Wednesday, October 4, 2023

EP 63 Kate Burgess - Nature Based Solutions to Climate & Biodiversity Challenges


Kate Burgess - Nature-Based Solutions to Climate & Biodiversity Challenges

Kate Burgess is a Salazar Center partner and serves as NCEL’s Conservation Program Manager, where she enjoys collaborating with legislators on a variety of land, water, wildlife, and human issues.  In this podcast she shares with us the new (yet old) push for nature-based solutions to climate and biodiversity challenges.


The Salazar Center is hosting the fifth annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact on October 11-12 , 2023 in Denver, Colorado. The agenda focuses on nature-positive solutions and how they can catapult our communities towards durable, high-impact outcomes for climate, biodiversity, and human well-being.

Watch on YouTube here:  https://youtu.be/uj8dcuUfIoo


The Salazar Center at Colorado State University

kburgess5570(at)gmail.com

Work:  kate@ncelenviro.org

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Kate Burgess and her father

Nature-Based Solutions: Healing nature with regenerative ocean farming


My dad and I spend a lot of time surfing. We mostly go in the winter, not because we’re gluttons for punishment, but because that’s when the swell is allegedly the best on this side of the Atlantic. With our 7 mm wetsuits, booties, mittens, and hoods, we’ve adopted the proxy skin of seals, reminded only of the season when the sea is dusted with snow, or when an icy wave humbles the exposed skin on our face, leaving eyes stinging and heart pumping. 


But recently, things have changed. The water in the winter isn’t as cold as it used to be. Last December, I didn’t need my mittens or booties. In the summer, I stopped wearing a wetsuit altogether, worried I’d overheat in the near-bath temperature waters of Nahant Beach that used to induce a sharp inhalation at the dip of a toe. 

Given these obvious impacts of climate change, my dad and I have been thinking about another way to spend our time in the sea: ocean farming. With the dramatic warming of our ocean, we’re wondering what we can do to intervene, and regenerative ocean farming – particularly kelp cultivation – is one nature-based solution with lots of promise.


Kelp acts as a highly effective carbon sink, a natural defense against storms, habitat for species, and can be harvested for animal feed, medicine and actually, a pretty decent beer. It addresses the twin climate and biodiversity crises concomitantly, since they are inextricably linked and need to be addressed as such.




Nature based solutions (NBS) like planting kelp are a means of leveraging the innate power and potential in earth’s systems, flora and fauna, and using them to promote resilience. Many of these solutions – including, for example, prescribed burns and oyster reef restoration – have been developed and practiced by Indigenous communities since time immemorial. Without proper recognition, consent for use of knowledge, compensation, and centralization of Indigenous leadership, nature based solutions can become anti-Indigenous, and an extension of the violent and racist colonialism that has and continues to persist in the environmental movement and beyond. Thoughtful consideration of the use of NBS is vital. 

These solutions are gaining momentum among communities, practitioners, decision makers, academics, and beyond, and I believe wholeheartedly that they’re one of the best means of making any real dent in recovering species and regulating our climate. 

One way that I’m seeing NBS rise is at the state level. My job as Conservation Program Manager with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL) is to track land, water, and wildlife policies, share lessons learned with legislators across the U.S., and help them utilize the best available science and knowledge systems to advance equitable environmental policies. In 2023 alone, hundreds of state bills including NBS were introduced as a means of utilizing nature’s strengths as a solution to climate change and biodiversity loss.

State legislatures are essentially policy ‘test kitchens,’ except with less salt and no Guy Fieri. They’re where innovative measures can be piloted and repeated in other states, and ultimately with enough traction, at the federal and even international levels. States can set, maintain, and/or dismantle important legal narratives – especially when it comes to environmental issues. 

For example, Montana’s recent Supreme Court win for youth was largely the result of a rights-to-nature state policy called the “Green Amendment” that was enacted in 1970. Green Amendments are environmental justice tools that solidify our rights to clean air, water, and a healthy environment, putting them on par with our other fundamental civil liberties like free speech. A powerful means of securing health for present and future generations, Green Amendments are picking up speed; in 2023, 13states introduced Green Amendments, and New York became the first state to enact one since 1971. 

With the recent SackettSCOTUS decision gutting the Clean Water Act, experts sayit’s up to states to “step in and fill the void.” With federal protection absent, states are tasked with playing defense for wetlands protection, a habitat coined “earth’s kidneys,” due to their tremendous capacity to filter toxins and sustain life for countless species.  

