This has been a fun project…I love writing and it got me through the long cold winter.   But we are moving to Alaska in a few months, and my mind is distracted with preparations.  I might surface again once we are settled, or I might decide to become the real activist I have always wanted to be instead of just writing about it.  There should be plenty of issues to confront in Alaska, and I would like to play a role in keeping it wild.

Thank you for reading!  I will keep the archives up until they want more money for the domain.  Keep fighting to protect and restore wilderness; it is our only hope.  – Mycena

Once a week, I am going to post links to  stories I come across that have good news, for a change!

Here is the good news for this week:

• Help is on the way for loggerhead sea turtles! The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday agreed to lend additional federal protection to loggerhead sea turtle populations in areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

• Researchers have found a new way to fight bark beetles.  Those destructive bark beetles that have been killing many trees across the west can be fought using a digitally altered version of their own calls.  The beetles apparently think they are under attack, and try to flee or even start killing other beetles.

• 48 Hawaiian species give endangered listing. The Obama administration declared 48 species as endangered and announced plans to set aside more than 40 square miles on Kauai as critical habitat to allow the plants and animals to flourish

Happy Friday!  – Mycena

I have always dreamed of living in a cottage by the sea. The beach below would be pristine, and at low tide I could explore tide pools and watch shore birds. There would be seals and sea lions on the rocks, and occasionally whales would spout. This dream may be hard or impossible to reach in the future, since we seem to be ruining even the oceans with our industrial greed. The Pacific Ocean seemed so vast, the coastline so beautiful that I assumed it would remain so, but there is new evidence to the contrary. More ‘dead zones’ are forming where all sea life is killed off.  Sea lions, whales and sea turtles are dying of  cancer, and of course there is all the plastic trash…

A particularly disturbing article came out this week in McClatchy about increasing dead zones in the ocean off the Pacific Northwest. Areas of hypoxia, or low oxygen, have always existed but they are now spreading, and scientists say this could be because of global climate change. The video below shows areas where a complete lack of oxygen has left piles of dead crabs, sea stars, anemones in areas that were once vibrant and teaming with life. The fish can leave, but the rest is killed off. The oceans become more acidic as they absorb more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, and as the earth warms up there are lower ocean oxygen levels. In the past, ocean dead zones were linked to agricultural runoff and pollution, but it is also caused by changes in the wind and ocean circulation that are disrupting the delicate balance.

More bad news from the coast is a recent New York Times article that claims cancer is killing California sea lions, and that 18 percent of dead beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River estuary in Canada were found to have intestinal tumors or other cancers linked to industrial pollutants. The article also mentioned that cancer is also a key concern for green sea turtles. Ordinarily wildlife experts do not see much cancer in wild animals, but it is now on the rise. As we dump pollution in their environment, they are getting more cancer just as we are.

And of course there is the problem with plastic trash in the ocean.  I used to hike along the Lost Coast of Northern California and was dismayed to find all sorts of plastic trash washed up on remote beaches miles from anywhere. I have been reading about the Northwest Pacific Gyre that is twice the size of Texas with 7 million tons of plastic that breaks down into small pieces that get eaten by birds and marine life instead of normal food, killing them.

If all this continues, a walk on the beach will lose its allure. The magic and beauty of the ocean will be lost, and this is far beyond my worst nightmare. Rather than slip into despair at this news, I hope it will inspire you to take action. Support groups that are trying to help like Oceana and Surfrider, and most of all, STOP BUYING PLASTIC. It is hard to completely avoid, but there is a lot we can do. Use canvas instead of plastic shopping bags, buy food in bulk without plastic packaging, don’t buy water or soda in plastic bottles, and pay attention to the garbage that you are producing and are responsible for putting into the environment.  You can also participate in or organize beach or river cleanups.  The problem big, but we need to take responsibility and do our part to make things better.

I am embarrassed to confess that I sent money off to the Sierra Club last year thinking that they were helping to protect the wilderness.  I thought they were on the right side of things, (which is really more to the left).  I thought they were straight up.  I thought they were fighting the good fight to protect the environment.  Now I am just confused about it all, but the problems seem to stem from funding.  Some of the top environmental organizations have been compromised, bought out by corporations seeking a green sheen to enhance their public image.  Anything can be bought for a price, even the Sierra Club.

