Spokane Lifts Earth Day to a New Level -- No Resting on Our Laurels, Though -- Work Begins to Stop Earth Desecration

So, the discussion since April 17, after a full morning, day, evening and into the night experience we called, Takin' it to the Streets, Spokane! as the 40th Earth Day celebration for a small city, is that the event gave people a number of ways to become active and hopeful. This event brought people together, and in the end, even staid City officials asked politely, out the side of their mouths: "Why can't we do this more often?"

What it was we did was take over streets -- one block of a street called Main Avenue. This was planned as a way to show people in Spokane that the streets are not complete until they are re-appropriated by people. So, we had wheelbarrows, walkers, roller skaters, skateboards, a hand glider, even live raptors, belly dancers, hoop twirlers and a bunch of people with booths and demos and tables and music to come out and break bread and share stories about Earth and Earth Day.

These aren't easy things to accomplish in a world of Byzantine politics, code enforcers, fire marshalls, cops, and health inspectors. We broke concrete to play four urban trees on the block. That was Herculean in itself as all the permits and vetting had to go through the proper channels. In the end, the lessons learned by those younger folk working on the Earth Day events, including digging up concrete and plowing into basalt, is that cities bog down citizens in the name of protecting the greater public health and greater good. In many asides, people were livid at the number of legal-regulatory-openly negative rules we had to follow to do some pretty innocuous and helpful things.

The Day was about celebrating April 22, the official Earth Day going back to 1970. In 1969 the San Francisco Board of Commissioners officially announced Earth Day as that city's weighing in on the bigger national day a year later where more than a million people marched on Washington DC to celebrate the world of clean air, water, land and species integrity, all of which, of course, were being disrupted or negated by our industrial practices.

The entire city and county codes and departmental purview and disconnected permitting processes, all the people with titles, desks, and power, all the politicians who are not quick studies, or who list when seeing community support or community dissent on their favorite issues, all the backroom deals, all the bowing to construction industries, chambers of commerce, and the business sector, all the threats from our state capitols looking to quash any green or sustainability initiative once the economic chopping block is pulled out, all of those caveats and roadblocks tear at the very fabric of participatory democracy, inclusion, community activism.

But this Earth Day showed them, all of them, that citizens can prevail and take back the streets figuratively and literally. We can imagine a world where cars are put aside, where streets can be party or cultural meeting places, where the public spaces we all seek are blocks away from some mall or fast-food court.

We received proclamations from the city and the county, read by the respective politicos within City of Spokane and County of Spokane chambers. What I found interesting at the County proclamation event was that the one commissioner I had been working with on the language had to go to Olympia, and her two male counterparts were sort of taken aback after they read the verbiage.

I had at least 15 minutes with them trying to explain to them the reason why oceanographers look at acidification of the seas as a number one threat, one caused by human-generated greenhouse gasses. These middle-aged white males, I have noticed in this town, and elsewhere, are reluctant to give the science a whirl. They are still mired in false balancing by the media and are still confident about an outright attack on us, this phalanx of scientists and technologists and city designers and planners and stakeholders of every stripe. They attack citizens who study climate change. Why?

At the end of the day, no council member or commissioner still stuck in the 19th Century at the Darwin debate wins the day, to be sure. It all smells rotten, though, when people who are held to the public's trust "standard" and who desire to be agents of change and still try and be combative and sound so smart and elite when they attempt to counter the world with, "There is no proof humans cause global warming . . . there's no proof the earth is even warming up."

Looking at Earth Day, global warming politics, the psychology of group change all some together as a massively fun way to spend the day grappling with code checkers and this cerebral discussion about how we can create an Earth Charter. Looking at all the elements of climate and ecosystem collapses, and seeing the failed response in places like Haiti by the US and the world, it is easy to go apocalyptic.

The failed response of people in the US to educate themselves, to drive themselves toward truths, and to be real humans in a world of other humans and other species is the hardest pill to swallow. Yes, nine out of 10 comments about Earth or Sustainability have some strong sense of perspective if not some support; it's the one out of ten that derides everything, looks at the foolish mindset that says if we want clean air, better transportation choices, better cities, less corporate control, and more community activism that we must be hypocritical hippies who live off the inventions and grand toys and services of the corporation and yet continue berating them. This is a democratic movement, not socialistic, though socialism is a great way to pull other elements in climate change together.

The illogical grounding of that statement saying we have to accept the materials economy as is speaks volumes to the lack of intelligent thinking and maybe sound teaching going on in our schools. Have we hobbled educators that much and our selves in so-called polite company, that we can't work these retrogrades through their pain, their misapplied concept of political and community activism, with education without fear of being stopped, silenced?

Yes, more public transportation, more efficiency, and more walking and biking, but that does not mean the car is dead. We want a set of lifestyle choices, sure, but we don't want those choices at the expense of failed ecosystems, extinctions, toxicity and our own species' ailments all caused by corporations run amok or gone unchecked. It's this line of thinking that produces the failed intelligence at city council meetings, in town halls, on TV when tea bag party folk yammer on and on about meaningless and groundless "stuff" because they happen to be self-imposed/self-inflicted disenfranchised white men and women.

Earth Day is about dialogue, thinking and moving ahead. The work to be done is there, and the challenges we face have yet to be written.

