Give Children A Voting Voice...Yours

“This is the most important election of your lifetime. There's so much at stake.”

I've been telling my voting-age children this for as long as I can remember. My voice plays over and over in their heads because for many years my children tagged along with me on Election Day. It was my hope that by joining me in the voting booth, they would become lifelong voters. Voting is their right and it would become their responsibility. Voting with my children was one of those "teachable" moments that empowered them to vote today.

Voting is the ultimate outcome of democracy: people taking action and becoming active citizens. Young adults (ages 18-29) make up at least 24% of the voting age population, and they have significant power in making a mark in history in 2012.

My children were jazzed to vote in the presidential election today. My son came home to vote in the same town hall he had accompanied me at as a young child. My daughter, a graphic designer, voted early this morning and then forwarded me the “Get Out the Vote” campaign created by the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). AIGA asked their members to create nonpartisan posters to inspire the American public to participate in the electoral process and vote in the 2012 election.

How about your children? Did you take them with you to vote? Did they vote?

View more posters and read the full post on Moms Clean Air Force.

Poster: AIGA, Shelley A. Miller

Sandy's Wake Leaves A Clear Choice

For as long as I can recall, hurricanes were a thrilling nuisance. I grew up about 20 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean and 20 minutes from the Long Island Sound…smack dab in the middle of Long Island. I longed to live closer to my cousins because they could touch the ocean from their Long Beach home. Hurricanes were a rare visitor, but they happened. In fact, when hurricane winds blew, my father's brother and family would march into our house to brave out the storm. Sometimes the cousins would stay for hours…sometimes days.

When those hurricanes thrust their last mighty blow, my dad and uncle would pile the kids into the station wagon to appraise the damages. I remember the anticipatory excitement of driving through sandy salt water to get to their house at the end of the block. Would we find the dock perched ten feet up on the grass? Would windows be smashed? Would the outdoor furniture be dangling off the deck in a tangle of boat line? We found all these things, but what made the most impression was what lurked beyond personal property damage. It was what the hurricane left behind…dead seagulls, shore birds, fish that couldn’t find their way back to the sea, and relocated plants and flowers. As we sifted through the wreckage, the thrill quickly dissipated and gave way to sadness for our beautiful natural upended world. I remember in the aftermath, my dad would say we must always be wary of nature, but the one good thing about a hurricane is that once it’s over, it's over...we didn’t have to worry about the next one for a long, long time.

Not the case anymore. The east coast has a new reality…freaky Frankenstorms and Superstorms. Why? Because we have hotter than normal sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. This means heavier rainfall and stronger winds. This means higher sea levels and increased coastal flooding. This means increased storm surges. This means the warning signs of global warming have breached the planet’s levee and they can’t be ignored any longer.

Here’s what Gov. Andrew Cuomo said while Hurricane Sandy hammered NYC a few days ago:

“I don't think anyone can sit back anymore and say, 'I'm shocked at that weather pattern’…There is no weather pattern that will shock me anymore… Climate change is a reality…Given the frequency of these extreme weather situations we have had — and I believe it is an increased frequency — for us to sit here today and say this is a once-in-a-generation, and it’s not going to happen again, I think would be short sighted. New York must anticipate more of these extreme weather type situations in the future…We have to start thinking about how do we redesign this system…This is a new orientation for us…Anyone who says there's not a dramatic change in weather patterns I think is denying reality."

Wow, this is a BIG, BIG deal! Until recently, most politicians (including the two running for President) were careful to sidestep climate change. But even in their tip-toe avoidance of attributing any single weather event to climate change, where they stand are telling in these statements:

"I'm not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet." ~ Gov. Mitt Romney

"And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet – because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future. And in this election, you can do something about it." ~ Pres. Barack Obama

Sandy has come and gone. My cousins are still unable to make their way from Brooklyn back to their oceanfront home to see if the house succumbed to Sandy's roar. But in this hurricane's wake, a clear choice has blown through the broken windows, boardwalks, airports, subways, power lines and our presidential election. As Gov. Cuomo says, we need to redesign the system. And to those who say we can’t afford renewable energy, I say, we clearly can’t afford more Sandys:

“The lost cost to the economy with much of New York and New Jersey unable to get to work was between $10 billion and $30 billion.”

The energy commitments our next president makes will affect the Frankenstorms and Superstorms my children and their children will suffer. Our next president must take global warming seriously and do something about it. Politicians in climate denial are upending nothing less than our children's future and they will not get my vote. How about yours?

Photo via Facebook's Official Hurricane Sandy page.

What Happens Next?

