Thomas Friedman provided part of the speech Severn Suzuki delivered at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. I remember seeing this speech and being blown away by it. It’s excellent. Suzuki was only 12 years old when she delivered it. (She’s David Suzuki’s daughter.)
Today, she is 29 years old, a Yale graduate, writer, and environmental activist.
The transcript is here.
Interesting article on healing the climate from Al Gore in The New York Times, today. (Gore was vice president from 1993 to 2001; was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007; founded the Alliance for Climate Protection; created An Inconvenient Truth; and invests in alternative energy companies.)
Gore says that after 20 years of detailed study and four unanimous reports, the evidence for global warming is unequivocal. Our children and grandchildren are relying on those who still dismiss the urgent alarms to wake up before it’s too late.
The good news is that the steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are the exactly the same steps that are needed to solve the economic crisis. Economics across the spectrum agree that the best way to revive our economy is large and rapid investments in jobs that help us decrease our dependence on oil. To do this, we have to discard the fatally flawed definition of the problem we face. Producing more oil domestically, or creating “clean coal” does not offer enough investment value.
We are faced with a new difficulty and need to discard the fatally flawed definition of the problem we face. Producing more oil domestically will not solve the problem because there isn’t enough investment value in domestic production or in “clean coal”. Neither will make a difference in protecting national security or the global climate. We have to quit basing human survival strategies on a cynical, self-interested illusion.
Gore offers some ideas for what we can do - now:
We can make an immediate and large strategic investment to put people to work replacing 19th-century energy technologies that depend on dangerous and expensive carbon-based fuels with 21st-century technologies that use fuel that is free forever: the sun, the wind and the natural heat of the earth.
He offers a 5-part plan to repower America with 100 percent of our electricity coming from carbon-free sources within 10 years. This plan would move us toward providing solution to the climate crisis and the economic crisis at the same time. And it would create millions of jobs that can’t be outsourced.
First, the new president and the new Congress should offer large-scale investment in incentives for the construction of concentrated solar thermal plants in the Southwestern deserts, wind farms in the corridor stretching from Texas to the Dakotas and advanced plants in geothermal hot spots that could produce large amounts of electricity.
Second, we should begin the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used. New high-voltage, low-loss underground lines can be designed with “smart” features that provide consumers with sophisticated information and easy-to-use tools for conserving electricity, eliminating inefficiency and reducing their energy bills. The cost of this modern grid — $400 billion over 10 years — pales in comparison with the annual loss to American business of $120 billion due to the cascading failures that are endemic to our current balkanized and antiquated electricity lines.
Third, we should help America’s automobile industry (not only the Big Three but the innovative new startup companies as well) to convert quickly to plug-in hybrids that can run on the renewable electricity that will be available as the rest of this plan matures. In combination with the unified grid, a nationwide fleet of plug-in hybrids would also help to solve the problem of electricity storage. Think about it: with this sort of grid, cars could be charged during off-peak energy-use hours; during peak hours, when fewer cars are on the road, they could contribute their electricity back into the national grid.
Fourth, we should embark on a nationwide effort to retrofit buildings with better insulation and energy-efficient windows and lighting. Approximately 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States come from buildings — and stopping that pollution saves money for homeowners and businesses. This initiative should be coupled with the proposal in Congress to help Americans who are burdened by mortgages that exceed the value of their homes.
Fifth, the United States should lead the way by putting a price on carbon here at home, and by leading the world’s efforts to replace the Kyoto treaty next year in Copenhagen with a more effective treaty that caps global carbon dioxide emissions and encourages nations to invest together in efficient ways to reduce global warming pollution quickly, including by sharply reducing deforestation.
We must re-establish the U.S. as a country with the moral and political authority to lead the world to a solution. That is the best way to secure a global agreement to safeguard our future. Gore says we have the ability and the courage to to make the changes that will save our economy, our planet and ourselves.
At last! I have finished Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. I have wanted to read this book since it was recommended in a World Religions class more than 8 years ago. I can’t believe it has taken me so long to finally read it.
For me, it wasn’t a quick read at all. I could only take it in doses because the language is so exuberant and flowery. Dillard said it embarrasses her now which is interesting. But it’s the writing of a 27 year old in love with the world. I think we are all much more exuberant and excited at that age.
It’s a beautiful book. I loved thinking about this woman getting down on her stomach and slithering like a snake in order to sneak up on something she wants to observe. Or laying under a bush for hours to watch a praying mantis lay eggs.
