We all feel sorrow and compassion for the citizens of Maui. May we continue our effort to fight climate crisis denialism and do whatever we can to save our planet so we can keep fighting to save our democracy.
I know we will be given the opportunity to respond to calls to help the people of Maui in whatever way we can. It brings to mind that we are our brother’s keepers. How do we extend this to other States that are struggling with burdens that our individual states may not have to bear, like Texas and Florida’s increasing immigration burden? The conflict that has resulted is not a political issue although it’s turned in to one. Perhaps these states are already given aid proportionate to their burden but I doubt it.
We badly need to greatly reduce both legal and illegal immigration. All it would take to stanch illegal immigration almost out of existence would be to pass a national, mandatory E-Verify. The house passed one earlier this year--with almost no help from the Democrats, and because of that, the Senate didn't bother trying. If they can't get jobs, they won't come. It would also stop the exploitation of immigrant children as labor.
I don't understand the Democrats' enabling of illegal immigration. Mass immigration, and particularly illegal immigration are big biz' way of keeping wages down, and keeping employees eminently exploitable. Why can't the Democrats help the GOP ensure that jobs and wages are safe from illegal immigration? My great uncle, Philip Hornbein, a union lawyer who ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century would be appalled, as would my maternal grandmother, his sister, who did her PhD thesis on labor relations (1915).
There's a book, Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck, that spells out big biz' modus operandi through the years on this. The book is well researched, and highly readable ($14 on Amazon). It gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs Americans won't do. Among others, the author interviewed numerous Black workers who had been recently fired from a poultry plant on the Eastern Shore, in favor of immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back, he asked them. No--because if they did, they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house, because the wages were so low, as their replacements did.
Since the facts are that illegal immigration has decreased since the moratorium ended we have to look at the legal migration and how we can facilitate it. We also need to look at the politics that have helped to create this situation. As far as I am concerned, this land belongs to the First Peoples and the rest of us are occupiers and the offspring of occupiers. So, telling indigenous people of the Americas that they don't belong here because we stole what belongs to us, is not sitting right with me. While races is not a real thing, it is a RACIST policy that tries to keep people out of the border, but lets Europeans and maybe some Asians immigrate here. There are plenty of people who are coming and working jobs that no one here wants. This should not be a battle of Black against Brown. There is a history of exploiting groups to do that. Now, to avoid paying decent wages Red States are lowering child working ages and getting rid of protections so that they can avoid hiring people for a decent wage while the fat cat owners wallow in their wealth without paying taxes to give back to the country whose people they are exploiting.
We have had some policies that had terrible effects on countries in Latin America, as you point out. But the last thing we need is more people. Our country is unsustainable. We don't have enough water west of the Mississippi. States are fighting over water from the Colorado River (which has long ceased to reach the Gulf of California where it once emptied into the sea). Cities in Arizona are fighting over water. A town in Utah has banned new construction because there is so little water. The Great Salt Lake is drying up as its water gets used for agriculture, and it will likely be gone in a few years--an ecological disaster.
The Ogallala Aquifer, which extends from Canada to Texas under the Great Plains, and which is mined to water the Great Plains, is almost gone.
If white people were flooding into the US from Europe, I'd be saying the same thing. I'm mixed race myself, and in my lifetime, our country has become multiracial. I'm well aware, and extremely grateful, that Blacks played a key role putting Biden in the White House. But the US is environmentally unsustainable. We need to reduce legal immigration to no more than the number of people who leave the US every year--around 200,000. I don't care what race they are). We need to stabilize our population. the kind of growth we're undergoing--when that happens among cells in the body it's called cancer. In fact, the world needs to stop growing.
At this point, global warming has already killed 55 people on Maui. That death toll is small compared to what's coming later this century. Within the next several decades, according to Propublica, MILLIONS of Americans will become climate refugees. Do you want to increase that number by allowing the population to keep growing? Read the Propublica article. And you can bet that a lot of people will be dying before their time.
“Why can’t the Democrats help the GOP…”. That sentence boggles my mind. First, there is no more GOP. Then when have repubs ever tried to “save jobs from illegal immigration…. In fact they want to save voters from ever having to think; just hate the “others.” Dems have tried to reform immigration for decades. Repubs will never do it because it is the albatross that they can hang around the necks of Dems forever. I used to think “what is it about illegal that the refugees don’t understand.” Then I realized how the whole issue has been used as a battering ram against Dems. Well, since Reagan’s disastrous “reform.” Chump just gave excuses for the hatred. We have always had immigrants (most of us are descendants of some). If we would welcome them, recognize their contributions, and make the system workable, America would be what the Statue of Liberty promised. Otherwise, we are just phonies who happened to get here before the ones currently attempting the same. Shame on us.
I agree with you in general about the GOP. But a busted clock is right twice a day, and the GOP passed a national, mandatory E-Verify in the House earlier this year, which would have stanched the flow of illegal immigrants into the US by preventing them from getting jobs had enough Democrats voted for it that it could have passed in the Senate.
Did you know: Cesar Chavez denounced illegal immigrants to INS, ICE's predecessor, because he understood that a flood of illegal immigrants would undermine his members' wages.