Benediction for People Working on the Earth

Spokane – Just the Way Light of Sun Touches the Backs of Earth Volunteers

By Paul K. Haeder

for the people who worked, for the people who shared Earth Day 2010 Takin’ it to the Streets, Spokane!

she came into life from glaciers imploding
basalt columns ripped from geological core
scarring earth, the lift of eagles broken
by the roar of the ice dam fracturing
giant blue heron settled eating purple frogs
they all listened to the roar, even the tribes

artery of river stone, the open wound
clear water, the gapping pools where Coho
settle for energy, in the collecting pools of sun water
where grizzly belly up and rip open dog fish
bigger than children, bigger than myths

this is a memory that isn’t lamentation but clarity
we can believe the history of our biophilia, our grand
hope for some reckoning with the wagers
who would sell every white pine for chopsticks
who would let the goo of arsenic tailings
settle into the bones of gorgeous rivers

you did fight that spasm, oddly enough, that odd nature
in most humans, a day of recapturing the light
when clouds and wind and Douglass fir trapped pheromones
sailed together on Gaia's wet morning breath,
the buzz of bees harkening in the same fold of time

this is how we live a modern ghost dance
no eulogies any more, just utilitarian ground truthing
hard fought battles to bring the purveyors of greed
to their knees, yet we drink the ferment of this life
in Spokane, making celebration and war one

give each other elbows, the full arm salutation
remember we worked like bees
pollinating a city we see as old, tired, but a future place
where some of us will ghost dance with salmon
and the grandmother lynx, where caribou herds will trample lichen
for miles . . . . we believed and did . . .

. . . so children will gather polished river stones from
the very water in their blood
pure, clean, and more than a dream
because of us, each one of us together.

Count Down to 40 years of Earth Justice, or Earth Regard, or Earth Struggle

It's all about people. Join us April 17, at 7 a.m. to put up the tables, the booths, the fun for kids and family and singles all alike. Main, between Browne and Division.

Here's my latest piece as a columnist with Down to Earth. It says it all about the battle for sanity within the earth justice movement.

Thanks to five dozen participating organizations, 100 individuals, a dozen vendors of food, and all the effort underwriters have put in.

April 16, 2010 in Paul Haeder

Earth Day can’t be Hijacked by Madison Avenue –
Putting the “A” in Earth

Here comes the drum roll for Earth Day 2010. . . .

Earth Day 2010 could be a turning point in forcing the US and G-8, G-20, Group of 4, or Group of 77 to move aggressively toward green jobs, energy efficiency, renewable energy, food security and more, all under the marquee of Climate Change Paradigm Shift.

According to the Earth Day Network, 1 billion of us will celebrate and take action for Earth Day. The first one was loosely organized 40 years ago, largely with the political clout and will of Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who asked Americans to consider the burning rivers in Ohio, massive waves of smog in LA, and unending eutrophication of our nation’s lakes as contrary to American values, and against the American ideal of “this land is your land.”

This 40th one – April 17 in Spokane and then up to April 24 as the nation celebrates in Washington, D.C. — occurs when the world is scrambling to plan for climate change, sea level rise, freshwater shortages, loss of soil volume and fecundity, human and animal displacement, and dozens of other ecosystem strains. Think about planning for human diasporas beyond calculation.

It’s also an era of huge energy and fossil fuel monopolies not only wresting control of our energy policies, but determining foreign policy and military engagement. On one hand, scientists are looking at the impacts of mountaintop removal and coal mining and burning coal on local watersheds as well as the global atmosphere. They’re studying the loss of nutritional value in crops due to climate change. And looking into the causes of pollinators like bees collapsing as a species. And why some forests are receding and other flora like sagebrush is advancing.

Working in tundra country and on the ice shelves of the world, underwater along the coral atolls and high atop elfin forests in rainforests, scientists are gathering forensic evidence from those smoking guns we all began to suspect as earth’s killers in the early 1990s. Somehow, we in the environmental movement began to see humanity’s waste and consumption as harbingers of climate change and the Sixth Mass extinction.

The sciences, deep ecology, policy think tanks, grassroots organizing and community empowerment associated with Earth Day don’t just stay anchored to stewarding wild places, protecting wildlife and working on humanity’s need for open spaces or parks.

Earth Day 2010, for example, is about Charles Moore’s work as a sea captain studying the giant plastic gyre (garbage patch) in the Pacific. The size of Texas, this garbage swill contains more plastic shards and micro-small pieces of plastic than animal life – at a rate of 6 to 1.

April 22 is about Janine Benyus looking at nature as a blueprint and operating system in an area known as biomimicry. Remember Velcro? Think snaggy thistle or any number of weeds. Her work looks at reducing resource harvesting, enhancing the life cycle of products, and replicating nature’s designs applied to the way we build buildings and create cities by cutting out toxins and decelerating materials use and energy consumption.

Rachel Carson is not a long-gone and overused icon of the environmental movement this Earth Day because, unfortunately, her 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” did not stop the exponential growth in organo-chemicals and other synthetics used in almost every process of our daily lives, even in daily breaking of bread.

Hormone-disrupting synthetics, some from plastics, others from hundreds of chemicals used to grow, treat and process our foods, have created a nation of twitch-riddled, food-allergic, cognitively-challenged hormone-disrupted future cancer patients.

