Muse Ecology
Bugs are foundational to life on Earth, and their numbers are plummeting due to human activity. In this conversation with Vicki Hird, author of Rebugging the Planet, we explore the wonders of bugs and how we can restore our relationship with them. You can find more information about rebugging, and purchase the book, at . Here's the two papers referenced in Vicki's book that came up in our discussion, on the potential effects of new higher frequency radiation on invertebrates: Arno Thielens et al., Exposure of Insects to Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields from 2 to 120 GHz, Science...
info_outline #26 Addressing the Other Leg of Climate Change, 2nd PanelMuse Ecology
"Water begets water, soil is the womb, and vegetation is the midwife." -Prof. Millan M. Millan This last episode, for now, in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, was a great panel conversation with 6 people from 3 different organizations, each working from distinct approaches to restore weather and climate through restoring natural processes. It was a lovely example of the diversity of backgrounds that are beginning to come together around this idea. Juliette Kool and Ties van der Hoeven, Maya Dutta and Jim Laurie, Marcel de Berg and Pieter-Paul de Kluvier, Here...
info_outline #25 Addressing the Other Leg of Climate Change, 1st PanelMuse Ecology
The understanding that we can restore weather and climate systems by protecting and restoring the living surface of the Earth is an idea whose time has come. In these final two episodes in this Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, we'll hear discussions of how this understanding is beginning to guide our response to climate change, from grassroots to international levels.
info_outline #24 Renewables and Accountability: A Panel DiscussionMuse Ecology
This episode is a diverse panel discussion on the implications of renewable energy supply chains on life, water, and local communities, and how we might address them.
info_outline #23 Life and Lithium at Thacker PassMuse Ecology
In this episode in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, we hear diverse voices from the resistance to the proposed lithium mine at Thacker Pass in northern Nevada, on Paiute and Shoshone ancestral lands.
info_outline #22 Judith Schwartz and Walter Jehne: Climate Change Narrative ShiftMuse Ecology
In this conversation with author Judith Schwartz and scientist Walter Jehne, we discuss the importance of the shift from seeing the Earth as a resource base to seeing ourselves as enmeshed in a web of life that both manages and depends on natural processes. In particular, we focus on how this perspective shift affects how we understand and are empowered to address anthropogenic climate change.
info_outline #21 Paul Cereghino Part 2: Bioregional Restoration and Social ComplexityMuse Ecology
In this conversation with Paul Cereghino, we discuss some of the challenges of collaborating in groups and groups of groups to protect and restore the Earth, including such topics as the role of online interactions, the importance of place-based reality, benefits and pitfalls of systems like sociocracy, Covid complications, and much more.
info_outline #20 Paul Cereghino Part 1: Ecosystem Guild and Restoration CampingMuse Ecology
In this episode in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, we explore one of the great challenges on our way back to harmony: humans. Through the lens of his Ecosystem Guild and Restoration Camping project in western Washington State, Paul Cereghino and I discuss some of the interhuman and intergroup complexities of grassroots ecological restoration efforts.
info_outline #19 The Mangrove Action ProjectMuse Ecology
In this episode we continue the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series with Alfredo Quarto, co-founder and international program director of the Mangrove Action Project. In our conversation with Alfredo, we discuss the importance of mangrove ecologies, their devastation by the shrimp farming industry, and how the mangrove action project uses an approach called Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration to facilitate their natural regeneration.
info_outline #18 Neal Spackman; The Business of Restoring the EarthMuse Ecology
We continue the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series with Neal Spackman, ecological restoration designer, regenerative entrepreneur, and bold visionary. Previously in this series, we heard how agriculture and development having long been destroying ecology and hydrology, causing disruptions of weather and climate systems, and leading to the fall of empires. Neal is working to change that ancient dynamic, by restoring ecological function and hydrology to regenerate economies and rainfall patterns.
info_outlineThis episode of Muse Ecology is the first in this four part series beginning to explore humankind's relation to the bison in the Great Plains of North America. This buffalo series features diverse voices of folks involved in the bison's return that Alison and I met on our buffalo investigation journey in February 2018. While the next three episodes feature entrepreneurs and ranchers who are working to restore bison to the landscape, this first episode features voices of wildlife advocates who see the buffalo as a wild elder whose right to roam long precedes our recent human constructs.
The first visit on our buffalo journey was with the Buffalo Field Campaign, a volunteer-run organization that exists to defend the dignity and freedom of the last continuously wild herd of buffalo in North America, in Yellowstone National Park. Founded over 20 years ago by Lakota Grandmother Rosalie Littlethunder and videographer Mike Mease, through documentation and advocacy, the BFC seeks to promote awareness of the story and management of the Yellowstone bison, and to influence policy to allow them to roam free like the other wild ones.
At just over two and a half hours this episode ended up a bit long, but felt like one story to be released together, so I divided it up into chapters like an audio book or radio play, and created a table of contents with minute and second, to make it easy to restart if you have to take a break.
00:00:52 Introduction to the Buffalo Series
00:09:17 Arrival at BFC
00:09:46 Chapter 1: The First Annual Rosalie Littlethunder Memorial Walk
00:15:44 Rosalie Memorial Circle
00:29:27 Chapter 2: Buffalo Awareness in Bozeman
00:29:31 More Words From Karen Littlethunder and Cheryl Angel
00:35:04 Awareness Rally Grooves
00:38:53 Chapter 3: Ski Patrol and Share Frog
00:38:55 A Daily Meeting
00:45:55 Buffalo Patrol
00:52:96 A Wild Lullaby for Share Frog
00:57:05 Chapter 4: Jimmy Brings an Important Message
01:09:46 Chapter 5: A Conversation with Stephanie Seay
01:11:24 Conversation with Stephanie
01:35:14 Chapter 6: A Conversation with Mike Mease
01:36:05 Details about the March webinar
01:36:46 Conversation with Mike
02:36:11 Closing Rumination and Introduction of Tanka Bar Episode
You can connect with the Buffalo Field Campaign, to follow their work or arrange to volunteer for a while, at www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
Michael DiGiorgio recorded the banjo-bird jams I'm using in the intro and ending. You can find his amazing nature art at https://www.mdigiorgio.com. Mike says that if you'd like to buy the album of his nature-banjo jams, you can find his email on his website and he can mail you a CD.