Since January 1, 2010, I've been writing a letter to the editor every day on some aspect of climate change. I get published fairly frequently. All the letters, published or not, eventually show up at my blog.
I try and divide my attention between major outlets (the NY Times has published me five times!) and smaller papers. These latter have fewer readers...but they're more likely to print letters (just think of how many people write letters to Time magazine every week!). Every so often I try for papers and magazines outside the United States, and it's always pleasant to find myself in print in Pakistan or the Philippines.
The Climate Letter Project is a daily Practice of Conscience that's both a point of pride and a source of sorrow. It has exposed me to far more bad news per day than anyone should have to confront, and given me a ritual for confronting it. More on that later in this diary.
But first, here's the Hummingbird Story:
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In May 2006, the late environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai addressed 7,000 international educators who had gathered in Montreal for the 58th annual conference of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA). Here is the story she shared with them.
One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest - a huge woodlands was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire, except for one little hummingbird. This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't bother, it is too much, you are too little, your wings will burn, your beak is too tiny, it’s only a drop, you can't put out this fire."
And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird’s efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked. Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a mocking voice, "What do you think you are doing?" And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said:
"I am doing what I can."
To refuse to surrender to the apathy of denialism and fatalism.
To be fierce in our defense of the Earth.
To continue to fight in the face of overwhelming odds.
And always, always, to do what we can.
Because it is only by each of us doing what we can, every day, that we will save the Earth – for ourselves, and for the generations to come. Like the hummingbird.
Our Daily Kos community organizers are Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, boatsie, rb137, JekyllnHyde, citisven, peregrine kate, John Crapper, Aji, and Kitsap River. Photo credit and copyright: Kossack desertguy and Luma Photography. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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Like that hummingbird, I'm doing what I can.
For now, here are a few recently published letters, and some updates about what I've been doing and thinking.
Enjoy, if that's really the right word: