ADORATION OF THE MAGI circa1390
Above, as relayed from the Met Cloisters ; below, Philip Stopford’s glorious setting for There is No Rose of Such Virtue.
Facts Matter
Against the senseless blather of COP 28, which has disintegrated into a desert rave for fossil fuel lobbyists, we offer three simple graphs that confirm we are a long way from facing the brutal truth of our deepening crisis:
Reality is what’s still there when you stop believing in it.
(DP, with a nod to PKD)
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The Tyranny of Now
As the world’s hapless & increasingly irrelevant climocrats gather, in oil-stained Dubai of all places, to perform their annual COP Theatre of Blah Blah Blah, we bend an ear to the voice of philosopher and deep ecologist Roman Krznaric, via an interview earlier this year. Every word rings more loudly with each passing moon.
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Uplifted Into Infinite Space
Now comes the voice of novelist Lauren Groff, excerpted from an excellent recent Orion interview regarding her novel, The Vaster Wilds; immediately after reading her remarks, we placed an order for the book.
At the base of the story, even in its incredibly rudimentary earliest forms, there was always this push to slowly unveil the truth (one that we, in our hubris, tend to ignore) that humankind is a very short, bright thread in the enormous weave of the history of earthly life. It was urgent in this book to decenter human dominance and allow the rest of nature to take its proper place as equal to the human experience. As the girl in her flight goes deeper into her experience of being alone in the woods, as her body begins to suffer from the cold and exertion and hunger, the forest itself becomes a companion that allows her to see past the received ideas of civilization that had held her captive to that point, and in some ways becomes her solace.
One of the texts that I read while thinking through this book was Emerson’s essay, “Nature,” especially this part, which reverberates through my book:
“In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period so ever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent Eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”
To which we respond: hear! hear!
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Come the Early Rejecters
Here at DP, we are often accused of being Late Adopters. Not true; we are Early Rejecters!
For example, every member of the editorial staff at our vast mountainside scriptorium proudly carries an ancient flip phone and writes picture postcards to our global network of correspondents. Thus we shouted our collective affirmation upon reading a recent Earth Tongues posting by fellow Early Rejecter Eileen Crist, regarding use of AI.
The entire (concise & lucid) essay is worthy of close consideration; a brief excerpt below, with DP editorial emphasis in bold.
“The technosphere, defined as the total mass of all things manmade, now weighs more than all living things. It has taken over the face of the Earth and remains tenacious in its colonizing march. The technosphere has subjugated land, seas, and animals. It has smashed the atom, disassembled life, and projected itself into outer space. Now, the technosphere wants to take over, to replace, our thinking and our creative expressions; it so innocently offers to “assist in the content creation process.”
Methinks, NO. I do not want to know what AI “thinks.” I especially do not want AI to think or write for me. Additionally, I decide not to consider its input. This position is not motivated by prejudice against machines and by attachment to my cherished human distinction from them. Rather, in a world so slavish and reckless in every regard toward technology, with no evidenced capacity for either restraint or free choice, it behooves us to draw personal boundaries mindfully decided.”
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Monument to Freedom
Now comes the Equal Justice Initiative, announcing the creation of yet another dimension to their profoundly transformative work, bringing obscured or suppressed histories fully into the light.
Below, we relay the press release together with a video link.
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Opening early 2024, the new 17-acre Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will bring together history, narrative, large-scale sculptures, contemporary art commissions from many of the greatest living artists, a new National Monument to Freedom honoring enslaved people who were emancipated after the Civil War, and many historic artifacts that together create an immersive, multifaceted examination of America’s history with a focus on slavery and its legacy.
The Sculpture Park will join EJI’s award-winning Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice to form the Legacy Sites. The Sculpture Park fuses the power of art with history, animates the humanity and struggle of enslaved Black Americans, and sheds light on our nation’s history. Designed to be experienced as one journey, visitors are encouraged to visit all three Legacy Sites.
The Freedom Monument Sculpture park will feature newly commissioned works by artists including Alison Saar and Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, alongside major sculptures from Wangechi Mutu, Rose B. Simpson, Theaster Gates, and Kehinde Wiley.
The National Monument to Freedom will be the highlight of the experience. Standing 43 feet tall and over 150 feet long, the Monument will honor all four million enslaved Black people who were emancipated at the end of the Civil War by memorializing more than 120,000 unique surnames documented at the time.
