By Jeff Turrentine
I met Jim Brainard recently on a sunny summer afternoon in Bryant Park, a grassy oasis roughly the size of one square block nestled among the skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan. The stately New York Public Library — one of the city's most famous cultural institutions — defines the park's perimeter on one side, and roughly outlining the other three are more than a dozen smaller-scale treasures, including an old-fashioned carousel, several food kiosks, an outdoor cocktail bar, a petanque court, ping-pong tables, and even an extra-miniature miniature golf course.
<p>In the center of the park, someone was setting up hundreds of seats in preparation for a massive game of musical chairs to be played later that evening. The park was filled; though there was no shortage of tables, we had a hard time finding an open one. That afternoon Bryant Park felt like an example of urban utopianism realized, with people of all ages, races and backgrounds coming together to enjoy a clean, attractive, well-appointed public space that seemed to offer something for everybody.</p><p>As the mayor of <a href="http://www.carmel.in.gov/" target="_blank">Carmel, Indiana</a> (population 93,000), a suburb of Indianapolis, Brainard oversees the day-to-day operations of a medium-size municipality that few would ever liken to New York City (population 8,600,000). But amid the happy buzz of urban park-goers relaxing, communing, eating, drinking, playing and otherwise enjoying themselves, he was right at home. Since 1996, when Brainard took office, he has shaped the transformation of Carmel from a comfortable if somewhat nondescript bedroom community to a city that makes magazine covers as one of America's best places to <a href="http://money.com/money/collection/best-places-to-live-2017/4924328/carmel-indiana/" target="_blank">live</a> and/or <a href="http://money.com/money/5186414/best-places-to-live-start-career/" target="_blank">work</a>. And the six-term (<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hamilton-county-elections-no-dems-challenging-for-mayoral-races/ar-AADsJgB" target="_blank">soon to be seven-term</a>) Republican has done it in large part by taking some of the best things cities have to offer — <a href="https://www.salon.com/2013/12/25/decorative_christmas_villages_a_model_for_sustainable_living_partner/" target="_blank">density</a>, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/freeing-towns-tyranny-automobile-how-guide" target="_blank">walkability,</a> <a href="https://www.nreionline.com/development/why-mixed-use-newest-gem-us-development" target="_blank">mixed-use development</a> and <a href="https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation-magazine/2017/april/the-health-benefits-of-small-parks-and-green-spaces/" target="_blank">well-designed park space</a>— and grafting them onto the traditional suburban model, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/rogue-elephant" target="_blank">creating a unique hybrid</a>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMDU0MjI1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTM0OTIyOH0.khjcFBuyZBge5Vjn4ePUhi4KYY2LyAfabUbYx3RKupM/img.jpg?width=980" id="2d0bc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c8b4575b1f1bd1f64ddc6f9f9876610d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The Central Park bike trail in Woodland Gardens Park.
All images courtesy of the City of Carmel
<p>But Jim Brainard isn't just a mayor. He's also an ambassador. As a self-identified conservative Republican who not only believes in climate <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a> but has made it his personal mission to incorporate sustainable urban planning and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate</a> resilience into his vision for Carmel, Brainard has become a symbol of what <a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-climate-change-mayor-Jim-Brainard.html" target="_blank">post-partisan climate leadership</a> can and should look like. He has long worked to implement sustainable solutions and green infrastructure, from installing millions of dollars' worth of photovoltaic panels to switching over to LED streetlights to — most famously — replacing all but a dozen or so of Carmel's traffic lights with <a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/carmel/2019/01/01/carmel-indiana-loves-roundabouts-heres-why/2153927002/" target="_blank">roundabouts</a>, which are not only safer for motorists and pedestrians but also <a href="https://sustainability.ncsu.edu/blog/changeyourstate/roundabout-saving-energy/" target="_blank">more fuel-efficient</a>. Six years ago, Brainard was one of only four Republicans appointed by President Obama to a <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/resilience/taskforce" target="_blank">State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience</a>. More recently <a href="https://www.usmayors.org/2019/04/09/benjamin-brainard-and-biskupski-tout-climate-actions-want-renewed-funding-for-the-energy-efficiency-and-conservation-block-grant-eecbg-2/" target="_blank">he appeared</a> before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging lawmakers to renew funding for the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/wipo/energy-efficiency-and-conservation-block-grant-program" target="_blank">Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program</a>, which helps local governments launch and maintain projects that reduce pollution and carbon emissions.</p><p>All of these activities, he insists, are intrinsically conservative. "The root of the word <em>conservative</em> is <em>conserve</em>," he says. "Conservatives think of themselves as not being reckless, but it would be reckless to ignore what the majority of the world's scientists are telling us about <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>. We see the impacts in our weather every day." A follow-up question elicits a who's who of Republican contributions to the modern-day environmental movement: <a href="https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-and-conservation.htm" target="_blank">Teddy Roosevelt's commitment</a> to creating and preserving public lands; the enduring legacy of <a href="https://www.eli.org/celebrating-pioneers-in-environmental-law/william-d-ruckelshaus" target="_blank">William Ruckelshaus</a>, the first director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the championing and signing of the ozone layer–protecting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/science/the-montreal-protocol-a-little-treaty-that-could.html" target="_blank">Montreal Protocol</a> by Ronald Reagan; the creation of the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bush-had-a-lasting-impact-on-climate-and-air-policy/" target="_blank">National Climate Assessment</a> by George H. W. Bush.</p><p>So "there's a tradition" of conservative support for environmental issues, Brainard says; it's just that in today's polarized partisan climate, this tradition has been heedlessly sacrificed on the altar of short-term political expediency. He finds it hard to understand. "Just from a pure political standpoint, it's not smart. It may appeal to a small percentage of the base, but it certainly doesn't appeal to the battleground middle that everyone's fighting over. And from the standpoint of just doing the right thing, it makes no sense either. Thoughtful, well-intentioned people who care about our country should be listening to what the scientific community is saying."</p><p>Brainard notes that mayors "don't have the leisure to sit around and argue about philosophy, or about whether the scientists are right or wrong. Our entire job is to get things done." He paraphrases a famous quote attributed to Fiorello LaGuardia, Republican mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945: "'There's no Democratic or Republican way to fill a chuckhole or plow snow.' And there really isn't. It's about performing the day-to-day tasks at the local level. People are concerned; we have to react to those concerns and try to fix things."</p><p>And people, including the largely conservative and Republican residents of Carmel, are definitely concerned about many of the geophysical changes they're witnessing around them. "We're seeing more storms, and more intense storms," Brainard says. "Storm-surge systems that were designed for maybe four or five inches a day have now become totally inadequate." He says flooding that "before might have been considered a <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/100-year-flood?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects" target="_blank">100-year event</a> is now a yearly event." Cities that haven't built climate resilience into their operations are at grave risk — and not just at some future time, but right now.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMDU0MjM1My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTYxNTc0OX0.ERaU441CnVWCKm5vHOT_auRPz8aQGDcAs_v0vhP9Xkw/img.jpg?width=980" id="f262d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="39798531097bec09ac6f6b2b077fde5e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The former Monon Railroad tracks were converted into a recreational greenway running through Carmel as part of a rails-to-trails project.
<p>Brainard tells me of a freak set of thunderstorms that raged through Carmel in May, sparking half a dozen fires and causing power outages for three and a half days. Thanks to previously installed propane-powered generators, the city was able to pump water into towers and maintain pressure in its water lines. For the mayor and many others, the storms and their minimized impact were yet more proof that a decision to invest more than $3 million in a solar-powered battery system was the right one for Carmel. "Temporary generators work short term, but what if we lost access to power for a longer period of time?" Brainard wrote in a <a href="http://youarecurrent.com/2019/05/25/column-city-prepared-for-emergencies/" target="_blank">locally published op-ed</a> shortly after the storms passed. "Consider how much we rely on power to operate the lift stations that pump our water, power the operations at our sanitary facilities, pump our fuel, cool our homes and operate sophisticated medical equipment for our sick and elderly." Thanks to the city's investment in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a> power, he wrote, "[in] the event of a sustained shortage of fuel — due to storm damage or other factors — our first responders will have options to use stored energy to continue to serve residents in need."</p><p>It shouldn't take a disaster or near-disaster, Brainard says, to convince lawmakers and other elected officials to take climate action — both proactively, through emissions reduction and sustainable operations, and reactively, through resiliency measures. He bemoans the politicization of climate change at the national level. But he's hopeful that mayors, whatever their party affiliation, can step in as the leaders America needs right now. He points out that there are more than 1,200 mayors of cities with populations over 30,000 in the U.S., "and all but about 10 of them signed the <a href="https://www.usmayors.org/mayors-climate-protection-center/" target="_blank">climate protection agreement</a> that the U.S. Conference of Mayors proposed a number of years ago." Roughly a third of those mayors, he notes, are Republicans.</p><p>"At the local level, most elected officials just see it as a nonpartisan issue that needs to be tackled," he says. "And that's encouraging."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Many Republican Mayors Are Quietly Advancing Climate-Friendly Policies <a href="https://t.co/mP2QzOjhlI">https://t.co/mP2QzOjhlI</a> <a href="https://t.co/ReatxEduGc">pic.twitter.com/ReatxEduGc</a></p>— Renewable Search (@RenewableSearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RenewableSearch/status/1001908942732062720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/mayor-puts-conserve-back-conservative" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em></p>
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President Donald Trump, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou break ground for a new factory and potential big pollution source on June 28, 2018. Andy Manis / Getty Images
By Jeff Turrentine
When former administrator Scott Pruitt stepped down and Andrew Wheeler took over, few who care about clean air, clean water and climate change actually thought things were going to get dramatically better at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Wheeler, after all, came to the job after working as a coal lobbyist and a legislative aide to one of Congress's most notorious climate deniers. Still, given that he'd actually begun his career as a special assistant in the EPA's Pollution Prevention and Toxics Office, it wasn't outlandish to wonder if Wheeler might represent at least some kind of improvement over his predecessor.
