LOS ANGELES, California, May 28, 2021 (ENS) – Concert pianist Dr. Ayse Taspinar feels an obligation to raise awareness of climate change, so she is hosting a virtual House Party fundraiser for Vote Climate U.S. Political Action Committee, PAC. As a classical pianist, Taspinar knows the powerful healing power of music to bring people together, in tune with nature and to help the planet to flourish.
Taspinar is a an acclaimed pianist who has performed in Europe, Asia, North and South America. She aims to unite diverse audiences through her music. She will perform a classical piano concert for Zoom viewers.
The Piano for the Planet LIVE! fundraiser is being held online Sunday, June 6, 2021.
Time: 1:30 PM PST, 4:30 PM EST
Email: info@voteclimatepac.org
RSVP Here: http://evite.me/yXnUmJfMut
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83431489800?pwd=UkttL2RCYUd4U2dja0NiTzZzOXNCUT09
Others can participate in the PAC’s national, virtual house party program by hosting a house party of their own. Sign up to host a house party at www.voteclimatepac.org.
Born in Paris, Taspinar began her music education with her mother, a piano teacher in her native Turkey. She now holds a doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.
As she matured as an artist, Taspinar began to explore the relationship between Turkish musicians and Armenian musicians that can bring the two, often opposing, nationalities into harmony after The Ottoman Empire killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 during World War I. Taspinar has given a lecture and piano performance on the topic, “Rediscovering the shared cultural heritage of Armenians and Turks through music.”
“I like to play well-known Western composers such as Franz Liszt with unknown pieces like Emile Robert Blanchet’s “Turquie,” which captures the mysticism of Turkish culture,” Taspinar has said. “I also want to introduce music-lovers to the rich cultural mosaic of the Ottoman Empire, and to composers and musicians of different ethnic groups.”
In 2017, she established the Light of Anatolia/Apricot Tree Foundation “with the hope to reintroduce this mosaic to people around the world and help sustain the cultural herıtage of indigenous communities in Anatolia, and more broadly in the Near East.”
“Apricot Tree was born out of a need for cultural connection,” said Taspinar. “We want to form a bond between communities used to being defined by conflict.”
Today, Taspinar says that climate change is the most existential threat of our time, and she wants to use her music to inspire awareness and action. “If we come together and bring forth action, just as we come together for musical concerts, the world will be a better, healthier, and safer place for generations to come,” she said. “We must refocus our energy as a nation and as a world on this issue that affects us all gravely, instead of spending countless money and resources on warfare that only tears us apart.”
The Vote Climate U.S. PAC posts their Voter’s Guide for presidential, U.S. House and U.S. Senate positions identifying “Climate Heroes” and “Climate Zeros” and everyone in between so that voters have the information they need to elect climate-action candidates.
Carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels is driving climate change. A carbon fee is a fee imposed on fossil fuels intended to dramatically reduce or eliminate the emission of carbon dioxide from those sources. A carbon fee would aid in the switch from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy and slow climate change.
The Vote Climate U.S. PAC supports a carbon fee that, “Sets an ambitious, concrete goal for emission reductions that is adequate to slow climate change and its impacts; sets an adequate price per ton of carbon or equivalent greenhouse gases, to reflect the real cost of emissions, including damages that arise from catastrophic climate change, to be paid by the polluter; and sets a deadline for achieving those goals.
The PAC would like to see revenue from a carbon fee invested in: clean, renewable, non-nuclear energy, training and transition programs to move workers to a clean energy economy and energy efficiency and conservation.
Or the revenue could be returned to taxpayers in the form of an annual dividend.
The Vote Climate U.S. PAC says a carbon fee should:
- Be applied broadly to include as many fossil fuel polluters as possible, thereby giving us the best chance of reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from those polluters
- Be paid far upstream at the point where the fuels are extracted from the Earth and put into the stream of commerce or imported to the U.S.
- Not fund biofuels which contribute to deforestation, since forests are necessary to absorb excess carbon dioxide
- End the Haliburton exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act for fracking, so that the carbon price does not cause harm from increased natural gas production
- Ensure that the polluter pays and the cost is not passed on to the taxpayer, especially low-income families or individuals.
Vote Climate U.S. PAC works to elect candidates to get off fossil fuels, transition to clean, renewable, energy and reduce carbon pollution by putting a fee on carbon, in order to slow climate change and related weather extremes.
The national, climate change voter’s guide gives candidates a Climate Calculation, a score that voters can take to the voting booth. The PAC says that this is the first climate voter’s guide that has assessed incumbents and challengers. Nor has there ever been a voter’s guide focused exclusively on climate change that goes beyond just votes to also assess position, leadership and putting a fee on carbon emissions.
Featured image: Dr. Ayse Taspinar explains how she likes to use her music to bring people together. (Photo courtesy Apricot Tree)
