $1 million to build resilience against natural disasters, and we continue to work together to mitigate future impacts of the climate crisis."

Poetry as Prophecy

The recent idea to divert Mississippi River water (over objections of people who live there) to the Colorado River System reminds me of the bizarre no-music ballet scene in the film Amadeus. It seems more vital to greatly reduce GHGs (greenhouse gas emissions) instead, even if fossil fuel companies resist. I recall a story about a German noble who set all the clocks in his city-state to his own eccentric time – ignoring everyone else on Earth. Regarding climate reality and unreality, this is what Big Oil has been doing for too long.

Below, my 2014 poem “Global Warming Serpent,” from the book Industrial Oz, is in Satan's voice. I’m not saying Big Oil is Satan. I’m saying Big Oil has been used by energies that, for insanely selfish reasons, have so far chosen to harm instead of help.

I'm grateful my last blog post (on water issues) had over a thousand views.

I’m grateful to editors Adeline Johns-Putra of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, and Kelly Sultzbach of University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, for a positive review of this blog in The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Climate (March 23, 2022): “Starbuck also writes about his dreams (one describes koalas with human voices asking for a seat at the United Nations!) [ . . . ]" They noted, “If idiosyncratic, the blog’s homespun nature offers, to its audience, an effective, comprehensive, and multifaceted picture of the personal impact of diminished fish stocks in American rivers.”

I’m grateful to Pamela S. Ellis for asking me to provide a short review of Climate Connection: American Student Voices, featuring the “twenty-three top climate student essay finalists in the 2022 National Climate Essay Student Competition” along with “inaugural works of the 2019, 2020, and 2021 National Climate Student Essayists included [to] demonstrate a climate urgency for a response trajectory synchronizing individual concerns, present-day humanity, and biodiversity survival realities.”

"Global Warming Serpent" fits recent news about many rivers: WION Climate Tracker | Reports: 66 rivers [dry] up in China [ . . . ], "Heatwave: 13 rivers in England at lowest level ever recorded [ . . . ]," and "The world's rivers are drying up from extreme weather. See how 6 look from space" [Colorado River, Yangtze River, Rhine River, River Po, Loire River, and Danube River].

Global Warming Serpent

 “Study: California Drought Most Severe Dry Spell in at least 1,200Years”-  Alex Emslie in KQED Science, 12/4/14

Soon, there will be no
rain on a dry riverbed
or wild jasmine in summer.

Together we shall desecrate land
as sex-starved soldiers
desecrate virgins.

In my name
we will kill circles, songs, light,
feet, voices, trees, rivers,

children, parents, lovers
and, most of all,
capacity to resist.

We will corrupt the Nile,
Amazon, Yangtze, Mississippi,
Ob, Yenisei, Yellow River,

Congo, Amur, Parana,
Lena, Mackenzie, Niger,
Mekong, Volga, Murray-Darling,

and Rio-Grande.
Glaciers will melt.
Groundwater will be fracked

until pure water costs more than gas.
There will be no end
until permanent damage is done

to the blue gem you call home.
Do you doubt me?
Does sky have nerve endings?

Can your rock breathe?

The fight for water | DW Documentary Aug 10, 2022

Used with permission of DW.

It seems no one told these water managers from California to Germany to Afghanistan about the importance of distraction, sugarcoating, and when politically needed, bold-faced lies. 

In a more serious tone, the desperation reminds me of when William Shatner, Star Trek's original Captain James Kirk, in 2015 wanted a water pipeline from Seattle to Lake Mead since California had a widely-reported year of above-ground-water left. March 20 of that year, LA Times reporter Tony Barboza, citing NASA Jet Propulsion senior water scientist and UC Irvine professor Jay Famiglietti (also in the above video), noted, "decades worth of groundwater remain [unless rate of use increases]." July 28, 2022, Famiglietti, now a hydrologist who directs the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, was quoted in a phys.org article by Elizabeth Weise, "The speed at which the severity of the drought increases, the pace of groundwater depletion, the pace at which ice is melting, these are all things that are changing much faster than we can keep up with." In the same article, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, "We need to have greater imaginations when thinking about the hazards. We need to be thinking about climate change everywhere all the time in the context of all the infrastructure we have, both existing and especially new." 

This is like a comment by British climate scientist and University of Manchester professor Kevin Anderson in a recent video, "Even if it's more expensive, let's put in the infrastructure that can both deal with 1.5 [C over 1850 preindustrial level] but also deal with, say what looks like, 3 degrees centigrade of warming in our local environment [over 1850 preindustrial level]." This idea fits UK meteorologist John Hammond's comments linked in my previous post regarding what became a UK record-breaking heatwave of 104.4 degrees Fahrenheit (40.2 degrees Celsius) at London’s Heathrow Airport, "[ . . . ] potentially railway lines becoming buckled, and lots of infrastructure disruption. Am I going to get to work? Should I be getting to work?"

The same idea of preparing for 3 degrees centigrade of warming could be useful for businesses, nonprofits, hospitals, colleges and universities, homeowners, and concerned citizens, given fast rate of icemelt in the Arctic and Antarctic which may soon leave darker surfaces, and therefore accelerated warming, with or without much feared, but controversial, potential huge methane releases. 

Imagine, by 2053

 

I'm grateful Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington accepted my Clay Salmon Poem in their art collection.  I recently donated other pieces to Washington State University, Vancouver Library, and Columbia Basin Fish & Wildlife Library, a program of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. 

Imagine, by 2053

if IPCC reports

at current rates

are true,

 

and if our high

carbon emissions

continue,

 

no police,

banks,

Internet,

 

electricity,

gas stations,

shopping centers,

 

schools,

hospitals,

maintained roads,

 

water faucets,

toilets,

iPhones,

 

ammunition,

propane,

kerosene.

