September 2017 Climate for Change Volume 12 Issue 9

Capitalizing on the familiarity and influence of Thomas Paine s Common Sense pamphlets that provided American colonists with exposure to the conversation of great thinkers in the pre-revolutionary period, this paper assumes the name COMMON SENSE II. Similarly, today s series of pamphlets strives to give a direct response to great political events and ideas of our time. September 2017 Climate for Change Volume 12 Issue 9 Extreme Storms Explained By Eric Grimsrud Those who acknowledge that we re in the throes of climate change and deniers alike have noted the increased number and intensity of storms and other weather events and wonder why. Since I am an atmospheric chemist, I can explain why global warming will lead to more severe storms. In a nutshell it is this: There is one molecule in the atmosphere that can carry energy from one location to another. That molecule is water. Its gaseous form, called water vapor, is made by the evaporation of liquid water, and that takes energy. So if a certain location is relatively warm, the production of water vapor from the liquid form will be enhanced. As that air mass then moves to a cooler area, that vapor might then condense (go back to the liquid state). That process releases energy and thereby provides energy to wherever that air mass has moved. Water is the only major component of the atmosphere that does this. Nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and even carbon dioxide do not ever condense under ambient conditions and therefore do not carry energy by the means that water does: evaporation followed by condensation. By this means water will make extreme weather events more violent. While it might not start more of those weather events, it will add a lot of energy to them wherever they are occurring. All of this is due to the unique condensation of water vapor. It s simple and assured to occur. Warmer atmosphere means more water vapor which in turn means more energy is delivered to storms. The Environment By Bob Passi The environment it s the place in which life takes place. There are several versions of it to consider: the social environment, the political environment, the historical environment, the economic environment, and the natural environment, just to name some. The important thing about environments is what they support and how they function for the people living in them. Healthy environments support healthy growth and development for the people living in them. Environments also require reciprocity. In order to keep an environment healthy and supportive, individuals and societies have to support and maintain those environments. It is about balance and finding ways to function in tandem. At this time we have environmental issues on many fronts. Many of those issues border on existential threats. First there are the existential threats to the natural environment which are being pushed by human actions toward a place that will no longer be able to support many kinds of life, including human. The second is the threat on democracy which will spell the end of any hope for a humanized society. These threats must be resolved in tandem if there is any hope of a solution. The problem, we all know, is a government dominated by the neoliberal economic model of unfettered, free-market capitalism. The result is a heartless and inhumane market morality which will be our destruction. The key is to unify under the rubric of Democracy, which will demonstrate our overwhelming numbers. The only solution to accomplish this is to pour our energy and resources into actions and organizations outside of the present system and all unified by their insistence on a system based on sustainable democratic rule. The present system, ruled by a small economic elite, cannot function, nor do anything meaningful, without our support. Without that support that system will become empty and crumble. It is important to understand that we do not need the government to pass a law to give us permission to save the planet, or democracy, or ourselves. 1

Solita, Daughter of the Sun, Visits the Earth A Fable for Our Time By Vicki Andrews The Sun was worried. He looked down on the beautiful Planet Earth, the loveliest of the planets in his solar system. It was just the right size, just the right temperature and had developed throughout the years to have intelligent life in abundance. Yes, there had been some problems over the years with occasional floods, droughts, and famines, as well as too much hatred fighting, but overall he was proud of this planet. Now he was concerned: the planet seemed to be heating up, and it was happening much too quickly. At first he wondered if it was his fault, if he had a fever and was producing more heat than usual, but he checked his temperature, and it seemed normal. No, that can t be it, he thought. Something must be happening on the Earth that was causing it to overheat. He called to his daughter Solita and asked if she would consider taking a trip to Planet Earth to check things out. Yes, my father, said Solita, I would be happy to journey to the Earth for you. I know how much you love this special planet, and I have always loved it too. I will try to learn what is happening and see what can be done. Solita journeyed to the Earth and spent some time flying above it to see what she could find out. She saw that the Earth was growing warmer and that parts of it were looking seriously ill. The ice at the North and South Poles was melting quickly, icebergs were disappearing, and water was rising along the coasts. She saw that there were many large gaping holes in the Earth