Fri 30 Dec 2016
Letter #661
Dear President Obama,
I was happy to read that you made 2 new national monuments this week in the southwest: Bears Ears Buttes having 1.3 million acres in Utah, and Gold Butte, having 300,000 acres in Nevada. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/politics/obama-national-monument-bears-ears-utah-gold-butte.html
Hooray for you! These areas will now be protected from mining and development. Do you know E. O. Wilson’s recent book Half-Earth? He argues we need to set aside 50% of the earth’s surface – land and water – as protected zones to maintain the exquisite interconnected ecosystem that has allowed human society to flourish. Well we are nowhere near that, and I hope we are not ruining too many ecosystems too rapidly for the whole marvelous web to unravel. Glad you helped a little bit today. Please try to do more tomorrow! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Hooray for National Monuments
Fri 30 Dec 2016
Letter #662
(2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I write to you today to honor another dead journalist Almigdad MOJALLI, a Yemeni working in Sana who died from shrapnel wounds last January. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/world/middleeast/covering-war-at-home-costs-a-yemeni-his-life.html
Few were covering the war in Yemen and his articles were important, especially as the number of journalists in Yemen dwindled. He was married and had a small son. I wonder how his family is managing without him? Yemen was always an inhospitable desert, the war has brought hunger to most of its people. Mr. MOJALLI considered his reporting “humanitarian work” and I agree. How would we know about all these civilian deaths without journalists? And so, since these mideast wars are about scarce resources, please do all you can TODAY to cut carbon emissions, lessen climate disruption, and lessen the stress on dwindling resources. Please act decisively to KIITG! Keep it in the Ground! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Honoring Almigdad MOJALLI
Sat 31 Dec 2016
Letter #663
Dear President Obama,
I was happy to read that Pres. Francois Hollande of France just granted a full pardon to Jacqueline SAUVAGE. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/world/europe/jacqueline-sauvage-full-pardon-france.html
She killed her husband in 2012 after decades of abuse and spent four years in prison. A year ago a petition asking for her full pardon collected 400,000 signatures and brought attention to her case. Now she is free. Domestic violence remains a scourge of modern society and is often not reported. So it is good that Mme. Sauvage’s case brought the issue some attention.
“How many eyes does it take til we see” said Bob Dylan, in his song, and that is certainly true of domestic violence. Let’s try to open our eyes more.
And in a very different mode, we also tend to not see climate change as it engulfs us. So please look through the appropriate lens at climate disruption – it seems far off, but is not at all – and when we actually SEE it, we will have so much heat baked into the atmosphere that it will take decades of more suffering to alleviate. So please do ALL you can TODAY to KIITG. Keep it in the Ground. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Clemency for Jacqueline Sauvage
Sat 31 Dec 2016
Letter #664
(2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
This rally for a higher minimum wage and other things was a year ago, but I am sending the image NOW because it is a wonderful graphic. There is the Eiffel Tower bending over – acting as the bridge from old dirty energy to new clean energy. And the style is very much like Sempé – that quintessential French cartoonist – particularly the hearts central to the image. And underpinning all the jobs and justice is stewardship of the CLIMATE. So please do all you can today to KIITG! Keep it in the Ground! Without a stable and flourishing climate this bridge will lead nowhere. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler,
Sun 1 January 2017
Letter #665
Dear President Obama,
*
In a recent interview, James Wines spoke of public spaces and how to make them inviting and engaging. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/us/the-man-who-coated-cars-in-asphalt-wants-vibrant-public-spaces.html
He spoke of two elements that particularly struck me: places to sit and clusters of large TREES for shade. Humans are great at bustling around, forging forwards on some project, changing, engineering, building. But what Wines reminds us is that we share this planet with nature and are intertwined with our many habitats. We need time to SIT and to appreciate the natural world. Large trees, growing slowly, silently absorbing carbon, anchor even urban spaces. Their value is HUGE and often under-appreciated. Where they grow is often IN THE WAY!*
Climate disruption is coming faster than we think. Instead of thinking we can engineer our way out of it, let’s learn from large trees! Please do all you can to KIITG, Keep it in the Ground, and preserve our natural carbon sinks and work with nature, not against it. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Love Large Trees
* 2019 photo of Harvard Divinity School Red Oak shortly before removal to make room for building project
Sun 1 January 2017
Letter #666
(2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I am ending the year with a letter to you about James Green an activist history professor who died in 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/business/james-green-author-and-human-rights-activist-dies-at-71.html
He wrote books on many things from the 1886 Haymarket Labor Rally to Appalachia’s Coal Mines and he also participated in civil rights and labor union protests. He often focused on the contributions of individuals and reminds us that these narratives “can help people think of themselves as historical figures who … have crucial moral and political choices to make.” My choice is to repeatedly remind you to use all of the powers of your office to quickly help lower carbon emissions. Climate change is the greatest problem of this century – all others pale if we fail to limit that change. Please do everything you can TODAY to KIITG! Keep it in the Ground. Meanwhile I will keep writing letters showing that everything (from Apricot Jam to hulahoops to Kandinsky) is connected to climate change! Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Making a Crucial Moral Choice
Mon 2 January 2017
Letter #667
Dear President Obama,
Let’s start the New Year talking about the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC).
