Iran protests to save Lake Urmia -- by Fred Petrossian

See Wikipedia on Lake Urmia, the homeland of the ancient Persians; it was known as Chichast ("glittering") because of mineral particles shining in the water. The world's second largest salt lake, it has a unique semi-desert ecosystem. Photos from saveurmia.com

(Reprinted from Global Voices Online 28 Aug 2011)

Once again thousands of protesters have poured into streets of Tabriz and Urmia in Iran's Azerbaijan region on Saturday to call on the Iranian government to save the dying Urmia Lake, one of the world's largest salt water lakes.

From dying lake to saving country

Lake Urmia 1984: NASA

Iranian authorities quickly reacted by repressing protesters. The news was censored in Iran-based media, but several video were posted on YouTube and bloggers flooded cyber world with their posts. Blogger Urmuiscierli writes [fa] that there were battles on the streets with security forces beating up and arresting protesters, and even tying them to trees. Some bloggers called on more Iranians to support the Azeri activists and relaunch anti-regime demonstrations around country.

The construction of a dam on part of the lake, accompanied by a recent drought has significantly decreased the annual amount of water Urmia receives. This in turn has increased the salinity, repelling many birds and threatening permanent damage to the ecosystem. If the lake dries out, millions of people in the region will need to resettle to survive.

Protesters in Urmia

In Urmia, people say the lake is dying and that the authorities are responsible. Azarakan writes [fa] that the spark started in Azerbaijan, and that we should now support their struggle and do what we can to stop regime forces repressing Azeri people. He says, this is a rare opportunity and that we should go on until freedom.

1freecountry writes [fa] that Urmia Lake does not distinguish between Tehran and Tabriz, we should organize in coming days everywhere. Mosbate1000 says [fa] that:

Revolutionary Guards are responsible for constructing such dams to make a lot of profit. We should be aware of the cyber army of the Revolutionary Guards. In such occasions they post and share links to divide Iranians.

Doughodushab calls on [fa] Iranians to defend Urmia Lake and Azerbaijan. The blogger writes that we are all trapped by the Islamic regime and should protect our natural and cultural heritage.

Andarbab suggests [fa] that this Tuesday in Tehran and other cities people protest and demonstrate for supporting Azerbaijan.

Consume less -- by Richard Grossman

Reprinted with the author's permission, this article appeared in today's Durango Herald.

There is something you can do that is likely to make you happier, healthier, save money and lessen your impact on the planet. What is it? Consume less by practicing simpler living.

I usually focus on human population growth, but consumption is an issue that affects our impact on the planet just as much.

A child born in a developing country will have only a fraction of the impact that a child would have in the United States. This illustrates that it is not just the numbers of people but also the resources they use (and the pollution they cause) that really matters. Furthermore, consumption is growing faster than population growth. Worldwide our numbers are increasing by 1 % per year while consumption is skyrocketing at 2 to 4 %.

Costa Rica is a good example of a nation that approaches sustainability. We lived in Monteverde for three months recently, giving us personal experience with the differences from the USA.

The income of an average Costa Rican (or “Tico”, to use their nickname) is significantly less than that of an “American”. Our buying power is about $47,000 per person each year, but in Costa Rica it is less than a quarter of that, at $11,000. Obviously Ticos consume less than do norteamericanos.

Yet Ticos appear to be happier than Americans. One measure, the Satisfaction with Life Index, rates Ticos higher (13^th in the world) than Americans (just 23^rd).

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Could this trip be any better?

Most Ticos do not own cars, but use their feet or public transportation to travel. When we lived up in Monteverde we walked to do errands. Sometimes we enjoyed the luxury of a taxi if it was pouring or if we had a lot to carry. When we traveled from the Monteverde area we did so by bus. It cost only the equivalent of eight dollars for the four-hour trip to the capital, San José!

Doesn’t relative poverty cause poor health? No! On average, Ticos live a year or two longer than Americans! The emphasis there is on primary and preventative health care. I don’t remember seeing a really obese Tico; people are physically active and fast food is uncommon. Indeed, I lost weight when eating my favorite Costa Rican food, gallo pinto—but that’s another story.

What is the secret of Costa Rica? It is unique in the world in that it emphasizes education and health. It has no military—that’s right, none! Instead it provides free health care to all citizens and free education through high school. In contrast, the USA spends a huge fraction of our finances on the military. Part of our expenditure is to support our extravagant use of petroleum, which largely comes from far away. A large portion of our military might is used to gain and protect sources of petroleum. Furthermore, our military consumes huge amounts of oil.

Contraception is free and available to all Ticos as part of their health care. Funding for family planning in the USA, however, has been shrinking when measured in real dollars, and its very existence has been jeopardized with recent political changes. (Abortion is illegal in Costa Rica, although a few abortions are done surreptitiously.)

The saying “development is the best contraceptive” became popular during Reagan’s presidency. As people get richer, they do tend to have smaller families. Unfortunately, they also consume more and have greater impact. Furthermore, more refined studies have found that really rich people have larger families than moderately rich families.


The Tico lifestyle uses much less of the planet’s resources and adds less pollution to the environment. Costa Rica has also preserved a greater proportion of its land as parks than any other country in the world. Its rain and cloud forests have become a major tourist destination, and a major source of income. Almost all electricity in Costa Rica comes from renewable sources—hydro and wind—but it is affordable for all.