<p>Short answer: He doesn't. As hard as it is to picture an EPA less willing to fight for public health and the environment than the one we endured under Pruitt, Wheeler's EPA is emerging as a credible candidate. <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/who-andrew-wheeler-and-why-you-should-be-afraid-him" target="_blank">As some of us suspected</a>, the main difference between the two directors appears to be a matter of style. Whereas Pruitt's brand of corruption was bumbling and often <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/week-63-scott-pruitt-even-sleeps-unethically" target="_blank">transparently self-serving</a>, Wheeler's is polished and insidious. But through their bad-faith actions, both men have been exceptional at perverting the agency's mission and cultivating mistrust among its staff.</p><p>According to emails and other internal EPA documents <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-smog/emails-show-trump-epa-overruled-career-staff-on-wisconsin-air-pollution-idUSKCN1SY2BP" target="_blank">received earlier this month</a> by the Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin as part of a federal public records request, in 2018 Pruitt pressured EPA scientists to overlook their own informed opinions about smog pollution in order to pave the way for a heavily polluting and <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/impact-wisconsin-lcd-plant-may-have-great-lakes-not-crystal-clear" target="_blank">water-guzzling</a> manufacturing plant in southeastern Wisconsin. If built, <a href="https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/scott-walker-says-foxconn-deal-will-help-revive-manufacturing-in/article_120705ef-b3bb-5198-9cf6-fbef92623796.html" target="_blank">the Foxconn flat-screen TV factory</a> could have theoretically added 13,000 jobs to the area, burnishing the reputation of Governor Scott Walker — a friend to the Trump administration — at a crucial political moment in the governor's reelection campaign. (FWIW, Walker lost.)</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTU3MzM0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzEwMzk1M30.AAULn5U0KU6Cy1t3tOKbH_RfYbLUSjwhqVtFHRgjwhM/img.jpg?width=980" id="a0bae" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="261f2c3f83d76e7e49024daedf01b12e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
EPA Administer Andrew Wheeler (left) and former administrator Scott Pruitt (right) at Wheeler's swearing-in ceremony.
EPA
<p>The emails and other documents reveal that Pruitt sought to waive federal limits on smog pollution in the region, thus sparing Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company, the expense of instituting new pollution controls at its factory. They furthermore reveal that Pruitt expected his agency's experts to come up with data in support of the decision — which many of them felt they simply could not do. In the documents, demoralized scientists complain to one another about the inappropriateness of "[t]aking snippets of information out of context and not telling the whole story" and bemoan "intentional omissions" in studies being publicly released with the EPA's imprimatur. One scientist admits that she is "in disbelief" at being asked to endorse Pruitt's plan; a colleague replies that as an expert in the health effects of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">air pollution</a>, he finds the decision "hard to digest and support." (Interestingly, this week the Trump administration <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-foxconn-indiana-smog-trump-epa-20190516-story.html" target="_blank">appears to be backtracking</a> on the sweetheart deal it offered Foxconn, in part because new data from the EPA show that the smog situation in southeastern Wisconsin is worsening, and that now would not be a good time to add another pollution source.)</p><p>Just one day before <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/climate/epa-pruitt-wisconsin-foxconn.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> published its account of this sordid episode, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/445277-dems-say-epa-head-gave-false-statements-to-congress-on-vehicle" target="_blank">another story broke</a> about mendacity at the EPA — this one concerning the agency's current director, whose testimony before Congress regarding the weakening <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/weakening-car-pollution-rules-may-be-trumps-dumbest-rollback-yet" target="_blank">of Obama-era fuel-efficiency standards</a> is now under question. Defending the rollback to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in April, Wheeler tried to downplay the sizable increase in emissions that it would bring. "I have been told by my staff that the CO2 reductions, the impact of the CO2 reductions are pretty similar to what the Obama administration proposal would have received under their — would have gotten under their proposal," he told the committee.</p>
<p>Now these same lawmakers are demanding more information from Wheeler to support that claim. <a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/b/c/bcd82315-e25f-4cf5-94d4-227ca461c0ed/B37773917967149BEC4F274A5C1B0E9A.carper-pallone-cars-05-23-19.pdf" target="_blank">In an official letter to Wheeler</a> sent last Thursday, they accuse him of "mak[ing] assertions about the proposal that you must know do not reflect the views of EPA's expert staff," of "repeatedly mischaracteriz[ing] the emissions impact of the proposed rule" and of making public statements that have "deviated from the information that was provided to you and other EPA political appointees" by the agency's scientists and other experts.</p><p>They strongly imply that Wheeler's motivations for misleading Congress and the public are rooted in his desire to please the oil industry. "[It] is hard to discern any other purpose for the proposal," they write, "since no entity in the automotive industry has requested such an extreme rollback of the current vehicle economy and greenhouse gas standards ... The oil industry stands to reap the most benefit from the proposed rollback because Americans will be forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more for gasoline in less efficient cars."</p><p>Taken together, these two developments paint a picture of an EPA where the science-backed opinions of career staff count for far less than the needs of corporate polluters. In March 2018 — before Pruitt <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/trump-watch/scott-pruitt-destroyer-environment-and-master-scandals-resigns-epa" target="_blank">resigned</a> in disgrace — I wrote that there were <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/tale-two-epas" target="_blank">basically two EPAs</a>, a split reflecting "deep tensions within an agency that's currently torn between the best impulses of its hardworking scientists and the worst impulses of its administrator and his industry-coddling cronies." Fifteen months and one administrative shakeup later, the point still stands. Nothing has changed. Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/top-down-contamination-epa" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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By Jeff Turrentine
Navy SEALS are known for their incredible endurance and superior ability to get out of tough, high-stakes situations. But ex-SEAL Ryan Zinke, our current secretary of the Interior, likely won't be able to climb, jump, swim or rappel his way out of the ethics mess he's gotten himself into.
<p>If <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/31/18044860/ryan-zinke-interior-investigation-ethics-justice" target="_blank">the rumors</a> are true and Zinke's days in the Trump administration <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/08/ryan-zinke-fox-news-956537" target="_blank">are numbered</a> (rumors that President Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/11/09/us/politics/ap-us-trump-zinke.html" target="_blank">isn't doing much to dispel</a>), then Americans who care about the future of our national parks, national monuments and other <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands">public lands</a> should get to know his replacement. Meet <a href="https://departmentofinfluence.org/person/david-bernhardt/" target="_blank">David Bernhardt</a>, the Interior Department's current deputy secretary, whose long Washington résumé suggests that he would happily continue to carry out the Trump administration's war on public lands and federal waters—albeit with greater legal sophistication and fewer unforced ethical errors than his predecessor.</p><p>Like his current boss, Bernhardt grew up in the mountain West: in his case, Colorado's Western Slope. Unlike Zinke, who spent more than 20 years as a Navy SEAL before winning Montana's sole congressional seat in 2014, Bernhardt has been in Washington for nearly two decades, having first joined the Interior Department back in 2001 as deputy chief of staff to then-Secretary <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/norton-bio.html" target="_blank">Gale Norton</a>. Five years later, President George W. Bush named Bernhardt solicitor for the agency, a job that had him overseeing the legal staff that represents the department in court cases and directing its overall legal strategy. During this first go-round at the agency, Bernhardt worked to open up Yellowstone National Park to <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2008/bush-administration-to-yellowstone-bring-in-the-snowmobiles" target="_blank">recreational snowmobilers</a> and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122101252.html" target="_blank">oil and gas development</a>.</p><p>When the Obama administration came to town in 2009, the winds of change sent Bernhardt spinning through the Washington revolving door that deposits outgoing top-tier political staff into positions at DC's most powerful lobbying firms. (This door, in case you were wondering, is located in the proverbial swamp.) He spent the next seven years as a registered lobbyist whose clients included <a href="http://www.samson.com/" target="_blank">Samson Resources</a>, the largest privately held crude oil and natural gas company in the U.S.; <a href="https://www.halliburton.com/en-US/default.html" target="_blank">Halliburton</a>, the multinational oilfield services company where former vice president Dick Cheney once was CEO; <a href="https://tucson.com/news/local/years-later-court-battles-over-rosemont-mine-persist/article_a4a8599f-caf8-599a-aaa6-7555be1a5c90.html" target="_blank">Rosemont Copper</a>, a proposed copper mine near Tucson that's been the subject of an 11-year legal battle with Native American tribes and environmental groups; and the <a href="https://www.ipaa.org/about/" target="_blank">Independent Petroleum Association of America</a>, a consortium made up of thousands of oil and gas producers scattered across the country.</p><p>Bernhardt's client list was heavy on fossil fuel interests, but one of his biggest lobbying jobs was for the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-20150920-column.html" target="_blank">Westlands Water District</a>, the largest agricultural water district in the country and the chief provider of water to farmers in California's Central Valley. After rejoining Interior last year as its deputy secretary, Bernhardt became Zinke's point man on an <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article217013095.html" target="_blank">agency-led plan</a> for "maximizing water supply deliveries" to the Central Valley—even if such efforts were found to violate wildlife protections under the Endangered Species Act. Westlands strongly supports such a plan, a fact that has <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-bernhardt-endangered-20180813-story.html?int=lat_digitaladshouse_bx-modal_acquisition-subscriber_ngux_display-ad-interstitial_bx-bonus-story_______" target="_blank">already raised questions</a> about Bernhardt's independence from his former client. Last year the Campaign for Accountability, a good-government watchdog group, sent a <a href="https://campaignforaccountability.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Berhnardt-Complaint-Final-7-20-17.pdf" target="_blank">highly detailed letter</a> to the U.S. Attorney's office, urging it to investigate whether Bernhardt "has continued to lobby despite formally withdrawing his registration in 2016."</p><p>If Bernhardt is worried about conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof, he's certainly not letting on. In August he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/at-interior-were-ready-to-bring-the-endangered-species-act-up-to-date/2018/08/09/2775cd8e-9a96-11e8-b55e-5002300ef004_story.html?utm_term=.c6d7aebc1b3f" target="_blank">penned an op-ed</a> for the Washington Post painting the Trump administration's <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/pro-extinction-policies-do-not-sit-well-americans-whatever-their-stripe" target="_blank">dreadful proposal</a> to weaken protections for threatened wildlife as a means of bringing the Endangered Species Act "up to date." The changes he has in mind could very well result in the ceding of critical wildlife habitat to corporate interests.</p><p>Such as regional water districts, for example. Or perhaps oil and gas companies. Or maybe copper mines.</p><p>Sec. Zinke <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/kabir-green/zinke-suppressed-science-gut-national-monuments" target="_blank">had a plan</a> to shrink and sell off our public lands to the highest bidder, and he was actually making good on that plan until his own penchant for <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/week-74-move-over-pruitt-zinke-weeks-king-corruption-0" target="_blank">penny-ante corruption</a> got in the way. If he manages to keep his post into the new year, it will be only to see himself <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2357951/what-democrats-raul-grijalva-plan-do-about-zinke" target="_blank">the subject of investigations</a> brought by Democrats as soon as they take control of the U.S. House of Representatives come January.</p><p>Zinke <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/fire-ryan-zinke" target="_blank">needs to go</a>, but not just because of his shady real estate deals and pricey travel habits. He deserves to lose his job over what he's done to public lands such as <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/sordid-backstory-behind-bears-ears-and-grand-staircase-decisions" target="_blank">Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante</a>—shrinking their borders and imperiling sacred lands to appease industry—and to our federal waters, 90 percent of which <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nrdc/zinke-adds-oceans-chopping-block" target="_blank">he wants to open up</a> to oil and gas drilling.</p><p>But if Americans think they'll be getting a better secretary of the Interior once Zinke's out, they're sadly mistaken. They'll just be getting a shrewder one.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/who-david-bernhardt-and-why-every-environmentalist-should-care" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Cape Cod’s Gray Seal and White Shark Problem Is Anything but Black-and-White
12 November 2018
Animals
Waves from the Atlantic Ocean crash against a scenic beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This sandy peninsula is a popular summer vacation destination and is also known for its many Great White sharks. Velvetfish / iStock / Getty Images
By Jason Bittel
On a sunny Saturday in mid-September, 26-year-old Arthur Medici was boogie-boarding in the waves off Wellfleet, Massachusetts, when a great white shark bit his leg. Despite the efforts of a friend who pulled him ashore and the paramedics who rushed him to the hospital, Medici died from his injuries. It's about as tragic a story as you can imagine: a young life cut short due to a freak run-in with a wild animal.
