The Human and the Environment: Bridging the Gap with Education and Service
Editor's Note: A recurring theme here at EarthDesk, especially during this holiday season, is our duty to the other members of our specie. Caroline Craig offers her unique perspective -- as a former environmental studies student, as research assistant for Pace Academy...
Brain Pickings
In a planet occupied now by seven billion inhabitants, I am amazed by the difference that one human being can make. -- Professor Howard Gardner Harvard University Graduate School of Education I am exercising my editorial prerogative to start the new year with a visit...
Climate Change by Peter Essick
We are proud to add photojournalist Peter Essick of Stone Mountain, Georgia to our list of EarthDesk Sunday contributors. His evocative Climate Change essay, presented here, invites us to consider the issue in its larger topical and geographical dimensions. His book,...
Peace on Earth by Charles Henry Alston
We present this image by Charles Henry Alston to honor our veterans, more than 100,000 of whom will be homeless Christmas Day. Alston was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance Movement. He created this drawing while staff artist for the Office of War Information in 1940.
American Environmentalism Should Join the Fight Against Poverty and Homelessness
Environment is all of America and its problems . . . It is a hungry child in a land of affluence. It is housing that is not worthy of the name. -- U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, April 22, 1970.[col grid="2-1"] "Annie"* resides on an upscale,...
Snowflakes by Alexey Kljatov
The super-macro photography of Russian photographer Alexey Kljatov takes us where no human eye can venture. He captures snowflakes on the balcony of his Moscow home "mostly on glass surface, lighted by LED flashlight from opposite side of glass, and sometimes in...
Pace Law Professor Ann Powers at UN General Assembly Debate on Law of the Sea
Anyone involved in the sausage-making of law and policy knows one small ingredient can affect the entire product. The United Nations is no exception. On December 9, Pace Law School professor Ann Powers, representing the International Union for the Conservation of...
Is a Romantic Elephant Ride in Asia on Your Bucket List?
You might wonder how one of us puny humans makes a 6-10 ton mammal obey orders. Here's how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcvGGe-zpIA
“Antibacterial” Soaps Don’t Work, Are Bad for Humans & the Environment. FDA Gives Industry Another Year to Prove Otherwise
Broken Federal Toxins Law Has 11% Chance of Being Fixed. On December 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a proposed rule that allows soap and hygiene product manufacturers one year to prove "antibacterial" additives are safe and effective. Years...
Snow on the Hudson River Highlands by Russell Cusick
I have watched Russ Cusick compose one of his exquisite panoramas, snapping 32 pictures, top to bottom, left to right, in quick succession, as if his body was hitting fixed stops. His portraits of the Hudson Highlands, which cover miles of landscape, are a favorite in...
FDA Seeking Livestock Industry Volunteers to Stop Antibiotic Abuse
By Avinash Kar Editor's Note: On December 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published its final guidance aimed at reducing use of antibiotics in livestock. In EarthDesk, September 17 we reported the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had finally announced...
Of Pope Francis, Pete Seeger, Gaylord Nelson, Gus Speth & Real Environmentalism
It's About Compassion and Human Dignity. And Rush Limbaugh Hates It. With no hint of irony, the most vitriolic critics of Pope Francis say his condemnations of greed, environmental abuse, and neglect of the poor are attacks on America. But when the pope linked those...