Finding Harmony
We have a similar birth date and the same hometown, but otherwise I have nothing in common with Charles III, except a passion for nature that grew out of childhood and has never faded. I am no apologist for monarchy,
Environment
Job in the Whirlwind at the End of his World
William Blake was a poet, painter, printmaker, mystic, and, I vouch, a protoenvironmentalist. His painting: Job Confessing his Presumption to God, who answers in a Whirlwind, represents the crisis of his life. Job had a great life with his large
Musical Moths
I love this project (click to YouTube).The musician Ellie Wilson worked with Oxford Contemporary Music and scientists who studied biodiversity to transform recordings of night-flying moths into music gently accompanied by traditional musical instruments.Moths are mysterious denizens of the night.
De-extinction of American Chestnuts
I have written before about the near extinction of American Chestnuts, called the greatest ecological catastrophe in the eastern forests of America.I tried (and failed) to grow saplings from four nuts received in payment for my article in the American
The Kalahari and Okavango: from desert to delta and drought
My view from a window seat hardly changed on the flight from Johannesburg to Maun in northern Botswana. I rarely saw a farm or lodge in the khaki-colored plains below. A few gulleys ran irregular courses like the veins on
What is Pollution?
I prevented our dogs from wading at Jamestown Beach today. The rising tide carried a floating mat of yellow scum. I suspected pollution, which made me wonder about the meaning of the word. Pollution is as hard to define as
Pollinators and our Plates
Guess the replies if you ask if wasps and flies have any virtues. Many people wish them extinct, but they are important pollinators along with wild bees, honeybees, and lepidoptera. The decline of 1-2% per year in insect populations around
A tornado not heading to Oz
Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up. “There’s a cyclone coming …” he said. Thus, began Dorothy’s voyage over the Kansas prairie with her dog, Toto, carried by a tornado. The first warnings were the wail of the wind and bowing grass.
Appreciation of James Lovelock (1919-2022)
Did you ever regret you hadn’t met someone after hearing it was too late? I did today. James Lovelock was one of my scientific heroes. He died on Tuesday at age 103. I knew people who worked with him at
Overshooting the Human Project
The first astronauts described Earth with mystical awe as a vulnerable pearl in the barren wastes of space. It had looked the same since before the rise of mammals in the Cenozoic epoch, but suddenly our dirty footprints are all