Green Fire

Written September 22, 2006 near a small forest in Pennsylvania:

Sometimes when I go out, standing at the edge of the forest, I feel it. There's a warmth that wells in my chest, just below my sternum.. It's a warmth, the warmth, I think we spend our lives searching for but come upon only rarely. I think it's the warming of completeness, the warmth of entirety.

I feel it when I am truly happy. And when I am sad, my chest feels like an empty cupboard and I seek to fill it with food.

Sitting at the edge of the forest, surrounded by the all-encompassing hug of crickets, cardinals singly chirping, at the same time it is both within me as I am in it. It silently accepts me, and if I get quiet enough, sometimes I can hear it marvelling back at me. Our souls lying together in perfect unity on the forest floor.

Many times, though, this energy is dead set on spreading itself from me; it radiates and reverberates in others. It is an offering, complete in all its intricate, innocent beauty.

It is so disconcerting the many times I've set out searching for it, only to feel as if I am running after my own shadow. Sometimes I run so fast I fall and as I'm picking myself up I remember to be patient, stand still, and let it come out of its hiding place.

And it does. It winks at me if I pay enough attention.
"I'm still here," it beckons.

Sometimes it hides in the eyes of others, looking out at me. These days I am happy, we are complete.

I try to live my life with an absolute intention to one day come to see the peace beneath the war we so often delude and lose ourselves in, the busyness we put ourselves through, trying to ignore what we cannot avoid.

I long for the day when we can be open enough as a people to see it in ourselves, to accept it and embrace it. Sometimes when I go out, I can feel the promise.

anti-environmentalism

just reading up on what capitalist magazine has to say about environmentalism... ("if environmentalism succeeds, it will make human life impossible")

i just wanted to share this cartoon with you. it's from an article on the falsities in al gore's movie (http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4806).

but the cartoon. seriously, is it bad to love the earth? i mean, yeah, we've (people) created religions in the past to worship it, but historically Capitalists and Christians have abolished them (i.e. "civilized the heathens"). see paganism or, well, most indigenous religions. i guess we (civilized americans) wouldn't know what worshipping the earth looks like, because that's only for heathens, and you can't be a heathen with a hummer...can you?

i just think it's sad that it's come down to this...making fun of people for praising the beauty of nature.



more:
"The expressed goal of environmentalism is to prevent man from changing his environment, from intruding on nature. That is why environmentalism is fundamentally anti-man. Intrusion is necessary for human survival. Only by intrusion can man avoid pestilence and famine. Only by intrusion can man control his life and project long-range goals. Intrusion improves the environment, if by "environment" one means the surroundings of man--the external material conditions of human life. Intrusion is a requirement of human nature. But in the environmentalists' paean to "Nature," human nature is omitted. For environmentalism, the "natural" world is a world without man. Man has no legitimate needs, but trees, ponds, and bacteria somehow do." (from: http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4643)

i'd beg to differ and say that environmentalism is fundamentally ecological. we, men, need to realize that we are part of a system, and if we disrupt that system, we'll end up disrupting our human nature in some way or another (acid rain, drought, the dust bowl of the 30s, soil nutrient depletion, etc, etc. we know the drill). i think that's pretty fundamental.

eco-terrorist or "moderate environmentalist"?

"We must live what we know."

we just got back from driving my sister to woodfield for her bus back to champaign. woodfield is a giant mall in northeast illinois. pretty much the whole time we were driving i was almost throwing up. i really hate the suburbs. i think that's maybe why i've been kinda manic depressive lately (sometimes really really hyper for no reason, other times depressed, quiet, withdrawn)...the city fucks me up. suburbs are worse. i was being really obnoxious in the car. i really don't know how to express that feeling in any other way than that. i was like that in florida a lot too, just acting like a 4 year old, and not in a good way. i think that's what happens when i feel oppressed, trapped - it comes out that way when people won't let me say my words.

