At the tender age of 57 I was forced into politics. I feel the pain.

Human Rights Group Campaigns To End Use Of Child Politicians In Africa

Just finished reading James Workman’s latest, Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought, and it has fed into my thinking about Asheville’s water rates.

Heretofore I have advocated that we encourage conservation by determining average per capita use (which for bookkeeping reasons probably means average per-bedroom use), then reducing rates below the average and raising rates above the average. This would enable rate payers to limit their bills more significantly through conservation efforts.

Workman’s careful analysis of water use and water problems around the globe has led me to consider a new formulation: The first 50 or 100 gallons per person per day should be free, with sharply steeper rates above that. (The number of free gallons is subject to analysis and debate – but is based on the idea that everyone has right to some quantity of potable water.) At the same time we create a water credit system. You would accumulate credits by using less than your free allotment, and the credits could be traded. The value of a credit would be established in the marketplace and would presumably be lower than the established rate. Therefore, those who conserve could sell credits to big users. Overall the price for “big” use would still be higher than it is today, so everyone would be encouraged to conserve, but the tradable credits would help big users to offset some of the price increase. This kind of system is no more difficult to operate than cell phone minutes or frequent flier miles, both of which are quite familiar to modern citizens.

Because the system would apply to all on the Asheville water system it would meet the requirements of the Sullivan Acts that we offer the same rates inside and outside the city limits, but because there are more large users outside the city limits it would presumably shift more of the burden to county customers.

It’s urgent that we contact our legislators to encourage support for the NC Racial Justice Act. It has passed in the state House and is now in committee in the NC Senate.

Race is a major factor in death sentences in our state (as in many others). While murder rates across racial lines are constant, the population of death row is largely black. Convicted murderers of whites are far more likely to be accorded death sentences than murderers of non-whites. In at least one case, the white man who planned a murder was given life in prison while the black man he hired was sentenced to death. And death penalty juries in this state have historically been mostly white.

(Here’s the story of one innocent man convicted, in large part, due to his race.)

This law, when passed, will permit convicted murderers to argue that race played a role in their sentencing and, if successful, would change the sentence to life without parole.

Sen. Martin Nesbitt
300 N. Salisbury St., Room 300-B
Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
919-715-3001
martin.nesbitt@ncleg.net

Sen. Tom Apodaca
16 W. Jones Street, Room 1127
Raleigh, NC 27601-2808
919-733-5745
828-696-3510
tom.apodaca@ncleg.net

A letter in this week’s Mountain Xpress reminded me of an essay that was aired on WNCW and in print nationally about 15 years ago (and updated in 2002 to reflect the bee catastrophe then unfolding). (Thanks to Kristen MacLeod for her lovely tribute to the Mourning Cloak.)

