1. global warming and climate change, oh my!

As a highly active member and co-chair of The Oaks School Green Committee, I have enrolled my school community in a number of climate-related projects and actions over the years. But in the beginning no one knew what 350 was or meant. So I gave some context by writing and distributing a paper to the parents and faculty thoroughly covering the key points of Global Warming and Climate Change, explaining the significance of the number 350, and underscoring the importance of joining the grassroots groundswell as Obama set off to the UN.

read my climate primer on Issuu

2. 350.org moving planet speech and pledge

I felt strongly that my 350.org Moving Planet event should actually advance the cause, raise the message, teach people something — rather than being yet another weakly symbolic green stunt or drum circle. I conceived a teach-in to bring everyone in the audience up to speed on the topic, shut down the myth that climate science is a debate, illustrate how many times a day we each make choices that impact the climate and our future, and a pledge to recite as a group.

“Every day, in a hundred ways, each of us stands at a decision point. We choose either to walk through the door to fossil fuels and climate change, or open the one that leads to clean energy and sustainability. It’s your choice and it makes a difference.”

read my speech on Issuu

3. blogs, petitions, politics

I write a little bit every week on the topic of climate change. Sometimes it’s a statement to a politician or for a petition or online campaign. On occasion it’s a full article or paper to distribute to my own Green Committee, school community or peers. Often it’s just a comment on Facebook or in response to an article in the news.

A quick perusal of the subject lines will give you a sense. Full letters are below.

1. 1.Letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: just say ‘NO’!
   

2. 2.Letter to 350.org on behalf of the “end fossil fuel subsidies” campaign
   

3. 3.Comment on Huffington Post in response to an article about the Greenland ice sheet melt
   

4. 4.Facebook post celebrating an evangelic statement about climate change
   

5. 5.Letter for CREDO ACTION to EPA "stop toxic pollution from oil & gas drilling"
   

6. 6.Facebook post to help 350.org help President Nasheed
   

7. 7.Letter to 350.org petition to stop oil subsidies
   

8. 8.Letter to CA Gov Brown & Mike Fuerer to prevent fracking loophole in CA
   

9. 9.Letter to Obama from 350.org
   

10. 10.Letter to Obama via CLCV (California League of Conservation Voters)
    

11. 11.Letter to the Clinton Foundation on making climate change their priority issue
    

12. 12.My rebuttal to commenters who critiqued Bill McKibben's article "Climate Change's Terrifying New Math"
    

13. 13.Petition to block $B payment to polluters RE: AB32 (on behalf of CREDO)
    

14. 14.Question for Obama on Google / YouTube White House channel
    

15. 15.Reply to Marty Kaplan of the Jewish Journal
    

16. 16.My rebuttal to commenters in response to article on HuffPost
    

17. 17.Letter to Obama + Congress to support green-colar jobs
    

18. 18.Letter to Congress for League of Conservation Voters
    

19. 19.Letter to Repower America petition
    

20. 20.Petition for CREDO to support NET METERING in CA
    

21. 21.Letter to CA congresswoman to vote for AB32 - cap + tax greenhouse gas emissions
    

22. 22.Letter to the Wall Street Journal: A red herring on climate change
    

23. 23.Petition for MoveOn to Feinstein to support Green Economy + Clean Energy Jobs
    

24. 24.Compare Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac to Global Warming & Peak Oil
    

25. 25.Proposal to the Courage Campaign to become a PAC
    

26. 26.Petition from MoveOn to Obama: executive order to expose political spending by federally funded industrial military complex
    

27. 27.Letter to councilman Tom LaBonge: Protect entire Griffith Park!
    

28. 28.28. Letter to Obama: “You caved on EPA ...”

1. Letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: just say ‘NO’!

Dear Administrator Jackson,

My name is Luke Massman-Johnson from California. I'm an involved citizen, a deeply concerned environmentalist, and a father of two. I have been following the Climate Change issue for 5 years and I have let it change my life. My family and I have ambitiously reduced our carbon footprint, I co-founded an energetic green committee in my kids' elementary school, I have been very active for 350.org since 2008 (I organized and presented the LA 350 event at City Hall last summer), and I have committed my career to raising the alarm on Climate Change. 

The data is comprehensive and irrefutable, the danger of sliding past irreversible global biofeedback loops is staggering, and the accelerating timeframe is almost incomprehensibly short. The challenge is bigger than any that humans have ever faced so this is no time to mince words or acquiesce: HUMAN CIVILIZATION IS HAVING A HEART ATTACK and we need to treat it with the seriousness, focus, speed and prioritization of an E.R. TRIAGE. What's first? We must IMMEDIATELY stop giving the fossil fuel industry a free pass. Period.

