Spirituality And Religion

                                                                                                            written 12 Sep 2021

                                                                                                        published 19 Sep 2021

                                                                                                

                                                                                              

            Spirituality can be understood as an individual's quest for the experience of our divine birthright and religion can be understood as an organization that grows up around a particular spiritual orientation.

            In unity perspective, everything expresses from the same interconnected whole, which is aware, potent, and wise.  The foundation of evil is any denial of this unity.  Once some portion of unity is defined as "other", all forms of violence can enter.  That is why variations of the Golden Rule are so globally universal, directing us to love the other as a way of honoring the divine unity.  

            As humans, our waking awareness of self generates a tendency toward division, which distracts from the experience of our deeper unity.  Yet the yearning is always there, because it is from the unity level that personal meaning and context arise.  The history of human civilization can be viewed as an evolution of spiritual experience.

            Despite whatever limitations our karma, culture, and family overlay on us, we are always expressions of the divine, with constant opportunity to explore that connection.  This is an inherently personal journey.  Since each person is unique, their exploration will be unique as well.  However, we have unity in common, and can benefit by sharing our experiences, helping each other as we struggle.  Everyone has something valid to contribute, despite different levels of experience.  In this way a spiritual community forms for mutual growth.

            Religions arise when the human tendency toward division and structure is overlaid on a spiritual community.  The religious organization can intrude on the personal experience of the divine, inserting interpretation and judgement.  A fundamentally personal experience becomes codified and regulated, with structure imposed "for the spiritual good of the community".  Sharing of spiritual experience becomes a top-down conversation.

            Over time, such organizations can accumulate secular wealth, political power, and social dominance, attracting leaders desiring personal power and wealth out of balance with the rest of the community.  In extreme cases, a religion will sacrifice its members to preserve the business of the religion.  It takes inspired intention to avoid such excesses, but there are successful examples in the larger world, such as the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Unity Churches.

            The Catholic Church is the oldest religious organization in the western world.  Without casting aspersions on their faithful parishioners, it began as a spiritual community of political outcasts, but became the official religion of the Roman Empire over 1600 years ago.  Despite an Old Testament commandment not to kill, and New Testament direction to love one another, the Church waged Holy war against Islam and the Eastern Orthodox branch, instituted the Inquisition against heretics, directed explorers to "convert or kill" heathens around the world, and began killing other Christians after the Protestant Reformation.  More recently, the Church killed residents at Indian boarding schools, just now coming to light.  

            Whatever the spiritual rational behind these actions, accumulation of wealth, property, and power were a consequence.  The Church exercises political power to this day, currently distorting the US Supreme Court, prioritizing the business of the Church over the spirituality at its core.  The ongoing cover up of the persistent pedophile priest problem prioritizes protection of the corporate brand over practitioner's welfare.  

            But to be fair, the Catholic Church is not the only example of a contrast between a religion and its spiritual roots of unity love.  Protestant intolerance in Europe drove much of the early settlement in the New World.  The Methodist Church is currently breaking apart over gays, and the Baptist Church is coming apart over women.  In New Mexico, evangelicals hold rallies with armed gunmen shouting "death to Democrats".  

            Islam, which also reveres the teachings in the Bible, has been in lethal internal conflict between branches of the Prophet Muhammad's family ever since his death 1400 years ago, creating the Shite/Sunni split.  The Muslim/Hindu conflict tore apart the Indian subcontinent last century, and Buddhist fundamentalists slaughtered Muslim Rohingya people in Myanmar a few years ago.

            A 2020 poll showed less than half of Americans now associate with any organized religion, but a strong majority are spiritual.  Since religions tend to accentuate divisions, and the core of spirituality is unity, I consider this a hopeful trend.  When you look around, all our dysfunctions come from believing the illusion of separation within a profoundly unified reality.

 

Smell That Change In The Air

                                                                                                              written 5 Sep 2021

                                                                                                       published 12 Sep 2021

                                                      

            Uniformitarianism expects tomorrow will be much like yesterday, assuming a linear, slowly changing world, where small movements produce small outcomes.  Because it is easy to understand and makes future planning simple, it is seductive.  However, such planning has little bearing on complex non-linear systems, where small movements can create abrupt outcomes.  Climate is a massive, non-linear, complex system, currently experiencing rapid global changes, demanding more nuanced planning.    

