Sunday, April 30, 2017

Rutgers Alums Lead Patriots Members Who Boycotted Team's Visit to Trump's White House


But it has been a busy month, and between working a lot of extra hours, as well as falling sick and feeling exhausted, I just never quite got around to it.

Today, I will try to remedy that, once and for all.

A few weeks ago, the New England Patriots went to the White House to commemorate their Super Bowl LI championship.

That usually is noteworthy itself, except that what made as many headlines on this day were just how many members of the Patriots did not attend. It made me especially proud to learn that all four Rutgers alumni on the New England Patriots Super Bowl championship team refused to attend, including some of the highest profile names notably missing.

It was well known already that six notable Patriots players refused to attend, something that I wrote about before. They did not make a secret as to why they were boycotting, for that matter. They were not attending because this president is not a unifier, but rather, someone who polarizes the country with his hatred and his arrogance. 

For reasons not fully known, star quarterback Tom Brady was among those not in attendance, although he sited "personal family matters."

All in all, 34 Patriots players were in attendance, which is clearly nowhere near all of the players. 

However, the ceremonies did go on, and Trump predictably made indirect comparisons to how many pundits counted him out during the race, and those pundits who surely thought the Super Bowl was over when Atlanta took a 28-3 lead. It should be noted that Trump himself left his own Super Bowl party shortly after the Falcons took a 28-3 lead, which sure would seem to suggest that he, too, thought the game was over. No mention of that by the president on this day, however.

The visit to the White House by the 2016 New England Patriots came on the very day that former Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, a convicted murderer, took his own life by hanging in a jail cell. Some had speculated that the Patriots should cancel the visit, or at least postpone it, in the light of that event. It seemed to overshadow the whole thing. Still, the Patriots went through with it, and that means that, to some, the two events - one intended to be a glorious celebration of a remarkable achievement, while the other unbelievably tragic - will be linked together in history.




Here is the link to the article which I got the information used in this blog entry:



4 Rutgers alums lead no-shows as Patriots visit Donald Trump's White House

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Earth Day Week: Summary


Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!





"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  



Okay, so, Earth Day has passed and now, so has Earth Day Week, or Earth Week. I have reached the end of my week-long with blog entries focusing on environmental themes and issues.

The issues are not always so clear, and the solutions may seem even less so. To borrow from George H. W. Bush who once suggested, rather paradoxically, during a debate with his opponent Michael Dukakis, that his arguments were as clear as Bar Harbor. Meaning it is not clear at all. That is often how solutions to complex problems may appear as well: very cloudy.

Here's the thing: these issues tend to be global, but people tend to think strictly locally. It is difficult to grasp the big picture, if you will.

After all, it might not seem like the end of the world to most locals if some condominium complex goes up, or if some golf course gets built. In my home town of West Milford, there were proposals to build both, all at once, right off of Echo Lake Road. The history teacher and adviser for the Environmental Club was an activist, and he knew the power of using kids to sway opinion. He rounded up some high schoolers, myself included, for the Town Council meeting for this proposed development, which was ultimately defeated.

Those who were in favor of the complex surely were bitter about the "environmental wackos" who prevented them from making a healthy profit, and making too much of a big deal about the detrimental effects.

And indeed, the world would not end had that complex been built. That is the way it would have been seen, and still likely is seen everywhere such development projects are proposed. It's just one thing, what's the big deal.

Here's the big deal: when we lose sight of how these kinds of things, multiplied by thousands and tens of thousands all around the world each year, multiplied by each year and each decade and, now indeed, each century, we get a serious and undeniable impact on our planet.

The words of former President Jimmy Carter, writing the Foreword for Heaven is Under our Feet, a book devoted to preserving Walden Woods, the land where Henry David Thoreau once lived for two years, and wrote his classic Walden. discussing the deceptive perception that environmental issues can be divided into "local" and "global." He sums it up quite well:

"The environmental challenges evident in Thoreau's era pale in comparison with the magnitude of global crises that confront us today. Perhaps the most sinister aspect of these crises is that they do not evolve "globally." Often they germinate as singular and sometimes "localized" environmental concerns - the death of a lake in the Adirondacks, the burning of an acre of tropical rain forest in Brazil, the contamination of a drinking water supply in Eastern Europe, an oil spill off the coast of Alaska, the extinction of an endangered species n Africa, or the leveling of an historical woodland near Walden Pond. The destructive impact of such disregard fr the welfare of our planet cannot be overstated; environmental issues cannot be divided into "global" and "local" sectors. As in Thoreau's day, ecological crises does not occur in several different worlds, but in the only one that all of us inhabit."

