Moving from killing to healing - A year of rewilding

 

Dearest long-neglected killing Mother followers,

I apologize for the long months/years of silence. A lot has happened in the interim. Those of you who have been following me on this blog since the beginning will know that I am a jaded environmental scientist, seeking, but pessimistic about real solutions to address Western human environmental destructiveness. Throughout the course of my professional life, I have worked across public, non-profit, and private sectors seeking solutions but ultimately being traumatized by intimate experiences of ecological violence and frustrated by the failures of these traditional spheres to reverse or even slow the trajectory of global ecological cataclysm. 

My disillusionment has finally led me to step outside the constructed boxes of the environmental science field orthodoxy to pursue a PhD in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. My proposed inquiry will employ co-operative action research to work collaboratively and equitably with the beings with whom I share a Land base in Asheville, North Carolina to restore a colonized and degraded ecological community and myself to flourishing wildness. In addition to working with the Land community to rewild itself, I will be eschewing all consumer products for one year and living exclusively on the gifts from the bioregion. By rewilding myself within an ecoregion as a subjective co-researcher, rather than as a detached and objective scientific observer, I hope to radically contest and provide an alternative to the centuries-old assumptions of the dominant scientific paradigm and provide a platform for the suppressed and marginalized voices of the more-than-human world.

I will be documenting my year of rewilding at www.yearofrewilding.com, and I welcome all to join me in this resurrection and rediscovery of wildness. I hope to carry on our fruitful discussions there. 

Being the change we want to see in the world - a personal approach to climate change

Gasoline, natural gas, coal and crude oil are not necessities for life. Clean water and air, shelter, food and the companionship and love of other humans and non-humans are actually what we need to survive. Unfortunately, the quest and lust for all that we do not in fact need is undermining the viability of the ecosystems that underpin that which we do. The showdown in North Dakota stands as a stark monument to this conflict, as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies have been protesting for months to save their land and water supply from the risks posed by the Dakota Access Pipeline. For now, it appears that the Standing Rock Sioux’s battle may have been won, but the war rages on with casualties mounting and no end in sight.

Alberta's Tar Sand Settling Pond and Refinery

President elect Donald Trump has vowed to remove all restriction on the development and exploitation of fossil fuels in the United States. With a Republican Congress, he will undoubtedly make good on this promise. We cannot control Trump's and Congress's actions, but collectively, humans (with a conscience about the scientific facts surrounding global climate change) can reduce the demand for fossil fuels. By reducing the demand and eliminating markets for carbon-producing products, the companies that profit from fossil fuels lose their incentive to develop new reserves. In other words, if we aren’t buying gasoline, natural gas, heating oil, plastics and other fossil fuel derivatives, building pipelines, fracking, mining tar sands, etc., will become costly and economically unfeasible.

Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Kentucky

In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report, based on thousands of peer-reviewed studies, which states that in order to keep average warming below 2°C (3.6°F), net global emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) will need to be reduced by 40 – 70% by 2050 and further reduced to zero by 2100. This scenario will stabilize CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere at 450 parts per thousand (ppt). The IPCC also reports that the consequences of average warming increases greater than 2°C would result in ocean acidification (e.g. severely reduced productivity in ocean ecosystems), sea level rise of up to seven meters, displacement of people, economic losses, increased poverty, reduced water availability, increased severe storms, coastal flooding, landslides, etc. In recent days, my beloved mountain home in Southern Appalachia burned due to a severe drought caused by climate change. Thousands of acres of forest burned, thousands of structures were destroyed and people died. Climate change is real, and it will affect all of us.

