For the rest of your life, your Job is to make the impossible possible

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Earthling on November 24, 2012 at 10:06pm

It's pretty much impossible, yes. China and India will see to that.

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on November 24, 2012 at 10:53pm

Yes, it is most likely impossible, maybe improbable, perhaps ... if we want the preferable, we have to start here and now, and educate those who do not know.  

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on November 24, 2012 at 10:50pm

Thank you Ruth, I am reposting. 

Action plan: 

Buy goods and services from closer to home. 

Eat lower on the food chain. 

Get off fossil fuel as fast as possible. 

Recycle, repair. 

Stop using plastic when paper, bamboo, hemp will do. 

Other ideas? 

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 25, 2012 at 12:14am

I think collective action is our only hope. This means spreading the information. If you graduated from a college, write to the president and ask him or her to divest from fossil fuels. I need to figure out how to write to my retirement fund manager to urge divestment too. Today I joined Greenpeace. We should all belong to a few green groups.

If there are local green protests and you're healthy enough, participation may help.

Frankly I'm trying to think of more stuff to do. We already are all electric and signed up for wind and solar energy. Not every place has such options.

Monday we are looking into replacing my husband's old car with a Ford Fusion Hybrid 2013 model (preorder for when they come out in Jan). It hasn't got quite as good mpg as a Prius, but he needs the leg room.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 25, 2012 at 11:08pm

Another thing I need to do is write to every college an university I attended urging them to divest from fossil fuels.

Permalink Reply by Grinning Cat on November 26, 2012 at 3:09am

Gasoline-fueled hybrid cars are a compromise, but one I opted for myself. (I do fit into the driver's seat of a Prius.) With my traveling, I rely on the existing infrastructure of gas stations.

I know someone who has a bumper sticker on her first-generation-and-still-going-strong Prius, "MY OTHER CAR IS ELECTRIC". (The other car is an early plug-in electric, with a range of 30-40 miles on a charge if I remember correctly. Good for short commutes and errands... especially if you can choose a clean source for your electricity!)

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 30, 2012 at 10:22pm

I just sent this email to my retirement fund.

I urge you to divest from all fossil fuel related investments, even if it seems to represent an immediate loss of revenue. The latest climate science indicates that business as usual will have us 4°C higher than preindustrail temperatures as soon as 2050, which would be "Hell on Earth" and 6°C by 2100, which is the same temperature as the Permian Extinction. Runaway greenhouse effect is likely to start soon. By 2,300 the Earth would be 12°C higher and our extinction would be guaranteed. Even if you care nothing for the morality of destroying civilization, consider that the value of fossil fuel stock will plummet once the public grasps the reality of Climate Change acceleration due to feedback loops, which scientists know now.
Continued holding of a fossil fuel portfolio is deeply immoral, given our new understanding.