I don’t want to believe it is true, but I have read several articles about this subject, and now that doubt has been cast, it is hard to go back to blissful ignorance. Now that I think about it, the Sierra Club does seem pretty slick lately.  Maybe I have changed, but now I look at things in a different light.  The magazine they send out seems to be geared toward the youth culture, which could be a good strategy to ensure future health of the organization but it looks like they are going sideways.  They are selling things.  They are pimping products and ‘greenwashed’ consumerism.  They are partnering with companies like Clorox.  The last straw for me was when they came out in support of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.  They said they would not support projects that polluted waterways (no duh!) but from what I have read, there are a lot of poisoned wells and problems from projects that were considered safe.  Even as a bridge away from coal, which is clearly worse, natural gas isn’t clean and good.  There should be NO COMPROMISE.  I just can’t support that.

Other “Big Green” groups are probably worse, but I haven’t donated to the others so don’t have such a stake in them.  Groups like The World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, The Natural Resources Defense Council.  They  have  a large staff with a highly paid executive director, lobbyists, analysts and marketers with offices in Washinton D.C and major cities.  They have huge budgets in the tens of millions of dollars a year.  Many of the groups partner with corporations and some have representatives of major corporations on their boards of directors. While these groups might start with good intentions and have done good things, power corrupts.  Salaries need to be paid, and they can rationalize almost anything as being better than something worse. The Sierra Club at least has a meaningful accountability to the thousands of individual small donors who are called ‘members.’  They have local chapters that are doing good things.

There is also a ray of hope in the new executive director of the Sierra Club, Mike Brune, who has worked for Greenpeace, the Coastal Rainforest Coalition and the Rainforest Action Network.  He has a history of true activism and civil disobedience, so may pull the Sierra Club away from the dark side.  I am not going to hold my breath, but will eagerly watch how it unfolds.  I received my membership renewal notice in the mail this week, but need to see major changes before I send them more money.

If an environmental organization accepts corporate funding, there is room for corruption.  It is better to support organizations that rely on individual donations, like Earth First!.  I also trust the Center for Biological Diversity, and smaller groups like the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance , Alaska Wilderness League, and K.S. Wild.  But keep your eyes open and pay attention.  NOTHING is as it seems these day.

I am surely not the only one that feels overwhelmed by bad news these days.  It sure seems like things are going downhill fast, and I reminisce about those halcyon days of youth when I was blissfully ignorance about the state of things.  Things have been bad for a while now, but not so obviously bad.  It use to be easier to get away from it, or to ignore it.

We need to keep informed and take action to set things right, but the constant bombardment with negativity can render us useless.  We need to take time out now and then and focus on the good things that are left.   We need to revel in the beauty that remains.  We need to keep our sense of humor and creativity.   What you chose to focus on changes your perception, and if it is all negative, your reality becomes negative.  You might get to the point where you don’t think the world can be saved or is worth saving.  You might say fuck it and give up.

I tend to rant about things that have gone wrong, but want to balance the scale a bit.  Once a week (probably on Friday), I am going to include some good news.  Here is the latest!

• A frog thought extinct for the last 30 years was rediscovered in Australia.  The complete article from Treehugger is here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/extinct-frog-rediscovered-in-australia.php

• A new study from the Wilderness Society says that Pacific Northwest forests act as a massive carbon bank.  If the value of  intact, healthy forests is scientifically documented, there is more hope that we can protect them from logging.

• explore is a multimedia organization that documents leaders around the world who have devoted their lives to extraordinary causes. Both educational and inspirational, explore creates a portal into the soul of humanity by championing the selfless acts of others.   If you follow the link to their website, check out the video on the right hand side “Choose Happiness”.

• Solutions: For a Sustainable and Desirable Future is a new publication that aims to showcase bold and innovative ideas for solving the world’s environmental, social and political problems. The journal brings the cutting edge ideas of academics and professionals in the field to an audience of policy makers, business leaders, and engaged members of the public.  Includes articles by Bill McKibben.

The video below was created by everything is ok, a collaborative art project aimed at provoking people to more  critically consider the status quo.  Don’t worry, everything is ok. There’s no need to act. Nothing needs to change. Please, just go about your business.  With a megaphone in a crowded London square, they sarcastically told people to get back to work at their meaningless jobs or to keep on shopping.  They hug the police officers that ask them to stop.  The group began by putting up barricade tape with the message “everything is ok” on it as both as an affirmative phrase and a condemning indictment of mediocrity.   This seems similar to various Greenpeace actions like the banner with a fake crack unfurled on Glen Canyon Dam or the more recent German gas guzzlers boarding Merkel’s Ark to be saved first from the deluge.  It seems similar to projects done by Ron English who replaced existing billboard ads for bad things like cigarettes with an opposing view.  Performance art with a message, not only for direct witnesses but also to distribute later by video or to be picked up by the media.  The more publicity the better.  But does this work as an environmental action?  Does this help create change?

