In the U.S. alone, damage from the biggest climate and weather disasters is expected to total well over US$100 billion in 2021. Many of these extreme weather events have been linked to human-caused climate change, and they offer a glimpse of what to expect in a rapidly warming world.
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Eulogy for Nature: Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire,” published in January 1968, worthy of any top-100 list of the best books of the last hundred years and an essential read–and re-read-today, is a meditation, a polemic, a manifesto, a provocation, a valentine and an elegy to the red desert and to American wilderness.
Time to Treat Environmental Crime as a Crime Against Humanity
Environmental crime is still regarded a “white collar crime,” subject mostly to civil charges and accompanied by fines, when the reality on the state of the planet mandates that environmental destruction be conceptualized as a crime against humanity.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, January 1, 2022
This is Be Kind to Food Servers Month, started by Memphis waitress Sybil Presley in 2008. A few words from Sandra Bullock on the subject, and C. Vann Woodward on the strange career of Jim Crow.
How to Make Dry January a Success
Whether this is your first attempt at a Dry January or you are a seasoned participant, there are ways you can maximise your likelihood of getting to the end of January without drinking alcohol. Behavioral science offers some insights.
God’s Plagues: Philip Roth’s Nemesis
Philip Roth’s “Nemesis” is the story of an unsuspecting Everyman who becomes a polio superspreader and turns on his fiancee, God and life. Written in 2010, the novel can be read in the age of the coronavirus as a study in grief and loss and the limits of personal, or divine, responsibility.
Adieu, 2021: Sadness, Anger and Gratitude in a Year of Miscarriages
“I am awash with emotions today–everything from sadness to anger to gratitude at this year end,” writes Chris Goodfellow as he bids farewell to 2021. “We have learned nothing in terms of our choices, behaviors and most critically our capacity for unity in face of a threat.”
A Motorcyclist Is Killed on I-95, Crashing Into Guardrail; 6 of 9 Fatalities This Year Were Motorcyclists or Cyclists
A man was killed in a motorcycle crash on I-95 this morning shortly after sunup, just south of the intersection with Palm Coast Parkway. No other vehicles were involved, based on preliminary indications. The fatality is the ninth on Flagler roads this year–the lowest yearly tally in 27 years.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, December 31, 2021
Government offices and courts are closed, fireworks are still banned in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach, Wesley Morris on Black music’s miracle of sound, and Bach on the miracle of Cantata BWV 170, closing out the year on a plea for the delights of the soul.
Ghislaine Maxwell Guilty in Epstein Sex Trafficking Trial: What the Case Revealed About Female Sex Offenders
The majority of sex offenders are believed to be male. Charges lodged against women may include sexual abuse of children but often involve grooming or trafficking girls without engaging in the act of sexually abusing the child.