Over the last century, on federal land leases given away at garage-sale prices, and taking full advantage of the national infrastructure backbone, the fossil fuel industry has become the most profitable in history. Good for them. But apparently that's not enough. With their obscene profits they have managed to activate the disingenuously named Citizens United legislation, with which they further their egregiously un-democratic lobbying, which in turn has wrung unconscionable subsidies for themselves out of a depleted economy. Worse than that, they have leveraged their taxpayer-funded federal subsidies into a decade of climate denial disinformation campaigns that have masterfully clouded worldwide enlightenment on the most important threats humans have ever faced.

It is the height of hypocrisy that the fossil fuel lobby wraps itself in the flag, lectures about the "free market", and cries "foul" about sustainable energy development, while simultaneously greenwashing its own advertising. Their profligate greed is more than hypocritical, it's treasonous — not only to the sustainability of our own country, but to the future of all living things.

So with that as a backdrop it is jaw-droppingly arrogant — though maddeningly predictable — that Shell now skulks to the EPA to 'pretty please just this once' ask for yet another free pass. A free pass to bypass the very laws that they strategically resist. Laws that when finally passed they begrudgingly acknowledge in words alone. Laws specifically designed because the fossil fuel industry has proven itself more selfish and reckless than a crack addict in its ravenous binge for natural resources, in stiff-arming oversight and regulation, in hiding its pollution, and in denying its controlling hand in climate change.

But in their near-absolute mastery of economics, industry, and politics, they didn't notice that WE THE PEOPLE STILL HOLD AN ACE UP OUR SLEEVE. THE SIMPLE WORD "NO".

Administrator Jackson, this decision is yours but it's a no-brainer. It should be easy to ignore the politics and lobbying because THE LAW IS ALREADY ON YOUR SIDE. The defendant already acknowledged their non-compliance. You have been granted the title of EPA Administrator, and with all due respect YOUR JOB IS THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT, not the defense of corporate profits. You have the power to do the right thing, and you've been given a mandate to do the right thing. Now show them that you have the spine that your job requires. Just say "no".

If you can't ... our species continues to choose a dead end path. Literally.

☮ Luke

2. Letter to 350.org on behalf of the “end fossil fuel subsidies” campaign.

It is the height of hypocrisy — to say nothing of being a fatally unsustainable in light of climate change — for champions of "the free market" to disingenuously defend the fossil fuel subsidies. It is unconscionable that criminally dominant lobbying has coerced egregious payouts for the most profitable corporations on Earth. Clearly this is ONLY about money for shareholders. Period. If there is a silver lining, it is that as each scandal reveals bad-behaving corporations, we the 99.99% increasingly rise up to defend our right for a truly free market, for a true democracy (I'm talking' to you, so-called "Citizens United"), and for a future that doesn't include a flaming-slip-n-slide into a furnace of biofeedback loops.

☮ Luke

3. Comment on Huffington Post in response to an article about the Greenland ice sheet melt.

>>> FAIL <<<

The title phrase "... BREAKS 30-YEAR RECORD" is sloppily used and VERY MISLEADING! I wouldn't care except we're talking about CLIMATE CHANGE here — the most catastrophic threat humans have ever faced, and one against which humans have UTTERLY FAILED TO TAKE ACTION. And thanks to lazy language like this title, the public will go on not caring much.

Here's the rub: based on this title, casual readers will assume that the event-in-question had ALSO happened as recently as 30 years ago. And if that were the case, this melt would be no big deal, right? The result is that this weak title RADICALLY DIMINISHES the threatening implications of these kinds of reports, and gives FALSE FODDER to the CLIMATE DENIERS. Witness their quips in the chat rooms: "It's a natural cycle", "30 years is nothing in geological time", and "the climate alarmists are fear mongers."

But a 30-YEAR RECORD is NOT what happened here — or in the dozens of other POORLY WORDED TITLES in various media reporting on climate tipping points. In this case the record is 33 years old NOT because the last melt of this magnitude happened in 1979, but because that is when satellite records began. So IN FACT this is not only a 33-year record, it is literally THE GREATEST SEASONAL MELT HUMANS HAVE EVER RECORDED on Greenland. Of course there is a small chance there was another big melt at some time before 1979, but we simply don't know.