 

Trains, planes, cars

will be converted

to shelters.

 

911 emergency call,

Jamie Dimon,

Bill Gates,

 

President of

United States

of America

 

less relevant

than diseased

mosquitoes

 

or food

and water.

People huddle,

 

tell stories

to their children

of Santa Claus,

 

Easter Bunny,

snowy mountains,

vast rivers,

 

aisles of low-cost

fruits

and vegetables,

 

seafood, meats,

breads, honey,

items from everywhere,

 

local farmers’ markets

selling a

Nature buffet.

 

Worshipped Dragon

that nearly killed

everyone on Earth.

My favorite climate article I recently read is Andrew Y. Glikson's April 11, 2022 "Global Warming and the Fermi Paradox" published in LA Progressive. I must add the troubling "tense interaction between a British meteorologist and anchor over the deadly UK heat wave" as reported by cnn.com, which was noted like a real-life scene of the film Don't Look Up. The full exchange is even more problematic.

Severe fires and droughts have been reported in many areas, and July 2022 flooding in Kentucky as well as recent floods in China, Japan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, South Korea, The Philippines, Australia, South Africa, Houston, Detroit, St. Louis, Yellowstone National Park, and Death Valley. 

August 1, 2022, Damian Carrington, Environment Editor at The Guardian, reported in his article, "Climate endgame: risk of human extinction ‘dangerously underexplored'," "The current trend of greenhouse gas emissions would cause a rise of 2.1-3.9C by 2100. But if existing pledges of action are fully implemented, the range would be 1.9-3C. Achieving all long-term targets set to date would mean 1.7-2.6C of warming." He quoted scientists recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences who he said claimed "Even these optimistic assumptions lead to dangerous Earth system trajectories.” Carrington added, "Temperatures more than 2C above pre-industrial levels had not been sustained on Earth for more than 2.6m years, they said, far before the rise of human civilisation, which had risen in a 'narrow climatic envelope' over the past 10,000 years." November 13, 2021 in my post "COP26 Report from Tim Crosland, Extinction Rebellion spokesperson and Director of Plan B.Earth," Crosland responded to Sky News reporter Adam Boulton, "What about taking everyone along from the Marshall Islands, and from Tuvalu, countries that are going to disappear if that 1.5 limit is exceeded? People in Bangladesh. Whole regions of the world are going to be uninhabitable. How are those people feeling right now when they see it ['emissions rising by 13.7 % by 2030' in the deal] going in the opposite direction [of scientific report to limit warming to 1.5 C by 'reducing carbon emissions 45% by 2030'] ? And how would you be feeling?" 

Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of Postsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Explains Extreme Jet Stream Weather Changes

Used with permission of DW.

In the above YouTube, Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of Postsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research explains jet stream weather changes as "hot dry sunny weather lingers for longer, maybe for weeks on end, therefore causing drought problems, wildfire problems, and also the rainfall systems are moving more slowly, and that was one of the main problems with that flooding in West Germany and Belgium/Holland one year ago [ . . . . ]" He says the "weakening jet stream" also explains "extreme heat in parts of the United States, in Europe, and also in China, and the worst case nightmare of climate scientists is really that there is a [ . . . ] simultaneous harvest failure in the major bread basket region of the Northern Hemisphere including United States, Europe, Russia, Ukraine which could cause a hunger crisis."

Climate Adam ("Doctor in climate science from Oxford."), with his typical blend of superb humor/reliable info, gives an excellent answer for a question many students had, "What is the point of climate action if other countries lag?" In my May 19, 2014 blog post it was the same question of Charles Koch. I wrote, "According to Bill Gates’ interview in Rolling Stone, Charles Koch says the problem is bigger than the USA can solve [so why try?]." I added, "When these billionaires discuss climate change at 'dinner,' you know there is a problem."

My favorite recent climate article is "‘Soon it [Earth] will be unrecognisable’: total climate meltdown cannot be stopped, says expert" about a new book Hothouse Earth by Bill McGuire,"emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London."  The 7/30/2022 article by Robin McKie at The Guardian quotes McGuire, "I know a lot of people working in climate science who say one thing in public but a very different thing in private. In confidence, they are all much more scared about the future we face, but they won’t admit that in public. I call this climate appeasement and I believe it only makes things worse. The world needs to know how bad things are going to get before we can hope to start to tackle the crisis." McGuire added, "Who would have thought that a village on the edge of London would be almost wiped out by wildfires in 2022." McKie wrote, "McGuire finished writing Hothouse Earth at the end of 2021. He includes many of the record high temperatures that had just afflicted the planet, including extremes that had struck the UK. A few months after he completed his manuscript, and as publication loomed, he found that many of those records had already been broken."

For many years, my mantra has been "rate of change, rate of change, rate of change," but now it is "water security, food security, community-building." Thank you to the recent 241 visitors from France, 123 from United Kingdom, and 78 from Germany. 

After the Bureaucratic Meeting

After the Bureaucratic Meeting

dried salmon, raw apple, hand-picked blackberries,
a few honest words circling wood fire
followed by silent glow
for people who crave real food.

Everyone here knows
our dreams tell us
we put too many limits on ourselves to
see, feel, think, do.

Maybe there’s a song so ancient
it makes all stop to listen
who we really are, and could be,
in this time of dread

as fires rage, villages flood,
hurricanes scream, millions of people
and other animals flee
for better places.

If someone doesn’t sing it soon,
most will die. 

