6-10-20 Five Reasons to Be Hopeful this Wednesday
June 10, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Yesterday I was at home like millions of other people, working remotely. I finished the Assistant Boss Leadership Manifesto and the end product was collaborative and well written. I reread it several times last night and there was only one minor error. My old undergraduate instructor Dr. Amy Slatton would have been proud https://drplasticpicker.com/blacklivesmatter-the-stain-of-slavery-colonialism-apartheid-extends-to-science/ and https://amyeslaton.com/. She always admonished me to edit edit edit. If you are a reader on this blog, you know that is not one of my strengths. I mostly finished the Girl Scout Financial Forms yearly submission. I always turn it in about a week late without shame. I think interacting with Girl Scouts management is the only time I ever pull the working mother card https://drplasticpicker.com/leadership-opportunities-are-everywhere-dont-just-go-to-the-blue-light-special/. I think my fellow Girl Scout Troop leaders and those at the central office are used to dealing with prima donna mothers and just humour people like me. It is all volunteer of course. And yesterday and this morning my sister is sad because one of her close friends has a very sick child going through complicated abdominal surgery. My sister is an empathic person. Likely in that pediatric intensive care unit that child is dying. I texted back to my sister what I hope was words of comfort. When a child is dying there are waves of grief to all those adults that surround that child, and all those adults that surround those adults. My sister is caught in that cocentric circle of grief.
And I won’t discuss pediatric deaths today because there is still hope while the ICU team is working. I’ve been alive long enough to know that miracles can happen. And sometimes those of us who care for children, parents and doctors and nurses and teachers – we need a silly outlet. Something so ridiculous that it makes us laugh and brings us silly joy. And then it helps us get through the day to continue to work, to try to bring comfort, and hopefully at some points to heal. So above is the first rendition of my Anti-Vaping Trash art. I called friends yesterday and just laughed when I explained to them my art. And that laughter helps to balance out the sadness in our work.
And with the memories of that laughter yesterday shared with friends and the thoughts of a sick child that is loved by someone who my sister considers a friend, I look for hopeful things for you and myself. Here is today’s Five Reasons to be Hopeful about the Environment this Wednesday. It’s the hump day and if we can get through today, the weekend is that much closer.
- Historic Deal Preserves Millions of Pollination Corridors for Monarch Butterflies. “Officials estimate that as many as 2.3 million acres of roadsides and utility lands may be involved in the agreement, becoming habitat for monarchs and other pollinators.” “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the University of Illinois at Chicago have signed an agreement to create habitat for the butterflies on potentially millions of acres along rights-of-way and associated land. The agreement unites more than 45 companies in the energy and transportation fields and private landowners in the voluntary conservation agreement.” I wanted to cry for joy. https://projectmotherearth.com/2020/05/27/historic-deal-preserves-millions-of-pollination-corridors-for-monarch-butterflies-mnn/
- Snub-Nosed Monkey gets Protection with New National Park in Myanmar. The Myanmar snub-nosed money was only discovered about 10 years ago, and is critically endangered with 330 individuals left. The Rainforest Trust has helped fund this new National Park which is why every month it disproportionately receives our blog’s donations. “But just recently, the government of Myanmar created Imawbum National Park, a 386,176-acre stretch of habitat now officially protected along the border with China. This site covers essentially the entire Myanmar Snub-nosed Monkey range and safeguards the core of their habitat.” Not only is this species being helped but “Endangered Red Panda, a small mammal related to raccoons and weasels native to this region. The Endangered Shortridge’s Langur is another threatened primate species endemic to these forests. Other resident mammals include two Critically Endangered pangolin species — the Chinese and the Sunda Pangolins — as well as the Bengal Slow Loris, Asiatic Black Bear, Sun Bear, Takin, Eastern Hoolock Gibbon, Northern Pig-tailed Macaque, Stump-tailed Macaque and the northern species of Clouded Leopard, all of which IUCN ranks as “Vulnerable” to extinction. This park exists now and this gives me hope https://www.rainforesttrust.org/new-national-park-protects-critically-endangered-monkey-in-myanmar/
- Amazon Tribe Wins Decades-Long Battle Over Illegal Logging. Brazil’s indigenous Ashaninka tribe have been fighting in court for two decades in a two decades dispute over illegal logging groups. They won in Brazil’s federal court and received reparations for cutting down thousdands of mahogany, cedar and other trees for the European furniture industry 40 years ago. They received $3 million dollars but more importantly an apology, and now precedent for continued indigenous land rights. The Amazon is earth’s lungs so it is vital that we keep the trees we have and continue to fight for indigenous people’s rights. https://www.greenmatters.com/p/amazon-ashaninka-tribe-wins-lawsuit
- Yellow Warblers are increasing in San Diego. The San Diego Audobon Society had on their facebook page an update on the local Yellow Warbler. They were recognized as a local species that were of special concern with declining populations due to the Brown-headed Cowbirds, which were parasitic toward the warblers. There are local efforts to eradicate the Cowbirds. http://sdplantatlas.org/ge_files/pdf/Yellow%20Warbler.pdf
- National Geographic Kids Contests Re: Plastic! And this opportunity from National Geographic Kids gave me a lot of hope as well. I posted it on Dr. Plastic Picker facebook, but will post this opportunity again here https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/kids/rights-exempt/ngk-books/Almanac/2021-almanac-challenge-form.pdf. Hey kids, check it out!
So that is it. My weekly exercise in gratitude and hope. The art piece is entitled “Ocean plastic beach baby – mixed media/vaping pens – drplasticpicker 2020” after a group effort by my personal facebook friends. I hope I made them laugh a little bit, which would be the best way to upcycled the ridiculousness of this vaping/plastic trash!
This was last week’s Hopeful Wednesday post! https://drplasticpicker.com/6-3-2020-five-reasons-to-be-hopeful-this-wednesday/
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