the day before my birthday we (the family and i) went out for dinner in a neighboring town (crystal lake) (really surburban, lots of strip malls...like miles of them.) at a pretty good restaurant, well, it's been good in the past. and as we were leaving to go pick out my bday present (i wanted to go to a sporting good store and buy some good stuff, like a stuff sack for my sleeping bag or some other applicable stuff (like warm socks)) i was saying something about how i wanted to just deface hummers or fuck them up or something. i think my dad said something about being an eco-terrorist. i said "i'd rather be an eco-terrorist than a moderate environmentalist." that's what i'm coming to realize. if we want to have a real effect on this shit called global warming, we need to stop driving. stop living in this global warming trap that's been set up for us (and if that means being an eco-terrorist, then i'm gonna start doing that...well, maybe not destruction of property, but ...well, something.). anyway, we get to the sporting store and all four of us walk in and i'm standing at the entrance thinking, fuck i don't want to be part of this. the store is gigantic, packed with overpriced things you need to go outside, heaven forbid you don't have a supersilk thermalite(TM) north face piece of shit to make sure you don't freeze to death outside. i didn't let them buy me anything, even though my dad was pretty adamant about doing so. i told him i was sorry.

driving around the suburbs in 60degree weather of november i had my window down and i felt like an alien. being rejected from this society, and rejecting it. i was physically affected, antsy, rollercoaster emotions. i'm not really sure how i should feel. i do know that it's sad that kids born into this don't know anything else. i want to get a machine and dig up a part of the parking lots and scream THERE'S SOIL UNDER THESE THINGS. let's not keep ourselves from the earth! people walk from their houses on their driveways to their cars, drive to work, walk through the parking lot to their skyrise and never step on grass. grass is ornamental; it's not real. we drove past a park on the way to woodfield, nature is fenced in there. there's a really strong dichotomy between city/humanity and wild/nature. it's sick.

many times i think this is one of the most radicalizing experiences i've had. i do not want to be an on the fence environmenalist. i don't want to be environmentalist because it's smart, or because being opposite is dumb. i want to do it because it's right, and i want this to encompass my life. it's not just that i run a campaign on stopping global warming, it's that i live my life to stop global warming. it's not a mask i can put on and take off. it scares me that (i interpret) most of the people i'm working with can do that. for me environmentalism is a lifestyle, not a tactic.

Global Warning

First, if you are unsure about the science of global warming, please do yourself a favor and learn about it. Don't just learn about some abstract 'issue,' learn how you are part of it, learn how you fit into the bigger picture - learn how we are interconnected. Please, if you have any questions and would rather ask a human than attempt to surf this vast ocean of information, do not hesitate to ask me (arisahagun at gmail dot com)! If I can't answer your questions, I might be able to provide you with the resources to help you. Then, read on.

An article by BCC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6126242.stm suggests that global warming is more than a future threat to some African countries. Furthermore, since most of the efforts of industrialized nations have focused on lessening greenhouse gas emissions, there has been little worked on internationally as far as researching "adaptations," let alone how to apply those.

Greenpeace V: part 2 - the International Day of Action

yesterday i had a moment to feel that all the shit of the past two weeks has been worth it. so i guess i haven't mentioned it up to this point but a lot of what we've been working toward culminated yesterday, the international day of action on climate change. 20,000 people marched in london, a greenpeacer got arrested for climing a power plant tower, we had 400 people on the beach create an "aerial art image." with the help of an artist, a helicoper, hundereds of volunteer hours, about 40 organizers, and many many community members, we spread across the beach to create an outline of Flordia and text that said "save our state." next, we morphed into a drowning person holding an umbrella with the text "stop global warming" it's an awesome picture. sitting next to connie and michelle (two fellow got'ers), a girl playing an african drum, and two volunteers from broward community college, i realized that it's all been worth it. i'm sitting in a giant 'E'. the helicopter's coming across the horizon, the tide was rising. i'd volunteered to get wet. they told us (we were telling volunteers) ankle-deep water -- then we realized that we'd be laying in it. but it didn't matter, i'm part of the E. daryl, the BCC volunteer turns to me after a wave and asks how he can keep things up after we leave florida. that's awesome. we've inspired another to join our cause. awe-inspring. the pictures are worth well over 1,000 words.

the day itself was really crazy too. i got to the beach around 8:30am and it was cloudy with winds around 30mph and tall waves. "no way will we get more than 250 people out here." we're thinking. just standing on the beach we were getting sandblasted. most of us got windburn. the sun came out twice before we were done with the day - once during the first picture and again for the second shot. sometimes you just know things are right.