that hadn t been there before and large machines were digging them wider and deeper. She saw that many trees had been cut down or burned to make way for mining operations or for cattle ranching. She noticed so many cars, trucks, and factories spewing noxious exhaust into the atmosphere and saw very few people out enjoying the lovely sunlight her father was providing. How could she learn more? She decided to ask some of the people on the planet what was happening. Solita sat sown on a park bench in a large city. Most of the people she saw were hurrying by and didn t respond to her requests for information. One young man did stop and asked if he could help. Solita told him she was seeking information on why the Earth was heating up and wondered if he knew the answer. I understand that there is something called climate change that is causing the Earth s temperature to rise, he replied. I don t know a lot about it, but I hear there is a conference of scientists in the city. They are talking about the problem and what can be done about it. Perhaps you can sit in and listen to what they are learning. He showed her where the conference was being held. Solita though it may be best if she became invisible and listened in without disrupting the discussion. She learned that this was a most serious problem, indeed. Apparently, the temperature was rising at an alarming rate due to the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas. Many animal species were on the verge of extinction; the icebergs and ice sheets at both poles were melting; rainforests were being destroyed; and there were droughts, flooding, and famine in many parts of the world due to the increase in heat. The coral reefs in the oceans were dying, which was leading to the massive die-off of fish needed by many people and animals of the Earth to survive. The problems were getting worse and worse, and the scientists were very worried. Solita learned that the cause of this heating up of the Earth was primarily the use of fossil fuel by the people of the Earth. Solita left the meeting of scientists and traveled around the country. She saw a group of people gathered to talk about attempts by scientists and others to get them to stop using so much fossil fuel. We need fossil fuel to run our country, they said. We need gas, oil, and coal to create power to run our businesses, to heat and cool our homes, to cook our food, and to travel from one end of the world to the other. Many of us make our living from producing, transporting, and selling these fuels. What else are we to do? Do they want us to go back to the Stone Age and live in caves? Solita traveled the country and stopped to listen to a group of indigenous people who were gathered to protest the oil pipelines that were endangering their lands and water. They spoke of the beauty of the Earth and the sacred water that everyone needed for life. They spoke of the Black Snake (oil) and the Giant Octopus (pipelines) and how they and the humans working with them were destroying the Earth. Solita then traveled deep into the Earth and found the Black Snake and the Giant Octopus that the snake traveled through. She learned they had been working together, forced by the humans who said they were needed to power the Earth. Solita shared the stories she had heard of the damage that they had caused. She told them of the extinctions, the floods, the famines, the poisoning of the air and water. The Black Snake said, Dear Solita, we had no idea. I was so happy sleeping in the Earth. I ve been slumbering there since the dinosaurs died and were buried. Those are my beloved ancestors. The humans called us forth and forced us out of the depths of the Earth with giant machines, with explosives, with torrents of water. We couldn t stop them. We thought we were helping them, not harming them. We have no desire to harm people or other creatures of the Earth. We believe we are all 2

(Continued from page 2) one, and we need to live together in peace. Solita traveled back to the surface of the Earth and spent many days talking to other people around the Earth. She talked with groups who were protesting the use of fossil fuels and with people who were developing other sources of power such as solar, wind, and hydro. She talked with parents who were worried about the future of the world their children would inherit; she talked to children who were afraid of what the Earth would be like when they grew up. She spoke with a group of people who worked extracting and refining the fossil fuels. She told them of her journeys, of the concerns of the scientists and the indigenous people. She told them of her talks with the Black Snake and the Giant Octopus. Many of them had been worrying about the effects of the work they were doing on the health and safety of their planet but were afraid to speak up and risk losing their jobs. What can we do, Solita? they cried. How can we have the power we need to run our homes, our stores, and our businesses, if we don t bring the fossil fuels from the ground and use the power it can produce? How will we feed our families if we don t work to bring the oil out of the ground? Is there another way? My friends, said Solita, there is another way. My father, the Sun, has so much extra energy that he can give you for free. My dear aunt, the Wind, has lots of extra energy as does my uncle, the Water. Between the three of them, they can provide all the power you need. All you have to do is build and maintain the solar panels, the wind farms, and the hydro power turbines that will produce electricity for your use. It will all be free and will last for all time. The fossil fuels