tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19693106838380596612024-03-13T12:08:02.969+01:00Confessions of a Climate WorrierHonest reflections on the psychological aspect of living in the time of anthropogenic climate changeJennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-36946667407582986122015-01-16T16:16:00.000+01:002015-03-14T16:20:25.614+01:00Podcast Revival and 15 Minutes of Fame Life happened. I got a job. Then I didn't have the job anymore. Repeat. It's been a bit ruthless, to be honest. Working full time was not conducive to worrying about the climate. In fact, working full time is actually a pretty sure fire way to not care about anything other than getting to work on time and leaving in time to pick up children and ignore them while you buy and make food so they don't starve. Then you put them to bed.
So I had a climate break.<br />
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I've actually not had what I'd call a climate anxiety attack for at least, what, two years? It's been nice. I'm back in the climate groove again, and it's even better than ever, without the cutting edge of mortality up against my throat every time I read a climate related article. But then again, I haven't been spurred to write blog posts or do podcasts, opting for a more quiet existence. Again, it's been nice, but it's over.<br />
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I'm, ironically, much happier when I'm working with climate. Talking to people, teaching kids about sustainability for a <a href="http://concito.dk/">Danish climate think tank</a>, being an activist when I have the energy for it. It's remarkable how much more energy I have when I do these things, how much easier it is to get out of bed in the morning. Find that, and you're ok. Make money off it, you're set. Almost there, but it's good enough to wait for.<br />
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So I podcasted! And I decided to share the mic with a friend of mine who is also a climate worrier. He's got a shop in central Copenhagen and he's always super easy and fun to talk with, and it's extremely enriching to have a network of like-minded folks like him to chew the climate fat with. I hope it's as enjoyable for the listener as it was for us.<br />
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Also! One of my <a href="http://www.slate.com/authors.eric_holthaus.html">newest friends</a> wrote <a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.vice.com/read/should-climate-change-stop-us-from-having-babies-305">this piece featuring me and another climate role model, Glenn Albrecht</a>. That was it. My 15 minutes of fame. It was great.
I'll be back sooner that you can say anthropogenic global warming with the next podcast, featuring a glaciologist I met here in Copenhagen. See you soon!Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-74511613081707171182014-05-07T10:42:00.000+02:002014-05-07T10:42:05.671+02:00Civil Defense Sirens DayImagine the air starting crackling one day. Crackle, crackle, pop, it said, down the street, on the balcony, right behind you while you were out walking the dog. It lasted a few days, maybe weeks, until the crackling turned into spontaneous flames that appeared out of nowhere. You're in the kitchen, chopping vegetables, and right in front of you over the cutting board - a foot long flame appears, burning for 10 seconds before disappearing again. Half an hour later the same thing, this time at the dinner table, later again, in the bathroom. You're not safe, outside or in - the danger is everywhere. I the house, in the neighborhood, downtown, in the country - everywhere. Everybody is experiencing the same thing. The danger is visible, tangible, everywhere - no exceptions. It's a fictive scenarios, but hold the thought.
Today, the first Wednesday in May, is the Danish national test day for the civil defense sirens. For 4 minutes we're reminded of their sound, and their meaning, should it ever become necessary. The police are responsible for warning the civil population of dangers, be they war, accidents, catastrophes, or terrorism. The sirens are meant to warn us that there is a dangerous situation, that we need to be informed of by the authorities.
My question now is - why haven't we heard the "real" sirens? We're in danger - clear and present - of losing our stable lives, of being overrun by physical catastrophe not unlike the danger of wartime. We could end up in a situation where no peace treaty or UN convention can help us. For the first time ever, we've experienced an entire month with 400 ppm (parts per million). An abstract number that means the atmosphere is more saturated with CO2 than ever before. That's bad. The problem with this amount of CO2 is that it can't be seen, smelled, or felt. It's invisible to us, though its effect is extreme. Yet nothing about our lives shows signs that we're in danger. We don't live or act differently, out consumption continues, there's no collective effort to be seen that we're in a transition to bring us out of danger again.
If anything, we need the sirens now, each and every day. To make us go inside and get the information we need, to listen, and learn what we need to do to make this invisible threat a more tangible crackle, before it becomes a flame in our own home.
Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-17717827395086099322014-01-02T13:09:00.000+01:002014-01-02T13:46:54.460+01:002014 - A Year of Intersectionality for the Climate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here are a few hallmark years in the history of climate change:<br />
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- 1896. The year that Swede Svante Arrhenius discovered that a rise in carbon went along with a rise in the Earth's temperature, still a well-known fact, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.<br />
- 1960. The year Charles David Keeling measured the amount of atmospheric CO2 concentrations from Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Using his figures he created the "Keeling Curve", which shows a dramatic increase in carbon ppm, with projections of still more to come.<br />
- 1976. The year of the "climate shift". Any person born after this year has never lived in the stable climate that made human life on this planet possible. The climate <i>changed</i>. Indeed, there was no broad public understanding of this at the time, in fact many were concerned with an impending ice age. Nevertheless, the world had already warmed at this time, and weather patterns were showing changes as an effect.<br />
- 1988. This is a year in climate change that even I remember. Newsweek had global warming and the greenhouse effect on the front page. We had that publication at my house, I was 10, and that was the first time I'd heard about the phenomenon. The topic did its rounds but unfortunately, ebbed out of public discourse again for a number of years.<br />
- 2006. To be honest, this year can't stand alone. 2005 was the year that Hurricane Katrina gave New Orleans a beating, and global warming was back on everybody's lips. Climate made a big news comeback in 2006, and that year seemed to be somwhat of a breakthrough year for the climate as a real thing that occupied the news, and the thoughts of the public in general. People were talking.<br />
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So what should 2014 be for climate? Which focus can we turn to, to be bring something new to the table? I take my cue from some of the big and still growing debates of 2013 - the racial and gender equality debates. Odd bedfellows with the climate debate at first glance, but dig deeper, and it's a snug fit.<br />
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Anti-racism, and feminism* have been separate entities that have mainly been dealt with the individual standpoints of the oppressed. It has become increasingly evident in public discourse that racial and gender oppression don't just have something in common, they're absolutely connected to each other. Intersectionality has been the buzzword, bringing racial and gender equality together as two sides of the same story. The hierarchy in which these oppressions are systematically happening favors the same oppressor. And the domination isn't just contained to these groups, but of course groups of class and sexual orientation as well. There is a distinct objectification in this hierarchy, a use of the oppressed as an infinite source of power and ressources to be harnessed by the top. Our environment is no exception to this, albeit it hasn't had a human face to use in campaigns that highlight its plight.<br />
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The past year has seen quite a culmination of the racism and sexism debates, triggered in no small part by cases such as Trayvon and Steubenville. People saw the racism, sexism and rape culture for what it was, and became collectively and acutely aware of the power structure of a society where they were made possible, necessary even. Climate change has undoubtedly had a role in this, now being mainstream news, creating a backdrop of human absurdity based on greed and power, selling the biosphere for a buck, all while the understanding of how oppression works got deeper, more complex, yet more apparent.<br />
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Let 2014 be the year where climate change enters the intersectional discourse. Let us make the connection between oppressions, be they because of race, gender, class, sexuality, or a seemingly bottomless supply of natural ressources to use for human folly. The oppressors are the one and the same. Not only should we be making this connection this year, we should be proactively creating a dialogue that offers not just theoretical solutions, but real, constructive "this is how we're fixing this mess NOW". We know who is at the top of the hierarchy, we know why and for whom they are oppressing, and we must dismantle the system that keeps them in power, and keeps using the oppressed as a neverending supply of cheap ressources.<br />
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Let 2014 be the year when we start to look our kids, and each other in the eye and say: we are aware, we are no longer complacent, we love ourselves and the planet's biosphere, and we are doing what we can to end the systemic oppression of it and everything connected to it.<br />
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*I'm not going to debate the meaning of feminism here, just understand that in a male dominated world, to be a "humanist" isn't cutting it.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-24261774911018831432013-11-01T13:55:00.004+01:002013-11-03T21:12:51.135+01:00Do We Need Catastrophe?<div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Not long ago, the media (in Denmark, where I am) was all: "TOO BUSY TO HAVE BABIES", "WE NEED TO HAVE MORE BABIES", "HOW DO WE GET PEOPLE TO GET MORE BABIES?". We were told that people (selfishly, I presume) were prioritizing careers, and making themselves too busy before they ever got a chance to <i>get busy. </i>The comments section was filled with "it's too messy/expensive/difficult" to have kids, only one commenter pointed out the glaringly obvious problem with overpopulation, which is not unlike my own reason for not having more - duh, we're breeding an entire generation that will most likely not have full, happy lives as our own parents' simply because we're ruining the planet for them. Anyway, it got me thinking about this whole "busy" business. We ARE busy. We praise busy-ness, it's high on the agenda for governments and families everywhere. We've made it synonymous with something positive, something to strive for, something that fulfills us. I'm not so sure myself, but more on that later...</span></div>
