How to Choose? What to Save? Where to Fight?

Triage is a messy business. You choose who to salvage and who to let go. So leave your rose-colored glasses at home. Decisions must be made. Some will lose the one thing you can never retrieve …life itself. Sometimes those decisions haunt the deciders. But when you’re in the thick of it, reality punches you in the face. You can’t pretend that everything is possible. 

The question of what to save is front and center again as the Trump administration opted out of saving 26 species, some of which are threatened by climate change. Most of us are outraged. We know that the decision wasn’t based on science. Stepping back from the political fire that issues like this fuel, maybe we need to ask some other questions about the concept of wholesale species protection. I know, I’m treading into sacred territory, but suspend judgement for a moment, and read on.  

We’ve entered the Age of the Anthropocene, a time when human dominance over nature has altered the course of life on the planet in profound ways. The war to mitigate the impact of the Antropocene has a simple but daunting goal — prevent catastrophic Climate Change and mass extinction. Like all wars, it will be fought on multiple fronts and will yield a lot of casualties. To win we will need resources, savvy fighters, and a strategy. Maybe most importantly, we will need the courage to challenge our assumptions about the role environmentalists should play as well our beliefs about what or who to save and how to save it.   

Those of us who identify as “environmentalists” are poised to become a part of humanity’s battlefield triage staff. Most of us are unprepared. Environmental leaders, from the grassroots to national standing, are in the throes of self-examination as we face demographic changes in our membership, a decrease in environmental activism among youth, and a shift in media emphasis from traditional environmental concerns to worries about the impact of climate change. In 2010 Grist identified the emergence of a new kind of eco-warrior: the Climate Hawk. Hawks, reluctant to adopt the environmentalist label, have a pure agenda: combat climate change with any means necessary, including civil disobedience. They reject focusing on the usual environmental campaigns — like saving whales and polar bears or lobbying to protect wilderness. They wanted to save humanity. Period.

As often happens during transitions, some Hawks, looking for a comfy place to roost, eventually find their way into traditional groups like the Sierra Club. They embrace some of the concerns of the old-fashioned environmentalist but are most energized by combatting the threat of Climate Change. And being a feisty sort, they have converted some of the old guard into Climate Hawks too. 

It’s 2017 and the folks who’ve dedicated their lives to preserving wilderness and species of all kinds (let’s call them the Conservationists), sit cheek to jowl with those Hawks, making decisions on messaging, campaign strategies, and resource allocation. Climate Change increasingly dominates the environmental agenda though the groups known collectively as Big Green (Sierra Club, NRDC, the Wilderness Society and others) continue to simultaneously pursue traditional initiatives (i.e. wetland conservation, wilderness preservation, species protection). As we debate what it means to embrace an agenda that combats the looming existential threat of climate disruption, an uncomfortable question arises: How do we do it all? Or from those who are even more heretical: Should we even try to do it all? 

Which first? Chicken or egg?

Ask a vegetarian / vegan which they gave up first, chickens or eggs, and you’ll likely get the answer: “chickens.” OK, and cows and pigs too, but let’s just stick to chickens for a moment. For me, the specter of brutalized chickens made it easy to give up flesh. But dipping a warm piece of buttered toast into a silky, shiny yellow yolk… that was heaven. And let’s be honest, terrible images of egg farms are pretty easy to suppress. So like most, I ditched “meat” and held fast to eggs and dairy.

Ah dairy. That’s an emotionally loaded food group for this Wisconsin girl. I always hated milk. It made me gag as a child. Loved ice cream though (it has sugar!). And cheese? You’d have to rip it from my cold dead hands. Whenever someone asked, “Are you gonna be a vegan?” The answer was immediate: “No. I absolutely cannot give up cheese.” Enough said. I did my part for animal cruelty and the environment. I gave up meat.

But it turns out that I had things a little backwards. Health was never at the top of my list of reasons for eating lower on the food chain. I knew that vegetarians had lower risk of heart disease but I didn’t change my diet to avoid disease. Like most people, I walk around in deep denial about disability and death. But my own aging and the constant exposure to the ravages of chronic illness in the clinic, has made the relationship between health and nutrition more prominent. My denial is being steadily chipped away.

