Underwater video of False Creek, Vancouver -- 'Surface' by Fiona Bowie

False Creek in Vancouver, once teeming with aquatic life, was heavily industrialized after 1880 and for more than a century was an underwater desert. All sorts of effluent was dumped from metal industries, fish canning, distilling and manufacturing until the south shore (Granville Island) was redeveloped as a tourist area in the 1970s. Birds and fish are starting to make a slow comeback.

RCAF photo of industrial False Creek in 1946: BC Archives B-07512

Fiona Bowie specializes in public art. Her current work, Surface, is a video stream from an underwater camera mounted on the hull of an Aquabus water taxi. The video stream often shows only vague colours, until crustaceans or fish swim by. It is a live uncensored documentary of the underwater life of one of the most taken-for-granted waterways in British Columbia.

See also False Creek history by the Challenge Series, and False Creek Watershed Society.

Waterprints -- by Hugh Robertson

Copied here with the author's permission, this was first published in the May issue of the Manor Park Chronicle.

Have you ever considered how much water is required to provide you with your morning cup of coffee – excluding the 125 ml in the cup? On average, 140 litres of water is used to grow the coffee, prepare the beans, package and transport them to your kitchen ready to grind. A “water footprint” or “waterprint” is a new technique that measures how much water we each use to sustain our lifestyles – everything from flushing a toilet to buying clothes to drinking a cup of coffee.

Ottawa River: photo Vince Alongi

Our personal or domestic water consumption for cooking, cleaning, washing and flushing is probably only 10 percent of our total waterprint. The food and manufactured products that we buy and the fuel and electricity that we use contain huge quantities of embedded or “virtual water.” Although we may only drink 4 litres of water, we actually “eat” and “consume” another two thousand litres daily.

Our waterprints are composed of 4 major categories:

• Food
• Manufactured products
• Energy generation
• Domestic

Water consumption in Canada breaks down roughly as follows:

• Energy generation 55%
• Manufacturing 15%
• Agriculture 15%
• Municipalities 10%
• Mining 5%

Although it is important to cut our domestic water use, we are deluding ourselves if we believe that residential reductions alone will solve the planet’s water problems. Our waterprints are largely a function of diet, lifestyle and consumption patterns shaped primarily by income and wealth. Per capita, North Americans use more than double the European average and exponentially more than African countries.

Foods -- a major component of our waterprint -- are not all created equal. Crops such as soybeans and rice have a high footprint and, per pound, corn-fed beef uses ten times as much water as poultry production. Eating local produce in season and less meat can dramatically lower your personal waterprint.

Some countries are introducing labels that indicate the level of embedded water in food products. Cultivating fruits and vegetables in Florida and California is water intensive. Importing these products – with their high “virtual water” content -- raises the delicate question of whether we can refuse to sell water to the US in return.

Many consumer products contain high levels of embedded water. For example, manufacturing a cotton t-shirt requires 2,700 litres of water and a pair of leather shoes almost 25,000 litres. Consider applying the various Rs to your lifestyle purchases. Refuse, resist, reject or reduce your shopping impulses and recycle or reuse products, such as clothing by shopping second-hand when possible.

water pollution: scipeeps-com

Various forms of energy, primarily transportation fuels and electricity generation, constitute the largest component of our waterprint. The Tar Sands are notorious for the amount of water used to produce a barrel of oil – excluding the volumes of contaminated water that are flushed into Lake Athabasca after the refining process.

Soy-based biodiesel and corn ethanol use even more water. It is not just the fuel; vehicles are also water hogs. It takes 150,000 litres to manufacture an average sized car. When buying another vehicle, consider a reliable second-hand car. If you buy a new vehicle, drive it until it drops. Properly maintained with lots of TLC should ensure a life of 15-20 years for a quality vehicle. Go small and fuel-efficient.

Coal and nuclear power plants lead in water consumption and their efficiency measured in terms of water use and electricity generated is remarkably low. These disadvantages do not even include carbon emissions, construction and maintenance costs, and radioactive waste. As responsible citizens we should cut our consumption of electricity dramatically to reduce the huge volumes of water wasted in the generating process.

The amount of water on the planet is fixed. For millions of years the hydrologic cycle has been recycling the water supply through a continuous process of evaporation, condensation and precipitation. It is a myth that Canada has endless freshwater. If we consume more than the annual precipitation in the form of rain and snow, water levels will soon drop, as is happening in the Great Lakes.

A domestic water calculator from Go Blue.org

Excessive use of water is one problem but contaminating our scarce water resources is another. In the hydrologic process, water is purified as it passes through the atmosphere and filters through the ground into the deep aquifers.

Not only are we depleting the aquifers by extracting large volumes of pristine water to green golf courses, for example, but we are also poisoning the groundwater by spreading agricultural chemicals, burying our garbage and pumping sewage underground.

Society has adopted an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude. The latest “bury our problem” approach – euphemistically called geo-engineering – is to sequester carbon dioxide in aquifers that have been pumped dry and also to store nuclear waste deep below the Canadian Shield. Not even the hydrologic cycle can purify groundwater once it has been contaminated with radioactive toxins and carbonic acid.

We are fouling the rain with the hazardous substances that we pump into the atmosphere. Glaciers, like aquifers, are also important repositories of pure water and they are being polluted with soot and other airborne contaminants that mix with snow. The side effects of our material lifestyles are overwhelming nature’s cleaning capacity.

Green algae, Lake Erie: courtesy NOAA

Our lakes and rivers have become repositories of another kind: we dump mine tailings, radioactive tritium, phosphates and mercury and many other industrial and agricultural chemicals. Lake Erie has a vast oxygen-starved dead zone and blue-green algae is threatening lakes across the country.

Water is a fundamental human and natural right. It has passed from generation to generation since time immemorial, constantly recycling and revitalizing itself. Water is our common heritage. It is our moral responsibility to protect a resource so vital to our own well-being and to the health of the planet and to the security of future generations.

