Another Compassion Tune-up! "This is an SOS from the Kids"

Here's another song to share far and wide, written by 12-year-old Simeon and his mom.

SOS from the Kids

This is an SOS from the kids 
All the grown ups take note of this. 
We’re finding our voice, calling you out 
You can’t leave the world in fire and drought.
This is an SOS from the kids.

Please change the story 
Re-write the plot 
This beautiful Earth cannot be lost 
Stop hurting our planet 
Like you don’t care 
There’s only one world 
For us to share

This is an SOS from the kids 
All the grown ups take note of this. 
Wake up and see that you must make a change 
The riches you seek will all be washed away 
This is an SOS from the kids.

Please change the story
Re-write the plot 
This beautiful Earth cannot be lost 
Stop hurting our planet like you don’t care 
There’s only one world 
For us to share

Don't listen to the fat cats, 
they only want their cream 
Always needing oil 
for feeding their machines 
We must care about the animals; 
care about the trees, 
I'll need help from you, 
you'll get help from me!

Please change the story 
Re-write the plot 
This beautiful Earth
cannot be lost 
Stop hurting our planet, 
like you don’t care 
There’s only one world, 
for us to share. 

This is an SOS from the kids 
You can do better than this.

Compassion Tune-up - Greta Thunberg's Message to the Music of The 1975

When I'm not here every Sunday morning expounding on my thoughts and feelings around the climate crisis, it's because I'm too depressed to do it. It's been weeks now that I've barely done anything on the climate change front. (Well, I did protest our prime minister's visit to the region!)

But then this came my way and I really wanted to share it with you. Greta Thunberg is both a climate hero and an inspiration to many of us activists — of all generations.

"We must all do the seemingly impossible."

Enjoy the background music of The 1975, and then bookmark this page and come back and come back and come back again, until Greta's message fills your heart, overflows into your arteries, and then seeps from your pores. (One friend I sent it to you responded, "I feel like I need to hear it over and over, to keep the awareness at the top of my head all the time. Change now, today, stop the emissions. Rebel.") "Lyrics" are below.

Here's an animated version!

Greta Thunberg's Speech

We are right now in the beginning of a climate and ecological crisis.

And we need to call it what it is. An emergency.

We must acknowledge that we do not have the situation under control and that we don’t have all the solutions yet. Unless those solutions mean that we simply  stop doing certain things.

We admit that we are losing this battle.

We have to acknowledge that the older generations have failed. All political movements in their present form have failed.

But homo sapiens have not yet failed.

Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around. We can still fix this. We still have everything in our own hands.

But unless we recognise the overall failures of our current systems, we most probably don’t stand a chance.

We are facing a disaster of unspoken sufferings for enormous amounts of people. And now is not the time for speaking politely or focusing on what we can or cannot say. Now is the time to speak clearly.

Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that homo sapiens have ever faced. The main solution, however, is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases.

And either we do that, or we don’t.

You say that nothing in life is black or white.

But that is a lie. A very dangerous lie.

Either we prevent a 1.5 degree of warming, or we don’t.

Either we avoid setting off that irreversible chain reaction beyond human control, or we don’t.

Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t.

That is as black or white as it gets.

Because there are no grey areas when it comes to survival.

Now we all have a choice.

We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations.

Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail.

That is up to you and me.

And yes, we need a system change rather than individual change. But you cannot have one without the other.

If you look through history, all the big changes in society have been started by people at the grassroots level. People like you and me.

So, I ask you to please wake up and make the changes required possible. To do your best is no longer good enough. We must all do the seemingly impossible.

Today, we use about 100 million barrels of oil, every single day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground.

So, we can no longer save the world by playing by the rules. Because the rules have to be changed.

Everything needs to change. And it has to start today.

So, everyone out there, it is now time for civil disobedience. It is time to rebel.”

Compassion Tune-up - World

It's time for a compassion tune-up. There are a lot of mean-spirited people saying unkind things on social media these days, so let's remember that we create the world we live in through our choices.

Enjoy this song, World, from Five for Fighting, also known as the one-man show, John Ondrasik. Lyrics are below.