Today, one is warned to step aside a beached orca or dolphin because of enormous quantities of bio-accumulated PCBs, methyl mercury and other hazardous compounds. Killer whales taped off with Haz-Mat tape? What has the world come to in 40 years?

Earth Day 2010 is about clean air, water, land, but also about understanding and planning for the inevitable forces put upon civilization as a result of Peak Oil and Climate Change. In 1970, before the oil embargo, I remember tooling around from Tucson to the Sea of Cortez for some wicked diving along fertile reefs (they aren’t fertile anymore). That was on 22 cents a gallon petrol. Those earlier moments in our country’s history, when crude gushed to the surface, are long gone, and now we are in a time when the energy required to find and extract a barrel of oil equals the energy contained in that barrel.

Maybe Earth Day 2010 will be about building monuments for coal miners in all 50 states since this country still gets half of its electricity from dirty coal-burning electricity power plants. The fight against Massey Energy on mountaintop removal is now shifted into a social justice battle as those 29 coal miners who recently perished in poorly maintained and safety-anemic Massey-run mines are a testament to the impact of the fossil fuel world we depend upon.

This celebration and gathering on Earth Day 2010 must be about acknowledging the science, continuing the uphill battle to win the hearts and minds of the American public, and believing the scientific reality that any concentration of carbon dioxide greater than 350 parts per million in the atmosphere is not compatible with maintenance of the biosphere on the “planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.” NASA scientist and climate expert James Hansen repeatedly says it – we have to stop burning coal almost immediately – by 2020.

Many call for a post-carbon world where all human endeavors and systems are run on renewable energy and cities are compact or large and efficient.

The Number 350 is that magic digit many will be chanting as their mantra this Earth Day. Earth Day is about looking Obama in the face and getting him to change. It’s about considering farmers tending more than 93 million acres of corn and demanding an end to ethanol, an energy source that takes more energy to make than we get out of it. Earth Day is about stopping the sloughing off of millions of pounds of chemicals like Atrazine and nitrogen-based fertilizers sprayed for these so-called SUV fuel crops as cases of birth defects and miscarriages, plus cancers, rise each year in the so-called “corn-belt.”

Earth Day is about celebrating youth projects, giving students the curriculum and administrators to allow for truly innovative and worthy teaching. It’s about learning more from Jan Lundberg of California who hasn’t owned a car in 20 years and tore up his driveway and planted a garden. Chris Hedges, author of nine books, including “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009), is talking paradigm shift this Earth Day:

“The reason the ecosystem is dying is not because we still have a dryer in our basement. It is because corporations look at everything, from human beings to the natural environment, as exploitable commodities. Consumption is the engine of corporate profits. We have allowed the corporate state to sell the environmental crisis as a matter of personal choice when actually there is a need for profound social and economic reform. We are left powerless.”

While the Earth Day network, a loosely connected group of disparate organizations, works on green schools, recycling and waste reduction, sustainable development, water, energy, food and agriculture, climate change, conservation and biodiversity, and the green economy campaigns, it’s clear that we have to change the politics to make real change, and we have to undergo a massive restructuring of our education system.

Earth Day is about giving voice to thinkers with deeper analyses of the broken system, like Elizabeth Kolbert (“Field Notes from a Catastrophe”) and George Monbiot (“Heat”). In the end, no matter how much science-based information or wonky studies we have at our beck and call, Earth Day 2010 is about leading people into a decade of real change:

“We need to separate ourselves from the corporate government that is killing the planet,” said Derrick Jensen, author many books, including “The End Game.” “We need to get really serious. We are talking about life on the planet. We need to shut down the oil infrastructure. I don’t care, and the trees don’t care, if we do this through lawsuits, mass boycotts or sabotage.”

While most local Earth Day 2010 celebrations will be all about the soft sell of what it means to be on the planet, to be “stewards” of the “lower” species, and to reduce waste and pollution, the real work starting this Earth Day is to bring down the system that depends on protecting the corporate elites and those with power and money. Earth Day 2010is about community activism and community governance, whereby a social response is the only conduit to dealing with global heating.

The progress some have made in Spokane will be proudly displayed Saturday, April 17, 11 a.m. to midnight, on Main between Division and Browne, because of the work those people have done to save forests and fish and clean air and water.

“Earth Day 2010, Takin’ it to the Streets, Spokane!” is a gathering place for those working to give people in poverty voice and opportunities to share in the green movement.

Common citizens will see the green movement isn’t just concerned with dolphins, spotted owls and pine forests. We’re working on showing our citizenry how equity, education, and environment are keys to sustainability.

Earth Day is about beginning those conversations, sharing stories about the economics of sustainability, and how money should become a tool by which the community can make the change the Green Generation demands and deserves.

As the day unfolds and hundreds of photographs are taken, we still will have the following week to make our Spokane message clear. On April 24 more than a million people will be in Washington, D.C,. while our city’s photos are displayed on a 120-foot-by-60 foot JumboTron.

Earth Day 2010 is the beginning of a massive movement, starting one city at a time.

http://www.downtoearthnw.com/stories/2010/apr/16/earth-day-cant-be-hijacked-madison-avenue/

Earth Day, Spokane, 2010 -- Fig Tree Article Focuses on the Street, Unusual Acitivites and the Reasons

Paul Haeder and Molly Callen on Main St., the venue for Earth Day 2010.

http://www.thefigtree.org/april10/040110earthday.html

Spokane’s Earth Day ‘takes to the streets’ to reach people
Spokane’s 40th anniversary Earth Day celebration will be on Main St. downtown rather than on grass at Riverfront Park.

