The Courage and Compassion of My Climate Hero Friends

Just a quick one today. I want to say thank you to some very special friends of mine who are giving their lives to help safeguard life on Earth. All three are climate activists extraordinaire, and I'd like to showcase and share their work with you.

Glenn MacIntosh, of ecoSanity.org, has been calling it like it is for several years now — one of the few anywhere in the world brave enough to tell the truth about the threat we face. ecoSanity.org's focus is "the clear, present, accelerating global emergency of the climate crisis and the unprecedented threat it poses RIGHT NOW to the survival of most life — this century." ecoSanity.org advocates "emergency worldwide mobilization at war-time speed to restore our rapidly destabilizing global climate to the safe balance that allowed us to evolve." Glenn works non-stop to bring us blogSanity and vidSanity. Visit his website to SEE, ACT and then INSPIRE. But take your courage and compassion with you!

Cory Morningstar is a fearless inspiration to me. She has wonderful children and pours her love for them into her work and her writing, which you can find at Canadians for Action on Climate Change. Cory also makes me laugh when the world gets me down (like last weekend when someone called me "negative" for talking about ensuring food security for the children in my community in light of the threat of climate change). Cory is currently working on a kick-ass book that will unmask many of the world's biggest climate change cowards and cons. You can check out some of Cory's chapters at The Art of Annihilation. But take your courage and compassion with you!

And finally, my hubby, Dr. Peter Carter ... man, is he one committed fighter! It is possible that Peter knows more about the climate change emergency than any other human being on this planet — that's how much time he spends at it, searching and sifting through the data, comparing, contrasting, extrapolating ... realizing what's happening. The thought of losing the birds, bees and butterflies and all the other beauty in the natural world (growing up an only child in the countryside ensured a lifelong love for the rest of Nature) spurs Peter to spend all day, every day researching, writing about and then filming his syntheses of the climate change research. Please visit his Youtube Channel if you'd like to learn the science behind the worst threat our species has ever faced. But take your courage and compassion with you!

One Single Little Declaration Would Change It All

DANGER! We are beyond DANGEROUS climate change!

That one little declaration on the part of any nation with influence at the international level would change the game — and the future — at the Cancun climate talks coming up later this year. (And yes, I'm oversimplifying to make a point.)

That's because "avoiding dangerous interference with the climate system" is the objective of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to which most nations in the world are signatories (and therefore legally bound). Since we have no only not avoided dangerous interference, we have surpassed dangerous interference, there should be huge legal and political ramifications.

But the developed (Annex 1) nations get away with this because they haven't yet "defined" dangerous interference. And if there's no definition, well, how can we be held responsible? Annex 2 (developing) nations, I'm afraid, are just as guilty here — they could have (and should have, considering they're already experiencing the dangers of interference with the climate system) defined and called dangerous. I think they're afraid of larger nations cutting off aid and development funding. (Don't get me going on that one! The UNFCCC says that developed nations should be helping smaller nations develop clean energy technologies, etc. but not much of that has been happening either. We are SO short-sighted and stingy!)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says they can't define "dangerous" — it's a value judgement that only society can make. Only a handful of climate scientists has dared wander into this fray. James Hansen, John Holdren, Hans Schellnhuber, Bill Hare, and perhaps a few others have stated that we're flirting with climate catastrophe (my words, not theirs!).

Society (at least in influential countries) ain't about to declare "dangerous interference" anytime soon, partly because the denial industry has people so confused all they want to do is watch TV, and partly because their favourite TV show is coming on in just a few minutes. Certainly anyone intimately connected to rape-and-pillage capitalism isn't going to sound the alarm.

So, maybe that leaves the one profession that mops up after "dangerous" every day: the healthcare profession: doctors, nurses, public health officials, and other associated groups. But it can't be about "change the lightbulbs in your clinic" — we're way beyond that personal actions stuff now. If no one else will do it, all the doctors of the world should stand up with their allied colleagues and declare, in a loud, influential voice: "HOLY CRAP! IF THIS ISN'T DANGEROUS INTERFERENCE WITH THE CLIMATE SYSTEM, I DON'T WANT TO BE AROUND WHEN THE $#@! REALLY HITS THE FAN!" 

Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud? Let's try it again:

Doctors and other healthcare professionals should stand up with their beleaguered colleagues from Russia and Pakistan and Niger and say firmly: "We know danger, and this is it." 

Visit Climate Change Emergency Medical Response for more information.

148 Days - We Have Our New Churchill!

I so wanted Al Gore to become our climate change Churchill. I will always resent the American (and other) climate change deniers and progenycists ("progenycide" is the killing of future generations, a term I coined recently) who turned his understanding of the climate change emergency, his passion for sharing the truth far and wide, and his mission to safeguard the future into a political football. (I'm usually a pretty positive person, but those people are despicable. Sadly, they're not the ones who are suffering the consequences of climate chaos first.)

I am, however, thrilled to see that a softspoken statesman is taking on the role of Churchill when it comes to the climate change emergency. His name is Ban Ki-moon, and he is the secretary-general of the United Nations.

Please watch this video (ignore the dork at the other end of the microphone — what a stupid question he poses!) to see Mr. Ban's quiet passion, skillful diplomacy, and strong commitment to this issue. The man is a hero — still unsung, but singing his own song — of the children of the world, and indeed the whole planet.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - Climate Hero!
on the Moral Imperative of the G8 Nations

If you would like to write a note of thanks or congratulations to Mr. Ban Ki-moon, visit the Emergency Action page at Climate Change Emergency Medical Response. Scroll down for his contact information, including his email address.

188 Days Left - The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion

There's no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn't tell you about it?
— Kin Hubbard (1868 - 1930)

A friend of ours wrote today to tell us some good news (you read about his Global Green Fund idea in yesterday's blog ... the guy's a genius with a good heart) and sent it to practically everyone on his email list. Shameless self-promotion, I call it.

That got me thinking that my action today could be shameless promotion of the work of others — good people fighting the good fight, giving up a lot (time, money, energy and sometimes relationships) to do what they feel they have to do for what they love ... the Earth, the children, life itself.

So here, in no particular order, are the websites of some really great climate heroes, people I count as like-hearted friends.

1. See. Act. Inspire. Glenn MacIntosh is ecoSanity.org. The name says it all. Glenn tells people, "The world's atmosphere is on course to reach a state of unsurvivable extremes within the lifetimes of today's children." He gets the urgency (not to mention the insanity) of global climate disruption. Visit ecoSanity.org especially for fascinating video clips of some fascinating climate warriors.

2.Beatle George Harrison once said, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." Fortunately, we do know where we need to get to, and it's 350 parts per million of CO2 in our atmosphere - or even less - to avert global climate catastrophe. Michael McGee started CO2 Now after taking his young son to hear Al Gore speak about the climate emergency. CO2 Now is "what the world needs to watch.... Global warming is mainly the result of CO2 levels rising in the Earth's atmosphere. Both atmospheric CO2 and climate change are accelerating. Climate scientists say we have years, not decades, to stabilize CO2 and other greenhouse gases. To help the world succeed, CO2Now.org makes it easy to see the most current CO2 level and what it means. So, use this site and keep an eye on CO2. Invite others to do the same. Then we can do more to send CO2 in the right direction

3. My husband, Peter Carter, MD, is a retired family physician. Throughout his adult life, he has been involved in the peace and environmental movements. As a doctor, he knows only too well that climate change is going to be (and in many parts of the world, already is) the biggest public health threat ever. (And that's just on our way to the biggest threat to our very survival ever.) His website for health care professionals is called Climate Change Emergency Medical Response. Check it out for the latest scientific climate research, and for suggested actions that doctors and other health care personnel can take. Hey, why not send it to your doctor?

Yo! Where are the women in this campaign? Oh right, here I am!!! (Just a little shameless self-promotion. ;-)