Singing In Dark Times
Volume 27 (2), April 2022
Table of Contents
1. Singing In Dark Times
2. Carbon Dioxide Fact Sheet
3. SEHN In The News
4. Upcoming Event
Singing In Dark Times: Remembering Ann Manning
By Carolyn Raffensperger
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.
-Bertolt Brecht, The Svenborg Poems
We are in dark times. I bring you news of singing.
On March 3, 2022, our associate director, Ann Callie Manning, died from an aggressive cancer. I met Ann at the first Women’s Congress for Future Generations in 2012. The ideas about the rights of future generations we were advancing at the Congress struck a deep bell-like chord in Ann, and she took up the cause and convened the next two Congresses in Minnesota. She was a “lifelong leader of causes that sought to dismantle systemic injustices, she was a loved mentor to many in the Twin Cities and beyond.”
This is what she said about herself: “Passionate about the future sustainability of the planet, and the interconnectedness of environmental and economic principles that will preserve and enhance the planet for future generations. Committed to economic justice, eradicating US poverty in our lifetimes, with a focus on policy development and implementing workable solutions.” Those of us who worked with Ann can testify that she was true to her ideals.
Two weeks before Ann died, I had the great gift of spending five days with her as her caretaker. One afternoon we listened attentively to a playlist of music that we both loved. Many of the songs were by Sara Thomsen, a marvelous musician who had led the musical response at the last Women’s Congress with her song O Grandmother.
Oh, grandmother, are you listening?
Oh, grandmother, are you listening?
Oh, grandmother, I’m calling you
Oh, grandmother, I’m calling you
Oh, the night is so long, the night is so dark!
Will you sing me a song? Will you kindle a spark?
How did you find your way
through the dark of the night
To the light of the new day?
How did you find your way
through the dark of the night
To the light of the day?
Of all the things Ann taught us, what stands out most for me is her message that if we stand together for justice, we are more likely to vanquish injustice. We are in this together.
Ann died during extraordinary world turmoil: a pandemic, climate change, and a new war. So much is interconnected. And so much is interconnected through the egregious extraction, processing, and use of fossil fuels.
Soon after the Russians invaded Ukraine, Carmi Orenstein said that she saw her work with SEHN as anti-war work. In that spirit, SEHN joined hundreds of other organizations to “call on world governments to reject and ban the importation of Russian oil and gas, and to rapidly phase out all fossil fuels in the name of peace.”
The letter contains this powerful call:
The regime of Vladimir Putin is the clear and sole aggressor in this illegal war, and bears full responsibility for the atrocities committed by its war machine. It is equally clear that this war machine has been funded, fed, and fuelled by the coal, oil and gas industries that are driving both the invasion that threatens Ukraine and the climate crisis that threatens humanity’s future. And the world’s fossil fuel addiction, in turn, is funding Putin’s warmongering — putting not only Ukraine but Europe itself at risk. Putin has deliberately weaponised fossil gas to increase his existing energy dominance over the European Union and to threaten European nations that would come to Ukraine’s aid. This needs to stop!
The world’s fossil fuel addiction is also a weapon against life on Earth. A warning about one manifestation of this addiction, the recent scientists’ letter calling for a Plastics Treaty, said this:
Irreversible, compounding and planetary-scale exposure of our environment, ecosystems and organisms, including humans, to plastics and associated toxic monomers, oligomers, additives, catalysts, polymerisation aids and non-intentionally added substances is occurring. While knowledge gaps remain, there is clear and unequivocal evidence that the pollution caused by plastics throughout their lifecycles is negatively impacting all levels of biological organisation, from the genetic and epigenetic, cellular and subcellular, through to organismal, population and ecosystem levels, contributing to biodiversity loss and adding to climate change. There is also evidence that the safe operating space for the ‘chemical pollution and novel entities’ planetary boundary (including plastic pollution) is already exceeded.
SEHN board member Rebecca Altman co-authored with Tridibesh Dey an Atlantic article on the global plastics treaty. They said, “[e]arly this month, however, following 10 days of late-night negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) passed a resolution mandating the creation of a multilateral treaty to address plastic pollution.”