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I'm sitting outside at a restaurant in Madrid. Our good friend's husband owns the restaurant with his family, and he works there himself, every day, practically all day, even sleeping there. He manages to find the time to sit down with the rest of us and enjoy a glass of sangria. The conversation turns to climate change, as it always does when we're travelling, since we don't fly, to reduce our emissions. North or South, we travel by train and boat, which is ever the conversation starter. Our friend expressed scepticism regarding how much damage humans are capable of, an argument I've heard many times before. "But super volcanoes!", he exclaimed! Humans were too small and puny to have any real effect, but super volcanoes would finish us off! And so he started talking about how they were all connected, and when one went off, the others would follow. I've watched Discovery Channel late at night, so I've seen documentaries about this. I know it's a real phenomenon. But I'm not quite sure the devastation will be quite the apocalypse I'm hearing about over tapas. And since the guy has a beloved wife and two children, I was closely studying his face for signs of fear or distress. None. He was telling me about the End of Days with the same enthusiasm as Richard Quest reports om IMF meetings. But then came the kicker: "I work so much, you know...I guess I need a catastrophe". </div>
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I'm fairly confident that those who have survived a true catastrophe didn't think they needed it, but still I think it's incredibly telling. Is our society so set in its ways, that are so difficult to break free of, that the only way out is a total breakdown? When my Spanish friend works so much, so hard, that he ends up wanting something huge to come from out of nowhere and put a stop to it all...and when society is seemingly content to play the sitting duck (busily, of course) in the face of true disaster...isn't that something we need to address? So - what exactly are we playing at? What has life become? What are we so busy with, that we don't have time to have kids for? Not that kids are for everyone, but that questions still puts a spotlight on our culture, on our self given purpose here. </div>
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Maybe, somewhere in there, behind our own cognitive dissonance, we are screaming for a catastrophe. Because it's the easy way out, in that all we have to do is, well, to keep doing whatever we're doing. The alternative would take too much energy. Maybe we don't even know what we need, and how to get it, and that's what the catastrophe could teach us. The thing about that though, is that the catastrophe will ruin us, leaving nothing behind to start anew with. If we are to have but a chance, maybe we will have to make do with smaller, subjective, and wholly personal catastrophes. But they need to come, fast. </div>
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Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-36635725448522090812013-05-19T12:21:00.000+02:002013-05-27T12:09:57.173+02:00400 ppmWe climate worriers worry daily. Each new day brings climate news that's worse than yesterday's. There's either new research that shows how the ice is melting even faster, the biodiversity is dissapearing faster, or there are new allowances made, letting people pollute more, you know, for "growth". Or new records are being set. Like the other day, when the latest atmospheric CO2 saturation finally hit 400 ppm (part per million). <br />
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Numbers can be pretty abstract, so for those who aren't in the know:</div>
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- our pre-industrial ppm was 280</div>
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- last time the ppm was 400, the sea level was 60-80 meters higher</div>
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- we need to stay under 350 ppm to ensure a safe and livable climate, no more than the 'magical' 2 degrees warmer.</div>
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So - 400 is just a number for a lot of people - people who can't see, smell, or taste the higher saturation of carbon in the air they breathe. But for us climate worriers, the number gives cause for a lot of feelings, like sorrow, anger, panic, anxiety, wanting to give up.<br />
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You wonder how we got this far. Global warming has been a widely known fact since the 80s. The gravity of climate change starting permeating the mainstream in the 90s, but hey, it was still years away. Or so we thought. In 2005, Hurrican Katrina hit it home - <i>it's already happening</i>. Anthropogenic climate change was already causing bigger storms, people were losing their homes and livelihoods, whole cities lay in ruins. </div>
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You'd think politicians would do more than just overseeing the flooded areas, laying a comforting arm on one of the victims. But no.</div>
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You'd think the citizens of the world would get out on the streets and demand action from the aforementioned, comatose, politicians. And they did. </div>
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But did it help? No. At least not yet. </div>
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And I'm afraid it's almost too late, despite our efforts. If not already too late. </div>
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In the wake of our latest 'record', I feel the need to delve into some subjects:</div>
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1) WHY aren't politicians taking the necessary action to ensure a stable climate for life as we know it?</div>
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2) WHAT is actually necessary - to pressure politicians into adequate action, and to keep our climate livable.</div>
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3) NEW NARRATIVES we need to create about our world now, and in the future, and the way we live in it. </div>
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I'll be investigating these subjects in coming posts, but please feel free to add your voice to this conversation in the comments!</div>
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Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-35801641790892586892013-04-24T11:01:00.000+02:002013-04-24T20:59:09.359+02:00Carbon Reality and Flying<br />
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*I recently started blogging at <a href="http://www.verdensskove.org/" target="_blank">Verdens Skove</a> (World Forests), the Danish equivalent of <a href="http://www.ran.org/" target="_blank">Rainforest Action Network</a>. Although rainforests have never been my particular area of expertise, my goal is to tie them into the mélange of nature, humans, and climate change, which is the great crossroads of our time. I shall blog there in Danish, but will be translating my posts and re-posting them here if the subject matter is relevant for English speakers. My first post, from a few weeks ago, was written specifically for a Danish audience My post from yesterday however, was relevant for a climate worrier of any language. I hope you'll come back and check the "Verdens Skove" tag on this blog and follow my progress there. Also, I truly hope this will help me update this blog more often as well!*</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.8125px;">We are well on our way toward a new era where we will have to re-think a whole lot of things. It's really quite odd to be here, right on the crossroads of actually having the theoretical and practical know-how to tackle our environmental problems, yet at the same time, doing nothing, and being literally on the verge of planetary collapse. Quite a number of harmful processes created by anthropogenic global warming have already started - the ecological descent has begun. And we act as though nothing's amiss. We continue, under the cloak of "business as usual". </span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At some point, we will have to refrain from some of the things we take for granted. We cannot eat industrially produced meat, every day. We will have to cut back on material consumption. Things we consider everyday items will have to become a little special, rare, maybe even luxurious. At least until we implement A Better Way of Doing Things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">One of the things I've done myself, for which there is no sustainable alternative, is to stop flying. It's not an easy decision, considering my American background (living in Denmark). And it's neither easy nor cheap to get around, while travelling. It is nonetheless the fastest way to halve (or more!) one's annual emissions. And it's also part of sending an important signal, that what we usually take for granted needs to be the exception to the rule, if not an act of ecocide. </span></span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u>350</u></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">350 is an important number. 350 ppm (parts per million) is the saturation of carbon in our atmosphere that is safe, compatible with life on this planet as we know it. It's also a number we've already passed (pre-industrial ppm number was 280). And not long ago, we passed 397 ppm.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">We've already acculmulated a dangerous amount of carbon in the atmosphere, too much to keep the planetary balance that keeps us, and everything else, alive. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere right now, and the number keeps getting higher btw, means that the average temperature on the planet will rise, and eventually undermine all life on it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">If we do not turn this around, if our emissions do not peak before 2020, in just 7 years, our world will become 2 degrees warmer. Science tells us that this must be avoided at all costs. If we do not peak before 2030, it will become 4 degrees warmer. To put it bluntly - a 4 degree temperature rise means we can't live here anymore. It's not just a question of the seas rising, it's a question of complete systemic collapse. </span></span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;"><u>The Carbon Bill of Flying</u></span></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">Our lifestyle already costs too much for our carbon budget. Even everyday things - warm baths, laundry, cooking, electricity for our time's most important mode of communication (the one I'm typing on right now)... it all adds to the atmospheric carbon soup which is no longer being absorbed by the seas and dwindling natural world at the same rate - they've already reached saturation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">Air travel is, unfortunately, one of the giants of individual carbon consupmtion. Flights can't be calculated as carbon emissions on land, as with cars, busses, trains (though that's often how it is calculated nonetheless, and don't think it helps to buy offsets). The plane's actual fossil fuel usage is made even worse by the physical trail of condensation released into the troposphere, which creates contrails that end up containing yet more heat in the atmosphere. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">A roundtrip flight actually <b>doubles</b> annual carbon emissions. There are several calculations floating out there, but even the most conservative estimate puts one plane trip as the equivalent of 10 whole months of annual emissions, including all the daily emissions we take for granted. One of the larger calculations puts the same plane trip at a whopping 3 and a half years (smaller, propeller driven planes flying at lower altitudes are exempt from these calculations)! And take note - these are calculated per person. Get a calculator and have at it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">So - even if you stick to the most optimistic formula, air travel is an irresponsibly large consumption of an individual's annual emissions, and something most people use frivolously at that. There is no good excuse for doubling, or possibly trippling, emissions - for a vacation. </span></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.81818199157715px;"><u>Misguided Charity</u></b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, I don't want people to believe that I think we should stop having any fun, and go back to living under Middle Age standards. We have a right to be here. We have a right to food, clean water, hygiene, freedom of movement. But it is imperative that we do it as gently as possible. Air travel is not gentle. Far from it. We must remember what is more important. The opportunity to live well, love our friends and family, eat well and varied, have a well-functioning daily life. Or one vacation (alone) on another continent? Unfortunately, from a carbon budget's perspective, it's either or - not both. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">Air travel has done wonderful things for humanity, let's not forget that. But our cultural view of flying as something that is solely for good must be tweaked. The reality being that flying is more harmful for our climate that so many other things. Being privy to that information makes it positively irresponsible to continue flying. Misanthropic even. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">Not long ago, Verdens Skove posted a picture on their facebook page, citing that large areas of rainforest are cleared to grow bio-fuel crops </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.8125px;">(link: </span><a href="http://on.fb.me/17DJ833" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.8125px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://on.fb.me/17DJ833</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.8125px;">)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.8125px;">. We need fuel for just about everything - for the agriculture that grows crops for our food, the transportation of those crops, electricity to prepare meals, keeping us warm, or cool. Is it then reasonable that we keep creating a demand for decidedly unnecessary things? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">On Verdens Skove's website, just above the links to bloggers' posts is a disclaimer: "Verdens Skove does not necessarily agree with our bloggers' posts, and we do not necessarily agree with their opinions". Well - </span></span><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.8125px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the feeling's mutual. </em><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.8125px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Verdens Skove does a lot of great work toward conserving something the planet desperately needs to stay healthy. The rainforests are the planet's lungs (the oceans are as well, but I get how trees are better poster boys for the climate than, say, plankton), and must be saved, no matter what. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 21.8125px;">The current contest on Verdens Skove's web-site (if you've ever bought a rainforest certificate, you're in the running for a trip to Costa Rica) is part and parcel of the very contradiction I started this post with - knowing the physical carbon reality of our planet, and not heeding it, despite that. Advertising for a charity is fine, by all means, the message needs to be put out there. But actually creating the demand for more fuel that will spur more deforestation to produce the same? Well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I am privileged to be blogging for Verdens Skove, and I think this is one of the better NGOs out there, up there with Greenpeace and Amnesty. But no amount of goodwill or charity can ever outweigh air travel. And that is why I am not participating in the current contest, despite the fact that I've bought several acres worth of certificates through the years, and despite that I'd love to see the rainforest with my own eyes one day. I hope that other climate worriers join me in publicly denouncing the concept. New times with a new carbon reality requires new thinking. Think, don't fly.</span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Links:</span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">- The current ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere <a href="http://co2now.org/" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://co2now.org/</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">- Infographic of a 4 degree warmer world: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://climatechange.worldbank.org/content/4-degree-warmer-world-we-must-and-can-avoid-it-infographic%C2%A0" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://climatechange.worldbank.org/content/4-degree-warmer-world-we-must...</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- In depth article by George Monbiot on flying - recommended!: </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/21/travelsenvironmentalimpact.ethicalliving" style="border: 0px; color: #008707; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/21/travelsenvironmentalimpact.ethicalliving</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Revisiting the Climate Academic on a Plane Argument. </em>Blog post by climate scientist Kevin Anderson: <a href="http://kevinanderson.info/blog/revisiting-the-climate-academic-on-a-plane-argument/" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://kevinanderson.info/blog/revisiting-the-climate-academic-on-a-plan...</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To Fly, Or Not to Fly. </em>Blog post by lawyer and climate activist: <a href="http://globalwarmingispants.blogspot.dk/2011/10/to-fly-or-not-to-fly.html?showComment=1366114088566#c5239893289333449557" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://globalwarmingispants.blogspot.dk/2011/10/to-fly-or-not-to-fly.html?showComment=1366114088566#c5239893289333449557</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Is It Okay to Fly?</em> Article :<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/may/20/ecotourism.guardiansaturdaytravelsection" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/may/20/ecotourism.guardiansaturday...</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kicking the Habit: Air Travel in a Time of Climate Change</em>: <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/kicking-the-habit-air-travel-in-a-time-of-climate-change" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/kicking-the-habit-air-travel-in-a-time-of-climate-change</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Air Travel and Climate Change, Take the Train</em>: <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/travel/air-travel-and-climate-change-take-the-train.html" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.treehugger.com/travel/air-travel-and-climate-change-take-the-train.html</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 19.09090805053711px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">-<em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> If You Fly by Jet You Kill?</em> Tough post about air travel by social scientist and environmental acitivst: <a href="http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/stainsbyfly" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/stainsbyfly</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Can We Afford to Fly? The Impact of Air Travel</em>: <a href="http://alwayswellwithin.com/2011/03/13/can-we-afford-to-fly/" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://alwayswellwithin.com/2011/03/13/can-we-afford-to-fly/</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Toward Sustainable Travel – Breaking the Flying Addiction. </em>Blog post on Yale's climate site, recommended!: <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2280" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: windowtext; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2280</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small; line-height: 21.81818199157715px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- <em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Should Fear of Climate Change Make Us Stop Flying?</em>:<a href="http://www.good.is/posts/should-fear-of-climate-change-make-us-stop-flying" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #008707; font-size: 14.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.good.is/posts/should-fear-of-climate-change-make-us-stop-flying</a></span></div>
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Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-68635369200671853332013-02-06T15:54:00.000+01:002013-02-06T15:54:09.019+01:00Hiatus - OVER! Now: What's This Really All AboutI hadn't expected to let this blog go to seed for over a year - sorry about that! A thesis got in the way. My thesis. Which I wrote all through last Spring and Summer, finally turning it in in September. The Danish title of my thesis is <i>Et mærkbart klima - Affekt og politik i klimakultur</i>. Roughly - <i>A Climate of Emotion - Affect and Politics in Climate Culture</i>, dealing with examples of emotions and feelings in culture relating to climate change. It was an interesting ride, and might actually have helped me quite a bit in gaining some of that elusive distance to climate change. The distance I didn't have before, the lack of which kept the threat and fear of climate change on my sleeve as it were.<br />
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Anyway, I'm back, I've written more posts than I can remember, up in my head of course, goodness knows where they are now. Something that I do keep thinking about, and answering in my head, is a question that a friend asked me over a year ago. I imagine I was on one of my many Twitter rants about the climate, having just read some dire report, eyes freshly salted, sad and angry. He asked - <b>"what is this <i>really </i>all about"</b>? And I was kind of stumped to be honest. Who <i>couldn't </i>see what this was about?<br />
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I'm guessing what my friend was asking, in essence, was "Why are you so afraid of death?". Isn't that, after all, the inner core driving humanity? We do everything we can to survive as far as immediate, primary needs go (food, sleep, shelter). And we create secondary needs to hide the fact that fear is what drives the primary needs. But still - it's much bigger than death, isn't it? <br />
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It's the largest collective human existential crisis since the Cold War, except for the fact that the button <i>has </i>been pushed, is <i>still </i>being pushed (long before the Cold War actually), and we seem to be crying in one voice: "Push harder! Push harder!", even though we know what that means. Well....<br />
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Not to mention, this is about more than humanity, since we're taking more than ourselves down with us. Prognoses have given the impression that we'll be pretty much wiping Earth's slate clean, leaving it to need more than just a few million years to reboot life that resembles anything we know. Not exactly fair of us, I'd say.<br />
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But on the human side of things, it bothers me that we're wiping out <b>human potential</b>. We're a mixed bag as far as species go, I know that. Good, bad, ugly, and all that. But damn, the good things have been really really good. Art alone can be enough to make me cry with joy, such a shame to see it go to waste. Not a soul in the universe to appreciate it after we're gone (as far as we know of course). Have we even neared the height of what we can do? Is there time to prove it? I suppose it's all these unknowns that bug me. For - even if one human dies, it's in the cards that someone else will pick up the slack, carry on where s/he left off, add to it even, make it better, bring humanity forth...We take solace in that when we leave this place individually.<br />
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Climate change is a serious threat to that, the ultimate effect being....absolutely nothing.<br />
