tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25847340245371549642024-03-13T17:38:07.345-04:00killing Motherkilling Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.comBlogger180125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-64622466065962968342022-04-11T10:35:00.000-04:002022-04-11T10:35:11.197-04:00Moving from killing to healing - A year of rewilding<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiU7eOooJaAVjV28IA1rmw699OsQkPw9PRwLqPn52W6GjPs1PQFHk5vefau86uAu3k_NfSdeZeX77gqefM8JSiIgcKRXA0F4B5xt4BxNupsWDW0u_n5K8HqcU9HGNNbO-8VeS4m4u09TmywCWdqrjTNH42WTytxROU1a8l9AOcehe7whY30DOM3hFO/s4608/Se-di_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiU7eOooJaAVjV28IA1rmw699OsQkPw9PRwLqPn52W6GjPs1PQFHk5vefau86uAu3k_NfSdeZeX77gqefM8JSiIgcKRXA0F4B5xt4BxNupsWDW0u_n5K8HqcU9HGNNbO-8VeS4m4u09TmywCWdqrjTNH42WTytxROU1a8l9AOcehe7whY30DOM3hFO/s320/Se-di_sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Dearest long-neglected killing Mother followers,<p></p><p>I apologize for the long months/years of silence. A lot has happened in the interim. Those of you who have been following me on this blog since the beginning will know that I am a jaded environmental scientist, seeking, but pessimistic about real solutions to address Western human environmental destructiveness. Throughout the course of my professional life, I have worked across public, non-profit, and private sectors seeking solutions but ultimately being traumatized by intimate experiences of ecological violence and frustrated by the failures of these traditional spheres to reverse or even slow the trajectory of global ecological cataclysm. </p><p>My disillusionment has finally led me to step outside the constructed boxes of the environmental science field orthodoxy to pursue a PhD in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. My proposed inquiry will employ co-operative action research
to work collaboratively and equitably with the beings with whom I share a Land
base in Asheville, North Carolina to restore a colonized and degraded
ecological community and myself to flourishing wildness. In addition to working with the Land community to rewild itself, I will be eschewing all consumer products for one year and living exclusively on the gifts from the bioregion. By rewilding myself
within an ecoregion as a subjective co-researcher, rather than as a detached
and objective scientific observer, I hope to radically contest and provide an
alternative to the centuries-old assumptions of the dominant scientific
paradigm and provide a platform for the suppressed and marginalized voices of
the more-than-human world.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I will be documenting my year of rewilding at<a href="http://www.yearofrewilding.com" target="_blank"> www.yearofrewilding.com</a>, and I welcome all to join me in this resurrection and
rediscovery of wildness. I hope to carry on our fruitful discussions there. <o:p></o:p></p>killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-4033464541152248272016-12-07T11:20:00.002-05:002016-12-08T10:42:04.192-05:00Being the change we want to see in the world - a personal approach to climate change<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gasoline, natural gas, coal and crude oil are not necessities
for life. Clean water and air, shelter, food and the companionship and love of
other humans and non-humans are actually what we need to survive. Unfortunately,
the quest and lust for all that we do not in fact need is undermining the
viability of the ecosystems that underpin that which we do. The showdown in
North Dakota stands as a stark monument to this conflict, as the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe and their allies have been protesting for months to save their land
and water supply from the risks posed by the Dakota Access Pipeline. For now,
it appears that the Standing Rock Sioux’s battle may have been won, but the war
rages on with casualties mounting and no end in sight. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KBo3UrCr--4/WEgwVETjDjI/AAAAAAAAAiE/G_S-T3O2ugsuSzKQJSdLfwE_4zEbH-0HACLcB/s1600/IMG_9261_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KBo3UrCr--4/WEgwVETjDjI/AAAAAAAAAiE/G_S-T3O2ugsuSzKQJSdLfwE_4zEbH-0HACLcB/s320/IMG_9261_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alberta's Tar Sand Settling Pond and Refinery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
President elect Donald Trump has vowed to remove all restriction
on the development and exploitation of fossil fuels in the United States. With
a Republican Congress, he will undoubtedly make good on this promise. We cannot
control Trump's and Congress's actions, but collectively, humans (with a conscience about the
scientific facts surrounding global climate change) can reduce the demand for fossil fuels. By reducing the demand and eliminating markets for
carbon-producing products, the companies that profit from fossil fuels lose
their incentive to develop new reserves. In other words, if we aren’t buying
gasoline, natural gas, heating oil, plastics and other fossil fuel derivatives,
building pipelines, fracking, mining tar sands, etc., will become costly and
economically unfeasible.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yeXsXKF_26s/WEgwZjXnQEI/AAAAAAAAAiI/lu_XykLJSN8mUSHlA-WRl_CTYLqBraQ1gCEw/s1600/IMG_8907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yeXsXKF_26s/WEgwZjXnQEI/AAAAAAAAAiI/lu_XykLJSN8mUSHlA-WRl_CTYLqBraQ1gCEw/s320/IMG_8907.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Kentucky</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/">released a report</a>, based
on thousands of peer-reviewed studies, which states that in order to keep
average warming below 2°C (3.6°F), net global emissions of greenhouse
gasses (GHGs) will need to be reduced by 40 – 70% by 2050 and further reduced
to zero by 2100. This scenario will stabilize CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations in
the atmosphere at 450 parts per thousand (ppt). The IPCC also reports that the
consequences of average warming increases greater than 2°C would result in ocean
acidification (e.g. severely reduced productivity in ocean ecosystems), sea
level rise of up to seven meters, displacement of people, economic losses,
increased poverty, reduced water availability, increased severe storms, coastal
flooding, landslides, etc. In recent days, my beloved mountain home in Southern Appalachia
burned due to a severe drought caused by climate change. Thousands of acres of
forest burned, thousands of structures were destroyed and people died. Climate
change is real, and it will affect all of us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--dz2KWBcw00/WEg1Ff4LtKI/AAAAAAAAAio/dlauXBcWXroq6fIWQ8SUkEE8UZZuhB8PACEw/s1600/IMG_9950.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--dz2KWBcw00/WEg1Ff4LtKI/AAAAAAAAAio/dlauXBcWXroq6fIWQ8SUkEE8UZZuhB8PACEw/s320/IMG_9950.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corn Production in the Deserts of Utah</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our human lives are punctuated by activities that belch
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a daily basis. The cozy creature comforts
of home are maintained at ideal temperatures via electric heat pumps, air
conditioning and oil and gas burning furnaces. Plastic packages, plastic bags,
Styrofoam boxes and throw-away utensils line landfills and roadsides to satisfy
an insatiable lust for convenience. Most communities have shunned the
development of public transportation for the convenience of personal
automobiles, complete with a vast infrastructure of roads, highways and fuel
stations. While other countries invest in high-speed rail, the U.S. continues
to throw billions upon billions of dollars upon an infrastructure that revels in the combustion of gasoline. Our food supply is outrageously destructive in
terms of the production of GHGs. Globalization means that we enjoy blueberries
and other fruits and vegetables, out of season, any time of the year, all over the
world. Millions of acres of corn and soy have replaced prairie, rain forest and
arid biomes in order to artificially feed cattle, crammed on feedlots that
belch out methane and other GHGs in such intense concentrations that they can
be smelled from miles away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mSIvvrF6bv0/WEg0988GWSI/AAAAAAAAAik/JrMWlxWzqccN1V-hj4Mz6jcIIcHnP3CRgCLcB/s1600/IMG_0632.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mSIvvrF6bv0/WEg0988GWSI/AAAAAAAAAik/JrMWlxWzqccN1V-hj4Mz6jcIIcHnP3CRgCLcB/s320/IMG_0632.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Cattle Feed Lot in Colorado</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Climate science is settled and has been for a long time. Now
we have to figure out what we are going to do to stop the catastrophic
trajectory of the runaway greenhouse effect humans have unleashed upon the
planet, via their opulent and short-sighted behaviors. The dramatic recommendations
of the world’s leading climate scientists at the IPCC will completely undermine
the fossil fuel industry and put them out of business. Given this scenario,
nobody should wonder at the fossil fuel industry’s concentrated obstruction of
any mitigative measures and their comprehensive campaign to spread climate change denial pseudoscience. Saving the planet will require completely disassembling the fossil fuel energy
infrastructure and replacing it with something else. And, since almost every
U.S. politician relies on campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry,
expecting our government to fix the problem is like hiring foxes to take care
of the chicken coop. Sadly, most people are sitting around waiting for just such
an improbable occurrence. With the election of President-elect Donald Trump and
a Republican Congress, at least we are now dealing with the reality that our
government will do nothing for at least four more years, so perhaps we will now
be willing to take matters into our own hands.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rwqcLC3z_Vk/WEgwbCxpqiI/AAAAAAAAAiM/rzrZnX1QPSU9_UEGQWY6JiRBH2rVZNiDgCEw/s1600/IMG_0085.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rwqcLC3z_Vk/WEgwbCxpqiI/AAAAAAAAAiM/rzrZnX1QPSU9_UEGQWY6JiRBH2rVZNiDgCEw/s320/IMG_0085.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oil Field and Soy Production in Kansas</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My personal plan is to exceed the IPCC’s recommendations
for GHG reductions over the next several years. I am assuming that most other
people will not do the same, so I am aiming to reduce my GHG footprint by 10%
per year for the next 10 years, until my personal net footprint is zero. I will
commence this exercise on January 1<sup>st</sup>, 2017, so by 2027, my
lifestyle be GHG neutral. If other conscientious citizens of Earth do the same,
we can single-handedly solve the climate change problem, in spite of our inept political systems.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first steps to achieving this goal is to actually
determine one's GHG footprint as follows: </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Determine consumption of food and consumer
goods (I will keep all receipts for all purchases in December and then derive
an average consumption rate)</span></li>
<li>·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Determine any consumption rates for other
products, such as plastic bags, wood (e.g. for the fireplace) plastic utensils, food containers, etc.</span></li>
<li>·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Determine a transportation footprint by keeping
track of all gasoline purchased, all air miles, all public transportation miles,
etc.</span></li>
<li>·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Determine an electrical footprint by collating
all utility bills.</span></li>
<li>·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Determine any other GHG producing activities.</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In January, I will attempt to reduce each of the above GHG
producing activities by 10%. Some areas will be easier than others. For
example, by eliminating my <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-10-foods-with-the-biggest-environmental-footprint-2015-9">consumption
of beef and lamb</a>, I can easily and significantly reduce my GHG footprint for food
consumption. I can also do away with (almost completely) consumption of
disposable plastics. Other areas, such as my transportation footprint, will be
more difficult. Conceivably, I will need to replace some of my car miles with
biking and/or walking, and I will definitely have to reduce my travel
activities. I will also be able to reduce my electrical footprint by improving
the insulation in my 1850 Asheville home and by adding some passive heating
design. I am looking forward to this great experiment and hope you will all
join me. I am happy to make myself available to assist anyone interested in determining
their GHG footprint and offering advice on how to reduce it. Let the resistance
begin!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F3S-moE6OE4/WEgwmW1N0FI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/wdh-YMGH_CIKWeNstcr8tZ_o3BvCPLWpQCEw/s1600/IMG_9399_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F3S-moE6OE4/WEgwmW1N0FI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/wdh-YMGH_CIKWeNstcr8tZ_o3BvCPLWpQCEw/s320/IMG_9399_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More Clean Air and Water, Natural Landscapes and Other Organisms Instead!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape
id="Picture_x0020_6" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:468pt;
height:312pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:/Users/kw/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image007.jpg"
o:title=""/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-76916466529179638322016-11-11T16:27:00.001-05:002016-11-11T16:27:29.776-05:00We the Majority have the Actual Power. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
With the Electoral College U.S. Presidential win by Donald J. Trump, self-proclaimed racist, xenophobe, misogynist, scientific skeptic and assaulter of women, the majority of people in the United States woke up on 11/9/2016 in a state of shock, bewilderment and despair. Trump's proposed agenda [of stepped-up corporate welfare, dramatic tax cuts for the 1% (who are already not paying their fair share), elimination of healthcare benefits for millions of people, rolling back of civil rights for women, minorities and immigrants, state control of women's reproductive choices, unconstrained fossil fuel development and exploitation, etc., etc.] is made even more frightening by the election of a Republican House and Senate, which have the power to actually help him realize his extremist objectives. In the face of what can be described as a national and global tragedy, finding any prospect for hope can be a daunting task. In order to do so, Americans will have to rediscover and employ one of the tools that is at the heart of our republic and democracy.<br />
<br />
For many, the idea of civil action and disobedience is a naive notion that will achieve little, but nothing could be further from the truth. For every horror that Trump and a Republican Congress can inflict, an effective remedy can be unleashed. For example, if Trump and the Republican Congress start building a wall and deporting Latino immigrants, Latinos and their allies can choose a few strategic days to stay home from work. In many industries, such as agriculture and fast food, undocumented workers make up as much as 25% of the work force. A large-scale walkout of affected workers in these industries would not only raise public awareness about the contributions that undocumented workers make in our economy, but would also effectively bring national commerce to a standstill on the scheduled days off. If carried out by large numbers of people, repercussions would be minimal because the affected industries would be incapable of firing participants. There simply aren't any replacements in large numbers, with U.S. unemployment currently hovering in the 4% range.<br />
<br />
During the 1970's oil crisis, consumers of fossil fuels engaged in car pooling, exchanging gas guzzlers for more efficient vehicles and countless other effective energy conservation strategies. When the cost of gasoline skyrocketed under the Bush Administration, people once again tightened their fossil fuel belts and decadent fuel hogging vehicles became replaced as the transportation of choice with Prius and other hybrids. The simple reality behind global climate change is that we are all complicit in its existence. If our government is unwilling to take action, we can still do it ourselves. If every conscientious consumer committed to reducing their carbon footprint by 50% over the next four years, the scurrilous oil companies, laying their pipelines down over stolen tribal lands, would take a massive hit in profits to an extent that might make them more amenable to climate negotiation. Replacing traditional energy sources with solar and wind on an individual basis would also empower and strengthen green industries, making them more competitive and fostering additional defections from the fossil fuel giants and their political cronies.<br />
<br />
Many of us can take our action further into civil disobedience. Non-violent civil disobedience can result in misdemeanor arrest, so it's not for everyone. In my case, my self-employed job is secure and would likely be enhanced by such an outcome. Others are simply willing to put the interests of the greater good over their own interests. In any case, civil disobedience can be an effective tool in combating injustice in the system, particularly when significant numbers of people participate.<br />
<br />
On December 5th, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested and put in prison in Montgomery, Alabama for having the audacity to refuse to surrender her seat on a bus to a white woman. Her small act of civil disobedience launched a massive boycott of bus services and ultimately culminated in a Supreme Court ruling on the unconstitutionality of segregation laws. In our modern times, we are at risk of losing all the gains that have been made since then. Collectively, we can gather in large groups to impede access to County Clerks' offices, courthouses and places where marriage licenses are issued if any erosion of LGBTQ access to these services takes place. We can boycott any corporation, such as Walmart, that does not provide living wages to all its staff members. We can refuse to pay any federal or state income taxes if those governments attempt to rob us of the donations we have made to Medicare and Social Security. If women's reproductive rights are eroded, we can all stay home from work in order to demonstrate how important it is for women to be able to make their own life choices, including both work and family choices.<br />
<br />
Since the Civil Rights Movement, Americans have discovered social media, television, sports and other distractions that have kept us largely off the picket lines and in our living rooms. Perhaps it is no coincidence that little progress has been made in recent years towards fair wages for the working class, minority rights and other societal ills. Where gains have been made, such as for LGBTQ equality, such gains can be directly correlated to the concentrated, passionate and continuous civil actions taken by members of that community and their allies.<br />
<br />
Standing up to and undermining the wave of horrors that may await us will not be easy, but it is not impossible. Those who have been put in power represent a small minority of people residing in the United States, only 26% of eligible voters. We are the many and they are the few, and the many always have the power if they choose to exercise it. If we choose to stay home and stare at our televisions instead, then we will have nobody but ourselves to blame for the results.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iNhMsoHMGDw/WCY17-G6WsI/AAAAAAAAAhw/fzKYhj_pUPMGKfHbdwzCaxsD73Q1V8lKgCLcB/s1600/French_Cay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iNhMsoHMGDw/WCY17-G6WsI/AAAAAAAAAhw/fzKYhj_pUPMGKfHbdwzCaxsD73Q1V8lKgCLcB/s320/French_Cay.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-47957266855531496082016-10-06T14:07:00.001-04:002016-10-06T14:07:34.180-04:00White Privileged Bernie Supporters Need to Hold their Noses and Vote for Clinton<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton's, but I am going to vote for her anyway. I believe the Bill Clinton White House destroyed the liberal left in the United States. The first Clinton administration acted like a wolf in sheep's clothing, gutting social infrastructure, advancing the prison industrial complex to an unprecedented degree and masterminding the destructive global trade deals (WTO and NAFTA) that are systematically destroying national sovereignty, subsistence livelihoods and the environment across the globe. I don't like Hillary's military record, and her politics are too far to the right for me, although I am pleased to see that the Bernie pressure has moved them somewhat to the left. I despise her ties to Wall Street. I supported and voted for Bernie Sanders and believe that, in many ways, the oligarchy establishment prevented him from competing fairly in the primary election. I am angry about that, and I join the millions of people in this country who are not going to let Bernie's legacy die. Systemic change is necessary and inevitable. If this election year tells us anything, it is that the system is broken and that U.S. democracy is for all practical purposes extinct.<br />
<br />
I am also a person of privilege. I am white, educated and economically secure. I own my home. My children's college educations are mostly paid for. I have no idea what it feels like to be afraid of law enforcement. I have never been stopped by a police officer, unless a taillight on my car was out. I have never been held back in advancing myself due to racial or other forms of discrimination (although I have had to deal with several annoying womanizing sexists in my time). I am in a stable marriage, my child bearing years are over (surgically, if not biologically), and I am profitably, self-employed. Anybody would consider me to be a lucky person. As far as my quality of life is concerned, it doesn't really matter who wins the 2016 election. I will be fine.<br />
