All Posts Tagged ‘environment’

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“Stop poisoning the air, water and topsoil” – Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to the future —

June 2, 2021
32 comments

I met Kurt Vonnegut many years ago when my wife and i had gone to a book signing event in Chicago. I do not agree with everything that he says, but i am appreciative of the seven very sagacious terms which he seriously provides below. Will the people of our planet change to substantially improve the health of the earth as a whole? That is not likely (in substantial enough numbers). However, at least some of us are trying. Meanwhile, with the Covid situation improving, oodles of people are once again flying around in polluting jets and are long-distance traveling in fossil fuel vehicles to get vacations that they feel they are owed. The blue sky will be getting smoggy again and the crazy winds will continue to get even crazier.

Letter to the Future, From Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.:

“Ladies & Gentlemen of A.D. 2088:

It has been suggested that you might welcome words of wisdom from the past, and that several of us in the twentieth century should send you some. Do you know this advice from Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘This above all: to thine own self be true’? Or what about these instructions from St. John the Divine: ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment has come’? The best advice from my own era for you or for just about anybody anytime, I guess, is a prayer first used by alcoholics who hoped to never take a drink again: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.’

Our century hasn’t been as free with words of wisdom as some others, I think, because we were the first to get reliable information about the human situation: how many of us there were, how much food we could raise or gather, how fast we were reproducing, what made us sick, what made us die, how much damage we were doing to the air and water and topsoil on which most life forms depended, how violent and heartless nature can be, and on and on. Who could wax wise with so much bad news pouring in?

For me, the most paralyzing news was that Nature was no conservationist. It needed no help from us in taking the planet apart and putting it back together some different way, not necessarily improving it from the viewpoint of living things. It set fire to forests with lightning bolts. It paved vast tracts of arable land with lava, which could no more support life than big-city parking lots. It had in the past sent glaciers down from the North Pole to grind up major portions of Asia, Europe, and North America. Nor was there any reason to think that it wouldn’t do that again someday. At this very moment it is turning African farms to deserts, and can be expected to heave up tidal waves or shower down white-hot boulders from outer space at any time. It has not only exterminated exquisitely evolved species in a twinkling, but drained oceans and drowned continents as well. If people think Nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.

Yes, and as you people a hundred years from now must know full well, and as your grandchildren will know even better: Nature is ruthless when it comes to matching the quantity of life in any given place at any given time to the quantity of nourishment available. So what have you and Nature done about overpopulation? Back here in 1988, we were seeing ourselves as a new sort of glacier, warm-blooded and clever, unstoppable, about to gobble up everything and then make love—and then double in size again.

On second thought, I am not sure I could bear to hear what you and Nature may have done about too many people for too small a food supply.

And here is a crazy idea I would like to try on you: Is it possible that we aimed rockets with hydrogen bomb warheads at each other, all set to go, in order to take our minds off the deeper problem—how cruelly Nature can be expected to treat us, Nature being Nature, in the by-and-by?

Now that we can discuss the mess we are in with some precision, I hope you have stopped choosing abysmally ignorant optimists for positions of leadership. They were useful only so long as nobody had a clue as to what was really going on—during the past seven million years or so. In my time they have been catastrophic as heads of sophisticated institutions with real work to do.

The sort of leaders we need now are not those who promise ultimate victory over Nature through perseverance in living as we do right now, but those with the courage and intelligence to present to the world what appears to be Nature’s stern but reasonable surrender terms:

  1. Reduce and stabilize your population.
  2. Stop poisoning the air, the water, and the topsoil.
  3. Stop preparing for war and start dealing with your real problems.
  4. Teach your kids, and yourselves, too, while you’re at it, how to inhabit a small planet without helping to kill it.
  5. Stop thinking science can fix anything if you give it a trillion dollars.
  6. Stop thinking your grandchildren will be OK no matter how wasteful or destructive you may be, since they can go to a nice new planet on a spaceship. That is really mean, and stupid.
  7. And so on. Or else.

Am I too pessimistic about life a hundred years from now? Maybe I have spent too much time with scientists and not enough time with speechwriters for politicians. For all I know, even bag ladies and bag gentlemen will have their own personal helicopters or rocket belts in A.D. 2088. Nobody will have to leave home to go to work or school, or even stop watching television. Everybody will sit around all day punching the keys of computer terminals connected to everything there is, and sip orange drink through straws like the astronauts.

Cheers,

Kurt Vonnegut”

Fragile, Yes … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2021
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Staring at the Soft Moon One Night

October 2, 2020
19 comments

[Note: The following poem was written days ago and was prescheduled. This note was written on 10/1/2020. Marla, my wife was taken to the emergency room today regarding sudden serious problems with her liver. She has Wilson’s Disease. I will be absent from blogging and will not be able to respond to comments. Take care and stay safe. ]

________________________________________________________________

staring at the soft moon one night
the next hard morning was driving home
past lawyers past schoolgirls
past praying bugs and all alone

like wind-up toys they judge and vote
and next some raking leaves work fast
then eating sleeping peeing dressing
wondering how long life will last

to wake up dead or alive or between
an eternal fleeting poem continues on
scanning eyes from word to word
your story starts with Once upon

to kiss or hate or just sit still
to get to want to follow
while compassion sings the best of all
Beyond self-deception hard to swal

low

____________________________________________________________

Note: This is a Praying Mantis. She is a female, laden with eggs. Because of the rotten, declining environment, there are fewer Praying Mantises in our area every year. Years ago, we used to see Mantises frequently; now we rarely see any. I found this one in a hospital garden, along a river, that used to have a lot of them. This was the only one that i saw. Fortunately, female Mantises do not need males in order to reproduce; they can produce fertile eggs and young that are exact clones of themselves. (It sure seems like my childhood premonitions about man ruining the environment are, many decades later, turning out to be true.)

