50 results for author: Dan Barth

Darwin Drove Electric

Let me say that an electric car is a powerful evolutionary force. For years I have been convinced, as have 97% of the world's scientists, that climate change is real, that it is the most serious threat we face and that we are its primary cause. As bad as that sounds it is, in fact, the well from which I draw my optimism and my activism. If we are the source of the problem then we can solve it. That was why I found myself in a Chevy dealership over in Crivitz about to buy my first electric car, to help shrink my carbon footprint. Truth be told, though, I was frightened. We all cut our automotive teeth on the internal combustion engine and buying a ...

Think Outside the Oil Barrel

Many of the world's best scientists just released their latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, their thrust? To continue to rely on fossil fuels is to invite incalculable disaster. Considering the reputation past IPCC reports have earned as much too conservative this one is so alarming then that we ought to rush out with arms opened wide to embrace renewable energy and other sustainable technologies like electric cars. We should exuberantly grow our own food, gladly reduce the amount of meat in our diets and when possible buy locally sourced goods – all to shrink our carbon footprints. To go on living as we are looks ...

Climate Change Defines Our Era

Imagine living where all the hard working citizens unnecessarily export almost $15 billion of their hard earned money out of state each and every year. Imagine what those folks could do with it if they kept that money right where they live: a better standard of living for all, better services and more local jobs to be sure. Of course, the folks I'm talking about are us. According to a Wisconsin State Energy Office report that's what we spend every year on the fossil fuels we heat and light our homes and fill our car's gas tanks with - resources we don't have and must import. Most of it is spent on transportation. Sadly, we are also buying mercury ...

Celebrating Sustainability on Earth Day

Whether sustainability means keeping Earth's environment and climate healthy and stable for our well-being and that of all her living creatures, or whether sustainability means keeping our State and our Country competitive in the rapidly growing renewable energy economy – or both - Earth Day in Wausau has something for you. This Earth Day celebration is for everyone and people of all perspectives will be treated with respect. A healthy planet and a healthy economy benefit us all. From keynote speaker Scott Coenen, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum's discussion of that new, global economy, to presentations about ...

Earth Day March and Celebration

We will celebrate Earth Day and affirm our Support for Science on Saturday, April 22 with a march. We will start at 11 AM where the north entrance to the River Edge Walkway begins at the Wisconsin River end of Winton Street. Bring your signs and banners. Our walk ends at the Oak Island Park shelter just north of Thomas Street at 12 o'clock. We will plant an oak tree nearby. Folks who want a shorter walk can join anywhere along the way or just meet at the park.Mayor Robert Mielke will officiate and dedicate the tree. Retired UWMC Professor of Biology Dr. Ned Grossnickle will speak about climate change, its impacts and what we can do to alleviate it.The ...

SPIRITUALITY, POLITICS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The ways our spirituality and our politics interact can be profoundly significant. Recently, during a very pleasant conversation I was told that God gave us dominion over the earth. That comment startled me then and has bothered me ever since, germinating a few thoughts along the way. It seems wholly outrageous that our Creator would put us in charge of something as complex as this planet - at least as outrageous as the idea of us accepting the offer. How could we even consider dominating the earth when just by tweaking the carbon dioxide settings in our atmosphere we're doing such weird things to our climate - spring weather in Wisconsin's ...

STAND UP FOR SCIENCE, OUR DEMOCRACY, AND OUR PLANET

It was bad enough when we recently discovered our state DNR had stripped the words “climate change” from its website and added wording that led readers to believe there is controversy in the climate research world about its cause - the only real controversy is political, not scientific. A little later we learned that our Public Service Commission had done the same. Now, we find the new Trump administration erased climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency's website and has silenced EPA staff. Perhaps Orwell should have titled his book “2016” instead of “1984”. We depend on the stability of our world's climate. Actual global ...

CLIMATE CHANGE PETITION TO CONGRESSMAN DUFFY

Dear Congressman Duffy, I am a constituent of yours who is very concerned about the effects of our changing climate. I urge you to sit down with 7th District members of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby during the March 21st to April 11th recess, or during our Washington Lobby day this June. The Citizen’s Climate Lobby has a legislative proposal to significantly reduce greenhouse gasses in accord with the Paris Climate Agreement guidelines that is Conservative friendly. Moreover, it is a proposal that creates jobs, puts more money in the pockets of every American and increases our GDP and does so without the need for market destabilizing regulat...

LET’S FIX THE CLIMATE

The die-hard gardeners among us will remember the hard frosts that used to put an end to our toil the first weekend in September. Since1975, when I first turned a shovel, we've seen our gardening continue deeper and deeper into the month until this past year when the frost Grinch finally landed on our dwindling tomatoes - and lightly so – the very last day of the month. Great for my love of a good BLT; not so great for the planet. Even here in our nation's north, climate change is real. Though we have no glaciers in Wisconsin, those who do are watching them melt. Last month National Geographic ran an article reporting that scientists predict ...

Choices for a Happy, Healthy Planet

After a bitterly cold winter, a pretty chilly spring and what seems to many of us here in Wisconsin a darn mild summer, global climate change may not be our most pressing concern.  I, for one, find it easy to mistake my home for the whole world, so it came as a surprise to discover that globally 2014 ranks as the fourth hottest year on record, at least through the end of June, and that many scientists are betting we’ll end up breaking the all time record before the year is out. Globally, May and June were the hottest months since 1880 when we started keeping records. For several months running our atmosphere has been above 400 parts per million ...