Virginia Arthur's Blog, page 4

Living Your Life As If Climate Change Matters.

As far as I can remember, I have always known I am part of a destructive species and I have always lived my life to minimize my impact, the greatest decision of which was to not have children. As far as I am concerned, I'm free and clear with this decision as I could not possibly consume as many resources as if I had kids, and they had kids, etc. (Maybe this was from coming up in the 70's, the greenest time in America, or maybe it was being born a "wise child". I don't know. I only know that I have "always been like this." Maybe you can relate).

I live my life to minimize my carbon output and this includes suffering financially. A few years ago, I quit my position teaching ecology at multiple community colleges because I had to drive at least 100 miles a day to tell people not to drive...It was absurd. I was offered a great opportunity recently to make some good money doing something I am good at but it required me to drive 150 miles a day (round trip) for a month. They refused to compromise allowing me to work from a home a few days a week, use Skype, Webinar, etc. I did the math on just how much carbon I would pump into the air (not to mention the hell of commuting into a large city, mass transit not being an option at their location). I turned it down and as a result, lost out on a substantial sum. Nobody earns money for me but me.

We need a name for those of us that live our lives as if climate change matters. We will sacrifice socializing (driving to do it), shopping, money--maybe we stay home a lot. Shop online (does this minimize our footprint?) We may get laughed at. Try telling someone "I'm sorry but I can't do it because I am worried about climate change and I want to minimize my carbon footprint."

In order to institutionalize climate change, those of us like me, need to start SAYING this on a day to day basis. There are other ways to institutionalize climate change but the INSTITUTIONS that should be doing it right now ARE NOT--SO IT FALLS TO US. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON A DAILY BASIS and unfortunately, this is how I think we will slow climate change down. I think the larger institutions are and will fail to right our eco-ship in time.

I needed a way to describe myself to people to negate constantly having to EXPLAIN...so I call myself a CLI-FER (long "i" sound)= I live my life according to climate change.

Be prepared to get laughed at.

"I'm sorry. I am very interested in helping you with your project but I am not driving 150 miles every day for a month to do it. I need to work from home, or drive less. I'M A CLI-FER."

"You're a WHAT?"

"A Cli-fer. I try to live my life in such a way as to minimize my carbon footprint."

Silence. Scoff. "You're kidding, right?"

"No. You shouldn't be surprised. I am a professional ecologist and even if I was not, I would be a Cli-fer. I'm sorry. If you change your mind or we can work something out so I don't have to pump so much CO2 into the air, please call me."

This is what we have to do. Call it a form of climate change civil disobedience.

I am convinced nobody else is going to do it if we don't.

Signed off,

Virginia Arthur, Cli-fer

Yes, I am still here...

Paralyzed. I am just f-ing paralyzed. Owing that I am the queen of opinions, a few of my readers checked in, I think, suspect, to see if I am dead. They didn't say as much but...

What is there to say except the absurd has become reality in America? Think of the most insane scenario, the most unlikely, impossible (?)...as soon as my country has gotten as insane as I think it can (mostly during the Bush Jr years), it moves the ball down another 20-30 yards (and yes, I did just use a football analogy; why the hell not at this point?).

I am too incredulous, horrified, nauseated to comment. I wake up every day thinking it was all just a bad dream. I can't listen to the news, any news, even Democracy Now...it's all too tame and I think in horror "oh my God...is that Amy Goodman trying to NORMALIZE things? Nooooo..." At least Rachel Maddow has almost broken into tears a few times. I can kind of watch her show until she starts to crack then I start to crack and turn it off. The comedians are announcing they can no longer write comedy because reality is now TRUMPING comedy...It is complete insanity and let me tell you one thing (yeah, I know you know but let me vent)--we DO NOT have a democracy in America. I am not sure what this is, but it is NOT a democracy. The emperor is naked as hell, the jig is up, the glasses are off, the cork's out of the bottle, the phat lady's singing her goddamned lungs out, the horse is out of the freaking barn, the jury is in...and every day I wake up grateful because WWIII hasn't happened yet. Yet. And this is all we have left to be thankful in America in 2017. The rest is up for grabs. Truly and completely. For now, I am trying to figure out just how to live from day to day under our new REGIME. God Help Us All. Pray for America.

