Everyone is hoping for their feet to touch bottom. The coronavirus has washed over our lives in a tsunami of uncertainty. The prospect of serious illness, hospitalization, or death is tangible. ‘Social distancing’ and ‘shelter in place’ orders in many jurisdictions clarify that this time it’s for real. Empty supermarket shelves add to the unsettling …
Wolf Seekers
“I’m just a nobody.” I won’t say this man’s name but if you have stood on the side of the road in Yellowstone during the winter searching through a spotting scope for distant wolves, you have probably met him. He claims to be “just a nobody” because he does not have “advanced degrees” or a …
Christmas Trees and a Better World
(This is a lightly edited re-post of something I wrote this time last year. I'm posting it again because it still feels relevant. I have added a few comments at the end) "The days of childhood are short, but last forever" Jonathan Tulloch Although it happened nearly three decades ago, I still remember the smugness …
The Silent Swoop
A single moment can make everything so vivid. The huge parking lot at the cross-country ski area south of Anaconda, Montana was plowed for about fifty cars. When we pulled in on Christmas Eve morning, we were the only ones there. Most people were sitting cozily at home with family, getting into the festive mood. …
The Nurse Log
Mason Voehl is a climber, a writer, a philosopher, and an outdoor educator. He recently completed a graduate degree in environmental philosophy at the University of Montana and lives now in the Black hills of South Dakota. Here he writes about an experience as an instructor on a Wild Rockies Field Institute course when the forest floor suddenly …
Of Moose and Sturgeon: Lessons from the Ragged Edges of the Anthropocene
A mother and calf moose were found bedded down in an alleyway in downtown Missoula, Montana this last Friday morning. They were resting up somewhere between a law office and a bank. People showing up for work at the end of the week were warned to look both ways before they ran across the street …
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The Ethics of a Global Sunshade
Earlier this month, a major international conference on climate engineering* (also known as ‘geoengineering’) wrapped up in Berlin attracting headlines around the world. Next week, I’m travelling to a smaller academic meeting on the ethics and governance of climate engineering research. Next year, two outdoor tests of climate modification technologies are scheduled to begin. The …
Salmon, Forests, and Protein Factories
It only took a day and a half. That was all the rainfall required to turn the lethargic assembly of fish milling around at the mouth of the creek into a full-on salmon run. For nearly two weeks, I had watched a growing school of pink salmon slowly circulate where the dwindling fresh water from …
The Plastocene 