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THE PASSENGER'S LESSON
it’s true it’s true
the great flock is gone, leaving clouds
towers and an occasional moon to block the sun
the sky is quiet but for the roar of engines, planes that carry mail
planes that carry your children, sometimes bombs that kill others
quiet but for the roar of storms warning farewell
too few too late thought it was possible to drive billions out
not when over 100 million nested in a “city” stretched 1,000 square miles
vast cities where mothers laid a single egg to hatch
a chick that would learn to fly without her
the wild pigeon grew to maturity in the flock, the flock
was the family and the devotion
if you want to bring them back, this one you call the Passenger
have a look at your children, are they nourished?
where is their devotion and yours to them? to resurrect wild pigeon
is to first attain something pigeon knew
the way of the flock, the way of children who learn to love one another
of necessity from the start
if there is a world that can hold billions of your children, your children
will be wild passengers, flying together or not at all
~holli
painting:
Martha's groom, oil and 22 k gold leaf on Wood panel, 5"x7" by Denise Monaghan. Denise is working on a on an extinction series, some of which includes the use of gold leaf. "I like the irony of the mysterious yellow mineral that comes from the belly of the earth. It is both beautiful and ugly. Gold has been used to signify saints and the glory of heaven beyond this mortal life. It has caused humans to destroy each other and the very ground that holds its treasure. Europeans came to the new world and decimated and enslaved the native populations because of it. Its beauty made them blind. All the while the real treasure quietly slips way." ~DM
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"The Passenger pigeon was the dance partner of the forest.
The Passenger cannot outgrow the forest, cannot step
out of tune with the music that's playing."
~Ben Novak
"I, for one, am excited about the prospects that might one day bring back
those species I lamented as a boy. In the meantime,
our hands are full preventing extinction."
~Stanley Temple
9.17.14
Dear Friend,
I sat yesterday with two talks on de-extinction, one specific to bringing Passenger pigeon back all the way and one speaking generally to this "Resurrection Ecology". I find myself with no real opinion on the effort.
Ben Novak's enthusiasm for the work to revive Passenger pigeon is heartwarming. Stanley Temple's cautious excitement provides promise that if some species are revived, the effort will have been accomplished with best intentions for all. Resurrection Ecology is, at least in Stanley's vision, not to be a shallow show of genius.
Sitting with de-extinction and the lively football crowd my son and I passed on our way to climb the east hills of Missoula Saturday, I am filled with careful longing, the kind of desire that swells the chest and throat with the sadness of joy. I want so much for all of this to continue, for the operating systems to work so that men and women can fulfill their passions and all beings may dance in step with the great tune.
The continuation depends on many changes, including an immediate shift from the use of fossil fuels, a shift that does not include an "off-ramp" called natural gas. Offered below are links to several pieces about climate change. If you have time for no other, please do read 'Fracking May Be Worse than Burning Coal' by Bill McKibben. From this, speak your mind.
If I had the means, I'd hop a train to New York and land as close to the steps of the UN Climate Summit as the law allows, bent on my knees, bowing in prayer that perpetrators are forgiven and hearts opened in time. I am a firm believer though that the intention we set and energy we offer out has influence over distances we cannot know. Please be who you are where you are without shyness. Your light is needed now.
"When we prevail... it will be because we overcame
the worst instincts and worst fears within ourselves."
~Van Jones in Climate Disruption
Change is inevitable. It is up to us to choose how that change plays out.
When it comes to climate possibility, I refuse to accept any predictions based on the past, one of serious inaction relative to what is known. Knowledge in action is wisdom. When applied, wisdom works miracles. Let's do it.
Much love and many blessings,
Megan
PS If you have not done so already, please see the invitation to Marth's Flock below.
Seventy percent of financial contributions to extinction witness go to The Endangered Language Fund. Please click here to offer support.
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Compassion & forgiveness for our shortcomings are gestures of peacemaking. There is a brilliant community practice for this with African roots. When someone has caused harm, community members gather around with hand placed over their hearts, smiling and bowing, until this someone remembers the essence of self. This sharing of love and light at the core of each and everyone of us clears the shame and self-loathing of the perpetrator, which left unattended serves to perpetuate harms. This act of loving kindness may be practiced in solitude to clear oneself of shame by placing hand over heart and remembering the truth. There are no mistakes and we all make them.
Gratitude to Tex J. G. Albert for introducing this peace ritual to ex·tinc·tion wit·ness.
