My Open Letter to the EPA

Photo from Thom Ayres' Stilled Life Series

Dear EPA Leadership:*

Your decision to begin to address our Climate Crisis today will be something you tell your grandchildren some day. Or not. It really is that black and white. A decision to regulate carbon gives a glimmer of hope that we will be able to survive Climate Change. Without it, our chances for survival as a species are diminished. We are at that crossroads and you, members of the US Environmental Protection Agency, may very well be deciding the fate of our species and many other life forms on this planet. 

Coming to realize just how dire this crisis is has been a very painful journey for me. I am a Climate Leader, a volunteer with the Climate Reality Project. The more I learn, the more I want to shake everyone I see and meet and tell them that this is the crisis of our lifetimes, not some future generation. It is happening NOW. To convince others to wake up, to act, to write their Congressman or Congresswoman and demand action be taken immediately is my goal for the rest of my life.    

At this point, it is very much like standing in a theater shouting FIRE but the audience remains transfixed by the images on the screen, not hearing our cries. Except with this fire, there are no exits. Either we extinguish the flames together or die a certain death together. 

What I hope you do is to first fine those corporations who are spewing carbon, the major cause of global warming, into our atmosphere. We will not be the first country to do so. In fact, there are nearly 40 countries before us who are already regulating carbon polluters to help curb Climate Change. Even China has a pilot carbon policy program in place that they will expand to the rest of the country by 2015. Even China understands what this crisis means.  

Secondly, my hope is that you and the Obama Administration will set up a task force to determine our way forward as curbing our carbon output is only the very first small step toward addressing this crisis. We need a task force comprised of: 

Climate Scientists who can tell us the best and worst case scenarios over the next year as well as 5, 10 and 15 years from now and how much carbon needs to be reduced.

Ecologists/Environmentalists who have had boots on the ground for the past 50 years, passionately telling us that this was coming, who have vital networks within our communities who will help us roll out the plan or plans determined to be best. 

Community Leaders who can tell us how to best organize these plans in their towns, cities and rural areas, what kind of practical application will best be applied to their home territories and others in their charge.

Policy makers who know the laws, who know what laws will affect this process and can suggest fair and just laws that need to be written to support this way forward. 

What this task force will determine are two vital points:

What sources of energy will be used going forward?

How will we capture the carbon existing in the atmosphere? 

BOTH tasks need to happen simultaneously if we are to survive this crisis. Choosing to only secure alternative energy sources will only lead to a longer lingering death for millions. We must also draw the carbon out of our atmosphere to avoid further degradation of our overall climate, water, and soil systems. There are carbon capturing resources that exist now and many are being developed and championed. These technologies exist and more will be invented as we focus on this crisis.

We are a creative, thoughtful species and we are approaching the 11^th hour to address this Crisis. Please lead the way.  

Thank you for the opportunity to speak out on this issue. 

Monica Jenkins, Climate Leader

*For the last couple weeks, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been hosting public listening sessions, inviting the public to suggest ways to address the carbon pollution pouring from our power plants into our atmosphere. This is my written statement response to that question and addressing the larger issue of Climate Change that I think they are stepping too gingerly around. 

Handout from the Presentations on Climate Change this Weekend

Here is a pdf of the handout I used this weekend for the The Climate Reality Project.

This is a list of Climate Actions you can take as an individual as well as actions to take as a family, a group or a community.

Thank you to all who attended this weekend!

Best regards,

Monica 

Click HERE for your printable copy.

Presentations Coming Up: Friday, October 25 & Sunday, October 27

 

I will be presenting the Climate Reality Project's material the last weekend in October two times. Both presentations are 60 minutes long with Q&A following. Both will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Geneva at the corner of 2nd and James. 

Friday, October 25, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary.

Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. in the Common Room.

This presentation will review the science of why this is happening, present current climate events over the last several years, and suggest solutions to this crisis. Actions individuals can take to address this crisis will also be covered. Admission is free for both events.

I tell those who attend my presentations the following three things: 

• This IS the crisis of our lifetime and you need to pay attention to this. 
• It doesn't have to be this way!
• Everyone has a role to play in addressing this crisis. (And there are no small roles!)

Please spread the word! Looking forward to sharing this information with you!

