Eugene Weekly Letter June 2021
Revised Letter to editor, June 25, 2021 It is good to be able to meet people in person again, to go many places without a mask, to feel more relaxed after receiving a Covid vaccination. However, it is disappointing that the lessons of lock downs have not been learned. Now, instead of prioritizing our health […]
Eugene Weekly letter July 2022
To the editor of the Eugene Weekly : After another heat dome over the Pacific Northwest, combined with the continuation of the abnormal heat waves of much of the US and western Europe, can anyone deny global heating has arrived full force? And these extremes are but a forerunner of what has yet to come […]
Email to Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd presents the best explanation of the current existential predicament facing the world. He discusses the physical realities created by the use of fossil fuels and the exponential growth in their use. He also understands the reasons for the inability of most people, including world leaders, to act on the impending collapse of civilization […]
Ideas about Forests in Lane County
The Idea of the Forest : German and American Perspectives on the Culture and Politics of Trees was a seminar presented by the German Studies Program of the University of Oregon, April 1992. During the many trips I took between my parents’ home in Portland and my student digs in Berkeley, I crossed the Cascade […]
Reliance on Technology to Solve Climate Change
The Problems of Reliance on Technology to Solve Climate Change–June 2021 We humans are directly related to climate change through the knowledge of the ways that atmospheric matter and energy have been altered by the pollution created by the application of modern technology. This relationship is primarily understood by scientists and technologist. Because scientists understand these […]
Questions about your place in the world
Class in Geographic Landscapes in the late 1980s
Major Levels of Environmental Concerns
Five levels of environmental awareness and concern Accept that there are major environmental problems on a worldwide scale. (Global warming, fires, floods– life experience) Accept that humans have caused many of those problems (Evidence of relationships between pollution and human actions. Natural History) […]
Division of America into Metropolitan Areas of Politics, Economy and Rural Areas of Resources
Population Changes in the USA: 1980-1985 Abstract: Population estimates for July 1, 1985, when mapped, show that between 1980 and 1985 many Americans moved long distances in response to changed national and worldwide economic conditions. Most metropolitan areas continued to attract migrants, especially to central cities, outer suburbs, and exurbs. Resource dependent areas such as […]
Jobs and Growth vs. Earth’s Ecology
At the level of microeconomics, “jobs, jobs, jobs” is most important to the middle and working classes. At the level of macroeconomics, “growth, growth, growth” is most important to the supporters of capitalism. And at the level of Earth’s ecology and evolution, “sustainability, sustainability, sustainability” is most important to all life on Earth. Concern with […]
Thoughts on Earth Day 2021
Thoughts on Earth Day. Ocean Vuong in his extraordinary novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” wrote of the American Mythos that “something is only valuable once we have tamed it or conquered it or dominated it.” I find this observation extremely cogent on Earth Day. Since the first Earth Day, fifty years ago, we have […]