Tears and tears and tears and tears, every child and every whale child... And here and now today, try not to breathe... since the air is carrying particulate from "largest in the world"—who knew—lithium-ion battery farm out of control fire, here on our (Monterey) Bay..; will our human bodies be like tree rings in the end, a final autopsy showing what happened to our tissues in this Season, a marker to our mad careening "banquet of unintended consequences" World..
Yes yes yes. We need to accept that starvation is a big issue with Marine life. The damming of rivers is one of mankind’s most significant modifications to the worlds cardiovascular system impacting the flow of water and associated materials from land to sea. Included in these nutrients are elements like nitrogen and phosphorus, required by all life on Earth, and silicon, which is required by diatoms, the plankton that account for the largest percentage of biological productivity in the oceans. Diatoms in the oceans sequester more Co2 than all the rainforests of the planet.
Nutrient deficiencies are substantial, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere polar regions where severe flow regulation at hydro electric facilities impound most of the Northern Hemispheres' greatest rivers for months at a time and then generate electricity and discharge warmer water only in the dead of winter. Even though much of the nutrients are deposited deep below dams this is the time of year marine life are eating less and require less food. Both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are affected by the blocking of these largest rivers which directly feed and empty into the Arctic Ocean. Thanks Rob!
Thank you so much Rob. I was part of a powerful grieving ceremony with some of our indigenous women, on the edge of the Sailish sea here, in Victoria, for Tahlequah in 2018.
It feels almost unbearable to sense her going through this all over again. And Linda Hagge's comment about parents in Gaza feels deeply important to take in.
May we find our way, step by step, as this year begins with a lot of deep trouble and collective suffering that is truly heartbreaking.
Dear Rob, thank you for turning your attention to the gravity of this mother carrying her deceased daughter. Tahlequah's grim vigil, her second in a row, calls us to recognize this grief inside our very bones.
A heartbreaking call to bear witness to loss. Thank you for making us aware of Tahlequah's grief, and reminding us that we are called to share it with her and the beautiful, breaking world.
Oh no! I can't believe that poor Tahlequah is once again mourning a dead calf. So so sad. I'm glad you wrote this blog because I wouldn't have known otherwise. You make a great point about us all being too distracted to notice. We are increasingly victims of the "Shock Doctrine" if you recall Naomi Klein's book. Thank you for the service that you do all of us by writing this blog. We need to be consciously un-distracted. Especially now as we head into weird times.
You are surely absolutely right about land degradation impacting on the 'Water Cycle'. The huge impacts of this are still underestimated in my view. Weather patterns I suggest, can be correlated with land use patterns when examined over extensive land masses. petitions.worldmagnacarta.co.uk
About such painful experiences of other creatures, I often hear people say "I can't think about it because it hurts too much". I agree with you Rob, that "to stand silenced by the enormity of what we have done and are still doing" may be the most meaningful and important thing we can do. Pinching off the pain is the seat of our destructive power.
Well, that's a good question. Technically, it's simple. We need to open the four lower snake river dams. The spawning grounds above are vast and pristine. That alone could give the Tahlequah and her pod a serious source of Chinook. And under the Biden Administration, things were moving in that direction. But the east side folk, very conservative, are fighting to keep the dams. So I guess that's where the crux is, getting conservatives to see and embrace the values of orca and salmon, which I think many of them actually do. At least their children do, by nature. Those living on the east side of Washington state are probably the best positioned to try and move the needle on this. East siders don't listen to west siders.
But I also thinks its important that we each do something tangible in our lives, even if it doesn't change anything , that we acknowledge with some sort of act, or at the very least, depth of feeling, Tahlequah's call. What's most important is that we hear it, that we ot breeze by. That's what this culture does. And that was kind of the point of the piece, to stop, to be stopped. That is a kind of beginning.
This is beautiful, Rob, a moral call to action and I am with you. Let's go - time to get this moving before it is too late.
Heart breaking.
Stunning. And I had no idea.
