To Chicago, Habrae, Hidden Lake, And Reza's

We're in Chicago with old, old friends.  Actually they aren't older than we are, but we've known them for a long time.  

We thought it would be easy getting here on a non-stop flight out of Anchorage.  For the non-stop route, we were willing to fly overnight.  In the end, after lots of to-ing and fro-ing (one hour delay, get on plane, taxi from gate, sit on tarmac, return to gate, need to fix some mechanical issue,  some people want to get off because they've already missed their Chicago connections, then everyone told to get off, then several new estimated departure times, then four hours from original flight time, the flight is cancelled) we were quickly put on a 5am flight to Seattle with a tight connection to a Chicago flight, which we made.  And later we got an email with a $200 credit for each of us on future Alaska Airlines flights.  For people who were soured by Alaska Airlines because of these delays, it's a bittersweet reward.  But for people dependent on Alaska Airlines like we are, it's a decent apology gift.  

But our friends were patient on their end and got us to a great Thai restaurant in Oak Park for dinner and home to crash.  

We shared sticky rice and mango for dessert.

Thursday they took us to Hidden Lake.  It's in DuPage County and abuts the Arboretum.  

They were trying to get us somewhere that got us into woods without too many urban distractions.  

And they did a pretty good job.  The trees are so different from Anchorage trees.  No spruce, no birch, no cottonwood.  Not sure what they all were, but it felt exotic to this Alaskan.  It seemed there were some maples.  Probably in the arboretum there would have been labels, but we just wanted to walk around and enjoy.  A few trees are just beginning to turn, but barely.  Temps in the low 70s.  And lots of birds, but for the most part not easy to catch with the camera.  I think the one below is a flicker, but I'm not completely sure.  

Lots of late flowers like this clover.

But there is a villain in this story.  

These are the same white flowers, but they weren't quite in focus so I played with Curves to get this version.  

And then we lucked out on dinner.  We'd passed a sign for Reza's on the way.  Sounded like a Middle Eastern place.  Even better, it turned out to be Persian and we had a delicious dinner with an accommodating waiter, and lots to take home for lunch today.  This one was a chicken kabob.  

Climate Reality Spreading - 'Death' Valley Adds Another Victim

The weather around the world this summer is likely to convince a lot of people that climate change is serious.  That it is changing the conditions of living that we have simply taken for granted and assumed would continue.  

LA Times reporter Hayley Smith, started this story talking about covering disasters including floods and wildfires, but the heat at Death Valley

 ". . . was a different kind of beast, something most people alive have yet to experience. One park visitor described it as like an open oven; another like a blow dryer to the face . I imagined it was more like the surface of the sun, or like someone had left the lights on in hell. 

It was in those circumstances that I met Steve Curry."

She was interviewing tourists at Zabriski Point.  Then she caught my attention:

"Suddenly, my colleague, photojournalist Francine Orr, spotted a lone figure scrambling up a nearby canyon and snapped his photo."

Francine Orr sounded familiar.  I checked my blog to be sure.  Orr spoke to this year's Alaska Press Club Conference in April about photographing COVID victims inside a few LA hospitals during the pandemic. She had gotten permission to photograph patients inside a hospital just as COVID was about to start and she took striking photos.  

I posted them on my COVID page (You can scroll down to April 18, 2023, but I'll repost them here since I never put them up here in the main part of the blog. The photos and the presentation were powerful.) 

Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf

Over the weekend I attended the Alaska Press Club Annual Conference and the last speaker I heard was Francine Orr of the LA Times.  She's a photographer who got permission to take pictures in a hospital in LA just as COVID was beginning and continued doing that for a couple of years.  If people had been seeing her pictures daily, perhaps more people would have taken more precautions.  Here are a couple of the pictures she showed.  

Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf

Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf

Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf

But back to Death Valley and Steve Curry.  

"He was from the Sunland neighborhood of Los Angeles, he told us from beneath his wide-brimmed straw hat. He was 71."