Do you understand the word, "unsustainable"? Are you aware of the heat waves that are overtaking the US and the world due to global warming? We're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. We have 330 million people. If we'd stopped growing at 200 million--which was the population at the time Paul Ehrlich came out with his book (late '60s)--there wouldn't have been the wildfires in Canada, in Siberia, and on Maui, and we'd have more time to change technology to reduce global warming emissions so we could avoid the heating and the fires that are happening now.
I have a dear friend who lives in Hilo on the windward (wet) side of the "big island". I knew she was safe but asked how she was coping. Her response: "Moving from deep sadness to action."
Knowing nothing of the charitable organizations in Hawai'i, I asked for a recommendation. Here is her suggestion:
"My preference is Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii
1727 Pali Highway, Honolulu, HI 96813. Mark it for Maui assistance."
Aloha to the residents of Maui. We see you, we hear you and all the creatures that perished along with your loved ones.
Let us also include the major cause for carbon dioxide imbalance between the atmosphere, terrestrial vegetation and soil microbes when we focus on the climate crisis. Yes, ending fossil fuel emissions matter, but the larger contributor is off-gassing of CO2 from our agricultural practices of tilling and leaving bare soils. Soil microbes, particularly AM fungi, hold on to 40% of the soil carbon. Historically, 70% of carbon was held below ground totaling more than the carbon stored in the atmosphere and above ground vegetation combined. We need to speak more about returning carbon to the soil through a massive transition to healthy soil principles of: no till, diverse cover cropping, mulching, and mob grazing of animals. Every gram of carbon we return to the soil holds 8 grams of water. This creates a soil sponge and resilience to drought, fires, and floods. End fossil fuel emissions - yes. But let's get down to work to restore balance in the planet's carbon cycle. We can reverse the ppm of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, increase soil nutrients, the nutrient density of foods, and improve our health by farming smart.
Yup; agreed, plain and simple. I went ‘No Till’ years ago. Everyone tells me I don’t know what I’m talking about. Welp- I don’t even amend the soil in my gardens- I don’t need to cause there is an entire biome in that garden and it knows what to do! Tilling releases carbon , it also disturbs the biome that is making nutrient rich soil. It’s so easy and yet there is so much resistance, such a shame. I know we are talking about climate crisis but I just want to touch on lawns and fertilizer/ weed killer. When I arrived on this property 17 years ago I told Green Thumb lawn care company to take a hike. My husband lost it- “we need to feed the lawn and kill the weeds”. I wanted no part of my family of people and animals walking and playing on chemicals. We now have acres of beautiful green pastures and lawn. Birds come and feed on worms (that are living cause no chems) and on it goes. My biggest fight is getting hubs to stop mowing large areas- finally, he has started to leave natural areas- the wildlife hangs out and ground nesting birds do there thing. It’s so easy. I get that you must do some destruction and use the diggers to get things going but with planning you can keep lawns and gardens natural and native and they take over and do the work for you. Less fertilizer which is freaky how polluting it is to make and to use. Ok- I’ll get off my high horse now.
Karen, please stay on the "high horse". You get it and I love that you are a positive influence on your husband. Tell him for me, that he married smart!
I have been a backyard organic no-till farmer for decades. It works. And one of my joys is the giving away of chemical free food to family, friends and neighbors. From A-Z. Asparagus to Zucchini and everything in between. "Gardening is Therapy. And you get Tomatoes."
I couldn’t agree with you more! Taking care of the soil by not depleting it of life is the foundation for a healthy planet, along with healthy oceans, but that’s another issue.
Big Ag is the main contributor to the desertification of the US.
Americans can do a lot to help by using no till methods, ditching high maintenance lawns (and the chemicals needed to support them), and planting native plants that support native species above and below ground. Also keeping water on one’s property, stored in the living soil. That being said, we need Big Ag to join the party so we can heal the earth, and eat healthier, more nutritious foods.
Another good practice is to support small, local farms who offer a diverse selection of crops and who know that managing the soil is the way to sustain their farms.
I am a huge fan of our President, but the issue you so well describe has not been addressed at a cabinet level. I was disappointed in that appointment. Correct me if I am wrong.
US ag policy is driven by large, politically connected ag-biz interests - Cargill, ADM, Bayer, Dupont, Syngenta, etc. Ag products are commodities, so their value is determined by the market, and the foregoing companies control the market. Until policymakers understand that healthy soil and clean, nutrient dense food is a national security issue, we will not see a change in ag practices. I am sure you know this, Bill, but the more we say this, and the more people read this, perhaps we can begin to see policy move in a better direction.
Exactly. The "oligarchs" rule our food production with only one thing in mind. Profits. Human health? Nope. For now, I encourage folks to grow their own if feasible, buy locally grown by sustainable farmers and do not walk through the center aisles of a super market.
I'm piggy-backing your comment, with a similar "cause" if you don't mind. How many here are aware of a movement of Black and Indigenous farmers to reclaim old farming methods and cultural foods? I support it with all my heart. This is a rich, uplifting movement that is environmentally sensitive and empowering of people whose gifts of land care and food production are predicted to be accutely needed, more than ever. This movement needs our help because, even now, these farmers suffer racial biases and local regulations designed to frustrate Blacks and other POC land owners.
Can you suggest anywhere I can read about this? It's fascinating.
