These days, I create poems. I create posts here at Top of JC’s Mind.
I also express myself creatively in less obvious ways. Through cooking. Through taking photos (on occasion. I’m not one to be constantly photographing.) In conversation. While singing. In correspondence. In my own thoughts as I’m puzzling through a complex situation and trying to find options.
I love my role in creating my family.
I also love being part of creating community, whether that is on a small, local level or something much broader, like the global community working on climate change. Even though I am a very, very tiny part of such a large community, I realize that my creativity and energy are adding to the effort.
An aspect of creativity that was very important to me as a young adult was writing music. That part of my creative life was lost to me in 2005 when we went through a crisis at my Catholic parish that fractured my relationship with it and my music ministry. Because I wrote music for them, my impetus to use my creativity to write music also broke. I think that rupture may be part of the reason I turned to poetry as a means of creative expression. That artistic energy needed somewhere to go.
Will I eventually return to writing music? At this point, I don’t anticipate that happening.
So, bottom line: when you burn fossil fuel you produce particulates which lodge in lungs and kill you (one death in five on the planet comes from breathing the byproducts of fossil fuel combustion), and when you burn fossil fuel you produce carbon, which lodges in the atmosphere, driving heatwaves and floods that kill you.
US-based Third Act was founded by Bill McKibben and Vanessa Arcara, both of whom spoke movingly at our launch, to engage elders (those 60+) in response to the current crises around climate and democracy. It is a national organization that has undertaken large-scale initiatives, such as the 3.21.23 Day of Action to Stop Dirty Banks targeting the big banks that are funding dirty fossil fuel development. It partners with other organizations across the age spectrum in support of climate and democracy initiatives, such as the recent climate week march in New York City. Its three main areas of activism are currently Fossil Free Finance, Democratize Energy, and Uplift Democracy and Voting.
If you are an elder anywhere in the United States, you can become a Third Act volunteer. The first step is to join the mailing list. That will get you information to join national calls and campaign initiatives. It also gives you the opportunity to join a Working Group. Some are affinity groups, such as Educators, Faith, or Retired Union Members. Others are geographic groups. Working groups help on national initiatives and also mobilize efforts around more local and state concerns that align with Third Act’s mission.
On our Upstate New York launch call, we were privileged to hear from Dr. Curt Stager of Paul Smith’s College speaking about how climate change is in evidence in the Adirondacks, from Dr. Bob Howarth of Cornell University about the implementation of the landmark New York Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, and Alÿcia Bacon of Mothers Out Front about energy equity.
Our launch also featured some arts breaks. Jane Hirshfield read her poem “Let Them Not Say” and Sarah Stockwell-Arthen sang Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman’s “The Tide Is Rising.”
Our theme for our Upstate New York launch was “Ordinary people doing extraordinary things…together.” We emphasized this by having several of our working group members, including me, offer brief comments on what brought them to Third Act and provide introductions to our speakers.
Part of the purpose of the launch was to encourage people who are lucky enough to be elders in Upstate New York to join us. Our invitation was delivered through a recorded message from Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and professor at SUNY-Environmental Science and Forestry, and a live appeal from Michael Richardson, current facilitator for the Third Act Upstate New York Working Group.
I will add my own invitation because it is never too late to join in the effort, even if you are happening upon this post months or years after our October 5, 2023 launch date. You can join Third Act National using the link earlier in this post and, if you are an Upstater, our Working Group here: https://thirdact.org/working-groups/upstate-new-york/. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram.
I was part of the Launch Committee that planned this event, guided by the incredible Lani Ritter Hall, Third Act advisor and volunteer. Even if being able to join Third Act is far in your future, I hope you will watch our launch and draw information and inspiration from it.
If you are an Upstate NY elder, I hope to see you at an upcoming online meeting or in-person action.
Remember – Ordinary people can do extraordinary things together!
Calling all Upstate NY elders (age 60+ or so) to register now to join us on Zoom tomorrow to celebrate the official launch of Third ActUpstate NY where “ordinary people do extraordinary things…together” for the good of our climate and our democracy!
A comment I wrote about fossil fuel subsidies in response to this piece by Thomas Reese, SJ is now available on the NCR (National Catholic Reporter) website.
Some of Father Reese’s proposals to combat climate change strike me as not likely to be sufficient in the time frame available but I wanted to offer an additional suggestion rather than being critical.
This post is a bit of a throwback to the early days of Top of JC’s Mind when I was often posting comments in opposition to fracking.
Next month will mark the tenth anniversary of Top of JC’s Mind, which hardly seems possible.
Like many people in the United States and around the world, I have been watching the devastating news of the wildfires in Hawai’i, especially on Maui, with sorrow and horror. The confirmed death toll is currently 93 but hundreds of people are still missing, so that total is expected to rise. Eighty per cent of the buildings in Lahaina have been destroyed, along with the livelihoods of most of the residents.
If you are able to contribute to relief efforts, please consider contributing to the Maui Strong Fund, under the auspices of the Hawai’i Community Foundation, which is able to put donations to use immediately on the ground.