Got a package full of wishes A time machine, a magic wand A globe made out of gold No instructions or commandments, Laws of gravity or indecisions to uphold Printed on the box I see: ACME's Build a World to Be Take a chance, grab a piece Help me to believe it What kind of world do you want? Think anything Let's start at the start Build a masterpiece Be careful what you wish for History starts now ... Should there be people or peoples Money, funny pedestals For fools who never pay Raise your army, choose your steeple Don't be shy, the satellites can look the other way Lose the earthquakes, keep the faults Fill the oceans without the salt Let every man own his own hand. Can you dig it, Baby? What kind of world do you want? Think anything Let's start at the start Build a masterpiece Be careful what you wish for History starts now ... Sunlight's on the bridge Sunlight's on the way Tomorrow's calling There's more to this than love What kind of world do you want?
What kind of world do you want? 

What kind of world do you want? 
Think anything Let's start at the start Build a masterpiece History starts now Starts now 

Be careful what you wish for Start now Now...

Another Compassion Tune-Up: OneRepublic's Truth to Power

Heartsick, by Banksy

I just don't have it in me today to write a blog post. I am so saddened and horrified by the utter lack of empathy, compassion and simple human decency I'm witnessing more and more in social media comments. It's like a tidal wave of ignorance and scientific illiteracy is crashing over a shore of totally not giving a shit about anywhere or anyone else. I am heartsick and despondent.

So instead, I'll leave you with OneRepublic's Truth to Power, which powered the 2017 sequel to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, in which "he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion." Like I try to explain to people, this is the most exciting time ever to be alive.

Folks, if you want to do something besides feel bad, do this:

Help create the political will to stop direct and indirect subsidies to the fossil fuel industries (bam! investment will move over to renewable energy technologies — and isn't it time for fossil fuel energy to stand on its own to feet ... or remain in the ground?) Write, phone, email, fax or visit your elected officials.

Tell your government to get your country's carbon emission targets in line with the IPCC's special report on limiting warming to 1.5ºC before the next big climate conference (COP24 in Poland), which might *possibly* help us avoid cataclysmic climate chaos (a 45% reduction in emissions by 2030; that will get us on our way to zero carbon by mid-century, but we have to start NOW!)

Lyrics below.

Truth to Power
by Ryan B Tedder / T Bone Burnett

I could tell you I was fragile
I could tell you I was weak
I could write you out a letter
To tell you anything you need
 

I've seen minutes turn to hours
Hours turn to years
And I've seen truth turn to power

If you could see me the way I see you
If you could feel me the way I feel you
You'd be a believer
You'd be a believer

Minutes turn to hours
Hours turn to years
And I've seen truth turn to power

I could tell you I was ageless
But I know you see the light
I could tell you I'm immune to everything
But that's a lie
Dust don't turn to flowers
Skies don't disappear
But I've seen truth turn to power
 

Oh, if you could see me the way I see you
If you could feel me the way I feel you
You'd be a believer (believer)
You'd be a believer (believer)
You'd be a believer (believer)
You'd be a believer (believer)

Hard to keep goin' on (hard to keep goin' on)
I said it's hard to keep goin' on (hard to keep goin' on)
It's hard to keep goin' on (hard to keep goin' on)

If you could see me the way I see you
If you could feel me the way I feel you
You'd be a believer
You'd be a believer
You'd be a believer

A Compassion Tune-Up: Pat Benetar's Invincible

It's been a long time since I shared a song that's really impacted me. When my hubby played this blast from the past (well, the 80s) the other night, it really struck me that we've condemned younger generations to a future of fighting. "We can't afford to be innocent. Stand up and face the enemy. It's a do or die situation. We will be invincible." That's the verse that really got me. Cuz it is a do or die situation. And they won't be invincible unless we're doing a lot more today to ensure it.

Then this: "We've got the right to be angry. What are we running for? When there's nowhere we can run to anymore." Too true. And tragic.

Have a listen. The lyrics are below.

Invincible
by Holly Knight and Simon Climie

This bloody road remains a mystery
This sudden darkness fills the air
What are we waiting for?
Won't anybody help us?
What are we waiting for?

We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It's a do or die situation
We will be invincible

This shattered dream you cannot justify
We're gonna scream until we're satisfied
What are we running for?
We've got the right to be angry
What are we running for?
When there's nowhere we can run to anymore

We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It's a do or die situation
We will be invincible
And with the power of conviction
There is no sacrifice
It's a do or die situation
We will be invincible

Won't anybody help us?
What are we running for?
When there's nowhere, nowhere we can run to anymore

We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It's a do or die situation
We will be invincible

And with the power of conviction
There is no sacrifice
It's a do or die situation
We will be invincible

Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah

We can't afford to be innocent (yeah)
Stand up and face the enemy (yeah)
It's a do or die situation 
We will be invincible

We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy ....

