Morningstar discusses healing socio-ecological wounds through plants and land justice

As an herbalist, academic, activist, and indigenous ethnobotanist, Stephanie Morningstar has learned to see the world through multiple lenses. She visited SUNY-ESF on March 4th, 2020 to discuss how these different worldviews have helped her in her work addressing socio-ecological problems of today. The talk was sponsored by the ESF Women’s Caucus and the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

The lecture, titled “Co-creating Indigenous Futures: Finding My Place as a Haudenosaunee Woman in Academia, Land Sovereignty and Healing Justice”, began with the Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address, an expression of gratitude for all that supports life – from the sun to the plants to the animals to the soils. Morningstar encouraged the audience to envision where we find peace in nature, and center ourselves on that image. She then guided us into recognizing the ways that our relationships with land have been damaged over the years, and how we can learn to heal those broken relationships. Morningstar’s life work has focused on this mission, and she approaches it from both a social and a biological perspective. In her many different roles, she says she is always grounded in service to community.

As an herbalist at Sky World Apothecary + Farm, Morningstar develops relationships with plants and uses their gifts to help people heal. As an academic, Morningstar works with Global Water Futures, bridging western and traditional ecological knowledge in water research projects. And as an activist, Morningstar works with the North East Farmer’s of Color Land Trust to help return land to people who have been denied it for generations - specifically black, indigenous, and people of color (BI-POC). She noted that in the United States, BI-POC farmers and stewards own less than 1% of farm land. Morningtar encouraged us to recognize how historical injustices are continued today, and that we must actively work to correct them.

Throughout her talk, Morningstar helped the audience diagnose the ecogrief we may be feeling about the state of the world today. As environmentally-minded citizens, many of us feel the heavy weight of climate change upon us and the loss of beloved ecosystems. In addition to ecogrief, she also described the psychological toll of ethnostress - losing one’s sense of place in the world. These harms weigh especially heavy on indigenous people who have been cut off from their land and culture due to colonization, boarding schools, and land theft. Morningstar’s work to heal these wounds has led her to working for both ecological restoration as well as restorative social justice. 

Morningstar’s lecture ended by asking us to envision once again our wild place of peace, centering us on a vision of a healthy future. Despite the many environmental and social wounds we carry today, she showed us that there are also many paths for healing. To learn more about her work, you can visit her personal website and blog (www.skyworldapothecary.com), her research at Global Water Futures (https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/indigenous-projects.php), and the work of the North East Farmers of Color Land Trust (https://nefoclandtrust.org/)

              For more information about the ESF Women’s Caucus, and upcoming speakers, please visit: https:/www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.

As part of the requirements for FOR797 Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share responsibility for reporting on presentations in the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series. The preceding was prepared by By Lauren Tarr (Environmental Science, PhD).

WiSE Professionals resumes with Co-Creating Indigenous Futures, March 4, 4pm

Co-Creating Indigenous Futures: Finding My Place as a Haudenosaunee Woman in Academia, Land Sovereignty, and Healing Justice, March 4, 4pm, Gateway Event Center

Abstract: Stephanie Morningstar, Oneida (Turtle Clan), discusses the evolution of her work as a student, activist, earth-worker, herbalist, and Indigenous Knowledge Mobilizer within her community, the academy, and institutions to advance land, food, water, and non-human sovereignty as a step toward decolonization. We will explore the intersections and legacy of settler colonialism through stories of how intergenerational trauma, racialization, and systemic racism compound health disparities; and how land and access to land is directly implicated in the extractive economies and ideologies that have led to the current climate crisis. This brief glimpse into the life of one singular story in a greater constellation of climate activists, front-line land and water defenders, medicine makers, researchers, farmers, healers, and emergent strategists is intended to activate and share a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary approach to building community-driven, meaningful, equitable solutions and adaptations to our current shared legacy of colonization and how we can collectively heal together toward a radically beautiful future.

Bio: Stephanie Morningstar (OnΛyota'a:ka – Oneida, Turtle clan, Haudenosaunee Confederacy) is an Herbalist, soil and seed steward, scholar, student, and Earth Worker dedicated to decolonizing and liberating minds, hearts, and land- one plant, person, ecosystem, and non-human being at a time. Stephanie grows medicines and food for front line activists and communities of color at Sky World Apothecary & Farm. She serves as a Leadership Council member for the New England Women’s Herbal Conference and the International Herb Symposium where she has collectively worked to decolonize learning spaces for her community. She is the Co-Coordinator of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust where she works to liberate land and resituate Indigenous and Diasporic peoples’ roles, responsibilities, and covenants to the land as a direct response to land dispossession, health disparities, and the ongoing climate crisis. Stephanie is also an Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization Specialist for Global Water Futures, where she helps Indigenous-led projects to advance the understanding of traditional knowledge and western knowledge indicators by working together to research and aid in water governance, food security, sediment restoration, water security, climate change and human and ecosystem health in Indigenous communities. She is in love with a beautiful human named Noel, who she has shared her life with for over 10 years. They currently live on Dish With One Spoon Wampum Agreement territory, also known as Niagara, Ontario. 