Corn Production in the Deserts of Utah

Our human lives are punctuated by activities that belch carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a daily basis. The cozy creature comforts of home are maintained at ideal temperatures via electric heat pumps, air conditioning and oil and gas burning furnaces. Plastic packages, plastic bags, Styrofoam boxes and throw-away utensils line landfills and roadsides to satisfy an insatiable lust for convenience. Most communities have shunned the development of public transportation for the convenience of personal automobiles, complete with a vast infrastructure of roads, highways and fuel stations. While other countries invest in high-speed rail, the U.S. continues to throw billions upon billions of dollars upon an infrastructure that revels in the combustion of gasoline. Our food supply is outrageously destructive in terms of the production of GHGs. Globalization means that we enjoy blueberries and other fruits and vegetables, out of season, any time of the year, all over the world. Millions of acres of corn and soy have replaced prairie, rain forest and arid biomes in order to artificially feed cattle, crammed on feedlots that belch out methane and other GHGs in such intense concentrations that they can be smelled from miles away.

A Cattle Feed Lot in Colorado

 Climate science is settled and has been for a long time. Now we have to figure out what we are going to do to stop the catastrophic trajectory of the runaway greenhouse effect humans have unleashed upon the planet, via their opulent and short-sighted behaviors. The dramatic recommendations of the world’s leading climate scientists at the IPCC will completely undermine the fossil fuel industry and put them out of business. Given this scenario, nobody should wonder at the fossil fuel industry’s concentrated obstruction of any mitigative measures and their comprehensive campaign to spread climate change denial pseudoscience. Saving the planet will require completely disassembling the fossil fuel energy infrastructure and replacing it with something else. And, since almost every U.S. politician relies on campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, expecting our government to fix the problem is like hiring foxes to take care of the chicken coop. Sadly, most people are sitting around waiting for just such an improbable occurrence. With the election of President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, at least we are now dealing with the reality that our government will do nothing for at least four more years, so perhaps we will now be willing to take matters into our own hands.

Oil Field and Soy Production in Kansas

My personal plan is to exceed the IPCC’s recommendations for GHG reductions over the next several years. I am assuming that most other people will not do the same, so I am aiming to reduce my GHG footprint by 10% per year for the next 10 years, until my personal net footprint is zero. I will commence this exercise on January 1^st, 2017, so by 2027, my lifestyle be GHG neutral. If other conscientious citizens of Earth do the same, we can single-handedly solve the climate change problem, in spite of our inept political systems.

The first steps to achieving this goal is to actually determine one's GHG footprint as follows: 

• ·       Determine consumption of food and consumer goods (I will keep all receipts for all purchases in December and then derive an average consumption rate)
• ·       Determine any consumption rates for other products, such as plastic bags, wood (e.g. for the fireplace) plastic utensils, food containers, etc.
• ·       Determine a transportation footprint by keeping track of all gasoline purchased, all air miles, all public transportation miles, etc.
• ·       Determine an electrical footprint by collating all utility bills.
• ·       Determine any other GHG producing activities.

In January, I will attempt to reduce each of the above GHG producing activities by 10%. Some areas will be easier than others. For example, by eliminating my consumption of beef and lamb, I can easily and significantly reduce my GHG footprint for food consumption. I can also do away with (almost completely) consumption of disposable plastics. Other areas, such as my transportation footprint, will be more difficult. Conceivably, I will need to replace some of my car miles with biking and/or walking, and I will definitely have to reduce my travel activities. I will also be able to reduce my electrical footprint by improving the insulation in my 1850 Asheville home and by adding some passive heating design. I am looking forward to this great experiment and hope you will all join me. I am happy to make myself available to assist anyone interested in determining their GHG footprint and offering advice on how to reduce it. Let the resistance begin!

More Clean Air and Water, Natural Landscapes and Other Organisms Instead!

We the Majority have the Actual Power.

With the Electoral College U.S. Presidential win by Donald J. Trump, self-proclaimed racist, xenophobe, misogynist, scientific skeptic and assaulter of women, the majority of people in the United States woke up on 11/9/2016 in a state of shock, bewilderment and despair. Trump's proposed agenda [of stepped-up corporate welfare, dramatic tax cuts for the 1% (who are already not paying their fair share), elimination of healthcare benefits for millions of people, rolling back of civil rights for women, minorities and immigrants, state control of women's reproductive choices, unconstrained fossil fuel development and exploitation, etc., etc.] is made even more frightening by the election of a Republican House and Senate, which have the power to actually help him realize his extremist objectives. In the face of what can be described as a national and global tragedy, finding any prospect for hope can be a daunting task. In order to do so, Americans will have to rediscover and employ one of the tools that is at the heart of our republic and democracy.

