Food for Thought
“Perhaps the most serious obstacle impeding the evolution of a land ethic is the fact that our educational and economic system is headed away from, rather than toward, an intense consciousness of land. Your true modern is separated from the land by many middlemen, and by innumerable physical gadgets. He has no vital relation to it; to him it is the space between cities on which crops grow . . . In short, land is something he has ‘outgrown’.”
Aldo Leopold
Category Archives: Science
Nature is hiring
[Editor's note: Following is Paul Hawken's recent commencement speech to the graduating class of the University of Portland. It is so inspiring, so filled with poetry and wisdom, and so dead on the mark that I feel compelled to reproduce … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Biophilia, Education, Natural Patriots, Science, Sustainability
Tagged heroes, restoration, soul
2 Comments
Bracing for a sea change
I was kindly invited by Ava at the Reef Tank blog to contribute a post to a series they are featuring on climate change and its particular connections to marine ecosystems. I took the opportunity to organize some of my … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Oceans, Science, Sustainability
2 Comments
Green, leafy, and cool
Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that we are already on board for a substantial increase in global temperature in the coming century, the discussion has broadened from efforts to cut the greenhouse gases that drive the process, which … Continue reading
New kids in town get to work
[Note: I normally don't clog the blog with big swaths of text lifted verbatim from other sources, but in this case I couldn't resist. This is a copy of one of the Policy News issues I get periodically from the … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Politics, Science, Sustainability
3 Comments
Locals only
The creeping dominance of suburbia by non-native ornamental plants is depleting the abundance and diversity of native animals too—but landscaping with native plants can help reverse the trend. Yes, we can! (OK, I am still in the grips of Obamaphoria) … Continue reading
Fast food: on the fast track to environmental ruin
Where does your food come from? This is a question central to the Gordian knot of issues tangling together public health, environmental health, energy markets, and geopolitics. It is increasingly on the lips of “localvores” seeking to enhance both their … Continue reading
Biodiversity loss is sickening — literally
The degrading global environment has raised concern, even alarm, for many reasons, but one of the most important involves the issue of how loss of species may influence nature’s ability to continue providing life support to us — “ecosystem services” … Continue reading
Some advice to the President-elect on the state of the world
[Below is a letter making the rounds on the internet from Professor Steve Carpenter, an eminent ecologist at the University of Wisconsin, offering advice to President-elect Obama on the importance of serious and prompt environmental action as he begins his … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Science, Sustainability
9 Comments
What could be worse than the global financial meltdown?
And you thought the mortgage crisis was bad . . . Even as people the world over perch on the edge of their chairs, chewing their fingernails in barely contained panic at the global financial meltdown, the BBC reports that … Continue reading
We have met the enemy . . . and they is us
Why is the world in the trouble that it’s in? We could cite a long litany of reasons, but ultimately it boils down to the large and increasing number of people on earth, and our large and increasing appetites, broadly … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Biophilia, Science, Sustainability
Tagged population, research
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