Tuesday 20 December, 2016
Letter #641
(2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
Here is a letter I wrote to Lotus Bakeries recently about their marvelous Biscoff cookies that I will no longer be buying! I hate that palm oil has oozed its way into so many products. We should put a huge tariff on palm oil, not because it is an import, but because of the horrific environmental damage it causes – and economic injustice as well. If palm oil’s price to companies reflected its TRUE cost for the damage caused by palm plantations, they would use other oils and we would all be better off. Why not stop all US aid to Indonesia until they rein in the palm oil Robber Barons? Then I wouldn’t have to feel guilty in the cookie aisle and spend so much time reading ingredients labels in tiny print!! This world is upside down when corporations have so much power. Please do everything you can do to counter their damage to the planet. We need to KIITG! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Mourning Biscoff Cookies
Biscoff Lotus Bakeries
550 Francisco St., Ste. 115
SanFrancisco 94133
Dear Lotus Bakeries,
My family and I have been fans of Biscoff cookies for many years. My mother raved about them – going back at least 20 years. I was dismayed recently to notice that they now contain (or may contain) palm oil. Palm oil is hugely destructive to the environment, and I will now stop buying Biscoff cookies.
Please remove PALM OIL from the cookies, so I can enjoy them again. I know that there was no palm oil in them 20 years ago. Palm oil use skyrocketed recently because it was so “cheap.” But it is not cheap. The environment cost is huge, as is the economic and social cost to small farmers losing their land to vast palm oil plantations. Palm oil can easily be replaced by less destructive oils. Continued use is all about GREED. Please do not put profit over people and the planet.
Thank you.
Wednesday 21 December, 2016
Letter #642
Dear President Obama,
Thank you SO much for finding and using a 1953 law to ban offshore oil and gas drilling. Well done! This will take longer to overturn – if they can.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/us/obama-drilling-ban-arctic-atlantic.html
Now this is the way your legacy will be remembered. Please continue with creative and effective policies and executive orders until your VERY last day. Climate change is SO important we cannot afford to ignore it any longer! You have a great team of advisers and lawyers. Thank them for me too! I’m racing to write you lots of letters this holiday season, instead of writing Xmas cards. My friends will understand. The letters to you are more important. Thank you for all you do, but please please do a bit more!
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Love that 1953 Law
Wednesday 21 December, 2016
Letter #643
(2nd Letter Today)
Dear President Obama,
I am proud to tell you that a letter I recently wrote to Harvard asking them to DIVEST from fossil fuels has just been published in the Harvard Magazine. It has also been forwarded to a member of the Harvard Corporation by Tim Wirth, a fellow alum and influential activist. Please read it, and maybe YOU could forward it to some corporation members. It is their votes that count here! Adding your voice to ours would be fabulous (yes you may want to wait until February when you change jobs!) Please please continue to do everything you can to KIITG.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Love Transformative ACTION
Dear Harvard Magazine,
I just wrote this reply to several requests for gifts from the Radcliffe Institute. Please publish it. [they did – here is the link: https://harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/cambridge-02138
(There are many letters here, you have to scroll down a ways, or search for Ringler)
I have no intention of giving to Harvard or Radcliffe while they continue to refuse to divest from fossil fuels. Climate change is terrifying and Harvard is not doing anywhere near enough. They should be providing far more leadership in this crucial area. We unfortunately live in a country where big Oil has an incommensurate amount of power in politics, leading to politicians’ climate denial in the face of science. Faced with this situation, it behooves Harvard, as the most famous university, to lead in concrete and symbolic actions to galvanize all Americans so that together we can push our government to quickly reduce carbon emissions. The very livelihood of our offspring is at stake.
Science demands that we KIITG – Keep much of the declared Fossil Fuel reserves IN THE GROUND. This means they are not assets. Fossil fuel companies inflate their worth with these worthless assets. This makes fossil fuel companies a bad investment. I divested several years ago, and my portfolio has only continued to grow. I am ashamed that Harvard has not done the same.
Yes I know that Harvard is greening the campus and facilities, and that professors do research. But that is not nearly enough. I expect LEADERSHIP from Harvard. On Climate Change. It is severely lacking.
The Radcliffe Institute is “dedicated to transformative ideas” (see below) So let’s get on with it. Let’s admit the enormity of the climate crisis and start transforming the American way of life. Ideas do not transform until they lead to ACTION. Divestment would be a good first action, a first step towards showing some climate leadership.
Wednesday 21 December, 2016
Letter #644
(3rd letter today)
Pro-HDP Grafitti
Dear President Obama,
This one is to share with your daughters. I send a wonderful detailed article about gender equality as practiced in Kurdish society – all government boards and committees have co-executives, one male, one female.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/world/middleeast/turkey-kurds-womens-rights.html
The idea was started decades ago by the P.K.K. who is viewed by the US and others as a terrorist organization. But more recently the pro-Kurdish HDP won 50 seats in the Turkish parliament and follows the same policy. But in early November the Turkish government started attacking the HDP, jailing 10 of the 50 parliament members – and now taking over towns and getting rid of co-executives. By HDP rules no man with multiple wives can hold a party position of any kind! Way to go – now that’s gender equality. There has been an uptick of PKK attacks since November – are they terrorists or just fighting back against oppression? Americans really need to know that HDP is a mainstream liberal party. We need everyone, men AND women to fight climate change. Together we are strong. Please do everything you can for gender equality and KIITG.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringer, Admire the HDP Kurdish Party
Thursday 22 December, 2016
Letter #645
(4th letter today)
Colonial Pipeline Explosion, 31 October 2016, rural Alabama
Dear President Obama,
Ah yes – another picture of a pipeline explosion. Just showing that they always leak, explode, fail in some way.