And is this something conventional farmers could do with current equipment? (Not that that should stop it from happening--it shouldn't--but if it would I'm sure there will be opposition, and we'd need to fight that. Thanks!
We also need to stabilize our population in order to stop spreading urban sprawl, which releases copious carbon every time virgin land is converted to homes, buildings, roads, or to other human uses.
However, the Census Bureau projects the US will add 75 million over the next 40 years--equivalent to nearly four NY State populations. 68 million will come from immigration--which increases carbon emissions both from sprawl and from increased personal emissions, as a large percentage of immigrants come from third world countries with low per capita emissions, to the major industrialized nation with the highest per capita emissions. The remaining 7 million (one Mass. equivaent) will be from native increase.
Propublica projects that within three decades, MILLIONS of Americans will become climate refugees. For a genuinely scary read:
The US has long since ceased to be white. (I'm mixed race. My neighborhood is quite mixed.)
More to the point: we are the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. It is the worst place on the planet to put more people--because people who come here from elsewhere end up consuming like Americans. More people here is a lose-lose for the planet. Greenhouse emissions know no borders.
David, this will open a can of worms that's been opened before. It is contrary to democratic ideals to "stabilize population." Eugenics, China's one child policy, etc. have been tried and do not pass the test of humanitarian sensibilities. Government control of the bedroom is anathema to us as it is to other nations and cultures.
But be of good heart. It seems procreation is diminishing a little bit. Ask yourself this: who among us will volunteer not to have children? Almost always, we think of the "Other" as the culprits, i/e. India for example, where population outstrips resources. The least intrusive form of birth control is male sterilization. It's been tried, again in India, but also failed because of psychological barriers and masculine pride. It's just too much like racism and genocide.
I'm not opening a can of worms, Hope. You're unaware of what the major source of population increase is, and of what the gov't can do about native increase without coercion. The major cause of the US population explosion is immigration. The Census Bureau projects that over the next 40 years immigration will add 68 million (nearly 3.5 NY State equivalents). (If you have any familiarity with NY State, try to imagine adding 3.5 of them to the US population.)
As for native increase, the Census Bureau projects growth by 7 million over the next 40 years. No need for coercion. Apply incentives (A tax credit for not having kids) or disincentives (reduce or remove the child tax credit.)
Whoa. Your heading took my breath away. We live only a short distance from Paradise, CA - the town wiped out by the Camp Fire in 2018, and we came 1/4 mile from losing everything in the Marshall in Colorado last year. My heart breaks for the Hawaiian people. It will be years before they see anything resembling "normal" and Lahaina will never be the same. 😢
YES - We are together and thanks for being part of the glue! The need for clear communication is becoming even more critical with climate in the headlines. Hawaiians need our support.
The kids see it and all the more reason to educate and support our next generation of LEADERS. David Hogg and United Student Leaders give me reason to believe.
Since you aren't here in Hell Lay today Robert, I'll let you know that we have had June Gloom In August the past three days and the temps went down from 99 to 81 for high of the day. But don't worry, it's going to be back up in the 90s next week when you return, so it'll be like you never left. :-)
For how many years has the summer temp in LA been getting into the 90s? When did this start? I spent a week or so in LA during the summer of 1971, I think, and I don't remember being hot. And I spent ... well, and evening and a morning there in '15, without being hot (my nephew got married).
Just saw your post. We're on the same wavelength. I donated this morning. A short story: after I lost my home in 2008 and spent months working with my insurer to cover living expenses, I went to the tennis shop to replace my lost racquet. There, a gentlemen who I did not know, heard that I'd lost my home and, of course, my racquet in the wildfire. He refused to let me purchase a new racquet - he bought the racquet for me. That one little act of kindness has stayed with me since and I always try to pay-it-forward when sad events happen in people's lives.
I too lost a home to fire. We were young and just poof. We were far away from my home town of Provincetown, MA - actually we were in Sarasota- when I say we lost everything I mean everything. A young couple from down the street who had recently bought a motel came as we stood on the sidewalk( in shock) and said there was a room that we could bunk in till we ‘figured things out’. I have never forgotten that kindness, to this day it makes we weep.
The kindness of strangers is overwhelming. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, a woman whose children played with my children offered to take care of my kids anytime and that I could call her in the middle of the night if I needed to. It still brings tears to my eyes.
There is a discussion about the brawl on the waterfront in Montgomery this week that misses all the years of Segregation that this part of the United States has had to endure. Most readers are pleased that the black co Captain of the ship was able to standup to the white racists on the dock.
But as an avid fan of Inland Waterway amenities available along the Gulf Coast, I am well aware of the difference between public and private moorings. When the co Captain decided he should leave his ship in the middle of the riverto confront the Bullies on the Private Dock, that speaks a powerful message about the Black population in Alabama and their relationship to Montgomery's Police Department.
