Friday, September 25, 2009

The Tipping Point...

...on global recognition of the Freight Train bearing down on us.

NO, if I read Stuart H. Scott's body language correctly yesterday. Addressing students at International School Bangkok yesterday, Scott literally choked up when he reached a slide showing the impact on agricultural capacity in the US at a projected "best-case" future of 600 ppm atmospheric CO2 .

More on Scott, his Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change, and the Climate Project, as I learn more about them. They are just part of the cascade of opinion, research, prognostication and exhortation to action that are beginning to - finally, bring us to the tipping point on real action.

The question is, is it in time? Inform yourself, and then start taking action. NOW

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Getting the word out...

...one person at a time.

Unfortunately, I'm preaching to the choir, but hey, I'll "build my network", as my "techfolk" colleagues put it, whereever I can..

I wrote James Howard Kunstler a couple of days ago to tell him his new book had kept me up until midnight (a rare occurrence since I became a father, and grab my sleep when I can). If you aren't ready to take a chance on an unknown author, the do NOT miss "World Made by Hand ", in which Mr. Kunstler lays out a possible scenario much like mine in Mai Shangri-La, but much more elegantly put. My kudos to him for keeping up the energy on this front.

James Kunstler wrote me back within a day, and his words have given me fresh energy and hope. "Persevere", he says, and he's absolutely right. Those of us who have woken up to smell the coffee need to keep up the fight. Eventually we'll reach the critical mass needed to bring about real change.

I wrote a new blog-post in my "professional" blog yesterday too, in answer to the focus question for the launch of a new SUNY course we're running at International School Bangkok. The theme of my post was that there are strong competing issues with "flavor of the week" technology that we should be thinking about - the environment being right at the top of the list.

I compared weighing the importance of technology integration over other issues to Greg Craven's "big decision grid", and mentioned his book "What's the Worst that Can Happen: A Rationale Response to Climate Change". Surprisingly Greg Craven too, got back to me within 24 hours. It seems that even he, as a published author, obsesses over whether anyone is reading his book. Take heart, Greg, the word IS getting out. Slowly, slowly, but getting out.

Pass it forward....