Lately, I have been in such a mode of doing that being has taken a back seat. As I try to enter a more contemplative mood, particularly regarding social action in response to global climate change, I feel so saturated with facts and obvious conclusions that new inputs are no longer enriching my knowledge or perceptions, and mere contemplation feels hollow. But reflection on action... that may yet have some bearing on the course of future action. So, let's look at today's action: a workshop on choosing a power provider.

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In an editorial published last weekend, Power, Privilege, and Climate Change: A Tale of Two Presidents, Vassar College professor Joseph Nevins contrasts the lifestyles of the richest and "poorest" presidents in the world, in the context of global climate change: those of the United States and Uruguay. It is a powerful reminder that we in the U.S. can't look at climate change, point the finger elsewhere, and keep going about our lives.

The Sky Is Pink, from the director of Gasland, makes a potent argument that we need to resist ANY gas drilling, but particularly fracking with its permanently toxic benzene, toluene, etc. In middle school I recall writing a paper for science class, about sources of groundwater pollution in Texas. Improperly-capped oil and gas wells were a major source. I was able to find the scientific research there in my middle school and public libraries. This short film reminds us that a significant increase in the number of wells translates to a significant increase in the number of leaking wells that pollute our water supplies.

On the one hand, fracking has been responsible for earthquakes and creates toxic water that must be locked away interminably. On the other hand, cheap natural gas is replacing coal and thus lowering the projected greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., thanks in no small part to fracking. Furthermore, it is one of the few growth industries in America, helping the economy recover from hard times. They say the earthquakes can be avoided by better techniques, but I have not heard anything positive about the water supply. In some ways, this feels worse than nuclear fission, which provides the POTENTIAL for nasty poisoning of the environment, whereas fracking by definition requires destruction of increasingly scarce (at least here in Texas) water.

Love God Heal Earth is a compilation of essays, from leaders of 11 religions and denominations, that delve into the religious call for a transition to a sustainable way of life. While not devoid of science, this book presents a deeply spiritual, personal, and hopeful message that moves beyond the intellectual reality of global climate change. In other words, it is a powerful complement to the grim facts of An Inconvenient Truth.

The EPA has a proposed new standard for fossil fuel-burning power plants, which will be constructed in the future, that will help ensure a lower carbon future and hopefully spur innovation in the electric industry. They are accepting public comments through June 25^th.  There are a number of organizations that will help you provide comments directly to the EPA, such as the National Council of Churches or the Union of Concerned Scientists. My letter, with extra citations, is below.

E-mail from a co-organizer:

I hope you are able to attend the next meeting of IDEA at 1st Unitarian Church located at the southeast corner of Preston and Normandy across from the Park Cities YMCA. The focus of the meeting will be discovering our common vision and tossing around ideas for a project we could work on in the short term. We'll do potluck again and can use the church's dishes and glasses. (I've had special training on running the dishwasher!)

I suggest parking on the Normandy side in front of the church or in the parking spaces circling the Y. I'll have signs directing you. Looking forward to getting together.

In preparation for Earth Day next weekend, I was reading a bit of Love God, Heal Earth this morning. I was reminded of the passage about "love thy neighbor as thyself", and its implications for the ethics of sustainability. Who is your neighbor? Does it include someone a state away? In another country? Continent? What about the people of the future? This famous passage can be interpreted, in modern context, as a call for eco-justice, which includes leaving a sustainable way of life for future generations. Matthew, chapter 22, verses 36 - 39 (NIV)

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"

Lately I've been wondering if the Keystone Pipeline isn't more of a NIMBY than anything else. NIMBY stands for Not In My Backyard, and is typically a reference to well-off individuals and communities decrying the building of some unwanted facility "in their backyards" – that is, just down the street or in the general vicinity. For example, in St. Paul, MN there has been an outcry over plans for an electricity-generating incinerator on the edge of the neighborhood in which I used to live. Now, that is a blue collar neighborhood, not particularly well-off. A classic NIMBY situation is where the well-funded are able to fend-off development, pushing it to some location where the project's opposition are not so well funded. Thus, the NIMBY-effect becomes a matter of eco-justice: the poor end up saddled with the polluting plant, though the rich derive at least as much benefit from the project.

This is a strange sort of spring we're having. And a small part of me died a little death watching the new Lorax trailer this morning.

This year's drought has brought the stark reality of water availability front-and-center in Texas. The state has faced droughts before – but by all accounts, this is one of the most severe, and the population continues to expand rapidly. Water is not entirely taken for granted in this state, especially in central and west Texas, but this year's experience seems to have struck home for people in a profound way. Even as we have begun to get some sporadic rain, the talk of stage 4 water rationing continues. And yet there are also stories of people flouting the rules, watering away in their yards. I wish I could accompany those folks on a visit out to John Bunker Sands Wetlands Center.

