I know I’ve been an asshole for not posting something worthy myself lately. I’ve been shortcutting by linking articles I want you all to read. Oh well, it’s all the same I guess, as long as you are doing my reading assignments you will be somewhat prepared. Here’s another one.

One more great read from Orion Magazine, which seems to just churn out these though provoking and insightful essays and articles. This one is one condo building on the waterfront. I live in a condo, near the water…hmmmm…..

Well, I’ve been considering this for awhile, but I think now is a good a time as ever. My eating habits are pretty poor considering I eat only about once a day and usually it’s not very healthy. So I’ve decided to eat locally…sort of. Being inspired by a local blog I’m going to try to eat as much local food as possible. Living at the ocean it should be pretty easy. I’ve got an abundant food source full of fish to the east of me, and to the west and north I’ve got plenty of farms(south is Myrtle Beach). Of course it might be impossible to only eat local food because it’s the end of the growing season and I haven’t canned any food for the winter months around here. Trace from the blog mentioned that he goes “dumpster diving” and finds some really good stuff. So I think between eating fish, dumpster diving for discarded but still good food and buying meat out of the expiring bin at the store I should be able to make a good little change. This is much better than eating beef and chicken slaughtered hundreds or thousands of miles away and shipped to Wilmington to fatten the fat. I’d rather eat things that will be thrown out and wasted or eat something I either kill or grow myself. My pumpkins this year were and utter failure. It seemed every time a little pumpkin would start to grow on the vine something would eat it. I never did catch the culprit but I think it was the birds I attract with the bird feeder. I doubt the cockroaches have enough ambition to take on a fresh pumpkin. So it begins, my quest for independence and the salvation of unwanted food.

Today on the local talk radio show a man called in preaching about our need to be energy independent and the fact that we need to get off mid-east oil. That got me thinking all day about this. The caller made some points about how we could do this easily by just getting more oil from the oil shale in the Rockies, drilling in ANWR and off the coast on the seabed. I’ve been having an internal dialogue with myself all day about what it means to be energy independent and how to get there. First and foremost you have to start at the beginning. Oil - we get most of our imported oil from Canada and then Saudi Arabia. After that it goes Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela and sharply drops by half with Algeria, Iraq and so on. The “middle eastern oil” we talk about is Saudi oil. The supposedly fund terrorist organizations with the money they make from exports to our countries along with others. So, to the everyday American it would make perfect sense to not buy their oil. That obviously won’t happen, just look what happened in the 70’s with the oil embargo. I don’t think we have to worry about Canada anytime soon and Mexico isn’t exactly a threat nationally. So we’re left with importing oil to feed the insatiable and ridiculous need for growth to prop up our failing system. People like the caller feel that the government owes it to us to keep this oil coming(cheaply) so that we can continue our unintelligent and short-sided living styles. The answer is very simple to me. I know with peak oil and the consumption of resources going so fast we’ll run out in the next hundred or so years that we need to plan ahead. Not by some governmental program, but independently and locally. I have a friend who makes his own bio-diesel, I know others that ride their bike to work, or drive a smaller car. Nothing spectacular, just simple changes, which also happen to be healthy ones. It’s as easy as buying local organic food that didn’t have to travel as far. Start canning local vegetables for the coming winter months and eat seasonally with meat. Hell, even better, grow your own vegetables and animals for food. Most importantly and I stress this part…brew your own beer. I recently grabbed a book on brewing beer and plan to turn my bathroom into a makeshift brewery. These ever so simple changes make an impact when millions of people are doing them. You’ve got to live with the land and not off it. A perfect example is the Southeast where I live. We’re in a drought. Atlanta has 3 months of drinking water left and people don’t seem to be doing much about it. It makes sense that when you crowd and area with too many people, plant alien vegetation that requires more water than the ecosystem is used to, and consume water to keep your housing tract lawns so “evergreen” that you might start running into problems. Without rain 3 months from now the people there will have no recourse except the government to fly in water or have it directed from somewhere else. People don’t plan ahead; they keep living their lives as comfortable as possible with no thought to the consequences that might occur by consuming too much and not paying attention to the natural world around them.

Then we have this whole oil shale debacle. Oil Shale is essential sedimentary rock that contains stuff called kerogen that when heated is released as an oil like substance that can be used similarly. Now what is the problem with this you ask? Essentially, the same as coal mining. Open pit mines and damaging the aquifers are a huge risk. The companies are trying to heat the rock in the ground and basically suck off the good stuff. The only problem with this is keeping it from seeping into other parts of the ground. Solution: ice walls. Yah, baby put an ice wall around a hot area, great idea. All joking aside, they might be able to get somewhere with it if they can every figure out how to do it in a manner that’s economical for the companies. But for ice, you need water, and last I heard the west wasn’t so big on that resource. However, with a good chunk of it on public land in Colorado(Green river formation) I doubt the companies would have to worry about environmental issues. Especially, if oil prices keep going up. People want their “shiny things” and the Earth be damned if it gets in the way. Then you have tar sands, which is similar in the fact that you get oily stuff from the ground mixed in with a bunch of rock and dirt. Canada is really the one with the large-scale production of this stuff and it faces similar environmental hazards, along with the obvious problems of open pit mining.

