Not Too Bad For A Medieval Institution!

Yesterday I sat down at this computer to write my blog.  But, then the question comes up, “What to write about”?  Iraq (again), Syria, bombing people, Fox News commenting on the United Arab Emirates’ female fighter pilot who was allowed to drop the first bombs on ISIS because of the way they treat women, and then the Fox News idiot commenting something to the effect that she had dropped her boobs, and then could she actually park that plane.  So, I started playing spider solitaire to have something surface, and won the first game.  Of course, when that happens it is required that one play again, and I won that one.  The same rule applies, so I played a third game and won that!!  Ran out of luck, and lost the fourth.  But by then family had arrived, so there went the blog.

In the meantime, however, Science magazine arrived, which I seldom read because I don’t comprehend the scientific means and methods by which the authors arrive at their conclusions.  But when I staggered out this morning, there was Science carefully placed where I could see the Editorial, “The Pope tackles sustainability”.  Since sustainability has been on our family’s agenda for many years, this Editorial was quite a surprise.  Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI had written erudite papers on the subject which were printed in Catholic circles, but definitely not picked up elsewhere.  What appears below is a compilation of both the Editorial and an article in the same edition, “Pursuit of the common good”.  In some places I have quoted exactly; in others I have paraphrased.  The two not too long papers can be found in their entirety at: www.sciencemag.org, 19 September 2014, Vol 345,issue 6203.

The difference in the approach by Pope Francis is what has made the difference.  The Pope prompted a Joint Workshop of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences to be convened in May, 2014 on sustainability.  Although the meeting was convened by the Catholic Church, attendees included a plethora of people of other religions, or none.  The addition of leaders from the Vatican enriched discussions of ethics, values, morality and social justice with regard to climate change and sustainability.

Actions need to be taken by the 1 billion people responsible for the bulk of the fossil fuel emissions, of course.  These emissions need to be halved by mid-century and eliminated completely by the end of the century.  Since the article appeared in Science, there were many data points with footnotes, but they are too detailed for this blog.  What struck me was the fact that 1/3 of the heat energy being added to the planet come from four short-lived climate pollutants (methane, ozone, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons).  The majority of the 3 billion people living in poverty at the very bottom use firewood, dung, and crop residues for cooking and kerosene for lighting, creating the four short term pollutants.  Scalable technologies that reduce these emissions are available off the shelf, e.g., cleaner-burning cook stoves and solar lamps to replace kerosene lamps for the three billion without access to fossil fuels.  Because the lifetimes of these pollutants range from weeks to a decade, the mitigation effect would be almost immediate.  The Vatican and other religions have vast networks of voluntary organizations that can have a major impact on distribution of clean technologies in rural areas of Asia, Africa, and South America.  Thus, distribution is not a problem.  Probably eliminating one bombing run over Iraq would fund the purchase of these stoves and lights.

I would urge everyone who reads this to look up the Editorial and article.  They have given me some hope that something can actually be done about the problems caused by climate change.  There are other suggestions for nations that can help with this huge problem, but they are too complicated for here. I will conclude with the final sentences of the final paragraph of the Editorial:

“…Although the meeting was convened by the Catholic Church, the attendees included Hindus, Muslims, Protestants, Jews, atheists, and agnostics, all willing to follow this leader, not because of his religious significance, but because of his moral high ground.  We need more leaders to step forward, claiming this moral high ground.  Although the current trajectory we are on is dangerous, the message is also one of hope.  A safer, more just, more prosperous, and sustainable world is within reach.”  Marcia McNutt

 

 

From the Land of Fruits and Nuts

This morning I wasted an entire hour watching the weather channel just to see if they would mention California.  Not a word!  There was the map of the west coast with the temperatures of cities on the left side of the screen in type so tiny it is virtually impossible to read.  The entire hour was about the east coast, mid-west, south-west, south east and Texas, the temperatures in those cities and the really awful weather they are having there with the remnants of Hurricane Odile dumping inches of rain and causing flooding.  But nothing about California and our temperatures, which can vary by tens of degrees in just 40 miles; nothing about our awful drought and the massive wild fires as a result, nothing about the fog that is truly unseasonal here – nada, zip, zilch, nothing!! 

