Take the Pledge for Climate Leadership

Today is nine days.  Interest in our fast is building, but slowly.  Tonight I saw a film that really got my attention.  It is 17 minutes long.  Climate scientist James Hansen tells us exactly why he has left his comfortable life to go out on the road and try to get people’s attention about climate change.   http://www.ted.com/search?q=James+Hansen

My husband, Ron, always says that every prediction the climate scientists have made has been wrong.  Their estimates and predictions have always been under-estimated.  Too conservative.  When James Hansen tells us we are having a climate emergency, he means it.  If we continue to do nothing about energy policy in this country and around the world, we are handing an unbelievable set of problems on to our children and grandchildren.  How can we be so selfish?  Especially when there are workable solutions if we only had the political and societal will to go for them!

Thus far we have a handful of NDP MP’s (including Megan Leslie, Environment Critic) signed on to our pledge plus Bruce Hyer (independent) and Elizabeth May (Green Party Leader.)  If people are writing letters to their MP, to Mr. Harper, to opposition leaders, and to the newspaper, we don’t know.  If you have written a letter, please take time to go to www.climatefast.ca and take the pledge.  

If you haven’t written a letter, please do it in the next two days.  We want to bombard our leaders with requests to take positive action to make a difference.  And if you do, be sure to take the pledge.  If you’re not sure why to do so, please take the time to watch James Hansen’s Ted Talk.  http://www.ted.com/search?q=James+Hansen

Most Unitarians I know are working towards voluntary simplicity and reducing their own personal footprint.  These efforts are laudable and important but they are not enough.  This is one issue where we have to change the mindset of our leaders and change the system.  We have to transition to renewable energy as a world society as quickly as possible. 

Check out the sample letter at www.climatefast.ca now!

Climatefast Report 1

Frances Deverell, Raven, and Dewan Afzal, originator of the fast

I attended the fast on the hill on Day 1 and met Lyn Adamson (A Quaker from Toronto) and Sylvia, Raven, Victor, and other fantastic and courageous people. They have taken on this task to raise the heat on our politicians about climate leadership.  Raven is supporting the work of Polly Higgins, author of Eradicating Ecocide and self-appointed lawyer for the earth.  (http://eradicatingecocide.com/).  This is a movement against our society’s current trend of completely destroying land and ecosystems through industrialized mining such as takes place in the tar sands, the coal mining area of West Virginia, and the planned for quarry in Dufferin County.  Raven feels that the goals of Climatefast and the goals of Eradicating Ecocide are in alignment.  She decided to join the fast as a good way to get the message out.

The next two days I have focused my energy on getting the word out about the fast, and the importance of letting our leaders know how we feel. We hope people will at least support us by writing letters. 

Although I am not suffering from hunger with two small meals a day, the fast has affected me the most from giving up my car for 12 days.  I am becoming an avid cyclist.  Yesterday my challenge was to find a safe cycle route from Overbrook, where I live, across the railway and the 417 to the next area just south of us where the General Hospital is.  The only routes are both major freeways, multiple lane, with no bike lane, lots of traffic, and hills beyond my ability.  Fortunately, I found that if I was willing to go out of my way, the river path could get me most of the way I needed to take.  I had the bonus of being in nature a good part of the trip, on a beautiful day! 

I remembered my trip in the early seventies to Europe.  In rural France I noticed that many people were getting around on bicycles or mopeds (bicycles with a small motorized assist.) In Germany I noticed that people were not using their cars all the time.  They didn’t have any gas in them.  If we decided to go somewhere, the owner of the car would carefully calculate how much gas they would need to do that, and put that much in. 

Perhaps, we in Canada will be much more careful when we get in the car and use gasoline to get somewhere in the near future.  Maybe we’ll become a nation much more committed to cycling.  Ecology Ottawa is doing a great job of pushing our city to open up new bike lanes.  It’s a good thing I am building my confidence now to ride a bike anywhere in the city while I am still relatively young.  (64).  Maybe I’ll be able to continue to do this for some time to come. 

Letter To Harper on Climate Fast

Dear Prime Minister Harper (and leaders of the world from all sectors);

The Canadian Unitarians For Social Justice have decided to endorse the Fast for Climate Leadership from September 21st to October 2nd.  I have personally decided to join the fast.  Learn all about it at  http://www.climatefast.ca/

 I will be promoting my fast to Unitarians and social activists and notifying the news media across the country urging others to join me.  We hope you will join with us in a time of reflection about the direction we are going.  Are we putting future generations at risk?  Are we risking increased violence and chaos because of our lack of action?

