Sunday 12 May 2013
Letter # 71
Dear President Obama,
I’m reading an interesting new book : Who Owns the Future by Jaron Lanier. He makes a compelling argument for the need to avoid extremes : extreme concentration of data accessed and manipulated by only a few, extremes of wealth and poverty, and he includes extreme climate change (pp. 296-7 et. al). Here’s a technologist who understands that we won’t be able to engineer our way through climate change unless we get VERY busy VERY SOON. So please help draw attention to the urgency of global action to limit climate changes. Please say NO now to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, J. Lanier Reader
Monday 13 May 2013
Letter # 72
Dear President Obama,
84 journalists died covering the news in 2012, one third died in Syria.
### 3 photos of journalists ####
That’s a tragic loss of people who do so much for us all and for justice and human rights. As climate change grows worse, there will arise more wars and conflicts over water, scarce resources, less land. How many regional conflicts will it take, and how many dead journalists until Americans realize how important it is to lower greenhouse gas emissions, to wean ourselves from fossil fuels ?
Please show leadership and say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Deeply indebted to journalists
Tuesday 14 May 2013
Letter # 73
Dear President Obama,
I went to a local art event « Open Studio » recently and met this young artist who makes meticulous pencil drawings of silver spoons. www.katherinevetne.com
She has a day job to pay the bills, but her avocation is to spend hours observing keenly and create a thing of beauty that causes one to realize the value of process, of doing, of participating, of creating.
So I write to you again to remind you to « observe keenly » and to carry on my process of trying to convince you to do the moral act. Please say NO to the XL Pipeline. You can do it with the stroke of a pen and you should.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Take Joy in the Process
Wed 15 May 2013
Letter # 74
Dear President Obama,
I was happy to read today that the insurance industry knows that climate change will cause lots of disruption. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/insurers-stray-from-the-conservative-line-on-climate-change.html
It is good to know that some sectors of business are based on reasoning soundly (remember my earliest letters ?).
Please recognize how great the disturbances can be. Please take steps today to lessen our use of fossil fuels. Please say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline. Say NO today !
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Insurance Buyer
Thurs 16 May 2013
Letter # 75
Dear President Obama,
When I went to the Lab School in the 1960’s, Hyde Park was fairly drab and there were few gardens. Scammons Garden, at school, was where I first saw Lilies of the Valley and other spring perennials. The Lilies of the Valley are out this week in Cambridge and I haven’t seen any in years, or thought much about Scammons Garden. This William Morris design (Eden, 1905) somehow captures that fragile delicate spring-flower memory of childhood. Our glorious climate is also fragile and needs protecting. Please say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline ! Do it NOW. Take a step towards reducing greenhouse gases.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Lab School Student
Friday 17 May 2013
Letter # 76
Dear President Obama,
Today is my father’s birthday. He would be 101 years old. He’s been dead for many years but I always think of him on this day. He was a very intelligent self-effacing man. He didn’t care about wealth and status and didn’t comprehend why others did. He told us to make a contribution to society – to do something worthwhile and to take pride in that contribution.
So it is in thinking of him that I continue writing letters to you. Global warming is immensely important and we need to be doing much more to reduce our use of greenhouse gases NOW. Please say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline. Show the world where your values lie. This is a small but significant contribution that you can make now.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, daughter
Sat 18 May 2013
Letter # 77
Dear President Obama,
I read yesterday about the new fracking laws proposed for public lands. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/us/interior-proposes-new-rules-for-fracking-on-us-land.html
They do not adequately protect the groundwater, they cave in to economic interests of oil and gas companies who are interested primarily by gain. These are public lands and resources that are being exploited for private gain. As fracking increases we will notice and document more environmental damage – and once again we will try to close the barn door after the horse has left. Fracking is only profitable if long term environmental costs are borne by someone else. These are public lands and future generations will pay for the costs of mitigation and clean up. The government is negligent in its duty to protect the environment. so I say NO to fracking NO NO NO – until it is sufficiently regulated. I also ask you, once again, to say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline, because you CAN, with a penstroke TODAY !
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Groundwater Protection Advocate
Sun 19 May 2013
Dear President Obama,
Mountains of petroleum coke are rising in Detroit. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/business/energy-environment/mountain-of-petroleum-coke-from-oil-sands-rises-in-detroit.html
This high-sulfer, high-carbon waste is the industrial hazardous waste created by « coking » the first refinery process for oil-sands bitumen. It is so dirty and polluting that the EPA is phasing out US licenses to burn it. The Koch brothers buy it for chump change and sell what they can to poor countries where pollution controls are lax. The rest piles up. It is too dirty to put in a land fill. This waste must be regulated, it is unconscionable that we allow it to be sold to poor countries – and soon they will get smart and refuse to take it. The pile in Detroit took only 6 months to create. And BP is building a much bigger refinery in Indiana, over 3 times as big – so it will create this much waste in just 2 months. Tar sands oil is only « profitable » if all this pollution and waste is ignored. Say NO to Keystone XL Pipeline and say NO to the pet-coke garbage it creates.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Cleaning Up Messes is Hard to Do
Monday 20 May 2013
Letter #79
Dear President Obama,
I’m still fuming about the piles of pet-coke that I read about yesterday. The cost of properly disposing of this awful residue MUST be paid by the oil industry who creates it. Tar sands oil is NOT cheap, it is not good for the US economy when total disposal and pollution costs are counted. Canada has 80 million tons of pet-coke piled up. And Canadians only put up with it because it’s kept out of sight ! The US cannot stop Canada from extracting oil from tar sands, but we can stop them from leaving their pet-coke piles everywhere. They must pay to dispose of any waste from refining bitumen. That’s how Capitalism is supposed to work. When you add the clean-up costs, the costs of the oil goes way up. It’s no longer profitable. That keeps the Tar Sands Oil in the ground ! Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Stop it NOW ! We don’t want Canada’s small-grain, high sulfer pet-coke.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Capitalist
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Letter # 80
Dear President Obama,
The High Plains Aquifer is running dry in some places. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/us/high-plains-aquifer-dwindles-hurting-farmers.html
We have been pumping too much water out too quickly. The price of water is so cheap and the price of corn is so high that it has made sense for farmers to pump and pump and grow more and more corn. We need to end the corn subsidies – or reduce them – our agricultural policies don’t make sense – nor do our energy policies. There are danger signs everywhere. We need to do much more to protect resources like groundwater that are very difficult to replace. Similarly we need to protect the climate and reduce carbon emissions. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline NOW.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Water UserÂ
