By Aubrey Ann Parker
Circle of Blue

For two weeks in Copenhagen last month climate negotiators debated carbon levels, emissions, and balancing the financial burden of saving the planet among developed and developing countries. Still, even as international leaders wrestled with the complex mix of geopolitics, science, economics, and diplomacy, another important ingredient in the climate crisis was barely mentioned: the effect of the warming planet on the Earth’s freshwater.

The same oversight, however, was not repeated by public interest organizations and water advocates who also were in Copenhagen, especially indigenous representatives from underdeveloped countries that are most vulnerable to climate change and the diminishing access to fresh water.

Numerous groups, such as the Khapi community in Bolivia and the Tagalog in the Philippines, banded together in Copenhagen to explain at a number of meetings and public events how climate change is already threatening their access to food and water, as well as the sustainability of their thousands years old cultures. Some of the strongest voices were heard during the World Water Movements and COP15: Proposals and Strategies for Water and Climate Justice panel.

Read complete article — originally published on January 27, 2010 — at Circle of Blue.

The hydropower potential of Patagonia in Chile has attracted growing interest from multinational corporations. Pictured above is a view from Patagonia’s “Valley of the Explorers,” located at the terminal moraine of the Expolaradores Glacier.

By Aubrey Ann Parker
Circle of Blue

High in Chile’s Andes Mountains, glacier-fed rivers tumble down knife-edge slopes in a froth of swift water barreling through tight canyons. Chile already produces more than 40 percent of its electricity from hydropower, but how much further Chile is prepared to advance its alternative energy industry—especially the hydropower sector—is now a question that has come to rest uneasily along the rocky banks of the Pascua and Baker rivers, two of the most remote and cleanest rivers in the world.

Both rivers are viewed by the multinational company HidroAysén as the fuel for its $US 5 billion project, which includes the construction of five large dams—some higher than 100 meters—to hold back enough water to power 2,750 megawatts of electricity, the equivalent to three mid-sized nuclear power stations. Additionally, more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity would depend on these dams, located on glacial rivers which some scientists fear are threatened by climate change.

Aubrey Ann Parker is a reporter for Circle of Blue. This article is based on two weeks of extensive research in hydropower that Parker conducted through the Graham Scholars Program at the University of Michigan in the spring of 2009. Read the Graham Scholars’ complete critique of the HidroAysén Environmental Impact Assessment here.

Read complete article — originally published on February 18, 2010 — at Circle of Blue.

Interview by Aubrey Ann Parker
Circle of Blue

Thirty-thousand rainforest dwellers have taken on one of the largest companies in the world, Chevron, for allegedly having polluted nearly 2000 square miles of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The locals say 50 years of drilling have caused high rates of cancer in their communities; Chevron insists that the inflated illness rates are due to poor sanitation. Chevron inherited the David and Goliath lawsuit–it’s worth $27 billion–when it bought Texaco in 2001. Circle of Blue reporter, Aubrey Parker, spoke with Joe Berlinger about his latest film, Crude. Three years in the making, Crude documents the rising international support for this environmental issue as the lead attorney, a man from the affected area in the Amazon, speaks at Live Earth, graces the cover of Vanity Fair and wins a Hero Award from CNN.

Read complete article — originally published on May 12, 2010 — at Circle of Blue.

Of the nine million people living in the southern region of Sudan, more than 2,500 have Guinea worm, according to a report by CNN. With only 500 additional cases scattered around the globe, health officials believe that eliminating the disease in Sudan would be a big step in eradicating this parasite that has infected humans since ancient Egyptian times.

The Guinea worm—which can reach up to three-feet long and is similar in appearance to an over-sized spaghetti noodle—enters the human host through larvae-infested drinking water. Once inside the host, the larvae become worms that penetrate the intestinal wall and travel within the body via connective tissues. The worms emerge from the body through fiery blisters on the legs, feet, arms, hands, head, chest and eyes. To ease the burning sensation of these blisters, infected persons immerse themselves into bodies of water. The worms then lay their eggs in the water that mature into larvae, which are swallowed by another human host, starting the cycle again.