He goes on, but the next sentence to begin the new paragraph serves as a solid concluding point:

"So, we have come to a juncture in humanity's evolution, where we must call a halt to our uncontrolled assault on the environment."

He's absolutely right, and he was more right than most people realized during his years in the White House, as well.

Still, he was the leader of the land, and a powerful individual as such. That made him privy to all sorts of data and research and study teams that most of us cannot ourselves access. The internet may be a place where we can get a lot of information, but it is also known as a place of misinformation. It can be hard to know who to trust, and what information can be believed.

Environmental concerns are a serious problem, and the strains that our global culture is placing on the world's limited resources are tremendous. We need to stay informed and get involved, although just how we can do this can be, again, unclear.

So, what can just one person do?

Well, we can make a difference, and even a big difference, if and when we put our minds to it.

Take a look at this article about one man in the Netherlands who cleaned up an entire river on his way to work:


Man Cleans Up Entire River On His Way To Work published by Higher Perspective, April 25, 2015:



I know that some people would probably look at that, think that this was a nice, warmhearted and remarkable story but, somehow, it does not relate to them, to their lives. After all, the extent and level of the problems of environmental degradation the world over seems so overwhelming, that what possible difference could one person really make, other than maybe one guy in a small European country?

Well, this is where I bring out another common phrase among environmentalists:

Act Locally, Think Globally

Yes, you have surely seen and heard this before. But have you ever really thought about it? In truth, no, we cannot change the entire world for the better with a sweeping wave of some magic wand, and make things right.

But that certainly does not mean that we cannot make a difference, much less that we should not try to make a difference.

That man made a difference by cleaning one particular river in his neck of the woods. But what if we have more people like that all around the world. What if there was someone like that in your neck of the woods? What would you do? Would you join him or her?

You know, I go hiking fairly often, and sometimes, along my trips, I will pick up some of the litter that I find there. So, there is no use lying: each time that I see cans or trash anywhere, but especially well into some woods, it is hard not to feel depressed and defeated about it. Even here, in a small corner of our world where you can once again connect to the real world, you are reminded of the limitations of our global society, and the blatant disrespect for what is truly sacred, for what truly matter. Yes, this is the world of the community of life that has existed long before our global culture arrived, and which continues to exist despite all that we have done, and likely will continue to exist long after we are gone. Here, whatever walls we build to divide and segregate ourselves from others within our global society mean nothing. Globalization, nations and flags and corporations and competition mean nothing here. The only thing that matters in what we commonly refer to as the wilderness is survival, except for those of us who are just visiting for a relatively leisurely stroll (admittedly, I am among these).

But since we are part of this global society, we enter these realms that we refer to as wild merely as visitors, feeling ourselves separated from it. In some cases, surely, people feel superior to it.

The important thing to remember, however, is that we are not separate from it. We are one with nature, part and parcel. Indeed, as the Natives taught us, what we do to this Earth, we do to ourselves. That in itself might not be really encouraging, since we see people mistreating people throughout known history, right up to the present. Anyone who has ever watched the news or read a newspaper will know that. So, is it really all that surprising that our global culture would treat the Earth with such a lack of respect as they treat one another?

If we are ever to make real progress in this world, and make it the kind of place that we all want to live in, then we must remain active in trying to make it so, even if this is on our own, small level.

The first thing that we need to do, is to get informed and stay informed. Then, we need to do something about it, in whatever way we can think to do it.

What we need to do has been explained before, and I will borrow the two phrases that I already borrowed from in this, and other, blog entries as the concluding point for this Earth Day Week series.

Think Globally, Act Locally

and, of course, remember:

Nothing Changes Until You Do

Earth Day Week: Sustainability


Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!



Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 



"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  


Daniel Quinn, author of some incredible books (most famously Ishmael), once projected a future where people begin to break away from "civilization" (he made a point of putting these quotes around that particular word) bit by bit, until there was a large segment of the human population that lived separately from the so-called "civilized" world.

I believe that he may be right. We see an increasing number of people who feel completely disgusted by the excesses of our global culture, and who want to generally move in a very different, more sustainable direction.

