Words for a Better World

Josh Fox on Terry Greenwood

Posted on June 25, 2014 | 2 comments

Terry Greenwood is a humble hero. Josh Fox, the director of the oscar-nominated documentary Gasland, knew Terry well. Terry died a couple of weeks ago of brain cancer. He knew that fracking poisoned and killed his cows, yet elected officials, the PA Department of Environmental Protection and the EPA wouldn’t listen to him.

Josh’s words and video honoring Terry Greenwood capture him so eloquently, I wanted to pass them along. I hope you can find time to read the post and watch the video – a few poignant outtakes from Gasland. Terry was an example of wisdom, light and integrity in the face of greed, lies and profound adversity.

Thank you, Terry. RIP.

Here’s Josh’s post:

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2 Comments

Posted in Fracking

Tagged fracking, fracking in Pennsylvania, Gasland, Gasland II, Gasland the Movie, hydraulic fracturing, Josh Fox, safe drinking water, Safe Drinking Water act, Terry Greenwood, water contamination

Horton Hears the Whos of Calvert County and Dominion’s LNG Lies

Posted on June 10, 2014 | 3 comments

Most of us know the story of Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Suess. The beloved elephant Horton, with his great big ears, hears the cries for help from the Whos on Who-ville, a planet the size of a dust speck that rests precariously on a clover. Horton, with his big heart, commits to saving them because “a person’s a person no matter how small.” Yet, sadly, he can’t get others to hear their cries and acknowledge their lives.

And so it is with the citizens of Lusby, Maryland who live precariously close to a dormant liquid natural gas (LNG) import facility that Dominion Resources of Virginia is planning to turn into an LNG export facility as soon as they can get away with it. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in Clean Energy, Dominion Cove Point LNG Terminal, Ecological Devastation, Fracking

Tagged Calvert County, Dominion Cove Point, Dominion Cove Point LNG export terminal, Dr. Suess, FERC, Horton Hears a Who

Whose Security Is at Stake? My Unexpected Hassle with Dominion Cove Point

Posted on May 21, 2014 | 4 comments

On Saturday I went to my stepson’s graduation from St. Mary’s College in southern Maryland. It was a beautiful day, and attending family were filled with love and pride as we took in this milestone. We snapped lots of pictures when the ceremony was over, with big smiles on our faces, attuned to both the impressive accomplishments achieved and the opportunities on the road ahead.

Speaking of the road ahead, it turns out Dominion’s Cove Point was on the way home, very close to the college. My husband Gregg and I decided to drive by the dormant liquid natural gas (LNG) import facility that Dominion Resources of Virginia hopes to turn into an export facility as soon as possible. I wanted to see for myself how close the facility is to family residences. I had heard they were just across a two-lane road and, lo and behold, they are!

Notice the LNG storage tank just beyond the gate!

I got out of the car to take a few photos, and as soon as I got back in, security pulled up behind us, lights flashing. They asked what I was doing there. I explained that I had heard about Dominion Cove Point and wanted to see for myself how close the LNG facility was to the community. He asked for my ID and then went around and took down Gregg’s license plate. He was on his walkie-talkie the entire time and continued to detain us there, as if we were a threat of some sort. After a few minutes, Gregg said we had been detained long enough, and we parted ways.

Really? Was it necessary to detain us for taking a couple of photographs outside of the facility? Who’s the real threat to security? A concerned citizen or a proposed LNG export facility that has the proven potential to explode right beside a residential neighborhood? The answer should be a no brainer. Apparently it’s not.

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4 Comments

Posted in Clean Energy, Dominion Cove Point LNG Terminal, Fracking

Finding Rachel Carson

Posted on April 29, 2014 | Leave a comment

I feel as if this is a confession and an embarrassing one at that. I say this because, as a passionate “environmentalist,” I should have already known intimately the work of Rachel Carson. But, in all honesty, I only knew about four sentences worth of who she was, a true hero that brought scientific light to the blind irresponsibility and profoundly toxic effects of spraying the chemical DDT on the living Earth. With the publishing of her monumental book Silent Spring in 1962, Carson set in motion the first laws in this country to safeguard the environment.

