Greenseniors

Green Hero...Floyd Sherburne

By now you know that Green Seniors champions a wide variety of people through its series on Green Heroes.  Floyd Sherburne, age 98, came to our attention through an article in a local American newspaper (Des Moines Register, December 9, 2007) describing the amazing life he had led for the past three decades. 

Until retirement at age 65  in 1974, Floyd’s life seems to have been like many others.  He married, raised a family, and worked hard to achieve a small savings.  Then he dropped a bombshell on his adult children:  he was going to buy an old farm acreage in a wooded area, build a house from the ground up with his own hands, and live off the land. And he  did just that—and lived there with his wife Florence for 31 happy years.  That may not seem like a very unusual story, until you know some of the details.      

It took nearly all Floyd’s savings to buy the land.  He tore down some old farm outbuildings on his property and used the wood from the two barns to build his home. He hauled native rock in buckets up to the homesite for the massive fireplace he would build to heat both levels of the 3,500 square foot home.  He salvaged shingles and nails from old buildings, and he bought the windows and doors at a closeout sale—including five picture windows for viewing the wildlife that would come to the bird feeders, bird baths, and the salt lick he provided. 

The wild turkeys and deer had nothing to fear, for Floyd did not hunt.  Rather, he and Florence kept a huge garden that provided most of their sustenance, even grinding grain for flour.  They planted an orchard and gathered berries and nuts.  Their vegan diet was a personal choice they made, stemming from a love of nature and a deep religious faith.

As decades passed, they continued their regular walks in the woods and growing their garden, even as they had to start supplementing their wood fireplace with electric heat.  After suffering a broken shoulder, Floyd was not able to haul enough wood.  They continued on, however, even when Florence became frail and needed a walker, and Floyd became blind from macular degeneration.

Eventually the passing of years forced Floyd and Florence to leave their beloved home in the woods.  In  2007, Florence, now aged  97, needed care in a nursing home.  Floyd moved with her to remain at her side.  She lived on for only about a month.  A widower at 98, Floyd sold his land and home at a bargain price to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and now lives with a daughter in another state.   His land became part of the state park which adjoined it, and his home will become a vacation lodge for park visitors.

 

Many families will benefit from Floyd and Florence’s work for years to come.  His daughter says she will bring Floyd back, as a lodge guest in his former home, in May 2009 when the family gathers to celebrate Floyd’s 100th birthday in the park. 

Floyd, you don’t know you are a Green Hero, but on behalf of all Green Seniors, we send you our admiration for a life well lived, and for a happy 99th birthday this month.

 

Why Should I Care?

Green Seniors has always prided itself in providing materials for people who want to carry out communication work either as part of a group or individually. For this purpose we have now developed an ongoing catalog of these materials as a single page on this web site. You can find this link on the left hand navigation bar as "Downloads and Other Resources".

The latest resource is a new poster we created in response to a reader's request for something she could use in a community hall. Essentially she wanted to know how to answer the simple question, "Why should I care?" This is something we suspect the majority of people -- unlike most of you reading this -- ask themselves whenever they are told they should reduce the amount they drive, buy, use electricity, heat their home and so on.

So why should people care about the future of the planet?

The poster, which you can download as an Adobe PDF file here, points out some of the key reasons, ranging from the scientific to the philosophical:

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Because…

…the climate is changing and humans are the major cause

…animal and plant extinctions are happening faster than at any time in history

…every bucket of seawater contains plastic

…every person contains chemical residues

…the arctic ocean will be ice free in less than a decade

…we have placed our grandchildren in jeopardy

…we have been lured into thinking unsustainable economic growth makes people happier

…we are losing our connection with community, family and everything around us

…we have forgotten that we are part of nature

…we have a choice!

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We think it will have an effect on a great many people.

Please print out the poster and place it wherever you think it might make a difference.

Green Networks...Slow Food Movement

When the Happy Meals are eaten, are you left with anything but a collection of cardboard boxes and cheap, plastic toys? What about the textures, the colors, the aroma and wonderful taste of what you have eaten? What about the knowledge that the food was cooked with love and pride; that it was assembled with regard for the growers and the environment; that it was not thrown together in a hurry, but created over time so that the outcome would be more than just a collection of bland items, but an experience?

