Tag Archives: Climate crisis

Poetry in Benicia

Benicia poets appear in “Yearning To Breathe Free – A Community Journal of 2020”

Benicia Herald’s “Going the Distance” columns published in book form, now available

Yearning To Breathe Free—A Community Journal of 2020, published by Benicia Literary Arts, available at Bookshop Benicia and on the BLA website.  The first of three readings and community conversations will be held on August 28 3-5 p.m at the Benicia Public Library (via Zoom). Everyone is invited – more info at https://www.benicialibrary.org/poet/events.

BENICIA > Yearning To Breathe Free is the collection of “Going the Distance” columns that ran in the Benicia Herald from April 1 through Election Day 2020.

Published by Benicia Literary Arts, the book is now available from the BLA website, http://www.benicialiteraryarts.org/ store/product/17 and at Bookshop Benicia, https://bookshopbenicia.indielite.org/book/9781735499925.

On March 23, 2020, as lives and livelihoods began shutting down due to the COVID pandemic, Mary Susan Gast emailed Galen Kusic, editor of the Benicia Herald, “As the fears grow around the coronavirus and tensions increase about ‘shelter in place,’ I’ve been imagining a column to appear in each edition of the Herald that would voice and speak to the fears, tensions, inspirations, hopes, and oddities we are experiencing.” Kusic responded with encouragement. Continue reading Benicia poets appear in “Yearning To Breathe Free – A Community Journal of 2020” →

Climate emergency, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Keeping Watch on Earth News

Here’s what a coronavirus-like response to the climate crisis would look like

Los Angeles Times, by Sammy Roth, March 30, 2020


Both the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are global crises with the power to derail economies and kill millions of people. Society has moved far more aggressively to address the coronavirus than it has the climate crisis. But some experts wonder if the unprecedented global mobilization to slow the pandemic might help pave the way for more dramatic climate action.

Leah Stokes, a political scientist at UC Santa Barbara, pointed out that aggressive steps to reduce planet warming emissions — such as investing in solar and wind power, switching to electric cars and requiring more efficient buildings — wouldn’t be nearly as disruptive to everyday life as the stay-at-home orders that have defined the novel coronavirus response.  [continued – view article in PDF format…]