environment Politics: idiocy mathematical analogies methane Scott Brown
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Month 2, Day 25: They Live In A Pimple!
Just finished reading this, both depressing and frustrating. Casting about desperately for something to write and someone to write it to, I decided to take my pissy mood out on our newly elected Senator. It will be interesting to see his response. I bet I don’t get one.
I am going to send Kerry a copy of this, needless to say.
Dear Senator Brown,
I know that the Republican Party’s official position is that there is no such thing as global warming, and that this has been irrefutably proven by the recent snowstorms in Washington, DC. Because I am a Massachusetts resident, you’re my senator, and I need to give you some information; perhaps you may be able to use it someday.
The total surface area of Earth is almost 19,700,000 square miles. The total surface area of Washington DC is about 69 square miles. America’s capitol is 1/285,507th of the world’s surface. Not very much, is it? Let’s put it another way. An adult human being has about 20 square feet of skin, or about 1,858,000 square millimeters. 1/285,507th of a human body is about 6.5 square millimeters; a piece of skin slightly more than 2.5 millimeters to a side — the size of a zit. A small zit, at that.
Let’s look at the world outside Washington, DC. All over the globe, temperatures are rising. The worldwide average temperature has been steadily increasing for many years; perhaps you noticed that in Vancouver the winter Olympics had to import snow? You may not have noticed that glaciers everywhere in the world are receding faster than climatologists have predicted; likewise, you may not have known that huge reserves of frozen methane in the Siberian arctic are now entering the atmosphere as the long-frozen permafrost “cap” begins to melt. Silly me. Of course you haven’t noticed these things: they’re not in Washington, DC!
While the laws of physics don’t care about the political posturing of U.S. Senators, they most definitely govern the behavior of greenhouse gases like CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane). And there is no disputing the fact that methane is even more effective at retaining the Sun’s heat in the atmosphere than CO2, the main focus of international climate concern for the last two decades. Although it decays more quickly, CH4 has a global warming potential more than 60 times as powerful as CO2.
To put it bluntly: if we don’t act decisively and aggressively to regulate CO2 emissions; if we don’t invest significant amounts of money in research on ways to capture methane before it enters the atmosphere; if we don’t recognize this as the gravest threat humanity has ever faced — our children and their children and their children in turn will live in an unimaginably different world. And they will curse us for our inaction.
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that global warming is real, and that it’s largely caused by human activity. Three percent aren’t completely sure yet. Let me ask you, Senator: if you went to a hundred oncologists, and ninety-seven of them said you had cancer…would you take their diagnoses seriously?
As a Massachusetts resident, I expect you to act responsibly on the issue of climate change; I urge you to study the facts (which does not mean taking Sean Hannity’s word for it) and recognize the gravity of this threat. James Inhofe may make good television, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
cc: Sen. John Kerry
environment Politics: EPA Lisa Murkowski Time Magazine
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Month 2, Day 24: Backward Ran Senators Until Reeled The Mind
I read this piece in Time, noting that the hope of having an unfettered EPA with the power to regulate carbon emissions is now in danger, thanks to a bunch of coal whores moderate Democrats who are joining Lisa Murkowski’s bill to cripple the Agency.
I swear, I just want to throw something across the room some of the time. Our elected representatives can’t make rational decisions about anything further away than Washington, DC (in space) or the coming election (in time). And that is precisely the wrong sort of thinking for dealing with the climate crisis. We need global thinkers who understand the concept of centuries. And what have we got? A collection of ADHD-addled lobbyist-lickers.
It is unfortunate that President Obama’s hoped-for spirit of bipartisanship should take the form of multiple Democrats joining Lisa Murkowski in hopes of preventing the EPA from regulating carbon. America’s only chance to regain the initiative in coping with the impacts of global climate change lies in swift action; alas, the only thing our paralyzed and dysfunctional Senate seems to be able to do quickly is to prevent things from happening.
