I.Thoreau's Search for Place, From NY City to Walden Pond
II N. C. Wyeth's Illustrations of Thoreau's Journals
III> Preserving our place form Climate Change
IV IRAS Conference on Climate Change, Star Island, 24 June-July 1, 2016.
I. Thoureau's Seach for Place, II> "Men of Concord" Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth, III. Preserving Our Place from Climate Change
1. I.THOREAU’S SEARCH FOR PLACE:
From New York City (1843) to Walden Pond
III. PRESERVING THOREAU’S & OUR PLACE FROM
CLIMATE CHANGE
II. “MEN OF CONCORD” N. C. WYETH’S ILLUSTRATIONS
OF THOREAU’S JOUNALS
2. In the spring of 1843, Henry David Thoreau, 26 years
old, set off for New York City to seek his place in the
city’s sparkling literary scene.
3. Ralph Waldo Emerson had made arrangements
for Henry to live with Waldo’s brother Judge
William Emerson on Staten Island to tutor son
Willie.
Ralph Waldo Emerson with Brother William
4. From Staten Island’s natural beauty, Henry made frequent
trips to Manhattan to advance his ambition of becoming a
great writer.
5. Map of blue ferry route from Staten island to Manhattan
6. Thoreau met such literary figures as poet Walt Whitman,
Herman Melville, and Henry James (father of the novelist).
Poet Walt Whitman
8. Unfortunately Henry’s nature writing
was not well received in the city
dedicated to money and power: He wrote
to Emerson,
“Literature comes to a poor market here,
and even the little that I write is more
than will sell.”
Henry, searching for his individuality in
the crowds among the city’s affluence and
squalor wrote:
9. “The pigs in the street are the most
respectable part of the population. When
will the world learn that a million men are of
no importance compared with one man?”
10. Discouraged in December 1843, Thoreau returned
home to Concord, where he determined to “be
humbly who you are.”
In 1845, Henry found his place and voice in the
cabin he built on Walden Pond, where he
completed A Week…, his first drafts of Walden, and
Civil Disobedience.
Henry’s sojourn in New York provided an
experience of the most hectic and temporal of
cities that gave a strong impetus to his lifelong
project: cultivating the garden amid the machines.
11. I.THOREAU’S SEARCH FOR PLACE:
From New York City (1843) to Walden Pond
III. PRESERVING THOREAU’S & OUR PLACE FROM
CLIMATE CHANGE
II. “MEN OF CONCORD” N. C. WYETH’S ILLUSTRATIONS
OF THOREAU’S JOUNALS
13. American Illustrator, Newell
Convers Wyeth, grew up in
Needham, MA. He studied painting
with Howard Pyle and then lived in
Chadds Ford, PA.
For many years he was a student
and admirer of Thoreau, whose spirit
became a part of him.
Henry: Herein you will find, I think, a
few echoes of our remembered New
England. If you do hear them, even
faintly, it will please me.
Affectionately,
Convers
Wyeth’s cousin, my grandfather
Henry Holzer, lived in Hyde Park,
MA, and was President of U. Holzer
Bookbinders, Inc.
14. Plate II.
THOREAU
FISHING
“Time is but the
stream I go a-fishing
in. I drink at it; but
while I drink I see
the sandy bottom
and detect how
shallow it is. Its thin
current slides away,
but eternity
remains.”
Walden
15. Plate III.
The Carpenters
Repairing
Hubbard’s Bridge
August 17, 1851. “…their
bench on the new planking
…in the sun and air, with no
railing to obstruct the view,
I was almost ready to
resolve that I would be a
carpenter and work on
bridges, to secure a
pleasant place to work.”
16. Plate IV
Thoreau and Miss
Mary Emerson
Mary Moody Emerson
(1774-1863) aunt of Ralph
Waldo Emerson, over whose
development she exercised a
strong influence.
November 13, 1851.
“ … She, more surely than
any other woman, gives her
companion occasion to utter
his best thought.
In spite of her biases, she
can entertain a large thought
with hospitability…“
17. Plate V
Mr. Alcott visiting tomb of
Dr. John Alcott in the
Granary Burying Ground in
Boston
August 11, 1852. “Alcott, the
spiritual philosopher, is, and has
been for some months, devoted
to the study of his own
genealogy,-he whom only the
genealogy of humanity, the
descent of man from God, should
concern…
He has visited the only bearer
of the Alcott name in Boston,---
though there is no evidence of
the slightest connection except
through Adam.”
18. Plate VI.
Thoreau and the Three
Reformers
June 17, 1853. Ultra-reformers,
lecturers on Slavery,
Temperance, the Church:
A.D. Foss, once a Baptist
minister in Hopkinton, NH;
Loring Moody, a traveling
pattern working chaplain;
& H. C. Wright, who shocks all
the old women with his infidel
writings. Wright, author of
A Kiss for a Blow, behaved as if
there were no alternative
between them, or as if I had
given him a blow. I would have
preferred a blow, but he was
bent on giving me a kiss, when
there was no quarrel between
us.