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<br />Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-80510628703725464242012-01-23T11:19:00.002+01:002012-01-23T11:22:24.556+01:00Interview - This is What Love Looks LikeI'm not sure if I should keep linking to my podcasts here, since you probably know where to find them. Or? What say ye?<br /><br />I really urge you to <a href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6598">click on this link and read this article, or rather, interview</a> with Tim DeChristopher. It's beautiful and scary. But so necessary. Tim is what I'd call a hero.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-84281812102178096012012-01-07T23:03:00.001+01:002012-01-23T11:22:55.309+01:00Podcast - Episode 2<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F32712244&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=093209"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F32712244&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=093209" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/climateworrier/climate-worrier-podcast-1">Climate Worrier Podcast - Episode 2</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/climateworrier">ClimateWorrier</a></span>Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-61019516709178574882012-01-05T22:57:00.003+01:002012-01-23T11:23:22.540+01:00Podcast!I have no intention of neglecting this blog, but I will be supplementing it, and taking it to another level by the addition of the <a href="http://soundcloud.com/climateworrier">Climate Worrier podcast</a>. The message is the same, but I hope to be more personal, and reach more people with this more emotional side of climate change put forward. <br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F32522723&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=093209"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F32522723&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=093209" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/climateworrier/climate-worrier-podcast">Climate Worrier Podcast Inaugural Episode</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/climateworrier">ClimateWorrier</a></span><br /><br />And a happy New Year, of course!Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-3091646112546799162011-11-22T19:50:00.002+01:002011-11-22T20:50:38.999+01:00Right Here, Right NowIt sometimes seems a wonder that the human race is, at this point in time, at this very juncture, with this very dilemma. Not a moment too soon, not a moment too late. <br /><br />Imagine if the grand ecosystem of the planet had been much less adaptable, much more delicate, and people in the early 20th century were already getting the hems of their petticoats and coattails wet in rising tides from melting poles. The technology being that less advanced back then would certainly have meant our demise, not being able to save us from ourselves.<br /><br />The fact that our own technology today is evolving practically exponentially is a comfort. Do we have a chance to technologize ourselves out of this? It's kind of the only hope, isn't it? <br /><br />It also seems...planned. I'm not going theistic on your ass, don't worry, after all, I do rely on science and healthy scepticism to keep this very physical problem in the physical paradigm wherein it presides. But really, how lucky are we that this is all happening at precisely this moment in time? <br /><br />Look how far we've come. We're more co-operative and peaceful than we've ever been in our entire history. I have faith in the human race. Technology is bringing movements together. Can it also geo-engineer us out of catastrophe? If anyone in the history of time has the chance to find out, we're it.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-48706731372586712932011-10-31T14:37:00.005+01:002011-11-01T15:20:02.235+01:00Climate and Aviation - The Flying PostI got myself into a Twitter discussion about flying's impact on the environment last week. Twitter has a 140 character limit, which isn't exactly conducive to a good debate about this. I could've just copy/pasted some links, but it's just not enough. So, now I find myself writing a whole post about it. This blog is intended to be about the emotional side of AGW, but for this rare occasion, I'll be dealing with figures. <br /><br />First off, I have to get a few things out of the way. I conscientiously <a href="http://climateworrier.blogspot.com/2011/07/non-apologies.html">do not fly</a>, and I <a href="http://climateworrier.blogspot.com/2011/07/anatomy-of-climate-depression-part-4.html">haven't flown for 4 years</a> for several reasons.<br /><br />1) Not flying is one of the single easiest things to do to lower your emissions (going vegetarian and cutting consumption right behind it).<br /><br />2) Flying uses mind boggling amounts of fuel, fuel which preferably should be used on food production instead of vacations, since, according to the IEA, oil production <a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-11-11/iea-acknowledges-peak-oil">already peaked, back in 2006</a>. If you haven't thought about what that means for the world, you, or your children, run along and google "peak oil", freak out a bit, then come back.<br /><br />3) I am not interested in checking out of society to curb my emissions, so I find alternatives. In the past 4 years, my family and I have been to Morocco twice, Finland, Sweden, Southern France and Spain, all without flying. People colonized the globe before air travel, c'mon, it's not the only way to get around. <br /><br />4) In a few years, my kids will learn about climate change in school. When they ask me what I did, knowing the existential ground below our feet was disappearing, I will not look them in the eyes and tell them that I just pretended everything was going to be okay, and kept doing everything as per usual. <br /><br />5) Science tells us that we <a href="http://www.350.org/en/about/science">should aim to bring carbon levels down to 350 ppm</a> to avoid catastrophe. We're already way beyond that, at <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/">391</a> (look at the bar of stats at the top). I don't feel a need to make that number a lot worse just so I can have a vacation. <br /><br />Now that I got that off my chest, some sources.<br /><br />My main go-to person on the issue of flying and carbon emissions is environmental journalist, <a href="http://www.monbiot.com/">George Monbiot</a>. Anyone can go to any number of websites and have their carbon emissions figured out for certain activities. But as Monbiot points out, in the case of flying, this method isn't applicable. One must take the resulting number and multiply it with IPCC figure of 2.7, to get the true impact (the Tyndall Centre of Climate Change uses a more conservative estimate of 1.9, still more that your usual carbon footptint equation), owing to atmospheric impact. <a href="http://diigo.com/0ksxg">Here's an article of his, where I have highlighted the important details on this</a>. So remember, when calculating flights on an internet service such as <a href="http://www.whatsmycarbonfootprint.com/">this</a>, the results are unfortunately only applicable for a plane flying at ground level, usually not the case. <br /><br />Here's <a href="http://www.monbiot.com/2006/02/28/we-are-all-killers/">another sobering Monbiot article about flying</a> with a moral twist, if you're up for it.<br /><br />There are many variables to calculating the effects of air travel, distance, plane model, etc. For sure though, a long haul flight easily doubles the average person's annual emissions in one go (indeed, I've seen higher estimates still), as illustrated <a href="http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/files/stainsbyfly/at_download/file">in this extensive paper, on page 7</a>. We already need to eat, use electricity, and travel locally on our carbon budgets - would we rather eat or go on vacation, given a certain amount of carbon to use annually? <br /><br />Biofuels were cited during my Twitter debate as being a viable fuel alternative, ergo my non-flying stance was "hogwash". For one, biofuel technology is out there, great, but it's not in aviation use (oh, apart from that one time Richard Branson <a href="http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us/allaboutus/environment/biofuel.jsp">powered one short Virgin flight with 20% nut oil</a>. Can you imagine how many people those nuts could have fed instead?). Even then, <a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2011/FoEE_Flying_in_the_face_of_facts_June2011.pdf">biofuels have a lot against them still</a> (see pages 5-7).<br /><br />I've opted for train travel instead of flying. Certainly, it takes longer. As it happens, one of our favorite destinations at my house is Morocco. in theory, we could board a plane in Copenhagen and arrive in Morocco 5-6 hours later. If it weren't for environmental impact and fuel use, awesome. Especially if it's for a shorter trip. As it were, it takes 3 days in all from Copenhagen to Tangier, with stops in Paris and Madrid. We've had time to visit friends, drink wine, eat tapas and be merry <span style="font-style:italic;">en route</span>. Point being, the extended travel time has been a joy, not a chore. And while train travel isn't pristine emissions-wise, it <a href="http://www.seat61.com/CO2flights.htm">certainly figures more climate friendly than flying</a>.<br /><br />I do also have family in the States I haven't visited for a while, and it doesn't look like I'll visit them any time soon. Does that bother me? Yes and no. My mother flies here to visit us (1 person's emissions to visit 4 people is still better than 4 people's emissions to visit 1 person), so my children know their grandmother, and we Skype, which is like being in the same room. The thing that does hurt most, for both of us, is the fact that I won't fly over to take care of her estate when she goes. The thought does sadden me, but it's been arranged that someone stateside will take care of that, and my mother is donating her body to science. But to be honest, my mother has many years left in her, I'm pretty sure that peak oil will prevent most air travel before her time is up, at any rate. But not seeing family in the flesh bothers me a lot less than knowingly contributing to ruining my children's future. Sounds pretty heavy, I know - it is! <br /><br />To sum up - I appreciate the cultural impact that aviation has had on the world- We're closer, more connected, and as a result more peaceful and able to cooperate. I live where I do today because of air travel. That said, flying is a bad habit that we have to stop. The fact that technology for alternatives to conventional aviation is out there and not in use? A travesty. And that's exactly why I will not aid and abet the aviation industry's detrimental effect on the climate, nor should anyone else who is truly concerned about it (there, I said it!). <br /><br />What flying did to encourage positive socio-anthropological changes in the past 100 years, the internet does now. We're still connected, more so even. We've come a long way, now let's take another road that's not as destructive. Internet use isn't a climate saint, but I'll save that for another post. Now, go no-fly!Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-63563793588475090242011-09-24T09:14:00.005+02:002011-09-24T10:00:08.648+02:00AlbertAlbert is my cousin, the youngest son of my dad's older brother Albert (known as Uncle Al), but a significant age difference was between us. So when I was up north in Illinois around the age of 10 or so, visiting my Uncle Al and Aunt Gertrude (you couldn't make this stuff up) with my dad, Albert would sometimes drop by to say hi. <br /><br />This one visit sticks out, and I've only just recalled it within the past year or so. But I remember my dad and Albert talking about the world's state of affairs, as men of a certain age do, talking with some authority that they somehow are steering the world away from catastrophe with every sentence. I was sitting a few feet away, at the dining room table, drawing freehand interpretations of works in Al and Gertrude's huge book of Leonardo da Vinci. I loved that book. At any rate, at one point Albert said something that caught my attention, I can't remember what, but I do remember that I looked up from my drawing and asked him what he meant.