This just cracks me up!



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Think climate change and global warming isn't real? Think again

Dr. James Balog and the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) have provided the world with the most irrefutable proof yet.  If you can watch his TED talk and still have doubts...  Well, I can't see how that is possible.  

Here are 2 photos, taken by EIS of the exact same glacier from the exact same place by the exact same camera just 6 months apart.

April 2006

October 2006

The film documenting his work, Chasing Ice, was released in 2012 and provides the full documentary of his and his team's work.  You can see the trailer by clicking on the image below.  You can watch the full movie on Netflix.

You can also rent or purchase the movie on Amazon.com.

Find more information: Chasing Ice and EIS.

Indigenous and Dominant Cultures will clash over what happens with Mother Earth

The mountain-top battle over the Thirty Meter Telescope

Alexandra Witze (2015)

Plans to build one of the world's biggest telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii are mired in conflict. Four people involved in the fight explain their diverse views.

A sacred place for Indigenous Hawaiians

A great view for astronomers

There must be a position of balance between belief and science.

Read the full article here (opens in a new window)

This kind of fight is well-known to my people as we continue to fight for our He Sapa (Black Hills).  Our origin stories and our beliefs make the He Sapa the center of our universe and the most sacred of places for the Lakota people.  Imagine your most sacred cathedral....

Many Sioux tribe members insist that the 1877 act of Congress that removed the Sioux from their home in the Black Hills of South Dakota (above) was invalid and a scam. It was not agreed to by enough tribal members and the land was not for sale. (Photo courtesy of Jason Riedy/Flickr)

Read the full article here (opens in a new window)

Our sacred place has been and is being torn apart.  In this publication by the U.S. Geological Survey, you can see a listing of all the mines in the He Sapa.  

photo by Kevin Eilbeck, Rapid City, SD

"Homestake Mine Pit" by Rachel Harris - originally posted to Flickr as Gold mine in Lead, SD. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons 

The health impacts of early humans living in caves

This makes perfect sense when you think about it.  I just never thought about it until I read this article!

Earliest evidence of pollution by heavy metals in archaeological sites (Monge et al., 2015)

See full article here (opens in new window)

Abstract

Homo species were exposed to a new biogeochemical environment when they began to occupy caves. Here we report the first evidence of palaeopollution through geochemical analyses of heavy metals in four renowned archaeological caves of the Iberian Peninsula spanning the last million years of human evolution. Heavy metal contents reached high values due to natural (guano deposition) and anthropogenic factors (e.g. combustion) in restricted cave environments. The earliest anthropogenic pollution evidence is related to Neanderthal hearths from Gorham's Cave (Gibraltar), being one of the first milestones in the so-called “Anthropocene”. According to its heavy metal concentration, these sediments meet the present-day standards of “contaminated soil”. Together with the former, the Gibraltar Vanguard Cave, shows Zn and Cu pollution ubiquitous across highly anthropic levels pointing to these elements as potential proxies for human activities. Pb concentrations in Magdalenian and Bronze age levels at El Pirulejo site can be similarly interpreted. Despite these high pollution levels, the contaminated soils might not have posed a major threat to Homo populations. Altogether, the data presented here indicate a long-term exposure of Homo to these elements, via fires, fumes and their ashes, which could have played certain role in environmental-pollution tolerance, a hitherto neglected influence.

The wide-reaching impact of human trash and waste-disposal methods.

Anthropogenic debris in seafood: Plastic debris and fibers from textiles in fish and bivalves sold for human consumption (Rochman et al., 2015)

See Full Article here (in a new window)

Abstract

The ubiquity of anthropogenic debris in hundreds of species of wildlife and the toxicity of chemicals associated with it has begun to raise concerns regarding the presence of anthropogenic debris in seafood. We assessed the presence of anthropogenic debris in fishes and shellfish on sale for human consumption. We sampled from markets in Makassar, Indonesia, and from California, USA. All fish and shellfish were identified to species where possible. Anthropogenic debris was extracted from the digestive tracts of fish and whole shellfish using a 10% KOH solution and quantified under a dissecting microscope. In Indonesia, anthropogenic debris was found in 28% of individual fish and in 55% of all species. Similarly, in the USA, anthropogenic debris was found in 25% of individual fish and in 67% of all species. Anthropogenic debris was also found in 33% of individual shellfish sampled. All of the anthropogenic debris recovered from fish in Indonesia was plastic, whereas anthropogenic debris recovered from fish in the USA was primarily fibers. Variations in debris types likely reflect different sources and waste management strategies between countries. We report some of the first findings of plastic debris in fishes directly sold for human consumption raising concerns regarding human health.