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

The Ecological Footprint (an excellent measure of an individual's impact) of the average Tico is 2.8 hectares (6.8 acres). This is close to the average area of productive land available to each person—if we all had this EF we would be using the planet’s resources sustainably.   

We cannot all move to Costa Rica. We here in the USA can, however, endeavor to reduce our consumption. People who choose "simple living" (or a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity) work less, spend less, and enjoy life more. Most important is that they are happier and have less impact on the planet.

Earthrise -- by William Anders

This photo of "earthrise" was taken by astronaut William Anders in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission. It has been called "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken." Edgar Mitchell who is quoted here, piloted the lunar module on the Apollo 14 mission, 1971. He later took up the cause of Roswell UFO enthusiasts, and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences with Deepak Chopra, Marilyn Schlitz, Dean Radin, and Cassandra Vieten. The US-NASA space program came to an end in 2011.

Wonderful Life: 8.7 Million species -- announces a new study by Mora, Tittensor, Adi, Simpson, Worm.

Cross-posted from UNEP News Centre.

Photo: UNEP, shutterstock/Tischenko Irina

There are 8.7 million (+/- 1.3m) species on Earth, three times previous counts and the most precise calculation yet. Until now, the number of species on Earth was said to fall somewhere between 3 million and 100 million. The new study was published today by PLoS.

Around 6.5 million species are found on land and 2.2 million (about 25 percent of the total) in the ocean. 86% of the former and 91% of the latter have yet to be discovered, described or catalogued.
The 8.7 million estimate  is based on an innovative, validated analytical technique that dramatically narrows the range of previous estimates.

Says lead author Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada: "The question of how many species exist has intrigued scientists for centuries and the answer, coupled with research by others into species' distribution and abundance, is particularly important now because a host of human activities and influences are accelerating the rate of extinctions. Many species may vanish before we even know of their existence, of their unique niche and function in ecosystems, and of their potential contribution to improved human wellbeing."

"This work deduces the most basic number needed to describe our living biosphere," says coauthor Boris Worm of Dalhousie University. "If we did not know - even by an order of magnitude (1 million? 10 million? 100 million?) - the number of people in a nation, how would we plan for the future?"
"It is the same with biodiversity. Humanity has committed itself to saving species from extinction, but until now we have had little real idea of even how many there are."

Dr. Worm notes that the recently-updated Red List issued by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature assessed 59,508 species, of which 19,625 are classified as threatened. This means the IUCN Red List, the most sophisticated ongoing study of its kind, monitors less than 1% of world species.

The research is published with a commentary by Lord Robert May of Oxford, past president of the UK's Royal Society, who praises the researchers' "imaginative new approach." He says, "It is a remarkable testament to humanity's narcissism that we know the number of books in the US Library of Congress on 1 February 2011 was 22,194,656, but cannot tell you - to within an order-of-magnitude - how many distinct species of plants and animals we share our world with... we increasingly recognise that such knowledge is important for full understanding of the ecological and evolutionary processes which created, and which are struggling to maintain, the diverse biological riches we are heir to. Such biodiversity is much more than beauty and wonder, important though that is. It also underpins ecosystem services [not counted by conventional economics] that humanity is dependent upon."

Drawing conclusions from 253 years of taxonomy since Linnaeus

Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus created and published in 1758 the system still used to formally name and describe species. In the 253 years since, about 1.25 million species - roughly 1 million on land and 250,000 in the oceans - have been described and entered into central databases (roughly 700,000 more are thought to have been described but have yet to reach the central databases).

To now, the best approximation of Earth's species total was based on the educated guesses and opinions of experts, who variously pegged the figure in a range from 3 to 100 million ? wildly differing numbers questioned because there is no way to validate them.

Drs. Mora and Worm, together with Dalhousie colleagues Derek P. Tittensor, Sina Adl and Alastair G.B. Simpson, refined the estimated species total to 8.7 million by identifying numerical patterns within the taxonomic classification system (which groups forms of life in a pyramid-like hierarchy, ranked upwards from species to genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom and domain). Analysing the taxonomic clustering of the 1.2 million species today in the Catalogue of Life and the World Register of Marine Species, the researchers discovered reliable numerical relationships between the more complete higher taxonomic levels and the species level.

Says Dr. Adl: "We discovered that, using numbers from the higher taxonomic groups, we can predict the number of species. The approach accurately predicted the number of species in several well-studied groups such as mammals, fishes and birds, providing confidence in the method."

When applied to all five known eukaryote* kingdoms of life on Earth, the approach predicted:
1) ~7.77 million species of animals (of which 953,434 have been described and cataloged)
2) ~298,000 species of plants (of which 215,644 have been described and cataloged)
3) ~611,000 species of fungi (moulds, mushrooms) (of which 43,271 have been described and
cataloged)
4) ~36,400 species of protozoa (single-cell organisms with animal-like behavior, eg. movement,
of which 8,118 have been described and cataloged)
5) ~27,500 species of chromists (including, eg. brown algae, diatoms, water moulds, of which 13,033 have been described and cataloged)
Total: 8.74 million eukaryote species on Earth.
(* Organisms in the eukaryote domain have cells containing complex structures enclosed within membranes. The study looked only at forms of life accorded, or potentially accorded, the status of "species" by scientists. Not included: certain micro-organisms and virus "types", for example, which could be highly numerous.)

