We've Opened the Box

Climate Change Update:

Eating breakfast and preparing to start work, while the meteorologist on Bay News 9 informs me from my television that the heat index is currently 100 degrees.  It is 8:10 a.m.

She goes on to say it (the heat index) will be 110 this afternoon and people should stay inside in air-conditioning if possible.

Last night, I watched in horror as a river in Alaska raged, and a whole house collapsed off a bluff next to it, into the river.  My horror was not mainly due to the house falling into the river, it was due to the river itself:  it wasn't supposed to be surging and raging, bursting its seams with water.  That wasn't supposed to be rushing water at all.  It was melting glaciers.  That water was supposed to be frozen glaciers, but instead the glaciers are melting exponentially faster than previous scientific models and warnings of climate change predicted.  I've been shouting about climate change (then referred to as just "the greenhouse effect") since I was a kid in the 1970's.  Very, very few people believed the science and the few people who were sounding the alarm back then.  This is one of those few times when I get zero satisfaction from being able to say "I told you so."

I don't want to see what should be solid, frozen, climate-controlling glaciers rushing past as a raging river, taking houses off of bluffs on its way past.  I don't want to know that a monster hurricane or several will almost surely strike Florida this summer, as the ocean surrounding us is like a cauldron of boiling water.  I don't want to be advised by the meteorologist on television to stay inside the house, and bring water if you even have to drive to work, as you may overheat in the car.

What have we done?  With the images of that river in Alaska last night, I now get the feeling:  it's too late to turn back.  One of my favorite television shows of all time was/is LOST.  There was a set of mysterious numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42; yes, I still remember the numbers!) that figured centrally into the story and themes of LOST.  There was a character who was tormented by the numbers in his mind, and was in a mental institution.  Another character, Hurley (you may recognize the name, as I named my dog after him), went to the institution (where he had once also been a patient, and had met Lenny and heard him repeating those numbers over and over again) in an episode, to try to get answers about the numbers from Lenny, the tormented character.  As Hurley talked to Lenny, he told Lenny he'd come to believe that the numbers are cursed.  He told Lenny that he played them in the Lotto and strange things kept happening ever since.

Lenny got a look of horror on his face and became extremely agitated.  "You used those numbers?!  You shouldn't have done that.  You've opened the box!  It doesn't stop."

That's how I felt, watching what should be solid glaciers raging down a river as melted water:  we've opened the box.  We shouldn't have done that.  It doesn't stop.

Planet Claire

I'm in the throes of some kind of very intense, poignant nostalgia tonight.  It started when I somehow got thinking about the B-52's first album and how much I love it.

Fall.  1979.  It was my first semester of college.  I was in Vermont.  I was falling in love.  It was one of the happiest times of my life.  It was also when I first heard this album.  One of my friends in my dorm was playing it.  "WHAT is that?  What IS that?!!!"  I was instantly and forever obsessed, mesmerized, and completely captivated.  This whole album, in my opinion, is a masterpiece.

I must have listened to this a thousand times, back in my beautiful, magical green mountains of Vermont.  Back then, I, and others from my particular mileau, tribe, posse, pack and/or ragtag band of hippie punk new wave flower children were already shouting about climate change, which wasn't even called that yet (it was called "The Greenhouse Effect" at the time).  SHOUTING about it, warning about it, but no one was listening.  We didn't have social media.  Our voices weren't amplified.  No one believed us anyway.  Bunch of hippie flowerchild punks, they thought.

Tonight, in 2023, the same green mountains that I listened to this song in over and over and over again, in 1979 and beyond, are flooded.  Whole towns.  Because:  climate change.

People--most people, anyway--believe us now.  Everyone is starting to understand that human activities really do impact the environment, and while the environment is forgiving, there are limits.  And we've reached them.  And we've exceeded them.  And now Canada is on fire, California is on fire, my beloved Vermont is awash in flood waters, the coral reefs in the Keys are dying, the ocean surrounding Florida has hit unprecedented high temperatures.  Our world is on fire.  Our house is on fire.

This song that I love so much is exactly the same as it was in 1979, but the world, the world... it's changed.  We've changed it.  And if there is any hope of putting the genie back in the bottle, we have to behave in harmony with nature, now.

One of my very favorite songs, from the B-52's masterpiece first album, this is "Planet Claire".

Imagining a Post-Fossil-Fuel World

It's an exquisitely beautiful Spring day here in St. Petersburg, as I sit here on my lunch break, working from home today, with all my windows open and a wonderful, warm, refreshing breeze (well, refreshing except for all the oak pollen infusing it and everything here, but I digress...) jazzing me up.  I can hear the not so far off, yet just far enough off, roar of the Indy cars as they practice for the St. Petersburg Grand Prix this weekend.  I've always been a passionate environmentalist and climate change activist, and vociferously anti-fossil fuel.  Yet I must cop to loving that fossil-fuel-induced sound, and getting such a rush from it somehow!