Praying Mantis … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2020
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Environmental Thunder

August 21, 2020
27 comments

[Note: I despise politics, but these are critical, precarious times when one must get somewhat “political.” The current diabolical U.S. administration is endorsing coal and fossil fuels and is deregulating and dismantling environmental mandates/regulations, not to mention destroying democracy and free-voting. Each year there are fewer butterflies, fewer bees, fewer lightning bugs, fewer of myriad types of wildlife creatures… not to mention fewer healthy people.

The cover of a recent Sierra Club environmental magazine stated: “Vote like the Planet depends on it (because it does).”]

_____________________________________________________________________________

Clear-eyed lightning thundering into people
as a person whose booming tinkering
blew separative self-seekers into roaring trepidation

Powerful winds upsetting murky, muddy minds of seem
groundlessly thinking they were of clear, illuminated skies
but falsely emancipated in dead houses of opaque beliefs

Earth’s life creatures were dying, not from the tempest
but from the stale, stagnant home-dwellers indifferent,
enclosed abodes of security hiding from the perfume of life

The tumultuous clapping was earth desperately tenacious
among the sullied world of gadgets, plastic, and fossil fuels
(Their adherence to self-gratification… not worth the price)

Two Insects … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020


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Wisdom, Viruses, and existing beyond Chaos

April 17, 2020
27 comments

These are very tough times for the world’s people right now. There is the virus going around, many governments (worldwide) are becoming more and more dictatorial, suppressing such things as human rights, the right to vote, and fair and balanced systems. I’ve included another video, down below, by Dr. Campbell, for you to look at if you have not seen it already. He sagaciously suggests something similar to what i have been blogging about for a very long time… that we should stay local — not pollute the air by (needlessly) flying in jet planes (that most all of us ludicrously assume we have a “right” to fly around in) — and produce and consume more goods locally, rather than (cheaply) getting them from overseas. Our population, too, needs to be kept in check. The over-populated (crowded-in-large-groups-cities) Native American Hopewell culture likely descended from the earlier low population hunter/gatherer Adena culture. With much larger populations concentrated together (in large “towns”), the Hopewell culture went through devastating periods of human to human disease transmissions (i.e., devastating viruses); this may have been the primary reason for the Hopewell culture’s demise. Sound familiar? But people tend not to learn; they tend to follow and merely imitate; hence, dictators and lack of freedom are popping up again as phenomena. Few people, in the many nations, are really talking about lowering population levels. So my premonitions (from childhood) about deadly viruses and a deadly-polluted globe seem to be, indeed, transpiring.

To compromise a lot and to look the other way and make excuses is not great order. Only great order as (and of) the mind can allow the possibility of a true (not fabricated) visitation by that sacred, eternal energy to take place. Then there is a real communion, not all of that phony stuff. If it (i.e., such a visitation) never takes place in one’s life, then one’s life may have, unfortunately, turned out to be like a seed that never germinates, an egg that never hatches. With such visitation may come real wisdom about the whole, and not all of that phony stuff; with it, eternity is revealed deeply, and superficiality continues to significantly dissipate.

Dr. Campbell is right, we need to be close to nature and the outdoors. We need to be responsible for our little, delicate planet. We need to care.

Please, if you are able, donate to your local food bank (as we have been repeatedly doing).

Cutleaf Toothwort Wildflower and Insect in the Woods… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020
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Covid-19 and the Future (continued)

April 10, 2020
34 comments

Stay safe and be cautious and prudent in this current viral crisis. This thing will likely be around for a long time. Additionally, in this polluted world, more deadly viruses will be coming. Unfortunately, our government officials are superficially looking at things fragmentarily and are not seeing things holistically with a lot of insight. In the U.S., for instance, i feel that Trump is adding to the nightmare of this. I am basically an apolitical person, but what i see this non-compassionate, narcissistic man doing is horrifying. My friends in other countries are equally horrified with the current U.S. administration, and with good reason. It’s like a horror movie. He has a cult-following around him and, while people are dying, he talks about his ratings. He promotes and endorses racism and he is dismantling just about everything that President Obama did in the past… including (recently) the drastic weakening (i.e., ending) of an Obama-era fuel economy standard that made new cars more fuel-efficient and more environmentally friendly.  This will increase pollution while the world wrestles with a respiratory virus pandemic (that Trump had called a hoax) and a climate crisis. (Is a deadly-polluted world really the legacy that you want to leave your kids?) Then there is the drastic cutting of Social Security and Medicare, putting kids in cages, being puppets for the fossil fuel industry, and the GOP’s diabolical suppression of voting in many states. This is an immoral society and we are allowing ourselves to be bamboozled by extremely immoral so-called leaders. Personally, if you subscribe to such nefarious stuff, i would prefer it if you unfollowed this blog and stayed away. Such nefarious behavior is a danger to mankind and the animal and plant kingdoms. Besides, subscribing to such drivel certainly nullifies any chance of ever being visited by that sacred, holistic energy; its order and vast intelligence does not visit the disorderly, the visionless.

I highly recommend watching Dr. John Campbell’s (daily) videos on the coronavirus. (One of his wonderful and very helpful videos that i especially like is provided below. He is from England, and one meter equals around 3.3 feet.) He is a top-notch medical expert (now retired). We all need to talk more about population limitation, healthy environmental measures, and living cooperatively. And please donate, as i did, to your local food bank (in these very difficult times).

