Jack Burns Lives!

I’ve always been afflicted by the frequently false notion that the grass is greener on the other side. I always want to be somewhere other than where I am. California, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Canada, anywhere but the Bible Belt, a cultural enclave for Bush loving neocons, soccer moms in Hummers and air so thick it soaks your shirt in less than a minute once you step outdoors.

This summer, I was starting to really get fidgety and angry, more so than usual, desperate to escape to the mountains and leave my problems behind, although I realized that one or two weeks in the mountains isn’t going to change the effects of 50 weeks in city. Maybe I should start reading more Gary Snyder and his “Zen bullshit,” as Abbey called it.

So, I booked a trip to southwest Colorado, a place I had visited two years ago for Abbeyfest, but this time I insisted Allison come along so she could see what all the fuss was about.

Over the years Allison has patiently tolerated my wanderlust, frequently left home to raise the kids and defend our urban homestead against bill collectors, door to door evangelists, brown recluse spiders, flying squirrels and mask wearing invaders otherwise known as raccoons.

What fuss? I think Colorado, despite its apparently high number of Republicans, has a completely different vibe than the south. The landscape is obviously different, but so is the culture. It’s a mecca for hikers, backpackers, cyclists and climbers, where people exalt the great outdoors. In places like Ridgway, there’s a slower pace of life, something I’m not sure they can maintain as the crowds and real estate values increase. There can be little doubt there is a creeping and metastasizing mass growing in southwest Colorado, something Abbey correctly identified in his essay, “Telluride Blues-A Hatchet Job” in The Journey Home. Just drive through Durango if you don’t believe me.

more on Colorado here

Rebuilding New Orleans the way it was is nuts.

Katrina is not only a human disaster, but a massive environmental disaster of unprecedented proportion, now that the area is drowed in a toxic soup and worsening oil spill. But New Orleans was an environmental disaster before the hurricane.

A friend that did some of his Ph.D work in geology in south Louisiana recently made this comment:

“New Orleans, and the entire Mississippi delta below the Mississippi-Louisiana border where the Atchafalaya River departs the Mississippi River, and is dammed off from it, is an artificial construct of the Army Corp of Engineers. The present Mississippi is far overextended, and sooner or later delatic sediment choking, soft-sediment deformation, growth-faulting, and differential compaction WILL combine to cut off the current channel and turn it into the naturally-shorter Atchafalay distributary. When (not if) that happens, with sediment cut off, the eastern delta, including the site of New Orleans, rebuilt or not, will slowly sink into the Gulf of Mexico — in fact that’s already started, it’s why 80% of NO is below sea level now.

THAT is the natural state of things, and perhaps now is the time to let it happen. ”

Another major issue is the destruction of the barrier islands, which helped lessen the blow dealt by Katrina. Now that they are gone, the chemical plants and refineries all along the coast are even more exposed and represent a future environmental disaster of untold proportions. Rebuilding is suicide for humans and non-humans.

“I suggest bulldozing the whole place and taking this opportunity to allow the Mississippi to return to the Atchafalaya, where it should be now. The site of New Orleans will then be allowed to eventually sink into the Gulf of Mexico, as nature intended.”

I agree.

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Katrina and The Lesson of Decentralization
The country and the world is now fully exposed to what it really means to be poor in this country. Thanks in part to George Bush, the battle for Iraq continues, draining national resources while New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is in chaos. Rapes, murders, babies dying, elderly people left to die and rot in the streets. Bloated bodies float through streets. Mostly black, mostly poor and cast aside by the government of the “greatest nation in the world.”

To be fair, the all of the blame doesn’t lie with the feds. In fact, I think the majority of the blame lies with the city and state government. As the story develops, it’s clear there were major failures at every level of government.

So, what’s the lesson learned? If you’ll notice what’s happening, it’s ordinary citizens stepping up to the plate and taking care of people, not the government. If there was ever a situation that fully and completely illustrated why we don’t need governments, it’s New Orleans. Folks and organizations in Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi and other areas are opening their homes to these people, organizing food drives, donating money and going the extra mile, while the worthless government has been standing around doing what governments do best: nothing.

A recent article in Truthout illustrates the dramatic difference between community based response and centralized response.

“The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said, “nothing about the president’s demeanor yesterday – which seemed casual to the point of carelessness – suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.”

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Katrina
It’s looking really grim for New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf coast. Life will certainly not be the same, although I’m sure some people will insist on rebuilding the area exactly as it was. This is, of course, a major mistake.

There are lots of Louisiana folks in Memphis today, and I suspect a good number of people are beginning to think about permanent resettlement in another city or town. At least the smart ones. The reality of New Orleans is that some areas are just not suitable for permanent human settlement. Man can manipulate the earth in amazing ways, but it doesn’t always guarantee safety, especially when human populations swell to the level of New Orleans.

It’s a perfect example of non-sustainability, and Katrina hopefully provides a lesson, especially for the developers of casinos and condos in fragile coastal areas. My guess is it won’t, and a damn the torpedoes attitude of “we won’t be beaten” will bring the developers back for more.

Too harsh? Possibly, but how can you deny that the fact that New Orleans has been living on borrowed time for years and years?

What’s the solution? I freely admit that I don’t know. Maybe there’s not one, but I do know this. What we’re doing isn’t working, but history does provide examples of more successful (assuming you measure success in terms of sustainability) societal models we should consider.

The indigenous people of North America knew a thing or two about sustainable living and human settlements, and for 200,000 years (possibly more) lived sustainably as hunter gatherers. In North America, the archaeology and ethnographic record reveals a cultural continuity for thousands of years for several groups. Is it unreasonable to suggest that our society should take a closer look at what made those societies successful and attempt to apply some of the guiding principles? Mainstream society absolutely has to reconsider human settlement and construct sustainable settlements in areas suited for permanent, sustainable habitation.

Post hunter gatherer societies like the Chickasaw of the Lower Delta didn’t maintain a permanent settlements in my area, just “up river” from New Orleans. This area was only a flood prone but lucrative hunting ground, and their permanent settlements were much further south, close to what is now known as Yahoo City, Mississippi. They lived bioregionally, almost completely within what we now call the Lower Mississippi Riverine Province.

I simply do not believe that man was meant to live in cities housing hundreds of thousands of people. Man continues to believe otherwise, but not without consequences. And no, we can’t return to a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle, but we better start thinking more seriously about lower population levels and sustainable human settlements. Otherwise, we’re going to have more disasters like New Orleans, perhaps worse.

Just returned from a trip in the Smoky Mountains, three days of quiet time in the woods. A time to clear my head and my lungs, commune with the critters and escape my troubles.

While on the trail, I met a fellow that had been on the trail for 25 days! I’m deeply envious of this guy, a young biologist from Wisconsin that seems to have his life totally together.

A Barred owl kept us company at night, and I also got to see my first Scarlet Kinglet, although both escaped the camera lens. They’re artful dodgers, masters of their domain.

Pics are here.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the past few years observing and participating in the ongoing debate that occurs between environmentalists, developers and industrialists. One that is more often than not barren of the fruits of compromise, even when compromise makes sense for everyone involved.

And of course there are times when compromise is not possible, and no offer of compromise should be given. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one such example.

It’d be a whole lot easier to deal with if we were really just sitting around, laughing and making fun of one another, but of course, we’re not. Most of the time a lot is at stake, perhaps damage that can never be undone. At least not by man.

The continuing debate about the future of our riverfront is an example of where compromise does make sense, as both sides of the debate agree on the core issue that something needs to be done to improve the area known as the Public Promenade. Unfortunately, both sides are far apart, but Friends of Our Riverfront are hopeful that meaningful discussions can take place, resulting in a plan that makes sense for all. It remains to be seen whether the Riverfront Development Corporation is equally willing, but Vegas odds makers are saying the chances of discussions, much less compromise, are not good.

More here