The Monument will celebrate the courageous survivors of this horrific era by recognizing the families they created and millions of their descendants, many of whom still carry the names chosen by their formerly enslaved foreparents.
The plaza surrounding the National Monument will feature writings from Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and James Weldon Johnson. Visitors will be able to honor formerly enslaved people by placing flowers in a stream that flows next to the Monument.
Space for reflection, remembrance, and contemplation will mark the conclusion of the journey through Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.
“In order to deepen our collective understanding of racial injustice and its impact on contemporary issues, our country must reckon with the painful history and legacy of slavery,” said EJI Director Bryan Stevenson. “Historical examination and memorialization are critical to help move us forward and build healthier communities, and we’re honored to work with some of the greatest contemporary artists to provide a cultural space for all visitors to engage with this vital part of history.”
“Slavery touched almost every corner of the world—from the Americas to Africa and Europe—and we invite everyone to visit Freedom Monument Sculpture Park for a profound experience that will illuminate challenging aspects of our past, while inspiring a more hopeful future shaped by truth and justice.”
Situated on the banks of the Alabama River, where tens of thousands of enslaved Black people were trafficked by boat and rail, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park creates an immersive experience in a historically significant physical space where visitors can deepen their knowledge and understanding of history, the power of art, and the importance of justice.
More details about the opening of Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be announced in the coming months.
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War Against Nature
Now comes poet, rambler and philosopher of the commons, Robert Macfarlane, with a few choice remarks following the senseless felling of the iconic tree at Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall:
I just see this as part of a piece with a much broader hostile environment towards the living world in this country. Our focus really shouldn’t be on the offender here. I think it’s on the culture. Nature is under attack in these islands and has been for a long time.
There’s a line by [the poet] WH Auden written 70 years ago. He says: ‘A culture is no better than its woods.’ Well, we have not looked after our woods well. This is part of the broader war on nature.
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[That Sycamore] was a film star – it starred in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was a tree that ashes were scattered under, marriages were made under, and it was a shelter for tired walkers. It stood in that gap in the wall, and it survived the winds that howl through that notch. It stood in a wall that was a symbol of repression really, but it flourished there. It was a landmark in the region.
The best way to remember the loss of the tree, I would say, is with the gain of the forest. We are drastically deforested, we have the second lowest forest cover in Europe. Let us reforest the uplands. Let us see a Sycamore Gap forest rise for the loss of a tree.
As for the Auden poem, here is the quote in the context of the stanza:
A small grove massacred to the last ash,
An oak with heart-rot, give away the show:
This great society is going to smash;
They cannot fool us with how fast they go,
How much they cost each other and the gods.
A culture is no better than its woods.
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Miracles of Beauty
Now come the extraordinary Columbian dance school El Colegio del Cuerpo and the dance company Cuerpo de Indias, founded “as an act of resistance to heal the wounds of the collective body,” under the direction of Álvaro Restrepo and Marie-France Delieuvin. In a recent profile, we were struck by one quote in particular:
This country has suffered so much violence. And all the violence that has happened to our parents, our grandparents, continues to live in them. It has not been forgotten. They’ve been burned by it, and they carry these ashes. We, their children, carry these ashes too and feel the weight of these heavy emotions all the time. For me, dance is a miracle because we can put in our anger and sorrow to make something beautiful. And beauty in any form is a miracle.
A feast for the senses, created from the ashes:
FROM: SPIRIT OF THE BIRD
PREPARATION FOR ASCENDANCE
And one more quote:
“Art opens many worlds, especially in a country like Colombia, where the body has been destroyed, massacred, during so many years of war. Dance, beginning with a body, can initiate a reconciliation – first with one’s self and then with others.”
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Defend the Sacred
On this Labor Day weekend, during a summer of floods & wildfires, we serve to amplify the voices of water protector Mylene Vialard and indigenous activist/ attorney Tara Houska.
In August of 2021, Mylene Vialard was one of a group of non-violent water protectors to put their bodies on the line in the indigenous-led resistance movement to stop Enbridge Line 3.
