“African flowers”

Almost a decade ago, I visited Ghana where my daughter was working in an internship.  Everywhere we went the Ghanaians we encountered were welcoming enthusiastic people. They constantly asked—so, do you like Ghana? Well, yes.

I was struck with a booming trade economy…street side. As we rode in the unusual taxis in Accra, we saw street side markets. We witnessed sellers going door to door…except that the doors were the car doors. Everything imaginable thing being sold by vendors walking up and down the median strip in highways. And to give the customer whatever purchase, a plastic bag is produced.

Ah, the ubiquity of plastic bags.  Hence, the title—African flowers. When the plastic bags drift away, having been carelessly cast aside, they float about. And then they catch in the branches of trees—there they stay and earn the name of “African flowers.”

Clearly, while the invention of plastic has produced many helpful products, plastic has also become a curse. And it is threatening the future of our planet…as well as threatening the present of our planet.

A recent story caught my eye, and left me gob-smacked. Sperm whales have been washing up on beaches in the North Sea. The article that appeared in National Geographic  revealed the cause of their deaths of some of these animals. “After a necropsy of the whales in Germany, researchers found that four of the giant marine animals had large amounts of plastic waste in their stomachs.”   As the story notes, among those items were plastic fishing nets, plastic parts of auto engines, bits of broken plastic items.

So, this is the “fouling the nest” issue that makes me crazy. PLASTIC.

So, what do I do? Eschewing plastic altogether is not possible, and maybe not desirable.  Of course, like many people we use reusable bags for grocery shopping.

Another way to do something is recycle. My husband and I have been recycling plastics, glass bottles, cans AND newspapers since 1970! We began recycling before our first child, our son, was born—and, yes, we began with an eye to the future this child might inherit. In those days, recycling meant collecting the items and once a month trudging them to some nearby location where volunteers from civic-minded organizations collected all the items.

Eventually local government based programs became the norm, which also meant everyone had to do what we had been doing for years. Only difference now was that the recycle truck came through the neighborhood to pick things up.

And there’s one other way I try to do a small bit to help. I pick up trash in most public spaces. On my daily walks with the dog through our nearby cemetery, occasionally I spot discarded bottles, cans and other trash. I usually pick up an item or two and dispose them in the big trash bins provided. Why can’t everyone do that?

I have even been known to pick up trash in women’s bathrooms in public spaces. I work on a corollary assumption to the “broken window” theory. I reason that if people see trash on the floor they are more likely to drop trash. So, I pick up the paper towels and discarded unused toilet paper. Then, of course, I wash my hands.

Just today, I spotted a plastic bag floating along, so I picked it up, tucked it in my pocket and brought it home to our plastic bag collection for recycling. As I did that small task, I thought—one less African flower.

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Want to know more about plastic bags and what some countries are going? Check out this website: http://www.earth-policy.org/press_room/C68/plastic_bags_fact_sheet .

The photo of plastic bags above comes from this website.

Do You Believe in Martians?

This past Friday afternoon, as my husband and I returned from having gone to a movie matinee, as we approached the street where we turn into our neighborhood, we could see flashing lights further down the block. While we weren’t quite sure what the lights signified, we knew it meant there was some kind of emergency.  The flashing  lights appeared to be at a doctor’s office nearby our home.

We went on home, and then while I was walking our dog around the block, I came near the doctor’s office but decided against walking down to see the commotion. As I turned the corner, I heard a neighbor call out my name—so I walked back to her.  She then proceeded to fill me in on all the excitement—a driver just learning to drive had lost control of his car and hit the accelerator instead of the brakes. Somehow, while driving along a straight street he managed to turn his car almost a full right hand turn…right into the doctor’s office, taking out a large window.  The car then came to rest INSIDE the doctor’s office.*

When I got home and told my husband what the flashing lights had signified, he responded—well, there have been so many stories lately in the news of cars driving into house.  And that was true—within the past week there have been about a half dozen such stories in our general part of central Pennsylvania. My husband then continued to speculate—I think it’s aliens. We have been invaded by aliens from space who don’t know how to drive.