This program is cross-listed with the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

For more information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series, contact Heather Engelman, engelman@esf.edu or 315-470-4752

Afrofuturism and the Environment

On April 12^th, Robyn Reed, Head of Access Services, Schaffer Library, Union College,  lead the community in a conversation about Afrofuturism and the Environment.   Reed shared a short film titled Pumzi. This award-winning film is a Kenyan science-fiction story written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu. The film is set to take place in the future, 30 years after World War III – the water war. Life on earth is now largely nonexistent. The story line follows Asha, who curates a museum in an East African territory with exhibits including long gone plant and animal life. Asha receives a package that suggests that the planet outside her strictly enclosed community might be viable.

Struck by the possibility, Asha leaves her community to plant a seed. Trading her own security for the survival of the seed, she travels across the landscape to search for viable land. The film ends in a scene of sacrifice and hope.

Following the film, Reed facilitated a discussion, prompting viewers for their impressions; some saw themes of hope, while others saw hopelessness. The crowd praised the poignancy of the film, which projected a future in which resource scarcity has driven communities to war and insecurity. This theme is perhaps especially relevant for much of the African content, which may disproportionately feel the effects of climate change and resource depletion. 

Afrofuturism is a genre of speculative fiction that, unlike many science fiction stories, projects a future where black culture is significant and central. Afrofuturism addresses the fact that mainstream fictional futurism has failed to include black culture and black bodies from narratives. Further, as a sociopolitical thought movement, Afrofuturism expresses that solutions to social and environmental crises cannot and will not come exclusively from white voices, asserting a space for black culture in ideas for future innovation. While some see Afrofuturism as hugely speculative, like all good science fiction, it is potentially deeply prescriptive as is drives viewers to consider the possible.

Throughout her presentation Robyn Reed provided suggestions of further movies, books, anthologies, and artists in Afrofuturist genre. These include but are not limited to the anthologies Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturim and Beyond and Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora; works from authors such as Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor, and Samuel Delaney; art work such as Farbice Monteiro’s The Profecy series; and perhaps most notably the Black Panther movie, which has been hugely successful in theaters. To add a personal reference, much of Janelle Monet’s work has brought Afrofuturism to the popular modern music world.

This event served as a fantastic introduction the Afrofuturism. Perhaps most notably, Robyn Reed’s presentation on Afrofuturism serves to remind the ESF community to actively include the perspectives of minority individuals in conversations about environmental stewardship and the future direction of our college.

Reed's research interests include studying the intersection of race and science fiction in film and television, Afrofuturism, and information literacy. As a librarian, Reed expressively aims to combat “fake news” by guiding library patrons to more reliable sources for their work.

This event was cosponsored by the Friends of Moon Library and ESF Women's Caucus.  For more information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions speaker series, visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm 

As part of the requirements of FOR797, Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions speaker series.  The preceding was written by Claudia N Victoroff, Megan Gallagher and Maisie Baronian.

Antarctica’s Ice in Earth’s Climate System

        Can you identify the different types of ice in Antarctica?  New scientific discoveries are revealing information about the movement and flow of various types of ice in Antarctica and the information it can provide regarding our future in a changing climate.  Dr. Kathy Licht, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) presented her research on Antarctica’s Ice in Earth’s Climate System at SUNY ESF on Tuesday March 31, 2015.  The event was part of the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Spring Seminar Series, in conjunction with the Hydrology and Biogeochemistry Seminar Speaker Series.  This presentation was sponsored by The Department of Environmental Resources Engineering, the Environmental Scholars Program, the Graduate Student Association and the ESF Women’s Caucus.

            Dr. Licht discussed three types of ice found in Antarctica.  The ice sheet holds  most of the continent’s ice, touches bedrock, and is very thick, approximately 0.1-4.8 kilometers.  The ice shelf is floating ice which is connected to the ice sheet but has water underneath it and is 300-700 meters thick.  Sea ice is frozen sea water and it floats in chucks and is typically less than 10 meters thick. 

            The ice shelves on the west side of Antarctica are decreasing rapidly whereas the ice shelves on the east side are increasing slowing.  Globally, ice shelves are declining.  There has been a 70% increase in ice shelf mass loss in the past decade and this rate of loss is accelerating.  The breakdown of ice shelves into sea ice has made Antarctica a “sea ice factory.”  The ice in Antarctica flows like a river but on a much longer time scale.  When ice shelves break apart, there is nothing left to hold back the flow of glacial ice sheets which contributes to sea level rise.