<br /><br />He was standing by the table, and he turned to me, put his hands on the table, and shaking his head ever so slightly in a resigned way, he looked me square in the eyes and told me that the world wouldn't last another 50 years at the rate we were going. I remember being shocked and scared. What did he mean? The words he used escape me, but it was clear he was talking about pollution, which was a big deal in the 80s, and also excessive use of the earth's resources. How fast the world would use available resources has always been to debate. People in the 80s, or before even, thought they'd be gone by 2000. That was wrong, obviously, but on the grand scale of things, not completely off the mark. We're closing in on something called "Peak Everything", where demand of all resources exceeds supply (Peak Everything does though fall under the current paradigm, and only worries me insomuch that we don't collectively stage a revolution and change everything about the way we do things, creating a new paradigm, which I think we just might will). <br /><br />I've seen Albert many times since, latest at my dad's funeral in 2001. He'd gotten married, and had a kid since that episode I mentioned. But the weird thing, looking back, is that he hadn't changed anything. He flew in to the funeral, showed off his new wife and her expensive purse and shoes, bragged about his latest automobile purchase, you know, just went along with the business as usual model. So despite him prophesying the end of all things because of the way we do things, he does nothing, save adding to the problem, and even having a kid who will be alive when it all happens. <br /><br />I'd love to retrospectively take it all with a grain of salt. Partially because Albert wasn't probably any more well-read on the subject than my dad, gleaning only from what mass media fed him, possibly drawing the odd conclusion from it all once in a blue moon. But at the same time, it really pisses me off that an adult, arguably a role model for the generation after him, shows so little interest and action in changing "The Way Things Are". And despite him being a harbinger of things to come himself. <br /><br />As I mentioned, I was around 10 at the time. Albert gave us another 50 years. I'm 33 now. That leaves around 27 years left, according to him. And depending on how you look at it, that's not quite wrong. I'll leave you to go google about ice caps melting, peak oil, etc., but we're hardly going to enjoy our lifestyles as they are now for another 27 years before things go awry. <br /><br />Admittedly, I haven't seen Albert since 2001, so I don't know if he's changed his lifestyle accordingly, or does anything to actively change things aside from that. But I'm reaching the conclusion that if you identify a glitch between the way you live your life, and the way your own life is supported by our ecosystems, I strongly suggest you heed that conclusion, instead of merely identifying it. <br /><br />In conclusion, I'm angry at an entire generation for having latently harbored the knowledge that is scaring the wits out of my generation and the ones after this. I'm angry for the inaction of thousands, millions even. I think life was too comfortable for them to question, or change. And those who did were probably just deemed hippie dissidents. I'm angry that my kids are footing the ultimate bill for a party they're not going to enjoy. I'm not just scared of the future. I'm angry about it.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-4485285397691440192011-09-22T08:35:00.004+02:002011-09-22T08:48:40.188+02:00AltruismBack in 2007, when I started having real anxiety attacks about what was happening, becoming pysically ill, worrying about the future and subsequently making real changes to my life that better fit into this reality (ie. my non-flying stance), one of my really good friends, who to some extent doubted how real this phenomenon was, and likened it to a sci-fi catastrpohe movie that people were integrating into their lives, ultimately called me an altruist.<br /><br />He called me that, because in some moment of clarity and deep friendship, he realized that real or not, climate change was affecting me, and I was going to do my bit counteracting that. Now, I'd like to think that I were solely doing this for the greater good! A true altruist, according to the definition, is strictly unselfish. I'd love to say that about myself in my whole solastalgia/climate worrier context, but I must admit, I'm doing this for myself as much as for everyone else!<br /><br />Since this whole personal phenomenon was brought about my motherhood (mostly, although admittedly I've worried about global warming since the 80s), you could say I'm worrying about my children's future. I'm worried about them, where they will live, if they will have food to eat, if they will be free to live full lives akin to the lives of their parents and grandparents. I fear they will not, which is what motivates me. What also motivates me is my own well-being. <br /><br />Seeing as I can hardly get through a day without having a knot in my belly over this, and that whatever I write here, or talk about with others helps me get rid of the knot, and that helps me on a personal level, then I'm not a true altruist then, am I? And in this manner, I doubt that there are many true altruists out there at all, not to say that a great many people are genuinely concerned with the well-being of others that they aren't directly connected to, I think the drive to help these people is found in the purpose of alleviating one's own qualms about <span style="font-style:italic;">not</span> doing anything to help. <br /><br />So speaking for myself, altruism is a cover. A cover of doing something selflessly for the greater good, that just boils down to heeding one's own personal affect. And that's just fine by me.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-50659732167052533362011-09-14T08:09:00.004+02:002011-09-16T15:21:25.932+02:00There Are OthersYesterday, through my Twitter-stream, I fell over <a href="http://tamsinomond.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/i-dont-often-do-despair/#comment-91">this article</a>. A woman who is seeing, with her very own eyes, how climate change is effecting the planet, and in this particular case, the arctic. As result, she cries and despairs. And although this is incredibly sad, it feels good to know that someone else out there is feeling eco-anxiety, perhaps even solastalgia. <br /><br />It's a comfort in the face of a melting artic. I'd prefer not to have to state the facts on this blog, and keep it to the psychological flipside of climate change, but there are several tipping points that life on earth can't afford to have happen, and the ice cap on the North Pole melting is one of them. I'm so anxious I can't even bring myself to google some links up to bring here, so you'll have to find them and read them for yourself. If the North Pole melts completely, it's only a matter of time before a lot of the other self-perpetuating tipping points are reached. And then we're toast. <br /><br />Rationally, I know there are many others like me out there. Why should I be so special to be the only one? But as I've stated before, our lives are so intricately weaved within this harmful paradigm, that it's so much easier to be complacent and become distracted with any number of other trivialities that fill our lives. There must also be room for trivialities. <br /><br />But - what I think I'm trying to say is: if you feel this way too, you must not keep it to yourself. I think we have a duty to make this a visible issue. To make this concern available for other people leading normal lives, who have a hint of eco-anxiety but who are more adept at pushing it aside. Let's bring it up to the surface, let's talk about it, write about it. Let's grieve about our predicament. And then do something about it.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-89404057098525796712011-09-11T14:33:00.003+02:002011-09-11T16:04:06.525+02:00Finding Our Inner NeanderthalI was reading this fascinating article about Neanderthals in The New Yorker <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/15/110815fa_fact_kolbert">(here's a small excerpt)</a>, and I was again reminded of an apparently inherant human trait.<br /><br />We can expound all we want on the things that set us apart from other animals in the animal kingdom. The abstract thinking, our ability to create art, our technological advance. I wish I could look at these things as though they were good things, positive things. It would seem though, that they are good for Western Society, and bad for everyone else, including the planet. Life in earlier times may certainly have been uncomfortable, violent, dangerous, and harder in any number of ways, but given the overall rise in population on the planet, the fact that the West seems to have it good does not exactly make up for the dire poverty in other parts of the world that appears to be a direct effect of Western lifestyles, not to mention the havoc we have wrecked on our ecosystem. And will possibly cost us everything. <br /><br />Back to the article. Through genetic research, it's apparent now that humans and Neanderthals, while having evolved separately, interbred. And genetically, all humans, save Africans, are anywhere from 1%-4% Neanderthal. Good thing to know next time someone calls you a Neanderthal - it's true! It is also apparent that Neanderthals no longer exist, except as genetic remnants. So where did they go? We did them off of course. Pushed them back, mated with some, but probably killed some and starved the rest by hogging their resources. Some habits just never die I suppose. For the 10,000 years that Neanderthals existed, they didn't evolve much. They used the same tools without variation. One thing they apparently did differently over the years was burial, something they only did toward their latter years on Earth. Perhaps it was a ritual they got from us. At any rate, humans took over. <br /><br />This leaves me naturally pondering - are humans inherantly self-effacing, in the most dramatic use of the word? Are we somehow destined to technologicize ourselves to death? To progress ourselves to the end? Is that the true definition of progress seen in an anthropogenic light? Hardly a destiny I'd like to embrace, but progressing right now seems to be the only way out. But should we leave our Neanderthal heritage behind, or should we make room for it? You know, sticking to the tools we have that haven't evolved much for millenia, but luckily also meaning that they're pretty sustainable, and non-destructive on a large scale like the stuff <span style="font-style:italic;">homo sapiens </span> invents. <br /><br />I really don't want to be a reactionary ass-hole, all "things were better in the old days", because dammit - despite everything, I'm having a lot of fun in my little corner of time and space. And there's no way I'd want to go back to family life with a higher infant mortality rate or lower average life span. And knowing that you can't have it all, can I at least appeal to a middle road, where people lead good, healthy lives without living beyond the means of the ground they walk on? Can we just put the worst of our own humanity behind us once and for all? That would be really swell.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-77900061881127549742011-09-07T20:25:00.004+02:002011-09-07T20:39:45.685+02:00Climate and Danish Politics...hit a new low yesterday.<br /><br />Debate with head of four political parties yesterday (there are eight major ones), concerning a number of different subjects - the head of the Danish People's Party said, only meters away from head of the Danish Climate Commission, that "climate change was not necessarily caused by human activity". Also the head of the party called Liberal Alliance (I must state here, that Liberal does not mean the same thing in Danish politics as it does in American) openly stated that he knows nothing about climate change, basically saying that it doesn't interest him, since his interest is mainly economic. To think I liked him once, when he was a member of another party.<br /><br />Climate change is the biggest threat right now to...everything. To have party leaders brush it off like that is anguishing, questionable, moronic and anachronistic. <br /><br />Pia Kjærsgaard, who still doubts humans' role in climate change should be banned from using technology, full stop. 98% of climate change scientists have reached the consensus that it is real, and caused by humans. This is high-school science people. Amazing she ever dares to travel by plane, or go to the doctor, since those are arguably scientifically based as well. <br /><br />I dare not hope that people in their inner circles will shed some light on the subject and smack some sense into their heads. But I certainly hope their parties suffer in the upcoming Danish elections on Thursday.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-51144330132226856672011-09-03T09:49:00.003+02:002011-09-03T10:36:19.597+02:00Progress, Pt. 2 aka Queen of the Stone AgeI've got so many new posts on my mind that I need to write, but this one has kept them all stuck like some sort of alphabetical, semantical traffic jam! The past two weeks have been busy, with what I can hardly tell you, it's just one big whir of my oldest starting school, my youngest being really sensitive, my mom visiting from the States with her new beau, my thesis starting to haunt my dreams, my body becoming really sore everywhere for no apparent reason, and of course, on the sideline, watching a huge display of civil disobedience and the seeds of an American Energy Revolution take place in D.C. at the site of protests against the Keystone Pipeline. It's pretty historical, turbulent and hopeful all at the same time. Ok, so looking back at all that, I seem pretty busy, but funny how you have to get all meta before realizing it!
