#I want to learn about fish and streams and ecology

[girlscience]

things I am happy about with the school I am accepted to: went there for undergrad so I know it and the area well, pretty close to where I live now so Missy won't have as long a car ride as some other schools would have been, it has a center for fisheries and aquatic sciences, I had one of the professors from the center as a lab professor in undergrad and really liked him, have talked to him already and he was very helpful, I will be physically closer to a some of my friends but also not too far away from my friends here or my sister

things I am nervous about: what if neither professor in the center for fisheries and aquatic sciences will agree to be my thesis mentor, what if I don't get a TA/GA position because this is going to be a lot of money, what if I completely bomb whatever application/interview process I have to go through for the center

things I feel weird about: this is not a particularly exciting school and I am worried people (my family) will say some shit and make me feel bad about it

[clumsiestgiantess]

The Other-world Universe MerMay AU is here! It ended up getting so long I split it into two parts, so enjoy part one today and part two tomorrow!

(Original story here)

On the last day before spring break, all of the ecology classes were going on a trip to the beach only a half-hour out from the school.  Everyone was supposed to bring their own buckets, towels, and shovels if we wanted them, since our college didn't want to waste money on getting every single person supplies.  I'd brought everything I thought I might want: a large bucket, a shovel and sifter, and sunscreen. 

Once I stepped into class — scouting out the seat beside one of my friends — I gasped at the towel in his hands, smacking a palm over my forehead.  "Aww no.  I forgot to bring a towel!  I’m going to be stuck with sand all over me!”  Thankfully, I was friends with one of the best people ever.  Ivan chuckled, “Alexis, that’s like the first thing you bring to a beach.”  I grumbled and he dug through his things, pulling up another towel.  “Don’t worry, I brought a backup one.”

The room was nothing but a chaotic ruckus of voices and antics until the beep of a loudspeaker came on overhead, and everything came to a halt.  It seemed redundant, but once we got to class, we were immediately dismissed to the charter buses.  In no longer than 15 minutes, we were back in different seats.  I made my case for the window seat, and Ivan agreed only if he could have it on the way back.

Ivan and I talked throughout the trip, but during the last stretch we gazed impatiently out the window, scanning the horizon for signs of the ocean.  At last, a kid closer to the front called out that he'd seen water, and soon I could catch glimpses of it as well.  White foamy waves rippled just between the branches of trees lining the road.

Once everyone was unloaded from the buses, we found our teachers and took a quick headcount before they let us loose.  We were supposed to be learning about the intertidal ecosystem and whatnot, but everyone knew it was really just a fun activity before school was out for the next week.

Everyone found their friends and wandered the beach in droves.  There were a lot more shells and interesting trinkets lying around thanks to the small storm that had blown in the day before.  The trip had almost been canceled because of it.  I’d barely reached the sand before spying a neat spiral-looking shell I wanted to scoop up. The legs of a small hermit crab were tucked away inside. I let it down and stared at the little critter in fascination as it slowly inched back out of its home and scuttled away.

After a while, Ivan convinced me to actually look up from the ground.  We busied ourselves by looking for wildlife to document, as that was the whole reason we'd come out here, though most people just set themselves up to tan or started games.  I took multiple pictures of pelicans flying in ‘V’ shapes up above, any the little sand pipers rushing across the beach between breaks in the tide. Ivan waded into the water to sift for creatures beneath the sand. Both of us chased scuttling crabs up and down the sand, flipping them into our buckets with my shovel. All in all a tiring, but successful, trip.

Neither of us even noticed how far up the beach we'd strayed from the group until we were cut off by an outlet of water that pooled into the ocean from a stream.  “Should we go through or turn around?” Ivan asked. “Remember we have to walk the same distance back, too.”  I shrugged, but before I could offer my opinion, I noticed movement from the corner of my eye.

After chasing crabs, I was so used to things dashing around that the movement wouldn’t have surprised me.  However, the thing was much slower, so I paused to examine it.  A piece of fishing net slid down the sand by something moving inside it, dragging bit by bit towards the water.  “Hey Ivan!” I called, “I think something’s stuck over here!”  Using a shovel, I bent down and flipped the netting over.

Shock brought my thoughts to a sudden halt as I gawked at the creature I’d found — only startled into movement once Ivan arrived.  The bottom half of the creature looked like a fish — a bit dried out, but a fish nonetheless.  The top half, though…  The top half was what took me so long to comprehend.  The torso of something very human took up the top portion of the creature.  It froze the moment I got close, and both Ivan and I stared at it for a solid two minutes before he slowly bent down, grabbed a wave-weathered stick, and nudged it over.  Instantly, the creature sprung to life, flailing around in the net.

I flinched back, "Ivan, why did you poke it?"  "I- I thought it might be a toy."  True, the half-fish creature was only about the size of one, but still.  With all the wild thrashing, it had only tangled itself up more and more.  Suddenly, it slowed dramatically, uttering a human-like wheezing noise as it desperately dragged itself towards the ocean.  "Water!" I realized, "It needs water!"  I dumped out everything in my bucket and ran for the ocean.  

Scooping up a bunch of seawater, I came racing back.  Ivan gripped both sides of the net and hoisted it up, which only prompted more thrashing and wheezing from the creature before he lowered it into the bucket I put down.  We waited in anticipation as the creature sank to the bottom, covered by netting.  The surface of the water stilled, and we exchanged worried glances.

Moments later, the human-ish half of the creature burst to the surface, climbing over the edge of the bucket and using its tail to propel itself forward.  "Wait, wait!  Just stay in there!" Ivan yelped, quickly shoving it back in.  "I'm going to try to untangle it," he told me once it had fallen back inside, "Then we'll know for sure."  "Know what?" I asked, still slightly in shock.  "Then we'll know for sure if we've just lost our minds because we're dehydrated, or if we actually.. caught a mermaid."

"Aren't mermaids supposed to be human-sized though?" I asked as he hesitantly stuck his hands into the bucket.  "Yeah, I guess so.  Maybe we found something else."  He fished out the mystery creature, which thrashed in his grip.  Ivan would've dropped it had it not been for all the netting around it to hold on to. He unwound the tangle of cord bit by bit as the creature thrashed less and less.  

Near the end of the bundled material, his face flushed bright red and he practically threw the creature into the bucket, sending up a splash.  "What was that for!?" I asked angrily.  "It.. She..  Sh- She's a bit too human for me," he replied, ducking his face away from the bucket.  "What does that-?  Oh."  I realized halfway through my question that he'd changed the creature from an 'it' to a 'she'.  

Carefully, I reached in the bucket and held up the strange being, now more visible without so much rope around it.  She looked like a tiny human from the waist up, and she wasn't wearing a single thing.  Her hazel skin was a sharp contrast to the shimmering scales that took form below her.  They were much more of a match with her silvery-green eyes, which were wide in terror.  Little gills pulsed on either side of her chest as her breath grew ragged.  

"Oh," I repeated, lighter this time.  Gently, I lowered her into the water for a moment, letting her breathe before I took her back out.  The last pieces of netting were wound more tightly around her, and she struggled when I pulled at her skin to try and get it off.  Ivan glanced back over at me.  "I- Is she alright?"  "I can't get the last netting off; it's too tight.  Do you have your pocketknife with you?"  "I never go anywhere without it."  He slid it open and handed it to me, glancing nervously down at the creature in my hand.  "Just don't cut her by accident," he warned.  I nodded and held her steady.  

However, as the blade neared the being, she let out a shriek and thrashed in my hand, slipping out of my grip and onto the sand.  She dragged herself away from me as I worriedly reached for her.  "Wait!  Please!  Please don't!"  My and Ivan’s mouths simultaneously dropped open in shock.  She'd spoken.  Her accent was thick and foreign, but she was clearly speaking English nonetheless.  

The tiny creature curled itself into a ball, breaths shuddering with tears.  I tried my best to be gentle as I hoisted her up, trying to get her into water, but she still shrieked like I'd attacked her.  The being thrashed more strongly than she had before, causing me to drop her over the bucket instead of lowering her back in.  I cringed as her scream turned to bubbles while she slid beneath the water.

"H- How did she just talk?” Ivan stuttered, “I mean, I get that she looks human, but how does she know English?"  I shook my head, "I have no idea, but I still have to get her untangled."  "Well, now that we know she understands, maybe we could try explaining to her why you have a knife?"  Nodding, I reached in to take her out, but the little creature kept dodging my grasp.  It took me almost a full minute to catch her she was so fast.  

Again, she thrashed as she was lifted out of the water.  "Little.. creature?  I- If you stop wriggling, I'd like to explain what I'm doing.  I'm just trying to help you."  "By what?  Gutting me alive with that blade?" she retorted hotly, though she paused in her attempt to free herself.  "I'm just trying to cut the netting off you."  The creature glanced up at Ivan, "And him?"  I blinked, "What about him?"  "What does he want with me?"  "We both just want to free you," Ivan told her, scooting a bit closer.

Her gaze slid back and forth between the two of us, then she coughed.  I lowered her back in the water again, but she scrambled out of it, hoisting her human half over the edge of the bucket with heaving breaths. "Normally I would tell both of you to go drag yourselves back to whatever nasty hunk of rock you came from, but.." she pulled at the netting around her and flinched as it grew a bit tighter around her torso.  "This.. This really hurts."  

Ivan and I glanced nervously at eachother.  "So, will you let me help you?"  The creature gave a very slight nod and I scooped her up again.  She held still as the knife slid beside her skin.  With a slight twist, I slit the thin rope holding the netting together and it slipped off her onto the beach.  I sucked in a sharp breath of air.  Her chest was wracked with criss-crossed slices where the netting had cut into her skin.  The gills on her right side were crushed so badly that they wouldn't even open all the way.  I gently lowered her down, but she cried out in agony and reflexively clung to my fingers so I would take her back up.  The sting of salt in her fresh wounds must've been unbearable.

"Oh muck that hurts!" she cried, her grip on me tightening as I lifted her back out.  “You don’t have freshwater by any chance, do you?”  Ivan gawked, “Don’t you need saltwater, though?”  The creature vehemently shook her head, “I came from up there,” she gasped, pointing to the stream’s outlet, “When I got caught in this net, I was dragged downstream to the ocean.  I- I just want to get back!”

I glanced down the beach, “There’s a water station by the buses...”  “I’ll be back!” Ivan called, dashing away down the sand while I stayed behind with the creature.  The little being started coughing, but when I reached down to put her back in the water, she curled away from it.  “No!  Human, I told you that hurts!”  “But you’re suffocating.”  She wheezed, lying flat across the palms of my hands.  “I- I can breathe air for a little longer.  My human-ish half can deal with it.”  I nodded, keeping her out of the saltwater.  However, I could feel the sides of her chest heaving against my palm — cuts beginning to bleed.

“So human,” the creature began, trying to take my gaze off of her wounds.  “Now that you’ve freed me, what are you going to do?”  “My name is Alexis,” I offered, “and my friend’s name is Ivan.”  “Alright, fine.  My name’s Eria.  What about my question?  What are you going to do with me?”  I hesitated, “I.. don’t really know.  Should I put you back in the river?  Would you be able to make it back upstream or will you just get tossed into the ocean again?” I asked, gesturing to the water behind me.

Eria was silent for a while.  “I’m.. I already know I’m going to die — from the moment I got caught in that net.  Being human you must think that’s awful, but that’s just how it goes for other creatures.”  I held her a bit higher, scrutinizing her worriedly.  “But there has to be a way to save you!  Surely you know a way to heal yourself!”  The creature only shook her head.  “I’d have to get back to my home, where I store medicines.  I.. don’t even know how far away home is, and I’d bleed to death.. or get eaten.. trying to make it back.”  

Seconds later, Ivan came dashing back up the beach, a few water bottles in hand.  “I’m back!” he panted, “I’ll go pour this out.”  Taking the bucket, he dumped it a little ways past me and began emptying the bottles into the empty container.  Soon, it was filled with new water.  I lowered the creature back to the surface of the bucket and she slid slowly back in, taking a small test-swim around the edge.  “It tastes funny, but otherwise it’s fine.  Th- Thank you.  For all the horror stories about your kind, you don’t seem all that bad.”  “We said we were only here to help,” Ivan told her.  “I know.  Do you think I actually believed you?”  

I explained Eria’s dilemma to Ivan, and he looked her over thoughtfully.  “Maybe we can somehow sneak her on the bus?  And then try to heal her up back home?”  He sighed, “No, she can’t live in a bucket.”  “I have an empty fish tank at home,” I told him, “But how would we get her onto the bus without anyone noticing?”  We argued back and forth over what we could do to sneak her away before she leaped up to sit on the edge of the bucket and cleared her throat.  

“Maybe you should ask the being you captured what she thinks about all this,” the creature suggested.  “For instance, do I really want to be dragged inland to who knows where and stuffed into a little box that I can’t escape from?  I already feel claustrophobic in here...  I knew it!” she exclaimed suddenly, “You do want to capture me!”  Both of us backtracked, swearing left and right that her accusations weren’t our intention.  There was a long pause as we all thought of a way to keep her safe.  Finally, she sighed loudly.  “Alright, fine.  There is a way for me to sneak with you.  I was hoping you would leave me alone once you figured I was a lost cause, but for some reason you seem to care much more than I thought you would.”

Turning in the bucket, she scanned the beach.  “I need an animal that isn’t human.. something small,” the creature said without lifting her gaze from the sand.  Ivan and I glanced confusedly at eachother.  “Why?”  She turned back to us with a tired look, as if we were stupid for not knowing.  “I’m a satyrian.  We can drink the blood of other creatures and obtain their likeness, but only from the waist down.”  “So you’re a shapeshifting mermaid?”  The satyrian gave him a bewildered look.  “I have no idea what you just called me, but if it was anything awful, I will find out.”  

“Why can’t you drink human blood?” Ivan asked.  “Not that I’m offering it; I’m just curious.”  She huffed and turned her attention back to the beach.  “If I take a human form, don’t you think someone will notice there’s a whole extra person on board?”  Oh.  “It’s not that I can’t; it’s just not-  Aha!  There!”  Leaning almost entirely out of the bucket, Eria pointed out a tiny crab scuttling beneath a piece of driftwood.  “Go get that one!”

Ivan ran over and scooped it up.  It was so small he wasn’t worried about being hurt.  The thing’s pincers were only a centimeter or so long.  He held it out to Eria and she snatched it from him, dragging it down into the water.  The bucket became murky with clouds of red blood while Ivan and I looked on nervously.  A while later, the crab scurried out, completely unharmed.  We kept waiting for Eria to resurface, but she didn’t.  

My gaze began to wander in worried thought, and that’s when I noticed the tiny crab.  Its forelimbs waved wildly in the air the moment I noticed it.  Suddenly, I put two and two together.  “Eria?” I asked, hesitantly offering the minuscule creature my hand.  It had to be her.  It scuttled up immediately instead of rushing away.  Ivan gasped as I held up the little being in my palm — her hands cupped around her mouth to yell to us.  However, it was nearly impossible to understand what she was saying.  “I- I think that one was a bit too small,” Ivan said, watching Eria in awe.  “Get your bucket,” I told him, “Find one that we caught that’ll be small enough to hide, but big enough that we can actually hear her.”

While he went off to do that, I gently lifted Eria closer to my face, squinting to try to see her better.  She was hunkered down in the center of my palm, arms protectively tucked over her head.  “It’s alright,” I told her quietly, “Ivan’s working to get you a bigger form right now.”  “How do we keep it from hurting her?” Ivan asked once he found a worthy crab.  “Put it on the ground and distract it with a stick or something,” I offered.  

He did as I said and I lowered Eria to the ground.  She hopped off and stood there hesitantly for a moment before jumping on top of it and clambering to a break in its armored exoskeleton.  The moment she got to it, she flung herself off and away and I scooped it back up with a shovel before it could turn on her.  Slowly, Eria’s form changed — skin rippling larger and larger — hardening in snapping sounds until she was the length of my palm.  “Oh thank goodness!  You were right in saying that form was too small.  I think I got a bit too excited when I saw it.”

“So you‘ll come with us then?” I asked.  “As long as I get a bigger creature to drink from when we get there,” she panted.  Her scratches were wider now, blood slowly oozing from them.  “What happened to you?” Ivan asked, gesturing to them.  He tried to be subtle in doing so, not particularly wanting to scrutinize her bare torso for very long.  Eria delicately brushed a hand over her wounds.  “You aren’t supposed to morph when you’re hurt.  Especially not twice.  I had to, though.  There was no way I’d survive in my completely aquatic form, and I was absolutely not going to sit through the torture of being in that tiny one.”

I dumped out the bucket of water as Ivan took up the rest of our things, packing the empty bottles into the now empty bucket.  Once we were set to head back, we turned and watched Eria, scuttling over the ground towards us.  “This is so confusing!” she huffed, “My legs work better walking sideways than they do walking forwards!”  “Would you like to ride with me?” I offered, kneeling down so I was a bit closer to her height.  Eria scrutinized me for a moment, then nodded curtly.

She clambered onto my hand, little pointed legs digging into my skin.  I held her in the open for a bit while we walked down the beach, but as we neared the first group of people, I gently slid her into my pocket to hide.  Soon, everyone clambered back into their seats on the bus.  Ivan let me have the one by the window on the way back again; that way I could keep further away from the other people near the aisle.  I absentmindedly stared at nothing the whole trip, thinking through how to deal with our new companion.  Something wet brushed my skin when I shifted, startling from my thoughts.  Glancing down to my pocket, I gasped.  The fabric was soaked with dark red.  Cautiously I lifted up the opening.  Eria lay there, breathing hard.  

“Oh my god!  Are-  Do you think you can last until we get off the bus?”  I felt her shudder, “I.. don’t know.  How much longer?”  Glancing out the window, I realized that we weren’t very far away.  “About ten more minutes.”  Eria nodded, “I can make it.”  The second I got off the bus, I walked as quickly as I dared to class, grabbed my bag, and excused myself to the bathroom, towel in hand.  I didn’t even have time to explain what was going on to Ivan, but I knew he’d cover for me.

Locking a bathroom stall, I reached into my bloodstained pocket and carefully placed Eria on top of a covered toilet.  Then I got to work.  I hacked into my towel with a pair of scissors until I had small strips of cloth.  Kneeling down, I cautiously reached for Eria.  She gasped, clutching the now fully-bleeding gashes across her stomach.

“P- Please, if you’re going to save me with some human healing magic, do it soon,” she begged.  Gently, I bent down and brought her close, wrapping the clean material tightly around her.  “Tell me if it’s too tight, alright?  It has to be a bit snug to stop you from bleeding., but make sure you can still breathe properly..”  Eria nodded, letting me do my work.  Hesitantly, she tested it out after I finished.  “Well…  I’m not dead yet.”  “Once I get you home, I can find some proper bandages and medication that should stop you from bleeding.  Will you be alright until then?”