Greenpeace V: part 1

so i feel like i owe something in reflection of these past two weeks. and what better time for it than a 16 hr. van ride back to DC. cleaning out the hotel room this morning, being on the beach these past two full days, and just generally - people are so wasteful. it's on such a gigantic magnitude - and it's nearly inescapable as an American. at a hotel, everything is single-serivng; everything is temporary, transitory, with little regard for the future. i called the hotel's corporate office and left a message with my phone number asking about their recycling program (they don't have one). no one's called me back yet. it seems that we try so hard not to waste specific resources (i..e.time and money) but we end up wasting profusely in other areas. even we "environmentalists" are often too focused on other goals and we end up running the conversion van for 5 minutes not moving, run the air conditioning all day in an empty hotel room, taking 30 minute showers, spending $200 on clothes. we literally just passed what i suspect was a garbage dump. a swarm of seagulls larger than i've ever seen with hundreds of turkey vultures circled overhead.

i'm starting to realize that it's hard for people to respect the criticisms of someone also stuck in the same system ( i.e. not living any solutions). i'm beginning to feel disconnects within myself - hypocracies that i notice and need to fix within myself. i'm tired of being lax and letting the situation dictate the things which are important to me. it's like saying i might as well shave my legs because it's easier. i want to create situations (or find them) where it's easy to be me, where i'm not constantly swimming against the flow. we just drove by a giant plot of land with bare, exposed soil - a future subdivision.

i hate seeing animals and birds by the road. i hate to think they have to live next to us. i hate to think that i am to blame. i use these roads, i use the subdivisions, i use the garbage dumps. this is what i'm beginning to realize - that it's hard to respect a dissenter if he/she is part of and this encouraging the continuation of that system. this is the concretion of the thought that i've been having here a lot at greenpeace.

it's kind of summed up in one of the lunches i shared with one of the guys from the research team. he helped make a website which is basically a map of different oil companies, think tanks, individuals and their relations to the us gov't. we started admiring their efficiency and effectiveness (i.e. telling people that global warming / climate change isn't real) and at once strategizing. we wondered if theses institutions had training programs like ours. he said they probably did. we joked about one of us signing up for that program.

this is my point. for every one there is an equal and opposite. (newton) yin and yang. greenpeace exists as a response. it works in a system to negate its opposite. like chasing a shadow. but don't get me wrong - greenpeace serves and noble purpose and a lot of times does it in ways we haven't seen. with yin comes yang. i think greenpeace started off well, radically, showing people what they haven't seen - making waves. i think, now, in a lot of ways gp needs to step it up. i think the framework and intent are definitely there. still part of the system where [we] should be creating new systems. i think we need to continuously be improving, training people ot think outside the box. i probably think this way because iv'e heard the message so many times that i'm ready for the next step. repetition works insofar as it creates a space of monotony to be filled with creative solutions. i'm beginning to think this is one way to look at change - create the space and then give people the tools to fill it. (which is what someone at gp said about what gp does.)

hopefully this all isn't too abstract, detached, and philosophical to understand. creating these spaces seems really cool - providing opportunities. it's the fundamental underlyng principle in culture jamming and somewhere in the resolution of cognitive dissonance. this program's made a lot of spaces for me. a lot of spaces to get pissed off, to question, to propose creative, new solutions.