<p>Medici is the first person to die from a shark bite on Cape Cod in 82 years. (Another incident, which <a href="http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/08/29/shark-attack-victim-truro" target="_blank">occurred in nearby Truro</a> in August, was not fatal.) Medici's death is also this year's only shark-bite fatality in the U.S. and <a href="https://www.trackingsharks.com/2018-shark-attack-map-bites/" target="_blank">one of just five reported worldwide in 2018</a>. All of which is to say, it's still extremely unlikely for a human to be killed by a shark. Statistically speaking, you are much, much more likely to be killed by <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/07/24/shark-week-7-things-way-more-likely-kill-you-than-sharks/506115001/" target="_blank">bees, lightning or government execution</a>.</p><p>Still, in the wake of Medici's death, <a href="https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/09/17/cape-cod-culling-seals-shark-attack/" target="_blank">some local officials are calling for a cull</a>—but not of sharks. They want to go after gray seals, the sharks' prey.</p><p>Seals have inhabited Cape Cod for some 4,000 years, but for the past century or so, they've been scarce in this part of the world. New England fishermen in the 19th century saw the animals as competition for their cod harvest and killed as many as <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1656/045.016.0206" target="_blank">135,000 of them between 1888 and 1962</a>. Hard to believe, but the Massachusetts government offered a $5 bounty for every seal nose produced as recently as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/08/29/160248562/seals-comeback-spells-trouble-to-mass-coast" target="_blank">the 1960s</a>. Not so surprisingly, gray seals nearly disappeared from the area <a href="http://nasrc.whoi.edu/research/sharks" target="_blank">around that time</a>.</p><p>In 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act made killing gray seals and other marine mammals illegal, and since then, the Cape's seal population has rebounded to <a href="https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20170406/cape-gray-seal-population-estimated-at-up-to-50k" target="_blank">as many as 50,000</a>. In addition to the seals being part of the Cape's food web, <a href="http://www.mbl.edu/ses/files/2017/02/Woods-M_final.pdf" target="_blank">evidence</a> suggests that the animals play a role in transporting nitrogen and other nutrients out of the sea and onto shore via their excrement.</p><p>The thing is, now that the seals are back, so are the sharks.</p><p>While shark sightings have risen in recent years, experts say it's not because shark populations have experienced a boom, said <a href="https://web.uri.edu/soc-anth/meet/carlos-garcia-quijano/" target="_blank">Carlos Garcia-Quijano</a>, an environmental anthropologist at the University of Rhode Island. It's because the sharks we do have are spending more time around the Cape—where the seals are.</p><p>A Massachusetts state shark scientist, Gregory Skomal, has been tagging white sharks <a href="https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20170406/cape-gray-seal-population-estimated-at-up-to-50k" target="_blank">for years now</a> in an attempt to find meaning in their movement patterns. He said the predators seem to be reacting more to what the seals do than anything else. "I can study the heck out of sharks, but I really need more data on what the seals are doing," Skomal <a href="https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20170406/cape-gray-seal-population-estimated-at-up-to-50k" target="_blank">told the Cape Cod Times</a><u> </u>last year.</p><p>Medici's death makes it difficult to ignore the fact that the gray seal conservation success story has increased the presence of great white sharks. Garcia-Quijano has been talking to people all over Cape Cod in an attempt to better understand how communities process this kind of event and how they are interacting with wildlife in general.</p><p>For Garcia-Quijano, business owners have the most interesting relationship with sharks and seals because both can "attract and also have the potential to repel tourism." Tourists will have a different take on the local charismatic megafauna than people who live on Cape Cod year-round. And fishermen's concerns do not always coincide with those of national park employees or conservationists whose job it is to uphold laws that protect wildlife. What surprised Garcia-Quijano is that nearly everyone he spoke to from those groups are opposed to the idea of a shark cull.</p><p>The seals, however, aren't getting as much love. "It's not everybody," said Garcia-Quijano. "And I wouldn't even say the majority, but there is certainly a vocal minority of Cape Cod residents I talked with who have been mad at the seals for a while."</p><p>For starters, these mammals spend a lot of time on shore and, well, when they've gotta go, they've gotta go. All that nitrogen has to be deposited somewhere, after all. Seal feces is definitely stinky (the animals eat fish, remember), but some people claim (falsely) that large herds can contaminate the water. Even though <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/cms/files/The_Return_of_the_Seals_167464.pdf" target="_blank">scientific research refutes this</a>, public perception isn't always based on fact.</p><p>Some fishermen don't like seals because they believe the whiskered predators steal fish off lines and out of gillnets and even break into lobster pots to dine on crustaceans. There's no good scientific evidence to suggest whether seals actually do this, said Garcia-Quijano, but again, the perception that they do is strong.</p><p>And despite solid scientific evidence that <a href="https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181027/idea-of-killing-sharks-or-seals-gains-some-local-support" target="_blank">shark culls do not reduce shark–human encounters</a>, there are, of course, a few Cape Cod residents who want to go <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKxsW8DKJQQ" target="_blank">the <em>Jaws </em>route</a>. To catch sharks, Barnstable County Commissioner Ron Beaty would like to line the beaches with baited hooks attached to buoys—in other words, to create indiscriminate killing machines.</p><p>So, is any kind of cull in the works? In a word, no. As marine mammals, gray seals are protected by the federal government. And federal and state regulations make it illegal to <a href="https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181027/idea-of-killing-sharks-or-seals-gains-some-local-support" target="_blank">possess, sell, or purchase great white sharks or their parts</a>.</p><p>Of course, protections can be given and they can be taken away. Just look at the gray wolf, which was added to the endangered species list in 1974, and then <a href="https://earthjustice.org/features/campaigns/wolves-in-danger-timeline-milestones" target="_blank">delisted and re-listed</a> numerous times over the course of the next four decades. And while Congress has failed to <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/taryn-kiekow-heimer/law-protecting-marine-mammals-turns-45-congress-kill-it" target="_blank">repeal the Marine Mammal Act</a> in the past, that doesn't mean it won't keep trying.</p><p>Ultimately, Garcia-Quijano said Cape Cod has neither a shark problem nor a seal problem. "You're dealing with a people problem," he said. "This is all a people process—people making decisions about what their ecosystem is going to look like."</p><p>But sometimes nature just doesn't work that way.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/cape-cods-gray-seal-and-white-shark-problem-anything-black-and-white" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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The Climate Change Light Show That’s Making Waves in Cities Around the World
11 November 2018
Climate
"Waterlicht," Rotterdam, 2018. Studio Roosegaarde
By Clara Chaisson
The people of Rotterdam know a thing or two about living with water. In fact, it's right there in the name—the Dutch city dates back to the 13th century, when the Rotte River was dammed, making it possible to safely settle nearby.
