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 …
Continue reading "Warmed up, Flooded out, and Pissed Off: Climate Change Becomes Personal"
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 …
Continue reading "Turning On, Tuning In, and Dropping Out of the Anthropocene?"
Solar Power Nerdiness and the Terrifying Problem of Albedo
I swear, it is almost impossible to stop yourself. I promised I would be more disciplined, but I’m not. When someone who cares about climate change gets solar panels on their roof, the temptation to keep looking at how much energy you are generating is virtually irresistible. After a long and dark “La Nina” winter …
Continue reading "Solar Power Nerdiness and the Terrifying Problem of Albedo"
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 …
Continue reading "Worse than Drowning in a Sea of Plastic….."
Could Technology Make America Wild Again?
In a recent essay published in Aeon, Henry Mance asks “can technology mend our broken relationship with the natural world?” At first, it seems, apparently not. Making points that echo those formulated by philosopher of technology Albert Borgmann in an earlier post on this blog, Mance show how technology tends to undercut any native closeness …
Continue reading "Could Technology Make America Wild Again?"
Christopher J. Preston 