For many, the idea of civil action and disobedience is a naive notion that will achieve little, but nothing could be further from the truth. For every horror that Trump and a Republican Congress can inflict, an effective remedy can be unleashed. For example, if Trump and the Republican Congress start building a wall and deporting Latino immigrants, Latinos and their allies can choose a few strategic days to stay home from work. In many industries, such as agriculture and fast food, undocumented workers make up as much as 25% of the work force. A large-scale walkout of affected workers in these industries would not only raise public awareness about the contributions that undocumented workers make in our economy, but would also effectively bring national commerce to a standstill on the scheduled days off. If carried out by large numbers of people, repercussions would be minimal because the affected industries would be incapable of firing participants. There simply aren't any replacements in large numbers, with U.S. unemployment currently hovering in the 4% range.

During the 1970's oil crisis, consumers of fossil fuels engaged in car pooling, exchanging gas guzzlers for more efficient vehicles and countless other effective energy conservation strategies. When the cost of gasoline skyrocketed under the Bush Administration, people once again tightened their fossil fuel belts and decadent fuel hogging vehicles became replaced as the transportation of choice with Prius and other hybrids. The simple reality behind global climate change is that we are all complicit in its existence. If our government is unwilling to take action, we can still do it ourselves. If every conscientious consumer committed to reducing their carbon footprint by 50% over the next four years, the scurrilous oil companies, laying their pipelines down over stolen tribal lands, would take a massive hit in profits to an extent that might make them more amenable to climate negotiation. Replacing traditional energy sources with solar and wind on an individual basis would also empower and strengthen green industries, making them more competitive and fostering additional defections from the fossil fuel giants and their political cronies.

Many of us can take our action further into civil disobedience. Non-violent civil disobedience can result in misdemeanor arrest, so it's not for everyone. In my case, my self-employed job is secure and would likely be enhanced by such an outcome. Others are simply willing to put the interests of the greater good over their own interests. In any case, civil disobedience can be an effective tool in combating injustice in the system, particularly when significant numbers of people participate.

On December 5th, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested and put in prison in Montgomery, Alabama for having the audacity to refuse to surrender her seat on a bus to a white woman. Her small act of civil disobedience launched a massive boycott of bus services and ultimately culminated in a Supreme Court ruling on the unconstitutionality of segregation laws. In our modern times, we are at risk of losing all the gains that have been made since then. Collectively, we can gather in large groups to impede access to County Clerks' offices, courthouses and places where marriage licenses are issued if any erosion of LGBTQ access to these services takes place. We can boycott any corporation, such as Walmart, that does not provide living wages to all its staff members. We can refuse to pay any federal or state income taxes if those governments attempt to rob us of the donations we have made to Medicare and Social Security. If women's reproductive rights are eroded, we can all stay home from work in order to demonstrate how important it is for women to be able to make their own life choices, including both work and family choices.

Since the Civil Rights Movement, Americans have discovered social media, television, sports and other distractions that have kept us largely off the picket lines and in our living rooms. Perhaps it is no coincidence that little progress has been made in recent years towards fair wages for the working class, minority rights and other societal ills. Where gains have been made, such as for LGBTQ equality, such gains can be directly correlated to the concentrated, passionate and continuous civil actions taken by members of that community and their allies.

Standing up to and undermining the wave of horrors that may await us will not be easy, but it is not impossible. Those who have been put in power represent a small minority of people residing in the United States, only 26% of eligible voters. We are the many and they are the few, and the many always have the power if they choose to exercise it. If we choose to stay home and stare at our televisions instead, then we will have nobody but ourselves to blame for the results.

