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Fukushima, technological determinism & exitless dead-ends

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 16, 2011 in Director's Notes, ecology, economy, sustainability, technological determinism

4 months later, 3 of the Fukushima reactors continue to meltdown. Only the constant spraying of water upon the ruined fuel rods keeps them from turning into magma, hitting the earth beneath the reactors and causing volcano-like explosions. In March I wrote about reactor 2, b/c—having toured the VT Yankee’s simulation reactor last fall—I realized [...]

Mahatma Gandhi, satyaraha & purslane, the wild superfood

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 15, 2011 in Director's Notes, Uncategorized, citizenship, consumerism, ecology, endosymbiosis, sustainability

In 1935, in the midst of the satyagraha campaign, Gandhi was looking for ways to help his people reject English capitalism. One of the ways was to teach them to eat weeds.* He liked purslane, a superfood loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, that is growing now here in the Nonotuck biome. Strew a handful into [...]

a biocitizen moment 6.14.11

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 14, 2011 in Director's Notes, ecology, economy, sustainability, technological determinism, time

It happened @ 12:17: biocitizen chester 6.14.11. Here. The machine in the garden.

playful thoughts

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 13, 2011 in Director's Notes, citizenship, ecology

An “environment” is something you are in. It is not alive. A subway tunnel is an environment. environ (v.) late 14c. (implied in environing), “to surround,” from O.Fr. environer “to surround, enclose, encircle,” from environ “round about,” from en- “in” (see en- (1)) + viron “circle, circuit,” from virer “to turn” (see veer). Related: Environed. [...]

Japan’s radioactive tea

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 11, 2011 in Director's Notes, Uncategorized, ecology, economy, sustainability, technological determinism

Perhaps you haven’t heard, but on Thursday it was reported that tea “from Japan’s Shizuoka prefecture had above-standard radioactive cesium levels.” Tokyo lies between Fukushima and Shizuoka, which means … some big news is being suppressed. You might ask why it’s being suppressed: the government is trying to prevent panic; maybe the people of Japan [...]

Meet our teaching ass’t., Ms. Victoria Dunch

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 04, 2011 in Director's Notes

We are pleased to welcome Victoria Dunch, who hails from from Amherst and is a current student at Smith College. Originally from California, she has also lived in Madrid, Spain, and is trilingual (English, Spanish and French). She is currently studying environmental and social sciences and hopes to gain valuable experience with Biocitizen as she [...]

Emerson’s circles: seen at Conway Library as the hail hit the tin

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 01, 2011 in Director's Notes, bees

Yesterday, Springfield got its roofs ripped off by at least two tornadoes. Our hearts feel pain for those who are suffering as a consequence, and our minds try to grasp how and why such climate-violence has come to disturb the middle CT River Valley. I was @ Warm Colors Apiary in S. Deerfield when the [...]

A typical day at Our Place camp includes…

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 01, 2011 in Director's Notes, school

A typical day at Our Place camp includes: —meeting at 9am at the Forbes Library, then driving away in the van for our day’s explorations —arrival a few minutes later @ our field study site in one of the 5 ecoregions of the Nonotuck biome, which has been chosen because it is a fountain of [...]

Whatever we do to nature, we do to ourselves

By Kurt Heidinger on May 31, 2011 in Director's Notes, citizenship, consumerism, ecocide, ecology, economy, sustainability, technological determinism, time

In today’s NYT’s article about Japan’s welfare-program for nukes, we learn industrial capitalism is a form of heroin: With no substantial reserves of oil or coal, Japan relies on nuclear power for the energy needed to drive its economic machine. But critics contend that the largess has also made communities dependent on central government spending [...]

as long as there is “nature,” there are “natural human rights”

By Kurt Heidinger on May 30, 2011 in Director's Notes, citizenship, economy

Plant a seed and you will grow—I’ve been out in the field for the last week, planting planting planting. It’s raining so I had a chance to look @ the NYT’s and, lo and behold, I found the usual post-modern argument that there is no such thing as natural human rights: human rights were invented [...]

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