Nine years ago, one of Hamilton’s talented artists, painter Lorna Gabel, started the first “Recycled Art Show.” She desired a way to incorporate art into Earth Day and introduced her idea of “recycled art” to fellow artists. The concept was basic: pour your artistic talents into a project comprised of anything that could end up in a landfill; make garbage into art.

Vivian “Vevan” Yang, a local potter, had the right place: Art City, located in an historic first-generation building on Main Street in Hamilton. With the concept embraced and the venue secured, many artists submitted entries and the annual show has been growing bigger and better every year.

“It was so much fun that we’ve had it every year.” Lorna said. “It’s a way to get in touch with your inner child…to do something totally ‘off the wall’ is what the artists usually try to do.”

Vevan adds, “It’s a wacky show, but sometimes there are some serious artists, serious thought. The artwork is whimsical; it’s almost accidentally found art.”

One thing is for sure – the show is always entertaining and humorous. It’s intriguing how an artist can transform scraps of stuff into something wonderful.

Many known local artists show off their creative pieces at the show, but it does not necessarily mean their pieces will reflect their usual genre.

Lorna, for example, composes amazing paintings, but her projects are about “a 180” in the art world from her usual works. Check out her sculpture that she made from packaging Styrofoam peanuts. Or, discover the impact of her enthralling abstract relief (3-D) sculpture, comprised of a rusty coal bucket with fabric pieces pouring from it.

Because of its impressive size, Vevan’s creation required a different venue. Behind Art City outside you can find her piece which is a labyrinth. A labyrinth is similar to a maze but does not have a “trick” to it. It consists of one route in to the center and one out. For Vevan, her labyrinth represents a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage. The labyrinth is constructed of recycled kiln brick and lined with recycled lumber wrap.

Some of the artists that can be found with submissions in the show are: Joe Thompson (renowned for his woodworking), Clair Ann Harff (creates exquisite earth ware pottery), Karen Coombs (crochet hemp bags and incredible pine needle baskets), Mary Byers (fiber artist featuring unique silkscreen t-shirts), and Laura Mae Jackson (creates intriguing collages).

The hub of the show is always in the historic Art City building at 407 West Main in Hamilton and normally commences on Earth Day, a day Art City opens for the season. However, Earth Day took place this year April 22, on a Sunday, not considered a desirable opening day. Instead, the show opened on Friday, April 27, and the vast variety of art can be viewed for the whole month of May.

Because Art City is open to the public in a cooperative fashion (being tended to by various artists taking their turn running the business), it isn’t open typical business hours. Art City is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 11 – 4, some Saturdays, and sometimes by chance or appointment (Ph. 363-4764). The signal that they are open is when their flag is displayed outside.

When visiting, be sure to bring your checkbook as many of the pieces from the Recycled Art Show are available for sale (as well as the store’s regular merchandise), and something could very likely catch your fancy.

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Many people think of global warming as a gradual process. But 650,000 years’ worth of data from Antarctic ice cores samples indicate that warming often occurs with startling rapidity. For instance, roughly half of the entire warming between the last ice age and the present took place in only a decade. Astonishingly, the earth warmed by at least 9 degrees in ten years.

What drives these sudden changes in temperature? Over the last several years, climate scientists have identified about a dozen tipping points –any one of which, if triggered, could initiate sudden, catastrophic climate change.

An example is the peat bogs of western Siberia. These ancient bogs, containing tens of billions of tons of carbon, have remained frozen since the last ice age. Covering an area approaching 400,000 square miles (roughly the size of France and Germany combined), they contain perhaps one quarter of all the carbon that has been sequestered (stored) by soils and vegetation over the last 10,000 years.

These peatlands lie on the edge of the arctic permafrost: the zone of maximum impact from global warming. Here the average yearly temperature for the last century has been 30.7 degrees. Today, however, it is 32 degrees – the melting point of ice.

The concerns is that as the bogs begin to thaw, they will release their carbon onto the atmosphere as methane - which is at least 20 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2.

And thawing they are. Within the last three years, the once supple, spongy surface of moss and lichen has turned into a panorama of lakes that extend unbroken for hundreds of miles. Peat on the bottom of the lakes is converting to methane and bubbling to the surface so fast that the lakes don’t freeze, even in winter.