I’ve been told I think too much. That causes me to write too much. So forgive. Until approximately when my fourth year of life began I remember vaguely life in Miami. I was too young to think of heat, cold and weather in general. Then with my family I spent just about that whole year in Putnam County, NY and witnessed the infamous 1947 or ’48 blizzard. It impresses four-year-olds at minimum. Back in Miami I don’t remember the weather except that I was able to be outside almost all the time. Before I was seven I remember days of monsoon-like rain and then moved to NJ where I lived until thirteen and saw more snow and freezes but also heat waves-just heat waves; not whole summer-long, death-dealing heat. I then spent another eighteen months in Miami. There was heat and sweat, yet also monsoon rains and even the cold days in mid-winter and some of those days overcast skies prevented hot water production in our solar water heater on the roof. I cut lawns for money and of course the heat was apparent and I endeavored to spend as much time at the City of Miami’s Curtis Pool where the sun was enjoyable as well the 80-something-degree water. After another six years in NJ I returned to Miami for thirteen years more and then moved up the coast so that since age 20, some 60 years ago I have been a full-time Floridian. I was a science major in college and graduated at the bachelor level and I paid close attention to weather since I also became an avid free diver on the Southeast Florida reefs where I brought home scores of fish and lobster for our table. As best I can recall, Miami was hot or balmy or rainy with temperatures in the low 90s all summer long except perhaps during those monsoons. Now some 120 miles north on the southeast Florida coast the temperatures everyday are in the high nineties with heat indexes over 105. Yesterday afternoon my car thermometer displayed 98 degrees outside while the Fort Pierce NPR affiliate reported a temperature of 91 and Trump’s lawyers were just getting out of the Federal Court House in town. I haven’t seen a hard freeze in winter in so long I cannot remember the year. Only once in the past five years have I seen frost on my lawn and then it was a small patch only. Contrast that to on or about Jimmy Carter’s Inaugural snow flakes fell as far south as Miami and a hard freeze the following morning caused all the vegetation to be brown until the first monsoons of summer that year. Each day I must do my yard work in my one-acre residence lot before 10 am. Then I’m done with being outside the remainder of the day. Contrast that with my cutting grass as a teen and even in my early twenties, even in mid-day when as a new father I tried to make ends meet for the three of us. OK, I’m an old man now but the statistics don’t lie. At 120 miles north of Miami, Fort Pierce summer temperatures are higher than in Miami 50 years ago and those are real stats. Meanwhile I get the media stories. My free-diving reefs I loved so much in my twenties are bleached out and the fish are gone. Large black groupers that were prevalent in the past in even ten-foot depths are only present at depths of a 100 feet or more where the water temperature is tolerable for these wonderful fish. My story is not very scientific but it’s hard for me to believe Global Warming is not real and that life on earth is not changing for the worse, at least for homo sapiens. How much more will Florida humans such as I be able to survive this? Maybe I need to move to Putnam County where I remember that infamous blizzard rained down snow.
"Instead, PragerU claims that climate change is natural, and the evidence is inconclusive about the role of humans in accelerating global warming and extreme weather."
I note that at least this assessment of the PragerU message doesn't counter the fact that we face an existential crisis. All they're doing is misdirecting the conversation to take the pressure off their supporters in the fossil resource extraction and related industries. We can debate for days the cause of the changes we're experiencing and accomplish nothing positive. What needs to happen is to follow through on the changes that the current administration has begun and make everyone responsible for their actions including the externalities that allow for huge profits and enable stale wells and mines to keep polluting for years after they're played out.
Those who reject the changes needed to manage the climate crisis will be remembered among the villains of history. Just as we remember the Nazis and the Communists, the disrupters of the Third World from Pol Pot to Saddam Hussein to Idi Amin, we will remember those who have made the world destructive, who created the extreme forest fires and the extreme weather events that now bring us death and destruction.
Denialism is certainly a deadly preoccupation. As Alex Haley writes, "Either you deal with what's the reality or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you." It is a horse race though, as to whether the exhaustion and antipathy towards the deniers reaches a peak before reality deals with us all is some tragic, irreparable way. Americans seem worn-out by 'wokeness'; tired of Tommy Tuberville; done with Ted Cruz; limp from lies...and it goes on. All playing out while the Earth is burning, raging, howling, and flooding. If it seems apocalyptic, no worries, it's just reality getting your attention...playing its hand.
May the folks on the islands affected by this tragedy be safe and sound.
We all feel sorrow and compassion for the citizens of Maui. May we continue our effort to fight climate crisis denialism and do whatever we can to save our planet so we can keep fighting to save our democracy.
I know we will be given the opportunity to respond to calls to help the people of Maui in whatever way we can. It brings to mind that we are our brother’s keepers. How do we extend this to other States that are struggling with burdens that our individual states may not have to bear, like Texas and Florida’s increasing immigration burden? The conflict that has resulted is not a political issue although it’s turned in to one. Perhaps these states are already given aid proportionate to their burden but I doubt it.
We badly need to greatly reduce both legal and illegal immigration. All it would take to stanch illegal immigration almost out of existence would be to pass a national, mandatory E-Verify. The house passed one earlier this year--with almost no help from the Democrats, and because of that, the Senate didn't bother trying. If they can't get jobs, they won't come. It would also stop the exploitation of immigrant children as labor.
I don't understand the Democrats' enabling of illegal immigration. Mass immigration, and particularly illegal immigration are big biz' way of keeping wages down, and keeping employees eminently exploitable. Why can't the Democrats help the GOP ensure that jobs and wages are safe from illegal immigration? My great uncle, Philip Hornbein, a union lawyer who ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century would be appalled, as would my maternal grandmother, his sister, who did her PhD thesis on labor relations (1915).