I dream of a world in which homes and businesses and cars are powered by renewable, clean energy sources like (and mainly) solar and wind.  Yet I think there should be an exception for Indy car sporting events, just a few times per year, so that future generations can feel this rush of adrenaline and excitement too, yet think to themselves "oh, so this is what gas-powered cars were like--wow, I'm glad we don't have that exhaust polluting our air, ruining our health, wrecking our ozone layer and causing climate change anymore.  This is fun and a cool throwback and nod to history and the combustible engine, but I'm glad that, when the race is over, we can drive home in our solar-powered cars, to our solar-powered homes, breathing clean, delicious and wonderful air always."

Say The Words: Climate Change

The news this morning out of Kentucky, and all the states impacted by the tornadoes last night brings my heart to my throat.  The governor of Kentucky calls the tornadoes there "the worst storm in Kentucky's history".

As I see the devastation on my television set, and sit here in Florida, where we are in the path of hurricanes that grow more monstrous year by year, the words blaring in my mind, heart and soul are:  CLIMATE CHANGE.  Say the words, news reporters.  This is what climate change looks like.  This is what climate change is.

And while no one can say for sure whether any one given weather event is the direct result of climate change, surely any adult alive now, who is aware of the science (which has been warning us for DECADES) or not, knows that the climate is changing.  Some do not believe that climate change is induced by human activity.  Some don't believe climate change is happening at all.  Yet clearly it is.  And, for some reason, it is rarely mentioned when horrific news like what is all over cable news right now about last night's tornadoes is in progress.

Maybe the reporters feel it is too soon.  Maybe they feel that it would be disrespectful to the victims, to those in the path of the tornadoes last night, living and dead, to speak of climate change in their reporting right now.  But, to that, I say, NO:  it is disrespectful NOT to talk about it!  Saying it's too soon is exactly like the people who never want to talk about gun control after a mass shooting, who use the same excuse:  it's too soon.  NO:  it's too late!

It is very, very late days now with climate change.  Our climate is changing, our glaciers are melting, exponentially faster than even scientists had originally predicted.  And we'd better start saying it's name, and talking about it, when these things happen, and during all the time in between things happening.  And we'd better start changing our choices and behavior, right now.  All of us, from individual human beings, to huge corporations need to move off fossil fuels NOW.

Climate change is in progress.  Are we going to avoid even saying the words, or are we going to name it, talk about it, and actually change to try to turn it around to save ourselves, all the creatures of the earth, and our awesome environment itself?

Santorum Doesn't "Believe In" Climate Change

I was hoping to post a link to an article talking about the following issue, but what is as terrifying to me as the issue itself, namely the fact that Rick Santorum actually believes climate change is a fiction and stated as much in clear, unequivocal, sneering terms at last night's GOP debate in Tampa, is that fact that NO ONE IS REPORTING THAT AS SHOCKING, DISQUALIFYING-FOR-THE PRESIDENCY NEWS this morning! There are no articles on it. NONE! Zero, zilch.

For a candidate in the 2012 presidential primary race to state that his opponents, quote "believe in" climate change, as if climate change is some sort of mythical story that one can choose to believe in or not (like, say, THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE), is really SHOCKING, yet what is at least as shocking is that no one seems shocked! No one finds that remarkable or a huge faux pas that should automatically make Santorum slip in the polls to irrelevancy. He himself thinks it is a badge of honor to doubt clear, hard science—not just to doubt it, but to DENY it.

Folks, this guy CANNOT become president. Period. For that matter, neither can any of the other Republican candidates, but Santorum is particularly horrifying on several fronts. The climate change statements last night just really got me: he was actually trying to differentiate himself from his opponents by proudly crowing that they “believe in” climate change, whereas he does not believe in it. Well, little Ricky, do you believe that the earth is round, the sky is blue, the sea contains water? Or do you choose not to believe in those vast liberal lies, either?

It should be front page news that Santorum said that. Instead? It is getting about as much coverage as the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns.

Curbside Recycling FINALLY Comes to St. Petersburg, Florida: Can I get an AMEN?!!!