BOTTOM LINE: the threat of Climate Change has been diluted by mediocre writing and political jockeying for 25 years and it has GOT TO STOP! Over the last half century the top climate scientists have amassed a mountain of data on the imminent and existential threat of Climate Change. And as the data keeps getting more accurate, it also keeps proving that virtually every key metric is crashing faster than even the most pessimistic warnings from the previous decade. And this data is thousands of times more thorough and vetted and condemning than we ever had on Saddam Hussein — and our reaction to that (falsified) threat cost the world hundreds of thousands of additional lives, trillions of dollars, and more than a decade of war.

Meanwhile, the average reader STILL DOESN'T CARE about Climate Change.

☮ Luke

4. Facebook post celebrating an evangelic statement about climate change.

Hooray! It's about time some thoughtful voices in the Church spoke up on climate change. If almost 80% of the US is Christian, NO ONE is going to solve this problem without their very serious and proactive cooperation.

"In seeking to live as Christ’s disciples, Y.E.C.A. has come to see the climate crisis not only as a pressing challenge to justice and freedom, but also as a profound threat to “the least of these” whom Jesus identifies with himself in Matthew 25."

Compare that refreshing statement with this more typical but deeply misguided Evangelical position by the influential Cornwall Alliance: "We believe Earth and its ecosystems — created by God’s intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence — are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying His glory. Earth's climate system is no exception."

http://www.cornwallalliance.org/articles/read/an-evangelical-declaration-on-global-warming/ 

☮ Luke

5. Letter for CREDO ACTION to EPA "stop toxic pollution from oil & gas drilling".

HEY! We the people are choking to death on our own short-sighted stupidity.

Toxic pollution, carbon footprint, global warming & climate change, peak oil.

The human species is failing the test, and seem to be telling God or evolution, "we're not worthy of continuing along".

The scientists and experts have spoken. The public agrees. It's time to save ourselves from ourselves.

Now it is the responsibility of our elected officials and regulatory agencies to create laws and enforce them.

For everyone's sake.

☮ Luke

6. Letter in FB to help 350.org help President Nasheed.

If you're a person of faith, it's hard to imagine a more fitting reference to "the least among us" needing our help. If you're a person of science, the numbers are in and irrefutable: delaying action on climate change is a slow-moving genocide, but every bit as unethical. Either way, do the right thing and help this incredibly inspiring man in his time of need.

☮ Luke

7. Letter to 350.org petition to stop oil subsidies.

One day humankind woke up and realized it was a cancer. Whether designed and endowed by a creator or painstakingly evolved from energy and matter, the life we lead is unsustainable. Period. Physics and math dictate simply and absolutely — we can't go on like this. We have achieve miraculous intelligence and accomplished phenomenal things. Still, so far at least, we have done it utterly unsustainably. It is humbling to think that even buttressed by thousands of years of cleverness, we are still subject to 'evolve or die'. But maybe, simply having ☮ Luke

8. Letter to CA Gov Brown & Mike Fuerer to prevent fracking loophole in CA.

Dear Gov Brown,

I'm a CA constituent, an active voter & citizen, a lifelong environmentalist, a passionate activist on climate change, and a father of two.

Everyone loves CA's stunningly beautiful beaches, mountains, and forests. But the the thing I'm most proud of in CA is that we lead the nation and the world in our efforts to preserve our natural treasures and to create a society that is sustainable.

Fracking threatens to undermine all of that — our laws, our intentions, our resolve, our sustainability, our leadership, and our future.

So ... don't let it.

You have my deep appreciation for your serious consideration, as well as the future gratitude of my children as they grow to love CA and it's leaders as I have.

Cheers,

Luke Massman-Johnson

☮ Luke

9. Letter to Obama from 350.org.

I am a serious environmentalist, but I don't hate oil companies per se. I do resent their unconscionable profits - especially during the worst financial hardship most of us have faced in our lifetime. And I am extremely pissed off at government subsidies for gas and oil, the government's acquiescence to their formidable lobbying, and their lack of moral and ethical accountability to world citizens and the environment.

All that said, I actually DON'T oppose drilling offshore because I consider the impending threat of peak oil to be so serious that it trumps my concern about the possibility of oil leaks and environmental damage.

But I very SERIOUSLY regret the lack of leadership you have shown so far by not moving more radically toward a truly sustainable so-called green economy. I trust that between your obvious intelligence and strategic savvy, and that of your cabinet and peers, you have weighed out the pros and cons, both political and financial, of ambitiously championing a sustainable economy and global leadership to mitigate greenhouse gasses.

