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Looking Up at Canyon Mountain, Southern Oregon
“The opposite of a truth is a falsehood. But the opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth.” (Niels Bohr)
When I was young I’d often climb Canyon Mountain above my home, look in all directions,
and witness the human hand written into the forested landscape.
Perhaps these experiences mingling culture and nature—
or perhaps having this contradiction watch over me as a child—
led me to embrace truth as paradox.
Recent Posts: Words
What is Environmental Analysis?: Take Climate Change, For Instance
First: what sorts of thoughts and feelings does the above image conjure in you? Taken from a recent New York Times article, it says far more than just the facts of global warming, no? This reminds us, from the outset, that environmental analysis is about facts and values, description and prescription, is and ought…which makes […]
Remembering Beagle Bailey (test post)
For those of you who did not know me or our family before spring 2014, you haven’t yet met Joy and Elise’s four-legged brother, Beagle Bailey, who would have turned 18 this summer! Beagle Bailey rode with me every day to work (in a bike trailer called, um, a Tail Wagon), and basically was my […]
On Big Words as Inspiration
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for? – Robert Browning Last year, Lewis & Clark’s Sustainability Council featured a Hot Topics series, which as you’ll see in the featured image covered art, biodiversity, climate, decent work, divestment, energy, environmental justice, living wages, and place-based learning…whew! My theory head […]
Fight, or Talk?…or Both??
This post introduces a recent publication, “Environmental engagement in troubled times: a manifesto” (2018) What to do in these troubled times in the U.S.? I’m a member of the Association for Environmental Studies & Sciences (AESS), a higher education organization, and a glance at its email list following the 2016 election provided an overwhelmingly consistent answer: resist! […]
Presenting Yourself Online
Now that I’m coming up on, um, about thirty years of publications it’s finally dawning on me that maybe no one knows what I’ve written because they don’t bump into it. So for the last month or so I’ve been mulling over my online presence, both for my sake and as a model for my […]
Sustainability Needs Development
Just last week I participated in the AESS conference in DC, and now in Ireland I have some time to reflect on it. I’m always interested in Big Words: the general concepts we find most meaningful. Without a doubt, the biggest Big Word in environmental studies today is sustainability: one would find it on posters, […]