IPCC, What Are We Waiting For?

What are we waiting for?

I'm organizing my files.  I used to say, "I can't die until I get my filing done."  I'm not particularly getting ready for death as much as I am just prematurely buried in paper, both electronic and the actual made-from-trees stuff.  My new treasure is a 4T hard drive and its partner, a Canon desktop scanner.  Progress is occurring!  

The thing about organizing, though, is that you find things you forgot you had, like the little booklet--IPCC in a Nutshell--that I wrote in 2019.  That's a collection of a series of posts I published on Facebook about the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  Five years on, the recommendations still apply, but they seem so minor in the face of the changes that have occurred in such a short time.  There are new reports now coming from the IPCC, and the Sixth Assessment Report seems to be the newest.  It's bleak enough that my little booklet seems like a relic of a long ago past, where filling the recycling bin would be enough to make a difference.  

Closer to home, so to speak, the US seems to be issuing NCA5--the fifth National Climate Assessment.  This happens every four years, and a review draft was issued about a year ago.  It seems that the final version is now out.  It also seems that the final version is amazingly optimistic.  Here are the key messages on mitigation:

• Successful Mitigation Means Reaching Net-Zero Emissions
• We Know How to Drastically Reduce Emissions
• To Reach Net-Zero Emissions, Additional Mitigation Options Need to Be Explored
• Mitigation Can Be Sustainable, Healthy, and Fair
• Governments, Organizations, and Individuals Can Act to Reduce Emissions

I say amazingly, because I know that agriculture is one of our big GHG emitters, and Texas (All Hail the Mighty State!) just fought back on every single key message with Proposition 1, cunningly touted as "Food for Texas."  Likely to favor agribusiness, protect polluters, and defang environmental regulations, the Right to Farm amendment to the Texas Constitution passed on November 7 with 79% approval.  (Not mine.)

It does help that most of our major cities have taken their own steps to get to net zero emissions (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio--and Austin--but not Fort Worth).  Since Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are three of the ten largest cities in the US, this is not a small thing.  On the other hand, The Right to Farm amendment was directly aimed, in part, at cities and towns that incorporate land that someone wants to put to agricultural use without regard for the concerns of neighboring residents for animal welfare, use of pesticides, etc.  Given the tendency of Texas cities to sprawl, this is also not a small thing.

I have been focusing on individual action, but it may be time to look at group action.  The Austin Community Climate Plan bears a closer look.  Passed in 2015, there will have been subsequent audits and adjustments to the plan, such as this one from 2020.  And a new version of the plan focuses on climate equity.  In all of these plans, there is collaboration between the various levels of government, the community, and interested parties (industry, business, and advocacy coalitions).  As Ethicals, I think we can find some partners of our own in this process to help us learn more about what we can do--and what we need to do--to change the message from "Food for Texas" and the "Right to Farm" to regenerating the planet with food for everyone.

The Light Still Shines

Pretty much like this

In just a couple of days I'll have to think about what happened in 2014.  I always do at this time of year.  There was a time when, with the approach of my birthday, I dreaded the next two months for all of the extra work that came with the holidays.  As an only child, I had to take on more responsibility for the holidays for my parents and then my husband's family as well.  There were multiple Thanksgiving dinners and extra Christmas celebrations and, in later years, the Christmas projects that my husband and I would undertake.  That morning in 2014, two days before Thanksgiving, my husband and I were talking about our Christmas project.  And then, a couple of hours later, he was dead.

My mother had died the previous summer.  We were at her house, making plans to begin clearing it out and putting it up for sale.  We had no extra plans for Thanksgiving.  With all our family, except his grown daughter, gone--dead--we had no obligations except to each other--and we wanted no special dinners or extra work beyond what was necessary.  Indeed, we wanted no other company, enjoying the chance to spend time together.  Both of us had a special affection for the Austin Shelter for Battered Women, and we had already agreed to bring extra supplies for their pantry and whatever household goods we ran across.  The east side of Houston was a great place to find bargains, and we had the van to haul them back to Austin.  We were in the dining area, he making notes, me babbling about some good news from the scales, and then I brought up the Christmas project.

He said he was tired and was going to take a nap.  I said, "Me, too."  I had already been running errands that morning, and a nap, when we had no schedule or deadlines, seemed really reasonable to me.  When I went into the bedroom a few minutes behind him, he was struggling for breath, and I couldn't rouse him.  I called 911, went to let the paramedics in, but he never woke up.  He died.  I have to repeat that word.  He didn't just pass away, or leave, or go.  He died.  

