In the Media

Don’t overlook impact of military on environment

I appreciated the coverage of the Sept. 25 Northampton rally calling for more urgent federal and state action to stop and reverse climate change caused by global warming.

One detail the reporter left out really disturbed me, and I feel the public should know about. The speaker quoted a recent book by Barry Sanders called “The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism”, who also spoke at Smith College last spring.

His research shows that every time one of our F-16 fighter jets takes off in training or on a mission over Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere, it burns up over 1680 gallons of jet fuel PER HOUR.

That’s the equivalent of what the average American uses in their car for 3 years! And those jets aren’t just flying around up there for only an hour at a time.

Sanders’ other key points are: the US Military is the largest single source of pollution in the world; the world’s militaries combined emit 2/3 of all greenhouse gases; the Pentagon uses “enough oil in one year to run all of the transit systems in the United States for the next 18 years.”

We just can’t afford to go to war for 10 years halfway across the world, or keep up a huge number of bases overseas and at home. I think it creates more not less terrorism, and far worse, it’s the major cause of the growing climate crisis. That’s not the security I want for me, my children, and grandchildren.

Time to close 20th century power plants

Thanks for excellent coverage of the recent Northampton rally to stop climate change. I only wish you’d included more photos and quotes by the young people who were there. Those inspiring, active, and involved young adults took the time to come and share their views.

It’s their future that will be most jeopardized by this real and looming environmental crisis. I was quite encouraged to see this group of college students engaged in an effort to make critical and positive change. A sense of deep concern was evident and clearly expressed as each took their turn addressing the crowd.

One young woman spoke about the western MA. Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, which is trying to close the remaining coal-fired power plants around the state, including the one in our own backyard, Mount Tom.

This is an idea whose time has come–not just to prevent the carbon dioxide coming out of the smokestack from entering our atmosphere and causing global warming, but also to end the serious pollution that is strongly suspected to cause asthma and numerous other health issues for far too many of the valley’s children and adults.

She stated that their goal was not to simply shut the Mt.Tom plant down, eliminating some fifty local jobs as well as $1million in annual tax revenue for the city of Holyoke. But rather to convert the plant to use a different source of energy, preferably a renewable one, while at the same time assisting the current employees in retraining, and simultaneously seeking effective ways to replace any lost tax revenue for the city.

A young man, with the organization Safe and Green, spoke about their goal to shut down  the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant next March at the end of its designed lifespan of 40 years, rather than relicense it for another 20 years. The people of Vermont, led by their Senate and new Governor, want this, too, but VY’s corporate out-of-state owner, Entergy, is suing the state, saying it has no right to take such action.

These two plants, at both ends of our beautiful valley, are prime examples of 20th century technologies that are too dangerous and costly to run in the 21st. It’s time to close both down, and face the truth that clean energy sources, increased energy efficiency, and decreased energy use are the only ways to ensure a safe climate and healthy future for ourselves, our kids, grandchildren, and all species on this lovely but imperiled planet.

Tar sands proposal protest at White House

What are tar sands? I was rather vague on the subject myself until I was invited by the Tar Sands Action organization to join hundreds of other people in an act of civil disobedience this summer at the White House. The purpose was to pressure President Obama to deny a permit to TransCanada, an energy corporation that seeks to move crude oil from the province of Alberta through the middle of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico refineries in a 1,700-mile pipeline. What I learned is that: a) Some 740,000 acres of arboreal forest will be destroyed if all the available tar in the sands of Alberta are extracted, in a sort of strip mining operation; b) The tar sands will be heated using natural gas to extract the tar/oil from the sand; the energy used to the energy gained is almost equal; c) The resultant crude oil is very low quality; and d) James Hansen, the NASA scientist who warned Congress about climate change years ago, has stated that if the Alberta tar sands are exploited, it will raise atmospheric carbon to over 600ppm (parts per million) – he calls that “Game Over” for our planet. The International Panel on Climate Change has declared 350ppm as a “safe level;” our current “carbon tab” is already at 394ppm.

These facts prompted me to be civilly disobedient for the first time in many years.

Although the pipeline itself will have many deleterious effects on people and the environment, it was the exploitation of the tar sands that inspired me to go to Washington and participate for one day in the two-week-long action. However, it is the pipeline that gives the United States a say in the tar sands situation. President Obama must approve or deny the pipeline permit in the next few months. Almost 2,000 persons were arrested, five of us from Amherst, but President Obama needs to hear many more voices to be convinced to deny the permit. We urge others to contact the President and ask him to deny the Keystone XL Pipeline permit.

