Category: environment

It’s Sun Day!

Today, September 21, 2025, is being celebrated as Sun Day in multiple locations in the United States, with a few locations in other countries joining in.

The brainchild of Bill McKibben, long-time climate evangelist, Sun Day is taking place around the time of the equinox and celebrates solar power, which is now the cheapest source of power on earth. And, yes, you can power your town with solar even at night, thanks to batteries and other energy storage mechanisms. Also, giving a shout-out to wind power, which is sun -related because it’s the sun’s differential warming of the earth’s surface that gives rise to wind. Wind energy is another way to provide power when the sun isn’t shining.

There are events organized by many partners in hundreds of locations, including concerts, e-bike and EV rallies, marches, speakers, technology tours and information booths, and art exhibits. I want to give a special shout-out to the event in my state capital, Albany, organized by my beloved Third Act Upstate New York working group. I wish that I could be joining them in person, but distance and my health situation are keeping me close to home.

My observance of Sun Day is confined to this post, but my celebration of solar power is ongoing! After a several years’ transition, our home and most of our transportation is powered by the sun. We weatherized our 70-ish-year-old house and adopted energy-efficient lighting and appliances. We installed a hybrid heat pump hot water heater and a geothermal heating and cooling system, enabling our disconnecting from the methane system, which had been delivering fracked gas that has caused so much pollution and sickness for our Pennsylvania neighbors. We drive a 2017 fully electric Chevy Bolt and a plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica minivan, so we only use gasoline when we need to take the van on a long trip.

Because we have large shade trees on the south side of our home, we weren’t candidates for rooftop solar, so we own panels at a solar farm. Over the course of the year, we generate enough kilowatt-hours to cover our needs. Currently, we pay about $20/month to the power company for distribution and about $28/month to the company that rents the land for the solar farm and maintains our panels. It’s really great to have such low energy costs and it’s thanks to the sun!

I was happy to see solar power expanding, thanks, in part, to the energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act passed under President Joe Biden and New York’s Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act. The implementation of programs under these laws were helping to expand access to solar energy, especially for lower-income folks. Unfortunately, President Trump has curtailed many of those programs and Governor Hochul and her administration are way behind schedule in implementing the CLCPA.

Even without subsidies, solar energy is still cheaper to install than fossil fuel energy, even though fossil fuels are still heavily subsidized, so the hope is that economic factors will prevail and solar will continue to expand. In some countries, like Germany, it’s become common to have solar panels that can be hung from a balcony railing and plugged into the electrical system of the home. Utah recently became the first state in the US to allow this. If more states adopt this approach, solar will be able to spread more quickly because it would available to renters and homeowners who don’t have an appropriate rooftop. Granted, you can’t power your home with a small panel like these, but you can reduce your bills and help reduce strain on the grid.

The expansion of cheap solar power is also a boon in places that don’t have a reliable electric grid available. For example, Pakistan has seen a huge uptick in solar power. In the United States, solar is an opportunity to provide power to remote locations, such as some reservations, that currently don’t have any electricity available. As we saw during the pandemic, these locations also did not typically have a source of clean, safe drinking water. Solar power can be used to power pumps for water wells, leading to much better health and quality of life for residents.

So, hurrah for Sun Day and for the sun powering our lives! I’m grateful that every day is Sun Day at our home and want to thank all that are working to make solar power available to ever more people around the world.

One-Liner Wednesday: Congressional accountability

To any member of the US Congress voting to cut health and food assistance to their constituents in order to give huge, permanent tax cuts and subsidies to the very wealthy, including fossil fuel companies: You can expect that your voters will choose a candidate in the next election who will represent their interests, not those of millionaires and billionaires who only care about their own riches and not the common good or the planet.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/07/02/one-liner-wednesday-take-me-out/

Pope Francis

(Image by manfred Kindlinger from Pixabay)

Before the conclave to choose his successor begins, I want to take a moment to write about Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday after twelve years as pope.

From the moment that he was announced after his election with the name Francis, I knew he would be a different kind of pope than his immediate predecessors, especially when he asked the people to bless him before he blessed them. Like St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis dedicated himself to peace, to serving all people, especially the most vulnerable, and to caring for creation. I appreciate how he led the church in those directions while also offering his message to the whole world.

Within the church, he opened the door to greater listening and dialogue, especially through the synodal process that included the laity as well as clergy. This was especially meaningful to me as John Paul II and Benedict XVI tended to shut down discussion and silence voices that offered a different viewpoint. Francis also engaged with people of other faiths and philosophies around the world, travelling broadly and meeting with people in many different circumstances. He would even acknowledge that when he would ask people to bless him or pray for him by asking people who did not have a prayer tradition to offer their well wishes on his behalf.

