Olympia Confronting the Climate Crisis held a few events over the weekend, ranging from tabling at the Olympia Farmers Market (we'll be there again next Saturday, the 25th,) to holding a forum at the Olympia Center about oil trains (more info here,) to a truly glorious day of Kayaking on the Bay. That event was co-organized by the Olympia F.O.R. Confronting the Climate Crisis project, and the Backbone Campaign, as well as with participation from Idle No More Washington, Seattle. Thanks to Dean Hobbs of O3C, Bill Moyer of Backbone Campaign, and Sweetwater Nannauck of Idle No More, as well as a host of others for organizing and attending this event.

Here is a link to some photos by Rob "Berd" Whitlock, and a link to the Facebook event page where you can find more information, photos and video from the event. Stay tuned for event video to see some more of the sights and sounds of the citizen's flotilla of kayaks.

Deep below the surface of the Earth, bedrock is being fractured, using chemicals, explosives, and high pressure fluids. The Hydraulic Fracturing industry has seen a boom over the past several years, all over the lower 48, there are fossil fuel deposits deep below the Earth, embedded in layers of shale (sedimentary deposits that have formed rock.)

Washington State does not have shale formations (nor do Oregon or California.) However, we are not as removed as we might be from this booming development in the fracturing of the Earth's crust. For oil is coming here. Oil has been arriving from the Bakken oil shale formation by train. Information suggests that oil has been coming to Anacortes and Tacoma, and new facilities have been proposed elsewhere, in SW Washington, Grays Harbor, and Vancouver, WA.

More over, Olympia is directly implicated in this effort, because the Port of Olympia has been receiving shipments of ceramic proppants. Proppants are a material that enables fracking by propping up the Earth, allowing for the oil and gas to escape.

Earlier this week, a group of Olympians traveled to Grays Harbor, to join a protest against a proposed oil train terminal. Supporters hope to have a major CBR (Crude by Rail) oil export facility built and operating there by 2014.

I wanna point you in the direction of a website called Humanure Power. It's a group of student, young entrepreuer,  humanitarians. They are building a community composting toilet block. Gas from the gathered material will be captured, and used to power electrical tgenerator.

Here's their website, they have a great 2 minute video: http://www.humanurepower.org/

I found out about them from an email sent by Colbert report, of a conference organized by the Clintons (http://www.colbertnation.com/articles/clinton-global-initiative-university-fair?xrs=eml_col)

It seems like intensive developments along these lines might have a significant impact in helping to phase out fossil fuels. Industrial extraction of fossil fuels, coal, petroleum, and gas, have changed the atmosphere. The atmosphere has warmed as much in 100 years, as it has taken thousands of years to change previously (without anthropogenically related industrial activities, i.e. "naturally.")

What do you think about the idea of something like community composting toilet blocks to generate electricity? For Olympia?

Full Moon Monday the 25th of February, McLane was abuzz, windy with clouds racing, waters flowing through beaver dam pond, and birdsong in the air. The forest took on a majestic glow after the sun had passed below the Western hill, when a large cloud came overhead and reflected sunlight back down into the valley.

Also includes photos from full Moon rise.


Activity on the pond, getting ready for spring. Maybe even some new-borns already?

Evening by the trail on the pond...windy at times, with ducks, red-wing blackbirds, even a Raven and an Owl.

This video is from before the rally got underway, it's just some unedited rough footage. Thanks to everyone who showed up for the rally, and thanks to everyone who worked to make it happen!

Tar Sands Pipeline...

Protest event tomorrow: #forwardonclimate solidarity rally to oppose Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

More information event listing, previous post: Sustainable Clean Energy = Jobs.

Poster by Gita Moulton, painting by Joseph Turner, 1820, "A Stormy Sky."

It's daylight savings time, and I am up late at night thinking about global warming. It is sad to think that human activities may have had severely damaging long-term effects on the geography, climate, and ecology of this planet.

Fossil fuel extractions have been occurring at an extremely alarming and wreckless rate. People need to realize that fossil fuels have taken the entire geological life-time of the planet to accumulate, and human activities are buzzing through them at a dizzying pace.

Even if all consumption were to be cut-off as soon as possible, the effects of these activities would still become more and more pronounced for many many years after cut-off. We need to cut fossil fuel consumption down to pre-industrial levels as soon as possible.

In recent decades we have just begun to see the first of the more noticeable effects of 150+ years of intensive fossil fuel extraction and consumption. Polar ice caps melting, ocean temperatures rising all over the place (not to mention the effect of ocean water acidification (due to carbon absorption.)) Extreme storms have been occurring ever more frequently.

Even if fossil fuel extraction/consumption were to stop now, climatic consequences would continue to grow—as heat stored in the ocean would continue to mix and have ever more widely ranging effects.

It is awesome and frightening to think that in such a short period of time, so much fuel has been consumed, deposits that have taken the entire 4.5 billion year lifetime of the planet to accumulate, having been consumed in the relative geological blink of an eye.

It's hard to know what to do in the current political and environmental environment. Scanned a piece today on Climate and Capitalism website. This piece was a reaction to a favorable review of Derrick Jensen's book Deep Green Resistance that ran on Canadian Dimension. Jensen seems to catch a lot of reactionary ink to his proposals to create change. I am pretty busy working the create change in many ways, so don't have lots of time to read Jensen (or to blog these days) but I get the impression that Jensen embraces a Luddite sensibility at times. Maybe also a monkey wrench mentality that is attractive, but may be a dead end politically. There is something about the monkey wrench mentality that I find both sexist and adolescent, which is not to say that I don't also find it attractive.