Alaska Redistricting: The Valdez Challenge Part 2 - Looking At Valdez' Allegations and Claims

This is a follow up to The Valdez Challenge Part 1.  The items with the red checks below were covered in  Part 1.  In this post I'll try to address items 2 and 3.  NOTE: I've been working on this a while and it probably needs some more proofing, but it also probably needs to get up sooner than later.  So I reserve the right to look through this later and fix typos, add links, or whatever else needs to be done.  Substantive changes will be noted.]

#3 - The Board's Discussion Of Valdez

The Board didn't spend much time talking about the pairing of Valdez with Mat-Su - not quite 14 minutes.. The attorney said the Supreme Court hadn't objected to Valdez being paired with Mat-Su in one case and with Anchorage in another.  

The discussion I found took place on the afternoon of November 4, 2021.  It's the first thing discussed on this video.  The video starts with a discussion of Valdez at 1pm.  (They had been in Executive Session all morning so nothing of that is on the tape.)  They spent about 15 minutes discussing pairing Valdez with either Anchorage or Mat-Su..  It's possible that they talked about Valdez at a different point, but I don't have any notes.  Their minutes are combined from November 2- 4.  When I did a search for Valdez there was only one mention - it merely mentioned there was a public hearing in Valdez. I'd note that originally their agenda for  Monday [Tuesday] November 1  [2] as overly ambitious and they thought it might have to be stretched out over the rest of the week.  

Below is the video of that meeting.  As I said, it starts the video and goes for 15 minutes.  I've also done a rough transcript.  (A rough transcript is much better than my rough notes at a meeting because I can play it over and over.  But still, Board member Marcum seems a bit further away from a mic and talks really fast.  Member Simpson speaks slower but in a low voice and is the hardest to hear.  But I think I've captured the key points reasonably accurately.  And you have the video here to double check. 

Joint Redistricting Board, 11/4/21, 9am Part 1 from AlaskaLegislature.tv on Vimeo.

Rough Transcript of Video

0:35  Binkley:…  [Discussion of what to do next]  Did we wrap up Kenai? So then the only area left.  So, should we go into Anchorage?

Marcum:  I would like to raise something if I could

Binkley:  OK

Marcum: [?????? Something about Anchorage, then Valdez.]  How far does it go? My understanding is that Valdez had been paired with Anchorage in the past and … was not keen on going with the Mat-Su.  The current iteration that we’re looking at would not allow Valdez to ?? With D36, D35?? Is also full.  So maybe Anchorage is still a consideration and I would [like us?] to discuss that possibility.

Binkley:  Have you tried mapping Valdez and Anchorage?

Marcum:  ???? [This just occurred to me?] last night, but looking at the history, I know it’s been done in the past. . .  Peter, do you have a  number . . [although?] we are in Anchorage . . . fitting Valdez and 

Peter Torkelson, Board Executive Director:  Anchorage is 15.88 districts, so it needs about .12, so it needs about 2000 people roughly.  Valdez is 4000.  [Voices  - about 2000 over???]

Binkley and Marcum:  The same going in the other direction..

Marcum:  ???Obviously significant    how these [??affect Anchorage districts??]  But we have to have this conversation.  [???] all of the Valdez possibilities.

Binkley:  I don’t think it hurts to explore the possibilities.

3:05  Binkley:  See what options are out there.  Matt (attorney Matt Singer), could you remind us what happened when Valdez was in with Anchorage . . .

Singer:  Well, it was litigated, I believe it was litigated to the Supreme Court in the 2001 plan and the Court ruled that it was constitutional socio-economically because Valdez and Anchorage ...  including the air service, oil industry connections, connections with the University, so, there’s a legal pre…there’s a case at the superior court affirming that pairing.  What I don’t recall in 2001 is whether Valdez stayed in the ultimate Proclamation Plan or if it came out as a consequence of other? changes.  The court was ok with the Valdez-Anchorage pairing, but not ok with the entire plan so then . . . I just have to pull up the 2001 Proclamation Plan . . .

And then in the litigation about the current pairing of Valdez with Mat-Su mostly focused on issues of compactness and the superior court affirmed the district in which Mat-Su and Valdez are paired.  

There’s been a lit . . I believe Valdez has been …… The reason Valdez comes up is it has a large population in an isolated part of the state with significant industry, it doesn’t have any sisters nearby with similar attributes

Marcum:  So you’re saying pairing Valdez with either Anchorage or Matsu would overpopulate both of those districts and therefore they would be underrepresented. Is that ??? understanding of the numbers? [NOTE:  That isn’t at all what he said, he merely spoke to the fact that they were accepted by the courts in previous proclamations.]

Binkley:  I guess to what extent . . .

Marcum:  ?? We’ve done the Anchorage and Mat-Su ???? And the numbers were 2-2.5 % over, right?, and as I said it would be about the same for Anchorage

Bahnke:  The difference between the two to me though is a matter of compactness and contiguity.  It makes more sense to me to pair Valdez with the lesser of the two options.  Difficult options I guess.  And we have to look at compactness and contiguity

Marcum:  I think that ???

Bahnke:  deviations are …

Marcum:  ??? Compactness and contiguity in the past, right?,

Singer:  The Superior Court in 2001 allowed. . . My recollection of …. There was Valdez, across Prince William Sound and a path sort of following the caribou route out past Whittier and on into South Anchorage.  The Court allowed that district.

[I think he's mixing this up with a ruling about Valdez and Palmer.  To my knowledge there is no caribou route from Valdez to Whittier to Anchorage. But there are caribou along the Glenn Highway between Tok and into Mat-Su.]

Bahnke:  And the courts allowed for both ?

Singer:  [Nodding his head[ and Valdez is currently paired with Mat-Su.

Bahnke:  So when you compare the two, since they’ve both already been identified as being compact and contiguous and socially-economically integrated, the deviations are similar, 

7:30 

but pairing them with Mat-Su is more compact and contiguous than with Anchorage, am I correct?

Singer:  I’m not comfortable giving on the fly a legal opinion about which of the two options better meets the constitution.  I’d have to look.   I think what I would say is they’re both  likely constitutionally permissible options.  I’m not sure I could grade one, without really looking but they are both available options to the Board, so the Board should be considering  relative population and the relative socio-economic, pattern of socio-economic integration that results, so what is the [ripple?] effect of one choice over another.  Makes sense to the rest of the Board’s plan?  

Marcum:  I had a question but then I lost it.

Borromeo:  Mr. Chairman

Binkley:  Yes, Nicole.

Borromeo: Thank you.  I've actually drawn a map early on that would do exactly what Bethany asked, about pairing Valdez with Anchorage.  It is possible.  It is also very difficult to absorb that population into the districts of Anchorage, keep neighborhoods,  school districts,  etc. tight as they are, might not be …  It sacrifices compactness and also at the end it really came to a policy call in terms of Valdez having no road to Anchorage , connectedness isn’t there in the same way it is to the Valley.  Yes you can drive down into Anchorage.  But when you look at that district, District 9, Bethany, and how it would be over to Valdez, there is no road between D9  … and Valdez.  You would have to drive through 18 other districts at least to get to there, so I believe that contiguity piece and that compactness piece weighs  more heavily in favor of pairing Valdez with the Mat-Su.

