Check out great video on-line from the U.N. climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. The UNFCC.int event website has live streaming from the event, and yesterday’s events available on demand.
Watching climate negotiations in Cancun online can be pretty inspiring, like a TED Conference video binge meets planetary survival think-tank/diplomat theater.
On-line you’ll find the Climate Action Network gave a good summary of what’s on-the-table at negotiations. “Cancun can be be the calm after Copenhagen’s political storm, a calm where we can get some real progress made for poor people” said Tim Gore of Oxfam, who notes that the UN process allows poor countries to be heard.
Look for the inspirational nature video, (about 46:30 minutes into the very interesting Opening Plenary/ Welcoming Ceremony.)
So why not play five hours of this content while you clean your kitchen. Or better yet, invite friends over for a watch party!
To spice it up, play the Cancun Watch Party Drinking Game. Suggested rules: gather friends and favored beverages. Watch the event on-line and drink when you hear the word “mitigate” “transparency” or “350 parts per million.” Drink every time you feel patriotic. Drink if you have lovin' feelings for the U.N.. Make a toast to Mother Earth every time you hear “Rights for Mother Earth.” And so forth.
Seriously, though, people should watch the Cancun process, because the more public attention that is on this process, the more our political leaders will want to do something. Like it or not, these UN proceedings is the most serious forum for dealing with the climate crisis at the moment. We need an educated citizenry on the Climate issue, so please gather and tune in!
Here are some of the topics being negotiated. UN climate chief Christiana Figueres talked about four places to make a deal: climate adaptation measures, clean technology transfer to poor countries, forestry protection, and creation of an international climate fund.
Cancun is a U.N. meeting of countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol to assess what can be done to make it work better. Or according to the official website jargon, “COP16/CMP6 is the 16th edition of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) and the 6th Conference of Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol (CMP). “Parties” refers to all the national states that signed and ratified both the international treaties...”
The meeting is being held at a big resort in Cancun, on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Delegates and media are meeting at the Moon Resort, while other events happen around the city. Civil society will be given space to get their ya-ya’s out, in a 5000 person auditorium billed as an Expression Zone. That’s an improvement to many international meetings where the public and NGOs are kept away by barricades and tear gas.
Still, it’s a private party compared to Cochabamba. The Cochabamba Summit was far more vital and interesting than Copenhagen. Held in April 2010 as a response to Copenhagen, the World People’s Summit on Climate Change and Rights for Mother Earth was a model of inclusive participatory democracy and open process.
Cochabamba created the vast, intelligent and radical Cochabamba Accords that Bolivia is trying to include into the negotiations this year in Cancun. The Cochabamba Accords call for a goal of temperature increase as 1 or 1.5 degrees, rather than 2 degrees, as industrialized nations favor. (We have 1 degree increase already and have seen lots of change. So I agree, let’s aim low, 1%!!!!)
The Cochabamba Accords also passed the Resolution on the Rights of Mother Earth. Bolivian President Evo Morales is the world’s first indigenous president. He is a sturdy voice in climate leadership and in bringing indigenous thinking into the political sphere. It may seem dreamy to talk about granting Rights to Mother Earth, but some view this as a central idea to healing humanity’s relationship with the Earth. We must see the Earth as alive, worthy of respect and protection. Follow this discussion on the lively blog at pwccc.wordpress.com.
I hope for positive movement of the Rights for Mother Earth in Cancun. I hope the US delegation supports this language. It would not cost anything and would be a place to compromise in a culturally respectful manner.
I hope some good progress comes from Cancun. Yet it’s hard not to feel dissatisfied by that this is the best government can do. Humanity’s survival hangs in the balance, and they struggle to agree on un-ambitious actions that won’t stop the problem. Politicians don’t deal with the approaching climate Tsunami, because it’s terrifying effects are in the future, while economic concerns nip at the heels this moment. US politicians are particularly irresponsible, especially since the US is the number one carbon polluter in historical terms. Unfortunately, the US congress has yet to pass Climate Legislation, and so the US remains “all talk and no walk” in terms of having legal obligations to cut carbon emissions. Time for the US to get on it!
The annual climate negotiation’s most useful function may be the annual focusing of the world’s scattered ADHD attention on the Climate Crisis. Earthlings take an annual moment to thinking about the Big Problem That May End Us All. Last year at this time, the world’s media was abuzz about a summit in Copenhagen. That gathering disappointed many, and made association with the process a political liability. Who knows, maybe they’ll get more done this year with calmness and less political hubbub.
We must stop the Climate Crisis, or everything we love is destroyed. The Sermon on the Mount will go into nonexistence! So does Glee! Runaway climate change means the end of the world as we know it and probably human extinction! So let's get on it, people!
People of the world want action on the Climate Crisis. Check out incredible aerial art made by 350.org and thousands of people as evidence. May we witness solutions to Climate Crisis in Cancun and in our own lives.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Reading into the Signs at the Rally to Restore Sanity
Many people carried funny protest signs at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on Washington DC’s National Mall. On a sunny late October Saturday, thousands of silly signs bobbed in the massive crowd called to Washington by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. .
Some signs were insightful into the political landscape, like cloud watching for signs of approaching weather.
On Obama: “Sanity: Knowing that it takes longer than 2 years to fix an eight year disaster!”
“Yes we can- but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
“I see you went half-black and are deciding whether or not to go back.”
