Saturday 26 April, 2014
Letter # 371 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
Van Gogh, Green Wheat Fields, 1890
I bought you this postcard at the National Gallery today after the KXL March because I love the shades of green in it. It is spring in Washington and as I look up into the trees I see the same wonderful greens. We need to learn to respect the Earth the way the native people do. Let’s keep it green and fertile for many generations. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. We don’t need it. We need to get off fossil fuels.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Love Spring Green
Mon 28 April 2014
Letter # 372
Dear President Obama,
I loved the recent article about Manu Prakash who has invented a paper microscope that costs less than $1 !! He is hoping to improve access to this science tool for millions of people. His vision is to have science laboratories available to everyone. A Mongolian farmer wants one so he can show his neighbors that bacteria exist in milk! Here is a scientist who is also practical. We need more like him. Carbon pollution is the greatest challenge the world faces in the next few decades. We need millions of people who understand some science to wake up every government in the world to the problem. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline TODAY! Please show you have vision, understand science, and are practical. Let’s get started immediately on tackling this huge problem.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Bravo to $1 Microscope!
Tuesday 29 April 2014
Letter # 373
Dear President Obama,
Yesterday I saw a wonderful film at the Boston International Film Festival about Kudirat Abiola, a Nigerian activist who gave great strength to the Nigerian pro-democracy movement in the 1990s, who gave a voice to Nigerian women, and was assassinated for it.
The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy is named for her. The film is The Supreme Price and I highly recommend it to you and your daughters. I hope that they lead more peaceful lives than Kudirat, as I wish for MY children. But they will all have to deal with climate disruption and it will only exacerbate the existing sectarian violence we see in many parts of the world today. Please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline. Please take a stand for climate justice. We know that Africa will pay a hugely disproportionate price for all of this carbon we continue to pump into the air. The greed and corruption shown in this movie will only get worse if we do not take urgent steps to curb our carbon emissions.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Honoring Kudirat Abiola
Thursday 1 May 2014
Letter # 374
Dear President Obama,
Yesterday was another dreary cold rainy day and I went to a student rally for Divest Harvard in Harvard Yard. Six students risked arrest to barricade the President’s office until she agrees to an open discussion on divestment. This morning they arrested one student and I wrote the attached letter to Pres. Faust. We all need to do what we can to address climate change. Pres. Faust needs to join the students and quickly work to get Harvard Corporation to divest from Big Oil. And YOU need to pick up your pen and cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline. Please stop the KXL today! You CAN do it right NOW! I don’t want to be ashamed of you or Pres. Faust any longer.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Ashamed of Harvard’s Pres. Faust
Pres. Drew Gilpin Faust
Harvard University
Dear Pres. Faust,
I am deeply ashamed that Harvard prefers to arrest a student rather than hold an open public dialogue on the subject of divestment from Big Oil. Climate Disruption is here NOW and will only worsen. Pensacola Florida just got 25 inches of rain in 24 hours – the most ever recorded. Their “dangerous weather” season is the summer for hurricanes. No one expected a spring storm would cause so much death and destruction.
That’s the problem with climate disruption, horrific weather events that are UNEXPECTED. We are doing this to ourselves with denial of the urgency of the problem. Immediate and significant actions are our only hope to avoid the very worst that is to come.
Please help by agreeing to discuss divestment in an open meeting.
With sadness but determination,
Susan J. Ringler, AB 74
Monday 5 May 2014
Letter # 375
Dear President Obama,
I read with interest an article about 2 new gasoline storage facilities for a million gallons of surplus gasoline for New England in case of weather disasters that cause shortages in the region. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/02/nyregion/us-to-store-gasoline-for-crises-in-the-northeast.html?
The federal gov’t is spending $215M to build these so that when another storm like Sandy hits, people can have “the basic necessities.” It would be more prudent to spend an equal or greater sum on electric buses and such – so that we can cause less climate damage while waiting for the next big storm our carbon emissions have caused!
No doubt the gov’t will also buy the fuel to fill these facilities from Big Oil! This is not good long term planning! Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline today! and please put a lot more money into clean public transit and renewable energy. These are prudent steps to combat climate change. Yes “every element of our energy infrastructure “ is at risk! The answer is to quickly get off fossil fuels! It is really sad that Big Oil have so much clout that they can delay the demise of fossil fuel so long. A new gas depot for the North East is a pitiful way to handle climate change. We need to do much more, right now.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Gas Depot is the Wrong Response
Tuesday 6 May 2014
Letter # 376
Dear President Obama,
On Friday. the lead New York Times editorial was on Chernobyl, 28 years later. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/02/opinion/the-right-lessons-from-chernobyl.html?
