Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
20/06/2009
Effective: being put on notice.
I first met Project Laundry List founder Alexander Lee in Manchester at a Going Green Expo a few years ago. I noticed he was passionate about his mission. Since then his passion to make line drying of clothes legal and acceptable has taken off. The mission of PLL is
“making air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable as a simple and effective way to save energy.”
Recently they have received a significant grant for purposes of strategic planning. They plan to strengthen their focus and deliver on their mission.
Vermont just passed its Right to Dry legislation. PLL expects to see a more states pass “right to dry” legislation this year. Lee is writing a book about laundry and planning Project Laundry List’s first Clotheslines Across the Nation Tour (Sept. 7 to Sept. 17). Lee asks people to help him make drying legal and acceptable when he writes in his most recent newsletter – “Will you step up to the line?”
Why, we ask?
Drying Rack
Dryers use ten to fifteen percent of domestic energy in the United States!
Ten top reasons to dry:
10) Save money (more than $25/month off electric bill for many households).
9) Clothes last longer. Where do you think lint comes from?
8) Clothes and linens smell better without adding possibly toxic chemicals to your body and the environment.
7) Conserve energy and the environment, while reducing climate change.
6) It is moderate physical activity which you can do in or outside.
5) Sunlight bleaches and disinfects. (more…)
Tags:Alexander Lee, Clothes Drying, Dexter R. Richards, electricity consumption in USA, Going Green Expos, Mountain Spirit, PLL, Project Laundry List, saving energy, service projects
Posted in Conservation, Environment, Holistic Living, Inspirational People, Leadership, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
12/06/2009
Indigenous Rights in Amazon
Peru is witnessing violent clashes between indigenous groups trying to protect the Amazon. The government has pushed through legislation allowing intensive mining, logging and large scale farming in the rainforest.
If government and extractive industries proceed, the Peruvian rainforest and its people will suffer unfortunate consequences for the global climate, indigenous cultures, local and global environment.
Interested readers of this blog can sign a petition addressed to the President of Peru, to support the struggle of the indigenous peoples to protect the Amazon. A well respected Latin American politician has plans to deliver the petition to President Alan Garcia on the signer’s behalf.
Petition to the President of Peru, Alan Garcia:
We urge you to immediately cease the forceful suppression of indigenous protests, to suspend laws that open up the Amazon to extractive industries, and to engage in a genuine dialogue with indigenous groups to end the conflict and address their legitimate demands and rights.
UPDATE: To date 112,881 people have shown their support to the indigenous struggle by signing the petition in response to the people’s voicing there opposition to this plan. Peru’s legislature has just temporarily suspended two of the controversial decrees because of this pressure.
Mountain Spirit Institute, as an organization, doesn’t advocate on political behalf’s but believes by disseminating information, readers of this blog, and participants of our programs may make informed choices. For information on MSI’s core values, which include learning from indigenous peoples click here.
Tags:Amazon, Climate Change, indigenous rights, logging, mining in South America, Peruvian government, President Alan Garcia, rainforest protection
Posted in Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Leadership, Mountain People, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
09/06/2009
The Power of Place – Two Black Sand Beaches near Auckland Exude Energy and Ayni*
The Big Easy
I went for a gander at KareKare beach near our base here in Piha Beach the other day. One reads about deserted beaches that run for miles, and I know I’ve only just gotten a taste of New Zealand’s remote beaches, but I have to write about this place. I’m just settling in to what less population density feels like.
New Zealand is a country of about 5 million, and Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, which is about 25km away, has a population of about 2 million. By the looks of KareKare Beach, (or the beach village of Piha for that matter) you’d never know we’re near Auckland . Both KareKare and Piha beach are little hideaways of spirit power spots. One feels the earth energy on the order of Sedona. The power of place exudes from both Piha and Kare Kare.
KareKare Powerspot
From studying geomancy ( the natural order and patterns of landscape and geography) and natural “Apus” or mountain spirits, my experience and feelings tell me this is one hot spot. Both Piha and KareKare beaches exhibit rock peaks that protrude directly out of the beaches.
In Piha there exist dramatic caves at the beach’s north end. We got married in front of one last weekend which had two large caves ascending like hallways from the earth. The one on the right is 20-25 feet tall with floors of soft fine sand. The entrances of the two “hallways” are separated at the cliff’s face by a high wall of about 5 meters wide by 8 meters high, which extends up to roof which forms an alcove.
