“The United Nations estimates that humans produce 400 million tons of plastic waste every year.” ~ Susan Shain “Plastic recycling only exists in the minds of public relations agencies that are promoting plastics,” ~ Judith Enck, former E.P.A. official and founder of Beyond Plastics I’ve pretty much quit trying to interpret the little triangles on various products. […]
Tag Archives: environment
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” ~ Unknown My small town enjoys tree-lined older neighborhoods that are pleasant to walk through and front porches that are nice to sit on. The combination of shade trees and other vegetation keeps the local climate comfortable, even if […]
It’s uncomfortably hot … everywhere. According to meteorologist and journalist Bob Henson, “… the Climate Reanalyzer website shows that July 3, 2023, was the warmest single day on record — only to be toppled by July 4, tied on July 5, and broken again on July 6 … these were the warmest globally averaged days in centuries, […]
It’s warm, so we have the windows open both day and night and have resorted to a bedroom window fan for the still, warm nights. The fireworks that kept our dog and us awake at night over the holiday weekend seem to have, at least for now, subsided, but there are plenty of other noises. […]
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” ~ Unattributed We’re installing new fences around our back yard. The existing ones, probably put in before the 1940’s, are wire mesh strung on two-inch metal posts set in concrete. They have grown interwoven […]
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.” — Kahlil Gibran I grew up very near the 30” rainfall line that transverses Texas and the entire U.S. from north to south and reflects the significant climate differences. Science writer Harvey Leifert described it as follows: “It separated “cattle country” from “farm country”. Crops […]
Recently, the BBC released a list of the 100 best children’s books ever. Reading the list evoked my childhood and even my later youth. My father read to us frequently, and I became the reader for my younger sister, a role I kept into my teens. My wife and I both read to our son, […]
“All are from the dust, and to dust all return.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:20 Over the last week or so, I’ve been taking my compost pile apart to move it. Normally, I take it apart in the early spring to separate the good decomposed material in the center of the pile from the un-decomposed (composed?) […]
“Among the first to document the exuberance of urban ecosystems were casual observers and curious botanists in war-torn Europe in the 1940s. The rubble-strewn cities of World War II, to the astonishment of their inhabitants, very quickly brimmed with plant and animal life. The vegetation that emerged from the debris was totally unexpected, a cornucopia […]
Edinburgh Castle rises above craggy heights in the middle of the city, part castle and part palace, the home of Scottish royalty. An ancient hill fort dating to before the seventh century, Edinburgh’s steep cliffs and rocky slopes preclude entry or attack from all but one side. Today the Royal Mile is filled with buildings […]
Writes of Nature 