We want your six-word sea turtle stories

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:36:37 -0800

In preparing a talk for the 30th International Sea Turtle Society Symposium in Goa, India that will look back on our society's past 30 years and ahead to our next 30, I asked people to contribute their own six-word sea turtle stories, summarizing their thoughts on the past and future in two 6-word statements.

People have put a bit of thought into this and I’m accumulating many contributions, send yours to my personal email address (wallacejnichols@me.com) or add it to the comments below.

The idea of the six-word novel comes from a famous Ernest Hemingway story where the author, on a bet, wrote what he considered his best work in the form of a six word novel ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.")

The contributions are full of insightful, wit, humor and reflection from many of those among our ranks.

Six words, no more, no less.

Here are some to get your juices flowing...

She swims deep, eternal and true

If we work together, turtles forever

To know them, to love them

No to disturbance, yes to life

Sea turtles in danger of extinction

The sea turtles, my greatest love

To meet, to know, to love

Turtles need protection, extinction's a crime

Being part of hatchlings life success

Cold-stunned, entangled, fading fast; but why?

Tumorous turtles - our fault? Solutions sought

Oceans owned, land shared to nest

Home to nest, free at sea

Tortuguero: Where sea turtle conservation began

Over consumption nearly wiped them out

The challenge now: prevent new markets

From m.y.a - current human impacts - future?

It’s turtles all the way down

Sustainable cultural use: food for thought

The sea turtles are my heritage

Mientras tenga vida protegere tortugas marinas

Green turtle soup-yummy for tummy

You can't prove love through science

Sere tortuguero por toda mi vida!

Turtles made me who I am...

Lots to learn, lots to do!

Mexico protege a las tortugas marinas

Sea turtles and ourselves are one

Turtles soup two nuts quite delightful!

I LOVE SIX WORD TURTLE STORIES

I've been enjoying the 6-word stories

Dedicated, devoted, diligent...sea turtle volunteers

Mother turtle breathes, ocean moon calls

Mother turtle breathes, mother earth breathes

Fairy tales of the oceanic waters

Eggs, hatchlings, add decades, adult, repeat

Sea turtles are simply the coolest

I love working with sea turtles

Volunteers worldwide fuel sea turtle conservation

Scientists strive for sea turtle success

I think I'm a turtle geek

Turtle conservation is a social endeavor

Turtle tumors take a toll too

Turtles, Great Ambassadors of Oceans’ Worldwide

Alas no more what Columbus saw

What'd Darwin say about black turtles?

Lean, mean post nesting migration machine

When I Saw Her Crawling There

Little Sea Turtle Workshop evolved: ISTS

Beach development destroys beaches....Goodbye Tortugas

Turtles need bycatch reduction, population recovery

Sea turtles: we know so little

Late nights, mosquitoes; best job ever

Eggs, hatchlings, decades, adult. repeat

Responding to conservation, requires further action

In saving turtles, we save ourselves

Creativity and artistry combine for conservation

What's next, sea turtle haiku competition?

All conservationists love sea turtles worldwide

New lives tumbling to water's edge

Take the time to turtle travel

Thirty symposia and still we study

Ancient, beautiful, serene; are turtles marine

Detritus, seagrass, macroalgae, green turtles, sharks

Freaks and geeks and turtle fanatics

Bags are for humans, not turtles

Que vivan las tortugas marinas! Jodido!!!

Caring for oceans cares for turtles

Progressing beyond turtle research and education

Ancient mariners magically navigating Earth’s oceans

Turtles worldwide, not yet world wearied

And all the turtles were free

Six word sea turtle stories rock

Turtles started when we were projects

They saw dinosaurs come and go

Tracking their future survival through satellite

Sea turtles. Global messengers. Get it!

Tortuguero's success feeds many Caribbean fisherfolk

Global marine turtles outlasting the dinosaurs

Ridleys galore, poaching and drowning avoid

Tortugueros no necesitan huevos de tortuga

The Tippling Turtler hatches many collaborations

Endearing dinosaurs teach lessons in persistence

Reproduce, bycatch, migrate, bycatch, forage, bycatch

Gang interested on sea turtle conservation

Worldwide gang conserving sea turtle species

Owned by none, belong to all

Critically Endangered and highly conservation worthy

Many minds working together solve problems

I do not eat turtle eggs

Turtles or people? People and turtles

Tortugas o Gente? Gente y Tortugas

The sea turtles are my heritage

Las tortugas marinas son mi legado

So many turtles, so little time

Sea turtles thriving in unpolluted seas

Not Endangered; but still conservation worthy

Flipper kick – a mouthful of sand

I imagine throngs of sea turtles

Mystery millenarian navigators in magnificent oceans

Turtle passion, hopefully and future conservation

Blood sugar magic turtle's madness passion

EP hawksbills gone? Ask El Salvador

Keep walking, with patience and passion

Turtles: members of, not the, ecosystem

Turtles are dead without a TED

Ocean nomads guided by magnetism: Cool

That's a great animal, let's eat

No more left? That's too bad

Pickled Pigs Lips = Tip of Iceberg

Go ahead, eat one, there's plenty

Leatherback turtles belong to the world

Pacific leatherbacks need Baulas National Park

One day, 150 million years ago

I read So Excellent a Fishe

Sea turtles all the way down

Yes, leatherbacks really are in Canada

Working together, sea turtle survival assured!