Update! Trump has just abolished all protections that prevented coal companies from dumping their waste DIRECTLY into streams and rivers supposedly the KEY to "reviving" the coal industry! Yeah, that's the ticket! Even if there are excellent alternatives now, let's go back to completely desecrating the land for something we burn that will cause human beings to possibly get deathly ill and die in the process of mining it then we'll dump all the waste into the river and streams that provide THEIR drinking water, then we'll BURN it and accelerate climate change! What a GREAT PLAN!! (Oh my gosh, did I just see a DINOSAUR walk by?). Everybody loses except of course, the mining companies and gosh, why not pick up a little Peabody stock Mr. Trump? (I'm sure he will one way or another).

This has ramifications for all watersheds in the United States! Flint, Michigan? Enjoy your bottled water (maybe from some lovely "stream" in the Appalachians?).

It's Election Day in America and May the Best Woman Win!--Update

In fetal position. Please check back in four years, assuming he have not all been annihilated.

Shouldn't The Union of "Concerned" Scientists Be Ramping It Up A Notch At This Point?

The other day I got yet another mailing from the Union of Concerned Scientists (versus the Union of Unconcerned Scientists--they're out playing golf, hitting the bar afterwards, driving around in their Hummers, spraying pesticides wherever the hell they want...they're a bunch of assholes).

The organization was founded in 1968 by MIT science faculty, no doubt many of them have since gone atomic, as in died...the point being, the Union of Concerned Scientists have been "concerned" about 50 years and well, things are a lot worse...

I am suggesting they ramp it up a few notches to reflect the pending reality of our planetary "situation". Here are some possibilities (note: if not already added, "alcoholic" can be added to any listed below).

THE:
Just Added! (Thanks Sci Fri!)--Union of Terrified Scientists
Union of Panic-stricken Scientists
Union of Angst-Ridden Scientists
Union of Anxious Scientists
Union of Perturbed Scientists
Union of Bothered Scientists
Union of Troubled Scientists
Union of Distressed Scientists
Union of Frustrated Scientists
Union of Desperate Scientists
Union of Uneasy Scientists
Union of 'I Can't Sleep At Night' Scientists
Union of "Hey, I've Got Grand-kids!" Scientists
Union of 'Hello, Anyone? We're All Freaking Out Over Here!' Scientists
Union of 'We're Fucked' Scientists
Union of 'Smoke 'Em if Ya' Got 'Em' Scientists
Union of Depressed Scientists
Union of Depressed Alcoholic Scientists
Union of Depressed Desperate Alcoholic Scientists
Union of Depressed Desperate Frustrated Alcoholic Scientists
Union of 'What Will the Evolution of Humans Into Subterranean, Cave-dwelling Creatures Be Like?' Scientists
Union of "We're Looking For Another Planet Very Quickly" Scientists
and my personal favorite,
The Union of Pissed Off Scientists.

Any one will do but will any one...do anything about it? This is the real question.

Hint: we could reject the current paradigm, demand change immediately, and stop driving our cars, like, tomorrow. Tomorrow.

(Oh but the car industry...whose tentacles reach out...)

Egg Shells and Climate Change

Do Your Job Judy Woodruff.

http://virginiaarthurauthor.com/judy-...

I Had to Teach a Lesson On Climate Change to 12 Year Olds.

And it killed me.

They're At It Again.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeac...

Call your House and Senate Reps.

Send an email.

Are any of them guaranteed kickbacks, profit? Shouldn't an investigation of this for possible conflicts of interest be mandatory?

Greed is a primitive behavior of the human primate. It must always be held in check if we are to live in peace.

Native Flora as Native Art

"Can we not go anywhere without..."

When George Clooney and I were dating...wait a minute.

When I first saw George Clooney's monument...wait...no.

When Monument Men staring, er, starring George Clooney came out, my friend and I decided any excuse to see an oversized George Clooney is worth the almost ten bucks meaning I saw this movie in a theater. I love every movie my former lover, wait, no, George Clooney is in but it did set me off into thinking, once again, how narcissistic and self-obsessed the human primate is. We just love love love ourselves--and now, we are loving ourselves to death (i.e. the planet is becoming uninhabitable because we love ourselves so much).

As you likely know, the movie is about humans risking their lives for art made by humans--but no one is really making any peep about the devastation of nature's art, namely our native flora.

I asked my friend why a native wildflower, say, Madia elegans which I adore and can break your heart, is any less art than a Picasso? In fact, wouldn't native plants be even more significant as ART because nature "made" them, "designed" them over thousands of years, for and in a particular place, and if you kill them, you kill them not only as ecosystem-supporting organisms, but you kill them as ART too?

(See first sentence of this post).
No we cannot. Drink your wine and listen to me.

So, this movie about George Clooney's monument, no, wait, (stop making that joke; it's getting old; ok), this movie about people almost killing themselves to save stuff made by other people while every day, another population of NATURE'S ART get destroyed--this is the norm for the human primate.