Roughly in the center of this wall is a block of lighter denser lava, which appears to have been formed by columnar jointing, but is a single large piece, protruding out of the surrounding darker rock by 12 inches. It looks like a natural alter, at chest level, facing out to the Tasman Sea. The whole alcove sits about 6 meters above the beach below, and one ascends a huge pile of fine black sand, who’s top forms the uneven sandy floor of the alcove.
Piha Beach-Village
In Peruvian cosmology the Pacha Mama exhibits mountain or earth spirits in masculine or feminine. In the east, Yin signifies, female, yielding, yang signifies active, positive, male, strong. Piha is obviously a powerful place, not only because of its beauty, but because of the balance in it’s natural layout, between the positive male peak and the female aspect, the caves, not more than a kilometer away.
KareKare Beach exudes power, and solitude. The movie “The Piano” was made here. The wide black sand beach goes on for miles, with cliffs to the back, broad undulating dunes and a narrow little path from the hamlet of KareKare, which deposits you to the beach.
Mayor Bob Harvey was asked on a NZ website about his relationship with this area. Says Harvey, “I’ve been the lifeguard here for 50 years. I think there’s a huge spiritual significance here that I reckon on this coastline from Karekare to Whatipu.” He adds, “Something exists which I…. I can’t put my, my finger on it.”
Peace for two at KareKare
The words “The Big Easy” keep coming to mind. I suppose, because it seems easy to be here, easy to reconnect with yourself and nature. These words, in America have a different connotation – of New Orleans and all the shenanagins that go with the annual Madigras celebration. But here in KareKare, they are the words that seem to fit for me. A place where you can unwind and connect. The place speaks to you. And you are rejuvenated.
*Ayni: A Quechua term meaning ‘reciprocity’ whereby one recieves power from the Apus, or mountain spirits, and one gives power back by offerings and meditation. Reciprocity is a concept that pervades the Quechua way of thinking, and of life in the Andes.
Tags:Ayni, Black Sand Beach, Caves, Cosmology, Geomancy, KareKare Beach, Los Apus, Mountain Spirit, Mountain Spirits, Pacha Mama, Peruvian Shamanism, Piha Beach, Power of Place, Power spots, Quechua, reconnection, rejuvination, Sense of place, Yin Yang
Posted in Environment, New Zealand, Power of Place, Spiritual, Traveling | 3 Comments »
07/06/2009
Is there a link between Frozen Woolly Mammoths and Pole Shift?
When I first read parts of John White’s 1980 book, Pole Shift, what left an indelible mark on me, was reading the link between the green veggies found the stomachs of frozen woolly mammoths and possibility of relatively rapid shiftings of the earth’s magnetic poles called “pole shift”. Then again, maybe I didn’t read correctly, as the excerpts from an old nhne.com article indicate below, where White is interviewed by David SunFellow.
- Pole Drift
I’m not well versed on the subject, but from what limited knowledge I do have on the subject, I find the the correlations interesting. Also, the way that the poles are “drifting” more every year, (also according to NASA scientist turned author/mystic Gregg Braden) has my attention. According to Braden, airports are having to repaint their runway compass coordinates so often, that some have stopped the procedure. (Check out his books, two of which are The Isiah Effect and Awakening to Zero Point.)
Pole Shift Torpedoed by Author
By David Sunfellow
When John White first published “Pole Shift” in 1980, his book sent re-affirming shocks waves through the earth changes community. Many (including this reporter)
- White mentions Mammoths
believed White’s book “proved” that Edgar Cayce, and a host of others, had correctly foreseen a global catastrophe that would destroy much of the planet along with major portions of the human race. White’s book was particularly powerful because it was written by a man with serious professional credentials and, perhaps more importantly, because it seamlessly wed modern scientific data with contemporary psychics and ancient myths and prophecies. While White refused to say in “Pole Shift” that he was absolutely certain that a pole shift was coming, he left no doubt that he thought one might strike sometime near the year 2000.
Now, however, White has publicly said that he doesn’t believe there is going to be a pole shift — at least the kind of cataclysmic variety envisioned by Cayce, Gordon-Michael Scallion, and others. (more…)
Tags:Apollo 14, David Sunfellow, Dexter Randall Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Edgar Mitchell, Experiential Education, Frontiers of Consciousness, Frozen Mammoth, Holistic Living, Institute of Noetic Science, link to pole shift, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, nhne.org, Peru, Pole Shift, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Utah
Posted in Books, Climate Change, Environment, Glaciology | 1 Comment »
05/06/2009
Near The Sunshine Route-Bergshrund Mt. Hood
I was a senior staff trainer at Outward Bound for their Instructor’s Alpine Courses on Mt. Hood. We were finalising a week of training with a successful summit climb. But on the ascent, there was one of those moments, when learning from experience could have been painful but wasn’t, because the outcome was positive. We were climbing the Snow Dome, on Mt. Hood’s northwest side, on the final approach to the Sunshine Route. I had been leading and training staff on this route for a few years prior, so was relatively familiar with the route, crevasses and bivy sites.
Site not far from snowbridge collapse
We set out from high camp on the snow dome early on a cloudless sunny day, a crisp snap in the spring air, crampons crunched the snow underfoot. I decided to let the trainees lead out on ropes of four, with one trainer per rope team. There were three rope teams, and my team was in the back, with taking up the final position. It was easy ground, and once we got to the base of the steeper terrain at the start of the Sunshine route, we’d rearrange the order.
Before setting off, we first decided who would lead out. I then briefed him on the route, which generally followed the crest of the snow dome, but (more…)
Tags:Bergshrund, Dexter Randy Richards, Glacial recession, Glacier Travel, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, Mt. Hood, Outdoor leadership, Outward Bound, Pacific Crest Outward Bound, Route finding, routefinding, Snow bridge collapse, Snow Dome, Staff Training, Sunshine Route
Posted in Climb/Ski/Mntneering, Conservation, Environment, Glaciology, Leadership | 1 Comment »
04/06/2009
MSI VP Bob Stremba
MSI Board Member Attends “Kids Outdoors” Conference
Mountain Spirit Institute board member Bob Stremba of Fort Lewis College’s Outdoor Pursuits, Durango, Colorado, recently attended a conference aimed at addressing initiatives of getting children outside more in the natural world. This “No Child Left Indoors” initiative has a strong advocate with Colorado Lt. Governor O’Brien who is currently soliciting suggestions in writing Colorado Kids‘ Outdoor Bill of Rights.
Stremba shared his findings at this week’s Mountain Institute staff meeting and asked what others in MSI thought about developing curriculum that can be replicated and offered throughout the USA to schools, summer camps and community recreation programs. Said Stremba, “Colorado residents in communities throughout the state are giving feedback on this exciting intiative. He added, “There are about 8 to 10 sites in Colorado working on this, and there will likely be partial government funding for such programs.” Those at the meeting agreed this direction is a good fit for Mountain Spirit.
- Revenge of Gaia
Founder Randy Richards said Mountain Spirit’s core values focus on body mind and spirit, spiritual experiential education, (or a term coined here “espiriential” education), learning from indigenous wisdom, environmental education, sustainability, social responsibility and service. He added, MSI was founded on just the values for which the ‘Kids in the Woods’ iniative is striving.”
Sustainable Communities Programs Director and MSI board member Brenda Dowst mentioned that she has noticed programs “popping up all over” her region in Nova Scotia, and said that including the Indian nation people to teach about giving back, the earth, about appreciation and understanding of the earth would be vital to such education.
She also refered to James Lovelock’s book, Revenge of Gaia, where he warns of the perils of ignoring nature and that our survival of a species, in its present numbers, is in question. She added her reason for bringing up the book in the meeting was that it could serve as a touchstone for moving such programs forward.
- Brenda Dowst
Colorado Kids Outdoors‘ statement of purpose states it “is a collaboration among organizations in the public, private and nonprofit sectors for whom the shared goal is increasing outdoor activity for children. The purpose of this effort is to create a comprehensive framework within the State of Colorado to support efforts of many diverse organizations to provide opportunities, environments and infrastructure for children throughout the State to spend significant quality time in the outdoors. The elements of this framework must include:
- Development and adoption of public policies at the state and local levels that reflects a very high priority for the goal of ensuring that all Colorado’s children, in particular minority and underserved children, have access to safe and healthy, structured and unstructured, outdoor experiences; (see resources below and.. (more…)
Tags:Bob Stremba, Brenda Dowst, Colorado Kids Outdoors, Dexter R. Richards, Experiential Education, Fort Lewis College, James Lovelock, Kids Outdoors Bill of Rights, Mountain Spirit, No Child Left Behind, Outdoor Pursuits, Outdoor resources, Randy Richards, Revenge of Gaia, Susatainable Communities Espiritiential Education
Posted in Environment, Experiential Education, Holistic Living, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
16/05/2009
From New Zealand to Utah, From Alaska to New Hampshire – Ice bergs to Honeycombs
It’s called calving, when a glacier’s edge dramatically breaks off. Many cruise ships take the tour along Alaska’s shores. From Seward and other harbors along the coast, one can sign on for a daily round-trip to get up close views.
