Thursday 4 Feb 2016
Letter #571
Dear President Obama,
It is appalling that the Porter Ranch methane leak continues unabated and out of control after 15 weeks. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/us/california-governor-declares-emergency-over-los-angeles-gas-leak.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/science/no-short-term-fix-for-california-methane-leak.html
It has spewed more than 2 million tons of methane into the atmosphere. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/us/california-state-enters-suit-over-long-running-gas-leak.html
Methane is at least 20 times more powerful a greenhouse gas as CO2. A sub-surface safety valve could have prevented this problem. It is unconscionable that every well in the country not be required to have these valves installed. It is fine to make stricter regulations for new drilling permits, but the safety of all of our wells needs to be greatly improved.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/23/us/methane-emission-rules-interior-department.html
It should be illegal to store natural gas without proper safety valves. The contribution of this single leak to our GHG emissions is huge.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/methane-is-leaking-all-over-the-place/
Please do much more to keep our existing fossil fuel infrastructure from causing such damage. We know that the only way to save the planet from overheating is to KIITG! Keep it in the ground! Fix methane leaks now and prevent new ones! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Porter Ranch Gas Leak Day 104
(follow up: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/us/california-gas-utility-plugs-well-leaking-since-october.html)
Friday 5 February 2016
Letter #572
Dear President Obama,
Recently Boston public transit – MBTA – has been holding public meetings on proposals to raise fares and end an 18 month old trial of late night T service on weekends.
https://dailyfreepress.com/blog/2016/01/20/mbta-hosts-public-meetings-to-discuss-late-night-service/
The governor has appointed a cost-cutting committee (FMCB) and they have already made up their minds! So much for public input! The MBTA says late night service is too expensive but won’t admit that Sunday morning has even fewer riders and so is MORE expensive! They didn’t advertise the public meetings well and don’t seem to care that restaurant workers and others who work odd hours USE IT! I was so annoyed I started a change.org petition to save late night service – but its a struggle getting attention.
Public transit, longer hours, more routes, more frequent buses are all CRUCIAL to combatting climate change! And they are CRUCIAL for economic justice! Please speak out every ay linking social justice and climate change! Public transit is yet another way to help use less fossil fuel and KIITG! Keep it in the ground! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, MBTA must Keep Late Night Service
Friday 17 February 2016
Letter #573
Dear President Obama,
The big news this week was not that Trump and Sanders won in the New Hampshire primary, but that the Supreme Court blocked implementation of the EPA rule regulating coal-fired plants.
How dare they? It was a political statement with little practical consequence, as the rule wends through lower courts. Clearly the separation of powers is not very separate these days. So it is even more important for you to act as forcefully as you can to KIITG! Keep fossil fuels in the ground. The eyes of the world are on us after the Paris Climate Agreement and it is up to you to reassure world leaders that the US is serious about attacking climate change. The courts should stick to law – but when they don’t, it is all the more important that the rest of us act to combat climate change. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringer, Disappointed by Supreme Court
Saturday 13 February 2016
Letter #574
Dear President Obama,
I write today about the outsize power and money of the Westlands Water Districts in CA that allows them to grab water cheaply to the detriment of everyone.
Water is a precious commodity that sustains life and groundwater should be public good- shared by all. I also write to honor Patricia Schifferle, an environmental consultant who doggedly opposes the Westland water and power grab. Climate change is making water more important as we stumble through droughts and flooding in ever more ominous cycles. Our water laws are woefully outdated and allow large landowners to drill wells as deep as money can buy, sucking the groundwater from poorer neighbors. Please find a way to limit greedy farmers from grabbing all the water for high-profit export crops like almonds! The price of water for export crops should be double what it is for domestic crops! That would change what crops are grown for the better. Water is essential to life – we cannot let greed dominate its use. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honoring Patricia Schifferle
Sunday 14 February 2016
Letter #575
Dear President Obama,
Well it’s -5°F today in Boston a new low and Tuesday it will rise to 50°F! The jet stream is all messed up and giving us these wide temperature swings in a few days! And remember the awful floods along the Mississippi in December!?
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/us/missouri-flooding-st-louis-mississippi.html
It never floods in December because its Frozen! But not this year. We can only hope that the plant and animal communities we depend on are able to adapt to these unprecedented conditions. And remember even when we stop carbon pollution, the planet will continue to warm for decades – a truly alarming prospect! So I write to you again to urge you to do all you can to keep fossil fuels in the ground! KIITG! This is our only option and we need to move as rapidly as possible to renewable energy sources and sustainable agriculture practices. Please do all you can – everyday! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Climate Disruptions Surround Us
Monday 15 February 2016
Letter #576
Dear President Obama,
The world is a messed up place and somehow that burden weighs on me especially today- I write to honor Leila Alaoui, a gifted young photographer who was killed in the Burkina Faso hotel attack by Al Qaeda last month. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/world/africa/3-burkina-faso-attackers-may-still-be-at-large-french-premier-says.html
No one can even spell the name of the city where she was working: Ouagadougou. She had been these less than a week on assignment for Amnesty International. Her portraits gave life to people mostly forgotten by society – with dignity and grace. The world is a poorer place without her – and so young. What would I know of current events far from the US without fearless journalists and photographers who take such risks? Very little. So in her honor I ask you to do everything you can to KIITG! Keep fossils fuels in the ground! This will reduce conflict in many climate-ravaged places and make the world more livable for all. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honoring Leila Alaoui
Monday 29 February 2016
Letter #577
Dear President Obama,
Mass. Governor Charlie Baker’s privately appointed cost-cutting team for the MBTA – the state’s public transit, just voted unanimously – with no discussion – to end an 18-month pilot program of late night subway system service.