Many signs spoke to the rally’s main theme: “Take it down a notch, America.” The American body politic has been getting riled up in a dangerous way that historically has led to violence. Recently, a zombie-like volunteer for Rand Paul assaulted MoveOn’s Lauren Valle. The Nazis started by finger pointing at the different: Jews/Roma/gays etc. America has a proto-fascist movements afoot, so this comedy serves a serious healing function at a serious time.
“Radicals for moderate discourse”
“Endless outrage is a form of mental illness, not a form of gov’t.”
“You are mad as Shell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
A highbrow statement from Thomas Jefferson was given more snap by being held by a very cute young woman, “Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life are but dreary things.” Imagine! Jefferson predicted the theme of the rally over two hundred years ago!
Jefferson, an early adopter of interracial babymaking, would have appreciated the healthy modern views on sexuality on display:
On Christine O’Donnell: A sign said “I’m You* (*but I masturbate.)” On another sign was a picture of a sheep saying “I’m not a witch. I ewe.”
Some signs were against all extremism, like this war cry from a Unitarian Sunday school:
“If you aren’t with us, well, you may have an equally valid worldview to consider.”
and:
“The center: getting stuff done since 1776.”
Some signs winked at the act of carrying signs.
“I have a sign”
“I have a really big sign”
“I like this sign”
“This sign doesn’t say anything.”
“My political views cannot be summarized on a pithy sign.”
“Americans for... OH LOOK! A puppy!”
“Who farted?”
The doctors were more straightforward.
“Young doctor for universal health care.”
“More doctors, less jails.”
Some signs called for civility:
“Beat your pitchforks into sporks”
Some signs called to evolution:
“Men: Liberate! Ditch the tie!”
“Fear high-speed trains! They save energy.”
Something about the cultural superiority trip and masturbatory Reaganism of Sarah Palin really sets this crowd on edge.
One sign had a picture of Palin and “Keep fear alive.”
and: “You don’t have to hunt a moose to be a real American.”
“I can see America from my house!”
“Pray for secular gov’t”
Redheads gathered to get a picture with a sign that read: “Redheads for reason: we’re on fire for sanity”
On moderation:
“I’m moderate as hell.”
“I’m with sensible.”
“Death to nobody!”
“Nonviolence by any means necessary!”
On interfaith religious tolerance for Muslims:
“Muslims are nice people.”
“Beards are evil” carried by a bearded man.
The rally had a healthy, Muslim-friendly atmosphere that is a beautiful, godly improvement on the Vibe of recent days. America is stronger and wiser because of our interfaith tolerance. Hyper-partisan religiousness is almost always a tool of secular people to bad trip sincere religious people.
I love Sufi poetry, the poems of Rumi and Hafiz, and the ugliness of a decade of Islamophobia was put in perspective when suddenly, Islam was included in the circle of the cool. I want to live in the Jon Stewart’s America: tolerant, multi-ethic, and islam-friendly, so Kareem Abdul-Jabber can stop by.
For me, the rally’s most heartwarming moment was when Cat Stevens came on stage. This man suffered greatly for following his spiritual path where It lead. When Ozzie came out, it was grotesque counterpoint, but dynamic theater. But, hey, that’s America: the sublimely spiritual and Loud People must share one big stage.
The phenomenon of a self-selecting crowd is always interesting to observe. The crowd for the rally seemed like educated, politically aware, liberal people with a sense of humor. A quarter million people who like jokes! Yes, 250,000 is the semiofficial estimate on numbers, reported by Politico.com, based on 50 people’s estimates. To compare, Glenn Beck’s rally was 87,000, from the same source.
One new friend said he “just felt they should come, an inner call to stand up for something, albeit vague.”
One sign expressed why so many came:
“Thanks, guys, for keeping me sane during the Bush years”
The Daily Show has kept people sane while enduring the deceitful Bushite political theater. The rally felt healing to the national mind of America. Clear thinking and being grounded in reality is healthy. Tolerance, justice, and goodness are healing. Dark thoughts of anger and racism make us sick. The American media is creating a dark, propagandized mindscape.
The media isn’t helping us think together and act rationally. We haven’t yet gotten political will to solve the Climate Crisis because oil-companies are out propagandizing Dr. James Hansen. So we are destabilizing the structure of our sky! This situation threatens humanity’s survival, but try to get that heard through the punk band racket of the Fox Noise Machine.
This allows Climate Denial to be nearly prerequisite for Republican Senate candidates.
Humanity must learn to think straight on the science of the composition of our atmosphere in this delicate, thin terrarium, or we are no place. But that’s my private soapbox. Note: I did not see one sign about the Climate Crisis, nor hear one comment from the stage. We need a climate movement, and we don’t have one sign.
In closing, the day felt like it might be DC’s best day ever. DC is town of spooky impressive stage set theater buildings. It needs the good vibes off the American people. Americans need to be in DC more, that our tolerant goodness can rub off. At the very least, we should gather annually so that the Mythbuster guys can lead is in a progressively sillier group antics, like when they got everybody to jump and measured for an earthquake.
On Oct 30, 2010, the lonely, unheard masses gathered, this underrepresented american majority: liberal, tolerant, with a sense of humor.
They came, they laughed, maybe they voted.
Some signs were insightful into the political landscape, like cloud watching for signs of approaching weather.
On Obama: “Sanity: Knowing that it takes longer than 2 years to fix an eight year disaster!”
“Yes we can- but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
“I see you went half-black and are deciding whether or not to go back.”
