Running Gamak: Warren Senders' Blog

Month 9, Day 3: Striking While The Irony Is Hot

Since Bill McKibben is going to ask the President to put those damn solar panels up again, I figured I’d give him a little reinforcement.

Dear President Obama,

It’s been thirty years since Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as President and set about undoing all the things that Jimmy Carter set in motion.

Looking back over the past three decades it is astonishing how much President Carter got right, and how much President Reagan got wrong. If we had taken energy independence seriously and devoted the necessary budgetary support to wind and solar energy, America would have stopped giving money to OPEC. Our share of worldwide carbon emissions would have dropped significantly — perhaps keeping the planetary atmosphere below the crucial 350 parts-per-million level (in which case there is increasing evidence to suggest that many of today’s climate catastrophes might never have happened).

America would be a world leader in green technology, rather than lagging behind Europe and China.

We would not have needed all those expensive wars to protect our oil supplies.

The Gulf of Mexico might not be a massive dead zone.

It appears that you’re reluctant to do anything that would excite controversy (although it should be obvious to you by now that the Republicans will gin up controversy over anything), a pusillanimity I am depressed to see in the President I donated, volunteered and voted for. But I digress. The time is now for a full bank of solar panels to be installed on the roof of the White House. Perhaps you should be out there with a hammer yourself on October 10, as part of 350.org’s International Work Party.

It would be a gracious gesture to invite President Carter to the White House roof to pound in a few nails. With the clarity of hindsight, it appears that the only thing he did wrong was to be right.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

Month 8, Day 24: Pulling Out All The Stops

I figured I’d make one last plug for world peace before I go back to chastising the news media for ignoring climate change.

Dear President Obama,

By substantially altering the nature of the world’s climate, humanity has created and entered the Anthropocene Epoch. Indications for the long-term survival of our species in this eponymous age are less and less favorable.

The short-term effect of global climate change is of course to create ever more chaotic and damaging weather patterns — leading to devastating events like Pakistan’s floods and Russia’s fires. While it’s impossible to say that a specific calamity was specifically triggered by climate change, the greenhouse effect is predicted to increase extreme weather exactly the way it’s happening today.

The short-term effect is disaster, deprivation, and misery. A longer-term effect is the likelihood of political instability. Resource wars brought about through weather-induced food shortages; water wars catalyzed by droughts; governments toppled because of a failure to respond appropriately to a climate catastrophe…these are among the “coming attractions” for our species.

Unless we act thoughtfully and carefully to head them off. The U.S.A. must set an example to the world by enacting strong climate legislation, rewarding organizations and individuals who make important contributions to reducing greenhouse gases, and investing heavily in renewable energy systems. If America is to be a world leader, we must lead, not wait for China and India to get their houses in order, as some of the procrastinators in the Senate would have us do.

But this is only the beginning. We (and the rest of the world) must gaze unflinchingly at what’s going to be coming at us over the next centuries, and make plans for how we will cope with a global increase in droughts, fires, storms, blizzards, floods and famines. Can humanity unite in the face of a common enemy? If humanity is to survive climate chaos, we can no longer afford war.

Never has the case for world peace been of such urgency.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

Month 8, Day 12: Common-Sense Deficit Syndrome? GAFB!

Sometimes I just want to bang my head against a wall.

Solar industry officials are pleading with President Obama to restore billions of dollars in renewable energy loan guarantees that Congress is at least temporarily cutting to pay for emergency education and Medicaid help to states and other policy priorities.

The loss of these loan guarantee funds could help “send solar development into a tailspin that will be difficult to reverse,” according to a letter to Obama sent Monday from Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

House lawmakers Tuesday are slated to approve a $26.1 billion state education and Medicaid funding package the Senate passed last week that would be partially paid for by slashing $1.5 billion in renewable energy-loan guarantees approved in last year’s economic stimulus bill.

What Al Gore said

“These rescissions put into jeopardy the green jobs that the administration has touted as part of our clean-energy future and put us further behind the rest of the world,” Gore said on his website Monday afternoon.

