CATALYST Magazine April 2020

CCATTALYST CA R E S O U R C E S F O R C R E AT I V E L I V I N G

Bring back the Victory Garden!

Drawdown SLC: Utahns helping to reverse global warming Swami Beyondananda’s State of the Universe address COVID-19 and air quality The Chakra Series: Part 4 Community Resource Directory, EnviroNews, Almanac, more!

Quarantini by Ruth Plummer

1 4 0 S M c c l e l l a n d s t.

Salt Lake Cit y, UT 84102

The

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ON THE COVER Quarantini, by Ruth Plummer

T

he “Quarantini” cocktail picks were created by Atomic Kraftworks of Venice, CA because sometimes we just need a little sense of humor to get through times like this.

Atomic Kraftworks is a husband & wife team that normally produces items for events and celebrations. But now they are working with other makers to provide plastic face shields and face mask extenders to hospitals during the COVID19 crisis. ◆ Website: http://www.atomickraftworks.com Etsy: http://atomickraftworks.etsy.com Instagram: @atomickraftworks

April 2020 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET 5

6 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

Utah Legislature: The good, the bad and the ugly The 2020 General Session of the Utah Legislature wrapped up on March 12 with 510 new bills passed into law. Here is a selection of bills and resolutions that affect environmental issues. (See more on Grace Olscamp’s column, “At the Capitol,” this issue.)

GOOD

ENVIRONEWS

April 2020

HB40 Water Loss Accounting. Saves water by fixing leaks.

HB180 Emission Inspection Revisions. No emissions fee for electric vehicles.

HB233 Natural Resources Legacy Funding.

Creates a new board focused on open spaces, habitat, and species (Bad depleted uranium language was removed!)

HB235 Voluntary Home Energy Information Pilot Program. Ratings to compare energy use and emissions when you buy a house.

HB259 Electric Vehicle Charging Network.

A statewide network.

HB283 Outdoor Adventure Commission.

Strategic planing for outdoor recreation.

HB396 Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure. A utility to support the network.

HB431 Energy Rebate Program. Incentives for decarbonizing technology.

SB26 Water Banking. An alternative to useit-or-lose it water management.

SB 50 Transportation Governance. Supports transit hubs and smart growth.

SB112 Inland Port Amendments. Gives Salt Lake City more representation.

HCR13 Supporting the Protection and Restoration of Wildlife Corridors.

BAD

HB41 State Water Policy Amendments.

Supports Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River development.

HB85 Federal Designations. Bullies local governments seeking conservation status for federal public lands.

HB92 Fire Amendments. Exemptions from air quality regulations.

HB228 Livestock Predators Removal. Livestock owners can kill predators whenever.

HB347 Inland Port Modifications. A giveaway to developers.

SB100 State & Institutional Trust Lands Administration Amendments. Closed meetings for the SITLA Board.

SB131 Mining Amendments. Doubles the size of under-regulated “small mines”.

SB154 Taxed Interlocal Entity. Industry grants for nuclear energy projects.

UGLY

HB125 Division of Wildlife Resources Amendments. Mandates killing predators in response to the size of big game herds.

HB328 Division of Water Resources Study Update. Proposed water diversion from the Green River to the Wasatch Front.

HCR19 Opposing the Introduction of Wolves. Despite Utah’s existing wolf management plan.

Official Citation Honoring President Donald J. Trump thanking him for, among other dastardly deeds, reducing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

Complete list of 2020 General Session Bills Passed: LE.UTAH.GOV/ASP/PASSEDBILLS/PASSEDBILLS.ASP

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Fracking permits threaten pronghorn migration A coalition of environmental groups has filed a legal objection to a federal permit for 3,500 fracking wells that would cut off the “Path of the Pronghorn,” a 170-mile migration route between Grand Teton National Park and winter range in the Upper Green River Valley. The petition notes that the pronghorn migration route is “one of the longest large mammal migrations in the lower 48 and one of the few remaining long-distance migrations in the world.”

Along with species such as bison, mule deer, California condors and cutthroat trout, pronghorns are survivors of the Pleistocene mass extinction; they have been migrating along the same route for 5,800 years. The 42-square-mile footprint of the fracking area also includes important winter habitat for sage grouse. Environmental groups on the petition are Upper Green River Alliance, Western Watersheds Project and Center for Biological Diversity.

Path of the Pronghorn NORTHAMERICA.WCS.ORG/WILDPLACES/YELLOWSTONE-AND -NORTHERN-ROCKIES/PRONGHORNFIELD-PROGRAM/PRONGHORN-MIGRATION-PATH.ASPX

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Continued:

April 2020

No snowpack, no Colorado River Utah’s largest water reservoir is contained in snowpack that releases water all summer long. Scientists estimate that in the Colorado River basins, annual mean discharge from snowpack decreases by 9.3% for every degree Celsius of warming.

This is not just because of less runoff. U.S. Geological Survey scientists found that loss of reflective snowpack also increases evaporation.

One way to increase snowpack might be through weather modifi-

Another bad sage grouse plan for Utah The Trump Administration has announced yet another bad plan to undermine sagegrouse conservation.

Sage grouse are an indicator species for the health of sagebrush ecosystems and more than 350 other species that live there.

The Center for Biodiversity says that greater sage grouse populations are dwindling in all Western states; just over the past few years numbers are down 61% in Utah.

In 2015, the Obama Administration developed collaborative landscape-level plans to protect remaining sage grouse habitat, but in 2019 the Trump Administration undid the Obama era plan and issued new rules to avoid a public process of environmental review. Conservation groups sued. A federal court found that that the Trump era plans had indeed failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Now, with no public scoping period, BLM has produced supplemental revisions for seven states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. These new plans are the same as the 2019 plans only with more excuses for why BLM doesn’t have to comply with NEPA. Utah Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Greater Sage Grouse Conservation. Public Comments due April 6, 2020 on the eplanning website, HTTPS://BIT.LY/36UAZLN

Save 2% for Utah The Utah Rivers Council has launched a “Save 2% for Utah” campaign demanding more ambitious water conservation strategies from the Utah Division of Water Resources (DWR). DWR plans to decrease per-person

ENVIRONEWS

cation. The Utah DWR has had an operational cloud seeding program since 1976, spraying silver iodide particles into clouds to encourage formation of ice crystals. DWR claims that cloud seeding increases precipitation by 5% to 15%; the science is still not conclusive as to how well it works outside of a laboratory.

Colorado River flow dwindles as warming-driven loss of reflective snow energizes evaporation (Science, 13 Mar 2020): SCIENCE.SCIENCEMAG.ORG/CONTENT/EARLY/2020/ 02/19/SCIENCE.AAY9187

water use by only 0.5% per year from a 2015 baseline through 2065.

During that same time span Utah’s population is expected to grow to over 6 million. The math simply doesn’t work. Right now Utah uses more water per person than other Colorado River States that have set far more ambitious conservation goals.

It is irresponsible to predict water needs based on current practices that encourage people to squander water. Nonetheless, the DWR “2020 Water for Utah" plan calls for expensive desperation measures to avoid conservation including cloud-seeding for weather modification, and construction of large-scale environmentally damaging water projects such as the Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River water diversion.

A scheme to move Green River water from the Uinta Basin to the Wasatch Front (supported by HB 328 passed by the 2020 Utah Legislature) would put huge new stresses on Colorado River watersheds. A 2% per year conservation goal would be in line with neighboring states and help eliminate the need for massive water development projects and help protect Utah’s rivers Save 2% for Utah: save2forutah.org/; DWR 2020 Water for Utah Overview: water.utah.gov/2020-water-for-utah/

2020 Conservation in the West Poll Colorado College has released the results of their annual Conservation in the West Poll, which asks voters in the Rocky Mountain West to weigh in on conservation of national parks and public lands, energy, water, wildlife and other pressing challenges.

The 2020 poll reports that 95% of Utahns think air pollution is a serious problem; 75%

think wildlife migration routes should not be open to oil and gas drilling; 69% support a goal of protecting 30% of America’s lands and oceans by 2030; 69% support providing full dedicated funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (which Congressman Rob Bishop [R-UT-1] tried to eliminate).

The Poll indicates a disconnect between conservation attitudes and voting patterns.

80% of Utahns say that issues involving clean water, clean air, wildlife and public lands are important in deciding whether or not to support an elected official, but Utah Republicans typically support policies that increase pollution, undermine scientific wildlife management and favor industrial development and privatization of public lands .

Colorado College State of the Rockies Project: coloradocollege.edu/stateoftherockies/

Slashing monuments costs jobs More than 700 jobs in the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante regions could be lost as a result of Trump-era National Monument reductions, according to an economic study published in the journal Science Advances.

Researchers studied 14 monument designations in eight Mountain West states over a 25-year period. They found that monument designation increased the number of business establishments and had no effect on rates of employment in mining and other public lands industries.

“Protecting lands as national monuments has been more help than hindrance to local economies in the American West,” researchers conclude.

National Monuments and Economic Growth in the American West (Science Advances, 2020): ADVANCES.SCIENCEMAG.ORG/CONTENT/6/12/EAAY8523

W

elcome to the firstever totally digital edition of CATALYST. Frankly, it’s an idea we’ve been pondering. Nothing like reality to help one make decisions. You can click on ads and they will take you to that organization’s website. Links in stories are also active. Please share with your friends, and let us know how this works for you!

March has been the longest month in my life, at least since I was maybe 12. I expect it’s been the same for you. It’s not often we can track each day with such sobering statistics. Mathematically, it’s like what my mom would call “the miracle of compound interest,” only not in a good way.

The current pandemic reminded me of the dark excitement I felt as a child during the polio epidemic in

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK the early 1950s. In my small Wisconsin community, a massive float paraded up and down neighborhood streets. No waving beauty queens, but a 10-ft.-tall lady (or so it seemed to me) dressed as a Red Cross nurse, standing next to a larger-than-lifesize iron lung (which was already a large contraption), a child’s head emerging from one end. I also remember that the swimming pools were closed all summer. This is among my very earliest memories.

I know it made a deep impression on me, but more in the way of pageantry and maybe magic; I wasn’t old enough to know there weren’t really 10-ft.-tall nurses.

I’ve just now learned that those iron lungs are precursers to today’s much-in-demand ventilators. Three of the heavy behemoths are still in use in the country.

I fear mightily for certain individuals dear to me whose lives may be seriously compromised by the pan-

demic. On a day-to-day level, however, I have a very different experience. In fact, for years I used to joke about hoping to someday be under house arrest so I could dive into all my desirous but undone projects. While I believe I’m instrumental in creating my own reality, I didn’t mean to take the whole planet down with me. Forgive me.

It reminds me of another thing my mom used to say (funny how wise they get after they’re dead).

“We were poor, but we didn’t know it because everyone else was poor, too.”

Those of us living alone might approach these days as a retreat. Or a time to incubate, gestate, metamorphosize, attend to the body, mind and spirit.

Those in a household? I regret that the first metaphor that came to mind is Anne Frank hiding in the Secret Annex for two years with her family in Amsterdam. I hope your horizon is broader, and that we all take time to enjoy this beautiful spring. I wish you all the grace it takes, May we emerge alive. And wiser.

— Greta Belanger deJong, editor and founder, CATALYST

EAT LOCAL Building a better food system, one bill at a time The (near) Citizen lobbyists bring home the raw cream and butter future of fruits and vegetables

S

ymbria and Sarah Patterson of Red Acre Center in Cedar City are a mother and daughter team who founded the Utah Farm & Food Conference in Cedar City four years ago. They also lobby at the State Capitol for the rights of Utah’s small farmers which, in turn, benefit all those who support a local food economy. Here’s their wrapup on the 2020 session:

HB 232 Food Revisions (Rep. Marc Roberts) WOW. This could really save some small farms and ranches post Covid-19. This restricted agritourism food establishment permit bill will now allow farms and ranches to host events that include food that will not need to be prepared in a commercial kitchen. They must apply to the Health Department for a permit to use their private home kitchen. This permit would be issued on an annual basis to alleviate additional work

for our already busy ranchers and farmers. Passed, waiting for the governor's signature.

Rep. Christine Watkins introduced a companion bill with the same provisions as HB 232, that would allow home kitchens to be licensed as micro-enterprise food establishments. People could then make and serve food using their private home kitchens. This will go farther next year. In the post-pandemic economy it could be a lifeline for many of our marginalized population.

HB 248 Agriculture Amendments (Rep. Logan Wilde) Possibly the most important work of the session. Because we have boots on the ground and eyes on the lookout, we caught this.

We added a five-line amendment to this 40-page bill that, had it not been amended, backyard gardeners and farmers who are federally exempted under the Food Modernization Safety Act would have been required to register and

be inspected. Passed; waiting for the governor's signature.

HB 387 Shell Eggs Amendments (Rep. Marc Roberts) Last year an egg bill was run that inadvertently omitted the ability for producers having fewer than 3,000 laying hens to sell to stores. This bill would merely remedy that oversight. It passed out of the first committee and the House but time did run out. We will run it again next year.

HB 134 Raw Milk Amendments (Rep. Kim Koleman) This bill adds to the products that may be made from raw milk and offered for sale. It will allow producers who are licensed to produce raw milk to also produce cream and butter made from raw milk. Passed; waiting for the governor's signature. ◆ Read about the Red Acre Center at REDACRECENTER.ORG and donate if you can. Symbria and Sarah are doing work on the Hill that we all benefit from, in the form of easier access to better food while nurturing community and the land.

U.S. fruit and vegetable farmers rely heavily on Mexican labor.

But this year, due to cautions regarding the coronavirus, the U.S. has suspended processing guest worker visas.

A ready workforce may be found among the millions of Americans filing jobless claims, but some farmers worry there will be a demand for higher wages among that demographic.

With the unlikelihood that the new policy will be reversed soon, according to the food industry website Fooddive.com, we can expect shortages or higher prices for leafy greens, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes and melons.

Alternatives: buy a share in a local CSA. Or plant a garden! (To get started, see James Loomis’ “Garden Like a Boss” column in this issue.)

HTTP://CSAUTAH.ORG/FIND-A-CSA

10 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

April 2020

BREATHE

COVID-19 and air quality What can we learn from the pandemic that may help Utahns in times of A/Q crisis?

BY ASHLEY MILLER

T

he coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented times globally, to say the least. The overall impact is yet to be seen, including the emotional, physical, and economic toll the outbreak will have on our society. But could policy makers and business leaders gain an air quality takeaway that could lead to greatly reduced emissions during peak air pollution seasons in Utah?

Countries across the globe have implemented various quarantine measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Citizens are being asked, and in some cases forced to stay in their homes and not go to work or recreate, refrain from unnecessary trips, and avoid other people at all costs. The dramatic slowdown in economic activity has left air quality researchers seeing dramatic reductions in air pollution during this time.

Nitrogen oxides, aka NOx, is one of the major contributors, or “precursor pollutants” to the air pollution we experience in Utah during inversion season. NOx is emitted when fuel is burned, as in cars, trucks, and industrial facilities.

During the quarantine in Wuhan, China, NOx concentrations decreased dramatically. Scientists at NASA reported a 30% decrease in air pollution forming in central and eastern China in January and February, due to strict limits on driving and activity during the outbreak.

A significant reduction was also observed throughout France and Southern Europe, due to the early adoption of strict lockdown measures. NOx concentration levels in Italy had been reduced by nearly half, on average. Barcelona

and Madrid, Spain, where confinement was ordered mid-March, experienced the same reduction in NOx emissions. Satellite imagery has proven that the reductions in air pollution in these countries can be seen from space.

Cities across the United States are experiencing similar reductions in NOx. Reduced smog across the San Francisco Bay Area after just a week of a shelter in place order has led to all nine Bay Area counties showing “green” air days since March 14. Experts at the Bay Area Air

Polling from groups such as Envision Utah and UCAIR always come back with air quality a top concern for Utahns, but these same Utahns are usually only willing to change their behavior if it is convenient and affordable. There are many ways individuals can reduce their own impacts to the air shed, and driving less is one such strategy.

Quality Management District in San Francisco consider it a rare occurrence to have so many consecutive clean air days. These same scientists, however, say it’s still too early to calculate exactly how much less pollution is in the air because so many factors play a role in the recipe for air pollution.

