Happy Halloween! We, in North America have taken the celebration ofghosts, goblins and monsters to an extreme, and on October 31st we will be ringing in this festive and spooky holiday in a myriad of ways. I recently finished watching the “Terminator” movie series with my son. “Timely” in a way, as we get ready for Halloween, given that all the movies in the series focus on scary creatures.

The movies are filled with a lot of murder, monster and mayhem. I figured though, not much more gruesome than some of the electronic games my son plays with his friends, much to my pacifist chagrin. I choose to watch the whole series with my son, as a kind of ghoulish bonding experience, and was reminded that there is a message threading it’s way through the series – subtly and some times not so subtly the movies point to humankind’s responsibility to care for and to rescue our world and us, for future generations.

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In watching the Terminator movies, I felt that we Climate Mamas and Papas are a bit like the character of Sarah Connor who was the mother of John, the “savior” of the human race. There is overwhelming evidence available to anyone who wants to see it – we humans are destroying our planet. Like Sarah, we know that the “monsters” are lurking. In our case we know that we are changing our ecosystems and heating up our world through our thoughtless emissions of greenhouse gases and our wasteful consumerism. We too often close our eyes and pretend we can’t see.

Not to put a crimp on Halloween, as in most cases our celebrations are harmless. Or are they? There is a line that runs through the Terminator movies, “No fate but what we make”. How in North America, did we turn a harvest festival and the occasion to tell a few good ghost stories, into a mass consumerism event? We in America “do things up big”, Halloween being no exception. The holiday has turned into a marketer’s dream. We buy cards for friends, we buy new costumes for our children, and we purchase as many “crazy, scary and festive” decorations as we can, rivaled only by how we decorate for the winter holidays.

In the northeast US, if you “don’t” decorate for Halloween, you are almost considered a “scrooge”. We haven’t even talked about the candy and other goodies we give out (in single use containers no less – so no one can accuse us of “tampering” with the goodies). Which side of the looking glass are we looking thru, have we made our fate?

Lets flip the picture and look to the positive and come up with ways to heal our world one small step at a time.

1. What about recycling yours and your kid’s costumes, exchanging them with friends for a “new costume” for next year or think about giving the costume to a school or a camp or a used clothing store. Just because the Halloween magazines start coming in August, doesn’t mean you have to succumb to your kid’s demands to get a new costume each year. I fell under that spell for all too long!!

2. What about saving those great decorations and reusing them.

3. Compost, eat or give away the vegetables you display instead of letting them rot on the front porch. Be inventive, be creative. As we in America top off another land fill with our garbage, and pollute our waterways with our leftovers our planet’s ability to recover continues to be compromised. And we aren’t even talking about all that methane gas that collects in those landfills and what harm this potent greenhouse gas can do when it is released into our atmosphere.

4. Think about the candy you buy, where does it come from, packaging, etc. Grist did an interesting article recently on “candy you can feel good about,” read it and discuss this with the kids in your life. There is always, “more to the story” that we normally consider!

Ghosts and goblins are lurking all year around, not just on Halloween. As you celebrate this holiday, engage your children and your grandchildren and consider more sustainable ways to celebrate all our holidays. Food for thought?

Yours truly,

Climate Mama

(This post is “recycled” in part from a 2009 CM Post. In honor of Halloween, and in case you missed it the first time, an “oldie” but a goodie – Enjoy!)

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

My family was lucky. No one was hurt. No fallen trees. No flooded basement, and we had and still have power. We also had plenty of time to prepare for Irene, a massive but slow moving storm. Our bathtub was filled with water, as was every water bottle in our home, and we stocked up on non-perishable staples at our local grocery store; as well we had time to recharged all our batteries for our radios and flashlights, and all our electronics (something that was “crucial” for my two teens!) Many of my New Jersey neighbors were not as lucky as we were this time. Irene has left many of them with water in their homes, with fallen trees and downed power lines, some of whom have been told they will be without power for up to a week. But as we hear more reports of damage faced by many in Irene’s path, it seems that even my neighbors without power are lucky. But many towns and communities up and down the eastern seaboard weren’t so lucky, and next time, who is to say we will have as much warning or the ability to take as many precautions as we could this time.

