climate – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

PUTIN’S FOSSIL-FUELED WAR

David Posnett — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 19:55:14 +0000

HOW TO STOP A PETRO-CRIMINAL

Shared below are excerpts from the Climate Action Now weekly enewsletter. I have been spending a few minutes each day taking “planet-saving actions” on the amazing, easy-to-use, free app Climate Action Now. Impact to date: “274,418 planet-saving actions taken by our community — up 10,527 from last week!” And you earn tree plantings too!

PUTIN’S FOSSIL-FUELED WAR

How to Stop a Petro-Criminal

While the fossil fool industry and its shills have seized on the Ukrainian crisis to call for ramping up oil, gas and coal production, the rest of the world is beginning to draw a very different conclusion.

As usual, Bill McKibben was one of the first to see that our global addiction to fossil fuels is directly financing Putin’s horrifying war on Ukraine. He entreats President Biden to immediately invoke the Defense Production Act, which he could do without the approval of Congress, to produce millions of heat pumps and send them to Europe in time to dramatically weaken Putin’s oil-based chokehold on the continent.

Last week, Ukrainian leaders sent an open letter to governments around the world calling on them to “reject and ban the importation of Russian oil and gas, and rapidly phase out all fossil fuels in the name of peace.” (Climate Action Now also signed the letter.) “Reliance on coal, oil and gas is the intentional embrace of death, misery, and collapse at a global scale. It is our duty to finally get real about that if we want to have a livable future.”

And next week, according to the New York Times, the leaders of the European Union are expected to announce a proposal to “accelerate the clean energy transition and reduce permanently our dependence on imports of natural gas.”

What all of these people see that the fossil fools can’t see by dint of their self-interest is that getting off fossil fuels is now an urgent matter of national security.

Get. Off. Fossil. Fuels. Now.

CLIMATE ACTION NOW SUCCESS STORIES

A new program in Burlington, Vermont is incentivizing apartment owners to build EV charging stations. If successful, it could provide a national roadmap for providing the 36% of Americans who rent their homes with access to reliable EV charging.

One country really got the message about ditching oil for peace and freedom. This week, in response to the crisis in Ukraine, Germany committed to 100% renewable energy by 2035—a full 15 years ahead of its previous target.

It’s official—a global plastics treaty is coming! UN delegates promised on Wednesday that a treaty addressing the full life cycle of plastics will be signed by 2024.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“A different tomorrow is feasible. A tomorrow free from Putin and other petro-dictators. A tomorrow free from climate-hostile and war-feeding fossil fuels… Our joint, brighter future demands nothing less.” – Excerpt from Ukrainian activists’ letter to global leaders

The Climate Action Now community is made up of like-minded people committed to fighting climate change. Our Climate Action Now app is the hub of the community and the tool that lets us take, collectively, thousands (someday, millions) of planet-saving actions each and every day.

Join Paul Hawken and Damon Gameau

David Posnett — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 20:32:59 +0000

As They Highlight the January 2022 Drawdown Festival

“Join the Regeneration” says acclaimed Australian filmmaker of 2040, keynote speaker and festival partner for the 2022 Drawdown Festival – Tools For Regeneration: Forums! Fun! Films! coming to the Southampton Arts Center, Friday–Sunday, January 21-23, 2022, with talks, workshops and films scheduled all weekend (virtual). Registration is free, hosted by Southampton Arts Center, who is also accepting donations to cover costs.

Damon Gameau will be joined by Paul Hawken, author of the New York Times bestseller Drawdown, which has grown into an international climate research organization, and the newly-released Regeneration: Solving the Climate Crisis in One Generation. Gameau’s award-winning film 2040 and accompanying book 2040 is based on the top Drawdown climate solutions. They will be co-hosting the opening event Friday January 21 from 6:44 – 830pm.