can remain slumbering peacefully in the Earth. All the power the Earth needs can be found in the sun, the wind, and the water; those sources will never run out. You can turn the Earth from a planet suffering from dangerous overheating back to a healthy, green planet. The people were glad to learn there was a solution, and they agreed to begin work immediately. They had been worried about the future of their home planet but had not been aware of the other possibilities. Now, my dear friends, said Solita, you must join together and take this message to the powerful people who employ you, to the powerful people who run the country, who run the world. Tell them all the money in the world, all the power in the world will mean nothing if this beautiful planet is no longer able to support life. Now is the time for action; now is the time for all of you to work together. If you are united and work together, you cannot lose. The people thanked Solita for her words of wisdom and inspiration. They joined together and went to the powerful people with Solita s message. Because they were united and spoke with one voice, the people in power did listen to them and agreed to work for the changes needed. The Earth became a healthy planet again, and all of the people and other living beings were very happy. The Black Snake and the Giant Octopus slumbered peacefully deep within the Earth. Solita returned to her home in the sky. She and her father, the Sun, looked down upon the Earth and saw that the people were making use of the power from the sun, the wind, and the water, and that the lovely Planet Earth was growing healthier and more beautiful each day. You have done well my dear daughter, said the Sun. I am so very proud of you. CALENDAR OF EVENTS GET INVOLVED AND GET IT DONE! Event Date /Time Location DFL Headquarters Open (326-6296) Tues & Thurs 2-5 pm DFL Headquarters Itasca Progressive Caucus (259-4490) 3rd Monday 6:30 pm DFL Headquarters DFL Central Committee Meets 4th Monday 6:30 pm DFL Headquarters DFL Social Club & Lunch 1st Wednesday Noon DFL Headquarters DFL Pot Luck (Open to the Public) 3rd Wednesday 5:30 pm DFL Headquarters Committee Against Corporate Power TBA DFL Headquarters Earth Circle 3rd Saturday 2:00 pm GR Public Library End of Life Options (326-8899) TBA DFL Headquarters Deadline for Common Sense II October 6, 2017 conray@arvig.net 3

The Environment for All Healthcare? By Barb Anderson We live in the environment. It gives us the ability to feed ourselves with good food and clean water. The environment has given us the materials to build homes. There is much beauty for us to be in awe of what is around us. This all sounds simple and is something you know. But just think how tough it would be without the natural food like the berries we love and the ability of the soil to help produce so much of what we eat. We take so much for granted. When we go to the supermarket and buy whatever we want, do we think how it is grown and why it is important to us, or are we just hungry? Earlier in human history, our ancestors could only get protection from weather or other problems with a safe place to sleep, eat, and visit from the materials found around them on the forest floors and the trees on the land. The trees were the fuel for heat, cooking, cleaning. Trees, a renewable but not entirely clean energy source, were largely replaced by fossil fuels, which are neither clean nor renewable. Fossil fuels made life easier and quicker than in the past; energy was just there by paying for it. That was a lot easier than cutting down a tree, chopping it up, and bringing it into the house one armload at a time. But we are paying for that fossil fuel and its convenience. The effect of burning it is giving us health problems. Not only are humans harmed, but with the pressure of large populations the Earth itself is also being harmed. Global warming is the symptom of the deteriorating health of the planet as well as of each of us. This doesn t have to be. We have the ability to use renewable, clean fuels. We can use the sun and the wind to heat and cool our homes and to run our appliances and to power our vehicles. What is so appealing about the use of renewable fuel is they don t threaten our planet or ourselves. Jobs become the argument for keeping the fossil fuel industries in business. Think about the building of wind mills and solar panels. They have generated a whole new technology that comes in all sizes and can be installed closer to where the energy is needed, eliminating the need for dangerous pipelines, for example. The technological development and construction of the wind mills and solar panels are creating more and better jobs than those in the dying fossil fuel industry. PROFIT! As cynical as it is, that s what we look for and listen to in this world, NOT THE HEALTH OF THE EARTH AND OUR- SELVES!! Which is more important: our health or profit? As creative as we humans are, I am sure that more ways of using the sun and wind will be developed as it becomes more financially profitable. Once we take the leap of faith to pursue clean energy, profit and health will come. We need to take that leap before it s too late. Penny Poll at the Fair For the sixth year in a row, the Itasca Progressive Caucus featured a Penny Poll at the Itasca County Fair. This year we returned to our original question, How would you like your tax dollars spent? after asking What worries you the most? in 2016. Participants were given ten pennies to place in the labeled jars that represented how they would like their tax dollars spent and/or what issues matter most to them. This is definitely not a scientific poll, just