I'm grateful to people all over the world who participated in "Hosting & Facilitating a Climate Café " offered by Climate Psychology Alliance July 12, 2022. I heard many honest words from those bringing their best gifts to the table, or in process of doing so. Regarding the "song" idea in my above poem, I like "Brave" by Sara Bareilles. This is not an easy thing to do in meetings or conversations, especially about climate issues. In a related matter, a big congratulations to my former landlord on his 102nd birthday! I recall he said about my first book Industrial Oz published in 2015, "Scott, if you read these poems, you're going to jail."

San Francisco Climate Clues, June 21, 2022

On a recent business trip to San Francisco, of course I wrote a climate poem:

San Francisco Climate Clues, June 21, 2022

In Hotel Caza painting, room 418,
orange octopus tentacles reach up
thousands of feet
under Golden Gate Bridge

like Nature making COVID-19,  BA.4, BA.5,
Atlantic and Gulf Coast hurricanes, fires,
heatwaves, ice melt, sea rise, dead corals
disrupting lives and livelihoods.

Later, in a nearby coffee shop
two men lament how Paradise, California,
will never be paradise again
in our lifetimes.

A nude woman walks to me
on a hot sidewalk above Fisherman’s Wharf
as news reports 92 degrees,
and Santa Rosa 104.

I worry about her young soles
and paws of various dogs
scampering behind
oblivious owners.

My Uber driver says about the woman,
“Yes, that happens here
when people are so drugged
they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Outside delicious Beloved Café
a man quietly sings to himself
so no one else
can hear the words.

Across town, a homeless man grasps
a screwdriver like a dagger
until I see
it’s for protection.

I recall the 1959 film On the Beach
when a calm, resigned Gregory Peck
allows a submarine crewman to escape
to a nuclear-doomed San Francisco.

“Is there anything you want before we go?” Peck asks.
“I’m okay,” the crewman replies.
“We won’t be coming back,” Peck continues,
to hear “I know.”

Someday soon
when fish belly up in real life,
birds drop,
and many stare in blank reflection,

as long as I can reduce
suffering of one being
my life has meaning.

#

For his brutal honesty, I added UN Secretary-General António Guterres of Portugal to my "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis." Similarly, now is a good time to read, or listen to, Bob Dylan's 5 June, 2017 NOBLE Lecture if you haven't.

Industrial Oz Poem and Interview With Krista Hiser, Director at University of Hawai'i Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum

Industrial Oz

is a drug to keep us

away from ourselves.

On a three-day solo fasting

in the North Cascades

illusions vanish, and

three options appear in dreams

by a wildflower creek:

1) Pretend life on Earth isn’t dying.

2) Pretend humans aren’t to blame.

3) Speak and write the truth.

I'm grateful for a recent interview with Krista Hiser, Director at University of Hawai'i Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum. 

Today Matt McGrath reported at bbc.com in "Climate change: Bonn talks end in acrimony over compensation" "'The climate emergency is fast becoming a catastrophe,' said Conrod Hunte, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)." The article continues, "At last year's COP26 conference in Glasgow, island states and developing countries agreed to prioritise cuts to carbon emissions on the back of promises that richer nations would finally set up a compensation process this year. [ . . . . ] But despite two weeks of discussions here in Bonn, they have been unable to get the issue of a funding facility on the agenda for the COP27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November."

Climate Activist Speaks With Australian Coal Miners About Climate Change

Used with permission of Multimedia Journalist & Filmmaker Kim Paul Nguyen

The above VICE News video with 750,175 views as of June 8, 2022, reminds me of my May 18, 2021 post "Thoughts and Prayers for Thousands of Klamath Falls, Oregon, Farmers/Ranchers, Facing Water Shut Off for 'First Year in History' as 'Millions of Migrating Birds' Suffer and '70% of [ . . . Downriver Salmon Smolts Are] Already Dead in the Traps Used to Collect Them,'" my August 25, 2018 post "'In Germany we should focus everything on the phase out of coal.' -- Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)" , my May 6, 2021 post "Climate Emergency and Harlan Howard's 'three chords and the truth'” and my August 29, 2018 post, "Schellnhuber: "Rising Seas Could Affect 1.4 Billion People by 2060." 

Spring term 2022, in addition to a Poetry Seminar, I taught five climate-themed sections of Critical Thinking and Intermediate Composition, and one of the students' favorite videos was David Schechter/Verify Road Trip's DOCUMENTARY: Climate skeptic examines what scientists know and how they know it in which "the skeptic, 38-year-old Justin Fain, is a 'politically conservative'  honest and curious Texas roofer with a great sense of humor [ . . . ]." One of the most disturbing videos was Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future complementing students' fears of having children.

In a related matter, my favorite recent climate article is "We cannot adapt our way out of climate crisis, warns leading scientist. Katharine Hayhoe says the world is heading for dangers people have not seen in 10,000 years of civilisation" by Fiona Harvey at The Guardian June 1, 2022. Hayhoe was quoted, “People do not understand the magnitude of what is going on. This will be greater than anything we have ever seen in the past. This will be unprecedented. Every living thing will be affected. [ . . . . ] If we continue with business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions, there is no adaptation that is possible. You just can’t.”

I told my students to look for circles, threads, and connections. Katharine Hayhoe was also featured in Schechter/Verify Road Trip's above DOCUMENTARY . . . . The video Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future, like Nguyen's/VICE News video above, was focused mostly on Australia. 

Koda with toys

10-month-old American Shepherd

understands importance of play,
close observation,
pushing limits of boundaries,
value of half-chewed stuffed frog,

eating when hungry,
sleeping when tired,
trusting smell,
always removing labels.  

Emotionally available,
he is better company
than many scholars
who understand human

impacts of climate crisis
like Koda understands 
origin of the universe. 

