———————– ** Fresh Green Beans ** ———————– Grown in Kansas. Eaten Worldwide.

Despite my many visits; I had never really seen the Haskell-Baker wetlands until I had saw them through the eyes of Mike Caron, a passionate scholar and activist of wetland habitats who has a way with words.

As a fellow environmentalist I mirrored Mike’s respect for the wetlands and was eager for the tour by a man who knew so much about its dynamics and history. But before our trek even got started, a sad and disturbing sight confronted us.

Not 20 feet from the edge of the Haskell Indian’s Memorial Grounds, noisy earthmovers were mindlessly digging up the land and hauling the dirt away. The Memorial Grounds are recognized historical site and a memorial for the many dead First Nations children that attended the Haskell Boarding School - an assimilation institution intent on, as Mike put it, “killing the savage and saving the man”.

What these titans of construction were doing is unknown, and how they had permission to do so is even more confusing. According to Mike, a historical site should have no construction done around it. This fact, however, did not stop the erection of sewage lift stations, which pipe sewage near the symbolic headstones (the actual graves are mythed to be under the basketball courts) and the wetlands for processing.

Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many cultural and environmental injustices that have befallen Haskell land.

The Haskell-Baker wetlands are a historically and culturally significant area for many different First Nations people. It is significant because of the way people of many Nations were forced together for their reeducation. The land is imbued with the traces of these people and the many trials they faced here together.

From a Eurocentric perspective, the land was seen as unproductive and a dumping ground for vagabonds and waste. However, from an ecological perspective; wetlands serve as an important, and continually rarified, ecosystem. The wetlands ecosystem exists in a delicate balance of environmental factors and life cycles which make it home to hundreds of environment specific plant and animal species. For the First Nations people the land is sacred and life-giving. These contrasting views represent the struggle of these people while modernity encroaches onto their lands and into their world.

This struggle continues today. Presently, there is a critical issue that has been raging for the past 20 years: the proposed South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT). This highly contested highway, intended to relieve traffic congestion in the city of Lawrence, threatens to rob the wetlands of its cultural significance and ecological diversity. The wetlands has long been a place where people have come to take comfort in its wild refuge, to study, to pray, to come together in solidarity with their families and their community. The construction of the SLT would result in the loss of one more valuable wild area, just to be replaced by more development and sprawl. One more loss for our increasingly diluted culture, and one more win for our market-driven globalized world.

What we are seeing here on the local scale in Lawrence is a severe clash of values, and assumptions made by our Western views and values. It seems difficult for immigrated peoples to realize the integral nature of an environment and its peoples. Instead, non-natives view their relationship to their habitat with neoliberal economically tinted glasses; that is as individuals’ divorced from the land that they view as a commodity and nature being something to control rather than to respect and nourish. These views of our neoliberal globalized society further perpetuate environmental injustices on land that is, in the view of many, priceless.

-Juliana Tran

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A Rainy Day at The Wetlands By Juliana Tran

Top Photo by Wally Emerson

“All creation is connected and interdependent. If any part of the system is upset, the whole system is affected. There is no separation between our land and our spirituality; this is simply our way of life… We grow ourselves out of the land.”
– Nasbah Ben, a coordinator of the Save the Peaks campaign and a member of the Navajo Nation in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona.

The San Francisco Peaks are sacred mountains that are revered by thirteen different First Nation groups in Flagstaff, Arizona, including Nasbah’s own Navajo people, the Diné.

These days, the land isn’t used for ceremony, or herb gathering; rather, the land is restricted for use by the Arizona Snowbowl, which now occupies the Peaks. This huge, barely used, ski resort was erected for the wealthy of the area, seemingly mocking the mountains that were deemed as holy by the local people for centuries.

Now, to add insult to injury, if the Arizona Snowbowl wins a pending court case, they will be able to continue developing their resort and start using recycled sewage water to create artificial snow - controversial because of the dangers it may cause to the environment and in turn, the people.

This is an issue that isn’t just about the San Francisco Peaks but about the rights of all humans to protect their environment and maintain their relationships with the land.

Since the ski resort was built in the 1960’s, there continues to be resistance by the Navajo and those who have sided with this solidarity movement to stop further development of the resort and maintain respect for this once sacred space. Unfortunately, their voices are barely heard.

