The journals of Lewis and Clark regale with one of the great tales of American history. As with all American history, it’s filled with contradictions. The journals document the great vast wilderness surrounding the Missouri River at the beginning of the 19th century. A wilderness completely disappeared only a century later. It is also a wonderful picture of the the peoples then occupying this land, the first peoples, the human migrants from Asia who made their way to the Americas beginning at least 15 thousand years ago.
Interesting guy California's "water doctor" - more power to him if he succeeds..
Californian is a mixed bag, but in some ways they are more progressive than a lot of other places. I watching the fate of Prop 12 as a committed animal rights supporter and was very relieved that such a basic animal welfare criterion even was not overturned. It also ties in to what you said about such a creek today being filled with animal waste from farms:
The article on recycling is great. Thanks for posting that Joe. While I am not entirely sure that Forbes' motivation in writing that is not suspect (It was probably allowed as a headline most people would skim only to perpetuate a general sense of smug conservative satisfaction that the greenies are full of shit), the actual article is good and reflects a reality that hopefully eventually destroys the "you can have it all" view of being green which the pro business-as-usual-at-all-costs lobby successfully pitched to lazy greens (which would have included my younger self from a decade back). It is a natural corollary to the infinite growth economics mindset-just make a minor switch! You can still have it all!
Because we are all thinking about bloody ai and machines learning from patterns in data pile (whether we want to or not) these days, I also wondered as I was reading your piece this morning whether the tendency in literature to go from descriptions of nature to hyperealism involving toilets, snot and bodily functions can be correlated with our species slummifying its host planet more and more.
Orwell's 1984 was the first book I ever read with what I think of as that kind of modern sensibility. It fit too with the general theme of a fascistic society. Before eco collapse was so obviously looming I had a vague feeling that WallE world would be the likelier path in a fascistic society-now I think that would just be a few parts of society. Soylent Green seems on the horizon at some point if we don't stop thinking oxymorons like green growth are sane. Nature tourism makes preserving the planet profitable and fun for all ages!
Degrowth and smaller human populations are the only truly sane solutions. Only an insane society makes such straightforward stuff so controversial...
"We find that Earth is exactly at the crossover point; in the year 2020 (± 6), the anthropogenic mass, which has recently doubled roughly every 20 years, will surpass all global living biomass. On average, for each person on the globe, anthropogenic mass equal to more than his or her bodyweight is produced every week. This quantification of the human enterprise gives a mass-based quantitative and symbolic characterization of the human-induced epoch of the Anthropocene."
I used to live in the global south, then for over a decade in the global north, now I am
back in the global south. Yasha Levine alluded to this in a post vaguely (I will find the link).
One thing I have noticed with global migration patterns and cultural changes is that whatever else is preserved or lost, generally speaking, the pro planet slummification (more cars, more malls, more consumption of cruelly produced and thereby cheap meat, more overcrowding and noise, more quarrels over an ever increasing number of microcultural* issues-this also tends to drown out any serious discussions about our looming ecological crises) tendencies in all cultures thrives everywhere. The adaptation to crappy modern culture is the one type of universal centre-right value that is flourishing*.
Maybe because dominion over nature, waste, rising meat consumption (with factory farms replacing small farms) and slummification are considered symbols of progress rather than the reverse.
*: witness the pro coal mining "Indian Trump" who is one of your presidential candidates.
Land Reform
Interesting guy California's "water doctor" - more power to him if he succeeds..
Californian is a mixed bag, but in some ways they are more progressive than a lot of other places. I watching the fate of Prop 12 as a committed animal rights supporter and was very relieved that such a basic animal welfare criterion even was not overturned. It also ties in to what you said about such a creek today being filled with animal waste from farms:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23721488/prop-12-scotus-pork-pigs-factory-farming-california-bacon
The article on recycling is great. Thanks for posting that Joe. While I am not entirely sure that Forbes' motivation in writing that is not suspect (It was probably allowed as a headline most people would skim only to perpetuate a general sense of smug conservative satisfaction that the greenies are full of shit), the actual article is good and reflects a reality that hopefully eventually destroys the "you can have it all" view of being green which the pro business-as-usual-at-all-costs lobby successfully pitched to lazy greens (which would have included my younger self from a decade back). It is a natural corollary to the infinite growth economics mindset-just make a minor switch! You can still have it all!
This Guardian article is along those same lines:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe
I read this a couple of days back and was thinking about it while reading your piece:
https://steinbeck.stanford.edu/whyread
Because we are all thinking about bloody ai and machines learning from patterns in data pile (whether we want to or not) these days, I also wondered as I was reading your piece this morning whether the tendency in literature to go from descriptions of nature to hyperealism involving toilets, snot and bodily functions can be correlated with our species slummifying its host planet more and more.
Orwell's 1984 was the first book I ever read with what I think of as that kind of modern sensibility. It fit too with the general theme of a fascistic society. Before eco collapse was so obviously looming I had a vague feeling that WallE world would be the likelier path in a fascistic society-now I think that would just be a few parts of society. Soylent Green seems on the horizon at some point if we don't stop thinking oxymorons like green growth are sane. Nature tourism makes preserving the planet profitable and fun for all ages!
Degrowth and smaller human populations are the only truly sane solutions. Only an insane society makes such straightforward stuff so controversial...
“Here’s how it works: You bring your own containers from home.”
I have wanted to do this forever. I hate the amount of plastic and glass waste I generate.
This article made me gloomy years ago:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3010-5
"We find that Earth is exactly at the crossover point; in the year 2020 (± 6), the anthropogenic mass, which has recently doubled roughly every 20 years, will surpass all global living biomass. On average, for each person on the globe, anthropogenic mass equal to more than his or her bodyweight is produced every week. This quantification of the human enterprise gives a mass-based quantitative and symbolic characterization of the human-induced epoch of the Anthropocene."
I used to live in the global south, then for over a decade in the global north, now I am
back in the global south. Yasha Levine alluded to this in a post vaguely (I will find the link).
One thing I have noticed with global migration patterns and cultural changes is that whatever else is preserved or lost, generally speaking, the pro planet slummification (more cars, more malls, more consumption of cruelly produced and thereby cheap meat, more overcrowding and noise, more quarrels over an ever increasing number of microcultural* issues-this also tends to drown out any serious discussions about our looming ecological crises) tendencies in all cultures thrives everywhere. The adaptation to crappy modern culture is the one type of universal centre-right value that is flourishing*.
Maybe because dominion over nature, waste, rising meat consumption (with factory farms replacing small farms) and slummification are considered symbols of progress rather than the reverse.
*: witness the pro coal mining "Indian Trump" who is one of your presidential candidates.