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By Simmons Buntin, December 21, 2009 10:03 pm

Appearing in Issue No. 6 with two additional poems, this poem carries the following epigraph before the title of the poem:

We didn’t have even a single guarani in order to buy medicine and even less with which to get to the city….  He lost the ability to speak.  When he died his flesh was like a wet rag, wrapped around and stuck to his bones.
    
   — Paraguayan widow whose husband was employed by Delta & Pine Land Company — in the disposal of contaminated cottonseed
 

Delta & Pine Land Company

By Sharon Kouros

… and he lived inside his eyes only,
with dim disinterest following her at times
while she wet a cloth and wiped the mucus
from his tongue and he tried
for the moisture.  It hurt
when she washed him but he could not say
stop leave me in my filth
which is what I am
while the fire gathered about his feet
and the sword drove between his ribs
and she wiped his running shit
from his falling skin
and the world closed down
to one square light from a far window
and his bones grew beautiful
beneath his ragged flesh, and she saw
the long skeleton of love beneath her hands
as she turned him in his last sleep.

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By Simmons Buntin, December 11, 2009 6:05 am

From Issue No. 5, featuring three poems by Peter Huggins (who is a regular poetry contributor to Terrain.org):

"Pocahontas" by Robert Matthew Sully, 1842.

Thomas Rolfe on Pocahontas

by Peter Huggins

My mother was a princess,
Daughter of Chief Powhatan,
And Lady Rebecca at court.
I believe King James would have
Married her himself.  She was
That beautiful.  And brave.
She stopped Smith’s execution
By placing herself in the axe’s
Path and implored her father
To spare Smith’s life.
I love that story.  It does
Her justice and if I could dance
As well as she, I’d dance
That story all the time.
Even when she was held hostage
To force peace between Powhatan
And the Virginians, her grace
Pulled her through.
She captivated her captors,
My father included, and fell in love
With him.  Who couldn’t love her?
I thought my father would die
With her when she contracted
Smallpox before we left England.
He was never the same.
After I finished my education,
I couldn’t remain in England.
Virginia called me home.
Virginia is where I belong.
I see my mother everywhere,
In tree, field and stream.
When I see the tall-masted ships
Put into port, I wonder she didn’t
Stay in the forest forever.

~~~

View this poem and two others by Peter Huggins at http://www.terrain.org/poetry/5/huggins.htm.

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By Simmons Buntin, December 9, 2009 7:00 pm

By Shelly Yarbrough

Mike Parham, the IUSD board member responsible for prompting the school district to retrofit with solar.

Anyone who ever watched Housewives of Orange County knows that people in that upscale community have a lot of money to spend on just about anything they want.

So plunking down a few millions bucks for solar panels should be no problem for the school district in the heart of Orange County, the Irvine Unified School District, right?

Wrong.

Despite the high living you might see on television dramas and reality shows, the IUSD is pretty much like every other school district in California. The money is dried up.

So when IUSD board member Mike Parham decided his district needed to go solar, he also knew it would have to be at little or no cost to the district.

“We knew the price of buying and installing solar was coming down, and the incentives were at an all-time high, so there was no reason to wait,” Parham said.

Low cost was good. No cost was better, so that is what Parham and his district did.

Earlier this week, the IUSD voted unanimously to go solar on each of its 21 schools, selecting SPG Solar and Sun Edison to build and finance the project. All at no cost to the district.

This is not a charity thing. Or a giveaway. It is a sound business deal made possible by tax incentives on the one hand, and a sharply decreasing cost of buying and installing solar panels on the other.

Here’s how it works: Schools, of course, do not pay taxes so tax breaks are of little interest to them. Enter SPG Solar and SunEdison.

What they do is rent the roofs from the IUSD, build the system, create the power, then sell it to the schools — just like a utility might. With one difference: it is cheaper. Way cheaper. From seven to 20 percent cheaper.

And over the 20-year life of the deal that comes to more than $17 million, says Tom Rooney, president of SPG Solar.

For all you gear heads out there, “this project will generate over 6.6 million kilowatt hours of solar energy per year,” said Dylan Dupre of SPG Solar. “Over the life of the project, this will remove 127 million pounds of CO2, the equivalent of removing 12,000 cars from the road for one year.”

But as good as the finances are, what really has school board members such as Parham excited is what is happening in the classrooms. IUSD is developing a curriculum that takes full advantage of all the information its solar system is creating.

That includes lessons in science and math of course, but also business, finance and even art.

“Our responsibility is to squeeze the most out of every dollar, and to provide the best education possible with those limited resources,” said Parham, who in addition to being nationally recognized in the field of renewable energy for schools is also an investment banker. “Students, who will one day run this country, should learn about the viability of solar (and wind) energy, in order to be well-prepared for the job market of the future.”

Thanks to Parham, the people of Orange County are still getting whatever they want. Only this time they are making money from it. Go figure.

