In fall 2023, Milwaukee County signed a Rights of Nature resolution. This legal and jurisprudential theory asserts that ecosystems should have “legal personhood” – the right to survive, thrive, and to be represented in court by a guardian. Per this Wikipedia article, “Proponents argue that laws grounded in the rights of nature direct humanity to act appropriately and in a way consistent with modern, system-based science, which demonstrates that humans and the natural world are fundamentally interconnected.”
I have been alerted that there is activity fostering awareness of this legal theory in Madison now. Guy Reiter, Executive Director of a Menominee Indian community organization called Menikahnaehkem, will be talking about the “Rights of Nature” movement at the Madison Friends Meetinghouse (Roberts Court) on Sunday April 21 at 9:45am. In addition, Clean Lakes WI is sponsoring another speaker on the Rights of Nature on April 17, 8-9am. https://www.visitmadison.com/event/clean-lakes-101%3a-rights-of-nature/66374/
Climate scientists are starting to suspect that based upon the unexpectedly steep global heat spike in 2023 that the climate and ecosystems are starting to unravel. They think that we may be in the early stages of a climate and ecological collapse. If so, time to pay attention and take action.
For example, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a report on March 19, 2024 declared that 2023 was the hottest year on record. Andrea Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the WMO, said the organization was now “sounding the red alert to the world”, according to a report in The Guardian,
According to Axios Generate, climate scientists can’t explain why 2023 was the hottest year on record. This is important, Axiox says, “becausewithout an adequate explanation for 2023’s record global temperatures, scientists could be missing a shift in the climate system that would call into question their projections of future climate change.”
Further, the WMO found, “that records were “once again broken, and in some cases smashed” for key indicators such as greenhouse gas pollution, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice cover and glacier retreat.”
Bill McKibbon in his excellent post in his “The Crucial Years” Substack, pointed out that:
The report found temperatures near the surface of the earth were 1.45C higher last year than they were in the late 1800s, when people began to destroy nature at an industrial scale and burn large amounts of coal, oil and gas.
Read McKibbon’s post below for a fuller discussion of the grave global ecological and climate catastrophe that we have created for ourselves, and that many of us continue to ignore and deny.
The challenges that now face us may seem impossible to deal with, especially as an individual. Not true. There is still time to take action to avert the worst of the climate and ecological crisis. But, what can one individual do. Bill McKibbon says that the first think an individual can do is to stop thinking of yourself as an individual.
Adult monarch feeding on showy blazing-star (Liatris ligulistylis).
Many living species are declining and vanishing right before our very eyes. Songbirds, wildflowers, insects, and entire ecosystems are falling victim to the relentless assault of consumer culture, magnified by the global climate and ecological crisis that we have created.
Closer to home, take the monarch butterfly as another example of the collateral damage of human activities. Once abundant across the Upper Midwestern U.S., it has been declining for several decades. This magnificent migratory species, spends its spring and summer in the Eastern U.S. (east of the Rockies) and its winters in central Mexican oak and fir forests.
The monarch faces threats to both its summer and winter habitat. In the U.S. Corn Belt, industrial agriculture with its fence row-to-fence row cropping and heavy use of chemicals is no longer friendly to insects. Especially the monarch caterpillar which feeds only on the milkweed plant. The milkweed has been all but eliminated from farm fields and roadsides by the extensive use of herbicides.
On the other end of the migratory route, the American demand for avocados has led to the clear cutting of Mexican native oak/fir forests in which monarch over-winter. Avocado trees replace the native vegetation, destroying monarch habitat and draining the groundwater supplies dry. Avocado trees use much more water than the native oak/fir trees.
Further evidence of the decline of the monarch came last week. A census of the monarch population in central Mexico is gauged by the total acreage occupied by overwintering monarchs. The overwintering monarch population (2023-24) in Mexico has dropped to the second-lowest level on record. The area of Mexican forests occupied by monarchs was only 2.2 acres, down 59% from the prior year. Only the winter of 2013-14 had fewer butterflies. (NYT 02.10.2024 page A5)
A report in December of 2023 from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated its Red List of Threatened Species. Globally, one quarter of freshwater fish are at risk of extinction. “Amphibians appear to be the most imperiled of vertebrates, with 40 % threatened with extinction, and with their status deteriorating globally.” (NYT 12.12.23 page A9)
Due to loss and fragmentation of habitat, many North American songbirds have declined by 60% to 75% in the last 50 years. Little is left of the North American tall grass prairie, except for small patches set aside in preserves.