<br />
After the Democratic primaries were over, I was completely disgusted with the establishment, and I seriously considered not voting, voting for the Green candidate, doing a write-in or some other kind of protest vote. I rationalized that the establishment (and Hillary is about as establishment as you can get) will continue to win as long as we let them. The Democratic Party did not present me with a candidate who represents a majority of my values. I felt blackmailed because the only choice I had for President of the United States was between a war hawk and a fascist. One friend (Sarah) jokingly said, "This election we have two choices: we can vote for the Mafia or the Nazis." In other words, we can vote for the corrupt power status quo or something even more frightening.<br />
<br />
I had just about convinced myself that I was going to cast a protest vote, but then I decided to suspend my own self-interest and take an objective view at the political landscape. I can afford my own healthcare in whatever form it takes. Very few other Americans can say the same, especially minority and under-privileged women, who depend on programs, such as Planned Parenthood to get access to basic services, such as pap smears and birth control. A Donald Trump presidency would restrict healthcare access to such people even further. Clinton would not, and would attempt to expand accessible healthcare if she has a responsive Congress. There is a vacancy on the Supreme Court. At least two other Justices are likely to retire in the near future. The next president will decide if the Court will be primarily conservative or primarily liberal for many years to come. If Trump is president, the Court will undoubtedly be conservative. Clinton will ensure at least a moderate or left-leaning Court. The list goes on. In almost every way a president can have an effect on society, Trump will send U.S. policy back to the dark ages, while Clinton will, at worst, maintain the status quo.<br />
<br />
Voting for a third party candidate is a choice that privileged people can make. They can make their protest statement, and tell themselves that they have done a good deed. The under-privileged don't have such a luxury. For many of them, who will lose access to healthcare, lose food stamps, lose housing subsidies, etc., this election is really a choice between life and death. Vote third party, but have no delusions that while your life won't change, you may be destroying the lives of others in the process.<br />
<br />
Here is a picture of an otter in Alaska to make you smile (they will also be at risk from a Trump presidency):<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wgIMjofOwzA/V_aSDAIS3KI/AAAAAAAAAhc/FHDnvqMtFxwk0rYeEF3LZ8_A3ohKUjlrACLcB/s1600/IMG_0092_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wgIMjofOwzA/V_aSDAIS3KI/AAAAAAAAAhc/FHDnvqMtFxwk0rYeEF3LZ8_A3ohKUjlrACLcB/s320/IMG_0092_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-51328206524163285812016-08-03T15:47:00.000-04:002016-08-03T15:47:56.878-04:00Alaska - The Final American Frontier*<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
3<sup>rd</sup> August 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
March 24, 1989, 12:27 A.M.: “We’ve fetched up hard aground…evidently
we’re leaking some oil, and we’re going to be here for a while” – <span style="font-size: x-small;">Exxon Valdez
Captain Joseph Hazlewood to the U.S. Coastguard</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zk_KKHNei9s/V6JFqtZ6vuI/AAAAAAAAAgU/sNWYR9qrScc5vT7OFrvyxGDGUgGEbRKvQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0485_v2_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zk_KKHNei9s/V6JFqtZ6vuI/AAAAAAAAAgU/sNWYR9qrScc5vT7OFrvyxGDGUgGEbRKvQCLcB/s320/IMG_0485_v2_sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The end of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline at Valdez</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Alaska is known as America’s final frontier. A Google
search of the term “frontier” yields the following definition:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The extreme limit of settled land beyond which lies
wilderness…”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have spent the past couple of weeks traversing some of the
state of Alaska. I have wandered to the northernmost land within U.S. territory at Barrow, and I am currently waiting in Haines to take a ferry to Prince Rupert
in British Columbia, marking the end of my Alaska adventure. In between, I have
visited Fairbanks, Anchorage, Denali, Kenai, Coldfoot and Valdez, a fraction of
the largest state in the United States of America. I have seen vast areas of
wild lands, all of which have been impacted, to some degree, by humanity. We
are at a place in human history where a new definition of frontier is needed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_IIwgeqHR_I/V6JGFpIpCII/AAAAAAAAAgY/WpqPIZg1hvo-PPdRxDsfohnWqK5IJkqNACLcB/s1600/IMG_9983_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_IIwgeqHR_I/V6JGFpIpCII/AAAAAAAAAgY/WpqPIZg1hvo-PPdRxDsfohnWqK5IJkqNACLcB/s320/IMG_9983_sm.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Satellite dishes on the tundra at Barrow, the northernmost land in the United States</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My intention is not to denigrate the incomparable value of
Alaska’s natural areas. I have traveled across the globe, and I have never
before experienced such vast wild landscapes. Alaska has one of the most
commendable protected areas networks on Earth, with <a href="http://alaskaconservation.org/experience-alaska/alaskas-parks-refuges-communities/">104,000,000
acres put into conservation</a>, an area approximately the same size as the state
of California. Outside the two cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks and a few
scattered towns, most Alaskan land areas are unmarred by visible signs of human
development, as far as the eye can see. From the airplane window enroute from
Anchorage to Barrow, the never-ending vista of mountain, forest and tundra is
awe-inspiring.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_6KvhyZytk/V6JGXdKQxaI/AAAAAAAAAgg/Iyh1CpmqdzIf1H_jAZz6eFg--Uw8FKgHQCLcB/s1600/DSCN0160_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_6KvhyZytk/V6JGXdKQxaI/AAAAAAAAAgg/Iyh1CpmqdzIf1H_jAZz6eFg--Uw8FKgHQCLcB/s320/DSCN0160_sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wilderness in the Denali National Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Frontier was once the edge of civilization, beyond which the wilds
represented an unknown, untamed and unpredictable force. Nature no longer has any impenetrable boundaries. In Alaska, bowhead
whale populations in the far reaches of the Arctic Ocean were hunted for oil
and baleen to the brink of extinction. Sea otter populations were annihilated
for the sin of their luxurious fur, recovered, and then were decimated again by
the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oil rigs, in one of the most remote areas on earth,
supply at least 20% of the U.S. supply, pumping billions of gallons of crude 800
miles down a pipeline, across the Alaskan wilderness from Prudhoe Bay to
Valdez. During my visit to Barrow, no sea ice graced the Arctic seas. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tiT9S4z0f-8/V6JJYAdt1fI/AAAAAAAAAhI/pAl4LKT5hTc2i7rekFEBd31U-m3SczDdgCLcB/s1600/IMG_9938_v2_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tiT9S4z0f-8/V6JJYAdt1fI/AAAAAAAAAhI/pAl4LKT5hTc2i7rekFEBd31U-m3SczDdgCLcB/s320/IMG_9938_v2_sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An iceless Arctic Ocean at midnight in Barrow, Alaska</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On 24<sup>th</sup>
March 1989, just after midnight, the largest oil spill in history (at that
time), poured millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Alaska, killing
hundreds of thousands of seabirds and other wildlife. Crude oil can still be
detected in the sediments, and toxins are present in the tissues of sea animals
in the region, more than 28 years later.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D7aqWZq0sUU/V6JHRinQ5UI/AAAAAAAAAgs/IJy2q32UDAE-JXg573FNvcMW9n-1oyXRACLcB/s1600/IMG_0125_v2_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D7aqWZq0sUU/V6JHRinQ5UI/AAAAAAAAAgs/IJy2q32UDAE-JXg573FNvcMW9n-1oyXRACLcB/s320/IMG_0125_v2_sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seabirds feeding in the Gulf of Alaska</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Denali National Park is larger than the country of Wales.
The combined protected area, which includes the Wrengell-Saint Ellias National
Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Kluane National Park (Canada), represents
the largest internationally protected area on Earth. Within Alaska's protected
areas grizzly bears, moose, caribou, eagles, sea otters, bowhead whales and
thousands of other species of flora and fauna can recover from human impact,
thrive and live, for the most part, in accordance with their own natural
histories. Outside Alaska’s protected areas, even in apparent wilderness,
wildlife is rare. Alaska’s wilderness continues to exist because of man’s
consent, not in spite of it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_oWTfjsROoc/V6JHlxTEorI/AAAAAAAAAgw/yaC9ily11J0FR0L30lyJa_pNYg3on9azgCLcB/s1600/IMG_0092_v2_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_oWTfjsROoc/V6JHlxTEorI/AAAAAAAAAgw/yaC9ily11J0FR0L30lyJa_pNYg3on9azgCLcB/s320/IMG_0092_v2_sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sea otter in the Kenai Fjords National Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My brain is now attempting to process the overload of
stimuli it received during my Alaska experience. Over the next several days, I
will try to compile the data into succinct pieces and post them, based on each
location I visited.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f3Ap9doKYCc/V6JIBbiPOsI/AAAAAAAAAg4/CBeNKZPLFZQ8yw4PHhSX6yS12ryeeOV3ACLcB/s1600/IMG_0121_v2_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f3Ap9doKYCc/V6JIBbiPOsI/AAAAAAAAAg4/CBeNKZPLFZQ8yw4PHhSX6yS12ryeeOV3ACLcB/s320/IMG_0121_v2_sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Humpback whale and seabirds in the Kenai Fjords National Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-88886527554846409352016-07-21T21:46:00.003-04:002016-07-21T21:46:39.477-04:00Dawson City and the Top of the World - Thawing Rivers and Wildfires<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
19th and 20th July 2016<br />
<br />
Dawson City feels like the most remote city on Earth. To get there by road, one can travel 532 kilometers northwest from Whitehorse on YT2 or 298 miles northeast from Tok, Alaska on the Taylor Highway and then YT9 (a.k.a. "the Top of the World Highway"). Neither one of these options offers easy open highway. Both involve narrow, two-lane roads, with long areas of no pavement, some areas of pavement that have been dramatically altered by "frost heaves," no guardrails, soft shoulders, precipitous drops from the soft shoulders and many areas where roadworks are being undertaken. I drive to Dawson City from Whitehorse and from Dawson City to Tok, thus being able to take in the full perspective of access, for better and worse.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cf8ntyQ9D0U/V5FXk4upz3I/AAAAAAAAAeM/wTlrzIzkAgo-OEALoLnX5dEAzOGF1YZzQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9557_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cf8ntyQ9D0U/V5FXk4upz3I/AAAAAAAAAeM/wTlrzIzkAgo-OEALoLnX5dEAzOGF1YZzQCLcB/s320/IMG_9557_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Section of Yukon Highway 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One of my recurrent dreams (or nightmares) is driving along a deserted, narrow road, with no guardrails and precipitous drops. As I drive through the wilderness of Yukon and Alaska, I am hoping those dreams are just manifestations of sub-conscious fears of constraint, changes in life, loss of control, etc., rather than prophecy. I pass two accidents, which are statistically alarming, since I only pass about 20 other cars along the entire route. Police are on the scene (where did they come from?) The cars are mutilated beyond recovery. I hate to think about what happened to the people inside. I think this is what happens when you hit a moose at high speed. Arctic ground squirrels dart about and play Russian roulette on the road in front of my vehicle. Ravens clean up the losers. I drive slowly.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6aCkM-_80tA/V5FXvhwffNI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/zhbglS-kJgQ-KTux0YmdDNmUvRQkXSy5gCLcB/s1600/IMG_9534_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6aCkM-_80tA/V5FXvhwffNI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/zhbglS-kJgQ-KTux0YmdDNmUvRQkXSy5gCLcB/s320/IMG_9534_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Arctic Ground Squirrel - Too cute to squash</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The trip up YK2 takes much longer than anticipated for the above reasons, and I get in to Dawson City around 11:00 pm. It seems much earlier because the sun is still up. Given its proximity to the Arctic Circle, Dawson City enjoys about three hours of semi-darkness in the summer, with a similar amount of semi-lightness in the winter. I am glad to be here in the summer. The office to the roadside motel is closed, but this isn't a problem because they have left keys in all the doors for late arrivals. A helpful board on the door lets me know which rooms are available. "Help yourself and pay in the morning," it says. Isolation seems to have some benefits, trusting your neighbors being one of them.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JB7d21zMJUU/V5FiQdtyytI/AAAAAAAAAek/Y-1hF7w-Dkg_Dz4NMD3UgazFrECxDuZGgCLcB/s1600/IMG_9611_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JB7d21zMJUU/V5FiQdtyytI/AAAAAAAAAek/Y-1hF7w-Dkg_Dz4NMD3UgazFrECxDuZGgCLcB/s320/IMG_9611_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Modern Dawson City on the Yukon River</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I spend the following morning taking a tour around Dawson City. The town experienced its boom era more than a century ago, during the Klondike gold rush of the late 19th Century. The boom was brief, starting in 1896 and ending only a few years later in the early 1900's, as prospectors moved on to the next boom town. At its peak, Dawson City had a population of about 30,000 people. Today it has about 1,500. While some people made their fortunes during the Klondike gold rush. Most did not. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FlXQCUtvQEs/V5FpDZSUXdI/AAAAAAAAAe0/YxDVoCPcdF0qdI74o2VXb24XveEGMBQVwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9595_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FlXQCUtvQEs/V5FpDZSUXdI/AAAAAAAAAe0/YxDVoCPcdF0qdI74o2VXb24XveEGMBQVwCLcB/s320/IMG_9595_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main Street Dawson City</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"All Yukon belong to my papas. All Klondike belong my people. Long time all mine. Hills all mine, caribou all mine, moose all mine, rabbits all mine, gold all mine. White man come and take all my gold. Take millions, take more hundreds fifty millions, and blow ‘em in Seattle. Now Moosehide Injun want Christmas. Game is gone. White man kills all moose and caribou near Dawson... Moosehides hunt up Klondike, up Sixtymile, up Twentymile, but game is all gone. White man kill all" (Chief Isaac of the Tr'ochek Han, quoted in Dawson Daily News, 16th December 1911). Today, only two people speak the Han language fluently, and they are both in their 80's. The cost of gold is high.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9dwItzC6jMQ/V5FsdN8BR_I/AAAAAAAAAfA/gSDSk6UESOYdEnN9LqmD5AwUv6pMFgKQwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9583_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9dwItzC6jMQ/V5FsdN8BR_I/AAAAAAAAAfA/gSDSk6UESOYdEnN9LqmD5AwUv6pMFgKQwCLcB/s320/IMG_9583_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A casino and ravens in Dawson City</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
No bridge has been constructed across the Yukon, and the government of Canada provides a ferry service to take vehicles across the river from Dawson City to West Dawson during the summer months. During the fall, winter and spring, people can just drive their cars across the frozen river. The only time when it is not possible to cross the river is during the spring "break up" and the fall "freeze up." During these times, the approximately 200 people living in West Dawson, who even under normal conditions are "off the grid," are completely isolated. During break-up and freeze-up it is traditional for people in Dawson City to open their homes to the people of West Dawson. The process usually takes between three and six weeks. Spring break-up typically takes place during the first or second week of May. 2016 set a record, when the began to break up at 11:15 am on April 23rd. Someday soon a bridge may be required.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6qOSU_UlvkM/V5FuX_5Q1sI/AAAAAAAAAfM/aIbUBVPBMRo5tn_mZR1SmemaCGmfUoADwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9620_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6qOSU_UlvkM/V5FuX_5Q1sI/AAAAAAAAAfM/aIbUBVPBMRo5tn_mZR1SmemaCGmfUoADwCLcB/s320/IMG_9620_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of the Yukon River from my car window, as I cross from Dawson City to West Dawson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Top of the World Highway snakes along mountaintops across the distance between West Dawson and Tok, Alaska, crossing over the U.S. border along the way. Except for one small town (Chicken, Alaska), in approximately the middle of the distance, the area is practically devoid of human settlement, with the exception of a few small-scale gold mining operations along the way. From what I can tell, the population of Chicken is approximately 10, and the town consists of a gas station, gift shop and restaurant (where they serve excellent food, by the way).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TkYqEQKBA2w/V5FwE_vtpJI/AAAAAAAAAfY/sVl8lYKmdFUhfs0Wx_5MdkDUqS05hKYzwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9664_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TkYqEQKBA2w/V5FwE_vtpJI/AAAAAAAAAfY/sVl8lYKmdFUhfs0Wx_5MdkDUqS05hKYzwCLcB/s320/IMG_9664_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Like most small towns in these parts, Chicken started as a small gold mining outpost. Apparently, the original settlers wanted to name the town "Ptarmigan," but they couldn't spell the name of that particular species of fowl and so decided upon "Chicken" instead.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1OAoiAvl7go/V5FyG_ErfZI/AAAAAAAAAfk/RnQ1qa_X8h4DajaSSDN8ni5Gwyg2oAwFgCLcB/s1600/IMG_9625_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1OAoiAvl7go/V5FyG_ErfZI/AAAAAAAAAfk/RnQ1qa_X8h4DajaSSDN8ni5Gwyg2oAwFgCLcB/s320/IMG_9625_v2.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a Chicken, in Chicken Alaska</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If one manages to survive the pitfalls, the views from the Top of the World are spectacular. Dense forest cover at lower elevations gives way to herbaceous meadows above the tree line. The seemingly endless landscape of mountains and rivers is interrupted only by wildfire scars, which when functioning according to nature's laws, cleanse the earth of dead and diseased things and bring forth healthy new life. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WX6MUOFtOuc/V5F09hNq_WI/AAAAAAAAAfw/3cF0N-vL77seJrn9o_FvZ5HiHOAfPp_iQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9652_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WX6MUOFtOuc/V5F09hNq_WI/AAAAAAAAAfw/3cF0N-vL77seJrn9o_FvZ5HiHOAfPp_iQCLcB/s320/IMG_9652_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the Top of the World</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Fireweed is the official plant of Yukon. It is often the first plant to emerge from the ashes of forest fires and therefore symbolizes rebirth and renewal after adversity. I can think of no better symbol for this place.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ckCISLByUBg/V5F2LJF73PI/AAAAAAAAAf4/dC-UvK5jnn4Hsx4AYJdngCfbkCTPETJbgCLcB/s1600/IMG_9646_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ckCISLByUBg/V5F2LJF73PI/AAAAAAAAAf4/dC-UvK5jnn4Hsx4AYJdngCfbkCTPETJbgCLcB/s320/IMG_9646_v2.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fireweed at the Top of the World</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The next morning, I leave my campground at Tok and head for Fairbanks. After a short distance, I cross over the Robertson River Bridge, noticing as I cross a mother moose, leading her calf across the shallow river below. I stop on the bridge to watch (I can do this because there really is no traffic at all, and it's 6:00 am in the morning). While I am watching, a pickup truck pulls up next to me, heading in the opposite direction. An elderly Native American gentleman is inside the truck, motioning me to roll down my window. I do. He tells me with tears welling up in his eyes that the mother moose is teaching the calf how to swim and to cross the river. We both agree it is a beautiful sight it is to see.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ylg54EL2prM/V5F4FT_qKhI/AAAAAAAAAgE/2SpbgTmZlMAm5ybpU9o6-sFcnQtZsrMCQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9671_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ylg54EL2prM/V5F4FT_qKhI/AAAAAAAAAgE/2SpbgTmZlMAm5ybpU9o6-sFcnQtZsrMCQCLcB/s320/IMG_9671_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-23314185306922706022016-07-18T12:07:00.000-04:002016-07-18T12:07:27.802-04:00Whitehorse, Yukon - A Start to Healing?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
16th and 17th July 2016<br />
<br />