I believe current world economic distress and natural disasters are caused by climate change and as a human race we must take action.  We must address the fact that we cannot grow our economies forever.  If our children and grandchildren are to have a chance at a quality of life we need real leadership from you and we need it now.

We need to direct our attention and our resources toward building an economy based on renewable energy.  We must slow the use of oil and coal and preserve reserves in the ground for future generations.  We can do this by:

•                Putting a price on carbon

•                Supporting all initiatives that develop and promote renewable energy

•                Supporting any and all methods of energy conservation

Slowing down the development of oil, coal, and nuclear will slow economic growth, but slower growth is inevitable because oil prices will rise as reserves are depleted.   This will impact our economy and cause labour disruption and unemployment.  We must prepare by designing social systems to cushion the blow and help people make the transition.  Current policies are pushing us towards instability and chaos instead.

We need your best, most creative leadership now to address these issues.  Will you enact policies that actively promote energy conservation and renewable energy?  Will you remove subsidies to big oil and introduce a tax on carbon?  Help us build an economy focused on creating quality of life for all, in a world without growth.

Respectfully,

Rev. Frances Deverell

President,

Canadian Unitarians For Social Justice

Hungry For Climate Leadership

Are You Hungry For Climate Leadership?  Are you hungry for climate justice?  Do you wish that people in power—whether leaders in the energy field or leaders in government—would start taking climate change seriously?   Do you want them to help us plan for a transition to a different kind of economy and perhaps a different kind of life that is more sustainable with natural systems in the long term?

People in my circles are becoming more and more serious about stepping up and speaking out.  I am hearing people who have never demonstrated in the streets talking about putting their bodies on the line against the Gateway Pipeline.  We feel like we are running out of time and it is time to escalate the effort to get our leader’s attention.

From September 21, 2012 to October 2^nd, people who are hungry for real climate leadership will be fasting on parliament hill.  People across the country who are hungry for climate justice will be supporting them.  Canadian Unitarians For Social Justice has endorsed this fast.  Will you join us?

Learn all about it at  http://www.climatefast.ca/

The invitation does not mean you have to give up all food and drink for 12 days.  There is a very good page explaining how to use the fast to make meaning for yourself as we reflect together on the changes we have to make as a world society.  There is a very good page explaining the different kinds of fasts and how to fast safely.  You may choose a full fast or a partial fast.  No one should fast if they have health challenges that prevent it.  Consult your doctor before you fast.  If you cannot fast, perhaps you will choose to give up alcohol or cigarettes or gasoline.  If you fast with your friends, you can use the opportunity to create a good discussion about ways to educate others and create change.

Personally, I have health challenges that prevent a full fast.  My pledge is for that 12-day period I will not drive a car or drink alcohol, and I will limit myself to two small meals a day.  I will also send a letter to my MP, to my MPP, and to my local city councilor, and a letter to the editor.  I will also send a letter to Suncor and to Enbridge.  Even if you can’t fast at all, you can choose this time to put pressure on our leaders.  Let them know what you want for our future.  Let them know what you expect of them. 

Here is my letter;

Dear leaders of the world;

We live in a time of great risk.  Climate change is already causing more and more catastrophic weather events.  Conventional sources of energy like oil and coal and nuclear power are becoming more and more expensive and more and more damaging to world ecosystems.  World economic distress is a symptom of these problems.  Unless we seriously address the fact that we cannot grow our economies forever, this distress will become worse.  If our children and grandchildren are to have a chance at a quality of life we need real leadership from you and we need it now.

Instead of desperately searching for more oil and coal and uranium at any cost, we need to direct our attention and our resources toward building an economy on renewable energy.  We must slow the use of oil and coal and preserve reserves in the ground for future generations.  We can do this by:

• Putting a price on carbon
• Supporting all initiatives that develop and promote renewable energy
• Supporting all initiatives that promote energy conservation

We must set up social systems that will cushion the blow as our economies slow down.  We already see peaceful protests and violence and chaos in the streets around the world including our own country.  This trend will only get worse unless we do a better job of addressing the realities in front of us. 

