Would it really hurt?

Even if you would want to argue that we're not the worst invasive species the world has ever experienced, and if you want to deny that we are responsible for environmental devastation and climate change,  you can not deny that we play a significant role.  We dump 717,500 to 1,242,500 tons of trash into landfills each day.  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area of ocean between California and Hawaii that is filled with mostly plastic garbage is now 600,000 square miles and still growing.  That is twice the size of the state of Texas.  The US alone emitted 5.14 billion tons of CO2 in 2017.  In 2009 the EPA reported that Chromium-6 is prevalent in at least 35 US cities' drinking water.  In 2017 it was found in the drinking water of over 200 million Americans.  Need I continue?   

We do know that mass extinction is cyclical.  What we are doing is bringing about the next extinction at a staggering rate.  

But let's say, for the sake of argument, that humans aren't making as big an impact as we think.  Would it really hurt us to stop filling our world with garbage?  Would it really hurt to stop being the cause of  the extinction of thousands of species of life each year?  Would it hurt us to stop making our air unbreathable?  Would it hurt us to stop polluting our water and killing our land?  Would it hurt us to leave our children and grandchildren a world that is as clean and beautiful as the one we inherited?  

The problem with glass and recycling

We had friends for dinner and the evening and enjoyed these two bottles of wine. Today I'm facing the sad reality that these bottles will probably end up in a landfill. What a waste! What a horrible contribution to our environmental crisis.  What can we do?

     I don't really expect a definitive answer to the question because there are so many variables and problems. Recycling is great but does take tremendous energy and does pollute. Better than most options, it still isn't the best. Selling wine in other types of containers such as aluminium or plastic isn't really viable because they have the same problem as glass -disposal.  Any form of recycling requires extensive energy and has unavoidable pollution.  

    Of course, one of our biggest disposal problems is the great number of people who dispose of anything by such simple methods as putting it in the back of an open pickup truck bed and driving down the road. "Oh, did that fly out?"  Litter doesn't get there on its own.  Currently we 'officially' create 4.1 pounds per day per person of trash. That's about 717,500 tons a day.  Unofficially the number goes as high as 1,242,500 tons of trash per day.  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch off the coast of California is 600,000 square miles or twice the size of the State of Texas.  But we all know these problems.  

    When I was a boy we could make a little money by collecting "pop" (soda, coke) bottles and turning them in at a grocery store.  Back then bottles were sterilized and reused.  What a novel idea.  What modern ever thought of reusing anything. We're a throwaway society because that's what makes the giant corps and one-percent richer. And we know that we want to make them richer, don't we? 

    When my children were young we had a large garden. We filled 1,000 Ball jars with food each fall. The jars were saved, washed and used many times over their life.  Who woulda thunk it?  

    Yes, such a uniquely old fashioned idea would cost money and it would cut into the profits of the super-rich, but it could help us deal with our environmental disaster.  

The Hills are Alive with the song of the Carolina Wren

When I am sitting at my writing table I am less than twenty feet from a bird feeder.  The birds don't seem to pay any attention and the feeder is generally busy with quite a variety of birds.  Today I was sitting at my writing table when my attention was caught by the most beautiful song.   I looked up to see a Carolina Wren sitting on the suet feeder singing its heart out.  The song was loud and strong and I'm sure it could be heard at quite a distance.  Watching the lovely bird feeding in our meadow somehow made me think of Julia Andrews singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music."  

    You know, a lot of people poke fun at that scene from the movie Sound of Music.  I really don't know why.  Besides being a magnificent setting, it is a nice song.  What made me think of the song was not only the Carolina Wren at our feeder but also a country song that I had just heard where it spoke of the mountain sky at night being black.  That song writer had never been in the mountains on a moonless night. The sky is a mass of stars. You can even see the Milky Way.  

    So what do these things have to do with each other?  They point to a sad reality.  It seems that so many people really don't see nature.  They don't hear the marvelous song of the wren because they don't get outside or those who do carry devices to play loud rock or rap totally covering up the sounds of nature.  There's no wonder so many believe there's nothing to hear in the wilderness.  They don't see the unbelievable night sky on a moonless night because they never get away from city lights so they assume that the sky in the mountains would be black.  When was the last time you saw someone stumble as they walked because they were looking up at the sky?  No, they probably stumbled because they were looking down at their cell phone.  

    The song writer for Sound of Music was right. The hills and indeed all of nature is alive with the sound of music.  It's there for you. You merely have to stop and look and listen.  Maybe a Carolina Wren will sing for you.  The sights and sounds of nature can revive you and give you hope. 

Picture: I didn't have a camera handy. Thanks for this pic to backyardbirdingblog.com  

#birds #environment  #oldconservationist 

Wilderness is not a renewable resource

This quote makes a simple but very fundamental and important point that we should cherish and protect the wilderness.  In doing so it side-stepped a fundamental flaw in human thinking; viz that wilderness is a resource.  Since there is no way that the author of this statement was going to convince modern homo sapiens that wilderness is not a resource, he focused on the fact that, were it a resource, it is not renewable. The end result is the same.

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Resource is more than a late-twentieth and early twenty-first century buzz word.  In our super capitalistic society everything is a resource.  A resource is "a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively."  (Google dictionary)  It all goes back to money.  When your employers says that you are their most valuable resource or asset; since asset is a synonym; it means you are theirs to use to make money.  But we're not here to talk economics.  In fact, the reality of the capitalistic use of the word resource is central to the problem.  Capitalism treats everything like a resource.

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You are not a resource unless you are okay with slavery and accept that you are controlled and exploited for someone else's financial gain.  The wilderness is not a resource.  It does not exist to be controlled and exploited for anyone's financial gain.  The wilderness is actually what is left of the way Earth developed; the way it existed for billions of years before the homo sapiens. Made up of a plethora of ecosystems, which together we call nature, the Earth developed a balance which enables and promotes the perpetuity of life.  When some event disturbs that balance, nature must adapt.  The problem we create for this phenomenal and complex system is that we destroy and create a disturbance in the natural balance so fast that nature isn't able to adapt quickly enough. Our arrogant attitude and behavior toward the Earth results in the extinction of thousands of species of animals, most of which play an important part in the balance of nature. As Chivian and Bernstein write in their book, Sustaining life: how human health depends on biodiversity,   "Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, it occurs at a natural 'background' rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we're now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate, with literally dozens going extinct every day." (i) (ii)

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Then we have to consider what we are doing to plant life. We are destroying the world's forest at. the rate of 58 million square miles every year.  That's an area 14.5 times larger than the entire United States, or 48 football fields every minute. (iii)  How long can nature survive under that type of onslaught?  Currently only about a quarter of the Earth's land surface is wilderness and only 13.2% of our oceans are "free from intense human activity." (iv)   Only five percent of the United States is wilderness and the State of Alaska is three of that five percent. (v)

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Wilderness is not a resource there for us to use to make money.  Even if you want to believe that the wilderness is a resource, you can not deny that it is not a renewable resource.  Once destroyed by human arrogance it is gone forever.  When you clear millions of square miles and replace the natural ecosystem with factories, buildings, houses, roads, farms, plantations, mines, stockyards and other human amenities,  the wilderness will not come back until the humans are gone.  It is going to take millions of years for nature to recover from the damage we've done even if we stop being destructive today.  We have to admit, that for the sake of the earth, it would be better if we were to be extinct.  Sound harsh?  It is just basic fact. Nature has the power to eradicate the human infestation.  That may be its way of adapting and fighting for survival if we don't change our behavior.