What about the air in Utah?

It sure looks cleaner to the naked eye, and we’ve had a slew of “green” air days in March.

But experts at the Utah Division of Air Quality say that March is historically one of the best months of the year in terms of local air quality.

Wind and weather patterns usually prevent a buildup of bad air in the spring. So far there isn’t any specific data to point to suggesting that the social distancing recommendations have led to decreased emissions. Just anecdotal observations. The data could change if the restrictions continue into the summer months with high pressure and stagnant air.

We can at least assume that there is less NOx being emitted from cars and trucks. The Utah Department of Transportation has placed checkpoints along the Wasatch Front freeways and roads that show there is roughly a 25-30% decrease in traffic. If you have left your house you’ve probably noticed less congestion on the roads.

Can inversion season in Utah be treated like a public health emergency?

We have a good understanding about air pollution in relation to respiratory illnesses

such as asthma and COPD, and we know there is a link to cardiovascular disease. The health impacts of air pollution have been studied for a long time. Hospitalizations increase in Utah during red air days for people suffering from acute or chronic lung diseases. But does the risk rise to the level of a public health emergency? By definition, probably not.

In the United States, a public health emergency declaration releases resources meant to handle an actual or potential public health crisis, like the current coronavirus outbreak. It’s what is declared when there is an emergency need for health care services to respond to a disaster, outbreak of infectious disease, bioterrorist attack, or other significant catastrophic events. So no, the air pollution we experience in Utah during inversion season and summertime ozone season doesn’t rise to the level of imminent threat necessary to declare a public health emergency.

But can Utah’s leaders reflect on this crisis in order to utilize the lessons learned next inversion season? Yes. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, employers opted to send many of their employees to work from home, in order to lower the risk

of spreading of the virus. In many of the states surrounding Utah, statewide or citywide shelter in place orders have been issued, forcing many businesses to utilize other methods of interaction to stay running. Meetings were held through online platforms. People were not commuting to offices, so less traffic resulted in reduced vehicle emissions.

Businesses hesitant to try teleworking were forced to do just that, and do it quickly. Employers and employees had to work through the bugs of online platforms that hadn’t previously been utilized for day-to-day operations and communications.

If anything good can come out of this crisis, it could be that during the winter months, businesses are now better equipped to let employees stay home and telework. People are getting used to it, and maybe by the end of all this, absent a health emergency, it won’t be so burdensome. The Utah Division of Air Quality can forecast red air days, and businesses might now be better able to begin sending at least some of their employees home to telework during the yellow days.

Teleworking has for a few years been touted as an air quality strategy to be studied in Utah.

In the fall of 2018, Utah rolled out a telework-

ing pilot program involving 136 employees across four state agencies. Early results showed the program led to taxpayer savings and increased productivity, leading to the program expanding to an additional 2,500 state employees. Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox said the pilot resulted in a reduction of roughly 273 pounds of vehicle emissions. In 2019, the legislature appropriated $6,253,000 in onetime funds for teleworking expenses for state employees, with opportunities for more rural Utah employment.

Individual impacts This pandemic has given us a real life experience in how reducing our travel can lower emissions from our cars. We have been forced to be more conscious of when and where we drive, in order to limit our potential exposure to a deadly virus. If we carry this new behavior into next inversion season, it might be easier for us to think twice before making unnecessary trips and better plan our outings. ◆ Ashley Miller, J.D., is the vice-chair of Breathe Utah and vice-chair of Utah's Air Quality Policy Advisory Board.

She is also a member of the Salt Lake County Environmental Quality Advisory Commission.

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CHAKRA SERIES

12 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET April 2020

Manipura,

the solar plexus chakra: Personal power

Innate inner wildness

BY TODD MANGUM MD Editor’s note: The Chakra Series, by Todd Mangum, MD, first appeared in CATALYST in 1995 and was repeated in 2009. These stories remain among the most read in our online library. In 2020 we are bringing you an updated version, which began with January’s Introduction to the Chakras.

CHAKRA THREE Location: in the solar plexus or upper abdomen.

Governs: production and utilization of energy especially in relation to

sugar metabolism and digestion of food.

Main issue: involves personal power or will.

Externalizes: as the pancreas.

Element: fire.

When balanced: we feel powerful.

Color: a harmonic of YELLOW. Key words: sun, warmth, metabolism, energy, control, transformation and authority.

Influences: the stomach, small intestine, liver, gallbladder, spleen, pancreas and lumbar spine.

Deficiencies: manifest as an inability to set boundaries, express anger appropriately and powerlessness.

Excesses: appear as rage, domination and violence.

Imbalances: manifest physically as anorexia, bulimia, hypoglycemia, diabetes, pancreatitis, abdominal pain, hepatitis, ulcers, gastritis; digestive disturbances including indigestion, heartburn, gas and bloating, nausea and vomiting, malabsorption and diarrhea.

T

hrough the third chakra we begin to access the astral planes, which are simply more subtle frequencies of energy than are experienced through our five senses alone.

This center is receptive to the impulses that inform our “gut instinct,” that way of knowing without knowing why. Through the third chakra we develop courage, determination and will. Someone who is courageous and willing to take risks we say has a lot of guts.

Most institutions in our society stifle the development of a strong, feisty, questioning will.

Obedience and conformity are stressed in schools, businesses, most religions, government and the military. Sadly, we're bombarded with messages that tell us our feelings, plucky emotions and gut instincts are dangerous, irrational and unreliable. Our response is to disconnect ourselves from our emotions. Once disconnected, one is easily manipulated.

If someone asks how you feel and you say I think I feel such and such, you're disconnected. We don't think our feelings, we feel them.

Whenever we try to exert control in our lives, the third chakra will experience the stress, especially when unresolved anger and frustration are involved. This energy will be experienced as the “butterflies” in our stomach especially when we are nervous.

Often these situations will involve something we just can’t seem to “stomach.”

This is also the center through which we get “hooked” or try to “hook” others. Everyone has experienced the feeling of being drained following some interaction with certain people. These people have literally tapped into our solar plexus in an attempt to feed their own depleted reserves or to manipulate us to conform to their will. We may have also attempted to force others to follow

our will. In either case, exhaustion often results.

Many children suffer from chronic stomach aches or digestive problems where no organic cause can be found. Further examination will often reveal an ongoing power struggle in which the child is able to gain some degree of control over his or her environment through these symptoms.

When the third chakra is balanced, we feel confident, without having to be controlling, and our metabolic fire burns brightly, providing us with adequate stamina and warmth.

The pancreas The endocrine gland influenced by the third chakra is the pancreas which secretes the hormones insulin and glucagon as well as digestive enzymes and other important fluids.

Insulin is secreted in response to an elevated blood sugar or glucose level. It stimulates the removal from the blood stream of glucose, fats and amino acids in order to store them within the cell. When it functions properly, it helps maintain lean body mass.

In excess, insulin increases hunger, inflammation, mental confusion and fat formation.

Glucagon is secreted in response to low blood sugar. It mobilizes the release of glucose, fats and amino acids from storage to be used as energy. In proper amounts it decreases hunger, increases alertness and mental clarity, promotes tissue healing and reduces body fat. Together, insulin and glucagon maintain a stable blood sugar.

Diabetes is diagnosed when blood sugar levels exceed specific limits. Although type I and type II diabetes both cause high blood sugars, they are vastly different disorders. A deficiency of insulin causes type I diabetes and requires lifetime replacement of the hormone.

Type II diabetes results from all the cells in the body failing

to properly respond to insulin, not from insulin deficiency. This creates a condition called insulin resistance. People with type II diabetes have a fine-tuned metabolism that cannot adequately process large amounts of food which cause rapid and extreme elevations of one’s blood sugar. The body responds to this excess by producing ever increasing amounts insulin in order to regulate blood sugars. Initially it is the repeated spikes in insulin, not glucose, that cause the problems.

Metabolic syndrome Although repeated studies have shown being only moderately overweight, not just obese, is associated with an increase in numerous medical problems, in the past many insurance companies refused to cover any weight-related treatments, reasoning that weight gain was not a medical problem and weight loss treatments were only for cosmetic reasons. Nowadays, Western medicine formally acknowledges that even moderate weight gain increases one’s risk of developing medical problems. They have named one specific cause of weight gain metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome replaces Syndrome X, reactive hypoglycemia, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance as the official name of this condition. Whatever it’s called, progressive practitioners have been identifying metabolic syndrome, and treating it successfully, for years.

Metabolic syndrome is the forerunner of type II diabetes although many will never progress that far. Even with adequate exercise people with this condition will find it impossible to lose weight or feel good while consuming a diet of high carbohydrates, moderate protein and low fat. For these people this diet will often be a disaster. The excess of carbohydrates, especially refined ones like white sugar and white flour, will constantly throw them into insulin excess with its host of related problems One clue that may indicate you might have metabolic syndrome is a waist-to-hip ratio greater than 1 for men and .8 for women. For example, if your waist is 34 inches and your hips measure 30 your ratio will be 1.13. Another clue is an insatiable craving for carbohydrates, especially once you've started eating them.

Metabolic syndrome is diagnosed when a patient is found to have an elevated insulin level either while fasting or during a glucose tolerance test (GTT). The diagnosis also requires a patient have high blood pressure, ele-

Although type I and type II diabetes both cause high blood sugars, they are vastly different disorders. vated fasting cholesterol and/or triglycerides and an inflammatory disorder like arthritis. Although frequently associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome can occur in individuals who aren't considered overweight.

Years ago, the acceptable upper limit for a fasting blood sugar value was lowered from 125 to 110 and then from 110 to 99. The upper limit which, when exceeded, is considered diabetes, is still 125. Those with fasting glucose values between 100 and 125 have impaired glucose tolerance.

If you or your doctor suspects you might have metabolic syndrome or diabetes, you should have both fasting insulin and glucose levels checked as well as a hemoglobin A1C. The values considered normal for a fasting insulin range from 3 to 27 for some labs and even up to 45 for others. Having worked for many years with this problem, I believe the ideal insulin level is around 2 to 6 and an ideal fasting blood sugar is in the lower 80s. Hemoglobin A1c levels, which measure your average blood sugar over the last three months, have recently been revised. A level of 6.5 or higher is now also used as a diagnosis for diabetes. Levels between 5.7 and 6.4 are flagged as concerning. Levels of 5.6 and below are considered normal. Checking only fasting blood sugars or just a hemoglobin A1C will fail to identify patients with metabolic syndrome until they're on the verge of diabetes.

Caught early, metabolic syndrome is one of the most treatable disorders that there is. It really isn't even a metabolic disorder at all, it's a dietary disorder.

If you discovered your car was having problems because you were using diesel fuel when in fact it needed high octane premium, would you try to “fix” the car or simply change the fuel? Adequate amounts of nutrients like chromium, vanadium, L-carnitine, vitamin E and magnesium are essential to assist the body’s metabolism of glucose.

Digestion Another important function of the pancreas along with the salivary glands, stomach, and

Continued on next page

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April 2020

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If you or your doctor suspects you might have metabolic syndrome or diabetes, you should have both fasting insulin and glucose levels checked as well as a hemoglobin A1C.

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intestinal lining is the excretion of digestive enzymes. These include protease, amylase and lipase which break down protein, starch and fat respectively.

Digestion begins in the mouth with chewing and the release of amylase. The next step takes place in the stomach where hydrochloric acid (HCL) is released. HCL catalyzes the conversion of several digestive enzymes into their active form in addition to creating a hostile environment for unwanted bacteria and other organisms.

Many conditions of heartburn are caused by too little stomach acid, not by too much. When too little HCL is present, all the processes of digestion are hampered. This leads to food stagnating in the stomach. When this happens, it can cause acid reflux which means contents of the stomach, the food and the acid enter the esophagus which has no coating like the stomach’s to protect it. Caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, smoking, overeating, eating shortly before bed and drinking ice water or a lot of liquids with meals will also aggravate this condition.

Antacids and drugs like Tagamet, Zantac and Pepcid will help the symptoms of the burning but often they will do nothing resolve the core problem. By diminishing HCL production or

CHAKRA SERIES function, these drugs further weaken digestion, setting the stage for nutrient deficiencies, worsening food allergies and bacterial fermentation of incompletely digested food.

Symptoms of low HCL include many of the digestive disturbances listed earlier plus a sense of fullness after eating, nausea after taking supplements, rectal itching, iron deficiency unresponsive to supplementation, recurrent intestinal infections and brittle nails.

If you suffer many of these symptoms, taking HCL with additional digestive enzymes can provide amazing relief. If HCL aggravates your condition, you have too much stomach acid and you will need another treatment strategy. Digestive enzymes are derived from both plant and animal sources. I believe the plant enzymes to be a better choice for long term use. With any chronic digestive problem, it is always important to rule out parasitic, yeast or bacterial infections as well as malignancies and inflammatory disorders.

Activities that enhance your sense of personal power will help you maintain a vital and radiant third chakra.

Woodchopper Here’s an exercise that will help you safely release pent up frustration and anger: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Clasp your hands together. Raise them over your head and swing toward the ground as if chopping wood.

Do this with force while letting out a yell. Repeat until you feel complete. Light a candle and meditate while gazing into the flame. Watch the Sun rise or set with gratitude for the light of consciousness and energy it so generously provides. ◆ NEXT MONTH: Chakra Four, the Heart Chakra.

Todd Mangum, M.D., of the Web of Life Wellness Center is a holistically oriented physician practicing in Salt Lake City.

AT THE CAPITOL

Utah’s 2020 legislative session

L

BY GRACE OLSCAMP

ike every year, the 45 days that make up the annual Utah legislative session come and go in a blink of an eye. Lawmakers passed 510 bills this year and approved a $20 billion state budget. There were some wins, a few disappointments, and many cups of coffee and cans of soda to keep everyone awake all session long.

finery began producing Tier 3 fuel. Three out of Utah’s five refineries began producing Tier 3 during that time frame.

Then this year, the last two refineries, particularly Big West and its owner FJ Management, decided that they wanted to benefit from this exemption for longer, even though they weren’t producing Tier 3 fuel at all, nor had they even started the process to do so, and reportedly hadn’t been using the tax exemption yet. Essentially, they wanted the state of Utah to reward them for doing nothing to benefit our air.

SB239 originally extended the exemption from 2021 to 2024, a timeline that faced push back from advocates and legislators on both sides of the aisle. Around 11:30pm on the last day of the session, SB239 was suddenly substituted and passed. This substitute extends the exemption for only 18 months, rather than three-and-a-half years. It’s good that this bill shortened the original extension but not good that it still uses taxpayer dollars to reward industry for bad behavior.

The good Even with the state’s $20 billion budget, bills that required funding had to fight tooth and nail this year. After the rollercoaster tax reform process, legislators were stringent with the state’s wallet. The biggest area environmental advocates saw this hit was in air quality. In 2019, the legislature gave almost $29 million to air quality programs. This year, about $10 million was given to air quality.

Pope looked at hospital admissions from 1985 to 1989 and found that admissions for bronchitis and asthma for all ages were approximately twice as high in Utah Valley as in Salt Lake and Cache valleys when the Geneva Steel Mill was operating.

However, Representative Lowry Snow’s HB396 Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure, which passed with flying colors, approved a public-private partnership that includes a $50 million investment by Rocky Mountain Power for the statewide electric vehicle infrastructure.

Electric vehicle wins didn’t stop there: Representative Cory Maloy’s HB180 Emission Inspection Revisions exempts electric vehicles from emissions compliance fees; Representative Robert Spendlove’s HB259 requires the Department of Transportation to lead in the creation of a long term, statewide electric vehicle charging network plan; and Representative Carl Albrecht’s appropriation for Rural Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure was fully funded with $2 million in one-time funding to provide matching grants to

electric vehicle charging infrastructure across rural Utah, including along highways and in national and state parks.

Another cause for celebration by advocates this year is, surprisingly, over radioactive waste.

