Calendar

FROM WIRT: In solidarity with Nez Perce megaload blockaders, carpools are departing the WIRT Activist House at 8 am on Monday, September 9, with stops through the reservation, to rally outside and pack the 4 pm Boise federal court hearing seeking a megaload injunction. Advocates for the West will present oral arguments for suspending Idaho Transportation Department permits for Highway 12 megaloads until the Forest Service completes its megaload impact study. After the Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Rivers United (IRU) versus the U.S. Forest Service case hearing, IRU is hosting a gathering of anti-megaload activists that evening, before we return to north central Idaho. Please contact IRU at 208-343-7481 or info@idahorivers.org if you can attend the party and call 208-301-8039 if you plan to carpool from the Moscow area. The following article and alert describe new developments in this lawsuit.

Sponsored by Friends of the Moscow Library. She recently published a book on this subject. PESC tried to set up a presentation from her back at the beginning of this year but conflicts got in the way. Her talk should be interesting and perhaps controversial because she presents climate change from the perspective of geologic history. Flyer about E. Kirsten Peters talk, “The Whole Story of Climate Change.”

While the recent work of climate scientists has added
greatly to our understanding of the fragility of climate, the
public rarely hears from geologists— even though
geologists have been studying climate change for almost
200 years. The typical American has the impression that
climate would be stable if it weren’t for industrialization and
the production of greenhouse gases from smokestacks and
cars. However, geologic history reveals a ceaselessly
changing climate going back millions of years before the
modern economy.

As The Whole Story of Climate explains, several long, cold
spells have been punctuated by short, warm ones. We are,
in fact, currently living in one of the short, warm periods
that the Earth has seen many times before. There is even a
serious hypothesis worth exploring that if it weren’t for the
greenhouse gases created for millennia by agriculture we
would today be headed back into a time of bitterly cold
temperatures worthy of the mastodons and mammoths
many of us read about as children.

Elsa Kirsten Peters grew up in Pullman. She was a geology major
at Princeton and earned her PhD in geology at Harvard. She has
taught undergraduate geology at WSU and is the author of several
books, as well as the syndicated “Rock Doc” newspaper column.
She has also published murder mysteries under the pen name
Irene Allen.

A presentation that will launch the Palouse Region chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby and explain the case for a revenue-neutral federal carbon fee and dividend. William Barron, Regional Coordinator for Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), will lead the presentation. Saturday, March 29 from 1 pm to 4 pm, Fiske Room of the 1912 Center.

The Palouse Region CCL is officially started now, following a great opening meeting last Saturday with front page coverage in the Daily News on Monday! (One of the first items to discuss will be the best time for everyone to meet.) The following is from an email from Rob Briggs and Pat Rathmann last Thursday:

 

We will have our first regular meeting on Monday April 7 at 7:00 pm in the sanctuary (up stairs) of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, 420 E 2nd St, Moscow, ID.

 

The agenda for the meeting will include listening to the national Citizen’s Climate Lobby conference call.  These calls are invariably upbeat and informative and provide concrete actions that we can take to move the campaign for effective federal climate legislation forward.

 

Additionally, we will be taking initial steps to organize into interest groups to tackle various educational, outreach, and lobbying activities.  We’re hoping to establish multiple interest groups that feel empowered to act, and then use the monthly meetings simply for coordination and sharing successes.

 

There is a wide variety of productive roles you can play in CCL.  These range from reliably reading local newspapers, to serving as behind-the-scenes climate science advisor, tabling, giving presentations, writing letters to the editor, and meeting with Senators and House members.  There are important roles for all skill sets and comfort levels.

 

As Bill Barron mentioned several times on Saturday, CCL likes things to run on time.  We’re hoping to run our chapter meetings in a disciplined and effective way that is respectful of everyone’s time.  CCL suggests that monthly meetings run for two hours.  We rather like the idea of finishing early and retiring to some gathering place to socialize and strategize informally.  CCL provides great opportunities for us to innovate locally, share nationally, and thereby attach a big multiplier to our creative efforts.