One Man's Trash...

By The U.S. National Archives

During the Great Depression and the war that followed, people learned to save and re-use everything.   By today's standards they might have been considered hoarders or pack rats.  But back then, it was necessary for survival, and rationing was encouraged by the government.

I think, and I could be wrong, that today's society sees rationing as a sign of poverty or weakness--a holdout of that dark time in America.  Counter to reason, when today's unemployment rates are so high and prices are soaring, all the new stuff is disposable, and it gets disposed of, or thrown on the ground.  Even the earth's good, fresh water gets a disposable feeling to it once we put it in a plastic bottle. This is taken as sign of affluence and success.

But true success doesn't come from making sure you clean up your extravagant messes.  It comes from not making the mess in the first place.  Many Americans take great, albeit strange, pride in their trash, and feel they are entitled to do with it as they please.  If anyone tells them otherwise, they become defensive, just like the possessive toddler who refuses to flush her bowel movement down the toilet. So, out the window the plastic bottle of fresh water goes, to flow into the storm sewer, to the river, to the sea, joining the flotilla of plastic bottles, because that's the owner's self-given right.

I am not implicating you, the reader, in actual littering.  But, how much of what we buy and therefore promote is made to be thrown away and encourages littering in others?  Do we take so much pride in the disposability of everything that we have lost touch with the reality that it's dangerous to the planet? By buying disposables, are we supporting a garbage-based society? It sure looks like it when I walk my dog and come home with hands full of litter.

By The U.S. National Archives

My grandparents had a giant pile of tin and aluminum cans in their back yard.  It was amazing how much metal trash two people (and their guests) could produce. I think it was embarrassing for my parents, especially my mom, to see that kind of clutter and obsessive collection.   Nobody "in their right mind" wants their yard to look like a junk yard.  Today, the goal in society is that our waste must not be seen or smelled, and recycling must be nearly effortless.  I wonder, is that a reasonable goal?  Should we be so unaware of what our garbage is doing after it leaves our hands?  If garbage was collected once a month rather than once a week, would we buy so much stuff?  Would we make phone calls to the companies who sell that stuff, and tell them they're cramping our style when we can't buy bulk re-fills?  Or would we just complain about the smell and demand weekly pickup?

Isn't one man's trash actually everyone's treasure?  The wealth of our nation, I daresay "world," is going in the dump, on the ground, or worse.  According to Anu Agarwal, CEO of TheGreenEcostore.com,

"A common estimate is that the global consumption of plastic bags is more than 500 billion annually — that's almost a million plastic bags used per minute. But only 1 per cent is recycled. Plastic can take up to 1,000 years to break down, so even when an animal dies and decays after ingesting some, the plastic re-enters the environment, posing a continuing threat to wildlife,"

By San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives

 Why are people afraid to tell companies that we don't want everything to be over-packaged and plasticized?  I called Gatorade a month or two ago to tell them the reason I bought the powdered drink mix was to avoid buying plastic bottles, but now they sell the drink mix in weird plastic cylinders.  I told the woman on the phone I thought it was a mistake to change from cardboard to plastic, and I wanted them to change it back.  Years ago, when Oil of Olay stopped making glass bottles for their lotions, I called them to complain.  I don't get anything out of the complaints.  I'm probably in the minority and really can't make a difference, but I still let people know how I feel. I believe that taking care of my home means taking into consideration what I bring into it and how it impacts the entire world.  Unfortunately there are so many hidden costs to everything these days.  Does that bother you?  It bothers me.

My Earth Day Sermon -- if I was ever asked to give one

I'm about to tell you something that will make a lot of you stop listening, because I will lose all credibility in your mind.  I say this now because I would like to challenge you to hear me out, even if you don't agree with everything I believe in.  Here it is:  I don't believe in Hell.  I don't believe in Heaven for that matter.  As for an after-life, I think that's all about the everlasting human spirit.  We teach those around us to carry forward compassion and love.  We learn from others and stories of those gone before us how we should behave in a society of humans.  And, some of us take words from scripture and use them to learn more about how to be our best, and carry our human spirit forward and beyond our physical being.  And if I'm wrong about Heaven, that's fine.  I do know that we're supposed to love everyone, even our enemy, and if there's a God that loves us that much, too, he wouldn't exclude anyone from Heaven.  But for the sake of this sermon, let's see Heaven as the goodness of the human spirit, and Hell, a place we created on Earth.

Again, I'm not a big fan of Hell.  I do love a good metaphor, though.  After all, what is all language, but metaphor?  Even the simplest words, with little room for interpretation are merely symbols that represent something.  There is no "literal translation" of anything, let alone the Bible, because even the most exact interpretations still have to pass through the filter of the human mind--not only the mind of the translator, but that of every individual in his or her audience.  This is where the variety of human experience blurs all "literal" interpretation .  I find the metaphor of Hell to be so intriguing, with each person interpreting it in a way that tells a story of who they are.  From my perspective, I'd like to suggest that it applies directly to the environment.  I am, after all, an environmentalist at heart.

