Reading as a Revolutionary Act

Just over a month ago we all watched as Turks in Istanbul and elsewhere protested the demolition of Taksim Gezi Park and the increasing authoritarianism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The protest has evolved from sit-ins, strikes and demonstrations, some of which were harshly squashed by the Turkish authorities, to silent vigils and book-reading.

According to Aljezeera, a new form of resistance is emerging, known as the "Standing Man". Initiated by performance artist Erdem Gunduz, who stood with his hands in his pockets facing the Ataturk Cultural Center in Taksim Square for eight hours, the Standing Man has now merged with public reading and education to become the Taksim Square Book Club. Now we have individuals standing in the square and simply being a presence or reading a book. Those reading books chose some of the 20th Century's classics, including Orwell's 1984 and Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus, along with modern works of Turkish and world literature. View a terrific slideshow of this revolutionary act here.

This summer we could all take page from the actions of Taksimites and gather to read Thoreau's Walden, Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, or any other number of environmental classics to protest climate inaction, fracking on public lands, overuse of pesticides and lack of leadership on biodiversity loss. We could gather and read, and educate ourselves and each other. The revolution is ready and waiting -- all it needs is us.

Obama and Climate Change -- What about Conservation?

Obama's Climate Speech (Reuters)

Yesterday, President Obama finally addressed the problem of climate change in a 45-minute speech at Georgetown University in Washington DC. He began with an impressive summary of the facts of climate change, calling carbon “pollution”, stating that twelve of the last fifteen years have been the warmest on record, that arctic ice has diminished to its smallest size on record and that the ocean temperatures have reached record highs. He also mentioned last week’s heat wave in Alaska and the drought and heavy rains of the Midwest.

            From there, he discussed how these effects have costs for all of us and said that, because the science was sound, we had to act. He wondered if we had the courage to act before it’s too late.

            To his credit, he proposed limits on pollution from power plants and mentioned ending fossil fuel subsidies. However, though he still did not come out against the Keystone Pipeline and instead left himself some wiggle room, saying that it would only be approved if it was in the nation’s best interests.

            It was a speech that was heavy on new technologies, as if renewable energies can solve our problems. Unfortunately, though he talked about using energy more efficiently and wasting less energy, he made no mention of actually using less energy, which also needs to be part of the solution. If we’re to transition off fossil fuels to 100% renewables, we simply can’t keep consuming energy the way we have been. Either that, or we’ll have to give up pristine wilderness and public lands for wind farms. I’m all for wind power, but not at any cost.

            Factoring consumption into the equation is also important to bring home the message that we are over-consuming the environment. One of the main causes of species loss is habitat destruction, usually from land converted to agriculture (typically cattle). In fact, if we developed a silver bullet and solved our energy problems tomorrow, we would still have the biodiversity crisis to solve.

            Obama said, “We all share a responsibility for keeping the planet habitable,” and this means we’re going to need to do more than transfer to renewable energies. We have to examine our entire environmental footprint and reduce it.

See the complete transcript of Obama's speech here, and a discussion of the impacts of climate change on biodiversity here. 

Why We Marched Against Monsanto -- and Why We Need to Keep Up the Pressure

Monsanto is a large multinational corporation originally founded as a chemical company but has now transformed into a mega-industrial agribusiness biotechnology company. They are the makers of a dozen health-and-environment damaging chemicals such as Agent Orange, which was heavily used in the Vietnam War, DDT, and Roundup (glyphosate), the most popular herbicide in the US today. They are also a leader in producing genetically modified (GM) seed, whose long health effects when consumed as genetically modified organism (GMO) crops are still uncertain (several studies have indicated deleterious health effects on lab animals). 

Franken-corn advocating for GMO labelling

The March Against Monsanto on May 25 was organized for several reasons and these boil down to protecting our health, our food supply and our democracy: 

• Research studies have shown that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.

• In the United States, the FDA, the agency tasked with ensuring food safety for the population, is steered by ex-Monsanto executives, and we feel that’s a questionable conflict of interests and explains the lack of government-led research on the long-term effects of GM products.