Yet it is only now that I have found her words, and I am grateful beyond measure. It is like opening up a treasure chest and finding pure gold. Nothing beats an insightful, poetic biologist. At the same time, her words are deeply disturbing to hear because, 50 years later, we are still irresponsibly contaminating our world and ourselves with toxic chemicals at an alarming rate. We are still ignoring science.

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Natural Gas is Not Clean (Even If Ads Say It Is)

Posted on April 22, 2014 | 4 comments

Cove Point rally in downtown Baltimore, February 20, 2014

I have been quiet for a while on the writing front. I’ve been more of an activist of late, compelled by the urgency to change where we source our energy before we poison ourselves right out of existence. I’ve been going to press events and rallies for such things as the proposed Dominion Cove Point liquid natural gas (LNG) export facility in southern Maryland. I’ve been making video shorts of some of the moving speeches given at these rallies. I’ve been speaking in places of faith about fracking. And I’ve been going to Annapolis, Maryland to learn how my state government works, how to meet with elected officials and educate them on what I know and why it matters.

In all these events and actions, I carry in my heart the people I have met over these past months and years who have been directly affected by the ramifications of high-volume, slick water hydraulic fracturing – more commonly known as fracking. They are sick. Their children are sick. Their drinking water and air have been contaminated by the fracking process with incredibly toxic chemicals that should never touch humans. They have lost the value of their homes and peace in their lives.

Now, Dominion Resources of Virginia wants to turn its dormant liquid natural gas import facility in residential Lusby, Maryland into an export facility, with a massive contract already in place to export the gas to India and Japan for the next 20 years. It will be the first LNG export facility on the east coast.

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4 Comments

Posted in Clean Energy, Dominion Cove Point LNG Terminal, Fracking

Fukushima and the Role of Catastrophe in Human Evolution

Posted on November 6, 2013 | 7 comments

Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant
Photo: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Sometimes there are impending disasters that are so extreme, I have to tune them out for fear that they will have too great an impact on my capacity to function in daily life. Such had been the case with the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan. Since the initial accident in March of 2011, there has been little in media covering the ongoing leakage of radioactive waste into the air and Pacific Ocean; little on how a yet-to-be-quelled damaged reactor remains a serious threat to us all. It was easy enough to tune it out. Until my daughter Claire decided she loved to eat dried seaweed.

In my Internet meanderings, I had come across an article on Japanese seaweed showing high levels of radiation. I remember quietly mourning the loss of sushi, knowing I was now much less likely to eat it, not knowing where the seaweed – or the fish for that matter – came from. Still, I do eat sushi on rare occasion, quietly pushing away thoughts of radiation, telling myself that a little radiation here or there is probably tolerable.

But not when it comes to Claire. So I looked at the packet of dried seaweed she loves and saw that it was from Korea. I investigated further and learned that Korea was on the back end of the nuclear meltdown, and Korean seaweed and fish were showing no sign of radiation. I was relieved, knowing Claire was in the clear. Time to tune Fukushima out again and move on.

Except that I couldn’t. I was already knee-deep. I had learned that radioactive waste from Fukushima has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean for the past 2.5 years and is heading toward the West Coast. It was deeply disturbing news to bear, yet almost paled in comparison to what is currently happening with Fukushima Diiachi Unit 4, the nuclear reactor that still has the potential to cause the most powerful, widespread nuclear accident in human history.

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7 Comments

Posted in Children, Clean Energy, Human Evolution

Tagged "The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident", Beyond Nuclear, boiling water reactor, catastrophe, Chernobyl, children of Chernobyl, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Fukushima, Fukushima Diani nuclear plant, Fukushima Diiachi Unit 4, GE Mark I, Japanese seaweed, Korean seaweed, NIRS, nuclear disaster, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Pandora's Promise, radioactive, radioactive waste, radioactivity, renewable energy, seaweed

Fracking Falls Short of “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself”

Posted on October 23, 2013 | 3 comments

Cove Point LNG export terminal. Coming soon to a Chesapeake Bay near you?