            One example of this is how floods are classified.  Historical and geologic records are used to determine how often an area has been inundated, then flood zones are designated by the probability of repeat flooding.  A 100-year flood zone has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year, assuming climactic forces are stable over time.

            In 1992, a friend bought a vineyard in Minnesota which had just experienced a 500-year flood.  Over the next 14 years, they had two 100-year floods, and just after she sold it, they had a 1000-year flood.  In 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought a 500-year flood to the Houston area, which had been preceded by 500-year floods on Memorial Day in both 2015 and 2016.  Climate is clearly no longer stable.

            In the 20,000 years between the last ice age and the beginning of fossil fuel usage, atmospheric carbon increased 55 percent.  In the 200 years since then, humanity has added another 50 percent, 13 percent in the last 20 years.  This increase is so rapid that the Earth's temperature has yet to reflect the full extent of the impact.  Since warmer air holds more moisture, the current 1°C warming supports a 7 percent increase in atmospheric water vapor.  Consequently, the frequency and intensity of extreme flooding events is increasing.  

            NOAA reported in 2018, that from 2010 to 2017 the US experienced 25 separate 500-year flooding events, nationwide.  Last month the national Weather Service reported 17 inches of rain fell in Humphreys County, Tennessee, in less than 24 hours, shattering the state record for one-day rainfall by more than 3 inches.

            Two days before hurricane Ida made US landfall, it was a category 2, but then it traveled over unusually warm water in the Gulf of Mexico.  By the time it destroyed the Gulf Coast it had grown to category 4, with wind speeds of 150 mph, and a diameter of 400 miles.  A few days later, the remains of Ida dumped 6"-10" in the New Jersey and New York area.  Central Park in Manhattan recorded 3" of rain in one hour, drenching streets and flooding subways.  

            While the Midwest and the East are getting flooded, the West is experiencing drought and fires.  In the last five years, California has experienced 6 of the 20 deadliest fires (by people killed), 10 of the 20 largest fires (by area burned), and 13 of the 20 most destructive fires (by structures destroyed), since the State began keeping records.           Here in Ukiah, we have been fortunate this summer, so far.  The fires are far enough from us that we aren't under direct threat, and the air quality is only moderate, as opposed to the hazardous air of last year.  Yet we aren't escaping the impact.   

            Water shortage on the coast has stunted essential local tourism, already affected by the ongoing pandemic.  Overall tourism in the State is affected by air quality and roads closures due to fires, and all the National Parks are closed.  At least two more California towns have been burned to the ground (Greenville and Grizzly Flats), and South Lake Tahoe is being threatened as I write this, further depressing summer travel.

            Real estate transactions are finding more fire insurance problems, even for coastal sales.  The wine industry is dealing with smoke taint contamination, described as "tasting like a used ash tray", which degrades the value of the wine.  The heavy smoke last year cut the value of the crop by 2/3. 

            We are in a new, rapidly changing climate reality, and we ignore that at the risk to our life and our economy.  However, some people are still planning as if tomorrow will be like it used to be.  The Ukiah Planning Commission recently voted 4-1 to approve residential development in the Western Hills based on "historic patterns of development". The longer we deny reality, the shorter the odds of avoiding catastrophe.

 

A Worthwhile Effort, part 4

                                                                                                           written 29 Aug 2021

                                                                                                          published 5 Sep 2021

                                                 

 

            The climate crisis is already here and growing.  To avoid economic collapse within a few decades, we must begin with a 50% reduction of carbon emissions by 2030.  This is the fourth part of a description of what that might look like in Mendocino county.  In addition to installing distributed renewable energy production and storage, and beginning the shift to electric vehicle (EV) transportation, there are two other important elements required to actually reduce emissions: a green hydrogen economy and a trained labor force.

            Batteries are adequate for storing energy on a daily basis, and EV's work for most short distance transportation needs.  But saving summer sun for winter use, long distance transportation, commercial heating, and heavy industry all require another form of energy storage.  The emerging candidate is green hydrogen, which uses non-carbon energy sources to split water.  The released hydrogen can then be stored as compressed gas, cooled to a liquid, combined as a chemical hydride, or converted to a Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC), such as ammonia (NH₃).  Each method has an energy and infrastructure cost, but all provide shippable long term energy storage.  Quick refueling times make hydrogen attractive for long distance road transportation and industries needing around the clock operations, without EV charging downtime.  Hydrogen can also power the shipping, railroad, and airline industries.  

            The transformation has already begun.  Around the world, trillions are being committed to infrastructure construction.  UPS, FEDEX, and Amazon warehouses are investigating moving to hydrogen, attracted by quick refueling times.  Ten automotive corporations are currently developing hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, including Toyota, GM, BMW, Daimler, Mazda, and Hyundai.  A hydrogen powered ferry has begun operating in the Puget Sound.  A residential backup power system using hydrogen storage is now on the market, in competition with the Tesla Powerwall battery.  Demonstration projects using hydrogen for residential heating are ongoing in Scotland, Japan, and Sweden.  The heavy industries of cement and steel can't operate on electric heat, but hydrogen will work, and Sweden has just shipped the first batch of steel produced by hydrogen.  Several bus lines now have arrays to produce their power, which run hydrogen electrolysers supplying fuel cell busses. 

            A possible Ukiah hydrogen economy could start with MTA as a first customer.  Hydrogen would be produced using excess array production in the summer and lower cost overnight grid power.  Once hydrogen is available, the MTA bus fleet could begin transitioning to fuel cell busses.  In addition, having hydrogen available along the 101 corridor would aid the expansion of all types of fuel cell powered transportation.  A local fuel supplier could begin retail residential deliveries as homes begin shifting away from propane.  Local businesses that have commercial heating needs could install arrays and electrolysers at their locations.

            The other required element is a large trained labor force.  If we are to succeed, this will be a war time like mobilization.  To increase annual renewable installations by a factor of four, build an entire hydrogen economy, and convert every home and business away from carbon-based power will require a pool of skilled labor far beyond what exists today.  Mendocino College, in combination with the local high schools and all the various local contractors, should develop a training program to accomplish this worthwhile effort.  Shifting the country away from fossil fuels will take decades, so we are talking about creating long term employment in meaningful work: creating a habitable planet for our grandchildren.  This is the kind of commitment that allowed cathedrals to be built over centuries, giving meaning to the lives of the people doing the work. 

            Such a massive infrastructure shift requires significant and prolonged investments.  But doing nothing risks complete economic collapse, with the added possibility of human extinction.  There are people who still doubt this, and require certainty before they act.  However, certainty is an illusion, and making large social change is slow.  Waiting for certainty increases our risk of failure.

            One of the biggest barriers to accomplishing this is the investments of the fossil fuel industry.  Given how they have convinced people to invest in the bankrupt fracking industry, we see that only compete economic collapse, like Enron, will get their attention, like an addict in denial hitting low-low.  But the entire planet is at risk to their addiction and we really can't wait.

 

A Worthwhile Effort, part 3

                                                                                                           written 22 Aug 2021

                                                                                                       published 29 Aug 2021

                                                 

            In "A Worthwhile Effort, part 2", I estimated that a 50% reduction in carbon emissions within Mendocino County requires increasing renewable production about 450 megawatts (MW) by 2030, averaging 60MW per year.  Locating this additional production within the county would avoid expensive grid upgrades to transport the expanded load, and increase local power resiliency.  The latest IPCC report suggests decreasing grid reliability as the climate emergency grows.  Fires this summer have already caused wide spread Public Safety Power Shutdowns across northern California, although most of Mendocino County has been unaffected so far.

            Grid scale arrays take 2-3 acres per megawatt, so we need about 150 acres each year.  Experience shows that grazing and many crops thrive in the shade of arrays, so some agricultural land can serve dual purposes.  Within urban areas with little open land, arrays have been placed on closed landfills, floated on sewer plant and water reclamation ponds, placed on roof tops, and on canopies over parking areas.  The Ukiah Unified School District recently put canopy arrays on parking lots at three of their sites outside the City.  Within Ukiah City limits there are more than 75 acres of parking lots and 25 acres of large roof tops.  The 37 acres of sewer percolation ponds must be exempted as an important waterfowl flyway resource, but the 25 acres of water reclamation ponds should be considered.  Ukiah is in the process of annexing 640 acres of land in the western hills, some of which might have solar potential.  

            All Ukiah City, and Mendocino County, land and facilities should be inventoried for potential solar installation, supporting not only normal operations, but with an eye toward emergency power preparedness.  For example, the Mendocino County complex at Low Gap Road, with about 8 acres of roof top and parking lots, has several critical functions (administration, sheriff, motor pool, jail, and juvenal detention) which would make this a good candidate for an emergency micro-grid.   

            Increasing distributed storage is also important.  Every MW of array should have about 4 megawatt hours (MWhr) of storage, requiring adding 240 MWhr a year for the next 8 years.  This requires about 4 acres per year, since a 1MWhr battery fits in a single 40' container.  Storage should be located at every array to smooth out the load on the grid.  In addition, storage should be installed at every substation within the county, allowing power to be prepositioned, avoiding grid congestion during periods of high demand, increasing grid efficiency and power resiliency for the local distribution systems serviced by that substation.  The best design would also have a large array near each substation, further increasing local power resilience.

            Since the power in Mendocino county is already mostly carbon free, adding more renewable power production is only a first step toward real emission reductions, because it is the heating and transportation portion of our emissions that requires the most extensive transformation.  

            In the last few years, the global automotive industry has begun a massive retooling to produce electric vehicles (EVs), with ranges increasing and prices dropping.  Many automotive companies have announced an end to internal combustion production in the near future, and financial institutions are divesting from further fossil fuel development projects.  However, the charging infrastructure needs rapid expansion for EVs to become a significant portion of our transportation economy. 

            Even though charging times are getting shorter, long-distance driving is still difficult.  But most driver's needs can be met by charging overnight at home, which should be promoted.  Locating multiple EV charging stations at City and County motor pool locations would power expanded County and City EV fleets, in addition to offering multiple stations for staff and daily customers.  All the school bus fleets should be electric, and charged overnight at their central bus barns.   

            Given our partisan polarities, this massive transformation may seem foolishly naive.  Some believe that it is already too late, or that Earth would be better with no humans.  However, I believe humanity is more than we have so far manifested: that we can transcend the Us/Them illusion, and nurture all life on Earth.  But we are now at the "do or die" phase for this species: the middle ground is gone.  Without immediate massive effort, we have little chance of having a functioning economy by the end of a 30-year mortgage.  

 

 

Vote NO On Recall

                                                                                                           written 16 Aug 2021

                                                                                                       published 22 Aug 2021

                                                           

 

            For decades, Republicans have been promoting the idea that government is always the problem, and private enterprise will save us all.  To drive the point home, whenever Republicans have control, they govern for the benefit of corporations and the very wealthy, and refuse to help anyone else: defunding social systems and trying to privatize them.  

            Public health is one of the most critical functions of government, and poorly suited to private profit.  The recent Covid pandemic has brought this reality front and center.  To protect people from infectious disease, everyone needs to be treated, without regard to income, because being surrounded by sick people is not healthy for a robust economy.  But it is impossible to make a profit from poor people.  The US has such a dysfunctional health care system because it is provided mostly through the profit driven insurance model. 

            Trump denied the reality of Covid, and, in typical Republican fashion, refused to mobilize the national government for a response.  We saw Republican governors suggesting that people should be willing to sacrifice their grandparents to keep the economy going.  Now that the vaccine has become widespread, the Republican mantra has shifted: people should be willing to sacrifice their children to keep the economy going.  While it is somewhat traditional for the elders to give way for the future, it is culturally suicidal to sacrifice the children.  But that is what passes for Republican leadership these days.

            Another fundamental role for government is protecting the commons.  This includes maintaining quality of our air, food, and water, by regulating the excessive greed baked into the corporate structure.  Republicans brand such regulation as "job killers": prioritizing exclusive profits over general quality of life.  These days the most extreme issue of this nature is the growing climate emergency, a consequence of accumulated pollution from fossil fuel combustion, another reality that Republicans deny.

            The most recent IPCC report stated the climate we grew up with is effectively gone forever.  The extremes in weather of the last few years are the new normal, with increasing economic costs.  But without concerted human effort, even these disasters will rapidly become the "good old days".  We must radically reduce emissions to have a chance for a functional economy in the near term, and a habitable planet for our children in the long term.  This will require inspired leadership at every level of government.

