“Americans don’t flinch in the face of difficult truths.” President Obama, June 23, 2010 I hope so! I’ve been trying not to flinch every time I think about the Gulf of Mexico, but it’s getting harder. We’ve seen the news of the disaster steadily vanish from the headlines, even as the amount of oil entering [...]
I’ve been writing a short biocultural history of Northampton, Massachusetts that will serve as the codex for all kinds of classes and presentations, and last night I came upon a text that filled me with joy. (“Codex” is a cool word btw: “ORIGIN late 16th cent. from Latin, literally ‘block of wood,’ later denoting a [...]
Biocultural history determines how culture arises from biomes. Think of how foods are associated with cultures: how sushi makes you think of Japan. Sushi, and the refined culinary aesthetic that surrounds it, arise from the perpetual symbiosis of Japanese people with their maritime biomes. Imagine what would happen if they were denied access to those [...]
Two things on my mind: 1) how Lincoln ranks #2 behind Jefferson as the USA’s greatest environmental philosopher, and 2) how during the Civil War he prophetically used the concept of superorganism to explain and defend the integrity of the Union. The ecological concept of superorganism is featured in a new study of ants written [...]
Where does your water come from? If you need some help figuring this out, send me a note. We’ll find the source—of 60% to 75% of you!
Still plenty of openings in August, though!
We know where we’re going, ’cause we know where we’re from Bob Marley, from Exodus I bet you’ve been wondering where we’re going lately, given the events we have witnessed and endured since 911. Our most recent enormity down in the Gulf seems to have left us speechless. Over a month has passed since the [...]
I’m in Naples, Florida right now, attending my ailing father. I’ve come here for visits with my family for over a decade, enjoying family time and the turquoise-blue warm-water Gulf Coast beaches. Some of my daughters’ most intense encounters with non-human creatures have occurred here; and I’m thinking now of how at Delnor-Wiggins Pass we [...]
This week the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth takes place in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It has been organized by Bolivian president Morales and international non-government groups to challenge the apathy that we witnessed at the Copenhagen Climate Summit a few months ago. As I listened this morning to Amy [...]
Here are some pictures of a 400+ year old tree that is growing in Nara, Japan, in the Kasugayama Primeval Forest, home of the Kasuga Shrine. From the modern western perspective, it’s just a tree. A rationalist can claim that what makes it sacred is the imagination and values projected upon it by many generations [...]