Indeed, if humanity is to survive, chances are we will need many, many more communities that are self-sustaining, and where the people residing in these communities want no part of the exclusive focus on growth, growth, and more growth. Growth of resources and wealth, growth of corporate entities, growth of nations, of towns and cities, growth of the human population overall.

Ultimately, we will need people to step back from the rat race, and provide an alternative possibility, another way of possibly existing. For a while in the sixties and seventies, there was a movement towards communes, although by and large, these did not last.

There may be a new wave of these kinds of communities arising, with the emphasis now being on long-term self-sustainability.

It would be an impressive feat, but here are some encouraging signs that such communities might not be that far away, and may already even exist:


The first completely sustainable island is in Scotland By Eevee G:, 11 Nov 2014:

Friday, April 28, 2017

Earth Day Week - Damage Already Being Done by Trump Administration's Anti-Science Spirit

Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!



Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 



"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  




“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”   

~Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods


"Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures."
~Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day


Let's face it: we knew we were in trouble in so many ways as soon as Trump won the election in November. There were so many ways that this guy's rise to the highest political office was viewed as a threat to what were seen as traditional American values, and many were already suggesting that the country was sliding towards a new form of fascism lite.

Almost instantly, the diagnosis for many of the most useful and treasured government programs was taken, and the forecast did not look good.

This was especially true for environmental protection, and particularly for combating climate change. It is also the one area in which his extremist views against science and advocating the further destruction and degradation of the country's precious natural resources and beauty are actually rather in keeping with traditional American policies, although predictably, Trump's approach was a hyped up version of what came before. Being such an intolerable narcissist, Trump typically has to do things on a bigger scale than everyone else, and so his approach towards the environment was not merely destructive, but on steroids, compared with his predecessors. Like with other government agencies, he seems intent on completely dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), among other things, because he feels that it is weakening American business interests and cutting into the almighty dollar, hurting profits.

For many among us here in the United States who have faith in science and know how damaging these kinds of policies, and this level of overall thinking, tends to be, we just kind of rolled our eyes with Trump's victory.

Here we go again.

And then, we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work opposing pretty much everything that he does. It's just frustrating, because polls show a majority - even a vast majority - of Americans believe in climate change. Yes, in other words, an overwhelming majority of Americans have faith that the world's scientists are not in on some giant conspiracy to come up with some crazy "theory" like global warming or climate change just to hurt one particular country's economic output, and somehow, managed to actually melt many of the world's glaciers and arctic ice in the process.

As the 1960's version of Batman might have suggested, this would truly be diabolical!

Short of believing in such a crazy notion, the disbelief in basic science - as well as the refusal to actually try to understand everything that the "theory" actually suggests and predicts - indeed does set America apart, but for all of the wrong reasons. It seems that people who do not believe in climate change here in the United States tend to consider themselves American exceptionalists, and indeed, the country is taking an exceptionally narrow and provincial approach to this issue politically, and has for many years now.

Of course, electing someone like Trump into the country's highest office was also unique to the United States. That other narcissistic and narrow-minded idiots have gotten into leadership positions in other nations is undeniable, of course. But again, Trump always has to do things bigger. He puts his own name up high on top of buildings, so that he can be seen from many miles away. He claims that he has all of the answers, that he is a bigger expert on almost every subject matter conceivable than anyone else out there, including the experts of specific fields, such as claiming that he knows more about ISIS than the generals do). This is the last man who should ever have been elected to the highest leadership position for any country, let alone given the reins of the world's leading superpower. So, what does it say about the present political dialogue and position of the United States that this man is now our president?

Most of us who have held the very frustrating position of considering ourselves environmentalists here in the United States knew that there was big reason to worry as soon as it became clear that Trump had officially been elected president. That said, it needs to be noted just how ironic it is that the United States, always feeling the need to stand out, to stand apart from everyone else, has a system whereupon someone who loses the popular vote by nearly three million votes not only gets in, but is then allowed not only to boast about the size of his big election win, but to make false accusations about election fraud, all while offering not one shred of proof to back up his ridiculous, boisterous claims. But frankly, I personally think that Trump is actually fitting for the infantile level of political discourse in the United States today. Someone like him, with his over-sized ego and his crass mannerisms, not to mention his refusal to divorce himself from his business interests, thus using the White House to personally profit with his business interests, is actually very symbolic of where we are as a country. On many levels, he is like a decadent old Roman emperor, because that is the manner in which he conducts himself. He most certainly does not act like a full-grown adult, and so we cannot expect him to give us adult solutions to problems, because he prefers rants and petty little insults instead.