In a related matter, my favorite recent climate article is "The kids are not OK" by Julia Steinberger at Yale Climate Connections May 15, 2022 republished from Medium.com. Her bio notes she is "an ecological economist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland."

Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth

-- for NASA Scientist Peter Kalmus

It’s like we’re on Spaceship Earth
and our top navigators warn
we will soon collide with asteroid belt
unless we change course.
.00000005 percent get to vote.

IPCC AR6 Part III (Translation: Global Leaders AWOL)

Bill McKibben wrote it best in his Substack publication The Crucial Years, "At 5 a.m. this morning [April 4, 2022] we were supposed to get the report from Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It didn’t come—because delegates were still arguing. And the arguments were over the two most fundamental questions of the climate era: must we get off fossil fuels, and can we do it in a way that’s fair to the developing world?" 

Regarding the IPCC “Summary for Policy Makers” agreed upon by 195 nations, I think Pink Floyd sang it best in their 1979 song “Comfortably Numb”:

“Hello? (Hello? Hello? Hello?)

Is there anybody in there?

Just nod if you can hear me

Is there anyone home?”

Regarding the IPCC Summary's main points, section C.1 notes, “[ . . . . ] Without a strengthening of policies beyond those that are implemented by the end of 2020, GHG [Greenhouse Gas] emissions are projected to rise beyond 2025, leading to a median global warming of 3.2 [2.2 to 3.5] °C by 2100 [FOOTNOTE39, 40] (medium confidence). (Table SPM.1, Figure SPM.4, Figure SPM.5) {3.3, 3.4}” 

A "3.2 °C" temperature rise is a problem for two main reasons. First, greenhouse gas emissions are, and have been, moving in the upward direction as Tim Crosland recently noted. Second, 3.2 °C means, according to Gregor Aisch at Datawrapper, “High risk of reversing of carbon cycle triggering runaway warming spiral. Droughts and famine for billions of people, leading to chaos and wars."       

In similar bad news, Section C.3 of the IPCC Summary notes, “All global modelled pathways [ . . . ] that limit warming to 2°C (>67%) involve rapid and deep and in most cases immediate GHG [Greenhouse Gas] emission reductions in all sectors [ . . . . ]” 

Vested interests have long resisted overall reductions for any reason. So, will this happen in time to avert more severe climate disasters?

You can be sure items agreed upon by 195 nations are likely, due to political interference sometimes referred to as “compromise,” to be like Sir Alec Issigonis' quote, "A camel is a horse designed by committee." In 2019 Writer Dahr Jamail spoke about a pattern of severe IPCC underestimations. 

Billions of humans and nonhumans have relied on IPCC-informed world leaders to respond in meaningful ways at 26 COPS (Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), and these leaders have repeatedly “dropped the ball” as football fans in the U. S. would say. I wish I could write there is hope on the horizon. Poetic honesty demands three other responses to consider: 1) water security; 2) food security; and 3) community building. 

Plain Speaking About IPCC's Second Part of the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Summary for Policy Makers (signed off by 195 member nations). Clarification by Dr. Charlie Gardner of University of Kent, and Clare Farrell of Extinction Rebellion UK

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion.

March 20-22, 2022 Update -- Fiona Harvey at The Guardian reported "Heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles alarm climate scientists." The article noted "Antarctic areas reach 40C [70 degrees Fahrenheit] above normal at same time as north pole regions hit 30C [50 degrees Fahrenheit] above usual levels" and "Startling heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles are causing alarm among climate scientists, who have warned the 'unprecedented' events could signal faster and abrupt climate breakdown." Alarmist-averse Michael Mann was quoted, "[. . . ] extreme events are exceeding model projections." The article added, "James Hansen, former NASA chief scientist and one of the first to warn governments of global heating more than three decades ago, told the Guardian the heating of the poles was 'concerning' [ . . . ]" Harvey wrote climate "scientists warned that the events unfolding were 'historic' [ . . . ] and 'dramatic'."

In a related matter, possible collapse of Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier ice shelf within five years has been widely reported. 

Thank you to 426 visitors the past three days. Here is a poem I wrote this morning walking my dog about disconnect between climate reality and many people living as if everything's okay.

Law of Unintended Consequences

You collected dog poop in small bag,
tossed it over fence near garbage.

Your wife’s howl meant she thought
it was a package from Amazon

like buying her a new Camry and
flying to Hawaii for her birthday

or hiking in Columbia Gorge
wildflowers instead of nonviolently

bringing down oil companies that
at this rate will kill her someday

and everything you love.

Three Sockeye in the Columbia River, Oregon

The first had no eyes.
The second no tongue.
The third fungus gills.

“Salmon people have spoken,”
said the fisherman
to others who stared in disbelief.

Finally, someone asked,
“What did they say?”
Water is too hot to survive,

and you're next.
Unless you listen and change,
the curse you put on us

will be on you, and your children.

* Click here for a video of the dying salmon.

I'm grateful to Windfall, A Journal of Poetry of Place for publishing this poem in the Spring 2022 issue along with work by noted writers Amy Miller, Steve Dieffenbacher, Mark Thalman, Bette Lynch Husted, Penelope Scambly Schott, Marilyn Johnston, Gary Lark, Carlos Reyes, Barbara Drake, Clemens Starck, Charles Goodrich, Dianne Stepp, James Dott, Kim Stafford, Paulann Petersen, Andrea Hollander, Lisa M. Steinman,  Tim Gillespie, Pepper Trail, Luther Allen, Joel Savishinsky, Tom Wayman, Eleanor Berry, Michael McDowell, and Bill Siverly.

