Discuss: How to Be a Climate Hero

Be a climate hero by speaking out!

A failure of unimaginable proportions is bound up in the the willful blindness, hysterical deafness and elective mutism of so many opinion leaders, economic powerbrokers, politicians and business tycoons who do not speak out openly, loudly and clearly about the world we inhabit as bounded and limited in space with finite resources.  Their idolatry of the endless expansion of the global political economy is not only selfish, arrogant and unrealistic; they are also perversely choosing to recklessly espouse a “primrose path” to our children, a path to the future that a relatively small planet with the size and make-up of Earth cannot possibly sustain much longer, much less to the year 2050.

At least to me, this failure by my not-so-great generation of leading elders is a “sin of omission” that is tantamount to a passive criminal act against the family of humanity, life as we know it and the Earth God blesses us to inhabit....and not ruin, I suppose. 

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

I live in a urban environment but use a combination of city buses and light rail to commute to work every day, traded my car for a Prius, use compact bulbs, take my own shopping bags to the grocers, recycle paper, plastic and glass, buy natural products whenever I can and shop at grower’s markets when available. I also don’t buy trendy fashions and keep my clothes for as long as possible.

I do not think of myself as a hero, but as someone who is responsible.

Sometimes it can seem like people who have a lot of resources/income are doing more when they give up so much, than those who have little to give up. Eg, those who can barely afford a car at all, cannot turn it in for a Prius-- maybe they just start walking a little more often.

But there are so many small and important things each of us, no matter how little we “own”, can do to contribute to change in beneficial directions. 

For example, I shop at a natural foods Co-op and a community farm, where I buy only organic food. Period. Buy clothes and household items at thrift stores; recycle, repair and re-use everything, even envelopes; drive an old car but only need a tank of gas every two months; compost all my food scraps in a community garden plot; use almost no plastic,chemical cleaners, body care stuff, etc; buy from the smallest most responsible companies; and try to inspire (not nag) my friends to come along in similar directions.

A couple of days ago, three friends and I went to hear Vandana Shiva talk about the power of small, relatively poor, groups of people to effect big change through unflagging dedication and mutual support. At the end of a hair-raising hearbreaking speech, she ended by saying that in the midst of all our urgent efforts, we must remember how NOT to fall into suffering, must stay connected to joy and gratitude, to the (remaining) beauty of the natural world, to kindness, comaraderie, to an active celebration of Life.

Perhaps this isn’t all Bystander Effect but Madison Avenue Effect as well. All those people “sitting on the train” are conditioned every day by thousands upon thousands of insidious advertising messages. Probably 99.9% of those messages tell them they don’t have to do anything to be good folks, as long as they have the freshest breath (biggest car, yummiest snack food, reddest lips, fanciest whatever).

If your Higher Authority (the TV) tells you you’ll get germs from helping that mother on the train who’s having a seizure, you’re sure as heck not going to help out. Besides, being a good Samaritan (to a stranger or to future generations) is no longer cool.

When we start making thinking like an ancestor as cool and as widely “seen” as all the consumer products and habits that are killing the future, then maybe we’ll make a dent in apathy.

And along with media literacy (which only some schools offer), perhaps we could help our children become eco-literate and legacy-literate, too. (Kids who learned the evils of smoking in health classes guilt-tripped their parents into an anti-smoking frenzy.)

In the meantime, if we see smoke, let’s scream bloody murder! At least that will wake a few people up.

GreenHearted.org

We don’t have 10years....
It took you 7yrs to 1/2 your CO2 and you were dedicated. We have move to a sustainable existence, but climate change is here and probably has tipped out of our favor.

It is an honor to be part of such a conversation and to hear all that you all are doing to fight climate disruption and what you think about it.

Whenever I wonder if climate change or the political condition is out of my control, that it is too late to fight it, I think if it were too late, how would I want to act.  At the end of my life, what actions would I like to be able to look back on and always I think (whether it is too late or not) my answer is the same.  I want to fight and be moral, to do what I believe is right and do as much as I can of it. 

This winter I managed to decrease my carbon emissions another 8%.  I wrote many many letters.  Made many phone calls.

Let God know when it is too late to stop climate change.  Me, I’m a schmo.  I don’t know.  I can just keep fighting.

An exemplar of the CLIMATE HERO:  Martha M. Campbell, Ph.D.

Her heroic eco-activism is expressed well in a 2005 presentation that seems particularly timely in 2008. Please click on the following link,

http://www.populationandsustainability.org/papers/campbellagm.pdf

Sincerely,

Steve

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, established 2001

Time to be more than a climate hero by calling on your Congress persons to stop subsidies for bioethanol that will force first millions of tons of corn to be available for stemming the getting out of hand food crisis. Officials at IMF and World Bank have called the bioethanol program the main cause of rapidly developing food shortages.  The chief environmental scientist in the UK’s DEFRA called for the EU to stop its bioethanol program as he pointed to data that show overall biocrops will be putting back more GHG gases than they will trapping.  So you can be more than a Climate Hero by getting those subsidies stopped now so that millions of tons of corn can be distributed to many countries.  Without the biofuelish subsidies, farmers will quickly turn back to growing the key crops, and YOU will become a FIGHTER against mass starvation as well as a climate hero.  Along with getting your local fed elected officials alerted, you can get Speaker Pelosi’s attention by e-mailing her at .
Our president(He doesn’t deserve capitalization) has claimed that bioethanol is more important for national security than food as he defended the subsidies a few days ago.  His attitude seems to be saying that if need be for national security, let everyone eat mud cakes as they have been doing in Haiti and several other places.  I wish that he could be forced to eat one.
Dr. J. Singmaster, Fremont, CA