By Dr. Robert Thorson Occupying Hartford since 1977, and targeting the state Capitol, is a permanent symbol of resistance – geological resistance, impervious to wind, rain, cold, hunger and boredom. I refer to the Stone Field Sculpture by Carl Andre, euphoniously located at the corner of Gold and Main. There they sit: 36 native rock […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Political hypocrisy we understand. Political hypoxia we do not. In the familiar case, politicians say one thing but do another, and are often caught with their pants down. In the second case, a dearth of oxygen in political discussions involving the environment leads to a damaging dearth of oxygen in the […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Connecticut exists by geological consent. That’s my corruption of historian Will Durant’s most quotable quote: “Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” The Roman city of Pompeii, buried by volcanic ash from Vesuvius, provides a dramatic example of change without notice. We may look back on climate change […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Geologists just learned that the greatest extinction of life on Earth was aided and abetted by the burning of coal. Though this material has been a great boon for humans since the 18th century, it was a bane beyond measure for nearly every living thing during the 2,519,410th century B.C. Why […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson The MAD principle — mutually assured destruction — brought an end to the nuclear arms race of the Cold War. I’m convinced that serious attention to MAD is the only thing that will keep us from completely trashing our planetary home. This thought was precipitated by an unusual pairing of experiences: […]

By Robert Thorson Deal-making used to be done in smoke-filled rooms. Now it will be done in a cabinet room filled with the smell of big oil. The parallels between the war on tobacco half a century ago and the current war on fossil fuel consumption are astonishingly close. During the 1960s, my brief flirtation […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Say the word pollution and everyone seems to be against it. Oil-soaked seabirds. Blue-green algae. Mercury blowin’ in the wind. Litter. The list is endless. Extend the concept of pollution to noise and the consensus breaks down. Motorcycle rights organizations insist that their right to ride roaring bikes trumps the right […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson All talk and no action. We accuse politicians of doing this all the time. But rarely can we pin down such a clear-cut case as the one involving Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s stance on preserving and protecting the quality of Connecticut lakes, a subject dear to my heart. First the […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson As Hurricane Sandy bore down on the East Coast in late October, we in southern New England had a week’s worth of warning, including three days of increasingly accurate forecasts by the U.S. Weather Service. Now, imagine stripping away all that advance notice. Instead, it was Monday afternoon, Oct. 22, and […]

By Dr. Robert Thorson Shore Up Connecticut is a policy mistake. A state loan program named Shore Back Connecticut would make more sense because retreat from the coast is the only viable long-term option. Recent developments in Antarctica have made this crystal clear. As I write, the edge of the Thwaites Glacier is thinning and […]