19. Plate VII.
The Muskrat-Hunters,
Goodwin & Haynes
May 1, 1854
They shoot at any rat that may
expose himself… One that they
had wounded looked exactly
like the end of an old rider
stripped of bark.
How pitiful a man looks about
this sport.
These men represent a class
which probably exists, even in
the most civilized community,
and allies it to the most savage.
20. Plate VIII.
Fishing Through the Ice
February 8, 1856
The fishermen agree in saying
that the pickerel have generally
been eating, and are full, when
they bite. Some think it is best to
cut holes the day before,
because the noise frightens
them.
E. Garfield says that his Uncle
Daniel was once scaling a
pickerel, when he pricked his
finger against the horn of a pout
which the pickerel had
swallowed. He himself killed a
pickerel with a paddle, in the act
of swallowing a large perch.
21. Plate IX.
Barefooted Brooks Clark Building Wall
October 20, 1857. “It pleased me to
see this cheery old man (~80)
enjoying the evening of his days…. It
is worth a thousand of the church’s
sacraments…
It was better than a prayerful mood.
It proves to me old age as tolerable,
as happy, as infancy.”
My grandfather, Henry Holzer’s
wheelbarrow.
22. Plate X
Johnny and his
Woodchuck-Skin Cap
February 29, 1860.
“Passed a very little boy in the
street, who had a home-made
cap of woodchuck-skin, which
his father had killed and cured,
and his mother had fashioned
into a nice warm cap…. So much
family history, the human
parents’ care of their young in
hard times.
The boy’s black eyes sparkled
beneath it, when I remarked on
its warmth, even as the
woodchuck’s might have done.
Such should be the history of
every piece of clothing that we
wear.”
23. Plate I.
“A man of certain
probity and
worth, immortal
and natural.”
Oxen (and horses)
were the sustainable
source of locomotive
energy since the
beginning of civilization
10,000 years ago.
Fossil fuel burning
emits CO2. These fuels
will be depleted in 100 -
200 years.
24. Miami Beach is a flood zone during King High Tides.
III.PRESERVING THOREAU’S & OUR PLACE FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
25. CO2 levels now
110 ppm above
the pre-
industrial
average
1875
• Carbon
isotope ratios
indicate the
CO2 increase
since 1850 is
from burning
~300 million yr
old fossil
fuels.
27. Increasing CO2 gas density: 1. raises temperature of earth’s surface.
2. reduces temperature of the stratosphere.
27
28. During the steepest warming, the CO2 released (dots) from the sea preceded the global
temperature rise (green line) by several centuries.
CO2 RATE OF CHANGE is 1/300 of the PRESENT RISE.
CO2 greenhouse effect drove the 3.5 C increase in average global temperature.
Sea levels rose ~ 100 meters (~ 328 feet). Flood stories
4 M PEOPLE 7 B
Ice Age
Nature, 484, 49-54 (05 Apr 2012)
CHANGES IN THE EARTH’S TILT & ORBIT TRIGGERD THE ICE AGE WARMING
28
29. At present rate
of 2.5 ppm
rise per year,
humans are
increasing
CO2 at a rate
300 times
faster than
the recovery
from the ice
age 18,000 -
10,000 years
ago.
CO2 CONCENTRATIONS, HIGHEST (33%) IN 800,000 YRS,
WILL REACH 1000 PPM IN 240 YEARS.
30. • Our present level of 400 ppm could reach ~ 1000 ppm in 240 years.
• Arctic became ice-free 8 M years ago when CO2 = 300 - 450 ppm.
• Antarctic melted ~ 40 M years ago, CO2 ~ 700 ppm
-Earth was ice-free, sea levels 100s meters higher.
Dinosaur Extinction 65M Yr. BP Figure from Dr. James Hansen, NASA GISS
32. WEATHER EXTREMES ARE INCREASING.
• Record-Cold and Snowfall in New
England during 2015 winter.
-Record high sea temps, 11.5 C, put more
water vapor (snow) in the atmosphere.
• Record-Hot West Has First 100-Degree
Temperature of 2015.
- CA 4 yr. drought longest in history.
32
33. A darker Arctic is boosting global warming
From1979 to 2011, less reflecting ice, more absorbing water made North Pole warm twice as
fast as the rest of the earth.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/02/13/1318201111.abstract
Proc. National Academy of Science, Feb 18, 2014.
ARCTIC MELTING IN THE LAST 32 YEARS
SATELITE PHOTO
2333
34. PAST COLD ARCTIC PRESENT WARMER ARCTIC
Higher pressure sub-tropic constrained
the low-pressure arctic
Lower pressure difference allows
waves of arctic air to invade the
South: Warmer & Colder Winters.
Cold Air Oscillates South from the Arctic
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of our earth.
Therefore the temperature and the accompanying pressure difference that used to keep
arctic air up North comes South, bringing cold air to Atlanta & New Orleans.