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321 ad

Now before I go on, I want to make it very clear that when I'm talking about Hell, that you put aside Dante Alighieri's version, and consider the Bible's.  This Italian, Dante, wrote an epic poem called "Divine Comedy" a long time ago, and the section called "Inferno" has really impacted how people think about Hell.  If YOU think about Hell as a blazing inferno where people are eternally damned, you got your version of Hell from Dante.  However, a quick search the word "Hell" in the New Testament comes up with 15 references, seven of which are in Matthew, three in Mark, one in Luke, two in Acts, and one each in James and 2nd Peter.  All of the New Testament references are a translation of the word Gehenna, which was an actual place that you could visit, if you were alive at the time.  If you want to look it up, find yourself a Bible that provides exact translations (not interpretations of translations) of the Hebrew and Greek.  Go ahead and look in your Bible.  If it's a good Bible, it will have a footnote at Matthew 5: 21-23 that says the word was taken from the Greek for Gehenna.  Other translations of "Hell" in the Bible were originally the words Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, and aion, but my favorite is this place, Gehenna. 

The Tombs in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna)

In the Hebrew Bible, the site was initially where apostate Israelites and followers of various Ba'als and Caananite gods, including Moloch, sacrificed their children by fire. They sacrificed their children by fire! Now I told you that this would be a metaphorical interpretation for an Earth Day sermon. Think about it. How are we sacrificing our children by fire in the name of false idols, today?  Not even so metaphorically, but literally, burning away our progeny's future!  In Gehenna, the fires burned night and day, fueled by future generations, just as our coal fired plants, our pistons fire, our guns blaze, and our incandescent bulbs light the way to a very dark future. 

I am also not any kind of  a fan of the God of the Old Testament who sends His wrath down to the earth when He is displeased.  But in my search for material for this sermon, I came across this text in Deuteronomy, which speaks volumes to me about our destruction of our beautiful coal-bearing mountains in Appalachia and elsewhere: 

"For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,

one that burns down to the realm of the dead below.

It will devour the earth and its harvests

and set afire the foundations of the mountains. "

Photos used in animation via NASA Earth Observatory, remixed by @jaiden0

I'm omitting much of the passage in Deuteronomy because it is from the perspective of an angry, vengeful God who I cannot fathom. But it speaks of how we were given all the good things of the earth, and we squandered it. I don't believe God is punishing us for this. I believe in the power of cause and effect, but there it is,  in Deuteronomy. The foundations of the mountains have been set afire, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

From the  Plastic Pollution Coalition on Facebook

So I implore you to root out those false idols that you can do without, to spare the mountains and to douse the flames of Gehenna.   I don't normally give unsolicited advice, but if you've come this far and you're still listening, I might as well push the envelope!  Here are a few suggestions of ways to extinguish those flames that are consuming our children. Don't buy what's cheapest because it's cheapest. Understand why it's cheap first. You can live without single-use plastics such as water and soda bottles. They aren't being recycled and they're killing our oceans and other waterways. Plastics are bad for you, too. Encourage your workplace, city, or state to go single-use plastic-free.  Recycle everything you can.  If you are able, dust off your bicycle, and take it for a ride. Eat low on the food chain. Every step up the food chain loses up to 90% of the energy it consumes, especially if it consumes corn. Boycott companies that are polluting, wasting resources, or using socially unjust practices. Embrace companies that are honestly trying to operate in a way that is fair to the people and the planet, like Fair Trade coffee companies. Bring your own bags to the grocery store or put your purchases directly in your car if you forgot a bag.  Conserve fresh water. The majority of the world's population lives without it every day. Green up your living spaces by planting a garden, or native plants, and by evaluating your home for energy inefficiencies. Learn to live a little less comfortably, and find a new comfortable.

And most of all, love your neighbor, your enemy, the downtrodden and the earth.  We can choose to live in Gehenna, and to destroy the mountains, or we can find a new way that isn't so far from what the Bible has been telling us for thousands of years.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Shaus Swallowtail

Schaus Swallowtail

This is the last of five blog posts about my 

Endangered Butterfly linoleum print series.

 

The Shaus swallowtail is the only butterfly in the family which contains the swallowtails (Papilionidae) that is endangered in the US.  Once populating the southern tip of Florida and the Florida Keys, the Schaus swallowtail now survives in small tropical hardwood hammocks in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties, northern Key Largo, and several small islands within Biscayne National Park (Photo by ZanyShani on Flickr.)



Another important refuge for the Shaus is at

Biscayne National Park 

"Deering Estate at Cutler," a 400-acre green space on the coast, and the butterfly is also being reintroduced to a golf course in Miami-Dade. Females lay their eggs on wild lime and sea torchwood.  The topography of Florida is very flat, so most of the background map in the image consists of man made canals and streets with isolated green spaces.  This speaks volumes to the impact of humans on the native habitat of the butterfly.  This image is three color blocks:  Blue, yellow and black.  The red areas are hand painted watercolor.