I’m not a professional Leftist; I’m more of an amateur. But by Grabthar’s Hammer, I am pretty fucking pissed off about this.

My emotional state is concealed, however, by my erudition.

Dear President Obama and Speaker Pelosi —

It is of the utmost importance that the $3.5 billion which has been taken from the renewable energy and transmission loan-guarantee program be restored. While deficit reduction must be part of our thinking, there is no alternative to pursuing renewable energy with all our attention, enthusiasm and funding.

We cannot continue to burn oil and coal in the years to come. Not only is our national security complicated by our financial entanglements with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries, our long-term survival is at stake. With atmospheric CO2 well on track to be over 400 ppm within a year or two, the fight against global warming has already been significantly compromised. In order to maintain a world climate suitable for human survival and prosperity, we must change our energy economy without delay.

If the United States is to maintain a role as a world leader, then we cannot afford to shrug off the problems of smaller states; we cannot afford to wait for India and China to reduce their carbon footprints before acting on our own. The laws of physics pay no heed to political exigencies; greenhouse gases know nothing of election-year strategies. The problem of global climate change is the defining one of our generation, and we must tackle it on all levels: as individuals, as communities, as regions, as states, as a country, and as part of a global society.

At this moment in the world’s history, cutting funding for renewable energy is a grotesque abdication of our responsibilities to one another and the planet as a whole. Please act with dispatch and resolve to ensure that financial resources are restored to renewable energy programs. Failing to spend that money is a foolishness we cannot afford.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

Month 8, Day 5: Many Happy Returns!

Bill McKibben wrote this absolutely kick-ass piece, which went up in a bunch of places. I was inspired. Then I read Bob Cesca’s piece at Huffington Post and was further inspired. So I combined the two in a long letter to POTUS, who hasn’t heard from me for at least a week.

Dear President Obama,

The oil flowing from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster has finally been stopped, and for that we are all deeply grateful. But there is another spill which has not been capped — and if this one doesn’t get dealt with, all of us will be the losers.

I’m talking about the uncontrolled gusher of misrepresentations, evasions and equivocations that come from the mouths of BP spokesmen, from the PR outlets of Big Oil, from the offices of Senators and Representatives who have been taken over by petroleum interests…and, alas, from your own administration.

It is surely tempting to sugar-coat unpleasant facts; time and again we have learned that the political process is unkind to those who speak the truth bluntly and accurately. But there is a time for the actual truth, and now is that time.

The truth is — that BP spilled almost five million barrels of oil. If they’ve cleaned up three-quarters of it, that leaves about fifty-three million gallons, which is five times the size of the Exxon Valdez.

The truth is — that BP lied from the beginning about how much was flowing; far from cooperating in the cleanup process, they have done as much as they could to hide the details, restrict the flow of information, and make it impossible for accurate measurements to be taken.

The truth is — that the toxic dispersants they’ve used haven’t evaporated; they’ve dissolved into the seawater along with the oil. That doesn’t make the oil go away; it just hides it, and leaves the waters of the Gulf of Mexico a toxic chemical stew that will destroy ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.

The truth is — that BP was criminally careless in their handling of the Deepwater Horizon platform, and criminally careless in their handling of the disaster.

The truth is — that carelessness and mendacity are part and parcel of the strategic toolkit of Big Oil, day in and day out.

The truth is — that nobody in the United States should take anything an oil company representative utters at face value. To paraphrase Mary McCarthy, “Every word is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’ “

The truth is — that global climate change is a slow-motion disaster unfolding before our horrified eyes, and it has been made possible by the malfeasance of our energy sector.

The truth is — that Americans need to hear the truth, and they need to hear it from their elected representatives.

And the truth is, Mr. President — that means you.

We can’t afford happy talk right now. We need to know how bad it’s gotten if we’re going to find ways to stop it from getting worse.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

PS — Happy Birthday!