She checked herself over another time, then nodded slowly.  “It’ll be soon, right?”  “I’ll head straight there.”  Eria awkwardly stumbled over to me, grumbling about having too many limbs.  I gently slid her into my other pocket — the one that wasn’t soaked through with blood — and headed for my car.  I kept my bag by my side to cover the dark red mess, but still kept a quicker pace to avoid anyone spotting it.  

On the way home, Eria hesitantly peered over the edge of my pocket.  “Where are we?” she asked me confusedly, “Is this another human-moving machine?”  My brows furrowed, “You mean a car?”  “I.. don’t know.”  I glanced down at her, but she shied away from my gaze.  “You.. don’t get around much, do you?”  She shrugged — her shoulders bumping my side.  “No.  I never really wanted to leave my home, and I certainly didn’t want to live around humans.  Humans are confusing.”  “Am I confusing?”  Eria nodded, “Very much so, yes.”

At home at last, I dropped everything at the door and took Eria straight to the bathroom sink, where I pulled out a bin of medical supplies.  “Alright, my roommate doesn’t take ecology, so she won’t be here for a few hours.  That should be plenty of time to patch you up.”  “More humans?” Eria grumbled, “How am I supposed to take a bigger form with another human around?”  

Gently, I undid the being’s makeshift bandages.  She whimpered slightly, inhaling a sharp breath.  Her cuts had stopped bleeding so harshly, but they were still slowly seeping blood.  “Can you.. heal it?” Eria asked me quietly.  I nodded, taking an older washcloth and wetting it before reaching carefully for her.  Eria’s eyes widened in fright, but she didn’t pull away.  My free hand gently cupped her back as I wiped away the blood across her stomach and chest.  As serious as the situation was, I still couldn’t help but blush as I cleaned her off.  Her chest was.. so exposed.

Afterwards, I gave her some medication to rub on her cuts — deciding it would be best for her to do things herself.  She was so small I didn’t want to risk hurting her.  As I brought her body closer so I could wrap it in bandages, I finally got a good look at her face.  A scar dashed across one of her eyelids, and I found myself wondering how she’d gotten it.  Eria refused to hold my gaze for a bit, but slowly turned to stare at me in awe.  Her tiny wide eyes flickered between the features of my face — taking everything in.  “You-  You’re so different than I thought you’d be,” she mused quietly.  Her tiny hand alighted on my finger as I wrapped a bandage around her torso.  I froze when we touched; her hand was barely larger than my nail.

“Thank you.  Genuinely.  I.. I wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for your kindness.”  Taking my hand off her back, I slid her tiny palms between my fingers.  “You’re welcome.”  Eria offered me a small smile, revealing two long fang-like incisors.  I blinked surprisedly at them, and Eria covered her mouth with her free hand.  “Oh!  I- I’m sorry I thought that’s how humans show others they’re happy,” she told me, ducking her head.  “It is!” I assured her, releasing her hands and finishing her bandages.  “I just hadn’t noticed your fangs.  It makes for an.. umm.. impressive smile.”  

With Eria all patched up, I took another good look at her.  “So, now that you have this form,” I began, gesturing to her multiple hard-shelled legs, “Do you need to be in water?” Her gills were gone, but crabs are still sea creatures, so I had to be sure. Eria looked down at herself as a few of her pointed legs lifted into the air for her to examine.  “I.. have no idea.  I’ve been completely aquatic almost my whole life.  I feel fine, but it’s a bit confusing with this many limbs.”  “And slightly uncanny,” I added.  “You think?” she asked — clawed legs making little tap-taping noises on the countertop as she looked herself over.  “I’ll just deal with it.  It shouldn’t be very long until I heal up.”

Cupping her in my hands, I brought her over to my room and let her set herself up on my desk just as I heard the door open.  “Alexis!” my roommate, Paisley, called.  “Are you ready to go?”  I gasped, then quickly yelled back to her that I was ready.  I was anything but.  “I'm so sorry,” I told Eria quietly as I quickly slipped on a different pair of pants that weren’t bloodstained, “I forgot about the party she’s dragging me to.  Do you think you’ll be alright here by yourself?”  Eria nodded, “I’ll just be building a home here; I’ll be fine.”  I thanked her for understanding, and left.

[fatehbaz]

A thing that I love to do is to intentionally unlearn English common names for plants and animals. Ascribing of strict formal names to living things for processing through institutionalized knowledge systems is an act of capture. And I am not interested in capturing, possessing, any creature. Why do I call the “Idaho giant salamander” the “Nez Perce giant salamander” instead? Does the salamander have a meaningful reciprocal relationship with a political entity less than 200 years old, or does the salamander have a relationship with the ancient cedars of the rainforest? Which has existed longer: the arbitrary political entity of Idaho, or the Nez Perce people? Who has known these forests? What do some English common names teach us about a creature? Names are powerful. These are things that I often contemplate together in relation to each other: folk taxonomy, animal naming conventions, the way that people like Robin Kimmerer write about “the power of names,” erasure of local environmental knowledge, and rare and endemic species with specific microhabitat preferences. I know this doesn’t sound like a new or original observation, and it’s not. And forgive me for my navel-gazing tone of voice here, but I’ll try to describe why this is important to me.

What would you call this creature?

 A frog species might only live in one small stream system, cascading down the north slope of a single mountain ridge in temperate rainforest of the Andean slopes, in the traditional territory of the Mapuche people; the frog might always be found living alongside a special isopod, a rare orchid, and a community of soil microorganisms, all of which share the same dependence on these little pockets of suitable habitat in the shade of forest, at the streamside. Is the frog named after the stream, the source of its life? Is it named after the temperate rainforest ecoregion, this safe harbor of fertile vegetation which the frog requires? Does its name refer to the aquatic invertebrates that it relies on for food? If the rare orchid is always present, perhaps the frog might have a name alluding to the wildflowers? Does the name reference the Mapuche, who have known the frog for centuries? You might come to find, instead, that the frog is named for a museum curator in London who had never visited the Andes, or the frog is named after an eighteenth century plantation owner who contracted the European land surveyors to map the area.

As a little kid, I would draw my own custom “homemade” distribution maps for reptiles and amphibians. (I wanted to see snakes. Much of western Canada and the US had not really been surveyed for these creatures; at the library, the outdated mid-twentieth century field guides provided distribution maps, with huge question marks labelled over vast regions of geographic space. You had to guess where the creatures lived based on habitat associations with specific plants, which also required looking at plant distribution maps.) So I would be irritated to notice, when comparing maps, that a creature might have a distribution range that was so closely tied to a very specific landscape, with a very specific wider ecological community of plants and soil types that was also closely tied to that region, and yet the animal would be named after a wealthy Dutch scientist. A salamander might only live in one single river’s watershed, and would always live alongside a certain specific moss or fish or mollusc, and instead of being named after that ecoregion or after the Indigenous people who maintained the regional ecology, the creature would be called something like:

 “Smith’s salamander.” Now, not only has the creature been captured by formal name, but it’s also been possessed by an individual, literally given the name of a single powerful European administrator.

Does this name respect the creature? What does this name tell us about the entity? What does this name gift to you? I understand that no name in human tongue will convey the entire essence and weight of a creature.

But to me, this European style of naming still seemed inadequate, these names didn’t seem like they reflected anything about the creature itself. The name didn’t reflect where it lived, how it behaved, what its habits were, the fact that the frog seemed to love shaded north-facing slopes, the local culture that interacted with it for centuries, the trees and wildflowers and millipedes and ferns that happened to live in every place where you would also find the frog. A frog might be named after an imperial British adventurer who recorded the creature for audiences at European museums. They called “dibs” on the frog, despite the fact that local Indigenous communities may have had an ongoing relationship with the creature for centuries. So I would try to learn a folk name for the creature, or instead I would apply a new name for an animal based on the geographic area, ecoregion, plant community, or ecocultural region that the creature was most closely associated with.

The amphibians that I interact with, maybe more than any other, are the Pacific giant salamanders. They are the largest terrestrial salamanders in the world; there are only 4 species, in the same genus, and all of them are endemic only to the streams in temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. They’re capable of “yelping,” like a bark or shout. Uncannily similar to a dog or child. Their aquatic larvae swim around in small, shallow, cold, fast-flowing mountain streams in the shade of pine forests with many hanging arboreal lichens, sometimes congregating in the relatively still pools beneath small waterfalls. At night, in heavy rain, the large adults may crawl across the moss-covered cedar logs of the streamside. Only one of the species lives away from the Pacific coast. Dicamptodon aterrimus, known in English as “Idaho giant salamander,” lives in the inland temperate rainforest region, away from the ocean. “Idaho” is a political entity with arbitrary borders. The salamander being named after “Idaho” does not reflect the fact that the salamander is closely associated with cedar, hemlock, mosses, lichens, ferns, fungus, and tailed frogs in mountains of the inland temperate rainforest region. The salamander is found almost entirely within the traditional land of the Nez Perce people. The extent of Nez Perce territory, and the extent of the giant salamander’s presence, mirror each other  very closely. 

And so I pointedly call this rainforest creature the “Nez Perce giant salamander.”

I think that maybe no name can do justice to the entire rich existence of a creature, but we can really do better than some English common names, especially in those cases when an animal is named after a lone individual human. And so, in naming, there might be a difficult decision to make. Do you name a creature for its behavior, its location, its appearance, its season of activity, its prefered habitat, its companion species? Maybe you have your own, personal, relationship with the creature. A living thing has so many interweaved relationships with others. Maybe its “meaning” changes with context or season or emotional state of the human observer. Maybe I will sometimes call the creature “the cedar salamander” or the “guardian of the waterfall pools” or “the giant of the stream” or “moss dragon” or whatever.

More navel-gazing: We are all of us, salamander and human, more rich and complex than associations with mere behavior, appearance, habitat preference, or the surveyors that try to capture and catalogue us. And sometimes, I’m uncomfortable enclosing us with a strict name. I don’t assume that I know enough about a living thing to possess it through formal naming conventions.

[pleasespellchimerical]

Actually speaking of leeches, and creepy aquatic things--

I spent a lot of time in my undergrad doing stream ecology. It was an area I sort of fell into by accident, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I spent hours out in the field. Measuring streams, taking water samples, and cataloguing the local wildlife.

We’d learned about lampreys in class. Primarily sea lampreys, which are from Europe and are highly invasive in the Great Lakes. Lampreys are scary looking fuckers. They have a maw of teeth straight out of a Soulsborne game. Some species use this maw to latch onto fish and suck out all their blood. Other species are not parasitic at all - they only feed as larvae, and their terrifying maws are purely decorative.

Let’s just say that I was terrified to ever meet one of these guys.

(Lampreys don’t attack humans. They just look like something out of a B monster movie.)

During one of the sampling expeditions, we pulled up a handful of lampreys in the seine net. 

They got dumped into a specimen tank, and I was fascinated. They were probably about 8-10 inches long, and boy did they wiggle. So wiggly. I tried to hold one for a better look, but these guys were impossible to keep a hold on. All fish have a slimy coating, but add the fact that these guys were so thin and wiggly, I couldn’t hold one for more than a few seconds before it wiggled free.

My professor identified them as Ohio lampreys, an endangered native species. These weren’t the terrifying beasties of the Great Lakes, but simply some Wiggly Lads trying to go about their day and getting majorly inconvenienced by us. 

By the time we dumped them back in the stream, I’d fallen in love.

It’s easy to be scared of lampreys. They are terrifying to look at. The scars the parasitic ones leave on fish are nasty. The issue with invasive lampreys in the Great Lakes has garnered a lot of attention, and worsened their reputation as a whole.

Because they’re the opposite of charismatic, lamprey conservation doesn’t get a lot of attention. Take Pacific lampreys. In the Pacific Northwest, they follow similar migration and spawning patterns to salmon. Despite Pacific lampreys being of great ecological and cultural importance (lampreys were a traditional food source for native Americans living in the area), they don’t get a fraction of the concern that salmon do. 

In that same undergrad class, we met an ecologist who was specifically working with Pacific lamprey. He was super cool. And by that point I was so head over heels for lampreys, I understood why someone might want to devote their career to them.

The point I’m trying to make is that there are many weird and creepy critters out there. And these weird and creepy critters are important. And to help people appreciate them, exposure is necessary.

I positively adore lampreys. And if it wasn’t for those three Ohio lampreys we fished up one early spring day in Pennsylvania, I would never have learned to love them.

[choicesenthusiast]

Rising Tides, Ch. 5 AKA Big Business Boys Come To Play

What happened this week:

Charlie's meeting with the Big Business Boys goes about as well as you’d expect a meeting about ecological awareness with a big corporation to go: shut down because Business Things.

It’s okay, thought, because as she’s airing out her frustrations there’s a lovely baby seal in trouble to distract from her woes. After calling wildlife rescue services (where were they during the fish die-off, huh? I’m sure there was plenty of wildlife to service), leave the seal be or go with it to garner support from Jenny, the only rescue worker.

Catch up with Eddie, our favourite BFF (in which the ‘B’ stands for ‘bootlicker’), and have an argument over whether changes to the system are really necessary or not. The answer is they are, and it starts with Monteverde, but Eddie’s got his head too far up their exhaust pipes to do anything about it.

Instead of moping around, harness your diamonds and your radioactive superpowers obtained by the fish-die off, or the junk piles, or something, and build a whole community garden in one afternoon, all so reused sprite #1 can build up the courage to ask out reused sprite #2. Oh, also the environment thing.

Go to Northbridge, yes, the very same, for a destresser night out with Robin. Learn more about their home life, and their four older brothers (which reads very differently depending on their gender). At least this scene felt like an actual diamond scene, in which we learn more about their character, instead of just horniness and a random makeout.

Unfortunately, Monteverde orders a cease and desist on Robin because their published article had “libelous claims”, and their lawyer is none other than Cassidy, seemingly the only lawyer in town. This all has the same energy as when a commentary youtuber makes a video calling someone out based on the content they’ve given to the public, then that person gets offended and DM’s them a long stream of messages telling them to take the video down because it’ll ruin their rep.

Thoughts:

I get that we’re supposed to be the supporting character in Charlie’s story (hell, I’ve been wanting to try a side character-esque MC for some time), but MC has no character to the point where she’s literally, quote: “wandering aimlessly around town”. Get a job to support your financially-distressed family! Find some friends! Do something other than act as Charlie’s loudspeaker.

The New England region in the Choices universe has been through too much. Hartfeld, Northbridge for the entirety of Hero and of Wishful Thinking, Open Heart, and now Cedarport? Let the east coast rest! Though this book wouldn’t have done so well if it were set in rural Ohio, would it?

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #367

“i should warn you that you may fuck me, but chances are i’m gonna fuck you over”