Co-coordinators Paul Haeder, 53, a teacher, journalist and activist who came to Spokane in 2001, and Molly Callen, 24, a Spokane K-12 substitute teacher who grew up in Spokane, said they are “takin’ it to the streets” because urban life is expanding and because grass uses water, fertilizer and herbicides.

Molly was involved last year with a children’s activity, helping build 350 bird feeders and wanted to expand the educational component.

“I came to an early planning meeting. Few came, so I became a co-coordinator,” said Molly, who attended Spokane Falls Community College and graduated in 2008 from Eastern Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in reading and elementary education. “I want children to go home knowing they can grow their own food, plant flowers and make bird houses.”

Along with studies for a master’s in special education and her work substitute teaching, she has volunteered 30 hours a week for Earth Day planning.

read more, the rest, at:

http://www.thefigtree.org/april10/040110earthday.html

April 17 is set to be a BIG Day -- Mayor and County Commissioner declare April 17 Earth Day Spokane/Spokane County and April 17-24 Earth Day Week

Mayor Verner supports Earth Day

Jon Snyder supports days of Earth

Bonnie Mager supports urban planning for earth

Kohl's is a supporter of Earth Day in the form of 300 Bird Houses to be built and given away

Doug Bradford is a supporter of birds and bats -- he's helping Kohl's associates prep the bird boxes for kids

Kauffman and Associates is all about supporting the land, water and air of our Pacific Northwest

Spokane Aquifer Joint Board supports conservation of water

Resourceful suports recycling for Earth Day -- gives 5 recyclers and bags to Earth Day

Charlie Gurche supports Earth with photographs

Diamond Parking supports Earth Day with the use of two parking lots on Main, April 17

Food -- Isabella's, The Scoop, Flatbread Pizza Company, One World Spokane, Rocket Bakery

All the musicians and performers are set for Earth Day 2010

More than 6 dozen booths and demos and hands on displays and people galore "talking earth"

For more supporters and participants, go to the previous blog --

http://earthdayspokane2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/ed-2010-taking-it-to-streets-spokane.html

Earth Day is About Stopping Corporate Take Over of Farms, Corporate Poisoning of Crops, Corporate Mutation of Life

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/12seed.html?ref=todayspaper

Who's crushing family farmers?
Farm Aid - ACTION ALERT

In Farmers We Trust - Take Action

http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ftIQI7PRJmKQIdI&s=itJYJbMNLhISK6MMJoH&m=miKVJ7POJqK6G

Dear Family Farm Supporter,

Did you know that just one company, Monsanto, controls more than 90%>> of the soybeans grown in the United States? And that they also control more than 80% of U.S. corn?

This extreme concentration of power is not unique to corn and soy. And it's a big problem --- not just for family farmers struggling to compete. Standing between you and the family farmer are a handful of corporations who control our entire food system from seed to plate.

Corporate concentration has many forms --- factory farms, the dairy>> crisis, genetically engineered food --- anything that puts the control of our food into the hands of a few companies and forces farmers out of business and off the land.

**Speak out now! Tell the government that you trust family farmers with your food!**



The issue of corporate concentration in agriculture is finally getting attention starting today with the first in a series of public workshops held by the Department of Justice and the US Department of Agriculture.

Farm Aid needs you to let Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack know that corporate concentration in agriculture is devastating for family farmers, bad for our health, and wrong for consumers like you and me!

This is an historic opportunity for farmers who have been marginalized by agribusiness giants. But it's just as important for all of us who eat (and who want to know who is controlling our food!). This is your chance to join family farmers in telling the government what is wrong with corporate concentration. The government needs to hear from people like you, people who trust the farmers who grow our food --- not corporations facing anti-trust investigation.

Please, take a moment right now to tell Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack how corporate control has created a food system that lines the pockets of a handful of companies while bankrupting family farmers and leaving the rest of us hungry for change.

Thanks so much for taking action today. We'll keep you updated on how things are going with the workshops and let you know more you can do in the coming weeks and months.

Sincerely,
Hilde Steffey
Program Director, Farm Aid

Spokane Earth Day is coming on STRONG

March 20
7 pm
Community Building
Sequel to Planet Earth
Potluck


This March 20, come to the Community Building and get a sneak peak at the movie, Life.



Part of pre-EARTH DAY SPOKANE: Which is April 17, 11-midnight, and all the information can be gathered on Facebook



(and) www.earthdayspokane.org and the blog, http://earthdayspokane2010.blogspot.com


added FUN -- Potluck, vegan o' vegetarian,
SATURDAY
Sierra Club's premiere sneak peak at the sequel to Planet Earth --
LIFE:
RSVP here, or paulha@spokanefalls.edu


MARCH 20, 7 p.m., Community Building -- potluck -- RSVP


What is the meaning of LIFE? Glad you asked. It's the Discovery Channel's follow-up to the wildly popular Planet Earth series. If you're interested in the spectacular, bizarre, and fascinating behaviors that creatures like fruit bats, Komodo dragons, and humpback whales have evolved in order to thrive, then you'll love this show -- narrated by Oprah Winfrey -- when it premieres later this month.