My favorite coal. Being from the Allegheny Mountains I feel a closer connection with this issues. Although in Northern, PA/Southern NY where I live(It’s right on the border), I don’t have to worry about this. My friends south of me do however. Coal is one of those industries that seem to be synonymous with Americana. I group it right in there with the steel industry and logging…those old time industries that really built America up to what it has become. Now we’ve outgrown the need for that kind of industry because there’s too much demand and we can get it cheaper by importing. Let alone if we were to completely isolate ourselves at the current rate of consumption we’d have nothing left within a couple years. It’d be economic and environmental disaster - the end of America. Coal is going to make a comeback. With peak oil and prices rising, coal will be coming back with a vengeance. And isn’t it good to know that there’s plenty of it out west which just so happens to be where a lot of the production will come from. Isn’t it also nice to know that not only will western states get to deal with oil shale, but also coal mining…what a paradise. Of course back east I’m sure we’ll still rape and pillage the land. Strip mine, and then when we’re done seal in the poison waters into a couple retention ponds and put a public golf course on top of the old mine(you know set it back to the original condition that it was in before mining). It’s going to be a clusterfuck ladies and gentlemen, I swear on my mother’s grave(oops she isn’t dead yet).

Ok I lied, coal isn’t my favorite, ANWR is. Maybe because I’ve visited Alaska and heard both sides, read a few books on it and had a nice conversation with people that study the caribou herds. The simple man’s argument would be something like this, “Man, who cares about middle eastern oil, we got loads up it up in dat der ANWR but the liberals don’t want us to drill there because they’re concerned about some dumb Alaskan deer.” I shit you not that’s what I hear 90% of the time. The smart mans argument would go something like this, “I know there are environmental hazards by drilling for oil in ANWR, but with the current state of world affairs I think it would be the best option as long as environmental hazards are taken into account and prevented.” Now here’s what I think…ANWR. The controversy comes from drilling in the 1002 area, which is the coastal plain of ANWR. This also just so happens to be the calving ground for the 120,000 strong porcupine caribou herd, along with nesting grounds for many birds. This is in fact an environmentally sensitive area because for thousands of years the caribou have been coming here every year to give birth. The biologist we spoke to said that he believed it would have a negative impact on the caribou because they are so wary of loud noises or things they might have reason to be skittish with. This is the main reason that ramps were put in on the pipeline and that it was elevated so that the caribous could cross. However, according to the biologist, many times they don’t. On the flip side he said they’ve been known to use roads to cover greater distances, so it’s a two-sided coin. According to him any good scientist will say they don’t know the long-term effects of drilling on the coastal plain, however that is only because they need verifiable evidence and data to support a claim that it would be harmful. But it seems rather commonsense that it would be. The other issue with drilling is that its pollution rate is really bad. There are spills, leaks and fumes spewed into the ground and air all the time. Just west, ok really far west(It’s Alaska, huge state) you have the National Petroleum Reserve. Up until 1999 it was pretty much off limits until our good friend under Babbit the Secretary of The Interior under Clinton leased a good portion of the northeastern section. The rest was left as environmentally sensitive areas until the Bush years, which all together eliminated that. So the question we have to ask ourselves in the end isn’t whether we want to save caribou, but rather if we’re will to sacrifice everything to gain a little something. If you are at all interested in learning more about ANWR I encourage you to read Jonathan Waterman’s book, “Where The Mountains Are Nameless.” I’ll leave you with a quote from the book which has a tour bus drive talking about Deadhorse, AK near the oil fields…”Twenty-five years ago this was all a wasteland…now look at it. It’s a modern industrial complex.” So it goes…