Stay safe!

Easter Eggs (kind of)… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020
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Covid-19 and the Future

April 3, 2020
32 comments

This Covid-19 thing is affecting us all worldwide. We are all in this together. Clairvoyance, or whatever you wish to call it, tends to run in our family. My mother certainly had it, and i tend to have it. I’ve told my wife, for many years, that a terribly virulent virus or germ would be devastating to the human race. I had that “vision” when i was a kid and never forgot what it meant. I also, when i was a kid, saw that humans would pollute the world in very globally lethal ways. (Just a few months ago, one Thursday morning, i had a vision that i was precariously going into the side of a fast-moving Mack truck; the truck was coming from my right and going to the left… in the “vision”. I always go to grocery shop on Thursdays, so i bravely went to shop at our local Walmart, in spite of my vision. I was very cautious. I got groceries and was almost all the way home and thought, “Well that was an unusual false-alarm, thank goodness.” Then, about a mere half-mile from home, i came to a four-way stop. I came to a full stop, was about to proceed when a huge Mack truck came barreling through the intersection without stopping. I was glad that i hesitated at that stop. I was facing south; the truck was coming from the west going east… coming from the right of me and going to the left of me.)

Nature has a way of teaching us lessons. Right now the air across America is getting cleaner — so the scientists say — and the environment is getting healthier, from far less jets in the air and fewer cars on the road. Healthy environments usually produce healthy organisms; sick environments usually produce sick, diseased organisms.
Nature has a way of teaching us lessons. But we have to listen.

Shrooms … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020

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Song Poem about The Future (unless we change)…

November 25, 2019
6 comments

 

 

Once there was a twice
        and then three times
Twice there was a once
        and then three times

Once there was great green earth
        and no crazy endless raging fires
Once there was clear ocean
        with everything freshly alive
with everything freshly alive…

Once fossil-fuel cars and trucks
         and redgreenyellow stop lights
Now there’s empty rust and black smog
        while nothing much is alive
while nothing much is alive

Once we made dead plastic
        we mindlessly tossed it all around
Now it’s a veryonceuponatimeplace
        where life used to be

Once there was heaven
         fresh air butterflies soaring sweetly in sun
Now a lot of toxic dead ocean smell
        and large bipedal mammals there are none
there are none

Once there was a twice
         and then three times
Twice there was a once
         and then three times

Once there was a Katydid. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Latest Sierra Club News as of October 2019

October 25, 2019
20 comments

(Please “like” this post if you perceive the seriousness of it, not because you like what is happening.)

The remote Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean are covered by 413.6 million pieces of plastic debris weighing 262 tons.

People around the world could be ingesting five grams of microplastic each week, the equivalent of eating a credit card.

July 2019 surpasses July 2016 as the hottest month in recorded history.

Emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from ammonia-fertilizer plants are 100 times greater than what’s reported by the industry.

So far this year, 182 dead gray whales have washed up along the Pacific Coast, many likely having starved to death because of changing fish populations in warming waters.

In April 2019, for the first time ever, more US electricity generation came from renewables than from coal.

Human activity threatens 1 million species of plants and animals with extinction.

A heatwave bakes India. Temperatures in Rajasthan reach 123 degrees F, and the four reservoirs that supply Chennai (population 9.1 million) go dry.

Republican lawmakers in 18 states want to criminalize protests against fossil fuel infrastructure, like pipelines.

By the end of 2018, 11 million people were employed in renewable energy worldwide.

Current White House officials suppress State Department testimony that human-caused climate change will be “possibly catastrophic.”

More than 1.8 million people object to a Trump proposal to strip gray wolves of endangered species protections.

Wild Thistle … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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The Precarious Times We Live In…

October 18, 2019
13 comments

 

We live in extremely precarious times.  We need to go beyond mere depression about things; we need to act and not merely “go along indifferently.”  The planet is getting more and more overcrowded with people (and people are still cranking out more and more babies); there is less and less space (especially for animals and plants).  Extinctions in nature are occurring at an unprecedented rate (with over a million species going extinct lately).  There is much less healthy agricultural land (as pollution is creeping in everywhere imaginable).   Carbon emissions and plastics are ruining the globe, while the Amazon and Western U.S. forests (and other world forests) burn rampantly, while some flat-earth political groups deny global warming and heavily contribute to the deterioration of the environment.  There is less viable fresh water.  Guns and weapons of mass destruction are on the rise; unfortunately, with many not realizing it, germ warfare is a very real possibility.  Automated robots will soon be replacing millions of people in the workplace.  The over-use of unnatural, made-made food products and the over-usage of synthetic medicines is making the human population more and more unnaturally sick and corrupt, with immune function diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, cancer, depression, mental problems, and such things as diabetes becoming all too common, with increasing frequencies of occurrence.  We are rapidly losing what little freedom we had; political figures are becoming more and more dictatorial and propaganda news channels (much like what Nazi movies did in the past) are making crass people believe very crazy/hateful things. 

