1. Call a meeting of every UU member at every UU congregation, and tell them to bring a laptop or tablet with them.

2. When everyone has arrived. tell them to go to their congressman’s websites, click on Email, and type in a message for their congressmen and women. For example, go to http://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/policycomments.cfm

3. Your message should demand a, “steadily rising fee on the carbon in fossil fuels, with 100% of the fee returned to citizens”. This is a revenue neutral carbon tax. It is the fastest, simplest, and by far most effective way to combat climate change. It is the only solution that scales to the size of the problem.


The citizens climate lobby reports that many members of congress already support this concept.

With 60+ BILLION food animals on the planet our best chance to mitigate climate change is to severely reduce consumption of animal foods. More than 1/3 of human induced warming is attributable to animal agriculture. Methane is 24 times more potent than CO2 but takes only 7 years to cycle out of the atmosphere. CO2 takes around 100 years to come out. Human pursuit of animal protein is the leading cause of methane release and a primary cause of CO2 concentrating in the atmosphere. Check the facts and act!


“As environmental science has advanced, it has become apparent that the human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future: deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.” Worldwatch Institute, “Is Meat Sustainable?”


“If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains… the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.” Environmental Defense Fund


“A 1% reduction in world-wide meat intake has the same benefit as a three trillion-dollar investment in solar energy.” ~ Chris Mentzel, CEO of Clean Energy


There is one single industry destroying the planet more than any other. But no one wants to talk about it… http://cowspiracy.com


Step by Step Guide: How to Transition to a Vegan Diet http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/step-by-step-guide-how-to-transition-to-vegan-diet/

Support Citizens Climate Lobby. It proposes a nonpartisan, practical and doable solution to climate change. It recognizes that we’re all in this together, so we will have to set aside our political agendas to solve this problem. To find out more about it, listen to a one hour introductory call, every Wednesday. See the CCL website for details and to register for the call.

I hope everyone here knows about the Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) event in Washington, DC, Nov. 1-7. There are multiple ways to be involved including nonviolent direct action at FERC headquarters. Please seriously consider this action, it is led by mature, experienced activists. tiryurl.com/beyondextremeenergy.

The Unitarian Church’s priority should be action against climate change. Time is running out. I say this with some authority because my daughter and her husband are climate scientists. The IPPC gives us 15 years to change course or face “catastrophic” global warming.


The first step is education, present an adult program of documentaries like The Years of Living Dangerously (there are lots of other good ones on Netflix). Then book discussion groups and speakers.


The Church should also support a revenue-neutral carbon tax to phase out fossil fuels. Rebate 100% of the proceeds to every American every month and most people will come out ahead financially, especially lower-income and middle-class Americans. Raise the carbon pollution fee, or tax, every year and people will simply switch to cheaper clean energy. The same carbon fee on imports from carbon polluters like China will lower global emissions. Eight Nobel econimists advocate this and the plan has been successful in British Columbia for over five years. they have made major carbon emissions cuts while their economy has thrived. The Economist has pronounced it “A Success.” A recent REMI economic report says ia similar plan will add 2.8 million net U.S. jobs and increase GDP $75-80 billion annually by 2030. But we need Congress to act now. Letters to the editor and to Congress will help, but the Unitarian Church can do much more to raise awareness of this urgent crisis. See the volunteer Citizens Climate Lobby for more information.

If you want environmental peace, work for environmental justice.


Without justice, the poor will burn whatever they can get, in order to stay warm and dry. Developing nations will burn whatever they can get, in order to lift millions of people out of poverty. It’s the same story in China, India, Brazil, and in most of the other developing nations that you can name.

Amory Lovins’ Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has been actively involved in transforming energy use to creat a clean, prosperous and secure future. This non-profit is a think and do institute that has developed strategies to eliminate fossil fuel use by the year 2050. They continue to expand their endeavors through donations and major gifts. We should actively engage with them and encourage people to visit their web site and consider donating to enhance their goals of a verdant future.