<p>"When I was a boy, I wasn't even allowed to play outside without my swimming diploma," said artist Daan Roosegaarde, founder of the Rotterdam-based social design lab <a href="https://www.studioroosegaarde.net/" target="_blank">Studio Roosegaarde</a>. "In the Netherlands, we are surrounded by water. Without technology, we would literally all drown."</p><p>Today, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html" target="_blank">90 percent</a> of Rotterdam sits below sea level, and its historically intimate relationship with water has undergone a thoroughly modern makeover in preparation for the impacts of climate change. And just like the <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-20/sea-levels-rise-rotterdam-floats-top-example-how-live-water" target="_blank">Dutch engineers</a> who are sharing their creative approaches to sea level rise with the world, Roosegaarde is showing his art in the hopes of inspiring innovation.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgxNTc5Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTY4NTUzN30.yjg0tHNoES51ut8dJ2Av1xCp_X035NmQqvdykfQbKjM/img.jpg?width=980" id="c2378" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="05ce9239b74631132c7859900ed5b95f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">"Waterlicht," Rotterdam, 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Studio Roosegaarde</small></p>
<p>For the past three years, Studio Roosegaarde's <em><a href="https://www.studioroosegaarde.net/project/waterlicht" target="_blank">Waterlicht</a></em> project, which translates to "water light," has been traveling the globe. Commissioned by Dutch water authorities, the public art installation uses LEDs, lenses, software, and the elements to create a virtual flood that submerges visitors in a blue-tinted dreamscape. It's a waterlogged alternate reality—one that could easily become our future if we fail to intervene (<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/climate-scientists-world-we-have-only-20-years-theres-no-turning-back" target="_blank">and quickly</a>) to protect our cities from <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/waters-rise-should-seaside-communities-retreat" target="_blank">the ocean's steady rise</a>.<br></p><p>Late last month, <em>Waterlicht</em> made its hometown debut at the Kunsthal museum, attracting <a href="https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/174467/Waterlicht-in-Museumpark-trekt-25-duizend-bezoekers" target="_blank">25,000 visitors</a> in only three evenings. It was the project's 12th stop since 2015. Other 2018 hosts included <a href="https://www.visitlondon.com/lumiere/installation/46121771-waterlicht" target="_blank">London</a>'s Granary Square, the United Nations headquarters in <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1236577/a-spectacularly-foreboding-light-show-calls-for-un-leaders-to-act-on-rising-sea-levels/" target="_blank">New York</a>, and the Bentway in <a href="http://www.thebentway.ca/event/waterlicht/" target="_blank">Toronto</a>.</p><p>Each installation is site-specific, and the team might spend six months preparing for an exhibition that lasts just a few nights. (In the case of the U.N. installation, it took three years just to get the permits.) A major part of the challenge, Roosegaarde said, is "undesigning" the landscape. <em>Waterlicht</em> is always presented outdoors after sunset, and for maximum effect, the studio must work with local authorities and businesses to minimize light pollution. Sometimes the organizers even rent billboards simply to turn them off. The goal is to make it dark enough to create the appropriate atmosphere, but light enough to ensure a safe experience for visitors. "It's a puzzle every time," Roosegaarde said. Following a Nov. 11 opening in Dubai, the artist doesn't yet know where <em>Waterlicht</em> will travel next. Venice is his "dream location," for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/10/30/three-quarters-venice-just-flooded-while-its-costly-flood-gate-sits-unfinished/?noredirect=on" target="_blank">obvious reasons</a>.</p><p>Intangible waves undulating against the night sky like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_of_Christmas_Yet_to_Come" target="_blank">the ghost of climate change future</a> is a haunting sight. But it's also a thrilling, mesmerizing one, and Roosegaarde hopes it fosters creative thinking. As the designer sees it, we already have the tools we need to build a more livable world.</p><p>"It's not a lack of technology," Roosegaarde said. "It's a lack of imagination for what we want the future to look like. The role of public art is a really great trigger to create this collective experience where people are curious, not afraid."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgxNTc4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDYwNDIzNX0.uOs2vPAErz5okZKCv6N0jGX9bg7OGBlSrGZihQrHEHc/img.jpg?width=980" id="e26b9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f807ed22934a849f877ef14812ac140b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">"Waterlicht," Rotterdam, 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Studio Roosegaarde</small></p>
<p><em>Waterlicht</em>, which the U.N. Development Programme cites as "<a href="https://medium.com/@UNDP/piecing-together-resilient-cities-173b9e0e75c4" target="_blank">inspiring action</a>," is not the first Studio Roosegaarde project to leverage technology in an effort to find environmental solutions. The driving concept behind the studio's work is <em>schoonheid</em>, which means both "clean" and "beauty." Their decade long CV includes a <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/van-gogh-go-go" target="_blank">glowing bike path</a> inspired by the painting <em>The</em> <em>Starry Night </em>in the Dutch town where Vincent Van Gogh lived, <a href="https://www.studioroosegaarde.net/project/windvogel" target="_blank">energy-producing kites</a> that appear as lasers in the night sky, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/sep/19/worlds-first-smog-filtering-tower-on-tour-daan-roosegaarde-air-pollution" target="_blank">sleek towers</a> that suck smog from the air and <a href="https://qz.com/1049213/studio-roosegaarde-and-ofo-the-first-smog-filtering-bicycles-will-roll-out-in-china-by-the-end-of-the-year/" target="_blank">bicycles</a> that do the same, and most recently, an initiative to upcycle and call attention to <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2018/09/13/daan-roosegaarde-space-waste-lab-technology-design/" target="_blank">outer-space waste</a>. Roosegaarde, who has degrees in fine arts and architecture, founded the studio in 2007. "I had ideas, and nobody knew how to build them," he said. "So I just thought, 'We'll do it ourselves.'"<br></p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgxNTcyOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzY4MDM3MX0.sie3nwPFP8_OxR8aK6rrObl3J4MUDwcNdMxmi8tf4-o/img.jpg?width=980" id="0c320" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5032caea661d47b014de4b00a6b08546" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Daan Roosegaarde at "Waterlicht," Rotterdam, 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Studio Roosegaarde</small></p>
<p>"I make things because I look outside my window and I don't understand the world anymore," Roosegaarde said. "The CO2, the traffic jams, the rising water ... Waiting for government or politicians is not going to help. I try to make things to show you it can be done."<br></p><p>If he's right, it's high time the world dove in.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/climate-change-light-show-thats-making-waves-cities-around-world" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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This Exhibit Examines Nature and Environmental Justice in Three Centuries of American Art
31 October 2018
Popular
Left: Valerie Hegarty. Photo from the Brooklyn Museum, Right: Collection Lannan Foundation © Subhankar Banerjee
By Patrick Rogers
The fact that nature and nation share a common root—the Latin verb nasci, "to be born"—might rate as trivia to most people. But in the context of early American art, at least, the connection has profound cultural meaning. Paintings of natural vistas, from New York's Hudson Valley to the purple mountains and red deserts of the West, became early symbols of a young nation and its so-called manifest destiny. In the minds of many early Americans and pioneers, the land was out there for "us" (as in, men of European decent) to celebrate—but also to conquer. The very idea of American civilization meant destroying some of those beautiful, natural vistas to build the cities, farms, and factories of the future.
<p>That is just one of the contradictions set up—and rapidly deconstructed—in a sweeping reappraisal of American art seen through the lenses of environmental justice and the emerging theory of ecocriticism now on view at the Princeton University Art Museum. First developed in the 1990s as a cultural inquiry into the nature writings of Henry David Thoreau and others, ecocriticism has expanded into the study of the ecological significance of visual art, music, architecture, and other creative fields.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc4NjUwOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTk5MDExOX0.Wv7OyuZcHgcEVSzzyDeU0-efbmhCj99eTEF3nf_9aT8/img.jpg?width=980" id="4c163" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d89adab9c56aece39e70d641adff331e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Albert Bierstadt, Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite, ca. 1871-73</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh</small></p><p>In <em>Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment, </em>museum curator Karl Kusserow and Alan Braddock, a professor of art history and American studies at the College of William and Mary, play with the meaning of more than 100 paintings and objects from the Colonial period to the present day. With fresh research and interpretations, the exhibit peels back traditional views of early American art to raise questions about colonialism, racial and ethnic representation, pollution, and humanity's ethical responsibilities to nature.<br></p><p>The free exhibition starts off with the juxtaposition of Albert Bierstadt's <a href="http://learn.ncartmuseum.org/artwork/bridal-veil-falls-yosemite-2/" target="_blank"><em>Bridal Veil Falls</em><em>, Yosemite</em></a>, an iconic 19th-century Romantic landscape, and <a href="http://valeriehegarty.com/home.html" target="_blank">Valerie Hegarty's</a> 2007 <em>Fallen Bierstadt</em>, a facsimile of the same painting. Bierstadt, who visited Yosemite Valley in the 1860s, described it as America's Garden of Eden and depicted it as a divine creation untouched by human hands. In Hegarty's version, however, the painting has been slashed and burned, with its missing pieces sitting on the floor below. Hegarty, a visual artist based in Brooklyn, sullies Bierstadt's scene in ways similar to how humans have damaged the environment, and in so doing, she skewers the antiquated notion of nature as sublime and beyond our reach. "She literally dematerializes that vision of nature to suggest it's not necessarily the only vision," said Kusserow.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc4NjQ5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDQ3MDE2Nn0.ITvwBz8JXhVtu41chvbFwhMDuRu23LNZP6cEXAECzvY/img.jpg?width=980" id="af5e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77aaf2bdaf9126f35c2fafa268a7194e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Valerie Hegarty, Fallen Bierstadt, 2007</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">© Valerie Hegarty. Photo from the Brooklyn Museum</small></p><p>The exhibit's intention, however, is not to deny or disparage the power of artists like Bierstadt to shape prevailing views of the environment. Bierstadt's popularity in the late 1800s helped encourage the creation of California's first state parks and the launch of modern conservationism. Take, for example, the large-format 2002 photograph <em><a href="http://www.subhankarbanerjee.org/photohtml/arctic-photo-white-02.html" target="_blank">Caribou Migration I</a></em> by Subhankar Banerjee, which captures a vast section of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as seen from an airplane overhead. Single-file lines of barely discernible female caribou cross the icy landscape on their way to calving grounds to the north.<br></p><p>The image has a quiet, peaceful quality to it but caused an uproar back in 2003 during the second Bush administration. As the Indian-born photographer was preparing a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute, he became caught up in the political fight over Arctic drilling when a congresswoman displayed the caribou image on the House floor to counter claims that the refuge was a frozen wasteland. Suddenly, Banerjee's major exhibition at the government-run museum was downsized to a gallery in the basement, an act that some saw as censorship. The move galvanized activism against drilling the Arctic, and Banerjee's photograph is now an icon of the environmental movement.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc4NjQ4Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTUyOTEwMX0.MMNaycViTITc3kt1iYKxV6wva--yXxosbRmcz3VUgWg/img.jpg?width=980" id="733cc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6e86b57b7bc1f37159272b6eb2307754" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Caribou Migration I by Subhankar Banerjee</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Collection Lannan Foundation © Subhankar Banerjee</small></p><p><em>Nature's Nation</em> also zooms in on the production of some earlier American works of art, such as a chest of drawers by Philadelphia cabinetmakers circa 1761. The exhibit presents the highboy of tulip poplar, white cedar, and imported mahogany as an artifact of exploitation. As the museum commentary explains, this gleaming mahogany, meant to embellish an elite Colonial-era home, was probably harvested in Jamaica or Central America by enslaved Africans living in cruel and deplorable conditions. In a short amount of time, loggers cleared much of the region's tropical forests, along with the wildlife they supported. The land then became sugar plantations, where once again slaves suffered terrible fates.<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc4NjQ3Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjY4MTE3NX0.Ui0Q8ISUWKOvUjwST0I-q1I8GHpvEdMFzxcUrYToqK8/img.jpg?width=980" id="30eac" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="06869f7cf4ad4f0fdd2cb516fff663db" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Probably Henry Cliffton and Thomas Carteret, high chest of drawers, ca. 1760.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Princeton University, Prospect House. Photo by Bruce M. White</small></p><p>The production origins of Morris Louis's color field paintings of the mid-20th century are also highlighted. Louis used thin washes of color in large abstract compositions like <em>Intrigue</em>, 1954, by diluting acrylic paints with gallons of turpentine. Praised for their flatness and airy immateriality, Louis's "<a href="http://morrislouis.org/paintings/gallery/veil_paintings/all" target="_blank">veil paintings</a>" are brought back to earth by an essay describing the notorious "turpentine camps" of the American South. A Depression-era photograph by Dorothea Lange accompanies the essay. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b29642/" target="_blank">The 1936 image</a> shows a mother and her barefoot children and is titled <em>Turpentine worker's family near Cordele, Alabama. Father's wages one dollar a day. This is the standard of living the turpentine trees support. </em>Needless to say, these mostly African-American laborers have, until recently, never been seen or acknowledged as playing a role in the production of museum-quality art.<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc4NjQ2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzY3MDk4OH0.TUQ4duBvm4myawasG1mmLKim7W1wWNS7c_Hi-CUmKX4/img.jpg?width=980" id="0b156" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="92502c07e672dce588c551501ab9a711" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Morris Louis, Intrigue, 1954</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Princeton University Art Museum © 1954, Morris Louis</small></p><p><em>Nature's Nation</em> argues that in the dawn of the Anthropocene period, in which humans play the predominant role in shaping the planet, we urgently need a new way of seeing the world around us—including within art and culture. "One of the great things about ecocriticism, which is the approach we take, is that it enables you to see as if through a new pair of glasses the environmental stories in any kind of work of art, not just in landscape paintings," said Kusserow. For many viewers, this mind-expanding art show at Princeton will be the first step toward that new understanding.<br></p><p>Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment <em>is on view at the Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey, through January 6, 2019. Admission is free.</em></p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/exhibit-examines-nature-and-environmental-justice-three-centuries-american-art" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em></p>
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Paul Seheult / Eye Ubiquitous / UIG / Getty Images
What do we mean when we say that a city is "healthy"? Do we mean that it's cleaner, safer and less polluted than others? That its economy is booming? That it spends its taxpayers' money wisely, on projects that benefit the many over the few? That it prioritizes the building of community—not just in the social but in the physical sense?