~~~

Shelly Yarbrough is a member of the Val Verde School Board in Riverside County, California. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the California School Board Association.

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By Simmons Buntin, December 8, 2009 7:10 pm

Hummingbird. Photo by Simmons Buntin.

From Terrain.org’s fourth issue:

Accidental Birds

by Cathy Mellett

Two hummingbirds
spring from the holly bush
outside my window.
First, one. The other follows
as if to make sure I’ve seen
what I’ve seen.
Why are they still here
in the thick of winter.
And how did I go from peeling apples
to putting this pie in the oven,
remembering so much of my life
but none of the steps between.

~~~

Read this and another poem by Cathy Mellett at http://www.terrain.org/poetry/4/mellett.htm.

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By Simmons Buntin, December 6, 2009 6:28 pm

By John Seager, President, Population Connection

As world leaders convene the Copenhagen climate talks, discussion has focused on the need for wealthy countries to reduce emissions. Far less attention has been paid to the inevitable reality that emissions in the poorest parts of the world need to increase. And there has been scant recognition of the role played by rapid population growth in rising emissions worldwide.

President Obama is taking a bold first step in Copenhagen by putting forward an ambitious emissions target for the United States. Yet global population growth threatens to undercut — even cancel — all progress. Global population may grow by 18% or more from 2005 to 2020, according to UN projections.

Reducing carbon emissions is actually three separate but related challenges. First, we must reduce global emissions. Second, we must slow population growth by supporting programs such as voluntary family planning. Third, we must recognize that about half the world now suffers from “carbon starvation” and needs to increase emissions.

Historically, as population has increased, emissions have also risen. Most emissions reductions must occur in wealthier countries since that’s where they are highest. At the same time, in order to give billions of poor people a reasonable quality of life, emissions in some parts of the world must increase significantly. Rapid population growth makes this balancing act even more difficult.

Given available technology, the often-tiny carbon footprints of billions of people are both a cause and an effect of impoverishment. The one billion people who struggle to survive on less than $1/day use very little in the way of fossil fuels. And the additional 1.6 billion living on less than $2/day hardly use more. In order to have decent lives, they must increase their emission levels substantially, despite advances in green technology.

Much of sub-Saharan Africa is mired in the most desperate, grinding poverty imaginable. Governments there are already unable to meet the most basic needs of their citizens. And it is these people — who contribute least to climate change — who will suffer most from the problems that climate change brings. Women especially will face new challenges to their health, livelihoods, and even their lives.

Africa’s per-capita emissions must increase. But, if Africa’s population grows by the 39% that is projected by 2020, it will be nearly impossible to create a healthy quality of life for people in that part of the world.

Population growth will undermine all efforts to achieve lower carbon emissions unless investments in clean energy are matched by equally comprehensive investments in universal access to contraception along with other health and development programs.

As we develop hybrid cars and the like, what about the other half of the world? Will they be left to sweat and starve while we glide forward into a century of renewable energy? Their carbon footprint needs to grow. That can only work if we are willing to meet the population growth challenge.

This is one of those times — and one of those issues — where we need to keep our eye on multiple goals. Reducing emissions is an energy issue. But it is also in equal measure a human rights challenge, one that must include unprecedented investments in a full spectrum of reproductive health services for women and couples. Worldwide, 200 million women have an unmet need for family planning. And demand for contraception is projected to increase by 40% in just 15 years.

If we fail to act on this broader agenda, initiatives for reducing greenhouse gases will be swept away by a tidal wave of population growth. The White House has already made great strides in reversing the pernicious policies of the Bush Administration which turned a blind eye to the needs of billions. But additional bold action is needed.

No doubt President Obama is keenly aware of the multiple dimensions of the climate challenge. Yes, it’s about energy. But, more than that, it is about meeting the basic human needs of soon-to-be seven billion people. Universal access to family planning must be a centerpiece of the climate change agenda in Copenhagen and beyond.