Regarding threats to Pacific salmon, I saw NPR reported today "A 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits northern Japan." I wrote about the Fukushima issue in 2013 here, here, and here.

Dr Ye Tao talks with Clare Farrell | 23 November 2021 | Extinction Rebellion UK

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion. Dr. Ye Tao gives an excellent presentation weaving in social equity, and the need for nonprofit science-based solutions benefiting people in all countries such as mirrored roof tiles in India to reduce suffering during extreme heat events. 

March 6, 2022 Update: Dave Borlace's Just Have a Think posted a video Can we survive the coming decades? about the IPCC's second part of the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Summary for Policy Makers. Long ago I noted Borlace as top "Explainer" on my "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis." 

The end of the Extinction Rebellion above video mentions Kim Stanley Robinson's climate novel The Ministry for the Future in which a heat wave kills 20 million people in India. Interviewed by Amy Brady October 27, 2020 in Burning Worlds at Chicago Review of Books, Robinson responded, "Recent studies of the effect of heat and humidity combined have found that a temperature index of 'wet-bulb 35' (which would be about 95 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity, and then higher temperatures combined with slightly lower humidities [ . . . ]), are fatal to humans who can’t take shelter in air-conditioned spaces. But in heat emergencies like this, power systems are likely to be overwhelmed and go down, at which point even people unclothed, in the shade, and fanning themselves, would still die, in a kind of slow parboiling that the body just can’t handle [ . . . . ]  I remain terrified that something like this opening scene might happen in the coming decade."

In the Extinction Rebellion video Dr. Ye Tao says, "Any form of direct air capture by industrial method will not be able to work at scale, and to make a measurable impact to the climate crisis in less than several centuries of time. The basic reason is the process of demixing the air is a highly energy-intensive process. Just imagine if you had to separate a pile of well-mixed salt and pepper. So to create order out of disorder takes a lot of energy, and that is guaranteed by the laws of thermodynamics. So it doesn't really matter how much engineering you put onto it. We need an operation the size of the U. S. Military six thousand years [ . . . ] to really achieve what these companies are calling for."

This fits what Agence France-Presse wrote at The Guardian September 8, 2021, in "World’s biggest machine capturing carbon from air turned on in Iceland." The article notes, "Constructed by Climeworks, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air every year, the companies say. [par break] According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, that equates to the emissions from about 870 cars. The plant cost between US$10 and 15m to build, Bloomberg reported."

Three posts below I wrote, "[ . . . ] Ye Tao, RF Alumnus of Rowland Institute at Harvard, [ . . . ] I noted as a top 'Innovator' on my 'Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis.'" This was for his video posted January 29, 2020, "Shocking Facts About Climate Change & A Possible Solution [ . . . ]"

The Last Two Men on Earth

 The Last Two Men on Earth

-- parts of this poem appeared in my February 23, 2020 post "Climate Lifeboats of the Rich and Famous?"

I recall when it was reported Bill Gates bought -- then didn't buy -- Sinot's AQUA, "the world's first hydrogen-powered yacht for $650 million" according to businessinsider.com' s Taylor Gorden

and Jeff Bezos bought -- then didn't buy super yacht Flying Fox according to stuff.co.nz's 
John Anthony. The oceans are a better climate refuge than Mars, I thought.

I wrote, "These yes -- no -- reports are like the dead parrot scene in Monty's Python's sketch about a 'resting' Norwegian Blue," and later posted about Nirvana's version of Bowie's song

"The Man Who Sold the World." as much our story as theirs. Say what you dislike about them, Earth's two richest bipedal homo sapien mammals are not fools.

Gates "aw-shucks" brilliance took him from a New Mexico garage to fame and privilege. 
His "I know something you don't"-grin is priceless in a 1977 mugshot for a traffic violation.

It was reported Bezos' Amazon empire similarly started in a garage with spunk, "a handful of employees," and marketable data. Fortunes were made, dreams came true, and many lives changed.

If you were them, what exactly would you do with your wealth, creativity, research teams, and who knows what as glaciers melt, seas rise, forests burn, crops vanish, and species die?

Playing their cards right, they may be the last two surviving humans, as neurons shut down like light switches in Halloween mansions, and words fade as in flooded seaside libraries.

#DemocracyNow "'Don't Look Up': David Sirota on His Oscar Nod for Writing Blockbuster Climate Crisis & Media Satire"

 

Regarding Don't Look Up's tech billionaire Sir Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) attempting to profit from the death comet's rare minerals, I recall Terry Macalister wrote about a real situation involving Royal Dutch Shell.  "Shell accused of strategy risking catastrophic climate change" is about "an internal document [that] acknowledged [the effect of] a global temperature rise of 4C" at The Guardian May 17, 2015. Similarly, August 25, 2018, I quoted founding director of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Hans Joachim Schellnhuber in a video which was removed, "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?'."

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research was a partner of Noble Prize Summit -- OUR PLANET, OUR FUTURE April 26/27/28, 2021.

To complement fictional urgency of the comet in Don't Look Up, see my July 1, 2021 post "Climate Culling and Healing," about real urgency of Schellnhuber, quoted by Paddy Manning July 9, 2011 in The Sydney Morning Herald. Manning wrote "in a 4 [C] degree warmer world, the population," according to Schellnhuber, has '' … carrying capacity estimates below one billion people." Worldometers.info notes Earth's population is nearly 8 billion so it seems most would die from starvation, war, and heat.

My post noted "Imagine Earth reaches 5 C above 1850 preindustrial baseline 'within 80 years or so at our current trajectory' as noted by Dave Borlace if we don’t cut enough carbon."

