Author Archives: bettling

The Silence that Speaks to Us

            I have a friend and mentor, Steve, who was a ranger in Everglades National Park in Florida.  In his spare time, he would drive up to a scenic overlook.  He loved to sit there and look over the beautiful scene of a saw grass prairie.  It looks like this.  One occasion, when he was there for a time, a park visitor drives his car up to the nearby parking lot.  The visitor grabs his camera from the car and quickly runs to the overlook.  When he gets there, the visitor felt disappointed in the lack of action and the flatness of the plain saw grass vista.  So he mumbles, “Nothing.”  Steve smiled at him.  He looked at the scene, stretched out his arms, and proclaimed, “Everything.”
 
            For the past 20 years, I work in our nation’s national parks.  During that time, I notice that many park visitors do not take enough time to appreciate and enjoy these spectacular areas.  According National Park Service surveys, the average visitor spends about four hours visiting at national park.  Of those visitors, eighty percent of their time is spent inside their car driving around the park.  Those folks spend the remaining time outside their car using the bathroom, getting food, and buying souvenirs.
            My focus today is to encourage you to spend more time in nature.  We need to do this for three reasons:  for inter peace to balance the turmoil in our world, for renewal from the stress and demands of our own lives, and because nature can actually give us guidance on how to live our lives.
            First, as we all know, the chaos in the world is very intense right now with war, recession, terrorism, gas prices, and other problems.  It is so important not to let these problems overwhelm us.  Anne Frank, the teenage girl who was a victim of the Nazi Holocaust almost seventy years ago, wrote in her famous diary on February 23, 1944.
“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be…amidst the simple beauty of nature.
 
 In the year 2012, nature can still provide comfort for us when it seems like the world is aiming for us.
            Second, we need to spend quiet time in natural areas not just to escape from the outer problems of the world.  We also need to spend time in nature to refresh ourselves from the stress and obligations of our own lives.  Our own lives carry the demands of paying bills, work, family, school, and even preparing speeches for tonight.  Nature can give us a temporary peace and courage to face our problems.
“Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to the body and soul alike.”
 
The beauty of nature can provide hope and inspiration for our stressful lives.
            My third point, not only can nature uplift us from the anxiety of the world and our own problems; nature can also teach us how to live and function in the world.  As you spend some quiet time in nature, you will hear your inner wisdom.  You may even be open to the beauty of the scenery speaking to you.  As John Denver sang over thirty years ago:
 “But the Colorado Rocky Mountain high,
   I have seen it rain and fire in the sky
   You can talk to God and listen to the
   casual reply
   Rocky Mountain high, Colorado…”
            I can hear what you are thinking right now.  Brian, I do not have time or money to travel to the Everglades, the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite or other wilderness areas.  However, the beauty is you do not need to leave St. Louis to enjoy nature.  A walk in nearby Power Valley State Park can be quality time in nature.  If you have woods behind your house, take advantage of them.  My favorite activity is go hiking in nearby Bee Tree County Park that overlooks the Mississippi River.  You do not need much time either.  Just ten minutes in a natural area will do a world of good for you.
           Now we have talked about how spending time in nature can provide inner peace, renewal and guidance for our lives.  Before I end my speech, I want to share a story how spending time in nature can also help us develop our sense of humor.  One day a man was walking in the woods when he thought he heard the voice of God.
The man said, “God, can I ask you a question?”
God said, “Sure, go ahead.”
The man said, “God what is a million years to you?”
God said, “Well, a million years is as a second to me.”
The man asks, “What is a million dollars to you?
God says, “To me, a million dollars is as a penny.”
So the man asks, “God can I have a penny?”
God says, “Sure, just a second.”
Spending time in nature can be the silence that speaks to us, even providing us with a sense of humor.  Unfortunately, my friend Steve passed away over four years ago from cancer.  All I have left of him is this picture, as well as his wisdom, humorous stories, and his love of nature.  Steve would want me to conclude my speech tonight saying,
“Spending time in nature even if it is a saw grass prairie, is not NOTHING, it is EVERYTHING.” 
 
 
 

EXPAND YOUR PATRIOTISM!

It was a late at night and a policeman was responding to public disturbance.  The officer tried to break up the scene by asking a scruffy instigator, “Where do you live?”
The middle aged shabby man responded, “I live on 8th Street.”
The policeman inquired, “What is your address?”
The untidy man then hemmed and hawed, but he would not give a direct answer.
The cop then barked, “Look, are you a transient?”
“No!” the homeless man defiantly responded, “I AM AN AMERICAN!”
This is a true story on the TV show COPS eighteen years ago.  The man in that story may have been homeless and down on his luck.  However, he was still proud to be an American, just like all of us are here tonight.
America has been so wonderful for me also providing me a free public education, allowing me to work as a ranger in the national parks, and the freedom to travel about the country and world.  Even though I am proud to be an American, I am here tonight to say that my patriotism does not end at the Mexican and Canadian border.  That is where it begins.  I am even more patriotic for the planet, for our spaceship Earth.  It is our home.  Without it, none of us would be here.  My focus here tonight is to inspire you tonight to care for our planet.  Just like you love America, you want to be patriotic for the Earth because it is UNIQUE, SMALL, AND OUR SACRED HOME.
How unique is Earth?  According to the September 12, 2011 edition of National Geographic News, astronomers have now discovered over 600 planets outside our solar system.  As far as scientists can tell, Earth is still the only know planet that can support life for you and me.
  
