Tahlequah's Baby by Dakota/Salish Artist Robert "Running Fisher" Upham

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Dakota/Salish Artist Robert "Running Fisher" Upham wrote "Tahlequah is an orca, part of the 'J Pod' which spends part of each year off the northern coast of Washington State. Her story became known to the human community in 2018, when she carried her calf for 17 days, refusing to let her baby go to the Spirit World. There was something about her life and her baby’s death, which spoke to human hearts. Particularly women were moved. It felt at the time, that there was a collective grieving with her. Anyone who’s ever lost a loved one that you did not want to let go of can understand this mother’s grieving. Especially a young, sacred one, who has died too soon. It felt that she was calling heart to heart. The story brought attention not only to her child’s death but also to the very difficult times in which her nation has fallen. The imbalance which pits orcas and sea lions and salmon for the same resources is a microcosm of ecological disease. The human nation, particularly those who see our mother earth as merely a source of 'resources' is under indictment by the simple act of love of a mother for her baby. This drawing, 'Tahlequah’s Baby' is the moment when she finally allowed her beloved to move on to the Spirit World. There are many helpers assisting her to lift her baby to its final moments in this world."

Upham continued, "I had heard of Tahlequah and her baby, and several people asked me to do a ledger of her story. But it wasn’t until a young woman understood the meaning and intent behind the signatures on my ledgers, and she sparked my creativity by saying, 'You should do a piece honoring the names of all the orcas who have died.' And, just like that, the idea for this piece was born."  Other examples of his ledger art and paintings are here.

Upham's art brought focus to learning from the nonhuman world. He gave me permission to include his art and text above. Tahlequah, noted by scientists as a Southern Resident orca, showed the importance of real grieving before moving on. National Geographic authors Lori Cuthbert and Douglas Main wrote August 13, 2018, "The death of another calf is a significant blow to J Pod, which hasn’t seen a successful birth in three years. Combined, the three pods have 75 members, and time is running out to maintain its viability. Ken Balcomb, founder and principal investigator at the Center for Whale Research, gives it five years [ . . . . ] to have viable offspring [ . . . . ] 'We have long demonstrated that these fish-eating whales are getting skinnier and skinnier, and the death rate is increasing,' [Balcomb] writes on the center’s website. 'Whales in this endangered population are dependent upon Chinook salmon for their primary food source. Unfortunately, Chinook salmon are also endangered.'"  

My May 2, 2019 post "Epic of Gilgamesh and Climate Change" cited a report from The Guardian, "The Lummi Nation is dropping live salmon into the sea in a last-ditch rescue effort" to save starving orcas. I included the Dammed to Extinction Trailer, about a minute long, showing the best way to help orcas, as Dr. Deborah Giles said, "is to breach the lower four Snake River dams." The post links to the anthology FOR LOVE OF ORCAS. Editors Andrew Shattuck McBride and Jill McCabe Johnson noted "proceeds from sales of the book will benefit the SeaDoc Society's efforts to restore the Southern Resident orcas and their extended ecosystem."

Climate Scientists Plan for Their Families, COVID Scientists Struggle to Help in December 2020, as I Again Recall Words of Isaac Asimov

The video below is a repost of my May 20, 2018 list "Climate Scientists Expressing Nightmare/Anger/Fear/Gratitude/Other Feelings."  

I was reminded of it after reading Hanna Krueger's December 4, 2020 Boston Globe article "‘Makes you ask why the hell we even bother.’ Infectious disease experts face disillusionment as COVID-19 pandemic worsens."

Krueger's article quotes a former Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, epidemiologist and Harvard scientist Michael Mina: "At almost every step of this pandemic, we have failed magnificently as a country. And in ways that we just really didn’t need to fail.”  Mina continues, "I’m just astounded by the dysfunction, the willingness to just stay the course as hundreds of thousands of people die, and the unwillingness to innovate in literally any way.”  Mina "has been advocating for widespread at-home rapid antigen testing since March with little success." He said “I’ve realized that when we need to rise up as a country, we have truly no moral capacity to do it. It’s just the most mind-bending, complete 'Twilight Zone' experience that makes you ask why the hell we even bother.”

I respect Mina's emotional honesty, sincerity, and frustration. He is knowledgeable, hard-working, and has retained, so far, capacity to care.  The article notes "And Mina, in all those hours spent not sleeping each week, continues his crusade to universally distribute at-home rapid tests." The article ends with Mina's words "I just see a lot of people dying. And I really want this pandemic to stop. I really want people to not die so much."