What is one to do regarding all of this obvious insecurity?  Too many of us are looking at the problems fragmentarily.  The problems are not isolated; one problem is related to another problem.  There is a bigger picture that is more holistic, more comprehensive, insightful, and caring.  We must look beyond the $-oriented opportunistic greed that is contagiously expanding as if it (i.e., such greed) is an accepted disease (that is OK).  A holistic, truly compassionate, non-indifferent mind of wisdom and insight would not be a huge contributing factor (to the above terrible situations) and would even seriously try to help change things.  A mind that operates in the old, traditional patterns, staying fragmentary, staying comfortable and barbaric (full of bias, indifference, and callousness) would not significantly help with the earth’s present very serious problems and with the problems that human beings face; such an indifferent/crass mind would merely continue to make the earth a living hell.  We can be stable and holistic or we can be fragmented and uncaring.  We can, (in all of this danger, fragmentation, and disorder), be order, wholeness, compassion, and largely be freedom from fear. 

No matter how terrible or disorderly things may seem on the outside, wisdom would primarily be stability and joyous harmony on the inside, in consciousness; it’s wisdom’s responsibility.  It’s wisdom’s responsibility not to be sad in a sad world; it’s wisdom’s responsibility not to be nuts in a nutty world.  Empathy would still exist; we wouldn’t look away from the suffering of those (supposedly) at a distance, and we would act to help; it’s wisdom’s responsibily.    

 

Ants caring for their young (larvae). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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Wordless Wednesday … Not!… Halloween Toad

October 9, 2019
27 comments

Don’t be a torpid, sluggish mind, indifferent about the environment, about others, and about goodness.   We’ve been donating a lot, over the years, to all of the Hurricane victims (both to charities for humans and for dogs), including (recently) Dorian.  These hurricanes are worsening over the years due to global warming.  I see some bloggers who claim to love nature, yet they travel — in jets and planes that spew out tons of pollutants — to distant countries or far distant places to get “great nature photos.”   I’ve been unfollowing such hypocritical behavior blogs.  I’m not afraid of devils or goblins around Halloween.  I’m more concerned about people who treat the earth wrongly, indifferently.   We all can do more to help nature; we all could do less harmful things.  Please watch the following Greta Thunberg video.  I feel very sorry for kids these days; if things do not change, they — because of the increase in carbon dioxide — will not be able to breathe properly in a few short decades.  30% of all birds in North America (alone) have gone extinct in the last 50 years; they are the canaries in the coal mine, but most adults just don’t see it enough.

During the Halloween season, this is the new greeter at Walmart stores. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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The Sensitivity of Living Creatures

September 27, 2019
15 comments

 

Each living creature of life has a sensitive vibration of feeling, and many have a cherished awareness.  We human beings somehow think that ours is “superior,” better, and magnificent.  However, with much of our fancy ideas and thinking, we are destroying the ecological balance of the whole… of the globe.  We perceive and think in the ways that we were taught to perceive and think… primarily in parts, fragmentarily.  We see the so-called “outer environment” fragmentally, as what can be used piecemeal, to be exploited, manipulated, and used.  

However, the so-called outer is really not separate from the inner.  The observer is not separate from the observed.  Similarly, space and matter are not separate from what time is.  We are of matter’s (thought’s) doings; we are thought, time, and the movement of time.  The intelligence of meditation takes place when thought is not merely habitual and endless.  Thought/thinking is always partial, always fragmentary, and sequential.  Real meditation is consciousness beyond the stirrings of its content; it is an effortless, unplanned, holistic quietness beyond mere fragmentation and sequential patterns.   The timeless can only reveal itself when the mind intelligently perceives beyond the fragmentary movement of its content.  

 

Grasshopper enjoying the view … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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Wordless Wednesday … Not!

September 11, 2019
13 comments

 

Looking beyond the darkness … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

9/11 was an extraordinarily tragic thing.   Far worse than 9/11 is losing the ecological balance of the earth.  The earth is currently collapsing, nature-wise, because of our shortsightedness.  Heartless political forces, so-called big business, and indifferent so-called humans are zealously steering many of us in the wrong direction.  We all need to do much more.  A collapsing earth is a most terrible thing.   Stay local, use alternative energy, recycle, and vote green.    

 

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Latest Sierra Club News

August 2, 2019
36 comments

 

 

Earth’s glaciers are shrinking five times faster than they were in the 1960s.

The United States used more energy in 2018 than ever before, partly because Americans drove more: 3.225 trillion miles, 12.2 billion more than 2017.

Wolves return to the Netherlands after an absence of 140 years.

A suspected rhino poacher in South Africa is trampled to death by an elephant, then eaten by lions.

The last time Earth’s atmosphere had as much carbon dioxide as it does today, there were trees growing near the South Pole.

Thawing ice on Alaska’s Denali is exposing the 66 tons of feces left by generations of mountain climbers.

Sea level rise has cost property owners on the East and Gulf Coasts more than $16 billion since 2005.

Senator Mike Lee of Utah says that the solution to climate change is to “fall in love, get married, and have some kids.”

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede who inspired the Youth Climate Strike, is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The stomachs of dead whales found in the Philippines and Italy are full of plastic trash.

Scientists discover a new species of orca of southern Chile — “The largest undescribed animal left on the planet.”

Trump’s proposed federal budget would cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent.

Composite photographer Nick Brandt, whose profound works show how nature in the world is quickly dying away due to man’s indifference, says, “My motivation is my anger and despair at what we are losing, that the human race is sleepwalking its way to oblivion.”

 

 

Lacewing Insect … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

 

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Short Story about the Best Wooden Thing

July 2, 2019
36 comments

 

 

Once, there was a burly man who carved things out of wood.
Many people in his village would each ask him to carve something special for them, and he usually would, with great pride.
The man would often boast about what he could expertly carve.
Then, one day, a little girl — who had never asked the man to carve anything whatsoever — asked him what the best wooden thing is.
“I am not sure,” said the man, perplexedly, “Maybe it is the large horse that I once carved for Mr. Hayes.”
“No,” said the girl, confidently, “It is that large, beautiful, living Oak tree that grows in our yard.”