He was on his annual hike there in Death Valley and they offered him more water (he had one water bottle), a reprise in the air conditioning of their car, even a ride back to the trailhead.  

"The park service advises visitors not to hike in the park after 10 a.m. during extreme summer temperatures, but Steve was chipper. He said he was an experienced outdoorsman, and he was determined to finish his round-trip solo hike to Golden Canyon.

"Already, a scalding wind was blowing through the park, overheating our electronic equipment and turning metal door handles into hot irons. Francine and I could bear only a few minutes of it before diving into our cars for the relief of air conditioning, but Steve was persistent. He said he had completed extensive training and was getting ready for another hike in August. 

"What we now know is that Steve did finish his journey, but just barely. He collapsed outside the bathrooms at Golden Canyon at about 3:40 that afternoon and died shortly after. Though the coroner has not yet confirmed his cause of death, officials said they believe it to be heat-related."

 

Smith tells us she ended up meeting Steve's widow and wrote his obituary. 

"He said he was an experienced outdoorsman"

The world is changing.  Our experience of the world as we have known it doesn't necessarily prepare us for the world that is here today and the one it is evolving into because oil companies and their allies have been spreading and continue to spread misinformation to continue making money.  Foolish venal people are not a problem if the consequences of their folly only affects them.  But in this case the world is suffering and will continue to suffer because of them and the people unwilling to stand up to them.   

Paracelsus - A Remarkable Man In His Day

Mildred Bevel is the wife of very rich Andrew Bevel.  Her body has been weakening and she's now in the same Swiss health spa and sanitarium in a rural mountain location that her father was once in.  We're in the fourth and final book of Hernan Diaz' Pulitzer Prize winning novel Trust which I wrote about earlier. 

Ida Partenza, who is listed as the author of the third part of this novel, was hired by Andrew Bevel, to help him write his autobiography after Mildred has died. Ida's appearance in the story begins in 1938.   Basically Andrew is trying to get Ida to take dictation and portray himself and Mildred in the most favorable way to himself.  

Ida has learned that Mildred kept diaries all her life, but either they no longer exist or they've been intentionally withheld from her.  But 40 some years after Andrew has also died, and his old house has been made into the Bevel museum, Ida discovers the notebook that Mildred wrote while she was in the sanitarium, 'wedged into the middle section of the ledger.'  

Most of the entries are brief.  The headings are basically AM, PM, and EVE.  This one entry caught my attention.  

"EVE 

Wolf quotes Barrett letter to Browning:  'You are paracelsus, and I am a recluse, with nerves that have been broken on the rack, and now hang loosely, quivering at a step and breath.' Why all the Paracelsus suddenly?'"

What or who is paracelsus?  In today's world, such mental itches can be scratched instantly with the help of Google.  Which took me to Wikipedia.  

"Paracelsus (/ˌpærəˈsɛlsəs/; German: [paʁaˈtsɛlzʊs]; c. 1493[1] – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim[11][12]), was a Swiss[13] physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.[14][15]

He was a pioneer in several aspects of the "medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. He is credited as the "father of toxicology".[16] Paracelsus also had a substantial influence as a prophet or diviner, his "Prognostications" being studied by Rosicrucians in the 1600s. Paracelsianism is the early modern medical movement inspired by the study of his works.[17]"

"Paracelsus sought a universal knowledge[27] that was not found in books or faculties" thus, between 1517 and 1524, he embarked on a series of extensive travels around Europe.[27][28] His wanderings led him from Italy,[27][29] France,[27] to Spain,[27] Portugal,[27] to England,[27][29] Germany,[27] Scandinavia,[27] Poland,[27] Russia,[27][29] Hungary,[27][29] Croatia,[27] to Rhodes,[27] Constantinople,[27][29] and possibly even Egypt.[27][28][29] During this period of travel, Paracelsus enlisted as an army surgeon and was involved in the wars waged by Venice,[27] Holland,[27] Denmark,[27] and the Tartars.[27][29] Then Paracelsus returned home from his travels in 1524.[27][28][29] 

It's hard for me from the Wikipedia entry to abstract his main contributions.  He's a curious combination of old and new ways of thinking. 