10:12

Marcum:  ??????   I know we have testimony from the City of Valdez in terms of a resolution from their elected officials and then we have testimony from their attorney saying they oppose having  Mat-Su with them.   Do we have anything from Anchorage addressing the possibility of Valdez being combined with Anchorage?

Borromeo:  Not to my knowledge, but again in none of these six plans did we ever presented as an option so I don’t see that they would have known to be commenting on it.

Marcum:  It wouldn’t hurt to ..  something combining?? Anchorage and Valdez

???:  There is testimony from Mat-Su about ???  

Bahnke:  Did Valdez at all about being paired with Anchorage?

Marcum:  They were 100% unanimous about not being paired with Mat-Su

11:43

Borromeo:  

Marcum:  I’ll just say that I’m not ???  Making decisions on Anchorage until ??? These other things that might influence Valdez.

Simpson:  I feel that ???? Get Anchorage squared away… Valdez …..

Borromeo?:  I like that plan.

Binkley:  I know this relates? To Fairbanks.  Nicole and I didn’t have enough time.  Looking at Fairbanks … comfortable… solidify Fairbanks and move on to Anchorage.

So they then went to Anchorage.

14:55

So, basically, the discussion was about what courts have said about the constitutionality of pairing Valdez with either Anchorage or Mat-Su (attorney Matt Singer said both had been ok with previous courts) and Marcum raises the issue of the unanimous testimony against the pairing from the Valdez government and people.  The fact that no one really responded to Marcum about Valdez' opposition to being paired with Mat-Su somewhat belies their claim to having listened to the public.  It might also reflect their conclusion that Singer said out loud, that Valdez is a difficult community for redistricting Boards.  

#2 LIST OF VALDEZ ISSUES AND EVIDENCE

The lawsuit's paragraphs are numbered consecutively.  There is a list of 28 allegations in the Allegation section (14-42).  Then later there's a list of specific claims Valdez is making against the Board.  It would be easier for the average reader to have the evidence presented in the Allegations section more directly linked to the Claims section.  I've gone through the Allegations and grouped them for you.  (Well for me, so I could make sense of them.)

# 14 is procedural - includes the previous paragraphs into the allegations

#15-20 discuss the Board's constitutional requirements and steps it took to implement them - and up to Map v3, Valdez had no problems

#21-22 Map v4 - Valdez surprised to be paired with Valdez and cut out of Richardson Highway and submitted Valdez Option 1 map to the Board

Then we get different allegations - 

#23  claims the Board did not fulfill its obligations to inform the public and solicit feedback and listen to feedback

[My comment:  Most of the allegations seem accurate to me.  But this one is hard for me to swallow.  This Board posted far more information on its website than the previous Board and Board's before that didn't even have websites.  The Board made all meetings available on line or by phone.  All the maps were posted on line as soon as they were available to the staff.  The previous Board brought physical maps to their public hearings around the state which the local folks didn't see until they were pinned to the wall.

The one point that I would agree with, as it relates to Valdez, is not listening to feedback.  This is true about Anchorage and West Fairbanks too, among other places.  But looking at the comments made by Valdez residents that are posted online, it's clear they had no effect on the Board's final decision.]

#24 No opportunity to comment on Senate pairings and truncation  [True for everyone.  Even some of the Board members' comments were ignored rather than discussed.]

#25 Notes that Board did Final Proclamation plan and links to district Valdez ended up in connected to Mat-Su and disconnected from Richardson Highway communities.  [It's true]

#26-41 list all the connections Valdez has with the Richardson Highway corridor up to (in some cases) Fairbanks - the Oil Pipeline, DOTPF headquarters, deep water and small boat harbors that serve business and recreational needs, electricity and phone utilities, PWS community college, KCHU public radio  [This is a powerful argument about socio-economic integration between Valdez and the Richardson Highway communities and even up to Fairbanks.  It would seem the Board would have to prove these aren't true or that there are roughly equal ties to Mat-Su.  But the Board has to balance three main criteria - SE Integration is just one.  But they talk about the others below.[

#42 points out that Valdez has none of these socio-economic connections with Palmer

[It seems that the Board has to show at least some important connections to Mat-Su to counter this.]

So that gets us to the specific claims Valdez makes:

As I said, this is a little tricky because the suit itself has a section on Allegations with 28 allegations (14- 42).  Valdez does include all these with the specific claims but you have to make the connections between the allegations and the claims yourself.  One has to go through these 28 allegations and match them to the specific claims.  I’ll try.  

First Claim - Violation of the Open Meetings Act

43-48     http://www.touchngo.com/lglcntr/akstats/statutes/title44/chapter62/section310.htm

43. Paragraphs 1 through 42 are incorporated as if fully set forth herein.   [See Above]

44. The Board, as a governmental body of a public entity of the state, is subject to the requirements of AS 44.62.310-320 (“Opening Meetings Act”). The deliberations and decisions of the Board are activities covered by the Open Meetings Act. [Undisputed]

45. Upon information and belief, the Board has violated the Open Meetings Act in the following ways:

(a) It conducted deliberations in secret.  [There are two ways this seem to have happened:

1.  The Board had very lengthy Executive Sessions at different times.  Executive session may (by law) only be held for a few issues.  Those are the only things that can be discussed in ES. They aren't legally allowed to stray into topics that should be on the public record.  It seems hard for me to believe that the lengthy executive sessions they had at the end didn't stray into areas that should have been discussed in public.  Even attorney-client privilege is not so far reaching that everything an attorney tells their client should be confidential.  And, in this case, an argument can be made that all Alaska residents are clients of the Board's attorney.

2.  It is seems very likely that at least two of the three GOP appointed Board members had meetings with members of the public to get help in making their maps.  When I requested Board members publicly declare who helped them with the maps, only Borromeo and Bahnke stood up in public and said they only got help from staff and other Board members.  Binkley, Simpson, and Marcum should be asked under oath who they got help from making their maps.]

(b) It failed to properly conduct votes. [Things got a little loosey-goosey toward the end.  Any semblance of Robert's Rules of Order fell apart as I've specifically described on this blog in terms of the allocation of terms after truncation.  The motion wasn't ever a proper sentence.  As I pointed out, after the vote, if all the Board members had been asked, separately, to write down what the motion was and how it would be implemented, they'd have all written down something different.]