NORTHAMPTON – As I stood at the top of the Coliseum recently, looking out over Rome, I remembered the legend that Nero fiddled while his city burned. I have no idea whether the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64 was in fact caused or condoned by Nero, but I do know that the world as we know it is burning and that too many of our elected and corporate leaders might as well be fiddling around, given their lack of progress in slashing global warming pollution and in making a shift to a safe, sustainable and clean-energy economy.

The other day, scientists at the University of Bremen reported a record level of summer sea-ice loss in the Arctic. Worldwide, regions of the planet are scorching, thawing, acidifying, flooding and drying out. When fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil are burned, they release heat-trapping gasses that force the earth’s temperature to rise.

The global average temperature is not only rising – it is rising increasingly fast. Nine of the 10 warmest years occurred in the last decade and 2010 tied 2005 as the hottest year in 131 years of record keeping. The longer we dawdle in dealing with the climate crisis, the more difficult and expensive our efforts will be.

Here in the Pioneer Valley, many of us are taking what individual actions we can, switching to compact light bulbs, adding energy-efficient insulation, turning down thermostats, riding bicycles more often and protecting forests and farmland. What’s more, many are trying to build a movement that makes it politically possible to accomplish what is scientifically necessary.

Earlier this month, more than 1,200 people – including a number of Valley residents – were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the White House in the Tar Sands Action, protesting the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would bring dirty tar sand oil from Alberta, Canada, down to Texas. In an act of solidarity, I and another Valley resident, the Rev. Andrea Ayvazian, the pastor of Haydenville Congregational Church, helped to lead an interfaith advocacy meeting at the Canadian consulate in Boston to protest the tar sands pipeline.

This weekend, Valley residents will share in global days of action to get people moving beyond fossil fuels. Thousands of rallies will be held worldwide as part of Moving Planet day (www.moving-planet.org). I believe the most important rally to attend in New England is the one in Boston, which is one of the five cities nationwide that climate organizers have targeted as the best site for a massive demonstration. On Saturday, rolling parades will head to the Columbus Park rally, departing (beginning at 3 p.m.) from North Station, South Station, Park Street Station, and Long Wharf North. A peaceful, festive rally will begin at 3:50 p.m. at Columbus Waterfront Park (Aquarium T).

Meanwhile, local rallies will also be held Saturday in Northampton, Amherst (http://amherst350.org/) and Greenfield. On Sunday, a second Northampton rally will be held at 1 p.m. in Lampron Park in front of Bridge Street School on Route 9, just east of downtown. At 2 p.m. we’ll cross the nearby Coolidge Bridge to display our call for a safe climate and clean energy future. Back at the park, the rally will continue with speakers and music. I plan to be there, too.

Let’s make this a September to remember. The urgency of the climate crisis can no longer be denied. The world is feeling the heat, and this is no time to fiddle around.

The Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas is priest associate of Grace Church in Amherst and lives in Northampton. Copyright 2011, Daily Hampshire Gazette, All Rights Reserved.

The Gazette article on 9/5/11, “US disasters: extreme and exhausting year” noted that there have been 98 natural disasters in the U.S. in the first six months, about double the average in the 1990’s, and nearly 1000 all-time records (heat or rain related) have been set. We have seen the effects of some severe events here in western Massachusetts.

Jerry Meehl at the National Center for Atmospheric Research noted that while events occur naturally, global warming amplifies them. Extremes have happened in the past as noted by Judith Curry of Georgia Tech, however, when the frequency of extreme events doubles, it is time to do something.

We need to reduce carbon in the atmosphere (98% of scientists agree excess greenhouse gases are causing climate change) and, as noted by Kathryn Sullivan in the article, we have to begin adapting to change now. The safe level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been determined by scientists to be 350 ppm; we are now at 391.

On Saturday, September 24^th residents of this area will join thousands of others around the world to help our local communities focus on taking positive action to reduce carbon and adapt to current and future climate change.  As part of 350.org’s “Moving Planet” walkers for clean air will gather at the site of the proposed Solar Farm in Hadley. Bike riders can choose to ride from the Mt. Tom coal plant or join for last part of the ride as riders approach Hadley. We must create new sustainable energy as proposed in the solar farm and major polluters, like the Mt. Tom coal plant must be cleaned up or shut down.

Bike riders and walkers will converge at the north end of the Common at about 12:30 pm, where people can talk with Valley organizers that are already active in many facets of sustainability and ecology issues. For times and more information on this event go to www.amherst350.org. Join us—and make a difference!

Yours truly,
Alan Eccleston