The climate and ecological crisis aggravates the human destruction of our environment. We have plowed the prairies, drained wetlands, and fragmented the landscape with trophy houses and strip malls. Prairie wildflowers have been replaced with corn and soybeans; ill-managed industrial farmland–not the small family farm–lets soil blow and wash away from uncovered crop fields. Eroded soil–and the phosphorous, nitrogen and pesticides it carries–washes into streams and lakes, fueling algae growth and robbing aquatic organisms of oxygen.
Time was when us folks in southern Wisconsin didn’t have to worry about thin ice or tornadoes in February. Now we do. Times have changed. The climate is unstable and we are in a season of literal and metaphorical thin ice warnings.
Spot of open water on an otherwise ice-covered pond in Madison, Wisconsin.
In 1950’s Indiana, “Thin-Ice-Warnings” were routinely posted for ice skaters and anglers on the small lake near my boyhood home. The warnings came out when the ice became too thin on which to safely ice-skate or walk. These were little hand-written signs posted on lathe sunk in a coffee can full of sand. You couldn’t miss them. They were not to be ignored.
For about 35 years now the metaphorical signs of ecological “thin ice”, generated by the global climate and ecological crisis, have been ignored. The signs of crisis are everywhere but many of us choose to ignore the warnings, sit this one out, and to look the other way. Back home in Indiana, we’d say about the current climate and ecological crisis, that we are deep in doo-do and that we should watch our step–both literally and figuratively.
As evidence of the dire straits we are in, the year 2023 was the warmest on record–the warmest in the last 125, 000 years. January of 2024 was the warmest-ever month on record. February 2024 so far is even warmer than January. The Earth’s humans, and our civilization, and all creatures on the Earth are in trouble.
This winter the signs of actual thin ice are everywhere. On Wednesday February 7 in Madison, Wisconsin we had rain, thunderstorms, and high winds. Locally, thin ice and open water on Lake Mendota in Madison has come early. The University has moved its annual winter carnival indoors because there is not the usual winter. Most all ice-fishing shanties have been removed from Lakes Monona and Mendota–even the most fool hardy ice anglers who usually stay until forced to leave by the sheriff, have taken the hint and pulled up stakes and gone home.
And just on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024 two tornadoes ripped through southern Wisconsin. One near Evansville and the other near Albany. This was the first time in Wisconsin history that a tornado occurred in February. Those tornadoes were definite ecological thin-ice warnings.
Planet Earth is in a big trouble and, as we say where I come from “when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” So, I long ago put down my “shovel”. I try to do something most days of the week to ease the climate crisis. I mainly try to reduce my carbon footprint in a variety of ways. I have joined millions of other participants in the global fight against climate change. There are many ways to become engaged in the fight to save the climate and here are some of the things my fellow climate change participants do:
We drive less and walk or bike or take the bus more often.
Some of us get an electric vehicle (EV).
Many of us eat lower on the food chain by reducing consumption of meat and dairy to lower the enormous CO2 emissions of the industrial agriculture complex.
Generally we try to consume less stuff.
We avoid plastics.
We reduce, or avoid, discretionary travel, especially air travel and cruises. Discretionary travel is travel for enjoyment, adventure, or because you want to make up for what you missed on out during the pandemic.
I admit to my past (and current) generous contributions to the global climate crisis. I don’t seek to escape my share of blame. But, I can heed a warning of warming and try to change my ways.
. . . since my last post on August 4 of 2022 about the River Avon in England. And before that it was a post on December 31, 2021 on the Glenway Golf Course, now called The Glen.
I’ve been away, but not gone.
The Pandemic, of course interrupted everything and everyone. Then, on Feb. 4, 2022, just as the Pandemic was easing, my life partner Sharon died of soft tissue sarcoma, a rare, fast-moving, and un-treatable form of cancer. Her death knocked me down, overwhelmed me with grief, and took my breath (and voice) away. Those of you who know anything about grief will recognize the signs.
But now, I’m back up on my feet and ready to go back to work. I haven’t been idle, but lacked enough focus and concentration to keep a blog going. Now, I’m ready to go again with a renewed focus on the the biggest story in the world”–the global climate and ecological crisis that humans have created (Thunberg, 2023)
My posts will address the climate crisis with questions such as: What are the effects of the global climate and ecological crisis here in the Lake Wingra Watershed and greater Dane County? In what ways do we contribute to the crisis and how can each of us do something everyday to lessen and perhaps avert the worst of the problem.
Another big question is: How can we create and maintain hope in the face of overwhelming climate grief. Like many of you, I am suffering from climate grief, on top of my personal grief. The best way to deal with grief, I’ve learned, is not to walk away from it, ignore it, or turn the other way; but rather to walk right into the storm, leave my comfort zones behind and walk out into groundlessness (Pema Chodron).
So, this is a first step out into the storm. I’ll try to post here once a week.