I wrote, "If things get near that bad, I propose a 100-question exam designed by 3rd graders in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Haiti, Yemen, The Philippines, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and The Marshall Islands tuned by leading academics so only one eighth of the global population can pass. Everyone else dies. This would be far more equitable than 'politics of the armed lifeboat' described by Amitav Ghosh in The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable."

Living in the Time of Dying (Free Documentary by Michael Shaw featuring Professor of Sustainability, Jem Bendell; Dharma teacher and author, Catherine Ingram; Award winning journalist and author, Dahr Jamail and Native American Elder, author and teacher Stan Rushworth)

See the link to the documentary at livinginthetimeofdying.com  I understood when posting that Jem Bendell's paper “Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy” is controversial among academics. For background, see Kiley Bense's December 24, 2021 Inside Climate News article "In Deep Adaptation’s Focus on Societal Collapse, a Hopeful Call to Action." The article mentions Ye Tao, RF Alumnus of Rowland Institute at Harvard, who I noted as a top "Innovator" on my "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis." I cited Bendell and linked to his paper in my February 7, 2019 post "Arctic Methane Debate Rages On," updated Feb. 12, 2019, April 2019, and June 2019. 

Buffering the Climate Emergency

Koda defending his otter.

Toula is our pug rescue.

Toby is our 17-year old Jack Russell who jumps like a puppy.

I followed Bill McKibben's lead, and got a puppy to go with my two older dogs. Most dogs haven't read the IPCC's dire reports. Deer, elk, squirrels, and wild birds are still magic to them, and should be to us. Koda is so smart he helps neighbor kids with their math homework.

A reader of this blog recently wrote I use too many statistics and lists. He said my readers weren't feeling the climate emergency. Yes, it's important to feel it, and it's also important to feel some joy in our days so we can keep telling people what many don't want to hear, and doing necessary work of truth-telling many don't want to do. It's odd to me this blog of a Pacific Northwest fisher/ecopoet has over 100,000 views -- odd in a good way. 

In a related matter regarding the "feeling" theme, I recently heard at Rock N' Roll True Stories, "The Cranberries former manager Allen Kovac would reveal to Rolling Stone magazine that the group's label Island Records urged The Cranberries not to release the politically-urgent song ["Zombie"] as a single. The label offered [Dolores] O'Riordan one million dollars to work on a different song but she ripped up the check, according to Kovac [ . . . . ]" Earlier in the Rock N' Roll True Stories video, it was noted "There would be one incident in particular that inspired the creation of the song. That occurred on March 20, 1993. Explosives hidden under a garbage can in the city of Warrington, Northwestern England, took the lives of a three-year-old and twelve-year-old boy, and injured dozens of others." My question for students, and others, is what is so important in your writing/singing/speaking/art you would tear up a million dollar check asking you to ignore it? (I contacted Universal Music Group to fact check the claim.)

Arctic and Antarctic News (Record 38 degrees Celsius or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit in Arctic confirmed by World Meteorological Organization.)

Used with permission of DW.

January 17, 2022 Update: Three days ago Jeff Masters at Yale Climate Connections reported "Australia ties Southern Hemisphere’s all-time heat record of 123°F; epic heat cooks Argentina." Thank you to the recent 352 visitors from Romania, 339 from United States, and 107 from France.

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,” and we are rapidly heading there regarding overall trends. With notable exceptions, local, state, national, and global governments are failing us. Brad Plumer reported in The New York Times January 10, 2022, "America’s greenhouse gas emissions from energy and industry rose 6.2 percent in 2021 as the economy began recovering from pandemic lows and the nation’s coal plants roared back to life, according to a preliminary estimate published Monday by the Rhodium Group." This is unacceptable given our track record historically as the world's worst offender! If it continues, I will write a poem about it. I know this sounds like an empty threat, but I will do it. My wife says things like "Nobody cares about your blog" as her version of encouragement, but here I am again. 

I recall Robert Bly described war as "sleepers joining hands" (title of his 1973 book), and the same could be said about human war (especially oil companies' war) against all life on Earth. Any nonviolent action you could take to help "sleepers" wake up would be appreciated. 

In related news, Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone contributing editor, continued excellent reporting on the dangers of losing ice, which in addition to the sea rise problem taking out coastal cities, has been a sort of thermal regulator for Earth since, according to researchers, "700,000 to 4 million years in the Arctic," and "about 45.5 million years" in Antarctic.

In more related news, Bill McKibben has a new newsletter, "The Crucial Years," to which I gladly subscribed. It is free to $60 a year, depending on your choice. Funds the first year will be "used to support a nascent organizing effort that [he is] calling Third Act. This is an attempt to organize people over the age of 60—I think it’s as vital that the Boomers and the Silent Generation join this fight in force as it has been to watch the incredible work of youth organizers and of frontline communities." I chose McKibben as the top "Organizer" on my "Updated Best Practices for Climate Crisis." Like 50-year activist Joanna Macy, he is a wise elder.

Thoughts and prayers go for people and nonhumans of Argentina where, according to Matthew Cappucci at washingtonpost.com, "Buenos Aires [was] 106 degrees [Dec. 28, 2021]" and "700,000 people there have lost power." Parts of Argentina were reported January 11, 2022 by voanews.com to be "around 45°C (113°F)." This reminds me of my July 23, 2021 post "Climate Reality Pushback" when I noted  "'More than one billion marine intertidal animals [ . . . ] may have perished along the shores of the Salish Sea during the record temperatures at the end of June, [2021] said University of British Columbia researcher Chris Harley' according to Canada's nationalobserver.com journalist Rochelle Baker." I reminded readers of a heat wave that "killed or harmed three billion animals" in Australia according to a July 28, 2020 bbc.com news article. Similarly, I wrote in my October 26, 2021 post "Rethinking Weather Forecasts," "121.2 Fahrenheit (49.6°C) air temperature [was recorded] in Lytton, B. C. June 29, 2021," and "a professor of statistics at my college said the probability of 115 F (46 C) in Seattle before June 2021 was zero, but it happened. He added at the time there were better odds buying one lottery ticket, and winning."

