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JANUARY—FEBRUARY 2019
Lee Squires, Editor
Leaders & Tippets
Mike Lubeach, President
President’s Corner
Getting a Good Start on 2019
Our Annual December TU Chapter Holiday Party was a great success. There was lots of great
food, camaraderie, games and prizes for all. We nearly doubled in the usual attendance and
most shared in the gift exchange. Everyone had a good time. A big THANK YOU goes out to
Committee Co-Chairs Linda Squires and Paul Vitello for their hard work in making this a won-
derful event.
For most of us, winter is a time to enjoy the great indoors. There are those of us who brave
the snow and cold to get out to our favorite stream where few anglers can be seen. Snow
Birds venture south or west to wet a line in warmer climate. Sitting in all winter can bring
about the dreaded ailment known as “Fishpox”. The only known cure is to get outdoors and
cast a few. The fish are there all year long, yet winter temps may send them deep and cause
them to be lethargic. Remember, fish never sleep, they may rest, but they never sleep. So
for most of us who stay indoors by the fireplace, planted in our favorite easy chair waiting for
the first signs of spring, (and maybe watch some football on larger-than-life TV screens) , this
is a good time to get ready for spring. Tie some of your favorite fly patterns. Check out your
frayed lines, leaders, and tippets. Do they need replacing ? What about your waders ? Have
they sprung a leak ? Patch them now before you forget.
Another way to get through the doldrums of winter is to attend TU Meetings. January 22, 2019 is the next Chapter Meeting and Program. We welcome Ward Wilson, Executive Director of Kentucky Waterways Alliance (KWA) who will be our guest speaker. KWA works to protect and restore wildlife habitat in and around Kentucky’s waterways across the state. They work with groups like at the Red River Gorge and partner with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are affiliated with the National Wild- life Federation. Ward will speak about ongoing work and preview some exciting plans for 2019. Of interest is the project to remove the Green River Lock and Dam # 5. Meeting time is 6:30 pm at Cabela’s in Old Brownsboro Crossing off hwy. 22 just east of I-265 (Gene Snyder Freeway) in Louisville. Bring a friend and maybe win a nice prize in our raffle. Don’t miss the 2019 Derby City fly Fishing Show, Saturday, January 26, 2019, at Paraquet Springs Conference Center in Shepherdsville, Ky. This is a premier regional event with guest speakers, fly tying demos, casting lessons, tackle vendors, good eats, and activities for the kids. Come out and reel in some bargains on gear. Score some great Fly Show Door Prizes as well. Stop by and visit the TU Booth and Kentucky Fly Tyers Booth. Reel Recovery and Casting for Recovery will have booths, too. On February 26, 2019, is the next TU Free Fly Tying Clinic at Cabela’s at 6:30 pm. All supplies and tools are provided or you may bring your own. Learn a new pattern from some of the top fly tyers in the area. Bring your spouse. It’s fun and may become addictive. Perhaps you would like to help mentor students in one of our 6 schools engaged in Trout In the Classroom (TIC). We need a few more volunteers to schedule a classroom visit and im- part your knowledge of the life-cycle of trout. The kids are full of interesting questions and eager to raise their fry. Youth education is a stepping stone to perpetuate stewardship of our cold water species and watersheds. Tight Lines, Mike Lubeach
From the Editor …………………………Lee Squires
Our 2018 Holiday Party
As Mike said in his President’s Corner, “our Holiday Party was a great success.” Linda Squires spearheaded
the December 12th event and planned for many hours to create a party atmosphere filled with several
games for the party-goers and plenty of interesting food for the gastronomes. Attendees brought a wide
array of food items and no one went hungry. Paul Vitello rounded out the committee and helped Linda
with the minute details that the average person overlooks. This was our largest attended party in recent
years with close to 30 people attending.
Linda had the “guess the song” event and it was won by the husband & wife team ,Tyler & Amanda .
This is always challenging and difficult. They received a Cabela’s gift card for their knowledge of Christmas
music.
New this year, Linda asked attendees to bring some items that they no longer needed and they were put
in a raffle. As tickets were drawn attendees could select an item of their choice. This was in addition to the
presents brought for the gift exchange. Almost everyone got two presents this year !
