ITRC PNW Transformational Resilience Network

You are invited to a free 1 hr. webinar on Wednesday , December 2 from 12 noon to 1:00 pm PST (3:00-4:00 pm EST) on the new ITRC Mental Wellness and Resilience Policy To register for the webinar go to: http://www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org/ Why the Need for a New Climate Change Mental Wellness and Resilience Policy? Climate science indicates that global temperatures will, in the not too distant future, rise above the 2.7-degree F. temperature threshold that unleashes...

The exclusion of Indigenous people and other non-White communities in environmental and conservation work is, unfortunately, nothing new. For centuries, conservation has been driven by Eurocentric, Judeo-Christian belief structures that emphasize a distinct separation of “Man” and “Nature”—an ideology that does not mesh well with many belief structures, including those belonging to Indigenous communities. Before the onset of such religion through colonialist conquests, the overwhelming...

Gregory Cajete stands in front of a classroom full of University of New Mexico students enrolled in a graduate seminar on Indigenous nations and sustainable communities. Cajete is teaching these students about having a relationship with, and responsibility for, the environment. This way of knowing is called Native Science , and it is part of a body of evolving Indigenous knowledge based on generations of learning and direct contact with nature. A Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo and...

Register for A Better Normal- Our reckoning with race and equity at ACEs Connection

Changing the food system is the most important thing humans can do to fix our broken carbon cycles. Meanwhile, food security is all about adaptation when you’re dealing with crazy weather and shifting growing zones. How can a world of 7 billion—and growing—feed itself? Here are 13 of the best ideas for a just and sustainable food system. Land Ownership 1. Indigenous land sovereignty The world is watching as historic land reforms on the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu show how to return land...

Anthropologists have called Indigenous peoples the “original ecologists.” 19 Indigenous peoples were able to sustain their traditional subsistence economy for millennia because “they possessed appropriate ecological knowledge and suitable methods to exploit resources, but possessed a philosophy and environmental ethic to keep exploitive abilities in check, and established ground rules for relationships between humans and animals.” 20 Native peoples’ reciprocity with the natural and spiritual...

By Melissa Pandika, Mic, September 30, 2020 “You can see — the sky,” my dad said with boyish wonder in his voice when my family and I moved to California from New York City nearly 25 years ago. He later developed a habit of reclining on the diving board that hovered above the kidney-shaped swimming pool behind our house outside San Francisco, marveling at the expanse overhead, uninterrupted by buildings and utterly blue. I’d shrug off his awe, preoccupied with what I considered more pressing...

ACEs Connection has updated our 3 Realms of ACEs Graphic to represent recent and pressing events. The 3 Realms of ACEs are Community, Household, and Environment. ACEs in these realms intertwine throughout people’s lives, and affect the viability of families, communities, organizations, and systems. Environment has been updated to include "Pandemic", as the entire world continues to survive through the COVID-19 crisis. The Community Realm has been updated to include "Discrimination" and "Food...

By Carolyn Jones, September 29, 2020, Lake County Record Bee. Schools can serve as a hub for an entire community after a disaster, experts say For some students, the fire is only the beginning. The nightmares, the grief and an all-consuming dread can persist for months or even years. That’s what teachers and school employees have observed among students in California’s fire-ravaged areas, especially Sonoma and Butte counties, where deadly wildfires have struck repeatedly in recent years.

Emotional distress is common following natural disasters, and the psychological toll can linger for years, studies suggest. In California, where the state is in the midst of yet another highly destructive wildfire season, published research on the prevalence of mental health impacts among wildfire survivors in the state is scarce. However, a preliminary study by researchers at UC Davis found that around one in five people reported significant symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress up...

By Laurie Fickman, University of Houston, September 28, 2020 Long after a COVID-19 vaccination is developed and years after the coronavirus death toll is tallied, the impact on mental health will linger, continuing to inflict damage if not addressed, according to new research. Michael Zvolensky, University of Houston Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and director of the Anxiety and Health Research Laboratory/Substance Use Treatment Clinic, has...

When Laurie Noble was growing up, in Fort Bragg, California, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, her family’s home doubled as a government weather station. The house was equipped with rain and wind-speed gauges, thermometers, a barometer, and a recording barograph, and the family belonged to a network of part-time observers paid by the federal Weather Bureau, the forerunner of the National Weather Service, to fill in gaps between its professionally staffed stations. By the time Noble was a...