See also Environment Canada's water use calculator,

From Cochabamba to the UN

Nnimmo Bassey speaking at Cochambamba, Earth Day, 22 April 2010
Joint delegates' call for action when the Cochabamba People’s Agreement was presented at the UN May 7, 2010:
1) Build support for the 26th of April Submission People’s Agreement and Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth page 14.
2) Key messages:
* 50% emission reduction under Kyoto Protocol in Cancún [COP-16]
* Rights of Mother Earth
3) Produce common statement framing outcomes of May 7th UN meeting.
4) Analysis of the AWG-LCA Chairs Text.
5) Comparative textual analysis of the Copenhagen Accord and the People’s Agreement (by May 25th).
6) Conference Call after the analysis, on Friday, May 21st to discuss a common response to the Chair’s text and agree on general next steps.
7) Lobby and target different countries that can support the People’s Agreement.
8) Build a common position in the G77.
* emission reduction in Cancun, preserve Kyoto Protocol, stabilize between 1.5° and 1° C and 350 to 300 ppm, climate debt, Rights of Mother Earth.
* Procedures: two tracks, comprehensive outcome in Cancun, inclusiveness, transparency, member-driven, bottom-up approach, sovereignty, equity, no innovative measures like 40 countries negotiating instead of 192 and/or dilution of AWG-KP and AWG-LCA.
9) Events in different cities and countries during the next round of negotiation in Bonn (May 31– June 11) to promote the People’s Agreement.
10) Development of actions during the U.S. Social Forum (June 22 – 26), the meeting of the G8 (June 25 – 27) and other events.
11) Improve and develop website of cmpcc.org in English and Spanish.
12) Coordination with Mexican committee to help in the preparation of Cancun COP16.
13) Regional conference calls and a World conference call after Bonn round of negotiation (possible June 18).
14) Letter to the Member states of the UN, the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary General supporting the initiative for beginning a discussion on the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth.
15) Explanatory note on the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth.
16) Working Group on the Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth to follow up actions and develop strategy.
17) Development of a technical proposal for the International Climate and Environmental Justice Tribunal.
18) Preparation of a demand to Annex 1 Countries that fail to comply with the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, to be presented if there are no substantive commitments for greenhouse gas emission reduction in Cancun.
19) Begin lobbying in order to obtain co-sponsors for the UN resolution on the human right to water.
---
The delegation consisted of

• Bolivian Mission to the UN
• Carbon Trade Watch
• Climate Debt
• Climate Interactive
• Climate Justice Now
• Durban Climate Justice
• Eco Village 2010
• Feria Internacional del Agua
• Greenhouse Development Rights
• Mother Earth Rights
• South Center
• Story of Cap and Trade
• Via Campesina
• Tom Goldtooth, Native American leader of the Indigenous Environmental Network
  
• Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria, chair of Friends of the Earth International
  

For further details see also
NGO reports and official website of Cochabamba conference 19-23 April 2010
Pre-conference of Bolivian indigenous peoples and social organizations 20-30 Mar 2010
followup to Copenhagen Accord showing various competing proposals and calendar of meetings

Gardening for 10% carbon -- by Amanda Soule

From Amanda Soule's blog Fixie's Shelf: she is a dancer, storyteller, puppeteer and gardener, living a low-carbon lifestyle in Melbourne, Australia (when not going round the world).

16 April -- I got this fantastic book, How To Grow More Vegetables, Fruit and Nuts on Less Land Than You Can Imagine. It gives very detailed instructions for how to get the absolute most out of a limited number of garden beds. I'm making some changes to the way I garden and water, based on the ideas in this book.

I love this book because a) it answers so many of my questions about gardening, and b) the entire approach is centred around sustainable principles. So often I've read gardening advice that suggests we bring home tonnes of compost, organic fertiliser, straw for mulch and more, and it all seems so costly. This book focuses on how to get as quickly as possible to a "closed system" where you can recycle all nutrients on the property and not need to bring in more. There is no mention of raised garden beds or special compost bins to be built, because as the author points out, the timber used to build them is probably better put to another use - it's a waste of resources. Indeed, the entire system of gardening is focussed on using minimal resources, including water, for maximum gain.

The only thing lacking in the book, I think, is the use of of the compost pile to compost human waste (I'm talking about poo) - as this would really bring it to a closed system.

I think if you are a beginning gardener and need a way to get started that isn't daunting at all, you'd be better to get One Magic Square, which makes it feel so easy to get started and is very inspiring. But if you already grow vegies and are looking for ways to increase your yield, this book is fantastic.

Here's a few of the key ideas the book presents:

- Do a proper soil test to find out exactly what nutrients your soil really needs, then add the right amount of organic matter to balance out the nutrients (the book tells you what and how much to use). This way you can avoid low yields and yellow leaves and other plant problems, because the soil is perfectly balanced.

- Double dig the soil before every crop to aerate it, and give it a nice layer of compost on top. Be very careful not to compact the soil after digging, as this makes it harder for the plants to extend their roots. The method described loosens the soil without destroying the structure.

- Build a big, proper compost pile, and recycle all your nutrients and garden waste here. If you grow the right plants within your garden bed, they will make enough material to build the amount of compost you need to feed that amount of soil. This is more sustainable than using, say cow manure, where the cow has destroyed a piece of land in order to generate the fertiliser for your garden.

- Plant your vegies exactly the correct distance apart. Each plant has a root ball of a particular size, and by planting them as close as possible but not too close, then you create the right micro-climate beneath the leaves for healthy soil, and the plants don't need to compete for water and nutrients.