"As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, and Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance, a world-view exemplified by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola.[citation needed] Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus's medicine and he was a practising astrologer – as were many of the university-trained physicians working at that time in Europe. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease.[citation needed] He largely rejected the philosophies of Aristotle and Galen, as well as the theory of humours. Although he did accept the concept of the four elements as water, air, fire, and earth, he saw them merely as a foundation for other properties on which to build.[46]"

He carried on a 'letter dialogue [with Erasmus] on medical and theological subjects.' (I'm old enough to remember when you communicated long distance by letter, while I know that is hard for younger readers, used to instant communication, to fathom how that could work.  I'm sure this epistolary dialogue was far weightier than most online debates.)

"Paracelsus's approach to science was heavily influenced by his religious beliefs. He believed that science and religion were inseparable, and scientific discoveries were direct messages from God. Thus, he believed it was mankind's divine duty to uncover and understand all of His message.[48] Paracelsus also believed that the virtues that make up natural objects are not natural, but supernatural, and existed in God before the creation of the universe. Because of this, when the Earth and the Heavens eventually dissipate, the virtues of all natural objects will continue to exist and simply return to God.[48] His philosophy about the true nature of the virtues is reminiscent of Aristotle's idea of the natural place of elements. To Paracelsus, the purpose of science is not only to learn more about the world around us, but also to search for divine signs and potentially understand the nature of God.[48] If a person who doesn't believe in God became a physician, they would not have a better standing in God's eyes and will not succeed in their work because they don't practice in his name. Becoming an effective physician requires faith in God.[49] Paracelsus saw medicine as more than just a perfunctory practice. To him, medicine was a divine mission and good character combined with devotion to God was more important than personal skill. He encouraged physicians to practice self-improvement and humility along with studying philosophy to gain new experiences.[50]"

Practice was a key focus for him. 

"During his time as a professor at the University of Basel, he invited barber-surgeons, alchemists, apothecaries, and others lacking academic background to serve as examples of his belief that only those who practised an art knew it: 'The patients are your textbook, the sickbed is your study.'[31]"

 "Paracelsus was one of the first medical professors to recognize that physicians required a solid academic knowledge in the natural sciences, especially chemistry. Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine."

"Because everything in the universe was interrelated, beneficial medical substances could be found in herbs, minerals, and various chemical combinations thereof. Paracelsus viewed the universe as one coherent organism that is pervaded by a uniting life giving spirit, and this in its entirety, humans included, was 'God'. His beliefs put him at odds with the Catholic Church, for which there necessarily had to be a difference between the creator and the created.[60] Therefore, some have considered him to be a Protestant.[61][62][63][64]"

"Paracelsus is frequently credited with reintroducing opium to Western Europe during the German Renaissance. He extolled the benefits of opium, and of a pill he called laudanum, which has frequently been asserted by others to have been an opium tincture. Paracelsus did not leave a complete recipe, and the known ingredients differ considerably from 17th-century laudanum.[67]

Paracelsus invented, or at least named a sort of liniment, opodeldoc, a mixture of soap in alcohol, to which camphor and sometimes a number of herbal essences, most notably wormwood, were added. Paracelsus's recipe forms the basis for most later versions of liniment.[68]

His work Die große Wundarzney is a forerunner of antisepsis. This specific empirical knowledge originated from his personal experiences as an army physician in the Venetian wars. Paracelsus demanded that the application of cow dung, feathers and other noxious concoctions to wounds be surrendered in favor of keeping the wounds clean, stating, 'If you prevent infection, Nature will heal the wound all by herself.'" 

Thank you Wikipedia for letting me find this and share it here. [Yes, I do donate to Wikipedia annually.]