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We give thanks for our friends.
Our dear friends.
We anger each other;
We fail each other.
We share this sad earth, this tender life,
this precious time.
Such richness. Such wildness.
Together we are blown about.
Together we are dragged along.
All this delight.
All this suffering.
All this forgiving life.
We hold it together.
from The Prayer Tree by Michael Leunig
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CLIMATE ~ PEACE
9.21.14
The Arctic Methane Monster’s Rapid Rise, Jennifer Hynes’ Power Point presentation about the predicted release of a superpower of methane from the Arctic was shared in the last ex·tinc·tion wit·ness letter without full review. The presentation is dramatic and inflammatory, and Jennifer Hynes notes her personal belief that there is no avoidance of a Near Term Human Extinction.
The lens we gaze through and how we manage our personal response to information determines more than we can know. For the science, it is worth watching Jennifer's presentation. Much of the information she shares is solid and the danger is real.
However, the conclusions Jennifer draws are tainted with fear, to which we are all susceptible. Jennifer's conclusions are challenged by this review from Steven Running, Regents Professor, Director at Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana:
"Well, [Jennifer Hynes] has sure spent a lot of time reading up on this science. The slides shown are from solid research papers and datasets, I use some of them myself. Boreal methane hydrates are real, and there is a lot of it. However the thermodynamics are such that there is no way it could melt out and be released within a year or two, and the biosphere will not simply collapse. Her final statement that within a year the Arctic sea ice will be gone is simply a wild extrapolation. The latest Arctic sea ice data, downloaded 10min ago, shows that 2014 did NOT end up as the biggest melt on record, and there is no evidence that Arctic sea ice will be totally gone by Sept 2015 ie 1 year from now. Antarctica also has a large ice mass this year. So her projection that the ice will disappear and the biosphere will simply unravel in the next 1-2 years simply has no factual basis. I admire the kind of passion and effort people like her bring to the global warming issue, but passing around this sort of misinformation does not help us to have a mature discussion about humanity's next choices." ~SR
It is important to read both Jennifer and Steven, to act now in a steady, focused, determined fashion as if there is no time to stall or sidestep ultimate solutions.
Fracking May Be Worse Than Burning Coal
Bill Mckibben
“In a paper published in the journal Climate Change in May 2011, they concluded that somewhere between 3.6 percent and 7.9 percent of the methane from fracking wells was escaping into the atmosphere as its made its way from underground to end user. Which is a lot. More than enough, as we shall see, to make fracking worse for climate change than the coal it was replacing.
... We need to look beyond methane leakage for a moment, and think about the transition to gas in a larger context. Because if we’re replacing coal with gas, it means we’re not replacing it with something else. .. in fact, in just the same years that we’ve learned to frack we’ve also learned an awful lot about how to scale up wind and sun. And that means that far from being a bridge, the big investments in natural gas may actually be a breakwater that keeps this new wave of truly clean energy from washing onto our shores.
… As it turns out, economists have studied the dynamics of this transition, and each time reached the same conclusion: because gas undercuts wind and sun just as much as it undercuts coal, there’s no net climate benefit in switching to it. For instance, the venerable International Energy Agency in 2011 concluded that a large-scale shift to gas would “muscle out” low-carbon fuels and still result in raising the globe’s temperatures 3.5 degrees Celsius—75 percent above the 2-degree level that the world’s governments have identified as the disaster line.
…to meet that two-degree target (and since just one degree is already causing havoc, we sure should), global gas consumption would have to peak as early as 2020. Which is, in infrastructure terms, right about now—if we want to be moving past natural gas by 2020, we need to stop investing in it now.”
read Fracking May Be Worse...
First Policy Switch:
From a strategy of reducing problems to reversing them
Blindspot Think Tank, UK
"People are not inherently destructive and economic activity need not remain dependent on exploiting people, planet and the potential of the future. The economic vehicle need not remain stuck in reverse, making reverse progress. Janis Birkeland (2008) offers the third strategy option of ‘positive development’: 'The view that negative impacts are an inevitable consequence of development has blinded us to the obvious. We could design development to increase the size, health and resilience of natural systems, while improving human health and life quality.' "
read the First Policy Switch...
