Money can fix climate change and save the Earth © David Carr 11.25.19
Everyday we hear news of new records of extreme weather. We understand climate change is a scientific and physical reality that must be resolved immediately, before a Tipping Point of unimaginable consequence effects the grandchildren who will live in the 22nd century.
The solution to fixing climate change is planting new trees and reducing the production and presence of atmospheric carbon. People with financial wealth have the ability to make this happen now. People with the most money (top 5% of USA income) have a responsibility to be stewards of the environment that has fostered their great wealth. The environment is our planet.
I, David Carr am a lobbyist for the Earth, and for a future my grandchildren and the seventh generation will inherit. This collage of writing is my art. My art is my witness, my expression and my testimonial from this time and space I occupy as a husband, dad and community member. My art reflects my hope and frustration. My art offers hope and reflection. My art heals the frustration of climate change by planting seeds of hope and global community building.
This October 2019 the fifth largest economy in the world is suffering unprecedented wildfires that are damaging the economy, destroying property, inflicting perpetual anxiety and terror. Vapor Pressure Deficit is a term you may have just learned. “This (Kincade 2019) is definitely an event that we’re calling historic and extreme,” said David King, meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Monterrey office, which manages forecasts for the Bay Area. “What really sets this apart from 1991 and 2017 is these winds are going to continue gusting above 35 miles an hour” The Kincade Fire was the biggest burning on Oct 27, including Lafayette, fires on each side of the Carquinez Strait, Vallejo and Crockett. See all California Fires here.
The October 20th 2019 New York Times published “The Idle Rich? They Wish”. which I reflcet an ddiscuss to support my position that rich people have a moral and ethical responsibilities to invest in fixing climate change.
Paragraph 51 “Limitless opportunity and extreme isolation. They already own the present, what else is left to buy but tomorrow, and the tomorrow after that.” The tomorrows that are for sale are the ones the grandchildren will live in. The opportunity to invest in tomorrow by fixing climate change is a decision that every person with wealth must now weigh heavily.
On Oct 27, 2019 Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to created the biggest intentional blackout in state history on 940,000 households and businesses in 36 counties effecting 2,000,000 people. The costs of climate change continue to rise, as must the investments to cure the problem. The new normal is the accelerated event history of Santa Ana Devil Winds that tear through the canyons reaching 80 mph to 110 mph. 75% of the 20 largest California fires took place since 2000. We see the six most destructive named events since 2006: Woolsey(2018), Thomas(2017), Canyon 2(2017), Freeway Complex(2008), Santiago(2007), Sierra Fire (2006) but then only 6 in the previous sixty years, Laguna(1993), Gypsum (1982), Santiago(1974), Paseo Grande(1967), Stewart(1958 &, Green River (1948). Kincade Fire wind gusts up to 65 mph are forecast for 10/28/19 in the mountains and passes with a longer lasting event forecast for Halloween 2019. 2019 research shows wildfire directly correlated to Vapor Pressure Deficit, and projected to get worse. What is The Cost Of Climate Change?
The majority of Global Citizens are aware of climate change and are making decisions to effect intervention on many levels. In my household, we make sustainable choices about purchasing and energy consumption. People now buy highly efficient cars and install carbon free (solar, wind or geothermal) energy systems in their homes. People with greater wealth have the ability to invest in technology and accelerate implementation.
As an individual citizen I recognize my consumer choices of efficiency are microscopic in effect compared to the damage caused by private jets, aging ocean liners, coal fired power plants, diesel vehicles, deforestation and all the other enormous human activities that my buying an electric car will not meaningfully offset.
This realization compels me to be an Earthlobbyist to effect more meaningful systemic change in my world, in my lifetime. This is my legacy, my art, and my witness for the future.
What causes rich people to turn their back on this moment and geological history? Could it be greed? Could it be a choice of personality? This article discusses the motivations of people who acquire vast amounts of money and the satisfaction they receive from it.
Paragraph 2 “For those at the top, too much is never enough.” This sounds like an addiction more than a lifestyle. There comes a time when everyone has to consider a reckoning of their life. What they have accomplished, what they have created, and what they have left behind. There could be no greater personal legacy of philanthropy in the future then a history of saving the earth from cataclysmic destruction due to human engineered carbon-based profiteering.
Paragraph 6 “Unlike the Leisure Gentry of old, rich people now work longer hours and spend less time socializing.” This seems strange in a highly connected, automated, socially networked planet, that people of great wealth would not be talking to each other about global problems, and their ability to deliver solutions. What has happened to our sense of community?
