Saturday 10 Sept. 2016
Letter #601
Dear President Obama,
I returned a few days ago from a two-week vacation in France to find 4 letters from you! Thank you so much for replying. I write specifically today on the 8 Sept NY Times article detailing your work on the climate crisis and your hope for that work to be your greatest legacy!
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/us/politics/obama-climate-change.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/dakota-access-pipeline-protests.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/12/us/12tribes.html
Anishinaabek Tribal members of Michigan at Standing Rock ND, NO DAPL pipeline protest, Sept. 2016
But although you have certainly done more to slow the crisis than your predecessors, you have not done nearly enough!
You don’t get to pick your legacy – future historians will decide. So right now, this week, please stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Revoke the permit. Do it NOW! The standing Rock Sioux deserve your utmost support. The climate change trends are truly “terrifying”. I agree with you completely. Where we differ is how to respond to those terrifying changes. I write letters and go to marches. I urge YOU to step up YOUR activism in these last few months of your presidency. You will ruffle a few feathers, but history will take your full measure: the measure of how much you used the power of your office to do good for the PLANET. Please do everything you can to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Adviser on Legacy
Sunday 11 Sept. 2016
Letter #602
Dear President Obama,
Thank you for your visit to Laos and your acknowledgment of the extraordinary damage inflicted by us on the Laotian people.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/world/asia/obama-laos-bombs-war.html
Although I was aware that Laos was a prime target during the Vietnam war, I was shocked to learn that we dropped 2 million TONS of bombs there, making it the most heavily bombed country – per capita – in human history. As a wealthy nation, there is much we could do to right some past wrongs. Please take a much more aggressive stance against carbon pollution in your last few months, scrutinizing EVERY project for its long term climate effects. Laos and many other poor nations face terrible coastal devastation from climate change and we need to step up and cut our carbon emissions quickly NOW! Do everything you can to slow pipeline construction, slow offshore and onshore drilling, and Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground. KIITG! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, I Apologize to Laos
Friday 16 Sept. 2016
Letter #603
Dear President Obama,
I write to you to join with ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International in asking you to pardon Edward Snowden now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/opinion/pardon-edward-snowden.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/us/edward-snowden-human-rights-pardon.html
His whistleblowing exposed a dangerous and illegal mass surveillance system that makes me ashamed to be an American. The world has not become less safe because of his heroic actions. To try Snowden under the “Espionage Act” is an act of cowardice and makes a mockery of the United States justice system. Since the government does not want a two-sided trial, because of vested interests in the security community, then the solution is to pardon Snowden, revealing NO further information, and move on! Please do the right thing before leaving office on 20 January. As stated in the NY Times: “When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government.”
Let’s put our energies on slowing the climate CRISIS! Let’s pardon Snowden now and move on. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Pardon for Snowden
Sunday 18 Sept. 2016
Letter #604
Dear President Obama,
There are 6 million school age refugee children. Of the 3.5 million primary school age children, only 50 percent have access to school. And for older children, only 22 percent of refugees attend secondary school.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/world/middleeast/refugee-children-school-united-nations.html
We are condemning these children to lives of poverty and severely limiting their chances of success. In 2014 the school age refugee population was about 4.2 million! It grew 30%. If it grows another 30% this year, there will be 7.8 million school age refugees and the numbers denied education only grow. What is the point of refugee camps where families stay more than 3 months with NO SCHOOLS? We need more education to fight extremist dogmas – If kids don’t learn to read, write, add, think critically then how can they thrive? How can they join the global fight against climate destruction? I read recently on the facade of the Boston Public Library: “The Commonwealth [of Mass.] Requires the Education of the People as the Safeguard of order and liberty.” US carbon emissions add to global climate instability EVERYDAY. The faster we cut carbon, the better for everyone! Please KIITG and get more kids back in school. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, School for Refugee Kids
[see also #652]
Monday 26 Sept. 2016
Letter #605
Dear President Obama,
Wow, I would be really annoyed at the pro-Dakota Access Pipeline ad appearing this morning in the NY Times.
They couple your photo with a 6-year-old quote and make it look like YOU are asking people to allow the pipeline. They have a lot of nerve putting words in your mouth and I hope it backfires in big way!
I am thrilled that the Dakota Access pipeline has been put on hold. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and it is completely unfair to indigenous people. Let me also remind you of Bill McKibben’s recent article demonstrating that we cannot drill any more wells for fossil fuel.
https://newrepublic.com/article/136987/recalculating-climate-math
No NEW permits. We must quickly cut back our use if we want any hope of avoiding the worst of climate change. So thank you for recognizing the URGENCY of climate change and carbon pollution. And please do lots more, lots more quickly because it is the most important of all that you do. Climate change scoffs at politics and ads like this. KIITG is the only thing that will work. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler. Hope Ad Backfires
Tuesday 27 Sept. 2016
Letter #606
Dear President Obama,
There is this half hour after sunset on a clear evening as the sky darkens from the top down, that I love more than any other.