It's hard to free oneself from the 'common wisdom' of the day.  It appears - and my expertise on Paracelsus is limited to the Wikipedia entry - that perhaps his theoretical understanding was still clinging to the old, while his practical knowledge was pushing forward to new, more scientific answers.  

So why is Paracelcus mentioned in passing in Mildred's diary.  Because, I assume, he spent time in Switzerland, he believed in massage and the healing properties of mineral waters, both of which are part of her treatment.  

"You have to risk it to get the biscuit." Sharman Haley On Hiking The Haute Route Through The Pyrenees [UPDATED 2/20/23]

[UPDATE 2/20/23 - Now available in Anchorage at  Mosquito books and Barnes and Noble]

Sharman Haley's book, Perspectives on Place: An Alaskan Explores the Pyrenees came out early December.  It's an account of her walking tour on the the Haute Route, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) through the Pyrenees of Northern Spain. Sharman is a retired economist and sometimes that's reflected in the depth she explores things.  But the beautiful water colors of her partner and travel companion Michael Samoya offer a refreshing respite from the more difficult passages.  A good reflection of the hike itself I would imagine.  

Sharman is a friend and was a colleague at the University of Alaska Anchorage.  She let me view a prepublication copy in November and I've left a draft of this post languish since early December.  My hope here is to give a sense of the book by using quotes that reflect the variety of topics she experienced on the trek.  Not unlike many posts on this blog.  

This book is probably most useful and interesting taken along when doing this hike through the Pyrenees.  It's most basic organization is chronological, so hiking along the trail, one gets history, geography, natural history, along with descriptions of the trail and refuges along the way.  So Sharman's details of the history of various locations would add richness to one's hike.  

There's often a tendency to compare what you're seeing to what you know.  It's how we expand our world view and gives us insights into our own homeland and assumptions. Sharman does this explicitly by adding an Alaska perspective to each chapter.   For example, one chapter describes wars and treaties going back to the 1300s in Aragon.  The matching Alaska history only goes back as far as the Russian invasion in the 1700s.  While Haley acknowledges that Alaska Natives have been on the land for tens of thousands of years, she excuses leaving  out any of that older history on the grounds that Native cultures were oral, so we don't know.  However, there are archeological digs in Alaska that go back further than the Russians and matching them to archeological sites on the route might have been a better connection - perhaps comparing the archeology experiences of both places.  Using invasions as the common thread seemed a stretch.  

Here's a sampling of what you'll find on the pages of this unique book and, for me, engaging trip through the Pyrenees.  

Useful travel advıce:

"Sleeping at the refuge with 30 other people side by side in two long

bunks was an experience. It was surprisingly comfortable and went remarkably

smoothly. Everyone was organized and quiet and respectful going to

bed and getting up. We were comfortable, yet didn’t sleep soundly.

The showers were great and the water was really, scaldingly hot! I

washed my hair. There was no gender separation in the bathrooms but of

course doors on the stalls. Our two showers, two red wines, veggie dinner,

two beds and breakfast cost 96€. The refuge administrator was a very

friendly, funny, multilingual middle-aged woman. In the winter she teaches

informatics. The guests are totally international from all over Europe. We

met no other Americans. Everyone uses English as their travel language." (98)

 

There's mountaineering history:

"Interest in mountaineering surged in the late 19th century. The

climbing and camping equipment was primitive by today’s standards:

Hemp ropes and iron crampons were heavy, and canvas tents were out of

the question. In the Pyrenees, early rock and ice climbers targeted the north faces of the peaks surrounding the Cirque de Gavarnie, mostly a day trip out of town. As their ambitions extended further, the need for overnight mountain lodging grew. Caves and shepherds’ huts were their earliest forms of shelter on multi-day climbs.

