A Talk on the Climate Side

By Harry Hutchins.

I am sitting here eating Habanera hot salsa. Some say the climate isn’t changing--just like my tongue isn’t reacting much to this mild salsa.  I’ll try the hot stuff.  It was on sale.  Shouldn’t bother me, eh?  Heck I lived Arizona for 3 years and once spent a month in the land of Hot food – Sichuan, China.  Holy cow that was a quick change!!!!  I felt that hot habanera this time!

We humans don’t like quick change.  And we deny it until that truck is just a few feet away from hitting us.  Reminds me of many of us in the United States. This is the way we are reacting to climate change.  The trouble is, we better not wait till it gets to close because like the truck or the hot sauce, it is going to seem to happen quickly when it does.

So if 2007 ornithologists told you they saw Cedar waxwings in a fruit tree in Grand Rapids yesterday, I bet you’d believe them, right?  So why not believe 2007 climate scientist who are the top experts in their field?  Why is some science OK and other science observations are incorrect from our point of view.  Science takes no stance.  Policy does.  What more evidence do you need?

I believe Jeff Masters who has a 30 plus years climatology background and a PhD in that field when he tells us there are no written records of these kinds of extreme events that have happened in the past few years.  13” of rain in Tennessee? Or Dr. Heidi Cullen another climatologist who not only researches the science behind climate change, but interprets and communicates it very well. And you should believe it too.  The weather may very well change as quickly as different salsas and create a widely oscillating climate.  That is called climate change.  Europe in a deep cold and snow.  Hey, that was a prediction by climate scientist too.

What kind of world do we want?
What do you want?  That’s what David Suzuki asked in his latest book The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future to the people of Canada, his home country.  Do you want clean water to drink and to catch non toxic fish?  Do you want carcinogenic chemicals in your food or in the air you breath?  Do you want to be able to walk a Lake Michigan Beach without cutting your toes upon non native zebra muscles? What he was saying is let us get together with our politicians and find all those things we agree upon.  We have a good idea now from the science what makes a healthy planet.  Set some targets and make policy to get to those targets. Let’s not wait any longer.

Harry Hutchins Dec. 22, 2010

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Harry Hutchins is a Forestry Ecologist at Itasca Community College and teaches in the Forestry Program and co-hosts A Talk on the Wild Side on 91.7 KAXE Tuesday mornings at 8:45. Click here to listen to "The Wild Weather of 2010," a piece by Living on Earth that talks with Jeff Masters, Dr. Heidi Cullen and other scientists about the weather extremes in the last year.

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Leave It To Beaver: Controversy in Bemidji

by Doug MacRostie

When I first heard that there would be a series of beaver statues painted by local artists displayed around Bemidji, I'll admit I giggled. And when some of the artists would do status updates on Facebook about "working on my beaver" I also would giggle. What I'm talking about is a new series for the Bemidji Sculpture Walk, funded by the George W. Neilson foundation (they bought the blank beavers). Area artists were selected by committee to paint the beavers. 9 were put up for display on June 20th. Get more info here. They will be displayed for a year, and then auctioned off to benefit the Sculpture Walk, with 30% going to the original artist.

Here is the series sitting together, before being displayed throughout downtown Bemidji:And now the controversy: Gaea, the third beaver from the left has been removed from the Sculpture Walk. Here's the description by Deborah A Davis of her Beaver Gaea, "That the fertile earth itself is female, nurturing mankind is a belief that crosses culture, time and borders. Gaea means Mother Earth. It also means 'God is Gracious,' and is one of the 52 feminine aspects of God in the Christian Bible. Gaea in mythology was a female Titan. If we could embrace the strength of womaness, celebrate it, we would become the people we are meant to be: nurturing, loving, whole." Or, is it obscene and pornographic?

Here's Gaea in her downtown Bemidji location:As you can see, there are forms of the female body, there's a tree growing up from the tail...and what's that on the front? A person rising from bubbles? A flower? A vagina? Mother Earth?

This is where the question comes in: is it pornographic? Bemidji City Manager John Chattin says yes. And he told the Bemidji Pioneer that he doesn't regret the decision.

Deborah disagrees, "I did not intend it to be sexual or titillating in any way," Davis told the Pioneer, "I would never do pornography. I am anti-pornography."

Gaea was taken down on Thursday, July 1st and as of right now there are almost 1000 people who say "Bring Back Gaea to the Bemidji Sculpture Walk" on Facebook. The Bemidji Pioneer has a poll running on their website that shows 77% favoring the returning Gaea to the Sculpture Walk, and the City of Bemidji seems to be at odds with an active arts community, with other pieces in the beaver series now showing signs of solidarity (aka: wrapped up Burqas). This topic is expected to draw a lot of people to the Bemidji City Council Meeting tonight at 7pm. I know I'll be there...