Environment Archives - Page 3 of 27 -

A First-Grader Teaches Me

By Simone Lipscomb | April 21, 2013

I left my home early this morning on my way to Fort Morgan Ferry via a stop-over at a beach between here and there to check for Least Tern courtship and nesting behavior for NFWS. My ultimate destination was the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Discovery Day. I was volunteering at the Marine Mammal Stranding Network table and display.

I did indeed see the endangered species of Least Terns frolicking over the Gulf and having seen at least 30 of those beautiful birds, I drove on to Ft. Morgan.

Waiting in line as a pedestrian at the ferry dock I met a couple from Quebec cycling to Austin, Texas and then on to Europe. I suddenly had an urge to do something crazy like they were doing. They had sold everything and were living and traveling via recumbent cycles pulling small trailers. Reminded me of the guy who sold everything to follow his dream of creating life-size prints of whales. These folks are doing something BIG! And I like it!!!

Meanwhile, I rode the ferry as a pedestrian and made the short walk to the Sea Lab. It was awesome seeing so many families out enjoying the day and learning more about our coastal treasures.

After helping store our display, I walked through the Estuarium and sat for a while with a nurse shark and hopefully somehow communicated my appreciation to him and his cousins all over the globe. That quiet moment sitting nose-to-nose with this beautiful little shark was precious. Then it got crowded so I moved on and walked back to the ferry dock and waited over an hour for the next ferry.

During this time I met an amazing young man who is a first grader. He and his grandmothers had walked on the ferry and visited the Sea Lab’s Discovery Day. We chatted and then, when the ferry arrived, boarded together. The young man and I visited more as we made the trip across Mobile Bay. He expressed his dislike of drilling for gas and oil in the bay and Gulf. He told me of his love for ‘mother nature.’

Just when I felt as if humans had reached the bottom of environmental and social concern, I met this amazing young man who is a volunteer for Share the Beach…Alabama’s sea turtle volunteer program. He without hesitation expresses his love for mother nature and is clear about his distaste and concern over drilling for oil and gas in the water.

On this three year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster–when I stopped counting gas rigs in the bay at over 30 in the crossing from Ft. Morgan to Dauphin Island–and when my hope for humanity had reached a new low, this boy reminded me of the generations that are rising up to lead us. Suddenly I didn’t feel hopeless any more.

A Living Shoreline

By Simone Lipscomb | March 28, 2013

On April 6th volunteers working with The Nature Conservancy, The Ocean Foundation, Restore Coastal Alabama, Alabama Coastal Foundation and Mobile Baykeeper will create another living shoreline at Pelican Point at the mouth of Weeks Bay. The area of Pelican Point has experienced significant habitat loss and erosion. This effort is part of a goal to restore 1000 acres of coastal marsh and seagrass.

What an amazing opportunity…restore a place to its original condition. That helps the fish, crustaceans, birds and people who live in and around it.

It made me think about opportunities we have as humans to restore ourselves. As we move through life we experience wounding. Much of this happens in childhood and it’s not necessarily intentional from those who hurt us. It happens. So we develop a story around our wounds and our entire life is choreographed by the story we have created around them. We come to identify almost completely with the wounds instead of who we really are.

For instance, if as a child you are constantly criticized, you might come to the conclusion that you are not good enough. So you weave a myth around this and draw experiences to you that tend to mirror this belief. Or maybe your parents were disappointed that you weren’t a boy…or a girl…or even that you were born. The story you weave could be that you were not wanted so you tell yourself that nobody really wants you for who you really are. Or if your parents divorce or a parent dies you might feel abandoned and carry this very deep storyline throughout your life and consistently ‘create’ situations in relationships where you are abandoned, rejected.

What if we identify our ‘original’ wounds and create a living shoreline within ourselves…we can restore ourselves to wholeness by naming the beliefs that eroded our lives.

With the Living Shoreline Restoration Project they are using over 20,000 blocks to build a reef. The concept is the same for us. We can rebuild our lives by re-writing our personal myth–the story we live by–and in essence change our lives.

What a different life a person could live if he believed he is smart and capable and worthy of love. Or that she is wanted and beautiful. Or that she can have a consistent and dependable relationship and be accepted by her partner. Wouldn’t that be worth the effort?

What if we think of ourselves as a living shoreline in need of repair and build on the beauty within us…that’s always been there. What would your new story be like? What would you use for building material? What is your happily-ever-after?

World Water Day

By Simone Lipscomb | March 22, 2013

Beautiful ocean water off the coast of Bonaire, N.A.

Roaring Fork waterfall near Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina

About to submerge into ocean at Bonaire, N.A.

Another view of Roaring Fork Falls in North Carolina

May our beautiful water planet be blessed. May we be good stewards of our water resources.

