Valuable Natural Resources

The majority of the world’s populations, living in today’s fast paced patterns, are ignoring the depth of our most valuable natural resource: each other. We often go through our days not connecting to others we hold dear to us, giving precious gifts of touch, words, and reassurance.  While the mainstream population is consumed by personal environmental issues, such as family, work, and survival, we only focus on topics that touch our life paths and those people who cross our paths. We might listen to various news media, or have a conversation about the loss of our diminishing natural resources, endangered wildlife, and climate challenges. We converse about how we can better our own environment and touch others with our insights; however, we have lost our sense of the deeper connection to our humankind. Many of us have become numb, to a certain level, to survive today’s pace. Along our life path, we lose connection to each other in the process. I have found myself, as do many of us, in my own bubble of daily tasks, and only speaking with people proximal to my bubble. If we spent time really focusing on each other, widening our circle to communicate weekly with those that are not in our daily bubble, what would that look like? Perhaps we would see our connection to the extensive world and our animal and plant kin more clearly.

Yet, I have to admit, in my busy daily life, I find myself engrossed in my personal climate change, graduate studies, and teaching. My life’s fears lead me to retreat into my safe cave, alone. I have let moments, years, pass by with limited connection with those I love, or hold dear in my heart. We deny the pain our forgetfulness inflicts on others, as well as on this earth that has befriended us and given us a place to live.

As many of us, I find myself consumed in saving the environment, educating others to recycle, reclaim and reuse, but I have had my head in the sand when it come to connecting deeply to our natural resources: our friends, family, acquaintances, and the people we only read about on the internet. Many of us are missing the beauty of everyday life. I am missing the preciousness of my dog’s breathing, the ants crossing my desk with a parcel of my sandwich, or the crow outside my window trying to pry the birdseed embedded in the gravel. I miss the beauty of the fresh air against my face as I walk on the beach, bundled head to foot with down layers. I miss the seconds it takes to just hear my family and friends’ voices. I work at my desk, typing in lost hours, telling myself I will send them an email that will connect us, and then I lose their email, and put it off to another day. My family and friends want to hear my voice, see my face, converse, and I theirs. I hide behind my fears of writing, artistic incapability, and disbelief in my spiritual awareness. Again, all these feelings are a set of conditions I place onto myself and I know many others do the same, so we do not reach out to touch the people and other living beings right in front of us.

You know when you forget or fear holds you back for no reason from letting a shared moment with someone you love seep into your soul? Then when they are gone, you are only left with an empty moment of silence, the silence you could have shared watching the dogs play, the cat curled on a lap, ants, beetles, birds, thoughts, worries, past and future dreams.

Today, I woke up to learn a dear friend, Mia, had left this world. I had the pleasure of being in her life for many years, sharing our stories of when we were little lost girls, our deep seated love of art, spirituality, home, family, and of course, animals. I was in awe of her; she was a small woman in stature, with a spirit the size of the universe. Mia’s knowledge and love of art, artists, and people of all walks of life was known by many. She was a powerhouse in the art field, and a curator; she was instrumental in the well-known Seattle Art Trust Foundation, and her own larger than life Mia Art Gallery.

We had talked many times of creating art together, building a studio on her property where the dogs were playing, and geese flew into the pond. Mia and her husband gave me free license to create through my arts of interior design, Feng Shui, spiritual cleansing and placement in their new home. We talked for hours about the spirit of each item and the placement in the house or in the yard. We were all thrilled with the final results. Then, I got busy with other things in life. I lost track of Mia; really, I lost track of my time with Mia. I wanted to share so much with her and I know she did with me. Losing track of Mia was not on purpose, just life happening at different times. When I ran into Mia, she was always as warm as the sunshine beaming from her smiling eyes. I would promise to see her and then something would hold me back from making the time. I knew Mia’s health was failing more, and so was mine. The last two years, it took all my strength to go to school, walk the dog and take care of my family.

So I write to express my feelings of sadness, and the heightened awareness we receive about connecting more diligently when a loved one has passed through our lives.

The old saying “Love conquers all” is true. I am not saying love alone will fight the battle to save ourselves or the earth from pain and despair; however, awareness of our need to express our love will give us the strength to connect to each other, adapt and bond. Connection will help each of us to enjoy quality life on this planet, as long as we endure. I love you both.

