Tuesday 31 March 2015
Letter #531
Dear President Obama,
A small science article reported that the Emiliania huxleyi phytoplankton
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/science/phytoplankton-is-on-decline-in-southern-ocean.html
has declined 4% in the Southern Ocean in the last 15 years, and includes a stunningly beautiful image of this microscopic organism.
Our advanced civilizations have the power and resources to capture such detailed data and images, yet we seem to have NO power to act responsibly on the scientific evidence. This phytoplankton helps sequester carbon. Less phytoplankton, less carbon sequestered. Why are we good at the details and miss the BIG PICTURE? Climate disruption is the largest problem of this century and we need to take urgent steps to curb our runaway carbon emissions. Please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline NOW. It’s a first important step. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honoring Cesare Emiliani, for whom this phyto plankton is named.
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/soes/staff/tt/eh/ce.html
Wednesday 1 April 2015
Letter #532
Dear President Obama,
I’ve been collecting factoids pointing to climate disruption. Here are a few:
Cod Vanishing as Gulf of Maine Warms. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/us/frozen-fishing-from-a-new-england-port.html
The Gulf of Maine used to warm about 1 degree every 20 years, now it’s 1 degree every 2 years. So less cod and more lobster.
Snow Down, Heat Up in Arctic. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/science/snow-is-down-and-heat-is-up-in-the-arctic-report-says.html
It may have been cold in New England but the arctic snow cover in the Eurasian arctic is dwindling. New Bedford port iced in this winter, fishing boats idled. These are all disruptions to the normal patterns and we will see more and more frequent DISRUPTIONS. Taken together the warnings are ominous! We must act quickly to limit climate change. Please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline NOW. We need more renewable energy and less fossil fuel RIGHT AWAY. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Adding Up the Facts
Thursday 2 April 2015
Letter #533
Dear President Obama,
I send you this map today of Iraq and its borders with Syria and Turkey.
It shows the many fronts of the war against the Terrorist Islamic group ISIS: TIKRIT, KIRKUK, RAMADI, and more. The regional instability is huge, the lawless areas growing and no end is in sight. The instability, tribalism, and violence is fed by several factors, but one important one is dwindling water and other resources DUE to CLIMATE CHANGE. This instability endangers the whole world, not jut that region. If we have any sense we will quickly take major steps to reduce our carbon emissions. Foreign policy is tricky and fluid. But climate change is CERTAIN. Please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline today and take rapid actions to reduce emissions. Some things we can alter, others we cannot. Please do what you can NOW to limit climate change. It will also help lessen the causes of regional conflicts. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Worried by ISIS
Friday 3 April 2015
Letter #534
Dear President Obama,
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/opinion/president-obamas-letter-to-22-prisoners.html
I would like to thank you for your 31 March letters to 22 prisoners commuting their sentences for non-violent drug crimes and ordering their release in July. I am happy you reminded them that they “have the capacity to make good choices.” And I ask you to reflect on your own enormous capacity as President of a very powerful nation to make choices that have world-wide impact. When you leave office will you look back and decide you made the best possible choices? I sincerely hope so. I encourage you to commute many more non-violent sentences and return thousands of people to productive lives. And I urge you to squarely face the climate crisis in its full enormity and to take many decisive actions to lessen the harm. The first step is to STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline. Please take up your pen and do it NOW. For if you can’t take this small step, what are people to think? We voted for you, we gave you special presidential powers. You need to use that power for GOOD, for the best possible world outcome that you can. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Use your Power WELL
Monday 6 April 2015
Letter #535
Dear President Obama,
I write today of trucks and trains. The trucking industry is trying to get language into a highway funding bill that will allow longer and heavier trucks.
The railroad industry is trying to keep the status quo. Each side is using deception, lots of money, and unwitting sheriffs and state troopers. But the non-profit Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways receives NO money from either side and remains convinced that longer heavier trucks would be LESS SAFE. Neither side mentions that goods transported by rail have a smaller carbon footprint. Trains are clearly the better choice – in so many ways. And yes I know there have been 3 bad oil train accidents recently.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/business/a-third-blast-on-oil-trains-stirs-scrutiny.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/opinion/dangerous-trains-aging-rails.html
But the answer there is shorter trains, not trucks or pipelines. Let’s hope common sense prevails here and current truck size limits REMAIN. Meanwhile, since we know the future MUST hold fewer trucks and fewer pipelines, Please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline today. And those trains that carry oil today can be carrying other goods when the pipelines are empty and no longer used. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Trains NOT Trucks
Wednesday 8 April 2015
Letter #536
Dear President Obama,
West Canada’s glaciers are melting.