I used to spend hours observing things so can sort of relate to the fascination with strange things. When my son was still crawling, I used to love to get down on the carpet with him and try and observe everything from his point of view. I’d spend hours doing this with him and not realize where the time had gone. Once, when he was slightly older, we were out in our front yard and came across a praying mantis eating the head of another praying mantis. We sat and watched it for hours. It was fascinating and horrifying. My husband always laughs because when he met me, I had a huge garden spider with a large web over the door of my apartment. People would have to duck under it to be able to get to my door. It was so beautiful I wanted it to stay there as long as it would. When my husband and I first started dating, we’d go up to the spot we called granite rock in the Texas hill country. He once sent me flowers afterward and the card read: “For taking the time to show me the beauty in a blade of grass.” Those were the first flowers he ever sent me and I still have the card. 
I don’t have as much patience for such things any more. I hadn’t even realized it until after reading this book. Did I get too old? Did I loose my exuberance for life somewhere along the way?
We live off of a natural preserve which protects an endangered cave spider. I’ve had the idea for years but have never followed through on it - to photograph all of the animal and plant species we can and then classify them. I thought that would be such an excellent homeschooling project. We don’t own a decent camera so would definitely have to purchase one. And I have trouble walking sometimes because of my gimpy ankle. But I can ride a bike and we I don’t think we’d have to go far to find things to look at.
Anyway, the book awoke something long asleep in me. I’m glad that she wrote this at 27 even if she is somewhat embarrassed by the writing style now. It is so easy to forget that awe you have when you are younger.
About 8 years ago, a friend of mine was telling my husband about having helped to design some sort of solar powered battery that would be able to store lots of energy and power all kinds of things. But he said it would never go anywhere because the oil companies squash any sort of alternative power before it had a chance to make it.
At the time, I thought he was just being dramatic. Why, when there is so much pollution and people are worried about global warming would they squash something just for profit. Silly me. The scales have since fallen from my eyes and I understand much better now than I did then.
Today we watched Who Killed the Electric Car? . Fascinating film. I was living in California when the zero emmissions mandates were being made so remember seeing a few of these cars that ran only on electricity. Several businesses in our area began providing plug in capability - like in the parking garage at the pediatrician’s office (which was part of the hospital). It seemed like a good idea at the time but I remember thinking that it just wasn’t practical - that the cars couldn’t go far enough on a single charge to be considered trustworthy transportation. But those were in the days when the scales over my eyes were firmly in place. I was definitely a guilty consumer as the film suggests. I never bothered to check into it.
And it’s ashame, too - especially how easily we are all duped by big business. The electric car didn’t die because it wasn’t good technology. It was practical, functional, and the people who drove them loved them. But people didn’t own them. The car companies leased them. And when the leases were up, the leases were not renewed, and the cars were destroyed.
Why? According to Who Killed the Electric Car?, there isn’t a single answer. The new technology was clearly a threat to the oil companies which actively and very publically denounced the technology as impractical.
The auto industry did not want to be told what types of cars that had to produce. Also, electric cars would not provide the same return on parts and services as cars with combustible engines, which is a very large part of the auto industries revenue. In fact, at the same time the electric car was systematically destroyed, the Hummer and large SUVs were introduced and mass marketed and given large tax cuts by the U.S. government.
It’s not exactly surprising that those in office today would be against the electric car. A large percentage have have direct ties to oil and auto industries.
And definitely the consumers are to blame because we didn’t ask any questions. But talk to the people that were selling the electric cars - they had unbelieveable waiting lists. The demand was there and was so high that in order to receive a car, you had to provide a resume.
Many people claimed the battery was the problem. But technology rapidly improved and better batteries could easily have replaced the less effective ones. Today, a car could possibly run 300 miles on a single charge. But the car delearships crushed them all so there are no longer any cars to put the batteries in.
The new push is for plug-in hybrid cars - cars that can run solely on electricity but can also run on gas in a pinch. The technology is there. It will be interesting to see where it goes.
by Ron Fricke
Baraka is an ancient sufi word which translates as blessing, or as the breath or essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds.
Baraka – A World Beyond Words Photographed in 70mm in 24 Countries is absolutely breathtaking.
Most of the film shows the beauty of the earth and humanity, although this is juxtaposed with short clips of the destructive nature of man against nature and man against man.
The clip of the chickens and factory workers was absolutely horrifying even if it seemed to be somewhat out of place with the rest of the film. (Perhaps a tad bit on the moralizing edge). It’s placement was very effective for me, however, and made me cry. Partly because of what was happening to the chickens, but primarily because of the casualness of the factory workers toward what they are doing to these living creatures. And then we buy the chicken and perpetuate the treatment. Good reinforcment of my daughter’s decision for she and I to become vegetarians. (We’ve been vegetarians since February 1.)
There was also a short journey through several Death Camps of the Holocaust which was also quite effective.
Beautiful, beautiful, film! I could watch it over and over again!
