I have a batch of dolmas bubbling away on the stove. This is my first time making them, so it's a bit of an experiment. It took me a long time to roll them up (I filled one jar's worth of grape leaves), so I'm hoping they taste as good as they smell...
The People's Climate March is coming up. It will occur on 21 September 2014 in various cities around the country. The big one is in New York City (Manhattan), but there is another in Philadelphia, and there will be one in San Diego, which I will attend. It's really about getting politicians to get off their duffs and cooperate with one another to pass laws in their respective nations to control the release of greenhouse gases. The United States was "led" by a nincompoop whom I call "the Shrub Part Two" (I think people expected him to be something like his father, who, although he was a conservative fool, was at least somewhat intelligent) for the period during which the United States failed to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol, thus giving every other nation an excuse to ignore it as well, much to our species' detriment...
It's not a matter of saving the Earth. The Earth will continue, as a less species-rich place, as we're amidst the Sixth Mass Extinction. Other species will need to adapt and evolve so that they can survive the unstable world humans will have wrought. It will take several decades for the Earth's atmosphere (and, therefore, climate) to reach a new equilibrium, but it'll happen.
It's simply amazing to me that for some people, material wealth means more than the survival of our species. Things are not perfect, but that doesn't mean we ought to scrap the whole enterprise of human civilization, does it? Perhaps that is the wish of the Koches (I pronounce that name so that it rhymes with "blotch" because Ed Koch, one of New York's previous mayors, pronounced it that way) that since they're nearing the end of their lives (and I, personally, am looking forward to that event with fervent hopes that it occurs sooner rather than later), they don't give a flying fuck whether there is a world after they're dead. They've nothing invested that they are not trying to consume themselves. If their own existence will cease, what is the point, to them, of anyone else's survival? It's an extreme take on the (Asian) Indian practice of the widow throwing herself onto her husband's funeral pyre. If they're dying, why not take everyone else with them? They've nothing to lose!
Here is the information for the People's Climate March in San Diego:
The March
12:30 Gather at City Hall / Civic Center – live music, signs, chants
1:00 March welcome and kick off! Todd Gloria, President of the San Diego City Council, will talk about the importance of a strong Climate Action Plan for the City
1:40 At American Plaza / Santa Fe Station, TBD will talk about transportation choices including transit, biking, carpooling and more
2:00 March arrives at the County Administration Park – more live music
The Rally
2:15 Rally begins! Speakers include: Richard Barrera, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO and Board Member, San Diego Unified School District, Monique Lopez, Policy Advocate, Environmental Health Coalition, and Kevin Beiser, President, San Diego Unified School District.
3:30 Rally wraps up, more music
I hope many can make it. I encourage everyone to take transit, or at least carpool, to their event.
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