I dedicate this story to Mia McEldowney and her husband Bill Mitchell.

We were connected from the moment she called me from my design ad, and we are connected in spirit now and forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biochar: Here to save us all!

I’m quite thrilled to be working on something that I think actually has value for me and the planet. Hopefully such opportunities will continue to come my way!

I am now recruiting individuals to partake in experiential learning about biochar. This is an amazing substance that can both fix the soil and the air.

If any readers are interested in partaking in the workshop in Woodinville, WA on April 27-28, 2013, please clicker here to register.

Because ecopsychology deals with the psychological relationship that we have with the earth, I’ll forgo discussing the details of biochar and instead talk about how I feel about it.

It’s interesting that there were so many great inventions that distant civilizations used, but yet they are now just being re-discovered. While biochar wasn’t lost per se, the way we commonly use it today is different than how it has historically been used. Still the question remains as to what exactly happened to our former ways of co-creating with the earth that have now, over time, become so lost to us? Furthermore, what has since happened that has caused a sudden spark in remembrance and brought them back to us?

Perhaps this all has to do with the collective unconscious which Carl Jung introduced into human consciousness through his depth psychology. I am quite impressed with his thought, really, about there being a hidden layer of consciousness that all of life taps into. Clearly something beyond our normal, everyday consciousness is needed to bring back such magical feats which were lost eons ago.

How does this translate to climate change though? Is is possible that the earth and its creatures are becoming so desperate that they are again able to tap into pieces of the collective unconscious that have been lost? It seems there are always more questions than answers when dealing with the mind. One thing is for certain though: the earth needs help. Since humans, creatures, and the earth are interconnected, they are all pushing together for right action to occur, as Buddhism encourages in it’s eightfold path.

Whatever the reason, it is clear that the human species is in need of some desperate changes in how it walks upon the earth. We all (and this includes the grasshopper on your fire place) know it. We shall just give thanks to the people that have managed to tap into whatever place that receives wisdom and brought forth these reminders of how to tread lightly upon the earth. In the meantime, I think it’s best that we all learn the practices that are coming back to us as well as those (such as biochar) that are simply changing form over time. We can’t suffer the loss of any more of this great information, for there is no telling how much time will pass before it may come back to us again. By then, who knows if it will be too late.

Ocean Gummy Bears to save the world

In a report to the peer reviewed science journal Nature , Chris Rapley and James Lovelock advocate looking at boosting ocean take-up of CO2 by using a technical fix to enhance a natural biological process in the ocean.  They propose Ocean Gummy Bears, aka salps, are the answer with  some extra help from their latest technological gadget to contort ocean processes to their their desired result.

The newest stab at a technical fix to address climate change uses pipes that move down in the water column releasing cold water from deep below the surface waters up and out onto the ocean surface. A valve blocks any downward flow when the pipe is moving upwards. The benefit of doing this they say is bringing up nutrient rich water to increase phytoplankton blooms. They are specifically hoping that salps will benefit from the increased plankton. Salps are a species that have recently been washing up on Washington shores, and what lead me to this topic.

By the way my research shows that salps are not actually unusual in the PNW waters like the above video claims.

Professor Rapley said the letter to Nature was meant to get people to think about technical fixe concepts. In recent years, scientists have developed a wide range of technical “geo-engineering” ideas for potential climate-fixing technologies. They are hoping to buy time while society comes up with a more comprehensive plan.

So far seeding the ocean with iron filings to stimulate plankton growth, putting sunshades in space, and firing sulphate aerosols into the atmosphere from a giant cannon have all been proposed; the iron filings idea has been extensively tested.

When Rapley and Lovelock wrote the paper they did not know a company, Atmocean, had already started testing a prototype of their idea. Atmocean CEO Phil Kithil calculated that deploying about 134 million pipes could potentially sequester about one-third of the carbon dioxide produced by human activities each year.

Atmocean deployed experimental tubes and gathered engineering data. The pipes brought cold water to the surface from a depth of 200m, but no research was done on whether this approach had any net impact on greenhouse gas levels.Below is a diagram of how the pipes work.