Month 7, Day 24: Half as Tired, Twice As Infuriated

Gosh. Who knew that it was environmental groups that are to be blamed for the failure of climate legislation?

Dear President Obama —

I was prepared to write a letter expressing a modicum of sympathy for your administration after climate legislation failed to make it to the Senate floor. But what did I find when I caught up on the news this morning? An unnamed “administration official” blaming environmentalists, saying that groups like the Environmental Defense Fund “weren’t able to get a single Republican convert on the bill.”

Well. That’s certainly going to motivate the base.

Instead of blaming the people who have been pushing day and night to get the best bill possible, who have been donating, calling, writing and working — why don’t you blame the people who are actually to blame: the Republicans? With a strategy of calculated obstructionism, these political nihilists have carried out the wishes of their financial masters in the corporate sector — the planet be damned.

For one of your officials to attribute this defeat to a failure on the part of environmental groups is a disgusting, demoralizing and infuriating abdication of responsibility on the part of this administration. I would point out that Harry Reid’s inability to get members of his own caucus even to agree on a cloture vote has far more to do with a climate bill’s failure than the EDF’s inability to persuade Republican Senators to vote against their short-term political interests.

I’ve been a Democrat all my life; my family is through-and-through Democrat — and make no mistake, I’m going to be working all-out to get Democrats elected this fall. But it’s sure as hell not because I have a lot of confidence in my party and its ability to do the right thing. We elected you to help turn this dysfunctional political system around, and we have been working as hard as we can to support you.

To have one of your officials deprecate our efforts in public is to spit in the faces of those who care the most.

Credit where credit is due; blame where blame is due.

Yours Bitterly,

Warren Senders

Month 7, Day 19: Ta-Daaaaaah!

Today is Day 200, which makes this the 200th climate letter I’ve written since making my New Year’s resolution. Yay, me.

Dear President Obama,

The time is rapidly approaching for a showdown on the climate/energy bill in the Senate.

Please use all the resources at your command to persuade Democratic senators like Ben Nelson that their opposition to meaningful climate legislation is shortsighted and misguided. The consequences of global climate change are being felt right here, right now, all over this country and the world. We’re going to have hotter summers and more droughts, which means more wildfires. There are going to be devastating effects on agriculture everywhere in the world, and states like Nebraska are not going to be immune.

In this context, Senator Nelson’s unwillingness even to vote for cloture is absolutely bizarre; he claims it’s because he doesn’t want Nebraskans to pay higher energy bills.

Unfortunately for all of us, the bill for the energy we’ve used in the past century has now come due, and Mother Nature appears likely to cut off our credit. We’re all going to be paying higher energy bills from now on. Genuine climate/energy legislation is the best first step to making sure that our economy won’t be completely crippled in the decades to come.

I’ve written to Senator Nelson, and to Majority Leader Reid. Now I’m writing to you. I hope you can make some of your erstwhile colleagues recognize the nature of the climate crisis. There is no time to lose, and no time to waste.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

Month 7, Day 11: Sunday POTUS

Just a generic POTUS letter. I discovered that it had been over a week since I’d written one.

Dear President Obama,

The process of generating a workable climate/energy bill is looking uncomfortably like the process of generating health-care legislation. That is, lots of giveaways, lots of concessions in advance, lots of delays — all culminating in a bill that is just barely better than nothing, and significantly less than what the country needs.

But there is a big difference between a climate bill and a health-care bill. A climate bill is ultimately a contract with the laws of physics and the forces of nature, and they do not negotiate. The window of time available to us is rapidly closing; all the critical indicators show that climate change is moving faster and more powerfully than any scientists anticipated.

Please use your considerable persuasive powers to motivate our Senators to do the right thing for our nation, for our descendants, and for our planet. There is no time to waste on a bill that puts a band-aid on a near-mortal injury; we need strong climate legislation now if we as a species are to survive. Please abandon your hands-off approach and twist some arms.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

Month 7, Day 3: I’m Gonna Make Him An Offer He Can’t Refuse.

