Macska Moksha Press

Climate, Covid & Wishful Thinking

January 4, 2023 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

[Art by author from public domain elements]

The challenges presented by climate chaos and the Covid-19 pandemic have both elicited cultural responses that superficially appear to be opposed to one another, but that end up working hand-in-hand to bolster a status quo that’s intrinsically harmful to everyone. Both succeed by appealing to wishful thinking.

In the case of anthropogenic climate chaos, the two clusters are centered around denialism and what we could call technophilia or perhaps techno-hopium. Climate chaos results from industrial-scaled agricultural civilization, so seriously addressing it would any would entail significantly changing that system, and—if we’re going to be honest—ultimately phasing it out. Avoiding such change is the shared motivation of both parties, so Team Denial shrilly insists that climate chaos is not real, or if real is “natural” rather than “man-made,” so there’s nothing we have to change about how we live. Team Technophile smugly assures us that it is real, but that “green energy” (so-called “renewables” like solar, wind & hydro) will solve the problem, so… there’s nothing we have to change about how we live.

In both cases, it’s wishful thinking: the former insist there’s no problem to solve, and the latter that science alone can do it.

Two sides, same coin.

My Top 10 favorite songs of 2022

January 1, 2023 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

A year ago, in January 2022, I ran across an article listing the top 25 songs of 2021 according to Billboard magazine. Now, I’d stopped actively following the national music scene and the Billboard Hot 100 back in the ’90s when I was living in Boston because the local music scene was so rich that I happily sunk into it and stopped paying attention to what was happening outside the little clubs and labels there. I heard some of the best music of my life during this time, including songs I was convinced would’ve been big smash hits from coast to coast if they could’ve gotten the exposure. Then, I was living in Pacific Northwest, where I was involved in activism and then farming, neither of which left time for pop radio. I’ll admit I also felt like I should dismiss popular music, or should try to hold myself above it or something, because “corporate,” “shallow,” blah blah blah.

But in January 2022, I checked out that article, and listened to the songs on the popular video sharing website. To my surprise, I liked some of it. So next I went through the top 100 for the year, and found a few more things that appealed to me. Then I started digging, to see what I’d missed since the turn of the millennium. I ended up putting together several playlists of 2000s music, and from April onwards they were my mainstays when driving, doing farmwork, etc. Over the year, I made more playlists comprised of just 2022 music, as new releases came out. For six solid months, I basically ignored my music collection in favor of exploring current/recent bands & songs. It was really enjoyable actually.

It’s a common cliche to claim that music now isn’t as good as it used to be, and I had that question in the back of my mind as I surveyed. I definitely have a bit to say about it (spoiler warning, “no”) but that’s for another essay on another day.

In the meantime, just for fun, here’s my top 10 favorite songs that came out in 2022. I put together a playlist of the videos here.

The Tragic but Teachable Moment of China’s Relaxed COVID Policy

December 20, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Collage by the author from public domain elements

China recently relaxed its COVID policy and the virus is now running rampant. Though exact numbers are not available, we are hearing about overburdened hospitals, emptied pharmacy shelves, and corpses backing up at crematoria. There are also reports about the government expanding hospitals and ICUs and closing down schools, so though “Zero COVID” is no longer in effect, the country has not devolved to the “let it rip” approach of the US and other Western nations.

This turn of events is, first and foremost, an unalloyed tragedy. We should all be hoping that suffering will be minimized as soon as possible. The people of China are other human beings in the world, fully deserving of our compassion. Ultimately, borders are fiction and culture is superficial and we’re all just one family. That’s what I personally believe anyway. I don’t pray, but if I did, China would be at the top of my list.

This tragedy is also a major teachable moment and will remain so for some time to come as events unfold over the next few months. I stress that everyone will stand to learn something, regardless of where they are in the COVID debate. Given that what China did was so different for so long, they were a “control” of sorts compared to the US and the West. Or vice versa, rather, as the control in a study is the group that doesn’t receive treatment. Regardless, for people who are truly interested to learn more about the global phenomena of SARS-CoV-2—no matter what they believe now—what happens next will be instructive. We must then press for policy to change in sensible ways based on what is revealed.