If we really needed the black goo, ok, it is worth some risk. But now that we know about carbon pollution we must draw the line. No new fossil fuel infrastructure. KIITG! Keep it in the Ground. Did you know the French word for pipeline is Oléoduc? Sounds very important – Latin-based words sound important AQUADUC, OLEODUC – makes sense. But boy that’s a word I would like to stop using all the time! Can you help? Do everything you can TODAY to quickly cut carbon pollution.
Thanks.
Susan J. Ringler, Another Pipeline Accident
Thursday 22 December, 2016
Letter #646
Mohamed Tamalt
Dear President Obama,
Another journalist has died in prison under suspicious circumstances. I write to honor Mohamed Tamalt, dead at 42 in prison in Algeria.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/world/europe/algeria-facebook-mohamed-tamalt.html
He was sentenced to 2 years for insulting the Algerian president in a poem on Facebook. He went on a hunger strike, sustained a severe head wound, sunk into a coma and died. He deserved better. Where would we be without journalists? The good news is that fewer journalists died while working in 2016 than 2015, but it is still too many.
As the climate crisis grows, there will be more and more instability, wars, despots and tribalism. We owe journalists much for the risks they take to keep us informed.
A good way to reduce conflict and the ensuing danger to journalists is to KIITG! Keep it in the Ground. Please do all you can TODAY to cut carbon emissions.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honoring Mohamed Tamalt
Thursday 22 December, 2016
Letter #647
(2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
In these, the darkest days of the year, everyone needs some good news. So I write to you today about Isabella Dalla Ragione who saves old varieties of apples and pears in her orchard in Umbria, Italy.
She scours the countryside for neglected fruit trees and brings a branch back to her orchard, grafting it onto root stock. One of her ancient varieties is an apple that looks more like a pear and appears in a Durer painting in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
In 1800 there were 100 apple types in Italian farming books, in 1900 only about 50 and now 80% of apples grown in Italy are only 3 kinds. Ms. Dalla Ragione is helping preserve the rich biodiversity of her region and we all benefit from her work. As climate chaos advances we will need that diversity to maintain robust ecosystems. So please do your part too! Please do everything you can TODAY to KIITG! Keep it in the Ground. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Love Old Apple Types
Saturday 23 December, 2016
Letter #648
Dear President Obama,
Thank you SO much for eliminating the dormant database NSEER: National Security Entry-Exit Registration System.
This will make it a bit harder for the new administration to start a Muslim Registry! What a bad idea that is – listing people just because of their religion? Makes me want to go and register as a Muslim and encourage everyone I know to do the same so the list is too big. It’s the same idea as the Dutch King wearing a yellow star in WWII because the Jews were supposed to. Anyway I am so grateful that you are making such racist repressive policies a bit more difficult to enact. The stresses that climate chaos are already putting on countries are erupting in regional wars – conflict over scarce resources. We need to bring peoples and races together to battle climate change by reducing carbon levels. A stable, more predictable climate would de-fuse many conflicts and help improve our national security. Now that’s a goal: Reducing Carbon Pollution.
Please do all you can TODAY to reduce carbon pollution. That is the smart way to increase our security and well being.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Abhor a Muslim Registry
Saturday 23 December, 2016
Letter #649
Tsarnaev Family
Dear President Obama,
This looks like any family of kids to me. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/us/isis-al-qaeda-recruits-anwar-al-awlaki.html
Things went terribly wrong. But Dzhokhar was 19 on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing and was clearly NOT the ring leader. He was put in solitary confinement for 2 ½ years before his trial. I consider that vindictive and torture – especially considering his age at the time. Climate change increases regional conflicts, increases tribalism. We do not really have liberty and justice for ALL in the US. As the physical world spirals out of control, we need to try even harder to keep the best elements of our social fabric intact. Please try to cut carbon pollution as fast as you can! And meanwhile large doses of compassion and forgiveness will serve us all well.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Compassion for Dzhokhar
Saturday 24 December, 2016
Letter #650
Dear President Obama,
Merry Christmas and hail to the Rutgers 250 tomato!
New Jersey tomatoes were famous for decades and then mechanical processing overtook FLAVOR in importance and we lost our yummy tomatoes! Now Rutgers University has put a huge effort into recreating a delicious New Jersey tomato. I’m glad – but sorry we couldn’t have just had the foresight to preserve the good ones at the onset.
Foresight – planning ahead – these are becoming hugely important as we proceed into the era of climate chaos, disruption, unpredictable change. The MOST important thing we can do is move quickly to cut carbon emissions. The emissions we spew out TODAY will be affecting the climate for 10 or 20 years. You cannot cut emissions one year and see the results the next. That’s not how it works! So please please do everything you can today to KIITG! Keep it in the Ground. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Hail to Rutgers 250 Tomato