To Fly on the Wings of an Eagle

On March 14, 2015, a new world record was set for the highest recorded bird flight from a man-made structure.  The structure:  the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 829.8 m (2717 ft) tall.  The location: Dubai, an emirate within the United Arab Emirates.  The reason:  to bring attention to the desperate need to protect the world's species and to the programs of Save our Species (SOS).

Darshan is an Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) and serves as an ambassador for threatened animals with the SOS Freedom Program.  This magnificent raptor species is listed as a Vulnerable Species on the IUCN's Red List, Appendix I of CITES, and Appendices I and II of the CMS.  It is not the first flight he has made with a camera mounted on his back.  In November 2014, to promote the opening of Here Today, an art exhibition supporting the 50th anniversary of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Darshan toured London by air, flying over the Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Olympic Park.

The views Darshan captured as he flew in Dubai and London are absolutely amazing.  What really impressed me was that his flight was so incredibly smooth - the camera hardly jiggled.  When he approached his trainer, you can see him fold his wings and dive until close enough to open his wings, slow down, and gently land on his trainer's arm.

SOS is a global partnership launched in October 2014 who's goal is to raise funds to support front-line, threatened-species conservation projects world wide.  The founding partners are the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the World Bank.  Freedom - An Eagle Takes Flight is an international multimedia conservation project of SOS and tells the fictional story of Roi, the last White-Tailed Eagle in the wild, and Kaaba, a White-Tailed Eagle who has spent much of its life in captivity.  It is a fictional story now, but could be a glimpse into our future if we do not act now and forcefully to preserve all of Earth's creatures.  Victor, a White-Tailed Eagle, and also an SOS Ambassador, took flight from the top of the Eiffel Tower September 28, 2014, to publicize the release of Freedom - An Eagle Takes Flight.

You can support SOS and its program by direct donation, joining its community on Facebook and Twitter, subscribing to its newsletter, and buying children's wear from coqenpate editions.

Happy Birthday, Alfred Wegener!

You changed geology forever - THANK YOU!

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/thisday/nov1/happy-birthday-alfred-wegener/#

U.S. Forest Service releases excellent educational resources on bats and White Nose Syndrome

With more than 1200 species, bats comprise approximately 20% of the world's mammal species.  The U.S. is home to 47 different bat species.  More than just velvet-winged cave-dwellers, bats live in a large variety of locations: dead trees, caves, bat houses, human buildings, rock crevices, and the underside of bridges.  

More than two-thirds of all species eat insects, and as such, help control agricultural pests and those that can spread disease such as mosquitoes.  Insect-eating bats substantially reduce the need for agricultural pesticides.  A single Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus), weighing on average less than 0.5 ounces, can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour!  Almost one-third of bat species feed on nectar, making them critical pollinators and seed dispersers.  Finally, 1% eat fish, mice, frogs or other small vertebrates, and despite all the bad press they receive, there are only 3 species, all living in Latin America, that are vampires.  But even they are valuable!  The powerful blood-clot-dissolving enzyme in their saliva is used to treat human stroke victims.   Despite all this, bats are still the target of much bad press and myths, with many species worldwide in decline and in danger of disappearing forever.  

In the U.S. alone, 9 species are listed as Endangered and 2 species are listed as Threatened (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).  The greatest single factor threatening bats are humans - our activities and perception.  Habitat destruction and outright killing are far too common a problem that bats cannot overcome.  I personally know of one cave in Eastern Kentucky that was frequently the destination of gatherings of male college students, and on one occasion whose aftermath I personally witnessed, a large colony of bats was burned alive.  I found the sad remains on a survey trip to the cave the next day.  Fortunately, it was NOT the breeding colony of an endangered species of bat found in a nearby cave, but in this day of declining bat populations, we cannot afford to loose any bats, particularly to such behavior.

White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is greatly increasing the threat to our bat species, and its continued and rapid spread is unhalted with recent first-time confirmation of white-nose syndrome in Des Moines and Van Buren Counties in Iowa.  In Missouri, the following counties are now considered "suspect" for the disease: Clay, Ralls, Moniteau, Ozark, St. Francois, Callaway, Cooper, and Miller (WNS Map 2015-4-17).

In response to the dramatic declines to this highly important mammal, the USFS has created Project EduBat, "an engaging education program designed to prepare, inspire, excite, and motivate people of all ages to take part in conserving our bats" (Beneath the Forest Floor, Spring 2015edition, p. 6).  Also found on this site, BatsLIVE! A Distance Learning Adventure was created by the USFS to reach educators and students grades 4-8 by using engaging technological media.  Battle for Bats: Surviving White Nose Syndrome (13:33) is a short film explaining White Nose Syndrome, the major threat it poses to bats, and why we should care about bats.  The websites from U.S. Forest Service and USGS on White Nose Syndrome are full of excellent and current information on this devastating disease and the destruction it is causing.  