We need your best, most creative leadership now to address these issues.  Help the people of the world accept that we must learn to use less energy, not more.  We must learn to live with less stuff, not more.  We must find our happiness through good family life and healthy communities where we respect and care for one another in a setting of relative equality.  Learn to build an economy on health care, education, and care for environment, instead of putting your faith in greed and war.

Respectfully,

Rev. Frances Deverell

Energy Choices

The economic challenges we are facing as we stagnate in a depressed economy in North America, Europe and around the world will not be solved until we face the reality of our energy choices.  We must reduce our dependence on carbon fuels to slow down climate change for the sake of our grandchildren.  A sustainable energy plan for the world is the key to a sustainable way of living on this planet. 

Last fall at this time CUSJ had a big discussion about nuclear energy and submitted a brief to the Darlington Commission opposing the building of new nuclear power plants.  It was a controversial decision because some people felt that ultimately it was less harmful than continuing to burn coal and the priority should be to close down coal-burning plants.  Of course we must convert from burning coal, but we decided in our brief that if the world goes to nuclear, the damage to the environment and the greenhouse gases needed to mine, and refine uranium were too serious to ignore.  In addition there is no acceptable solution for nuclear waste, nuclear is not as reliable or as cheap as promised, and the reactors produce plutonium which can then be used in nuclear weapons.

At the same time as we were doing this, Unitarians in Eastern Canada were actively opposing the process of fracking in order to produce natural gas.  Unitarians in Western Canada were actively opposing the efforts to build pipelines so that Tar Sands production could be vastly expanded.  We concluded that if we wanted to focus our energy on the positive we had to promote renewable energy whole-heartedly.

But even as we promote wind power, rural Ontario is fighting against it.  When we turn to waterpower we find that there have been many negative effects from huge hydro projects and there is much opposition to new mega-dams.  Solar power is still not as productive as we need.  Renewable energy requires some kind of storage system to be truly useful and most of the battery systems require very rare minerals that must be found and mined.

We all want to know that when we flick the light switch or plug in our computers the power will be there, and yet we are against every source of power that might deliver that security to us.  According to Jeff Rubin in “The End of Growth”, economic growth has been built on cheap oil.  With oil becoming more expensive, we can no longer expect to expand our economies using debt and amortize the debt through economic growth.  We are caught in an energy dilemma that will get worse as human populations expand.

My vision is as follows:

• ·         We have to end subsidies to big oil and implement a carbon tax.  Peter Victor (in Managing Without Growth) has demonstrated that cap and trade is not enough but a carbon tax will be effective in helping people reduce their oil and coal consumption.
•       Renewable energy has to be on an equal playing field or even be subsidized to promote innovation and renewable energy development.
•        Mega projects are out.  Sensitive local energy projects (such as Childhaven’s biogas systems that use human waste to produce gas for cooking) are in. We need an energy revolution similar to the revolution that occurred when we went from mainframe to desktop computers.  Every location will have a best-fit renewable energy approach suitable to its particular assets.  Windy places will have wind.  Sunny places will have sun.  Smaller hydro projects will respect the rivers and creeks that support them.  Some places are more suitable for geothermal or biogas.  All cities will make gas from human waste.
•       We all have to take a page from India and China.  Guaranteed supplies of power 24/7 will not be available.  Industry will have priority.  Base power supplies will be smaller.  We will have to share what is available.  The available power will be rotated among us.
•        The most effective way we have to postpone this future is to reduce our energy consumption.  All incentives for energy should be to promote innovation and personal discipline to use less energy. 

These things are not politically popular.  We need leaders who will face the realities and tell us the truth.  Rather than use all the oil and coal now, we can leave some in the ground.  We must enter the transition toward a new type of economy that is not based on growth.  We cannot make it through this major transition – which will be a societal change similar to the agricultural, industrial, and information revolutions – without real leadership and planning.  Leaders in all areas – federal, provincial and municipal government, industry, and the not-for profit sector must all contribute to the solutions.  Research shows that happiness does not come from more stuff and status.  It is time for us to move towards simpler, more equal lifestyles using much less energy.  We can do it.  All we need is the awareness, and the political will.  It is time that we stop indulging ourselves today and plan instead for the thriving of our children and our grandchildren.