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Every month since February 1987 the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation has produced one-hour TV programs on issues related to peace, social justice, economics, the environment, and nonviolence.
The Olympia FOR’s program airs several times every week (currently every Monday at 1:30 pm, every Wednesday at 5:00 pm, and every Thursday at 9:00 pm) for the entire month on Thurston Community Television (TCTV), channel 22 for Thurston County’s cable TV subscribers. You can see TCTV’s current schedule at .
You can also watch the program described below (and more than 170 of our previous monthly interview programs and also many special programs at the Olympia FOR’s website, . Simply click the “TV programs” link, scroll down, and click the program you want to watch. Many of our website’s TV program listings also include links to documentssummarizing the program in Word and/or .pdf format.
November 2017
“Urge Local Governments to Meet Climate Goals”
Please invite more people to watch this interview and/or read the thorough summary(which you’re reading now) at the “TV Programs” part of .
See sources of information near the end of this document.
by Glen Anderson, this TV series’ producer and host
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For almost 31 years, the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s TV series has explored a wide variety of issues related to peace, social and economic justice, the environment, and nonviolent social change. We especially provide opportunities for the public to hear voices and viewpoints that are rarely heard in mainstream media.
You’ve heard the smart advice: “Think globally. Act locally.” This pertains very well to the climate crisis. Our November 2017 interview explores how people can work locally to protect the climate – especially by urging our local governments to take strong actions at the local level.
We approach this topic from several angles. We consider specific actions local governments anywhere can take to meet bold goals to protect our climate. Ordinary people can help!
Recently the City of Olympia committed to achieving dramatic community-wide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are the human-driven cause of the climate breakdown and destruction we’re seeing in hurricanes and wildfires. Olympia is also talking with Lacey and Tumwater about developing a common climate action plan that would cover all three cities. Let’s urge our county government to take strong actions too.
We encourage people elsewhere to consider the information we’ll present during this hour and urge their own respective local governments to take strong actions.
Three guests help us explore this topic. All three are active in the Thurston Climate Action Team, a non-profit organization that works directly with local governments and businesses in Thurston County WA to raise awareness about climate change – and the opportunities for economic development, cost savings and improved health through clean, renewable energy.
This organization’s new campaign -- “People for a Carbon Free Olympia” -- urges strong local support for the City of Olympia's climate and clean energy goals.
Our three guests are Carrie Ziegler, Eder Nunez and Tom Crawford.
- Carrie Ziegler is an artist, environmental educator, and community engagement specialist who is especially skilled at working with people to create art around important issues.
- Eder Nunez and his family have lived in the U.S. since he was 10 years old. He is a U.S. military veteran and a graduate of The Evergreen State College. He volunteers to protect immigrant rights and to protect the climate.
- Tom Crawford is a leader of the Thurston Climate Action Team and is very savvy about how local governments can protect the climate. I have enjoyed working with Tom on several issues for a good number of years.
Carbon-based fuels produce greenhouse gases, which disrupt our climate
In case anyone watching this program needs a quick refresher about climate disruption, the basic facts are that earth’s atmosphere had been well balanced for a great many years. Over many millions of years, plant matter collected in the ground and turned into coal, oil and natural gas – known as “fossil fuels.” These “fossil fuels” contain a lot of carbon, so they are also known as “carbon-based fuels.”
In just a very short time people have burned about half of the world’s supply of these fossil fuels, which contain a lot of carbon. Burning coal, oil and natural gas caused huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) to go into our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps the sun’s heat – like a blanket around the earth – so less of this heat can return to space. This CO2 traps heat like a greenhouse, so we call it a “greenhouse gas.” There are several other significant greenhouse gases too, such as methane, which not only comes from cow farts but also emerges from fracking natural gas.
This increases temperatures of land and oceans. These temperature increases seriously disrupt climate, causing droughts, heat waves, wildfires, worse storms, heavier rainfall, and flooding.
Scientists have reached consensus about this – the same amount of consensus that medical experts reached about the dangers of smoking tobacco. Now the only people disputing smoking’s dangers are paid by tobacco companies, and practically the only people disputing the fact that humans burning fossil fuels caused the climate crisis are paid by fossil fuel companies.