The Slow Food Movement exists to achieve all of these. Formed in 1986 in the small Italian town of Bra, this originally small group of producers and enjoyers of food has grown into an international organization consisting of 850 conviva, or chapters – each working in a specific geographical area. The philosophy of the movement is simple:

We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy – a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process.

The recognition of each individual not as a consumer, but as a co-producer is probably the most important factor that makes Slow Food different from all other philosophies, whether gastronomic, environmental or both. The term “consumer” is an invention of the industrial world: it defines people as economic units rather than individuals, thus taking away our basic right to self-determination – we are allowed to exist within the limits of an economic consumer system rather than the limits of our imagination.

This is expressed beautifully by one person, who states: “Being a Slow Food member is a self-fulfilling prophecy because as the saying goes, if ‘We are what we eat’, who wants to be fast, cheap and easy!” In those terms, Slow Food is most definitely a revolution in the way we look at both the food we eat, the also who we are.

There is a huge amount of information available on the web site, including a 46 page “Slow Food Companion”, the ideal starting point for everyone new to the concept. In keeping with Green Seniors’ global ideals, the Companion is available in seven languages, and will, no doubt be translated further as the movement grows:

Dutch: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_DUT.pdf
English: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_ENG.pdf
French: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_FRA.pdf
German: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_DE.pdf
Japanese: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_JAP.pdf
Portuguese: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_POR.pdf
Spanish: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/img_sito/pdf/Companion_ESP.pdf

We can also, almost guarantee that there is a Slow Food Conviva near to you. You can look up the details at http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/where.lasso. And even if you don’t want to formally join the movement, there is nothing stopping you embracing its philosophy: for many of you reading this, slow food is what you have known for most of your lives.

How To...Organize Marches And Rallies

Have you ever taken part in a street demonstration of any kind?  Few of us have.  Perhaps when you were much younger, you watched the civil rights marches or peace demonstrations of past decades on TV and wished you were out there too.  Will you ever find yourself taking part in a march or rally for the environment, or even organizing one?

The Role of Marches and Rallies in Communities and Nations

Although symbolic, marches and rallies are a first step in changing behavior and cultural values that can help the nations of the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the degree necessary to avoid the worst consequences of global warming.  The need to publicize issues surrounding global warming and environmental degradation is only going to grow. 

Last year in the United States, Step It Up rallies around the nation told Congress “Reduce carbon 80 percent by 2050.”  The idea was to achieve publicity and raise awareness. At the community level, rallies may show support for local sustainable energy industries and/or objection to new coal power plants or other local proposals that only increase greenhouse gas emissions. 

As the focus moves from awareness of global warming to changes that actually reduce carbon emissions, you can be sure that vested interests will fight tooth and nail to stop them.  The entire community must serve as watchdog and referee, and that includes you and me.  There will be times when the direct actions available to citizens in free societies are needed to counter “the powers that be” and the status quo.   

Until the movement of carbon through a series of interlinked industrial, farming, and cultural practices is better understood, we’ll be playing “whack-a-mole.”  Bash carbon emissions down in one place and they pop up someplace else.  People will try to continue business as usual for themselves and their livelihoods and let some other group bear the burden of rapidly reducing emissions.   When Governor Bill Richardson was running for president of the United States, I heard him use the “S” word – sacrifice.  This is rare to hear from public figures.  Global warming means sacrifice is inevitable.   If everyone bears their share, it need not spoil the joy of living life.  In fact, examining what truly makes us happy could increase our satisfaction in life. 

Can Rallies and Marches Change Anything?

In recent years, marches, rallies, and strong direct action in concert have shown that people of the world can still change government and corporate policies dramatically.  For example, following World Bank advice, in 1999 Bolivia granted a 40 year privatization lease to a subsidiary of the Bechtel Corporation, giving it control over the water on which more than half a million people survive.  The justification was to bring in foreign capital to build a modern water system for the area.  Immediately the company doubled and tripled water rates for some of South America's poorest families.  People were denied access to all sources of water by the government lease, including being denied the right to collect rainwater, and yet they could not afford to buy it without going hungry.  In 2000, protests became widespread and eventually the Bolivian government ended its deal with Bechtel.  Development of the region’s water system was placed in the hands of local people.   

