Category: climate change

Christmas ’23

I’ve been struggling with whether or not to write a post for Christmas Day.

Maybe, it’s because I’ve been struggling with just about everything related to Christmas this year.

For so many years, the Christmas season brought most of our extended family together, often over a period of days and in various constellations, but this year, it will be just me, spouse B, and daughter T at home together. Daughter E and her family are celebrating an ocean away at home in London. B’s and my siblings are all busily dealing with their families and/or medical issues.

This lack of planned travel and guests turned out to have a silver lining when T was offered a slot for a needed shoulder surgery last week due to a cancellation in the surgeon’s schedule. So, our already subdued Christmas plan got even quieter as we have factored in the early stages of recovery.

While I’ve done some of the Christmas preparations, like singing in Lessons & Carols with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, writing Christmas cards and letters, and some gift-shopping and wrapping, the bulk of the decorating, cooking, and baking has been handled by B, with an assist from T prior to her surgery.

I’m sure that my feeling more somber than festive is not helped by the state of the world. The continuing horrors of war in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and elsewhere. The ever-increasing evidence of climate change impacts. The increasingly vile political rhetoric and threats against judges, Jewish people, Muslims, immigrants, pubic officials, etc. here in the US. The local battle against CO2 fracking with global implications here in the Southern Tier of New York. Increases in cases of flu and COVID in the Northern Hemisphere as winter sets in.

This somber time we face is also reflected in my religious observances. For many years, I was actively involved in music and liturgy planning for Advent and the Christmas season, but I haven’t been for a number of years now. While I still attend and participate in services, some of the anticipation and joy is muted for me.

It’s also true that there are many difficult issues raised by the nativity narrative that seem particularly salient to me this year. The real dangers that Mary faced as a young woman facing pregnancy before marriage. Her being forced to travel and give birth away from the comforts of home and neighbor-women who could come to her aid. The threats to her baby’s life. The slaughter of children ordered in an attempt to kill him. Fleeing to protect her child and their becoming refugees.

Angels and magi aside, there was a lot of pain, fear, and loss.

With all of this in my head, I went to 10 PM mass at my church for Christmas Eve. There was a photo of the baby Jesus amid rubble as displayed at a Palestinian-Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus on the West Bank, where Christmas observances usually draw crowds from around the world but are not being publicly held this year because of the war. The homily dealt directly with the struggle that I have been having this year and called on us to have hope. As part of the homily, we sang the first verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” near the beginning and the fourth, final verse at the end. We sang:

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in;
be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels,
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Emmanuel!

Phillips Brooks

The message is to have hope because God, who is Divine and Eternal Love, is with all people of good will, as the angels announce.

I admit that hope is not one of my better virtues, but I will continue to add my actions, small though they are, in the efforts to make the world safer, more loving, more kind.

After all these centuries, still searching for the peace the angels proclaimed…

One-Liner Wednesday: Ban CO2 fracking!

Yesterday, 90+ New York State organizations sent a letter to NYS officials, did a press release through Food & Water Watch, and held a press event, requesting that New York ban using carbon dioxide to fracture underground shale formations to extract methane and attempt to sequester carbon dioxide; this is important not only regionally in the Southern Tier of NY where it is being proposed (and where I live) but also nationally and internationally because fossil fuel companies are using this unproven, dangerous, and most likely ineffective scheme for extraction/carbon sequestration to justify their continued drilling for decades to come, despite the gravity and acceleration of climate change impacts.

This long, informative One-Liner is part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays series. Join us! Find out more here:  https://lindaghill.com/2023/12/20/one-liner-wednesday-a-more-honest-version/ 

One-Liner Wednesday: COP 28

As North America slept, delegates from around the world concluded the global climate conference in Dubai, when the chair—local oilman Sultan al-Jaber—quick-gavelled through an agreement that included a sentence calling for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.”

That may not seem like much—it is, after all, the single most obvious thing one could possibly say about climate change…

And by itself it will accomplish nothing….

But it is—and this is important—a tool for activists to use henceforth. The world’s nations have now publicly agreed that they need to transition off fossil fuels, and that sentence will hang over every discussion from now on—especially the discussions about any further expansion of the fossil fuel energy.

Bill McKibben on the final COP 28 agreement by 190+ countries

Feature photo by Thijs Stoop on Unsplash

This super-sized One-Liner Wednesday is part of Linda’s long-running series. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/12/13/one-liner-wednesday-how-do-i-know/ 

SoCS: creativity

It’s important to me to create.

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.

But creativity is often surprising and unpredictable and wondrous and glorious, so…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “create.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/11/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-11-2023/

One-Liner Wednesday: a sobering reminder

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.

Bill McKibben

Feature photo by Thijs Stoop on Unsplash

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/10/25/one-liner-wednesday-pumpkinferno/

Launch!

Third Act Upstate New York has launched! You can watch the video of our amazing launch program:

Third Act Upstate New York: Working Group Launch from Third Act on Vimeo.

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!

One-Liner Wednesday: Third Act Upstate NY Launch!

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 Act Upstate NY where “ordinary people do extraordinary things…together” for the good of our climate and our democracy!

This promotion (there are three separate links above for more information) brought to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/10/04/one-liner-wednesday-better-the-second-time/

NCR comment

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.

Stay tuned…

Maui wildfire

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.

Smoke


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.