Clmate Change

Climate Change

So, I was finishing up this little painting and showed it to my hubby. I told him that I had my story mostly written in my head, but just didn’t know how to begin. Without hesitating, he said, “Once upon a time in a faraway land ….” I told him that his suggestion was not helpful because this painting is serious. It is about climate change. He then reminded me about a refrigerator magnet he bought for me years ago. He suggested that I use it in the story. The magnet has a picture of the Earth and the query, “Are my hot flashes causing global warming?” Clearly, I’m on my own for this story.

This painting was partly inspired by a local artisan, Mike Mumford. A steel sculpture created by Mike is titled “Global Warming: It’s Your Choice”. Mike writes, “It’s your choice: do nothing, and everything burns up. Address the problem and we get flowers (and life).” The steel sculpture is a two-view iAlign creation and shows a fire when viewed from one angle and flowers when viewed from another angle. It’s a stunning work of art with a powerful message. I purchased it immediately. I love the amazing simplicity coupled with the complex alignment as well as the urgent message. Check out Mike’s stellar creations at roadrunnerforge.com.

Another inspiration for this painting was a book I recently read by Hope Jahren titled The Story of More. Her book is about how we arrived at this problem with climate change and where we should go from here. Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist who has been pursuing independent research in paleobiology since 1996. I am not a scientist, but I found the book very readable. I would recommend it as a good primer, written from a macro perspective, on climate change.

Sadly, in our divided states of America, everything, including climate change, has become politically binary. I long for a time when we rely on the preponderance of evidence reported by subject-matter experts when forming our views on complex subjects. Sigh. But, we are where we are. We read sources we tend to trust, and we form opinions based on these readings. The history of how we’ve viewed climate change in America is an interesting study, too. One of my favorite presidential quotes is “Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it’s common sense.” Ronald Reagan based his reasons for pursuing legislation to decrease carbon emissions on a tool called cost-benefit analysis. Reagan’s economists found that the costs of phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals were a lot lower than the costs of not doing so — largely measured in terms of avoiding cancers that would otherwise occur. Presented with that analysis, Reagan decided that the issue was pretty clear. He reasoned that, in the long term, it would save money if we acted to reduce emissions now. Wow, what a concept! And, interestingly, Richard Nixon is the president who pushed plans for the Environmental Protection Agency through the House and Senate.

How it came to be popular opinion that saving the planet is now a job for hippies and liberals is a long story. But, in the meantime, conservationists are trying to remind everyone that taking care of the planet should be a no-brainer for people of all political affiliations. I’m on that page and just hope that we are on a path to use common sense in our legislation as well as in our diplomacy related to climate change.

The first book I ever read on this subject, the one that started me down the path toward a basic understanding of system-level thinking about climate change, is a book written by a friend and former boss, Dr. Karen L. Higgins. Her book is titled Economic Growth and Sustainability – Systems Thinking for a Complex World. This book fueled my interest in learning more about our planet Earth and how we might sustain the earth for future generations. Dr. Higgins’ undergraduate degree is in mathematics and her master’s degree is in electrical engineering. She borrowed from these disciplines in putting forth the models contained in her book. This book is more technical than Dr. Jahren’s and is replete with references, resources, statistics, and systems engineering details that I admit I sometimes found dizzying. Despite my difficulties, I completed the book with a clear understanding of steps that can be taken at both the individual and the collective level NOW. I was inspired by Dr. Higgins’ book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the sustainability of our planet.
Probably, because I am fascinated with people, I often wonder why they do or don’t behave in certain ways. In the last chapter of Dr. Higgins’ book, she writes: “The fundamental success of sustainability hinges on how we manage Earth’s shared resources even as we address economic expansion, population growth, and environmental pollution. Although we have previously listed the most significant of these resources, described current trends that threaten their continued presence, and recommended a plan to reduce our consumption of them, we are left with questions of why they are so difficult to manage and why we have not done more to prevent their depletion. The answer rests with the very nature of human beings.” So, as usual, it always comes back to people and their choices. And, in my world, it’s always about the story.

So, the lower Earth in this latest whimsical, wonky flower vase is threatened with fire. The pinwheel flowers represent the spinning all around us, whether it’s wind turbines, or news cycles, or just the atmospheric motion. The upper Earth gravitates toward the light and the trees of hope. As always, there is a peace flower and a yin-yang flower reminding us to look for peace and balance in our daily lives. I hope you enjoy my painting and will join me in doing whatever we collectively can do to help our little planet stay healthy. L’Chaim

“The violence that exists in the human heart is also manifest in the symptoms of illness that we see in the Earth, the water, the air, and in living things.” Pope Francis