Yesterday, I began my day full of hope. The grassroots organization that I work my tail off at, and love dearly, Moms Clean Air Force, had just unveiled a billboard, and participated in a rally in Denver asking the Presidential Candidates which way they will choose. Will they lead us down a dirty energy path that allows coal, gas and oil polluters to continue their assault on our planet? Or will they lead us into a new era of energy-efficiency and renewables? 

Hopeful, huh?

But then I watched the debate go south. Fast. I could hardly watch. I was thrown off balance by these three words: "I love coal."  

The guy in the photo above is hopeful. But let's face it, no good can come from surf shooting. Could that be a waterproof camera? Was there such a thing in 1969?

How'd the debate look through your lens?

Photo: by John Grannis via The Selvedgeyard

Don't Block The Beautiful, Bountiful Wind

The whishing and shushing of spinning wind towers are just beginning to blot our landscape. Are wind towers ugly? I find wind towers both novel, and an optimistic reminder that we can find a solution to our carbon problem. And as you can see, harnessing the wind doesn't have to be an eyesore.

Along with being quite beautiful, there are many reasons why using wind turbines to create energy are a clean solution for powering communities:

Wind is free. Wind is clean. Wind is renewable. Wind is non-polluting. Wind doesn’t harm our health. But most importantly, wind energy works.

Unfortunately, we may soon see an end to exploring the wind energy option. The wind industry is facing the expiration of a Production Tax Credit (PTC) at the end of this year.

Do we have a cleaner homegrown energy solution? Funny, I didn’t hear much about wind and solar energy from the candidates during the political conventions, did you? Will those who vote to cut this credit be providing us with cleaner solutions?

The way I see it, we have two choices: one based on sound science that supports the public’s want and need for clean, renewable energy...and one that denies and blocks innovations that could end our dependence on fossil fuels.

I would love to know your thoughts about wind energy? Does your community have wind towers? Do you find them appealing or appalling?

Want to learn more? Please read my latest post HERE and find out what you can do to allow wind energy companies to continue to harness the beautiful and bountiful power of the wind.

Check out the nicely designed Hercules Wind Turbine...

A Crack In Fracking

There’s a refrain from an old Leonard Cohen song, "Anthem" that goes like this:

“Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in.”

We can only postulate what Cohen was writing about in the ’60, but right now, cracks are ringing warning bells in the fight against hydraulic gas fracking.

Frack New York?

I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of fracking, as I believe many of my Econesting friends are well-versed on the subject (you can read my post from last year, and this comprehensive natural gas Q&A). I also leave that to my environmental planner husband, Ted. He's working with municipalities up and down the Marcellus Shale helping citizens protect their environmental destinies, rather than accept a poisonous fate that has already inflicted so many people. (If you have any questions about fracking, please leave a comment below--he's happy to answer.)

Because of “cracks” from gas companies and politicians, fracking has crept dangerously close to my beloved home state of New York. Gov. Cuomo will soon make a final decision regarding shale gas fracturing in the Southern Tier of NY State. 

3 Reasons Not To Frack The Southern Tier of NY

1. This area houses bountiful and clean groundwater. The possibility that a precious water supply will be irreparably harmed seems senseless.

2. This area is more impoverished than other parts of NY, bringing rightful cries of environmental justice:

“Sending a polluting industry into our most economically impoverished communities is a violation of environmental justice…Partitioning our state into frack and no-frack zones based on economic desperation is a shameful idea...The pregnant mother who drinks unfiltered water from a rural well in the Susquehanna River Valley has the same right to environmental protection as the mother in Manhattan who drinks unfiltered water brought to her from the off-limits New York City watershed” ~ Sandra Steingraber, New Yorkers Against Fracking

3. We are hearing very little from our political leaders about clean alternative energy sources as viable options.

“The Governor promised to be ‘guided by science’ when it came to fracking. He has not kept his promises. Instead, he put a climate denier in charge of overseeing the environmental review process for fracking…Introducing new oil and gas drilling into New York will keep us dangerously addicted to fossil fuels as the world warms, and leave a toxic legacy in the Southern Tier counties that most need an economic revival led by green industry.” ~ Phil Aroneanu, 350.org

Mother Love and Loss

As someone who helps lead a powerful group of parents, the Moms Clean Air Force, I’ve come to understand the importance of everyday people working alongside large organizations, and even celebrities, in the fight for our children’s future. I've also lived with artists my whole life, and I know that the natural environment is a source of constant inspiration worth fighting for.

The matter of love and loss is something parents know all too well, and I believe frack activists may have found the crack that lets in the light with two artist celebs who know a thing or two about love and loss, Yoko and Sean:

http://youtu.be/uzZ_Fix5K6I

Didn't that crack you up?

Please join Artists Against Fracking. And while you’re at it, if you haven’t already joined Moms Clean Air Force, you can do so right here. Thank you.

Main image: New Yorkers Against Fracking