Amygdaloids and Qeqertarsuaq: Good Days.
I climb the starboard ratlins and ease out onto the yard to unfurl the mains’l. My feet swing back and forth on a single footline. Working with my hands free, I am balanced on my stomach over the yard, making me wish I had a prehensile tail. The sail [...]
Lost in the Desert
When you are twenty, you go into the desert to find yourself. When you are seventy, you go to see what’s coming. South of Island in the Sky, north of the Needles and west of the Maze. The canyon lands of the west are desert. I spend the morning [...]
Environmental Messaging is Failing
There’s an old adage that says you should never be the first one to tell someone their baby is ugly. Yet, someone has to be first. The messaging of the environmental movement is failing. There, I said it. It’s just an observation. I know it sounds like a criticism, [...]
Sheep – A Good Day
It’s called the basement of time. I am eight miles and five-thousand feet down the South Kaibab trail at mid-day. The temperature hovers close to 105 °F. My knees ache, and my body is tired. There is a rest house on the trail at this point, but it’s at [...]
Sunrises and Sunsets
I am on a journey through the Southwest. Looking for a little solitude in the desert. The solitude is offset by my conversations with strangers. Where are you from? Isn’t the earth amazing? Which eventually leads to… How do you see the environment? Today, I met Ranger Pete. I [...]
Discovery of New Volcano in American Southwest
I am camped at sunset in the canyons of the Colorado River, surrounded by massive red cliffs, when I look up. It appears I am witnessing a geological event: the first new volcano in millions of years. Volcanoes typically suppress global warming by reflecting the sun's heat back into [...]
The Stuff We Carry
We all have a lot of stuff. Perhaps for evolutionary reasons, we are programmed to accumulate stuff. Maybe, the more stuff we have the more likely we are to survive? Now we even have storage warehouses, where we can store our extra stuff because we’ve run out of room. [...]
When the Last Tree Falls… Will Anyone Hear It?
I am heading from Portland to Coos Bay, Oregon. Having some extra time, I drive the back roads through what seem like endless verdant forests. The road winds through valleys next to streams, and the forests climb the hills and mountains to the ridgelines. It’s a good day. The [...]
Climate Change Is Real. So What?
Of course climate change is real. So what? Is this really helping? I’d say no. Part I: Given the appointment of climate deniers to key cabinet posts coupled with the rapid rollback of environmental regulations by the Trump Administration, it feels OK to be angry. Scott Pruitt, the new [...]