On a wing and a prayer
by Cecil Bothwell

Last August we had out-of-state visitors on our mountain. They were impressed with the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains and enjoyed the relative cool above 3000 feet. But the highest praise and loudest exclamations were reserved for the insects.
“So many butterflies!” they exclaimed.
Fair enough. We do enjoy a great diversity of beautiful butterflies. If that were the only comment you might think that we just happen to have more members of the order Lepidoptera here than they do back in flatland. But listen to the next line.
“I haven’t seen so many since I was a child!” said one. “We don’t have butterflies like these anymore,” lamented another.
Do you hear the drumbeat of death in those words? No? Well, you should. There is a slow change moving across the land and it is at minimum profound and disturbing. It may be a catastrophe.
Pollinator populations are collapsing in many places around the world. That is, the insects, birds and mammals that fertilize flowers by transferring pollen from one to the next, are in sharp decline. Last year the disappearance of honey bees in the mid-west and Carolinas made the news, but honeybees are only the most familiar of the pollinator species.
Without pollination we and the rest of the animals on earth would lose our lunches. And our breakfasts and dinners. Most flowering plants need help with fertilization of their seeds, and the animal forms that have co-evolved with them do the job perfectly. There are butterflies and moths with long probosci that can reach deep into tubular flowers, and hummingbirds with a similar long reach. Many varieties of bats pollinate night blooming flowers while they feed on nectar. And thousands of species of bees, from tiny bright colored sweat bees to the huge dark carpenter sort, move pollen grains from anthers to stigmas on weeds and trees and orchids and peas. There are beetles and ants and even mosquitos who each have an important role to play.
In many cases flowers and the critters that fertilize them are very tightly entwined, one-on-one, so that neither can survive without the other. Others depend on just a few species of plants or animals. In every case they are part of the great chain of life which created and maintains the living world we inhabit.
But, back to the butterflies. Why did my guests react so strongly? They live in Ohio in a residential area between a city and surrounding farms. Because of pesticide sprays on lawns and fields, wild insects and flowers have disappeared. Many of the plants that sustain butterflies and moths are considered weeds and are subject to eradication programs.
On top of the chemical assault, habitats are fragmented by cleared fields and lawns that replace native vegetation with imported monocultures. If a butterfly, or a hummingbird or bat for that matter, cannot find a high enough concentration of food in an area, it will move on, or starve to death.
The problem would be merely aesthetic if we lost life forms that we find beautiful and appealing. But our understanding of the web of life is still very rudimentary. We have only a sketchy appreciation of the intricacy of plant and animal interactions that maintain soil fertility, atmospheric oxygen levels, water purity and other chemical systems that are the foundation of life. We know that humans cannot live alone without any other species, but we have no clue which species those might be. Pollination is the crucial juncture for all flowering plants, and the disappearance of pollinator animals will impact our lives in ways we cannot foresee. Yet we continue to abet an extinction spasm that will take hundreds or thousands of critters and plants out of the loop forever.
You can help. Encourage weeds and wildflowers. Let part of your lawn go wild. Learn to live with wasps and bees and beetles and ants and even mosquitos. Repel insects with screens, long sleeves or incense instead of killing them. If you garden choose organic controls. In silviculture avoid herbicides and allow space for mixed stands. Oppose clearcuts. Remind others of the vital services living systems provide us, and the urgent need to protect whole natural communities. Learn more by contacting the Forgotten Pollinator Project. Email .
If you marvel that a fragile Monarch butterfly migrates thousands of miles, or that a delicate swallowtail survives a tornado, remember this: those tissue paper wings very likely carry our own future as well.

(This essay is included in Gorillas in the Myth: A Duck Soup Reader, Brave Ulysses Books, Second edition 2008)

The filmmakers believe post-production work will be complete this summer. Click on the title below to see a short trailer.

On Coal River Trailer from On Coal River on Vimeo.

Donations, however small (or large) are welcome. I wrote them a check the other night at a fundraiser because I believe this story needs to be told.
Click here to help them out.

Here’s a reminder from the folks at Democracy NC.
I fully support their campaign and will press for voter-owned elections in Asheville when I’m serving on City Council.

***
Check “Yes” on Your State Income Tax Form To Support Fair Elections &
Fair Courts in NC

Would you rather have North Carolina judges raising campaign money from
the attorneys and business interests who appear in their courts – or get
a campaign grant from a public fund if they agree to strict spending
limits and prove they are viable candidates by meeting small donor
thresholds? Which system promotes fairness in our courts and gives all
qualified candidates a chance, even if they are not personally wealthy?
Since 2004, North Carolina has had the nation’s first public financing
program for statewide judicial candidates. It’s a major breakthrough for
Voter-Owned Elections in NC — but it won’t work without public
participation and your support!

Click here to check out another quick video about supporting the NC Public
Campaign Fund on YouTube from our friends at Democracy North Carolina:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DemocracyNC.

The Secret Life Of Paper

(The title of this post came from David LaMotte who wanted to come up with a more positive aphorism than killing two birds …)

A Swiss company, The Wall AG, has developed a low cost home built of recycled paper that can be quickly deployed to house the homeless. The 390 square foot house costs about $5,000 and weighs less than 2,000 pounds, but is sturdy and can be securely fastened to a foundation block.

Having lived in a 400 square foot home myself (with a companion) for several years in the 1980s, I can attest that it is ample space to carry on a life.

This is also a solution to the glut of recycled paper that is piling up as China cuts its import of paper waste. Win. Win. This could easily become part of the plan to provide affordable housing in the U.S. and fits right in with the plan to end homelessness in 10 years (we’re getting close to 7 years left on that one.)

For more info: click here.