Representative Casey Snider’s HB233 Natural Resources Legacy Funding Amendments creates a board focused on open spaces, habitat and species. Originally, HB233 funded this board by a tax on depleted uranium—a type of radioactive waste that becomes more radioactive over time and that is not currently allowed in Utah. Advocates were concerned that funding this board with such a tax was preemptive earmarking and could put pressure on regulators and lawmakers to bring this waste in. But once this bill failed in committee, Representative Snider changed the funding source to just appropriations and federal grants, meaning that all of the depleted uranium language was taken completely out of this bill!

The bad Unfortunately, there are always some bad bills that bulldoze or sneak their way through. The biggest blow this year was Senator Ralph Okerlund’s SB239 Refinery Sales Tax Exemption.

SB239 extends a tax exemption for refineries.

On the surface, this sounds like a simple bill and a standard practice. However, this particular exemption was given to refineries in 2017 to help them start producing Tier 3 fuel—a cleaner type of fuel—and was set to expire in 2021 unless a re-

So, what happens next?

The Governor must now either sign all of these bills into law, veto them, or do nothing and allow them to automatically become law in 60 days.

The legislative session is the only time that state laws are made, unless the Governor calls a special session, and our legislators are all part time, which means that once the session is over, they go back to their regular lives.

However, legislators still come together once a month from May to November, excluding July, for interim session to discuss current issues, study bills and debate potential legislation for next year.

Interim session is typically open to the public.

However, because of COVID-19, the Capitol is closed through June. Look for updates: HTTPS://WWW.HEALUTAH.ORG/BLOG HTTPS://WWW.HEALUTAH.ORG/BILLTRACKER/ HTTPS://WWW.SIERRACLUB.ORG/UTAH/LEGISLATIVE If you want to get more involved with Utah’s legislative process, now is a great time to start building a relationship with your legislators.

Reach out to them to thank them for all of their hard work during the 2020 session (because they do work incredibly hard!). By building a personal relationship with your legislator, even from afar, you become a reliable resource for legislators to represent your community! ◆ Grace Olscamp is HEAL Utah’s communications and outreach associate, and a former editor at the online publication Outdoor Women’s Alliance.

16 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

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FEATURE

Drawdown Utah ▼A look at local businesses and organizations whose▼ work is already helping

▼

reverse global warming and stem the tide of climate change

A

pril marks the third anniversary of one of the most ambitious and truly helpful books on global warming.

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, is the bestselling body of work by the nonprofit research organization Project Drawdown (conceived and edited by Paul Hawken) and provides an in-depth analysis of attainable solutions to the climate crisis.

The goal of the book was audacious: Name our mission— the mission is global warming reversal— and show how it is possible through a myriad of already developed innovations led by companies, governments and citizens alike.

The book then details these innovations— mapping, measuring, modeling and ranking them in ability to achieve “drawdown,” the critical point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere starts to decline from year to year. Drawdown is the point in time we move away from perpetuating global warming, move past simply halting it, and bound on to reversing it.

Leading climate voices are telling us that we have reasons to believe we can do this.

Last month, CATALYST interviewed the 2020 Intermountain Sustainability Summit keynote speaker, Hunter Lovins, who builds her environmental activism and organization around the idea that humans already possess the main tools she believes will rapidly reverse climate change—solar energy

BY EMILY SPACEK

and storage and regenerative agriculture (www.bit.ly/2WMoC4g). With these innovations along with 98 more, Drawdown provides a detailed review of substantive solutions, while completing math that warns us that doing nothing is far more expensive than doing something.

Drawdown: the critical point in time when the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere starts to decline from year to year.

At the beginning of this year—and the new decade—Project Drawdown released their second seminal publication, an update to the previous assessment of solutions to move the world toward reaching drawdown. The new publication, The Drawdown Review, is accessible as an open-source digital resource on the project’s website (www.bit.ly/2QN4wTD).

The Drawdown Review is, for the most part, an update to the top solutions from the previous findings of Drawdown. The Drawdown Review focuses its organization and action plan into three connected action plan areas: 1) Reducing sources, 2) Supporting sinks and 3) Improving society.

Within each of these connected areas lie the solutions, which are re-ranked in terms of effectiveness at reaching drawdown by midcentury.

The first category, “Reducing Sources,” focuses on the six most heat-trapping greenhouse gas sectors: Electricity production (25%); Food, agriculture and land use (24%); Industry (21%); Transportation (14%); Buildings (6%); and Other energy-related emissions (10%). Reducing sources has the power to bring emissions to zero.

The second category, “Supporting Sinks,” will uplift nature’s carbon cycle and actually take additional carbon out of the air. The solutions here are grouped into land sinks, coastal and ocean sinks, and engineered sinks.

The last category, “Improving Society,” focuses on health and education, for fostering equality is necessary to support solutions in the other categories.

While Project Drawdown focuses on gathering and testing innovations from all over the world, it is important to shine light on the efforts contributed from within our home communities.

What follows is a recognition and a call to support for some of the Salt Lake City and Utah local businesses, nongovernmental and government organizations, and people who are turning this research into living and growing action all around us.

Reducing the Sources Electricity Production & Buildings Shift Production Wind Turbines (ranked #1 in The Drawdown Review) & Solar Photovoltaics (ranked #2)

hermal power but according to the Utah Governor's Office of Energy Development, the state has the potential to harness some 30 times more geothermal power than what it currently produces.

• The University of Utah Energy & Geoscience Institute is leading research for the U.S. Department of Energy under the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Engineering (FORGE) Project to develop, test and accelerate breakthroughs in the technology. WWW.UTAHFORGE.COM

Enhance Efficiency Insulation (ranked #24), Retrofitting Older Homes, and Net Zero Buildings

A shift away from fossil fuel-powered elecInsulation impedes unwanted airflow in and tricity is underway in the U.S. as economics out of buildings. In retrofitted homes and net begin to favor wind and sun energy over coal. zero buildings, heating and cooling become Onshore, offshore and micro scale wind tur- energy efficient with lower emissions. This is esbines, distributed rooftop solar photovoltaics, pecially important in Utah, where, according to utility-scale solar photovoltaics and an evolu- the Utah Division of Air Quality 2018 Annual tion in the grid system will generate clean, Report, in the next four years pollution generemissions-free electricity for homes, buildings ated by homes and small businesses will overand industry. take all other pollution sources in the winter.

• The monopoly utility company Rocky Moun- • Current homeowners can look into Rocky tain Power created a plan in 2017 that will Mountain Power and Dominion Energy rehave added a total of 1,234 megawatts of bates for insulation. WWW.BIT.LY/2WEFN6W new wind energy to the grid by 2020. The • One especially noteworthy insulation busiUtah-based public policy nonprofit, Utah ness is the award-winning AeroBarrier West, Clean Energy, intervened in support for wind energy in Photo courtesy of LivingZenith.com Rocky Mountain Power’s “Energy Vision 2020” plan.

Utah Clean Energy provides expert testimony in technical utility proceedings that has helped to bring multiple utility-sized solar and wind projects to Utah. Utah now has well over a gigawatt of utilitysized solar, wind and geothermal projects, according to their website. WWW.UTAHCLEANENERGY.ORG Geothermal Power (ranked #36) Utah is ranked number three in the country in geot-

servicing Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah.

The company uses an innovative leak-finding technique and an airborne sealant to plug holes as thin as a human hair in homes and other buildings. WWW.AEROBARRIERWEST.COM • For those who are looking to buy or build, Redfish Builders designs, develops and builds net zero homes from start to finish.

Their properties, called Living Zenith homes located near Liberty Park are airtight for maximum efficiency. Equipped with solar panels and battery units, they are also clean energy generators. Inside, they contain smart technologies that eliminate air toxins and help automate the process of ensuring energy efficiency. WWW.LIVINGZENITH.COM • A “Living Building” certification is the true archetype of a sustainable, net zero building. In 2018, a partnership between Community Rebuilds and ArchNexus kicked off a project that became the first full Living Building Challenge-registered project in Utah. They collect and treat their own water, collect and store their own electricity, and are built from natural, non-toxic materials. Their first Utah project, which CATALYST wrote about last year, is set for completion next May. WWW.BIT.LY/2FNVZZJ • Other noteworthy Utah companies include Granite Legacy and Giv Developments that build homes and apartment buildings along the Wasatch Front that are either net zero or to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready specifications for energy efficiency. Perhaps their most notable construction is the 75-home development in South Salt Lake, the Garbett Homes community. www.ArchNexus.com WWW.GARBETTHOMES.COM

WWW.GIVDEVELOPMENT.COM

LED Lighting (ranked #25) • Commercial Lighting Supply is a 35year-old Salt Lake City local business focused on ecofriendly lighting. Not only do they sell nearly all types of LED lights and fixtures, but they will safely recycle your old fluorescent CFL and HID WWW.COMMERCIALbulbs.

LIGHTINGINC.COM

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18 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

April 2020

Smart Thermostats (ranked #43)

Smart thermostats use algorithms and sensors to become more energy efficient over time, adjusting to your schedule and lowering emissions.

• Dominion Energy currently offers a $50 rebate on smart thermostats. WWW.BIT.LY/3DX6URZ

Dynamic Glass (ranked #31) By responding to outside weather conditions, dynamic glass can reduce a building’s energy load for heating, cooling and lighting.

Continued:

FEATURE

Food, Agriculture & Land Use Address Waste and Diets (#3) Reduce Food Waste

The receiving floor of Wasatch Resource Recovery after their first load of organic food in February 2019. Photo courtesy of WASATCHRESOURCERECOVERY.COM

• One of the industry’s leaders, View Dynamic Glass, has performed several large-scale installations in Utah, including at Overstock. com’s headquarters in Midvale, a BYU office and the four-story, 100,000-square-foot office building called Cornerstone II in Cottonwood Heights. WWW.BIT.LY/2UDEUP8)

Green Roofs (ranked #69) Green roofs use soil and vegetation as living insulation, reducing building energy use for heating and cooling. Green roofs have been cropping up atop buildings in most major cities.

• In Salt Lake City, a green roof can be seen on top of the Red Butte Garden Visitor Center ( WWW.BIT.LY/3AOTQXR), Loft Six Four Apartments downtown ( WWW.LOFTSIXFOUR.COM) and, perhaps most notably, atop the LDS Church Conference Center. WWW.BIT.LY/3BUYGTQ

Approximately one third of food produced in the world never gets eaten. In Utah alone, over 600,000 tons of food goes to waste every year. Reducing the amount of the food we waste will reduce demand for food production and transportation, preserving the land and resources used in that production while lowering

delivers it to the food insecure in our community. To date, Waste Less Solutions has saved over 200,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of 216,000 meals. WWW.WASTELESSSOLUTIONS.ORG But what about food that cannot be saved to eat?

• SLCgreen, Salt Lake City’s Sustainability Department, has made diverting food waste a priority in their citywide sustainability plan. As part of their recycling division, the department has instituted a curbside compost collection that accepts all forms of green waste, including food scraps from fruit and vegetables, eggshells, tea bags and coffee grounds, with no additional fee to your monthly garbage bill. The waste is then processed at a compost facility right in the city and turned into wood chips, mulch and compost that is then put up for sale yearround ( WWW.BIT.LY/3DXTMCW ). Through citywide composting, approximately 17,877 tons of food waste is diverted each year.

WWW.SLC.GOV/SUSTAINABILITY/ Yet there is still another gap in the food waste dilemma: What to do with food that cannot be saved to eat, but is cooked, prepared or processed and thus cannot be composted?

What about beverages and packaged foods?

Oils and fats?

• Wasatch Resource Recovery is on a mission to close that gap. It is Utah’s first and only anaerobic digestion plant with two 2.5 million-gallon oxygen-free tanks that break down waste to produce biogas and biofertil-

greenhouse gases emitted from it.

• Waste Less Solutions, a participant in CATALYST’s Clean Air Solutions Fair last month, is one of the area’s most committed leaders in reducing food waste in Utah through their heavy focus on diverting food that is edible from the landfill and View of the Wasatch Resource Recovery in North Salt Lake. to the plates of food-inPhoto courtesy of WASATCHRESOURCERECOVERY.COM secure individuals. In addition to educating izer. Operational since late 2018, the project consumers and food entities on the issue and is not only greatly reducing the amount of solutions, the nonprofit and their core of dedfood going to our landfill but is also generaticated volunteers runs a successful food divering clean energy for the local grid. sion program that rescues edible food and WWW.WASATCHRESOURCERECOVERY.COM

Grocery stores, food and beverage manufacturers, cafeterias, restaurants and other entities across the valley are transporting their food waste to the facility, many through Wasatch Resource Recovery’s collaboration with Momentum Recycling. WWW.BIT.LY/33UZWXH Aside from diverting food waste, WRR also fulfills another one of Project Drawdown’s top solutions: Methane digesters (Ranked #47).

Food waste itself, when left to decompose in a landfill, can become a harmful environmental pollutant. According to Stanford Earth, half of the gas emitted from landfills is methane, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet 34 times as potently than carbon dioxide. In addition to methane, organic waste breaking down in landfills produces another harmful gas: ammonia. Ammonia is an especially nasty gas in Salt Lake City, where it combines with nitrogen oxide produced by vehicles, furnaces and industrial equipment to create ammonium nitrate, a compound that makes up a significant portion of the dreaded PM 2.5 that hovers over our valley in wintertime.

At Wasatch Resource Recovery, the anaerobic digesters contain and capture the various gases produced in the breakdown of organic matter. Methane is separated, purified, converted into biomethane (a renewable natural gas), fed into the nearby gas pipeline and sold into the market as renewable power. According to their website, at full capacity, the digester can supply enough natural gas for approximately 40,000 people—all of the homes in a community the size of Bountiful. The ammonia is condensed and used to form a natural and nutrient-rich, carbon-based liquid fertilizer sold to farmers.

See Mary McIntyre’s March 2019 CATALYST story: WWW.BIT.LY/2UXSGWN.

Plant-Rich Diet (#4): The meat-centric, Western diet accounts for roughly one-fifth of our global emissions.

Much of this detriment is attributable to the way we raise and feed our meat sources in the industrialized agricultural system. Industrial animal production is inhumane, polluting, and much more costly than price-distorting government subsidies make it seem.

Favoring plant-based foods, provided they are not highly processed, lowers demand for meat and dairy, reducing land clearing, fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Critically, when we do buy meat, we need to buy from farmers and ranchers raising grassfed animals. Grass-fed, grazing animals can be key to creating a healthy soil ecosystem as well as healthy humans.

• Local growers and producers online with ordering and pickup options during the COVID-19 pandemic: Canyon Meadows Ranch Beef. CMRBEEF.COM Blue Tree Farms WWW.BLUETREEFARMS.COM Clifford Family Farm Poultry, pork, eggs.

WWW.CLIFFORDFAMILYFARM.COM Lau Family Farms Lamb and beef.

HTTPS://LAUFAMILYFARM.COM Old Home Place / McDowell Family Farm Beef, yak, pork, lamb, llama, pastured poultry.

WWW.OLDHOMEPLACEHERITAGEFARMS@GMAIL.COM

LAW OFFICE OF PENNIANN J. SCHUMANN PLLC Taking positive actions to protect your family with Wills, Trusts, Conservatorships, Guardianships and Mediation, is more important than ever Willing to meet using

Handsown Homegrown Vendor Co-op Veggies, yogurt, microgreens, kombucha, bread, mushroom and more. Online ordering with delivery and pick-up options available.

WWW.HANDSOWNHOMEGROWN.COM/COLLECTIONS • Utah Natural Meat and Milk Beef, lamb, pork, poultry, raw milk, eggs.

WWW.UTAHNATURALMEAT.COM

• Local retail outlets that are still open and offering local products Redmond Heritage Farm Stores (Sugar House, Orem, Heber Valley, Redmond) Full-service natural foods grocer selling locally raised grassfed meats and raw milk. REDMONDFARMS.COM Caputo’s Market Local meats, cheeses, chocolates, eggs, etc. HTTPS://CAPUTOS.COM Liberty Heights Fresh Local meats, cheeses, produce, eggs, etc. WWW.LIBERTYHEIGHTSFRESH.COM With the farmers market season ahead uncertain, you may wish to join one of the Valley’s many local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms, for weekly produce delivery.

Not only will you be sure to up the plants in your diet this way, but you can lower your foodcarbon-footprint and help strengthen an important local economy.