I appreciated Francis’s humility in choosing to live simply in Casa Santa Marta rather than the opulent papal apartment. He dressed simply and liked to be out among the people. Even his funeral showed his humility. He simplified the papal rite so that it was recognizable to anyone that has planned a Catholic funeral. Only the final commendation and funeral procession through Rome stood out as being papal in scope. One of the most moving moments was when his body arrived for burial at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he was greeted by the poor of Rome and children carried baskets of flowers to place before the altar. The inscription for his grave reads simply Franciscus.

As an environmentalist, my favorite writing of Pope Francis’s is his first encyclical, Laudato Si’, which called for everyone in the world to care for our common home, the earth, and for other people, especially the most vulnerable. It was important in securing the Paris Accord and remains, along with its companion, Laudate Deum, a continuing challenge to how we address the climate crisis and social inequities.

As a feminist and progressive Catholic, I appreciate that Francis invited discussion of women’s role in the Church and appointed women to positions of authority they had never before occupied. However, it was disappointing that he could not see the full vocation of women in church and society. Still, we are further along the path toward the radical inclusion that Jesus modeled for us than we were and for that I am grateful.

Like many Catholics, I will be watching for the white smoke to rise from the Sistine Chapel where the cardinals will meet to select the next pope. The name he chooses may give us a window into the direction in which he will lead the church. For example, a John XXIV would continue in the direction of Vatican II and Francis’s synodality while a Benedict XVII would likely call for a “smaller, purer Church” that would exclude people like me.

The word catholic means universal. Pope Francis spoke to that sense of universality which I hope the next pope will continue.

In a small group a few days ago, we were invited to pray that the next pope be a woman who would take the name Clare and continue in the mode of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare. The Holy Spirit would have to blow through the conclave with hurricane force for that prayer to be fulfilled, but, maybe, some day?

Only God knows.

Hands Off!

Vote for Democracy #35

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Tomorrow, April 5, 2025, there will be hundreds of gatherings across the United States for a Hands Off! day of action. There are even some events in other countries.

These nonviolent marches, rallies, and discussions are in protest of the way that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are gutting legitimate government programs that support the well-being of people and the environment, both in the US and around the world.

Many organizations are helping to organize these gatherings, all with the message of Hands Off! So, Hands Off Climate! Hands Off Health Care! Hands Off Hunger Programs! Hands Off USAID! Hands Off Education! Hands Off National Parks! and more. People will be making signs and creating chants across a wide range of issues that matter to them and to all of us.

While it’s unknown if these large numbers of people coming out across the country will have any impact on the cuts that Trump/Musk/DOGE are making, even when the courts say those cuts are illegal and Congress fails to act, it’s possible. Some cuts have been reversed or service restored after public outcry.

Part of this is to show the Republicans and the Trump administration just how appalling their actions are and how many millions of Americans object to them and want them reversed.

Ordinarily, I would be signed up and ready to participate in the local rally, but my health is preventing me from being there. It feels wrong not to be participating, but I have to trust that many others will be giving voice to my concerns in person, while I am confined to writing about it and calling my representatives. I’m also supporting some of the participating organizations.

I had intended to write more posts about what the administration was doing and the impacts of the insane cuts and policy changes; I just haven’t had the energy to do it. More tests and specialists coming up, so maybe things will get better – eventually.

With the country, I’m not so sure…

LA fires

Here in the US, the dominant news story this week is the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles, California. The area has had less than a quarter inch of rain since May. This should be their rainy season but nothing has fallen. The year prior had been very wet so there had been a lot of vegetative growth but it had dried out because of the drought, making it more susceptible to fire. The dry, Santa Ana winds are blowing through the mountains at near-hurricane strength.

So, widespread fires hitting populated areas in Los Angeles.

The fires are so widespread and numerous that the local firefighters, supplemented by others from as far away as Canada, plus aircraft cannot contain the fires, so entire neighborhoods have been leveled.

Some people are blaming the government for not being more prepared but the truth is that the scale of these fires is beyond any hope of control.

Many of the reports are talking about how climate change has altered the conditions so much that what has always been a risk in the LA area has become an epic disaster. Insurers have been refusing to renew homeowner policies in these areas as the danger increased and there is a question if some of these neighborhoods will be able to be rebuilt or if their residents will, in effect, become climate refugees.

There are, of course, already climate refugees around the world. People on islands or low-lying areas that are facing rising seas or catastrophic flooding. People facing prolonged drought and crop failures. People who have lost access to fresh drinking water. People fleeing armed conflicts that erupted over control of scarce resources.

