The Pacific Northwest once grew an oyster so delicious that California gold miners saved it for their celebrations when they struck paydirt. The native oyster has been almost completely replaced by an import from Asia, so much so that most people wouldn't recognize the original oyster today if its salty flesh slapped them in the …
The Wild wins a Signal Award
Quick update: The podcast I write for, Chris Morgan's The Wild, won a silver in the Signal Awards! It was in the sustainability and environment category for our 'Buffalo Boys' episode. We were also the listener's choice in the genre. The story is at times harrowing, funny, and inspiring. Kudos to the team for the …
Having a Cow About Climate
There is no escaping it. Climate change makes demands on affluent lifestyles. They range from the trivial, to the mildly disruptive, to the highly annoying. Over time these demands have evolved. Swapping out incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents - now LEDs - was an early demand. Turning the heating or A/C down a notch …
Food, Freedom, and Smiley Faces
The day before Independence Day in 2018 was the last day to comment on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposal for mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The requirement for a nationally recognizable standard was passed in 2016 during the Obama administration. The proposal offers guidance to food companies who will soon …
Climate Engineering and the Sustainable Development Goals: The Tangled Web of the Anthropocene
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 …
Champagne, Truffles, and Climate Change
For a few scant years, the challenges of climate change lay only in the future. The prospect of transformed landscapes and disrupted ecologies was a threat that could be – and was – easily ignored. Although atmospheric scientists assured anyone who would listen that real problems lay ahead, interest in doing anything serious about it …