<p>Jeff Speck believes that for a city to be described as healthy, it can't just be one, or even some, of these things; it has to be <em>all </em>of them. And he believes cities can achieve them by committing to <a href="https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2012/12/10-techniques-making-cities-more-walkable/4047/" target="_blank">the principles</a> of walkability, the idea that communities should be built to meet the needs of pedestrians, not automobiles.</p><p>Speck, an architect by training, altered the course of our national conversation about urban planning six years ago with the publication of <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp/0865477728/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=91YM1S4Y7QQ59X04DM9F" target="_blank">Walkable City</a></em>. Pointed, funny and acerbic, his book railed against our sprawling automobile-focused culture and made the case for a human-scaled alternative. To historically dry discussions of things like municipal parking policies, congestion pricing and traffic flow, Speck brought a fresh voice and a no-holds-barred attitude; reading him was a bit like reading Anthony Bourdain, if the late food writer and TV host been more interested in sidewalk regulations than sidewalk cafes.</p><p><em>Walkable City</em> became something of an evangelizing tool for advocates of <a href="https://smartgrowthamerica.org/" target="_blank">smart growth</a> and pedestrian-friendly communities, with adherents zealously handing out copies of the book to friends and acquaintances—"like tabs at a Grateful Dead concert," as Speck puts it (very Speckishly, I might add). But while <em>Walkable City</em> may have been terrific at summarizing a new philosophy, it wasn't necessarily the best how-to guide for, say, swaying a city council member to narrow traffic lanes or persuading a mayor to install speed bumps or a new traffic circle.</p><p>Enter Speck's new book, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Rules-Making-Better/dp/1610918983" target="_blank">Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places</a> </em>(Island Press). Filled with the photos, graphics and charts that many of his fans felt were missing from the last book, the new volume comprises 101 mini-chapters, each of which elegantly distills a single precept from his philosophy over the course of just two pages. If the first book was written to convince you—the reader who has already evinced a keen interest in urban planning—of the manifest benefits of walkability, the second book, in Speck's words, "is meant to help <em>you</em> convince <em>other </em>people."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc3ODExMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDY2NjE4NH0.NWw0J8MAS-PAGoyEBWwUhN1X8oLBEv64N2uMkI6EIA4/img.jpg?width=980" id="1bbfd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b5c71edc9c874bf23314f0b13bfaaa60" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The book cover for Walkable City Rules.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Island Press</small></p>
<p>Those benefits are walkability's demonstrably positive effects on a city's wealth, public health, equity goals, sense of community and, of course, climate change mitigation. My conversation with Speck took place shortly after the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/climate-scientists-world-we-have-only-20-years-theres-no-turning-back" target="_blank">much talked-about report</a> detailing the consequences of allowing global temperatures to rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Naturally, we discussed how investing in walkability can help cities lead the way in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Speck had a lot to say.<br></p><p>"If you count both first-order and second-order impacts, I think it's absolutely clear that the car-dependent lifestyle—one that both is caused by and also causes sprawl—is the number one contributor to our destruction of the human habitat," Speck told me. "The first-order impacts, of course, are all the emissions that come from driving, and the other pollutants that come from it, from the petroleum in our asphalt to the acid in our car batteries. But as my friend [<em>New Yorker</em> staff writer] David Owen has pointed out, the biggest contribution that driving makes to our environment is that it causes us to spread out. And when we spread out, we consume more land; we require more infrastructure per capita; there's more sewers and electrical lines per person. We consume just so much more."</p><p>Speck's new book can be thought of as a primer on how to free our cities from the tyranny of the automobile, moving them closer to their <a href="https://www.salon.com/2013/12/25/decorative_christmas_villages_a_model_for_sustainable_living_partner/" target="_blank">original identities as urban villages</a> that foster community interaction by encouraging people to stroll sidewalks and linger in public spaces. Among other things, it focuses on promoting dense, mixed-use development, ramping up bike infrastructure and right-sizing lanes (in both width and number) to lower traffic speeds and increase safety. And it makes clear that in this era of near-constant bumper-to-bumper traffic congestion, quick and dependable mass transit—and not cars—is what offers citizens the greatest amount of personal freedom.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc3ODEwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTkwNDk3OH0.gI8Ies5NSCtRPO_7z2YJjP_KmgmMeN-ywOQtju1er-Y/img.jpg?width=980" id="6dbf9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dd34f9bd13ebfd8ac9789e5a40873e22" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">In dendritic sprawl, most streets are cul-de-sacs and loops, so connectivity falls to a small number of collector streets that are designed as highways.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Alex S. MacLean / Landslides Aerial Photography</small></p>
<p>Way back in 2000, Speck coauthored the seminal <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Suburban-Nation-Sprawl-Decline-American/dp/0865477507" target="_blank">Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream</a></em>, which laid the theoretical groundwork for a New Urbanist movement that championed density, walkability and shared public space as the bedrock elements of community. While it may not be accurate to say that the author has softened his stance on sprawl since then, it's probably fair to state that he has come to accept the fact of its continued existence—and would rather spend his time and energy these days on making suburbs and exurbs greener, smarter, and healthier than simply excoriating those who choose to live there.<br></p><p>Speck sees an example of what he deems "training-wheel urbanism" in the current vogue for open-air, mixed-use "lifestyle centers." These giant mixed-use developments, often found in exurbs, typically combine shopping, apartments, restaurants, cinemas, hotels and public parks or fountains, all designed to mimic the dynamism and vitality of a city streetscape. The success of these projects outside <a href="https://www.experienceavalon.com/" target="_blank">Atlanta</a>, <a href="https://citycentrehouston.com/" target="_blank">Houston</a>, <a href="https://www.denver.org/about-denver/neighborhood-guides/belmar-lakewood/" target="_blank">Denver</a> and other places signifies the public's deep desire, be it expressed or latent, to have the walkable-city experience even though they may be "surrounded by the miasma of sprawl," in Speck's words. And he's convinced that most suburbs built before World War II are sitting on economic gold mines in the form of abandoned Main Streets that are ripe for rediscovery and resuscitation along walkable, New Urbanist lines.</p><p>Speck and <a href="http://www.jeffspeck.com/" target="_blank">his firm</a> keep quite busy these days consulting with cities large and small, studying traffic patterns, measuring sidewalk and lane widths, and helping city managers find new ways to incorporate walkability. But he sounds sincere when he says that he hopes his new book will put him out of a job. "I don't care if I never do another walkability study again," he says. "Not so long as lots of other people are doing them. I'd much rather be designing buildings!"</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/freeing-towns-tyranny-automobile-how-guide" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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These Newly Discovered Hummingbirds Can Survive High in the Andes—but Habitat Destruction Is Creeping Up on Them
13 October 2018
Animals
An Ecuadoran ornithologist with rare images of the blue-throated hillstar. Rodrigo Buendia / AFP / Getty Images
By Jason Bittel
Somehow the striking blue-throated hillstar, a hummingbird with an emerald-feathered head and sapphire splash across its neck, managed to elude us for a very long time. Scientists just recently discovered Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus, describing the species for the first time in The Auk: Ornithological Advances.
<p>Perhaps we humans didn't notice the bird before because it's tiny, at just four inches long. Or maybe it was because it lives high up in the Ecuadorian Andes, or because it hibernates long stretches of each day. Who am I kidding? Like many new (to us) species, only a handful of these hummingbirds are left. That's likely the reason we missed it.</p><p>Population estimates for the blue-throated hillstar range between 500 and 750. Making matters worse, all of them live within a narrow band of just 38 square miles—none of which is protected and much of which lies within gold mining concessions.</p><p>"This is large-scale mining we are talking about," said <a href="https://www.usfq.edu.ec/programas_academicos/colegios/cociba/Paginas/Profesores.aspx" target="_blank">Elisa Bonaccorso</a>, an evolutionary biologist at the <a href="https://www.usfq.edu.ec/Paginas/Inicio.aspx" target="_blank">University of San Francisco, Quito</a>, in Ecuador, who worked on the study. When the steam shovels roll in, she says, we won't be talking about a few holes here and there, but about widespread habitat destruction. That the mining wastes would then pollute the area's soil and water would be "almost guaranteed."</p><p>Huge mines also bring new roads and, according to another of the study's authors, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Juan_Freile" target="_blank">Juan Freile</a>, operate without properly planning for how they might mitigate their impacts on the natural areas they carve through. While Ecuador's Ministry of Environment oversees such operations, it rarely declines a new project, said Freile, an ornithologist with the <a href="https://ceroecuador.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Ecuadorian Committee of Ornithological Records</a>, "even if they overlap with ecologically sensitive or biodiverse regions."</p><p>But there's an even more immediate threat to the blue-throats: fire.</p><p>The hummingbirds live on a treeless plateau, called a <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1ramo" target="_blank">páramo</a></em>, some 11,000 to 12,000 feet above sea level. Winds whip over this landscape, forcing the birds to spend most of their time taking shelter among the shrubs and flowering <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuquiraga" target="_blank">chuquiraga plants</a> that line the plateau's creek beds. People live up here, too—people with cattle and goats that they raise for milk, meat and wool. Unfortunately, burning the páramo from time to time to clear out old, dry grasses and spur the growth of young shoots that are more nutritious for livestock has become common practice.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODcxOTU0Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzE5NTU4N30.wjzsTX5kGCpeTCNuD308l55utFnLn7f92_VF1xF6OXU/img.jpg?width=980" id="9a016" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="df08a99ef77352d8823222bb08cb7dd3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The landscape of the Ecuadorian Andes.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">jpc.raleigh / Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0</small></p>
<p>"Páramos that have been burned recover very slowly and lose biodiversity," said Freile. A smattering of grass species then takes over and the shrubs disappear.<br></p><p>Some farmers also clear the grasslands for fields of potatoes, onions, beans, and grains. About 15 to 20 years ago, when communities brought nonnative pines to the plateau to harvest pulp for paper, the pine plantations began pushing the páramo ecosystem farther and farther from its natural state.</p><p>Suffice it to say, the threats to the blue-throats are piling up—and it's unclear whether the species will be able to handle them. Hummingbirds already push the limits of what's possible in terms of energy in and energy out. They are flying acrobats that beat their wings so fast the human eye can't see them, and their little hearts surpass 1,200 beats per minute. But they must replace the calories they burn, and rapidly, or risk death by exhaustion.</p><p>There isn't much room for error in such an energy equation—and it becomes even more complicated at more than two miles above sea level. Here on Ecuador's high plateaus, temperatures plummet to levels just above freezing each night. The blue-throated hillstars have evolved a work-around for this hostile environment.</p><p>For starters, they're slightly bigger than the hummingbirds you might see at your backyard feeder. This helps them hold onto heat more easily, as do their denser, more insulated nests. The birds are also very frugal with the energy they spend. For instance, instead of hovering in midair like tiny avian helicopters, as do most hummingbirds, the blue-throats hop along from branch to branch while snatching insects and sipping nectar.</p><p>And each night, the birds perform something of a magic trick in which their body temperature drops, their heart rate slows, and their metabolisms grind to a halt. It's only through this torpor that the birds are able to survive, since shutting down allows them to not waste precious energy staying warm. While other hummingbird species may use torpor to get through the winter, hillstars do it on the daily.</p><p>Whether it's gold mining, fires or a lack of native plants, each disturbance to the hummingbird's adapted lifestyle is like a withdrawal from a bank account that never had much money in it in the first place. The closer you get to zero, even small charges can bring an overdraw.</p><p>According to Bonaccorso, the blue-throated hillstar will have little hope of sticking around unless the Ecuadorian government immediately declares all or part of the bird's range as a nationally protected reserve. The conservation plan must take into account the needs of local communities, too. Ecotourism is one option that could mutually benefit <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1ramo" target="_blank">páramo inhabitants, whether farmhands or feathered</a>.</p><p>That scientists have now officially described the blue-throated hillstar hummingbird is, of course, the first step in all of this. After all, you can't save a species that you don't know is there.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/these-newly-discovered-hummingbirds-can-survive-high-andes-habitat-destruction-creeping-them" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em></p>
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Cows graze on Brown's ranch. Gabe Brown
By Jeff Turrentine
Sometimes enlightenment arrives as a flash of epiphany: a gravity-obeying apple that falls from a tree, for instance, or a blinding light that freezes you in your tracks on the road to Damascus.