Go on to the next page to see an informative visual aid we explained.
A flow chart shows greenhouse gas emissions in Olympia WA.Tom Crawford explained this informative flow chart that illustrates greenhouse gas emissions in Olympia WA in 2014:
To solve big, complex problems, we can identify local aspects and promote local solutions.In order to solve big, complex problems, one good strategy is to understand the problem at the big level and then understand how the problem functions at a small, local level. Then we can solve local aspects, and – if enough people do this in enough local communities – the cumulative effect can help solve the problem at the big scale. Also, we can track these data over time, so we can gather these numbers in the future and see how much progress we have made since these 2014 data were gathered.
The Thurston Climate Action Team (TCAT) does good work.Our guests are active with the Thurston Climate Action Team (TCAT), Glen expressed appreciation for the work that the Thurston Climate Action Team has been doing since its founding in 2008. Tom explained that TCAT is a local all-volunteer non-profit organization. Their first major project partnered with the Thurston Economic Development Council to create an energy efficiency program that could help residences reduce their energy usage and hence their energy expenses. This would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This was a federally funded three-year project.
Then they started gathering the kinds of data we saw a moment ago in the flow chart. They also worked to support solar energy locally, especially for public buildings. They helped to survey our county’s people about their attitudes toward climate change and clean energy. More recently they’ve been working directly to help local governments take strong specific actions. We’ll discuss those efforts later in this interview.
Glen expressed appreciation for TCAT’s website, , which is richly informative. At the top of the home page is a horizontal bar where people can click the “RESOURCES” section and get a good grounding in the basic facts about the climate and related aspects of problems and solutions. The direct link for that is
Consider international aspects of energy usage and cultural and psychological roots of how we live, perceive and act.The climate crisis exists all over planet earth, but some of us burn a lot more fossil fuels than people who live in some other places. So it’s good to explore geographical and cultural aspects. Eder shared information and insights about some geographical and cultural aspects of energy use and the climate crisis. He said that his own experience as an immigrant from Latin America informs how he sees this. He said that early in his life he discovered, “There is no right way to be.” Different cultures do different things. He said that China, for example, has a very different culture.
As an immigrant he asked, “Why is my culture the way that it is?” All of us who live in modern American culture have a responsibility – as responsible citizens – to pay attention and go into our history and the ideas that have shaped our worldview and how we relate to the world – and how that differs from other cultures. When he considers the environment he sees mainstream American culture having a sense of loss of the natural cycles. Even while we do a lot of work to understand and deal with technical problem-solving, we also need to work as individuals to improve our relationships with ourselves and with our environment. Glen agreed that this consideration occurs at both head-level and heart-level within our own selves, and also at the community level as we consider how we relate to each other and our place in the world – the natural world, social world and political world.
Nowadays, Eder said, we have more access to other cultures and other languages. When he started learning English, he became aware that when he knew only one language his ability to see a wider scope was limited. He encourages everyone to learn a foreign language in order to have more ways to understand things.
Glen said that the U.S. was making progress toward converting from fossil fuels to alternative renewable energy, but now Trump and the Republican Congress are “going hell-bent in a backward direction” and are rolling back the progress. They are interfering with people’s attempts to conserve energy and convert to clean energy, and they are trying to force more coal and oil upon us. Some Republican-controlled state governments are actually interfering with people’s attempts to install solar and wind in their homes.
But while the U.S. is rushing in a backward direction, other nations are making great progress, moving ahead with smart innovations, alternative energy, high-speed trains, shutting down their nuclear power plants, and so forth, but the Republicans are making the U.S. fall behind the rest of the world. Instead of “making America great,” Trump and the Republicans are making America a backward nation. Tom said that people in some of the states that voted for Trump actually are increasing their use of solar energy, even while some Republican state governments are trying to stifle that. Tom said that alternative energy has natural economic advantages.
