AVENIDA REVOLUCION [y] EL PROYECTO MALASPINA

No, were not talking about the Avenida Revolucion, in Tijuana, B.C., Mexico, the world-famous introduction to Mexico visitors receive when they cross over the World's busiest border crossing from San Diego, CA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenida_Revoluci%C3%B3n

An avenue that as a child, opened my eyes up to the shocking poverty and hopelessness of life in the "Third World". The state of Baja California Norte, and the city of Tijuana have taken great pains over the last 25 years or so to "clean up" and improve the image of the central core area of the city, yet you still only have to walk a few blocks off Revolucion or the other main drag, Avenida Constitucion, to understand what the "Third World" really means.

But the Avenida Revolucion we're talking about now is Wall Street. Because there is a revolution now occurring, and spreading across the World, from and because of it.

And which is very inspiring, and if it continues to grow and spread, will bring about meaningful changes toward building a more sane and just society in this and other countries. This is a revolution in spirit, and non-violent direct action, inspired by those which started in Tunisia and Egypt, not a violent overthrow of an existing regime, as say occurred in Russia in 1917, or France, in 1789. Though if the "corporatocracy" which continues, so far, in it's unabated sociopathic path of greed, and destruction of lives, hope, and the environment, across the World, is not checked, it will eventually be. Fortunately, "practising idealists", thousands and thousands of them (and hopefully soon, millions!), who realise in the core of their beings, that "ends do not justify means", are working cooperatively to bring to light and change the destructive, unjust aspects of our current predatory Capitalistic socio-political and economic system.

Corporate media sources have been criticising the movement as being filled with lazy, shiftless, unemployable "hippie" types, just coming together to party. And wondering why there have been no demands stated. Yet there are, this is a declaration issued by the main "Occupy Wall Street" working group. https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/ The #OWS movement started over the past year, as a loose coalition of different working groups, with no central authority and leadership, and continues to evolve that way, now with increasing support from organised labour, and a few politicians. Though great care is being taken not to allow the movement to be subverted or strangled by partisan politicians, because they know that by doing so, it's great power will be lost. None of the great changes in U.S. society since the country's inception, the end of slavery, woman's suffrage, labour reforms, civil rights, etc.., came about through the ballot box, but from direct action and civil disobedience, often at great sacrifice, and so it must be again.

Once again, one of our favourite authors, Chris Hedges, who lives in New York City, and is a part of the movement, wrote an inspiring piece about the movement, which we'd like to share part of:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/17

                      A Movement Too Big to Fail
by Chris Hedges

"There is no danger that the protesters who have occupied squares, parks and plazas across the nation in defiance of the corporate state will be co-opted by the Democratic Party or groups like MoveOn. The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant. Union leaders, who pull down salaries five times that of the rank and file as they bargain away rights and benefits, know the foundations are shaking. So do Democratic politicians from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi. So do the array of “liberal” groups and institutions, including the press, that have worked to funnel discontented voters back into the swamp of electoral politics and mocked those who called for profound structural reform.

Resistance, real resistance, to the corporate state was displayed when a couple of thousand protesters, clutching mops and brooms, early Friday morning forced the owners of Zuccotti Park and the New York City police to back down from a proposed attempt to expel them in order to “clean” the premises. These protesters in that one glorious moment did what the traditional “liberal” establishment has steadily refused to do—fight back. And it was deeply moving to watch the corporate rats scamper back to their holes on Wall Street. It lent a whole new meaning to the phrase “too big to fail.”

photo: Daniel OliverioTinkering with the corporate state will not work. We will either be plunged into neo-feudalism and environmental catastrophe or we will wrest power from corporate hands. This radical message, one that demands a reversal of the corporate coup, is one the power elite, including the liberal class, is desperately trying to thwart. But the liberal class has no credibility left. It collaborated with corporate lobbyists to neglect the rights of tens of millions of Americans, as well as the innocents in our imperial wars. The best that liberals can do is sheepishly pretend this is what they wanted all along. Groups such as MoveOn and organized labor will find themselves without a constituency unless they at least pay lip service to the protests. The Teamsters’ arrival Friday morning to help defend the park signaled an infusion of this new radicalism into moribund unions rather than a co-opting of the protest movement by the traditional liberal establishment. The union bosses, in short, had no choice.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, like all radical movements, has obliterated the narrow political parameters. It proposes something new. It will not make concessions with corrupt systems of corporate power. It holds fast to moral imperatives regardless of the cost. It confronts authority out of a sense of responsibility. It is not interested in formal positions of power. It is not seeking office. It is not trying to get people to vote. It has no resources. It can’t carry suitcases of money to congressional offices or run millions of dollars of advertisements. All it can do is ask us to use our bodies and voices, often at personal risk, to fight back. It has no other way of defying the corporate state. This rebellion creates a real community instead of a managed or virtual one. It affirms our dignity. It permits us to become free and independent human beings.
Martin Luther King was repeatedly betrayed by liberal supporters, especially when he began to challenge economic forms of discrimination, which demanded that liberals, rather than simply white Southern racists, begin to make sacrifices. King too was a radical. He would not compromise on nonviolence, racism or justice. He understood that movements—such as the Liberty Party, which fought slavery, the suffragists, who fought for women’s rights, the labor movement and the civil rights movement—have always been the true correctives in American democracy. None of those movements achieved formal political power. But by holding fast to moral imperatives they made the powerful fear them. King knew that racial equality was impossible without economic justice and an end to militarism. And he had no intention of ceding to the demands of the liberal establishment that called on him to be calm and patience. “For years, I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions in the South, a little change here, a little change there,” King said shortly before he was assassinated. “Now I feel quite differently. I think you’ve got to have a reconstruction of the entire system, a revolution of values.”

King was killed in 1968 when he was in Memphis to support a strike by sanitation workers. By then he had begun to say that his dream, the one that the corporate state has frozen into a few safe clichés from his 1963 speech in Washington, had turned into a nightmare. King called at the end of his life for massive federal funds to rebuild inner cities, what he called “a radical redistribution of economic and political power,” a complete restructuring of “the architecture of American society.” He grasped that the inequities of capitalism had become the instrument by which the poor would always remain poor. “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism,” King said, “but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.” On the eve of King’s murder he was preparing to organize a poor people’s march on Washington, D.C., designed to cause “major, massive dislocations,” a nonviolent demand by the poor, including the white underclass, for a system of economic equality. It would be 43 years before his vision was realized by an eclectic group of protesters who gathered before the gates of Wall Street.

