Earth Notes

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. –Martin Luther King Policies concerning climate change and ecology at the federal level are likely to be highly contentious over the next few years. During the controversies ahead, it will be easy, tempting even, to objectify those who don’t “get” the facts of climate change, to see them as “enemies,” and direct anger and frustration at them. Yet religious and spiritual teachers remind us that we are all pro

“To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.” - Frantz Fanon In my last post I wrote about how the modern West has lost its connection to the land and to nature. The challenge is to find ways to re-establish this critical relationship that we once had but lost with the rise of materialism, science, and industry. This disconnection is evident in our language, which is important because language defines us, and limits what we see, experience, and even think. Recent r

Winter has hit the North Dakota plains where an unprecedented gathering of Native American tribes intends to remain at Standing Rock, continuing their protest against the Dakota Access pipeline as long as needed. Those gathering there call themselves “water protectors,” noting that running the pipeline under the Missouri River just upstream from the reservation puts their source of water at risk. Indeed, since the authorities required the pipeline route to be moved south towa