Other times, though, it's more of a process. That's how Gabe Brown came to regenerative agriculture. About 20 years ago, Brown nearly lost his 1,760-acre farm outside Bismarck, North Dakota, which he had taken over upon his in-laws' retirement in 1991. Just as his wife's family had done since the 1950s, Brown continued to till, fertilize, graze and chemically treat the land—all of which were considered best practices at the time.
<p>In high school and college, he said, "I was taught the current production models. That's all I was exposed to. I learned the conventional mind-set—how to use all the fertilizers and pesticides and fungicides, and how to give growth hormones to cattle to get them to grow faster."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY3Njc2Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTgzMTMxMX0.MBo_F1LA_UySiaK63R9L9APIqKwqNg8J9hhjyFK2L48/img.jpg?width=980" id="d8ee9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e28c1c743b4bd49a65f597ec0a61eab4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Gabe Brown poses at his ranch in Bismarck, North Dakota.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Gabe Brown</small></p>
<p>Then, in 1995 and 1996, a pair of massive hailstorms destroyed his crops. A blizzard followed in 1997, leading to the deaths of many of the cows the Browns had been relying on to generate income in the wake of their successive crop failures. Brown and his wife steeled themselves and regrouped, only to have a <em>third</em> freak hailstorm destroy their crops once more. In discussing these events and their aftermath, Brown tends to refer to this dark time in his farming life as "the four years," in the kind of hushed tone typically reserved for myths and legends.<br></p><p>He didn't give up. Having already been introduced to the central ideas of regenerative agriculture, Brown was eager to give them a try—to fortify his weakened farmland by minimizing synthetic inputs and restoring ecological balance. Put simply, regenerative agriculture aims to boost microbial activity, carbon retention and water infiltration in soil so that plants can get more of what they need more efficiently. Paradoxically, the best way to achieve this agricultural state of grace is to do<em> less</em>, not more.</p><p>Some examples of regenerative ag include reducing or refraining altogether from tilling, which farmers have been doing for centuries but which can destroy soil structure, inhibit water infiltration and increase erosion; ending the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides, so that healthy microbial biodiversity can flourish underground; and planting cover crops in multispecies combinations to "armor" the soil, further preventing erosion and promoting the generation of organic matter. Brown had heard the stories from scientists and <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/soil-savior" target="_blank">other farmers</a> about how these strategies could result in higher crop yields and greater soil resilience, irrespective of location. After enduring the four years, he and his wife knew something had to change.</p>
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<p>And so it did. Brown now runs <a href="http://brownsranch.us/" target="_blank">a flourishing 5,000-acre ranch</a> with his wife and their son, Paul, and has become a well-known champion of soil health in the bargain. His story is recounted in a new book, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Soil-Familys-Regenerative-Agriculture/dp/1603587632" target="_blank">Dirt to Soil: One Family's Journey into Regenerative Agriculture</a></em>, which also serves as a primer for farmers, ranchers, and policy makers who want to better understand how one can boost the operations of an entire farm by <a href="http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/0802/regenerative.shtml" target="_blank">putting the health of the soil above all else</a>. Moreover, Brown's conversion experience suggests a possible way out of our modern agricultural predicament, wherein centuries of mechanical and chemical disturbance have rendered soils nutritionally depleted and highly vulnerable—locking farmers into cycles of constant (and costly) interventions that only serve to perpetuate the underlying problem.<br></p><p>Once Brown started to think of his soil not just as a medium for other living things but as a living thing itself, he was stunned by the immediate results. In one early experiment, he planted several one-acre plots with different monoculture cover crops: radishes, turnips, lupine, and so on. But on one plot, he planted all of these together in a biodiverse polyculture "cocktail." Over a two-month period marked by very little rain, production was three times greater on the polyculture plot.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY3Njc0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTg1OTYyMH0.qTzGLP0UOktMLOf-NRmHJKkdhhR9htIfBZS8cuMu1sU/img.jpg?width=980" id="ddd83" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d1a750775d7e6071bb05fb1e640c6211" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A healthy cut of soil from Brown's land.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Gabe Brown</small></p>
<p>By 2010, Brown stopped using synthetic fertilizers and today, his crop yields are 20 percent higher than the average yields in his county. He's also seen water-infiltration rates skyrocket—from one-half inch per hour, back in 1991, to one inch in<em> nine seconds</em> in 2015. Carbon-retention rates have risen dramatically, too. "On our home place, where we've done in-depth, significant testing, our soils have 96 tons of carbon per acre in the top 48 inches," he said—compared with the 10 to 30 tons of stored carbon typically found in conventionally farmed soils of the Northern Plains.<br></p><p>"I tell people that many of the ills we're seeing today—whether we're talking too much carbon in the atmosphere and not enough cycling in the soil where we need it, problems with our watersheds, nitrates in our estuaries or in the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/back-dead-zone" target="_blank">Mississippi Delta</a> or the Gulf of Mexico or <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/algae-almost-ate-toledo" target="_blank">the Great Lakes</a> or the Chesapeake—we can solve all of those," Brown said. And there's consequences for human health, too. "We no longer have healthy, functioning soil, so we don't have the ability to move nutrients out of the soil and into plants," he said. "People aren't getting the necessary nutrition they need from the food that's being produced."</p><p>Brown now spends nearly as much time touring the country and spreading the regenerative agriculture gospel as he does working his land. He's hopeful that the message is breaking through to a younger generation of farmers. "They're looking for something else, because the production model we're in is just wrong; it's broken," he said. "But what's wonderful today about these younger producers is that they have the experience of all of us—the ones who went before them—to draw upon." The seeds of regenerative agriculture have been planted.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/how-did-farmer-brown-bring-his-dying-land-back-brink" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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"Fog x Canopy," the Fens, by Fujiko Nakaya. Melissa Ostrow
By Clara Chaisson
What do you call a sculpture that weighs nearly nothing, never looks the same twice, and vanishes into thin air? Artist Fujiko Nakaya has built a storied five-decade career out of the answer to this seeming riddle: a fog sculpture.