Perito Mereno Glacier, Argentina
The dramatic Perito Mereno Glacier in Argentina’s Southern windswept Los Glaciares National Park has many visitors.and is possibly the most famous rivers of ice in the world because. It was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1981. Amanda and I stopped at Tasman Lake in New Zealand’s Mt. Cook National Park to see the floating ice bergs in the grey-green water thick with rock flower. We hiked up to the top of an old terminal moraine and saw the bergs as the sun was setting.
White Pine Lake, Utah
More than a few times, I’ve jumped into such frigid waters, after a run or back country mountain sleep, just to wake me up. While at University of Utah, when I was still learning about the mountains, I did an overnight up White Pine Canyon in the late fall and jumped into White Pine Lake near Snowbird. A few minutes later, it had a skim of ice on it. That’s chilly, but there were no icebergs or calving going on, just shivering.
Lake Tasman, Mt. Cook
The Tasman Glacier regularly claves ice bergs but the evening we were there it was calm and each iceberg gave us a show of *“petreflections” of various sizes and patterns.
When the ice goes out in Lake Sunapee, NH, the reader may be curious to know that there usually aren’t big ice bergs. Then again, I didn’t grow up on the west side of the lake, where the whole lot piles up on a windy afternoon leaving dramatic piles of ice, as if the town dump truck and just deposited its backlog for the winter. On the east side of the lake, we observe the ice gradually thinning from the spring melt, and as it thins, darkens to almost a black. It turn into “honeycomb ice” we call it, where its transformed from the meter-thick solid sheet that runs the whole lake, to fragile, loosely held together elongated splinters that fall apart when scooped up in your hand. Those of us that grew us as kids along the shore of a lake will know what I mean. Daily we watch the progression.
*Petreflections Galore
Official Ice Out day is declared when Artie Osborne can take his boat from the north tip at George’s Mills to Newbury, some 10-13 miles distant without obstruction. To my knowledge, he still makes the trip, and in the process, closes the informal town bets for the season. Go swim in an ice-berg filled lake sometime. It’s the right thing to do.
Author’s Note: Also see my earlier entry on largest iceberg breaks off of Tasman Glacier in 100 years.
*Petreflections: A term coined by Kathy Lowe. See her link above.
Tags:adventure travel, Alaska, Argentina, Arthur Osborne, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Georges Mills, Holistic Living, Ice Bergs, Kathy Lowe Bloch, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Los Glaciares National Park, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, Mt. Cook National Park, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, Newbury NH, Petroflections, Randy Richards, Sunapee NH, Sustainability, UNESCO, Utah, White Pine Canyon
Posted in Environment, Glaciology, New Zealand, Power of Place, South America, Traveling | Leave a Comment »
15/05/2009
MSI and Family Cari
A Son Helps Build a Family Lodge on a Remote Island
There are times in my life when I’ve returned to a wonderful place in the world that I’m still getting to know, and by chance, I’ve end up camping in the same field or returning to the same hostel. Only when I walked into the place, do I remember having stayed there before.
Richard Cari with a Kantuta, National Flower of Peru
Richard Cari’s home and the Kantuta Lodge is one of those places. Since I’m on the subject of “chance travel”, the reader might be interested my entry on a similar instance where I was hitch hiking across France and ended up sleeping in the same field I had slept in 15 years prior. But for now, more on Amantani Island on Lake Titicaca.
I’d come to Amantani Island a few times during my travels in Peru. The place and people drew me in. No cars, electricity only a few hours a day, not even cats or dogs, which made the place seem peaceful. There is hardship on Amantani. The small population living on the 3 mile by 1.5 mile island on Lake Titicaca live at 13000 feet in stunning but somewhat harsh environment. There sustainable crops of Quinoa, potatoes and herbs are rain dependent. There is no irrigation of the crops. People do go hungry, despite the tourism dollars that trickle in from visitors taking boats from the nearby (4 hours!) harbor or Puno, Peru. Most visitors stay at family homes on the island’s west side, who have formed a cooperative rotating schedule that spreads the wealth and visitor’s dollars so no one family is reaping the homestays.
