Elevate your awareness (and literacy) of the greater place in which you live

30 questions to elevate your awareness (and literacy) of the greater place in which you live:


1) Point north. [Recommendations for answer methods]
2) What time is sunset today? [Recommendations]
3) Trace the water you drink from rainfall to your tap. [Recommendations]
4) When you flush, where do the solids go? What happens to the waste water? [Recommendations]
5) How many feet above sea level are you? [Recommendations]
6) What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here? [Recommendations]
7) How far do you have to travel before you reach a different watershed? Can you draw the boundaries of yours? [Recommendations]
8) Is the soil under your feet, more clay, sand, rock or silt? [Recommendations]
9) Before your tribe lived here, what did the previous inhabitants eat and how did they sustain themselves? [Recommendations]
10) Name five native edible plants in your neighborhood and the season(s) they are available. [Recommendations]
11) From what direction do storms generally come? [Recommendations]
12) Where does your garbage go? [Recommendations]
13) How many people live in your watershed? [Recommendations]
14) Who uses the paper/plastic you recycle from your neighborhood? [Recommendations]
15) Point to where the sun sets on the equinox. How about sunrise on the summer solstice? [Recommendations]
16) Where is the nearest earthquake fault? When did it last move? [Recommendations]
17) Right here, how deep do you have to drill before you reach water? [Recommendations]
18) Which (if any) geological features in your watershed are, or were, especially respected by your community, or considered sacred, now or in the past? [Recommendations]
19) How many days is the growing season here (from frost to frost)? [Recommendations]
20) Name five birds that live here. Which are migratory and which stay put? [Recommendations]

21) What was the total rainfall here last year? [Recommendations]
22) Where does the pollution in your air come from? [Recommendations]
23) If you live near the ocean, when is high tide today? [Recommendations]
24) What primary geological processes or events shaped the land here? [Recommendations]
25) Name three wild species that were not found here 500 years ago. Name one exotic species that has appeared in the last 5 years. [Recommendations]
26) What minerals are found in the ground here that are (or were) economically valuable? [Recommendations]
27) Where does your electric power come from and how is it generated? [Recommendations]
28) After the rain runs off your roof, where does it go?   [Recommendations]
29) Where is the nearest wilderness? When was the last time a fire burned through it? [Recommendations]
30) How many days till the moon is full? [Recommendations]
The Bigger Here Bonus Questions:
31) What species once found here are known to have gone extinct? [Recommendations]
32) What other cities or landscape features on the planet share your latitude? [Recommendations]
33) What was the dominant land cover plant here 10,000 years ago? [Recommendations]

34) Name two places on different continents that have similar sunshine/rainfall/wind and temperature patterns to here. [Recommendations]

Nice Docmentary on the Elwha

Unconquering the Last Frontier This documentary covers the removal of the Elwha dams and the hard work done by the Klallam tribe, Park Service and local residents that made it possible...

Unconquering the Last Frontier from Robert Lundahl on Vimeo.

Deforestation of the Vital Papua New Guinea Rainforest

In East New Britain, Papua, New Guinea, indigenous people are being intimidated for protesting a massive land grab that is taking place. Indigenous people there still retain control over their land, and only 3 percent of the country is controlled by government or private interests, until recent leases that assign almost 20 percent of the remaining forests to agriculture leases.
The government has taken a controversial role in allowing more "Special-purpose Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs), where the government leases the land, and then sub-lets it to corporations. In recent months, groups have called for inquiry, and an investigation can determine if in fact these leases facilitated by the government are in fact just an avenue to allow logging and agriculture companies access to one of the largest remaining expanse of rainforest in the world.
Palm Oil companies want to log the forest to use the land for plantations. These private interests involved in the efforts toward deforestation involve a giant Malaysian business conglomerate called Rimbunan Hijau. They have been paying police to threaten and intimidate protesters. These security guards wear uniforms that indicate they're with a company called Gilford Limited, which is suspected to be a front for this conglomerate, has obtained a permit to clear the area, but local villagers say the lease was obtained without their consent.
One international organization that has a presence in Papua New Guinea also has local chapters in many corners of the world is Friends of the Earth. This group does a lot to support the empowerment of indigenous peoples, helping them to organize at the local level to hold back the onslaught of "for-proft" development of corporations that may not be required to act with concern for the environmental impacts of their activities, particularly in the developing world where most of the earth's unspoiled landscapes are found.

Deforestation is a concern to me because I love wild places, and believe that we should have the smarts and the ability to find alternatives without destroying the natural environments, but "moneyed" interests make decisions that affect people in far-away places where they don't (yet) feel the impacts of the destruction they cause. The forests of the world are carbon sinks – the lungs of the earth, if you will, that are being depleted and contributing to the CO2 levels in the atmosphere and climate change/current global warming trend. The destruction of forests is the "H"in HIPPO, the number one contributing factor to the extinction of species on earth.
A very neat site that has a lot of information and resources is Wilderness.net, so i thought i'd share that link here as well.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-11/png-police-reveal-crackdown-financed-by-loggers/3496032
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/massive-land-grab-of-papua-new-guineas-remain/blog/37337/?
Global Corruption Report 2011: Climate Change Hypothetical offsets Carbon trading and land rights in Papua New Guinea, Sarah Dix (Transparency International Papua New Guinea) 345-347
utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social_network&utm_term=19_10_11_1330&utm_campaign=forests
http://www.foei.org/
http://www.wilderness.net/