Author Paul Hawken tells a fascinating story in his 2007 book Blessed Unrest.  Recently, Paul and I even corresponded directly about this story which I think demonstrates how unique the Earth is.  Sixty chemical engineers from a very prominent chemical company were divided into four teams.  Each team was to design a spacecraft that would support life for 100 years.  In this competition, the spaceship would have no size limit, no trap door or way to throw anything away, but it could receive light.  The four teams would present their spaceship.  Everyone would then vote for the best spaceship where they would want to live.   The winners brought no company products.  In fact, they shunned them.  They grew their food organically on the ship, without using the company pesticides.  The other ships brought videos and dvds to entertain themselves.   However, the winners took diverse people on board, such as storytellers, artists, singers, dancers, (and possibly TOASTMASTERS!).  After that, several quit their job at this chemical pesticide company.   They started an organic garden.  To me, this story says you just cannot beat spaceship Earth as a unique home.
My second point: Besides being unique, like the song says: IT REALLY IS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL!

According to NASA, the circumference or distance around the earth is almost 25,000 miles.  That is extremely small when you realize that the average American drives their car over 13,000 miles a year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.  If you do the math, this means the miles you will drive in your car in less than 2 years for all purposes will equal the distance around the earth.
Renowned scientist Carl Sagan used to say that “If you had a globe covered with a coat of varnish, the thickness of that varnish would be about the same as the thickness of the earth’s atmosphere compared to the earth itself.”
Basically, the atmosphere that surrounds us on the planet is extremely miniscule.  The habitable part of the planet where humans can tolerate continuously living appears to be up to 18,000 feet elevation.  This is less than 3 and half miles.  That is less of a distance than probably most of us drove from our house to this Toastmasters meeting tonight.
But, Hey!  We have a big problem right now.   We are treating the small livable part of spaceship earth, our atmosphere, as an unregulated SEWER to dump our vehicle and industrial wastes.  Currently, carbon dioxide emissions are roughly 36.7 billion, with a B, metric tons a year.  Throwing this much carbon dioxide into our atmosphere is really no different than me lighting up a cigarette in this room.   Even more, imagine that you were swimming in a beautiful Olympic size swimming pool.  Then you saw someone peeing into the pool.  Then you saw another person peeing into the pool.  Then another.  And another.  At way point would you yell at the top of your lungs, “STOP PEEING IN MY POOL!”

Fortunately, we can find ways to stop polluting our small spaceship earth.  All this carbon dioxide is thrown into our atmosphere by burning mass qualities of coal, oil, and natural gas.  The good news is that there are alternative ways to obtain our energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, bio fuels, and even nuclear to reduce the pollution of our atmosphere.  Even you can do your part to pollute Spaceship Earth less by driving slower, driving less, and looking for ways to be more energy efficient in your home or business.
Now we just talked about how earth is UNIQUE, SMALL, AND WE ARE POLLUTING IT WAY TOO MUCH.  However, my goal here tonight is to get you to EXPAND YOUR PATRIOTISM.  May your love for America also be expanded to a love for our planet.
 
I want to inspire you to think of the earth as SACRED by giving you a gift here tonight.  Please feel free to open up the envelope placed in front of you.  What is it?  It is a little blue marble.  Now I want you to take that little blue marble between your fingers and stretch out your arm as far as it will go.  This is approximately what spaceship earth, our home looks like from a million miles out in space – a blue water planet. 
I first read about the little blue marbles in this December 2011 issue of Outside Magazine.  SEA turtle Biologist, Wallace J. Nichols, who is pictured on the cover, originated the idea of giving away the blue marble.  Wallace even friended me on Facebook recently.  If Dr. Nichols was here tonight, he would want us to know that if water was inside the marble, the marble would contain virtually all of earth’s elements.  Most importantly, he wants you to think of someone who is doing good work for the planet.  Then, imagine how good both of you would feel if presented them with this marble saying ‘thank you for caring for the earth’.

Again, my focus here tonight was to inspire you to care for our planet.  Whether we are that homeless man causing a disturbance, a policeman or a millionaire, we all have been blessed to live in America.  What a great county!  With all the benefits of living here, it is very easy to be patriotic.  However, there would be no United States of America without sacred planet Earth, our home.  I now want to encourage you for EXPAND YOUR PATRIOTISM FOR THE PLANET.   As American writer and activist Henry David Thoreau said so beautifully in 1851, “What is the use of a house, if you do not have a decent planet to put it on?”