I say yes, the more the better.  The problems we face these days are many and it won’t hurt to come at them from all angles, especially creative ones. The politicians can work changing laws to protect wild places and keep our air and water clean.  Those with money can donate it to those capable of doing the work on the ground.  Angry youth can protest and get involved in non-violent actions.  All of us can modify our lifestyle to be less consumptive.  Writers can write about it, movies can be made about it, comedians can joke about it, and musicians can sing about it to spread the message far and wide. Getting information about climate change, conservation, preservation, pollution, anti-consumerism out through art, writing, video, music, social networking is important.  We need to wake people up.  If enough of us get our shit together and focus creatively on the problems we face, we can solve them.

Environmental art has been around forever, but it has evolved with the times.  It can show us the beauty of nature and increase our appreciation for it (like Andy Goldsworthy), or show us the destruction from an artistic point of view (like Edward Burtynsky).  There are a lot of different genres and sub-genres and a brief foray into the subject convinced me of the futility of trying to sum it all up.  Ecoart is a relatively new term.  One website I found said “it is activist in that it engages the public, primarily outside traditional art venues (but also in them), and often in ways that attract media attention.”  Ecoart tries to bring the hidden sources of environmental degradation out into the open, and often allies itself directly and indirectly with the agendas of environmental advocacy and activist organizations.

It is hard to believe, but some people have still not responded to the crisis we are facing.  They continue on with their consumptive lifestyle apparently oblivious to the fact that things are collapsing around them. Maybe confrontational art can wake people up.  It might not produce instant change, but it could plant a seed for ideas that will start to grow.  It might take many such messages, coming at someone from different directions to push them into action.  Humankind can be amazingly resourceful, but we can also be incomprehensibly stupid and shortsighted.  Everyone has different talents and everyone has a valuable role to play in making thing better, including artists.  Especially artists.

While I fantasize about the removal of Glen Canyon Dam and the restorations of the Colorado River ecosystem with its beautiful canyons, this dream could become a reality in the future due to way lower water levels caused by climate change.

When I visited Lake Powell, it was hard to appreciate the beauty still left; I just felt sad about what was destroyed.  I sure wish I was around to run that river before the dam was built; the current reservoir full of motor boats is not my cup of tea…. There are good accounts of river trips through the beautiful canyons before they were submerged though.  In Wallace Stegner’s The Sound of Mountain Water, he talks about boating down the stretch of the Colorado River flooded to create the lake before and after the Glen Canyon Dam was built.  While he said that there was still beauty, he laments the parts that were lost.  “In gaining the lovely and the usable, we have given up the incomparable.”

It is not just beauty that was lost; the dam changed the whole ecosystem of the area. The destruction of the Colorado river ecosystem due to the Glen Canyon Dam has been described as “among the most tragic of environmental loses”.  The dam blocks the sediments with organic material that are necessary for many species, like fish, amphibians, insects.  Three species of fish have gone extinct, and five more are endangered due to the sediment free water and temperature changes.

In the end, man’s manipulations might have been in vain.  James Lawrence Powell’s book Dead Pool that shows that by 2100 decreasing snowpacks and heat-related evaporation may cause the level of Lake Powel to drop too low to produce hydropower. Lake Powell is less than half full now, and bathtub rings ten stories tall encircle the blue water with boat ramps and marinas stranded and useless.   If the dam became no longer functional, there would be no resistance to removing it.  Sadly, I will surely be dead by then, and the sediment that has built up behind the dam will have filled the canyons.  With lower water flows, how long would it take to flush all the excess sediment away and restore the balance downstream?  Some things are gone forever, but others might come back.

Increasing populations and agriculture consumes every drop of the Colorado River.  Large cities were built in the desert relying on water that will no longer be available and powered by a dam that will no longer function.  This future projection looks bleak for the people, but maybe they will move to areas more suitable for human habitation and nature will be left alone to recover and adapt to the changing climate.  Although it would be different than it was before alteration by man and climate change, I can’t help but think that it would be better.

The good news is that coal-fired power plants might be on the way out, but there are some really stupid ideas being pursued in the mad rush to find a substitute.  It is like an old cartoon with a bunch of clowns running around and bumping into each other, with little progress in any direction that makes sense.  The tax incentives and mandates for renewable energy are spurring them onward, but since money is the main motive, the best solutions for the environment and human health are bypassed in favor of more dirty energy options like burning forest biomass.