The potential of and pressure on States to play environmental offense and defense is high, but rarely is their capacity. Some, like New Mexico, Vermont, and Nevada (among others) are citizen legislatures, which means lawmakers have full-time year-round jobs on top of being a legislator, and many lack staff, compensation, or even a physical office. U.S. territories lack voting representatives in Congress, so what happens at the state/territory level matters immensely when federal representation is lacking.  

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States are also treaty partners and have a unique government-to-government relationship with and responsibility to honor the sovereignty of Tribal Nations. Efforts like returning land back, supporting the rematriation of climate keystone wildlife like buffalo, and designing policies that require Free, Prior, and Informed Consent Tribal interests are essential in conjunction with designing state NBS. Indigenous communities are the original stewards of what is now known as the United States, and both traditional and contemporary ecological knowledge are some of the strongest tools available when it comes to bringing flora and fauna back, and regulating our climate – as long as that knowledge is respected and compensated.  
Ultimately, my colleagues and I at NCEL try to fill in where capacity is lacking in state legislatures, calling ourselves “remote environmental staff.” We have a 30,000’ view of what’s happening on environmental state policy level on issues relating to, and are at the ready to provide research, briefings, connections to other states and best available science and knowledge systems, anything to help make their jobs easier. Federal efforts like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and the Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap have helped make clear the trend towards prioritizing NBS and the onus on States and partners for implementation.

As state trends on nature-based solutions continue to rise, we’ll continue to equip lawmakers with the best available science and knowledge/thinking as a means of addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. My dad and I are grateful for nature’s potential to heal, and we’ll join you in doing all we can to help sustain its gifts for future generations of surfers and beyond.

 


The Salazar Center is hosting the fifth annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact on October 11-12 in Denver, Colorado. The agenda focuses on nature-positive solutions and how they can catapult our communities towards durable, high-impact outcomes for climate, biodiversity, and human well-being.

There is an African proverb that goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We hope that you will join us so we can work together to realize a nature-positive future for North America. 

2023 Symposium on Conservation Impact presented by the Doris Duke Foundation

 

The fifth-annual International Symposium is on October 11– 12, 2023 in Denver, Colorado. 
Across the globe, biodiversity – the rich variety of life on the planet – is deteriorating faster than at any other time in human history. North America is no exception: over 30% of its biodiversity has declined since 1970. This devastating trend threatens organisms, ecosystems, and the benefits that they provide like carbon capture, clean air to breathe, and clean water to drink. At the same time, climate change continues to put people and nature under severe stress. Experts around the world acknowledge that climate change and nature loss are inseparable crises and must be addressed urgently and holistically for the benefit of both the planet and people—especially poor and marginalized communities, who are already being impacted disproportionately. 

Many North American communities are working hard to address climate change and biodiversity loss. But how do we magnify these efforts in order to create a net-positive impact? How do we work together to create the systemic change that enables a world where nature is being restored and is regenerating rather than declining?

We urgently need actions, strategies, and approaches that can help solve these intertwined crises at scale. 

The Symposium will bring together diverse thought leaders from across North America to share their insights on how to move beyond individual projects to lasting systemic change that will drive a nature-positive future. The event will use keynote presentations, curated panel discussions, interactive breakout sessions, and networking opportunities to facilitate honest dialogue around issues such as: 

 



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    How can we design and implement nature-positive solutions to ensure more equitable outcomes for communities and people? How do we ensure these solutions benefit not only nature but also human well-being? 
  • How do we break down silos to ensure better outcomes for climate, nature, and people? 
  • How do Indigenous-led projects provide innovations for a nature-positive world? 
  • How can nature-positive approaches help the U.S., Canada, and Mexico meet their national conservation & climate targets? What are the strengths and weaknesses of taking a nature-positive approach when addressing these goals?  
  • What is the role of multilateral cooperation across the continent in creating the enabling conditions for more durable outcomes and to help scale-up local efforts?  
  • In what ways is the private sector working to promote and fund long-lasting and effective solutions to solve both climate and nature challenges? What do we need to do to transform our economic systems to support nature-positive outcomes? 
The Symposium will showcase existing efforts across sectors and the continent. Attendees will learn about high-level challenges and opportunities that we all face in trying to solve these environmental crises. After attending the Symposium, participants will be able to bring best practices, resources, and new ideas on how to implement and scale Nature Positive Solutions in their work and communities back home. Not to mention a network of like-minded colleagues who are willing to learn and share knowledge during the Symposium and beyond.

There is an African proverb that goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We hope that you will join us in Denver, Colorado so we can work together to realize a nature-positive future for North America. 

