Terrain.org Blog

New Terrain.org Blog at blog.terrain.org

2009-10-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Please join us at the new Terrain.org Blog at http://blog.terrain.org.

This blog will no longer be used other than to direct visitors to our new blog.

Thank you for your support!

Guest Blog: The Contents of the Bags: A Review of Coming in Hot

2009-09-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer McStotts

When the draft for Vietnam was in full swing, my father volunteered not because he believed in the war or lusted for battle, but because he couldn’t avoid the draft. He knew if he volunteered, he would get a better assignment, and if he survived, his life afterward would be more stable. A risky reason to enlist, but it is also common thinking among women who serve: the desire for training, for education, for opportunity and stability. Much like many women who serve today, his enlistment launched three decades of silence in his family. The first time I remember him mentioning Vietnam was in my late teens. We were in twining lines waiting for flu shots, staying together until we were divided, men to the left, women to the right. He stood just off my shoulder, and as we neared the split, he asked, “Are you squeamish about needles?”

I chuckled. “No, are you?”

To my surprise he gave the smallest shudder and said, as our lines split apart, “I’ve put parts into body bags that you couldn’t even tell were once a person, but for some reason needles still give me the creeps.”

He didn’t speak of his service even as I considered joining myself, except to say that a commission was better than enlistment and that serving as a woman was not easy. Choosing to remain a civilian isn’t something I regret; in fact, it is a luxury for which I am thankful, but it was pressing on my mind as I sat down, Saturday evening in Tucson, Ariz., for the performance of Coming in Hot.

The stageplay is an adaptation of selections from the Kore Press anthology, Powder: Writing by Women in the Military, from Vietnam to Iraq, which collects the work of nineteen women who served in the U.S. military in a variety of roles. Lisa Bowden and Shannon Cain, the co-editors, admit that they “went into the project with the idea that this work would contribute to the chorus of opposition to the war in Iraq . . . We saw immediately the necessity of setting aside any bias and agenda.” It was, nonetheless, this agenda, bias, and perspective that made me wonder if the adapted work would be solely anti-war, primarily a piece of activism, especially given that the work was produced by Kore Press and directed by Bowden.

What the audience witnessed was a well-balanced collection of monologues composed into a one-woman show featuring Jeanmarie Simpson (original score by accompanist Vicki Brown on strings and pedals, with recorded voice talents of Donald Paul Stockton and Kaylene Torregrossa). Before I go any further, I would like to applaud Simpson. While her performance wasn’t flawless, she was also presented with a nearly impossible task in portraying 14 distinct characters in 80 minutes, without costume change; she did so successfully — laudably — using her voice, her mannerisms, and her versatility as an actress, but at times the variety of accents necessary to distinguish so many women became less convincing.

It is troubling that the adaption and direction called for Simpson to do so in the first place. The message or point of the play could have been narrowed, refined, or, in the alternative, the number of monologues could have been reduced (19 contributions became 14 characters, and an even greater number of segments given the recurring appearance of Charlotte Brock’s character in Mortuary Affairs). Characters could have been conflated without much loss of narrative effect and without forcing Simpson to stretch to distinguish them; as one audience member said immediately after the performance, “There were too many stories. It was too much, and it didn’t say enough.”

That said, despite missed light cues, despite a few stuttered lines and awkward moments involving her blocking, Simpson brought life to characters within the simplicity of an otherwise stark production. The set consisted only of one chair and one table — more of an operating table, clinical and spare — which was primarily used for the Mortuary Affairs scenes in which Brock’s character stood over it as if looking down on a body. The lighting consisted of only a few overhead fixtures at various angles with the exception of one water effect and one flashlight held by a crew member. What felt strange, to me, was the balance the director struck between the one-woman show format — meant to emphasize character and message — and the use of recorded voice segments to supplement Simpson’s work. In addition, it was confusing that at first the recorded voices were only used for the male voice of a boot camp instructor, then a female voice for the character Simpson was portraying silently on stage, and finally that same female voice switched to a male role. While I don’t agree with one audience member’s assessment that it would have been better to focus on a very small number of stories — four being the number she mentioned — it did feel inconsistent to rely on the one-actor model while supplementing and distracting from her performance in a variety of ways.

The original score by Vicki Brown was a perfect accompaniment to the monologues. Brown used the same themes and structure each time Simpson returned to the recurring character of Charlotte Brock in the mortuary. At other times, her music set the heartbeat of the scene, calling its pace; at every moment, she took the pain and the challenge of Brock’s writing (and Simpson’s portrayal) to a higher level.

These recurring scenes pulled me in the most and made me think — again, as I often have before — of my father’s offhand comment. “I’ve put parts into body bags that you couldn’t even tell were once a person.” Brock says something very similar about “the contents of the bags” that Mortuary Affairs handled, especially in one harrowing scene in which the deceased is little more than “a head, a hand, and an arm.”

What Simpson, Bowden, and Cain attempted to do in the adaptation and performance was no easy task — to tell these stories and to grant these women their individual voices when their silence has been so pervasive. What perhaps made the sections by Brock so powerful was that she, too, was trying to give someone a voice, both herself in the world in which she found herself surrounded, but also the dead who lay upon that table.

About the Blogger

Jennifer McStotts is the daughter, niece, and ex-wife of United States Marines, as well as a second-year MFA student in creative nonfiction. Her work has been published in Future Anterior, in International Journal of Heritage Studies, and by Preservation Books.

Terrain.org Issue Launch & Reading Tonight!

2009-09-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments, a Tucson-based online journal that examines the interface between the built and natural environments, is holding its first-ever issue launch and reading tonight!

8 p.m. : University of Arizona Poetry Center : Tucson

This celebration of the “Borders & Bridges” issue (No. 24) features readings by contributors Christopher Cokinos (Hope is the Thing with Feathers and The Fallen Sky), Pamela Uschuk (Crazy Love), Deborah Fries (Various Modes of Departure), and headlining artist David Rothenberg. It will take place on September 24, at 8 p.m., at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson.

David Rothenberg is a philosopher, musician, and the author of Why Birds Sing, Sudden Music, Blue Cliff Record, Hand’s End, and Always the Mountains. His articles have appeared in Parabola, Orion, The Nation, Wired, Dwell, Kyoto Journal, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and Sierra. Rothenberg is also a composer and jazz clarinetist, and he has seven CDs out under his own name, including On the Cliffs of the Heart, named one of the top ten CDs by Jazziz Magazine in 1995. His latest book is Thousand Mile Song, about making music with whales. Rothenberg is professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Agenda

Welcome, Issue Overview, Contributor and Editor/Board Callouts (in audience), and First Reader Introductions - Simmons Buntin
Pamela Uschuk (poetry) - 8 minutes
Christopher Cokinos (nonfiction) - 8 minutes
Deborah Fries (poetry) - 8 minutes
Introduction of David Rothenberg - Kieran Suckling, Center for Biological Diversity
David Rothenberg (music and prose) - 20-25 minutes
Refreshments and book signings (UA Bookstore will sell books)

Mark your calendars and please join us for this free and fun event! For more information, view www.terrain.org

Terrain.org Issue No. 24 Now Live!

2009-09-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments (www.terrain.org) is pleased to announce the launch of Issue No. 24: Borders & Bridges.

Our largest issue yet, interactive contributions include a guest editorial by U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Agritopia as the UnSprawl case study, a long lost interview with poet A. R. Ammons, new poetry features (translations and our first online chapbook, with audio), essays by Christopher Cokinos and Mark Tredinnick, articles on the silence of owls and severing the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, plus new fiction, poetry, nonfiction, reviews, and more.

Check it out now at www.terrain.org — and be sure to add to the conversation with Terrain.org’s new commenting tool for contributions. And then join us at 8 p.m. on September 24^th at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson for the Issue Launch & Reading, featuring David Rothenberg, Pamela Uschuk, Christopher Cokinos, and Deborah Fries.

Specifically, Issue No. 24 includes:

Columns

Guest editorial by Gabrielle Giffords, U.S. Representative, Arizona’s 8^th Congressional District : Solar is the Bridge to Our Future
Columns by regular contributors Simmons Buntin, Deborah Fries, David Rothenberg (with image gallery), and Lauret Savoy

Interview

Philip Fried interviews poet A. R. Ammons (1926-2001); an interview dating back to 1980 yet as timely today as it was 29 years ago

UnSprawl Case Study

Agritopia in Gilbert, Arizona — Crafted with a sort of evangelical "New Ruralism," the 166-acre Agritopia neighborhood east of Phoenix mixes gardens, pastures, orchards, restaurants, lush trails, and more with historically inspired homes designed to bring neighbors together.

Essays

“Night at the World’s Largest Atomic Cannon” by Christopher Cokinos, with audio
“Body Exposed in the Golden Wind” by Florence Caplow
“Positioning” by J. David Bell
“Lee’s Ferry” by Ben Quick
“Mustering the Sky” by Mark Tredinnick

Articles

“To Wit, to Woo: The Silence of Owls” by Kathryn Miles
“Ken Wu and the Fight for Canada’s Remaining Pacific Coast Old-Growth,” with online slideshow, by Joan Maloof and Rick Maloof
“A Hole in Time” by John Lane
“A Region of Wounds: Severing the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands” by Tom Leskiw

ARTerrain Gallery

Four series of impromptu sculptures-in-the-wild and studio sculptures by R. L. Croft

Poetry

Borderland Translations: Tedi Lopéz Mills, translated by Wendy Burk — poems in English and Spanish with audio
God, Seed: Online chapbook of poetry and images by Rebecca Foust and Lorna Stevens, with audio
Other poetry (and audio, too) by Pamela Uschuk, Jessica Weintraub, Polly Brown, Linda Parsons Marion, Jenn Blair, Laura Sobbot Ross, J. P. Dancing Bear, Beth Winegarner, Peter Huggins, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, George Moore, Eva Hooker, Scott Edward Anderson, Alison Hawthorne Deming, William Keener, Brett Foster, Thorpe Moeckel, Joe Wilkins, and Sue Swartz

Fiction

“The Hank Williams Dialogues” by Andrew Wingfield
“The Garden” by Jaren Watson
“Stones” by Jeffrey Stevenson

Reviews of…

A Conservationist Manifesto by Scott Russell Sanders
The Trouble with Black Boys and Other Reflections on Race, Equity, and the Future of Public Education by Pedro A. Noguera
Unexpected Light, poems by C. E. Chaffin
Crazy Love: New Poems by Pamela Uschuk

Terrain.org Issue No. 24 Launching Soon!

2009-09-11T18:25:00.001-07:00

The next issue of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments will launch by September 21. With the theme of "Borders & Bridges," it's another outstanding issue featuring, among others:

A long interview by Philip Fried with the poet A. R. Ammons
Essays on the world's largest atomic cannon, suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge, traveling by GPS, being a single father in the West, and the Australian pastoral
Articles on the sudden increase in daytime owl sightings, Ken Wu and the fight for Canada's remaining Pacific Coast old-growth (with online slideshow), archaeology in South Carolina, and U.S.-Mexico border woes
Our most comprehensive poetry issue yet, featuring our first online chapbook (poems and images), our first translations (Wendy Burk translates Tedi Lopez Mills), and poetry by Pamela Uschuk, Alison Hawthorne Deming, J. P. Dancing Bear, Peter Huggins, Jessica Weintraub, and many others
Fiction by Andrew Wingfield, Jaren Watson, and Jeffrey Stevenson
And much more!

So tune in, and stay tuned, at http://www.terrain.org.

Terrain.org Issue Launch & Reading : Sept. 24 in Tucson

2009-08-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

This celebration of the “Borders & Bridges” issue (No. 24) features readings by contributors Christopher Cokinos (Hope is the Thing with Feathers and The Fallen Sky), Pamela Uschuk (Crazy Love), Deborah Fries (Various Modes of Departure), and headlining artist David Rothenberg. It will take place on September 24, at 8 p.m., at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson.

David Rothenberg is a philosopher, musician, and the author of Why Birds Sing, Sudden Music, Blue Cliff Record, Hand’s End, and Always the Mountains. His articles have appeared in Parabola, Orion, The Nation, Wired, Dwell, Kyoto Journal, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and Sierra. Rothenberg is also a composer and jazz clarinetist, and he has seven CDs out under his own name, including On the Cliffs of the Heart, named one of the top ten CDs by Jazziz Magazine in 1995. His latest book is Thousand Mile Song, about making music with whales. Rothenberg is professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Agenda

Welcome, Issue Overview, Contributor and Editor/Board Callouts (in audience), and First Reader Introductions - Simmons Buntin
Pamela Uschuk (poetry) - 8 minutes
Christopher Cokinos (nonfiction) - 8 minutes
Deborah Fries (poetry) - 8 minutes
Introduction of David Rothenberg - Kieran Suckling, Center for Biological Diversity
David Rothenberg (music and prose) - 20-25 minutes
Refreshments and book signings (UA Bookstore will sell books)

Mark your calendars and please join us for this free and fun event! For more information, view www.terrain.org or contact Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin at contact1@terrain.org.

Guest Blog: Aldo Leopold and the Roots of Environmental Ethics

2009-07-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

By Joshua David Bellin

From June 22 to July 17, I was one of 25 college and university faculty to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute on Aldo Leopold. Titled “‘A Fierce Green Fire at 100’: Aldo Leopold and the Roots of Environmental Ethics,” the institute commemorated the 100-year anniversary of Leopold’s arrival in Arizona to take up his first position with the United States Forest Service. During the course of the four weeks, we heard from experts in the field; traveled to locations Leopold visited during his time in the Southwest; discussed and debated Leopold’s legacy in the disciplines of environmental ethics, wildlife ecology, conservation biology, and environmental literature; and (occasionally) unwound over a few beers. It was an exhausting, invigorating, exhilarating experience, one that taught me loads about Leopold and, more importantly, about the distance we have yet to travel to approach the ideal he voiced sixty years ago in “The Land Ethic,” his signature essay from A Sand County Almanac (1949): “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Aldo Leopold

The institute took place in Prescott, Arizona (pronounced like British “waistcoat”), a small town that, at an elevation of 5,300 feet, provides a summertime refuge from the brutal heat of Phoenix. “Everybody’s Hometown,” banners on lampposts announce; the ubiquitous ravens who cackle imperiously from atop these perches seem to agree. The former state capitol of Arizona, Prescott now offers mostly tourist attractions, including remnants of a once-famous Whiskey Row, plenty of restaurants and antique shops, and (so they say) the world’s oldest rodeo. July is monsoon season, when moisture from the Sea of Cortez gets sucked up into the sky and dumped on the land in storms of amazing suddenness and ferocity. West of town Thumb Butte, haven for nesting peregrines, floats in the blue distance. Our accommodations were provided by Prescott College, an experimental school founded in the 1960s that offers a robust environmental curriculum, recycled granite in the bathrooms, herds of wild javelinas wandering the alleyways between dorms, and neither grades nor credits. Our main classroom, in the Sharlot Hall regional history museum, was an unfinished cement studio space with a horrendous echo and squealing chairs; considering that the museum now faces the loss of all state funding due to Arizona’s budget crisis, though, the director and staff were incredibly generous in permitting us to take over their grounds for a month.

The institute’s participants were a diverse group, both regionally and by discipline. Philosophers were particularly well represented (all of them, unlike me, sporting enviable heads of hair; maybe philosophical reflection encourages follicle retention). But there were also faculty from my own disciplines of Literature and American Studies, as well as from Biology, Religious Studies, Political Science, Women’s Studies, and even, in the case of a woman who teaches in Hawaii, Dance. The disciplinary diversity, unfortunately, wasn’t matched by much visible ethnic diversity, though one woman did tell me she’s part-Cherokee. Inevitably, our discussions turned to issues of environmental justice, something Leopold, surrounded though he was by Native and Hispanic populations, barely touched on, and something our own ethnic makeup suggested still needs to be vigorously addressed. We also talked about hunting — another Leopold passion that the vegetarians in the group, myself included, wrestled mightily to understand as a form of love for the wild — as well as about the question of Leopold’s radicalism (or lack thereof), the applicability of his land ethic to the global-scale environmental crises we now face, the proliferation of land ethics in such contemporary settings as urban gardens and the slow foods movement, and much more. The faculty who steered us through these subjects represented the cream of the Leopold crop: biographer Curt Meine, a cheerful and energetic soul who offered me an impromptu lesson in reading land health during an interminable bus ride to Leopold’s rookie post of Springerville, Arizona; Julianne Newton, whose own biography of Leopold emphasizes the development of his ecological thinking; J. Baird Callicott, the dean of environmental ethics, who almost single-handedly put Leopold on the map for philosophers initially inclined to dismiss him as a mere government functionary unworthy of joining their arcane brotherhood; and in the final week, author Scott Russell Sanders, whose writings, including his recent, marvelous A Conservationist Manifesto (reviewed in the forthcoming issue of Terrain.org), have earned him a spot in the Leopold tradition of environmentalist philosophy and prophecy. By month’s end, all of us had designed or retooled syllabi that we’ll be taking home to our own campuses, as well as making publicly available on the website of the Institute for Humanities Research at Arizona State University. If in so doing we can spread the gospel of Leopold to as wide and diverse an audience as possible, the institute will have served its purpose.

I’ve always respected Leopold as both a thinker and writer, but the institute gave me a greater appreciation both for the quality of his ideas and for the lengthy process by which he achieved their full flowering. When he first arrived in the Southwest, Leopold was a faithful disciple of the Progressive-era utilitarianism preached by the head of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, who saw timber as a “crop” to be managed solely for commercial purposes. Only gradually, over decades of observation, reflection, communication with leaders in the emerging field of ecology, object lessons in the United States and abroad, and more than his fair share of mistakes and missteps, did Leopold emerge as the revolutionary thinker who emphasized the need for humans to live harmoniously with the natural world, to reject economic profit as the sole measure of the land’s value, to view the biota as a unified whole with which humans should tamper only reluctantly, and to understand ourselves as a part of that unity, linked to the land in material, historical, ethical, and spiritual ways. The Southwest proved a fertile starting-point for Leopold’s development, his tutorship in the region’s fragile ecosystems making him particularly alert to the human impact on the land. It was also in the Southwest that the seeds were sown for his most dramatic about-face: his revolution from advocate of predator eradication to defender of wolves and grizzlies as essential members of the land community. In a stunning confessional from his most famous short essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” Leopold recounts the epiphany he experienced upon the downing of a mother wolf:

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes — something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

Leopold exaggerates and compresses his revelation here; though a letter has recently surfaced proving that he did indeed shoot two timber wolves during his first year in Arizona, it would be decades before he seriously reconsidered the wisdom of predator-eradication programs. (Indeed, in the letter itself, he laments not the death of the wolves but the loss of his pipe.) But as Scott Sanders pointed out, the fact that Leopold retells this incident in a way that isn’t literally true enables him to evoke its deeper truth: the need for each of us to see the land as a living whole, worthy of our love and respect. In this sense, Leopold provides a powerful example for students and for all of us who struggle to meet the environmental challenges of our time: rather than assuming that he knew what was best for the earth, he allowed that far older and wiser teacher to instruct him in its ways.

In Leopold’s essay “Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest,” written in 1923 but unpublished until 1979, some 30 years after his death, he places the American experiment in its historical context and finds occasion for judgment and regret: “Five races — five cultures — have flourished here. We may truthfully say of our four predecessors that they left the earth alive, undamaged. Is it possibly a proper question for us to consider what the sixth shall say about us?” I hold this question in my mind as I return to my home to teach, to raise my children, and to work for the restoration and revitalization of the land.

Joshua David Bellin with his children at the Grand Canyon, a not-too-far drive from Prescott, Arizona.

About the Blogger

Joshua David Bellin teaches American, Native American, and Environmental Literature at La Roche College in Pittsburgh. Having published three scholarly books and numerous articles in these fields, he has recently taken a break from academic writing to focus on fiction and creative nonfiction. Under the pen name of J. David Bell, he has published in such periodicals as Word Catalyst, SNReview, Gander Press Review, Queen City Review, and the upcoming issue of Terrain.org.

Received: Strategy for Sustainability

2009-07-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org recently received:

Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto
by Adam Werbach
Harvard Business Press

From Harvard Business Press:

One June 1st, General Motors and Citibank were kicked off the Down Jones stock index. Just five years ago, we thought that these companies -- and other institutions like Circuit City and Lehman Brothers -- were the heart and soul of American capitalism. We were wrong. They were not sustainable.

It's time for a business strategy framework that matches the turbulence of the 21st Century. From Adam Werbach, one of the world's leading business advisors to companies such as Wal-Mart, NBC-Universal, and Frito-Lay and a recognized though leader on sustainability issues, the new book Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto outlines a plan for integrated and long-term business success.

"Companies are creating a strategy for sustainability becuse they know the world will change, and they need to build an organization that's nimble, flexible, and connected in order to succeed," says Werbach. "Any company that hasn't rethought its business plan in the last year is operating on an outdated playbook."

According to Werbach, sustainability has four key components: social, economic, environmental, and cultural. Companies that successfully engage all four components improve their bottom line and simultaneously drive new business opportunities.