Not surprisingly, this idiocy appeals to a great many Americans, who feel that he is doing exactly what he promised to do. In their view, he is sticking it to the man, to the political establishment in Washington. This, despite the fact that Trump himself has always been one of the elites, having been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and can hardly be said to truly be able to relate to the average guy.

All of this makes his environmental policies all of the more tragic, because it truly does feel like a child is in power, one intent on doing as much damage as he can while he can do it, just to stick it to the rest of us. The tragedy is that this is not fiction, but all too real.

But Trump is only now approaching his 100th day in office. How much damage to the environment could he possibly have done in such a short time span?

He and his cronies are continuing the decades long trend of "deregulation" to take away governmental protections in a wide array of fields, and his latest proposed budget would see cuts of up to 31 percent for the EPA. He already has made illegal dumping by major polluting corporations easier to get away with, and he challenged existing fuel standards in favor of more gas-guzzling vehicles to be driven on American roads. He also infamously tried to place an order of silence on anything to do with climate change by certain federal employees, and he has also made it easier for corporations to privatize water, which many feel will be a key issue in the 21st century. Not surprisingly, he signed an executive order designed to undo seemingly every piece of environmental legislation that his predecessor, President Obama, managed to install. Now, the EPA, under Scott Pruitt (Trump's pick to head the agency) has made it a point to delay clean-up compliance, allowing corporations once again to pollute as much as they want and/or need, and then not to be held responsible afterward. And, of course, let us not forget the damn oil pipelines, which Trump is all in favor of, and takes a militant, intolerant approach towards. And let us not forget that quite a few federal employees who specialized in climate change have been reassigned, which is yet one more sign of intended intimidation and/or silence of opposition. Most recently, there have been calls from administration officials to withdraw the United States from the Paris Accords. Also, he is trying to challenge the control of national parks land by the federal government, and trying to give this power, as he claims, "back to the people." It, by "the people" he is implying that corporations are people, then perhaps this would be accurate. Because it is virtually guaranteed that it would be private corporate interests - and only private corporate interests - who would get to call the shots, and who would profit majorly from opening these lands up.

Yes, all of that in well under 100 days, and that is on top of everything else that this administration is doing (and perhaps more importantly, more tellingly, undoing). You can blame them for a lot of things, but you cannot accuse them of being lazy, right?

What that means, though, is that the ball is now in our court. This is exactly what he said he would do, in his efforts to "Make America Great Again." Yes, he is dismantling the health of the country's wonderful natural resources and open space. But we need to remember that he is one man, and that the constitution specifically is aimed to prevent any one person from becoming too big, too powerful. This is a governmental system based on checks and balances, and we need now to hold faith in this system more than ever, and to make sure that his power is contained. That will be difficult, since his Republican party also control Congress and the Supreme Court, as well as the vast majority of governor's houses across the country.

Frankly, though, there is nothing more patriotic than to fight the good fight against empirical powers that be, and right now, there is no one who embodies this elitist and out of touch sense of entitlement as President Trump and his administration, which is filled with equally out of touch billionaires. Obviously, those who stand opposed to him are not in power, which makes us the underdog. Everyone keeps aspiring to get the role of underdog, but here we are with that exact opportunity, and the stakes could not be higher, because nothing is more important than the health of this planet. Trump is a virus that has infected the country, but we need to counter that with a good bit of energy and inspiration, to improve the health of the country, and of the planet, once again, and work towards righting a very big, and very glaring, wrong, which separates the United States for all of the wrong reasons.


A Running List of How Trump Is Changing the Environment  by National Geographic by Michael Greshko, April 18, 2017:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/how-trump-is-changing-science-environment/





Happy Earth Day! Here Are All The Terrible Things Donald Trump Has Done So Far. by Dominique Mosbergen, April 21, 2017:





Op-Ed: Schneider: What Trump doesn't understand about the environment by Brad Schneider, April 20, 2017:




 Trump quote used above taken from the following article:

Trump orders review of national monuments, vows to ‘end these abuses and return control to the people’ By Juliet Eilperin, April 26, 2017:

Earth Day Week - Climate Change Denial is Continuing the "Ugly American" Image

Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!



Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 



"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  




“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”   

~Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods


"Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures."
~Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day


It might be difficult for people to grasp the remarkably alarming changes that climate change has already made upon our planet, and many people contest some of the various methods that there are that could otherwise clear the confusion up. This confusion, unfortunately, seems particularly prominent in the United States, as no other major industrial nations have as many people - and most tellingly, as many high-ranking politicians - who either deny the existence of climate change outright, or at least minimize it and/or deny human responsibility for it.

The disputes about the nature and even the reality of climate change are just one of many areas in which the political and social discourse in the United States has significantly and undeniably been dumbed down over the course of decades. As was made clear in November with the election of a lying, narcissistic, elitist, anti-science bigot into the White House, facts hardly seem to matter these days, because people are choosing what they want to believe in, regardless of those inconvenient things known as facts. Thus, the anti-science spirit that has been stubbornly persistent for decades now has grown, and in now seen at the highest echelons of the marbled halls of government in Washington.  

Still, there is at least photographic evidence, as well as satellite images, that reveal the full extent of the changes over the course of time. 

Really, many of these pictures are shocking! When you see satellite images of just how much ice has melted in the Arctic or Greenland, or when you see how many glaciers either severely thinned out (probably most famously with Mount Kilimanjaro) or, in some cases, already gone, it becomes impossible to deny that there is a serious problem. 

And since these changes happened to coincide roughly with the industrial age, and scientists have discovered connections between emissions created by humans and the warming temperatures, we really should take the evidence seriously. Frankly, anyone with an ounce of common sense and responsibility would feel exactly the same way.

Yet somehow, climate change became a political football in the United States, which truly is unfortunate. Tragic, even. Americans used to equate combating climate change with environmental extremists that were dismissed as tree huggers and out of touch hippies and other assorted widows. They believed that global warming was a hoax, because the words "global warming" did not fit in with how people saw it, especially on cold winter days. 

Now, far too many Americans equate combating climate change with regulations that stifle economic growth, and with excessive expenditures from an already overly bloated government in Washington. Some Americans seem to actually believe that 97 percent of the world's scientists are actually in on some kind of gigantic hoax specifically designed to hurt American economic output. It did not help that President Trump suggested as much before he became president, when he suggested that climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese to hurt America's economy.

Nowhere else among developed nations is there quite as much skepticism towards the reality of climate change as exists here in the United States, and the irony is that no one is as responsible for the damage that it causes as Americans traditionally have been. For many decades, the United States was far and away the biggest polluting nation in the world. That changed perhaps a decade ago, and people who have read this blog regularly (assuming such people exist, of course) will know how outrageous it was to me that American athletes competing in the 2008 Olympics went into Beijing wearing masks as a form of visual protest, presumably, against what they viewed as excessive pollution in the Chinese city that was to host the Olympics. They were certainly not nearly so vocal or present in protesting the detrimental environmental policies of then President George W. Bush, however, who was their own president. 

That is the kind of hypocrisy that make Americans look ugly to the rest of the world, and that denial of climate change is largely a continuation of that level of hypocrisy today. Americans have seen their standard of living consistently decline for decades now, although they still have access to enormous comforts and privileges, not to mention easy access to information, that people in many other parts of the world could only dream of. Since they have such ready and easy access to accurate information, it feels to many that Americans then should be able to take a more serious and less provincial approach towards climate change, and action to combat it. 

It feels to many around the world that Americans believe themselves collectively to be somehow exempt from the ramifications of this problem, which they perhaps more than anyone else are historically responsible for. The most convenient thing in the world is to deny responsibility for a problem that you played a large part in creating, and the easiest thing in the world is to tear someone or something down, especially if these are ideas. While it is true that not everything is know about climate change and the ramifications that will surely be felt before too long, we can see for ourselves clearly enough that it is real. Cities and regions that used to get snow regularly no longer get snow. Areas that used to get a certain amount of rain now go without for very long, while still other areas of the world see too much rain and excess flooding. Many of these kinds of extremities have been seen within American borders, and that is not something that Trump's stupid wall is going to fix.

Neither will denial fix the problems. In fact, denial only seems to confirm that there is a problem. After all, no less an authority on both oil and big government as former President George W. Bush suggested as much, when he said that Americans were addicted to oil. President Trump knows this, and he is using it, too. Trump clearly has revealed himself to be an enemy of climate change, and science in general, regardless of his own words defending himself, which ring hollow.