A Little Shark Love

By Simone Lipscomb | March 14, 2013

Sharks have been in the news lately. Or perhaps the lack of sharks has been in the news. It is estimated that up to 90% of the total shark population has disappeared from our oceans worldwide. That means that only 10%, or there about, of all sharks are left in our oceans.

Last October was the first time I had seen a shark while scuba diving in years. I was on a reef off the coast of Turks and Caicos and it was just a small reef shark but I was thrilled. It swam along beside me like a friendly puppy. So much for the demon, man-eater.

When I first started diving, many years ago, I remember being told divers can go years without seeing sharks. My first year brought some close encounters with these sleek, gorgeous beauties. One experience in particular was unnerving but only because I was on a reef where sharks were hand-fed regularly. They had lost their fear of humans and exhaust bubbles and were so overly-friendly that they thought every human in the water had a hand-out for them. (Read more about that adventure in my book, Sharks On My Fin Tips. Chapter 3, page 29). I am against feeding any wild animal. Ultimately it hurts them.

But that same summer I had a huge hammerhead shark…ten feet would not be an exaggeration….casually swim past and was so close I saw his eyes moving on his enormous hammers, watching me. The little mouth was underneath his head so I didn’t feel any fear. I was simply in awe of this beautiful animal.

About a decade ago my partner and I went to California and joined a charter leaving from San Diego for the Coronodos Islands. I didn’t like the cold, Pacific water but I hardly noticed, so lost was my mind in looking around every kelp strand for the denizen of the deep….the Great White! Which brings me to unjustified fear, induced by media. In this case, Jaws.

I grew up on the Gulf Coast and loved swimming in the Gulf until the movie came out. That so warped my understanding of sharks that I never recovered any decent appreciation for these massive creatures until a few years ago when I educated myself on them. I still have no desire to meet a twenty foot shark face-to-face but I want them to survive and thrive…for their own experience of life and for the health of the Ocean.

A large bull shark has been within arms-reach but I tucked my hands and shooed it away with my internal scolding. Have you ever felt like a shark was peeling you out of your wetsuit with his eyes? I did but nothing ever came of it. I remained calm and that was that. No blood, no carnage. Just a good memory.

It is time the media stops sensationalizing the dangerous sharks they want us to gasp and fret over and start informing the public about the amazing creatures these apex predators are…we owe it to sharks. We need to right the wrongs done to them.

Wolves, snakes, mountain lions, bobcats….all of these animals deserve their place in the world. They all have a valuable part to play in keeping ecosystems healthy. Let’s show a little shark love and protect these darlings of the deep. Can’t you just see them smiling their toothy grin when more humans gain understanding and wisdom about living a life of balance.

Fat Tuesday

By Simone Lipscomb | February 14, 2013

I was standing at Lulu’s Homeport in Gulf Shores, Alabama, listening to a band play a traditional Mardi Gras tune and felt a subtle, inner shift. A small glimmer of something started to awaken within me and it made me smile.

When embarking on a course of action it’s not necessarily easy because you (finally) found your path–your direction. When I answered an inner call to document the Gulf Oil Spill in my home state, I never imagined the emotional wreckage that would occur within me. I remember days before the oil began washing up on the Alabama beaches fervently trying to photograph as much of the Gulf beaches and marshes as possibly and while doing so sobbing, sometimes uncontrollably. Then when it began coming ashore and coating animals, beaches and filling the air with toxic fumes I was in a state of near exhaustion from anger, sadness, grief and the physical challenge of exposure to the toxic soup in the water and air.

It changed me. I remember going back to my mountain home for a few weeks each month and finding it very difficult to connect with anything pleasurable. I was numb from what I was seeing. Traumatized. And in some sort of cosmic disbelief that humans could destroy our planet…not just by an oil spill…but by endless sins committed against this beautiful planet and its inhabitants. Nothing touched me. Beauty was painful to see. Yet I couldn’t look away from the environmental destruction because finally I felt I was doing my legacy work.

Sometimes the cost of that commitment is high.

There was healing during the many weeks spent along the coast. Realizations, moments of inspiration but it was a week spent with Joanna Macy, in a Work That Reconnects workshop that truly helped me understand and process what I had been going through. And healing continues since my move back to the Gulf Coast.

Yes, I enjoy SUP boarding and walking the beaches and diving in the Caribbean. I’m not walking around in a constant state of gloom and doom. Yet finding a space for personal pleasure….just the inkling of fun for no particular reason…has continued to be challenging for me. The burden of our planet’s plight is heavy.

But yesterday, while riding my sea turtle volunteer team’s float in the Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade and hanging out at Lulu’s with my friend and her family provided a little spark of fun for the sake of fun….with the intention of fun. Imagine that.

Gratitude for a day of fun runs deep within me. It helps to balance the deep grief that fuels my work to share the beauty of our planet…in the hope that people will realize the beauty of Earth and will do everything they can to help heal it. And heal the human relationship to it…and each other.