Werbach calls on business to move past the old Jim Collins' BHAG (Big Harry Audacious Goal) mentality and instead adopt "North Star Goals" -- aspirational business goals that aim to solve a global human challenge as well. North Star goals, already adopted by the likes of Dell and Starbucks, not only help businesses stay profitable but they help companies engage their employees to navigate the turbulent waters ahead.

Learn more at http://www.strategyforsustainability.com/.

~~~

Terrain.org will not be reviewing this book in a future issue.

America Honors Leaders: Greenpeace Scales Mt. Rushmore

2009-07-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

Greenpeace Makes Urgent Call for Climate Action From Face of Mt. Rushmore
Challenges President Obama to lead the world in fighting global warming

Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/rushmore (includes video)

WASHINGTON - This morning [July 8, 2009], 11 daring Greenpeace climbers hung a banner on Mount Rushmore challenging President Obama to show real leadership on global warming. The banner, measuring sixty-five feet high by thirty-five feet wide, features an unfinished portrait of Obama with the message, "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming." The demonstration comes as President Obama meets other G8 leaders in L'Aquila, Italy today to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to UN climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

"This monument celebrates leaders who rose to the great challenges of our past. Global warming is the greatest crisis humankind has ever faced and it is the defining test of leadership for this generation. It's an open question whether President Obama will pass that test," said Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaigns Director Carroll Muffett.

To highlight the issue, 11 activists completed a challenging climb to the top of Mount Rushmore, and three rappelled down, hanging the nearly 2300-square-foot banner as they descended. The activists, highly trained in rock and industrial climbing, took special care not to damage the monument, using existing anchors placed by the National Park Service for periodic cleanings. The demonstration follows a series of protests in Italy this morning where other Greenpeace activists hung banners on coal plant smokestacks calling attention to the collective failure of leadership on global warming at the G8.

"We're at a moment in history where President Obama must show real leadership on global warming, not only for Congress and the American people, but for the world. Unfortunately, the steps taken to address the crisis so far have been grossly inadequate," said Muffett. "While President Obama's speeches on global warming have been inspiring, we've seen a growing gap between the president's words and his actions."

The best science shows that to avoid catastrophic global warming, governments must take action to keep global temperature rise as far below 2 degrees Celsius as possible. "Given President Obama's pledge to follow the science, it's troubling that his administration has not yet endorsed emission targets strong enough to keep us below that critical threshold."

Earlier this year, the experience with climate legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was drastically weakened by lobbyists for the oil and coal industries and other big polluters, showed that unless the president provides strong leadership on this issue, special interests will win out over the common interest.

"Doing what it takes to solve global warming demands real political courage," Muffett added. "If President Obama intends to earn a place among this country's true leaders, he needs to show that courage, and base his actions on the scientific reality rather than political convenience."

Greenpeace is calling on President Obama to use every tool at his disposal, both within and outside Congress, to strengthen U.S. climate policy with scientific integrity, and to take that policy to Copenhagen in December as evidence the U.S. will do what it takes to solve the climate crisis.

Specifically, Greenpeace is calling on President Obama to:

. Strive to keep global temperatures as far below a 2 degrees Celsius increase as possible, compared to pre-industrial levels to avert catastrophic climate change;

. Set a goal of peaking global emissions by 2015 and be as close to zero as possible by 2050, compared to 1990 levels;

. Cut emissions in the U.S. by 25-40 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels;

. Join and encourage other members of the G8 to establish a funding mechanism that provides $106 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to global warming impacts that are now unavoidable and halt tropical deforestation.

Greenpeace is also calling on President Obama to attend the Copenhagen conference personally to ensure a strong, science-based agreement is reached.

For live streaming video, pictures, and footage visit: www.greempeace.org/rushmore

Contact: Molly Dorozenski (on site), 917-864-3724, mdorozen@greenpeace.org
Michael Crocker (Washington, DC), 202-215-8989, mcrocker@greenpeace.org

Earlier this year, Greenpeace released its roadmap for slowing climate change, the Energy [R]evolution, which shows that the U.S. can cut emissions 25 percent by 2020.To read the full-report, visit: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/press-center/reports4/energy-r-evolution-a-bluepr

~~~

For the record, Terrain.org supports a little non-violent civil disobedience.

New Interactive Book Features Personal Essays About Global Warming

2009-06-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

New Anthology Offers Personal Stories and Reflections on Global Warming from New and Established Writers and Photographers

Unique collaboration between nonprofit and publisher will make interactive book accessible to millions of Americans for free.

NEW YORK - A new generation of writers and photographers with a personal connection to global warming are taking inspiration from Henry David Thoreau and other legendary environmental authors by publishing their works in a special anthology from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Penguin Classics.

The nonprofit science group and Penguin Classics selected essays and photos by 67 Americans for the new book Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming. The contributors include scientists, students, grandparents, activists, veterans, journalists, evangelical Christians, artists, and businesspeople who live in 32 states stretching from Alaska to Florida. A foreword on global warming by award-winning novelist, poet and nonfiction author Barbara Kingsolver helps to set the context.

UCS and Penguin Classics will offer the anthology for free online as an interactive book at www.ucsusa.org/americanstories and a forthcoming eBook. A limited edition hardcover also will be available for purchase. The online interactive book will allow the anthology to be instantly shared with friends through emails and on social media sites.

"This partnership was unique in so many ways, but no more so in the reversal of roles we each played," said Kevin Knobloch, UCS's president. "Penguin Classics spearheaded efforts to inform the public about the need to speak out about global warming, while we took the editorial and publishing lead."

"I have great respect for the work of the Union of Concerned Scientists," said Elda Rotor, editorial director at Penguin Classics, "and it's been very satisfying for us to have been able to help generate public participation in this project, and we hope their voices will be heard; particularly as Congress debates legislation to reduce the pollution that contributes to global warming."

Personal Perspectives from Across the Nation

As Ms. Kingsolver writes in her foreword, to find hope in our future "we must radically reconsider the power relationship between humans and our habitat." The contributors to Thoreau's Legacy do just that. We see the changes in New England's natural beauty through the eyes of an observant ninth-grader. We learn how pollution and a warming climate are affecting the Yakama Indians' way of life. We follow a family whose faith has led them on a journey to protect the planet. We look into the fearsome eyes of an old polar bear crossing the Alaskan ice. And we get a useful, if painful, lesson from a New Orleans native who can never go home again and who worries for other American cities. These are just a few of the many personal accounts about climate change in this collection.

The Genesis of this Anthology

UCS and Penguin Classics teamed up in September 2008 to encourage writers and photographers to submit their personal impressions of global warming -- in words or images -- for publication in a new book.

Hundreds of bookstores across the country joined the effort by displaying easels and distributing free bookmarks about the project. Both Penguin Classics and UCS featured the project prominently on their Web sites.

The partners received nearly 1,000 submissions from established and aspiring writers and photographers from across the country. They submitted 200- to 500-word personal accounts or photographs that focused on the places they love and want to protect; the animals, plants, people and activities they fear are at risk from a changing climate; and the steps they are taking in their own lives to stem the tide of global warming.

A team of reviewers from Penguin Classics and UCS selected 67 contributions for the anthology. Working with Mixit Productions, they produced an innovative interactive book. In July a limited edition hardcover coffee table book and a downloadable eBook will also be available.

###

The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.

Penguin Classics is the largest and most comprehensive publisher of classic literature in English in the world, and as a publisher is committed to using paper products from manufacturers that are committed to sustainable paper production techniques, and to in-house conservation and recycling in our daily business practice.

Received: Hawk & Handsaw

2009-06-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org recently received:

Hawk & Handsaw: The Journal of Creative Sustainability (No. 2)

Unity College, Maine
Editor, Kathryn Miles

Hawk & Handsaw is a handsome new, full-color journal published once a year that offers "works of art from established and emerging writers dedicated to a specific facet of environmental sustainability. The plurality of voices within each issue reveals the range of perspectives and practices as well as the richness that a sustainable life affords." Work includes nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and art.

From the editor:

"Like Shakespeare's Hamlet, the contributors to Hawk & Handsaw know which way the wind blows. They know that a sustainable lifestyle can be messy and meaningful, that it requires reflection, deep philosophical commitment and, more often than not, a good sense of humor. To this end, Hawk & Handsaw celebrates the thinking and reflection that ground sustainable practices and practitioners."

The new issue, the journal's second, is beautiful both in scope and production, and includes work by Scott Russell Sanders, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Kathryn Kiripatrick, Carolyln Kraus, Terrain.org editor Simmons B. Buntin, and many others. View the full table of contents here.

How do you get your hands on this issue? Order a copy or subscribe online. You'll be delighted once you receive your copy, as we were when we received ours.

Received: From the Fishouse

2009-06-14T23:35:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org recently received:

From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great, edited by Camille T. Dungy, Matt O'Donnell, and Jeffrey Thomson, with a foreword by Gerald Stern

Persea Books, 2009

From the publisher:

From the Fishouse (http://www.fishousepoems.org/) is a one-of-a-kind on-line archive devoted to teh oral and aural aspects of contemporary American poetry. Based in a converted codfish-drying shack in Pittston, Maine, it showcases emerging poets performign their own work and responding to questions about poetry and the writing process.