Still, we Americans collectively put him into the White House, and allowed his administration, as well as a Republican controlled Congress and Supreme Court, to rule this land as they see fit. And so far, clearly, they have shown very little respect towards that land, itself, as well as to the air and water around it, for that matter. But let's face it, this is nothing new. Again, Americans are known around the world for a certain crassness in mannerisms, for ignorance in world affairs, for rejecting time and time again the possibility of some form of universal, affordable healthcare, for relentless favoring and promoting increased corporate power, and for systematically dragging our feet on issues regarding environmentalism, regardless of which party has been in office for the last forty years now. We want so much to believe in "American exceptionalism," that we actually have allowed ourselves to believe it, even to our detriment.

Not surprisingly, much, if not most, the rest of the world is standing with arms crossed and shaking their collective heads at what is going on here.

And you know what?

They're right to do so, because we Americans find ourselves on the wrong side politically on so many vital issues these days. And none are so glaringly obvious as our political disregard of climate change, which we also happen to have done so much to help create in the first place!




NASA releases “then-and-now” photos of Earth. written by  Kristi Shinfuku on April 7th, 2017:

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Earth Day Week: Some Obscure History Regarding Climate Change & Environmentalism

Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!



Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 



"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  







Yes, it is Earth Day, and I already wrote an article on the history of Earth Day on the Guardian Liberty Voice.

If you have not yet seen it, please take a look at my article, which was published in April of 2015, about the history of Earth Day, which you can find on the Guardian Liberty Voice. Please click on the link below:

Earth Day Has a Fascinating History by Charles Bordeau on April 18, 2015:



However, environmentalism did not begin with Senator Nelson, although I think that his Earth Day creation was something that this global society of ours needed desperately, and has been largely a positive step towards restoring some kind of a balance.

In truth, the history of environmentalism, if we define it as a conscious effort to have a sustainable relationship with Mother Earth, far predates our modern Earth Day and the numerous environmentalist movements, or Senator Nelson, or James Hansen recognizing the trend of global warming, or Rachel Carson, or even Henry David Thoreau, however good and noble the works and words of these people might be.

It goes back to Native Americans, who tried to warn our modern society of the dangers of not taking our responsibilities towards Earth seriously. We did not listen to them, and now we are paying the price for our arrogance and foolish presumptions of the time.

Yet, it is interesting to note, also, that some apparently even forecast global warming itself. There is one man, with one speech in particular, who suggested as much, and this was something that I was not aware of until just recently.

This was a fascinating thing, although a bit depressing on some levels, and not least of all because of the use of such terms as "savages" in the speech.

Still, to have apparently forecast global warming well over a century before it became an accepted scientific theory?

Pretty fascinating stuff!

Take a look, and click on the link below for more information on it:

"Man cannot at his pleasure command the rain and the sunshine, the wind and frost and snow, yet it is certain that climate itself has in many instances been gradually changed and ameliorated or deteriorated by human action. The draining of swamps and the clearing of forests perceptibly effect the evaporation from the earth, and of course the mean quantity of moisture suspended in the air. The same causes modify the electrical condition of the atmosphere and the power of the surface to reflect, absorb and radiate the rays of the sun, and consequently influence the distribution of light and heat, and the force and direction of the winds. Within narrow limits too, domestic fires and artificial structures create and diffuse increased warmth, to an extent that may effect vegetation. The mean temperature of London is a degree or two higher than that of the surrounding country, and Pallas believed, that the climate of even so thinly a peopled country as Russia was sensibly modified by similar causes."
~George Perkins Marsh, 1847


The 1847 lecture that predicted human-induced climate change  by Leo Hickman  Monday 20 June 2011

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2011/jun/20/george-perkins-marsh-climate-speech





A 50th anniversary few remember: LBJ's warning on carbon dioxide By Marianne Lavelle The Daily Climate, February 2, 2015:

http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2015/02/president-johnson-carbon-climate-warni

Earth Day Week: Dr. Jane Goodall Speaks About Environmentalism


Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!



Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 



"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  




She seems almost like the Mother Theresa of the environmental movement, doesn't she?

Dr. Jane Goodall, who I had the good fortune of seeing once at the Live Earth concert back in 2007, spoke to Bill Moyers once about environmentalism.

