Some comedy’ish politics (although this is no laughing matter); Canada does however have laughable leadership, terrible…

Al Gore’s plead to climate change delegates in Poznan, Poland. It’s 350 folks!!

Gwynne Dyer spoke in Vancouver yesterday about his recent book “Climate Wars”. He has written extensively on foreign affairs and war, but his curiosity soared about climate change when he found some information about the British military’s preparation for climate change related scenarios in the future. He secured a book deal that gave him 18 months of research around the world interviewing politicians, military officials, and scientists, then stringing it together with some bold predictions. Generally the science is bang on and consistent with my own research, the environmental implications based on the science are quite accurate and consistent with the current consensus; the predictions he shares about how humans will handle the situation are somewhat bold and even controversial. Below is a summery of his lecture…

“Scientists are scared”, Dyer proclaimed near the beginning of his talk. The most recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report in 2007 gives a range of climate change scenarios; for instance the one on temperature suggest an average warming of between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius by 2100. Some of the most recent data suggests that even the high-end estimates in the 2007 report are on the low side. For instance artic sea ice coverage is down from 7 million square km’s to 4.3 million. Some predictions have gone as far to say that we could have an ice free artic by 2013.

Dyer explained that the problem with the IPCC is that it is a consensus, thus all scientists involved must agree on the numbers; this inherently biases the numbers toward the lowest common denominator. Also the reports used to base these predictions on are old. The cut off for official documents used by the panel for the latest ‘07 report was the end of ‘05. For the reports to be peer reviewed and published they would have had to be written by the end of ‘03; that means the data must have been from 2002 or earlier. This means our political action today is based on out of date information. This is bad news because climate change is happening at an alarming rate, much faster than even the IPCC had predicted. Dyers research on military forecasts show that they’ll have lots of work, and much of the concern is based on food supply, “eating is a non negotiable activity, without it your carbon footprint will be zero within 6 weeks”.

One scenario of conflict he suggested was between Mexico and the US. American farms will be hit hard because of changes in how Hadley cells distribute heat and moisture from the equator. Mexico will unfortunately lose much of their growing capacity, and will thus look north to America; but with the yanks own domestic shortages, the US may close the border in a militaristic way, which could cause anger amongst the America’s Mexican population which by 2030 could be as much as ¼. Leading to a divided country rivaling that of the civil war.

He suggests similar situation may arise in many parts of the world. Pakistan and India will have conflict on water usage from the Indus River once the glaciers in the Himalayas have melted. Without the water, India could lose approximately 25% of it’s food production; because India has 4 of the 5 tributaries running through it before the water reaches Pakistan, there won’t be much left, if any. So if human nature follows  course, Pakistan will raid its neighbor before letting their children starve. Because he is well versed in the field of war, having written about eight books on the subject, it is hard to discount some of his predictions.

He told us that Australia has conceded that their current drought is actually climate change, because droughts end and this one isn’t….The EU could face hardships when mass immigration northward begins due to loss of growing area in the south…. Negotiating Climate Change treaties such as the Kyoto will become difficult due to countries in peril.

He then talks about the point-of-no-return, which happens when global temperature rise reaches two degrees warmer than 1990 levels. We are already committed to 1.3, and Dyer, along with most scientists, believe we are going to sail right past this point despite the fact that the technology is available to prevent this. Once the point is past, we’ll lose control, meaning that no matter what we do, even if we cut our emissions to zero, the planet will warm dramatically toward the six-degree warmer mark, and perhaps beyond. Reasons for this uncontrollable feedback is due to oceans becoming carbon emitters rather than sinks, and because of the melting of permafrost. As the permafrost melts, large stores of methane will be released into the atmosphere and will act as a heating agent that is 20 times more powerful than CO2.

