July 31, 2010
George Lakoff
Author, The Political Mind, Moral Politics, Don’t Think of an Elephant!

Posted: July 15, 2010 09:08 AM
Huffington Post

Saving nature is the central issue. Carbon fuels destroy nature. The Gulf Death Gusher is the most visible sign. But signs are everywhere. Overall global warming increases hurricanes and floods, destroys habitats for plants, fish, birds, and ground animals, spreads deserts, causes deadly waves, and destroys glaciers and our polar ice caps. The use of carbon fuels has been destroying nature. Our job now is to save it.

Interestingly, there is a short, 39-page bill before the Senate that would allow us to save nature and get paid substantially for doing it. It is the CLEAR bill, first suggested by Peter Barnes, and introduced by Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME). It is simple, it works, and it pays you!

The principle behind it is this: We US citizens own the air over the US equally. Carbon-fuel sellers are dumping pollution in our air, not just poisoning the air, but destroying nature. At least they should pay for permits to dump, poison, and destroy, and should be forced year-by-year to stop. Who should the sellers pay for permits? All of us, the citizens who live here, should be paid handsomely. And there should be predictably fewer permits every year, till the practice ends or reaches tolerable levels. Read the complete Post.

Climate change has opportunities for us all

by Toby Reid, VPOE

Recent declarations that we are in the midst of one of the greatest mass extinctions in the history of the planet are enough to make a person lose hope. In fact, this harsh reality is downright unsettling and, for this author, unacceptable. The means by which we’ve ended up in this position is important to understand, but more important is what we’re going to do to reverse the trend. There is no doubt that if we continue on our current path, humans are likely to be the biggest name on this extinction card. Some may not care about our current plight, but most of us feel the instinctive pull to try to do the right thing. But where do you start?

Let’s start with understanding how we got here. A friend recently laid it out this way, and it’s simply the cold truth of the matter – we’re in this mess because we’re using too much stuff. That’s right – stuff. Steel, fish, wood, oil, plastic, copper, fertilizers, cars, iPods, silicone breast implants - all of it. We’re drowning in stuff, and the byproducts of using this stuff to make other stuff. It’s a stuff-a-palooza gone horribly wrong.

The biggest, and most important step we all can make is to consume less stuff. I’m not suggesting that we go back to the loincloth and live in caves, but it’s a darn sight smarter than what we’re doing right now. We’ve got to scale back the amount of stuff that we consume. That starts with being less greedy, less needy, and more self-sufficient. Grandparents and great-grandparents are very helpful in providing guidance on this.

The next most important thing to look at is your housing situation. This also affects personal transportation, so it’s a biggie. If you live in the suburbs in a huge house for two, I’m sure it’s dawned on you that maybe that’s not sustainable living. You’re right – it’s not. The average single person needs only about 600 square feet to live, and the average family of four needs only about 1500 square feet to have a good home. Urban density is the way of the future.

Read the complete Post.

by Toby Reid, VPOE

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to you today as a concerned global citizen who wishes for his future and the future of the generations to come to be taken into account when the world gets together to plan the successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, in December of this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

For many years now, we have known the cause of climate change. It is human caused, and is due to our exponentially rising carbon emissions which have resulted from an exponentially increasing consumptive society. We have been keenly aware of the dangerous path that we’ve been collectively blazing since the second Great War, a time that caused my grandparents to say ‘enough is enough, we just want peace and stability’. It was the noted economist, Kenneth Boulding, former president of the American Economic Association, who declared in his book “Economic Analysis” in 1941: “anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist”.

While the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 is a good first step in tackling our exponentially growing carbon emissions, containing provisions that improve building codes and that support a cap and trade system for carbon management, it is not even close to being enough for what the world needs from its largest emitter. Under the terms of this Act, a satisfactory outcome could be obtained if just 12 percent of the nation’s electricity is generated by renewable means by 2020. This outcome would simply be delaying the inevitable and making the problem worse. Renewable electrical generation IS the future, and something the current administration should be holding as one of its top priorities for the current term.

Read the complete Post.

University of Portland , May 3, 2009

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful. Boy, no pressure there.

But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. Read the complete Post.

I can’t help but feel frustrated when I read Newsweek articles like that one below that only go as far as advocating a Business As Usual (BAU) or a Technofix just-in-time-to-save-our-asses solution (In religious jargon – False Messianic promise) to Climate Change and Peak Oil.

By Philip Be’er VPOE

In his Hierarchy of Needs, Abraham Maslow laid out in a graphic format, what human beings need to thrive http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

Try to find the need for nuclear, fossil or even “low carbon” energy sources, for cars or of any other kind of mechanised transportation in the pyramid and you’ll see that they simply play no role in what human beings require to be healthy, wealthy and happy.

According to Professor Abraham Maslow, we do need Clean Air, Food, Water, Sleep and Shelter to survive. When we also get our safety and security needs met this creates a stable environment conducive to developing socially and emotionally. When we set up our societies in ways that allow us to have our Esteem Needs met, then we also have a shot at realising our personal potential.

Read the complete Post.

Our hope is that people all over the Lower Mainland will start their own peak oil meetups, to lower their carbon footprints & costs for travel to the meetings, but more importantly to begin the process of localization by getting together with others in their community to come up with local solutions - every city and neighborhood will have its own unique challeges and assets, and there’s no substitute for sitting down with those who live near you.

