I blog about environmental and social justice issues because I am very concerned about the health of the interdependent web of life of which we are a part.
Melting Arctic ice.......beautiful and frightening!
Weaving edible plants into the landscape is an old idea made new. Rosalind Creasey has been preaching and practicing edible landscaping for years. I bought her book, Edible Landscaping, back in the Dark Ages. 1982 to be exact......
This is a pic of the plants to the right of my front gate. I planted rhubarb in this location this spring as it is in front of a Yellow Ribbon cedar I water quite a bit; transplanted alpine strawberries raised from a packet of seed twenty years ago in front of the rhubarb that have since flung themselves around the yard indiscriminately; and filled in with some parsley seedlings . It looks very pretty; I've eaten LOTS of parsley from two plants all season, and I'm anticipating picking rhubarb early next spring.
Maybe I'll even have rhubarb to preserve. MMMnnnnnnn! I feel like a Gwen Stefani song at the thought: yummy from head to toe! Ding ding!
Rosalind has a website devoted to edible landscaping - with lovely, lovely pictures of mouthwatering gardens. You'll find it at:
Check it out - you'll be enchanted, I promise. You'll be inspired to grow your veggies and fruit. Food doesn't get more local than out of your garden or your balcony - and by growing your own food , you'll reduce your carbon footprint, prevent climate change, and improve your mood.
One could donate to the Nature Conservancy to aid this work - no?
And we , especially in Kamloops, could use less water here at home.
Kamloopsians are the most profligate water uses in BC : reducing consumption would reduce pressure on our ecosystems. Just a thought ......
If humans consume more water than is naturally replenished in our ecosystem,
we are behaving unethically. What makes us the most
important species on the planet - except hubris?
A friend asked me the other day, rather sharply, if I ever have any good news after listening to my moan about the record losses of Arctic sea ice. So for a few days I've looked for positive signs - and here's one of them!
The city of Vancouver has plans to plant trees - a lot of trees. (I took the photo in Van Dusen Gardens.)
Since a tree is half carbon, trees represent one of the best ways to extract carbon (which enters the tree as CO2) from the air. The Kyoto Protocol recognizes this and recognizes afforestation for sequestration (absorption) purposes. http://www.treecanada.ca/site/?page=programs_gca&lang=en
Not only do trees sequester carbon, and therefore mitigate climate change, urban forests:
are dynamic ecosystems that provide needed environmental services by cleaning air and water helping to control stormwater, and conserving energy. They add form, structure, beauty and breathing room to urban design, reduce noise, separate incompatible uses, provide places to recreate, strengthen social cohesion, leverage community revitalization, and add economic value to our communities. http://www.fs.fed.us/ucf/program.html
Forests also improve our health - including our mental health.
The study, which will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders, found that volunteers suffering from depression who took a 50-minute walk in a woodland park improved their cognition, as measured by the ability to remember a random string of digits and repeat them in reverse order, compared to those who took a walk through city streets. An earlier study found similar results in subjects who weren’t depressed. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/fitness/why-is-walking-in-the-woods-so-good-for-you/article4209703/
Heart rate variability analysis indicated that the forest environment significantly increased parasympathetic nervous activity and significantly suppressed sympathetic activity of participants compared with the urban environment. Salivary cortisol level and pulse rate decreased markedly in the forest setting compared with the urban setting. In psychological tests, forest bathing significantly increased scores of positive feelings and significantly decreased scores of negative feelings after stimuli compared with the urban stimuli. http://www.publichealthjrnl.com/article/S0033-3506(10)00320-3/abstract
So - Vancouver 's trees will sequester carbon; help control rainwater runoff; reduce energy use by moderating climate (think of lovely cool shade on a hot day); reduce noise; improve air quality; improve human health; add wildlife habitat; provide food (Vancouver is planting some fruit and nut trees); and improve and enhance our connection to our environment. Money well spent!
Hmmmn - I think I'll plant a tree myself this autumn - maybe a sour cherry - if I can figure out where to put it on my crowded little lot.
