Kathleen O’Toole: Starlings (corrected version)
My mind suddenly shifts
to tally one week’s arithmetic of grief:
eighty children among the hundreds killed
in a fine-tuned cone of shrapnel
Video: Greta Thunberg says “How Dare You?”
Greta Thunberg has a message for world leaders at the United Nations this week: “We’ll be watching you.”
Scientists Name Top 100 Unusual And Endangered Birds
There are about 9,993 living species of birds known by scientists. A collaboration between scientists at Yale and the Zoological Society of London have analyzed all of them and ranked 100 bird species based on conservation status and how unusual they are compared to other birds.
Michael Simms: Hands
Every man who works with his hands
Has seen that look. Maybe we showed up
To patch the roof, service the furnace,
Or unclog the sewer…
Video: Paraíso
Three immigrant window cleaners risk their lives every day rappelling down some of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers. With spectacular cinematography, Paraíso reveals the beauty and danger of their job and what they see on the way down.
Video: The new political story that could change everything | George Monbiot
Drawing on findings from psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology, George Monbiot offers a new vision for society built around our fundamental capacity for altruism and cooperation.
Dawn Potter: A Listener Sends Six Letters to God, in Autumn
Last night, while I was at the piano,
my landlady pounded the butt end of a rusty musket
against my chamber door.
To all appearances, she hates my sonata.
Tom Engelhardt: On the Precipice
In an ongoing gesture of self-destruction, humanity has been tapping what might be thought of as Pyromaniacs, Incorporated, to run the world.
Sandra McPherson: Far Away in Time, the Senses Return to Me as I Identify with That Tree
The way the lightning-split
willow was tugged,
wandy and half still alive,
It refused to uncork.
Lynn Freehill-Maye, Phillip Pantuso: Return to Nature
Green burials go beyond not polluting or wasting. It’s about people needing and caring for land, conducting life-affirming activities there—including death.
Marc Jampole: Hiding the truth
For decades, the news media have been ignoring research that disproves their cherished myths.
Ziggy Edwards: Childish Thinking
When you badmouth the world and human beings
I sigh and nod like I’m wise instead of blessed.
Medea Benjamin: Should We Feed Hungry Children or the War Machine?
Our elected officials have chosen to prioritize the pursuit of military hegemony over the wellbeing of our people.