- Use a "breakfast-lunch-dinner" concept to raise plants from seed. First you plant the seeds one inch apart in a seed tray, and let them grow there for a specified amount of time, usually two weeks. This is breakfast. Then you transplant into a deeper seed tray, two inches apart, which gives the plants a fresh burst of nutrients and newly airated soil, and they grow there for a certain amount of time. This is lunch. Then finally you transplant them into the growing bed, which again has fresh compost and moist airated soil, which works as dinner for the plants. By doing this you also use less water, than you would if you'd planted directly into the growing bed. It's more work, transplanting everything, but it means you can have other food growing in the bed until the last minute, and it really shortens the time a plant needs to be in your garden bed before it starts producing food.

- Water with a soft shower head, similar to rain. Don't blast the soil with a heavy spray, as this can compact the soil. Water the soil rather than the plants, and make sure you keep all the soil moist, even in beds where nothing is currently growing. When soil dries out it is very hard to re-wet as it repels water rather than absorbing it.

My very favourite part of the book is the plans they have for sustainable gardens. They suggest that 100 square feet is a good starting size (my vegie garden is about 125 square feet of growing beds, plus I have other beds around the house for permanent crops), but to be sustainable you really need 300 square feet per person! Yikes. With the plans the authors tell you exactly what to plant, when to plant it, where to put it in the garden bed, and what to replace it with throughout the growing season. I am a bit surprised you'd get to harvest some of these vegies so quickly, so am interested to test it out for myself.

I've planned my own winter garden, using ideas from all the garden plans offered, and have planted my seeds with the last new moon. They came up beautifully and you can see them in the photo. Then just after the full moon, I transplanted them to their second tray. Fingers crossed this results in a winter full of food. With the next new moon I popped them into the garden bed. I was astonished to see how much they grew each day, compared with the previous lot of beet seedlings I put into a garden bed. I'm not sure which of the many things I'm doing differently is the key, but something's working and my beets are growing like never before.

The results

My spring garden, by the way, did indeed supply food for the summer - we've hardly had to buy vegetables since late December [mid-summer in Australia]. Even though you need more garden space for three people to be self-sufficient, our garden is very much meeting our vegetable needs already, and with a bit more careful planning and hopefully the above techniques, I hope we can continue to do that year-round. My next focus is to try and increase the flow of fruit, because we really could use more, and a more steady supply too.

27 March 2010 -- To avert the worst of climate change and peak oil, we need to change how we live. Riot for Austerity is a 90% reduction project - in joining this I am aiming to cut my emissions and use of resources to 10% of what the average American uses. This is the amount deemed necessary to leave our children and grandchildren a decent world. Care to join me?

I've been participating in the Riot4Austerity for 6 months now - with the aim of reducing my use of resources to 10% of the average. Mostly I'm using US averages since I don't know Australian averages. I can't believe half a year has gone by. I can see now as the months pass the new habits I've been trying to create have settled in and are becoming more routine - much of what I'm doing doesn't feel like a big deal any more. I've averaged my use of everything over the last 6 months and here's the results:

Target is 10% of the US national average for each category, or less.

Transportation fuel - 8%
Electricity - 14%
Gas/Kero - 7%
Rubbish - 4%
Water - 16% til 1 March then 0%
Consumer Goods - 12%
Food - I'm aiming for 75% local sustainable/homegrown produce, and we're on 73%.

*****

More posts on low impact / low carbon living are to come - Ed.

Stripped for action on a glacier

600 nude volunteers posed for Greenpeace and US installation artist Spencer Tunick on Switzerland's Aletsch Glacier in August 2007.

Without clothes, the human body is vulnerable, its life or death at the whim of the elements. Global warming is stripping glaciers, making the whole planet vulnerable to extreme weather, floods, sea-level rise, reducing food, water and carrying capacity, increasing disease and dislocation.

Most glaciers in Switzerland will completely disappear by 2080, leaving nothing but rock debris, if climate change continues at its current rate. They have already lost 1/3 of their surface and 1/2 of their mass, and this melting is accelerating. The Aletsch retreated 115 meters (377 feet) in a single year 2005-06.

See also the 52 min documentary Legacy of the Great Aletsch, Encyclopedia of Earth, Mark Hertsgaard's article Climate Roulette, 350.org's demonstrations in 2009, youth protest climate camps, and (clothed) youth flashmobs.

Rio Bravo Love -- by Sally Bishop Merrill

Sally Bishop Merrill belongs to Rio Grande Valley Friends Meeting, in Harlingen, TX, two hours east of Roma)

Lower Rio Grande, one of the richest wildlife areas in the continent: dshs.state.tx.us

I was thankful to have been among Twelve Sierrans and ‘No Border Wall’ Activists who -- as the April meeting of our local Sierra Club -- canoed the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) from Fronton to the lovely 18^th C. city of Roma, Texas, at the high bluffs of the River, on April 18^th, in 6 canoes provided by the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge’s NGO arm, the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor.

click on map for clearer view

We in the Rio Bravo/ Rio Grande Delta enjoy and treasure the river that narrowly survives frothy dry spells near Laredo, … is sometimes contaminated with agricultural chemicals and rubbish, but not as badly as the Arroyo Colorado (an original branch of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo in the delta, now with a separate watershed.) Its rich history is fun to discuss, and we did that, as the 12 of us birded, canoed, sang, fell out of the canoe, looked for those fear-inspiring “drug gangs” with their big weapons ( supplied by U.S. arms dealers?). We saw not one boat, not one human, but two Mexican cows.

green heron: courtesy of Larry Ditto

This time, (unlike prior years) we did not hear singing from the Church on the other side, and so this time, could not sing along. But we saw a handsome pair of small Green Heron, in their courtship orange kneesocks and head treatments. One of the Green Heron went to their nest, and the other went with us, for about a mile downstream. We had a tailwind some of the time, thankfully, but the River was low! Though it rained and stormed the five nights before in the areas in the Valley farther east, or lower, than the stretch of river we canoed from Fronton to Roma, that water flowed into the Arroyo Colorado and the Laguna Atascosa through Rio Hondo and the National Wildlife Refuge, …so the Rio Bravo/Grande was LOW … I have a permanent picture in my mind, not only of the rear end of Miguel, one of the other Ph.D.s (one of two Border Anthropologists with us) who fell out of my canoe when we ran aground on an uneven bottom, on pebbles, but also of the six feet of deep roots of lovely native trees like Rio Grande Ash, holding the border, guarding the river.