(c) It conducted a serial meeting. [I'm guessing here that 'serial meeting' refers to the five day meeting November 1-5.  The Board posted an agenda for Monday.  When I talked to the Board's Executive Director (a staff person) about how ambitious that seemed, he agreed and said what they didn't get done that first day, they'd do the rest of the week.  That was the agenda for the rest of the week, which included work sessions -which you could watch and sometimes hear - where the Board worked on making maps.  It also included lengthy Executive Sessions, and the 15 minutes they spent talking about Valdez at 1pm on the 4th.  That discussion is not reflected in the minutes (also just one set of minutes for five days), but you can see it on the video.  But finding it is not easy.  I was able to find it quickly because I had taken notes of most of the meetings and searched them for Valdez.]

(d) It withheld documents from the public that were used in formulating the final redistricting plan. [I'm not sure about what they are talking about here exactly.  However, Marcum's pairing of Eagle River House districts with downtown Anchorage and south Muldoon instead of with each other came out of the blue.  And clearly there had to be some planning in order to get the allocation of Senate terms to work out as they did. Perhaps they're referring to where v4 came from - the map that paired Valdez with Mat-Su.]

(e) It failed to clearly and with specificity state the subject(s) of each executive session or its reasons for addressing the subject(s) in executive session. [This is something I've mentioned on the blog various times.  Early on - like December 2020 or January 2021, the Board just went into Executive Session without saying why.  I emailed the Board Chair and at the next meeting when they went into Executive Session they carefully cited the law to explain why they went into Executive Session and what the topic was.  But as time went by they got sloppier.  They'd cited the whole law, not the specific part that was related to that particular Executive Session, and they didn't identity the topic or why it was covered by the law.  And the last couple of days they spent hours in Executive Session without us clearly knowing why - vaguely Attorney-Client privilege.]

46. Plaintiffs and others have been harmed by these violations.  [That goes beyond my reporting on the Board.  I've thought about - when the AFFR map cut my neighborhood in half - exactly how I might be harmed if that were adopted.  If Valdez were separated from the Richardson Highway districts, one could argue they would have access to their representative and also to the representative for the Richardson Highway district.  We just assume all these interests should be together.  But, of course, at some point, geographical distance and many competing communities make it hard for representatives to represent their district well. More important though than my opinion is the Alaska constitution which requires districts to be socio-economically integrated.]

47. As a result of these violations, the actions of the Board resulting in adoption of the final redistricting plan including senate pairings, should be voided.

48. The Board’s proclamation of redistricting should similarly be voided, as it was based solely upon the redistricting plan.

My Comments:  

Second Claim - Violation of Article VI, Section 6

49 - 55  [I've copied that section of the Constitution below;]

§ 6. District Boundaries

The Redistricting Board shall establish the size and area of house districts, subject to the limitations of this article. Each house district shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socio-economic area. Each shall contain a population as near as practicable to the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the state by forty. Each senate district shall be composed as near as practicable of two contiguous house districts. Consideration may be given to local government boundaries. Drainage and other geographic features shall be used in describing boundaries wherever possible.

[Rereading this now, I recall how AFFER used a lot of geographic featureas - like Campbell Creek - in its maps.  But the Constitution doesn't actually say they should be used in determining the districts, but rather in describing the districts, which is done when the Board staff wrote up the metes and bounds.   I suspect the Valdez attorneys will argue that their district is neither compact nor contiguous - given that they have to go through another district to get to the rest of their district in Mat-Su.  That will also be an argument against the Anchorage Senate pairings with Eagle River.  But I suspect that the Board will argue that Valdez districts that stretch up around Fairbanks are hardly compact either.  The map that Valdez offered the Board is more compact, but will require remapping a lot of other districts.  But given all the other challenges, that could happen anyway.  The Board will also argue that they had pressure from the Doyon Coalition to get Native villages aligned with the other villages from their Regional Corporations.]

Third Claim - Violation of Article VI, Section 10

56 - 59  

(a) Within thirty days after the official reporting of the decennial census of the United States or thirty days after being duly appointed, whichever occurs last, the board shall adopt one or more proposed redistricting plans. The board shall hold public hearings on the proposed plan, or, if no single proposed plan is agreed on, on all plans proposed by the board. No later than ninety days after the board has been appointed and the official reporting of the decennial census of the United States, the board shall adopt a final redistricting plan and issue a proclamation of redistricting. The final plan shall set out boundaries of house and senate districts and shall be effective for the election of members of the legislature until after the official reporting of the next decennial census of the United States.

(b) Adoption of a final redistricting plan shall require the affirmative votes of three members of the Redistricting Board. [Amended 1998]

[The Board did this - I'm not sure what is different here from the other claims they made.  While Valdez complains in allegations 20-22 that they didn't respond after v3 came out because it was fine, they were surprised by v4.  But v3 and v4 came out at the same time and there were 60 more days to complain.]

Fourth Claim - Violation of Article I, Section 1 (Equal Protection)

60-62

§ 1. Inherent Rights

This constitution is dedicated to the principles that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the enjoyment of the rewards of their own industry; that all persons are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and protection under the law; and that all persons have corresponding obligations to the people and to the State.

[I'm not sure how Valdez intends to use this in the case - except maybe to say their equal rights are being violated somehow by the way their district was drawn.  But it is useful to be reminded of the final clause that says all persons have corresponding obligations to the people and to the State.]

Fifth Claim - Violation of Article I, Section 7 (Due Process)

64 - 68

§ 7. Due Process

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. The right of all persons to fair and just treatment in the course of legislative and executive investigations shall not be infringed.

[I suspect they are going to argue here that the lack of an open process has deprived residents of Valdez their due process to influence the shaping of their district.  Clearly the Board did not heed the unanimous opinion of the Valdez commenters that they wanted to be with Richardson Highway and not with Mat-Su.]

RELIEF

WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs pray that this Court:
1. Enter a judgment declaring the Board’s redistricting plan promulgated pursuant to the proclamation dated November 10, 2021, to be in violation of the Open Meetings Act, Article VI, Sections 6 and 10 of the Alaska Constitution, and the equal protection clause and the due process clause of the Alaska Constitution; 

2. Enter a judgment declaring the Board’s redistricting plan promulgated pursuant to the proclamation dated November 10, 2021, to be null and void; 

3. Enter an order enjoining the State Division of Elections and the State of Alaska from conducting any primary or general election for state legislative office under the Board’s redistricting plan, or otherwise taking any step to implement the plan; 

4. Enter an order requiring the Board to promulgate a new redistricting plan consistent with the requirements of the Alaska Constitution or, in the alternative, enter an order correcting errors in the Board’s redistricting plan;
5. Enter an order declaring Plaintiffs to be public interest litigants as constitutional claimants and awarding costs and attorney’s fees;
6. Enter an order for such other and further relief as may be just and reasonable. DATED this 10th day of December, 2021. 

