Category Archives: blogs

Arbor Day success!

Ten years ago, Sukey Parmelee initiated the Watershed Stewardship program at Green Gulch. Early projects focused on removing invasive plant species such as poison hemlock and cape ivy, planting native shrubs and grasses, trail improvement, and general upkeep. Green Sangha joined the project, working the earth, breathing the fresh air, and diving into silence in the Zendo at the end of the afternoon. Every February, we celebrated Arbor Day with tree planting and the other ongoing tasks of land stewardship.

By 2013, with grants and visions in hand, the Watershed Stewards began to chart out the largest project yet: restoring the meander to the stream flowing through the property to the sea. Here’s what Sukey’s wrote shortly before Arbor Day:

“Our new beautifully sculpted meander — complete with large woody debris, willow mattresses, gravels, rock work and inviting pools — is the centerpiece for this year’s Arbor Day/Restoration Day.

“We are so excited to be able to plant hundreds of perennials, shrubs, and trees along this 720-foot stretch of creek. These plantings will provide habitat for many creatures of water, air and land to come and settle into this jewel in our lower fields.”

Sixty volunteers attended Arbor Day. Twenty of them came through Green Sangha. We were honored to be acknowledged at the opening ceremony, and exhilarated to be part of this great day of planting.

As Sukey wrote after this radiant work party: “You made it happen! All of the work you put into the restoration site over the past year and a half helped make the space ready for the machines and heavy work of last summer. You came to work party days. You came to work week. You came and helped dig up alder trees last April, came and planted them in December and came back last Sunday for the big planting. What a blessing!

“A group of third graders came out yesterday and enjoyed racoon tracks, newts, crossing the creek in a variety of ways, and planting and weeding. Everyone is involved!”

Come to our next day of Inner & Outer Restoration at Green Gulch: Sunday, May 10, 12-6 pm. RSVP for lunch reservations and carpooling: info@greensangha.org or (510) 532-6574

Houston, we have a problem

The following article was published January 13 on the Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/13/1357528/-Houston-We-Have-a-Problem. The author, Bill Carney, is president of Sustainable San Rafael.

I didn’t own a TV in 1970, so my knowledge of the Apollo 13 tragedy-turned-triumph is pretty much limited to the Tom Hanks movie twenty-five years after the fact. But as I watch our new Republican Congress assume the controls of climate policy, I find myself repeating, in quiet desperation, “Houston, we have a problem.”

It wasn’t just that I didn’t own a TV back then. It was also that I trusted the spirit, ingenuity and tenacity of the American enterprise to pull through and save the day. That youthful confidence in America turned out to be well founded.

But with climate change, I’m not so sure.

Which is why I’m directing this communication primarily to my friends, relatives and countrymen in Texas—arguably Mission Control for both the oil industry driving climate change and the political climate beclouding effective action to fix this potentially catastrophic malfunction in the human stewardship of spaceship earth.

As inside Apollo 13, our main problem now is the build-up of carbon dioxide to life-threatening levels. Just as the metabolism of the three men on board overwhelmed the life-support systems of their craft, the metabolism of our industrial technology—fueled by two centuries of burning coal, oil and gas—is overwhelming the natural systems of our planet.

That carbon overload is trapping sunlight and heating up the atmosphere like a locked car in a hot Texas parking lot. The heat kills directly, 70,000 people during a single European heat wave. Rising temperatures also trigger a cascade of broader failures in planetary functions that are critical to human wellbeing—storms spiraling to immense dimensions; ice caps and glaciers melting; storm surges and inundation teed up by rising sea levels; floods from intensifying rainfall; increasing droughts and wildfires.

Then come the related disruptions to human systems, agricultural, economic, humanitarian, security. And to our fellow species, precipitating the sixth mass extermination in geologic history.

“Houston, we have a problem.”

The Apollo astronauts were able to solve their atmospheric crisis, with a great deal of help and ingenuity from below, by salvaging a square carbon filter and jury-rigging it to fit onto a round hole. They literally tore apart their instruction manual to get the materials needed to make it work.

That’s the kind of creativity we need to bring to the climate crisis, along with the national teamwork to brainstorm solutions and the discipline to get the job done.

