I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest, Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear, A nest of robins in her hair; […]
Category Archives: climate change
“With climate change increasing, drought increasing, and more high rainfall events, I think there’s more of a need to incorporate permanent vegetation into agriculture systems.” Susan Stein, Director of USDA National Agroforestry Center In the movie Interstellar, the near-future world is being consumed by climate change, and one-by-one the monocultural crops that feed the world […]
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” Greek Proverb “In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.” Wilma Mankiller “It’s all Al Gore’s fault anyway,” […]
“It’s a boondoggle based on bad science and ignores the geologic record,” my friend stated decisively. “It’s bad enough that they’re making us drive electric cars, bankrupting the coal industry, and subsidizing wind farms, but now they’re trying to charge a carbon tax to pay for their outlandish schemes.” He regrouped for his final argument, […]
“The average food item on a U.S. grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacations.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver At our local farmer’s market, there’s always a stand that makes me uncomfortable. The owner brings a semi-trailer up from Arizona full of boxes of vegetables, and sells them quite cheaply. For […]
My family lore holds that some of my forefathers (foreparents?) were Scots-Irish and the rest were English. There always seemed to be a divide in the extended family between the “rough side” and the “polished side” attributed to these genealogical differences. As I understood it, the Scots-Irish were originally poor Scots who had no land […]
“It is past time to broaden the discussion of the human future and connect it to the rest of life.” E.O. Wilson, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life Extinctions. Habitat loss. Climate change. We are wreaking havoc on the natural world. In spite of his dire warnings, E.O. Wilson is relatively upbeat about our chances […]
“Little Egypt came out struttin’, wearing nuttin’ but a button and a bow.” The Coasters As I sang by the bonfire, the adults laughed and the kids were embarrassed. The fire kept us warm in the night breeze off the ocean, and the sand sifted beneath us as we passed the wine around and ate […]
The young IRS auditor looked across at my dad’s client and said, “You’ve claimed drought losses here, but you had twelve inches of rain last year.” The old rancher’s West Texas place had been homesteaded by his grandfather, and ranched by succeeding generations. He looked at the youngster and replied, “Yes sir, that was one […]
Away out here they have a name for rain and wind and fire. The rain is Tess, the fire, Joe, and they call the wind, Maria. Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Paint Your Wagon We had been in Flagstaff all day, and when we got back to Winslow it was dark. The wind had […]
Writes of Nature 