Stars shining, eggs safe, heart content

Love and Care, Sea Turtle’s Tear

Endearing dinosaurs teach lessons in persistence

An old present to the future

Sea turtles in the oceans forever

United for sea turtle survival worldwide

Mama leatherback,tropic winters, Acadian summers

Underestimate Frank at your own peril

Zander Srodes for 50th ISTS president

My best memories: Turtles and friends

Decades, friends, beaches, tattoos, talking turtle

Don’t eat turtles, they taste bad

Please don’t eat turtles and eggs

Eating sea turtles makes you slow

Sea turtles inspire motivate conservation action

These majestic creatures from the deep

Let's be ever vigilant and aware

Save the turtles, save the seas

Save the seas, save us all

Tortugas marinas verdaderas viajeras del mar

Tortugas marinas en peligro de extincion

Kemp's ridleys...no TEDs...no turtles

Paladino can count turtles, not words

Got Turtles? Not without pristine beaches

So excellent a fishe - enough said

Polluted gyres, poachers, sea turtles struggling

Ovulate, excavate, migrate, eat, mate, thermoregulate

Our world rests atop a turtle

Their world rests within our dreams

Bar, beer, turtle yarns, Frank, priceless

Eighth Annual, my first, few participants

Twentieth Annual, my largest, over 900

Child asks, what were sea turtles

Little legs scrambling towards the sea

Flippers heave, a rest, a sigh

Ever hurtle the rush sounding turtle?

Disappointed, poachers taking a large toll

Sea mother's tears return every year

Protecting the sand for future generations

Turn off all beach light pollution

Focused, hopeful, baby turtles hurtle seaward

May your grandchildren swim with turtles

Nesting (gillnets), migrating (longlines), foraging (trawls)

Beaches stripped away by well intentioned

Beach development destroys nesting, goodbye tortugas

Earth rests on mother turtle's back

Turtle hatchlings tripping down the beach

Turtles, trips, papers, posters, beer, banquet

Turtles migrating bring distant continents together

ISTS - one voice, one mission: turtles

No more turtles, ocean is empty

World has declared: peace to turtles

Life, mystery, knowledge, adaptation, secrets, philosopher

Lost (& Found) Dogs in Santa Cruz Mountains

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:04:17 -0800

Update 1/21: The dogs were found last night after almost 6 days ‘missing’. Way out in the SC Mtns, a dozen miles from home down a long dirt road, in a hail storm. Some nice folks had gotten one of the flyers. Their nearest ‘neighbor’, 5 miles away down another bad dirt road (can you say “off the grid”) lured them behind his truck and left them at these folks’ house, saying “you take care of this”. They called us and I drove the ~hour straight away. The dogs were hungry, exhausted and dirty, but otherwise fine. I put them in the back and took them to see the girls, who were very happy to see their furry pals again, dirty or not.

Lessons from the experience: Newfoundlands like to stay around home/people, terriers not as much (I think Jack was the expedition leader); the hard part of missing dogs is the imagining (cars, lions, cliffs, icy rain at night), try to keep your imagining to a minimum especially if you have a good imagination and certainly don’t share your imagining too much with others if it involves treacherous scenarios; both old school and high tech social media are good, combined, they are great (flyers in mailboxes, telephones, conversations, facebook, twitter, email, blogs, websites); but what makes them great are friends and community, otherwise they’d be inanimate objects; things get quiet when a 150 lb Newfoundland + a spunky terrier aren’t around (no offense to Monkey the guinea pig); our dogs are tough, resilient animals with a lot of wolf in them; next time they go on an adventure I’m going to insist they take a video camera and a journal, the imagining about those six adventurous days in the mountains is driving me crazy!

Update 1/19: thank you Dr. Hannah, Virginia + Shannon for helping pass out flyers + Rowan for making calls and to everyone for forwarding/posting emails.

I’ve been through this with previous dogs, but that doesn’t make it any less heart-wrenching.

Our pups Jack Wilder and Fisher have been missing for almost 5 days. They were last seen near the Lockheed gate up on Empire Grade Saturday morning (point B on map), after leaving our house (point A on map) sometime Friday am. We know they took the short route (~6 miles), on the trails through the mountains.

I’ve pasted the pdf of the flyer we’ve been using below, feel free to share it widely along with a link to this page if you know anyone in the area.

The dogs would be hard to miss as a pair. Fisher is a 150 lb, black and white Newfoundland Landseer, and Jack is a 20 lb, brindle Cairn terrier (aka the “Toto” dog). Both are as friendly and harmless as animals can be and probably as wet and dirty too, by now.

Please email any info to: wallacejnichols@me.com

This little guy is forever stuck in my brain, dude

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:25:42 -0800

My omnilocavorous diet

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 12:03:13 -0800

After 40 some years of experimenting, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m an omnilocavore. My mind, heart and body are at their best under a food regime that includes mostly local, seasonal plant matter, with some neighborly eggs and milk, punctuated by the occasional animal flesh.

Many meals in our home are vegan or vegetarian, occasionally all raw.

