This Saturday, October 24, around the world people are engaging in various acts to raise awareness and to encourage people to take action about climate change.
We’ll be taking our bikes that day wherever we go. It’s the ArtWalk around here so it should be fun. Other local events can be found by checking out this map.
Around the corner, we’ll probably drop by VCCOOL’s Rachel Morris is hosting a 350 Paint Party and Potluck:
Saturday, October 24th
2:00 pm Paint the 350 Mural
5:00 pm clean up
5:30 pm Potluck Food and Fellowship
345 West Center St., Ventura, CA 93001
In support of the International Day of Climate change, VCCool is throwing a 350 Paint Party and Potluck. We will paint a huge, beautiful “350” mural on a local garage door. Then we will photograph our artwork and post the images with 350.org to support the United Nation’s Climate Treaty of December 2009. Afterward we will wash our brushes, enjoy a pot-luck dinner, and bask in the beauty of our community creation. We also hope to raise $350 to purchase VCCool’s new volunteer database! Think globally, donate locally.
What to Bring:
Yourself – plus Brushes, Paint clothes, an old pie pan, rags, and one yummy potluck dish.
How to Get Here:
Walk, bike, skateboard, pogo-stick, skip, roller blade, carpool, bus, scooter, you get the idea.
For More Information and to RSVP:
Visit 350.org , or drop us a note at action@vccool.org.
I wish we could be in SF–or that I could get 350 people on bikes to join us in doing what they’re doing. Here’s the info listed on the SF Bike Coalitions Chain of Events:
Bike the SF Rising Shoreline
Sat., Oct. 24 | 2pm | Gather at Justin Herman Plaza
On Oct. 24 people all over the world are acting to send a message to politicians to reach meaningful climate agreements in Copenhagen. In San Francisco, there will be a 350 bicyclist ride along the predicted new shoreline. Read more info on the SF shoreline change.
At 3 pm the ride will join a Human Billboard at Justin Herman Plaza. To sign up register online. Please bring a snorkel and mask. This will be an easy, mostly level 3.5 mile ride. 
Their facebook page adds these details:
Bike the SF Shoreline! Get your bikes ready for underwater pedalling! Pull out your floaties and snorkel masks!
Sign up to be one of 350 bicyclists to ride along SF’s future post climate-changed shoreline as part of this Global Day of Climate Action. When you sign up, you will be contacted soon with more information. At the ride you’ll also receive a colorful momento which you will get to keep. This action will start at 2pm from Justin Herman Plaza (SF). CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP:
http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/upcoming-events/international-day-of-climate-action-102409/sf-bike-action-2pm/
Well I won’t make that ride–but I will be joining in for the Halloween Critical Mass in SF on my new bikergo! That’s going to be a party! Hmmn, which costume should I wear? Maybe the Snake Charmer…
In the recent VCCOOL newsletter, I learned about The Ventura Experiment. Newsletter editor Rachel Morris writes:
A group from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB will feature Ventura as a model city in a three part project that addresses the questions a community faces when it tackles its carbon emissions: what to do, how to do it, and what will it cost?
Around the world a selection of “Pioneer Cities” are undergoing similar projects. Ventura will be linked to Wuxi, a city on the Yangtse River in China.
The study will have three steps. Bren students will evaluate our carbon footprint as a community. They will design a menu of strategies for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Then they will develop a feasibility analysis of the political and economic factors of our community. In addition to a set of recommendations for Ventura they hope to create a toolkit adoptable to other communities. We can look for the results in the spring of 2010—right around Earth Day. But you can check out the project on their web page.
Not Your Father’s Climate Change
Looking at Climate Crisis from the vantage of sea-level rise
By Bill Fulton, Ventura City Council Member
“I attended two panels today where speakers dealt with adaptation and sea level rise. Both had a handful of people – in contrast to the throngs that went to the emissions reduction panels, which is what we’re used to thinking about in regards to climate change.” Read the complete article.