            So of course, Republicans are trying to recall the governor of California.  Ballots mailed out starting August 16th., and everyone should have received one by now.  We Californians are fortunate to have this convenient voting option.  Republicans are doing their best to eliminate it within the states they control. 

            A recall in California can be launched with just 12% of the voting population.  The recall ballot has two parts: the first asks if Governor Newsom should be recalled, and the second is a vote for his replacement.  If a simple majority votes to recall, the replacement is the person receiving the most votes in the second part.  With 46 Republicans running, Newsom's replacement could take office with the support of less than 2% of the voters.  Only 24% of voters in California are registered Republican, so this recall format is the only way they can create minority rule.  

            Newsom is not a perfect person, or even a particularly consistent politician.  However, the Democratic party is more aligned with reality than anything the Republicans have supported for many decades.  And now is a time when we need leaders who can at least look at the real problems, giving us a chance to actually solve them, which is why it is very important that everyone vote in this election.

            I believe that most Californians are not insane, or deluded by the Cult of Trump, or the even more deranged QAnon psychosis.  I believe that most Californian voters care about the health of their family, and the health of the world we inhabit.  I believe that most voters have co-workers, friends, or family members who are of a different race or sexual preference.  I believe that most Californians are good people.  This Republican assault on our state governance can be easily squelched if we all vote NO on recall, and return our ballots.  While rank and file Republicans may not be insane, their leadership currently is.

 

A Worthwhile Effort, part 2

                                                                                                             written 8 Aug 2021

                                                                                                       published 15 Aug 2021

                                                                                                

            I recently suggested that listening to people who tell you to drink bleach, or avoid a vaccination, or pretend that climate change is a debatable matter, is suicidally foolish.  

            Last week another California town burned to the ground.  The wind shifted the smoke from the 6 biggest fires in the west, tinting our sunlight orange, adding that "campfire" aroma to the air.  Drought is radically impacting tourism on the Mendocino coast.  Parts of the Amazon Basin are emitting carbon rather than sequestering it: dying rather than growing.  The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, of which the Gulf Stream is a part, is driven by sinking, cold, salty water coming out of the Arctic, but is slowing alarmingly due to the massive freshwater infusion as Greenland melts.  The climate emergency is already here, and we have little time to change things, assuming that is even possible. The emerging goal is 50% emissions reduction by 2030, 100 months from now.

            On August 3rd, the Mendocino Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to allocate funds to help decarbonize county facilities, for which they should be congratulated.  However, the $2 million committed must be understood to be a token, a modest commitment, in the face of what is required.  The rest of this article begins an exploration of what it will take to achieve the 50% goal. 

            Electricity, transportation, and heating, the three largest portions of the energy sector, are roughly equal in size.  Ukiah, about 1/5 of the county population, consumes an average of 300 megawatt hours (MWhrs) of electricity every day.  We can guesstimate that the rest of the county, serviced mostly by Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), consumes about 1200MWhr/day.  SCP advertises their power is 93% non-carbon sourced, leaving 7% brown power, and Ukiah has 26% brown power in our production portfolio.  To make our county electricity completely emission free, we need another 165MWhr/day of renewable power.  

            Because our electricity sector is close to being emission free, accomplishing a 50% emissions reduction will require significant changes in the transportation and heating portions of our energy usage.  To power that shift, we will need another 1600MWhr/day of renewable energy, in addition to the above 165MWhr/day, for a project total of about 1800MWhr/day.  Furthermore, we will need an equal amount of storage to spread the power throughout the day.  While some of this new power production can be located out of the county, the current grid is already hitting limits carrying the load we now consume.  To avoid very expensive, and time consuming, grid upgrades, it will be advantageous to have most of the new power production located within Mendocino county.

           Assuming each watt of array produces an average of 4 watts per day, installation costs of $3/watt for the arrays, and storage costs of $0.50/Whr, the total comes to about $2B, or $250M per year for 8 years.

            That is a lot of money!  The good news is this level of investment does not have to come from within the county, just as we did not pay for the installation of the existing grid.  The financial world has begun to recognize that extreme weather events are economically devastating, and avoiding them is a prudent investment.  The beauty of renewable energy is the hardware is a fixed expense, while the energy is completely free, making renewables a good, solid, long term investment. 