A MESSAGE THAT STICKS

What is the most effective way to communicate with people about climate change?  Even more, how can we inspire people to take action to resolve climate change now?
I found a great answer to this question over a month ago when I attended the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco.  I heard many fabulous presentations about how to communicate climate change effectively.  The best message that still “sticks” in my mind was by Dr. Edward Maibach, the Director of The Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.
Dr Maibach made the case for this formula for effective public communication:
“Simple clear messages, repeated often, by a variety of trusted sources.”
 
Even better, he then showed what this simple clear message is.  It is a beautiful message because it can be repeated often.  Furthermore, one can easily back up this message with a variety of trusted sources, such as NASA, NOAA, American Meteorology Society, all US Military Institutions  (Army, Navy, Air Force, & Coast Guard), and all 32  US & Worldwide Science Academies.
Dr. Maibach then boiled it down to Five messages about global warming – identified through audience research – that you may wish to convey:
 
•      Climate change is real.
 
•      People are causing it this time.
 
•      There is widespread agreement among climate scientists; more than 95% of scientists are convinced of the above two points.
 
•      It is harmful to people.
 
•      People can limit it, if we choose to.
 
As a climate change communicator, I struggle with communicating climate change quickly, succinctly and in a manner that it easy for me to say.  Even more, I think this is a “sticky” message that is easy for my audience to remember.  Hopefully, other climate change communicators can easily repeat this message to their audiences to spread the message.
Dr. Maibach discovered this technique of effective “sticky” messages from the book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip & Dan Heath.  In my correspondence with Maibach and another friend, Tom Smerling, it was highly recommended that I read this book.  I was so impressed with Dr. Maibach’s presentation about effective climate change communication and The Five Messages about Global Warming – that you may wish to convey that I bought Made to Stick yesterday.
I felt like I just found an excellent “sticky” tool to enable me to be a more effective climate change communicator.  I hope this “sticky” tool helps you too.

MY 12 CLIMATE CHANGE HEROES

Let me introduce you to climate change communicators and scientists who are inspiring me to be a climate change communicator.  These folks generously allowed me to have my picture taken with them.  They are not household names.  Most people would not recognize them walking down the street.  Most people would prefer to have their picture taken with a famous movie star, sports athlete, or politician.  On the other hand, below are some of the people I met, who are effectively communicating this message:
• Climate change is real.
• People are causing it.
• Widespread agreement among scientists (more than 95%) that it is happening right now because of humans.
• Climate change is harmful to people.
• Humans can limit the most dangerous consequences if we choose to act now.
1. Dr. Gavin Schmidt 
He is a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for space studies.  He is also a cofounder of Realclimate.org, where he is a contributing editor.  I got to meet him this past September when he presented at the NASA & National Park Service Earth to Sky Conference V: Communicating Climate Change in Washington, D.C.  After his presentation, all the participants in the conference, including me, received a free copy of his book: Climate Change: Picturing the Science.  He kindly autographed the book for me.  I enjoyed reading it this past autumn.

2. John Cook
(pictured in the center) He is the creator of skepticalscience.com.  This website makes climate science accessible to the layman by using easy to read, jargon-free language to debunk climate myths spread by climate science doubters or “skeptics.”  Even more, John set up Skeptical Science to be a database of peer-reviewed science to best answer the skeptic’s full range of arguments.  (And nobody, including John, knows why he is holding that paper plate)

 

