Marinations 27 China Camp - Frank Quan

Marinations 28 Frank Quan Interview

First  cable cast on Marin 26 Septermber 15, 2011

This video is unavailable at the moment as the State Park system has ordered it's removal due to a free speech issue.  Until it is resolved, we removed the video since we have no funding to contest this order in court. Since this video was produced as an act of free speech by an individual with no commercial or other institutional support in support of the State Park system receiving continued funding, it is hard to understand their arbitrary order to remove the video from this little blog.

We thought that the interview with Frank Quan not only told an important story about the State Park and California History, but also brought out important information about the declining health of the San Francisco Bay estuary and it's fishery.

We hope to allow Frank to tell his story here in the future.

In the mean time, scientific information about the estuary and it's challenges due to continued climate heating can be found in this journal article:

Projected Evolution of California's San Francisco Bay-Delta-River System in a Century of Climate Change

James E. Cloern^1*, Noah Knowles¹, Larry R. Brown², Daniel Cayan³, Michael D. Dettinger³, Tara L. Morgan², David H. Schoellhamer², Mark T. Stacey⁴, Mick van der Wegen⁵, R. Wayne Wagner⁴, Alan D. Jassby⁶

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0024465
 This article takes a lot of words to say what Frank Quan told in his short interview, but they are both in alignment with the facts about salinity, turbidity and the changes to the life in the ecosystem.

Marinations goes to China Camp to interview Frank Quan, the last in a line of Chinese Americans who fished for Shrimp in the San Pablo Bay (North of San Francisco) as he tells of the history of this small village, and the decline in the health of the ecosystem. This unique California State Park is threatened by budget cuts, but one of the greatest treasures isn't the land, it is Frank Quan. His family still runs the little store, and he still takes out the fishing boat though the fishery is depleted.

Marinations 22 Poetry Multimedia Montage and Conversation with Anna Halprin

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An interview with master choreographer and teacher Anna Halprin following a screening of the documentary "Breath Made Visible" at the Smith Film Center in San Rafael conducted by host Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli is the first segment. Later a Multimedia piece featuring ; poetry and Marin images by Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli with music by Jerry Green will delight your senses and lift your mind.

Tags: anna halprin, breath made visible, dance, jerry green, sharon skolnick-bagnoli, marinations, marin

Tragedy of the Commons, Marin Style

The recent announcement by Tom Peters, President of the Marin Community Foundation that they will withdraw support for the Marin Youth Center is a tragic move at this time of economic hardship, removing a commons that was an important beacon of light to our young people. The Marin Community Foundation should add programs such as a job training program to this vibrant center, not shut it down

You'll find more in this Marin Independent Journal article by Jessica Bernstein-Wax  Marin Youth Center in San Rafael closing this month

Closing the Marin Youth Center is a tragedy, and will hurt the youth of Marin. I've seen first hand the work that they do to provide a drug free, alcohol free safe place for young people. They provide programs in media education that are a model for the Bay Area. With the MYC closed, where are young people going to go? Jobs are scarce, After School programs were cut back, but gangs are expanding. The "jobs" program sounds nice, but doesn't need to displace this outstanding program for Marin young people. The MYC also provides important health education to a vulnerable population. The Marin Foundation board should reconsider this ill advised move and keep this vital program - it supports the best amongst us and provides a healthy alternative for vulnerable youth. 

As the Michael Eisenmenger, Executive Director of the Community Media Center of Marin said recently: 

The staff who have fostered the center are truly talented youth facilitators and their departure will be another great loss to the Marin youth and nonprofit community. The youth culinary program was running full steam and it was a marvel to see that youth-run cafe in action - yet another sad loss.

City leaders should be alarmed and concerned at this development. Marin as a whole offers it's youth few creative outlets and virtually no gathering spaces like the MYC that they can call their own. I fear the shortsightedness of this decision will soon be evident in the streets of Marin as youth are dispersed and fragmented in aimless abandon.  In a few short years, city and county leaders will be citing the need for 'youth at risk' programs and  . . . the need for another youth center.