As we ventured out after the worst of Irene was behind us, our family dog, all 11 pounds of her, carefully carried and then laid a chipmunk at our feet. The chipmunk looked like it had been buried in mud; its fur was matted and dark. While our dog did her best to bring the chipmunk to us to save it, the chipmunk didn’t survive the night; much to the sadness of my children. Fortunately, this was the only loss of life we witnessed firsthand, or heard about in our New Jersey county. I remain convinced however that this hurricane is a harbinger of storms we will face in our near and not too distant future; storms that will be faster, stronger, and more intense, perhaps burying more than chipmunks in my yard. This harbinger reinvigorates me and prods me to remain vigilant and to speak out. To make sure that I don’t get side tracked nor let people that I know get caught up and mislead by political shenanigans or big business misrepresentations of the facts that try to perpetuate our use of fossil fuels…laying doubt before us like barely alive chipmunks… muddying the science and clouding the reality of climate change. With over 97% of all climate scientists telling us we humans are causing our planet’s climate to change, it is more than about time we take the scientists and nature’s warnings and messages seriously.

As it relates to hurricanes, the reality of climate change is that in the past 30 years, the amount of water vapor above the oceans has increased by 4% due to warmer air and warmer water. Scientists tell us that with each 1-degree rise in temperature, the water holding capacity above our oceans increases by 7%. Scientists have shown us that the surface temperatures of the oceans are warming. Warmer water cause the air above our oceans to hold more moisture, results in bigger storms. In a recent interview with Alex Bogusky, Al Gore, Former Vice President of the United States, tells us that we are not only “loading the dice” with extreme weather events, we are now changing the odds, as we paint more dots on the dice, and the chances of larger, more intense storms has now become the norm.

We need to stop pussyfooting around and face head on the reality of climate change which is happening now, not something that may happen hundreds of years from now. As the United States heads into a presidential election year, we need to question loudly how did it somehow become fashionable and a “badge of honor” to dismiss what scientists are telling us and deny that climate change is real. Climate Change shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Rather it is and remains a fact that we all need to address now, not only for our children’s future but also for our own.

Join me and RSVP for 24 Hours of Reality, September 14-15th, to hear more about extreme weather and climate change and what we together can do to address our changing climate.

For links to recent articles on Climate Change and Extreme Weather Check Out: One Earth, Grist,The New Yorker, Scientific American.

This week is one for the history books; including my very own personal history book! As of August 24, 2011, close to 300 people have been arrested in the largest civil disobedience action in the American environmental movement’s recent history. I am honored to say I am one of those people. Women and men from all walks and circles of life are “stepping up” and saying no to the XL Keystone Pipeline, which would carry Tar Sands oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas, crossing over and through environmentally fragile zones and important aquifers; threatening our land, our water, our wildlife, and our way of life.

So, you may ask, how does one prepare for an “imminent” arrest in Washington, DC? In my case, carefully and with much help from my friends! My experience with the TarSandsAction support team has been incredibly positive. Not only did they prepare me for what would happen, and be there to support me every step of the way, but they also introduced me to a group of caring individuals from all over the country who are now my friends and jail mates. (Not too many other individuals I know can fall into this particular friend category!) Many of these people, like me, are “middle age” (ouch!) and opening themselves up for arrest for the very first time. We Elders have found our cause and are taking our place along side students and young people who have been holding the “mantle” on environmental protests for us, by themselves, for long enough.

This new page in my personal history book begins at “civil disobedience training” the night before my arrest where we were told NOT to bring anything to the protest that we could NOT afford to loose, including cell phones and wedding rings. Do you know how hard it is to get a wedding ring off your finger that has been there for 15 years? We were also told to “dress dignified” like we were going to a business meeting. I had packed a skirt and top, neither of which had pockets, and didn’t think through how I would carry my ID and $100, the two items we were told TO take to jail – ID, so we could be properly booked, and $100 which was our “get out of jail” card. Our hope and best case scenario was that whatever our charge was, we would be given the opportunity to “post and forfeit” which would allow us to pay a fine and then leave jail that same day.

So, this is where a bra comes in handy, another useful piece of information from my TarSandsAction support colleagues. That morning as I dressed, I put my driver’s license, $120, and a metro card in my bra, which now effectively served as my purse! I did move these items to the waste band of my skirt just prior to my arrest and the handcuffs going on me, so that it would be easier for the arresting officer who frisked me to remove them. Yes I was frisked, in fact several times, and yes I had handcuffs on from the moment of my arrest until my release at the jail. I also road in a “paddy wagon” with a motorcycle escort through the streets of DC past the White House on the way to the Anacostia Jail. Many “firsts” for me to write down in MY personal history book. I am surprised to tell you that I wasn’t afraid. I was with more than 60 of my new “best friends” and we were all in it together, for the planet, for our children, and for ourselves.

