28 Comments

Thanks for this. I have read all your books and love the way you argue for the improvements possible in our communities as we contend with the climate crisis. I just have one suggestion here, related to how you emphasize the value of cooperation (and giving people privacy) in small towns of less than 400 people. I think urban areas have many small and supportive communities, too, which are carved out on a couple of streets or in an apartment building. A greater emphasis on how everyone (not just people in small towns) benefits and participates in communities (or they could, if they aren’t) would perhaps stretch the reach of this idea into where a great many more voters live, the big cities. My own community (a set of duplexes on a couple of linked streets) has potlucks, people drive their neighbors to doctor appts, we pass down toys and bikes to younger children down the street, and recently we collectively donated 58 boxes of books to a local bookstore and schools. Many of us do get Amazon deliveries, but we also have to help each other find them when they arrive on the wrong doorsteps!

Expand full comment

This is such a generous, optimististic, and uplifting comment.

Thank you for sharing.

Expand full comment

I live in the same part of Minnesota that Tim Walz hails from. He and I are both DFL'ers (Minnesota-speak for "Democrats") in this Republican-leaning part of Minnesota. So it remarkable that Walz is successful as a Democrat in spite of that.

Expand full comment

I'm disgusted with the mainstream media. Yesterday the WaPo was negatively going on about Walz's speeding ticket and today with his "reason for leaving the National Guard". I think Jennifer Rubin is great, but the rest of them... I should cancel my subscription.

Expand full comment

I hang onto the WaPo for Jennifer Rubin.

Expand full comment

Maybe they couldn't find any couch stories on him.

Expand full comment

Thank you Bill, a lot of important information here. Really appreciate your remarks on the Harris/Walz ticket. I've sent this and your last post to my granddaughter who works for an international renewable energy company as their social media expert

Expand full comment

Thank you Bill, for the shout-out to LBJ, one of the greatest presidents we ever had. Were it not for the Vietnam war... I have an actual bust of him in my library. There were three New Deal presidents, FDR, then LBJ, then Joe Biden. Biden can be rightfully viewed as the last of the New Dealers

.Too bad for the country

Expand full comment

I like Tim Walz because, like you and Bob Massie, you come by your progressivism honestly, through a combination of real world experience, pain, and a strong Christian faith. One not mutually exclusive to religious, racial, ethnical or sexual minorities. In recent months, I've lost sight of this. I consider myself a progressive, socialist and Christian, and seeing the ugly, disgusting reaction by anarchist Leftists, allows me to truly appreciate your words. Thank you for this piece.

Expand full comment

Thank you for acknowledging that our Governor has been working hard on supporting climate solutions for our State. However, as part of a strong advocacy group, the Minnesota Divestment Coalition, we have been pushing our State Board of Investment (SBI) to divest from fossil fuels and invest in the clean energy future for many years. Our SBI is made up of four members, including the governor, our secretary of state, the state auditor, and our attorney general. The SBI has failed to take steps to address divestment with the exception of mostly divesting from thermal coal a couple years ago. We continue to push for there to be a more ambitious plan but as of today their plan is only to practice engagement through proxy voting. Their priority continues to only be about getting the highest rate of returns for their pensioners. They are not taking the broader fiduciary responsibility to protect all Minnesotans from the inevitable impact of the climate crisis.

Expand full comment

Thanks so much Bill - Another great piece, especially for those of us in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Yes, Tim Walz is everything you said and is such a great gift to us and now the nation. His way of being is something that I have always been impressed with, even when I’ve been disappointed.

At the Alliance for Sustainability (www.afors.org), we’ve worked with him and the MN Environmental Partnership to successfully pass so much breakthrough legislation. He’s absolutely what we need to move our country forward…together.

And while I’m an organic vegan and won’t be going hunting or fishing with him, he’s the perfect person to connect with and win over the large swaths of our country on everything from climate to common sense gun laws.

One thing to note: His Lt. Governor and fabulous policy partner Peggy Flanagan, the highest-ranking elected Native American leader in the US (and my former State Rep) will become our Governor and soon - I hope- our President.

A new, hopeful world is beginning to emerge out of the darkness and everything you shared is a key part of the missing ingredient.

BTW, the Alliance is beginning to post our outstanding, college student-written pieces from our bi-weekly newsletter on Substack.

And speaking of students, my son Adam Gips is a Middlebury ‘26.5. He just completed an internship in South Africa. He’s a big Nordic skier so I hope you can connect.

With Gratitude, Health and Sustainability,

Terry

Terry Gips, President and Co-Founder

Alliance for Sustainability

7915 Victoria Curve

St. Louis Park, MN 55426

612-940-4939c

Terry@afors.org

www.Afors.org

Expand full comment

How many people were on the Elders for Harris call? How much money was raised? Disappointed there hasn't been publicity about it.