Also, the “guess the number of Swedish Fish in the jar” event mesmerized everyone as they tried to guess
the number of gummy fish in the jar. Not easy and the winner of the Cabela’s gift card prize with the clos-
est to the number of fish was , Deloris. Not only is she a great baker of rum cakes she is an excellent esti-
mator.
All in all, everyone had a great time (at least there
were no comments to the contrary) and we all look
forward to next year’s event.
OUR NEXT MEETINGS
TUESDAY , January 22nd—General Meeting
6:30 at Cabela’s
Ward Wilson, Executive Director
Kentucky Waterways Alliance
Protecting & Restoring Wildlife Habitat Along Kentucky Waterways
Saturday, January 26th
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Derby City Fly Fishing Expo
Paraquet Springs Conference Center, Shepherdsville, Ky.
Our Chapter will have a booth at the expo so please come , sit in the booth and
help to spread the word about our Chapter and Trout Unlimited
TUESDAY, February 26th– Fly Tying Clinic
6:30 at Cabela’s
Roy Weeks will tie a “Little Hopper”
BOARD MEETING
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11TH AT 6:30
COMMONWEALTH BANK
2018 MYSTERY FLY FOR CANCER TOURNAMENT Mike Lubeach It was a cold and blustery November 17th morning when fishermen and women descended upon Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area’s Garnettsville Picnic Area. Several of the seventy -two avid supporters of this annual REEL RECOVERY fundraiser, for the benefit of men cancer survivors, came to ply their fly fishing skills clad in waders and gear to score some great priz- es. There were bucket raffles for gear and guided trips, (out)door prizes, donuts & coffee, hot barbeque lunch with all the fixin’s and lots of camaraderie. Around the campfire many fish stories were told. The water at Otter Creek was a little high and fast flowing. These dedicated trout anglers were determined. While some came from a hundred miles away or more, they were on a mission. Several fly fishing clubs members from around the region were in attendance. (DCFF, TU, NKFF, OVFRC, BUFF, etc.) Some stayed at the OCORA bunkhouses over the week- end to get signed in at 8 am for the event. Each received 1 (that’s ONE) Mystery Fly to fish with. No other flies permitted. They did, however, have opportunity to purchase additional “Mulligan Flies” (extra Mystery Flies) all tied in secrecy by members of Derby City Fly Fishers, the event sponsor. Teams of 2 were randomly drawn to fish together and chronicle their catches. Honor System was observed for their successes in the stream. As conditions were not the most favorable, results were a bit slim. The winning team regis- tered a combined total of 4 fish. There were many runner-ups with 3. This, compared to previous years, was nothing to write home about, but that didn’t matter to those in attend- ance as they still had a great time. There is always next year. Many thanks to DCFF for hosting the event. It was a lot of work but well worth it. The next Reel Recovery Retreat will again be at Wooded Glen Retreat and Conference Center in Henryville, Indiana on May 20 – 22, 2019. Up to 14 adult men may attend. Sign up at www.reelrecovery.org . Volunteer “Fishing Buddies” are needed for one-on-one instruction. Contact: Mike Lubeach to volunteer at mikeroe@bellsouth.net
Sydney & Amy Abbott , TU members, Pete Compise was ready for anything that Mother
attended the event Nature could dish out
The erosion at Otter Creek is getting worse as hard rains continue. Future plans are being made
to restore the stream and eliminate the majority of the erosion problems.
FISH TALES
Best Day Ever Flyfishing the Cumberland River
By Joe Bobrowski
The first time I ever fished the Cumberland River was back in the late eighties. Brent, my current step son,
and I drove down to the Kendall Campground near Wolf Creek Dam to meet my son, Tony, and his step
brother, Ray, who were camping. The next morning the four of us fished the mouth of old Hatchery Creek.
