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Me Versus the Pontificators — Sticking Up for Al Gore We were minding our own business in the back seat of a shuttle bus the other day, yet couldn't help but overhear the very loud and very "Oh, aren't I clever?" pontifications and holding forths of the gentlemen near the front of the vehicle.
It was another example of what's happening in this society, and why there's so little action on climate change. These guys were spouting Rush Limbaughesque sound bites about Al Gore — you know, fearmongering blah blah, what a load of BS blah blah, he's getting rich on the speakers circuit blah blah — though the funny part was, they couldn't even remember his name! I stayed silent until the shuttle driver said, "Yeah, and didn't he even say he invented the internet?" "No," I spoke up from the back of the bus, "that was a misquote."
Then it was a prattle on about how the media can't be trusted anymore. Blah blah.
Well, no, the media can't be trusted because they know that people like these folks don't care about the truth, that they only want to hear what they want to hear. It's insane! It's as though all of society (speaking for my neck of the woods here in North America) has turned into Republicans or Democrats. And I live in Canada — we don't even have Republicans and Democrats! When did we become so polarized? When did we stop putting our children and our community first, and start believing that our beliefs are the most important thing to defend?
Not only that, but people just don't seem to crave the truth or reason or logic anymore. They crave to be seen as clever, not as honest or well researched. They were criticizing Al Gore on climate change while talking about how warm it was in Manitoba (going up to 18ºC / 64ºF — in March). They were complaining that farmers say they don't have enough water in the summer but here's the Red River flooding again. "They can't have it both ways," one of them said.
Some days, I think a cave would suit me better.
Anyway, I am glad to report that as I was getting out of the shuttle bus, I told those gentlemen that if they have any beloved children in their lives, they'd better listen to what Al Gore has to say, cuz he knows what he's talking about.
(And later, I caught myself before I started spewing something clever and pontifical about those gentlemen. ;-) 
When Something Smells Funny, Follow the Money

Sometimes I miss juicy controversies completely! For example, I only had an inkling that there was another paper "out there" about the connection between the livestock industry and global warming and climate change. Didn't know anything about it at all — until I received a message yesterday morning from a new online friend, Don LePan, author of Animals, a book I'm currently reading.
That's when I got some details. Apparently Frank Mitloehner is an academic who presented a paper entitled Clearing the Air: Livestock's Contributions to Climate Change* at a conference of the American Chemical Society "in which he questioned the Food and Agriculture Organization's 2008 estimate that our meat-eating ways are responsible for a higher percentage of the world's carbon emissions (they estimated 18%) than is the entire transportation category (an estimated 15%)."
Don continues:

Apparently the statistics deserve to be questioned; the UN has admitted flaws in the FAO's calculations, and arguments over what the true percentages are will doubtless continue for some time. [My note: The percentage is likely higher, as it appears the FAO paper left the slaughter industry out of the calculations.] The interesting thing about Mitloehner's paper, though, is that he doesn't stop at querying meat-eating's percentage contribution to global warming. He takes a big leap beyond that to broad prescriptions for world agricultural policy: "Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries....The developed world's efforts should focus not on reducing meat and milk consumption," says Mitloehner, “but rather on increasing efficient meat production in developing countries, where growing populations need more nutritious food.” Far from shutting down the factory farms, in other words, he wants to expand them.
Note that Mitloehner says nothing about dangers to human health from such things as the overuse of antibiotics, nothing about the damage to our water supply from the run-off of excrement from factory farms, and (of course) nothing about the issue of cruelty to animals. Even if we accepted the suggestion that our meat-eating habits in no way contribute to global warming, in other words, there are many, many reasons to oppose factory farming. Instead, Mitloehner endorses a call for "replacing current suboptimal production with advanced production methods — at every step from feed production, through livestock production and processing, to distribution and marketing."