Special thanks to Dr. Tom Emmel for the use of his photograph to create this print, and for his and his colleagues' dedication to conserving this beautiful species.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Mitchell's Satyr

Mitchell's Satyr

The Mitchell's Satyr belongs to the family Satyridae. The Satyrs are some of the most endearing butterflies. Their name is suits them: The mythological Satyr is an intoxicated forest-dweller. The goat-like man is a randy creature, and I have seen local Satyr butterflies mating in mid air, with the female struggling to fly against the male's weight.Even when flying solo, their flight pattern is dopey, slow, heavy and labored, and they have very round wings. Unlike many butterflies, the Satyrs don't often bask in the sun with their wings spread out flat, so observers will often see them in profile. with the underwings showing.

Photo: Tondo of an Attic red-figure plate, 520–500 BC. From Vulci

The Mitchell’s satyr lives in Michigan and Indiana in prairie fens, which are a combination of a prairie and a bog. The background map in this print is of the Paw Paw River watershed in Michigan. The USGS topographic maps have symbols representing wetlands that I incorporated in the background as well. The caterpillars eat foxtail sedge and tussock sedge, but their habits aren't fully understood. The cause of their endangered status isn’t clear. The print is made from two color blocks.

Photo credit: Andrew Hoffman's "Marshy Fen" (in Indiana) on Flickr.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Lange's Metalmark

Lange's Metalmark
This is the third of five posts about my endangered butterfly linoleum prints

The Lange's metalmark is the only member of the family Riodinidae on the endangered species list. It lives on about 50 acres of heavily mined sand dunes south of the San Joaquin River. Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge was the first national wildlife refuge in the country established to protect endangered plants and insects. The Lange’s habitat has been industrialized since the 1930s, but the butterfly was only recently recognized as endangered.

The population had been declining since 1999 to a low of just 158 in 2006. It has been slowly climbing back to 209 in 2007 and 367 in 2008 due to conservation efforts. It lays its eggs on naked buckwheat. The plant's seedlings require open sand to become established. Of all the states, California has the most endangered butterflies.

This print was made from two color blocks and is printed on Rives Lightweight Paper, 115gsm.




Photo credit: "Antioch Dunes" by jwdmeow on Flickr


Special thanks to Louis Terrazas, for use of his images, all of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Refuge Specialists at Antioch Dunes, and Urban Wildlands for conserving this endangered butterfly and its fragile habitat.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Uncompahgre Fritillary

Uncompahgre Fritillary
This is the second of five posts about my endangered butterfly linoleum prints

The Uncompahgre Fritillary is in the family Nymphalidae – The name of this butterfly comes from one of the nomadic groups of the Ute Indians that once traveled in what is now eastern Utah, western Colorado and parts of New Mexico and Wyoming. Uncompahgre fritillary lives on two 14,000ft peaks in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado: Uncomphagre and Red Cloud peaks. Its caterpillars eat snow willow, which is a miniature, alpine version of our tall willow trees. This print is made from two color blocks.





Alpine ecosystems are fragile – the species are isolated much like island species, and they are adapted to the temperature, moisture and altitude. Increases in average temperature are major concern for alpine and montane species; as temperatures warm, the subalpine zone marches up the mountain, decreasing the surface area available until it is gone.

Photo credit: Trail up Uncompahgre Peak by Jessi Varner on Flickr


Special thanks to the amazing photographer Bill Bouton for the use of his butterfly photo, and to Dr. Paul Opler for his gracious advice.

Five Endangered Butterflies: Mission Blue

The Five Endangered Butterfly prints tell the stories of the butterflies, and represent similar stories of imperiled butterflies across the globe. Each image contains three aspects of the butterfly’s life history: The butterfly in adult form, the geography of the region in which it currently lives, and the particular host plant(s) that the females lay their eggs on for the caterpillars to consume. Most butterfly species depend on a very narrow diet for the caterpillars, and the landscape provides the habitat for the ecosystem. In the case of endangered butterflies, the ecology and life history are so interdependent that human impacts are often the cause of their peril.

There are 17 federally listed endangered butterflies from five taxonomic families in the US. The “family” is the level of classification above the genus and species of an organism. These five endangered butterfly prints are representatives of the five families of butterflies. They are all linoleum relief prints on Rives Lightweight Paper, 115gsm.


The Endangered Butterfly print project began with the Mission Blue. Daniel Dancer, a conceptual artist asked me to create a t-shirt design for an “Art for the Sky” collaboration at Presidio Middle School in San Francisco, CA. (Aerial photo credit: Michael Maloney, SF Chronicle.) After completing the commission for Daniel, I felt like the Mission Blue's story was only part of the message I wanted to send out. So, I created a series of prints that represent butterflies of the five families.

THE MISSION BLUE STORY:

Mission Blue belongs to the family Lycaenidae— Eight of the seventeen federally listed butterflies belong to Lycaenidae, or the “gossamer wings.” The subfamily of “blues” are generally small, delicate butterflies that use legumes as host plants. The largest population of mission blues live in the San Bruno Mountains near San Francisco. Other small populations exist in other locations in Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco counties. The topographic lines in the background of the print represent the coastal San Bruno Mountains. The females lay their eggs on silverleaf lupine, which is on either side of the butterfly. This image was made from three color blocks.

This is the first of five blogs describing the Five Endangered Butterflies series. These prints are available for sale as a set of five, only, and are not sold separately.