I was really pissed about that.  After all those years of taking care of our family elders.  After all those years of making others happy.  It was finally our time.  Our time to be together.  Our time to do what we wanted to do.  Our.  Time.

So how does this have anything to do with being a Happy (Ethical) Human?

More than you would think.  I may seem like a Grumpy (But Still, I Hope, Ethical) Human during this time of year.  I'm not much into socializing or sharing feasts or even lots of presents.  I have plenty of stuff, thank you.  I am very conscious of food waste and over-eating, so I need to give the big dinners a miss.  I do return to my grief sometimes during the holidays, and I really would rather spare others the gloomy face.

Even so, I am content.  I have lovely memories of the time we had together.  I have happy memories of all the Thanksgivings and Christmases that we spent with our families.  It was a lot of work, yes, but the laughter, the singing, the love made up for every bit of the work.  And I've had time to make peace with death.  It's part of life--we are born, we live our lives, we die.  That makes how we live our lives all the more important.  To live a life that we can be pleased with.  Did we do the right thing?  Did we do enough?  Did we help others?  

Now my task is to live my life as well as I can, as Ethically as I can.  Lucky me to have such wonderful memories to keep me company.  How interesting--and comforting--to discover that Felix Adler had similar thoughts in talking about Consolations for grief:

And the world is not

dark when they have departed, because what they have

revealed remains. Their influence remains. The light

of their countenance still shines upon us.

Yes.

Reducing Carbon, Growing Older

Heavenly Delight (HEB!)

Happy birthday to me!  Nothing to get excited about--no major milestone--just another year.  Just another time to consider what my years on this planet have cost the planet.  For the past several years, I have looked to Cool Effect as a resource to measure my carbon footprint and to offset that footprint by supporting carbon reducing projects around the globe.  Every year on my birthday, the "party" has been to go to Cool Effect's website, look at all the projects, and choose to support one or more that fit with my values.  Over the years, I have supported methane capture, more efficient cookstoves, preservation of wetlands, and reforestation efforts.  I have supported Native Americans and women in developing countries, especially in Africa.  Because Cool Effect pairs its projects with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as the recommendations of Drawdown, I could see a direct relationship with those global plans for protecting the planet--and those who dwell on it.

I don't think I'm fooling myself into thinking that a carbon offset is all that is needed to make up for my presence on the planet.  I understand that I have to do more.  That's why, for example, I spend a lot of time thinking about recycling--and all the steps that precede the moment of tossing something into the blue bin.  That first step--Refuse--is the most important, I think.  Do I really need that item?  There are also Reuse and Repurpose.  If I can't refuse something, I try to think of what I can reuse the containers for, how I can repurpose the parts.  Part of consuming these days is looking--before we buy it--at the end of the product's useful life and what will happen to its components when we are through with them.  The more stages we can put our purchases through, the better.

Living as lightly as possible--cutting down on driving, weatherizing my home, and on through the list of reductions--will still not reverse my impact on the planet, but that is no longer why I purchase carbon offsets.  I tend to think of these purchases as investments rather than mitigation.  That is, I think that the so-called offset does not in fact erase my impact on the planet but is instead a positive action taken to protect and regenerate the planet.  As a resident on this planet, I consume the resources of the planet and create waste as a byproduct of being a living, breathing, eating creature.  I have a responsibility to consume and create waste to the least extent possible, yes, but I don't think I have to take it so far that I go live in a cave or stop bathing in potable water.  I do think I have to be mindful of both consumption and waste production--and I do think I need to do something extra.  

This year, I will still purchase a carbon "offset" as a birthday present to me.  Cool Effect has highlighted a project--Gas Busters--that I would like to support.  It has all the hallmarks of an excellent project to fight climate change.  Drawdown lists managing refrigerants as its #1 choice for reducing the effects of greenhouse gases.  Cool Effect links the project to 4 SDGs, including my favorite:  Responsible Consumption and Production.  For an emotional link to the project, I have to note my personal chagrin that Texas is such a polluter, with repeated release of dangerous greenhouse gases throughout the state but especially in the Permian Basin.  While Cool Effect hasn't made the Gas Buster project easily accessible to someone like me, they do indicate that their partner in the project is Tradewater, an organization that focuses on halocarbons and methane and has a project goal of eliminating 3 million tons of CO2e annually.  I've used Tradewater's calculator to estimate my personal carbon footprint and will send them the funds to offset 19.55 tons of CO2e for this year.  