Altamira orioles: courtesy of Fred Walsh

Birds of significance included, in addition to our Green Heron escort, Great Kiskadees, bright red/brown and gold, flashing, several Kingfishers who nest in the higher banks, a Raven, Olive Warbler, and many others ornithological, but also Professor Cecilia Balli of University of Texas at Austin, Visiting at UT Brownsvile and writing a book on the murders in Juarez and border violence historically, currently, and for the hoped-for different future. I suspected she was hoping to be kidnapped, survive and write about her extended interview, but was relieved that the waters were so clear for us that day. Several of my colleagues had warned me not to go, as Camargo, not far from Miguel Aleman, the MX city across from Roma, …. Was heavily taken over, as have many Mexican towns in which my students’ grandmothers live or were driven from last week, (some of the drug cartel warriors had compassion and strategic planning skills, organizing to evacuate the towns so that they would not be killed in crossfire, which is more than US troops did in Vietnam and elsewhere, destroying whole villages with their inhabitants in order to “Save” them).

Some of the eco-tourism entrepreneurs some of us knew confessed to actually having “had beers” with some of the people they believed to be Mexican cartel figures. As we lunched in lovely historic Rio Grande City, we enjoyed the Mexican dark beers. We learned from Cecilia that formerly the Drug Cartel leaders met with even Mexican federal representatives, and divided up territories. But not these days, which leads to chaos. How it will be resolved is murkier than places we ran aground. The need to help Mexican cartels reach consensus and create a social contract (since they will clearly not be subsumed or forced into one) rushes as forcefully and unpredictably as the unexpected rapids we went over. Hold us in the Light, Friends, on the border, as we face troubled waters, often without a paddle.

bunting

I am also a founding board member of Jay Johnson Castro’s Border Ambassadors, a 501(c)3 you could donate to: at 45 Hudson Dr., Del Rio, TX care of the Villa Del Rio to promote positive bi-cultural and multi-national efforts in environmental care, commerce, cultural arts and education along the US/MX border. We collaborate, just as Quaker Earthcare Witness does with UN-affiliated NGOs, with many other groups and fun projects, on the border: Laura de la Garza’s wetlands water purification projects, river recreational kayaking and canoeing, fishing, birding, and wildlife protection. We hope any of you who feel moved, or overstressed, will visit. The eco-tourism here is inextricable from our concerns for real diplomacy, for people to people ordinary bi-cultural connection through families and commerce.

Contact Sally Stueber sallystueber@gmail.com.

Further references and pictures: realbirder.com on Texas birds, National Wildlife Federation Birding in the Texas Tropics, World Birding Center, et ornithomedia en francais.

Making webs -- by David Spangler

This post is from David Spangler's blog May 7, 2010. He is a former director of Findhorn. Along with several friends and colleagues from Findhorn, he returned to the United States in 1973, and with them to create the Lorian Association, a non-profit spiritual educational foundation. In 1984, the Lorian Association moved to Issaquah, Washington where it is today.

*****

We have a large maple tree in our backyard. Its branches overhang our back porch so that in the summer, it can seem as if we are living in a treehouse. In fact, when our children were small, we actually built a treehouse amongst its branches where the kids would go to lie and read or just dream; we even on occasion would have family picnics there. As you can tell, this tree has
been an important part of our family.

As the years went by, I began to notice that some of the higher branches of the tree were dying. We can get strong winds blowing through our valley out of the Cascade Mountains, and I worried that some of these large branches, or even the top of the tree itself, might snap off and come crashing through our roof. So I had a tree expert come out and look the situation over. He gave me various options, and the one we chose was to build a webbing that would enable the branches to support each other. "If you ever see that webbing go tight," he told me, "call me right away because it will mean something has snapped and the top of the tree will have to be cut down." So far all is well.

I thought about this webbing as the events of the past month have unfolded. There's been the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano which shut down air travel throughout Europe for five days causing economic havoc around the globe. There were unusual storms in the Southeast of America that created unprecedented flooding in the State of Tennessee. There is the debt crisis in Greece which threatens the stability of the Euro and could tip other countries such as Spain and Ireland into bankruptcy, damaging the tentative economic recovery occurring in the United States after the crash of two years ago. And there is the oil spill taking place in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystems of the wetlands and marshes of coastal Louisiana and bidding to become the worst ecological disaster in America¹s history with enormous economic repercussions of its own.

Winds of change are blowing through our world system, and like the branches of my maple tree, there are lots of places it could break.

We need to build some webbing. We need to build our support system so that in times of crisis and disaster, we have something to hold us up and keep us from crashing through the roof.

Here's the good news. Such webbing isn't another layer of bureaucracy in an already overly complex governmental system; it's not a new organization we need to join. It's not an insurance plan we need to buy into. It's something much simpler than that. It's an attitude of love, compassion, generosity, and mutual caring. With it we can create safety for each other. Without it, we are left to stand alone and at a disadvantage in the face of possible disasters.

Imagine that you and your family have flown to Europe for a vacation. You've had a good time, and now you're headed home. Good thing, too, as you've about run out of cash and your credit card is near its limit. But as you wait to board your aircraft, an announcement tells you that your flight is delayed. Well, that's no fun, but you can wait. However, as an hour or so passes, you are next informed that your flight is cancelled. Indeed, all flights are cancelled as a volcanic ash cloud is grounding all jet planes.