Derived from the Fishouse Web site, the From the Fishouse print anthology is a jamboree of contemporary poetry at its acoustic best. It collects more than 175 poems by nearly 100 poets from the archive, dividing them into ten playful thematic sections. Each poem is a striking example of why poetry is meant not just to be read, but to be read aloud. To complement the poems, the book includes illuminating excerpts from the Web site's Q&As with the poets and, in the Fishouse tradition of poetry as an oral/aural form, it comes with a compact disc that features dynamic recitations of 38 of the poems in the book. Indespensable for all poetry lovers, From the Fishouse is the most exciting, portable way to experience the array of poetry being written and performed in the United States in teh first decade fo the twenty-first century.

~~~

We here at Terrain.org pretty much agree. Both the Fishouse website and book are really grand. Check them out!

The Uncertain Future of Isotope, and Ways to Help Out

2009-06-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we at Terrain.org are trying to help preserve Utah State University's important literary journal Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, which faces elimination by the university.

With his permission, I'm posting editor Christopher Cokinos's recent letter to Isotope contributors and subscribers:

Letter From the Editor:

Dear Isotope Reader,

We try to spare you from the day-to-day operations at Isotope and just have the magazine show up in your mailbox full of the unique writing and artwork that you love. But we've stayed quiet as long as we can. The state of the economy has caught up with Isotope, and the magazine's future is uncertain--frankly, in peril.

Isotope receives funding from a variety of sources--subscriptions, donations, state and federal grants, Utah State University (USU)--but the bulk comes from the university. Deep budget cuts at USU have resulted in the loss of salary funds for our managing editor as well as the loss of some operating expenses, about an issue's worth. These are critical funds for Isotope's continued publication.

Please know that we are exploring every idea (cockamamie or otherwise) we can think of to keep Isotope alive, but we need your help. Our readers--You--are the reason Isotope exists and has been so successful. With every new or renewed subscription, with every letter or email or submission of your writing or artwork, you tell us that you like what we are doing and you want us to continue. We are deeply grateful for your interest and your support. Now we hope you are willing to do even more.

Here are some ways you can help:

Donations. Any amount helps. Cash donations will contribute to the publication of the next issue and will buy us time to put in place longer-term solutions. They also show the university the extent of reader support. Mail to Isotope, Dept of English, 3200 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-3200.

Words. University administration knows and values Isotope's achievements--but it would be good for USU's decision-makers to hear from our loyal and smart readers. From you. And right away! Please consider dropping a polite note of support to USU Provost Ray Coward and USU President Stan Albrecht, Old Main, USU, Logan, Utah 84322.

Thank you for considering taking some action on behalf of Isotope. Whatever you do, whatever you decide, we hope you will stay engaged in the decisions made in your communities--local to state to national to global--for we're living in a time when citizen engagement can make an even bigger difference than in the recent past. We'll keep you informed about Isotope's future.

Sincerely,

Christopher Cokinos, Editor

Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing

Victoria / Vancouver Island Photo Gallery

2009-06-09T01:43:00.001-07:00

The full Victoria and Vancouver Island photo gallery by Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin -- shots taken before, during, and after the ASLE conference and field trips -- is now online:

http://www.simmonsbuntin.com/images/gallery/2009/victoria/index.html

Enjoy!

ASLE Conference Review : Day 6

2009-06-08T01:02:00.001-07:00

Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin blogs the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment conference in Victoria, BC:

Second-growth red cedar on the way to Walbran Valley, a four-hour drive from Victoria.

Though last night's banquet pretty much closed out the ASLE conference, a couple post-conference field trips were held today, including a 12-hour trek, by schoolbus no less, to the Walbran Valley to view Canada's oldest old growth forests.

Our excursion was led by representatives of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, a nonprofit environmental organization working hard to save British Columbia's last remaining old growth forests, as well as to promote sustainable logging. Look for a photo essay from Joan and Rick Maloof on the work of the Wilderness Committee on Vancouver Island in the next issue of Terrain.org.

The following photos are from the majestic Walbran Valley, or nearby, and close out my coverage of the ASLE conference. Be sure to check out the full gallery of photos in a few days on my personal website, and thanks for tuning in!

Old growth forest on the Walbran Valley floor.
.

ASLE members take a hike.
.

The Emerald Pond, where large steelhead can often be found.
.

Many of the forty or so ASLE members who made the trip.
.

Oh, just a 600-year-old tree or so; no big deal, eh?!
.

Plank trail through the rainforest.
.

Author self-portrait at a campground originally set up to protest encroaching logging.
.

Taking a break after hiking to a waterfall (kind of hard to see here in the background).
.

Columbine before full bloom.
.

Flower and berries. Lots of wildflowers were blooming there and on the way.
.

The beards of forest wisdom on the old growth trees.
.

Our bus, leaving Walbran Valley.
.

Clearcutting on the road from Walbran.
.

Pretty good views, when you can get them. Still, I'll take the trees over the clearcut-induced view, thanks.
.

ASLE Conference Review : Day 5

2009-06-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org editor (and traveling dope*) Simmons Buntin blogs the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.

A painted eagle sculpture on the promenade in front of the Empress Hotel, Victoria's Inner Harbour.

* A traveling dope, you ask? Yes, sadly: First, I didn't realize until after I got up to British Columbia that my credit union doesn't allow the use of my debit/VISA card in Canada. I'm a dope not because I didn't know (I mean, really, who calls their credit union before heading up to Canada from the U.S.?) but because I left my Wells Fargo card at home, and it would work just fine up here. Second, I failed to bring a rainshell with me up here. So far I haven't needed one, but I'm participating in the Walbran Valley rainforest day trip/hike tomorrow, and it's likely I will.

So this afternoon, before the ASLE banquet, I caught a bus to the local mall, only to get there fifteen minutes after it closed. (What mall closes at 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday, anyway?! Apparently all of them in Victoria.) At that I cut my losses (rather than heading downtown, where for all I know stores may have already closed, as well), and headed back to UVic. Here's hoping it doesn't rain on our trip tomorrow!

Summary

Another wonderful day of panels and plenaries to close out the ASLE conference.

I slept in, so missed the first sessions of the day, which also gave me the time to staff the Terrain.org table in the exibitors area for a bit before hitting the "Borderlands" panel, which featured (among others) Tom Leskiw, a Terrain.org contributor (see his essays here and here, the latter an essay on southern Arizona's San Pedro River, relevant for this panel's discussion). Though the panel featured a ranging mix of academic and creative literary work, it was a good mix, and I learned a lot and appreciated the diversity.

I should also praise Tom (and more so his wife Sue, who suggested it) for bringing from their home in northern California a bottle of Eel River Brewing Company's Acai Berry Wheat beer, which I've yet to enjoy, but will before I leave Victoria.

The afternoon plenary was headlined by Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times journalist and author behind the excellent Dot Earth Blog. Turns out that Andrew is a friend and neighbor of Terrain.org editorial board member and columnist David Rothenberg. I purchased Andrew's book The North Pole Was here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World, which he kindly signed for my daughters, as it's a book aimed at middle-school-aged children.

Milkweed Editions publisher and CEO Daniel Slager and Orion Society executive director and Orion magazine editor-in-chief H. Emerson Blake sat with Andrew on a sort of Q&A panel following Andrew's great multimedia presentation. The overall topic of the panel was "New Publishing Environments: The Changing Landscape of Reading," and it spanned what publishing may look like in the realms of books and magazines over the next ten years.

The phrase of the day might be: Change, it's a comin'. But of course change in the publishing industry is already here. For a journal like Terrain.org, the changes bode well, I think. But for traditional print publications, it's hard to say. With Chip Blake at the helm of Orion, though, and knowing the great use they've made of their website and the new Orion digital edition, I'd bet they're poised well. Ditto for Milkweed, which understands the need to get excerpts of their books out into the webosphere (like, for example, in Terrain.org), as well as to feature actual book content on their own website. As for the books themselves? Well, there's Amazon's wireless reading device Kindle, of course, and advanced wireless, portable book readers from other manufacturers are less than a year away, blowing open that market.

So how we read books, magazines, and the like will certainly evolve, and that will undoubtedly save costs as well as resources (think of the elimination of production, printing, and distribution). As I see it, the wireless readers may also force online journals that want to be included in this new digital reading format to create Kindle-friendly versions in addition to our "traditional" websites, as these readers are definitively not web browsers. That's exciting to me; though for a low- or self-funded publication like Terrain.org, could be a real barrier if these readers charge to host our issues, which are already provided for free. The internet may be (relatively) free, but most content on wireless reading devices certainly won't be.

Following logically from the afternoon plenary, "The Virtues of the Virtual: Using Blogs to Communicate Place across Space" roundtable featured a number of bloggers (though really only one who's place-based, and that anonymously so), and was an interesting discussion, though given my blogging experience a bit remedial. Still, only two or three members of the audience, when asked by a panelist, said they were bloggers, and I was one of them, so I suspect the content was right on for the majority of folks in the audience.

Finally, the ASLE banquet and awards presentation featured -- beyond the good food, great company, and typical end-of-conference accolades -- headliner Ruth Ozeki, a Japanese-American filmaker and novelist whose award-winning novels include My Year of Meats and All Over Creation. Her presentation/lecture/discussion/speech (really, what do we call these things: keynote address, I guess) was wonderful, eloquently weaving novel excerpts with a pointed yet not painful environment/food/literature discussion, initiated with a meditation excercise that put me, at least, in a fluid mood set for listening.

:: By the way, I think it's important to note here that I'm listening to U2's "So Cruel," from the album Achtung Baby on my iPod. It's song #1863 of 2432 on my all-play list -- I've been listening to the full library of my iPod's songs in alphabetical order, which I started several weeks (or months) ago. It's a beautiful song on a stellar album from an amazing band. But for the record: The Joshua Tree is U2's best album and, I think, the best rock album ever produced. Discuss among yourselves. Okay, we return now to your regular ASLE blog update.... ::

The banquet in effect concluded the ASLE conference. It was announced that the next conference, in 2011, will be in Bloomington, Indiana at Indiana University, hosted in part by Scott Russell Sanders. Count me in, as this conference (and its location) have been all I'd hope they would be -- and more.

Environmental Note

I have not driven a car or watched a television for the past week. I can't say that very often. Well, maybe I could say that about the TV -- except for The Office, college football, and the occasional DVD, I don't watch much TV anyway. Of course, I've been on the computer a lot, including the continuously rotating Terrain.org slideshow at our exhibitor's table, but even with that my overall computer energy use is down from my standard resource suck. Does that offset the carbon used to transport me up here? Possibly not, but combine it with the proverbial energy and connections I've gained toward my work on Terrain.org and my writing while up here, plus the carbon offset fee I added onto my ASLE registration, and I think it gets me close.

Energy or not, though, you can't walk away from this conference any less concerned about the dire situation of the Earth. As Andrew Revkin says, "By 2050 or so, the world population is expected to reach nine billion, essentially adding two Chinas to the number of people alive today. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where, scientists say, humans are already shaping climate and the web of life." How we sustain our environment and cultures into the future, when we're not doing such a great job of it right now, is the ultimate question.

Best Event/Activity

Tough call, this. I really enjoyed both the plenary and keynote speaker at the banquet. And sleeping in this morning deserves good marks, as well.

But I'll give the nod to my conversation with Milkweed Editions publisher and CEO Daniel Slager at the banquet, something I wasn't expecting. I've long admired Milkweed's work, so chatting it up with Daniel about Milkweed's future website plans, opportunities for including Milkweed excerpts on Terrain.org, fatherhood, sons vs. daughters, living in Minneapolis compared to New York City, and my own work and writing, capped off the conference in a pretty great way.

Worst Event/Activity

Wasted bus ride to the closed mall, hand's down. Though, really, do I ride the bus in Tucson? No, so here was a rare opportunity. And besides, Victoria has cool double-decker buses. So it wasn't so bad, was it? Nah -- I did get back to the banquet on time, after all.

Beer Note

I drank a couple lovely IPAs at the banquet. But from where? The bottle labels were blue, I think. Anyway, good brew, as they all have been, without exception. Thanks Victoria!

Take Away

The ASLE conference was a success for Terrain.org and for me personally. Couldn't ask for more than that.*

* Well, I could, actually: At one time I had planned to travel up here with my wife and two daughters, but alas, economics and a quickly approaching family reunion in San Diego snuffed those plans out. They would have loved it, though.

Photos

Victoria's Inner Harbour, with Prince of Whales whale-watching boats.

Sunset and bay view from Cadboro Gyro Park, just a few blocks south of UVic.

Driftwood (drifttrunk?) at Cadboro Gyro Park.

Victoria's famous Butchart Gardens? Nope, this is one of the courtyard paths to my dorm. Though the UVic campus kind of feels like a suburban office park, it is not without its charms.

ASLE Conference Review : Day 4

2009-06-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin blogs the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment biennial conference:

Heading out from a Victoria inlet for an afternoon of sea kayaking, an official ASLE field trip.

The fourth day of the ASLE conference in Victoria, BC:

Summary

Another great day, which included:

First panel: "The Everyday Wild: Nonfiction from the Sky and Ground," featuring Christopher Cokinos reading from his new book, The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars, Jennifer Henderson on Machine in the Sky: A Biography of the Tornado, and John T. Price, on Backyard Nature: Children, Parents, and Insects. With the possible exception of the photography panel way back on the first day, this is the best panel so far. Great readings by all three.
Next panel: "Let There Be Night: The Value of Darkness, the Cost of Light Pollution," facilitated by Paul Bogard, editor of Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark, and including four writers with essays in the dark night anthology: Gretchen T. Legler, Christina Robertson, Thomas Becknell, and John Tallmadge.
Sea kayaking ASLE field trip with two dozen other participants -- Pacifica Paddling's "Oak Bay Coastal Explorer" kayak excursion (see photos below), which was great fun. Pretty good wind and waves. We saw bald eagles and a mother seal with her pup, as well.
Evening plenary session: "Green Poetries from Canada: Place, Poetry, and Witness" featuring discussion and readings by Rita Wong and Jan Zwicky. Jan's reading, particularly, just blew me away.
Drinks with Orion's Chip Blake, Milkweed Editions's Patrick Thomas, and Hawk & Handsaw's Kathryn Miles (more on that below).

Environmental Note

The global warming may, at least for the rest of this week, be behind us up in Victoria. It's pretty chilly up here this evening, and the day was mild (and downright nippy out on the water when kayaking). Still, people, don't let up your guard on that whole global warming thing. My sources tell me it's the real deal....

Best Event/Activity

This morning, this section was slated for the panel with Cokinos, Henderson, and Price. Then, following the kayaking excursion, it was reserved for that little adventure. I'm settling at this late hour, however, on my evening conversation with Chip, Kathryn, and Patrick. It's not often I get to talk shop -- not to mention share hilarious family stories -- with good folks like these. Our small gathering over local brews at the UVic Student Union pub/grill was a delight and a privelage.

Worst Event/Activity

I have very sad news to share -- news I learned yesterday but wasn't prepared to share until today (and I do have permission). As many of you know, Christopher Cokinos founded and has served as the editor of the outstanding journal Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing for more than a decade now. Many of you also know that state university funding has been drastically cut nearly everywhere. Combine those two, and we learn that Utah State University will no longer be publishing Isotope.

Folks, Isotope is one of the three or four best environmental literary journals, and its closure is a huge blow not only to the good folks working on the journal at USU, but to environmental and science literature readers and writers everywhere. But what to do? We need to find a large endowment to sustain the journal, under Chris's excellent editorial skills, and find it now. So ante up!

There is a possibility that Isotope will move to another university or other editing team, but unless it stays at USU, as far as I know Chris will no longer be the editor. That is sad, indeed.

Beer Note

Enjoyed a couple local brews at the pub tonight, but didn't get their names. You pretty much can't go wrong with any of the the local stuff, I realize, so brand/name may not be an issue.

Take Away

Creative nonfiction panels = good
Ocean kayak excursions = good
Late-night conversations with editing peers = good
Shutting down environmental lit mags = bad

Photos

I'm including only kayak photos in this entry. Here are the kayaks on the dark, pebbly beach before we loaded into them and pushed out.

I took along my new Canon PowerShot D10, which is waterproof to 33 feet, though that doesn't necessarily mean the lens won't get smudged with drops of saltwater from my sporadic paddling (or otherwise)....

Greg and Kathryn Miles threaten to capsize our kayak (no, not really; we all did a little bump-and-float along the way).

We saw three bald eagles, though I couldn't get a good shot of any of them. Here's one, but this could be a nautical turkey for all this picture reveals.

My paddling partner: Charlie.

And me.

All in all, a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

ASLE Conference Review : Day 3

2009-06-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin blogs the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment biennial conference:

Darth Vader plays a mean fiddle in downtown Victoria, and it wasn't all Star Wars theme, either.

The third day of the ASLE conference in Victoria, BC:

Summary

Well before the ASLE conference started, coordinators Dan Philippon (ASLE president and program chair) and Richard Pickard (local arrangements chair) noted that there would be more time for network-building and socializing before, between, and after the sessions of this year's conference. We haven't been disappointed. While today's sessions were strong once again, I enjoyed the discussions and gatherings outside of the panels more so.

This morning I attended the paper jam titled "Poetic Forms, Poetic Places: Readings and Reflections," featuring Ian Marshall on haiku and the International Appalachian Trail, Cara Chamberlain on the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, Emily Carr on the poem as ecotone, Mary Pinard on the sonnet redouble as an "archipelago of song," a phrase nearly as beautiful as her sonnets, and Terrain.org contributor Andrew C. Gottlieb reading his Isle Royale National Park poems, two of which appear in our current issue (with audio). Poetry is always a great way to start out the morning, and this panel did not disappoint.

I then skipped the ecocriticism mid-morning plenary session (I mean, aren't we all critical enough of our environment, anyway?! okay, sorry...) and worked the Terrain.org table through lunch, catching up with a few Terrain.org contributors like Andrew Wingfield and Joan Maloof and meeting lots of other great folks.

The first afternoon session was difficult to choose, as the roundtable "Earth's Body: An Ecopoetry Anthology" featuring Ann Fisher-Wirth, Laura-Gray Street, and others, and the "Poems on Place" reading featuring Suzanne Roberts and other poets were both very tempting. But I felt especially drawn to the paper jam "Creative Nonfiction: Transformations," facilitated by Hawk & Handsaw: The Journal of Creative Sustainability editor and Unity College environmental literature associate professor Kathryn Miles. Hawk & Handsaw deserves mention here not just because of its cool (sub+)title and the (full disclosure here) fact that I have an essay in its just-released second issue, but because this beautiful journal is going to raise the bar for creative environmental journals. I'll have it down at the Terrain.org table if you want to check out the copy -- just don't take it from me, please! (You may take the Hawk & Handsaw postcard, instead.)

The panel featured Jennifer Calkins on quails, Robert Scott Elliott on flyfishing the Sol Duc, Catherine Meeks on the Tennessee Valley Authority, Mary Webb on the urban heat island that Reno has become, Elizabeth Van Zandt on Mojave's sky islands, and Russ J. Van Paepeghem, editor of Camas: The Nature of the West (another really good environmental journal) on the topography of silence. A lovely mixture!

The afternoon closed out with a packed, and delightful, author's reception, where I picked up books by Kathryn Miles (Adventures with Ari: A Puppy, a Leash, and Our Year Outdoors) and Suzanne Roberts (Nothing to You: Poems), as well as the brand-new From the Fishhouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great, edited by Camille T. Dungy (thanks Camille!). I also met Terrain.org contributor Anca Vlasopolos, whose work I much admire.

Name dropping here? Yeah, sort of, but understand that I know a lot of folks digitally through the journal (and/or Facebook, blogging, etc.), so finally meeting them in person is a big deal to me -- worth mentioning, certainly! And the spaces in between the sessions and author's reception today, especially, resounded with these wonderful connections.

This evening, Terrain.org editorial board member and columnist Lauret Savoy and I traveled to downtown Victoria for a really excellent dinner at Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub & Guesthouses (more on that below) and stroll around the Inner Harbor (where we saw Lord Vader on violin, pictured above). I finished the evening catching up with folks at the Orion/Milkweed Editions reception, though once again I arrived too late for free beer, dangit!

Environmental Note

Anyone else notice that water from a stainless steel bottle tastes like, well... steel? Color me picky, but I like my water to taste pretty much like nothing.

Best Event/Activity

I've already mentioned the great connecting with folks -- via the Terrain.org table, author's reception, pre- and post-panel, and otherwise -- so won't hit that again. And I'll discuss Spinnakers a bit below.

So let's select my outing with Lauret Savoy, who kindly drove us to downtown and back. I first met Lauret in person back in NYC for the AWP conference, January 2008. She was a participant on "The Future of Environmental Essay" panel I chaired. I learned about her and her work through Alison Deming. To say I was blown away by Lauret's presentation on the panel is an understatement. It was a great panel across the board -- really great (read and hear excerpts of the panel that also included Alison, David Gessner, and David Rothenberg here) -- and Lauret capped it off beautifully. Since then, she has joined our editorial board and is now writing a regular column, A Stone's Throw, for each issue. Check out her first contribution on placing Washington, D.C., before the inauguration.

It was splendid to really have the opportunity to talk with Lauret this evening, the conversation ranging easily from family to geology to publishing and well beyond.

Worst Event/Activity

I'd still like a bigger crowd in the exhibitors area. Things definitely picked up just before the author's reception, but we should have attendees strolling through in greater numbers all the time. I've heard from a few folks that they didn't even know there is an exhibitors area.

Put the coffee out earlier and keep it filled up, maybe?

Beer Note

Before heading up to Victoria I Googled "Victoria brewpubs" and three came up: Canoe (see Day 0), Swanns (which I've yet to visit), and Spinnakers, which Lauret and I easily found across the Johnson Street Bridge this evening. What a great restaurant and brewpub this is! We got a table on the shady patio looking out toward the Inner Harbour, I opted for the delicious halibut fish and chips, and the beer was oustanding. I had the Nut Brown Ale: smooth and a bit smoky, in a good way. A gorgeous color and head, too.

Folks, they know how to brew some beer up in Victoria!

Take Away

1. I cannot stay up this late blogging.

2. I should instead stay up this late chatting with my many new ASLE friends.

Photos

The view from our table at Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub.

Simmons Buntin and Lauret Savoy in front of the Empress Hotel.

The Pacific Grace, docked near the Inner Harbour esplanade.

Lauret photographs the harbour and the British Columbia Parliament Buildings.

Parting shot: silhoutted rigging. I don't know what all this stuff is, but I do know that it is beautiful.

ASLE Conference Review : Day 2

2009-06-03T23:08:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin blogs the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment biennial conference:

The British Columbia Government Parliament Buildings near the Victoria Inner Harbour.

The second day of the ASLE conference in Victoria, BC:

Summary

Today the ASLE conference kicked off in full, beginning with the opening plenary, featuring conservation biologist, professor, and writer Richard Primack, and ecologist and writer Amy Seidl, author of the new, acclaimed book Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World.

I next attended "Essays from the Wildbranch Writing Workshop," facilitated by Anne Arundel Community College English professor Susan Cohen, and featuring creative nonfiction readings from Susan, Sierra College instructor Eve Quesnel, and not-an-English-professor me. I read my essay "Songbird," which I first drafted as part of the Wildbranch Writing Workshop in northern Vermont last summer.

I spent lunch manning the Terrain.org table in the (warm/stuffy/underlit/moderately sparse) exhibitors area. I should note that the onion rings from the UVic Student Union grill around the corner and down the hall are particularly tasty.

After lunch I attended the session titled "Conservation Photography as a Form of Literary Expression," which was just grand (more on that below), though I was sorry to miss "How and Why to Write about Humans and Nature," featuring Terrain.org contributors Anca Vlasopolos and Joan Maloof, as well as "Bubbas and Babes in the Woods: Real Men Read Creative Nonfiction about Children and Nature," which is closest to my own writing. Too bad so many great sessions occured at the same time, but such is the risk when there are fifteen concurrent sessions!

The final session of the day for me was what the ASLE coordinators call a "paper jam," which simply means fitting more presenters/readers into a single session. "Online, On the Page, and Out of This World: A Reading of Emerging Multicultural Ecopoetries" was led by Camille T. Dungy, and featured delightful short readings by her as well as Shane Book, Sean Hill, and James Hoch. Much to my chagrin, Oliver de la Paz, who was listed, wasn't able to make the session.

All in all, a great slate of sessions, which is just what I hoped for!

Then I joined Susan Cohen and her husband, plus Eve, University of Nevada - Reno English lecturer Mary Webb, and Terrain.org current issue contributors Andrew Gottlieb and Suzanne Roberts for a lovely dinner at Sauce Restaurant & Lounge, patio dessert along the water, and a walkabout along Victoria's Inner Harbour that included a street performer juggling flaming torches on a raised unicycle (not to mention a cool bus ride back to campus in a double-decker city bus) this evening.

Environmental Note

I've rinsed out my new Earth Basics 900 ML stainless steel bottle and am ready to roll with it. No more plastic bottles, I say!

On a more relevant note, I enjoyed the opening plenary, especially Richard Primack's conversational style and slideshow about tracking global warming at Thoreau's Walden Pond using historical data from Thoreau himself, as well as Primack's and his students' research. As an opening plenary, however, I would have liked Primack to expand his global warming discussion a bit to the role of environmental literature in general. Something to really launch us into the conference. Or maybe that should have been Seidl's role? Either way, neither really got me jazzed up or ready to actively think more critically about it, which seems to me the role, in part, of the opening plenary.

Speaking of global warming, I do believe that Victoria is experiencing the phenomena this week. While it's not too bad outside -- not too bad? Why, it's downright beautiful! -- inside the Student Union and classrooms the temperature is uncomfortably warm. Simmons should have brought himself more pairs of shorts, is all I'm saying!

Best Event/Activity

The photography session early this afternoon was stunning visually -- slideshows and films -- and just as important thought-provoking and essential, especially for me in the context of Terrain.org, which attempts to bring together the web's best environmental literature and photography (as well as other media). Professional photographers Garth Lenz, Cristina Mittermeier, and Amy Gulick -- all members of the International League of Conservation Photographers -- introduced the ILCP and its work, and then addressed specific projects each photographer is working on to "bring conservation into focus." Do yourself a favor and check out the ILCP website, and then keep an eye out in future issues of Terrain.org, where I'm certain we'll be covering the organization's good work and photographers.

Worst Event/Activity

Other than the persistently stuffy session rooms -- which I've already harped on more than enough (and I'll stop now) -- there was nothing to complain about today. Sure, we missed the evening plenary and the opening free bar at the international reception, but that was our own doing as we enjoyed our stroll in downtown Victoria so much.

Beer Note

At Sauce this evening, I enjoyed a Vancouver Island Brewery Vancouver Islander Lager, crafted here in Victoria. I thought it was smooth and refreshing, complementing my delicious caramel pepper salmon quite nicely. Andrew, on the other hand, thought it was bland. The light lager could have used a bit more robustness (both in color and taste), I agree. For that I think we'd need Vancouver Island Brewery's Hermann's Dark Lager, which the restaurant did not, alas, have on tap.

By the way, as I type this I'm enjoying the jazz/electronica tunes streaming from Sauce's website. Check it out.

Take Away

At the Wildbranch panel this morning, one audience member -- a two-time Wildbranch participant -- noted how great it was to attend Wildbranch and write/commune with like-minded souls. That's pretty much how I feel following the first full day of the ASLE conference. While I'm not of the academic ecocriticism ilk (most attendees are), the passion, concern, and dedication toward the environment in lifestyle and writing serve as an essential bond and support system. I appreciate being a part of that.

I appreciate, too, the ability to form closer relationships with folks like Andrew and Suzanne, who I knew (mostly) only through Terrain.org before this conference began.

Photos

A large totem pole in front of the British Columbia Government's Parliament Buildings, which we strolled by this evening.

A wonderful plaza near the Inner Harbour.

In my first blog entry I included photos of the painted eagle sculptures. Here are a couple whale samples.

Whale sculpture, tiled, with the Empress Hotel in the background.

ASLE Conference Review : Day 1

2009-06-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin blogs the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment biennial conference:

The Empress Hotel at Victoria's Inner Harbour. I didn't make it back there today, but hopefully tomorrow! This photograph is from yesterday (Monday, for those keeping track of such things).

The first (half) day of the ASLE conference in Victoria, BC:

Summary

Today I had the morning off to figure out this internet connection stuff, as well as to check in at registration and set up the Terrain.org table in the exhibit hall. This afternoon I participated in the Ecomedia pre-conference session, for which I prepared (but we did not at all discuss, nor even mention, much to my chagrin, my "Virtual Sense of Place" hypertext essay).

After the three-hour session I had the (easy) opportunity to photograph the sprawling herds / flocks / pods / kettles of rabbits here on campus (see below), which is when I ran into my friend and Terrain.org editorial board member Lauret Savoy, who no doubt thinks I'm crazy. Crazy like a rabbit, I say!

The ISLE Reception, sponsored by Oxford University Press which now publishes ASLE's fine journal Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, gave me the opportunity to mingle with conference participants, including a couple Terrain.org contributors and Susan Cohen, who organized the Wildbranch Essays panel for which she, Eve Quesnel, and I read tomorrow (10:30 a.m., Session B14, Clearihue C115).

I finished the evening by walking down Sinclair Road to Cadboro Gyro Park (a couple photos below), which has a beach loaded with driftwood off a small inlet adjacent to the Strait of Georgia. The walk back up the long, steep hill was definitely good exercise.

Environmental Note

The problem, folks, is that I need caffeine, but I don't drink coffee. Sure, I'll drink tea -- had some this morning and again at a stop at Starbuck's on the way back from the park this evening -- but there's something about a cold Coke Zero that gets me going. Sad thing is, all the soda up here seems to come only in plastic bottles. So I've added another to my collection. Perhaps I'll line them up outside before I leave and photograph them with the rabbits?

Best Event/Activity

A toss-up between the park, with the glowing boats on the water, and tracking down the feral European rabbits. Not sure what it is with me and these critters, but I find them fascinating. Learn more here, and here, too. Those are the official UVic sites. Now check out this article about the bunnies moving off-campus and the dreaded Rodentator. Or you could just kill and cook them, a certain kind of sustainability, I suppose. Guess that means that rabbits aren't entitled to graduate and move off-campus like the rest of us...?

Worst Event/Activity

I see now this section could get me in trouble, so I may change it to something a bit more politically correct. Suggestions?

While I enjoyed reading the papers of the Ecomedia pre-conference seminar, and there was interesting discussion, I admit it wasn't relevant to my needs as an editor, publisher, writer, or environmentalist on more than a peripheral level. That's primarily because of the nature of the discussion, which focused not on technology or even content, as I hoped, but on research and teaching methodologies for ecocriticism and ecomedia. That's fine: of the dozen or so of us in the session, only two people (me one of them) isn't a full-time professor. I had this concern -- about being a right fit for the session -- before I put together the hypertext essay.

One notable exception that warranted much discussion and interest is Claudia Hemphill Pine's research on ecological thinking in the transformative culture of fandom. Apparently, online communities of fans -- think of the Harry Potter fandom -- tend to rally around social causes, with the notable exception of environmental issues. Claudia explores why, and why not.

Beer Note

I had a localish Canadian ale at the ISLE Reception, but I didn't get the name, gosh darnit. Not bad, but not as tasty as Canoe's Beaver Brown.

Take Away

My take away today is: I'm rolling my sleeves up for the full conference kickoff and sessions tomorrow. I'll be dancing back and forth between the Terrain.org table and sessions, including my reading in the morning. There are fifteen concurrent sessions in each time slot, and while there are 670 registered participants, I wonder just how many audience members each panel can expect. I'll let you know tomorrow evening!

Photos

First, you see one of these cute, pet-looking bunnies.

Then you see a few more lounging around in the full spectrum of pet bunny colors and sizes.

Being European rabbits, I can't help but think of Watership Down, which I recall so well from my fourth-grade teacher's reading of the classic book. Here, as there, they're territorial and heirarchical -- and dig broad networks of warrens.

Then you begin to realize the damn things are everywhere....

Everywhere, I say, and they're coming after me!

The rabbits are not, however, down at the beach at Cadboro Gyro Park, where this photo was taken as the sun set behind the hills behind me.

A few boats (ships seems too big a word here, but then I'm no sailor) in the inlet, with the Strait of Georgia behind and the Olympic Mountains (and Washington State) in the far distance.

ASLE Conference Review : Day 0

2009-06-02T10:05:00.001-07:00

Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin blogs the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment biennial conference:

Leaving Seattle aboard the Victoria Clipper hydrofoil ferry.

Technically, the ASLE conference hasn't yet started, so this first post includes my trip from Tucson, Arizona, up to Victoria, British Columbia.

Summary

I'm spending eight full days traveling to and from Victoria for the ASLE conference, which affords a bit of time on either side of the conference to explore. Today (Monday), I had enough time in Seattle to check out the Olympic Sculpture Park before settling into the three-hour ferry ride up to Victoria.

Once I arrived in Victoria, my priorities were to check my bag and stroll around the Inner Harbour area until finding a brewpub; in this case Canoe Marina, Brewpub, and Restaurant (more on that below). In my travels I've found that the best food tends to align itself with the best, locally-brewed beer, and I'm all about local foods (even if I did have lunch at Subway in Seattle, on the fly).

The evening ended with a taxi ride to the University of Victoria, where the conference is being held, and a solid two hours of grappling with the sporadic wireless internet connection in the dorm room in which I'm staying. Just this morning (Tuesday) I figured out the ethernet connection, so problem finally solved!

Environmental Note

The concierge at the Inner Harbour hotel where I checked my bag noted how, from what he'd heard, America isn't as environmentally progressive as Canada. And when it comes to Arizona, anyway, he's spot on. Victoria's full of hybrids -- passenger cars, taxis, and buses -- and recycling centers can be found, seemingly, on every other corner.

Yet when I went to breakfast at the campus cafeteria, this morning, the only juice I could buy was in a plastic bottle; ditto for water. So I sit here with three plastic bottles already gathered from my trip: two waters and one soda.

The solution? I visited the Student Union pharmacy where steel water bottles happen to be on sale, and picked one up. That should hold me well through this and many other trips. (I didn't bring one up because our plastic BPA-free bottles at home are beginning to leak; this is my first stainless steel variety).

Best Event/Activity

While strolling around the Port of Seattle and the Olympic Sculpture Park was good fun, the highlight has definitely been wandering Victoria's Inner Harbour. What a gorgeous city! I may not get to further explore the downtown area until Friday and Saturday (Friday promises a sea kayaking trip, Saturday a long hike through a nearby rainforest), but I can't wait to get back to such urban vibrancy.

Worst Event/Activity

Canoe forgot to bring me my halibut fish and chips (I waited an hour), but they comped the meal, so I can't complain too much about that. Plus the beer was outstanding (see below). Nope, I'll go with being checked into the wrong room here at UVic and then being asked -- after unpacking everything -- to move next door. Which I did, without complaint, even though there are no hangers in this closet, much to my chagrin. And then of course the whole internet connection battle.

Beer Note

This section may change, depending on what tasty local beverage I can find, but for today I give a hearty endorsement to Canoe's Beaver Brown Ale: delicious! The Red Canoe Ale was good, too, and that's saying something for me since I'm not much of a Pilsner fan generally.

Take Away

Now that I'm settled in, I look forward to the conference beginning (for me, with an Ecomedia pre-conference seminar) this afternoon. It will be interesting to see how the exhibit area looks -- Terrain.org has a table, but will I be too tempted by the many enticing concurrent sessions to stick around?!

Photos

Some photos from Monday. I'll post some photos each day if possible, and then a large gallery at the end of the trip.

Victoria's iconic Empress Hotel on the Inner Harbour.

Just as American cities often have painted sculptures placed around the city (in Denver, it was horses), Victoria has both eagle and whale sculptures.

An eagle sculpture along the Inner Harbour walkway, with the provincial capitol in the background.

British Columbia capitol.

Received: The Author's Guide to Publishing and Marketing

2009-05-31T11:12:00.001-07:00

Terrain.org recently received:

The Author's Guide to Publishing and Marketing, by Tim Ward and John Hunt

O Books, 2009 (United Kingdom, distributed by Orca NBN in North America)

From the publisher:

Author Tim Ward and publisher John Hunt have teamed up to create The Author's Guide to Publishing and Marketing, a must read for any would-be author, especially in tough economic times. The book is an invaluable resource for new and experienced writers navigating the challenging terrain of book publishing and marketing. Crammed full of time-saving advice and specific suggestions to help authors make the most of their literary creations.

The book draws from the experience of Tim Ward, author of four prevous books, and John Hunt, publisher of O Books. O Books operates a distinctive and ethical publishing philosophy in all areas of its business, from its global network of authors to productino, and worldwide distribution.

This book is produced on FSC certified stock, within ISO14001 standards and teh printer plants sufficient trees each year through the Woodland Trust to absorb the level of emitted carbon in its production.