There's a book, Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck, that spells out big biz' modus operandi through the years on this. The book is well researched, and highly readable ($14 on Amazon). It gives the lie to the notion that there are jobs Americans won't do. Among others, the author interviewed numerous Black workers who had been recently fired from a poultry plant on the Eastern Shore, in favor of immigrants. Would they take their old jobs back, he asked them. No--because if they did, they'd have to live in their cars, or many to a house, because the wages were so low, as their replacements did.
I like the way that Professor Kathleen Belew addresses the key role that the USA has played in destroying life for many in Latin America, leading to them coming here. There are international laws and we are not following them. https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2019/may-2019/aba-legal-fact-check--an-exploration-of-asylum-legalities-amid-c/
Since the facts are that illegal immigration has decreased since the moratorium ended we have to look at the legal migration and how we can facilitate it. We also need to look at the politics that have helped to create this situation. As far as I am concerned, this land belongs to the First Peoples and the rest of us are occupiers and the offspring of occupiers. So, telling indigenous people of the Americas that they don't belong here because we stole what belongs to us, is not sitting right with me. While races is not a real thing, it is a RACIST policy that tries to keep people out of the border, but lets Europeans and maybe some Asians immigrate here. There are plenty of people who are coming and working jobs that no one here wants. This should not be a battle of Black against Brown. There is a history of exploiting groups to do that. Now, to avoid paying decent wages Red States are lowering child working ages and getting rid of protections so that they can avoid hiring people for a decent wage while the fat cat owners wallow in their wealth without paying taxes to give back to the country whose people they are exploiting.
We have had some policies that had terrible effects on countries in Latin America, as you point out. But the last thing we need is more people. Our country is unsustainable. We don't have enough water west of the Mississippi. States are fighting over water from the Colorado River (which has long ceased to reach the Gulf of California where it once emptied into the sea). Cities in Arizona are fighting over water. A town in Utah has banned new construction because there is so little water. The Great Salt Lake is drying up as its water gets used for agriculture, and it will likely be gone in a few years--an ecological disaster.
The Ogallala Aquifer, which extends from Canada to Texas under the Great Plains, and which is mined to water the Great Plains, is almost gone.
If white people were flooding into the US from Europe, I'd be saying the same thing. I'm mixed race myself, and in my lifetime, our country has become multiracial. I'm well aware, and extremely grateful, that Blacks played a key role putting Biden in the White House. But the US is environmentally unsustainable. We need to reduce legal immigration to no more than the number of people who leave the US every year--around 200,000. I don't care what race they are). We need to stabilize our population. the kind of growth we're undergoing--when that happens among cells in the body it's called cancer. In fact, the world needs to stop growing.
At this point, global warming has already killed 55 people on Maui. That death toll is small compared to what's coming later this century. Within the next several decades, according to Propublica, MILLIONS of Americans will become climate refugees. Do you want to increase that number by allowing the population to keep growing? Read the Propublica article. And you can bet that a lot of people will be dying before their time.
https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-change-will-force-a-new-american-migration
“Why can’t the Democrats help the GOP…”. That sentence boggles my mind. First, there is no more GOP. Then when have repubs ever tried to “save jobs from illegal immigration…. In fact they want to save voters from ever having to think; just hate the “others.” Dems have tried to reform immigration for decades. Repubs will never do it because it is the albatross that they can hang around the necks of Dems forever. I used to think “what is it about illegal that the refugees don’t understand.” Then I realized how the whole issue has been used as a battering ram against Dems. Well, since Reagan’s disastrous “reform.” Chump just gave excuses for the hatred. We have always had immigrants (most of us are descendants of some). If we would welcome them, recognize their contributions, and make the system workable, America would be what the Statue of Liberty promised. Otherwise, we are just phonies who happened to get here before the ones currently attempting the same. Shame on us.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/kansas-aquifer-ogallala-water-crisis-drought/621007/
I agree with you in general about the GOP. But a busted clock is right twice a day, and the GOP passed a national, mandatory E-Verify in the House earlier this year, which would have stanched the flow of illegal immigrants into the US by preventing them from getting jobs had enough Democrats voted for it that it could have passed in the Senate.
Did you know: Cesar Chavez denounced illegal immigrants to INS, ICE's predecessor, because he understood that a flood of illegal immigrants would undermine his members' wages.
Do you understand the word, "unsustainable"? Are you aware of the heat waves that are overtaking the US and the world due to global warming? We're the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. We have 330 million people. If we'd stopped growing at 200 million--which was the population at the time Paul Ehrlich came out with his book (late '60s)--there wouldn't have been the wildfires in Canada, in Siberia, and on Maui, and we'd have more time to change technology to reduce global warming emissions so we could avoid the heating and the fires that are happening now.
I have a dear friend who lives in Hilo on the windward (wet) side of the "big island". I knew she was safe but asked how she was coping. Her response: "Moving from deep sadness to action."
Knowing nothing of the charitable organizations in Hawai'i, I asked for a recommendation. Here is her suggestion:
"My preference is Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii
1727 Pali Highway, Honolulu, HI 96813. Mark it for Maui assistance."
Blessings and thanks to all.