The Urban Food Coalition, presenters of SLC’s downtown farmers markets, is compiling a list of area CSAs. WWW.SLCFARMERSMARKET.ORG

Continued on next page

Events with Genpo Roshi Facing A New Reality: April 15-17, 10am - 12pm The Three Treasures: April 18-19, 9am - 1pm Four Noble Truths: May 23-25

FaceTime, Skype or Zoom

Eightfold Path: May 27-31

Penniann J. Schumann, JD, LL.M

April sessions will be conducted online via Zoom Video.

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2150 S. 1300 E., Ste 500, Salt Lake City, Ut 84106

May events may be virtual or at the ECC Wasatch Conference Center, 75 South 200 East, Salt Lake City.

Registration at 801-328-8414 | BigMind.org

20 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

April 2020

Protect & Restore Ecosystems Forest Protection (#6) Forests are one of our most powerful allies in harnessing carbon from the atmosphere. But more than 15 billion of these “carbon storehouses” are cut down every year. According to the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, timber harvesting on state and private lands in Utah has only increased in recent years.

• The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is one of several organizations that have been successful in their vigilance on preventing de-vegetation and forestation in Utah. Just this February, under pressure by SUWA, the Bureau of Land Management surrendered on plans of multiple major vegetation removal projects in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

WWW.SUWA.ORG • One useful way to reduce reckless deforestation is eco-certification programs that inform consumers and affect our purchasing decisions. When buying wood floors or furniture, an FSC (Forest Certified Council) certified wood promotes responsible forestry practices. WWW.BIT.LY/3BP7X4O. The hardwood floors at Salt Lake City’s Underfoot Floors are FSC certified. They also offer other sustainable options such as bamboo. (See Use Degraded Land for more on bamboo.) WWW.UNDERFOOTFLOORS.NET

Indigenous Peoples’ Forest Tenure (Ranked #30) Around the world indigenous communities have long been leading voices and actors in resisting deforestation, resource extraction and monocrop agriculture. The Drawdown Project commends this resistance for preventing land-based carbon emissions and believes that by securing land tenure to protect indigenous peoples’ sovereignty, their traditional practices will continue to preserve biodiversity, land and forest health, and carbon sinks.

Indigenous peoples have lived in the area now known as the state of Utah for thousands of years. Traditionally, they’ve grown crops as diverse as native potatoes, beans, berries and teas, raising animals all along the region’s water bodies. As urban-

Continued:

FEATURE

ization and habitat degradation have threatened the area’s biodiversity, honoring and learning from traditional and indigenous agricultural and land management practices is as important as ever.

• In revitalizing indigenous food heritage, Utah Diné Bikéyah has launched an innovative Traditional Foods Program directed by Cynthia Wilson, a Navajo Tribal member from Monument Valley, Utah. The program is restoring traditional food practices with the aim of healing the Earth by preserving the cultural and natural resources of ancestral lands. WWW.BIT.LY/2WSRRB7

Use Degraded Land Bamboo production (#21) Bamboo is an excellent alternative to other woods, whose harvests destroy essential forests, and has the potential to substitute for more emissions-intensive products from aluminum and plastic to concrete and even steel.

By purchasing items made of bamboo, you help promote bamboo production, one of the top ways Project Drawdown has found to support sinks (See Support Sinks, nearby). Bamboo supports sinks because it is an extremely effective CO2 absorber, faster than almost any other plant, and can thrive on degraded lands.

• Nature Ponics, a family owned company based in Orem, Utah, pioneers “all-natural growing solutions” in order to help “eradicate problems associated with unhealthy growth practices.” The company builds 100% natural, indoor/outdoor bamboo vertical gardening towers aimed at helping people grow their own food in small spaces while eliminating the need to use plastic. www.NaturePonics.net

Shift Agricultural Practices Conservation Agriculture (#39) Plowing or tilling is the norm in industrial scale agriculture. Farmers rely on this practice to quickly destroy weeds, aerate their soil and fold in their fertilizer. But in doing so, water in their freshly tilled soil evaporates, nutrients are destroyed, and the carbon held in that soil is released into the atmosphere.

Instead, conservation agriculture uses cover crops, crop rotation and minimal tilling, thereby protecting soil and avoiding carbon emissions.

• Wasatch Community Gardens hosts educational programs on how to implement conservation techniques for managing healthy growing here ( WWW.BIT.LY/3AKU1IC) they have compiled tips and resources for using cover crops. WWW.WASATCHGARDENS.ORG • Looking for alternatives to tilling? In a recent CATALYST gardening column, local farmer James Loomis offers some helpful guidance (WWW.BIT.LY/2IMKUPQ).

Regenerative annual cropping (#20) Building on conservation agriculture, regenerative annual cropping enhances and sustains the health of our soil by restoring its organic matter. Healthy soil with healthy organic matter is a successful sink, sequestering and storing carbon from the atmosphere (See Support Sinks nearby).

Practices include no tillage, diverse cover crops, crop rotations, animal grazing, and no pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or external nutrients.

• Onchenda Open Global Food Cooperative is a Utah-based benefit corporation guiding the deployment of regenerative agriculture methods to local farmers and connecting those farmers to marketing and delivery infrastructure . Existing farmers can find free resources such as help building their own online stores. Start-ups and transition growers can join free mentorships. WWW.ONCHENDA.COM • Farmers across the country have cut their costs by abandoning fertilizers, herbi-

cides, pesticides and mechanical energy, and instead have yielded higher profits from a dramatically increased productivity via regenerative agriculture. In 2019, CATALYST wrote about Bob Quinn, a 71-year-old Montana wheat grower and regenerative farming activist. (WWW.BIT.LY/2TFDFPN) • Utah has tested its own success at the practice. In the summer of 2018, Park City began to initiate regenerative agriculture at McPolin Farm. With help from Bill White Farms, cattle were introduced to this relatively undisturbed land and made to eat its grasses and weeds. Park City Sustainability writes about the effect: “The disturbance by the cows’ hooves, as well as what comes out of their tail ends, helped to mix dead matter with the soil and facilitate the decomposition process. This accelerated decomposition is key in releasing nutrients, thus creating a healthy environment for microbiota to trap more carbon away from the atmosphere and build up the health of our soils. The healthy soils are also more able to retain water and allow for better growth of na-

tive species instead of noxious weeds.”

WWW.BIT.LY/3APXGEA

Farm Irrigation Efficiency (#64) One of the best ways to avoid the energy intensive pumping and distribution of agriculture irrigation is to install drip systems. Drip irrigation is not only much more precise and efficient but is the preferred method of irrigation for dry desert regions such as Utah.

• Wasatch Community Gardens has helpful guidelines for gardeners and farmers to install their own drip systems cost effectively.

WWW.BIT.LY/2VWMNSM

Photo courtesy of WASATCHGARDENS.ORG

Industry Address Refrigerants Refrigerant Management (Ranked #9) Refrigerators and air conditioners, domestic and industrial, contain chemical refrigerants that absorb and release heat. While the especially harmful CFC and HCFC refrigerants, once culprits in depleting the ozone layer, have been phased out since 1987, the HFC replacements release fluorinated gases that have a potent greenhouse effect. Substitutes such as propane and ammonium are now on the market to help phase out HFCs. Effective disposal of older refrigerators is extremely important as 90% of refrigerant emissions happen at end of life. You can help avoid emissions in landfills by disposing of your old fridge, freezer or air conditioner responsibly.

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SEASON 2 OF THE PODCAST IS AVAILABLE NOW!

PREACHPOD.ORG

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April 2020

Continued:

FEATURE

• The Salt Lake Valley Landfill accepts hardto-recycle items including refrigerators, freezers and a/c units, disposing refrigerants according to federal regulations before the items are recycled. www.bit.ly/2UIYdBI

transportation system as an alternative to driving.

SLC.GOV provides some useful links to bike resources: • Where to ride: Bike maps and trails WWW.BIT.LY/2XX96I3

Use Waste

• GREENbike WWW.GREENBIKESLC.ORG

Composting (#62) and Recycling (#48)

• Request bike route WWW.BIT.LY/2UBPX6J

According to Project Drawdown, nearly half of the solid waste produced globally is organic or biodegradable. Without proper composting or recycling, much of this waste ends up in landfills where it decomposes in the absence of oxygen, producing a greenhouse gas (methane) that is up to 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

From backyard bins to industrial, city-scale operations, Utah is trying to divert some of this waste through composting and recycling programs.

• For basic guidelines on what you can recycle, where and in which bin for Salt Lake County, visit the Salt Lake County Recycling website.

WWW.SLCO.ORG/RECYCLE/ • Also based in Salt Lake City, the Utah Recycling Alliance stands by its mission to “empower people, organizations and communities statewide to create a Zero Waste culture by building successful models and encouraging practices that promote reuse, recycling and resource conservation.”

They host CHaRMs (collecting hard-to-recycle materials) and Fix-It Clinics around the Valley and every year present awards to local businesses making noteworthy progress towards eliminating and diverting waste. See here ( WWW.BIT.LY/35SXPCA) for stories about recent awardees).

WWW.UTAHRECYCLINGALLIANCE.ORG • The Recycling Coalition of Utah in Park City is the State of Utah’s official resource on recycling. The coalition promotes awareness of waste reduction, supports legislation that promotes effective recycling and provides technical information about recycling and composting to improve Utah municipalities.

WWW.UTAHRECYCLES.ORG • Salt Lake City’s Compost Program, offers curbside compost collection service for most

• Register your bike WWW.BIT.LY/2JFSLPU or Report a stolen bike WWW.BIT.LY/2US11GF maintenance

• Local bicycle events – Cycling Utah Calendar WWW.BIT.LY/2UBPSJK

Electric Bikes (#55) E-bikes have become popular in Utah in recent years. For around $1,000 to $2,000, you can purchase your own and stay out of your car even for longer or more strenuous trips.

of the year, for residents who pay a general monthly garbage fee. Toss in all forms of green waste, including food scraps from fruit and vegetables, eggshells, tea bags and coffee grounds. WWW.BIT.LY/3DXTMCW ) (See Reduce Food Waste and SLCgreen above).

• Or, start your own backyard composting with help from Wasatch Community Gardens.

Read their guide here (WWW.BIT.LY/2ULZXXZ).

Transportation Shift to Alternatives Public Transit (#19) Efficient, easy to use, accessible public transportation helps keep car use to a minimum and averts greenhouse gases.

• Visit the Utah Transit Authority’s website for bus routes, TRAX, ski bus, FrontRunner and more. Note: Regularly scheduled FrontRunner and Trax service continues as of this writing, March 24; many bus routes have been limited or suspended. WWW.RIDEUTA.COM

Bike infrastructure (#45) Biking is another important part of our

Here are some links to local e-bike businesses: • Magnum Electric Bikes WWW.MAGNUMBIKES.COM • Salt Lake Ebikes WWW.SALTLAKEEBIKES.COM • High Country EBikes WWW.HIGHCOUNTRYEBIKES.COM

Electrify Vehicles Electric Cars (#27) According to Project Drawdown, “Compared to gasoline-powered vehicles, emissions drop by 50% if an [electric vehicle’s] power comes off the conventional grid. If powered by solar energy, carbon dioxide emissions fall by 95%.”

Locally, transportation accounts for nearly 50% of the pollutants that accumulate during winter. Electric vehicles including cars will be a huge part of protecting our regional air quality on top of reaching global drawdown.

The good news is that the city has reported an uptick in EV use in Salt Lake City.

Incentives might make it possible for you, too, to purchase an EV. • Live Electric incentive list (www.LiveElectric.org/Incentives)

Locally, transportation accounts for nearly 50% of the pollutants that accumulate during winter.

• Utah Department of Environmental Quality incentive programs (WWW.BIT.LY/2UCZKD7) • The Federal Plug-in Electric Drive Vehicle Tax Credit (WWW.BIT.LY/39KWCR9) • U Drive Electric, though closed, deserves a gracious nod for bringing over 76 EVs into Utah in less than two months in 2015 ( WWW.BIT.LY/2UGZ5QQ). The program, through the University of Utah, sponsored community group purchasing or leasing at a dramatic discount, the first university program of its kind in the nation.

Part one of Project Drawdown’s framework for climate solutions is to, first and foremost, reduce sources of emissions.

Improving Society

“Climate solutions are never just climate solutions.”

The last overarching area of action aims to foster equality for all. “Climate and social systems are profoundly connected, and those connections open up solutions that are often overlooked.”

Health and Education (#5) Securing gender equality and advancing human well-being through health and education means, in large part, promoting educational opportunities for girls and young women and access to reproductive healthcare.

When this happens, women’s political, social and economic empowerment expands, increasing positive ripple effects.

Access to education/ economic opportunities: • Started in 2016, Wasatch Community Gardens’ job training program, the Green Team, “aims to simultaneously revitalize an underutilized urban area while providing opportunities for women who are experiencing homelessness” during a 10-month period (WWW.WASATCHGARDENS.ORG/GREEN-TEAM-FARM).

Last year, Wasatch Community Gardens launched Seeds of Success, an additional job training and placement program to assist single mothers living in poverty.

CATALYST wrote in more depth about these programs here: WWW.BIT.LY/36WE1WZ. • Politically, it is important to support women running for office. A recent report by WalletHub and covered by the SL Tribune ranked Utah worst state in the country for women’s equality. A large part of this analysis stemmed from the political category, which includes the number of women elected to federal and state political positions and executive jobs. HTTPS://BIT.LY/3DXNMBE

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24 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

April 2020

• The Utah Women’s Coalition is statewide, made up of nonprofit organizations, women’s groups, medical professionals and policymakers working toward expanding economic opportunities, educational equity and ending gender-based violence in Utah. Check their website for upcoming events and how to get involved. WWW.UTAHWOMENSCOALITION.ORG

Access to reproductive healthcare: • Planned Parenthood (PPAU) is the most affordable reproductive health care provider in Utah, offering reproductive health care and ed-

Continued:

FEATURE

ucation in the state for nearly 50 years.

WWW.PLANNEDPARENTHOOD . ORG /P LANNED PARENTHOOD-UTAH Title X, the government program that reduces costs for services, is no longer available to Planned Parenthood patients because of a new rule from the Trump Administration. Even so, PPAU is seeing patients insured or not and uses a sliding fee scale with a minimum $10 copay while still ensuring that they will not turn

any patients away.

PPAU is currently fighting the rule change and has a list of ways you, too, can help: WWW.ISTANDWITHPP.ORG.

Supporting Sinks Part two is to uplift nature’s carbon cycle through supporting natural carbon sinks that will further return atmospheric carbon to living vegetation and soils. Several practices that support sinks have already been discussed under Food, Agriculture & Land Use such as plant-rich diets, reduced food waste, conservation agriculture and regenerative annual cropping, reminding us that many of our climate solutions are indeed intertwined.

Land Sinks Shift Agriculture Practices Silvopasture (#11) Integrating trees, pasture and forest into a single system improves land health while significantly increasing carbon sequestration. Silvopasture is the practice of integrating forestry and the grazing of livestock.

Because livestock grazing is already common in Utah forests and woodlands, silvopasture has great implementation potential in this state.

• The Utah State University Forestry Extension has created an extensive fact sheet detailing the relationships between trees and forage and providing Utah-specific

suggestions on managing land for forest grazing, a helpful resources for interested ranchers (WWW.BIT.LY/2XUIH2M).

Engineered Sinks Remove and store carbon Biochar Production (#51) Biochar, a product of biomass, has the potential to produce “2.2-4.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions reductions by 2050,” according to Project Drawdown. When biomass (anything from peanut shells to wood chips) is

baked in the near or total absence of oxygen, the carbon that normally would have been released into the atmosphere in surface level decomposition becomes stored in biochar. When biochar is buried, it can hold that carbon stable in soil for centuries while simultaneously enriching the soil and improving its functions.

Check out CATALYST’s coverage of biochar, “Garden Like a Boss: Biochar 101.”

WWW.BIT.LY/2UZ2OQE. • The Southern Rockies Fire Science Network is currently collaborating with Utah State University Forestry Extension to study an innovative approach to removing hazardous fuels through biochar kilns that results in the production of useful biochar.