Yesterday, a population of native trout lilies was permanently destroyed for the expansion of a mobile home park here--the entire area of native flora is gone, forever, as of yesterday, and this is OK. "NORMAL"; but putting your life at risk to rescue stuff fabricated by your own species, monkey stuff, is the story here. The point of the movie. Touching, poignant, important, the preserving of our "culture"...

But every day we lose nature's ART is ok. No one puts themselves at risk to save this...perhaps a sad feeling as we drive by in our cars, a "tsk tsk"..."and it was so pretty".

Why is the definition of ART, HISTORY, not extended to the natural world? Is it because nature does not hold the imprint of the human species getting back to my point that we are a self-obsessed, narcissistic species?

Look at Madia elegans, look at the trout lily, look at the steer's head (population just decimated here for "fire safety"), and tell me that these wildflowers are not art. Tell me they are not HISTORY; tell me why it's ok to so glibly destroy them.

Rage On Spring

It is a beautiful raging spring in Northern California thanks to baby Jesus (El Nino). The flowers are already blooming, including the Italian thistle (insert politically correct qualifier here: Latin name being Carduus pycnocephalus--the perils of common names--I love Italians and Italy; even lived there for a little while). Yes, where this plant is NATIVE, it is no doubt significant to the region it evolved within, but here in CA---I despise it--has well earned it's designation as a "noxious" weed--and it now dominates the lower part of my acre and is already five feet high causing me to nearly break into tears because I have worked so danm hard to get rid of it...and this year it laughs at me with all its friends, the non-native brome grasses, the obnoxious Torilis (a rare plant in Britain!), the "naturalized" geraniums--what a mess my land is. It is as if when they developed this "rural" subdivision, they seeded it with the most persistent and noxious weeds they could think of, and they did, unknowingly, with their bulldozers and backhoes that they moved around all over.

My quest to encourage the CA native plants is hopeless, nonetheless, when I am sipping my glass of red wine on the deck staring at this mess, I always end up back down there. I mumble "sht" and put on my boots and once again, find myself wacking the crap out of it all.

A few days ago, yet another weed wacker died so I grabbed the old fashioned kind, just a handle and a blade sans motor, the motor being my arms, and hacked that Italian thistle down and down...only to see it springing back up today, it's shredded stems poking back up, green (so they can photosynthesize still), and again, I wanted to break into tears.

There are those that call these weeds "naturalized" and after their glass of wine, saunter back into the kitchen to make dinner instead of standing on the deck like a mad woman, staring down at them, STILL OFFENDED they have eaten my acre of land and I cannot find a single CA native plant. HOW DARE YOU? I say under my breath, wack, wack, wack, my friend, the snotty paleobotanist calling me an "botanical sentimentalist". Yes, yes, I know. You are dealing with million year old plant fossils and these have been here for maybe two hundred years, and yes, I know they're not going anywhere now, at least in our life times. You think it's funny, watching me cuss and tear at this thistle that chokes out all the native plants...

So yes, it's been a glorious spring in Northern California, as long as I avert my gaze to the native oaks still on the horizon, refuse to look at the ground, and saunter back inside to finish cooking dinner. Hmmm..I wonder if you can fry Italian thistle?

Vice Presidential Candidate for Bernie Sanders Debuts At Portland Rally. Implores Hysterical Crows, er Crowd, to "Feel the Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Rise To the Occasion".

I have been waiting and waiting for either Hillary or Bernie to announce their running mate and though rumor is she was off with her timing, it appears Elizabill Surein is in fact, Bernie Sanders running mate. A female finch of 3.7 years, Elizabill refused to apologize for standing up her possible new boss in what appeared to be near hysteria following her debut.

Mrs. Surein, somewhat preoccupied with three little ones still in the nest (literally), has already made it clear that she will coordinate with Birdie Sanders regarding her priorities but she does insist one of them will be
insuring the rights of birds all over the world to raise their families in safe and secure environments so that they may rise to lofty heights as adults. She is also patently anti-pesticide and feels a world-wide conference should be held regarding bird banding and mist netting. Lifting her tiny bird leg, she pointed out how difficult it was to get a band with "JC451" off her leg. "Eventually it did fall off but we resent being just a number."

Tweet on the street is Sanders has officially asked Elizabill to join him on the campaign trail. Asked if he can handle the hysteria for his new running mate, Sanders replied, "are you kidding?" Elizabill plans to fly in to join him in between regurgitating with the little ones.