Walter Bargen: Dogs of Beauty
Somewhere in some other place their kind are wild, meant for the verdant and exotic, and on the west slopes of the coastal range, near Palos Verdes, where the foothills … Continue reading
Mel Gurtov: While Rome (and Most Everywhere Else) Burns
The Trump administration is taking action, but in precisely the wrong direction. . The sky above Soda Bay, Calif. is seen on July 30, 2018 as the River Fire burns. … Continue reading
Michael Simms: The Garden and the Drone
We come to the garden because it is beautiful. Arborvitae, hydrangea, anemone— Even the names are beautiful. . The men who call themselves our leaders Seem far away. We feel … Continue reading
Sara Bir: A Brief History of the Feral Blackberry
The Himalayan blackberry was introduced to North America as a food crop. Like a Gremlin doused with water, it escaped its confinement and became almost impossible to eradicate. . Blackberries … Continue reading
Stacy Bannerman: Is Climate the Worst Casualty of War?
The money misspent on the Iraq War—a war for oil, let’s not forget— could have purchased the planetary conversion to renewable energy. Just sit with that a moment. . “The … Continue reading
Jessica Corbett: California Fires Are the Nightmare that Climate Scientists Long Predicted
Wildfires ravaging the state have “spawned bizarre pyrotechnics, from firenados to towering pyrocumulus clouds that evoke a nuclear detonation.” . Flames from the Carr Fire burn through trees and a … Continue reading
David Ades: The Storm’s Dark Edge
There is nothing to be seen in the sky: white, an unpainted canvas, it keeps its secrets to itself. Notice, though, the wind’s fierceness, the waves already crashing … Continue reading
Carolyne Whelan: Fire Walker
When the lights went out on Swinburne Street, little fox, you were a coruscating brilliance in our dark. My bike against the railing, I hovered— shitty guardian angel who would … Continue reading
John de Graaf: A California City That’s Taking Beauty Seriously
Vallejo is working on conserving open space and beautifying the city as part of a national campaign to unite Americans. Vallejo has been hit hard by poverty, unemployment, and drug … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: Turning 74 in a Failing World
Three Failing Experiments? Mine, America’s, and Humanity’s. There was a period in my later life when I used to say that, from the age of 20 to my late sixties, I … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: The Cedar Forest
There’s a cedar forest near where I live in the south of France, which sprawls across the slopes of a mountain otherwise covered in what the French call the garrigue. … Continue reading
David Korten: Who Represents Us When Our Political Parties Represent Only Corporations?
Our future depends on bridging the partisan divide that elevates corporate interests above our personal well-being. “Irrespective of where we fall on the political spectrum, a great many of us … Continue reading
Kieran Cooke: Ireland Spurns Fossil Fuel Investments
Ireland has decided to bring down the curtain on the Age of Coal by ending its fossil fuel investments. DUBLIN, 25 July, 2018 – Other countries talk about it, Ireland … Continue reading
Beth Copeland: Good Intentions
It’s not the bee’s fault, Daddy says, pulling the stinger from the tender flesh of my inner arm. Look, it’s dead. It didn’t mean any harm. The honeybee, no bigger than a … Continue reading