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The only way we can make a difference is through our individual behavior.  We must cherish and protect the wilderness. We must fight for the wilderness for our children and their children.  Nature is not, as the super-capitalist would have us believe, a problem, resource or something to be controlled.  Nature is our source of life.  Nature is our hope for the future.

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"The wilderness is essential to our existence and our survival. The wilderness is not a renewable resource. Once it is destroyed by human arrogance, it is gone forever.  Therefore it is up to us to cherish and protect it."

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FOOT NOTES:

(i)  Chivian, E. and A. Bernstein (eds.)  2008. Sustaining life: How human health depends on biodiversity. Center for Health and the Global Environment. Oxford University Press, New York.

(ii)  https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/

(iii)   https://curiosity.com/topics/how-fast-are-humans-destroying-the-worlds-forests-curiosity/

(iv)  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness#Conservation_and_preservation_in_20th_century_United_States

(v)  https://www.wilderness.org/articles/article/wilderness-designation-faqs

 

 

#wilderness  #saveourplanet  #nature  #oldconservationist

Kakistocracy at its best

Kakistocracy, if you're not familiar with the word, means government by the worst. So to say 'kakistocracy at its best' could be seen as an oxymoron except that kakistocracy's best must necessary mean that they are doing the worst job or worst things possible.  Well, before we totally scramble our brains trying to figure out what it means for a kakistocracy to do its best, let's move on.

          At a Kentucky political rally on Oct 13th., with Trump watching, the Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell again attacked Social Security and Medicare.  The LA Times asked "is Mitch McConnell deliberately trying to throw the election to the Democrats?" (i)  Now first of all we must do some translating.  Washington linguistics tends to be complicated and incomprehensible.  If you study the language you will soon realize that the requirement for a Washington political word or phrase is that it must be sufficiently flexible and unclear so that, if you realize that what you said might be political suicide you can easily forget it or say that it was misinterpreted.  Republicans love, from time to time, to talk about managing entitlements.  If you know any Republican politicians, you know that she/he is talking about Social Security and Medicare. But they can always deny it.

          But we can't spend a lot of time on trying to understand Washington-speak. We have before us a post that has shown up on Facebook and Twitter. Most of the fact-check organizations would give this one a "mostly true".   We really need to analyze what it says to see if it is kakistocracy at its best.

          "The Republicans blew a $2 Trillion hole into the deficit with their tax cuts for the rich."   It isn't a very well written sentence is it.  They obviously mean to say that the Republicans tax cuts for the rich are adding two trillion dollars to the national deficit.  The Central Budget Office of the US Government reports that the tax and spending bills of 2018 will raise the deficit to $804 billion dollars this year and just under a trillion dollars for the next budget year. From what I can ascertain through a variety of sources (The Hill, Forbes, et al.) it will push the deficit to around two trillion dollars in about ten years.  But the point is made, if not a bit exaggerated, that the Republican Congress did give a whopping big tax break to the rich and the corporations they own that is driving up the deficit.  It is rather hard to deny that giving up almost a trillion dollars in tax income will drive up the deficit.  To try to blame it on something or someone else is absurd, but Washington politicians have always been experts at stating the absurd and swearing it's the truth.

          "Now they are sounding the alarm bells about how big the deficit is."  Can't really analyze this. It is pretty obvious, so let's move on.  McConnell has spoken out on the subject three times in the past two weeks.  What I'd really like to ask them, when they start acting all surprised and alarmed, is "what the hell did you think would happen?"

          "Their solution? Gutting Medicare and Social Security so the rich can keep their tax cut."    In a Bloomberg News Interview McConnell was asked about the budget deficit explosion.  He replied "It's very disturbing. And it's driven by the three biggest entitlement programs that are very popular: Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid." (ii)  According to the Huffpost coverage of the interview he went on to blame all politicians for "lacking the backbone to make cuts to programs due to their popularity." There seems to be no doubt that the Majority Leader of the US Senate is truly gunning for Social Security and Medicare, and the Speaker of the US House of Representative is standing right beside him.

          It does seem that this post is basically true and therefore kakistrocracy at its best.  We are quick to realize that today our kakistocracy is so very much like the government in Orwell's novel 1984.   With doublethink and rewriting history they follow the 1984 government practice of keeping the masses ignorant.  We are being told that war is peace, slavery is freedom and ignorance is strength.  Snubbing morality they claim to be definers of morality. Killing democracy while they claim to defend it.  And what little we have, they will take.

          Sadly I give you kakistocracy at its best . . . I mean its worst . . . well, just good ole American kakistocracy.

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FOOTNOTES: -

(i) (http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-mcconnell-social-security-20181019-story.html)

(ii) (https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us)

#MitchMcConnell #kakistocracy #politics #government #SocialSecurity #Medicare #Republicans #deficit

Growth for the sake of growth is the idealogy of the cancer cell

Cancer cell under microscope posted by Dahye Kwak on Pinterest.  

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell"  is one of Edward Abbey's famous statements. It not only makes me think, it scares the hell out of me, and, I would propose, it should scare you too.  Our super-capitalistic economic system can only survive on growth. Constant growth.  Uninhibited growth.  Cancerous growth.  Growth for the sake of growth. 

We have been indoctrinated for decades, by the owners of the big corporations that survive because we constant over-consume, that we must always have the newest, we must always buy and not repair, and that if we do not continue to consume stuff at an ever increasing rate the world economy will collapse and the world, as we know it, will end.  Actually, the only true part of that statement, of that super-C dogma, is that, if we would not consume as they want the world, as we know it, would come to an end.  But have you thought about the possibility that ending the world as we know it might not only be the best thing for us, but be quite pleasant. 

Granted, it would not be an easy transition, but it sure would be easier and better than dying of the cancer-mentality of super-C.   Over consumption, which means the destruction of nature and natural resources, will ultimately kill us if we would happen to survive the natural disaster which is being brought about by the production of the consumables.  Cancer is like a parasite.  Actually one scientist,  Dr. Peter Duesberg, a molecular and cell biologist at University of California at Berkeley, does call cancer a parasite.  He wrote "Just as parasites do, cancer depends on its host for sustenance, which is why treatments that choke off tumors can be so effective. Thanks to this parasite-host relationship, cancer can grow however it wants, wherever it wants."  (i)   A parasite lives off its host until it kills the host. Then both the host and the parasite die. Our over consumption - growth for the sake of growth - will continue to consume the world around us until we kill it.  When we kill it, we will die. 