I already ranted about the evils of nuclear energy, but the push for forest biomass energy sounds even worse.  It is cheap to produce, technologically simple and has been put forth with a (false) myth of carbon neutrality and renewability so might sound like a good idea on first glance.  Timber companies love the idea since they can make money from otherwise ‘wasted’ material such as tops and branches of trees left after timber harvests and poor quality trees in managed forests.  Some of the nation’s largest electric utilities are proposing building large wood-fired electric generators or converting coal-firing generators.  Serious projects are being considered in places like Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Montana, Michigan, and even in the UK

Wood is not ideal for fuel though; it takes huge volumes of material to be transported (which uses fuel) and burned to get enough energy. This could be worse for the forest than typical timber harvest.  Since all the biomass found in the forest is potential fuel, the forest would be stripped and healthy forests need decomposition of branches, bark, needles and other natural debris. There will be a huge increased demand for material, and once all the small stuff is gone they will inevitably turn to whole trees and then larger trees.  In some places they are already using whole trees.

Biomass plants also produce pollution, and it can be worse than a  coal-fired power plant.  They emit toxic chemicals such as dioxin, carbon monoxide particulates, and ozone forming chemicals that cause asthma, heart disease and cancer.  Communities are starting to protest plans for biomass plants in Florida and elsewhere due to health concerns.

There is no question about the need to end our dependence on fossil fuels, but we are barking up the wrong tree (again).  We should be focusing on energy conservation, small local production using better options like solar, wind, geothermal and even tidal energy. A progressive idea was put forth by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont who introduced legislation that would greatly aid in the expansion of rooftop solar-energy production in the United States. There is sufficient roof space in the United States to meet 20 percent of our electricity needs simply by installing solar panels and solar water heaters.  By putting these on 10 million roofs, 30,000 megawatts of energy could be produced which is the equivalent of 30 nuclear power plants without toxic waste or long distance transmission lines.  We can meet our energy needs without endangering wild places, stripping our forests or poisoning our air.

For more information, see Burning Forest Biomass a False Fix or The Burning Issues with Biomass.

Info was leaked to the media this week regarding National Monuments that ‘might’ be created by the Obama Administration.  National Monuments are similar to National Parks, but can be created by the President by executive order without Congressional legislation.  This was authorized by the Antiquities Act of 1906 to quickly preserve historic and prehistoric sites on U.S. federal  land without waiting for the slow legislative process.  Although most are under National Park Service administration, they can be managed by other federal agencies such as the BLM or the Forest Service.

I assumed this would stop logging activity, but a little research found that this is not the case.  The Giant Sequoia National Monument was created by President Bill Clinton in 2000, and in 2005 they started logging it.  The logging was stopped by Sierra Club lawsuits, but it was disappointing to find that this was even an issue.  In any case, it would be a step closer to true protection, and a cause to celebrate if it comes to pass.

The in no way official potential list is as follows:

Owyhee Canyons (Oregon & Nevada), Montana Northern Plains, Otero Mesa (New Mexico), San Rafael Swell (Utah), Northern Sonoran Desert (Arizona), Cascades Siskiyou National Monument Expansion (California & Oregon), Vermillion Basin (Colorado), Lesser Prairie Chicken (New Mexico), Berrysessa-Snow Mountain (California), Heart of the Great Basin (Nevada), Bodie Hills (California), Modoc Plateau (California), Cedar Mesa (Utah), and San Juan Islands (Washington).

All these areas are worthy and deserving of the greater protection offered by the National Monument designation.  I am excited that so many are in California, Nevada and Utah, and that I have visited many of these areas.  I have been following the progress of the Siskiyou Crest National Monument by K.S. Wild.  National Monuments CAN end up becoming National Parks eventually…. There will surely be some opposition from loggers, miners, oil drillers, and ORV users, but hopefully Obama will push forward with this.  Obama has been dropping the ball on environmental issues, and this would help boost his status with those that care about the protection of wild places.

I decided to start a new blog called Experiments in Low Impact Living for lifestyle articles on subject like alternative energy, food, avoiding plastic, and anti-consumerism.  Although these are related to the purpose of Eco-rant, it makes more sense to separate these out from my environmental ranting.  I copied some of my articles over to the new blog to get it started, and there will always be a link on the sidebar of this blog to the other one.   Thank you for reading!  – Mycena