Our Existential Challenge

Our Existential Challenge

Though I consider myself first a citizen of the planet, I continue to believe that the precepts - first laid down by my own Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) ancestors and then adopted by the framers of the US Constitution - are the foundation of the last best hope for the planet. That is why I am a patriot.

Last night I listened to an interview with PJ O'Rourke on NH Public Radio who said that the baby boom generation had never faced the sort of challenges that previous generations had faced. It was - ironically - followed by a short piece related to climate change. I assert that the challenges of climate change are in fact the greatest existential challenge that we have ever faced; and, while the solution must be forged inter-generationally, the baby boom generation has the greatest obligation to act because we bear the greatest responsibility for the creation of the problem. Furthermore, halting the advance of climate change is hardest for us because we, naturally, have become more set in our ways. In short, we must lead the way and get out of the way at the same time . . .

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Reviving the Mt Eustis Community Ski Area

The cost of a ski ticket has - lately especially - made the sport of skiing out of reach for most New Hampshire folks. In addition to this, most ski areas have dropped their special rates for local citizens and especially students - an act that they will regret as climate change makes it more and more challenging to draw skiers. That's what makes this effort to revive the Mount Eustis community ski area important.

New Hampshire was once dotted with these small community ski areas. After all, New Hampshire was the birthplace of skiing in the United States so it made sense that communities would make an effort to provide an opportunity for their citizens. But over the years, particularly when skiing was more affordable to the average citizen and ski areas had community discounts for locals, the number of these ski areas dwindled until there were almost none.

Expect to see more of these efforts to revive old ski hills. You can learn more about NH's "lost" ski hills here.

You can help with the effort in many ways. I've donate sales of a beautiful image "Tamarack Tempest" taken within a few miles of Mt. Eustis.






To purchase this image on cards, posters as open edition or limited edition fine art prints, click here.

Preparing for Climate Change in New Hampshire and Militating the Damage

Preparing for Climate Change in New Hampshire and Militating the Damage

For those who missed it, Laura Knoy's edition of The Exchange today on NH Public Radio, featured a discussion about Climate change that was very interesting and disturbing. Two important points of the many made deserve our attention. The first is that, without naming the Northern Pass Project the two scientists stressed the need for decentralized renewable energy as the pathway to a healthier and safer energy future for New Hampshire. Centralized sources of power - like Northern Pass - are more likely to generate jobs elsewhere instead of here in NH and push NH in the direction of what they termed the "High Emissions Scenario" that will wreak economic and environmental havoc on NH. Centralized sources also make us much more vulnerable to acts of terrorism (my observation not part of the discussion). The second point is that what we can do as individuals matters a great deal. Every step we take to reduce our own personal dependence on carbon generating energy sources is a gift we give to the earth.

Knoy's guests, Cameron Wake from UNH's renowned Institute for Earth Oceans and Space, who co-authored UNH's Report on Climate Change in New Hampshire; and Michael Simpson, climate adaptation scientist and chair of the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch University New England, which just announced establishment of a new Climate Change Preparedness Center at Antioch.

The burial of the power lines of Northern Pass is often mentioned as the resolution of the problem but in truth burial of the power lines is a compromise that fails to tackle the most important policy questions with respect to New Hampshire's energy future. If we have to live with buried power lines, it will be a victory for our "view shed" but the fundamental flaws that should kill Northern Pass altogether will cast a pall on our future in many other ways.


Read: http://nhpr.org/post/adapting-climate-change-flood-insurance

Listen here

UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Spacehttp://www.eos.unh.edu

UNH’s report on climate change in New Hampshire.

Environmental Studies department at Antioch University New England

Antioch Center to study climate change preparedness

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Time to Move Beyond the Death Penalty in New Hampshire

Time to Move Beyond the Death Penalty in New Hampshire

Wayne D. King

Like a lot of citizens, I have been all over the board on the death penalty during my life. It not because I’m indecisive, it’s because like most of us, I found it hard to get beyond the Old Testament admonition of “an eye for an eye” when I was hurting or outraged over an injustice. In my heart, I knew it was morally wrong for government to punish an individual for a heinous crime by committing the same act itself. But in truth, I simply chose not to think about that and to simply come down on the side of vengeance. 

