NOTES from the OLD NOANK JAIL 9/16/15 – 12:20 AM

To our neighbors and more distant friends, especially those who live close to the water…..

1) Kim and I just finished watching a documentary titled “Merchants of Doubt” which describes, in rather grim detail, how public relations efforts have been applied by the coal, oil and gas industry to cast doubt on the realities of global warming.

The specific area of focus is whether the earth gradually getting warmer is due to human-made conditions or is simply due to natural changes in conditions beyond human control. These public relations activities are designed to lead us away from the concept that we humans are causing these changes and that therefore there is no need for us to make major changes in how we operate as a society….so let’s keep drilling for more oil to fuel our cars, etc.

Similar efforts were successfully made for some time, using the same techniques, by the tobacco industry. That’s what gave the coal/oil/gas industry the motivation to utilize these propaganda methods.

Basically, the “merchants of doubt” are lying to us and trying to obscure the realities of human involvement; they are being paid to do so in order to continue to allow the coal/oil/gas industry to mount huge profits. Political influence and lobbying efforts involving large “donations” of cash allow much of this to take place as well.

The moment we see any politician denying human involvement with the water rising, we can safely assume the politician has been “bought” in one manner or another.

2) A friend who lives on Groton Long Point wrote me tonight and states the following:

“High tide today, on a day with no storms or anything particular that I can determine, came up to the walls on both South Beach and Main Beach in GLP…. the rate at which water is now rising should be visible to all…. and our solution, as citizens of supposedly the greatest country in the world, is to elect Donald Trump as president…. ”

3) In the past, I have made jokes about the fact that our own house near Noank’s Town Dock will become far more valuable when we eventually, with no effort on our part, become owners of waterfront property. Now, I’m not so sure I want to keep making those jokes. More and more houses along the shore are being built or re-constructed with elevations below the living spaces. We are expecting trouble, and not just from hurricanes.

4) So, it seems clear to me that public consciousness, world wide, needs to be raised higher in order to get proper attention. Facts….irrefutable facts….are needed. And perhaps the best place for us to start is the area where we live…..and HOW we live.
a) IS the tide higher than it used to be? My friend from GLP thinks so.
b) HAS the water in our area gotten warmer? Some folks tell me that there used to be winter ice in the area off Noank that would allow a person to walk all the way to Ram Island.
c) WILL sand bags be needed along certain streets, such as Front Street near the Yacht Club, to prevent water coming across the parking lot? During “Sandy” there were floating docks lying on Front Street.
d) DO I HAVE to drive my car to so many places on errands, or can I reduce or consolidate the trips? Do I HAVE to leave so many lights on?……
…etc…..

I’m sure that those of you who have lived in this area longer than Kim and I (over 40 years) could tell stories about all the environmental changes you’ve seen.

5) In conclusion, I am proposing that we organize in our home areas, collect our opinions and most especially our facts, publicize our findings, follow up with local Town authorities, follow up with our states and push for a national reduction in use of fossil fuels…..HARD. In leading by example, maybe Russia, China and India (as examples) will pay more attention….because they won’t do it by themselves.

Germany, among others, is already doing this. They are (proportionately) way ahead of us in using solar energy, for example.

I would welcome any comments to: EdwardJohnson610@gmail.com . To media contacts, let me know if you want to do anything with this. In the meantime, I do recommend that as many of you as possible obtain and watch the documentary…..”Merchants of Doubt.”

Thanks for your time.

Ed J