Nature already has on board the necessary carbon filters. We can restore and replenish vast carbon-absorbing forests, coastal marshes and agricultural soils. We can also conserve what the Apollo team called “critical consumables”—mainly energy and water—with far greater efficiency and even elegance in the way we live.

But such remedial actions will only work if we simultaneously reduce the root cause of climate change, which is burning fossil fuels. Here we have a huge capability that the Apollo astronauts did not. We are able to change the industrial metabolism that’s emitting all that planet-baking carbon dioxide in the first place.

Again, we can do so with existing technologies and resources. We can convert our power grid from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy like wind, solar and hydro. We can construct zero-net-energy buildings, and ramp up an emission-free transportation network of electric cars and transit.

The challenge is how to harness the power of the marketplace to redirect the economy towards such choices. One ready method would be to gradually gear up a ‘fee-and-dividend’ program—charging the fossil fuel industry for the carbon pollution it emits, while returning the cash to consumers to purchase cleaner alternatives and offset any costs.

This is the kind of approach that conservatives should champion, since it would encourage economic innovation, diversification, and predictability. There are jobs to be created and money to be made.

Apollo 13 Command Module approaches splashdown. 4-17-70. www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a13

The final challenge to the Apollo 13 mission was to manually adjust the trajectory needed to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere without burning up or bouncing off. The movie shows the team’s white-knuckled mastery of this near miracle by keeping the craft’s small porthole firmly aligned with the one fixed point available, the earth itself.

That’s exactly the point of reference that we need now to avoid the imminent disaster of a collapsing climate. The way home is to keep the earth clearly in view in all our decisions. Moreover, as the planet quickly warms towards irreversible tipping points, it increasingly looks like we may only get one shot to nudge our trajectory back on course. And it needs to be soon.

The first step is to get our new Congress—the actual Mission Control of climate stabilization—to hear clearly, we have a problem, and then provide the leadership to mobilize the ingenuity and spirit of our nation to return us to a healthy planet.

Bill Carney has organized multiple public events, including lectures and rallies such as Marin County’s contingent for Moving Planet Day in San Francisco on Sep 24, 2011. As President of Sustainable San Rafael, he has kept Climate Protection and Climate Protection at the top of the agenda for city and county government.

Ten minutes of silence

Have you heard of the book by John Francis, PhD, called Planetwalker: How To Change Your World One Step At A Time? In 1971, John lived in Inverness, CA. Like so many coastal residents, he was deeply disturbed when two oil tankers, the Arizona Standard and the Oregon Standard, collided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, spilling 840,000 gallons of oil into the water and onto the shores. He joined hundreds of volunteers trying to clean the beaches and save marine life. He wanted to respond in an even deeper way, and decided to stop riding in motorized vehicles. Our cars, after all, were the machines that had led us on the path to the oil spill and so much other pollution.

John’s friends tried to persuade him that his symbolic action would make no difference. He argued with them, but did not like the way he felt after these arguments. So he decided to keep his mouth shut for a day, and then another day . . . He felt so much better, and found such peace in communicating non-verbally, that he maintained silence for 17 years (with a one-hour hiatus). When he was accepted to graduate school in the Midwest, he wrote back to request a delay in matriculation, since he would have to walk to get there. As a graduate assistant, he led undergrad seminars without speaking. Discussions were so lively that there was a waiting list to join his section. Having mastered the art of silence, he now speaks beautifully.

I thought of all these things when I read this week about an even younger environmentalist, a Native American boy named Itzcuauhtli, who in October took a vow of silence until world leaders do something real about climate change.

On December 10, we will be joining people all over the world, observing 10 minutes of silence in solidarity with this 11-year-old activist. You may do so at any time of the day, but we especially encourage you to take silence at 3:50 pm PST – a reference to the upper acceptable concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere (350 ppm) and to the group that has done so much to raise awareness of this issue, 350.org.