Starting in 2004, demonstrations took place at Coca-Cola bottling plants throughout India.  It takes nine liters of drinking quality water to make one liter of Coke.  Coca-Cola, like many other multinationals, locates large deep aquifers where it wishes to expand business, buys the land, builds its factory, and begins pumping out the water.  The water table falls and local wells supplying the population dry up.  Following massive global pressure and the constant presence of the locals at the plants, Coca-Cola is now scaling back its extraction.  Unfortunately, this kind of predation upon local water supplies is widespread.

These examples may seem far-fetched in developed nations, but as water sources diminish and the demand for water as a commodity rises, people in these nations too are going to find their water being sold out from under them.  Irrigated crops? Mining operations?  Ethanol plants? Water resources are being over committed, often by well-meaning local authorities trying to bring more jobs and financial prosperity to their residents. 

“Water Wars” will be the immediate crises that come from the combined effects of unrestrained development, water sources being sold to the highest bidder, and climate change.  Where only a small portion of the US population joined the Step It Up rallies for a goal involving the year 2050, everyone who loses access to an essential for life will not hesitate to take to the streets and demand change.  Better we should rally BEFORE the situation deteriorates to that degree.

Green Seniors, the time has come for you to be aware of using marches and rallies as a tool for change.  It belongs in the toolkit for environmental action.

New Handbook for Community Marches and Rallies

The Step It Up team has written a book “Fight Global Warming Now—The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community” (Holt Paperbacks, 2007 by Bill McKibben), which puts their experiences and lessons learned on paper to assist others in organizing rallies and fighting global warming. You can buy this book, but check your local public library first.

Below are some of the book’s key points.  Keep in mind that these points were developed for symbolic actions.  If your water is gone tomorrow and you know who took it, you will not need a handbook to tell you what to do.

* Take action. Do something. Get together with whomever you can and brainstorm. …Plan it, do it, learn from it, repeat.

* Don’t fret about structure.  Far more than we need new organizations, we need nimble, relevant, strategic, and often temporary groups of people who can come together to do what needs to be done at the moment….

* Emphasize openness.  Let people know what you’re up to, invite them in to help, make them leaders. Figure out what you can work together on, not what divides you.

* Have fun.  The best antidote for fear and powerlessness is joy.  If you need to have meetings, make them fun…if you can.  Joy should not be postponed until after we have conquered global warming; it’s precisely the fuel that will keep your passion burning for the long run.

Although “have fun” sounds trite to us at Green Seniors, we take it in the sense that pessimistic and unpleasant people rarely succeed in rallying the troops.  We would prefer the term “inspire,” for to unite people with purpose and meaning is a path to success.  The “S” word doesn’t scare us.  We seniors, especially the elders in our number, have experienced sacrifice and do not consider what passes for “sacrifice” today as doing justice to the concept. 

In Conclusion

Many more of us need to organize rallies and marches or other, more direct, actions on behalf of ourselves and the environment we depend upon for our survival; or to assist others in our communities in doing so.

The on-line technique used by Step It Up made it easy to set up local actions coordinated in a national framework.  However, there is no need to wait on a national group to launch a local rally.  The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community gives tips on how to organize with little time and less money.   However, just by thinking it through, you can figure out how to take effective action on your own.  People of every age are continuing to build the movement.

Green Hero...Robert Lane

A few months ago, we featured a small group working out of Hamden, Connecticut, called GrayisGreen. Based in the Whitney Center, a retirement community, GrayisGreen initially set out to make the Whitney Center a model for other communities in the USA, and around the world. From small acorns can sometimes, with the correct soil, weather conditions and careful nurturing, grow mighty oaks. Indeed, there has clearly been plenty of that around, for GrayisGreen is now spearheading the rolling out of standards for environmental management to any community that wants to be greener, as well as having even bigger plans in the pipeline (more later).

Responsible for a great deal of that careful nurturing is Robert Lane. At a mere(!) 90 years old, Robert continues to drive his environmental work forwards, just as he has driven himself all of his long and illustrious life.

Robert Lane was born August 19, 1917, the son of a school principal and a college professor. He received both batchelors degree and doctorate from Harvard before serving in the military between 1942 and 1946. For the next 40 years he taught political science at Yale, during which he was also the recipient of numerous fellowships from Cambridge University and the London School of Economics among others. He is a prolific author, having penned 75 articles and ten books including the highly influential The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies.

We asked Robert a few questions related to his work:

Do you think Retirement Communities are able to retain the real sense of community that has been lost in most of the industrial West? 

