Part of me can’t believe James Fallows fell for this woo, but another part of me can relate. I’ve been coughing up a lung for several weeks now (mornings are worst), and that’s not counting the other assorted flu horrors, which I’ve alternately tried treating and ignoring. Here’s the various over-the-counter and prescribed meds I’ve…Continue Reading…
As someone who covers archaeology, climate change & energy, and ecology, this developing story fascinates me. The short post by Todd Woody barely scratches at the complex interplay of issues, so it’s worth following up if someone can get a deep dive assignment.
Another wild tale from the illegal wildlife trade, this one about a Malaysian smuggler that offers a window on the illegal wildlife trade and our broken system to combat it. Underfunded law enforcement, government corruption, controversy-shy NGOs, and a feeble international legal framework have yielded few inroads against wildlife syndicates or kingpins like Anson Wong….Continue Reading…
I gotta say, I’m really floored by the level of sacrifice exhibited here. No new clothes for a year! Wow. But as far as such eco-gimmicks go, it doesn’t begin to approach this one. Seriously, I would have been more impressed if the Guardian writer had become a Freegan for a month, or swore off…Continue Reading…
One of my favorite geographers, David Lowenthal, has written two great books that touch on the power of nostalgia: The Past is a foreign Country, and Possessed by the Past. In environmentalism, the notion of an idealized past has long manifested itself in various ways. For example an early strain of contemporary environmentalism–known as the…Continue Reading…
So I’ve been cross-eyed with the flu this week, which is finally ebbing. Even more interesting, the whole family got equally sick at the same time. I think one of our neighbors put a skull and crossbones on our front door. I shuffled out to get the mail one day and another neighbor, caught in…Continue Reading…
Here’s a story in the latest issue of Conservation magazine that should raise some hackles: Social Scientists have long understood that corruption has disastrous effects on struggling economies and people, with the poorest suffering the brunt of that impact. What is now becoming clearer is corruption’s devastating impact on ecosystems””and on the business of conservation…Continue Reading…
There’s a passage in Ross Douthat’s NYT column today that struck me as analogous to the decline of environmentalism. So I made the appropriate word substitutions: Thanks in part to this bunker mentality, American Christianity environmentalism has become what Hunter calls a “weak culture” “” one that mobilizes but doesn’t convert, alienates rather than seduces,…Continue Reading…
My favorite archaeology blogger will be returning sometime today or tomorrow as a guest host. I think it will be brief, probably just one post related to this recent controversial story (unless I can convince him to stick around longer). And I’m hoping to squeeze a few climate change related guest posts out of someone…Continue Reading…
Ok, everybody who’s shocked by the news of this internal email communication raise their hands. Fox News is slanted? And that slant is being enforced by its producers? Look, it’s always good when stuff like this comes to light, if only to further puncture the absurd facade that Fox is actually [cough, cough] “fair and…Continue Reading…