Wednesday 11 Sept 2013
Letter #171
Dear President Obama,
Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Cambridge City Dept. to hear what the city employees in the Zoning Dept thought about our Net Zero Emissions Zoning petition. As many bureaucrats,  they are hesitant to act. They say their goal is the same as ours: to quickly cut greenhouse gas emissions. But they don’t think our proposal will work. On the one hand, they said if we require Class A REQ’s, it would be too expensive for developers and they would build elsewhere. On the other, they said if we allow buildings to buy renewable energy on the open market, the cost of 10% more than regular energy is so cheap that it would discourage developers from making buildings more energy efficient! Frankly they can’t have it both ways! Clearly buying renewable energy is better than doing nothing – and they have no plan at all as an alternative. So let’s do something rather than NOTHING! I also ask you to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline – again – a small step to combat climate change, but every step is important.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Renewable Energy Buyer
Thursday 12 Sept 2013
Letter #172
Dear President Obama,
Yesterday I read about the proposal by the US and New Zealand to protect 875,000 sq miles of Antarctic waters from commercial fishing was being reduced by 40% to please Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, Norway, and other fishing nations.
What a bad idea. The short-sighted countries just want to be able to fish everywhere as the world fish stocks plummet. The long-sighted countries want to protect and conserve at least part of the world’s oceans. Ocean conservation is hard to promote because it’s hard to photograph. The same is true of climate conservation – But both are crucial to the health of the planet. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline! Stop it now. We don’t need that dirty Tar Sands Oil. Please help protect our climate – please help us cut back rapidly on greenhouse gas emissions.Â
Thank you.
Susan J Ringler, Advocate for Antarctic Ross Sea Reserve
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Friday 13 Sept 2013
Letter #173
Dear President Obama,
I’m happy to read today about China’s plan to improve their air quality.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/asia/china-releases-plan-to-reduce-air-pollution.html
The only way for China to reduce its air pollution is to cut back on coal. “China burns half of all the coal consumed in the world.” Although the plan sets modest short-term goals it is hugely important because it begins the downward spiral for coal in China, and therefore in the world. Hooray for improving air quality and hooray for reducing greenhouse gases! Let’s hope they replace coal with lots of renewables!
So please say NO to the Keystone XL pipeline. That awful pet-coke that producers claim is a byproduct they can sell, is quickly becoming impossible to export. Keep the tar sands oil and it’s pet-coke in the ground.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Love Better Air Quality
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Saturday 14 Sept 2013
Letter #174
Dear President Obama,
Hooray – coal exports are down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/business/energy-environment/us-coal-companies-scale-back-export-goals.html?pagewanted=all
An over-abundance of coal has set the world price plummeting. That means it’s not profitable to ship it very far. And best news of all China “may no longer be a net importer [of coal] by 2015.” But we need to move faster on curbing dirty coal in the US. Ten years ago half of US electricity was made from coal – today it’s below 40% – but we need to either clean up coal emissions or get rid of coal in the next 10 years. These threads are all intertwined, but they all require speeding up renewable energy generation. We have got to dramatically lessen our carbon emissions or we will cause grave harm to our climate. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Pick up that pen. Do it today.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Stop Exporting Coal
Sunday 15 Sept 2013
Letter #175Â
Dear President Obama,
This coming Friday – Sept 20th is PARK(ing) Day (www.parkingday.org/about-parking-day/). It is a national day to transform parking spaces into temporary public spaces and call attention to what we need to do to improve the urban habitat. I am installing a space where I will teach people how to make furniture with cardboard boxes and talk about Net Zero Emissions Buildings. It is vitally important for our cities that we start building buildings for the FUTURE – buildings designed to REDUCE energy use, buildings that PRODUCE some renewable energy on-site and buildings that PURCHASE renewable energy for the balance of their needs. We can do this now and need to start.
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You, President Obama, can stop the Keystone XL Pipeline NOW. We all need to raise awareness of how important a problem climate change is. PARK(ing) Day is one way, stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline is another.
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Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Parking-Day Artist
Monday 16 Sept 2013
Letter #176
Dear President Obama,
I went to a rally in Harvard Yard yesterday of Harvard alums asking Harvard to divest from Big Oil in order to show moral leadership against global warming. There was a good crowd representing all ages and a number of pithy and witty statements. We really are living in extraordinary times when bold action is imperative to stop our GHG emissions. I wish you had been at the rally and that you had spoken out for divestment as you did earlier this year. Harvard can divest and should. You can stop the Keystone Pipeline and should. What excuse can you possibly have? We need to cut back quickly on our carbon emissions. This is serious, too serious for empty rhetoric. Please act now, act decisively to show your concern for global warming.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Tired of empty Rhetoric
Tuesday 17 Sept 2013
Letter #177
Dear President Obama,Â
Here is a flyer I’m handing out today. Bill McKibben is coming to Sanders Theater to talk about global warming and his new book. Several hundred people will be there, so I’ll try to spread the word about our citizens petition. This is the kind of direct action that cities can take right now. It will get us started building the sorts of buildings we need for the next 50 years. These are big buildings so they need to be efficient, and they need to have as low carbon emissions as possible. Please take direct action against global warming and deny the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. If we all take direct action, maybe we can slow carbon emissions soon enough to avert climate disaster.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Taking Direct Action
Wed 18 Sept 2013
Letter #178
Dear President Obama,
Phébus, Charrette camouflée, 1405-10
Le livre de chasse, Bibl. Nationale, ParisÂ
Why is this image so captivating? The artist captures the wagon, the horse, the men with some verisimilitude but the camouflaging is completely stylized, as is the “nature” all around them. The image is beautiful and quite subversive. On one level the message is that man can control and use nature to hide himself and thus have better success at hunting. But the idealized and decorative twigs and the orderly “nature” shows man as puny below the tremendous power of “real” nature. And today we should remember how dependent on nature and the climate we will always be. A bit of humility and caution would be wise! Please say NO to the Keystone Pipeline because we really don’t know what changes we are causing – and we should be careful not to make too big a mess!
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Appreciate Gaston Phébus
Thursday 19 Sept 2013
Letter #179
Dear President Obama,
I saw a wonderful documentary film yesterday called “Chasing Ice.” In it the photographer sets up time lapse cameras on glaciers and captures their demise. He goes back every 6 months or so to collect the photos, and take more wonderful dramatic shots. He shows one glacier that retreated 11m in 90 years and another 10m in 10 years! We are really changing our planet dramatically and it may have terrible effects beyond sea level rise. Â What if the jet stream changes? the ocean currents change? the krill dies off? We don’t know what our increased carbon will result in. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Please stop it today. We need quickly move away from fossil fuels and the carbon they emit.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Glacier Lover
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Friday 20 Sept 2013
Letter #180
Dear President Obama,
Today is “Park”-ing Day and I set up an urban oasis in a parking space with cardboard boxes and tubes I collected from recycling bins. We quickly built 2 chairs and a table from cardboard boxes and at the end of the day we can recycle it all! We spent all day talking to people about how to encourage Cambridge to build net-zero emissions buildings – and showing them how to make furniture from cardboard boxes. It’s a good way to engage people in how to live greener – and fun to show them how quick and easy it is to make cardboard strong enough to sit on. Fun for me, too, to be teaching young people something creative and inexpensive and how to RE-USE. We need to re-use the natural energy of the planet – the wind and sun – to enrich our lives. We need to keep oil in the ground and carbon out of the air. Please say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Cardboard Box Furniture-Maker