I just finished the book “Healthy Eating, Healthy World”. This fast read is a well-written and researched overview of the interconnectedness of eating, planetary health, and human health and disease. Right up my alley! The author, Jim Hicks, was a management consultant who got interested in nutrition and set out to research a book on the subject. He ended up in a place he never expected to be: eating a vegan diet. He spent a lot of time with T. Colin Campbell, of “The China Study” fame and with Caldwell Esselstyn, the Cleveland Clinic surgeon who has done research on reversing heart disease with diet interventions. Dr. Esselstyn is also the father of “The Engine 2 Diet” guy Rip Esselstyn, who promotes a vegan diet that appeals to (he)men. You’ll see Rip’s approved foods on little seals pasted up all over the Whole Foods shelves. Much of the research done by Drs, Campbell and Esselstyn concludes that as bad as meat is for people, dairy is far worse. It has carcinogenic properties as well as increasing heart disease risk. So if you’re eating for health, you’d stop dairy first. Then eggs. And last …meat.

I immediately covered my eyes and began to sing the denial song … “la, la, la, la …” long and loud, to drown out this tidbit. I do not need to be this well informed. I have a terrible flaw: once I know something, I can’t un-know it and ignore the implications.

But now I know. So now what?

If you read this blog, you know that I’ve been eating at least a 99% vegetarian diet for three years (has it really been that long?). Over the last year, that diet has become really unhealthy. Yes, vegetarians can have unhealthy diets. One of my mainstays has become high fat dairy. Dairy replaced some of my salads and dark greens, which take more time to prepare, and soy protein. My LDL deteriorated and my overall feeling of well-being plummeted as my nutrition tanked. It’s been a multifactorial path that led me here …poor stress management, career dissatisfaction, and little exercise being big confounding factors. But when other things in life are gnawing at your immune system, it behooves you to be even more scrupulous about your nutrition. I have been anything but scrupulous.

I’ve reduced dairy intake in the last couple of weeks as I prepare for the 21-Day Kickstart Diet challenge. The cheese is nearly gone now but imagining giving it up for good is still really hard for me. With one benign colon polyp already removed, my risk of colon cancer is higher than average. It is a nasty disease and one I’d rather avoid. Dumping cheese to avoid chemo is a no-brainer. But it is also easy for the mind to lull you into believing that the risk isn’t really there as you opt for short-term pleasure. The decision to choose health is one we have to consciously make when the environment presents us with so many delicious and easily indulged in unhealthy options.

If a physician had told me 10 years ago to eliminate dairy, would I have made that choice? I don’t know. But I know what I’d do today.

Does anyone want my cheese?

I want one!

Check this out. In the land of Whole Foods, no less. Can I have one here?

I need some new glasses

Systemic glasses. Like 3-D, only better. Something to help me "see the forest for the trees". If I only knew how to invent them, I'd patent them and call them Pandora Glasses, after the planet in Avatar. They would be soooo cool, because for the first time ever, we'd be able to see the connections between things, like the Na'vi do. They could be a handy way to reveal how our individual actions and small projects impact the gargantuan engine at the heart of a system, say for example, the "the food system".

Being a generous person, I'd give the first pair to our president. He could be a beta tester. I'm thinkin' he could really, really use these gizmos. It's clear that he's having a very hard time with the forest-seeing thing. I have to believe that his eyesight is the problem, or I'd have to impute some really ugly qualities to him, and I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. So, operating on the assumption that his vision is poor, maybe my glasses will help.

I'll stop beating around the bush, or in this case, the field. Let's begin with a post I wrote right after the election (the site referenced is dead -- which says something ). This post was part of a national grass-roots effort to get the Obama's to install an organic garden on the White House lawn. Check. Done. Most of us who care about food, were also hoping the USDA would get deep reform. A highly credible Kathleen Merrigan, a veteran of the sustainable agriculture movement, was named deputy secretary. She oversees the National Organic Program at the USDA among other initiatives, and under her guidance the agency is beginning to flex its muscles. Check. Another victory. There are more gains to catalogue, but let's take a moment to put on those sexy new glasses I just invented (mine are purple, in case you're wondering).

