Colorado Central Articles From — May 2008

Sidebar by Lynda La Rocca

Collegiate Peaks Forum – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The 2008 Collegiate Peaks Forum Series lecturers are:

Susan Tweit, award-winning author and Salida resident, who asks, “Does the Earth Need People?” and speaks on the topics of “Living Generously” and “Belonging to the Community of the Land,” June 5 and 6; Read the rest of this article

Column by Hal Walter

Burros – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE UPCOMING 60th running of the World Championship Pack-Burro Race, along with the selection of a Central Colorado donkey as the official mascot for the Democratic National Convention to be held in Denver this summer, has created a curious focal point. Read the rest of this article

Column by George Sibley

Environment – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Perhaps the difference between carbon man and the silicon devices he is creating is like the relationship between the caterpillar and the iridescent, winged creature that the caterpillar unconsciously prepares to be.

– O. B. Hardison, Jr., “Disappearing through the Skylight”

IT’S “EARTH HOUR 2008,” as I start this. The house is dark except for three lights. One is the orange flicker of a fire in the heating stove, whose glass door is the closest thing to television in our living room. In the winter my partner and I dine from TV trays in front of the stove, watching the fire, but we can still talk since the stove lacks the TV’s noise problem.

The second light is the yellowish light from a hurricane lamp we keep around for emergencies, or sometimes for its romantic æsthetics. But I’ve just learned that it’s not a very good reading light.

And that leads to the third light. The third light is the cold brilliant light of my laptop screen. On battery, not plugged in, although I suppose that’s still cheating in “Earth Hour.” But just sitting here, “carbon man,” in the flickering light of my other two carbon light sources, I was struck by a thought I am now trying to chase down in words, and I reflexively went for the laptop. Fitting, since it’s a thought that involves the laptop.

The thought begins with the idea of Earth Hour, which is to remind us of something we should be doing but aren’t yet, at least not at the scale needed, and that’s reducing our “carbon buttprint” to a shadow of its current size. Ten percent carbon emission reduction by 2010, 20 percent by 2020 — 80 percent by 2050? Now we have reputable scientists saying that 100 percent reduction by 2050 ought to be our goal, but even that might not be enough to stop what is already in motion, in terms of global climate changes. Meanwhile, since Kyoto, global carbon emissions have gone up 13 percent.

But I’m wondering if Earth Hour might be counterproductive, in terms of waking us to that task. It reminds me of a scene from one of our “Gunnison Sonofagunn” spoofs; after an environmentalist lectures the rest of the cast on their consumptive ways, someone asks what he would do instead.

“I,” he proclaimed virtuously, “sit in the dark and freeze.”

I was neither freezing nor in serious darkness. But do I want “Earth Hour” forever? No, and neither does anyone with any love for life. Earth Hour was about giving up life as we know it for an easy hour; the real challenge is figuring out what we will do when it’s Earth Hour all day every day. Are we just going to sit in the semidark, wearing an extra sweater and being virtuous?

And that’s where my computer comes in. And my library: I have enough books waiting to be read, to finish out my life — and should I outlive my own library, there’s a public library two blocks away; even if they never got another book, I could fill another whole life there. What I’m saying is: If we truly get serious about this carbon-reduction business, what I will do is retreat into my mind, and be reasonably happy. Or, should I say, advance into my mind?

This is where my computer comes in. I’m on my ninth computer now, but its silicon guts carry forward the evolution of my mind. It’s all there, everything I have thought and re-thought for the past twenty-some years — all of it except for the wild summoning spiritual energy that is the only reason for keeping my deteriorating carbon brain alive — and the parts of my mind that I keep in the computer are much more organized and ordered than I was ever able to manage in my pre-computer “carbon brain.”

