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Rachel Weidinger

Rachel Weidinger is an artist and community organizer who makes to illustrate what is possible. Her mediums are social forms and metaphors. Significant past works include Upwell (2011-2015), "We Are Very Hungry" (2010-2012), Scrap Eden (2006-2008), and Scrap House (2005).

In 2011, Rachel founded Upwell. Over the 3.5 years of Upwell's existence, she went on to become the executive director of this nonprofit PR firm. Upwell's clients were movements. The ocean was its first client. Rachel led the development and evolution of Upwell's innovative big listening practices, coupling this big-data approach with the resiliency-increasing tactic of campaigning across a distributed network.

Heroes

Our fancy dinner oysters can tell us a lot about how our oceans are changing.

Find out why some baby oysters can't form strong shells.

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Oysters. We love 'em.

You can imagine why people love oysters so much: They're a low-fat, high-protein food with a fresh, briny flavor — nature's perfect bar snack.

New York Times food writer Mark Bittman is a fan, too. When he moved from the Big Apple to San Francisco in January, trips to a raw bar at a local market became part of his weekend routine.

But "there are troubled waters ahead for oysters," according to Bittman.

Image via Mark Bittman: California Matters.

Oysters are threatened by ocean acidification.

When we use fossil fuels, it not only endangers animals in the ocean with oil spills, but it also changes the actual chemistry of the ocean.

The extra carbon dioxide that burning fossil fuels adds to the environment causes ocean acidification, which lowers the water's pH level and can affect the skeletons and shells of sea creatures. The extra CO2 also affects the level of calcium carbonate minerals, which are important components of the shells of oysters and other shellfish.

Here's a visual of how the ocean is changing over time because of fossil fuel use.

The future has more jellyfish, fewer healthy coral reefs, and sick little shellfish on the bottom of the acidified ocean. Source: ClimateCentral.org, used with permission.

Ocean acidification means baby oysters can't form strong shells.

Without their calcium carbonate homes, the soft, naked bodies of oysters don't do so well. Oysters and other shellfish have evolved to protect themselves from predators with their shells. Clams without clam shells are not very tough.

Though acidification affects oceans worldwide, some of the early effects are being felt on the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada.

One family of oyster farmers has already moved away Washington to Hawaii. A shellfish farmer in British Columbia reported the loss of 10 million scallops due to ocean acidification.

The reason the West Coast is being hit with ocean acidification is also one of the reasons why it's such an abundant ecosystem. The area experiences "upwelling," a term for a pattern of water moving in the ocean.

As the cold water currents deep in the ocean hit obstacles (like the coast of California), that layer of cold water moves up toward the surface. The cold water from the deep brings up nutrients that support animal life, but it is also more acidified than the warmer surface of the ocean.

Experts expect the effects of upwells to worsen as we continue to burn fossil fuels in the coming decades.

Researchers are seeing the impact of ocean acidification firsthand.

In the video below, Mark Bittman discusses the future of oysters with researchers from the University of California, Davis. He visits them at the Hog Island Oyster Farm, an hour and a half drive north of San Francisco, to understand how climate change is affecting one of his favorite items on the menu.

The cure for ocean acidification? Leave fossil fuels in the ground.

By cutting the use of fossil fuels such as coal, we can help stop the ocean acidification already underway. Do it for the shellfish. Or do it because you love seafood snacks. Either way, it's a healthier ocean.

Heroes

Researchers monitor these whales from above, but protecting them will be its own challenge.

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According to popular belief, right whales got their name because they were considered the "right" whales to hunt.

They were preferable for hunters because they swim near shore and float when killed. That sort of mindset drove their numbers so low that southern right whales are still recovering, even though we banned whaling of the species in 1937.

About 12,000 remain of one species, the southern right whale, according to one estimate.

You might imagine this would sound an alarm to keep them protected. Unfortunately, a new danger is at hand.

Their prime breeding ground in the Great Australian Bight (off the southern coast) is threatened by the fossil fuel industry.

Good job picking a beautiful habitat, you southern right whales. Gorgeous image via Green Collar Productions.

There are right whales in other parts of the world, but this species is limited to the Southern Ocean.