Many signs spoke to the rally’s main theme: “Take it down a notch, America.” The American body politic has been getting riled up in a dangerous way that historically has led to violence. Recently, a zombie-like volunteer for Rand Paul assaulted MoveOn’s Lauren Valle. The Nazis started by finger pointing at the different: Jews/Roma/gays etc. America has a proto-fascist movements afoot, so this comedy serves a serious healing function at a serious time.
“Radicals for moderate discourse”
“Endless outrage is a form of mental illness, not a form of gov’t.”
“You are mad as Shell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
A highbrow statement from Thomas Jefferson was given more snap by being held by a very cute young woman, “Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life are but dreary things.” Imagine! Jefferson predicted the theme of the rally over two hundred years ago!
Jefferson, an early adopter of interracial babymaking, would have appreciated the healthy modern views on sexuality on display:
On Christine O’Donnell: A sign said “I’m You* (*but I masturbate.)” On another sign was a picture of a sheep saying “I’m not a witch. I ewe.”
Some signs were against all extremism, like this war cry from a Unitarian Sunday school:
“If you aren’t with us, well, you may have an equally valid worldview to consider.”
and:
“The center: getting stuff done since 1776.”
Some signs winked at the act of carrying signs.
“I have a sign”
“I have a really big sign”
“I like this sign”
“This sign doesn’t say anything.”
“My political views cannot be summarized on a pithy sign.”
“Americans for... OH LOOK! A puppy!”
“Who farted?”
The doctors were more straightforward.
“Young doctor for universal health care.”
“More doctors, less jails.”
Some signs called for civility:
“Beat your pitchforks into sporks”
Some signs called to evolution:
“Men: Liberate! Ditch the tie!”
“Fear high-speed trains! They save energy.”
Something about the cultural superiority trip and masturbatory Reaganism of Sarah Palin really sets this crowd on edge.
One sign had a picture of Palin and “Keep fear alive.”
and: “You don’t have to hunt a moose to be a real American.”
“I can see America from my house!”
“Pray for secular gov’t”
Redheads gathered to get a picture with a sign that read: “Redheads for reason: we’re on fire for sanity”
On moderation:
“I’m moderate as hell.”
“I’m with sensible.”
“Death to nobody!”
“Nonviolence by any means necessary!”
On interfaith religious tolerance for Muslims:
“Muslims are nice people.”
“Beards are evil” carried by a bearded man.
The rally had a healthy, Muslim-friendly atmosphere that is a beautiful, godly improvement on the Vibe of recent days. America is stronger and wiser because of our interfaith tolerance. Hyper-partisan religiousness is almost always a tool of secular people to bad trip sincere religious people.
I love Sufi poetry, the poems of Rumi and Hafiz, and the ugliness of a decade of Islamophobia was put in perspective when suddenly, Islam was included in the circle of the cool. I want to live in the Jon Stewart’s America: tolerant, multi-ethic, and islam-friendly, so Kareem Abdul-Jabber can stop by.
For me, the rally’s most heartwarming moment was when Cat Stevens came on stage. This man suffered greatly for following his spiritual path where It lead. When Ozzie came out, it was grotesque counterpoint, but dynamic theater. But, hey, that’s America: the sublimely spiritual and Loud People must share one big stage.
The phenomenon of a self-selecting crowd is always interesting to observe. The crowd for the rally seemed like educated, politically aware, liberal people with a sense of humor. A quarter million people who like jokes! Yes, 250,000 is the semiofficial estimate on numbers, reported by Politico.com, based on 50 people’s estimates. To compare, Glenn Beck’s rally was 87,000, from the same source.
One new friend said he “just felt they should come, an inner call to stand up for something, albeit vague.”
One sign expressed why so many came:
“Thanks, guys, for keeping me sane during the Bush years”
The Daily Show has kept people sane while enduring the deceitful Bushite political theater. The rally felt healing to the national mind of America. Clear thinking and being grounded in reality is healthy. Tolerance, justice, and goodness are healing. Dark thoughts of anger and racism make us sick. The American media is creating a dark, propagandized mindscape.
The media isn’t helping us think together and act rationally. We haven’t yet gotten political will to solve the Climate Crisis because oil-companies are out propagandizing Dr. James Hansen. So we are destabilizing the structure of our sky! This situation threatens humanity’s survival, but try to get that heard through the punk band racket of the Fox Noise Machine.
This allows Climate Denial to be nearly prerequisite for Republican Senate candidates.
Humanity must learn to think straight on the science of the composition of our atmosphere in this delicate, thin terrarium, or we are no place. But that’s my private soapbox. Note: I did not see one sign about the Climate Crisis, nor hear one comment from the stage. We need a climate movement, and we don’t have one sign.
In closing, the day felt like it might be DC’s best day ever. DC is town of spooky impressive stage set theater buildings. It needs the good vibes off the American people. Americans need to be in DC more, that our tolerant goodness can rub off. At the very least, we should gather annually so that the Mythbuster guys can lead is in a progressively sillier group antics, like when they got everybody to jump and measured for an earthquake.
On Oct 30, 2010, the lonely, unheard masses gathered, this underrepresented american majority: liberal, tolerant, with a sense of humor.
They came, they laughed, maybe they voted.
Friday, October 29, 2010
I dare you to praise Obama for something!
This is a test of your ideological flexibility!
Can you praise President Obama for a success in the last two years?
Progressives probably can't and conservatives probably won't.
Therefore, the progressive blogging community is partially responsible for the 'Enthusiasm Gap' in the Democratic base that may lower voter turn-out and may throw the Congress to the GOP. Meanwhile, the GOP's inability to see the good is creating a delusional, hysterical, traitorous Disloyal Opposition.
