The morning after. We wake to the detritus of excess.
Ecology
Photo by Isaac Martin on Unsplash
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
Ecological world view offers vision of cosmic harmony
Two weeks ago I attended a meeting of nature writers who had gathered to consider the relationship between ecology and spirituality, convened by the Forum on Religion and Ecology.
DDT being sprayed over an Oregon forest in 1955 • USDA Forest Service (Public Domain)
Balancing perils against blessings
Not long ago, I was sitting with students on a high outcrop of rock in the woods near our college campus. A deep screen of color on every side — oaks, maples, and hickories in their autumn glory — absorbed the sounds of highway and town.
Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash
Can the hard or soft get us machine green?
Environmental liberals and conservatives are bashing each other in print. They have the same ostensible goal — saving the planet from despoliation — but very different strategies for doing it.
Photo by Mauro Tandoi on Unsplash
Bee boy showed how nature explains itself
Gilbert White’s “The Natural History of Selborne” was published in the year of the French Revolution and not long after Britain lost her 13 colonies in America. You’ll find none of these earthshaking events in the book.
Photo by Firanka Mipinska on Unsplash
The missing amphibians: Mystery or telltale sign?
There was wind in the willows as the Water Rat and the Mole rowed their boat along the river. They were on their way to visit Toad of Toad Hall.
Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash
A moon to fully recall
It has been a week and a half since the total lunar eclipse, but the beauty of it is still on my mind.
A statue of Thoreau at Walden Pond • Photo by Chris Devers (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
An unvarnished look at Thoreau
In recent years we have seen a spate of books on Henry David Thoreau — his writings, his life, and the landscape in which he lived. The best of the lot is David Foster’s “Thoreau’s Country: Journey Through a Transformed Landscape (Harvard 1999).”
Walden Pond in Concord, MA • Photo by Eric T (CC BY-ND 2.0)
For wildness, hope lies in reality, not romanticism
“In wildness is the preservation of the world,” said Thoreau, and his felicitous phrase has become something of a mantra for conservationists.
A 1946 nuclear test at Bikini Atoll • US Department of Defense (Public Domain)
Can we ever make amends?
A decade ago, landscape photographer Peter Goin was granted access to several of America’s most restricted nuclear weapons facilities. His visits resulted in a haunting book of color photographs called “Nuclear Landscapes.”