~~~

Terrain.org will not be reviewing this book in a future issue. However, it appears to be a comprehensive, very user-friendly book, and given O Books's commitment to sustainable publishing, should be at the top of your list for books in this category.

Terrain.org at ASLE Biennial Conference in Victoria, June 3-6

2009-05-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

If you're going to the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment's biennial conference in Victoria, British Columbia (details here), be sure to stop by the Terrain.org table in the exhibitors area, where you'll have the opportunity to meet Terrain.org's editor and publisher, Simmons Buntin, as well as learn more about the journal.

Simmons will be reading an essay appearing in the new issue of Hawk & Handsaw: A Journal of Creative Sustainability titled "Songbird" on Wednesday morning, June 3, for the Wildbranch Writing Workshop panel (Session B14, 10:30 to noon).

Simmons is also participating in the Ecological Media pre-conference panel on Tuesday, June 2. His hypertext essay is "Virtual Sense of Place: Terrain.org and the Online Nexus of Literature and Environment" and can be viewed online at www.terrain.org/ecomedia.

Received: Voices from the American Land, a New Chapbook Series

2009-05-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org recently received:

Voices from the American Land : Winter 2009
Lo & Behold: Household and Threshold on California's North Coast, by Joanne Kyger

Voices from the American Land chapbooks are published four times a year by the American Land Publishing Project, Inc., a New Mexico nonprofit organization, in partnership with the Center for American Places at Columbia College, Chicago. The ALPP produces four chapbooks a year, offered by subscription, and conducts on-the-land readings and classroom educational activities. The Center publishes an annual collection of the chapbooks as a single volume, distributed nationally to bookstores by the University of Chicago Press.

On the inside cover:

Here begins Voices from the American Land -- Joanne Kyger's chronicle of a literary life infused with the natural scene in a village on the northern California coast. Lo & Behold offers an evocative memoir of the animals, plants, landforms, strange and wonderful visitors, neighbors, an dfamous poets and artists that are part of the poet's daily round.

Forthcoming authors include Quraysh Ali Lansans [out now] who writes of growing up black (and Native American) in the hard, dusty landscapes of Oklahoma. He is Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Studies and Creative Writing at Chicago State University. Patricia Clark, poet-in-residence at Grand Valley State University, reflects on the numinous interaction of the human spirit with the spirit of the woodlands of Michigan. And Levi Romero, poet and architect-planner, whose work, in English and Spanish, tells of the life on the land in Hispanic northern New Mexico. A critic writes: "No other poet can pull el duende from his labyrinth the way Levi can." Such as the Voices from the American Land.

~~~

Terrain.org will not be reviewing this chapbook in a forthcoming issue, but we do encourage you to investigate the good work of the American Land Publishing Project and the quarterly Voices from the American Land series at http://www.voicesfromtheamericanland.org/.

Culture and the Environment -- A Conversation in Five Essays

2009-05-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

If you haven't yet seen it, then you need to do yourself a favor and head out to your local literary bookstore, or order online, the latest copy of The Georgia Review (Spring 2009).

Among many other outstanding contributions, it includes "Culture and the Environment -- A Conversation in Five Essays:" Scott Russell Sanders (Simplicity and Sanity), Reg Saner (Sweet Reason, Global Swarming), David Gessner (Against Simplicity), Lauret Savoy (Pieces toward a Just Whole), and Alison Hawthorne Deming (Culture, Biology, and Emergence).

From The Georgia Review editor Stephen Corey's introduction:

The keynote work, Scott Russell Sanders's "Simplicity and Sanity," puts forward a wide-ranging examination of humankind's relationship to the natural world and argues for its radical overhaul.

Reg Saner's "Sweet Reason, Global Swarming" embraces Sanders' fears for the literal survival of the human race but gives the argument a different center -- one that conjures a dark figure from all of our high school history classes, Thomas Malthus, whose lone claim to renown is a theory we have let slip into the background while confronting myriad more immediate-seeming dangers.

David Gessner then confronts Sanders with "Against Simplicity: A Few Words for Complexity, Slippiness and Joy," claiming that his sometime-mentor/idol may be entering the fray with the wrong weapon in hand.

Lauret Edith Savoy, in "Pieces toward a Just Whole," initially lauds Sanders' position but concentrates the bulk of her essay on certain racial and economic factors that she believes are being overlooked in virtually all discussions of environmental catastrophe.

Alison Hawthorne Deming's "Culture, Biology, Emergence," the most sweeping of the five essays in this conjured five-way conversation, moves across eons of time and many disciplines of study to reach a conclusion that is, paradoxically, more desparate and more hopeful than those presented by her four compatriots.

If you are familiar with The Georgia Review (which has no relation to Terrain.org though many of the contributors mentioned above appear in our online pages), then you know that its contributions are of the highest quality. With this environmentally focused issue, the journal clarifies the focus by some of our foremost thinkers and writers, literary or otherwise.

We encourage you to check it out.

Received: Crazy Love, new poems by Pamela Uschuk

2009-05-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org recently received:

Crazy Love: New Poems, by Pamela Uschuk

Published by Wings Press, San Antonio, 2009.

From the publisher:

Through bold and innovative language, a strong female narrative explores the world and provides a voice for those who have been silenced in this empowering and inspirational collection of poetry. Examining a wide range of topics—love, spirituality, nature, and family—the poems give particular focus to politics, discussing how the actions of the government affect individuals on a daily basis. Filled with natural imagery and speckled with traces of the author’s Russian, Swedish, and American heritage, this fresh compilation dares to take risks and ultimately offers hope and inspiration to people from all walks of life.

~~~

Pamela Uschuk is a professor of creative writing at Fort Lewis College, the editor in chief of the literary magazine Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, and the author of four volumes of poetry, including the award-winning Finding Peaches in the Desert and the Pulitzer Prize–nominated Scattered Risks. She lives in Durango, Colorado.

~~~

Look for a review of Crazy Love, which Naomi Shihab Nye describes as "life lived at the fever pitch of awareness and care" in the forthcoming issue of Terrain.org.

Virtual Sense of Place

2009-05-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

Check out this hypertext essay by Terrain.org editor Simmons B. Buntin:

Virtual Sense of Place: Terrain.org and the Online Nexus of Literature and Place

The premise: Whether virtual or actual, what drives strong community and a sustainable nexus between the built and natural environments is sense of place. The purpose of this interactive position statement is to explore sense of place in the context of ecological media — for e-zines like Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments that work at the nexus of literature and environment, and otherwise.

The essay was developed for the Ecological Media seminar which precedes the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) biennial conference this June in Victoria, B.C. Terrain.org will have a table at the conference. Simmons is participating in the seminar and also reading his essay "Songbird," appearing in the current issue of Hawk & Handsaw: The Journal of Creative Sustainability, as part of the Wildbranch Writing Workshop Essays panel.

Received: The Edge of the Sea of Cortez, by Betty Hupp and Marilyn Malone

2009-05-11T12:02:00.001-07:00

Terrain.org recently received:

The Edge of the Sea of Cortez: Tidewalkers' Guide to the Upper Gulf of California, by Betty Hupp and Marilyn Malone

A seashore adventure beyond beachcombing...

Published by Operculum, LLC and distributed by The University of Arizona Press

From the publisher:

The Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California, is framed by the Mexican mainland and the Baja California peninsula. Once called the Vermillion Sea, its long narrow shape results in tidal extremes that provide a unique home for a rich diversity of marine life. The beautiful waters entice tourists from all over the world and beckon marine scientists to discover their secrets.

Lavishly illustrated in the tradition of Dorling Kindersley’s reference books, The Edge of the Sea of Cortez: Tidewalkers’ Guide to the Upper Gulf of California is the only guide to the diverse sea creatures that can be observed along the rocky shores of the Gulf of California. In these pages, you will find a trove of valuable information whether you take this book with you along the beach, meeting the fascinating creatures at the tips of your toes, or simply read about these intertidal denizens from afar.

~~~

While I'm afraid we won't be able to fit a review of this book into a forthcoming issue, I assure you it is a beautiful, user-friendly book that would serve Sea of Cortez visitors well.

Received: A Conservationist Manifesto, by Scott Russell Sanders

2009-05-11T11:33:00.001-07:00

With this post, we're committing to posting more often on this blog, in part by noting those publications we receive for review, which may or may not make it into an actual review on Terrain.org. Look for updates at least weekly and more often when possible.

We recently received:

A Conservationist Manifesto, by Scott Russell Sanders

Practical, Ecological, and Philosophical Grounds for a Conservation Ethic

From Indiana University Press, the publisher:

As an antidote to the destructive culture of consumption dominating American life today, Scott Russell Sanders calls for a culture of conservation that allows us to savor and preserve the world, instead of devouring it. How might we shift to a more durable and responsible way of life? What changes in values and behavior will be required? Ranging geographically from southern Indiana to the Boundary Waters Wilderness and culturally from the Bible to billboards, Sanders extends the visions of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Rachel Carson to our own day.

A Conservationist Manifesto shows the crucial relevance of a conservation ethic at a time of mounting concern about global climate change, depletion of natural resources, extinction of species, and the economic inequities between rich and poor nations. The important message of this powerful book is that conservation is not simply a personal virtue but a public one.

Scott Russell Sanders, Distinguished Professor of English at Indiana University Bloomington, is the author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction, including Writing from the Center (IUP, 1995), Hunting for Hope, and A Private History of Awe. Sanders is winner of the Lannan Literary Award, John Burroughs Essay Award for Natural History, AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction, and the 2009 Mark Twain Award. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

What others are saying:

"Sanders’s A Conservationist Manifesto is a book to be savored — for its language, its stories, its sense of place, and for how it reminds us of the profound relationships with nature and each other that can inspire us to change how we live on this planet. . . . A must read for all of us who are wrestling with the future of conservation and searching for how to express the values that will take us to a greener and more sustainable future"
— Will Rogers, President, The Trust for Public Land

~~~

Look for a review of A Conservationist Manifesto in Terrain.org's next issue, which publishes on September 10, 2009.

A Note from Scott Russell Sanders on Earth Day

2009-04-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

On Earth Day, here I am adding to the flow of messages through your inbox, in order to let you know that my new book, A Conservationist Manifesto, has just risen into the daylight, along with sprouts in my Indiana garden. You will find a description and early reviews of the book at my website.

Briefly, I’m envisioning how we might shift from a culture of consumption to a culture of conservation. What would a truly sustainable economy look like? What responsibilities do we bear for the well-being of future generations? What responsibilities do we bear toward Earth’s millions of other species? In a time of ecological calamity and widespread human suffering, how should we imagine a good life? A Conservationist Manifesto seeks answers to these pressing questions, and more, in writing that’s impelled by a sense of place and a sense of hope.

Scott

~~~

Look for a review of A Conservationist Manifesto in the forthcoming issue of Terrain.org, online September 10. Until then, read a Terrain.org interview with Scott Russell Sanders.

Terrain.org Back Online

2009-03-23T11:05:00.001-07:00

Terrain.org is now back online, and we may all breathe a little easier.... ;~)

Terrain.org Temporarily Down

2009-03-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

It appears that since last night and continuing through this morning, there are IP issues with the Terrain.org domain (and subdomains, though email is working). My hope is that Terrain.org is back up very shortly.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

Best,

Simmons Buntin
Editor/Publisher
Terrain.org

Terrain.org Makes Top 50 List

2009-03-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments was recently named to the "Top 50 Literary Magazines and Metazines" list by Web del Sol. View full list.

The criteria for judging are Non-Corporate, Brilliant + Dynamic Content, Long-Lasting, Cosmetically Efficient.

We're delighted to make the cut, and hope that Terrain.org meets all of your criteria, as well!

Terrain.org Essay Selected as Best of the Web 2009

2009-01-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

The editors of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Builtl & Natural Environments are pleased to announced that, for the second year in a row, a Terrain.org contribution has been selected for Dzanc Book's Best of the Web annual series.

This year, the essay "Catching Hell: The Joe Holt Integration Story" by Heather Killelea McEntarfer was selected for the Best of the Web 2009.

Last year, the story "The Split" by Kim Whitehead was selected for the Best of the Web 2008.

The series, which started with the 2008 edition, is the first substantial attempt at creating an annual print compilation of the best of material published online -- and we're delighted that contributions from Terrain.org have been selected for each edition.

The 2009 edition is due out in June. Learn more at http://www.dzancbooks.org/store/botw2009.html.

Terrain.org Issue No. 23 : Symbiosis : Now Online

2009-01-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments is pleased to announce the launch of Issue No. 23, with the theme of “Symbiosis,” at http://www.terrain.org.

This issue features an interview with Scott Russell Sanders; essays by Sharman Apt Russell, Stephen Trimble, and Deanne Stillman; articles on Sustainability and the Pringle Creek Community and Saving Coral Reefs; twenty poets with audio; new fiction; columns, including a new regular editorial by Lauret Savoy; and more.

Specifically, this issue of Terrain.org includes:

Guest editorial by Mandy Creighton, Within Reach, titled “Cycling Toward Sustainable Community”

Columns by Simmons B. Buntin (Flare: an online photo gallery of cranes and geese at the Bosque del Apache), Deborah Fries (The Language of Give and Take), David Rothenberg (Does nature need us? Symbiosis as one way to survive), and Lauret Savoy (Placing Washington, D.C., before the Inauguration)

Interview with author Scott Russell Sanders

UnSprawl case study: Plum Creek in Kyle, Texas

Poetry with audio by Aleria Jensen, Janet Smith, Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Greg McBride, Dorine Jennette, Wally Smith, Lori Anderson Moseman, John Hildebidle, Beth Paulson, Andrew C. Gottlieb, Joy Ladin, Dan Stryk, Mary Cisper, Suzanne Roberts, Cynthia Belmont, Rachel Dacus, Jared Pearce, Pianta, C.E. Chaffin, and Michael J. Vaughn

Essays:

Letter to My Father Concerning the State of the World, by Sharman Apt Russell
Devil’s Bargains, with online slideshow, by Stephen Trimble
Educating the Body, by Katherine Jamieson
Report from Monona County: Mysterious work, with audio, by Kelly Madigan Erlandson
The Unaccountable Stupidity of Living Things, by Anca Vlasopolos
Horse Latitudes, by Deanne Stillman

Fiction by Patrick Burns (with audio), Ron Rindo, and Jonathan Dozier-Ezell

Articles:

One Green Thing Leads to Another: Sustainability at the Pringle Creek Community, by Jim Fizsimons
Saving Coral Reefs: Darwin’s Second Obsession Needs to be Our First, by Rick MacPherson
Building and Dwelling in the Mountains: The Sage Mountain Center Story, by Kathryn Bundy
Muir Woods National Monument: William Kent’s Progressive Vision, text by Tom Butler, photograpy by Antonio Vizcaino

Photographer Ben Krall in the ARTerrain gallery

Reviews of Nancy A. Nichols’s Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town’s Toxic Legacy, and Lit Windowpane, poems by Suzanne Frischkorn

Check out the new issue now at http://www.terrain.org/.

Previous issues are fully archived at www.terrain.org/archives, and submission guidelines are at www.terrain.org/submit.

What are Ocean Dead Zones?

2008-10-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

EarthTalk
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What are these “ocean deserts” I’ve been hearing about? Also, didn’t I read that there was a huge mass of plastic bottles floating around somewhere on the ocean surface?
-- Wally Mattson, Eugene, OR

So-called “ocean deserts” or “dead zones” are oxygen-starved (or “hypoxic”) areas of the ocean. They can occur naturally, or be caused by an excess of nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers, sewage effluent and/or emissions from factories, trucks and automobiles. The nitrogen acts as a nutrient that, in turn, triggers an explosion of algae or plankton, which in turn deplete the water’s oxygen.

According to the Ocean Conservancy, a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico—where the Mississippi River dumps untold gallons of polluted water every second—has expanded to over 18,000 square kilometers in the last decade. Many other such dead zones have also undergone rapid expansion in recent years.

A recent study by German oceanographer Lothar Stramma and a team of prominent international researchers confirms this phenomenon and also points the finger at global warming. Their data show that oxygen levels hundreds of feet below the ocean surface have declined over the past 50 years around the world, most likely a result of human activity. And as ocean waters warm due to climate change, they retain less oxygen. Furthermore, warmer upper layers of water stifle the process that brings nutrients up from colder, deeper parts of the ocean to feed a wide range of surface-dwelling marine wildlife.

The expansion of these dead zones is bad news for most marine inhabitants and the ecosystems they thrive in. Thousands of different species already stressed from over fishing and other threats, now must contend with expanding hypoxic areas throughout regions that once constituted healthy habitat.

The accumulation of plastic debris and other trash in the ocean is not necessarily related to hypoxic zones, but is yet another major problem facing the world’s fragile marine ecosystems. California-based sea captain and ocean researcher Charles Moore discovered what is now known as the Eastern Garbage Patch—an aggregation of plastic and other marine debris occupying some 700,000 square kilometers in the North Pacific Ocean—during a crossing of the North Pacific in 1997. In a 2003 article in Natural History Magazine, Moore reported being astounded that he couldn’t be further from land anywhere on Earth yet he could see plastic bags and other debris coating the ocean’s surface as far as the eye could see.

