During the question and answer period at the end of the ranger program, an attendee asked if the glaciers are really going away. Ranger J gave a fact filled answer that yes, all of the glaciers at Glacier National Park are expected to vanish by 2030. In fact, she pointed out, only the largest glacier may survive past 2020, just seven years in the future.
Crowning Jewels of The Park - 1913
Leaving Us - 2012
Yes, that's the same spot as the picture above
Ranger J chose not to bust out the now-old joke that we will need a new name for the park, which once sported 150 glaciers. She also chose not to mention climate change.
It was there, if you listened carefully. The winters were milder, she said, and the summers longer and hotter. The phrase just screamed to be uttered, but no.
The National Park Service has a very, very clear position on the reality of climate change. The materials that we held in our hands as we listened to the ranger's presentation were unambiguous, and the written description of climate change concerns was prominent in the handout.
NPS and USGS Materials Leave no Doubt
Here we were in the absolutely most iconic poster child in the National Park system for the effects of climate change. My initial reaction was: Why would a ranger miss the opportunity to educate the public about it?
After the program ended, I asked Ranger J about why she chose not to use the phrase "Climate Change." Her answer defined the pattern that I would observe, as I asked versions of the same question of other NPS personnel in the days and weeks to follow.
"If I go there, then for some members of the audience, I will lose them on the spot, and they won't listen to anything else that I say. There is so much that I hope people will understand about the resources in this park, that I don't want to create that situation. I provide facts about the warming that is occurring, and the people who are open to making the connection with climate change will do so."
Further conversation revealed that she is deeply committed to the most effective environmental education she can provide to the park visitors. Clearly she had thought the question through, and was following the best path that she saw.
Their Habitat is Changing Rapidly
On a referral from Ranger J, I spoke to Ranger T, who is conducting her doctoral research on the topic of climate communication. Immediately, the topic of not antagonizing some of the visitors came up. She used the word "delicate" to describe the communication challenge.
The Numbers Don't Lie
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On the train back to Washington, I asked the NPS volunteer interpreter whether she mentions climate change as she provides an orientation for travelers who are heading toward Glacier National Park. "I don't want to get political," she told me. "If people bring it up, then I provide more information about it."
Based on reading and writing about the endless battles with climate deniers in the past few years, I quickly had my working theory. Climate deniers were disrupting every opportunity to discuss climate change, and in this case the rangers were giving in.
On further inquiry, a more nuanced picture appeared. The rangers were all focused on the best method to deliver a critical conservation message to a variety of visitors. There was more going on than simply shying away from a potential disruption.
Not Just in Glacier National Park
Here is the Lillian Glacier in Olympic NP
Oops. Here Was
Ranger A, who works at a park in Utah, explained to me that in addition to their education mission, the rangers have a mandate to respect the beliefs of all of their visitors, even if those beliefs had a potentially wide range. By example, he cited a program where he previously described the formation of rocks "millions of years ago". This had resulted several times in contentious discussions with visitors, and he elected to drop that single phrase. As he said:
"I am not afraid to mention the geologic time scale, or climate change, but a skilled interpreter knows when certain phrases or concepts have the potential to alienate certain demographics, thereby negating everything else you have to say."
He also pointed out that climate change information is widespread in the interpretive displays and literature in the park, which are read by many thousands of visitors per year. If a visitor decided to yell at a sign or a pamphlet, that was their choice.
To Ranger A, it was about focusing on what he really wants the visitors to understand, which is about the critical need for conservation, not just of the park itself but for similar resources in the region. He summed it up his goal in this sentence:
Let’s all be on the happy bus to conservation land.
What to make of this? I'm still annoyed that a small group of obstructive people can have such an effect on what NPS personnel say to their visitors, but have come to appreciate the challenge faced by park interpreters who have to deal with the public on a daily basis.
I'm glad that I didn't take the rangers on combatively for what I initially perceived as a failure. I think that kind of action would have simply added to the argument rather than shedding any light.
What I got instead was a series of conversations with some really intelligent people about the most effective methods for climate communication in a given setting.