The biggest concern being that water from the depths will also contain higher levels of CO² that could unbalance the net carbon balance.

On the flip side salps could actually be a part of the more holistic approach to climate change. I am not suggesting we meddle in the ocean system to change their food web interactions but these so called ocean gummy bears can be a huge carbon sink naturally. Laurence Madin of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wrote in a newly published study in the journal Deep Sea Research that “hotspots” of salps could spell a dead-end for carbon, transporting tons of it daily from the ocean surface to the deep sea and preventing it from re-entering the atmosphere.

Salps can consume up to 74% of the phytoplankton from surface waters in a single day. When they defecate their pellets transport up to 4,000 tons of carbon daily to deep water. Small amounts of carbon and compact it into larger denser pellets that can sink more than a half mile a day. And when a salp dies their bodies take more carbon down with them even faster sinking up to a quarter mile a day.

Salps are cool natural movers of carbon. They vertically migrate from between 2,000 and 6,000 feet deep and the surface waters every day.  But what happens if we meddle in this natural cycle of carbon cycling by sticking those 134 million pipes in and bringing all that carbon the salps are sinking back to the surface? Will this acidify the oceans? Will the overabundance of phytoplankton create increasing dead zones in the oceans that are depleted of dissolved oxygen (DO)?

Clearly we do not know what we are doing but the planet does. So why can’t we just stop doing harm and butt out! I admit I am awed by the ocean. I am protective of this life giving vital part of our planet. It is my source of love and inspiration in life and I do not like it when people look at it as just a tool to fix their mistakes.

It all depends on today’s weather…

Jon Stewart does an excellent parody of a climate change denier in this video clip:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – Global Warming Hoax

Jon says he knows global warming is a hoax because it is cold, today, where HE lives. While his performance is both amusing and alarming, scientists have actually studied how people’s beliefs about global warming may fluctuate according to what season they are experiencing and their perceptions about the daily temperature. Last summer, I attended a climate change psychology workshop at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association (APA) that presented this very concept.  Researchers surveyed residents of the United States and Australia about global warming and whether they thought the temperature on the day of the study was warmer or cooler than usual. They found that respondents who thought that day was warmer than usual had greater concern about global warming, and, they donated more money to a global-warming charity. Their findings were published in Psychological Science.

Letting Life In

My Ficus tree has new leaves.

Normally, this would not be cause for remark. Ficus trees are notoriously lush, fast-growing, industrious sorts of plants, so it’s not as though it’s unusual for one to be producing new life. But this growth means two things to me: first off, it means Spring is coming. The tiny, leathery new leaf-stars on my Ficus are one more reminder that the chill of Winter is finally thawing, and I can start to look forward to flower-scented, sun-warmed walks through Seattle’s verdant streets. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, today this new growth is a symbol of my success. 

When I obtained my Ficus, it was in no condition to grow. It was abandoned in the basement laundry-room of my apartment building, sprawled out to one side. It had clearly long outgrown its support pole (and its previous keepers clearly had no idea how to train it up said pole) and was sprawling out to one side, threatening to drag along the ground.

The night I brought it home, it dropped many leaves– I called my mother for advice, and she warned me that heavy leaf drop was quite normal among Ficuses, but that it was a sign of stress. The tree needed much more water than it was getting, and it also needed some structure so that it could grow towards the light. I first set about cobbling together some supports out of discarded wire hangers.

I soon realized that no amount of metal wire would suffice, and I replaced the support pole with one of my old walking sticks. A few days later, the Ficus had adapted, and I was able to remove the wire entirely. Someday, I may be able to remove the central pole, but I doubt it– for that to work, I would have needed to twine the tree’s stems together, from its infancy, into a trunk. But at least the pole doesn’t clash with the tree’s bark.