Try this exercise that illustrates my point: I dare you to praise Obama for something.
I will take my own challenge to demonstrate.
I appreciate Obama getting the military into reverse on both of Bush's stupid wars. The new Bob Woodward book "Obama's Wars" shows Obama and Biden wisely recognizing Afghanistan as another Vietnam, and creating the conditions for ending the war. The book shows Obama standing up to the generals, demanding a six page letter of terms, after the military kept trying to roll him on things they'd already decided. Now this is pretty "Inside Baseball" talk, but it provides reassurance to anti-war base voters. After the Afghanistan decision to escalate, there was a widespread deflating in the base. Obama is on the way to fulfilling the promise to get us out of these wars and he deserves credit for that work in process. May these movements towards peace be successful.
I think we naturally don't want to be cheerleaders for power, and this is a healthy instinct. And also we live in a time of national madness, when the group thinking machine of the media is completely delusional. We are suffering under a Fox propaganda culture that's winning over Reality (where facts about carbon-dioxide exist!) So it's up to us people, to tell the truth as we see it!
Or how will the public know what has gone well?
The Obama Administration is up to some cool stuff, but you'd never know it. They just haven't telling their story that well. Www.Whitehouse.gov is pretty cool as blogs go, but it is like a museum: quiet, scholarly, under utilized, careful. Obama's new media hasn't gone very deep into the Net-roots or youth Facebook culture. Then add the noise: Fox is a GOP mouthpiece and only talks smack. Then add the silence: progressives are alienated or very quietly supportive. Suddenly Obama is the Invisible Man, an Unsymbolizing Symbol.
So let us celebrate the victories of the Obama Administration so far and help them out.
I say: Overall, I believe Obama is a good guy in a very hard job, and he has done a pretty good job so far.
I liked the 42 nation summit on Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons.
I liked that the Attorney General allowed Medical Marijuana to advance in California.
I like the organic garden and the anti-obesity/whole foods campaign of Mrs. Obama.
I like that they are putting solar panels up on the White House!
I liked that the international banking system didn't do a 1929 meltdown. (That was good, right GOP?)
I like the anti-bullying GLTB work they've done lately.
I like that they are moving on 54 high-speed rail projects in 23 states that will get $2.4 billion dollars.
I like that they haven't pushed "free trade" deals.
I appreciated the Cairo speech's outreach to the Muslim world.
I liked that Credit Card companies can't jack your rates without telling you.
And so on.
Try this exercise. I double-dog dare you. It pushes some buttons in the psyche but please stretch yourself.
Because the Republican Climate-Denying Zombies are at the door of Congress and if they get in, we'll never get the Climate Legislation necessary for planetary survival!
On the November 2nd election, I stand with the President Obama and the Democrats and I hope you will too.
May truthful words build a sustainable world.
Can you praise President Obama for a success in the last two years?
Progressives probably can't and conservatives probably won't.
Therefore, the progressive blogging community is partially responsible for the 'Enthusiasm Gap' in the Democratic base that may lower voter turn-out and may throw the Congress to the GOP. Meanwhile, the GOP's inability to see the good is creating a delusional, hysterical, traitorous Disloyal Opposition.
Try this exercise that illustrates my point: I dare you to praise Obama for something.
I will take my own challenge to demonstrate.
I appreciate Obama getting the military into reverse on both of Bush's stupid wars. The new Bob Woodward book "Obama's Wars" shows Obama and Biden wisely recognizing Afghanistan as another Vietnam, and creating the conditions for ending the war. The book shows Obama standing up to the generals, demanding a six page letter of terms, after the military kept trying to roll him on things they'd already decided. Now this is pretty "Inside Baseball" talk, but it provides reassurance to anti-war base voters. After the Afghanistan decision to escalate, there was a widespread deflating in the base. Obama is on the way to fulfilling the promise to get us out of these wars and he deserves credit for that work in process. May these movements towards peace be successful.
I think we naturally don't want to be cheerleaders for power, and this is a healthy instinct. And also we live in a time of national madness, when the group thinking machine of the media is completely delusional. We are suffering under a Fox propaganda culture that's winning over Reality (where facts about carbon-dioxide exist!) So it's up to us people, to tell the truth as we see it!
Or how will the public know what has gone well?
The Obama Administration is up to some cool stuff, but you'd never know it. They just haven't telling their story that well. Www.Whitehouse.gov is pretty cool as blogs go, but it is like a museum: quiet, scholarly, under utilized, careful. Obama's new media hasn't gone very deep into the Net-roots or youth Facebook culture. Then add the noise: Fox is a GOP mouthpiece and only talks smack. Then add the silence: progressives are alienated or very quietly supportive. Suddenly Obama is the Invisible Man, an Unsymbolizing Symbol.
So let us celebrate the victories of the Obama Administration so far and help them out.
I say: Overall, I believe Obama is a good guy in a very hard job, and he has done a pretty good job so far.
I liked the 42 nation summit on Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons.
I liked that the Attorney General allowed Medical Marijuana to advance in California.
I like the organic garden and the anti-obesity/whole foods campaign of Mrs. Obama.
I like that they are putting solar panels up on the White House!
I liked that the international banking system didn't do a 1929 meltdown. (That was good, right GOP?)
I like the anti-bullying GLTB work they've done lately.
I like that they are moving on 54 high-speed rail projects in 23 states that will get $2.4 billion dollars.
I like that they haven't pushed "free trade" deals.
I appreciated the Cairo speech's outreach to the Muslim world.