Individuals can help the oceans and their inhabitants by making smart daily choices that can have collective, positive impact. Lowering your carbon footprint—driving less, biking more, donning a sweater instead of turning up the heat—is one way to help stem the spread of hypoxic zones, which is directly related to industrial activity and the amount of greenhouse gases we spew into the atmosphere.

And limiting plastic and plastic bag use is the best way to prevent such litter from ending up swirling around mid-ocean. Some countries, such as China, and many large cities—San Francisco, for example—have banned plastic grocery bags. If your city hasn’t yet taken this step, pressure them to do so—and in the meantime bring your own reusable bags to the market and avoid plastic wherever else you can.

CONTACTS: Ocean Conservancy, www.oceanconservancy.org; Natural History Magazine, www.naturalhistorymag.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

Environment and Immigration

2008-09-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

The editors of Terrain.org feel there's much more to the immigration-environment nexus than this EarthTalk issue presents--including damage the border wall is doing to wildlife and damage immigrants themselves do to natural areas along the border with Mexico--but it's a good primer of other concerns:

EarthTalk From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Why are some environmental groups jumping on the immigration issue? What does immigration have to do with the environment?
-- Ginna Jones, Darien, CT

What to do about booming legal and illegal immigration rates is one of the most controversial topics on Americans’ political agenda these days. More than a million immigrants achieve permanent resident status in the U.S. every year. Another 700,000 become full-fledged American citizens. The non-profit Pew Research Center reports that 82 percent of U.S. population growth is attributable to immigration.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that U.S. population will grow from 303 million people today to 400 million as early as 2040. While many industrialized nations, including Japan and most of Western Europe, are experiencing population growth slowdowns due to below replacement birth levels and little immigration, the U.S. is growing so fast that it trails only India and China in total numbers.

Advocates for U.S. population stabilization, including some environmental organizations and leaders, fear that this ongoing influx of new arrivals is forcing the nation to exceed its “carrying capacity,” stressing an already overburdened physical infrastructure. David Durham of Population-Environment Balance says that Americans who care about the environment should insist on reducing immigration, to recognize “ecological realities such as limited potable water, topsoil and infrastructure.” He also cites studies showing that a permissive U.S. immigration policy drives up fertility rates in the sending countries “which is the last thing these sending countries need.”

To others the problem is larger than immigration itself. “People don’t just materialize at our border, or at any border,” says John Seager of Population Connection. “When you talk about immigration, you’re talking about the second half of a process that begins when people decide to leave their homes.” And they are usually leaving their homes because of hunger, lack of work, oppression, or any number of other often-desperate reasons. Seager and many others argue that by helping poor nations better address the economic and family planning needs of their citizens, Americans can not only help improve the lot of millions of people living in dire poverty, but also slow down the tide of immigration.

Groups focusing on the immigration-environment nexus are keen to get their voices heard, but many mainstream green groups shun the highly divisive topic, preferring instead to encourage Americans, who are infamous around the world for their huge homes, gas-guzzling cars and extravagant consumption habits, to curb their unsustainable lifestyles, which they see as more fundamental to U.S. environmental problems than population pressures. With just five percent of the world’s people, Americans use a quarter of the world’s fossil fuels, own more private cars than drivers with licenses, and live in homes that are on average 38 percent larger today than they were in 1975. By scaling back, Americans can take a big bite out of pollution, sprawl and other environmental problems, while also setting a good example for those who land in the U.S. every year, lowering the nation’s collective carbon footprint significantly in the process.

CONTACTS: Pew Research Center, www.pewresearch.org; Population-Environment Balance, www.balance.org; Population Connection, www.populationconnection.org.

Food Safety and Plastics

2008-08-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

EarthTalkTM
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve read that plastic bottles are not always safe to reuse over and over as harmful chemicals can leach out into the contents. I’m wondering if the same issues plague Tupperware and other similar plastic food storage containers.
-- Sylvie, Dawson City, Yukon, Canada

The recent hubbub over plastic containers leaching chemicals into food and drinks has cast a pall over all kinds of plastics that come into contact with what we ingest, whether deserved or not. Some conscientious consumers are forsaking all plastics entirely out of health concerns. But while it is true that exposure to certain chemicals found in some plastics has been linked to various human health problems (especially certain types of cancer and reproductive disorders), only a small percentage of plastics contain them.

According to The Green Guide, a website and magazine devoted to greener living and owned by the National Geographic Society, the safest plastics for repeated use in storing food are made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE, or plastic #2), low-density polyethylene (LDPE, or plastic #4) and polypropylene (PP, or plastic #5). Most Tupperware products are made of LDPE or PP, and as such are considered safe for repeated use storing food items and cycling through the dishwasher. Most food storage products from Glad, Hefty, Ziploc and Saran also pass The Green Guide’s muster for health safety.

But consumers should be aware of more than just a few “safe” brands, as most companies make several product lines featuring different types of plastics. While the vast majority of Tupperware products are considered safe, for example, some of its food storage containers use polycarbonate (plastic #7), which has been shown to leach the harmful hormone-disrupting chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) into food items after repeated uses. Consumers concerned about such risks might want to avoid the following polycarbonate-based Tupperware products: the Rock ‘N Serve microwave line, the Meals-in-Minutes Microsteamer, the “Elegant” Serving Line, the TupperCare baby bottle, the Pizza Keep’ N Heat container, and the Table Collection (the last three are no longer made but might still be kicking around your kitchen).

Beyond BPA, other chemicals can be found in various food storage containers. Containers made out of polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE, or plastic #1)—such as most soda bottles—are OK to use once, but can leach carcinogenic, hormone-disrupting phthalates when used over and over again. Also, many deli items come wrapped in plastic made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC, or plastic #3), which can leach cancer-causing dioxins. Swapping foods out of such wraps once the groceries are at home is advisable.

Containers made of polystyrene (PS, or plastic #6, also known as Styrofoam) can also be dangerous, as its base component, styrene, has been associated with skin, eye and respiratory irritation, depression, fatigue, compromised kidney function, and central nervous system damage. Take-out restaurant orders often come in polystyrene containers, which also should be emptied into safer containers once you get them home.

If your head is spinning and you can’t bear to examine the bottom of yet another plastic food storage container for its recycling number, go with glass. Pyrex, for instance, does not contain chemicals that can leach into food. Of course, such items can break into glass shards if dropped. But most consumers would gladly trade the risk of chemical contamination for the risk of breakage any day.

CONTACTS: The Green Guide, www.thegreenguide.com; Tupperware, www.tupperware.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

New Online Submission Tool

2008-08-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments is pleased to announce the launch of our new online submission tool:

Terrain.org Submission Manager

Now people who submit poetry, essays, fiction, articles, and reviews may create a username and password and log in to easily submit and track their work.

Accordingly, we no longer accept submissions by email (but queries should still be sent that way).

And our submission period is now open for our next issue, No. 23, with the theme of "Symbiosis," which launches on January 10, 2009.

View our Submission Guidelines, then log into our new Submission Manager, to submit your work.

Terrain.org's Understory / Overgrowth Issue Now Online

2008-07-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

The editors of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments (http://www.terrain.org/) are pleased to announce the launch of Issue No. 22, with the theme of "Understory / Overgrowth." This issue features:

Columns

Three Catastrophes, One Sky, guest editorial by Kieran Suckling, Center for Biological Diversity
Editorials by Simmons B. Buntin, David Rothenberg (with audio), and Deborah Fries

UnSprawl Case Study

Bradburn Village in Westminster, Colorado

Essays

Catching Hell: The Joe Holt Integration Story, by Heather Killelea McEntarfer
The Teeming Abyss: Weaving Through the Pemon Amazon, by Paul Huebener
Waiting for the Train, by Deirdre Duffy
Kempsville Summer, 1961, by Richard Goodman
Sunset Canto, from River of Traps, with Online Slideshow, text by William deBuys, photos by Alex Harris

Articles

The Future of Environmental Essay: A Discourse with Audio Excerpts, by Alison Hawthorne Deming, David Gessner, David Rothenberg, and Lauret Savoy
An Undefended Buffet: The Unnecessary Extinction of the Redbay, a Defining Southern Tree, by Susan Cerulean
Planting Pipelines in National Parks: The West-wide Energy Corridor and the Future of Public Lands in the West, by Erin Podolak
High Point: A Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing in Seattle, by Walker Wells
The Currency of Nature, by David Wann

ARTerrain Gallery

Twelve conceptual nature drawings by Suzanne Stryk

Interview

Michael J. Vaughn interviews poet laureate Charles Simic

Poetry

Poetry by Leonore Wilson, Twilight Greenaway, Paul Hostovsky, Elizabeth Simson (with audio), Joanna Gardner, Kathryn Kikrpatrick, Sarah Sarai, Lee Passarella, Nancy Takacs (with audio), Christine Klocek-Lim (with audio), Karla Linn Merrifield, John Estes, and Gretchen Primack

Fiction

Nova, by Liz Warren-Pederson (with audio)
Coyote, by Werner A. Low
Higher Ground, by Darren Akerman
South of Flag, by Aaron H. Gilbreath
Devil Takes the Hindmost, by Rosalie Morales Kearns

Reviews

Stephanie Eve Boone reviews Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach and More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want by Robert Engelman
Rich Michal reviews Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities by Patrick M. Condon
Simmons B. Buntin reviews Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound by David Rothenberg

Check out the latest issue now at http://www.terrain.org/.

The Plan for Tomorrow's (Green) Mega City

2008-06-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

at Popular Science is worth checking out:

http://www.popsci.com/futurecity/home2.html

Terrain.org Reading Period Closed, Look for New Issue July 10

2008-06-11T11:15:00.001-07:00

The Terrain.org reading period is now closed, but will open again on August 1 with a new online submission tool.

Look for our next issue, with the theme of "Understory / Overgrowth," on July 10.

Thank you!

New Blog: The Green Fork, from Eat Well Guide

2008-04-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of thousands of family farms, restaurants, markets and other outlets that offer local, fresh and sustainable food in the United States and Canada.

Visitors simply enter a zip or postal code to search for food that is free of antibiotics and added hormones, and produced by healthy and humane methods that include organic, pasture-raised and heritage. Check it out at http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?id=Home.

And today (happy Earth Day, by the way!) the Guide launched The Green Fork, its new blog. Read it at http://blog.eatwellguide.org/.

Both are quite yummy, if you'll parden the pun.

New Women's Magazine is Positively Green

2008-04-10T21:42:00.001-07:00

From the publishers of the new magazine Positively Green:

How does a green girl live without her very own green magazine just for girls? She doesn't have to!

Positively Green is just the magazine you've been looking for; with eco-gossip, fashion and beauty, health and green issues, the coolest green products, the best green travel destinations as well as simple green solutions and tips on cooking green. The magazine will launch in August but pre-subscribers can sign up at a discount AND with every one year subscription, Positively Green will donate $2 to the eco-charity of your choice so you can save the planet while you're learning how to save the planet. Rachelle Begley, co-star of Living with Ed, graces the cover of our premiere issue.

To subscribe and see a small 32-page preview (the actual magazine will be 112 pages printed on recycled paper and we offset our carbon footprint from shipping, etc) go to http://www.positivelygreen.com.

A Parent to Poetry : Jessie Lendennie : Salmon Poetry

2008-02-25T19:21:00.000-08:00

A parent to poetry
by Eva Bourke
Published in The Irish Times : Saturday, 23 February, 2008

For more than 26 years, [Terrain.org editorial board member] Jessie Lendennie has been nurturing and publishing poets via Salmon Poetry, from her home in Co Clare. One of them, Eva Bourke , salutes her contribution If one compares Gallery, Dedalus and Salmon Poetry, three major poetry presses in Ireland, the former two could be likened to two weighty ships pursuing the course of the great poetic narrative with a worthy crew and an exclusive dignified passenger list, Salmon Poetry, on the other hand, to a lighter sailing vessel tacking against the wind and waves and rescuing refugees and wanderers from all ends of the earth. These will be nurtured, encouraged and safely put ashore again to make room for newcomers.

Jessie Lendennie, who has been running the press for more than 26 years, possesses the rare gift of an inclusive and non-judgmental disposition. The quality of the work and the bibliography of poets in Salmon's recently published anthology, Salmon: A Journey in Poetry 1981-2007, edited by Lendennie - its cover featuring an eye-catching detail of an abstract painting by Maunagh Kelly - attest to a non-parochial, cross-cultural ethos, openness towards diversity and an animating spirit of discovery and risk-taking that have benefited many, and in the long run also the press itself. Recently Jessie Lendennie and Siobhán Hutson, who is in charge of the production and design of Salmon's famously attractive books, went to New York together to take part in the conference of Associated Writers and Writing Programmes. They also introduced the anthology - in which myself and many others are included - with a reading in the Bowery Poetry Club.

In her characteristically brief and engaging introduction to the anthology, Lendennie writes that as a melancholy, poetry-addicted adolescent she would never have imagined she would eventually "lead a life filled with space, books, writers and poetry", but that's exactly what happened after she arrived in Galway in the mid-1980s from the US via London. Her and her partner, Michael Allen's plan had been to dedicate themselves to writing but, having come from a lengthy stint as assistant at the Poetry Library in London, she missed the exchange of ideas with other writers, joined a workshop in the university in Galway, and discovered that there were hardly any outlets for publishing poetry in the west and that many talented women writers mainly wrote for their desk drawers.

IN TYPICAL HANDS-ON fashion she started a broadsheet, which metamorphosed into the Salmon poetry magazine and not much later the Salmon Poetry press or Salmon Publishing, as it was then called.

Today Salmon Poetry operates from a small, green, two-storey house near the Cliffs of Moher. When I visited Jessie there recently I was greeted on arrival by five friendly sheepdogs who accompanied us into the airy book- and paper-littered office where she and Siobhán work. Both a tribute to the poets as well as a testimony to the remarkable energy and dedication Lendennie has shown in keeping Salmon afloat through occasionally very turbulent times, the anthology is a voluminous book dedicated to the memory of the eight Salmon poets who have meanwhile died, Anne Kennedy, Eithne Strong and Ted McNulty among them. On roughly 400 pages it features three poems each by 106 poets who were published by Salmon during the past 26 years, sufficient evidence that the press has finally entered a calmer period and may be allowed to rest a little on its laurels. Whether one dips into it now and again or reads large sections in a single sitting one will come across beautifully animated poetry by literary greats as well as poets whose names are less familiar, from both sides of the Atlantic. As a record of poetry-publishing history and the progress of the art throughout the latter years of the 20th century the book is invaluable and ought to be on the Irish literature shelves of all libraries in the country.

Poetry publishing is an arm of the book industry that is in permanent crisis, especially because many bookstores refuse to stock poetry or banish it to the dark remote corners of the shop. Large publishers safely opt for the re-publication of collections by established poets or for anthologies of recycled canonical poems with a smattering of more recent ones all packaged nicely under headings such as "Poems for Winter" or "The Angel Next to You", as I saw in Berlin bookstores recently. Intended for customers who can't think of any other birthday or Christmas present, they have a middling chance of selling.

New poetry, always a minority interest, is a tender blossom in need of shelter from the harsh climate of market forces, especially if it is innovative and experimental. Anyone mad enough to launch a poetry press into this world, in particular one that is specialising in work by unknown poets, is therefore at risk from the start. In this country and in Britain the Arts Councils hold a protecting hand over these enterprises. But only after a lengthy period during which they must truck on until they have proven themselves worthy will poetry publishers be rewarded with a grant that will just about keep the wolf from the door.

LENDENNIE HAS BEEN there, as she will freely tell you. She has fought for Salmon and has managed, with the invaluable assistance of Siobhán Hutson, to keep it going on a shoestring year after difficult year. Their labour is Herculean. One of Jessie Lendennie's most attractive and disarming traits is her maternal manner towards her poets. Like a good parent, she is a facilitator, not a dictator. She has no interest in forming anything or anyone after her own image but gets on with the task of getting the books out. I remember well how invariably obliging she was despite her chronic money shortage, how she always did her utmost to keep her poets contented - a difficult enough undertaking - and how unhappy she was if she failed. Over the years she particularly encouraged women, who in the beginnings of the press were so disheartened by Ireland's male-dominated literary establishment that they had stopped sending work out.

Rita Ann Higgins said recently that we were very lucky to have her at the time of starting out as poets, and so we were. Our lives and those of many other poets might have turned out quite differently had Salmon Poetry never happened.

Salmon: A Journey in Poetry 1981-2007 is published by Salmon Poetry
© 2008 The Irish Times

Panel and Reading Image Gallery

2008-02-09T13:26:00.000-08:00

Tune your browser to:

http://www.terrain.org/img/gallery/index.html

for images of recent Terrain.org and related literary events in New York City, including:

"The Future of Environmental Essay" panel at the AWP conference, facilitated by Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin and featuring Alison Hawthorne Deming, David Gessner, David Rothenberg, and Lauret Savoy (look for the text of their presentations in the July issue of Terrain.org).

Terrain.org 10th Anniversity Reading, featuring Scott Edward Anderson, Teague Bohlen, Simmons B. Buntin, Scott Calhoun, Philip Fried, Deborah Fries, Suzanne Frischkorn, Donna J. Gelagotis Lee, Dennis Must, Shann Palmer, David Rothenberg, Andrew Wingfield, and Jake Adam York; at Cornelia Street Cafe

Salmon: A Journey in Poetry Anthology Launch & Reading, hosted by Salmon Poetry publisher Jessie Lendennie, and featuring Simmons B. Buntin and others; at the Bowery Poetry Club

http://www.terrain.org/img/gallery/index.html

Meet Terrain.org at AWP

2008-01-27T13:18:00.001-08:00

Terrain.org staff and contributors will be at the annual AWP conference and bookfair in New York City from January 31 to February 2. Join us at:

Table #480 at the Hilton's Americas Hall II, access from 3rd floor -- we'll have a laptop with a slideshow of the journal, Terrain.org e-News signup, handouts, and more.
Terrain.org 10th Anniversary Reading on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 6-8 p.m. at the Cornelia Street Cafe. View flyer.
Panel: "The Future of Environmental Essay," moderated by Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin and including Alison Hawthorne Deming, David Gessner, David Rothenberg, and Lauret Savoy -- from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2, in the Sutton South, Hilton 2nd Floor
Salmon Poetry Reading, featuring Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin and many other Salmon Publishing poets, at the Bowery Poetry Club: Saturday, Feb. 2, 10 p.m.

The AWP bookfair is open to the public on Saturday, so even if you're not going to AWP but are in New York City, please consider stopping by. And if you're already at AWP, then be sure to stop by!

An extra incentive: The first person at AWP to mention the Terrain.org Blog as the source of this information will receive a free, signed copy of Simmons Buntin's book of poems, Riverfall (published by Salmon Poetry).

Civano Community School Wins!

2008-01-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

The Civano Community School---which Simmons Buntin's daughters attend---won the "Go Green with All" greenest grade school in American contest, announced today on The Ellen Show. Very cool!

Details at http://gogreenwithall.com/home/.

In addition to a $50,000 grand prize for the school, each student receives an iPod shuffle with a solar charger, and each family receives a year's supply of All concentrated detergent.

This is the work of many good folks, but Pam Bateman, school marm, deserves special recognition.

Carbon Offsets, from Earth Talk

2008-01-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: My global warming guilt is starting to catch up with me, and I’ve heard that I can buy “carbon offsets” to help make things right. How do they work? -- Miranda Snavely, Milton, WA

Carbon offsets are monies that consumers and businesses pay voluntarily to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions they generate directly by driving, flying, running the air conditioning and otherwise using non-renewable energy. Companies and nonprofit groups that sell offsets use the dollars generated to fund alternative energy and other projects that will ultimately eliminate greenhouse gas emissions (such as wind farms that can replace coal-fired power plants in generating electricity).

“Carbon offsetting is one of many economic actions you can take to address climate change, and it is a powerful one,” says the nonprofit Co-op America, “Many promising projects that would help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions lack the capital they need to get built; by directing your offset dollars to these projects, you can help finance new wind farms, solar arrays, and more.”

Dozens of carbon-offset vendors have sprung up in recent years. Consumers interested in buying offsets should do their homework, as some firms have better reputations than others. Co-op America recommends offsets that support specific projects that wouldn’t have happened otherwise and that have measurable near-term goals. Legitimate offset providers should also be able to back up all claims and show a clear money trail to the projects being funded. Co-op America urges consumers to avoid tree-planting programs, which are hard to quantify, and “climate exchange allowances” (also known as “pollution trading” or “emissions trading”), which many consider to be veiled ways of letting companies buy the right to pollute.

Co-op America lauds the Climate Trust (non-profit, funds wind farms in Oregon), TerraPass (for-profit, funds methane gas capture from landfills and farms), Native Energy (for-profit, funds new wind farms and solar arrays) and Sustainable Travel International’s MyClimate (non-profit, funds clean energy in developing countries) as some of the leading offset providers with reputable business models.

