Category Archives: Leadership

Climate Change, Kindness, Leadership

Helping Hands

As the death toll climbs from Hurricane Ian we are reminded, yet again, of the increasing severity of climate change. We must continue to reduce our carbon footprints, and positively impact our world. I am heartened by all of the people volunteering to help those who have lost their homes and rebuild communities in Florida and Puerto Rico.

I am also buoyed by friends, colleagues, and others who are planting trees and working to increase biodiversity across the world. We know that we must continue to join together so that we have a livable planet.

Birds, Leadership

We Can Do Better

Seagull

As many of you know, I love the beach.  There is something very restorative about feeling my feet in the sand, hearing the sound of the waves roll back and forth, and swimming in the ocean.  Yet I was sadly confronted with a painful reality.  I saw a beautiful seagull desperately trying to dislodge a fish hook that it had swallowed.  All I could see was a fishing line and what appeared to be blood on the bird’s beak.  While I reported the injured bird to the lifeguard and he said he would call it in, my thought was that the bird would die or starve before too long.  Please, if you fish, have the decency to recycle your fishing lines properly, and don’t throw them back in the water.  Or better yet, don’t fish.  We can do better than this, folks.  Birds don’t deserve to suffer at our hands.

Animals, Leadership

Some good news

Active panda climbing tree
  1. China’s giant pandas are no longer endangered.
  2. Renewable energy generation hit an all-time high in 2021.  The world added 290 gigawatts of renewable power production capacity, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency.
  3. A marine-protected area around the Galapagos will be expanded by 60,000sq km (37,282 sq miles).
  4. A hole in the ozone layer is healing.  The ozone layer protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun.
  5. There is some recovery happening in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef which has been suffering from coral bleaching and storms.  Scientists are using in vitro fertilization (IVF) to regenerate the reefs.
Carbon Footprint Reduction, Leadership

Climate conference & Villains

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26 and as the Glasgow Conference, has begun.  It is being held in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31st through November 12th.  World leaders have their work cut out for them because individual countries and their citizens have not been cutting greenhouse emissions enough to avoid climate catastrophe.  Clearly said, the world needs a 55% reduction in emissions to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5°C, the limit defined by scientists as the less risky scenery for our planet and humanity’s future.

As world representatives meet at COP26 gather, it is important be aware of some of the dirty dozen climate villains as noted in a 10/27/2021 article in The Guardian newspaper.  They have worked to keep emissions high. The list includes Jamie Dimon, CEO of Chase Bank and Senator Mitch McConnell.  Check it out. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/27/climate-crisis-villains-americas-dirty-dozen

Leadership, Nature, Water

How to Fix the Fires in the West

Sugar Fire, California

As you know, California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada have been experiencing some of its worst fires this year, and the fire season has only begun.  For a very long time, I have thought that we, on the east coast, could send those states water, via pipelines.  Many people have told me that was not feasible.  I don’t believe them and was overjoyed to read that someone else has been thinking along the same lines as me.  Joseph Schulman, John Schaefer, and Henry Miller wrote an article about it entitled, “An “interstate water system” could fix the West’s water woes”. https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/an-interstate-water-system-could-fix-the-wests-water-woes They propose an interstate water system so that no part of the United States would experience water shortages and to help mitigate the wildfires racing across those lands.  The pipelines would create jobs and facilitate growth.  Let me know what you think.

Animals, Carbon Footprint Reduction, Leadership

Still Very Important

This video, from September 2014, is still very important. Dr. Jane Goodall said, “in 200 years people will look back on this particular period and say to themselves, how did those people, at that time, just allow all those amazing creatures to vanish?” She continued to say, “if we all lose hope there is no hope. Without hope people fall into apathy. There is still a lot left worth fighting for.”