The truth of America is understood only when you listen to voices in our impoverished rural enclaves, prisons and the urban slums, when you hear the words of our unemployed, those who have lost their homes or cannot pay their medical bills, our elderly and our children, especially the quarter of the nation’s children who depend on food stamps to eat, and all who are marginalized. There is more reality expressed about the American experience by the debt-burdened young men and women protesting in the parks than by all the chatter of the well-paid pundits and experts that pollutes the airwaves.

What kind of nation is it that spends far more to kill enemy combatants and Afghan and Iraqi civilians than it does to help its own citizens who live below the poverty line? What kind of nation is it that permits corporations to hold sick children hostage while their parents frantically bankrupt themselves to save their sons and daughters? What kind of nation is it that tosses its mentally ill onto urban heating grates? What kind of nation is it that abandons its unemployed while it loots its treasury on behalf of speculators? What kind of nation is it that ignores due process to torture and assassinate its own citizens? What kind of nation is it that refuses to halt the destruction of the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry, dooming our children and our children’s children?

“America,” Langston Hughes wrote, “never was America to me.”

“The black vote mean [nothing],” the rapper Nas intones. “Who you gunna elect/ Satan or Satan? In the hood nothing is changing,/ We aint got no choices.”

Or listen to hip-hop artist Talib Kweli: “Back in the ’60s, there was a big push for black … politicians, and now we have more than we ever had before, but our communities are so much worse. A lot of people died for us to vote, I’m aware of that history, but these politicians are not in touch with people at all. Politics is not the truth to me, it’s an illusion.”...

The liberal class functions in a traditional, capitalist democracy as a safety valve. It lets off enough steam to keep the system intact. It makes piecemeal and incremental reform possible. This is what happened during the Great Depression and the New Deal. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s greatest achievement was that he saved capitalism. Liberals in a functioning capitalist democracy are at the same time tasked with discrediting radicals, whether it is King, especially after he denounced the war in Vietnam, or later Noam Chomsky or Ralph Nader.

...The stupidity of the corporate state is that it thought it could dispense with the liberal class. It thought it could shut off that safety valve in order to loot and pillage with no impediments. Corporate power forgot that the liberal class, when it functions, gives legitimacy to the power elite. And the reduction of the liberal class to silly courtiers, who have nothing to offer but empty rhetoric, meant that the growing discontent found other mechanisms and outlets. Liberals were reduced to stick figures, part of an elaborate pantomime, as they acted in preordained roles to give legitimacy to meaningless and useless political theater. But that game is over."

Here in Anchorage, we have our own "Occupy" movement. The last two Saturday's have seen a few hundred people marching and carrying signs representing the movement around the central part of downtown, near our swank Performing Arts Centre and Museum. This past Saturday Mattie and I were able to attend and get a feel for the strength of it, and meet a few people. We arrived around 1500 in the afternoon.

The park square where the movement gathers is bounded by the two busiests streets coming in and out of Downtown Anchorage, 5th and 6th, which form the Glenn Highway, the only route north out of the city. There were people on both streets holding signs, above, and we were very heartened to hear and see nothing but support from the passing cars, honks and waves. Not a single disparaging comment. And, there were no police in evidence, either! It was a cool, drizzly day, about 4C (39F), but at least, not raining hard.

In the square between the two streets, about 150-200 people were gathered round, and some tents were set up, providing food, a library, and information about the "occupation". The plans are not to continuously occupy the square, as in NYC and other cities, but to keep returning on evenings and weekends. http://www.facebook.com/OccupyAnchorage

Non-violent civil disobedience training was offered shortly after we arrived, and we took part, as the basics were explained, which we were familiar with.

This lasted about a half-hour, then that was it for the organised events for the day. A planning meeting was set up for later in the week, for other events to follow.

We thought this young man's sign was interesting, and we checked out these links. They are worth looking into, check them out, see what you think. www.opensourceeocology.org   www.verticalfarm.com    www.windowfarms.org   That's one neat thing about when idealistic, progressive people come together, we all can learn quite a bit from each other.

We were very encouraged by the support of the passing people, both on the street, and in their cars, for the movement, and by the lack of police presence. And we look forward to reporting on Occupy Anchorage's activities, as they develop. Our climate, obviously, isn't very encouraging of outdoor protests and civil disobedience type activities, at least for half the year, all the more reason to support them in their efforts, and join in when we can. Please join us. Viva La Revolucion!

                              EL PROYECTO MALASPINA

Your lead editor will not be able to attend any of the Occupy Anchorage activities the next few Saturday's, due to our long-planned trip to the Malaspina Glacier, the largest tidewater glacier in Alaska, on the Gulf of Alaska coast near Yakutat.

Our friends at Ground Truth Trekking, http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/About/, Hig and Erin, and their two small children, Lituya (9 months old), and Katmai (three years), are engaging in a remarkable journey, which started last 15 September, and which will end on 15 November. During which they are hiking/pack-rafting the edge of the Malaspina glacier from northwest to southeast, in about a 110 KM traverse, utilising a few pre-set caches of food and supplies. To document changes in this amazing glacial system of the last several decades, re-occupying sites, which in some cases, haven't been visited in 100 years.

http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/Journeys/LifeOnIce.html

Global warming is causing most of the glaciers in Alaska to rapidly recede, especially the lower-elevation source-region ones.

http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/Issues/ClimateChange/GlacierRetreatInAlaska.html

The Malaspina, though it's source region is in the highest elevations of the St. Elias mountains, is still receding, and in very interesting ways, which we'll be discussing when we return. And since global warming will be accelerating in the coming decades, the changes we'll show you, will be as well.

I am fortunate enough to be able to join them, for just 8 days, beginning this friday, with a couple other of their friends. We'll all be surveying the southern part of the glacier, taking photos and video. We won't be moving camp every day, probably just once or twice in the 8 days I'll be there, but doing day trips up onto the ice and around the edges and along the coast. Here are some scenes from their passage through the area in 2007:

http://groundtruthtrekking.org/PhotoGroups/Malaspina/.

Our intrepid assistant editor Mattie will have to remain here at the Chugach Front Research Centre unfortunately, but she will be in good hands and ready for action, when I return.

Needless to say, this is during the peak of the Gulf of Alaska fall storm season, which can offer up storms at any time with 80-160 kph winds (50-100 mph), along with heavy rain/snow. There haven't been any this strong yet, during Hig and Erin's time there, and hopefully the worst we'll see are ones half that strength. Between 1-2 day storms though, there are usually at least 1-2 nice days, where beautiful views of the wild coast, glacier, and St. Elias mountains come out. And which will enable us to work more, and move camp, when needed. This will be a good test of my best outdoor gear. Because we are right on the coast, temperatures will be fairly mild, -10C to +10C (18F to 50F), so the main issue will just be keeping dry in our tent, and outside, while we are working.

So forgive us for dropping out of contact for a few weeks. We'll be back on the 29th, and will share with you as quickly as possible, what transpired there, and our findings, in this amazing place. Cheers.