“Not usually, because people enter these communities with the mindsets and values of the individualistic (and materialist) society that nurtured them. But, like the utopias that have dotted the landscape of history, I think those in faith-based retirement communities are more likely to create genuine community feeling.”

How much environmental anger and frustration is pent up in the people you speak to, and do you think this can be usefully turned into something that can change society as a whole?

“This is America. There is very little environmental anger and frustration to work with. I hope we can develop some anger and frustration as our movement matures.”

Can you tell us a little more about your plans for the future?

“The short future ahead will firstly be filled with finishing writing a book on the need to revise the Enlightenment view of human nature as autonomous, rational, materialistic, and primarily self-interested. Behavioral and especially neurological evidence daily falsifies that view of humankind. With a better understanding of human nature, we can make markets and democracies work more benignly.

“Secondly, the senior conservation movement I have been working on will be given a great boost by incorporation, tax-exemption, and an infusion of funds to create educational materials for seniors, stimulate the growth of senior green committees, arouse their interest, and make our website title (www.grayisgreen.org) come true.”

On March 7, 2008 Robert learned that his nascent National Senior Conservation Corps had been incorporated. Green Seniors are very excited with this news, as it marks another major step in the involvement of seniors in our environmental future. For this, and his unstinting efforts in trying to make the world a better place, Robert is undoubtedly a Green Hero.

Green Seniors Bulletins Online

Since February 2007, Green Seniors have been sending out monthly e-mail bulletins to subscribers to keep them up to date with our goings on, as well as other bits of news and thoughts that we think our readers would be interested in.

We have made these bulletins available online, in Microsoft Word format, so that you keep them and read them at your leisure. This page will be kept up to date with the latest editions, but subcribers will always get them first.

If you want to subscribe, then click on this link.

List of Bulletins to Date

Download BulletinEdition1.doc (41.5K) : February 2007

Download BulletinEdition2.doc (34.5K) : March 2007

Download BulletinEdition3.doc (31.5K) : April 2007

Download BulletinEdition4.doc (31.0K) : May 2007

Download BulletinEdition5.doc (30.5K) : June 2007

Download BulletinEdition6.doc (34.5K) : July 2007

Download BulletinEdition7.doc (37.5K) : August 2007

Download BulletinEdition8.doc (32.5K) : September 2007

Download BulletinEdition9.doc (35.0K) : October 2007

Download BulletinEdition10.doc (31.5K) : November 2007

Download BulletinEdition11.doc (33.5K) : December 2007

Download BulletinEdition12.doc (30.0K) : January 2008

Download BulletinEdition13.doc (31.5K) : February 2008

Download BulletinEdition14.doc (37.0K) : March 2008

Download BulletinEdition15.doc (37.0K) : April 2008

Download BulletinEdition16.doc (37.0K) : May 2008

Green Networks...NorthWest Earth Institute

Are you looking for going-green educational resources (in English) for your  organization or workplace?  Northwest Earth Institute is all about "inspiring people to take responsibility for Earth."  Their web site has been added to the Green Seniors networks list:

http://www.nwei.org 

For 14 years, this not-for-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon has been developing self-facilitated discussion group courses that now include seven topics:

--Voluntary Simplicity               

--Exploring Deep Ecology

--Discovering a Sense of Place 

--Choices for Sustainable Living

--Globalization and Its Critics   

--Healthy Children-Healthy Planet

and the newest course topic:

--Global Warming: Changing CO2urse

The grassroots discussion groups that form and use NWEI course materials have helped educate over 80,000 people, and thousands already have taken part in the newest course. If you are interested in starting a discussion group go to the NWEI website given above.

Each discussion course has a booklet that each participant should have.  Green Seniors reviewed the Voluntary Simplicity course booklet and found it thought provoking, appealing, and comprehensive.  Content is divided into eight meeting sessions, each with interesting readings and discussion guidance.  There are guidelines for the weekly facilitator, learning goals, and an evaluation form.  It is easy to see how the discussion group can function without an "expert" leading it.  Group sizes between seven and 12 participants are recommended.

GreenGranny says, "Based on this example of a discussion group booklet, I feel the program has broad appeal to people from all walks of life.  The selected readings are appropriately chosen and effectively woven into an educational program designed to bring about personal change."

Booklets are sold at cost, which is $18 each--comparable to other books of this length and substance.  Seniors wishing to organize discussion groups should check for sponsorship such as from a church or workplace, so that individuals need not bear all the burden of this, the only cost involved.

