Bill McKibben: We're In New Territory For Human Beings

We're in new territory for human beings--it's been millions of years since there's been this much carbon in the atmosphere. The only question now is whether the relentless rise in carbon can be matched by a relentless rise in the activism necessary to stop it.

- Bill McKibben

Co-Founder, 350.org

SENATE DECISION TO OPPOSE KEYSTONE XL CALLED FOR AN HONOR SONG

May such courage, integrity, wisdom, and passionate caring for life inspire us all.

May we all take steps to stand in protection of what needs protecting.

We are all related. Blessings ~ Molly

*******

Greg Grey Cloud being escorted away Tuesday evening Capitol Police.

 BY NATIVE NEWS ONLINE STAFF

WASHINGTON — Wica Agli co-founder Greg Grey Cloud, an enrolled member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, would like to address the media’s recent understanding surrounding the honor song (not chanting) that was sung for the senators who voted against the Keystone XL pipeline. This was not a political stunt or a protest demonstration, this is how we honor our heroes.

 “Once I heard the outcome of the vote I was overcome with joy. Our culture uses songs for everything. Before going to the Capitol I was wondering what song would be appropriate to sing. I called Pat Bad Hand Sr. of the Sicangu Oyate, he is a renowned hoka wicasa, a keeper of songs. He suggested that a song that was composed during the 1980s in opposition to coal mining would be the most appropriate. Mr. Bad Hand translated the song lyrics for me as “Grandfather look at me, I am standing here struggling, I am defending grandmother earth and I am chasing peace."

 As I was sitting there, watching and listening to the votes being counted. I started to think of all the women and children that would be affected by this pipeline, I thought of all the relatives back home. I thought about the Land and the Water. I looked to my left and I saw Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Scott sitting there waiting to hear the vote. I was filled with pride thinking about his strong words and the strong words from our tribal leaders on how the Oceti Sakowin and other indigenous relatives would stop the tarsands at all cost. I looked to my right and saw Jane Kleeb and I was filled with all the memories of this past few years of fighting this pipeline along side our Cowboy relatives.  Then I heard it, I really heard it - no. The vote was no. 

 We have time, time to keep fighting, time to make sure that Wica Wawookiye hears us, President Obama hears us and says NO to this pipeline.  I looked down and thought we need to honor these senators for having the courage to make the right decision for not only Indian country but for America as a whole. As a singer I know only one way to honor someone and that’s to sing. I didn’t mean to disrupt the Senate only to honor the conviction shown by the senators.”

LAKOTA LANGUAGE FOR UNCI MAKA OLOWAN SONG: “TUNKASILA WAMAYANKA YO, LE MIYE CA TEHIYA NAWAZIN YELO. UNCI MAKA NAWACINCINA WOWAHWALA WA YUHA WAUN WELO”

English translation Grandmother Earth song: "Grandfather look at me, I am standing here struggling, I am defending grandmother earth and I am chasing peace."

Please go here for the original article: https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/senate-decision-oppose-keystone-xl-called-honor-song/

Making the Connection Between Buffalo New York and CO2 Concentrations Topping 400 Parts Per Million

Photos from Buffalo New York Mega Storm

Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Has Passed

400 Parts Per Million
 

The world's most important CO2 monitoring station is recording short term CO2 concentrations above 400 parts per million -- the highest levels found on earth in millions of years.
 

Already we're seeing the deadly effects of climate change in the form of rising seas, wildfires and extreme weather of all kinds, and passing 400 PPM is an ominous sign of what might come next.
 

The safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmostphere is 350 parts per million, but the only way to get there is to immediately transition the global economy away from fossil fuels and into into renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable farming practices in all sectors (agriculture, transport, manufacturing, etc.).
 

While the level fluctuates seasonally and varies across different latitudes, this is yet another sign that our dependence on fossil fuels is out of control.
 

Please go here for more information:  

http://400.350.org/
 

Jane Goodall: We Decide the Difference We Make

You cannot get through a single day 

without having an impact on the world around you. 

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide 

what kind of difference you want to make. 
 

—Jane Goodall
 

Chief Seattle: The Web of Life

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one 

thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. 

All things are bound together … all things connect.
 

 —Chief Seattle
 

Albert Einstein: Look Deep Into Nature

Look deep into nature and then 

you will understand everything better.

—Albert Einstein

Wendell Berry: Total Consumerism

But even in the much-publicized rebellion of the young against the materialism of the affluent society, the consumer mentality is too often still intact: the standards of behavior are still those of kind and quantity, the security sought is still the security of numbers, and the chief motive is still the consumer's anxiety that he is missing out on what is "in." In this state of total consumerism - which is to say a state of helpless dependence on things and services and ideas and motives that we have forgotten how to provide ourselves - all meaningful contact between ourselves and the earth is broken. We do not understand the earth in terms either of what it offers us or of what it requires of us, and I think it is the rule that people inevitably destroy what they do not understand.
 

― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Thoreau: Heaven

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Gayla Jay: Walk With Me

A poem by my sweet beautiful friend Gayla...

~ Molly

Walk With Me

Walk with me
Carry my bag from the car
You know I'm tired 
As always.

It's a long way to be with you
To hear the wind in the trees and watch 
The fog in the valley below

Walk with me
Hold my hand as we go
Into the big wood to
The small pond

The ground is moist and 
The wetland is scented with
The smell of growth and decay and
Somehow love.

Walk with me
Keeping silent
Noticing how loud
The silence is

It's a long way to be with you
Gratitude binds my return
To you, the big wood, the
Open fields and more

Walk with me

- Gayla Jay

 

Mary Oliver: White Eyes

 White Eyes

 

In winter

    all the singing is in

         the tops of the trees

             where the wind-bird

with its white eyes

    shoves and pushes

         among the branches.

             Like any of us

he wants to go to sleep,

    but he's restless—

         he has an idea,

             and slowly it unfolds

from under his beating wings

    as long as he stays awake.

         But his big, round music, after all,

             is too breathy to last.

So, it's over.

    In the pine-crown

         he makes his nest,

             he's done all he can.

I don't know the name of this bird,

    I only imagine his glittering beak

         tucked in a white wing

             while the clouds—

which he has summoned

    from the north—

         which he has taught

             to be mild, and silent—

thicken, and begin to fall

    into the world below

         like stars, or the feathers

               of some unimaginable bird

that loves us,

    that is asleep now, and silent—

         that has turned itself

             into snow.

 

- Mary Oliver