5 Blogs about Sierra Club History

The Sierra Club was founded by John Muir and his eco-conscious compatriots 122 years ago this week. Since then the club has sought to explore, enjoy and protect this amazing planet. Together we’ve protected millions of acres of wilderness, saved endangered species and kept natural resources clean. Muir would surely have been proud of the relentless efforts of our members.

To commemorate this anniversary week enjoy these Green Life posts about the Club’s legacy.

1. Women of the Sierra Club: Marion Randall Parsons - A writer, artist, photographer, mountaineer and nature enthusiast, Parsons was a force to be reckoned with. Read all about the first lady to be elected onto our board of directors.

2. Original Beards of the Sierra Club - Beards have come back into fashion, but our earliest members were masters of this style long ago. Take a look at some of our favorite facial hair.

3. Women of the Sierra Club: Allison Chin - After working with an Inner CIty Outings group, Chin stepped up her involvement and eventually became the first board president of color. Learn more about her thoughts on the outdoors, diversity and civil disobedience. 

4.Retro Hiking Style - Early Sierra Club ladies wore dresses and bloomers on outdoor club trips. Check out these fabulous photos from 1896 to 1946.  

5. Chiura Obata and his Sierra Legacy - After Obata was released from the interment camps he took part in Sierra High Club trips, sharing his technique with other clubbers on the trail. The painter left behind inspirational art and a story of resilience.

 

- top image courtesy of the Library of Congress

- bottom image by Joseph N. Leconte

Bianca Hernandez is the Acting Web Editor at Sierra. She recently received her MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Southern California and has written for various publications.

 

Wait... Bears Can Rock Climb?

Well, the answer is yes! Bears can rock climb, as seen in this viral video filmed by youtuber Stephanie Latimer. These bears aren't quite poetry in motion; they seem too clumsy, shaky and husky to be testing their vertical limits. And since they climb free-solo (meaning without ropes or protection because they are bears), you're left on the very edge of your seat with every reach and paw shuffle.  

Cedar Wright, a North Face athlete, seasoned professional rock climber and writer, was particularly impressed with the daring bears:

"These are the best bear climbers I've seen since 1999 in Yosemite when I witnessed the impressive free-solo of a 50-foot 5.9 off-width by a bear....The mom employs some masterful stemming at the crux, while the cub realizes that this is a reach problem and is forced to establish a more difficult variation." 

These are Mexican Black Bears, a subspecies of black bear listed as endangered in Texas, and they grow to weigh 200-400 pounds--not an ideal weight for such miniscule paw holds. Yet somehow the little cub, after watching her mother traverse like a furry Alex Honnold to the safe ledge, learns quickly. She nervously negotiates the route and tops out in dramatic fashion.

These black bears are often spotted by campers in Santa Elena Canyon, part of the 800,000-acre Big Bend National Park in the lone star state. Campers and hikers might witness them lumbering around and foraging near the river with their cubs. But seeing these bears crimp, traverse and jug up the canyon walls, claws and all? That's another story.

"Rarely are [black bears] seen scaling the walls of the canyon," says a Park Ranger of Big Bend who prefers anonymity. But, he says, it happens, and it's not as impressive as the video suggests. "The cliffs actually aren't all that vertical," he says, and it's common for bears to climb anything that they perceive is climbable.

Plus, rock climbing in Santa Elena Canyon isn't conducive to human methods of climbing. The canyon rock--soft igneous and limestone flutes--is much less dense than say Yosemite's granite.  Drilling and placing climbing protection are risky for the climber and damage the rock's integrity.

Wright (pictured, tall), however, remains awestruck. "After careful examination," says Wright, "I can confidently say that this is a cutting edge ascent that in bear grades is in the upper stratosphere of what is possible. I would guess it is a solid B.15." Wright equates the "B" scale (for "Bear") to the highest-rated climb in human standards, 5.15. 

"Even by human standards this is one of the great ascents of our time. A new bar has been set. I think it's time for [Chris] Sharma, Honnold and [Tommy] Caldwell to hang up their hats and give respect where it's due."

  

Video credit: Stephanie Latimer

Photo credit: Cedar Wright

J. Scott Donahue is a former intern at Sierra. He will soon obtain an MFA in nonfiction writing, and his thesis is composed of travel essays about trekking, mountaineering and running Nepal's Himalayas.