Those looking to dig deeper into the ways different offset providers operate should check out Clean Air-Cool Planet’s Consumer's Guide to Carbon Offsets. The free 44-page PDF download assesses the strengths and weaknesses of some two-dozen carbon offset programs. The guide gives highest marks to Climate Trust, Native Energy and MyClimate, although other providers are also praised for specific programs. Another good free online resource comparing various offset programs on one page/chart is on the Carbon Offsets Survey page on the EcoBusinessLinks Environmental Directory.

Consumers should understand that offsets may be convenient, but are essentially only icing on the cake of an otherwise diligent effort to reduce emissions by using energy less and more efficiently. “All the offsets in the world won’t help us,” warns Clean Air-Cool Planet, “if we in the U.S. don’t make big reductions in our overall greenhouse gas emissions and effect a transition away from wasteful use of fossil fuels.”

CONTACTS: Co-op America, www.coopamerica.org; Climate Trust, www.climatetrust.org; TerraPass, www.terrapass.com; NativeEnergy, www.nativeenergy.com; Sustainable Travel International, www.sustainabletravelinternational.org; Clean Air-Cool Planet, www.cleanair-coolplanet.org; EcoBusinessLinks, www.ecobusinesslinks.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

Terrain.org Issue No. 21 : Islands & Archipelagos : Now Live!

2008-01-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments

Winter/Spring 2008 Issue Now Online: http://www.terrain.org

Issue No. 21 — Islands & Archipelagos — features a rich mix of contributions:

Columns

- Guest Editorial: “Restoring Abundant Oceans” by Andrew Sharpless, Oceana
- Simmons B. Buntin scribes a portrait of Fernando at Bahía de Loreto
- David Rothenberg plays clarinet to humpback whales off Hawaii
- Deborah Fries recounts the Rutherford Island life of artist Ellen Vincent

Interview

- Terrain.org interviews author David Quammen

Poetry

Poetry by Susan F. Benjamin, Donna J. Gelagotis Lee, J.D. Schraffenberger, Margarita Engle, Eric Paul Shaffer, Wendy Burk, Scott T. Starbuck, Paul Fisher, Yvonne Carpenter, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, and Jane Levin

Essays

- "Searching within the Archipelago" by Steve Kahn, with photos by John Hohl
- "St. Francis and the Isle of Foula" by Lynne Shapiro
- "Navajo Women: Doorway Between Traditional and Modern Life" by Betty Reid, with photos by Kenji Kawano
- "Land and Money" by William R. Stimson
- "My Farmhouse in Japan: A Breakfast to Remember" by John Roderick

UnSprawl Case Study

The Villages of Loreto Bay in Baja California Sur —an 8,000-acre new urbanist project that strives to be North America’s largest sustainable resort development; it will include village neighborhoods constructed in nine phases along the Sea of Cortés

Fiction

- "The Third Way" by Tamara Kaye Sellman
- "Pelicans" by Julian Hoffman
- "Her Best Interests" by Janet Yung
- "The Way Things Fall" by Richard Denoncourt

Articles

- "Rice Island: Bali and the Cultivation of Tradition — A Narrative Slideshow" by Colin Donohue
- "Sky Islands of North America: A Globally Unique and Threatened Inland Archipelago" by Matt Skroch
- "No Community is an Island: Tributary and the Young & the Restless" by Rick Mildner and Brian Canin
- "Tourism Takes the Bird: Are Proposed Changes to Four Seasons Development Enough to Protect the Rare Grenada Dove?" by Dr. George Wallace
- "Ocean Acidification: A Greater Threat than Global Warming or Overfishing?" by Dr. William G.C. Burns

ARTerrain Gallery

- Ten natural light photographs from Floridian Joel B. McEachern

Reviews

- Deborah Fries reviews Salmon: A Journey in Poetry, 1981-2007, edited by Jessie Lendennie
- Simmons B. Buntin reviews Phantom Limb: Essays by Theresa Kishkan
- Stephanie Eve Boone reviews Nature Cure: A Story of Depression and Healing by Richard Mabey
- Terrain.org reviews Planet Ocean: Voyage to the Heart of the Marine Realm, by Laurent Ballesta and Pierre Descamp

View new issue now at http://www.terrain.org

Join Terrain.org at AWP

2008-01-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

Terrain.org will be at the annual AWP conference and bookfair in New York City from January 31 to February 2. Join us at:

Table #480 at the Hilton's Americas Hall II, access from 3rd floor -- we'll have laptops with journal access and a slideshow plus handouts
Terrain.org 10th Anniversary Reading on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 6-8 p.m. at the Cornelia Street Cafe. View flyer.
Panel: "The Future of Environmental Essay," moderated by Terrain.org editor Simmons Buntin and including Alison Hawthorne Deming, David Gessner, David Rothenberg, and Lauret Savoy -- from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Sutton South, Hilton 2nd Floor

If you're at AWP or in New York during that time, please stop by to say howdy.

Kim Whitehead's "The Split" Awarded Best of the Web

2007-12-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

Kim Whitehead's story "The Split," appearing in Terrain.org's current issue (No. 20) has been selected for the Best of the Web 2008 Dzanc Books print anthology.

Congratulations Kim!

Terrain.org Editor to Write Weekly Blog for The Next American City

2007-12-10T21:07:00.001-08:00

Terrain.org publisher and editor Simmons Buntin been recruited to write a weekly blog entry for The Next American City magazine's blog, and his first entry appeared today: "A Jaguar in the Backyard."

Look for Simmons's second entry tomorrow (Tuesday), and then new entries each Tuesday. You can see these and the other interesting city-related blog entries at:

http://americancity.org/updates/category/blog/

.

The Problem with Christmas

2007-12-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

"The Problem with Christmas" by Bill McKibben and appearing in one of our favorite online environmental resources Grist, is a wonderful, quick read that gave many of us the perspective we need this holiday season:

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/69068

Terrain.org Reading Period Closed

2007-12-01T21:35:00.001-08:00

The reading period for Terrain.org is currently closed, though we will continue to accept submissions and begin reading them again in February 2008.

Look for our 21st issue, "Islands & Archipelagos," at http://www.terrain.org/ on January 10, 2008.

All submissions received prior to December 1 will receive responses by mid-December. If you don't, please contact us.

One Month Remaining to Submit for "Islands & Archipelagos" Issue

2007-11-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

The submission deadline for Terrain.org's next issue, "Islands & Archipelagos," is December 1, 2007. We are still reviewing poetry, essays, fiction, and articles.

View submission guidelines at www.terrain.org/submit.

Salmon: A Journey in Poetry

2007-10-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Salmon: A Journey in Poetry 1981-2007 -- edited by Terrain.org editorial board member Jessie Lendennie -- celebrates 26 years of innovative and exciting Irish and international poetry. The organization of the volume is simple: two poems from the poet’s Salmon collection (or collections) and one uncollected poem. Detailed biographical notes for each poet and a complete bilbiography of Salmon's publications, are also included.

Look for a review by poet Deborah Fries in Terrain.org's upcoming issue.

Anthology on Global Warming Seeks Submissions

2007-10-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

anthology on global warming seeks creative works

Facing the Change: Grassroots Encounters with Global Warming will be acompletely new kind of book about global climate change. Instead of expertstalking at you, this planned anthology will feature personal responses toglobal warming---what everyday people are feeling and thinking as well aswhat they are doing. Stories, essays, and poetry are welcome, from writersand concerned citizens from all walks of life and all ages.

Go to www.facingthechange.org for more information and submission instructions (including a printable version of the full Invitation to Submit). The world needs your insight, strength, and compassion, says anthology editor Steven Pavlos Holmes, Independent Scholar in the Environmental Humanities, Boston, Massachusetts.

Terrain.org Blog Chosen as a "Top 100 Architecture Blog"

2007-10-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

We're delighted to report that International Listings Blog has included the Terrain.org Blog in its just-released "Top 100 Architecture Blogs" list.

View the full list at http://www.intlistings.com/articles/2007/top-100-architecture-blogs/.

Of course, that makes us feel a bit guilty that we don't update this blog as often as we should. Ah, shame is always good incentive....

Terrain.org Editor Interviewed by MiPOesias Magazine

2007-10-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Simmons B. Buntin, the editor of Terrain.org, was recently interviewed for MiPOesias's Men of the Web Wide Poetry World blog. An excerpt:

7) Where do you see your publication/editing in 5 years?

In five years Terrain.org should just about be on Issue No. 30. I envision more interactive features--Flash-based poems and video essays, for example, and article/essay commenting from readers. We're also considering online chapbooks and annual contests. The web is moving to handheld devices, so a "mobile" version of Terrain.org seems in order.

What I hope you won't (continue to) see is advertising.

Read the full interview at:

http://menoftheweb.blogspot.com/2007/10/simmons-b-buntin.html
.

A Sneak Peek at the Contents of Issue No. 21

2007-09-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org's 21st issue has the theme of "Islands & Archipelagos," and promises to be an interesting mix of literary and technical contributions, as we hope all issues are.

We are pleased to confirm that this issue's interview will be with natural history author David Quammen, who most recent book is the biography The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. I (that is, editor Simmons Buntin) has been a fan of Quammen's often eclectic but also essential writing since the mid-1980s, when Quammen wrote the award-winning "Natural Acts" column for Outside magazine.

The UnSprawl case study will be the new urban village of Loreto Bay in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Loreto Bay is not only unique because of its location on the Sea of Cortez, but because of its measures of sustainability which include water harvesting and desalinization, solar photovoltaic power utilization, and much more.

The ARTerrain gallery will feature the captivating water and island photography of Joel B. McEachern, who has published a brief photo-essay in Terrain.org once before.

We are still accepting submissions in the areas of poetry, essays, fiction, and articles. Submission deadline is December 1 for January 10, 2008, publication. Get more information at www.terrain.org/submit.
.

Calling Submitter: "Blue Water" Fiction

2007-08-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

We are looking for this morning's submitter of the fiction piece "Blue Water." The email was accidentally deleted (then purged) and the submission needs to be resent: review@terrain.org. Thank you, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Terrain.org Now Reading Submissions

2007-08-06T10:19:00.001-07:00

Terrain.org is now reading submissions of poetry, essay, fiction, articles, and reviews for the following three scheduled issues:

No. 21 : Islands & Archipelagos : Submission deadline December 1, 2007, for publication January 10, 2008
No. 22 : Understory / Overgrowth : Submission deadline June 1, 2008, for publication July 10
No. 23 : Symbiosis : Submission deadline December 1, 2008, for publication January 10, 2009

Learn more at www.terrain.org/submit.

Global Climate Change & Art: The High Water Line

2007-08-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Check out the following link for a subtle yet important art project in New York City to demonstrate the potential impact of global warming:

http://greenskeptic.blogspot.com/2007/08/global-climate-change-art-in-action.html

Terrain.org's Issue No. 20 : Community Sustained : Now Online!

2007-07-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments is pleased to announce our newest issue:

Issue No. 20 : Community Sustained : www.terrain.org

Columns

Guest Editorial : “Grassroots Good, Communities of Change” by Erik Hoffner, Orion Grassroots Network
Simmons B. Buntin’s The Literal Landscape : “A Taco Stand in Every Neighborhood”
David Rothenberg’s Bull Hill : “Avatud!” with place poems translated
Catherine Cunningham’s View from the Summit : “Westward Expansion”
NEW: Deborah Fries’ Plein Air : “Sustainable Magic: Restoring the Allure of Bedford Springs”

Interview

“Speaking Truth to Power” : Terrain.org interviews ecologist, author, and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber

UnSprawl Case Study

Southside in Greensboro, North Carolina

Articles

“Siena and Sustainability: City and Country in Tuscany,” with “Spannocchia: A Tuscan Sustainable Estate” article and extra Siena photos, by Thomas Harvey
“Community Development in Denver’s Curtis Park: A New Model for Urban Infill,” by Joe Colistra
“The Arts and Austin’s Second Street District,” by Janet Seibert
“Aging in Community: How the Coming Baby Boom Generation will Transform Traditional Models of Independent Living,” by Jan Moran and Paul Rollins
“Kiva: Reducing Poverty and Building Sustainable Communities through Micro-Lending,” by J.D. Stein

Essays

“Listening without Distraction: Sustainability in Little Tibet,” by Pamela Uschuk, with photos by William Pitt Root
“Accidental Summer Soundtrack” by Nishta Jaya Mehra
“Sitting on the Front Porch” by Cynthia Staples
“A Lake of Pure Sunshine” by Scott Calhoun
“Bollywood: An Obsession” with narrative slideshow, by Kaizer Rangwala

Poetry

Lynn Strongin
Danica Colic
Matthew Thorburn
Elizabeth Aamot
Lyn Lifshin
Justin Evans
Tim Bellows
Anca Vlasopolos
J.D. Smith
Eric Magrane, with images

Fiction

“The Great Citrus War” by Terry Sanville
“The Split” by Kim Whitehead
“Renting” by John Michael Cummings
“Thrashing” by Teague Bohlen

Reviews

Stephanie Eve Boone reviews Follies of Science: 20th Century Visions of Our Fantastic Future, by Eric Dregni and Jonathan Dregni
Bonnie Richardson reviews Drosscape: Wasting Urban Land in America, by Alan Berger
Simmons B. Buntin reviews On the Altar of Greece, poems by Donna J. Gelagotis Lee
Terrain.org reviews Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song, by Les Beletsky

Check out the latest issue now at http://www.terrain.org/.

Terrain.org Editor to Moderate 'The Future of Environmental Essay' Panel

2007-06-27T22:05:00.001-07:00

Simmons Buntin, editor and publisher of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments, will moderate a panel titled "The Future of Environmental Essay" at the 2008 AWP Conference in New York City, January 30 to February 2. Terrain.org will also have a table at the Bookfair.

The panel features writers/editors/teachers/scientists Alison Hawthorne Deming, David Gessner, David Rothenberg, and Lauret Savoy.

Panel Description:

Global warming, urbanization, deforestation—these are only a few of the global dilemmas that environmental writing attempts to tackle. Historically, environmental essay—beginning with writers like Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson—has taken a place-based, often spiritual approach to environmental issues. But what does the future of the environmental essay hold? Four prominent creative nonfiction writers and editors will provide insight, exploring environmental essay as both craft and motive.

If you're at the AWP Conference, please plan to join us for what promises to be an exceptional panel.

Conference: Innovative Ideas for a New West

2007-06-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Innovative Ideas for a New West: New Practices for Growing Communities of the Intermountain West
Sopris Foundation Conference
July 13-15, 2007
Missoula, Montana

The Sopris Foundation is doing great work on reimagining and working to create Western cities with a more sustainable future. The conference includes sessions in the areas of Agriculture, Biodiesel: Local Fuels Mobility, Community, Advanced Design, and Energy.

Speakers include Montanta governor Brian Schweitzer, Curitiba (Brazil) mayor Jaime Lerner, sustainability professor David Orr, and The Land Institute's Wes Jackson, among many others.

From Sopris:

"come to talk about the future of a place we are proud of. What do we do to protect and enhance all that made this place special? Sopris Foundation believes that good ideas speak. Come listen. Elected officials, planners, government employees, ranchers and farmers, grantmakers, and entrepreneurs welcome. Join us July 13-15 to share ideas on waking up the West."

Register and get more information at www.soprisfoundation.org.

Submission Reading Period Closes Today

2007-06-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org's submission reading period closes at the end of the day today, and will reopen on August 1, 2007. You may continue to submit, but realize that we will not read your work until August.

Look for the "Community Sustained" issue on July 10. It's a dandy!

Terrain.org 10th Anniversary Reading

2007-05-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the Terrain.org 10th Anniversary Reading, and hope you'll join us:

Thursday, January 31, 2008
6-8 p.m.
Cornelia Street Cafe
New York City, New York

The reading coincides with the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference and Bookfair, where Terrain.org will have a table.

Scheduled and invited readers include:

Scott Edward Anderson
Simmons B. Buntin
Scott Calhoun
Philip Fried
Deborah Fries
Suzanne Frischkorn
Dennis Must
Shann Palmer
David Rothenberg

Mark your calendars now!

Protect Beluga Whales

2007-05-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Tell the Bush Administration to Protect the Last 300 Beluga Whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet!

There are only 300 beluga whales left in Alaska's Cook Inlet -- a 77 percent decline from the 1,300 whales that thrived there in the early 1980s. Now that these whales are on the brink of extinction, the National Marine Fisheries Service is finally proposing to protect them as an endangered species. But industry groups -- backed by all three members of Alaska's congressional delegation -- are opposed to the whale's protection.

Send your Official Citizen Comment urging the Bush Administration to give these whales a fighting chance by protecting them as endangered and designating their critical habitat.

You can do that online, through the NRDC Action Fund, at:

http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/actionfund_beluga_0507

Follow the Planning Commissioners Journal Across America on U.S. 50

2007-05-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Planning Conversations from Coast-to-Coast -- cross country on U.S. 50 by day; blog updates by night

Do planners face the same issues in Maryland as they do in Colorado, in Ohio as in Kansas? That's part of what Wayne Senville, editor of the national Planning Commissioners Journal will be finding out during a six-week cross-country trip along U.S. Route 50.

Between the Memorial Day weekend and July 10th, Senville will be meeting with planners and planning commissioners in more than two dozen communities in the 12 states (and the District of Columbia) that Route 50 crosses.

Why Route 50? As Senville puts it, "Route 50 goes through an amazingly varied mix of cities and towns. From the beach resort of Ocean City, Maryland through our nation's capital, and then on through small cities in states like Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado, as well as the major hubs of Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Kansas City, Route 50 offers as good a reflection of the United States as can be found on any one roadway."

Discussions along Route 50 will focus on the most challenging planning and development issues communities are working on, highlighting both obstacles and opportunities.

According to Senville: "In conversations I've had with planners in setting up this trip, I know I'll be reporting on many critical issues facing cities and towns, from the revitalization of downtowns and urban riverfronts to dealing with the effects of explosive growth. I'll also be covering a diverse range of concerns: tourism and its impacts; inner-city economics; neighborhood efforts to make it easier for residents to 'age in place;' how to promote citizen involvement in local planning; and much more." And, adds Senville, "of course, I'll also be talking with planners about the challenges they face in dealing with roads and highways."

One of most innovative aspects of this trip -- indeed as far as we know the first time it's being done to report on coast-to-coast planning issues -- is that Senville will be posting daily online reports on what he's hearing. Through a combination of text, photos, video, and audio clips, visitors to the Route 50 blog site: www.Rte50.com will be able to follow Senville as he works his way West. Visitors to the blog are encouraged to leave comments on any of the postings.

The best place to find out more is by visiting the blog site. Again, that's www.Rte50.com

About the Planning Commissioners Journal

Now in its 16th year, the Planning Commissioners Journal is the principal national publication for "citizen planners" -- including members of town, city, county, and regional planning boards. With subscribers in all 50 states and across Canada, the quarterly "PCJ" -- based in Burlington, Vermont -- is independently owned and operated. For more on the PCJ: www.plannersweb.com.

Iraq Town Hall with Democractic Candidates, Sponsored by MoveOn

2007-04-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Next Tuesday--April 10th--at 7:15pm Eastern, MoveOn is using the Internet to connect presidential candidates directly to the people. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, DennisKucinich, and Joe Biden will answer questions from MoveOn.org's 3.2 million members in the first of three unprecedented virtual town hall meetings. The topic: Iraq.

Attend a local house party and experience the virtual town hall with others by going here:

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=80&id=10158-2464566-wedTlM&t=3

MoveOn members are asking candidates tough questions about their Iraq plans, and they are gathering in living rooms from coast to coast to hear the answers directly. The mass media won't be filtering the questions or filtering the answers---MoveOn will be connecting candidates directly to the people.

Right after the virtual town hall meeting, MoveOn will survey memberst o see which candidate they believe will do the best job of leading us out of the war in Iraq.

Environment and Conflict : Multimedia in Washington, DC

2007-03-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

For folks in the Washington, D.C. area (and a webcast, too):

Multimedia: Environment's Connection to Conflict, CooperationExhibition Opening at Woodrow Wilson Center

WASHINGTON---Environmental issues--water, climate, land, forests, and minerals--have played a part in some of world's worst conflicts. But these resources can also be harnessed to build peace. From April 2-20 at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a multimedia exhibit created by Berlin’s Adelphi Research will use interactive displays of photos, text, and video to address three questions:

Why do changes in our natural environment threaten people and livelihoods?
Does the exploitation of natural resources lead to violent conflict?
How can sustainable development and environmental cooperation contribute to stability and peace?

On Tuesday, April 3 from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Johannes K. Haindl, Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of Germany, and Lee H. Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, will open the exhibit at a reception in the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Hallway.

Also on April 3, from 3:30-5:30 p.m., an international panel will discuss environment, conflict, and cooperation in a public meeting, to be webcast live.

