“What do you know for sure?”
– The question film critic Gene Siskel 
often asked his guests before concluding an interview.

February 1, 2025, marked the 15th anniversary when I started blogging. I felt pressure to begin writing a blog to maintain my www.climatechangecomedian.com website that my friend John Dantico helped me launch in April 2010. 

After he successfully helped me create my website, John gave me advice that shook me to my core. He remarked, “Now you will need to consistently set aside time to write a blog for your website so you can create followers and draw attention to your website.” 

My swallowed hard and my stomach tensed up. I thought, “Me! Write regularly? There’s no way! I am not a writer.” 

My website sat dormant for the next 10 months. At that time, I did not think of myself as a writer, so I made every excuse possible to not write. By the end of January 2011, I was out of excuses. One month earlier, I went through the worst break up of my life when a woman I deeply loved dumped me. As part of the way to re-invent myself and move forward in life, I decided it was time for me to start blogging. 

At that time, I spent my winters at my parents’ home in St. Louis, Missouri in between my summer job working as a naturalist ranger at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. I stared at my laptop as I sat at their dining room table for hours trying to come up with something to write.

On February 1, 2011, I did it! I wrote my My First Blog Ever. 

In that blog, I focused on the two things I knew for sure at that time: 

1) Think Globally,
Act Daily

2) Each and every one of us can change the world. We do this by
    a) The way we vote
    b) The products we buy
c) The attitudes we share with each other.

I came up with those two personal mantras or core beliefs when I worked as a naturalist guide in Everglades National Park in Flamingo, Florida from 1998 to 2002. I narrated two different boat tours. One tour that went into the open water of Florida with the possibility of seeing dolphins and a few wading birds. The other tour went into the mangrove backcountry with possible views of alligators, crocodiles, a few wading birds, and manatees. 

While I pointed out wildlife and notable plants and trees on these tours, I talked about the Everglades as one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems. Coastal human development spreading from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale shrunk the historical natural Everglades ecosystem in half. Most of the natural Everglades’ water in the went to the urban areas and farms. As a result, the ecosystem had lost about 90% of its fish, birds, and alligators since early 20th century. On some days, a visitor could still see some alligators and birds. However, all the historical reports stated the natural Everglades once teeming with fish, birds and other wildlife.

After I gave this sobering news to visitors, I went around the boat to talk to visitors individually after I wrapped up my narration. Some visitors felt angry at humans but felt hopeless to do anything about it. I affirmed that they can and must do what they can to save the Everglades and the planet. I always ended my talks with the Joe Pogder quote, “The Everglades is a test. If we pass the test, we get to keep the planet.” 

In addition, I quoted Marjory Stoneman Douglas, considered to be the Mother of Everglades National Park. Decades ago, I heard her say in a documentary that when it comes to saving the Everglades, the environment, and the Earth from human destruction, “It’s not a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic, it’s simply something that has to be done.” 

Those quotes did not seem to provide enough reassurance to visitors of their agency. Thus, I created my own quotes at that time to enlighten them of their own personal power. My conversations on those boats seemed to go better as I shared my unique perspective on the world. I especially liked my twist on that common expression at that time, “Think globally, act locally.” 

In the early 2000s, I was not motivated to act locally in a neighborhood or in a community sense. I lived and worked seasonally in the national parks. Looking back now, I was acting locally with seeing environmental destruction in the Everglades. However, I was not really interested in acting locally, just acting daily. Therefore, I loved my own bending of that sound bite. I liked the idea of acting daily of mentioning in my ranger talks the environmental damage and the solutions we could do as individuals. When I was not working, I wrote letters and made phone calls to the offices of my members of Congress and attended local Miami environmental meetings. 

I remember park visitors even laughing when I would say, ‘When it comes to taking action, I have often heard the expression “Think globally, act locally.” But what if I don’t feel like acting locally? Well, I can still act daily and that gives me hope.’ 

