A friend sent along an amazing and heartening story from the Washington Post, called Decoding the Redwoods. In short, to better understand the long-lived coast redwood, scientists in two different labs have been working to decode the species’ genome, which — astonishingly — is vastly larger than ours. The redwood genome project began in AprilContinue reading “The deep resilience of the redwood”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Home versus the Mountain
One of the acknowledged great non-fiction pieces of our time is John McPhee’s Los Angeles Against the Mountains, from l988, an uncanny and alarming foreshadowing of the disaster in Montecito this month. It’s one of those astonishingly thorough and appalling pieces of writing, almost beyond journalismn, and to my mind can hardly be overpraised (butContinue reading “Home versus the Mountain”
December 8th in Ojai, CA 2017
Picture from a photographer, Stuart Palley, who in the last couple of years has found a calling in documenting wildfire and the crews that fight it. The Thomas Fire has been an overwhelming event, plus it ate my office (and musician friend Taylor‘s studio and barn). Did publish a story about the start of theContinue reading “December 8th in Ojai, CA 2017”
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Not an optimist. Not on Twitter
The writer, journalist, and thinker Ta-Nehisi Coates has been embroiled in controversy for years now. Seemingly his every move attracts controversy, (for reasons mysterious to small-town hick yours truly). Near as I can tell Coates has not been doing anything another prominent and successful writer wouldn’t like to do, such as moving to Paris forContinue reading “Ta-Nehisi Coates: Not an optimist. Not on Twitter”
The biggest problem in California: Housing
State Senator Hannah Beth-Jackson came to Ojai recently, and visited with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, where I volunteer, and met with the board of directors. We discussed many topics but ended up on the issue that has been dividing the state: housing — affordable housing — and the lack thereof. The New York TimesContinue reading “The biggest problem in California: Housing”
Southern California 2017
L.A Freeway
“Our reverenced god” — Moloch and The Gun
Four dead in NorCal — at least four. Another deranged gunman, armed for combat, targeting the innocent. This one tried to break into an elementary school and slaughter children but was foiled by a lockdown. Brian Flint told a group of reporters that a man staying in his house was one of those killed and that someContinue reading ““Our reverenced god” — Moloch and The Gun”
TEN EXCELLENT CLIMATE STORIES/LINKS
A New York Times primer on the 17 biggest questions people ask about climate change: A New York magazine story about climate change and the dangers of extreme heat. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html A Vanity Fair article about climate change and the danger of extreme heat. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/extreme-heat-global-warming A Scientific American story about the great California megaflood. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atmospheric-rivers-california-megaflood-lessons-from-forgotten-catastrophe/ AContinue reading “TEN EXCELLENT CLIMATE STORIES/LINKS”
Free falling from disgrace: team Trump
The New York Times hired a new right-wing columnist about six months ago, and a couple of weeks of weeks back added a new leftist for the first time in a while, Michelle Goldberg, and what can I say but wow. She throws down almost as well as the recent Newsweek cover: So here’s where weContinue reading “Free falling from disgrace: team Trump”
Nerve gas for Ventura County, thanks to the Trump EPA
As Lily Tomlin has pointed out, “No matter how cynical you become, you can’t keep up.” Especially in these days of Donald Trump. Last week (was it only last week?) a meticulously sourced story in the New York Times by Eric Lipton (Why Has the EPA shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider Calls the Shots)Continue reading “Nerve gas for Ventura County, thanks to the Trump EPA”
Kit Stolz 