Expand full comment

Life was much simpler back in the good ol’ days and we were led to believe that pipelines, tar sands, and spills in creeks, corn fields and suburban cul de sacs were the extent of the climate problem—1,253 of us descended on Obama in 2011 in the ultimate display of social disgust with the singular root cause: fossil fuels.

More has been written by journalist, bloggers and average John and Jane citizen. We all were deceived to think the problem and the answer were singular: CO2 emissions.

It was known by the experts NOT TO HAVE BEEN SINGULAR … but did the trusted responsible investigative journalists cover the whole truth? No! Only one-third of the truth!

The whole truthful story was presented at Asilomar in 2010 by Dr. John G. Shepherd on a simple “napkin diagram” he explained at the Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies.

The “napkin diagram” is easily found with Google:

https://jgshepherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Napkin-diagram.pdf

Statement from the Conference’s Scientific Organizing Committee (March 26, 2010):

(the final three paragraph excerpt)

“The fact that humanity’s efforts to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases (mitigation) have been limited to date is a cause of deep concern. Additionally, uncertainties in the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases leave open the possibility of very large future changes. It is thus important to initiate further research in all relevant disciplines to better understand and communicate whether additional strategies to moderate future climate change are, or are not, viable, appropriate and ethical. Such strategies, which could be employed in addition to the primary strategy of mitigation, include climate intervention methods (solar radiation management) and climate remediation methods (carbon dioxide removal).

“We do not yet have sufficient knowledge of the risks associated with using methods for climate intervention and remediation, their intended and unintended impacts, and their efficacy in reducing the rate of climatic change to assess whether they should or should not be implemented. Thus, further research is essential.

“Recognizing that governments collectively have ultimate responsibility for decisions concerning climate intervention and remediation research and possible implementation, this conference represented a step in facilitating a process involving broader public participation. This process should ensure that research on this issue progresses in a timely, safe, ethical and transparent manner, addressing social, humanitarian and environmental issues.”

Source: https://cdrlaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ASILOMAR-INTERNATIONAL-CONFERENCE-ON-2.pdf

You will surely recognize many of the scientists who put their names on that statement.

It’s too bad this did not get widespread coverage and that the IPCC bureaucrats turned a blind eye to the interwoven issues of current emissions, past legacy ocean and atmospheric concentrations and radiative energy imbalance.

These take-aways from today’s Crucial Years should guide us going forward:

• [Walz] has talked about “compromising without compromising values”—this will be the test.

• And cooperation—building a society that can take on joint tasks—is what we need.

My mission the past several years has been to open the eyes of Vermont’s DC delegation and state legislators in one-on-one dialogue, but none has had ears to hear or eyes to see the truth.

With your connections to the likes of Bernie Sanders, Michael Mann, Al Gore … would you give it a go? Please?

Cutting emissions to Net Zero alone will not reduce global atmospheric and oceanic temperatures, and thereby, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), Sea Level Rise, Himalayan source water collapse and Arctic Subsea Methane Clathrate Release tipping points will not be averted. Mass deaths and migration will ensue.

This statement tells me you are resigned to failure:

• But the next 75 years are going to be harder: as the climate crisis breaks over us …

Let’s act as though humanity’s fate is on the line with a simultaneous three-pronged strategic approach—with the stability and balance of a 3- legged stool.

Visual aids at: Bit.ly/PRAGfundamentals

Expand full comment

I'm writing this partly out of pure indignation at the spectacle of the Harris campaign. She was annointed to her position without a single public vote - since her coronation, she has hid from the press (obvious, as she's a disastrous off the cuff speaker) - she threw her boss under the boss, I suppose this is better than sleeping with him and to top it off, she's the worst VP in history with no accomplishments! However, the groupthink left media and their lemmers are all now pumping her up as she's the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's sad, pathetic and atypical of their lying mentality to push their agenda!

If, heaven-forbid, she wins, the country will see increased inflation due to her position on attacking energy and further wars - this due to the evil leaders around the world seeing what any sane person sees - a weak, incompetent DEI hire, more concerned about being woke than protecting and/or improving the country!

Oh yeah, ...Walz is also abhorrent! A man who's stolen valor in his misleading comments, and embraces criminals. Just look at Minnesota - a disastrous state that he wants to replicate!

Expand full comment

There is a typo in the article: "and son on" should read "and so on"

Thanks for some more info on Walz - it was interesting.

Expand full comment

Thanks Bill, for the emphasis on Walz' neighborliness, and the role that will play increasingly in keeping things working during floods and other acts of nature.

Expand full comment

Yes! He balances out VP Harris quite well!

Expand full comment

Cult

Expand full comment

GHE says w/o it Earth becomes 255 K, -18 C, ball of ice.

Wrong.

No GHE=no albedo=lunarific.

GHE heat balance graphics don’t + violate GAAP & LoT.

NFG.

GHE theory requires “extra” energy radiating from BB surface.

Kinetic processes render this impossible.

GHE = bogus & CAGW = scam.

Expand full comment