Thank you to the recent 221 visitors from Japan, 92 from Russia, 37 from Germany, 18 from Canada, 12 from France, 9 from Sweden, and 7 from Italy. 

COP26 Report from Tim Crosland, Extinction Rebellion spokesperson and Director of Plan B.Earth

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion.

My deepest respect goes to Tim Crosland, Extinction Rebellion spokesperson and Director of Plan B.Earth, for keeping his focus on climate reality. Near the end of the Sky News approximately 7-minute broadcast, Adam Boulton says "But the way politics works you've got to take everyone along, and that recognition by the [COP26] global community is surely worth something."  

Crosland responds, "What about taking everyone along from the Marshall Islands, and from Tuvalu, countries that are going to disappear if that 1.5 limit is exceeded? People in Bangladesh. Whole regions of the world are going to be uninhabitable. How are those people feeling right now when they see it ['emissions rising by 13.7 % by 2030' in the deal] going in the opposite direction [of scientific report to limit warming to 1.5 C by 'reducing carbon emissions 45% by 2030'] ? And how would you be feeling?" 

In related matters, RTE, the Irish Public Broadcast Service, reported Saleemul Huq, of the Global Climate Action Expert Group, Bangladesh, said "It's a death sentence for the poorest people on the planet, and not only that, the polluters are saying 'To hell with you. We don't care. We're not going to give you a penny.'" In the same video, it was noted former President of Ireland Mary Robinson tweeted, "[ . . . . ] While millions around the world are already in crisis, not enough leaders were in crisis mode. People will see this as a historically shameful dereliction of duty."

Reframe, Redefine

Those who closely follow the climate emergency know even if we had COP26 global cooperation, and sincere GHG (greenhouse gas) reduction commitments by 2030, the climate future would be challenging. It's important to note, according to Carbon Brief "[ . . . ] the US [ . . . ] is responsible for the largest share of historical emissions, [ . . .] with some 20% of the global total." while China, ranked second, is responsible for "11%, followed by Russia (7%), Brazil (5%) and Indonesia (4%)." Carbon Brief added "The latter pair are among the top 10 largest historical emitters, due to CO2 from their land."

I had to reframe the issue into who and what may be protected for how long, and redefine success as keeping alignment with one's conscience for atheists, and God for believers. Writer Dahr Jamial said, as I wrote and posted in a video before, "'What do we do knowing all of that [bad news about the climate emergency], [ . . . ] 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?'" 

102-year-old "independent scientist" and originator of  the Gaia hypothesis James Lovelock wrote a COP26 Opinion in The Guardian Nov. 2, 2021, "Beware: Gaia may destroy humans before we destroy the Earth." In the article Lovelock warned "But my fellow humans must learn to live in partnership with the Earth, otherwise the rest of creation will, as part of Gaia, unconsciously move the Earth to a new state in which humans may no longer be welcome. The virus, Covid-19, may well have been one negative feedback. Gaia will try harder next time with something even nastier."

To help students, and others, understand pressure on world leaders regarding "climate risk management," watch the approximately 14 minute video "Paying For Predictions" game designed by Pablo Suarez and Janot Mendler de Suarez for the Red Cross / Red Crescent Climate Centre.

After the First Day of COP26 (began Sunday, October 31)

Used with permission of Extinction Rebellion.

The gap between COP26 rhetoric and action reminds me of the end of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit": "A denial, a denial, a denial, a denial, a denial/ A denial, a denial, a denial, a denial." Previously, I linked to their playing of David Bowie's song "The Man Who Sold the World" which fits. I appreciate the above Extinction Rebellion video has writer James Baldwin's quote I also used, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." 

As a reminder, after The Paris Climate Agreement December 12, 2015, Amanda Erickson wrote in the Washington Post October 11, 2018, "Few countries are meeting the Paris climate goals." The Climate Action Tracker graph in the article was updated November 2021, as carbon and methane emissions keep rising. The Gambia is the only country that is "1.5°C PARIS AGREEMENT COMPATIBLE."

Rethinking Weather Forecasts

Recently, a professor of statistics at my college said the probability of 115 F (46 C) in Seattle before June 2021 was zero, but it happened. He added at the time there were better odds buying one lottery ticket, and winning.

In my August 4, 2021 post "Gauguin and July 2021," I wrote about "120 Fahrenheit (49°C) [ground surface temperature in Seattle, June 25, 2021, and 121.2 Fahrenheit (49.6°C) air temperature in Lytton, B. C. June 29, 2021] shattering records." Dr. Jason Box was quoted, "That's basically unlivable, at least for nature. [ . . . .] We have to prepare [for] extreme disruptions to our lives."

In my July 23, 2021 post "Climate Reality Pushback" I noted  "More than one billion marine intertidal animals [ . . . ] may have perished along the shores of the Salish Sea during the record temperatures at the end of June, [2021] said University of British Columbia researcher Chris Harley" according to Canada's nationalobserver.com journalist Rochelle Baker." I reminded readers of a heat wave that "killed or harmed three billion animals" in Australia according to a July 28, 2020 bbc.com news article.

