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).

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).

Unstable Oceans and the Long Memory of Coral Reefs.”

by Ryan Chatfield and Heather Whittier

On Tuesday April 16, 2002 Ellen Druffel spoke on “Unstable Oceans and the Long Memory of Coral Reefs.”

Ellen Druffel spoke about how we can use the ocean as an indicator of climate change.  Her primary research objectives are to be able to parameterize future climate change.  She began by discussing that the ocean fluctuates on interannual and interdecadal cycles. El Nino is an example of the interannual cycles that occur while the Pacific decadal oscillation is an example of the interdecadal oceanic fluctuations. Corals develop annual bands that contain varying concentrations of isotopes.  Her research involves sectioning corals and using radioisotopes and stable isotopes in the corals to determine fluctuations in ocean temperature and salinity.  Some of the questions are how has climate varied during the past few hundred years, how does this compare with recent climate change,and has cycling of CO2 between air and sea been affected as a result of changes in climate.  Druffel’s research findings from the Galapogos Islands reveal that over the last four centuries oceans have been becoming warmer.

Professor Ellen R. M. Druffel is Professor of Earth Systems Science, University of California, Irvine, CA with a joint position at  Scripps Institution of Oceanography.   Dr. Druffel is internationally known in the area of earth systems science. Her research interests include the cycling of organic carbon between the surface and deep ocean, and determination of past changes in circulation and ventilation in the upper ocean.

Dr. Druffel earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego in 1980. She has formerly served as a member of the National Academy of Science's Ocean Studies Board, as a participant of numerous scientific voyages, and as a scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is an Associate Editor of Oceanography, a Councillor of The Oceanography Society, and chair of the new Honors and Recognition Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Dr. Druffel's visit was sponsored by SUNY ESF, the Faculty of Chemistry, and the ESF Women’s Caucus.