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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Christopher J. Preston 