Religion and Climate Change - Citizens Climate Lobby Meeting

Back at the Bioneers conference which seems so long ago, but was only October 15, I met Jim Thrall who had a table for the Citizen's Climate Lobby. Jim's a retired scientist with a PhD in something like acqautic ecology, and he's also a returned Peace Corps volunteer.  CCL was created by Marshall Saunders in California based on the model of Results - a citizen lobbying group for overcoming world hunger and poverty. Once he got that taken care of. . . no, I guess that didn't happen yet, but he did see real progress based on Results model, so he used it as the basis for the Citizens Climate Lobby which he founded in 2007. In his words:

It seemed to me that Congress was doing things exactly backwards. Why? Because it is dominated by special interests, in this case the fossil fuel industry. In my heart I knew something else was at play: Ordinary people were not asking their members of Congress for anything regarding climate change, not in an organized and effective way. Furthermore, they didn’t know what to do or how to do it, nor did they have self-confidence and support they needed. Citizens Climate Lobby’s purpose is to change all that by empowering individuals to have breakthroughs in exercising their personal and political power and by gaining the tools to be effective with government.

Jim was explaining all this to me and I took notes, but I have no idea where they are.  But Citizens Climate Change has a good website, so I can tell you this stuff.


Basically, they get people together who are concerned about climate change and help them organize their message and get it to their representatives in Washington DC.  Just like every other group that wants to successfully get their projects through legislative bodies.  They meet once a month - the first Saturday - with local folks and and by phone to the National organization and the various chapters around the country and in Canada.

So, today is the first Saturday and Jim invited me to come to see what they were doing.   The phone was out and we got to hear Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, atmospheric scientist and co-author of 'A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions.'
She was discussing how to talk to church groups about global warming.  There were two things to avoid:

1. The age of the earth.  She said that some groups shut down if you talked about the earth being over 7000 years old and it wasn't necessary.  There's enough data in the last 7000 years to make the argument for climate change.
2. Al Gore.  For some reason, the conservative faith based groups can't stand Al Gore, and to get through to many people you have separate him and global warming ideas.

These seem to be deeply held issues and spending time on them distract from the main message, so it's best to avoid them.

There were also things she says when talking to faith based communities:

1.  Her own faith in God and that humans are the stewards of God's creation - there's very little theology that needs to be agreed on here
2. God created the earth
3. Jesus gave us the responsibility to love our neighbors and care for the poor - and global warming is having the biggest harmful effects already on the poorest

I don't think she says it quite like that at synagogues, but the sense I got was that she was mostly focused on Christian denominations.

Then she had the elevator speech on global warming:

1. The planet is warming, and it's not just thermometers, but also changes in birds, insects, trees, it's in everyone's backyards
2. It's not like any previous cycle - if it were we would be getting cooler because the sun has been in one of its lower energy cycles which would should have cooled us
3. Since the Industrial Revolution began, we've been producing heat capturing gases. 

You can hear the whole discussion at their website.   Or you can listen to past presentations from this page.

One of the issues that came up, that I was only vaguely aware of, was that various faith based organizations had come out with their own stands on climate change.   The Catholic Church's Report came out in May and the NY Times reports:

"The widespread loss of ice and snow in the world's mountain glaciers is some of the clearest evidence we have for global changes in the climate system," concludes the analysis, which will be delivered to Pope Benedict XVI. It was assembled by an international team of experts at the behest of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican's non-denominational scientific arm.

The report warns of "serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses," urging steep cuts in the world's output of heat-trapping pollutants.

Failure to do so will imperil vulnerable ecosystems and human societies that depend on glaciers for freshwater, it says, including a huge swath of Central Asia where mountain glaciers store water for millions of people. Inaction also leaves some communities vulnerable to flooding from unstable meltwater lakes that can burst without warning, causing outburst floods and mudslides.

"We are committed to ensuring that all inhabitants of this planet receive their daily bread, fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink as we are aware that, if we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us," the document continues. "The believers among us as God to grant us this wish."

Presbyterians also have a report acknowledging climate change and the need for mitigation.