White Privileged Bernie Supporters Need to Hold their Noses and Vote for Clinton

I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton's, but I am going to vote for her anyway. I believe the Bill Clinton White House destroyed the liberal left in the United States. The first Clinton administration acted like a wolf in sheep's clothing, gutting social infrastructure, advancing the prison industrial complex to an unprecedented degree and masterminding the destructive global trade deals (WTO and NAFTA) that are systematically destroying national sovereignty, subsistence livelihoods and the environment across the globe.  I don't like Hillary's military record, and her politics are too far to the right for me, although I am pleased to see that the Bernie pressure has moved them somewhat to the left. I despise her ties to Wall Street. I supported and voted for Bernie Sanders and believe that, in many ways, the oligarchy establishment prevented him from competing fairly in the primary election. I am angry about that, and I join the millions of people in this country who are not going to let Bernie's legacy die. Systemic change is necessary and inevitable. If this election year tells us anything, it is that the system is broken and that U.S. democracy is for all practical purposes extinct.

I am also a person of privilege. I am white, educated and economically secure. I own my home. My children's college educations are mostly paid for.  I have no idea what it feels like to be afraid of law enforcement. I have never been stopped by a police officer, unless a taillight on my car was out. I have never been held back in advancing myself due to racial or other forms of discrimination (although I have had to deal with several annoying womanizing sexists in my time). I am in a stable marriage, my child bearing years are over (surgically, if not biologically), and I am profitably, self-employed. Anybody would consider me to be a lucky person. As far as my quality of life is concerned, it doesn't really matter who wins the 2016 election. I will be fine.

After the Democratic primaries were over, I was completely disgusted with the establishment, and I seriously considered not voting, voting for the Green candidate, doing a write-in or some other kind of protest vote. I rationalized that the establishment (and Hillary is about as establishment as you can get) will continue to win as long as we let them. The Democratic Party did not present me with a candidate who represents a majority of my values. I felt blackmailed because the only choice I had for President of the United States was between a war hawk and a fascist. One friend (Sarah) jokingly said, "This election we have two choices: we can vote for the Mafia or the Nazis." In other words, we can vote for the corrupt power status quo or something even more frightening.

I had just about convinced myself that I was going to cast a protest vote, but then I decided to suspend my own self-interest and take an objective view at the political landscape. I can afford my own healthcare in whatever form it takes. Very few other Americans can say the same, especially minority and under-privileged women, who depend on programs, such as Planned Parenthood to get access to basic services, such as pap smears and birth control. A Donald Trump presidency would restrict healthcare access to such people even further. Clinton would not, and would attempt to expand accessible healthcare if she has a responsive Congress. There is a vacancy on the Supreme Court. At least two other Justices are likely to retire in the near future. The next president will decide if the Court will be primarily conservative or primarily liberal for many years to come. If Trump is president, the Court will undoubtedly be conservative. Clinton will ensure at least a moderate or left-leaning Court. The list goes on. In almost every way a president can have an effect on society, Trump will send U.S. policy back to the dark ages, while Clinton will, at worst, maintain the status quo.

Voting for a third party candidate is a choice that privileged people can make. They can make their protest statement, and tell themselves that they have done a good deed. The under-privileged don't have such a luxury. For many of them, who will lose access to healthcare, lose food stamps, lose housing subsidies, etc., this election is really a choice between life and death. Vote third party, but have no delusions that while your life won't change, you may be destroying the lives of others in the process.

Here is a picture of an otter in Alaska to make you smile (they will also be at risk from a Trump presidency):

Alaska - The Final American Frontier*

3^rd August 2016

March 24, 1989, 12:27 A.M.: “We’ve fetched up hard aground…evidently we’re leaking some oil, and we’re going to be here for a while” – Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazlewood to the U.S. Coastguard

The end of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline at Valdez

*Alaska is known as America’s final frontier. A Google search of the term “frontier” yields the following definition:

“The extreme limit of settled land beyond which lies wilderness…”

I have spent the past couple of weeks traversing some of the state of Alaska. I have wandered to the northernmost land within U.S. territory at Barrow, and I am currently waiting in Haines to take a ferry to Prince Rupert in British Columbia, marking the end of my Alaska adventure. In between, I have visited Fairbanks, Anchorage, Denali, Kenai, Coldfoot and Valdez, a fraction of the largest state in the United States of America. I have seen vast areas of wild lands, all of which have been impacted, to some degree, by humanity. We are at a place in human history where a new definition of frontier is needed.

