Mary, thanks for being here. Yes, it’s stunningly crazy that those few greedy hands have left such a trail of destruction. Particularly at the Supreme Court level. Yet, I have to believe that this work on Substack, our ability to be in a group with @Janisse Ray and other environmental visionaries, can move mountains for the highest and best for all species.🌱
I read the NYT article and I also commented and read a good number of comments. Here is my response. We, each of us, can reduce our personal consumption by 10 percent in a year. See where that takes us. I think we will all be surprised by this attempt; we might give up a little convenience, but not comfort.
Perry, you are so good about reading and commenting. Thanks for bringing your NYT comment here. Ten percent is a good idea; as Ayana said - people don't like bans or sacrifice. I was hoping that the interview would cover What If We Get It Right but the interviewer kept trying to lead her down a path of "what emotional responses do we need for people to change behavior?" Ayana kept saying - it's not one emotion. I think that's why she ended up managing the interview.
Did you read the earlier article with Robin Wall Kimmerer?
If you have time, let me know what you think. Marchese interviewed Kimmerer very early on in his new NYT format. I couldn't figure out why he said he had "soft climate denial" after the depth of the Kimmerer interview.
I read the interview by David Marchese on Robin Wall Kimmerer. Marchese is just acting as the trained skeptic and was trying to trip her up. I say this as someone trained as a journalist, including on how to conduct interviews, and with 30 years of experience.
Remember, he is part of the Establishment Media, which has a stake in maintaining the growth and consumption economy, which is what Competitive Capitalism is all about.
I thought Kimmerer did a wonderful job, regardless. I Ioved this part:
“We have to think about more than our own species, that these liberatory benefits have come at the price of extinction of other species and extinctions of entire landscapes and biomes, and that’s a tragedy. Can we derive other ways of being that allow our species to flourish and our more-than-human relatives to flourish as well? I think we can. It’s a false dichotomy to say we could have human well-being or ecological flourishing.”
She also talked about Humility. It is too bad that Marchese, like so many, is full of Hubris.
Thank you for another inspiring and informative article. I take some solace in knowing that there are many of us, working on solutions and trying to live less destructively on this planet.
Patrick, thanks for reading and commenting. I agree. Some days, the work seems lonely. Then I hear the Carolina wren welcoming the day and the Pileated woodpeckers doing their work. And then, inevitably, I find someone else doing the work of explaining our incredible good fortune of living on a habitable planet. My latest find is Birding To Change the World by Trish O’Kane. I’ll be saying more on Matters of Kinship soon.🌱
This is a fabulous one, Katherine. I love the estuary metaphor, love you! Thank you for doing this important work. You are so good at it! Look forward to reading All We Can Save.
After I read Katharine’s profound and informative issue, I sat by the ocean’s edge.
I listened to the roar of the ocean, smelled her scent, and watched her magically go to and fro over my feet. I felt grateful for her beauty. I felt hopeful for nature and all those that are passionately committed to her survival. I’m grateful and enlightened. In prayer, Jo
This is so energizing. Thanks for a great summary. “All We Can Save” was my university’s common read in 2022, suggested by many (including me!). One of my main takeaways was that those of us born into privilege are often the ones throwing up hands and saying we don’t know what to do. Many others are already finding community and resilience — out of necessity. “It’s too late” is just the latest form of climate denialism.
Fascinating that the heart of that interview was edited out but I take heart knowing that many people (like me!) do listen to podcasts.
Kudos to your university…what a great choice. Julie, your takeaway about privilege is poignant. I wholeheartedly agree with what you mentioned in another comment — that despite the challenge, we are many and we cultivate the seeds for love to live here.
Thanks for all the information and references to things to read. I'll get to some of them, but the garden takes a lot of my time these days, as does some poetry writing of my own. Tomorrow's the last meeting of a 7 session Poetry OSHER course that I have taken every Spring for 5 years, and will as log as it is offered. We get a "challenge" (relative to a prompt, but always with an example poem from a professional poet, followed by the option to write something prompted by some aspect of the poem the teacher chooses. It happens that the subject of the poem I finished today (in the sense of finished for the class) is the history of climate science. I did a ton of internet research on the subject and ended up with about 15 pages of material for a short poem. The challenge was to write an anaphora - a poem where the first word of all the lines, or most of them, is the same word. I knew that I needed more structure to force me to whittle down to a short poem, so I also made it a sonnet. I'm not sure I can get it to stay properly formatted in this response. If it doesn't I'll post to my Substack, where I hae learned how to do that with an icon they have.