a way to get people thinking about issues and begin some discussions. This year 210 people took the poll, a record low. Last year was our record high when 506 people participated. People of all ages were encouraged to take the poll and were encouraged to take it only once a day. The results for 2017 are (drum roll, please): Healthcare for All: 536 Safe and Secure Infrastructure: 450 Renewable Energy: 386 World Peace: 393 End of Poverty: 330 Total: 2095 Throughout the history of the poll, when Healthcare for All has been one of the choices, it has come in first. End Poverty and Renewable Energy or Climate Change have placed consistently high as well. COMMON SENSE II is published by the Itasca Progressive Caucus in Grand Rapids, Minnesota Editor: Valeri Conner conray@arvig.net ITASCA PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS Chair: Valerie Conner conray@arvig.net Assoc. Chair: Jeanne Newstrom jealeone@yahoo.com Visit us at www.itascaprogressive.org 4

Democracy Convention 2017 By Vicki Andrews I had planned to attend the Democracy Convention in Minneapolis since I first learned several months ago that it would be held there in early August. Circumstances prevented me from attending, but I have summarized a review of an article called Democracy Convention: A Call to Transform Our Political System by Bruce Berlin, which appeared in the Huffington Post on August 13, 2017. The convention, attended by over 400 people from around the country, covered a variety of concerns, including racial justice, immigration, health and education, money in politics, environmental protection, peace, and economic equity. Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, National Director of Move to Amend, proclaimed that the moral argument for overturning the Supreme Court s Citizens United decision is what will bring people together to demand a 28 th Amendment that states that money is not speech and corporations are not people. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI), the first vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, declared that we need to fix our democracy by: 1) enacting a Constitutional Right to Vote Amendment and related laws to protect the integrity of our elections, and 2) eliminating Big Money from the election process. He also called for a People s Budget that would prioritize the needs of the American people and cut out corporate hand-outs and tax loopholes. It all sounds good, but how do we move it forward? One idea that attracted a lot of attention was presented by Nick Brana, former national political outreach coordinator for the Sanders for President campaign and a founding member of Our Revolution, calling for a new progressive party. He noted that many Americans are disillusioned and deserting the two major parties to become independents. He believes that a viable progressive third party could be formed by bringing together half of the independents, half of the Democrats, some Republicans, and many Americans who previously have refused to participate in our elections. He believes that the Democratic Party has no incentive to change without the challenge of a third party. Brana and Harvard Professor Cornel West are convening the People s Convergence Conference (www.convergence2017.org) in Washington on September 8-10 to examine the way forward for the progressive movement. They have invited Senator Sanders to attend a Draft Bernie Town Hall at the conference. By the time this issue of Common Sense II goes out, the Convergence Conference will be over, but the movement and the mission will continue. Berlin concludes with The American people have lost faith in the ability of our Establishment institutions to work for them. The Democracy Convention provided hope that together we can transform our political system and save our democracy. activities that harm the climate and those donors are pretending nothing is wrong. At some level Ghosts or Not? By Valerie Conner The graphic in the article about our penny poll at the fair says, Your Opinion Matters! That s only partially true. It matters when the issue is something over which you have some control. I liken it to the scene in Lord of the Flies where the boys, not really grasping the concept of democracy, vote on whether ghosts exist or not. So, if ghosts do exist and they vote no, ghosts suddenly will cease to exist? The science deniers who reject the evidence of climate change are like those boys; they think their opinion about climate change will make a difference in its reality. It won t. On the other hand, what their opinion inspires them to do or fail to do does matter. By denying what is obvious to any cogent person, they inhibit our ability to mitigate the dire effects of climate change. Personally, i.e. in my opinion, except for those who buy into the denial of the obvious because talk radio convinces them, there are few true deniers of climate change. The members of Congress and others in influential positions who purport that the climate is not really changing irreparably or if it is, it s not due to human activity state that position not out of true conviction but rather because of money. Those who want to get reelected and get large campaign donations from people and corporations relying on continuing of consciousness, they have to know better. They just prefer to put the whole planet in jeopardy for short term profit. In the end, it doesn t matter if the climate is changing because of human activity or not. What matters is if we can do something to stall climate change, we should. Erring on the side of caution is reasonable. Foolishly voting ghosts out of existence is not. 5