Category: Environment

Environment

The Fate of our Animal Friends in Pandemic Times

The untold suffering of our animal friends, victims of collapsing slaughter houses in the wake of mass worker viral infections, is so manifest it shouldn’t be ignored. It isn’t just Asian wet markets that need closing, though China bristles in denial, but industrial farming here at home, latent with cruelty, harbinger of disease, pervasive in despoiling the earth and advancing climate change. We rightly become … Continue reading The Fate of our Animal Friends in Pandemic Times

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Environment

Is Anybody Listening? Voter Apathy on Climate Change

American media should be ashamed! Here we are, facing an unparalleled survival crisis, yet the absence of climate change from Thursday’s Democrat debate. (No opportunity for discussing the Green New Deal.) Then there is the apathy of many Americans. Three recent state voter surveys sadly show the absence of climate change as a top five issue for prospective voters. Meanwhile, the Trump assault on environment … Continue reading Is Anybody Listening? Voter Apathy on Climate Change

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Environment

Setting an Example: Berkeley Outlaws Natural Gas

The Berkeley City Council has unanimously voted to ban natural gas in all new construction, a move critics say imposes higher utility costs on the poor. Beginning January 1, 2020, new homes, townhouses and small apartment buildings will be without hookups for stoves, hot water, laundry and heating. The ban ultimately includes large commercial structures and apartment dwellings. Electricity is the name of the game. … Continue reading Setting an Example: Berkeley Outlaws Natural Gas

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Environment, People

And a Child Shall Lead Them

Today, May 24, was another walk-out-of-school day for thousands of children in 110 countries, urging their governments to take quick and meaningful action to avert environmental catastrophe. If only the politicians, and us, for that matter, would listen. It’s certainly, if nothing else, gotten the climate crisis considerable media attention. Of course, it’s 16-year old Greta Thunberg of Sweden who started it all and is … Continue reading And a Child Shall Lead Them

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Environment

Trophy Hunting Looms for Grizzly Bears

Averaging 800 pounds, powerful and fast moving, voracious defenders of their young, grizzly bears are a North American treasure deserving of our awe and worthy of preservation. Native Americans held them sacred and embedded them in their legends, dances and paintings. Although they hunted them for food, clothing, and jewelry, they saw them as avatars of strength and courage conferring protection as the physical embodiment … Continue reading Trophy Hunting Looms for Grizzly Bears

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Environment

You have every right to be afraid!

Many of us rightfully fear a Trump presidency for what it may mean for the welfare of our citizenry and nation. Will Affordable Health Care (AHC) and Medicare be on the chopping block? If you’re an undocumented immigrant, will Trump carry out his often repeated pledge to deport illegals and build a wall on the border with Mexico? Will he foreclose on refugees, many of … Continue reading You have every right to be afraid!

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Environment

Introducing my hummingbird friends…

They return every April to our Kentucky backyard, survivors of a 3000 journey from Central America, which includes a non-stop 500 mile flight across the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a journey my hummingbird friends will repeat again, returning in fall to their winter feeding grounds. Knowing of their imminent arrival, I had faithfully set out our bright red hummingbird feeder in mid-April. For some reason, … Continue reading Introducing my hummingbird friends…

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Books, Environment

Macdonald’s H is for Hawks: Finding Passage

The archaeology of grief is not ordered. It is more like earth under a spade turning up things you had forgotten, surprising things come to light: not simply memories, but states of mind, emotions, older ways of seeing the world. –Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk I’ve finished reading Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk and want to weigh in on it like someone who’s … Continue reading Macdonald’s H is for Hawks: Finding Passage

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