Most importantly, my Ficus, like the rest of my indoor garden, serve as a reminder to “let life in.” Nonhuman life has been our companion since before we were humans, and even today its absence fills us with an inexplicable loneliness. Winter is bleak, not just because it is cold, but because it is gray. Yet Human ingenuity has brought us light and heat in the midst of short, cold days, and we are not the only species who can benefit. My plants remind me every day that I am a steward of this Earth: that by my power, life can be supported, and that by my neglect, it can be extinguished. Who knows? Perhaps one day, this tree I have rescued will grow up as big and strong as its distant cousins in Florida…

Grateful for the mystery

In Active Hope, Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone introduce the idea of “threshold guardians.” When we experience a call to service there is usually some kind of resistance or opposition. This is when we have reached a tipping point, or threshold where one tiny step can cause a critical mass of people to believe that change can happen. When we find seemingly insurmountable obstacles in our way, instead of feeling hopeless and defeated we can choose to persevere beyond the threshold of the unknown. These are pivotal times to mobilize for a purpose beyond our individual perspectives, without needing to know the exact outcome. Change happens through us, but does not stop with one person. The authors write, “With synergy, unforeseeable properties arise as if by magic… While we face the real danger of catastrophic collapse, we can also be poised on the edge of a major evolutionary leap.” Problems such as climate change may seem beyond one person’s grasp to solve. Yet we can liberate ourselves from limited thinking as individuals through recognizing the power of emergence. Our small actions have ripple effects that cannot be predicted, not only in negative but also in positive ways.

I am grateful for having the opportunity to experience the mystery of life. I am grateful that my life is a constant process of discovery. I am grateful that I am imperfect. There is a reason that we do not always have all the answers. While things may seem broken or confusing, we are on a constant journey towards greater understanding and healing. The authors of Active Hope write, “When we face a problem, a single brain cell doesn’t come up with a solution, though it can participate in one… there’s no way that we personally can fix the mess our world is in, but the process of healing and recovery at a planetary level can happen through us and through what we do.”

One of my favorite quotes is from existential psychologist James Bugental who wrote, “Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.” This concept has often coaxed me through the darkness and ambiguity of being human in this vast Universe, of being OK with not knowing all the answers to overwhelming challenges such as climate change. Positive expressions such as gratitude keep me focused on my purpose to care for life and perpetuate a chain reaction of hope, rather than guilt and fear for the future.

Who’s dinner table is it anyway?

Recently the news media was buzzing with news of a super mega-pod of dolphins estimated to contain 100,000 individuals. The pod was estimated to be more than 7 miles long and 5 miles wide, according to Captain Joe Dutra of Hornblower Cruises. They were spotted during his daily sailing tour. Video of this super mega-pod can be seen below. The boat stayed alongside the dolphins for about an hour.

Experts are not certain why the dolphins came together in such great numbers. Marine mammal expert Sarah Wilkin said that a feeding frenzy could have sparked the massive gathering of dolphins. Wilkin said there’s plenty of food in the area, including sardines, herring and squid.

Dolphins normally travel in pods of 200 or less, although I have video of a super pod like this from years ago when I went whale watching in Monterey Bay. So it is certainly not unheard of for multiple pods to converge on an area at the same time. The pods I have film of contain at least three different species all swimming together. Some think this may actually be a migratory pattern that is emerging as the food web changes in response to the warming of the oceans.

A large group was also spotted in the area at this time last year. The sighting occurred off of Dana Point, CA — about 65 miles from San Diego — in January. Experts are unclear if the two events are actually linked or not. The pod I saw was also in the winter time.

As the occurrence of large pods like this are noticed more frequently locals like Captain Dutra hope that if this becomes an annual pattern it will become a tourist attraction. My worry about this, especially after watching the video, is that we will love the animals to death.

In Florida there are strict guidelines about how to go dolphin watching. Boat captains are not allowed to have their motors running when dolphins are directly by them. They are supposed to avoid crossing in front of the dolphin’s path if they see a pod approaching. They have to be respectful of the animals and stay 200ft away when observing them feeding. In the video above you see the captain angle the boat to be in with the pod which can lead to ship strikes.

As the ocean warms I believe we will see more large predators close to land. The phytoplankton will bloom, but they need to be in the upper layer of the ocean where there is light. The smaller things like copepods and squid eat the plankton and so on up the food chain. So what I think we need to do is control our behavior as the mega fauna comes closer to land to eat. Enjoy their presence. Learn from these large canaries of the sea. Balance our needs from one of our largest commercial fisheries sites for squid and the increased demand by dolphins and whales. And most importantly look but don’t touch! Remember we are coming to their dinner table, not them to ours.