Back then we fished with night crawlers and salmon eggs and had a bonanza. We caught 23 trout before the
siren went off to warn that Wolf Creek would begin generating. A sign warned about how fast the water
would rise. Just as the first flush of water arrived I landed a 17 inch rainbow, and Ray landed an 18 inch
walleye. We had to scramble to exit the rapidly rising, waist-deep water. The next year we went back to see
if we could repeat, but nothing worked. This time I was flyfishing while wading the sandbar off the mouth of
Hatchery Creek. Schools of fingerling trout were circling me, and a few actually swam between my legs
while laughing. We watched two bald eagles sink their talons into fingerlings
The first time I ever floated the Cumberland was with Lee Squires in his canoe on Good Friday in
1994. We had met in a church group in the late 80’s and had begun fishing together, canoeing Elkhorn
Creek, Boone Creek, and the Dix River. The Cumberland on this first float delivered some nice trout on
bait and Blue Fox spinners. We had joined TU in 1993, but only converted primarily to flyfishing sometime
after Lee had purchased a bass boat. Over 20 years we floated the Cumberland once or twice a year to-
gether, learning how to flyfish this big water. After Lee married the avid and skilled flyfisher, Linda in
2006, I began occasionally booking guides for floats on the Cumberland. I had enjoyable and productive
floats with flyfishing guides Hagan Won and Gerry McDaniel. In the meantime I had introduced Mike
Price, a friend from work, to flyfishing. I won a silent auction trip on the Cumberland with Greg Williams
at TU’s fundraiser and invited Mike on his first float trip. We caught a bunch of stocker trout on the
dreaded zebra midge. At another TU fundraiser my wife won a float trip with Dave DeBold. Mike and I
caught 24 trout on Dave’s puffy egg fly. Dave stands tall in his boat and is able to warn you of an impend-
ing hookup. He claimed I missed a hookup with a 23 inch bruiser. I began to think that this guide was a
“fish whisperer.” I also thought it would be fun to go out with him again, so at the 2017 TU fundraiser I
bid on his float trip and won.
In my 23 years fishing the Cumberland I had some good days, as reported above, but I’ve never had a great day of flyfishing, as I did on the South Fork of the Snake River for two days in Idaho in 2008. I had caught big singles, including a 19.5 inch rainbow on the Yellow Breeches in Pennsylvania where I began flyfishing in 1971, and a 19.5 inch rainbow on Otter creek. On the South Fork I caught a prolifer- ation of chunky rainbows, browns, whitefish, along with a fat cutbow, a 19 inch rainbow, and a 20 inch brown. I lost what appeared to be a 23 inch brown going through a rapid. Most of my fish on the Cum- berland never had such girth or quantity, until our second float with guide Dave DeBold. It took a while to schedule this float due to a blown rotator cuff in my casting arm. A complete shoulder replacement didn’t occur till April of 2018. This was followed by a left elbow surgery in August. My fishing buddy, Mike, was vacationing on Cape Cod until mid-August. We finally settled on October 20 which was iffy since the Army Corps had been running three generators daily at Wolf Creek for over a week. I began fretting that it might be too cold with leaves all over the water, or high water. It rained the night be- fore the trip, and the temperature was 53 degrees. Muddy water? After getting lost on a muddy farm trying to find Winfrey’s Ferry, Mike and I finally met up with Dave DeBold. I had decided to forego wearing long Johns, since the predicted temperature was 63 degrees. I regretted that as we generated our own wind chugging up river. It felt like Ice Station Zebra. Dave mo- tored several miles upstream. We began fishing the south shore with preassembled five– weight rods rigged with an adjustable indicator and a new fly Dave had tied at a recent TU meeting, the inimical mop fly. The high water was lapping against vertical mud banks with almost no stumps showing. I was wondering how we were going to fish this nondescript swift water with no apparent structure. I was begin- ning to resign myself to another so-so day. I hate high water, after encountering it many times in the past. Dave had us throwing up against the bank, then lifting the rod up 3-4 feet, letting it drop, and lifting 2 feet with a drop. In fact, his constant refrain all day was “Keep it moving!” This method reminded me of Gerry McDaniel’s remark that there’s no speed that a trout can’t catch up with. I think the speed triggers a pred- ator response. After a week or more of 3 generators running full tilt, these trout were hungry. We began to hook up, first Mike, then a double. It took a high degree of maneuvering by Dave with his trolling motor to keep us both in casting position due to the swift flow. After floating a couple hundred yards down- stream, Dave motored back to our starting point for another run, which became a pattern for the day when we hit a productive run. It became apparent that Dave knew this water well, as he would warn us about impending structure even though it was all under tainted water. On this second pass our excitement exploded. The big boys came out to play - all chunky rainbows! Mike landed several 13, 15, and 16 inch fish. During this and subsequent runs I landed several 13 and 14 inch fish, a 15 inch, 2, 16 inch, and an 18 inch rainbow. The larger fish were muscular with some girth. Finally, a slew of girthy, quality fish on the Cumberland! We tried other spots and picked up some 12 inch fish. The overcast cleared, and the sun came out. Before breaking for lunch, Dave went back to our original spot.