They end their essay with these words:
Less than three years from now, we will find out whether the international community is up to the task the UNEA has set out. The influx of plastics and associated pollutants into the planetary system, say the scientists Linn Persson, Bethanie Almroth, and their colleagues, now diminishes the planet’s capacity to support life…. But if the treaty responds boldly to its mandate—if its negotiators heed history and hear the wisdom of those most intimately affected—it could offer a new vision for plastics’ place in society and the economy, and by extension, it could well alter the future of humanity and the planet.
Ann Manning is now one of our ancestors. She did not live long enough to see the outcome of either the war on Ukraine or whether we will have an effective plastics treaty. Nor will she see an end to fossil fuels. But she taught us well: Stand together. Work for justice. Be kind.
She is, in all likelihood, singing us the Grandmother’s refrain in Sara Thomsen’s song, the answer to the granddaughter’s plea for light and for help.
Oh, granddaughter, I am listening
Oh, granddaughter, I am listening
Oh, granddaughter, I’m calling you
Oh, granddaughter, I’m calling you
When the night is so long, the night is so dark
I will sing you a song, may it kindle a spark
And you will find your way
through the dark of the night
To the light of the new day
And you will find your way
through the dark of the night
To the light of the day
Ann, we miss you. Terribly. Your very being was a song. The spark you kindled lights our way.
Carbon Dioxide Fact Sheet:
By Ted Schettler, MD
CO2 IN NORMAL PHYSIOLOGY
In humans, carbon dioxide (CO2) is produced in cells as a byproduct of metabolism.1 Then it circulates through the bloodstream, mostly within red blood cells, to be exhaled from the lungs as CO2 and excreted from kidneys as bicarbonate (HCO3-).
CO2 levels:
• play a major role in regulating blood and tissue pH (acid-base balance)
• largely determine respiratory drive (rate and depth of breathing)
• influence oxygen attachment to hemoglobin
Internal physiologic processes tightly regulate CO2 levels in the blood; abnormally high concentrations cause a variety of signs and symptoms. (See CO2 toxicity below.)
Maintaining blood pH within a narrow range is essential for normal functioning of virtually all organs and physiologic systems. CO2 plays a central role via these reactions:
CO2 + H2O ? H2CO3 ? HCO3- + H+
where H2O is water, H2CO3 is carbonic acid; HCO3- is bicarbonate; H+ is hydrogen ion.
Humans and virtually every living organism (plants and animals) have evolved to produce an enzyme, carbonic anhydrase3, which dramatically increases the speed of the first part of the above reaction, (CO2 + H2O ?H2CO3), making this an ideal system for very rapidly fine-tuning the regulation of CO2 levels and blood pH through changes in the rate and depth of respiration.
The main drivers of respiratory rate and depth are normally bloodstream CO2 levels and associated pH changes. These are maintained within healthy limits by chemoreceptors located in the medulla at the base of the brain (central chemoreceptors) and in the aorta and carotid arteries (peripheral chemoreceptors). Brain receptors detect changes in the CO2 and pH, aorta receptors detect changes in CO2 and oxygen, and carotid receptors detect changes in all three. Respiratory rate and depth increase primarily in response to an increase in CO2/decrease in pH to reduce CO2 and maintain pH within normal limits.
Continue Reading
SEHN In The News
 Green Living Seminar: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Public Health and Community Based Participatory Research in Urban Environmental Justice Communities by Madeleine Scammell. Watch Madeleine Scammell's full presentation. Watch Here
 The World Has One Big Chance to Fix Plastics
For a global plastics treaty to succeed, it will need to tamp down production—and recognize the lives that depend on plastic still. By Rebecca Altman and Tridibesh Dey.
 The Iowa Carbon Pipeline Debate
Carolyn Raffensperger provides poignant quotes for the Iowa Gazetta about the three newly proposed carbon pipelines. Read Here.
Iowans At The Capitol
Carolyn Raffensperger is also quoted in this article from the Des Moines Register. Her comments reflect the extreme concern about the harmful impacts of the newly propsed carbon pipelines in Iowa. Read Here.
Upcoming Event
Lu nch and Learn: Climate Justice Partnership
Madeleine Scammell will be speaking at the SSL Lunch and Learn on May 26th, 2022. This event is virtual. This is the fourth event in a series called Climate Justice Partnership at the Univertsity of Massachusetts.
Register Here
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