He is briefly optimistic when talking about solutions such as creating bio fuel out of pond scum (algae) and about the potential for clean energy by combining hydrogen and carbon. Along with the standard solutions such as photovoltaic, wind power, wave energy, and geothermal, he concludes that we have the answers. He then states that he doesn’t believe we’ll implement them fast enough. Bottom line, he concludes, is that we are going hit 400 or 500 or more p.p.m. of carbon in the atmosphere. “So are we doomed?” he asks, his suggestion is no, because human ingenuity may have a couple more tricks to play in the form of geoengineering (the cooling kind of human produced climate change, not the warming kind which we’re already successful at).

The two leading geoengineering propositions he shares are first, to mimic the action of volcanoes, which can cool the atmosphere slightly as Pinatubo did in ‘91. This can be accomplished simply by mixing jet fuel with sulfur dioxide. Whew! The second is to send automated ships out in the ocean that pump up mist from the ocean to thicken the marine strato cumulous cloud coverage, bouncing the excess heat away from the oceans. Dyer believes these measures may be acted on within five or ten years. He claims these (far-fetched) ideas will win us ten to twenty years which will give us time to reduce emissions to where we need them. This is a very controversial conclusion, and a dangerous one to bank on. It can lead toward lax climate change actions based on the thought that science will solve the problem without us having to change our lifestyles. Dyer certainly wasn’t claiming that we can all relax now, he is more alarmed than ever, but at the same time he concludes that his optimism is much higher than when he began his research, and is glad that there is a vision for a way through this mess.

This is such a fantastic way to spend 20 minutes. I highly recommend making the time. Annie Leonard describes our current capitalist dysfunction in such a clear and easy to understand way. I’m currently reading a book called “The Bridge at the edge of the World”, and the author, James Speth, is taking 237 pages to essentially explain the same thing.

The Story of Stuff Website

To help visually quantify the vast amount of stuff talked about in the video, browse through Chris Jordan’s photographic art collection (the first exhibit on his flash website). A picture is worth a thousand words.

Chris Jordan’s Website

All the best folks,

Ryan

As a progressive, left leaning, Canadian citizen, I found it difficult to decide who to vote for in the October 14th federal election. My values were best represented by the Liberal, NDP, and Green Party alike. The majority of Canadians who voted were in a similar position, often voting strategically to prevent Conservatives from gaining a majority, which they did—but the votes were still too diluted between the three parties to win an ABC (anything but conservative) government.

If you add up votes from those three progressive parties, it equals 7,086,359 compared to 5,208,796 for conservatives.

Now I don’t claim to be an expert in politics, but the topic most important to me, climate change, is all but being ignored by the conservatives. In fact, Canada was rated 15th out of the 17 developed countries examined, with only Australia and the US rating worse. Indeed, immediate climate change action is necessary to prevent major hardships for Canadians down the road—this takes a vision for the future, beyond the short term politically selfish plans currently in effect. A coalition government is only way to give Canadians what they need, and the future our children deserve.

I value Elizabeth May’s opinion highly, I think she outshined everyone at the last federal election debate. She is in favor of the coalition. If you are in the same boat as I, as I know most of you are judging on the election results from October 14th, you’ll have to read between the lines and do some digging because the conservatives will be using some big money to convince the general public that the coalition is bad news. You’re going to have to put on a serious filter over the coming week. Sure the coalition is an imperfect solution, but the temporary chaos it will and has caused, seems to be the best option we have right now. Based on the actual issues, it will be the best democratic reflection of how Canadians voted.

Political talk is a very inaccurate science with more truth bending, and outright lying than in any other facet of life. The above is my simple translation of the current situation based on my values. I understand and acknowledge that others may have an alternative viewpoint, and I honor that.

Just trying to figure out what this coalition between Liberals and NDP is all about. Turns out it could mean some fantastic things for all Canadians, and as a progressive voter, I want to spread the good word. Please watch this video to make some sense of the situation:

Now go to the the Canadians for a Progressive Coalition website and sign the petition

For further details, check out this message from Elizabeth May of the Green Party.