I liked that Credit Card companies can't jack your rates without telling you.
And so on.
Try this exercise. I double-dog dare you. It pushes some buttons in the psyche but please stretch yourself.
Because the Republican Climate-Denying Zombies are at the door of Congress and if they get in, we'll never get the Climate Legislation necessary for planetary survival!
On the November 2nd election, I stand with the President Obama and the Democrats and I hope you will too.
May truthful words build a sustainable world.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sane Suggestions for Traveling to DC for the Stewart/Cobert Rally
My friend Anna said "I think the Rally is going to be a generational event, like MLK speaking or something, something that we'll remember." It does feel like it's going to be huge. A mass gathering of sane Americans arising as antidote to Fox mania! And then a crazy Halloween party weekend in the capital. So come! Here are some suggestions on how to get here and stuff to do.
Washington D.C. is a beautiful, great and strange town. Everybody talks smack about Washington, but that's just because the politics are lame and entrenched while the world burns. But DC is a brilliant town to ramble around in. Internationalism, intelligence and prosperity mix to create seemingly endless novelty, as if we were riding the cresting waves of Terrence McKenna's Novelty Wave towards the Eschaton.
To get to DC, Amtrak trains travel to DC's Union Station. From there it's a short metro or long walk to the event. Drivers can drive until outside city and then catch the Metro in. Several bus companies are organizing trips to the event, with links on the Rally To Restore Sanity's website. The event is in front of Congress's building on the Mall, so take Metro stations Smithsonian or Capitol South.
DC's public transport is the best in the country. The Metro is fast and, more importantly, clean. Public transport is more pleasant when not grimy. (NYC, I'm lookin' at you!) Buses go everywhere the subway doesn't. Be careful, though, sometimes two different color train lines can arrive on the same platform.
DC is a town that can be feel tough to navigate until you get it. Here's the city's design. DC is arranged into quarters around a city center, so streets have a quadrant designation. This allows for the numbers to stay low, counting up from the center. Remember to check this NW/SW/NE/SE designation or you might be aiming for the other side of town, though in practice it doesn't factor in that much. Street names go up alphabetically from the center. Shorter syllable words are closer to the city center than longer syllable words.
During the day, the National Mall has dozens incredible museums to amble about. And they are all free! Literally, miles of hallways, so wear comfortable shoes. The cops are chill, though their metal detectors won't like corkscrews or swiss army knives at the museum door. The Smithsonian's Freer Gallery has some incredible Asian art. National Air and Space Museum's got a 3D movie about the Hubbell Telescope that looks cosmic. The new Native American Museum looks like the Anasazi cliff dwellings of the American Southwest. Integrating natural themes like water and sky, it celebrates native sensibility brought into architecture, as with the Mohegan Sun Casino in CT. This museum has the best food on the Mall, from buffalo stew to veggie chili, arranged in a food court based by different geographic food sheds. The Mall is a bit of "food desert", where it can be easy to be hungry even with money in your pocket. In theory the Smithsonian has a cafe, if you consider a $3 Coca Cola digestible.
For evening adventures, DC is has a lively bar culture, embodied at the Tune Inn (331 Pennsylvania SE). In the Du Pont Circle area, Afterwards Cafe serves good food inside a terrific bookstore. The best dive bar I've ever been was the Raven, gritty and brilliantly human-scale, with rock star pictures on the wall and a surly bartender who will serve you well, (from DuPont Circle metro, bus 42, 3125 Mt Pleasant Ave NW). For dinner in DuPont Circle, a great salad factory is Sweetgreens. Nearby is the nation's first certified organic restaurant, Nora, pricey but wholesome.
For accommodation, there are many youth hostels online, though most seemed booked for the weekend. (Try the William Penn House, $40 a night.) Hotels available by Metro are plentiful. DC is a fairly easy place to just sneak off into the greenery with a sleeping bag. Rock Creek Park is home to a beautiful river with miles of biking trails.
DC is filled with brilliant architecture. For two hundred years people have sought to increase the prestige of their organization by having a really impressive building in the Big Town. The embassies near Du Pont Circle are so beautiful, though they seem to have witnessed unhappiness. The city is stuffed with public space treasures, like the beautiful little park on Embassy Row dedicated to Khalil Gibran, at 3100 Massachusetts Ave NW.
DC feels pretty safe. It's a prosperous town, so perhaps government doesn't suffer recession. In the words of Brother Cornell West, DC is an chocolate city. There are half-a-million Ethiopians here, the most outside of Ethiopia. Due to the international schools and embassies, there are people from all over the world, creating a great gumbo of ethnicity, and America's most international city.
DC is a also a place where the military/industrial complex takes out ad campaigns for their new tank, with full page ads in Post, and subway billboards. The metro stop before the mega-mall at Pentagon City is always good for unintentionally funny ads. Check out the billboards at Capital South metro, where cleanskies.org has the most egregious green-washing campaign ever: using climate change facts to justify getting "natural" gas by hydrofracking the shale beds of NYC's water-supply. Please take a moment to publicly mock these ads.
Capital South metro station is the stop to take to go to the Democratic National Committee building, 430 South Capital Street, an orange building near some sort of factory, where you can stop by after the rally and make some phone calls for the upcoming election. And afterwards, check out the nearby Tortilla Coast mexi-cafe and see where Capital Hill staffers eat chips after a day of difficult legislation.