Where was the last place you went for vacation? The beach. When was the last time you wore makeup? Halloween. Do you watch soaps or drama series? If so, which ones? Not currently. What’s your favourite tomato variety? I hate tomatoes. What was your very first pet like? Dad had a dog named Trigger when I was born, but I have no memory of her, so I'm excluding her. I consider our first family pet to be Chance, a cat my mom took in after finding her literally in the trash. She was... god, incredible. She was a loyal friend, and I can imagine no greater mother than she was (she legit fought off a rottweiler head-on to protect her kittens). She was so smart, so gentle, and just simply amazing. I'll always miss her. What was the best school project you remember doing? Looking back, despite the fact it TERRIFIED me before, that would be my senior project presentation. It was about snake misconceptions and fallacies, so I made a slideshow to present to the special ed class. I made drawings for them to color, word searches, all that kind of stuff. They were just the sweetest and seemed really into it. What’s your favourite type of fish to eat? None. What kind of an old person do you think you’ll become? I really... don't like thinking about this. Like I'm weak enough now at 25, I can't imagine how my, say, 60s would be. I hope and just about pray that my physical health will improve, but I'm just going to exclude that part entirely from this answer. Personality-wise and such, I have a feeling I'll be the quiet and sweet kind, the one that loves her (hopeful) spouse like crazy, and comes most alive on Halloween if I live in a place where children come trick-or-treating. I imagine I would LOVE that. I'd love to be the type that goes on morning jogs to help stay spry. Which well-known person’s death shocked you the most, if any? Steve Irwin and Chester Bennington might be tied. Both were so, so sudden. Steve was like, invincible to my childhood eyes, and when I heard about Chester's death, I thought it was just a sick rumor. Two amazing people that died way too soon. What’s the craziest colour you’d dye your hair? That would depend on personal opinions. I want to dye my hair LOTS of colors though, if that tells you anything. What’s the coolest hobby one of your friends has? Uhhhh. Idk. Name a video game you can play over and over again: Shadow of the Colossus. It's a pretty short game if you know what you're doing, and it's super relaxing to me and just so goddamn pretty to look at. Every time I've played it has just been a pleasant experience. Do you like meatloaf? Yeah, it's fine. How about Meatloaf? I know who he is, but I've never really listened to his music. Do you take time to do charitable work? If so, what do you do? No. ;_; Especially with all the free time I have, I really should... What is something that will make you laugh instantly? Okay, don't ask, but if I for a SECOND see that commercial of Mr. Clean dancing while he's cleaning, I will die because of memories. What is something you hope you will never inherit from a specific relative? Diabetes. It runs heavily in my family. Name a movie you wouldn’t watch solely based on its name: The Human Centipede. No. Thank you. Have you ever played in a stack of hay bales? No. What’s your dearest souvenir? The stuffed moose I got at Cabela's during a visit to Ohio. I named him Brownie, and he was my "childhood plushie" we all have. Is there a lot of graffiti around your neighbourhood? Not in the actual area I live in, but there are DEFINITELY places where it's a pigsty of distasteful shit. Have you ever made your own soda? (Soda Stream doesn’t count!) No. Do you have a hobby that forces you out of the house? If so, what is it? Nature photography. Have you ever been part of a theater group? No, that stuff doesn't interest me. What’s the most ecological thing you do? We recycle, and I also use metal straws. Would you stop eating meat, if you had to raise and slaughter it yourself? Absolutely. There is no fucking way I could do it. What’s your favourite board game? Why do you like it best? I like Clue just because of the mystery-solving factor, and I think it's kinda cool how you can think ahead and use other's findings to your own advantage to win the game pretty early. Besides English, what other languages can you speak? Some German. It's gotten pretty weak with neglect, though. Besides English, what other languages can you read? I can read German well. What thing/person/happening has made you the happiest you’ve been? This is a complicated answer that I just don't feel like elaborating on. What’s the most freeing thing you’ve ever done? Letting Jason go. Have you ever had a restaurant dish that was made with bugs? If not, would you even want to try one? No, and I'm not interested. Have you ever tasted birch sap? No. How about the young buds/shoots of spruce trees? No. Which edible flowers have you tasted? Honeysuckles. What has been your worst restaurant experience? Well, it's a fast food restaurant, but lemme tell you about my vegetarian encounter with Burger King. I ordered their veggie burger. Which they have. It's not a secret. These idiots gave me a bun with tomato and lettuce, and I think mayo on it, after sounding confused when Mom was ordering for me. Mom went back in there of course to tell them, and oh god was the manager pissed, lol. I got my veggie burger in the end. What’s the most immature, adolescent thing that still makes you laugh? Some sexually inappropriate jokes can still get me sadly, lol. Have you ever had a life-threatening condition? If so, what was it? Not literally, but boy do I think depression counts. Do you ever compare your life to somebody else’s? If so, why? Y E P. I can't tell you why, I just... do it. I look at other's successes and am just like, "Why aren't I there yet?", and beat myself up about being a failure. What is a food item or a dish you absolutely cannot stand? Brussel sprouts, asparagus, runny eggs, many other things because I'm just mega picky. Have you ever had a custom print done on a shirt? If so, what was it? Just the spray paint kind that vendors like to do at the beach and stuff. I don't remember any I got, though. What does your favourite mug look like? It's black with a Markiplier quote on it, given to me by Sara. :') Do you ever read other people’s survey answers? Yeah! Friends', anyway. I love learning all the obscure things about them. Do you like daytime or night time better? Why? Daytime, specifically early morning, because it's better for my depression. Are you more comfortable as a leader or a follower? A follower that isn't afraid to speak up when I'm really against something. What is your favourite song right now at this very moment? I've been really into "7empest" by Tool lately, and the synthwave edit of "Voices" by Motionless In White. If you watched The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, who was your favourite character? I don't remember it well, but I think I liked the butler. Was there even a butler? Who was your first online friend? Emma. :') Do you have any plants in your home? No. If you wear makeup, what’s the most outrageous colour you use? I only ever use black. What was the last photograph you took? My cat being adorable while sleeping. <3 Have you ever submitted a video to Funniest Home Videos? No. What was the first sport you learned how to play? I want to say soccer? I absolutely hated it. Do you have a headache at the moment? Yes, actually. I've really been attacked by the Covid shot side effects. Are your parents still together? No, thank god. What was the last hot food you ate? I made a chicken and I think pesto (some Italian noodles, idk) Healthy Choice bowl for dinner last night. Have you ever seen a meteor shower? No. :( Do you ever feel afraid people will question your sanity? I'm sure people have before, and back then? Rightfully so. Which X Factor audition(s) was/were your favorite? Never watched it. Were you a straight A student in spelling and grammar? Always. It's so weird how it's gotten worse with time since leaving school, even though I write... Were you a straight A student in math? Yeah, no. I usually got Bs or Cs. What is your favorite shade of yellow? Pastel. I don't really like yellow. What is something you want to accomplish before you turn 30? Have a stable job. Are you afraid of getting yelled at? YES. Do you feel a connection to the moon? It's not something I think about, so not really, but I do believe all things in the universe are connected in some way. We are simply a part of nature, as all else is. What does your heart long for? Contentment in who I am and where I am in life. I know I also miss being in love. Do you know what your purpose in life is? We have no innate purpose; we make our own, and I want mine to be to show others that there is always hope for yourself in yourself, and also to spread the message of love of all animals. Did you decorate a pumpkin this year? Last year I didn't. I really should change that this go around. Have you ever seen a fox? Yes! They're a kind of rare sight here sadly, so when I had the opportunity to photograph a fox tragically as roadkill, it was a photographic experience I won't forget. God, I wanted to pet it (I obviously didn't), but I did talk to it about how beautiful (s)he was as I got some shots. I never had a harder time leaving one of those angels I've taken pictures of. Do you find Halloween fun or scary? FUN!!!!!! Is there anything about Halloween you find offensive? Not at all. What do the trees look like where you live? I mean, there's a variety, but the staple that you see literally everywhere are pine trees. What is your dream vacation? Somewhere with mountains, clear lakes, cool weather, beautiful and various wildlife... What was the best vacation you’ve been on so far? Disney World as a kid. What is the best class trip you’ve been on? The zoo in the 5th grade. It was the one occasion I got to see meerkats. Did you like field trips when you were a kid? I lived for them. Do you find museums boring or interesting? I find science museums to be very, very fascinating. Art ones are great, too. What are three issues you are passionate about? LGBT rights, the pro-choice movement, and wildlife conservation, to name a few. Would you ever wear a shirt with your country’s flag on it? No. I'm not patriotic enough at all. What size is your bed? Queen. What’s a medicine that makes you sleepy? When we were experimenting with my Klonopin dosage, I learned that 3mg was enough to knock me on my ASS. Do you like bath bombs? I mean they're pretty, but I wouldn't waste money on 'em. Who are your favorite small YouTubers? Yikes, a looooooot. But this also depends on what you think qualifies as "small." Most of my favorite "small" YTers are tarantula keepers or sub-1M let's players. Who are your favorite big YouTubers? Markiplier obviously, Snake Discovery, Good Mythical Morning (even if I don't watch them anymore, they are veeery dear to my heart and I will always support them), Sam & Colby... Again, there's a lot. When you don't watch TV and YT instead, you really get attached to a lot of them. What was your favorite girl group when you were growing up? Would you believe me if I said Pussycat Dolls? haha Do you like Disney movies? Um, DUH. Were you ever in the popular crowd? No. Have you ever used an outhouse? UGH, at like childhood sports games, yes. I could NEVER nowadays, oh my god. Could you possibly write a successful novel? I think I have the creativity to, but not the dedication. Are there any foods that make you gag? Beans, for one. I just canNOT with them. It's a completely involuntary reaction. Have you ever had blonde highlights in your hair? I think I did? Who was the last person you video-chatted with? The lady who was seeing if I qualified for TMS therapy. Do you think sleeve tattoos look trashy? Definitely not, I love those. If you had to get a portrait tattoo, who would it be of? I don't actually want one, but if I did, I'd go to a serious professional to get THE Darkiplier smile. :') If u know u know. Do you have any stickers on any of your electronic devices? No. Do you think half blonde/half dark brown hair is attractive? It looks great on some people, but it's not my favorite combo.

[memfys23]

The Sound

“C’mon, girl. Smell the nice fishy? Hmm? Nice and fresh.”

There’s a small splash as the fish hit the water, but the sea lions took no notice of it and continued to stare impassively at Sam where he stood on the ship deck. Just after sunrise they had been swimming in long arcs parallel to the shore of the nearby island, but as the First Green had drifted in closer, more and more of them had shortened their sweeps until there was an audience of several floating off starboard, watching with eerie quiet.

The fish rocked gently black and forth as it slowly sank and the sleek animals made no move to follow it.

Dean whistled. “That is some damn impressive training. Also…” He gave a quick whack to the back of his brother’s head. “The fuck you think you’re gonna keep one of those things?”

“Ow!” Sam pushed the hair out of his face on the way to rubbing the back of his head. “I wasn’t trying to catch one. I just thought I’d make friends.”

“Sure, Sammy.”

“Seriously, Dean. We live in a two bedroom walk-up. Even if we moved, renting a place with a pool would seriously stretch our budget… at least at my old job’s wages…”

“No, Sammy”

“And my car’s too small to transport for vet visits. I’d have to stick it in the backseat of – “

“Don’t even think of finishing that sentence.”

Sam grinned at the finger pointed in his face.

“You’re too easy.”

Dean huffed and returned to counting the alcohol swabs in the first aid kit while Sam continued watching the sea lions watch him.

Satisfied that the kit was still fully stocked, Dean returned it to the case on the wall and joined Sam at the railing just in time for a series of low whistles to come across the water. The sea lions attention was grabbed and they began ducking beneath the water and swimming away towards the island in the distance.

From here in the pall of the northwest, the settlement that they knew was there was a smudge on the shoreline; the small windmill floating off shore was lost in the gray.

Dean raised his binoculars and watched as the sea lions were greeted by other figures in the crashing surf. The sea lions nosed at hands and showed a playfulness that had absolutely been absent the rest of the day.

“I wish we could talk to them,” Sam said, lowering his own binoculars to push the hair out of his eyes. “Think about what we could learn about each other if we could just talk.”

“Yeah. Maybe if I throw you overboard one of them will mistake you with your girly hair as a damsel in need of rescue and sweep you back to their shack for a little ‘cultural exchange’.”

Sam punched him in the arm, hard and then went back to his binoculars.

Meeting a selkie would definitely be a highlight to this trip. In addition to all the safety discussions and the legal walk throughs (how close were they allowed to get to the actual oil pipeline, what could they take pictures of, etc.), Dean and the rest of the Green Peace expedition had been forced to sit through a seminar on interacting with any selkie that they encountered on this trip. It boiled down to don’t.

To call the selkie standoffish was an understatement. For most of history the relations between human and Selkie had been cold at best and hostile at worst. Selkie who intruded to much into human fishing waters were often chased off their settlements, forced to rocky islands that Humans found utterly inhospitable. History was also littered with the tales of ships run aground, or worse sunk with all hands after straying too close to Selkie waters.

Of course history was more complicated. There were good stories too. Drowned sailors thought lost forever returned to their home shores, lost selkie saved from circling sharks and given a lift to the nearest rookery. Careful exchanges of technology and culture over the centuries. A handful of documented cases of friendship and, even rarer, romance. Hell, the jacket Dean’s father had left him was Selkie made, passed on to John from who knows where. Decades old as it was, it still kept the rain out like nothing else.

It would be pretty cool to meet selkie. Would definitely be worth several free beers over the course of his life. But it was better not to get their hopes up. The First Green was here to observe the local oil pipeline and its impacts on the non-human and non-selkie ecology. Cultural exchange was not in their mission statement and the local selkie population had made no overtures during their week here so far. They had kept distant from the ship and the divers, shifting their fishing patterns and their herds to the other side of their island presumably to wait out the expedition.

Dean and Sam watched the selkie and their sea lions splashing through the surf a little while longer and moved on when the expedition’s volunteer photographer wandered over. He left Sam to point out different parts of the landscape and the selkie rookery to Sarah while she peered through her camera.

*             *             *

With the exception of the mornings, the weather in Lopez Bay had been beautiful. The sun had sparkled over the deep green waters and warm breezes had moved the air just enough to keep it from being stifling without providing any chill.

Even the selkie had seemed to loosen up. Early in the third week the crew had woken up one morning to find the sea cows back in their original cove and while the raft of sea lions continued to watch the ship warily and ignore the occasional fish a crewperson tried to tempt them with, they were now joined by a gaggle of motley pelted seals who responded with much less stoicism. The seals eagerly leapt, dove, an spun and they received a rain of fish as their reward.

It had been far more comfortable than Dean had been led to believe the Pacific Northwest to be.

Today was a whole other kettle of fish. Overnight it seemed the region had finally decided to show her true colors. Rain slapped against the windows and the floor of the mess was slick with water tracked in every time someone came from outside. Rain slickers dripped water down the walls where they were hung and every glass surface fogged with the collected breaths of the crew and the steam rising from their mugs.

Sam blew on his hot chocolate and took a small sip before putting it down again.

“You want me to get you some marshmallows to go with that?” Dean asked as he slid on to the bench.

“You have marshmallows?”

Dean shook his head and cradled his own mug close to his frozen nose.

“Seriously, Dean. If you’re hoarding marshmallows, share the goddamn wealth.”

Dean sipped his coffee. Too hot, but he wasn’t gonna be a goddamn girl about it like Sam. “Shaddup. How are your talks going with the fishing company? Are they still threatening to sue our asses to hell and back?”

“They won’t give any ground, but we’re not actively interfering with any of their transports and they can’t object to any of the observations we’re taking. No activities they undertake in public waters can be considered proprietary so we’re fully within our rights to take pictures and videos and the scientists have their own permits for testing and observing in the wildlife reserve so they can’t keep our people out of the water and away from their equipment as long as we’re not actually interfering with any of it.”

“They are damn lucky you were able to get such a good stretch of time off between your old firm and the new one.”

“I’m not the only one who’s managed to impress on this trip. I was talking with Doctor Karam earlier. His wife is a physician with Doctors Without Borders and they’re apparently looking for supply logisticians. Experienced people who understand medical needs and can get shit done. I think Doctor Karam thinks you’d be a great fit. It would be a great step up in your career.”

“C’mon, Sammy. I’ve had enough of parachuting into crappy places all over the world. I’m ready to stay put for a while. Not to mention we’re gonna be in the same place at the same time for the first time in a long time. You and me raising hell and looking fabulous doing it. Just like old times.”

Sam hesitated, dropped his eyes to his mug and Dean’s heart dropped to his stomach.

“About that, Dean.” Sam took a deep breath. “The firm has an opening in the DC office. It’s better pay and it would open up some really cool opportunities for me.”

“So that’s why you’re so eager to get rid of me.” He lifted his leg and pivoted off the bench. “I need some fresh air.”

“Dean, c’mon, man, that’s not fair,” he heard Sam start but Dean was already walking away. He drained the last of the coffee in his cup, dropped it in the bin strapped to the compost bin (of course these freaking hippies had a compost bin) and wrenched open the mess door. He made his way to the end of the hall and then out under the awning. Small blessing there wasn’t a lot of wind.

He pulled a cigarette out of the pack in his pocket and leaned against the bulkhead while he held the tip to his zippo flame. He’d promised Sam and Uncle Bobby he’d quit, but quitting was a process and the other coping option of a beer would mean heading back into the galley and Sam’s disapproval.

Goddamn genius brothers. Kid couldn’t leave well enough alone. Couldn’t be happy with what he had which was already lightyears more than any Winchester had ever had before. Couldn’t resist one more rung on the ladder. The chance to get away from Dean again probably made the opportunity all the sweeter. He’d probably been spending the last few weeks looking for any bone he could throw to Dean to make it seem like it wasn’t all just about avoiding his broken loser older brother.

The glow of the cigarette was a mocking reminder of the cold outside. Dean took a long drag, held the smoke in his lungs, and then let it out in a long slow stream. He scrubbed his hand over his face and tried not to feel the dual cold of the weather and the steel bulkhead behind him leaching through his clothes. He lifted the cigarette to his mouth again and repeated the earlier drag. He could at least be grateful there wasn’t any wind.

Dean continued to smoke, listening to the raindrops clatter off the awning when he something stole his attention. He stilled, suddenly hyper aware, not sure what had interrupted his pity party when deep jingle and clank sounded over a gap in the rain. The clank came again from around the corner followed by a thud, a grunt, and then a splash. Dean pushed away from the wall bulkhead behind him and headed around the corner to the sound. As he made his way there was another clank and then a thud again, followed by another.

Dean stopped at the top of the stairs leading down to the stern deck, feeling the cigarette drop from his suddenly gaping mouth.

There, in the pouring rain, slumped on the deck, a smaller form clasped in his arms, blue eyes boring into Dean’s soul, was a selkie.

[engineeringecosystems]

An Invitation to Conservation

Where most people see a rock I see potential.

Oi mate, how ya goin? 

My name is Matt and I am an international postgraduate student studying marine biology at James Cook University, in Townsville, Australia. The photo below was taken during my first semester when my friend and I visited the Whitsunday Islands, off the coast of Queensland. We raced a rain cloud back into the marina with our sailboat - it was wicked. We lost the race but ultimately won this sweet photo (see smiles below). 

I received my Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology and Environmental Policy from Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey (my home--RU RAH RAH!). While at Rutgers I was initiated into Alpha Zeta, the Co-Ed Honours and Service Agricultural Fraternity of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (a mouthful). During my time in Alpha Zeta I developed leadership and professional skills while proudly serving my school and community. I also very much enjoyed my time as an ambassador and tour guide for my school.

During my last semester at Rutgers I was accepted into James Cook University and moved to Townsville shortly after graduating. While at JCU I have had some pretty sweet hands-on experience (like raising juvenile grouper!) and I have sat in on lectures given by some of the leading scientists in my field.

To complete my degree I am carrying out my placement (internship for my Americans) under the supervision of Dr. Ian McLeod at TropWATER. TropWATER is an Australian research group dedicated to undertaking research in fields related to water science, resource management and the ecology of water ecosystems, with a focus on sustainability. In addition to this blog, I am working with Dr. Jennifer Hillman on a global mussel review which aims to create a necessary global assessment and database of mussel beds. This assessment is the first to focus on mussels and will help support future research regarding restoration and conservation. The primary stream of content on this blog will thus be related to mussels. Together we will explore their diversity, ecological roles, destruction and restoration (*whispers* I’ll surely be sneaking other shellfish in along the way, hehe).

My interest in conservation started with Ostrea angasi (photographed above by Richard Cornish). While working on a small project for a coastal ecology class I came across this article about the largest oyster reef restoration project in the Southern Hemisphere (and second largest in the world after the United States). The University of Adelaide and The Nature Conservancy partnered up to complete the project and added 20 hectares (200,000 sq. meters!) of Australian flat oyster spat and recycled oyster shells to historic reef sites in the Gulf of St. Vincent (photographed below by Anita Nedosyko).

I learned just how important oysters are to the health of our estuaries and coasts, and to our communities (economically and socially). Shellfish are an important protein source for millions who depend on ocean resources and are also a very lucrative aquaculture industry because of their pearls. Much like coral reefs, oysters form three-dimensional reefs that serve as a habitat for a variety of fish and invertebrates. Oysters are known as ecosystem engineers because, in addition to creating habitats, they also filter water, stabilise shorelines, and serve as nurseries for several fish species (an ecosystem engineer is any organism that creates, modifies, maintains or destroys habitats. The North American beaver is a classic example of an ecosystem engineer). 

My research also reminded how greedy and destructive humans can be. In Australia native oysters have been harvested to functional extinction; this means they are not abundant enough to preform many of their ecosystem services. Before European colonisers reached (what is now) Australia oyster reefs used to dominate the southeastern coastline of the continent. It is estimated that historic oyster reefs stretched some 1500km (that's two-thirds of the length of the Great Barrier Reef!). Oysters were harvested so heavily that their populations were reduced to less than 1% by the beginning of the 20th century.

I was so inspired by the Adelaide oyster restoration and its role in the environment and the community. I hope that these blog posts (carefully crafted with love and passion) inspire you to be a little less selfish and a little more shellfish. 

If you want to learn more about Adelaide’s oyster restoration (and the little fella that started it all for me) then check out the video below. 

[usfwspacific]

“Who you gunna call? A biologist!” Forget ghosts, AmeriCorps Member busts environmental challenges with her electro-shock backpack

Blogger’s note: Amber Left-Hand-Bull is a Bureau of Indian Affairs WaterCorps Program Member serving with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Puget Sound Olympic Peninsula Fish and Aquatic Conservation Complex. Our hardworking AmeriCorps Members have some pretty cool experiences during their time with the Service and are often inspired to write about them. This is her Story of Service and you can read more Stories of Service and Intern Adventures here.  

Stories of Service- May 15, 2019

I knew I was in the right place when our biologist, wearing his Ghost Buster looking electro-shocking backpack, gave confused onlookers a confident nod as we were on our way to sample some urban streams.  I sang to myself “When there’s something fishy, in the neighborhood.  Who are you gunna call? A biologist”!  Just another day at the “office”!

Hókahé (welcome)!  My name is Amber Left-Hand-Bull and I am a Bureau of Indian Affairs AmeriCorps serving with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lacey, WA. I am mostly Lakota Sioux but I grew up native to the Pacific Northwest.  My life’s journey started when I was young as I always had my ear to the ground, feet in the river, or hands on a branch.  Being outside isn’t just an option for me, but a need.  Every trip I had outside camping, hiking, whatever it was, I just wanted to know more. This connection with nature lead to my involvement in many environmental programs growing up that expanded my experience in getting out in various terrestrial and aquatic settings.  That time getting out taught me that it is not just one species that matters the most but also a balanced ecosystem.

