russvj – Page 9 – Russ Vernon-Jones

Plastics – Another Front in the Campaign to Save Our Climate and Health

February 23, 2021February 23, 2021 russvj 3 Comments Collective action

Globally, we produce about 310 million tons of plastic each year, about half of which is single use items such as shopping bags, plates, cups, straws, and packaging. Total production is expected to go up to somewhere between 750 million tons to a billion tons per year by 2050, unless big changes occur.

Plastic is made from fossil fuels. Greenhouse gasses are emitted at every stage of its lifecycle. The emissions begin with methane that’s emitted in the extraction of fracked oil and gas and continue …

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5 Reasons We Might Succeed

February 9, 2021February 10, 2021 russvj 1 Comment Hope

Joe Biden and his new Administration have been taking excellent steps on climate very quickly. It’s very hopeful. At the same time, the magnitude of what must be done to prevent the worst effects of climate change is still staggering. It cannot be accomplished without major legislation, both federal and state. Massive public support demanding bold action on all fronts is needed to give us even a chance of success. We aren’t there yet.

In December I wrote a post about the need to raise our climate targets to meet our international responsibilities. One of my readers, agreeing with my view, but despairing of getting sufficient support for needed actions, summed up her feelings with, “Aaargghhh!” She led me to write today’s post — some reasons to believe we can succeed.

The views of the public continue to move more and more in support of climate action.

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Can Joy and Realism About the Future Co-exist in Our Minds?

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 russvj 1 Comment Feelings, Hope, Movement building

The day before Joe Biden was inaugurated President, a friend of mine said to me in passing, “I’m so happy and excited that he’s going to get us back into the Paris Climate Accords right away!”

I have another friend who worked hard to get Biden elected. The day Biden was declared the winner, she shifted to bemoaning the fact that he isn’t more radical than he is, and focusing all her energy on where we need to push him to take bolder action on both climate and race.

Both?
I could identify with both of my friends — feel both the joy of first one and the upset of the other. But I don’t want to choose between being happy about what a difference Biden’s election will make, and being upset about the fact that his policies are still not adequate to meet the crises we face. Can’t I have both happiness in the moment and a sense of purpose and determination about the challenges ahead?

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7 Brief Perspectives in a Difficult Time

January 12, 2021January 12, 2021 russvj 3 Comments Race and racism

Here are some assorted thoughts — from the Presidential election to the Senate runoff elections in Georgia to the insurrection at the Capitol and beyond.

United front
In my mind the biggest story of the last few months is that so many people and groups came together around getting Trump out of the White House and taking back the Senate and we were successful! We formed a “united front” — people who disagreed with each other about many things, worked together and supported each other in a common goal. A united front may be more difficult to achieve on other issues, but it will be necessary in the future and it is possible.

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Retrospective – December 2020

December 29, 2020December 29, 2020 russvj 0 Comments

Season’s greetings to all!

Congratulations to each of you for having made it through 2020! My deepest sympathy and condolences to all of you who have lost loved ones this year. There has been so much death, hardship, and loss. No one would have chosen to have such a year. Nonetheless, I do think that we have learned much about our capacity to persevere, to adapt, to care, and to come through it all still wanting justice, still wanting a society that works for everyone. We have a clearer picture of both the challenges we face as a society and the strengths we embody when we pull together.

Rather than write a new blog post for this week, I thought I would simply invite you to look at parts of this website that you may have ….

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Hope and Action — Georgia, Climate, and Us

December 1, 2020December 1, 2020 russvj 1 Comment Hope

As soon as Biden and Harris take office there are some positive steps they can take right away with regard to climate change, even while we are dealing with COVID, racism, and the economy. The President- and Vice-President-elect have made some good plans and commitments, and we can build public support/pressure for them to go even further. Winning the two U.S. Senate seats in the run-off election on January 5th in Georgia will make so much more possible, but we can also take heart from what presidential action alone can achieve. Executive orders can be issued by the President in many areas without Congressional approval and can have far-reaching effects.

Georgia now
Many of us are writing letters and postcards, making phone calls, making donations to help the Democratic candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, win the U.S. Senate run-off elections in Georgia. I hope you will find a way to join us. Every little bit helps. These elections will have more impact on what is possible with regard to climate, racial justice, economic recovery, health care and more, in the U.S. than anything else on the horizon right now.

Biden and climate
Meanwhile, now that Biden has been elected, what does that mean for climate action?

