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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2019)
SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019 | 9A Woodford art to be on display at Oregon Pacific Bank for November Florence Regional Arts Alliance (FRAA) has announced that member artist Jan Woodford will have her work on display at Oregon Pacific Bank during the month of November. “My family left Oregon when I was 5, but I always dreamed of returning to my home state,” said Woodford. “After get- ting a degree in Fine Art from California State University at Northridge, I took additional classes at the California Art Institute, and several other colleges and private workshops. In 1998 my husband and I moved to Florence” Woodford coordinates a portrait paint- ing group called Figure 8, but landscapes of the Oregon coast are still her favorite subjects. She paints in both oils and pas- CHANGE from page 1A The reason is simple: Science and what we un- derstand about it is always evolving and changing, creating the possibility of misinterpretation — which seems to be the main thrust behind the current debate over climate change. Not to say there isn’t com- mon ground. There is no argument on some things, tels. Woodford serves on the Library Art Committee and, on Thursday mornings, she paints with other artists at Old Town Coffee. Her paintings are on display at Old Town Coffee and Gallery, FRAA and at various galleries along the Oregon Coast. The community is invited to view more of her artwork at www.florence art- ists.com/janwoodford.html or at Oregon Pacific Bank this November. Florence artist and FRAA member Jan Woodford works with both oils and pastels. such as understanding that the planet’s resources are in many instances’ finite and that the processes we use to extract and consume them are often destructive, caus- ing interruption of other natural cycles. It is indeed the age of the Anthropocene, the Age of Human control of the bio- sphere. Humans now have the ability and the necessary In 2019 we will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of our business in Florence. It is time to express the appreciation and gratitude we feel, and have always felt, for the friendship, trust and loyalty of those who live in this community. It is your confi dence in us and your continued patronage that has made these 80 years such a pleasurable experience. Th ank you. Johnston Motor Company Since 1939 2150 Hwy. 101 • Florence (541) 997-3475 • 1-800-348-3475 COURTESY PHOTO tools to alter, modify or de- stroy every habitat on Earth. This can occur through in- tent, neglect, misjudgment or inaction. We can redirect rivers to provide water to populations or ease navi- gational routes to increase trade, such as with the cre- ation of the Panama Canal. But do we understanding the long-term impacts of humanity’s power to im- pose its will on the planet? And do we understand the Earth’s ability to im- pose its own will humanity through its changing cli- mate? The food we depend on to survive is planted, grown and harvested based on predictable and consistent cycles of sun and rain. Without this certainty, many segments of the food chain would be damaged, possibly beyond repair. Locally, there are some individuals who have cho- sen a path forward that is more inclusive when it comes to what can be done and are working to address the issues that divide us. Rev. Karin Baisinger leads the Florence Meth- odist Church and her sense of what needs to be done Put on your ® TV • Ears and hear TV with unmatched clarity A powerful hearing aid for television since 1998 Over 2 million satisfi ed customers TV•Ears Original ™ $129.95 SPECIAL OFFER $59.95 +s&h Use promo code MB59 30-day risk free trial Voice Clarifying TV Headset Call 1-888-654-3106 M-F 6 am — 6 pm PST 2701 via Orange Way, Suite 1 Spring Valley, CA 91978 is based on looking ahead rather than arguing about the past. “After attending the Par- liament of the World’s Re- ligions in Toronto in No- vember and hearing the call to non-violent action at a global gathering rep- resenting 83 countries and 210 spiritual paths and reli- gions, I began reading more intensively about climate change,” Baisinger said. “I did some deep soul-search- ing about what is most im- portant and how best to live this precious life I have been gifted with.” Baisinger and her hus- band were in the process of selling their home in Eugene and moving to the Olympic Peninsula when she said she began to feel more and more strongly about a call to work with a community of faith, a United Methodist church, during a time she sees as critical for the plan- et, her children and grand- children. “We should be focused on what is best for the con- tinued survival of all life on Earth, not just humanity,” she said. “There seems to be a sense that concern for the environment somehow di- minishes humanity’s rights in the equation.” Baisinger believes the climate discussion is also about social justice. As a member of her church’s Sa- cred Earth Initiative Team, she looks at the overall im- pact of pollution and oth- er issues where individual behaviors can be altered to