Category Archives: activism

Trail signs along the PCT: Section Q

Just have to say that the trail signs in Section Q — the Marble Mountains — in the far north of California were the best (that is, most Zen) that I have seen along the length of California. They deserve remembering in their own right, so here goes: Next day I after about 5 orContinue reading “Trail signs along the PCT: Section Q”

The Lions of Ventura County

Let me post (with some pride) my cover story this week in the Ventura County Reporter, on mountain lions, which benefitted enormously from pictures donated to the cause of the cougar by the National Park Service. Here’s the cover: How could you not love P-19? And here’s the story. THE TRUTH ABOUT BIG CATS |Continue reading “The Lions of Ventura County”

The forgotten radicalism of Jack London

In the West Coast’s leading literary journal, Threepenny Review, Howard Tharsing explores the forgotten radicalism of Jack London. Like Tharsing, London knew the relentless humiliation of poverty all too personally and all too well. Tharsing writes: Having myself been homeless for most of 2012, I was struck by the recognition that life for the poorest among us, theContinue reading “The forgotten radicalism of Jack London”

David Foster Wallace thinks about nature

In his classic (and often hilarious) essay for Harpers on the Illinois State Fair from l993, Ticket to the Fair, David Foster Wallace ruminated on many questions, including how people see nature in the MidWest. He wrote: Rural Midwesterners live surrounded by unpopulated land, marooned in a space whose emptiness starts to become both physicalContinue reading “David Foster Wallace thinks about nature”

The madness of Trump’s “alternative facts”

A tsunami of derision has attached itself to the President Trump’s best explainer/apologizer KellyAnne Conway’s assertion last week that the President’s press secretary was offering alternative facts to explain the President’s obviously wrong belief regarding the (small) size of the crowd at his inauguration. Even some of the best coaches in professional basketball, led byContinue reading “The madness of Trump’s “alternative facts””

Jerry Brown challenges Trump on climate

In a fiery speech on science, climate, and policy at the American Geophysical Union today, Gov. Jerry Brown challenged the “miasma of nonsense” from the incoming Trump administration on climate questions and promised the thousands of earth scientists in the audience that the state of California would support their work. “Never has so much power been lodgedContinue reading “Jerry Brown challenges Trump on climate”

Is desalination the answer for drought in Ventura County?

Although climate change was hardly mentioned in the two-hour discussion of desalination led by Ventura County supervisor Steve Bennett last Thursday at the county government center, the question of drought has clearly been very much on the minds of water officials in the county. Even more alarming, possibly, might be an earthquake that could interrupt supplies toContinue reading “Is desalination the answer for drought in Ventura County?”

Following the Wolverine with a camera

Twenty-odd years ago, while walking the John Muir Trail, I glimpsed a flash of black and white running across a snowfield at about 11k feet. The creature looked about the size of a small dog, and I *think* it was a wolverine. The other likely possibility at that elevation would be a marmot, but marmotsContinue reading “Following the Wolverine with a camera”

The future of water in Ojai in drought

Here’s a panel discussion (below) put on by the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and the Ojai Film Festival on the future of water here in town. May I say despite being the moderator that I think it’s a good one. This was for a large audience at the Arts Center on the 27th of October. TheContinue reading “The future of water in Ojai in drought”