 

 

Very young Oak tree sapling just beginning to get there. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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We need to change our ways but many won’t… and the weather is getting more and more erratic…

June 18, 2019
17 comments

 

 

It’s a shame that 
others species also
have to suffer
the dire consequences
of global warming and man’s pollution.

When i was a kid,
i realized that, in the future,
we would — in ignorance — 
be fueling our own hell.

 

Tiny Jewelweed Wildflower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Well

December 8, 2018
40 comments

 

 

Well, it’s a good thing
          that matter solidifies as it does 
          and a miraculous thing that water flows at it does
          and a wonderful thing that 
          the earth is just the right distance from the sun
          and a crappy thing that
          mankind pollutes the
          skies and the oceans

 

 

 

Sweat Bee Study … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Recent Environmental News

December 2, 2018
55 comments

 

(From news clippings from the Sierra Club that we belong to and donate to…)

 

 

A school groundskeeper who says his non-Hodgkin lymphoma was caused by Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide is awarded $289 million by a San Francisco jury.

Atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than they have been in 800,000 years.

July in Death Valley is the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, with an average Temperature of 108 F.  In parts of Japan it was 106 F, a new national record.

Fossil fuel companies have spent nearly $2 billion since the year 2000, lobbying the government not to take action on climate change, outspending climate activists by a factor of 10 to one.

Reductions in air pollution from coal-fired power plants, automobiles, and manufacturing are offset by increased pollution from wildfires.

Russian hackers seek the ability to disrupt the U.S. electrical grid.

Two-thirds of Republicans believe that humans are causing climate change and that we should do something about it but don’t speak out because they assume their GOP peers are climate skeptics.

As the population of rural Japan shrinks, bears move into towns. Drought causes emus to invade a town in Australia’s outback. Goats run wild in Boise. 

French crows are being trained to pick up cigarette butts and other litter.

Pleistocene worms that were frozen in Siberia’s permafrost for 42,000 years are brought back to life.

North Atlantic waters are too warm to cool nuclear power plants in Norway and Finland, leading some to shut down.

 

 

Fall Splendor … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

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U.S. Halloween Fright

October 30, 2018
18 comments

 

(NOTE:  The following poem is not against voting; it is opposed to voting by people who are easily duped and who turn their backs on the environment.)

 

This from the witch
          of the stir from the brew
          whose Halloween terror
          came flying for you

She brings you bloody terror
          wrinkled skin and loss of hair
          and all the rats and spiders cheer
          as she circles the air

But all the ugly terror
          that she drapes as the night
          doesn’t equal the brainwashed zombies
          soon to vote with all their might

 

 

 

Halloween Wolf Spider … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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I Cried When i Took This Picture… (2nd pic)

August 29, 2018
68 comments

 

There is no way that someone would “like” this heartbreaking blog posting, but please “like it” if you see the seriousness of it, the environmental implications of it.  

I, not long ago, posted some information from the Sierra Club, that i belong to, about Monarch Butterfly populations declining in North America since 1997.  The Midwestern United States has seen an 88% decline.  I also recently sent in a check to a Sierra Club supported drive to get Monarch Butterfly plate decals (which would help fund the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources to support Monarch habitats).  However, nothing prepared me for the dismal discovery that i made while photographing insects in a wildflower field that was across a rural road from a farm cornfield.  I knew about how important Milkweed plants are for Monarch caterpillars, and when i’ve been out photographing lately, i’ve been curious about the Milkweed plants.  I’ve been seeing Milkweed plants that were eaten and chewed up… but no caterpillars.  Then, one day, while in the wildflower field across from a cornfield, i saw some Milkweed plants.  One Milkweed Plant was chewed up, and when i lifted a few leaves to get a closer look…  a very — and unnaturally — dead caterpillar is what was seen (i.e., the second photograph).  When i was young, corn often had a few grubs or insects around the silk end, and that little part was simply chopped off.  These days, there are never such “intruders”; heaven forbid!  People would vehemently complain!  However, the pesticides — these over-kill overly potent pesticides — you can be sure, are residually still there and are far more precarious and unhealthy than the little pests.  Little wonder why Europe doesn’t even want to get U.S. pesticide riddled corn/soy.  Additionally, another factor:  A recent study by Bret Elderd and Matthew Faldyn from Louisiana State University suggest climate change can alter the chemical composition of Milkweed making it poisonous to Monarchs.   The increase in temperatures — due to global warming — causes Milkweed plants to be stressed and produce more toxins, toxins which then become deadly to the very Monarch caterpillars that they had protected.  There are tons of people out there, unfortunately, who ignorantly deny man’s role in climate change and who do little or nothing to help change things for the better.  Sad and immoral!  

All the factors involved with this are far too vast for me to go into.  For one thing, we need to reduce our human population; in other words, keep it at more reasonable levels, live more environmentally conscious, and grow food in more organic and considerate ways.  Too few are talking seriously about any of this and it is unlikely that things will change any time soon.  The bees, too, are dwindling, and many realize that when they go, we go.

The poor Monarchs are yet another unfortunate, beautiful species harmed by man.  