But the years have gone by and while my eyesight may have dimmed, time and experience have sharpened my vision. It’s partly the number of people who have been proven to be innocent after being convicted of crimes by our judicial system - including some who have been shown to be innocent after the sentence has been carried out; It’s partly from my discomfort with a system that - while trying hard to be conscientious - is still not colorblind or egalitarian. It partly that I am more inclined toward the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi and King now than I am toward the Old Testament view of the world.   And while it seems cold to consider costs of capital punishment when a human life hangs in the balance, the simple truth is that in a just society it costs more to put someone to death than to simply throw away the key.

For the Senators who are faced with a vote for or against repeal of the death penalty I have only sympathy. I’ve been there. But the view from here is different. First because it is clear to me now from the outside that this is an issue of conscience that your constituents will respect.  They may come down in a different place from you but with very few exceptions - even among those who are actively involved on one side or the other in the legislative battle - they will not base their vote on your position on this issue.

I don’t often worry too much about where the United States is in relation to the rest of the world but on an issue of human rights - well, we should be second to none. Would we find it acceptable if - for example - segregation was still acceptable here when the rest of the developed world had moved beyond it? Would we allow the employment of children at long, dangerous and filthy work, even though the rest of the developed world had outlawed child labor? All the countries of Europe, plus Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Rwanda, and many more have put the death penalty behind them.  It’s time for New Hampshire and the USA to do the same. 

Yes, this is an issue of conscience, but for those who vote to repeal the death penalty you can be sure that in addition to a forgiving public, you will be on the side of the moral arc of history. The time has come for us to assume our rightful place of moral leadership on this issue and eliminate the death penalty. 

Wayne King is a recovering politician and the President of Moosewood Communications in Rumney, NH.

How Wolves Change Rivers

How Wolves Change Rivers : If you have ever wondered why it matters that we restore a healthy wolf population to Yellowstone (and other places) take the time to watch this beautifully done video.

Faithful Friends

Two faithful friends make their way in the world together on the streets of Brussels, Belgium. Despite the rantings of a few politically correct and misinformed people the relationship between a carriage horse and driver is almost always that of faithful friends.

One original of this image is created, signed, dated and with a certificate of authenticity. The image is used for creation of an open edition but otherwise archived and kept only for historic purposes and publications.

The framed original print is live signed, dated, with a certificate of authenticity.

"The Faithful"

Wayne D. King

Framed original image (1/1)

Image size: 15.63x24

* Frame: 20.13x28.50

Frame: Black Metal (Neilsen style)

Off white acid free matt

Plexiglass

Price $895

 

An open edition of this image is available for those who would like a more affordable alternative to purchasing the original art. For your choices of size and style please click here.

* If you purchase this image and request input on framing choices, we can give you some alternatives.

Kerry Tees Up Keystone for Obama Veto

For those in the business of reading political tea leaves the speech last week in Jakarta by Secretary of State John Kerry is an important milestone.

Ok so I'm mixing metaphors, its an important lump of tea leaves just doesn't do it and furthermore makes light of an issue far too important for us to make light of.

Kerry's speech was the strongest statement yet from an administration that has already made Climate change a cornerstone issue. Most important, Kerry did not mince words. He spoke more like a scientist than as a politician, noting that when 98.9 percent of the scientists say that the world is round, we don't give equal time to the Flat Earth Society and we should treat climate change the same way or we will destroy the only home we have.

Kerry did not polish the rough edges of his speech, he did not "put a shine on it" as some would say; he came right out and said that Climate change was a weapon of mass destruction that we were arming against our own future.

A speech like this is not done in a vacuum. The Secretary of State has plenty of latitude to do his/her job of course but when he makes a speech as powerful as this one, he has to have run it up the flagpole with the White House.

If John Kerry has not intentionally teed up the Keystone Pipeline for a veto by President Obama then he has at the very least put his hand on the scales. Kudos to him for that.

Keystone is bad for the planet but the root problem is not the pipeline, it is the harvesting of the Tar Sands themselves and until we find a way to address the root problem, a Keystone veto will only be a wrinkle in the rug that will pop up somewhere else in the house of cards we call Planet Earth.

~wdk

Rotary Park in Snow, Plymouth, NH
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