I like knowing as much as possible about my food. Who grew it, fed it, cared for it, collected, harvested or killed it. A fish out of our local waters, a deer from our mountains, eggs collected with the kids, strawberries from our neighbors, wild mushrooms, water from the creek, kiwi and apples from the u-pick, kale from our garden box, figs from our wimpy orchard, plums before the Steller’s jays get them all. A little honey from the folks up the road. And I like the food best when it goes from earth to basket to mouth, without any packaging or plastic involved.

Recently, we had the pleasurable experience of stone-grinding organic wheat, grown by neighbors, in the Pie Ranch mill, then turning it into a luscious apple pie, the making of which everyone joyfully contributed to.

I try to live and eat this way (with many hypocritical deviations along the way) knowing that when I’m done here my body will also go back into this soil and ocean water.

It may do so by way of a shark or mountain lion’s body, a thought that inspires equal parts fear and wonder in my biologist-brain. Being on the “prey” end of the equation is not a reality for most people in California. Here in the mountains and ocean it is.

Talking with people about what they eat (and what may eat them) and why is infinitely fascinating, and important.

Thinking wildly about the roles the insects and mammals and fish and plants and soil and stones and people and ancient fossilized animals all play in getting each of us fed is dizzingly fun.

Let’s do it sometime, over a glass of Slow Coast red wine and a ridge hike.

[Technically speaking, omnilocavorous is defined as an often unsuccessful but psychologically enjoyable attempt to consume matter that has spent no time on planes or interstate highways, is not living in our home with us or inside or neighbors' homes, is non-human in origin, is not listed as endangered or threatened, contains no extraneous chemical substances and hasn't ever met with petrochemical components or packaging. Increasingly hard to do in this world, but we’re fortunate to live in a place where trying is often more successful than frustrating.]

Your New Year Resolution: Adopt a Denier

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:01:03 -0800

(from Huffington Post)

Believe it or not, there are people who deny the veracity of the mountain of science behind the origins of humans (evolutionary biology), the formation of the universe (physics and cosmology) health care (medicine) and the state of our environment (environmental biology, chemistry and physics, again). The so-called “deniers” bring their stories, based on political, religious and/or emotional motivation and vehemently deny the avalanche of reason, fact and research, even as it is burying them.

This is really nothing new. Over time there have been people who’ve denied the theory of gravitation, that the earth is round (and not hollow), the laws of thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, the cosmological picture of the evolution of the universe and the occurrence of biological evolution. Outside the natural sciences there are those who deny historical events such as the holocaust, the moon walk and that Shakespeare authored the works attributed to him.

Nowadays there’s even a vocal and politically motivated group who deny the science that connects humans (~6.5 billion strong) and our mass burning of fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) to climate change. Really, they are out there walking the streets.

If the denial of science weren’t so dangerous, we could leave the topic to Jon Stewart to dissect on the Daily Show. But it is dangerous.

Make it your New Year resolution to quietly and kindly adopt a denier. Over time, explain how science works, share peer reviewed articles, go see films, have long conversations over coffee or beer afterwards. The idea isn’t to “win” an argument, it’s to answer questions and remove the fear or misunderstanding that surrounds advances in scientific understanding of ourselves and our planet.

There are all kinds of very human reasons people hold on to outdated beliefs in the face of change and new information (D.E. Simanek):

-emotional convictions of the "rightness" of world-view that conflicts with the scientific view

-emotional feelings that some part of the scientific view just isn’t believable, or even conceivable, and therefore must be wrong

-realization that science doesn’t claim absolute truth, so deniers feel that they can reject any part of it they don't like

-sense that if scientific ideas aren’t absolutely true, they must necessarily be completely false

-feeling that their views are ignored, "put down" or unappreciated by scientists

-religious motivations may take the form: "Science refuses to acknowledge the supernatural"

-or that science should acknowledge the possibility of miraculous events or phenomena

-complaints that science is "materialistic"

When faced with the findings of modern neuroscience challenging some ancient traditions, the Dalai Lama simply replied that those practices would adapt and evolve, embracing science.

So, be kind and help your neighbors as we all adapt and evolve this year.

In 2010 adopt a denier.

Doing Absolutely Nothing for the Planet

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:00:11 -0800

Coming soon:
Why you should start by doing NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH, ZERO
for the planet, as soon as possible!

COP15: ShamWOW!?

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:17:00 -0800

“...this entire conference is an elaborate sham, where the organizers have known all along that they're heading for a very different world than the one they're supposedly creating. It's intellectual dishonesty of a very high order, and with very high consequences...”
-Bill McKibben

“"I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt."
-President Obama

“Barack Obama's empty speech bringing no new ideas to the climate change process has undoubtedly generated a huge disappointment to millions of peoples around the world and has fueled immense frustration for many developing states, small island countries of the Pacific, Indigenous Peoples of the world, and does nothing to save ecosystems of the world from the devastation of climate change.”
-Fiu Mataese Elisara, Executive Director of OLSSI, Samoa

"The failure to produce anything meaningful in Copenhagen must serve as a wake up call to all who care about the future. It is a call to action. Corporate polluters and other special interests have such overwhelming influence that rich country governments are willing to agree only to fig leaf solutions. This is unacceptable, and it must change."
-Friends of the Earth