While we dither, greenhouse gas emissions accelerate; the planet warms; arctic reservoirs of frozen methane are beginning to melt and enter the atmosphere. If you like the greenhouse effect from higher CO2, you’ll love what happens when methane gets into the atmosphere. Climatologist James Hansen describes the worst outcome in a single word: Venus.
There is no doubt that global climate change is the greatest existential threat that humanity has ever faced. How does our broken political system face it? By building igloos, by mocking Al Gore; by substituting short-term calculation for long-term vision; by sacrificing the lives of our grandchildren and their grandchildren for political expediency. Since the Senate is incapable of responding to a clear and present danger with any sort of alacrity, we need the EPA to operate without restrictions; Senator Murkowski’s proposal is a disgrace to our present and a danger to our future.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Boston Herald denialism idiots James Inhofe
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Month 2, Day 21: Setting The Wreckers Straight
Figured I’d send this one off to the Boston Herald. They haven’t printed anything of mine yet, of course, but I figure it does them good to hear from those of us on the Side of the Light. And you can’t go wrong trashing Jim Inhofe. That guy gives lying, hypocrisy and stupidity a really bad image.
Predictably, snowfall in Washington sets Republican politicians off on another round of climate-change denial. James Inhofe and his ilk would like us to believe that global warming doesn’t exist, that humans aren’t responsible, that localized cold and snow disprove it, and that in any case, doing something about it would cost too much and disrupt Americans’ God-given right to convenient, unthinking consumption. Wrong on all counts: worldwide measurements show indisputably that our climate is heating up, and ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that human activity is causing this. A warmer global climate means weirder local weather, including things like blizzards in Washington and Texas along with record highs in Greenland and Europe.
The sociopolitical effects of climate change include massive economic disturbances, “water wars,” and millions of climate refugees. It’s obvious that the cost of addressing the crisis is trivial compared to the cost of failure. Obvious, that is, to anyone except Senator Inhofe and the rest of the G.O.P.
Warren Senders
Have you written a letter recently? Why not?
As always, feel free to use one of mine.
Education environment Politics: Barack Obama consumerism economics
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Month 2, Day 20: Dis is a system?
Continuing on the theme of economic reformation, and using a rather intellectual mathematical analogy to convey why our present system of economics is fatally flawed. Thanks to G2Geek at Kos for that; it’s not something I would have thought of, and it makes me look really really smart.
Dear President Obama:
I supported you vigorously in the election, volunteering, donating, phonebanking and advocating as strongly as I could over the course of the campaign. In the past year, however, you’ve hired a number of people who I believe compromise your Administration’s ability to strive toward the goals we all share.
Your economic advisers are locked into a faulty and destructive model of economics. Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner, for example, are advocates of “limitless” economic growth as a universal good. But it is self-evident (or should be) that we live on a finite planet. Advocating indefinite and continual economic growth in a closed system like Earth is analogous to mapping an infinite plane onto a Euclidean solid. Which is impossible. An infinity cannot be a subset of an integer.
Leaving aside the ethical questions of putting the same people who broke the economy in charge of fixing it, leaving aside the obscene profits accrued by individuals and firms who are closely linked to Geithner, Summers and Bernanke, the most important thing is that you need economic advisers who understand that “limitless” economics does not work on a limited planet.
If we remain a society of consumers, we shall all of us be consumed. It’s happening now, Mr. President, and it’s not pretty.
Respectfully yours,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: consumerism consumption Ed Markey environmental impact statements John Kerry
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Month 2, Day 19: Consumption Used to Mean You Went to Switzerland or Arizona
This one goes to both of my Elected Representatives. I had the germ of an idea about providing more useful environmental information on the things we buy. I know my purchasing habits would be very different if I knew how much ecological devastation had gone into the manufacture of some geegaw I was ogling, or how many thousands of miles a package of strawberries had to travel. Why not get that information, apply some sort of scoring algorithm, and incorporate it into product labeling?