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<br />I was discussing all of the pressing issues that this blog is about (if you're new: climate change, peak oil etc), at the daycare no less, with some of the other parents of the board, and one of the childminders who was there - she said to me, bluntly "so you want us all back in the Stone Age?". You know, I can see how one would draw that conclusion, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Let me break it down.
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<br />Right now, we are dangerously close to not fulfilling our goal of cutting carbon emissions enough to keep the global temperature from rising more than the magic 2 degrees Celsius. Anything above 2 degrees Celsius, and the entire world as we know it will be washed away. Fungi, jellyfish and maybe even cockroaches will survive (totally unfounded, just thought it sounded good). Stone Age life sounds like a pretty good alternative. You know, lots of supple leather clothes, family get togethers around a roaring bonfire, simple living really - presumably with more fear and weapons, but still preferable to complete annihilation, right?
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<br />Now, as far as climate goes, stone age life is not really an option. We either wipe ourselves out completely, or we revolutionize everything, arguably bringing global living standards up with sustainable technologies that probably won't included mass consumerism as we know it, but will let us keep our planet.
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<br />Peak oil on the other hand...So science tell us that the world peaked in oil production in 2006. World markets tell us that the demand for oil is rising, exponentially. Imagine if you will, a chart where the one black line is on a rapid road of decline, and the other black line is on an upward curve - the spot on the chart where those two meet is very near in all of our futures. What does it mean? It means no oil for the masses. If you look around your home, I dare you to find one item that oil hasn't made possible.
<br />And exatly how much energy are you getting from sustainable sources? And what about the wares in your home? Is there anything that was made using wind and solar? Shipped across the ocean only using sail? Anyone?
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<br />So what will happen when those to black lines on the chart cross each other, very soon, and we are very unprepared, won't <span style="font-style:italic;">technically</span> be the Stone Age - but for people who are used to living in a world with easy oil as a supporting role in everything they've done, they might possibly feel that way!
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<br />Will people let that happen? We already are. When I've mentioned peak oil to people, there have been two reaction - one has been nodding in agreement, the other has been "what does that mean?". Half the people I encounter have long known that oil would run out. The other half have never given it a thought.
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<br />So, even though technological breakthroughs seem to fill the papers every day with how to make fuel from banana peels (pr algae, or poop), or a car that can run on air, or a cure for some awful disease - exactly how much of that is then implemented in our daily lives? Why? We all know why (powerful oil/pharmaceutical lobbies, in case you were wondering).
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<br />Is that progress? Is it really progress to keep technology back in a non-democratic way because of the capitalist paradigm? The same paradigm that is supposedly responsible for progress?
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<br />So what is progress then? Should we define it as something that is advancement of living standards for all, with the greater good in mind? Because, if that's the case - we are <span style="font-style:italic;">still living</span> in the Stone Age.
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<br />Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-4643081009091294692011-08-14T19:42:00.003+02:002011-08-14T19:54:49.620+02:00Mass ExtinctionI'll get back to my posts on progress, but I have to interject this, to get it off my chest, and also to try to catalogue exactly what I'm feeling when I read bad climate news.
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<br />Yesterday, I fell over <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-thill/weve-entered-the-age-of-m_b_924940.html">this article</a>.
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<br />Actually, I didn't even have to read the article, I just caught the article name on a post by someone over on Twitter. That was enough. I've read enough over the last few years to know that I didn't need to read this.
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<br />So what happens when I see an article like that? Or rather, just the title? I go cold. I just re-read it now, and read the article in its entirety, and seriously, I can feel the blood drain from my face. My fingers have gone a little tingly. My lips are a little numb too, come to think of it. My stomach is tied in knots. I'm nauseous.
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<br />I can hear my kids in the bath, their dad is washing them, talking to them. I want to rush in, and hug them, but I'm already really close to crying, so I don't. I don't want them to see me like this. Other times when I'm like this, when I've just read something really bad, I'm mean to them. It's not on purpose, but I just feel so stressed by the weight of it all, and by the fact that I'm responsible for them being here at all, and I fear they won't even reach adulthood before the world is literally drowned, so I snap at them, correct them, have no energy for hugs and love, it's so unfair to them.
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<br />Guilt, fear, despair. There is a little optimism, but it's such a tiny tiny sliver. I'm scared, really frightened. In some ways I wish we could all just instantly vanish from the face of the earth, not have to deal with what is coming. But life is such a gift, and a joy mostly, we owe it to ourselves to squeeze every last drop out of it, and fight of course, tooth and nail, for the right for mankind to keep living it. Undeservedly though, we've fucked up so much, and been so nonchalant about it, it's a disgrace.
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<br />After something like this, it takes me a couple of days to get back to an even keel. I'll be okay again. Until the next article rolls around.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-83741202245359171162011-08-10T20:55:00.004+02:002011-08-12T13:37:30.009+02:00Progress, Pt. 1 <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>822</o:Words> <o:characters>3699</o:Characters> <o:company>Københavns Universitet</o:Company> <o:lines>82</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>18</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>5754</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pkt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pkt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabel - Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">My Italian grandparents moved to the States from the Old Country at the beginning of the 20th century. They were from different parts of Italy, both from humble backgrounds. My grandfather Umberto was a woodworker, and to be honest, I don’t know exactly what drove him to move from his village near Naples, but I can only guess that he saw no future for himself there. How he scraped together the fare to make the trans-Atlantic journey I’ll never know, but it was no doubt at dear cost for him.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I know more about my grandmother Giovanna. She came from the south, Basilicata. Her parents were poor peasants, and made money off of her by selling her into slave-like conditions, sending her to work for richer relatives. One of her sisters had already made the journey to the US, and had started a family there, and she helped my grandmother make the same journey herself. I have no doubt that she was not happy with her life, and jumped at the chance to escape, as it were. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">My grandfather never returned to Italy. My airline pilot father once brought my grandmother along on a trip back. They got as far as Rome, and on the first day, she said ”get me out of here”. That was her only trip back to the Old Country. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We all want a good life for ourselves and our family. It’s natural for healthy, well-functioning humans to want this. Moving to the US was the first step for my grandparents. The country they moved to was nothing like the homes they’d left. They came from rural areas. Their first stop was Staten Island, and then they both ended up in Chicago, where they met, got married and started their family. No doubt the city air they breathed back then was rife with industrial pollution. But that was before the days of acid rain and Clean Air acts. But the very sight of black smoke billowing from industrial chimneys meant progress back then. Good progress, that brought better standards of living and jobs, and subsequent wealth in society. What could anyone have against that? </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">If we think back, not even a generation ago, Western societies were seeing the effects of that progress, manifested in an ugly, negative way. Acid rain, as I mentioned above, was a direct effect of the carbon emissions fra factories and transportation. It didn’t burn through the skin, as I believed myself, as a child, but it did result in heart and lung issues, asthma, bronchitis, and premature death in humans. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">DDT was once seen as progress as well, an artificial insecticide made to help crops reach their full potential by staving off hungry, unwanted pests. More and larger crops, more food for the people, more profits for the farming industry. The effects it had on wildlife were detrimental, however, and it was also linked to human health hazards such as miscarriages, neurological disorders, and cancers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the end, it would seem that progress comes down to a question of aesthetics. How many of us modern day citizens of the West can look at smoke coming from a factory, and deem it a beautiful sight? The spraying of crops, that will one day be ingested by us? Is that still a sight to behold, because it means more crops for us to eat?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Take it a notch further – does anyone look at the orderly pictures of an Ikea catalog and not appreciate the aesthetic value of a clean, organised modern home? Cut to a picture of the Chinese factory where all these organisational and decorational wonders are produced. Is that too, a beautiful thing? </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">My pilot father, and my stewardess mother both worked for Pan Am, back in the glory days of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>aviation. My dad was one of the first people to fly the 747 on transatlantic routes, when people would actually dress up before getting on an airplane. It was a glamorous time my mother was a stewardess in. She started her flying career when it was no longer mandatory to wear a corset, but she was still subjected to weekly weigh-ins. Aesthetically, it was a beautiful and sleek, shimmeringly new industry, bringing the world closer, with dashing pilots and dainty stewardesses catering to your on-flight needs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Nowadays, unless you’re flying first class these days, flying is anything but glamorous. The first image that might pop into your head when someones mentions air travel might as well<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>be of bedraggled passengers in transit, shoes and belts placed in boxes, waiting to be groped by an aggressive TSA officer. The glamour is gone, the dashing pilots replaced with overworked, tired men and women literally eligible for food stamps, depending on which airline they work for. Stewards and stewardesses are overworked, underpaid midair servers, who just happen to know what to do in the case of an emergency where you’re most likely to die. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Not quite the same, is it? And that’s not at all helped by the fact that air travel is an environmentally detrimental, and unfortunately fast growing industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">But catalogues of glowing, smiling, tanned people enjoying vacations in faraway exotic locales are still appealing to people, because they've shunned the harsh realities and consequences of the lifestyle that allows this to happen. But for sure, progress is also the notion that unions have fought and won people a right to an income good enough to allow such luxuries, and also of course the time off to enjoy with their families and friends. That too is progress.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">It is a double edged sword. Progress had enlightened us as much as it appears to have failed us. Or?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">To be continued!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <!--EndFragment-->Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-52934754412602261172011-08-08T19:08:00.007+02:002011-08-10T21:23:13.229+02:00The Climate Doesn't Do WeekendsI've been away on vacation for a week's time. I realized that while I might physically be on vacation, and away from routines, I've always got my <a href="http://climateworrier.blogspot.com/2011/07/solastalgia.html">solastalgia</a> with me on trips. <div>