We are thrilled the computer clubhouse survived this wave of cuts - and CMCM will continue to offer our support to that extraordinary program - and to the youth of Marin. We just wish the center as a whole could remain intact - it really is irreplaceable.

Leaf Ecology

 One of my house plants with huge leaves was moved outside to our courtyard a few years ago.  It thrived, and produced vigorous new leaves, living in a shady spot under some bamboos.  I've noticed that as stuff fell from the upper story of the garden, dead bamboo leaves, tree litter that blew off the roof, leaves from the plum tree, etc. the top surface accumulated a bit of a compost pile on the leaf.  A spider used this stuff to support a web, and other small bugs. 

This valley of life on the leaf surface would never have occurred indoors. We let the cottage garden plants intermingle.  Discovering this little community living on the large leaves of the Philodendron was such a nice surprise. 

There is a regular community on each of the large leaf tops now--subject to the occasional dumping if we have a big enough rain. Each assemblage is a bit different.  A typical pile will have leaves from the Black Acacia, Arundinaria and Phyllostachys nigra "Hennon", Otatea acuminata, maybe an oak leaf, and some plum detritus. Spider webs tie it together and trap smaller particles.

   Soon, a layer of composting forms in the cradle of the leaf.  This Philodendron's leaves have holes in them naturally, draining the pile.  I wonder if the host plant derives some nutrient benefits from this arrangement?

The long, needle like leaves are actually from the Otatea acuminata aztectorum bamboo.

 

 

 

  

This spider built his food gathering web around this Papyrus flowers,  with a long groups of  threads extending up  into the draping leaves of an Otatea acuminata aztectorum bamboo growing above the Papyrus

  Once he felt threatened on his main web, he retreats up to the bamboo leaves. Quite a remarkable feat to construct such a resilient and utilitarian structure, a home.   

See more about Philodendron plants here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philodendron

One of the gifts that I get when I stretch my energy sometimes is the spiritual lift that comes from being with good people at dawn in nature in a place of power, together in local peace. After a long week of working late, stress and struggle, we got up before 4am and drove to the top of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County to join 91 year old Anna Halprin and a band of intrepid folks on a trek from the parking lot to the summit to see the dawn over San Pablo Bay and San Francisco. Looking toward Mt. Diablo, we hunkered down in awe as the sun rose over the fog covered north bay on one of the longest days of the year.

This Cherokee morning song reminds us of the simple truth, of our connection to the web of life. Later, I'll post more of the sharing from Planetary Dance 2011. Enjoy: Cherokee Morning Song.

As the American Indian elders say: "All life is sacred".

One of the things that I enjoy on Sunday morning is to go to the farmers market at the Marin Civic Center to browse for veggies, herbs and fruit that form the basis for our dinners next week. We are blessed with two viable farmers markets each week, though our Thursday evening market is maybe half the size it was two years ago. Sunday's event is still vibrant, a place to not only buy food, but to encounter other community members, to learn and to enjoy a bit of music with breakfast.  Simple pleasures, money that stays within the community, contact with the growers, and a place for kids and families to wander in a safe place.  Thanks for the opportunity to be in a community that has a farmers market, a community that cooks with local produce and meat, a community where healthy eating is a community value.

Marinations 22

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An interview with master choreographer and teacher Anna Halprin following a screening of the documentary "Breath Made Visible" at the Smith Film Center in San Rafael conducted by host Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli is the first segment.

Later a Multimedia piece featuring ; poetry and Marin images by Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli with music by Jerry Green will delight your senses and lift your mind.