For Friday night, at the Rock n Roll Hotel, there's a Masquerade Party with 3 bands, (5$ or free with Mask!) at 1353 H St. NE. On Saturday, there's a costume rally afterparty the Eighteenth Street Lounge at 1212 18th NW Street.
DC, our capital, let's restore it's sanity with a one big sane weekend.
Washington D.C. is a beautiful, great and strange town. Everybody talks smack about Washington, but that's just because the politics are lame and entrenched while the world burns. But DC is a brilliant town to ramble around in. Internationalism, intelligence and prosperity mix to create seemingly endless novelty, as if we were riding the cresting waves of Terrence McKenna's Novelty Wave towards the Eschaton.
To get to DC, Amtrak trains travel to DC's Union Station. From there it's a short metro or long walk to the event. Drivers can drive until outside city and then catch the Metro in. Several bus companies are organizing trips to the event, with links on the Rally To Restore Sanity's website. The event is in front of Congress's building on the Mall, so take Metro stations Smithsonian or Capitol South.
DC's public transport is the best in the country. The Metro is fast and, more importantly, clean. Public transport is more pleasant when not grimy. (NYC, I'm lookin' at you!) Buses go everywhere the subway doesn't. Be careful, though, sometimes two different color train lines can arrive on the same platform.
DC is a town that can be feel tough to navigate until you get it. Here's the city's design. DC is arranged into quarters around a city center, so streets have a quadrant designation. This allows for the numbers to stay low, counting up from the center. Remember to check this NW/SW/NE/SE designation or you might be aiming for the other side of town, though in practice it doesn't factor in that much. Street names go up alphabetically from the center. Shorter syllable words are closer to the city center than longer syllable words.
During the day, the National Mall has dozens incredible museums to amble about. And they are all free! Literally, miles of hallways, so wear comfortable shoes. The cops are chill, though their metal detectors won't like corkscrews or swiss army knives at the museum door. The Smithsonian's Freer Gallery has some incredible Asian art. National Air and Space Museum's got a 3D movie about the Hubbell Telescope that looks cosmic. The new Native American Museum looks like the Anasazi cliff dwellings of the American Southwest. Integrating natural themes like water and sky, it celebrates native sensibility brought into architecture, as with the Mohegan Sun Casino in CT. This museum has the best food on the Mall, from buffalo stew to veggie chili, arranged in a food court based by different geographic food sheds. The Mall is a bit of "food desert", where it can be easy to be hungry even with money in your pocket. In theory the Smithsonian has a cafe, if you consider a $3 Coca Cola digestible.
For evening adventures, DC is has a lively bar culture, embodied at the Tune Inn (331 Pennsylvania SE). In the Du Pont Circle area, Afterwards Cafe serves good food inside a terrific bookstore. The best dive bar I've ever been was the Raven, gritty and brilliantly human-scale, with rock star pictures on the wall and a surly bartender who will serve you well, (from DuPont Circle metro, bus 42, 3125 Mt Pleasant Ave NW). For dinner in DuPont Circle, a great salad factory is Sweetgreens. Nearby is the nation's first certified organic restaurant, Nora, pricey but wholesome.
For accommodation, there are many youth hostels online, though most seemed booked for the weekend. (Try the William Penn House, $40 a night.) Hotels available by Metro are plentiful. DC is a fairly easy place to just sneak off into the greenery with a sleeping bag. Rock Creek Park is home to a beautiful river with miles of biking trails.
DC is filled with brilliant architecture. For two hundred years people have sought to increase the prestige of their organization by having a really impressive building in the Big Town. The embassies near Du Pont Circle are so beautiful, though they seem to have witnessed unhappiness. The city is stuffed with public space treasures, like the beautiful little park on Embassy Row dedicated to Khalil Gibran, at 3100 Massachusetts Ave NW.
DC feels pretty safe. It's a prosperous town, so perhaps government doesn't suffer recession. In the words of Brother Cornell West, DC is an chocolate city. There are half-a-million Ethiopians here, the most outside of Ethiopia. Due to the international schools and embassies, there are people from all over the world, creating a great gumbo of ethnicity, and America's most international city.
DC is a also a place where the military/industrial complex takes out ad campaigns for their new tank, with full page ads in Post, and subway billboards. The metro stop before the mega-mall at Pentagon City is always good for unintentionally funny ads. Check out the billboards at Capital South metro, where cleanskies.org has the most egregious green-washing campaign ever: using climate change facts to justify getting "natural" gas by hydrofracking the shale beds of NYC's water-supply. Please take a moment to publicly mock these ads.
Capital South metro station is the stop to take to go to the Democratic National Committee building, 430 South Capital Street, an orange building near some sort of factory, where you can stop by after the rally and make some phone calls for the upcoming election. And afterwards, check out the nearby Tortilla Coast mexi-cafe and see where Capital Hill staffers eat chips after a day of difficult legislation.
For Friday night, at the Rock n Roll Hotel, there's a Masquerade Party with 3 bands, (5$ or free with Mask!) at 1353 H St. NE. On Saturday, there's a costume rally afterparty the Eighteenth Street Lounge at 1212 18th NW Street.
DC, our capital, let's restore it's sanity with a one big sane weekend.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Signs of Climate Change in the Northeast
Vermont’s fall colors may arrive two weeks early this year. Vermont’s strange spring was hot and therefore compressed. All the flowers bloomed at once instead of the usual leisurely parade. By the reckoning of many gardeners, the spring was two weeks ahead. And through the summer, several biological arrivals have been early. So perhaps the leaves will turn color two weeks early this fall and all the leafpeeper tourists will be too late!