The first mountaineering club was formed in Gavarnie in 1864, named

the Société Ramond in honor of the illustrious Pyrenean naturalist Louis

Ramond de Carbonnières. The French Alpine Club (FAC) was founded in 1874 with the aim "to encourage and favor the knowledge of the mountain and its individual or collective frequentation in all seasons," including in its mission "the construction, improvement and maintenance of shelters, chalets, shelters and trails." The !rst mountain club in Spain, the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (CEC), soon followed in 1876. These organizations, along with individual benefactors, launched the network of mountain refuges we enjoy today." (99-100)

Along with Michael's water colors.

 

Details on wildlife:

"My favorite insect of the whole trip was the burnet moth (Zygaena anthyllidis).  While burnets are common throughout Europe, this particular species of burnet is unique to the higher elevations of the Pyrenees. The burnet is the most brilliantly colored moth I’ve ever seen: iridescent black, with big, red spots on the wings. Most moths are dull brown and only around at night to evade predators. The burnet doesn’t have to worry about that. The red spots tell potential predators that it is poisonous. The burnet carries hydrogen cyanide, both for protection and—get this—for mating. Sounds a little kinky, doesn’t it?" (p. 61)

We also learn about honey bees after Mike gets stung.  After Sharman relates the physiology of the sting and the  response in the body, we learn about the bees of the Pyrenees, and the history of domesticated honeybees in the region..

“Honey has been produced and consumed in France and Spain for

millennia. Cave paintings near Valencia, Spain, more than 8,000 years old depict men collecting honey. The Bible and the Koran praise the virtues of honey as a food of nutritional value. Spain is number one in the EU in the number of hives and sixth in honey production. Spain also produces more than half of the beeswax in Europe. I don’t know how many honey producers there are in the Pyrenees specically, but there are 27 in the Ariège region alone. You can find a lot of them online who advertise in glowing terms the high quality, "flavor and ecological properties of their mountain product and sell direct to the consumer.” (118)

Here's one of Mike's paintings showing the beehives along the path.  

I learned a few words:

"Compounding the economic squeeze, the emigration of rural labor to industrial centers resulted in a shortage of shepherds to conduct the seasonal transhumance* of sheep." (126)

*"Transhumance:  noun

the seasonal migration of livestock, and the people who tend them, between lowlands and adjacent mountains." (from dictionary.com)

You can also tell that Haley was an economic policy analyst in a past life:

"More than two-thirds of the territory of Pallars Sobirà is under some

level of environmental protection. It also hosts seven ski resorts. In five

decades, the number of second homes in the region has mushroomed a

hundred-fold, from fewer than 25 to more than 2,500. While this boom in

the tourism economy has provided jobs, increased wages and helped to keep

some youth in the region, it has also increased property values and housing

costs for local residents. While the infrastructure has greatly improved,

temporary visitors and part-time residents do not enhance the social vitality

of the local communities. The transition also marks a decline in local

control, as more and more of the land use policies are defined by higher

levels of government and more and more of the businesses are owned by

nonlocal corporations."  p. 127

Interview with Jan, a German hang glider about why he was on the trail, people he'd met, and a link to this video :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Zp25E_lbM  - his version of this trail. (Worth watching.)  He related some lessons he learned on the hike to Sharman:

"First: Don't keep your food inside the tent! You could wake up in

the middle of the night with a hungry fox next to your sleeping bag.

Second: You can easily compensate for your lack of fitness with

good navigation skills.

Third: There is no excuse! Even an Acute Respiratory Distress

Syndrome* should not hold you back from experiencing great adventures.

You have to risk it to get the biscuit.

And fourth: François Lelord is a wise man." (147-8)

*Earlier he had recounted a hiker he'd met who slept with an oxygen device at night.   

The next quote contains an extraordinary account of surviving in the cold.  I guess it's not the only instance of something like that happening.  It's also a reminder that despite the different environments, people who lived 1000 years ago were not that much different than we are.   