In an interview with Nasbah - it seems as if only superficial legislation have been passed to help protect sacred land, such as various Executive Orders passed under Bill Clinton, which consider the voices of the native people in the area, but won’t stop companies from development. These measures seem only to be symbolic, projecting an illusion of environmental justice while effecting no actual change, but only placating the demands of both the activists and corporate interests.

The issue with the San Francisco Peaks and the Snowbowl represents the tremendous amount of injustice that occurs to many minority populations and low-income populations all over the nation. Environmental justice works to keep these populations respected by public policy and corporate development, but often it is the case that these voices aren’t heard.

Environmentalism goes hand in hand with Human Rights; it should be a natural right for people to have clean water, clean air, and sacred space.

In this world, it seems that only the wealthy can afford to choose their environment and modify it to their liking, while there are groups like the Navajo, who are marginalized from wealth and political persuasion. These people represent those of many that are victims of structural violence – when people are subjected to poor lifestyles and harm because of exploitive social structures and institutions. Despite trying to voice their opinion, power plants are erected in their neighborhoods and amusement parks put on their temples.

How can we heal this rift, which separates a clean and healthy person from a clean and healthy environment? How can we stop the destructive development, which is built on the homes of the poor just to be out of the sight of the wealthy? And how can we make this change global? These are questions that the baby boomers and generation X have placed squarely on our shoulders, and we do not have their luxury of leaving them unanswered.

-Juliana Tran

San Francisco Peaks: Flickr

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For the past 4 months I have learned that I am not alone.

I have learned that there really are other passionate people out there that wade through the quagmire of “where, how, why?” questions while waiting in the check-out line or before they step out of their door in the morning.

I’ve learned that the reason some people are skeptical of the future or climate change is because they are scared to think that their life will change as the result of the very way they have lived their life.

I’ve learned that people are doing their best.

I have been inspired by so many people who have stepped out of their boundaries in order to examine their actions and their effects on the environment that it has made me become more hopeful myself.

Although I am glad that people are changing their minds, and are now seeing through green tinted glasses, I still feel like there is still so much work to do.

There is so much disparity between people and ideas, places and things, even with the University of Kansas and the greater community of Lawrence. How do we get political parties to come together in order to change the way things are going in order to really , REALLY help the people? How do we get these parties to consider environmental justice for all their citizens, not just the wealthy few? How do we connect to all the people across the world and within their communities, to have them admit that there is a problem that needs to be addressed and unite in a way that isn’t economically driven, but life sustaining driven? How do we spread awareness effectively, do things with an open mind and an honest heart…how do we even convince our parents?

While these questions are all still in the air, I believe with optimism that we will survive, that we can come together and help each other out, because we have to, because we DEPEND on ourselves and each other, and it eventually will have to happen whether we like it or not.

Anyway, Thank you Simran and THANK YOU class, for sharing your opinions, knowledge… and for eating my snacks !

Love

Juliana Tran

Picture from www.Icanhascheezburger.com

(If you don’t get it go to here)

Media makes me nauseous.

I have been exposed to a whirlwind of environmental media stories and world news on suffering, violence and hunger. Between the two, I’ve been left feeling skeptical and helpless. I would consider myself pretty well-informed on environmental issues. I live a life more green, and would like to say that my awareness is enough, but lifestyle is not enough, it’s my own perception, and that of others that counts towards a more healthy earth.

The media, I would argue, shapes perception on what is good and bad, and what are important issues to consider. No matter how unbiased a report may seem, the fact that they are published gives the issue an upper hand on importance, and some of the most pertinent issues are barely covered because it is most likely what media thinks people don’t want to hear

Recently, media has shaped the environmental movement in ways that previous generations of environmentalists only wish they had access to. There have been copious amounts of environmental documentaries made, and mentioning a tip here or there on how to be greener, or how your business is green has become a trend. Media takes on a big step for environmentalism, but unfortunately it is ridden with greenwashing, and is targeted to comfortable communities rather than those that are seeking real environmental justice.

Being green is the new feel-good.