According to Euan Nisbet of London’s Royal Holloway College, who oversees a big international methane-monitoring program that includes Siberia, methane releases from the western Siberian peat bogs may be as high as 100,000 tons per day. “This huge methane flux depends on temperature,” says Nisbet. “If peatlands become wetter with warming and permafrost degradation, methane release to the atmosphere will dramatically increase.”

There are about a dozen other tipping points around the globe - any one of which, if triggered, could initiate sudden, catastrophic climate change. These include the Amazon rainforest, the polar ice caps, and the Tibetan plateau. These systems have thresholds above which they are extremely sensitive to small changes in temperature. Once its temperature maximum is crossed, the system breaks down, and rapid warming is the result. This warming in turn accelerates its collapse, while also hastening the destabilization of other tipping points around the globe. Not unlike falling dominoes, one triggers the next, as a self-perpetuating feedback loop amplifies runaway carbon release.

The graph below, displaying 650,000 years worth of ice core data, clearly illustrates that atmospheric CO2 concentration (above) and temperature (below) proceed lockstep. On the right of the CO2 graph, the lower dot indicates where CO2 is today: 380 parts per million (ppm), 25% higher than at any time in the previous 650,000 years. This dramatic increase is probably tied to the 200 billion tons of CO2 that we have released into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution, 200 years ago. The dot above it, at over 500 ppm, indicates projected CO2 concentration by the end of this century if current rates of CO2 release continue. (At present, anthropogenic (man-caused) CO2 releases from fossil fuel use by transportation, heating, electricity, agriculture, and other sectors total 10 to 13 billion tons per year.) Cause for concern is the fact that ipping points are not factored in to this projection.

Nobody knows for sure how much more warming our planet can withstand before we cross thresholds beyond which irreversible changes occur. But there is a growing consensus, especially in Europe, that we should try to prevent global average temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels - or about 2.5 degrees above current levels.

Every major scientific institute dealing with climate, ocean, and/or atmosphere agrees that the only chance we have to avoid this warming is to cut our CO2 emissions. For example, if we began by 2010 to reduce CO2 emissions by 5.5% per year, we would achieve 80% cuts by 2025. According to David Merrell of GlobalWarmingSolution.org, the cost of the transition would be about 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each year for 15 years. Compare this to the 35% of GDP that went into the war effort during World War II, when it took us just one short year to completely recalibrate the entire economy. The effort was promoted by the government but carried forward by individual citizens.

While the 1940’s war effort required considerable sacrifice, today’s transition to clean energy need not. In fact, our global economy will benefit from the concrete actions we take to arrest climate change. The rather modest cost to make a transition to energy systems that reduce global warming serves other objectives as well. For example, moving toward fuel-efficient vehicles such as hydrogen cars and hybrids will also contribute to prosperity for rural America, reduce developing countries’ debt burden (often adversely affected by oil imports), and help free us from oil dependence.

Claims (mostly created by the oil and coal industries and their constituents) that correcting global warming will cripple the economy and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs are unfounded. In fact, companies that are already reducing their heat-trapping emissions have discovered that cutting pollution can save money. The cost of a comprehensive national greenhouse gas reduction program will depend on the precise emissions targets, the timing for the reductions and the means of implementation. One encouraging fact is that several other countries have set precedents for us to follow. Wind provides 21% of Denmark’s electricity; individuals and wind cooperatives own 85% of capacity, so that the power lies in the hands of the people. Perhaps the most encouraging news of all is that in several countries, wind power is already cheaper than electricity generated from fossil fuel.

Experience has shown that properly designed emissions trading programs can reduce compliance costs significantly compared with other regulatory approaches. For example, the U.S. acid rain program reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 30 percent from 1990 levels and cost industry a fraction of what the government originally estimated, according to the EPA. Furthermore, a mandatory cap on emissions could spur technological innovation that could create jobs and wealth. Letting global warming continue until we are forced to address it on an emergency basis could disrupt and severely damage our economy. It is far wiser and more cost-effective to act now.

