Greetings Earthlings. What have you done to your planet?? Depending on which Mayan you believe (if any), either the end is coming on the Winter Solstice or a new world is in the offing (presumably one without greedy corporados and, hopefully, other self-absorbed humans). Evo Morales, President of Bolivia is on board for the latter. He said he’s throwing Coca Cola out to mark the occasion. But, as noted recently by some smarty-pants academic expert on the Mayans, believing the apocalypse will happen at the turn of any calendar page is like fearing your car will explode or vanish (with you in it, of course) when the odometer rolls over to zero. In any case, guess what? The End of the World has already happened. You’re late! All that’s left to do is punish the culprits and…..party! Guy McPherson, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, who spoke here in the Valley recently, calls in with our collective swan song. And you thought WE were all doom & gloom, ha! And, if that’s not enough to make you turn the dial or move on to cute kittens on YouTube, how about we visit The Fool-on-the-Hill and Meet the New Boss? No? The Enviro Show Echo Chamber? What about……….Revenge of the Critters?? Birds keep attacking humans!
In our E-Valley-uation segment we do a rewind on last week’s anti-fracking action at UMass with some audio of the student led protest. In case you missed the news on Corporate America’s latest potential foray into Shays’ territory here’s a link to a short screed d.o. did for the Arise blog.
This week’s Fool-on-the-Hill is headed up by one of the worst humans on the face of the planet, Repugnican Senator Mitch McConnell. It may be that we’ve nominated McConnell before but that’s OK because when it comes to pimping for Big Oil this Repug tops the list. But, as vile an enemy of the Earth he is, there are many more in line for that dishonor. It’s whack-a-mole: there’s always another to take someone’s place (sorry moles, it’s just a game). These, like the corporate CEOs who do the actual dirty work, are climate criminals and deserve to walk the plank.
Once again it’s time to Meet the New Boss (and yes, he actually IS the same as the old boss). Recently former vice-boss Al Gore took another piece out of the Prez for not doing enough to….well….SAVE THE PLANET! We’ll riff on that for a bit and then do another rewind on Gore-al’s critique on the Boss in our….
Quote of the Week! “..President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis. He has simply not made the case for action. He has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks. Nor has he provided a presidential venue for the scientific community — including our own National Academy — to bring the reality of the science before the public.” – Al Gore
Let’s see what’s in The Enviro Show Echo Chamber shall we? O look over there! Another round of international climate talks/another miserable failure. It looks like The End of the World is getting its skids greased by government & industry, with a little help from Big Green. We like Grist’s take on the UN’s COP18 climate talks in Doa: “As in previous years, participants spent 13 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes of the two weeks arguing loosely about funding issues and then spent a furious 60 seconds developing a face-saving and ineffective agreement that will, at the very least, ensure that they will be able to expense plane tickets to next year’s meeting.” Sounds like Washington, no? Remind us why we form governments. This brings us back to the Prez. How about we all show up at his White House on President’s Day!
After our interview with Guy it’s on to the bus Stop billboard:
January 10, 7pm-8:30pm. Book party. Join us to celebrate the publication of “Earth Matters: Essays on the Nature of the Pioneer Valley”, published by Levellers Press. This book is a collection of the first three and a half years of the Hitchcock Center’s ”Earth Matters” column that appears in the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Hitchcock Center for the Environment. 525 South Pleasant Street Amherst, MA. Call: (413) 256-6006
January 7th – January 14th. Institute for Social Ecology’s 2013 Winter Intensive. Social Ecology is an interdisciplinary philosophical perspective that weaves aspects of ecology, anthropology, and political theory. Northampton Friends Meetinghouse Northampton, Massachusetts. Fee based/Scholarships available. Go to: http://www.social-ecology.org/2012/10/ises-2013-winter-intensive-january-7-14-2013/
Tuesday January 8th – 7 p.m. – “The Suzuki Diaries”. In this film, David Suzuki, science broadcaster of “The Nature of Things” travels through Germany, Denmark, France and Spain, to meet the people and their projects who are working towards restoring equilibrium between human needs and planetary limits. (Did you know that 40% of people in Denmark bicycle to work and school?!) Pelham Library – 2 South Valley Rd., Pelham, MA
January 23rd, 2013: 350 New England No Pipelines Solidarity Actions across the region– our Canadian friends and neighbors will also be taking solidarity action in preparation for the 1/26 Portland action. For more info. please email vanessa@350ma.org.
Saturday, January 26th, All day. Massive March and Rally in Portland, Maine to oppose the proposed Northeast Tar Sands pipeline. Portland Maine is where the pipeline that would carry tar sands ends and from where Canadian tar sands would be exported to global markets. How ’bout we put a stop to that, OK? Email sophie@350ma.org
February 17th and make Presidents Day the biggest climate demonstration yet. Our goal for Presidents Day is to form a massive human pipeline through Washington, and then transform it into a giant symbol of the renewable energy future we need – and are ready to build, starting right away. Go to: act.350.org/signup/presidentsday/
So much for “The End of the World”. Hopefully we will move on to Peace on……what’s left of Earth?
The Enviro Show 