What: Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation: Panel Discussion ( WEBCAST LIVE ) and Exhibition Opening and Reception
Who: Alexander Carius, Director, Adelphi Research (Berlin), Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Director, Environmental Change and Security Program, Woodrow Wilson Center, and Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Chair, Department of Private Law, University of Nairobi, and Program Director, International Environmental Law Research Centre, Nairobi
When: Tuesday, April 3, 2007, 3:30 - 7:30 p.m., Panel Discussion: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. (6th Floor Flom Auditorium, Woodrow Wilson Center), Exhibition Opening and Reception: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (Woodrow Wilson Memorial Hallway)
Where: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Wilson Center is located in the Ronald Reagan Building at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The panel discussion is co-sponsored by the German Embassy, the German Information Center USA, the Heinrich Boell Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center. The German Embassy is hosting the reception.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living, national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds, engaged in the study of national and world affairs. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue.

Media planning to cover the event should contact Sharon McCarter at sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org or (202) 691-4016.

A Spring of Dying Bees

2007-03-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

A FOOD CHAIN RELEASE FROM METROFARM.COM

We know what happens with the birds and the bees. But it is the Spring of dying bees, and this leads us to ask, “What happens when there are no bees?”

This Saturday morning, March 24, at 9 am Pacific, the Food Chain with Michael Olson hosts Professors Eric Mussen from the University of California, Davis, and Jim Amrine from West Virginia University for a conversation about dying bees.

Log on www.metrofarm.com to listen on your radio, computer or IPOD.

Topics include why bees are dying in such big numbers this Spring; what might happen to the food chain should we lose our bees; and what solutions might there be to halt the die-off.

Question of the Week: What happens if we lose our bees?

Terrain.org on Grist Blog's "In Cities Is the Preservation of the World" Discussion

2007-03-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org was recently featured on the Grist Blog's (Gristmill) "In Cities Is the Preservation of the Word" discussion thread.

Specifically, one of the commentors said:

A wealth of Metro-Natural Lit

"For anyone who is not familiar with it; if there is a central hub on urban nature writing I believe it is terrain.org, the free online journal of the built and natural environments. I'm a big fan of the site. This is a journal that kind of evolved from the terra nova journal of the early nineties.

"If you look at their contributor's list, it can act as a who's who of the sub-genre.

"I think it has some of the best literature that addresses all of the five thematic questions that Ms. Price suggested, as well as several that she didn't. It also has a complete archive of all it' past issues available.

"There is such a wealth of great work here that it may change your opinion that not much is being written on the issue."

View and learn more about the Gristmill, "A blogful of leafy green commentary," at http://gristmill.grist.org/.

Terrain.org at AWP

2007-02-24T12:37:00.000-08:00

Look for Terrain.org flyers at the annual AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference, in Atlanta, Georgia, from March 1-3, 2007.

There you can also find Terrain.org's editor, Simmons Buntin, who is leading the "What's the Conversation Rate of Euros? Americans Publishing Abroad" panel on Saturday, March 3, from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. That's at North Court East, 2nd Floor, Hilton Atlanta.

And check out the Tucson Literary Orgs "Tucson Heat: A Big Sexy Reading" on Thursday, March 1, from 8:00 to 10:30 p.m. at the Midtown Tavern, 554 Piedmont Avenue. Terrain.org editorial board member Deborah Fries is one of many poets who will read. Get more info at AWP Bookfair table #270.

Ocean Noise 2006

2007-02-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

The Acoustic Ecology Institute, http://www.acousticecology.org, has released its spotlight report, Ocean Noise: What We Learned in 2006. You can view it at http://www.acousticecology.org/spotlight_oceannoise2006.html.

According to AEI, "The oceans contain over 80% of the earth’s total volume of habitat; because of limited light penetration, many ocean species rely heavily on sound for navigation, finding food, and maintaining group relationships. For decades, human activity has been increasing the noise levels in the oceans; over the past few years, we have begun to pause and consider the effects of our sounds on ocean life. The oil and gas industry, navies of the world, and field biologists are all putting more time and money into these questions than ever before. Here’s what was learned in 2006."

The online report of an often-overlooked environmental concern is worth investigating.

Terrain.org (Journal and Editor) Featured in Latest Writer's Digest

2007-02-20T21:08:00.000-08:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments is one of the featured "path to poetry" online markets in the April 2007 issue of Writer's Digest.

Take a peek, and you'll also see an article wrapped around the online markets list titled "Poetic Sustenance," written by Michael J. Vaughn. It's an article/interview with four poets: Grace Cavalieri, Jane Hirshfield, Doranne Laux, and Terrain.org editor Simmons B. Buntin. The interview's theme: getting your poetry out into the world.

Go buy a copy, won't you? :~)

National Day of Climate Action : April 14, 2007

2007-02-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

It's time to step it up, don't you think? Participate in the National Day of Climate Action on April 14.

Learn more at http://www.stepitup2007.org/.

mixeye: News, Events, and Journalism

2007-02-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

mixeye, a new website (for us, anyway), is currently highlighting an essay from the current issue of Terrain.org: "Earth Jazz" by Evan Eisenberg. The essay itself is a reprint from our print partner Terra Nova.

Check it out at http://www.mixeye.com/viewpoint.php?vid=226.

More on mixeye, from its own website: "Mixeye exists solely as a platform for the general public to showcase their insights and opinions. We seek to publish original, innovative articles from bloggers and previews of multimedia journalism projects to help facilitate the discovery of new perspectives and websites. Anyone can contribute. Viewpoints are categorized into channels to facilitate browsing and finding viewpoints of interest to you. So go ahead: browse through our collection of viewpoints, or contribute your own."

Annotation: Disturbing the Universe by Freeman Dyson

2007-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

Disturbing the Universe by Freeman Dyson

Disturbing the Universe is a mixed-genre account not only of Freeman Dyson’s academic and professional life, but of the scientific and often moral and spiritual development of the Western world, especially the United States as an intellectual melting pot, from World War II until the 1970s. I say mixed-genre because it is part memoir, part scientific reporting, part political commentary, part speculative and philosophical examination—and always utterly fascinating.

Of course, it does not account for all events nor even all major scientific advances during the time; it is not a catalog or encyclopedia, and it is much the better for that. Always told in the first person, Disturbing the Universe is divided into three sections: I. England, II. America, and III. Points Beyond.

As the sections evolve—the first section based primarily on a few specific, narrative examples of Dyson’s childhood as well as a more detailed account of his involvement in England’s Bomber Command, the second on his personal development and scientific involvement in a wide variety of math- and physics-related endeavors of national and global implication, and the third mostly discussing the future of science, and so the future of civilization—Dyson’s approach evolves, as well.

Memoir is strongest in the early sections. Scientific reporting and to a degree political commentary are strongest in the middle and largest section of the book. Philosophical exploration and resultant political commentary, though always specific and gentlemanly, define the third section. Personal essay combining flowing narrative and strong metaphor occurs throughout.

Dyson’s book is a classic example that you must first become an expert in your field to then wax poetic on it. By that I mean that Dyson thoroughly validates his concluding arguments—his vision of mankind’s future—by detailing his experiences, conjectures, and perhaps most importantly failures along with successes.

What captivated me most, however, was not the last but rather the first and second sections of the book. Here we find Dyson writing crisp, entertaining narrative that nonetheless covers complex subjects like nuclear physics and rocket science (particularly in the second section). Toward the end of II. America, though, Dyson weaves in a much stronger critique of political and military actions in relation to his own, clearly acknowledging his role, as much for worse as for better. The chapters “The Ethics of Defense” and “The Murder of Dover Sharp” are particularly pressing and poignant in this respect. Indeed, while we’ve learned a great deal about Dyson the scientist and even Dyson the critical thinker to this point, we may have learned the most about the man as a human being in these two chapters.

Even if we believe as Dyson does that time and space do not work in linear fashion, the book is mostly chronological. Given the technical nature of much of the subject matter, as well as the significant historical events—World War II and the Cold War, predominantly—a chronological approach both makes sense and works well. But Disturbing the Universe also does not rely solely on a linear pattern, as references to historic events, people, and arts (including and perhaps especially literature), and speculation and forethought are eloquently woven throughout the text.

Dyson’s major intents here are threefold. First, he wants to record the amazing time he lived in, as well has his place and role in that time. Second, he wants to demonstrate accountability for many of the actions of the day—both his involvement in scientific discoveries, and his responsibility in activities that he realizes were not right, or at least did not turn out as perhaps then the scientists thought it might. Dyson’s realization of the great harms of nuclear fallout from bomb tests and Orion rocket tests—if ever expanded—is perhaps the strongest example. Third, he wants to build upon his great experience to offer a vision of the future—with a passionate (and still scientifically credible) call for solar energy and an entertaining and thoroughly acceptable thesis on how humans will (not may; he has no doubt of this) expand into space.

While I think the third section is the weakest of the three—simply because it cannot rest on the imagery and compelling historical details of the first two sections—I do not consider the third section a weakness. All three sections and the entire book are wonderfully written, pulling from a wide array of literary techniques that in lesser collections could seem fragmented, but here work in harmony, not unlike the beautifully simple structure of a single atom.

Annotation: Twilight of the Mammoths by Paul S. Martin

2007-01-22T12:43:00.000-08:00

Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America
by Paul S. Martin

Paul S. Martin’s Twilight of the Mammoths is part academic discourse, part scientific review; yet all argument. The fundamental premise is that the megafauna of the “near history” of the late Quaternary era that are now extinct—large herbivores and carnivores such as mastadons, mammoths, giant sloths, saber-tooth tigers, North American lions, and a number of land-dwelling birds—are extinct worldwide due to the rapid expansion of humans. Martin’s thesis is based on numerous field research observations and subsequent analysis of fossils, facilitated largely by radiocarbon dating. His thesis is also based on critical scientific analysis of anthropogenic and paleontological research by peers over the last forty years. His conclusion is controversial for most in the field, as a radically changing climate was generally believed to be the cause of the mass extinctions. Martin’s intent, however, is not just to convince the reader and the full scientific community that the Clovis people, as the original pioneering North Americans have been called—for example—are responsible for extinction. His goal is to advocate strongly for a new, historically broader vision of what a “Wild America” should be; i.e., a “restoration ecology” that reintroduces animals that fill as closely as possible the niches of extinct fauna—not just bison and gazelle and other browsers that fill the equid niche, but elephants to replace mammoths and mastadons.

Martin’s approach is somewhat mixed, beginning with a heavily technical treatise on radiocarbon dating and Quaternary extinctions by genus, classification, and other categories. He then moves into an overview of his “overkill” idea, followed by a series of essays on field research in caves in the Grand Canyon, for example. Through these first chapters, I felt like I was thrown back into my wildlife biology days, with an academic journal-quality review that isn’t literary in nature but that, I now conclude, is essential to creating a baseline for Martin’s argument. Martin makes his case step-by-step, only occasionally stepping out of character to reveal his frustration with other scientists or, in some cases, with the inability to find good scientific data. Twilight of the Mammoths—and Martin’s thesis—finally come into their own beginning in Chapter 6, “Deadly Syncopation.” Here I realized, much to my delight, that as a reader I was clued in to a historically important scientific debate. Chapter 9 especially is a response to those who have openly doubted Martin—reading almost as a series of passionate letters. Or: Martin here has the pulpit, and is using a strong sermon—one growing in strength over the course of the book—to convince the congregation of fellow scientists (primarily; general readership secondarily) that the cause of the mass extinctions can only be the early humans, or their direct outcomes, such as rats devastating populations on Pacific islands.

Martin’s stylistic devices are primarily two-fold: 1) Persuasive scientific discourse—lengthy reviews of literature, fieldwork, and analysis, eliminating one-by-one arguments against his position; and 2) Personal asides, not quite as full personal essays—bringing a bit of Martin’s personality into the text, sometimes working for and sometimes against his otherwise consistent and determined approach.

What at first I thought was a weakness—the detailed academic review to begin the book—I now see as a strength, an essential establishment of a baseline, so that non-scientific (or, rather, those not in the general scientific field) have all of the taxonomic details from the get-go. Martin’s subsequent strength is to take all of this detailed information and press it into a logical, intuitive argument, even while realizing much more data and forthcoming data analysis tools and techniques—whatever they may be—will undoubtedly change what we know, and how we therefore consider these extinctions.

A single weakness may be that Martin does not spend more time on the ideas of restoration and resurrection. These chapters are succinct—but now that he has convinced me, I’m eager for more stories, more possibilities.

In all, Martin has presented a radical theory that should, I think, result in the elusive “paradigm shift,” not just about how we view the extinctions, but perhaps more importantly about how we view “unadulterated nature,” especially in the Western Hemisphere, Australia, and New Zealand.

Terrain.org Featured in Bioneers Buzz

2007-01-20T20:30:00.000-08:00

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments is the featured environmental organization in the current issue of Bioneers Buzz, with its emphasis on ecological design. Check it out at:

http://www.bioneers.org/node/1237#article1

What are Bioneers, you ask? "Bioneers are biological pioneers who are working with nature to heal nature and ourselves. They have peered deep into the heart of living systems to devise strategies for restoration based on nature's own operating instructions."

Learn more at http://www.bioneers.org/.

Parque Gutiérrez Zamora in Trouble

2007-01-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

From an email received today:

We are addressing you this letter with the intention of report you about the fate of a historical park in the city of Veracruz, Mexico. Created in 1793, this historical park named Parque Gutiérrez Zamora was part of a tropical forest that marked the entrance and the exit toward the south from the ancient city of Veracruz. This park represents the last piece of green area in our community. Unfortunately, the City Hall represented by the mayor of the city, Julen Rementeria del Puerto, is planning to build a parking in this area and to relocate, according to him, 170 trees in ridges. In this zone of centennial trees, the plants, flowers, insects, squirrels and birds will lose a part of their habitat. In fact, Parque Zamora is located in the historical town centre and it is part of the national heritage since March 1st, 2004, date of a presidential decree. The National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico has not emitted the authorization to build the parking in this protected area. We would like to know whether this information deserves a reflection in your magazine and will help to inform the readers.

Thank you for the assistance you can provide us.

Some additional or related information is available here (in Spanish), though we're afraid we don't otherwise have additional resources.

Annotation: Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss

2006-12-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

In Tristes Tropiques (translated beautifully in this edition by John and Dorren Weightman), Claude Lévi-Strauss presents a nine-part exploration of humans and the environment, and the anthropologist’s role in deciphering that exploration. Though centered mainly on Lévi-Strauss’s trips and research in Brazil, the book also ranges widely over sociology (Fascism, Capitalism, Marxism), religion (Muslem, Islam, Bhuddism), urban development, and education, in such other locations as Martinique, France, Chicago, India, and points in between—the latter mostly on-board ship.

Part one—An End to Journeying—is both introduction and manifesto, beginning, “I hate traveling and explorers.” Right away we learn much about the anthropologist—not so much his curriculum vitae (though there is a bit of that) but more importantly his feelings, his fears, his responses verbal and otherwise to the world around him. We also learn that he is an eloquent writer, an amazing assembler of beautiful imagery, and through-and-through a social scientist, both of the era and beyond.

In part two—Travel Notes—we get a more traditional “How I came to be an anthropologist” story, juxtaposed against what may well be the most detailed essay of a sunset, at 7½ pages, ever penned. We too wonder if, “after all these years, I could ever again achieve such a state of grace.”

Part three—The New World—brings us to the beginning of the heart of the book, concluding with a brilliant essay on urban design in the Americas (North and South), “São Paulo,” that should be required reading for students of architecture and urban planning alike.

Part four—The Earth and Its Inhabitants—takes us deeper into Brazil, literally and figuratively. Except it also takes us to India, takes us deep into the life of true poverty, of the utter failures of the caste system in India. In addition to excellent description, Lévi-Strauss is not shy about his opinions of the place, its people, its political systems—in sum, providing a detailed anthropological review and, in some cases, thesis on the place and its culture.

Part five—Caduveo—brings us to the first of four parts of true, sustained anthropological field study, each dedicated to a different tribe in Brazil’s vast interior. Parts six—Bororo—seven—Nambikwara—and eight—Tufi-Kawahib—are the apex of the book, as Lévi-Strauss and his (some few) associates spend dedicated time with each tribe, learning in fabulous detail about the culture of each. Though geographically similar, the tribes were otherwise absolutely unique in marriage, family life, religious belief, rituals, village design (or lack thereof), and the like.

Finally, part nine—The Return—is just that: a return from Lévi-Strauss’s long days in the field, and a closing discourse (following an almost dreamlike, unfinished play/parable he created called “The Apotheosis of Augustus”) about religion, about anthropology, about witness and inclusion.

Tristes Tropiques, then, is both memoir and (social) scientific field journal, with more than a sprinkling of travel writing mixed in to which Lévi-Strauss, from the get-go, confesses so strongly against. It presents a series of additional paradoxes that may not seem interrelated, but all relate to the variable human condition and therefore are critically connected. The challenge is what can be done about these problems—like the destruction of habitat and cultures both by the westward march of “progress,” like the incredible overpopulation and utter poverty of India, like religious intolerance. There is no solution presented, of course, but there is a concluding seed of hope, a sort of cosmic understanding, that presents itself sometimes in large and more often in very small, detailed ways.

Lévi-Strauss’s stylistic devices are primarily three-fold: imagery, metaphor, and inference. He has a wonderful ability simply to describe. He has a keen sense of comparison, sometimes sweeping but more often using metaphor in specific circumstances, sharp phrases. And, as a scientist, he has the important capability to infer from observation, at least partly answering the great scientific question: What does it all mean? Or at least: What does it mean in this particular situation, in this specific place? These are all his greatest strengths—that and timing, and by that I mean getting to these tribes before they too evaporated.

He may have two literary weaknesses: too much description (he who lives by the sword dies by the sword, and all that), and too strong opinions, which can contradict scientific validity. But as Tristes Tropiques is both memoir and field report, and accordingly social criticism, certainly he is entitled to that. Fortunately, we are too.

EarthTalk : December 3, 2006

2006-12-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I’m concerned about all the talk of using hydrogen for fuel. Isn’t hydrogen what caused the Hindenburg blimp to explode back in the 1930s?
-- Doug

The explosion of the Hindenburg blimp in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937 killed 36 people and was one of the worst air disasters of the period, but hydrogen was probably not the culprit. Addison Bain, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) researcher, investigated the Hindenburg crash in 1997. He concluded that, while the Hindenburg did use hydrogen for buoyancy, the cause of the accident was an electrostatic charge that ignited the blimp’s highly flammable waterproof skin, made from a mixture of lacquer and metal-based paints that Bain likened to rocket fuel.

Others argue that a spark ignited hydrogen that was leaking from the ship. But witnesses described the fire as very colorful, whereas hydrogen burns without much of a visible flame. But whether or not hydrogen caused or simply contributed to the ensuing blaze, hydrogen is indeed flammable, and can burst into flames when it comes into contact with fire or another ignition source.

But gasoline, by far the most common automotive fuel in the world, is much more flammable than hydrogen. According to hydrogen proponent Daniel Emmett of Energy Independence Now, hydrogen is 14 times lighter than air and when it catches fire it disperses and extinguishes quickly. Gasoline, on the other hand, is heavier than air and stays flammable much longer. Many people don’t realize, Emmet adds, that hydrogen has been used safely for decades in many industrial and aerospace applications.

Besides being less flammable than gasoline, hydrogen has many other benefits. It is nontoxic, which is more than can be said for any petroleum-based fuel. Furthermore, the processing (not combustion) of hydrogen in fuel cells produces no harmful pollutants and emits only pure, potable water as well as heat that can be recaptured for other uses. In contrast, the combustion of gasoline and other automotive fuels leads to acid rain, smog and global warming, among other environmental problems.

Despite its benefits, the widespread adoption of hydrogen as an automotive fuel is not yet close at hand. Techniques for producing, storing and transporting hydrogen have to be standardized, and costs reduced substantially. Some hydrogen proponents see a future where hydrogen will fuel vehicles at service stations, as is now done with gasoline; others see a future in which people fuel their cars at home from appliances that make hydrogen from electricity or, further down the road, from solar energy.

In 2003 the Bush administration committed $1.2 billion to a hydrogen initiative in order to “reverse America's growing dependence on foreign oil by accelerating the commercialization of hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars, trucks, homes and businesses with no pollution or greenhouse gases.” Under the initiative, says the White House’s “Hydrogen Economy Fact Sheet,” “the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by fuel cells.”

CONTACTS: National Hydrogen Association News, “Hydrogen Exonerated in Hindenburg Disaster,” www.hydrogenassociation.org/newsletter/ad22zepp.htm; Energy Independence Now, www.energyindependencenow.org; White House “Hydrogen Economy Fact Sheet,” www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030625-6.html.

Dear EarthTalk: I’m a hair stylist and am wondering about the health and environmental impacts of the styling products I use every day on my customers.
-- Misty Rohrbaugh, Asheville, NC

Millions of people around the world use shampoos, conditioners and dyes on their hair regularly without any discernable harm. But recent studies have linked some of the ingredients in these products to various human health problems, so hair care professionals and consumers are well advised to know their options.

Traditional shampoos and conditioners, the most commonly used hair care products, contain a synthetic detergent called Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), which generates a sudsy lather. But SLS can dry the scalp, stripping the skin’s surface of its protective lipids. It can also cause follicle damage, hair loss, skin and eye irritation, and allergic reactions such as rashes and hives.