The uncomfortable truth is that many of the people who come to the US as refugees are doing so because of an underlying climate-related cause. For example, asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle of Central America (Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador) are most often fleeing from climate-change-induced conditions.

Will the devastation of the LA fires finally get through to climate-change deniers what humanity has done to our planet? Trump and his team are promising to ramp up fossil fuel production, despite the US already being at record-high production levels and despite the fact that people in the US and around the globe are already being devastated by climate change.

I can’t muster hope anymore.

If only the country had taken the environmental message of President Jimmy Carter, whose state funeral was yesterday, seriously, we would not be in this state now.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/10/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-10th-2025/

in gratitude for Jimmy Carter

(Photo credit: The Carter Center, 2015)

Jimmy Carter died on Sunday, December 29, 2024 at the age of 100. He was United States president from 1977-1981. After his term ended, he was active as a peacemaker, author, and humanitarian well into his nineties. Much of his work was accomplished in partnership with his wife, Rosalynn, who predeceased him last year after 77 years of marriage.

Carter was president during a formative time in my life, late in high school going into my early years at Smith College, and there are things from that time that have had lasting impact on my life.

Carter’s actions on renewable energy, energy conservation, and environmental protection were formative for me. Because of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, oil and gasoline were high-priced and in short supply. We lived in a very rural area at the time. Reaching our high school, supermarkets, stores, doctor’s office, etc. involved at least a twenty-mile drive, so fuel efficiency became even more crucial for us. Being very aware of the efficiency of our vehicles is something that B and I have retained. The first car we bought after our marriage was a small, fuel-efficient compact; we assumed that our next car would be electric, given the emphasis that had been placed on them by Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, that was all derailed by Reagan and the fossil fuel industry and we didn’t get our first electric car until 2017.

We also continued to take home energy efficiency seriously. B and I were talking recently about how we never got into large, lighted Christmas displays for our yard, choosing instead to just put our Christmas tree, now with super-efficient LED lights, near our front window. That all started back in the Carter administration with its emphasis on energy conservation. Carter, who was an engineer, installed solar panels on the White House roof to heat water; Reagan later removed them. I’m proud to say that our home and most of our transportation are powered by solar energy. We have very efficient heat pumps for hot water and heating and cooling our home. We are also well-insulated and choose appliances and lighting carefully with our eyes on efficiency. The appalling thing is that, while President Carter saw clearly what we needed to do as a country to address environmental/climate protection and energy security long-term and set us on that path, subsequent political and corporate leaders abandoned those efforts with grave planetary consequences. We would not be in such dire circumstances around the globe if we had tackled these issues around renewable energy and environmental/climate protection back then.

I appreciate Carter’s example of living out his faith. He set out to serve humanity, especially those who are most vulnerable. He was long active with Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for people experiencing poverty. Through the Carter Center, he spearheaded a massive effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease in Africa and Asia. In 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases; in 2023, under 20 human cases were reported.

Carter was also a champion for human rights. As president, he appointed people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and many women to executive and judicial branch posts. He created the Department of Education, which had previously been part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, to help promote excellence in education regardless of race or economic circumstances. He also created the Department of Energy to spearhead reforms.

I’m grateful that President Biden will still be in office for the state funeral for Jimmy Carter on January 9th. The then-young Senator Biden was an early endorser of Carter’s run for the Democratic nomination in 1976 and the two have been friends for decades. While Biden and Carter are both one-term Democratic presidents who were largely derailed by high inflation rates, what is more striking to me is that they are both dedicated public servants, motivated by love of country and their faith, Carter as a Baptist and Biden as a Catholic. Both celebrated the diversity and pluralism of the United States and tried to protect and preserve our environment.

I am worried that the incoming Trump administration will try to dismantle the gains made under President Biden in the same way that Reagan undid many of Carter’s initiatives.

A hallmark of Jimmy Carter’s life was always telling the truth, even when that truth was difficult to hear. Donald Trump is known for lying, thousands of times in his first term and thousands more since. It would have been distressing to have Trump overseeing the plans for Carter’s state funeral.

After the funeral and observances in Atlanta where the Carter Center is located, Jimmy Carter will be laid to rest beside Rosalynn under a willow tree near their long-time home in Plains, Georgia. There is a comfort in that for me – to think of them as reunited after such a long and fruitful partnership on earth. Both his longevity and the length of their marriage set records among US presidents, records that may well stand for as long as the United States endures.

Let’s all work to uphold the ideals that Jimmy Carter espoused so that the United States will become a “more perfect union” and grow as a democracy, not devolve into oligarchy or autocracy.