~~~
John Seager is president of Population Connection, America’s grassroots population organization. He was formerly with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and also served as chief of staff, communications director and district director for U.S. Representative Peter H. Kostmayer (D-PA). He holds a BA in Political Science from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

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By Simmons Buntin, December 4, 2009 5:36 pm

The Galapagos penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus. This species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List. Photo by Haroldo Castro, courtesy Conservation International.

The coastal wildlife of the Galapagos Islands – arguably the world’s most celebrated environmental treasure – has suffered outright transformations due to a combination of climate change and over fishing, with several species of marine plants and animals believed to have gone extinct and many others seriously threatened, a new report reveals today.

The report, which is published today in the scientific journal Global Change Biology and can be viewed here, outlines the massive impact that the increasing ocean temperatures associated with strong El Nino events have had on the archipelago which, coupled with fishing, tourism and other human activities have changed Darwin’s living laboratory forever.

The report follows a major scientific meeting, convened by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, the Galápagos National Park Service, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, and other organizations, to assess the vulnerability of the Islands to climate change. Experts established that the El Nino weather cycle, possibly aggravated by global climate change, and combined with other human impacts has systematically impoverished the Galápagos marine environment in just a few decades.

Coral reefs and kelp beds have been eliminated, once-abundant marine species such as the Galápagos black-spotted damselfish (Azurina eupalama), Galápagos stringweed (Bifurcaria galapagensis), as well as the 24-rayed sunstar (Heliaster solaris) are thought to be extinct, and dozens of others – including the beloved Galapagos penguin – are within a hairsbreadth of annihilation. Based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List, two species are “probably” extinct, another 7 “possibly” extinct, and a further 36 Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered. Climate change is predicted to make this devastating set of conditions more frequent and intense in the region.

On top of this, by comparing heavily to lightly fished areas in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, scientists learned that overfishing weakened the web of life in Galapagos through cascading effects of the expansion of sea urchin populations, which in turn erode its resilience.

The scientists that co-authored the report hope that the findings will demonstrate the urgency of taking action so that delegates at the international climate conference in Copenhagen later this month make tough commitments to adequately finance both measures to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to urgently address the climate adaptation needs of vulnerable communities and ecosystems.

Report coauthor Scott Henderson, Conservation International’s Regional Marine Conservation Director in the Eastern Tropical Pacific said: “If marine species are going extinct in one of the most famous, and most cherished World Heritage Sites, what is happening in the rest of the World that has been so little studied? It is time we recognize that the Ocean has limits just as the rain forests of the Amazon, the rivers of Europe, the ice sheets of the Arctic and the grasslands of the Great Plains. For seas to thrive we need increased efforts to slow climate change, more, bigger and better managed marine protected areas (MPAs) and better managed fishing activities outside MPAs.”