Other problematic chemicals in most mainstream shampoos and conditioners are parabens--sometimes listed as methylparaben, propylparaben, ethylparaben or butylparaben--which are added as preservatives to ward off mold and mildew. Morris Shriftman, Senior Vice President with Avalon Organics, says that these chemicals are dangerous because they accumulate in the bloodstream where they can “mimic” naturally-occurring hormones like estrogen, and disrupt human endocrine function accordingly. Parabens are also of particular concern to oncologists, who report finding the chemicals in breast cancer cells.

Luckily, a number of manufacturers make available shampoos and conditioners free of SLS and parabens, making it easier for stylists and customers alike to do the right thing. Aveda, Avalon Organics, Aubrey Organics, Dessert Essence Organics, Jason Natural Products and Simply Organic, among many others, use organic herbal extracts to do the jobs normally associated with synthetic chemicals. These products are readily available at natural foods markets and increasingly in mainstream supermarkets.

Studies trying to prove links between hair dyes and cancer or birth defects have turned up mostly inconclusive results, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) National Center for Toxicological Research found that the majority of off-the-shelf hair dyes for black, red and blonde hair contain a known carcinogen, 4-ABP. Also, according to the FDA, some consumers have reported burning, redness, itching and swelling of the face from hair dyes, as well as hair loss and difficulty breathing. The FDA does not regulate hair products, but John Bailey, director of the agency’s color and cosmetics program, cautions consumers to “consider the lack of demonstrated safety” when considering a hair dye.

Most natural health care experts agree that going without hair dye altogether is the safest route. Hair color professionals should wear heavy plastic gloves and a mask to protect against fumes, and should schedule their color work with lots of breaks between applications to limit exposure. Consumers, when possible, should shop around for less toxic, all-natural coloring agents. Many of the companies listed above also make all-natural hair colorings; other popular brands include EcoColors, Naturtint, and Clairol’s Castings line. Hennas, which are available in most salons, are also a good safe, non-permanent option.

CONTACTS: FDA Office of Cosmetics and Colors, www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-toc.html.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

What's the Conversion Rate for Euros?

2006-11-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

Mark your AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) 2007 Conference in Atlanta calendars now! Join me (Simmons Buntin, Terrain.org editor and author of Riverfall, a book of poems) and four fellow American poets and one American playwright for:

What's the Conversion Rate for Euros? Americans Publishing Abroad
Saturday, March 3, 9:00-10:15 a.m.

I'll be joined by Marck L. Beggs, Philip Fried, Michael Heffernan, John Hildebidle, and Laura Smith, all of whom like me have been published by Ireland's Salmon Poetry.

If that spot's free on your AWP schedule, please join us!

Next year we'll shoot (again) for a Terrain.org anniversary reading. That one's in New York City.

Earth Talk : November 5, 2006

2006-11-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that driving with soft tires wastes energy and results in more pollution?
-- Nanci Graham

When tires are not inflated to the pounds per square inch (PSI) rating recommended by manufacturers, they are less “round” and require more energy to begin moving and to maintain speed. As such, under-inflated tires do indeed contribute to pollution and increase fuel costs.

An informal study by students at Carnegie Mellon University found that the majority of cars on U.S. roads are operating on tires inflated to only 80 percent of capacity. According to the website, fueleconomy.gov, inflating tires to their proper pressure can improve mileage by about 3.3 percent, whereas leaving them under-inflated can lower mileage by 0.4 percent for every one PSI drop in pressure of all four tires.

That may not sound like much, but it means that the average person who drives 12,000 miles yearly on under-inflated tires uses about 144 extra gallons of gas, at a cost of $300-$500 a year. And each time one of those gallons of gas is burned, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere as the carbons in the gas are released and combine with the oxygen in the air. As such, any vehicle running on soft tires is contributing as much as 1.5 extra tons (2,880 pounds) of greenhouse gases to the environment annually.

Besides saving fuel and money and minimizing emissions, properly inflated tires are safer and less likely to fail at high speeds. Under-inflated tires make for longer stopping distances and will skid longer on wet surfaces. Analysts point to under-inflated tires as a likely cause of many SUV rollover accidents. Properly inflated tires also wear more evenly and will last longer accordingly.

Mechanics advise drivers to check their tire pressure monthly, if not more frequently. The correct air pressure for tires that come with new vehicles can be found either in the owner’s manual or inside the driver-side door. Beware, though, that replacement tires may carry a different PSI rating than the originals that came with the car. Most new replacement tires display their PSI rating on their sidewalls.

Also, tire pressure should be checked when tires are cold, as internal pressure increases when the car has been on the road for a while, but then drops when the tires cool back down. It is best to check tire pressure before heading out on the road to avoid inaccurate readings.

As part of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act of 2000, Congress has mandated that automakers install tire pressure monitoring systems on all new cars, pickups and SUVs beginning in 2008. To comply with the regulation, automakers will be required to attach tiny sensors to each wheel that will signal if a tire falls 25 percent below its recommended PSI rating. Car makers will likely spend as much as $70 per vehicle to install these sensors, a cost that will no doubt be passed along to consumers. However, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, some 120 lives a year will be saved once all new vehicles are equipped with such systems.

CONTACTS: Carnegie Mellon Today, “Save Gas, Money and the Environment with Properly Inflated Tires,” www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra///050921_tire.html; FuelEconomy.gov, “Keeping Your Car in Shape,” www.fueleconomy.org/feg/maintain.shtml.

Dear EarthTalk: What exactly does “not tested on animals” mean on a product, like a shampoo? Where can I find products that are completely not tested on animals and are also eco-friendly?
-- James Masarech

Many consumer products go through precise testing to make sure they are safe and healthy for people and the environment before they are made available in the marketplace. The downside is that many of these tests make use of live animals. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), safety testing of chemicals and consumer products accounts for roughly 10 to 20 percent of the use of animals in laboratories (or approximately two to four million animals) in the U.S.

The majority of animals used in product tests are rats and mice, but dogs, cats, sheep, hamsters, guinea pigs and primates are also used. Significantly more animals are used in biomedical and other kinds of research, but the use of animals in product testing figures prominently in the animal research controversy because it questions the “ethics and humaneness of deliberately poisoning animals [and] the propriety of harming animals for the sake of marketing a new cosmetic or household product,” says HSUS.

Governments often mandate that certain products, such as drugs, automotive fluids, garden chemicals and food additives, be tested on animals. In other cases, such as with cosmetics, personal care and household cleaning products, companies voluntarily test on animals to better understand the pros and cons of using certain ingredients, to see what effects a given product or ingredient will have on living systems--and to demonstrate due diligence should their products harm someone and a lawsuit be filed.

In response to these widespread practices, advocacy groups like HSUS and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaign vigorously to eliminate or reduce the use of animals in product testing, even recommending boycotts of companies that continue to voluntarily engage in what they argue is both cruel and unnecessary. This advocacy has been effective, as more than 500 cosmetic, personal care and household cleaning products manufacturers have vowed to stop testing their products on animals.

In 2003 the European Parliament approved a Europe-wide ban on the use of animals in cosmetics testing. Set to go into effect in 2009, the prohibition also mandates that no beauty or hygiene products tested on animals elsewhere be sold inside the European Union. Some exemptions do exist, however, such as products tested for toxicity or for their potential effects on human fertility. Some animal advocacy groups see these as unacceptable loopholes likely to undermine the ban or push back its implementation.

In 1986 an international group of animal protection organizations that includes HSUS formed the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC). The coalition urges cosmetics and household products manufacturers to sign on to a “Corporate Standard of Compassion for Animals” policy and agree to not conduct or commission animal tests or use any ingredient or formulation that is tested on animals. Companies portray the coalition’s “leaping bunny” logo on products as proof of their commitment. CCIC publishes a pocket-sized “cruelty free” shopping guide which can also be downloaded from its website.

CONTACT: CCIC Shopping Guide, www.leapingbunny.org/pdf/ccicguide_full.pdf.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

EarthTalk : October 29, 2006

2006-10-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

EarthTalk
from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

What kinds of home improvements could I do that would make my house healthier and more environmentally friendly?
-- Elizabeth Bram

Most homes are not lacking in ways they can be healthier for family and kinder to the environment. For one, indoor air quality is a serious problem affecting millions of homes. Studies show that air within homes can be more seriously polluted than the air outdoors--even in the largest and most industrialized cities.

According to Glenn Haege, a master handyman who hosts a national radio show on home repair, as our homes and apartments have become more energy efficient and airtight, “humidity levels from cooking and breathing tend to increase, causing mold and mildew.” Harmful chemicals, he says, from construction materials, insulation, furniture, carpeting, padding, paints, solvents and household cleaners, drawn by this moist atmosphere, combine to contaminate the indoor air which then stays trapped inside.

The first step in remedying this problem is to test your indoor air. Pure Air and Envirologix, among others, sell inexpensive and easy-to-use indoor-air quality testing kits. Once you get an idea of the contaminants floating around your home, you can get to work replacing the offending sources accordingly. Green superstores such as the Environmental Home Center, Green Building Supply and Oikos offer a wealth of greener and healthier building supplies and materials. Also, BuildingGreen.com offers a free online “GreenSpec” database with detailed listings for over 2,000 environmentally preferable building products.

Materials outside the home can also contribute to health problems. One example is pressure-treated lumber, which contains a form of cyanide to keep pests away. Kids who play on backyard jungle gyms and decks made of such material can develop rashes and skin infections. Cedar wood is a naturally pest-resistant alternative that, while more expensive, is a kinder-gentler option that will stand the test of time.

Other ways to green-up the home include replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs with more energy-efficient compact fluorescents, as well as switching out conventional hot water heaters in favor of solar or on-demand tankless versions. And for saving on water, replacing traditional showerheads and toilets with pressurized low-flow alternatives can save gallons per day while generating cost savings on utility bills. Likewise, capturing rainwater and shower “gray-water” to irrigate the garden is another smart move.

Do-it-yourselfers can find hundreds of websites offering tips on green building and repair. Glenn Haege’s MasterHandyman.com and NaturalHandyMan.com both offer a plethora of articles and links and are good resources if you’re looking to improve your own handy skills while staying true to your green ideals. Two helpful books are: Green Remodeling by David Johnston and Kim Master; and Green Building Materials: A Guide to Product Selection and Specification by Ross Spiegel and Dru Meadows. For less handy homeowners, finding a handyman well versed in green building issues might be a better way to go. The Natural Handyman Network offers a free online search tool that should offer some promising leads.

CONTACTS: MasterHandyman.com, www.masterhandyman.com; BuildingGreen.com, www.buildinggreen.com; Envirologix, www.envirologix.com; Environmental Home Center, www.environmentalhomecenter.com; Green Building Supply, www.greenbuildingsupply.com; Oikos, www.oikos.com; The Natural Handyman Network, www.naturalhandyman.com.

What do you think of those “waste to energy” plants used by cities to generate power?
-- Christine Ramadhin, Queens, NY

Waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities, which generate power by burning trash, have been in widespread operation in the U.S. and Europe since the 1970s and are considered by environmental advocates to be a mixed blessing. On the one hand they get rid of garbage without adding to already-stressed landfills and with the added benefit of contributing electricity to the power grid. On the other hand, they do generate toxic pollution, usually as a result of burning vinyl and plastics.

WtE facilities evolved out of basic incinerator technology that simply burns trash and reduces it to ash and smoke. Waste-to-energy plants instead use the garbage to fire a huge boiler. When the garbage “fuel” is burned, it releases heat that turns water into steam. The high-pressure steam turns the blades of a turbine generator to produce electricity.

In the U.S. and Europe, environmental laws regulate WtE plants, typically requiring them to use various anti-pollution devices to keep both harmful gases and particulate pollution (fine bits of dust, soot and other solid materials) out of the air. However, the particles captured are then mixed with the ash that is removed from the bottom of the waste-to-energy plant’s furnace when it is cleaned. Environmentalists contend that this toxic ash, which can include dangerous heavy metals, may actually present more of an environmental problem than the airborne emissions themselves, as it usually ends up in landfills where it can leak into and contaminate soil and groundwater.

According to Greenpeace International, WtE facilities are also among the largest sources of dioxin emissions in industrialized countries. Dioxin is a by-product of burning polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other plastics, and has been linked to cancer and other health problems. Greenpeace advocates for phasing out WtE facilities in favor of improving recycling rates that reduce the waste stream in the first place.

Currently about 600 WtE facilities are in operation around the world. According to the National Solid Wastes Management Association, an industry trade group, the United States is home to 98 such plants operating in 29 states. These facilities manage about 13 percent of America’s total trash output. In Canada, where landfill space is more abundant, WtE has failed to catch on, with only a few such facilities across the country. WtE has caught on more so in smaller technologically advanced countries such as Japan, Sweden, Denmark, France and Switzerland, where landfill space is at a premium.

Recent improvements in the energy efficiency and environmental impact of WtE facilities means that the technology promises to play a larger role globally in years to come, especially as crowded developing countries start to jump on the bandwagon.

CONTACTS: National Solid Wastes Management Association, www.nswma.org/; Greenpeace Incineration Campaign, www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/incineration.

Received: Drift Smoke

2006-10-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Drift Smoke: Loss and Renewal in a Land of Fire, by David J. Strohmaier
University of Nevada Press : 2005 : ISBN 0-87417-621-2

Drift Smoke is a beautifully hardbound, hand-sized book by wildland firefighter David Strohmaier. He has worked as a historian in Missoula, Mountana, and with the BLM and Forest Service fighting fires in the west for 15 seasons. He is also the author of The Seasons of Fire: Reflections on Fire in the West.

From Peter List, professor of philisophy emeritus, University of Oregon (and editor of Environmental Ethics and Forestry: A Reader):

"This is a unique book. I know of no other quite like it. It makes a significant contribution to the burgeoning literature about wildfire. It covers a subject only rarely touched on in any comprehensive way; that is, there are many books about some of the losses associated with wildfire (e.g., loss of life), but none that attempt to consider all the main kinds of loss in any detail or, aside from the author's first book on fire, that argue so well that fire is an ambivalent phenomenon and cannot be understood as either solely an unmitigated evil or solely and ecological good."

That's kind of a mouthful, I agree. But just the quality of the book, the font and crisp pages, make me want to spend some time with it next to the controlled fire in my hearth (if, of course, I had a hearth). And this intro from the publisher helps, too:

"Drift Smoke is a powerful and moving examination of wildfire by someone who has seen it in all its terror and beauty, who has lost colleagues and beloved terrain to its ferocity, and who has also seen the miracle of new life sprouting from the ashes. Living with wfire, Strohmaier says, is a matter of choices, of 'seeing the connection between loss on a personal scale and loss on a landscape scale: in relationship with persons, and in relationship to and with the land.' We must cultivate a longer perspective, he says, accepting that loss is a part of life and that 'humility and empathy and care are not only core virtues between humans but are also essential virtues in our attitudes and actions toward the earth.'"

Terrain.org has also had some contributions on wildfire:

http://www.terrain.org/essays/18/sayre.htm : Working Wilderness: The Malpai Borderlands Group and the Future of the Western Range, by Nathan F. Sayre
http://www.terrain.org/essays/14/hettinger.htm : Fighting Forest Fires, Circa 1962, by Loren Hettinger
http://www.terrain.org/essays/14/buntin.htm : Living by Fire: A Journey through Central Florida's Subtropical Forest, by Simmons B. Buntin

Accepting Submissions for Issue No. 20, Community Sustained

2006-10-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

Terrain.org is now accepting submissions for Issue No. 20, Community Sustained, which will publish on July 10, 2007 (following our newly revised publication schedule: July 10 and January 10 each year).

We are particularly interested in:

Poetry
Essays
Fiction
Articles
UnSprawl case study

For more information, visit www.terrain.org/submit.

EarthTalk : October 15, 2006

2006-10-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Are there any environmental or human health risks to using nail polish?
-- Deborah Lynn, Milford, CT

Conventional nail polishes dispensed at most drugstores and nail salons contain a veritable witch’s brew of chemicals, including toluene, which has been linked to a wide range of health issues from simple headaches and eye, ear, nose and throat irritation to nervous system disorders and damage to the liver and kidneys.

Another common yet toxic ingredient in conventional nail polish is a chemical plasticizer known as dibutyl phthalate (DBP). According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit research and advocacy organization that campaigns to educate consumers about the health risks of cosmetics, studies have linked DBP to underdeveloped genitals and other reproductive system problems in newborn boys.

As such, DBP is banned from cosmetics in the European Union but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has taken no such action, even though a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found DBP and other toxic phthalates in the bloodstreams of every person they tested. Further, five percent of women tested who were of childbearing age (ages 20-40) had up to 45 times more of the chemicals in their bodies than researchers had expected to find.

EWG attributes the prevalence of DBP in young women to widespread use of nail polish. “Women of childbearing age should avoid all exposure to DBP when they’re considering becoming pregnant, when they’re pregnant, or when they’re nursing,” says Jane Houlihan, EWG’s Vice President for Research.

Luckily, safer nail polishes do exist and are readily available at natural health and beauty supply stores as well as from online outlets such as Natural Solutions and Infinite Health Resources. These products, from such makers as Honeybee Gardens, PeaceKeeper, Jerrie, Visage Naturel and Sante, rely on naturally occurring minerals and plant extracts to beautify nails without the need for toxic ingredients.

Major nail polish manufacturers are also now getting in on the act. According to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of organizations that includes EWG and the Breast Cancer Fund, Avon, Estee Lauder, Revlon and L’Oreal confirmed last year that they would begin removing DBP from products. And leading drugstore brand Sally Hansen has said it is reformulating all of its products to remove DBP and toluene as well as formaldehyde, which is also known to cause cancer and reproductive problems.

Exposure to toxic chemicals is not the only health concern associated with nail salons, where nail fungus and bacteria can lurk on the underside of any emery board. Women’s health advocate Tracee Cornforth suggests checking out a salon for cleanliness before signing up for services. She also says to make sure attendants disinfect all tools and equipment between customers, and even recommends bringing in one’s own manicure or pedicure kit so as to minimize the transmission of any unsightly or painful maladies.

CONTACTS: Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org; Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, www.SafeCosmetics.org; Natural Solutions, www.bewellstaywell.com; Infinite Health Resources, www.infinitehealthresources.com.

Dear EarthTalk: I read a disturbing report recently that the long-banned pesticide, DDT, was being used in Mozambique to combat malaria. Malaria is a killer, but isn’t a return to DDT even scarier?
-- Graeme Campbell, South Africa

Much of the developed world banned the use of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) within about 10 years of the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s book, “Silent Spring.” Carson’s book, which is credited by many as having spurred the creation of the modern environmental movement, documented the ecosystem damage caused by DDT crop spraying throughout the United States and linked the pesticide’s use to the disappearance of songbirds and raptors.

Health officials at the time also linked DDT exposure to nerve damage in humans, and blamed DDT for causing cancer in people who had applied it recklessly. Today, because of widespread indiscriminate use up through the 1960s, most people have traces of DDT in their bodies. DDT has since become increasingly associated with childhood developmental problems, according to the organization, Beyond Pesticides.

Today, two dozen countries--including Mozambique and nine other African nations--permit the use of small amounts of DDT for controlling specific insect-borne diseases, including malaria. Malaria kills one million people, including 800,000 African children, every year. Dr. Arata Kochi, leader of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) global malaria program, strongly advocates using DDT to fight malaria, claiming that it poses little or no health risk when sprayed in small amounts on the inner walls of people’s homes.

“Indoor residual spraying is useful to quickly reduce the number of infections caused by malaria-carrying mosquitoes…and presents no health risk when used properly,” agrees Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, WHO’s assistant director-general for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Asamoa-Baah insists that DDT’s public health benefits far outweigh its risks.

Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, disagrees and advocates for techniques that do not rely on pesticides like DDT. “The international community has a social responsibility to reject the use of this chemical and to practice sound and safe pest management practices,” he says. Feldman cites a recent study showing South African women living in DDT-treated dwellings to have 77 times the internationally accepted limit of the chemical in their breast milk. Researchers postulate that large amounts of DDT may have contaminated drinking water, exposing entire villages. “This highlights why no society can be unconcerned with DDT’s impact” on health and the worldwide ecosystem, Feldman says.

Feldman is calling for alternative strategies for disease control, including addressing the conditions of poverty that lead to mosquito breeding. We should “no longer treat poverty and development with poisonous band-aids, but join together to address the root causes of insect-borne disease, because the chemical-dependent alternatives are ultimately deadly for everyone,” says Feldman.

CONTACTS: Beyond Pesticides, www.beyondpesticides.org; World Health Organization Malaria Information, www.who.int/topics/malaria/en/.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

Welcome!

2006-10-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new Terrain.org blog, where in addition to updates on Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments, you'll find posts about environmental and literary happenings that impact us and our readers.

Here you'll also find book overviews and reviews, EarthTalk: A Weekly Column courtesy E/The Environmental Magazine, photography, and general ramblings by Terrain.org's editor and publisher, Simmons Buntin.

Finally, this may become a forum for comments on Terrain.org contributions. We hope so; but if not, that's okay, too.