Take a look at what she had to say about it by clicking on the link below:



Dr. Jane Goodall on Environmentalism November 27, 2009:

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Earth Day Week: More Quotes From Great Native American Thinkers

Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!



Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 



"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  




Here are some other sites with powerful quotes from Native Americans.

In the spirit of Earth Day, which is technically tomorrow, but which I will be honoring on "The Charbor Chronicles" all week, and which I believe we should recognize and celebrate every single day, here are more sites that offer great quotes and, hopefully, very different perspectives on life and our world than what we find available on television or newspapers. These are very different truths indeed, and we need to expose ourselves to these, and try to understand them:




10 Quotes From a Oglala Lakota Chief That Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society By Wisdom Pills / wisdompills.com:

Earth Day Week: Some Nuggets Of Wisdom & Provocative Quotes From Native Americans


Earth from Space with Stars

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369




The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!



Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 



"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi


"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
  
~John F. Kennedy  




"The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself."



- Native American Philosophy (sometimes attributed to Chief Seattle)




When I began college at Bergen Community College in the spring of 1993, everything felt new. While high school had been a time of conformity, where I never seemed to fit in and, thus, was kind of cast out and always on the outside, college was a place with new and far more interesting young people (although they were almost all older than me, and thus seemed worldly to me in a way that felt inaccessible to someone so simple as me). One girl in particular, who I had a massive crush on (but was too much of a coward to tell her that much) embodied all of that. Everything just seemed so promising. There was an energy and freedom that I was not accustomed to, and it was all exciting!

One of the first things that I did was join the Environmental Club, where I met many like-minded people. For the first time, really, it felt like there actually was a youth movement of sorts. People here were willing to try new things, to dress very differently than what had been deemed acceptable at the high school.

It felt like a time of new possibilities. The nation had a new president in Bill Clinton, and he was the first Democrat in the White House in a dozen years! There was an exciting new music scene that was not just emerging, but taking over. Nirvana was on top, although Pearl Jam was clearly on the rise, as were other Seattle bands. There were other great musicians, with a different image and sound, such as the 4 Non-Blonds, the Spin Doctors and Blind Melon. There were great albums emerging in the early nineties from a whole bunch of different bands. Yes, it was a great time to be a young man, full of energy, and I had a lot of hope that a better world was indeed possible.

Of course, I was young and naive. The world was not going to get better because a few young people at one particular college were relative environmental activists, or because a new, activist music scene was emerging in the public light, or because a Democrat had finally been elected president. The world did not shift on it's axis. Many of the young people that I saw elsewhere remained largely unmoved by the surprising activism that I witnessed at Bergen. They may have liked the Seattle scene, but only for the music, and likely because it was popular at the time. The anti-corporate, anti-commercial approach was lost on them.

In short, I wanted to convince myself that all of the exciting things that seemed to be happening at Bergen represented a new norm for youth, a sign of the changing world. It did not take long for reality to set in. Within a few years, the Seattle scene itself was copied, and alternative music became a parody of itself, with numerous copy cat bands just in it for the money. And President Bill Clinton did not look anywhere near as idealistic as he had seemed as a candidate, or as he has seemed since leaving office. In fact, some people referred to him as "Republican light".

The world went on as normal. Most of those exciting young people were gone within a year. Suddenly, I was no longer the youngest guy in the Environmental Club, and no longer a newcomer, either. I was elected Secretary for the fall semester, then Vice-President for the following spring, on my way to becoming President for the 1994-95 academic year. I had wanted to be among the leaders when I first joined, but it proved anti-climatic. There was so much that it seemed I needed to learn to catch up, if you will, with those others, who had seemed impressive and knowledgeable in ways that I could never be. Once it was just me, it was anti-climatic. As I mentioned in a blog entry a few days ago, I was just scared to fail, and basically retired from the Environmental Club after the big Earth Day celebrations.

There are some things, however, the stuck with me. That girl that I mentioned a little earlier? Well, she got involved with the Walden Pond Project. She was quite taken by Don Henley, and he was involved in an effort to save Walden Woods, where Henry David Thoreau spent two years, and wrote the brilliant book, "Walden", which he is most famous for. Many consider him the father of the environmental movement, and I began to gain a strong appreciation of him at that time, mostly through her. Since then, i myself have had some opportunities to visit Walden Woods, and have taken my son there once, even. I intend to do so again, once he is old enough to perhaps appreciate the significance of the place, and the history involved.