Those two expressions that I created on my own propelled for decades afterwards. I remember writing them down and posting them on my refrigerator somewhere around the year 2001 while living and working in Flamingo, Florida. While living at that time in Everglades National Park, I began collecting inspiring quotes by famous people to help guide my life and thinking. I ended up with a small green backpack filled with various insightful quotes written on scraps of paper in several Zip Lock bags to keep them safe. My first two quotes I shared here and in my first blog in February 2011 were always my favorites of my collection.

3. Ranger Brian’s Pocket-sized Wisdom 

In the summer of 2008, I worked in my third season as a naturalist or interpretation ranger at Crater Lake National Park. That August, the lead interpretation ranger Dave Grimes, assigned me to lead sunset guided ranger hikes up the Watchman Peak at Crater Lake National Park. The hike was less of a mile long one way and led to the fire lookout tower at the summit of the Watchman Peak, which was just over 8,000 feet above sea level. As I wrote more extensively in my blog post, For Climate Action, advice from a former park ranger, I was still grieving my mentor, park ranger Steve Robinson, passing away in October 2007. 

I choose to end my ranger hike up the Watchman Peak with a small pocket-sized card that I gave to visitors as a gift at the conclusion of my program. I called it Ranger Brian’s Wisdom. However, most of the wisdom was my mentor Steve Robinson’s advice to me in our many hours of conversation over the years when we both worked in Everglades and Crater Lake National Parks from 1993 to 2007. My pocket-sized prose was like a good John Lennon and Paul McCartney Beatles composed song because it was a synergy of both our ideas. Although I admit most of the thoughts originated with Steve, it was certainly things we agreed upon in our long discussions. I ended Ranger Brian’s Wisdom with my own original quote, “Think globally, act daily.” 

I stopped working as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park in October 2017. Thus, I ended giving my sunset guided ranger hikes up the Watchman Peak that same summer. However, I still have a stack of those cards Ranger Brian’s Wisdom in my dresser drawer that I give out to friends now and then. 

Besides my first two quotes I shared here and in my first blog, I hope to be remembered for the words I composed with the guidance of my mentor Steve Robinson in Ranger Brian’s Wisdom. 

4. Never Give into Despair, Cynicism, Pessimism, and Hopelessness 

For my liberal, progressive, and climate friends, 2017 was a depressing year for them and me. The swearing in of Donald Trump as President on January 20th soon led to his lie that his inauguration crowd size was bigger than Obama’s inauguration crowds. A few days later, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway promoted “alternative facts,” when host of NBC’s Meet the Press Chuck Todd pressed her on Trump’s falsehood of “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”  It was obvious from the beginning of the year that Donald Trump was not interested in the truth, being held accountable by the press and the American public, and that he intended to assert lies even when the truth was obvious. 

A couple of days later, Donald Trump issued an executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. It was the beginning of Trump’s actions as President to foster discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities he did not like. 

For climate action, the news was bleak in March 2017 when Trump moved to dismantle President dismantle Obama’s climate legacy. Trump issued an executive order to basically end the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s flagship policy to curb carbon emissions. Trump’s executive order rescinded the Clean Power Plan’s moratorium on the sale of coalmining leases on federal lands. His action was consistent with his wrong and shortsighted assertion since his 2014 tweet that “Global warming is an expensive hoax!”

With that 2017 executive order on coal, Trump conveniently ignored the evidence that coal is the most carbon-intensive and dirtiest fossil fuel causing global climate change. 

Trump followed up that March executive order on coal with withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords on June 1, 2017. In his announcement, he made the head scratching comment that he was “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” He blindly ignored that climate change is a global problem that was and would continue to severely harm the U.S. 

The decision was a blow to environmentalists, business leaders and international figures, many of whom have urged Trump to reconsider.

On the legal front, in May 2017, Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and possible ties to the Trump campaign and top aides.

A few days later in May, the U.S. Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee the growing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible ties to associates of President Trump. That cloud of impropriety hung over Donald Trump for the rest of 2017.  

