In This Issue • The Resolution Copper Mine • Revised General Plan For Red Rock Canyon State Park • The Lithium Industry In Imperial County • Permanently Protecting An 'Island In The Sky' • Groundwater & CA Sustainable Groundwater Management Act • Cooking With Sunshine • This Water Has Magic: A Poem By Christiana Saldana … Continue reading June 2023 – Latest
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August 2022 – Special Issue
INTRODUCTION • From the Editor: Renewable Solar Energy • Solar Photovoltaics In The Energy Transformation LARGE SCALE SOLAR FACILITIES • The Desert Is Alive : And It's Threatened • Scraped Earth And Desert Winds: Fugitive Dust • A Costly Omission: Carbon Sequestered in Soils • Solar Energy That Spares The Land LOCALLY GENERATED ENERGY • … Continue reading August 2022 – Special Issue
The Anthropocene
A Changed Planet by Jan Zalasiewicz, Martin J. Head, Colin N. Waters, Simon Turner, Mark Williams, John R. McNeill, Jaia Syvitski, Anthony Barnosky, Naomi Oreskes, and Peter Haff Anthropocene: when atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen spontaneously coined the term during a meeting of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme at Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2000, a … Continue reading The Anthropocene
Self-Devouring Serpents in the Anthropocene
Human Systems and Earth Systems Are One by Julia Adeney Thomas Rat snakes have died from eating their own tails. Suicide by self-devouring may seem preposterous, something no creature would do, but it happens, and not only with rat snakes. Our species too seems hell-bent on destroying ourselves and taking much of the web of … Continue reading Self-Devouring Serpents in the Anthropocene
Wildland Fires in the Anthropocene
A Personal Encounter by John Kiess During my twelve years as a professional wildland firefighter, events that have stuck with me are the passing away of fellow firefighters, either on the job or from health conditions as a result of the work we do. Firefighting is an inherently dangerous career field. With fire seasons being … Continue reading Wildland Fires in the Anthropocene
Overshoot and the Incredible Shrinking Planet
A Many-Faceted Problem by William E Rees, PhD, FRSC Setting the conceptual stage Let's start with a thought experiment. Suppose you and your close family and friends, perhaps 150 people in all, were confined to an isolated island - let's call it Esperanza - characterized by landscapes and soils that were representative of average arable … Continue reading Overshoot and the Incredible Shrinking Planet
Corporations and the environment
A Telephone Interview with Joel Bakan, March 16, 2023 by Birgitta Jansen Joel Bakan is an author, filmmaker, and a professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, with a special interest in the role that large corporations play in our social and political lives. He is a … Continue reading Corporations and the environment
A Planet Out of Balance
Reproductive Autonomy Is Fundamental to Conservation by Kirsten Stade Overconsumption has brought us the climate crisis, the Sixth Great Extinction, expanding desertification, and the depletion of the Colorado River and fresh water supplies across the globe. But it is humans, at this point eight billion of us, who are doing that consuming. It should not … Continue reading A Planet Out of Balance
Modest Proposals for an Ecological Economy
A New Paradigm is Needed by Joshua Farley, Professor, University of Vermont Economists in general want to improve human welfare. Mainstream economists claim welfare improvements are best achieved by maximizing the monetary value of what we consume. This requires allocating raw materials to the production of goods and services with the greatest value, then apportioning … Continue reading Modest Proposals for an Ecological Economy
We must do the Impossible
An Interview with Elizabeth May, leader of the Canadian Green Party by Birgitta Jensen Elizabeth, born and raised in the U.S., and moved to Nova Scotia with her parents in her teenage years. She has deep connections to both the U.S. and Canada and thus possesses considerable insight and knowledge of both cultures. She learned … Continue reading We must do the Impossible
Wellbeing and the Psychology of Consuming Less
What Are We Being Sold by Natasha Parker Since Veblen's1 observations in the 1890's that the leisure classes consumed conspicuously to impress their peers, consumption has become a culturally dominant means of seeking happiness, success, and the good life. But amid the current backdrop of the climate and ecological crisis, reducing individual consumption is going … Continue reading Wellbeing and the Psychology of Consuming Less