 

Subscribe to the Center’s newsletter to get updates about the agenda and featured speakers sent to your inbox.  




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Sunday, September 3, 2023

Garry Rayno: Keeping them Honest

 Keeping them Honest

Garry Rayno - InDepthNH.org


In his "Distant Dome" column this week, Garry Rayno explores conflicts of interest and ethics challenges in a citizen legislature. His column is a powerful case for the importance of the media in drawing attention to corruption and conflicts of interest.
Few things are more critical to our Democracy than oversight of the people we have elected to represent us. The hollowing out of the media - in this era of Facebook and Twitter - represents a grave danger to our republic.
We need a new paradigm for delivery of news and investigative journalism - especially at the state and local levels. I hope to speak with Nancy West of InDepthNH.org and another Representative from the newly formed Alliance for Nonprofit News Outlets (ANNO) for The Radical Centrist Podcast to find out more about how we can strengthen the frayed link between the media and our need for accountability at every level of government.
ANNO was spearheaded by Jason Pramas, executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and 16 other nonprofit news outlets across the country, including InDepthNH.org: (https://www.anno.news/.../17-organizations-form-alliance...)
If you would like to suggest a question for the Podcast interview, please email or message me with your question and I'll try to get a response to your question during the Podcast interview.


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Tamarack Monochrome Under a Platinum Sky
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Home Before the Storm
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Friday, August 25, 2023

Ep 62 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - The Rebel Girl Continues to Educate and Incite and Inspire

 EP 62

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - The Rebel Girl Continues to Educate and Incite and Inspire

Appropo of the current moment in our country, New Hampshire is currently embroiled in a legal battle at the intersection of history, free speech, labor law, and women's rights. Earlier in the year the state's Division of historic resources approved and erected a historical marker recognizing the birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, known as the "Rebel Girl" who was born in Concord in 1890. 

Guests Arnie Alpert and Mary Lee Sargent, who have filed suit to restore the marker to its agreed location in Concord are joined by Attorney Andru Volinsky who is representing them against the state, join Wayne King in this episode.

Listen here: https://feeds.podetize.com/LuMV1-v0gr.mp3

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cx4t_QyeWLc

Show notes: https://centristchange.blogspot.com/2023/08/ed-62-elizabeth-gurly-flynn-rebel-girl.html


According to Arnie Alpert, 

The birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in Concord in 1890 is a perfect subject for a historic marker.

Flynn first gained notoriety as a soapbox speaker at age sixteen, when she was arrested after speaking at a socialist rally in Manhattan’s theatre district.  The New York Times reported the incident, calling Flynn “a mere slip of a girl, with snapping black eyes and expressive features.”  Disorderly conduct charges were soon dropped, but her career – and habit of getting arrested for activities which should have been protected under the First Amendment – was launched. 



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By age 17, Flynn was supporting strikers as a member of the radical union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which believed in organizing across industrial rather than craft lines, and which believed in organizing all workers regardless of race, sex, or national origin.  Flynn was soon crisscrossing the country, supporting the IWW’s free speech fights in the northwest and organizing drives from Minnesota to New Jersey, including the 1912 “Bread and Roses” textile strike in Lawrence.  

Motivated initially by the working class poverty she witnessed in New England mill towns, Flynn believed that socialism was the answer to the ills of capitalism and in particular to the oppression of women.  When the IWW was largely crushed during World War I and the subsequent “Red Scare,” Flynn organized the Workers Defense Union to raise funds and political support for labor activists facing prison and death for their activities.  It was at that time that she joined the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union as a charter member and served on their board. 

At age 46, when her reputation for oratory and advocacy had been well established for decades, she joined the Communist Party and soon became a member of its National Committee.  Fifteen years later, with the Cold War and the second Red Scare heating up, she was arrested for perhaps the twelfth time under a federal law known as the Smith Act.  In essence, the Smith Act made it illegal to be a Communist, under the assumption that the Communist Party was committed to the violent overthrow of the government.  Flynn’s self-defense at trial – considered by AmericanRhetoric.com to be one of the 100 top speeches in American history – emphasized her own political beliefs and insisted, “Never have I, and not now do I, intend to advocate the overthrow of government by force and violence, nor do I intend to bring about such overthrow.”



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Lawsuit Calls for Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Historical Marker to be Reinstalled in Concord

The two New Hampshire residents who petitioned the state’s Division of Historical Resources to establish a historical marker near the birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn filed suit Monday in Merrimack County Superior Court calling for the Flynn marker, which the state dedicated on May 1 and removed on May 15, to be reinstalled.  

