Congratulations, Bill, both for your successful "funeral" I wish it were a real funeral for Citibank. Thanks for telling us about solar windows and solar panels over canals. It is no surprise the indigenous tribes have started this project. The Native Americans, regardless of tribe, have long regarded it their duty to protect and defend their environment, despite us white people's insistence that the accumulation of wealth was of greater importance
I am a climate refugee. I have come to Michigan's upper peninsula to live near nature's lovely air conditioner, Lake Superior, for the balance of my days on the mother earth. If only humans won't find a way to ruin that, too.
How creative and profound The Funeral and other protests. Wonderful climate activists and activism.
The Climate Corps are a great idea, and the pledge is moving and lovely. I want my grandsons to join. And Solar Windows such a brilliant idea and easier to install and maintain. Great news. Thanks, Bill.You give us hope with this newsletter. I love it. Daniela Gioseffi www.AuthorandActivist.com
The woman in burlap — juxtaposed by the callousness of corporate America’s ecocidal profit imperative…hit me like a wall of bricks. Thank you all for showing up…
Those people in burlap are The Lamentors. They each wear a sign calling out an aspect of the climate’s degradation — Wildfire — Floods — Drought — etc. They are mourners who do not speak or react to the crowds, they simply march slowly or stand in a row bearing witness to the disasters that come from the global warming that comes primarily from burning fossil fuels.
I was a climate activist for decades and find this so very compelling. It’s sadly, tragically, horrendously expressive of where we are. In searching for more information about them this remarkable paper popped up!
The power of lament
“A lament involves shaping and expressing an account of loss that holds others to account. Understood as an embodied and emplaced process, we develop the case for the concept of lament through detailing the feeling, narrating, sharing and placing of loss. We argue that examining lament in this way reveals new insights into lived experiences and expressions related to facing the damage and destruction of nonhuman life and landscapes.” Full text here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/25148486231153329
Here's an idea: Since the supreme court opened the way for presidents to do more, maybe Biden can declare a NATIONAL EMERGENCY due to the climate crisis. Then he can use emergency powers to permanently stop all oil and gas subsidies.
I will say one thing. I hope one day that people will begin to protest without being so cooperative with the authorities. The system uses force against you. The extinctions caused by the system are akin to genocide, akin to someone pulling the trigger in an execution. Deforestation translated to human terms would be like someone killing your friend in front of you. I wonder, if that were to happen to anyone, would they be so peaceful?
If all we ever do is work within the system, do you think that we will effect the change needed globally?
I was not talking about public protests in this traditional sense, anyway. I was talking about strategic uses of force against the system. If the only power we have is to keep ourselves safe, we can also just do nothing.
I agree that traditional methods of protest have little agency anymore. What might be an example of “strategic uses of force against the system” that won’t reinforce existing power dynamics?
People that hammer spikes into trees is one such example of members of society using force to prevent ecological problems. I am sure you can think of others.
Jim Hansen et al’s 'Pipeline’ paper put squarely on the table the trajectory Eaarth’s accelerating fever is on: it is bending upward due to the reduced masking by sulfur and other aerosols that have accompanied the burning of dirty fossil fuels … Jim named it the Faustian Bargain.
And even if we sprint to halving emissions in 6 years and grapple with removing trillions of tons of CO2, CH4 and other more potent GHGs in desperate effort to achieve delusional Net Zero in two—likely more—decades, the atmospheric concentration and temperature trajectories will continue to climb unless we dramatically scale up removal with a new mega-industrial extraction paradigm that might over many more decades begin to bend those curves downward toward Holocene CO2 and temperature levels.
But before we will declare victory in that endeavor, our fate will be sealed by the looming tipping of the Arctic ice cap, Antarctic ice sheets, Greenland ice sheet, relentless sea level rise and deceleration of AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), not to mention end of Asia's potable water source high in the Himalayas, crop failures and famine, and deadly jet stream behavior ... oh and release of thawed subsea methane from the warming shallow Arctic coastal seas and tundra. You know all that.
As much as we detest the two centuries of experimenting on Mother Nature—Hansen calls it geo-transformation—we may ultimately bite the bullet too late and ill-prepared for lack of research and testing with hasty desperate attempts to restore those lost natural treasures that make life on Mother Earth possible. An international organization to plan and orchestrate a unified and legitimate assessment of a wide variety of plausible emergency triage interventions (like CPR and tourniquets) means to cool the Arctic, Antarctic, seas and oceans using nature-based interventions is now coalescing, and as soon as there is something in the news to share, I will send you the link.
I am very excited about the canal being covered in California-Project Nexus. It will save 65 billion gallons from evaporating! Plus provide so much energy for homes, businesses. The property already is owned by the state, so please continue to cover this project as it proceeds.
Congratulations, Bill, both for your successful "funeral" I wish it were a real funeral for Citibank. Thanks for telling us about solar windows and solar panels over canals. It is no surprise the indigenous tribes have started this project. The Native Americans, regardless of tribe, have long regarded it their duty to protect and defend their environment, despite us white people's insistence that the accumulation of wealth was of greater importance
Beautiful.