"Not fair, not ambitious and not legally binding. The job of world leaders is not done. Today they failed to avert catastrophic climate change."
-Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace

"The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport. Ed Miliband [UK climate change secretary] is among the very few that come out of this summit with any credit. It is now evident that beating global warming will require a radically different model of politics than the one on display here in Copenhagen."
-John Sauven, Executive Director of Greenpeace UK

“What I want is for us to think like members of a serious resistance movement.”
-Derrick Jensen

OCEAN REVOLUTION: Mutiny in Copenhagen

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:01:01 -0800

“it’s the numbers that count” -Bill McKibben

“As we only now have two days to go, there is very little, if anything, to show for the leaders to sign on in response to millions of the world citizens looking to the outcome from Copenhagen to save them from arguably the most devastating challenge of our time.” -Fiu Mataese Elisara

“Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the Copenhagen climate change talks are on the verge of collapse, with four key issues still unresolved with just one day to go.”

“Inside the Bella Centre, where the UN delegates are meeting, numerous critical voices have been marginalised through technical and procedural manoeuvres. Others, like Friends of the Earth International, have had their accreditation revoked. Outside, the policing of protest has been consistently draconian and occasionally brutal.”

‘Scott Byrd, a sociologist from California, described seeing his fellow campaigner Nicolas Haeringer - one of the organisers of Wednesday's march - arrested at the demonstration. "Two plainclothes officers, not announcing themselves as such, pulled Nicolas aside and started questioning him. One of them pulled out a baton and then Nicolas started running with the two black-clad undercovers in pursuit. They tackled him to the ground, beat him a couple of times and threw him in a van that had pulled up and drove off very fast."’

“With no action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, could out-of-control sea level rise and warmer waters submerge the famous mermaid in Copenhagen and allow sea turtles to summer in Denmark?” -STRP

LIVBLUE 2009: For the Ocean and its People

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:13:00 -0800

Dear Ocean Friends,

We're skidding and sliding into the end of another year. They do seem to go by faster, just like my Grandma Priscilla always said. And she lived to be 103.

I wanted to both thank you for your collaboration and share some of the highlights from the past year, as well as the year to come. It's certainly satisfying to do work one truly loves, and even sweeter to do it side by side with such good friends and talented colleagues. I also share some news of our current work in the hope that you may see something new and interesting, which may lead to further collaborations in the coming year.

-Ocean Revolution continues to unite and mentor conservation leaders around the world, using innovative approaches, technology and all manner of networky tools. We mainly work with indigenous leaders and young people. And as always, we learn a lot from each other. From Mexico to the US to Panama to to El Salvador to Mozambique to Indonesia to Australia to Papua New Guinea, ocean revolutionaries are shaking things up. You can read much more on the O*R website and on our various campaign blogs: StopOceanWarming.org, ShrimpSuck.org, pluckfastic.org and EcoDaredevil.com

-Oceanophilia: The Mind + Ocean Initiative is a new collaboration between ocean conservationists, cognitive neuroscientists and communications experts that seeks to merge modern brain science with ocean protection and answer the simple question "why does the ocean make us feel that way?" Find out more here.

-SEEturtles.org is connecting people and sea turtles in ways that simultaneously serve conservation, bring needed funds to front line projects and provide life-changing experiences to travelers. In 2010 we plan to expand to other species and new sites...watch for the launch of SEE the WILD in 2010 with support from Endangered Species Chocolate!

-Our front line sea turtle conservation field research continues in Baja California with Grupo Tortuguero, in Indonesia with Biosphere Foundation and in El Salvador with FUNZEL and US-AID.

-It's been another very productive year on the research publications front, with numerous journal articles and book chapters published, grad students graduated and new exciting research projects initiated. The details can be found in the Research and Students section of my blog. It has been an honor to work with such a motivated, creative group of students.

-It's also been a good year for ocean/environmental writing, from book chapters to magazine articles to blogs to OpEds. Check the Author and Print/Web Media section of my blog for a taste. Watch for my chapter with Andy Myers in 'Oceans', the book accompanying Disney's new film, a lead chapter in the Oxford University Press volume on fisheries, as well as a feature article on plastic and sea turtles in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Spirituality & Health Magazine. 2010 will bring two new exciting books...much more to come on those!

-Speaking of writing, 2010 is the ten year anniversary of our bilingual children's book Chelonia: Return of the Sea Turtle, about the adventurous Nina Delmar who rescues a green turtle and nurses it back to health. Nina continues her story in a new children's book, and is headed out on an epic whale saving adventure. Viva Nina!

-In other media, watch for the new feature film Beautiful Wave, directed by David Mueller. It's the story of Jimmy Davenport and his family that connects Santa Cruz to Baja, surfing and sea turtles. Some exciting things for the big and small screens are in the works that I can't quite discuss yet : ) Check the Film-Radio-TV archive for a list of other far-reaching media from the past year.

-Invitations to speak to motivated people about the ocean and 2009 afforded some fantastic venues and crowds to share our urgent but hopeful message with. One highlight was the Adventure Travel Conference in Quebec. Feel free to watch the 20 minute keynote, which left attendees both laughing and crying. And carrying forward a blue marble of hope...