As she writes, “In the face of the climate crisis, I went up to Line 3 inspired by my 20 year old daughter, who went before I did and put her body on the line. I’m fighting for her future and for the future of all our children. As a settler in the US, I’m also fighting for our systems to honor Indigenous treaty rights. The Line 3 fight isn’t over, I’m standing in solidarity with all these frontline resistance efforts by continuing this Line 3 action in court.”
Excerpts from a recent interview:
I could not sign the paper saying that I was guilty, because I am not the guilty party here. Enbridge is destroying, is violent. The just destroying the land to put a pipeline that we know is going to leak is violence against the Earth, the water, the people who live on this land and depend on that. So, yeah, I could not take the plea deal. I am not guilty.
And if the state wants to prove me guilty, then they have to do that, which so far has not happened. And yet, I’m still here fighting. I’m still in court. I’m going to testify today. And even Sheriff Guida, who extracted us in the most careless manner, has not been able to prove or has not said that I was doing anything wrong up there. I’m a nonviolent activist. I believe in nonviolence. Everything I do that’s my daily life is nonviolent. So, you know, I was up there. I was not obstructing legal process, which is the charge I got. I was just up there protesting an abomination. […]
I wouldn’t say that I’m afraid. I entered this fully aware of the risk I was taking, and not really believing that the justice system in this court would be served, would be hearing me fully. So, I am aware of what I’m risking, and I’m going — I’m going there fully aware of the risk, but I’m not scared. I know where I stand. I know what my purpose is here. I am grateful for you for hearing us today. […]
My T-shirt says “Defend the Sacred.” This is the T-shirt I was wearing on that day. This is why I was there. The sacred is the Earth, the nature, the water, the people who live on this land, and all the animals and Earth.
Activist/lawyer Tara Houska, also arrested on that day, asks the fundamental question:
We think about the words “critical infrastructure.” What is actually critical infrastructure to the survival of human beings and every other being on this Earth? It’s water, right?That is the actual critical infrastructure. Designating an oil pipeline for fossil fuels bound somewhere else, the active destruction of our own chance at survival, of my daughter’s chances of survival, at her, at her daughter, it is just an abomination of where we’re at as a species. You mentioned all those, you know, increasing signs of climate crisis that is occurring, talking about the global boiling. Right? We’re not even saying “global warming” anymore. It’s global boiling. And species extinction is just so painful to watch.
And then, you know, you have these attempts by human beings against other human beings who are trying to at least give nature a voice, at least trying to do something different, actively pushing against and trying to suppress that voice, where you see and hear in Minnesota, instead of the company behind closed doors paying off law enforcement to defend their pipeline and defend their project, it was an open agreement, overseen by the state of Minnesota, overseen by the Democratic government, overseen by Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan here in Minnesota. You know, that still stands. They paid them over $8 million, closing in on $9 million.
The biggest acceptor — the biggest person that accepted the money, like, or the agency that accepted that money was the Department of Natural Resources. That’s the people who are tasked, actually, to defend the wetlands, which just got deregulated, right? Like, all the nation’s wetlands just got deregulated, because the EPA no longer has oversight. That’s what’s happening. And that’s the global picture that’s happening, not just here but around the world, where land defenders are not just criminalized, they’re killed, for defending the Earth.
Note: Ms. Vialard has been found guilty of felony obstruction, subject to appeal. Following the verdict she made the following statement: “I did not get a fair trial and there were so many reasons for an acquittal and mistrial, this cannot be the justice system we have … I am not at all surprised by the verdict but I am surprised by the outrageous way the prosecution behaved.”
Her attorney added: “The jury returned a guilty verdict on felony obstruction, following a trial in which the prosecution engaged in repeated, flagrant and intentional misconduct throughout the trial and during closing arguments … the court turned a blind eye to the legal violations of law enforcement and the prosecutor, as well as its own legal errors, at the expense of Ms Vialard’s constitutional rights in this trial.”
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A Critical Precedent
Mainstream media coverage of the extraordinary ruling in Held vrs. State of Montana was fragmentary, unfocussed and overshadowed by more ostensibly dramatic events in Hawaii and Georgia.