USA is 39th worst out of 136 nations in Disparity of Distribution of Income

Rank country Distribution of family income - Gini index Date of Information

1 Namibia 70.7 2003 2 South Africa 65.0 2005 3 Lesotho 63.2 1995 4 Botswana 63.0 1993 5 Sierra Leone 62.9 1989 6 Central African Republic 61.3 1993 7 Haiti 59.2 2001 8 Colombia 58.5 2009 9 Bolivia 58.2 2009 10 Honduras 57.7 2007 11 Guatemala 55.1 2007 12 Brazil 53.9 2009 13 Thailand 53.6 2009 14 Hong Kong 53.3 2007 15 Paraguay 53.2 2009 16 Chile 52.1 2009 17 Mexico 51.7 2008 18 Panama 51.0 2010 est. 19 Papua New Guinea 50.9 1996 20 Zambia 50.8 2004 21 Swaziland 50.4 2001 22 Costa Rica 50.3 2009 23 Gambia, The 50.2 1998 24 Zimbabwe 50.1 2006 25 Dominican Republic 48.4 2007 26 Peru 48.0 2009 27 Singapore 47.8 2009 28 Madagascar 47.5 2001 29 Nepal 47.2 2008 30 El Salvador 46.9 2007 31 Ecuador 46.9 June 2010 32 Rwanda 46.8 2000 33 Malaysia 46.2 2009 34 Argentina 45.8 2009 35 Philippines 45.8 2006 36 Mozambique 45.6 2008 37 Jamaica 45.5 2004 38 Bulgaria 45.3 2007 39 United States 45.0 2007 40 Cameroon 44.6 2001 41 Iran 44.5 2006 42 Cambodia 44.4 2007 est. 43 Uganda 44.3 2009 44 Macedonia 44.2 2008 45 Nigeria 43.7 2003 46 Guyana 43.2 1999 47 Nicaragua 43.1 2001 48 Kenya 42.5 2008 est. 49 Burundi 42.4 1998 50 Uruguay 42.4 2009 51 Russia 42.2 2009 52 China 41.5 2007 53 Cote d'Ivoire 41.5 2008 54 Senegal 41.3 2001 55 Venezuela 41.0 2009 56 Morocco 40.9 2007 est. 57 Turkmenistan 40.8 1998 58 Georgia 40.8 2009 59 Sri Lanka 40.3 2007 60 Mali 40.1 2001 61 Tunisia 40.0 2005 est. 62 Jordan 39.7 2007 63 Turkey 39.7 2008 64 Burkina Faso 39.5 2007 65 Guinea 39.4 2007 66 Ghana 39.4 2005-06 67 Israel 39.2 2008 68 Mauritius 39.0 2006 est. 69 Malawi 39.0 2004 70 Mauritania 39.0 2000 71 Portugal 38.5 2007 72 Moldova 38.0 2008 73 Yemen 37.7 2005 74 Lithuania 37.6 2008 75 Vietnam 37.6 2008 76 Japan 37.6 2008 77 Tanzania 37.6 2007 78 Indonesia 36.8 2009 79 Uzbekistan 36.8 2003 80 India 36.8 2004 81 Laos 36.7 2008 82 Mongolia 36.5 2008 83 Benin 36.5 2003 84 New Zealand 36.2 1997 85 Bosnia and Herzegovina 36.2 2007 86 Latvia 35.7 2008 87 Algeria 35.3 1995 88 Albania 34.5 2008 89 Egypt 34.4 2001 90 Poland 34.2 2008 91 United Kingdom 34.0 2005 92 Niger 34.0 2007 93 Azerbaijan 33.7 2008 94 Croatia 33.7 2008 95 Switzerland 33.7 2008 96 Kyrgyzstan 33.4 2007 97 Bangladesh 33.2 2005 98 Greece 33.0 2005 99 France 32.7 2008 100 Taiwan 32.6 2000 101 Tajikistan 32.6 2006 102 Canada 32.1 2005 103 Spain 32.0 2005 104 Italy 32.0 2006 105 Timor-Leste 31.9 2007 est. 106 Estonia 31.4 2009 107 Korea, South 31.4 2009 108 Romania 31.2 2008 109 Netherlands 30.9 2007 110 Armenia 30.9 2008 111 Pakistan 30.6 FY07/08 112 Australia 30.5 2006 113 European Union 30.4 2009 est. 114 Montenegro 30.0 2008 115 Ethiopia 30.0 2000 116 Kosovo 30.0 FY05/06 117 Ireland 29.3 2009 118 Cyprus 29.0 2005 119 Denmark 29.0 2007 120 Slovenia 28.4 2008 121 Serbia 28.2 2008 122 Belgium 28.0 2005 123 Iceland 28.0 2006 124 Ukraine 27.5 2008 125 Belarus 27.2 2008 126 Germany 27.0 2006 127 Finland 26.8 2008 128 Kazakhstan 26.7 2009 129 Austria 26.0 2007 130 Slovakia 26.0 2005 131 Luxembourg 26.0 2005 132 Malta 26.0 2007 133 Czech Republic 26.0 2005 134 Norway 25.0 2008 135 Hungary 24.7 2009 136 Sweden 23.0 2005