Pamela and I, along we countless thousands (maybe millions) of others, live a purposeful, minimalist life-style.  We live simply.  Our twenty-foot camper trailer home runs on solar energy.  We do use propane for cooking and heating, but we consume only seven pounds of propane every two to four weeks.  Our conservationist habits conserve on water.  We can live comfortably for two weeks on less than 40 gallons of water.  We do use a gasoline truck to pull our trailer, but I'm watching the development of the long-haul electric truck which can already be purchased at around $150,000. That's about the same price as its diesel counterpart.  If I could afford $150,000, we'd have an electric truck.  Of course, we'd have to worry about how the electricity for the truck was generated. I don't know if we could provide the charge with our current solar system. We don't eat out and we use no processed foods. Our wardrobe is simple and I can't remember the last time we were in a mall. Our days are spent in nature.  Our entertainment is watching the birds and wildlife or taking a walk. Most modern super-C people would find our life-style intolerable, but it is actually quite pleasant and stress-free.  In truth, it is also much healthier than others.  When I must be in a town I see people who look and act much older than me.  I am amazed when I find they are several years my junior. At Glacier I average walking five miles and biking up to twenty miles each day and a five to ten mile hike for fun is not uncommon.  I climb mountains from time to time, saunter through the desert and find being out in the wilderness the greatest place in the world.  I'm seventy-two years old. 

Growth, in and of itself, is not bad.  We like to see our children grow up strong and healthy.  We like to see someone grow emotionally, spiritually or in the skills of their trade or vocation. We want to grow spiritually and in knowledge. We enjoy growing relationships and see our skills grow. Growth can be good. But growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell and the hallmark of our super-C life-style.  It is killing us.  If we don't change our behavior, we are dead. 

FOOTNOTES:

(i)  www.popsci.com

Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal

As a psychotherapist I obviously ran into a lot of anger.  At some point we would always explore this saying because it is so true.  Does the person who has made you angry care?  Probably not. Sometimes that makes you more angry.  If you're hurting, you think, so should they.  The problem is that isn't the way things work with humans.  

For the past two years I, like a majority of American and others around the world, have been dealing with anger.  I don't know about the others, but I have been trying very hard not to hold on to my anger. That  isn't easy, is it?  There are those who believe that one must be angry or angry enough to take action.  I don't agree with that.  If we react strictly out of anger, there are two immediate big problems. Firstly, such reactive anger is really no different than that of those whose anger Flagellum Americae likes to inflame in order to control them and bend them to his will.  Secondly, this very anger tends to cause us to be irrational and potentially misguided. Again, look at those manipulated by Verecundiam Americae.  There is no doubt that controlling one's anger is far from easy, especially when there are those who really like to "push your buttons".   

There is a lot energy in anger.  The heart rate, arterial tension and testosterone go up and the left hemisphere of the brain becomes more stimulated. (i)  Unlike laughing, which actually burns calories, anger has no such benefits.  However, anger has been found to be a great motivator. Since there is no way to avoid anger, we need to put the energy and motivation to good use.  Some people volunteer for political candidates while others volunteer in the areas they feel are threatened most by Miserabilis Homunculum and Company.  Since Pamela and I are already deeply involved in the care and welfare of wilderness and national parks, I write blogs like this one.  As the bio I put on social media says  "To protect nature is to protect ourselves. To defend the Earth is to assure our very existence.  My mission is to raise awareness, educate and call people to action regarding #environment, #nature, #civilrights and other current issues."  

 

What is your forte?  When you are motivated by anger, what could you do that addresses the cause of your anger without becoming another victim of manipulated rage?  I know people who have their Congressional representative's telephone number on speed-dial.  There is an organization called Waging Nonviolence.Org.  Look them up on FaceBook.  

Culus Primus does not want you to learn to control your anger.  He is a master of creating and using anger to achieve his ends.  If you want to make a meaningful and powerful response, find a non-violent, well thought through way to harness the energy and motivation of your anger.  There is no way people will every stop getting angry. We wouldn't want to.  It is an essential part of our being, but we don't want to hold onto it so that it becomes our downfall or the tool for someone else to destroy us.   

FOOTNOTES:

(i)  www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100531082603.htm

#anger #motivation #emotions  #wagingnonviolence  #oldconservationist 

Homo sapiens. Evolutionary success or failure?

Homo Sapiens 

Homo sapiens have been around for about 200,000 years. (i) The homo erectus, now extinct, was around about 1.9 million years ago, (ii) but they are not modern humans.  This seems like a really long time until we compare it to some well-known fellow creatures on earth. The whale has been around 50 million years. That's 250 times longer than us.  The elephant had been on earth 55 million years or 275 times longer than us. (iii) That's pretty awesome but that doesn't compared to the crocodile at 105 million years (525 times longer).  Wow!  You think that's amazing, how about the shark at 409 million years or 2,045 times longer than homo sapiens?!  We're not done. The horseshoe crab has been on earth for 480 million years. That's 2,400 times longer than us. (v)  If the time-line of earths existence was marked out on a football field, the appearance of homo sapiens would be less than an inch from the goal-line.  

Homo Sapiens cave art

But I bet you knew all of that. It does make us stop and think about our development as a species.  A number of new things showed up in homo sapiens. The expansion of our neocortex, most especially the association cortex, has enabled us to develop spoken language, have self-awareness, problem solving and abstract thinking. (vi)  One of the things which most fascinates scientists is the development of symbolic behavior like cave art, jewelry and statues. We still share a great deal with others in the hominidae family; orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. Some argue that at least the gorillas and chimpanzees are actually the same genus, but that's really a mute point in this context.  While the greater and lesser apes began developing into sub-categories almost 18 million years ago, our oldest known ancestor was first found about 1.9 million years ago. We were obviously the last of the family to develop and, as a result, demonstrated these new attributes.  

But there turned out to be some really negative aspects to this new animal species.  We have developed a taste for killing for fun. We are wasteful. We have become an invasive species. We think we are better than nature and end up hurting nature. We think we are the most important creature and kill others for no reason, destroying entire ecosystems for our simple comforts.  This is very much contrary to other animals, including those of our own genetic family.  The definition of a invasive plant species is a plant that grows exceptionally rapidly, in a place where it was not intended and therefore is in conflict with indigenous species. We definitely fit this definition in the animal world. 

In a Quora.com article about the difference between humans and other animals, the author cited greed as perhaps the greatest difference. 

     Greed! Most animals, excluding the human animal, survive on a subsistence level. As long as their basic needs are met they are content. There may be territorial disputes or disputes over mating rights or squabbles over food, but these are survival drives. There seems to be a lot of peace and serenity once these desires are satisfied.

