The Man From Clear Lake by Bill Christofferson

The man is Gaylord Nelson, the greatest environmental politician we have ever had, the founder of Earth Day, the author of numerous environmental bills, the Governor of WI who saved more land for the future than any other Governor, and the Chairman of the Wilderness Society.

This is a look at the mans entire life with great insights into the value of growing up in a small rural WI community with parents who were educated, involved, and ethical.  The author does a good job of portraying the man who was nicknamed Happy as a youth and continued to earn that moniker throughout life even as he worked against the challenges that were destroying our environment and resources.

Earth Day was an expression of his love of the Earth and its natural beauty, but more important it was an outlet for millions of people who shared his love and concern.  Describing the Earth day rally in the Chicago Tribune – side by side photos during and after the demonstration, the paper wrote with astonishment, “When the demonstrators left there was no post-rally litter remaining to be cleaned up.”

He recognized the conscience of the American mind, the fact that we had grown as a nation in natural beauty and natural abundance.  His call for a day to raise the political will to protect the environment included every age.  “The National Education Association estimated that ten million public school children took part in Earth Day Programs.”

The day had its detractors, just as we see Koch and others of the Tea Party ilk attacking parks and greenways - the true peoples places - Time magazine wrote that the day “had aspects of a secular, almost pagan holiday.”  Unwittingly this would plague the environmental cause with a “pagan” stigma that would be latched onto by some critics.  But it was not religion and religious leaders with a true sense of creation joined in the day and celebrations.

Gaylord Nelson delivered a speech on a four day tour that included this statement: “This is not just an issue of survival.   Mere survival is not enough.  How we survive is the critical issue…Our goal is not just an environment of clean air, and water, and scenic beauty – while forgetting about the Appalachias and the ghettoes where citizens live in America’s worst environment…Our goal is an environment of decency, quality, and mutual respect for all other human creatures, and all other living creatures – an environment in the deepest and broadest sense.”

His ideas were not new - John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Emerson, Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold and many others had been expressing similar sentiments, but Gaylord had put himself in the political position to do something about these concerns and to answer the question raised in 1873 by Wisconsin Chief Justice Edward G Ryan at a University of Wisconsin commencement said, “Which shall rule – wealth of man; which shall lead – money or intellect; who shall fill public stations – educated and patriotic free men, of the feudal serfs of corporate capital?”

The author spends the majority of life in the political decades that defined Nelson, but he also gave us an intimate look at Gaylord and his buddies in Clear Lake: “Gaylord and Sherman were up in Clyde Jones’s apple tree one night, stealing apples, when Jones came out and turned on the light “so you can see better,” then went back inside while the embarrassed would-be thieves ran off.”

We can also see the man who was eloquent in the Senate and the Governors office as a less polished speaker in his young adulthood.  “…on a walk along Willow Drive on the U.W. campus.  Gaylord shifted from one foot to the other, finally pulled out a ring with a small diamond in an exquisite rosette setting, and said, ‘Here, my mother wanted me to give this to you.’

“’He didn’t say I love you and want to marry you, nor did he drop to his knees, but it was assumed that somewhere along the way that ring would join a band of a different sort,’ Carrie Lee recalled.  She called it the classic Scandinavian approach: ‘If you think it, then the other person is supposed to know and already imagine that you said it.’  At a party for their fiftieth wedding anniversary, Nelson joked about the Norwegian who told his cousin, ‘You know, I love Amanda so much that sometimes it is all I can do to keep from telling her.’”

It is difficult to summarize his life.   Like Theodore Roosevelt, he was a politician for the environment and he knew how to get things done.  But unlike Roosevelt, he was not captivated by the manly art of war and the Vietnam crisis was another time that tested his strength of character and his need to say what was right even it if was not popular.

Edmund Muskie was a leading environmental politician and friend and he shared friendships with other senators - Russell Long, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale.  In fact, despite disagreements, he might have been the most popular Senator on the hill - at least with other Senators who enjoyed the conviviality of his home, the welcome of his wife Carrie Lee, and the stimulation of good debate out of the public eye.

If Earth Day is the thing that will forever be his signature, perhaps if is fitting to end this summary with this is the ad that was run in the New York Times in 1970 for the first Earth Day.

"A disease has infected our country.  It has brought smog to Yosemite, dumped garbage in the Hudson, sprayed DDT in our food, and left cities in decay.  Its carrier is men.