Join a Carbon CREW

In addition to Damon Gameau, SAC is co-partnering with the newly-formed Carbon CREW Project, cofounded by Dorothy Reilly of Southampton. The founders of CREW, which stands for Carbon Reduction for Earth Well-being, highlight a recent international study: Did you know the U.N. has found that 2/3 of all greenhouse gas emissions originate from decisions made at the household level? “The choices made by each of us make all the difference! Together our choices are powerful” said Ms. Reilly. Over the weekend there will be an option to enroll in a Carbon CREW program to guide you to a 50% carbon reduction lifestyle by 2030.

Climate Action = Climate Safety

“This is all about climate action, climate safety, climate hope. Learn about how you can begin now to cut emissions, address equity issues, protect and restore ecosystems and create a regenerating, thriving world,” said Mary Morgan, cofounder of Drawdown East End, also a festival partner, a group inspired by the science of Project Drawdown to guide local climate solutions to reverse global warming.

Join Friday’s Climate Youth Festival

The Festival promises an array of talks, workshops, and films — on soil and sea sequestration, climate cuisine, electrify-everything, the debut of Stories of Regeneration on ways that we can all participate in regenerating our earth and reversing climate devastation — and, on Friday evening, the opportunity to join the Climate Youth Festival from LIU.

Session curators include: League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island and the North Fork, Sean Barrett, founder, Montauk Seaweed Supply Co., journalist Alexandra Talty, Mark Haubner, VP, North Fork Environmental Council, Sheila Pfeiffer, co-founder of Carbon CREW Project, Scott Carlin, professor, Long Island University, author “Gratitude and Climate Change,” and more.

Schedule of Events*

All times are EST. We suggest that all registrants watch the uplifting climate solutions film 2040 before the Festival.

Friday, January 21, 2022

Evening – 6:45 PM to 8:30 PM – We welcome you with an opening Shinnecock Blessing and Co-Host filmmaker Damon Gameau (2040) with Drawdown’s Paul Hawken.
8:30 – 10:00 Climate Youth Festival from LIU.

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Morning – 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM – Welcome back ceremony, hear talks on Indigenous Wisdom, Electrify Everything and Soil Sequestration, with Drawdown and Carbon CREW explained.
Afternoon – 1:00 PM to 5:45 PM – panels on Sea Sequestration, Climate Cuisine, Women and Girls with talks on Climate Games, Instant Actions and the Environmental Voter Project, ending the afternoon with One Million Women singing.

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Morning – 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM – Panels on Model Towns and Regenerator Web Resources.
Afternoon – 1:00 PM to 5:30 PM – Panels on Communicating for Changing Times, Protect Nature Now, Consumption, Financial Impact for Regeneration, ending with our closing ceremony at 5:15 PM.

Register Today!! (virtual)

*schedule subject to change

Trending in 2022: Meet the Climatarians

David Posnett — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 20:45:02 +0000

Who Dine with the Earth in Mind

I’ve been meeting some Climatarians lately. It’s a lifestyle that is starting to trend, especially with millennials.

“What Is a Climatarian?” the NY Times headlined, describing this new climate-centered lifestyle. I think of it as “dining with the Earth in mind.” Wikipedia says the Climatarian diet has no strict rules so much as “mindfulness about food production, where food comes from, and where it goes.” I like that. A big part of being a Climatarian is being mindful of where your food goes — do you use it all? Give excess away or feed animals? Any leftover scraps — do they end up as compost, enriching soil, not in the landfill releasing the potent GHG methane?

Self-described Climatarians are giving Tedtalks. One of my favorites is Australian Mark Pershin’s Reclaim our Future with the Climatarian Diet whose dark eyes flash talking about his love of shashlik, a shish-kabob from his native Russia. He defines Climatarian as healthy for both humans and earth, eating more traditional cuisines, not the unhealthy “meat-heavy Western diet” pushed by industrialized “concentrated animal feedlot operations, CAFOs.” Then he smiles, suggesting we try kangaroo. With a 97% smaller footprint “they don’t burp methane, and you don’t need to cut down trees for them to graze.” Mark’s ending salvo: they are native, adapted to our dry climate, are lean and versatile and when he substitutes kangaroo for beef in dishes, friends say it’s delicious. (Think venison!)