Looks like a fascinating and important project. I’ll certainly keep you readers updated!
PS Thanks Rachel for putting together such a fabulous newsletter this month and every month! You’re doing great work!
VCCOOL presents: Election 2009 Forum 10/21/09 at Bell Arts
Many folks in the US have an election coming up on the first Tuesday of November–which is soon! I urge you to find out about local issues and participate! VCCOOL’s is sponsoring a forum tonight–I’ll be there at Bell Arts to listen and learn and to pass out flyers about the Nov 6 ArtRide and for the after party which will be held at Bell Arts!
The following post features excerpts from a recent newsletter put together by editor Rachel Morris. Read it here.
Ballot Measure Forum with Local Flair
Why is November 3 Important for the Environment, Public Transportation, and Social Justice?
Wednesday, October 21st
6:30-8:30pm
Bell Arts Factory
432 N Ventura Ave, Ventura 93001
Free / Bilingual
Join us for an Ventura-Avenue-Style forum on this year’s November ballot initiatives. VCCool and ASERT (Alliance for Sustainable and Equitable Regional Transportation) will be hosting this in-depth look at measures A, B, and C, with help from C4 Green Building Council, and CAUSE. We’ve worked hard to come up with an informed, gender-balanced panel that can go into detail on the pros and cons of each measure. There will also be time for written questions collected at the event.
As a special treat
Los Amigos band will be opening for us Read more…
And many of my students participated by posting about it on their blogs and by posting writing here on a special gallery for Ventura College: http://www.galleryofwriting.org/galleries/52342.
Did you participate in National Day of Writing? If so, please leave a comment below with the link to your blog so we can see! We can also go to the gallery and see what everyone at Ventura College posted as well as students from other colleges here http://www.galleryofwriting.org/.
Sat. 8/8/09 3:15am
(for Walt Whitman)The Daddy Long Legs Spider
looks dead there against
the soft green wall
his body a bit awkward
sideways legs akimbo
too flatSo I blow: give the air
a bit of a push
swing him lightly
on his web I can’t seeThis is my first clue he’s alive.
He moves a bit then
beyond my volition
unflattens out his legs
and walks through air
up toward a painting.
He reaches stretches and
strides down again almost
the floor rests poised
waits for whatever comes next
feast or foe
or just the light
going out again
I wrote this poem at 3:15am as part of this year’s 3:15 Experiment where poets all over the world set their alarms and wake up to write at 3:15am local time. After I wrote this, I was reminded by Walt Whitman’s “Noiseless, Patient Spider” poem but I had no idea why and was more interested in going back to sleep. Now, in the light of day, I see the connection:
A Noiseless Patient Spider
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
Now to decide whether it will be one of the 100 3;15 poems I choose for the manuscript I am working on: Love and Terror at 3:15am–Poems from the 3:15 Experiment 2001-2009. What do you think?
For more poetry, ride the Train!
Join Us for a National Day of Writing: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) is sponsoring a National Day on Writing tomorrow Tuesday, October 20, 2009. As the NCYE puts it,
Whether we call it texting, IMing, jotting a note, writing a letter, posting an email, blogging, making a video, building an electronic presentation, composing a memo, keeping a diary, or just pulling together a report, Americans are writing like never before. Recent research suggests that writing, in its many forms, has become a daily practice for millions of Americans. It may be the quintessential 21st century skill. By collecting a cross-section of everyday writing through a National Gallery of Writing, we will better understand what matters to writers today—and when writing really counts. Understanding who writes, when, how, to whom, and for what purposes will lead to production of improved resources for writers, better strategies to nurture and celebrate writers, and improved policy to support writing.
America’s writing will be front and center on October 20, 2009—the National Day on Writing. On that day, writers from every walk of life will pause to share their work. Communities across the nation are planning events to celebrate local writing, and NCTE will open the virtual National Gallery of Writing for all to appreciate the rich variety of work on display. The National Gallery will continue to accept submissions until June 1, 2010 and will remain open to readers through June 30, 2010.
