An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Samuel Beckett, Confessions and the Human Condition
Posted on December 5, 2019 | No Comments -
“Bleeding Kansas” and Stories of the Underground Railroad
Posted on December 3, 2019 | No Comments -
Jesse Marquez: Public Preparedness for Threats from Refineries, Ports, and Freeways
Posted on November 27, 2019 | No Comments -
Urban Oil Drilling and the Intersection Between Faith and Environmentalism
Posted on November 20, 2019 | No Comments -
Regenerative Responses: Growing The Soil Carbon Sponge
Posted on November 2, 2019 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
‘Medicine Walk’ Featured in SBLitJo
Santa Barbara Literary Journal releases ‘Bellatrix: Volume 3’ this June, which among adventurous fiction, poetry, essays, and lyrics, features an excerpt of Jack Eidt’s psychic-animism fiction, Medicine Walk. Buy the book!
biodiversity Archive
Ecological Amnesia: Life Without Wild Things
Posted on February 9, 2019 | 2 CommentsWe have forgotten the flocks of passenger pigeons that blotted out the sun, the herds of bison that shook the ground, and the untamed places in which we destroyed them. This is ecological amnesia. This capacity to forget, this fluidity of memory, has dire implications in a world dense with people, all desperate to satisfy their immediate material needs. Yet, the way forward is land and water protection and regeneration, permaculture, and community reconnection with the wild.
Half-Earth Biodiversity Conservation Project – EcoJustice Radio
Posted on January 5, 2018 | 1 CommentLearn about the visionary Half-Earth Project! Conceived by world-renowned biologist and Pulitzer prize winning author, E.O. Wilson, the Half-Earth Project is headed up by Dr. Paula Ehrlich, President & CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
Wolves Howl in 21 Different Tongues, So to Speak
Posted on March 24, 2017 | 1 CommentAs US Republicans take aim at wolves in Alaska, research into their vocalizations found multiple identifiable "dialects" that establish differences between species.
Ecuadorean Amazon Under Oil Assault to Service Chinese Debt
Posted on July 5, 2016 | No CommentsEcuadorean state capitalism has sacrificed significant tracts of one of the planet's most important biosphere reserves, Yasuni National Park in the Amazonian region, to a massive new oil drilling project. It threatens multiple indigenous territories and the area's biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.
Wild Cuba: Accidental Eden, Endangered
Posted on November 30, 2015 | No CommentsCuba may have been restricted politically and economically for the past 50 years, but its borders have remained open to wildlife for which Cuba’s undeveloped islands are an irresistible draw.
Mass Species Extinction and Wilding the Wilderness
Posted on November 14, 2015 | 3 CommentsChristopher Ketcham writes on our continuing anthropogenic (human-caused) extinction, and the ineffectual and often misguided attempts at appeasement for the destroyers of wilderness and consumers of the Earth's bounty. E.O. Wilson's push for parks and wilderness connected by corridors: half for us, half for them, might just be the answer.
China’s Latest Earth Assault: Trans-Amazonian Railway
Posted on May 23, 2015 | 1 CommentEnvironmentalists push back against more Chinese-financed plans to construct 5,300km (3,300-mile) route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to cut transport costs
Coffee and Climate Change: Morning Java Won’t Survive
Posted on February 11, 2015 | No CommentsClimate change affects coffee crops throughout the world, with extreme weather and virulent pests causing damage to yields and ruining the industry. Thus, kicking our addiction to oil will benefit coffee farmers as well as consumers.
An Orangutan’s Journey Though Palm Oil Killing Fields
Posted on December 8, 2014 | No CommentsThe film "Green" documents deforestation and orangutan extinction in the Indonesian rainforest. It is a silent film (without narration) presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations.
Nicaragua: Scientists Advise Scrapping Destructive Gran Canal
Posted on October 29, 2014 | 3 CommentsThe Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) — the world's largest association of tropical biologists and conservationists — warns about the impact on water security and indigenous people from Nicaragua's Gran Canal.
Living With Wolves: Science Must Inform Politics
Posted on July 22, 2014 | No CommentsReviled by ranchers and hunters, managed through "harvesting" by state wildlife agencies, with ardent conservationists its last hope, the gray wolf has cut a controversial wake in the North American landscape ever since it was reintroduced from Canada in 1995. Watch the film on Earth Focus.
Protecting Greater Yosemite Ecosystem from Salvage Logging
Posted on July 13, 2014 | 1 CommentThe US Forest Service salvage logging plan ended up damaging the health of the Greater Yosemite Ecosystem far more than 2013's massive Rim Fire. Chad Hanson from the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute explains how wildfires can promote ecological health and survival of many plant and wildlife communities, despite the intense heat and scale of the blazes.