Meet Amanda and Taylor

Amanda_the_climatarian I met earlier this summer. Living in western MA, 30-year-old wildlife biologist Amanda and her husband dine on mushrooms (they are members of a South Deerfield CSA) and frequent farmers markets for all the wonderfully-ripe in-season produce. Amanda says her cooking is richly plant-based. A favorite dish is mushroom pizza with truffle oil and homemade tofu “ricotta.” Other specialties a la mansion are mushroom tacos and “king oyster mushroom ‘scallops’ with pasta.” Do they compost? You bet. “I have an outdoor, dual compartment barrel composter. I love it!”

“Eating with a climatarian ethos” Amanda told me “means consuming intentionally with the planet in mind.” She puts locally grown food first, then considers how it’s grown — are resources being conserved, especially water. “Each meal we eat in a day is an opportunity to vote with our dollars for more regenerative food systems. I think anyone who does the best they can–within the limits of their own abilities, access, and resources–to choose more climate-friendly foods can be a Climatarian.”

Brooklynite Taylor loves oysters, so when she visits her parents in Orient, she has plenty of oyster stands to choose from. As for eating out “I always order the local Long Island options, to try more varieties.” Alot of her friends are “flexitarian” which she says is really a health choice. One friend likes to add seafood to her basically vegetable cuisine, another stays with vegetarian “unless they know the fish or meat is coming from a humane and sustainable source.”

“I’m absolutely drawn to the aspect of reducing food waste,” says newly-minted Climatarian Taylor.” There are so many points of the food consumption process that generate waste, and any waste we can reduce is important. We should consider the packaging and transport, how much we purchase at a time, how much we cook at a time, how we save leftovers, what we do with scraps, everything.”

In the backyard at her parent’s place Taylor is planning a compost. Meanwhile she puts eggshells and tea leaves in the garden and freezes veggie scraps to take to Deep Roots farm in Southold “for the chickens.” In Brooklyn Taylor took part in the municipal food scrap program which she explained paused during the pandemic but now “the city is starting composting pick up again this fall which I am very excited about.” It’s a wonderful resource, she says, “you can compost nearly anything–including bones, proteins, greasy food, and soiled paper.” For now she delivers her Brooklyn scraps to the nearby farmers market.

Meet More Climatarians at the January Drawdown Festival

“Join the Regeneration” says acclaimed Australian filmmaker ( 2040 ) keynote speaker and festival partner for the 2022 Drawdown Festival – Tools For Regeneration: Forums! Fun! Films! coming again to the Southampton Arts Center, Friday- Sunday, January 21-23, 2022, with talks, workshops and films, scheduled all weekend (in person and virtual). Registration is free, hosted by Southampton Arts Center, who is also accepting donations to cover costs.

Will the Climatarian trend make a difference?

Consider this. Today’s food system has become the single greatest cause of global warming (34% GHG emissions) and soil loss, chemical poisoning, rainforest destruction, dying oceans. Our current system of “Big Ag” chemical farming and food waste can be changed to a regenerative system. (Regeneration by Paul Hawken)

“Halve food waste, halve emissions” says the UN Environment Program (SDG 12.3 Food waste index | ThinkEatSave)

The #1 Solution for the US calculated in Project Drawdown’s Table of Solutions is to Reduce Food Waste. Here 40% of food grown is wasted with a whopping 70% generated at the household level. I calculate, based on Drawdown’s math, that if we can

1) bring our food waste down by 60% (think soups, pasta sauce, and, this is critical, no food to the landfill),
2) make a healthy habit of once-a-week-red meat (or source beef and chicken from regenerative farmers, not those cruel CAFOs), and
3) buy local first, we can shift our wasteful food system to use-everything regenerative, with compost enriching our soils and sequestering tons and tons of carbon.