Of course, he was jesting (half) and recalling the scene from the movie “Starman” where Jeff Bridges plays an alien who lands on earth, and then proceeds to try to pass as a human, having taken such a form. One wonderful scene is when he is driving….well, it would be better to see it—rent the movie. Hence, the origin of my husband’s “aliens have invaded and don’t know how to drive” explanation.

Now, this hypothesis might sound preposterous, but hold that thought.

In a recent op-ed piece, Nicholas Kristhof, whose pieces appear in the New York Times, wrote that Americans are “much more likely to believe that there are signs that aliens have visited Earth (77 percent) than that humans are causing climate change (44 percent).”

Admittedly, the percentage of people who believe in something can’t make something true. . .or can it?

Remember Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast The War of the Worlds?  No, I don’t  mean did you listen to it (although maybe one or two readers did).  But surely you have heard about it.  Welles was a wunderkind when he presented an episode of radio drama on October 30, 1938.  The program was staged as a realistic news casting of an invasion from outer space.  While there may not have been as much widespread panic as originally reported, those people who tuned in to the radio broadcast late missed the disclaimer.  So, there were some listeners who mistook the program as an actual news broadcast.  They believed we were being invaded by Martians.

Bah—you say—too far-fetched.  (I assume that puts you outside the 77 percent group).  And I think I too would say that—except. . .  Except for the recent story about the Mars Rover.    The Mars Rover Opportunity is out and about on the planet Mars looking for rocks.  Opportunity is equipped with cameras and sends images back to Earth (including a “selfie”).  Check out the link to see the “before” and “after” photos.  The images were taken 12 days apart, with the first one showing flat Martian ground.  The second one reveals a donut-shaped  rock, right smack in the middle of where there had NOT been such a rock 12 days before. 

Cue the Twilight Zone music—doo doo doo doo.

And then there’s the whole Roswell scene. 

So, who’s to say that all these cars crashing into houses are not evidence of aliens (who don’t know how to drive) having invaded Planet Earth?

Well, maybe, who knows—maybe we have been invaded or at least visited.

Do you believe in Martians?

*No one was in that part of the doctor’s office at the time and no one was injured.

First World, Third World

Reading a post by my blogging friend Jayne today (go here to read it for yourself...and make sure you watch the video at the end of her post), I found these words: "First world problem."  Her post was making a completely different point, but it sent my mind back several years to my teaching at the nearby community college. 

I taught several course--the ubiquitous English 101--Introduction to Composition.  Since the community college curriculum requires that ALL students take English Composition, there were many sections of this course and many teachers.  English 101 was followed by English 102--Introduction to Argument and Logic.  I taught these two courses, but I much preferred teaching English 102.  (One other course I got to teach several times was Introduction to Literature--my favorite course!)

So, why did Jayne's words--first world problem--set my mind back to teaching?  Because as a final project, I required students to work in teams to explore a third world problem and whether or not the first world had any obligation to address that problem.

Before I describe more about this problem, I acknowledge that current terminology no longer favors the use of the terms "first world" or "third world".  These terms are relics of the balance of power following World War II--the former Allies, primarily the United States and Britain, were the first world; the Communist block was the second world; and the developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America constituted the third world.  Eventually, the terms "first world" and "third world" came to indicated "developed" and "undeveloped/ developing" countries.  Of course, today, the Cold War has ended; and developing countries are rising--think India or Brazil.  So, the old terms don't work any more.

Here's what the project entailed.  I instructed each group to pick a "third world" country, and then identify a major problem in that country.  Then, decide what obligation, if any, the "first world" has to help ameliorate that problem.  The project involved an oral team report, as well as individual research papers.

The range of problems selected and countries researched was fascinating.  Oh, there were some amusing (and appalling) problems.  I had one young African-American woman tell me she wanted to study Africa.  I said--fine, which country?  She gave me a genuinely blank look which told me she had no idea Africa was a continent, not a country.  Once more informed, she and her team decided to study AIDS in Zambia--a worthy project.      

For several semesters running, I had projects on Haiti--you name it, Haiti has it as a problem.  I had human trafficking in general, and more specifically focused on prostitution.  I had water, or really lack thereof.  And I had many diseases--AIDS, malaria.  I had genocide (in Rwanda, of course).