3. Dr. James Powell
(pictured on the right) He is the author of six science books, including, Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West.  He has a website, jamespowell.org where he writes about global warming from his perspective as a scientist.  I met John Cook and James Powell at a party in Berkeley, California in December, 2011 while all of us were attending the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco.
4. Kaitin Alexander
At the same party in Berkeley, I got to chat with Kaitin.  She is already a rising star at just 19 years old.  She is a student at the University of Manitoba, Canada, studying climate modeling and is an aspiring climatologist.  Her blog, ClimateSight, was highly praised and is closely followed by the other climate communicators who attended AGU.
5. Peter Sinclair
He also attended the same party in Berkely.  His blog, desmogblog.com and hisYouTube series, “Climate Denial Crock of the Week” is also an excellent tool to directly debunk climate myths spread by climate science doubters.
6. Dr. Richard Alley
I got to meet him at AGU in San Francisco.  He is a Professor of Geosciences at Penn State University.  He is known for his research of glaciology and ice sheets.   I love his PBS documentary, Earth: The Operator’s Manual.  I am currently enjoying reading his book by the same title.  He also signed a copy of his book for me when I met him.
7. Dr. James Hansen
I got to meet him via Kaitlin Alexander.  She told me where he was lecturing during the AGU conference.  Kaitlin and I attended his lecture.  Afterwards, we had the incredible fortune to chat with him directly.  He is head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and he is famous for testifying before Congress on climate change since the 1980s.  I enjoyed reading his book Storms of My Grandchildren two years ago.
8. Dr. Naomi Oreskes
While waiting to chat with Dr. Hansen, I got to meet Dr. Oreskes.  I just finished reading her book, Merchants of Doubt.  It meticulously documents how a small group of contrarian scientists spread doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached on the dangers of tobacco smoking, acid rain, the hole in the ozone, and climate change.
9. Tom Smerling
My friends, Sundae Horn and Rob Temple, who I used to work with in the Florida Everglades introduced me to Tom.  He created the website, Climate Bites.  This website is an online toolkit for climate change communicators, like me.  It brings fun into climate communication with metaphors, sound bites, humor, stories and graphics that help make your message stick.  I personally enjoyed contributing “bites” or short essays to this website since I met Tom last October.
10. Dr. Richard Somerville
I also met him at AGU last December.  He is a climate scientist and Distinguished Professor Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.  I first saw him on the HBO special on climate change in 2006, Too Hot to Handle.  Dr. Somerville and other scientists interviewed, such as Dr. Stephen Schneider, had a deep impact on me with their sobering statements on the problem of climate change and the nasty consequences if we fail to act.  Dr. Somerville is also the Science Director of a great website, Climate Communication.  He collaborates on this website with Susan J. Hassol, Director of the Climate Communication, on the latest information on climate science communication and outreach.
11.Dr. Benjamin D. Santer
I also met him at AGU last December.  He is a climate researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former researcher at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.  He wrote the key statement in the 1995 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that “the observed trend in global mean temperature over the past 100 years is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin…Taken together, these results point towards a human influence on global climate.”  That statement resulted in a firestorm of vicious attacks from climate change contrarians, such as physicist Dr. Fred Seitz.  However, Dr. Santor stood firm behind what he wrote.  Many other distinguished climate scientists, such as Dr. Stephen Schneider, defended him.   The statement has since stood the test of time.  Since then, it has been reaffirmed by more recent IPCC reports.
12. Larry Lazar
I first met Larry at a St. Louis Science Center café last April.  We both attended a lecture by Jim Kramper, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with National Weather Service, on “Climate Change – What We Really Know.”  This winter, Larry and I co-founded the meet up group, Climate Reality St. Louis.  Our group focus is to exchange ideas on how we can locally and individually reduce our impact on climate change.  We had 14 people at our first meeting last December 11th.  We hold our next monthly meeting this Sunday, January 15th.
There are so many other climate heroes I want to mention.  A special mention needs to go to Scott Mandia.  I met him through Larry Lazar.  He is a professor of meteorology at Suffolk County Community College in New York.  Scott is also the founder of the Climate Science Rapid Response Team.  This is a group of scientist researchers and professors who are on call to “matchmake” media and lawmakers to climate scientists.  This group enables the media and lawmakers to receive rapid high quality information when they inquire on climate change.
It was also such a pleasure to interact with Scott at AGU.  He even bought me breakfast at my first morning of the conference.  Somehow, I let the opportunities at AGU slip away to get my picture taken with him.  Scott Mandia, James Powell, Tom Smerling, and Professor John Abraham from the University of St. Thomas also took me out for a fantastic sushi dinner while I was in San Francisco in December.  Needless to say, I am having a fabulous time meeting climate scientists, professors, and communicators who as just as passionate about climate change as me.
Stay tuned.  I cannot wait to meet and have my picture taken with my more climate heroes in 2012.  I will make sure I post on my blog when I meet them and have my picture taken with them also.

A LITTLE BLUE MARLE COULD SAVE THE EARTH

According to sea turtle biologist, Wallace J. Nichols, this little blue marble could inspire people to take meaningful action to protect our planet.  Outside Magazine featured Dr. Nichols in its December 2011 cover article, “The Outside Guide to Fixing the World” by Michael Roberts.
This article inspired me so deeply that I gave my nieces and nephews a little blue marble for Christmas recently.  Even more, this little blue marble will be featured prominently in my next Toastmaster’s speech at the end of January.  My speech is called, “EXPAND YOUR PATRIOTISM.”  The theme of this speech is caring for the earth and eliminating pollution is patriotic for the planet and America.
Nichols estimates around a million of his blue marbles are in circulation around the world.  They have made it into the hands of Dr. Jane Goodhall, Harrison Ford, James Cameron, E.O. Wilson, and four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey, who carried one in this year’s race.
The concept of the blue marble is simple.  If Nichols was standing in front of you, first you would take the little blue marble between your fingers and stretch out your arm as far as it will go.  This is approximately what spaceship earth, our home looks like from a million miles out in space – a blue water planet.
Then, he would want you to hold it up to your eye and look at the sun.  If water were inside, the marble would contain virtually all of earth’s elements.  Finally, think of someone who is doing good work for the planet.  Hold the marble to your heart: think how it would feel to you and them if presented them with this marble as a way of saying thank you.
At first, Outside writer, Michael Roberts felt uncomfortable with this “shtick.”  However the last line giving the marble away to an old friend caused Roberts “fall under (Nichols) spell.”  I also fell under this spell to immediately go on the website, BlueMarbles.org to purchase 50 marbles.
Roberts believes that “Nichol’s feel good approach offers a compelling alternative to the usual tactics of scaring people into action with bad news about extinctions or global warming.”  Nichols himself told a group of graduate students in a lecture at Stanford University, as conservationists, “We have the power of happiness on our side.”
 