[Valdez isn't simply asking the Board to fix Valdez' district.  They are asking that the whole redistricting process be thrown out and started over.  Given the 90 day process we just went through, if this were to happen, the new maps wouldn't be ready in time for the 2022 election and the law requires that the election use the current map which, theoretically, the courts would have declared invalid. At least that's what has happened in the past.  But here's what the Constitution says: 

 "The final plan shall set out boundaries of house and senate districts and shall be effective for the election of members of the legislature until after the official reporting of the next decennial census of the United States."

But one could argue that it says "the final plan" and if the court requires the Board to redraw the maps, the first proclamation map drawn wouldn't be the final plan.  Further, one could argue if it were the final plan, it would have to be used until the next decennial census and thus, a new final plan couldn't be drawn up until then.  But you could also argue that the whole point is to reapportion the districts so they are all equal size and thus the Board's proclamation plan does make the districts more equal in size than the 2011 plan.

If this were the only challenge to the Board, I would say that the courts would, if they find Valdez' arguments compelling,  at best, require the Board to get Valdez into the Richardson Highway district and whatever other changes would be needed as a consequence of changing that district.  But there are other challenges so a larger change may be called for.  Though I think the Anchorage Senate pairings could be remedied without consequences outside of Anchorage.  We'll see.  Wednesday is the next court hearing.  My granddaughter and her parents will be gone by then and I shouldn't forget it this time around.]

BRENA, BELL & WALKER, P.C. Attorneys for Plaintiffs 

By
Robin O. Brena, ABA No. 8511130 Jake W. Staser, ABA No 1111089 Laura S. Gould, ABA No. 0310042 

"Laws are the spider's webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape. -Solon (a Greek lawgiver, c.600 BC)"

I saw this quote in a Tweet.

I thought the quote descriptive of what generally happens in the US justice system.  Poor people get sent to prison for years for minor crimes while rich and famous people are much more likely to get much shorter terms, or no terms, for more egregious crimes.  The Sacklers, for instance, are still enjoying their billions out of prison.

The Tweet was a reply to a video showing the most well known unindicted Jan 6 conspirators.

But I try to always check on quotes - they are often  

• bogus 
• misquoted
• attributed to the wrong person.

This one is genuine, and while it's reworded, it conveys the meaning of the original, and while it cites the right source, it gives credit to Solon rather than to Anacharsis.

But it's calls attention to a truth that's been articulated 2600 years ago.

From Tufts: 

"5.

In particular we are told of private intercourse between Solon and Anacharsis, and between Solon and Thales, of which the following accounts are given.¹ Anacharsis came to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and said that he was a stranger who had come to make ties of friendship and hospitality with him. On Solon's replying that it was better to make one's friendships at home, ‘Well then,’ said Anacharsis, ‘do thou, who art at home, make me thy friend and guest.’ [2] So Solon, admiring the man's ready wit, received him graciously and kept him with him some time. This was when he was already engaged in public affairs and compiling his laws. Anacharsis, accordingly, on learning what Solon was about, laughed at him for thinking that he could check the injustice and rapacity of the citizens by written laws, which were just like spiders' webs; they would hold the weak and delicate who might be caught in their meshes, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful. [3] To this Solon is said to have answered that men keep their agreements with each other when neither party profits by the breaking of them, and he was adapting his laws to the citizens in such a manner as to make it clear to all that the practice of justice was more advantageous than the transgression of the laws. But the results justified the conjecture of Anacharsis rather than the hopes of Solon. It was Anacharsis, too, who said, after attending a session of the assembly, that he was amazed to find that among the Greeks, the wise men pleaded causes, but the fools decided them.

1 In Plut. Sol. 5 and Plut. Sol. 6.

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. 1.

The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.

This text was converted to electronic form by optical character recognition and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy."

I'd note that The Real Harry Ripcord profile says, "CEO of Urban Dictionary"

What's The Big Deal About 2022? It's An Arbitrary Number. Think Bigger

A goal of this blog is to get people to break out of patterns of thinking so they can see the world or some portion of the world differently.  To step back and recognize '"truths" they believe as actually just one way of knowing the world.  

So New Years Day seems a good time to meddle with our concept of being in 2022.  Because for Jews New Years happened several months ago and it is 5782.  For Chinese, New Year is a month off and it will be 4730.  For Thais the New Year will begin in Aril and they will usher in the year  2565.

It's good to have rituals around time.  They help us step back and think about what we've done over a period of time. Teaching is a great profession because you get to start fresh with each semester - it's not just one continuous long slog.  Birthdays help us reflect as do anniversaries.  Or the changing seasons.  

But it's also important to remember how arbitrary the numbers can be.  There is some connection to the natural world.  365 days is close to how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun.  But other cultures pin their years to the moon.  But much about time is a human decision about how things should be.  

Calendars Through The Ages tells us:

Before today’s Gregorian calendar was adopted, the older Julian calendar was used. It was admirably close to the actual length of the year, as it turns out, but the Julian calendar was not so perfect that it didn’t slowly shift off track over the following centuries. But, hundreds of years later, monks were the only ones with any free time for scholarly pursuits – and they were discouraged from thinking about the matter of "secular time" for any reason beyond figuring out when to observe Easter. In the Middle Ages, the study of the measure of time was first viewed as prying too deeply into God’s own affairs – and later thought of as a lowly, mechanical study, unworthy of serious contemplation.

As a result, it wasn’t until 1582, by which time Caesar’s calendar had drifted a full 10 days off course, that Pope Gregory XIII (1502 - 1585) finally reformed the Julian calendar. Ironically, by the time the Catholic church buckled under the weight of the scientific reasoning that pointed out the error, it had lost much of its power to implement the fix. Protestant tract writers responded to Gregory’s calendar by calling him the "Roman Antichrist" and claiming that its real purpose was to keep true Christians from worshiping on the correct days. The "new" calendar, as we know it today, was not adopted uniformly across Europe until well into the 18th century.

The same site tells us about the beginning of counting the years.  

"Was Jesus born in the year 0?

No.

There are two reasons for this:

There is no year 0.

Jesus was born before 4 B.C.E.

The concept of a year "zero" is a modern myth (but a very popular one). In our calendar, C.E. 1 follows immediately after 1 B.C.E. with no intervening year zero. So a person who was born in 10 B.C.E. and died in C.E. 10, would have died at the age of 19, not 20.

Furthermore, as described in section 2.14, our year reckoning was established by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century. Dionysius let the year C.E. 1 start one week after what he believed to be Jesus’ birthday. But Dionysius’ calculations were wrong. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus was born under the reign of king Herod the Great, who died in 4 B.C.E.. It is likely that Jesus was actually born around 7 B.C.E.. The date of his birth is unknown; it may or may not be 25 December."

 I'd note for those Christians who feel they are discriminated against, most of the world uses the Western calendar that is roughly based on the birth of Christ.  Even if they also have calendars based on other events.  

Let's look at some other New Years from different cultures.

