[Updated: 5/29/2023] In a post published exactly a year ago, I reported on the introduction of a bill “in the U.S. House of Representatives to designate the existing 287-mile Benton MacKaye Trail (BMT) as a National Scenic Trail, as defined and provided in the National Trails System Act.” That 2022 bill never received a hearing…Continue readingBenton MacKaye National Scenic Trail bill refiled in U.S. House
Author: Larry Anderson
Fifty-three years after the first Earth Day on April 20, 1970, just over 60 years since publication of Rachel Carson’s pathbreaking 1962 book Silent Spring, President Joe Biden on April 21, 2023 issued an “Executive Order on Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All.” I lived through and came of age during the…Continue reading“Environmental Justice for All”: Every person is a part of nature, not apart from it
Perhaps it was just a coincidence. “Charges against councilor dismissed,” declared the front-page, top-right headline in the February 9, 2023 edition of the Sakonnet Times. At its meeting that same date, the Little Compton Town Council considered the following “Old Business” item: “Request from James O’Dell to continue discussion and process of updating the Control…Continue readingCharges dismissed: Not-so-amusing facts of life and politics in a small town (Part 1)
NOTE: In a February 1, 2023 post, I introduced what I declared would be a three-post series titled “Earth Words: Varieties of American nature writing.” In that first post I wrote about writers Robin Wall Kimmerer, Bernard DeVoto, and Bill McKibben. I also indicated that the next post in the series would consider Rachel Carson,…Continue readingEarth Words: Varieties of American nature writing (Part 2: George Perkins Marsh)
When the MacArthur Foundation announced its 2022 annual “genius” fellowships, readers of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants weren’t surprised that the book’s author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, was among the 25 accomplished individuals who received the bolt-from-the-blue MacArthur recognition (and, of course, the accompanying $800,000 no-strings-attached grant). Since its publication…Continue readingEarth Words: Varieties of American nature writing (Part 1: Kimmerer, DeVoto, McKibben)