Lovely Poem by Rena Priest, Washington State Poet Laureate

"These Abundant and Generous Homelands" Rena Priest, Washington State Poet Laureate Watch Rena Priest, a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation and Washington State Poet Laureate, read "These Abundant and Generous Homelands" poem, written to the theme of “A Vision For A More Equitable 2023” at the 2023 State of the State address during the joint legislative session. …

Pledge allegiance to the trees

Written by OCA board member Bob Vreeland: I pledge allegiance to the trees, which help give me the oxygen I breathe, And to the roots that hold the soil, so salmon streams do not get spoiled. Biodiversity under their shade, with clean water and a stable climate for all.

Pledge: Fight On

So I invite you to join me in this pledge: I will fight on, even as the waters rise and the deserts advance. I will never give up, never be passive or defeatist, even as the beauty of this living world of ours is eroded and degraded. I reject survivalism and other self-centered approaches, and …

Not Too Late

We know the difference between the best and worst case scenarios matters. We know that the future is being decided in the present. We know that a lot of people are overwhelmed by doom and gloom. It is not too late. At the same time, we are not here to avoid the worst news. We …

Clallam County’s District 1 Commissioner Mark Ozias’s heartfelt speech for Earth Day 2022

Reading part of Amanda Gorman's poem, "Earthrise," Commissioner Ozias shared his vision for our county by recognizing our common cause and emphatically explaining how the people's government must be part of the solution. Many changes are happening already to shrink our county's carbon footprint and prepare for climate change, Ozias noted at the Earth Day …

Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation

Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation Your foundation for strength and resilience Author of Drawdown, and his new book Regeneration Regeneration with Paul Hawken (Free 5-Day Pass) Commusings: with Paul Hawken In this course, you’ll discover + learn about: Global warming myths and mistakesWhat regeneration means and why it’s key to ending the …

Who Knew?

VERY INTERESTING STUFF In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have 'the rule Of thumb' Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden'...and thus, …

First Grade Wisdom

An elementary school teacher had twenty-six students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the first half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep …

Amanda Gorman recites her poems

Earthrise: A Poem About Climate Change by Amanda Gorman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOvBv8RLmo&feature=youtu.be Amanda Gorman recites her poem at inauguration Amanda Gorman -- Wikipedia Like Mr. Biden, Gorman has struggled with a speech impediment throughout her life, making poetry a "lifeline" for her. Also like Mr. Biden, she has a long-term goal of running for president.-- CBS Amanda …

How can we make our economy work for everyone?

What would a sustainable, universally beneficial economy look like? Like a doughnut says Oxford economist Kate Raworth https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_raworth_a_healthy_economy_should_be_designed_to_thrive_not_grow?language=en This talk was presented at an official TED conference,and was featured by our editors on the home page. In a stellar, eye-opening talk, she explains how we can move countries out of the hole -- where people …

Greta Thunberg: Humanity has not yet failed

Sommar & Vinter i P1 | Jun 20 - 75 min. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7E2Wz3C5XwtEw3Pi96tLQA?si=gOHyk4gOSMGxKcgdaoc4lg Spotify URL - https://open.spotify.com/episode/7E2Wz3C5XwtEw3Pi96tLQA?si=gOHyk4gOSMGxKcgdaoc4lg Episode Description Climate activist Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to do more. Doing our best is no longer good enough. We must now do the seemingly impossible, Thunberg says in the Swedish Radio show Summer on P1 where she …

Large-size Cardboard Resource

I have two boxes once used to ship aluminum fencing. Four or more large pieces, as large as 4 feet x 6 feet are available for: SignsPostersTable-top backgroundsScore them to accordion-fold Paint them for impact, cut them into shapes. Use your imagination Thursday, June 11, 2020 I will update availability as the cardboard is dispensed. …

350.org Crowd-sourced Music Video Project

From: Ahlay Blakely (The People’s Echo, 350 Seattle), Austin Smith (Video, 350 Seattle), David Solnit (Art.350.org)  Hello!Song is feeling extraordinarily elemental right now more than ever. What are some of the oldest songs you can remember? Song is history: slavery, abolition, civil rights, fair wages, the American Indian Movement just to name a few. Songs are like tiny …

And People Stayed Home

“And people stayed homeand read books and listenedand rested and exercisedand made art and playedand learned new ways of beingand stoppedand listened deepersomeone meditatedsomeone prayedsomeone dancedsomeone met their shadowand people began to think differentlyand people healedand in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways,dangerous, meaningless and heartless,even the earth began to healand when …

Untitled

What if you thought of itas the Jews consider the Sabbath—the most sacred of times?Cease from travel.Cease from buying and selling.Give up, just for now,on trying to make the worlddifferent than it is.Sing. Pray. Touch only thoseto whom you commit your life.Center down. And when your body has become still,reach out with your heart.Know that …

Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal

Grassroots Rising by Ronnie Cummins, founder and director of the Organic Consumers Association, will be available January 28. This is one of the most important books Chelsea Green has published, and we are offering activists and organizations the special discounts listed below. $17.95 paperback – 208 pages – ISBN 9781603589758 – Available January 28, 2020 …

Nature is Speaking

Nature doesn't need people.People need Nature.Nature holds at least a third of the solution to climate change. What Force Of Nature Are You? Sky -- Joan ChenIce -- Liam NeesonMountain -- Lee PaceWater -- Penelope Cruz Flower -- Lupita Nyong'o The Soil -- Edward NortonForest -- Shailene WoodleyThe Ocean -- Harrison FordHome -- Reese WitherspoonCoral …

Here: Poems for the Planet

Here: Poems for the Planet is a lovesong to a planet in crisis. Summoning a chorus of over 125 diverse poetic voices—including Mary Oliver, Robert Hass, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ross Gay, W.S. Merwin, Natalie Diaz, Kimiko Hahn, and others—this anthology approaches the impending environmental crisis with a sense of urgency and hopefulness.

Leviathans in the Harbor

More and bigger cruise ships are crowding coastal destinations. When is enough, enough? Who gets to decide? by Brian Payton , August 27, 2019, Hakai Magazine 'Knoll Lowney, the lawyer representing the three plaintiffs who claimed they were victims of Carnival’s environmental violations, said, “Time and time again, Carnival has shown its contempt of environmental laws and the …

Bill McKibben

Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages …

Thomas Friedman

"Thank You for Being Late" An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations A field guide to the twenty-first century, written by one of its most celebrated observers.Thomas Friedman shows that we have entered an age of dizzying acceleration–and explains how to live in it.

‘And a Child Shall Lead Them,’ or: How This Boomer Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Green New Deal

‘And a Child Shall Lead Them,’ or: How This Boomer Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Green New Deal Ross Macfarlane 'I am talking to my peeps: those of us who get the science, care deeply about the environment and the need for climate action, and are filled with both disgust and determination at …

I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle.

I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle. Stop obsessing over your environmental “sins.” Fight the oil and gas industry instead. By Mary Annaise Heglar Updated Jun 4, 2019, 9:33am EDT 'When people come to me and confess their green sins, as if I were some sort of eco-nun, I want …

How Google, Microsoft, and Bit Tech are Automating the Climate Crisis

Author: Brian Merchant Source: Gizmodo 'These deals, many of which were made just last year, at what may be the height of public awareness of the threats posed by climate change, are explicitly aimed at streamlining, improving, and rendering oil and gas extraction operations more profitable.' Full Article: How Google, Microsoft, and Bit Tech are Automating …

Dr. Guenther Twitter Thread

On talking about climate change https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089899109509672965 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089900347433328647 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089901090898878464 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089902486159278080 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089903691795218432 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089904734339846144 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089906253793501186 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089907595652067328 https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1089908959631343618

2007 Logos

by Scott T. Starbuck When I complain to the old man  about rising gas prices, he says “I want $10 a gallon.” “Why?” is the obvious question. “Because I love birds,” he says. At the time, I thought him insane but now I think most everyone else is.

How We Stopped Corporate Psychopaths from Cooking Planet Earth

For Mary DeMocker By Scott T. Starbuck We planted trees everywhere at once.Facebook posted only the words “Go outside.” “Destroy Your Television Day” grew more popular than Xmas and the 4th of July. Children of execs saw themselves as global citizensand despite every temptation and distraction disowned their wayward parents.ExxonMobil became BlueOrbSolar. Each country committed to …

Thoughts at the End of Empire

by Scott T. Starbuck It’s possible future generations will destroyour art, literature, music, film, and corporations, in bitternessfor allowing ecosystem collapse, and mistrust for how many leaderswere distracted, apathetic, selfishignorant, or insane with money and power. It’s possible future generations will redefinefamily, community, work, value, happiness,life, dirt, success. It’s possible education will change from locking …

Wind Spirit

by Scott T. Starbuck Wind Spirit said to the man, “I will ask a question, and each day you give the wrong answer, I will take a finger. The question is hard, requiring much reflection, and self-purification. I don’t know how many fingers you will lose. That is up to you. How will you save …

Native Skywatchers

Bringing Together Cultural and Scientific Knowledge of the Stars This workshop builds on combined decades of experience in what we come to call “duallearning” – the weaving together of cultural and scientific knowledge, stories, and hands-on activities in an environment where neither is dominant over the other and resonance between the two is easily found. …

Conservation International Presents

Nature is Speaking Featuring short films personifying Nature, narrated by folks we know well. JOAN CHEN is SkyPENELOPE CRUZ is WaterHARRISON FORD is OceanLIAM NEESON is IceEDWARD NORTON is SoilLUPITA NYONG´O is FlowerLEE PACE is MountainROBERT REDFORD is RedwoodJULIA ROBERTS is Mother NatureIAN SOMERHALDER is Coral ReefREESE WITHERSPOON is HomeSHAILENE WOODLEY is Forest

