From Thoreau to Thoreau

This morning, in my visit to my phenology journal, I ran across this about Henry David Thoureau:

"His [Thoreau's] records of flowering times at Walden Pond -- 160 years ago -- show us that spring now begins three weeks earlier than in his day." -- Emily Stone

This passage caused me to pull "The Winged Life: The Poetic Voice of Henry David Thoreau," by Robert Bly off my shelf.

Bly writes, "In 1859 he [Thoreau] began defending John Brown in his lectures. In October of that year he announced a lecture on John Brown at the Concord Town Hall. When the Republican Town Committee and the Abolitionists both advised against it, he replied to them, 'I did not send to you for advice, but to announce that I am to speak.' When the selectmen refused to ring the bell, he rang it himself." (pg. 143)

I'm confident today, given that atmospheric C02 levels are close to 410 ppm and the consequences thereof, Thoreau would support Deep Green Resistance and other so-called radical environmental organizations.

More Extreme Weather

It looks like I will be running a chainsaw for most of the day--thankfully I'm not delivering mail for the corporations today so I can help out friends and family. One of the biggest red pines on our place is now lying across our fence and driveway. Who knows what went down out in the forest. We've heard from a couple of neighbors that are facing similar types of situations. Why? Last evening more extreme weather descended down up on us. I just got off the phone with my dad and he said they recorded 85 mile an hour winds in our area. He said they were hurricane type winds.

Just another step in adapting to the extreme weather patterns of climate change

Close To A Foot Of Snow

There is close to a foot of snow on the ground here in northwestern Wisconsin, and it's still falling. I just got off the phone with my nearly eighty year old grandfather. He said that he's never seen anything like this in the seventy years that he can remember. He said that he has seen four inches on the 5th of May, and that has been gone by noon. He also holds the offices of Town Chairman and County Board Representative. In his twenty years of serving in those capacities he's only had to order the roads to be plowed once in the month of April. Today will be the fifth time since the beginning of April he's had them plowed.

Yesterday I visited with a neighbor who'd mentioned that the United States will be the world's biggest producer of oil in at least five years. He of course was talking about the fields they are currently fracking out in North Dakota. He said it in a calm and matter-of-fact tone. There was no mention by either of us of climate change.

A couple of weeks back my mother-in-law called to let us know that she'd recently watched a documentary that pointed out that with the recent oil discoveries we now have the ability to consume oil at our current rate for a couple of decades. They also predicted that in fifteen to twenty years the human species could become extinct because we will not have cut back on our consumption.

Our batting cage that we recently bought from a family near Minneapolis has collapsed under the weight of the snow. We've had it up for only a week or so. We've had a chance to hit balls in it three or four times. I would have taken the net down, but I never expected this much snow. I'll be going out in a few minutes to start digging the wreckage out from underneath the snow.

The overall feeling in the house this morning is sadness. Personally, I'm pissed and sad that our cage is laying ruined and flat on the ground. But there is much deeper grief that has set in. Why? It's been said for at least a couple of decades now that if we continue to emit the amount of carbon dioxide that we have been into the atmosphere we're going to experience more extreme weather patterns. We've been warned about it, we didn't do anything about it, and now we're in it. I can only imagine what it will be like in ten years,

Al Gore and Congress

I just recieved this E-Postcard from Al Gore requesting that people who are concerned about global warming take 30 seconds and sign the card, then pass it on to others that you know.

What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire

This film looks like it is going to be one of the best I've watched in a long time. You can watch the trailers HERE.

VisionQuest Pictures presents a Storkboy Film WHAT A WAY TO GO LIFE AT THE END OF EMPIREA middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the American Lifestyle.

What is it doing to us as thoughtful human beings as we face the overwhelming challenges of:

• Dwindling fossil fuel reserves?
• Critically degraded ecosystems?
• A changing climate?
• An exploding global population?
• Teetering global economies?
• An unstable political climate?
• And what is it doing to the rest of the life on this planet?

Featuring interviews with Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen, Jerry Mander, Chellis Glendinning, Richard Heinberg, Thomas Berry, William Catton, Ran Prieur and Richard Manning, What a Way to Go will look at the current global situation and ask the most important questions of all:

• How did we get here?
• Why do we keep destroying the planet? and
• What do we truly want?
• Can we find a vision that will empower us to do what is necessary to survive, and even thrive, in the coming decades?