     Humans, on the other hand, are never satisfied. There is a constant struggle for more. It is not enough to have the necessities of life provided, there is always an insatiable hunger for excess. Mankind seems to have been born with a giant hole in their spirit that they strive through life to fill with STUFF (money, possessions, sex, drugs, status, amusements, food, etc., etc., etc.) This crazed hunger has propelled many great achievements, also some of the world's greatest atrocities. We can't stand to be less than the best or for others to have more or better than us. We'll fight tooth and nail to get ahead, or at least keep up. Most people die never having experienced true long term satisfaction in life. A momentary satisfaction with finally getting “one" is soon displaced with a “need" to have the whole set. It is this greed for more that separates us from the “wild" animals.  (vii)

Just because we, as a species, have the ability to abstract is in no way scientific or even logical evidence that we are special, created by some deity or more entitled than any other species. At best it is evidence that we are the new species on the block and evidence that species do  evolve. The question can be asked: are we an evolutionary success or are we going to be naturally eradicated because we're an invasive species run amuck. My money is on the latter. 

FOOTNOTES:

(i) Smithsonian. "What does it mean to be human?   http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens

(ii)  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens

(iii)  https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evograms_03

(iv)  https://www.earthlife.net/mammals/elephants.html

(v) Smithsonian Magazine. "The top 10 greatest survivors of evolution."     

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-top-10-greatest-survivors-of-evolution-118143319/

(vi) www.chimpanzeebrain.org/chimpanee-brain-facts 

(vii)  https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-humans-and-other-animals

#homosapiens  #evolution  #humans  #science  #anthropology  #invasivespecies  #oldconservationist

Time is running out

More and more frequently we are hearing reports from scientist and experts telling us that time is running out. The last report I heard gave us about twelve years to get our act together. If we destroy the Earth as we know it, the third planet from the sun will continue. It just may not support the wonderful life that has been on it for 3.5 billion years.  To protect nature is to protect ourselves. To defend the Earth is to assure our very existence. 

#environment #nature #sustainability #ecology  

What Gandhi and King can teach us about non-violent resistance

        I was just reading an interesting October 8, 2014 monogram by Mark and Paul Engler entitled "How did Gandhi win?" (wagingnonviolence.org/feature/gandhi-win/) It was a fascinating article which prompted a follow-up article March 17^th, 2017 entitled "Gandhi's strategy for success — use more than one strategy" (wagingnonviolence.org/feature/gandhi-strategy-success/). 

        The first thing one learns is the difference between "instrumental" and "symbolic" victories in the world of nonviolent protest and revolution. In short, instrumental is where you gain small practical victories, such as a change in a law. The symbolic victory is when you change the entire political environment so that it is ripe for significant change, such as a country's independence, getting rid of a dictator, or civil rights.

        Gandhi's "salt march" was a 200 mile march to the ocean where "Gandhi waded into the edge of the ocean, approached an area on the mud flats where evaporating water left a thick layer of sediment, and scooped up a handful of salt.   Gandhi's act defied a law of the British Raj mandating that Indians buy salt from the government …." (Engler & Engler, 2014) It was the beginning of the end of English rule in India.


        As a student of history in the early 1960s, I remember that many scholars felt that, after the turmoil this nonviolent act of civil disobedience caused, Gandhi really screwed up the negotiations. It didn't seem that the English gave up anything. But that's just how it appeared. Subhas Chandra Bose, a skeptic and critique of Gandhi's agreement traveled with Gandhi after the pact. Gandhi biographer, Geoffrey Ashe, describes Bose's experience on that trip. He "saw ovations such as he had never witnessed before. The Mahatma had judged correctly. By all the rules of politics he had been checked. But in the people's eyes, the plain fact that the Englishman had been brought to negotiate instead of giving orders outweighed any number of details."

        Winston Churchill reaction demonstrated the truth of Gandhi's victory. "In a now-infamous speech, Winston Churchill, a leading defender of the British Empire, proclaimed that it was 'alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi… striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace… to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.' The move, he claimed, had allowed Gandhi — a man he saw as a "fanatic" and a "fakir" — to step out of prison and '[emerge] on the scene a triumphant victor.'" Gandhi had risked his life and nonviolently gone after the ultimate prize . . . the English now had to deal with he and his people as equals! Now he could talk not just about salt but about national independence!

        The authors point out that many scholars felt/feel that Martin Luther King, Jr gave away the store in the 1963 Birmingham Agreement, but the astute student realizes that anything they got in the Birmingham Agreement was a drop in the bucket compared to the big prize – the government was forced to deal with black people as equals. That set a precedence which would lead to greater victories.

        I haven't finished their second article, but, as you can see from the title, it addresses the fact that to effect dramatic and permanent change you must use a combination of strategies. There is no doubt that the symbolic victory is exceptionally important but momentum is maintained by the instrumental victory, which generally gains its negotiating position via the symbolic. This is why we need young people, as well as the rest of us, participating in nonviolent civil disobedience providing moral, symbolic victories, while at the same time we need the highly skilled and motivated attorneys to provide the essential instrumental victories.

        "Gandhi's victory in 1931 was not a final one, nor was King's in 1963. Social movements today continue to fight struggles against racism, discrimination, economic exploitation and imperial aggression. But, if they choose, they can do so aided by the powerful example of forebears who converted moral victory into lasting change."

        Two articles well worth reading.  


#civildisobedience  #socialactivism  #history  #nonviolentdisobedience  #resistence  #martinlutherking  #mahatgandhi   #wagingnonviolence

Considering Runaway Capitalism

      In our current social-economic climate, profits reign supreme.  It is called capitalism which has become extreme; to the point of excessive. Some might call it anarcho-capitalism, (i) but I'm not opening that can of worms. Let's call it runaway capitalism.  Capitalism is a political/economic system where a country's wealth and business is controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the people or the state. As with feudalism, the constant struggle among the wealthy slowly eliminates the weaker or less wealthy until everything is owned by a small number of individuals such as a royal family or a few mega-corporations. According to an October 2011 Forbes Magazine article, 147 corporations own everything in the world and "the real power to control the world lies in four companies." (ii)  From this we get the one-percent of the US population who basically own us and everything else in this country.  Capitalism has absolutely no concern for human rights, environment or social justice and equity unless those issues will create capital, wealth, profits for the corporation.  On the political side, these corporations and their controlling owners are going to wrap 'capitalism' in a flag so that clueless peasants - you and me - will feel unpatriotic if we complain or resist. They tell us that they're doing this for the country. Yea. Right.  If you are gullible enough to believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'll be happy to sell you cheap.