President Obama, this is your call. Join Us. Stop the Pipeline! Be part of the movement at TarsSandsAction.org. The Action continues daily through September 3, 2011.

Credit for Both Photos from Flickr/Creative Common TarSandsAction

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Question to self, do I want my kids to read this about me, and….do I believe in serendipity? [Serendipity: the phenomenon of finding valuable things not sought for.]

A week after I visited the Canadian Tar Sands “to see for myself” what that area is all about, I received emails from several of my friends and colleagues, encouraging me to join them in Washington, DC for a “peaceful protest”against the proposed pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas. This pipeline has been called the fuse to the biggest carbon BOMB in the world. Serendipitous? You tell me!

Do I want my kids to know that I feel so strongly about their future that I am willing to get arrested to protect it? Answer: definitely!

My family thinks of me as the “unlikely environmentalist.” I grew up appreciating the outdoors, yet not particularly conscious of my carbon footprint. In fact until a few years ago I have to say I wasn’t really aware of the size let alone what went into creating my personal carbon footprint! I still travel a lot by airplane, a big addition to my carbon footprint – a point one of my friends loves to keep reminding me of – although I try to buy offsets for my travel, this fact remains… My family is working on making our house more energy efficient, but it still is not as “leak free” as it could be. We are uber recyclers but as I found out during my “plastic free week” with Rodale.com plastic seems to be a ubiquitous part of my life, and one almost impossible to get rid of.

All that being said, I am signed up for a Tar Sands protest at the White House in Washington, DC that has the potential to get the protesters arrested. Do I feel this cause is important enough to take these risks? YES I do. I hope my kids will be proud of me, and that it builds on my legacy and actions to try to raise awareness to the growing reality of climate change that is threatening my children’s future and mine. I want to WAKE UP my neighbors, friends, colleagues and total strangers by showing them that a mom of two ‘tweens thinks that these risks are worth it. After visiting the Tar Sands myself, I realize that stopping production from that end is highly unlikely unless the price of oil somehow plummets.

We have become too complacent, and are living in the age of the “emperor who wore no clothes” – we are too afraid to question the impact of the energy we crave, as the results would be too disturbing. Witnessing first hand the scale of production underway in northern Alberta to meet our current and future fossil fuel demands that sustain our current energy intensive lifestyle, was eye opening to say the least. These massive development projects make the Great Wall of China look like Tom Sawyer’s picket fence! The scale of the Tar Sands mining operations are set to double in the near future if the XL pipeline is approved.

As I see it, our only opportunity to slow down and possibly delay the massive development set to take place in the Tar Sands, until such time that we can ramp up our renewable energy capacity, will be to stop the flow of oil from the Tar Sands to refinery sites. The line in the sand for the US will be this XL Keystone Pipeline expansion. I want to be part of the attempt to stop it. I want to show my kids, that I am trying to do all I can for their future and for mine.

While I live in New Jersey, a wonderful place to spend time in the summer, I am fortunate to get to visit family each summer in western Canada. My family has a “summer cottage” at Pigeon Lake in Western Canada. The cottage has been in my family since my mother was a little girl; it has changed little, running water and a flush toilet are the norm now, but otherwise it is much the same as it was 70 years ago.

My kids spend their days in and out of the lake, canoeing, fishing, sandcastle building and staying up late – as the sun, which sets around 10pm in this part of Alberta, in July, never really seems to leave the horizon until after midnight.

This summer as a special birthday present for my mother – my brothers, their families and mine, took a side trip to the Rocky Mountains to a magical place called Nipika Lodge, an off the grid, winter and summer resort, even further removed from our “real life” than Pigeon Lake. We hiked and played in the mountains and even took a turn canoeing down the Kootenay River. A snowy winter and wet spring made for a very fast river and turned our family canoe trip into more of an adventure than we could ever have imagined.

