The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
THE DAILY PRESENTS
We l l n es s
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C a n s u s t a i n a bi l i t y b e a s tea l ? pg . 0 5
‘ I n d i g en i z i n g ’ en v i r on m en t a l we l l n es s pg . 1 2
A s e c r e t a b or t i on s ave d h er f u t u r e pg . 1 8
The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
C on ten t s
05 The frugal environmentalist
08 Healing crystals, harmful craze
Disaster zone survival
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Substance abuse, sexuality, & stigma
Abortion rights & a child with a choice
12 Symbols of resilience in the face of climate change 3
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22 Engaging with nature through
The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
Letter from the editor
After a quick scan through the morning headlines, I find myself feeling ill-at-ease. Affronted by news of the latest mass shooting, some new racist infringement on voting rights, a case of ethnic cleansing gone unmitigated, my stomach twists and my jaw clenches; California’s on fire and the president can’t go a day without releasing a slew of inflammatory rhetoric. Not yet out of bed, I find myself stressing. Will my future children live in a world devoid of orcas and polar ice
caps? Will I be able to exercise choice if I choose not to have children at all? Faced with the challenges of today, the concept of achieving some semblance of wellness may seem ludicrous. And yet, what option do we have? The overarching concept behind this edition of Pacific Wave, “Wellness in a complex world,” is to identify some of the greatest threats to our wellbeing in the current day and age — environmental degradation, systemic inequality, and violence — and recognize the very real steps toward wellness being made in the face of said threats. We hope to portray wellness not as some concept in contradiction to these issues, but rather as a multifaceted state dependent on recognition of reality and our ability to find strength and resilience within it. In stories of tribes taking environmental health-justice into their own hands and womxn sharing some of their most painful memories for the sake of con-
tinued abortion access, we hope you recognize your own strength. From discussions on preparation in the face of natural disaster to friendly reminders that a few hours in the garden actually can make a difference, we strive to not only discuss wellness but promote it. This is a crazy world, but we are resilient creatures, and the road to wellness is multifarious. We hope this magazine is a breath of fresh air for you — it certainly has been for us.
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The Daily acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations.
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Editor-in-Chief Mira Petrillo editor@dailyuw.com
Pacific Wave Editor Sophie Aanerud specials@dailyuw.com
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Photo Editor Lydia Ely photo@dailyuw.com
Design Editor Jenna Shanker design@dailyuw.com
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
The frugal environmentalist Tips for sustainable living on a college budget
Dabin Han @dabiliciouss
By Brooke Kaufman The Daily Most of us by now are familiar with Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish student whose demonstration on the steps of the Swedish Parliament building in August 2018 launched the Fridays For Future movement which calls on global leaders and institutions to address the ongoing climate crisis. Thunberg’s campaigning has inspired a wave of en-
vironmental activism, as students and concerned citizens around the world have begun to participate in climate strikes and organized protests of their own, like the September 2019 Global Week for Future. Thunberg is not the first young adult to voice concern for the health of our planet. Fifteen-year-old Autumn Peltier, who is Anishinaabe and a member of the
Wiikwemkoong First Nation in Canada, has been advocating on behalf of water protection since the age of eight. In 2019, Peltier addressed the United Nations for a second time at the Global Landscapes Forum, where she called attention to the shortage of clean water in a number of Indigenous communities. Peltier, whose activism is guided by a traditional belief in the sacredness of water, was named the chief water commissioner by the
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
“Sustainability is as much a
the small-scale choices of i
Anishinabek Nation in April 2019 and has thrice been nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. The work of activists like Thunberg and Peltier tackles the climate crisis on a transnational scale, calling on govern-
Nested Dependency Model
Jenna Shanker The Daily ing bodies and “those in power” to do their part in fostering a planet that is sustainable for young people and future generations. What activism in the form of speeches and global movements lacks, however, is a discernible pathway toward achieving personal sustainability. If we envision the climate crisis as a form of the nested dependency model used to describe sustainability, it would become evident that our ability to act as sustainable humans — that is, make choices that benefit the long-term health of the planet — is contingent upon the
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political and socio-economic framework of our societies. Essentially, where we live, how we earn an income, what resources are available to us, and what institutions control these parameters are all direct influences on the environmental impact we knowingly, or unknowingly, exert. But how does this relate to UW students? As residents of Seattle, we have access to an abundance of community resources that help us achieve some semblance of sustainable living. Public transportation, farmers markets, renewable energy providers, compost and recycling facilities — these are all examples of resources that are locationally available. There is, however, a socio-economic dimension that must be accounted for when considering resource accessibility, which in this case would be the “college budget,” or a lifestyle grounded in the principle of frugality. Most students are strapped for cash; Although most of us may want to live sustainably, there’s often the assumption that making good, eco-friendly choices is a luxury some of us just can’t afford. This misconception is often perpetuated by the initial higher cost of sustainable alternatives such as keep cups, reusable bags, and energy efficient LED light bulbs. A 2016 article from the Australian organization 1 Million Women challenges the assumption that the cost outweighs the benefit, stating
that investing in items that aren’t single use will ultimately save consumers money, as they will no longer be forced to routinely purchase disposable items. Another common myth is that shopping sustainably for groceries and clothing is more expensive than buying cheap, mass-produced products. Ben Olson, a sophomore studying human centered design and engineering (HCDE), said he equated processed and packaged foods with cheaper prices and was thus less inclined to purchase pricier alternatives like fresh produce and locally procured meats and breads. He suggested that money was a motivator on both sides of the consumption equation, as industries and other largescale manufacturers are likely motivated to mass-produce cheap inventory that will sell fast to frugal consumers. The initial cost trade-off that applies to reusable products is equally applicable in this case. Shopping for ethically-made, fair trade clothing can be affordable if you look in the right places. A 2019 article from The Good Trade, an online forum covering conscious living, shares a guide to ethical brands like PACT, thredUP, and ABLE who value sustainable, ethical forms of production, and price items according to their durability. Another option is to purchase secondhand, thrifted, or upcycled clothing. Prices at these stores are often lower to account for previous use, and shoppers can rest easy knowing they haven’t contributed to the
Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
h a global movement as it is f individual human-beings.