Here is more detail from one supporter: An 11 year old indigenous environmental activist has taken a vow of silence until world leaders finally act to effectively deal with climate disruption. This young man is not just any 11 year old. He and his 14 year old brother are well-known eco-hip-hop artists who perform at events around the world. In just a few weeks his creative approach to his spiritual despair has impacted tens of thousands of people. And in my imagination, it could blossom into a heartful global shock-wave of silent children, upending business as usual everywhere – as was envisioned by a 1987 political fantasy movie….

A remarkable 11 year old’s vow of silence

Dear friends,

I have been deeply moved by the action of an 11 year old – Itzcuauhtli (Eat-Squat-Lee) Roske-Martinez who stopped talking October 27, 2014 “until world leaders take action on Climate Change.” Itzcuauhtli makes it clear that he thinks all of us are at least as important for climate action – if not more so – as officially recognized world leaders. I will be joining him and thousands of others being silent on December 10 for the same purpose.

But there’s a bigger possibility pulsating behind this simple act by one child. I think a major reason his action struck me so deeply was a movie I saw 25 years ago, “Amazing Grace and Chuck.” In it Chuck, a 12 year old Little League baseball star pitcher, is so upset about the possibility of nuclear war – for some of the same reasons that Itzcuauhtli and I are upset about the potential impact of climate disruption – that he stops playing baseball, an act which reverberates throughout his small Midwestern town, with small but potent ripples reaching national media. A growing number of professional sports players and teams soon join his protest by stopping playing their sports. When his biggest ally, basketball star Amazing Grace, is assassinated in a plane explosion, Chuck takes a vow of silence like Itzcuauhtli’s “until there are no more nuclear weapons.” He inspires millions of children around the world to join him. Pressure builds rapidly for the US and Russian leaders until they finally sign a major disarmament pact. Here are some video clips.

The movie was panned by most professional reviewers as far-fetched – with an interesting exception being Siskel and Ebert, who took it seriously.

Itzcuauhtli says: “Join me in this vow until world leaders: 1) Agree on and implement a Global Climate Recovery Plan to get us back to a safe zone of 350 ppm; 2) Mass[ively] reforest the planet to help absorb all our excess carbon and; 3) Support renewable energy solutions to replace the dirty fossil fuel industry.”

To that he could well have added “become vegetarians” or at least “publicly reduced their meat consumption” since the profound role of meat production in disrupting climate is becoming painfully obvious.

I invite you to explore this remarkable kid – and his 14 year old brother Xiuhtezcatl, both talented eco-hip-hop artists who perform at events around the world – and their family and youth organization Earth Guardians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Earth-Guardians/113066278734489
http://earthguardians.org

Co-heartedly,

Tom

On the look-out

A message from Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste

Can you help us collect some intelligence this weekend? The plastics industry has deployed signature collectors to bus stops and shopping malls throughout the state in a cynical attempt to overturn California’s plastic bag ban. Early reports tell us that some are disseminating ill-informed, misleading, or downright false information about what the proposed referendum would actually do. We’re trying our best to keep tabs on their campaign mercenaries so we can keep them honest.

Here’s where you come in. Your job, should you choose to accept it, would be to gather intelligence when you encounter these paid-per-signature petitioners:

Take note of the name of the retail establishment (if any) where the gatherer is set up.
Please note the approximate location (city & street), as well as date & time.
What is their pitch? Is it truthful?
Don’t feel the need to engage/argue. Remember, they are just normal folks being paid to do a job.

This data will help us focus our time and resources where they will do the most good. We’re not afraid of a public vote – Californians will see through the Plastics Industry’s attempt to keep profiting from the billions of cheap plastic bags they dump into California every year. But if they get enough signatures, it would delay implementation of the ban for 18 months. That’s another 18 billion bags’ worth of pollution—and more than $200 million for the plastic bag makers.

You can help us put a stop to it right here, right now, by one of these routes:
Send an email to: Bagban@cawrecycles.org
Text your report to 916-550-3910
Fill out this on-line form.

Thanks for your help!

Mark Murray

Thanks to initial reports coming in over the weekend, we are starting to get a better idea of the scope of Plastics Industry’s signature gathering campaign. But the picture is not complete. We need every useful bit of data that we can get. So don’t forget to report where and when you’ve seen plastic bag signature gatherers in your town. Here are three easy options you can use:

1) report your findings on-line here, 2) or e-mail: bagban@cawrecycles.org, or 3) text us at: 916-550-3910.