I've been a recycling fool since I was in elementary school, when my best friend and I would walk around house construction sites and collect all of the aluminum cans (we weren't the least bit bothered if there were workers actually there, though typically we were out on Saturdays and that wasn't an issue). For years now I've been meaning to send my old floppy disks to Green Disk, and tonight we finally boxed them up for shipping tomorrow: floppy and zip disks, DSL modems, an ancient dubbed-from-broadcast Spaceballs on VHS (and a few other VHS).

The coup de grâce: Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. I had to open the liner notes and read/semi-sing the, shall we just leave it at trite, lyrics to Never Say Goodbye. But I was forced to give up half way through. That was about the last audio cassette tape. I think I still have The Cure's Faith/Carnage Visors, and REM's Carnival of Sorts, because those were rather rare even in their time.

Next on the recycling list: my old soccer, debate, and science competition trophies (about a dozen).

It's about time. That was my first thought when I heard, late last year, that the Bahá'í International Community had endorsed the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change. My next thought was: when will this trickle down to us, the people, as a meaningful directive to change our habits? A few weeks ago, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States sent a letter to all American believers, calling their attention to the Declaration, and to a Seven Year Plan of Action on Climate Change. They encouraged us to actively incorporate sustainable practices into our community life, in a manner more direct than ever before.

E.O. Wilson, one of America's foremost scientists and secular humanists, has penned a moving appeal for religionist and scientist alike to set aside their differences and focus together on preserving Earth's biological diversity for the benefit of today's and future generations (which, in the case of many bacteria and insects, will also begin and end today). In a beautiful prose reminiscent – no doubt intentionally – of Aldo Leopold, Wilson moves directly to share his sense of awe in the face of nature, and the plain facts about what science has discovered about the state of our planet's biodiversity. He also writes of what we do not yet know: of the countless species yet identified, the relationships amongst them yet unrecognized, and the increasing need for citizen and scientist alike to pursue this knowledge.

To celebrate the glimmer of hope that is the Waxman-Markey bill to address global climate change (and the loss of biodiversity, economic stability, shorelines, etc. that will come with it), I bought more plants today.

Ok, that is not actually true. It was just a coincidence that today I was finally able to get to the 50% off sale at the Linder's popup a few miles north of my house. The garden is already pretty full, and I wasn't sure where I put be able to put these things, but I picked up: a coneflower, a gallardia, and packs of snapdragons, petunias, and poblano peppers. I still don't know what I'll do with the white petunias.

The coneflower and gallardia have been planted. There is a thin stretch of grass between the driveway and the neighbor's yard (with a chain-link fence). These were planted a few feet in front of two tree stubs. The roots of one (an American Elm that got the disease and thus got the ax a few years ago) got in my way a bit, but thankfully I had a troweling tool that was able to hack through and get me a big enough hole. I'll have to remember to put up pictures once they get bigger. In the meantime, how about the bleeding heart that keeps getting bigger every year (from mid-May)...

As someone who is passionate about both interfaith cooperation and environmental action, I couldn't help but be struck by the project in Uganda that was highlighted in the recent URI Voice of the Youth newsletter. Today's New York Times has an article about the importance of solar cookers for mitigating the impacts of global climate change. It should have also touched on the problem of cooking & heating being a major factor in causing deforestation, and hence in resource conflicts.

Labels can be useful. Obviously they can also become ridiculous and pigeon-hole us into camps of undeviating ideology. But if the usefulness is doubted, just think: which evokes the stronger reaction?

1. John, Paul, George, and Ringo, or
2. The Beatles

This month's National Geographic has a long article on the effects of the Jamkhed health care movement, Necessary Angels in India. It is an amazing look at the grassroots power of providing basic health care — primarily preventive and environmentally holistic — in an area under-served by allopathic and ayurvedic techniques alike. This is a movement that has the same potential as the Grameen Bank, as the Green Belt Movement. It is changing lives, communities, and ecosystems.

A few lessons that can be learned:

• Importance of focusing development efforts on those with the "lowest" status (typically women, here untouchable women);
• Basic needs assessment emphasized over (but not exclusively) advanced medical treatments;
• Bringing science to the people;
• Self-organizing principals at the local level, including ability of those "on the ground" to make decisions and act locally without having to go back for expert guidance.

Tangent: there is much here convergent on Lean principles of management. This movement is eliminating a lot of waste in the way of delivering health care.

Responding to and expanding on Al Gore's recent speech and plan for moving completely to renewable energy sources over the next ten years, Alex Steffen of WorldChanging has recently written about our need to redevelop not only our energy systems, but also our cities, our industries, our farms, our food and clothing. In short, "We need a massive wave of innovation, right now, in every single part of America's material civilization."

We also need a massive wave of socialization, right now, in every community across America and the rest of the world. We need to learn to see with each other's eyes, to feel what the other feels — especially when the other does not look like us. We need to step beyond national loyalties into a loyalty to the world, for "the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" (Bahá'u'lláh).