Read More:

Original Beards of the Sierra Club 

Throwback Thursday: Chiura Obata and His Sierra Legacy

Poems to Inspire Outdoor Adventures

Interview: HGTV Hunk Carter Oosterhouse Talks Green to Us

Photos of former model Carter Oosterhouse plaster the walls of many a dorm room. His pinup looks notwithstanding, Oosterhouse's real talent lies in knowing how to swing a hammer. A carpenter by trade, he caught attention after appearing on TLC's redecorating show Trading Spaces. HGTV then nabbed him to host Red, Hot & Green and Carter Can, both of which emphasize eco-friendly design. He's a regular on Oprah, showing viewers how to gussy up their homes in the greenest of ways. His nonprofit, Carter's Kids, builds parks and playgrounds in low-income areas. Oosterhouse took some time to answer our questions. 

Q: How did you get into carpentry? 

A: It started out as a summer job in the town I grew up in, Traverse City, Michigan. It was just something to do to make some money. My two older brothers taught me, and a neighbor took me as his apprentice. I would have never guessed that what started as a summer job would take me so far.

Q: What made you an environmentalist?

A: I blame my dad. He was always preaching. Whenever we'd have to wash a car or boat, we had to use biodegradable soap. In Michigan we have such big bodies of freshwater—they're among the richest commodities we have—so that's why my dad was so adamant. We didn't realize that it would, but stuff like that got stuck in our heads.

Q: What’s the greenest thing people can do when remodeling a house?

A: Going to a secondhand store and repurposing something. People toss things out without a second thought, and there are so many great items at secondhand stores. It’s easy and fun and helps keep the cycle of life for inanimate objects going. Think about all the objects filling up our landfills—granite, for example. It takes a little more effort to get from a secondhand store, but we would save a ton on landfill consumption by using it secondhand, as well as a good amount of money.  

Q: What do you tell people who say that eco-remodeling is too expensive?

Emmanuelle Chriqui Takes on Hollywood's Trash

As Sloan, she played the love interest on HBO's rabidly popular Entourage, and now she portrays Lorelei on The Mentalist. In her free time, actress Emmanuelle Chriqui is an environmental activist: She helps plant school gardens in low-income neighborhoods, takes life-changing trips to places like Africa, and, since 2007, has helped run the Environmental Media Association, which promotes eco-efforts in the entertainment industry. Read on to find out how her path toward greenness was paved with persistent throat infections and homemade apple tarts.

What made you get involved with the Environmental Media Association?

Years ago, I was shopping for a new car and was excited about the Prius. Someone put me in touch with Debbie Levin, the president of EMA. We hit it off famously. She saw my inclination toward living a natural life and asked if I'd be interested in joining. I’d already started doing stuff that was important to me on my own, but the association is amazing because it uses the media to create awareness. I was coming off Entourage, and there was sort of a lot of heat at that time, so I thought I could add something. I’ve been working with them ever since.

Medium as Message

 

One evening four years ago, Anthony Ganjou was standing on the curb outside a London pub when he noticed an advertisement on a passing bus. It was for a smoothie being billed as 100% natural. Wondering why the brand "preached the natural mantra on a dead tree," he launched Curb, a marketing firm that uses natural and organic materials to produce ads with a minimal footprint.

A striking example of Curb's work was the billboard created to promote the Warner Bros. film Contagion. Made from live bacteria and fungi, it prompted more than 100,000 Twitter and Facebook mentions and at least 560,000 YouTube views. "All we did," Ganjou says, "was deliver the title of the movie in the coolest way we could imagine."

Another sustainable marketing blitz involved stamping the logo of a British sports company onto freshly fallen snow.

Ganjou is convinced that his company's eco-messaging works better than conventional ads: "Humans have interacted with nature for hundreds of thousands of years," he says. "Billboards and screens have only been around for 100 years. Which do you think is going to be fundamentally more effective?" 

—Wendy Becktold

INTERVIEW: Why Esperanza Spalding is an Environmentalist

For a jazz bassist to get nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy is unlikely nowadays. Even more improbable is for that musician to trump platinum names like Justin Bieber and Drake to win the thing. But in 2011, that's exactly what Esperanza Spalding did.