I just tried here and it didn't format right. If I can make it work on my account I'll post it there. There is still a ton of stuff I don't understand about Substack
Amazing that you mentioned Foote! Ayana Elizabeth Johnson would be proud. Do you think you can get this over to the Comments on my Ayana piece as a link?
Well, now I think it's done. It has happened to me before that I think I have posted something and later I go look and it isn't there. Should be there now. I hope.
Phil, yes to your garden and poetry. I think we met in the Comments on @Pádraig Ó Tuama . And I hear you on the learning curve on Substack. Some aspects seem so easy, and others I save my impolite language for:)
An exceedingly generous piece. Thank you 💛 – and yeah I was bummed NYT cut that part from the print edition. Also: love the shoutout to the magnificent Katharine Wilkinson! :)
Ayana, you are an inspiration. Thank you for your work. It’s a joy to be on the planet at the same time as you. Sending a bear hug from the mountains of Western North Carolina 🌱🌿💚
That is such a beautiful thought to do what love calls us to do. In a world where a fear mindset and having to hold tightly to things is so common, finding the courage to share, to not operate with a spirit of scarcity is a beautiful thing, unity.
I’m looking forward to reading the articles referenced. It’s quite horrifying that the fate of the planet is in so few hands.
Mary, thanks for being here. Yes, it’s stunningly crazy that those few greedy hands have left such a trail of destruction. Particularly at the Supreme Court level. Yet, I have to believe that this work on Substack, our ability to be in a group with @Janisse Ray and other environmental visionaries, can move mountains for the highest and best for all species.🌱
It is. On the other hand, they have greed and power and we have numbers and love.
we do!!
and in our work, we leave a trail — seeds of love.
I read the NYT article and I also commented and read a good number of comments. Here is my response. We, each of us, can reduce our personal consumption by 10 percent in a year. See where that takes us. I think we will all be surprised by this attempt; we might give up a little convenience, but not comfort.
Perry, you are so good about reading and commenting. Thanks for bringing your NYT comment here. Ten percent is a good idea; as Ayana said - people don't like bans or sacrifice. I was hoping that the interview would cover What If We Get It Right but the interviewer kept trying to lead her down a path of "what emotional responses do we need for people to change behavior?" Ayana kept saying - it's not one emotion. I think that's why she ended up managing the interview.
Did you read the earlier article with Robin Wall Kimmerer?
Not yet; I plan on getting to it soon.🕊🦜
If you have time, let me know what you think. Marchese interviewed Kimmerer very early on in his new NYT format. I couldn't figure out why he said he had "soft climate denial" after the depth of the Kimmerer interview.
I read the interview by David Marchese on Robin Wall Kimmerer. Marchese is just acting as the trained skeptic and was trying to trip her up. I say this as someone trained as a journalist, including on how to conduct interviews, and with 30 years of experience.
Remember, he is part of the Establishment Media, which has a stake in maintaining the growth and consumption economy, which is what Competitive Capitalism is all about.
I thought Kimmerer did a wonderful job, regardless. I Ioved this part:
“We have to think about more than our own species, that these liberatory benefits have come at the price of extinction of other species and extinctions of entire landscapes and biomes, and that’s a tragedy. Can we derive other ways of being that allow our species to flourish and our more-than-human relatives to flourish as well? I think we can. It’s a false dichotomy to say we could have human well-being or ecological flourishing.”
She also talked about Humility. It is too bad that Marchese, like so many, is full of Hubris.
Thanks, Perry. Your insights are helpful, especially with your background as a journalist.
Yes, Kimmerer did an epic job. She gets a really great line in ~ to the effect of, "My immediate reaction is that it's not about us"!
Love the humility part. Her new book comes out in July.
Exactly; we are only one species out of millions.
Thank you for another inspiring and informative article. I take some solace in knowing that there are many of us, working on solutions and trying to live less destructively on this planet.
Patrick, thanks for reading and commenting. I agree. Some days, the work seems lonely. Then I hear the Carolina wren welcoming the day and the Pileated woodpeckers doing their work. And then, inevitably, I find someone else doing the work of explaining our incredible good fortune of living on a habitable planet. My latest find is Birding To Change the World by Trish O’Kane. I’ll be saying more on Matters of Kinship soon.🌱
I very much like to think of this inflection point we are at as an estuary, a place of cooperative action.
