ThinkPint2

Time passed, the hot August was turning into the hot September. It appeared we were on track to have a record-breaking hot summer and hardly any rain, the latter being normal. It was dry here, as was drought-plagued California, and then horrific flash flooding in Arizona and moving East. Birds were dwindling because of climate change. BBC reported, “In less than 50 years, some states such as New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, have lost almost half their bird populations.” And CO2 was rising at the fastest rate since 1984.

Happy September.

I muddled on with my efforts. Writing on the cli-fi novel stopped, even though it was the third anniversary of starting Theresa Ripley, Publisher. On September 1, 2014, the 7 ebooks had 33,000 downloads. My head was in a different direction now.

Action was the intent, in addition to keeping on top of information the best I could. On August 25 and 26 a good friend whom I have known for a long time was making a visit. She lives in the Midwest and we’d not seen each other for several years but in touch regularly. We are in synch on many things. She read Eaarth by McKibben before her arrival.

I knew if I had her for 24 hours, she’d leave even more involved on climate issues than when she arrived. I was correct. She took five 350 buttons with her to broaden our effort. She is savvy, intelligent, political, and engaging, a good addition to the team of foot soldiers that, if I was not building, at least I was trying a person-to-person approach in my effort.

Later in the week my good friend Mike, who is also my tech guru, webmaster, and did all the covers for the ebooks, is also a professional photographer. We discussed how his pictures and a climate effort might be put together. He juxtaposed a picture of my stuffed duck on Mendenhall Lake at the foot of Mendenhall Glacier in the Juneau Ice Field, with the words “Keep It Cool” on it.

It was way cool.

As August turned into September I knew the People’s Climate March was coming closer, and I was closer to turning 70. I felt just fine about the latter and interested to get others involved in some way with the former. I used every opportunity to discuss and engage at my disposal, knowing I influence very, very few people.

I was reading and viewing information of why people don’t ‘think’ about climate change. A newly released book Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change by George Marshall gave some reasons why people are ignoring this. I heard him give an hour lecture the first week in September.

The review from Booklist stated, “In 42 engaging, bite-size chapters, Marshall presents the psychological research demonstrating why climate change simply doesn’t feel dangerous enough to justify action and how we can trick our brains into changing our sense of urgency about the problem. His work is a much needed kick in the pants for policymakers, grassroots environmentalists, and the public to induce us to develop effective motivational tools to help us take action to face the reality of climate change before it’s too late.” 

Some listened, though, and a friend of 40 years was one of them. He came to know what I knew, which is not everything, but enough to make one aware you need to know more and do more. We both marveled how far off the ball we had dropped over the last couple of decades on this climate mark. After watching a documentary I sent him, he said, “Hopefully, DISRUPTION will lead to many, many more. As I can, I’m going to raise questions with some of my preferred candidates for fall to see where they stand on climate change. A drop in several buckets will not create change, but it signals my change.”

Statements like that from people I respected kept me going. My two 21-year-old friends were on board to take my stuffed duck with them to the People’s Climate March in NYC. I still was not getting much response to my efforts on facebook so I posted the picture of the duck on the glacier again and tagged my friends with children mostly under the age of five and said the duck wanted to be thinking of them while he was in NYC if that was all right with them. That got a response and I made a list of the children and tucked it under the beanie of the duck.

Hit them where they are, with their young children and their future. Good.

September 8 brought a huge upset in a legal case in Massachusetts. The DA dropped the case against protestors blocking a coal port, citing that global warming needed to be addressed and the political leaders were not doing it and ALSO he would join them in two weeks for the People’s Climate March in NYC. Woot!

Was the tide turning?

I began using every excuse I could to pass out 350 buttons. My house cleaner came and when she noted my landing, all primed for the March in NYC, she asked, “what is this?” Ten minutes later she was holding a 350 pin and said she was scared for her children. Good, we all need to be. The same day my BMW had it’s yearly exam and the woman who takes it to the shop has a four-year-old. Yup, she left with a 350 pin and a new awareness and Scholar Duck had two more young people on his list to think about in NYC.

My mission, if I was really on a mission, was to use a part of each day to engage at least one person to think and do more about this. Some days were more successful than others. I went to the people I knew best and tried to use the tactic I thought would engage them. It was a test of how well I knew my friends/family.

My tactics were getting more direct. I asked a relative, 30, to get her generation to watch the documentary DISRUPTION. She made an effort on facebook which was a total fail. I expected that, but she tried, and this after over 50 friends had commented the day prior on her great new hair cut. Hair cut is one thing, a planet in peril is another. The important thing, though, is she put herself out there. I ‘pushed’ a 350 pin on another friend who read parts of earlier versions of what I was doing and said, “It is very, very moving, and really made me feel like a lightweight….” We have to move from lightweight to getting others involved.

Talk. To. Each. Other.

On September 12 I received the Emmy award-winning nonfiction series Years Of Living Dangerously originally shown on Showtime. I had preordered, natch, and now there it was–all 9 parts. I watched 3 episodes via YouTube when it aired in April, but now I was ready to binge watch the entire series. Some people binge watch Breaking Bad, this was my binge watch.

Was I ever going to get back to the cli-fi novel and Greta’s life in 2064?

I did not think approaching my 70th birthday I would be able to keep up my end of a conversation discussing the relative merits of geo-engineering techniques to counteract climate change, i.e. solar radiation management versus carbon capture and storage or removal and various sub techniques under each category. Those will all be needed, of course, if we are not successful at mitigation. Or I could equally engage in debate over carbon tax versus fee and dividend versus cap and trade. What alternative universe was this.

Right now it was my universe.

I wondered how many other people I could make it their universe. Never underestimate the power of an older woman with a stuffed duck who was becoming more active. How close is more active to becoming an activist?