What a Difference a Year Makes!

We are closing in on a year since we moved into our new Community Center in Mesa. Here’s what our meeting room looked like one year ago today. Note the decorative ductwork hanging down from the ceiling and the lovely concrete floors!

This is what our meeting room looks like today. Gorgeous and welcoming!

We’re winding up the year with some very special events that you won’t want to miss.

First, on Sunday, November 6th, we will be dedicating our Robert G. Ingersoll library. This will be a special commemoration of the Great Agnostic with a sharing of his eloquent writings and a ribbon cutting. Hal and Doreen Saferstein, whose stunningly generous donations to HSGP made our Humanist Community Center possible, chose to name our library after their hero rather than themselves. Please take this opportunity to share with Hal and Doreen your deep appreciation for their gift.

Next, on Sunday, December 4th, HSGP and FFRF-VSUN are jointly sponsoring an award-winning journalist, Ted Cox. He will talk about his undercover infiltration of a Christian gay-to-straight conversion program. Ted’s talk is provocatively titled, “What I Learned at Straight Camp.” This will be a standing-room only event so arrive early and join us for a light nosh before Ted’s talk. Doors open at 8:30 am and Ted’s talk begins at 9:30 am.


Finally, on Sunday, December 18th from noon to 4 pm, we are holding our annual Solstice Celebration! Are you one of those rare Humanists who love to eat and have fun? (Tongue firmly planted in cheek.) Need gifts for holiday giving? This is the place to be! In addition to our usual potluck buffet, you can join a poker game, shop at our marketplace and tag sale, take a chance on winning one of our special gift baskets, or learn all about the history of holidays. Our 2012 Board of Directors will be sworn in and you’ll learn who the Helen Goldsmith award winners are for 2011. BYOB and a dish to share. Partay!


For more information about all of our events go to www.hsgp.org.

Freethinkers Share Food and Fun

 The second Freethinkers potluck lunch, held September 18th, was a rip-roaring success, attracting attendance that doubled that of the inaugural event.  The quality and variety of the potluck offerings attested to the imagination and creativity that we would expect from Freethinkers. 

Judging by the noise level, great discussions were being held at all of the tables, on topics ranging from vegan activism through the current state of politics to, of course, what distinguishes Humanism from garden-variety atheism.

 

LuAnn had come with her 14-year-old daughter to the initial potluck as their first HSGP event. LuAnn has “always been more of a scientist” and was “looking for a community to replace church”. She left the Lutheran Church years ago and was envious of friends who still had their church community.  We’re happy to note that LuAnn decided to join our HSGP community and attended Sunday’s event as a new member.  

The potluck was followed by a screening of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Attendance for the joint event totaled 52 freethinkers. In addition to HSGP members, the event was advertised to the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group and Phoenix Skepticsin the Pub.

Contributed by Linda Wendler, John Sadowsky, Shelley Newman.

Humanists Clean Up Tempe Beach Park

On August 13, volunteers from the Arizona Coalition of Reason completed a second day of labor towards a long-term commitment to the Tempe Parks and Recreation department to keep Tempe Beach Park clean. Sixteen volunteers showed up to pick up litter and pull weeds in the adopt a park program.

Most volunteers hailed from the Phoenix Atheists Meetup group, such as Brad Stephenson who drove up from Casa Grande. This was Stephenson's first involvement with the group and he came to “feel involved with a group outside of [work].” Stephenson works for the CCA private prison in Florence and enjoyed being part of something greater with like-minded individuals.

Kerri and Jake, members of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix drove from downtown Phoenix to be part of the community. They and the other 16 volunteers worked hard to collect about three bags of litter and weeds.

The weather was supportive, with cloud cover and cooler morning temperatures. And work only slowed when members struck on a topic of conversation in which a mutual passion for a shared truth proved too great to table for later.  The next Tempe Beach Park clean up hasn't been announced yet, but may be in two months.

Contributed by Richard Conaway.

Meeting Follow-Up: Dr. James Elser on Phosphorus

What can we do about phosphorus and food's future?

The 15th element in the periodic table is not something that comes to mind for most people when they reflect on causes of global food crises of the past. Overpopulation, climate change, crop disease, and soil erosion are more likely to deemed as the instigators of disaster scenarios.