In all your maneuverings I urge you to keep in mind that unlike the economy or wars or poverty or education or cancer or terrorism or racism, ONLY peak oil and global warming have internal timeframes and the ability to end civilization as we know it. All the others certainly wreak havoc on happiness and intrinsic human rights for millions, but they have all gone on causing suffering for countless years - and they CAN continue to do so without ENDING civilization. But the internal clocks of peak oil and global warming are ticking, and to prevent them from ending things badly for all of us, the US government and other major world leaders need to begin aggressively LEADING on these issues.

Gratefully for all you have done, and will do.

☮ Luke

10. Letter to Obama via CLCV (California League of Conservation Voters).

global warming and catastrophic climate change are simple math: population X per capita consumption and waste. and with population, consumption and waste ALL ON AN EXPONENTIAL RISE, climate change and global environmental tipping points are inevitably crashing down upon us.

this generation, this decade, are critical tests for human civilization: are we willing to keep ourselves in check? or will we stumble blindly over the trip wires and off the cliff into unstoppable catastrophes for all species on earth?

so i say HELL YES to higher fuel economy by 2025 ... and in the same breath i know that while this will certainly be helpful, it is just one of potentially hundreds of fairly radical changes human civilization needs to adopt IMMEDIATELY if we are to have any chance of stopping runaway climate change.

in other words, if you ultimately let 54.5MPG by 2025 become another bargaining chip that gets whittled down to be 45MPG by 2050, we are certainly doomed to a future of incredible suffering by the poorest, weakest, and least responsible.

it really is that simple.

thank you!

☮ Luke

11. Letter to the Clinton Foundation on making climate change their priority issue.

What issue do I think is most important?

Global Warming. Period.

Every other social justice / political / economic / environmental issue humans already struggle to improve will be made worse, and harder to solve, with the cascade of disasters virtually guaranteed by the onslaught of Global Warming and Climate Change.

And it is arguably the ONLY worldwide crises which has a critical timeline for not only civilizations worldwide, but global environmental tipping points. It is also the ONLY threat which has an extraordinary physical built-in momentum (100 years of CO2 latency in the atmosphere). Even if we stop burning fossil fuels today, the heat-forcing energy of the CO2 we've already added to the atmosphere will continue to raise temperatures for 100 years.

This is more than an urgent crisis: we are flirting with system collapses that have no ability to recover for generations, if at all.

☮ Luke

12. My rebuttal to commenters who critiqued Bill McKibben's article "Climate Change's Terrifying New Math"

Is anyone else INFURIATED by spectacularly unhelpful comments like "Bill, you shoulda mentioned this ... or why didn't you emphasize that ... or your message would be better if ..."?

I have been struggling for 5 years to evolve my understanding / lifestyle / activism on climate change and Bill McKibben has been a singular lighthouse in the storm. NO ONE has worked harder or with more indefatigable optimism in the human spirit and faith in the better angels of civic society. I can't BEGIN to imagine what the burden of a 3-decades-long fight like this must be on him. And after writing the first book on climate change, and then several others, after founding Step It Up and ambitiously evolving into 350.org, after rallying dozens of sensationally visible climate actions worldwide, he then goes on to write this incredibly urgent and badly needed article.

Maybe more important than how crucial this article is is the fact that he got it published in ROLLING F-in' STONE, reaching WAY outside the normal echo-chamber of us 'greenies'. And what does he get in return? A parade of nitpicking tailcoaters who tear down the work, undermining the message we all want conveyed to the general public, because each one thinks he or she has a way to improve it.

HEY! IT'S NOT HELPING, DAMMIT! Since McKibben's piece, I've read a dozen articles by people who can't manage to say "thank you" before diving into a self-indulgent tirade about how they would have done it better.

The message Bill has been tirelessly trying to communicate is mind-bogglingly complex: how do you simultaneously rally grass-roots activism AND change the minds of those in power of politics and corporations? The core message is "a fossil-fuel-based way of life is fundamentally unsustainable — we have to stop". But in a society founded on two centuries of ever-increasing freedoms and luxuries, a growth based capitalism now almost entirely consumed by consumption, who will get on board unless the NUMBERS and SCIENCE are rock solid and stupefyingly obvious, unless the CALL TO ARMS is underscored with a panic-inducing URGENCY?

Look, critics, leaders like McKibben need you to be PLAYING FROM THE SAME SHEET MUSIC, not taking pot shots at the acoustics of the concert hall. For better or worse, one of the most effective tools the climate deniers, the conservatives, the Republicans employ against our message of climate reality is that they know how to line up and march against us. Do each of them think the means are perfect? Absolutely not. Does everyone get what they want? Absolutely not. But does it tip the balance of power? ABSOLUTELY!