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roughly 20% of global water waste produced by fast fashion industries. When it comes to shopping for groceries, college students are often constrained by both budget and time. We equate labels like “organic” and “natural” with higher costs and thus gravitate toward cheaper options that are often encased in plastic and stamped with fine-print FDA warnings. Kristi Straus, a lecturer with the program of the environment whose teachings focus on environmental conservation, is working to address students’ misconceptions and hesitancy to adopt sustainable choices. “There are lots of places where there’s this overlap [where] what’s easy financially is the same thing that’s good environmentally, and often those things are also good for our health,” Straus explained. “So if you can start in that area, you can make major changes.” Straus gave examples of several areas in which students could make simple changes. For those who have cars on campus, they can save money on gas and limit their carbon emissions by opting to, when possible, walk, bike, bus, or take the light rail as transportation. Furthermore, students who have access to kitchen appliances and storage space should make decisions under the impression that “cooking sustainably is quite affordable.”
The belief that healthy eating is expensive is in some ways true, because the cheapest way to eat in this country is to buy food that’s not good for us or the planet,” Straus said. “But it’s actually pretty cheap to cook healthy, delicious food that also happens to be very sustainable. One tip is not to look up your recipe in advance, but to go to the store or the farmers market and buy what’s on sale.” Where possible, students can also make changes to their dietary habits. Straus explained that carbon footprints — a measure of individual emissions as a result of fossil fuel consumption — are regulated, in large part, by the foods we consume. For example, red meat and other animal products requires the growth of grain on forest lands that would otherwise be used for big, carbon-storing trees. Straus, referring back to the earlier point that not everyone has locational and/or socio-economic access to community resources that improve personal sustainability, went on to argue that indicators of environmental impact are highly individualistic and thus require approaches unique to the person adopting them. “The ecological footprint [as a measure of environmental impact] is broader than the carbon footprint,” Straus said. “Everyone can improve their ecological footprint, but not everyone can improve their carbon footprint. For many students to have a footprint as large as they
do is because of their carbon emissions, but for some other students that isn’t true, and there are other aspects of their lives that can be improved to achieve sustainability.” So there you have it — sustainability is as much a global movement as it is the small-scale choices of individual human-beings. Environmental activists like Thunberg and Peltier do their heroic part in heralding the importance of changing the way the world approaches the climate crisis. But what does this activism look like on a personal level? Although the scope of impact is infinitely smaller, the choices we make regarding sustainability are as symbolic as the picket signs carried by thousands-strong crowds of protesters, and equally as important as the impassioned speeches made to leaders gathered at summits of the United Nations. If we collectively live according to what is possible based on our societal constraints and recognize that what is easy is not always what is best, we stand a chance at diminishing the flames threatening to engulf our planet. It’s time we work to sustain the biosphere that has done more than its part in sustaining us. Reach writer Brooke Kaufman at pacificwave@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @bkaufmanLJ
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
By Amber Hsu The Daily
How are they sourced? A UW geologist breaks down the environmental effects of the healing crystal craze
From celebrities like Kim Kardashian claiming that crystals helped her overcome her post-robbery trauma to popular beauty brands like Glossier marketing makeup infused with “genuine crystal extracts for all-day enlightenment,” there has been a boom in the crystal healing craze and its appearances in mainstream media. This craze stems from the belief that certain crystals can promote physical and emotional healing, and additional claims that some can emit an energy signature, frequency, and even harness the Earth’s energy to interact with your body’s energy field. But have you ever wondered where these crystals come from and how seemingly every souvenir shop is able to maintain their constant stock of this naturally-crafted commodity? Principal lecturer Terry Swanson, a UW geologist doing research in quaternary geology, environmental geology, and geochronology, gave his own perspective on the new-age trend.
The Daily: Many websites advocating for crystal healing can supposedly trace the history of the practice back thousands of years, to the time of the ancient Egyptians. Why do you think some people have believed in the healing properties of some crystals for so long? Is there any scientific backing to these claims? Terry Swanson: If you think about healing a disease like cancer and how the disease manifests itself in the human body, a crystal like amethyst or quartz would need to physically operate within the cellular structure of a body to restrict or inhibit cancer cell growth — a physical connection that does not exist. On the other hand, we all have superstitions … for things like crystals or magnets, if you have a really strong belief that brings you a positive feeling, then perhaps you could be signaling for neurotransmitters in your brain that do have a positive impact on your body. In that sense, if believing in crystals is mentally giving you positive feedback, then perhaps there’s something beneficial to that. But physically and scientifically, there appears to be no real relationship to that.