Do my personal changes make a difference?

Beth Terry, in her presentation at Green Sangha’s first Rethinking Plastics conference in 2010, identified eight reasons that our personal changes make a difference. She posted a transcript of her talk here: Eight Reasons Why Personal Changes Matter.

Do you still worry, though, that your individual actions won’t amount to enough? Here’s what Paul Stern of the National Research Council says: “The potential for reducing carbon emissions through behavioral change at the household level is sufficient to yield a major effect on national emissions if well-designed interventions are scaled up nationally” (in American Psychologist, May-June 2011, p. 304).

We have exceptionally well-designed interventions already set up in the Bay Area. In the East Bay, you can join Linda Currie in a five-session class on reducing your carbon footprint: https://greensangha.org/lower-your-carbon/. In Marin, Tamra Peters has established a similar program that has already helped homeowners reduce their collective annual emissions by over 2 million pounds a year: http://www.resilientneighborhoods.org/.

Don’t stop there, Linda says. Keep demanding climate action now, and vote for policies and politicians who will lead the way. For updates on climate legislation, EPA regulation, and other actions, go to the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Action Center.

And remember that each one of us who takes personal action to preserve the climate, and who shares these actions in a patient and loving manner, sends ripples into the world well beyond our individual acts.

Riding the Climate Train

Coast to Coast for Climate Action

By Linda Currie, Event Manager, Green Sangha

Wearing a shirt of her own design, Linda Currie prepares to board the Climate Train in Emeryville. Photo: Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group

On September 15, I boarded the People’s Climate Train in Emeryville, California, along with about 125 others, including Green Sangha member Trish Clifford. We were headed for the People’s Climate March in NYC on September 21, a monumental gathering of more than 400,000 citizens in advance of the United Nations Climate Summit. As we traversed the country, greeted by colorful sign-waving supporters in Reno, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Chicago, our numbers grew to more than 200. We rolled through beautiful mountain ranges, rivers and plains, sometimes having to stop for freight cars filled with coal or oil, reminders of our purpose.

The Climate Train was organized by local Buddhists and the Center for Biological Diversity as a less carbon-intensive way to bring engaged people from the west to the east coast, and to provide opportunities to prepare for the march ahead.

On the surface, we were a disconnected, motley crew, ranging from 18 to 80 years old, all colors and so many walks of life: indigenous peoples, nuns, ministers, teachers, students, social justice advocates, environmental leaders, union members, and business owners. Over the long hours we connected and talked with each other, participating in dozens of workshops on issues such as divestment, tar sands, non-violent direct action, faith leaders’ response to climate change, and rights of nature.

By the time we arrived at Penn Station in NYC, we had formed unexpected bonds and become allies, ready to march together to protect what we love, our planet. One of the Green Sangha principles says, “Throughout the universe, One Body revealed.” I felt this so deeply in my heart every day on this journey: “Of course we love the planet. It is us!”

The People’s Climate March in New York City was huge, colorful, diverse, completely peaceful. The sense of quiet power was palpable in the air. At 12:58 pm, silence rolled back from the front through the crowd like the jet stream, connecting us all in two minutes of quiet. At 1 pm, cell phones led a wave-like roar back through the rows of marchers: a symbolic call to awakening. The march continued for several miles, ending without aplomb with a large gathering of food and music. Then, people dispersed in every direction, going back to the places and lives they had come from, knowing that something important had just taken place.

When I first awakened to the climate crisis, I vowed to do everything in my power to make a difference. At that time, our children were young and my husband and I were both busy working parents. I had no idea how I could personally have an effect, but I let myself be guided. Green Sangha was one of the organizations I found that has guided and sustained me on my path, providing grounding for all my actions, from those early days until now. Getting on the People’s Climate Train and marching were just more natural and powerful steps I could take to do my part.

Editor’s note: Have you participated in a Low Carbon Diet group? This is an easy and fun way to make real, measurable, and lasting reductions in your carbon use. Groups are forming in Marin County, for five sessions of neighborly gatherings (meeting weekly or biweekly). Participating households have already reduced their carbon emissions by 2.2 million pounds per year. More info here: Resilient Neighborhoods.