Mostly, the students would argue that the "first world" should do something about these various problems.  No magical solutions ever emerged.  One group, that had tackled Somalia and its piracy, acknowledged that a lack of strong government was a major problem.  One student in that group turned in his research paper wherein he had argued, quite sincerely, that the country's problems would all be solved if they simply became Christian.  I pressed him hard on his paper--and in the end pointed out that he had not demonstrated a complete comprehension of what the country was like (for example, he didn't even enumerate how many people followed what faith traditions) and I pointed out that he had not convincingly argued for his solution.  Poor kid--he really thought that waiving Christianity as a solution was convincing--no need for proof.     

All in all, the end of semester projects were always a highlight for me.  My strong sense was that most of the students actually grappled, even for a short while, with large, perhaps unsolvable, problems.  And they had to learn something outside their own small worlds.  Plus they had to think about what it means to live in the "first world" when so many other people live in the "third world." 

It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature

I wonder how many of you will recall that commercial from a number of years ago.  The tag line of the commercial was “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” whereupon Mother Nature stands up and with a wave of her hands—boom--thunder and lightning.

I couldn’t help but recall that commercial with its closing line as the predicted Hurricane Sandy bore down on the East Coast of the United States.  Even now, a day after the hurricane has blown through central Pennsylvania—on its way to the Midwest—the storm is wreaking incredible havoc.  Manhattan, New York City has been hugely affected—power stations exploding disrupting power, cranes dangling from building construction sites, cars trapped in or out of Manhattan with bridges and tunnels closed. 

Of course, post-hurricane there will be debates—has global climate change made such super-storms inevitable?  I have read enough to know that climatologists are careful to talk about long-term trends, and steer us amateurs away from drawing hasty conclusions about individual weather events being caused by global climate change.  So, they are comfortable attributing the many heat records that were broken this past summer and the widespread extended drought to global climate change.  They are less comfortable attributing a single storm such as Hurricane Sandy to global climate change.

I find this whole topic maddening.  It is emblematic of a weird tendency in the U.S.—the tendency to subject something that either is (or isn’t) to a popularity contest.  So, polls are conducted to determine if people BELIEVE in global climate change.  And, while you might not think something such as global climate change would be an indicator of one’s political leaning, we find that depending on whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, global climate change is or is not happening.  85% of Democrats say there “is solid evidence of warming” as compared to 48% of Republicans who accept that.  (Source: Pew Research Center) (Incidentally, more than 70% of so-called Tea Party adherents do NOT believe that global climate change is occurring.)

Where my anxiety goes off the scale is when the political ramifications come to play in WHO provides leadership in our national governmental structures on these issues.  Where the Republican platform four years ago had an extensive section on climate issues, the whole topic of climate has disappeared from the Republican platform.  Thankfully, the Democratic platform still deals with global climate change.  I know, I know—the platforms don’t mean much.  They simply give a snap-shot of what matters to the respective parties.

It should come as no surprise that our regard for science—or, I should say, our lack of regard—has an effect on our success in science education.  A recent report found that the U.S. is lagging behind many countries in various subject scores.  As the report notes, we might have won more Olympic gold medals, but we aren’t winning gold in education areas including science.  Who ranks first in science?  China.  The U.S. ranks 23^rd.  (Source: Huffington Post article)

I do not blame our public education system for this decline—not at all.  I blame the pervasive attitude in the U.S. that science just doesn’t matter.  After all, you can subject it to a popular vote—if most people don’t believe it (whatever IT is: global climate change, evolution, you name it), then it must not be true.  Not only is it NOT true, but it has to be disputed at every turn.  Layer on top of that scorn a constant drum beat of fascination with the most mindless topics imaginable—can you say Snooky? Honey Boo-Boo?  Boxers? Or Briefs?  (All those topics have been asked of recent candidates for President, where the candidate’s position on global climate change has NOT been asked.) 

Well, Mother Nature gets the last word.  It’s not nice to fool her.