That's because southern right whales are basically wearing sweaters full time. Get this: The thick layers of blubber needed to survive swimming in the cold waters around Antarctica mean they probably can't swim through tropical ocean zones.

These whales especially need their current nursery in the Great Australian Bight, since they don't have any options otherwise.

The British petrol giant BP is trying to drill for oil in the area used by the whales.

This is the oil company that brought you the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the United States. If you feel a little nervous about the future of these whales, you have a good reason: BP plans to turn the whales' nursery into an oil field.

These waters are too important to endangered whales to risk an oil spill.

Claire Charlton, a southern right whale researcher and marine biology Ph.D. student, explains the situation in the video below and gives us some extraordinary views of these threatened animals.

The nonprofit Wilderness Society is helping get the word out. This special place is at risk of being the next Deepwater Horizon.

To learn more about the nursery of southern right whales, check this page out. Here's a place to donate.

Heroes

A list of top coal mines gives some perspective about how things are going for fossil fuel.

"No Coal Companies Went Bankrupt Last Week" is a real headline these days.

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The time of coal has passed. Clean energy is our future.

Child labor in a Pennsylvania coal mine feels pretty archaic, no? Image via Wikimedia Commons.

If President Obama has his way, solar power will continue to evolve into a vital source of energy.

Speaking at the aptly named National Clean Energy Summit in Nevada in August 2015, he highlighted the need for technological advances that better protect the environment.

“We're here today because we believe that no challenge poses a greater threat to our future than climate change," he said. “But we're also here because we hold another belief, and that is, we are deeply optimistic about American ingenuity."

The president's speech comes at a time when some traditional energy businesses are becoming a relic of the past. New energy sources like solar power, natural gas, and wind power are all on the rise.

Coal companies in Central Appalachia have been shedding jobs for decades as a result of a variety of factors. Case in point:

Half of the top 25 coal mines in Central Appalachia are in bankruptcy.

A recent tweet from Taylor Kuykendall, who writes for an industry publication about the energy market, shows a list of the top 25 coal mines in Central Appalachia. It gives you some perspective about how things are going for coal companies.

The tweet includes a link to an article of his that opens with this zinger:

"Even some of the top-producing mines in Central Appalachia ... find it increasingly difficult to keep business going in today's market."

Another recent financial article included this headline: "No Coal Companies Went Bankrupt Last Week." There are so many coal companies headed for bankruptcy that when a week passes without one going bankrupt, it's news.

It's clear that it's time to shift away from coal — and the White House is preparing for that new, cleaner shift.

The White House Clean Power Plan limits carbon pollution from power plants, putting national standards in place for the first time. We have some work to do together, but we can make ours a clean energy future — and it's bigger than just coal. Here's a petition you can sign to stop arctic drilling, which will help us continue this clean energy trend.

Heroes

Obama just made a milestone move on coal power plants. Here's why it's so important.

Did you know coal plants are responsible for more CO2 pollution than all the passenger vehicles in the United States?

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President Obama recently launched a new plan to fight climate change, state by state.

Climate Desk's Tim McDonnell (scroll down for the video) says this is the single biggest step toward limiting climate change that any president has ever taken. And Obama is doing it by creating a new set of rules for the biggest industrial contributor to global warming in the United States — coal-fired power plants.

Why is Obama's new plan on coal important?

Obama unveiled his energy plan at the White House on Aug. 3, 2015. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Emissions. You know, the stuff that causes global warming.

Until now, the fossil fuel industry didn't have any cap on emissions, which, you know, could be a bit of problem in the long run.

Now Obama wants to introduce a plan to help keep global warming at bay.

Coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions in our country.

According to Climate Desk, coal plants are responsible for more CO2 pollution than all the passenger vehicles in the United States.

That seems like something we should be on top of, humanity. What were we doing before Obama enacted these new rules?

There were no national limits on coal-fired power plant emissions.

In the United States, these types of emissions were unlimited until Obama launched the plan. Whoa.

Now, each state has targets for how to reduce emissions from these plants.