The national news became more dour as the year progressed. In August 2017, the smoke from the fire season in the Pacific Northwest was so intense that NASA documented images of the fires from space. On a personal level, the smoke was hazardous to breathe, dampened park visitors’ experiences to Crater Lake National Park, and it made it more challenging for me to work as a park ranger there in the summer of 2017. 

For scientists and U.S. federal agencies, they had no doubt that climate change played a role in causing these severe 2017 wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. 

For years afterward, Trump was clueless about the connection with catastrophic wildfires and climate change. In November 2018, he continued his bogus assertion that solely blaming wildfires on poor forest management while ignoring the influence of climate change. 

While these forest fires raged in the Pacific Northwest, deadly violence broke out at a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Instead of condemning the racist hate groups for causing the violence, Trump declared “there is blame on both sides.”

In September 2017, the category 4 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico leading to widespread destruction. 

Sadly, in the recovery efforts after the hurricane in October 2017, Donald Trump gave a callous response of accusing the island’s leaders of wanting “everything done for them” as they cope with the devastation.

It proved once again his insincerity and lack of caring in response to a natural disaster. 

In October 2017, a mass shooting in Las Vegas led to nearly 60 deaths and trauma for the victims’ families as well as those in attendance. 

2017 would later become the deadliest year for U.S. mass killings in at least a decade. 

After the Las Vegas mass shooting, the other terrible news in 2017 leading up to that event, and Donald Trump’s continuous inappropriate reactions, I posted this on my social media on October 3, 2017: “My response to friends to friends who are feeling frustrated right now about climate action, gun control, civil rights, women’s rights, equality, immigration reform, voting rights, etc. NEVER GIVE UP HOPE. 

‘Action is the antidote for despair.’ – Joan Baez.” 

I followed it up with this meme I created: 

I felt like Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans’ response to climate change, natural disasters, the far-right violence in Charlottesville VA, gun violence, and promotion of disinformation from the beginning of the year was intentional to leave people feeling hopeless and losing the moral courage to take action. I wanted to boost people’s spirits. I had a need help people that care to see that Trump and the far right wanted Democrats, progressives, liberals, climate advocates, and friends not to give up. That they can and should try to make a difference, no matter how bad the news was then. 

Over the years, I continued to post that meme in response to tragic events when people are hurting. I hope this idea of mine goes on long after I am gone to never give into hopelessness. I believe strongly that we can never give into pessimism and giving up on action because that is exactly what the other side wants us to do. 

5. Make a difference with joy!  

As I wrote in my previous blog, it was a gut-wrenching blow for me when Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans won the November 5, 2025 Presidential election. I put all my work energy in 2024 into knocking on doors and organizing events to urge Oregon voters and elsewhere to not return him to power again. Fortunately, I received an award certificate from Oregon Representative Hoa Nguyen and a thank you card from Oregon Representative Ricki Ruiz for all my canvassing efforts. Plus, it was a morale boost when I traveled for a day to Woodburn, Oregon on November 21, 2024 to chase ballots for Oregon House Democratic candidate Lesly Muñoz who was declared the winner of her race less than a week later. 

Even though I felt raw after in late November 2024 with Donald Trump’s victory at the beginning of the month, it was a morale boost to travel with my wife Tanya to my hometown of St. Louis Missouri November 28th to December 8th to see my parents, Tanya’s parents, our siblings, and extended family living there. The good tidings of being on vacation and spending time with family inspired me to create this meme: 

It was a quick creative thought during our trip that I immediately turned into a meme and put on social media. I thought it summed up my attitude on life succinctly. As long as I could remember, I always wanted to make a difference in the world and do it in a way that was fun, fulfilling, and inspired others. 

For decades, I loved the quote: 

“Nothing great was ever done without enthusiasm,” Ralph Waldo Emerson

 So many people, including me, laughed and felt happier after hearing the song from Monty Python’s Life of Brian: 

“Always look on the bright side of life.” 

Oh, I must add as a fellow Brian, I love that movie title! 