Want to be one of the first to see what LIFE has to offer? To help raise awareness of the need to protect all species and their habitat from the effects of climate change, the Sierra Club and Discovery Channel are teaming up to organize House Parties for WildLIFE in advance of the premiere

Earth Hour -- March 27 -- Here, In Spokane, Turn Out the Lights at 8:30 p.m.

Symbolic gestures. Solidarity. Global action. Something to say you did for an hour. Now, turn off the lights, and try doing it all the time, at many points in the evening. Unplug chargers, TVs, stereos. Wow, let's be Earth Day every day.



Mary Verner, Mayor of Spokane, will issue a proclamation about Earth Hour and also is calling on City employees to participate as well.
People can sign up to join the Mayor in participating in Earth Hour by clicking this link https://www.myearthhour.org/home?invite=F2VAG8R3wq and signing up.

More information on Earth Hour is available at http://www.myearthhour.org/ .

The Earth's climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system—including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons—are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century. Global average surface temperatures increased on average by about 0.6°C over the period 1956–2006. As of 2006, eleven of the previous twelve years were warmer than any others since 1850. The observed rapid retreat of Arctic sea ice is expected to continue and lead to the disappearance of summertime ice within this century. Evidence from most oceans and all continents except Antarctica shows warming attributable to human activities. Recent changes in many physical and biological systems are linked with this regional climate change. A sustained research effort, involving many AGU members and summarized in the 2007 assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, continues to improve our scientific understanding of the climate.




During recent millennia of relatively stable climate, civilization became established and populations have grown rapidly. In the next 50 years, even the lower limit of impending climate change—an additional global mean warming of 1°C above the last decade—is far beyond the range of climate variability experienced during the past thousand years and poses global problems in planning for and adapting to it. Warming greater than 2°C above 19th century levels is projected to be disruptive, reducing global agricultural productivity, causing widespread loss of biodiversity, and—if sustained over centuries—melting much of the Greenland ice sheet with ensuing rise in sea level of several meters. If this 2°C warming is to be avoided, then our net annual emissions of CO2 must be reduced by more than 50 percent within this century. With such projections, there are many sources of scientific uncertainty, but none are known that could make the impact of climate change inconsequential. Given the uncertainty in climate projections, there can be surprises that may cause more dramatic disruptions than anticipated from the most probable model projections.

With climate change, as with ozone depletion, the human footprint on Earth is apparent. The cause of disruptive climate change, unlike ozone depletion, is tied to energy use and runs through modern society. Solutions will necessarily involve all aspects of society. Mitigation strategies and adaptation responses will call for collaborations across science, technology, industry, and government. Members of the AGU, as part of the scientific community, collectively have special responsibilities: to pursue research needed to understand it; to educate the public on the causes, risks, and hazards; and to communicate clearly and objectively with those who can implement policies to shape future climate.

April 17 is coming on Strong -- Saturday and this is great, but........ We Have to See the Big Picture: Coal, Oceans, Weather, etc.

Everyone, Earth Day 2010, Taking it to the Streets, Spokane! is coming along fine. We have sponsors -- Avista (a lot less this year than last); Community Building Foundation, Eco-Depot, and right now, the lead one, Down to Earth Northwest. Even local activist and character, Bart Haggin and his wife, Lindell, donated. Of course, we need more underwriting as April 17 approaches. Plenty of details are about to be broadcast far and wide on what will happen SATURDAY.

11 -- 6 is outside. Tons of groups, organizations, and individuals will be on the streets with stuff to work the magic of community discussion and community enlightenment about their particular areas tied to the global warming and sustainability umbrella that is Earth Day, 2010, 40 Years later.

6 to Mindnight, April 17 -- Music, dancing, music, food, beer, wine. All ages party at the Warehouse, still, on Main, between Isabella's Food and Gin Joint and Merlyn's Fantasy.

For now, though, while we prepare to celebrate Earth Day in Spokane, April 17, (www.earthdayspokane.org & on Facebook, Earth Day Spokane) consider the larger frame. Copenhagen 15 failed, and mountaintop removal is an ugly force, as is nuclear power plant mumbo jumbo. So, here, now, join the petition, join the fight to stop mountaintop removal, to stop coal, to stop dirty dealings between energy giants and weak misinformed politicians:

Sadly, if leaders reached an agreement today, it wouldn't be strong enough to do much good.*

In order to bring global CO2 back to the safe zone, we need a global agreement now. But we can't wait for politicians to do the right thing. We need to turn the political heat way up.

The good news is that civil disobedience works. A coal-fired power plant recently had its permit withdrawn as a result of a community blockade of the Desert Rock site, in Dine (Navajo) territory, and there have been powerful actions throughout Appalachia, on Mount Rushmore, against the Tar Sands in Canada, and elsewhere.

Last March, in DC, thousands of people risked arrest and shut down the coal-fired plant that supplies Congress's power. (While Congress chose the false solution of natural gas instead, the action proved that civil disobedience does get a response.)

But time is far too short to shut down one site at a time. Massive action is needed today, in order to:

• 
  ensure climate justice for the affected communities around the world that contribute the least to the problem, but are already feeling the effects


• 
  implement a real deal that does not rely on carbon trading, offsets, or other false solutions
  keep all fossil fuels in the ground, and drastically reduce emissions


• 
  end subsidies to climate polluters including oil and gas, coal, industrial bio-fuels, nuclear power, etc.