Paragraph 4 “#LadyGaga makes a reported 1 million dollars per show in her residency in Las Vegas.” What is happening the rest of the time? I don’t know, but If I was making a million a day I would be investing at least 20% in the world the provided me with that wealth. I would welcome to opportunity to work with Ms Stefani Germonatta if she, or any person of celebrity finds Earthlobbyist important. I have been tweeting to Ms Taylor Swift since she lives up the coast from me, and hope she can support this work.
Paragraph 5 #Elon Musk is worth over 23 billion and works over 90 hours a week.” I’m sure most of that work is done in a variety of very comfortable environments, since I am working sitting on my couch talking (to text) in my smartphone right now.
Paragraph 12 “No one seems to talk about their goal number anymore, there is no Omega point. People who get to a financial goal don’t stop once they get there.” Again, we get back to the addiction of acquiring money versus creating a legacy. I wonder how things would be different if Mr. Musk’s Hyperloop and SpaceX money was directed toward sustaining the Earth so his other occupations could be more meaningful in the future. Are future generations just going to be living underground to avoid extreme weather and solar radiation? Yuck. What a choice.
There is no lack of methods or means to invest wealth in climate, including energy generation, debt portfolios, mutual funds, green building and retrofits as described in this article.
Paragraph 14 “But for many very wealthy people, they simply can’t stop doing it. They derive transcendent meaning from capitalism. Without their money what else would they have?” What they could have is a sense of giving back and satisfaction that their wealth has created a future, more than a present experience for them and those closest to them. The world has a great history of esteemed philanthropists who have recognized that with great wealth comes great responsibility.
People with wealth have the ability to invest in clean technology. They have the ability to install carbon-free energy systems for entire buildings of people who may not be able to afford them or provide no interest low interest financing. They have the ability to provide tools for installation, like well drilling trucks to promote geothermal. Rich people have so many options to save the planet the list is endless.
Paragraph 16 “Without ambitious projects to fill space, there is often a void that makes some of the bigger questions hard to avoid, the things you neglected are no longer drowned out by the noise, they are the signal. It’s like facing the Ghost of Christmas Past.” What could the Ghost of Christmas Past say to the wealthy person who did not invest in the planet, and obtain a fair rate of return? Money doubles every 7 years at 7% Return on Investment. I cannot imagine the thoughts a person with the ability to evoke change would be subject to as they lie on their deathbed, knowing they could have been the difference to their posterity. I can only think of the fires that ravage California to imagine what hell must be.
To assist the world’s poorest countries survive and adapt to the environmental threats posed by climate change you can invest in the UNFCC Green Climate Fund.
Paragraph 18 “ Today’s competitive personality types are unable to slow down, in part because they fear slipping from their lofty perches.” What if the perspective and opportunity viewed from these lofty perches were the reward? Like the eagle who sits high in a tree and sees all, the wealthy person cannot turn their eyes away from the shared reality of our civilization.
Everyone, including children are subjected to everything now because of streaming media. Anxiety is on the rise according to current media, We see the suffering of war, hunger, extremism, exploitation, trafficking, climate change, fires, floods, excessive heat, the new polar vortex, lack of water for agriculture and other catastrophes that were hidden from our eyes before everyone held a camera that could upload instantly. Shared reality was once created by those who could afford to hold the camera in the movie studios. The studio is now in the palm of your hand, so we can no longer deny the reality over the hill, around the corner or down the road. All roads connect us to each other wherever they are, in the sky, or on the ground, on in the experience of time.
Paragraph 21 “A recent Harvard study of 4,000 millionaires found that people worth 8 million or more were scarcely happier than those worth 1 million or more. In a 2006 study rich people reported they spend even more time doing things that they were required to do.” What are these things rich people are required to do? Protect their estates from thieves? Make sure they are getting enough more money? Buying new things? At what expense?
What I propose as a citizen earthlobbyist is that rich people and organizations actively find meaningful and reasonably profitable ways to invest in saving the future Earth. Universities that produce climate change science simultaneously control multi billion dollar endowments that are often invested in globally destructive enterprises
I am willing to work with any person orr organization who reads this. I’m willing to hear the frustration and the fear. I’m willing to search for meaning in the moment and the opportunity to forge our future. It seems to me there is an incredible opportunity for investment in the creation of clean energy. It seems the opportunity to plant trees, create clean energy, sequester carbon and filter water has an incredible reward to the entities who embrace this reality. I cannot imagine if anything more satisfying than seeing another family healthy and sustained with fresh air, healthy food, a stable climate and clean water, instead of suffering.