The new plan will regulate the emissions from coal plants. An impressive (but could-get-more-impressive) 64% of Americans support more stringent emissions regulations on coal-fueled power plants.

Learn more about the plan here:

What will that mean? Less CO2 emissions and more sustainable energy plans. Awesome. But there's more than just coal. Here's a petition you can sign to stop arctic drilling, too.

Can you feel a global problem with your hand?

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Climate change is a tricky thing to notice.

It can feel far away and at a pace too slow to notice personally.

So artist Olafur Eliasson created an icy wake-up call.

With 12 icebergs echoing the shape of a clock in Copenhagen's City Hall Square.

Marking the publication of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report on Climate Change is a difficult task. One oceanographer distilled one 2,000 page piece of it into a series of 19 illustrated haikus.

But Olafur approached it in a visceral way through his installment called "Ice Watch."

Pieces of the Greenland ice sheet from the waters of a fjord were lassoed and shipped to Copenhagen.

All images from Olafur Eliasson's team, used with permission.

Then they were set in a public square next to more permanent monuments.

We're used to seeing serious, monumental works of art in public squares. By placing a circle of temporary pieces of ice there too, Olafur references the clock tower and alludes to how time is clicking away on this very pressing issue.

The public was encouraged to touch the ice in order to feel climate change.

Rather than the weight and permanence of a regal statue — with like a bronze figure on a horse or a fancy fountain — people were faced with massive, cold blocks of ice that melt and drip away at our touch.

"As an artist, I am interested in how we give knowledge a body," Olafur said in a statement. "What does a thought feel like, and how can felt knowledge encourage action?"

Olafur's work definitely has a different feeling than a UN report that's thousands of pages long.

"Perception and physical experience are cornerstones in art, and they may also function as tools for creating social change," Olafur said. "We are all part of the 'global we'; we must all work together to ensure a stable climate for future generations."

Art can add an intriguing dimension to a subject that, to many, can seem very dry.

What would it be like to feel climate change as a fact with our own hands? Can we feel present about the effects of fossil fuel use?

These are questions we need to ask ourselves as we continue our use of fossil fuels. Thankfully, it's art pieces like this that keep this issue in the front of minds and maybe find a way into more people's hearts.

Check out the installment in action to see how folks "feel" climate change:

Heroes

This beautiful river helps her people survive. Now it's threatened by an oil pipeline.

A leader from a First Nations people in Canada talks of the threat of an oil pipeline.

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Alma Brooks is Wolastoqiyik, known as "the people of the beautiful river."

What her people call the Wolastoq but what is also known as the Saint John River runs from Maine into Canada's New Brunswick province. The Wolastoqiyik are a First Nations people with a long history in the area.

"We are the Wolastoq. The Wolastoq is us," she says. "We get our identity from there."

Photo of Alma Brooks by Robert van Waarden via this video from Ricochet.

The river could soon be threatened by spills from a proposed oil pipeline.

The Energy East pipeline, backed by the energy company TransCanada, would carry oil across Canada. The pipeline could also encroach on the traditional lands of the Wolastoqiyik.

Need a primer on where we're talking about? Here's a map of the Saint John River:

The course of the Saint John River, in dark blue. Image via Papayoung.

According to Alma, this land should still be protected by the Peace and Friendship Treaties, signed in the 1700s.

“Unlike later treaties signed in other parts of Canada, the Peace and Friendship Treaties did not involve First Nations surrendering rights to the lands and resources they had traditionally used and occupied.“
— Government of Canada website

The Wolastoqiyik are protective of their land because, as Alma says in an article by Ricochet:

"We have original treaties that were signed by our ancestors. ... Nowhere in those treaties have we ever surrendered or ceded our land."

These treaties specifically protect the resources of this land to be used as a source of their livelihood. If a pipe leaks, what will become of the river?

The solution Alma proposes is to build jobs that "sustain life and not destroy."

The pipeline won't do that. As Alma says, "it's not if there is a leak. It is when there is a leak."

Hear her tell story in this video:

Keep that oil in the ground, and both the Wolastoq watershed and its people will be sustained.

Heroes

Why that feeling you get when you see iconic American natural wonders is actually patriotic

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In the far northeast corner of Alaska, with no roads going in or out, lay nearly 20 million acres of wildlife refuge.