Satellite dishes on the tundra at Barrow, the northernmost land in the United States

My intention is not to denigrate the incomparable value of Alaska’s natural areas. I have traveled across the globe, and I have never before experienced such vast wild landscapes. Alaska has one of the most commendable protected areas networks on Earth, with 104,000,000 acres put into conservation, an area approximately the same size as the state of California. Outside the two cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks and a few scattered towns, most Alaskan land areas are unmarred by visible signs of human development, as far as the eye can see. From the airplane window enroute from Anchorage to Barrow, the never-ending vista of mountain, forest and tundra is awe-inspiring.

Wilderness in the Denali National Park

Frontier was once the edge of civilization, beyond which the wilds represented an unknown, untamed and unpredictable force. Nature no longer has any impenetrable boundaries. In Alaska, bowhead whale populations in the far reaches of the Arctic Ocean were hunted for oil and baleen to the brink of extinction. Sea otter populations were annihilated for the sin of their luxurious fur, recovered, and then were decimated again by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oil rigs, in one of the most remote areas on earth, supply at least 20% of the U.S. supply, pumping billions of gallons of crude 800 miles down a pipeline, across the Alaskan wilderness from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. During my visit to Barrow, no sea ice graced the Arctic seas. 

An iceless Arctic Ocean at midnight in Barrow, Alaska

On 24^th March 1989, just after midnight, the largest oil spill in history (at that time), poured millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Alaska, killing hundreds of thousands of seabirds and other wildlife. Crude oil can still be detected in the sediments, and toxins are present in the tissues of sea animals in the region, more than 28 years later.

Seabirds feeding in the Gulf of Alaska

Denali National Park is larger than the country of Wales. The combined protected area, which includes the Wrengell-Saint Ellias National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Kluane National Park (Canada), represents the largest internationally protected area on Earth. Within Alaska's protected areas grizzly bears, moose, caribou, eagles, sea otters, bowhead whales and thousands of other species of flora and fauna can recover from human impact, thrive and live, for the most part, in accordance with their own natural histories. Outside Alaska’s protected areas, even in apparent wilderness, wildlife is rare. Alaska’s wilderness continues to exist because of man’s consent, not in spite of it.

Sea otter in the Kenai Fjords National Park

My brain is now attempting to process the overload of stimuli it received during my Alaska experience. Over the next several days, I will try to compile the data into succinct pieces and post them, based on each location I visited.

Humpback whale and seabirds in the Kenai Fjords National Park

Dawson City and the Top of the World - Thawing Rivers and Wildfires

19th and 20th July 2016

Dawson City feels like the most remote city on Earth. To get there by road, one can travel 532 kilometers northwest from Whitehorse on YT2 or 298 miles northeast from Tok, Alaska on the Taylor Highway and then YT9 (a.k.a. "the Top of the World Highway"). Neither one of these options offers easy open highway. Both involve narrow, two-lane roads, with long areas of no pavement, some areas of pavement that have been dramatically altered by "frost heaves," no guardrails, soft shoulders, precipitous drops from the soft shoulders and many areas where roadworks are being undertaken. I drive to Dawson City from Whitehorse and from Dawson City to Tok, thus being able to take in the full perspective of access, for better and worse.

A Section of Yukon Highway 2

One of my recurrent dreams (or nightmares) is driving along a deserted, narrow road, with no guardrails and precipitous drops. As I drive through the wilderness of Yukon and Alaska, I am hoping those dreams are just manifestations of sub-conscious fears of constraint, changes in life, loss of control, etc., rather than prophecy. I pass two accidents, which are statistically alarming, since I only pass about 20 other cars along the entire route. Police are on the scene (where did they come from?) The cars are mutilated beyond recovery. I hate to think about what happened to the people inside. I think this is what happens when you hit a moose at high speed. Arctic ground squirrels dart about and play Russian roulette on the road in front of my vehicle. Ravens clean up the losers. I drive slowly.

