PSawtell’s Recent Comments

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  Action takes many forms, Megaloptera. Strong legislation is needed, but the incentive to go beyond politics as usual will never emerge if a sizable chunk of the population does not care, and does not feel the urgency of our crisis. I am grateful to 350.org for building a movement, for planting a data point as an image of ecological viability, and for inviting us into the sorts of stunts that get that number into the news. The 350.org movement is "real climate action" on a cultural and psychological scale. Here in Denver [www.350Denver.org], the chance to participate in a global movement has inspired neighborhoods and churches to mobilize for October 24. The number 350 has allowed students and seniors to understand that climate change is not an abstraction. And after Saturday, we will build on that base for even more political action and community education. There is political brilliance in a global day of action that vividly proclaims danger, without bickering over the numbing details of tax policy and biomass burning. This Saturday, we will celebrate the expansion of the movement that is essential for political action.On Day of Climate Action shows power of web organizing. Join us! posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago 2 Responses

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  Oops - corrected link

  The commentary on Locating the Problem is at www.eco-justice.org/E-060317.asp. Sorry!

  PeterOn Other enviro issues are getting less attention posted 2 years, 2 months ago 29 Responses

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  Locating the Problem

  I agree that there is a danger of climate change becoming the environmental issue, and of other aspects of our global environmental crisis being forgotten. I also am concerned that a focus on climate will mean that we don't adequately address the real problem behind global warming.

  There's a subtle -- but very important -- difference between seeing climate change as the most urgent environmental problem, and seeing climate as the most pressing symptom of a far larger problem. (See my short commentary on Locating the Problem.)

  In my environmental work with churches, I often have workshop participants make a list of the environmental issues that are on their minds. The long list always includes climate change, clean air and water, toxic waste, fisheries depletion, population, rainforests, species extinction, and a raft of other local and global concerns. I use that list to point out that -- with so many complex and interconnnected issues -- we don't have a lot of technical problems. We have a "human problem" of values and social systems that are profoundly out of balance with the way the world works.

  If the core problem is defined as too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, then we can address it by technological and economic solutions that cut CO2. If, however, the problem is defined as a human culture which is out of touch with ecological realities, then a tight focus on reducing our carbon footprint doesn't get at the real source of the problem at all.

  An obsession with climate change allows us to see the problem too narrowly as one of carbon emissions. That's not a sufficient understanding of where change needs to occur.
  On Other enviro issues are getting less attention posted 2 years, 2 months ago 29 Responses

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  Nature in Prison

  Thanks for this call to celebrate and study nature in the settings of our daily lives. That's essential if we're going to understand how we are all part of the natural systems that sustain us.

  It isn't about nature in cities, but a fascinating book explores nature in a prison. In the book, Wilderness and Razor Wire: a naturalist's observations from prison (Mercury House, 2000), Ken Lamberton records his experiences of nature, as an inmate inside a medium security prison. From his cell, he keeps close track of the changing seasons, the insect life, the migrating birds and the blooming plants. He writes, "Nature is here as much as it is in any national park or forest or monument."

  Whether in prison, the sprawling 'burbs, or urban slums, there is much to discover about our intimate engagement with the cycles and processes of nature.

  Peter Sawtell
  Eco-Justice Ministries
  www.eco-justice.orgOn An urban denizen beseeches nature writers to focus on cities for a change posted 2 years, 10 months ago 28 Responses