Coastal Clean-up Day rocks again

By Green Sangha leader Maeve Murphy. Sep 20, 2014. Nine enthusiastic volunteers joined me for Coastal Cleanup Day at McNear’s Beach in San Rafael. Just the right number at this modest-sized site: though it gets regular attention from its ranger staff, they assured us there is always more trash to be found.

McNear’s is a popular city park and, as we did our work, late-summer barbecues were getting started, a wedding was being set up, and a wetsuited triathlete swam back and forth near the shore, carefully avoiding a paddleboard class. Plenty happening here today!

Rangers Josh and Dan were on hand with lots of extra buckets and litter-pickers, pleased to have us there to help tackle the never-ending stream of trash that they report finds its way here from land and sea. Five of our volunteers brought their own buckets, gloves and reusable water bottles and several of them had walked or carpooled to the site. Hooray for mindfulness in action!

I had displayed the California Coastal Commission poster showing amounts of select items found last year, and our volunteers were impressed by the sheer numbers of plastic bottles collected (some 1.3 million!) and amused by other items (40 toilets!? A rubber chicken!?). I mentioned that the few cigarette butts they each might find would be added to the probably millions picked up around the world that day, and that each and every one would be counted. Other park users stopped and asked us what was going on and I was glad for the opportunity to let them know about Coastal Cleanup Day and the significance of what we were doing.

Most interesting items? Probably the small plastic bag of what we think was marijuana, the parking ticket, the toy plastic turtle, and a shapeless, rusty chunk of metal that added a few pounds to our final count, 21 pounds of trash and 8 pounds of recyclables – not bad!

Putting the morning’s activity in our little corner of San Rafael into a statewide, nationwide, and worldwide context helped us feel connected to a movement – a big and broad one – helping to restore the beauty of our coastline and protect its wildlife, reconnecting to our mother Earth, and reminding us that what we all do really does matter.

After a record turn-out of over 80 volunteers in 2012 & 2013, Maeve and the Marin County site coordinators agreed last fall that McNear’s Beach could afford to give up some of its helpers to other sites around the county. There will be room for a few more, though, next year at McNear’s, so mark your calendar: Sat Sep 19th, 9 am to noon!

March for climate, clean up the coast, listen and awake!

Environmental action this weekend!

1. Coastal Cleanup Day is the largest volunteer service event of the year, with events up and down California. Green Sangha members will gather at McNear’s Beach in San Rafael, and Emeryville in the East Bay. Details are here.

2. People’s Climate March. In NYC, Oakland, Tucson, and around the country, hundreds of thousands are coming together to demonstrate for climate sanity. Two days later, world leaders gather to consider climate action; they will be informed and inspired by our presence!

Linda Currie, pictured here, boarded Amtrak in Emeryville on Mon Sep 15, on her way to join hundreds of thousands in NYC, rallying two days before a gathering of world leaders. Photo: Kristopher Skinner, Bay Area News Group

Sanjen Miedzinski will march in New York City, as will other Green Sangha members. You can join the world’s largest demonstration for climate protection! NYC info here. If you can’t make the trip to New York, come to the companion demonstration the next day in Oakland at Lake Merritt, 2-5 pm. In Tucson, there are workshops all day on Sep 20, with a rally and electric vehicle celebration on Sep 21: Tucson climate events.

Then, in October:

Thu Oct 9. SYNBIO: a close look at an emerging new technology. Speakers include Mark Squire, co-owner of Good Earth Natural Foods and Green Sangha Advisory Council member. 7-9 pm at the Mill Valley Community Center, Cascade Room, 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley. More info on Synbio.

Sun Oct 12 is our seasonal day of Inner & Outer Restoration at Green Gulch. Organic farm lunch, fresh air in the fields, tea, and meditation, noon to 6 pm. This event takes the place of our regular monthly retreats in Marin & the East Bay. Carpooling recommended, and reservations required: linda@greensangha.org.