Indian New Year Diwali

"One of the most celebrated Indian New Year is 'Diwali' ', which means 'the celebration of lights'. Deepavali symbolize the starting of the Hindu New Year which is generally the main holiday of India. This festival is celebrated in the month of Kartika, which generally falls in the October. Diwali is an holiday in India, Nepal, Guyana, Malaysia and Singapore. Even though, it is a Hindu festival and has deep Hindu mythology connected with its origin, people from different religions also celebrate Diwali. As the name implies, Diwali is celebrated with lights, lamps and fireworks. The main reason behind Diwali celebration is to get away of the evil, which is symbolized as darkness, and to follow the paths of virtue."

From The Heart of Hinduism:

"Various eras are used for numbering the years; the most common are the Vikrami Era, beginning with the coronation of King Vikram-aditya in 57 BCE and the Shaka Era, counting from 78 CE. In rituals the priest often announces the dates according to KaliYuga, (see Kala: Time). For these three systems, the year 2000 corresponds to 2057, 1922, and 5102 respectively, though the last figure is subject to some debate."

Telugu New Year

"is known as Ugadi, which is derived from "Yuga Aadi" means New Age. According to the Hindu mythology Lord Brahma has created universe on Chaitra Shuddha Prathpade thus Telugu New Year is celebrated on Chaitra Shuddha Prathipade which is also first day of the lunar calendar. Telugu New Year is bright full moon day of the first month of spring."

Enkutatash – Ethiopian New Year!

"Every year on September 11, Ethiopians celebrate their New Year. The holiday is called “Enkutatash,” which literary means the “gift of jewels.” This naming came from the legendary visit of the Ethiopian Queen Sheba to that of King Solomon of Jerusalem back in 98 BC. During her visit, this famous queen of Ethiopia brought the king a collection of “jewels.” Upon her return home, the queen was restocked with a new supply of “enku” (jewels) for her treasury.

Ethiopians called the New Year “Enkutatash” because the period the queen arrived back to Ethiopia coincided with the New Year’s celebration in September. Celebrating the New Year in September, however, is originally connected to the Bible as it is the period that God created the Heavens and the Earth and so this period should be the beginning of a New Year."

Songkran - Thailand  From a post I did in 2008 when we were living in Chiangmai.

Chiang Mai.com gives an overview of the holiday of Songkran (the link is no longer any good)

"The family sprinkling scented water from silver bowls on a Buddha image is a ritual practiced by all Thais in on the third day of Songkran, known as Wan Payawan. This is the first official day of the New Year and on this day people cleanse the Buddha images in their homes as well as in the temples with scented water. The family is dressed in traditional Thai costume and wearing leis of jasmine flower buds. The water is scented with the petals of this flower."

I'd recommend visiting the post this comes from to see how it goes from a reverend washing of Buddhas to a free for all water fight in the streets.  

She knows I have a camera, so she's offering to douse me just a little bit.  It ended up down my back.  There are over three posts on our Songkran in Chiangmai.

And there's a Part 2 and Part 3 as well that go into different aspects of Songkran.

This year in Thailand the new year will be 2565

The Burmese New Year is related to the Thai New Year.

"Burma’s most important festival

Taking place from April 13 to 16 each year, the Buddhist festival of Thingyan is celebrated over four to five days, culminating on the Lunar New Year Day.

Water throwing is the distinguishing feature of this festival, and you’ll find people splashing water at each other almost everywhere in the country.

Thingyan traces its roots back to a Hindu myth. The King of Brahmas called Arsi, lost a wager to the King of Devas, Thagya Min, who decapitated Arsi. Miraculously, the head of an elephant was placed onto Arsi’s body, and he then became Ganesha.

The Hindu god was so powerful that if his head was thrown into the sea it would dry up immediately. If it were thrown onto land it would be scorched. If it were thrown up into the air the sky would burst into flames.

Thagya Min therefore ordained that Ganesha’s head be carried by one princess after another who took turns for a year each. The new year thus has come to signify the this annual change of hands."

Chinese New Year:  (This is a great site, with almost everything you could want to know about Chinese New Year)

"Chinese New Year is celebrated by more than 20% of the world. It’s the most important holiday in China and to Chinese people all over. Here are 21 interesting facts that you probably didn’t know about Chinese New Year.

1. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival

In China, you’ll hear it being called chunjie (春节), or the Spring Festival. It’s still very wintry, but the holiday marks the end of the coldest days. People welcome spring and what it brings along: planting and harvests, new beginnings and fresh starts."

This year it begins on February 1, 2022 and it will be the Year of the Tiger.  It will be the year 4720.

Jewish New Year - The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are very holy days - time to reflect on one's failings and to ask for forgiveness from God and from those you have wronged.  It's also a time to forgive those who have wronged you.  It's currently the year 5782.

You can see more here.

So let's not get so hung up on 2022.  Today is just another day, following yesterday.  Let's be sensible in dealing with COVID. 

1.   Let's work hard to preserve the US democracy - with time and with money. Write your members of Congress.  Help those organizations fighting voter suppression.  And figure out who is doing Stacy Abrams work in your state.  And if nobody is, find some partners and do it yourself.   

2.  And let's also do everything we can to take national and world action to minimize the impacts of climate change.  For that, I'd suggest connecting with Citizens Climate Lobby, the most focused and efficient organization I know of.  

3.  Be kind, but not a sucker.  Know your power - don't underestimate it or overestimate it - and stand up to bullies when that's feasible and protect others who are targeted.  Take a self defense class if you feel threatened.  Our former president has given his followers to act on their worst impulses.  But don't give up.  The super power I wish on everyone is the power to make everyone around you feel loved.  

 

Sun And Rain In LA Keep Me Distracted

 There's been a lot of rain here in LA.  For LA anyway.  It was one day rain, the next day sun, then rain.  We just finished two days of steady rain, but today the sun's out.  But with all this, trying to be on vacation yet get things done and gramping, I totally missed Wednesday's hearing.  And while the Superior court has it live on video, they don't leave the recorded (was it recorded?) video up for people to see later.  But they're still talking technical, procedural stuff.  Though listening in would have given me some hints of things might go.  Next meeting is next Wednesday.  But meanwhile here's some LA.

Sunday was sunny and I went for a bike ride with B, an Alaskan friend who's moved down here to be near kids and grandkids.  He took this picture of a house in Marina Del Rey.  This is NOT a typical house.  

It had this sign in the lower left.

Some gentlemen fishing at the boat docks in Marina del Rey.  

Monday morning it was still sunny, but clouds were rolling in as we went to Will Rogers State Park for a hike back into my earlier life.  This is where Will Rogers lived.  His house is there and there's a polo field that's active on weekends.  And also a trail that loops around the property.  

The rain was a fine mist by this point.

All tree bark fascinates me, but eucalyptus trees hold a special place

Here's Will Roger's stable/barn in the wet Monday.

And here it is when it was finished in 1927.