-Speaking of blue marbles. This year we launched the BlueMarbles.org campaign, a very simple viral social networking experiment. Eventually everyone will get a blue marble, and give it away. It's been an amazing thing to watch them roll...50,000+ marbles and growing.

-We also launched OceanVoices.org, a collaboration with sound artist Halsey Burgund. It will debut in June 2010 in celebration of World Ocean Month and Jacques Cousteau's 100th birthday at the California Academy of Sciences and beyond. It will be an appropriately fantastic event. Please share your voice with us!

-To address and communicate about the increasing menace of plastic pollution in the ocean, we launched the Plastic Pollution Coalition. It’s a great place to keep on top of the latest solutions and actions.

-Finally, in late 2009 we initiated the Slow Coast movement to strengthen the community of farmers and artisans living and working along this wonderful and unique stretch of coast. Come visit, and stay a while.

Thank you for sharing such a productive year with us. We have a long way to go to reach our shared global vision for healthy oceans, but we always need to reflect on the good work being done by so many around the world.

Happy Holidays and New Year to everyone!

J.

My Two Left Feet: Plastic and Carbon

Tue, 8 Dec 2009 18:40:33 -0800

My Two Left Feet: Plastic and Carbon

With world leaders and climate activists huddled in Copenhagen and city councils and governors across the U.S. considering plastic pollution legislation, I fear we are again poised for a giant high-level eco-letdown. That’s because the yawning chasm between politics-as-usual and the revolution we need has never been wider or deeper.

But we shouldn’t simply blame the politicians. After all, they are part of a flawed system where the din of corporate lobbyists drowns the voices of nature, reason and public interest.

As a marine biologist, with a research focus on sea turtles and their protection, I’m continually drawn back to these two issues: climate change and plastic pollution.

Sea turtles are a poster species for the complex reach of global warming and its multiple ramifications for life as we know it.

As the ocean warms and sea levels rise, sea turtles are hit from every direction. Their food source is imperiled, their migrations disrupted, their beaches go underwater, their eggs are already literally cooking in the sand and even their sex ratios skew as the planet warms. That’s because the determination of whether to become a male or a female turtle happens inside the egg and is dictated by temperature. Warmer temps, fewer male turtles.

Like competing horror movies starring the same actors, sea turtles are simultaneously the poster species for plastic pollution.

Baby turtles eat small plastic fragments, and die. Adult turtles eat large plastic pieces and bags, thinking they’re algae or jellyfish, and die. Turtles get tangled in plastic ropes and strips, and die.

Around the world, plastic piles up on many turtle nesting beaches, two feet deep in some places. Like billions of bits of plastic sand in others. Watching an ancient sea turtle, who has migrated thousands of miles back home, climb up from the ocean to nest, only to find layers of plastic to dig through en route to the sand, is simply heartbreaking. It makes one consider spending the rest of time as a vagabond beach-comber cleaning up plastic pollution on the shores of the world.

Plastic and carbon. Carbon and plastic. Two metaphorical footprints that we may be able to shrink significantly with one simultaneous gait adjustment, while we wait for politicians and industry to catch up (or we elect and create better ones).

Here’s what I mean. Once you decide to seriously and significantly cut plastic waste from your life, say by 50%, you’ll automatically reduce your energy consumption. In hidden and surprisingly wonderful ways.

It turns out that much of the food that comes in excess disposable plastic packaging is made far away from you, by people you’ll never know, out of ingredients you probably don’t want to eat. It’s likely to have spent a lot of time in a huge refrigerator with wheels, maybe even one with wings, powered by fossil fuels. Its ingredient list probably includes a suite of chemicals you’ve never heard of. Chances are the plastic-free stuff is made or grown by your neighbors, out of familiar ingredients. This works for food, beverages, soaps, art, books, live music and toys. Test it out yourself. Challenge yourself to choose products with little or no plastic packaging. Take note of where they are made and what goes into them.

Colin Beaven, of ‘No Impact Man’ fame, took this to the extreme for a year while living in the heart of Manhattan. We don’t need to go cold turkey off of plastic and carbon, but each bold step in that direction is a good one and pushes business and politics towards sustainability.

Think of your carbon footprint as your left foot and your plastic footprint as your other left foot.

Tiptoeing around you go, making both as small as possible. For some reason, it’s much easier to tiptoe with both feet at the same time than with just one.

Try it. Really, try it. No one is watching. But the world is waiting.

CLIMATE REVOLUTION

Mon, 7 Dec 2009 22:42:49 -0800

Unless we take decisive action, climate will ravage planet

Today 56 newspapers, in 45 countries, are taking the unprecedented step of publishing the same editorial. The editorial will appear in 20 languages, as the United Nations Climate Change Conference is set to begin in Copenhagen.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.
The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. … Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so. … the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level. … The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance — and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.
Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it. … Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation. … The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

Can Murals Save Sea Turtles? (Si)

Sun, 6 Dec 2009 11:15:09 -0800

Fifteen+ years ago our Baja sea turtle team set out to create a series of sea turtle murals spanning the 1000-mile long Baja Peninsula. I remember starting the turtle mural project w/ a self-taught artist in Puerto San Carlos, he said "just buy me paints, brushes and food and I'll make beautiful turtle murals all over."