At Outward Bound we learned as instructors the metaphors of community, and here on Amantani, the population, because of its environment is a clear example of community. The island people work together with the resources they have to create the best possible outcome for all.
Segundino & Marcelina Cari of Amantani Island
Segundino, the island’s vice-Shaman, if you will, and his wife Marcelina have what was once a small home like the other villagers near the boat docks. But their son Richard went to University in Puno and majored in Tourism. He has come back with a plethora of “tools” and ideas he learned at school, that have transformed their home into the Kantuta Lodge, complete a separate building dining room, with longer beds for Gringos and Gringas and the only hot shower on the island.
Amantani Island, Lake Titicaca
Richard has done a spectacular job with his new skills making a better life for his family. He is creating a market. I told him I would submit the family lodge Lonely Planet, and even though I’ve not followed through I suspect the word has already gotten out about his good work.
The last time I visited Family Cari, I enjoyed the stay thoroughly. I got to help Richard’s sister Wilma do some cooking and plant potatoes by digging trenches in the garden below the house. I didn’t do very well by the way. Wilma, showing me the digging technique with a short handled hoe, giggled as I’d dig for a few feet before feeling breathless from the altitude. Her mother and father looked on from the house with a wry smile. (more…)
Tags:adventure travel, Amantani Island, David Mamani, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Holistic Living, Kantuta Lodge, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, Peru, Randy Richards, Richard Cari, Segundino Cari, Service, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Tourism, weaving, Wilma Cari
Posted in Environment, Experiential Education, Focus on MSI People, Holistic Living, Leadership, Mountain People, MSI News, Peru, South America, Sustainable Living/Communities, Traveling | 4 Comments »
06/05/2009
Secrets of 37,000 year old baby mammoth revealed
By Paul Rincon – BBC
Baby Mammoth
Perfectly preserved, the baby mammoth looks like she has been asleep only for a moment – not for the 37,000 years she has spent locked in the rock hard permafrost of the Arctic tundra.
Clumps of brown hair still cling to the three foot tall body, hinting at the coarse coat that would have once covered the infant. Even her eylasahes are intact.
These extraordinary images show why scientists are so excited by the discovery of Lyuba – the most complete body of a woolly mammoth ever found
Area where Mammoth was Found
Discovered at the side of a river by reindeer herders on the Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia, the bone month old female is helping scientists to unravel how the extinct ice age giants once lived.
The contents of her stomach have provided scientists with valuable clues about what she and her fellow mammoths ate.
The baby’s layers of fat and minerals in her teeth have provided an unprecedented insight into her health and the health of her herd.
Palaeontologists now believe the information they have gleaned from the remains can help them understand what led to the woolly mammoths’ ultimate extinction around 10,000 years ago.
Mammoth Mummy
It is thought that mammoths died out as they were unable to adapt to the changing world around them as temperatures soared at the end of the last ice age, although some experts believe they may have been hunted to extinction by humans.
The findings have shown that the baby mammoth was in good health and well fed before its death, suggesting that its herd was able to find plenty of food at the time it was alive.
(more…)
Posted in Animals, Archeology, Environment, Glaciology | 6 Comments »
23/04/2009
Concord, NH, USA
“A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against the state of New Hampshire by the owners of Mount Sunapee Resort, who had lobbied for years to expand and develop condominiums. Judge Diane Nicolosi made her ruling late Friday, several weeks after canceling a trial between Tim and Diane Mueller and the state.” Read more via Judge dismisses Mt. Sunapee lawsuit.
“This is a major victory in our efforts to protect Mount Sunapee State Park,” said conservationist and public land advocate Tom Elliott.
Elliott is also an organizer for Friends of Mount Sunapee, a watch-guard group that steadfastly opposed the Mueller’s leasehold expansion plan.
Article: Courtesy of Sunapeenews.com
Editor’s Note: I’m a founding board member of Friends of Mount Sunapee, and although not as active while abroad, am warmed, not only by this decision but by the thought of how far we’ve come with with a shift in land preservation awareness in Sullivan County, NH. When we first considered raising our hands in opposition to (more…)
Tags:adventure travel, Dexter R. Richards, Early Winters, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, FOMS, Friends of Mount Sunapee, Holistic Living, Land Conservation Successes, Mazama, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, Peru, Randy Richards, Spiritual, SPNHF, Sunapee, Sustainability, The Power of Place, Tim and Diane Mueller
Posted in Conservation, Environment, Leadership, Power of Place, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
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