Connections and How to Make Them

Our Earth! Photo taken September 22, 2013

I have been reading a lot these past few weeks and thinking about possible fixes to the fix we are in with our climate. My last post here reflects fairly accurately my impression to date about why we find ourselves in this dilemma. If we are doing most everything wrong, why have we taken this path in the first place? Why has our civilization evolved to the point that living our lives the way we live them has become life threatening? The technologies and techniques exist now to change our civilization, to reduce our fossil-fuel addictions and sequester carbon. But if we don't address the root cause, guess what – we will find ourselves back at this place again next generation or sooner.

Tim DeChristopher. a champion for climate action, spoke at the Chicago History Museum Friday night. He suggested that this crisis gives us an opportunity to rethink how we are in community. He compared the responses to two of the worst catastrophic weather events to date in the United States: Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. The response to Katrina was corporate and military led and the choices made by those entities for that recovery effort has led to great loss of life, income and personal property. Images of the lawlessness and brutality and lack of compassionate consideration for the victims of that tragic event will be with me my whole life and the overall 'relief' effort will be a stain on our country's conscience for decades to come. The response to Hurricane Sandy was quite different as the participants in the Occupy movement stepped up almost immediately and started organizing the relief efforts neighborhood by neighborhood. FEMA and the Red Cross arrived and utilized the existing community network set up by the Occupy volunteers. For the many who wondered what the use was of the Occupy movement, you can now point to the Sandy relief as one result of what a unified community can do. This truly is what Democracy looks like. Or as DeChristopher famously said at his sentencing: "This is what Love looks like." (Local radio interview with DeChristopher from Friday, September 27, 2013 here.)

DeChristopher suggests, and I wholeheartedly agree, that the time to create a community that responds effectively to catastrophe is now. What kind of community do we want to have? Do we want one that relies on the military or a soulless corporation bent on making money to step in when catastrophe strikes again? Or do we want a resilient community structure that supports all members no matter their social standing or the color of their skin?

Which leads to a question we need to ask - what would our greater community, our civilization look like if we address this crisis head on, tackle its difficulties in creative and effective ways and set ourselves back on track to live our lives in peace. What would that community look like? I think it would differ significantly from how it looks now. We would begin to realize that we are not separate creatures moving along on separate paths. We are all connected. We are connected to all creatures on this planet from the smallest amoeba to the largest land mammal. And we humans are jeopardizing everything to maintain a lifestyle that is killing us faster and faster. If we truly understand our connection and our place in the chain of all living things, we won't be making decisions to despoil our nest and that of other living creatures as that ultimately affects us.

If we do indeed allow our culture to continue on with our addiction to oil and gas unchecked and if we do nothing about sequestering the carbon already existing in our atmosphere, the future for us is very bleak and will lead to no human, let alone other mammals, being able to live on the surface of the planet in a few generations – that is, those of us who survive the coming Ice Age (see Climate Change Model).

As I have stated here before, the technology and techniques for addressing both the reduction of carbon based fuel use and the sequestering of carbon exist and are known now. All that stands in our way now to avert these catastrophic events are our politicians. Our politicians here in the United States, standing in the way of our planet's survival, are becoming known as the most selfish, most self-centered and probably the most stupid creatures in power the world has ever known. Of course historical records are not available from the Easter Island or Anasazi cultures.

Write your congressman and urge them to read the recent IPCC report that states that climate change is happening now and that humans are responsible for the rapid warming of the planet. Everyone has a role to play in reclaiming our dying planet. Not sure who your representative is? Find them here. Not sure what to say? Here are some letters I have written to Representative Randy Hultgren, my representative (here and here).

Write them today and ask them to help us all in saving our planet and future generations. 

Don't remain silent. Make your role in addressing this crisis count.

Being Wrong is Maybe a Good Thing

David Atkins (pic found on Facebook)

I've been immersed in reading this week and not really ready to do a book review yet. It's going to take some time for me to digest what I have read and will most likely reread some of the sources I have found.

The big idea that I am working on is this: we are pretty much wrong about most things we do in this civilization of ours. 

We travel wrong ~ Our fossil fuels are throwing more and more carbon into the atmosphere than our ecosystem can address.

We farm wrong ~ Our soils are diminished and in various stages of 'addiction' by years of throwing nitrogen, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other synthetics on our land. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, we let what soil we do have remaining lay exposed after harvest allowing it to blow away in the wind or run off into our streams and rivers . 

We garden wrong ~ See above.

We ranch wrong ~ We keep our livestock standing in one place most of their lives causing land loss, soil loss which eventually leads to desertification. Not to mention that the livestock lead pretty miserable lives.

We heat our homes and businesses wrong ~ We use a source of fuel that pollutes our air, our land, our water supply, causes ill-health in those who provide these fuels, and fills our atmosphere with carbon.