Glacier Karimabad Pakistan 1990
As the lead author Garry K. C. Clarke says “Glaciers don’t respond to weather; they respond to climate.” It is still possible that strong immediate measures to decrease carbon emissions can slow or level off this melting! Let’s get going Right Away! Please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline TODAY. We need glaciers for water, for cooling, for stable weather. I remember walking on a glacier at Glacier National Park in July 1960,
Glacier National Park 1960
and I crossed an amazing glacier on a trek near Karimabad, Pakistan (Gilgit region) in 1990. That Pakistan area is VERY DRY and villages depend on glacial runoff for almost all their water. This is URGENT in so many ways. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Glaciers Melting Fast
Monday 20 April 2015
Letter #537
Dear President Obama,
There have been lots of articles about the California drought recently.
Some, focusing on new limits for towns and cities, obscured the real problem: un restricted agricultural use of groundwater.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/opinion/making-sense-of-water.html
As Mark Bittman correctly states, the real issue is how to “allocate water sensibly.” 80% of California water is used by agriculture and most of that is “free” for the landowner who can dig a deep enough well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/science/beneath-california-crops-groundwater-crisis-grows.html
Big Ag now drills mega-wells pulling groundwater from a huge area. Like other extractive businesses, the public resource is monetized for the profit of a few. Aquifers are depleted for Big Ag profits. Small farms don’t have the money to dig deep enough wells. As with carbon pollution, the long term costs to the environment and society of aquifer depletion are ignored. We need a national price on carbon and a national water price to curb aquifer depletion. Big business will slow both efforts, so in the meantime, please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline, RIGHT NOW. Your job as President is to do things that are good for everyone, not just the richest businesses, or the loudest lobbyists. We need to get off fossil fuels QUICKLY, and a first step is stopping KXL. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Water is a Public Resource
Monday 20 April 2015
Letter #538 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I was busy last week participating at Harvard Heat Week to ask Harvard to divest from Big Oil investments. I was quoted in this Crimson article where I called Harvard “a beacon. When Harvard does something, people notice!”
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/4/14/divest-harvard-blockade-monday/
I made 200 Heat Week buttons to honor people for their actions, especially the students sleeping outside Massachusetts Hall night after night. I was happy to see Bill McKibben wearing one of my buttons when he was interviewed on TV on Greater Boston. It would be grand if you too would ask Harvard to divest from Big Oil, as one of their most prominent alumni. But until then we are happy to have raised awareness of climate change around Cambridge and to have forged stronger ties to allies from historic divestment campaigns and allies in the social justice community. Raising the minimum wage and divesting from Big Oil are connected endeavors. So I ask you to please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline because of climate injustice and social injustice and as a small step towards a more just future for all people. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Support Student Activists
Monday 6 April 2015
Letter #539
Mosaic detail, Ravenna Italy
(same image as letter #345)
Dear President Obama,
Happy Earth Day. You are touring the Everglades today and none of the trees look like this, but some of the canals do: orderly straight cuts through the earth. We got to thinking that we could engineer the dirt and water and the plants and animals would thrive in their orderly rearranged world. These Ravenna artists a thousand years ago didn’t think like that! They saw nature as a huge scary force and calm images like this could offer respite from the chaos of life. Now people probably look at this and wonder why the “pixels” aren’t square!! It’s sad that we needed to invent Earth Day 45 years ago. And the earth hasn’t gotten much healthier. Please STOP the Keystone XL Pipeline RIGHT NOW. Do it for the earth and all who live here for the next 1000 years! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Keep Nature Messy
Thursday 23 April 2015
Letter #540
Dear President Obama,
I was pleased to read yesterday that Oklahoma’s Republican government has acknowledged the scientific consensus that wastewater wells from oil and gas drilling is causing hundreds of earthquakes.
This is an excellent step in the right direction in a part of the country known for inaction on climate change. Of course it is a small step, as they need to stop drilling more wells and lessen the danger of existing wells. Loppersum, Netherlands came to the same conclusions years ago! (See my letters #405 and #504). But every day of delay and inaction is another day of profit for oil and gas companies. So their inaction requires our action. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline NOW. You know dangerous the climate crisis is. You spoke of it yesterday, Earth Day, in the Everglades. Now you must match your ACTIONS to your words. Let’s get off fossil fuels. STOP more pipelines. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Oklahoma Faces Facts (but still needs to ACT!)