I think it has been established that media has done well for environmentalism, although it is ridden with contradiction. As far as access goes for environmental media, it only helps on how much you are interested in it. Since environmentalism is imbued in my brain, I think it is what I am most attracted to when surfing the Internet or reading periodicals, so for me, it is an enormous issue that I am hopeful that many people are being exposed to.

Then I talk to my parents, or coworkers, or someone I run into at the grocery store, and the issues are all jargon to them.

I can mention no personal experience with television – I barely know how to work a remote anymore, so I will focus on the Internet. The internet is an amazing thing because it allows you to cut through the BS that you don’t want to see, you search for exactly what you want to see, you stay on websites that have the same point of view as you, and the websites reinforce your ideas by showing advertisements that they think you would be interested in.

Environmentalism, just as much as any other issue, seems to go only as far as people will allow it in their mind, how much exposure they choose to have in their life and whether or not they will act upon it.

Although the green movement is getting large, is environmentalism still a niche idea?

www.flickr.com

-Juliana Tran

I got picked up in Mexico City by a driver-certified-body-guard named Nacho. He was a short man who was talkative and was really excited to meet me and my travel friend, Jacob.

The second we get in his little Volkswagon, he starts blasting Madonna’s song Material Girl, singing along and encouraging us to do the same, driving down the road ignoring all traffic rules.

Welcome to Mexico City, or maybe , welcome to the same globalized world.

This bienvenido set the tone for my little trip south of the border and made me question how does consumption and waste rates differ between countries? According to Worldmapper the U.S has a relatively large amount of waste compared to the population, and more so than Mexico.

I’ve always figured that since consumption and expendable income is so high in the US, that most developing countries had less waste, but from what I saw in Mexico, I couldn’t believe that to be entirely true.

Everyone knows to stay away from the drinking water in Mexico, drink bottled water instead. This, was painful for me, in 3 days of being in Mexico, Jacob and I had drank 5 2 liter bottles of water and half a 10 liter jug of water.

In America, we have a generous choice to drink either bottle or tap, but for people in developing countries or rural areas, many have no other choice, and have to spend the little money they have on privatized, bottled water. How come clean water can’t be a natural right and resource available for everyone?

Now, what do other countries do with the ridiculous amount of waste thrown out? In Kathmandu Nepal, they burn all of their trash on the streets, and in Mexico, as I saw, they throw their garbage off cliffs into valleys.

With environmentalism, it seems as though there is a big emphasis on America, and it’s consumption, it’s energy use, it’s waste and degradation to the environment. Maybe it seems this way because I am immersed only in the American life. But what about developing countries and the way their social, political and cultural structures have them stuck in a position that they can’t even start to worry about their relationship and degradations to the environment?

Is environmentalism only for the wealthy? Can environmentalism actually become global?

Upon looking One Week’s Worth of Food Around Our Planet, I was reminded of a book I used to look at called Material World: A Global Family Portrait, which shows the material possessions of family’s across the world. Both show pictures that are powerful and show the differences between economic opportunities and material possessions across the world.

It seems as though environmentalism can be linked to consumption , reduce your consumption, and reduce your impact on earth. But how do we bring up all the people in the world to have a positive relationship with their environment that isn’t costly?

A photo I took of a water bottle in Mexico, to what I think roughly translates to something like ” It is necessary to drink 2 liters of clean water every day for good health. “

I can’t help but think, are these companies actually thinking about YOUR health, or is this greenwashing or marketing strategies to have you continue buying and wasting?

What about the ones who can’t ?

-Juliana Tran

Authors Note 5/5/08: This blog post has been re-posted on the GreenOptions

Every month it comes and goes, effecting women (and those around them) in their personal health, hormonally, emotionally and on a broader scale, in their environment.

Yes, I am talking about menstruation.

Menstruation is an issue that does pertain to both men and women. There is not an issue of menstruation itself, something that I feel should be celebrated, and not something taboo, uncomfortable, and feared. Unfortunately, there is an issue with the toxicity and disposability of the way women “take care of this problem”.

So, how is it relevant to men? If you have a women in your life, mother, sister, daughter, significant other, show them you care about their personal health by telling them about the consequences of using disposable products!