Greenpeace IV: part 3 - the Law of Halves

when we're petitioning we try to estimate the number of petitions in order to get a certain number of people ...say... to come to a meeting. you get 192 petitions signed - about half of those (96) will have phone numbers - about half of these numbers you'll be able to make contact with aperson (48) - of these, 24 will actionally talk to you. 12 people will say they'll come (to the meeitng). 6 will actually show up.

(ok, pause it. remember the scene in fight club where "jack" (ed norton) is on the plane telling an older woman the calculation that his insurance company uses to determine the safety rating of a car? (as we view a car that's been burnt to a crisp and listen to the workers joke about how the fat burned to the seat would be a good modern art exhibit...) "if a x b x c = x, and x is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one." (are there a lot of these kinds of accidents? // you wouldn't believe) and she's like 'what car company do you work for?' and he says "a major one." i feel kinda like that about this law of halves calculation. just to set the scene.)

that makes sense, right? i can get (at low estimates) about 15 petitions signed in an hour - so it would take 10 of us just over an hour to get 192. this system of numbers is one of the main things we base our days around. the law of halves is something we almost live by as organizers. //this// is why i don't want to be an organizer. 10 people just spent about an hour and a half talking to more than 200 people and we end up forging 6 relationships where people are interested in coming to a fun event with free food. we 'accost' people in the street, see if we can grab their interest with one line ( i.e. "got a second for the environment?" (which i've never used, because i don't think "the environment" exists like that. that's perhaps a longer story) or "have you / are you interested / heard of global warming?" "would you like to sign a petition?" (said as you offer them a clipboard), etc.), get them to sign a piece of paper while encouraging them to write their phone number and check the box that says "i'm interested in volunteering" while saying "don't worry, we won't contact you in any way unless you check that box" and bating them with credit from the volutneer office at their school (yeah, we actually hooked that up). there. that's what i do most of the day. then...after we get back to the hotel, we count up all the checked boxes (notice: checked boxes...these are our volunteer's phone numbers.), divide them up and everyone starts calling people to see if they'll volunteer (we call this phonebanking).

i realize i'm being cynical and overly negative about this stuff. perhaps a bit overdramatic about it with the fight club scene. i guess i should admit that i don't //completely// loathe it. we do reach a lot of people and at least share the idea of global warming with some people who have never heard about it. we are making progress with the candidates, too. ron klein (the democrat) finally said he'd agree to the waxman safe climate act, the "global warming legislation" currently up for disscusison. jon (our leader/teacher/etc) and jack also got interviewed by the media. (oh, and i'd also like to semi-reationalize my cynicism by saying that maybe it's just a misguided questioning of the status quo/system/the man)

Greenpeace IV: part 2

since when do we need anything plastic? since the marketing campaign? who runs these campaigns? what do they want from us? why do we listen to them? there was a guest speaker - we invited a professor - at our meeting last night - and she was really radical about endiong global warming. she said we never should buy another car, stop using plastic, become vegetarian, and only have 1 baby per person. i don't disagree with any of these - plus, she's bulidng an eco-community in belize - but she made me think about our completely unnecessary dependence on plastic, electricity, fossil fuels. yeah, we have those technologies, but they don't /need/ to be part of our everyday lives! also, during that meeting i talked to a guy who seemed to be buddhist or daoist, teaches qi gong and is raki certified. and he reminded me of some things i know but have been organizationally trained to forget or look past.

Greenpeace IV: part 1

i feel like a lot of times the things we're doing aren't by choice. we aren't self-led. i think this is what's getting to me? having to fill this out or get people to do somthing or try and figure out how what i want works for people rather than starting from them and what they want. this gets to me. i don't feel like i've made any personal relationships outside of this group. it's hard working with people on that level. if people aren't the force i'm scared. petitioning is effective i guess; it gets people superficially aware and asks them to take an action.

i'm tired of people just trying to get what they want from me. i don't want to have that kind of relationship with others.

we should never sacrifice humanity, emotion, personality, character, for effectiveness. this is not for me. screw the details about how many petitions to get, i love people, people are the power, the movement. screw any movement that doesn't utilize this. this is why i prefer consensus over majority. i will and need to be more creative about entertaining minority views. majority is clearly more effective, but if that was the case with movements, why would the minority ever stand up? it seems like, in a lot of cases, the numerical minority is the ethical/moral majority. ...or that, perhaps most interestingly, the minority actually is the majority but we just can't see it because of how a particular issue is framed. (this, i hope to explore after we finish the book we're currently reading: don't think of an elephant by george lakoff)

if no one likes phonebanking, why aren't we more creative about them?