Toward the end of this drift I hooked into something big that hugged the bottom. Dave thought
it might be a walleye or a brown. I could not raise this fish. It kept making sustained runs that stripped
line off my reel, always staying down. It circled the stern of the boat four times, and once made a run
for deeper water. Lucky for me that it never went toward shore and got wrapped up in structure. The
dogged fight reminded me of a day I landed 3 bull redfish (31, 30, and 29 inches) at Perdido Pass, Ala-
bama in 2012. The bull reds wore me out, as did this trout which finally succumbed to the net. It was a
stunning 20 inch female full of eggs, which Dave estimated to weigh about 6 pounds. Mike had caught
two fish during my battle which I estimated took 20 minutes. After a few quick pictures of this female
beauty, Dave put her back in the net to revive her, but we all grew concerned when she turned belly up
in the net. She had fought me so hard she had worn herself out. Finally Dave took her out of the net by
the tail and moved her back and forth in the current. After an egregiously long wait she revived and
slowly returned to the depths. We speculated regarding browns’ reproductive success.
We broke for lunch after this epic battle, the longest and hardest I’d ever had with any trout.
That female gave me a renewed appreciation for the Me Too movement. After lunch we fished below
Winfrey’s. We landed a few residuals, but the bite was off. I kept a rough count on Mike’s tally for the
day at 9 quality rainbows and one brown. My tally was 16 rainbows and one brown. We each had lost
at least 7 hookups. What a marvelous day on the Cumberland. For me, and Mike – it was the best ev-
er!
The End !!!
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2019-1-january-february/feature/there-no-planet-b-kim-stanley-robinson
Our expressed mission in TU is to conserve, protect and restore cold water, a commitment that
includes both a self-serving and environmental component. In order for trout to thrive, suitable
habitat and most essentially, cold water, are essential. But the big picture recognizes that this is
only a piece of the larger environmental problem: that the Earth is warming, which is counter-
positive to our mission.
The link above, from the Sierra Club magazine and written by environmentalist/author Kim Stan-
ley Robinson, is a story that encapsulates in three pages the bigger picture: the issues and the
dangers and the potential solutions before us.
Please give it a read………..Ed Allgeier, TU Kentucky National Leadership Council representative
See the entire article printed on the last three pages of this issue……………..
NEWSLETTER ADVERTISEMENTS & SWAP SHOP
Dan Jackman—Board Member
The Louisville TU newsletter is going to start having advertisements and a Swap Shop column
in each of the 6 annual issues.
The rules for this are simple. We will place business card size ads of speakers or sponsors
and/or members to promote their business who, either pay for the advertising ($5.00 per is-
sue or $25.00 per year) or who speak to or contribute to our organization in a manner appro-
priate to our standards. We would like to help our speakers promote their businesses.
Sell and/or Swap items are the responsibility of the owner to write up, to include description,
price and pictures (if desired). The seller must include contact information so potential buyers
may contact them for purchases. Items for sale should be fly fishing related. Swap Shop
sellers must be TU members in order to participate. Our TU chapter is not responsible for any
disputes or misrepresentations between the seller and purchaser.
All business card ads and ads for items for the Swap Shop must be sent via email to
Dan Jackman at:
d.jackman8085@gmail.com
These will be placed in the next available newsletter/newsletters.
