Post No. 3,219 - An example activist email regarding the climate crisis

As a first point, a key part of spiritual growth is becoming more caring - yes, about ourselves, yes, about other Sentient Life, but also about the world we have created and continue to create and that we and other Sentient Life live in ... 

And that means responding properly to the human-caused climate crisis is crucial - and claims that it is due to other causes are basically spiritual bypassing. 

Given that, when a major report on that issue was recently released, it was my spiritual duty to respond to it - and to do so in a spiritually BPM manner. 

The following is what I sent to a bunch of state MPs and Ministers and my local federal MPs. There are parts which are possibly not BPM: have a read and see what you think ... and consider how you will respond if a similar opportunity comes your way. 

 

Dear Ministers and Members of Parliament, 

As someone who has been arguing with architects and others over the need for change to address climate change, now the climate crisis, since the early 1980s, I always support anything which improves awareness and the likelihood of change. As such, I consider this excellent report is constructive and significant (and I note Finding 1 is of the value of education), but I also wish to first acknowledge the outstanding actions that have been and are being taken by a series of ALP governments in Victoria, including recent actions to assist landlords climate adapt rental properties, supporting use of greenhouse agriculture, the resurrection of the SEC and the long history of promoting renewables energy (including community and household batteries), aiding access to double glazing for houses (by supporting a factory in, if I recall correctly, in central Victoria), and the excellent example set by the Parliament House extension, which used features such as geothermal stabilisation of temperature. 

These make important differences for the better, and I hope other legislatures catch up to that exemplary level of action. 

However, it is also becoming clear that the climate crisis is occurring at a faster rate than anticipated, and our actions - state, national, and international - must accelerate accordingly ... and that is made more problematic by the fascism and insanity that has hold of the USA, but that is, in my view, an opportunity-and-necessity for the rest of the world to grow up and start acting like sovereign nations rather than teenagers trying to wheedle more pocket money out of the USA. 

I consider we have - particularly as a result of this report - a good handle on a lot of what is necessary - although the mostly academic work being done on coastal retreat probably needs to be brought forward, and extended to other areas that are prone to natural disasters (and I note the report's mention of legacy planning), but I wish to provide a few comments on the report's findings and excellent recommendations (I have not read the rest of the report in detail): 

• I consider the recommendation for publicly available information on spending should be supplemented by the financial and other benefits of actions taken to date - lives saved by better insulation, economic impacts minimised by preparation, etc. 
  My experience is that people need encouragement to take actions that they may be worried about (generally such worries are over change and having to give up - and grieve for - lost life dreams rather than the climate denialism), and providing some positive news on a running basis - provided it is independent, accurate, and credible - will do a great deal to promote further uptake of necessary measures, in my opinion (IMO); 
• given that the rate of change has accelerated recently, one review is unlikely, IMO, to ensure adequate adaptation to the very dynamic climate crisis: I suggest consideration be given to a rate-of-climate-change or other mechanism to automatically trigger further reviews in the future; 
• I wholeheartedly agree with embedding First Nations land management practices in further actions. 
  It should be kept in mind that not only did we develop sustainable practices, we did so several times over the tens of millennia we have been here, and thus have already accumulated experience at adapting to changes; 
• I have long advocated (in my former working environments and privately, but not to any official body) that buildings - especially residences - and social systems should be designed for a one week heat wave where temperatures vary between 30°C at night and 50°C during the day while experience interruptions to grid-based power supply, and design for cyclonic strength winds. 
  The point here is not to look at what is happening just a few years ahead, or assume that global measures to contain temperature rise will work (it is now likely that they won't), it is to look at what reasonably could be happening at the end of buildings' life spans - which should be 75 years for residences (shorter life spans are due to fads, and thus are environmentally destructive by generating GHG - even if materials are reused/recycled) and up to 200 years for major public buildings. 
  In doing so, it is also reasonable to note measures that could be developed - such as use of a paint which is exceptionally effective at radiating heat (the best article I could find on this was at https://www.science.org/content/article/cooling-paint-drops-temperature-any-surface, although the most recent article I read on using that sort of approach [which advocated using the paint across an entire roof, rather than just one small, isolatable section) was so amathiac and professionally incompetent that I wondered if it was a false flag article by people trying to sabotage adaptation to climate change), and generally ensure the possibility of installing new technology (allow access space, etc); 
• that measures to aid local governance also included measures to coordinate with adjoining local government bodies in other states, to optimise an approach that is best for all (which may necessitate some support/coordination at a federal level); 
• our building industry needs to be improved to the extent that double glazing and better temperature control (for both heating and cooling) throughout the entirety of residences is AUTOMATIC. 
  I am aware that, for instance, expanding foam is used to fill cavities in some buildings in Europe and UK, as well as using cheaper, traditional methods that provide a much thicker wall. 
  In Australia, I know of houses that have been built smaller for better inherent temperature management and to ensure adequate budget for climate and fire-risk management measures. 
  I know we also have fire risks that need to be considered, although the profit motive is why houses in urban areas mostly no longer have the eaves that they should - and I consider Australian houses should have eaves or verandas on east, north, and west sides (possibly with adaptations such as I've shown in an attached rough sketch). 
  These need to become standard - not dependent on owners' requests, especially as some owners may either be climate change denialists or consider it "doesn't matter" as they will be dead and the problems they are creating will be "somebody else's problem". 
  It must also be kept in mind that markets have shown, particularly over several decades of excessive privatisation driven by the now thoroughly discredited neoliberal ideology, that they CANNOT be trusted to act in the greater, long term interests of people, rather than profits and corporate rates of return. Mechanisms must be found that can effectively get businesses to take a broader view, even if that reduces their profits. Personally, I would like to change legislation governing corporations to compel consideration of climate crisis and other issues, but I know that will never happen; 
• That is a useful segue, however, into a point I wish to emphasise, which is that all these measures must be done in a way that is equitable, and maintains human rights and dignity. 
  That climate adaptation of houses risks making affordability worse is an obvious example, but other issues are maintaining small scale community connectedness - and i am quite confident that the experts in our government will be far more capable of identifying relevant issues, particularly with some community/expert/activists consultation, than I can - and I note the reports recommendations and findings include disadvantaged socioeconomic households; 
• Principles such a betterment and expanded Commonwealth eligibility for assistance (Recommendation 39) and associated insurance issues (Finding 48) are matters that I support; 
• The principle of engaging with younger people is not only about utilising their knowledge and giving them a voice: it is about acknowledging that we, their forebears, owe them a massive debt for the disaster that we have collectively created and are passing on to them; 
• Agriculture adaptation will be crucial, and I consider may well be the major cost we face. 

I look forward to the process of implementing this report's recommendations. 

 

And now to see what comes out of this ... 

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Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

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