Nature

You may remember a couple years ago the headlines that we have about ten years to bring our greenhouse emissions to zero or we'd pass irreversible milestones. If we start thawing permafrost that releases methane, we won't be able to stop it from releasing huge amounts that will augment the warming that caused its release. Many people misinterpret the prediction to say that we'll all die then. We won't all die at once. We'll only have locked in that the Earth's capacity to sustain life will irreversibly decrease. Since that capacity is around two billion and we're using fossil fuels to approach four times that amount, our population will collapse to well below two billion. But I'm posting this time about time, not collapse. If…

I had heard of plogging before John Lee Dumas, but hearing his transformation on my podcast to enjoy picking up garbage inspired me. Before trying, I wondered if I could make it one block, given New York's litter. Looking back I can see that temptation to analyze and plan to make me feel like I'm acting without doing anything. As with avoiding packaging, the solution was to act. Actually running and picking up litter developed my four rules as well as produced emotional reward beyond what I could have expected. My four rules: Cigarette butts and smaller are too numerous so I skip them.Anything more than a foot or two from my path, picking it up is optional.If no trash can is in sight, picking…

This morning I joined my regular Sunday group organized by my City Council to pick up litter. I pick up litter daily, but Sundays connect with others and spend more time. Most days I pick up maybe a dozen pieces. Today I filled three or four bags. Today is Easter too. Raised by two biological parents and one step-parent, each raised with different traditions, I painted a few Easter eggs growing up. Today's world means there's more plastic and litter to pick up than eggs. Sad. Anyway, walking through my neighborhood, trash bag in hand, often dropping to my knees and kneeling, I passed a big church on Sixth Avenue, just letting out its congregation around 12:30pm. They were in their Sunday best. I think…

I've been waking up a bit before 6am for the past few months, writing my manuscript with a writing workshop group that meets online that early. The sun rises soon after. That time used to be when birds chirped. The other day I heard one, maybe two birds chirping. Yes, I'm in the middle of New York City, but more birds used to chirp. Even pigeons seems scarce in Washington Square Park. I see few ducks or geese in the river. I see more rat traps than ever, in parks, at the bases of trees on tree-lined blocks. I think there are more rat traps because people eat on the street and throw out so much uneatened food and doof. I wonder if the poison…

I bet you care about nature more than people think you do. It pains you to hear about the coral, the wildfires, the extinctions, and you've read the headlines. You wish you could do more. You want to act, but you don't want to waste your time. It's not fair. I agree. We were born into a polluted world and a polluting culture. The scientists, educators, journalists, and politicians who created this situation are the ones now telling us to stop. WTF? They told us it was good to fly and buy disposable things. Now when we do, we're told to feel ashamed. It's not fair that the grocery store sells everything in packaging we have to throw away, that companies use toxic chemicals we…

"It's easy to shop at a farmers market in the city, but out here in the country, it's not so easy." That's what I felt a year ago at the beginning of the pandemic staying at my mom's house, a couple hours northwest of New York City. People said it to me all the time when I told them where I learned to shop. I said it too for years before my experiment avoiding packaged food. A couple towns away from my mom's house, some small farmers markets existed, but their web pages said the earliest started in May and it was March. The local supermarket would carry some local produce in the summer. It had a bulk section, but mainly carried dried fruit, nuts,…

Spring is here. Flowers are blooming. Buds are forming on branches. People are showing off the spring clothes they've waited months to show off. The parks are full. I'd guess about a third to half the people, depending on time of day, are carrying a plastic bag and other disposable stuff, often food and doof packaging. By noon, all the trash cans are overflowing with packaging. People blithely eat takeout in the park, which sounds lovely, except not one container or utensil is reusable. For a few minutes of pleasure, centuries of landfill waste. Hoping all the waste will reach a landfill is wishful thinking. The pictures on this post, I've used for many posts over the years. The amount of trash they showed for…

Speaking of Washington Square Park, I want to call attention to the children's hills in the south west corner. Everyone agrees kids benefit from playing in nature, like in woods, on trees, in rivers and oceans, and on grassy spaces. Notice anything wrong with this picture of that space? The kids look like they're having fun. The trees look like trees. Does the grass look a little too green? Does it end a little too suddenly in the foreground? How do they mow it around the poles and keep the hills? You probably can tell the green ground covering is plastic designed to look like grass. Kids benefit from nature. Plastic is not nature. Well, what do we do in a big city without enough…