Can we call it Global Climate Change Now?

As pictures from NY City took over social media last night, I started hearing references to “Superstorm Sandy”. We have reached Superstorm Status. I looked at Fox News and even they are calling it Super, Monster, Extreme.  I am not sure how Super, Monster or Extreme the weather has to be before you absolutely have to admit the climate has changed.  Here are two articles that I thought were timely.

William Rivers Pitt is in his Op-ed from Truthout today asks why climate change is not a topic in the Presidential Campaigns;

“Remember this summer? All the insane weather everywhere that eventually caused even the most strident climate-change deniers to flee for cover and start hoarding canned goods? Remember when Greenland melted? Remember all the articles about the upside of the accelerating climate disaster happening all around us, vis a vis new shipping lanes and mining possibilities in all the places where there used to be ice?

Remember the drought?

Rivaling the Dust Bowl of the Depression era, the 2012 drought has impacted food production in America across the board, causing food prices to spike in a way that has been felt by everyone not rich enough to laugh off the price of a gallon of milk. More than anything else, it was the drought that brought home the reality of climate change to Americans this past summer.

He is one of my favorite authors btw…

Mike Tidwell writing for The Nation yesterday, proposed three major options for what we can do:

“What can we do? Three major options: (1) abandon our coastal cities and retreat inland, (2) stay put and try to adapt to the menacing new conditions or (3) stop burning planet-warming fossil fuels as fast as possible.

Retreat, of course, is no one’s first choice. But adapting means committing fully to the New Orleans model. It means potentially thousands of miles of levees and floodwalls across much of the East Coast. And that’s just to handle the rising sea. For hurricane surge tides, the only solution might be to build those major floodgates across New York Harbor, the Potomac Rivers and elsewhere. But are we truly ready to become New Orleanians, casting our lot behind ever-higher, unsustainable walls? Once we commit to fortified levees and massive floodgates, there’s no turning back. It’s an all-or-nothing proposition, as New Orleans has graphically demonstrated.

In truth, we must combine some level of adaptation with the third option: switching away from fossil fuels and onto clean energy. Clean energy is less expensive, less risky and overall much better for us. It’s the option that treats the disease of global warming, not just the symptoms. Only by dramatically reducing greenhouse gas pollution—by putting a price on carbon fuels and ushering in real gains in wind and solar power and efficiency—can we slow the sea-level rise and potentially calm the growth in hurricane intensity.”

Of course we all know why the political campaigns are not talking about climate change and why they are touting their love of oil, gas and coal.  The problem is that those who are affected the most by the change have very little voice. We all need to scream at once.

Is Your Head In The Sand?

Check out this recent addition to the Richmond Vale Academy's YouTube Channel about the Climate Compliance Conference at their home in Saint Vincent and Grenadine.

Head out of the Sand

Your clothing donation helps to fund the programs at RVASVG like Climate Compliance.

• It has Climate Change as its theme.
• It has Climate Compliance, a concept of adaptation to changes of the climate, as its aim.
• It has Richmond Vale Academy as its minor area of action.
• It has the immediate surroundings of the Academy as its major area.
• It has the whole of St. Vincent as its prime area.
• It is planned to run for ten years.
• It operates with two teams of students per year, each running for 6 months.

By forming GAIA clubs around the island, by focusing on important issues such as food security and energy production and water availability, and by preparing for warmer times with more disasters, teachers, students and people at St. Vincent will unite in common understanding and action. The future is also a part of the program. It shows as a  field of possibilities because we move to understand by knowledge, come together by understanding and act by our unity.

"Global Warming and Climate Change is running its course, with catastrophic consequences for the future of humankind and our planet, triggered by man’s burning of fossil fuels and the resulting release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. 

Natural resources are being exploited and stretched to their limits, species are disappearing at a rate never before seen in modern history, hunger, starvation and diseases strike down The Poor as a daily matter of course, and the powers waging never-ending wars kill people with ever more sophisticated weaponry, while millions are made refugees.

Meanwhile, the capitalist system of society continues to promote its way of life and its view of the world as seen through the global media, as if everything, if not in the best order, is as good as it can possibly get. We cannot sit around and watch this. From our vantage point on the island of St. Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean, we have placed ourselves in the middle of action."

Stina Herberg - Headmaster 

Day in the life, IICD Massachusetts…The Garden

What is the cause of the obesity epidemic in our country, and why is the food we buy in supermarkets unhealthy and deficient in nutrients? What does it mean when giant corporations control food production with profit as their only goal?

At IICD Massachusetts, you will be educated and involved in food production on many levels. You will learn how to plan and start garden farms as an important action to healthy living and fighting poverty. You will study the issues of food consumption from local and global standpoints, and get the facts about the consequences of a malnutrition economy. 

We most urgently need to prepare ourselves for the consequences of Global Warming. Much of the crops in the Midwest have already burned up this year, and the long-term global warming phenomenon is just getting started. Anyone who eats, or hopes to in the future, should sit up and pay attention. It is long overdue that we behave more cautiously. The Natives of this country know the earth is suffering - maybe we should learn from them.

While working in the school’s garden farm you will discover how to solve obstacles such as getting water for irrigation, making compost from local waste materials, and fighting pests without using harmful poison or expensive fertilizers.

You will study and test economical ways of increasing crop yield, so farmers can prevent soil erosion and utilize scarce water supplies on their land. You will gather solutions for financing, transporting and distributing finished products. You will soon be equipped to take these tools and put them to work for the benefit of the poor. So look forward to getting your hands dirty and your brain busy on multiple fronts when it comes to food production.

Market Share

We all have seen growing conflicts over resources used for the production of goods. Without some major changes, worldwide wars over natural resources will be inevitable. This is not true for the textile recycling/reuse industry. Only 15% of unwanted or unneeded textiles are collected or donated. That leaves a whopping 85% that end up in landfills. That 85% is the amount of unclaimed resources available for industry giants like Salvation Army, St. Vincent De Paul and the 800 pound gorilla Goodwill as well as all the smaller players, both for profit and nonprofit, to grow for many years to come before there is any scarcity of resources. Yes it may necessitate some originality and imagination but the opportunity is wide open.  So we are left wondering, with all the availability of resource, why these industry giants would rather spend money sponsoring a bill like AB 1978 rather than allocating time and money toward a growth in market share.  The reasoning Goodwill uses, “The unattended collection box players have no local benefit” is weak at best. California has a 75% waste reduction goal by 2020. Working to reduce 85% of the textiles that end up in the landfills is clearly a benefit to California and its local communities. Also, despite the clear labeling, Campus California finds more than just textiles in their boxes. Canned food and books are often added in with people’s donations. These items are given to local schools and other local non-profit entities.  A more reasonable explanation for trying to regulate competitors out of the market is that these giants have become too bloated with overhead from both their growing number of facilities and store fronts as well as the cost of their CEO and upper management staff.

AB 1978

In May of this year Campus California was alerted that a bill had passed unanimously through the California Legislature sponsored by Goodwill Industries of Northern California and Northern Nevada and Assemblywoman Galgiani that had the potential to put us out of business. The short story on the bill: it would have allowed for anyone who thought unattended collection boxes were placed without permissions, or simply did not like the box for that matter, to call and have the box removed by a towing company, effectively legalizing theft of the boxes. Working in coalition with Planet Aid, USAgain, D.A.R.E, the Police Officers Association, Gaia and supporters of our organization that signed our Change.org petition, we were able to convince Governor Brown to veto AB 1978! This gives the unattended collection box industry a chance to have a voice in crafting meaningful regulation next session.