One person who presumably wasn't shocked at the nod is Barack Obama, who in 2009 picked Spalding as the single American musician he was allowed to invite to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring him. Through all the recognition, the singer-songwriter remains deeply committed to a variety of causes—not least of which is environmentalism.

Her most recent album, Radio Music Society (also Grammy-winning), has a track called "Endangered Species," whose proceeds benefit Earthjustice and the Amazon Aid Foundation. We caught up with her to learn a bit about her creative process, and why environmental issues are dear to her heart. 

How did you come to write a song about endangered species?

Actually, I only wrote the lyrics. The music was written in the '70s by Wayne Shorter and Joseph Vitarelli. I'm a good friend of Wayne Shorter's and a huge fan of his work, and I've always loved that song. I'm sure he had a big meaning in the title—he's very aware of the perils facing life on Earth. I asked him if it would be all right if I put lyrics to it. He said, OK, yeah, go ahead. Royalties can be very tricky, so the deal I made with him was that all the money we receive from downloads or record sales will go to environmental protection.

Its lyrics seem to refer to humans as entitled adolescents and the earth as an injured but patient mother. Can you elaborate on that?

I read a book by Marlo Morgan called Mutant Message Down Under, about aboriginal elders who are still living in ancient ways that they've inherited over 30,000 years. Their perspective of dominant Western culture is one of adolescence. I've also heard my mom talk about that a lot, that idea of getting freedom and figuring out how to get away from the rules of your parents. So the song is an analogy of a kid who becomes a teenager and thinks, "Oh, now I can do whatever I want." And the mother is saying, "Ah-ah-ahhh, don't forget whose house you live in and who feeds your butt every night."

Former "Xena" Actress Lucy Lawless Talks Eco-Activism

When an Alaska-bound oil rig docked in the New Zealand port of Taranaki, actor Lucy Lawless (a Kiwi herself) and six Greenpeace activists snuck aboard, climbed its 174-foot drilling tower, unfurled bright yellow banners that said "Stop Shell" and "#SaveTheArctic" — and wouldn't descend. Three days later, they were all arrested and charged with trespassing. Lawless might be best known for her past role as Xena the Warrior Princess, but her fight scenes are now all about preserving the planet.

Q: What inspired your eco-activism?

A: I got involved because climate change is real, it's manmade, and to not address our fossil-fuel consumption is an act of intergenerational abuse. Our grandchildren will damn us for our laziness, greed, and negligence.

Q: Tell us about the Save the Arctic campaign.

A: It's a massive push of people power. We need to head off climate change and move toward sustainable energy. Drilling for oil in the Arctic is climate-change profiteering. It's morally wrong, environmentally wrong — it's wrong all around. If you have a blowup, the oil could stagnate for years under the ice.

Q: Day to day, how do you live green?

A: I drive a Prius, I fly as little as possible, eat less meat, and wear a backpack everywhere so that I never have to take plastic bags from shops. Lots of little things like that.

Q: Do you have an object that represents your environmental commitment?

A: I'm wearing it now. This greenstone necklace — pounamu, we call it here — was given to me by the [indigenous Maori] Parihaka community. Rata Pue bestowed it on me when we came down from the ship. He died months later. I wear this lovely little talisman to help me be like him. It reminds me of the peaceful warrior I have to be to protect the earth's rights.

--interview by Carolyn Cotney / photo courtesy Jeff Vogeding

Maggie Q, Shark Hugger

In the high-action TV show Nikita, Maggie Q plays the title character, a coolheaded rogue assassin being hunted by secret agents. She's also been a bomb-detonating operative with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III and a gun-wielding killer opposite Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard. In real life, though, she wouldn't harm a fly — or any other living thing. She's an ambassador for WildAid, a nonprofit whose slogan is "When the buying stops, the killing can too." A conservation activist for the past 14 of her 33 years, Q cares especially about sharks.

Q: Why sharks?

A: They're a huge part of the ocean ecosystem. If we don't protect our oceans, if we don't allow fish to repopulate, we're in bigger trouble than people realize. It's the biggest ecosystem on the planet, and it's not living and breathing like it should.

Q: Did growing up in Hawaii influence your love of the sea and its animals?