Why Would I Want to Participate with the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)?

A great professional honor recently arrived in my email box:  an invitation to become an individual member of the Geoheritage Specialist Group in the IUCN-WCPA.  I had no idea what that agglomeration of letters stood for, so I had to do some web research (bless the web - what ever did we do without it...seriously?).

IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature.  According to its website (http://iucn.org/ ), it "helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges"  It's vision and mission is "...a just world that values and conserves nature.
Our mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable."  The IUCN is "the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organisation, with more than 1,200 government and NGO Members and almost 11,000 volunteer experts in some 160 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by over 1,000 staff in 45 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world."  Finally, its work focuses on "valuing and conserving nature, ensuring effective and equitable governance of its use, and deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges in climate, food and development. IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice."  Their video here is definitely worth watching:  http://iucn.org/about/ !

WCPA - World Commission on Protected Areas and is one of the IUCN Commissions.  According to its website (http://iucn.org/about/work/programmes/gpap_home/gpap_wcpa/ ), the WCPA is "the world's premier network of protected area expertise. It is administered by IUCN's Global Programme on Protected Areas and has over 1,700 members, spanning 140 countries."  It's particular mission is to "promote the establishment and effective management of a world-wide representative network of terrestrial and marine protected areas as an integral contribution to IUCN's mission."  WCPA accomplishes this mission by "helping governments and others plan protected areas and integrate them into all sectors; by providing strategic advice to policy makers; by strengthening capacity and investment in protected areas; and by convening the diverse constituency of protected area stakeholders to address challenging issues. For more than 50 years, IUCN and WCPA have been at the forefront of global action on protected areas."

The IUCN has established the Geoheritage Specialist Group (GSG - yet another acronym) to "ensure that knowledge of biotic nature is fed into the work of WCPA."  By becoming an individual member of the GSG, I would agree to assist and participate through one or more of the following actions.

1. Actively contribute as a member of the GSG;
2. Provide useful material and case studies of geoheritage conservation in practice;
3. Possess knowledge of the theory and practice of geoheritage conservation within a specialized field;
4. Notify the GSG Steering Committee regarding available funding sources and partnership opportunities regarding geoheritage conservation in protected areas.

As a man who has devoted much time and effort professionally and personally to the protection, preservation, and conservation of our natural environment, this was impossible to not find incredibly exciting, a deep honor, and very humbling.  As a man who practices his traditional Lakota beliefs, the opportunity to actually work to protect Mother Earth in such a tangible way was one I could not refuse or ignore, nor would I want to.  Every day, I am constantly mindful of the footprint I leave, and I want it to be as small as a moccasin print.  I turn off water when I am not using it (including between dishes, while brushing my teeth, soaping my hands, etc.).  I turn off lights, use minimal lighting, and I use fluorescent bulbs.   I recycle, and in fact, my recycling bin is always substantially more full than my trash bin.  I buy minimal packaging items.  I buy organic (real organic, not just the word splashed around everywhere).  I buy local whenever possible.  Except for things like bananas and the like since they don't grow in Kentucky...yet.  Let's see what global warming does, eh?  I take good care of what I do own to make it as long as possible.  I have a pair of jeans that has lasted 7 years, and no, they don't get up and walk around by themselves - they are much too weak and thread-thin to do that, but no holey ventilation so they are still functional.  I use biodegradeable soap (really biodegradeable) and I don't use any of those harsh soaps full of chemicals.  It is truly amazing what a great job Dr. Bronner liquid soap does on so many different things.  I must admit I do not use it to brush my teeth even though it claims I can.  In summary, I do the best I can to walk my talk and let my beliefs guide my daily actions.

But then, the membership application asked a simple question that got me thinking:  "Reason you want to join the GSG membership?"  Could I tell them everything I just wrote above as my answer?  Yes, but I felt they wanted something more, something perhaps more profound, in response to such a simple, unimposing question.  I thought about it for several days, worked on it, thought some more, and here is my answer to why I would want to participate with the "world's premier network of protected area expertise" to help it realize its vision of "a just world that values and conserves nature" by accomplishing its mission to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable."

We have only one Earth and all that lives upon it (non-human and human alike) are entirely dependent upon the natural environment of the Earth for physical, emotional, and spiritual health.  Mother Earth is precious – we humans cannot re-create the natural environment, we cannot replace it with the same or something else, and in the vast majority of cases, we cannot repair the damage we cause.  