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Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
The Daily: Many online retailers provide little to no details about the sourcing of the healing crystals they sell. How are common crystals like these usually extracted and what are the environmental impacts of these processes? Swanson: Very often you might find crystals like Thundereggs in cave settings or in volcanic settings where there are large vesicles or cavities. In that sense, [these crystals] are semi-precious. If you’re going in and mining it, then there would be a destructive side to that. If you have this pristine crystal, whether it’s a calcite crystal or a stalactite or stalagmite, there is intrinsic beauty [in] that. If you have a large demand for these crystals, then you have a somewhat finite resource and you’re going to be having a detrimental effect on where you’re going to be collecting these. Very often there are cave structures or places where you have a limited amount of them on the planet there, and it could be completely destructive to the particular environment. The Daily: What are some of the ethical implications one should consider if inter-
ested in buying crystals? Swanson: It depends on the mindset of how we think as a society and what things we value. Things like gemstones are a part of our economy, like how diamonds are. With diamond mining, you have deep mines in South Africa where [there is] the human toll of the diamond miners that are working under very severe and hazardous conditions. Now it’s just a part of our modern-day society, but it’s still a bit different from if you’re going into a pristine cave and completely destroying it to collect minerals from the cave structure. Clearly you might think of the crystal industry like any economic industry. When you get a large demand for something, whatever the purpose of that is, whether it’s for jewelry or for some health benefit to the human psyche, [there is a need for supply]. The Daily: Is there any way that one could possibly mitigate the harm that is being caused by this industry? Swanson: There should be some regulation at the state or federal level of what
things you would allow or disallow. It’s a mining operation and it’s a resource that adds to our economy, and if people believe that crystals are going to help them then it’s no different than any other industry in that sense. As a society, [we] need to decide what we’re willing to protect. Within the United States, we’ve protected a lot of our very beautiful sites and it’s the same thing in Southeast China, but it’s usually with smaller state-level issues when the regulations may not be as intense. Reach writer Amber Hsu at pacificwave@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @ambrhsu
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
Substance abuse, sexuality, and stigma Substance use disparities greater for bisexual women UW study finds
By Tatum Lindquist Contributing writer Until recently, sexual minority health kept to the shadows of behavioral research. However, earlier this year, a UW social work professor published a “groundbreaking” LGBTQIA+ health study. Based on their personal experiences, UW students were not surprised to learn the study found health disparities between straight/cisgender and LGBTQIA+ communities. But these health disparities can also exist inside the LGBTQIA+ community. Shedding more light on sexual minority health and behavior, another more recent UW study explored the relationships between concurrent alcohol and tobacco use and sexual orientation in young women, highlighting the influence of social context on substance use. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, and U.S. Department of Justice, the study issued surveys once a day to 246 participating students who identified as women, over a period of 12 weeks. They reported their sexual orientation and concurrent alcohol and tobacco use as well as the social context of said use.
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It should be noted that for the purposes of the study, researchers defined “concurrent use” as use on the same day (not at the same time) and evaluated social contexts using three categories: location (e.g. home, someone else’s home, bars, restaurants), social environment (e.g. number of people attending, number of people intoxicated), and relationships to social environment (e.g. friends, family, strangers, alone). “We found that when women, regardless of sexual identity, were with friends when they went to bars and when they were around more intoxicated people, would be more likely to have a day of concurrent alcohol and tobacco use,” Jessica Blayney, co-author on the study, said. A social culture of drinking and drug use is nothing new to many UW students, but the greater risks of substance use associated with sexual minority women (SMW) — those who identify as bisexual or lesbian — as found in the study may not be as common of knowledge. According to the study, SMW had more concurrent alcohol and tobacco use. For bisexual women especially, alcohol-use days were associated with
a greater number of cigarettes smoked, and smoking days were associated with a greater number of drinks consumed. Bisexual and lesbian women were more likely to drink with friends compared to heterosexual women. The study also found that of the 11% of days involving solitary drinking across all women, bisexual women reported more days drinking alone than heterosexual and lesbian women. It was also found that lesbian women drank more with partners than bisexual and heterosexual women. “We know from other research that bisexual women have unique stressors associated with their sexual identity, right,” Blayney said when asked how marginalization against bisexual people could motivate these social contexts. “That could include biphobia, invisibility, a lot of things.” “It might be that bisexual women are more likely to use alcohol and tobacco ... concurrently and at heavier levels because of coping with a kind of marginalized status.” While one of many possible variables at work behind the scenes of the study’s findings, this marginalized status plays
Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
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a very real role for those identifying as bisexual. “Biphobia is a reality in so many worlds, in the LGBTQ community, in the straight community,” Director of Health Promotion Patricia Atwater said. “I think that what gay and straight people might perceive as uncertainty in terms of sexual status ends up being leverage as a form of oppression against bi folks.” There can be this disconnect between two distinct communities, where those who identify as bisexual may not see themselves accepted by either the straight or the LGBTQIA+ worlds because, while they may be the ‘B’ in LGBTQIA+, they can also be in ‘straight’ relationships. It’s a line that many struggle to walk. “In a lot of ways, I think bi folks are forced into the closet, just based off their community’s assumptions about who they are because they do identify as bi,” Atwater said. This caught-between-worlds effect associated with the bisexual minority can impact their accessibility to their communities and because drinking and smoking are often social behaviors, greater risks may be attributed to this status.
“We know that sexual minorities have tended to socialize in bars and parties more often,” Blayney said. “You’re trying to get access to your community, and because of that, many have argued that this contributes to the heavier substance use patterns we see in this population.” Many questions arise from the study, which was published in the journal “Substance Use & Misuse.” How much does marginalization play a role in these social practices of drinking and smoking? Do the individual’s views of cultural expectations around this social behavior play a role? Blayney emphasized that this study specifically studied the significant influence of social context on concurrent substance use, especially for SMW. Next, Blayney said, research should investigate the “motivations” behind these social contexts and these addictive behaviors. While earlier this year, the UW was honored as the most affordable and LGBTQIA+-friendly university by Campus Pride, marginalization of bisexuals and other sexual minorities still interferes with many UW students’ lives. “For all of us, we need to start to reckon with our biases around bisexuality,
around minority sexual identities and gender identities,” Atwater said. These higher risks for concurrent alcohol and tobacco use should not be taken lightly. Mixing alcohol and tobacco can worsen already serious health consequences, especially increasing the risk of throat cancer. “For bi folks out there ... the first thing to know is that you’re not alone,” Atwater said. For anyone struggling with marginalization, the UW Q Center offers weekly (and completely free) drop-in group counseling sessions through their “Let’s Talk” series. The UW Counseling Center also offers many resources for UW students in either the LGBTQIA+ or straight/cisgender community, including students concerned about their mental health, alcohol, or tobacco use. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you or someone you love is in need of help. Reach contributing writer Tatum Lindquist at pacificwave@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @TatumLindquist
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020 Photos by Sammi Bushman The Daily
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Roquin-Jon Q. Siongco sits at a booth representing queer weavers on Indigenous People's day celebrations at the Burke Museum on Oct. 14, 2019.