• 
  end mountaintop removal and industrial logging of primary forests immediately
  invest in local union jobs driven by purpose, not profit, and protect our community health

Go to Beyond Talk:

http://www.beyondtalk.net/

Scientists tell us that the maximum level of CO2 our atmosphere can safely bear is 350 parts per million. Beyond that, our our earth and its species are at imminent risk of catastrophic changes we'll never be able to stop — meaning billions of people will die.Today, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is already at 390 worldwide — and it's rising at 2 parts per million per year.

for information about Earth Day 2010, Taking it to the Streets, Spokane! contact paulha@spokanefalls.edu

Here Are Our Sponsors, Participants, et al -- Older Post on this Blog ---- Updated Frequently

APRIL 17, 11 a.m. to Midnight, On Main:

Earth Day 2010, Taking it to the Streets, Spokane!

Also, http://www.earthdayspokane.org/

And Earth Day Spokane on Facebook

Check out the cool logos here:

http://earthdayspokane2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/ed-2010-taking-it-to-streets-spokane.html

Air Travel, and the Guilt of those Frequent Flyer Miles --- Earth Day 2010, A New Pledge to Stop It!??##$$%%

Yeah, leave it to the British to calculate the guilt, in the unholy allegiance of flying and experiencing multiculturalism and eco-tourism. But it's so true, that this happy flying mania, or as George Monbiot calls it, Love Miles, is helping to kill the planet. It's one of the big problems today in the so-called green community -- flying and the right to unlimited travel is a sacred cow in the USA, even amongst environmentalists, and especially those middle of the road "sustainability" experts who are tooling around the country going to one after another sustainability symposium. This growth in airline runway building, more urban cores destroyed by noise, more junk being purchases on the web and flown around instantly delivered to our doorsteps, just more and more of those jets in the air, the effects are absolutely clear. Unsustainable. In England, even travel agencies, those that have a rougher clientele (Rough Guide to Climate Change as in the outfit producing the series, Rough Guides), are now discouraging all the air miles to get to remote or exotic places.

Hmm....

"The arguments against flying are compelling. One return flight to Florida produces the equivalent carbon dioxide to a year's motoring. A return flight to Australia equals the emissions of three average cars for a year. Fly from London to Edinburgh for the weekend and you produce 193kg of CO2, eight times the 23.8kg you produce by taking the train. Moreover, the pollution is released at an altitude where its effect on climate change is more than double that on the ground.

According to the IPCC aviation accounts for 3.5% of total emissions, the shipping industry accounts for 4.5% and the cement industry for 5%.

• Aircraft release more then 600 million tonnes of CO2 per year


• Aviation generates nearly as much CO2 as that from all of African human activities


• It is expected that aviation travel will continue to grow significantly


• Aircraft release most of their harmful emissions in take off


• At higher altitude the emissions have a greater effect


• Aircraft travel is largely consumer driven and therefore raising the price of travel and encouraging sustainable local vacations is an easier way to cut emissions than tackling other industries


• Research undertaken for the ‘Right Price for Air Travel’ campaign reveals that the European aviation sector receives about £30 billion of subsidies annually, both directly through payments for expansions and surface access and indirectly through exemptions on aviation fuel tax and VAT.


• Currently airlines pay no duty or VAT on aviation fuel, no VAT on airline tickets and no VAT on new aircraft. Duty free sales, a tax payer subsidy, also provide up to 50% of airport revenue although all EU flights are now exempt from duty free sales.


• In the UK airlines would have to pay at least £5 billion a year if they were taxed at the same rate as motorists. This amounts to more than £200 per household in the UK. Effectively we all subsidise the aviation industry to pollute regardless of whether we fly or not
  
  More frightening is the boom in the number of people flying, fuelled by cheap flights with carriers such as Ryanair and Easyjet. In 1970, British airports were used by 32 million people. In 2004, the figure was 216 million. In 2030, according to government forecasts, it will be around 500 million. The trouble is that the people most likely to be aware of these figures, are the ones who probably enjoy popping over to Europe for a weekend. It makes for a large amount of guilt, and a lot of denial."

And the USA's expansion in the number of flights, the number of runways, or full airport expansion projects, is expected to increase by 20 to 30 percent in the next 20 years. Sustainable? Absolutely not.

Check out these attitudes about flying, thanks to Greenpeace (a UK poll, so please take it with a grain of fish and chips):

• Many independent scientists also believe that pollution from aircraft is a serious contributor to climate change. Given that, which of the following do you agree with?
  
  Air travel is now too cheap --------32%
  There should be a tax on fuel for air travel -------52%
  Air travel should be rationed by government------- 21%
  No more airports should be built -------41%
  We should limit our air travel voluntarily------- 59%
  There should be a pollution warning on air tickets ------61%
  Don’t know----- 2%
  None of these ------12%

Evergreen State College and Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education

Ahh, E to the Fifth Power -- E-5

energy, economy, equity, ecology, and,

EDUCATION:

If Earth Day 2010 isn't about education, then there is nothing to help us understand our communities, far and wide and close and small. Globalization works for ideas, for exchange of cultures, and for mitigating environmental collapse. We need tools to make all areas and communities whole again, food secure, and alive with social justice and enviornmental justice.

