let me hear your voice tonight (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alexseanchai) wrote2012-03-25 02:11 pm
alexseanchai) wrote2012-03-25 02:11 pm
(no subject)
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." So Anne Frank wrote.
I have already posted today about Greta Christina's post asking atheists to do just one new thing for atheism. And I got an email from the Sierra Club asking me to contact my legislators about a state bill concerning renewable energy. These thoughts bred.
Everyone who's reading this. Every single one of you. Pick a cause. Any cause, so long as it's yours, something near and dear to your heart. The first thing to mind is ideal. And do one thing to support that cause, preferably something you've never done before.
It doesn't have to be big. Donate a half hour's pay to a group pursuing your cause. Spend a half hour composing a letter to your legislator, then stamp it and drop it in the mail, or click send on the email. Spend half an hour volunteering.
Half an hour isn't much. But it's something.
If everyone who supports your cause gives half an hour, that'll add up fast.
Imagine how much faster if everyone gives half an hour a month. Or half an hour a week. I won't ask that of you. I have enough trouble squeezing out a single half hour. But if you have the time, it wouldn't hurt to devote a half hour a month to your cause, or a half hour a week. It doesn't even have to be the same cause every time.
The people who will benefit from the promotion of your cause will thank you.
This week my cause is the environment. The text of my letter to my state representative follows. I've never written to a congresscritter before, and this one's a Republican so I don't know what good it will do, but I did it, and that's something. Who knows, maybe hearing from the progressive side will change his vote.
Mr. [Representative]:
My name is [EllieMurasaki] and I am a voting constituent of yours living in [Mytown]. I am writing to oppose, and to hope you will oppose, House Bill 247, the one that strikes out current law requiring electricity to be produced using a minimum percentage of renewable energy and replaces it with law maintaining that minimum percentage at its current level. Freezing the renewable energy percentage at seven percent instead of raising it to twenty-five percent by 2025 (as current law requires) is not acceptable.
Nonrenewable sources of energy, such as fossil fuels, will eventually run out. Renewable sources of energy, such as the sun and the motion of winds and waters, are, well, renewable. If we want our children to enjoy lives better than ours, we need all our electricity to come from renewable sources as soon as possible. If we want our children to enjoy lives as good as ours, we need, at the very least, to have a quarter of our electricity coming from renewable sources by 2025. If no one cares about peak oil and the quality of the lives our children will lead, then by all means, pass this bill.
Further, the more energy we in the US produce from renewable sources, the less we rely on oil. The less we rely on oil, the less of our money goes to foreign sources of oil. Many foreign sources of oil lie under the feet of people who resent the US. If no one cares about energy independence, then by all means, pass this bill.
Finally, have you noticed the temperatures this last week? It is March, and we are experiencing weather better suited to May. The earliest of the twenty warmest years on record is 1987, and every year of my thirteen-year-old sister's life has been one of the twenty warmest on record. Climate change is a reality, and burning fossil fuels is one of the causes. Switching to renewable energy as much as possible as soon as possible is vital to ensure that our children need not move to Mars to enjoy life as good as we have it. If no one cares about climate change and the hope that our children will have lives at all, then by all means, pass this bill.
There is a saying: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." Let's give them a good return on investment. Please oppose House Bill 247.
Thank you,
[EllieMurasaki]
I have already posted today about Greta Christina's post asking atheists to do just one new thing for atheism. And I got an email from the Sierra Club asking me to contact my legislators about a state bill concerning renewable energy. These thoughts bred.
Everyone who's reading this. Every single one of you. Pick a cause. Any cause, so long as it's yours, something near and dear to your heart. The first thing to mind is ideal. And do one thing to support that cause, preferably something you've never done before.
It doesn't have to be big. Donate a half hour's pay to a group pursuing your cause. Spend a half hour composing a letter to your legislator, then stamp it and drop it in the mail, or click send on the email. Spend half an hour volunteering.
Half an hour isn't much. But it's something.
If everyone who supports your cause gives half an hour, that'll add up fast.
Imagine how much faster if everyone gives half an hour a month. Or half an hour a week. I won't ask that of you. I have enough trouble squeezing out a single half hour. But if you have the time, it wouldn't hurt to devote a half hour a month to your cause, or a half hour a week. It doesn't even have to be the same cause every time.
The people who will benefit from the promotion of your cause will thank you.
This week my cause is the environment. The text of my letter to my state representative follows. I've never written to a congresscritter before, and this one's a Republican so I don't know what good it will do, but I did it, and that's something. Who knows, maybe hearing from the progressive side will change his vote.
Mr. [Representative]:
My name is [EllieMurasaki] and I am a voting constituent of yours living in [Mytown]. I am writing to oppose, and to hope you will oppose, House Bill 247, the one that strikes out current law requiring electricity to be produced using a minimum percentage of renewable energy and replaces it with law maintaining that minimum percentage at its current level. Freezing the renewable energy percentage at seven percent instead of raising it to twenty-five percent by 2025 (as current law requires) is not acceptable.
Nonrenewable sources of energy, such as fossil fuels, will eventually run out. Renewable sources of energy, such as the sun and the motion of winds and waters, are, well, renewable. If we want our children to enjoy lives better than ours, we need all our electricity to come from renewable sources as soon as possible. If we want our children to enjoy lives as good as ours, we need, at the very least, to have a quarter of our electricity coming from renewable sources by 2025. If no one cares about peak oil and the quality of the lives our children will lead, then by all means, pass this bill.
Further, the more energy we in the US produce from renewable sources, the less we rely on oil. The less we rely on oil, the less of our money goes to foreign sources of oil. Many foreign sources of oil lie under the feet of people who resent the US. If no one cares about energy independence, then by all means, pass this bill.
Finally, have you noticed the temperatures this last week? It is March, and we are experiencing weather better suited to May. The earliest of the twenty warmest years on record is 1987, and every year of my thirteen-year-old sister's life has been one of the twenty warmest on record. Climate change is a reality, and burning fossil fuels is one of the causes. Switching to renewable energy as much as possible as soon as possible is vital to ensure that our children need not move to Mars to enjoy life as good as we have it. If no one cares about climate change and the hope that our children will have lives at all, then by all means, pass this bill.
There is a saying: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." Let's give them a good return on investment. Please oppose House Bill 247.
Thank you,
[EllieMurasaki]
no subject
Really didn't see that coming...
Good on you and your letter writing! *cheers*
no subject
no subject
I've never thought of my work with the club as a particularly political thing, though.