Today my ever present boss was at it again with insightful ideas like “recycling is worse for the environment than not recycling”(I think she read it in a book). So my mission right when I got home was to see if there is any truth to what she said. Is recycling worse for the environment than not recycling at all? This of course comes as a concern to me because I drink a good 4 liters of diet mtn dew/pepsi a day. I kill a lot of two liter bottles, but always make sure to recycle them on campus because my apt. complex just put their recycling bin contents in the trash. I even make bird feeders out of them, I know it sounds awfully gay, but hey, it’s being reused for a good purpose and the house finches and cardinals love it. When looking at recycling we have to take in the whole picture. This doesn’t mean only looking at a plastic bottle and knowing that it will get melted down and reused. Instead, we need to look at the whole process, which includes fuel costs, emissions, and chemical processing as opposed to just putting it under ground somewhere and letting microbes munch on it for the next thousand years. In my quick search for the answers I’ve found conflicting information. Some say it’s good and saves a non-renewable resource, while others say it’s using up more of the resource your trying to save by recycling. Although, plastic does take up an extremely large amount of space in landfills for its weight. One of the problems with recycling is that it’s costly. For companies it’s easier just to make it from a virgin product. However when oil and natural gas prices rise, the demand for recycled plastic does to. Aluminum is much more efficient to recycle than plastic, the most in fact. However, aluminum is also very abundant and easily taken from the earth. So which is worse spending the money on recycling or continuing to mine? Opposition says that because the ore that aluminum is smelted from is so abundant, we shouldn’t worry about recycling. The same goes for plastics, because they’re derived from petroleum, we shouldn’t worry. The theory being that with the price of gas going up it will leave more petroleum in the market for plastic production, because it’s so much cheaper to derive from petroleum than gasoline(although that sounds a bit fishy to me). Paper is another big one. My father is a paper salesman, so I have a bit of an interest in this. His company has an environmental specialist on board, but when dealing with larger paper product producers it’s something that must be hard to manage. Much paper comes from paper farms where the trees are grown specifically for paper use. This is a much better option than going and hacking down forests. However, where these paper farms once were, were actual forests. It could be said that now it isn’t posing much of an environmental risk, but it did at one time, and continues to be a poor ecosystem for native animals. This is especially true in the Southeast U.S. where much of the trees for paper production are grown, not to mention sprawl. Not too far from Wilmington you can see these tree farms. The ones I’ve seen have been owned by International Paper. So does recycling benefit or cause harm to the environment? It’s hard to say. There are pros and cons to both. Recycling saves a material from rotting in a land fill for years. Not to mention the greenhouse gases that landfills produce, like methane. I know a landfill back home was thinking about trying to capture the methane produced and using it to produce power. This doesn’t even touch on the issue that trash isn’t localized. Instead it’s shipped from one place to be buried in another. If people’s trash was buried in their own backyard, I think they’d be a lot more apt to save. However, it also takes energy to put it back into a reusable form. What’s the best answer? Let’s go way back to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Notice how recycle is the last one? REDUCE. If people would just cut back, use things more than once, and be creative about it. I use my paper bags over for things like ripening fruit or just a good cabinet liner. In the end consuming like we do will outweigh any benefits given by recycling. It just promotes the consumer ideology that is so engrained in our heads. We’re going to have to relearn how to live. Cuba is a great example. They get by on so little, but yet manage to make things work with ingenuity and creativity. America doesn’t award those ideals, instead it awards consumers to buy more stuff and make more money in a perpetual cycle that will be our demise. It’s time to wake up and start cutting back, reusing and yes recycling.

The earth has roughly 140 million species. Nearly 380 of them disappear each day. And of 140 million, nearly half live in tropical rainforests, the same one’s that are being destroyed day after day, hour after hour. The Amazon rain forest contributes nearly 20% of all our oxygen. Commonly referred to as the “lungs of the planet,” the Amazon rainforest along with its brethren are disappearing at nearly 2 acres a second. Clear cutting for agricultural use is often illegal but goes unchecked. This same clearing for agricultural use is only expedited by logging and mining roads. Much of this logging goes to feed American consumption for wood. We need it for building houses, repair of wooden structures and things like pencils, chopstix and baseball bats. We are the number one importer of tropical woods like mahogany. Brazil alone has 1/3 of the world’s remaining rain forests. It’s also one of the most prevalent destroyers. Much of the forest has been razed for farming, road building, hydroelectric projects and large scale cattle farms. In the past 40 years alone we have destroyed 20% of the worlds rain forests.

Where do we lay blame? Could it be the population and need for more natural resources? In 1950 the world’s population was 2.5 billion. Today it’s 6 billion and by 2010 it will be almost 7 billion with it peaking at 9 billion around 2040. This trend continues until we as a species face a decline in population due to lack of food, much like in the wild. If you look at the world’s consumption needs like water, food, housing. You can infer by the present state of things that we will not be able to keep up with the demand for natural resources. Things like the demand for oil increases while production doesn’t or even declines, to things as basic as water.