 

 

Monarch Butterfly in a Wildflower Field… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Monarch Caterpillar dead 40 feet from a nearby cornfield… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Current News Regarding the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S.A. (and overcoming real corruption)…

August 11, 2018
29 comments

 

The EPA will roll back the Obama-era auto-fuel-efficiency standards.  The agency threatens to revoke California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act, which allows it to require cleaner cars.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke denies that his department censors science.  A National Park Service report on how it will deal with climate change omits all references to human causation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t want to give threatened species as much protection as endangered ones.

The Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program wins multiple court rulings: Now the BLM must disclose the climate impacts of fossil fuel development in the Powder River Basin; the Trump administration can’t overturn the ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic without judicial review; and the administration can’t delay increased penalties for automakers to violate fuel-economy standards.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry calls moving away from fossil fuels “immoral.”

The Bureau of Land Management blames a “breakdown of technology” for its failure to note 42,000 public comments in support of protections for the greater sage-grouse.

“I really don’t know” if humans cause climate change, says the head of the EPA’s scientific advisory board.

(The above information is from the Sierra Club that i belong to.)

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“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”  — Albert Einstein

 

Overcoming Real Corruption… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Human Overpopulation

August 1, 2018
34 comments

 

It’s supposed to be
pockets of human beings,
not pockets of the whole of nature!

 

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I speak from the heart on this.  My wife and i do not have any children.  I love kids and had worked for my career as a teacher for the multiply handicapped, but this planet has way more than its share of humans.  In the past, i have lost a number of girlfriends because of my stance on this.  It is very interesting (and tragic) that this most vital subject — that directly impacts the whole earth and all of its creatures including man — is mostly neglected (and not seriously considered) worldwide.

 

 

 

 

 

In too limited of a space… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Assumptions

July 22, 2018
25 comments

 

Many of us hold assumptions/presumptions, either consciously or unconsciously, that dictate how we observe and react.  These assumptions are what we have absorbed from others and may not be separate from what we are.  Many people assume that they are separate from others.  Many assume that they are separate from their so-called “own thoughts” and rule them from some kind of internal distance.  Many assume that the perceiver is (psychologically) separate from the perceived.  Many assume that their family consists of a few human beings.  Many assume that endlessly imitating others is safe, sane, and wonderful.  Many assume that they are fully autonomous and have absolute free will.  Many assume that they are dominant, both internally and externally.  Many assume that animals were put here for man.  Many assume that they have a right to destroy nature.  Many assume that someone who sees things very differently than they do is strange or wrong and should be avoided.  Many assume that degrees from universities are a sign of deep intelligence.   Many assume that thoughts are what they control by a central “I” or “me” that is not another thought.  Many assume that fragmentary, limited science has all of the answers.  Many take for granted that money and “showing off” are more important than caring.  

It may be that the very intelligent mind goes beyond absorbed presumptions.  Such a mind transcends fear, separation, prejudice, conflict, indifference, dead habit, delusion, and mediocrity.  It is likely that only such a mind may be visited by the ineffable and sacred eternal.

 

[Note:  According to the environment-oriented Sierra Club which we belong to and donate monthly to:   Monarch butterfly populations have been rapidly declining in North America since 1997.  In fact, the Midwestern United States have seen an 88 percent decline in the number of Monarchs, and a 64 percent decrease in the available Milkweed, which serves as the Monarch’s only egg-laying habitat and food source for Monarch caterpillars.  We need to stop denying man-made global warming and do much more.  I, myself, over the past years, have seen a dramatic decline in many butterfly and bee species.]

A Monarch Among Us… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Hotter than Hell Today Haiku

June 30, 2018
14 comments

 

 

They cling to guns to feel safe
while callously letting the environment go to hell.
It’s all really starting to smell.

 

[Note:  So sad that the U.S. is a country addicted to guns.  Even the children have taken up shooting each other.  On another note:  So many fly in jets to go on vacations to “beautiful places,”  or to take “beautiful” nature photos.  The carbon footprint of jet travel, for human beings, is unbelievably high, massively high; there is nothing beautiful about ruining the environment.  People who frequently go traveling around the world are admired by others, not by me.]

 

Our Dying Environment… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

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ReBlog: of Francis’ poetry. I too dislike politics. This goes far beyond politics. People who turn their back on the environment are not going to hell; rather, they are a very unfortunate manifestation of hell.

May 1, 2018
6 comments

I find that I as time goes by grow weary of politics and all of the dirty tricks that the man in charge who by and large likes to pull because he is a fool a wealthy man in this land a one percenter a climate change hater whose only goal to get others to […]

via Politics — Life and Day to Day things by a Pond Lover

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What Makes the Muskrat Guard His Musk?

April 26, 2018
25 comments

 

 

What makes a King out of a slave?
Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk, in the misty mist or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder?
Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder?
Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the “ape” in apricot?
What have they got that I ain’t got?
(All Four):
Courage!
(Lion):
Then you can say that again!         — Words from the timeless (and indubitably immortal) Wizard of Oz

 

Muskrat carrying leaves to his underwater den…(Photo taken last spring) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Facts and Ants

March 9, 2018
43 comments

[Note:  Some people are changing their ways, using green energy, staying local instead of mindlessly vacationing via terrible fossil fuel aircraft and diesel ships, recycling, being vegetarians, and creating more drastically needed environmental awareness.  However, not enough people, by any means, are changing.  Most mindlessly stick to the bourgeois status quo… needlessly flying in jets all over the place (to relax), using huge cruise ships, and not doing much to help the environment.  All major mass extinctions on earth occurred when CO2 levels exceeded a thousand parts per million (ppm).  Carbon dioxide levels are now changing about 25,000 times faster than in known geologic history; methane, too, is being released at unprecedented rates.  We must do better as a species or the following poem, unfortunately, will hold true.]