Dear Representative Markey and Senator Kerry — I write as a citizen concerned about the looming climate crisis. It is my belief that many ordinary people would like to do more — both to help forestall the disastrous effects of climate change, and to help make our culture more environmentally conscious in general. I have a suggestion for a program which could have an impact on the way Americans think about the environment and our role in transforming it.
Our national purchasing habits could be dramatically altered if Environmental Impact information was displayed on product labels. We require such statements for large-scale construction and civil engineering projects; the “Energy Star” labeling program has had a demonstrable impact on consumer buying habits for household appliances — why not make this part of our purchasing equation for foodstuffs and consumer goods? An “Environment-friendly” scoring system would take into account the amount of waste involved in production, packaging and shipping; the sources of raw materials involved, and the likely lifespan of the product. A negative rating would describe an overpackaged product that used many toxic or ecologically detrimental raw materials, which required extensive transport before arriving at the point of purchase or warehousing, and which had a short expected lifespan before disposal; a positive rating would reflect minimal packaging, sustainable use of raw materials and efficient use of transport.
A measure such as the one I’ve suggested will help change attitudes and purchasing habits. Ultimately, of course, that won’t be enough. Our national habits must change profoundly. To be a “consumer” can no longer reflect a positive American value, because the word implies a “taking out” without a corresponding “giving back.” In the nineteenth century, “consumption” was a euphemism for tuberculosis: a wasting disease, almost always fatal. For the long-term health of our planet, human beings in general (and Americans in particular, since we are the examples held up to the rest of the world) must stop taking out without giving back. We have seen the results of ungoverned consumerism emerge in the catastrophic synergy of environmental degradation, oceanic acidification, soaring GHG levels and an ecosystem under assault from thousands of varieties of toxic trash — and we can no longer afford it. Granted, our population may not be emotionally ready to end consumerism as it exists today…but make no mistake, if we don’t end it, it will surely end us.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: apocalypse economics edward abbey oceanic acidification
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Month 2, Day 18: “…Heard the Roar of a Wave That Could Drown the Whole World”
I was reading about oceanic acidification in another alarming piece at DK — the diarist FishOutOfWater specializes in ocean stuff that’s hair-standing-on-end scary. Another commenter made some powerful suggestions about what humans have to do if we are to head off this catastrophe, and eventually that comment turned into a substantial diary, which you should definitely read. Anyway, I was thinking about all that when I sat down (rather late in the day, actually) to write my LOTD.
I didn’t sleep a lot last night, and I’m too beat to think of a new recipient for this one…so I’ll send it to Time Magazine, and after they don’t print it, I’ll send it somewhere else.
Edward Abbey said it well: “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” Our national models of prosperity are built on a foundation of quicksand: the notion that endless economic growth is both possible and a good idea. It is a sad commentary on political realities that simply stating the obvious truth that we live on a finite planet is electoral suicide. But if we don’t face that inconvenient fact sooner rather than later, we will be facing a much messier suicide, as the Earth’s resources fail us. Take the world’s oceans, for example.
Oceanic acidification is indisputably caused by human CO2 emissions, and has already reached levels not seen on this planet for fifty-five million years; the entire marine food chain is at risk — and half of humanity depends on the sea for sustenance. If excess acid kills the phytoplankton that provide significant proportions of our oxygen, we can add mass suffocation to the mix. How many people would die? Give or take a few hundred million, we’re looking at something like three billion. That’s a hundred and fifty times the size of the Nazi holocaust; one hundred and fifty Hitlers.
Americans were ready to go to war in the aftermath of 9/11, a tragedy that cost us around five thousand lives. Are we prepared to make drastic changes in the way we live to forestall a slow-motion tragedy equivalent to six hundred-thousand 9/11’s? Are we prepared to radically re-evaluate the way we understand success? Prosperity? Progress? Humanity in general, and America in particular, must effect a profound transformation in our economic thinking if our species is to survive.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: James Inhofe ninety-seven percent Republicans
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Month 2, Day 17: More Hatin’ on Inhofe
Continuing with the “97” theme for today’s letter, which will go off to the Boston Globe.