In developing discussion courses, NWEI depends on volunteers to survey the literature and create the framework, and it partners with other organizations willing to promote the formation of new discussion groups. In this way a regional organization with a very small staff has been able to pursue its mission throughout North America, including Canada.  In addition, English-speaking courses occurred during the past year or are currently underway in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and Puerto Rico.

The following example taken off the NWEI web page shows how education can bring about change:

Several years ago, employees at a Portland architectural firm took a number of NWEI courses during noontime meetings. Shortly thereafter, a grassroots sustainability committee formed among the employees. Later, sustainability became a part of the firm’s business plan, with a commitment to fund both education and research and development. One principal of the firm, who has also served as CFO for 16 years, says, "We are really moving ahead. I can’t say enough about the positive momentum created by NWEI’s discussion courses. They were a major catalyst for us.”

It takes many kinds of actions and initiatives to change the world for the better, to protect the environment for future generations. The opportunities afforded by Northwest Earth Institute may be the form of involvement that you are searching for.

The Original Green Seniors AARP Article : In Full

Why The World Needs Green Seniors

Fireside chats don’t happen much these days, certainly not in the industrial world where heating is more likely to come from a radiator or an oil burner. There’s nothing quite like the heat that comes in random pulses from the flames rolling across a log or two in an open hearth, while outside the snow and hail play havoc with the power lines. Come to think of it, the snow doesn’t stay around so long these days either.

Like preserves or cakes, our entertainment and information are so much more likely to be shop bought and mass produced than made by our own hands nowadays. As billions of people take in pictures from their TV screens, accompanied by countless messages from “our sponsor”, fewer people talk, fewer people understand each other. We are losing contact with ourselves and those around us – and the consequences are dire. The sponsors who fill our front rooms with messages are selling us dreams that fill our lives for a brief instant – a new car, a holiday, a stylish set of patio furniture, a 16oz steak at a fancy restaurant – and then they are gone, just like the snow that’s melting before it reaches the ground.

Green Seniors (www.greenseniors.org) was born on a cold day; 1 December 2006, to be precise.  ‘Cold day’ may not be completely accurate; let us just say that in the places where Green Seniors was born - the USA and UK – it was cold. In other parts of the world it wasn’t so cold: Australia, Puerto Rico and Ethiopia, and it’s to these places that we need to travel first.

Green Seniors Around The World

Australia is the home of Grey Power Community, a sub-division of Greenpeace Australia, but very much an organisation in its own right. Grey Power concentrates on energy related emissions, a subject that is of huge importance in a country like Australia that generates a massive 80% of its electricity using coal. This compares to the USA with about 50% truly dirty electricity.  As with Green Seniors, Grey Power has no affiliations or financing from sources that could compromise its views or effectiveness.  When we came across Grey Power we were very happy to know that the Green Seniors Movement was already in operation.

We had a surprise contact from Puerto Rico in March 2007. A lady called Nelly, who provides exercise classes for seniors, wanted some “I’m A Green Senior” buttons to give out to her class, and also for a stall she was running at Puerto Rico’s annual Day Of The Planet. We duly dispatched a pack of buttons and, as far as we know, Nelly is still spreading the word.

With great enthusiasm, Zufan from Ethiopia contacted us in May, asking what he could do to help. Ethiopia is, in terms of financial wealth, a very poor nation, but clearly lacks nothing in terms of the human spirit and the desire to make things better. We have done our best to help Zufan, and he has assured us that Green Seniors will be known in the Horn of Africa.

The odd thing about running something like www.greenseniors.org is that we rarely get to know exactly what’s going on around the world unless someone tells us about it. We know, for instance, that there are many seniors in the USA educating others  about climate change and working to “green” their lifestyles, their communities, and beyond.   For example, retired ecologist Erv Klaas - whom we featured as a “Green Hero” - helped a midwestern town save a billion gallon reservoir for its emergency water supply. 

In the UK, senior activist Irene Willis – another “Green Hero” – is getting arrested in the name of world peace and environmental stability. It really does take all sorts to change the world for the better, and we raise our hats to all seniors, whatever their style of campaigning, who are doing something to ensure the future world is habitable. The more we know about their efforts, the more we can publicise them, to the benefit of both the Green Seniors Movement and the planet.

