A report released by C2G2 at the end of May is an interesting exercise in bringing two important global challenges into conversation. Carbon Removal and Solar Geoengineering: Potential Implications for Delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals is a noble effort to tie what policy makers should do about climate change with what they should do …
The Ethics of Hijacking a (Rhino) Uterus
Researchers at the San Diego zoo were celebrating last week after one of their beloved southern white rhinos was determined to be carrying a rhino fetus. This rhino became pregnant after male white rhino sperm was injected into her uterus at just the moment that all the stars in the rhino universe aligned. Artificial insemination …
Get Ready for a ‘Wild’ Anthropocene
The wildlife biologists are breathless with excitement. After a century’s absence, images of both male and female wolverines have been captured by wildlife cameras in Wyoming’s Wind River Range. This evidence suggests that this most mythic of carnivores could be breeding further south in Wyoming than anyone thought possible. Zack Walker of Wyoming Fish and …
Reshaping Wildlife
Earlier this winter, I performed some mental gymnastics on this blog trying to figure out whether I could ethically justify putting a camera trap in the woods to spy on shy carnivores. I think I decided it was okay…..kind of. Even though there is no doubt the bait and the cameras are an intrusion, it seemed …
Re-Imagining Earth Day in a Synthetic Age
You can find this week's blog post at The Conversation U.S. It is a reflection on what Earth Day will mean in a synthetic age.
Nazi Battleships and Anthropocene Entanglements
The Nazis were only trying to hide a big ship. Anchored in the Norwegian fjords as a deterrent against a northern invasion, the massive German battleship Tirpitz had proven effecting at keeping the British Navy at bay. Its mere presence had also made the sending of conveys around northern Norway to resupply Russia much less …
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Sticky Feet in an Anthropocene World
Imagine a lizard trying to scamper away from a predator but being unable get a grip on a smooth floor. The cartoonish image of hind legs working fruitlessly to create forward motion has been replicated on actual lizards and filmed in the lab by Kristin Winchell, a post-doctoral researcher at Washington University in St Louis. …
Warmed up, Flooded out, and Pissed Off: Climate Change Becomes Personal
It was when he first heard the call of a red-winged blackbird in the hills north of Fairbanks that John Adams knew something was up. This was a bird he recognized from the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. It was not one he expected to see in the boreal forest only a few dozen miles from …
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Turning On, Tuning In, and Dropping Out of the Anthropocene?
In a March 19th article in The Guardian, Mark Boyle wrote about the lessons he has learned from a year spent living entirely without technology. A week earlier in The New York Times, Sam Dolnik profiled a different kind of digital hermit, Eric Hagerman, a man he called with suitable appreciation “the most ignorant man …
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Worse than Drowning in a Sea of Plastic…..
A recent BBC news story documented one man’s efforts to clean up plastic waste in the Arctic. It is the sadness and resignation in this man’s eyes that sticks out. The presence of plastic everywhere you look in the Arctic is leading Norwegian fisherman to fear that their catch will lose its reputation some of …
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