PRACTISING IDEALISTS [and] WHAT COMES NEXT...

The following excerpts are from one of the A.P.R.'s favourite "New Age" library books. The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, by Jane Roberts.

http://www.amazon.com/Individual-Nature-Mass-Events-Seth/dp/1878424211/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317966180&sr=1-17

These paragraphs, though written in 1979, are exceptionally timely now, in light of the fast-growing and spreading "Occupy Wall Street" movement, taking hold across the U.S. And which we find greatly inspiring, and hopeful, for if the movement continues to grow, real and meaningful changes could occur. Labour unions are beginning to get involved, and even a few politicians, liberal Democrats of course, like Dennis Kucinich, and Bernie Sanders, are offering encouragement.

http://www.alternet.org/story/152622/this_is_only_getting_bigger%3A_20%2C000_rally_in_new_york_to_support_occupy_wall_street/?page=entire

"...Most readers of this book can be considered idealists in one way or another by themselves or others. Yet certainly in these pages we have presented several pictures of social and political realities that are far from ideal. We have tried to outline for you many beliefs that undermine your private integrity as individuals, and contribute to the very definite troubles in the current mass world.
   Very few people really act, again, from an evil intent. Any unfortunate situations in the fields of medicine, science, or religion result not from any determined effort to sabotage the "idea", but instead happen because men often believe that any means is justified in the pursuit of the ideal.

   When science seems to betray you, in your society, it does so because its methods are unworthy of its intent-so unworthy and so out of line with science's prime purpose that the methods themselves almost amount to an insidious antiscientific attitude that goes all unrecognised. The same applies to medicine, of course, when in its worthy purpose to save life, its methods often lead to quite unworthy experimentation, so that life is destroyed for the sake of saving, say, a greater number of lives. On the surface level, such methods appear sometimes regrettable but necessary, but the deeper implications far outdo any temporary benefits, for through such methods men lose sight of life's sacredness, and begin to treat it contemptuously.

   You will often condone quite reprehensible acts if you think they were committed for the sake of a greater good. You have a tendency to look for outright evil, to think in terms of "the powers of good and evil", and I am quite sure that many of my readers are convinced of evil's force. Evil does not exist in those terms, and that is why so many seemingly idealistic people can be partners in quite reprehensible actions, while telling themselves that such acts are justified, since they are methods toward a good end.

  That is why fanatics feel justified in their actions. When you indulge in such black-and-white thinking, you treat your ideals shabbily. Each act that is not in keeping with that ideal begins to unravel the idea at its very core. As I have stated [several times], if you feel unworthy, or powerless to act, and if you are idealistic, you may begin to feel that the ideal exists so far in the future that it is necessary to take steps you might not otherwise take to achieve it. And when this happens, the ideal is always eroded. If you want to be a true practising idealist, then each step that you take along the way must be worthy of your goal.

In your country [the U.S.], the free enterprise system originated-change the word to "immersed"-is immersed in strange origins. It is based upon the democratic belief in each individual's right to pursue a worthy and equitable life. But that also [became] bound up with Darwinian ideas of survival of the fittest, and with the belief then, that each individual must seek his or her own good at the expense of others, and by the quite erroneous conception that all of the members of a given species are in competition with each other, and that each species is in further competition with each other species.

   The "laws" of supply and demand are misconceptions based upon a quite uncomplimentary belief in man's basic greedy nature. In the past you treated the land in your country as if your species, being the "fittest", had the right to survive at the expense of all other species [and cultures, eds.], and at the expense of the land itself.

The ideal of the country was and is an excellent one: the right of each individual to pursue an equitable, worthy existence, with dignity. The means, however, have helped erode that ideal, and the public interpretation of Darwin's principles was, quite unfortunately, transferred to the economic area, and to the image of man as a political animal.

   Religion and science alike denied other species any real consciousness.When man spoke of the sacredness of life-in his more expansive moods-he referred to human life alone. You are not in competition with other species, nor are you in any natural competition with yourselves. Nor is the natural world in any way the result of competitiveness among species. If that were the case you would have no world at all.

  Individually, you exist physically because of the unsurpassed cooperation that exists just biologically between your species and all others, and on deeper levels because of the cellular affiliations that exist among the cells of all species.

  ...While you believed in competition, then competition became not only a reality, but an ideal. Children are taught to compete against each other. The child naturally "competes" against himself or herself in an urge to outdo old performance with new. Competition however, has been promoted as the ideal at all levels of activity. It is as if you must look to others to see how you are doing-and when you are taught not to trust your own abilities, then of course you need the opinions of others overmuch. I am not speaking of any playful competition, obviously, but of a determined, rigorous, desperate, sometimes almost deadly competition, in which a person's value is determined according to the number of individuals he or she has shunted aside.

   This is carried through in economics, politics, medicine, the sciences, and even the religions. So I would like to reinforce the fact that life is indeed a cooperative venture, and that all the steps taken toward the ideal must of themselves be life-promoting.

...In a manner of speaking, you must be a practising idealist if you are to remain a true idealist for long. You must take small practical steps, often when you would prefer to take giant ones-but you must move in the direction of your ideals through action. Otherwise you will feel disillusioned, or powerless, or sure, again, that only drastic, highly unideal methods will ever bring about the achievement of given ideal state or situation.

   ...It is not enough to meditate, or to imagine in your mind some desired goal being accomplished, if you are afraid to act upon the very impulses to which your meditations and imaginings give rise. When you do not take any steps forward toward an ideal position, then your life does lack excitement. You become depressed. You might become an idealist in reverse, so that you find a certain excitement in contemplating the occurrence of natural disasters, such as earthquakes. You may begin to concentrate your attention on such activities. You may contemplate the end of the world instead, but in either case you are propelled by a sense of personal frustration, and perhaps by some degree of vengeance, seeing in your mind the destruction of a world that fell so far beneath your idealised expectations.

   None of the unfortunate situations discussed in this book [Jonestown suicides, Three Mile Island, eds.] have any power over you, however, if you understand that events do not by themselves. All events and situations exist first within the mind. At the deepest levels of communication no news is secret, whether or not you receive it by way of your technological gadgets.

  Your thoughts and beliefs and desires form the events that you view on television. If you want to change your world, you must first change your thoughts, expectations, and beliefs. If every reader of this book changed his or her attitudes, even though not one law was rewritten, tomorrow the world would have changed for the better. The new laws would follow.

  Any new law always follows the change in belief. It is not the other way around.

  ...There is no civilisation, no system of science, art, or philosophy, that did not originate in the mind. When you give lip service to ideas with which you do not agree, you are betraying your own ideals, harming yourself to some extent, and society as well, insofar as you are denying yourself and society the benefit of your own understanding. Each person is an idealist. I simply want to help you practise your idealism in the acts of your daily life.