Hey, look at that! The Big Picture! The connections, if you will, that are well-laid out in the cover story of the latest issue of The American Prospect -- Slowed Food Revolution. You can read it online here (but you'll need to take off your new glasses). With the help of Heather Rogers, who must have her own cool glasses, you'll see a USDA that is a revolving door for Big Ag, much as Goldman Sachs is for the government's economic advisors and the Interior Department has been for the gas, oil and mining industries. Big surprise, though we voted for "Change We Can Believe In", U.S. ag policy, the engine that drives what food we get and what it costs, is still being deeply influenced by industrial agriculture interests, especially Monsanto. Obama has done almost nothing to change that. If fact, the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, epitomizes the Big Ag man. So we find him proselytizing for biotech and biofuels. He encourages greater subsidies for commodity crops headed for export while neglecting the needs of small American farmers, who are continuing to go broke. Our policies still encourage farmers to plow land for biofuel crops that earn them less in the long run and yield a fuel that is more polluting. So not only is food/ag policy impacting what we eat, but it's distorting our energy policy too.

Yes, there are a few trees here and there that are growing and looking good. But that sickly forest is going to soak up all the resources, leaving nothing of value in the end. If you can't see that forest -- the connections between the policy, the greed, and the absence of resources for real farmers and eaters -- you will continue to congratulate our government for doing too little, too late. Putting on those glasses will at least force you to see what is and not just what you hope for.

As for me, I'm switching from rose-colored glasses to Pandora glasses ...and I'm going to stop accepting cosmetic change as if it matters. What about you?

Ominous- A Passover Reflection

I've been consumed with taxes and now Passover, so while I've been thinking about a series of posts, there has been no time to write one. But today, while eating my heart-healthy oats, I watched the video below. Frankly, it scared me to death ...not a good way to start a day of cooking for my favorite holiday.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

So, what does this have to do with Passover?

Passover celebrates freedom, rebirth, the strength we gained by facing adversity as a community. It is a story of perserverence...40 years of wandering the desert, trying to find our purpose and a philosophy that could guide a community of souls. The story starts with our journey to Egypt, looking for a place to farm and survive. Little did we know that slavery awaited us. In time, we were led out of slavery by a quiet man who mobilized us to flee in search of a life of freedom...and responsibility as well (remember those Ten Commandments we picked up along the way?). There are many lessons to be learned around the Seder table and I love exploring all of them.

Passover always falls close to the celebration of Earth Day...a reminder of our obligation to provide stewardship over the planet G-d entrusted to us. We are betraying that trust. We cannot be free, or strong, or worthy of G-d's faith in us if we continue to care more about our material life than we do about the future of humanity as a species. The Earth is melting. Literally. And it's melting fast...far faster than anyone anticipated. It seems that each month we hear about revised estimates to doom. It terrifies me. Using the human body as an analogy, I know only too well how quickly biological systems can shift, shut down, run amok ...with rapid death ensuing. One minute, the clinicians think there is time enough... and the next minute they are calling time of death. We are lousy at realistic projections of calamity in part because our understanding is limited and in part because the denial gene is so powerful. But systems march on, oblivious to our human flaws, living out their own destiny.

This Passover, I pray that all humanity wakes up. Fast. We cannot arm-wrestle over the wisdom of cap-and-trade, limits on emissions, shutting down coal-fired plants. We cannot sustain our current lifestyles. Period.

I'm not sure that we are smart enough, or wise enough, or courageous enough. But I pray, nonetheless.

Passion Redux - RFK, Jr. Rocks!

We know I have a thing about passion. I can't help myself. I have it in abundance ..and am profoundly moved by it in another person. Last night, I spent 2 hours in the presence of a deeply commited and passionate man: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I'm still feeling buoyed by the experience.

