An Outside Chance

Reclaiming hope from the dismal science

Also published on Resilience “Empowering and elegiac” might seem a strange description of a book on economics. Yet the prominent author and former economics minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, chooses that phrase of praise for the new book Post Growth, by Tim Jackson. In many respects the book lives up to that billing, and in the … Read More

Healthy, peaceful and more equitable – life in the low-car city

Also published on Resilience “For as long as humans have been living in cities, and until only recently, streets were the main site where children grew up,” write Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett, in the opening pages of their new book Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives. Unfortunately city streets in … Read More

family planning

PHOTO POST In early June some marsh birds are still picking out their nest sites, while others are already preparing their hatchlings to leave home. The Marsh Wren (at top of page and below) is the tiniest bird in the marsh and not always easy to spot, but its song rings out far and wide. … Read More

small wonders

PHOTO POST Flowers. Birds. Bugs. The first two generally come as part of package deals that include the latter. Around here we happen to like cherries so we’re glad when pollinators discover the blossoms. Deeper into woodlands, the forest floor has been carpeted with Wood Geraniums. In the treetops a Baltimore Oriole eats bugs by … Read More

water colours

PHOTO POST April showers bring May flowers – and while it hasn’t been a wet spring we’ve had our share of dewey mornings, stormy skies, and a few rainbows. On schedule, all kinds of colours are popping out in garden, meadow, forest and marsh. Some of the colours, to be sure, are left over from … Read More

juggling mudcats

PHOTO POST Near the end of a gray spring afternoon a distant white flash caught my eye. A large bird settled at the other side of the marsh and its landing pattern was not at all swan-like, but just like the landing of a large heron. “It must be a Great Egret,” I thought – … Read More

chew on this

PHOTO POST Spring is doing its best to supplant winter, but menus are still sparse for many creatures, herbivores in particular. A few grasses are shooting up but the marsh reeds are brown and the earliest trees are just beginning to leaf out. The first flowers of the season, meanwhile, grow on plants that aren’t … Read More

magic in the mud

PHOTO POST The water level in Lake Ontario is extraordinarily low for this time of year, and so the shoreline marshes don’t have much depth. The diving ducks – Buffleheads, Mergansers, Long-tails and their ilk – are staying out on the lake or just migrating further north. But the dabblers – Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, … Read More

Going to extremes

It only took us a century to use up the best of the planet’s finite reserves of fossil fuels. The dawning century will be a lot different. Also published on Resilience In the autumn of 1987 I often sipped my morning coffee while watching a slow parade roll through the hazy dawn. I had given up … Read More

The fat-takers cross the oceans

Also published on Resilience Ecological overshoot is a global crisis today, but the problem did not begin with the fossil fuel age. From its beginnings more than five centuries ago, European colonization has been based on an unsustainable exploitation of resources. In Seeker of Visions, John (Fire) Lame Deer says “The Sioux have a name … Read More

spring forward

PHOTO POST We all have fond memories of that most welcome season, when instead of going out to play on ice, we sneak out and slop around in mud for the first time. But how many of us have had the thrill of sliding into the muck wearing a pristine white suit? A pair of … Read More

The marginal uselessness of muscle-cars

Also published on Resilience Waiting at a stop-light, sitting on my bicycle while leaning against a telephone pole, ready to step down hard on the pedals, it was only natural to think about the economic concept of “marginal utility”. I enjoyed my little game of beating fast cars through intersections after stopping for lights. Having … Read More