WWW.BIT.LY/2QP83RA)

Making biochar

• Park City’s biochar program has been incorporating biochar into community tree plantings since 2017 and has hosted community demonstrations about the production of biochar.

WWW.BIT.LY/3DXAED3 • Interested in purchasing your own biochar as a way to help recharge your soil? Here are some online listings in the Salt Lake area: Biochar soil amendment: WWW.BIT.LY/2XQ7J4Q GOBiochar (John Webster) WWW.BIT.LY/3BFJ0GH

Conclusion While extensive, this guide to forward-looking local climate businesses and organizations is certainly not complete. The take-away, though, is this: Viable solutions for reversing global warming are plausible and economically realistic even in our home state—and we know this is true because it is happening now.

but it will require much more than the right technologies and practices being available. Genuine evolution is in order—evolution in what we value, how we treat one another, who holds the reins of power, the ways institutions operate, and the very contours of our economies.” (page 79) In learning from Project Drawdown and compiling this guide, what most stands out for me is that the necessary divergence

Viable solutions for reversing global warming are plausible and economically realistic even in our home state— and we know this is true because it is happening now.

What more? This report shows that a significant community here is ready to undertake the challenging task of cultural transformation necessary for bold climate action. Capitol is moving from the problems to the solutions, and so is human energy and spirit.

“A transformation that moves us toward drawdown is possible, as demonstrated here,

from our dangerous course will not come from implementing one or two major solutions, even if we threw all of our collective energy toward them. There is no panacea, no cure-all. Instead, the healing and reversing will come from an accumulation of acts implemented in parallel. Change here, growth there, stepping forward, continuing on. ◆

Emily Spacek graduated with a degree in political science. She is a CATALYST staff writer.

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April 2020

SWAMI BEYONDANANDA

2020 State of the Universe Address A two-step program to create political climate change and establish heartland security

BY STEVE BHAERMAN “To upshift our karma in these challenging times, we must embrace political climate change—warmer hearts and cooler heads.”

—Swami Beyondananda

Editor’s Note: Swami Beyondananda —student of the ancient Foo Ling Masters and Farce-Seeing Sages, Fooly-Realized proponent of Cosmic Comic Consciousness, and spiritual leader to countless fundamentalists (accent on fun)—has taken up the issue of political climate change. Here is Swami’s annual State of the Universe offering his 2020 vision for healing the body politic and establishing Heartland Security, delivered recently at the Ascended Masters Golf Tournament.

Greetings, mirthlings.

Welcome to the 2020 State of the Universe Address, and the state of the Universe is... everchanging, same as always. And expanding. Ever since the Big Bang went boom and particles departed to the far reaches of the cosmos, we’ve been stretching the limits of the limitless.

In the midst of all this far-flung dispersion, it’s good to remember we share One Common Ancestor: the Big Bang. So, any living being can proudly proclaim: “The Big Bang—that’s my Pop. I’ll be a son-of-a-gun!”

It makes sense to keep a cosmic comic perspective: We are part of the inescapable Oneness. The Universe has us surrounded. Might as well surrender!

The time is right for an Evolutionary Upwising where we the people recognize we are the leaders we have been waiting for. Things have come to a head, and so we must come to the heart.

And what better to surrender to than the power of love? (Remember... love is more powerful than fear, otherwise we’d be singing, “All You Need Is Fear.”)

And what better time to surrender to love than when the absence of love is running rampant?

Take our political system—please!

As the conversation becomes more toxic, people are taking things poisonally. On one side, we have people shouting, “DONALD TRUMP WAS SENT BY GOD!” On the other side, people are shouting even more loudly, “YES—BECAUSE GOD RAN OUT OF LOCUSTS!” It has been said—I know, because I said it— there are two political parties in America: The Democratic Party and the Undemocratic Party.

Indeed, the Republican Party has been dominated by the lowest common dominator, and mining interests—as in, “that’s mine, that’s mine, that’s mine!” Consequently our planet has been over-mined and our democracy undermined. Thanks to “ethic cleansing”—where all the ethical people get cleansed out of positions of power—the rule of law has been superseded by the rule of lawlessness, and our democracy has devolved into a mockracy.

Meanwhile, in the impeachment case, Republican senators called it acquits before seeing any evidence they didn’t want to see. Talk about notseeism! Well, as the old saying goes, if it quacks like a duck and steps like a goose, there is something fowl afoot. When accused of “selling his soul to the devil,” an unnamed Republican senator vehemently denied the charge, insisting he was “merely renting it.”

And the Democrats? While the Republicans bend over backward for the special interests of agribusiness, big Pharma, the banking industry and the military industrial complex, the Democrats are completely the opposite. They bend over forward.

And it is understandable. In a fixed game where money rules, they, too, have forsaken the Golden Rule for the rule of gold.

Which is why I call for impeachment—of the entire impeachable system. If we truly want a new President, we must stand for a new “precedent”—government of the people, by the people, and for the people, where the government does our bidding not the bidding of the highest bidder. That is the only way to heal the “bidderness” that has divided the body politic.

Introducing a new program So, how do we create political climate change and establish heartland security?

I’m glad I asked that question.

We do it by addressing three other questions: What’s so? So what? Now what?

What’s so?

We are in the midst of the greatest reality show ever conceived—REALITY—where our species finds itself the reluctant hero in a reallife monster movie. A prehistoric dinosaur, Tyrantosaurus Wrecks, threatens the web of life and the web of love on this planet.

So what?

We must realize that Tyrantosaurus Wrecks lives inside each of us as our “reptile brain” and in order to slay the monster, we must evolve from cold-blooded reptile to warmhearted mammal. And yes, even Jesus believed in evolution; otherwise he would have

said, “Now don’t do a thing till I get back.” To put it bluntly, if this large-bodied, small-minded dinosaur doesn’t go extinct, then we will.

Now what?

The time is right for an Evolutionary Upwising where we the people recognize we are the leaders we have been waiting for.

Things have come to a head, and so we must come to the heart.

The hindbrain must now take a back seat, as we remember that Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” This is no meekymouse idea, my friends. The idea that only a “strong man” can save us—that is a phallusy.

So, as promised, here is my two-step program, mathematically guaranteed to work six times faster than 12-Step:

Step One. De-elect the Misleader.

Yes, I know how challenging it was to vote for the lesser evil in 2016, when we had to choose between the Neocon and the Genghis Khan. And yet, it is undeniably true—when we fail to choose the lesser evil, we get the greater evil. Tyrantosaurus Wrecks has brought our shadow to light, and now it is time for us to bring light to the shadow. The body politic’s immune system must be activated so that we take the first step toward healing. We begin the evolution by firing the first Big Shot.

Step Two. Bring left and right front and center to face the music and dance together.

When healthy cells fight other healthy cells in a body it is called autoimmune disease. So instead of pulling ourselves apart in a tug-of-war, we must now all pull together in a tugof-peace, moving past the identity issues that divide us to the identical issues that unite us: Clean air, clean water, clean food, clean government.

We must bring together the entire political spectrum, from blue-blooded whites to red-

We begin the evolution by firing the first Big Shot. blooded blacks, not to mention full-blooded redskins, and every shade in between. We must bring red tribe Republicans and blue tribe Democrats together in a Reconstitutional Confab where we talk until we are purple in the face. Remember, the only way to overgrow corporate personhood is with Purple Peoplehood.

Truly, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. Love lives in our hearts, and beliefs lie in our heads. And boy, do those beliefs know how to lie! They are telling us, “I am right! I am right!” and if we keep on that track it will be “last rites” for all of us.

So to establish heartland security, we recognize that our true security is in the land of the heart. And the best way to leave the static in the head for the ecstatic in the heart is through hearty laughter. We must embrace the Cosmic Comic Paradox: The world is in serious condition, and yet there is definitely something funny going on.

You want to uplift humanity?

Begin by uplifting the corners of your mouth in a smile, and using the super-power of levity you can uplift the world.

Think I’m kidding? Of course I am. And you should be kidding, too.

Before entering any political conversation, take a vow of levity: “All for fun ... and fun for all!”

May you take humor seriously, and seriousness humorously. May the farce be with you. May you wake up laughing and leave laughter in your wake. ◆ Swami Beyondananda can be found at HTTPS://WWW.WAKEUPLAUGHING.COM/. He is available for Skype events so you can have Swami show up in your living room without having to feed him. His new book is Totally Quips of the Swami: Comedy Disguised As Wisdom, Wisdom Disguised As Comedy. Catch Steve Bhaerman’s radio show podcast Wiki Politiki at HTTPS://WIKIPOLITIKI.COM/

“Social Disttancing ancing” can still still be social!

28 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

Apirl 2020

2020

Last grand gathering for a while

BY GRETA BELANGER DEJONG

COMMUNITY tive bee habitat, make biochar and more.

Students from Salt Lake Community College’s Fashion Institute (and their instructor, Amy Royer) stenciled T-shirts with A/Q-related messages. The Wonderbloom Nature School orchestrated a single use plastics-free KidZone. Many expressed enthusiastic thank you's for the day as they departed. It was the best fair ever, and I was sad that the hall wasn’t teeming with people all day. The scene at the music festival outside our door looked similar. What had sucked up all our potential attendees?

Within a few days the answer was clear, and I was grateful for the lack of teeming masses.

On March 14, coronavirus cases in Utah had risen to 10, including the first case of community spread. Gatherings of more than 10 were prohibited by public health order. By the 21st, cases rose to 136, and by March 28, 602. By the time you read this, numbers will likely have doubled and more.

Nonetheless, a great time was had by all who made it out on March 7—one of the last days that large-scale socializing took place in

S

aturday, March 7, 2020 seems like a dream, now. It was the day of our 7th Annual Clean Air Solutions Fair, held at The Gateway. We expected an extra-large crowd this year, because in addition to all of our get-the-word-out gestures, KRCL and others were hosting an International Women’s Day music festival just outside our door.

We were ready, with a stellar lineup of relevant exhibitors, plus a great skill share zone, an air quality lobbying workshop, almost all the related nonprofits in town, on-message vendors, an aerial rig for the Clean Aerial faeries to perform, and the Sound Bath Experience in the Great Hall. It was poised to be the best clean air fair yet.

That was also the morning Utahns awoke to the Salt Lake Tribune front page headline that hinted at what was to come: “Utah announces its first coronavirus case”—a person who had been recently exposed on the Grand Princess cruise ship—”And the governor declared a state of emergency.”

To say the fair was lightly attended, at least compared to our high expectations, would be an overstatement. But many who came stayed at length and participated.

The skill share zone was particularly lively.

People made beeswax candles and learned how to darn socks, hem pants, make sauerkraut, maintain their garden tools, build a na-

Green Urban Lunch Box HEAL Utah Mariyurveda Michael Cundick for County Mayor Millcreek Gardens Mobile Moon Coop Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance (MESA) Natural Grocers Natural Law Apothecary O2 Today PathoSans Prival Foundation SLCC Fashion Institute Salt Lake Co. Health Department - Air Quality Salt Lake eBikes SLC Air Protectors SLCgreen Sustainable Business Coalition TreeUtah Underfoot Floors Utah Clean Energy Utah League of Women Voters (ULWV) Utah Permaculture Collective Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment Utah Transit Authority / Travel Trainers Wasatch Community Gardens Wasatch Cooperative Market Waste Less Solutions WholeSun Wellness

Financial contributors: Utah Clean Air Partnership / UCAIR Marathon (formerly Andeavor) O2 Today Underfoot Floors

In-kind contributors: Salt Lake City. No singing or kissing occurred that I know of. I hope you’ve all remained safe and well. Abundant thanks to all of the following organizations, financial and in-kind contributors and volunteers:

Exhibitors: Bags to Beds Cameron Wellness Center Center for Biological Diversity Central Wasatch Commission Citizens' Climate Lobby Clark Planetarium Clean the Darn Air Clever Octopus Creative Reuse Center East Bear Design Energy Doctors, Inc. Green Party Utah

The Gateway KRCL PurpleAir SkinnyFATS Coffee Garden Water & Wellness Salt Lake Bike Collective Wonderbloom Nature School And last but not least, thanks to the CATALYST staff—John, Sophie, Polly; star volunteer and advisor Jim French; board members Jenn Blum and Naomi Silverstone; our interns past and present—Emily, Katie, Nataly, Shannon, Jade; and community volunteers Lori, Lee, Ryan, Chloe, Alan, Erica, Josh, Will, Jim and J. Also thank you to Sam Crump for his wonderful photographs. Thank you all, and let’s convene again next year! ◆ Greta deJong is founder and editor of CATALYST.

30 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

April 2019

GARDEN LIKE A BOSS

Bring back the Victory Garden Shit gets real

BY JAMES LOOMIS

E

arthquakes. A global pandemic. Grocery store aisles stripped bare. Restaurant dining rooms, bars, and many businesses are closed. Despite our state’s misplaced reputation for emergency preparedness, harried citizens are waking up before dawn to get to the grocery at 6am in hopes of securing toilet paper and hand sanitizer. It seems all around me, most people are somewhere between pretty worried and total panic.

But not me, I’m winning. I have victory planted in my back yard; hell, it’s growing in my side and front yard as well.

World War Two, the output of the citizens matched the output of big ag.

Even Eleanor Roosevelt tore out a swath of White House lawn to plant a victory garden,

Plants want to grow—it’s easier than you think!

The term “Victory Garden” was coined in World War One. Encouraging the entire population of the Allied countries to grow food gardens everywhere was a crucial component of the war strategy. By getting citizens to produce their own food, the bulk of agricultural production could be shipped out to feed the troops.

Through a massive American propaganda and information campaign, people responded and planted vegetables, fruit and herbs everywhere. Home gardens replaced lawns. Parks, church property and vacant lots transformed into micro farms, and apartment balconies soon hosted battalions of potted plants. The effort was so successful during both world wars, that by the end of

despite pushback from the Department of Agriculture. Big Ag thought this move was taking it a bit too far, as too much encouragement for citizens to plant their own food might result in lost profits for the agricultural sector! I’m not sure whether it’s comforting or terrifying to

How to do it Step 1: Locate your space to grow.

Most vegetables, herbs, fruit

producing trees and bushes prefer full sun, at least six or more hours of light. Have a shady back yard?

Use your front or side yard. Find an abandoned lot and plant it.

Pots, wooden crates, and anything that will hold a potting mix allow you to grow on balconies or other unconventional areas. Find those open spaces in your flower beds and fill them with food plants. One square foot of open soil can grow a grape vine that will eventually produce more than you could possibly eat, so be sure to share.

learn that corrupt business interests were putting their profits above the well being of the general population as much in the 1940s as they do today.

Unfortunately, neighborhood resiliency fell out of fashion as the convenience craze took over in the years following WWII, and this is where we all find ourselves today. My dear reader, I cannot in good faith allow you to “survive” on stockpiled wheat flour while I’m enjoying fresh grilled beets, arugula and hard cider. Bags of rice provide little nourishment, let alone enjoyment, unless paired with an ample supply of fresh vegetables.

In addition to food, the garden can produce other resources as well. Panicked over now toilet paper? Not this guy. My property grows ample amounts of mullein, a plant with thick, wide, velvety soft leaves that makes thin and abrasive toilet paper seem like a barbaric blast to the booty. (Note: Not for flushing.)

The time to plant your garden is now! With the uncertainty of mandatory lockdowns and scarcity of resources looming over our heads, we must reclaim our neighborhood resilience and produce what we can ourselves, and then dehydrate, freeze, ferment, bottle and share the surplus.

In addition to providing resources, thrusting your hands into living soil, being outside in the sunshine and moving around while gardening are all incredibly potent boosts to your mental and physical health as well as a huge reinforcement to your immune system.

Few things compromise your immune response more than stress and a sedentary lifestyle, so get off your ass and let’s plant a garden!

Step 2: Study up!

Revel in your newfound free

time and study YouTube and organic gardening sites to learn all the tricks of the trade (at least until the internet crumbles; be sure to print off some of those resources!). Read gardening books, seed catalogues, and other re-

sources. Fill that noggin with useful information.

Step 3: Acquire resources.

Order, ask a gardener, or barter for seeds. Many perennial herbs

and fruit-producing plants are able to be divided or cloned from cuttings; it’s often as easy as separating out a rampant division of mint or oregano, or pruning a cane from a raspberry or grape vine and sticking it in the ground.