Wed Oct 22. Clean Energy: Why we must have it, how it can be done. A Green Chautauqua discussion with Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Co-sponsored by Sustainable Fairfax, Green Sangha, and more. First Presbyterian Church, San Anselmo, 7:30-9:00 pm. More info here.

Climate workshops in NYC

The People’s Climate March on Sun Sep 21 will be amazing. Surrounding that day will be other opportunities for activists to convene, converse, and connect. For example:

Santussika Bhikkhuni will be attending the March with the Buddhists for Climate Action and Buddhist Global Relief. She’ll also be co-leading an event at New York Insight on Saturday morning 10am-1pm called Preparing the Heart for Practice in Action. Santussikā grew up on a farm in Indiana and has practiced meditation since 1979. She has trained as a nun in California and the UK since 2005 and is co-founder of Karuna Buddhist Vihara, a neighborhood monastery for women in Mountain View, CA. She received bhikkhuni ordination in 2012. The Saturday morning event is by donation.

On Saturday evening, 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm: “A Global Climate Treaty: Why the US Must Lead,” at the Ethical Culture Society building, 2 West 64th St. (corner of Central Park West). Doors open at 6 pm. Tickets are $11.49 (includes online fee). It is hard to know whether it will sell out in advance. Though the space is quite large, it appears that there will be a lot of people coming to NYC to attend the march and the event may be widely publicized.

Speakers include:

Mary Robinson, United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change
Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute and the Worldwatch Institute
Bill McKibben, 350.org
Ambassador Marlene Moses, Chair, Alliance of Small Island States
Cecil Corbin-Mark. We Act for Environmental Justice
Donald Brown, Widener University College of Law
Sean Sweeney, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy
Annie Willis, Global Kids

Opening remarks will be made by two members of NY’s City Council

To purchase tickets in advance: https://climate-treaty-event.eventbrite.com

There will be several events before and after the march, so if these don’t work for you, watch for others. All of the info on the Climate Convergence can be found here: http://convergeforclimate.org/

Coastal Cleanup Day 2014

California Coastal Cleanup Day may be the largest marine-related volunteer event in the world. Last year’s slogan was “Help make trash extinct”! You can help reach this goal and contribute to citizen science while enjoying a day of fresh air and heart-filled service to the environment . . . and who doesn’t love beach-combing?

Where:
1. Marin County. McNear’s Beach, 201 Cantera Way, San Rafael, a lovely bayside park overlooking the northern bay.
2. East Bay. Next to the Emeryville Fire Station at 2333 Powell St., across from the Watergate Market.

When: Sat, Sep 20, 9am – noon. Cleanup starts with a brief orientation and safety talk. Come early even if you can’t stay the whole three hours.

McNear’s Beach includes about one mile of shoreline, and is a relatively well-cared-for beach, but in 2012 we still managed to collect 91 pounds of trash and 6 pounds of recyclables! More about McNear’s Beach here.

Emeryville coordinator Marcy Greenhut promises free refreshments, raffle prizes, and chair massage, provided by local businesses! More about Emeryville cleanup here.

Bring:

Sturdy, closed-toe shoes
Hat and other sunblock
Sunglasses
Water bottle (no single-use plastic, please!)
Jacket in case of wind

Also bring your own reusable supplies if possible, to help cut down on waste and save funds. This could mean a bucket, trash bags, and gloves if you have.

Directions to McNear’s: Drive out Point San Pedro Road from central San Rafael; signs will show you the park entrance. Tell the ranger you’re volunteering with the beach cleanup, then park at the far (northerly) end of the lot. We’ll be at the picnic tables by the snack bar. Beach captain: Maeve Murphy (455-9577). Click here for a map. Please consider biking, public transport, or carpooling to the site with your friends. Volunteers who drive to the cleanup can park for free (the normal weekend fee is $10 per car); just tell the rangers at the entrance that you’re a CCC Day volunteer.

You are invited to the Bay Model in Sausalito for an after-cleanup barbecue. To prevent waste, please BYO plate, cup, and eating utensils as only throw-aways are provided.

There are scores of locations around the Bay Area. More information and additional sites listed by the California Coastal Commission here: California Coastal Cleanup Day.