Russ Vernon-Jones

love, justice, and climate change … I know you can make a difference.

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Connection — A Balm in Troubled Times

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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Is There Still Time?

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When I was a very young child I loved books and I loved being read to. My mother, or my father when he was available, would read to me at bedtime. It was a brief, happy time each day. It always ended with the announcement that it was time to turn out the light and go to sleep. I couldn’t tell time yet, but each night I knew that time for books was running out. My constant question was, “Is there time? Is there time for one more book?”

Many of us have that question about climate change. Is there still time? Is there still time to reduce emissions, sequester more carbon, and avoid the most catastrophic effects of global warming?

There are some bright spots, some big challenges, and some hard realities in the current answer to this question, as I see it.

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A Surprise

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I got a surprise the other day. I came across a reference to the Yale Climate Opinion Maps produced by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. I remembered that I had been intrigued by these maps once before, so I decided to browse a bit and see what I could find. These maps show how Americans’ climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support vary from place to place.
*Should schools teach about global warming?
*Environmental protection vs. economic growth
*All is not rosy

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Only a Global Green New Deal Will Work

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It will cost the nations of the world roughly $73 trillion to transition to completely renewable energy by 2050, according to a report from Stanford University. The expense will pay for itself in under 7 years. The shift to a zero-carbon global economy will also create 28.6 million more full-time jobs than if nations continued their use of fossil fuels at current levels. After the payback period trillions of dollars will be saved annually.

Only about 10% of the $73 trillion will be required to transition the United States. So that leaves a lot of money that needs to be spent outside the U.S., much of it in poor, developing nations. These nations don’t have the resources to make those investments themselves, but they are critical to stopping global warming.

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Biden, Enthusiasm, and the Future of the World

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Throughout my writing of this blog I’ve been exploring connections between climate change and racial justice. I see them as deeply connected and I’m passionate about both. This post will focus on a connection I’ve not mentioned before — both require that Donald Trump be defeated in the presidential election in the United States this year. The re-election of Trump would be a horrible affirmation of racism and its vicious effects, and would likely doom the entire world to the horrors of runaway catastrophic climate change.

I don’t think we can get through this election season with simply opposing Donald Trump. I think we need to get behind Joe Biden and support and work for his election with our passion, our time, and our money.

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“How to Be an Antiracist”

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I’ve started reading Ibram X. Kendi’s book, “How to Be an Antiracist.” For Kendi, there’s no such thing as “non-racist.” If an idea or policy creates racial inequities or allows them to continue, then it is racist. If an idea or policy produces or sustains greater equity between racial groups then it is antiracist.

Kendi has found that antiracist and racist ideas can exist simultaneously in the mind of any person — White, Black, or any other race, including himself. In his words: “The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what—not who—we are.”

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3 Things We Can Do About Racial Injustice

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Whatever our feelings about the present situation, the reality is that racial injustice as been a major feature of the Unites States from long before we were a nation, right through to the present. No attempt to build a sustainable, just, healthy society can go forward successfully without making dismantling racial injustice central.

I’m often asked by white people, “What can we do?” There are many answers to this question.1 Here are three that are close to my heart today. Each of them I learned from African Americans who have guided and corrected me.

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Piano Man

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A nurse who is a friend of my partner had an amazing experience recently (and is amazing herself). She described it this way:

I woke up this morning singing “Piano Man.” At work I cared for a patient named Ted – a 60 year old guy who was really sick with COVID pneumonia. They were trying not to intubate him and he was on that edge….

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