Canada's Yukon Territory is one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth. The land area, which stretches across 482,443 square kilometers, supports a human population of 37,566 (2015). The capital and most-populous city, Whitehorse, is tiny by city standards, with a population of 23,276 people (2015). The city's namesake, the Whitehorse rapids, once graced the Yukon river at this location, but the construction of the Whitehorse Rapids Generating Facility in 1958 forever erased them from the river's landscape. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2q-ScJybKk/V4zs2VMLctI/AAAAAAAAAdA/Jlh2tFSxLm4JjyoIHJgA-3ww6wQSXfu0ACLcB/s1600/DSCN0093_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2q-ScJybKk/V4zs2VMLctI/AAAAAAAAAdA/Jlh2tFSxLm4JjyoIHJgA-3ww6wQSXfu0ACLcB/s320/DSCN0093_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Given the small human population of the territory, one might expect that environmental impacts would be minimal here, and they do appear to be so. In spite of gold prospecting, copper mining, timber harvesting, etc., the ecology of the Yukon territory now thrives and continues to function much as it has since the end of the last ice age.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lHrsswKAQLo/V4zu6cfeGeI/AAAAAAAAAdM/Jn2_m21y9aok03XbA849DBK0kyx6SmqWQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9477.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lHrsswKAQLo/V4zu6cfeGeI/AAAAAAAAAdM/Jn2_m21y9aok03XbA849DBK0kyx6SmqWQCLcB/s320/IMG_9477.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
One might say that it's easy for Yukon to maintain environmental sustainably, with such a large resource base and such a small human population, and this is true to an extent. A too-large human population on Earth is at the heart of all environmental woes, but here we are, and this is the baseline we must contend with. Yukon is actively taking steps to heal the wounds of the past. Because of this, the area is one of few places on Earth where one can see that the current baseline is actually an improvement over recent previous ones. Yukon stands as an example that it is possible to work towards healing the planet, rather than continuing to harm it.<br />
<br />
The vast majority of Yukon's electrical power comes from renewable sources, including wind and hydroelectric, with only backup generation being provided by conventional fossil fuel combustion. Renewable energy, particularly hydroelectric, does not come without an environmental footprint. The damming of the Yukon River, and subsequent loss of Whitehorse's namesake also annihilated salmon spawning activities. These impacts were grave, but efforts are now being made to improve the impacted baseline. Fish weirs, ladders and screens have been installed to facilitate salmon migration, and the fish are returning, slowly. The measures taken are not perfect. The rapids will never return, but healing is taking place.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cZw_dKOdhwg/V4z4orNkdnI/AAAAAAAAAd4/33Hy_ng-TNE2j_OIeQsJ1ClLbRoTso8iACEw/s1600/DSCN0101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cZw_dKOdhwg/V4z4orNkdnI/AAAAAAAAAd4/33Hy_ng-TNE2j_OIeQsJ1ClLbRoTso8iACEw/s320/DSCN0101.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
From a town planning perspective, Whitehorse also represents an environmental best case scenario. The town is compact and walkable. Businesses are, for the most part, small and locally owned. Many resources that supply the population are sourced locally. For example, I was able to have fresh, locally grown salad greens at a restaurant for the first time in a couple thousand miles. Free plastic bags are also no longer available in stores. If you want a bag, you have to pay for it. Everything has a cost, and it is about time we start paying it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WnE3dhCFga8/V4z3fUha1qI/AAAAAAAAAdo/ReRgUDhM1c8KZLHcbrVAwFnEJcruBSOeACLcB/s1600/DSCN0123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WnE3dhCFga8/V4z3fUha1qI/AAAAAAAAAdo/ReRgUDhM1c8KZLHcbrVAwFnEJcruBSOeACLcB/s320/DSCN0123.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
On April 1, 2005, the Kwanlin Dun First Nation signed the "Final and Self-Governance Agreement with the Canadian government." The agreement gave back land areas to the original inhabitants of this space, in addition to providing some compensation. The Kwanlin Dun have now been able to reclaim their place on the Yukon River, which they call Chu Ninkwan. Their former way of life, just like the Whitehorse rapids, is probably gone forever, but they are now at last free to determine their own destiny on their own land.<br />
<br />
The Kwanlin Dun people believe that "all creatures have a conscious spirit, and when hunters show great respect and humility to these creatures, the animal spirits offer themselves in harvest." The universal truth of this belief has been ignored by Western cultures for centuries, with predictable results. We have taken from the Earth whatever we can get, without respect or humility. Consequently, the animal spirits and all other natural spirits have gone away. The Earth and her history move on in a perpetual state of flux. We cannot unwind history and undo the things that were done, but we can take steps to foster an environmental of healing, rather than an environment of harm. And then, by showing respect and humility, perhaps the spirits of the Earth, like the salmon, will return.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ztDyXvoTLHM/V4z1evfi7JI/AAAAAAAAAdc/NQKkorCFWGIZ0ggXO-0hED3dUwYca1zfACLcB/s1600/DSCN0107_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ztDyXvoTLHM/V4z1evfi7JI/AAAAAAAAAdc/NQKkorCFWGIZ0ggXO-0hED3dUwYca1zfACLcB/s320/DSCN0107_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-44307952883272369182016-07-16T11:22:00.000-04:002016-07-16T11:22:01.722-04:00Alaska Highway Mile 613 - Wilderness at last, and the last wilderness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
14th and 15th July 2016<br />
<br />
A few short miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, the seemingly never-ending patchwork of human altered landscapes finally gives way to wilderness. The road is the only anthropogenic structure as far as the eye can see, and as many as 100 kilometers of wild space stretch between small roadside towns, where one can possibly, although not definitely, get some gas.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OFBm4mcCEjU/V4o94mKEvdI/AAAAAAAAAbs/PKnd2EPxIf4SJSTx2Rc4CsQ1zNqsY7OIACLcB/s1600/IMG_9399_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OFBm4mcCEjU/V4o94mKEvdI/AAAAAAAAAbs/PKnd2EPxIf4SJSTx2Rc4CsQ1zNqsY7OIACLcB/s320/IMG_9399_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_740469657"></span><span id="goog_740469658"></span><br />
As soon as exploited land gives way to nature, the original inhabitants on the land begin to make an appearance. Over a few short miles, I see bears, mule deer, white-tailed deer, bald eagles, a porcupine, moose and bison.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-opjs706G98c/V4o_SI28_kI/AAAAAAAAAb0/B2yWGa82NpYw2xKY9Bi2AE2sbyj5FxZPwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9347_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-opjs706G98c/V4o_SI28_kI/AAAAAAAAAb0/B2yWGa82NpYw2xKY9Bi2AE2sbyj5FxZPwCLcB/s320/IMG_9347_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The oppressive sense of gloom and doom that has overshadowed much of my journey is erased, but my exultation at breathing in clean air and being able to feast my eyes on sweeping vistas of unspoiled natural beauty is accented by a trace of fear. I am traveling alone on a highway into the wilderness, with other humans few and far between. I am completely dependent on the reliability of my vehicle and the probability of available gasoline and food every 400 miles or so. The wilderness is awesome, in the true sense of the word, but it is filled with myriad beasts that could effortlessly render me into prime rib and chops. I have a sense that, in spite of the feelings of unbounded mental and physical freedom the wilderness inspires, I do not belong here. I am completely and utterly helpless. My tools for survival in this wild reality are pathetically limited. I have a bit of knowledge of herbal lore and a can of bear spray.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fXHOxYCPHbM/V4pCF8l_dYI/AAAAAAAAAcA/YokkFm5ueRAZEF010Gpy66tgmGgpPd1AQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9409.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fXHOxYCPHbM/V4pCF8l_dYI/AAAAAAAAAcA/YokkFm5ueRAZEF010Gpy66tgmGgpPd1AQCLcB/s320/IMG_9409.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
My religious views in no way trend towards the conventional, but I am still a product of Judeo-Christian culture. For thousands of years, most of the people from which I have descended have been driven by a purported divine mandate to, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing
that moves upon the earth.’ (Gen.1:28)." I realize now that the Biblical creed to control nature must have originally arisen from fear: fear of the unknown, fear of not having control, fear of death. Nature is the antagonist for all these human frailties.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-geE9i8V3WX0/V4pGu7jzGyI/AAAAAAAAAcM/GRzB9RhbI_MC4J2AgBWRCWy1PwtCbfHOwCEw/s1600/IMG_9373_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-geE9i8V3WX0/V4pGu7jzGyI/AAAAAAAAAcM/GRzB9RhbI_MC4J2AgBWRCWy1PwtCbfHOwCEw/s320/IMG_9373_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Western Civilization's earliest known written myth, <i>The Epic of Gilgamesh,</i> tells the tale of a legendary hero. Gilgamesh tames a wild man, clear-cuts forests, vanquishes lions and dams a great river, among several other feats of subordinating nature, but he fails to escape his own mortality. Gilgamesh ultimately learns that the cycle of birth and mortality is unavoidable and that humans are better served by enjoying the gifts that life has to offer, rather than trying to escape death. Unfortunately, we have failed to heed Gilgamesh's advice and are futilely still engaged in attempting to avoid our own mortality via the control of nature.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0urchHV39Kk/V4pIhd0dFuI/AAAAAAAAAcY/roNcse15Pt4f1nK1OicskKcQPwN9guecACLcB/s1600/IMG_9447_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0urchHV39Kk/V4pIhd0dFuI/AAAAAAAAAcY/roNcse15Pt4f1nK1OicskKcQPwN9guecACLcB/s320/IMG_9447_v2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
Other cultures managed to avoid the Judeo-Christian solution to the fear of mortality. I understand now why early settlers to the Americas fiercely clung to religious extremism when they arrived here. Native Americans, lived within the wilderness, rather than apart from it. Such an attitude towards nature was entirely unknown to the Puritans. Such humans would have seemed like wild animals, or "savages" to a people who had been imprinted from time immemorial, on the necessity of subduing nature and then praying to an unseen god for immortal salvation. Faced with brutal natural reality and a complete inability to cope in the wilderness, the Puritans clung desperately to their dogma. They are the forebears of North America's current baseline.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-svk4-IuYDjk/V4pKxiiDHCI/AAAAAAAAAck/wCZQoVO2zLsovAU7Tl4fS7judw4e2fZYACLcB/s1600/IMG_9473_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-svk4-IuYDjk/V4pKxiiDHCI/AAAAAAAAAck/wCZQoVO2zLsovAU7Tl4fS7judw4e2fZYACLcB/s320/IMG_9473_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
An informational sign along the highway advises that the vast wilderness I am passing through is actually a protected, albeit "managed" natural resource, meaning that when humans feel the need for the fossil fuels, lumber and other minerals found here, they will take them. The wilderness cannot be seen to be left to its own devices. The reality I am coming to terms with is that there is no true wilderness left on Earth. I mourn for the loss of what could have been. My four-times grandmother was a Mohawk. I wonder what this place would be like the ideologies of her and her kin had succeeded in the clash of cultures that took place here centuries ago. Unfortunately, we will never know the answer to this. Instead, the humans of Earth, like myself, are now destined to separateness, a separation, which ironically leads not to immortality, but to death.</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SAw2sWLPSDI/V4pNuCeQ5cI/AAAAAAAAAcw/jSFOjC9LekkUNLNkiW6lEIaJmYZASmqcwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9361_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SAw2sWLPSDI/V4pNuCeQ5cI/AAAAAAAAAcw/jSFOjC9LekkUNLNkiW6lEIaJmYZASmqcwCLcB/s320/IMG_9361_v2.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fossilized Dinosaur Footprints at Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-57827249611705696392016-07-14T10:26:00.000-04:002016-07-14T10:26:06.515-04:00Alaska Highway Mile Zero - The Truth About Truth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
12- 14th July 2016<br />
<br />
I have arrived at mile zero of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. This morning marks what I hope will be a journey of wonderful wild places and endless, unspoiled landscapes, punctuated only by herds of wild beasts. I was hoping to get a bit of wilderness therapy to help me recover from the experience of Fort McMurray, but alas, all I have seen is yet another 500 miles or so of canola, interspersed with a patch of secondary growth forest here and there, and a wetland or two. I have seen two prairie dogs (very cute), a couple of dead skunks, three deer, some American coots, a lot of mallards and a plethora of red-winged blackbirds. The canola fields and forest fragments doesn't seem to be providing good habitat for much of anything except canola and cows.<br />
<br />
There have been some highlights. I stopped by the Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park Boreal Center for Bird Conservation. The Center is a lovely sliver of boreal forest surrounding Lesser Slave Lake, which serves as a wildlife corridor for migrating birds. I met some of the researchers working there and talked to them while they were tagging some individual birds they had caught that morning in nets. Some of the birds they were tagging, American redstart, ovenbird, black and white warbler, magnolia warbler and others, are actually winter stop-over visitors and winter residents in the Turks and Caicos. I am awed by these little birds that, weighing less than a pencil, fly all the way from Canada to the Turks and Caicos and beyond every single year. My journey in a Toyota Highlander has been taxing, and I have not traveled as far. I also have the benefit of stopping at grocery stores every few days for supplies. The tiny warblers have no such luxury. Instead, the grocery stores they depend on during their journeys, wetlands, forests, prairies, etc., are being systematically wiped out. The global population of migratory birds is dropping precipitously. I cannot help but admire the tenacity and perseverance of the survivors. The persist largely due to the ever-shrinking small patchwork of protected habitats that remain, such as the Boreal Center for Bird Conservation.<br />
<br />
The natural landscape has failed to capture my attention, but the human landscape along this leg of my journey has been interesting. Suncor offices (the purveyors of tar sands) at Fort McMurray are powered by solar panels. The entire building and parking lot are covered in them. At the grocery store at Fort McMurray, I must buy or use a reusable bag. Plastic bags have been eliminated. Billboards on the side of the road advise, "water is precious, please use it wisely" (tar sand extraction requires three barrels of water for every barrel of oil extracted). The elephant in that room is enormous. Leaving Fort McMurray, I pass a car on the road that has two bumper stickers. One says, "the only truth is Jesus." The other says, "only the truth will set you free." At Kinusayo Museum on Slave Lake, I have an in-depth discussion with a beautiful young Cree woman, who talks to me about missionary residential schools (some were better than others), lost culture and a lack of good-paying jobs. A taxidermist in the same town (not a native), while surrounded by carcasses of wolves, bears, wolverines, and other slaughtered noble beasts, tells me that "the tar sands aren't bad like everybody makes out," that "solar panels bankrupt every place they are installed," and "that Muslim President in the U.S. is to blame..." (for something. I had tuned out at that point).<br />
<br />
I have been plagued by feelings of unreality since I left Fort McMurray. Perhaps I am detoxifying as the brimstone and hell fire are being metabolized within my tissues. However, I think it is because I have come to realize everybody is living in their own state of unreality, which for the most part, they assume to be truth. The unabashed truth of Fort McMurray has knocked me from my contented delusions. Truth is an elusive elixir, the objective nature of which we can not ever entirely know. Religions depend on people accepting their dogmas as truth, with minimal supporting evidence. Economic and political theories work in much the same way. For example, universal suffrage has now brought us Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Free market capitalism has given us the world we have today, environmentally bankrupt and excessively unequal. Gospels from "gods of love" promote genocide. When any of the above logical contradictions are pointed out, we are told that we simply don't understand the higher workings of gods, economies, etc.<br />
<br />
Science is perhaps the only belief system that at least acknowledges that it doesn't actually know the truth. Instead, science observes phenomena, quantifies it and then applies levels of probability to hypotheses about the phenomena. The more times a phenomenon is observed behaving in a predictable fashion, the more reliably we can regard it as "truth," although we can never be entirely sure. For example, it appears that the sun revolves around the Earth. We now know that this is probably not the case. When Galileo delivered reliable evidence to this effect, he was charged as a heretic and forced to live out his golden years as a prisoner. His more statistically reliable truth did not square with the doctrines of those in power.<br />
<br />
We currently have a lot of scientifically probably realities that compete with the doctrines of the powerful. Human activities have led to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/29/earth-lost-50-wildlife-in-40-years-wwf">the loss of 50% of Earth's wildlife in the past 40 years.</a> The combustion and extraction of fossil fuels is increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, causing global climate change. The great cultural and physical genocides of the past cannot be undone by forcing Western economic doctrines on the victims. Hunting wild animals for trophies (rather than for need) in a world where wildlife is disappearing is morally repugnant. Hillary Clinton makes contradictory statements and appears to like military action. Donald Trump is a terrible business man, a racist and a misogynist and would make a terrible President. This is the world we live in, and more of the same will bring us more of the same. Jesus has failed to materialize, and the ship is going down.<br />
<br />
I don't want to live in a world dominated by humans, cows, chickens, pigs, canola, rats and cockroaches (not that I have anything against any of those species, although I will be happy if I never see a canola field again), but this is the trajectory we are on. The only way to escape the trajectory is to challenge the dogmas that people and institutions hold as truth, and remember always: the truth about truth is that what you think is the truth is not the truth. Now to hopefully spend some time among the moose. I have had enough of human civilization.<br />
<br />
<i>Sorry. Slow internet. No pictures today. Future days will bring beautiful photos. I hope.</i></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-62786078811614489552016-07-12T11:38:00.002-04:002016-07-12T11:38:58.472-04:00The Alberta Tar Sands - Ground Zero for Western Civilization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
10<sup>th</sup> and 11<sup>th</sup> July 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I now know what it is like to enter a disaster zone. On
approach to Fort McMurray, Alberta, roadside signs advise that mental healthcare is available. Roadworks
are underway to patch rearranged asphalt on the highway. Blackened
sticks line the highway where boreal forests once stood. A roadside sign
advertises a Denny’s, but only a pile of white ash exists where a restaurant once stood. The
air stinks of what I presume is the stench of melted buildings, melted plastic, blended with some other, undefinable bitter smells. The air feels toxic.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pZ6M4YoColw/V4Tuv9eyQQI/AAAAAAAAAaI/6ZvOq_s1wJ0VbErZDucbtCt2Ox9qfP1VACLcB/s1600/IMG_9245_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pZ6M4YoColw/V4Tuv9eyQQI/AAAAAAAAAaI/6ZvOq_s1wJ0VbErZDucbtCt2Ox9qfP1VACLcB/s320/IMG_9245_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On 3rd May 2016, Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada experienced a catastrophe when a wildfire swept through the town, razing ten percent of the
town’s structures and forcing residents to flee. Insured damages are