Southern Baptists have a Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change that is relatively timid, but nevertheless acknowledges that humans have contributed to global warming.  The have four statements:

• Statement 1
  Humans Must Care for Creation and Take Responsibility for Our Contributions to Environmental Degradation. 
• Statement 2
  It Is Prudent to Address Global Climate Change.
• Statement 3
  Christian Moral Convictions and Our Southern Baptist Doctrines Demand Our Environmental Stewardship. 
• Statement 4
  It Is Time for Individuals, Churches, Communities and Governments to Act.
  

 The American Baptists adopted a  Resolution on Global Warming in 1991!


Jim Thrall also mentioned the One People, One Earth -- Anchorage conference being held today at UAA which brought together climate scientists, interfaith leaders, and Native elders. I'll try to get some video from that up later.

Why Farming In Bethel Make Sense

Saturday I was able to talk a bit to Tim Meyers at the Bioneers Conference.  He's the farmer in Bethel who is showing that it's possible to farm in rural Alaska.  In fact, it's a great place place to farm.





He showed me a National Geographic world soil map. (The inset came from Geology.com)

He pointed to the area that I've highlighted in red in the upper left.  The dark green is the most fertile soil, as I understood it.  You can see in Alaska that dark green goes along the Kuskokwim River through Bethel and it's also on the Aleutian Chain.  Coincidentally, the Kuskokwim drainage is colored green in the inset of Alaska.  [Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to what issue of the National Geographic it was.  I couldn't find the map online, but I did find a soil article here from September 2008. ]


The key here, he said, is that while agriculture has been focused around the Matsu, it's Bethel that has the good soil.  In Matsu they soil's not great and they have to use a lot of fertilizer to grow crops whereas in Bethel the soil is already very rich.  [Will there be a comment on that from Matsu farmers?]

Photo of a photo

Tim also emphasized the difference between gardening and farming.  Farming is much easier than gardening because you can make good use of a tractor.  His five acres wasn't that hard to maintain. (I'd just been to a session where Matt and Saskia - I'll try to post on that soon - talked about how much work it was to keep up their urban garden where they are growing much of their food for the year.)  Tim said he hoped that Alaska's Cooperative Extension would add farming to their efforts rather than just focus on gardening advice.  Raising food in a home garden is nice, but, he said, it's not going to seriously increase the level of Alaska's food independence.

Tim had a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program where people paid in advance for a set amount and selection of vegetables.  It was too much food for most people, he said, so now he has a vegetable stand twice a week in Bethel.  People are lined up an hour before he opens and he sells out.  The prices are lower than in Bethel's super market and his food is fresh and organic. 

He pointed out that Bethel has a number of flights headed for Anchorage every day, and they go with empty cargo holds.  Setting up more farms like his could give Alaskans a steady supply of Alaskan grown vegetables, but it will take people with the skills and the determination to do all the work. 


Visit the farm's website here.


You can hear an APRN interview with Tim here.

Origami Trash to Smal Scale Poultry at Bioneers Book Table

At the Bioneer Conference at UAA in Anchorage, among the, the book table. Here is a sampling of what was for sale.

Lovins delivered a keynote via video conference Saturday afternoon.

This one is about China.

Rachel, from the UAA bookstore, always chooses carefully for this kind of special event.

Josh Fouts Imagination as the Foundation of the Future

Another of the national bioneers speakers via teleconferencing, Josh Fouts talked about the kinds of work he's been doing exploring imagination as the important commodity of the future (well, we need it now already.)  He gave various examples from the work he's been doing in a variety of situations.
There's no way I can cover this all and keep up with what other things are going on, except to alert you to some of his work through other websites.

He began and ended with this quote:

The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula K. Le Guin

Here's a blog he does with his partner Rita King.

Here's the Bioneer's website's description of the presentation (Rita wasn't there.)

The Emerging Imagination Age

Visionary media innovators Josh Fouts and Rita King call this time “The Imagination Age.” From sudden revolutions in the Middle East to “unimaginable” natural and human made technological and economic disasters, our world is in a state of radical transformation and readjustment. At the same time, powerful new media are emerging that could presage a hopeful new global culture and economy. Josh and Rita illuminate how extraordinary new tools — virtual worlds, games and the worldwide web — can leverage global cultural empowerment and educational reform, amplified by creativity, collaboration, art and music.