Water alone may be one of the biggest problems in 20 years. With much of the worlds freshwater supply melting due to global warming, we might have one of the greatest crisis man has ever faced. Today if you live in a city like Las Vegas they just dam the Colorado River and divert it. But if you live in a poor nation like Bolivia where you get most of your fresh water from glacial melt, you are in serious trouble. Poorer countries like Bolivia who depend on that seasonal meltoff from fresh water won’t have any once the glacier stops it’s ebb and flow cycle and completely melts. Then Bolivia must either buy water, or fight for it. China for example will have the same problem. Just to the north of their border lies some of the largest depositories of fresh water in the world, like Lake Baikal in Russia. Will they just succumb to the fact that they can’t grow? Or will their militaristic instinct take over and attack Russia for their precious water. These are serious issues that everyday folk need to start thinking about. It will be us that impacts this future, not your children or their children. It’s do or die because the world will be a vastly different place in 50 years. Edward Abbey said, “growth for the sake of growth, is the ideology of a cancer cell,” and he was right. I know this all seems a bit far fetched right now, but in 20 years I promise you it won’t. We already have mass extinction on our planet. If we don’t curb either population or the need for resources we will be a part of it.

Lately I’ve been more consumed by politics more than ever. I just can’t seem to figure out where I fit in. The more I think about it, I don’t want to fit in. I want to decide on each issue as it comes, rather than have to be in one party which has an umbrella over certain ideals. I don’t like the democrats and I don’t like the republicans, but agree with some of their points. It’s hard being independent in this day and age. Especially when most people my age don’t give a second though to politics. I find this so sad. We are privileged enough to be born in America, which I truly believe to be the greatest country on earth. However, I don’t see any appreciation for that privilege. Just to be clear it isn’t a right, it is a privilege. The right to free speech? No, it’s a privilege. If it wasn’t for our soldiers fighting for our freedom we’d have none of it, hell maybe even speak German. I don’t agree with this war completely, but think radical Islam along with the environment are the most important issues on the world stage this day. I hope both of those concerns go away, but it won’t happen unless people start paying attention to whats going on. We all have the ability to change the world for the positive, but many choose to sit back and do nothing. I figure I’ve got 60 years left if I’m lucky, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste them sitting around watching a bunch of politicians fill their pockets and do nothing to improve the state of things. As Americans not only do we have the ability to change our country for the better, but also the world. That doesn’t mean we should be starting pre-emptive wars to bring “democracy” to countries. However, we do need to be the change we wish to see. You can’t preach something to someone if you don’t live it yourself. Case and point, Al Gore. As much as I think the guy has brought global warming to the forefront of the environmental movement for everyday people, he does live a life which isn’t in accordance with what he preaches. Sure he buys carbon offsets, but really come on, if you want people to follow you, set an example where you show sacrifice, the same sacrifice you ask other Americans to make. Not all of us are made of money, and being environmentally friendly might only be feasible in the form of using paper instead of plastic bags at the grocery store or riding your bike more. But you know, that’ll make a difference, however small. If everyone made a small change we could collectively do something great. The sad thing about politics and the do nothing generation I’m a part of is that I don’t see that change coming. People my age want to party and hang out. I don’t have any problem with that, I love a good night of drinking and getting rowdy too, but at the same time that should be balanced with the responsibility that comes with being an American. You have a responsibility to make sure your government is doing the right thing. I write this blog more out of frustration than anything. You can rant all you want but who knows what good it will do. Hopefully someday the message will be spread and all we can do is keep spreading it until something happens and people wake up. Until then then, this buds for you.

Alright, so I drank last night and am running on 4 hours sleep. What better to do than mess around on the Dept. of the Interior’s website. Long known for slutting out the land and being headed by people who are more beaurocrats than scientists, I found it interestings when I did a little research. One title caught my eye, the “Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003.” I read the Dept of the Interior’s site about how it would get rid of the danger posed from too densley populated forests which were a hazard to people and natural fuel supplies if they went up in flames. This is because long ago the forests were sparser, and now that they are more dense, probably from logging, this is apparently a problem. Well it didn’t take me long to find out some nifty stuff about this act(amazing how easy the internet makes everything). This bill essentially allows for —

* Forest Service to conduct large-scale, environmentally damaging logging projects without considering any alternatives or their relative environmental impacts;
* eliminate the statutory right of citizens to appeal Forest Service logging projects;
* impose unprecedented limitations on judicial review and give lawsuits challenging Forest Service projects priority over virtually all other civil and criminal litigation.

oh and this….

and perhaps most outrageous, the bill would require judges to “give deference” to the agencies’ determination that the short-term environmental harms of a project are “outweighed by the public interest in avoiding long-term harm to the ecosystem.” Sec. 107(2). In other words, even if the evidence presented to a court clearly demonstrates that a project would cause immediate and substantial harm to water quality or endangered species, a judge would have to defer to the agencies’ claims of long-term benefit. This would be a terrible precedent undermining the impartiality of the judicial system.

The trouble always seems to be in the fine print. The sad part about this whole affair is that it isn’t just bills dealing with the environment. All our bills are earmarked to hell, to fatten the politician’s and their buddies pocketbooks and keep them getting re-elected by their constituents. If we took the time to look at all the fine print and red tape in our legislation, I think we’d shit a brick from all the crap that has nothing to do with the subject at hand, or just is plain offensive and wrong, like the above notes. The Department’s site is just riddled with things like these, like the new money being set aside for water conservation out west. Personally I think they should just strap some pipes to the glaciers and knock down the dams. What do you think’s going to happen when you have cities in the desert that are exploding population wise. They decided to move to the desert! Las Vegas? Brilliant idea. Anyway, I don’t want to ramble on. I’m only getting started on this Dept. of the Interior bs.

I’ve completely stolen all of this from Beau over at Jackburnslives.com/blog. Please read it, then if you like what you read stop over to his place for awhile. I’d elaborate on my feelings of all this and how it connects to Wilmington, but for now just read it and mull it over for awhile. Then do something that doesn’t involved selling you’re soul for a profit, that is if you have one left.

I recently returned from an out of town trip that I hoped would recharge the batteries, reinvigorate the senses and inspire me to say something worthwhile. Something positive, informative and of interest.

Instead, I returned even more despondent about the world than when I left.

Is it only me? Am I the only one that sees the world over flowing with self-serving, duplicitous leeches, people out to take advantage of every situation and pad their pockets at the expense of all the living things around them? Or, am I entirely too cynical and negative, failing to see enough good in people?

I’m beginning to suspect my values and mores are very different from the rest of the country. I value all life. The little sparrows that were on my patio this morning. The bears in the Smokies. The spiders in my garden. The poor and less fortunate in the inner city. The illegal immigrant trying to cross a ridiculous man made border to find a better life. The red rock of Utah. The aspen of Colorado, the majestic redwood of California, wilderness and all of the environment, which by the way, is all habitat were something is attempting to live. All of it has worth and all of it deserves not only protection, but reverence.

I don’t see myself as all important. I see myself as just one part of a complex system that’s not entitled to more than my share or to use resources at the expense of others. To the degree that it is possible, I try to live within sustainable limits. I think about such things and wonder why more people don’t.

The notions that life is a “struggle against all” in a continual war of mutual aggression and it’s the “survival of the fittest” are both not only idealogically distorted but factually wrong. Life doesn’t have to be that way, and in fact it is universally not that way.

I’d give my last dollar to a friend or even a needly stranger. I’d defend my friends, my family and my home with my life, if necessary, but only against threats that are real, not nefarious threats invented by our government. I basically find joy in life through service to others, in defending the voiceless and the weak and in challenging the status quo. I stand firmly opposed to those that would bring harm to the weak.

“I would never betray a friend to serve a cause. Never reject a friend to help an institution. Great nations may fall in ruin before I would sell a friend to save them.”-Edward Abbey

And to those that run the world, you that see limits to growth as an anathema, I stand opposed to you, too.

But alas, most people won’t sacrifice for others, especially non-humans. Most just blithely go along their merry way, sucking up resources and exploiting whenever possible. Yes, there are a growing few that stand in opposition to the dominant meme, but not enough. And that’s my problem. So few of “us,” and so many of “them.”

Is there any hope?

(here’s where I start to talk myself out of my cynicism and return to sanity)

Thus sayest Edward Abbey:

“But they have everything. They have the organization and the control and the communications and the army and the police and the secret police. They have the big machines. They have the law and drugs and jails and courts and judges and prisons. They are so huge. We are so small.”

“Dinosaurs. Cast-iron dinosaurs. They ain’t got a fucking chance against us.”

“Four of us. Four million of them, counting the Air Force. That’s a contest?”

“Bonnie, you think we’re alone? I’ll bet-listen, I’ll bet right this very minute there’s guy’s out in the dark doing the same kind of work we’re doing. All over the country, little bunches of guys in twos and threes, fighting back.”

“You’re talking about a well-organized national movement.”

“No, I’m not. No organization at all. None of us knowing anything about any other little bunch. That’s why they can’t stop us.”

From “Duologues,” The Monkey Wrench Gang

This isn’t a call to violence. It’s a call to action. Community based action. The Monkey Wrench Gang didn’t launch a national letter writing campaign. They didn’t march in front of the White House. They didn’t make a contribution to the Sahara Club. They got involved locally, in their community.

Get involved in community groups and schools. Start a community garden. Protest. Quit buying unnecessary junk. Park the car. Help a needy neighbor. Talk to people about the importance of preserving the remaining open spaces in the community.

Quit worrying about things you can’t control and focus on the things you can control. It’s the only hope we’ve got, and action is the sole cure to hopelessness.