            Dr. Licht and her research team have been sampling and analyzing zircon sand in an effort to better understand the movement and flow of Antarctica’s ice.  This knowledge will contribute to the accuracy of computer models used to predict the type of ice movement and ice shelf mass loss we might see in the future.  The sampled sand was dated using laser ablation and the age of sand grains from glaciers were compared with the age of sand grains under the sea, in order to get a picture of how ice has moved in the past.  The behavior of ice in Antarctica will have critical impacts on Earth’s climate system as a whole.

            At IUPUI, Dr. Licht advises the Geology Club and the Women in Science House.  She holds a BS in Natural Sciences from St. Norbert College and a MS and PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Last year, Dr. Licht won IUPUI’s School of Science Research Award.  Her work is supported by NSF Division of Polar Programs.

            For more information on the WiSE Professions Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.  For information on the Hydrology and Biogeochemistry seminar series including upcoming events for Spring 2015, please visit http://www.esf.edu/ere/courses/hbgsemi.htm

As part of their class requirements, students share responsibility for reporting on speakers in the WiSE Professions Speaker Series.  The preceding was prepared by Vanessa Gravenstine, MS Candidate, Graduate Program in Environmental Science (GPES).

Climate change: can forests keep pace

Dr.  Lindsey Rustad, Hubbard Brook Team Leader & Research Ecologist, Center for Research on Ecosystem Change, US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Durham, NH and Associate Research Professor, Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine.  Climate Change:  Can Northern Forests Keep Pace?  Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management and the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology.  Dr. Rustad reviewed climatological data associated with climate change, survey results about perceptions of climate change, and what the northern forests and the species that use it for habit might look like in the future.  A joint presentation of the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions and the Cross-disciplinary Seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes. 

Climate Change Scientist Speaks in Syracuse

By Diane Kuehn, SUNY-ESF

Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel a Climate Scientist with the Global Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) based in Washington, DC, spoke at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) on Tuesday, March 6 on “Global Warming: The Science behind the Headlines.” The presentation was co-sponsored by the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Initiative of Syracuse University, SUNY-ESF, the ESF Women's Caucus, and the Syracuse University Graduate School.   The presentation was part of SUNY-ESF's Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series.

Dr. Ekwurzel began her presentation by discussing climate changes and trends since 1850. Some of the points she mentioned were:

·         7% of the maximum area of frozen ground has decreased since 1900 in the Northern Hemisphere.

·         Satellite data collected since 1978 indicate a 20% reduction in the extent of summer sea ice.

·         Eleven of the last twelve years have been the hottest on record since 1850.

Dr. Ekwurzel discussed the connection between reduced sea ice and snow coverage and the increased average global temperatures. Specifically, since sea ice and snow work to reflect back into the atmosphere about 90% of the sun’s energy, losing ice actually increases heat absorption by the earth.

Why is the snow and sea ice melting? Given the relative stability of the sun’s energy output and of the amount of other particles in the air (such as those from volcanic ash) over time, most of the change appears to be due to increasing amounts of heat-trapping emissions in our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, for example, is produced in large quantities by fossil fuel-burning machines and power generation facilities today and, because of its slow absorption by the earth’s oceans (absorption can take anywhere from 50 to 1000 years), accumulates in our atmosphere over time. Methane (average absorption time of 12 years) and nitrous oxide (average absorption time of 114 years) are two of the other heat-trapping gases.

What can we expect in the future in Central New York? Dr. Ekwurzel discussed future changes such as the annual average temperature rising, shorter winters, and a shorter coverage of ice on nearby lakes. She also stated that there will likely be more intense precipitation, both in the winter and during other seasons as well, when storms do occur. Elsewhere in the country, subtropical areas will likely continue to dry out, coastal areas may experience flooding, and urban areas (because of the extensive amount of pavement and buildings) will have amplified summertime temperatures.

What options does our society have for the future? The first option that Dr. Ekwurzel raised is to decrease the amount of longer-lived gases (e.g., carbon dioxide) released into the atmosphere to prevent the buildup of these gases over time. Our society may also need to adapt to climate changes over time by altering the design of our homes or the location of our residences (e.g., away from coastal areas). Finally, Dr. Ekwurzel emphasized the need for new options for the future.

Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel works on the national climate program for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). She is leading UCS's climate science education work aimed at strengthening support for strong federal climate legislation and sound U.S. climate policies. Prior to joining UCS, Dr. Ekwurzel was on the faculty of the University of Arizona Department of Hydrology and Water Resources with a joint appointment in the Geosciences Department. Her specialty is isotope geochemistry, a tool she has used to study climate variability in places as disparate as the Arctic Ocean and the desert Southwest. She has published on topics that include climate variability and fire, isotopic dating of groundwater, Arctic Ocean tracer oceanography, paleohydrology, and coastal sediment erosion. She has also worked as a hydrologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, working with communities to protect groundwater sources. Dr. Ekwurzel completed her doctorate work at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and post-doctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.