Excerpted from the Environmental Magazine’s article Inner Sanctum on the issue:

“According to waste consultant Franklin Associates, 6.5 billion tampons and 13.5 billion sanitary pads, plus their packaging, ended up in landfills or sewer systems in 1998. And according to the Center for Marine Conservation, over 170,000 tampon applicators were collected along U.S. coastal areas between 1998 and 1999.”

Can I get Chris Jordan to depict this please?

What makes up the tampon anyway? Think about the pesticide ridden cotton, the trees that make up the cardboard, or the oil used to produce the plastic… made just for us to collect and throw away our menstrual blood.

Not only is there so much waste generated from the use of “feminine hygiene products” (how cold does that sound?) but chlorine dioxide, a known carcinogen, is used to whiten the cotton used in these products .

In support of Stacy Malkan’s argument of exposing the toxic chemicals in our cosmetics, women should have an outright choice of what type of alternatives they have with their products they use for their menstruation, not just Cardboard of Plastic, with a disclaimer on Toxic Shock Syndrome.

So, what are the alternatives? Organic tampons and pads, reusable pads, or my personal savior and favorite alternative, THE CUP! (All conveniently sold locally by The Merc)

Organic tampons and pads are a great alternative, they eliminate the toxic qualities in normal tampons and are perfect for those who don’t want to take the plunge into getting to personal with their menstrual blood, although there still is the consequence of waste as a by-product.

The real excitement starts with the cup, a reusable product that captures menstrual blood and can be used for years that is safe for the body (is is made out of soft medical-grade silicon).

Personally, I have been using the cup for years, and I have never felt better about having my period. I feel more at whole with myself, kind of how when you switch to organic foods, you feel better about how you are taking care of your body, as well as the environment.

By using the cup, you are wasting considerably less, you save an incredible amount of money, it is more comfortable, less of a hassle worrying about health consequences, and you quite frankly, learn a lot more about the way your body works.

Without going into to much more personal detail, check out these websites for more information:

Diva Cup

Keeper

Menstruation is constant personal factor in our lives, just as much as food and energy is, so consider being good to your body and the environment!

Photo from flickr by Nopopcomics

-Juliana

Eat Food. Not To Much. Mostly Plants.

I carried a bag of trash around for 24 hours. I’ve never been as intimate with my waste before, but at the same time I felt very disconnected.

Today was a bad day for trash , and this was due to the relative “convenience” of my waste. With sympathy towards Bobby’s post, I just didn’t have time to create a healthy lunch for myself, and had to resort to getting mysterious food from The Underground .

Some say ignorance is bliss, and sometimes I wish I could resort to that lifestyle. Before every action or decision I make, my mind initiates a long list of questions. Where did this come from? What is in this? How did it get here ? Who made this? Where will the unusable parts or trash go when I am through with this? The list goes on and on, and it can make life quite difficult and can make my conscience go nuts, but it is the consequence (and benefit to everything else) of my awareness.
Walking into the Underground made me really uncomfortable. It’s crowded, its noisy and everyone is flirting. I feel like my decision on what food to get and eat are being observed by everyone, and the notion of taking a huge Styrofoam plate for my salad makes me want to succumb to my empty stomach and run home for food.

What really is the convenience of these disposables? Not only does it wreck havoc on my conscience, but using disposable take out containers make up a large majority of waste and no where to put it.

Apart from my guilty consumption last night, I was also attending an “internationally themed” potluck for Environs, which meant for me, making about 40 delicious Vietnamese spring rolls. This lead to a disproportionate amount of personal trash, because I was cooking for about 25 people.

This waste from my cooking excursion included, plastic packaging for noodles, rice paper and tofu, as well as a lot of organic waste from preparing carrots, cucumbers, lettuce and herbs.

To offset my already abundant waste for the day, I knew I could do something with the peels and bits and pieces of unused vegetables. I unfortunately have no backyard and no garden, so composting was out of the question for me. Instead, I decided to save up these bits and pieces for a future vegetable stock! I bagged up the excess veggies, and threw them in a (plastic) bag and stored them in the freezer.

I felt a little better about diverting some waste, but it still makes me cringe to think of all the Styrofoam waste that the university and faculty and students partake in. When will KU wake up and become sustainable and KU Dining start using biodegradable disposables?