☮ Luke

13. Petition to block $B payment to polluters RE: AB32 (on behalf of CREDO)

I'm an LA citizen, voter, and green advocate. I am educated and active about the science and politics of climate change, and I'm a founding member of the sustainability committee at my children's elementary school. I have bicycle-commuted for over 20 years, and have painstakingly designed my work, travel, and home life to minimize my family's carbon footprint.

These changes have not come easily for me or my family. We are constantly (but eagerly) compromising convenience and cost in all our consumer and business decisions. My wife and I are self-made small business owners and it is especially difficult in this long recession to 'go slow' and 'take the high road' for the environment: biking instead of driving; video conferencing with clients instead of flying to meetings; sourcing materials locally, manufacturing more sustainably, at a higher cost and lower profit; ambitious reduction / reuse / recycling at home and work.

It is a faith, a calling, an act of patriotism, integrity, and duty. We know minimizing our impact on the climate is an urgent challenge of unprecedented scale, and we are proud to model thoughtful and responsible living for our children, and to inspire the 'green' in our family, peers, and co-workers.

We must also recognize the overwhelming role the US industrial revolution and globalized Western consumer economy has had in pushing all our climate to the tipping point. I am by no means anti-corporation or anti-business. Nor am I anti-fossil fuel. These ideas and innovations have fundamentally advanced civilization in every imaginable way.

But they have also had an unsustainable cost which is now well understood, and for which we have the responsibility to correct.

A greener economy is inevitable. The US can either lead the charge and confirm it's place as a 'can do' world leader, or it can whine and hide and deny. If we do the latter, not only will we suffer the shame of having set this disaster in motion and not being willing to do a damned thing about it, but also the exponential 'catch up' costs of rebuilding our rusting industries to match the new world standards being adopted everywhere else.

So me and my family are voluntarily making sweeping changes in our lives, trying to 'live Kyoto' every single hour of every single day. And most of the rest of the world is waking up and starting to do the same. 

The buzz at this week's COP16 summit in Cancun has made it blatantly clear that world opinion is so disparaging and disappointed about the US stance on climate change that IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THE WORLD IF WE DIDN'T SHOW UP AT ALL.

What?! This isn't the US anyone wants.

Yet somehow, with almost no practical political power in the last two years, the foot-dragging, obstructionist, climate-denying, profit-above-all Republicans have been phenomenally successful at keeping US citizens and gullible politicians both confused and apathetic. The results of their ambitious and disingenuous schemes have paid off:

IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THE WORLD IF WE DIDN'T SHOW UP AT ALL.

I can't wait to see what they do with the additional leverage they gained by controlling Congress in 2011.

Meanwhile, those of us that see the light and know what integrity and patriotism mean are willing and eager to shoulder the task of evolving. So it is unconscionable that the largest corporate and industrial polluters - with the collusion of their republican climate deniers and lobbyists - would be given billions of dollars of giveaways.

The entire world knows the 'non-negotiable' American / western / consumerist way of life is at the heart of this crisis - and it is utterly unsustainable. Facing our responsibility, stepping back into a leadership position, and evolving won't destroy our way of life - it will make it better than ever, and ensure that it can go on for many generations to come.

Thank you for your careful consideration.

☮ Luke

14. Question for Obama on Google / YouTube White House channel

GLOBAL WARMING is anthropogenic, CLIMATE CHANGE threatens civilization worldwide: food, water, energy, economy, disease, war. Why aren't you making bold advances in green jobs, tech, infrastructure, or ambitiously leading international climate talks?

☮ Luke

15. Reply to Marty Kaplan of the Jewish Journal

http://www.jewishjournal.com/marty_kaplan/article/opinion_the_end_is_nigh_seriously_20120618/

Thank you, Marty, for putting your finger on the seriousness of Climate Change and revealing the toll it takes on those of us advocating for action against it. For 5 years I have found (put?) myself in a life-changing mashup of panic and despair, education and motivation, activism and energy, bending the arc of my work, my career, my clients, and my family life toward sustainability, and evolving my relationship with consumption, energy use, travel, etc. The story of Climate Change is so dense with imminent disaster and global timelines that I deeply worry the human species may not be capable of cooperating en masse in time to reverse the incredible momentum of multiple tipping points.