Maskless Dystopia

September 12, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Munch’s “The Scream” with COVID [collage by the author from non-copyrighted elements]

When I was growing up in the ’70s, a common vision of the dystopian future was a bleak, industrialized landscape where everyone has to wear gas-masks because of pollution. The image goes back further still; speaking on the campaign trail in 1968, RFK warned a classroom of children that unless the US did something, air quality in NYC would be so bad in a decade that people would have to wear masks to breathe.

Now here we are, half a century later, sinking daily further into a dystopia, but one of the emblems of our moment is a lack of masks.

I’m referring to COVID, of course, an infectious disease known to be airborne since January 7, 2020, and to the low number of people who wear masks in public although COVID’s spread can be greatly curtailed by doing so.

This is not an an anti-anti-masker screed. I blame institutions, not individuals, for the behavior of the populace. Despite their at times blustering claims to the contrary, most US Americans are obedient and do what they’re told. Most unquestioningly believe the media which, from conservative to liberal, from Fox to CNN to NPR, is telling them they don’t need masks anymore.

So most people don’t wear them, and two and half years into this pandemic, as we are afflicted with new variants and surges, and as more people die or become disabled—and as other diseases like Monkeypox enter the market—we are exposed, defenses down. This is our maskless dystopia: a nation that has apparently given up on the idea of public health, and is barely even making a pretense about fighting an ongoing pandemic. I find it depressing, to say the least.

Botany as Archaeology, to Stop a Lithium Mine

August 11, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

GUEST POST, by NIKKI HILL

Photo 1: Thacker Pass, all photos by Nikki Hill

“Sagebrush sea” is an endearing term that describes the vast high desert steppe lands of western North America. Rolling hills enveloped in silver green shimmer and sparkle like waves in the mid-day sun. This sea that spans the wide valleys and crests over plateaus connects the peaks and ridges from the shores of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the Greater Rocky Mountains. It is vast, indeed like an ocean. Nowhere does it ripple more like a sea than in the Great Basin, which coverrs most of Nevada and half of Utah, held by the Wasatch range to the east and the Sierra Nevada to the West, spilling out into the Mojave to the south and well into eastern Oregon in the north.

Many of the desert plants do indeed resemble ocean creatures: coral-like cactus and urchin-like succulents. Although it is commonly thought of as desolate and emptiness, the high desert steppe is incredibly abundant and alive. 350 species of wildlife and insects depend just on sagebrush herself.

The sagebrush sea is one of the largest continuous landscape types in North America, but only 5% of the area receives protection at the federal level, making it the least protected landscape in the USA.

This sea has been speaking to me for some time now. Calling me back, holding my attention, inviting me to see the patterns within it. In 2009, I was first introduced to the various First Food plants of the high desert, the traditional staple-food plants, and the reciprocal relationships that have fostered them for thousands of years. I have dedicated the majority of my time to following these plants since 2013, spending time camping and interacting with them, learning how to tend them, gathering and planting their seeds and picking up their stories as I wander. I have become endeared to them, bonded to their continuance in heart and hand.

DIY: How to make newspaper pots for veggie starts

May 7, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

You can make pots for veggie starts out of newspaper instead of using plastic pots, or peat pots. One of the biggest advantages of paper over plastic is that newspaper pots can be put directly into the ground, so there is much less disturbance to the plant. This makes newspaper pots especially appropriate for squash plants, as they are especially adverse to having their roots disturbed. This year, I’m doing all our squash starts in newspaper pots. FYI: by “squash” I mean all of the summer annuals in the Squash Family: winter squash, summer squash, pumpkins, cukes, zukes, gourds, watermelons, cantaloupes, etc.

What you’ll need:

newspaper
a soup can or jar of similar size
nursery trays, or something that can fill that function

How to make your own potting mix for vegetable starts

May 7, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

I can’t remember where I first heard this recipe, but it was over a decade ago, and it’s still the best one I know of. If you’re doing lots of starts (as in hundreds), this is much more economical than buying bags of potting mix. This is what we’re using this year at the Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice.