Amory Lovins’ Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has been actively involved in transforming energy use to creat a clean, prosperous and secure future. This non-profit is a think and do institute that has developed strategies to eliminate fossil fuel use by the year 2050. They continue to expand their endeavors through donations and major gifts. We should actively engage with them and encourage people to visit their web site and consider donating to enhance their goals of a verdant future.

Amory Lovins’ Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has been actively involved in transforming energy use to creat a clean, prosperous and secure future. This non-profit is a think and do institute that has developed strategies to eliminate fossil fuel use by the year 2050. They continue to expand their endeavors through donations and major gifts. We should actively engage with them and encourage people to visit their web site and consider donating to enhance their goals of a verdant future.

Dear Unitarian Universalists, We wish to bring to your attention that the UUCEF is invested in market segments — oil and gas, chemical industry that are counter to socially responsible investment. Why? Divestiture is required.

When we know the impact of our actions, we have the moral obligation to modify our behavior. What that means is that minimally, we need to live AS IF there were a carbon tax. Quantifying our carbon use,knowing its full cost, and challenging ourselves and communities to find both the mechanisms and courage to quickly reduce fossil fuel use is our challenge.

As we shift our energy economy from coal to more renewable energy sources, the people who live in areas with coal-based economies are going to be harmed. We need to find ways to help communities in places like the coal fields of Appalachia, which are already impoverished, to develop more resilient local economies—perhaps in a process similar to the community development efforts in tobacco growing areas when the federal govt. began regulating tobacco. Faith communities, with our long history of social justice work, could make significant contributions to efforts to promote coal-economy replacement through community-based participatory collaborations with Appalachian communities and advocacy for program support in DC. Since the UUA does not have a strong presence in Appalachia, it would help to partner with other denominations like the Presbyterians, Catholics, and Mennonites.

If we help people in the coal fields develop alternative economies, we can undercut some of the resistance to policy change regarding disinvestment from fossil fuels among coal-state legislators. After all, no one wants to send their children to work in a coal mine if there are better alternatives!

We expect to do a group endorsement soon, but for right now I wanted to let you know we had more than 30 members of UUS:E, Manchester, CT who went on the Climate March – and probably weren’t counted! In November we’re in charge of the Sunday Service on Climate Change. We have a Climate Action Team and started the Manchester Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby which promotes a revenue neutral carbon tax. We’re active!

Please voice your concern regarding the proposed Kinder Morgan gas

pipeline through northern Massachusetts. Go to www.ferc.gov to share

your concerns. For more information, visit http://grotonspace.com/pipeline

Thank you.

The leading cause of:
Global Warming
Water Depletion
Deforestation
Species Extinction
Ocean “Dead Zones”


…is the production of animals as food. I would hope that eliminating the livestock, dairy, fishing, and leather industries is seen as the #1 priority of Commit2Respond.


For specifics regarding land livestock alone, see the 2006 United Nations report confirming that livestock produce more greenhouse gasses than all forms of transportation combined: http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm


For a feature-length exposé about environmental organizations avoiding the meat issue, see the environmental documentary, “COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secret” http://cowspiracy.com/

Nuclear: A thorium reactor has the advantages of our present reactors, but not the horrible disadvantages.

Nuclear: A thorium reactor has the advantages of our present reactors, but not the horrible disadvantages.

Pay for our Church’s electricity by specifying it be sourced from renewable energy via the ( http://www.pear-energy.com/plans-and-pricing.html ) Pear Energy program

Random Ideas to Cut Emissions

Drive less

Lower speed limit nationally

Build smaller/efficient homes closer to work and services. Put an additional tax on new homes that exceed say 2,000 sq. ft.

Insulate! All buildings should have an energy audit. Cut military spending in half. Use money to get off foreign oil and create green jobs. Increase the price of fuel and use some of the money to encourage and subsidize public transit. Use the money to insulate and retrofit all buildings.

Expedite the expansion of bike paths. Give everyone a bike. The best Xmas

gift ever for the planet. Adopt mural themes in our cities that support healthful and environmental activity.

Improve the education curriculum. Example: Hundreds of things are made from petroleum

Buy local !

Install clothes lines and buy smaller towels

Live communally for efficiency/sustainability.

Limit children to “two or fewer”. Provide free worldwide voluntary contraception and free sterilization with substantial cash incentives fully funded through the United Nations without delay

Recycle, recycle

Boycott auto makers that do not produce low mileage vehicles. Add a surcharge to the price of all new passenger vehicles that get less than 35 m.p.g . Put a big tax on gas guzzlers. Petition auto makers and politicians to stop making guzzlers. Put a big tax on gas guzzlers.
Use our car and aircraft industry to build a state of the world train system. (Fewer trucks, cars and planes and fewer emissions)


Subsidize wind, solar, harnessing the tides and other green technologies.

Set up an auto insurance system that gives incentives to drive less and lower costs such as “Pay at The Pump” auto insurance. Insurance could be sold

by the mile. A not for profit corporation should be set up.

All educational buildings should be equipped with solar panels. New legislation must be passed.

People should divest from fossil fuel related stocks

A universal “Single Payer” health care system will help us to be prepared.

A Planet in Imminent Peril


An unbridled serial killer “us” is on the loose and driving us to a hellish place! Slowing the accelerating “die off” is the moral imperative of our time. The Earth is a self regulating organism that has us squarely in its sights without discrimination to our species. The only planet in the universe known to support life is Earth. It has taken millions of years of evolution where life can be abundantly hospitable. However, a virtual heaven on Earth is about to be destroyed because of human short-sightedness. The interdependent web of all existence of which we are all a part, is in grave crisis.


In the movie “Hannibal”, there is a grotesque scene where Hannibal has opened up a man’s brain and removed some of it, cooking it, then, feeding it to the drugged man as he sits smiling; seemingly oblivious to what is happening to him. This scenario sadly reflects metaphorically, the present human condition to a significant degree. As the imminent and exponentially growing evidence concerning the literal demise of thousands of species grows, including our own, we appear to be eating our own brains.


There are catastrophic consequences for humans putting billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. We are now over 400 parts per million. 350 ppm is necessary to give us a fighting chance:


• We must stop using fossil fuels!


• People must challenge economic systems that promote extracting excessive wealth from nature without regard to consequences. (Ex. fracking). We are fast approaching the “end of growth” because we are decimating the Earth’s natural capital.


• All present and future buildings should be required to install solar panels.


• Instead of closing military bases, convert them to green energy training centers creating thousands of jobs.


• 40% of CO2 in the U.S comes from fossil burning transportation. Let’s bring back the Cash for Clunkers program, greatly expand it with emphasis on getting fuel guzzlers off the highways. We should provide substantial cash incentives for people to buy hybrids and other fuel efficient vehicles.


• Ramp up train usage!


• There are too many people on this planet. The U.S should adopt a policy of one child per family sending a signal that we are serious about dealing with the impending crisis at hand. When our “home” is back in balance, humans could re-address the issue of children.


• Religious organizations the world over that condone unbridled breeding must be taken to task.


For all our advances we are still infants in the evolutionary scheme of things. There must be a quickening of the human spirit. We can and must consciously change quickly. Our story must be that we were the first species that made a conscious decision to change our way of life.


If the U.S. is to be the “Shining City on a Hill” to the world, it should be covered with solar panels. All our lives (children, grandchildren…) depend upon it!


Ed Patton

1304 So. 16th Ave.

Yakima WA 509-2481838
A Planet in Imminent Peril


An unbridled serial killer “us” is on the loose and driving us to a hellish place! Slowing the accelerating “die off” is the moral imperative of our time. The Earth is a self regulating organism that has us squarely in its sights without discrimination to our species. The only planet in the universe known to support life is Earth. It has taken millions of years of evolution where life can be abundantly hospitable. However, a virtual heaven on Earth is about to be destroyed because of human short-sightedness. The interdependent web of all existence of which we are all a part, is in grave crisis.


In the movie “Hannibal”, there is a grotesque scene where Hannibal has opened up a man’s brain and removed some of it, cooking it, then, feeding it to the drugged man as he sits smiling; seemingly oblivious to what is happening to him. This scenario sadly reflects metaphorically, the present human condition to a significant degree. As the imminent and exponentially growing evidence concerning the literal demise of thousands of species grows, including our own, we appear to be eating our own brains.


There are catastrophic consequences for humans putting billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. We are now over 400 parts per million. 350 ppm is necessary to give us a fighting chance:


• We must stop using fossil fuels!


• People must challenge economic systems that promote extracting excessive wealth from nature without regard to consequences. (Ex. fracking). We are fast approaching the “end of growth” because we are decimating the Earth’s natural capital.


• All present and future buildings should be required to install solar panels.


• Instead of closing military bases, convert them to green energy training centers creating thousands of jobs.


• 40% of CO2 in the U.S comes from fossil burning transportation. Let’s bring back the Cash for Clunkers program, greatly expand it with emphasis on getting fuel guzzlers off the highways. We should provide substantial cash incentives for people to buy hybrids and other fuel efficient vehicles.


• Ramp up train usage!


• There are too many people on this planet. The U.S should adopt a policy of one child per family sending a signal that we are serious about dealing with the impending crisis at hand. When our “home” is back in balance, humans could re-address the issue of children.


• Religious organizations the world over that condone unbridled breeding must be taken to task.


For all our advances we are still infants in the evolutionary scheme of things. There must be a quickening of the human spirit. We can and must consciously change quickly. Our story must be that we were the first species that made a conscious decision to change our way of life.


If the U.S. is to be the “Shining City on a Hill” to the world, it should be covered with solar panels. All our lives (children, grandchildren…) depend upon it!


Ed Patton

1304 So. 16th Ave.

Yakima WA 509-2481838

Date: 9/22/14

From: Ed Patton Yakima WA 5092481838
Climate and Equality Solutions

Time to Control Population Growth
You may have noticed! Almost all of the efforts we have made or are attempting have been to accommodate the ever advancing numbers of humans and their voracious


appetites to consume. There will not be a solution to climate disruption unless the taboo subject of overpopulation is put front and center. We are decimating the Earth’s natural capital at a alarming rate, the Earth is overheating and the proverbial chickens have come home to roost! The burning of fossil fuels by humans has raised the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Scientists are telling us we must get under 350 parts per million. We are dangerously over 400 PPM and rising.

According to Alan Weisman, author of “Countdown” (Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth) 2/3’s of the worlds population of 7.4 billion live within 200 miles of the oceans. Sea levels are rising faster than previously predicted and the world’s reserve food supply is increasingly threatened because of changing weather patterns. The new IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change) stresses that we’re all Sitting Ducks. The United Nations must convene an ongoing summit to address climate disruption, the most severe challenge humanity has ever faced. Population increases a million people every four days or about 80 million net per year. Within 14 years there will be yet another billion “blessings” belching their carbon into the atmosphere forming a blanket to further warm the Earth. Over half of the world’s population is under 27 years old. Within the next 10 years we should lower the Earths population a billion if we knew what is good for us. The resolve to lower the world’s population must be bold, methodical, unrelenting and as humane as possible. World leaders should begin by jointly commending couples for having “two or fewer” children in our desperate quest for a sustainable future. A worldwide, voluntary, free sterilization program with substantial cash incentives along with universal free contraception must be put into place at a cost of a measly 8-10 billion dollars a year. New initiatives such as “a million women march to surround the Vatican” for women’s rights, equality and a change in their position on contraception is over due. Imagine over a million women and men holding hands and protesting around the .17 of a square mile Vatican City that is recognized as a country by the United Nations. This powerful message would send notice to the world’s religious and political leaders that change has come at last. The hierarchy of male domination is over! These are not just matters of right and wrong, they are matters of life and death in incalculable numbers.

Informed citizens know the quality of life on the Earth is sorely lacking. 30,000 people are estimated to die every day of starvation and preventable disease. Over a billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day. Another consequential problem exists wherein countless millions of people literally believe in stories like Noah’s Ark. Two goats, two fleas, two elephants (male/female of every species) were gathered on board an ark before a flood.

For the benefit of sanity and intellectual accountability in these very challenging times a little reason would go far to advance human intelligence.

Tougher questions and bolder initiatives must be taken. If not we are all grave diggers.

I am a PhD Physical Chemist (Stanford) with industrial experience and an enlightened UU background. I have worked many projects for improving our environmental footprint, and am searching for funding for projects ranging from renewable energy to reclaiming waste streams to greenhouse gas reduction. I formed a company to promote Green Technology cleaners and floor care products. 4 out of 7 of us are UU’s. Check us out at www.MoiLabs.com. Also my blog at TheMOInsights.wordpress.com – a lot of good ideas there.

There are currently numerous ways for an individual or congregation or even a city to “go green” with their electricity, even if putting up solar panels on one’s rooftop is not possible. I would sure like to see an independent third party audit of these methods, with a ranking system. Several of us here at FUSN (Newton, MA) have accepted the offer from Viridian to support renewable energy on our electric bill, but I am not impressed with the communications (better said lack of) received from that company. I am eager to switch away from that model of supporting clean energy. NSTAR also offers a 50% or 100% green option. Mass Energy Consumers Alliance (“Mass Energy”) offers another approach see https://www.massenergy.org/renewable-energy/nstar and note that on that page there is an “endorsed by our partners” listing Mass Audubon among others. Endorsements occur after some kind of vetting process, and I wonder if that vetting process could be given some rigor and made available to the consumer – what attributes did an organization like Mass Audubon use in deciding to support this clean power supporter? Mass Energy touts its support for local renewable energy development, that is an example of an attribute that Viridian (Texas wind power) cannot claim. All across the US and Canada there must be similar choices to be made: local versus distant; solar and wind versus landfill gas; technologies versus tree planting. We need a Consumer Advocate for these choices, does such an entity exist?

Just a comment – as I was signing up I saw the option “don’t publish this on the website” I recommend clarifying that step – I would not mind my name and town being listed, but I had just provided phone, address, email. Those I would not want listed, and given the ambiguity I opted to “not” publish.

Why have we coined the term “Climate Justice”? With Global Warming and Climate Change already in wide usage, it seems to me that we are just muddying the waters, in introducing a new name.

Animal agriculture is the leading cause of environmental degradation according to the UN. From a moral standpoint of treating animals humanely to saving the environment, we need to promote consuming a plant based diet.. The UU Animal Ministry is already working hard on this issue, but we need a lot of support.

I agree totally about the critical need for clean energy. I think, however, that our calling for it to be renewable may be a mistake. Solar and wind are no panacea, being intermittent, expensive and providing low energy density. I believe that sidespread use of nuclear energy, using Thorium, rather than conventional Uranium, bears close examination and that our dismissing it would be a mistake.

Recognise new allegiances are available. The Georgia Green Tea Party offers one example. Others are available for those open to listening and dialog.

Engage others in very benign ways to think and likely help.

Act as a neighbor, a witness, by asking for help.

Examples:

..Ask for a ride, just one from a neighbor or coworker.

..Offer to help a neighbor, volunteer to help with a home insulation.

..Host a cook out, picnic of sorts, with a monthly earth day/evening.

..Appeal to a neighbor’s interest, like self sufficiency and economy.

..Recognise people have different motivations. Not everyone finds saving polar bears, opposing fracking, and melting ice as compelling as we. We need to respect this.

Encourage our team to reduce energy use as a political act.

Just 20% of the USA reducing energy use by 5% reduces consumer/residential revenues by 1%. Very significant if your business is a gas station or utility.

Examples to consider:

..Carpool or ride public transit 1 day a week.

..Air dry a load of clothes once a week.

..Insulate home, taking advantage of utility subsidized programs.

Supporters need to see their own power. They need to recognize their own participation. Taking a step beyond the traditional, the well worn paths of street protest, voting, and corproate greed.