Here is an event to take place later this year in DC which may be of interest to Grist readers in the vicinity, as well as travelers:

In a fund-raising letter that I just received from Tim Johnson, Associate Director for Museum Programs at the National Museum of the American Indian, we read:

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We are planning a symposium on global climate change to be held at our Museum in Washington, D.C., this November [i.e., American Indian Heritage Month].  It is entitled "Call to Consciousness: Global Climate Change and the Fate of Mother Earth."  We will bring together the scientific community and Native leaders from throughout the Americas, including philosophers, policy makers, and advocates and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and knowledge about how to address global climate change.
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At the core of Native Americans' connection to the natural world is the knowledge that all life deserves great respect, and that by respecting and conserving the earth's resources, all living things will continue for those who come after us.
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Let me provide just three brief examples of how Native peoples have been affected when there is a failure to appreciate the special connections humans and nature share.

• Native communities of the Pacific Northwest once lived on salmon from the rivers, leaving them with an instinctive respect for the wild marine habitat.  Today, the large number of river dams is endangering the survival of several species of salmon and has imperiled a way of life for many in this region.

• Native Americans of the Great Plains understood that the bison (often called buffalo) were a source of life that must never be casually slaughtered. . . . [The old familiar story.]

• Native cultures in Central and South America were thriving in dense rainforests long before Europeans began their exploration.  And yet in just a few centuries, those vibrant forests have been stripped bare and their bounty wasted.  The trees that make oxygen and purify the air are cut down at an alarming rate -- and air pollution levels are on the rise.

Educational programs at museums tend to be irregular.  Certainly that is true of the American Museum of Natural History, where the presenters always have something interesting to say or show, but the manner of presentation can be loosey-goosey.  At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by contrast, the quality if much more consistently high.

I have no experience with the Smithsonian network in DC.  In the case of this event in November, my guess is there will be nothing cutting-edge, generally, under the "solutions" heading, though some speakers may describe some very interesting local initiatives about which one might not have heard.  Since speakers will be coming from many places in the hemisphere, their testimony ought to be invaluable.  And that, apparently, is going to be a large part of this symposium's significance: that Native witnesses to environmental degradation and its effects on their respective peoples will be able to speak about it in their own words.

The website of the NMAI does not yet have a reference to this symposium, or at least I could not find one.  No doubt there is still a lot of work to be done on the schedule and the roster of participants.  But meanwhile see:

www.AmericanIndian.si.edu

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

I only found one picture of Dave, and it's a little bizarre looking - which might be normal.