Hmm, you think, this is more serious, but how long can a volcanic ash cloud last? Surely you'll be up in the air and on your way in a few hours. Except that it's not a few hours. It's a few days, and in the process you exhaust all your remaining money. But your family needs food and water and a place to rest. Surely the airline will provide help. No, it won't. You're told it's not the airline's responsibility; you're on your own. The airport management isn't helping either. Well, perhaps you can squeeze a few more dollars out of your credit card. But wait, restaurants and hotels have just doubled and tripled all their prices for the duration of the crisis. Even that recourse is suddenly beyond your means. And now you have a nightmare vision of you and your family starving to death in the middle of a modern, European airport because no one cares to help and compassion has vanished.

For you, a branch has crashed.

This is exactly the nightmare that many foreign travelers, particularly poorer ones from Africa, were facing only a few days ago as the ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano blanketed Europe and shut down all air travel. I learned about this through a number of radio reports. In interview after interview, passengers described running out of money and expressed their anger at the callousness of airline companies and airport personnel who denied any responsibility for providing aid. In some cases, even water was unavailable except for purchase. Restaurants and hotels were raising their prices in exorbitant ways to take advantage of those who had the money to buy food or lodging, and heaven help those who didn't.

Where this took place, it was a stunning demonstration of a lack of compassion and of placing commercial opportunities over human need. By contrast, the Schiphol international airport in Amsterdam put up webbing. The airport administration hired musicians and clowns and brought in movies to entertain the stranded passengers. They installed portable showers and provided food and water, all at its own expense. They created such a festive, supportive atmosphere that passengers who had musical instruments brought them out and added to the entertainment. An international community came spontaneously into being. When some officials arrived from one of the embassys to offer passengers from their nation hotel accommodations, the passengers told them they'd rather stay at the airport. They were having too good a time!

Schiphol

The goodwill this simple act of compassion and generosity generated for the Schiphol airport and for the people of Amsterdam was enormous. Here no branches crashed. Should I ever be trapped in Europe by a disaster, I hope I'm in the Netherlands.

In the final analysis, if our civilization collapses, it won't be because of disasters and catastrophes; it will be because we failed in our compassion for each other. We failed in creating inner webs of support that can translate into outer acts of caring.

There are those who feel the disasters we've seen this past month, whether natural or human-caused, are just the start of what might become an Age of Disasters. This is certainly possible. I have no question, as I said, that winds of change and challenge are blowing through our world. There's also no question that human choices and activities, especially when motivated by fear and greed or by a sense of parochialism, can magnify the problems and turn challenges into catastrophes. We saw this graphically demonstrated when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. The inept and at times self-serving responses of the Federal and State governments to the crisis added to the suffering and the death toll from that disaster. (To read some riveting accounts of how survivors of disasters come together to create compassionate communities to support each other -- and how governmental officials more often than not end up hindering this process and even making matters worse -- I recommend Rebecca Solnit's recent book, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, from Penguin Books.)

The value of being compassionate with each other and caring for each other's welfare sufficiently to be able to help each other -- to help strangers -- in times of emergency is important and probably one of those things most people would agree with. It's certainly not a new idea. But there's another wrinkle to this I'd like to suggest.

As regular readers know, I view the world as having a physical and a non-physical side. (If you want to know in more detail my thoughts in this area, I suggest my book, Subtle Worlds: An Explorer's Field Notes as a place to start.) Working with what I call the "subtle environment" offers additional possibilities for building a supportive web. In my experience, these intermeshing fields of consciousness and spirit, energy and probability surround and influence our world as much as does the planet's magnetic field. While nothing is a substitute for direct physical action and help to deal with physical emergencies, there are few events that do not have a non-physical component that could use help as well or that could be made a supportive environment for physical action.

For example, think of what the emotional and mental atmosphere might have been like in those European airports where people were stranded and had run out of money, food and water. I've been in airports where a flight was simply delayed for an hour or two and have felt the inner environment roiled with feelings of irritation, anger, anxiety and so on. I can only imagine what it might have been like if sheer survival had become an issue.

The nature of the subtle environment is that it affects everyone, though in different degrees and in different ways. It's a sea we all swim in, and when it becomes tainted with hurtful energies, we all have to deal with that contamination just as fish in the Gulf are now having to deal with oil and chemical dispersants in the water in which they live. Generally speaking, there's nothing like a powerful and intentional presence of love and calm radiating in such a subtle environment to transform that kind of psychic pollution and create a better and cleaner flow of subtle energies. The nice thing is that that kind of presence doesn't have to come only from a person on the scene, though it will be very powerful if it does; it can be projected by anyone from anywhere. That's the essence of subtle activism.

So one form of support when you hear of a disaster somewhere is to center yourself in a state of calmness and peace, fill your heart with love, and imagine yourself invisibly present where that disaster is going on, being a presence that contributes that peace and love to the subtle environment. In effect, you're providing another option for the subtle energies in that place or condition, an alternative to condensing around fear and anger or confusion, for instance and an opportunity to configure to the calm that you're providing. This calmness can provide a psychic space for those on the scene to avoid being caught up in emotional and mental turmoil and instead to have an opportunity to think and feel with clarity. This alone can lead to better and wiser decisions being made and compassionate actions being taken.

For example, those who are working to contain the oil spill in the Gulf are doing so under great pressure and are exposed to the anger being directed towards BP and those responsible for the oil spill. Holding those engineers and others in a calm, compassionate, loving presence can do much to support their ability to take wise and appropriate actions. Blaming them or focusing anxiety in their direction accomplishes nothing but to roil the subtle energies around them which can make their task harder.

But there's another form of webbing that subtle activism can provide; after all, subtle activism isn't just for disasters and emergencies. Here is where the analogy of my tree can help. The webbing we put up isn't fixing a specific problem but is a way in which weak branches can mutually support each other and be better supported by the main trunk.