I am a climate refugee. I have come to Michigan's upper peninsula to live near nature's lovely air conditioner, Lake Superior, for the balance of my days on the mother earth. If only humans won't find a way to ruin that, too.
I hear the bagpipes and share the tears. Mother 🌎 forgive us for we know what we do.
How creative and profound The Funeral and other protests. Wonderful climate activists and activism.
The Climate Corps are a great idea, and the pledge is moving and lovely. I want my grandsons to join. And Solar Windows such a brilliant idea and easier to install and maintain. Great news. Thanks, Bill.You give us hope with this newsletter. I love it. Daniela Gioseffi www.AuthorandActivist.com
Editor www.EcoPoetry.com all free and inspiring.
Thanks for all you do, Bill.
This was very moving, Bill, as well as inspiring, even as the heat is getting really bad.
The woman in burlap — juxtaposed by the callousness of corporate America’s ecocidal profit imperative…hit me like a wall of bricks. Thank you all for showing up…
Those people in burlap are The Lamentors. They each wear a sign calling out an aspect of the climate’s degradation — Wildfire — Floods — Drought — etc. They are mourners who do not speak or react to the crowds, they simply march slowly or stand in a row bearing witness to the disasters that come from the global warming that comes primarily from burning fossil fuels.
I was a climate activist for decades and find this so very compelling. It’s sadly, tragically, horrendously expressive of where we are. In searching for more information about them this remarkable paper popped up!
The power of lament
“A lament involves shaping and expressing an account of loss that holds others to account. Understood as an embodied and emplaced process, we develop the case for the concept of lament through detailing the feeling, narrating, sharing and placing of loss. We argue that examining lament in this way reveals new insights into lived experiences and expressions related to facing the damage and destruction of nonhuman life and landscapes.” Full text here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/25148486231153329
I love all of your posts.
Here's an idea: Since the supreme court opened the way for presidents to do more, maybe Biden can declare a NATIONAL EMERGENCY due to the climate crisis. Then he can use emergency powers to permanently stop all oil and gas subsidies.
GREAT!!
This was a very moving post. From the creative activism to the pledge, it helped renew my sense of hope which has been sorely tested lately.
I will say one thing. I hope one day that people will begin to protest without being so cooperative with the authorities. The system uses force against you. The extinctions caused by the system are akin to genocide, akin to someone pulling the trigger in an execution. Deforestation translated to human terms would be like someone killing your friend in front of you. I wonder, if that were to happen to anyone, would they be so peaceful?
If all we ever do is work within the system, do you think that we will effect the change needed globally?
There’s power in public acts of nonviolent protest in that it doesn’t give law enforcers an excuse to open fire. 🤨
I was not talking about public protests in this traditional sense, anyway. I was talking about strategic uses of force against the system. If the only power we have is to keep ourselves safe, we can also just do nothing.
I agree that traditional methods of protest have little agency anymore. What might be an example of “strategic uses of force against the system” that won’t reinforce existing power dynamics?
People that hammer spikes into trees is one such example of members of society using force to prevent ecological problems. I am sure you can think of others.
Jim Hansen et al’s 'Pipeline’ paper put squarely on the table the trajectory Eaarth’s accelerating fever is on: it is bending upward due to the reduced masking by sulfur and other aerosols that have accompanied the burning of dirty fossil fuels … Jim named it the Faustian Bargain.
And even if we sprint to halving emissions in 6 years and grapple with removing trillions of tons of CO2, CH4 and other more potent GHGs in desperate effort to achieve delusional Net Zero in two—likely more—decades, the atmospheric concentration and temperature trajectories will continue to climb unless we dramatically scale up removal with a new mega-industrial extraction paradigm that might over many more decades begin to bend those curves downward toward Holocene CO2 and temperature levels.
But before we will declare victory in that endeavor, our fate will be sealed by the looming tipping of the Arctic ice cap, Antarctic ice sheets, Greenland ice sheet, relentless sea level rise and deceleration of AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), not to mention end of Asia's potable water source high in the Himalayas, crop failures and famine, and deadly jet stream behavior ... oh and release of thawed subsea methane from the warming shallow Arctic coastal seas and tundra. You know all that.
As much as we detest the two centuries of experimenting on Mother Nature—Hansen calls it geo-transformation—we may ultimately bite the bullet too late and ill-prepared for lack of research and testing with hasty desperate attempts to restore those lost natural treasures that make life on Mother Earth possible. An international organization to plan and orchestrate a unified and legitimate assessment of a wide variety of plausible emergency triage interventions (like CPR and tourniquets) means to cool the Arctic, Antarctic, seas and oceans using nature-based interventions is now coalescing, and as soon as there is something in the news to share, I will send you the link.
Thank you for your steadfast leadership, Bill. It is so impressive and crucial!
I am very excited about the canal being covered in California-Project Nexus. It will save 65 billion gallons from evaporating! Plus provide so much energy for homes, businesses. The property already is owned by the state, so please continue to cover this project as it proceeds.
All climate activists should lead by example and permanently end their own carbon emissions.
No burping? No farting? What?
Can you explain exactly how, in this world, you can live if you do that?
Great piece, thanks so much. Can't help wondering if being arrested (I've never been) involves single-use zip-ties?
thank you