Click Here to visit the National Day on Writing Website.
Ventura College, where I teach writing, is participating. On Monday and Tuesday, my students and I will blog about the event and post to the Ventura College on-line gallery.
Stay Connected!
Become a Fan of the National Day on Writing on Facebook
Follow the National Day on Writing on Twitter
Join the National Day on Writing Group in the NCTE Ning
BLOG ACTION DAY–Change is in the Air: Be a super hero & ride a bike to combat climate change!
Yesterday, October 15, 2009 was Blog Action Day and the theme for this year was Climate Change.
10,000 blogs signed up to participate: three of those were my blogs! Plus my students in two classes signed up and blogged today also on climate change. Addressing the issues behind climate change is certainly an idea I can get behind and support!
One of the real concrete actions you can do to prevent runaway climate change which will impact a great percentage of the world’s population which lives on the continental edges is to stop driving your vehicle and to use alternative transportation like public systems or to ride a bike.
Oh but, bikes are too uncomfortable to ride? and you get oil on your clothes on your way to work? Well, check out my new bikergo–it’s the most comfortable bike I’ve ever been on, the oily chain is covered, it’s easy to shift and it’s the most fun too! Check out the seat!
You can see my new bikergo at the next First Friday ArtRide Nov 6! Get your cape on and join us at the Artists Union Gallery on the Promenade at California Street. We meet at 5:30pm and ride at 6pm. Be sure to have a headlight and a blinking tail light because it’s going to be dark!
Three books that I’m into right now are perfect companions to Blog Action Day on Climate Change 2009 — Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists and Vacant-Lot Gardeners Are Inventing the Future Today by Chris Carlsson (AK Press 2008), Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration edited by Chris Carlsson (AK Press 2002) and Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne (Penguin 2009).
And while you’re relaxing enjoying a book about how to combat climate change by getting out of your car and riding a bike or by growing your own food and supporting local agriculture, or by using biodiesel or by signing a petition or by preparing to speak out at a public meeting or by writing a blog post or by any number of different actions…
Why not ALSO participate in regional wine week? Try out being a locavore by eating locally produced foods and be a locapour with what you drink! Learn more about Regional Wine Week from Thea Dwelle aka @WineBratSF from her blog post here.
My choice for a locapour tonight would be the Indigena Syrah by Vino V which is produced about 10 miles away from me with the grapes grown about 6o miles away and where winemaker Michael Meagher experimented with indigenous yeasts which would have gone great with the potato, carrot and onion soup made from vegies from our CSA (consumer supported agriculture).
How are you changing YOUR lifestyle to combat climate change and participate in being part of the solution instead of the problem?
Blog Action Day on Climate Change: sign a petition urging Sens. Feinstein & Boxer support the better climage bill!
Just in time for Blog Action Day 2009, I received this email in my in-box today from the good folks at Credo… Tell Sens. Feinstein and Boxer: Protect a strong EPA in the climate bill. Senators Kerry and Boxer have introduced a climate bill that protects the EPA, a bold step that deserves to be commended. But Big Coal and Big Oil will stop at nothing to strangle the EPA, and maintain the status quo, where polluters escape regulation and our planet pays the price. Almost immediately, the strongest provisions of the climate bill started to be talked about as “bargaining chips,” to be given away for a few votes of hesitant senators. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stepped right up to this offer, and last weekend authored an editorial with Sen. John Kerry. Many cheered this turn of events. But if you look closely at what Kerry and Graham wrote, you can see the horse trading has begun. Among the major concessions to Big Energy already being talked about are huge investments in nuclear energy and an increase in offshore drilling. And what does Big Coal get? A commitment that America will become the “Saudi Arabia of clean coal.” Read more… |
Blog Action Day 2009: Focus on Climate Change
Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.
This year, the topic is Climate Change.
Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees.
Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.Blog
art predator 