It urges PRUDENCE and using nuclear power as part of our urgent need to stop burning fossil fuels. Even nuclear accidents “do not compare to the damage to the earth being inflicted by the burning of fossil fuels.” I cannot stress this apt statement more forcefully. We MUST quickly reduce our carbon emissions. As a first step, please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline today. Right Now! And yes, we still need nuclear energy and we also need to stop calling gas CHEAP! The future costs of the carbon emissions are horrendous and need to be factored in. That would show how gas is NOT cheap. We will never meet our goal of reducing carbon emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 at this rate! and that’s a pretty paltry goal. We have delayed too long from the urgent actions we need. Please change the course of history. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Remember Chernobyl and LEARN
Wednesday 7 May 2014
Letter # 377
Dear President Obama,
The National Climate Assessment is out and the news is GRIM! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/science/earth/climate-change-report.html?
Climate change is here NOW. We are having a lot more sudden intense rain storms, like the one last week in Pensacola. We really need to stop talking about average global warming because none of us experience averages in our day to day lives. Big sudden swings in temperature, or in rainfall cause all sorts of damage even if they hardly budge the annual “average” at all! We are dealing with CLIMATE DISRUPTION and it will only get worse. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline today! Please act boldly to show how dangerous climate disruption is. Global warming is here, but what we experience is greater and greater DISRUPTION. The costs are huge and MOUNTING. Show your leadership and put reducing carbon emissions at the center of your national agenda. Thank you for talking to weather forecasters, but you need to do MUCH MORE!
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Climate Disruption Causes HAVOC!
Wednesday 7 May 2014
Letter # 378 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I was thrilled to read that Stanford Univ. has decided to divest its endowment from COAL stocks. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/education/stanford-to-purge-18-billion-endowment-of-coal-stock.html?
This is a good small step in the right direction. But certainly they could divest from Big Oil too without undue hardship! I’m hoping that this small step will open the door to universities divesting from things they believe are harmful. Coal is very harmful, but other fossil fuels are only marginally less so! We need to quickly stop burning all fossil fuels. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Right Now! Show that you want BOLD actions to prohibit the worst of climate changes.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Stanford Leads on Divestment
Monday 12 May 2014
Letter # 379
Dear President Obama,
I was appalled to read recently that the Senate quietly stripped from an intelligence bill the requirement of an annual public report on the number of people killed and injured by US drone strikes. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/world/senate-drops-plan-to-require-disclosure-on-drone-killings.html?
James Clapper convinced the Intelligence Committee that a public report would “undermine the effectiveness of the operation” and Sen. Dianne Feinstein who originally proposed the requirement, agreed to remove it! Shame on her! Shame on you for letting the CIA kill as many people as they want with drones. If publishing the annual number of dead would shock the American public, then clearly the program needs to be stopped! Where is your moral compass?
While you are looking for it, I suggest you do something positive for future generations – something you can do alone – without congress: Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. We must urgently cut carbon emissions and you could show leadership. Please do it NOW.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Want Drone Strike Report
Tuesday 13 May 2014
Letter # 380
Dear President Obama,
The Central American coffee crop is in great peril from a fast-spreading fungus: “coffee RUST.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/business/international/fungus-cripples-coffee-production-across-central-america.html?
It used to only attack the low elevation coffee, but has quickly spread to higher altitudes. Guatemala has been particularly hard hit, losing 20% of its coffee-jobs, mostly on small farms. Guatemala is a tough place to be a farmer and coffee, which thrives on its hillsides, has been one of the few crops to allow families to rise out of the bleakness of subsistence farming. NOW climate change is decimating the coffee trees and pushing “many families to the edge of survival.” Climate change hits the poor far harder than the rich – so please, as an act of SOCIAL JUSTICE, please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline TODAY!! It is a small step, but one you can do right now, with the stroke of a pen. We need to get off of fossil fuels as quickly as possible. coffee rust is just one more proof of how dangerous carbon pollution is.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Honoring Small Coffee Farmers