Read complete article — originally published on May 13, 2010 — at Circle of Blue.

By Aubrey Ann Parker
Circle of Blue

With all the power of 21st century collaboration technology, nothing to date has tamed the massive amounts of disparate water information locked away in diverse database systems. But that may have changed last week when Google Labs launched Fusion Tables, a powerful new online research and data organizing tool that makes it much easier to share and navigate the world’s digital science and technical archives.

Fusion Tables, which was developed by Google engineers using sample research data about the global fresh water crisis provided by the Pacific Institute and Circle of Blue, is specifically designed to unlock a treasure trove of facts, trends, and scientific findings that until now have been sequestered in databases and spreadsheets not easily shared.

The new Google technology provides users a rare opportunity to share critical data, probe them, organize pertinent information and generate design elements — charts and graphs — that translate complex information into much more digestible trends. The intent is to enable online collaborators to study and understand in new dimensions the world’s complex problems — the fresh water crisis among them — discern the salient details and organize those scientifically confirmed facts. They can be used to tell stories, offer insights, and propose solutions that heretofore were largely the purview of scholars and scientific experts.

Google Fusion Tables tutorial with Circle of Blue’s Aubrey Ann Parker
Video © Aaron Jaffe/Circle of Blue

Read complete article — originally published on June 16, 2009 — at Circle of Blue. All video by Aaron Jaffe for Circle of Blue. Nadya Ivanova, Cody T. Pope, and Keith Schneider contributed to this article.

Dr. Eddy Martinez, the director of epidemiology for Bolivia’s Ministry of Health, told the The Miami Herald that the current outbreak is “the largest epidemic in many years.”

During a daylong campaign in March, health and civic workers went door-to-door in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city, asking homeowners to dispose of water-bearing containers — a prime habitat for mosquito development, the primary carrier of the disease.

But the preventive measures may have been too little, too late.

Read complete article — originally published on May 26, 2009 — at Circle of Blue.

Jordan and I have put a lot of hours into the attached proposal (originally drafted for the City of Frankfort by John Vinkemulder).

Image © Peter Devoe / 2010

Please leave a comment below to let us know what you think! And consider coming to the Village Council meeting tomorrow night (Thursday, September 15) at 7pm in the Community Rec building for more information or to voice your opinion. And stay tuned to our Facebook page for details during this transition period since the closing of the Frankfort Dog Park on Labor Day, 2011…

DIRECTIONS TO COMMUNITY REC BUILDING: On M22, as you’re headed out of Elberta, turn left onto 1st Street and drive back to the parking lot by the baseball field.

Didn’t take long until I saw more than that.
A few chats on AOL;
“You have mail.”
…and an open invitation.

We’re both from the North.
Sailing
Science
Spanish
Wow; I think we’re Soul Mates.
Gee, Sarcasm, too.

You weren’t ever that good in the sack,
But I let you strip me down anyway.
Strip me of my dignity,
When your roommate walked in on you going down on me.

I was seeing other people.
So were you.
I told you the truth;
Even gave you names.
But you preferred hiding better than seeking;

Until I gave it up.
All of it.
Including you.
I wanted to focus on me.

You called,
Once,
In the middle of the night,
And asked to come over to my bed.
I might have even said “yes”
To your “innocent” offer,
But I knew from experience
You’d rather sleep alone.

I told you,
Although the affair was over,
The friendship didn’t have to be so;
I think that you didn’t believe me, though.

Two years:
It took two years
For you to force your eyes meet mine.
They’re the same color;
Yours and mine.
We share the color;
Burnt auburn eyes.

On a beach
In sunny Ecuador
You actually found a way
To get under my sun-kissed skin.
I went to bed angry in our shared tent
Made for two.
We’d rekindled our friendship
Ignited
Where there was never a spark
Came back stateside
Close like siblings
Or partners
Unbound by walls

We even shared a house
And a lab
And somehow developed a trigger
Which we set off
On a beach
In rainy-seasoned Panama

We knew it was wrong
Before
After
Even during
But we laughed
Because the three dollar liquor
Had gone to our heads

The sand was cold
On that midnight beach
Where we finally finished the deed
All things come with time

And somehow, despite it all
Love we still manage to share,
Even now,
Separated by a one-way flight
From Saginaw to Syracuse.