Baby Arctic Ground Squirrel - Too cute to squash

The trip up YK2 takes much longer than anticipated for the above reasons, and I get in to Dawson City around 11:00 pm. It seems much earlier because the sun is still up. Given its proximity to the Arctic Circle, Dawson City enjoys about three hours of semi-darkness in the summer, with a similar amount of semi-lightness in the winter. I am glad to be here in the summer. The office to the roadside motel is closed, but this isn't a problem because they have left keys in all the doors for late arrivals. A helpful board on the door lets me know which rooms are available. "Help yourself and pay in the morning," it says. Isolation seems to have some benefits, trusting your neighbors being one of them.

Modern Dawson City on the Yukon River

I spend the following morning taking a tour around Dawson City. The town experienced its boom era more than a century ago, during the Klondike gold rush of the late 19th Century. The boom was brief, starting in 1896 and ending only a few years later in the early 1900's, as prospectors moved on to the next boom town. At its peak, Dawson City had a population of about 30,000 people. Today it has about 1,500. While some people made their fortunes during the Klondike gold rush. Most did not.

Main Street Dawson City

"All Yukon belong to my papas. All Klondike belong my people. Long time all mine. Hills all mine, caribou all mine, moose all mine, rabbits all mine, gold all mine. White man come and take all my gold. Take millions, take more hundreds fifty millions, and blow ‘em in Seattle. Now Moosehide Injun want Christmas. Game is gone. White man kills all moose and caribou near Dawson... Moosehides hunt up Klondike, up Sixtymile, up Twentymile, but game is all gone. White man kill all" (Chief Isaac of the Tr'ochek Han, quoted in Dawson Daily News, 16th December 1911). Today, only two people speak the Han language fluently, and they are both in their 80's. The cost of gold is high.

A casino and ravens in Dawson City

No bridge has been constructed across the Yukon, and the government of Canada provides a ferry service to take vehicles across the river from Dawson City to West Dawson during the summer months. During the fall, winter and spring, people can just drive their cars across the frozen river. The only time when it is not possible to cross the river is during the spring "break up" and the fall "freeze up." During these times, the  approximately 200 people living in West Dawson, who even under normal conditions are "off the grid," are completely isolated. During break-up and freeze-up it is traditional for people in Dawson City to open their homes to the people of West Dawson. The process usually takes between three and six weeks. Spring break-up typically takes place during the first or second week of May. 2016 set a record, when the began to break up at 11:15 am on April 23rd. Someday soon a bridge may be required.

A view of the Yukon River from my car window, as I cross from Dawson City to West Dawson

The Top of the World Highway snakes along mountaintops across the distance between West Dawson and Tok, Alaska, crossing over the U.S. border along the way. Except for one small town (Chicken, Alaska), in approximately the middle of the distance, the area is practically devoid of human settlement, with the exception of a few small-scale gold mining operations along the way. From what I can tell, the population of Chicken is approximately 10, and the town consists of a gas station, gift shop and restaurant (where they serve excellent food, by the way).

Like most small towns in these parts, Chicken started as a small gold mining outpost. Apparently, the original settlers wanted to name the town "Ptarmigan," but they couldn't spell the name of that particular species of fowl and so decided upon "Chicken" instead.

Not a Chicken, in Chicken Alaska

If one manages to survive the pitfalls, the views from the Top of the World are spectacular. Dense forest cover at lower elevations gives way to herbaceous meadows above the tree line. The seemingly endless landscape of mountains and rivers is interrupted only by wildfire scars, which when functioning according to nature's laws, cleanse the earth of dead and diseased things and bring forth healthy new life.