"The town L'Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre was named for the hospital (travelers’ hostel) that was established there in the first decade of the 11th century. The hospital was founded by the knight Bertrand d’Enveight in fulfillment of his vow to do so if he survived a snowstorm that caught him on the westside of Col de Puymorens, south of the Haute Route, where Route Nationale 20 (N20) crosses today. He saved himself by slitting open the belly of his horse, removing the entrails and climbing inside till the storm passed. He fulfilled his vow and dedicated the hospital to Saint Suzanne,  patron saint of his aunt, Suzanne d'Enveight, dowager of Cerdanya, in whose domain he was traveling." (159)

Some of the history can get a bit tedious, but then there is another disaster story that would fit in any modern tabloid or social media.

"The hospital was damaged or destroyed by avalanches several times over the years and rebuilt. In one case, year unknown, Moles wrote:This time the incident had a more tragic outcome than the previous one, entombing 5 women and 3 children, amongst them the wife and children of the Landlord who being away in Benasque survived but returned to the shocking news that he was now a widower and childless."  (162)

 

We learn about the cork forests they walk through and how they fights climate change.

"Not only is cork production sustainable, but a harvested cork oak tree stores up to five times more carbon than an unharvested tree, since the tree

utilizes additional carbon in the regeneration of its bark. Each year, cork oak

forests account for 9 million metric tonnes (10 million tons) of CO2

absorption. Cork stoppers for wine bottles have a much lower carbon footprint

than wine stoppers made from aluminum or plastic. And the byproducts

are made into bulletin boards and floor tiles."  (186 -7)

The Author Gets To Win Arguments 

"May 25-26

The morning was overcast, giving way to partly sunny and windy in

the afternoon when we set out for our next waypoint, Montalba

d’Am.lie. Mike was a little impatient with how slow I was going

uphill, and needing to stop to eat, so he said, “Give me more weight. The

less you carry, the better off I am.” So he carried almost all the food, as well

as all the camping gear. I carried the potato chips and toast. Lightest pack

ever! 

...On top of that, Mike’s knee became painful—probably from too heavy

a pack on too steep and rough a trail down after too many weeks without

hiking. [They did the whole trail in two parts.]  So the last hour coming down the road I took all the food. He tried to say it wasn’t making any di#erence in how his knee felt, but I said, “The less weight you carry, the better off I am.” The easy grade and firm surface made road walking easier on his knee than the trail had been, but it was easier for me too, and I was faster than he, even with the added weight, which, frankly, felt good. (196-8)

And a little more history

A second medieval monastery in the eastern Pyrenees, the abbey of Saint-Martin-du-Canigou, perches on a high cliff on the west flank of the Pic du Canigou. The primary access is by foot, 1,600 meters (1 mi) on narrow, steep path through the woods, above the town of Casteil. The original Benedictine monastery was endowed by Guifred, Count of Cerdagne, and consecrated in 1009. The Romanesque-style church was built on two levels: the lower, older crypt dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the upper

church, completed in 1020, dedicated to St. Martin. The cloister was also

built on two levels, due to the steepness of the terrain.

The monastery has had a traumatic history. It was damaged in the

Catalan earthquake of 1428. It was secularized in 1782 by Louis XVI, abandoned by the monks and fell into disrepair. During the French Revolution,

the abbey was closed and its contents, including the sculptures and furniture,

were looted. Even the marble capitals from the pillars in the upper

cloister were removed and scattered through the neighboring villages. The ruins of the monastery lay empty for the entire 19th century. (192)

 

Some topics are hard to convey in words.  The birdsong descriptions probably mean little to those who haven’t already heard them or are very musical.