We use water wrong ~ Somehow we think that water is not as precious as we need to be thinking of it. All of the above wrongs jeopardize this very valuable commodity. 

And those are just a few of the 'wrongs' I am considering this week. What I see as a silver lining though is that so few of us are happy. Look around you. Can you think of more than a handful of friends or family who are truly happy with the ways things are or how they spend their days? Rethinking how we live our lives may be something we are all very much ready to explore.

If you could use your car to travel where you wanted for little cost - would you support it?

If you could be assured that the food you ate and set on your family's table was nutritious and guarded your loved ones against disease - would you support it?

If you could live comfortably in your home in all seasons for little cost - would you support it?

If those last three interest you - stay tuned. That's where I am heading on this blog.  Being so very wrong about all these systems is maybe the only way we would have chosen to do things right.  

The future may be just exactly what we wanted all along 

and better than we thought it could ever be. 

My Open Letter to My Congressman #2: Solar Roadways

Dear Representative Hultgren:

I am writing you again and asking that you take a leadership role on the Climate Change crisis.

Though I was very disappointed to read that you signed the Koch brothers' pledge against the creation of a carbon tax on major corporate carbon polluters, a group to which the Koch brothers not surprisingly belongs, I think I do have a way for you to act on the Climate Change crisis without breaking that pledge. (Though of course I would strongly suggest you reconsider your allegiance to the Koch brothers given their past record.) I would like to call your attention to the Solar Roadways project which is just finishing Phase II of the parking lot prototype this week.

The Solar Roadways project would address several issues that you mention you are concerned with as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on your web page as well as addresses my concerns on Climate Change:

• Implementation would pay for itself in energy produced alone, 
• Provide more jobs in construction and related industries (Scott Brusaw, project founder, estimates that 5 billion panels are needed for this country alone),
• Increase "local control, improve regional planning, and incentivize partnerships between the private and public sectors to fund and manage these critical assets.", 
• Provide "long-term surface transportation" solutions,
• Provide a "globally competitive infrastructure",
• Reduce transportation congestion,
• Reduce carbon produced by vehicle emissions,
• Reduces our dependence on oil for creating asphalt.
• Reduces our dependence on oil overall which is this century's growing security issue! 

And those are just a few of the positives indicated for this idea. Booz Allen Hamilton has one of the original working panels on display in their offices not far from your office in DC.

You are no doubt thinking this 'open letter' thing is more than a little bit gimmicky. I know it is. The climate change crisis is the most deadly challenge of our lifetimes and I see Congress' inaction on this to be a blunder of epic and historic proportions. By way of this 'gimmick' it is slightly more likely that you will actually read these words and consider taking action or at the very least, look further into this idea.

I am copying others who may join you in writing legislation from the other side of the aisle on the Transportation and Infrastructure committee and on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Energy and Commerce Committee's hearing coming up on the 18th of this month on Climate Change may be as good a time as any for Congress to begin to consider this project.

And again, this letter will be posted online at my blog Exploring the Green Road. A hard copy will be sent to you by fax (and copied to others indicated below) with a page of links provided as well as contact information if you would like to talk with me directly.

Addressing this crisis will take courage. I ask that you do for the sake of our children and generations to come.

Sincerely,

Monica Jenkins
Constituent of District 14 

cc:
Nick J. Rahall, II, (D-West Virginia) Ranking Member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee;
Henry Waxman, (D-California) Ranking Member on the Energy and Commerce Committee;
Jan Schakowski, (D-Illinois) Member Energy and Commerce Committee.

See letter #1 HERE.

More on the 'Sun is Just Hotter Now' Myth

Just found this video on Skeptical Science this evening and had to share. It's short, sweet and loaded with science fact that's easy to follow.

• Smoking gun evidence right here: Troposphere, lower atmosphere is warming as the Stratosphere, upper atmosphere is cooling.
• The planet warms at the same rate at night as it does during the day.
• More warming in winter than in summer.
• More warming at the poles than at the equator.

'Windows to the Universe' by Randy Russell

And be sure to watch the latter bit that addresses a well-worn and false argument that it's sun spot activity. Nope. It's not those crazy sunspots either no matter how the data is cherry picked.

It's Climate Change.

Let us all do something about it rather than focus on a few diehards who continue to throw up poorly reasoned arguments that obscure the crisis at hand and waste valuable time.  

See my earlier post:
Isn't the Sun Really Just Hotter Now?