Getting to Lake Jocassee!

Thrilled to find a fellow adventurist in my friend, Elizabeth, we set out with our kayaks towards Lake Jocassee in Salem, South Carolina.
The views after entering Greenville were beautiful! We drove through a small town called Pumpkintown (hehe). Narrow roads, cute little wooden houses, and a couple of pumpkin patches kept me happy throughout the drive.

View Lake Jocassee Trip in a larger map
There's a quaint little shop a couple of yards before the Devil's State Park - our entrance into Lake Jocassee - where we bought our snacks for lunch. Munching in the car, we gleefully entered the park...only to find out that all the spots for boat access were gone! Half- heartedly, I suggested we check out Lake Keowee's entrance, about 5 miles from there.
We struggled to find the entrance to the lake, but thanks to the iPhone, we were able to contact park manager and get the directions. When we finally got there, there was some confusion about parking. We turned around, and came back, and the spots were gone...
Frustrated, Elizabeth and I set out towards the Cherokee National Scenic Highway - the main  route to these lakes - once again. After getting out of the Long Creek Falls lane, we saw a sign displaying "Lake Jocassee Whitewater Falls". Since we had driven ~135 miles from home, Elizabeth and I were both determined to find some outlet into the water and set out to follow the sign. 10 miles into the road - no sign of the waterfalls, no sign of any body of water in the iPhone map, and low gas tank. The latter was an indication that we needed to turn around.
At the gas station, Eliza and I rejuvenated ourselves with water. We decided to go to the Devil's State Park once more before we headed home. We got there, were lucky as five spots had just been opened, and hurriedly unloaded our kayaks!

Maybe it was nature's plan to test our determination - make us struggle for two hours - before we could enjoy the divinity of the lake. White sands, beautiful crystal blue waters, and clean shores - the state of SC was taking very good care of maintaining the lake with the $2 admission fee.

We finally got down in the lake. The waters were cold and felt great in the summer heat. Jocassee is in a gorge, so towards the middle of the lake, one can feel the depth (going into about 300 feet or 91 m)! The cool breeze, light waves, and paddling with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains in front of us was a profound experience. Fleet Foxes were singing in my head and I was in heaven. :) I requested, and Elizabeth sang me a funny French song. We both realized that as soon as we got into the lake, our frustrations had disappeared - as if the time driving up to it never existed.

"Fireforests" - The Majestic Longleaf Pines

Last Saturday morning, I set out for the Harbison State Forest (Columbia, South Carolina) to absorb in some landscape for my next painting. There were people with kids, bikes, kayaks, and canoes and I immediately thought to myself - "I wonder what all I have been missing out on". I started on a small trail - the Firewood trail. I decided to walk in a bit in search of a good view  so that I could sit and sketch.
It took me no time to realize that it had been a while since I had been surrounded by nothing but the "wilderness". The fine mulch and dried pine leaves on the floor, aroma of the pine trees, and being surrounded by the tall, majestic, silvery needled longleaf pines was an incredible experience. Needless to say, I could not make a stop for sketching as I wanted to enjoy the hike.
 
Amazing thing about the longleaf pine forests is that they are "fireforests". Their survival depends upon the removal of loblolly pines and others that encroach the land through annual low-intensity fires. Following germination of the seeds, the fire-resistant grass stage endures the fire. The longleafs  nurse a stunning diversity of wildlife comparable to that found in the Amazon. Unfortunately, it is one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America. What once stretched from southern Virginia to East Texas covering 90 million acres of land now remains in only about 3 million acres. These forests were replaced by loblollies and other pulp producing pine for obtaining hardwood and paper. They were also hampered by the southern people who did not think of fire as a useful tool in forestry.