• Recently, the U.S. Congress and president collectively passed the nicknamed “Monsanto Protection Act” that, among other things, bans courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds.

• For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup.

Monsanto's GM seeds are harmful to the environment; for example, scientists have indicated they have contributed to Colony Collapse Disorder among the world's bee population.

The Bee Lady spreading awareness about GMOs

While I support research on GMOs in controlled lab situations, I do not support their widespread use in our food chain. Numbers from the Non-GMO project indicate that a massive health experiment is already underway and we are the guinea pigs: 

• Alfalfa (first planting 2011)
• Canola (approx. 90% of U.S. crop)
• Corn (approx. 88% of U.S. crop in 2011)
• Cotton (approx. 90% of U.S. crop in 2011)
• Papaya (most of Hawaiian crop; approximately 988 acres)
• Soy (approx. 94% of U.S. crop in 2011)
• Sugar Beets (approx. 95% of U.S. crop in 2010)
• Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash (approx. 25,000 acres) [according to Wikipedia, this is 13% of the crop]

The danger I see with long-term and uncontrolled use of GMOs is that we don't have any long term studies to support whatever short-term benefits may exist. I see the problem as similar to invasive species. Sometimes a species is introduced into a new environment to act as a predator for another species, which has been deemed a pest. More often than not, the introduced species becomes a problem itself because it proliferates without a natural predator to keep it in check and the entire ecosystem is soon disrupted. Whether these invasions are deliberate or accidental, the costs to ecosystems -- and those of us who rely on them -- is enormous. Massachusetts is presently fighting to keep the Asian Longhorn beetle under control. Like invasive species, GMOs are a "genie out of the bottle" phenomenon and if we want to protect our food supply from unforeseen consequences in the long term, we have to begin protecting it now.  

Poet and publisher Gloria Mindock advocating against GMOs and Monsanto 

The March Against Monsanto organizers advocate several solutions:

• Voting with your dollar by buying organic and boycotting Monsanto-owned companies that use GMOs in their products.

• Labeling of GMOs so that consumers can make those informed decisions easier.

• Repealing relevant provisions of the US's "Monsanto Protection Act."

• Calling for further scientific research on the health effects of GMOs.

• Holding Monsanto executives and Monsanto-supporting politicians accountable through direct communication, grassroots journalism, social media, etc.

• Continuing to inform the public about Monsanto's secrets.

• Taking to the streets to show the world and Monsanto that we won't take these injustices quietly.

Ultimately, as Vandana Shiva says, the March was inspired by the love for freedom and democracy, the love for the Earth, the soil, the seed. However, we also marched, a la Jon Stewart's from sheer exasperation at the threats that Monsanto's increasing dominance holds for our future well-being.

The state of Massachusetts is holding public hearings about GMO labelling coming up on June 3 and June 11. Come out to express your love for the soil and seed, your concern and your exasperation for our future well-being. 

  After all, if now now, when, and if not us, who? 

How to Become an Urban Naturalist

Cedar Street, Roxbury

"Want to get wild?"

This is probably not a question we hear every day. But there's no reason why we can't. Too often we think that nature is "out there", in a forest, wilderness or body of water far away from our daily urban lives. Not true! Nature -- even wild nature -- is all around us if we have the eyes to look. And it's not just squirrels and Canada geese, though they are part of the package. It's tree blossoms and the matings of birds in the spring, the appearance of bees, butterflies and moths, rodents large and small, mushrooms, mosquitoes and a plethora of wildlife familiar and unfamiliar. In any urban wild walk, dozens, perhaps even hundreds of species can be discovered and enjoyed.

If you're looking for places to get wild in Boston, the city has a list of locations that are part of its Urban Wilds Initiative, many of which are hidden gems, like Cedar Street, here in Roxbury. The Arnold Arboretum has a great list of public educational programs, often free, to help tune you in to trees.

Curiosity can be your guide, but it helps to have a good resource for what you may come across. The Washington Post has been collecting an archive of urban creatures and events that apply to many other locations as well -- check it out.

The wild is all around us. Urban wild adds life to our artificial cities. Getting wild is just as easily said as done. Happy Earth Day.

The Birds of Paradise Project

Fifteen of the 39 species of birds of paradise

Kudos to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for launching its Birds of Paradise Project on the Internet. Thirty-nine species of these incredible birds live in Papua New Guinea and after 8 years of determined field work, Ed Scholes (Cornell) and Tim Laman (National Geographic) captured them all on film. If you remember the scene in Planet Earth with the excited little black bird with a blue bib that inflates himself into a large fan and dances all over a log to impress a female, then you've seen one of these spectacular birds.

You can get an introduction to the project here:



 These are some seriously good looking birds and you can also see footage of all 39 species here:

I encourage you to explore the project and see for yourself how sexual selection has produced such unique species.

 Amazingly, the birds of paradise have so far avoided the species crisis and none are listed among recent extinctions. So far, they have avoided the fate of many parrots and parakeets of being loved to death, or suffered from invasive species that took such a toll on the Hawaiian honeycreepers and honeyeaters. But deforestation is a problem in Papua New Guinea and it will be a tragedy if we let it affect these incredible birds the way it is affecting orangutans in Indonesia.

Imagining Nature

I recently wrote about the cultural values of species. Here's a slightly different take on the same thing. In this month's issue of Brevity, Brian Doyle writes a piece called "Imagining Foxes" in which he remembers going for a walk deep into the woods with his siblings as children. They try to hear the sounds of cars and traffic in the distance but they are so deep in the woods that they can no longer hear these man-made sounds. Doyle recounts the animals that they saw, and much as they wished to see a fox, they did not. But the woods were so alive with creatures that he imagines they smelled the fox with his "scent of old blood and new honey, and we heard his sharp cough and bark, and if you looked just right you could see his wry paw prints in the dust by his den". By the sound of the essay, this memory is 30 or 40 years old but because of the vibrancy of the woods, it still lives in his mind. Doyle goes on to say:

"[I]f we never take our kids to the little strips of forests, the tiny shards of beaches, the ragged forgotten corner thickets with beer bottles glinting in the duff, they’ll never even imagine a fox, and what kind of world is that, where kids don’t imagine foxes? We spend so much time mourning and battling for a world where kids can see foxes that we forget you don’t have to see foxes. You have to imagine them, though. If you stop imagining them then they are all dead, and what kind of world is that, where all the foxes are dead?"

What kind of world, indeed?  Read Brian Doyle's complete essay here.

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Climate Change and Biodiversity

Pine damage in Rocky Mtn NP due to bark beetles

You've heard of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC). This week we're going to start hearing about the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (the IPBES). If only the powers that be could have come up with a name that would lend itself to a better acronym. Nevertheless, in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, it's high time nations met to start dealing formally with the crisis and begin rolling back the high rate of species extinctions.

During President Obama's second inauguration speech today, he paid special attention to climate change Though his measures, like increasing home appliance efficiency, reducing emissions from power plants and making the federal government itself more effective, are progressive, they fall short of the sweeping changes that are necessary to prevent the planet's temperature from increasing by 2 degree celsius. As Thomas Lovejoy describes in his NY Times Op-Ed, we're already seeing the nasty effects of climate change at the current global warming of 0.8-0.9 degrees Celsius. For example, the present temperature increase has now tipped the balance in favor of bark beetles in western North America that are now decimating coniferous forests. Most of the 900 known extinctions since the year 1600 were caused by the introduction of invasive species, habitat destruction, pollution, and over-exploitation. Given the sensitivity of ecosystems to small changes in temperature, we could soon see climate change vault to the front of the list as the cause of species extinctions, particularly if we see the predicted 2 degree Celsius rise.  It's time to get serious about this stuff.

 Read the rest of Lovejoy's op-ed here. As for the IPBES, bring it on!