Wednesday 13 March 2013
Letter # 11
Dear President Obama,
This is a photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge, by Ted Huggins, April 1934. I love the interplay of geometries, but most of all I look at the man with a fedora hat and a suit jacket. He is completely a man of the 30’s – no hard hat, no reflective jacket, but he is looking squarely into the future… while holding on firmly to a girder, He is an emblem for each of us. None of us can know the future, but we must move forward.
If that man is you, and the steel girder is the best available scientific evidence, then your decision must be to try to limit climate change. The science is solid, please say NO to the Keystone XL pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler
SF Bay Area Bridge User for many years
Thursday 14 March 2013
Letter # 12
Dear President Obama,
It’s Pi Day today, p that is, 3.14159… I remember how odd it sounded to learn that there was a number that just went on and on. If you want our climate to go on and on supporting the multitudinous variety of humans and other creatures on this planet, you need to get serious about changing our energy habits. A good place to start is saying NO to the Keystone XL pipeline. Do the math – it’s the right thing.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Pi Appreciator
Friday 15 March 2013
Letter #13
Dear President Obama,
This was my favorite painting in the Berlin Nationalgalerie when I was a student there years ago. I would go and stand in front of this Miro (Small Blonde in Amusement Park 1950) and soak up the golden joy. I found it energizing and a wonderful antidote to Berlin winter grayness in those days when the Berlin Wall still stood.
Over the years this glorious image has taken on broader meaning for me – it celebrates solar energy, our small place in the universe, the wonders of science, the enthusiasm and power of youth. Most of all it celebrates and connects us to our environment. I sent it to you to celebrate all you have done for the environment and all you will do. Please say NO to the XL Pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, once a Berlin student
Sat 16 March 2013
Letter #14
Dear President Obama,
The bees are in trouble. In the NY Times yesterday I read that the European Food Safety Authority recommends a 2-year ban on the use of neonicotinoids on crops attractive to bees.
The science is still not conclusive but the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says bees as pollinators are essential for feeding the planet. But today the EU failed to approve the ban, leaving it to individual countries.
When I do a cost/benefit analysis, that seems like a bad decision. There are plenty of other pesticides, there are not plenty of other pollinators. If we wait for more scientific proof, it could be too late for the bees. In the US, neonicotinoids are used on almost all of the corn crop. The EPA says additional research is needed. Please ask them to re-evaluate that position. Bees are essential, neonicotinoids are not.
Thank you,
Susan J. Ringler, gardener and honey-eater
Sunday 17 March 2013
Letter # 15
Dear President Obama,
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I’m one-quarter Irish. I just moved to Boston 6 weeks ago and am getting to know the town a little. There are 2 St. Pat’s parades in Boston. The big one is run by a veteran’s group and many politicians walk in it. 3 years ago a Veterans for Peace group asked to take part and they were turned down as too political. They started an alternative march – just behind the regular one. The following year they were joined by various gay and LGBT groups. This year they are also being joined by environmental groups. I’m going to join them and I think others from 350.org will be there too.
For a lot of people there is not much point to St. Patrick’s Day except drinking a lot and acting silly. It seems to me that at lest this alternative parade is saying we are all citizens of the world and should get along with one another. We are all connected. I don’t usually go to parades, but I’m new in town, so I’ll go to this one and maybe meet some interesting people.
So please think GREEN today and turn your thoughts to doing good things for planet EARTH. Please say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Irish-etc-American
Monday 18 March 2013
Letter # 16
Dear President Obama,
The other day I was telling a friend about a french poem I love – it’s about a rose and it’s by a German, R. M. Rilke who lived in Paris. The first two lines are:
Seule abondante fleur
Tu crées ton propre espace
I was trying to translate “seule” and came up with:
- only – tu es ma seule amie
- alone – je suis seule ici
- lonely – je me sens seule
But these are all wrong. It took me ages to find the correct English word: SINGLE – single abundant (or prolific) flower, You create your own space …
There are negative connotations to “only, alone and lonely,” but SINGLE is a wonderfully powerful word. And so it is being President. You can single-handedly stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. You are the SINGLE person who can do this. We gave you these powers when we elected you because we want you to lead us in the right direction.