Peru: lllegal Gold Mining versus Biodiversity and Ecotourism
Posted on April 9, 2014 | 2 CommentsA gold rush that accelerated with the onset of the 2008 global recession compounds the woes of the Amazon basin, laying waste to Peruvian rain forest and spilling tons of toxic mercury into the air and water.
Honduras: Narcotrafficking Leads to Native Dispossession, Deforestation
Posted on February 7, 2014 | 3 CommentsIn the isolated region of La Mosquitia, Honduras, narco-traffickers act as shock troops in the assault on native Miskitu, Tawahka, and Pech homelands, ruthlessly dispossessing residents and rapaciously converting forest commons to private pasture primed for sale to multinational corporations.
Permaculture: Sustainable Antidote to Agribusiness and Consumer Culture
Posted on October 13, 2013 | 3 CommentsBill Mollison (born 1928 in Tasmania, Australia) is a researcher, author, scientist, teacher and naturalist, and one of the foremost advocates for permaculture, or permanent agriculture. Following is a documentary on Mollison and his ideas.
Vandana Shiva: Monsanto Impoverishes Ecosystems, Farmers and Consumers
Posted on September 10, 2013 | No CommentsCorporate seed monopolies reduce ecosystem health, impoverish farmers, and cheat consumers health and nutrition, writes biodiversity campaigner Vandana Shiva. Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser found out the extent that Monsanto would go to maintain their monopoly in the anti-GMO documentary "David Versus Monsanto."
“Sustainable” Palm Oil Conference Condones Honduran Land Conflicts
Posted on August 7, 2013 | 2 CommentsInternational environmental and human rights campaigners condemn the 4th Latin American Palm Oil Conference to be held by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Honduras on 6th-8th August. The site of deadly conflicts over land rights with alarming impacts to ecosystems and communities, sustainably produced palm oil in this Central American country is impossible. The World Wildlife Fund among other sponsors, are charged with greenwashing and condoning human rights abuses.
Baja California: An “Earthly Paradise” in the Desert
Posted on July 10, 2013 | 5 CommentsBaja California, despite proximity to the US and recent rampant growth, remains a wild and untamed coastal desert. Behind the charming pueblitos and peaceful resorts lies a varied history where conquest and development have moved both slow and fast. Following a recent trip to the Gulf of California town of Loreto, this first in a series of articles attempts to define what makes the place special, as well as what the future holds for this (mostly) hidden resort region.
Urban Farming: Nature, Art, and Society Converge
Posted on June 30, 2013 | 5 CommentsUrban farmers and gardeners around the world transform abandoned lots into edible landscapes, improving human and ecological health as well as creating beautiful places. Richard Ingersoll surveys a myriad of concepts and projects from around Europe and the United States.
Vandana Shiva: Maintaining Biodiversity and the Seeds of Freedom
Posted on May 11, 2013 | 2 CommentsHistorically, farmers have stored, traded and shared choice seed from one season to the next. According to Dr. Vandana Shiva, this practice ended with the introduction of patented genetically engineered seeds. Saving seeds now exposes the farmer to costly fines and lawsuits for patent infringement and has resulted in many farmer suicides.
BioMilano: Italian Eco-Vision Grows 26-Storey Vertical Forest
Posted on January 15, 2013 | 2 CommentsBosco Verticale or Vertical Forest, the first phase of BioMilano, a re-envisioning of Milan, Italy, with an eye toward ecological urbanism, integrating tree and skyscraper, city and wild.
Santa Ana Mountains: Vestige of Wild Coastal Southern California
Posted on May 5, 2012 | No CommentsFollowing the footsteps of Willis E. Pequegnat, a biologist from the 1930s who explored the wild Santa Ana Mountains in Orange, Riverside, and San Diego Counties, this video field journal logs the wonders and threats to this thriving resource.
Sustainable Biofuels? From Agro-Fueled Land Conflicts to Algae
Posted on April 28, 2012 | 4 CommentsCan scientists engineer a biofuel that will replace the environmental and climate destroying and evermore expensive fossil fuels central to the functioning of our urbanized civilization? The answer is no and yes.
Bolivia: Indigenous Protest Can’t Stop Amazon Superhighway
Posted on August 28, 2011 | 5 CommentsPresident Evo Morales signed into law in 2017 that stripped protection from the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory, known as TIPNIS for its Spanish initials, opening it to highway construction and other development.
Destructive Progress: Brazil-Peru Transoceanic Highway
Posted on November 3, 2010 | 4 CommentsWith completion of the 3,400-mile Transoceanic Highway, the Amazonian state of Acre in Brazil now connects with the southern Pacific Coast of Peru, unleashing numerous impacts to the environment and indigenous people.