Don then goes on to explain something that the media didn't, quoting The Outlook Series. The paper "is a synthesis of research.... Writing the synthesis was supported by a $26,000 research grant from the Beef Checkoff Program, which funds research and other activities, including promotion and consumer education, through fees on beef producers in the U.S."
Apparently, Mitloehner "has received $5 million in research funding, with 5 percent of the total from agricultural commodities groups, such as beef producers." As Don says, "that 5% may sound small — until one remembers that 5% of $5 million is still a hefty $250,000."
Now, before someone says, "Yeah, but climate scientists get funding, too," let me remind everyone that there is no lobby group out there paying scientists to make sure we keep climate change going, because anyone who understands climate change doesn't want it to keep going. Even the fossil fuel lobby groups — and the scientists they fund — if pressed (I'm sure of it!), would admit they don't want droughts and floods and famines and the end of life on Earth, they just want the fossil-fuelled economy — and their profits — to continue.
One of the points Mitloehner makes is that the FAO paper, Livestock's Long Shadow, adds up "farm to table" emissions for meat, but doesn't add up "well to wheel" emissions for transportation. Point taken. The only problem with this complaint is that it doesn't detract from the fact that the industrial livestock industry accounts for more anthropogenic methane emissions than any other source — leaving our switch to a veg diet as the fastest — and dammit, easiest — way for us to make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions.
You know, this blog is about compassionate climate action. So I encourage compassion for all the people who are going to have to retire early or transition to new careers because they're working in carbon intensive fields. I feel for them. I do. But governments can and should pave the way — maybe some of the $300 per ton carbon tax we'll soon see the need to charge could cover the costs of retraining! And we all need to be dreaming big, envisioning a new golden age of compassion towards all living things, and renewable and perpetual energy that ends all wars over fossil fuels.
p.s. I should also point out that Mitloehner is an associate professor and livestock air quality specialist in the department of animal science at the University of California in Davis. You know, that Upton Sinclair thing: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding."
* The paper's co-authors are UC Davis researchers Maurice Piteskey and Kimberly Stackhouse, and it was published in October 2009 in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Agronomy.
Okay, I'm sorry, but I can't let this one go without a challenge. When Mitloehner says: "The developed world's efforts should focus not on reducing meat and milk consumption but rather on increasing efficient meat production in developing countries, where growing populations need more nutritious food," he forgets that these growing populations in developing countries could probably fend for themselves just fine without our skewed and lopsided globalized economic system. Plus, imagine trying to tell half a billion vegetarian Hindus in India that they have to increase the efficiency of their meat production! Dude, you just don't get it. 
A Lesson in the Hazards of Making Assumptions! 28 March 2010

Why Aren't We Talking in Big Graphic Terms? 
A Pep Talk — It's Not How Many... A short one today. We're heading out to present at a Living the Green Life conference, which will address the climate change emergency, and the quickest solution to it: going veg.
Today, I just want to encourage anyone who has organized an Earth Hour event for tonight, or is organizing something to celebrate Earth Day, which is coming up on April 22.
It's not how many people come out to your event — the important thing is how many people hear about it, see posters or read emails about it, get the idea planted in their hearts and minds.
So please don't get discouraged about turnout if it's low. (Did I ever tell you about the time we held a Hiroshima commemoration event? The only person who came was there to deliver the sushi that we'd ordered from his wife as refreshment. We invited him — well, coaxed him, really — to stay and ever since have been great friends!)
Just know that you've spread the word, and got people thinking and talking about your important issue. 
The Precautionary Principle Cautions Us to Be Cautious 
If You Win the Wrong Game, You're a Loser My husband has been out on the roof for several days in a row, doing some repairs and spring maintenance. So we've left the window out, and have been enjoying "camping" in our loft at night. With warm comforters on the bed and all that fresh air, we find that we're sleeping better at night and waking up in better moods and higher spirits.
All that to preface a thought that came to me this morning while I was lying in bed listening to the birds sing their greeting to a new day.

