Nature (Version 2.0)
Although it happened nearly three decades ago, I still remember the smugness with which the visiting professor announced to the class that his op-ed had been published. The Washington Post had printed a piece he wrote about how nobody should be cutting down Christmas trees in order to bring them into their living room for …
Continue reading "What a Christmas Tree Taught me about Politics"
With memories of the devastating Camp Fire yet to be extinguished from our minds and with the chilling implications of the IPCC’s recent report on global temperatures settling in, perhaps there is some solace to be found in California’s efforts to salvage an escape-route from the approaching climate storm. The state has consistently been a …
This post was printed in The Conversation US last week. In the context of recent efforts to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it asks questions about the prospects for genuine plastics recycling. "The ocean is better off without it, of course, but the plastic problem has many more layers than it first …
Continue reading "Plastics: A Problem Reaching Beyond the Space and Time Horizon"
I'm lucky to have philosopher of technology Albert Borgmann as a friend and conversational partner here in Montana. He has already made a number of appearances on this blog with observations about Facebook, the iPhone, and the role of land as unifier in politics. Today this respected cultural commentator offers some thoughts that are bound to …
With two or three hours to kill before we needed to drop off our rental car at the airport, my wife and I just wanted a snack, a cup of tea, and a stroll around a quaint neighborhood somewhere in this (not-to-be-named) unfamiliar city. Clueless about where to go, we pulled off the road and …
The latest blog post on the Plastocene reflects on a genetic technology that could eradicate an entire species of malaria-carrying mosquito. It sounds like an ethical no-brainer. Some people, however, are a little more hesitant. "The announcement that a new genetic technology had successfully eradicated a carefully contained population of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes grabbed headlines last week across …
Continue reading "The Ethics of Wiping out a Mosquito Species"
It wasn’t long after the Trump administration’s proposal to weaken the Endangered Species Act hit the headlines that a story emerged about a surprise encounter between two Irish fisherman and a striking piece of Earth’s history. Raymond McElroy and Charlie Coyle were fishing for pollan in Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland in September when their …
Continue reading "The Endangered Species Act and the Extinction of Cultural Wisdom"
Every big weather event provides another platform for contrarians to sow dissent and divide public opinion. On September 14th, USA Today offered climate denier Roy Spencer a venue he did not earn in order to deny that climate change is happening. As Hurricane Florence besieged the Carolinas with record rainfall, Spencer’s opinion piece threw his …
Continue reading "The Role of Trust in Tackling Climate Change"
“Heatwave leaves dehydrated Shropshire hedgehogs fighting for their lives.” It was an unusual headline but one that was hardly surprising given the blistering heat experienced in the UK this summer. 2018 delivered the driest June the country has ever experienced. By the end of July, Britain was shaping up for its hottest summer on record. …
Two eye-catching publications on climate change in the last couple of weeks have generated a storm of reactions. A Northern hemisphere summer filled with fire, death, and heat means nobody is contesting the broad contours of either piece. There has, however, been quite a lot dispute about the details. Nathaniel Rich’s New York Times Magazine …