TU will not charge a fee for the Swap Shop (trade or sell items) , however, if this becomes too
burdensome to continue the board, at it’s discretion, may limit the amount a person may sell
or swap or discontinue the service in the future.SWAP or TRADE Scott’s model ses90513 9’ 5 wt 3-piece, great condition Contact Roy Weeks @ 845-8081 Bamboo rod, origin unknown 3-piece w/ 2 tips. Contact Dan Jackman d.jackman8085@gmail.com Bamboo rod, origin unknown D.jackman8085@gmail.com
Trout in the Classroom Progress
Mike Lubeach
“A” is for ALEVIN. TIC UPDATE 2018
“A” is for ALEVIN. So ……………. What are alevin. Alevin are the stage of trout or salmon as they leave their eggs yet still attached
to their yoke sac.
“B” is for BUTTON-UP. Button-up is the stage in fry development when the belly seam closes as the yoke sac is consumed.
“C” is for CONSUMER. A consumer is an organism that eats (or consumes) other living things.
“D” is for D.O. or DISSOLVED OXYGEN. Oxygen in its gaseous form dissolved in aqueous water.
“E” is for EGG. A mature female sex cell, also called the ovum.
“F” is for FRY. A fry is a larval fish that no longer depends on its yoke sac for nutrients and actively seeks food.
“G” is for GILLS. Gills are the breathing organs that fish use to exchange oxygen from water with carbon dioxide from its blood.
In December, 2018, I visited 4 of our TU Chapter’s Trout In the Classroom (TIC) schools and met with students from K thru 12.
Their enthusiasm beamed as we talked about their newly-hatched rainbow trout. Each teacher gears the TIC Course to the learn-
ing level of each science class. As I entered the classroom of one such class of fourth graders, they were analyzing the water
chemistry (see pics) charting the daily findings, and adjusting with chemicals to bring the water quality back into balance. Stu-
dents systematically recorded their statistics on Amonia, NO2 (nitrates), NO3 (nitrites), ph, temperature, and food weight. The
job assignment rotation for each student’s daily duty was posted on the classroom wall. The students looked like a group of mini
-scientists buzzing about their laboratory (classroom) with the seriousness of dedicated professionals.
I gave a pictorial presentation of adult trout, talked about the Wolf Creek Hatchery where the eggs came from, and opened up a
very active Q & A session. I was quite impressed by some of the detailed questions that were posed by these fourth graders.
Before my departure, I posed the question : “Who is going to take care of their new fry while the class is on their two week holi-
day break ?” There answers seemed quite reassuring . …………. (To be continued in the next TU Newsletter.)Natasha Kremer’s class at Freedom Elementary has an organized duty assignment chart
Her students take copious notes with plenty of hands-on instructionPeriodic water testing and record keeping is
THERE IS NO PLANET B
Kim Stanley Robinson
FOR ALMOST MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE, I've spent some portion of the summer backpacking through the Sierra Nevada, and during
that time I've witnessed profound changes. Three out of the past five years, the range was filled with smoke from fires burning on
the western slope. I've hiked through the aftermath of major forest fires, visited meadows desiccated by drought, and watched the
retreat of glaciers. The mountain icefields are a fraction of the size they were when I first visited them. It's very likely they will be
gone by the end of this century—gone like the grizzly bears
there can be no argument: Our world is changing fast. Of course, our planet has always changed, and always will change. But now
the changes are happening hundreds of times faster than they used to, spurred by human actions. The changes are occurring so
rapidly that they have forced scientists to come up with a new name for this unprecedented epoch: the Anthropocene, the "human
age."
Humans' sweeping transformations of Earth—some of them deliberate, many of them accidental—have put civilization in a precari-
ous position that forces on us existential questions about where we go from here. If we continue to burn ancient carbon, stripmine
the soil, and raze forests, we could be headed for the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth's history. If we ignore the conse-
quences of the manmade changes, then famine, war, and pandemics could result from wrecking Earth's life-support systems. It
can't be emphasized enough just how awful a bad Anthropocene could be.
This huge spread of possible futures—from very bad to very good—is one of the things about this moment in time that create such
powerful feelings of urgency and disorientation.