My bag of veggies for vegetable stock

A Day in Trash

The Recycling Center at my House

OK, I had to post one more photo because I saw everyone else had trashy pictures with their pets, and Ferdinand happened to be interested too

- Juliana Tran

I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into when I first straddled the bicycle that was to replace my car.

The freedom I felt riding a bicycle for the first time as an adult was like seeing a mountain or the ocean for the first time. It gave me hope, and it showed me beauty. I wasn’t just going to be riding a bike; I was going to be commuting on my bike and becoming self-sufficient.

I found out that bicycling became the easiest way to get around, and my love for bicycling threw me unexpectedly into bicycling advocacy and the bicycling community in Lawrence. You discover a new world by biking, exploring your community and connecting a little more with nature. Bicycling is the most convenient mode of transportation, and the reasons are endless. It increases mobility, free time, money and dependency on oil, but most importantly it is the healthiest mode of transportation for your body, the environment, and of course, it’s fun!

There is a challenge to this lifestyle shift, of choosing bikes over cars. There is the first step of getting on that bike and making it to your destination, and then there is also the commitment to this choice. This challenge is not impossible though. Humanity has gone far, and seeing more people on bicycles gives hope for sustaining our current lifestyles.

Going a step beyond just commitment, Eric Farnsworth has added a more creative and fun aspect of the Lawrence bicycling community. Eric creates what some in underground bike culture call “mutant bikes”. Farnsworth has created bicycles out of anything, from couch bikes to grocery cart bikes, which he often lends out to the community to enjoy and test out for themselves. Not only has he brought people together with his unique bicycles but he is also an advocate for bicycling as commuting.

Bicycling is a means to happiness mentally, physically, and environmentally, but remember to be safe, wear a helmet, and have fun. Soon enough you will hear “ I saw you riding your bike today!” a phrase I personally can’t hear enough of as it gives me a rush of joy and satisfaction with my lifestyle change and decision to ride a bike.

-Juliana Tran

A group of about 100 people riding down 23^rd street in Lawrence for the first critical mass in 2007 in Lawrence, Ks.

Photo by Alex Dworkin

Environmentalism IS becoming sexy, even if it costs you an arm and a leg! Has anyone ever tried online shopped for organic clothing?

Unless you want to dress in vein with “traditional environmentalist clothing” such as earth-toned colored, plain, ill fitting and baggy… It is difficult to find fashionable or organic clothing, unless you want to shell out 100-dollar pair of jeans, 150-dollar dresses.

Knowledge and awareness can lead to so many internal struggles, such as I have suffered.

*My mind* Ugh, I need to get work out clothes for my new yoga class. I want to get organic cotton clothing to wear, but all I can find is this 50 dollar top. I understand the social injustice and environmental costs of going to Target to buy my clothing… but there is little more than I can afford…

How do we clothe ourselves while being sustainable and fashionable, and affordable?

I resorted to pulling out my old cheerleading leggings
(yes, I was a cheerleader) from the back of my closet and another random tank top… Later realizing that yoga clothes are mostly A GIMIC! Especially tops, THEY ARE JUST REGULAR TOPS!

I think that affordability is a problem that many people see in the environmental movement, and it has often been classified as an “upper or middle class, white only” movement, because they are the only people that can afford to care, even though they are probable less effected by the immediate environmental and health concerns, such as those in low economic classes that have to live by nuclear power plants or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.

On the other hand, people love to shop, and often it’s a cure for emotional ailments,
(“Wah, my boyfriend broke up with me, so I went to Urban Outfitters today and bought this 100 dollar pair of jeans (nonorganic, but just as expensive) and now I feel better cause I look hot.”) Being green or shopping green or consuming green is just another way to show status, “ I just bought a new Prius, so therefore I am saving the world”.

Just as in reference to the greensumption video, it’s difficult to have people realize that although they are “greensuming”, they don’t realize that are still CONSUMING.

Many people always forget the first and foremost of the triple R’s! REDUCE on consumption, packaging etc.! Then reuse, and then recycle… these should be a last resort, but it instead becomes something like a savior and a “feel good act”.

Excerpt from the show “Weeds” about Prius. There is bad language though !

-Juliana Tran

Also, did anyone notice this AD banner for Motherearthnews.com, comments?