The Arctic sea ice fell to 1.58 million square miles, or 4.10 million square
kilometers, down 27,000 square miles from 2007, the lowest since satellites
began measuring the ice in 1979, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice
Data Center. "It's a little surprising to see the 2012 Arctic sea ice extent in August dip
below the record low 2007 sea ice extent in September," said Walt Meier, a
scientist with the data center. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/27/us-usa-arctic-melting-idUSBRE87Q0ZF20120827
Climate change models predicted the Arctic would see ice free summers by the end of this century if we kept up burning fossil fuels . Now it looks as if we'll see that by the end of this decade. The IPCC models were CONSERVATIVE! Looks like we can't count on being safely dead before climate change bites hard unless we're 83 - today.
We'll see nastier, more unpredictable, even COLDER weather. We may be faced with more pollution - Arctic ice has trapped a lot of toxins - and as it melts, where will they go? Political tensions between Arctic countries that stupidly view the melt as an opportunity to drill for oil may increase (!!!! exclamation points for that mindset). Climate change will accelerate as permafrost melts and gives off its carbon stores and methane; increased heat is captured by open water, and the balmy, balmy warmth melts methane clathrates.
It is to be hoped lots of folks realize this is not good at all - we need to STOP burning fossil fuels. If millions of us took to the streets in non violent demonstrations, governments would pay attention.
(We sure as hell don't need the Northern Gateway pipeline! )
A devestating analysis of the Northern Gateway pipeline by a geologist. David Hughes states that:
Speedy liquidation [of the Alberta tar sands] means not only a revenue giveaway but exponential growth of pollution and water contamination. (Current mining waste liabilities already total more than $20-billion.)
"Enbridge's rationale for the Northern Gateway Pipeline is based on its own unsubstantiated and highly optimistic projections for growth in oil sands production beyond 2025," reports Hughes. "This may serve Enbridge's corporate needs and those of its shareholders but does not consider the longer term environmental and energy security needs of Canadians." http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/01/12/HughesReport/
Ouch! Enbridge makes more money, the Canadian public faces more pollution and water contamination, and attempts to clean up oil spills on BC 's coasts....this pipeline is not worth the risks!
You still have time to register your opposition with the Joint Review panel: please see the post below for the link.
Firstly, the US National Transportation & Safety Board recently released a report on Enbridge's 2010 Kalamzoo pipeline spill. They were scathing in their assessment of Enbridge's culture and safety record.
"This investigation identified a complete breakdown of safety at Enbridge.
Their employees performed like Keystone Kops and failed to recognize their
pipeline had ruptured and continued to pump crude into the environment," said
NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. "Despite multiple alarms and a loss of
pressure in the pipeline, for more than 17 hours and through three shifts they
failed to follow their own shutdown procedures." http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2012/120710.html
Why would Enbridge's culture suddenly shift ? Furthermore, their spill cleanup plans appear to be less than thorough - a slip related to their culture of ignoring safety perhaps?
Thirdly, the tankers that will carry the dilbit through BC's very dangerous coastal waters are five times the size of the tankers delivering condensate. A master mariner familiar with these waters stated:
Kitimat operates a port situated over 100 nautical miles from the open hostile waters of the Queen Charlotte Sound and the Dixon Entrance. It is reached through navigationally difficult and narrow channels, and clearly represents a cheaper fix for the pipeline termination point for tar sands bitumen export. It shows again the lack of respect given to the power of the sea and the vagaries of human error or mechanical breakdown. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/2012/04/23/marine-industry-experts-open-letter-against-enbridge-pipeline-and
Finally, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. We must - MUST! - make societal changes that reduce our dependece on
fossil fuels, instead of continuing to build expensive infrastructure
that
maintains and supports our dependence.
The reasons to support this pipline are ....ummm - I can't think of any long term benefits for the public and for the planet. Please let your provincial and federal representaives know that you oppose this project - particularly if you voted for the Right Honorable Stephen Harper! He needs to hear from his past and potential supporters that they are opposed to this pipeline - even if he is reading this news in the newspaper. A poll
reveals a deep wedge between Alberta and B.C., two political pillars of Harper's majority government, and suggests a growing distance between Alberta and the rest of the country....
And it shows that Canadians outside Alberta, and especially British Columbians, don't buy the federal government's argument that the entire country benefits from oilsands expansion.