Perhaps, Hope Lies in the Creation of Environmental Palavers

I am taking a class called "Writing for Our Lives- Nature, Literature, and the End of the World".
 In the context of environmental change, behind the countless readings we did from a varied sources, I observed a disturbing trend. A majority of the authors were either interested in simply expressing their anguish and agitatation with humanity, population overload, and the fact that their rivers were not as pristine and secluded as they once were, or in ultimtaley stating that there is no solution for reversing the extent of damage we have done to our environment. Others are content with blaming lazy people, governments, etc. 

Today, I was introduced to quite an intriguing concept- a palaver.

Palaver is an assembly of people who recognize that they do not know enough to know how to solve a problem which we all face together. As traditionally believed, the strength of a palaver lies in the fact that each member comes with strong background in a certain discipline and is willing to offer his/her expertise on that. When the idea of a palaver for climate change was introduced in the class, I remained frustrated as I realized that if the arguments and the people chosen to construct them were not chosen carefully, the palaver would then just end up being a non-virtual blog full of opinions going in no particular direction. This reminded me of a recent modern day example- the Copenhagen Summit on climate change.

Copenhagen didn't get us the legally binding global carbon emission reduction agreement we wanted. To many it was a disappointment, a vindication of their fears that world leaders would fail to seize the moment and rise above national self-interest to secure a historic climate treaty. It was the failure of a broad and a large-scale palaver discussing how to tackle climate change on a global scale. However, the more I analyzed it, I realized that another important consideration into creating a palaver that would give a fruitful result is to make these palavers on a small scale. Failure of the summit on large scale resulted because every country stands amongst a different kind of economic stature, lifestyle, construct of the economy within the society and thus, different demands from each other and amongst its people within itself. Therefore, this opens up an opportunity for businesses, local communities, and individuals to create their own palavers- assess their ways of thinking amongst their small surroundings, and see what works for them best, despite the lack of a national or even an international political consensus.

Local palavers and initiatives stemming out of their discussions can be replicated by groups across countries and nations can deliver substantial practices in fighting local climate change. The idea is that once these are successful and replicated with necessary tweaking in other regions, the beneficial local climate change in one or perhaps two small regions multiplies by 500 regions and so on. At the same time, they can drive the mass shift in attitude and behavior that is needed to tackle climate change.

The key at the root of any solution stemming from these palavers is to use incentives to engage people to become a part of both the economic and practical solutions that are needed. Following are a few examples that illustrate this idea.

CRERAL is a co-operative in south Brazil that supplies electricity via the grid to 6,300 mainly rural customers in the area. To increase the capacity and improve the reliability of its supply, it has built two river-based, low-tech, low-cost mini-hydro plants (0.72 and 1.0 MW capacity) that produce about 5.5 GWh of electricity a year, or 25% of overall demand .

In northern Tanzania, the Mwanza Rural Housing Programme (MRHP) trains villagers to set up enterprises making high-quality bricks from local clay, fired with agricultural residues rather than wood. As houses are now built from bricks instead of woods, not only does this reduce deforestation, the bricks have been used in more than 100,000 homes in 70 villages, providing improved comfort and durability .

Such practices not only create a solution for the local communities, but they also set up case examples which can be carefully studied and implemented in other communities. Moreover, holding a palaver and implementing its solutions locally alleviates the lack of control that people often feel in the midst of such policies because they may affect them but not benefit them, at least in immediate monetary terms (If everyone understood and happily accepted the long-term benefits green initiatives, things would be a lot easier). This problem can be tackled as well as the industries initiated by the policy- in our case example the hydro-plant or the brick factory- can be privately bought and sold so as to gain profits from their own small scale establishment by eliminating costs of acquiring it from elsewhere.

After contemplating on this topic for a bit, I realized that the creation of palavers could be extremely powerful in tackling climate change by implementing environmentally conscious habits. However, before the creation of any such palaver, it is most imperative that the affecting region is local, and a definitive objective is set which incentivizes and empowers people. This will lead to support and resources for the people and practical local climate change solutions will follow. Meanwhile, as big global deals are being sought, the local communities will already be moving-on with the task at hand.