        Today profits are above all and the end all. This is no secret, and many financial experts would proudly agree. Profit trumps (no pun intended … well, maybe just a little one) compassion, humanity, clean water, clean air, human rights and social justice, as well as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (iii)  Profits also stand in stark contrast to nature and the environment; destroying entire species and ecosystems in the name of profit.  In March of 2017, Mr. Trump signed his 19th executive order entitled "Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth".  In this case "economic growth" is a euphemism for "more profits for the oil companies".  We all know that, so I won't bother to argue its veracity. The order directs the Secretary of the Interior to review rules which regulate oil and gas drilling in national parks and to "repeal, suspend or rescind them if they are found inconsistent with the president's energy goals".  (qui autem volunt regem esse) This order directly threatens entire ecosystems and many of our national parks, but it means profits.  Lots of profits at the expense of  nature and 'We the people'.  Our only hope against such an attack is the Wilderness Act of 1964 (iv) and the National Park Service Organic Act (v) which established the National Park Service in 1916 and gave it the mandate "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

        I would suspect that a majority of US citizens know nothing other than extreme capitalism and believe that this is the way it has always been.  The whole super-capitalism campaign didn't began ramping up in the United States until I was a small child during the post-World War II period; late 1940s. The period of what we might call the Robber Barons coincided with industrial growth in the late 19th and early 20th century.  It is, however, really different than our current capitalistic growth. That was much more of an elite oligarchy.  That, however, is another story.  Suffice it to say, our current spiraling out of control started right after World War II.  We are told that it must be this way. The truth, if one wants to do a bit of reading in anthropology and history, is that this is not how it has always been, nor does it necessarily need to be this way.  Actually, there are still a couple of hunter-gatherer societies in existence that actually have shorter "work weeks",  a better social environment, and no taxes.  (vi)

        We began our destructive march toward our current crisis when, some 12,000 years or so ago, we started becoming farmers and claimed ownership of the land; forsaking our roots as a part of the magnificent life on Earth known as nature. The concept of ownership created a have-versus-have-not society and the trouble began.  (vii)

        I must interject here that not all societies followed this path.  For example,  along with the hunter-gatherers still in existence,  many North American tribes did not have any concept of ownership before being introduced to the concept by European invaders.  Some of these tribes were actually far more socially advanced than the European invaders in areas such as participation in government, social equity, women's rights and social welfare.  You must remember that most of the European countries that invaded North America were barely more than feudal. They still had royalty, ownership by the wealthy, and little to no social justice or safeguards. In many ways the people the Europeans were calling uncivilized were not the uncivilized ones. Charles Hudson, in Chapter 4, Social Organization of his book, The Southeastern Indians,  (viii)  noted the tribes being more politically advanced than the Europeans and there actually being women's right.  We still don't have women's rights and the ancestors of the European invaders are still looking down on these indigenous peoples.   "The council of the chiefdom was a thoroughly democratic body. Anyone who wanted to could speak, no matter how distasteful his views to the others, and all the people would listen politely until he had finished. The council did not meet to legislate or to adjudicate - they met to reach consensus. . . . . it simply sought harmony by conciliating differences." (viii)  No one was coerced or punished for disagreeing.  In Europe you could still literally lose your head for disagreeing with the royalty.  Today we are coerced and socially punished for any statement, no matter how much evidence or logic, that contradicts the edicts of the wealthy one-percent.

        Religion must also take much of the blame. In the Christian's Bible they are told that their god said "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion …." (Gen 1:28) That this was the beginning of our downfall is my opinion, and there are many highly regarded anthropologists out there who would agree with me. However, this isn't the purpose of this monograph. I share this opinion by way of explanation of how we got where we are. It was an easy step from land ownership and the profit motive to our current oligarchy where we are made to feel obligated to work for the few who profit, causing us to accept the rape and destruction of our marvelous world. We have become the instruments of our own destruction.

        Life is the result of nature. It is neither created nor sustained by corporate profits. No corporation, no matter how big and powerful, can create or sustain life. But that isn't their problem. Their problem is to somehow obtain the lion's share of the market and make a profit. If that means destroying water, air and soil, so be it. The problem of survival becomes our problem. We have permitted ourselves to be made serfs to the lords of profit. They have convinced the vast majority of people that the world would stop turning if we don't sustain them by greater and great consumption.  But we can't sustain continued greater and greater consumption, and, if we use common sense, we know that there is life apart from this capitalistic nightmare.  In my blog "What will really kill us?" (ix) I told about how in Ireland we had a bank strike that lasted almost six months. The banks assumed that the economy would come to a screeching halt without them.  Not so. People found other ways of carrying on business without the banks. In fact, data showed that the Irish economy actually prospered during the bank strike.

        Through all of this chaos nature has been right here for and with us. It gives us life, and we destroy it.  I am thoroughly convinced that if we were to renew our relationship with nature; if we were to return to being a part of nature as opposed to attempting to control, subdue or overcome nature for the sake of profit; we would find new and creative ways to sustain life on this fragile little ball hurling through space and return to our rightful place as a part of this magnificent world.

.

FOOTNOTES.

(i)  https://www.libertarianism.org/encyclopedia/anarcho-capitalism

(ii)  https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org      Oct 26, 2011

(iii)  United States Declaration of Independence.  1776.  Independence was declared on July 2nd.  Congress approved the Declaration on July 4th. but it was not signed until August 2, 1776.

(iv)  The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of the Wilderness Society and protects over 9.1 million acres of federal land.

(v) The National Park Service Organic Act,  August 25, 1916  established the National Park Service.

(vi)  my blog "Hunter-gatherers - the original affluent society.  2nd February 2018.  http://oldconservationist.blogspot.com/2018/02/preface.html

(vii)  Bodley, John H. (2015).  Victims of progress.  Rowman & Littlefield.  NYC.

(viii)  Hudson, Charles. (1976). The Southeastern Indians.  University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville, TN.  p. 224.

(ix)  my blog "What will really kill us?" was published on 9/14/2018 and can be found at www.oldconservationist.blogspot.com


#capitalism  #humanrights  #nature  #anthropology

Chester's sister cleans up. Shouldn't we.

Chester's sister visited the deck today. (i)  She didn't even try to go up the slender shepherd's crook to get to the bird feeder, but was content to eat the seeds that the birds had dropped.  People say that birds are dirty and messy.  Actually their dirtiness could be argued but they do tend to be messy. Do you think you would  be any less messy if you couldn't eat with your hands?  The thing about the bird's mess is that there is always some other animal quite ready and willing to clean it up, like Chester's sister.  Humans seem to think that such mess must be swept up, thrown in a trash can, tied up in plastic and taken to the landfill.  What a bloody waste!  Other animals may be messy, but the homo sapiens is by far the most wasteful of all animals.  Sadly we equate messiness with wastefulness. Obviously that's not true. Even if humans are the neat-freaks of the animal kingdom, which I very seriously doubt, we are still by far the most wasteful.