This one is a pretty standard unfurling of my general talking points. I’m trying to have one or two genuinely creative letters a week, with the rest being permutations and combinations of the themes I’m recycling. Since yesterday’s letter went to Inhofe’s flunkies, I figured I’d go on dumping on him for another day or so.
By now it’s utterly predictable: more snow will bring Republican climate-change “skeptics” out in full force. Sure enough, James Inhofe has built an igloo in front of the U.S. Capitol with a sign on it mocking Al Gore. Since Washington is the only place in the world that counts, Inhofe doesn’t care that the Winter Olympics had to import snow, or that temperatures elsewhere in the world are at record highs. The Oklahoma Republican refuses to admit the existence of a slowly unfolding disaster that will dwarf any crisis humanity has ever confronted. If ninety-seven out of a hundred inspectors called a restaurant unsanitary, you’d be crazy to eat there. If ninety-seven out of a hundred counter-terrorism experts told you that Al-Qaeda was planning a major operation, you’d be crazy not to take it seriously. But if ninety-seven percent of climatologists say that global warming is a real and present danger, they are mocked and derided by G.O.P. denialists. Our grandchildren will not be kind to the memory of Senator Inhofe and his ilk.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: buffoons James Inhofe
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Month 2, Day 16: To The Dwarves Who Attend The Evil Buffoon
A DailyKos diarist named “Historian” produced a wonderful piece a few days ago, called “Ninety-Seven”. I admired it greatly, and wondered about incorporating parts of it into one of my letters. This is the first pass, and I decided to send an email/fax/letter directly to the Evil Moran himself, James Inhofe. Or, rather, to the people who answer his email, read his faxes, open his envelopes.
Because I figure my letter will never reach him, but it might actually get read by a human in his office. And who knows? Somebody might actually do some thinking. Stranger things have happened, albeit not very many.
Dear Staffers in Senator Inhofe’s Office —
Let’s say a hundred health inspectors went over a restaurant. And ninety-seven of them said, “This food is unsafe; it’ll probably make you sick.” Would you eat there?
Or let’s say you were buying a house, and a hundred home inspectors looked at it — and three of them said, “It’s probably okay,” while the other ninety-seven said, “This building is definitely unsafe.” Would you buy the house?
Or let’s say you found a lump. And a hundred oncologists looked at it. And ninety-seven of them said, “It’s cancer. Let’s get started on treatment.” Would you get started on treatment, or would you go with the three who said, “Maybe not?”
Or let’s say you’re the President, and a hundred C.I.A. counter-terrorism experts came to you…and ninety-seven of them said “Al-Qaeda is going to carry off a major operation,” while three of them said “It might not happen.” Would you put our national security system on high alert?
I’m asking you this question rather than Senator Inhofe himself, because I don’t believe this letter will reach him…but there’s a chance one of you will read it, and perhaps wonder:
Given that the answers to the first four questions are pretty obvious, why is it that when ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change, Senator Inhofe is so strongly in favor of doing nothing?
He wouldn’t want to eat tainted food, or buy a house that was going to fall down around him, or ignore a cancer diagnosis…or put the nation at risk by ignoring a warning of a terrorist attack. Would he?
Then why is he putting our nation (and our planet) at risk now?
And, more to the point, why are you helping him do it?
Our grandchildren will not be kind to the memory of Senator Inhofe and those who assisted him.
Just ask yourself this question: What if the ninety-seven percent of climatologists are right?
Think about it. Please. For all our sakes.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: filibuster Harry Reid wimp
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Month 2, Day 15: Prodding Harry Reid
Thought I’d send Harry Reid something. I knew when I first read about him that he would be trouble for the Democratic Party. It seems hard to believe he was once a boxer. Maybe he took too many punches to the head? It’s really unbelievable that he’s the point guy for our party in the Senate.
Dear Majority Leader Reid,
Although as a Massachusetts resident I am not one of your constituents, I am a lifelong Democrat — one who has followed your tenure as Majority Leader with interest and frustration in equal measure.