Color me thrilled and heartened! Curbside recycling has finally come to my beautiful city of St. Petersburg, Florida!  A few years ago, St. Petersburg received the distinction of being designated as Florida's first Green City, which I always wondered about in light of our glaring lack of curbside recycling.  Now we are finally fully deserving of that honor (though, of course, we all as individuals and communities can always strive to go even greener, as it is an ongoing process).  Previously, St. Pete had in place—and apparently this option will remain in place—a system of drop-off locations to which residents could take our recyclables, free of charge. This was much better than nothing, but not good enough. It not only required residents like me, who wish to recycle, to use fossil fuel to drive individually to the recycling site versus the more efficient use of fossil fuel for a systematic curbside pickup, let me tell you, it also required serious commitment to going green on the part of the user that goes way beyond that of your average citizen.

Since going green happens to be a deeply held value of mine, I dutifully collected my recyclables and periodically schlepped them to the site, which I must admit was fairly close to my house—within 5 miles, max, I’d guesstimate. You had to fashion your own bins, sort everything, load it all into the car, schleppe to the site, which in the case of the one closest to me, is an unpaved, VERY deep-pot-hole-laden affair that is also a busy brush collection site and usually is crowded with vehicles hauling brush and goodness knows what, and it is usually VERY HOT there and wah wah WAH: in the immortal words of Kermit the Frog: “It isn’t easy being green.” By the time I was done loading, hauling, unloading, sorting and jettisoning a load of recyclables at that site, my car’s undercarriage would be gone, I’d have heat stroke, and I’d be seriously rethinking whether just giving up on recycling, thereby surrendering to the specter of global climate change trashing the earth, would be that bad after all.

In Florida’s first designated Green City, our city government should make it as easy as possible to recycle, and I applaud them for taking this important step toward doing that by FINALLY adopting a curbside recycling program . Ideally, as is the case in some forward-thinking-and-acting communities in America, anything that is picked up for recycling should be free of charge and/or result in rewards for the recycling citizen, while anything that is put out as trash would still be charged for. Those types of curbside recycling programs provide an excellent incentive to everyone to recycle everything they possibly can. Alas, though, this is not how the program is going to unfold in my city, yet I’m still thrilled in the extreme to be able to report that we now at least HAVE a curbside recycling program in my city. I do wish they would consider amending the program that I’m about to describe in the next paragraph so that, if a resident does opt to participate in it, $33.00, an amount equivalent to the annual fee that the resident pays to the private company for the service, would be deducted from that resident’s monthly city utility bill once per year, as an incentive from the city to encourage all citizens to choose to participate. That said, $33.00 per year is a BARGAIN and I’ll take it! In fact, I’ve already jumped at the option and signed up today, as soon as I found out how to do so.

Our new curbside recycling program was recently voted on and approved by City Council, and will consist of a private company providing the service for a scant $2.75 per month, billed annually by the private company as a one-time $33.00 charge (separate from your city utility/trash pick-up bill, this will be a transaction between the resident requesting the service and the private company) to the resident requesting it. It is an optional program, so residents do not have to participate at all. I just called the private company and signed up, and boy was it almost impossible to even get through, which I think is GREAT! The first few times I called, I was put on hold for a while and then directed by an automated system to leave a message and someone would get back to me. Well, I didn’t do that, I simply called back periodically until I finally got a LIVE human being, and he confirmed that the reason it is so hard to get through is just what I hoped it was: thousands of citizens of St. Pete flooding the phone lines with pent-up demand to sign up for our long-hoped-for curbside recycling program!

Indeed it isn’t easy being green. I realize things every day that I could and should do differently in order to be greener. As I've blogged about previously, though, the important thing is not perfection (thank God, because he/she/it is the only one who is perfect), but TRYING, every day, with every choice, to behave in ways that respect our earth. In that “greening of the self” process, you become a more respectful human being in general, and when we all do that, we move to a greener, better world. I feel that signing up for this curbside recycling program is one important way for me to do that. It sends a message to my city leaders that they were right to create and approve this curbside recycling program, and that there is a huge demand for it among the people they represent. More importantly, it gets me and other folks recycling more and recycling consistently.

I’m ridiculously thrilled about this! I can’t wait to receive my recycling bin (7 to 10 business days!), fill ‘er up (as I currently have a LOT of recyclables piled up, since I don’t schleppe to the recycling site as often as I should, due to the aforementioned inherent hassles), and—thrill of thrills—place my recycling bin on the curb for pick-up the first Friday morning after receiving it.

Does anyone else get this excited about recycling, or is it just me?

Hero ALERT: I'm Going to See Al Gore Today

Heroes are in short supply these days...or maybe it just seems that way. The media rewards bad behavior by splashing it all over Entertainment Tonight, TMZ, Extra, and the net. The quiet, non-dramatic sort of good guys don’t get as much attention. It’s curious that doing good isn’t seen as being as sexy as going off the rails. I mean, really, from a purely evolutionary standpoint, it is curious: wouldn’t you think we’d evolve to be attracted to good, healthy behavior? I’ll have to ponder that one in my peppermint mind sometime after I have at least one cup of kukicha green and peppermint tea, and/or some protein. For now, it’s too early and pre-tea-n-protein in the morning, so I’ll move right along.

I have a few heroes in this world, two of whom are dead: Martin Luther King, Jr. is a major hero of mine, and so is someone he modeled his creative, non-violent resistance approach after, Mahatma Gandhi. A third hero of mine is very much alive, and I am going to see him tonight at a political rally: Al Gore. Now, I know that, for many on the right, he is the butt of jokes, mostly based on erroneous disinformation and urban myths. He NEVER, for example, claimed that he invented the internet. Look it up on Snopes, I don’t have the time or inclination to debunk all the hurtful bunk that is out there on Al Gore. I find it interesting just how vitriolic the right is towards the very mention of his name. I think it is because he speaks the truth in a civil, respectful, eloquent way, no matter how much they attack him, and he never lets the attacks bring him down to their level. He remains, always, what I just said: eloquent, respectful and civil. This is one aspect of what I admire most about him:  in a world desperately starved for civility and respectfulness, he embodies it. The other aspect I admire so much, which goes hand in hand with his character, is his actions.

As I recall, Al Gore first came onto my radar screen back in 1988, when I was a young voter. He was in a field of presidential hopefuls that was crowded with quality and potential: Joe Biden, Dick Gephardt and Paul Simon, just to name the ones that I thought were excellent in addition to Al Gore (Jesse Jackson impressed me, too, but also scared me because I felt he was anti-Israel...but I digress). Even in that crowded field, though, Al Gore stood way out from the rest to me. I’m a total policy wonk and his positions on the issues exactly jibed with my own, as did his priorities, plus his aforementioned eloquence really stood out. In the years since 1988, I have grown to admire the man more and more for all the things I’ve mentioned--his positions and priorities on the issues I care about, and his civility, respectfulness and eloquence--plus his great leadership, vision, imagination, intelligence, honesty, knowledge, patriotism (how he conducted himself in the 2000 election horror show, for example, always keeping what was best for the country and the rule of law as a priority), diplomacy, integrity, steadfast commitment and adherence to speaking the truth, and tireless passion for the environment.  He also has demonstrated an amazing ability to, as the cliche goes, take the lemons that life hands out and make lemonade.  After the heartbreaking and soul-crushing election of 2000, he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and went on to do great things as private citizen Gore.  The awareness, education and sense of urgency that he has brought to the world about global climate change is profoundly impressive and important.  He has also provided us with concrete ideas on how to turn back from the brink of disaster and build a green, sustainable future that respects our mother earth.

Ever since the days (and no doubt before) when people didn’t want to hear that the earth was round and not flat, a majority of people always fear and, unfortunately, sometimes hate, the visionary, inconvenient-truth-telling leaders among us. But the ones who are truly great go on telling the truth despite all the fearful backlash that engenders, because they care passionately about doing the right thing, they are bright enough to see what that is, and they are brave enough to endure whatever comes their way in order to do it. This is why I love Al Gore and why he is, corny as this probably sounds, my hero.

He is sounding the warning on global climate change and the world needs to hear that and act on it now. This evening, he will be at a political rally for Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, here in Florida, and I will be braving driving in Tampa (!) to be there. I’ve seen him at a brief rally at the Sarasota airport in 2000 and that was a thrill. All of a sudden, Air Force Two appeared in the sky, made a brilliant landing as we all cheered wildly, and out popped Vice President Gore!  He gave a short but stirring speech to us, the party faithful, and then I forget if he got right back onto Air Force Two and flew off or got into a waiting car or what, but I didn’t get to actually meet him and I probably won’t this evening, either, which is probably just as well, as I am sure I’d be a complete and utter deer caught in headlights if it happened. That said, though, it would be a thrill to shake his hand. To meet a living hero up close and personal would be a very special thing. Perhaps it will happen tonight...or perhaps I’ll get lost in Tampa, never to resurface again. Most likely, though, I’ll just hear him speak live and rally the Democratic troops, and that will be exciting enough. I’ll love to tell him how much I admire his character and everything he’s done and continues to do for our country and the earth, both of which need as much help as they can get. I’d love to simply say, thank you, you are great, keep up the good work. That’s what heroes do: they keep up the good work. I just want to tell him I appreciate it. He’ll probably glean that from the WILD APPLAUSE AND SCREAMING I’ll be engaging in at various points in the going.

Releated link:  LA Times article, re: Gore to appear at Kendrick Meek rally