I think a lot about this illustration from May Theilgaard Watts’ 1975 book Reading the Landscape of America. Watts was a completely singular human, whose expansive mind was able to draw intricate connections between operating parts of ecosystems and whose expansive heart seemed driven by a need to bring you with her so that you could enjoy/understand the natural world as deeply as she. 

As you read the A track through this image, you can see how many of the places that appear to be natural actually represent a loss that is almost entirely irrevocable. And since Watts first wrote this, there are more stressors as yet unidentified to that little patch of shrinking forest - fly dumping, invasive species, climate change. This makes the need to fight for them even more dire.

Further, we can see when Trump talks about opening up our public lands for development, the extent to which his drilling, roads and walls will do more damage than merely to the immediate area and in the short term. Perhaps under another leader, certain concessions could be brokered for our country that were in good faith, but our racist dried apricot of a despot has proven that his only good faith is to himself. He must be resisted in every venue he brings his policies and rhetoric - even the places that are, for now, most quiet. 

Weeds of Boise: Vacant Lot on West Kootenai Street

Every urban area is bound to have its share of vacant lots. These are sites that for whatever reason have been left undeveloped or were at one point developed but whose structures have since been removed. The maintenance on these lots can vary depending on who has ownership of them. Some are regularly mowed and/or treated with herbicide, while others go untouched for long periods of time. Even…

Planetary level climate shift, effects on regional climates and landscapes, ecosystem damage and food growing capacity reductions, negative human health consequences from reduced air quality.

The impacts of GHG emissions are dispersed over spatial and temporal scales- and, furthermore/consequently, lack integration at a policy/decision making level. 

However, the source is, in many ways, the same.

Reducing/eliminating emissions will have positive effects and co-benefits from a local to global scale, immediately and in the future. 

Happy Earth Day everyone (and to all my new followers- thanks tumblr staff for recommending me as an ‘earth friendly blog’ today!).

On the last couple of Earth Days I’ve posted some images that I feel depict the epic beauty of our planet- these included an ethereal and lunar-like Icelandic landscape of geothermal vents and bubbling sulphuric hotpools in the delicate light of mid-winter, and the vast and unrelenting Martian-esque sand dunes of the Namib desert in the burning mid-day African sun. 

However, this year, I've thought to post an image of something a little closer to home- and at a much more micro scale. 

A few days ago, as I stopped on my bike to take some photographs of the beautiful cherry blossom trees in my local park in Glasgow, Scotland, I noticed this little bee quietly working away pollinating the flowers. It, and the countless other tiny animals and other lifeforms in our local ecosystems, and interconnected global planetary system as a whole, are fundamental to the health and habitableness of the earth.

In many ways maybe this little scene conveys what Earth Day really is (needs) to be about. Not just celebrating the dramatic and awe-inspiring beauty of ‘out of this world’ panoramas of stunning Alpine mountain-scapes or dramatic vistas of Aurora Borealis dancing in the sky (fantastic and inspiring though they are), but also appreciating the quiet beauty, and importance, of the nature that is all around us, carrying out vital functions and activities day after day that cumulatively maintain the integrity of our planet.

And then challenging and changing the human activities and systems that are undermining them.

Examples of interactions between global drivers, shocks and economic, climate, health, and ecosystem changes.

The latter are often treated separately but are increasingly interdependent. (Crepin et al. 2011a; modified from Walker et al. 2009b)