It was obvious from the start to me that the Republican minority would be utterly and completely focused on obstructing Democratic legislation — and it’s unbelievable that it wasn’t obvious to you and your colleagues in the Senate. The fact that it’s taken many Democrats this long to recognize that the G.O.P. has no intention of cooperating on anything does not reassure me.
Nowhere does this obstructionism have further-reaching consequences than in our unwillingness to tackle a meaningful climate-change bill. With denialism rampant on both sides of the aisle, with Health Care and Jobs initiatives currently on the menu for Democratic delay and Republican blocking — it’s “not the right time” to deal with a climate bill.
Unfortunately the laws of nature pay little heed to the laws of man, and even less heed to the blinkered behavior of U.S. Senators. Regardless of what Fox News’ talking heads may say, a freak snowstorm in Washington is not irrefutable evidence that global warming is a myth. Scientists predict more such extreme weather events as the climate spirals past tipping point after tipping point — but as long as the gap between climate action and climate effect is five or six times longer than the election cycle that rules the life of a U.S. Senator, we can expect change-averse lawmakers to avoid dealing with the issue.
Failure to confront this looming disaster is not just a failure of governance. It is a moral failure, and our grandchildren will not be kind to the 210th Congress. On the other hand, our great-great-great grandchildren will be too busy trying to survive to spend much time assigning blame for the catastrophes we could have averted, but didn’t. And who knows? Maybe James Hansen’s “Venus Syndrome” will come to pass — in which case there will be nobody left to do any blaming.
Mr. Reid, it is time for you to confront Republican obstructionism head-on. They and their collaborators on the Democratic side are playing political games while the largest existential crisis humanity has ever faced is unfolding outside their windows. I know that you are risk-averse and prefer not to seek controversy — but in this case, it’s time to stand up and throw a few punches at those who would trade the lives of our descendants for the promise of a Senatorial sinecure.
Please support Bernie Sanders’ “10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act.” This is an idea whose time has come. And please do something to reform the use of the filibuster. We need to get this done. There is no time to waste.
Yours sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Bernie Sanders energy John Kerry Solar
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Month 2, Day 14: John Kerry Gets a Valentine
It’s getting easier to dash these off. As I predicted, I now have a stock of rhetorical devices and constructions that can be strung together to set off whatever new material I’m including. Here, for example, I’m asking Kerry to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ wonderful “10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act,” and calling his attention to Bill Gates’ recent statements on energy. These two nuggets are set in a nest of apocalyptic boilerplate.
Dear Senator Kerry —
Thank you for all your efforts in advancing the cause of meaningful legislation on climate change. This issue is without doubt the most important existential threat humanity has ever faced. Yet a significant proportion of the American public doesn’t believe it’s happening.
Our population’s tragic indifference to the fate of the planet is partly the fault of the media, which is obsessed with short-term phenomena, and partly the fault of our corrupt political system. When the time lag between climate action and climate effect is five or six times longer than the electoral cycle that rules the life of a U.S. Senator, we can see why it’s always “never the right time” to deal head-on with the issue of global warming.
And when Washington is under many feet of snow and the Republicans are mocking Al Gore on the Capitol lawn? It must be incredibly frustrating.
Please don’t give up. Keep speaking out. Keep working to educate your constituents and audiences around the country. We need to have advocates for even stronger climate measures than are presently on the table; our goal should be atmospheric CO2 in the 350 ppm range. Bill Gates just stated that we should stop all CO2 emissions by 2050, and this is a laudable goal. There is no greater threat to all of us than runaway climate change; Dr. James Hansen’s worst-case scenario can be summed up in one word: Venus.
I urge you to co-sponsor Senator Sanders’ proposed “10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act” legislation. That’s a great place to begin: by putting people to work and transforming our country’s energy equation.
Thank you again for your commitment to confronting climate-change issues. It is crucial for our children’s children and their children’s children in turn that we take effective action now. There will not be an opportunity to try again if we screw it up.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders