Ken Ward’s Posts

• Mass. religious, environmental leaders beseech Obama to take action

  WWLD: What Would Lincoln Do? 2

  Posted 1 week, 3 days agoConjuring images of another world leader faced with a profound moral challenge, Massachusetts religious and environmental leaders call upon Obama to act on climate quickly.

• the rhymes they are a-changin'

  Eve of Destruction (New Millennium) 5

  Posted 2 weeks, 2 days agoAs a rallying cry for this weekend's Day of Climate Action, veteran activist Ken Ward rewrote a classic tune -- see him perform it with partner Andrée Zaleska here.

• Tree Spiker, From Earth First to Lowbagging: My Struggles in Radical Environmental Action

  Roselle's Rollicking Tale & Moral of the Story 0

  Posted 1 month, 1 week ago

  http://JPGreenHouseUploads.yolasite.com

  Mike Roselle has a knack for being in the right place at the right time and a genius for creating confusion in high places. As with all effective rabble-rousers, he has left a trail of enmity in his wake (not always in the opposition camp), but that is to be expected in any political life anchored in truth and guided by the precept that disruption of the status quo on behalf of wild things and wild places is both moral obligation and wise strategy.
  
  Mike’s rollicking new book announces in the very title that this… Read More

• Pop Quiz 0

  Posted 1 month, 2 weeks agoWhich of the following organizations – U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Natural Resources Defense Council or the American Coal Council – posted the following paragraph?

• Killing it cleanly

  Climate SOS campaign aims to defeat ACES for the right reason 1

  Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago

  As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comment makes clear, there will be no climate bill this year.

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Ken Ward’s Recent Comments

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  I fear not, but so hope.On Eve of Destruction (New Millennium) posted 1 week, 3 days ago 5 Responses

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  Two things: First, Bob Goldstein chimed in from LA to let me know that Barry MacGuire didn't write "Eve of Destruction," it's by Phil Sloan. Second, our song airs on today's program of "Democracy Now", which features interviews with Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and Australian scientist Tim Flannery, chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council; watch it at http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/23/amidst_uncertainty_on_us_role_inOn Eve of Destruction (New Millennium) posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago 5 Responses

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  Brad, This is a very useful post. Important to remember that the reason we (US environmentalists, that is) went with cap in trade is that it was supposed to gain us a powerful segment of private sector. Now that the chips are down, where are they? The real question here is not whether companies like Duke pull off spurious "clean coal" outfits like ACCE, it's why hasn't EDF and NRDC threatened to pull out of U.S. Climate Action Partnership, given the lackluster, at best, to duplicitous actions of corporate membership.

  On Duke Energy quits scandal-ridden American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity posted 2 months ago 4 Responses

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  I was surprised that Kolbert chose to critique Colin's project (and other's) without any effort to explain the context, of which she is certainly knowledgeable. Projects like "No Impact Man" have garnered substantial attention because there are virtually no accessible, practical demonstration models of sustainable living in the US. Why is this? I think the fault lies with environmental foundations and green groups. Climate funders, with a combined portfolio that's probably reached $1 billion, have spent lavishly to advance energy alternatives over the last two decades, but somehow never thought to create working models.

  Why are there no "green" versions of Disney's Celebration, Florida model town, which celebrates small town values? The UK has a number of model eco-towns and plans for demonstration houses in every major city. Nothing like that is underway in the US. Our own project, the JP Green House, was launched last year because Andrée and I could find no zero-carbon living/design models when we set out to rehab our new home.

  The second over-arching problem is the makeover of "green" living as a marketable commodity, a process that began with corporate sponsorship of Earth Day and resulted in an almost complete split between environmental action and environmental living – both of which should be expressions of common eco-values.

  In such a barren landscape, it has been primarily non-environmentalists, often journalists, and usually individuals who have sought to fill the gap, and I don't think it should be a surprise that such efforts are halting, limited or sometimes clumsy, as is our own effort. Kolbert's chief complaint, that lifestyle "stunts" detract from hard-nosed climate action, is debatable, but the reason that it's even a question is that green groups and funders dropped the ball.

  Oh yes, when our 350.org Massachusetts Committee went looking for a model to base our municipal resolution endorsing 350 ppm, what did we find? Nothing from any US environmental group, of course, they still haven't even endorsed 350. No, the language we drew upon was Colin's model Congressional resolution.

   

  On A stunt or not a stunt? That is not the question posted 2 months ago 4 Responses

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  Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. As Andrée pointed out above, I'm not Kuba's father. His dad, Peter Zaleska, with whom Kuba and Simon live half time, has heartily endorsed Kuba's plan, in which the puppy/dog travels with the kids between households (both in Jamaica Plain).

  The landslide of get-the-kid-a-puppy-already! (make sure it's from a shelter) comments and votes doesn't so much resolve the conundrum, as outline the problem. The JP Green House is 2 things: a model residence aiming to meet the rigorous passivhaus standard in an abandoned 100 year old former corner store on a low/moderate budget - which is primarily a matter of  design/build skill, with a few trade-offs discussed in my recent post; it is also a demonstration project, whereby the decisions our blended family takes in trying to mesh the imperatives of climate action and intentional living with parenting, love and holding down a job mirror similar tensions in other homes and households. As SMGrist points out, you all don't really get a vote, but we do assume there are others wrestling with the same problems with something to say on the questions before us.

  That sort of a long-winded buffering of my point. Why so few comments and votes on the nix-the-puppy side of the argument? I found the back of envelope esitmate that US dogs & cats put out 3 1/2 times the carbon of the US cement industry to be astounding and worthy of consideration when it comes to our demonstration purposes. Isn't there an argument that pet ownership is a luxury that the world can no longer afford? Please do not interpret that as some call for puppy genocide. I don't know where I come down yet, but I do find the question worthy of consideration. Why should individual preference for pets be any different then say, owning a snowmobile or dirt bike?

  Our demonstration/model intends to sketch a lifestyle that is both satisfying and full and more in line with that which is globally sustainable. Well, no way the rest of the world can have snowmobiles and dirt bikes like Americans do, and based on the numbers, neither does does it seem possible for the rest of the world to emulate our love for pets. Pet ownership in China increased 20% between 1999-2004, that's unsustainable. As the sponsors of one petition suggest, an expanding pet industry is, in effect, trading off wild species through habitat destruction for more domestic animals.That's the short term, of course.

  In the mid-term, which I count as within Kuba's lifetime, we're looking at climate impacts fast and large enough to tear at the fabric of civilization. Isn't that worth more consideration here?

  On Should Kuba have a puppy? posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago 19 Responses