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What is the likely outcome if we act now? What if we don’t? Is there a middle ground? Below are three possible scenarios:

1) We aren’t aggressive enough and/or fast enough in cutting back GW pollutants to avert catastrophic climate shift, and our planet’s (life support) systems come unraveled. Severe and deadly heat waves and droughts lead to mass famine. Tropical diseases such as Dengue and Malaria spread northward to infect populations possessing no inborn resistance to them. Significant melting of polar icecaps lead to a 20-50 foot rise in sea levels, swamping low lying coastal lands and cities, and mass refugee migration ensues. Here in the United States, as docking ports for oil tankers and refineries disappear underwater, home heating oil production stops. When winter comes, tens of millions face freezing to death in the cities and suburbs. Since there’s also no propane, gasoline or diesel, interstate trucking stops, and the food supply is cut off; many who escape freezing, starve. Crops wither and die in the scorching heat, commercial livestock production ceases and fisheries are devastated, so there’s little food for the rest of the country either. People living adjacent to streams and rivers can still raise food, but must form militias to protect their supplies from bands of raiders. Dilution of the Arctic Ocean by the melting Greenland Ice Sheet stops the North Atlantic Current (delivering the equivalent of 500,000 power plants’ worth of heat to Europe, the NAC has slowed by 30% in the last few years); Europe is systematically buried in ice. National and global economies collapse. Enormously violent and destructive storms decimate the land. The most devastating weapons ever created still exist, while the means to regulate their use, or make peace, are gone. Civilization, as we know it, comes to an end as the world’s forests burn, deserts spread, and the mass of Earth’s species go extinct.

2) We take a lackadaisical approach to cutting back emissions. Although we avoid utter catastrophe, Earth’s systems are severely damaged. Once humanity does awaken to the crisis, a global carbon commission is established and carbon emissions are strictly controlled, with harsh penalties for offenders. Neighbors and nations battle over dwindling water supplies. Tens of millions of people are displaced as sea levels rise 3-20 feet by 2100 and parts of London, Bombay, New Orleans, Bangladesh, Tokyo, New York, and much of Florida and the Netherlands are abandoned. 1 to 3 billion face water shortages, and dengue fever threatens 3.5 billion. As climate tipping points – and civilization – hover on the brink of collapse for decades or centuries, economic depression, drought, hunger, and disease ravage the land. The Arctic Ocean is ice-free in summer, coral reefs are gone, and the Amazon rainforest is replaced by savannah. About half of the planet’s species are extinct. Temperatures and sea levels continue to rise for 3-5 centuries.

3) Humanity bands together: individuals, corporations, and nations act quickly and aggressively to replace the fossil fuel economy with one based upon clean, renewable energy. Excess CO2 currently in the air and oceans is absorbed by photosynthesis, and greenhouse gas concentrations return to normal by about 2150. By then, average global temperature is about 3 degrees hotter than pre-industrial levels, or 2 degrees hotter than today. Parts of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have melted, raising sea levels worldwide by 15-25 inches. Most of the world’s coral reefs are badly damaged. Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Tokelau, and Tuvalu – the five sovereign atoll countries – are abandoned, their 500,000 inhabitants relocated to New Zealand. Crop production is increased in Canada and Russia, while parts of India and Africa have been turned to desert. In balance, the number of people facing food shortages has tripled. Close to ¼ of the world’s species have gone extinct.

Clearly, the single most important step is to shift from a fossil fuel based economy to one founded on clean, renewable energy. But corporations and governments will change only if we demand it. We must act now, with great ethical clarity and in very great numbers, to insist that our elected leaders at every level boldly implement the new policies and technologies that will be needed to halt global warming. In 1970, twenty million people turned out for the first Earth Day and demanded environmental protections. This led to the establishment of the EPA, Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act. People did that. People build movements and movements can move mountains.

We must network a wide array of civic, scientific, environmental, religious, student, and other organizations with enlightened business leaders, concerned families, and engaged communities, banded together, marching, protesting, demanding action and accountability from governments and corporations, and taking steps as consumers and communities to realize sustainability in our everyday lives. Once our united voice is large and loud enough, our leaders will either respond appropriately or be replaced on Election Day.

Steps we can take as a nation include:

• Subsidize Renewable Energy. Perhaps we could use the $600 billion of our tax dollars now subsidizing the auto and oil industries.

• Phase out coal plants. There are 1,200 on the drawing board. Let’s keep them there.