   Each person alive helps paint the living picture of civilisation as at exists at any given time, in your terms. Be your own artist. Your thoughts, feelings, and expectations are like the living brush strokes with which you paint your corner of life's landscape. If you do your best in your own life, then you are indeed helping to improve the quality of all life. Your thoughts are as real as snowflakes or raindrops or clouds. They mix and merge with the thoughts of others, to form man's livingscape, providing the vast mental elements from which physical events will be formed.

   ...You are involved in a cooperative venture, in which your slightest impulse has a greater meaning, and is intimately connected with all other actions. You have the power to change your life and the world for the better, but in doing so you must, again, reevaluate what your ideals are, and the methods that are worthy of them. Science and religion have each contributed much to man's development. They must also reevaluate their ideals and methods, however.

  In larger terms, there are only scientific and religious men and women, however, and fields of science and religion would be meaningless without those individuals who believe in their positions. As those men and women enlarge their definitions of reality, the fields of science and religion must expand. You must be reckless in the pursuit of the ideal-reckless enough to insist that each step you take along the way is worthy of that ideal.

   You will understand, if you are a practising idealist, that you cannot kill in the name of peace, for if you do so your methods will automatically undermine your ideal. The sacredness of life and spirit are one and the same. You cannot condemn the body without ultimately condemning the soul. You cannot condemn the soul without ultimately condemning the body.

   I would like each of my readers to be a practising idealist, and, if you are then you will automatically be tolerant of the beliefs of others. You will not be unkind in the pursuit of your ideals. You will look upon the world with a sane compassion, with some humour, and you will look for man's basic good intent. You will find it. It has always been there. You will discover your own basic good intent, and see that it has been behind all of your actions-even in those least fitted to the pursuit of your private ideals.

  The end does not justify the means. If you learn that lesson, then your good intent will allow you to act effectively and creatively in your private experience, and in your relationships with others. Your changed beliefs will affect the mental atmosphere of your nation and of the world.

   ...There is no event upon the face of the earth in which each of you has not played some part, however minute, because of the nature of your thoughts, beliefs, and expectations.

    There is no public act in which your are not in that same manner involved. You are intimately connected with all of the historic events of your time.

   To some extent you participated in putting a man on the moon, whether or not you had any connection at all with the physical occurrence itself. Your thoughts put a man on the moon as surely as any rocket did. You can become involved now in a new exploration, one in which man's civilisations and and organisations change their course, reflecting his good intents and his ideals. You can do this by seeing to it that each step you personally take is "ideally suited" to the ends you hope to achieve. You will see to it that your methods are ideal.
  

  If you do this, your life will automatically be provided with excitement, natural zest and creativity, and those characteristics will be reflected outward into the social, politicial, economic, and scientific worlds. This is a challenge more than worth the effort. It is a challenge that I hope each reader will accept. The practising idealist...Give us a moment...When all is said and done, there is no other kind."

The "Occupy Wall Street" Movement began in earnest just a few weeks ago, with small demonstrations around Wall Street in New York City, and have quickly grown, and spread, and are meant to continue indefinitely, until, through direct action, politicians will be forced to begin acting on meaningful changes. Explicit demands of the movement are still evolving, but start with re-regulating the banking and financial industries, as they were before the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act in 1999 (by the Clinton Administration), investigation and prosecution of criminals in those "industries" who deliberately created and spread "toxic" investment programmes which nearly de-railed the global economy, investment by the federal government in massive public works/jobs programmes, to relieve the growing, crushing unemployment levels in the U.S., and very importantly, the revocation of "Corporate Personhood", by which means a coup has occurred, leaving the U.S. under a dangerous, sociopathic, corporatist government. Concerned only with corporate profits at the expense of other countries/peoples, and the environment, leading to aggressive warfare, massive unemployment/impoverishment across the globe, and accelerating environmental destruction.

One of our favourite authors, ex-New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, had this to say about the movement, in it's early stages:

http://www.truth-out.org/best-among-us/1317389455

The Best Among Us

Friday 30 September 2011

by: Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed

An activist from the Occupy Wall Street movement is shown being arrested by police in New York on September 24, 2011. (Photo: Brennan Cavanaugh / Flickr)

There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

To be declared innocent in a country where the rule of law means nothing, where we have undergone a corporate coup, where the poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists [and now can be murdered by a secret panel, with no due process, as a US citizen, eds], where you, as a citizen, are nothing more than a commodity to corporate systems of power, one to be used and discarded, is to be complicit in this radical evil. To stand on the sidelines and say “I am innocent” is to bear the mark of Cain; it is to do nothing to reach out and help the weak, the oppressed and the suffering, to save the planet. To be innocent in times like these is to be a criminal. Ask Tim DeChristopher.

Choose. But choose fast. The state and corporate forces are determined to crush this. They are not going to wait for you. They are terrified this will spread. They have their long phalanxes of police on motorcycles, their rows of white paddy wagons, their foot soldiers hunting for you on the streets with pepper spray and orange plastic nets. They have their metal barricades set up on every single street leading into the New York financial district, where the mandarins in Brooks Brothers suits use your money, money they stole from you, to gamble and speculate and gorge themselves while one in four children outside those barricades depend on food stamps to eat. Speculation in the 17th century was a crime. Speculators were hanged. Today they run the state and the financial markets. They disseminate the lies that pollute our airwaves. They know, even better than you, how pervasive the corruption and theft have become, how gamed the system is against you, how corporations have cemented into place a thin oligarchic class and an obsequious cadre of politicians, judges and journalists who live in their little gated Versailles while 6 million Americans are thrown out of their homes, a number soon to rise to 10 million, where a million people a year go bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills and 45,000 die from lack of proper care, where real joblessness is spiraling to over 20 percent, where the citizens, including students, spend lives toiling in debt peonage, working dead-end jobs, when they have jobs, a world devoid of hope, a world of masters and serfs. 

The only word these corporations know is more. They are disemboweling every last social service program funded by the taxpayers, from education to Social Security, because they want that money themselves. Let the sick die. Let the poor go hungry. Let families be tossed in the street. Let the unemployed rot. Let children in the inner city or rural wastelands learn nothing and live in misery and fear. Let the students finish school with no jobs and no prospects of jobs. Let the prison system, the largest in the industrial world, expand to swallow up all potential dissenters. Let torture continue. Let teachers, police, firefighters, postal employees and social workers join the ranks of the unemployed. Let the roads, bridges, dams, levees, power grids, rail lines, subways, bus services, schools and libraries crumble or close. Let the rising temperatures of the planet, the freak weather patterns, the hurricanes, the droughts, the flooding, the tornadoes, the melting polar ice caps, the poisoned water systems, the polluted air increase until the species dies.