reduce the negative results of our action. One Sacred Earth Initia- tive team member is Vicki Philben, M.D., a retired surgeon. “She and her husband, Scott, are essentially ‘climate refugees’ in my view,” said Baisinger, who explained that the two became part of the congregation last year, just ahead of the devastat- ing fires in Redding, Calif. “We see the climate change emergency as a mor- al issue, one involving social justice,” said Dr. Philben. “The people who produce the most pollution are not the ones who are the most affected. Climate change will negatively impact ev- eryone, but the people most impacted will be children, the elderly, people living in poverty and, of course, fu- ture generations.” Philben said the poor produce only a tiny amount of pollution, “Yet, it is they who mostly bear the brunt of the negative effects of climate change. This is not fair. Again, this is a matter of social justice.” On a local level, this means using the tools in our conservation and resto- ration toolbox properly and effectively, said Baisinger. It also requires erring on the side of caution and not recklessness, primarily as we have to think of future generations and the need to leave them a planet that can provide the essentials of life. There are some simple steps that each of us can take that may make a differ- ence moving forward. According to the Cen- ter for Clean Air Policy recycling, composting and waste-to-energy programs can help on a small scale and, when combined with the work of others, makes a big difference. Recycling re- duces the amount of waste that goes into landfills and the need to process new materials from the environ- ment. In addition, composting reduces gases from organic waste and creates a viable alternative to adding man- made fertilizers. Waste-to-energy pro- grams divert materials from landfills and create new rev- enue streams. All of these actions can decrease the impact each of us has on the environment. Regardless of which side of the climate debate you stand on — man-made or natural cycle of the plan- et, crisis or not — the one thing both sides agree on is that the climate is changing and that humans play a role. “Only a fool would claim the plastic island in the Pa- cific, the dead zone around Pripyat in Ukraine or the colorful rivers of China’s inland happened by them- selves,” said Florence resi- dent Matt Danielsson. “But modern doomsayers argue for a return to almost bor- derline medieval living, while I believe technology and innovation is the way forward if for no other rea- son than that it’d prevent mass starvation.” While Danielsson agrees that society has reached a point where yesterday’s solutions to energy and in- dustrial needs have become today’s problem, he believes it’s the same drive for in- novation that created those solutions that will positively impact the future. “What will come next? I don’t know. But we literal- ly have armies of scientists working on it and a free market that will pounce on the next game-changing technology,” said Daniels- son. “It won’t come out of the goodness of their hearts but because they want to make an obscene profit.” What Danielsson says he does know is that the planet now hosts 7.7 billion hu- mans. “If we try to yank oil out of the equation prema- turely, as some extremists advocate, we are guarantee- ing ecological collapse and mass starvation. “So, let technology and innovation solve this prob- lem; treading backwards w h i l e s e l f - f l a g ge l at i n g doesn’t strike me as a win- ning concept.” In the meantime, increas- ing numbers of large-scale conflagrations, burning hundreds of thousands of acres of land, forest and fields, are again striking places like California. Additionally, fires rage over hundreds of thousands of acres daily in the Amazon and across large swaths of Southern Asia and Africa. A glance at the website Global Watch Forest Fire shows the number, location and sever- ity of fires currently burn- ing — and that number is often in the thousands. Massive often unchecked wildfires destroy millions of trees and less notice- able biomass like bushes and grasses, which serve as homes and food for an array of wildlife, birds and insects. Most of these creatures will perish do to smoke inhala- tion before they are burned to death. The smoke and particu- late matter from these fires rise into the atmosphere, blocking the sun and mi- grating to other loca-tions, often hundreds of miles from the original fire. This makes breathing difficult and causes the death of many smaller creatures that cannot leave the fire loca- tion. All of these scenarios, and their long-term impacts, need to be better under- stood to ensure that the ac- tions we take to address our changing climate — wheth- er through new technology, reducing our carbon foot- print or a combination of the two — help mitigate the problem instead of adding to it. Ultimately, the fact that there are divergent and passionate opinions sur- rounding the climate dis- cussion means the sub-ject has risen to the level where a global conversation about it — something which rare- ly took place just a few de- cades ago — will continue.