Ingredients: Perlite, Coconut Coir & Worm Castings

Ingredients:

1 bag Perlite, 4 square feet, preferably “propagation grade”
2 bags Worm Castings, 1 square foot each
2 blocks, Compressed Coconut Coir, only one size, I’m pretty sure. Might say, “expands to 2.5 cubic feet”

These ingredients are all appropriate for certified organic agriculture.

Coir is the main growing medium here, Perlite is for drainage, and the Worm Castings provide nutrition to the young plants. You can go with one bag of Worm Castings for plants that will spend a very short amount of time in pots before being transplanted out, like Squash (winter, summer, cukes, melons, gourds, etc.).

You can also add fertilizer to this blend. I add an organic complete organic fertilizer to batches of this I’ll be using for needy starts, like Tomatoes.

The Coir tales the place of Peat Moss, which I avoid for two reasons. First, its pH is on the acidic side, and second, it’s acquired by destroying peat bogs. We need to leave the remaining wetlands alone at this point.

You also need a tarp to mix this all on. A flat shovel, hoe, or other long-handled tool is also helpful, but not required.

Consideration for all life—even Carrots!

April 11, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Homegrown carrots

I posted an article on social media about a scientists who believe that mushrooms “talk” to each other. Fascinating stuff. In response, someone made this comment to my post:

“my son and I were talking about this today… so now that plants, trees, fungi, animals, and so forth all talk to one another, what do we eat? The carrots are screaming when we pull them, the shrooms lose a huge part of their network. Cows love music. I’m really confused now.”

In response, I wrote:

I’ve been giving those subjects a lot of thought, more than I can put down in an FB comment. (I’m actually working on a book on these topics.) But, briefly, I would mention a few things:

First, there’s the fact that many vegetables and nearly all fruit can be harvested without harming the plant. In fact, many berry seeds, for example, germinate better once they’ve fermented in a digestive tract. Some plants respond positively to having their leaves picked. Any of the mints, for example, come back doubled after your pinch back their tips, which makes twice as many flowers, and hence seeds, on that stem. Such pinching back can be done multiple times per season. So there’s that—the plants that want us to eat from them.

Can Our Veggie Gardens Feed us in a Real Crisis?

March 27, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

A haul from the Author’s urban farming operation in Portland, Sept. 15, 2007 *(Photo C.H.White)*

I originally posted this essay in July, 2019, in response to massive flooding in the US Midwest that had the potential to affect food supplies. I am reposting it now because food shortages could result from the war in the Ukraine. As in 2019, I am seeing suggestions on social media to “plant a garden.”

If only it were that simple.

I used to be a small-scale organic farmer so take it from me: totally feeding yourself from your own efforts is very, very challenging. Though some friends and I tried over multiple seasons, we never succeeded, or even came anywhere close.

War in the Age of Bernays

March 8, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Map of Ukraine with Edward Bernays and a Mushroom Cloud, collage by the author

War offers us an intense if perverse spiritual experience with its myth-making drama of life lived at the extremes of human experience. America has always been susceptible to this kind of religious fervor particularly when we need to forget all of our deep internal divisions and our failure to address even the most elementary social problems. We have pushed the uneasy knowledge of our own wars and war crimes deep into the recesses of our souls but we still long for absolution. There is nothing like a really nasty enemy to restore a sense of our own high moral character. Of course, the thrill of this spiritual revival is usually experienced from the comforts of home far from the blood, guts, and gore. ~Richard Moser

I’ve seen this movie before and it sucks.

The first time was 1979. I was ten years old, in Omaha, Nebraska, which was an intolerant, ignorant place, and insolent about it, to boot.

It was called, “Hostage Crisis.” In Iran, some students took over the US embassy and held a bunch of Americans captive for 444 days. The bad guy was the Ayatollah Khomeini. Everybody hated him. Everybody hated “Eye-Ran.” It was popular, this hatred. It was a bandwagon you were supposed to jump on.

I didn’t get it. It felt faked. I mean, people were really into it—very enthusiastic with their stupid jokes and name-calling and all that—but the way it was suddenly everywhere, like flipping a switch, seemed artificial. How could everyone despise someone so much who they’d just heard of for the first time?

I was smart enough to keep these doubts to myself, or rather, intimidated enough. I could tell that asking questions could get me into trouble, and maybe beaten up.

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