One of the difficult things about this tragedy is knowing that it was made worse by human intervention. Climate change is implicated both in the drought conditions in Hawai’i and the strong hurricane, that, while well south of landfall, combined with a high pressure area to send winds up to 80 mph (128 kph) onto the islands that quickly spread the wildfires, knocking out communication infrastructure and trapping many people.
The colonization of the Islands also played a role in the fires, as the landscape and plants have been altered from the species that evolved on Pacific islands. My daughter T, who holds a master’s degree in conservation biology of plants, told me that African grasses that were brought to Hawai’i evolved with fire as part of their lifecycle, burning quickly but than sprouting again soon after. These grasses were implicated in the dangerous speed with which the wildfires spread.
My family has several connections to Hawai’i. B and I visited Kauai for our tenth wedding anniversary and were drawn to the beauty of Hawai’i and the welcoming nature of the people. Our daughter E lived in Honolulu for several years, while studying at the University of Hawai’i – Manoa. She met her spouse L there and they married at their local parish.
Daughter T, while an undergrad at Cornell, spent a Sustainability semester in Hawai’i. They were in residence most of the time on the island of Hawai’i. (There were significant wildfires there as well, but the destruction was not as widespread because of the areas affected.) They also participated in conservation projects on other islands, including Maui. In 2014, B and I went to Hawai’i with T, three years after her semester there. You can read a series of posts about that visit starting here. That visit also led to this poem.
Hawai’i is one of the most remote places on earth, being far away from any of the large continents. Its isolation, though, does not exempt it from the increasing tide of disasters turbocharged by the climate crisis. These tragic wildfires are another reminder that we all need to do what we can to transition to lives that don’t pollute our atmosphere with even more carbon.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is convening a Climate Ambition Summit next month to help speed these efforts. There will be a large March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on September 17. We need world governments to act NOW. It’s too late for all those lost on Maui and other climate-change influenced disasters around the world. We need to save as many people and other beings as we can in the future.
B took this photo in front of our house yesterday morning (June 7, 2023) as the early morning sun tried to break through the wildfire smoke coming down from Quebec, several hundred miles away.
Things got worse as the day went on.
The air at ground level smelled like a campfire and an orange-tinged haze reduced visibility so that you couldn’t see the hills or tell where the horizon was. You could see smoke in the air just looking across the street. You needed indoor lighting even with the drapes pulled back on the windows.
We were keeping a watch on the air quality index numbers from airnow.gov. By mid-afternoon, they reached 460, well into the hazardous category. At that level, people should stay indoors with filtered air. If people have to be outdoors briefly, they should wear masks that are good at filtering out particulates, such as N95 or Kf94. Fortunately, many people still have some on hand from our pandemic experience.
B came home from work early because the smoky air began penetrating the stairwells in his building. It became quite windy. I was hoping that there were some rain clouds up above the smoke but no precipitation fell.
We aren’t alone in this phenomenon. Much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the US are having significant smoke impacts, sometimes even worse than areas in Canada that are much closer to the fires, due to a stationary low pressure system that is circulating in such a way that it draws smoke in our direction. It’s been a dry spring, so there are hundreds of wildfires in Canada right now, with over two hundreds that are considered out of control.
That’s a lot of smoke.
We need rain to help quell the flames and to prevent even more fires from erupting. Also, the plants and animals need more water. We are getting to what should be peak strawberry season here but the crop is expected to be low due to lack of rain, although a late freeze in May didn’t help matters.
As frequent readers may recall, I’ve been active around environmental issues for a number of years, particularly around climate change. I know that the extra carbon people have put into the air through fossil fuel extraction and use, deforestation, unwise agricultural practices, etc. has increased the risk of all kinds of extreme weather events. It makes the likelihood of heat waves, droughts, and wildfires higher and the changes in the air, land, and ocean temperatures make severe storms and stalled weather systems more likely.
We can see it with our own eyes.
I’m frustrated that corporations, politicians, and world governments did not make this a priority years ago. We might have averted some of the impacts we are experiencing now and reduced our future risk. I’m grateful that some action is coming on line now, but we need to make changes more quickly and more universally to reduce the severity of hurricanes/typhoons, wildfires, droughts, floods, sea level rise, biodiversity loss, heat waves, coral bleaching, etc.
In my little corner of the word along the New York/Pennsylvania border, we have a bit of improvement today. For the last few hours, our air quality is rated as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” rather than hazardous for everyone, although I know that, in the New York City area, airports have had to suspend service due to lack of visibility from the smoke. Washington, DC is having a purple alert for air quality, which is one level higher than red alert. The upper level winds have shifted enough that we aren’t in the worst sector today, but others are suffering higher levels than yesterday.
My fear is that a report that I heard today will come true – that this pattern will repeat itself throughout the summer.
It’s hard to predict.
A moment ago, I saw a bit of sunlight break through. I looked out the window and can see the sky with some clouds.
I haven’t seen the sky for a couple of days because of the smoke.
The clouds don’t look like rain is imminent, but I will try to have hope.