What am I talking about? Let me jump to a column I read in the Sunday Denver Post March 30: “Put down the Remote. Now.” Writer Jeff Osgood was reflecting on recent studies that show attendance dropping in our national parks and national forests: fewer visitors, campers, people getting out to mingle with the natural. Osgood cited a University of Illinois study that offered two reasons. One, predictably, is the rising cost of fossil fuels and its effect on travel — a cost that will increase even more dramatically in the future.

THE SECOND REASON is what the researchers called “videophilia”: the growing preference people seem to be developing for watching vicarious outdoor experiences as opposed to sweating and slogging through the real thing. This seems reinforced by an article in the April Mountain Gazette about the proliferation of mountain-town festivals featuring nature and adventure films — mountain folk sitting in dark theaters to watch “ecorotic” distillations of experiences they could seek themselves just beyond their own town limits.

Osgood virtuously thinks of this as a bad thing: we’re turning into a nation of screen potatoes, lumps of carbon-based life staring at siliconized images. But there is another way to look at it. Which is better for reducing our carbon buttprint? A theaterful of people watching some heroic conquest of nature, or that same bunch of people all hopping into their cars, loaded with bikes and kayaks and packs and camping gear, all heading out to conquer nature firsthand? For that matter, which is better for nature? There’s a good ecological argument for listening to the psalmist — to “lift up our eyes unto the hills” without feeling compelled to drag our butts up there too, with the substantial ecological buttprint that accompanies the adventure.

I don’t want to go overboard here. I love to hike; I love getting a little lost, and feel best about a big hike when I come home with my legs and arms all scratched and a mild sunburn from sweating off my sunscreen. Dragging my butt up the hills recharges my mind. But I may owe it to the hills, to nature, to spend at least as much time “advancing into my mind,” downloading the carbon-world experience — what Wordsworth called “the passionate moment recollected in tranquility” — into my evolving “silicon mind.” And that’s where the computer comes in; it’s the mirror of my mind, and Googling through that looking-glass, I tap into the world-mind.

AT THIS POINT In my life, if I had to choose — and I believe the 21st century is going to be about “choosing” rather than “you can have it all” — why wouldn’t I choose the culture evolving through the silicon chip over the culture evolved around carbon fuels? Wouldn’t it be easier to maintain our computers and the Internet, than our autos (increasingly computerized anyway) and the highway system? Next summer I’m going to install enough solar capacity to keep our computers charged up, and maybe a couple of LED lights — and dig a root cellar, expand the garden. I can live on homegrown potatoes and wood heat with extra sweaters if I can continue to advance into my mind.

I’m intrigued by thinkers like O. B. Hardison (see quote at beginning). He’s a humanist, not a scientist, who suggests that we are evolving beyond what he calls “carbon life,” to “silicon life” — leaving our needy carbon bodies behind and encoding ourselves on chips and drives that are developing the capacity to maintain and repair themselves. And thus we may eventually take that final step beyond just organizing and filling our minds at work, and will begin to take over the synaptic dances that put together memory and random imaginings into something new and creative — something more truly us as we imagine we could be….

Could I live as just a mind, shedding the carbon sheath with its needs for heat, food, water, sex, transportation?

I think of Voyager 1, now on its quiet voyage out in the absolute outer reaches of our star’s area of influence. This should be our great modern myth, sending this manifestation of pure mind, silicon life that needs only minute quantities of heat to survive, moving out in search of intelligent life in the universe — with the implicit question, whether we earthbound carbon beings, driven by needy stomachs, lungs, penises, egos, can really be considered intelligent life.

But then, on the other hand, there’s the hike, the feel of legs under one (gimpy knee notwithstanding), the functional hand that turns the paper pages under the yellow light or feels warmth in the night, the eye’s fascination with the stove TV, the untrained but enthusiastic carboniferous voice, smoothed and buoyed with the fruit of the vine, that tries to sing along with my partner as she plays sappy old carbon-era songs on the old wood piano, and all the many other pricey but priceless joys of carbon life.