Love this phrase “Moving from deep sadness to action”. Thx for sharing
Here's a list of many additional organizations to consider. Article is free for non-subscribers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/maui-wildfires-how-to-help/
Aloha to the residents of Maui. We see you, we hear you and all the creatures that perished along with your loved ones.
Let us also include the major cause for carbon dioxide imbalance between the atmosphere, terrestrial vegetation and soil microbes when we focus on the climate crisis. Yes, ending fossil fuel emissions matter, but the larger contributor is off-gassing of CO2 from our agricultural practices of tilling and leaving bare soils. Soil microbes, particularly AM fungi, hold on to 40% of the soil carbon. Historically, 70% of carbon was held below ground totaling more than the carbon stored in the atmosphere and above ground vegetation combined. We need to speak more about returning carbon to the soil through a massive transition to healthy soil principles of: no till, diverse cover cropping, mulching, and mob grazing of animals. Every gram of carbon we return to the soil holds 8 grams of water. This creates a soil sponge and resilience to drought, fires, and floods. End fossil fuel emissions - yes. But let's get down to work to restore balance in the planet's carbon cycle. We can reverse the ppm of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, increase soil nutrients, the nutrient density of foods, and improve our health by farming smart.
Yup; agreed, plain and simple. I went ‘No Till’ years ago. Everyone tells me I don’t know what I’m talking about. Welp- I don’t even amend the soil in my gardens- I don’t need to cause there is an entire biome in that garden and it knows what to do! Tilling releases carbon , it also disturbs the biome that is making nutrient rich soil. It’s so easy and yet there is so much resistance, such a shame. I know we are talking about climate crisis but I just want to touch on lawns and fertilizer/ weed killer. When I arrived on this property 17 years ago I told Green Thumb lawn care company to take a hike. My husband lost it- “we need to feed the lawn and kill the weeds”. I wanted no part of my family of people and animals walking and playing on chemicals. We now have acres of beautiful green pastures and lawn. Birds come and feed on worms (that are living cause no chems) and on it goes. My biggest fight is getting hubs to stop mowing large areas- finally, he has started to leave natural areas- the wildlife hangs out and ground nesting birds do there thing. It’s so easy. I get that you must do some destruction and use the diggers to get things going but with planning you can keep lawns and gardens natural and native and they take over and do the work for you. Less fertilizer which is freaky how polluting it is to make and to use. Ok- I’ll get off my high horse now.
Karen, please stay on the "high horse". You get it and I love that you are a positive influence on your husband. Tell him for me, that he married smart!
I have been a backyard organic no-till farmer for decades. It works. And one of my joys is the giving away of chemical free food to family, friends and neighbors. From A-Z. Asparagus to Zucchini and everything in between. "Gardening is Therapy. And you get Tomatoes."
I tried to do this. The people who live there now, love green grass. Sadder than I can express
❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for this -we all need to hear this. Over and over.
No till!
Sue,
I couldn’t agree with you more! Taking care of the soil by not depleting it of life is the foundation for a healthy planet, along with healthy oceans, but that’s another issue.
Big Ag is the main contributor to the desertification of the US.
Americans can do a lot to help by using no till methods, ditching high maintenance lawns (and the chemicals needed to support them), and planting native plants that support native species above and below ground. Also keeping water on one’s property, stored in the living soil. That being said, we need Big Ag to join the party so we can heal the earth, and eat healthier, more nutritious foods.
Another good practice is to support small, local farms who offer a diverse selection of crops and who know that managing the soil is the way to sustain their farms.
I am a huge fan of our President, but the issue you so well describe has not been addressed at a cabinet level. I was disappointed in that appointment. Correct me if I am wrong.
US ag policy is driven by large, politically connected ag-biz interests - Cargill, ADM, Bayer, Dupont, Syngenta, etc. Ag products are commodities, so their value is determined by the market, and the foregoing companies control the market. Until policymakers understand that healthy soil and clean, nutrient dense food is a national security issue, we will not see a change in ag practices. I am sure you know this, Bill, but the more we say this, and the more people read this, perhaps we can begin to see policy move in a better direction.
Exactly. The "oligarchs" rule our food production with only one thing in mind. Profits. Human health? Nope. For now, I encourage folks to grow their own if feasible, buy locally grown by sustainable farmers and do not walk through the center aisles of a super market.
Agree! I am also working to limit my consumption of consumer goods.
I'm piggy-backing your comment, with a similar "cause" if you don't mind. How many here are aware of a movement of Black and Indigenous farmers to reclaim old farming methods and cultural foods? I support it with all my heart. This is a rich, uplifting movement that is environmentally sensitive and empowering of people whose gifts of land care and food production are predicted to be accutely needed, more than ever. This movement needs our help because, even now, these farmers suffer racial biases and local regulations designed to frustrate Blacks and other POC land owners.
Thank you, Lindsay. I was not aware of the movement of Black and Indigenous farmers, but I am aware of the discrimination against Black farmers.
Another movement that I support is medicinal plant conservation and United Plant Savers organization.
I read an article about this within the past year, wish I could recall where.
Try: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/#:~:text=Soul%20Fire%20Farm%20is%20an,means%20to%20end%20food%20apartheid.
Me too!
Can you suggest anywhere I can read about this? It's fascinating.
And is this something conventional farmers could do with current equipment? (Not that that should stop it from happening--it shouldn't--but if it would I'm sure there will be opposition, and we'd need to fight that. Thanks!