As a way to make it easier for people to start meetings, VPO has come up with a standard meeting format, available for download. The format addresses many of the conundrums that every meeting faces:

Who’s in charge? (Answer: Nobody - we’re all equals - though some members will always have more experience and knowledge than others, and can be of service to those who are just catching on to peak oil and its consequences.)

How do we balance the needs of newcomers, who have questions, and regular attendees who want to move on to solutions?

What’s involved in getting ready for peak oil? (We suggest a 3 part program.)

How will the individual meetups keep in contact with the larger VPO organization? (We suggest each meeting have a VPO rep who will represent the group at periodic intergroup get-togethers.)

How do we integrate speakers and group members who want to share particular knowledge and expertise?

How do we collect dues to pay for our expenses?

What sorts of volunteer positions need to be filled to keep the group running, and how long would any one person need to commit to a position?

How will we keep in touch with each other between meetings?

And so on. Download the format and accompanying Co-secretary sheet, and write us at to let us know how your meeting is doing!

Crossposted from EcoGeek.org

It seems like every month or so, I get a press release in my inbox saying something like “Scientists Say that The World Will Explode if We Don’t Do X by Y.” I have some news for you.

1. No one has any idea what will happen if we don’t do X by Y
2. That headline was written by a journalist, not by a scientist

Sure, in their models, scientists can see a precise date of when the gulf-stream will shut down or when the albedo effect will take over and global warming will be irreversible. But scientists recognize that models, however sophisticated, are not as sophisticated as the real world. Only a fool would take the date the model spit out and assume that that’s the day of reckoning.

Unfortunately, journalists (myself included) are often foolish. Our business is to get people to read things, preferably things that are true. But by the time it goes through three editors, each with a mind on the business, the chances of a headline with more units of sensation per unit of truth get pretty high.

Plus, I think that we, as journalists, have an artificial fascination with deadlines. We think they make the world work because they make us work. Read the complete Post.

Friday 09 January 2009
by: Ian Sample, The Guardian UK
Original article

Climate change may ruin farming in tropics by 2100. Record temperatures to become normal in Europe.

VPO note: as alarming as this article is, it’s entirely over-optimistic in talking about food shortages by 2100…but leaving out a probable crash in agricultural yields as oil inputs decline in the next couple of decades, plus shortages of fresh water already beginning, plus rapid soil loss and continuing urbanization of farmland, the continued push to convert food into fuel for our cars, and so on. This is why OVERSHOOT must be the starting point for looking at problems like this, and not just one individual symptom of it, like global warming.

Half of the world’s population could face severe food shortages by the end of the century as rising temperatures take their toll on farmers’ crops, scientists have warned.

Harvests of staple food crops such as rice and maize could fall by between 20% and 40% as a result of higher temperatures during the growing season in the tropics and subtropics. Warmer temperatures in the region are also expected to increase the risk of drought, cutting crop losses further, according to a new study.

The worst of the food shortages are expected to hit the poor, densely inhabited regions of the equatorial belt, where demand for food is already soaring because of a rapid growth in population. Read the complete Post.

Dear Friends and Colleagues

As many of your know, I was among a group of young environmentalists who travelled Alberta by bike in 2007 attempting to wrap their head around one of biggest industrial mega-projects in the world: the Alberta tar sands. We went from one small town to the next, meeting with the locals and asking one question: how has the tar sands boom impacted your life? The 3-week long bike trip was a fact finding mission, a story telling adventure and a life-changing experience for all involved.

The culmination of that trip is the recent release of a book entitled Journey To The Tar Sands (www.tothetarsands.ca) co-authored by 12 of the cyclists, as well as a feature-length documentary (www.tothetarsandsfilm.ca) which was recently featured at the Calgary International Film Festival.

I have been keen to share the stories that we heard and experienced in Alberta with others here at home. So I am particularly excited to say that we have been able to bring a screening of the film and the official BC launch of the book to the North Shore as part of a national tour. Please consider yourself invited to the event, which will take place on Monday Jan 19th, from 7pm to approximately 9pm at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver (http://www.kaymeekcentre.com/). I have attached a poster and I would appreciate your help in inviting others and spreading the word. A similar event is also being planned for Jan 20th at UBC if you know anyone who might be interested in that.

The film is rated PG and recommended for people of all ages who are interested in any of the following: youth activism, cycling, Alberta, the oil industry, journalism, storytelling, First Nation issues, labour issues, food, social justice, grassroots organizing, personal change, group living, climate change, the environment, the economy, and saving the world!

Hope to see you there.

Aftab

Canada’s vast forests, once huge absorbers of greenhouse gases, now add to problem
By Howard Witt | Chicago Tribune correspondent
January 2, 2009
Original article

VPO Note: a perfect example of Overshoot. The only good solution to this symptom of the real problem is reduction of human population and consumption.

VANCOUVER — As relentlessly bad as the news about global warming seems to be, with ice at the poles melting faster than scientists had predicted and world temperatures rising higher than expected, there was at least a reservoir of hope stored here in Canada’s vast forests.

The country’s 1.2 million square miles of trees have been dubbed the “lungs of the planet” by ecologists because they account for more than 7 percent of Earth’s total forest lands. They could always be depended upon to suck in vast quantities of carbon dioxide, naturally cleansing the world of much of the harmful heat-trapping gas.

But not anymore. Read the complete Post.