julia butterfly hill - my hero

link to a recent julia butterfly hill interview thought you might be interested

"catching up with...Julia Butterfly Hill:"

One of the great lessons I learned in the tree-sit is that it's important to know your truth and speak your truth. But it's also important to know when not to speak. There's a time to listen and be silent.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/16/DDPQ16TJPC.DTL

cut and paste url in address bar

EH students were treated to a discussion with David Weiss whose documentary on the nuclear energy can be viewed at www.everythingnuclear.org. 

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER* *but were afraid to ask Today, many people are  concerned with planning our energy needs for the future, and for the first time in decades, there are proposals to increase the production of nuclear power. In order to make good choices for the future, we need to understand not only the present situation, but also learn from our past.  We hope you will take the time to watch this documentary—in whole, or in parts—and will come to a better understanding of why nuclear power is not the solution to climate change or our energy needs.

Sustainability. What does it mean to you? How is your lifestyle sustainable? How is it unsustainable? What are you doing to make your lifestyle more sustainable (or not) and why? Is sustainability realizable or is the price of sacrifice too high?

des

worldchanging

Magpie woman turned me on to this great website of independent journalists, designers, and thinkers covering the world's most intelligent solutions to today's problems.

this is a go-to source for forward thinking, solutions-based journalism that takes a big-picture look approach to sustainability.

Are you ready to change the world?

www.worldchanging.com

Change your mind, change the world.

desi

Can Poetry Save the Earth?

Today's "Morning Edition" program on NPR featured a report on Can Poetry Save the Earth?, an anthology edited by John Felstiner, a Stanford university professor. We haven't spent much time discussing the literary band of the Environmental Humanities spectrum this year--and I found this feature a great reminder that EnvHum isn't all nuclearism, ethnography, and theory.

The interviewer asked if Felstiner thought if there was one poem that could help save the earth if more people knew it--and without hesitation he chose "The Well Rising" by William Stafford. He cites the humility and non-prescriptive tone of the poem, along with the idea of individual personal responsibility: "I place my feet with care in such a world."

Hear the feature and a reading of the poem at

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102795472&ps=cprs

Before the memory fades

Here are a few shots from our Snow Canyon field trip, March 27-29. Even though I'm pretty sure every one of us suffered a few qualms about camping while there are so many books to be read and papers to be written, there seemed to be no apparent difficulties with falling into laid back camp life.

After a short debate about where best to place tents, we took off for self-paced explorations before dinner time.

Personally, I found it most excellent to have Navajo domes underfoot again. It had been way too long. This is Rachel and Ryan as we attempted to track Drew, Katy, Jack, and Lilly, who had disappeared from sight, engendering an extremely literary discussion of Western outlaw lore regarding successful evasion of capture.

Some creatures are easier to track, even though they have not lived here for quite some time. These are the tracks of large aquatic dinosaurs, captured in mud millennia ago and preserved in sandstone until eroded free by wind and water, according to the informational sign posted by the Bureau of Land Management.

Other BLM signage was not so informative.

My favorite riddle of the trip. Why does a privy need solar power?

Answer found inside.

Other highlights not pictured:

The "one match, no paper" campfire starting contest handily won by Jack, with Diane claiming an honorable mention for not requiring a pocketknife to make shavings for tinder.

And my personal favorite--the campfire cultural initiation of Ryan into the wonders of S'mores!

Indies Choice Book Awards

This is a long link, but somewhere down near the bottom Terry has been nominated for Most Engaging Author (The author who is an in-store star with a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to their local communities.) Seems fitting. I think only booksellers can vote, though.

http://news.bookweb.org/news/6636.html

Get out and give us more money!

Although the issues aren't quite environmental, the sentiment is surely there. This feature appeared on my hometown tv station today:

http://www.kmvt.com/news/local/42291897.html

Wallace Stegner said in The American West as Living Space, "Never mind the federal aid highways, and the federally financed dams, and the write-offs against flood control, and the irrigation water delivered at a few dollars an acre foot. Take for granted federal assistance, but damn federal control. Your prsence as absentee landlord offends us, Uncle. Get out, and give us more money."

It appears that the old school values of the American West live on. In Idaho.

HR 875

Hello all,

I was just forwarded this petition to stop HR 875. It supposedly endangers small organic farmers and community gardens. I haven't had a chance to read the whole bill yet, so I can't attest to the accuracy of this site, but I thought some of you may be interested.

http://www.leavemyfoodalone.org (Click on "Learn More" to read the whole bill).

Jack