Thank you. I think I need to explore that place of mystery more.🌱
Great information and practical steps. Thank you!
Thanks, Brian. I’m working on more blueprints for the tentatively titled: Just Birders: The Extraordinary J. Drew Lanham and Trish O’Kane.
How amazing to meet you and hear your writing on @Elena Brower ‘s virtual tea time. 🌱
This is a fabulous one, Katherine. I love the estuary metaphor, love you! Thank you for doing this important work. You are so good at it! Look forward to reading All We Can Save.
thank you for your care and research. you've taught me so much here, Kin.
thank you for the decade. as you said, what a difference ten years can make.🌱
a decade!
After I read Katharine’s profound and informative issue, I sat by the ocean’s edge.
I listened to the roar of the ocean, smelled her scent, and watched her magically go to and fro over my feet. I felt grateful for her beauty. I felt hopeful for nature and all those that are passionately committed to her survival. I’m grateful and enlightened. In prayer, Jo
Jo, I'm glad you are at the beach. Wonderful. 🦋
This is so energizing. Thanks for a great summary. “All We Can Save” was my university’s common read in 2022, suggested by many (including me!). One of my main takeaways was that those of us born into privilege are often the ones throwing up hands and saying we don’t know what to do. Many others are already finding community and resilience — out of necessity. “It’s too late” is just the latest form of climate denialism.
Fascinating that the heart of that interview was edited out but I take heart knowing that many people (like me!) do listen to podcasts.
Kudos to your university…what a great choice. Julie, your takeaway about privilege is poignant. I wholeheartedly agree with what you mentioned in another comment — that despite the challenge, we are many and we cultivate the seeds for love to live here.
Everyone is welcome, everyone has a role to play, and we are all so needed. 💚
amen. 🌱
Katherine,
Thanks for all the information and references to things to read. I'll get to some of them, but the garden takes a lot of my time these days, as does some poetry writing of my own. Tomorrow's the last meeting of a 7 session Poetry OSHER course that I have taken every Spring for 5 years, and will as log as it is offered. We get a "challenge" (relative to a prompt, but always with an example poem from a professional poet, followed by the option to write something prompted by some aspect of the poem the teacher chooses. It happens that the subject of the poem I finished today (in the sense of finished for the class) is the history of climate science. I did a ton of internet research on the subject and ended up with about 15 pages of material for a short poem. The challenge was to write an anaphora - a poem where the first word of all the lines, or most of them, is the same word. I knew that I needed more structure to force me to whittle down to a short poem, so I also made it a sonnet. I'm not sure I can get it to stay properly formatted in this response. If it doesn't I'll post to my Substack, where I hae learned how to do that with an icon they have.
I just tried here and it didn't format right. If I can make it work on my account I'll post it there. There is still a ton of stuff I don't understand about Substack
Phil
Done.
Amazing that you mentioned Foote! Ayana Elizabeth Johnson would be proud. Do you think you can get this over to the Comments on my Ayana piece as a link?
I'll see. At this point I have no idea how to do it, but I'll give it a shot.
Well, now I think it's done. It has happened to me before that I think I have posted something and later I go look and it isn't there. Should be there now. I hope.
Phil, yes to your garden and poetry. I think we met in the Comments on @Pádraig Ó Tuama . And I hear you on the learning curve on Substack. Some aspects seem so easy, and others I save my impolite language for:)
An exceedingly generous piece. Thank you 💛 – and yeah I was bummed NYT cut that part from the print edition. Also: love the shoutout to the magnificent Katharine Wilkinson! :)
Ayana, you are an inspiration. Thank you for your work. It’s a joy to be on the planet at the same time as you. Sending a bear hug from the mountains of Western North Carolina 🌱🌿💚
That is such a beautiful thought to do what love calls us to do. In a world where a fear mindset and having to hold tightly to things is so common, finding the courage to share, to not operate with a spirit of scarcity is a beautiful thing, unity.
This is taking responsibility 🌹 thank you
Gosh, thank you for saying that. in kinship, Katharine
Such a good one
thanks for your help🌱
Katherine asked me to post a link to a poem I finished recently. We'll see it this does it. https://philipwbush.substack.com/p/climate-science-history?r=3d8d8
You did it!!🌱
This is so helpful, Katharine. All good work is rooted in Love.
As is yours…so grounded in love. I feel your good energy across our mountains and through the microseasons.🌱
Thank you, Katharine 💚🌿