A rose is a small thing that increases its impact with its wonderful fragrance. A single penstroke by you is a small thing that can end the XL pipeline and increase your impact on the world by the leadership and moral courage it embodies.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Rose lover
Seule abondante fleur
Tu crées ton propre espace
Tu te mires dans une glace d’odeur
Ton parfum entoure comme d’autres pétales ton innombrable calice
Je te retiens, tu t’étales
Prodigieuse actrice.
R. M. Rilke
Tuesday 19 March 2013
Letter # 17
Dear President Obama,
This morning I drank my coffee from a mug I bought at the Hyde Park 57th Street Art Fair in 1969 or 70. I grew up in Hyde Park and still love the neighborhood. I’m proud to be a Hyde Parker and I am so proud that you live there. So I raise my mug to you and think of the marvelous interplay of urban intellectual and artistic forces I was exposed to in Hyde Park.
Like the glaze on this coffee mug, Hyde Park offered me flecks and flows of color and strength swirled into that mid-western melting pot that is Chicago. Hyde Park without the Art Fair would be less – as pure intellect is less without art, or soul, or moral vision.
So as a Hyde Park neighbor, I ask you to say NO to the Keystone XL pipeline. It may be only a small fleck on the planet, but show your strength of purpose and just say NO.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Hyde Parker
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Letter # 18
Dear President Obama,
I can’t quite figure out why environmentalists in the US seem to fragment into so many different groups, whereas the “Let’s make money now – business people” seem to act more cohesively. I guess short-term gratification is a powerful incentive.
But in spite of lacking any short term incentive, I will continue to write you these letters. It really is time to get serious about controlling and reducing carbon emissions. There is an urgency. The scientific data is uncontestable. You can stop the Keystone XL pipeline and it’s the right thing to do. So please do it – and then get on with other statesmanly tasks.
There are pussy willows in the market. A sign of spring I mostly forgot about in my many years in California. They remind me of my mother.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Long-term Environmentalist
Thursday 21 March 2013
Letter # 19
Dear President Obama,
While you are visiting Israel, I hope you spend a little time thinking about how important clean water is to human life. As the population rises on the planet, there is more need for water, and the Middle East is certainly a place where that is causing more conflicts. We need to protect our water supplies, we need to manage them wisely, we shouldn’t let gas fracking waste water and pollute our aquifers.
We also need to protect the earth’s life-sustaining moderate climate – and again the hot arid Middle East is a good place to think about this. The most important problem for the climate right now is that carbon emissions are too high and rising very rapidly. A carbon tax would be wonderful, but you can’t do that in this political climate.
What you can do is stop the Keystone XL pipeline. It’s a bad idea, we should not encourage Canada to develop tar sands – and we certainly don’t need to pipe the dense tar sands crude all across the US. Please don’t be swayed by those interested in their own short term profit. Please think globally and take a leadership position. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Tap-water Drinker (no ice)
Friday 22 March 2013
Letter #20
Dear President Obama,
Busy day, not a lot of time to compose a good letter. There are several stories in the NYTimes today that I don’t understand very well, in spite of being fairly well educated:
heat map of the universe, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/science/space/planck-satellite-shows-image-of-infant-universe.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
a new quantum computer, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/technology/testing-a-new-class-of-speedy-computer.html?pagewanted=all
the complexities of risk management (Floyd Norris) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/business/behind-the-derivatives-gibberish-risks-run-amok.html?pagewanted=all
One could spend years delving into any one of these. So I must accept the fact that there is much in the world that I will never understand. But it would be wrong and cowardly of me not to speak out when I notice something really important that demands our attention. Climate change is more important than almost anything else. If we don’t control carbon emissions and we reach a tipping point where climate changes compound on each other, we may not be able to engineer ourselves out of the mess. So although there is much I don’t understand, I am convinced that we urgently need to turn around our carbon emissions. If we don’t, none of the rest will matter. Please cancel the Keystone XL pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Big-Picture Thinker
