In a lovely tribute to the late great writer Ray Bradbury, Felicity Barringer of the inevitable New York Times shows us how much he cared for our planetary home, and how little he trusted our species: Unlike classic environmental writing that focuses largely on the good that nature does for the soul or mankindContinue reading “Ray Bradbury the environmental activist”
Category Archives: disaster
The heroism of the lonely PhD
Deep in a magnificent USA Today team investigation last week was hidden a revelation: How a PhD doctoral candidate doing historical research discovered — and publicized — a massive threat to public health. From Ghost Factories: In April 2001, environmental scientist William Eckel published a research article in the American Journal of Public Health warning aboutContinue reading “The heroism of the lonely PhD”
A fire to make The Hunger Games look tame
The new movie blockbuster, The Hunger Games, turns out to be shockingly good. Not because it's futuristic — with a little magic, it could easily have been set in ancient times. Not because it stars a teenager, or a young woman; the same story could be told through a male perspective, if less imaginatively. ButContinue reading “A fire to make The Hunger Games look tame”
Dozens of tornadoes devastate the South — in January
A rare mid-winter brace of hurricanes devastates the South; 150-mph winds recorded. Two dozen or so tornadoes sweeps through four states — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina — killing six people, injuring a hundred or more, and leaving countless others homeless. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640 Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyContinue reading “Dozens of tornadoes devastate the South — in January”
Take Shelter — the birds are falling (again)
2012 opens with news of blackbirds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas — again. Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached. Police inContinue reading “Take Shelter — the birds are falling (again)”
Phoenix: Not busy being born is busy dying
Speaking of Dylan…one of his most famous lines, written forty-six years ago, is standing up to the test of time just fine, thank you, in Phoenix this year. How so? An example: The title of a High Country News story about the city's fate is called Demise of a Housing Growth Machine. The story focusesContinue reading “Phoenix: Not busy being born is busy dying”
Obama takes responsibility for Keystone XL: Why?
Maybe Obama isn't as calculating as he sometimes appears. Or maybe he's fighting for his political life. This impressive story by a reporter for Huffpo relates how the Keystone pipleline became a trainwreck inside the administration after the State department screwed up the environmental review. Hillary Clinton's State Department has now spent more than threeContinue reading “Obama takes responsibility for Keystone XL: Why?”
Alfred Hitchock on global warming
Well, not exactly. But in his "Picture of the Week" feature on his chatty blog, Peter Bogdanovich — who directed one of the great pictures of my youth, The Last Picture Show — has some interesting thoughts from Hitch on nature and revenge re: The Birds: When I asked Hitch what he felt the movieContinue reading “Alfred Hitchock on global warming”
Texas drought: “Years before the cows come home”
Today reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske took a potentially mundane story about how the drought in Texas is changing the traditional cattle business and wrote her way on to the front page of the Sunday Los Angeles Times with her boldness: The cowboys rose well before dawn, stars still high in the West Texas sky. They strapped onContinue reading “Texas drought: “Years before the cows come home””
Congress cuts weather satellite funding in disastrous year
The weather in these United States has been truly frightful in the last couple of years, as this graph — provided to Congress with testimony from NOAA administrator Kathryn Sullivan last month — illustrates: [The graph shows the number of events from last year, but this year will be worse, Sullivan said] Yet as theContinue reading “Congress cuts weather satellite funding in disastrous year”
Kit Stolz 