If you want to do more, the Green Party is in desperate need of funds, especially now that Harper is trying to eliminate federal funding for federal political parties. Click here to donate, even if it’s just five bucks! Here’s the intro to the e-mail I recieved from the Green Party about the subject of federal funding:

Today Jim Flaherty announced that the Tories will cut the public subsidy to all federal political parties. It is disguised as a response to the economic crisis. It is actually a scheme to destroy Harper’s political opponents. It is an assault on fair financing rules brought about through sweeping reforms. These reforms were designed to eliminate the power of Big Money in our elections. Harper wants that power back… 

This petition won’t take long either, please make the time, and lend your name. If not, corporate interest could blind the Canadian public in future elections. Please click here for the petition!!

Our democracy isn’t in full working order, and Harper is  trying use the strong arm which will make it a lot worse (except for the minority of greedy conservatives).  It’s bad news all around if we don’t act now!

If you’re curious about the economy, this is worth a listen. It is a recording from 5 years ago by Senator Bernie Sanders grilling Greenspan on his economic policies. Even though most of us had a blindfold on, some like Sanders saw the error in his ways. Sanders is a guest on the Thom Hartmann radio program every Friday for a segment called brunch with Bernie. As bumper sticker exclaimed, “Right side of the dial for the left side of the brain”. Have a listen, it’s a great and powerful rant

sandersongreenspan

I streamed the Canadian Federal Debate last night on my computer (who needs cable anymore?!), Elizabeth May had a very strong showing, and was my pick as the winner of the debate. I’m happy that she was included on the main stage to finally give The Green Party the representation they need.

May’s answers and responses seem to best reflect my worldviews; the unfortunate thing is that due to the strange election laws in Canada, many citizens will vote against their intentions as a purely defensive technique to be sure the ‘other’ party doesn’t gain a majority. Very complicated – I’m still trying to figure it out…and am also still undecided who I will vote for due to this very reason. May proclaimed,  in response to the question of what the first things she will do if elected Prime Minister, that she will change the election laws to address this problem. Nice! She noted that since she’s a female, she’ll be able to act on many important issues simultaneously. 

Steve Paikin, the moderator of the debate, closed by saying “this debate was way better than the Biden/Palin debate”. This remark struck me as strange, especially as part of his closing statement – made it seem like an  entertainment choice. Elizabeth May actually spoke over top of him quickly exclaiming (from my memory) “of course it was better, it’s our democracy”.

If you’re more of a youtube’r, check out The Green Party’s YouTube ads…all filmed during May’s whistle stop tour through Canada.

Ad #3: Economy

Ad #5: Nature

Ad #4: Deomocracy

RL

Sept 11, (forgot to get this posted when I landed in Vancouver from Europe)

Airtime…what do I do when sitting for ten hours on a plane? Some may think it’s a huge bore, a waste of time, which pretty much makes it a countdown to the future. This ironically and unfortunately is how many of us conduct our daily lives, always looking forward to the next moment impatiently. But the present holds tremendous opportunity no matter where you are, and it doesn’t even matter whether you have an iphone in your pocket with wi-fi reception!

So what did I do on the flight? Here’s a quick list:

• Finished reading “Zen in the Art of Archery“
• Started reading another Ken Wilber book
• Listened to some Xavier Rudd music
• Listened to the Thom Hartmann Podcast
• Listened to the Living Dialogues Podcast,
• Ate a couple specially requested vegetarian meals (a free option for any flight with food)
• Watched “The 11th Hour” on my computer (because of course no on board plane entertainment would feature such an important film)
• Had a couple short naps
• Had a bunch of silent ‘zone out’ sessions while watching the clouds below
• And did a little writing on the computer, as seen below…

I don’t want to be entertained for the sole purpose of passing the time. Time is the most precious resource we have, though most don’t take advantage of it due to the wicked consumerism cycle. What we choose to do with our spare time (and money) is more important today than ever before. Like one quote from “The 11^th Hour”, and it was actually the closing quote from film, “The Earth has all the time in the world, but we don’t”, – Oren Lyons.

