No. 056: August Reading and Breathing
On the Importance of Walking / Natural History of Air / Tennessee Social Justice Coalitions / Farming Bamboo? / Salmon Fishing Rights / Food Sovereignty / West Maui Fires / and more...
Good morning Regenerative School Community,
There’s been a lot going on, so let’s get into it.
Keep scrolling for our mid-August reading recommendations and stay tuned for more Rē School offerings and updates on Friday, September 1st.
If you have a moment this morning to sit quietly and “relax back,” here’s a beautiful ten-minute meditation to help relieve physical, mental, and emotional tension.
We hope you are breathing easy.
Best,
The Rē Team
“Take the body outside, and use it not as a tool but as a companion, a friend, to make thought more alive, more dynamic,” says writer and philosopher, Simon Parcot. We recently enjoyed Julia Webster Ayuso’s “Why All Great Thoughts Are Conceived by Walking” for Atmos. There are never enough reminders to get outside. Click here to learn more about the ancient connection between walking and thinking and how Parcot uses guided hikes to help reconnect minds and feet.
Photo credit: Erwann Petersen for Atmos In 2020, sixteen young Montanans sued their state government for violating their constitutional right to “a clean and healthful environment” by promoting fossil fuel development. This Monday, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled in their favor. This decision could set a new legal precedent and spur similar lawsuits. Click here to read Kristoffer Tigue's recent reporting for Inside Climate News.
Last Wednesday, Brazil’s Amazon Summit closed with an international roadmap to protect tropical rainforests. This is an important step in countering climate change, but more concrete commitments and measurable timeframes are needed to end deforestation. Click here to read about the signed agreement.
Flowers are increasing ultraviolet pigment and many bodies of water are becoming greener. “Climate change is rapidly altering our visual environment.” In this short but fascinating piece, Sujata Gupta explores how “nature’s changing colors makes climate change visible” for Science News. Click here to read on.
Alpine cinquefoil flowers picked in 1977 (left) and 1999 (right) have noticeably different UV pigment patterns. (Photo credit: Matthew Koski via science.org) NOAA forecasters have predicted another “above-normal” hurricane season. Current ocean and atmospheric conditions, such as record-warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures, are likely to increase hurricane activity this fall despite the ongoing El Niño event. NOAA urges everyone in vulnerable areas to have a well-thought-out hurricane plan and stay informed through official channels as this season progresses. Click here to read the news.
“Organizing in Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia can fuse and provide a multifaceted blueprint for change across the South.” Social justice organizing has deep roots in Rē’s founding state of Tennessee! Henry Hicks IV traces the the history and momentum of the current movement in “Tennessee Organizers Are Taking the State Back From the Right” for In These Times. Click here to learn more about the emerging coalitions.
Despite being published three years ago, Boyce Upholt’s “The Meaning of Air.” is at once timeless and timely. In this beautifully structured essay from Emergence Magazine, Upholt takes the reader through the expansive natural and cultural history of air to the environmental justice movement in St. James Parish, Louisiana in 2020. We cannot recommend this long-form piece enough. Click here to read and here for current updates on St. James Parish.
“The shock was felt all of a sudden,” writes Jack Thompson for Hakai Magazine. In “Returning to a Climate-Changed Home,” Senegalese villagers are allowed home for the first time in thirty years following displacement from war. Instead of experiencing and adapting to changes slowly, the people of Bissine and Singhere are confronting the change all at once. Click here to read more.
For Japan’s Indigenous Ainu people, salmon is king. With inspiration from Indigenous groups in Washington state, the Ainu are reclaiming their historical fishing rights. Click here to read “A Fight for Salmon Fishing Rights Connects Indigenous Peoples Across the Pacific Ocean” by Naoki Nitta for Civil Eats.
Members of the Raporo Ainu Nation and the Monbetsu Ainu Association observe asir cep nomi, an Ainu ceremony that marks the fish’s annual migration back to the island’s major rivers and tributaries. (Photo credit: Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies via Civil Eats) Jimmy Thomson’s “The desperate race to create a protection zone around the rapidly melting Arctic” for The Guardian. The ice once protected the Arctic ocean from threats – but as it melts it exposes the sea to fishing, shipping, mining and pollution. Would a marine protected area help secure this fragile ecosystem or is it too late? Click here to read more.
“Everyone Should Grow Bamboo! No One Should Grow Bamboo!” by Lela Nargi for Ambrook Research. US companies want Southern farmers to plant species of this invasive grass. Experts say it’s a disastrously bad idea. Click here to read.
Jean M. O’Brien’s 2010 book Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians out of Existence in New England. Curious about the persistent myth of the vanishing Indian? Drawing on more than six hundred local histories from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, O’Brien explores how these narratives introduced the myth of Indian extinction—a myth that has stubbornly remained in the American consciousness. Thank you to our neighbors and friends at Imagine Studies for recommending this important read to us!
“Radical imagination” is one of our new favorite terms! This podcast collaboration between Shado Mag and A Growing Culture explores why the global industrial food system leaves people hungry and how it fractures our relationships with communities and the environment. The fascinating discussion highlights the unifying potential of food and stresses the importance of standing in solidarity with farmers, land workers, and indigenous-led land and food rights campaigns for a more sustainable and equitable food system.
Now on to the West Maui: On Tuesday, August 8, 2023, severe drought and hurricane weather led to widespread, devastating wildfires across the Island of Maui. There’s been a lot of reporting but here’s what we recommend:
Sakshi Venkatraman and Kimmy Yam’s “Wildfire decimates Lahaina, once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom” for NBC News.
“Maui wildfire devastation exposes the legacy of colonialism” via People’s Dispatch.
Reis Thebault’s “Native Hawaiians organize Maui fire relief to Lahaina as government lags” for The Washington Post.
Matt Simon’s “The Scary Science of Maui’s Wildfires” for Wired.
Jake Bittle’s “Housing on Maui is scarce. Where will fire survivors go?” for Grist.
This incredible community-coordinated Maui Mutual Aid Guide.
Native Hawaiiains, Kānaka Maoli, are not responsible for this crisis but will suffer the worst of its consequences. The August 8th wildfires have caused unfathomable loss of human lives, legacies, infrastructure, community, and dreams in West Maui. Your support is desperately needed. If you have ever been to Hawaii, or have ever dreamt of going, please support recovery efforts.
Mahalo (thank you) and pule (prayers).
We will see you on Friday, September 1st with more Rē School updates and offerings!
What have you been reading? What have you been listening to? Write to us at admin@regenerativeschool.org and let us know!
Thank you and see you soon!