If, however, we change our technologies and our economic system to better match the physical and biological realities of life on
Earth, the resulting history could be quite amazing, what some are calling "a good Anthropocene." That future would, in effect, be
the story of humanity devoting itself to nurturing the health of the biosphere and creating a sustainable prosperity for all the living
creatures on this planet. While not exactly utopia, that future could be called optopia—the "optimal place," the best possible out-
come given the current conditions.
This huge spread of possible futures—from very bad to very good—is one of the things about this moment in time that create such
powerful feelings of urgency and disorientation. But the window of opportunity to shape our future for the best is closing fast. Eco-
logical destruction is accelerating, new environmental problems keep cropping up, and the outdated thinking that informs today's
status quo is proving all too resistant to thoughtful response.
And still. There is, just barely, time remaining to initiate a good Anthropocene. It is still physically possible to create an optopia on
Earth.
Human civilization has become an ecological—it's fair to say evolutionary—force on this planet. It's a daunting, even terrifying,
thought. But that's what it means to be in the Anthropocene. Since we aren't, at this point, able to return to the way things were
before the Anthropocene, our best option is to adapt and adjust as best we can to this new world we have unwittingly created.
How should we respond to such a responsibility? Where, when, and at what scale should we intervene in natural systems?
Some of the adaptations being talked about are globally grandiose—and truly scary. If the situation becomes genuinely apocalyptic,
our species may attempt large-scale interventions that today sound dangerous or repugnant. One example is what climatologists
call "solar radiation management"—that is, the planetary equivalent of pulling down the shades to cool off the globe. Were mil-
lions of people to perish owing to heat-related crop failure or heatstroke fatalities, national governments would be sorely tempted
to take emergency action, such as injecting small particles into the upper atmosphere in an attempt to imitate a volcanic eruption
and cool global temperatures. This is the most discussed method of what's called geo-engineering, and it would represent an un-
precedented deliberate manipulation of Earth—the whole world embarking on an experiment in planetary management.But, as environmental scientist Erle C. Ellis has cautioned, there is no cockpit on Planet Earth. We don't have the knowledge or the power to engineer the planet's biophysical flows; we only have the power to nudge our gigantic planetary system a little bit this way or that. "Geo-engineering" is a misnomer. It would be more appropriate to call these attempts at planetary remodeling by another name: geo-tweaking or geo-finessing or geo-begging. These terms better indicate how puny civilization's powers are rela- tive to giant forces such as the chemistry of the oceans, the balance of the atmosphere, and the interplay among millions of spe- cies. Fortunately, there are other options open to us, though they will require imagination, political will, flexibility, and an attentiveness to the realities of the planet—habits of mind at which we are unpracticed. Some forms of geo-tweaking that might be implemented seem to me unequivocally good. Taking carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere—that's a good idea. It's worth investigating the potential of mechanically sifting carbon dioxide out of the air and then burying it, or binding carbon directly to rocks, even though doing so at a global scale would likely have associated problems. Many of the most promising ideas for carbon dioxide drawdown are local and regional rather than global, and they make use of biological processes already well tested by evolution. Take, for example, preserving or restoring forests and peat bogs. These are good practices in and of themselves for the long-term cycling of elements crucial to life; at the same time, protecting and expand- ing forests can help sequester atmospheric carbon. The same goes for improving farming and ranching practices to prioritize soil health, conserving coastal wetlands, seeding and sustaining offshore kelp forests, and restoring native grasslands. Getting the at- mosphere back to something like 350 parts per million of CO2 will be an integral part of making a good Anthropocene. Another form of geo-tweaking that might come to be seen as good is a regional action with global consequences: pumping sea- water onto the ice cap covering eastern Antarctica so that it freezes high on the massive Antarctic icefields. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research investigated this possibility and estimated that it would take about 7 percent of all the electricity cre- ated annually by humans to pump the necessary amount of water. That sounds like a lot, and in fact the institute concluded that such a project might not be considered "economically favorable." But right now, roughly a third of 1 percent of all the electricity generated each year by humans (about the same amount that Austria or Chile uses) is being used to create Bitcoins. In other words, for about 25 times the energy cost of a stupid speculative bubble, we might be able to save all the coastal cities and beach- es of the world from being submerged. Given that the world's coastlines could be priced in the trillions of dollars—or, more accu- rately, simply valued as priceless—is it really too expensive to pump that upcoming flood back onto the Antarctic ice cap? Which brings us to economics, that most dismal of sciences. Economics pretends to calculate the value of things. Yet when asked whether we can return the planet to health, capitalist economics all too often answers, "No, we can't." The project of saving the biosphere from catastrophe is considered unprofitable in the short term compared with other financial opportunities, so it won't be done, because profit rules all. And so we arrive at the old saying "It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." Our challenge, then, is to imagine harder. Because the world is not an optional investment we can choose to forgo due to its low rate of return. There is no Planet B. We have to keep this planet healthy, because it's our one and only home, our extended body. Margaret Thatcher infamously said that "there is no alternative" to corporate capitalism. But there is absolutely no alternative to maintaining life on Earth. What I am trying to say is this: Perhaps the most important thing we can do to adapt to climate chaos and the dislocations of the Anthropocene is to rethink the assumptions and revise the rules of corporate capitalism. After all, the current economic order, while massive, isn't permanent or unchangeable. It's a human artifact: We made it over time through a series of power plays and improvisations. And that means we can remake it, if we have the courage to do so. Just consider the phenomenon of "quantitative easing"—economists' term for the Federal Reserve's creation of about $4 trillion since the crash of 2008 to prop up the financial sector, the stock market, and the housing industry. If we can create trillions of dol- lars and inject that money into the economy without extraordinary repercussions, as a normal part of managing civilization, then why can't we do so to rescue civilization from itself? Such wealth could be used to pay for the carbon drawdown and ecological restoration this moment demands. Essentially, we as a society would be deciding to pay ourselves to do the work needed to cre- ate a good Anthropocene. An ecology-minded quantitative easing would be its own kind of geo-engineering. Some are calling this the Green New Deal.
Science fiction? Not necessarily. Politics is, in part, the art of imagining the future, and this is a future worth envisioning. Just pic- ture it all. With the right financial incentives, farmers would focus as much on the yields of carbon sequestered in the soil as they once did on crop yields. Timber companies would find revenues in replanting forests—not tree plantations for a future harvest but real, biodiverse forests valued for how much carbon dioxide they inhaled and stored. Ranchers would double as wildlife stewards, paid for the number of wolves, grizzlies, and bison roaming their land as well as the cattle they raised. Imagine a remade world founded upon health and prosperity. Imagine transportation of every kind propelled by clean energy— electric cars and scooters, for sure, but also container ships pulled by kite sails, then battery powered when navigating close to port. Imagine every lightbulb and internet download powered by the sun and the wind. Imagine engineers and technicians and heavy-equipment operators finding meaningful work building out a global clean energy infrastructure. All these technologies are off-the-shelf and shovel-ready; the only thing we haven't invented yet is the economics to pay for them. Of course, achieving such a future will be a political struggle every step of the way. Pulling together like this will be a hard and strange improvisation, like a tightrope walk over an abyss. But human history is full of examples of how cultural norms and struc- tures of feeling can change—sometimes quite fast. This century is sure to be one of those occasions. Hope resides in this underap- preciated fact of human nature: People are often at their best in the midst of crisis and emergency. If we manage to build the good Anthropocene, the payoffs will be incalculable. The alpine meadows will still be lush in the centu- ries to come. The glaciers will return, and the grizzly bears too. The Sierra Nevada will still resemble the place the Sierra Club was founded to protect, the place I remember best. Maybe the welfare of the ecosystems in one single mountain range seems like a small matter in the larger picture. But it matters to those of us who love those mountains. And the Sierra Nevada—just like the Amazon and the seas and the still-wild tundra—can serve as an indicator habitat. If those places stay healthy, it will only be because the whole world has stayed healthy. That is something to wish for, and to work for. This article appeared in the January/February 2019 edition of the Sierra Club magazine with the headline "There Is No Planet B."and was submitted by Louisville TU member and TU National NLC representative, Ed Allgeier
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