It all circles back to what each of us, as individuals, can do at a given moment to raise awareness and to encourage action. For me, part of the answer is not to cast asparagus on people whose public role may bring them in contact with literally anybody on any given day. And even as I will always encourage everyone not to be silenced on climate, there may be a communication lesson here, about sometimes treating climate change as simply part of the world around us, rather than as a separate topic.
Because it's everywhere. When I talk with my friends and neighbors, I don't have to be a climate activist in order to be:
- A gardener adjusting to the new growing seasons, and concerned about the arrival of new types of pests
- A seafood lover who is paying attention to whether we will still be able to locally grow shellfish in the acidifying water, or catch as many fish in our warming streams
- A participant in our local decisions on how much sea level rise should be part of the plan for our waterfront redevelopment, or how our water resources should be managed as our snow and glacier run off may change
- A ski mountaineer who walks farther each year to the start of the glacier, and who has turned back from attempting to summit our local volcano Komo Kulshan due to smoke from massive forest fires to the east
- A visitor to our national parks and other amazing outdoor places, who hopes that young people everywhere will still get to enjoy the same experience far into the future
- And, yes, someone who loves hummingbirds, and hopes they will always come back to visit us each summer.
Don't worry, when it's the time for another screed on the evils of massive coal export schemes - I'm there! But I'll also be on the lookout for ways for make the mission, of raising awareness of climate change, an everyday part of my ordinary life.
Here's my question of day for climate hawks and hummingbirds of all sizes:
How do you find ways to integrate climate change communication into the mundane events and decisions of your life and community?
Our Future - Worth Saving
Any time you think that you don't have a choice, you actually do.
Any time you think you have to do something that's wrong, you don't.
Not Here
Not Today
Not Any More
We shall not participate in our own destruction.
Events:
Tonight Wednesday September 11th 7:00 PM: Surrey/N. Delta Coal Awareness Town Hall Meeting, Trinity Lutheran Church, 11040 River Road, Delta, BC Canada. Featuring Doctor Frank James (and moi).
Saturday September 14th: Puget Sound kosssacks, Come to our barbecue in Bellingham WA! Dinner is at 4, music by Dana Lyons at 5, fire after that. Kosmail to RSVP and for directions.
Saturday September 21: Coal Hard Facts Forum, 6:00 pm, Bay Horizon Activity Center,
7511 Gemini Street, Blaine, WA. Dr. James and me team up once again. Check for updates at Re-Sources.
Also Saturday September 21: Draw the line with Bill McKibben and 350.org, 11 AM to 2 PM, Myrtle Edwards Park, Seattle.
September and October 2013: Support the Totem Pole Journey undertaken by members of Lummi Nation, who will be taking a specially carved totem along the planned route of coal export from Montana to the west coast.
October 3, 2013, Evening. Forum on coal export at Western Washington University. Details to be announced.
References:
USGS on Glacier Retreat
NPS: Glaciers and Climate Change
Repeat Photography - Glacier Change Over Time
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"Hummingbirds" Blogathon: September 9-September 13, 2013
In May 2006, the late environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai addressed 7,000 international educators who had gathered in Montreal for the 58th annual conference of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA). Here is the story she shared with them.
One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest - a huge woodlands was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire, except for one little hummingbird.
This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't bother, it is too much, you are too little, your wings will burn, your beak is too tiny, it’s only a drop, you can't put out this fire."
And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird’s efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked. Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a mocking voice, "What do you think you are doing?" And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said:
"I am doing what I can."
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In this time of escalating climate change, this is our challenge.
To refuse to surrender to the apathy of denialism and fatalism.
To be fierce in our defense of the Earth.
To continue to fight in the face of overwhelming odds.
And always, always, to do what we can.
Because it is only by each of us doing what we can, every day, that we will save the Earth – for ourselves, and for the generations to come. Like the hummingbird.
Our Daily Kos community organizers are Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, boatsie, rb137, JekyllnHyde, citisven, peregrine kate, John Crapper, Aji, and Kitsap River. Photo credit and copyright: Kossack desertguy and Luma Photography. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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