And he did...

That project is still underway. Recently SFS/Tufts University student, Alyssa Irizarry, studied their impact.

Her conclusion: keep going...

turtle mural downtown Puerto San Carlos >

Photos of some of the murals, and their fans and creators follow, higher res available. The GT holds its 12th annual meeting in Loreto on 29-31 January, 2010. http://www.grupotortuguero.org/content/1/1/1.html

Can Murals Save Turtles? - The School for Field Studies

Murals depicting marine life can be found in most towns on the Baja peninsula in Mexico - on restaurant walls, the façades of schools, or the sides of gas stations. What were once drab, white block walls now feature large illustrations of endangered sea turtles in a variety of scenes: a grinning anthropomorphic turtle recycling a bag of plastics, a bale of turtles feeding on shrimp; a group of citizens releasing “Adelita,” a famed local equipped with a transmitter to track her migration. In nearby Magdalena Bay, their real-life counterparts slice and row through the waters of their breeding ground with large teardrop shaped shells, rubbery flippers, and little, blunt heads. These endangered turtles are the flagship species of conservation in Baja and murals act as tools of a larger movement to protect marine flora and fauna.

< procaguama mural, lopez mateos

How does a college student with a combined major in art history and environmental studies make use of this phenomenon? Alyssa Irizarry, a senior at Tufts University, used hers to create an award winning research project while studying in Baja, Mexico last spring with The School for Field Studies (SFS). Her pioneering project Imaging Conservation: Sea Turtle Murals and their Affect on Communities’ Environmental Consciousness and Behaviors in Baja California Sur, Mexico, which won her the School’s Distinguished Student Researcher Award, not only broke ground in academic circles but also reinforced the mission of this conservation movement in Mexico.

Irizarry set out to discover just how much of an impact these murals make on local awareness, opinions, and actions in regard to conservation. Her project contributed to a component of the SFS Center for Coastal Studies’ Five Year Research Plan, which investigates the outcomes of the sea turtle conservation movement in Baja California Sur. Under the direction of SFS professor A.J. Schneller, she sought to better understand how this medium works as an effective means of developing local awareness of an environmental issue, which could in turn incite community behavior change. Complementary to the School’s scientific methods, her work posed the question, “Can the artist as well as the scientist make a contribution to toward developing this environmental ethic?”

Public murals throughout Mexico’s history have not always been utilized as a tool for environmental conservation. Nor have they always been designed to be purely aesthetic. In her paper Irizarry outlined a history of public art in Mexico as a platform for protest and social commentary. Jose Guadalupe Posada, whose early 20th century prints, often depicting skeletons living the high life with fancy hats and drinks in hand, not only mocked bourgeois attitudes in a time of social strife but also conveyed ideas that were both accessible and easy to understand by the general public. Irizarry cites McCaughan (2000) who said that public art can be a “function of democracy inspiring public debate and a sense of entitlement among broad sectors of the population.” She argues that sea turtle murals can be used as a powerful tool to transmit conservation ideals as well as bring together a community that may be conflicted.

< Garcia family at mural

Indeed, the sea turtle has acted as an icon of conflicting cultural values throughout Baja’s recent history according to Irizarry. Since Spanish colonization, sea turtle meat has been heralded as an important food item which continues to present day. Beginning in the mid 1900s, they were commercially harvested in Baja for trade in the international market. Overexploitation caused the collapse of turtle populations in the 1980s. Despite a federal ban in the 1990s on the extraction, capture, and pursuit of all sea turtle species, their consumption remains an important cultural tradition in many communities. Furthermore, economic activity of Baja depends on marine resources and fishing, in spite of decreasing productivity and overexploitation. Irizarry’s survey responses, however, show a trend that indicates a shift away from the consumption of sea turtles and the “increase in the desire to care for them.” Sea turtles are becoming an icon of preservation rather than nutrition.

< Sea turtle monitoring team, 2002, Puerto San Carlos, BCS

The seeds of preservation were initially planted in community consciousness with the formation of Grupo Tortuguero in 1999, a marine conservation organization with the goal of enhancing public cooperation and participation through a community-based, grassroots model. The group is made up of concerned fisherman, scientists, and NGO representatives from acrossNorth America. Grupo Tortuguero has received international attention and has led to the formation of other community groups around Mexico, all encouraging civic engagement in the protection of Baja’s marine resources. The sea turtle, their flagship species, is used as a visible community icon of their message in various creative outlets including murals, comic books, videos, and posters.

Concepcion with mural >

All of Irizarry’s surveys results from town showed that exposure to sea turtle murals are especially effective in developing pro-environmental consciousness and possible action. As Irizarry states in her paper, “It is unknown whether or not the actions are realized, but sea turtle murals can provide the motivation for community discussion and participation in turtle conservation." Students and adults alike responded that their behaviors were affected beyond the initial attraction to the mural’s aesthetic qualities. A substantial number of students reported that sea turtle murals were a strong reminder to the plight of the species. Irizarry attributes this to existing knowledge on sea turtles arising from exposure to environmental education in schools and suggests that viewing the murals reinforces the message.