☮ Luke

16. My rebuttal to commenters in response to article on HuffPost

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-scott/grow-baby-grow_1_b_1364194.html

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

comment #1:

RE: "I don't know if human beings will succeed ... without a major worldwide calamity to focus our attention."

I have been thinking about this for several years and believe that a full understanding of this phenomena is at the core of getting us 'unstuck' on making critical changes. Think about it: What finally enrolled the US in WWII? Attack at Pearl Harbor. What sucked the US into Iraq & Afghanistan? Attack on 911. I have come to believe that as amazing as humans are, we actually aren't terribly successful at cooperating in massive numbers unless there is a clear, present, and overwhelming danger, AND a singular enemy on which to fix blame and retaliation.

It is a painful irony that even though we know worldwide calamities lie just past the tipping points of climate change, and that the results will far exceed those of WWII and 911 combined — heck, probably exceeding anything humans have ever face, period — they are unfolding slowly enough (in human time scale) that we don't find them clear, present or overwhelming.

Further, how are we to react once we fully acknowledge the problem? We can't invade Japan or the Middle East. The problem is us, our own profligate way of life. So how does a species unify behind a common enemy if that enemy is 'self'? How do you drop bombs on your own lifestyle?

I suspect that the big fat 'unknown' at the end of this thought is exactly why 20 years of UN climate talks have resulted in almost nothing. It's not only that climate-deniers and fossil-fuel-defenders have intentionally obfuscated the issue, it's that even the greenies don't have a solid answer for how to get everyone on board and move beyond coal and a growth based economy. Frankly, the latter of those two is the harder to imagine. No wonder the argument has stagnated and the public has lost interest: no one has a convincing and complete answer.

Besides, a 'must see' episode of American Idol is on ...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

comment #2 (response to "how can we save the environment without screwing over the economy?")

I think the urgency and seriousness of climate change & global tipping points dictate that we flip that age-old convention on its head. It should be, How can we invent a healthy and sustainable economy in a way that doesn't screw over the environment?

In the long run, it is the health of the environment that will dictate everything else. If we kick over multiple global tipping points, the inevitable disasters of global warming (droughts, floods, wildfires, dead crops and livestock, sea level rise, and resource conflicts for clean water / food / raw materials) will cripple even the healthiest economy.

We must acknowledge this immediately and address climate change squarely or all our protective measures to prop up an unsustainable economy are just rearranging the deck chairs ...

☮ Luke

17. Letter to Obama + Congress to support green-colar jobs.

Over the course of 20 years I have carefully and intentionally adjusted my career and my life to be more sustainable. I have been a bicycle commuter for almost every job I’ve held since college, traveling as much as 6 miles – sometimes in the snow or rain. For the last 6 years I have keep a decisively small office with modest energy needs, I keep all my equipment plugged into power strips which I shut down completely every night, I refuse to order take-out from local restaurants which use wasteful plastic packaging in favor of those which are making strong efforts to use not only recycled/able serving and packaging but simply less overall (Subway uses a single piece of paper to package their subs!). I strongly encourage my employees to consider biking/walking/rollerblading to work and support casual/relaxed clothing to reduce the use of air conditioning. We make every effort to source materials for our company from more responsible sources (either closer to our location for shorter shipping, or users of recycled/able products), and we use (and re-use) as much recycled/able packing in our own shipping as possible. We have made numerous decisions over the years which have surely compromised our modest bottom line (such as NOT outsourcing some of our labor and manufacturing) to encourage our local economy and further reduce long-distance shipping in our supply chain.

☮ Luke

18. Letter to Congress for League of Conservation Voters

The debate between “think globally, act locally” and “change must be made at the top” is a false choice: humans must vigorously engage on both fronts to give us the best chance of mitigating the worst fallout of global warming & peak oil.

I used to advocate “act locally”. I made many healthy advances over the last couple years in being more accountable in my home, office, and travel. But being part of the “Green Committee” at my kids’ school was deeply disheartening. Sure, we introduced a few obvious green improvements on campus and rallied some wonderful energy for change, but I still see overwhelming evidence that even people with the best intentions (myself included) continue to make unsustainable choices.

I am now gravely concerned that “we the people” (as individual consumers and home owners and car drivers) simply can’t and/or won’t make any where near enough self-propelled changes to compensate for all those who don’t know or don’t yet care. Add to that the onslaught of increased per capita consumerism + energy use + travel + waste + the advancement of China and India.

And global warming isn’t an open-ended timeline. Consider this: slavery, religious persecution, racism, sexism, torture, war ... they all suck. Hopefully we’ll continue to advance against them, but there is nothing besides our distaste for them to prevent them from going on and on forever (witness the entire known history of man).