DAY TRIP--Hawk Mountain

While my husband and I enjoy traveling, usually when we talk about a trip, we mean A TRIP—you know, somewhere away that takes multiple days. For example, we could travel to San Diego or to London.

What we have not done as much of is take day trips. Pennsylvania, where we live,offers a number of delightful destinations for day trips. And October is such a lovely time of year in the northeast, where leaves turning brilliant colors make a perfect backdrop for a day trip.

This week we set out for Hawk Mountain. We have been members for years, maybe even decades, but have never traveled there.

The story of Hawk Mountain is one of the power of individual effort and the need to respect and preserve nature. It began with a young man named Richard Pough who had recently graduated from college. He was a budding conservationist. Having heard of a place near Reading, PA called Hawk Mountain, he decided to visit.

At that time, the Pennsylvania Game Commission had placed a bounty prize on the heads of goshawks--$5 a head. The thinking was to eradicate any predator in the wild, including birds. (It is a huge irony that humans, the greatest predators of all time, would make such a determination to try to exterminate other predators.)

Pough* found a scene of incredible destruction—hundreds of raptors shot dead by hunters. He returned the following weekend with a camera, gathering up the dead birds which he lined up and photographed.

The photos helped galvanize other like-minded people, including a New York philanthropist named Rosalie Edge. She had the means to secure the land around Hawk Mountain. She first leased it, and 1934 she installed a warden to keep hunters away.

Within a year, all hunting there had ceased. She went on to purchase the 1,400 acres and the next year opened the Sanctuary. She then deeded the site to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary which incorporate in 1938 as a non-profit organization. Today, the bulk of funding for the place comes from member support.

That makes Hawk Mountain the world’s first—and largest— refuge for birds of prey.

Why Hawk Mountain? The mountain, part of the Appalachian chain, sits right in the middle of one of the North American flyways. The sanctuary is well-developed with trails to various lookout points over the valley below.

On a clear day, such as the one we traveled on, the unobstructed view across the valley is some 70 miles. The main trail is about one third easy walking and two thirds climb over rocky terrain. One mile out to the North lookout point, and one mile back is a good walk in the woods.

We didn’t see too many raptors. The turkey vultures were out in force, riding the thermals with such ease, almost mockingly. One kept swooping in right where we were sitting as if to say “Look at me. You can’t do this.” We also saw red tail hawks, an American kestrel, and a bald eagle in the distance.

The two primary lookout points have volunteers and interns during all the hours the Sanctuary is open. They do a daily count, which you can see here. Sharp-shinned hawks, the ones most prevalent during the first week on October, were not to be seen during our trip.

Day trips? Yes, we plan more and I will photography and report on each.

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*Art Pough went on to lead an amazing life as a conservationist. He helped found the Nature Conservancy. As his obituary in 2003 notes (he lived for 99 years) he served “stints at the National Audubon Society and the American Museum of Natural History… he wrote a series of Audubon guides on birds; helped to get a law banning the sale of wild-bird feathers; became one of the first to warn of the dangers of DDT; established several important preservation groups; and inadvertently established the house finch population of the eastern United States.”

YOU ROCK!

After the event this afternoon, my husband remarked with incredible irony that he had thought of the possibility of experiencing an earthquake, but assumed that we'd be in California, if that happened.

With our son and daughter-in-law now living in southern California, we know we will be visiting there more frequently. So that raised the possibility of experiencing an earthquake--not a huge likelihood, true. But we certainly didn't think we'd feel the earth moving here in central Pennsylvania.

Yet, that is precisely what we felt today. Just before 2 p.m. EST, we each felt something a bit unusual--my husband thought the dog had bumped his office chair. I saw the walls seem to move slightly--a disorienting sensation.

I confess, the first place I turned to figure out what had happened was Facebook. It lit up like a switchboard (what a funny comparison). And immediately the USGS confirmed that it was indeed a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in Mineral, Virginia, some 90 miles south of Washington, DC.

Here's a USGS map of the places where the earthquake was felt--based on reports people have made.

I can't say that experiencing an earthquake was on any personal experience list that I had--but if this is the only earthquake I experience, I am just fine with that. I recall hearing from an aunt of mine who lived through the great Alaska earthquake of 1964. That event seemed like the end of the world to her.