However, phosphorus is essential for every living thing on this planet and, according to estimates, the world's phosphorous -- needed for fertilizing plants -- will peak within half a century.

 Thus opened  David Despain's review of this week's HSGP speaker, Dr. James Elser, on "Phosphorus, Food, & Our Future."  Please direct your browser to Despain's blog, Evolving Health, to continue reading!

If you were unable to attend the presentation, here is video of a similar talk given by Elser at the Arizona Science Center, last year:

HSGP Meeting: "Phosphorus, Food, and Our Future"

source:  theodoregray.com

This Sunday, July 10, the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix will host a presentation by Dr. James Elser, an Arizona State University Regents' Professor in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Science.  Dr. Elser will be speaking on the necessity of phosphorus for agriculture worldwide. In a 2010 article on the Foreign Policy magazine website entitled "Peak Phosphorus," Elser described the bleak future of food production if phosphorus consumption continues at its current pace.  Phosphorus is an important component of fertilizer, being used by plant life for DNA construction and the creation of cell membranes, yet it is not a renewable resource.  Much of the phosphorus currently being used in fertilizers is mined from ancient mineral deposits that are dangerously close to running out.  Some estimates place the depletion of the world's major phosphorus sources 30-40 years into the future.  That is a bit too close for comfort.  Although we are all familiar with the scarcity of oil, we have far more reason to be concerned about the scarcity of phosphorus, as it has no substitutes. 

If steps are not taken to curb the depletion of phosphorus, we can expect to see food prices sky-rocket as countries like Morocco hike up the price-tag on phosphorus exports.  Thankfully, there are ways to make supplies last.  Many of these consist of modifying the highly wasteful practices of the agricultural industry.  For example, controlling the erosion of crop fields would maintain phosphorus levels in soil, reducing the need to re-apply. 

Please join us on Sunday at the Humanist Community Center in Mesa to learn more about "Phosphorus, Food, and Our Future."  More information on the HSGP can be found at our website, www.HSGP.org.

References:
Elser, J. J. & White, S. (2010). Peak phosphorus. Foreign Policy Magazine online, 4/22. [link]

Meeting Follow-Up: Dr. Quentin Wheeler

At this week's meeting of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, we had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Quentin Wheeler speak on the importance of taxonomic research to biodiversity conservation and the greater well-being of humanity. The talk was chock-full of information, but this video (created by Dr. Wheeler and colleagues) does a good job of summing it up:




It came as a surprise to many in attendance that our current taxonomies make the tree of life appear to be rather barren. Our knowledge of the world's species is extremely limited. By conservative estimates, 80% of life on earth remains to be classified. In order to raise awareness of the importance of taxonomic research, Dr. Wheeler and the International Institute for Species Exploration host a "Top 10 New Species" contest that highlights unique, newly-identified species from the previous year. The finalists from 2010 can be seen at http://species.asu.edu/top10.  For more information on Dr. Wheeler and his presentation to the HSGP, please see our previous post, located here.

HSGP Meeting: "Fact-based Biodiversity Sustainability"

from http://species.asu.edu/

On June 19th, the HSGP will host a presentation by entomologist, Quentin Wheeler. Dr. Wheeler follows in the footsteps of Carl Linnaeus with his goal of establishing a taxonomy of beetle populations around the world.  Beyond simply creating a laundry list of species, Dr. Wheeler focuses on the broader implications of generating such taxonomies.  Specifically, a comprehensive map of global species distributions could aid in assessing the impact of climate change or the introduction of a non-native species on biodiversity, thus facilitating and guiding efforts at conservation.

In a 2004 paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Wheeler argued vehemently for a return to taxonomic research, suggesting that no understanding of a species' origins is complete without a thorough grounding in its taxonomic context.  Wheeler closed his call to action by stating:

Had Linnaeus had the kinds of digital tools available today to visually describe and share morphological and species knowledge, it is doubtful that taxonomy would have lost ground in funding or prestige. The time is at hand for taxonomy to take its rightful place among big sciences and to lead society in a meaningful response to the biodiversity crisis (p. 580).

Please join us at the Humanist Community Center on Sunday to take part in what is bound to be a lively discussion following Dr. Wheeler's presentation.  More information on the HSGP can be found at our website, www.HSGP.org.

References
Wheeler, Q. D. (2004). Taxonomic triage and the poverty of phylogeny. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, 359, 571-583.[link]