RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Big brains take up a lot of space!

The human species has taken over the planet. We have such huge brain power that we can design shelters for ourselves that keep out the weather and keep us safe from predators. We can harness the power of energy from fire, wind, sun, coal and oil to keep ourselves warm and turn underground metal into steel. We can build machines for planting food so that we get a great deal more production in a small area than nature would provide, so we can feed a lot more of us and don’t have to move around to find it. We can develop medicines to heal us and machines that can look into our bodies to see what’s wrong so that we live longer.

In short, in recent planetary history, it’s all about us. We have taken over most every place there is on this world, and have had a huge negative impact on the natural processes that have worked so well for millions of years.

So wouldn’t it be incredible to save a place, a large and wonderful place that is home to so many other species, that hasn’t yet been consumed by us, to save it for the rest of the world, for the future of our species and the planet? Can’t we be smart enough to do this instead?

Taku on Twitter

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The Atlin-Taku is essential for biodiversity.

CPAWS B.C. Executive Director says, if it remains as it is, the Atlin-Taku  could be "one of the world’s great “arks” for biodiversity. Untouched, it could act as a magnet for species during climate change. With high mountains and low valleys and everything in between, its landscape could shelter B.C.’s travelling species and those not wiped out by the warming weather. Large, intact, connected ecosystems or arks, like this Atlin-Taku landscape, are rare."

 Read the full story. 

An Ecosystem in Turmoil Puts Its Predators at Risk

This article by Mark Hume at the Globe and Mail is part of an ongoing series of stories on the intricate relationships of salmon, bears, and entire ecosystems. In this piece, Hume discusses "salmon forests" and the critical and intricate connection of each piece of an ecosystem to the others, in particular bears and salmon.

 Read the story.

Trout Unlimited: Fish in a dangerous time

Trout Unlimited (TU) recently completed a comprehensive study assessing threats to the long-term well being of trout and salmon in the United States.  Their findings are somewhat grim, but TU proposes a number of practical solutions to slow the impact of rising water temperatures and human encroachment upon trout and salmon habitat.  Healing Troubled Waters: Preparing Trout and Salmon Habitat For A Changing Climate is download-able in pdf format from the TU website. 

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Balance

Generous friends made their small Yukon cabin available to my girlfriend and I this weekend. I live in the north in large part because of the incredible wild country up here, so it was quite jarring to travel just those few miles from town and have it dawn on me how disconnected from place I have become in the past few months. Too many miles on the road and in the air. Furtive channel surfing in the austere uniformity of hotel rooms while sleep eludes me. Chasing wireless in cafes, airports and lobbies. Ignoring my fellow travelers in favour of my laptop on planes, trains and taxi rides.

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Rivers Without Borders now on Facebook

One high point of a recent rich but far-too-long road trip was traveling to Hollyhock on Cortes Island for the annual Web of Change conference. Web of Change is an amazing gathering of activists and technology workers focused on effecting social change on-line and otherwise using technology. If you work in social change or technology with social change application, I really recommend that you look into Web of Change. Even (especially?) a luddite like me got a tremendous amount from attending.

Many things came out of the rich sessions I participated in and the networking I did while there, perhaps most tangible of which is that Rivers Without Borders is now on Facebook. If you are too, please consider joining our Group (eventually we will also be listed as a Cause), and I implore all readers of Blog Without Borders to assist by steering friends to both this site and our Facebook group. We need to engage as many people as possible if we are going to save the biggest wilderness left on North America’s wet west coast. In my next blog I will talk about some recent announcements and developments that add new urgency to our work.

Ground Truth Trekkers

Some people simply have more ambition than I do. I’ve gone on a couple canoe trips – a few multi-day and one multi-week… but what Erin and Hig are up to shows a degree of commitment to outdoor adventure that I’m not sure I’ve encountered before.  To travel from Puget Sound to the Bering Sea by foot, packraft and skis? That is what they are in the midst of at this time.  That is indeed impressive, and they’re not doing it just to test their own tenacity.  Their mission is to "explore, study, and communicate the key environmental issues facing this coast…"  Browse their site (click here), and after you click on the ‘donate’ icon to help them out with costs both present and future, read their blog to see: what they’ve been up to, what they’ve found out, and their last known location.

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Goodbye to a Friend

Rivers Without Borders lost a good friend on September 10th with the passing of Dame Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop. Dame Anita had a tremendous passion and energy to make progressive change on the planet, and we at Rivers Without Borders benefited from that in our efforts to defend the incredible Taku watershed from damaging development. Even as her passion continues to inspire us, she will be missed in the many corners of the world where her generous spirit was felt, and ours is no exception. Our thoughts are with her family.

“Life is never incomplete if it is an honorable one. At whatever point you leave life, if you leave it in the right way, it is whole.” – Seneca

North American Indigenous Peoples Mining Summit, Anchorage, AK.

What a brilliant conference!  Robert Shimek, Mining Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network emceed the Aug 15-18th event and invited a range of presenters to take to the podium to speak about mining and oil & gas issues – past, present and strategies for the future.  The three main areas of focus for the conference were: cultural resource protection, water quality and empowering the voice of indigenous people.  My head was spinning at the end of the conference.  The 1135 km scenic journey back to Whitehorse was a blur.   

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