Monopolizing outdoor air

Dear Europe, It’s been a lovely trip. We hiked in the Austrian Alps, swam in the Baltic sea, and enjoyed the joyful chaos of Fête de la Musique in Berlin. Despite these beguiling adventures, I remain puzzled. You seem to have given a full monopoly of clear...

Biosemiotic Ethics special issue of ZfS

I’m happy to announce that the Biosemiotic Ethics special issue in the Zeitschrift für Semiotik I co-edited with Morten Tønnessen and Jonathan Beever has come out. It’s got the great semiotician John Deeley’s last article in it he wrote before...

For an Earth Free of Tobacco Waste

Here’s a guest blog post I did on the US Action on Smoking and Health website for Earth Day, titled “For an Earth Free of Tobacco Waste.” This work came out of the World Health Organization (WHO) chapter I wrote in the forthcoming The Environmental...

Not My Problem

I’ve been seeing on social media a new meme, which I had already been thinking about for sometime. I found it compelling, because it is true: the virtue of solidarity is lost on Americans. Unlike a more communal society that is of the belief that we cannot truly...

Presentation at COLEF

Last Tuesday evening,  November 29, 2016, I had the honor to present at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF), in Tijuana, Mexico. Through UCSD’s Interdisciplinary Forum on Environmental Research supported by the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation...

Standing Rock

Well, I’m heading off to Standing Rock to spend Thanksgiving with the Native Americans of North America. The indigenous Water Protectors of Standing Rock have taken an unprecedented stand against the corporate interests of fossil fuel industries and their...

Philosophy of the City Conference

This week in San Francisco, I’ll be presenting at the Philosophy of the City Conference November 17-19 on November 17th at 4pm on “The Limits of the Automobile City.” My talk, alongside the “Extending the Land Ethic” National Endowment of...

An Obituary for Douglas Tompkins

Douglas Tompkins (1943-2015) was a mountaineer, Deep Ecologist, conservation activist, lover of nature, and textile entrepreneur, founder of Esprit and North Face. A footloose entrepreneur turned activist, after starting two global clothing brands, Tompkins renounced...

The Greening of Everyday Life

The Greening of Everyday Life (2016, Oxford) is a new volume edited by John M. Meyer and Jens M. Kersten. A international collection of essays, it originates from a highly productive and original 2014 Rachel Carson Center symposium by the same name. I’m happy to...

The Wood Wide Web

The Wood Wide Web is the term used to encapsulate the communication systems between trees in forests. Through the mycorrhiza (fungal networks) in the soil, trees trade and share nutrients. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8SORM4dYG8] Jennifer Frazer’s...