August 7, 2023 | https://indepthnh.org/2023/08/07/lawsuit-calls-for-elizabeth-gurley-flynn-historical-marker-to-be-reinstalled-in-concord/


Show Your Support for the Rebel Girl






The Rebel Girl
A Song by Joe Hill

“Rebel Girl” was inspired by Joe Hill’s friend, Elizabeth Gurley-Flynn, who was a prominent speaker and leader in the Industrial Workers of the World. Hill wrote the song in 1915 while in prison in Salt Lake City, and hoped it would draw more women to the IWW. The original song is performed here by Alyeah Hansen at a park near downtown Salt Lake City. Today’s updated lyrics change the Rebel Girl’s role from supporting Rebel Boys to becoming a powerful force herself.  

Original lyrics:

There are women of many descriptions

In this queer world, as everyone knows

Some are living in beautiful mansions

And are wearing the finest of clothes

There are blue blooded queens and princesses

Who have charms made of diamonds and pearl

But the only and thoroughbred lady

Is the Rebel Girl


That's the Rebel Girl, that's the Rebel Girl

To the working class she's a precious pearl

She brings courage, pride and joy

To the fighting Rebel Boy

We've had girls before, but we need some more

In the Industrial Workers of the World

For it's great to fight for freedom

With a Rebel Girl

Yes, her hands may be hardened from labor

And her dress may not be very fine

But a heart in her bosom is beating

That is true to her class and her kind

And the grafters in terror are trembling

When her spite and defiance she'll hurl

For the only and thoroughbred lady

Is the Rebel Girl

That's the Rebel Girl, that's the Rebel Girl

To the working class she's a precious pearl

She brings courage, pride and joy

To the fighting Rebel Boy

We've had girls before, but we need some more

In the Industrial Workers of the World

For it's great to fight for freedom

With a Rebel Girl


Updated lyrics, by Hazel Dickens:

There are women of many descriptions

In this cruel world, as everyone knows.

Some are living in beautiful mansions,

And are wearing the finest of clothes.

There’s the blue blooded queen or the princess,

Who have charms made of diamonds and pearls

But the only and thoroughbred lady

Is the Rebel Girl.

CHORUS

She’s a Rebel Girl, a Rebel Girl!

She’s the working class, the strength of this world.

From Maine to Georgia you’ll see

Her fighting for you and for me.

Yes, she’s there by your side with her courage and pride.

She’s unequaled anywhere.

And, I’m proud to fight for freedom

With a Rebel Girl.

Though her hands may be hardened from labor

And her dress may not be very fine

But a heart in her bosom is beating

That is true to her class and her kind.

And the bosses know that they can’t change her

She’d die to defend the worker’s world.

And the only and thoroughbred lady

Is the Rebel Girl.



Mary Lee Sargent



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Monday, August 21, 2023

The Sixth Passenger: David Concannon and the Oceangate Tragedy

 The Sixth Passenger: David Concannon and the Oceangate Tragedy



Listen here: https://feeds.podetize.com/Ell8T-UDKY.mp3

Watch on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/O5QTStxqI7k

Shownotes: https://centristchange.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-sixth-passenger-david-concannon-and.html


Looking Back and Looking Forward.

Scheduled to be aboard the Titan, a business emergency sidelined David. Soon he was immersed in the efforts to help save the submersible.

Since June 18, 2023 the tragedy aboard the OceanGate Titan submersible remains a topic of discussion in gathering spots everywhere. David Concannon, "The Sixth Passenger" on the ill-fated Titan submersible, was scheduled to be the "Titanic whisperer" (my words not his - aka the subject matter expert) aboard the Titan when a last-minute business conflict forced him to give up his spot on the vessel's voyage to the shipwreck.


This podcast, his first extensive interview since the Titan Tragedy, represents an opportunity for David to look both backward and forward.


He recounts the events that transpired after the Titan was launched with five souls and when communications were lost; he reflects on the loss of the crew and the submersible, the inept, opaque and feckless approach of the US authorities in the Coast Guard, and the US Navy, and the frustration and heartbreak of the outcome when it was finally revealed.


And he makes the case for continuing the quest to explore the planet and the universe.


David Concannon
Attorney, Explorer,
Partner Concannon & Charles
Founder of Explorer Consulting
Former General Counsel to the Explorer Club International
VP of the Explorers Club
Member of the Apollo 11, F-1 Engine Recovery Project with Jeff Bezos
Board Member Holt-Elwell Memorial Foundation, Camp Mowglis, School of the Open


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