Peace.

Veteran’s Education Project: cosponsored by GCC Peace, Justice and Environmental Studies option and Traprock Center for Peace and Justice

Veteran’s Education Project: cosponsored by the GCC Peace, Justice and Environmental Studies option and Traprock Center for Peace and Justice

the assumption of human superiority over all other species results in the suffering of animals and plants worldwide! 

Marian Kelner discusses addressing and eliminating this institutionalized prejudice as key to bringing peace and justice to the Earth and all who live within and upon Her. 

“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is – whether its victim is human or animals – we cannot expect things to be much better in this world.” Rachel Carson

Free and Open to the Public

Co-sponsored with Greening Greenfield and the Environmental Justice class at Greenfield Community College. 

See poster attached.

Dear GCC and Community,

I am writing this letter a day after the most recent shooting in Newtown, CT. Twenty young children were killed, six adults. How can we make sense of this, especially in light of this time of year? My heart goes out to all those directly involved and as a parent, I am especially aggrieved by this event and do not want to imagine the unimaginable: the loss of your child. My thoughts move me to believe we must look beyond this young man’s emotional issues, or the family dynamics, to our wider culture. In many ways, we sanction killing and violence: through the death penalty, through sanctioning war, by arming our police and security with guns for protection. Killing is legal in these cases. Our media displays violence towards one another as a common and accepted way to resolve problems. It is time to take a look at the culture we have created and make some fundamental changes.

I am grateful to be working towards creating a more sustainable future; a future that nurtures compassion, empathy and creativity. This semester has given me an awesome group of students! They are engaged in learning to heal those individuals and groups who are harmed/traumatized/marginalized and to heal Mother Earth. They understand the interconnectedness of all of the issues that we struggle with. To that end, I’m sharing with you a poem we created in the Introduction to Peace Studies class; a poem prompted by the question: Since we can create the future, what does a future of peace, security and prosperity look like? Here is the poem:

PEACE IS……..

In a peaceful world you will feel the heartbeats of the other 7 billion people who live with you.

We all have the same goal,

A presence, rather than an absence.

A world of peace is a world of neighbors, friends, allies.

We envision a place where ego takes a back seat.

A place where all of our energy comes from renewable sources, where the forests have been restored, where soils are healthy and not contaminated.

We borrow from Mother Earth only those things we can return.

We envision the world to be without poverty, hunger or violence. To be without greed and power struggles.

A positive attitude towards yourself and others can influence a strong dynamic towards peaceful change.

A world of extremists who know only love for one another. A love that is unremarkable and intimate.

The nature of Man is change but if better natures bring better suns then perhaps our sons will strive for better.

Imagine, dream, hope and pray…..but don’t let that stop you from trying today.

With love and compassion:

Alex, Andrew, Brandon, Darien, Tanya, Shyla, Justin, Julia, Megan, Abbie

The work my students are engaging in is the hope and vision for our future, an antidote to the harmful ways we have constructed in our lives. As the collective consciousness regarding our actions is emerging, more are recognizing this fact: our consumer lifestyle is based on unsustainable practices and we must change. The level of violence in our culture is extreme. The economic system isn’t working for many. Our climate is telling us we must do better. Hurricane Sandy was just the most recent intense weather event that, like the most recent shooting, gives us pause to think about needed change. The change is about visioning a positive, gentle and caring approach to our problems, to each other and towards the natural world. We must stop killing each other and we must stop the degradation and violence towards the earth. The time is now to act. In the words of Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see.” We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Wishing you love, joy and peace on earth.

Abbie

December 15, 2012

In a peaceful world you will feel the heartbeats of the other 7 billion people who live with you.

We all have the same goal,

A presence, rather than an absence.

A world of peace is a world of neighbors, friends, allies.

We envision a place where ego takes a back seat.

A place where all of our energy comes from renewable sources, where the forests have been restored, where soils are healthy and not contaminated.

We borrow from Mother Earth only those things we can return.

We envision the world to be without poverty, hunger or violence. To be without greed and power struggles.

A positive attitude towards yourself and others can influence a strong dynamic towards peaceful change.

A world of extremists who know only love for one another. A love that is unremarkable and intimate.

The nature of Man is change but if better natures bring better suns then perhaps our sons will strive for better.

Imagine, dream, hope and pray…..but don’t let that stop you from trying today.

With love and compassion:

Alex, Andrew, Brandon, Darien, Tanya, Shyla, Justin, Julia, Megan, Abbie

December 11, 2012

After 20 years as an award-winning conservation biologist and professor at the University of Arizona (author of 10 books and over 100 articles), Dr. Guy McPherson made a “decision of conscience” to leave and pursue more direct, efficacious responses to the changes he sees coming in our world, via energy decline and climate change.

Guy volunteers his time talking to people wherever they’ll have him, about both the disaster-seriousness of our course, a course which has created the ecological and climatological chaos we’re experiencing, and ways in which we can and must mitigate that as individuals, communities, and societies. Guy talks about how individuals can work together to strengthen their own resilience, and prepare for a world of change. His talks highlight the importance of living sustainably, a necessity driven by the ongoing collapse of the environment and the industrial economy, and by the arriving shortages of cheap oil.