Saratoga Apple’s crop will be 40% of normal this year because of the weird Climate Changed weather this spring. A long hot spell in the spring tricked the trees into blossoming ten days to two weeks early. Then came a fairly normal cold patch that froze the forming fruit.
The lilacs bloomed two weeks ahead of the Lilac Festival in Rochester, NY, to organizer’s dismay.
These are just more data points allowing us to ”solve for pattern” that we are already living on an Earth experiencing the Climate Crisis. These are relatively harmless examples compared to Pakistan’s floods and Russia’s fires, but perhaps more persuasive because they are local.
Author Bill McKibben said on Democracy Now recently, “The planet that we live on now is different, and in fundamental ways, from the one we were born onto. The atmosphere holds about five percent more water vapor that it did forty years ago. That’s an incredible change in one of the basic physical parameters of the planet, and it explains all those deluges and downpours. The ocean is 30 percent more acidic, as it absorbs all that carbon from the atmosphere. NASA said yesterday that we’ve just come through the warmest January, February, March on record, that 2010 is going to be the warmest year that we’ve ever scene.”
The “debate” about “Is Climate Change happening?” should be over. McKibben’s new book Eaarth gives dozens of examples of how our world is already experiencing a Climate Catastrophe. He says that we live on an Earth so changed we might as well call it a new name, like Eaarth. But the debate isn’t over because it’s not a debate. “The Debate” is a well-documented public relations stalling tactic by fossil fuel companies to confuse the public while grubbing every last fossil fuel dollar. Wall Street will be under water before Exxon Mobil stops funding “The Debate.” Mother Jones magazine reports that Exxon Mobil spent 55 million dollars to fund think tanks to contradict mainstream science. The Debate Stalling Tactic has worked because the sky looks so big, the science is complicated, and consequences seem far off.
I guess it’s Human Nature “to need to see it to believe it.” Seeing this out-of-phase spring unfolding was my wake-up call. Now I’m sure that the Climate Crisis is actually happening and I’m a little freaked out because that means humanity is in a very dire situation indeed.
Skies are air oceans, limited, able to be polluted, changeable in their make-up. Carbon may invisibly disappear out of our tailpipes but it doesn’t drop out of the atmospheric mash-up for a thousand years! Carbon in the atmosphere takes a long time to be sequestered, or gathered back by plants. Carbon is more like a cathedral than a fart. Every flippant car trip causes pollution that will be in the atmosphere for 1000 years. As in, “Oh my god, do you really have to drive to return that movie?”
So we need to leave the coal in the hole and leave the oil in the ground. We need to stop burning stuff. We need to make burning oil and coal ILLEGAL! We need electric cars powered by an electrical grid that’s charged by solar and wind. We would already have these technologies if those selfish oil companies hadn’t been blocking and stalling and ‘debating’ for 40 years.
The BP Gulf Coast Oil Catastrophe was a national wake up call (though we seem to have hit the snooze button. Again.) We need to get off the oil. We should start the process by banning offshore drilling. Oil companies are sociopathic non-human entities that don’t care who lives or dies. The oil companies are forcing humanity onto a Trail of Tears towards runaway climate change and Planet Death. We must stop them, stop burning oil, and protect the ecosystem stability that allows us to grow apples.
On 10/10/10, (10 October 2010), there is a Global Work Party for the Climate Crisis being organized by 350.org. Join your community members in responding to the Climate Crisis and then we’ll tell our politicians, “hey, we’re getting to work on the problem, how about you?” And who knows, maybe working together will help you transition your town into a community that’s more resilient and pleasant to live in. Check out the Transition Town movement to see how some communities are trying to prepare for post-oil.
Saratoga Apple’s crop will be 40% of normal this year because of the weird Climate Changed weather this spring. A long hot spell in the spring tricked the trees into blossoming ten days to two weeks early. Then came a fairly normal cold patch that froze the forming fruit.
The lilacs bloomed two weeks ahead of the Lilac Festival in Rochester, NY, to organizer’s dismay.
These are just more data points allowing us to ”solve for pattern” that we are already living on an Earth experiencing the Climate Crisis. These are relatively harmless examples compared to Pakistan’s floods and Russia’s fires, but perhaps more persuasive because they are local.
Author Bill McKibben said on Democracy Now recently, “The planet that we live on now is different, and in fundamental ways, from the one we were born onto. The atmosphere holds about five percent more water vapor that it did forty years ago. That’s an incredible change in one of the basic physical parameters of the planet, and it explains all those deluges and downpours. The ocean is 30 percent more acidic, as it absorbs all that carbon from the atmosphere. NASA said yesterday that we’ve just come through the warmest January, February, March on record, that 2010 is going to be the warmest year that we’ve ever scene.”
The “debate” about “Is Climate Change happening?” should be over. McKibben’s new book Eaarth gives dozens of examples of how our world is already experiencing a Climate Catastrophe. He says that we live on an Earth so changed we might as well call it a new name, like Eaarth. But the debate isn’t over because it’s not a debate. “The Debate” is a well-documented public relations stalling tactic by fossil fuel companies to confuse the public while grubbing every last fossil fuel dollar. Wall Street will be under water before Exxon Mobil stops funding “The Debate.” Mother Jones magazine reports that Exxon Mobil spent 55 million dollars to fund think tanks to contradict mainstream science. The Debate Stalling Tactic has worked because the sky looks so big, the science is complicated, and consequences seem far off.