 

natural business

no plastics

no foul fossil fumes

not just on and under terra firma

arboreal too

 

six legs

hooded antenna

agile cooperative stealthy curious

will be here long after

the foolish bipedal apes

destroy their world with indifference

and chemicals

 

 

 

 

ant business (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

ant business (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Today is World Wildlife Day!

March 3, 2018
19 comments

 

 

On 20 December 2013, at its 68th session, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed 3 March, the day of signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as UN World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants. The UNGA resolution also designated the CITES Secretariat as the facilitator for the global observance of this special day for wildlife on the UN calendar. World Wildlife Day has now become the most important global annual event dedicated to wildlife. 

It would be a good day to join (or donate to) the Sierra Club or any similar animal/plant loving, environmental organization; additionally, it would be a great time to think about doing more environmentally-friendly action.

 

http://www.wildlifeday.org/

 

 

Here’s looking at you! … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Eyes for you! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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America’s wrong direction…

March 24, 2017
9 comments

If we all did more regarding green energy, if we all wrote emails (concerning cleaning up the environment) to the White House and to our Congressmen… then our little planet would have a chance.

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Excerpt from E.E.Cummings:

so rah-rah-rah democracy
let’s all be as thankful as hell
and bury the statue of liberty
(because it begins to smell)

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On the other side of nowhere

while everyone believes they’re somewhere

they numbly make their children(and nature)waltz completely out of time

and voting to ruin the environment is not a crime

Standing with you. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Standing with you. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Standing with you. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Standing with you. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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Haunted Halloween (spiders aren’t anything compared to this)…

October 14, 2016
13 comments

 

Let’s give a prize…

to those who were too crass and uncaring 

               to ever open their eyes.

Let’s provide a splendid, gold citation…

to those who radiated endless cruelty,

               increased suffering, and needlessly caused frustration.

Let’s mindlessly vote for an unhinged, sick sociopath with an unstable mind that divides us…

               who snarls that the polluted, unhealthy environment is balanced,

and that all of the dying coral reefs are quite healthy and marvelous.

Let’s cheapen the whole…

be ordinary, separative, comfortable, selfish,

               and take a long, indifferent stroll.

Let’s thoughtlessly add more and more pollutants and superficial experiences to the fire…

               and when this tiny world burns to the ground,

Let’s wait until the very last day to deeply inquire.

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Note:

[I love spiders.  The real (deadly) thing on this planet (except for a few) walks on two legs, not eight.]

Halloween Surprise. Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Halloween Surprise. Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Tiny Houses Are Getting Popular!…

July 8, 2016
18 comments

 

Let us keep things small and simple and be excellent parents, and let’s make our house accessible to easy landings.  

                Let us hire little, though vigilant, Hackberry butterfly guards to alert us to any imminent dangers.

Let us not pontificate over nature with many fossil-fueled vacations and selfish excursions. 

                Let us go green locally as a new way of being (which transcends indifference).

We cannot renounce nature’s fragility;

                we are part of it.

Of Butterflies on Birdhouses. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Of Butterflies on Birdhouses. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Tiny Houses Rock! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Tiny Houses Rock! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Time soon to Deornamentize the Christmas Tree…

January 3, 2016
18 comments

 

Time soon to deornament the dressed-up Christmas tree
without anything on it’ll feel blissfully naked and free
until it goes to where we’ll be going if we don’t get the earth right
to a vile world full of garbage and dead debris without any light

If you wish to keep Life forever growing as healthy beautiful pines
join the Sierra Club and send politicians heartfelt environmental lines

Time to take the tree down soon. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Time to take the tree down soon. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

 

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Many want to ignore this and sweep it under the rug…

August 27, 2015
18 comments

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When I was very young, (before I became a vegetarian) I was an avid fisherman.  I loved fishing tremendously; being out there, with nature, was a large part of it (and was very special).  There was a manmade lake that I would often fish at that was fairly new; adjacent to it, and connected to it by a narrow channel, was a huge, shallow swamp area (that was nearly as big as the lake itself).  Most people who fished at the lake didn’t know about the swamp area; it was a superb area that contained many fish, many of which would go there to spawn and lay eggs.  All kinds of other wildlife were there.  There was a large factory not far from the swamp, however, and each year the swamp would get more and more slime and oily residue floating at the surface, much of which was undoubtedly due to pollution from the factory and from the industrial environment.  Each year would be exponentially worse than the next.  There would be less and less fish each year and more and more noxious algae and scummy debris. Back then, as a kid, I felt that what was going on in the swamp was a precursor to what would be going on for our entire planet; I deeply felt that often.

Now scientists are saying that we don’t have much time left (before it’s too late) to “get it right” with changing things for the better with regard to the environment.  The permafrost of the globe is melting rapidly, and they say it will get exponentially worse each year, which will affect our environment in drastic ways.  Our weather is getting more and more erratic and violent and the coral reefs are rapidly dwindling.  Please try to do something more green; please try to use fossil fuel planes and automobiles less frequently and please recycle and look into using alternative energy forms that don’t leave as big of a carbon footprint.  Our human population, additionally, needs to be regulated more and intelligently diminished; an aquarium with too many fish within it cannot adequately recycle the waste and remain balanced.  Each one of us is highly responsible and must do our part.

(This won’t fit under a rug; it’s our planet.)