            America currently pays $1T per year for fossil fuels, and our share in Mendocino county is about $250M per year, which will be reduced by 50% over the 8 years.  In addition, the estimated total fiscal wealth of America is at least $250T, with the Mendocino county share coming to about $60B.  That is what is at risk financially, let alone the value we place on our people and all the other living beings with whom we share this lovely planet. 

            What is missing is the social and political will to make this fundamental change in our economy.  The people who are making good profit off the existing structure have tried to stall this change.  But the change is inevitable, because fossil fuels are finite, and the disruption of the ecosystem has now reached a tipping point in public awareness.  We have a simple choice: make the effort to change, or watch our entire society collapse under increasing climate disruption.

 

 

A Worthwhile Effort, part 1

                                                                                                             written 1 Aug 2021

                                                                                                         published 8 Aug 2021

                                                 

            The Republican party has abandoned all pretext of actual governance, focusing instead on denying reality and vigorously pushing increasingly absurd lies.  For the last few months, they denied Trump lost, pushing the lie about voter fraud to justify destroying democracy with sweeping voter suppression laws.  For more than a year they denied the reality of Covid, lying that it is a hoax and that vaccination is a fascist ploy, resulting in a new surge that is preferentially sickening and killing their own unvaccinated supporters.  For decades they denied climate change, lying that it is a hoax promulgated by greedy scientist for financial gain, delaying action to avoid the increasingly apparent climate crisis making weekly headlines around the world.

            But reality doesn't care what we believe.  Trump did lose.  Covid is real and surging with a significantly more infectious variant.  Climate change is already here, costing the US almost half a trillion dollars last year alone.  The core of insanity is being in conflict with reality.  The Republican leadership has chosen to go insane, and is willing to destroy their supporters, our country, and the entire planet, to maintain their illusion of power. 

            However, a majority of American aren't willing to sacrifice themselves and their families for such narrow Republican goals.  Covid vaccination rates in red areas are slowly increasing as the Delta variant overwhelms hospitals once again.  Recent polls show that climate change is now the second highest public concern, behind affordable health care.  Even the financial world has realized that extreme weather, let alone a dead planet, is bad for business, and begun to address the climate emergency: changing rules of corporate governance and making massive investments in renewable energy.

            Unfortunately, climate scientists have pulled their punches for years.  Because of the complexity of the problem, unrelenting political pressures from toxic climate deniers, and the need to issue only consensus reports, all the estimates of what will happen, and when, have been very cautious, trying not to scare the public or feed the denial trolls.  The climate is changing faster than the worst-case scenarios, with events happening today that weren't projected to occur for decades yet.  Consequently, to be effective at this late date, real climate response will have to be massive and rapid: a 50% reduction in carbon emissions within 100 months, with extensive carbon sequestration and complete decarbonization of the global economy, as soon as possible.  This may seem like a foolishly ambitious goal, but the alternative is years of accelerating economic misery and increasing infrastructure destruction, leading inevitably to total economic collapse.   

            Completely independent of the growing climate crisis, the remaining fossil fuel resources will be exhausted in four or five decades at current consumption rates, necessitating a complete change to our energy economy.  There is dark debate as to which will take out the economy first, resource depletion or toasting the planet.  

            Massive mobilization occurred in response to World War 2 and the Covid epidemic, as a result of public will, and political leadership.  The good news in all this is that we have technological alternatives which did not exist until relatively recently.  Instead of burning finite, polluting, stored energy, we can begin to live on the abundant energy flux from the sun.

            There are valid reasons to despair this can come to pass, as the solution will require an unprecedented global effort on a planet rife with greed and nationalistic competition.  We can't support our current level of wasteful energy usage, so energy efficiency and local resilience will be necessary parts of the project.  This must benefit everyone on the planet, including all the other life forms, so our patterns of exclusive gain must evolve.  We have been sold the bill of goods that "stuff" will make us free and happy, yet it has never worked, and we have depleted the world attempting to fill a spiritual void with material things.  Quality of life is not the same thing as quantity of things.

            The climate crisis is both a challenge and an opportunity for humanity to grow up and really manifest "peace on Earth".  Even if we fail in our attempt to make this energy transition, the goal is worth the effort, providing the possibility of full employment in meaningful work, creating the possibility of a viable future for our great grandchildren.