< Carl Safina in Puerto San Carlos, BCS. With sea turtle mural by Monchy

Irizarry’s research project provides both a fresh contribution to academia of art history and environmental studies and a rural Mexican community with meaningful information. In discussing a future career she says, “Ideally, I would love to do environmental education with children or young adults using art. I think encouraging an environmental ethic at a young age is critical if we want an environmentally conscious future generation, which we undoubtedly need. Art can be a way to get students to think outside of the box, see the environment from a different perspective, and build appreciation for it.”

What does a college student with an award winning project on murals and sea turtle conservation under her belt do next? After graduation from Tufts, Irizarry hopes to intern at the SFS Center for Coastal Studies in Baja where she will continue her mural research in secondary schools.

From NIMBY to IMBY to Green PIMBYism

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:01:29 -0800

From NIMBY to IMBY to Green PIMBYism

The response to making consumer goods and producing energy here at home used to be “Sure, but not In my back yard”, a response so common it became known by the acronym NIMBY.

One reason for the NIMBY attitude was that many of the processes involved in manufacturing as well as the pollution related to most forms of energy production make these industries undesirable and incompatible with human health and wellbeing.

I grew up in an east coast town in a house just a few blocks away from an industrial paint factory. Another one of our big neighbors was a billion dollar global manufacturer of commercial and industrial products. For a kid on a bike and an imagination, this was a wonderland for exploration, with large metal machines suited for climbing and mountains of multicolored paint chips to slide down.

As the toxic fumes from these industries became better known (and more than one chemical fire) my folks moved us to a place where our neighbors were houses, trees and creeks rather than chemicals and machinery. But I’m certain some of those chemicals are still in me.

Nowadays, many of these industries have moved overseas, where environmental and health laws haven’t caught up. When they’ve stayed, they’ve moved to communities without a strong political voice. That combination has been bad for our economy and bad for human health. Among their legacy are ocean dead zones, Superfund sites, brownfields and environmental injustices of the most heinous kinds--unemployed parents and their children breathing poisonous air and drinking contaminated water.

Now, with a soft economy and a high unemployment rates, we need those jobs that fled overseas and across the borders. And we’ve always needed our health.

Fortunately, the green economy has begun to rise. Green chemistry, green manufacturing, green buildings, green energy and the cradle to cradle system make some of those previously dangerous industries into good neighbors. Conferences, conversations, investment and, most importantly, action is building all around the green business world.

Solar panels or wind farms are better neighbors than refineries or derricks. Organic farms are better than pesticide and fertilizer intensive agribusinesses. Manufacturing non-polluting paints, drywall and bricks is sure to result in fewer hazardous chemical fires of the kind that drove us away from my childhood home.

While some dead zones and brownfields can be cleaned up and recover with time, we can’t wait around. Right now our communities want--we need--those green businesses with their green jobs in our back yards. This is spawning an IMBY mentality. Put a “please” in front of that and you get PIMBY.

Please, [put those clean, green businesses] In My Back Yard!

Green PIMBYism can be good for our communities, good for employment, good for our environment and good for our country’s economy.

We can remove the N from NIMBY by putting the green into agriculture, manufacturing and energy.

Adding the P is just the polite thing to do.

Evolution’s Greatest Hits

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:42:45 -0800

Two songs are mainly responsible for my getting a PhD in Evolutionary Biology and Wildlife Ecology, The Police’s Walking in Your Footsteps and The Kink’s Apeman. I listened to both over and over and over...

Evolution’s Greatest Hits:

POLICE: Walking in Your Footsteps
KINKS: Apeman
PAT BENATAR: My Clone Sleeps Alone
CHRIS SMITHERS: Origin of Species
JOSH RITTER: Stuck to You (the science song)
PEARL JAM: Do The Evolution
RUSH: Natural Science
KORN: Evolution
Others?

The (Not So) Great Pacific Plastiscape

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:08:29 -0800

We’ve been having this ranging e-conversation about the language used to describe the growing mess/mass of plastic swirling and accumulating in our ocean (and inside of us).

Provoked by Lindsey’s New York Times/Spot.us article, the gist of the conversation has been about the words “island” and “patch” and the phrase “marine debris” that together do a terrible job describing the problem. Andy Revkin of dot Earth on the NYT has even gotten into the conversation.

I like words and playing with language. So do my friends, it seems. And communicating the scale, scope and realities about plastic in the ocean is important. My hope is that the pro journalists and activists will begin to use powerful, understandable and non-misleading words to describe what we’re doing to the ocean.

My concern is that when we misrepresent environmental problems by choosing the wrong words, we open our arguments up to attack by the “more plastic” interests. We play right into the eco-stereotypes, the “there they go again” story and the reputation for exaggeration.

Bottom line is that despite what you’ll read in the NYT, Rolling Stone and all over the internet, plastic in the ocean can’t really be seriously described as a “patch” or an “island”. And while the plastic industry may prefer to call it “marine debris”, it’s nothing of the sort.

