Sun 28 Sep 2014
Letter #461
Dear President Obama,
Syrian Yarmouk Refugees
It’s nice that top-name musicians donated their time and talents for yesterday’s Global Poverty Project’s concert in Central Park. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/arts/music/global-citizen-festival-brings-stars-to-central-park.html
It drew 60,000 people. But they will never wipe out extreme poverty by 2030 if they don’t join the fight against climate change! On Tuesday the UN announced that lack of money was forcing it to reduce ration packets for Syrians by 40%.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/world/middleeast/syria.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/middleeast/un-food-program-warns-of-coming-cuts-to-aid.html
UN rations have been cut all over the world by similar amounts, while “demand worldwide continues to grow with new crises.” Climate change tears the social fabric of weak nations, shredding the safety net for millions. As carbon pollution rises in the next decades (from all the GHG we have already pumped into the air), drought and desertification will affect more and more people, while floods ravage others. We must turn this trend around QUICKLY! Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Make a personal statement to the world that Barack Obama knows that climate change hits hardest at the POOR, the weak, dashing them from poverty into EXTREME POVERTY. Fighting climate change IS fighting extreme poverty. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Fighting Climate Change Fights Poverty
Tues 30 Sep 2014
Letter #462
Dear President Obama,
Three large – well huge really – ethanol factories are opening in the Midwest,
planning to consume hundreds of thousands of tons of corn “stover” – stalks and leaves – to produce 20 to 30 million gallons of ethanol a year. But the industry depends on US corn subsidies and federal requirements adding ethanol to vehicle fuel. It’s also not at all clear that “better management of crop residue” ie., stripping all mulch off the land, is better at all. And who is investing in ethanol? Royal Dutch and Dupont who see profit in chemicals. We really need to stop the government subsidies of this misguided industry. Once again we are not counting the external costs to the land, to the bees, to the complex interplay of natural balanced systems. I doubt that a more nuanced and complex analysis of this ethanol industry would find it “carbon neutral!” The better way to lessen climate change is renewable energy. Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline and pour government ethanol subsidies into renewable energy subsidies. Now there’s a promising future for all Americans! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, End Ethanol Subsidies
Wed 1 Oct 2014
Letter #463
Dear President Obama,
I was happy to see a full page ad calling for carbon pricing last week.[Note: It was paid for by EDF, GDF, Suez and Statoil, but a UN group Caring for Climate put their name to it.
The signatories are mostly European gas and energy companies who will benefit competitively from carbon pricing.
But we must be cautious with our enthusiasm. These are huge multi-national companies with fingers in many pies. Abengoa – who is that? I just saw their name yesterday! oh yes – a Spanish energy company that has invested heavily in concentrated solar and ethanol. They see profits to be made in chemicals from ethanol. So we think this ad shows that carbon pricing is really going to happen! That’s great. But let’s be sure not to hand out too many subsidies to the wrong people in the process! We really want to support simple local renewables, not huge extractive ethanol factories with “valuable” chemical byproducts. Keep it simple. Keep it low impact! A first great step is to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Stop it now. And let’s be careful who we subsidize! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Abengoa is not Very GREEN
Thurs 2 Oct 2014
Letter #464
Dear President Obama,
I protested at WGBH yesterday
in the rain with about 60 or so others to hand over a petition with 300,000 names asking that David Koch be removed from their board. http://www.bostonherald.com/business/media_marketing/2014/10/activists_demand_wgbh_dump_david_koch
WGBH purports to be the best TV-science provider with shows like NOVA. But David Koch supports climate-change DENIAL! Something is so discordant in this juxtaposition that I just had to chime in! Koch has given over $16 million to WGBH in the past 15 or so years, and $10 million of that has been to NOVA. They want that funding and convince themselves of the great public good the money provides. I’m not so sure. Nova packages science in fancy glossy wrappers to make it more entertaining and attract larger audiences. Maybe glossy isn’t better. And glossy stories from Big Oil about the benefits of “cheap oil” are just a pack of lies. We will pay a HUGE environmental and climate price for those lies. Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline RIGHT NOW! Let’s switch rapidly to renewables. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, WGBH needs to Kick their Koch Habit
Note: We Won! Koch quietly left the WGBH Board
Fri 3 Oct 2014
Letter #465
Dear President Obama,
September was not a great month. There were so many events that I somehow got overwhelmed. So I’ll try to mention some of them now. Today I write in honor of Sameera Salih Ali al-Nauimy. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/world/middleeast/womens-rights-activist-executed-by-islamic-state-in-iraq.html
She was an Iraqi lawyer who promoted women’s rights and condemned the brutality of ISIS. She was tortured and publicly executed. The UN reported her death and those of other women recently stating that “educated professional women” are particularly at risk. There is a tremendous overlap, particularly in poor countries, of women’s rights, human rights, and climate rights. Killing the leaders of these movements is horrendous, but will not end activism. I would argue that the very best thing you can do for these millions of women is to act quickly to stop climate change. Climate change causes scarce water and wars. To lessen wars, we need to lessen climate change! In honor of Ms. al-Nauimy and other activists Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Show you are serious about protecting our planet from further damage. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honoring Sameera al-Nauimy
Sat 4 Oct 2014
Letter #466
Dear President Obama,
I was happy to read Michael Brune’s recent blog post that the Norwegian giant energy company Statoil has abandoned its Alberta Tar Sands project. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brune/if-a-tar-sands-project-fa_b_5917136.html
Hooray – by stopping Keystone XL thus far, we have stopped one more awful dirty tar sands project because it is too costly. There are better ways for Statoil to make money! Hooray Hooray Hooray! As climate change continues, more and more companies will realize that fossil fuels need to stay in the ground! I just wish we could push that realization along faster. It would be better for us all! So please pick up your pen and Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline TODAY! Send your clear message that clean energy is the profit-maker of the future. Thank you, and thank you to Statoil for making a good decision.