In a related matter of extreme heat, Dani Anguiano reported in The Guardian Oct. 21, 2021 about a "California family found dead on hike killed by extreme heat, sheriff says." She wrote, "Temperatures were in the 70s when the family started their hike, but climbed as high as 108F as they made their way through the trail. [ . . . . ] An 85-ounce (2.5-litre) water container the family had with them was empty, and they had no other water. There is no cellphone reception on the trail." 

Here in Washington State, the morning of October 24, 2021, I left the Vancouver area to fish near Mt. Hood when a National Weather Service Emergency Alert cut into the Oregon Public Broadcasting/NPR program I was listening to regarding a Category 5 "atmospheric river" headed just north of Vancouver, Washington that could rip roofs from houses. Before driving, I heard about the threat to northern California and southern Oregon, but nothing about a serious weather warning in my area.

People in northern Clark County, Washington were advised to shelter in lower rooms to wait it out. One person I spoke with said, "The weather people don't know anymore."

Today Monica Garrett, Jason Hanna and Dave Hennen reported about severe weather at cnn.com regarding "A nor'easter drenches the East Coast, spurring flash flooding and water rescues in northern New Jersey." The article noted, "The storm, expected to deliver about 2 to 6 inches of rain in short order over several states, led the governors of New Jersey and New York to declare states of emergency in advance, just weeks after Hurricane Ida left severe flooding there in early September. [ . . . . ] In New Jersey's Union Beach south of New York City, floodwaters trapped some vehicles, and emergency workers made more than a dozen water rescues late Monday into early Tuesday, Union Beach Police Chief Michael Woodrow said. [ . . . . ] [New Jersey] Gov. Phil Murphy delayed the opening of state government offices until 11 a.m. to allow workers ample time to arrive [, noting] 'If you're out on our roads and come across a flooded section, please just turn around -- don't go ahead. Sadly, we lost too many people in Ida who went ahead.'"

Oct. 25, 2021, CapRadio Staff reported at capradio.org "Sacramento sets rainfall record as atmospheric river passes through Northern California." The article noted, "A week ago, Sacramento broke a record of 212 consecutive days without rain. Then yesterday it set a record with more than 5 inches of rain in a single day. [ . . . .] But these sort of extreme swings — from incredibly dry to cyclone bombs and atmospheric rivers — could become more common as climate change warms California."

What next?

October 2021, Near a Washington State River

October 2021, Near a Washington State River

On my truck gate, pulling up waders,
branches snap in morning dark as a cougar stalks me.

When it gets closer, I re-enter and wait until
a fellow angler arrives and we descend in canyon.

We split at two trails, and the cougar follows me.
I toss rocks and yell at it.

Later, under stars, I reflect if this were
a metaphor for global climate response,

I would wear a blindfold, hang a T-bone steak
on my neck, go back in forest whispering

“Here kitty, kitty,” and hope nothing happens. 

In other poetry news, I'm grateful to former Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at University of Alabama Heidi Lynn Staples for accepting my poem "When I Lived Upriver" in her project Hold Our Breath 2040: Artists and Writers Reimagine Forestation, an international creative digital commemoration of afforestation efforts to address climate change. I also appreciate Flyfishing & Tying Journal for including two of my poems in the next issue. 

Thank you to the recent 222 visitors from Sweden, 117 from Russia, 92 from Germany, 18 from Hong Kong, 18 from Senegal, 17 from Canada, 17 from Indonesia, 10 from United Kingdom, and 5 from Spain.

I Found Some of my 2006 Clay Art in the Garage

Donated to Washington State University, Vancouver Library

Recent words of climate desperation are not encouraging. Jeff Goodell's excellent 10/1/21 Rolling Stone article "Joe Manchin Just Cooked the Planet" noted, "As climate journalist Amy Westervelt put it with characteristic aplomb: 'The change these motherfuckers are signing us up for is so many times more radical than any climate policy ever proposed.'" Goodell continued, "You can argue that the real action on climate happens at the local level. Or that the astounding decline in clean energy prices will drive the revolution. But without a big push from government, it won’t happen fast enough, nor will the deep injustices of climate chaos be addressed in any meaningful way." 

Similarly, US Climate Envoy John Kerry was quoted by cnn.com's Nada Bashir 10/2/21, "We are behind and we have to stop the B.S. that is being thrown at us by a number of countries that have not been willing to sign up to what Great Britain have signed up to, we have signed up to, Japan, Canada [,] the EU. That is to keep 1.5 degrees alive [ . . . . ] That's what has to happen at COP26, a new level of transparency and accountability."

However, I also recall Joanna Macy's words, "Don't pour all your energy into defeating what is already defeating itself at the core [ . . . . ] People know that the whole life on Earth is in danger. They are aware of it in their bodies at any rate. Help them to feel the strength to feel life within them, and move together [ . . . . ]"  

About 15 years ago, I feared this climate emergency would happen so I used the energy of that to make clay art. Putting my hands in clay was one of the most healing things I have done. The art was made with bones of salmon and steelhead trout I caught in Oregon and Washington rivers, and ate.

I included work featured at the The Spirit of the Salmon Fund's Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum "Salmon People" Gala in Portland, Oregon below. When all else fails, make art, sing, do activist work, hike in nature, set an example. Some things are in one's control, some are not, and all are in control of, or allowed by, the Creator. Joanna Macy's translation of Rilke is:

Dear darkening ground,

you’ve endured so patiently the walls we’ve built,

perhaps you’ll give the cities one more hour

and the churches and cloisters two.

And maybe those that labor—You'll let their work

still grip them for another five hours, or seven,

before you become forest again, and water, and wilderness

in that hour of inconceivable terror

where you take back your name

from all things.

Oh, just give me a little more time!

I am going to love the things 

as no one has thought to love them,

until they’re real, and ripe, and worthy of us.