estimated to be the most costly in Canadian history. The firefighters who saved what remains of the city are now grappling with a host of health concerns that mimic those of 9/11 first responders. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gz2UZZrThJE/V4Tz7eZp7uI/AAAAAAAAAaY/qLEcQ5i2Dlglo_ZMJAbsdQ9m8o9k-1oawCLcB/s1600/IMG_9227_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gz2UZZrThJE/V4Tz7eZp7uI/AAAAAAAAAaY/qLEcQ5i2Dlglo_ZMJAbsdQ9m8o9k-1oawCLcB/s320/IMG_9227_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am beset with a confusion of thoughts and emotions in this place. The fire was undoubtedly an abject tragedy, but another layer of desperation taints the gloaming. The streets are lined with buildings that, apart from the stains of smoke, shine with synthetic newness. Whatever authentic history that may exist here is indiscernible, buried under a gleaming, artificial facade. Perfect modern playgrounds are scattered liberally across the town, but they are eerily quiet, empty of the happy chatter and stampede of little feet. I have never seen so many liquor stores. There is at least one on every street, sometimes two. Head shops, strip clubs and adult video stores accent the scene. Desolation is not new to this town. Fort McMurray lost its soul before fire ever torched its landscape. This is ground zero for the mining of the Alberta tar sands.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZES35XkIWPA/V4UG8quNdvI/AAAAAAAAAbE/mVJMSZFAmsc6VCSnRSzgABVDvKNQdxOhwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9275_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZES35XkIWPA/V4UG8quNdvI/AAAAAAAAAbE/mVJMSZFAmsc6VCSnRSzgABVDvKNQdxOhwCLcB/s320/IMG_9275_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
The oil industry prefers to call tar sands, "oil" sands, but the thick, black, smelly, viscous material that coats each grain of sand in the ground bears little resemblance to oil. Just as the glossy exterior of the town belies its misery. Whitewashing the name of the substance being mined does not alter its reality. Fort McMurray enjoys the highest median family income in Canada, a whopping $186,782 per year. Most of the people who live here have come to work in the tar sand industry. They have come to make money and leave. They don't want to be here. They have no connection to the place. They are only interested in selling themselves for a short time, with the hope of economic salvation in the future. If any place is a testament to the fact that money does not buy happiness, it is this place.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are people who are of this place, who have been here since time immemorial. Cree, Chipewyan and Dene-zaa (and recently Metis) settled here thousands of years ago, living off a biological abundance sourced from the majestic Athabasca river, endless square miles of boreal forest and fecund wetlands and fresh, clean air. These First Nations shared beliefs that all natural phenomena are animated, that all living things are equal and that it is the human's responsibility to ensure balance and harmony with nature. Alongside this culture, the natural environment of the Athabasca watershed thrived and flourished for millennia. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFeRr52c9dI/V4UDdPze2rI/AAAAAAAAAa8/A0CyVfLXoKoVLSI_YE-Ysx0vqnPm-PVUwCKgB/s1600/IMG_9240_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFeRr52c9dI/V4UDdPze2rI/AAAAAAAAAa8/A0CyVfLXoKoVLSI_YE-Ysx0vqnPm-PVUwCKgB/s320/IMG_9240_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Within less than a century, everything they believe in has been ruthlessly destroyed. Forests, redefined as "overburden," have been rendered into matchsticks. The toxic brine of mine tailings are leaching slowly into the Athabasca, turning it into a river of death (they give me bottled water at the front desk of my hotel and warn me not to drink the water). Refineries belch out noxious smoke that saturates everything with the smell of melted plastic and other undefinable bitter smells. The fire is not to blame for the toxic miasma that surrounds the city. Everything the First Nation people value has been rendered into dollars and ashes. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LAIwjYBzVuc/V4UHSkFHYaI/AAAAAAAAAbM/vLETCceQWmgF8h5jdgRrTQuS_iHDhKAZQCKgB/s1600/IMG_9261_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LAIwjYBzVuc/V4UHSkFHYaI/AAAAAAAAAbM/vLETCceQWmgF8h5jdgRrTQuS_iHDhKAZQCKgB/s320/IMG_9261_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EmPKpwL-bHU/V4UHRD7fqjI/AAAAAAAAAbI/s195eXQ23KgNW-MkKEzmMJ5oZ_Hdbs5ygCKgB/s1600/IMG_9252_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EmPKpwL-bHU/V4UHRD7fqjI/AAAAAAAAAbI/s195eXQ23KgNW-MkKEzmMJ5oZ_Hdbs5ygCKgB/s320/IMG_9252_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suncor and Syncrude are the companies actively mining the tar sands. They are making billions of dollars squeezing figurative blood out of stones. In a video presentation given at the Oil Sands Discovery Center, a commentator tells us that "oil means wealth." Apparently, tar sand deposits cover an area the size of the state of Florida. The abject devastation of Fort McMurray is only the beginning of more ecological destruction and "wealth" to come. Suncor and Syncrude are profiting enormously from the devastation, but they do not bear the full blame for this ecological and human disaster. Fort McMurry is the sacrificial lamb on the altar of western civilization's worship of dollars and oil. This is the cost of our cars, our too many clothes that we never wear, our plastic bags, knives, forks, cups and spoons that we carelessly toss away, our HD televisions, iPhones, and all the other things we crave that don't really add up to anything and certainly don't make us healthy or happy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fire seems like foreshadowing in a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy. We are all tragic heroes chasing the false idols of fulfillment that only exacerbate our own demise. Like all tragic heroes, it appears that we will only realize our folly when it is too late, when the trajectory of global climate change is unalterable and Earth becomes a living hell. Perhaps the human religious concept of Hell is, after all, our most apt literary creation. We are all sinners, but many innocents will be joining us in the eternal inferno. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am fleeing to wilderness today. I feel like a canary being let out of a coal mine. The smell of tar sand, heavy in my hair and on my skin, makes me feel like I have been infused with toxicity. I long to breathe fresh air and take in vistas of unspoiled landscapes, but I will not be able to escape the taint of this experience within myself. I am driving a car across the reality of North America after all, belching out climate changing chemicals as I go. We are all complicit. We are all tainted with the stench of tar sands. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-69642965533211326952016-07-10T09:14:00.000-04:002016-07-10T09:16:05.496-04:00Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Agriculture and the Lies Humanity Tells Itself<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
9 July 2016<br />
<br />
In the past couple of days, I have passed from temperate forests to boreal forests to prairies, shifting with earth's latitudes and precipitation rates. The temperate and boreal forests have, for the most part, been logged, but many are regenerating with secondary growth. I drove 500 miles today across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and I am still looking for an unfragmented piece of natural prairie. Check out Google Earth of the area to get an idea of what it looks like. Rapeseed, wheat and cattle fields make a patchwork blanket on the landscape that stretches on and on and on...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9c0asq42XrI/V4Iz90JejTI/AAAAAAAAAYs/XA_wmXOZbiQre-mrLbPnRLdWsfY1Rd4aQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9c0asq42XrI/V4Iz90JejTI/AAAAAAAAAYs/XA_wmXOZbiQre-mrLbPnRLdWsfY1Rd4aQCLcB/s320/IMG_9191.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
In the 1960s, rapeseed was a crop grown almost exclusively for local consumption in Canada. In 1986, Canada had approximately 6.5 million acres of rapeseed under production. In 2015, the number of acres under production was almost 20 million. In 2015, Canada exported more than 10.6 million tonnes of <a href="http://www.canolacouncil.org/markets-stats/statistics/">rapeseed oil, meal and seed</a>. Rapeseed oil production is such a significant agricultural commodity in Canada that they went ahead and changed the name to "Canada oil" or "canola" for short. The transition from prairie to cropland has been great for Canada's economy, with canola bringing in billions of dollars in foreign exchange annually. I am trying to imagine why the earth needs so much canola oil. How is it used? How much is going to the production of potato chips and Cheetos, and how much is actually going to supporting healthful nutrition for the population of the planet? My guess is that much of it ends up in cellophane bags on the shelves of convenience stores.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-djnahqd2EOY/V4I-quN_bFI/AAAAAAAAAY8/KihP-Sw5TJoAtyaB2FfohfNUhYlBfpA1wCLcB/s1600/IMG_9161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-djnahqd2EOY/V4I-quN_bFI/AAAAAAAAAY8/KihP-Sw5TJoAtyaB2FfohfNUhYlBfpA1wCLcB/s320/IMG_9161.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
As prairies have been converted to electronic and paper dollars, something of real value has been lost. Temperate grasslands are among the most endangered habitats on earth. In North America, the loss of these habitats has resulted in significant <a href="file:///C:/Users/kw/Downloads/Koper_N._and_F._K._A._Schmiegelow._A_mul20160130-21915-2ospxa.pdf">population declines</a> of at least fifty percent of all prairie bird species. The birds are just an indicator of everything else that has been lost: frogs, salamanders, wildflowers, carbon, natural history, cultural identity, aesthetics, the list goes on and on.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WydgHY1TfC0/V4I_BJ7f-PI/AAAAAAAAAZA/mXnVEMK3BsQKSSiUuesl9V3WxHgf9urVQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9165.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WydgHY1TfC0/V4I_BJ7f-PI/AAAAAAAAAZA/mXnVEMK3BsQKSSiUuesl9V3WxHgf9urVQCLcB/s320/IMG_9165.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
As I am driving, I am listening to <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468152857&sr=8-1&keywords=Sapiens">Sapiens</a></i> by Yuval Noah Harari (what a great name). In this book, Harari objectively describes the anthropological history of humankind. In doing so, he challenges all of the anthropocentric, arrogant and misguided beliefs we humans cling to. In particular, he talks about the human inventions of money and agriculture and the mythologies surrounding them.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bmoJTWwclUc/V4JA8o0l8SI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/RadNq5zlmvkm9POJAxVotZMnX9iuwv7ngCLcB/s1600/IMG_9168.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bmoJTWwclUc/V4JA8o0l8SI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/RadNq5zlmvkm9POJAxVotZMnX9iuwv7ngCLcB/s320/IMG_9168.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Money evolved as a means of exchange for practical purposes. If I have a lot of apples and I want a pair of shoes, the shoe maker may not want any apples, so we need a common form of currency that we both recognize as valid. This is a practical and important use of money. Unfortunately, money has taken on a life of its own. The people of the world are now driven to earn it, accumulate it and spend their entire productive adult lives in its pursuit. It has become the cornerstone of modern existence. In and of itself, money actually has no real value. It is paper, coin and electronic bytes of data. Worthless and meaningless stuff. It is only our belief in it that gives it value. Shoes, wildflowers, birds, salamanders and apples have value. Money doesn't.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ANY4hwWRuZs/V4JCGcsGLgI/AAAAAAAAAZc/qMb990gmSLwH3rsM5FX7T_NOEsawqxPuwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9151.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ANY4hwWRuZs/V4JCGcsGLgI/AAAAAAAAAZc/qMb990gmSLwH3rsM5FX7T_NOEsawqxPuwCLcB/s320/IMG_9151.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Agriculture is another myth. We are told in our history classes that it was this human invention that lifted primitive man from the terrible toil of hunting and gathering into the age of enlightenment. In fact, neolithic hunter gatherers were far healthier, enjoyed shorter working hours and led far more enriched lives than their agricultural counterparts. Even modern hunter gatherers (where Western cultural values have not invaded) work only a few hours per day, enjoy rich and varied lives and strong communities. The myth that they die young is also just a myth. If infant mortality is taken out of the equation, on average they have longer, healthier lives than most people living in the industrialized world (think Bangladesh, India and similar countries, where the majority of the world's population lives, not Canada or Finland). The main problem with hunting and gathering is that there is a small environmental carrying capacity for this kind of lifestyle, and the world now has too many humans for it to be a feasible option anymore. We must come up with alternative solutions.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-auKQlHrV7ng/V4JD-CiaNKI/AAAAAAAAAZs/xChgW-G01O8LK382v1ppHgVd8CpDc1-8ACLcB/s1600/IMG_9202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-auKQlHrV7ng/V4JD-CiaNKI/AAAAAAAAAZs/xChgW-G01O8LK382v1ppHgVd8CpDc1-8ACLcB/s320/IMG_9202.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Fortunately, such solutions do exist. We can limit agricultural production to crops that actually feed people, rather than subsidizing and encouraging monoculture commodity crops, such as corn, canola, wheat, etc. We can reduce meat consumption, thereby reducing the need for livestock feed. We can use permaculture, growing soil enriching species, such as legumes, side-by-side with other crops to avoid the need for fertilizers. Permaculture also mimics natural habitats, which in turn supports wildlife. We can eat seasonally appropriate food. We can eat locally. We can grow our own food. We can employ farmers, rather than machines and chemicals, thus boosting the economy for everybody, not just for multinational corporations. This is one environmental area where there actually is significant hope and feasibility. We can foster a paradigm shift back to things of real value and away from the worship of modern man's false idol, money. The birds and the wildflowers can return, and the world can be a healthier place for all species, including humans.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_E_cU8mxEG0/V4JFiI_fkaI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/mSFU1JjkaIMIidLp0uoP-sGKcqVV6vu0wCLcB/s1600/IMG_9198.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_E_cU8mxEG0/V4JFiI_fkaI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/mSFU1JjkaIMIidLp0uoP-sGKcqVV6vu0wCLcB/s320/IMG_9198.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-24570435220433215402016-07-09T10:29:00.000-04:002016-07-09T10:29:32.284-04:00The North American Upper Midwest and Human Altered Landscapes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
July 7<sup>th</sup> – 8<sup>th</sup> 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My home is in a place where humans have lived lightly upon
the land throughout the country’s existence. Apart from minimal slash and burn
activities to support subsistence agriculture, the primordial terrestrial and
wetland ecosystems of the Caicos Islands, within the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI),
have been left largely intact. The same is true of the marine ecosystems of
TCI, which were used only for small-scale artisanal fisheries for much of the
country’s history. Such circumstances are a rarity in the world. Sadly, in the
past few decades, TCI has undergone rapid development. Ancient, biodiverse
tropical dry forests are being clear-cut to make way for large scale hotel and
tourism developments, wetlands are being dredged and filled to accommodate
marinas and housing developments, once-pristine coral reefs are being subjected
to pollutants, boat strikes and the effects of global climate change, and fisheries
are being over-exploited at a commercial-scale that benefits only a few
individuals. In spite of this, much of the original landscape remains intact…for
now. My hope and prayer for TCI is that it comes to realize the priceless value
of its natural environment before it is too late, and TCI’s natural environment
joins that of much of the rest of the world in becoming largely human-altered.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EuaK4Gk0e_8/V4EIBFQln4I/AAAAAAAAAYI/yGpq1BwSgv4QQqe3seJQwHihT9Mgp8nEwCLcB/s1600/East_Caicos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EuaK4Gk0e_8/V4EIBFQln4I/AAAAAAAAAYI/yGpq1BwSgv4QQqe3seJQwHihT9Mgp8nEwCLcB/s320/East_Caicos.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Intact but threatened coral reefs in Turks and Caicos</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During my travels, I have now passed across 2,000 miles of
human-altered landscapes. I have explored forests in Kentucky, Michigan and
Minnesota, all secondary growth (with a few, small exceptions) and now trying
to recover from a brutal deforestation that completely altered the baseline of
almost the entirety of the northeastern US and Canadian ecosystems. I have
inspected aquatic habitats, subjected to industrial pollution, sedimentation,
overfishing and other effects, which are now also struggling to recover their
previous baselines, possible in a large part to the Clean Water Act.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many areas continue to be subjected to devastation or are living
within a destructive legacy that is currently irreversible. The people of
Kentucky have inadvertently traded clean mountain water for jobs, arsenic and
heavy metal-laced, poisonous water and a ruined landscape. The people of Flint
have been subjected to the contaminants of a legacy of on-going industrial
pollution. The people of Manitoba and the upper Midwestern U.S. have traded
forests and prairies teeming with wildlife for endless fields of genetically
modified crops. The enormity of the scale of the human alteration of the North
American landscape is mind boggling and cannot fully be appreciated without
passing through it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dS35Tg8cmcs/V4EIZfWh5NI/AAAAAAAAAYM/jjYmodP5nJMXAGsAfeEDImB7VA6UqqChgCLcB/s1600/IMG_9158_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dS35Tg8cmcs/V4EIZfWh5NI/AAAAAAAAAYM/jjYmodP5nJMXAGsAfeEDImB7VA6UqqChgCLcB/s320/IMG_9158_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Impossibly yellow genetically modified rapeseed in Manitoba</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During my journey, I stopped briefly at Voyageurs National
Park. Contained within the park’s boundaries are countless islands, floating in
large expanses of freshwater lakes. The area was once heavily hunted for the
fur trade and logged. Now, wildlife, such as river otter, beaver, timber wolf,
snowshoe hare, moose and others are returning to this small refuge. The forests
are regenerating. The night I camped on Kabetogama Lake, I heard wolves howling
in the distance. The sound inspired a nascent rejoicing in my soul.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JiWgGDcQ5gE/V4EIo3cLlXI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/4NelbPkJETIMOBsy11TJwdaK3N__RoPZwCLcB/s1600/DSCN0016_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JiWgGDcQ5gE/V4EIo3cLlXI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/4NelbPkJETIMOBsy11TJwdaK3N__RoPZwCLcB/s320/DSCN0016_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Voyageurs National Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I set off in the morning to resume my journey, I passed
through International Falls, a town adjacent to Voyageurs and built around a
massive Boise paper mill and smaller particle board manufacturing plants. The
plants belch out foul exhaust into air and God knows what into the headwaters
feeding into the National Park. The wood pulp for the industry is sourced from
surrounding secondary growth forests, and so a perpetual cycle of slow recovery
and devastation continues. This is the cost of toilet paper and American dream
homes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q3PzwE2yXqI/V4EI-qxUamI/AAAAAAAAAYY/0XTRX4Ce258HKhVO2EjSyJYWLDg8AQHSgCLcB/s1600/IMG_9130_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q3PzwE2yXqI/V4EI-qxUamI/AAAAAAAAAYY/0XTRX4Ce258HKhVO2EjSyJYWLDg8AQHSgCLcB/s320/IMG_9130_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boise Paper in International Falls</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">Other ways do exist. American family homes have
doubled in size since the 1950s, while at the same time, family sizes have
approximately halved. A single income was once enough to sustain a household. Now
everybody works. Work hours are longer. Families are disintegrating. Everybody
is miserable. So much for the American dream. I would trade a McMansion for the
joy of listening to the songs of wolves any day.</span></div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-32606415445574980822016-07-07T11:29:00.000-04:002016-07-09T10:31:21.666-04:00Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the Ironies of Tourism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
6 July 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a complex landscape, where
environmental, social and economic factors converge, creating a sense of
surrealism. Surrounded on three sides by Great Lakes Huron, Michigan and
Superior. It feels like an island in a vast ocean, rather than a finger of land
protruding into freshwater lakes. Towering sand dunes, long stretches of
white-sand beaches and crystal-clear waters rival some of the finer Caribbean
destinations, and on the sunny day I was there, the shores were crawling with happy
beach goers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9e2yPbJI7R8/V35ymJ-a2TI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/__B6o6Iy2Q8umZZ7FLlz7Y54eOElFrt3gCLcB/s1600/IMG_9117.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9e2yPbJI7R8/V35ymJ-a2TI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/__B6o6Iy2Q8umZZ7FLlz7Y54eOElFrt3gCLcB/s320/IMG_9117.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because of the crowds, I was surprised to find numerous boarded-up
roadside motels and other small businesses, as I drove across the peninsula.