Paragraph 28 “The rich have a blinkered view that society as a whole is more well-off than it is, feeding their unending need for more money.” I see pictures every day of families living on the street or in fractured homes, trying to recover from floods, economic anxiety, and hurricanes.
Do you avoid these pictures?
Do you believe this is something about our global future that does not matter?
Do you feel disconnected, insulated and somehow complicity not responsible?
I believe if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem because there is no middle ground. Like separating wheat from chaff, by chance or by choice, we all stand on one side or the other, because the power of indecision is too strong to survive. Standing in the shadow of indecision creates an internal struggle of right and wrong, of opportunity and complicity, of responsibility and denial.
Silence is agreement and concession in times of great challenge. We have nothing to fear, but fear. Now is a time of great challenge for our planet and for all the people who will be the grandchildren’s decedents when the oceans haven risen 10 or 20 feet. This will not happen in your lifetime but what of the future? Will New York City and Miami be underwater testaments to our ignorance?
Paragraph 24 “If you’re an alcoholic you’re going to take 1, 2, 5, or 6 drinks to feel the buzz, while when you get a million dollars you need 10 million to feel like a king again. Money is an addictive substance.” It seems to me that making a difference by caring for our neighbors and the global community is an addictive experience as well. Seeing other people’s lives improved through personal benevolence is one of the most rewarding realities I have experienced. I have volunteered many hours feeding hungry people, counseling those in distress, writing books, helping others achieve dreams, and volunteering in my community. I have planted, painted and restored natural places to make a difference in the moment I live, and the moment that is shared by those around me.
I can only imagine what I could accomplish with millions of dollars. But my reality is that I am a self-employed family man of moderate means who cares about the future and his children. I have my time and talent to invest in creating my legacy for my wider family. I have created Earthlobbyist, and decided to do is meet climate change deniers where they live work and vote. I have embarked on this gift of mission through my smartphone and my web server.
Working to make a difference has created a sense of satisfaction and help to address the urgency I feel every time I hear of a new weather record, more melting ice, crumbling glaciers, wildfires destroying homes, species extinction or crop destruction, not to mention the developing threat of insects bringing tropical diseases. Nobody ever used to be afraid of mosquitoes, but a little bug cancels a football game, something no form of weather could ever accomplish. Who would have ever thought this could happen in our lives?
Who can miss the signs? Only someone who keeps their eyes closed or wears blinders of wealth. When you have greater amounts of money, there are unlimited distractions of acquisition and competition available. People with wealth can focus on having the best horse, or car, or boat, or bottle, or experience, or watch, or dress, or food, or vacation, or house, or ranch, or resort, or pet, or airplane, or anything else
What about the competition to be the best steward of the planet and the future? I challenge you, if you have the financial means, to begin the competition. Who can plant the most trees? Who can install the most solar panels? Who can install the most geothermal heat? For who can produce the most efficient heat source? Who can make battery storage available to the most people? Who can create the most efficient and affordable small wind turbine or wave energy? Who can loan the most money? Who can support the most charitable organizations? Who can plant the most crops? Who can clean the most water? Who can feed the most people? Who can save the most bees?
There is no time to waste as the exponential effects of climate change are not understood. Scientists are making projections about events that we have no benchmark of, and no experience. There are people who deny that climate change is even happening at the same time oil companies are beginning the walk to courthouses to address their knowledge that the production of atmospheric carbon is harmful to the planet.
On Nov 5, 2019 a team of 11, 224 World Scientists published and co-signed the “Warning of Climate Emergency” , a comprehensive, easy read presentation that clearly explains the urgency of our situation with a manageable action plan.
As you read Earthlobbyist.com or any other historical source, it is easy to know that we have understood the scientific basis of producing carbon dioxide since the 1960s. Now is the time to act, Not the time to be afraid. I know it’s hard to read this, and I appreciate your for witnessing on this journey pf mine. Join me. Find Power. because we’re only starting to understand the effects of methane coming from melting permafrost and the effects of phytoplankton (which make most of the oxygen) dying in the oceans. Sure we’re concerned about rainforests being burned to produce beef, but maybe we should be more concerned about our oceans, which produce 70% of the oxygen.
As you go to sleep tonight, think about what you can do as a person with wealth to leave a legacy for your grandchildren. What will your children say you did about and to their world? You might say “ I met David Carr and became an Earthlobbyist.”