I don't know whether I'll manage that cake in the picture.  HEB used to top it with fresh strawberries, but the last time I checked (well, it's my favorite cake, so I visit it now and then when I'm near the bakery department), it seemed to have some sort of gloopy syrup in the berries.  Might not want the sugar rush this year.  Still, I will party on, knowing that somewhere, somehow, Tradewater is going to destroy 19.55 tons of greenhouse gases in my name.  That is something to celebrate!

Reflecting the Reflection of Reflections

Just saying

Asking a student to include a bibliography for their term paper is deemed by some to be an act of cruelty.  Some of us compile bibliographies for fun (and the advancement of knowledge).  To each his own, right?  I am compiling a Bibliography of Ethical Culture and having way more fun than a woman of my age ought to be having (according to some younger folks who may be somewhat clueless in the joys of living and dinking around in the library).  All of this is to say that another moment of serendipity has led me to further appreciation for the words of Felix Adler and one of those religious experiences that sometimes catch us by surprise.

Here's my story.  I have a more or less organized plan for approaching the Bibliography so that I can document the literature of Ethical Culture over its first 150 years.  (Well, that's the goal.)  There are, however, occasional opportunities to depart from that plan as a source points to more publications that should be documented as well.  In the past, this has led me down side trails to find such hidden gems as the early involvement of Albert Einstein in Ethical Culture in Europe.  This time I found a list of books by Felix Adler and wanted to make sure that I had documented them all in the Bibliography.  One that I had missed earlier was The Essentials of Spirituality, published in 1905.  While trying to find a copy online (out of copyright books are frequently available thanks to Google and Microsoft), I had to check out the full text to make sure that I was linking to a complete scan and not one with missing or blurred pages.  That led me (I said it was a trail) to the last pages of the book where I found this summary of the text:

The leading thoughts I have endeavored to state in these addresses are the following : Spirituality is morality carried out to the finish. It depends on always keeping the ultimate end of existence in view, and on not resting in the partial ends. Intervals set aside for self-recollection and the facing of the thought of death are useful aids. The ultimate end itself is to elicit worth in others, and, by so doing, in one's self. The indispensable condition of this attitude is to ascribe worth to every human being before even we observe it, to cast as it were a mantle of glory over him, to take toward every fellow human being the expectant attitude, to seek the worth in him until we find it. Even toward oppressors we should take the same attitude. Furthermore, our true self resides neither in our poorer nor in our better natural endowments, but in the will that suppresses the one and alone gives moral significance to the other. Finally, we must testify to our respect for principle by treating the small occasions of life as great if they involve a moral issue, and the great prizes of life as small if they are offered at the price of moral integrity. These are thoughts which I have found helpful in my own experience ; I submit them to you, in the hope that they may be of use to you also. [Emphasis added]

Not many days ago, I presented a platform for the Ethical Society of Austin based on the first issue of the journal Reflections published by the AEU in 2017.  My platform was called "Reflections on Difficult People" since that first issue of Reflections focused on responses to a central question:  How should an Ethical treat people that they do not like or who are socially destructive?  Almost all of the responses to that question made reference--direct or indirect--to Adler's An Ethical Philosophy of Life, published in 1918.  For my platform, I summarized the six responses to the question and then summarized my summary with these key takeaways from the discussion:

1. All humans have worth.  It is inherent and cannot be taken away, nor should it be abused.  Worth is not the same as value.
2. All humans are connected.  Without belaboring the concept, if we can accept Carl Sagan’s assertion that “We are made of starstuff,” we can grasp the ultimate basis of the connection.
3. We are bound by our commitments to Ethical Culture to respect the worth of all human beings.  Respect is not the same as love, nor are we required to love all humans.  Respect includes reverence for the best in others.
4. All humans are unique, and that is okay.
5. Respect for others includes protecting their worth and dignity from harm, including harm from our own actions.  When we must challenge someone’s actions or words, we must do so with respect.
6. Human progress includes the development of public norms for protecting the worth and dignity of humans.  Respecting the dignity of others compels us to protect, preserve, and improve those norms.
7. The practice of Ethical Culture is that which helps us grow or develop as Ethicals (moral beings, ethical units, humane humans).  Such practice may include eliciting the best in others.  It may include treating someone we dislike with respect.  It may include defending the dignity of others while showing all due respect to those who are themselves harming the dignity of those we defend.
8. Showing respect is not the same as feeling respect.  Sometimes we have to present a facade in order to protect the dignity of the person with whom we are dealing.
9. Failure is a growing experience.  Use it to become a better Ethical.