One would think that with such a beautiful vacation paradise, right on the
doorstep of Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario, that tourism-related businesses
would be pulsing with economic vitality. I speculate about two possible causes:
1) tourists are notoriously fickle, with improved air routes to more exotic
locations, they have simply taken their tourism dollars elsewhere, and/or 2)
the economic downturn in the surrounding areas due to losses of manufacturing
jobs (see: <a href="http://killingmother.blogspot.com/2016/07/michigan-flint-and-rust_4.html">http://killingmother.blogspot.com/2016/07/michigan-flint-and-rust_4.html</a>)
has resulted in people in the area no longer having the funds for any kind of
vacation, even one close by. Perhaps somebody who lives in the area can weigh
in on this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6uuIMuC3Ahc/V35y5WS-YgI/AAAAAAAAAXU/0KdeDRWfrak8dwrV3R0pxyRV_9XjhDjwwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9105.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6uuIMuC3Ahc/V35y5WS-YgI/AAAAAAAAAXU/0KdeDRWfrak8dwrV3R0pxyRV_9XjhDjwwCLcB/s320/IMG_9105.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In either case, one of the great ironies of tourism is that
in most cases, tourism development actual despoils the thing that attracts
tourism in the first place. As the 1970’s pop band the Eagles once noted, “call
someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye.” The Upper Peninsula’s apparent tourism
recession has inadvertently saved the character and natural beauty of the
place. While one wishes that sufficient economic opportunity exists for an area’s
residents, one also hopes that such opportunity will take place without
threatening the ecological treasures that coexist there. Few examples of this
fragile balance exist in the world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-57EmVhphhio/V35zF9QA1pI/AAAAAAAAAXY/D99XqyJFMgMMrRUAtfbJXyuo3R9YhXL5ACLcB/s1600/IMG_9029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-57EmVhphhio/V35zF9QA1pI/AAAAAAAAAXY/D99XqyJFMgMMrRUAtfbJXyuo3R9YhXL5ACLcB/s320/IMG_9029.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the Upper Peninsula, as soon as one ventures a short
distance from the beach in any direction, nature takes over. Mixed forest types
extend out in every direction, interrupted only by expansive wetlands and small
pockets of human populations in tiny towns. The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/piro/index.htm">Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore</a>
encompasses more than twenty linear miles of uninterrupted shorefront, with
spectacular cliffs, pebble beaches, sandy shorelines with backdrops of temperate
rain forest (maybe it just seemed like rain forest on the day I was there). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QXUnzubEq9A/V35zfkRe-DI/AAAAAAAAAXg/2H-KhKYckGkLzyJdF9GFQHq7__zmKF5MACLcB/s1600/IMG_9102.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QXUnzubEq9A/V35zfkRe-DI/AAAAAAAAAXg/2H-KhKYckGkLzyJdF9GFQHq7__zmKF5MACLcB/s320/IMG_9102.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <a href="http://www.exploringthenorth.com/seney/seney.html">Seney National Wildlife Refuge</a> is a vast wetland area
resplendent with trumpeter swans, Canada geese, loons, belted kingfishers and
myriad other waterfowl. The wildflowers within the refuge are also spectacular.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ci9F2F4FziY/V35z8fMKNwI/AAAAAAAAAXo/VWQ72vKzFIg6o3EJhOzjdbYM4tm2bWnOQCLcB/s1600/IMG_9047.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ci9F2F4FziY/V35z8fMKNwI/AAAAAAAAAXo/VWQ72vKzFIg6o3EJhOzjdbYM4tm2bWnOQCLcB/s320/IMG_9047.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rJCLEe3ag_E/V350BH3P54I/AAAAAAAAAXs/JnIU8x2Ude4ocNCt2iyT2nXbCnA695BCwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9059.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rJCLEe3ag_E/V350BH3P54I/AAAAAAAAAXs/JnIU8x2Ude4ocNCt2iyT2nXbCnA695BCwCLcB/s320/IMG_9059.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The small businesses that do exist along the roadsides are
worth visiting. Intimate diners with friendly proprietors, gas stations with now-archaic gas pumps and
country stores, stocked with basic supplies are about all you will find here. But the dollars you spend will go straight into a a real person's pocket, rather than padding a corporation's share price. There are no Walmarts, McDonalds, etc. to be found, and that’s a good thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1JfJ3QGkCs/V350S62NkVI/AAAAAAAAAX0/UIH86joVtbIifRj1xYhRFGIsdH1rrbXPwCLcB/s1600/IMG_9082.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1JfJ3QGkCs/V350S62NkVI/AAAAAAAAAX0/UIH86joVtbIifRj1xYhRFGIsdH1rrbXPwCLcB/s320/IMG_9082.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-26379593897080256332016-07-07T07:03:00.005-04:002016-07-07T07:05:29.591-04:00Kirtland's Warblers and Other Natural Surprises<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
5 July 2016 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michigan is a state of contrasts. Venturing from south to
north, post-industrial gloom gives way to sweeping vistas of rolling hills and
forests. Like most other areas in the eastern United States, Michigan’s forests
were logged relentlessly, although isolated pockets of old growth are still
found. At the Hartwick Pines State Park near Grayling, a mosaic of old and new
growth forests converges to create a haven for biodiversity. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KOKKG1r8ios/V342TeucQ9I/AAAAAAAAAW0/75ismUOh1pgFwYQgkU0Wlq5JBhOKkYycQCLcB/s1600/IMG_8984_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KOKKG1r8ios/V342TeucQ9I/AAAAAAAAAW0/75ismUOh1pgFwYQgkU0Wlq5JBhOKkYycQCLcB/s320/IMG_8984_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I set out early in the morning with the intention of seeing
Kirtland’s warblers in their summer breeding range. The warbler, like many
other organisms, is finding it difficult to survive in the modern world. For
one thing, it nests on the ground, which makes it highly susceptible to
predation. In order to compensate for this, the warbler choses nesting sites
only in areas of jack pine forest that have openings in the tree canopies. The
openings allow light to shine on the forest floor, encouraging low-lying pine
branches to remain leafy. The leaves then hide the vulnerable nests, or so the
theory goes. The warbler’s highly specialized nesting behavior has been
exacerbated by land clearance, logging and development, resulting in fewer and
fewer suitable habitats. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkNAPXiVBUI/V342Lr9rdxI/AAAAAAAAAWw/buYP6n8wH6IFcu93Xh1nduHvrVLoWvkxQCKgB/s1600/IMG_8981_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkNAPXiVBUI/V342Lr9rdxI/AAAAAAAAAWw/buYP6n8wH6IFcu93Xh1nduHvrVLoWvkxQCKgB/s320/IMG_8981_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition to these setbacks, the Kirtland’s warbler is
also migratory, spending its summers in the jack pine forests of Michigan and
Wisconsin and its winters in the Bahamas and (marginally) in the Turks and
Caicos Islands. Development and land clearance in those areas also threatens
the birds. Given all of the above, the United States has placed Kirtland’s
warbler on the Endangered Species List and the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the international authority on rare, threatened
and endangered species, has listed the warbler as Near Threatened. Like many
creatures, the warbler needs an intact natural world to thrive.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IRw3pFZuRG8/V342CkXIg6I/AAAAAAAAAXA/QwtRgcnBRPk0vUdmWex21ZXsDndpUy5cwCKgB/s1600/IMG_8968_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IRw3pFZuRG8/V342CkXIg6I/AAAAAAAAAXA/QwtRgcnBRPk0vUdmWex21ZXsDndpUy5cwCKgB/s320/IMG_8968_v2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my naiveté, and being one who has had great successes in
the past in finding rare and endangered species, I entered Hartwick Pines this
morning fully expecting to see Kirtland’s warblers. I did not. I did hear one
or two (it may have been the same bird), but I did not see any. Initially, I
was disappointed by my failed conquest, but then I switched my focus from what
I wasn’t seeing to what I was seeing. Old-growth coniferous forests of cedar,
white pine and Eastern hemlock blotted out the sun in some areas, creating a
barren forest floor, spongy with centuries of fallen needles. I have never seen
white pines so large and tall, and the smell of terpenes and other volatile
conifer scents in the air was too delicious to be described. A riot of bird
song, made it almost impossible to pick out the individual singers, a pileated
woodpecker, a drumming ruffed grouse, a hermit thrush, a veery, chickadees
galore. Black squirrels!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pVHLnPUU89U/V341_ZmDs1I/AAAAAAAAAXA/xumD_V9R49oUCcFTR6tHshYGfu3rES22wCKgB/s1600/IMG_8974_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pVHLnPUU89U/V341_ZmDs1I/AAAAAAAAAXA/xumD_V9R49oUCcFTR6tHshYGfu3rES22wCKgB/s320/IMG_8974_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Profusions of wildflowers erupted wherever light penetrated,
along trails, windfalls and roadways, calling hordes of insects to partake of
their nectar. And then, a surprise visit from a juvenile white-tailed deer that
came to investigate, as I was stooping to take a picture of a sulfur butterfly
on a milkweed. The fawn was alone and entirely unafraid. A magical moment.
Today I went looking for something and found something better. I found nature,
rebounding exuberantly from an earlier onslaught of human destructiveness. This gives me hope.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hBG5uGnIZFA/V342Wv1Ea6I/AAAAAAAAAW4/a-MbkS5Z7Cw6nk6xgQWTqkwZ4h4DHZYSwCKgB/s1600/IMG_8995_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hBG5uGnIZFA/V342Wv1Ea6I/AAAAAAAAAW4/a-MbkS5Z7Cw6nk6xgQWTqkwZ4h4DHZYSwCKgB/s320/IMG_8995_v2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1vPduZ20dhA/V342YCabgiI/AAAAAAAAAW8/FAce0nsGZg8ooqImzclXi3z5sJN4eSfoQCKgB/s1600/IMG_8999_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1vPduZ20dhA/V342YCabgiI/AAAAAAAAAW8/FAce0nsGZg8ooqImzclXi3z5sJN4eSfoQCKgB/s320/IMG_8999_v2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-82021978315693785242016-07-04T21:21:00.002-04:002016-07-10T23:19:45.859-04:00Michigan - Flint and Rust<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
4 July 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today was mostly a travel day, moving from near Columbus, OH
to Roscommon, MI. Unable to find a campground last night, I pulled exhausted
into a Walmart parking lot late, where I noticed a number of other voyagers
doing the same. That night I dreamed that I woke up in the morning and was
served free muffins and coffee by Walmart staff. In my dream, I was thinking <i>This is very humanitarian of Walmart. Maybe
I have misjudged them.</i> Alas, I had not. It was but a dream of a better
world. Walmart doesn’t even pay the majority of their employees a living wage.
They are certainly not going to be passing out coffee to the vagabonds that camp
in their parking lots. Walmart does what psychopathic corporate entities always
do – maximizing profits for shareholders and expanding to perpetually increase
stock values at any human or environmental cost, with the US and global political
systems enabling the pathology.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not coincidentally, I passed through what is known as the “Rust
Belt” today, an area once fat with adequate-paying, unionized manufacturing
jobs, now left to rust as U.S. manufacturing has largely moved overseas to lands
of cheap labor and legalized human rights violations. Perhaps no place
demonstrates the consequences of this shift more than Flint, Michigan, hometown
of Michael Moore and location of the recent infamous mass-poisoning of residents
via contaminated drinking water.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flint is also the manufacturing home of General Motors, a
company that received a $12.5 billion bailout from the federal government, an
investment, which the government now contends it lost approximately $11.2
billion on (paid for by human taxpayers).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AxCQ0dhpF9g/V318j0fIMDI/AAAAAAAAAWM/2SZ9GHwKpkwklw2KGw79WkbSEYORpqNuwCLcB/s1600/IMG_8942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AxCQ0dhpF9g/V318j0fIMDI/AAAAAAAAAWM/2SZ9GHwKpkwklw2KGw79WkbSEYORpqNuwCLcB/s320/IMG_8942.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The GM Plant in Flint</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
These seeming random factoids about Flint, Michigan are
actually related. Following FDR’s New Deal, the U.S. Government ushered in an
era of unprecedented and virtually universal human well-being. These gains have
all but evaporated, as a government that used to exist to enhance the welfare
of humans, now seems to exist to benefit only corporations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read Michael Moore’s piece on how it all comes to a head in
Flint here:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://michaelmoore.com/10FactsOnFlint/">http://michaelmoore.com/10FactsOnFlint/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a nutshell, a conservative Michigan government
drastically reduced taxes on corporations. In order to pay for those
reductions, the MI government reduced and/or eliminated public benefits, such
as maintenance of infrastructure. One of the costs that was cut was Flint’s
public water supply, which had previously been supplied by Lake Huron, via the
City of Detroit. Now Flint’s water is supplied by the Flint River, a heavily
polluted waterway. This move generated $15 million in savings, which Governor
Rick Snyder was then able to apply to corporate tax breaks. Perhaps not
ironically, as soon as the switch was made, General Motors started having
problems at the plant. Apparently the Flint River water was corroding car parts.