Tags: anna halprin, breath made visible, dance, jerry green, sharon skolnick-bagnoli, marinations, marin

Marinations 20 Jerry Green Aikido and Mediation

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Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli explores with Jerry Green how his study of Aikido informs his practice of mediation, bringing the wisdom of the body to find peaceful resolution to conflicts in the home and business worlds. ;

Tags: mediation, aikido, conflict resolution, marinations, marin, sonoma, community media center of marin

When I read that Plutonium has been found in Japanese soil near the Fukishima Nuclear Power Station, it tells me that the disaster has entered a new, vastly more serious stage. This material is very toxic if it gets into the body, micrograms are enough to cause cancer.  In a power station, it is normally locked up in the fuel rods, both fresh and spent-and separated from the environment by the zirconium cladding and several layers of containment.  That the power company admits that it was found outside and in dirt is very scary, even if the level of radiation is presently limited.

What I think about is that this indicates that the basic containment systems are breaking down, and as the radiation level in the plant and surrounding area rises, it gets harder to work there, harder to take measures to stabilize the situation, and the poisons will spread.  Certainly the water poured on the core, the water pumped into the waste storage ponds is an important mitigating action, but the fact that sea water must be used instead of the very pure water normally recycled means that there is a major leak in the systems, and that implies that the now radioactive water carrying stuff from the reactor and the fuel pools is leaking into the environment, possibly into the sea. 

Combined with the fact that the electric power company doesn't want others to monitor the radiation at the plant independently, I believe that we should be worried that the story we are being told is incomplete and possibly misleading.  We deserve to know more, indeed the event is going to be affecting the environment for centuries if not longer and it will become intuitively obvious to the most casual observer what is going on as time marches on.  So candor now would enable folks to learn, to apply the considerable intellegence of the collective mind--and the fear of panic should not be an excuse to hide the truth--the Tsunami cleared that hurdle and a lot of land as well.

What we need to do now is manage this situation as best we can, and the sooner that Tokyo nationalizes the utility and brings in the best experts from around the world, the sooner that we can bring the resources that we have to protect the Japanese people and the Japanese economy from the vast store of  radioactive poison that could be unleashed if this thing gets much worse.  It could get much worse, or it could be that folks will continue with the courageous actions, the intelligent responses snd the collaborative work that has limited the damage so far.  If this situation isn't stabilized, the world will suffer, and if we can effectively manage this Power Station's crises, the world will benefit. We need to learn the lessons since there are hundreds of other similar power stations around the world, and we need to learn how to manage the spreading contamination, the impacts to the food and water  supplies, the impacts to the ecology together. 

We haven't seen the last earthquake and tsunami that will impact a nuclear power station, so learning now is an opportunity, and we must apply the lessons immediately. 

One thing that we know is that the secondary cooling systems could be made much more robust by adding a few simple elements:

Where battery backup power is now only adequate for 8 hours ( which is the case at several power stations in the U.S.) we should stress test those systems now since many backup battery systems fail under real loads if they are more than a decade old and have any latent defects.  We can augment these systems so that they can continue to function for say, 24 hours--and we can install a way to connect banks of generators imported from off site. 

We saw linemen in radiation protection suits installing new electrical power feeders at the Fukishima plant recently in an attempt to restart the control systems and the cooling pumps-- not easy in any case, but impossible if this was occuring in the summer in a desert station.... so we can install alternate feeders now, and assemble a bank of power generators that could be deployed to provide alternate power in the event that a power outage lasts longer than 8 hours.  I know that the stations have onsite generators, and I know that these systems are also vulnerable to a variety of failure modes.  These systems should also be stress tested and upgraded as necessary--

This incident also highlights the need to improve the back up systems that both contain the spent fuel storage and that provide the vital cooling for these "axillary" systems. 

Our politicians who have prevented the development of secure spent fuel storage repositories must either face the scientific facts or be changed out for politicians who will enable the nation to do what we must do to make the storage safe for our society and economy.   Perhaps the Fukishima events will put in motion the steps that we can take to ensure that natural events that are inevitably going to occur don't cause avoidable disasters that ruin public health and national economies.

Marinations 20 Dineh Elder Len Foster and Tony Gonzales

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Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli interviews Native American Elder Len Foster and AIM-West Director Antonio Gonzales, discussing the Prison Native American Spiritual outreach program. ; Len Foster tells how the Native American relationship to nature could help us with our environmental challenges.