I am fine with a 5.8 magnitude earthquake almost 200 miles from where I live. I would NOT want to experience a 9.2 magnitude earthquake.

Big Blue Marble

You know, sometimes it just doesn't pay for me to read the news thoroughly. Too depressing. But my ever attentive husband brings a story to my attention, and I ask for the link. And, (sigh), a blog is born.

Here's a link to the story he read this morning. Can you imagine a sadder lead-in: "Americans say save the economy, not the planet"?

The story relates the findings of a recent Gallup poll. You can see the basics in the graph below. For 26 years, the graph shows we have cared more about the environment than jobs. In recent years, the environment has been losing ground, slowly. In 2008, environment slipped below economy, then rose, and now has fallen again. You can go here and see the source of the graph as well as Gallup's findings.

A bit over a year ago, I posted on this wonderful blue dot in the vast universe--and I used the photo above (from NASA). The big blue marble. This is home, folks. Not sure what else to say. Of course it is very important, even critical, to have a job. But should we de-value the environment just to have jobs? That's the drumbeat we are hearing today.

I am reminded of that great philosopher, Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. He wrote many wonderful books, but the one that comes to mind right now is The Lorax.

Do you remember this book?

Herewith a quote:

BUT...
business is business!
And business must grow
regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.

I meant no harm. I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger.So bigger I got.
I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.
I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads
of the Thneeds I shipped out. I was shipping them forth
to the South! To the East!
To the West! To the North!
I went right on biggering... selling more Thneeds.
And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.

That doesn't do the story justice, so go read the whole thing here.

We can turn that graph around. The environment and the economy are not incompatible. They may have been made so by the drumbeat in today's political environment, but they are not.

And, remember, when they're all gone--whether truffula trees, or regular trees, or the air we breathe, or the water we drink--when that's all gone, just what good will your job do you then?

I speak for the trees.

Takes My Breath Away

Every now and then, I read something on the Writer's Almanac that just takes my breath away. This site is Garrison Keillor's daily offering of "it happened on this day" accompanied by a poem. Just the fact that someone reads a poem daily on the radio is worth the listen.

But it is also good to be reminded of events that have occurred on the day we are about to live. Of course, December 7 is remembered in the United States as "the day that will live in infamy." Sixty-eight years ago, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt uttered that memorable phrase as he conveyed the news to the nation that the United States would be entering World War II.


Now, here we are 68 years later, entering--no, make that continuing--another war, this one in Afghanistan.

So one of the other things that occurred this day takes my breath away.

Let the Writer's Almanac tell you:

"It was on this day in 1972 that astronauts on the Apollo 17 spacecraft took a famous photograph of the Earth, a photo that came to be known as "The Blue Marble." Photographs of the Earth from space were relatively new at this time.

(Previously) on Christmas Eve of 1968, the astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission, orbiting the moon, took a photo with the gray, craggy surface of the moon in the foreground and the bright blue Earth coming up behind, only half of it visible. That photo was called "Earthrise," and it really shook people up because it made the Earth look so fragile, and because the photo was taken by actual people, not just a satellite."

Here is that famous wonderful photo of "The Blue Marble".

Photo taken by the crew on Apollo 17
Source: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/a17_h_148_22727.html

I had initially posted another photo from space of the "blue marble" taken in the year 2002. My nephew pointed out that the photo above, showing the continent of Africa, is the original.

Take a look at the photo below for a minute. Stop what you are doing, center your mind, and just look at it. Long. Hard. Thoughtfully.

Photo from http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

Do you see what portion of the earth we see? It is the subcontinent of India portion, with Afghanistan at the left.

From space, could you see Taliban? Warring tribal factions? Could you see religious strife and divisions? What could you see from this distance that shows the hand of humanity? Maybe, just maybe the effects of environmental destruction, but other than that--nothing. Not one thing that humanity has done would be visible.

Yet this "blue marble" is our mother. Our father. Our vessel as we travel through the vastness of space. Why do we despoil it? Why do we turn against ourselves? Why do we not simply cherish and nurture and protect this lovely lovely shining blue marble without which we would simply vanish?