1.           In 2013 alone homo sapiens sapiens (that's us) in the USA put 167 million tons of trash into landfills.  On an average each of us will wrap up 2.89 pounds of trash (ii) each day in a plastic bag that will take around 1,000 years to decompose and send it to a landfill. The way I see it, that's not only messy but unbelievably wasteful, and we haven't even mentioned the damage we do to the environment by this behavior. Here in our Hopkinsville woods a number of varieties of birds - black-capped chickadees, purple finches, house finches, nuthatches, titmouse and woodpeckers among others - come to our feeder and drop some seed and lots of shells on the ground as they feed.  Those who can not directly access the seeds - squirrels like Chester, his family and friends - feed on the seeds and shells that are dropped. How fortuitous.  What they don't eat goes into the soil to either rot and provide nutrition for other plants or start a new plant that will grow and provide food.  This isn't wasteful. This is the way nature works.  We still haven't figured out that we're not smarter than nature.

          In the wilderness a predator kills another animal for food.  Each species of predator consumes, saves and protects its kill slightly differently, but there's no doubt that it's pretty messy.  The animal that made the kill is the first to feed and may protect the carcass for some time.  Scavengers and others will feed on whatever is left.  The only thing they might leave will be things like bones which are too hard for most animals. The bones will fairly quickly decompose providing nutrients to the soil. Some years ago a visitor to Glacier asked me about a kill site they had witnessed.  They told me that nothing was left but some hair and blood that had soaked into the ground.  That, I told them, meant that a Wolverine was involved.  Either the Wolverine made the original kill or finished the carcass. A Wolverine will eat everything including the bones. This is nature's way.  Messy, but definitely not wasteful.

          Let's compare that to a human hunter killing  a deer.  Of a 160 pound deer the hunter will harvest only 35-70 pounds of meat. (iii) The rest will either be left in the woods or bagged and sent to a landfill.  Using a plethora of data and information, (iii) I'm estimating 50-60 pounds of entrails will be left in the woods.  That's actually good since that will feed other animals.  What isn't particularly good is that, staying with  the example of a 160 pound deer, this leaves 30 pounds of deer parts that will be bagged and sent to a landfill.  (160-(70# meat+60# entrails))  Now we have to consider that 6,000,000 deer (iv) are reported killed by hunters in the US each year.  That means 180 million pounds (90,000 tons) of deer parts are wasted and thrown into landfills.

          When I left Ireland in 1974, every part of an animal was used. We had black and white pudding (blood and brains), tongue, kidney pie, and a wide variety of foods not frequently seen in the US today. There isn't a lot to chickens feet but my Grandfather, from County Donegal, Ireland, ate what was there.  "Waste not. Want not."  Even bone marrow was harvested.  Bone was about all that was thrown away.  I have no statistical proof, but I have the distinct feeling that most Americans today are too squeamish to eat anything but ground meat and prime cuts.

          We may not be as messy as our fellow animals but we're definitely the most wasteful.  In the US the Department of Agriculture (v) calculates that we waste 31% of our food or about 133 billion pounds.  In May 2017 Feeding America, a hunger advocacy group, reported that 72 billion pounds of food is wasted in production, manufacturing and distribution and 54 billion pounds wasted at home. (vi) They didn't even guess at restaurant waste! You and I have seen that, haven't we?  Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that the wasted food in the US would actually provide a daily diet of 2,000 calories to 84% of the adults in the country. (vi)

          Well,  Chester and his family have cleaned up after the birds and I cleaned my plate at lunch.  As my Grandmother loved to say, "I ate everything off my plate but the posies."   How did you do?  How we avoid waste is vital whether it is not wasting food so that we can feed millions of hungry people or avoiding sending stuff to the landfill that is polluting our water and killing our environment.  The next time you go to a store and they put your purchase in a plastic bag, the next time you start to buy a disposable item, or the next time you start to throw away food, think about Chester's sister and how you might behave differently and make the world a better place.

FOOTNOTES: -----

(i)  Chester is the slightly pudgy squirrel whom many of you have seen in my posts.

(ii)  https://archive.epa.gov  Municipal Solid Waste

(iii)  Data from  PA.gov, KY.gov and m.state-journal (KY)

(iv)  www.actionbioscience.org

(v)   https://www.usda.gov

(vi)  https://recipes.howstuffworks.com

#environment #sustainability #nature #ecofriendly #green

 

 

Atilla's big back yard

It's a grey, overcast day in western Kentucky.  The air is a wee bit cooler than last week but still almost eighty degrees. The humidity is so high that it is hard to tell whether or not it might be raining.  The other evening I thought it was raining but it wasn't.  The next morning the humidity transitioned into a downpour.  Back home in Montana they are having the first snow.  I don't think we'll see snow here. At least, we're hoping that we won't.  As much as my family loves Montana we do skip out in September before the snow flies. My parents are just not snow people. They seem to like snow well enough because we often stay places where it snows. They're just not into skiing or snowshoeing. One time last April we were traveling from Boise, ID toward home in northwestern Montana. There was a line of very bad storms.  To avoid the storms Mom and Dad decided to stay in the Hemingway-Boulder wilderness near Sun Valley, ID.  It was snowing.  But they figured that was better than getting blown away.  Our camper trailer home, Nitsitapiisinni, is always nice and warm no matter how cold it gets outside, but I don't think it's made for spending any long time in snow. Besides, snow makes my feet and butt cold, and I'm getting too old for that.  I'll be fourteen in December.  

Oh. Guess I didn't introduce myself.  My name is Atilla . . . . Atilla the Honey.  My human mom gave me that name because she says I conqueror the world with my sweetness.  Okay. Make the jokes now and let's get it over.  You can call me 'Tilla.  That's what my human family usually does.  I'm a Yorkie.  I'm the last of three - two Pom brothers and myself - who lives the nomadic life with our human parents.  I don't mind being an only-dog but we all miss Cubby and Teddy.  I'm okay with being carried around the campground, but Teddy always loved to prance along ahead of Mom and Dad like a big black mountain dog. He wasn't any bigger than me, but you'd never know to watch him. Cubby liked to stay in the trailer but he loved it when we traveled and would sit on Dad's lap acting like he was driving.  He just wasn't much for the outdoors. 

In any case, here we are in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.  Hopkinsville is the birth and burial place of Edgar Casey, and only five miles from Kelly, KY which was invaded by aliens in 1955.  On a more prestigious note, Hopkinsville is also home to award winning author, Bell Hooks, and journalist, Ted Poston (1906-1974).  Both are black Americans.  Ms. Hooks is an author, feminist and social activist who was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2018.  Mr Poston was a celebrated journalist who wrote for the New York Post and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1949.  We have lots of family here in the east.  Our new house in western Kentucky is pretty close to being in the middle.  It also just happens to be in the same town as one of Mom's new grand-daughters and really close to the other.  That makes her happy.     