Greenpeace III

Hey.

I know - it's been a while since I last sent out a mass email about the state of my being here in DC. I guess it's been busy - I mean, like we all are, of course, a.k.a. I just haven't made time to sit down, think about what's going on in the context of my other lives, and then tell everyone about it. It's a little weird, feeling like I'm addressing some large audience, at the podium.

But nonetheless:
We've been doing a lot of "phonebanking" lately - calling numbers in Florida to ask people to put a (free) sign in their yard that says "Stop Global Warming" and asking them to call their Congressional candidates. It's kind of hard to have someone hang up the phone or say "no" when I ask if global warming is something they're concerned about. ...repeatedly. Phonebanking kind of helps me connect in my head how an individual can make a difference. It feels really good to get one person to call and tell their congressman that they care about global warming. It's something so small but when done on a mass scale it does make a difference. I called one of the candidate's offices and the secretary said that a lot of people had been calling for the same reason and if I thought there was some kind of campaign...it was pretty sweet that we were having an effect at that office.

A lot of us, though, are like, "What the crap? Global warming is a giant problem, what good is it to make a few calls?" It's easy to get defeated because of the scope of the problem and most people's inability to care about the it. That's what I think it is -- an inability -- because people simply can't relate to the phrase 'global warming.' We just finished a memoir from the civil rights by John Lewis and a few hours ago had a book discussion. It's really interesting to compare the two movements. In the civil rights movement, the "enemy" (or the target) was obvious - all the time people were exposed to overt racism, violence, sheer brutality, in the face of nonviolence. Seeing a white cop beat the crap out of a black citizen is powerful, you can feel that. You are actually /affected/ by the problem.

But something like 'global warming.' Does that, honestly, conjure up any tingly feeling at the back of your neck, goosebumps, or stir your stomach? Maybe, if you're really in touch with a global view of the problem - maybe if you've seen a polar bear drown, coral reefs bleached, indigenous peoples starving, similar powerful images, maybe then you can feel it. But probably not. Probably you're not viscerally affected by the idea of renewable energy, photovoltaic cells. You're probably not smiling, excited - finally, our people will be liberated from the oppressive regime of...coal power. Nah.

After our first phonebank, I was not in a good mood. "How could people /not/ care about global warming?!?" As I calmed down and was waiting in the subway station I began to see a different question -- "How do you even talk to people about global warming?" I started talking to the woman next to me about it -- "Do you believe in global warming?" is what I started with I think. She told me a lot - she says that she thinks why people don't act is because they don't know how, or don't have the capability. Well I've been thinking about how to approach people about global warming for about a week now...and I have no answers, because I think the question's unclear and doesn't promote a solution. This morning I realized that the question is more like "How /can/ people care about global warming?" My job as an [organizer] is to show people how they care, because I believe they do. And I must. I feel that for every second I don't believe people care, that the American public (or humans across the world) are lazy, apathetic, and simply do not care -- for every second of this thinking -- that second is wasted. That second is frittered away fighting something that's not real. But when I think that people do have some capacity to care, to act, they have potential, a speck of truth - somewhere - and this is what I need to start speaking to. This is what inspires people.