I was pretty pleased with my takeaways and felt that I had done a good job of catching the gist of the discussion published in that issue of Reflections.  Imagine, then, my delight in discovering Adler's own summary--a prequel, if you will--to these key features of Ethical Culture.  Imagine, too, the overwhelming sense of wonder that his delightful phrase--"cast . . . a mantle of glory over" the person to whom we are attributing worth and giving respect, with an "expectant attitude" as we seek to bring out the worth that we have already attributed to that person.  The power of these phrases make even more meaningful the words and concepts that I am still seeking to understand, incorporate into my thinking, and embody in my actions.  It doesn't hurt that the words delight me and lift my heart to another plane.

How to Read Maya Angelou?!

Maya Angelou (public domain)

I have acquired some allergies.  They make me quite miserable--and I seem to be under some stress because of these miseries.  One night recently, I found myself flinching at every sudden noise, ready to cry or explode or both.  I decided to decamp to the bedroom and my reading chair, in hope of some relief.  I found it in reading Maya Angelou's Even the Stars Seem Lonesome.  That calmed me considerably.  I enjoyed her essays on sensuality, on aging, on art and poetry.  I appreciated her use of African proverbs and references to social organization and customs in Africa.  I wept at her description of a "rural museum" in Louisiana and her descriptions of the horrors of slavery.  

As I did so, I wondered at my reactions.  I read half of the volume that night as a means of relaxing.  I read the remainder the following morning with some puzzlement.  Both reading sessions were pleasurable on several levels.  Angelou's writing is smooth and flowing, and it's easy--and pleasurable--to go with her flow.  My puzzlement came from external sources that made me try to understand exactly how I am expected to read her writing.  

Maya Angelou was Black, writing as a Black woman.  She was famous.  She was wealthy.  She was so many things I am not that it is silly to try to list them all.  Nonetheless, her writing resonates with me on several levels.  Age.  Sex and gender.  Living in the South but not actually feeling part of the South.  Love of  words.  Short term residence in Africa.  It also resonates when she talks about slavery and the history that is largely unacknowledged in this country.  It resonates when our experiences and desires take different pathways.  I am not a mother, although I have done some mothering (I am a greater success as a stand-in grandmother), and I read her reflections on her mother and her son from the same (shared) standpoint--and feel that I understand what she is saying.

The puzzlement comes from an earlier reading session--All God's Children Need Dancing Shoes--a few weeks ago, just prior to joining a Zoom session intended to focus on white supremacy.  That session was intended to discuss Layla Saad's Me and White Supremacy, which I had, admittedly, mostly skimmed and only read in bits.  Just coming from a recent reading of Angelou's life experiences in Ghana and having my own experience well in mind from past years in Kenya and Tanzania, I had my own ideas about approaching the issues raised by Saad--including some questions about her perspective and experience.  To me, these ideas and questions are all part of inquiry and seeking understanding.  To the facilitator, they were an expression of my race and my racism.  

That kind of attitude took me aback.  The facilitator (who, by the way was also White) seemed to be taking a fairly dogmatic approach to a set of ideas that were actually the product of someone else's thought and experience--without much actual scientific research.  What has troubled me since then is the increasing sense that some of the approaches I am seeing to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (with or without the inclusion of Justice) seem more divisive that healing or binding.  Indeed, as I learn more about Ethical Culture, I am finding some of these discussions very much out of sync with respect for the inherent worth of the each individual, including respect for diversity of thought as well as diversity of identity.  I am seeing an emphasis on race (and sexual orientation) with disregard for age, disability, or other factors that combine to make us all unique individuals.  My concern is less with the content of the discussions than the manner, which sometimes belittles or demeans those who are being criticized for the results of systems not of their own creation or actions not of their own doing.

Perhaps I am being naive.  Perhaps this is a reflection of White privilege, White fragility, and White supremacy.  And perhaps I am diverting myself from my central concern:  How can/may a White woman read Maya Angelou?

Returning to that central concern, my response is that a White woman may indeed read Angelou.  She will bring her own experiences to the reading.  Some of them will parallel Angelou's own experiences and allow Angelou's writing to resonate deeply.  Some of them will not parallel Angelou's experiences.  There may be some additional learning needed to approach Angelou's writing--and, very clearly, some learning to be taken from it.  There may be points at which both writer and reader will miss each other.  In reading, Angelou, I am sometimes aware of our differences, but I am also completely drawn in to the universality of her emotions and relationships.  We have a number of social problems related to race in the US and much work to do to resolve them.  Losing sight of our connection to each other is not, I believe, the way to solve the problem.  Finding our commonality, seeing the threads that link us together, realizing how much we are the same is, I believe, a better way.