About the Presenters:

Joshua S. Fouts, a writer, journalist, gamer and technologist, is a Senior Fellow for Digital Media and Public Policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress, a Next Generation Fellow at The American Assembly, and Executive Producer at Dancing Ink Productions. Fouts has an extensive career on the cutting-edge of journalism, online media, games, culture and foreign policy and a history exploring the impact of new technology tools for media years before they are adopted by the mainstream. In 2005 he was the first person to propose and direct a project illuminating how virtual worlds could be used for cultural relations.

Rita J. King is the Founding Director of Dancing Ink Productions, a company that works with major clients focused on the emergence of a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age. King is Innovator-in-Residence at IBM’s Analytics Virtual Center, a former Senior Fellow at The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Then there's Science House

Welcome to

Science House has a simple mission: bring people together to promote and advance science.
We have three primary components:

	NETWORK
The Science House Network brings scientists together with people outside their normal circles - like journalists, film makers or entrepreneurs. We'll be holding informal talks and educational sessions and helping start discussions on all things science.

	CAPITAL
Science House Capital invests in early stage science-driven ventures and provides ongoing support to help create startup companies. From business plan drafting to intro-ductions to potential investors, Science House Capital is here to help.

	FOUNDATION
Science House Foundation helps share the excitement of science with kids all over the world. We fund educational programs, buy equipment, sponsor prizes, competitions and more. Let's talk about helping kids discover the wonder of science!

Something else is happening. There's another day of this tomorrow, and tonight at Wendy Williamson there's a talk. From the Alaska Bioneers website.

October 15th Saturday Evening 7:30pm-9:30pm Keynote with Thomas J. Elpel The New Era of Self-Sufficiency It is easy to be overwhelmed at the magnitude of the challenges we face as a species, when the whole world seems to be careening towards economic and environmental collapse. How can we adapt to a rapidly changing world, build a sustainable civilization, and put the brakes on climate change? Thomas J. Elpel, author of Participating in Nature: Wilderness Survival and Primitive Living Skills, suggests that we can start by taking our shoes off and getting back in touch with the earth. We can rediscover our connection to nature through the traditional knowledge of our ancestors. By living close to the earth we can gain the physical grounding necessary to re-examine the challenges we face as a society and find answers to some of the most vexing problems that face our species. Thomas Elpel is the director of Green University® LLC and Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School LLC in Pony, Montana. (www.hollowtop.com). He has authored six books and produced six videos on topics ranging from wilderness survival and botany to green building and consciousness. Elpel connects the dots from wilderness survival to sustainable living, showing how the quest for survival in nature functions as a metaphor for living that empowers us to see new solutions in the modern world. Keynote with Tamarack Song Remembering: a Key to Weathering the Changes

Paul Stamets - Mycologist Extraordinaire

The afternoon sessions at the bioneer conference are teleconferenced into the national conference.  There have been several speakers and I can't quite keep up.  But the last speaker was Paul Stamets.  

Stamets has a knowledge of fungi that pushes us to think way beyond how we think today to protect fungi that play a critical role in the ecosystem of our planet and offers amazing medical potential for humans. 

The best I can do is offer you this TED video of him.

Sustainable Home Heating (Wood) at Bioneers

I'm at the bioneers conference in Anchorage.  Valerie Barber and Meg Burgett from the Cooperative Extension are doing this workshop.  I went to the Alaska Food Challenge workshop first, but didn't pull out the computer.  I have pictures and notes though and will put it up later.   [I'm not going to proof this carefully so I can get it up and go to the next session, sorry.]

Meg Burgett

This one is on how to be sustainable with a wood stove.  

Natural gas prices make natural gas the cheapest way to heat, but it's a finite resource.
Fairbanks is using a lot of wood, but they also have air quality issues.