And inspire people is what I'll do.
But I knew this already.

one of the lectures today was from a guy called kieren mulvaney who primarily works with the antarctica campaign. he said that greenpeace is unique because it is "prepared to make people uncomfortable, and to say what people don't want to hear"
...so i asked him...if the IPCC (intergovernmental panel on climate change, a division of the UN) basically said that Americans need to make lifestyle changes to stop global warming, why is greenpeace not stepping up and saying this, rather than taking a fairly roundabout way of pressuring candidates to pass renewable legislation...?

his answer:
global warming "seems like science fiction"...in light of this, if greenpeace says, climate change is occuring, ice is melting in the arctic, so, pump up your tires and change your lightbulbs, there's a bit of a disconnect. lifestyle change and global warming are on different scales...so greenpeace is also good at beating up on the big guys; we're out to level the playing field to pave the way for the changes that need to be happening on the large scale.

Greenpeace II

wow. this might get long.
so let me start with last week.
before thursday last week we spent a lot of time learning a ton about designing campaigns, why they're designed, how they're designed, blah blah. we learned a lot about why and how greenpeace functions and the ins and outs of the breakdown of the organization ( i.e. the departments: actions, campaigns, legal, development, research, etc and how they relate). we had a project we worked on for two days to simulate the creation of a campaign against bottom trawling (if you haven't heard: bottom trawling is a relatively new fishing technique being used virtually 'round the world, but is not extremely embedded/popular yet. it basically consists of a giant ship dragging a weighted net along the ocean floor to catch fish. problem is that it catches more than fish. including species we've never even heard of. we're destroying entire ecosystems before we've even come to see them. the solution lies somewhere in the UN framework because of the international scope of the issue ( i.e. trawling occurs mostly in the 'high seas,' international waters). spain is the biggest culprit, 40% followed by portugal and russia, 7% each. here's how it can relate to you: almost of the ORANGE ROUGHY we consume is bottom trawled. other than that there isn't much consumer/citizen involvement with this issue becaues of the international "forum" of the problem.) lots of this.
thursday all 20 of us students and our two organizers/trainers went to pennsylvania. the place rocked except the water reaked of sulfur (rotten eggs). (when they first told us, i was like 'ain't no thing', i can take it, but it seriously was really difficult to drink. and the whole house smelled of it. blegh.) but other than that, it was awesome. we did tons of group building activities and received feedback about our personal group dynamics, discussed how we work in teams, how to work in teams, worked on active listening, shared (really personal) motivations for being here, etc etc. generally we got a ton closer to each other and i realize that i have A TON of differences from a lot of these people. here are some: most people don't know much about science. i know about coal plants, plants, birds, and how stuff works that other people aren't familiar with. i'm not braggin or anything, i'm just surprised that i am almost the expert of the group on this (in my opinion) elementary stuff. but i guess that's part of greenpeace, because it's more than just a bunch of tree hugging pot smoking dirty smelly hairy environmental science-minded people. "we" work hard to avoid that stereotype. and i learned that most people have seen clueless. i, however, have not and will not. they will try to get me to. and i'm the only one beside our female organizer (amy) who doesn't regularly shave. people were seriously grossed out, using the word "vomit" repeatedly. and surprised that i've ever had a boyfriend. dang they need to get out more.
[sigh]
and then today.
we have assigned readings and the one for today was a 30+ page article from the new yorker (magazine) explaining global warming. reading it was really defeating. the scope of many of the problems brought up, which are already happening and being unaddressed, makes it seem so overwhelming and almost not worth "fighting" against. (here's what i mean: we're really close to the hottest the earth has ever been, in any accessible history (mostly ice cores which go back like millions of years), let alone the existence of humans. "shit is fucked up" in greenland, and basically the entire arctic. furthermore, "average global temperature rise" will disproportionately affect the arctic. feedback mechanisms up the wazoo. for more details, see al gore's campaign tactic: an inconvienient truth. bring some tissues, recycled ones. if you have questions, try me.) and then, the fact that this administration BLOWS and we're basically holding up WORLDWIDE PROGRESS through the kyoto protocol. australia hasn't signed either. there's a cool website, exxonsecrets.org, which maps out all the players in the disinformation campaign against the scientific certainty of global warming. basically, exxon (+etc.) pays key people to distribute mad-style info that makes people question the existence of the issue. at this point all i can think and feel (literally, physically feel) is: we're screwed. sca-rewed.
psh. and then some lady came and lectured to us about greenpeace's campaign called cape wind to help try and get an offshore wind turbine system off the coast near mannhattan or something. (130 turbines, 420 feet tall, 5.2 miles offshore, 1/2 inch of viewable horizon space from the shore.) i grilled her like crazy and she didn't answer my questions. here are some examples: well first, she didn't seem to know much about the science of global warming and i think she said a few incorrect things. not cool. (a quote "i'm not a scientist, i just read papers and go on their recommendations" that's cool and all, but i wasn't cool with her not knowing about the stuff she was trying to present to us). i asked her if she thought wind power was a feasible alternative for electricity generation in america, given these stats now: 50% = coal, 20% nuke, less than 1% wind. (ESPECIALLY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL WARMING). she said yes. it is "highly feasible" (quote.). so i said... if a) the gov't madstyle subsidizes nuclear energy for electricity, b) we already have a lot of plants in place, c) electricity generation doesn't produce co2, d) and noting the (supposed) urgency of global warming, does she feel that nuclear is a good stepping point for electricity generation? no. absolutely not. greenpeace is (to my surprise) surprisingly against nuclear energy. as far as i've been taught, which was, granted, by a nuclear physicist, one of the leaders in the world, not a big threat and environmentalists are just uninformed about realities. i haven't gotten an answer to this question. i will.