Photo:  A Nisqually River Chinook salmon! 

My passion for environmental sciences coincided with me throughout my life, but my educational stride didn’t take place until I had settled down in WA and finished my Bachelor of Science of Environmental Sciences at Evergreen State College.  I wanted to show my children the importance of restoring and preserving what we can in this world by making it a full time career.  My husband and my two boys (5 and 8 years old) all take part in giving back to our planet in any way they can from all the things I have taught them.  I started off being a steward at a young age which helped create a strong initiative to turn my everyday home life to a greener one.  Starting with recycling correctly, using eco-friendly cleaning products, and conserving energy in the house as much as possible.

Photo: Salmon spawning and carcass sampling on the Nisqually River.

Over the course of my education and internships I have performed a variety of field investigations involving ecological and biological assessments. At Evergreen State College I applied hydrology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in ArcMaps, and ecological economics, all in watershed management. Learning these values together provided me better understanding in how economics needs to work with environmental resources as well as cultural values in management and policies. The majority of my work focused on salmon and trout species, including Endangered Species Act listed species, in the Nisqually Watershed while working with the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources. I supported studies, fish supplementation, and habitat restoration through the tribe’s Salmon Harvest Fishery Program, Salmon Enhancement Program, and Salmon Recovery Program.  I also conducted crustacean surveys in the Shellfish Management Program and water quality testing with the Nisqually River Foundation.  Solutions are found by having our biggest hands at work, but prevention from further decay can only done be by co-existing our urban life style with a greener existence.  

Photo: Off to set traps for sampling Olympic Mudminnow!

I am going on my fourth week with the USFWS and the experience has been incredible.  I have assisted with monitoring Olympic Mudminnow populations, which are a species of fish only found in Western Washington!  I have supported our Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife partners with their Western Pond Turtle monitoring efforts, including personally trapping and collecting biological information on over 200 turtles! I assisted with migratory shorebird surveys out in Grays Harbor, one of the largest migratory bird habitats in the Pacific Northwest.  I conducted habitat surveys and sampled juvenile Chinook salmon and other fresh water fish from urban creeks in the Lake Washington drainage of Seattle.  

Photo: This Western Pond Turtle is about to be measured!

This journey with USFWS not only includes field science operations, but also increases public awareness and stewardship.  At the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge I lead groups of 4th-6th grade school students on ethnobotany walks focusing on how native plants were used by the Coastal Salish Tribes for medicine, food, shelter, clothing, and tools.  I also integrated invasive species awareness and prevention content.

At a Nisqually River cleanup event, I ran demonstrations on a watershed model for Cub Scouts troops to show examples of pollution, how they impact fish and wildlife, and what we can do to be preventative.  At the “Celebrate Kokanee Day’ in Issaquah, I lead a salmon roll-playing activity where participants had to smell their way back (blind folded) to their home creek. This activity taught children about why salmon’s sense of smell is so important, how pollutants can affect it, and what they can do to help.

The atmosphere in the office and in the field fills my heart with the greater good that our developing world will strive for a greener and cleaner tomorrow.  Those who work in this field are heroes that are not only making every effort  for a healthier planet but teach the children and communities how to as well.  Knowing how to systematically analyze these different biological environments makes a strong base for both ecological and economical benefits.  An expanding human population impacts most if not all living habitats, and if we do not make stronger efforts in monitoring these conditions the kind of conservation work that needs to be done will be too late. I look forward to the rest of my term here in participating in many of the field surveys and lab practices to further my experiences and education.

[fbwzoo]

hell yeah. what exactly does the fisheries & wildlife degree cover/do? pros and cons of it? i think i might end up in wildlife rehab/education bc i loveee it but who knows

So the overall degree is Fisheries & Wildlife, and then at my school there are six concentrations that you could specialize in (I think there were only 4 when I was at school though?). I had to look them up to remember any besides mine, lmao. There’s conservation biology, wildlife biology & management (mine), fisheries bio & mgmt, water sciences, fish & wildlife disease ecology & mgmt, and preveterinary.

Conservation biology would lead you towards protecting endangered habitats and species, and finding ways to mitigate the various things that threaten them. You could work with endangered plants, endangered animals, one habitat type specifically & all of the life that it includes, etc. You can also do work towards mitigating climate change and how it impacts threatened & endangered animals and ways to help.

Wildlife bio & mgmt is more specifically research surrounding managing existing populations & habitats. This can be aimed at endangered groups as well, but isn’t specifically aimed at that as much. This was my major and was more about being out in the field, doing various research projects and gathering data to learn more about how to manage habitats & wildlife population. Though you can also get a desk job that does a lot of the data consolidation and management, but that also tends to be part of the outdoors-y research jobs as well (something that a lot of my classmates were dismayed to learn). Covers a lot of similar jobs as above, but primarily research-related things, less about legislation. What frustrated me about my concentration was that in MI, this kind of thing was mostly about managing wildlife populations for hunting - ground fowl, waterfowl, and deer more than anything. I’m not sure if conservation biology was a concentration when I was at my school or not - it sounds way more up my alley, tbh. 

Fisheries bio & mgmt is much the same as wildlife, but obviously aimed at fisheries. You’re doing research and data collection in lakes, ponds, streams, etc. and gathering data about fish populations in order to determine what species need assistance or re-stocking & what needs management measures to bring numbers down so they’re not impacting the rest as much, etc. Invasive species are also a big thing here, particularly in the Great Lakes region - Asian carp, zebra & quagga mussels, lamprey, etc. 

Water sciences is...well, what it sounds like! How water bodies work, how they’re connected via water cycle, how many other factors impact those water bodies, what threats there are to them, how we can mitigate those threats, etc. How to manage wildlife & plants & outside factors to maintain healthy water bodies. I think this one is new since I left school as well.

F&W disease ecology is going to be specifically studying impacts of diseases on wildlife populations, how they work, how they spread through a population, signs to look for, how to help avoid disease outbreaks, the impacts of wildlife diseases on humans, and so on. A big thing for this concentration when I was in school was studying chronic wasting disease in deer, since it was such a big threat to deer populations & the hunting industry in Michigan. I would guess this concentration would have less focus in the field and more focus in labs, working with samples and such.

Pre-veterinary is basically pre-vet preparation, along with some disease ecology classes & learning about wildlife disease specifically. This would be if you want to become a wildlife vet specifically and obviously is going to lead in to the whole big thing of veterinary school, so it’s just a lead-in to that.

So yeah, lots that you can do! Field jobs where you’re out in the weather and gathering data and slogging through the brush and mud and water and all - these jobs don’t exactly pay well, but if you’re looking for a job where you can just be outside all the time, have at! Generally people are looking to move on to a master’s, which will get you better positions & more pay. You could do educational work & public outreach, and you can work in human/wildlife conflict & find ways to help fix or reduce these issues (I found this rather fascinating in my classes). You could help work on legislation towards protecting endangered habitats/life, and more. You have choices between working for governmental agencies (federal, state, local) or working with nonprofits. You could also work overseas, if that appeals to you!

Pros - wildlife! Helping wildlife and learning about them and their habitats and how things all connect and work together! Teaching other people about these really cool things and why we care about them and what we can do to help! Doing science! Being outside! 

Cons - As mentioned, general wildlife/fisheries biologist jobs don’t pay great. You’re outside regardless of the weather, in all kinds of terrain, and it’s hard work. Often the jobs are seasonal, so you have to keep moving around and looking for new jobs, it can be hard to find a stable position to work in long-term. The job ends when the research project does. Depending on what you go into, you can hopefully avoid discouragement from looking at careers that aren’t really what you love - I was not at all enthusiastic about the sheer presence of the hunting culture in Michigan and how much of the wildlife management was geared towards it. 

Wildlife education jobs don’t often pay that much either, but depending on where you look, you might be able to find a more stable job than the biologist ones. You could also get a job as a public outreach/educational person with a stable nonprofit or something like that, which would be nice, but you’d likely have to work your way up to that. This is very much a field where the opening jobs are a lot of grunt work and volunteering and low pay, but the further you get in schooling and the more experience you get, the better off you’ll be in terms of job prospects and pay.

Sorry this was a HUGE answer, but hopefully helpful. Honestly, my issues with the field were primarily related to Michigan and I don’t think I would have had so many problems in a different concentration or in a program in a different college/state that might be more geared towards conservation or education than general population management!

[lit102]

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, trans. Ken Liu

An invigorating and gripping book. Probably the best science fiction I have ever read & Cixin Liu is arguably the best sci fi writer alive — in both the “science fiction” and “writer” senses of that term.

The Three-Body Problem asks: If an alien civilization, desperate for survival, invaded Earth — could humanity survive? And would we deserve to? It begins during China’s cultural revolution in 1967, with a brutal act that will shape the future of the whole human race. You might say that this entire book, though packed with plot and information, is merely setting the stage for what’s to come in the next book. A physics professor named Ye Zhetai is being publicly berated in front of a crowd by several passionate young Red Guards, who want him to renounce Einstein’s theory of relativity and thus the “black banner of capitalism” it represents. When he refuses, they attack, whipping him to death with the copper buckles of their belts. The professor’s daughter, Ye Wenjie, has a front row seat to her father’s death. As the crowd disperses, she stares at his body, and “the thoughts she could not voice dissolved into her blood, where they would stay with her for the rest of her life.” These thoughts will haunt her throughout a stint in the Inner Mongolia Production and Construction Corps, cutting down trees in the once pristine and abundant wilderness — so full of life you could reach into a stream at random and pull out a fish for dinner, now transforming into a barren desert in front of her eyes — and at her hands. There, she meets a journalist who questions the wanton deforestation that has also touched her heart. “I don’t know if the Corps is engaged in construction or destruction,” he says. His thinking is inspired by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a copy of which he gives Ye Wenjie to read and which changes her life. It inspires her to wonder: if the use of pesticides, which she took for granted as a “normal, proper—or at least neutral—act,” is destructive to the world, then “how many other acts of humankind that had seemed normal or even righteous were, in reality, evil?” 

Is it possible that the relationship between humanity and evil is similar to the relationship between the ocean and an iceberg floating on its surface? Both the ocean and the iceberg are made of the same material. That the iceberg seems separate is only because it is in a different form. In reality, it is but a part of the vast ocean.... / It was impossible to expect a moral awakening from humankind itself, just like it was impossible to expect humans to lift off the earth by pulling up on their own hair. To achieve moral awakening required a force outside the human race.

This idea shapes the rest of Ye Wenjie’s life. It is what prompts her to invite an alien civilization to our world, serving humanity up to them on a silver platter. She helps the reporter transcribe a letter to his higher-ups, warning them of the “severe ecological consequences” of the Construction Corps’ work. This letter is received as reactionary, and the terrified reporter claims Ye Wenjie wrote it, throwing her under the bus. All is not lost for her, however. Because of an academic paper she wrote before the revolution, "The Possible Existence of Phase Boundaries Within the Solar Radiation Zone and Their Reflective Characteristics,” she is not imprisoned, but scooped up to work on a top-secret military research project: an attempt to contact extraterrestrial life. Because it’s so highly classified, it requires a lifelong commitment, one she gladly makes: all she wants is to be secluded from the brutal world. And at Red Coast Base, on an isolated peak deep in the mountains, crowned by an enormous antenna, she finds the solitude she seeks, immersing herself in her work. It is here that, almost by accident, she harnesses the power of the sun to send a message far out into space — a message that, many years later, receives a chilling reply: “Do not answer! Do not answer!! Do not answer!!” This message is from one pacifist member of an powerful alien civilization, far more advanced than our own, who are facing extinction in their own solar system and desperately need to find a new home. The messenger explains that, if Ye Wenjie replies, she will allow this civilization to pinpoint earth’s location, then colonize earth. 

Without hesitation, Ye Wenjie replies.

This story unfolds over the course of the book, interwoven with the present day, during which an ordinary scientist named Xiao Wang is experiencing the results of Ye Wenjie’s message. All over the world, scientists are killing themselves — and strange things are happening to him that are shaking his trust in reality and driving him to the brink of suicidal madness. Before it’s too late, he finds out that he is just one target in an intergalactic war. Through a video game called Three Body, he learns about the enemy: the aliens Ye Wenjie contacted all those years ago. These beings live on a planet called Trisolaris, over four light years away from our Earth. Trisolaris has not one, not two, but three suns, which interact in a chaotic, unpredictable, and deadly dance that alternately scorches and freezes the planet, obliterating Trisolaran civilization — over and over again. When the planet is orbiting one single sun, that’s a Stable Era: a time of predictability and peace. But when one of the other suns dances closer, drawing the planet away, the planet then “wander[s] unstably” though the gravitational fields of the three suns, causing chaos: thus, this is known as a Chaotic Era. No one knows when a Stable Era will occur, how long it will last, or what horrors each new Chaotic Era will bring with it. This brutal, unpredictable environment has shaped the Trisolarans physically, psychologically, technologically... everything. As one Trisolaran puts it, the freedom and dignity of the individual is totally suborned to the survival of civilization. It is a totalitarian society, mired in “spiritual monotony.” As one Trisolaran you might call a dissident puts it: “Anything that can lead to spiritual weakness is declared evil. We have no literature, no art, no pursuit of beauty and enjoyment. We cannot even speak of love ... [I]s there any meaning to such a life?”

Trisolaran society, meaningful or not, is teetering on the precipice of doom. The Trisolarans can dehydrate and rehydrate their bodies, turning them into empty husks that can survive the uninhabitable Chaotic Eras — thus, through both perseverance and blind luck, they have endured up to this point. However, they have never been able to solve the “three-body problem” — they cannot predict the three suns’ movement and thus stay one step ahead. (I’m pretty sure the problem is fundamentally unsolvable.) And there’s an even bigger problem on the horizon... literally. Soon, their planet will fall into one of the suns. Trisolaran astronomers discover that their solar system once held twelve planets — the other eleven have all been consumed by the three hungry suns. “Our world is nothing more than the sole survivor of a Great Hunt.” The Trisolarans have little time left and no hope of survival — unless they can find another planet that supports life. That’s when they receive Ye Wenjie’s message. To them, Earth is the Garden of Eden — stable, prosperous, overflowing with life... like the pristine Chinese wilderness before the Construction/Destruction Corps arrived. The Trisolarans build a fleet and set off for Earth. ETA: 400 years. And they do one more crucial thing: they construct and send what they call sophons to earth, or particles endowed with artificial intelligence that can transmit information back to Trisolaris instantaneously and interfere with human physics research to the point of stopping it completely, essentially freezing scientific progress. They are preparing the ground for their arrival. Through the sophons, the Trisolarans see all — the only depths they cannot penetrate are those of the solitary human mind. And did I mention that Trisolarans communicate their thoughts to each other instantaneously, and there is no such thing as deception? Humanity’s edge is our ability to lie and deceive — an edge that the sophons all but obliterate. All our plans are laid bare to them. And so the intergalactic chess game goes on. 

All this, essentially... there is so much of it and it isn’t even the plot of the book; it’s just setup, it’s just the premise, it’s just the question Cixin Liu is asking. If such a thing happened, what would humanity do? What unfolds thereafter is his answer. When humanity finds out that the Trisolaran Fleet is on its way, this knowledge is enough to alter our fate forever. An organization called the Earth-Trisolaris Organization, or ETO, arises, with Ye Wenjie as its guru — an organization that seeks to further the Trisolarans’ aims on earth. Battling the ETO: the governments of the earth, desperate to find a way of defeating the Trisolarans and saving the human race. One faction within the ETO, the Adventists, hopes that the Trisolarans will kill us all; humanity, to them, is not worth saving. Another, the Redemptionists, worship the Trisolarans as gods and hopes that they can coexist with errant humanity and, through their influence, elevate — redeem — them. Ye Wenjie is a Redemptionist, and this is essentially her message: “Come here! I will help you conquer this world. Our civilization is no longer capable of solving its own problems. We need your force to intervene.”

The Three-Body Problem is full to bursting with stunning, unforgettable visual images: like nothing I’ve ever seen or even imagined. Liu's genius lies in his ability to take complex scientific concepts — the kind I am barely aware even exist — and with simple yet vivid language, paint them into breathtaking pictures that will sear themselves into your mind. There are images in this book that deserve to be as iconic as the monoliths from 2001: both vast and microscopic, cosmic and intimate. Many of the most cosmic are set in the Three Body video game or on the planet of Trisolaris itself. Through Three Body, Liu takes us through the history of Trisolaris in an abbreviated yet totally absorbing form: while the player tries to understand this alien world, in order to save it, we learn about it along with him. We stand in awe in front of a vast computer made up of millions of soldiers, waving colored flags, signals washing through them in colorful waves — until they, and everything else on Trisolaris, are sucked into space by the gravitational forces of three suns rising in awe-inspiring alignment over the planet. We see the Trisolorans unfolding a microscopic, eleven-dimensional proton into one, then three dimensions in their sky... 

Yet Liu’s skill isn’t limited to these vast, cosmic scenes. He can just as evocatively depict simple and moving ones: such as when a pregnant Ye Wenjie spends time among villagers deep in the mountains:

This period condensed in her memory into a series of classical paintings — not Chinese brush paintings but European oil paintings. Chinese brush paintings are full of blank spaces, but life in Qijiatun had no blank spaces. Like classical oil paintings, it was filled with thick, rich, solid colors. Everything was warm and intense: the heated kang stove-beds lined with thick layers of aura sedge, the Guandong and Mohe tobacco stuffed in copper pipes, the thick and heavy sorghum meal, the sixty-five-proof baijiu distilled from sorghum — all of these blended into a quiet and peaceful life, like the creek at the edge of the village.

Liu has a vast amount of information to convey throughout this book, and of course he sometimes simply turns to the audience and starts lecturing us, dropping all attempts to “disguise” himself in fictional conventions — such as when one character explains something to another. This kind of conversation, naturally, takes place a lot — but sometimes Liu simply has too much to get across for even such methods (themselves a kind of shorthand) to make sense, and he needs to take even more of a shortcut. But he also knows how to end these long, “dry,” lecture-y scenes with a flourish of beauty that never fails to take my breath away. At times, Liu’s prose can come to feel almost sentimental — it seems to reflect the romantic idea that in the simplest of human societies lies a fundamental goodness... Is this the idea behind the book? Ye Wenjie, the individual driving everything, has a heart hardened to ice by the brutality of the world. Her time with the villagers, and I think her experience of motherhood, thaws it a little — but later, when she confronts the Red Guards who killed her father and sees not a shred of remorse in them — sees that, indeed, they too have been brutalized by the world, and are wrapped up in their own suffering while at the same time asserting its insignificance — “History! History! It’s a new age now. Who will remember us? Who will think of us, including you? Everyone will forget all this completely!” — the dewdrop of hope for society in her heart evaporates and she devotes her life to the ETO from then on. As a Redemptionist, her “ideal is to invite Trisolaran civilization to reform human civilization, to curb human madness and evil, so that the Earth can once again become a harmonious, prosperous, and sinless world.” These aren’t her words, but those of her comrade in the ETO, Mike Evans, who will betray her by splitting off to become an Adventist. What sounds like unconscionable sentimentality — when was Earth ever “sinless”? — is just the cover for the deepest, blackest cynicism of all.