No CO2 Fracking in NY!

I’m pleased to report that, over the weekend, New York Governor Kathy Hochul finally signed the bill adding carbon dioxide to the existing ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. We recently observed the tenth anniversary of the ban.

You can read more about the bill and how important it is to keeping us safe here.

A huge thank you to State Senator Lea Webb, sponsor of the bill in the Senate, and Assemblymember Anna Kelles, sponsor in the Assembly. Thanks also to Donna Lupardo, my Assemblymember, who was a co-sponsor. I will always be grateful to the large coalition of scientists, experts, Indigenous Nations, environmental organizations, and concerned individuals who have been at work for years on this issue for the good of our health, our environment, and our climate.

Broome County, where I live, would have been among the first targeted with this dangerous experiment to use supercritical carbon dioxide to extract methane. I’m grateful that our state will remain frack-free!

Celebrating ten years of the New York fracking ban

Ten years ago today, New York State announced an administrative ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. (in 2021, the legislature made it a law.)

To celebrate, Food & Water Watch, one of the lead organizations in fighting fracking, has compiled a free, commemorative e-book, which you can download here.

A large coalition of organizations, environmentalists, indigenous nations, scientists, engineers, and concerned citizens had spent years advocating for a ban, helped by many of our Pennsylvania neighbors who were suffering from the harms of fracking in their communities. There had been rallies, commentary in the press and at hearings, educational events, scientific papers and lectures, and showing up at public appearances by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo leading up to the ban, which occurred when the Dr. Howard Zucker, the Health Commissioner, said that fracking was too dangerous for New Yorkers’ health, ending what had been a very fraught battle over the SGEIS (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement) that would have allowed fracking without need for site-specific studies.

Yes, that sounds very wonky but we were lucky to have lawyers and other experts in the coalition who could break everything down for us into understandable, actionable bits.

My role in the efforts to ban fracking was as a member of the Rapid Response Team. We would receive links to articles about fracking in the media and write comments to bolster the truth and challenge misinformation. It was intense at times but it meant a lot when I would be at a rally or event and people from other parts of the state would recognize my name from comments I had written. It was good to know that my little part was helpful to the cause.

When the announcement came from Albany ten years ago, there was rejoicing from all parts of the coalition and a celebration here in Binghamton, which had been the epicenter of both the pro- and anti-fracking efforts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend because I was sick with shingles. I was very grateful, though, and as excited as I could manage to be.

We aren’t having a party on this tenth anniversary but we are all awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul signing a bill that will add carbon dioxide to the existing fracking ban. The bill was passed in March and we have been urging her to sign it ever since.

Many bills get signed in December so it could be any day now, although I’m hoping it will be today.

It would be a fitting tenth anniversary commemoration and a reminder to the nation that New York says NO to fracking!

Update: On Dec. 21, Governor Hochul finally signed the bill. You can read the press release from coalition members here.

SoCS: my new piece!

I’ve had a new piece published!

It’s a personal essay rather than my usual poetry.

I posted about it earlier and, yes, this is a way to get more views for Generations Today, who published this story of my relationship with nature and how that lead to my climate activism.

Enjoy!
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is to build the post around a word that has “i before e.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/09/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-28-2024/

Article in Generations Today!

I am thrilled to announce that I have an article in the September/October issue of Generations Today, the online magazine of American Society on Aging. Many thanks to Alison Biggar, editorial director, for the invitation to contribute and for the editorial assistance, titling, and attention to all the other little details that go into publication.

The theme of the issue is the relationship with nature and volunteerism among elders. My piece is “One Woman’s Evolution Into a Climate Warrior” – not a term that I would claim on my own, but one that I gratefully accept as bestowed by Alison.

The article traces my involvement with the natural world and renewable energy from my childhood up to the present time with shout-outs to the anti-fracking movement in New York, the Creation Care Team at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Binghamton, and Third Act.

There is even a link to Silver Birch Press, who first published my poem “How I Help Heal the Earth from Upstate New York” as part of their HOW TO HEAL THE EARTH series. The poem is reprinted in the article.

When Alison first approached me to contribute to this issue, she said they were looking for someon who could “wax poetic” about nature and volunteering for a climate change organization. I’m not sure she expected an actual poem to appear in the article but this “late-blooming” poet could not resist!

I hope you enjoy the article and the others in this issue of Generations Today and that they inspire you to reflect on your own relationship with nature and to volunteer if you are able, whatever your age, location, or circumstance. Together, we can make a difference!

(Photo credit: Brent Boivert)