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Fly-catching. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Fly-catching. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Fly-catching. (2) (Digital Crayon). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Fly-catching. (2) (Digital Crayon). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

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Nature doesn’t advertise…

December 1, 2014
2 comments

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Nature doesn’t have its own sponsors — in the media — telling us to be less materialistic and to travel less (thereby using less fossil fuels); but big, materialistic corporations have plenty of promoters making earth-damaging practices seem “OK” and “normal.”   We truly need to go beyond the advertising propaganda.  

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[Honey mushrooms along rocks on the river bank.  Honey mushrooms, like most mushrooms, are just the visible fruiting body of the fungus.  The main part of the organism is underground and is called the mycelium.  Mycelium can spread for many miles… and this accounts for mushrooms being some of the world’s largest organisms.  It is estimated that some honey mushrooms (that are very large, over many miles) are over 400 years old. (My photos, by the way, are all taken locally; I don’t travel any appreciable distance to take my photos. For instance, one walked to where these mushrooms were photographed.)]

Fruit of the mycelium. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014

Fruit of the mycelium. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014

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Signs of primitive life…

June 4, 2013
2 comments

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.    They don’t have recycling in our (rural) area… but we take all of our recyclable plastics to Walmart; they graciously take recyclable plastics.  All that you have to do is rinse out the remaining contents with water prior to taking them.   Alternatively, like so many these days, you can ungraciously drink and drive and spew the empty containers all over mother earth (leaving a lasting trail of your crudity).

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Signs of primitive life (just like they were found while taking nature photos...) by Thomas Peace 2013

Signs of primitive life (just like they were found while taking nature photos…) by Thomas Peace 2013

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What man-made climate change could do…

May 21, 2013
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Hourglass tree frogThe study looked at the impacts of rising temperatures on nearly 50,000 common species

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More than half of common plant species and a third of animals could see a serious decline in their habitat range because of climate change.

New research suggests that biodiversity around the globe will be significantly impacted if temperatures rise more than 2C.

But the scientists say that the losses can be reduced if rapid action is taken to curb greenhouse gases.

The paper is published in the journal, Nature Climate Change.

An international team of researchers looked at the impacts of rising temperatures on nearly 50,000 common species of plants and animals.

They looked at both temperature and rainfall records for the habitats that these species now live in and mapped the areas that would remain suitable for them under a number of different climate change scenarios.

The scientists projected that if no significant efforts were made to limit greenhouse gas emissions, 2100 global temperatures would be 4C above pre-industrial levels.

In this model, some 34% of animal species and 57% of plants would lose more than half of their current habitat ranges.

WildfireIn some regions, climate change could increase the area burned by wildfires

According to Dr Rachel Warren from the University of East Anglia, this would have major impacts for everyone on the planet.

“Our research predicts that climate change will greatly reduce the diversity of even very common species found in most parts of the world. This loss of global-scale biodiversity would significantly impoverish the biosphere and the ecosystem services it provides,” she said.

“There will also be a knock-on effect for humans because these species are important for things like water and air purification, flood control, nutrient cycling, and eco-tourism.”

The projected impacts on species will be felt more heavily in some parts of the world such as sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, the Amazon region and Australia.

However the researchers say that if global emissions of greenhouse gases are cut rapidly then the impact on biodiversity could be significantly curbed. If global emissions reach their peak in 2016 and temperature rises are held to 2C, then losses could be cut by 60%.

“The good news is that our research provides new evidence of how swift action to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases can prevent the biodiversity loss by reducing the amount of global warming to 2C rather than 4 degrees, said Dr Warren.

“This would also buy time – up to four decades – for plants and animals to adapt to the remaining 2 degrees of climate change.”

Friend (1) by Thomas Peace 2013

Friend (1) by Thomas Peace 2013

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Better Coverage on Climate Change…

March 30, 2013
1 comment

In a year that brought the U.S. record-breaking heat, massive wildfires, a historic drought, and devastating storms like Hurricane Sandy, the nightly news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC barely talked about what was fueling this extreme weather — climate change. We need better coverage if we want people to connect the dots and demand real action to curb global warming pollution.

Please sign our petition below to Michael Corn, Executive Producer of ABC World News, Patricia Shevlin, Executive Producer of CBS Evening News, and Patrick Burkey, Executive Producer of NBC Nightly News, asking them to give us more frequent, accurate coverage of climate change this year.

OUR PETITION

Give Us Better Coverage on Climate Change this Year

Dear Mr. Corn, Ms. Shelvin, and Mr. Burkey,

Every night, tens of millions of people tune into the news on the major broadcasting networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC, expecting to learn about the most pressing issues facing our families and our nation. Given the urgency of addressing the climate crisis, we urge you to put global warming at the top of that list.

After experiencing the hottest year ever recorded in the United States and a series of devastating extreme weather events including wildfires, droughts, and storms like Hurricane Sandy, the American people deserve to know how our changing climate is fueling this extreme weather and what we can do about it.

That can only happen if you devote more coverage to climate change, report on future extreme weather in a climate context, and interview more climate scientists who will be able to accurately connect the dots between human activity, climate change, and the weather we have been experiencing. Yet, a recent study by Media Matters for America found that last year climate change was only featured in 12 segments on your nightly news programs combined.

Confronting the climate crisis is the challenge of our generation, and we urge you to honor the best traditions in American journalism by putting the focus on science and accurately reporting on climate change.

We look forward to watching your thorough, accurate coverage of climate change in the year ahead.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]

To Add Your Name, go to:

http://action.mediamatters.org/tell_news_to_cover_climate_change

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Fall or Rise by Thomas Peace 2013

Fall or Rise by Thomas Peace 2013