Henry Beston's classic: The Outermost House

I am re-reading a naturalist's classic description of a year upon the beach of Cape Cod: Henry Beston's "The Outermost House". I first read it 40-some years ago. Here's a quote that may pull you toward this book (Beston writing about the birds of the outer Cape): "We need another and wiser and perhaps more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees a feather magnifield and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, lliving by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

"Reinventing the Enemy's Language" : Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America

This is another part of the literature of native (First Nations) people that I'm working my way back through. I learned about this book because of my interest in the work of Joy Harjo, the current U.S. Poet Laureate, and the first native person to hold that title.

This volume was edited by Joy Harjo, and Gloria Bird, with Patricia Blanco, Beth Cuthand, and Valerie Martinez.

During this summer of 2020, when many of us are attempting to "become anti-racist", this is part of my learning process.

"This anthology celebrates the experience of Native American women and is at once an important contribution to our literature and an historical document. It is the most comprehensive anthology of its kind to collect poetry, fiction, prayer, and memoir from Native American women. Over eighty writers are represented from nearly fifty (native North American) nations." (Goodreads review)

Seeing Beyond “Sheltering in Place” in 2020?

Seeing Beyond “Sheltering in Place” in 2020?

William Mueller

There are myriad ways to understand the concept of “sheltering in place”, or a “lockdown”, or quarantine. Most of us cannot fully imagine sheltering from aerial bombardment, as Syrian people have done in recent years. Now, we are experiencing a lockdown necessitated by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. (In contrast, I realize that my sheltering/lockdown is really something of a “first-world problem.”) What will this mean; how will it change us?

I am confined to my home and small yard, due to health problems that would be much exacerbated by contact with the virus. My world has shrunk – but I still have the glorious sky.  I still have the awakening flowers and leaves, the breeze that blows into my windows, the rainfall every few days. There is a small number of urban bird species, crossing and crisscrossing that glorious sky, like aerial writing on an alternating blue or gray or cloud-strewn tapestry. So, after pondering my “shrunken” world, I see that is only a limited perspective.

I recall a black-and-white photo by the great Hungarian photographer Andre Kertesz: it was an exquisite amalgam of light and shadow, with intricate texture...but the subject was only strips of torn paper, piled on his worktable. Maybe you can see where I am going with this:  turning inside, the world can expand, but with a shift in perspective.

While we have abundant opportunities to re-think our world (in a “before-and-after” the coronavirus pandemic), maybe we can re-vision how to place limits on our activity, to vision a world that accepts ecological limits, a world where we might behave as if our relationships with each other and the natural world were re-fashioned, out of interlocking structures of beauty, and care. Unlike some public figures in spring of 2020, I am not asking “what have you got to lose?” I am asking what we could gain, and build.

In Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s great book, “Braiding Sweetgrass”, she writes of the indigenous concept of reciprocity with the natural world: the people receive from nature, but then they give a gift back to the earth in return. Our family’s small garden space is the limit of my “reach” right now; but caring for it is meaningful in ways I am only now fully exploring. My relationship with earth: how can I foster it more deeply? If I note the aerial writing of birds on the sky, can I give voice to that…so that it does not go unheeded?

Each recent day during lockdown, I have watched the expanding leaves in their short-term yellow-green garb of spring; that color is already changing to a darker hue that plants wear in summer. During yesterday’s day-long heavy rain, I could still hear birdsong throughout the downpour. Each notification from nature prompts me to investigate, to ponder, to turn over in my mind like the gardener does with a spade-full of soil.

New research specific to tele-working - indicates that there may be environmental benefits to being-at-home beyond the obvious: fewer auto miles driven, less CO₂ emitted. Perhaps our enforced period of lockdown has let us look at aspects of our behavior with an unfamiliar scrutiny. Do we really need 50% of the stuff we own?

May we all become native-to-our-place, wherever on earth it may be. If we can foster an ethic of care, this time of sheltering-in-place will have been worth it.

a good time to study "reciprocity"

In Robin Wall Kimmerer's spectacular book "Braiding Sweetgrass - Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants", Dr. Kimmerer suggests that many of us have forgotten our relationship with the earth. Indeed, many of us don't seem to know that we have one.

She mentions that she was "stunned" upon learning that her third-year university students "cannot think of any" beneficial relationships between people and the environment...and she asks "How can we begin to move toward ecological and cultural sustainability if we cannot even imagine what that path feels like?"

Kimmerer carefully describes how traditional people have built a reciprocal relationship with the natural world: it gives people gifts, and the people return them, pay back the gift.

In a review in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Elizabeth Wilkinson writes:  "While she lovingly weaves a braid of literary sweetgrass, as her narrative develops she reminds that, like the actual braiding, there has to be someone on the other end holding the strands taut. She slowly, patiently builds the case for 'cultures of regenerative reciprocity' because, as she says, 'it makes us happy.'"