I mean it. If he does it, I’ll do it, too.

Dear President Obama —

I know you’ve got a lot on your plate. Your predecessor left things in a hell of a mess and you’ve got a lot of cleanup to do.

And it wasn’t just your immediate predecessor. Every Republican president since Reagan’s election has left a mess behind. So you’ve got thirty-year-old messes to clean up.

When Jimmy Carter was in office, his ideas about energy and the environment were far ahead of the conventional wisdom. A family friend, an elderly gentleman in his 80’s, told me, “When Carter put those solar collectors on the White House roof, I got inspired, and I made a solar water heater and put it on my roof. And that was thirty years ago and it’s still working just fine, and it’s saved us thousands of dollars.” Carter’s ideas may have been ahead of their time, but if we’d followed his example and his advice, we wouldn’t be in this predicament today, for we would no longer be dependent on oil and coal for our energy needs.

Of course, when Reagan took office, he immediately removed those solar panels. They’re probably in the White House basement somewhere.

I think it would be a nice gesture to put them back, don’t you? Or perhaps you could get some newer, more efficient panels. It would also be a nice gesture to invite President Carter to help with the re-installation. Maybe you’d pound a few nails yourself?

And it would be a really nice gesture to acknowledge that when it came to energy and the environment, Jimmy Carter had it right all along: we need clean, decentralized energy from multiple sources, and we urgently need to get off fossil fuels. If we had stopped our dependence on oil and coal back then, the world would not be reeling towards a climate crisis now.

Tell you what: you get solar panels up on your house, and I’ll get solar panels up on mine. Deal?

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

Month 6, Day 28: Honoring A Voice In The Wilderness

Well, James Hansen got another important prize. Meanwhile, he continues to be (shamefully) ignored here at home. Another letter to POTUS? Why not?

Dear President Obama,

This is the second time this year that climatologist James Hansen has been awarded a major international prize for his work in environmental science. Dr. Hansen has just received the Blue Planet Award, considered to be Japan’s version of the Nobel Prize. Earlier this year he was given the Sophie Prize, perhaps the world’s most prestigious award in climate science.

But there is one form of recognition that has eluded Dr. Hansen, and it is the one which would probably make the most difference to him. His work was silenced and censored by administrative fiat during the previous administration, because his warnings about global climate change and the effects of atmospheric CO2 ran contrary to what President Bush and Vice-President Cheney wished to believe.

It is time for the United States Government to recognize Dr. James Hansen as one of the world’s experts on the science of climate change. To be a genuine rather than symbolic recognition, this needs to take two forms. First, Dr. Hansen should be invited to the White House to meet with you; second, he should be invited to be a core participant in your administration’s decisions on environment and climate issues. All the international prizes don’t mean much to a man whose life’s work is ignored in his native land.

James Hansen has been sounding the alarm on global climate change for well over a decade. His predictions have been proven accurate over and over again. Isn’t it time that you and your administration took him seriously?

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders

Month 6, Day 26: It’s going to be hot.

Please read this. Make sure everyone you know reads it.

This one is short enough that I’m going to write it by hand and send it to him. Why don’t you do something, too?

I’m going to Revere Beach mid-morning for “Hands Across The Sand.” How about you?

Dear President Obama,

I write to emphasize the urgency of the crisis. According to recently released NOAA data, atmospheric CO2 is now at 393 parts per million. That number by itself is bad news, for it’s well above the safe maximum for a climate suitable for humans. But it’s not the worst news. The worst news is the increase in atmospheric CO2 is getting faster and faster.

Americans need to relearn a lot of habits of conservation and frugality with respect to nature’s resources. The BP disaster and the hundreds of other oil spills around the world are a sad testimony to the pervasiveness of waste. At this crucial moment in history, we cannot continue our profligate ways — for we are turning our beautiful blue planet into a greenhouse gas chamber.

The problem of carbon emissions must be tackled with all the resources available. Of all the things we cannot afford to waste, the most precious is time.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders