Jack Burns Lives!

My good friend, fellow enviro-meddler and frequent curmudgeon, Michael Lewis, is acting funny. He’s optimistic about the future. Well, to be fair, he’s usually optimistic about the ultimate victory of mother nature over the mega-machine, but he seems more upbeat than usual. He’s talking about immediate, measurable results in the ongoing battle to bring some level of rationality to our current society.

Just today, for example, there was good news. Yahoo News reported that the economy nearly stalled in the first quarter with growth slowing to a pace of just 0.6 percent. Best news I’ve heard all week.

When Michael says something, I generally listen, and I listen because he’s usually right. Not always, but his batting average is far better than Ted Williams, not to mention, my own.

It seems a recent article by Paul Hawken caught his attention. Michael was kind enough to post about it on his blog, HaydukeSpeaks. I recommend you read it, because I think it makes some excellent points and validates all this typing, googling and reading we’ve been doing on the Internet. Not to mention the cycling, walking, planting, conserving and recycling. The really important stuff.

Basically it says we’re witnessing and involved in the “largest social movement in all of history.” The Movement With No Name.

Hawken’s research reveals that perhaps “tens of millions” are actively engaged in the battle to turn things around for our troubled planet. Far more than I originally believed appear to be working daily, behind the scenes, to return balance to ecosystems, make a stand for social justice, restore habitat and protect the voiceless.

It’s rooted in three basic areas of focus: the environmental and social justice movements and indigenous cultures’ resistance to globalization.

Encouraging, indeed.

Can it succeed? And if yes, why will it succeed?

It’s really anarchism at work. A free association of non-violent people working at the grassroots level without hierarchy and without “organization.” It’s a movement bound by ideas and principles. Governments and stubborn capitalists can’t attack it or stop it because there’s no single entity to target. It’s too diverse. Too complex and distributed. As Hawken states, the “movement can’t be divided because it is atomized — small pieces loosely joined. It forms, gathers, and dissipates quickly. Many inside and out dismiss it as powerless, but it has been known to bring down governments, companies, and leaders through witnessing, informing, and massing.”

You and I are part of it. Everyone that’s buying local, cycling, growing food, recycling, trying to conserve and not waste energy is part of it. And so are bloggers and people that post on the Internet. Don’t underestimate your contribution and how valuable the Internet is as a tool to disseminate information and place valuable information in the hands of those that need it.

Despite what the journalists say, bloggers and the Internet have a place in our discourse. An important place, perhaps more so than mainstream journalism, since you rarely get the unfiltered truth from the news entertainment media.

This is where we meet to share ideas and formulate strategy. It’s where we bond together for support and encouragement and to buoy one another up during difficult times.

The Internet is anarchy.

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My long suffering and loving wife tells me I’m too negative. That I view the world through a very dark lens, always finding something negative in what most see as something positive.

I usually respond that I’m simply a realist and simply try to call it like I see it. Tell it like it is.

For example, she sees a barbecue fest. I see a large congregation of humans feasting on a bunch of slaughtered pigs that lived shit lives in small cages, jacked up on hormones and antibiotics before having their heads cut off by a mechanized blade, after being hung by their feet. Thousands of drunk rednecks listening to Free Bird for the one millionth time.

And I’m not even a vegetarian. More than happy to devour a good elk steak with refried beans and a cold beer. Or two.

She sees a baseball game. I see a bunch of supplement taking, overpaid jocks that fly all over creation burning tons of fossil fuel.

And I used to love baseball. Coached it and played it. Now I can’t stand it.

So what’s happening to me? Am I simply too cynical? Have I become a grumpy old curmudgeon at only 44?

I think perhaps it’s the news. Children are dying in Iraq, ice sheets are melting and aquifers are drying up. Yet, the media seems obsessed with reporting on American Idol, Anna Nicole and thousands of other ego maniacs desperately trying to get their artificially dyed, tanned and suctioned bodies in front of a camera.

We’re also embroiled in the national charade known as a Presidential election. Each day, it seems one of ‘em screws up, forgets to read from the cue card and says what he or she really thinks. Once we find out they’re really a misogynistic, racist, bigoted, greedy, war monger, we vote them off the island. At least until we think we’ve found the one that’s the least misogynistic, racist, bigoted, greedy and hungry for war. We put that one in charge.

I suppose in the case of the Republicans, it’s finding the one that is the most misogynistic, racist, sex starved, greedy and hungry for war. Almost always a white dude with a Prussian hair cut, white shirt, baby blue tie and dark suit. They all look the same.