"The song of the tiny ruby-crowned kinglet is similarly loud and

complex. It typically has three parts: a series of high-pitched notes (zee-zeezee or tee-tee-tee), two to have low trills (turr or tu) and a repeated three note "galloping" phrase (tee-da-leet, tee-da-leet). Individual males sing their own variations, and females sing a shorter version of the song. The population of ruby-crowned kinglets is on the rise in less-disturbed habitats in northern latitudes".(p. 201)

While there are times Haley gets a little poetic, others are pretty dry recitation of facts: 

"In 1659, at the conclusion of the Thirty Years’ War, The Treaty of the

Pyrenees moved the border between the French and the Spanish monarchies

100 kilometers (62 mi) to the south where it is today, dividing French

and Spanish Catalonia. Roussillon became o#cially and permanently

French, but many inhabitants were still Spanish at heart. The medieval

fortress guarding the new border was handed over to France. In 1674,

during the Franco-Dutch War, the Spanish army occupied Bellegarde, but

the fortress was retaken by the French the following year.(p. 206)"

I'm sure sitting on the grass where this all took place after six hours of hiking makes this an interesting break.  

As I mentioned, this post has been sitting here as a draft for six weeks.  Today I added the pictures and cleaned up fonts and quotations.  So I'm going to just end abruptly here.  I enjoyed vicariously traveling with Sharman and Mike. For people not taking this hike, the book can give you a sense of what such an adventure is like.  And Mike's water colors are a delight and there's at least one in each chapter.  And I haven't really touched the sections on Alaska.  

Paperback Premium Color Print  (ISBN: 979-8-218-09640-3):              $35.95   $26.54   

Kindle e-book:   $9.99

Available at Alibris.  Publication date: December 1, 2022.

 

 

 

 

Elephant Seals Beach Near Cambria, California

Happy New Year to you all.  May it be a better year for all.  And may you all have find peace within if not without.  

What with adventures and projects with our SF grandkids and other other friends here, I've not gotten these pictures up.  But this was such an amazing time, watching the Elephant Seals lying on the beach, in the water, and occasionally moving around.  So enjoy the pictures and short videos.

I don't usually put up so many pictures in one post.  I really did edit out most of the pictures I took.  The videos are very short and at the end.  And here's a link to the Friends of Elephant Seals website that will tell you more about the seals and good times to visit.

.

Too Much To Think About, So Relax A Bit With Nature

 

The liatris is blooming as it usually does this time of the summer.

I haven't dabbled in dahlias for a long time.  This one plant zoomed up about five feet with a stem at least an inch of diameter.  All the others are between one and two feet high with no blossoms.  I have no clue why.  I would assume it has to do with the soil, but this one is in a pot with two others that have done nothing much.  

And, with the rain that we've been having this August, the mushrooms are popping up everywhere.

Even on gray, rainy days the bike trails (this one through UAA) are beautiful and refreshing.  Though on this stretch it would be nice if the huge bulges were smoothed out.  Someone has marked them with blue paint, but four to six inch humps at the bottom of a hill are more excitement than I need.  

Am I stretching the nature theme here?  The eggs we buy at the market are hardly natural.  The peaches may be a bit more so. Probably not.  The bananas? Don't really know.  But the raspberries are from the back yard and get nothing but compost and water.  

Jacob asked in the comments in the last post about whether the US was headed for another civil war.  I'm thinking about that.  We probably need to consider the concept of civil war beyond the US Civil War.  At this point I doubt we'll have a civil war in the last US Civil War style.  The split among people is not nearly as regional, and from what I can tell, the craziness has been stoked a lot by Russian compromised politicians and social media bots that whip up extremist fervor.  More like, if democracy is defeated, it will come from the long term Conservative campaigns (Kochs, Federalist Society, wealthy) to capture the courts and local and state governments in order to gerrymander elections to keep Republicans in control in states, and to have enough influence on redistricting to skew Congressional elections to the right.  The Senate, because every state has two Senators, is already skewed to the right.

"In the incoming Senate, Democratic senators will represent at least 20,314,962 more people than their Republican counterparts — and that’s if we assume that Republicans win both runoff elections in Georgia. If the two Georgia seats go to the Democrats, the Senate will be split 50-50, but the Democratic half will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half."

That's from a November 2020 Vox article. 

Who's Going To Clean Up The North Slope And The Pipeline When The Oil Companies Leave?

 

Like lots of my posts, I have one key points to make, but it seems like I need to give some background to this quote.  