Earlier, I mentioned that the Trisolarans unfold an eleven-dimensional proton into one dimension, then three dimensions, in their sky. They are trying to unfold it into two dimensions, a surface they can write on, so they can turn it into a computer, “re-fold” it to its true, microscopic size, then send it to earth as a sophon. One and three dimensions are mistakes. In one dimension, the proton is an infinitely thin line — one which solar winds scatter into sparkling strings that fall like rain into the Trisolaran atmosphere, drifting with the currents of the air until they attenuate into nothingness. The effect is purely visual and psychological: As one Trisolaran explains to another, the strings have the mass of a single proton and can have no effect on the macroscopic world. However, when they accidentally unfold the proton into three dimensions, it’s a different story. Geometric solids explode across the sky, gradually forming into an array of eyes, which gaze “strangely” upon the planet below. (Not unlike the “eyes” of the sophons, come to think of it.) The microcosmos, it seems, contains intelligence — an intelligence that is, itself, fighting for survival. The eyes conglomerate, forming a parabolic mirror, which concentrates the sun’s light on the capital city of Trisolaris — doing serious damage before the Trisolaran space fleet destroys it. Thus destroying an entire microcosmos — and any intelligence, any “wisdom,” any civilization expressed therein. This is a fleeting moment, but — having just finished The Dark Forest — perhaps key to everything here. The universe is abundant with life, at both the macroscopic and microscopic level, and life wants to live. 

[sciencespies]

Fifty Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since the First Earth Day

https://sciencespies.com/nature/fifty-things-weve-learned-about-the-earth-since-the-first-earth-day/

Fifty Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since the First Earth Day

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM | April 22, 2020, 7:20 a.m.

When Gaylord Nelson stepped up to the podium in April 1970, his voice rang with powerful purpose. The Wisconsin senator set forth a challenge for America—a call to arms that he declared a “big concept”: a day for environmental action that would go beyond just picking up litter.

“Winning the environmental war is a whole lot tougher than winning any other war in history,” he said. “Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.”

In the half-century since concerned people all across the United States took steps to repair a world rife with pollution, litter, ecological devastation, political apathy and wildlife on the brink, great strides have been made and major setbacks have been recorded. An estimated 20 million Americans volunteered their time and energy to live up to Nelson’s goal. Inspired by man-made disasters like the burning of Ohio’s Cuyahoga River and an oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, environmentalists of the day pushed the nation and the world to recognize the damage they were inflicting on the planet and to change course. Social justice lawyers and urban city planners took up the hard effort of bringing this vision to the impoverished, the hungry and the discriminated.

Today, when not battling a deadly pandemic that has shut down the world economy, Earth’s citizens continue that struggle, challenged by the consequences of global climate change in the form of increasingly catastrophic natural disasters, a depletion of necessary resources, and humanitarian crises on an unprecedented scale. At the same time, scientists, innovators and younger generations are fighting back against these forces and offering reasons for hope and optimism.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and the 50th anniversary of Smithsonian magazine, the staff of Smithsonian magazine challenged scientists, historians, researchers, astrophysicists, curators and research scholars across the Smithsonian Institution to identify something about the planet that has been revealed over the past 50 years. Read on and be inspired—and sometimes saddened—by their responses—the things achieved and the struggles still ahead.

The Age of Humans

Microplastics infiltrate the food chain as animals inadvertently consume plastics. Tiny deep ocean filter feeders have been found with microplastics in their bodies, as have fish, birds, humans and other animals.

(Photo credit should read LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images)

Our improved understanding of the geological history of Earth helps us understand how the atmosphere, oceans, soils and ecosystems all interact. It also gives us a new perspective on ourselves: We are pushing the Earth to depart radically from the state it has been in for several million years or longer. Our models show that our use of energy and resources will have side effects that persist for hundreds of thousands of years into the future. These realizations have given rise to a new term—the Anthropocene, or Age of Humans. We lack the ability to destroy the Earth, thank goodness, but if we want to leave it in a condition that is pleasant for humans, we have to learn to work within the limits and constraints that its systems impose. Our scientific understanding tells us what we need to do, but our social systems have lagged behind in helping us implement the needed changes in our own behavior. This little essay is being written from self-quarantine because of the worst global pandemic in a century. The human tragedies of COVID-19 should remind us of an important principle. It is difficult or impossible to stop exponential processes like the spread of a virus—or, the growth of human resource use. Global change is generally slower and more multifarious than this pandemic, but it has a similar unstoppable momentum. The sooner we flatten the curve of our resource consumption, the less harm we will cause to our children and grandchildren. If we bring our consumption of resources and energy into line with the ability of the planet to replenish them, we will truly have inaugurated a new epoch in Earth history. —Scott L. Wing, paleobiologist, National Museum of Natural History

The Arctic that existed when I was born in 1980 was more similar to the one that 19th-century explorers saw than it will be to the one my children will know. Each year since 1980, winter sea ice has steadily dropped, losing more than half its geographic extent and three-quarters of its volume. By the mid-2030s, Arctic summers may be mostly free of sea ice. The Arctic is undergoing a fundamental unraveling that has not happened since it first froze over more than three million years ago, a time before the first bowhead whales. These filter-feeding whales are known as the one true polar whale for good reason—they alone have the size and strength to deal with the vicissitudes of ice, including the wherewithal to break it up should it suddenly begin to close up around a breathing hole. Mysteriously, bowheads can live up to 200 years. A bowhead calf born today will live in an Arctic that, by the next century, will be a different world than that experienced by all of its ancestors; as the Arctic unravels within the scale of our own lifetime, some of these bowheads may still outlive us, reaching a bicentenarian age in an Arctic Ocean with far less ice and many more humans. —Nick Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals, National Museum of Natural History. This passage is adapted from his book, Spying on Whales.

In 1978, the U.S. raised almost twice as many bovine animals as it had in 1940. The emergence of industrial feedlots made this explosion possible. The country’s nearly 120 million ruminant animals, increasingly being fed a diet of grains laced with hormones and antibiotics, were concentrated into industrialized feeding operations. The tremendous population growth that feedlots made possible, however, came with an unexpected consequence: a dramatic rise in methane emissions. In 1980, atmospheric scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan discovered that trace gases such as methane were extremely potent greenhouse gases, with a warming potential on an order of magnitude greater than CO2. And in 1986, climate scientist and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen published an article that put the burden of increasing methane emissions on the cattle industry in unequivocal terms. Crutzen explained that 15 to 25 percent of total methane emissions were of animal origin, and “of this, cattle contribute about 74 percent.” Crutzen and others, thus confirmed that growing bovine numbers, were one of the largest factors behind the rise of methane emissions. —Abeer Saha, curator of engineering, work and industry division, National Museum of American History

In the last decade, we’ve discovered that parasites move around the world’s oceans faster and in far larger numbers than we thought. Commercial shipping is the main way goods move from place to place, transporting millions of metric tons of cargo a year. In two studies published in 2016 and 2017, my colleagues and I used DNA-based methods to search for parasites in ballast water (the water that ships take on board and hold in special tanks for balance). We’ve discovered that ballast tanks are full of parasites known to infect many different marine organisms. In our 2017 study, we found some parasite species in all of our samples, from ships docking in ports on the East, West and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. This signals a huge potential for parasite invasions. Knowing these ships are unwittingly ferrying parasites means we can act to limit the future spread of parasites and the diseases they cause. —Katrina Lohan, marine disease ecology laboratory, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

The year 1970 was a good one for the Arctic. Northern regions buried in snow with lots of winter ice. Polar bear populations were high, and the seal hunt was producing a good income for Inuit hunters before French actress Brigitte Bardot’s protest killed peltry fashion. Meanwhile, scientists studying the Greenland ice cores were predicting the Holocene was over and the world was headed into a new ice age. What a difference 50 years can make. Today the Arctic is warming at a rate twice that of the rest of the world; summer pack ice may be gone by 2040 with trans-Arctic commercial shipping and industrial development soon to begin, and Arctic peoples are now represented at the United Nations. In 50 years, the Arctic has been transformed from a remote periphery to center stage in world affairs. —Bill Fitzhugh, curator and anthropologist, Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History

The first Earth Day may have been observed 100 years after the invention of the first synthetic plastic, but it took place just three years after Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate was advised, “There’s a great future in plastics.” Though criticized in the 1970s as a technology of cheap conformity, plastics were nonetheless sought out as unbreakable, thus safer for packaging hazardous materials; lightweight, thus environmentally beneficial for transportation; easily disposable, thus reducing disease spread in hospitals; and suitable for hundreds of other applications.

But synthetic plastics were designed to persist, and now they are present on every square foot of the planet. If uncaptured by reuse or recycling streams, a significant amount degrades into small bits called microplastics, which are smaller than five millimeters and can be as small as a virus. These small pieces of plastic circulate in waterways, air and soils around the world. Microplastics infiltrate the food chain as animals inadvertently consume plastics. Tiny deep ocean filter feeders have been found with microplastics in their bodies, as have fish, birds, humans and other animals. By one estimate, the average American will consume or inhale between 74,000 and 121,000 particles of microplastics this year. So far, we do not know the full implications of our microplastic-filled world. Chemical leaching from plastics can affect reproductive systems in organisms. Small bits of plastics can accumulate enough to cause blockages. The challenge ahead is to invent new materials that have properties we need—lightweight, flexible, able to block disease transmission, and so on—but that do not persist. — Arthur Daemmrich, director, Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation; Sherri Sheu, environmental historian, research associate, National Museum of American History

Flora and Fauna

Thanks to a network of Zoo-ICUs, some species—including golden lion tamarins—were saved from the brink of extinction.

(Photo by EyesWideOpen/Getty Images)

Ever since the groundbreaking work of conservation biologist George Schaller and his colleagues in the 1980s, we have known the key ingredients required for bringing giant pandas back from the brink. They need mature forest with a bamboo understory, adequate birthing dens for raising their precocial young, and protection from poaching. Leaders within the Chinese conservation community, such as Pan Wenchi, used this knowledge to advocate for a ban on forest cutting and the creation of a national reserve system focused on giant pandas. The unprecedented outflow of funds from the Chinese government and the international NGOs has resulted in the creation, staffing and outfitting of more than 65 nature reserves. Taking place every ten years, the National Giant Panda Survey involves hundreds of reserve staff and documents the return of this species to much of its suitable habitat. Meanwhile, zoos throughout the world cracked the problems of captive breeding, and now sustain a population of more than 500 individuals as a hedge against collapse of the natural populations. In 2016, this massive effort paid off. The IUCN Redlist downgraded giant pandas from endangered to vulnerable conservation status, proving it is possible with a few critical advocates and an outpouring of support to put science into action. —William McShea, wildlife ecologist, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

A bridge between land and sea, mangrove forests are among the most productive and biologically complex ecosystems on Earth. Found throughout the tropics and subtropics, mangroves provide critical habitat for numerous marine and terrestrial species and support coastal communities by slowing erosion, cleaning water and much more. In 2007, after decades of rampant losses, scientists sounded the alarm: Without action, the world would lose its mangroves within the next century. In just ten years, concerted, coordinated global efforts have started to pay off. Improved monitoring and increased protections for mangroves have resulted in slower rates of loss. Governments and communities around the world have begun to embrace and celebrate mangroves. A member of the Global Mangrove Alliance and partner in conservation and restoration throughout the American tropics, the Smithsonian is contributing to ambitious goals aimed at protecting and conserving these important habitats.—Steven Canty, biologist, Smithsonian Marine Station; Molly Dodge, program manager, Smithsonian Conservation Commons; Michelle Donahue, science communicator, Smithsonian Marine Station; Ilka (Candy) Feller, mangrove ecologist, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; Sarah Wheedleton, communications specialist, Smithsonian Conservation Commons

In the 1970s, only 200 golden lion tamarins (GLTs) existed in their native Atlantic forest, located just outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Centuries of deforestation had reduced their habitat by a whopping 98 percent, and that along with their capture for the pet trade had decimated their numbers. In an unprecedented collaboration, Brazilian and international scientists led by the Smithsonian’s National Zoo accepted the challenge to rescue the species from certain extinction. Zoos genetically managed a captive breeding population and soon 500 GLTs were being cared for across 150 institutions. From 1984 to 2000, descendants of the reintroduced zoo-born GLTs flourished in the wild and Brazil’s dedicated GLT conservation group, Associação Mico-Leão Dourado, led an environmental education program that sought an end to illegal deforestation and the capture of GLTs. By 2014, 3,700 GLTs occupied all remaining habitat. In 2018, yellow fever reduced that number to 2,500. A painful setback, but the conservation work continues. —Kenton Kerns, animal care sciences, National Zoo

The first report demonstrating major pollinator decline in North America was published in 2006 by the National Academy of Sciences. Over the past 50 years, habitat degradation has had an enormous impact on pollinators and the native plants that support them, but the public can help reverse this trend by creating native plant gardens. Tools such as Pollinator Partnership’s Ecoregional Planting Guides and National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder can help individuals select appropriate plants that help pollinators. The Million Pollinator Garden Challenge helped connect a network of approximately five million acres, from tiny yards to public gardens, to restore and enhance landscapes to benefit pollinators. It is with hope that these collective efforts will help the populations of bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, birds and bats, which sustain our ecosystems, help plants to reproduce, and are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food that we eat. —Gary Krupnick, head of plant conservation, botany, National Museum of Natural History

Large-diameter trees are disproportionately important to the Earth’s carbon budget. All trees absorb carbon dioxide as they photosynthesize, but a 2018 study using data from 48 Smithsonian ForestGEO research sites across boreal, temperate, tropical and subtropical forests found that the largest one percent of trees made up about 50 percent of aboveground live biomass, which has huge implications for conservation and climate change mitigation strategies. If we lose big trees to pests, disease, other degradation, and deforestation, we lose significant carbon stores. —Caly McCarthy, program assistant, Lauren Krizel, program manager, ForestGEO

Some 200 million years ago, well before the first Earth Day (and humankind for that matter) dinosaurs were dining on a coniferous tree on what is now the Australian continent. Only known to humans from the fossil record, Wollemia nobilis from the family Araucariaceae was thought to have gone extinct a couple of million years ago, until a lucky explorer brought back some interesting pinecones from an excursion in New South Wales. The ancient, Wollemi pine was rediscovered in 1994. Black-footed ferret, a big-eared bat, a fanged ‘mouse-deer’, and a cliff-dwelling Hawaiian hibiscus are more examples of Lazurus taxon—species that seemed to have been resurrected from the dead. While we are thought to be on the precipice of a sixth mass extinction, stories of species discovered after they were once thought lost forever are welcome glimmers of hope. It’s stories like this that we love to share as part of the Earth Optimism movement to maintain an inspired sense of enthusiasm for our planet and the progress and discoveries we can make in conservation. —Cat Kutz, communications officer, Earth Optimism

Fungi are best known for their fruiting bodies—mushrooms—but most of their structure is hidden underground in a network of microscopic threads called mycelium. People once thought that fungi were harmful parasites that “stole” nutrients from plants so that they could thrive. Today we better understand the ancient relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and the plants they connect. Tiny fibers play an outsized role in the Earth’s ecosystems: 90 percent of land plants have mutually beneficial relationships with fungi. They break down organic materials into fertile soil, help plants share nutrients, and communicate through chemical signals. Plants supply fungi with sugars from photosynthesis; in exchange, fungi provide plants with water and nutrients from the soil. —Cynthia Brown, manager, collections, education and access, Smithsonian Gardens

Confronting an extinction crisis starts at home: Field conservation, right in animals’ home habitats, is public health for endangered species. But when public health fails? Just as Intensive Care Units (ICUs) have to be at the ready for humans, since 1970 biologists have learned that zoos and aquariums must serve as “ICUs” for the extinction crisis. When field conservation isn’t possible, sometimes the only alternative is to safeguard endangered species in captivity for a time, and restore them to the wild when conditions improve. In 1995, Smithsonian scientist Jon Ballou provided the first complete description of how to accomplish this, empowering networks of “Zoo-ICUs” to rescue dozens of species from extinction, including the Golden Lion Tamarin and the Scimitar-Horned Oryx. This research into population management means that Earth did not lose some of its most critically ill patients in the last 50 years. —Kathryn M Rodriguez-Clark, population ecologist, National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Trees are found on every continent except Antarctica and in all the major habitats of the world. How many trees are there? Until 2015, we did not know. Now, the global number of trees across the entire Earth has been calculated to exceed three trillion individuals. But the number of trees on the planet has continually changed over the 400 million years since trees first evolved. Between 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, before the accelerated growth of human populations, however, twice the number of trees existed than are present today. Now, the number of trees is decreasing because of human activity, including forest destruction, tree exploitation, climate change, pollution and the spread of invasive species and diseases. More than 15 billion individual trees are lost each year due to human action. Humans have had a tremendous impact on trees and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. —John Kress, botanist, National Museum of Natural History

Bees are hugely influential organisms on humans and have, throughout history, had almost mythological qualities placed on them. (The ancient Greek writer Homer called honey the food of the gods.) The many species of bees may differ in some physical characteristics, but one thing they share is a pollinator role in our ecosystems. Along with other insects, bees travel from plant to plant, pollinating flowers that wind up being essential to human life. Their contributions to human societies are invaluable. I argue that contemporary awareness and activism surrounding conserving bee populations is a massive highlight in environmental history. Without our pollinators, we will experience crop failures and food shortages, so their survival and longevity is in our collective best interest. Organizations like the Honeybee Conservancy work to protect our flying friends and new research, including using fungi to protect bees against disease, gives us hope and optimism. — Zach Johnson, sustainability intern, Conservation Commons

Justice and Human Rights

Photographed in October 1982, residents of Warren County, North Carolina, unite in protest against a landfill in their community.

( Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images)

Poor and minority communities are more likely to be impacted by the consequences of climate change, they are also less likely to contribute to its underlying causes. Their carbon footprint is smaller—they purchase fewer goods, drive and fly less, and reside in smaller housing units. Impoverished communities have limited access to health care, making inhabitants more susceptible to infectious diseases, malnutrition, psychological disorders and other public health challenges caused by disasters. Due to rising energy costs, working-class Latinos may have limited access to air conditioning and because many live in urban areas, their residences are impacted by the “heat island” effect. They have less mobility, limited access to warning systems and language barriers may result in a slower response to looming dangers. Because many Latinos do not have homeowners’ insurance or depend on inefficient public housing authorities, their period of recovery is typically longer. Experts are noticing increasing numbers of Latinos among the class of “environmental migrants,” sure signs of displacement and attendant economic decline and social stress. It is clear that environmentally challenged Latino communities must continue to inform a more collaborative, solutions-oriented science driven by community-directed research. Active community participation in scientific research can produce better solutions to address public health challenges and to manage natural resources during disasters. It can also create new employment opportunities for community members, strengthen social networks and build lasting, functional partnerships between research institutions and impacted communities. These approaches and outcomes are key in creating the resilience needed to withstand and thrive in the face of natural and human-induced disasters. —Eduardo Díaz, director, Smithsonian Center for Latino Studies (adapted from this column)

It’s the Same Old Game is a color 16mm film released in 1971 by the Emmy-award winning producer and director Charles Hobson. This 20-minute documentary examines the consequences of poor urban planning and its impact on the environment and people in communities of color. At the time, environmentalism had grown as a political and social justice crusade across the United States. It’s the Same Old Game, however, confronted racism in urban planning, where city planners approved of dumps in poor and minority communities, demolished housing to build highways, and built industrial plants in the middle of neighborhoods, where rumbling trucks and smokestacks spewed noise and air pollution. As an exploration of a nascent justice movement, environmental racism, the film reflects the concerns of a new generation of African American activists following the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s death in 1968. —Aaron Bryant, curator of photography, National Museum of African American History and Culture

Research from the United Nations has shown that women will be the most affected by the consequences of climate change. However, women like Wangari Maathai are also at the forefront of the fight for climate action and environmental conservation. In 2004, she became the first black woman and only environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Rural Kenyan women, like many females in the Global South working as subsistence farmers, are both the caretakers of their land and their families. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1984 to give women resources and compensation income for planting and tending to trees, helping them gain financial independence. Meanwhile, their communities would reap the ecological benefits of reforestation. Wangari’s grassroots movement showed that it’s possible to tackle gender equality and climate change simultaneously through sustainable development. —Fatima Alcantara, intern, American Women’s History Initiative

Nearly two decades of community-led efforts to address environmental inequality and racism came to a head at a gathering in Washington, D.C. in October 1991. Over the course of four days, more than 500 participants at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit challenged narratives that communities of color were neither concerned with nor actively combating environmental issues. Those present, representing civil rights, environmental, health, community development, and faith organizations from across the U.S., Canada, Central and South America, and the Marshall Islands, had been living with and organizing against the impacts of years of environmental inequality and racism. Conversations, negotiations and moments of solidarity produced the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice that have defined the Environmental Justice Movement in the years since. The declaration made almost 30 years ago proclaimed: We “do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world…; to ensure environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods.” The summit forever transformed notions of “the environment” and “environmentalism,” energizing and supporting the work of Environmental Justice networks and precipitating reflection within mainstream environmental organizations who sought to address charges of exclusivity and a lack of diversity. —Katrina Lashley, program coordinator, Urban Waterway Project, Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum

In 2017, the Whanganui River in New Zealand was granted legal personhood. Environmental personhood is a legal status that gives natural entities rights, like the ability to be represented in court. In this river’s case, a committee of indigenous environmental defenders were designated as the river’s “legal guardians,” effectively giving the waterway a voice in court in case of future pollution or harmful development. Could granting legal personhood to vulnerable ecosystems be another tool for modern conservation? Over the past two decades, examples of environmental personhood have spread to Bangladesh, Ecuador and the United States. Rivers, lakes and mountains in those countries can now claim legal standing. Though the practice has yielded mixed results in protecting environmental resources, hope persists. Granting personhood to natural resources may spark a change in public and political opinion of ecosystem conservation, with indigenous leaders at the forefront. —Fatima Alcantara, intern, American Women’s History Initiative

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, forced environmental injustice to the forefront of public discourse. It also demonstrated the importance of environmental impact studies. In 2014, facing a budgetary crisis, officials of this poor, majority-black city economized by changing its water source to the Flint River. Yet they failed to consider how the water’s chemistry could affect infrastructure. Pipes corroded and leached lead and water turned foul, yet authorities dismissed residents’ complaints. Officials could have averted catastrophe by commissioning a study—or even speaking with scientists—before making this change. Poor and minority communities are more likely than others to shoulder burdens of environmental contamination. Sometimes these are legacy problems. Flint’s case involved deliberate obfuscation of facts and attempts to discredit a pediatrician who cried foul. Those children in Flint who were poisoned by lead will pay for this injustice for the rest of their lives. —Terre Ryan, research associate, National Museum of American History

Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland, has historically been a center for industrial development. It is also one of the most polluted areas in the United States, with one of the highest rates of air pollution-related deaths. In 2012, the nation’s largest trash incinerator was planned to be built less than a mile from a high school. Experts projected the plant would emit two million tons of greenhouse gases and about 1,240 tons of mercury and lead into the atmosphere every year. High school student Destiny Waterford and her grassroots organization, Free Your Voice, campaigned for years to stop the building of the incinerator. They employed creative strategies to win community support: everything from knocking door-to-door, to presenting songs, speeches, and videos to committees and boards. In 2016, their efforts paid off and the energy company ended all plans to continue building the plant. In recognition for her work, Destiny Watford received a Goldman’s Environmental Prize the same year. —Fatima Alcantara, intern, American Women’s History Initiative

The Way Way Back (or Beyond)

The visceral sense of Earth’s fragility against the vastness of space came home to many humans shortly before the first Earth Day, when Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders shot the iconic image of our planet hovering over the surface of the moon. The profound question arose: “Are humans alone?”

(NASA)

The visceral sense of Earth’s fragility against the vastness of space came home to many humans shortly before the first Earth Day, when Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders shot the iconic image (above) of our planet hovering over the surface of the moon. The profound question arose: “Are humans alone?” The 1975 Viking mission to Mars gave us the first chance to search for life on another planet. Half-a-century on, we have now confirmed the existence of water on Mars and determined its past could have been life-sustaining. We are now finding exoplanets in habitable zones around distant stars, too. Yet, each discovery, most importantly, confirms the preciousness of life here, the uniqueness of our home planet, and the importance of ensuring a healthy future. —Ellen Stofan, director, National Air and Space Museum

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, teams of scientists have discovered regions in the mountains of Antarctica that can contain thousands of meteorites stranded on the surface of the ice. These meteorites fell to Earth from space over tens of millions of years and were buried beneath new ice forms. As the ice of the polar cap flows with gravity, the ice gets stuck against the massive Transantarctic Mountains and, as very dry winds erode that ice away, meteorites are left exposed on its surface. Teams of scientists from a number of countries have collected nearly 45,000 meteorites over the past 50 years, including the first recognized meteorites from the Moon and Mars. While the vast majority (more than 99 percent) of these meteorites come from asteroids, many new types of meteorites have been discovered, each filling in more pieces of the puzzle of how our solar system formed. —Cari Corrigan, Curator of Antarctic Meteorites, Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History

In 1980, the father and son team of Luis and Walter Alvarez, digging into a roadcut outside the town of Gubbio, Italy, discovered a layer of rock enriched in the element iridium. Rare in the crust of the Earth, iridium is common in meteorites, suggesting that this layer was deposited after a major impact about 65 million years ago at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary geologic periods. The Alvarezes and their colleagues suggested that impact caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Ten years after that, a crater was identified in what is today the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. While impacts on Earth were well-known, these studies suggested the remarkable idea that impacts of material from space altered not just the geologic history of Earth, but the biologic history of our planet. —Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites, National Museum of Natural History

The Earth and environment we have today are the result of billions of years of cosmic good fortune. The Earth is 4,567 million years old, and the first roughly 500 million years of this is known as the Hadean Eon. This eon is named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld because we used to think that Earth’s early years were an inhospitable period of doom and gloom, with oceans of churning magma blanketing the surface. Now, thanks to the discovery of microscopic crystals of the mineral zircon from Australia, some of which are as old as 4,400 million years old, we have a different story of the early Earth. From these crystals, geologists know that the early Earth had liquid water oceans and continents that may have resembled the continents of today—critical steps in laying the groundwork for the emergence of life and setting our world on its path to today. —Michael R. Ackerson, curator of the National Rock and Ore Collection, National Museum of Natural History

In the past 50 years, scientists have learned an enormous amount about the evolution of Earth’s ecosystems, and we can now understand human impact on biodiversity from the perspective of Deep Time as never before. The fossil record provides a look at historic biodiversity by comparing recent communities of plants and animals with ancient ones. In 2016, a team of paleobiologists and ecologists at the National Museum of Natural History discovered that ancient species tended to occur more often together rather than separately, and these positive associations shaped ancient communities. Amazingly, this pattern of species “aggregation” lasted for 300 million years—strong evidence that it was important to sustaining biodiversity. About 6,000 years ago, however, these bonds began to break apart, and the dominant pattern today is more like “every species for itself.” Human impact, particularly agriculture, may have caused the shift because it disrupts natural habitats and drives species to compete for resources. A Deep Time perspective shows how profound this change is for life on our planet, and it also gives us valuable insight into the kind of community structure that helped sustain biodiversity for hundreds of millions of years. —Kay Behrensmeyer, paleobiologist, National Museum of Natural History

Fifty years ago, anthropologists assumed they knew all about the environment in which humans evolved. Arid grassland and barren ice-age landscape presented the critical survival challenges that transformed our ancestors, impelling them to control fire and invent new technologies, for example. But a quarter-century ago, research on ancient climate began to tell a different story. Environmental records from the deep past proved that we inhabit an amazingly dynamic planet. Early ancestors encountered huge swings between wet and dry in our African homeland, and between warm and cold as populations ventured to higher latitudes. Humanity’s history of confronting Earth’s climate swings helps explain our exceptional adaptability—a species evolved to adjust to change itself. This revised understanding of human evolution, however, implies that our survival in the world depends on altering it. The runaway result is an unprecedented transformation of Earth —a new survival challenge of our own making. — Rick Potts, director, Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History

As scientists improve their ability to examine distant planets, the number of potentially habitable worlds has increased exponentially. However, it has become apparent that a better understanding of the intricate dynamics between environmental change and living things on Earth is necessary to identify conditions that could host such life elsewhere. One major finding is that the evolution of complex organisms (i.e. animals) occurred at a time when the availability of oxygen on Earth rose dramatically. The oldest animal fossils, more than 550 million years old, indicate that the arrival of complex animals followed changes in the amount of oxygen present in these ancient oceans. Thus, identifying exoplanets with well-oxygenated atmospheres may be critical in the search for complex ‘alien’ life. — Scott Evans, fellow, paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History

Today, our species, Homo Sapiens, stands more than 7.7 billion strong. Yet genetic evidence from modern humans strongly indicates that despite our outward differences, we have less genetic diversity in the entire human species than among chimpanzees of the same troop. We are even less genetically diverse than wheat. How is this possible? Sometime between around 60,000 to 100,000 years ago, a small population of modern humans migrated out of Africa, and all living humans in Eurasia, Australia and the Americas are descendants of these intrepid travelers. Outside of sub-Saharan Africa, where populations remained stable, prehistoric human populations during this time were so small that we would likely have been on the endangered species list. All living modern humans are descendants of the survivors of this tenuous time for our species, and most of our species’ genetic diversity is African. Does our low genetic diversity mean we are more susceptible to diseases and less able to adapt to environmental changes? We might learn the answers to these questions sooner rather than later. —Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist, Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History

By the first Earth Day in 1970, scientists using space satellites knew that magnetic fields—called belts—surrounded our planet. These belts protect the Earth’s atmosphere from the Sun’s solar wind. This interaction produces the well-known phenomenon of “northern lights” or aurora borealis. But only in 1972, when Apollo 16 carried a specially designed telescope to the Moon, did we begin to learn crucial new details about the Earth’s outermost layer of atmosphere, called the geocorona. It is a cloud of hydrogen atoms, which plays a vital role in regulating the impacts of the Sun on Earth, particularly during periods when a strong and energetic solar wind hits Earth. Such events—called geomagnetic storms—have the potential to disable spacecraft orbiting the earth, as well as overwhelm basic infrastructures of our daily life, such as electrical grids and communications systems. Through Apollo 16, and subsequent space missions, we have come to appreciate that “space weather,” as much as everyday weather, can profoundly affect our human world. —David DeVorkin, curator space sciences, National Air and Space Museum

Making a Difference

Through advanced chemistry and mapping land use with satellites, researchers are reducing polluted runoff in the Chesapeake Bay.

(onathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

A 1970 special issue of Mad magazine on air pollution featured an ominous full-color image of Earth wearing a World War I-era gas mask. Inside, a New York City butcher is seen cutting solid blocks of air and wrapping them in paper. Fifty years later, the air is significantly cleaner that it was back then. The exception is carbon dioxide, which is up 25 percent. Since 1970 smoking (at least of tobacco) is way down, sick building syndrome is far less common, acid deposition from sulfur dioxide is lower, lead additives have been removed from gasoline, and stratospheric ozone levels are on the mend. Let’s work to see these trends continue and accelerate in years to come. —Jim Fleming, research associate, National Museum of American History

Many Americans are familiar with that icon of forest safety, Smokey Bear. Less well-known today is a character born out of the same ecological impetus: Johnny Horizon. Horizon was created in 1968 by the Bureau of Land Management to front an anti-littering campaign. He was a handsome combination of cowboy and park ranger, appearing like an eco-warrior version of the Marlboro man. His message was patriotic: “This land is your land. Keep it clean!” His popularity peaked in the mid-1970s, when he fronted a campaign to “Clean Up America by Our 200th Birthday.” Citizens signed a pledge to do their part, and celebrities of the time like Burl Ives and Johnny Cash joined the campaign. Thanks to Horizon’s pledges and similar campaigns, littering has dropped by about 60 percent since 1969. After his success in 1976, the BLM retired Horizon, according to some reports due to the expense of his campaign. Horizon lives on in Twin Falls County, Idaho, which every year hosts a “Johnny Horizon Day” litter-pick up.”—Bethanee Bemis, political history, National Museum of American History

One of the amazing environmental success stories of the past half century was the discovery and reversal of the ozone hole. Developed in the 1920s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) served initially as refrigerants but were eventually used in hair sprays, deodorants and many more everyday products. In 1974, the journal Nature published an article by Mario Molina and Sherry Rowland declaring that large amounts of CFCs may be reaching the stratosphere and leading to the “destruction of atmospheric ozone.” This destruction allowed harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach earth’s surface, leading to increased instances of skin cancer, disruptions in agriculture, and global climate modification, they argued. Their laboratory discovery was confirmed when

NOAA atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon led an expedition to show that the hole in the ozone over Antarctica came from its chemical reaction with CFCs. Her discovery was a major step toward the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the international agreement to phase out CFCs. Representatives from 49 countries agreed to freeze the production and consumption of certain ozone-depleting CFCs at 1986 levels by the year 1990. This treaty was an early instance of global environmental cooperation on the basis of the precautionary principle. More than two decades later Molina and Rowland would go on to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in bringing the ozone crisis to the attention of the world. In 2019, NASA and NOAA confirmed the ozone hole was the smallest on record. This rescue from planetary catastrophe shows the power of international cooperation we so desperately need today. —Arthur Molella, emeritus, Lemelson Center; Abeer Saha, curator of engineering, work and industry division, National Museum of American History

President Jimmy Carter famously encouraged Americans to set their home thermostats to 65 degrees to help combat the energy crisis of 1977. In an address delivered just two weeks into his term, the president wore a beige cardigan sweater and stressed the need for conservation, a strategic energy policy, a new Department of Energy, and an increase in the use of solar power. Two years later, Carter installed 32 solar panels on the roof of the West Wing to heat water for the White House. The executive mansion’s experiment in solar energy only lasted seven years. During the Reagan administration the panels were removed for roof repairs and not reinstalled. Carter may have been ahead of his time. In 1979, most Americans did not follow his examples of solar panels, or pile on sweaters instead of turning up the heat. Today, tax credits are available to homeowners who take advantage of solar energy and, since 2013, solar panels are back on the White House roof. —Lisa Kathleen Graddy, political history, National Museum of American History

Wetland protection became an important issue in the 1970s and legislative efforts to protect wetlands generated political battles that continue to rage today. Should isolated wetlands, sites that are physically separated but periodically linked hydrologically be protected because they are or are not ‘waters of the U.S’ based on the Clean Water Act? The scientific evidence is clear: these unique ecosystems provide important benefits and should be protected. The wetland story has not ended but from small beginnings, wetlands are now part of our social fabric and wetland science highlights the recognition that natural ecosystems provide beneficial work for humans at no cost. —Dennis Whigham, senior botanist, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

The first Earth Day coincided with the ascendency of television news, as Americans turned to the visual medium for reports on the space race, the Vietnam War, and urban protests. The year prior, an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, coated 800 square miles of ocean and blackened more than 35 miles of the state’s scenic coastline. For decades to come, television producers and documentary filmmakers would use images of oil-soaked birds and marine mammals and despoiled beaches from the spill as historical or comparative perspectives for subsequent environmental disasters, such as 1989’s 11-million-gallon Exxon Valdez spill and 2010’s 210-million-gallon Deepwater Horizon spill. The Santa Barbara oil spill demonstrated the power of visual imagery in motivating and sustaining political action on behalf of the environment. Now, in an era of social media and ubiquitous cell-phone cameras, citizens continue to share visual testimonies about the most immediate and dire consequences of global climate change, helping to amplify science-based warnings and to nourish an escalating, worldwide environmental movement. —Jeffrey K. Stine, curator for environmental history, National Museum of American History

The Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary, is home to interconnected ecosystems. In 1970, we didn’t consider climate change. Now our long-term experiments on the Bay’s wetlands and forests clearly show the impacts of humans on the Earth and its climate. Through advanced chemistry and mapping land use with satellites, we’re reducing polluted runoff from the 64,000 square mile watershed. Scientists at the Smithsonian’s Environmental Research Center use genomics to measure the Bay’s biodiversity, identify invasive species and detect recovering numbers of fishes in our rivers. Innovative telemetry tracks the migrations of blue crabs, sharks and waterfowl to protect their life cycles. Computers allow us to synthesize vast amounts of environmental data to drive improved management and wise business practices. —Anson “Tuck” Hines, marine ecologist and director, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Wild American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is a valuable forest botanical that has been harvested from the Appalachian region for hundreds of years, and traded with China where its roots are widely used in traditional medicine. In 1975, it was listed as endangered by the international regulatory group known as the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This placed restrictions on the plant’s gathering, even though some of the “new” rules were already being practiced by traditional harvesters. Others ran counter to their ecological knowledge. Opinions vary widely as to whether adding wild American ginseng on the CITES list was helpful or harmful to its conservation, and changes over the years have caused many to question the current CITES rules on wild American ginseng. Still, ginseng’s recognition as an endangered plant since the mid-1970s has put a spotlight on this historically and culturally important plant and its uncertain future. —Betty Belanus, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Human Ingenuity

A major milestone was achieved over the past decade when the cost of renewables such as wind and solar became competitive with fossil fuels at both residential- and industrial-scale production.

(Photo by Jan Woitas/picture alliance via Getty Images)

In the 1970s, scholars characterized Angkor—a tightly woven complex of temples in Cambodia—as an isolated place reserved for the dynasty’s kings. Recent research has revealed instead that Angkor was the largest pre-industrial city in the world during the 9th to13th centuries A.D. Vast irrigation systems were built to divert rivers and create monumental reservoirs. However, at the end of the medieval climatic anomaly—a period of unusually warm, wet weather—the reservoirs dried and this urban center returned to jungle, while surrounding cities emerged. Overgrown as it became, Angkor’s impact can still be seen. Recent LIDAR scans peeled away the layers of time to show significant changes to the earth’s surface. A seemingly natural cliff is a thousand-year-old dam. A series of low-lying hills is a village. We now know that Angkor was a sprawling, highly populated city that permanently transformed the environment. — Emma Natalya Stein, assistant curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, National Museum of Asian Art

A behind-the-scenes utility in everyday life, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is also an indispensable tool for learning about Earth. Originally a satellite-based navigation technology developed in the 1970s for the U.S. military, GPS is fundamentally an information system that lets us know a spot on the globe with a latitude-longitude accuracy of within 10 meters and time within nanoseconds. Applications for that kind of knowledge have revolutionized mapping and furnished a new dynamism to earth and environmental sciences. GPS is especially useful for studying phenomena in motion—like tracking shifts in tectonic plates, monitoring ice sheet behaviors, observing active volcanoes, measuring atmospheric changes, following the path of oil spills, or counting acres of diminishing forests. In all these ways and more, GPS helps us understand the modern world. — Carlene Stephens, curator Division of Work and Industry, National Museum of American History

Since the inaugural Earth Day, the creation of a global satellite communications network has proven crucial. Three years before the first Earth Day, the first global broadcast was the 1967 television program “Our World,” which instantaneously joined together “points dotted around the circumference of [our] home planet, Earth.” The program reached upwards of 700 million viewers (nearly a fifth of the world’s population) promoting cross-cultural awareness and environmental action. Each segment began with a live broadcast of a baby being born, then posing the question “…but into what kind of world?” That question still is very much with us today. As we deepen our understanding of climate change, satellite communications have been a crucial means to make vivid the world over our collective responsibility to shape a future for ourselves and our children. —Martin Collins, curator, National Air and Space Museum

In 1978, at a 1,500-year-old site in Saglek Bay on the northeastern end of Canada, the mysterious predecessors of the Thule and modern Inuit of arctic Canada and Greenland, suddenly came to life. A small gray soapstone carving, only three centimeters high and entombed in frozen soil, was one of the first three-dimensional visuals of a person from the Dorset culture, which existed for three millennia and died out in the 15th century. After living successfully in the North American Arctic for 4,000 years, they disappeared without a trace, unable to compete with the more powerful Thule Inuit arriving from Alaska as whale hunters in a time of climate change. The Saglek Dorset Lady reminds us that the cultural isolation they enjoyed for thousands of years did not protect them in the long run. This woman wears a parka with an unusual high, open collar rather than the hood known from Inuit dress. Gouge holes in her back suggest the carving served some ritual purpose. Since then, other high-collared Dorset carvings have been found, but the Dorset Lady from Labrador was our first glimpse showing the vanished Dorsets as ‘real’ people. — Bill Fitzhugh, curator and anthropologist, Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History

That a Successful Campaign to Stop Littering Proved That Change Can Happen

Many Americans are familiar with that icon of forest safety, Smokey Bear. Less well-known today is a character born out of the same ecological impetus: Johnny Horizon. Horizon was created in 1968 by the Bureau of Land Management to front an anti-littering campaign. He was a handsome combination of cowboy and park ranger, appearing like an eco-warrior version of the Marlboro man. His message was patriotic: “This land is your land. Keep it clean!” His popularity peaked in the mid-1970s, when he fronted a campaign to “Clean Up America by Our 200th Birthday.” Citizens signed a pledge to do their part, and celebrities of the time like Burl Ives and Johnny Cash joined the campaign. Thanks to Horizon’s pledges and similar campaigns, littering has dropped by about 60 percent since 1969. After his success in 1976, the BLM retired Horizon, according to some reports due to the expense of his campaign. Horizon lives on in Twin Falls County, Idaho, which every year hosts a “Johnny Horizon Day” litter-pick up.”—Bethanee Bemis, political history, National Museum of American History

One of the amazing environmental success stories of the past half century was the discovery and reversal of the ozone hole. Developed in the 1920s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) served initially as refrigerants but were eventually used in hair sprays, deodorants and many more everyday products. In 1974, the journal Nature published an article by Mario Molina and Sherry Rowland declaring that large amounts of CFCs may be reaching the stratosphere and leading to the “destruction of atmospheric ozone.” This destruction allowed harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach earth’s surface, leading to increased instances of skin cancer, disruptions in agriculture, and global climate modification, they argued. Their laboratory discovery was confirmed when

NOAA atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon led an expedition to show that the hole in the ozone over Antarctica came from its chemical reaction with CFCs. Her discovery was a major step toward the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the international agreement to phase out CFCs. Representatives from 49 countries agreed to freeze the production and consumption of certain ozone-depleting CFCs at 1986 levels by the year 1990. This treaty was an early instance of global environmental cooperation on the basis of the precautionary principle. More than two decades later Molina and Rowland would go on to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in bringing the ozone crisis to the attention of the world. In 2019, NASA and NOAA confirmed the ozone hole was the smallest on record. This rescue from planetary catastrophe shows the power of international cooperation we so desperately need today. —Arthur Molella, emeritus, Lemelson Center; Abeer Saha, curator of engineering, work and industry division, National Museum of American History

President Jimmy Carter famously encouraged Americans to set their home thermostats to 65 degrees to help combat the energy crisis of 1977. In an address delivered just two weeks into his term, the president wore a beige cardigan sweater and stressed the need for conservation, a strategic energy policy, a new Department of Energy, and an increase in the use of solar power. Two years later, Carter installed 32 solar panels on the roof of the West Wing to heat water for the White House. The executive mansion’s experiment in solar energy only lasted seven years. During the Reagan administration the panels were removed for roof repairs and not reinstalled. Carter may have been ahead of his time. In 1979, most Americans did not follow his examples of solar panels, or pile on sweaters instead of turning up the heat. Today, tax credits are available to homeowners who take advantage of solar energy and, since 2013, solar panels are back on the White House roof. —Lisa Kathleen Graddy, political history, National Museum of American History

Wetland protection became an important issue in the 1970s and legislative efforts to protect wetlands generated political battles that continue to rage today. Should isolated wetlands, sites that are physically separated but periodically linked hydrologically be protected because they are or are not ‘waters of the U.S’ based on the Clean Water Act? The scientific evidence is clear: these unique ecosystems provide important benefits and should be protected. The wetland story has not ended but from small beginnings, wetlands are now part of our social fabric and wetland

science highlights the recognition that natural ecosystems provide beneficial work for humans at no cost. —Dennis Whigham, senior botanist, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

The first Earth Day coincided with the ascendency of television news, as Americans turned to the visual medium for reports on the space race, the Vietnam War, and urban protests. The year prior, an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, coated 800 square miles of ocean and blackened more than 35 miles of the state’s scenic coastline. For decades to come, television producers and documentary filmmakers would use images of oil-soaked birds and marine mammals and despoiled beaches from the spill as historical or comparative perspectives for subsequent environmental disasters, such as 1989’s 11-million-gallon Exxon Valdez spill and 2010’s 210-million-gallon Deepwater Horizon spill. The Santa Barbara oil spill demonstrated the power of visual imagery in motivating and sustaining political action on behalf of the environment. Now, in an era of social media and ubiquitous cell-phone cameras, citizens continue to share visual testimonies about the most immediate and dire consequences of global climate change, helping to amplify science-based warnings and to nourish an escalating, worldwide environmental movement. —Jeffrey K. Stine, curator for environmental history, National Museum of American History

The Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary, is home to interconnected ecosystems. In 1970, we didn’t consider climate change. Now our long-term experiments on the Bay’s wetlands and forests clearly show the impacts of humans on the Earth and its climate. Through advanced chemistry and mapping land use with satellites, we’re reducing polluted runoff from the 64,000 square mile watershed. Scientists at the Smithsonian’s Environmental Research Center use genomics to measure the Bay’s biodiversity, identify invasive species and detect recovering numbers of fishes in our rivers. Innovative telemetry tracks the migrations of blue crabs, sharks and waterfowl to protect their life cycles. Computers allow us to synthesize vast amounts of environmental data to drive improved management and wise business practices. —Anson “Tuck” Hines, marine ecologist and director, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Wild American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is a valuable forest botanical that has been harvested from the Appalachian region for hundreds of years, and traded with China where its roots are widely used in traditional medicine. In 1975, it was listed as endangered by the international regulatory group known as the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This placed restrictions on the plant’s gathering, even though some of the “new” rules were already being practiced by traditional harvesters. Others ran counter to their ecological knowledge. Opinions vary widely as to whether adding wild American ginseng on the CITES list was helpful or harmful to its conservation, and changes over the years have caused many to question the current CITES rules on wild American ginseng. Still, ginseng’s recognition as an endangered plant since the mid-1970s has put a spotlight on this historically and culturally important plant and its uncertain future. —Betty Belanus, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Cement manufacturing is an incredibly energy-intensive process, and a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Ferrock, a carbon-negative cement alternative developed by inventor David Stone, changes the game by incorporating recycled and waste materials, and absorbing CO2 in its production. Stone, whose work has been supported by grants from the EPA and Tohono O’odham Community College, collaborated with Richard Pablo, a member of the Tohono O’odham nation. Together, they mobilized Pablo’s community, collecting discarded bottles from drinking sites on the reservation; the crushed glass goes into Ferrock. “These bottles are teachers! They teach a bad life,” says Pablo. Stone agrees: “Through the ritual of picking up bottles, of cleaning the desert, we build a space for a new and strong spirit. . . . This is a good path and will bind us and the land together.” — Joyce Bedi, senior historian, Lemelson Center

Over the past 50 years, we have witnessed the dramatic rise of citizen science. The most popular of these programs have been in the fields of ecology, conservation and astronomy with millions of citizens contributing billions of data points every year by exploring gut microbiomes, counting birds, and searching for new planets. With this force of on-the-ground science nerds, experts are capturing data at extremely fine spatial and temporal scales. All this information is making scientific findings more accurate, and scientific predictions more robust. Citizen science is helping folks identify plants in their backyard using iNaturalist, find rare birds in their county using Ebird, and precisely predict local weather in remote areas using the Citizen Weather Observer Program. — Sahas Barve, fellow, Division of Birds, National Museum of Natural History

A major milestone was achieved over the past decade when the cost of renewables such as wind and solar became competitive with fossil fuels at both residential- and industrial-scale production. Decarbonizing the energy sector is the most important action to take to avoid the worst socio-environmental scenarios predicted by climate change models and chart a healthier future for life on Earth. As the efficiency of renewables continues to improve and costs continue to drop many investors, governments and homeowners have been making the economically and socially wise decision to switch to green energy. In terms of direct comparisons, the recent International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report details how renewable generation is becoming more of an obvious economic decision. More than 75 percent of onshore wind power and 80 percent of utility scale solar expected to be built by 2020 will provide electricity at a lower price than the cheapest generation from new coal, oil or natural gas. Renewable generation could already replace 74 percent of U.S. coal generation with an immediate cost savings to electricity customers—a figure projected to rise to 86 percent by 2025. —Brian Coyle, conservation producer, Conservation Commons

Many 21st-century consumer products (particularly electronics) have been designed to be replaced. But not all products; in the U.S., the practice of repair is resurging, a promising trend that sees companies responding to consumer pressures. Sustainable design is an essential element of making the world more equitable. As a cultural anthropologist, I have studied third-party repair of cellphones and examined the circular economy of these devices as they are bought and sold around the globe. Repair helps demystify our electronics, makes us better stewards of our indispensable devices, and helps us advocate for policies that counteract built-in obsolescence, which needlessly impacts our planet. Humans are part of a wider ecology and so are our devices, which are built with precious and diminishing materials. Repair as an ethos and practice helps us all live more sustainably. —Joshua Bell, curator of globalization, National Museum of Natural History

Environmentalist Fisk Johnson proudly pushed the button in 2012 putting two giant wind turbines online. The mighty leviathans standing 415 feet tall and producing nearly 8 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year provide 15 percent of the power for the sprawling SC Johnson manufacturing plant in Waxdale, Wisconsin. It was a giant step in reducing the company’s reliance on fossil fuels. Has there ever been a downside to wind power? More than 100 years earlier, midwestern farmers and ranchers moving into the arid Great Plains turned to wind as a power source pumping water from underground to nourish their operations. Between 1870 and 1900, American farmers put about 230 million acres into agricultural production, much of it in the Great Plains. Were windmills environmentally sound? They did not contribute to air pollution, but they promoted new settlement, the plowing of prairie lands, and the draining of ancient aquifers. —Peter Liebhold, curator of work and industry, National Museum of American History

Humans have bottled water for centuries—especially mineral waters believed to have healing properties. But almost all water bottles were made of glass until May 15, 1973, when the U.S. Patent Office granted patent 3,733,309 for the biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle to Nathaniel C. Wyeth and Ronald N. Roseveare, both working for the DuPont corporation. To call these bottles “ubiquitous” today seems an understatement. More than 480 billion of them are sold each year, or one million every minute. PET is nonbiodegradable but recyclable—though only 31 percent of PET bottles are recycled in the United States; the remainder goes to landfills, or even worse, into lakes and oceans. Nathaniel Wyeth’s brother, artist Andrew Wyeth, and his father, illustrator N.C. Wyeth are perhaps better known than the inventor of the PET bottle, but the damaging impact of Nathaniel’s invention on the environment is one that calls for remedy. —James Deutsch, folklorist, Smithsonian Center for Cultural Heritage

#Nature

[vsplusonline]

Something old, something recycled: Learnings from New York’s Annual Fashion Sustainability Summit

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/something-old-something-recycled-learnings-from-new-yorks-annual-fashion-sustainability-summit/

Something old, something recycled: Learnings from New York’s Annual Fashion Sustainability Summit

Did you know that by 2030, the global fashion industry is likely to consume about 118 billion cubic metres of water? That’s enough to fill 48 million Olympic-size swimming pools, according to Pulse of Fashion’s 2017 report. Movements supporting sustainable apparel manufacturing and circular economies are now gaining traction, and the recently-concluded Annual Fashion Sustainability Summit in New York (on January 31) is a case in point. Organised by New York-based non-profit Slow Factory Foundation, in partnership with the United Nations, the fifth edition brought together notable climate advocates such as actor Yara Shahidi of Black-ish fame, Bonnie Wright from the Harry Potter series, designer-turned-entrepreneur Waris Ahluwalia, and designer Tina Knowles (mother of Beyoncé), among others. They not only highlighted how the rise of the resale market is a hot topic in the fashion industry, but also looked at experts’ solutions on reversing the damage fashion has caused the planet. Ten percent of our carbon emissions, to be precise. Panelists at the event included scientists, biologists and technology experts who candidly fielded questions from 400 climate enthusiasts about such pressing issues. Here are five learnings from the Summit:

Meet Mylo

Since its entry in 1941, polyester arguably continues to reign in the fashion industry. No innovative textile has been crafted to take over its popularity or reverse the ecological damage, for that matter. At the Summit, San Francisco-based Bolt Threads — which also creates fabrics for Stella McCartney — proposed Mylo as the breakthrough material that is 100% bio-degradable. “It is made from mycelium, which is the root structure of mushrooms, with fine, thread-like cells. This revolutionary material isn’t animal-based or petroleum-based, but it can be used in the same way as leather [traditional and synthetic],” says founder Dan Widmaier, who previously launched microsilk, made from spider silk protein.

Not just textiles

About 300 million pairs of shoes end up in landfills every year. Committed to tackle the issue is French sneaker brand Veja. “When we started in 2004, our goal was to deconstruct the production of the sneaker,” says co-founder Sebastian Kopp, who launched its limited-edition collection last month (in New Delhi) in collaboration with Anand Ahuja’s multi-brand store, Veg-Non-Veg. “We didn’t know a lot about making sneakers then and we chose to go to Brazil and ask questions. The first was, ‘What is canvas?’ It is cotton, a plant that uses almost 2% of the world’s agricultural land.” For Kopp, who also makes sneakers out of fish leather, opting for organic, fairtrade cotton from farmer associations in Brazil and Peru was not an ecological act. “It was normal to try to do something better.”

Embrace circularity

Like most industries, the take-make-waste model or the linear economy is also prevalent in fashion. According to the Ellen McArthur Foundation, which champions circular economy, only 1% of all textiles get recycled every year. Speaking about how adidas is trying to change consumer behaviour, Ayesha Martin, director of Global Purpose at adidas, says, “The test run for the FutureCraft.Loop shoes, made from a form of thermoplastic polyurethane, involved consumers returning used products for recycling. Some didn’t, so we have to work towards shifting mindsets,” she says. To be launched commercially next year, buyers will keep getting a ‘new’ pair if they return the old. By 2024, the sportswear brand is committed to using only eco-friendly elements in their products.

Voices from the Summit

Bonnie Wright, actor and advocate: “I love my socks from [Washington-based] Arvin Goods because they use only recycled cotton and next to no water in their production process. Whereas an average pair of socks uses about 50 gallons of water.”

Yara Shahidi, actor and advocate: “Whether it is social justice or racial equity, they are starting points to realise how much more there is to be passionate about. I am intentional about whom I choose to collaborate with. What I love about adidas is that it is one of the only teams where we haven’t had to ask about their plans to be part of the climate conversation.”

Waris Ahluwalia, designer and actor: “If we are not balanced as individuals, then how is the planet going to be balanced? It was one of the reasons why we started House of Waris Botanicals — looking at plants, starting from the source, trying to get ourselves balanced before we can have an impact on the planet.”

Quit wish-cycling

Wish-cycling (when your expectation of recycling a material exceeds the ability of the recycling facility) can start with good intentions but you might be doing more harm than good. “Any sort of paper that has a foil attached to it [like coffee cups] are not recyclable. If you want to recycle a food container, you have to clean it,” says Jay Kaplan, Environmental Manager, at New York-based environmental solutions company, Waste Management. “It rings true especially when most of us are guilty of throwing our stained pizza boxes in the recycling bin thinking it would magically turn into another pizza box.”

Conscious washing

Turns out, your washing machine is where most of the microfibres in the ocean come from. “The tiny particles made of polyester, rayon or other synthetic textiles do not get filtered in the machines, which has led to the textile industry contributing to about 35% of microplastic pollution,” says scientist Marco Tedesco. What happens next? The plastic debris flows into our water stream, and then the ocean, to finally end up in our food chain. While doing less laundry can lessen the number of microfibres flowing out, US-based MojaWorks’ microfiber filters and laundry balls (that catch the lint) are other solutions. ₹4,061 onwards on amazon.in

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Recent Attacks on the Environment

By Simon Bakke. Originally published in Whatcom Watch, October 2019.

