Dryocopus pileatus

Earlier this week, I decided to leave my office and take a walk in Pacific Spirit Park - an area that I have frequented since 1973. While Stanley Park is often called the 'Gem of Vancouver', this area by all rights should have at least as great a place in the affection of Vancouver - perhaps its location at the western edge of the city makes it more of a private area for those of us that live on the West side. I strolled through the area, thinking not only about a challenging situation that I faced at work, but also trying to allow the soothing habitat, the sights and sounds, draw off some of the stress - I was deliberately setting myself up to have a cathartic experience though the healing aspects of biophilia (for more check out E.O Wilson http://wilderdom.com/evolution/BiophiliaHypothesis.html), to simply commune with Nature. Once again, the heart rate and breathing slowed down, the head cleared up and I felt a bit more connected and grounded as a result of the walking and taking in the wonderful forest. I started to talk with another man with his dog walking there and he turned out to be the father of a long-time business acquaintance, and again I was struck by how easy it is to connect with other people if we only let ourselves. My First Nations friends and clients talk about their being part of the landscape, inseparable from it, and while we as a society would greatly benefit from that philosophy, another step we need to take is to reconnect with each other, to re-establish a sense of community not only with each other but also with the planet that is our home, and our only home. Towards the end of my walk, I came across a couple of pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) hard at work. It was the first time that I had ever seen two together at once, working within a metre of each other. The image in this blog and some great information can be found at this lovely website http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Pileated_Woodpecker_dtl.html. I stood there for some minutes, marvelling at how they attacked the tree, looking for insects, and how they walked both forwards and backwards, across and up and down along the trunk. A number of people walked or ran by, oblivious to the birds, despite their loud hammering on the trunk. It struck me that we need to listen, watch and learn more, to focus on being in the moment, and that for me was one such moment. Cheers Paul

Thoughts on a world where Gustavs and Katrinas might become increasingly common

This weekend saw some excitement with the advance of Gustav across the Gulf, leaving in its wake destruction and death. This image is of the strorm with winds of approximately 135 miles per hour while it was in the Gulf of Mexico. The image comes from the following website, which also provides some good background information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Gustav. Gustav seemed headed to New Orleans almost as some bizarre anniversary reminder of Katrina, and this morning its landfall to the west of the city was confirmed - and luckily it was downgraded to a Category 2. Many parts of the world have communities, established for historical reasons, that are not located in ideal spots - and I was thinking that with some of the expected damage estimates - one approximately US$30 billion - what it would take to turn government and societal perspectives from reactive to proactive.

One of the simpler, and arguably more sustainable strategies for the New Orleans coastal area is to recreate the wetlands and offshore islands and complexes that existed there historically - and which have been removed or degraded as the result of poorly thought out economic development and river and estuary management. Why has there been no major focus on integrated strategies to rebuild natural defenses, while attention, seemingly inadequate attention, has been directed to shoring up dikes and pumps, etc.? It struck me that it has been three years since Katrina hit, and still the preparations are inadequate. For the US, WWII only lasted four years, and look what the country achieved there...why can a city not be rebuilt, protected and more effectively saved in 75% of that time?

Storms such as Gustav, or more accurately their anticipated increased frequency and strength are potential symptoms of Global Warming. It is time for us to take an integrated approach, not just a multidisciplinary but more effectively a trans-disciplinary approach to assessing and attempting to address the symptoms and problems underlying the environmental challenges that we face, all of which will have increasingly profound economic and societal impacts in the future. God Bless those folks in the Gulf Area and all those helping them. Paul