So, just another earth hour. I don’t know. Does the butterfly happen, whether the caterpillar imagines it or not?

George Sibley writes from Gunnison, where spring is becoming a possibility.

Article by Marcia Darnell

Local Artists – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

AT 61, Jane Rhett is on the sunny side of life. She and her husband, Jim, are retired, her children are grown, and she has a comfortable home in Monte Vista, equipped with two dogs. But instead of kicking back, she has chosen to focus her energies and talent on not only creating art, but on promoting art for her community. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Ed Quillen

Politics – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

FOR A WHILE, I was following the Democratic presidential contest every chance I got, and those chances come frequently when you spend most of the day sitting at a computer with a broadband Internet connection. Read the rest of this article

Article by Lynda La Rocca

Local lectures – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

“… all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid

effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth

conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore….”

– Herman Melville

“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.”

– Walter Lippmann Read the rest of this article

Art – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Drawings
by Mel Strawn
Published in 2007 by Create Space Publishing
ISBN 143481095X Read the rest of this article

Wildlife – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Listening to Cougar – Edited by Marc Bekoff and Cara Blessley Lowe
Forward by Jane Goodall
Published in 2007 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN 978-0-87081-894-3 Read the rest of this article

Colorado History – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Principled Politician – The Ralph Carr Story
by Adam Schrager
Published in 2008 by Fulcrum
ISBN 978-1-55591-654-1 Read the rest of this article

Column by John Mattingly

Economics – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE FIRST TIME I made a little money farming — back in 1973 when pinto beans hit $60 a hundred and sugar beets were $50 a ton — several old farmers in my area came around to visit when they heard that my wife and I were planning to build a new home. Read the rest of this article

Column by John Orr

Water – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel Update

Since the disaster declaration for the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel, it’s been learned that the actual cause of the rising water in the mine pool could be the result of a combination of factors including a collapse in the LMDT, increased precipitation over the last few years, and groundwater intrusion. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Civil Liberties – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Look over the list of grievances we Americans have about the state of our nation, as enumerated here in these pages by the editors and staff writers, and you may see a common thread: speculators. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Bob Russell

Directions – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado Central,

A hundred years from now this probably won’t make any difference, and it may not now, but under Central Attractions, the location of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is shown as being west of Hooper and Mosca, east is more realistic. Read the rest of this article

Letter from F.a. Rios

Orthography – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Advice on accents en Español and in English

Amigo Ed: Read the rest of this article

Letter from Ted Foureagles

Future – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dateline: April 1, 2009, Washington, NM

What follows is a brief recap of incidents which coalesced to become known as The Fall of the American Empire.

After an ambiguous election in which all three major U.S. parties received exactly 33-1/3% of the vote, Hillary Clinton occupied the Oval Office using a set of old keys and a can of Mace. Dick Cheney, refusing to cede power, fled to the Pentagon. Barack Obama left for Tahiti, saying, “You people are (expletive deleted) crazy — I’m done with this (expletive deleted)!” John McCain locked himself in the Senate men’s room to be found 41 days later, having succumbed to fumes. Reports claim that he died with his wing tips on and a defiant smile on his face. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Stan Stanfill

Orthography – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ed,

It took a few days for me to get around to reading the April issue of Colorado Central, so I imagine you have been inundated with the “gotcha” emails on the pair of painful usage errors your usual careful copy editing failed to catch. Imagine two different writers making the same mistake in the same issue! Both George Sibley on page 11 and Martha on page 33 used “incite” (“vt. to set in motion”) when they obviously meant “insight” (“n. the ability to see and understand clearly”). At least that is the way I remember it from Mrs. Rae’s 8th grade English class in Craig in 1946. Even though the error is more in keeping with those of our own Montrose Press, keep up the good work. We both enjoy your publication and your columns in the disappearing Denver Post. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Paul Brown