I tried to sleep in this morning and I just can’t do it. So I figure I’d write a post after last nights exhausted scribble. The other day I was reading in Outside Magazine about keeping the places you like a secret. For example many people have outed some of their favorite hiking/camping/surfing spots and now they’ve turned into mob scenes. I’d like to apply that logic to back home in good ol’ western NY. See the problem with Wilmington is that too many people know about it and want to move here. When that happens a relatively cool little beach town gets turned into an overpopulated, chronically congested tourist trap. So when talking with people and friends about the economy back home, I always say I hope it stays shitty. The idea of my home possibly gaining prominence as a great “outdoors recreation area” or retirement location would destroy not only the small town feel, but cause bastions of housing developments to sprout up in what would be once nice places to take a hike or just sit and look at the scenery. It is my feeling that housing developments are a cancer on the land. They spread out destroying all habitat, and once that’s finished they put up houses and alien grasses that will look nice for all the happy people to see. I’d much rather have apt. complexes because at least with those you don’t have as much sprawl. the people are compacted into a smaller area, although they aren’t by any means a nice thing either. I just realize that I’m not a city guy, never have been never will be. You’d think living at the beach would be a nice place that relaxes you. For most people it probably does. However, for someone like me, who loves the outdoors, mountains and fresh air, this place drives me nuts. I wake up to drunks screaming outside(I’ll forgive that), dodge cars on my bike, dodge cars in my car, and probably waste more gas sitting at lights in congestion than I do actually driving. In fact sometimes I get so fed up I just turn my car off altogether at the lights. The reason for all this? Someone a few years back said, “Hey all, Wilmington is a great little town with a lot of potential, and it’s at the beach!” I’m sure at that time it was a great little town with a lot of potential. Though, many years have gone by and that potential has slipped away. With every drained wetland giving way to a housing tract, that potential silently slips into oblivion. With every 20 something, driving a huge Yukon a mile to the store by themselves, it slips a little more. Everyone seems to love the beach, but they forget it’s part of a system. There’s long leaf pine forests have have been essentially wiped out compared to their original range. Wetlands are constantly in danger from pollution, sewage spills or being drained to build upon. As much as people love the beach they forget it’s a part of that system, one they’re knowingly or unknowingly destroying. Once they’ve accomplished completely destroying the local ecosystem, we’ll see how many tourists come to town to enjoy local seafood or relax at an eroded beach. This is what I want to prevent, not just at home, but everywhere. I don’t want my kids(I’m not planning, but I’m not saying it won’t either) to grow up in a world where housing developments, huge cars, and technological junk, takes precedent over a walk in the woods or playing outside. I heard on the radio(Neal Boortz) that kids spend 60% less time playing outside today than they did just 6 years ago. I think it’s an overall trend of slowly moving away from our connection to the natural world and advancing towards one completely void of any natural interaction. My point is that if there’s housing tracts going in back home, I might try my hand at some monkeywrenching. It’s not that I want people to run around naked and eat granola bars. However, I would like for people to consider things a little more, whether it’s just trying to think what the land was like before you’re house was built upon it, or that the steak you’re eating came from a cow that had to give it’s life. So be thankful for what you have because of the natural world, and try to give back a little more than just always taking. Because, not too many years down the road at this rate, there will be no more left to take.

So here I am, back in Eagle River, Alaska. I’m about 20 minutes from downtown Anchorage and surround by mountains that rise so high towards the heavens it hurts your neck to look at them. I’m really starting to dread going back to the lower 48. It isn’t even so much that. Even in Anchorage you are getting back to the “mainstream.” Life in Denali and farther north was really something. I’ve never met more interesting people in my life, or good natured for that matter. Usually you think Alaska is a place where people come to get lost. They’ve had it with life as usual and Alaska is about as far away from life as usual as you can get. However, on occasion people find themselves here. I’m not saying I have, but this place, the mountains, the vast wilderness, the pace of life, has caused me to look deeper within than I ever have before. Maybe it’s the lack of daily communications junk that were fed. My t.v. watching has been kept to almost zero. I have a phone and it works, sometimes. I’ve been able to get onto the internet long enough to upload my photos. I’ve actually had to deal with people, face to face everyday. Thankfully, 9 out of 10 of them have been some of the most inviting and outgoing people I’ve ever met. I’ve said this in a previous post, but I think the mountains humble you. That is if you don’t see them as a potential for profit, like alot of people here. The resources in Alaska abound, and therefore people who would like to make money off them also abound. That’s just the way the world works, hopefully, if there are enough grizzly bears, the population of those profit minded people will be kept to a “healthy and sustainable level.” On the way back from Fairbanks to Eagle River, we stopped in Denali again and picked up some people for the trip south. They were 4 guys who had summited Denali. That itself isn’t a huge feat by climbing standards. However, the freedom and sense of purpose must soar with the elevation. I myself dont wan’t to climb anything that high, I’m girlishly afrad of heights(any feminists can kiss my butt, yes I said girlishly). Though, being in the mountains takes your spirit to places it’s never been. Suddenly though, it gets body slammed by a 800 pound sumo wrestler who after pushing your face into the dirt says, ” get a job you fucking hippy.” So it goes…I’m off to Wilmington to get a job for a year. Yaayy! I’ve learned that you don’t need much. People up here get by on a lot less because they’re resourceful and creative. Something most of the country lacks. Returning to a place where people drive huge SUVS a mile down the road to get groceries or a paper, or drive Mercerdes just for the status symbol, well that’s going to be a hard transition. I can only see myself getting more hardlined “hippy.” Not that I like hippies, because I don’t, but the usual way of the world just ain’t working for me anymore. I don’t know if I’ll get by from riding my bike more or starting a recycling center at the apt. complex, but somethings going to give. I have a feeling it’s going to be my temperment towards the less accepting. Ya, I know that’s a hypocritical statement, especially coming from me. I’ve learned a lot about myself in Alaska though, I’ve been able to deal with old things, start thinking about new things and overall just coming to a place in life that I really like. Will it stay after I leave? I doubt it. I’ll probably be bogged down in the same old miserable crap John Doe is, driving his kids from the housing development called “Willow Woods” to his kids soccer practice. I’ve started reading Into The Wild again too. Maybe Mccandles was a little out there, and ill prepared to take on the Alaskan wilderness, but his views on the world and his frustration with it I can easily relate too. Dude.

Today is our last day in the city of Fairbanks. It was also the last day we rented the car so we kicked around town as much as possible. We went to the ice museum, regular museum and the large animal research center which does research on musk oxen and Caribou. It was a pretty fun day but for the life of me I can’t get our time in Denali out of my head. Maybe it is the fact that Fairbanks compared to denali is like Steel Reserve compared to a fine Labatt Blue. Or maybe Denali was really that great. Being surrounded by mountains and somewhat isolated takes all the cares of the modern day right out of you. Internet and phone is nice to have, but when it doesn’t work you can’t fret you’re in the middle of some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen. There’s something haunting about the mountains there. Maybe it’s the light that constantly is above your head. Maybe it’s the vastness of the land or the sheer danger of it all. I’m not sure, but whatever it is I want more. I want that feeling again where the only thing you are worried about is when you are going to eat and if your farts are from the beer or the pizza. Seriously though, I’ve never seen anything like that place. I can only hope development doesn’t take the reigns and lead that into an eventual destiny of disneyland like attractions where children can ride moose for $10. It’s too special for that. If anyone had gotten off their tour buses maybe they would have noticed. I hope after I graduate from grad school I take a summer off to go work up there. Just bum around and hike and hang out with good people. Cynical as I am, I can’t really say anything bad about the people there. Everyone was really laid back and friendly. You don’t see that everyday. I think Denali has that effect on everybody. It’s so humbling being in the presence of something that great you realized that you are just a speck on the dot, a blip on the radar, if at all. In a week I have to return to Wilmington, NC. Once there I need to find a job for a year until grad school, and that is assuming that I get in. On the other hand there’s something inside me that makes we want to drop everything empty my bank account and move up here. Maybe go even farther north past the Brooks Range. Just me and my camera and a case of beer(for emergencies). I wish I had more time to properly articulate how I feel, but under the choppy internet and stressful days in Fairbanks this is all I can seem to muster up.

Well I just wrote this post but the internet crapped out and it didn’t send so I have to write it all over. Today me and Jeremy spent all our time in the city of Anchorage. It’s a nice city of 500,000 or so. You wouldn’t think it because it is so spread out. We stopped and a brewhouse for lunch and had a really good meal. Then we walked down the street because they had a bunch of touristy shops with gifts and things like that. We also went to the museum of natural history and got a guided tour. It was really cool because the lady explained how Alaska used to be and came to be what it is today. She also expressed her concern about what global warming will do to it. Alaska is a very conservative state and many people don’t have time for that because they ‘re too busy praying to Jesus(literally, I’ve never seen more churches, and I live in the south!). However, global warming effects Alaska much more than other places because they’re so far north. So things are changing, drastically, the warming is happening, in fact Alaska has warmed over 5 degrees in the last 40 years(source: Conrad the biology teacher and housekeeper). So global warming is happening and things are changing…man made or not. Tomorrow, or today for you in eastern time(we’re 4 hours behind you) Conrad is taking us on a “walk” up Cumulus mountain. Let me say after being in Alaska for only a few days I’ve learned that walk is not just a walk. Instead its a trek up a steep face for 4 hours to the top. Although, Conrad ran his own professional climbing business for a few years so for him it’s just a stroll in the park, although for me and Jeremy it might seem like a life and death climb up Everest. Yesterday as we were stopped at a roadside gold panning place we met two people from Salamanca. They were indians here in Anchorage for so national tribal council meeting. Who’da known that you could come all this way and still meet people from nearly the same town as you. Let me tell you this place is HUUGGEEE so it’s quite unlikely, I’d say neary impossible. Anyway that’s all for now, I’m tired and the internet is sketchy, so be sure to check the flickr photos at the bottom of the sidebar. I’ll update them with descriptions and titles when I get a mouse and more motivation, but enjoy for now, it’s beautiful scenery.

Newly added photos to a newly updated flickr…Here they are…. CLICK

And away we go. I’ve been home for just over a week now and haven’t done too much. I mean I have, mostly seeing the family and relaxing. I’ve yet to get out to allegany state park and do some hiking and riding, although when I mentioned it to my dad today he seemed half interested in going. I really do love the area here. It’s beautiful. Nothing but small towns peppered throughout rolling green hills mired in early morning fog and afternoon haze causing the hills to disappear after only a few miles. I drove out to Salamanca the other day which is on the Indian reservation. The state park is adjacent to the reservation and right near the Allegany River. It just astounds me how much natural beauty we have in this are. What pisses me off about the whole thing is that people complain about how it sucks here and there’s nothing to do. I guess I can only say, appreciate while it lasts. Although to be fair, I was saying how much I hated it before I left for college. It’s one of those situations where you have to get out and see the world and realized how things are away from our quite rural section of the state before you can really learn to love it. I know one day this area like the rest of the country will turn into the overdeveloped south. With the population of America booming and the natural resources and land being used up, it’s only a matter of time. My point being, I wish the people around here would start appreciating the land while they have it, instead of putting the area down all the time. Sometimes the simple life is the better life. You don’t need a huge house and SUV to be happy. I can understand the economic situation though, but that’s a societal problem and not so much a local problem. People need to put more emphasis on collective growing and local foods. As my friend Beau over at Jack Burns Lives.com says, “bioregionalism.” In other words work within the land and ecosystem you have locally. It’s a great idea, and I think that could spur not only environmental awareness but also a higher appreciation for what this are really has, instead of worrying about what it doesn’t have.

Anyway on a brighter note…my town put up these 3 foot fiberglass squirrels all around town. They are painted after certain themes or businesses which sponsored them. I remember hearing about them last year. I thought it was a really bad idea. Apparently they did it because we have a large population of black squirrels in the town and they are somewhat rare…I guess. Anyway the fiberglass squirrels are a real hit, and they look pretty good. I made my mom take a photo of me with every squirrel today, and of course giving the thumbs up in every photo, a trend I started back in Italy. I’ll have those photos up soon. I have them on my new Mac, but I have to transfer them to this computer to put them on the internet because we don’t have wireless and I lost my flash drive. Speaking of flash drives, I just bought a 300 gig external hard drive. Along with final cut pro suite and a panasonic prosumer camera. All in all costing me somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 grand. Plus I bought a new sleeping bag for my trip to Alaska which is only about a week away.
I guess I could go on and on about what I’ve done this week, but I’ll save you that information because I know it’s not really that interesting to most of you. In the mean time I’m going to go down to the river and take some photos and dip my feet in.

I posted a new link…www.masonwinfield.com, he’s a local author that writes about regional folklore and paranormal things. I encourage you to read his website. It’s got a lot of good information and interesting stories. Hell even buy one of his books off amazon. It’s local stuff, but if you’re into paranormal and folklore you’ll get a good read.

Here’s some photos of my trip home, just a few. Like I said I’ll post a lot more when I can switch them to my moms computer which has “the internet.”

…”grandma” Paar, grandma Carr, and me eating at one of the best restaurants in town, the beef and barrel.

…Driving down the road and thought this would be a nice photo. Luckily ’round these parts you can stop in the middle of the road, get out, take a photo and hop back in without worrying about any traffic.

…View of Rock City Park scenic lookout. Sure would be scenic if there wasn’t so much haze.

In light of the skywalk being put in at the grand canyon I’d just like to say a few things. First, the indian reservation hired a private contractor to build it for $30 million. I’m no idiot, I grew up next to an the indian rez at Salamanca, I know there’s not a whole lot of money there. I’m know the plight of the american indian, just look at pine ridge for example. So I can understand their need for some sort of income. The Seneca indians close to my home did the same thing with the casino. I can’t really blame them. Secondly I was reading a CNN article about it and came across this paragraph, “The tribe will open it to the public later this month, charging $25 per person in addition to other entry fees. Organizers expect the Skywalk to become the main draw in a community of tribal attractions that includes a cowboy town, an Indian village, helicopter tours and Hummer rides through the outback.” Honestly, I can understand the cowboy town and indian village, because we americans don’t like to look at the natives as a real people, instead they’re a conquered people from the past. So..that’s fantastic. Second, hummer rides through the outback? Are you kidding me? When did hiking get so uncool? Or rather, so unecessary? I just wanted to float this out there - Peace