The blue marbles have brought me happiness. Now I give them as gifts to family members, Toastmasters, and others who are inspiring me to “be green” to save the planet from climate change.

FIND THAT “ONE THING,” AND STICK WITH IT

I read that title and essay by Christian missionary Keith Barnett back in the year 2000.  In the essay, Keith talked about how he felt God had been speaking to him for a few years to just focus on one thing.  This singular divine focus led Keith to be a missionary in Guatemala at the time.

Keith went on to explain that just like a plant growing has a tendency to grow in many directions and produces off-shoots, or “suckers.”  These small off-shoots can draw of the life and vitality of the plant to useless ends.  For this reason, a wise gardener cuts off the smaller offshoots.   This causes the plant to direct all of its life force into the fruit of the plant, its seed, blooms, and its fruit.

This essay struck a deep accord in me because I was struggling at the time to find my “one thing” and stick with it also.  At the time, I was a naturalist guide in Everglades National Park narrating the boat tours the tourists.  I worked for a private company that treated its employees poorly and it did not really care about the environment.  I also felt I had a deeper message to give the world than just pointing out the alligators, crocodiles, birds, dolphins and manatees in the Everglades.  Still, when there was not wildlife around, which was often, I shared a message of the importance of the natural world and protecting the Everglades.  However, the tourists just focused most of the time on spotting the wild animals and paid little attention my message of conservation.

Brian Ettling, Everglades National Park, around 2006

I knew in my heart and gut that I did not want to be a naturalist guide in the Everglades forever.  However, I had no idea what the vision or “one thing” was.  Around this time, I found a book in a used book store, Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Cannot Afford to Lose by Dr. Stephen Schneider.  He was a climate scientist out of Stanford University.  I purchased the book because passengers on the boat tour were asking me about global warming. I wanted to start educating myself on this issue.  The science in the book was very technical, but I was hooked.  I started reading more books on climate change over the years, especially whenever I would see a new book on this subject at Barnes and Noble.

In spring 2008, I quit working as a naturalist in the Everglades.  I knew I wanted to go to grad school to study about communicating climate change.  I set out a deadline for myself to be enrolled in a graduate program by 2010.  Unfortunate, I did not have a pin point dedication to this goal.  I got distracted by dating the wrong women, traveling, and having fun as a seasonal summer ranger at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

It is now the last week of 2011.  I am still not in grad school yet.  However, I have made major strides in following my “focus” and sticking with my deepest passion to be a climate change communicator.  In this past year alone, I started this blog.  I worked at the St. Louis Science Center answering questions and engaging visitors at their temporary climate change exhibit.  I joined South County Toastmasters.  I have successfully presented four speeches now at Toastmasters over the past year about climate change and promoting sustainable green living.  For my last two speeches, the other Toastmaster members voted for me as ‘Best Speaker.’

Brian Ettling winning “Best Speaker” for Toastmasters speech, November 2011.

This past summer at Crater Lake, I created an evening campfire program on the impact of climate change on Crater Lake.  This past September, the National Park Service invited me to attend the 2011 NASA ‘Earth to Sky’ conference in Washington D.C. on successfully communicating climate change with park visitors.

Within the past month while currently living in St. Louis, Missouri for the winter, I co-founded Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up group.  This is a group of locals that meets regularly to discuss the impact and solutions to climate change in St. Louis.  In early December, I attended the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco where I got to meet and interact with America’s top climate scientists and communicators.

In 2012, I hope to meet with professors at grad schools like Columbia, George Mason, and Colorado State to find a program that can really enable me to be a top climate change communicator.  I also hope to give more speeches at Toastmasters and elsewhere about climate change.  I also hope to return to Crater Lake to present my climate change evening program again and keep improving it.  2012 is going to be an exciting year for me as I edge ever closer “finding that one thing and sticking with it” as a climate change communicator.

The Two ‘Green’ Wise Men Pushing on My Best Friend

In the original Christmas story, a bright star appears over Bethlehem attracting three wise men from the East.  They traveled from far away to see what they believed was the Messiah who was just born.  The arrival of the wise men was considered to be a very strong signal.   This baby born in Bethlehem was a very strong to be a very strong teacher, prophet and healer.
 
Over 2,000 years later, the signal of climate change is becoming evident from many different sources of scientific evidence, such as changes in the atmosphere, oceans, polar ice shelves, sea level rise, weather patterns, etc.  Just like the prominent news in Bethlehem of wise men arriving from the East, it is getting harder to ignore the vast amount of news about climate change these days.

For me, it has been fascinating how my best friend, Scott, has reacted to the news of climate change.  I have known him for nearly 30 years.  I met him back in 7th grade when we would eat lunch together at school and talk baseball. We still talk regularly on the phone.  Since high school, our lives have gone in totally different directions.  He is an auto mechanic outside of Seattle, Washington with a wonderful family.  I am a single seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake.  Scott has similar conservative political views as ‘Joe the Plummer,’ who became famous during the 2008 Presidential Campaign.  I have become very a very progressive environmentalist with spending the last twenty years working in the national parks.   We have kept the friendship strong over the years with the unspoken rule of not talking about politics.