Moving the Country Towards Emergency Climate Mobilization, Together

Dear Olympic Climate Action,  thank you so much for supporting The Climate Mobilization! We are a small but fierce organization that advocates the strongest, fastest, sanest approach to the climate crisis. Because of your support, we are moving the country toward mobilization. A few highlights: April 16, 2016 Bernie Sanders calls for WWII scale climate …

The Madhouse Effect

Publisher's Book Description The award winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have fought at the frontlines of climate denialism for most of their careers. They have witnessed the manipulation of the media by business and political interests and the unconscionable play to partisanship on issues that affect …

Here’s a way to fight climate change: Empower women

This story was originally published by WIRED and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. “Gender and climate are inextricably linked,” said environmentalist and author Katharine Wilkinson on stage at TEDWomen last week, a gathering of women thought leaders and activists in Palm Desert, California. Women, she says, are disproportionately affected by climate change. …

Books We Love Best in 2018

Sightline staff shares their most memorable reads of the year, including fiction, sci-fi, poetry, and more. Author: Anne Christnovich (@anne_c_1234) on December 14, 2018 at 5:37 am If you or someone you know is the kind of person who calls winter “reading season,” this list is for you. If you or someone you know is …

Greta Thunberg’s speech

You should watch Greta Thunberg's speech to the UN plenary session at COP24 if you haven't seen it yet. Or if you have, watch it again. It is that powerful.  

Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit

Originally published in 2004, with a new foreword and afterword, Solnit’s influential book shines a light into the darkness of our time. Bill McKibben says: “Literary and progressive America is in a Solnit moment.” Using historical examples for perspective, Solnit weaves a sometimes metaphorical tale which reinforces the reader’s commitment to bring about change. Here …

It’s up to you

From Hi Times, Sequim High School Business English Class, Vol. II, No. 10, April 10, 1931, displayed at the Sequim Museum and Art Center. This class included Joe Rantz, who went on to win the Olympic 8-man rowing competition in Berlin in 1936, beating Hitler's Nazi team in spite of illness and underhanded officiating. The …

On Climate Change, Interconnectedness, and Tolerating Risk

by Emily Johnston. Cross-posted from the Climate Defense Project.  The Climate Defense Project is part of the legal team providing support to Emily and the other valve turners. ______ A certain kind of anxious question comes almost every time we give a talk as “the Valve Turners”: Why would you take such a risk? What brought you …

Four laws of ecology

One of Barry Commoner's lasting legacies is these four laws, written in The Closing Circle in 1971: 1.  Everything is connected to everything else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all. 2.  Everything must go somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to …

At the root

Earthjustice attorney Vawter "Buck" Parker, looking back over his 40-year career involving environmental battles on every subject, from wilderness to nuclear power to human health, realized that beneath the complexity was an underlying unity: "The root cause is so often the same:  the desire of some to reap the benefits while imposing the costs on …

We need a science of limits

"Human limitlessness is a fantasy. . . .  Our great need now is for sciences and technologies of limits. . . .  We are not likely to be granted another world to plunder in compensation for our pillage of this one."  --Wendell Berry

“Greatest dereliction in the history of the Republic”

The United States' response to the climate crisis has been beyond pathetic. It is probably the greatest dereliction of civic responsibility in the history of the Republic.  James Gustave ("Gus") Speth, former Chair of the President's Council on Environmental Quality , New York Times 2015-05-15.  

Let’s not waste our time on deniers

"Science is real and verifiable,  With the health of our families and our futures at stake, the American people expect us to act on the facts, not spend precious time and taxpayer money refuting manufactured uncertainties."  EPA administrator Gina McCarthy speaking before the National Academies of Science, 4/28/14

First in, last out

“The art of communion with the earth we can relearn from the Indian. Thus a reverse dependence is established. Survival in the future will likely depend more on our learning from the Indian than the Indian’s learning from us. In some ultimate sense we need their mythic capacity for relating to this continent more than …

What price a grandchild?

What price a grandchild? And if not what price a grandchild, then what price a grandchild’s grandchild?  --UK chief scientific adviser, Sir Mark Walport, commenting on the IPCC Working Group II chapter of the 5th Assessment Report, on global impacts of climate change.

Start with love

This essay by Bruce Bode, minister of the Quimper Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Port Townsend, explores the question, "How do I move forward when things look so bleak?"

Let’s get down to work

From David W. Orr, Ecological Literacy: It is easy...to throw up one's hands and conclude with the Kentucky farmer that "you can't get there from here."  That conclusion, however, breeds self-fulfilling prophecies, fatalism, and resignation--in the face of an overwhelming need to act.  We also have the historical examples of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and …

If not us, then who?

James Adcock left these thoughts on the Sightline blog (paraphrased): http://daily.sightline.org/2013/05/07/harnessing-our-dark-optimism/ 1) Even tiny little partial successes represent saving millions of human beings from death or untold suffering, including watching their children die of starvation, heat stroke, or lack of water. 2) The morality of one’s actions is not dependent on the morality, or lack thereof, …