The sun hasn't really come out today. It lightens the sky occasionally but, for the most part, it is like twilight.  The tops of the tall oaks, sycamore, ash and sugar maples are swaying in the breeze.  The ground is very rocky with large, flat shelves of limestone. Many of them are almost worn smooth.  This is typical of the geology of southern Christian County.  That's why there are so many caves including the nearby world famous Mammoth Cave, which is the world's longest cave.  The land slopes down from the western boundary of the property to a low lying grove.  That's where you find the sycamores.  The trees are large and the only vegetation under them is  English ivy, common violet down where there's more water, and a few grasses that most humans call weeds. There are some shrubs as well, near the house. We have Corral Berry (Indian Currant) and some other shrubs Mom and Dad have yet to identify. We also have some large tree-size Juniper. Most of our time is spent around evergreen trees like Hemlock, Cedar, Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, and White Pine.  Out west Mom and Dad can tell the elevation by the trees. It is quite a bit different having all of these deciduous trees around us, but they are beautiful.      

We are actually in a large town, but you'd never know it looking around.  There's over an acre of woods inside the fence and more outside.  You have to look hard to see another house unless you're standing at the front door.  Actually, if you're outside you have to look carefully to see the house. People drive right by looking for us. We have a room that Mom and Dad call the sun room and a deck that goes half the way around the house.  Since it's been so hot, we spend a lot of time in the sun room looking at the woods through the big windows.  We're not accustomed to this heat and humidity.  I like to go out occasionally, do my business and find a nice big flat rock to sit on and enjoy outside.  I'm old and tired, but, like Mom and Dad, I still like being outside.  I'm happy just sitting here enjoying the nature around me.  I don't have to move.  Despite the heat and humidity, the smells and gentle breeze through the trees are all I need. I can sense life around me and that makes me happy.  

Oh, my!  The skies just opened and it is pouring. Time to head inside.  

This is a wee bit different than our home in Glacier.  There  we live in our twenty foot camper trailer and the Hemlock and Cedar forest canopy is so heavy that it can be raining for almost an hour before the ground gets wet.  When Mom and Dad had to do campground rounds in the rain they would stand up against a giant Cedar to do paperwork so that they didn't get the paper wet.  Here the canopy is pretty heavy, but the rain passes easily to the ground.  Still these wonderful trees do make it more gentle under their protection.  Mom and Dad say that the Kentucky forest looks much greener this year.  They were told that western Kentucky has had a lot of rain.  It is almost the end of September and there are almost no signs of leaves changing colors.  

Wow, what a storm. We can see the wind really blowing the trees along the edge of the woods about a hundred yards south of our house. Nevertheless it is almost calm in the middle of our woods.  It is like our trees have created a haven for us and a refuge for birds and animals. The big trees shade us from the hot sun and shelter us from the wind. They come together to make a conclave of peace and serenity.  We have all sorts of birds. There are Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees, Purple Finches, Downy Woodpecker, Hummingbirds and a variety of Wrens. Besides dogs who have come to visit, there is a squirrel named Chester, who visits frequently.  He's rather pudgy and quite shy.  He likes to sit in one of the white ash trees that is next to the house and look in the window.  We've seen deer on the other side of the fence.  We have a salt lick for them.  In Montana you don't dare feed the deer because it makes them dependent and they are likely to die during the winter.  Here there is very little cold and snow so there is always food for them.     

Well, the storm has passed and the sun has come out for the first time today.  The leaves shimmer in the breeze making the water on them sparkle.  Chester and a couple of his friends are chasing around the woods.  The birds are back out in force and fighting over the sunflower feeder.  The humidity is so high - 93% - that it is steamy outside.  Don't know about Mom or Dad, but I'm staying inside and going to cuddle up for a nap with my buddy, George.  

Have a great evening!  I'll talk to you later.   

George and me.  

Insidious Invasive Species

People who know me well know that I love to pick a geological formation in the distance, or pick a compass direction, and strike out cross country off trail. Doing so challenges many of my wilderness skills like path-finding, compass and map reading, and reading the land; i.e. understanding what I am seeing around me, knowing which direction it is telling me to go, giving me clues as to what lies ahead and with what animals I am sharing the area. 

Hemingway-Boulder Wilderness,  Sun Valley, ID

     For me these are valuable, important and exciting skills.  They mean a lot to me. Most of all they enable me to have marvelous adventures. Last spring I decided to challenge myself in rather deep snow in the Hemingway-Boulder wilderness (i) in the Sawtooth Mountains of south central Idaho. I was having great fun tracking bear paw prints the size of saucers. I wasn't worried about catching up with the bear. As I got up the mountain the snow finally became too deep to continue without snow shoes. I grudgingly turned back and followed the two sets of prints in the snow; the bears and mine. I stepped in my own prints to make travel easier. About a half mile or so back I realized that there were three sets of tracks; one bear, one human and one cat.  You can't have adventures like this without learning the wilderness.

     It was a marvelous time. Like most such adventures, which include living in Nitsitapiisinni (ii) in a snow covered forest miles from the nearest "civilization" as we were this day, much of the joy of the moment is feeling totally removed from the troubled, torment society hardly more than out of sight. Sadly I did not go long without being reminded. There, along the beautiful mountain stream I was following, partially hidden by the snow, was human trash not only spoiling the scenery but polluting an otherwise pristine stream that had carried pure, life-giving water down this valley before my ancestors climbed down from the trees. 

Puerto Blanco,  Organ Pipe Nat'l Park, AZ 

     The desert probably offers more opportunity to get off the trail than does heavy forest.  Many of my favorite places to go in the desert do not have trails. We were staying in Organ Pipe National Park near the Mexican border. I picked out a mountain peak a few miles north of Nitsitapiisinni, found it on my topo, and headed toward the summit. It didn't have a name on the map. That's one reason I picked it. No trails. I would have to figure out how to get to the top. That was a big part of the fun. 

     The climb was about 2,000 feet. I crossed two lower peaks, each offering a tantalizing view of my goal.  The geological formations as I approached the summit were superb. The rock was definitely volcanic and looked like gigantic cinders. The view was amazing. I could see into Mexico well past the unsightly wall. I watched carrion and raptors circling high above the desert floor looking for food. I could see a road to my east, so I kept my attention in other directions and quickly got lost in the fabulous nature around me. For a while I could actually forget politicians, other nasty people, run-amuck corporations, climate change, polluted water and air and the plethora of problems created by my species.

     I had come up the south side of the mountain. As I was enjoying my surroundings I noticed what seemed to be an easier route down by going north to a saddle and then back south along the western flank of the mountain. 

     Thanking the mountain for being such a generous host I headed north. I had not gone twenty yards when I saw a pair of mens underwear lying on a rock. At the base of the rock was a part of a tent and some trash. Most people would have blamed those horrible illegal immigrants, but people who climb the wall don't generally wear Jockey brand, have a tent and carry canned foods. They also don't go over the top of a mountain where they can easily be spotted when they can follow an easy route west of the mountain that has natural cover. No, this was just someone being a slob and not caring about the land. I see this behavior in many places and a great percentage are people out hunting, fishing or prospecting who just don't care. This is not implying that a hunter or fisher is, by nature, a care-less slob. That's just the reason some slobs are out here.