The fast running river made our hearts pound, our knees hurt from pressing on the side of the canoe for support and earned each participating family member, in our eyes at least a badge of honor. One of those serendipitous events for us, which played out on our river trip, was an earlier gift from my friends at The Balancing Act. They know I love the outdoors and that I spend a lot of time out “in it” during the summer. I was intrigued by a product the SureAqua Bottle, introduced by Andie Domanko on a recent segment of The Balancing Act and they suggested that I “give the bottle a try” at some point over the summer. I packed the SureAqua bottle along for our trip to the mountains, not sure if I would use it or not.

According to the SureAqua website, the filter in the drinking bottle“removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria and contaminants, including Giardia and Cryptosporidium, filtering up to 1000 liters of water and removes bacteria and viruses from municipal supplies without any harsh substances, and without the unpleasant taste experienced when using chlorine and iodine based products.” Even up in the Canadian Rockies, Giardia (intestinal infection from bacteria found in animal waste) is a common concern from stream and river water, as it is in the streams and rivers of the American North East, where we often hike and camp as a family. While our trip on the river wasn’t an extensive multi-day adventure, having the SureAqua bottle with me made me feel more secure.

On our family camping, hiking and canoeing adventures, I have come to expect “the unexpected;” you never know when you may be stuck longer than you think on a trail or on a river, with access to clean water always an important and critical issue. I look forward to using my SureAqua bottle on other camping and outdoor adventures, and letting my mind be more at rest, allowing me to “carry less water” than I might otherwise, lightening my load and letting me focus on the trail and the adventure ahead! We also all agreed the SureAqua bottle could come in handy at our Canadian cottage where we use well water. We do test the water regularly, however, the SureAqua bottle provides an added sense of security. Thank you to my friends at the Balancing Act for introducing me to this unique and useful product, and to a company with strong social and environmental standards!

Fort McMurray, Canada is home to the Tar Sands, one of the most controversial environmental flash points in the world. An ideal place for a special birthday celebration, you might say?

I would hazard to guess that in most people’s minds, a trip to the Tar Sands is not likely the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about “special birthday presents.” Many of you, myself included, might imagine that a special birthday trip might include…a destination spa weekend or perhaps a visit to a “world city”…Canyon Ranch, Golden Door, Red Mountain, Rancho La Puerta, Rome, Paris, Montreal, New York…., a memory in the making for a special, once in a lifetime, milestone birthday?

But special places and milestone events are certainly in the “eye and mind of the beholder” and while I would definitely be thrilled to go to any of the places listed above, my recent whirlwind “birthday trip” to Fort McMurray, Alberta is definitely up there as one of the most memorable, special and wonderful birthday presents I have or ever expect to receive!

My brother and brother in-law surprised me with the Tar Sands birthday present. As we live far away from one another, it isn’t always easy to coordinate or pull off time away together. They asked me if I could set aside a day and a night when I was on a recent visit to Alberta, to spend some time “with them.” A mutually agreed on date was set and all that they told me was to “pack some ID, something nice to wear to dinner, a long sleeve shirt, jeans, comfortable shoes and maybe some work-out clothes, and to be ready to leave at 9am.” They both know me well, and while I can get my “spa girl” on most days of the week, they know, respect and tell me often that they admire my passion and commitment to educate myself and others, to advocate for a cleaner, renewable world, and for sharing my knowledge and expertise on climate change.

On our Way to a Birds eye view of Tar Sands
As a born and raised “Alberta” girl, now living in the shadow of New York City, the “Tar Sands” which in my youth were too expensive to develop, but which are known to house one of the biggest reserves of oil in the world, have always been a place I wanted to visit. The Tar Sands conjure up many mixed emotions for me including: pride, disgust, anger, sorrow and despair, to name a few. Often called “the road to Armageddon” by many environmentalists, or “a safe, secure and important energy savior” by many others, the Tar Sands are a complex area of rapid development and investment, located in Northern Alberta on the edge of the Canadian Boreal forest and on the banks of the mighty Athabasca River. As a climate change advocate, I most certainly had my mind pretty well made up as to which side of the Tar Sands equation I stood on, but a first account visit to “the devils lair” brought to the surface many mixed emotions and complex feelings, thoughts and ideas, I didn’t realize or expect that I would have.

Join us at ClimateMama for regular July updates on the Tar Sands as Harriet recounts her visit, first impressions, experience and ideas, and shares her feelings and thoughts as we try to educate you on some of the facts about this mineral rich yet highly controversial area. We hope to help you come to your own conclusions on the role the Alberta Tar Sands currently play, and will or will not play in all of our “energy” futures.

Stay tuned….

Climate Mama