When I read Linda’s prompt yesterday, I immediately thought of the song “I Like It Here.” I did search for the lyrics and to find the writer; I did find some similar versions to what I remember but it seems that no one knows who wrote it. I’m going to use the version from my childhood as I remember it in this post.
My sisters and I used to put on little performances in our basement for a very small audience, my parents and perhaps my grandparents or Harriet and Pres, family friends who were like an honorary aunt and uncle. We would sing and act out songs we learned in school.
One I especially remember is “I Like It Here,” a patriotic number that we used to close the show, at least once that I recall.
“I like the United States of America. I like the way we all live without fear.”
In my childhood, living without fear was pretty much a thing I could do, in my tiny, rural New England town. Today, though, there are many fears that are with us all the time – environmental destruction and climate change, gun violence, the troubling rise of authoritarianism, public displays of hate against any number of different groups of people.
“I like to vote for my choice, speak my mind, raise my voice. Yes, I like it here.”
Unfortunately, there are lots of laws in some states that are trying to suppress votes and to silence free speech. It’s discouraging. I appreciate the lawyers and organizations that are challenging these laws.
“I am so lucky to be in America and I am thankful each day of the year, for I can do as I please ’cause I’m free as the breeze. Yes, I like it here.”
While I am happy to be here in the place that is home, the threats to our freedoms are real. We are fighting to keep them but the recent trials of insurrectionists are a stark reminder of how much danger we were in and how much of that animus still remains, even within some in government service.
“I’d like to climb to the top of a mountain so high, raise my head to the sky, and say how grateful am I, for the way that I’m living and working and giving and helping the land I hold dear. Yes, I like it, I like it, I like it here!”
I have felt that, in my small way, I’ve added to life in the United States. For most of my life, I never thought that I would leave it to live in another, but the presidency of DT made me wonder if things would be so changed that I could no longer live here.
I feel horrible for even thinking of abandoning my country and the Biden presidency gives me hope but the bizarre spectacle the once-proud Republican party has become and the staggering level of corruption that has been uncovered are a constant source of worry.
I’m trying to do my part as a citizen to get us back toward the freedom and equality to which we are called by our Constitution and laws. Millions of others are as well, including many who have more power and ability to be effective than I do.
I’ve spent decades now advocating for change on a whole raft of social justice and environmental issues.
There has been some progress in some areas, but I admit that there are times when I get tired, times when I realize that a change we’ve been working on for decades still hasn’t happened or where there’s been backsliding on a right that we thought had been secured.
Some days, I want to just throw in the towel.
But then I think about it and realize that a lot has been accomplished by so many people working together. The progress is often slow and incremental. When a change seems sudden, it’s usually the result of years of groundwork laying the foundation.
When I get discouraged, it’s often a comment from a friend that helps me realize the importance of the work, even when it seems we aren’t getting anywhere and even when the hoped-for change is unlikely in my lifetime. (This especially applies to my work on gender equality in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church tends to think in centuries.)
So, at least so far, though I do change the issues I concentrate on from time to time, I keep at it.
I grew up in a rural area where there was no methane infrastructure, so I learned to cook on a GE electric range. In adulthood, we have had electric stoves in the two houses we have owned.
I have had occasion to use gas ranges, in rental apartments or homes of family members, but I never liked them. I’m not a fan of flames in the kitchen and it often seemed impossible for there not to be small leaks of methane that I could smell because of the odor that is added to the gas.
When I became involved in the anti-fracking movement, I learned that not only do gas ranges leak methane which is detrimental to the climate but also other gases that are harmful to human health, such as radon and benzene.
I was, therefore, unsurprised at the release of a recent report attributing 12.7% of current cases of childhood asthma in the United States to the use of gas stoves. This is similar to the figure attributable to second-hand smoke exposure.
Nationally, gas stoves are used in 40% of homes, although in some states the percentage of use is much higher. For example, in California, the rate is 70%. That adds up to a lot of emissions of methane, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, benzene, radon, particulates, and other harmful substances.
Proper maintenance of equipment and increasing ventilation can help mitigate some of the health effects, but the best remedy is to switch to cooking with electricity. The faster and most energy-efficient electric cooking today is induction. For those who can’t afford to replace a gas cooktop with an induction one or who are renters, a good alternative is to buy a portable induction burner unit. You will need to use cookware that has iron in it but the nice thing is that the burner itself does not get hot, so there are no worries of burning yourself by touching the unit after you’re done cooking.
In order to make the transition to cooking with electricity, some places in the US have begun to ban gas hook-ups in new construction. In order to promote both human and environmental health, it’s likely that regulation will expand over time to eventually eliminate cooking with gas indoors.
Some people are very upset about it and complaining loudly in the press and on social media.
I invite those people to join the 21st century and give induction a try. Energy technologies and sources evolve over time. We used to use candles or whale oil for lighting our homes. We used to use wood or coal in our kitchens for cooking. We moved on to cleaner, healthier alternatives. It’s time to again move away from burning things in our homes for energy and onto using increasingly clean electricity to power our lives. ***** Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/20/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-20th-2023/
Joanne Corey 