The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
Symbols of resilience Indigenous communities seek wellbeing in the face of climate change By Sophie Aanerud The Daily In a perhaps intended strike of serendipity, the inaugural weekend of the UW’s new Burke Museum corresponded with Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 14. In celebration of the date, guests and members of local tribes congregated beneath the skeleton of a 10,000-year-old mastodon to celebrate the event and reveal “The Weaver’s Welcome,” a Coast Salish-inspired glass figure commissioned by the museum and meant to honor the continued Indigenous presence on the land. Following traditional Port Gamble S’klallam tribal songs and blessings dedicating the artwork, the artists Brian Perry (Port Gamble S’Klallam), Anthony Jones (Port Gamble S’Klallam), Preston Singletary (Tlingit), and David Franklin discussed the piece. “The materials we use are exceedingly rare,” Singletary explained, in reference to large old growth trees such as Western red cedars — decimated through industrial logging — which were traditionally used by the Coast Salish people for large carvings. “It’s all about keeping these symbols alive in new materials.” This transition in material usage is just one example of the many ways Indigenous communities have been forced to adapt in the face of environmental degradation stemming from systems whose benefits they have largely been excluded from reaping historically.
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From the responses to the 2019 forest fires by the peoples of the Amazon to the protests at Standing Rock to the 2019 instate of The Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act, Indigenous peoples have been making headlines both on the local and global scale in the fight against climate change, pollution, deforestation, and many other conservation-focused issues. “If you’re deriving a lot of your wellbeing, physical wellbeing, emotional, mental, all those things, on your ability to access traditional hunting grounds … if those are still inherent to your community’s ability to thrive and if those things are under threat, then yeah, you’re going to more quickly see dramatic impacts,” Brett Ramey (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska), director of the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the UW, said. Studies regularly indicate that Indigenous populations in the United States and beyond tend to experience more health issues than non-Native populations. “I think there are definitely outcomes where we see disproportionate levels of prevalence of, for example, depression, anxiety, suicide risk, among American Indians and Alaska Natives,” Myra Parker (Mandan & Hidatsa), associate director of the UW Indigenous Wellness Research Institute Community
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
Images from the decication ceremony of “The Weaver’s Welcome” at the Burke Museum on Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 14, 2019.
Engagement and Outreach Core, said. “But it really varies by tribe, it varies by region, it varies by a whole host of things.” Parker was clear to explain that, in addition to failure to take into account the variations between tribes, “you have to put an asterisk with all of these national studies,” as American Indian and Alaska Native populations are often undersampled in national health polls. The factors behind these health trends are numerous, but most, especially in the United States, can be attributed to systemic racism and colonialism. “At the root of health disparities is often systemic racism because that determines where we live, what sort of access to healthy foods we have, what access to just basic healthcare that we have,” Ramey said. “If you see higher rates of cancer, higher rates of diabetes, like a lot of the things that we see … they all do tie back to ways in which we’ve been forced to operate from systems that don’t have our wellbeing in mind. And it’s not only Indigenous communities, it’s a lot of marginalized identities and communities.” Chris Boyer, research coordinator for the UW Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE), has spent much of his career working with Indigenous communities in the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia and has found that
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climate change and other forms of environmental degradation only add to the challenges these marginalized Indigenous communities face. “Their access to any resources, let alone health resources, has been difficult,” Boyer said. “Climate change is often seen maybe not the root of that but it’s something that’s going to exacerbate the problems that already exist,” Boyer said. “It’s often called a risk multiplier.” Faced with the health risk multiplier of climate change and governments which often fail to take their voices and situations into account when putting forth environmental regulations and guidelines, Indigenous groups are taking charge of their own future as it pertains to climate-focused health justice. While the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests may be the most visible example of recent health-focused environmental activism, reservations across the country, many in Washington, have been engaged in similar projects. Having released a proclamation on climate change in 2007 and a Climate Adaptation Action Plan in 2010, the Swinomish tribe has long been invested in finding meaningful ways to insure wellbeing in the face of climate change. The tribe, in association with a team from the UW department of environmental &
occupational health services (DEOHS), was able to “Indigenize” a framework put forth by the CDC: Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE). The resulting Indigenous Health Indicators (IHIs) provide a framework for Indigenous communities to examine the threats climate change and environmental degradation pose to their health and wellbeing. “Indigenous Health Indicators are necessary because current U.S. government public health regulations and policies are based on a position that views risks and impacts as objective measures … but does not otherwise connect them to social or cultural beliefs and values integral to Native American definitions of health,” the Swinomish IHI website explains. Many have taken note of the IHI, which is now available on the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit website. “The Indigenous Health Indicators really lay out ways in which their community health is directly intertwined with the health of the land, so that’s a great example of a community that is looking at health from a holistic sense that is culturally rooted and can be translated or is otherwise legible to dominant audiences,” Ramey said. “From what I’ve seen of it, it is intentionally created to demonstrate a different way of being that
Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
is based on their values while also being first and foremost for their community.” One of the most significant elements of the IHI is its exploration of ecological and individual health from an Indigenous perspective that takes into account factors which Western scientists may fail to recognize, such as the sense of connection many tribes feel with other members of their environment. “There are stories about the relationship between these people and their relatives, the salmon, or the orca pods, and so there are whole belief systems that are reliant on the fact that these animals exist,” Parker said. “There’s kind of the science part of it where we can actually measure levels of contamination, and then there’s the critical cultural piece of it that is a huge part of the motivation behind working on this and ensuring that these relatives are taken care of, and it’s not just because we rely on them for food but because they’re important beings in this broader picture of our world.” While tribes never abandoned this universal outlook on wellness, many believe that there has been a revival of sorts in this philosophy’s role within Indigenous communities and beyond. “To reclaim our understanding of what it means to be healthy, to include not just physical wellness but emotional,