Who the hell cares? If the stocks of ExxonMobil or the coal industry or Goldman Sachs are high, life is good. Profit. Profit. Profit. That is what they chant behind those metal barricades. They have their fangs deep into your necks. If you do not shake them off very, very soon they will kill you. And they will kill the ecosystem, dooming your children and your children’s children. They are too stupid and too blind to see that they will perish with the rest of us. So either you rise up and supplant them, either you dismantle the corporate state, for a world of sanity, a world where we no longer kneel before the absurd idea that the demands of financial markets should govern human behavior, or we are frog-marched toward self-annihilation.

Those on the streets around Wall Street are the physical embodiment of hope. They know that hope has a cost, that it is not easy or comfortable, that it requires self-sacrifice and discomfort and finally faith. They sleep on concrete every night. Their clothes are soiled. They have eaten more bagels and peanut butter than they ever thought possible. They have tasted fear, been beaten, gone to jail, been blinded by pepper spray, cried, hugged each other, laughed, sung, talked too long in general assemblies, seen their chants drift upward to the office towers above them, wondered if it is worth it, if anyone cares, if they will win. But as long as they remain steadfast they point the way out of the corporate labyrinth. This is what it means to be alive. They are the best among us.

Click here to access OCCUPY TOGETHER, a hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St.

This is a hopeful time now in U.S. history, but also a dangerous one. The corporate elite who run the U.S. government are going to try every possibility to discredit and neutralise the Occupy movement. Beyond just the usual police harrassment and break-up of demonstrations, other tactics will be having undercover provocateurs trying to instigate acts of violence and/or vandalism, co-opting parts of it into larger, more "mainstream" groups, where it will slowly be strangled, or, in worst-case scenarios, a "false-flag" event of some sort, will be staged, a "terrorist" attack perhaps. Which will then, it is thought, lend more support to a real crack-down on activists. That is why it is so vitally important that everyone who is engaged in, and/or in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement always keep in mind that the means must remain worthy of the goals, i.e., using non-violent methods of non-cooperation and protest, to build a more sane and just society, and constantly articulate, feel, and visualise the kind of changes we wish to see. It has been very heartening to see lately, as well, that many of the protestors have been appealing to the NYPD, chanting sayings like "you NYPD are part of the 99% too!", and the police, some of them, have expressed solidarity. As they should, because all public employees are threatened by our current Corporate Regime.

Many in the news media have been critical of the movement for not being more specific with their demands, but as we wrote previously, there are basic ones that have been presented. To these, we here at the Alaska Progressive Review would like to add the following, and many others have suggested similarly:

1. Immediate revocation of the "Patriot Act", re-instatement of Habeus Corpus, investigation and prosecution for waging aggressive warfare, torture, and genocide, of officials from the Bush, and current Obama Administrations.

2. Immediate end to the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, immediate cessation of the illegal and immoral drone attacks throughout the Middle East, and reparations to the countries affected.

3. Cutting the U.S. defense budget by 2/3, dismantling all of the 1000+ overseas military installations, and then involving current active duty military personnel in national and global infra-structure and disaster-relief projects (along with the newly-developed civilian programmes of a like nature).

4. Instituting fair and balanced taxation on all income tax levels, with a negative income tax at the lowest income levels to guarantee those who can't work, life (this was actually proposed in 1971 by then pres. Nixon, we kid you not!).  A 0.5% financial speculation tax on all stock and investment trades.

5. A national health care system similar to all the other industrialised nations in Europe and Canada, which would save the U.S. government hundreds of billions of dollars.

6. Aggressive promotion and investment on alternative energy research, development, and rapid implementation, before runaway global warming causes irreverisible global sea level rises from the melting of Greenland's ice sheets.

7. Ending the "Drug War", legalisation of all drugs, combined with strict management of them, and investment in treatment programmes for addicts. Countries that have done/or doing this have seen great results in decreased addiction levels and lowering of crime rates.

8. Expropriation of (at fair market value) privately-run prisons back to the public sector, ending corruption and illegal/unfair imprisonment of vast numbers of people.

9. Changing federal tax codes to favour worker-owned business, businesses that will manufacture in the U.S., with living wages/benefits, cooperatives, and credit unions.

Many more could be articulated, but these are some things that if done, could truly make this country a just, sane, and inspirational one to the rest of the World.

                                  WHAT COMES NEXT...

In case you missed it, a few days ago, the U.S. government murdered one of it's own citizens in another country, without any due process or court procedures, using a "drone" aircraft in Yemen, and in which, as with all these attacks, many innocent civilians were murdered. That means that the U.S. government, through a secret panel, answering to the president, has declared it legal to murder, not just civilians in any country, but U.S. citizens as well. Just how long do you think it will be then, if the current system is left unchecked, before progressive people/activists, will be targeted? Just as they were in Chile and throughout South and Central America in the 1970s-early 1990s.

Paul Craig Roberts, who used to be the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, in the Reagan Administration, and who has since become a strong progressive voice, wrote a very good summation of what this means, you can read it here:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/04/the-day-america-died/

However, we here at the A.P.R., are more hopeful now, that this can be stopped, and must, if we are to still have a supposedly "democratic" country, with our Constitution as our legal bound. Paul's recommendation that young people flee the country is unduly pessimistic at this point, and impractical. Do you think Canada, with a population of 30 million, could take in 10 million U.S. refugees, much less want to? Very improbable. All the more reason the Occupy Wall Street Movement must continue to grow and spread, and why we here at the A.P.R. fully support it, all of our very survival and well-being is at stake. Cheers.

A HIGHER PLAIN?

It's common in "New Age" circles to refer to traveling into other states of consciousness, whether through focused trance-work using music, chanting, dance, or even psycho-active plants (which many cultures still use effectively, though they are not necessary), as visiting "higher planes".

As dedicated New Age beings ourselves, here at the A.P.R., we certainly agree, though we prefer to use "other" instead of "higher", as we feel that there are no "better", or "worse" states of being, they are all just parts of the whole, and it is our individual judgement and beliefs that may make them seem so.

In any event, it does seem to be the case, that high elevation land areas, on every continent, tend to foster more spiritually-based cultures, that most of the World accepts as so. Places like Tibet, and throughout the Himalayas and the mountains of Central Asia, the Altai Mountains of Siberia, the Andes in South America. And on this continent, the high desert regions of the southwestern U.S., home to the Pueblo, Hopi, and Dineh cultures.

[Laguna Verde, 4420 metres, Bolivia, M. Richmond, 10/2008]

What is it about these places, that seems to make us feel and think instinctively in more spiritual terms? And that tends to support cultures that seem to be more spiritually focused, than that of the "developed nations"?