Cold Mountain Path, by Tom Kizzia, is this month's book club selection.  The group also read Tom's Pilgrim's Progress  that told the story of Papa Pilgrim and his large family that turned out to be filled with nasty unpleasantness under the facade of a happy religious family. 

Both books take place largely in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  This second book expands on unpublished notes from the first book - notes that talked about the history of McCarthy the ghost town like community in the park near the Kennecott copper mine.  

Kizzia has figured out the way to tie lots of stories about the town and people in it, into a fascinating tale.

The particular I quote I'm offering today is part of a section describing John Denver's week in McCarthy as part of his Alaska Wilderness movie tour in 1975.  He writes about how the locals reacted to Denver and vice versa.  But here he's talking about the irony of filming an environmental film in a ghost town of a huge copper mine that made a fortune for the Guggenheim Syndicate before they suddenly pulled out in 1938 just before WWII, leaving everything behind - equipment in the Copper Mill, all the houses and furnishings for the workers, clothes, food, vehicles . . .

"In his book, Denver described Kennecott as "a wild streak of industrial violence" that "just sits there, brooding in the night."  It might seem odd that a movie about preserving Alaska's wilderness would linger amid the frontier ruins of industrial capitalism, but the allegorical setting actually suited the times.  The conservationist's fundamental truth, about the environment winning in the end, presses itself constantly upon a visitor's imagination in the Wrangell, there being no greater illustration than Kennecott itself.  Juxtaposed against the propulsive boosterism of Alaska's modern oil boom, in which Alyeska Pipeline had replaced the Guggenheim Trust, Kennecott's ruins provide an almost religious tableau, a place where spiritual reassurance might be found in the atmosphere of decline and fall, in the inning when nature bats last."

That last sentence led me to the title of this post.  Who is going to clean up the Alaska oil pipeline when the oil companies close up shop and abandon Alaska, like the Guggenheims did?  I don't ever recall hearing about a fund set aside to clean up.  But according to this 2020 LA Times piece, 

"Current bonding levels, the funds put aside by the industry to ensure adequate decommissioning of wells and other infrastructure, barely touch what’s needed for cleaning up what’s been built or drilled to date. . . Operators can hold blanket bonds for their entire operations that may not even cover a single site’s cleanup."

The article is only talking about cleaning up the oil fields and doesn't mention the pipeline. (I'm sure there are people thinking about making it the world's larges water slide.)  How much of what the state of Alaska has earned off the oil will be needed to clean up the mess the oil companies are inevitably going to leave behind.  British Petroleum has left the state after selling its stake to Hillcorp Energy,  a company that specializes in getting the last oil out of the ground on the cheap.  

"Environmental organizations and pipeline experts continue expressing concerns about a secretive Texas petroleum company with a spotty safety record that acquired the largest share of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline last year as thawing permafrost and flooding linked to climate change threatened the massive oil conduit.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska voted 4-1 in December 2020 to allow Hilcorp Energy Co. to acquire BP’s Alaska oil and gas assets for $5.6 billion, a transaction described as the biggest Alaskan business deal in a generation. It involved one of the state’s most important pieces of economic infrastructure."(Inside Climate News)

Not the kind of company that can or would clean things up.  

Alaska Legislators - as you talk about Alaska oil revenues and taxes - please put the costs of cleaning up the oil fields at the end into any new legislation.  We need a realistic estimate of the costs and a way to get the oil companies to deposit money for the cleanup before they leave.    

Senator Sullivan, you're one of the oil companies' biggest boosters.  Show us you care about Alaska too and get an adequate fund set up to deal with cleaning the oil fields and the pipeline when the oil is gone.  Kennecott is just a blip on the map compared to what the oil companies will leave behind.

 

And for those of you who have never heard of McCarthy or Kennecott, here's a picture and link to some old posts about the area.  

 Here's part of what the old Kennecott Copper Mill looked like when we visited in 2008.  It was at the end of several hours of dirt road.