Category Archives: the land

The beauty of nature fading away: Haruki Murakami

In the best speech I have read since the last Vaclav Havel speech I read, Haruki Murakami reflects on the tsunami that hit Japan a year ago and  "mujo" — the fading of beauty. If we think about nature, for example, we cherish the cherry blossoms of spring, the fireflies of summer and the redContinue reading “The beauty of nature fading away: Haruki Murakami”

How dry will it be in California in 2012?

According to NOAA, La Niña is beginning to fade away in the Pacific, but it's probably too late to expect much precip this year. La Niña-like impacts are expected to persist into the upcoming season. For those of us who like rain, snow, and water, this is not great news. So far this year hasContinue reading “How dry will it be in California in 2012?”

Heard any frogs in your backyard lately?

A UC Berkeley researcher quoted in the U.S. News and World Report warns that the frogs in your backyard — if any — may be on their way out.  If you happen to see a frog hopping around in your back yard, take a good look— it might not be around for much longer. Ecologists areContinue reading “Heard any frogs in your backyard lately?”

World’s largest seal rookery found in Ventura County

For the Ventura County Star, Zeke Barlow reports from the world's largest seal rookery, on San Miguel Island far off the Ventura County coast. The sea lions, some weighing as much as 6,000 pounds, where nearly driven to extinction a hundred years ago, but have rebounded wondrously:  "We first saw two pups here in 1986,"Continue reading “World’s largest seal rookery found in Ventura County”

Bumbling environmentalists, according to Carl Hiassen

The great newspaperman and comic/detective novelist discusses journalism, esp. environmental journalism, with Curtis Brainard:  Newspaper cutbacks are a recurring theme in your novels. How do you see them affecting environmental journalism? They’re a grave threat, because the first things that tend to go are investigative and explanatory journalists. Everything becomes shorter and more bite-sized. EnvironmentalContinue reading “Bumbling environmentalists, according to Carl Hiassen”

Ormond beach: the beautiful problem

My cover story this week in the Reporter, on "the broken mirror" of Ormond Beach. This is about 1500 acores along about two miles of beach in South Oxnard, astonishingly rich in shorelife, somehow trying to hold its beauty and vigor amidst monocultural agriculture and heavy industry.  And here's a picture I took, of aContinue reading “Ormond beach: the beautiful problem”

Dreamed in the sunbeams: John Muir

From his unpublished journals written in his sheep-herding days, before Muir came to stay in Yosemite Valley: Dreamed in the sunbeams, when the sheep were calm, the plan of a hermitage: walls of pure white quartz, doors and windows edged with quartz crystals, windows of thin smooth sheets of water with ruffling apparatus to answerContinue reading “Dreamed in the sunbeams: John Muir”

The beautiful secret: Robinson Jeffers

From an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times: [Robinson] Jeffers celebrated the "transhuman magnificence" of nature, the beautiful things both vast and near that can provide even a 21st century reader with solace, even if we are often a muddled, ugly species and even if all things, as they do, fade away.  Don't often hearContinue reading “The beautiful secret: Robinson Jeffers”