Over the years, Scott has had a lot of fun making fun of the issue of global warming.  He loved to joke how he would love to see palm trees in Seattle and his home state of Wisconsin.  He would welcome sea level rise because he could launch his boat so much closer to the Puget Sound form his house.  We would have so much fun talking about other stuff about baseball, the outdoors, music etc.  However, I would have to bite my tongue so hard that it would almost bleed at times when he would make his global warming jokes.  I would be staying at his house, with his family, and eating his food during these short visits.  I wanted to be a gracious guest so I just did not have the heart to correct him.

Scott was very eager to share with me amazing story though when I visited him in 2008.  He was teasing his son, Ricky about global warming over the years, just like me.  However, Ricky was coming home from school and not giving an inch on this issue.  He kept saying, “No, Dad, we are learning about this in school and this is why global warming is a huge concern…“
 
Finally, Scott wanted to let me know that he thought Ricky was on to something. He could not dismiss his own son and what he was learning in school. His best friend, who is a tree hugger park ranger, he might overlook on this issue from living out in the woods too long. However, it was hard to ignore his son who was coming home from school with articulate facts on climate change.  Just like the town of Bethlehem noticing the original Wise Men, it was hard for Scott to ignore the Two Green Wise Men showing up in his life.

As a side note, I called up Scott a few days ago to ask him if this story was true.  He said it was.  However, we wanted to add that he still welcoming global warming and sea level rise so he can go fishing from his house.  However, Scott went out of his way to wish me all the best as I am following my passion to be a climate change communicator.  His tone could not have been more supportive and encouraging.  In the end, that is all you can ask for in a best friend and more.  It makes me want to double my efforts even more to inspire people to resolve climate change.  I am going to do all I can to prevent dangerous climate change.  In the end, all the negative consequences are going to far outweigh any possibility of Scott being able to fish from his house.  

WHEN NATURE CALLS, WATCH OUT FOR THE SUN

 

Photo by Gary Reysa,   http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/ColdSprings.htm 

It was one of those road trips where you are in desperate need of a restroom.  It around 1 pm in May, 2008.  I was driving across country from my winter job in Florida to my summer job at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.  On this day, I was driving across the World’s Loneliest Highway, Highway 50 going across the state of Nevada.  There were no developments (i.e. RESTROOMS) for past 100 miles of my drive.  As usual, I was drinking lots of water to keep me awake and hydrated while I was driving.  However, I thought my bladder going to burst before I reached any civilization.  I still had around 100 miles to drive to meet up with a friend in Carson City, Nevada. Finally, I saw a gas station/mini mart around the “blink and you will miss it” extremely tiny town of Cold Springs, Nevada.   It felt like a miracle to finally see an active building that may have a restroom.

I very quickly pulled over, ran out of my car to go inside the mini-mart.  As I bolted from my car, I was doing that funny walk/run where you desperately need a restroom.  Yet, your bladder is so heavy you can barely use your walk.  When I walked inside the store, the clerk at the counter told me the restrooms were ‘way out back past the solar panels.’   Whatever.   It was an emergency so I ran past the rows of solar arrays to get to the tiny-Johnny-on-the- spot.  I thought for a second, ‘Interesting, solar panels’ as I really needed to relieve myself in time. Fortunately, Thank God!  I did make it to the Port-a-John just in time. I was then so much more relaxed and mellow as I strolled back towards the mini-mart. Then, I really noticed, “WOW! LOOK AT ALL THESE SOLAR PANELS!”
Photo by Gary Reysa on  http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/ColdSprings.htm

 

I then asked the store clerk, ‘So how do you like those solar panels?’ She responded, “GREAT! We love them. We still have to go on the grid at night. However, the solar panels do provide all of our electricity during the day and we are even able to sell some of it to the electric utility.”  According to Gary Reysa on his website www.builditsolar.com, the owner of the Cold Springs facility also told him that it is a 30 Kilo Watt grid tied solar photo voltaic (PV) installation that sells excess power to the utility.  The owners installed the solar PV as an investment, and feel that it has paid well — they intend to install additional PV in the future.
Photo by Gary Reysa on http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/ColdSprings.htm
I then mentioned the solar panels at Cold Springs to my friend, Dave, in Carson City. He responded that Nevada was even offering tax credits to residences at that time for those who put solar panels on their homes. I believe, Like the Cold Strings Station Motel, RV Park and General Store, there are so many more things we can be doing to be energy independent and use clean energy here in America. The problem is that often we do not notice these things, unless we really, really truly have to use the bathroom.
Photo by Gary Reysa on http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/ColdSprings.htm

 

I AM GOING TO DROP A STINK BOMB ON YOU!

Image source: www.timtim.com
Below is the text from a speech I presented on April 13, 2011 for St. Louis South County Toastmasters.  After I mentioned just the phrase climate change in my first speech, two of my fellow toastmasters wanted to me to prove to them that climate change is caused by humans.   This speech was an attempt to answer them with what I think is the key evidence that convinces scientists that climate change is caused by humans.