spiritual, intellectual wellness … that’s just what I see happening,” Ramey said. “I don’t know if I’d call it a resurgence because it’s always been here but just with more visibility of Indigenous ways of conceptualizing what it means to be healthy and whole on our own terms.” The work done by tribes such as the Swinomish to improve and ensure Indigenous wellness in the face of climate change is not only important inasmuch as it addresses a population often ignored or poorly represented by national and state governments, but because it is changing the narrative through which people recognize and regard Indigenous health. “The last thing [communities] want to hear is someone come in and be like, ‘Oh you guys are vulnerable to climate change,’” Boyer said. “They are not vulnerable to climate change, not the people. Their land maybe, but [the people] are resilient; they are the warriors that are going to, in the face of climate change, still persist.” Ramey agreed that the tendency to present Indigenous people only as statistics of a broken healthcare system fails to provide a nuanced and accurate depiction of these communities dedicated to making change. “Not to minimize the very real health disparities that do exist because we have to be always actively addressing them,
[but] the stories shouldn’t be, including this one, around health disparities that our communities are subject to because that’s a part of the story, but it’s also increasingly a small part in terms of how we are moving ourselves and our communities forward,” Ramey added. In the midst of the celebration at the Burke, Yellowash Washines (Yakima) of the Burke Museum Native American Advisory Board delivered a reminder. “We stand on the lands of the Coast Salish peoples,” Washines said. “Today many Indigenous people thrive in this place … and we are alive and strong.” This sentiment of continued strength in the face of adversity was present in all elements of the event. The songs sung and speeches delivered were not those of a people at risk, but of a people who have and will continue to persevere and thrive. And it all occurred beneath the thoughtful gaze of the glass weaver, at once a reminder of an environment in need and a collection of resilient communities eager to embrace the role of steward for the sake of their own wellbeing and thus the wellbeing of the planet in its entirety. Reach Pacific Wave Editor Sophie Aanerud at pacificwave@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @thesraanerud
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
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Disaster zone: UW’s chances of survival in a major environmental hazard By Lily Hansen Contributing writer On the back wall of Joseph Wartman’s second-floor More Hall office hang 14 small photographs depicting the remnants of a disaster-struck New Orleans: abandoned cars littering the roadside, streets devoid of people, and homes ripped apart. He took the photos while studying levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Wartman is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UW and serves as the director of the NHERI Natural Hazards Reconnaissance Facility (RAPID). A center of the National Science Foundation, RAPID provides natural hazard and disaster researchers with the necessary equipment to collect and analyze perishable data. Since becoming operational in September 2018 RAPID researchers have traveled far and wide to study disasters
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such as wildfires in California, tsunamis in Indonesia, and earthquakes in Alaska. But the greatest direct threat to Wartman’s life may well be the building in which his office sits. A catastrophic earthquake is expected to hit the Pacific Northwest in the coming years. More Hall, like other older buildings on campus, could easily collapse if such a disaster took place. The Pacific Northwest is home to the Cascadia subduction zone, a megathrust fault that spans 600 miles from Mendocino, California to Vancouver Island, BC. Along this fault, two tectonic plates are colliding: the small oceanic plate Juan de Fuca and the North American plate. Some experts have suggested that this movement is setting up the conditions for the worst natural disaster in North American history. The last megaquake to take place in the Pacific Northwest occurred around 1700. Most scientists expect the region
to experience a similar event every 500 years. Some, however, believe the span in which these earthquakes take place may be as short as 300 years, in which case the Pacific Northwest is already overdue. To accurately articulate the catastrophic effects this disaster is expected to have in the Pacific Northwest, researchers and journalists alike have dubbed it, ‘The Really Big One.’ Neither the UW nor Washington state is currently equipped to handle a disaster of such magnitude. “If we were to have a major earthquake tomorrow, it would be an utter humanitarian disaster,” Wartman said. “We would never forgive ourselves for being so unprepared.” Built in 1946, More Hall is an unreinforced masonry building. Its concrete columns could easily collapse in the event of a major earthquake, according to Wartman. Although every campus building was
Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
location of origin in relation to your own location, the app could give anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes of warning. The app is expected to be available for download beginning Oct. 2020. As someone who studies earthquakes on a daily basis, PNSN research engineer Doug Gibbons does not think it necessary for students to spend their time obsessing over a potential major earthquake. Instead, he thinks it important students take the time to educate themselves of the hazards common to their region. PNSN researchers record an average of 1,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 1.0 or greater in Washington and Oregon each year. Of those recorded, the vast majority are not felt by people. An earthquake is not the only disaster the Pacific Northwest will face. The region commonly falls victim to extreme heat events, wildfires, landslides, and flooding. As climate change intensifies, it is possible that the frequency of these disasters could increase.
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originally built to the seismic code standards in place at the time of its construction, the codes continue to update while the safety of most campus buildings do not. The recently retired UW Seismic Resilience Program identified 25 buildings on the UW campus as needing seismic improvements. The estimated cost to repair all 25 buildings is estimated to be around $55 million. Of the identified buildings, the UW is currently adding partial seismic upgrades to 11, including Mary Gates Hall, Savery Hall, Thomson Hall, Gowen Hall, Smith Hall, and the Communications Building. Scott Nelson, UW fire safety and engineer manager, chairs the Emergency Readiness Committee (ERC) on campus. The ERC meets bimonthly to discuss and add to the university’s existing emergency readiness program, the UW Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The largest problem the UW faces in updating its older buildings is funding. “We are dealing with over 200 buildings across the Seattle campus,” Nelson said. “We are constantly working to increase the seismic resilience of these buildings, but with limited funds, we can only do so much work at one time.” The university’s woes are only solvable if Washington state policymakers step up and take action, argued Wartman. “This is an earthquake that is coming,” he said. “It’s not necessarily coming tomorrow and it’s not necessarily coming next week. Students can’t do anything about retrofitting buildings, but policymakers can — tens of thousands of lives are at stake.” While it is impossible to predict when exactly this megaquake will strike, researchers at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) are working to provide the public with at least a few moments notice. For more than a decade, the PNSN has been working to develop ShakeAlert, an app designed to give the public early warnings of an earthquake. Funded by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), ShakeAlert utilizes hundreds of seismometers across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, and Canada to identify earthquakes taking place in the region. Depending on the earthquake’s
“We are constantly working to increase the seismic resilience of these buildings, but with limited funds, we can only do so much work at one time.”