A surprising 41 per cent of B.C. respondents who voted Conservative in 2011 said they don't support the project that is closely identified with the Harper government. http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Poll+finds+Alberta+increasingly+alone+strong+public+support+Northern+Gateway+pipeline/7139440/story.html
You have until August 31, 2012 to submit a letter to the Joint Review Panel on Northern Gateway stating your opposition to this project.
PS If you live outside the provinces of BC or Alberta, your voice is as important as ours. Please contact your federal representive and the Right Honorable Stephen Harper and let them know you are opposed to this pipeline.
I found this video on line and it exerted an awful fascination on me - and I do mean awful! Watch it and weep!
Seconds in:
.07 -.18 "The Philosophy of Liberty is based on the principle of self ownership. You own your life. " Sure - interject the language of commerce into the concept of liberty first thing! And what does this mean, anyway? If someone enslaves you, they're not transferring your 'ownership ' to themselves - they are committing a crime and a fundamental injustice. In fact, selling yourself into slavery is a fundamentally unjust practice. (Furthermore, a Buddhist would deny that your 'self" exists.) My friend Bel says: Some people are more equal than others so those foreign views don't count for nuthin! "
.26 "to deny this is to imply that another person has a higher claim on your life than you do." If you have children, I'd say your children have a higher claim on your life than you do. Particularly when they are small, vulnerable, and helpless; your children have a very large claim on your life. But perhaps libertarians are like Ayn Rand and don't like children.
.55 "You exist in time. Future, present , and past. " Other cultures don't share the Western sense of time as linear; and would therefore dispute this vision. See Bel above.....
1:57 "Property is that part of nature which you turn to valuable use." This video privileges humans over everything else. Some folks dispute that this world view is ethical. What about the rights of non-human entities - possibly including Gaia herself- to functioning ecosystems undisturbed by someone turning said ecosystem to a 'valuable use?' One may laugh at the idea that non human entities have rights - but American slave owners scoffed at the thought that slaves had rights. Or were human...... There may come a time when we regard a mindset that thinks of nature as property with the same horror we direct at those who defend slavery.
2:06 "Property is the property of others which is given to you by voluntary exchange and mutual consent." Not always - there was very little 'voluntary' about the enslavement of Africans. See Bel above.....
2:16 "Two people who exchange property voluntarily are both better off or they wouldn't do it." Really? REALLY! ??? Libertarian have never heard of unequal exchange, apparently. Or listened to music: I cain't die cuz I owe my soul to the company store!"
4:11 "you have the right to seek leaders for yourself but no right to impose rulers onto others." Ah yes - the old democracy as dictatorship argument. One hears it everywhere!
5:47 "Your actions on behalf of others ...is virtuous when it is derived from mutual consent." Apparently libertarians never send anyone to jail for murder or confine them to a forensic psychiatric hospital as that would be an action on behalf of others NOT derived from mutual voluntary consent. We constrain the choices of corporations and real people all the time - or did I only dream that the manufacture of crystal meth is illegal? Would it be practical to remove all limits on behaviour?
7:.01 "Having confidence in a free society is to focus on the process of discovery in the marketplace of values." What the hell is a market place of values? My friend Bel says "Isn't that between XS Cargo and Papa Murphy's Pizza? Evidently you and I just don't get the right fliers!"
7:13 "Using governmental force to impose a vision on others is intellectual sloth." No, intellectual sloth is not thinking critically about what one views or reads. Actually, Bel says " Thank you for clarifying that. I thought intellectual sloth was a tree hanger, similar to an opossum, that quotes Freud and Nietzsche. We had them in Parque del Este in Caracas."
Bel says " Buried here [in this video] is the basic denial that anything is seriously wrong with our natural systems, and that we might actually need a functioning planet in order to thrive."
Ron Paul, an American libertarian, and astonishly, a former candidate for the Republican nominee for President, believes that:
contrary to the claims of the supporters of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the sponsors of H.Res. 676, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not improve race relations or enhance freedom. Instead, the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty.
Making discrimination illegal is an act that reduces freedom? Successfully lobbying the government to pass laws that eliminate the production of greenhouse gases is a reduction of liberty? Sure - right - absolutely. If one lives in an insane world, it is.
A thank you goes to my friend Belinda Darlington for letting me quote her. You rock! Thanks as always for sharpening my thinking.