A: Definitely. I got an upfront experience with the natural world, and that was one of the things that led me toward conservation. Then I grew up and went, "Wow, people aren’t getting this."

Q: You tweeted a photo of you swimming with an endangered whale shark. Why did you do that? What did it feel like?

A: I thought there would be fear, but their energy was amazing, and they so honorably allowed me to enter their space. These things are enormous, like dinosaurs. And I was in their home. But they gently maneuvered around me and allowed me up in their face. I had an enormous sense of gratitude. I kept apologizing and thanking them, saying, "I'm so sorry, but this is all for you."

Q: What would you like to see happen in regard to sharks?

A: Now that I'm working in Toronto, I'd love to see shark fin get banned in Canada. If Canada does it, maybe the U.S. will. I’m hoping to do advocacy work for it here.

Q: You’re a vegetarian. Why?

A: Because it’s all related when you’re talking about pollution, global warming, soil contamination. If I care about the oceans, I’m not going to eat beef. That waste is going in our oceans, our soil. It’s all connected. Once you truly get it, you can’t ignore it. I can’t want to advocate for sharks and tigers but then eat chicken sandwiches and have a steak.

Jessica Alba Loves Kids, Hates Chemicals

You might have seen Jessica Alba kill a bad guy with a stiletto heel in the gory action flick Machete. You might also have spotted her on the cover of Maxim (twice). But fewer people probably caught her on C-SPAN lecturing Congress about the urgency of passing laws to regulate the chemicals in the products we buy. A staunch environmental advocate, the 31-year-old star recently launched the Honest Company, which makes nontoxic, ecofriendly baby gear. She took some time to answer our questions about her commitment to safe chemistry. 

Q: Why did you go to D.C. to lobby for the Safe Chemicals Act last year?

A: Basically, it's legislation that hasn't been reformed in more than 30 years. It's about regulating chemicals in everyday products. There are more than 80,000 chemicals in the U.S. marketplace right now — only five have been banned. In Europe, 1,100 are banned because they're not safe for humans. When they're creating and selling new chemicals, companies aren't thinking about how they affect people's health — it's about their bottom line.

"Just test the chemicals to make sure they're safe before exposing our children to them."

Q: You had asthma as a kid, right? Does that make you worry more about air pollution?

A: I grew up with asthma and allergies, among other health issues. That forced me from a very early age to look at my environment in a different way. I don't take things at face value. I don't automatically trust the conglomerates. I question processes, I question ingredients, I look for a better way. I always try to find a more natural and holistic approach before just slapping on a Band-Aid. Better to prevent something bad from happening in the first place.

Natalie Coughlin, Gold-Medal . . . Farmer?

Swimmer Natalie Coughlin, 29, was the most decorated female athlete at both the 2004 Athens and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In Beijing, she became the first U.S. woman to medal six times during a single Games, giving her a lifetime total of 11. [Update: Coughlin's medal total is now 12.] She hopes to add to that number this summer at the 30th Olympiad in London.

Besides swimming, Coughlin's passions include food, gardening, and the five chickens she keeps in her backyard in Lafayette, California.

Avital Andrews from Sierra magazine interviewed Natalie to find out more about her gold-medal habits.

SIERRA: What do you mean when you call yourself an "urban farmer"?

Natalie: I grow a lot of my own food and have replaced a lot of our landscaping with edibles. We have 10 citrus trees, seven seasonal vegetable beds, and five chickens for eggs. We're considering honeybees next. For a while we were thinking about goats but realized that would have been ridiculous and too much to handle between our two dogs and five chickens and my travel schedule.

SIERRA: When will you decide about the bees?

Natalie: I’ll probably wait until after the Olympics and then dive into that project. Right now we have several mason bee houses, to give them a refuge and encourage them to come pollinate all our fruits and vegetables. I definitely notice a difference this summer, versus the previous summer — a lot more of our flowers are turning into fruit.

SIERRA: How did you pick up gardening as a hobby?  

Natalie: When I was a kid, I had a 90-year-old neighbor — she could stick anything in the ground and it would grow and flourish. We'd always play in her garden. I still have the colander that she used to make potpourri from her roses. A lot of people in my life have had backyard gardens so when I was looking to buy a home, that was one of the requirements. I think it was just a desire to learn more about the seasons and about where food comes from.