When your lead author visited the Andes of Bolivia and Peru three years ago, it was not just with the intention of seeing these incredible landscapes, but also to gain inspiration, and learn from the cultures there. People with thousands of years of oral histories, who are only now just beginning to take charge of their political and economic destinies, after centuries of oppression, first from the Spaniards from 1520-1820, roughly, and then from their descendents in repressive oligarchies, usually with U.S. government support.

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2008/11/evo-si.html

[Volcan Illimani, Bolivia, 6520 metres, taken from 4900 metres, M. Richmond, 10,2008]



And so it was, that I was greatly inspired by the landscapes, and people of the Andes, especially Bolivia, in their struggles to re-make their societies in a more just and sustainable manner, reflective of the beliefs of their Indigenous majority population.

Here at home in Alaska, we have close at hand landscapes equally as spectacular as those I was so fortunate to have visited, in the Andes. And, that help inspire, and nurture us, spiritually, and physically, in our efforts to help foster and develop a politically and socio-economically more just and sustainable society. Which is not easy, given that the culture of Alaska, since the oil boom of the 1970s, has been changed, to what many people, ourselves included, feel to be one more similar to that found in Texas, or Louisiana.

At times, we feel despair of the trends we are seeing in U.S., and even global society to a certain extent, of the increased militarism, sociopathic greed, and hostility toward education and science. And the rise/support/use of fanatical fundamentalist cults/sects, to divide society, whether they are "Christian", as in the U.S., or Muslim, in the Middle East, by the "global elite", or "corporatocracy". It is at these times, that we flee into our local mountains, directly from our Chugach Front Research Centre, on bike, then foot, to restore our balance, and gain peace and inspiration.

We were fortunate enough to have a nice weather day this Tuesday past, and the company of our great friend Erik Skye, as we tried a new route, from the CFRC, "up" to the Middle Fork of Campbell Creek drainage, the Williwaw Lakes, and then back. 15 KM of biking, and 34 KM of hiking, which took us a total of just under 9 hours. Little did we know at the start, just how fortunate we were to be, on this day.

Leaving the front door at 1045 after some unexpected delays, the biking went very quickly. We stashed our bikes in a secret spot of the Spencer Loop, on the Hillside Park trail system, where brush and tall grass hid them from sight. Quickly ascending a secret cutoff, we then got onto the beginning of the Powerline Trail, and then to the Middle Fork Loop Trail. This goes through about 6-8 KM of prime bear habitat, tall grass/brush, near tree-line, but our intrepid assistant editor Mattie was there for our protection. We never did see or hear any in this area, but did come across a large pile of brown bear scat, as a trail marker/reminder, letting us know whose trail this really was. We then accessed the Williwaw Lakes Trail, which none of us had been on before, and headed in.

We saw about a dozen sheep grazing on the fall-coloured grass and tundra vegetation higher up on the northern wall slopes of the 800 metre deep canyon. They were too far away for Mattie to give chase, fortunately, as we did not want her to expend too much energy, this early, as we had much more distance and elevation to contend with. As it was, she was often flushing half-white ptarmigan from the grass and brush, who are in the process of changing their plumage to winter-white.

It was a rather moody day at first, with heavier clouds obscuring the higher peaks, still retaining their first heavy snowfall from the week before. The clouds would briefly part at times, allowing us to glimpse the semi-veiled higher heights. It was quite cool even here at the head of the canyon, at only around 762 metres (2500 ft) elevation, about 1-2C (34-36F). Smaller puddles on the trail were partially frozen, as was the ground underneath a top coat of thin mud, making for very treacherous footing at times. And also slowing our progress somewhat.

After about 90 minutes of hiking up the canyon, we hit the first of the small lakes in the Williwaw Lakes chain, and took a break for lunch. It was even colder here, right about 0C, with a few snow flurries. Whilst eating, and gazing at this little lake, we realised, this was an exceptional day!

Because there was no wind on this day, not even the slightest of a breeze that would ruffle the surface of these lakes. And hence, they were all, perfect mirrors! Because they are so cold and clean, with crystal-clear water. Previous experiences in these higher plains/canyons in the Chugach Mountains were always punctuated by gale and even storm force winds throughout the year, and one look at these flagged hemlock trees confirms just how windy of places these are. Because when low pressure systems are located to our south, in the Gulf of Alaska, which is a favoured place for them, the northeast-east-southeast flow around them funnels and whips through these similarly-oriented drainages. But on this day, a large upper-level low pressure system was covering all of South-Central Alaska, with almost zero wind-flow from the surface even up to 3000 metres or more. So there was some instability for light snow-showers, but also some breaks between. There are very few days like this in the Chugach mountains, probably less than ten per year.

We were quickly entranced and inspired, that we should be so lucky to experience this, and set about to a frenzy of photo-shooting, before any wind might come up and ruffle the lake surfaces.

The views up to the head of canyon, walled by the 1525-1662 metre (5000-5450') peaks behind were just as beautiful, the partially veiled, snowy crags reminded me of some the higher peaks in the Andes, or pictures I've seen from the Himalayas. And yet, here we were, just four hours in by bike and foot, from the CFRC.

The clarity of these waters, this is the largest of the lakes, Williwaw, was absolutely astounding, never equalled in my experience.  Combined with the mirrorring of the surrounding terrain and vegetation in them, it left me in a deeply contemplative, almost trance-like state. Is this what we are always seeking, in our "higher plains/planes"?

Looking toward the northwest, down-canyon, there was more clearing, and hence, the reflections in the larger Williwaw Lake, from it's southeast side, had mixes of cloud and sun.

We spent about an hour and a half here, transfixed, inspired, renewed, and amazed, before we came to the realisation, that we had a long trek ahead of us back, and would need to leave, if we wished to regain our bikes for that part of the trip, in daylight.

There is a side-route, up a steep notch in the valley of the Middle Fork of the Campbell Creek canyon, that leads past another beautiful mirror lake, at the base of 1556 metre (5105') O'Malley Peak. This route goes past the lake then up a very steep 150 metre wall, which then takes you to the "ballfield", an interesting, almost-level, glacially scoured 1-2 KM wide plain, above 1000 metres elevation. This very steep route proved quite challenging, and left us all quite winded when we reached the top. But we were continually inspired by views like this:

The steep rock walls of O'Malley peak, whose snow-covered top was still sheathed in the mists of light snow showers, in the early evening sun. We were moving quickly now though, to stay warm, and to make sure we reached our bikes in the mild, forested lowlands below, in daylight, so we could bike back to the CFRC with the ability to see any moose or bear that may be present.