View from the Top of the World

Fireweed is the official plant of Yukon. It is often the first plant to emerge from the ashes of forest fires and therefore symbolizes rebirth and renewal after adversity. I can think of no better symbol for this place.

Fireweed at the Top of the World

The next morning, I leave my campground at Tok and head for Fairbanks. After a short distance, I cross over the Robertson River Bridge, noticing as I cross a mother moose, leading her calf across the shallow river below. I stop on the bridge to watch (I can do this because there really is no traffic at all, and it's 6:00 am in the morning). While I am watching, a pickup truck pulls up next to me, heading in the opposite direction. An elderly Native American gentleman is inside the truck, motioning me to roll down my window. I do. He tells me with tears welling up in his eyes that the mother moose is teaching the calf how to swim and to cross the river. We both agree it is a beautiful sight it is to see.

Whitehorse, Yukon - A Start to Healing?

16th and 17th July 2016

Canada's Yukon Territory is one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth. The land area, which stretches across 482,443 square kilometers, supports a human population of 37,566 (2015). The capital and most-populous city, Whitehorse, is tiny by city standards, with a population of 23,276 people (2015). The city's namesake, the Whitehorse rapids, once graced the Yukon river at this location, but the construction of the Whitehorse Rapids Generating Facility in 1958 forever erased them from the river's landscape.

Given the small human population of the territory, one might expect that environmental impacts would be minimal here, and they do appear to be so. In spite of gold prospecting, copper mining, timber harvesting, etc., the ecology of the Yukon territory now thrives and continues to function much as it has since the end of the last ice age.

One might say that it's easy for Yukon to maintain environmental sustainably, with such a large resource base and such a small human population, and this is true to an extent. A too-large human population on Earth is at the heart of all environmental woes, but here we are, and this is the baseline we must contend with. Yukon is actively taking steps to heal the wounds of the past. Because of this, the area is one of few places on Earth where one can see that the current baseline is actually an improvement over recent previous ones. Yukon stands as an example that it is possible to work towards healing the planet, rather than continuing to harm it.

The vast majority of Yukon's electrical power comes from renewable sources, including wind and hydroelectric, with only backup generation being provided by conventional fossil fuel combustion. Renewable energy, particularly hydroelectric, does not come without an environmental footprint. The damming of the Yukon River, and subsequent loss of Whitehorse's namesake also annihilated salmon spawning activities. These impacts were grave, but efforts are now being made to improve the impacted baseline. Fish weirs, ladders and screens have been installed to facilitate salmon migration, and the fish are returning, slowly. The measures taken are not perfect. The rapids will never return, but healing is taking place.

From a town planning perspective, Whitehorse also represents an environmental best case scenario. The town is compact and walkable. Businesses are, for the most part, small and locally owned. Many resources that supply the population are sourced locally. For example, I was able to have fresh, locally grown salad greens at a restaurant for the first time in a couple thousand miles. Free plastic bags are also no longer available in stores. If you want a bag, you have to pay for it. Everything has a cost, and it is about time we start paying it.

On April 1, 2005, the Kwanlin Dun First Nation signed the "Final and Self-Governance Agreement with the Canadian government." The agreement gave back land areas to the original inhabitants of this space, in addition to providing some compensation. The Kwanlin Dun have now been able to reclaim their place on the Yukon River, which they call Chu Ninkwan. Their former way of life, just like the Whitehorse rapids, is probably gone forever, but they are now at last free to determine their own destiny on their own land.

The Kwanlin Dun people believe that "all creatures have a conscious spirit, and when hunters show great respect and humility to these creatures, the animal spirits offer themselves in harvest." The universal truth of this belief has been ignored by Western cultures for centuries, with predictable results. We have taken from the Earth whatever we can get, without respect or humility. Consequently, the animal spirits and all other natural spirits have gone away. The Earth and her history move on in a perpetual state of flux. We cannot unwind history and undo the things that were done, but we can take steps to foster an environmental of healing, rather than an environment of harm. And then, by showing respect and humility, perhaps the spirits of the Earth, like the salmon, will return.