Last week I enjoyed just such an evening and wrote a haiku:
Limpid light tween day and night
Slows rhythms of our life
Pause for the soul.
I hope that the pause and the beauty revives you as it does me and gives you renewed energy for all the climate change work ahead. There is SO much to do, and so little time. Because of how much we – the USA – pollute, and because of our wealth, I feel an enormous responsibility to do much more, much faster, to decrease our carbon emissions. We could really do so much better! So please do everything you can to KIITG! So that many many generations can enjoy that limpid light. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Love Evening Light
Monday 3 Oct 2016
Letter #607
Dear President Obama,
By limiting myself to one page letters, my condensed thoughts must sometimes feel formulaic and my tone merely vehement, losing all nuance. So today I am inspired by a 29 Sept. lengthy article on the effects of NAFTA and the Chinese entrance into the WTO.
I am not against all trade agreements and recognize that global trade is here to stay. But, like Jacob vander Vis, of Rotterdam, I do NOT want corporations to be able to sue governments for lost revenue and profit. This is INSANE and is a clause in both the TPP and the TTIP agreements. These clauses MUST be struck. It is immoral and unconscionable to put corporate profit ahead of environmental laws. Corporations must always be subject to government regulations. We cannot allow robber barons to put their short term profits ahead of the urgency of the carbon pollution crisis. My opposition to these trade agreements is not their attempt to encourage more trade, but their placing corporations above ALL governments, ours included. I do not want to live in such a world where a sustainable climate, the linchpin of healthy, fruitful human life cannot be protected by every government. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, People over Profit
Friday 7 Oct 2016
Letter #608
Gaza, Israel
Dear President Obama,
I was appalled last month that the US agreed to give Israel $3.8 Billion per year for 10 years for weapons.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-military-aid.html
This is up from $3 Billion – so a 25% increase. Wow! Such a huge increase at a time when Israel is acting more and more repressively towards Palestine sends exactly the wrong message! Israel feels they WON, big time! and clearly feels NO pressure to pull back settlements or otherwise respect Palestine (as aptly stated in today’s NY Times editorial).
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/opinion/a-way-to-keep-the-2-state-option-alive.html
We need to stop paying Israel for bad behavior. We need to cut our aid every year until they get serious about human rights and pulling back their borders. We are on the wrong side – morally – of this fray. Our money would be much better spent on water projects, renewable energy and otherwise helping the region stave off the worst effects of climate change. This increase in military aid just makes an explosive situation WORSE. Climate change trumps all else!! Our foreign policy needs to reflect that. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Less Military Aid for Israel
Sunday 9 Oct 2016
Letter #609
Dear President Obama,
A recent article headline claims there is a debate on whether it’s possible for companies to put a price on climate change RISK.
There is NO debate in the scientific and international community that as much as ¾ of the world’s fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground to keep temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
European energy companies have been discounting the value of their energy assets for several years because international reporting standards require it. US reporting standards are looser, so Exxon and others have not yet been forced to realistically price their assets. The only debate is a political one around how long US companies can postpone more accurate reporting. I urge federal regulators to bring US reporting standards closer to international ones that require hard numbers for the business impact of global warming. Let’s do it now! We must insist on realistic risk assessment by all public companies. Public disclosure needs to be factual, and oil companies need to comply. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, US Risk Reporting Too Loose
Wed 12 Oct 2016
Letter #610
Dear President Obama,
I write again to honor Ilham Tohti, the Uigher economics professor serving a LIFE sentence in prison for promoting respect for Uigher culture. Yesterday he received the Martin Ennals award for human rights and I hope this pressures the Chinese to lighten his sentence or free him.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/world/europe/ilham-tohti-uighur-human-rights-award.html
But I also fear that renewed publicity will worsen his treatment. So how do I keep the energy and drive to keep writing to you about carbon pollution when human rights abuses, such as those against Prof. Tohti, continue unabated? My self doubts stalled this letter for a full week!! But I take heart from the Dakota Access Pipeline struggle where indigenous people, once again, are proving better stewards of the planet than the rest of us. Uighers too want less mining and more respect for the land. So to honor Prof. Tohti, I ask you to KIITG! Do everything you can to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and to slow our use of fossil fuels. We must Keep It In the Ground! Time is running out. Please act decisively and quickly. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honor Ilham Tohti