Authors of the report believe that the Galápagos Islands are a “canary in a coalmine” – a telling indicator of what the world has in store under global warming. The archipelago lies at the convergence of several major ocean currents, which allows a diverse and unique set of ecosystems to co-exist  - from penguins to marine iguanas to corals. However, during El Nino years ocean temperatures throughout the Galápagos Marine Reserve rise a few degrees. These increases are roughly in line with those predicted under climate change scenarios for this region. During these years scientists are able to get a glimpse into the future of how wildlife and the people that depend on the environment might fare under climate change conditions.

Sylvia Earle, one of the paper’s coauthors and one of the foremost authorities on marine issues said: “Nowhere on Earth are the combined impacts of climate change and overfishing more clearly defined than in the Galapagos Islands where unique assemblages of wildlife live on the sharp edge of change. Decades of data link recent fishing pressures to disruption of the islands’ fine-tuned systems, making them more vulnerable to natural –and anthropogenic changes in climate.”

Professor Les Kaufmann from Boston University said: “The Galapagos, the Rosetta Stone of evolution, is now teaching us the far-reaching impacts of climate change on ocean ecosystems. Though too late to stop, we now know that the impacts of climate change can be softened by cutting back on fishing.  The wildlife we eat today was part of the inner workings of an ecosystem which was under stress from global climate change and when these ecosystems are damaged, species and livelihoods can vanish in a heartbeat.”

For further details or a PDF of the full report contact:

Patricia Yakabe Malentaqui
Press Officer, Conservation International
Work: +1 703 341-2471; Mobile: +1 571 225-8345;
Email: p.malentaqui@conservation.org; Skype: patricia.ym

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By Simmons Buntin, December 3, 2009 7:36 pm

Last night Gina Murphy-Darling, a.k.a. Mrs. Green of Tucson radio fame, presented at the Civano Neighbors neighborhood association annual meeting. (It just so happens that in addition to editing Terrain.org, I head up our new urbanist community’s neighborhood association, for better or worse….)

Here are her Top Ten Green Tips:

1. Oh the places you go… take reusable bags.
2. You can lead a horse to water… but make sure you have a reusable water bottlw with you.
3. Save on your energy bill… unplug cell phone chargers and other appliances when not in use.
4. Always shut your computer down… save energy, not to mention your workplace will be about 5 degrees cooler.
5. Green birthday fun… make a meal for a friend or loved one instead of buying things that come in packaging.
6. If you are going to shop organic… buy organic milk, fruits, vegetables, and meat.
7. Remove ALL antibaaterial soap from your home… the plain old stuff works great.
8. Stop junk mail and save trees… www.41pounds.org.
9. Buy organic wine… and really make green living fun!
10. Use hydrogen peroxide… for mouthwash, germ removal of toothbrushes, cleaning countertops and table tops, cleaning cutting boards, healing cuts, and much more.

Learn more about Mrs. Green at her website: http://www.mrsgreengoesmainstream.com.

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By Simmons Buntin, December 2, 2009 7:43 pm

Writer, photographer, and landscape designer Scott Calhoun.

Terrain.org editorial board member and landscape writer Scott Calhoun lists his Top 3 gardening books of the year:

For the last two years, I’ve sat on the American Horticultural Society’s Book Award Committee. This means that each week in November and December, two or three or six gardening books show up in my mailbox or on my doorstep to review, peruse, and ultimately judge. In fact, while I was writing this, the UPS man interrupted me with the delivery of a new memoir by a Canadian poet-farmer: Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life. I got diverted and just spent 15 minutes reading the first chapter. For someone crazy about plants, words, and photos, exploring these books is a treat but also a task I take seriously.

After receiving the books, I give each one a general once-over, read the introductory material, table of contents, and first chapter. If I’m compelled to read on, the book makes it into my “for further review” pile, which after a complete read eventually gets whittled down to a top 10 list. Last year, most of my finalists (and many of the winners) were large format hard-bound affairs crammed with luscious full-bleed photos, plant lists and other useful information in mostly photo-driven formats.

This year, the quality of the writing and depth of the research is shining through and my top three selections thus far contain no photographs whatsoever.

Read the full entry at Scott Calhoun’s blog, Scott Calhoun’s Desert.