Tags: navaho, dineh, lenfoster, tonygonzales, marinations, aim-west

Marinations 17 - Sacheen Littlefeather - David Mathison

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We visit with actress and Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather who talks about the documentary ReelInjun ; and the impact on her life from her appearance at the Oscars when she refused the Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando.

In the second segment, social media expert David Mathison tells how Twitter is changing journalism and connecting us in new ways, challenging traditional media.

Tags: sacheen littlefeather, david mathison, twitter, citizen journalism, oscar, reelinjun, reelenjunthemovie.com, bethemedia, marinations, marin, community media center of marin, sharon skolnick-bagnoli

The Fremont Union High School District is a great example of how the transition to renewable energy is practical, creates jobs, reduces dependence on foreign oil, and benefits the environment. The Fremont Union High School District has installed solar canopies over parking lots, creating a comfortable parking area and producing megawatts of power.  The District used bond funds to install solar photovoltaic power systems at all 5 high schools.  This system saves over $1,000,000 per year, and this translates into jobs going forward on top of the jobs created when the District constructed the systems.

Lynbrook High School, Cupertino, California.

Many school districts around the San Francisco Bay Area have Solar systems and more are installing them.  The amount of power produced is modest, but it is common to be able to reduce the PG&E bill by 80%.  The effects of reducing the energy cost on operating costs are significant, and especially so in this time of limited tax revenue due to the decline in the real estate value. These moves mean that the Schools get to keep several jobs at each school with a solar system operating, and that is a long term direct investment in our communities.

For me, the small subsidy to encourage installation of these systems and the additional utility cost to handle the  unique challenges caused by adding so much solar to the system are one of the things that government can legitimately do with our tax money to ensure that the society benefits, and that investment continues to be made in converting our energy economy to renewable sources.

When you see just how simple these systems are, and consider that as we build more, we can expect costs to come down even further.  If energy produced by fossil fuel sources could be taxed according to the ecological and climatic burden that it creates, the cost equation would immediately favor renewable sources.

There are some climate change deniers who say that responding to climate change now will cost jobs, will hurt the economy. I say that to wait and do nothing is to make certain that the economy will suffer, and to act now as the Fremont Union High School District has done is smart, helps the economy and strengthens the community.

In several school districts that I've seen lately, there was one influential person who's leadership brought the program to life.  As the benefits become more widely understood, I expect that we will see many more systems installed.  Our government should learn from this example and find ways to use policy to encourage a rapid shift from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy.

 

It's time to get serious!

This preprint by Hansen & Sato is an important read. If you want to skip the technical stuff, just read the last page, then go back to the introduction. Actually it is worth reading all the way through without stopping to figure out the technical details just to see how these guys handle the science...

Paleoclimate implications for Human Made Climate Change

I believe that god speaks to us in many ways, and that we are have some profound choices to make as people, as a civilization and this guy is looking around and says "pay attention", what choices we make now may affect not only the billions now living, but also how countless generations to follow will fare on this planet. It is a gift to have the consciousness to see things, it is a question as to if we can act. It is as if an asteroid has been spotted that is going to hit dead center, and we have to decide what to do.

The Cruise ship approach suggests that hedonism, short term greed, and other similar strategies are the most likely response. What is unique here, is the we have a choice, we have the observations, we have juste enough scientific knowledge, and we have just enough capital and time to do something to make a gift to those who follow of a planet that is so beautiful, so able to support life and civilization.
The path to a future with a planet like we know it requires some fortitude, some sacrifice and some real imagination. The biblical story of the garden of Eden can be read in a larger context today.....as our American Indian people say "all life is sacred".

Life will go on no matter what, the more immediate question is what about our civilization? The challenges that Dr. Hansen casually mentions like the loss of the great sea level cities of the world due to sea level rise after next century are also things so large, that if they are far enough out, folks can just party a bit longer, and someone else can adapt "then". Are we smart enough as a civilization to change while we can?