We have this one chance in this one moment to create a heritage for the next Seven Generations (of all living creatures) in which they can both survive and thrive with spaces that meet not only their physical needs but also their emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs as well.  I believe that humans, because we have the capacity to do so, are charged with taking all necessary steps (both simple and challenging) to protect and preserve Mother Earth.  As my elder, Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull) said, “Let us put our minds together and see what future we can make for our children.”  
Consequently, I have a long history of involvement in the efforts to conserve, preserve, and properly manage natural areas.  I also believe that the most successful protection projects are so because they have fully engaged the humans who live in and neighbor the area, for they are, in many cases, entirely dependent on the area for their lives but also because they know it best and are in the best position to protect it.  The lessons learned from the creation of Mammoth Cave National Park are poignant.  To create the Park initially, the desired land was, in many cases, condemned out from underneath the humans who lived upon it and made a living from it.  The condemnation process was ruthless and miserly – monies paid to “compensate” for the loss of the land amounted to pennies on the dollar, leaving people destitute who were already struggling.  Hard feelings towards the Park have lasted generations, handed down from parent to child as a bitter legacy that has been hard to overcome.  It is a dramatic contrast to other protected areas that have been created in partnership with the local inhabitants and who take ownership of protecting and preserving the resources so preserved.  The joyful legacy of these areas is one of cooperation and symbiosis.

It is also my belief that scientists have the responsibility to utilize their knowledge in service to all members of the Circle of Life and Mother Earth.  We cannot operate in isolation, and we cannot squander our knowledge and experience on learning for learning sake or science for science’s sake.  We need to be able to translate our technical expertise into lay language and to utilize that expertise to make the world a better place.  That phrase has been so frequently used in so many different contexts that its use here sounds trite, but it is true statement and heart-felt statement on my part.

These beliefs are the core of who I am and they drive why I would be honored to serve as a member of the Geoheritage Specialist Group (GSG) in IUCN-WCPA.

I hope they give me a chance to do my part.

Thanksgiving Strangling Christmas

A late posting of some earlier musings.....

A neighborhood house put an inflatable turkey in their front yard for Thanksgiving.  When Christmas approached, they strung up lights in the bushes behind the turkey and left the turkey up.  However, a string of lights closest to the turkey were for all appearances intentionally wrapped around the turkey's neck and upper torso.  The first time I saw it, I thought, how symbolic - Christmas strangling Thanksgiving.

In my youth, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were discrete and individually celebrated in their own ways.  For me, it was the Labor Day parade and fireworks display in my town.  Halloween was full of little kids (and some not-so-little) gleefully loading up on teeth-rotting, body-expanding candy while dancing from house to house chiming out, "Trick or treat!"  It was fun to watch the neighborhood children grow through the years and their interests as mirrored in their costumes change as well.  Thanksgiving was a time for family and this time the adults stuffing themselves with teeth-rotting and body-expanding foods in an unspoken competition to who could eat the most and suffer the greatest afterward, as if the bloated agony was a highly-prestigious prize.  I am dating myself to admit that the day after Thanksgiving back then was devoted to putting up Christmas decorations and "Black Friday", that cult of consumerism, did not yet exist.  It was a better time (I think).

Christmas stuff (cards, decorations, gifts, and the like) didn't hit the stores until the day after Thanksgiving and it was not even mentioned in passing.  It would come in its own time.  Let's enjoy now and whatever delights it held (fireworks, candy, stuffing the turkey and yourself).

When Christmas arrived, it was still full of love and joy for not only your family but for friends, neighbors, even fellow humans you did not know.  People were extra kind and considerate and even though the temperatures might be below freezing, there was a warmth in the air that could not be missed.  An emotion that seemed to nudge the thermometer up noticeably.

This year, Christmas stuff (can't think of a better word but it seems appropriately nondescript) was out in the stores before Halloween.  I was horrified but I guess not surprised.  It has, after all, been inexorably creeping that direction.  Pretty soon, it will be in stores and on TV and radio (if either still last that long) along with going-back-to-school supplies.  From there, what's to stop it from infecting the 4th of July holiday?  Shoot, why the heck not just keep Christmas stuff going year-round?  It certainly doesn't seem like it is about giving friends and family something of yourself and a nice present to symbolize that anymore.  It is a competition as all American things seem to have become.  Who can give the most and feign the greatest selflessness?

Christmas lights wrapped around the inflatable turkey really says it all, doesn't it?  Had to be intentional....

(originally written 1/4/2015)