Passion consumed first me,
Then you,
Then me again;
I can’t count the number of times.

But here
And now
In the good, ole
You. ES. of Eh.
We find ways to communicate;
Bilingually,
Bisexually.

We are together,
Mind and spirit.
Like waves upon water;
Platonic partners for life.

We, the revolutionists, counter our culture
By rejecting meat
And renouncing fashion
And voting with our hearts.
Just don’t mention our failure in the last election;
We had a test in Introductory Anthropology that day.

We are members of the co-op
Where we get our local produce and free-range vegetarian-fed eggs.
Until, that is, we pamper ourselves on foreign pesticide-infested pineapple,
Straight from the depths of the rainforest Amazon
Where oil is pumped out of volcanic depths
To feed Mom’s petroleum guzzling 4-wheel drive Escalade.

We buy Fair Trade, organic, shade-grown Espresso
From the family owned business on the corner
We use our refillable, not landfillable, banged and battered coffee mug
And we would never dream of going to Starbucks:
Not the one on Main, on State, or even convenient South U.

We resist the urge to splurge
On material things;
Except for the sales.
At J.Crew and The North Face
When we indulge in Chinese-child made gifts.
Gifts from their needle-torn fingers
Sewn in a capital-torn land
To U.S. on our jobless turf

Shame on us,
Blame on us,
The hipsters of the anti-revolution.
We live in the world made by us;

Be the change you wish to see.

Strike again; click click, no use.
Teasing, tantalizing sinews billow through the interim dark
It will take one more; one last drag
On the side of the little black box
As the ember ignites into vibrant white light
Hot flames shoot from the head of the wooden stick,
Flirt dangerously with the pointed index
Thumb, itself, narrowly escaping the rush,
Feels warmth on its calloused crust

Quick now, light the tip
Of the dry white paper slip
Before the inferno edges your peripheries
Danger, depth, deviance
As the fire thrusts ever near
Move in to kiss, avert your eyes, you’re almost there
Come closer, Dear, my precious one;
Please tease my zenith no more.

Ah-ha, it lights
And now we’re on
Take a puff, a gasp, a drag.
Combustion of earth-grown wares, the cylinder on fire
Filled with dried aromatic herbs, fruity flavor, and addictive chemicals to boot

The French, Aztecs, and Mayans, too
Religious ritual to all.
Of falsehood, fact, or faith
To the demon inside who needs his fix:
The craving is the same

And here it is,
The quiet tame
Inhale, swallow it down
Behind tightly pressed lips
And tar-stained teeth
It nourishes the hollow

Hold it down
As it smolders deep inside
Don’t fight back,
It feeds your empty soul
And nourishes your vacant void
Unoccupied the space now is
Like the depths of your mind:
Slate,
Pigment,
Tint.

No need to worry, slow it down
Now that you’ve had at least three pulls
Let it sit in your hand
And watch the smoke rise up
Gray wisps dance in circles ‘bout your mitts
And torrents trickle past your nostrils
The fumes mingle and kiss
Tippy-toe the steadfast Tango
They slide and sweep and salsa past
Scarlet ashes bent down low,
Which whither to the ground and die
An ancient dance, a lover’s game;
Resolute Russian Roulette

And as you watch, and cultivate your crop
You think of how it feels so right
This sport which you adopt,
No matter that the window is down
In your onward speeding car
Or that the public signs
Prohibit you within
The confines of a smoke-free room
Co-workers shut you out
In the cold, public exposure do you find yourself
Even your family keeps you at bay
When you light up the gloomy sky

Poison
Disease
Cancer
Death
Still you continue on.
Because the mischievous sprite must wet her thirst
The imp hankers his desire
And so you, too, must evict your appetite
For the smoldering blaze,
Strike, Spark, Flame, Simmer, Smoke
Conflagration at its best.