A Wacky Jet Steam Is Making Our Weather Severe , Scientific American, Nov 18, 2014
2434
36. The jet stream that circles Earth's north pole travels west to east. But when the jet stream
interacts with a Rossby wave, as shown here, the winds can wander far north and south,
bringing frigid air to normally mild southern states. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-
way/2014/02/16/277911739/warming-arctic-may-be-causing-jet-stream-to-lose-its-way 36
37. Social unrest accompanies food price increases.
Summer 2010 drought in Russia: No longer exported wheat.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/deja-food-will-social-unrest-surge-corn-prices-soar
38. The rate of sea
level increase
correlates with
the blue line of
CO2 increase.
Sea level rise is a proxy
for global temperature,
due to thermal
expansion (50%) &
the melting of ice (50%)
Sea level rise rate has
increased 4 times:
3.1 mm/year
( 1 ft/100 yr. ) now
from 0.8 mm/year in
1900
38
39. Gravity Satellite Ice Sheet Mass Measurements
MELTING OF GREENLAND & ANTARCTICA IS RAISING SEA LEVELS FASTER
Greenland Ice Sheet Antarctic Ice Sheet
Source: Velicogna, I. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L19503, doi:10.1029/2009GL040222, 2009
Greenland’s largest glacier is now flowing faster towards the
sea 4 times faster than in the 1990s..
Since Sandy, 2012, Federal Coastal Flood Insurance is up 2X - 10X
40. • Sea Levels could rise
as much as
3 to 15 feet in
50 to 150 years
• The Gulf Stream,
which warms
Northern Europe,
will slow & shut-
down.
• Referred Journal article
Atmos. Chem. Phys.
Mar. 2016 by retired
NASA scientist James
Hansen and 13 co-
authors.
42. Sea levels could rise by 1 m (3 ft) by 2050. Could we take action to
prevent a 5 m (15 ft) rise by 2058? The lifetime of CO2 is 100 years.
Atmos. Chem. Phys., March 2016.
J. Hansen et. al.
1 M TIPPING LEVEL
43. Sea level rise of 2-4 feet will flood Boston & Cambridge. 43
45. Teaching Climate Change to Skeptics
Forbes. Sept 9, 2013.
Carmen Nobel, Harvard Business School.
Predictions of massive flood losses for the world’s
136 largest coastal cities are US$60-$63 billion per
year in 2050 compared to $6 billion in 2005.
Failure to act could lead to global losses upwards of
$1 trillion annually.
REFERENCES: H. Paulson, M. Bloomberg.
www.riskybusiness.org
46. The Coming Climate Crash:
Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 Recession
By HENRY M. PAULSON Jr. Secretary of the Treasury under Pres. George W. Bush.
Co-Author of www.RiskyBusiness.org JUNE 21, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-
2008-recession.html
“We’re staring down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to
both our environment and economy. The warning signs are clear and
growing more urgent as the risks go unchecked.
A tax on carbon emissions will unleash a wave of innovation to
develop technologies, lower the costs of clean energy and create
jobs as we and other nations develop new energy products and
infrastructure.
Climate change is the challenge of our time. We’ve seen and felt the
costs of underestimating the financial bubble. Let’s not ignore the
climate bubble.”
48. SOME CONCLUSIONS
1. WEATHER EXTREMES ARE INCREASING
-Wet areas are becoming wetter: Floods, Snow
Atmosphere holds more water at higher temps.
-Dry areas, drier: Droughts, Wildfires
2. IF SEA LEVELS RISE BY 1 M, THERE WILL
NOT BE ENOUGH TIME TO
PREVENT A RISE TO 5 M (15 FT)?
3. START PHASING-OUT FOSSIL FUEL
BURNING WITH CARBON FEE & DIVIDEND 48
49. Prophetic Pope Francis:
• MORAL IMPERATATIVE: Stop plundering
our planet for profit, the poor suffering
the most.
200 Page Encyclical
Laudato Si:
On Care for our
Common Home.
June 2015
50. THE “WICKED PROBLEM” OF CLIMATE CHANGE:
WHAT IS IT DOING TO US AND FOR US?
62nd Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age
of Science, www.iras.org
June 24—July 1, 2017. Star Island off Portsmouth, NH.
• Climate change is complex with causes and consequences in
economic, ecological, ethical, and technological realms.
• How can global warming be a catalyst for societal and
spiritual transformation?
51. IRAS CLIMATE CONFERENC SPEAKERS TO DATE
Theologian,
Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
Chaplain,
Rev. Dr. Mary Westfall
Scientists: Paul H. Carr,PhD;
Robert S. Pikart,PhD; Emily
Austin,PhD; Solomon H. Katz,PhD;
Bill Shoemaker,PhD.
57. RISE Course No. 2098
Science & Religion: Henry D. Thoreau & the Future
Wednesdays 10:45-12:15, October 19 – Nov 16, 2016
1. Thoreau: From Mystical to Mathematical Beauty
2. Thoreau’s Search for Place, Creative Example, & Climate Change.
3. Might Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” improve income inequality?
4. Has religion helped or hindered the development of science?
5. The Future of Religion and Science: Beautiful Music, Math, Myth.