But global warming is fundamentally and disastrously different: it has an unforgiving internal clock. if biofeedback loops and shutting down the oceanic conveyor belts can really happen within the next 5 degrees, who is even going to care if Florida and Manhattan are under water? It simply won’t matter – our Earth will go from “crowded and polluted” to “can’t sustain life”.

With this in mind I have virtually stopped talking to my peers with suggestions about composting or reusable bags, and I have concluded that change in this case DOES need to come from the top. It’s not a “blame them” thing for me, it’s a “where do I find the best leverage points?”. It’s physics applied to human politics. To get the job done, use a tool. Use factors of multiplication. How much energy do you need to put out to change millions of people’s minds one-at-a-time? And how much time does that take?

Compare that with the amount of energy and time required to put a better (if not perfect) leader in place? A few leaders locally, a few regionally, a few nationally. Now our efforts are rewarded with singular decisions which cascade down to millions of people. To federal funding, to subsidies, to environmental legislation. To Kyoto-type worldwide collaboration. To re-prioritizing corporate vs. citizen rights. To healthier geopolitics.

My new mantra: go ahead and recycle, plant a garden, bicycle to work if you like. But think damn hard about how “we the people” get leaders in place with more long-term thinking.

☮ Luke

19. Letter to Repower America petition

http://cpaf.repoweramerica.org/page/s/cleanair?source=blast-forward&utm_source=crm_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20100518DirtyAirSigners&utm_content=link1

We've been burning things for thousands of years. It worked great and advanced our civilization incredibly. But now we've reached its limitations. It's high time for humans to evolve again, and leave fossil fuels in the past.

Sustainability is our only real future. Let's march boldly to meet it before climate change, tipping points, and peak oil tackle us from behind.

☮ Luke

20. Petition for CREDO to support NET METERING in CA

After 11 years as a homeowner I finally managed to get solar on my roof — thanks to thoughtful incentives programs.

My family has worked hard to change our habits and lifestyle to reduce our energy use. Our efforts would have even more value in the fight against climate change if the extra electricity we generate could provide a clean and infinitely sustainable power source for other Californians.

It is unconscionable in the face of catastrophic tipping points that utilities are subversively blockading the necessary greening of power in this country. Every citizen and business needs to do everything possible to support and promote clean energy.

Do the right thing. Do the necessary thing. Do the patriotic thing: Support Net Metering.

☮ Luke

21. Letter to CA congresswoman to vote for AB32 - cap + tax greenhouse gas emissions

The very definition of sustainability necessitates a 'flat line' on pollution, use of resources and energy. But if you don't also hold to zero population growth, all those 'flat line's per capita will STILL result in worldwide growth of pollution, resource depletion and energy consumption.

This is not opinion: this is glaringly obvious and elementarily simple math of human civilization on Earth.

We citizens and our representative agents in elected office (you) MUST make the tough and immediate choices to limit ourselves. Passing AB32 is one of many. If we don't, our failure to act urgently to mitigate the inevitable suffering of our species will be recognized by future generations as one of the most staggering shortsighted failures of our species.

Buck up - or the difficulty of this decision will pale compared to what we'll be faced with shortly.

☮ Luke

22. Letter to the Wall Street Journal: A red herring on climate change

The Journal's selectively one-sided coverage of the so-called 'Climategate' distraction demonstrates that even top editors have been fooled by the red herring shell game radical conservatives are playing with climate change. The scientific evidence is so extraordinarily proved and ubiquitously accepted that I can't even call the Journal's political viewpoint REPORTING as it violates the basic tenets of objectivity. History will easily isolate the Journal's agenda as foolishly shortsighted and dangerous.

I encourage the Journal to report with integrity by following up on the 30 sensationalist 'Climategate' editorials with a comprehensive story exonerating the climate scientists and underscoring the reality and urgency of climate change.

☮ Luke

23. Petition for MoveOn to Feinstein to support Green Economy + Clean Energy Jobs

If we don't address climate crisis and peak oil by kick-starting a green economy, by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in December, and with ambitious 'post carbon' thinking on all fronts, no amount of economic stimulus + recovery will be sustainable.

Turning around the Titanic of short-term growth-based capitalism of the US before we hit the ice berg requires a serious all-hands-on-deck collaboration.

Grab an oar and start paddling by activating clean energy jobs NOW!