Plants want to grow—it’s easier than you think.

For warm season crops like tomatoes and peppers, which need to be started from transplants, keep your eyes on Wasatch Community Gardens Spring Plant Sale; we’re working hard to make sure that we do whatever it takes to make sure we have plants available to those who need them around Mother’s Day, even if we have to be creative in how we do it.

Gather as much compost, aged manure, leaves and other organic matter as you can.

Store them and be ready.

Step 4: Prepare the soil Remove lawn, debris, or whatever is coming

between you and your soil. Incorporate composted organic matter, aged manure, or other organic amendments. Don’t have any? Don’t let that hold you back. Most soils, especially those on the east end of the valley in Salt Lake City, are ready to produce plenty of productive growth with zero amendments. To be honest, most work many gardeners do to improve their soils are for their own enjoyment, not for the necessity of growing a garden.

Step 5: Plant!

There is no better source of information

than what is found on the back of a seed packet. Read it and do what it says! Plant spacing, planting season, and seed depth are all critical to the success of your garden.

Armed with the information you gathered in Step 2, you can do it, trust me. Plants simply want to grow, you are merely the facilitator.

Add water and time, and get ready for the food to roll in. As Ron Finley, LA’s “gangster gardener” says, “Growing your own food is like printing your own money.”

For the unprepared, quarantine, lockdown, and rationing may be terrifying. For those of us who planted and prepared, it’s a time for relaxation, meditation, and to catch up on all that reading. Stay safe, stay healthy, and may you look back on this time with fond memories of when society finally just slowed the f*ck down. ◆ James is a full time farmer, permaculture weirdo, and president of the OchO Society, a nonprofit dedicated to ecological education and adventure.

32 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

NATURE

April 2020

Flying Jewel

A single parent mom moves in

BY DAVID DEREZOTES

I

nvisible with speed, a tiny blur buzzes up to a perch above our front door. It’s mid-May and Salt Lake is still in a wet cold spring. The hummers started arriving in April and already are fighting over the feeder we hung on the back porch.

Sitting by the window in the evening, we notice her busyness.

“That guy keeps going up there, what’s it doing?”

The next day it becomes more obvious. A puffy cloud of fuzz is being spun on the lattice under the portico. The foundation for a nest!

Being a nature nerd, I go online to find out more.

Archilochus alexandri. The Black Chinned, one of the most widespread Utah hummingbird species. Weighing about 3½ grams and about 8¼ centimeters long, it was named after a Dr. Alexandre, who was the first European to “discover” the species in what is now Mexico’s Sierra Madre.

Knowing that Indigenous People must have known about these magical animals for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years before the doctor, I search for more information.

In ancient times, hummingbirds were considered sacred and connected with royal leaders and warriors. For example, the hummer was

a divine animal connected with Huitzilopochtli, an important sun and war god of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. Huitzilopochtli was often depicted in traditional art as a hummingbird or eagle. The Mayans tell the story of how the hummingbird is the sun in disguise, wooing a woman who is disguised as the moon. Probably the biggest tribute to the hummer is the giant Nazca hummer geoglyph constructed on the arid coastal plain of what is now Peru maybe 20 centuries ago, measuring about 107 yards long and 72 yards wide.

Hummers are ancient beings; the first evolved about 22 million years ago. In fact, hummers are dinosaurs, according to paleontologists. After most dinosaurs died off about 65 million years ago, some of the feathered versions continued on, evolving into the different bird species we have today.

Our new guest is carrying a tiny bit of what looks like spider web in her beak. She zips up to the nest and deaccelerates to a stop in far less than a second. Scientists have found that hummers can flap their wings in their unique figure-eight pattern up to 70 times a second and when flying their heart can beat up to an incredible 1,260 times a minute, returning to an average of 480 times per minute at rest.

What it is like to live in such an accelerated state? These animals must experience life in a completely differently way than we do.

Many tribes in what is now Central and North America see hummingbirds as spiritual messengers between worlds, keeping nature and spirit in balance and often associated with integrity, beauty, harmony and hard work.

Hummers are also seen as healers and bringers of love, joy and good fortune; in Central America, they may bring love to those who are lucky enough to see them. Some ancient people living in what now is known as the Caribbean thought they carry the spirits of their ancestors, and the Taino also saw hummers as the pollinators who bring new life and rebirth to the world. The Hopi have the Tocha Kachina, a hummingbird spirit animal favored by the tribe, and along with the Zuni and Pueblo believe that they ask the gods to bring rain to people. The hummingbird animal totem is still said today to assist people in self-discovery and to provide us with pathways to self-expression and awareness.

Native only to the Americas, hummers are often seen as magical and special animals. The Spanish called the birds Joyas Voladores, which meant Flying Jewels.

Flying Jewel

A new generation

That’s a good name for our new guest. According to the experts it typically takes a hummer about six days to build a nest, which is about how much time our Flying Jewel needed. The nest is typically built 10 to 90 feet high in trees or shrubs, but our visitor’s nest is maybe eight feet high and is on our porch. The Black-Chin typically builds a nest that has a deep cup with a rim curved inward, but this hummer’s nest is not so deep or curved, perhaps because of the limited room below the roof.

Hummers are regular immigrants, international travelers who often migrate across the southern U.S. border with Mexico. They do not recognize the arbitrary lines we humans draw across the globe, that separate us from each other, and that provide a rationale for some people to hate those on the other side. Partners in Flight reports a breeding population of about five million, with 1% breeding in Canada, 86% spending at least some time in the U.S., and nearly 100% spending time in Mexico.

As her nest nears completion, Flying Jewel starts to spend time sitting in her creation. She has woven tiny fibers, leaves, and twigs together with spider silk so that the nest can stretch as the young grow.

The books say that she typically lays two eggs, the size of coffee beans, one each morning over a two-day period. We are curious, but we do not want to disturb her by climbing up to see what is going in.

The books also say that the hummer mother will buzz other birds, as well as other animals who approach the nest, including humans. Occasionally she buzzes us, but usually takes off every time we use the front door. We agree to go around the house as much as possible and enter in the backyard. I hope she appreciates the effort we make as we wait for her to lay and incubate her eggs, and she does seem to start to recognize that we are friendly towards her.

Then one day Flying Jewel changes her behavior. We read that the mother typically lays her two eggs on two consecutive mornings. A black-chinned hummingbird’s tiny white eggs are only about half an inch long and about a third of an inch wide. Incubation period is 1216 days and the nesting period is about 21 days. We observe her now sitting on her nest, leaving only briefly to feed herself. She catches small insects in flight, on plants and on the ground, and takes nectar from flowers by extending her tongue into the corolla while hovering.

We guess that a baby has hatched when Flying Jewel starts bringing food back to the nest.

We watch her feed her young by regurgitating bugs and nectar into her baby's mouth. After a

Hummingbirds are international travelers who often migrate across the southern U.S. border with Mexico.

They do not recognize the arbitrary lines we humans draw across the globe, that separate us from each other.

From a breeding population of about five million, 86% spend at least some time in the U.S., and nearly 100% spend time in Mexico.

few days we start to see the tops of tiny mouths, opening up after she lands with more food. The two babies grow at an impressive rate and we see more and more of their bodies emerging out of the nest as the days pass.

Flying Jewel works hard, and we wonder where the father is. The literature clearly states that the male Archilochus alexandri does not help with nest building or care of the young, but it is difficult to find an explanation of why that is. Although in most animal species females care for offspring, male parenting and incubating is most common in birds. Nature does not seem to like to waste resources, and evolution seems to favor reproductive success, so one wonders why the male Black Chin does not help out in ensuring its children’s survival. But then, it is perhaps equally difficult to understand the neglect that some human fathers show towards their children as well.

Juvenile hummingbirds fledge on average 18 to 28 days after hatching. Gradually they grow so big that the mother has to feed them while perched outside of the nest. We watch the babies test their wings, holding onto the nest with their small feet as they practice taking off. We go on “fledge watch,” focusing on the nest in the mornings when they are reported to be most likely to try their wings.

One morning, we notice that one baby has left the nest without our oversight. Determined, we double our efforts to see if we can observe the second baby leave.

We are blessed. The second baby flies a few feet and then clings to the porch railing, maybe four feet above the ground. The mother hovers nearby, perhaps even lightly nudging the baby with her long bill, as if to encourage another take off. Finally the baby flies off again, this time dropping to the porch cement. Again mom nudges, and the baby continues in the air maybe 10 feet to a flowering plant in the yard.

Continued on next page

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34 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

April 2020

A few long seconds later, the baby manages to fly up to the lowest branch of the big ash.

Success! We are happy to see the children now more on their own. With our own human children successfully “fledged,� the babies have become our first adopted children.

The last weeks we have seen the babies flying around the neighborhood. We can identify them by their coloring, size and behavior. Their flight becomes more purposeful and confident over the last weeks.

One finds a favorite branch on the hawthorne tree near the road. The other seems to like a perch up high in the backyard, overlooking the feeders.

This single parent hummer family has been a blessing in many ways. We now live in the Anthropocene, a geological era when we humans have become the dominant species influencing climate change and environmental deterioration. Many of us are aware of the grief we feel over the increasing loss of wildlife and wildlands and the deterioration of the anthromes (human-dominated environments such as cities, suburbs, farms and ranches) we live in. Many of us appreciate what E.O. Wilson called biophilia, or our natural af-

continued:

NATURE

This biophilia, our interconnectedness, is multidimensional. On the biological level, for example, the hummers are our genetic cousins; we reportedly share maybe 60% of our DNA on average with birds. On a social level, we humans share many mating and family patterns with hummers and other birds. On a spiritual level, we share with hummers this beautiful planet and the gigantic universe that Earth is traveling through.

filiation with living things, as we plant the gardens, care for the house plants and interact with the animals that help sustain our physical and mental health.

This biophilia, our interconnectedness, is multidimensional. On the biological level, for example, the hummers are our genetic cousins; we reportedly share maybe 60% of our DNA on average with birds. On a social level, we humans share many mating and family patterns with hummers and other birds. On a spiritual level, we share with hummers this beautiful planet and the gigantic universe that Earth is traveling through.

When we sit in the back near the feeders, the babies seem less frightened of us than the adults in the neighborhood. They sometimes even fly up to us, hovering a few feet from our faces.

Do they recognize us as their adopted parents? Do they know that we love them, and wish them well? There may be no way to know for sure.

But I would like to think so. â—† David Derezotes, known as "Dr. Dave" by his students, is a Professor in the College of Social Work and Director of Peace and Conflict Studies in the College of Humanities, University of Utah. He can often be found wandering in the Colorado Plateau backcountry.

POETRY

Poetry Month Celebration

E

leven poetry boxes are placed throughout the University of Utah’s Red Butte Garden. This month and next, they contain the winning poems of RBG’s annual Poetry Month contest. Alas, you cannot see them because the Garden is closed. But here’s one. You can also view all the winning poems at WWW.REDBUTTEGARDEN.ORG/GARDEN-POETRY-WALK We’ll also publish more throughout April in CATALYST’s Weekly Reader, emailed each Thursday. Sign up here: HTTPS://CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET/SUBSCRIBE-WEEKLY-READER

City Spring It’s lying in bed between snooze buttons and hearing larks in the parking lot outside your window.

It’s mornings that start late but get bright suddenly and a different slant to the light stealing – more boldly now – through the blinds.

It’s turning the heat off and an apartment that smells different and emerald ash beetles gleaming on your car.

It’s switching from chai to frappuccinos.

It’s a bigger crop of food carts in Research Park. It’s happier co-workers, and new Employee Wellness classes, and daylight through the windshield on your way home.

And then its worms wending alongside

your jogging feet, and the tiniest rabbits in the Russian knapweed, and weeds along South Temple in every shade of purple – and still being surprised to see flowers.

It’s feeling grateful you didn’t miss the one day when they all bloomed together.

And – blessedly late, not until you yearn for it – it’s a sunset in all the citrus shades of Pinkberry deepening behind druid circles of deer.

— Victoria Childress About the Author Victoria Childress studied creative writing at Virginia Tech while earning a master’s degree in public health. Originally from Virginia, she now lives in Salt Lake City, where she works as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of Utah.

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36 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

YOGA

April 2020

Lost in thought?

Instead, mind your thoughts

BY CHARLOTTE BELL

and plans. And they create much of our world.

All the roads and bridges and cities and language and medicine and clothing and timepieces and chairs and governments, and all these things that we live within, were ideas in someone's mind. And so mind is both creative in enormous ways, and as we can see in the world, mind also can be destructive.”

Thinking, in itself, is not a problem. The only power our thoughts actually have is the power that we give them. The art of working with thoughts in meditation is to learn how to be aware that thinking is happening, rather than getting caught up in the stories they are telling us. When we see thinking as an energetic phenomenon rather believing every story our minds tell us, we can begin to unhook ourselves. When we can unhook from

The average human has 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts every day. Ninety-eight percent of these thoughts are the same thoughts we had yesterday.

O

ver the past decades of mentoring people in mindfulness practice, the most common quandary I hear from novice meditators is this: “I can’t meditate. When I sit down to meditate, my mind becomes busier than ever. I thought meditation was supposed to help you quiet your mind.”

Sound familiar? I’d guess that most people who have spent any time meditating have had the same experience. It’s very common, but it doesn’t have to be source of frustration.

The frustration comes from a couple of common misunderstandings.

First, because the tsunami of thoughts seems to happen the moment we sit down to meditate, we often mistake meditation as the cause. Actually, meditation is simply shining a light on what is happening all the time in our minds. Once we sit down and attempt to quiet our minds, we see how much thinking is going on all the time. We’ve just never sat quietly long enough to notice it.

The second misunderstanding is that meditation is about emptying our minds of all thoughts. Our minds think. That is what they do. The average human has 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts every day. Ninety-eight percent of these thoughts are the same thoughts we had yesterday. Thinking is not inherently good or bad. It just is. Sometimes thoughts can be useful, inspiring and productive. At other times, they can be repetitive, stale and unproductive.

The belief that we should banish all thoughts from our minds sets us up for frustration. So, you can disabuse yourself of that idea now. The point is not whether you are thinking or how many thoughts are arising.

What’s important is how we are relating to the thoughts that will inevitably arise.

From mindfulness teacher Jack Kornfield: “The mind secretes thoughts the way the salivary gland secretes saliva. It just does, and then they keep coming through—words and images and ideas and visions and memories

our minds’ stories, we can begin to discern which thoughts are productive and onward leading, and which thoughts are not.

Again, from Jack Kornfield: “All the music, art, philosophy, architectural structures, etc., arose from thoughts in someone’s mind. So did bigotry and war. Our thoughts do not have inherent power. They only have power when we give them power. Mindfulness gives us a tool to see thoughts as they really are, and allows us to choose which ones to nurture and which ones to let go.”

So the point of practice is to train our awareness to notice when thinking is happening and to see thoughts for what they are— wisps of fundamentally insubstantial energy whose only power is that which we give them.

It seems like a tall order, because it is. Patience is key in exploring the world of thinking. Remember that you’ve probably spent your life, up until now, living in the worlds your thoughts have created for you. It takes time to turn that speeding train around.

How to be mindful of thinking While it’s true that most of us have developed a pretty ingrained habit of living in the world of our thoughts, there are simple practices that can help us begin to explore thinking as a phenomenon. Here are a few that have helped me: • Apply a mental note: Instead of trying to push away persistent thinking, when you notice that there’s lots of thinking happening, simply apply a light mental note to what you are experiencing. When thoughts arise, say to yourself, “thinking.” Notice if there’s an edge to the note. For example, sometimes there will be a sense of frustration or judgment underlying the note. Notice that, too.

Allow your noting to be as neutral as possible. There’s no need to judge thinking.

Thinking is not a problem. Simply note that thinking is arising.

• Count your thoughts: Sometimes when you find yourself lost in lots of thinking, counting your thoughts can help you unhook from their stories. This is very simple. Just notice and count. Don’t be disappointed if the numbers seem high. In fact, high numbers mean you’re learning how to notice thoughts rather than getting hooked into them.