It is not only the weather channel that does this.  Not too long ago an evening news announcer had a lengthy discussion about what to do about the states that have gerrymandered their Congressional Districts in insure that only Republicans can be elected.  Amid much hand wringing and pontificating about how terrible this is, there was further pontificating about how nothing could be done about it.  Well, California did something about our gerrymandered state.  We had an initiative establishing a bi-partisan commission to redraw the Congressional District lines to be more equitable to both parties.  Of course, the Republican Party did the same thing then they are doing with the ballots in Wisconsin – filed suit, in our case because the new lines did not benefit the Republicans, and in the case of the Wisconsin ballots because the Democrats appeared first on the ballot and this did not benefit the Republicans.  Nothing was mentioned there that in 2012 the Republicans were first on the ballot because Scott Walker had won in 2010, and the Democrats were first now because the top vote getter had been Barack Obama in 2012.  Californians recognize these problems and do something about them.   

And then tax increases in California have allowed for some improvements in our school systems, roads, libraries, and increases to county and city revenue which provide essential services to citizens which were in a terrible state after Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Of course, Gray Davis had a short term in there, but was recalled because of manipulation of our electrical system freaking out Californians who couldn’t believe that right wing radicals could be so crass.   County government makes sure that all necessary services are (or should be, if not) run efficiently and truly provide the oversight of the services they provide.  Consequently, our quality of life is far superior to that of citizens of the red states that refuse to believe that government can do anything and therefore should not be funded.  I guess instead of duly elected officials overseeing how government is run, the red states would prefer that corporations take over the provision of these services, the citizens will still pay taxes, but these dollars would go to the corporations.  It is known as privatization of services.  Nothing is ever said that the citizen’s tax dollars would be going to provide a profit to the corporations, and who would be making certain that the corporations were actually providing the services they had contracted to provide?   

There is one news announcer, Jose Luis-Balart, whoever even mentions California.  We fortunately have a satellite dish, and can record him for my later in the morning consumption.  It would really be helpful both to California listeners as well as to others in this country that might be able to learn a tad from how California does things.  And what our weather is like, regardless of the assumption that California does not have weather!

 

 

 

 

Drought, Dead Fish and Trips to Town

Today I decided it was time to pry myself out of my canyon and go the ten miles to the nearest town to do some banking, pick up a prescription, and pick up something for dinner as well. 

The bank was no problem, since I could use the ATM machine, and there was no else in the parking lot.  Then I drove to the other bank in the older part of town to use their parking lot, which I call town, but others insist on calling East Village.  The part they call West Village I call the flat, since that is what it was called when I was much, much younger.  Anyway, the first people I saw in the parking lot were my nephew, his wife and son.  They have property further up the canyon from us, and of course, in our desperately extreme drought situation here, the first exchange among us all, almost before hello, was how our springs are holding up.  We all agreed that things are really iffy, but they had placed a motion sensor camera near one of their water troughs and had a picture on their iPad of a bear coming close in for water, and then four mountain lions appeared at a later time.  This answered a question my husband and I had, which is why our big house cat, Big Mo, has been hanging very close to the house.  Anyway, we discussed the water situation for both ourselves as well as the town, and then we all went our separate ways.