<p>The Japanese artist has presented her atmospheric works more than 80 times across four continents. Now 85 years old, Nakaya is unveiling her most extensive exhibition yet: <em><a href="https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/20th/visit/" target="_blank">Fog x FLO: Fujiko Nakaya on the Emerald Necklace</a></em>. For 12 weeks, through Oct. 31, her fog sculptures will be mist-ifying five of Boston's parks: the Arnold Arboretum, the Fens, Franklin Park, Jamaica Pond and Olmsted Park. The free public installation is part of a 20th-anniversary celebration for the <a href="https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/" target="_blank">Emerald Necklace Conservancy</a>, a nonprofit organization that stewards the 1,100-acre park system, which forms a seven-mile green chain (or emerald necklace) through the heart of the city.</p><p>Born in Sapporo in 1933, Nakaya came to the United States to earn an art degree from Northwestern University and later studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. The young artist didn't just want to compose but to <em>de</em>compose. She started by painting clouds—formations so ephemeral that we make a game of perceiving recognizable shapes in them before they billow outwards, split apart, or disappear into the sky.</p><p>But painting clouds didn't satisfy Nakaya's craving for dynamism; she wanted to <em>make</em>clouds. A knack for coaxing water particles into complex arrangements runs in Nakaya's family. Her father, physicist and science essayist <a href="https://www.sapporo-internationalartfestival.jp/2014/en/artists/ukichiro-nakaya" target="_blank">Ukichiro Nakaya</a>, created the world's first artificial snowflakes, in 1936.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODYwNzU3OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2Mjc5NDY3Nn0.IFYVpENVtrArjd72BtSaeKhKXCgFqw86VHRangopwOY/img.jpg?width=980" id="4adf5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b2a62206468791096f1dc04a8ac02567" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">"Fog x Canopy," the Fens, by Fujiko Nakaya.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Melissa Ostrow</small></p>
<p>So Fujiko Nakaya teamed up with physicist Thomas Mee in 1969 to develop the system she still uses today. Pure, pressurized water is forced through a narrow nozzle, where it hits a pin that makes it scatter into droplets just 15-to-20 microns wide. The result is a far cry from the hokey fog machines you might find in a haunted house. The fog she creates is as close to the real deal as a highly engineered system can get. By 1970 Nakaya was introducing her woman-made clouds to the world at the <a href="http://www.uncubemagazine.com/blog/13753251" target="_blank">Osaka Expo</a>.<br></p><p>Taking in Nakaya's sculptures is a full-body experience. First comes the serpentine hiss of the nozzles. As the fog quickly thickens, it consumes your field of vision. Think of the sudden whiteout when an airplane dips into a cloud, but then imagine you can <em>feel</em> the cloud, too, and walk around inside it. There's a sudden temperature drop as tiny water droplets appear all over your body, the hairs on your arms stand up, and you find yourself subconsciously thinking of other distant memories of fog.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODYwNzU3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzc3NzYyN30.b_3wRy5fEfZLjBZOpEmFtQ2cJbdJ7VQ6xmfFtmRn0zE/img.jpg?width=980" id="161d3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="80360aca2bfc65fcf2e35d0e51e05526" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Artist Fujiko Nakaya with one of her patented fog nozzles.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Melissa Ostrow</small></p>
<p>The fog somehow both transports you to another time and place and roots you firmly in the present. It responds to wind, humidity, temperature, and dew point, making visible the invisible forces that surround us all the time. Nakaya's sculptures roll down hills, hover over water and bounce over structures, gently shaped by the landscape that contains them.<br></p><p>"Hopefully people are slowing things down, taking in the environment, reflecting on what it means to be in nature," said <a href="https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Arnold Arboretum</a> of Harvard director Ned Friedman. "The sculpture reminds you to become more intimate with the plants around you."</p><p>The five <em>Fog x FLO</em> sculptures run half-hourly for anywhere from two to eighteen minutes. When the nozzles shut off, the fog lifts just as quickly as it appeared, leaving visitors to muse on their surroundings.</p><p>To the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and local Boston curator <a href="https://www.jenmergel.com/" target="_blank">Jen Mergel</a>, the site- and climate-responsive qualities of Nakaya's sculptures made them a natural fit for the Emerald Necklace (not to mention that they're impossible to graffiti).</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODYwNzU3NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1Nzk1MjA5MH0.rCtwOI20rkP8y8fWsRcZ6DL_x1hyc1jsCTypaxpMZuo/img.jpg?width=980" id="d3001" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="16a5de8c4ab723099dfecd474b7954cd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">"Fog x Canopy," the Fens, by Fujiko Nakaya.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Melissa Ostrow</small></p>
<p>The "FLO" in <em>Fog x FLO</em> stands for Frederick Law Olmsted, widely credited as the father of landscape architecture. Olmsted designed the Emerald Necklace in the late 19th century, along with other American cultural landmarks such as Manhattan's Central Park, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the U.S. Capitol grounds and the Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina.<br></p><p>Olmsted wanted to connect the Boston Common, which dates back to colonial times, and the Public Garden, established in 1837, to Franklin Park. He intuitively sensed what modern science is now proving: that spending time in nature benefits both physical and mental health.</p><p>"He was setting up these parks so that you could walk through and experience this variety of marsh, fens, river, fields, pond, arboretum ... and you would never have to leave the city," Mergel said.</p><p>The Emerald Necklace also provides flood mitigation to Boston, making it one of the earliest examples of green infrastructure. Olmsted believed in the "genius of place" and sought to enhance natural characteristics, rather than to tame the landscape into submission. "He designed a park system that looks so natural that people think it is," said Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODYwNzU2OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODUwNTM5M30.xZeloxaSZtuTswfBoqlN09-Ao2xUbaT3kPvbkFn3cpI/img.jpg?width=980" id="7cefc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="51a335ec2d873a3c0d8383fb653e3217" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">"Fog x Canopy," the Fens, by Fujiko Nakaya.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Melissa Ostrow</small></p>
<p>The conservancy expects <em>Fog x FLO</em> to draw between 800,000 and 1 million visitors during its three-month run, an opportunity to raise the Emerald Necklace's profile, introduce Bostonians to its history, and show off the services the parks continue to provide.<br></p><p>"This is not a white cube situation where you would just neutrally plop any art in this space. [The Emerald Necklace] is a work of art in and of itself, and anything that you place here cannot distract or detract from your experience of the natural and Olmsted's intent," Mergel said. "Fujiko's work is very complementary, a type of art that she describes as a conversation with nature."</p><p>Like the clouds she creates, that conversation changes over time. Nakaya positions her nozzles, with great intentionality, based on the weather patterns for a given area. Over the course of 50 years of being intimately attuned to meteorology, she's witnessed those patterns becoming more extreme.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODYwNzU2Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzQyMzI5NX0.Fsi5ljdPaxZJKTqY1y_qmBEOEIhmKVNW9-NmXKsHVFc/img.jpg?width=980" id="e5b0d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="10ab4ee4d13aa3fadc84d89c9e2cc1f0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Fujiko Nakaya amidst her work, "Fog x Ruins," at Franklin Park.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Melissa Ostrow</small></p>
<p>Nakaya had to nix the original site she selected for a sculpture at the Arnold Arboretum, for example, because there was no nearby water source. The staff has successfully maintained the 15,000-plant collection since 1872 without irrigation—until now. In July, an Asian oak collected in Japan in 1892 had to be removed after a prolonged decline associated with <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/09/15/more-than-half-mass-now-extreme-drought/4Xzg6HevrKtUOqWmTvHVzK/story.html" target="_blank">extreme drought in the summer of 2016</a>. "All of a sudden, we're just trying to keep things from dying," Friedman said.<br></p><p>But in today's sociopolitical climate, perhaps the most important parallel between Olmsted's parks and Nakaya's sculptures is their accessibility. Olmsted saw beautiful public spaces as the right of every citizen and a vital component to a thriving society. "It was something for everyone," Mergel said. "The wealthiest and the least wealthy, someone who was a new immigrant to the city and someone whose family had been here for generations."</p><p>Nakaya's works are similarly democratic. Unlike most sculptures, the fog has no boundaries.</p><p><em>Fox x FLO: Fujiko Nakaya on the Emerald Necklace is on display through Oct. 31.</em></p><p><em> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/ethereal-fog-sculptures-are-rolling-through-bostons-parks" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></em></p>
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Before It's Too Late
By Patrick Rogers
After South Beach, Miami's Wynwood neighborhood is the city's epicenter of color and creativity. The low-slung postindustrial landscape just north of Miami's downtown is an Instagrammer's paradise—block after block of warehouses covered with vivid murals by some of the world's greatest street artists, among them Kenny Scharf, Shepard Fairey and Maya Hayuk. Once plagued by crime and urban decay, Wynwood's streets are now abuzz with energy that spills out from cafés, art galleries and night spots.
<p>But one mural, across the street from the historic City of Miami Cemetery, stands out for its ingenious integration of technology and environmental activism. The image is instantly recognizable as a play on a classic postcard that spells out <em>Miami</em> in big, bold letters, but there's a sly twist.</p><p>The first letter is an <em>M</em> blinged out with diamonds like a flashy wristwatch might be. The last letter is a Xanax capsule standing on its end to form an <em>I</em>. It symbolizes the city's booming party culture, said Linda Cheung, founder of the Before It's Too Late <a href="http://www.beforeitstoolate.earth/team.html" target="_blank">environmental advocacy group,</a> which erected the mural earlier this year. But the work also speaks, she said, to the numbness that so many people feel in the face of the looming effects of climate change.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODM4NDE5Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDI5NjYxOX0.8T-AmeoJmgV0qXITFOil8O5UaeArBVl5UD2ow3vWZII/img.jpg?width=980" id="80898" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e1fb109b450f8f11f01d6ebf98a08518" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Before It's Too Late founder and CEO Linda Cheung.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Before It's Too Late</small></p>
<p>The artistic experience really starts, though, when you plug into the group's free augmented reality (AR) app, which activates the cameras of Apple and Android smartphones. In crisp 3D detail, ocean waves suddenly lap at the feet of the letters, and a charming little yellow canary warns viewers about the ominous changes on the way.<br></p><p>The fun isn't over yet. You can choose between future scenarios such as "Make No Change," which conjures a dystopian vision of crumbling buildings and rising sea levels, or "Be the Change," where power-generating wind turbines spin in the distance and fish and manatees swim in a clean ocean.</p><p>Viewers end up in a strange dance in front of the mural, their heads bobbing and turning to take in the animated scene from every possible perspective. "It's a totally new angle," said Cheung, a recent graduate of MIT's Sloan School of Management, where she first became interested in the merging of art and technology for social justice campaigns.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODM4NDE4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzA5NDk5M30.KHWGB5ge1oNdjxq4v2npK3wr12ubTseNIxvyrB9gIxk/img.jpg?width=980" id="1ccc8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4af254a5dce03b3a52043f0ea1085b55" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">One of the weekend hackers uses VR at Miami Hacks Climate Change, a hackathon hosted by Before It's Too Late in 2018.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Before It's Too Late</small></p>
<p>"Part of the strategy here is to use something like augmented reality that intrigues people, to get them interested in a campaign about climate change that they wouldn't ordinarily be interested in," she said. "I want to make climate change sexy."<br></p><p>The mural/app combo was made by a team of painters, AR and 3D programmers, and musicians, with Cheung acting as conceptualist and curator. Since it was unveiled last February, the <a href="http://miamimurals.org/" target="_blank">Miami Murals project</a> has added 20 paintings to the walls of the EcoTech Visions technology incubator in Miami. They include pieces by <a href="https://www.erickarbeling.com/" target="_blank">Eric Karbeling</a> and Cuban-born <a href="https://reiniergamboa.format.com/" target="_blank">Reinier Gamboa</a>.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODM4NDE4Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjg5NjE3NH0.-puPfTtkfxHEtuHtLEfiDOfalDDz0j78uD4c9fFR8dY/img.jpg?width=980" id="51ef4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b3b1cb3524baa07bf888d26d3cf9bf40" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A mural by Reinier Gamboa, one of the artists chosen to paint the walls of EcoTech Visions' headquarters.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Before It's Too Late</small></p>
<p>Cheung is now working with community groups throughout the city to commission other climate change–related works of art, such as physical installations. "It's not just murals anymore," said Cheung. One artist, for instance, creates art out of recycled plastic bags, and another created a hurricane out of denim.<br></p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODM4NDE3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDc2NTcxNn0.V9IR1iRgZoNMa06SuI5JAoMJwdEH-Gz1OnjFJdmqrcw/img.jpg?width=980" id="ed5a8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e053238223d2df16745da897ccebf8c2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A mural by Eric Karbeling, one of the artists chosen to paint the walls of EcoTech Visions' headquarters.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Before It's Too Late</small></p>
<p>Also on the horizon is an effort to make a game that meshes art with climate concerns during this year's Art Basel Miami Beach art fair in December. "There will be challenges, like little Easter eggs placed around the murals on the beach that you can open up with an app," Cheung explained of the project, which is still in the planning phase. "We'll challenge you to make a commitment to change your personal behavior, like stop using plastic straws, or pledge to turn out and vote for a carbon tax, or show up at a commissioners' meeting." Viewers can then use the app "to see how the movement grows and progresses."<br></p><p>"We want to inspire a million actions," said Cheung.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/street-art-and-augmented-reality-get-real-about-climate-miami" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Pexels
By Jason Bittel
Since Hawaii's Kilauea volcano began erupting in early May, we've been mesmerized, month after month, by videos depicting what can happen when molten rock dances through the air, forms gigantic rivers or crashes into a Ford Mustang.
