Toads In The Road
by Roderick James The time of year is approaching when the creature known to science as Bufo bufo will be awakening from its solitary winter slumber to go in search of a mate. This annual event is one of the less well-known candidates for First Sign of Spring, beginning in southern England about the middle […]
The Gift Of ‘Seeing Ourselves As Others See Us*’ by Judy McDowell
Once upon a time, on the planet Earth, some school children arrived from the planet Pop. They were on a trip to Earth to see what it was like, and to see what good and bad points its inhabitants had. They had been asked to investigate and make notes of things they thought were being […]
Why Should We Care About The Environment? by Jamie Woodhouse
From the Sentience page on You Tube of Graham Bessellieu by kind permission of Graham Nearly everyone cares about the environment, even if most people still don’t care enough. As well as asking “do we care?” it’s also important to ask ourselves why we care about the environment. Our answers might determine its future and ours. One way of thinking this […]
A Flight Of Fancy? by Richard South
A number of years ago I looked out of the window and thought I was ‘seeing things’. There, hovering by a hanging basket, was what appeared to be the minutest hummingbird. More than surprising, as hummingbirds don’t occur in the wild in Europe, let alone in England. I didn’t get a long or close look before […]
Left Brain Or Right Brain: Reacting To The Climate Crisis by Verdura
Is your first reaction to another news story about the Climate Crisis to emulate the subject of Munch’s Scream? Science now tells us that there is no meaningful division between the left and right hemispheres of our brain, between analytical and creative/emotional. And yet the idea persists, at least as a metaphor. We all know […]
Hot Off The Press, July 2021
The Climate Crisis Is a Call to Action. These 5 Steps Helped Me Figure Out How to Be of Use BY KATHARINE WILKINSON JULY 19, 2021 Dr. Katharine Wilkinson is an author, teacher, co-founder of The All We Can Save Project, and co-host of the podcast A Matter of Degrees. Her books on climate include All We Can Save, The Drawdown Review, Drawdown, […]
How Green Was My Wagner? by Clare Colvin
That you can love the music while disliking the man is a maxim more often applied to Richard Wagner than to any other great composer. His life was a restless journey of crisis, quarrels and betrayals as he forged ahead in a new musical direction, rejecting the grand Italianate arias of 19th century opera. Wives, […]
Burping Cows And Charcoal Biscuits by Ethan Hawes and Laura Sykes
Many years go by (I am now 72). I, like all of us, became concerned about the climate crisis, ozone layer etc. An important factor, apparently, is methane and other gases burped by cows. Last summer, I had a sudden ‘Eureka’ moment. I woke up at 2 a.m., convinced that I had come up with […]
A Field’s Eye View by Judy McDowell
Hi. I’m a field. Green and muddy. I’m quite down-trodden actually, because this year a herd of cows lives here. So, the lovely grass that covered me in early spring has become a bit flattened and in places blended into the mire. Sometimes my grass grows quite well, and I get left in peace. That’s […]
Hot Off The Press – May 2021
Men looking at ticker tape in broker’s office: “The Golden House” by Charles Dudley Warner, Harper’s magazine, (Sept. 1894) “Seaspiracy” You may have seen the Netflix documentary ‘Seaspiracy‘ about the environmental damage done by the deep sea fishing industry, which premiered in March. “24,000 FISHERIES WORKERS DIE ON THE JOB PER YEAR. $35 BILLION IN […]