☮ Luke

24. Compare Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac to Global Warming & Peak Oil

Neocons supported “Privatize upside, socialize downside” of Mae & Mac. Now throwing money at the problem because “no one wants to do NOTHING when the potential downsides are SO disastrous!”

Progressives should use this failed MO to demonstrate the problems with neocons approach to GW & PO. Shouldn’t we learn from Mac & Mae etc, so we don’t find ourselves in a panic throwing money at the problem and “socializing the downside”?!

☮ Luke

25. Proposal to the Courage Campaign to become a PAC

when conservative republicans score political victories, they often do so not on the strength of their ideas, but by ambitiously employing pro-active tactics - even if those methods are disingenuous and divisive.

frankly, they've sharpened this skill and used it to great effect.

in my opinion (in my hopes?) progressive democrats err towards a more genuine campaign with less divisive rhetoric. but to the extent that we also risk losing the balance of power - and therefore the balance of legislation - i think it's high time progressives acknowledged the political leverage gained by more pro-active tactics.

among those tactics is the Courage Campaign evolving into a PAC.

do it

with great appreciation and respect

☮ Luke

26. Petition from MoveOn to Obama: executive order to expose political spending by federally funded industrial military complex

it is stunningly hypocritical for right wing hawks to decry 'handouts' and warn of the 'socialization' of our country, while they ambitiously strategize and lobby to support the staggering federal budgets that prop up their industrial military complex.

it's easy to end, mr president, with an executive order from you — and we the people are lobbying you to be the change we believed in.

very gratefully,

☮ Luke

27. Letter to councilman Tom LaBonge: Protect entire Griffith Park!

Dear sir,

As a passionate and frequent user of beautiful Griffith Park, I want to express my deep interest in having this rare and virtually unspoiled treasure preserved in its entirety as an Historic Cultural Monument. Anything less could allow commercial developers to leverage current and future loopholes for private interests.

Los Angeles is overrun by density and sprawl, synonymous with stress and traffic congestion, and infrequently dotted with unsustainably lush and artificially manicured micro-parks – most of which are in upscale neighborhoods. In stark contrast, Griffith Park stands as a friendly giant, a miraculous sanctuary for the people and a rare urban glimpse into Southern California’s natural desert landscape.

Let me add specifically that Griffith Park was high on the list of reasons I moved my family into the Franklin / Foothill / Oaks neighborhood. Many of us who can’t afford a home close to the ocean or one with a large and lush lawn take great comfort in the dramatic hills and grassy valleys of Griffith Park. For ten years since moving to LA I have become intimate with the expansive network of tiny trails well off the beaten path. In the cool fog on my sunrise hikes I take enormous pleasure in spotting an occasional coyote, rabbit or deer.

My whole family loves Griffith Park. My two children enjoyed their first birthdays here. Their first play dates with toddler friends were here. They learned to swing and slide and climb here. I taught them to hike and appreciate nature, to tread lightly and leave it better than we found it (pick up at least one piece of litter). They learned to ride bicycles in the grassy lawn near the Greek Theater and tried their first hand at rock climbing on the walls of the Bat Cave.

In fact, even our family tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny live among the lush shade of Fern Dell! Shhhh.

Countless ordinary citizens who love the park may not be aware of this debate, or have an opportunity to weigh in as I just have. But they are many, and they cherish the park as my family does.

So please follow the incredible foresight of Mr. Griffith in preserving this open land for the people. Honor this natural crown jewel of our city by designating it an Historic Cultural Monument.

I’m grateful for your deep consideration.

☮ Luke

28. Letter to Obama: “You caved on EPA ...”

Dear President Obama,

The Sierra Club + NRDC + 350.org have pursued me to sign a reprimand to you for rolling back on your own 2013 EPA regulations. They want me to be upset at you. I'm a staunch climate change activist, so environmental setbacks like this ARE especially painful to me.

But I also recognize your triangulation for 2012: who else are we gonna vote for ... Perry? Impossible.

So you've got us progressive greenies over a barrel. But as long as this is a short-term conciliatory tactic to survive the election cycle, I don't mind. Whatever it takes to get you reelected is the best America can hope for on climate change in the next 4 years.

Meanwhile I'm going to keep defending you, and writing and evangelizing and organizing and fundraising for you because I'm confident that if you win a 2nd term, not only will your long-term strategies pay off, but you'll be unshackled to pursue a more liberal agenda – an agenda that more closely reflects your base.

And that's when I EXPECT you to make good on your promise to deal intelligently, ambitiously, and with integrity around the world on climate change.

Best of luck. We're with you. And we need you to be with us.

☮ Luke