Susan J. Ringler, Hooray for one less Tar Sands Project
Note: and in Dec 2016 they sold all their Tar Sands assets too! http://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/statoils-exit-starkest-sign-canadas-oilsands-resource-has-lost-its-lustre
Sun 5 Oct 2014
Letter #467
Dear President Obama,
I was thrilled to read that the Rockefeller Family foundation (Rockefeller Brothers Fund) is divesting from fossil fuels! https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/heirs-to-an-oil-fortune-join-the-divestment-drive.html
Good for them. I’m sure they can make just as much money with other investments. I thank Steven Rockefeller for saying he sees financial trouble ahead for companies that have stockpiled more fossil fuel reserves than they can burn without significant damage to the climate. Those assets will become worthless! Having a foundation of this stature join the divestment movement will impel Yale to do more than just ask its investors to “avoid” certain investments
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/business/yale-fund-takes-aim-at-climate-change.html
and hopefully will bring Harvard into the conversation as well. These moves also make more capital available for renewable energy of all types! So please follow the Rockefellers’ lead! They don’t see a future in more Tar Sands and more pipelines! So Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline today! Right NOW! You can do this! Pick up that pen! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Applaud Rockefeller Foundation Divestment
Mon 6 Oct 2014
Letter #468
Dear President Obama,
I write in support of Ilham Tohti, a Uighur professor of Economics whom the Chinese just sentenced to life in prison for supposed “separatism.” https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/world/asia/china-court-sentences-uighur-scholar-to-life-in-separatism-case.html
I know you protested his treatment and thank you for that. The Chinese declared that Prof. Tohti “bewitched and coerced young ethnic students” to work on his website. They presented videotaped jailhouse confessions of 3 students denouncing their former professor. These are 3 of 7 students who vanished in January – at the time of Prof. Tohti’s arrest. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/world/asia/3-Missing-Chinese-Students-Surface-to-Denounce-Uighur-Tohti.html
To the Chinese, Xinjiang is just a desert full of valuable resources to be extracted: pastures turned into mines, herders forcibly resettled, When will we learn that the “cheap” fuels and minerals so extracted are NOT cheap? The environmental and social costs are huge. The Chinese are trampling the environment and trampling the Uighurs,
but we only have one planet and cannot afford to trample it all. Some Chinese discount Uighurs as backwards, but I honor them for fighting on the front line of climate change as do many other indigenous peoples. Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline to show you want to quickly stop carbon pollution and to honor the Uighurs and other indigenous peoples. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Ilham Tohti Supporter
Wed 8 Oct 2014
Letter #469
Dear President Obama,
Between the Ebola epidemic in Africa and the ISIS extremists in the Middle East, there is scant room for environmental problems in the media these days. But the climate crisis is so urgent that nothing else will matter if we don’t act quickly and decisively to cut carbon emissions. Brazil had a presidential election last weekend, and there was some hope that Marina Silva, an environmental leader, would make it to the run-offs.
That, alas, did not happen and so Brazil will choose between Rousseff who has failed to protect the Amazon (choosing instead huge mines and dams) and the pro-business Mr. Neves who would probably allow faster clear-cutting! Brazil slowed the pace of clear-cutting somewhat, but it increased 29% from 2012 to 2013!
This short-term extractive strategy to boost Brazil’s economy will end badly for Brazil and the climate! Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline TODAY! We owe it to the world to take the best actions we can. Our economy will manage just fine without Keystone XL! So STOP it NOW!
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Sad for Brazil’s Rainforest
Note: deforestation continues apace – ughhh!
http://maaproject.org/2017/upper-malinowski-2017/
Thurs 9 Oct 2014
Letter #470
Dear President Obama,
Today is John Lennon’s birthday. I wrote you letter #199 a year ago on his birthday. Yoko put a larger simpler birthday memorial in the paper – a full-page reminding us to IMAGINE PEACE –
a good thought for today with such intransigent hatred and fighting in the Middle East. But again, I would like to plead for urgent action on GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. Part of the recent conflict is over the scant WATER resources. If you can divert water from a town you can drive people away and take over – one of ISIS’ techniques. So let’s imagine peace and imagine coming together to SHARE our Earth’s resources and not to damage the fragile climate we all rely on. Please Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline today! It’s something you can do that John Lennon would approve!
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Imagine Sharing Resources