Here is one farm with references: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/#:~:text=Soul%20Fire%20Farm%20is%20an,means%20to%20end%20food%20apartheid. (Soul Fire Farm.org.)
We also need to stabilize our population in order to stop spreading urban sprawl, which releases copious carbon every time virgin land is converted to homes, buildings, roads, or to other human uses.
However, the Census Bureau projects the US will add 75 million over the next 40 years--equivalent to nearly four NY State populations. 68 million will come from immigration--which increases carbon emissions both from sprawl and from increased personal emissions, as a large percentage of immigrants come from third world countries with low per capita emissions, to the major industrialized nation with the highest per capita emissions. The remaining 7 million (one Mass. equivaent) will be from native increase.
Propublica projects that within three decades, MILLIONS of Americans will become climate refugees. For a genuinely scary read:
https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-change-will-force-a-new-american-migration
Your “White Island” in the midst of a world in crisis sounds lovely. NOT
The US has long since ceased to be white. (I'm mixed race. My neighborhood is quite mixed.)
More to the point: we are the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita greenhouse emissions. It is the worst place on the planet to put more people--because people who come here from elsewhere end up consuming like Americans. More people here is a lose-lose for the planet. Greenhouse emissions know no borders.
David, this will open a can of worms that's been opened before. It is contrary to democratic ideals to "stabilize population." Eugenics, China's one child policy, etc. have been tried and do not pass the test of humanitarian sensibilities. Government control of the bedroom is anathema to us as it is to other nations and cultures.
But be of good heart. It seems procreation is diminishing a little bit. Ask yourself this: who among us will volunteer not to have children? Almost always, we think of the "Other" as the culprits, i/e. India for example, where population outstrips resources. The least intrusive form of birth control is male sterilization. It's been tried, again in India, but also failed because of psychological barriers and masculine pride. It's just too much like racism and genocide.
I'm not opening a can of worms, Hope. You're unaware of what the major source of population increase is, and of what the gov't can do about native increase without coercion. The major cause of the US population explosion is immigration. The Census Bureau projects that over the next 40 years immigration will add 68 million (nearly 3.5 NY State equivalents). (If you have any familiarity with NY State, try to imagine adding 3.5 of them to the US population.)
As for native increase, the Census Bureau projects growth by 7 million over the next 40 years. No need for coercion. Apply incentives (A tax credit for not having kids) or disincentives (reduce or remove the child tax credit.)
Whoa. Your heading took my breath away. We live only a short distance from Paradise, CA - the town wiped out by the Camp Fire in 2018, and we came 1/4 mile from losing everything in the Marshall in Colorado last year. My heart breaks for the Hawaiian people. It will be years before they see anything resembling "normal" and Lahaina will never be the same. 😢
I just wrote about Paradise California in a comment above and hold my breath every summer for Yosemite.
Thank you for your honesty and your compassion for our people who are suffering from the fires everywhere!
YES - We are together and thanks for being part of the glue! The need for clear communication is becoming even more critical with climate in the headlines. Hawaiians need our support.
The kids see it and all the more reason to educate and support our next generation of LEADERS. David Hogg and United Student Leaders give me reason to believe.
Since you aren't here in Hell Lay today Robert, I'll let you know that we have had June Gloom In August the past three days and the temps went down from 99 to 81 for high of the day. But don't worry, it's going to be back up in the 90s next week when you return, so it'll be like you never left. :-)
For how many years has the summer temp in LA been getting into the 90s? When did this start? I spent a week or so in LA during the summer of 1971, I think, and I don't remember being hot. And I spent ... well, and evening and a morning there in '15, without being hot (my nephew got married).
I think it began in the 80s, but it ramped up around the turn of the century.
You are lucky. Texas is hell, and it’s not just the temps
To help the people of Maui, go to:
https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong
Mahalo!
Just saw your post. We're on the same wavelength. I donated this morning. A short story: after I lost my home in 2008 and spent months working with my insurer to cover living expenses, I went to the tennis shop to replace my lost racquet. There, a gentlemen who I did not know, heard that I'd lost my home and, of course, my racquet in the wildfire. He refused to let me purchase a new racquet - he bought the racquet for me. That one little act of kindness has stayed with me since and I always try to pay-it-forward when sad events happen in people's lives.
I too lost a home to fire. We were young and just poof. We were far away from my home town of Provincetown, MA - actually we were in Sarasota- when I say we lost everything I mean everything. A young couple from down the street who had recently bought a motel came as we stood on the sidewalk( in shock) and said there was a room that we could bunk in till we ‘figured things out’. I have never forgotten that kindness, to this day it makes we weep.
The kindness of strangers is overwhelming. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, a woman whose children played with my children offered to take care of my kids anytime and that I could call her in the middle of the night if I needed to. It still brings tears to my eyes.
Donation made. Thank you for the link🙏🏽
There is a discussion about the brawl on the waterfront in Montgomery this week that misses all the years of Segregation that this part of the United States has had to endure. Most readers are pleased that the black co Captain of the ship was able to standup to the white racists on the dock.