The emergence of the internet is an amazing way of applying billions of minds to a problem, and it changes everything. We see an understanding emerging that is shared by billions of minds. Will this be a force that helps us to respond in a "smart" and caring way across the globe? I see some encouraging signs that is may occur, and at the same time, attempts by governments and corporations and individuals to control this web to prevent a consensus from emerging. I vote for an emerging consensus based on the power of the spirit, the power of the imagination, the power of collective intelligence united by the web.

I tell young folks who wonder which engineering area to study that being a civil engineer is the biggest growth area, followed by energy engineers. Quite interesting to see how the economics of solar have come around even without much improvement in the basic systems over 20 years, just improvements in the manufacturing processes. Solar is now made at a price competitive with fossil fuel energy although it is not sold at that price yet. And solar is only a small part of the answer to the energy question. So we've been given the means and the knowledge of how to adjust, the only question is will we do what is necessary to adapt to the new situation in time?

We now don't count the environmental cost of our energy sources, "externalizing" those costs. This produces a distortion that until now has been working out just fine for the folks selling this approach. Until the environment gets so bad that further degradation hurts us all, this approach has "legs". The approach advocated by Hansen (and for that matter by Tom Freidman of the NYT) is to start incorporating the environmental cost into the energy price, while taking compassionate steps to ease the shift that will occur as folks see the real total cost of our power systems. We have plenty of renewable power on earth for civilization, but we will have to consciously shift to a sustainable energy economy if our civilization is to continue. If we do so now, it is possible that we can live well, we can ease poverty and the human suffering, and continue to flourish as a civilization for thousands of years.

The explosive growth of the Chinese driving class has forever changed the oil price ups and downs, so time is quite short for us to figure out what we are going to do.....(no blame for the Chinese have as much right to develop as anyone, it's just a matter of this time in history that I'm discussing)

Once we see food prices rise as the artificial energy costs and water shortages start to hit, once the desertification of large zones of arable land occur, these changes are largely irreversible on a timescale that is relevant to our society.

Those changes will drive a shift in the political situation that could see populations want to move at a scale never seen in modern times, conflict for resources driven by desperation, border conflicts that make the stuff we see in Arizona look like childsplay, and disease challenges beyond anything we know today. By that time, the capital that we now have, capital that could be applied to create the new energy economy and stabilize the climate, will be scarce or gone and the only way that the situation stabilizes is with a much smaller population in a world without many of the fellow beings, the organisms that make up the web of life that is the wonder that I experience each morning.

How do we answer the question from god "what have you done with the paradise that I gave you?".

Morning is one of my favorite times.

Quietly I get up, as Sharon is sleeping still,

and find my self walking in the dark with two cats

toward the kitchen.

Marinations 16 Jayne MacPherson - Shiny Objects

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Marinations introduces the work of two Northern California poets, Jayne McPherson and (host) Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli. McPherson interweaves intense personal recollection with a highly-charged physical metaphor, exploring the psyche in the rolling landscapes of healing. Skolnick-Bagnoli invites us into the making of her anthology, Shiny Objects, a distillation of 30+ years of poetic and visual art that touches on socio/politics, the souls journey through space-time, and the many ways we reach for things that shine.

Tags: marinations, poetry, art, giantsparade, cmcm, cable 26, marin, shinyobjects, healing

Marinations Program 15

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Visiting with designer-writer Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli in this episode of Marinations, visual artist Bert Arenson describes the mysterious ways in which he manifests a painting. Then Julie Motz, explorer in the twin arenas of human psychology and wellness, shares glimpses of her journey and her penetrating work in healing.

Marinations is a nutritious stew of nature, culture and ideas.  Produced in Marin County California, the show airs on San Rafael's Community Media of Marin channel 26 on the second Thusday and fourth Thursday of the month at 7:30pm and is webcast live at that time.  We interview artist, writers, scientists, documentarians, dancers, teachers, journalists, musicians and other creative people. 

Tags: art, healing, marinations, bret arenson, julie motz, sharon skolnick-bagnoli, community media, cmcm, marin, wellness, dance