• Establish revenue-neutral tax changes to create market mechanisms to drive down emissions. For example, we could eliminate the payroll tax and replace it with a pollution tax. We could also implement a gas-guzzler tax, and use the money for rebates on electric, biodiesel/hybrid, and hydrogen-powered cars. Also, a 0.5% tax on international currency exchange would net over $500 billion annually. (Compare this to the roughly $275 billion it would cost to purchase and install 400,000 2.5 megawatt wind turbines, which would provide 100% of our country’s electricity while also creating jobs and wealth.)

• Curb tropical deforestation via legislation that

1) Forgives national debt in heavily forested Third-World countries.

2) Bans import of rainforest timber.

3) Provides incentives to third-world countries to provide their rural populations with economically viable alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture.

Each year, tropical deforestation and the peat bog fires that result account for 6 - 8 billion tons of CO2 - as much as the combined fossil fuel emissions of the US and European Union.

• Fund and expand Mass Transit.

• Build High-Speed Rail.

• Legislate to replace obsolete transformers that step down power to household levels (savings: 12 billion kilowatt hours annually)

• The only way to convince China, India, and the rest of the developing world to build their fast-growing economies on a sustainable, nonpolluting foundation is if we step up to the plate and assume our logical role as world leader in clean energy technology.

Since it’s also important to take steps as individuals to reduce our CO2 footprint, here are a few things that each of us can do:

• The most important thing is to get involved. In the Bitterroot Valley and Missoula, you can join Live Earth Action Resource Network at www.LearnMT.org. Also, check out Global Warming Solution at www.GlobalWarmingSolution.org, and High Ground Communities at HighlandWinds.com/Blog.aspx.

• Make some noise! Get friends, family, and associates informed and involved.

• Invest in your children’s future by contributing generously to non-profit organizations working towards the transition to clean, renewable energy.

• Buy a fuel-efficient car. Hybrids are better. Hydrogen cars will soon be more affordable.

• Drive efficiently.

• Use Energy Star recommended compact florescent lights (cfl’s).

• Cut down on air travel. (A 747 passenger jet traveling from New York to London releases 880,000 lbs of CO2.)

• Join 750,000 people in the Virtual March on Washington: www.StopGlobalWarming.org.

• Write your Senators, Representatives, and Governor. Tell them that you strongly support clean technologies such as wind and solar power, and that your vote will go to the candidates who advocate their rapid implementation.

• Write your local electric utility and tell them that you want to buy green power (i.e. wind, solar). If they say it’s not available, ask them why not.

• Add extra insulation and weather-stripping to your home.

• Make your next house an ultra energy efficient Monolithic Dome. www.Monolithic.com

• Install a solar water heater; offset household CO2 emissions by about 1,500 pounds/year, and save about $14,000 compared to a gas water heater over its 40-year life.

• Buy Energy Star recommended appliances and home electronics.

• Walk, ride a bike, carpool, take public transit.

One last thing: what do we say to the few remaining critics who, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, maintain that anthropogenic (human-caused) CO2 emissions are not what’s causing global warming? First, since over 98% of climate scientists and every major scientific institution dealing with climate, oceans and/or atmosphere agree that global warming is unequivocal and that humans are causing it, the burden of proof falls to the critics. How much longer must humanity wait for their evidence, in light of the all but unanimous scientific consensus? Naturally, we hope they’re right. However, ethics, self-preservation, and love for our children and planet require that we ask: What if they’re wrong? Can we really afford to take the chance?

A central tenet of economics is to leave principal intact: don’t kill the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg. Left unchecked, global warming will destroy the very resource base our economy and lives depend on. But if we choose instead to usher in a world powered by clean, renewable energy - we’ll create jobs, stimulate the economy, promote energy independence, and protect our nation and our planet’s health. The tools for such a change are already in our hands. All we need to begin the transition is an upsurge in collective consciousness. Once the American people realize the magnitude of the problem, history demonstrates that we are capable of rising to the challenge. If we are the problem - we are also the cure.

Seth Pogue is Executive Director of Live Earth Action Resource Network, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the local and national transition to a clean energy economy. To become involved in Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley, please visit www.LearnMT.org or write Box 420, Hamilton ,MT 59840.