<br /></div><div>I thought about it in Morocco on our past two trips there (by train, of course). Thought about how our beloved Essaouira will look underwater. I wonder where the inhabitants will go. Will they collectively relocate, or will they disperse individually or as families? I look at each and every person I interact with, and think about where they will be, and what their world will look like in twenty years. Will they be hungry? I try not to think these thoughts completely through, but let the endings stay open, to interpretation, to miracles, or hopefully, positive human action. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Last year, in Finland amidst absolute forest bliss, my climate fears were never far. We stayed at my friend's family cottage, 20 kilometers from the nearest country store, on an island in the middle of a large lake. My friend commented on how hot it was, and how the normally damp island earth was dry and porose. The neighbor came over one day and talked of how water was unusually warm. The nights were warmer too. The blueberry and mushroom harvest were also particularly sparce because of the heat. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Of course, some years are just different than others, they just <i>are. </i>But it always gets my thoughts going, and instead of enjoying a carefree holiday, I end up worrying. Studying my children and wondering how many years they'll experience the world as I've always known it before it irrevocably changes. Again, I let that thought stay just out of reach of a conclusion, god forbid. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>This year in Stockholm, I couldn't help but notice how many places in the city were high above sea level. I love city living - would I be better off in the long run living there, as opposed to Copenhagen, where everything is situated at precisely sea level? In the case of sea level rise, there's an awful lot of coast to be levied in and around Copenhagen. And Sweden's got so many trees everywhere, surely a lush location like that would be a cooler place to live than tree eschewing Denmark after a few more decades of warming?</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Again, I can't help but let my mind wander, even if I'm supposed to be relaxing. Climate fears do not take breaks. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>I was pondering something over the weekend. Anyone within reach of a newspaper in the West knows how close we've come to complete and utter global economic collapse. However, it was the weekend. All talk was about how the markets would look upon opening Monday morning. Now, I get economics. For all intents and purposes, it's been quite a positive thing overall, adding wealth and prosperity to societies, creating jobs, giving people work and money, giving societies money to put to good use for the greater good. But it's all just a psychological sham when it gets down to the nitty gritty. An economy is only available for growth or collapse during weekday working hours. How organic and real is that? And for all we know, having a weekend break for speculation and further fear mongering can only really make that situation worse. What a construction. It's all just human behavior.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>But while potential economic collapse takes breaks, climates fears - and climate change - do not. </div><div>
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<br /></div>Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-32653285861217024022011-07-27T09:20:00.001+02:002011-08-10T21:22:30.974+02:00Climate Activists Love Life More Than You DoA case against a climate change activist has just been resolved, sentencing the man to two years in prison. He hadn't been tree-sitting to prevent loggers. He hadn't been trespassing to climb a coal chimney and hang a banner. He bid on land to keep it from being exploited of fossil fuel reserves. <a href="http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/do-motives-matter-the-dechristopher-verdict/">Here's a rundown of the case</a>.
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<br />It doesn't bother me per se that he's going to jail, although, of course I'd prefer he'd not. Non-violent civil disobedience has always been under the premise that you might do time for your actions, and you will accept to do so gladly, as a signal that you are a happy enough member of society to accept its rules, while also trying to change them. Two years does seem a bit much though, to be honest. He's caused no bodily harm to anyone, he hasn't vandalised a building. But he has tried to shake the foundation of the way we do business in the world, ie. exploit the land people live on, ruining it for them and future generations.
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<br />Just this week, a Danish politician compared a non-violent act of civil disobedience with a misanthropic act of terrorism. I fear that society has been too good for us the last two or three generations. We haven't had enough to fight for, having been lulled into a false sense of security - everything's fine, move along, nothing to see here, please go on shopping. When a comparison like that is made, it is a symptom that we have gone too far as a society, building our governments and laws to be that much bigger than the sum of all their parts. Why do we do it? To protect <span style="font-style:italic;">us</span>. <span style="font-style:italic;">Ourselves</span>. When people then disobey laws to protect ourselves, because the laws have become too self-effacing to do so themselves, it is seen as a crime. But it is not criminal. It is a right, as juxtaposed as that may be. It can also be seen as a duty, for those who want to change their society.
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<br />Climate is big. It is the biggest existential problem of our time since the Cold War. Yes there are many problems out there that need addressing, but this one is the underlying foundation for all of them. The way we do almost everything is making our habitat inhabitable, not only for us, but for all life. If we choose to adhere to the business as usual model, which is cunningly disguised as an enjoyable and sustainable affair, we agree to our own active euthanasia. It would appear, when we get to the bottom of things, that we do not really enjoy life, and are hell bent on not letting future generations have the choice to experience it at all.
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<br />When you read about a climate activist, committing an act of civil disobedience, curb your disdain. Your first instinct might be to write that person off as a criminal, or misguided hippie. But climate activism, in all its peaceful and non-violent forms, is really an act of life activism. Climate activists love life, possibly more than you do, and are willing to put themselves in jail to show it.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-4733216599986280152011-07-22T11:06:00.003+02:002011-07-22T12:04:54.795+02:00Non-ApologiesBack in the saddle! So, writing about this stuff does send me to a bit of a delicate balance. I need to get it out, but such intense concentration on the subject brings me out of whack too. I have to wrap up this non-flying thing before moving on. <br /><br />My friend June tweeted a link to me just this morning, <a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/the-difficulty-of-being-a-green-spouse">an article about being the spouse of an extremely environmentally conscious person</a>. It hit home.<br /><br />I'm a difficult spouse and daughter to start off with. Without exposing all of my father's faults, let's just say that I unfortunately inherited a lot of them. I can be egoistic, distant, even callous at times. I'm too old to make excuses for it, but I try my best. <br /><br />When my husband and I met, one of the first things we agreed on was travelling. It had to be a part of our lives, and if we had kids, they'd go where we'd go, full stop. We managed our fair share of air travel before I made my decision to stop flying. We went round the world twice. Once when I was pregnant with Dante, we did Denmark - Texas - Colorado - Los Angeles - Sydney - home, and a short trip to Madrid after that. Then, when Dante was 9 months, we did Denmark - NYC - Texas - Los Angeles - Hong Kong. When I was pregnant with Halfdan, we flew to Istanbul. We loved it. We loved the experiences we had together, we loved being so far from home, we loved seeing friends and family and feeling the cosmopolitan thrill of touching down somewhere where we felt just as at home as on the cobblestoned streets of Copenhagen. <br /><br />When I stopped flying, I effectively put a stop to that. I could see it on my husband's face, could see the wheels of his brain turning, trying to imagine what a static, earth-bound life he'd just been served. <br /><br />And that was just him. What about my mother, grandmother of two of the wonders of the world, but just on the other side of it? Sure she flies here, I can't tell her not to, but as she told Mikael on tape once, she's been hurt over the notion that I won't fly to see her at her home in Texas while she's alive, but I'll come over to bury her. Well, I put her straight on that. My mother's only child has refused to take care of business when she no longer is. Ouch. I have to give it to her - she's taken it well. She has friends lined up to do the job, she's even friggin' donated her body to science (!), so I won't have to think about all that from afar. My decision to not fly has really had quite far-reaching consequences. I also have a godmother in the States who considers me her child, and my children her grandchildren. Her health isn't the best, so flying here is not really an option right now. Inside, I want to make everybody happy, want my kids to be loved and coveted by those who love them, want to enjoy home-cooked meals with people I enjoy spending time with. <br /><br />There's just that glitch you know? That huge gap between our way of life and our....way of life. The one way of life being our own human construction based on habits and fossil fuels, the other way of life being the physical world and the high-school science that explains exactly how it keeps us all alive here. If we want the latter, the former has got to go. <br /><br />It's not <span style="font-style:italic;">all</span> bad though. My decision had brought us on rail-powered trips to France, Spain, Morocco. Trips where we've seen and done things that no flyer will ever do. It's different. It's better for the earth. It's still extremely satisfying. Admittedly, I get a high on other people hearing about our trips - "train to Morocco?", "with TWO children?". It can be done, really. It can be enjoyable too. Just sayin'. <br /><br />The odd thing is, as perspectives go - what have I really done? Not much at all. I haven't sold all my worldly possessions and moved to the woods to live off the land or anything. I just stopped flying. Loads of people don't fly, maybe not for the reason I don't, but because they're afraid of it. And somehow, it's a more acceptable reason. In a way, I'm afraid of flying too, but more in a long term sense, not in a "we're going to crash and burn right now" sense. <br /><br />I'm not going to apologize for making my decision. I don't adhere to a lot of doctrines in general, but I'm sticking to this one. It's pretty much the only way I can live with myself in these times, where merely exhaling would seem an act of climate treason. <br /><br />I will however, extend an apologetic thought to loved ones for somewhat disrupting their lives. To my mother, for shafting her posthumously. To my husband, for doing a 180 on our future travel plans. For keeping him from fulfilling his dream of buying a house somewhere exotic, because it's too difficult to travel there for short stays. To our friend Elijah, for missing the most important day of her life. But I hope that my children will applaud me for being unyielding on this. When they ask me one day, sea water up to their knees, what I did when I'd realized what we were doing to our habitat, my answer will be more satisfactory than "nothing".Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-23024950116085485812011-07-12T10:33:00.011+02:002011-08-10T21:21:37.501+02:00Anatomy of a Climate Depression - Part 4, Walking the Walk-ishAfter my angst of Peak Oil hit me as relayed in <a href="http://climateworrier.blogspot.com/2011/07/anatomy-of-climate-depression-part-3.html">my last post</a>, the crisis was pretty much complete. Having basically entertained all thoughts of how the future could play out, and carrying them out to the bitter end in my head had not really helped much, it didn't seem there was any way out of our predicaments. If I was depressed about the climate before, the looming energy crisis almost derived me of my will to live.