Compassion Tune-Up: "There's a Choice We're Making, We're Saving Our Own Lives"

Do you remember the song We Are the World? It's a song that was recorded by umpteen famous American singers in 1985, to raise money for African famine relief. I remember at the time thinking, "There go those Yanks again, thinking they own the world." But the single went quadruple platinum and they raised over $63 million US (the equivalent of $138 million today), so who was I to judge? 

You know, one million people died in Ethiopia between 1983 and 1985 due to famine. Today, the lives of 5.6 million Ethiopians are threatened by drought and famine. As La Rochefoucauld said, the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

*******

That was a long-winded way of introducing this week's blog post. My hubby and I were despairing earlier this week that nothing is changing. People still don't feel the emergency, the crisis, the climate chaos and the ocean devastation, and they're not demanding change. 

That reminded Peter of Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher "discovered" by the Theosophical Society in 1909.

For Peter, the wisest thing that the very wise Krishnamurti ever said was that (I'm paraphrasing) we are the world, so if we ever expect to change the world, we'd better change ourselves. Right now. 

To explain it better, some pictures might be worth a thousand words or so. 

We Are the World

— Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie

There comes a time when we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can't go on pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We all are a part of God's great big family
And the truth, you know,
Love is all we need
Chorus:
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart so they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand
[Chorus]

When you're down and out, there seems no hope at all
But if you just believe there's no way we can fall
Well...well...well
Let's realize that a change can only come
When we stand together as one
[Chorus]
                                                                                                                                                                                    

No Alternative Facts Here, Just Bad Health and Bad News

I'm lying in bed with a bad cold/flu combo, so I've got too much time on my hands. Even so, some weeks, I just don't know what to blog about. Much of the news is so bad that anything positive I might write about risks seeming trite in comparison. 

I do want to let you know that I've had the privilege of meeting and working with two classes of wonderful first-year international students this past month. These fine young people are from China (mostly), Singapore, Vietnam, Mongolia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Ukraine and Iran. What a pleasure and an honour it is to talk with them about sustainable development and their future.

*******

This past week — President T****'s first in office — has people around the world not only petrified by the thought what he has up his sleeve but actually impacted by the executive orders he's signed already. WTF? Truly, WTF? How can one loose cannon, in such a short time, undo so much good work of so many good people who have worked for years in a country that has been talking social justice for decades if not centuries? They've not always been successful, but there's always been someone trying.

The first thing I did before starting this post was listen to the song in this Compassion Tune-Up. Loudly. Perhaps I need to start offering Outrage Wake-Ups as well. If the new American president is going to be emboldened, then we ought to become bold, too. One piece of advice I've read more than once this week is to not normalize T****'s actions — to stay outraged by them (99% of them have been outrageous already). But that's going to mean taking care of ourselves by sometimes taking time to not focus on what he's doing. 

So in my sickly stupor, I'm going to watch some re-runs of the Mary Tyler Moore show ... Mary Tyler Moore died this week, and a lot of us are feeling quite nostalgic, I think. I know I am. Her television portrayal of a working single woman in the early 1970s inspired a whole bunch of second generation feminists to see it as quite normal that women would succeed in work just as men do. 

Perhaps we can (re?)create a sense that it's quite normal that elected officials look after more than just the economy of their constituents — especially when it's that predatory economy that's fuelling the foreclosure on our children's future. The new president has children — he must hate them somehow to wish a climate hell on them. Or maybe he just doesn't see it as his job to ensure the viability of their future. (He probably thinks he created his present "success" all by himself, so why should he have to help his children make it? Frankly, because of the climate change crisis, that small attitude leads to progenycide. And people have to ask — read the comments at your peril — what it is that others are protesting. Sheesh.)

*******

I'll leave you with the link to an article by Bill McKibben: The New Battle Plan for the Planet's Climate Crisis, in which he talks about something sort of new: renewable energy denial amongst T****'s roster of cronies. It's an interesting read. 

And hey, Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! It's the Year of the Rooster (my sign) and my Chinese students tell me it means I'm going to have a lucky year. (I promise to share my luck.)