One area of note: The Puget Sound

http://www.psp.wa.gov/

Serves up to 4.2 million people. It's Spokane's bioregion too. Think about it.

The Puget Sound and Georgia Basin is composed of Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Georgia, Rosario, and Haro and the lands and rivers that drain into these coastal waters. Before re-named by western European explorers, these inland fjords, straits and estuaries together were known by Tribal and First Nations peoples as the Salish Sea – the traditional name for the great inland waterway stretching from Puget Sound to the Johnstone Strait. Humans have inhabited the Salish Sea for over 10,000 years, living richly from an almost indescribable bounty of salmon, berries, elk, bear, marine mammals and forest resources.

http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/project.asp?pid=62

“Bioregion is a cultural concept, really, not a scientific concept. It should be up to the people to define a bioregion rather than having it come down from the institutional scientific elite.”
Peter Berg

http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/home.asp

Bats, Pollinators, Insect Control, more than 1,100 Species Flapping Around Over Towns, Lakes, Coulees, Homes, Fields, Streams

Earth Day 2010, Taking it to the Streets, Spokane! -- We need people to help make bat boxes-houses and birdhouses. Scraps of wood, simple design, and then on the spot put-together, April 17 in the street -- Main, between Division and Browne.

The more than 1,100 species of bats – about one-fifth of all mammal species – are incredibly diverse. They range from the world's smallest mammal, the tiny bumblebee bat that weighs less than a penny to giant flying foxes with six-foot wingspans. Except for the most extreme desert and polar regions, bats have lived in almost every habitat on Earth since the age of the dinosaurs.

Bats can eat their weight in mosquitos. Some, 1,200 mosquitos every night, making them man’s best night flying friend.



Have you ever noticed those night flying creatures that seem to flitter endlessly among date palm trees in the Middle East at night while making distinctive clicking sounds? If you have, chances are these creatures are not birds but Egyptian fruit bats which have been found to have an amazing ability to find their “target” by not aiming their vocal sonar beams directly but by pointing their “sound beams” to either side of the target.

A recent study was made by researchers at Israel’s Weizman Institute of Science, together with the University of Maryland in the USA, and found that their bats emit paired clicking sounds and that the sonar beam created by each click alternated to the left and right of a target. This alternating pattern effectively directed the inside edge, or maximum slope, of each sonar beam onto the target. As a result, any change in the relative position of the target to the bat reflected that large sonar edge back at the bat, delivering the largest possible change in echo intensity.

http://www.batcon.org/
http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/education/batmask1.pdf
http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/bathouses/bathousecriteria.pdf

Native American Knowledge is about Hope, not Fear

“Hopefulness resides with the peoples who continue to find their identities emerge out of what I call a nature-culture nexus, a symbiotic relationship that recognises the fundamental connectedness and relatedness of human communities and societies to the natural environment….This Red Alert expresses a desire for urgent action based on respectful attentiveness. This Red Alert is about hope, not fear.”

Daniel Wildcat is a Native American scholar and activist. he is of the Yuchi and Muscogee tribes, and is currently the director of the American Indian studies programme and the Haskell Environmental Research studies centre at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

His new book, Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge is a powerful call both to action against climate change, but first to listening to and engaging with indigenous peoples

Brids, Birds, Boxes, Early Arrivals

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1139

Swallows and bluebirds — like this Western Bluebird —are among the earliest northbound migrants to arrive, heralding spring a month before the equinox. Both species will nest only in cavities, such as old woodpecker holes or man-made nestboxes. But the supply of specialized nest sites is limited, and competition is intense. By arriving early, swallows and bluebirds improve their chances of securing unoccupied cavities.

To learn more about building nestboxes, visit Cornell's Al AboutBirds.

A World Class Destination for Birders and Birds

The Rio Grande Valley hosts one of the most spectacular convergences of birds on earth. Almost 500 species have been documented in this unique place. Many breed and nest along the quiet Laguna’s, palm-fringed Resaca’s and in the lush thorn forests. Each year, birders come here to witness this majestic migratory journey. Birders also come to see bird species they can’t find anyplace else in the country…from the Green Jay and the Buff-bellied Hummingbird to the Great Kiskadee and the Altamira Oriole.

http://www.worldbirdingcenter.org/

Very Cool Group of People Fighting the Good Earth Day Fight -----Buffalo!!!

Why Yellowstone Bison Do Not Belong on Ted Turner's Ranch

Yesterday, escorted by Homeland Security agents, four livestock trailers hauled eighty of the eighty-eight Yellowstone buffalo to the private lands of Ted Turner. Buffalo Field Campaign was there to document. Today, the remainder of these Yellowstone buffalo - eight bulls - will be sent to his ranch. Ted Turner is a prominent commercial buffalo rancher and he will get to keep 75% of these Yellowstone buffalo's calves that are born on his land and use them for his commercial gains to improve the genetics of his domestic herds that he raises for meat and canned buffalo hunts.

These Yellowstone buffalo have been stolen from all of us: from the American people and from First Nations who have wanted to bring their relatives home for many, many years. More importantly, these buffalo have been stolen from their wild-born families and the lands that are their birthright.

Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP) and the media would have us all believe that the only options that these buffalo had were going to Turner or to slaughter, and if you are opposed to them going to Turner then you must be for slaughter. Ironic, coming from one of the agencies that participates in the slaughter of wild Yellowstone buffalo. This is a wily way to spin the facts in order gain blind public support for the Turner option, which was their last-minute bail-out plan because they completely failed to use their five years wisely. MFWP broke the promise they fed us when they initiated the Quarantine Feasibility Study: to return these Yellowstone buffalo and their calves to public or tribal lands. Privatization and commercialization were expressly forbidden. And now we are being force-fed the ultimatum of slaughter or a "good home" at Ted Turner's big bison ranch. The fact is, there are other options including millions of acres on public and tribal lands in Montana and throughout the country. This is just one more instance of the government and livestock industry manipulating wildlife and public perceptions. In transferring these wild buffalo to corporate interests, MFWP has broken trust with the public and tribes. We believe they have broken the law. It is not enough to trust that Yellowstone buffalo going to Turner's private lands is better than slaughter. Do not fall prey to the false government line that these are the only options.

There is another reason that Yellowstone buffalo should not go to Turner's land: two years ago there was an anthrax outbreak on Turner's Flying D ranch, a stone's throw from Turner's Green Ranch where the Yellowstone buffalo will be held for five years. Anthrax occurs in the soil and lies dormant under drought conditions until heavy rains occur. Turner lost 257 of his ranched buffalo to anthrax in 2008. It is also believed the outbreak was responsible for the deaths of wildlife: at least 2 deer and 14 elk. One domestic bull died from anthrax, and the Montana State Vet even recommended that cattle ranchers on lands adjacent to Turner's land vaccinate their cattle against anthrax. With this highly deadly bacteria in the soil, this land should never have been an option for further quarantining Yellowstone buffalo.

Buffalo Field Campaign has opposed the Quarantine Feasibility Study from the beginning, knowing strongly that this experiment would manipulate and sacrifice the wild integrity and unique behavior of America's last population of migrating buffalo. Proponents of quarantine would have us all believe that this is the only way that American buffalo will be restored to the landscape, but we advocate for natural bison restoration, one hoof at a time, via migration corridors to vast tracts of historic habitat enjoyed by all other wildlife. Buffalo advocates who honor the free-born bison and their right to roam their native lands should refuse to accept the privatization and commercialization of Yellowstone buffalo, and instead insist that disease-management be focused on domestic cattle. Since stress and confinement are instigators of disease, the only option that makes sense for wild buffalo is to roam free.

------------------------------
* Buffalo Battle Nominated for Genesis Award!

Buffalo Battle, the TV-documentary highlighting the controversy surrounding the management of wild Yellowstone buffalo and the work of Buffalo Field Campaign has been nominated for a Genesis Award, presented by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). According to HSUS, "HSUS's annual Genesis Awards recognizes artists, writers, and others in entertainment and the media who contributed their time and talents over the past year to raise awareness of the plight and suffering of animals."

http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

Earth Day is About Following Through -- March 3 Deadline to Protect Beluga Whales!!

The Cook Inlet in Alaska is home to an isolated and distinct population of beluga whale - one of the most endangered populations of marine mammals in the world. Only about 300 individuals remain!

Already on the brink of extinction, the beluga is now facing multiple new threats - increased oil and gas drilling, port expansions, and the proposed Chuitna Coal Strip Mine, just 45 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service has proposed designating more than 3,000 square miles of ocean as critical habitat for the highly endangered Cook Inlet population of the beluga whale. March 3rd is the deadline for the comment period – let them know that designating critical habitat would be a crucial first step in protecting this iconic species. Please sign our petition today to protect critical habitat these magnificent and endangered whales need to survive.

During the 1980s the population numbered approximately 1,300 whales. Even though hunting was curtailed in 1999, the number has continued to drop precipitously, demonstrating that many other factors, such as dramatic increases in offshore oil and gas development, are continuing to harm the whale. The proposed Chuitna Coal Strip Mine would:

Increase dangerous ship traffic through the beluga's critical habitat. According to the current proposals, coal from the proposed mine will be shipped overseas.

Decimate a salmon stream that is part of the Cook Inlet and supplies a portion of the beluga's primary food source.

Dump millions of gallons of toxic mining waste into the Cook Inlet watershed each day.

https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=3331&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=bnkwrq05t1.app20a

Last Chance to Save Earth?

President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation breaks down the facts about climate change and our responsibility to life on earth

Last Chance: Preserving Life on EarthLarry J. Schweiger, with a foreword by Theodore Roosevelt IV

Denver, CO (6/25/2009) - Climate change is happening more rapidly than predicted, affecting every region of the United States and the world. To avoid passing on to future generations a fundamentally different planet than the one we have enjoyed, we must take action now to reduce the worst impacts of global warming.

In his book Last Chance, Larry J. Schweiger breaks down the science behind global climate change and takes us from Lake Erie to the icebergs of Greenland, and from Congress to America's classrooms and farmlands. He shares with us how the clean energy economy can provide the solutions we need to avert the worst consequences of global warming and he uses scientific facts and common sense to appeal to the minds and hearts of readers. Ultimately, Schweiger reminds us that we have the duty to think and act as the earth's caretakers, not just its inhabitants.

ED 2010, Taking it to the Streets, Spokane April 17 ............... Some Participants