Within the 8.74 million total is an estimated 2.2 million (plus or minus 180,000) marine species of all kinds, about 250,000 (11%) of which have been described and catalogued. When it formally concluded in October 2010, the Census of Marine Life offered a conservative estimate of 1 million+ species in the seas.

"Like astronomers, marine scientists are using sophisticated new tools and techniques to peer into places never seen before," says Australian Ian Poiner, Chair of the Census' Scientific Steering Committee. "During the 10-year Census, hundreds of marine explorers had the unique human experience and privilege of encountering and naming animals new to science. We may clearly enjoy the Age of Discovery for many years to come."

"The immense effort entering all known species in taxonomic databases such as the Catalogue of Life and the World Register of Marine Species makes our analysis possible," says co-author Derek Tittensor, who also works with Microsoft Research and UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre. "As these databases grow and improve, our method can be refined and updated to provide an even more precise estimate."

"We have only begun to uncover the tremendous variety of life around us," says co-author Alastair Simpson. "The richest environments for prospecting new species are thought to be coral reefs, seafloor mud and moist tropical soils. But smaller life forms are not well known anywhere. Some unknown species are living in our own backyards - literally."

"Awaiting our discovery are a half million fungi and moulds whose relatives gave humanity bread and cheese," says Jesse Ausubel, Vice-President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and cofounder of the Census of Marine Life. "For species discovery, the 21st century may be a fungal century!"
Mr. Ausubel notes the enigma of why so much diversity exists, saying the answer may lie in the notions that nature fills every niche, and that rare species are poised to benefit from a change of conditions.

In his analysis, Lord May says the practical benefits of taxonomic discovery are many, citing the development in the 1970s of a new strain of rice based on a cross between conventional species and one discovered in the wild. The result: 30% more grain yield, followed by efforts ever since to protect all wild varieties of rice, "which obviously can only be done if we have the appropriate taxonomic knowledge."

"Given the looming problems of feeding a still-growing world population, the potential benefits of ramping up such exploration are clear."

Based on current costs and requirements, the study suggests that describing all remaining species using traditional approaches could require up to 1,200 years of work by more than 300,000 taxonomists at an approximate cost of $US 364 billion. Fortunately, new techniques such as DNA barcoding are radically reducing the cost and time involved in new species identification.

Concludes Dr. Mora: "With the clock of extinction now ticking faster for many species, I believe speeding the inventory of Earth's species merits high scientific and societal priority. Renewed interest in further exploration and taxonomy could allow us to fully answer this most basic question: What lives on Earth?"

***

For a seminal work on the fragility of life on earth, see the late Stephen Jay Gould's Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (1989); and Elizabeth Kolbert, "The sixth extinction" from Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (2006). For the latest PES campaign, see UNEP, An Ecosystems Approach to Water and Food Security (Aug 2011) and Wikipedia on PES.

Grassy Narrows First Nation Wins Anti-Logging Court Case

(For the history of this case, see our previous post 7 Aug 2011). The Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) has just won its court case in Ontario, after 11 years. This is a landmark in the right to FPIC ("free prior and informed consent" in UNDRIP, which Canada has been doing its best to sabotage). The following news is cross-posted from the native network Indian Country Today.

photo: Schledewitz redlineagency.com, via Grassy Narrows First Nation

In a lengthy decision, Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson ruled that the province of Ontario, which had authorized logging on the lands, had overstepped its bounds. Logging and mining rights, she explained, are established by treaty and therefore a federal and not provincial issue. In a triumphant press release, Chief Simon Fobister said that the decision ultimately “will require protecting the way of life of the Anishinaabe who were here before the logging industry came to these lands and will be here after the logging companies have moved on to other forests.”

An article in the Globe and Mail paraphrased the insights of Robert Janes, the lawyer for the Grassy Narrows First Nation, who said Justice Sanderson conceded that “the federal government promised to defend their rights, but hasn’t done so for many years.” Janes also said the ruling would have repercussions for numerous other cases in Canada.

Grassy Narrows activists have been actively and successfully blockading Slant Lake against logging trucks since December 2, 2002; an article from March of this year at Missisauga.com said the blockade is one of the longest-running in Canadian history, and that Amnesty International has taken up the Grassy Narrows cause with the provincial government.

***

See also:
-- video by Jennifer Preston of CFSC explaining her 20-year involvement in UNDRIP and FPIC, what they mean to Quakers and native peoples. This is the best analysis I know. It will soon be posted on the CFSC website with other key documents.

-- web archives of native groups' testimony at the 16th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering (July 2011); and of UN hearings on UNDRIP and FPIC

-- The Mining Mini-grants Program of Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and Western Mining Action Network (WMAN) to assure that mining projects do not adversely affect human, cultural, and ecological health of native communities in the U.S. and Canada.

Guarding Eden -- new book by Deborah Hart

Deborah Hart is a mother of two and climate activist who left her day job in Australian arts and culture organisations to found LIVE, a local climate change action with more than 3,000 supporters and  CLIMARTE, for artist activists.