A corporation with a problem is no problem for the government. GM was given
their own clean Lake Huron water supply, paid for by the tax payers at a cost of
$440,000, while the citizens of Flint continued to be slowly poisoned. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A drive through Downtown Flint reveals a history of a
once-thriving metropolis, now crumbling from neglect. The streets are in severe
need of paving, shopfronts are boarded up, and legal services seem to be the
main industry. The only buildings that appear to have escaped decline are
churches. Despair is great business for religion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i1-8H3-WBso/V318vc6fI2I/AAAAAAAAAWQ/0gA4GFSANMse0hvbOdbsp1RNF5AIhYsVACKgB/s1600/IMG_8945_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i1-8H3-WBso/V318vc6fI2I/AAAAAAAAAWQ/0gA4GFSANMse0hvbOdbsp1RNF5AIhYsVACKgB/s320/IMG_8945_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LTz3Lwxv5Is/V31836qPSII/AAAAAAAAAWY/zxk7cYPA2CAuTh_xnF6D3QYUwZ1hj5dIQCKgB/s1600/IMG_8949_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LTz3Lwxv5Is/V31836qPSII/AAAAAAAAAWY/zxk7cYPA2CAuTh_xnF6D3QYUwZ1hj5dIQCKgB/s320/IMG_8949_v2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is estimated that it will cost $1.5 billion
dollars to sort out the problems with Flint’s water supply. The human tax
payers will foot the bill, while corporations will likely receive more
subsidies and tax breaks. The permanent damages done to Flint’s children can
never be undone. It doesn't have to be this way. Tax dollars invested in rebuilding infrastructure can generate jobs and rehabilitate communities. Carbon taxes and other forms of revenue can be used to retool defunct factories for the production of sustainable energy alternatives, providing even more jobs and literally empowering communities. The possibilities for positive change are endless when human lives and environmental integrity take priority over the interests of inanimate corporate entities. Happy Birthday America.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ht_1WUETQx4/V3182_DE2cI/AAAAAAAAAWU/OnspO42nKnAOADSppNamj4sn9iBRUZqawCKgB/s1600/IMG_8948_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ht_1WUETQx4/V3182_DE2cI/AAAAAAAAAWU/OnspO42nKnAOADSppNamj4sn9iBRUZqawCKgB/s320/IMG_8948_v2.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flint's Crumbling Infrastructure</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-68271970127327259022016-07-04T21:21:00.001-04:002016-07-04T21:24:11.825-04:00Michigan - Flint and Rust<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
4 July 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today was mostly a travel day, moving from near Columbus, OH
to Roscommon, MI. Unable to find a campground last night, I pulled exhausted
into a Walmart parking lot late, where I noticed a number of other voyagers
doing the same. That night I dreamed that I woke up in the morning and was
served free muffins and coffee by Walmart staff. In my dream, I was thinking <i>This is very humanitarian of Walmart. Maybe
I have misjudged them.</i> Alas, I had not. It was but a dream of a better
world. Walmart doesn’t even pay the majority of their employees a living wage.
They are certainly not going to be passing out coffee to the vagabonds that camp
in their parking lots. Walmart does what psychopathic corporate entities always
do – maximizing profits for shareholders and expanding to perpetually increase
stock values at any human or environmental cost, with the US and global political
systems enabling the pathology.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not coincidentally, I passed through what is known as the “Rust
Belt” today, an area once fat with adequate-paying, unionized manufacturing
jobs, now left to rust as U.S. manufacturing has largely moved overseas to lands
of cheap labor and legalized human rights violations. Perhaps no place
demonstrates the consequences of this shift more than Flint, Michigan, hometown
of Michael Moore and location of the recent infamous mass-poisoning of residents
via contaminated drinking water.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flint is also the manufacturing home of General Motors, a
company that received a $12.5 billion bailout from the federal government, an
investment, which the government now contends it lost approximately $11.2
billion on (paid for by human taxpayers).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These seeming random factoids about Flint, Michigan are
actually related. Following FDR’s New Deal, the U.S. Government ushered in an
era of unprecedented and virtually universal human well-being. These gains have
all but evaporated, as a government that used to exist to enhance the welfare
of humans, now seems to exist to benefit only corporations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read Michael Moore’s piece on how it all comes to a head in
Flint here:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://michaelmoore.com/10FactsOnFlint/">http://michaelmoore.com/10FactsOnFlint/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a nutshell, a conservative Michigan government
drastically reduced taxes on corporations. In order to pay for those
reductions, the MI government reduced and/or eliminated public benefits, such
as maintenance of infrastructure. One of the costs that was cut was Flint’s
public water supply, which had previously been supplied by Lake Huron, via the
City of Detroit. Now Flint’s water is supplied by the Flint River, a heavily
polluted waterway. This move generated $15 million in savings, which Governor
Rick Snyder was then able to apply to corporate tax breaks. Perhaps not
ironically, as soon as the switch was made, General Motors started having
problems at the plant. Apparently the Flint River water was corroding car parts.
A corporation with a problem is no problem for the government. GM was given
their own clean Lake Huron water supply, paid for by the tax payers at a cost of
$440,000, while the citizens of Flint continued to be slowly poisoned. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A drive through Downtown Flint reveals a history of a
once-thriving metropolis, now crumbling from neglect. The streets are in severe
need of paving, shopfronts are boarded up, and legal services seem to be the
main industry. The only buildings that appear to have escaped decline are
churches. Despair is great business for religion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is estimated that it will cost $1.5 billion
dollars to sort out the problems with Flint’s water supply. The human tax
payers will foot the bill, while corporations will likely receive more
subsidies and tax breaks. The permanent damages done to Flint’s children can
never be undone. It doesn't have to be this way. Tax dollars invested in rebuilding infrastructure can generate jobs and rehabilitate communities. Carbon taxes and other forms of revenue can be used to retool defunct factories for the production of sustainable energy alternatives, providing even more jobs and literally empowering communities. The possibilities for positive change are endless when human lives and environmental integrity take priority over the interests of inanimate corporate entities. Happy Birthday America.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Slow internet connection tonight. I will edit with photos when I get a better connection).</span></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-32490333665977331722016-07-04T06:46:00.001-04:002016-07-04T06:46:12.030-04:00The North American Baseline Assessment - Kentucky and Coal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today started early, as I dropped hubby off at the Asheville
airport at 6:00 am and then continued north on I 26 to begin my North American
adventure. I drove north through Tennessee and the western tip of Virginia,
entering Kentucky at its southeastern boundary. My intention was to first visit
the Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve, in order to get a glimpse of the area’s
natural landscape, before heading off to see decapitated mountains.
Unfortunately, the topless mountains are visible as soon as you enter the state
of Kentucky from the southeast.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X3SHxjnUU5k/V3o7GCWqSkI/AAAAAAAAAVg/4WL8u4tY0r8c2OsWDAFg5XKf6ZYSbh5gwCLcB/s1600/IMG_8895.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X3SHxjnUU5k/V3o7GCWqSkI/AAAAAAAAAVg/4WL8u4tY0r8c2OsWDAFg5XKf6ZYSbh5gwCLcB/s320/IMG_8895.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Eastern Kentucky is depressed and depressing. The drive up
US Highway 23, provides a sharp contrast to my own relatively affluent state of
North Carolina. Rather than high-end shopping venues, featuring Macy’s, Best
Buy and an occasional Whole Foods, eastern Kentucky’s street fronts are decorated
with dilapidated, largely abandoned businesses. Occasionally a low-cost grocery,
check cashing service or asthma treatment center will appear. Gas stations are
few and far between. Trailers are the dominant type of abode. It is Fourth of
July weekend, but nobody is out and about.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A5h2lQT9MBs/V3o8QYX3MKI/AAAAAAAAAWA/AJR_aHmx118AXyOOq2NEjKpI8B8UZjKTQCKgB/s1600/IMG_8900.CR2" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A5h2lQT9MBs/V3o8QYX3MKI/AAAAAAAAAWA/AJR_aHmx118AXyOOq2NEjKpI8B8UZjKTQCKgB/s320/IMG_8900.CR2" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I pass a number of now defunct coal mines, the machinery
rusting in the elements, and I pass a few operational strip mines. The coined
term to describe this, “mountain top removal,” is not apt, for it doesn’t seem
to be just the tops that are being removed, at least at the mines I observe.
Instead, the whole mountain is being excavated, not from the top down, but from
the sides inward, in terraced strips. All vegetation is removed, and then large
areas of the mountainsides are strategically blown up. As I drive past, I am
warned by signs to turn off my cell phone. Are the gasses being released by the
explosions that volatile? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QlieF4gCFyA/V3o70fi78jI/AAAAAAAAAV8/CTRN4aHAOEsYH3KaRvhlAtUCWPjEtZqQACKgB/s1600/IMG_8910.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QlieF4gCFyA/V3o70fi78jI/AAAAAAAAAV8/CTRN4aHAOEsYH3KaRvhlAtUCWPjEtZqQACKgB/s320/IMG_8910.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: left;">The blown up mountains are an eyesore and a localized
ecological catastrophe, but the effect of strip mining operations on adjacent
rivers is even worse. Pathetic attempts to control runoff of sediments into the
waterways are made with flimsy (and failing) erosion control devices. The river
water is opaque, and in some places, pea soup green with eutrophication. Given
the state of human populations in this state, all this devastation would appear
to have been of little benefit to most of the people who must now deal with the
consequences.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bb77zl-rzZI/V3o8J0Gc-6I/AAAAAAAAAWA/pSJ1Gpy5pDQBOt0cfJHErJ18ZSExC_HWgCKgB/s1600/IMG_8936.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bb77zl-rzZI/V3o8J0Gc-6I/AAAAAAAAAWA/pSJ1Gpy5pDQBOt0cfJHErJ18ZSExC_HWgCKgB/s320/IMG_8936.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In spite of localized devastation, one is struck by the far
greater areas where the landscape is uninterrupted and intact. The forests of Kentucky
and all of Southern Appalachia are known as a biodiversity hotspot, meaning
that they are key areas of biodiversity, in addition to being at risk. In
particular, Southern Appalachia is home to an extraordinary variety of small
mammals and amphibians. All of which are threatened from a variety of causes,
including, but not limited to, the introduction of alien invasive species and
(of course) climate change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve is the largest “old
growth” forest in the state of Kentucky, although its old growth portion
measures only 2,350 acres. The forest type is known as “mixed mesophytic,” and
the entire Southern Appalachian Mountains once boasted blankets of this forest
type. During past couple of centuries, the old growth forests, dominated by
towering specimens of American chestnut, were vigorously logged, leaving only a
few fragments of old growth in hard to access areas. In addition to ecological
impacts caused due to logging, the American chestnut trees that once served as
keystone species in the forests, were wiped out by an invasive blight that was
introduced inadvertently into the United States on Chinese chestnut trees. The logging, coupled with the blight, resulted
in a significant ecological restructuring, and the animals that depended on the
chestnuts for their survival, either adapted or perished. The black bear, changed
its primary food source from chestnuts to acorns, but since acorns are not as
abundant or nutritious as the chestnuts once were, black bear populations
suffered significant declines. As the bear is also a keystone species, numerous
other tropic cascades also likely transpired as a result of its decline. The
end result is a forest today that probably bears little resemblance to the
ancient forests of Southern Appalachia, regardless of its “old growth.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nevertheless the forest is still an enchanting place. Towering
Eastern Hemlock and beech trees dominate, underfoot is a spongy thicket of
centuries of decayed biomass. Wild ginger, ladies’ slipper and sarsaparilla form
tangled masses of shiny green on the forest floor. A variety of warblers
serenade each other in the treetops. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-901bm33U8H0/V3o78LlkCDI/AAAAAAAAAWA/uAA5C6Dwz0Ma5fUFhLvxYOTeza-cCpsewCKgB/s1600/IMG_8920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-901bm33U8H0/V3o78LlkCDI/AAAAAAAAAWA/uAA5C6Dwz0Ma5fUFhLvxYOTeza-cCpsewCKgB/s320/IMG_8920.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">All is not lost in Kentucky. In fact, a majority
of the eastern portion of the state is still forested and breathtakingly
beautiful. It is desperation that enslaves the people of this state and their
natural environment to the coal industry. They and their environment are left
broken, while the riches of the destruction line the pockets of wealthy
industrialists. How can this vicious cycle be ended? </span></span></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-28661537023544633692016-06-10T14:29:00.002-04:002016-07-02T08:01:26.334-04:00The Great North American Mid-life Baseline Assessment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
North America and I have reached mid-life. My doctor tells
me that at 52, I am actually not in mid-life, but old, and I suppose the same
is true for the United States and to a lesser extent, Canada. We have enjoyed
the exuberance and productivity of youth, fueled by abundant energy. We reached
our peak, thinking it would last, but now decline seems unavoidable and
inevitable. I have spent the past thirty years navigating a miasma of
motherhood, marriage, work and most-recently, higher education, every day an
endless stream of things to do, people to nurture, deadlines to meet and
expectations to fulfill. I can’t remember what it feels like not to have
something to do for someone else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tIWZhn8RlU0/V1sESlvkK7I/AAAAAAAAAU0/J-WV55c5RRE0Czd4DLJkf1CfWxwlFcetQCLcB/s1600/tar_sands_ex_-37-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tIWZhn8RlU0/V1sESlvkK7I/AAAAAAAAAU0/J-WV55c5RRE0Czd4DLJkf1CfWxwlFcetQCLcB/s320/tar_sands_ex_-37-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Canadian Tar Sands*</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wouldn’t trade away a day of time from those thirty years.
I have amazing adult children, a rewarding and satisfying career and a usually
understanding and loving husband. I love my life. I do, however, feel a bit
unanchored as I face the future. The kids are grown and independent. I have
“arrived” at where I want to be professionally. For years I have been defined
by my role, “mother,” “wife,” or by the work that I do, “environmental
scientist.” I have been categorized and placed in the convenient cubby holes of others’
and my own creation. I am having trouble seeing beyond the confines, now that
the boundaries are no longer relevant. Like stepping outside on a bright day
after sitting in the dark, the unconstrained light is overwhelming and blinding.
Who am I? What am I doing? Where am I going? Out of confines, the answers to
these questions are not as clear as they once seemed to be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hiV-tz-xnkI/V1sEZ5hMC8I/AAAAAAAAAU8/DCTzhpFeYiUVyEwcsg-ebD5u0nE40mGOgCLcB/s1600/wideimage_StevenKazlowski_ocean_polarbear500tall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="107" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hiV-tz-xnkI/V1sEZ5hMC8I/AAAAAAAAAU8/DCTzhpFeYiUVyEwcsg-ebD5u0nE40mGOgCLcB/s320/wideimage_StevenKazlowski_ocean_polarbear500tall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
North America is at a similar crossroads, propelled forward over a few generations to exceptional economic growth and world
domination via the exploitation of fossilized hydrocarbons sequestered within
the Earth, or “fossil fuels.” Our use of fossil fuels has facilitated
unprecedented growth and advancement, and it has increased carbon dioxide
levels in the atmosphere from about 280 ppt, prior to the Industrial Revolution,
to over 400 ppt today. Readily accessible crude is gone. We are now squeezing
tar out of rocks and sand, pulverizing the bedrock of the planet and removing
mountaintops to get at the precious hydrocarbon elixir upon which our
prosperity was built. The capitalist economic reach is globalized, and very
real thresholds of extinction, global climate change and potential
environmental collapse are visible on the not too distant horizon.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nKsZZ3R1D20/V1sEeziWBQI/AAAAAAAAAVE/SSekrodQ9kYJQy8lVuK7L2mTq1H-FqwTACLcB/s1600/ovec_mtr12_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nKsZZ3R1D20/V1sEeziWBQI/AAAAAAAAAVE/SSekrodQ9kYJQy8lVuK7L2mTq1H-FqwTACLcB/s320/ovec_mtr12_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mountain Top Removal*</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2015 was the hottest year ever recorded. Such a statistic
would not be significant on its own, but it occurs in a context where the
sixteen hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998 (<a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201513">https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201513</a>).
In other words, sixteen of the past eighteen years have all been record-breakers.
Skeptics will suggest that warming periods have occurred throughout Earth’s
history and that the current pattern of consistently hotter and hotter years is
a natural trend (note this is a departure from the skeptics’ previous complete
denial that the planet is even warming).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fragments of fact can be found in all fiction. Earth has
been hotter and colder during its 4.5 billion-year history, but has never
before, as far as we can measure, become this hot, this fast. We also know that
Earth’s heating and cooling patterns are significantly correlated to
concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. During Earth’s hottest era
(the Eocene), carbon dioxide concentrations were as high as 1,000 – 2,000 parts
per thousand (ppt). During Earth’s coldest era, during the last glacial ice
age, carbon dioxide levels were around 200 ppt (<a href="http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/07/11/what-geology-has-to-say-about-global-warming/">http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/07/11/what-geology-has-to-say-about-global-warming/</a>).
