Place holder for The Guardian article “Human ‘behavioural crisis’ at root of climate breakdown, say scientists” “We’ve socially engineered ourselves the way we geoengineered the planet,” says Joseph Merz, lead author of a new paper which proposes that climate breakdown is a symptom of ecological overshoot, which in turn is caused by the deliberate … [Read more…]
Tretheway, like Elizabeth Rush, is a very good nature writer. I had some experience working on mapping vessels back in my youth and it was very interesting to “go back out” albeit in my arm chair with much newer vessels and equipment. She builds up the background of ocean mapping, how little we really know, … [Read more…]
October 23, 2023 I just read Elizabeth Rush’s new book “The Quickening” in which she reports on a research cruise to Thwaites Glacier in 2018/19. Seems the first time the thinning sea ice would let ships get anywhere close was in 2017-2020 so there was some very good data gathered in those years. We are … [Read more…]
Nov 22, 2023 Just finished “The Blue Machine – How the Ocean Works” by Helen Czerski. As you can guess, it is a non-fiction title, another scientist commenting on a topic dear to her and meaningful for most of us, a genre I’m finding attractive in my old age She’s a physicist whose work on … [Read more…]
Comment on the genre of “climate fiction,” which now, in late 2023 is pretty well defined, this entry suggests it has been around for centuries but gained momentum around 2010. Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction) The Wikipedia entry for Climate Fiction contains this: “Technologies such as climate engineering or climate adaptation practices often feature prominently in works … [Read more…]
A review of a Fluxus retrospective from the New York Times. Through Jan. 21 at Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan https://www.japansociety.org/arts-and-culture/exhibitions/kazuko-miyamoto
Eulogy for Rose (Editor’s Note: Ina Draper DeFoe, Columbia poetess, wrote this tribute to the late Rose Gaffney of Bodega Bay, a unique citizen of the Redwood Empire. It is edited for today’s Medley.) Our family knew Rose Gaffney back before there was anything to threaten her ownership of Bodega Head. One weekend my youngest … [Read more…]
I wanted to get her name into Commonplaces, she is very brave! US climate scientist risks felony by chaining herself to pipeline drill Rose Abramoff was one of two protesters who helped temporarily shut down construction of Mountain Valley pipeline According to Scientist Rebellion, a coalition of scientists who are actively protesting against climate change, … [Read more…]
Isabel Crook, 107, Dies; Her Life in China Spanned a Century of Change A noted educator and anthropologist, she spent almost her entire life in China, where she was a committed friend of the Communist government. NY Times 08/24/23 Isabel Crook, a China-born daughter of Canadian missionaries who became one of her adopted country’s most … [Read more…]
Casey Hayden, a Force for Civil Rights and Feminism, Dies at 85 New York Times By Neil Genzlinger Published Jan. 13, 2023 While working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early 1960s, she helped write two memos that spurred the modern women’s movement. Casey Hayden with Dorie Ladner, a fellow member of the … [Read more…]