Eder said that in addition to other countries making a lot of progress, a lot of good things are happening even in the U.S., and nothing can stop us from proceeding. He said that China’s governmental system allows them to make huge progress quickly, even while those things would need much more time to be accomplished in the U.S. China’s government is making a big push to clean up the environment and is investing a great many billions of dollars in alternative energy, including electric vehicles.
Carrie said some other countries are rapidly developing in ways that leapfrog over fossil fuels into renewable energy, even while the U.S. seems bogged down.
Art can engage people.If the climate problems are going to be solved, they must be solved by people. Carrie Ziegler is skilled at engaging people. She uses art in clever, creative ways to engage people – to bring people together to deal with difficult topics, including the climate crisis.
She said that she believes strongly that when you bring art and education together, you get action. Difficult environmental problems – climate crisis, ocean pollution, and so forth – can feel so overwhelmingly difficult that they lead to stagnation and apathy. Making art can rescue people from that stagnation and move them into action. This helps not only the environmental problems but it also helps our health. Glen agreed that using art offers a creative route around a linear tunnel vision push for just facts, facts, facts. It can help us get unstuck.
She had studied both art and environmental sciences. She felt led to bring those two together. She started creating “large art and action projects.” One is the plastic whale project, which we discussed a few minutes after she mentioned it now.
In February 2017 she started working with the Thurston Eco-Network. She had an opportunity to help Thurston Eco-Network use her art to help people see how to use art to achieve behavior change. For her presentation to a group of environmental educators, she wanted to not just talk but actually engage participants in a workshop to create climate art. These environmental educators were connected with about 20 or 30 different organizations, so she helped them see how they could leverage those people’s resources to create a big, beautiful, empowering project that would connect public art andthe climate.
The Plastic Whale Project –We showed a photo of the giant plastic whale she created. It has been displayed in several places. The photo shows it on a big indoor stage. Carrie explained this project. You can see a photo on the next page of this document. You can see more photos and learn about it at
This is an example of the way Carrie works. She was working for Thurston County’s solid waste agency during a time when local governments were deciding whether to stop letting grocery stores and other retailers provide plastic bags for carrying out people’s purchases.
Many plastic bags end up as litter in the environment and in waterways, where they hurt various kinds of animals. She said thousands of marine mammals die every year as a result of ingesting plastics.
Carrie designed and organized a way to create a life-sized gray whale made from plastic bags and other trash. She went to classrooms and other locations and taught kids about plastic bags and the environment. She got 900 people – especially kids of all ages – to help her create this big whale with plastic bags to support the ban on bags.
She engaged people skillfully with this exciting, creative project. She worked with 900 people on this, especially students from kindergarten through high school. They created 6,000 feet of braided plastic bags to create the whale. Younger students brought bags from home and braided them. High school students created the internal skeleton. All of the students learned about how plastic bags hurt the environment and marine animals. Kids felt that their efforts helped move public opinion and the county government to make the smart decision to ban plastic bags. Kids felt empowered by this experience – especially by the opportunity to collaborate with other people to create something meaningful that was bigger than any one person could have done alone.
The whale has been displayed at several places, including Olympia’s Procession of the Species ()
Tom provided some basic information about how a Thurston County entity, the Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC), has promoted sustainability and created targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He said TRPC completed a Sustainability Plan, and TCAT worked on the climate section. This plan included some science-based targets that would fairly aggressively work toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. TRPC is a broadly representative entity that includes various kinds of people from throughout the county, so this was a meaningful accomplishment.
TRPC offered to lead a subsequent county-wide climate planning effort, but they don’t have the necessary funding. People need to push hard on the county commissioners know that they must support TRPC’s efforts to protect our climate through smart targets, strategies and implementation steps. This would be good for the county’s health and economy. Good climate action creates jobs and business potential. The City of Olympia is committed to helping if the Thurston County commissioners would support TRPC’s efforts and if they can get adequate funding.
Glen mentioned the common gap between politicians who like to say nice things but often fail to do what needs to get done in order to fulfill their platitudes. He expressed appreciation for TCAT’s efforts, which actually produce not only goals but also specific and explicit plans and steps to reach those goals. TCAT also informs the public so we can hold the politicians accountable.