At the current rate of increase, atmospheric carbon dioxide will measure 780
ppt before 2050, a level believed to be a threshold at which Antarctica melts. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jEgh15izgs0/V1sElD9xj-I/AAAAAAAAAVM/c0HMJEr3lUovowwbXz_Dv5H0JzqXuLUEQCLcB/s1600/Northern-Lights-Winter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jEgh15izgs0/V1sElD9xj-I/AAAAAAAAAVM/c0HMJEr3lUovowwbXz_Dv5H0JzqXuLUEQCLcB/s320/Northern-Lights-Winter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The cornerstone of environmental evaluation is called a
baseline assessment. Before the effects of human activities can be predicted,
one must know the starting point or baseline. The baseline is not necessarily
pristine, for one must also know where to begin before one can heal what is
broken. A baseline can be perfect and whole or utterly devastated, but it
represents an untarnished truth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a couple of weeks, I will leave behind the orderly world
of work, school, motherhood and marriage and head on a journey across North America
from Asheville, North Carolina to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Along the way, I will
conduct a personal and environmental baseline assessment. I plan to take in as
many realities as I can, from ghost bears in British Columbia to
tar sands in Alberta. I will contrast topless mountains in Kentucky to the
Northern Canadian and Alaskan wilderness. Fracking fields and northern lights
are also on the itinerary. I will read a lot of books, sleep in a tent (or the
car in grizzly and polar bear country), listen to my thoughts, write, take
photos and do a lot of hiking along the way. At the end of my journey, I will know the truth of things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
p.s. I am open to ideas for places to visit, travel tips,
good yoga studios, how to offset my carbon footprint and anything else that
might be deemed significant. Let me know.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*I poached all images from Google searches. They are not my own. </div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-70883931033287970932016-05-30T09:44:00.001-04:002016-07-02T08:03:02.172-04:00Suffer the Children<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In his epic new work <i>Half-Earth</i>, renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson opens with the most poignant description of humanity I have ever seen:<br />
<br />
<i>Storyteller, mythmaker and destroyer of the living world. Thinking with a gabble of reason, emotion and religion. Lucky accident of primate evolution during the late Pleistocene. Mind of the biosphere. Magnificent in imaginative power and exploratory drive, yet yearning to be more master than steward of a declining planet. Born with the capacity to survive and evolve forever, able to render the biosphere eternal also. Yet arrogant, reckless, lethally predisposed to favor self, tribe and short-term futures. Obsequious to imagined higher beings, contemptuous toward lower forms of life.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dWpRPJPSnoo/V0w_m5WSiEI/AAAAAAAAAUk/2EVjMnLZLvkCJd4oXoA310NozLXpYP1mwCLcB/s1600/IMG_1096.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dWpRPJPSnoo/V0w_m5WSiEI/AAAAAAAAAUk/2EVjMnLZLvkCJd4oXoA310NozLXpYP1mwCLcB/s320/IMG_1096.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
Our brilliant, maniacal, misguided species is now caught in the downward spiral of a sixth extinction of our own making. Legend has it that Emperor Nero played a fiddle while Rome burned, and so it goes with empire and emperors. While we fiddle away, the earth is burning. Concurrently, a majority of Americans obsess in front of the television about this year's election cycle and the tragically predictable narcissist candidate who perfectly mirrors the worst of humanity and American culture. Meanwhile, the country's newest batch of voters genuinely engages about the smoldering future we are handing them.<br />
<br />
My children are called "Millennials," often disdainfully with regard to their political views. They are seen as a rambunctious rabble of anarchists intent on undermining the establishment, for better or worse. It is true that the older we get, the more set in our ways we get. The "older and wiser" set look to "stability" and maintaining the status-quo, although those two terms are no longer mutually inclusive. We have the luxury of complacency, as we live off the fat proceeds of a raped Earth. My children, the Millennials, do not. We have tried to be good parents, but in our scramble to make money and achieve the good life for ourselves and our progeny, we overlooked the most important requirement of life. An organism needs an intact habitat within which to live. We raised our young to think critically, act globally and challenge assumptions, while simultaneously running roughshod over that which actually sustains them, our universal parent and habitat, the earth.<br />
<br />
Our greed, selfishness, blindness and blatant willingness to ignore facts has led to Donald Trump and an increasingly unstable planet, with global end game thresholds perched precariously on a shockingly visible horizon. This is the gift we have bequeathed to our children. The least we can do is take their voices seriously.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-44191702828676338852012-11-28T21:20:00.001-05:002014-08-14T10:27:01.594-04:00Resolution <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There exist in the world, forces, entities, people, organisms, those who lack the propensity for empathy. Sociopaths. Psychopaths. Those bent on destruction, without remorse. The world we live in is a result of the willful destruction of such existences.<br />
<br />
Also. There exist in the world, forces of good. Those bent on creation, creativity, preservation, fecundity, living in a world of productivity and abundance, rather than strife.<br />
<br />
The battle between life and destruction will never cease. But no other battle exists.<br />
<br />
What more of substance is there to fight for? Of what value is the last dodo, monk seal, passenger pigeon? There is nothing less than the essence of existence itself at stake.<br />
<br />
Here I strive. Coral reefs lie at the mercy of lapping seas contaminated by human greed. Birds travel miles only to find dredged wastelands. Ancient floral stowaways find genetic refuge, temporarily.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8HlDoEndP2Y/ULbG2rR-IHI/AAAAAAAAAS0/okuXImG2X34/s1600/Trumpeters+sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8HlDoEndP2Y/ULbG2rR-IHI/AAAAAAAAAS0/okuXImG2X34/s320/Trumpeters+sm.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a></div>
<br />
There is no choice but to fight for the cause of ecological righteousness.<br />
<br />
There is no other cause.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-2630361482328422342012-09-05T10:47:00.000-04:002012-09-05T10:48:57.648-04:00The Song of the Nighthawk – Silent Summer Skies <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
20 years ago, I lived with my young family in an old wooden
house, known as “the Point House,” at the very tip of the then-wild island of
Providenciales. The house was old, the wood sun-baked, and the yard was filled
with the gnarled trunks and branches of coastal trees that told a tale of
centuries of struggle against the elements of sun, sea and wind. Beyond the
yard was the beach, so a short walk down a stony path took us to our own little
white sand and turquoise sea paradise. At that time, the water was alive with
living sand dollars, sea stars and molluscs of various persuasions. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At land’s end, a relatively deep but narrow channel divided
Providenciales from the completely untouched islands of the Little Water Cay
and Mangrove Cay. Those small islands were and are today Protected Areas that
have been deeded over in perpetuity to those who rightfully own the land, Turks
and Caicos rock iguanas and an array of herons, sandpipers, stilts, plovers and
terns. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the early summer months, as seasonal rains collected in
the boggy roots and peat of Mangrove Cay, and mosquitoes, sandflies and their
insect kin exploded in a frenzy of reproductive bliss, our island paradise home
became a living hell. The Point House
was directly downwind from Mangrove Cay, and insects don’t observe the
irrelevant boundaries of land.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the first year of our residence, we thought we had
reached our capacity to cope with the itching. Then one early evening, as we
sat in the living room clawing at our flesh, a flock of hundreds of birds flew
in to the yard. These birds had the body language of swallows, but they were
much bigger, swooping and diving in a display of impressive acrobatics. At times as they swooped towards the screened
porch of the house, we thought they would crash, but they veered off at the
last minute, vocalizing a strange creaky call, “karikidik-karikidik-karikidik.”
We were mesmerized.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the first visit of the Antillean nighthawks, we
noticed our habitat became more liveable once again. The mosquito population
plummeted, and life resumed its normal sedate pace. Every night of mosquito
season, the nighthawks visited the Point House, and they became our most-beloved
birds, their creaky song was the blissful sound of relief.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SB0Lq3OrF_E/UEdlxcpD_gI/AAAAAAAAASY/gao-hoQarW8/s1600/Antillean+Nighthawk.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SB0Lq3OrF_E/UEdlxcpD_gI/AAAAAAAAASY/gao-hoQarW8/s400/Antillean+Nighthawk.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the years, in my ramblings across the wild places of
the Turks and Caicos, I have stumbled across an occasional nighthawk or two,
literally. Their mottled colouring perfectly matches them to the stony
substrate they nest on. Laying one or two mottled eggs directly on the ground
in a small stone depression, the bird then sits on her eggs and blends into the
earth. When disturbed, the female fly away from her nest and pretend she has a
broken wing to distract you from her eggs. This creative adaptation has allowed
nighthawks to survive millennia against predation pressures. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the little birds that nest vulnerably on the ground don’t
stand a chance against the worst predator of all. The north-eastern shores of Providenciales
are now lined with luxury homes and the mosquitoes controlled by chemical
means. I had been back for a week before I saw my first nighthawk, but rather
than flying in a group of hundreds of noisy kin, this nighthawk flew silently,
alone across the evening sky.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because the nighthawk’s habits are largely unknown, we don’t
know where they spend their winters, for example, it is difficult to know
exactly what is causing their decline. Some believe that the chemicals used to
control mosquitoes are to blame, others point to the nighthawk’s nesting behaviour.
An ingenious tactic of pretending your wing is broken doesn’t stand a chance
against a bulldozer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For now, I watch the few I see with gratitude and remorse,
and I hope that theirs is not another journey to extinction. Their lone calls sing
into eternity like a requiem. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-9626408689629114502012-07-22T17:09:00.003-04:002012-07-24T15:38:30.847-04:00Gun Violence in America – Victims, Victims Everywhere<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">This past week news headlines flashed with an unfortunately
all too familiar tragedy. A lone, heavily armed young man entered a midnight
showing of </span><i style="background-color: white;">The Dark Knight Rises</i><span style="background-color: white;"> in
Aurora, Colorado and open-fired on the crowded theatre, killing 12 people and
injuring dozens more. Americans justifiably stand shocked with disbelief at the
horrific scenes that splash across television screen, and the media portrays
the event as a rare twist of fate, an anomaly in American culture, an unforeseeable
catastrophe. </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If only this were the case. Last year, a similar scene
unfolded at a political rally in Tucson, Arizona. A couple of years before
that, the scene was recreated at Fort Hood. Prior to that was Virginia Tech. 13
years ago, a mere 15 miles away from the scene in Aurora, a total of 15 were
sacrificed at Columbine High School. Mass shootings are not an anomaly in
American culture; they are a symptom of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact, mass shootings in America account for an average of
20 deaths per year in the United States. When one adds the victims of mere gun
violence, the number explodes to around 30,000 per year. The number of
gun-related deaths in the United States is a shocking 20 times higher than any
other developed nation on earth. As such, gun violence may be the single most
preventable form of death in this country. The number of victims caused by 9/11
pales by comparison. As we hunt down “terrorists” in the Middle East at a cost
of trillions of dollars, perhaps we should ask ourselves if the greatest threat
to the safety of Americans is American policy, rather than scary brown people
with a different way of worshipping Yahweh. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given the deplorable instance of gun violence in the United
States, one would think that this issue would be paramount in political
discourse, particularly during an election year. James Eagan Homes, an obviously disturbed
Graduate student of Neuroscience, obtained his weapons, including an assault
rifle capable of delivering 50 rounds per minute, legally. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Holmes purchased much of his equipment online from a company
TacticalGear.com. When interviewed, the CEO of the company reported that while
there was nothing unusual about Holmes’s purchase, the CEO was “appalled” that
equipment purchased at his company was used in the shooting. One wonders why a
CEO of such a company would be appalled or surprised that equipment he supplied
was used for its intended purpose. Such is the irony of the American gun
culture. Commercial goods (guns and ammo), that have the singular purpose to
maim and kill, are sold in many states more easily than tobacco or alcohol. Conservative,
gun-toting patriots object vociferously to what they perceive as moral deficiencies,
such as gay marriage, women’s reproductive rights or the teaching of scientific
facts in schools, and yet have no qualms whatsoever about freely distributing
deadly weapons to anybody who wants them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The gun lobby spends obscene millions of dollars to maintain
this status quo, and Congress impotently turns a blind eye to the obvious. Guns
are killing tools. Rather than being readily available, they should be strictly
controlled. The United States has a gun violence rap sheet that resembles
statistics from war-torn Sub-Saharan Africa. No other developed country has this problem.
They also don’t guarantee their citizens a “right” to bear arms. Gun
enthusiasts see gun control as an infringement on their personal freedom. I
would gladly trade James Holmes’s right to bear arms for the lives of 12 people
in Aurora, Colorado, who have now been unjustly deprived of the simple right to
exist. The Supreme Court and Congress waste precious time and resources arguing
whether universal healthcare that saves lives is Constitutional, while almost 100
people are dying every day from a gunshot. Insanity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sadly Holmes, like his predecessors Jarred Loughner,
Seung-Hui Cho, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold and Nidal Hassan (to name but a few),
is a deeply disturbed, mentally ill young man.
Another culture or country that offers universal healthcare, including
mental health care, to all residents probably would have treated him long
before tragedy struck. Otherwise brilliant young men could have been productive
members of society, had society not ignored their needs. While our culture
tells us to hate them for their crimes, we should also remember that they too
are victims of a culture that values the right to bear arms more than it values
the welfare of its people. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-54271423621820383452012-07-17T12:22:00.001-04:002012-07-17T12:22:17.281-04:00Steven Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and the Western Culture of Destruction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steven Covey died yesterday. His best-selling, self-help book,
<i>The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People,</i> is a paragon of the Western, goal-oriented culture that conflates “effectiveness”
with human value. In Covey’s seminal work, he promotes seven behaviors, which
he contends will lead to self-mastery, interdependence and self-renewal. Nobody
could argue with these goals. Self-mastery and knowledge, and intimate
integration in a meaningful way with one’s natural and human communities, could
be viewed as the ultimate goals in a human life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, as with many glitches in our culture, it is not
Covey’s goals that are problematic, but rather his stated means of achieving
those goals wherein the telltale signs of cultural dysfunction are found. The
seven “habits” Covey promotes are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Be proactive<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Begin with the end in mind<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Put first things first<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Think win-win<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Seek first to understand, then to be understood<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Synergize<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Sharpen the saw<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Immediately, one can see the contradictions that arise with Covey’s narrative. The first three habits are intended to promote
the first promised value, self-mastery. It would seem that Covey equates
self-mastery with productivity. The two are not the same. The next three habits
are ironically intended to foster “interdependence,” ironic because if one
looks at Covey’s plan for developing interdependence, he completely excludes
mention of the primary player in interdependence, the earth itself. His
platitudes are merely prescriptions to placate other human players in order to
maximize production. Like most victims of Western culture Covey confuses
interdependence with exploitation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People </i>advocates a system of visualizing a goal, creating
a plan to achieve that goal and then implementing the plan. This process would
indeed result in productivity; however, productivity has little to do with self-mastery,
interdependence or self-renewal. Our culture prizes production and “progress.”
The problem is that during the process of achieving one’s goals, actual
life takes place. By focusing on an event or theoretical accomplishment down
the road, one loses track of the immediate. The paycheck at the end of the
month, the holiday at the end of the year, the paying off of a mortgage or car,
graduation, looking ahead to a hypothetical future that may or
may not transpire, overlooks the reality of the world around us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ultimately, our goal-oriented culture has been a disastrous “habit”
for the earth. As Westerners clamor to grow their economies, the actual substance
of those economies, living and non-living entities (capitalists call them “resources”),
are being churned into oblivion. The 1,000 year-old redwood that gave its life
to be toilet paper or siding on your latest construction is not impressed by
your bottom line, nor are the spotted owls that once resided in its majestic
branches. If Western humans weren’t so focused on achieving a desired number
on a balance sheet, perhaps instead of cramming ourselves into inanimate
cubicles and “working,” we would take a walk in the woods and come to realize
that the redwood and the owl are infinitely more valuable than siding and
toilet paper, never mind their right to simply exist. The “progress” that renders
the earth into “goals” is no progress at all. It is a process of mass-murder. Self-mastery,
self-awareness, self-control. These values are not based on achieving theoretical goals.
They are based on an awareness of one’s place in the world, the acceptance of
the inter-connectedness of that existence, and respect for the other entities
that also inhabit that space. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LJc0oCWRgg0/UAWPOCnN01I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/2XenXKd9AvQ/s1600/Redwood+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LJc0oCWRgg0/UAWPOCnN01I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/2XenXKd9AvQ/s320/Redwood+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my work performing environmental impact assessment, I
witness the realities of our goal-oriented culture on a regular basis. The
hallmark of Western culture’s agenda is “development.” This holy grail of development
promises improved livelihoods for the people and places upon which it is
imposed. In every case, the degree of improvement in livelihood depends
entirely upon where one stands in the hierarchy of theoretically trickling-down
benefits. Those at the top of the pile certainly enrich their bottom lines, and the
working class is pacified with jobs for their complicity. Those who support the
entire infrastructure, the trees that are now lumber, the wildlife that once foraged
and thrived in the landscape, now scraped clean of life and sporting a shiny
new condominium, the “resources,” have paid with their lives. Covey (and the
goal-orientation he advocates) says, “Don’t look at the massacre. Ignore that.
Keep your eye on the prize.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u5i2U_NRkwI/UAWMPAKec8I/AAAAAAAAAQo/f6kXFBDNI6Y/s1600/IMG_7165.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u5i2U_NRkwI/UAWMPAKec8I/AAAAAAAAAQo/f6kXFBDNI6Y/s320/IMG_7165.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The world now stands on the precipice of the actions of “effective”
humans. 200 extinctions of irreplaceable species are sacrificed on the altar of
human progress every day. The aerial view of our once-beautiful shiny green and
blue orb is now marred in every recess with the scars of development. Vast
oceans, once brimming with the substance of creation itself, are now struggling to
maintain a last few vestiges of life. The thermostat is broken, thrown permanently
on the heat cycle. It is no small irony that Covey’s last prescription for effectiveness is “sharpen
the saw.”<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-13990411523337614412012-07-11T09:59:00.001-04:002012-07-24T11:04:53.216-04:00Mitt and the Mormons – Racism and a final word on the LDS faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">As I was preparing for another round of discourse on
Mormonism, it occurred to me that </span><i style="background-color: white;">killing
Mother</i><span style="background-color: white;"> is starting to look like a blog dedicated to dissecting the idiosyncrasies
of the LDS church. So I have made an executive decision to make this the last
post on the subject. This is not to say that the discussion we have been having
is not important. Given the very real possibility that Mitt Romney will be able
to purchase the White House this November, all Americans should be aware of the
details of his religious faith, which will no doubt color his tenure as
President. But we have just come through a national heat wave that broke all
records at many locations and killed dozens of people. It’s time to get back to
how sex, politics, money and </span><i style="background-color: white;">all</i><span style="background-color: white;">
religions are conspiring to destroy our planet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most of the conversations we have been having here can be
summarized with a few general observations, which I will offer at the
conclusion of this post; however, since the subject has been raised and
commented on extensively, I think it is important to first address the very
real history of racism in the LDS church before we proceed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As with polygamy, racism was not just historically condoned in
the Mormon faith, it was canonized in scripture. In <i>The Pearl of Great Price </i>(one of Mormonism’s four authoritative
scriptures):<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> <b>Moses 7:8</b>; “For behold, the Lord shall
curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth
forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that
they were despised among all people.” <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>Moses 7:22; </i></b><i>“And Enoch also beheld the
residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of
all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were
black, and had not place among them.” </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>Abraham 1:24-27; </i></b><i>“When this woman
discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it;
and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land.