Guarding Eden brings together visions, actions, and life stories. Its themes include climate, water, food, animals, forests. The website is adding additional material for a series. See this list of contributors from Australia and around the world.

Allana Beltran as "The Weld Angel" forest guardian, March 2007, Weld Valley Tasmania - Photo: Matthew Newton

The site announces, "We follow the work of people who are driving change to implement sustainable solutions, and provide readers with the means through which to connect with a powerful, rapidly growing grassroots environment movement."

Urban peace testimony -- Elaine Bishop

This item is excerpted from Vince Zelazny's blog about CYM 2011, Wish you were here.

Elaine Bishop, Co-recording Clerk at CYM sessions, with Dave Grossman of Home Mission and Advancement Committee.

Elaine Bishop's Urban Peace Testimony developed around her neighbourhood and place of work, the North Point Douglas Womens Centre in Winnipeg. I asked Elaine to elaborate on what an urban peace testimony was.  Peace testimony has been a movement to abolish war, and later, grew to incorporate a movement to create or cultivate peace. Elaine credits Meredith Egan with coining the term ‘urban peace testimony’, but found on reflection that it makes sense as a focus of inquiry.


We have a poor understanding of peace in relation to urban life. We understand land poorly in relation to urban areas and land ownership. To cultivate urban peace, people need food, water, adequate housing, safety from domestic and other forms of violence, friendship, spiritual nurture, and a whole host of things.

In Manitoba, there has been a huge influx of aboriginal people into the city of Winnipeg from the northern communities. This movement parallels depopulation of rural areas and rural influx of impoverished people happening in many countries of the global south. There are issues of safety that are emergent and pose a danger to new arrivals in the city, especially young women.

The Point Douglas Neighbourhood was recently in the news due to an unfortunate event where a person set fire to a rooming house in which four people died. This was publicised nationally by nearly all media. What was not reported was that the Womens centre immediately became involved by organizing prayers, memorials,  and smudging ceremonies on the site where the incident took place. A similar thing was done a year earlier at a nearby bus stop where a person had died in a violent attack. Spiritual nurture and healing thus are central elements of an urban peace testimony.  The centre also undertook environmental projects and a walking school bus, in an effort to promote normal, peaceful life.  CFSC collaborated with the Womens Centre to present a level 1 AVP workshop, and a level 2 workshop is also planned.  Step by step, the outlines of an urban peace testimony in north Winnipeg is emerging.

Clear cutting our way of life: native testimony from Grassy Narrows -- by Tim Nafziger with Peter Haresnape

CPT delegates at Grassy Narrows

This article originally appeared in Christian Peacemaker Teams' newsletter Signs of the Times (Apr-Jun 2011) along with many other stories of CPT work around the world.

(* = names below have been changed to protect the innocent.)

Grassy Narrows First Nation, Ontario: As a child, Fred* followed the trap line with his family in the winter.  Then the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took him away from his family and placed him in a residential school where staff beat him if he spoke his language.

Over 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were placed in church-run residential schools.[6]  The first were established in the 1840s and the last one closed just 15 years ago in 1996.  Recorded mortality rates at these schools reached as high as 69% through a combination of poor nutrition, brutal discipline, disease, abuse and neglect.

Dryden pulp mill used mercury

Eventually, Fred was able to rejoin his family and return to his community’s traditional ways of hunting and fishing.  Then the Dryden Chemical Company dumped 9,000 kilos of mercury into the English River water system.  Consumption of mercury-contaminated fish over a sustained period causes permanent damage to the nervous system.  

Today Fred shows prominent signs of Minamata disease caused by severe mercury poisoning.  His symptoms include slurred speech, shaky hands and an unsteady walk. Many others in the community show symptoms as well, but only 38% receive any compensation.[1]

Jay* was walking home from school on the reserve one day when a driver pulled up and offered him a ride home.  But the car didn’t take him home.  It took him to a foster home.  It wasn’t until his mid-twenties that Jay finally got back home to Grassy Narrows.

Appalling as they are, these stories are neither isolated nor even unusual.  They point to the ongoing strategy of targeting children in a systemic process of destroying indigenous language, culture and identity.  As the residential school system began to decline, child welfare agencies increasingly relied on foster care as a means to this end.  In 1959, 1% of indigenous children were removed from their parents.  By the late 1960s, the rate was 30-40%.[2]  Today, indigenous children are three times more likely to be placed in state care than non-indigenous children.[3]

recent clearcut, from Amnesty report

Charles Wagamese of Grassy Narrows First Nation describes the foster care system as “clear-cutting” their way of life [4]  – undermining their culture through destroying intergenerational relationships just like intensive logging in the forest destroys whole ecosystems. [5]

Understanding the many layers of oppression that colonialism inflicts on communities like Grassy Narrows is a necessary part of standing in solidarity with them.  Learning this history is a first step in working to undo these oppressions.