Colorado Central – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors,

I’ve known Hal Walter for years as a very good athlete and a pretty good writer. As he ages, his athletic achievements are somewhat diminished but his writing skills have soared. I don’t know if it’s the maturity of fatherhood or the constant polishing of his trade, but he has somehow found an improved technique. His description of the tiny details of life gives him a style reminiscent of our more accomplished authors. I hope you’ll continue to give him that favored spot at the back of the magazine. Yours is the only magazine I receive that I begin at the back instead of the front. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Chuck Downing

Orthography – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

People,

In your April issue, it appears that the Great Spell-Checker in the Sky won out over the Great Grammar-Checker in the sky. On pages 11 and 33, you use the word “incite” instead of “insight.” Ed and George Sibley might be able to incite a riot by speaking at Civic Center Park in Denver, but more likely they would provide insight about a specific problem. Read the rest of this article

Article by Dan Fitzgerald

Water – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

IT’S BEEN WEEKS since a drop of rain has fallen in Tucson, but Brad Lancaster’s backyard vegetable gardens and fruit trees are thriving. By collecting and storing the rain that falls on his property, Brad harvests about 45,000 gallons annually from his modest home and 1/8 acre lot. As Brad shows me his pomegranate, olive, orange, and white sapote (a banana-like fruit) trees, it’s easy to forget that Arizona, like much of the West, is a desert. Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Water – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Read the rest of this article

Brief by Martha Quillen

Local News – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Sad Homecoming

Casey, a Lab/Australian Shepherd mix belonging to the Helsley family who live in the Burland subdivision near Bailey, started wailing on March 26 after being let out for an evening pit stop. The dog’s “screaming” was heard, and the person dogsitting for Casey went to get her, but she ran. He drove around looking for her, and finally spotted the dog, but she was bleeding, and had numerous deep puncture wounds to the top of her head. Air bubbled up from the dog’s wounds when she breathed, and her motor skills were impaired. The sitter got Casey to a vet within the hour, but the dog suffered from brain damage and was later euthanized. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Environment – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The heyday of the Pennsylvania Mine is now more than a century past, but the mine is still causing problems in Summit County. At this point, reports the Summit Daily News, some people are thinking that a Superfund designation may be necessary. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Economy – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Newspapers in the mountain towns of Colorado keep looking for evidence of the tsunami of housing foreclosures hitting their communities. The real estate market has definitely slowed down, but nobody seems to find a wall of foreclosures about to crash. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Wildlife – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

A bear expert from Whistler, British Columbia, reports a perhaps surprising compatibility of bears and people there. The population reaches up to 120 bears in some years, owing to the resort’s three golf courses and its ski area, Whistler-Blackcomb, according to Michael Allen, a bear researcher. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Transportation – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The proposal to levy tolls from motorists using Interstate 70 between Denver and some mountain towns has riled the locals to an extent not seen in years.

From Steamboat Springs to Granby, and Idaho Springs to Eagle, it was a two-Tums case of indignation after State Sen. Chris Romer, a Democrat, and then Andy McElhany, a Republican, introduced legislation to begin tolling. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Environment – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Greenhouses serving the Taos Pueblo are now being heated by burning wood from a nearby forest. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Mining – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

It was two steps forward, then two steps back for a potential molybdenum mine at Crested Butte. Kobex Resources Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C, has withdrawn its plans to develop an ore body in the community’s backyard. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Other Cheek

Officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints traveled to San Luis to apologize for one of their own. Three Mormon missionaries vandalized a statue at the stations of the cross in San Luis. The apologists were not met with Christian forgiveness, however. Several residents demanded that the men — and the church — leave town. Their response seems to have ignited more controversy than the original crime. Despite the Catholic bishop’s request for forgiveness, feelings still run hot. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine -

U.S. 285 from Denver to the New Mexico line has been christened the “Ralph Carr Memorial Highway” by our state legislature; the joint resolution passed unanimously on March 15. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck

Mountain Life – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article