For this speech, I was voted “Most Improved Speaker” by the other Toastmasters at this meeting.  I really seemed to leave an impression on them with this speech.  A month after I presented this speech, A friend approached me  to say, “Please give us solutions in your next speech! In your last speech you really scared us that WE ARE STINKING UP THE PLANET!”

I AM GOING TO DROP A STINK BOMB ON YOU!
        Imagine that someone in this room passed gas right now that smelled so rancid that it interrupted our meeting.  Tonight, in a sense, I am going to throw a stink bomb in the room.  There is a sharp disagreement among folks in this room whether humans are causing global climate change.  Like a courtroom, I propose to make this case tonight for you with the strongest scientific evidence that I know.
        Basically, just like a toastmaster passing gas, we are stinking up the planet with carbon dioxide.  Carbon dioxide is the primary emission of our vehicle’s tailpipes and industrial smokestacks.  Starting in 1959, Charles David Keeling started measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere.  The average amount of carbon that year stood at 316 parts per million.  In 1960, it reached 317 parts per million, and has steadily increased every year over the past 50 years.  The alarming part is that, just like these dance partners, when the amount of carbon increased in the atmosphere, so has the average global temperature.  This dance is represented on the graph below by the red line for carbon dioxide and the blue line for average global temperature.  It has been going on for throughout Earth’s history, as you can tell by this graph of measuring the ice cores from Antarctica going back over 400,000 years.

          
 Today the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stands at 391 parts per million.  This represents a thirty percent rise since the industrial revolution in 1750.  The key question or stink bomb is:IS THIS JUST CYCLICAL OR PART OF A NATURAL CYCLE?  At 391 parts per million, according to scientists, is the highest amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, not only in the past 400,000 years, but in the past 25 million years.  If we do nothing to curtail our carbon dioxide emissions, by the year 2100, amount in the atmosphere will be insanely around 621 parts per million.  To me, that totally seems like a very stinky and unacceptable situation, like these different gentlemen working on these ladders.

         How do we know that this stinky carbon dioxide is not increasing naturally from volcanoes or the ocean? Crime suspects on TV shows, such as CSI, leave behind DNA evidence pointing to their guilt.  Carbon dioxide also has DNA evidence, known as isotopes that point to the guilty party also.  Isotopes are defined as atoms that contain the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons.  Like a police lineup, carbon dioxide molecules appear in three isotope forms, Carbon 12, which makes up 99 percent of all carbon on earth.  Carbon 13 which makes up around one percent and Carbon 14 which makes up around point zero one percent. 
Image source: www.learner.org

        We can eliminate carbon 14 from the line up because this carbon is actually decreasing from measuring tree ring radioactivity. 
Image source: Michael E. Mann & Lee R. Kump, Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming  (DK  Books)  2008 , page 35.
  Carbon 14 is actually highly unstable or radioactive.  This form of carbon only lasts over around thirty thousand years before it decays into Nitrogen 14.  Carbon 14 appears naturally in the earth’s radioactive atmosphere and is absorbed by plants and us.  Volcanoes, the deep ocean and fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas, and coal, are free of carbon 14.  Why?  They all have been buried deep in the earth for hundreds of millions of years.
        Even more, when plants photosynthesize, they love or have a sweet tooth for the Carbon 12 form of carbon dioxide.  Fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas are basically depleted of Carbon 13.  Thus, when fossil fuels are burned they release vast amounts of Carbon 12 in the atmosphere.  Therefore, scientists have quantified that the atmosphere has become less radioactive over time and the ratio of carbon 13 to carbon 12 has been steadily decreasing also with these two graphs that I am showing you. 
Image source: Michael E. Mann & Lee R. Kump, Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming  (DK  Books)  2008 , page 35.
        Confused?  Here is the clear bottom line.  If this was a murder trial, our crime scene FBI experts would be would be saying that the carbon from fossil fuels are the guilty party, not natural sources, such as volcanoes or the ocean.   Over geologic time, increases in carbon dioxide almost always caused increases in the average global temperatures.  Since humans are the only suspects in burning fossil fuels, we are basically the ones who are stinking up the place.
        Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, and distinguished guests, I appreciate you allowing me to share my knowledge on the threat of climate change.  I hope I did not stink up the joint.  If we can find a way to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, I am convinced it will be a healthier planet.  Future generations may even thank us for not stinking up their planetary home.  Even more, keep an eye out on your neighbor who may yet pass gas tonight or at a future Toastmasters meeting.  Mr. Toastmaster.         