I tootled myself over to the drug store to pick up the prescription.  I very nice gentlemen, who later introduced himself and his wife, came up to me and thanked me for teaching him a new word, “eutrophication”.  That was a tad startling since I hadn’t a clue as to who he was.  The local Sierra Club, not known for its accuracy in reporting, had placed a picture of a pond of water filled with algae and dead fish.  The caption under the picture read, “Not a good sign.  Dead fish were turning up in large algae blooms in San Simeon Creek in August.  Highly toxic methyl-mercury thrives in these conditions where the Cambria CSD proposes to put its emergency desal facility and then make it permanent, no matter what future environmental review may find”.  The dead fish in the picture were the result of the algae blooms taking the oxygen out of the water, a process known as eutrophication.  It has nothing to do with the methyl-mercury in the sediment of the creek, which has been in the sediment for quite a long time. 

I had sent this statement above to someone else, who had sent it on to this gentleman.  So, we spent about 30 minutes in the drugstore talking about the drought, how if it doesn’t rain the town will be in a world of hurt, and the tactics of fear, misinformation and hyperbole.  Both of us needed to move on to other tasks, so we parted ways.

We have a really delightful and tasty fast food trailer, Boni’s Tacos, in our town on weekends operated by a local family, so I stopped there to pick up some burritos for dinner.  As I was waiting, a gentleman who knew who I was came up and asked how our spring was doing!  I gave him the standard, “Iffy” response, and explained that we do our best not to overuse it on any given day.  But that, of course, necessitated a lengthy discussion on the water situation here in town.

What started out as a fast, hour long at the most, trip into town lasted some 2 1/2 hours!  However, everyone was most polite and thoughtful, and the discussions were informative for all concerned.  There will be personal advantages when it finally gets around to raining, as well as the obvious one of eventually, through the natural scheme of things, filling the aquifer from which the town gets most of its water.  The personal one is that I can go to town in an hour!

When Being "Grounded" Is Good.

So many things happened this past week it is difficult to figure out what to write about.  But, thanks to a visit this morning from our son-in-law and a discussion on why someone like former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia got into so much trouble, I have a topic!

One of the things I noticed during the eight years I was an elected official in a rather small, as far as population goes, county in California, was the way, as an elected official, I was treated.  Of course, the staff was very attentive because it was their job to be attentive to what I said or wanted, but the general public was very attentive as well.  Except for certain political circles of supposedly my own side which generally ignored me, wherever I went I was treated with great fawning.  My words were listened to with great attention; I was introduced with great acclaim, and generally made to feel as though I was a special person. 

Since most of my life I had been on the very bottom of the societal acceptance rung as a wife and mother, I found this sudden acclaim a little disturbing.  After all, once the votes were counted I was exactly the same person I had been prior to the count.  I had the same opinions which I had before and had generally been ignored; I was no more intelligent or knowledgeable than I had been before.  So why all of a sudden was I “someone”? After a few months it became apparent to me why.  Because I could be useful to people!  When this dawned on me, I made a rule that I would accept no more than a cup of coffee from anyone, anytime, or anyplace.  I paid my own way always.  It really amused me at how fast that information made the rounds of all constituencies.  But I needed to be “grounded” at all times in those principles that goaded me into running for office in the first place, and the simple act of paying my own way helped me to do that.  Also, keeping myself grounded in my faith tradition of justice, mercy, compassion and personal integrity helped tremendously.  I am not saying here that merely being a member of a faith community insures that someone will not go sour while in office, but it is necessary for office holders to keep themselves firmly grounded in whatever their own personal traditions that caused them to run for office were, unless, of course it was a desire for power!.  The office and some of its more questionable perks must not become the most important thing in one’s life!  And if this is true on the county level, it must be horrendous on the state and federal levels.  On those levels, it takes a special person to hold steady to his or her principles, otherwise it becomes easier and easier over time to believe that you are entitled to do or say anything you want to and, in the mind of the perpetrator, it is OK because you are a special person.

So, former Governor Bob McDonnell lost a promising future because he forgot that, “The love of money is the root of all evil”, one of the primary foundational sayings of his faith tradition.  And he obviously began to think he was an exceptional person and that the proper rules of the political game did not apply to him.  He is not the first politician to find that not true, nor will he be the last.