Notes

[1] J. Rebick, "40 years later people at Grassy Narrows are still suffering mercury poisoning" Canadian Dimension blog 5 Jul 2010.
[2] E. Alston-O’Connor, "The Sixties Scoop", quoting Fournier and Crey, (1997) p. 83.
[3] "The Sixties Scoop: How Canada’s “Best Intentions” Proved Catastrophic", First Nations Drum (Mar 2009).
[4] Youtube video "The scars of mercury". See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Minamata_disease
[5] Abitibi and Weyerhauser corporations have been clear-cutting the region's forests. See reports in No One is Illegal, freegrassy.org/; Amnesty International's open letter to Ontario premier (2008) and its report (2009) with photos of native teens blockading logging roads and the Trans-Canada highway.
[6] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_reconciliation_commission#Canada

 ***

(For the full story, read Trip reports of Christian Peacemaker Teams Kenora / Asubpeeschoseewagong (2009-2010) on the CPT website. After the 2010 road blockade, the province finally admitted "numerous concerns" and started land-use negotiations. The governments' game is endless delay. The province's negotiations drag on, while the government jails protesters and native elders. Ottawa for years delayed ratification of UNDRIP for "free, prior, and informed consent" with natives before issuing permits for mining etc, and has yet to take concrete action. Despite lip service, colonialist policies continue, with callous disregard for native rights. - Ed.)

Climate Change Caravan in Bangladesh, Nov-Dec 2011

From the 15th of November to the 4th of December 2011, a climate change caravan will journey across the length of Bangladesh. From Sonarhat in the north to Barisal in the south, the caravan will cover 18 different sub districts in the country to gather together people's stories of climate change, gender and food sovereignty. Organized by Bangladesh Krishok Federation and Bangladesh Kishani Sabha (see the Via Campesina report on BKS workshops in Climate Change and Bangladesh), the caravan is a unique opportunity for people across the world to get a view from below and learn from ordinary Bengalis.

Oct 2010 mass march: photo BKS

Workshops, education programs, and connecting with international solidarity groups are part of the movement across Bangladesh. The country and its people are already experiencing the impacts of climate change: more frequent cyclones, droughts, and rising sea levels.

BKF and BKS appeal to people from various parts of the world to join this caravan. The cost incurred by participants from the northern countries will also be used to support a Bangaldeshi or a South Asian to participate in the Caravan. The deadline for applying is the 24th of August --  info can be found here.

***

Thanks to 350.org for this advance notice.

Texas Exceptionalism -- by Ty Cashion

(presented at the 115^th annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association, El Paso, March 3, 2011. Ty Cashion is Professor of History at Sam Houston State University and is presently working on a book manuscript, “Will Western History Ride Again?” & Other Tales of Texas and Regional Identity from the Intellectual Frontier).

Photo: Ty Cashion and son touring Huntsville prison. 

The following excerpt, written by Benjamin Moser for a recent issue of The American Scholar, represented to me a dilemma that speaks to the central issues we’ll be discussing, while also demonstrating the challenges our field faces:

The lack of literature defines Texas generally. Texas is a central part of the country at the center of the modern world. It has educated people, outstanding universities, extensive libraries, rich foundations. But it has produced remarkably few books. Its bibliography reads less like that of California or New York or Massachusetts and more like that of a middling Latin republic. A visiting historian, turning from the study of Ecuador to the study of Texas, could do so with little strain. In both places, he would find exhaustive accounts of ancient battles. He would find detailed descriptions of native cultures. He would find warm biographies of great leaders. He would find uncritical, well-illustrated books published by large companies to celebrate industry and culture. He would find statistics and archives. He would find antiquarian depictions of customs and mores bearing little resemblance to the behavior of the people around him. His hosts would recommend the place's official writers, unknown abroad and unread at home.

If our visiting historian probed beneath this thick bedrock, he—or she—would also discover a stratum of scholarship whose range of subjects and methodological sophistication compares favorably with works produced about California, New York, and Massachusetts, over which Poindexters with subscriptions to The American Scholar have cooed and clucked. Competition for the most recent scholarly book prize awarded annually by the Texas Institute of Letters provides an appropriate case in point. Just as Benjamin Moser imparted, most of the volumes among thirty entries recounted ancient battles, described native cultures, introduced us to great leaders, and depicted the state’s customs and mores. As representations of his generalizations, however, they could not have provided a starker contrast.

Paul Carlson and Tom Crum, for example, in Myth, Memory, & Massacre, recast the “ancient battle” of Pease River as a kind of frontier My Lai. The “native culture” of fox chasing, which Thad Sitton brings to life in Gray Ghosts & Red Rangers, compels us to reconsider the complexities of race and class. Then, there is the “warm biography” rehabilitating our carpetbagger governor, Edmund J. Davis, by Carl Moneyhon. Likewise, we might also contemplate the “customs and mores” depicted in the social landscapes and racialized identities of the edited volume, Recovering the Hispanic History of Texas. Rest assured that other entries—books about women, the Texas left, free labor, and the environment, along with a selection about the resident slackers who keep Austin weird and two books concerning the politicians who make it bizarre—could just as easily have made the same point. The upward thrust of this historiographical incline, moreover, is no recent phenomenon.

Anyone who truly keeps up with their Lone Star historiography, then, would be left flabbergasted over such a critical assessment of Texas letters. Flabbergasted, that is, not for the fact that it missed the mark so widely, but because someone as well-credentialed as Benjamin Moser—a native Houstonian, an editor at the Harvill Press in London, and a former New Books Columnist for Harper’s Magazine, with degrees from such prestigious universities as Brown and Utrecht—should know better.