The River Avon and Madison Wisconsin’s Waterways: A contrast in environmental management
The River Avon In Salisbury, England on the city edge.
During a recent trip to SW England, I had the pleasure in the city of Dorchester, of walking along the clear, free-flowing River Avon and enjoying its ancient water meadows—wetlands managed for the common good and as a source of forage and pasture and public recreation—not far from the town’s center.
In Dorchester and Salisbury I was impressed by this river’s sediment-free water, its healthy fish and waterfowl populations, abundant stream-bank vegetation, absence of bank erosion, and lack of blue-green algae.
Swan feeding in the River Avon
The water meadows I saw are centuries old and play a key role in maintaining the high water quality of the River Avon system. In fact, it is for good reason that the River Avon and its tributaries are internationally recognized for their ecological, social, and cultural importance and in England are designated a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
An centuries-old water meadow in the shadow of the Salisbury Cathedral.
Contrast that idyllic situation with the reality in Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin where we often can’t use and enjoy our waterways to their fullest in the summer because they are clogged with toxic blue-green algae and other water weeds.
Algae and aquatic weeds cover the Lake Wingra near-shore waters in 2022.
Clearly, the English understand something about managing the landscape to maintain and improve water quality—they have been doing this since the ancients who built Stonehenge floated bluestones down the sacred River Avon to their final destination on the Salisbury Plain.
The River Avon flows for at least 10 miles from Stonehenge to Salisbury through an agricultural landscape as extensively cultivated as any in Dane County, Wisconsin.
Water is diverted from the River Avon to nourish the managed water meadows.
We need to take this opportunity to learn from the English land and water managers and employ their strategies and tactics here. There are many fine land and water management agencies in Madison and Dane County (Clean Lakes Alliance, Friends of Lake Wingra, and the Dane County Land and Waters Resources Department, among them) doing good work.
But, these organizations can’t do it alone and need the help of all of us—working for the common good—to make more of our waters increasingly fishable, swimmable, and drinkable.
Concern is over potential damage to new plantings made in 2021 from winter sports activities
City of Madison Parks Department asks citizens to refrain from walking on and damaging the new greens and thousands of plants installed in fall 2021.
Golf Course Redesigned in 2021
As area and watershed residents may know, City of Madison Parks spent much of 2021 redesigning the layout of the popular course; installing thousands of native plants; and putting in new turf. Survival of the plants and the success of the project is now threatened by damage through trampling and compaction caused by extensive foot traffic. The Glenway Golf Course (now called Glenway Park) was closed to the public during the construction phase and has yet to re-open. The new layout is expected to be unveiled in late 2022.
An open letter to neighborhood residents was recently sent to the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association (DMNA) asking for restrain and cooperation from area residents. The letter is printed in full below:
“Glenway Golf Course Grounds CLOSED to the Public
An Important Message from the Parks Department:
Glenway Guests and the Community,
We need your help. As we move into winter and enjoy the fun of snow-related activities, we look for your assistance in helping share our important message with the public. The progress at the improved Glenway Golf Park is on schedule and shaping up for a great community asset to open later in 2022. However, activity in these areas will be extremely problematic to the success of the property and the native plantings. The extensive work includes more than 28,000 prairie plug plantings, prairie plant dormant seeding, new greens complexes, and extensive new turf, which is in a critical infant state. Today and throughout the winter and upcoming spring, the grounds are in a fragile and delicate state. Newly planted turf grasses and prairie planting remain susceptible to damage from winter weather, and more importantly the potential for damage caused by foot traffic and other recreation.
Since our first snowfalls of the seasons, we have noticed extensive concerns on the property that will hinder our opening in 2022. Sledding and building of snow creations on the greens will cause substantial kill to the infant grass that lay under the snow. Compression of snow onto these sites will ultimately kill the weak grasses and will need extra work and money to ensure they are usable in the spring. With that, we ask with utmost importance that the public remains off the fenced areas. Many fences were taken down by the large wind storm we had a few weeks ago, however most fencing remains intact.
Due to the sensitive grounds throughout the entire property, and to ensure an on-time 2022 opening, the Glenway Park grounds are CLOSED to the public. This includes walking, cross-country skiing, sledding, and snowshoeing. We understand this is a popular destination for many during the winter months and hope you will assist us in sharing this message with your community. While this temporary closure may be upsetting to some, the intention of the property for winters in the future is bright. We look forward to promoting new and improved winter use in the future at Glenway Golf Park. However this winter we must ask people to remain off and find alternate locations to enjoy winter outdoors.
We thank you all for your support and interest in the new site and look forward to seeing everyone back enjoying outdoor recreation in 2022.”
WingraSprings 