How do you want to spend your time? Stuck in traffic, working long hours to pay for the car that’s bigger, the house that’s bigger, the extra stuff you have to put in it not to mention the time it takes to find and buy all that stuff. Do you want to spend the down time you do have worrying about all the stuff you have accumulated and the possibility of losing it? How do you want to spend your time? What is really important and do your actions reflect it? Maybe you’ll have “time” when you retire, if you can just make it another 3, 10, or 30 years, then it’ll all be good – big house paid off and time to travel and finally enjoy life. Yes? …NO!!!!

I am increasingly becoming tired of our cultures rampant material lifestyles and the negative effects it has. I have been as guilty as anyone, but coming to terms with the charge is the first step, and owning this truth encourages automatic right choice. 

We have to move from the black hole of Well Having to the light of Well Being!!

Watching “The 11^th Hour” has really rattled my heart, and in a great way. I can’t say how many times this happened recently as I learn more about our human predicament. My goals are being re-shaped quite rapidly, and the more I learn, the more sure I am of the direction I would like to go, and the more I am convinced that the role I play can make a difference, as can everyone in their own unique way.

Viewing this film may be scary to some, as it was for me at times, but the feeling I have is one of elation and excitement; it’s a sense of purpose I feel that I think we all can join in on. Our generation will decide what life will be like for generations to come, and it can go either way; is there a mission that is any more important than that? Where do we start though?

I would suggest simplifying and reducing our material consumption so we can afford to buy the products that are necessities, and to use that consumer power we have to send the message that we as individuals are serious about change (buying smaller houses), serious about our health (buying organic), and serious about the planet (not buying disposable ‘stuff’ we don’t need). The majority of the stuff we buy has a cradle to trash lifecycle, instead of a cradle to cradle lifecycle which needs to be the new goal.

We do have power as individuals. The power to vote when we go to the store…and of course the power to vote politically. We have an election going on here in Canada which requires great attention, as does the roller coaster American Presidential race. The potential new American V.P., Governor Sarah Palin, denies that humans have anything to do with climate change, she is as far right as it gets; can you imagine if McCain gets elected? Scary. Please do the research and don’t rely on the media because they’re poised to gain financially if the republicans win. Yes this is a rambling post, and yes I’m battling to write this all before my battery dies, but I think we’re living in a very exciting time with huge possibilities for some beautiful transformations. There is reason for optimism, but we have to start acting now.

Our way of thinking must change before action is taken, that’s the challenge we face; action based in old paradigm thinking, no matter how well intentioned, could just make the situation worse (this is a confusing concept). Pico Iyer articulated it nicely with this quote, “Action without reflection is what got us into this mess in the first place, and the only answer is not action, but, first, clearer reflection.” 

Another example might be those acting out of fear, this has been a common response for many after “An Inconvenient Truth” was released. In a recent audio program, I heard Ken Wilber say “one of the strange paradoxes is that eco-centric thinking is often ego-centric thinking, and unfortunately Gaia is the One that suffers.” So we have to be careful. Perhaps more time needs to be devoted to expand on these concepts, so I’ll save it for another time.

In conclusion though, I will be doing everything I can to help raise that awareness and educate (both myself, then others), I will strive to spread the good word of hope. It is an important time to be alive, but we must act with intelligent haste.

Much love friends

Why do the democrats seem so passionate when speaking while the republicans always lack flavor. Maybe because deep down they know what they’re campaigning for, and they know it doesn’t offer America what it needs.

For example, Dennis Kucinich had some serious fire and enthusiasm during his short speech at the Democratic National Convention, certainly worth a watch. It was from hearing the following quote about McCain’s Republican’s that prompted me to search out the following speech, “They’re asking for another four years, in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.” Nice!!

As for Barack’s running mate, Joe Biden, he seems to be an amazing pick. A friend told me a while back that if you want stuff to get done at the White House, you need to elect someone like McCain that is bro’s with all the movers and shakers….Well the Bush administration ran with that, but along the lines of “It’s not what you know, but who you know”, and at the same time, they let money talk. McCain is moving along the same lines on the most crucial issues. “McCain more of the Same”, scary.  Well, Biden seems to have “who you know” and ”what you know”. ObamaBiden08!!

Let’s heal America, and therefore the world. Vote Democrat!!