...because there is a disconnect between the enormity of the global warming problem, and the solutions, most of which only deal with a portion of the way to an emission-free world.  Until the enviro/policy leaders start talking about what a fossil-fuel-free world looks like, not just what a 20%-reduced fossil-fuel world looks like, the Right will exploit the problem of painting a nightmare without giving a solution.

I think people are scared of scaring away people by painting the picture of a fossil-fuel-free world, but without that picture, people will just be scared, period.

...to work for change.  It's called a pedagogy of place.  Connect what you're learning to where you live.  Not something far off and hard to imagine, like the polar ice caps.  But your very own back yard.  "The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place" by David Gruenwald, published in the Educational Researcher, is a good place to start if you're interested.

brig "The difference between a cow and a bean is a bean can begin an adventure!" - Into The Woods

American kids want to be winners like their grand/parents, the boomers who grew with the Bomb drama.  MAD was the center for American progress for boomers, switch duck-and-cover to capture-and-sequester, tell the kids it'll be o.k., we'll switch from oil to corn, since it is all ours to begin with like the coal.  Don't upset the children, they might lash back, and God forbid, don't upset the Corp.'s, they may crush US.  

Human Excrement + Nuclear Waste = Hydrogen

dream on that for a while and then contact me

Dennis Baker

because I think what you are doing is very essential for the survival of the planet, and anybody who is hindering that needs to be pushed aside.

Last week I got a call from a journalist who was doing an article on the anxiety and depression problems that she was having because of the climate crisis.  After talking for a while, we agreed that the real reason she was so depressed is that she felt powerless.  In other words, she'd already gotten the memo about building a better future, but was obsessing on the fact that other people (she kept talking about SUVs and styrofoam) seemed to her to be determined to avert their eyes for as long as possible.  

That is to say, it was the everyday denialists surrounding her, as much as the crisis itself, that were freaking her out.  

I filed this as interesting, but it didn't really sink in until a few days later, when I was talking to my 11 year old son.  Climate came up, as it often does around our house.  I gave him a mixed but optimistic rap, focusing on the positive, "we can make a better world: angle.  And he replied in words quite like the journo's.  In effect: "Yeah, sure dad, but most people don't want to change, so what makes you think it's going to happen?"

Stopped me in my tracks a bit.

Tom Athanasiou (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_9bXHeQ7oRV').innerHTML = output; //]]>