Each year since the new millennium began, publishers have turned out close to two hundred books about Texas, which accrues to about two thousand titles over the course of the first decade. They have also laid the ax to about as many trees on behalf of California and New York as they have on Texas, which personally, I found surprising. But, as Moser’s article made plain, it wasn’t really numbers that he had in mind anyway; it was the give and take between scholarly and popular representations of history and culture that seem to redeem the sacrifice of all those trees in some places, and make it a waste of natural resources in others.

I must presume that in California, New York, and Massachusetts, the pulp slung at casual readers is typically informed by substance that is lacking in the popular history Texas produces. Yet, I can assure you that what passes for scholarship in Texas too often suffers from the myopic defects associated with the writing of local history. Our visiting historian, in fact, might find it difficult to distinguish between the lines where popular history ends, and where scholarship begins.

More important, our visiting historian would be hard pressed to find a tradition of intellectual history that is capable of navigating the currents of thought that subsume our prolific, but checkered canon. That’s another defect inherent in local history. The intellectual tradition of Texas is the intellectual tradition of the South; it is the intellectual tradition of the West; it is the intellectual tradition of the Borderlands. Yet, while Texas figures prominently in the history of the latter field, it has scarcely registered in the historiographies of the South and the West since the mainstreams in those fields began emerging from the shadows of their progenitors during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Someone wanting to know what makes the South tick might readily reach for C. Vann Woodward’s Burden of Southern History. Similarly, Patricia Limerick’s Legacy of Conquest explains the nature of the West. If our visiting historian bought the rhetoric of popular history contending that the land sandwiched between those regions represents something exceptional, he might dredge up Seven Keys to Texas, a product of intellectual alchemy so flawed by lapses of logic and rebarbative racism that not a single scholar dignified it with a review. At the same time, no one stepped forward to condemn it. Moreover, the Texas Historical Commission named its own scholarly book prize for the author of that corrupted work. What kind of signal does that send to our colleagues in other fields?

If you had figured at the outset that I was going to dismiss Benjamin Moser’s observation as merely the product of highbrow condescension, let me tell you—we need to take this guy seriously. To do otherwise would be a grave mistake. Especially since such a highly regarded publication as The American Scholar shotgunned his considered judgment to an erudite public that no doubt accepted it at face value. There’s no profit in avoiding issues that beg exploration, and investigating why the American intelligentsia so casually dismisses the writing of Texas history is worthy of a full-blown expedition. Sure, too many of those two-thousand books about Texas were written by Texans for a particular kind of Texan, evidence the disproportionate number of reprints of old classics that fuel the demand for new works on kindred topics. The dense haze and insufferable pong of the gunsmoke and horseshit that characterizes traditional Texas history, however, should not be reason enough to explain why Texans who have written with a wider audience in mind remain mostly “unknown abroad and unread at home,” to twist the critic’s phrase.

While the generalizations Moser articulated might be in error, the perception that Texas lacks a substantial bibliography surely exists, but not as emphatically as his implication that what has been written is inconsequential. Such misguided impressions so widely taken for granted represent an appropriate point of departure for framing the discussion of some larger issues. Central to any conversation is the untenable claim that Texas is somehow exceptional in the American experience, or “Texceptional,” to use my own neologism. This notion has cultivated the shallow and ideologically motivated self-perception that Texans commonly embrace. Before moving on, let’s clear up this matter by making a few unadorned observations.

If you were to ask the first ten typical Texans you encounter on the street if there’s anything about their land that’s special, I’ll bet at least nine of them would reflexively declare that it is the only state to have enjoyed the status of nationhood. Depending on how you slice it, several states could make such a claim, but none of them tugs at the fabric of Texceptionalism quite like Hawaii. It gained recognition in 1843 as an independent state and even went by the official title, the Republic of Hawaii, during the five years preceding its annexation by joint resolution. “Joint resolution.” Now, there’s a phrase that should sound familiar to any red-blooded Texan.  The chief difference between Hawaii and Texas is that in 1898 the islanders had been compelled at the point of a bayonet to surrender their sovereignty to become a territory, whereas a half century earlier Texans voted willingly and overwhelmingly to swap nationhood for statehood.

Map courtesy of rootsweb.

There also exist a few other holes in that Texceptionalist cloth where logic presents a moth’s banquet.  At the bottom line, only four territories truly broke the American mold.  Perceptions of “Islander” Hawaii, “Indian” Oklahoma, “Mormon” Utah, and “Mexican” New Mexico speak for themselves.  The idea that Texas also represents a land apart becomes significantly weaker by comparison.  In the same way, the Texas brag equating bigness with exceptionalism suddenly takes on the tinny ring of rank sophistry. Rather than continue debating this issue, let me go ahead and concede the point that Texas is unique—just like the other 49 states. Now, let’s move on and talk about matters of substance.

Largely because Texceptionalism resides in the domain of popular culture, historians have seldom taken its associated brags and stereotypes seriously. In the absence of any meaningful scholarly challenge, it has dulled the work of Texas studies attempting to fix the state within regional contexts. Conversely, it has provided a convenient pretext for western and southern historians to discount the significance of Texas within the scope of their research. Judging by so many unqualified exclusions, I suspect that when regional historians set out to produce works intended to be regionally inclusive, they weigh Texas in the balance and realize their choice—they can either ignore it, or become Texas historians in their spare time.

