Alex Honnold Advocates For Clean Energy

"So you're a climber, huh?"
Yes.
"I saw this video the other day, about this one crazy kid..."
Uh huh.
"Know who I'm talking about?"
I know.

I met Alex Honnold once, in 2009, when my partner and I were heading down after the West Face route on Yosemite's Leaning Tower and he was on his way up there to attempt some free-climbing project of his own.   At that time most Yosemite climbers knew about him, but he was not the media figure he has since become: the public face of climbing, and, at least according to some, the greatest athlete, in any sport, that our world currently knows.

Now Alex has apparently decided it is time to use his fame to enlist support for a bigger cause, and the cause he has chosen is "clean, accessible energy".  The website of the Honnold Foundation (http://honnoldfoundation.org/) says "The Honnold Foundation seeks to improve lives world-wide by offering grants to organizations that make a positive difference in the world", and it lists three such projects for current support:

• SolarAid helps families in Africa’s remotest off-grid regions afford food, education and a brighter future by distributing small solar lamps that end dependency on costly, toxic kerosene.
• GRID Alternatives is a non-profit organization that brings the benefits of solar technology to low-income communities using a barn-raising model.
• New Dream seeks to cultivate a new American dream—one that emphasizes community, ecological sustainability, and a celebration of non-material values.

What a great collection of projects.  The Foundation's website seems pretty new, as yet, so it doesn't have any "how can I help" or "donate here" stuff.  It will  be interesting to see how this develops.

PS: Since, as well as environmentalism and sometimes climbing, this blog also explores questions of faith, I should note that Alex is apparently a devout atheist. 

Evangelical Scientists Urge Action on Climate Change

From Sojourners: When you think of an evangelical Christian, do you think of a scientist who is passionately concerned about the impact of climate change?  After this week, you should.

I am one of over 200 scientists from across the country who identify as evangelical Christians and who released a letter this week calling on Congress to act on the moral and scientific imperative to address climate change. The letter — framed in scripture — points to the call to care for the poor and steward God’s creation as key elements contributing to their concern.  

Despite the media’s portrayal of culture wars between the scientific and faith communities, those who signed the letter do not see it that way. 

“I am a scientist because I am a Christian," Dr. Cal DeWitt said.

In fact, many see science itself as an integral part of God’s plan for the world.

“Christian scientists across the country view science as a gift from God, a tool to discover the mysteries of Creation,”  Dr. Larry Louters, a professor at Calvin College in Michigan, said.

Here's the official press release:

Evangelical Scientists Hold Press Conference to Urge Congress to Act on Climate Change

200 Scientists Sign Letter Calling for Protection for God’s Creation

**To listen to a recording of today’s call, please click here.**

Review: "Hope in an Age of Despair" by Jonathan Moo and Robert White

Amazon.com: Hope in an Age of Despair eBook: Robert S White and Jonathan A Moo: Kindle Store via kwout

I just finished reading this new book, which is subtitled The Gospel and the Future of Life on Earth.  I'm not sure whether the physical edition is published in the USA yet, but I had pre-ordered it on my Kindle and it duly showed up on electronic publication day (June 21st).  As I mentioned in a comment on a previous post, I had the opportunity to meet Dr Moo at the beginning of last year and to hear about his theological work on the contribution of New Testament eschatology to environmental ethics. I therefore looked forward eagerly to this more extended treatment.

State of the Climate 2013

Here's a video of Professor Richard Alley speaking at a conference on Communicating Climate Science last month.  (Additional information can be found here.)  He addresses some of the latest experimental data regarding global temperatures, ocean heat storage, crop yields, sea levels, ice melt and more...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_-8u86R3Yc



Richard will be one of the speakers at Faith for Thought 2013 in State College, this September 28th.  Save the date!

H/T for the video: Doug Hunt

Careless and Crazy Again

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a recent study arguing that "religious belief could slow global warming action" because (according to its authors) traditional Christians believe that planet Earth "has no future".

The journal Religion Dispatches just published a much longer and more nuanced analysis of the same study, which I was alerted to by a Facebook post from Mitch Hescox.  Robin Globus Veldman, the author, writes

Although mistrust of end time believers’ earthly intentions has smoldered for decades, a new study about “End Times Theology” has added fuel to the fire. According to the study’s authors, political scientists David Barker and David Bearce, when it comes to climate change, “a belief in the Second Coming reduces the probability of strongly agreeing that the government should take action by more than 12 percent.” 

 She goes on

But as someone who spent 14 months doing interviews and focus groups with conservative Christians on their views about climate change and the end times, I see major problems with their [Barker and Bearce's] approach.

Veldman justifies this claim by a detailed analysis of the survey questions used and the different factors, brought out in focus groups, which might contribute to a response.  All the points are interesting but the one that most intrigued me was #2:

 ...participants in every one of the nine focus groups I conducted had the impression that scientists were saying climate change would precipitate an apocalyptic end to the world, an idea they rejected on the grounds that the Bible—not scientists—foretells how the world will end.

The whole essay can be found here.

Photo by Flickr user Oxfam, licensed under Creative Commons
 

Holding Down The Truth

Roughly a year ago, former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child abuse.  Shortly thereafter, Louis Freeh, an independent investigator, released the report that Penn State had asked him to produce.  Freeh had been asked to find out how Sandusky had gotten away with abusing minors over many years, to investigate whether University personnel had failed to respond or report appropriately, and to make recommendations for the future.

Freeh's report named and shamed "four of the most powerful people at Penn State" for failing to protect children over a period of more than a decade.  For many readers, this will have been in the end of the story.  But for others, Freeh's conclusion was simply unimaginable.  For some, protecting the "honor" of the PSU football program seems to have taken first priority.

In these arguments (endlessly rehashed in the letters pages of the Centre Daily Times), people often pose a simple dilemma.  Guilty or not?  Did Paterno, Spanier and the rest really sit down one day and say, flat out, "It's a real shame that Jerry is a molester, but these kids have to be sacrificed so that the football team can keep winning"?  Or are these "powerful people" really ignorant and innocent, simply additional victims of a master manipulator? To me, both these alternatives seem implausible.

There is a resonant phrase in Paul's letter to the Romans which refers to those who "hold down the truth in unrighteousness".  It reminds me of our (my!) almost endless ability to avoid facing up to reality, to stop unwelcome insights rising to the surface of our consciousness.  When one reads the emails cited by Freeh, with their evasive phrasing, it seems that the writers are trying almost as hard not to name the reality that they are facing as they are trying not to name any of the individuals involved.

We all do this.  At some level we know, for instance, that our extractive way of life (whereby we measure our well-being by the speed at which we convert "resources" to "waste") cannot be sustained forever.  But acknowledging that at the level of conscious action will require painful change.  So we (I) don't.  We hold down the truth, and hope it will stay buried for just a little longer.  It's a natural response.

But it doesn't make us innocent.

Quantitative Reasoning at Yale-NUS College

"What mathematics should any well-educated person know? It’s rather rare that people have a chance not just to think about this question, but do something about it. But it’s happening now."

That is the beginning of an interesting article on Azimuth by John Baez, which I'm reposting because of its relevance to my environmental mathematics project.   He goes on:

"There’s a new college called Yale-NUS College starting up this fall in Singapore, jointly run by Yale University and the National University of Singapore. The buildings aren’t finished yet: the above picture shows how a bit of it should look when they are. Faculty are busily setting up the courses and indeed the whole administrative structure of the university, and I’ve had the privilege of watching some of this and even helping out a bit."

Read the full article here.