<p>But some videos are much harder to watch—like those depicting the many homes destroyed or this one shot by Puna resident Travis Sanders in June. The footage shows a green sea turtle apparently trapped in a tidal pool known as Champagne Ponds in Kapoho Bay, as lava burns in the background and rocks seem to prevent the turtle from crawling onto land. When Sanders reached down to test the water, he said it felt to be near boiling.</p>
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<p>It's hard to say exactly how much heat a sea turtle can handle, said <a href="https://gstc.jekyllisland.com/about-us/our-staff/staff/" target="_blank">Terry Norton</a>, a veterinarian and director of the <a href="https://gstc.jekyllisland.com/" target="_blank">Georgia Sea Turtle Center</a>. "I would think that getting above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, they would start showing signs of heat stress, and definitely upper 90s and 100 would likely be eventually fatal," he said. "Hotter than that would definitely be fatal."<br></p><p>We don't know just how hot the water was in Kapoho Bay that night, but we do know what Sanders said happened next. After turning his camera off, he made a second attempt to save the turtle, but it was already too late.</p><p>"I tried to pull him out but his legs fell apart," <a href="http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/07/25/breaking-news/puna-residents-criticize-dlnr-for-turtle-deaths/" target="_blank">Sanders told the Honolulu Star Advertiser</a>. "He was boiled alive."</p><p>In light of Sanders's video and several other reports of sea turtles trapped in ponds and lagoons, the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) issued a statement saying that it would conduct aerial surveys with helicopters to search for sea turtles. Thus far these searches have not spotted any others trapped by lava flows.</p><p>Sanders said he saw around 60 sea turtles gathering in an area near the Pohoiki boat ramp, just south of Kapoho Bay. (As of mid-August, the entire structure was surrounded by <a href="http://bigislandnow.com/2018/08/15/lagoon-created-at-pohoiki-new-map-of-lava-flow/" target="_blank">a wall of hardened lava</a>.) Another report from a local photographer documented <a href="http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38710696/turtles-marine-life-found-dead-on-pohoiki-shores-after-lava-approaches-area" target="_blank">six dead sea turtles</a> in July in the same vicinity.</p><p>According to Norton, most sea turtles, which are cold-blooded, should be able to sense these increases in heat and swim away in time. A <a href="https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/videos-of-sea-turtles-trapped-by-lava-prompts-action-by-dlnr/1321868438" target="_blank">passage from the DLNR</a> statement concurs:</p><blockquote>"While it is unknown how many turtles may have lived in or around Kapoho or Pohoiki, it's believed most turtles had access to the open ocean via channels or open fish pond gates, and that they were able to swim away and save themselves before being harmed by the lava flow."<br></blockquote><p>But given the evidence that at least seven sea turtles did not escape, one has to wonder if many others might also be in harm's way. Despite declining numbers worldwide, green sea turtles are actually on the rise in Hawaii. Their population on the islands has increased by <a href="http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/PRD/prd_green_sea_turtle.html" target="_blank">53 percent over the past 25 years</a>—thanks in no small part to their <a href="http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/PRD/prd_green_sea_turtle.html" target="_blank">protection under the Endangered Species Act and Hawaiian state law</a>.</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/look-back-scientist-dedicates-career-sea-turtles-hawaii" target="_blank">George Balazs</a>, who has spent the last 48 years studying sea turtles with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Hawaii, there is reason to hope that the eruption's toll on sea turtles may not be as bad as some fear. Green sea turtles do nest in the summer, but Balazs said "there are no green turtle nesting sites on the geologically active island of Hawaii." (The animals prefer the French Frigate Shoals, an atoll almost 800 miles to the northwest.) It is true that hawksbill turtles, which are <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/8005/0" target="_blank">critically endangered</a>, nest on Hawaii's mainland, however, and Balazs himself witnessed lava destroy some of those sites back in the early 1980s.</p><p>The bottom line, said Balazs, is that while sad, the lava-related deaths or injuries of a small number of unlucky animals is unlikely to significantly affect their population's continued recovery.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/just-how-bad-was-hawaiis-volcanic-eruption-sea-turtles" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Gorancakmazovic / Getty Images
By Jeff Turrentine
Science fiction doesn't always stay fictional. Space exploration, robots and self-driving cars are just a few of the modern-day wonders that once existed only as plot devices or fantastical theories. Our capacity for turning science-fictional notions into the stuff of everyday life has grown with each new generation of scientists and microchips, such that more and more ideas previously deemed too far "out there" are now actually here, or at least technologically plausible.
<p>To this list we can now add <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/lets-talk-geoengineering/" target="_blank">geoengineering</a>—whether we want to or not. As broadly defined by the science-fiction author and environmentalist <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-geoengineering-kim-stanley-robinson_us_5b4e54bde4b0de86f487b0b9" target="_blank">Kim Stanley Robinson</a>, geoengineering is the "deliberate planned attempt by human beings to mitigate the damages of climate change, of carbon dioxide and methane buildup in the atmosphere, and of ecological damage generally, by way of some action that is large-scale." In theory, geoengineering might look like any number of things: engaging in mass, worldwide <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/02/the-best-technology-for-fighting-climate-change-trees/385304/" target="_blank">reforestation</a>; dumping <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/11/how_dumping_iron_in_the_ocean_can_help_fight_climate_change.html" target="_blank">iron dust</a> into the oceans to encourage the growth of carbon-eating plankton; <a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2017/07/25/could-spraying-particles-into-marine-clouds-help-cool-the-planet/" target="_blank">"brightening" clouds</a> to make them more reflective; dotting the planet with millions of <a href="https://asunow.asu.edu/20171122-carbon-catcher-qa-asus-klaus-lackner" target="_blank">industrial-strength carbon scrubbers</a>.</p><p>Geoengineering ideas are as numerous and varied as the scientific imaginations that spawn them. What usually ties them together is the goal of dramatically reducing global temperatures and/or carbon emissions over a short period of time. Scale and speed are what separate most geoengineering schemes from other, less risky, more tried-and-true attempts at climate mitigation, such as building seawalls or boosting energy efficiency. But increasingly, many who once disparaged geoengineering are now citing its scale and speed as the two main reasons why it may be our best hope for fighting climate change—the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-climate-change-what-you-need-know" target="_blank">biggest and most immediate threat</a> to life on earth as we currently know it.</p><p>The latest geoengineering conversation has been sparked in part by a study <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0417-3" target="_blank">published last week</a> in the journal <em>Nature</em> that acknowledges the potential benefits of solar radiation management (SRM)—as well as the very real risks that would come along with it. One much-discussed iteration of SRM would involve saturating Earth's atmosphere with sulfur-laden aerosols to reflect solar light back into space, cooling the planet in the process. Support for the theory began to swell among geoengineering proponents after the discovery that global temperatures fell by as much as 0.6 degrees Celsius following <a href="https://www.arl.noaa.gov/documents/JournalPDFs/Free&LanzanteJournalofClimate.pdf" target="_blank">giant volcanic eruptions</a> in Mexico and the Philippines that spewed millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMyMzg5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjQwMDMxN30.vRYXKZ3YZn5G_6jWZefpoYGJmEDYt6dOgEq6uLVEuQw/img.jpg?width=980" id="697e3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cef8e0267100c644d0be72c2c7b2c4b7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The summit of the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines, 15 days after its eruption in 1991. Global temperatures fell slightly after the volcano's eruption sent vast quantities of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">United States Geological Survey</small></p>
<p>If we could mimic the effects of these volcanoes (so the theory goes) by strategically injecting sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, the researchers propose that we might be able to effectively "shade" the entire planet and save vulnerable crops from frying under the sun. The problem with that scenario, though? While crops might not wither and die from heat, the ever-cloudy conditions under sulfur-laden skies would also severely stunt the crops' growth, causing them to yield far less food. Whatever gains realized from the lower temperatures, in other words, would be more than <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-engineering-the-climate-could-mess-with-our-food/" target="_blank">offset by losses</a> resulting from the dearth of direct sunlight.<br></p><p>Though they do not state it explicitly in the "Conclusions" section of their study, the researchers confirm a hypothesis that nearly everyone who has looked at geoengineering already accepts: There are no risk-free scenarios. At its core, geoengineering is really just a globally scaled hack, a work-around born of exigency as much as industriousness. And like any hack, it's less than ideal.</p><p>Every geoengineering proposal that's been put forth so far, in fact, has come with its own bold-print caveat that we ignore at our peril. Adding iron ore to the oceans, for instance, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-first-geo-vigilante#ixzz29g8tF7wf" target="_blank">carries the risk</a> of over-oxygenating water and destroying bacteria crucial to the marine food chain, or of generating dangerous amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. As for cloud brightening, even <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2015/07/11/cloud-brightening-experiment-tests-tool-to-slow-climate-change/" target="_blank">those who support more research</a> into this approach admit that it could alter precipitation patterns in unexpected and quite possibly harmful ways.</p><p>But what's telling is the evolution of the scientific community's response to geoengineering over the past few decades—from outright alarm to qualified alarm to extreme hesitation. This response tracks our understanding of just how much trouble our carbon pollution has gotten us into. Ask any climate scientist, and she'll tell you that the only surefire way to save ourselves is to immediately cut carbon emissions and <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/americas-clean-energy-frontier-pathway-safer-climate-future" target="_blank">transition to a clean-energy economy</a>. But she may also be more willing today than she was five or ten years ago to entertain the idea of further research into solar radiation management, cloud brightening, and the like.</p><p>Geoengineering is extraordinarily risky. In a perfect world—or even in an imperfect but climatologically hospitable one—we would never even consider it, for fear that our actions could usher in the dystopia we've seen in countless science-fiction movies. But we need to be honest about where we are in the story of humanity and climate change. It's the third act. And while we'd have to be desperate to try to geoengineer our way to a happy ending, there's just not that much time left to argue over the definition of the word desperate.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/blotting-out-sun-save-earth-seriously" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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