This man epitomizes what it means to be an engaged citizen. His intellectual range is enormous -- environmental pollution, voter fraud, children's health, constitutional law, to name a few. He can articulate fact-based positions on each and every one of these, with humor and depth. I was mesmerized as he described entrepreneurial initiatives that could significantly alter the way we use energy. He deftly walked through the true cost of faux "free-market" capitalism as practiced by Republicans since Reagan. He argued cogently for why true partriotism and democracy are dependent on an informed citizenry, and how at-risk we are with a toadying Beltway press. He described the machinations of K Street lobbyists who occupy posts in key government regulatory agencies, where they work tirelessly against the public interest.

It was enough to make me give up on Democracy. Let's be honest: the Democrats embrace the culture of D.C. influence peddlers as much as their Republican cohorts. Liberals like me, count on the influencers having values and an agenda that meshes with mine. Somehow, that seems like a naive mindset to hold, given the peril we find ourselves in today. While it was immensely reassuring to know that people like Bobby are out there working tirelessly on our behalf, we have an individual obligation to hold our elected representatives' feet to the fire. To make them live up to their promises. This is not a time for incremental change -- that will be lethal. Our problems require substantive and transformative change. Whether or not our new President has the cojones to proceed fearlessly and boldly, remains in question. But I know where I stand. And where Bobby stands. And where the grassroots stands that helped elect the current administration. Much like the '60s, when activists brought down a president and ended a war, we will only get the change we need if we mobilize the people, put pressure on Congress and the President, and insist that they work in the public interest.

We cannot rely on the press to keep us well-informed. We must do the work ourselves. Think critically. Dig up the facts. Read relentlessly. Be a patriot. Be inspired.

Then, we will get the country we truly deserve.

Thanks to Kevin McCarrison, from UMKC, for the great photo!

Can't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow...

Following the injunction of Fleetwood Mac, I can't stop thinking about tomorrow. At my age, I should finally lighten up and take one day at a time, don't ya think? But yesterday, I read this article on the front page of the New York Times, and who in their right mind can ignore this?

The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia.

Close your eyes for a minute. Imagine waves lapping the shore of the NORTH POLE. Yes, I'm shouting. There are still dipshits out there who insist that it's no big deal, we're getting all 'exercised' over nothing. Like that guy who wrote this book. He's cute and all ...seductive and soothing and ..freakin' dangerous. The siren song of the 'skeptic': Won't it be great to plow ships through water and not ice? I mean, we'll be able to get all our precious trinkets so-o-o-o much faster! And maybe we'll grow tomatoes and corn and cows right outside Santa's workshop. How cool is that?

Seriously, when my heart isn't turning to ice in sympathy for the Arctic, I want to pummel someone. But it's hard to know who to beat. There are so many choices, so little time...and (here I'm gonna sound old) so few mechanisms for effectively ranting and raving. I miss the good old days -- a sure sign that I'm approaching senility. I remember when the University of Wisconsin had mock gravestones on the hill up to the main campus. When people boycotted classes, professors, stormed the streets. Do any of you remember that? What has happened to collective outrage?

Until we can muster up the courage, the time, the rage we had as youths, we're doomed. The only people who take to the streets are immigrants, who are promptly hosed, arrested, and dismissed.

I can't stop thinking about tomorrow though. About the world my children and grandchildren will face. We all have too much to lose to risk the streets and too high a price to pay to sit on our sofas, hoping Jon Stewart will do it for us.

Options? Well, voting isn't enough, as 2006 reminds us every day. It won't be enough in 2008 either. Interest groups send letters on our behalf but are too polite to kick some ass. Aren't young people supposed to do that stuff? Aren't they supposed to be the Idealists who shame the rest of us into action? They seem so passive ...waiting to inherit the future rather than forge it.

I guess we Boomers, who went from angry to self-involved, are going to have to risk our Golden Years. When they told me old age wasn't for sissies, is this what the hell they meant? Am I supposed to start yelling and throwing stuff again?

Yup. Seems so. Grab a rock.