When is Wood Cost Effective?  Oil about $37/MBTU .  Gas is about 4/15/MBTU
Wood about $15/MBTU, Electricity about $44/MBTU

Other factors to consider
1.  The stove and cost to pay back
2.  Size and quality of insulation in home
3.  Wood fuel availability
4.  Costs, including transportation
5.  Storage space for wood - needs to be stored properly, needs a cover but open on the side to dry out properly

More costs than $ - exercise


Cost comparisons - (gas on chart 2X the chart)  but gas still much cheaper.

Rich Siefert chart -

Availability and costs of wood fuel options
Cords,  chips, pellets - Fairbanks has a factory, most in Anchorage coming from Georgia or Canada?

Why Burn wood:
Can be cost/efficient
Reduces use of fossil-nonrenewable fuels
Supports local jobs and local economy
Reduces impacts from green house gases
Personal choice more independence for you and family - especially off the grid
Enjoy activities


Best Practices
Choose the right applicance for you and your home

Understand how to properly use your appliance
Properly locate and install appliance
Use only high quality food
Clean and maintain your appliance regularly - if using <20% moisture, burns much cleaner

Choose the right appliance
Pre 1991 before regulations
EPA certified non-catalytic
EPA ertified catalytic
Wood/biomass
Masonry stores

Old stoves - less than 20% efficient, safety hazard.  Post 1991, required to meet EPA standards.  All certified stoves labeled.

Catalytic Wood stoves - Large, well insulated fireboxes
Costs more to start - $2200- $5000  - only can burn wood.  maintenance costs up, have to replace every 2 or 3 years, tho less if more efficient.







Non-catalytic - $1800 , not counting the pipe - hot short fires, nice flame for watching, most efficiently with short hot fires.
Wood or Biomass Pellet - good, but you do need electricity.  Extremely efficient @ 90%.  About $2-3000.  No local pellets, yet in Anchorage.  Fairbanks and Delta have them.

Outdooor Woodburners, least efficient, but lower fire risk to burn house.  Buring hot for long periods, large logs, but people burn garbage.  Surrounded by water that goes to house.  Low efficiency.  Up to 12 cords a year and can produce a lot of smoke.  Neighbors not happy at all.  Not good for dense urban areas.

Masonry stoves - hold and radiate heat for a long time.  Massive heavy structures, best to plan building new home and plan house around the stove.  $5-15,000 for the cores and not made here.  Can use brick, cement, tiles, etc.

Locating your stove
Put as close to center of space to heat.
Account for space between stove and walls and traffic patterns
Maximizing the Heat - best against an interior wall with masonry around it.
Avoid exterior walls
Avoid external chimneys, straight up,
Proper installation
Insurance costs more.

High Quality Wood
SCentral - cords most available.
Support local wood collected within 50 miles from harvest
Right moisture content <20%

Cordwood Primer
128 Cubic Feet (not counting spaces in between)  4'X4'X8'  - standard pickup holds 1/2 a cord

Moisture meter

Moisture content - there's a moisture meter - internet - $40, maybe a stove store has one
Split into 6" pieces, stacked off the ground, not rotting bottom.  Cover, tarp isn't great.
In Anchorage about 6 months to get green wood to 20%.  Away from structures - rodents and insects into the wood.

Valerie Barber

Look at wood - lighter in color, feels lighter and should have cracks and splits
Distinctive clank, not a thud when you hit it
Not all trees the same
Best is birch, worst aspen and cottonwoods.  Works ok if dry and in masonry stove.
How Wood Burns in your Wood Stove
1.  All the water in the wood heats up and evaporates off
2.  Wood begins to burn or 'break-down" at around 400˚F and release....

Clean and maintain yearly

Wood's renewable, but only when trees replanted and regeneration is encouraged.

Problems here because of climate change - the warmer it gets the less some of the trees grow.  Related to drought stress.  We can produce new trees, but not natural gas and oil.

We're watching a Canadian movie now on the best way to burn wood in your stove.  The content's really good (did you ever make a knotted piece of newspaper?), but the actors are awful. 

Need to do homework before buying - check emissions to see efficiency.  Lower the emissions, higher the efficiencies.  Catalytic stoves not designed for long fires.  Hot and quick. 

Here's a website they recommended.