"Earth Day is a commitment to make life better, not just bigger and faster; to provide real rather than rhetorical solutions.  It is a day to re-examine the ethic of individual progress at mankind's expense.  It is a day to challenge the corporate and governmental leaders who promise change, but who shortchange the necessary programs.  It is a day for looking beyond tomorrow.  April 22 seeks a future worth living.  April 22 seeks a future."

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation  by Dan Fagin  Review posted in Goodreads 

Mike Link's review 

Nov 12, 13  ·  edit

5 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2013

Toms River is essential reading for those who care about health, the environment, and the frustration and rights of those injured by industrial hubris. As a professor of Environmental History I would consider this a book that is essential reading.

Like Love Canal and other incidents around the world - Bhopal for instance which was caused by the same industry and same business, we find the rights of the individual trampled in the rush for jobs and economic salvation.

Of course short term gains in economic growth and jobs is often offset by long term loss - in this case destruction of ground water, cancer in the citizens who are caught unawares because state agencies that are supposed to monitor health and environmental issues are appointed by politicians who are beholding to the donations and lobbyists of industry.

Like Erin Brockovich and Lois Gibbs, we can now add the persistent Linda Gillick the pantheon of environmental heroes who stood up to ridicule, the callous who think that cancer is their problem, chambers of commerce, and corporation lawyers to fight for a cause that is more important than all the "good" the company does.

In the end, politics and agencies fail us and we continue with issues like global warming and severe storms, big issues that we as individuals cannot control, but have to endure, not getting the will of the public and the investment needed.

Companies like Ciba-Geigy who created the chemical plant and problems in Toms River change their names to Novartis and move to other places like India and China where regulations are lax and the story does not go away, it just shifts location.

Employees fear for jobs and income - a serious concern - and fight for the company only to find that the company will not fight for them when their own health concerns arise.

The author did amazing research and documentation. He keeps himself and his opinions out of the text and lets the story and complexities play out in a fascinating account that is spell binding and as intriguing as any fictional thriller.

But of course, unlike the fictional thriller, there is not final resolution that will be satisfying, no kick butt public humiliation of the executives - just the reality that we each have a responsibility to act, to support those who are working for the right causes, and to be aware that there are complex issues which take time and some good researchers and lawyers to help us solve.

A highly readable and excellent book.

Trickster's Point - Krueger

This was one of my favorites in the series. I am getting a ready for the plot to stop being directly about threats to Cork and his family, but that is my only objection.

What makes this story so interesting is the constant development of a back story that gives insights into Cork and his past, as well as, the strong Ojibwe connection.

The best of this series, for me, are the books that build on the traditional aspects of Anishanabe culture. Krueger is quickly becoming the Tony Hillerman of the northern tribes and it is a role that has grown with the development of the series.

The characters are realistic and the tension of the mystery blend well with the lives of the characters. Krueger has created people we care about.

In this case we are introduced to an old friend of Cork from his school days. This is the super person - the one who seems to do everything better than everyone else. Every school has a character like this, but seldom does that person continue to grow with his status - often high school becomes the peak of the life.

In this case the man is a success in every way, except in the personal ways that lead to a successful personal life to match his political and sports success.

We meet classmates of Cork and we are involved with complex life dramas that swirl around a murder and an attempted murder.

Best of all we are brought along to care about the individuals and we can groan and anguish over the fact that Cork is both the suspect and the target in the murder plot that comes together in the politics of the reservation, lake country and Minnesota.

Mycophilia - Eugenia Bone

I am delighted with this book.  I have to admit I got it, started to read and thought - this is more than I want to know about fungus.  But luckily I picked it up again and I found it really was not more than I wanted to know.

It is a book of stories and the stories are told well and are both interesting and factual.  It is like an oral tradition of fungus - a look at lessons and ideas through well told stories.

I loved the telling.  Sometimes I found sections that were of less interest and skimmed them a little quicker, but still found great gems within them.

It made me wonder about wonder how her husband really responded to this obsession with fungus, but otherwise it was a romp.

We traveled places that were fun, met people who were interested and participated in a world I am not interested in being part of, but a world I am interested in.

The kooks were mixed with the scientists, the places and the mushrooms were fascinating and it was a book that I found pleasing in all ways.

Bibliophilia meets mycophilia.

