Hi friends,
I’ve been inhabiting the not-that-alternative future of Parable of the Sower for the last many days and I have taken many lessons from the experience.
NPR recorded a story about the prophetic opera and you can catch some of the music!
Octavia Butler’s book and the opera by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon encourage us to do more to change the direction we are headed in. As Toshi told NPR,
"We are breathing; we are alive; we are together. We have the opportunity to shift and change in the ways that we can in our lives."
And so, Reagon says, her work is an invitation, just as Octavia Butler's writing is: to imagine and create a different world.
On the final night of performances, Toshi urged the audience members to use the resources we do have to take action. If you have money, support the people who are preparing for the future and recovering from disaster.
I wrote quite a bit last week about the situation in Vermont, where catastrophic flooding has destroyed crops and livelihoods. There’s no future without farming.
Donate generously to the Intervale Farmers Recovery Fund (use the drop-down menu).
Toshi also talked about other kinds of currency, besides money. Teaching is one such currency and you don’t need a license to teach others about the importance of climate action.
Help educate people about climate. Share Science Moms videos to communicate with folks who might be uninformed or in denial.
I’ll give Toshi’s name a rest in just a moment. She said something important about voting, though. Toshi reminded us that politicians will always disappoint us AND that’s not an excuse for not voting. This isn’t about our feelings. This is about choosing policymakers.
Environmentalists (and others) vote at shockingly low rates because they are disappointed with the choices. That is understandable AND not voting is a worse choice.
The Environmental Voter Project doesn’t change minds; they change behavior. They
identify inactive environmentalists and transform them into consistent voters to build the power of the environmental movement.
Time is also currency. If you have it, there are lots of good ways to spend it on the future. Here’s one:
Help the Environmental Voter Project send postcards to low-propensity environmental voters to get out the vote. You must take the EVP training in order to volunteer.
We need to turn away from fossil fuels. On days like today, when the climate catastrophes are all over the news and all over the world, it’s hard to believe we’re still not all on board.
Michael Mann discusses the frustration of being a climate scientist, because it’s hard to feel any pleasure in being right. Mann warns us about relying on technological solutions. He is not enthusiastic about carbon capture because it’s grossly inefficient.
You know what’s easier than capturing carbon from the atmosphere? Not putting it there in the first place. So first and foremost, we should be focused on decarbonizing the infrastructure of our economy.
[T]he global rich — which includes middle-class people in rich countries — play a disproportionate role in heating the planet.
Rich people have more agency to cut their emissions and those of others. A commentary in Nature Energy argued in 2021 that this covered not just how they shop, which the authors stressed was a powerful lever, but also how they act as citizens, investors, role models and workers.
“Policies targeting high-energy consumers might become feasible with large-scale public mobilization and political pressure,” said [Kristian Nielsen, an assistant professor at Copenhagen Business School and lead author of the study].
The bold is mine. We are all implicated. We can’t wait for governments to act to require us to limit emissions.
If you drive, calculate your mileage for the next month. Think of it like a fitness tracker for the planet and get your miles down.
We need mitigation and preparation. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is working with City Council to pass legislation to establish a network of clean air centers, modeled on the ones that already exist in California and Washington state.
A report released by Williams’ office this month recommended the city establish clean air centers, upgrade HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, air filters and air monitors in public schools, and better educate the public on how to make clean air rooms in their homes.
The city’s Department of Emergency Management has failed to get in front of the problem of living with wildfire smoke; their job is to manage preparations for and the response to emergency events, and we are already having dangerous air quality.
Contact your council member to voice support for a citywide system of clean air centers, including schools and libraries.
There’s a new world coming! Everything’s goin’ be turning over! Where you goin’ be standing when it comes?
with love,
L