Maybe you remember the public television show "Big Blue Marble"? Our son watched it daily. It had a wonderful sweet theme song, the words of which capture in a simple way this sentiment:

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The earth's a Big Blue Marble

When you see it from out there
The sun and moon declare
Our beauty's very rare

Folks are folks and kids are kids
We share a common name
We speak a different way
But work and play the same

We sing pretty much alike
Enjoy spring pretty much alike
Peace and love we all understand
And laughter, we use the very same brand

Our differences, our problems
From out there there's not much trace
Our friendships they can place
While looking at the face
Of the Big Blue Marble in space.
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Couldn't have said it better myself.

Oh, I Give Up!

Try as I might, I am simply no match for those of you who are nature experts: Julie, Tom, Nina, Laura, Mary, Ruth and countless others whose blogs I read with great fascination.

Really, I do love nature. I love watching the seasons change--a wonderful benefit from living in central PA--I love watching birds, and all manner of outdoor creatures, I love the animals living with us. I love tending to my flower gardens.

So, it was a thrill to spot a lovely butterfly as we returned home from a brief shopping trip today. I dashed downstairs (dog hot on my trail wondering where I was going) to grab my camera. The butterfly was first spotted on red zinnias, and then flitted away to some pink zinnias and some dianthus. She (or he?) was not too cooperative in maintaining an open wing stance so I could photograph the lovely design clearly.





I was convinced that all I needed to do was download the photos, type "butterfly" and maybe even "eastern U.S." into Google, and I would find a quick ID. No such luck.

So, I give up. I have a series of photos of a lovely unidentified butterfly. Anyone able to help me?

UPDATE: here's a great site for photos to ID butterflies.

Fouling the Nest

Having recently posted on the assiduous encroachment of development at the expense of green space, I now turn my worries to a story I heard of only recently.

There is a huge garbage pile of plastic floating in the Pacific! Now, I am a fervent recycler--I have been recycling since before recycling was fashionable or even required by local laws. We used to save all our glass (divided by green, brown, and clear), our newspapers and our plastic containers. Then once a month we drove to a nearby collection center. About ten years ago, our township instituted weekly collection, simplifying recycling.

In addition to recycling, I try to be conscientious, requesting paper, not plastic, or better yet buying my own reusable bags. But, I am sure I could do more. I confess to buying bottled water--as George Carlin has observed: when did people decide they needed their own portable water supply?

I guess what I am driving at is that I consider myself environmentally aware, and even caring. I know I have a larger carbon footprint than someone living somewhere in Africa, but I do try to be less consuming. So, I was stunned to read about this plastic garbage dump. It seems the ocean currents in the Pacific have gathered up and trapped mountains and mountains of plastic trash. The brave organization Greenpeace has documented this phenomena. Estimates vary on the size: one estimate said double the size of Texas, and another said it is equal to the land mass of Africa.

To give you an idea of why this plastic collects in the Pacific, check out this animation of plastic in Pacific caught in vortex of ocean currents (from Greenpeace). And here's a link to a CBS news report on the subject:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=591802n

We are fouling our nest.

Now to another aspect of fouling. . .

While talking with a colleague at my community college the other day, she told me when she advises students which English professor to take, she gently steers them away from one particular professor. Apparently, there is someone at my college who tells students to include as many swear words as they want in their writing--after all, they should be learning to express themselves.

I was astonished to learn this. Not because I am such a paragon of virtue, mind, but because I thought we were to be teaching students how to write in a formal context. Having spent quite some time in the business world, I have never encountered swearing in writing in the business world. Oh, to be sure, such language probably is used in some places. But not in my composition classes.

Here's why. I want students to expand their vocabularies. And I tell students that when they swear, they are demonstrating a paucity of language. Predictably, they say--huh? So I just say--look it up.

I came across a site that analyzes blog content for swearing.
Here's my "score"-

Created by OnePlusYou

I am no angel, but I do try to practice what I preach. Rich vocabulary here, folks, not salty.

I suppose if I were to swear in my blog it would be in response to the problem of the plastic garbage dump. And, it would go something like this: what the hell is wrong with us humans?