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Volcanic activity is likely too. Mount St. Helens was named the volcano “most likely to erupt again in our lifetimes” by the USGS, although Gibbons said that disaster is not expected to take place within the near future. “The more you know about the hazards in your region, the better prepared you will be to handle each situation,” Gibbons said. “You have to realize Pagliacci won’t be open after a major earthquake.” Nicole Errett, a lecturer in the department of environmental and occupational health sciences in the UW School of Pub-
lic Health, researches the intersection between policy making, public health, and disaster recovery. By gathering data on the health impacts of previous disasters, Errett uses research to help decisionmakers establish policies that can better prepare communities for upcoming disasters. “In a disaster, the attention of decision makers can be diverted in many different directions,” Errett said. “If we are able to evaluate and assess the decisions made in previous recovery efforts, we have the potential to help inform the decision-making process altogether and communities’ approach[es] to recovery from future events.” For students inexperienced in disaster relief policy, Errett, Gibbons, Nelson, and Wartman all agree that ‘duck, cover, and hold on’ is still the surest means to stay safe in the event of an earthquake. Potential debris and other flying hazards outdoors often make staying inside the best option for students on campus. If already outside, finding shelter in a nearby building can be helpful. Newer buildings, like the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering, will provide better protection than an unreinforced masonry building like More Hall. No matter where you find yourself when a disaster strikes, planning ahead is crucial. Sign up for emergency alert systems like UW Alert and AlertSeattle that give advanced warnings on any community threats. Stock up on non-perishable food items and water bottles in case water stops running. Store flashlights around the house in the event of a blackout. Designate a buddy that can receive texts if local phone lines fall down and identify safe exits to any and all buildings. “An earthquake may very well happen while you are in college,” Errett said. “Thinking about what you would do is a great first step. Like I tell my students: don’t get scared, get prepared.” Reach contributing writer Lily Hansen at development@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @lilyjhansen
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
Of the ongoing series: From the rawest edges of human existence
A child with a choice How one student’s abortion saved her future By Manisha Jha The Daily | Photo by Lydia Ely The Daily
This is the second installment of The Daily’s ongoing series, ‘From the rawest edges of human existence,’ on the rise of maternal death and injury across America. The title of this series refers to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that decriminalized first trimester abortion across all 50 states. Justice Harry Blackmun, a Nixon-appointed conservative justice who delivered the majority opinion, wrote, “One’s philosophy, one’s experiences, one’s exposure to the rawest edges of human existence, one’s religious training, one’s attitudes toward life and
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family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one’s thinking and conclusions about abortion.” The physicians who brought forth the evidence supporting choice in Roe v. Wade were there when women inserted coat hangers into their cervixes, when women externally induced trauma on their abdomens, when women took baths in vinegar and douched with chemicals with the hope of miscarrying. These physicians had been to the rawest edges of human existence and back,
and they believed they knew the way forward for maternal health in America. Despite growing bodies of research and legislation intended to reverse the trend of maternal mortality, stress remains pervasive for pregnant women from a lack of cultural empathy and care. Roe v. Wade has been called into question on the national stage, America remains the only developed nation with no federal requirement for paid family leave, and women are frequently dismissed by their doctors when they say something feels wrong. This is pregnancy in America.
Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
He told her to drop out of school to raise their family while he continued with his life unchanged, and when she said she didn’t want to, he responded, “Well, it’s not your choice.”
While this article addresses pregnancy as a women’s health issue, we at The Daily acknowledge that the term “women” does not encompass all people who can and do get pregnant — nor can all women get pregnant. The full range of reproductive health options should be accessible to people of all genders. At the time of her abortion, Anne was 18 and had just started her freshman year at a school deep in the Midwest. She was already touring prospective law schools. She knew she wanted to be a lawyer for immigrants; her story would be about helping others. “I want a career,” she remembers thinking, not a baby. “I want to be a lawyer. I want to do things.” In her dorm, Anne — whose name and other identifying details were changed for this story — met a typical, regrettable first-boyfriend-of-college. At first, she was attracted to how smart he was. But they argued constantly, and she knew their relationship would never last. And then? “The condom broke,” she said. “He wanted to keep it.” It was already a rocky relationship, and when she told him she was pregnant, the arguing only got worse. Whenever Anne tried to tell him that the baby
would have no quality of life with their scant emotional, mental, and financial resources, he would simply answer, “We’re Catholic. We don’t do that.” In this sentiment appeared the age-old cognitive dissonance of young men who oppose abortion: He was the one who had gotten her pregnant and tried to shame her into keeping it, but she knew for a fact that if she had gone through with it, “he could have easily walked away.” “I would’ve been by myself,” she said. He told her to drop out of school to raise their family while he continued with his life unchanged, and when she said she didn’t want to, he responded, “Well, it’s not your choice.” He fought with her constantly while telling her he would never leave her. “I want you to leave, actually,” Anne remembered thinking. She knew her deeply Catholic family would agree that it was not her choice to make. “My family is very Mexican, so, very religious,” she said. The norm for the women in her family was to get married and have children young. “They already gave me crap for wanting a career over wanting a family,” she said. But she couldn’t fathom marrying the boy who had gotten her pregnant.
Anne weighed her options. She didn’t have a way to get to an abortion clinic near her school because there weren’t any; there were only four abortion clinics in the entire state. But Anne’s parents knew how careerfocused she was. She knew they would happily send her on a trip to tour a law school, one like Vanderbilt University Law School in Tennessee. And what else was in Nashville? The Vanderbilt Center for Women’s Health One Hundred Oaks. So she made her decision to have the abortion there, asked her parents to book the flight, and began to save up money for the procedure, which ended up costing upward of $1000. “I didn’t really eat much,” in the month before the procedure, Anne recalled. “I tried to save as much as possible to try to pay for it on my own,” even stealing food from the dorm cafeteria. At one point, she tried to tell her best friend, another Catholic girl who lived in the same dorm. But the friend reacted poorly and stopped talking to Anne as a result, a devastating experience. “That’s why I don’t really ever talk about it,” she told me. She was completely on her own. “There was no one who was like,
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access to abortion in a country with such high rates of pregnancy-related deaths. And Anne probably wouldn’t have died if she had carried her baby to term. But her life as she knew it would have been over.