Imagine how Palestinian mothers and fathers feel carrying their dead children.
Tears and tears and tears and tears, every child and every whale child... And here and now today, try not to breathe... since the air is carrying particulate from "largest in the world"—who knew—lithium-ion battery farm out of control fire, here on our (Monterey) Bay..; will our human bodies be like tree rings in the end, a final autopsy showing what happened to our tissues in this Season, a marker to our mad careening "banquet of unintended consequences" World..
Yes yes yes. We need to accept that starvation is a big issue with Marine life. The damming of rivers is one of mankind’s most significant modifications to the worlds cardiovascular system impacting the flow of water and associated materials from land to sea. Included in these nutrients are elements like nitrogen and phosphorus, required by all life on Earth, and silicon, which is required by diatoms, the plankton that account for the largest percentage of biological productivity in the oceans. Diatoms in the oceans sequester more Co2 than all the rainforests of the planet.
Nutrient deficiencies are substantial, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere polar regions where severe flow regulation at hydro electric facilities impound most of the Northern Hemispheres' greatest rivers for months at a time and then generate electricity and discharge warmer water only in the dead of winter. Even though much of the nutrients are deposited deep below dams this is the time of year marine life are eating less and require less food. Both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are affected by the blocking of these largest rivers which directly feed and empty into the Arctic Ocean. Thanks Rob!
Thank you so much Rob. I was part of a powerful grieving ceremony with some of our indigenous women, on the edge of the Sailish sea here, in Victoria, for Tahlequah in 2018.
It feels almost unbearable to sense her going through this all over again. And Linda Hagge's comment about parents in Gaza feels deeply important to take in.
May we find our way, step by step, as this year begins with a lot of deep trouble and collective suffering that is truly heartbreaking.
Dear Rob, thank you for turning your attention to the gravity of this mother carrying her deceased daughter. Tahlequah's grim vigil, her second in a row, calls us to recognize this grief inside our very bones.
A heartbreaking call to bear witness to loss. Thank you for making us aware of Tahlequah's grief, and reminding us that we are called to share it with her and the beautiful, breaking world.
Oh no! I can't believe that poor Tahlequah is once again mourning a dead calf. So so sad. I'm glad you wrote this blog because I wouldn't have known otherwise. You make a great point about us all being too distracted to notice. We are increasingly victims of the "Shock Doctrine" if you recall Naomi Klein's book. Thank you for the service that you do all of us by writing this blog. We need to be consciously un-distracted. Especially now as we head into weird times.
You are surely absolutely right about land degradation impacting on the 'Water Cycle'. The huge impacts of this are still underestimated in my view. Weather patterns I suggest, can be correlated with land use patterns when examined over extensive land masses. petitions.worldmagnacarta.co.uk
About such painful experiences of other creatures, I often hear people say "I can't think about it because it hurts too much". I agree with you Rob, that "to stand silenced by the enormity of what we have done and are still doing" may be the most meaningful and important thing we can do. Pinching off the pain is the seat of our destructive power.
This is heartbreaking and infuriating in equal measure. When will we listen to our indigenous elders? They know so much more than we do.
What can we do about this, aside from being destroyed by grief?
Well, that's a good question. Technically, it's simple. We need to open the four lower snake river dams. The spawning grounds above are vast and pristine. That alone could give the Tahlequah and her pod a serious source of Chinook. And under the Biden Administration, things were moving in that direction. But the east side folk, very conservative, are fighting to keep the dams. So I guess that's where the crux is, getting conservatives to see and embrace the values of orca and salmon, which I think many of them actually do. At least their children do, by nature. Those living on the east side of Washington state are probably the best positioned to try and move the needle on this. East siders don't listen to west siders.
But I also thinks its important that we each do something tangible in our lives, even if it doesn't change anything , that we acknowledge with some sort of act, or at the very least, depth of feeling, Tahlequah's call. What's most important is that we hear it, that we ot breeze by. That's what this culture does. And that was kind of the point of the piece, to stop, to be stopped. That is a kind of beginning.