In my constant state of vocation evolution, I now find myself focused on getting into places of faith to talk about fracking*, the new, unconventional natural gas extraction process I’ve been obsessed with over the past few years. I’m knocking on the doors of places of faith because the moral consequences of fracking are up in my face, screaming at me to let it be known that fracking is not the way to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

There has been an impressive, growing effort in religious communities to become more actively engaged in energy efficiency, thanks in large part to Interfaith Power and Light. So fracking seemed to me a reasonable extension of this engagement. Turns out, a fracking presentation is a harder sell than I had hoped. Taking a look at how natural gas is extracted isn’t a priority, and I get that. There are so many social causes that call out for help; fracking seems a more abstract and less pertinent one. But I beg to differ.

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3 Comments

Posted in Clean Energy, Clean Food, Air and Water, Dominion Cove Point LNG Terminal, Fracking

Tagged 40% by 2025, Calvert County, Calvert County Maryland, CCAN, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Clean Currents, CO2, compressor stations, Dominion Cove Point LNG export terminal, Dominion Cove Point LNG import terminal, fracking, Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, greenhouse gas, high-volume slick water hydraulic fracturing, hydraulic fracturing, Interfaith Power and Light, liquid natural gas, love thy neighbor as thyself, Lusby Maryland, Maryland Crossroads 2013 Tour, methane, natural gas, natural gas infrastructure, natural gas pipelines, pipelines, solar energy, solar power, wind energy, wind power

And We’ve Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden

Posted on June 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

This garden we are graced to live in, this magical spinning planet we call home, was designed for abundance, designed to provide us with food, clothing and shelter, and, beyond that, beauty and magic. This garden was not designed to withstand the amount of carbon dioxide and methane we are putting into the atmosphere from fossil fuels; the pesticides we are putting into our water, soil and food; the destruction of our trees and oceans meant to clean our air and create oxygen.

We have forgotten where we live. We have forgotten that being alive is not something we are guaranteed.

We are forgetting our moral obligation to our children and future generations.

Calling All Angels for Renewable Energy

As spring begins, I am keenly aware of the urgency the renewable energy movement is facing. Fracking is moving at lightening speed across the country and the world, poisoning water, air and, of course, people. Elected officials in Congress are doing their best to get the Keystone XL pipeline passed, even as tar sands spills continue to rear their ugly head.

The fossil fuel industry has the deepest pockets on the planet, and at times it feels as if we can’t beat them in this fight for a viable future. Yet, we continue to grow as a movement in numbers and strength. The coordination between people, towns, cities, states and organizations is impressive and essential to our capacity to impact the shift to renewable energy.

This video was made to inspire all those giving so much of their energy and time to this dire cause. After all, there is no Planet B. Just us and the choice to create a safe and viable future. I say, in the end, our passion will tip the scales away from dirty energy toward renewables. Let’s keep it up!

GMO Sugar: How Sweet It Isn’t

Posted on December 12, 2012 | 4 comments

Our daughter Claire definitely falls into the category of picky eater. Her sensitivity to taste limits what she eats, and I’m always trying to make the most of the food she’s willing to eat. One of those is pumpkin pie. She loves it, and pumpkin has good nutritional value. On Sunday, we decided to try a different recipe than our usual. I needed brown sugar, so I ran to the closest supermarket and picked up a pack of Domino’s brown sugar. I felt my GMO radar go off, but nonetheless it was time for Claire and I to make a yummy pie, which we did.

The next day, I bought some organic brown sugar for future pies and felt better. Yet I knew I hadn’t done any real research on GMO sugar, so I looked into it. Here’s the scoop.

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4 Comments

Posted in Clean Food, Air and Water, Consumerism, GMOs

Tagged genetically modified foods, genetically modified sugar, GMO sugar, GMO sugar beets, Monsanto, sugar beets, sugar cane