The Baseball Star Vs. The Climate Scientist

 

I love baseball, especially the St. Louis Cardinals, and my deep passion is climate change.  I had two very different experiences recently meeting the most recent World Series MVP and America’s most renowned climate scientist.  Both experiences were a thrill of a lifetime.  Both experiences also speak volumes about America’s priorities, especially when it comes to celebrities, sports, science and climate change.
MEETING DAVID FREESE
November 22, 2011 was my first day of work this winter at the St. Louis Science Center.  I was scheduled to leave at 5 pm, but I could not leave any earlier because my boss wanted to show the proper way to close.   I did not leave work until 5:15 pm.  I was totally in a rush to leave because the newspaper kept advertising that St. Louis Cardinals World Series MVP, David Freese, was signing autographs at the FVE video store, less than 2 miles from the Science Center at 5 pm.  Without mentioning it to my boss, I bolted out to leave as soon as she released me for the day.  I then drove straight to FYE to try to get an autograph.  The traffic was jammed driving to FYE.  It took well over 15 minutes, in what should have been a five minute drive.   There were even two minor car accidents on the way to FYE.  Apparently local Cardinals fans really wanted to see David Freese.
As my car approached the store, it was obvious that I would not be able to park on the store parking lot because of all the chaos.  I parked on a nearby side street and then ran towards the store, crossing an extremely hectic street to do so.  When I got by the store at 5:25 pm, there was a very long line inside to the cash register to purchase the $27.95 World Series DVD that Mr. Freese was willing to sign.  There was another long line of a couple hundred people wrapped around the inside of the store to get David’s autograph.  I waited in the cash register line for about 15 minutes.  Then a store clerk told me, “I am sorry, but Mr. Freese had reached his contact obligation to sign the DVDs.  He will not be autographing any more DVDs today.”
Oops.  It looks like this drive is going to be for nothing.  It felt like such heart deflating disappointment.   I was not going to meet David Freese.  However, I am very tenacious, very stubborn, and overly optimistic.  I walked over to the barriers just to try to get a glimpse of David Freese.  At 5:50 pm, the autograph line was down to just a handful of people.  I noticed a friendly store clerk, John, who was watching the end of the line for security reasons, slip a few more people into the line to get David’s autograph.  I respectfully and meekly asked John, “If I buy the DVD, will you still let me slip in line to get David’s autograph.”  Very surprisingly, John said, “Yes” to my request.
I then ran to the cash register with the DVD, plopped down my credit, ran back to where John was holding a place at the end of the line for me.  I then got David to sign my DVD and get my picture taken with him.  Out of the hundreds of people who showed up that day, I was the last one to get David Freese’s autograph.  I felt like I had just lived an amazing Indiana Jones-like adventure to obtain this autograph.
MEETING DR. JAMES HANSEN
Exactly two weeks later I was attending a lecture about communicating the science of climate change at the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco.  While I was listening intently to the lecture, a friend I met at the conference, Kaitlin Alexander, slipped me a note that Dr. James Hansen from NASA was speaking at 12:30 pm.  He is considered to be one of America’s top climate scientists.  He is a huge hero of mine, and I never thought it my wildest dreams I would be able to meet him.
At 11:20 am, Kaitlin and I left the lecture we were attending at the Moscone South Convention Center to race a whole city block to the Moscone West to hear his talk.  Understandably, the room was packed with several hundred scientists, grad students, PhD candidates, and others wanting to hear Dr. Hansen speak.  During his lecture, Kaitlin, turned to me to announce, “I want to shake Dr. Hansen’s hand after his lecture.”  I thought great idea.  I want to shake his hand too.  However, I also thought ‘no chance.  This guy is very famous.  He is going to be mobbed by the admiring scientists after this lecture.  I will probably not be able to get within yards of him.’

To my complete surprise, only 6 people including me approached Dr. Hansen after his lecture. A couple hundred dedicated scientists must have attended this lecture too. I am still shocked how easy it was to approach him and how accessible & friendly he was.  Dr. Hansen was very warm and personable. He even enthusiastically allowed me to take my picture with him.  I thanked him for his efforts protesting in front of the White House in October against the XL tar sands pipeline. Dr. Hansen seemed pleased by my comment, but then stated, “Unfortunately we have not done anything yet to stop the increase of greenhouse gases.”

This was in such striking contrast to when I stood in line in November with hundreds of people to wait over an hour & pay $27.95 to get the autograph of local World Series baseball hero, David Freese. There was even horrible traffic and a couple of minor car accidents for people to race to see this baseball player. Granted, Dr. James Hansen is a diehard Yankees fan, so he might understand my deep love for baseball & meeting the stars. On the other hand, this shows how upside down our priorities are as a society. When are we really going to hold scientists with great esteem & respect and stop idolizing music, pop, movie and sports stars to an insane level?

WHO WOULD I CHOSE TO MEET AGAIN?
David Freese grew up in St. Louis and will now be a local legend here forever for his crucial hits to enable the Cardinals to win the 2011 World Series.  On the other hand, people worldwide will never forget all the efforts of Dr. James Hansen for alerting the world on the dangers of global warming since the 1980s.  Baseball fans will always be entertained by the stories of David Freese rising to the occasion as a World Series hero.  If humans find a way to resolve climate change, future generations will look Dr. James Hansen as one of the biggest heroes of the planet.  By the way, with my passion for climate change, if I had a choice to meet David Freese or James Hansen again, I would very easily pick James Hansen.  I would love for another opportunity to talk baseball with him and pick his brain more about the science of climate change.