• Return to the present: One of the most common mindfulness techniques is to redirect your awareness back to the breath or the body when you notice that you’ve become lost in a thought. Pay attention to what happens to the thought at the moment you turn your awareness back to your breath or body. Where does it go?

• Remember that noticing thinking is a positive sign. Every time you notice that you’re lost in thought, and you redirect your awareness to sensations of breathing or to the body, you are changing the habit of being lost and training your mind toward presence. Instead of judging yourself for having strayed, appreciate that you’ve noticed it. According to meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein, awakening comes in “short moments, many times.”

Each short moment of noticing is a moment of awakening. ◆ Charlotte Bell has been practicing yoga since 1982. She is the author of several yoga-related books including, most recently, Hip Healthy Asana, and founder of Mindful Yoga Collective in Salt Lake City. CHARLOTTEBELLYOGA.COM

38

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

We’re all alone

TOGETHER!

Let’s make the most of it.

See the full list of April events on our website WWW.CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET/COMMUNITY-CALENDAR

We update our online calendar almost daily with new information regarding cancellations and events that have gone virtual. We aim to provide you with as many interesting and relevant virtual events as possible as well as information regarding essential in-person activities.

Keep our community safe.

Physical distance (aka social distancing) is the best vaccine for you and those you encounter, if and when you venture out.

Keep in touch (figuratively speaking) — The CATALYST staff (Please visit WWW.CDC.GOV/CORONAVIRUS/ for public health guidelines.)

Now is a great time to do it

Complete Your 2020 Census T

BY WILLIAM E. FISHER

he U.S. Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about the country’s people, businesses and economy. The Census Bureau has the responsibility to count all of the people and where they live, every 10 years as mandated in the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 2.

It is vitally important that all Utah residents are counted. In addition to determining how many seats each will have in the U.S. House of Representatives, Census data also influences how legislative districts are drawn and determines how much money each state will receive for federally approved social and transportation programs.

Completing the 2020 Census is a quite simple process and takes most people from eight to 20 minutes. You likely received your 2020 Census letter/notice around March 10. You will need your personal Census ID number, contained in that letter, to complete your census form online.

As an alternative, you may complete your Census free by telephone at1-844-330-2020 or later be sent a paper form to fill out and mail in. As a last resort, the Census Bureau will send an Enumerator (census taker) to your door to personally help you complete and send your form in. ◆

Important facts to remember 1. Your household count should include everyone living in your home, including babies born on APRIL 1—Census Count Day. Exclude students who normally live somewhere else on April 1.

2. The Census Bureau is prohibited (and upheld by a Supreme Court ruling) from sharing any personal data with any other government or law enforcement agency or any other organization or individual.

3. According to the recent 2019 Supreme Court ruling, the 2020 Census does not ask any citizenship questions.

4. Lastly, on penalty of fine and/or imprisonment, no Census employee can share any person’s personal information with any person ever.

April 2020

CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

39

COMMUNIT Y

Resource Directory Psychotherapy and Personal Growth Abode • Bodywork • Movement Sport Intuitive Sciences • Health Spiritual Practice • Psychic Arts

ABODE AUTOMOTIVE Schneider Auto Karosserie 8/20

801.484.9400, f 801.484.6623, 1180 S 400 W, SLC. Utah’s first green body shop. Making customers happy since 1984! We are a friendly, full-service collision repair shop in SLC. Your satisfaction is our goal. We’ll act as your advocate with your insurance company to ensure proper repairs and give you a lifetime warranty.

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DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, ORGANIZATION Ann Larsen Residential Design DA 10/20

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GREEN PRODUCTS Underfoot Floors DA 11/20

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HOUSING Urban Utah Homes & Estates DA 9/20 801.595.8824, 380 W 200 S, #101, SLC. Founded in 2001 by Babs De Lay. WWW.URBANUTAH.COM

DINING Coffee Garden DA 801.355.3425, 900 E 900 S and 254 S. Main, SLC. High-end espresso, delectable pastries & desserts. Great places to people watch. M-Thur 6a11p; Fri 6a-12p, Sat 7a-12p, Sun 7a11p. Wifi.

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HEALTH & BODYWORK ACUPUNCTURE Alethea Healing Acupuncture5/20

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Keith Stevens Acupuncture 3/20 801.255.7016, 209.617.7379 (c). Dr.

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APOTHECARY Natural Law Apothecary 12/20

801.613.2128. 619 S 600 W Salt Lake's premier herbal medicine shop featuring 100+ organic/wildharvested herbs available in any amount. Specializing in custom, small batch tinctures, salves, green drink and teas. Also features a knowledge center with books, classes & consultation on herbs, bees, massage/bodywork wellness and more! www.NATURALLAWAPOTHECARY.COM

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480.600.3765. SLC. Ayurveda is the art of longevity and health. Maria

40

COMMUNITY

R E S O U R C E DIREC TORY

specializes in ayurvedic healing using food choices, lifestyle & routines, herbs and yoga practices. She offers personal ayurvedic consults for preventive health and healing, corporate wellness packages, public workshops and educational events.

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ercises. Classes & private sessions available. Community on Facebook at Energy Codes Utah.

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ENERGY HEALING Abi J. Bateman, Reiki Master/Teacher

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801.859.2513. Body-mind-spirit-connection. Abi has over seven years experience helping her clients achieve deep relaxation, which taps into the body’s natural healing process. Trained in traditional Usui and Holy Fire Reiki, and the healing use of crystals and minerals. Reiki good for life!

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Cynthia Boshard, Reiki Master12/20

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Cynthia has 12 years experience in Usui System of Natural Healing. Intuitive aura readings also offered— all to support improved health and well-being. REIKISLC.COM

HERBAL MEDICINE Natural Medicne Clinic of Utah10/20

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MASSAGE

Agua Alma Aquatic Bodywork 5/20 801.891.5695. Mary Cain, LMT, YA

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M.D. PHYSICIANS Todd Mangum, MD, Web of Life Wellness Center 801.531.8340, 34 S 500 E, #103,

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NUTRITION Teri Underwood RD, MS, CD, IFMCP 8/20 801-831-6967. Registered Dieti-

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STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION Open Hand Bodywork DA

801.694.4086, Dan Schmidt, GCFP, LMT. 244 W 700 S, SLC. WWW.O PEN H AND SLC. COM

YOGA THERAPY Dana Levy, C-IAYT, M.A. 4/20 419.309.1190. A Certified Yoga

Therapist (C-IAYT), Dana works through the body, supporting clients with a variety of issues to develop greater awareness of patterns, more effective coping skills, and improved health using not only tools of yoga and meditation, but also modern somatic and embodiment practices.

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MISCELLANEOUS ENTERTAINMENT 12/19 Utah Film Center 801.746.7000, 122

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LEGAL ASSISTANCE Schumann Law, Penniann J. Schumann, J.D., LL.M 3/20 DA

SPACE FOR RENT Space available at Center for Transpersonal Therapy 3/20

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MOVEMENT & MEDITATION, MARTIAL ARTS Red Lotus School of Movement 12/19

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801.355.6375, 40 N 800 W, SLC. Established in 1994, Red Lotus School offers traditional-style training in the classical martial arts of T'ai Chi and Wing Chun Kung-fu. Located with Urgyen Samten Ling Tibetan Buddhist Temple. INFO@REDLOTUSSCHOOL.COM, WWW.R ED LOTUS S CHOOL . COM

Laur Pennock, LPP Family Law3/21

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MEDIA KRCL 90.9FM DA 801.363.1818, 1971 N Temple, SLC. WWW.KRCL.ORG

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Consulting: water rights/shares, perc. tests, soil quality, conservation easments, hemp regualtions and urban home. www.hartcreighton@gmail.COM

YOGA INSTRUCTORS Mindful Yoga: Charlotte Bell DA 1/20

PSYCHIC ARTS & INTUITIVE SCIENCES ASTROLOGY Transformational Astrology FOG

212.222.3232. Ralfee Finn. Catalyst’s astrology columnist for 20 years!

Visit her website, WWW.AQUARIUMAGE.COM, RALFEE@AQUARIUMAGE.COM

C ATA LY S T M A G A Z I N E . N E T

CHANNELING Carol Ann Christensen 3/20

c: 801.558.0824 or h: 801.281.9648. Clairvoyant, aura reading, psychometry, astrology, numerology, psychic healing, past lives medium, crystal reading. Practicing since 1975.

PSYCHIC/TAROT READINGS Suzanne Wagner DA

707.354.1019. An inspirational speaker and healer, she also teaches Numerology, Palmistry, Tarot and Channeling. WWW.S UZ WAGNER . COM

PSYCHOTHERAPY & PERSONAL GROWTH HYPNOSIS Rise Up Hypnosis 4/20

808.755.5224. SLC. Jennifer Van Gorp, QHHT. Past life hypnosis that is truly empowering. Allows the client to realize that they hold the key to every lock they've carried with them - and provides the clarity to unlock it.

One-on-one and group sessions available. RISEUPHYPNOSIS@GMAIL.COM WWW.RISEUPHYPNOSIS.COM

THERAPY/COUNSELING Big Heart Healing, Dr. Paul Thielking 801.413.8978. SLC. Helping people on the path of personal growth, healing, and self-discovery.

Through workshops and retreats, Dr. Thielking utilizes what he has learned as a psychiatrist, Zen student, and Big Mind facilitator to help others to experience a deeper sense of meaning, fulfillment, and joy in life.

PAUL@BIGHEARTHEALING.COM BIGHEARTHEALING.COM5/20

Cynthia Kimberlin-Flanders, LPC 10/20 801.231.5916. 1399 S. 700 E., Ste. 15, SLC. Feeling out of sorts? Tell your story in a safe, non-judgmental environment. Over 21 years specializing in recovery from covert narcissistic abuse, depression, anxiety, life-transitions, anger management, relationships and "middle-aged crazy." Most insurances, sliding scale and medication management referrals. If you've been waiting to talk to someone, wait no more.

Healing Pathways Therapy Center 3/21 435.248.2089. 4465 S. 900 E. Ste 150, Millcreek & 1881 N. 1120 W. Provo. Integrated counseling and neurofeedback services for anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship, life adjustment issues.

Focusing on clients’ innate capacity to heal and resolve past and current obstacles rather than just

Directory continued on next page

COMMUNITY cope. Modalities include EMDR, Neurofeedback, EFT, Mindfulness, and Feminist/Multicultural. Info@PathwaysUtah.COM WWW.HEALINGPATHWAYSTHERAPY.COM

Mountain Lotus Counseling4/20 801.524.0560. Theresa Holleran, LCSW & Sean Patrick McPeak, CSW. Learn yourself. Transform.

Depth psychotherapy and transformational services for individuals, relation-ships, groups and communities. WWW.MOUNTAINLOTUSCOUNSELING.COM

Natalie Herndon, PhD, CMHC 7/20

CENSUS 2020 AVAILABLE NOW ONLINE OR

BY PHONE The U.S. Census includes people of all ages, races and ethnicities, regardless of citizenship.

It’s quick, easy, secure and confidential.

COMPLETE YOUR CENSUS ONLINE AT

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VISIT SLCO.ORG/CENSUS FOR MORE I N F O R M AT I O N

P U E D E V I S I TA R SLCO.ORG/CENSUS PA R A O B T E N E R MÁS INFORMACIÓN

801.657.3330. 9071 S 1300 W, Suite 100, West Jordan. 15+ years experience specializing in Jungian, Analytical, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Are you seeking to more deeply understand yourself, your relationships, and why you struggle with certain thoughts and feelings? Call today for an appointment and let's begin.

WWW.HOPECANHELP.NET NATALIEHERNDON@HOPECANHELP.NE T

Stephen Proskauer, MD, Integrative Psychiatry 4/20 801.631.8426. 76 S. Main St., #6, Moab. Seasoned psychiatrist, Zen priest and shamanic healer. Sees kids, teens, adults, couples and families, integrating psychotherapy and medi-

R E S O U R C E DIREC TORY

tation with judicious use of medication to relieve emotional pain and problem behavior. Specializes in treating identity crises, and bipolar disorders. Sees patients in person in Provo and Moab. Taking phone appointments.

SPROSKAUER @ COMCAST. NET

SHAMANIC PRACTICE Sarah Sifers, Ph.D., LCSW 3/ 20 801.531.8051.

SSIFERS514@AOL.COM. Shamanic Counseling. Shamanic Healing, Minister of the Circle of the Sacred Earth. Mentoring for people called to the Shaman’s Path.

Explore health or mental health issues using the ways of the shaman. Sarah’s extensive training includes shamanic extraction healing, soul retrieval healing, psychopomp work for death and dying, shamanic counseling and shamanic divination. Sarah has studied with Celtic, Brazilian, Tuvan, Mongolian, Tibetan and Nepali Shamans.

RETAIL line goes here APPAREL, GIFTS & TREASURES Blue Boutique 10/20DA

since 1987. WWW.B LUE B OU -

TIQUE . COM

Dancing Cranes Imports DA8/20 801.486.1129, 673 E. Simpson Ave., SLC. Jewelry, clothing, incense, ethnic art, pottery, candles, chimes and much more!

WWW.D ANCING C RANES I MPORTS . CO M

Golden Braid Books DA 11/20 801.322.1162, 151 S. 500 E., SLC. A true sanctuary for conscious living in the city. Offerings include gifts and books to feed mind, body, spirit, soul and heart; luscious health care products to refresh and revive; and a Lifestyles department to lift the spirit. www.G OLDEN B RAID B OOKS . COM

iconoCLAD—We Sell Your Previously Rocked Stuff & You Keep 50% 801.833.2272. 414 E 300 S, SLC. New and previously rocked (aka, consigned) men’s and women’s fashion, summer festival gear and locally made jewelry, clothing, crafts and decor. M-Sat 11a-9p, Sun 1p6p. Follow us on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter @iconoCLAD to see new inventory before someone beats you to it!

WWW.I CONO CLAD. COM 3/20

801.487.1807, 1383 S. 2100 E., SLC. Shopping Made Sexy

Please support the people who support CATALYST

Community Resource Directory SALES@CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

SLIGHTLY OFF CENTER

My Corona

Turiya’s Gifts8/20 DA 801.531.7823, 1569 S. 1100 E., SLC. M-F 11a-7p, Sat 11a-6p, Sun 12-5p. Turiya’s is a metaphysical gift and crystal store. We have an exquisite array of crystals and minerals, jewelry, drums, sage and sweet grass, angels, fairies, greeting cards and meditation tools. Come in and let us help you create your sanctuary. WWW.T URIYAS . COM

HEALTH & WELLNESS Dave’s Health & Nutrition 7/20 SLC: 801.268.3000, 880 E 3900 S & W Jordan: 801.446.0499, 1817 W 9000 S. We focus on health & holistic living through education, empowerment and high-quality products.

With supplements, homeopathics, herbs, stones, books and beauty care products, we provide you with the options you need to reach your optimum health. Certified professionals also offer private consultations.

W W W .D AVES H EALTH . COM

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE line goes here ORGANIZATIONS Inner Light Center

Spiritual Community

801.919.4742, 4408 S 500 E, SLC. Interspiritual sanctuary. Sunday Celebration: 10am.

WWW.T HE I NNER L IGHT C ENTER . ORG 4

Utah Eckankar 9/20

801.542.8070. 8105 S 700 E, Sandy. Eckankar teaches you to be more aware of your own natural relationship with the Divine Spirit. Many have had spiritual experiences and want to learn more about them and how they can help us in our daily lives. All are welcome. WWW. ECKANKAR - UTAH . ORG

INSTRUCTION Two Arrows Zen Center 3/20DA 801.532.4975, ArtSpace, 230 S. 500 W., #155, SLC. Two Arrows Zen is a center for Zen study and practice in Utah with two location: SLC & Torrey.

The ArtSpace Zendo in SLC offers daily morning meditation and a morning service and evening sit on Thursday. TAZ also offers regular day-long intensives—Day of Zen—and telecourses.

WWW.T W O A R R OW S Z E N . O R G

The Source Within 6/20 Questing (solitary introspection in nature) has been used by cultures, traditions, and mystics around the world for countless generations as a tool to “know thyself”. We facilitate questing programs for people seeking Self-discovery, a purposeful path, and transformation. Information online at: S OUR C E W ITH IN Q U EST. N E T

L

et Uncle Dennis tell you a bedtime fable.

