Category Archives: activism

Wilderness is where the hand of man has not set foot: Brower

For The Wilderness Act, this September marks the Big 5-0, its biggest birthday to date.  This should be a celebratory moment, as the Wilderness Act has for many many years been considered the high water achievement of the environmental movement in America, the legislative flowering of the vision of great American nature thinkers such asContinue reading “Wilderness is where the hand of man has not set foot: Brower”

Men Explain It All: Hannah Gold returns the favor

The best book review of the year, hands down, by Hannah Gold in The Baffler, begins this way: "I have just sat down to dinner with my female friend and her two male friends she brought along, neither of whom I’ve met before. They are both programmers, and when my friend goes to the bathroomContinue reading “Men Explain It All: Hannah Gold returns the favor”

New climate regs just like Obamacare (or not)

The Obama administration takes a stand on carbon pollution, and calls for a 30% cut in power plant emissions by 2030. For environmentalists, this is heartening news, but what does it mean politically? To Science, the "give states choices" method sounds a lot like Obamacare: That more complex approach makes the new rules somewhat similarContinue reading “New climate regs just like Obamacare (or not)”

The virtues of walking vs becoming part of the mountains

Under the heading, To Age Well, Walk, a new study written up in the NYTimes tells us what we already knew (but sometimes choose to forget).  While everyone knows that exercise is a good idea, whatever your age, the hard, scientific evidence about its benefits in the old and infirm has been surprisingly limited. “ForContinue reading “The virtues of walking vs becoming part of the mountains”

Happy birthday Rachel Carson! Says Google

One of the most heartening of Google's doodles ever (for me at least) comes today, in honor of Rachel Carson's 107th birthday. The inspiration she drew from nature — and the questions nature pushed her to ask of us — are with as today as much or more than ever.  We still haven't become matureContinue reading “Happy birthday Rachel Carson! Says Google”

The blindness of GOP climate denial: USA Today

As those radicals at USA Today put it: The National Climate Assessment, released this week, adds to a mounting and overwhelming body of evidence that the effects of rising temperatures are here and now — and that even higher sea levels, more extreme weather and water shortages are in our future if nothing is done. AddressingContinue reading “The blindness of GOP climate denial: USA Today”

What we can do about climate change: the Monarch

A funny thing about climate change: contrary to popular opinion, individuals can make a difference, here and there, for other people and other species.  Example? The Monarch Butterly. Ask the experts at Monarch Watch, the leading conservation group devoted to this iconic species: In California, Monarchs aggregate in more than 25 roosting sites along theContinue reading “What we can do about climate change: the Monarch”

A letter home (on global warming): Neil Young

Neil Young just let slip news of a record relase, in a paradoxical, almost confusing way, embedding the release in a voice and a raw 1947 technology that has to be heard to be believed (and appreciated).  It's called A Letter Home, a reference to the remarks below. It's richly appealing and enjoyable, about asContinue reading “A letter home (on global warming): Neil Young”

Kingsnorth: Environmental activism doesn’t work

Because the scientific news about climate change continues to cast a gloomy shadow over our future, and perhaps because the press is bored with the usual happy Earth Day talk, two prominent magazines featured this week scathing denunciations of climate activism. 

In Pacific Standard, James McWilliams of Texas State University calls for a Kafka-esque "narrative of complete and utter ruin," as opposed to the false hope offered by the likes of activist Bill McKibben:

…the problem with climate change discourse isn’t the skeptic. It’s the true believer—and the fact that, for him, the slow burn of global warming obviates radical action despite knowing that nothing else will do. This paradox leaves many of us who take climate change seriously more or less speechless—or merely talking about building codes—while the planet cooks due to our hyper-charged consumerism.

Meanwhile The New York Times Magazine features the journey in thought of Paul Kingsnorth, formerly a British environmental activist, now a man who has now simply had it with efforts to slow or halt climate change and environmental degradation. He thinks it's useless. 

“Everything had gotten worse,” Kingsnorth said. “You look at every trend that environmentalists like me have been trying to stop for 50 years, and every single thing had gotten worse. And I thought: I can’t do this anymore. I can’t sit here saying: ‘Yes, comrades, we must act! We only need one more push, and we’ll save the world!’ I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it! So what do I do?”