By Dr. Robert Thorson Henry David Thoreau celebrated Independence Day by moving to Walden Pond, in Concord Mass., on July 4, 1845. The book that resulted, “Walden,” made that ordinary place world famous. On Independence Day, I skipped the fireworks to read about his commitment to freedom: to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. […]
Author: Crnic, Benjamin
A Day to Remember Land That’s Been Lost
By Dr. Robert Thorson Memorial Day honored those human beings who gave their lives in service to our country. With no disrespect to veterans and their families, I recommend that we duplicate this idea for landscapes that have fallen in service to our nation. The idea of a memorial day for dead landscapes came to […]
‘Timefulness’ Review- Thinking in Eons; With Mindfulness, The Goal is to Focus on the Present. With Timefulness, It’s to See the Present as a Tiny Detail in a Complex Grand Sum. Robert m. Thorson Reviews “Timefulness” by Marcia Bjornerud
By Dr. Robert Thorson At midnight, the glittering crystal ball will drop in Times Square. Revelers around the world will straggle home, nod off, and greet the new year with a dullness caused by sleep deprivation, overstimulation and inebriation. This behavior suggests that we give higher priority to the final few hours of the past […]
Dry Days Loom in West
By Dr. Robert Thorson A gnawing sense of uncertainty. Perhaps that will motivate us to move faster on climate change than all the predictions in the world. In their recent book, “Climate Change and Biodiversity,” conservation biologists Thomas E. Lovejoy and Lee Hannah write “Much has been learned that is new, and yet our understanding […]
From Hazard to Catastrophe
By Dr. Robert Thorson Hazard. Disaster. Catastrophe. Learning the difference between these three words can is as simple as counting 1, 2, 3, and can help you save money. The American West is being broiled by triple-digit heat, day after day. Things are so parched that fires are burning from Arizona to the Dakotas and […]
Earth Tips The Scales
By Dr. Robert Thorson Do you watch your weight? Do you ever step on the scale and groan or curse that extra pound or two? Well, thanks to GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), we can all now blame just a tiny bit of that weight gain on Earth tugging at us from below. Earth, […]
Stalking Good Food
By Dr. Robert Thorson Rhubarb is everything a vegetable should be. It’s zesty, easy to grow, uses only solar energy, seldom requires irrigation and can be socially meaningful. Celery sold in groceries, on the other hand, is bland, environmentally destructive, exploitative of farm labor and spiritually bland. The other night, I attended a potluck supper. […]
Weather’s Dividing Lines
By Dr. Robert Thorson This is a cautionary tale from climatology. Beware of simplistic explanations, especially when they involve clouds, the most challenging part of climate modeling. A good example of the so-called cloud problem is associated with the bunny fence in the Australian outback. The rabbit fence is continent-dividing barrier built in 1907 to […]
Unwrapping a Gift From the Heavens
By Dr. Robert Thorson The best things in life aren’t things at all. They are ideas, feelings and perceptions that can change our lives for the better. Today, I offer a simple gift. It’s a Christmas story for people of all faiths that’s every bit as homemade as a holiday cookie, and every bit as […]
Disrespecting Walden
By Dr. Robert Thorson I saw some graffiti yesterday that nearly took my breath away. Gravity-defying stacks of stone are desecrating the memorial cairn that marks the site of Henry David Thoreau’s house at Walden Pond. They rise like slender mushrooms more than 3 feet high from this otherwise broad mound of glacier-tumbled stones. Why? […]