Nature

Is this image our culture in a nutshell: Sitting on a beach scrolling through social media of images of beaches, wishing we were there instead? IOW, not appreciating what we have, being led to consider it inadequate, being led to crave what we don't have, fear of missing out, missing nature around us, distracted by technology.

In February I took pictures of a Fiji water bottle littered after a few sips drunk, despite water fountains within a few steps. Someone paid to extract oil, refine it into plastic, use it to ship water---WATER!---around the world, so they could drink a few sips and pollute our world with the plastic. That post was Disgusting and totally unnecessary. Pure pollution, no benefit. Check it out if you want to vomit. The other day, I found a new record. Another Fiji bottle, this time with not even a few sips taken. the bottle was smaller, but the amount drunk less. To clarify, in case you can't tell from the picture, the lid has been open and some water consumed. No one can drink the…

I mostly post about lost nature, but here's a post on its resilience: a blue jay that visits my rooftop. I'm not a bird watcher, but who doesn't love colorful birds? Growing up in Philadelphia, I saw blue jays all the time. Blue birds were less common and disappeared over the course of my childhood. In Manhattan, pigeons and house sparrows comprise nearly all bird species. Sometimes I'll see a starling, hawk, or gull. As human population and consumption keeps overshooting what Earth can sustain, other species suffer. This blue jay doesn't wait around for me to take its picture so I only have a few quick shots. I'll post more if they come. As much as I wrote this post to celebrate a part…

Sometimes I wonder if I should stop posting my zero kilowatt-hour electric bills, but if I had had a role model I would have done it earlier. Someday some people will join. It's hardly extreme to do what every human being who ever lived did until a century ago and may still do. It's extreme to think, "well we live healthier than they did" and other myths and not care about hurting others. We need more role models, not more excuses, rationalizations, and justifications.

I've heard parents say about the environment "I want to be able to look my child in the eye and say 'I did my best.'" I think it means something darker than they mean, and that they know it, but won't acknowledge it consciously. I will. When do you say such a thing? Not when things are fine. If the problem is solved, you don't have to say something like this. So you say it when things are bad, but not just bad, as bad as they can get. If you think things will improve or aren't that bad, you don't have to say it. You say it when you, they, or both are at risk of dying. You say it when the aquifer or…