If you play at the wrong game and win, that makes you a loser.

Do you think that rich CEOs of big corporations that make their millions by pillaging the planet and exploiting its people listen to the birds sing in the morning?
How are we going to change the game, convince today's "winners" that they're actually losing out? And squandering everyone else's chances at surviving climate change catastrophe? Does this look like a man who listens to birds sing? 
It's a Numbers Game: Four Years. Go. + 10:10 Sheesh, seems I'm a day late on a lot of things these days. Yesterday was a global social media / online "flash mob" to promote the campaign 4YG: Four Years. Go.
So I'll be my own flash mob of one today!!
What's the premise of the Four Years. Go. campaign? Simple. According to their website, 4YG is a rallying cry with the purpose of waking us up
"There's still time to act, but no time to waste," they say.
A great complement to the FYG campaign is the UK's 10:10 campaign, which asks individuals, families, businesses and organizations to cut their energy use 10% by the end of 2010. Given how easy it is to conserve a little energy (especially in energy hogging industrialized countries), cutting 10% by the end of 2010 would give the FYG idea a great boost. 23 March 2010

Did World Water Day Flow Past You, Too? 
The 40th Anniversary of Earth Day is Coming Up This April 22 — one month from today — marks the 40th time that Earth Day (and now Earth Week, and even Earth Month) has been celebrated. How are you going to mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day?
Borrowing (and adapting) an idea from Earth Day Network in the United States, we're thinking of hosting an Earth Day Conversation, inviting people to bring their questions, concerns and ideas about climate change — and to drop in for a tea and a talk.
Earth Day is a world-wide nonpartisan day of activism on behalf of our planet. It's now held on April 22 each year, and the rumour I've heard is that April 22 was chosen because no other religious or national holidays fall on that day. (Even if that's not true, it's a good myth.) Check out Earth Days: The Seeds of a Revolution for more information about the history of Earth Day.
Almost a year ago, the United Nations General Assembly (GA) adopted a Bolivian resolution by consensus to proclaim April 22 "International Mother Earth Day." In his congratulatory address to the GA, Bolivian president Evo Morales said that 60 years after the Declaration on Human Rights, "Mother Earth is now, finally, having her rights recognized." Here's the news release from that day:
 
A Movie to Depress You on a Saturday Night — So Do Something

We watched Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story at the community hall last night. I don't have to tell you what the movie's about, except to say that the subtitle is a tongue-in-cheek play on words.
Moore explains (and I'm never really sure if he knows how astute he is!) why Obama had to get elected in the USA — if he hadn't, there would have been a revolt against the nightmare of capitalism and a revolution in favour of a new economic system.
One of the film's finest moments came at the beginning of the credits when DO SOMETHING was flashed across the screen. I just visited the film's website (Capitalism: A Love Story) and discovered a list of five "somethings" that can be done. Note that the last one deals with the Earth.

2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans. A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone. Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand nothing less, no compromises allowed. Click here to join the fight!

Now let's imagine a list like this for getting people to help mitigate the global climate change emergency! What five "somethings" would we ask everyone (or even just our elected officials) to do? 
A Movie to Solve Our Progressive Paradox

Today, I simply want to recommend an online movie to you. The Progressive Paradox Film is rather brilliant, and I think we will all benefit from watching it.
It's not on You Tube or anything like that, so I can't embed it here. You have to download it from http://www.thwink.org/sustain/videos/FilmSeries/index.htm, but it's well worth the time and inconvenience.
It will give you a clear path to a solution to unsustainability. (Which reminds me, the only thing I don't like about the movie is that they include "sustainability" in with a list of problems like war, corruption and poverty — hence I think they meant "unsustainability," but that's not what they say.)
Anyway, this movie will make you think and question your role and your activities as an activist. 19 March 2010

Requiem for a Glacier — Bolivia’s Chacaltaya is Gone 
Countering Denier-ese? Read Hoggan's Climate Cover-Up