Few people know that the rationale behind the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision to protect abortion, known as Roe v. Wade, included a frank discussion of maternal mortality. The fact was (and remains): The inherently non-zero odds of a woman dying during pregnancy or labor were too high for the Court to feel comfortable allowing the state to force someone to go through with a pregnancy. “Roe v. Wade was initially argued [with the idea] that for every pregnancy, a woman takes a risk with her life,” Thomas Easterling, a physician and high-risk obstetric specialist at UW Medical Center, said. Easterling retired late last year after working with women with medically-complicated pregnancies at the UW since 1985. “There’s a maternal mortality [ratio] that is measurable that you probably can’t get below: six to eight per 100,000,” Easterling said. In reality, the American maternal mortality rate is much higher than this supposed lower limit, at 19 maternal deaths per 100,000 births in 2017, the worst of any developed nation in the world. For Indigenous women, this rate is about 33, and for black women, it’s 43, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (For reference, Syria’s maternal mortality ratio was 31 in 2017, six years after the start of the nation’s brutal civil war. In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — also active war zones — it was 27.) Last spring, nine states across the American South and Midwest — Utah, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia — passed bans placing extreme limitations on abortion. (Alabama tried to effectively ban all abortions in its jurisdiction, which was overturned at the end of October.) With this context, and because one in four women will have an abortion before the age of 45, I asked the women of the U-District community to talk to me about their abortions. I wanted to know what their experiences were, and what they thought about states limiting
According to Patricia Atwater, director of health promotion at Hall Health who spends her scant free time as a program manager at the Northwest Abortion Access Fund (NWAAF), much of Anne’s story is characteristic of many abortions. Having to cut back on food to save up money, travel long distances, and keep it all a secret to avoid stigma are all unfortunately common for many people needing abortions. Also typical, however, is Anne’s resilience. “Pretty much every time I work with somebody [getting an abortion], they have a story where I’m just in awe of their strength and the contradiction between their experience and the narrative that we’re being presented about what abortion is,” Atwater said. There are 70 organizations affiliated with the National Network of Abortion Funds like NWAAF. These organizations work across the United States to help
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They showed her the ultrasound. She remembered feeling overwhelming sadness looking down at the tiny figure in the photograph before handing it back. The nurse sat her in the stirrups and spoke to her in Spanish, comforting her. It was a vacuum aspiration procedure. The nurse held her hand. “It felt awful.” She heard the vacuum start. It felt like someone was pushing down on her stomach with excruciating pressure. After the procedure, the doctor walked out of the room in silence. Anne waited in the room. The nurse brought her Sprite for the nausea. “To this day, I still can’t drink that fucking soda.” She threw up on her way back to the hotel and bled for a week. When she got back to school, “I just did homework and shut down, honestly.” She didn’t have coping mechanisms or anyone to turn to and talk about what happened. “I felt like a terrible, awful human being,” Anne said. She didn’t regret the
abortion, but she couldn’t continue on pretending that she was all right. “I felt like I was worthless. I felt so, so alone and so overwhelmed.” Anne left the university at the end of her freshman year.
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‘Everything’s gonna work out. You’re gonna be OK.’” Anne became very depressed. And so she traveled alone nearly 700 miles to Nashville, a city she remembers as cold, cloudy, and unforgiving. She arrived on a Monday. She went into the clinic on Tuesday or Wednesday for the ultrasound and state-mandated “inperson counseling.” Because Tennessee has mandatory waiting periods, she had to come back on Saturday for the procedure. Protesters outside told her she was an abomination and a murderer each time. She was 13 weeks along at that point and was told the gestational ban began at 15 or 16 weeks. She recalled the male doctor chastising her: “You waited until the last minute.”
‘I didn’t really eat much, in the month before the procedure,’ Anne recalled. ‘I tried to save as much as possible to try to pay for it on my own,’ even stealing food from the dorm cafeteria.
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people in need of abortions overcome financial and logistical issues. Even in Seattle, which Atwater likes to refer to as a “destination abortion city” because of its prevalence of secondtrimester abortion providers, there are some severe issues of access. “We do not have any legislated restrictions on abortion on the books in Washington state. So most states have
Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
some combination of waiting periods, informed consent, parental notification, caps on gestational age so you can only seek an abortion up to a certain time in the pregnancy — we have none of those things,” Atwater said. “But we do have access issues. And they can make it very difficult … and very challenging and emotionally exhausting to seek abortion care.” She told me the story of one woman who had recently come to see her, who had both a developmental and a physical disability, as well as some addiction issues. The woman had Medicare, federal health insurance for disabled people and elderly people that is subject to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal dollars from being spent on abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to the mother’s life. The woman was already 24 weeks pregnant. So while NWAAF decided to try to enroll the woman in Washington state’s pregnancy medical coverage program, “it was hurdle after hurdle after hurdle,” Atwater said. “This is a $4300 procedure … and this is a person who — she told me she had two dollars in her bank account.” But the NWAAF was committed to getting the woman, who lived on Whidbey Island, to her appointment. “We were like, how are we going to get her to her appointment? Where is she going to stay? Her appointment was in Tacoma. We ended up putting her on an airport shuttle to Sea-Tac and then putting her in a Lyft to Tacoma.” Like Anne, they had to get creative with their transportation options for the woman. “We’re really harming ourselves in so many ways by not treating people with compassion,” Atwater said. “People shouldn’t have to be going through these things on their own.” But not everyone has access to a fund like NWAAF; Tennessee only has one abortion fund registered with the national network. When Anne left Tennessee, a part of her knew she had to get as far away from her trauma as possible. She headed to the west coast to stay in southern California, where she lived for over a year. She took some time to heal from the shame and depression. And when she
Milo Nguyen @silverkoolaid