It's the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest national wildlife refuge in the country.

Its goals are very specific: to conserve animals and plants in their natural diversity, to ensure a place for hunting and gathering activities, to protect water quality and quantity, and to fulfill international wildlife treaty obligations.

It's a beautiful place. And recently, Michael Brune of the Sierra Club was lucky enough to visit it.

During his trip up to the Arctic, he realized some important things.

All images via Sierra Club.

Contemplating the refuge, Michael says:

“One of the things that defines our country is the vast areas of magnificent wilderness that we have."

"These are part of what the American experience is."

"Protecting the Arctic is really about protecting and enhancing what it is that makes our country what it is."

America is made up of so many beautiful natural landscapes like this one.

The Grand Canyon. Niagara Falls. The redwood forests. These are just a few of the attractions that are not only cherished by us, but are admired by people all around the world.

Protecting them isn't just a noble cause, it's downright patriotic.

Why? Because these are a huge part of what makes America, well, American.

If this "America is our wilderness" theme sounds familiar, it's because you've probably heard it before. Henry David Thoreau spoke in 1862 of the importance of wild spaces left to decay and flourish.

When Michael Brune talks about wilderness, it's as if he is channelling some of America's great naturalists and most passionate environmentalists — like John Muir or Teddy Roosevelt, two founders of the Sierra Club.

Wilderness has been important to Americans for a long time. Hear Michael's voice in this video, tying our American identities to the wild places we protect:

Puts it in a kind of unique perspective, no?

Rachel Weidinger

Find out why some baby oysters can't form strong shells.

Oysters. We love 'em.

Oysters are threatened by ocean acidification.

Ocean acidification means baby oysters can't form strong shells.

Though acidification affects oceans worldwide, some of the early effects are being felt on the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada.

Researchers are seeing the impact of ocean acidification firsthand.

The cure for ocean acidification? Leave fossil fuels in the ground.

According to popular belief, right whales got their name because they were considered the "right" whales to hunt.

About 12,000 remain of one species, the southern right whale, according to one estimate.

There are right whales in other parts of the world, but this species is limited to the Southern Ocean.

The British petrol giant BP is trying to drill for oil in the area used by the whales.

These waters are too important to endangered whales to risk an oil spill.

"No Coal Companies Went Bankrupt Last Week" is a real headline these days.

The time of coal has passed. Clean energy is our future.

Half of the top 25 coal mines in Central Appalachia are in bankruptcy.

It's clear that it's time to shift away from coal — and the White House is preparing for that new, cleaner shift.

Did you know coal plants are responsible for more CO2 pollution than all the passenger vehicles in the United States?

President Obama recently launched a new plan to fight climate change, state by state.

Why is Obama's new plan on coal important?

Coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions in our country.

There were no national limits on coal-fired power plant emissions.

Now, each state has targets for how to reduce emissions from these plants.

Can you feel a global problem with your hand?

Climate change is a tricky thing to notice.

So artist Olafur Eliasson created an icy wake-up call.

Pieces of the Greenland ice sheet from the waters of a fjord were lassoed and shipped to Copenhagen.

Then they were set in a public square next to more permanent monuments.

The public was encouraged to touch the ice in order to *feel* climate change.

Olafur's work definitely has a different feeling than a UN report that's thousands of pages long.

Art can add an intriguing dimension to a subject that, to many, can seem very dry.

A leader from a First Nations people in Canada talks of the threat of an oil pipeline.

Alma Brooks is Wolastoqiyik, known as "the people of the beautiful river."

The river could soon be threatened by spills from a proposed oil pipeline.

The solution Alma proposes is to build jobs that "sustain life and not destroy."

In the far northeast corner of Alaska, with no roads going in or out, lay nearly 20 million acres of wildlife refuge.

It's a beautiful place. And recently, Michael Brune of the Sierra Club was lucky enough to visit it.

America is made up of so many beautiful natural landscapes like this one.

Protecting them isn't just a noble cause, it's downright patriotic.

The public was encouraged to touch the ice in order to feel climate change.