One of the things I like about this park is that it's surrounded by chaparral covered hills.  A smell that takes me back to childhood.  I think it might be why I like David Hockney's swimming pool picture, which I once had to recreate digitally in a computer art class I took.  It was painted at a house not far from here with hills like this in the background. I want you all to know I really liked this picture well before it sold for $100 million.  

In the past when I've hiked this trail I've seen coveys of California quail.  But not this time. 

It was raining when we went to the cemetery to put flowers on my mom's and other family members' graves.  When my brother died young, my mother went to the cemetery weekly to keep fresh flowers from her garden on his space on the wall.  My mom was a lab technician and X-ray technician and so she filled test tubes with water and taped them to the wall.  Many years later, the cemetery got plastic vases and put holders up on the wall.  My inlaws and step father were added to the wall, and more recently my mom.  So when I'm down here I gather flowers - mainly epidendrum, what my mom called 'poor man's orchids' and jade plants - because the last longer.  

A couple of years ago I filled some of the vases with soil and put  jade plant in.  When we came again nearly a year later, they were still alive.  One of the cemetery caretakers was making sure they got water.  Because of COVID I wasn't sure what I would find this time.  We haven't been there for almost two years.  But I shouldn't have worried.  Each vase had a healthy jade plant, one had a different succulent, alive and thriving.  We added the flowers we brought and I have to leave a thank you for the caregiver before we return to Anchorage.

Nearby my mom's spot is this one.  

Yesterday it was raining again.  I had an appointment in Beverly Hills with the eye doctor who's been checking my contacts since 1975.  I took my granddaughter with me and she had a number of questions.  

They had a COVID testing site in the parking lot.  

And most of the nearby shops (but not all) had very COVID warnings.

oops, this one needed higher res, sorry

These were near where we parked the car and I thought they were pretty.  Picture didn't turn out that well.

After we went by a park where both my wife and I attended summer camp.  We didn't know each other then at all.  We only found out we'd both been there when I found an old camp picture in my mom's garage, after she died.  I should my wife my 8 year old self and she then pointed out her own image on the picture.  

They've take out most of the features that made it a wonderful place for kids - different spaces separated by different kinds of bushes and a swimming pool on one end.  The pool is gone - the the playground there was blocked off yesterday by tape because there were several inches of water.  This trail was the nicest part of the park now - and it was a giant puddle.  Basically they wiped out all the park and put in two baseball diamonds.  

And driving home down Olympic, the clouds were playing hide and seek with the tops of the buildings in Century City.  

Today's sunny again, and so we have a bike ride scheduled.  We got the brakes fixed on my granddaughter's bike and she wants to use it.  

AK Redistricting: The Valdez Challenge Part 1 - #s 5, 4, and 1- How Do You Solve A Problem Like Valdez?

I've been taking notes and trying to figure out how to post about this in a way that gets the point across, without putting everyone to sleep.  But that, of course, assumes I know the point.  Sunday, I came up with this overview of my dilemma.

This chart is more or less in the order I tackled the problem.  But at this point it seems to make more sense to start with 5 and go backwards.  [I've since decided to add #1 at the end of this post.] 

NUMBER 5:  Probably the easiest for me and for the reader is to start with number 5.  

This is what's been playing in my head for a while and I think it's apt:

"How do you solve a problem like Maria,  How do you catch a cloud and pin it down"

So you can listen to this song as you read this:

Valdez has about 4000 people.  There are no other similar population centers anywhere near Valdez. The closest population centers are Anchorage, Mat-Su, and Fairbanks - but they aren't very close.  Southeast Alaska has four districts worth of population.  It basically has to go up from the south because the southern and eastern borders are Canada.  The western border is the Pacific Ocean.  I've thought they could use Prince Rupert, but, of course, they can't.  

Valdez has been paired with Mat-Su and it's been paired with the Richardson Highway up almost to Fairbanks.  Essentially, Valdez is the thorn in redistricting boards' side.  It's essentially a white oil community connected by water to fishing communities and by land to some areas with more Alaska Natives.  

So lets go to #4 and look at maps.

NUMBER 4:  Where is Valdez now and where did the different proposed maps put Valdez?

First, let's look at the current district that includes Valdez - from the 2013 Proclamation plan. [Not interactive.] I've circled Valdez in red - bottom, middle right.  The district goes to Whittier in Prince William Sound, includes the Richardson Highway communities along the pipeline (Valdez is the terminus of the Alaska pipeline) almost up to Fairbanks and also goes into Mat-Su. 

Click on image to enlarge

Second, let's look at the 2021 Proclamation map for Valdez - in D 29.  The link will let you look at the map in greater detail.  This is the map that Valdez is protesting. 

District 29-O does NOT include the Richardson Highway, nor does it go anywhere near Fairbanks or the other communities along the pipeline.  Instead it goes deep into Mat-Su, smack up against Palmer and Wasilla.  But in this district, since the Richardson Highway is mostly in the neighboring district, people in Wasilla driving to the Matsu part of their district have to travel out of D-29 on the Richardson Highway.  Below you can see how Route 4 - the Richardson Highway - is in the tan colored district (36-R), the district the Valdez folks want to be in.  Not only is Valdez in a different House district, but also a different Senate district.  If you look at the map on the Board's website, you can see that for the most part the Highway is in District 36-R.  (If it weren't, then the people in 36-R would have to leave their district to travel to other communities in their district.  But this raises questions of contiguity, a Constitutional requirement for districts.  

Third, AFFER and Senate Minority Plans put Valdez with Kodiak and goes into the Lake and Peninsula Borough, bordering Anchorage from the west and Mat-Su from the west and south.  These two maps are very similar - I can only see some differences around the Homer area.  This is probably not surprising because the architects of these maps - Randy Ruedrich and Tom Begich - have been doing this for years and this reflects a similar current district that connects Cordova to Kodiak. (But does not include Valdez.)

Fourth, we have the Doyon Coalition map.  They've put Prince William Sound all together in one district - with Cordova and Whittier.  But it cuts Valdez from the Richardson Highway communities the lawsuit says they belong with, and also takes the district to the edge of Palmer in Mat-Su.  But this looks like the most compact district.  The Coalition wants to keep various Native Corporation villages in the same districts.  

Fifth, we have the AFFR map.  This puts Valdez in a sprawling district that does keep them connected with the Richardson Highway communities, almost into Fairbanks, around Fairbanks, and also gets them into Mat-Su near Palmer.  But the few people who mentioned specific maps at the Valdez hearing said they preferred this map.  

Finally, we have a map - Valdez Option 1 - that is attached to the lawsuit - which Valdez is proposing.

It connects Valdez with Prince William Sound communities of Cordova and Whittier and goes up along the Richardson Highway.  But it would also require the Board to make a LOT of changes to other districts and there will be complaints from the Doyon Coalition among others I'm sure.

So this should give you something to chew on.  I've put links to the Board's interactive maps for each of these maps so you can see the details if you wish.  