was ready, she decided to give school another try, this time at the UW. When she came in and talked to me, Anne knew why she was there. Before her abortion, she had never really thought about how important it was. She has a matter-of-fact way about her. Even while she talked about some of the most traumatic days of her life, she carried herself with a lightness about her. She cried, too. She had seen the news, and with a strong conviction, she came to me to tell me her story and why it is vital that abortion remain legal. You could count on one hand the number of people who knew about Anne’s abortion until she reached out to me for this story: The nurse, the doctor, and the receptionist at the clinic of her abortion, and her friend and her boyfriend at the time. Anne hadn’t told a single soul since her friend and boyfriend at the time shunned her, but before our interview, she opened up to her current boyfriend. She said that talking to him about the experience is what healed her the most, because he reminded her that she wouldn’t be doing the immigration and asylum work she does now if she had had the baby. But, like most things she does, she didn’t speak up for herself alone. She
opened up a Pandora’s box of shame, guilt, fear, and painful memories, hoping this story would give others the strength to speak about their own stories, too. She asked herself, “What if I didn’t have that chance?” She hoped that if more women came forward with their stories, it would show legislators what a vital resource abortion access is. According to The Cut, the same year Anne got her abortion, 33-year-old Purvi Patel was sentenced to two decades in prison after Patel self-aborted with pills she obtained online in Indiana in the spring. That winter, self-described “warrior for the babies” Robert L. Dear Jr., shot 12 people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, killing three. The following month, a 31-year-old woman in Tennessee named Anna Yocca was charged with first-degree attempted murder for trying to self-abort with a coat hanger. Reach Investigations Editor Manisha Jha at investigations@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @manishajha_
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The Daily — Wellness 2019-2020
Into the urban sprawl How urban gardening can aid in reconnecting with nature
By Andy Chia The Daily As the morning dew lifts over the Picardo Farm P-Patch, the pumpkin vines creep far: tangling about beanstalks, their fruit, a brilliant contrast of bright orange against fresh green. The fall sun caresses radishes ready for plucking, their heads peering gingerly from the ground. Removed from this scene’s idyllicism,
one cannot help but feel a sense of panic: surface ocean waters are now 30% more acidic than before the Industrial Revolution, greenhouse gasses have caused five of the warmest years on record since 2010, and the ecosystem outside will likely be changed forever within the next half-century. Climate change has made an indelible impact on Earth. Research suggests
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that a combination of environmental mismanagement, industrialization, and other human activities have caused climate change to progress at an increased rate and much farther than it would have naturally. The concept of climate change has even changed the social psyche, creating the phenomenon “climate grief,” an unprecedented citizen concern for the mistreatment of the earth. While government institutions have been slower to respond, the American public has become increasingly invested in addressing environmental issues, and thus their own climate grief, in their daily lives through composting, reducing water consumption, and gardening. According to Dr. Peter Dunwiddie, affiliate professor of biology at the UW, these small scale attempts at outdoor engagement can have meaningful effects. “I would say that local action is the start of something greater, and the smallest step can take the form of something as simple as working in the outdoors,” Dunwiddie said. “Supporting gardening is a way to begin working toward greater environmentally friendly efforts. Even experiencing the outdoors can provide people with a greater
appreciation for the world around them.” Outdoor engagement also benefits the humans involved. Scientists have long referred to “ecosystem services” when describing the ways outdoor exposure promotes human well-being. Though ecosystem services may not seem immediately apparent in urban environments, some green design projects have been cited for reducing crime and aggression in urban areas. The City of Seattle has taken the correlation between human wellness and outdoor exposure into account with projects such as P-Patch Community Gardens, 89 of which have been established throughout the city. While other green spaces have been created and maintained within Seattle, P-Patches are unique in their goal of supporting a vibrant community of gardeners. “P-Patches are great for the community because they help people realize that nature is all around us,” Dunwiddie said. “When I was a child, I had the chance to wander through my parents’ garden patch and identify vegetables. I think that community gardens are a great opportunity for people, especially children, to get back into nature.”
Wellness 2019-2020 — The Daily
The benefits of such spaces help to increase the overall well-being of those within the community through interaction and ecosystem services. “Being a citizen gardener can open a person’s eyes to how plants and soils work which gives them a better understanding of how [biological] systems work,” Dunwiddie said. Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, associate professor of horticulture at WSU, believes that practicing gardening within the urban environment is beneficial for human well-being, though this is not to say that there are not limitations to the practice as a means of environmental restoration. “Citizen gardening is not ecological restoration,” Chalker-Scott said. “Restoration requires the use of native plants to restore an area to as close to former conditions as possible.” While citizen gardening is not considered ecological restoration, the types of plants suitable for crafting a healthy urban environment are not as limited as people might think (though,
resources that are science based,” ChalkerScott said. “Our Garden Professors blog and Facebook group by the same name are exactly that. It’s a good place to find current, relevant and peer reviewed information on all aspects of garden and landscape sciences.” Despite the often debilitating effects of climate grief, a stroll through your local p-patch can remind you not only of the importance of conservation, but the availability of conservation-focused Laura Keil @laurakeil opportunities right outside your front door. Perhaps the opportunity to garden Chalker-Scott said. “Native plants are even gives people a glimpse of a connection not often suited to urban environments. to the natural environment. “The outdoors can be life changing,” Our urban heat island is nothing like the Dunwiddie said. “It can fundamentally coniferous forests that used to be here.” Chalker-Scott also believes that change the way we think and who we gardening can become a valuable scientific ultimately become.” tool, educating people on the nuances of plant biology. While the field of botany is Reach writer Andy Chia at complex, there is benefit in understanding pacificwave@dailyuw.com. the flora around us and there are many Twitter: @GreatBaconBaron resources available and ready to help people learn. “I recommend people go online to gardeners should be aware of prevalent invasive species such as Himalayan blackberries or English ivy). “I recommend using plants that are well adapted to their outdoor conditions,”
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