Up on "the ballfield' it was still practically calm, and the evening light was very beautiful, looking back east, to O'Malley Peak, it's rocky crags now mostly in the clear.

We made quick work of the last 20 KM of our day though, heading down from "the ballfield", over to the Powerline Trail, then down that, to the Spencer Loop and our bikes. From there, it was just a quick 20 minutes zipping mostly downhill on those, to the CFRC. It has to be said, that our assistant editor Mattie, is possessed of incredible speed and endurance. During this last part of the trek, whilst we were biking, sometimes at 45 KPH downhill, she was running just as fresh, as earlier during the day. All told, with all of her side-trips, bird flushings, and other excursions, she must have easily covered 150-200 KM, versus our 49. Now that is inspiring!

This trek, with it's incredible views and conditions, right from our door, ranks among our most refreshing and inspiring we've ever undertaken. Helping us to regain some balance in our lives, without requiring us to drive or fly long distances, and carry/pack large amounts of gear. We truly are fortunate to be able to do this. Come join us, if you are ever able, we will be happy to lead you, to "higher plains". Cheers.

SIX METRES UNDER [and] HEADING UP THE PASS

                                               SIX METRES UNDER

No, we are not writing about the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and Pentagon, in the US. Terrible, murderous tragedies, and crimes they were, with devastating consequences for the people there, and eventually, throughout the Middle East. There have been many good articles written these last few days about this anniversary, so here are a few, if you are so inclined.

This one, below, by Chris Hedges, sums the situation up quite nicely. He was actually there in NYC and a witness to World Trade Center attacks.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/11-7

In addition, this article, by Noam Chomsky, below, offers his always insightful analysis on the bigger geopolitical picture, of the events.

http://www.truth-out.org/after-911-was-war-only-option/1315582873
No folks, what we are writing about today is of much more significance to us all, than what happened in New York City and Washington DC ten years ago. And yet, you won't be hearing much about it in the US corporate media. This is from a French news agency. The Arctic ocean sea ice concentration, as of today, has reached a new record low, since accurate measurements began, in 1972. This is a very serious trend/occurrence, which we'll be discussing in more detail, after the article. Note especially the title of it. It would almost be funny, but really, tragic, to listen to the crackpot GOP/Fascist party presidential candidates, if they were asked to comment on the findings presented here (which they won't be).

Published on Sunday, September 11, 2011 by Agence France-Presse

Arctic Ice Cover Hits Historic Low, Due to Global Warming Says Scientists

The area covered by Arctic sea ice reached its lowest point this week since the start of satellite observations in 1972, German researchers announced.

"On September 8, the extent of the Arctic sea ice was 4.240 million square kilometers. This is a new historic minimum," said Georg Heygster, head of the Physical Analysis of Remote Sensing Images unit at the University of Bremen's Institute of Environmental Physics.

The new mark is about half-a-per cent under his team's measurements of the previous record, which occurred on September 16, 2007, he said.

According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the record set on that date was 4.1 million sq km. The discrepancy, Heygster explained by phone, was due to slightly different data sets and algorithms.

"But the results are internally consistent in both cases," he said.
Arctic ice cover plays a critical role in regulating Earth's climate by reflecting sunlight and keeping the polar region cool. Retreating summer sea ice - 50 per cent smaller in area than four decades ago - is described by scientists as both a measure and a driver of global warming, with negative impacts on a local and planetary scale.It is also further evidence of a strong human imprint on climate patterns in recent decades, the researchers said.

"The sea ice retreat can no more be explained with the natural variability from one year to the next, caused by weather influence," Heygster said in an statement released by the university.

"Climate models show, rather, that the reduction is related to the man-made global warming which, due to the albedo effect, is particularly pronounced in the Arctic."

Albedo increases when an area once covered by reflective snow or ice - which bounces 80 per cent of the Sun's radiative force back into space - is replaced by deep blue sea, which absorbs the heat instead.

Temperatures in the Arctic region have risen more than twice as fast as the global average over the last half century.

The Arctic ice cover has also become significantly thinner in recent decades, though it is not possible to measure the shrinkage in thickness as precisely as for surface area, the statement said.

Satellite tracking since 1972 shows that the extent of Arctic sea ice is dropping at about 11 per cent per decade.

NSIDC director Mark Serreze has said that summer ice cover could disappear entirely by 2030, leaving nothing but heat-trapping "blue ocean."

The NSIDC likewise monitors Arctic ice cover on a daily basis, but has not announced record-low ice cover. Data posted on its website as of Saturday only covered the period through September 6.
By last week, it said, sea ice is almost completely gone from the channels of the Northwest Passage. The southern route - also known as Amunden's Route - was also ice free, as was the Northern Sea Route along Siberia.

But even as the thaw opens shipping lanes, it disrupts the lives and livelihoods of indigenous peoples, and poses a severe threat to fauna, including polar bears, ice seals and walruses, conservation groups say.

"This stunning loss of Arctic sea ice is yet another wake-up call that climate change is here now and is having devastating effects around the world," said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco.

The last time the Arctic was incontestably free of summertime ice was 125,000 years ago, during the height of the last major interglacial period, known as the Eemian. Air temperatures in the Arctic were warmer than today, and sea level was also four to six meters higher because the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets had partly melted. Global average temperatures today are close to the maximum warmth seen during the Eemian.

Ok folks, here's the bad news. As we've documented in previous articles on Global Warming,

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-seems-likely-based-on-what-weve.html

and,

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-close-are-we-now.html

and, as the above article reminds us, the last time atmospheric CO2 levels were as high as they are now, 390 ppm, global sea levels were up to six metres (that's about 20 feet) higher. That would put a sizable chunk of Florida under, much of the Gulf of Mexico coastal margins, all the access routes here into Anchorage, and worst of all, low-lying areas in Asia home to billions of people (portions of India, Bangladesh, Indo-China, Malaysia, Thailand, etc..).

Also remember, in 40 more years, since nothing is being done to limit CO2 and methane emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, and indeed, with the development of the Alberta Tar Sands, an incredibly destructive and massive CO2-releasing project,

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/24-3

global atmospheric CO2 concentrations will have reached 510-550 ppm. It's clear now from researchers studying the geologic record, and measuring CO2 levels in the atmosphere from 100,000 to 250,000 years ago (from trapped air frozen in glaciers, core samples from all over the World have been analysed), that global sea-levels rise in lock-step with CO2 concentrations. And that the ancient CO2 increases were likely due to naturally occurring volcanism. These sea-level rises were caused by the melting of parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet, due to the warming from the increased CO2 concentrations.

