Red Line action in NYC
Now that the COP21 UN Climate Talks in Paris are over, the reality is starting to sink in: It’s up to us. People from around the world on Friday stretched a large “red line” through the COP21 summit to register their outrage at politicians’ failure to strike an ambitious draft climate deal—and to call for people around the world to take to the streets.
Here in comfy suburbia, most folks haven’t gotten the memo yet. They continue to drink the kool-aide and do the happy dance. They think that our crisis will be solved with signing petitions, “innovation” and oxymorons like “sustainable growth”.
A local community green group just announced their semi finalists for a Green Light award. These forward thinking middle schoolers and high schoolers have big green ideas to address climate change and protect natural resources.
They have come up with ambitious projects such as:
Aquaponic farming. I’ve never understood how aquaponics is less carbon intensive. It requires lots of plastic, nutrients from far away and a source of electricity. Why not just grow food using permaculture principles instead?
Campsite clean ups to discourage littering at a nearby park. Are we still combating littering? Shame on us!
A program to encourage carpooling – while the diesel fuel spewing school buses continue to operate mostly empty.
A program to educate the community about food choices. A good idea since most people continue to eat processed food from far away
A composting program at the high school (what? composting hasn’t been integrated into the science curriculum yet?)
I’ve come up with some ideas that are more appropriate for students who are not drinking kool-aid and doing COP21 happy dances. Those who realize we have serious work to do, not baby steps.
A series of REDLINE projects.
Projects that would wake people up to the reality of the mess that we are making of our planet. Life changing endeavors that are ambitious. Students would have to cut out time with their private tudors and focus less on test taking, to complete these projects, but the eye opening rewards would be plenty. Students would start to understand more fully the mess that previous generations, including ours, have left them with.
STOP SHOPPING have a ‘buy nothing holiday’ Calculate the carbon footprint of one family’s holiday season. The decorations made in a factory overseas, the dead pine tree that no longer captures CO2 out of the air, the gifts from the big box stores, made in factories far away. Hold a community screening of What Would Jesus Buy, one of the best all time holiday films on consumerism. Questioning consumption is essential to our future. We will not be able to shop ourselves out of the mess we’re in.
STAY ON THE GROUND Calculate the carbon footprint of one family’s flights for a year. Convince your own family to stay grounded for a year. Find less carbon intensive means of travel, stay closer to home. Hold a community screening of No Impact Man. Here’s what No Impact Man, Colin Beavan has to say about air travel. If you’re driving a Tesla and charging it with a solar panel on your barn, that’s nice. But if you’re also flying to the Rockies to ski and to the South of France for a summer vacation, you’re really not all that green.
DIVEST MOM & DAD Are your parent’s investments destroying your future? Research where their money is and have them divest from all fossil fuel related funds and stocks. Do the same for military and weapons. After all, the US military is the number one polluter on the planet and contributor to climate change. Insist that all US history teachers in your school district include a screening of Why We Fight to educate high school kids about the military industrial complex.
STOP A PIPELINE / Part 1: LEGAL
Instead of a summer internship with a Senator, where you’ll be stuck in a boring desk job, join a frontline, grass roots environmental group working to stop one of the many pipeline projects on the East coast. Discover just how broken our system is first hand. Learn about FERC and Dick Cheney’s role in the advancement of fracking. Understand how the Energy Act of 2005. was set up to advance pipeline projects, destroy clean air and water and make Halliburton Corporation wealthy. Get bummed out when you learn about how “climate champions” like Sheldon Whitehouse are really hypocrites that support fracked gas. Study our history and discover how direct action played an important role in creating our country (boston tea party), stopping slavery (the underground rail road), getting women the right to vote (suffragettes), civil rights (lunch counters) AIDs (ACT UP). Train your class mates in Non Violent Direct Action (NVDA), plan and participate in an action involving an act non violent civil disobedience. This is the best way to learn about the legal system. Highly recommended for those who dream of law school.
STOP A PIPELINE / Part 2: Math and Physics
Gas pipelines are explosive.
You’ll find plenty of science and math to play with when it comes to gas pipelines. The natural gas industry has everyone believing that gas is “safe”, “clean” and a “bridge fuel to the future”. Nothing could be further from the truth. As you calculate the carbon footprint of fracking, you’ll discover the impact of fugitive methane, that makes gas even dirtier than coal! And you can calculate the damage to ground water and the carbon footprint of trucking water into communities that can no longer drink or bathe from their wells. methane in gas pipelines.
Ignition of gas infrastructure is a fun and fire filled project too. Learn about how methane is so much more flammable and explosive than propane and other gases. Calculate the probability of fire and or explosion when a high pressure gas pipeline is disturbed. Learn how government regulators at PHMSA (the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) are completely underfunded and unable to assure our safety. Discover that the newer pipelines have a higher rate of failure than the old ones.
100 MILE DIET
Can we eat our way out of climate change? A very important question. This project will require you to eat within your local 100 mile food shed for at least 6 months. Grow and prepare 1/3 of your own food for a year, and you’ll discover how it was done less than 100 years ago. Calculate the carbon footprint of conventional supermarket diet. Test your urine for RoundUp. Learn about Monsanto’s impact on farming and our health. Make PepsiCo stop using rainforest palm oil in their oatmeal cookies and granola bars. Rainforest destruction plays a huge role in accelerating climate chaos, we need those rainforests to capture CO2 and give us much needed oxygen.
We have lots of work to do if we are to have even an inkling of a chance at avoiding catastrophic climate chaos. Let’s stop the baby steps and the greenwashing and focus on the red lines instead.