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I have collected inspirational quotes for many years. One of my favorite quotes is from teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank who wrote in her book, The Diary of a Young Girl

“Whoever is happy will make others happy.” 

I admire the quote credited to American evangelical minister Billy Graham: 

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”

In addition, I was influenced for years by the quote falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln, 

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” 

According to Quote Investigator, no direct evidence exists Abraham Lincoln made that statement. I was drawn to that quote decades ago believing Lincoln said it. Even if I know better now it is most likely that Lincoln never uttered those words, I still believe it is an inspiring quote. I wish whoever originated it took ownership instead of attaching it to Lincoln.

to add to the previous quotes noted, I liked this Bible quote from Philippians 4:8.

“Finally, Brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

I could go on to share so many other positive quotes from my green backpack of quotes I wrote and captured on slips of paper over the decades. They are too numerous to count. 

All those quotes, the optimism I received from parents and teachers growing up, as well as other influencers led me to my personal outlook of “Making a difference with joy!” 

In Conclusion: So, what do I know for sure? 

Almost 30 years ago, I heard TV host and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey talk about an interview film critic Gene Siskel had with her when she promoted the 1998 movie Beloved. She was the leading actress in the film when she sat down with Siskel to create publicity for the motion picture. He ended the interview, the way he liked to conclude all his interviews with notable people, asking the question, “What do you know for sure?” 

Immediately after Gene Siskel asked Oprah that question, she was stumped, caught off guard, and did not know how to answer it. His question stuck on her mind for days afterwards. To this day, Winfrey thinks Siskel was the first person to ask her that type of question. It caused her to regularly take stock of her life. After Siskel’s death in 1999, Oprah choose to weave it into her television program and magazine. she then regularly wrote a column in the last page of her monthly O, The Oprah Magazine called “What I Know for Sure.” She then took those original essays from 2000 onwards and compiled them into a 2014 book, What I know for Sure. 

Gene Siskel posed this question of the people he interviewed, including Oprah, as to satisfy “His quest for knowledge and drive to understand the human spirit.” He was curious to reveal the interior of the minds and provide un-scripted and passionate responses from even the most frigid and guarded celebrities. His motive for asking the question was clear: “The world consists of people from diverse walks of life, each carrying with them a different life story. If he could get his guests to share with him and his viewers the one thing in life that they are certain is true, perhaps the world could be a better place.” 

No doubt that Gene Siskel asking Oprah Winfrey that question in 1998 made her a better person. Ever since Oprah shared that story on TV decades ago, I have been asking myself that question: “What do I know for sure?” 

I especially want my friends and family to know my answer to this question if I was struck by lightning or hit by a bus tomorrow, God forbid. I don’t want them to have to guess: What did Brian know for sure?

I hope it does not sound macabre to say this, but I heard recently that many wise men and women, philosophers, authors, and social commenters say that ‘the meaning of life is the preparation for death.’ 

One quote in particular:  

“Tota vita discendum est mori” (All of life is a preparation for death). – Seneca

Thus, I want family, friends, and anyone curious about me to know this is what I know for sure: 

1) Think Globally,
Act Daily

2) Each and every one of us can change the world. We do this by
a) The way we vote
b) The products we buy
c) The attitudes we share with each other.

3) Ranger Brian’s Wisdom
For Every Question,
There Is Not Necessarily an Answer.
Yield to the Mysteries of Nature.

Take Time to Enjoy the View
and Smell the Roses.
Find your Own Sacred Place.

If Nature is Your Hobby,
You Will Never Be Bored.
You Can Never Step in the Same Stream Twice.

There Are Things We Love, Things We Hate,
And Things to Which We are Indifferent.
However, In Nature, Everything Matters.

Every Single Person Makes the World Every Single Day.
Think Globally, Act Daily.

4) Remember that your political adversaries want you to feel demoralized, cynical, and hopeless about taking political action. NEVER GIVE THEM THAT SATISFACTION.

5) Make a difference with joy!