Sounds do-able, dollar-saving, and delicious. Try it! Check out the #Climatarian trend happening @Climatarian.Cafe.

Reprinted from the East End Beacon

Life on Earth Can Recover … Humans Cannot.

David Posnett — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 18:26:00 +0000

From Joanne Young Doesschate (Port Jefferson)

I’ve gotten lots of great news links sent to me about so many different subjects, but then the leaked IPCC report put all but the environment and climate change on the back burner.

When the ground temperature in the Arctic Circle on the summer solstice last week was 118 degrees, the report says

“Life on Earth can recover from a drastic climate shift by evolving into new species and creating new ecosystems … humans cannot.”

“Tipping points are triggered when temperatures reach a certain level, whereby one impact rapidly leads to a series of cascading events with vast repercussions. For instance, as rising temperatures lead to the melting of Arctic permafrost, the unfreezing soil releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that in turn causes more heating.”

We’re reaching those tipping points faster than imagined, and the fear is that we may have already started a cascade we cannot stop. We are about to enter a mini-heat wave on Long Island (high 80’s). Nothing compared to the other side of the US:

“[T]his heat will be historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented. ” “We can’t stress enough how impactful this heat will be to nearly every person and community in the Pacific and Inland Northwest region.” – Spokane Weather Service –

All Politics Is Local. All climate change is local too and we won’t meet the Paris Climate Accords (which are already too little too late), without local politics helping national politics helping global politics.

This is the 50th anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s Blue album. But her Big Yellow Taxi best describes what we have done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFB-d-8_bvY

They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique and swinging hot spot

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone

They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.

Took all the trees and put them in tree museum

And they charged the people a dollar and half to see them

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone…

The final conclusion of the IPCC report:

Climate change will fundamentally reshape life on Earth in the coming decades, even if humans can tame planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas — these and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating and bound to become painfully obvious before a child born today turns 3

While it has been dire reading, this, by Prof Waleed Abdalati of the U of Colorado, Boulder, may say it best:

“The science does clearly point to a challenging future, one in which climate change places significant stresses on every aspect of our lives. Science, by its nature, avoids hyperbole and those who have spoken out most aggressively about the climate crisis have been derogatorily labeled as alarmists. But sometimes, when the outcomes and risks are so severe, alarm is warranted.

Alarm, however, should not necessarily equate to hopelessness. On the contrary, alarm can and should be a motivator for action, action that brings out — and takes advantage of — the best in our scientific, technological, policy, industrial and humanitarian capabilities to rise to the climate challenge and successfully overcome it.

The content of the upcoming IPCC Assessment Report will, like those before it, present us with an opportunity to take an honest and sober look at the future we may be in for and help us determine the trajectory of humanity in the face of that future. Just as science shines a light on the challenges, science can light the path to success.”

Will the world be willing to meet the challenge? Today’s article in the NY Times, “What If American Democracy Fails the Climate Crisis?”, has lots of intriguing ideas but doesn’t make it sound promising. Take this comment about the the original infrastructure jobs bill, not all of which dealt with climate:

In particular, the scale is simply too small; $900 billion on climate is not enough to catalyze the pace of decarbonization we will need in order to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2030, while providing millions of good jobs. That’s more like $10 trillion over 10 years.

The new bipartisan bill is only $1.2 trillion and most not for climate change. One project, linked below, hoping to get some of that federal funding, is for protecting the Houston coastline from rising sea levels. It has a projected cost of $26 million. That is only one city. Which cities do we save, which ones move inland, which ones die? That is a global question, not just an American one.

And it’s not just cities. What parts of Long Island do we save? Can we save?

Lots of reading, lots of thinking. Will you meet the challenge? Please try to read it during this moderate heat spell by challenging yourself and doing it without turning on the AC!