The reluctance of regional historians to include Texas in their studies can be attributed only in part to an inability to distinguish where popular history ends and scholarship begins. Being unable to distinguish where the South ends and the West begins accounts for the balance. Yet, in a profession where inquisitiveness is otherwise endemic, the poverty of meaningful debate between southern and western historians over the role that Texas has played in the development of these regions is bewildering. It’s also unwarranted. While distinguishing between the two sections is not a facile exercise, neither does it present an insuperable problem. By virtue of training, consider that to a southern historian, all of Texas is southern, because figuratively the beholder is standing in the South listening for echoes. As Walter Buenger, whose Path to a Modern South demonstrated, you don’t have to cup a hand to your ear to pick up the strains of Dixie reverberating from even the farthest corners of the state.

As a matter of perception, the collective ear of western historians tilts toward incipient voices. They do not emanate from every part of Texas. Standing somewhere out yonder in an unambiguous West, the kindred patois becomes detectable in places where history and memory suggest that the Old South’s time was passing, and the West’s moment in time was at hand. The dominant DNA of the Texan West can surely be traced to the Old South, but, to channel Progressive era historian Frederick Jackson Turner, the parent culture just as surely lost its vigor along an indistinct frontier line, where the transformative power of adaptation imparted renewed vitality. What emerged in the gathering momentum was something regionally distinct. We can still debate where the West begins, but if we acknowledge that it is not a corollary to the limits of the South, then some seemingly complicated issues no longer appear so convoluted.

Allegory of Manifest Destiny ca. 1872 by John Gant

That brings us back to the impediment of Texceptionalism. This guiding mythology residing at the core of the state’s traditional history resonates so strongly in the popular imagination that it has actually left us bereft of a usable past. As a representation of our historical memory, consider that the conventional metanarrative is informed by rugged individualism, Manifest Destiny, and Social Darwinism. Those who continue clinging to such a past are loath to concede that directly ahead of us lies a new age that is unavoidable, where the limits of the global frontier, the environment, and American imperialism are already in view. To continue seeking an identity and values in a nineteenth-century frontier ethos seems not only antediluvian, but dysfunctional as well.

Today our own intelligentsia generally embraces the premise that Texans, regardless of background, are one people who share a common experience. No one owns the proprietary right to tell how our history unfolded. The story that belongs to people of color as well as women and different ethnicities and social classes, and from their point of view, is just as legitimate as that of the Anglo-Texan male. As producing scholars, we have demonstrated an increasing appreciation for the progressive developments that inform the interpretive work of our colleagues in related fields, whether regional and Borderlands studies, economic, or environmental history, or human studies in ethnicity, gender, and culture.

Any reconfigured metanarrative that draws from such a progressive historiography must acknowledge on one hand the fin de siecle that renders the traditional history unusable, and, on the other, the emergence of a multicultural, post-Christian American society of which Texas is a part. Like it or not, the Anglo ascension that began with the filibustering campaigns of the late eighteenth century has just about run its course. Rest assured that such a transformation no more portends Anglo-Texan subjugation by ethnic Texans any more than Christianity will become usurped by paganism. It merely means that others count, and that Christianity is losing its monopoly, if not its followers, in an otherwise Christian society.

If one of the fundamental jobs of history is to explain how we got here from over yonder, then the progressive canon represents the ingredients for a new usable past, one that is in search of a gravitational axis capable of informing the twenty-first century Texan mind. If that’s not quite clear, consider that Texceptionalism’s center of gravity is represented by the Texas Revolution and nineteenth-century frontier. For the sake of argument, let’s say the focal point of a new metanarrative will revolve around the social, economic, and political changes emerging from World War II that transformed Texas into the place it is today. The revolution and nineteenth-century frontier remain important in explaining the provenance of traditional values, but they are only one side of a multifaceted experience.

I’m not advocating the politicization of our history; I don’t have to. Merely proposing an alternative to the traditional metanarrative will be received by Texceptionalists like a declaration of war. You think the State Board of Education’s hearings in Austin last spring was more fun than going to the circus? Just wait. A new usable past that possesses the form and context it presently lacks, one that captures the popular imagination of Texans and appeals to their collective intellect, will expose Texceptionalism as a Potemkin Republic resting fitfully on a crumbling foundation that is incapable of supporting the weight of its own words. Who knows? Perhaps opening up a new front in the discourse of our nation’s culture war may finally engage our colleagues in other fields and gain the attention of Poindexters with subscriptions to The American Scholar.

Peace stupa in Nepal

Pilgrims in the middle of the monsoon rains -- photo Duncan Millar

This photo was taken by my cousin. See the whole series from Lake Fewa, Pokhara, on his Facebook page.

Pokhara is a major city in central Nepal. Until 1968 it was a sacred city for pilgrims to Annapurna, inaccessible by road. All that changed with the arrival of the Dalai Lama and 80,000  Tibetan refugees fleeing Chinese persecution.

