Author Archives: Kit Stolz

Things Can’t Go On Like This, Yet They Must

This quarter in Granta, a literary magazine which unfortunately makes little of its content available on-line, is a tremendous memoir chapter by Jeremy Seabrook. It’s about his Aunt Em, a kind and vivacious woman whose ability to make friends and have fun was quashed by his cold mother. This might sound like a small matter–oneContinue reading “Things Can’t Go On Like This, Yet They Must”

Nature Poetry Today: Why Is It So Stale?

David Oates has an idea. A new poem, from this quarter’s issue of ISLE:         Nature poem nature detailnature detailfeelingnature detail scene setting        [beginners: do this first]nature detailfeelingfeelingnature detailpoignant feeling civilization detailbad feelingnature detailthreatened feelingnature detailreassured feeling  [advanced: ironic, or, even morethreatened]

Get Yer Stench Here

A genius move for activism on an important issue — environmental, climatological, dietary, pollution, you name it. An interactive factory farm map. Where’s your nearest hog farm? Find out here. Or, as the New York Times puts it, politely but firmly, in an editorial: Wherever it appears, factory farming has two notable effects. It threatensContinue reading “Get Yer Stench Here”

Kevin Trenberth: Imitating a Volcano to Avert Global Warming Could Be Disastrous

Kevin Trenberth is not just another boring scientist. He is the head of climate analysis for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and he’s also unusually outspoken on the subject of global warming. When attacked by notorious denier Fred Singer, a decade ago, he defended himself briskly. He told Congress this spring that the planetContinue reading “Kevin Trenberth: Imitating a Volcano to Avert Global Warming Could Be Disastrous”

China Blames Its Flooding on Global Warming

Song Lianchun, head of China’s metereological forecasting service, said last week of the floods that displaced hundreds of thousands of Chinese and killed about 700: "It should be said that one of the reasons for the weather extremes this year has been unusual atmospheric circulation bought about by global warming," Song told a news conferenceContinue reading “China Blames Its Flooding on Global Warming”

Britain Under Water (As Predicted by Boring Scientists)

An editorial entitled Britain Under Water, from the Belfast Telegraph, via equaintance Danny Bloom: Most remarkable of all is the fact that the astonishing picture the nation   is now witnessing – whole towns cut off, gigantic areas underwater, mass   evacuations, infrastructure paralyzed and grotesquely swollen rivers, from the Severn and the Thames downwardsContinue reading “Britain Under Water (As Predicted by Boring Scientists)”

Welcome to the Weather of the 21st Century

A great anecdote (and cover) from the Independent in Britain: In April 1989 Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, gave her Cabinet a seminar on global warming at No 10 and one of the speakers was the scientist and green guru James Lovelock. A reporter asked him afterwards what would be the first signs of globalContinue reading “Welcome to the Weather of the 21st Century”

Optimism: The True American Faith of Today

No doubt I spend too much time on the Internet, but I have to say it has its compensations…such as when a bright guy you’ve never met writes a little essay inspired by a thought from yours truly. Take a look at postmodern conservative Mr. James Poulos’ thoughts on optimism, which to me (and RodContinue reading “Optimism: The True American Faith of Today”

Environmental Ignorance Threatens New Orleans

That’s according to Time. Remarkably, the cover story leads with the importance of wetlands, as a natural defense against hurricanes (and a natural protector for levees). The same dynamic, on a much less dramatic scale, can be found in Southern California, where only after trapping rivers in concrete did we slowly come to realize thatContinue reading “Environmental Ignorance Threatens New Orleans”