Sample Quotes that I enjoyed:
"There are two types of cheeses that benefit from saprophytic mold. Blue cheeses like Gorgonzola and Roquefort utilize Penicillium roqueforti. The curd is inoculated with the mold, which then grows throughout the cheese, adding flavor and fragrance. Camembert and brie-type cheeses are ripened with P. camemberti. The mold creates teh thick white rind and digests the milk proteins - that's what creates eh silky mouthfeel."

"Sometimes, when two different mycelia [the thread like material that is the real fungus] from the same species encounter each other, they don't fuse but rather become hostile and compete for resources. Individual fungi can communicate with each other via pheromones, the secreted chemicals that trigger social reactions in animals, plants, and fungi. If they recognize a competitor, they can inject toxic chemicals into the substrate in order to repulse competitive species. They can even invade a competing fungus and such dry its hyphae of nutrients."

"A Japanese study looking to reproduce a phenomenon observed in the field, that shiitake mushrooms fruited prolifically after the ground had been hit by lightning, has found that exposing the substrate of various species of fungi to an electrical charge of 50,000 - 100,000 volts for one 0-millionth of a second will double the volume of fruiting. This may be an evolutionary adaptation. Because lightning poses a survival hazard and may deliver a dead tree for dinner, it leads to accelerated fruiting."

"Fungi are organisms that comprise their own kingdom of life, equal in complexity to animals and plants. There are an estimated 1.5 million species, second only to insects in number and diversity, and only 5 percent of them have been identified. Fungi outnumber plants by a ratio of 6 - 1 and make up 25 percent of Earth's biomass. The biggest single living organism on Earth is a fungus. it is 2,200 acres in size weighs 6,286 tons and lives in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. Some fungi are so tiny they live between the cells of other organisms. The first terrestrial creatures may have been fungi, and they are more closely related to us, evolutionarily speaking, than they are to plants."

Paris to the Pyrenees by David Downie

Maybe it is the bias of having done a major walk that makes this book so appealing, but I think it is more the refreshing take of a writer who wanders the the pilgrimage route of St James without a religious belief that most appeals to me.

Walking with his wife, Downie is skeptical and like my adventures - Full Circle Superior and Full Length Mississippi he is dealing with back pains and knees.

What I like is the freshness of his reflections like these:

"Before reaching the chateau we stopped for a snack on a panoramic bench near an alley of mossy, carefully clipped linden trees. I paused before sinking my teeth into a pear, removing the sticker that said "Chile." The baker had told us that the crust of the quiche we'd brought was made with Canadian flour, and that the bacon inside was from Hungary. The mineral water was Italian, the chocolate Swiss. I thought of the vaguely Japanese-Australian meal we'd enjoyed at the neo-Druidic-Buddhist Relais du Maconnais, and wondered just how notional was the Frenchness of French food and "French identity."

"I forced myself to admire the chateau and pronounce it exceptionally attractive. It was not "run down,' but atmospherically down at the heel."

"the monk had also said something that had made great sense to me, and lodged in myu brain's leathery convolutions. 'The only thing all pilgrims have in common is an interior necessity - I must go, I don't know why..."

It is the journey that counts and his insights are certainly different than many I might make, but that is what is intriguing, insightful, and often humorous like: 
“…and his description of how some clever local winemakers keep a special “Parker Barrel” of fruit forward wine to hoodwink the supposedly omniscient American critic Robert Parker, came as an entertaining surprise. As big as a barrel, and overflowing with self-confidence, Parker roamed the vineyards of the world, judging wines and making or breaking wineries.
“According to Romain, “Parker Barrel” wines are made for export to countries where they will please the infallible Parker and the palates that share his florid tastes. Essentially, they go to America, England, and Germany. The same chateau’s same vintages sold in France might be different, more nuanced and less oaky. ‘People drink Givry wines here and love them,’ Romain said good-naturedly. ‘They go home, they buy what they think are the same wines, and they say ‘Hmmm, why are they always better when you drink them on the spot?’ “

He wanders into churches and observes the obligatory historic buildings which serve as the signposts of the trek, but still maintains enough distance to write descriptions like this: "If a jury had to nominate castles for the Atmospheric Crumbled Ruin Award, Chateau de Montaigu would certainly be short-listed. A tower with gaping eyes for windows, arm-thick creepers dangling from it, shrubs sprouting at unlikely angles from moat and dungeon, hewn stone walls rising high above scented robinia trees, and fallen arches more dramatic than my own - such was the scene awaiting at Montaigu."

I found myself walking with them, enjoying the brief glimpses into the different personalities of husband and wife, and feeling the trail beneath my feet.  What more could you ask for?