Other headlines? How about these:

Arctic Icecap Melting 30 Years Ahead of Forecast

followed by:

Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming

and these:

Is Bush Leading Us to Nuclear War?

Navy Launches Show of Force Near Iran (Isn’t this sort of like the big bully kicking sand in the face of the skinny kid and then standing around and flexing his muscles? When is someone going to kick the U.S. in the balls?)

The FBI May Have the Inside Scoop on You

Dems Cut Trade Deal with Bush; Poised to Throw American Workers Under Bus

We’re No. 1! America Leads the World in War Profits

Population Growing by 76 Million Annually

World’s Forests Continue To Shrink

World’s Water Resources Face Mounting Pressure

Las Vegas, Nevada: fastest growing metropolitan area in the country (least amount of water)

Yes, there’s much to be encouraged about.

I guess the real question is what the hell can we do? I guess there are several things, done more or less for your own peace of mind than anything. Beginning with the usual laundry list of recycling, buying less, using your own bags for shopping, eliminating plastics, cycling, growing food, conserving resources, turning off lights and AC…basically living as light on the land as possible. Reducing the old footprint.

Beyond that? Pick an issue and dive right in. Commit yourself to being involved. A contributor and spokesperson for that issue. Air, soil, rivers, energy, chemicals, habitat, sprawl, extinction, social justice, stopping the war, etc. Don’t worry about just picking one. They’re all interrelated, so if you pick one, you’re contributing to the good fight on the others as well. I think it should be community based, if possible. Find something going on in your bioregion and be a real badass monkeywrench. Stay on the issue until the bad buys cry uncle.

We need more Rachel Corrie’s. People completely committed to placing their hearts and minds on the line for the future and for standing up for what they believe in. More Chico Mendes‘. Average folks willing to do not so average things.

It will be a lonely path, I might add. Most folks are in La-La land, blithely consuming their way in a life dominated by dead end jobs, credit card debt, mortgages, prescription drugs and cable tee-vee. Everything is fine to them, and in their eyes, you’ll be an eccentric. A Chicken Little. A doomsday dude.

Take gratification in knowing you’re informed, and you’re right. And as Abbey said,

“Be of good cheer: we’ll yet live to piss on the graves of our enemies.”

I’ll give Trugreen credit. At least they responded to my recent inquiry:

Dear Mr. You Ask Too Many Questions:

Your email asking about the materials we use on lawns in the Memphis area was forwarded to me.

The materials we apply to your lawn will vary throughout the year. Your invoice will indicate what was applied each time and the end use concentration range.

The commonly used materials and what they control are listed below. The name in parentheses next to the Trade Name is the common chemical name.

The fertilizers we use consist of one or more of the following: urea, ammonium phosphate & potassium chloride.

The preemergent crabgrass control used in Memphis is Dimension (dithiopyr).

The preemergent Poa annua control used is Princep (simazine)

Broadleaf weed control depends on the weeds present and time of year. Materials include:

-TriPower (3 way combination of MCPA, mecoprop and dicamba)

-Corsair (chlorsulfuron)

-Manor (metsulfuron-methyl)

The postemergent crabgrass control used is MSMA (MSMA)

The nutsedge control used is Sedgehammer (halosulfuron)

If you have the Nuisance Pest Control service then Talstar (bifenthrin) is used.

I hope you find this information helpful. You can contact me if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,

Ed Solon

Thank you, Mr. Ed. I should tell you that I don’t have an “invoice” nor shall I ever have one.

I won’t depress everyone with a detailed analysis of all these poisons. Just a few comments.

Let’s take a look at TRI-POWER, a toxic soup comprised of MCPA, mecoprop and dicamba. Dicamba is listed by Pesticide Action Network of North America as as “PAN Bad Actor,” meaning it is either highly acutely toxic, a cholinesterase inhibitor, a known/probable carcinogen, a known groundwater pollutant, a known reproductive or developmental toxicant or it has any combination of these traits.

It contains 2,4-D and there’s all sorts of information about it on the web.

Noting aquatic ecotoxicity, the observed effect of dicamba with amphibians was death. Mecoprop had the same observed effect with fish, as well as other developmental effects and effects on populations.

Chlorsulfuron is listed as a PAN Bad Actor.

The real bad actor here isn’t an actor at all. It’s a real life boogeyman known as Trugreen. They’re basically greedy, liars. Liars willing to do whatever to make a profit, which includes lying to schools and possibly affecting the health of your children, not to mention the frogs.

I’m pleased to report I still have lots of weeds, including clover, that bothersome plant honeybees depend on. Also happy to report I have a yard full of honeybees, spiders and all sorts of crawling, hopping, flying, scurrying, burrowing things all over the place. But no Trugreen invoices.

It’s May in the Mississippi Delta, a good month for watching your garden plants really start to reach for the sun. May is highly tolerable, not too hot with pleasant sixty-five degree mornings and cool nights. Midday delivers a strong hint summer is near. At noon, the brilliant, clear blue sky of spring gives way to haze, the humidity climbs and the thermostat inches closer to ninety degrees. You realize it’s ’bout time to find your favorite rope and hit the waterin’ hole.

June is bearable, but July, August and September make you long for the cooling temperatures of fall. The juncos have fled and so have most of the chickadees. Each year, thanks to climate change, they arrive later and leave sooner.

In most parts of the world, you can tell what time of year it is by paying keen attention to sounds and to smells. This is especially true in the deep South. I can sit in my garden, close my eyes, tell you exactly what time of year it is by my eyes and my ears. No Christian calendar needed. Avian songs are particularly distinctive in early spring. Baby robin’s and other species are quickly detectable by their hunger calls in late March and early April. I hear dragonflies zip across the patio and over the roof toward the safety of the Eastern pine and Juniper on the north side of the house. By these sounds, I know it’s spring.

In May, I can faintly hear honeybees in the clover, and by June, they become quite noticeable as hundreds descend upon the blooming chives. I’m told, however, that honeybees are dying in massive numbers and no one knows exactly why. Fungus? Parasites? Global warming? Pesticides?

In my own community, I believe chemicals are a likely culprit. My neighbors routinely use a plethora of poison to kill clover and other so-called weeds, several of which are primary pollination sources for honeybees. I’ve also read where cellphones may be involved. This is all so phenomenally stupid because we don’t need either. No one needs to use pesticides on their lawn. No one needs a cellphone. But humans apparently need honeybees, a non-native, North American pollinator we now depend upon for our food supply.

And there are of course the cicadas, whose evening song is one of the most recognizable sounds of summer in the deep South, and lightning bugs, also known as fireflies and glow worms. I can remember many a steamy summer night seated on my great-grandfather’s wrap around, redwood porch, listening to the cicadas. It seemed as if there were thousands, and there probably were. At dusk, the lightning bugs would appear, and I’d run through the yard catching as many as I could with an empty jar, a deluxe model with holes in the top so the bugs could breathe….

That was in the sixties, and it seems like yesterday. I can still imagine grandpa sitting on the glider in his white cotton shirt and seersucker trousers, clutching a glass of iced, sweet tea served in a mayonnaise jar. He wore a white panama hat and wire rimmed glasses, and was a Delta cotton man. A real Southern gentleman.

The other unmistakable sounds of summer are that of our amphibian friends, L. catesbeianus, and in much higher numbers, B. bufo. Otherwise known as Bullfrogs and toads. Common toad to be precise. Not an attractive animal and sometimes unjustly associated with witchcraft and the spreading of warts. Important, however, because they keep invertebrate populations in check and are an important overall indicator of ecosystem health.

I used to hear them nearly every evening, especially after a rain, but not any longer. I don’t see ‘em. Don’t hear ‘em. And the reason I don’t is because they aren’t here.

There are approximately 230 species of amphibians, including about 140 species of salamanders and 90 species of frogs and toads, that occur in the continental United States. Scientists estimate that the number of endemic species that have suffered losses has increased from 33 species in 1980 to 52 species in 1994. We know their numbers are decreasing world wide, and we know that pesticides are a huge part of the problem.

In the United States, Homeowners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops, and they spend more per acre, on average, to maintain their lawns than farmers spend per agricultural acre. (Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Contaminants).

Amphibians are especially susceptible to these contaminants, because they breathe and absorb water, at least in part, through their skin. Exposure to contaminants during development can lead to malformations and grotesque physical deformities. Amphibian species in Minnesota are found to have astonishingly high rates of physical deformities, and at least three species of amphibians have apparently vanished from their former range in Yosemite National Park.

Overall, the causes are multiple, including climate change, pesticides, loss of habitat and disease. In my bioregion, I suspect chemical use is at the top of list. Where does it come from?

Let’s start with Trugreen.
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