Green Seniors : The Web Site, The Organisation And The Movement

At this point, it’s worth making the distinction between Green Seniors, the web site cum organisation, and the Green Seniors Movement. It was the Green Seniors web site that officially launched in 2006, along with the organisation that is headed up by Joyce Emery from the USA and Keith Farnish from the UK. That is just one, albeit – we like to think – vital, part of the jigsaw. The Green Seniors Movement, on the other hand, is something that we are trying to ensure becomes a truly global movement for positive change.  One reason Green Seniors, the organisation, does not have formal members, is that we believe seniors should chose their affiliations according to their beliefs and circumstances. We have very limited resources but are able to maintain the site according to its purpose.  The Green Seniors web site is a ‘stopping off point’ for people of all ages to “find information, join networks, build communities, make a difference.” 

In July 2007 the Green Seniors Movement received a welcome boost by gaining the formal endorsement of the United Nations Environmental Programme. This provides  credibility for both the movement and the organisation at a time when urgent environmental action is needed. 

Urgent Action Is Needed

Climate change is something that has to be acted on immediately and dramatically. It is necessary to recognize when businesses embrace “green” ideas superficially,  using the public’s concern for climate change only to increase profits.  Some organisations are actively seeking to derail climate change prevention efforts. 

As this is being written, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is predicting that “at best” the global temperature will rise by 1.8°C (3.25°F) by the end of the 21st Century. At worst, this rise could be around 6°C. The way the industrial, consumer world is moving, we are looking at a minimum 4°C rise.  Many scientists estimate that serious feedback effects, such as the world’s soils ‘exhaling’ carbon dioxide rather than absorbing it, could begin at only a 2°C rise - a mere 40-50 years from now.

The effects of such temperature rises are likely to spell the end for 30% of the species on Earth and most of the world’s rainforests.  Climate projections are especially severe for areas of the globe that rely on snow meltwaters to feed aqueducts and rivers used for irrigating farmland and for sustaining towns and cities.     Then there is the matter of sea level rise and its impact upon coastal city infrastructure, beaches, coral reefs, estuaries, and upon all nations with large portions of the population dwelling at barely above sea level.

A Solution Is Possible If We Act Now

So are we doomed to a breakdown of our global life support systems? The IPCC models assume that the way we live does not fundamentally change, i.e. we continue to have an economy that thrives on consumption and a world populace that aspires to the Western lifestyle. If we are to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, then we must make huge changes to the way humans live – at home, at work, in the food we eat, in the way we travel and, most importantly, the value we place on the natural environment.

To avoid the most serious feedback effects, the science shows we need nothing less than an 80% cut in global carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.  Most of the carbon emitted when today’s seniors were children is still in the atmosphere, so even today’s very oldest citizens have some direct responsibility for climate change. In addition, seniors in the USA are becoming more affluent, and with affluence comes emissions. It is no coincidence that the very richest countries in the world are also the biggest producers of greenhouse gases.

But there is a way. With a mass movement of people who really care what will happen to the planet and, hence, to their descendants, it is possible to create great change of the kind that is needed. There was a time when we cycled to the park or the river, rather than fly across the world. There was a time when we walked to the local shop to buy just what we needed, rather than drive to the shopping mall to buy what we don’t. There was a time when we wore sweaters instead of turning the heating up, and closed the shutters rather than switching on the air conditioning.   

Seniors have a collective memory of earlier times when far less energy was consumed, and yet life was good.  These life experiences help seniors lead the way now in embracing the changes required for the next generations.   Seniors care about their legacy, and they have endured too much and labored too hard to allow it to be derailed now by global warming.      

There was a time when we talked, listened and learnt from each other, with the snow and hail beating against the windowpane as we warm ourselves in front of the fire. We need that time again.

This is the full version of the article originally submitted to AARP for their December Bulletin.

You can download a Microsoft Word version of the article above by clicking on This Link.

Green Seniors Take Action : Bali And Hawaii Climate Talks – Fiddling While The Earth Burns

 

The photo at the top of this article shows the Hawaii island chain taken from space. A few small pieces of rock surrounded by two oceans: the Pacific ocean of water, and the global atmospheric ocean of air. You can barely see the atmosphere on the horizon, it is paper thin and gradually being changed by our excessive consumption of coal, oil and natural gas, the removal of vast swathes of carbon absorbing forests, the expulsion of methane from agriculture and mining, the production of nitrous oxide from fertilizers, the increase in water vapour caused by oceanic heating. In short, the thin film of sensitively balanced gases that most life depends upon is being ruined by human activity.

On 30-31 January 2008, representatives from some of the world’s largest polluting countries, invited by the USA, will fly to Hawaii and talk. They will discuss timescales, they will discuss business, they will discuss technology. They will not make any commitments to change the amount of greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere which are changing the climate. The White House makes this point very clear:

“I think these will be iterative discussions, which the initial goal will be to lay out a variety of options without holding any country to a particular proposal." (James Connaughton, quoted by Reuters)

The White House Environment web page has the slogan: “Protecting Our Nation’s Environment.” Anything outside the USA does not seem to matter, despite all nations sharing the same oceans, atmosphere and all other natural systems that have no respect for national borders. Many other governments share this view too.

While environmental activists will turn their nose up at this conference, many of them support the outcomes of the December 2007 conference in Bali. Nevertheless, at this meeting timescales were discussed, business was discussed, technology was discussed. No commitments were made to change the amount of greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere which are changing the climate.

"The most important political result", said Committee Chair Guido Sacconi, "is that we have reached an agreement" which includes "a roadmap and a timetable" for an international treaty by 2009. Although the text includes "no direct reference to reduction targets". (European Union Press Release)

So, what is the point of these meetings? We are not really sure. They perhaps show the world that governments care about the people that they represent, and maybe even care about the state of the planet in general. They do not achieve anything significant – and they will not. Bear in mind that most climate scientists now accept that without an almost total cessation of greenhouse gas emissions within the next two decades a 2 degree centigrade increase in global temperature is inevitable by the end of the century – maybe sooner. Two degrees is enough to clear Arctic waters of ice, create new deserts, dramatically increase storminess and hurricanes, destroy croplands, cause mass extinctions, bleach the world’s coral reefs…the list goes on.

What can we do? Well, we certainly cannot rely on governments and businesses (the other big players at Bali and Hawaii) to change things for us. As much as we want others to take ownership of the problems all of us face, we must do this job ourselves – mindful of the fact that since the first global climate conference in Rio De Janeiro in 1992 the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide increased from just over 21 billion tonnes to 28 billion tonnes (in 2005). That’s an increase of 33% in just 13 years. The 2008 figure is expected to be well over 30 billion tonnes.

There are many things that Green Seniors can do, not least make everyone you know aware that emissions are still going up, and that your government is fiddling while the planet burns. This awareness comes with a responsibility to take the problem into your hands, the hands of your family, the hands of your community, and ensure that you reduce your emissions year-on-year as quickly as you possibly can. It is possible, and it is vital : this link can show you how it works.

We will will be publishing a guide to the most important things you can do to reduce your personal emissions soon; but don’t wait until then. Find out your own “footprint” here, and get going.

Green Networks...London Older People's Strategy Group

London is a city of nearly 8 million people, and it has lots of different issues: housing, transport, education, and not least of all, environmental protection. With nearly a million people over the age of 65 living in London, some sort of representation is vital if the specific interests of seniors are not to be lost in the wash of requirements that the Greater London Authority has to deal with; and this is where the London Older People’s Strategy Group comes in.

LOPSG is a voluntary group which, uniquely, has a direct line to the Mayor of London’s office. The Mayor is responsible for the running of the Greater London Authority, which means that LOPSG is, potentially, a very influential organisation for the older people of London. The organisation of LOPSG is truly network-based, having representations from almost every charity, pressure group, community group and forum concerned with the needs of seniors. The list is impressive, and the group is about as inclusive as it is possible to be for such a wide-ranging organisation.

Green Seniors has experienced this inclusivity at first hand, having been asked to make a presentation at one of their Information and Skills Sharing Sessions, which are open to anyone who wants to attend. Not only were we asked what we wanted to talk about, but also whether we would allow other keen people to speak alongside us: which, of course, we agreed to.

Whilst not a Green Network in the strictest sense, there is plenty of opportunity for Green Seniors to make their views heard, and a great deal of enthusiasm within the group for environmental issues. They recently held a conference specifically dealing with Older People and Climate Change, which you can read all about here. Such conferences do not solve any problems on their own, but where the voices of Green Seniors are being heard, those voices can demand change, and motivate many other people to take action as well.