i seriously could go on a lot more but i feel that it's probably long enough to where you're not reading or not interested. i'll post more on a blog and then send you the address later this week.

logistics:
if you would prefer to keep receiving emails, email me to let me know. else, i'll just post it to a blog. also, i think i might be buying a cell phone tonight so when i miss your call, i'll know and not just seem like an irresponsible cellphone user for not calling you back.

i think that's it.

do your part in this thing:
- stay informed, and if that means asking me, please do, learning teaches.
- if you read something that blows you out of the water, tell others.
- if you want to act or something, let me know and i'm sure i can distribute something or other to you somehow. i mean, i am sitting in the national greenpeace hq and all.

so yeah. i am also interested about your life. let me know or something. sometime.
peace, love, and the end to global warming before all the polar bears die,
ari

Greenpeace I

so i was just walking down the hall and i thought to myself, 'damn, i'm in the greenpeace national headquarters in d.c'....today was the first day of the program (called the GOT / greenpeace organizing term)...we went through all of what we'll be doing this semester, including mostly training, campaigning, driving boats...etc. we're going on this 'surprise' (they won't tell us where we're going yet) 2.5 week trip to bird-dog and campaign ...the campaign we're working on is called project hotseat, focused on "saving the world" from global warming. they're going to brief us on it tomorrow.

some of the verbage they use (today) like "saving the planet" and a lot of people here talk about the "ignorance" of the general public (moreso the GOT participants than GP employees)...or fighting / victories / stuff like that that kind of confuse me coming from a more "ecological" view. in ecology there aren't really wins and losses, per se, and i'm not sure how i feel with a lot of what greenpeace is putting out there. especially their reluctance to explore (at least openly) the possibility of nuclear energy as a source for electricity, which they briefly mentioned today and said that it was, i guess, an antithesis to peace...so that skepticism is (in my opinion) useful, necessary, and humbling and hopefully i can maintain that in light of the weight of this program and city rather than being sucked into it.

this city definitely feels powerful. walking down the streets, viewing the capitol building at night, and just being in this city makes one stand taller. not necessarily prouder, but i definitely feel a sense of power and "getting shit done" oozing out of the walls around here. giant corinthian columns dwarf you, and all the museums are free (botanical gardens, smithsonian, etc)..so exploration is really easy.

at GP we can have visitors, so if any of you want to come and visit you can spend a day (or more) in my shoes and see a training or two.

i'll keep you posted as things progress, and i'm trying to get a cell phone around here, so you can call me if you want to remember what my voice sounds like.

keep it up and keep in touch
ari