This form of subtle activism is very simple. It consists of creating a line of supportive energy between yourself and another person and the sacredness that is the Ground of Being. Center yourself in sacredness, in the Sacred, whatever that means to you as a universal presence of compassion and love. Center yourself in your own capacity for compassion and love, and link these two together, connecting your branch with the trunk from which all branches come. Then imagine a line of Light extending from you to a neighbor in your community. This line of Light has as its sole intent communicating that that person is not alone but is connected to a source of support, which ultimately is the "trunk", the Sacred. Do this with another neighbor, then another. Build a web of inner support throughout your neighborhood. Remember, this web is not anchored in you but in the Sacred, but you are the one spinning it out into your world.

Once you get the sense of this, you can simply spin these webs of Light out into your world; it need not be limited to your neighborhood, nor to people you know. Do this with the intent that the subtle connections of energy that naturally exist between all of us be filled with Light and "tied to the trunk", so to speak, that is, attuned to the compassion and love within the Sacred. The idea is to support the arising of compassion organically and naturally within people's hearts. You can't make anyone be compassionate, and you wouldn't want to (that would be an act of coercion, not compassion), but you can intentionally add your energy and thought to strengthening the lines of loving support that can weave between us and that bring compassion into the subtle environments in which we live and act.

In time you may find yourself naturally and automatically radiating these supportive lines of Light throughout your environment, to animals, plants, and objects as well as people. It primes the subtle environment to be responsive to compassionate and loving actions should an emergency arise.

I'm in the process of creating a free Subtle Activism Starter Kit, which consists of a small PDF booklet with some ideas and instructions on one way to do subtle activism, plus two audio files. One is an example of a specific subtle activism meditation I did with a group recently on behalf of the Gulf oil spill and the other is an example of a more generic subtle activism meditation. You will find the link below as well as posted on our website. If you go there and find it empty, come back in a day or so. As I say, I'm still working on completing it.

Symphony of Science -- Carl Sagan and others

See more at SymphonyofScience.com, a musical mashup project headed by Seattle musician John Boswell. Into his original compositions, he remixes pitch-corrected audio and video samples of Carl Sagan, Richard Feynmann, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Ann Druyan, and Steve Soter from PBS Cosmos, Richard Dawkins' Genius of Charles Darwin, Dawkins' TED Talk, Stephen Hawking's Universe, Michio Kaku's interview on Physics and aliens, with added visuals from Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, History Channel's Universe series, and IMAX Cosmic Voyage. Other influences are Joseph Jastrow, Brian Swimme, and Thomas Berry. The songs explore our origins within the universe, challenging human pretentions to a superior or privileged position, either on our home planet or in the universe itself. See other SOS songs here.

Maude Barlow and the human right to water

How do we treat the global commons? "Is water a commercial good like running shoes or Coca-Cola? Or is water a human right like air?" asks Maude Barlow. Liz Marshall's new documentary Water On The Table features spokespeople from all sides of the issue, including natives affected by the tarsands. It premiered on 24 March 2010.

Every so often an idea really sticks and won’t go away – it then requires dogged determination to usher it into the world. In 2003 I read Blue Gold, Maude Barlow’s first book about the global water crisis. I was deeply inspired by her warm, poetic voice and commitment to “water justice”. In 2007 I set out to raise funds for a documentary that would capture Maude’s character and water-activism, as well as the chilling opposition to her views in Canada and the US. With the help of a stellar team of filmmakers Water On The Table was born in early 2010. – Liz Marshall

References:
Blue Planet Project and The Council of Canadians / Le Conseil des Canadiens founded by Barlow; her biography in Wikipedia; Jakob von Uexkuell's World Future Council which gave her the "right livelihood" award; research on the global commons by Quaker International Affairs Programme (QIAP); Boulder CO community network, Towards a Stewardship of the Global Commons; Johan Rockström et al. planetary boundaries, Nature (Sep 2009) (see graph below -- green indicates earth's carrying capacity; several sectors have already been exceeded. Click on graph to see it more clearly).

Roc

A turnabout speech for Stephen Harper -- by Geoff Garver

Geoff Garver co-authored Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy (Berret-Koehler, 2009). This is his imaginary turnabout speech for Canada's PM, who has so far opposed all action to meet the environmental crisis. Keith Helmuth wrote a similar speech for Pres. Obama.

"We Canadians must recognize that the economic and financial crisis we are facing is coupled with an ecological crisis that has been longer in the making and is ultimately more serious. If we do not address the ecological crisis with urgency, even as we face economic difficulties, the growing cost to ecosystems, through global warming, loss of firefighters and other global ecological threats, will be overwhelming. The time for foresight and action to prevent catastrophe is now. And in acting, we must recognize that much of the consumption in countries like Canada in the last century is driven by fossil fuels. Therefore the government of Canada commits itself to the Earth Charter, and to a drastic reduction in Canada's per capita and collective ecological footprint. The government will do its utmost to show the world that Canada can indeed live within its ecological means."

If only it were true...

*****

Additional references:
Prof. David Boyd's 40 unanswered questions to Harper -- still unanswered two years later.
GBO3 (10 May 2010) scientific report shows catastrophic decline in world biodiversity.
Canada's tarsands policy.
James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore, Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming.

Explore the desert -- by Dick Grossman

This column from the Durango Herald is reprinted with the author's permission.

It’s spring and mud season at home. What a great time to explore the desert!

Utah is one of our favorite places for spring and fall. Often we head out with no specific destination in mind: I drive and my wife leafs through our tattered copy of Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau to find a route appropriate to our speed and time available.

Slickrock above Bluff UT: LAMountaineers

Now that we are in our sixties we have been concentrating on the area around Bluff. Recapture Lodge, a well-established motel there, is happy to house us and our dog. Last spring Gail drove while I slept off a busy night on call. After a long rest in a comfortable bed and a self-service breakfast, we were ready to clamber on slickrock.

Comb Ridge seen from 36000 feet: OK-Cleek

Comb Ridge, a few miles west of Bluff, is slickrock at its best. A monocline or upthrusting of sandstone layers, its overall angle is steep enough to be interesting but not too formidable to climb. Erosion has cut the ridge into a toothy comb shape and formed many canyons and irregularities that make clambering fun. The gritty sandstone provides good traction for scrambling on steep surfaces.