But as an avid fan of Inland Waterway amenities available along the Gulf Coast, I am well aware of the difference between public and private moorings. When the co Captain decided he should leave his ship in the middle of the riverto confront the Bullies on the Private Dock, that speaks a powerful message about the Black population in Alabama and their relationship to Montgomery's Police Department.
The white chair man needs a medal.
Judith ----Great post. I like the background you expressed.
Thank you for this powerful message-- about our climate and how we can affect change in what we have created.
Jessica (Chop Wood Carry Water) recommends the app Climate Action Now - get it!!! it's great!!!!
I’ve been told I think too much. That causes me to write too much. So forgive. Until approximately when my fourth year of life began I remember vaguely life in Miami. I was too young to think of heat, cold and weather in general. Then with my family I spent just about that whole year in Putnam County, NY and witnessed the infamous 1947 or ’48 blizzard. It impresses four-year-olds at minimum. Back in Miami I don’t remember the weather except that I was able to be outside almost all the time. Before I was seven I remember days of monsoon-like rain and then moved to NJ where I lived until thirteen and saw more snow and freezes but also heat waves-just heat waves; not whole summer-long, death-dealing heat. I then spent another eighteen months in Miami. There was heat and sweat, yet also monsoon rains and even the cold days in mid-winter and some of those days overcast skies prevented hot water production in our solar water heater on the roof. I cut lawns for money and of course the heat was apparent and I endeavored to spend as much time at the City of Miami’s Curtis Pool where the sun was enjoyable as well the 80-something-degree water. After another six years in NJ I returned to Miami for thirteen years more and then moved up the coast so that since age 20, some 60 years ago I have been a full-time Floridian. I was a science major in college and graduated at the bachelor level and I paid close attention to weather since I also became an avid free diver on the Southeast Florida reefs where I brought home scores of fish and lobster for our table. As best I can recall, Miami was hot or balmy or rainy with temperatures in the low 90s all summer long except perhaps during those monsoons. Now some 120 miles north on the southeast Florida coast the temperatures everyday are in the high nineties with heat indexes over 105. Yesterday afternoon my car thermometer displayed 98 degrees outside while the Fort Pierce NPR affiliate reported a temperature of 91 and Trump’s lawyers were just getting out of the Federal Court House in town. I haven’t seen a hard freeze in winter in so long I cannot remember the year. Only once in the past five years have I seen frost on my lawn and then it was a small patch only. Contrast that to on or about Jimmy Carter’s Inaugural snow flakes fell as far south as Miami and a hard freeze the following morning caused all the vegetation to be brown until the first monsoons of summer that year. Each day I must do my yard work in my one-acre residence lot before 10 am. Then I’m done with being outside the remainder of the day. Contrast that with my cutting grass as a teen and even in my early twenties, even in mid-day when as a new father I tried to make ends meet for the three of us. OK, I’m an old man now but the statistics don’t lie. At 120 miles north of Miami, Fort Pierce summer temperatures are higher than in Miami 50 years ago and those are real stats. Meanwhile I get the media stories. My free-diving reefs I loved so much in my twenties are bleached out and the fish are gone. Large black groupers that were prevalent in the past in even ten-foot depths are only present at depths of a 100 feet or more where the water temperature is tolerable for these wonderful fish. My story is not very scientific but it’s hard for me to believe Global Warming is not real and that life on earth is not changing for the worse, at least for homo sapiens. How much more will Florida humans such as I be able to survive this? Maybe I need to move to Putnam County where I remember that infamous blizzard rained down snow.
Perhaps consider starting your own substack
Ironically, I just started reading a book in which the author quotes Wendell Berry, farmer and poet:
" To damage the earth is to
damage your children"
I love Wendell Berry. Thank you.🙏🏽
The Peace of Wild Things
By Wendell Berry
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
May it always be so…
"Instead, PragerU claims that climate change is natural, and the evidence is inconclusive about the role of humans in accelerating global warming and extreme weather."
I note that at least this assessment of the PragerU message doesn't counter the fact that we face an existential crisis. All they're doing is misdirecting the conversation to take the pressure off their supporters in the fossil resource extraction and related industries. We can debate for days the cause of the changes we're experiencing and accomplish nothing positive. What needs to happen is to follow through on the changes that the current administration has begun and make everyone responsible for their actions including the externalities that allow for huge profits and enable stale wells and mines to keep polluting for years after they're played out.
Those who reject the changes needed to manage the climate crisis will be remembered among the villains of history. Just as we remember the Nazis and the Communists, the disrupters of the Third World from Pol Pot to Saddam Hussein to Idi Amin, we will remember those who have made the world destructive, who created the extreme forest fires and the extreme weather events that now bring us death and destruction.
Yes. Climate Change Deniers will be remembered as the Earth's worst criminals - selfish planet destroyers.
Denialism is certainly a deadly preoccupation. As Alex Haley writes, "Either you deal with what's the reality or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you." It is a horse race though, as to whether the exhaustion and antipathy towards the deniers reaches a peak before reality deals with us all is some tragic, irreparable way. Americans seem worn-out by 'wokeness'; tired of Tommy Tuberville; done with Ted Cruz; limp from lies...and it goes on. All playing out while the Earth is burning, raging, howling, and flooding. If it seems apocalyptic, no worries, it's just reality getting your attention...playing its hand.
May the folks on the islands affected by this tragedy be safe and sound.
Reality is dealing with us