The World Peace stupa (chorten) in Pokhara on a sunny day: Wikipedia

 Built 1996 by Japanese monks on pilgrimage, this stupa commemorates the Buddhist  devotion to non-violence. 80 other peace stupas have been built around the world.

The Dalai Lama says, "I speak simply as a human being, as an upholder of the humanitarian values that are the bedrock not only of Mahayana Buddhism but of all the great world religions. From this perspective I share with you my personal outlook - that:

1. Universal humanitarianism is essential to solve global problems;
2. Compassion is the pillar of world peace;
3. All world religions are already for world peace in this way, as are all humanitarians of whatever ideology;
4. Each individual has a universal responsibility to shape institutions to serve human needs.

...natural calamities must be accepted and faced with equanimity. Others, however, are of our own making, created by misunderstanding, and can be corrected. One such type arises from the conflict of ideologies, political or religious, when people fight each other for petty ends, losing sight of the basic humanity that binds us all together as a single human family....


Life is as dear to the mute animal as it is to any human being; even the simplest insect strives for protection from dangers that threaten its life. Just as each one of us wants to live and does not wish to die, so it is with all other creatures in the universe.... Every being wants happiness and does not want suffering. If we, as intelligent human beings, do not accept this fact, there will be more and more suffering on this planet....


Today we are so interdependent, so closely interconnected with each other, that without a sense of universal responsibility, a feeling of universal brotherhood and sisterhood, and an understanding and belief that we really are part of one big human family, we cannot hope to overcome the dangers to our very existence - let alone bring about peace and happiness." -- from the Dalai Lama, A Human Approach to Peace.

***

See also Wikipedia on Buddhism, Buddhist art.

Green burial -- by Dick Grossman

Dr Dick Grossman is the current Clerk of Quaker Earthcare Witness. First published in the Durango (Colorado) Herald, this article is reprinted with the author's permission.

“…for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:1

This has been a sad spring for me, first with the death of a friend, then of my only sibling, my sister Clara. Both these people chose cremation for disposal of their remains. I want to explore the way I hope to be buried; it is an alternative to either cremation or traditional interment.

a handmade felt shroud: photo from nativewoodland.eu

Different societies have various ways to honor their dead. The Egyptians perfected a method of preserving a person’s body that was effective—but could only work in an arid climate. Egyptian mummification was incredibly intricate so only pharaohs were preserved in perpetuity. In the days of epidemics it was important for an infected body to be rendered harmless after death. Cremation and burial have been the mainstays in the western world.

Most bodies now are preserved with formaldehyde, which slows deterioration and also kills any possible contagious organism. This allows a funeral to be held safely several days after death. A disadvantage of traditional burial, however, is that it uses a lot of resources and space in a burial ground. Many cemeteries have two layers of burials to make sufficient room. Funeral homes tend to push expensive interments; the average cost in the USA is $9000. Fortunately funerals here in La Plata County tend to be less expensive.

Burial cost typically includes a casket and a burial vault. The former is usually wood and is decorative. The latter is concrete or metal and is designed to last forever—to protect the casket and body from deterioration.

With modern burial techniques, when we “return to dust”, our remains are isolated from the surrounding earth. This is probably wise, since the formaldehyde and other chemicals in embalming fluid are very toxic.

Direct cremation is a simpler process. The body is not preserved, but goes into the cremating oven shortly after death. Fire reduces the body to ashes and destroys any infectious agent.

Cremation is less expensive than burial. Another advantage is that the ashes can be buried in a small urn or safely spread over land or sea. Disadvantages include the amount of energy needed for the process, and the amount of greenhouse gas generated. Furthermore, mercury is released into the air if the deceased has silver amalgam dental fillings.

There are environmental disadvantages to both traditional burial and cremation. The former uses toxic chemicals, wood and metal, and takes up precious land area. Cremation requires valuable energy and spreads mercury and other pollutants. Both are expensive.

There is an appealing alternative. “Green burial” is uncommon but worth considering. It is less expensive and much better environmentally than either traditional burial or cremation.

Green burials use no embalming fluid. The body is placed in an eco-friendly coffin or wrapped in a burial shroud, and there is no burial vault. Coffins are made out of simple wood, woven basket material or even cardboard. The body and its coffin follow the Biblical injunction above and biodegrade, returning nutrition to the soil.

Many green burials bypass the funeral industry with its professional mourners. The viewing and service are done at home. The body can be safely preserved with dry ice until buried, but no refrigeration is necessary if the body can be placed in the ground within 24 hours of death.

Recently I spoke with Ryan Phelps, owner of the local Hood Mortuary. I was impressed by his knowledge and flexibility. Ryan told me that it is not necessary for a body to be buried in a cemetery. There are rules, however, about burial on private land, including subdivision regulations. In Colorado a form must be filed with the County Clerk and Recorder with the GPS coordinates of the grave.

Ryan also told me about another type of burial he has facilitated. A “frontier burial” is what cowboys have done for years. The person is put into the ground shortly after death, close to the place of death. His body is wrapped in a shroud or in placed a simple wood coffin. Of course, there is a lot of paperwork that must be done properly—and Hood is willing to help with that.

The human impact on Earth is huge. We can reduce it, however, in some important ways. One of them is to consider what happens to our bodies after death. Instead of being a detriment to the environment after we die, with a green burial we can give back what has nourished us during life.