“Stop crying, Jimmy.

I’ve done all the research and there is only a .001% chance of a monster coming out from under your bed to eat you; sweet dreams.”

You wouldn’t say this to your three-year-old who was crying in his bed, so don’t use percentages to try to calm people down about Covid-19.

Now is a time to listen. Now is a time for empathy.

People of all ages are irrational about risk percentages.

Yes, you are more likely to die in a car accident, maybe being hit by a meteor or, who knows, eaten alive by a swarm of piranha-cisco mutations while swimming in Bear Lake.

It doesn’t matter. You or your loved one is not .001% dead.

You/they are 100% dead.

In these times, you can never go wrong with empathy. As my gone-but-still-favorite Cache Valley billboard said, “BE KINDER THAN NECESSARY” in big block letters.

We can do this. It’s time for mindfulness.

If we are going to scare the elderly, at least define what “elderly” means. What do “underlying conditions” mean?

You can find it on the Centers for Disease Control website, but I have yet to hear a news organization be specific. According to my math, I still have 13 years before I’m old enough be a Democratic presidential front runner and nine years on the Republican side.

My underlying conditions might be so underlying that I don’t know what they are. I suspect most of mine are attitudinal rather than physical, but others might not be so lucky. Let’s take this seriously

BY DENNIS HINKAMP

and be specific.

Care, share and be aware that we all have expulsion needs. I’m a little dismayed, disappointed, but not surprised by my fellow sapiens hoarding toilet paper. I was always too embarrassed to buy those huge 42-roll bricks of TP. I was afraid others would think I was buying it to late night vandalize someone’s house or to supply my new business venture, The Cholera Café. There are plenty of fecal jokes to be made with this situation but, again, choose empathy.

At the rate the price of oil is dropping, gas will soon be 30 cents a gallon and you’ll get a free hot dog with every fill-up.

If a small percentage of people buy up any necessity, it will lead to either a black market, sanitation problems or both. Share if you care. And, if people start using wiping alternatives, it is going to clog up the whole local plumbing system. I guess toilet paper is now like cigarettes in prison; you can get anything in trade.

I know it is true. I saw it in The Shawshank Redemption.

For college towna, the Covid-19 closures and cancellations were inevitable. The wild and crazy kids were likely to come roosting home from spring break with more than a tan and a bad tattoo or two.

As someone in the risk factor age range, I commend Utah’s swift actions.

The cancellations are piling up. My annual tech orgy in Las Vegas was finally cancelled just this week. I’d like to think that whatever skank that already emanates from Vegas would be enough to repel a puny Covid-19, but I guess these are cautious times and I empathize. Sports have been wiped out. The NBA, NHL and MLB seasons have been cancelled or postponed. March madness is a memory. If the last thing you remember about USU basketball is Sam Merrill’s last shot, that would not be so bad.

There are some bright spots: The Coachella music festival, where celebrities dress like hippies and hippies dress like celebrities, was postponed. At the rate that the price of oil is dropping, gas will soon be 30 cents a gallon and you’ll get a free hot dog with every fill-up. I’m guessing my favorite Burning Thing diversion for the last 22 years might be cancelled as well.

Here’s my last minute Public Service Announcement: I saw a bunch of you loading up on bleach. Remember: Bleach can be toxic you if you mix it with almost anything but water. Also remember that more is not better; a 10% solution is all you need.

Lastly, if you’re having trouble with social distancing, I’m here for you. Hit me up for “Introvert Lessons: How to Avoid People Without Offending Them.” I have 64 years’ experience with no fatalities. ◆ Dennis Hinkamp commends Weird Al Yankovic for already promising not to do a song parody called “My Corona!”

URBAN ALMANAC

44 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET April 2020

April

2020 COMPILED BY GRETA DEJONG

April 1 Average temps today: high 58º, low 38º.

Sunrise: 7:10am. Sunset: 7:53pm.

April 2 Red cedar is not a cedar, Norfolk pine is not a pine, Douglas fir is not a fir and Australian pine isn't even related to pines, says The Curious Coniferite author Jerome David Belanger, who turns 82 today. He is the author of many books, including Enough!, a critique of capitalist democracy and a guide to understanding the New Normal. Happy birthday, bro!

April 3 Bar soap vs. liquid? Many people think bar soap retains germs. Not true, according to the CDC. In addition, studies show people use almost seven times more liquid soap than bar per washing. Almost 300 million plastic soap containers end up in the landfill each year, complete with their mixed-materials pumping mechanisms.

April 4 “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to

make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.” ― David W. Orr, Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World

April 5 The tiny Troglodytes aedon, aka house wren, often lives in association with humans. These insecteating cavity nesters construct nests in hollow trees, buildings and nest boxes. Females lay three to seven eggs, which hatch in about two weeks. Young are attended to by both parents and leave the nest about 12 to 18 days after hatching.

April 6 New word of the month: zoonotic—an infectious disease caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites that spread from non-human animals to humans. Major modern zoonotic diseases: Ebola, rabies, anthrax, tularemia, West Nile virus, bubonic plague, Lyme disease, coronavirus.

April

7 Supermoon Full Moon @ 08:35pm. The Moon, the third of four supermoons for 2020, will be at its closest approach to Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Full Pink Moon because it marked the appearance of the moss pink, or wild ground phlox,

which is one of the first spring flowers.

April 8 Dogs tend to be more farsighted than nearsighted. That’s where whiskers come in handy. These special facial hairs relay spatial information. They may also play a role in locating food and dispersing pheromones.

April 9 On this date in 1934, acclaimed American poet Robert Frost appeared onstage at the University of Utah’s Kingsbury Hall as part of the U's Masterminds and Artists series. Admission: 75 cents. Frost is famously known for "The Road Not Taken" (1916) and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (1924).

April 10 Easter Week rituals are very different this year as Roman Catholic priests around the world perform all ceremonies without people present. On Good Friday, today, among the formal prayers of petition in the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, Pope Francis instructs there should be “a special intention for the sick, the dead, for those who feel lost or dismayed.”

April 11 Bitters trigger the hormone gastrin which stimulates saliva and hydrochloric acid, needed in order to break down proteins and absorb minerals from your food. They also stimulate the flow of bile, helpful for digesting fats, and help prevent acid reflux. For tomorrow's Easter dinner, consider serving the salad first

(featuring arugula, endive and other bitter greens) or enjoy a small glass of Campari, dry sherry or dry vermouth as an aperitif.

April 12 Easter usually happens in April, though it can be as early as March 22. It's what's known as a moveable feast, always occurring on the first Sunday (today) after the first full moon (April 8) on or after March 21(an approximation of the vernal equinox, as decreed in the year 325 by the Council at Nicaea).

April 13 Americans use an average of 141 rolls per person a year. Yet, most of the rest of the world does not use toilet paper at all.

The French use half as many rolls, at 71 per year, while in Brazil the typical person consumes only 38 rolls.

April 14 Wind-pollinated plants are the ones that make you sneeze— the males, that is. They send out lots of pollen in a scattershot fashion in hopes of colliding with a female of its species. This pollen is of little use to bees and other pollinating creatures, as it’s not very nutritious. Most are from trees (pine, spruce, fir, cottonwood, nut trees) grasses, and the infamous ragweed. One natural remedy: stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). I got mine at Dave's Health (call first for hours).

April 15 Got downtime? Consider making yourself the superhero of your household by acquiring skills useful in a variety of disasters: Learn first aid and CPR; how to use a fire extinguisher; how to shut off the water, electricity and natural gas (yes, you'll need a utility wrench); and how to compile an emergency kit.

WWW.READY.GOV/SAFETY-SKILLS April 16 If you haven't made it to the Salt Lake Film Society's Tower Theatre in the 9th & 9th neighborhood to see the spectacular, re-watchable Fantastic Fungi, which has been running since November, you can now watch it

from home—$5 to rent for 48 hours, $15 to purchase. Donate to SLFS while you're at it.

HTTPS://SLFSATHOME.ORG

April 17 A whopping 82% of Americans say they've never heard of A Green New Deal. Another 14% have heard only "a little." Those in the know say it can be the modern-day version of FDR's New Deal, which enabled Americans to get back on their feet after The Great Depression. Study up here (long but good), from Vox: HTTPS://BIT.LY/2UTGPH2 April 18 The first laundromat, known then as a washateria, opened today in 1934 in Fort Worth, Texas.

April 19 Each year the Environmental Working Group publishes a list of the most and least contaminated produce.

For 2020, here are the most pesticide-laden—if there's an organic alternative, choose it: strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery, potatoes. And the "clean 15": avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, peas (frozen), eggplants, asparagus, cauliflower, cantaloupes, broccoli, mushrooms, cabbage, honeydew melon and kiwi April 20 We love vinegar as a cleaning agent but, alas, there is no evidence that vinegar is any good at killing the coronavirus.

April 21 Lyrids Meteor Shower, one of the oldest recorded meteor showers (according to some historical Chinese texts, the shower was seen over 2,500 years ago), peaks today and tomorrow. Best viewing after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation

Lyra but can appear anywhere in the sky.

April 22 New Moon @ 08:27pm.

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. In 1970, oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife were considered the price of progress.

The "teach-ins" that occurred throughout the nation that day were the catalyst for significant change, resulting in the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

tists (that could be you). Count and identify pollinators for a national survey. WWW.GREATSUNFLOWER.ORG

April 28 Are you planting nursery plants that are already blooming?

Snip off the flowering stems just above a pair of leaves. The plant will put more energy into establishing much-needed roots, resulting in healthier plants and, in the long

April 23 How to clean your cell phone: Turn it off and remove from case.

Wipe with a lint-free cloth lightly sprayed with a mixture of 1-to-1 distilled water and isopropyl alcohol. Clean any gunk out of lenses and ports with a cotton swab and wipe again. Clean the case, focusing on any textured edges. Reassemble only after everything is dry.

Now… try to avoid using your phone while in the bathroom.

April 24 Plant a tree to celebrate National Arbor Day. The USU Tree Browser offers an interactive list of 245 tree species adapted to the Intermountain West.

HTTPS://TREEBROWSER.ORG/ April 25 Not that we hope to see it in stone any time soon, but what epitaph would you like to see on your grave—what short phrase characterizes you? (Mine is "You should write about that.")

April 26 Ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it.

April 27 The Great Sunflower Project is a program for citizen scien-

run, more flowers. And you get a spring bouquet!

April 29 "Can we use this time as an extended Sabbath, to dive within and surrender beyond fear? Can we find and rest in that which connects us, that which is whole?"—Dale Borglum, The Living/Dying Project. WWW.LIVINGDYING.ORG April 30 Average temps today: high 66º, low 45º. Sunrise: 6:26am. Sunset: 8:23pm. ◆ Greta Belanger deJong is editor and founder of CATALYST.

46 CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET

April 2020

METAPHORS FOR THE MONTH

April 2020

Acceptance is the key to freedom. Allowing is a form of love.

BY SUZANNE WAGNER

Osho ZenTarot: Playfulness, Flowering, Abundance Medicine Cards: Dolphin, Weasel Mayan Oracle: Ik, Mystical Power, Ahau Ancient EgyptianTarot: Temperance, Judgement, Queen of Disks Aleister Crowley Deck: Prince of Wands, The Magus, Princess of Cups Healing Earth Tarot:Three of Rainbows, Nine of Shields, The Sun Words ofTruth: Codependent, God, Healing Editor’s note: Because she would be traveling later, Suzanne drew the above cards and wrote the following story in early January, long before COVID-19 was a thing (to say nothing of earthquakes).

Therefore they are not mentioned by name. Nonetheless we find the relevance obvious.

T

he Earth is in a healing crisis. As with all healing crises, it has a strong fever that continues to build. It was the hottest February

ever in the Arctic and spring has started early for most of this hemisphere. But the rains went north and did not quench the great thirst of much of the United States.

Illnesses such as the one we are in require high fevers to break the negative hold of that which is killing the organism.

While it is April and everyone is itching to spring into action, take the time this month to look past the obvious and into the mystical and magical elements that are also happening.

It is beginning to dawn on more people that the necessary healing is within us. We need to look at how interconnected and how dependent we are on this beautiful world. We can no longer separate ourselves from the very thing that gives us life.

This world is desperate for us to love it and to love all of its creatures.

No part of yourself or anything else can be left behind in this journey. Love is the very thing that will set all of us free. Yet to do that, we

have to re-examine our concepts of self as they relate to the question, “What is our highest and divine self?”

Then we need to move from that place only. Egos must be left behind like a child having a temper-tantrum on a hiking trail. It is time to grow up. Our ego is that petulant child who will refuse to move until it gets its own way. But it will never be happy or satisfied and so you cannot cater to that pattern or behavior. It is time for all of us to act from a place of maturity, clarity, compassion and knowing. When we embrace those aspects of ourselves, we can perform miracles and magic again.

Acceptance is the key to freedom.

Allowing is a form of love.

The process that’s in play must work itself through. While that may be unpleasant, it’s essential to the healing that everyone is seeking.

It is in the cards this month to examine what you believe is your concept of “God.” Do you have

“God” in a box that is constructed from your beliefs and fears of separation?

Do you see within yourself a reflection of a divine spark?

If your love has expectations and judgments, then you are caught in the human condition of perpetual karmic suffering and not yet free.

Step out of striving and give permission for everyone to go through what they need in order to awaken. It is not up to you. It never was. It is not about you being right. There is no right or wrong way to go. It is the decisions in the moment that will lead us to the lessons that we are ready to receive.

There is a powerful solar and astrological tide shifting everything around us. You are not separate from the divine that continues to move through all things, whether you perceive the magic in those shifts or not.

If you are expecting a miracle, you forget that you are that miracle. Through hardship, you will re-

ignite the circuitry that will show the way to your potential.

Harboring feelings of resentment, judgment and anger inhibit your most powerful and magical self.

While it matters what you think, right now it matters more about what you do or don’t do.

Affirmed and conscious action is what is required. Opinions need not apply.

Weasel, the power animal this month, indicates that many things are going on behind the scenes. A fox in the hen house waits for that perfect moment to strike when your guard is down and you are not fully paying attention.

The process that’s in play must work itself through.

While that may be unpleasant, it’s essential to the healing that everyone is seeking.

The Three of Rainbows is a dragon moving through the landscape, trying to gather up all that is of value and hoard it. There is a dragon inside that wants to take everything because it believes things will fill an inner emptiness. Of course, it is not true. But some need to have things taken from them to recognize that sometimes a simple life is a very good life.

Sometimes we are asked to see the joy in the sunlight, feel peace within the embrace of family and know that regardless of what is happening in the outer world, there is a place within us that knows love and prefers to give that love regardless of the cost.

This month, expect intrigue. You are going to continue to be caught and surprised by the conflations of energy and words. It’s especially important that you pay attention to truth and support the truth in others. Some may have the intention to make you doubt your feelings.

They want you dulled by the confusion so you cannot be effective. They want you to feel helpless and paranoid.

It is time to get those cotton balls out of your ears and hear what is really going on. Do not expect it to be pleasant. It may be harsh and upsetting. But you cannot thrive or survive if your head is in a box or up in a cloud. ◆ See more from Suzanne Wagner at WWW.SUZANNE WAGNER.COM/BLOG/

Why physical distancing is important: “From a virus’ point of view, we look like a free lunch that’s getting bigger….”

Why physical distancing is important: “Viruses are moving into the human species because there are more of us all the time.… People travel rapidly by airplane, carrying diseases with them as they fly. The human species with fast The “From a virus’ pointhasofbecome view, wea biological look like Internet a free lunch that’connections. s getting bigger…. ” bionet will get faster in the next century — that is, more people will travel by air more often, increasing the speed at which diseases move. If a tropical megacity gets hit with a new virus, New York City and Los Angeles will see it days or weeks later.”

— Richard Preston, author of two biological thrillers, The Hot Zone (1994: nonfiction) and The Cobra Event (1998: fiction), in a story on “questions for the new century,” TIME Magazine, November 8, 1999

Stay put, starve that virus! ◆