Women's Climate Action Agenda
Women's Earth Climate Action Network ~ WECAN
Derived from the collective efforts of the 2013 International Women's Earth and Climate Summit, major points of the Women's Climate Action Agenda action plan include: limiting global warming to 1.5-2.0 °Celsius ceiling, urgency to protect intact forest and assist with forest regeneration, leave almost all of the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground and stop further fossil fuel exploration and development. Women are calling for an emotional connection to all children, present and future.
read the Women's Climate Action Agenda...
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MARTHA's FLOCK
a collaborative effort to affirm and deepen
memory of the passenger pigeon
hosted by Feral Theater
~this text is direct copy from MARTHA's FLOCK event page~
9.1.14 was the centenary of the death in captivity of Martha, the last passenger pigeon. Martha was 29 years old, and had not reproduced at Cincinatti Zoo with the male companions who died before her.
It’s an epic anniversary: at the beginning of the 19th century, the passenger pigeon was the most numerous bird in existence. Eye witness reports describe flocks hundreds of miles long, numbering billions of individual birds.
How is such an extinction to be marked? What act of remembrance could possibly be appropriate? Feral Theatre and ONCA invite you to become part of Martha’s Flock in a collective effort to affirm and deepen our memory of the passenger pigeon. The task for each participant is to make a tribute to Martha/ the passenger pigeon in movement, film it and upload it to YouTube. Whilst the tributes are from seemingly isolated individuals, we will collate them to make a virtual flock of tributes. The growing flock is featured on the Feral website and we will hold a screening event at the ONCA Gallery in Brighton later this year.
The process of gathering tributes began 9.1.14 and ends on Remembrance Day for Lost Species, 11. 30.14.
The brief:
1. Films can be up to 30 seconds long.
2. Using any kind of movement, not necessarily dance, pay tribute to Martha/ the passenger pigeon.
3. You can use any props.
4. Feel free to use sound, but preferably not words.
5. Do it outdoors, or somewhere the sky is visible.
6. Upload to YouTube youtube.com/upload / youtube.com/my_webcam , title it Martha’s Flock, tag it Martha’s Flock/ passenger pigeon/ extinction/ passenger pigeon extinction centenary etc and share the link here or send it by email.
7. Please invite your friends to join in!
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invitation to pause is a 3.44~minute film
introducing ex·tinc·tion wit·ness
and some of the collaborating artists
Please see invitation to pause here
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VIRGIN (7:20 ~minute film)
see VIRGIN at Vimeo here
For this film, virgin is used in the original sense:
“Virgin was a label of strength and independence
by being used to describe the goddesses who were immune
to the temptations of Dionysus, Greek god of seduction
and wine. Virginity was once a term of power.”
~Palo Alto Medical Foundation
To VIRGIN is to proclaim
the GREATEST
HUMAN TRAITS.
VIRGIN documents healing ceremonies in redwood forests of California, weaving poetry and song to convey a message of compassion for the perpetrator and victim in all of us.
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a brief on
VIRGIN
includes some of the poetry
featured in VIRGIN and a brief
on the intent of this production
at vimeo
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Brazilian officials warn of ‘imminent’ death
of uncontacted Indians ~ 26 June 2014
please read Survival
please see aerial footage
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Feral Theatre's
Funeral for Lost Species
Please see this short film for highlights from a performance and sculpture installation at St Peter's Church, Brighton Fringe Festival, May 2011. Many artists contributed to this innovative exploration of extinction and ecological grief, in which audiences and participants engaged on a visceral and emotional level with humankind's power to destroy and create.
See 'Funeral for Lost Species' on Vimeo
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this Extinction Symbol is NOT
an ex·tinc·tion wit·ness creation
and ex·tinc·tion wit·ness encourages
the placement of this symbol
in public spaces
you may even tattoo this on your skin
per the request of the artist
who is based in the UK
please DO NOT commercialize
the extinction symbol
ie please DO NOT print the symbol on t-shirts
mugs or other products for sale
please create this symbol
in your own way
in a special place
preferably in view for all to see
Thank You!
more at Extinction Symbol
join in at flickr group
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the top of this sources list shifts monthly
in keeping with the specific group
ex·tinc·tion wit·ness attends
September 2014
is with passenger pigeon
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IMAGE CREDITS in order of appearance
Martha's Groom
© Denise Monaghan
www.denisemonaghan.com
Image from The Prayer Tree
© Michael Leunig
www.leunig.com.au
indian paintbrush abstract
© Tom Murphy
www.tmurphywild.com
abstract still from VIRGIN
©Tree Ring Productions 11.13/ex•tinc•tion wit•ness 7.14
uncontacted Indians
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