I'm also going to skip to #1 - an outline of the Valdez legal challenge, with my additions in blue.  Part 2 will be #3 and #2.  

NUMBER 1:  OUTLINE OF VALDEZ COURT FILINGS   

I've condensed the filings and added (in blue)  some of the things they've cited or notes you I thought would help

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT FOR THE STATE OF ALASKA THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT AT VALDEZ

1.   On November 10, 2021, the Alaska Redistricting Board (“Board”), pursuant to its constitutional authority under Article VI of the Alaska Constitution, promulgated a new redistricting plan to govern legislative elections in Alaska for the next decade. This plan places Valdez into House and Senate Districts in violation of 
1. The Open Meetings Act, 
2. Article VI, Sections 6 and 10 of the Alaska Constitution, and 
3. the equal protection and 
4. due process clauses of the Alaska Constitution. 
5. This Complaint seeks 
1. judicial review of the Board’s redistricting plan and 
2. an order invalidating that plan and 
3. requiring the Board to redraw the districts in accordance with the Alaska Constitution

PARTIES

2-11 - City of Valdez, and Mark Detter, a resident of Valdez, 

The Board and each member.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

12-13

ALLEGATIONS

14- 42  There are almost 30 allegations here.  It would have been more helpful if these were better tied to the Five Claims at the end.  One has to go through these 28 allegations and match them to the claims.  I’ll try.  

First Claim - Violation of the Open Meetings Act

43-48     http://www.touchngo.com/lglcntr/akstats/statutes/title44/chapter62/section310.htm  Gets you to Open Meetings Act - not long, but too much to add it all here

43. Paragraphs 1 through 42 are incorporated as if fully set forth herein.   

44. The Board, as a governmental body of a public entity of the state, is subject to the requirements of AS 44.62.310-320 (“Opening Meetings Act”). The deliberations and decisions of the Board are activities covered by the Open Meetings Act.

45. Upon information and belief, the Board has violated the Open Meetings Act in the following ways:

(a) It conducted deliberations in secret. 

(b) It failed to properly conduct votes.

(c) It conducted a serial meeting.

(d) It withheld documents from the public that were used in formulating the final redistricting plan.

(e) It failed to clearly and with specificity state the subject(s) of each executive session or its reasons for addressing the subject(s) in executive session.

46. Plaintiffs and others have been harmed by these violations.

47. As a result of these violations, the actions of the Board resulting in adoption of the final redistricting plan including senate pairings, should be voided.

48. The Board’s proclamation of redistricting should similarly be voided, as it was based solely upon the redistricting plan.

Second Claim - Violation of Article VI, Section 6

49 - 55

§ 6. District Boundaries

The Redistricting Board shall establish the size and area of house districts, subject to the limitations of this article. Each house district shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socio-economic area. Each shall contain a population as near as practicable to the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the state by forty. Each senate district shall be composed as near as practicable of two contiguous house districts. Consideration may be given to local government boundaries. Drainage and other geographic features shall be used in describing boundaries wherever possible.

Third Claim - Violation of Article VI, Section 10

56 - 59  

(a) Within thirty days after the official reporting of the decennial census of the United States or thirty days after being duly appointed, whichever occurs last, the board shall adopt one or more proposed redistricting plans. The board shall hold public hearings on the proposed plan, or, if no single proposed plan is agreed on, on all plans proposed by the board. No later than ninety days after the board has been appointed and the official reporting of the decennial census of the United States, the board shall adopt a final redistricting plan and issue a proclamation of redistricting. The final plan shall set out boundaries of house and senate districts and shall be effective for the election of members of the legislature until after the official reporting of the next decennial census of the United States.

(b) Adoption of a final redistricting plan shall require the affirmative votes of three members of the Redistricting Board. [Amended 1998]

Fourth Claim - Violation of Article I, Section 1 (Equal Protection)

60-62

§ 1. Inherent Rights

This constitution is dedicated to the principles that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the enjoyment of the rewards of their own industry; that all persons are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and protection under the law; and that all persons have corresponding obligations to the people and to the State.

Fifth Claim - Violation of Article I, Section 7 (Due Process)

64 - 68

§ 7. Due Process

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. The right of all persons to fair and just treatment in the course of legislative and executive investigations shall not be infringed.

RELIEF

WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs pray that this Court:
1. Enter a judgment declaring the Board’s redistricting plan promulgated pursuant to the proclamation dated November 10, 2021, to be in violation of the Open Meetings Act, Article VI, Sections 6 and 10 of the Alaska Constitution, and the equal protection clause and the due process clause of the Alaska Constitution; 

2. Enter a judgment declaring the Board’s redistricting plan promulgated pursuant to the proclamation dated November 10, 2021, to be null and void; 

3. Enter an order enjoining the State Division of Elections and the State of Alaska from conducting any primary or general election for state legislative office under the Board’s redistricting plan, or otherwise taking any step to implement the plan; 

4. Enter an order requiring the Board to promulgate a new redistricting plan consistent with the requirements of the Alaska Constitution or, in the alternative, enter an order correcting errors in the Board’s redistricting plan;
5. Enter an order declaring Plaintiffs to be public interest litigants as constitutional claimants and awarding costs and attorney’s fees;
6. Enter an order for such other and further relief as may be just and reasonable. DATED this 10th day of December, 2021. 

BRENA, BELL & WALKER, P.C. Attorneys for Plaintiffs 

By
Robin O. Brena, ABA No. 8511130 Jake W. Staser, ABA No 1111089 Laura S. Gould, ABA No. 0310042 

E. O. Wilson Died Yesterday. I'm Reposting This 2010 Post In His Memory

[And I've added a video of a conversation between Alan Alda and Wilson  at the bottom.]

The Future of Life - Why is this so hard for people to deal with?

It's a battle between two narratives:

Narrative 1:

The free market is the most economical system for bringing prosperity to the world and government regulation just screws things up.

Narrative 2:
The free market has many positive benefits, but it also commodifies our collective resources resulting in the catastrophic destruction of the Earth's species and if we don't stop this trend immediately, we will destroy those things that makes life possible on earth.

I am much closer to the second narrative than first.  One of the most persuasive arguments in Wilson's book (he favors Narrative 2)  comes in the chapter "How Much is the Biosphere Worth?" A 1997 study estimated the annual value at $33 trillion.

Ecosystems services are defined as the flow of materials, energy, and information from the biosphere that support human existence.  They include the regulation of the atmosphere and climate;  the purification and retention of fresh water;  the formation and enrichment of the soil;  nutrient cycling; the detoxification and recirculation of water;  the pollination of crops;  and the production of lumber, fodder, and biomass fuel. [p. 106]

Reading this book as oil floods the Gulf of Mexico and eight years after it was published, my basic view of the world was reinforced and my frustration with my fellow humans who choose to ignore the impact human population increases have had on the earth and who choose to ignore the impact of their gluttonous consumption of the world's resources.  It's as though we have been selling off pieces of our back yard garden where we've been growing our food and now we are taking the wood off our house for heating fuel without thinking about where we will get our food and where we will live in the future. When will we realize that consuming our resources like this can't end well? 