There are many places to explore, but few formal trails. We usually drive along the Butler Wash road, park and look for a way across the wash.
Comb Ridge and wash: Lynn Sessions

Typically we make a big loop, going to the top of one of the teeth of the comb. The views there are amazing and the drop of a thousand feet to Comb Wash is breath taking. We descend by another route. Part of the challenge of these hikes is not getting trapped by too tall a drop-off. Another challenge is finding the car on the way back. It has a way of disappearing in the terrain’s creases.

About the only signs of human habitation are Ancestral Puebloan ruins and rock art. It is a mystery why these people abandoned the Four Corners region. One widely held theory is that they used up the resources—killed the deer, cut down all the trees, harvested the edible plants. Food was so scarce that they turned to violence and raiding neighbors. In any case, the survivors moved on to another, unspoiled area.

cryptobiotic soil: by gardengeek

We are careful to avoid walking on cryptobiotic soil. This biological frosting appears dark and irregular, as opposed to the smooth surface of blown sand. A delicate mixture of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), mosses, lichens and other living things, it helps stabilize the sandy soil that would otherwise erode from the wind and rare rain. Close to the bottom of the Ridge the hooves of careless cattle have destroyed most of this coating.

When we are lucky to be in the desert shortly after rain, we delight in finding the moss green. Brown when dry, it takes just a few seconds after water hits for this simple plant to turn green. If you don’t believe me, try giving some dry moss a drink.

We like to examine the potholes that collect what meager precipitation may fall. We kneel down beside the pools to search for their miniature animal life—insect larvae, diving beetles, or many segmented copepods. Many species that live in the desert are specially adapted to their dry environment. For instance, the tadpoles of rapidly developing spadefoot toads may swim in some of the larger puddles

These amphibians go through their life cycle unusually rapidly because water doesn’t last long in the desert. The adult toads burrow down in sand and wait for rain. They sense precipitation not by its moisture but by the vibrations it makes when it hits the ground, and by the associated thunder. The spadefoots emerge from as far as a meter underground and mate in the transient puddles. Their eggs and tadpoles must develop into adults quickly before the pools dry up.

Most of all, I love the pothole gardens that form when plants grow in depressions filled with sand and organic matter. Some are tiny, with just one plant or stunted tree. Others contain complete ecosystems with a selection of plants and maybe a mouse burrow. These gardens hold a mystery for me, that apparently has never been studied scientifically. Do they obey the biological rule that the number of species on an island varies with the island’s size?

Comb Ridge after rain: zimbio.com

We are fortunate to have so huge an area of varied desert to explore so close to home. Although it may appear barren at first, the desert contains much diversity and some unsolved mysteries.

References:
Los Alamos Mountaineers, Upper Ticaboo and Bluff Explorations
Lynn Sessions, Comb Ridge and the Posey Trail
Ned Eddins Hole in the Rock
Zimbio.com Comb Ridge (5 posts)
Healthyhomegardening.com Cryptobiotic Soil
The Anasazi in Wikipedia; and climate change, Scientific American 5 Oct 01

Death in Oaxaca -- LAWG

Making the world safe for investors can make it violently unsafe for the poor and powerless. (AP photo: CNS News)

On Tuesday, April 27th a peace caravan of 25 human rights observers, reporters and teachers was ambushed by an armed group of paramilitaries in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. We agree with Latin America Working Group (LAWG) that violent attacks on aboriginal rights are an essential part of modern "resource wars".

"They started to spray us with fire," said one of the survivors (see video). "When we tried to back up, they shot out the tires. We threw ourselves on the floor. The vehicle was shaking from the bullets."

29 Apr CSN reported that 40 people were in the caravan to the Triqui Indian mountain town of San Juan Copala. At least three other foreign accompaniers, and an unknown number of Mexicans, are missing, presumed dead.

28 Apr Boston.com said that San Juan Copala was surrounded and cut off by paramilitaries. The Caravan was meant to be a peaceful way to break the blockade.

30 Apr Amy Goodman interview traced the violence to paramilitaries (set up by PRI governor Ulises Ruiz). Of the two shot in the head, Finnish human rights activist Jyri Jaakkola had come to Oaxaca to do environmental workshops; Betty Cariño was the director of CACTUS, an organization for indigenous rights.

30 Apr Christian Peacemaker Teams said the caravan was carrying food, water, and other basic necessities. San Juan Copala declared itself an autonomous community in January 2007 in a nonviolent effort to create a space for political participation.

Similar peace-town declarations have been made in Colombia. There too, paramilitaries have attacked with impunity. In both countries, the US War on Drugs/Terror has been a pipeline for military aid to paramilitaries.

4 May CDHAL reports that death squad threats continue in Chiapas.

Socialist Project tells the story of the "Oaxaca Commune" aka APPO, and violent attacks by PRI on it since 2006. The source of the conflict is not explained but is likely encroachment by mines, paper co's, ranchers and agribusiness connected to the corrupt government, on traditional native lands. Among US resource companies in Oaxaca are Arco Resources, Rio Tinto/Kennecott, Boise Cascade and others (for a full list see below).

The conflict stems from the NAFTA "road to resources" Plan Puebla-Panama, whose corridors go through Oaxaca -- part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership plans that include tarsands pipelines, rail, bridge and truck corridors from Canada and Latin America to serve US imperial interests and corporate profits.

PPP map from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM): note the corridors running though Chiapas and Oaxaca. Click on image to see details.

1 Apr Mamaradio/Z magazine says a US military-funded mapping project is direct aid to corporate interests and Mexican opponents of indigenes. "Mapping and property rights are necessary tools to advance U.S. security strategies, such as Plan Colombia."