I guess it’s Human Nature “to need to see it to believe it.” Seeing this out-of-phase spring unfolding was my wake-up call. Now I’m sure that the Climate Crisis is actually happening and I’m a little freaked out because that means humanity is in a very dire situation indeed.
Skies are air oceans, limited, able to be polluted, changeable in their make-up. Carbon may invisibly disappear out of our tailpipes but it doesn’t drop out of the atmospheric mash-up for a thousand years! Carbon in the atmosphere takes a long time to be sequestered, or gathered back by plants. Carbon is more like a cathedral than a fart. Every flippant car trip causes pollution that will be in the atmosphere for 1000 years. As in, “Oh my god, do you really have to drive to return that movie?”
So we need to leave the coal in the hole and leave the oil in the ground. We need to stop burning stuff. We need to make burning oil and coal ILLEGAL! We need electric cars powered by an electrical grid that’s charged by solar and wind. We would already have these technologies if those selfish oil companies hadn’t been blocking and stalling and ‘debating’ for 40 years.
The BP Gulf Coast Oil Catastrophe was a national wake up call (though we seem to have hit the snooze button. Again.) We need to get off the oil. We should start the process by banning offshore drilling. Oil companies are sociopathic non-human entities that don’t care who lives or dies. The oil companies are forcing humanity onto a Trail of Tears towards runaway climate change and Planet Death. We must stop them, stop burning oil, and protect the ecosystem stability that allows us to grow apples.
On 10/10/10, (10 October 2010), there is a Global Work Party for the Climate Crisis being organized by 350.org. Join your community members in responding to the Climate Crisis and then we’ll tell our politicians, “hey, we’re getting to work on the problem, how about you?” And who knows, maybe working together will help you transition your town into a community that’s more resilient and pleasant to live in. Check out the Transition Town movement to see how some communities are trying to prepare for post-oil.
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Smartest Conversation Yet on Climate Crisis
Last night four authors talked about the Climate Crisis. All had written books on the subject. When people have a shared language and knowledge base, the conversation can go much deeper. It was the smartest conversation yet on the climate crisis that I've heard.
Listening to the conversation felt theraputic, healing, affirming, because it made me feel not alone in my head with these terrifying visions of climate apocalpyse. I think about the climate crisis a lot and I sometimes wonder if I'm not just getting myself hot and bothered. (It would be pleasant to become a Climate Denier and hit the snooze button and shake of the nightmares.) So it felt good to know that smart people who write books are also freaked out, that I'm not the only one shuddering with visions of the death of the Biosphere, that the basic contours of my understanding of the climate crisis are correct.
The Northshire Bookstore brought together Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Kolbert and two others. Someday soon I will post a link to the audio of the event.
I want to be having a conversation on this subject, with people this smart, four nights a week. Can some TV producer please manifest a Climate Crisis Roundtable?
Listening to the conversation felt theraputic, healing, affirming, because it made me feel not alone in my head with these terrifying visions of climate apocalpyse. I think about the climate crisis a lot and I sometimes wonder if I'm not just getting myself hot and bothered. (It would be pleasant to become a Climate Denier and hit the snooze button and shake of the nightmares.) So it felt good to know that smart people who write books are also freaked out, that I'm not the only one shuddering with visions of the death of the Biosphere, that the basic contours of my understanding of the climate crisis are correct.
The Northshire Bookstore brought together Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Kolbert and two others. Someday soon I will post a link to the audio of the event.
I want to be having a conversation on this subject, with people this smart, four nights a week. Can some TV producer please manifest a Climate Crisis Roundtable?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Sociopathic Oil Companies and Runaway GMO algea
What do the BP oil spill and the recent announcement of a scientist creating a living cell have in common?
A dangerous threat to the Commons, our shared life here on earth.
Just as BP throws up it hands and says, 'we don't know how to fix it', someday the GMO algea may get loose in the ocean and out compete normal algea, creating a disrupted oceanic ecosystem.
A scientist is pulling the most productive algea components out the algea DNA, and creating a super algea that would be useful in producing fuel. Now, I'm not a super scientist or anything, but it doesn't take alot to see where this one would go into the dickey weeds. It gets loose, it out-competes, disrupts the ecosystem, spreads a mad red tide across the planet, and so on...
our Commons, our shared earth, is a shared valueable treasure, and individuals and corporations don't have the right to disrupt it just for their own greed or desire for scientific fame.
Corporations aren't people, they don't die or feel empathetic pain of others, and one of humanity's great challenges is figuring out how to put humans in the driver's seat instead of faceless corporations. The other great challenge is to learn to handle our super scientific powers and place them in the context of a breakable ecology and a useful morality.
A dangerous threat to the Commons, our shared life here on earth.
Just as BP throws up it hands and says, 'we don't know how to fix it', someday the GMO algea may get loose in the ocean and out compete normal algea, creating a disrupted oceanic ecosystem.
A scientist is pulling the most productive algea components out the algea DNA, and creating a super algea that would be useful in producing fuel. Now, I'm not a super scientist or anything, but it doesn't take alot to see where this one would go into the dickey weeds. It gets loose, it out-competes, disrupts the ecosystem, spreads a mad red tide across the planet, and so on...
our Commons, our shared earth, is a shared valueable treasure, and individuals and corporations don't have the right to disrupt it just for their own greed or desire for scientific fame.
Corporations aren't people, they don't die or feel empathetic pain of others, and one of humanity's great challenges is figuring out how to put humans in the driver's seat instead of faceless corporations. The other great challenge is to learn to handle our super scientific powers and place them in the context of a breakable ecology and a useful morality.
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