Kimmerer gently pulls on us, like the other person at the end of the braid, to act wisely. She says "The moral covenant of reciprocity calls us to honor our responsibilities for all we have been given, for all that we have taken. It's our turn now, long overdue." 

climate change and public health

   

From Wikim. Comm. by RCraig09

The following are recent articles or web resources on the myriad ways climate change is already affecting or will affect public health.

1. Climate Effects on Health

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/effects/default.htm

2. The Imperative for Climate Action to Protect Health

 Andy Haines, M.D.,and Kristie Ebi, M.P.H., Ph.D.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1807873






3. Climate Change and Public Health

American Public Health Association

https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/climate-change

CASE STUDY: OLYMPIC-SIZED REDUCTION IN ASTHMA
https://www.apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/topics/climate/cc_transportation.ashx?la=en&hash=2A0830819E31899DB07FF10A1A3051E371ADE667

 "Transportation practices can influence our health. The more we drive, the more we contribute to harmful air quality. When Atlanta was home to the 1996 Olympics, residents were asked to limit driving to reduce traffic congestion. Traffic—and thus air pollution—decreased substantially. Moreover, there was a significant decrease in pediatric hospital admissions and emergency room visits for asthma. Once the Olympics were over and normal traffic resumed, those rates increased to baseline levels. Less driving and more use of mass transit can lead to improved health for all and, especially, improved respiratory health for children."

4.  Agents of Change: Amplifying neglected voices in environmental health 

https://www.ehn.org/agents-of-change-in-environmental-health-justice-2641248263.html

Protecting ecosystem services

 

Ph. Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata/Wikim. Commons

Ecosystem services

Learn about the services that ecosystems provide (free of charge!) for all human societies:

https://wle.cgiar.org/content/what-are-ecosystem-services

https://www.iucn.org/commissions/commission-ecosystem-management/our-work/cems-thematic-groups/ecosystem-services  :

"The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defined Ecosystem Services as “the benefits people derive from ecosystems”. Besides provisioning services or goods like food, wood and other raw materials, plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms provide essential regulating services such as pollination of crops, prevention of soil erosion and water purification, and a vast array of cultural services, like recreation and a sense of place.."

https://biodiversity.europa.eu/topics/ecosystem-services :

"Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. They support directly or indirectly our survival and quality of life."

Ecosystem services can be described as parts of four types:

"Provisioning services are the products obtained from ecosystems such as food, fresh water, wood, fiber, genetic resources and medicines.
Regulating services are defined as the benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes such as climate regulation, natural hazard regulation, water purification and waste management, pollination or pest control.
Habitat services highlight the importance of ecosystems to provide habitat for migratory species and to maintain the viability of gene-pools.
Cultural services include non-material benefits that people obtain from ecosystems such as spiritual enrichment, intellectual development, recreation and aesthetic values.

Some examples of key services provided by ecosystems are described below:
Climate regulation is one of the most important ecosystem services both globally and on a European scale. European ecosystems play a major role in climate regulation, since Europe’s terrestrial ecosystems represent a net carbon sink of some 7-12% of the 1995 human generated emissions of carbon. Peat soils contain the largest single store of carbon and Europe has large areas in its boreal and cool temperate zones. However, the climate regulating function of peatlands depends on land use and intensification (such as drainage and conversion to agriculture) and is likely to have profound impacts on the soil capacity to store carbon and on carbon emissions (great quantities of carbon are being emitted from drained peatlands).
Water purification by ecosystems has a high importance for Europe, because of the heavy pressure on water from a relatively densely populated region. Both vegetation and soil organisms have profound impacts on water movements: vegetation is a major factor in controlling floods, water flows and quality; vegetation cover in upstream watersheds can affect quantity, quality and variability of water supply; soil micro-organisms are important in water purification; and soil invertebrates influence soil structure, decreasing surface runoff. Forests, wetlands and protected areas with dedicated management actions often provide clean water at a much lower cost than man-made substitutes like water treatment plants.
Pests and diseases are regulated in ecosystems through the actions of predators and parasites as well as by the defence mechanisms of their prey. One example of these regulating services is provided by insectivorous birds in farms that use most of their land for agriculture.
Soil biodiversity is a major factor in soil formation, which supports a range of provisioning services such as food, fiber and fuel provision and is fundamental to soil fertility, being a highly important ecosystem service in Europe. In addition, a diverse soil community will help prevent loss of crops due to soil-borne pest diseases.
Cultural services provided by ecosystems are also very important to EU citizens. Evidence can be found in the scale of membership of conservation organizations. For example, in the United Kingdom the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has a membership of over one million and an annual income of over £50 million."