The key question is, how long will it take for the Greenland melting to occur, which will then cause sea levels to "catch up" with the increased CO2 levels we've been, and will be seeing. This is why the decreasing Arctic sea ice is so crucial to the picture. Because more open water now in the Arctic is a "positive feedback". Open water absorbs tremendous amounts of heat from the sun, and slowly releases it through the course of the year. This also means, it becomes more difficult, if not impossible, for the ensuing season(s) ice cover in the Arctic to become as thick, and long-lasting, as previously. It takes longer to freeze in the fall, freezes thinner over the winter, and then is able to melt off faster in spring and summer. Allowing more solar radiation to be absorbed, continuing/amplifying the cycle. In addition, frozen methane deposits still present in the Arctic permafrost, and underwater in the shallower waters of the Arctic ocean, are vulnerable to melting with the increasing warming occurring in the Arctic. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, 22X more powerful than CO2. Uncontrolled emissions of this would be catastrophic to the global climate system. There are signs that this is beginning to occur. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/31-9

More heat from the Arctic ocean then, will be able to melt the glaciers/ice sheets in Greenland faster, which will then bring about the six metre or more (because remember, we'll be at 550 ppm CO2 by 2051) sea level rises. This is why we came up with the projections we did, from our scenario from the year 2045. http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/06/run.html

A very interesting web-site, The Cryosphere Today, allows you to extract global sea ice imagery/data, and even look at side-by-side comparisons, from different dates.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Arctic sea ice, 30 years apart, as measured by polar-orbiting satellites. It doesn't take a physicist to see the trend here. Note how much more open water is now present along the Alaskan, Canadian, and Eastern Siberian coastlines. This greater extent of open water not only absorbs more heat, but also transfers more moisture to the atmosphere, affecting global weather patterns and causing more frequent heavy-precipitation events and flooding.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2011/2011-03-02-02.html

Will humanity be able to adapt to these coming changes quickly enough? If sea level rises of six metres or more were to occur in 20-40 years, would the different countries affected be able to re-build infra-structure, ports, terminals, etc.., in time to keep up with this? Because what we take for granted as "civilisation" is dependent upon the global transfer of resources, food, oil, timber, minerals/ores/metals, manufactured products, almost all by shipping. What will happen if that is disrupted? This is the future we will be facing, 30-50 years from now. Even if massive full-scale efforts were undertaken by all the "developed" countries of the World to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and transition to renewable, non-emitting energy sources immediately, this is still going to happen. But since the current global predatory capitalistic structure, epitomised by the U.S. socio-political-economic system, is so entrenched, and continually being spread by force of arms throughout the World due to multi-national corporate greed, this is not going to happen for at least 15 to 20 more years. That's how we see it here at the Alaska Progressive Review.

                                               HEADING UP THE PASS

Friday last, the staff of the Alaska Progressive Review decided we needed a fast-pack, one of our 40-65 KM one-day hikes, to enjoy a rare, dry, sunny fall day. We had two goals in mind, to do it all on foot/bike from the Chugach Front Research Centre, and, to reach a spot where we could spread the ashes of our departed former research assistant Homer, in a place he used to enjoy.

We started the day at 0830 in the company of our friend Celine Van Breukelen, who wished to accompany us, at least part of the way. We biked the first 3 km or so to the base of the Konoya Point trail, which is also our daily running trail. Stashing the bikes here, we started up the steep, but beautiful forested route. Unfortunately, at about the 400 metre level, we came upon a large pile of very fresh brown bear scat. No more than a few hours old.

This was bad news. Several hikers had been charged by a brown bear near here over three weeks ago. Since Celine was going to turn back early, she would have had to come back through here by herself, without the protection from our intrepid assistant editor Mattie. We decided it was not worth the risk, and headed back down.

All was not lost. We then biked down to the Spencer Loop, in the Hillside Park ski trail network. Stashing our bikes halfway up the largest hill on the loop, we then started walking up the "secret cutoff" from it, that connects to the beginning of the Powerline Trail.

From here, it was fast and easy hiking, we quickly jumped on to the Middle Fork Loop Trail, which angles back on the north side of the South Fork of Campbell Creek Canyon, toward the Powerline Trail, on the other side, eventually re-connecting. After a few hours, Celine had to turn back, but at least she didn't have to worry so much about potential brown bear encounters. Heading further in up the Middle Fork Loop Trail, we could see the beautiful fall colours on the adjacent hillsides.

This trail eventually crosses the South Fork of Campbell Creek, and then connects with the Powerline Trail.

By the time Mattie and I got a few more KM in on this, it was already 2pm, and time for lunch. But we were seeing some nice sights already, like this coyote prowling around.

I always love seeing wild canids when we travel, so this was a treat.

Even Mattie was interested, but not threatened, she didn't try and give chase.

We decided to head up the trail to Ship Lake Pass. A place we all loved, and which Homer really enjoyed being in, he'd been with us there on four different expeditions. Just before heading in on this trail, the fall colours on 1433 metre "The Wedge" were particularly beautiful, with the mountain hemlock trees in the foreground.

It took another 90 min. to ascend the 8 KM up to the 1268 metre pass. It was quite cool and windy up there, easily 50-70 kph winds, with a temperature of 5-6C (39-41F). But the views up here are always stunning, and the fact that we could reach this in six hours on foot/bike from the CFRC, was even better.

 

Before I could do anything else, after reaching the top of the pass, Mattie was off, racing after these sheep. They are way too fast for her though, so she had no way of catching them. She came back very winded after just a half KM of that!

After putting on extra layers and warming up, it was time to release Homer's ashes back into the environment, in this incredibly beautiful place he loved. Now he's at home here.

This is the view looking east, toward the highest peaks in the Chugach. We've been here in every season now, and still can't get enough.

At the bottom of the pass, jewel-like Ship Lake gleams in the cool autumn sunshine. This is our backyard, and we will always make trips in here every year, on foot and bike, from the Chugach Front Research Centre. How fortunate we are.

Mattie, of course, is completely at home and in her element here in these settings. Always "on it", that is, on alert for the approach of other animals, or people, completely fearless and ready to protect your lead editor, and whoever else might be along on our trips. Thank you Mattie!

After spending about a half-hour up on the pass, enjoying the view, and remembering the wonderful times we had with Homer here, it was time for the long trek back.

About halfway back to the Powerline trail, we spied three moose off to the side. I asked Mattie not to bother them, and she listened, staying by my side, while we enjoyed watching them browse in the fall sun. But not for too long, we still had a good 20 KM or more of hiking, and then some biking, to do.

By the time we made it back to the CFRC, 12 hours had passed, and we reckon that I had walked about 48 KM, and biked about 13. Mattie, with all her side trips, and detours, easily must have done two to three times that. But she can't help herself, with her abundant, exuberant energy, and it always inspires me, just watching her. We were very happy we accomplished our goals and were able to put Homer to rest, in his beautiful Pass. Cheers.