This cost, currently pegged at $36 per ton (of carbon emitted) is used in US government cost/benefit analyses to determine how much to regulate car emissions, power plant emissions, and refrigerator energy-efficiency (among many others). Some anti-regulatory types would like to do away with the SCC and thereby make sweeping cuts to government regulations. But it is noteworthy that the large multi-national fossil fuel companies are FINE with an SCC, as long as it is relatively low. Exxon claims to favor a carbon tax as a way “to ensure a uniform and predictable cost of carbon across the economy.” And back in 2013 a group of large energy companies said their businesses would do fine with a carbon cost of $60 per ton (letter #254). But since we’ve dilly-dallied so long and STILL don’t have a carbon price/cost/tax, we need to really speed up other actions! Please do everything you can TODAY to KIITG! Keep it in the Ground. Those costs are rising fast, whether we like it or not. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Social Cost of Carbon Too Low
Mon 2 January 2017
Letter #668
(2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I write today to honor Dollree Mapp for standing up against police who searched her house without a warrant in 1957. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/us/dollree-mapp-who-defied-police-search-in-landmark-case-is-dead.html
Her case, Mapp vs. Ohio, eventually got to the Supreme Court in 1961 and they ruled that all states (not just federal courts) must exclude evidence gathered illegally. Why does it take so many little people and so many appeals for justice to be done? And what about climate justice? How long will it take for courts and governments to acknowledge that thousands of Africans from Niger, from Mali, from Chad are not just economic migrants, moving around looking for a good deal, but CLIMATE REFUGEES seeking just to survive?! So since the wheels of justice work so slowly, the best solution is for us to do as LITTLE climate damage as possible. Sp please please do all you can right NOW to reduce US carbon emissions. We just HAVE to KIITG. Keep it in the Ground. Do it for Dolree, do it for the farmers in Ghana, Niger, do it for all of us. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Justice Often Too Slow
Tues 3 January 2017
Letter #669
Dear President Obama,
I thank Samini Sengupta for reporting from Agadez, Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/15/world/africa/agadez-climate-change.html
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 311,000 people have passed through Agadez on their way north to Algeria or Libya and sometimes onwards to Europe. That’s over 800 people a day, every day, paying smugglers to sit in the back of a pick-up truck for the 3 day journey (250 miles) to the Libyan border. These people are desperate. They have nothing. And the situation will only get worse. But there is one important thing that we can do to minimize the damage. Yes! Of course! Quickly cut our carbon emissions! So please please do everything you can today to cut US emissions of GHG. We need to act fast, decisively, and change our habits. It’s good for everyone. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Learning about Refugees in Agadez, Niger
Wed 4 January 2017
Letter #670
Dear President Obama,
The small island nation of Malta benefits from being an island by KEEPING its language Maltese – spoken by 90% of Maltese at home. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/world/what-in-the-world/maltese-european-union-arabic-language.html
When Christians in Malta go to church, they pray to Allah and the period of Lent is known as “Ramdan” – a word a lot like Ramadan. So Maltese has 30% Arabic words, 60% Italian or Sicilian words, and 10% English words. The language embodies the rich multi-culturalism of the Mediterranean. If Americans called their deity ALLAH one week and GOD the next, I think it would do a lot to counter religious hatred. It makes you stop and think that maybe we have more similarities with other people than differences. Maybe the next time you hear someone talk about Allah on a plane next to you, they are a Maltese Christian. Think about that! So let’s work together to quickly reduce carbon emissions worldwide. Please do your part here in the US. We will all suffer from climate disruption, so we need to speed up our carbon reductions. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Learn from Maltese