Another thing that stuck was a deeper appreciation for Native Americans. My parents, to their credit, had always tried to teach us of a different history than the one in school books or on television. To that end, they had taken us to some pow wows, and other things pertaining to Native American culture. That certainly would not score me popularity points in my high school filled with kids from either a redneck or yuppie upbringing, but it made me feel like I could relate to the young activists at Bergen. There was one quote in particular that was on some bumper sticker or other in the Environmental Club office at some point which resonated with me. It was from Chief Seattle, and although I tried to put it up on top of this post, it did not specifically suggest that he was the one behind this saying. But it was essentially this: “Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to earth.”

It was an impressive and thought-provoking quote. Certainly, it sounded good, and I believed in it, although in retrospect, I probably did not understand it all that well.

Years later, however, I think I understand it a bit better. Of course, that also comes after I took my own, independent interest in native culture, which was sparked again when another girl (this time, it was a girlfriend) introduced me to a writer who I now count as among my very favorites - Daniel Quinn. After reading him, I took a renewed interest in Native American culture and writing, and read one book that blew my mind away - Touch the Earth.

I began to read more and more Native American stuff, and by now, I had a more adult (some might say more mature) grasp of reality. Since those early days in 1993, there had been some personal growth, and of course, the world had changed. There was the 9/11 attacks, and there had been the Iraq war, and the obsession with oil. Bush even admitted that the country was addicted to oil. There were huge natural disasters, from the tsunami in Asia in 2004, to Katrina in 2005, to Japan in 2011, to Sandy (which I personally was in New Jersey for) in 2012. We still see extremes, with a record drought in California, and seemingly annual record flooding by the Mississippi. Even President Bush admitted that global warming appeared to be real, something that too many other Republicans have conveniently forgotten. Also, let us not forget the not so natural disasters, including some huge oil spills, particularly the one in the Gulf of Mexico, which just reached the five year anniversary. Also, the Fukushima disaster, where officials admitted that they could not contain the radiation, and even though it receded into the background and is no longer in the news, there is still nonetheless radioactive waste leaking unchecked into the Pacific. Also, there was a near economic collapse globally in 2008, and the same practices are back in place, almost assuring that there will be another economic disaster.

To sum up, the world seems to be getting worse, not better. That old idealism and hope for a better world has yielded to a grimmer worldview, one where it seems that our situation is hopeless and always getting worse.

Whether that is true or not, many of the dire prognostications and warnings by Native Americans of the excesses of our global culture seem to have largely come true. We should have known. We should have taken them seriously, instead of regarding them as savages and treating them like children.

Now, however, we can learn. There is a more balanced way of looking at our history, our culture. One in which we can actually admit to making mistakes (gasp!) and, even more shockingly, where we learn enough from them not to repeat them (double GASP!!).

I grew up, grew older. I am not the same dumb kid I was back then. If I could go back in time, I would do some things differently. But one thing that I am glad that I did do was hold on to some of that old idealism. Enough, at least, to get more acclimated with Thoreau and Native Americans, who warned us so long ago of what we were facing if we did not change our ways. I have spoken to and heard from many people who truly are idealistic activists, and now, I know that they are out there, and growing in numbers. Not all of my idealism and hope for the future is gone, even though much of it was buried under an avalanche of reality checks.

Ultimately, there is a better way of doing things, and we cannot afford to lose sight of that. So long as we are here, there is hope. I just enjoyed a beautiful weekend, soaking in the sun of a lovely spring, breathing the fresh air. Enjoying that time with my girlfriend and my son.

For his sake, and for the sake of all children, and our children's children, we had best not lose hope that a better way, a brighter future, is still possible.

In order to remind us of that, we should remember the lessons from the past, and accept that mistakes were made. Let us at least begin to undo some of the damage of the past, and learn more about Native Americans in particular. Let us grant them the respect that they were denied in their own day, and let us read their words and understand their lessons and warnings about our all-consuming culture.They understood something back then that we still do not understand presently, as the news headlines suggest each and every day.

What better time than now, on the eve of Earth Day?

Here is one place to start, by clicking on the links below:





10 Pieces Of Wisdom and Quotes From Native American Elders January 8, 2015 by Alanna Ketler.





10 Quotes From a Sioux Indian Chief That Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society