25 Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son
of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government
of Ham, which was patriarchal. 26 Pharaoh, being a righteous man,
established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days,
seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first
generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of
Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the
earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the
Priesthood. 27 Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not
have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from
Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The above passages, received by Joseph Smith, supposedly
from divine prophecy, provide the justification used by the LDS church until
1978 to ban people of color from entering the temple priesthood, and thus
(since progression through the priesthood is the way to progress through
heaven) damning them to servitude (at best filling lower ranks on the heavenly hierarchical
scale) for all eternity based on the color of their skin. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steven, a Mormon who has graciously agreed to engage in a
civil conversation on this blog, suggests that the issue of racism in the LDS
church “arose from a common early American belief that Africans are the descendants
of Ham, who Noah cursed as to the Priesthood.” Steven is correct that “the
curse of Ham” was a prevalent view justifying slavery in America during the
time of Joseph Smith’s revelations. Indeed it took a long time for the bulk
of racist Christendom to come to terms with rejecting a practice (slavery) so
thoroughly sanctioned in the Bible. Some are still struggling, as evidenced by
the irrational reactions and claims of “otherness” regarding our first African
American President. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The LDS scriptures go further. In <i>The Book of Mormon:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>2 Nephi 5:21-23: </i></b><i>"And he had caused the cursing to come
upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold,
they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a
flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome,
that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of
blackness to come upon them."<br />
<br />
"And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be
loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities."<br />
<br />
"And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed;
for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and
it was done."<br />
<br />
"And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become
an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness
for beasts of prey."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>2 Nephi 30:6</i></b><i>, [if the cursed accept Mormonism as their
faith] "...their scales of
darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not
pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome
people." </i>(Note: In 1981, "white
and delightsome" was changed to "pure")<i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Book of Mormon</i>
clearly equates whiteness to blessedness and blackness to being cursed.
Nevertheless, as Steven notes, the LDS church has received a revelation and
mended their attitude. For this, we must
commend them; however, with the exception of the above alteration to the text,
the racist scriptures remain canonized. One might be inclined to interpret this
as a religious sanction of racism. One should also consider the heinous
human rights atrocities that are splashed throughout the Judeo-Christian Bible.
Most religions (I would submit with the exception of Buddhism, which isn’t
really a religion, but more like a philosophy) are able to justify and explain
away the immorality of their scriptures, which are apparently attributable to
an “all-loving” God with the cover-all excuse: "We cannot understand the ways of
God." Mormonism is no exception. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regarding racism and bigotry, I would like to add a final
caveat on the LDS church’s current treatment of LGBT people. Like polygamy and
racism, it would appear that bigotry against LGBT people is canonized within
Mormon doctrine. As Steven notes: “Mormons
believe in several degrees of heaven, but in order to obtain the highest a man
and woman must be married and have their marriage sealed for eternity by one in
authority and love and respect each other and grow as one in that marriage. In
this way both men and women are co-dependent on one another to achieve the
highest degree of happiness (or heaven) in the next life.” In my interpretation
of this doctrine, homosexual couples are therefore specifically excluded from the upper echelons
of heaven. I think it should also be noted (from my understanding) that a woman’s
ability to rise through the heavenly hierarchy is based entirely on her husband’s
ascent through the levels of the priesthood. Her heavenly status is not based
on her own merits, but on her husband’s, since she (like people of color in recent times) cannot enter the priesthood.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is no secret that the LDS church almost single-handedly
spearheaded Proposition 8 in California to defeat marriage equality laws for
LGBT couples. For the moment, Mormons view their stance of bigotry against LGBT
people as morally justified, just as they once viewed polygamy and racism. It
is my hope that the current prophet will receive a revelation overturning this
current attitude of discrimination soon. In my moral worldview, uninfluenced by
the doctrines of any organized religion, it is wrong to discriminate against
any person or other living thing, and any justification of such simply
illuminates the limitations of ideologies based on faith rather than reason. <span style="background-color: white;">Which brings me to my final point.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During my little excursion through the Mormon faith, it has
become abundantly clear to me that the Mormons are correct in their assertion
that their faith is no different than other Christian faiths. In fact, their
faith is no different than any other religion based on the prophecies of
dominant male patriarchs. Moses received prophecies from God, and woops, he
dropped them on the way down the mountain. But never mind. Read the Bible, and
it will reveal to you all of the benefits God supposedly wants bestowed on
Moses and his descendants for his troubles. Mohammad went from being a poor orphan, shunned by most
of his community, to a man of great wealth and influence, with numerous
wives, when he started receiving divine revelations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus was a bit of an exception in the prophecy department
because by all accounts, his revelations brought him nothing but woe, but his
tale was certainly highly marketable to others who wanted to cash in on the
opportunity that Jesus passed up. In fact, for more than 1,000 years, the Roman Catholic Church ruled affluently over much of the Western world. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The difference between the other Judeo-Christian faiths and
the Mormon faith is that we can view the events of Joseph Smith’s prophecy
through the eyes of written history, which is unavailable to us with the more
ancient religions. Joseph Smith, a well-known con artist (who was once imprisoned for "treasure hunting"), hailing from a long
line of con artists, found himself in trouble with some wealthy benefactors
when his treasure hunting schemes didn’t pan out. Suddenly, he became a
prophet. <i>The Book of Mormon</i> and the
other doctrines of the LDS church read no differently than the prophecies of
other male patriarchs: The Lord said, “Do as my prophet says, give him your
money, your daughters and even your wives if he asks for them.” What a racket.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">L. Ron Hubbard, the father of Scientology, science fiction
writer and behavioral psychologist, once speculated that he could design a
religion that would attract millions of people and make him rich. He was right.
The sad thing is that while many are getting rich on the gullibility of others,
more pressing issues, based firmly in reality, are at hand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vm3KUC2v_tY/T_2D8csN-RI/AAAAAAAAAQc/Y61YMCau240/s1600/Bison+sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vm3KUC2v_tY/T_2D8csN-RI/AAAAAAAAAQc/Y61YMCau240/s320/Bison+sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While I will not be posting any further posts on this
subject (at least in the near future), I am happy to continue the
conversation in the comments section. Thank you Steven and the other LDS
members who participated anonymously in this conversation. While I may not
agree with you, I respect your opinions and your willingness to share them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
KM<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2584734024537154964.post-28448114113015617222012-07-04T10:22:00.000-04:002012-07-24T11:08:13.323-04:00Mitt and the Mormons, Part IV – Clarifying issues about Mormons and plural marriage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="background-color: white;">After posting a series of three
articles on Mormonism, I was fortunate enough to get a few responses to my blog
posts from members of the LDS Church. They were all extremely gracious and
genuinely concerned about “setting the record straight.” Most wanted to remain
anonymous; however, Steve posted directly within the comments section on the
blog and invited any and all people curious about his faith to contact him.
Thank you Steve for your openness and willingness to participate in this
important conversation. </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Steve’s comments were very
detailed, and it has taken me a few days to digest enough of the material to
form an adequate response and to identify areas where further clarification is
needed. Because the material is lengthy, I will be breaking it up into
sections, which I will post in a series over the next few days/weeks (depending
on the demands on my time in the real world). This first response is dedicated
exclusively to the thorny subject of plural marriage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Please see below a portion of Steve’s original message my
response:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Steve: </b>I just randomly ran into this blog post through Google, and
since I have a little bit of time on my hands, and there have been some
comments or requests for a response from a Mormon on this post, I don’t mind
responding. Just a little background info—I am a young entrepreneur, my wife is
a student finishing up her master’s degree, and we have a little baby girl
almost 8 months old. I love composing music, studying science, and playing most
sports—but especially soccer. I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints at a young age and have been a member for close to
20 years. I did serve a full time mission for the church a while back at 19-21
years old, but currently do not hold any special or authoritative position in
the church in which I could speak officially for the church. For the most part,
I’m just a normal guy and I’ll do my best to “weigh in and correct or clarify
any misrepresentations [the author might have made]” from just my own personal
standpoint as a Mormon. Quickly going through, here are some of the things the
stick out to me as misrepresented or wrong:<br />
<br />
<i>“readily overturned major doctrinal
tenants on polygamy… in the interest of political expediency.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
There are a few loaded issues with
this statement. The doctrines or policies I believe you were referencing were
not overturned readily, and from a Mormon perspective definitely not out of
political expediency… Mormons believe in continuing revelation through our
leaders who we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators. If you are familiar
with any revelation found in the LDS cannon, including the Bible, it is more
often than not given in a response to a particular question weighing on the
mind of God’s people. God cannot answer a question if it is not asked. It
should not be surprising then that in the late 1800’s when Mormon’s were being
heavily persecuted over polygamy that the Prophet leading the church would
inquire concerning its future…I am personally grateful that God has given us
prophets who help us as a people and a church to course correct and leave
behind former ignorance.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>KM: </b>Polygamy is not just an idea or practice that was carried out
by a few misguided members of the church. It was a basic tenant of doctrine,
etched into scripture, and supposedly the direct word of God. I have excerpted
passages from the LDS Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132, attributed to a
revelation from God to Joseph Smith, recorded in Nauvoo in 1843, but “known” by
Smith since more than a decade earlier.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Kathleen/Documents/Books/Killing%20Mother/Clarifying%20Opinions%20about%20the%20Church%20of%20Jesus%20Christ%20of%20Latter.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></a>
I provide the link to the LDS website where the complete text can be found. Section
132 deals primarily with the covenant of marriage and explicitly justifies
polygamy (in great detail). I have abbreviated the section below (it appears that the Lord suffers from an extreme case of literary reduncancy), but I urge
all to take a gander at the original text.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
1 Verily, thus saith the Lord
unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to
know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the
principle and doctrine of their having many <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">wives</a>and <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">concubines</a>—…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="34"> </a>34 God <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">commanded</a> Abraham,
and Sarah gave <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">Hagar</a> to
Abraham to wife. And why did she do it? Because this was the law; and from
Hagar sprang many people. This, therefore, was fulfilling, among other things,
the promises.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="35"> </a>35 Was
Abraham, therefore, under condemnation? Verily I say unto you, Nay; for I, the
Lord, <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">commanded</a> it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="37"> </a>37 Abraham
received <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">concubines</a>,
and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness,
because they were given unto him, and he abode in my law; as Isaac also and<sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">Jacob</a> did
none other things than that which they were commanded; and because they did
none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into
their<sup>c</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">exaltation</a>,
according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are
gods.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="38"> </a>38 David
also received <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">many</a> wives
and concubines, and also Solomon and Moses my servants, as also many others of
my servants, from the beginning of creation until this time; and in nothing did
they sin save in those things which they received not of me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="39"> </a>39 <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">David</a>’s
wives and concubines were <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">given</a> unto
him of me, by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who
had the <sup>c</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">keys</a> of
this power; and in none of these things did he <sup>d</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">sin</a>against
me save in the case of <sup>e</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">Uriah</a> and
his wife; and, therefore he hath <sup>f</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">fallen</a> from
his exaltation, and received his portion; and he shall not inherit them out of
the world, for I <sup>g</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">gave</a> them
unto another, saith the Lord.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="40"> </a>40 I am
the Lord thy God, and I gave unto thee, my servant Joseph, an <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">appointment</a>,
and restore all things. Ask what ye will, and it shall be given unto you
according to my word.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="41"> </a>41 And as
ye have asked concerning adultery, verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">receiveth</a> a
wife in the new and everlasting covenant, and if she be with another man, and I
have not appointed unto her by the holy <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">anointing</a>,
she hath committed<sup>c</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">adultery</a> and
shall be destroyed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="42"> </a>42 If she
be not in the new and everlasting covenant, and she be with another man, she
has <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">committed</a> adultery.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="43"> </a>43 And if
her husband be with another woman, and he was under a <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">vow</a>,
he hath broken his vow and hath committed adultery.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="44"> </a>44 And if
she hath not committed adultery, but is innocent and hath not broken her vow,
and she knoweth it, and I reveal it unto you, my servant Joseph, then shall you
have power, by the power of my Holy Priesthood, to take her and <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">give</a> her
unto him that hath not committed <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">adultery</a> but
hath been <sup>c</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">faithful</a>;
for he shall be made ruler over many.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="46"> </a>46 And
verily, verily, I say unto you, that whatsoever you <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">seal</a> on
earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever you <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">bind</a> on
earth, in my name and by my word, saith the Lord, it shall be eternally bound
in the heavens; and whosesoever sins you <sup>c</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">remit</a>on
earth shall be remitted eternally in the heavens; and whosesoever sins you
retain on earth shall be retained in heaven.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="51"> </a>51 Verily,
I say unto you: A commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife,
whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself and partake not of that which
I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">prove</a> you
all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand, by
covenant and sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="52"> </a>52 And
let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">receive</a> all
those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and
pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were pure, shall
be destroyed, saith the Lord God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="54"> </a>54 And I
command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and<sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">cleave</a> unto
my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment
she shall be <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">destroyed</a>,
saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide
not in my law.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="55"> </a>55 But if
she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph do all things
for her, even as he hath said; and I will bless him and multiply him and give
unto him an <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">hundredfold</a>in
this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands,
wives and children, and crowns of <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">eternal</a> lives
in the eternal worlds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="61"> </a>61 And
again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin,
and desire to espouse <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">another</a>,
and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins,
and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery
for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that
belongeth unto him and to no one else.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="62"> </a>62 And if
he have <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">ten</a> virgins
given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him,
and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="63"> </a>63 But if
one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another
man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given
unto him to <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">multiply</a> and
replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise
which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their
exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for
herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be <sup>b</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">glorified</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="64"> </a>64 And
again, verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the
keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my priesthood, as
pertaining to these things, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or
she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God; for I will destroy her; for I
will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2584734024537154964" name="65"> </a>65 Therefore,
it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all
things whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because she did not
believe and administer unto him according to my word; and she then becomes the
transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah, who administered unto
Abraham according to the law when I commanded Abraham to take <sup>a</sup><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">Hagar</a> to
wife.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>KMs Synopsis</b>: God says, “Emma, your husband is going to take a lot
of wives and screw around and that’s okay because all my prophets of the past
(i.e. powerful men) have done the same with my blessing. Be a good wife and
stop complaining, and don’t think you can have sex with multiple partners just
because he does. Girls aren’t allowed to have fun. Joseph Smith is my
mouthpiece on earth, everybody should just do as he says or be destroyed. ” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
It is well-documented that when
Smith first presented the idea of polygamy, his wife Emma was understandably adamantly
opposed to the idea, and many of his early plural marriages took place without
her knowing and without her consent. Then revelation 132 put an end to any
questions about the morality of plural marriages. Emma was forced to comply,
but after Smith’s death, Emma and her supporters established the Reorganized
LDS church in Missouri (Emma did not travel west to Utah with Prophet Brigham
Young, the founder of the LDS church). In the Reorganized LDS church polygamy
was not promoted or openly practiced.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Even before Smith received the
prophecy telling him to take multiple wives, he had a reputation for
womanizing. Historical confirmation of this includes letters from Emma’s cousin
who repeatedly accuses Smith of “improper conduct with women.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Kathleen/Documents/Books/Killing%20Mother/Clarifying%20Opinions%20about%20the%20Church%20of%20Jesus%20Christ%20of%20Latter.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></a>
A mob that tarred and feathered Smith in Ohio was said to be infuriated by
Smith’s advances on a teenage girl, who later became a plural wife. Some historical documents indicate that the
mob’s intention was to castrate Smith. One has to wonder what drove them to
such a dramatic course of action. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Emma Smith wasn’t the only person
who objected to Smith’s promotion of polygamy. The primary co-author of the
Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery was particularly distraught. He wrote to his
brother that Smith’s polygamous exploits were a “dirty, nasty, filthy affair.”
Cowdery was ultimately excommunicated for “seeking to destroy the character of
President Joseph Smith.” Smith revealed prophecy 132 during this period of
in-group turmoil. Also, Smith claimed (as noted above) that he had received the
prophecy several years earlier, thus justifying his behavior to date. It all
seems just a bit too convenient.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Having thus been established,
polygamy became deeply entrenched in the LDS population that migrated and
settled in Utah. The United States government made no bones about refusing Utah
statehood based on “the Mormon problem,” i.e. polygamy. As Steve notes, the LDS
church resisted giving in. California, Nevada and other territories all passed
into statehood without controversy, but all of Utah’s applications were
rejected. Frustrated by the tenacity of the polygamists, the United States
government started chipping away at the Utah territory, annexing great sections
onto Nevada. Seeing their autonomy and landholdings literally disappearing
before their eyes, the Mormons relented and publicly denounced polygamy. Utah
was almost immediately granted statehood. I don’t think there is any doubt in
any historian’s mind that polygamy was sacrificed in the interest of statehood
and by extension, political expediency. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i>I
am very interested in any information that could provide an alternative way of
interpreting these events.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
I believe that to admit that the
doctrine of polygamy was a “mistake” raises questions about the validity of all remaining doctrine. The argument that that “God has given us prophets who
help us as a people and a church to course correct and leave behind former
ignorance” suggests that former (ignorant) prophecies can ultimately be deemed
to be fallacious. When viewing the entirety of the scriptures, which as noted
are revealed through prophecy, how is one to know which are “ignorant” and which
are divinely inspired?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Question: </b><i>If Smith received a
prophecy regarding polygamy that was explicit, heavily justified and lengthy
that is now believed to be in error, how can one view the rest of the Mormon
scripture, received by the same prophet as accurate?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Having said that, as I note in my
blog post “<a href="http://www.killingmother.blogspot.com/2012/06/trivial-things-you-probably-didnt-want.html">The Differences between Mormon Christianity and OtherChristianities,</a>” the evolving nature and continued “revelation” in Mormonism
that allows it to correct obvious problems in doctrine is one of the qualities
I find to be the most agreeable aspects of the LDS philosophy. It takes a fine character to admit one has made a mistake and to correct it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
I would ask all who respond to this
post to do so politely. We are all entitled to our opinions, and need to respect each other’s rights to the same. At the end of the day, it is humbling to consider that we
are all probably wrong. I will look forward to a robust and respectful
discourse. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
-KM<o:p></o:p></div>
<div>
<br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Kathleen/Documents/Books/Killing%20Mother/Clarifying%20Opinions%20about%20the%20Church%20of%20Jesus%20Christ%20of%20Latter.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></a>
See <a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng">http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132.19?lang=eng</a><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Kathleen/Documents/Books/Killing%20Mother/Clarifying%20Opinions%20about%20the%20Church%20of%20Jesus%20Christ%20of%20Latter.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></a>
The source I am citing for this information is <i>Mormon America</i> by Richard and Joan Ostling. Please see Chapter 4.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>killing Motherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07029992871936764888noreply@blogger.com6