I sympathize with people who cling to the material things that were part of the American dream as they were growing up.  But I'd also point out that happiness can be found at lower levels  of material consumption.  Sure, we need a basic level of comfort - housing, food, security, etc.  But where is that basic level?  How is it that generations of humans lived well without big screen televisions, without SUVs, without 2200 square foot homes, etc?  Are all these things worth an unsustainable exploitation of the earth's resources?  Wilson says strongly no. 


My book group met Wednesday night to discuss E. O. Wilson's book The Future of Life.  It's a short (189 pages) but difficult book.  It's data heavy and could use, as one of the group members suggested, much better headings and titles.  For example, Wilson talks about biodiversity for much of the book and I was looking for where he was going to tell us why this is important.  It wasn't obvious.  I finally found it in the chapter called "For the Love of Life" which would more usefully have been titled "Why Biodiversity Matters."   

Wilson also doesn't do a good job of clearly telling us his key points.  They're there, but hidden in all the data.  I did read the book carefully, taking lots of notes, so I did get some of them.  But without Wilson spelling them out, I have to guess that these are the ones he thinks are the key points.


1.   Biodiversity* is shrinking.  We are losing species and genetic variety at a faster and faster pace every year.

2.  The Causes of Biodiversity are summarized as HIPPO;

Habitat destruction.  Hawaii's forests, for example, have been three-fourths cleared, with the unavoidable decline and extinction of many species.

Invasive species.  Ants, pigs, and other aliens displace the native Hawaiian species.

Pollution.  Fresh water, marine coastal water, and the soil of the islands are contaminated, weakening and erasing more species.

Population.  More people means more of all the other HIPPO effects.

Overharvesting.  Some species, especially birds, were hunted to rarity and extinction during the early Polynesian occupation.  [p. 100;  Hawaii is just the example of what is happening around the world here]

I need to emphasize population because he spends a lot of time on this.  The increase in human population underlies the other four factors.  

3.   It's late in the game to stop this destruction of biodiversity but if humans become aware and have the will, it is possible.  The final chapter is called "The Solution."  I have problems with the idea of a "solution" in human affairs.  We don't solve issues as though they were math problems.  Rather we better balance the factors that affect the issue, and we may well unbalance it in the future.  And given the negativity of most of the book, one wonders whether the author really believes things can be changed or if the editors said it needed a happier ending.  But here are some of the things he offers in that chapter.

• Ethics - Humans, he argues, have a genetic propensity toward fairness.  If people see that some people are destroying the planet by using more than their fair share, they will fight for fairness. (But what if they are the ones gaining unfairly?)
• The way is to change people's narrative. We think of the environment (all of its resources) as capital.
  
  

  Having appropriated the planet's natural resources, we chose to annuitize them with a short-term maturity reached by progressively increasing payouts.  At the time it seemed a wise decision.  To many it still does.  The result is rising per-capita production and consumption, markets awash in consumer goods and grain, and a surplus of optimistic economics.  But there is a problem:  the key elements of natural capital, Earth's arable land, ground water, insects, marine fisheries, and petroleum, are ultimately finite, and not subject to proportionate capital growth.  Moreover, they are being decapitalized by overharvesting and environmental destruction.  With population and consumption continuing to grow, the per-capita resources left to be harvested are shrinking.  The long-term prospects are not promising.  Awakened at last to this approaching difficulty, we have begun a frantic search for substitutes.   

  This leads to two problems:
  • Economic disparity and
  • Accelerating extinction of natural ecosystems and species
  
  He suggests adding statistics that take into account the value of the biosphere into our  evaluations of economic assets and deficits as one way to change how we use our resources. 
  
  He then goes on to list the action that can be taken to turn things around
  
  
  
  • Salvage the world's hotspots - those habitats that are both at the greatest risk and shelter the largest concentration of species found nowhere else.
  • Keep intact the five remaining frontier forests (combined Amazon Basin and the Guianas; Congo of Central Africa;  New Guinea;  the temperate conifer forests of Canada and Alaska combined;  the temperate conifer forests of Russia, Finland, and Scandinavia combines.)
  • Cease all logging of old growth forests everywhere.
  • Everywhere concentrate on lake and river systems, which are the most threatened ecosystems of all.  
  • Define and prioritize the marine hotspots of the world.
  • Complete the mapping of the world's biological diversity
  • Use most advanced ecosystem mapping techniques to ensure full range of the world's ecosystems are included in global conservation strategies.
  • Make conservation profitable.
  • Use biodiversity to benefit the world economy as a whole.
  • Initiate restoration projects to increase the share of the Earth allotted to nature.
  • Increase capacity of zoos and botanical gardens to breed endangered species.
  • Support population planning

There are other issues the book raised for me:

1.   What is a reasonable human population on earth where humans can live a comfortable live style that doesn't use up the Earth's resources?

2.   How do we get there?

3.  How do we get people to see the collective impact of individual behavior as we try to balance saving the biosphere and biodiversity with the market economy?

4.  How do we conceive the difference between the death of individuals and the death a species?

5.  How do we understand what is a normal rate of species extinction versus a human caused rate of species extinction?

All of these are addressed in the book to some degree, but need much more discussion.

Some group members expressed the bittersweet hope that the oil spill might help raise people's awareness of how our resource use endangers the planet.  



*From his glossary at the back of the book:

Biodiversty:  All of the hereditary variation in organisms, from differences in ecosystems to the species composing each ecosystem, thence to the generic variation in each of the species  As a term, biodiversity may be used to refer to the variety of life of all of Earth or to any part of it - hence the biodiversity of Peru or the biodiversity of a Peruvian rainforest.  (p. 213-214)


NOTE:  Blogspot sent out a notice that they have a new agreement with Amazon to enable bloggers mentioning books to automatically link to Amazon so that readers can easily buy the  book and the blogger would get a percentage.   I have resisted ads on this blog for various reasons - including aesthetics, conflicts of interest, and the fact that the size of my readership isn't large enough to earn me significant profits anyway.  But I thought I'd mention this.  There are some books I mention I wouldn't encourage my readers to buy.

But this one I think everyone should read.  Including our governor and mayor who strongly support economic development without calculating the costs to the biosphere of the projects.  Neither cares if we wipe out the Cook Inlet beluga whale population - which NOAA has declared an endangered species - if it means that we'd have to think more creatively to maintain our current economic situation.  But the governor has vetoed money that would have added about 1200 kids and about 100 mothers to Denali Kid Care health insurance because some of the money might be used for an abortion.  The intentional loss of one potential human being is more important to our governor, it seems, than the loss of a whole species.

The original post had a few comments. 

I'm adding this conversation between Wilson and Alan Alda.