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Celebration, Vigilance, and a New Burst of Energy

November 17, 2020November 17, 2020 russvj 3 Comments Collective action, Hope, Individual action

We have a President-elect! We have a President-elect who has named four major priorities for his incoming administration: climate change, racial justice, jobs and economic recovery, and COVID-19. We have a Vice President-elect who is a woman of color — a Vice President-elect who co-sponsored the Green New Deal resolution in the U.S. Senate. It’s time to celebrate!

I’m well aware that Trump is refusing to concede, fighting to stay in office, and making moves that are damaging to both our democracy and the incoming Biden-Harris administration. I know not having taken the Senate (yet?) is a major obstacle to progress on all key issues. I’m as upset as you likely are that over 70 million people voted for the lying, climate-destroying, abuser of women, pandemic-exacerbating, white supremacist Donald Trump. I’m clear that Joe Biden’s proposals are not as bold as we need.

Nevertheless, we get to celebrate. We can’t know how messy things will get, and we must remain vigilant, but I think it is most likely that we will get Joe Biden and Kamala Harris into office.

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How to Defeat an Attempted Coup

November 1, 2020November 17, 2020 russvj 0 Comments Collective action

We can’t know ahead of time what will happen on Election Day or what will happen in the weeks following. I hope that Biden wins with such a landslide that Trump and his supporters see that they have no choice but to accept the results. However we do need to be prepared for the possibility that Trump meant it when he said he would only accept the results if he wins. If he prevents the votes from being counted or tries to stay in office after losing the election, that’s a coup, an illegal power-grab.

If that happens, everyone who cares about justice, democracy, racial justice and climate change must participate fully in an outpouring of opposition. None of us can “wait and see”. All of us must act.

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Connection — A Balm in Troubled Times

October 20, 2020November 1, 2020 russvj 3 Comments Feelings

Do you need a few moments of peace, a balm, a brief rest? I do. I can only put my attention on the election, the likely coup attempt, the rise in coronavirus deaths, violence against Black people, and climate change for so long. Then I need something to revive my spirits. I’ve been finding it in getting outdoors, noticing the natural world, and experiencing a sense of connection to it.

The Indigenous perspective that we are part of the natural world — not separate from it, not rulers over it — but deeply interconnected in the web of life, restores me and heals me when I take even a brief time to immerse myself in it. The song, “We Belong to the Earth,” helps me remember.

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Call It a Coup

October 6, 2020October 15, 2020 russvj 13 Comments Collective action

As terrible as the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was, it made one thing perfectly clear. Donald Trump has no intention of conceding the election or yielding power, even if he loses. He explicitly said that the mail-in ballots will make the election fraudulent and refused to agree either to count all the votes or to accept the outcome of the election.

He clearly plans to do everything possible to see that the mail-in ballots are not counted, including taking it to the Supreme Court where he expects to have a solid partisan majority. (It remains to be seen how much he may also use armed forces to intimidate voters on Election Day or to seize mail-in ballots before they are counted on the pretext of safeguarding evidence of fraud.)

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Our Recent Loss

September 22, 2020September 22, 2020 russvj 2 Comments Feelings, Women and girls

I have been deeply saddened by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg/RBG. I’ve found my self struggling with despair and feelings of hopelessness. She was such a force for good in the world and, although imperfect, played such a crucial role in protecting the rights of women, and of all people, for so many decades. The prospect of the current President making another Supreme Court appointment is staggering.

Two days after her death I was committed to participating in a presentation that included both climate disasters and effective climate action. Those of us on the presentation team were forced to pick ourselves up, work together, and present with all the caring and vision we could muster. The presentation was well received. It also had an unintended effect on me. It made me feel more alive again. I wasn’t done with my grief and despair, but I could move again. Connecting with people and sharing a vision helped me re-focus — although we’ve lost RBG, we are called to continue the struggle for justice in which she so nobly fought.

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How to Reduce U.S. Emissions 70%-80% by 2035

September 8, 2020September 8, 2020 russvj 1 Comment

Is it really possible that the United States could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 70% – 80% by 2035? A newly published detailed study of energy sources and needs, production capacity, jobs, and finance from “Rewiring America” says it is. MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Saul Griffith, and his team have found that not only is it possible technologically, but that the national mobilization required to bring it about would create 15 million to 20 million jobs in the next decade and 5 million permanent jobs after that.

Remarkably, they provide a blueprint of how this could be done using existing technology, including people of all income levels, without requiring outlandish sums from the federal budget, without requiring a sacrifices in our standard of living (more on that another time), with financial benefits for consumers even in the short run, and with improved public health benefits. In a sense, this is the roadmap for how the challenging goals of the Green New Deal can be accomplished, if we can build massive public demand for them.