September 2019, Week one: Trump administration announces plans to undo energy-efficient lightbulb standards first set in motion by George W. Bush.

Week two: The Environmental Protection Agency repeals Obama-era definitions of “Waters of the United States,” cutting U.S. Clean Water Act protections for millions of miles of streams, wetlands, waterways that cross state boundaries, and more, incentivizing pollution and development farther and farther upstream.

Week three: The EPA is set to revoke California’s ability to create vehicle emission standards. Millions take to the streets for the Youth Climate Strike in hundreds of cities globally.

Week four: The EPA holds public hearings after its announced plan to gut Washington’s water quality standards. Every bite of local seafood Washingtonians consume will contain higher levels of toxic heavy metals and carcinogens if EPA adopts this proposal. Without these standards, Washington has no safety net from Clean Water Act rollbacks.

Ranging from ridiculous to downright dangerous, the relentless assault on protections for our climate, clean air, and clean water has made September a particularly hard month to keep up with the news — and keep down my breakfast. It’s not just federal erosion of laws that keep everyone safe that has my stomach in knots, it’s the administration’s trampling on states’ abilities to protect their citizens and natural resources.

Washington state and the Salish Sea have unique natural resources and habitats that can’t be protected with generic — and weak — federal standards. They simply don’t take into account our particular ecosystems or the specific threats to them. Despite the diversity of oceans, shorelines, salmon-bearing rivers, creeks, groundwater and wetlands that define our beautiful state, today’s EPA would have us abandon any protections for water that go beyond their narrow, one-size-fits-all definitions.

When confronted with this concerning trend, my inbox is flooded with friends and family asking, “What on Earth can I do about this?”

Opportunities to Speak Up

Despite the national headlines, there’s good news closer to home. We have meaningful opportunities to strengthen protections for Whatcom County’s people and natural resources during the coming months. And our active community has a long history of getting results by speaking up. Here are some ways you can be the change you want to see, right here, right now.

This summer, Whatcom County was updating the rules designed to protect saltwater and freshwater shorelines (known as the Shoreline Management Program). This plan would have carried on with business as usual, but hundreds of Whatcom residents seized the public input period and urged the County Council to look at the projected impacts of sea level rise, and examine whether or not we’re hitting targets for “no net loss” to vital shoreline functions.

But this process is not over. In January 2020, RE Sources and other local groups will connect the community with other ways we can minimize costs to taxpayers down the road and let nature do its vital work for free: preventing erosion, moderating flooding impacts, and filtering toxic chemicals from rain runoff. We need to speak up to ensure the County Council takes comprehensive action for our shorelines. I hope you’ll join me in taking action in January to protect so much of Whatcom’s invaluable shoreline habitats and communities.

We have another historic opportunity in the coming months to protect our region. Between now and December is the finale of a years-long battle to stop Cherry Point in north Whatcom County from becoming an expanding fossil fuel transshipment hub, and to hold the existing industries to higher standards for public health and environmental impacts. Most expansion projects of fossil fuel facilities here have had inadequate environmental review for 60 years, and many of their existing impacts to air and water were grandfathered in before key environmental laws were enacted.

The Whatcom County Council is poised to pass amendments to land use law that would prohibit new coal, oil or gas transshipment facilities in the Cherry Point industrial zone — all because people unyieldingly pushed them on it after the would-be largest coal export terminal in North America was proposed, and ultimately blocked. This would be a massive boon for salmon, herring, orcas, and commercial and tribal fisheries. I hope you will follow this issue and make your voice heard. This is a history-making moment, and you have the ability to act in a way that will have global ripple effects.

Proposed amendments could also set common-sense rules requiring the largest pollution sources in our region — owned by multi-billion dollar fossil fuel corporations — to mitigate their pollution and invest in clean power, energy efficiency, building retrofits, and transportation improvements. This would create good-paying jobs right here at home while investing in our clean energy future. How do we do all this? Visit re-sources.org to learn more. There will be more public hearings before the end of 2019 to have your voice heard.

Local Watershed Issues

Climate change also means people’s access to water — and sufficient stream flows for salmon to survive — is growing uncertain. But there is an opportunity for Whatcom County to begin planning for this eventuality before water shortages become even more commonplace. This fall, there will be a public process as the state determines how much water new private wells in the Nooksack River watershed can use, and how we will offset that usage over the next 20 years.

Soon, the Department of Ecology will need to hear from you so their proposed 500-gallon-per-day limit for private wells goes into effect — a much-needed reduction from an excessive 3,000-gallon proposal. RE Sources is watching this issue closely and we will mobilize the community to balance water for fish, farms, and people in the coming months.

Among the most critical actions for our region right now is to stop Trump Administration efforts to rollback clean water standards and laws that will have direct and detrimental impacts to Washington’s waterbodies. RE Sources’ North Sound Baykeeper is a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance. Alongside the five other Waterkeepers in Washington, North Sound Baykeeper fought to establish the existing water quality standards that Trump wants to scrap in favor of polluting industries’ profits. These standards, established on a state-by-state basis, inform the amount of pollution allowed to be discharged into the Salish Sea.

Rules like this need to protect public health, and should be hinged on how much fish people can safely eat without getting cancer or neurological damage from mercury, arsenic, PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls), and more — especially indigenous people and Asian Pacific Islanders who tend to consume the most fish. After amassing thousands of public comments over the past month, our North Sound Baykeeper team will explore further legal action required to hold the line. We simply will not let our waters become so polluted that we can’t eat from them. There are many ways you can support this effort and the work of our North Sound Baykeeper.

I know Whatcom Watch readers want to do everything they can to protect the places and species we care so deeply about. We’re all looking to each other asking, “What is the most useful thing I can do with my limited time and resources?” One of the clearest ways you can take a stand and make a profound impact is by making your time and money do something truly valuable: support organizations who live and breathe these places, organizations who know the challenges and our region like the back of their hand.

Local organizations like RE Sources are the most well-equipped to fight for what’s in our own backyards — drinking water in Lake Whatcom, salmon in the Nooksack River, vibrant waterfronts in a post-industrial era, and Aquatic Reserve ecosystems at Cherry Point and Fidalgo Bay.

When the devil is in the details, and the chances to have your voice heard are buried in public meeting agenda packets, local groups like RE Sources can help connect you to them. This is the moment to make critical gains to protect the Salish Sea through stronger laws, and hold the line of resistance against Trump’s anti-environment agenda.

Let’s make the headlines of September 2020 about how people-power kept water clean, moved society toward carbon-free energy, rallied against government inaction, and stood up to powerful industries. Are you with me?

Recent Attacks on the Environment published first on https://medium.com/@OsmoWaterFilter

[fundforteachers]

International Coastal Clean Up Day the FFT Way

Saturday, September 16, is International Coastal Clean Up Day, the world’s biggest volunteer effort to protect our oceans. Fund for Teachers Fellow Gina Anderson (Concord Elementary - Bessemer, AL) got a jump on us this summer when she researched the relationship between the Gulf Oil Spill and the economic and environmental effects in the region to establish a STEM unit to design, test and revise solutions for cleaning a polluted environment...

April 2016 marked six years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded sending billions of barrels of crude oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico off of the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. My 5th grade students and I watched live coverage of oil gushing out of the well into the ocean. We saw video of birds, dolphins,fish, sea turtles and other wildlife coated in oil because of the spill. I was on the beach when the first tar ball washed ashore. The experience was very sobering, but gave me a first-hand account of what was about to happen. In the days and months following, the size and number of tar balls that were washed ashore multiplied exponentially. I am able to share my personal experience with students and describe what the tar-balls looked like, felt like and smelled like and bring into my classroom different oils and lubricants to recreate the smell of the air that I experienced, even over a mile inland.

This year I taught a fifth grade Project Based Learning class in all subject areas, and we conducted research to determine the economic and ecological impacts still being felt in the coastal region after six years. During the research, students began to realize that even though this was the largest oil spill into the ocean in history, they could not find answers to a lot of their questions. As they continued searching for answers, they learned that scientists who conducted the research on the ecological effects were not allowed to publish their findings because of continued litigation which made our research difficult. The students still wanted to know:

if the estuaries have rebounded and are now suitable for young;

if the trees that were lost have had an effect on the number of nesting birds such as pelicans and cranes; and,

if the numbers of nesting sea turtles has started to increase in the Mobile Bay and Fort Morgan area.

With my Fund for Teachers grant, I researched these environmental effects as I explored the areas of Bon Secour, Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay and Gulf Shores. I biked the Hugh Branyon Back Country trails, where countless rabbits and alligators could be seen daily prior to the spill. An interview with the owner of Bon Secour Fisheries shed light on the economic and ecological impact of the oyster industry in Alabama and Louisiana. A meeting with Bon Secour National Wildlife Early Restoration Project equipped me with ideas that will help guide students when working on a disaster recovery and restoration project of their own.

The biggest area of professional growth for me resulting from my fellowship is classroom innovation. I discovered that learning is most effective when it is authentic. I was interested in this project because I was there seven years ago when the oil came ashore.This made me take ownership of my learning and, consequently, I did not have to rely on what others thought I should learn. I knew what questions needed asking in order to see the big picture.This removed a ceiling to my learning!

Similarly, I am now going to give students opportunities to complete projects based on their personal interests, also not bound to traditional research avenues such as books or online searches. They will have access to professionals and experts invited into the classroom or via live-stream conferences and interviews in order to make the learning authentic and make those important real-world connections. Three years ago, I began an annual Math and Science night at our school. This is a school-wide event in which we invite stakeholders from the community to set up interactive science and engineering booths where they engage with the students and adults. Each grade level also creates a booth for the students and parents to work on a hands-on activity together. This year, I will have my students oil spill projects on display and they will be able to conduct mock oil spills with their adults.

Around our school community, we have to pay to have trash pickup and pay if we want to use the county landfill. This has resulted in a large problem of illegal dumping of trash on the side of the road. Currently, there have been two volunteer clean-up days. Because of the lack of volunteers attending the events, my students and I will help to promote as well as participate in the event this year, another great opportunity make environmental connections to their oil spill projects.

This fellowship has helped me become more reflective when planning projects. I didn't realize that while I was giving the students an opportunity to conduct research and learn collaboratively I was also putting a cap on their learning by providing too much guidance as far as questioning. I now see the tremendous value of allowing students more autonomy and independence in their research and project designs. My new motto is to let them go where they want to go without restrictions!

Gina is a National Board Certified fifth-grade teacher and was recognized as Teacher of the Year at her previous school. On only seven years of teaching, she is a two-time recipient of the local ABC affiliate’s “Once Class at a Time” grant, as well as a Jefferson County Foundation grant recipient. Gina enjoys being a life-long learner and works diligently to instill this into her students through Project Based Learning.

[vietnamtour-blog]

A young and enquiring mind takes to travel

A young and enquiring mind takes to travel

Were it not for the pandemic, my daughter Wolf and I would have spent the summer travelling to Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chongqing. But with borders closed, we came up with Plan B: visiting five national parks from Vietnam’s north to south: Cat Ba and Cuc Phuong in the north, Phong Nha and Bach Ma in the central region, and Nam Cat Tien in the south.

THROUGH A CHILD’S EYES: Ten-year-old Wolf loved Lan Ha Bay and the ‘secret valleys’ surrounded by limestone karst mountains. VNS Photo Thu Quynh

The return of COVID-19, however, also put a stop to that. But not before we had at least enjoyed the beauty of Cat Ba National Park.

Cat Ba National Park

Every summer we plan to go somewhere, so little Wolf can experience the life, culture, and people of different places and pick up the skills needed to live close to nature.

We embark upon a trip whenever possible, and Wolf’s first was when she was just a few months old.

Spanning more than 150 square kilometres, Cat Ba National Park is one of the best protected areas in the country in terms of biodiversity, with the tropical and sub-tropical ecologies common to Asia. It also has the karst geology typical to the region — a vast area of rainforest on limestone karst structures, with mangrove forests, large coral reefs, tidal zones, and salt water lakes.

The park has all that’s necessary to become a global geopark: beautiful pristine beaches, unique caves with stalactites and stalagmites, and a diverse biological gene pool. It’s a whole world for nature lovers to explore.

Tours and treks are available, and no entry tickets are required, despite what many people think.

But it is, however, a protected zone, for it contains protected flora and fauna, and you need a ticket to get in.

On Cat Ba Island you can walk from one ecological zone to another within a day. You can move from rainforests on limestone karsts to mangrove forests in mountains (at Ao Ếch). You can also walk from a mangrove forest by the seaside for a swim around coral reefs near the shore. You can then explore caves to search for the home of thousands of bats or take a walk through fields of crops grown in valleys by local farmers.

Such biodiversity makes Cat Ba National Park worth a visit any time of the year.

IDYLLIC SURROUNDINGS: The ‘butterfly valley’ is the best spot to explore nature. VNS Photo Thu Quynh

When little Wolf was six years old, I started to let her do a little web searching to choose where we would stay on our trips. She always looked for somewhere with distinctive features and attractions, and even decided where we would eat.

To avoid busy Cat Ba Town, we stayed in chill bungalows in a pine forest 15km away, which felt like another world.

Each bungalow is hidden under tall pine trees, with dried pine needle making a soft carpet for you to step on. In front of each is a hammock, where you can lie and look up at the sky through the foliage.

The back of our bungalow looked out over a small stream, where it was possible to bathe in the cool water. There was also a little trekking route, for those keen to stretch the legs but wary of the harsh sun.

TAKING CARE: Beware of whirlpools when kayaking around ‘Three Giant Peaches’ on Lan Ha Bay. VNS Photo Thu Quynh

Green island, white clouds

After some thought, we decided to get around Cat Ba by motorbike, which is the best way of doing so. Though we rode around under the scorching July sun, the sea breeze kept us cool.

Walking up Mt Ngu Lam turned out to be more challenging than we expected. It was only a kilometre and a half, but there were no steps. It was so steep we had to grab on to rocks to climb. It turned out to be too much for ten-year-old Wolf. The surface was slippery and more dangerous than she or even I could handle. Though she wanted to give it a try, I decided we should turn around.

We stopped at a café shortly after, where the owner told us we had made the right decision. Just a few days prior, a young girl older than Wolf had slipped and ended up in hospital. Needless to say, I felt quite lucky. I always want my child to take on a challenge, but only if it’s actually within her abilities.

Having missed out on the peak of Mt Ngu Lam, Wolf learned what she could about rare and precious wood trees like lát hoa (Chukrasia tabularis A.Juss), which provides a beautiful finish thanks to its wavy grain. She also learned about ironwood and menghundor, which are just some of the many valuable woods found in tropical jungles.

She had a fun time trying to poke at the bushes. Whenever she touched them, the leaves would slowly fold. When they opened up again, she made them fold again. She also came across a butterfly with quite strange colours.

For those of you who like a bit of a thrill, there’s a peculiar sight in the park — an abandoned house near the entrance. Park employees used to live there, but they had to move elsewhere out of respect for the protected zone.

Under a rotting roof, all doors and windows had long since been lost and the paint on the walls had faded. It had a vintage yet gloomy feeling, like a haunted house in a ghost story. It would have served well as a background for ghost-themed photos too, but those rotting tiles could literally come crashing down at any time.

Later that day we found ourselves lost in a “butterfly valley”. Located in Lien Minh Commune, the valley was exceptionally tranquil — a large flat expanse surrounded by tall karst mountains. Thousands of butterflies fly about around noon, creating a beautiful and appealing scene for a curious child like Wolf.

It’s also a popular spot for expats and foreign tourists keen on rock climbing. Wolf also got to see cattle drinking water for the first time, and enjoyed watching buffaloes take a cool bath. If you ever find yourself in Cat Ba, remember to spend a few hours or even an entire afternoon just hanging out in this wonderful valley. It has a distinct vibe and aura not found elsewhere.

Reaching it requires navigating a few steep slopes, which always gets the heart racing. But I’d taken on steeper slopes in the northwestern mountains, so these were quite manageable.

The path leading to the valley starts out in Cat Ba’s main street, stretching for 35km and connecting the town with Cat Hai. We fell in love with the beautiful landscapes we encountered along the way, and came to the conclusion that motorbike is by far the best way to take in everything the island has to offer.

Once in a while, we had a bonus — giant white clouds fluttering overhead like enormous cotton candy. It felt like heaven!

During our days on Cat Ba we had cloud parties, with white cloud dawns and pink cloud sunsets. We felt like rubbing our heads in these soft bundles of joy and wanted so much to somehow reel one in and keep it. It might seem silly, but we’re not ashamed to say it out loud!

Seas around Cat Ba and Lan Ha Bay

Cat Ba’s beaches are known for their spectacular white sands, crystal clear waters, and soft waves lapping ashore. But the island has so much more to offer than just lazing on the beach.

SERENE SPOT: The Cat Ba Ecolodge, where we stayed while exploring the national park. VNS Photo Thu Quynh

We decided to rent a small boat and set sail. The sky was a deep blue at some point, but quickly turned to grey and then became quite dark. The sea began to swell, but retained its beauty.

The waves were making it a rough ride for Wolf. She became tired and a little bit seasick. But the sight of Cai Beo Village — one of Vietnam’s oldest and largest fishing villages and still fit for purpose — lifted her spirits.

Boats have bobbed up and down in the waters here for, historians say, as long as 7,000 years. Their different colours make Cai Beo simply beautiful. As our boat approached, it felt as though we were heading towards a 3D image.

Wolf got to see lives different from her own, all happening on the limited space of a boat’s deck. Her jaw dropped at the sight of kids her age swimming like fish or rowing boats with such skill and ease. The kids jumped quickly from one boat to another, each of which seemed to have one or two dogs, who barked cheerfully when the visitors — Wolf and I — arrived.

After passing Cai Beo Village we were in Lan Ha Bay. The karst islands that dot the bay come in more shapes and sizes than you could possibly imagine and are a true wonder of the world. Nestled on some of the karst islands were small beaches that have remained untouched by tourism all these years.

It’s also heaven for rock climbers and those who like to dive into water from great heights. The most famous rock — known as the Leaning Tower — has a steady stream of people climbing up and then plunging into the sea. A group of bungalows nearby house the rock climbers and other adventurous types.

TRIED & TRUE: Cai Beo fishing village, one of the country’s oldest, where you can enjoy giant garupa. VNS Photo Le Thu Quynh

Some of the karst islands have “secret valleys”, which can only be accessed by passing through caves. When the tide is high, though, grottos can also become submerged, and our destination, Coca rocks, became out of reach. So we rowed into one of these secret valleys instead.

There you can keep rowing or stop and take a break. There was a tree high above in full bloom, its white flowers exuding a sweet fragrance. Wolf fell asleep after the rough boat trip, perhaps dreaming of new destinations to come.

I lay down, contemplating our surroundings. It was like being in a place with no connection at all to the “real world” we occupy every day of our lives.

(Source: VNS)

Le Thu Quynh* (Le Thu Quynh is known among the travel community in Vietnam as Kìn Còi, the influencer)

Source: https://blog.evivatour.com/a-young-and-enquiring-mind-takes-to-travel/