Finding hope amid despair

Finding a path through despair, to hope... a great writer's gift to accomplish that journey:
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/30/rebecca-solnit-hope-in-the-dark/

From the article by Maria Popova:  "We lose hope, Solnit suggests, because we lose perspective — we lose sight of the “accretion of incremental, imperceptible changes” which constitute progress and which render our era dramatically different from the past, a contrast obscured by the undramatic nature of gradual transformation punctuated by occasional tumult."

please read this! ("This Changes Everything")

Haven't read this book, yet? (Naomi Klein's "This Changes Everything").  Wow -- this gets into the heart of things. Don't want to buy a copy? - Maybe because the  subject is too depressing? (She actually talks about all of that.) Well, then, I suggest just reading the text on pages 3,4, and 5 -- maybe while looking at a copy in a bookstore - or the library. If you read what she wrote there, and it doesn't "speak to you"...well, I'll be surprised. Highly recommended!

Climate change and environmental justice

Climate change and environmental justice

A conversation with Wake Forest University School of Divinity professor Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo, and Miles Silman, professor of biology at Wake Forest University about climate change:

Go to: http://fore.yale.edu/news/item/climate-change-and-environmental-justice/

Many of us seek simplicity

Many of us seek simplicity.

The actual richness of life, however

-          lies elsewhere → in complexity

Ecological awareness teaches me always

That stability is enhanced by complexity.

And I have learned that beauty is likewise

built by it.

So, what to make of our

…..perennial search for simplicity…?

Perhaps this is

-          a matter best illustrated by - maps.

Excellent maps often involve overlays

So I will attempt to understand

Complexity - by adding layers,

First layer being the “base-map” of everyday reality

Then more layers,

The characters found in the action

Their behavior

A little stormy weather

    -     thrown in for good measure

Then some

Random accidents

and I realize…

      -       simplicity is nowhere

to be found.

                                                                                   William P. Mueller

close to home, close to the heart

I grew up on and still live on the edge of the Menomonee River Valley in Milwaukee, once home to a huge complex of railroad yards, factories and a  mostly industrial landscape (I worked in one of those industries myself - a huge foundry). I played on the edge of the Valley - although we were strictly warned to stay away from the trains and the tracks. Now part of it has been reclaimed for people and nature. I've studied the birds in various parts of the Valley for a decade. There are not a great many species of birds present here in winter - it's mostly used by birds during migration. But it's a great place for a winter's day walk, though - in the wonderful Three Bridges Park ( see: http://www.menomoneevalley-fromthegroundup.org/three-bridges-park1.html  - the result of the efforts of many good people to create a space for nature and people in the middle of the city). Now it's also "looked after" by many people - especially the wonderful folks at the Urban Ecology Center ( see:
 http://urbanecologycenter.org/our-branches/menomonee-valley-from-the-ground-up.html ).

So the place still "calls" to me, albeit somewhat differently than it did when I was a boy.