Guy McPherson peered over the edge into the Peak Oil and Climate Change abyss, and rather than backing away, jumped in. The author of the blog “Nature Bats Last” and most recently, “Walking Away from Empire,” Guy is a conservation biologist who has a keen grasp of the severe ramifications of the climate course we’re on. So he walked away from his high-paying, prestigious, tenured position at a major university and now grows goats, vegetables, and community in the desert outside of Tucson, AZ. He’s smart, he’s laugh-out-loud funny, and he’s much more humble than he would have you believe. Guy lays the truth out clearly, in a gentle, humorous, but matter-of-fact and inescapable sort of way.

Questions? Contact Abbie Jenks, jenks@gcc.mass.edu, 413-775-1127
Sponsored by GCC Green Campus Committee

Energy independence is now a principal national goal. The Obama administration has taken the position that our independent energy future is a mix of “cleaner” and “safer” fossil fuels and nuclear energy, biofuels, efficiency, and renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind power.  Mitt Romney’s position is a similar potpourri, with little regard for “cleaner” and “safer.”

What precisely is meant by cleaner and safer is the crux of the energy independence issue.

Fiction: Natural gas, whose blue flame is branded “the new green,” is the poster child of cleaner, because it generates fewer carbon dioxide emissions than coal and oil. Meanwhile, a blind eye is turned towards the hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” boom that is injecting pressurized sand, “trade secret” chemicals, and vast amounts of water into shale formations to release pockets of gas and oil.

Fact:  The environmental risks of fracking are legion: groundwater and drinking water contamination, local air pollution, release of methane to the atmosphere, intensive local water use, no on-site hazardous waste and storage disposal facilities, and increase of earthquakes. (1)

Fact: The natural gas industry is lobbying members of Congress and the White House to block a green building rule that would require all new and renovated federal buildings to be fossil fuel-free buildings by 2030. (2)

Fact: Drilling for oil in the Arctic is another reckless foray for the sake of energy independence.   The White House has fast-tracked permits for Shell Oil’s deepwater drilling in the Arctic’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, without an environmental impact statement and thorough public process and despite the fact that no infrastructure exists to respond to a spill. (3)

Fiction: Nuclear energy is clean energy that can be made safer. In its full life cycle, nuclear power generates radioactive tailings at mining and milling sites and creates long-lived, highly radioactive spent fuel with no disposal solution. Nuclear power plants routinely release small amounts of radioactive isotopes during operation and they can release extreme amounts during accidents. Every exposure to radiation carries a health risk: safer is not safe enough. (4)

Fact: Solar and wind are under attack. Twenty-nine states, including Massachusetts, have set renewable energy standards, with the goals of cleaner air, economic development and a more resilient grid. The American Legal Exchange Council, which writes and stewards “model” laws on behalf of its conservative legislators and corporate backers, is drafting legislation for state lawmakers to repeal or weaken their renewable energy standards.  Among their backers and members are Koch Industries and Exxon Mobil. (5)

Fact:  The hidden and externalized costs of fossil fuels, as compared with wind and solar energy, are immense; and they are not built into energy prices.  The National Academy of Sciences estimates that the burning of fossil fuels, particularly coal and oil, causes 20,000 premature deaths per year, mainly from lung damage, and an estimated $120 billion in health costs.  By comparison wind and solar energy have very low health and environmental impacts, which can be reduced or eliminated by proper siting. (6)

Fact: Americans overwhelmingly support renewables.  The 2012 ORC International survey of Americans’ energy preferences found that there is agreement among citizens across political parties on clean energy policy questions.  Two of three Americans ”agree that the term ‘clean energy standard’ should not be used to describe any energy plan that involves nuclear energy, coal-fired, and natural gas that comes from…‘fracking.’” “Nearly three-fourths think federal spending on energy should focus on energy sources of the future such as wind and solar.” (7)

Fact: We have enough resource capacity to power the United States with solar and wind.   Wind energy in the Great Plains and solar energy in the Southwest could meet current electrical energy needs more than a dozen times over.  This assessment does not include coastal wind energy. (8)

* * * * * * * *
As a country and a world, we face extremes of climate – semi-permanent drought in some regions, unprecedented flooding, coastal sea rise, extreme temperatures, all with grim consequences for human life, food supply, and economy, as James Hansen director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and dean of climate change wrote recently in the New York Times. (9)

It’s time to give the real cleaner and safer energy technologies market priority – which fossil fuels and nuclear have enjoyed for decades – using all the mechanisms of public policy: investment in R&D, tax credits, green job training, technical assistance to businesses, standards for new building and renovations, and public sector conversion of buildings and vehicles to renewables. The climate crisis demands it.  Citizens want it.  We have the capacity in energy resources and technical talent. And, we owe it – as a moral obligation – to future generations.

Sources

1. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1125794–fracking-fracas-pros-and-cons-of-controversial-gas-extraction-process
2. http://truth-out.org/news/item/9312-gas-industry-aims-to-block-2030-zero-carbon-building-goal
3. http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9617-let-us-conjoin-arctic-and-niger-when-we-talk-about-shells-drilling
4. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Vol.94, pp.3765-3770, April 1997. “Mutagenic Effects of a single and an Exact Number of Alpha Particles in Mammalian Cells.”
5. http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/23641
6.http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12794
7. http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/042512release.cfm
8. http://grist.org/renewable-energy/the-truth-about-renewable-energy-inexpensive-reliable-and-inexhaustible/
9. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/game-over-for-the-climate.html?_r=2