*****

Other references:
1 Feb interview with one of the murdered human rights accompaniers

video of repression in Oaxaca 2006
Global Exchange analysis of Plan Puebla Panama
Nadir.org and Project Censored documents on environmental impacts and earlier murders
Oaxaca Mining Wiki lists the US, Canadian and multinational companies that are profiting from death and repression
LAWGEF`s Just the Facts
CDHAL en français
LAWG is affiliated with FCNL

Fair Trade & Food of the Gods -- by Kathy Hyzy

Kathy Hyzy is a member of Multnomah Monthly Meeting in Portland, Oregon, and a regular participant in Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Physical and Spiritual Growth (aka Meeting for Chocolate.) She edits Western Friend, where she posted this article on 26 Apr 2010.

At the Quakers Uniting in Publications (QUIP) conference this past weekend, the topic of chocolate came up in conversation, as it often seems to do when I am around. A Friend requested a copy of this article, which I wrote back in 2008. I thought others might also find it useful- enjoy!

*****

As some Friends can attest, one of the most pleasurable ways to connect with Quaker history is by nibbling on a bit of chocolate. Known as Theobroma cacao to botanists, the history of this “food of the gods” is closely intertwined with that of the Society of Friends. However, finding chocolate that honors our Quaker heritage along with Quaker values such as equality and integrity can be challenging in modern times. Industrious Friends and Chocolate Friends’ interest in chocolate has its roots in England’s Industrial Age. Although chocolate had been brought from the New World perhaps as early as the mid-1500’s, it remained a beverage of the elite until the Industrial Revolution.

Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer
The Frys, a Quaker family, changed all this in two ways: with the use of a steam engine to grind the beans (previously work done by mortar and pestle), and in 1847, the invention of the chocolate bar. No longer merely a beverage, chocolate took off, and the Royal Navy enlisted J.S. Fry & Sons in the effort to sober up their soldiers, replacing daily grog rations with chocolate bars. Other Quakers throughout history also advocated chocolate as a substitute for alcohol as part of the temperance movement. Best known in the U.S. for the Eastertime Cadbury Egg, Cadbury’s remains one of the world’s best-recognized names in chocolate.

John Cadbury, a Quaker from Birmingham, started his chocolate empire as a modest shop in 1824. At the time, chocolate was just beginning to gain in popularity with the masses, and the Cadburys managed to tap into the market with great success: by 1853, Cadbury’s became Queen Victoria’s personal supplier.

To support this success, the Cadburys built Bournville (see pictures), a model factory town outside of Birmingham. The “factory in a garden” featured sturdy housing, gardens for workers, reading and dining halls, quarters for pensioners, and educational programs for workers and their families. After several years of service, workers received a savings account. Cadbury’s was also the first company to adopt the 5-1/2 day workweek. By 1919, 7,500 workers lived in Bourneville. Modern-day Quakers may recognize Bourneville as the site of Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, located in the Cadbury’s former family home.

Hershey PA Gardens

Other Quaker chocolatiers such as Fry, Rowntree, and even Milton Hershey in Pennsylvania, went on to build similarly appointed factory towns and to provide for the well-being of their workers.

The Dark Side of Chocolate

Although the factories where cacao beans were processed into cocoa and chocolate bars were humane, Friends have had a much harder time addressing the inequalities found on cacao plantations. Native to the South American tropics, cacao trees will only grow within ten degrees of the Equator, preferably as part of a tropical forest understory. This means that the vast majority of cacao is grown in countries with poor human rights records. Over 40% of today’s cacao comes from the Ivory Coast and Ghana, two African nations well-known for child slavery and worker abuses. Other cacao producers include Indonesia and numerous South American countries.

In some circumstances, Quakers were able to make a difference on cacao plantations. After witnessing firsthand the near-slavery of laborers in Portugese West Africa, the Frys boycotted West African cacao until conditions improved. Despite this good example, the Cadburys are known to have turned a blind eye to the forced labor, death rates as high as 20% per year, and other horrors occurring in the same region—the source of over half their cacao beans. It wasn’t until 1909, after the story broke in English newspapers, that the Cadburys boycotted West African cacao.

Guilt-Free Confections
modern child slavery, from The Walrus Said
Sadly, West Africa’s legacy of slavery and worker abuse remains alive and well today, as does its predominance of the world cacao market. A 2002 study of four West African cacao-producing countries by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture estimates that 284,000 children work on cacao plantations. Many of these children work twelve-hour days, receive little or no schooling, and regularly apply pesticides, wield machetes, and undertake other dangerous labor. As many as 12,000 of these children may be slaves, sold into service by parents from surrounding countries. Cacao workers have also suffered from years of depressed cacao prices, often earning less per pound than the cost of production. Though prices have risen in recent years, global markets continue to be unstable and unfair.

However, fair trade certified chocolates are a way to eat sweets without a heavy heart. Fair trade certification provides a variety of benefits, including a reasonable minimum per pound rate and environmental standards for farming practices. Worker ownership is encouraged, and child labor and forced labor are banned. Although organic standards differ depending on the certifier (USDA, Oregon Tilth, and Organic Trade Association are just a few), they often include some elements relating to fair labor—so in a pinch, if fair trade chocolate is unavailable, reach for organic. And don’t forget to thank our Quaker forebears for their chocolaty contributions to our physical and spiritual well-being!

Sources:
Global Exchange
Equiterre (Canada)
Sophie & Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate, Thames and Hudson 2nd ed. 2007.
Lowell J. Satre, Chocolate on Trial: Slavery, Politics, and the Ethics of Business, Ohio U Press 2005.

Much like coffee, fair trade chocolate is rapidly gaining popularity in the U.S. Although more expensive than other chocolates, the small premium buys a great deal of peace of mind. The following is a partial list of nationally marketed fair-trade chocolates; seek them out at your local co-op or natural foods store.

• Dagoba Chocolate
• Equal Exchange Endangered Species Chocolate
• Green & Black’s Divine Chocolate
• Global Exchange
• Theo Chocolates