Here are some of the entertaining, shocking, disturbing, sometimes accurate and always passionate suggestions for alternative language that have flooded in via facebook and twitter:

@whalegeek: Pacific Garbage Pit, I'd say
@pelican1: Estate? eg. plasticestate
@CindyFrancine: "Great Pacific Garbage Colossal"
@Matt Keedy: Field?
@Wallace J. Nichols: maybe "scape" as in landscape?
@Wallace J. Nichols: as in the Great Pacific Garbagescape/Trashscape
@Shaw Thacher: dump ?
@Carolyn Raffensperger:The Pacific Garbage Monstrosity.
@Mimi Hahn: Acreage? Spread (as in a big ol' ranch).
@Assateague Coastkeeper: The Pacific Garbage Abomination -although I like 'Trashscape' and 'Dump' best.
@Wallace J. Nichols: Great Pacific Plastiscape
@Shaw Thacher: rgreat ?
@Wallace J. Nichols: great as in: relatively large in size or number or extent; larger than others of its kind; of major significance or importance; remarkable or out of the ordinary in degree or magnitude or effect; big
@Lauraine Ayers-briel: It is a floating island or continent. 'patch' is relative to the size of the Pacific.
@Bob Sandberg: panoramic, expansive, , vista? far-flung sea-midden ???
@Wallace J. Nichols: trouble is it's not an ISLAND or a CONTINENT and plastic is strewn all over the ENTIRE Pacific, from the beaches out the the middle of the gyre
@Sheila Pataky Youngbloodgood question: tract: an expanse or area of land, water, etc., region, stretch ... scape: landscape and moonscape. All much bigger than a cabbage patch!
@Wallace J. Nicholsbigger than a pumpkin patch or a soul patch!
@Margo PellegrinoPlastic planet, plastic ocean with a concentration in the gyres...?
@Wallace J. Nichols: here's a shot at it: http://bit.ly/2RVgUG
@Lauraine Ayers-briel: from wikipedia "A landfill, also known as a dump (and historically as a midden), is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment. Historically, landfills have been the most common methods of organised waste disposal and remain so in many places around the world."
The entire Pacific ocean has become a "disorganized" dump of non biodegradable, post human consumption, waste material.
@Karen Barg Baldwin: Pit, Cavity, Plot, Mound, Heap
Still thinking...I like Trashscape I think....
@Leila Conners: Expanse
@Arlo Hanlin HemphilI: I've heard some scientists upset by 'patch' because it implies we could sweep it up, when actually it's a messy 'soup'. Sludge might be a good word here?
@Ann E Young: Island of gluttony? Isle of garb...Stink City? Floating Plethera of Waste?
@Ann E Young: Swath of Waste?
@Emily Munday: "trash vortex" (wiki) sounds pretty big and terrifying. but that might make it sound like it has special powers
@Jyah Anise Hoy: district?
@Sarah Wilson: plastic current....plastic puddle....the fact that many of the pieces are small....even microscopic pieces broken down over time...plastic soup....there is "marine snow"...plastic snow...plastic swell....
@Jackie Apel: A vortex is something that is drawing things inward in a spiral, so that might not work as a word to describe the outward expansion of the garbage, although it sounds good! I looked up some words in the thesaurus, and found these, but still they don't quite work as a name for the patch since they're all adjectives: voluminous, expansive, bulky, vast, immense, spreading, titanic, cylcopean, massive, capacious ...the word "big bang" comes to mind, as a way of describing the plastic expansion.
@Jyah Anise Hoy: pacific garbage belt?
@Roseanna Ovington: a new name fore a different type of man made sedimentary layer on land and sea- plasicendentary
@Andrew Mueller: Did you see this "story behind the NYT story about the "Great Garbage Patch"http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2009/11/11/when-a-blog-beats-a-nyt-story/
@Kathryn Ellen: the Great Shame
@Suzan Beraza: mass?
@Jackie Apel: The Great Plastic Expansion Debris Field
@Michael Carey:The Big A _ _ plastic Mess.
@Andy Myers: Plastistan
@David Helvarg: The vast Pacific Garbage Range, where on a plexi-glassy day the styro-foam washes onto the plastisand where a clamshell container is all that remains of a polymer-maid's feast.
@Barbara Stanislav: Wasteland
@Barbara Stanislav: I'll correct it/change it to Wastescape--since it is more of a shore and I saw the picture now with your word preference. The picture hit me and "your word"--and the word Wastescape just fits best.(for me)
@Sheri Herndon: abyss? implying limitless, without end, beyond what we can imagine, larger than quantitative measures, also holding the energy of consumption out of control...koyanisqaatsi
@Andrea Hultzen: Also..doesn't PATCH usually apply to some type of repair? Does Vortex work? "..a mass of rotating or whirling fluid...as an activity or situation from which it is difficult to escape." (Webster's)
@Sarah Kornfeld: Trashscape is brilliant.
@Wallace J. Nichols: this is a fantastic discussion...hoping David Helvarg and others can blog on it in their next e-missives...it's nice when facebook brainstorms/discussions jump out of this channel and make it into the "real world"
@Wallace J. Nichols: Trashscape/Plastiscape photo, from Leo DiCaprio's site: http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/pledge/plastics/trashscape.png
@Andrea Hultzen: I think John Stewart would call it The Pacific Garbage CLUSTERF#@* ' :)