Take care, JoAnne

Climate and Real Estate

David Posnett — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 03:58:28 +0000

GUESTWORDS in the East Hampton Star

By David Posnett

January 1, 2020

There is already evidence of a real estate slump in the United States. A housing recession is predicted for 2020. The average price of luxury home sales is falling, as is the number of sales. Long Island specifically is suffering as sales decrease and homes lose value. This is rather astonishing given that the rest of the economy is still on steroids.

What are the reasons? The following have all been suggested.

First, baby boomers from New York are downsizing and moving to lower-tax states. Second, millennials seem to have a distaste for buying second homes and would rather rent. Third, bonuses on Wall Street fell 17 percent in 2018 compared with 2017.

Fourth, the tax changes brought on by Donald Trump: a cap of $10,000 on the amount of state and local taxes (SALT), including property taxes, that can be deducted from federal income tax. For an expensive home with property taxes of $50,000 per year, this means that $40,000 can no longer be deducted.

Fifth, as mentioned by some real estate professionals: chronic flooding, which threatens the values of houses here. According to Aidan Gardiner writing for The Real Deal, a website focusing on New York real estate news: “Chronic flooding threatens to sink the value of Hamptons homes. Hamptons homes are very likely to lose value given that they’ll face chronic flooding as climate changes and sea levels rise over the coming years, according to Bloomberg. Behind only central California, the area has the second-highest level of its property tax revenue at risk among U.S. municipalities with a high likelihood of chronic flooding in the next 12 years. Climate change is expected to bring constant floods that would tank property values, erode infrastructure, and sink tax revenue, all of which will make it harder to fund projects to battle the rising seas.”

You can check for yourself on ss2.climatecentral.org, where you can find a “risk zone map for surging seas.” See the figure appended below. You can input anything from “unchecked pollution” to “extreme carbon cuts,” depending on how you predict future policies will rein in carbon emissions.

I assumed unchecked carbon emissions along the lines of our present-day emissions, and I asked for maps of a 10-foot water level rise. The program produces maps with dark blue shaded areas that will be underwater. Here are some of the highlights for the not so distant future (2050 to 2100).

Montauk will become an island, the Napeague stretch will be underwater, and much of downtown Montauk will be too, including Route 27. Flooding of Route 27 across Napeague will start with just a three-foot rise in sea water levels, shutting down access to Montauk.

Homes all around Accabonac Harbor will be flooded. Gerard Drive and Louse Point will be submerged. Maidstone Park, Sammy’s Beach, and Cedar Point will be gone. Barcelona Point and the Sag Harbor Golf Course will become an island.

Beach homes in Amagansett, homes along Two Mile Hollow Beach, homes around Hook Pond, Georgica Pond, and Wainscott Pond will all be underwater. Indeed, a few homes on Beach Lane in Wainscott will be submerged. That is where the cable from the South Fork Wind Farm is proposed to come ashore and where some of its opponents own property.

Much of Sag Harbor Village will be underwater, and North Haven will be a real island.

Up and down Long Island, the homes close to the South Shore will be underwater, and Fire Island will no longer exist.

The North Shore, too, will be flooded, and Greenport will be on an island.

Kennedy International Airport will be underwater.

It is not just someone else’s problem. Loss of value of high-end homes means loss of significant local business and loss of jobs, and it spills over, resulting in loss of the value of your own property regardless of whether it is in particular danger of flooding.

Showtime’s “The Affair” recently wrapped up its final season, and part of it was set in mid-21st-century Montauk, with warming temperatures and rising seas. The show forecasts what life will look like in 34 short years, including mass transit that routinely short-circuits because of flooding, coastal communities plunged into near-total darkness, and shoreline towns without basic municipal services.

We had better support clean energy (including offshore wind) and work to decrease our carbon footprint. It is urgent.

https://ss2.climatecentral.org/#12/41.0339/-72.0864?show=satellite&projections=0-K14_RCP85-SLR&level=10&unit=feet&pois=hide