Similar emotional honesty of four Australian climate scientists was show in the video below:

The video notes "Among climate scientists, the conversation is turning to their personal plans." The scientists say "And you can cope with extreme heat much better if you've got cooler nighttime temperatures to sleep. [ . . . . ] I don't think there will be any safe places. [ . . . .] So my approach is to be as mobile, as flexible, as possible to be able to adapt to whatever is going to happen. My children are bilingual and we're working on a third language. Both children have three passports, and they actually have the freedom to be able to study and work either in the European Union, or in Canada, or in Australia. [ . . . . ] I've done what I can to protect my family. I can't protect them from changes in the global economy. I can't protect them from [ . . . ] mass migrations." 

Regarding the need to educate and respond, Isaac Asimov said, "Well, it’s perhaps not important that every human being thinks so. How about the leaders thinking so? How about the opinion-makers thinking so? Ordinary people might follow them. If we didn’t have leaders who are thinking in exactly the opposite way; if we didn’t have people who are shouting hatred and suspicion of foreigners; if we didn’t have people who are shouting that it’s more important to be unfriendly than to be friendly; if we didn’t have people shouting somehow that people inside the country who don’t look exactly the way the rest of us look, that something’s wrong with them."

Today the University of Cumbria published "International Scholars Warning on Societal Disruption and Collapse." The post notes this "public letter signed by over 500 (updated 2/8/2021) scientists and scholars from 30 countries, calls on policy makers to engage more with the growing risk of societal disruption and collapse due to damage to the climate and environment. The letter invites focus on how to slow, prepare for, and help those already suffering from, such disruptions. The signatories are specialists in a range of subject areas that relate to this challenge, who commonly believe it is time to listen to all the scholarship on humanity’s predicament."  The Guardian published a short version here. 

"UN Secretary General: Without the US in the Paris Agreement, Humanity Faces Climate ‘Suicide’" by Mark Hertsgaard in The Nation, Dec. 2, 2020

Quotes from Hertsgaard's article in the Dec. 2, 2020 issue of The Nation include: "In an extraordinary, if largely unheralded, diplomatic achievement, most of the world’s leading emitters have already joined the UN’s 'net zero by 2050' coalition, including the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and China (which is the world’s largest source of annual emissions and has committed to achieving carbon neutrality 'before 2060'). India, meanwhile, the world’s third largest annual emitter, is the only Group of 20 country on track to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, despite needing to lift many of its people out of poverty, an achievement Guterres called 'remarkable.'"

"[Global average temperature above year 1850 baseline . . . ] could be limited to 2.1 C, the group said—higher than the agreement’s target of 1.5 to 2 C, but a major improvement from the 3 to 5 C future that business as usual would deliver."

"[T]he 26th Conference of the Parties, or COP 26, was supposed to take place this week but was postponed because of the pandemic."

"A total of 110 countries have joined the 'net zero by 2050' coalition [ . . . . ]"

"I’m totally convinced that a lot of the oil and gas that is today in the soil,” [UN Secretary General Guterres] said, “will remain in the soil.”  

Guterres' belief is interesting because a Feb. 15, 2020 investopedia.com article "What Percentage of the Global Economy Is the Oil and Gas Drilling Sector?" reported "According to market research by IBISWorld, a leading business intelligence firm, the total revenues for the oil and gas drilling sector came to approximately $3.3 trillion in 2019. This sector is composed of companies that explore for, develop, and operate oil and gas fields. It is also sometimes referred to as the oil and gas exploration and production industry, or simply E&P. With 2019 global GDP estimated to be $86 trillion, the oil and gas drilling sector alone makes up around 3.8% of the global economy."

In contrast, Bill McKibben wrote a Nov. 15, 2019 article at yesmagazine.org, "Big Oil Needs to Pay for the Damage It Caused," noting "Indeed, the high-end estimate for economic damage from the global warming we’re on track to cause is $551 trillion, which is more money than exists on planet Earth. Even that figure is notional: How do you compensate the generations of people yet unborn who will inherit a badly degraded world? Even if Exxon et al were to disgorge every dirty penny they’d ever made, it wouldn’t pay for relocating Miami, much less Mumbai [ . . . . ] But at this point, even the best-case scenarios are relentlessly grim; lots of damage has been done, and far more is in the offing. We’re going to have to remake much of the world to have a chance at survival. And if we’re going to try, then that repair job shouldn’t repeat the imbalances of power and wealth that mark our current planet. Justice demands a real effort to make the last, first this time around."

My question is "What will be the value of the oil and gas drilling sector if humans are extinct?"