     The first time that we went to Quartzsite, AZ we didn't know that that was where gold was first discovered in Arizona and that Dome Rock was the  center of prospecting activity even today.  I was out exploring in my usual fashion.  I had noticed how many washes were filled with debris like tents, tires, and cans.  When I was on top of Dome Rock I could see Nitsitapiisinni and noticed that I could follow a dry wash to within a hundred yards of home.  As I walked along the wash it became deeper.  In one of the deepest spots I noticed tarps and tools along with the usual collection of trash. The side of the wash was dug up. I could see a large hole under the tarp.  Then I noticed that there was an old camper trailer, Class-C and pick-up truck just above me on the other side of the wash from the trash.  A woman sat outside the trailer. She just looked at me.  I waved and said "hello".  She just looked. I asked "what are you looking for?"  Since I had seen phenomenal quartz outcroppings, I assumed that they were rockhounds. Before I could say anything further a man, wearing jeans and a wife-beater, emerged from the trailer. The woman looked up at him and then back at me. "Gold," she said almost in monotone. "Well, good luck," I said waving and heading on toward home, all the time thinking 'please don't shoot me in the back. I don't want your gold mine.'   I had been educated. The horrible mess and destruction I had witnessed in the area was prospecting.  

     This past year we joined a group called Boondockers United to go with BLM (Bureau of Land Management) officers into the Dome Rock area to spend an afternoon hauling out trash.  We filled enough trash bags to load three large flatbed trailers, and that didn't count the two camps and two mines we discovered.  Discouraged prospectors had just walked away from camps leaving tents, mattresses, old tires, and a mountain of trash.  Both Pamela and I discovered deep mine shafts that we partially filled with trash. The BLM officer told us that they would have to get special teams to see if they could empty the shafts and then collapse the mines, but most likely they would have to treat the trash like bio-hazardous waste and backfill the shaft with rock and soil.  

     At Glacier we live right by the trailhead for one of our favorite hikes - Avalanche Lake.  It is a marvelous hike following a rushing, cascading mountain stream with magnificent falls and gorges, through a dense cedar and hemlock forest which is the last of the rainforest this far east.  You climb up a narrow valley between three mountains; Cannon, Bearhat and Brown. It culminates in a beautiful cirque with a lake and waterfalls all around you. The chances of seeing bears and deer are quite good.  The five mile round trip Avalanche Lake Trail is one of the most popular in the park.  We hike it often and each time we carry a trash bag to pick up the trash and litter dropped by thoughtless visitors.  Trash and litter are not only unsightly but pollutants and dangerous for the wildlife.  People laugh when we tell them that human feces and little boys peeing against a tree are some of the top animal attractants.  It actually isn't a laughing matter.  One of the reasons we started carrying trash bags is that Pamela ended up carrying a dirty nappie (baby diaper) for three miles because some family didn't care. 

     Grandson, Kieran, has spent anywhere from a couple of weeks to over a month with us while we're working as volunteers at Glacier National Park.  Our primary job is as campground hosts, which means managing a campground, helping visitors be safe and have a good time while abiding by the rules.  I also did some work doing trail patrol to run interference so visitors don't bother the animals and protect delicate sub-alpine and alpine vegetation from human trampling.  Kieran quickly became a valuable help accumulating many volunteer hours.  By thirteen years old he was the person that thoughtless visitors were glad couldn't give them an educational coupon (what we call citations and tickets). He always enjoyed going up the mountain climbers access to Mount Oberlin because we frequently got caught in the snow. How many Alabama boys can tell his classmates that he spent July in a snow storm?   We had been up on Mt Oberlin and were headed back toward the visitor center.  We were still a couple of miles up when we saw visitors below.  It was a group of twenty people.  Several things made the scenario strange but the biggest thing was that we were on a climber's access trail. It isn't even on a park map and, while not closed to the general public, not encouraged. That means that they were being led by someone who knows the park. Suddenly the group left the trail and walked through a sub-alpine meadow, along a stream to look over a steep escarpment at Oberlin Bend several hundred feet below.  Kieran was fuming as he hurried toward the place where the group left the trail.  From a spot on the side of the mountain above them I called for them to return to the trail. I have never had any problem making myself heard. That's a polite way to say I have a really big mouth. By the time we got the group back on the trail, Kieran was livid.  He did, however, let me do the talking.  I found out that the group was being led by a paid guide. That person was suppose to have a permit and definitely not be breaking serious rules. The guide became defensive. It had to have been embarrassing being caught breaking the rules, so the guide tried to say they didn't hurt anything. That was all Kieran could handle.  He was polite but he proceeded to explain the results of the Glacier trampling study and how this was sub-alpine vegetation which means that it takes up to a hundred years to recover from one of their foot prints.  I didn't make the group go back. It was not the visitor's fault. They had paid to be guided and I figured that, having been publicly corrected by a thirteen-year-old boy, that guide was going to go by the book from then on. I was right.  Kieran laughed the rest of the way down the mountain and for days thereafter about, as they were proceeding up the trail, hearing the guide admonishing the group to watch their step. 

      I know that there are people; whether family, friends, acquaintances or others; who get annoyed when I refer to homo sapiens as an invasive species. I know it isn't an easy thing to accept since we can't quit being homo sapiens, but facts do not lie.  Invasive species are destructive to their surroundings.  We are unbelievably destructive.  Invasive species are generally not a problem in the area to which they are indigenous because when on home turf the species has natural controls - environment, predators, etc. - to control them.  If we had stayed in northeastern Africa where we were indigenous we probably would be extinct by now but moving into new areas and losing the natural means by which the population and danger of our species was controlled turned us invasive.  The only difference between homo sapiens as invasive and other species that become an invasive species because they have been moved, often by humans, to a location where they are not indigenous, is that the other invasive species do not knowingly destroy.  An invasive fish does not kill the indigenous species on purpose but as a result of their own efforts to survive. We know that we are destroying other species and the environment and we do not do it to survive. We do it for comfort or pleasure.  In general, we really don't care about the world around us unless it is making us richer or more comfortable. 

     We are an insidious invasive species.  We try to deny it, but we know the truth.   Now what is needed is to do something about it.  

FOOTNOTES:

(i)  Hemingway-Boulder Wilderness is a recently designated wilderness area in the Sawtooth National Forest near Sun Valley, ID.  We stayed in a campground on  forest service road 137.  We were alone since it was snowing.  We had actually come to this area to avoid heavy rain, wind, etc., that was crossing the path we had planned. We figured we'd rather be out in the snow.  This is typical of our nomadic life-style that I love so much.   

(ii)  Nitsitapiisinni, nick-named Sinni, is the name of our twenty-foot camper trailer in which we live.  The name means "our way of life" in the Blackfeet language.