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<br />Don't get me wrong, I was really trying to enjoy life, despite everything. I had two sweet babies and a loving husband, what wasn't to like? But the thought of sticking around to watch the end of everything was too sad to consider. The best antidote to this feeling was to pretend everything was okay, and just go about my business. Or was it?
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<br />The fact of the matter is, once you've realized something of this magnitude, you can't go back. It's Pandora's box, it's the apple in the garden of Eden. You can pretend that you don't know what you do, but underneath it all, the worry is still there. You're merely lying to yourself. So while pretending that everything is all business as usual can dupe the outsider looking in, you can't dupe yourself.
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<br />At this point in the timeline, my husband and I had been invited to a wedding in November 2008, in the US. A good friend was marrying her best friend. We were looking forward to the nuptials and the festivities, and the kids were slated to go with us. But thoughts were swirling in my head. Flying uses an insane amount of fuel, fuel that's running out, and not only that, but the carbon emissions of just one person flying to the US and back were equal to the amount of energy it takes to power our apartment for over a year. And there were four of us in all.
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<br />How could I rationally deal with my angst of climate change <span style="font-style:italic;">and</span> still pretend everything was business as usual? I couldn't, could I? <a href="http://copenhagenfollies.blogspot.com/2008/07/dilemmas-and-small-indian-man.html">I wrote about it on my blog as it was playing out</a>. Reading the comment section brings back a lot of memories - the guilt of considering to forego a good friend's most important day ever, because I was a climate worrier. There was some hefty deliberation going on in my head!
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<br />It finally culminated. And not quite how you think. My husband Mikael was doing everything to convince me to attend the wedding. Good friends, see my mom and godmother while we were at it, take a train instead of flying domestic, carbon offsets etc. etc.. But then one day he came home from work, bearing a newspaper he'd been reading on the bus. He flung it on the coffee table, completely nonchalant. The headline was: Oil extracted from tar sands will bring climate change beyond the point of no return. I read the story, and my mind was made up.
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<br />To quickly surmise the tar sands subject, there are millions and millions of barrels of oil in tar sands, however, it must be ground out of the sands using machinery that requires <span style="font-weight:bold;">a lot</span> of energy to run. Using energy to extract energy = bad idea that seriously jeopardizes our habitat. However, because the quick and easy oil is running out, tar sands are next up. Go google it if you need more info. It's bad news, people.
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<br />So, how on earth could I justify increasing demand on something that would effectly ruin the habitat of my children and their children? I couldn't. My husband would be attending the wedding alone, alas. I'm not going to tell people they can't go off flying, this is my decision, about me, and only me. And as it is, I'm not living in a forest, foraging for my own food. I'm living in an oil hungry society, and I'm not ready to give up grocery shopping, hot showers and electricity yet. Seriously, for the oil left on this planet, would you rather eat or fly? Something had to go. I wrote about my decision on <a href="http://copenhagenfollies.blogspot.com/2008/08/blurt.html">my blog here</a>.
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<br />Listen, I live in Europe, I have family members living in the US. My husband loves to travel. I love to travel, for that matter! My mother was a stewardess and my father was a pilot for god's sake. I was born with jet fuel in my veins! This was not an easy or wanton decision to make. This was my personal stand to take against "Business As Usual". I'm not finished, there's still a ways to go. But it was a powerful start.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1969310683838059661.post-49995816431303899192011-07-11T10:20:00.008+02:002011-08-10T21:20:47.806+02:00Anatomy of a Climate Depression - Part 3, It's Not Just the Climate, StupidMy <a href="http://copenhagenfollies.blogspot.com/">original blog, Copenhagen Follies</a>, is proving an invaluable resource in my visits back to the start of my climate woes. I hardly ever go back and visit earlier posts, but it's a perfect timeline of the evolution of it all, and I'm actually quite impressed how well I wrote in the throes of such a huge existential crisis!
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<br />To continue, after my second son was born in July 2007, I had a complete meltdown over the climate in October of the same year. I was a sad and crying mess, friends were starting to be concerned, I started feeling more sad than happy for having put kids in the world. There was a certain ebb and flow to it, so after the initial rough patch, I learned to live with it, sometimes even forgetting it, and going happily on with my life. But it would always come back to a certain degree when I read about climate in the news.
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<br />I did start to act upon my climate fear, not only writing about it, but also being more aware of unnecessary consumerism on my part, and deciding to take a family vacation to France by train instead of plane to cut down on carbon emissions. It was a small start.
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<br />However, what I'd experienced in October of 2007 was peanuts compared with what came in March 2008.
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<br />On a regular old weekday, I'd been home with both boys, messing about in the kitchen, stirring something up, while simultaneously messing about on Google. I was searching after information about Dr. Udo's oil (healthfood store staple of different omega oils), and something about Peak Oil popped up. I started reading. Shouldn't have done that! (Well actually, I should, and I did. If you don't know about Peak Oil, you need to google it. Another good resource is <a href="http://www.transitionnetwork.org/">The Transition Towns Movement</a>, but please try to find a broad spectrum of resources, for balanced input)
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<br />The notion that the world was going to run out of oil wasn't new to me. I'd even bought <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Out-Gas-End-Age-Oil/dp/0393058573">this book</a> at an airport bookshop (the irony) years before getting married and having my kids, which I'd dutifully read, though for some reason I didn't find it particularly alarming at the time. In trying to understand how that could be, I can only guess that I was such a product of the consumer society I was a part of that I was duped like everyone else into thinking that everything would be ok, and things would eventually be taken care of.
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<br />After reading one too many google hits on peak oil, I experienced what a can only describe as a full blown anxiety attack. I threw up. Twice. I broke out in cold sweats. I couldn't stand up. All this, with a 2 year old and a baby to take care of. Why the notion of peak oil hadn't bothered me before, but caused such a physical reaction to me then I put down to the additions of having children and climate change in my life. Feeding the world is largely an oil based activity in this day and age, stop and think how much farm equipment is run on petrol, and imagine how the world can continue agriculture on such a large scale using manual labor only. Feeding ourselves is going to be the new black, or rather an all encompassing factor, and not just a hobby or an afterthought as we order our favorite numbers from the pizzeria around the corner. And naturally, I think about how my kids are going to eat, now as in the future. Throw in climate change, and the fact that less oil will no doubt mean more coal, the real carbon sinner, and we have just about as many post-apocalyptic scenarios as there are Hollywood movies that provide them for us.
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<br />How to describe the first physical feeling that overcomes you when you realize something of this magnitude? Before the spewing, that is. It's like having a huge bass string running the length of your body, from the very top of your head to the soles of your feet. And The Hulk is plucking it. "Doing!"
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<br />I somehow managed to call my husband, between vomiting and dragging myself to the den where all I could do was turn on the tv and find something to satiate my kids for a while. The baby was hungry though, and my oldest was constantly asking me to read a book. None of which I was capable of handling alone. I told my husband to come home ASAP, and bring dinner with him. I have no recollection of what happened after, I stayed an apathetic lump on the floor the whole night.
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<br />In the morning, I remember waking him up, and in all seriousness telling him that I wanted to find a place in the country where we could live and grow our own food. What a wakeup call. All of a sudden, all that mattered was getting back to basics, taking control of our own primary needs, instead of leaving them outsourced to an unsustainable paradigm. Peak Oil will change everything the industrialized world does. But no one is taking account of that fact. Our lifestyles are still based on a finite resource as though it were infinite. And like climate change hardly figures on political agendas, peak oil hardly gets a mention. It's not a secret or anything. Since the first oil well ran dry, humans have known that oil would one day run out.
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<br />Peak Oil and Climate Change present two different sides of the same challenge. Our need for energy has tipped the natural carbon balance of our planet. So we can't address the one, without addressing the other. And the implications of both mean big changes for society as a whole. The sooner we realize that, come to terms with it, and embrace it, the less scary it can seem. I'll deal with that later on in this blog, I need to wrap up the "Anatomy" series of blog posts first.Jennie http://www.blogger.com/profile/09973829287451825554noreply@blogger.com0