Firesounds

“We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.”  Dakota Sioux proverb

Firesounds—crackling, sizzling, snapping, smoldering—

the sounds of another dry, consuming fire season are upon us once again.

July 2019 was the hottest month on record for the planet. It was so hot in the Catalan region of Spain that a pile of manure self-ignited and started a blaze that consumed 10,000 acres.

This devastation is now global with wildfires spreading from above the Arctic Circle in Alaska to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Acres have burned in the Canary Islands of Spain, Portugal’s Castelo Branco District, the Chiquitania region of Bolivia, northern Siberia, and of all places—Western Greenland.

The fire season in California already underway. According to Cal-Fire and the US Forest Service, as of August 18, 2019 over 4,000 fires have been recorded in the state totaling an estimated 51,000+ acres. This devastation includes the Tucker Fire in Modoc County at 14,000 acres and the Caliente Fire in San Diego with over 500 acres.  

California is a perennial tinderbox, having experienced some of the worst wildfires on Earth.

Are these wildfires the result of climate change, human-made causes, 

lack of government funding and support………or most likely, all of the above?

Firesounds

She raised her head.

Her nose began to twitch.

Her hackle stood on edge.

Air, gathering in lumps

got caught in her lungs.

A guttural sound, somewhere

between a growl and a yelp

burst from her throat.

Her eyes began to cloud—

stung by a whispering haze.

Danger was near—

she was trying to warn us.

The hue on the horizon

turned from ochre to umber.

The earth beneath her feet was crying.

Firesounds danced through the night—

a howl cut through the trees—

a pulsing tempo surged with the wind—

a cacophony humming  in restless harmony.

                                —Jeff Key, 2019

Jeff Key—August 2019

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!                                         @realDonaldTrump  Jan 2018

Two things are infinite. The universe and human stupidity……and I’m not so sure about the universe.                                                                                   —Albert Einstein

So far humans have not been able to harness atomic power safely and the question remains—can the atom save or doom us as a civilization?

a hiss from its core—seeking a purpose in life—we fall in its wake

      From Unhinged, A Haiku Tsunami by Jeff Key

The race is on as scientists contemplate how to harness the power of the atom. Do we fuse the atom to create clean power, or do we split the atom to induce a nuclear reaction that could destroy the planet?

Nuclear Facts:

•On August 2, 2019 the US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Agreement, citing long-running Russian violations.

• On August 8, 2019 an explosion occurred at a naval weapons site near the Arctic Circle in Russia during the test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. Five scientists died and radiation levels near the site rose 200 times normal.

• In southern France, ITER (“The Way” in Latin), 35 nations are collaborating to build a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun. (source: www.iter.org)

• The United States was the first country to develop nuclear weapons, detonating the first fission devices in 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagaski, Japan.

• As of 2018, the United States had an estimated 6,500 nuclear warheads, including retired (awaiting dismantlement), stored, and deployed weapons.

• The Soviet Union first developed nuclear capabilities in 1949. Russia’s modern-day arsenal includes an estimated 7,000 warheads.

•The following countries also possess nuclear weapons:

France (~300 warheads), China (~260), the United Kingdom (~215), Pakistan (~130), and India (~120) also have nuclear weapons. Israel has not officially acknowledged its nuclear capabilities. Estimates of its arsenal have typically been around 80 warheads, although some estimates are significantly larger.

North Korea’s capabilities are largely unknown. It’s suspected it may have a limited arsenal of 5-10 weapons, but may have material to build twice that many.

                                                                       (Source: Union of Concerned Scientists July, 2018)

Jeff Key's work (Vessel #40—Fusion) can be seen at:
GearBox Gallery, 770 W Grand Ave., Suite B, Oakland, CA 94612

"Art + Movement" opens August 15, 2019  

(with a reception August 17—2-4 pm.)

•The exhibition closes on Sept. 7

Witness—"Bombs Bursting in Air"

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”

                                      -Elie Weisel, Nobel Peace Prize 1986, Author, Holocaust survivor

“America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”          -Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran

This past fourth of July our national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, was sung at ballgames, parades, and celebrations for the birth of our nation. The anthem was conceived in conflict as Francis Scott Key watched the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the war of 1812.

Today we find ourselves still looking to “bombs bursting in air” as a way to settle conflict and project dominance over other people.

In June the president of the United States called off a military strike on Iran with 10 minutes to spare because a general told him that at least 150 people would die. Do we need more dead bodies as a way to solve problems or can we look to diplomacy and peaceful negotiation as a means toward a more humane path?

The Consequences of War:

• America has been at war 222 out of the 243 years since 1776.

• More than 1.1 million Americans have been killed in US-involved wars.

• American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)—4,435 deaths

• US—Civil War—(1861-1865)—620,000 deaths

• WWI—(1914-1918)—20 million deaths (military and civilian)

• WWII—(1939-1945)—70-85 million deaths (military and civilian) (3% of the world’s population)

• Korean War—(1950-1953)—5 million deaths (military and civilian)

• Vietnam War—(1954-1975)—58,200 (US military deaths), 3.2 million South and North Vietnamese deaths (military and civilian)

• War on Terror (2001-2019)— Iraq (295,000 deaths), Afghanistan (147,000 deaths), Pakistan (65,000 deaths), and Syria (560,000 deaths)—[figures include military and civilian deaths]

 Statistics: US Department of Veterans Affairs, Centre for Research on Globalization; www.battlefields.org;  www.census.gov/history/;  history.com; Costs of War, Watson Institute, Brown University; Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

WITNESS

Millions of masticating termites in the fertile grasslands form fortresses of mud.

 Massive stone watchtowers rise from the desert floor to guard ancient cities.

 Species and civilizations vanish in a flash or a millennium leaving little trace or legacy.

 Since the creation—domination, destruction, extinction—a cultural/biological lexicon.

 A passage to be mourned, an incidental casualty—Darwinian law.

 The anonymous soldier—a shopkeeper, a school teacher, a laborer caught in an ideological battle of wills.

 Unwilling victims,asked to stand as sentinels don a protective shroud.

 They stare into darkness,track the constellations, and listen for aberrant sounds.

 They become the fallen, remembered by their families—a footnote in history.

 The shroud remains—silent, unwavering, waiting for a new day.

Jeff Key’s work can be seen at:

•GearBox Gallery—“Art + Movement”

• 770 West Grand Ave., Oakland, CA 94612

• August 15-September 7