In 2 weeks it will be gone. My change.org petition with 566 signatures was way too small have weight. https://www.change.org/p/massachusetts-governor-mbta-fiscal-and-management-control-board-keep-late-night-weekend-mbta-service
They say the service is too expensive, but 13,000 riders per day are keeping carbon out of our atmosphere by using public transit – and low-paid restaurant workers are getting to jobs they need. More cab rides is bad for everyone! Boston will get hit with a storm like “Sandy” and the subway tunnels will flood and the cost of repair will be humongous! But that is not considered too expensive! We are “saving” money today to incur horrific environmental disaster. Please use your leadership to LEAD us to cut carbon pollution rapidly. We need to KIITG! Keep it in the ground. Allow no new fossil fuel infrastructure to be built. We are poisoning the planet. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Mourning Late Nite T
Wednesday 2 March 2016
Letter #578
Dear President Obama,
The FBI now admit that they made a mistake on 3 December when they ordered that the iCloud password for the Farook phone be reset! https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/technology/apple-and-fbi-face-off-before-house-judiciary-committee.html
Thousands of IT professionals know NOT to do this! This is the kind of really big mistake that gets called criminal negligence by attorneys! The FBI must now live with the consequences. No court should force Apple to write code to help the technically incompetent FBI. Since the FBI decision-makers don’t understand iPhone security, they certainly cannot be trusted to safeguard my privacy! It is a sad day when Apple proves far better at protecting my basic rights than the US government. Send your decision-makers to IT bootcamp or fire them all. Hackers and criminals world-wide are chortling with glee, looking for other FBI mistakes. Thank you Apple for safeguarding us all! And meanwhile stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure. We need to KIITG! Keep it in the ground! Or our privacy won’t matter at all! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Shame on the FBI
Thursday 10 March 2016
Letter #579
Dear President Obama,
An article today about your recent interviews with the Atlantic magazine seems to lump France, Britain and Saudi Arabia together as US allies you have some frustration with. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/world/middleeast/obama-criticizes-the-free-riders-among-americas-allies.html
This reminds me that I meant to write you in January about Saudi Arabia – and how dangerous it is for us to condone – or seem to condone – their executing dissidents, their funneling money to ISIS, and their escalating feud with Iran. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/us/politics/us-struggles-to-explain-alliance-with-saudis.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/opinion/as-saudi-iranian-tensions-build.html
(especially letter by Victor Goode). France and Britain are friends: democracies with similar economic and legal systems. Saudi Arabia is a long-term trading partner (oil for weapons) whose autocratic rulers provided regional calm for decades, causing us to turn a blind eye to radical Wahhabi fundamentalists, human rights being trampled; attacks on the Houthi minority. Saudi Arabia is the kind of ally NO ONE NEEDS!: not dependable, self-interested, talking nice to us to get more weapons. So stop listening to the arms merchants who claim selling weapons to Saudi Arabia will calm the Middle East and be good for the US! The US has a long history of choosing “friends” badly – so let’s ratchet down our friendship with Saudi Arabia- and our trade! The Middle East will be no more violent than it is NOW! Renewable energy technology and battery technology – that’s what we should be exporting! The wrong steps now and climate change will ruin all of our lives. Our true friends are democratic countries trying to wean themselves from the extractive economy. Let’s keep it in the ground and choose our friends wisely. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Choose Friends Wisely
Wednesday 23 March 2016
Letter #580
Dear President Obama,
The newspapers are full of the Brussels terrorist bombings on Monday that killed at least 34 people, but the more important news in that the devastating effects of carbon pollution may change our climate much more quickly than we expect (James Hansen article), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/science/global-warming-sea-level-carbon-dioxide-emissions.html
and to bolster this claim, new data is just in on the huge amounts of methane we are spewing into the air when we frack for gas (McKibben article). https://www.thenation.com/article/global-warming-terrifying-new-chemistry/
I write today to remind you, concurring with Nicholas Kristof, that we have “a brief window of opportunity to minimize potentially catastrophic climate change.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/opinion/terrorists-bathtubs-and-snakes.html
You must do everything you can to stop us from hurtling to disaster: no more fossil fuel leases, immediate capture of all methane leaks. We must keep it in the ground: KIITG! There is no alternative. Do it for your children, grandchildren and all of us. There is no more important work than this. Please act forcefully and immediately. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, We don’t have much Time