Though those events are also deeply related to climate emergency and threats to democracy, we wish to underscore the significance of the Montana case, particularly in the court’s findings of fact. Below, excerpts from the press release issued by Our Children’s Trust on August 14:
Helena, MT—In an historic first, Judge Kathy Seeley in the First Judicial District Court of Montana ruled wholly in favor of the 16 youth plaintiffs in Held v. State of Montana, declaring that the state of Montana violated the youth’s constitutional rights, including their rights to equal protection, dignity, liberty, health and safety, and public trust, which are all predicated on their right to a clean and healthful environment. The court invalidated as unconstitutional and enjoined Montana laws that promoted fossil fuels and required turning a blind eye to climate change. The court ruled the youth plaintiffs had proven their standing to bring the case by showing significant injuries, the government’s substantial role in causing them, and that a judgment in their favor would change the government’s conduct.
In a 103-page decision, Judge Seeley’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order set forth critical evidentiary and legal precedent for the right of youth to a safe climate, including these highlights:
● “Each additional ton of GHGs exacerbates impacts to the climate.”
● “Every additional ton of GHG emissions exacerbates Plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries.”
● “Plaintiffs’ injuries will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change.”
● “Plaintiffs have proven that as children and youth, they are disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts.”
● “The State authorizes fossil fuel activities without analyzing GHGs or climate impacts, which result in GHG emissions in Montana and abroad that have caused and continue to exacerbate anthropogenic climate change.”
● The order provides meaningful redress to plaintiffs’ injuries because “the amount of additional GHG emissions emitted into the climate system today and in the coming decade will impact the long-term severity of the heating and the severity of Plaintiffs’ injuries.”
● “The Defendants have the authority under the statutes by which they operate to protect Montana’s environment and natural resources, protect the health and safety of Montana’s youth, and alleviate and avoid climate impacts by limiting fossil fuel activities that occur in Montana when the MEPA analysis shows that those activities are resulting in degradation or other harms which violate the Montana Constitution.”
● “Montana’s contributions to GHG emissions can be measured incrementally and cumulatively both in terms of immediate local effects and by mixing in the atmosphere and contributing to global climate change and an already destabilized climate system.”
● “Montana’s GHG contributions are not de minimis but are nationally and globally significant. Montana’s GHG emissions cause and contribute to climate change and Plaintiffs’ injuries and reduce the opportunity to alleviate Plaintiffs’ injuries.”
● Court finds that Earth Energy Imbalance is the most critical scientific metric in determining climate stability and includes a graphic showing that 350 ppm was the level of CO2 where the Earth was last within energy balance. Allowing consideration of climate change “would provide the clear information needed to conform their decision-making to the best science and their constitutional duties and constraints, and give them the necessary information to deny permits for fossil fuel activities when inconsistent with protecting Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”
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The youth plaintiffs claimed their lives and liberties were at stake, including their constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment, to equal protection of the law, to individual dignity, and to safety, health, and happiness – and the responsibility of their state government to cease its actions that exacerbate the climate crisis, degrade Montana’s environment and natural resources, and harm the youth.
The youth plaintiffs in this case did not not seek money in their lawsuit. Instead, today’s ruling declared that state laws prohibiting Montana agencies from considering climate change or greenhouse gas emissions when permitting fossil fuel activities were unconstitutional. The laws declared unconstitutional and enjoined included laws passed during the 2023 legislative session. The legislative and executive branches will now be responsible for conforming their practices around fossil fuels to the judge’s ruling, including the admonition that “every additional ton of GHG emissions exacerbates Plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries.”
The State has 60 days to decide whether to appeal the decision to the Montana Supreme Court.
Youth plaintiffs in the case were elated by Judge Seeley’s ruling and expressed immense gratitude to everyone who made this possible.
“This ruling, this case; it is truly historic. We are heard! Frankly the elation and joy in my heart is overwhelming in the best way. We set the precedent not only for the United States, but for the world.” – Kian, youth plaintiff
“I’m so speechless right now. I’m really just excited and elated and thrilled. I cannot believe the ruling. I’m just so relieved. I feel so grateful to have worked with every single person who has been involved in this. Everybody from Our Children’s Trust is just amazing. They’re all so wonderful. And I have so much love and appreciation for the other youth plaintiffs because they’re just so fantastic and such wonderful people. And we together have done this amazing thing and it’s just so wonderful.” – Eva, youth plaintiff
MONTANA YOUTH FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES
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Desperado Philosophy 