This semester I’m teaching a course called Biosphere in Translation. It’s about how we think of ourselves as part of or apart from the natural world. Here in the US, we are steeped in what we call the “Western” worldview. This worldview sees humans as apart from Nature. Nature has things that we humans...
Strap in…..this newsletter will make your blood boil…. On Nov. 3, 2025, during the recent US Government Shutdown, the US EPA registered a new pesticide, epyrifenacil, for use as a “pre-plant burndown herbicide for use in canola, field corn, soybean, wheat and fallow fields,” AND, “for non-agricultural use on non-crop areas such as around...
Last week, I talked a little bit about several times during our lifespan, called critical periods, where we are particularly sensitive to input from our environment. Input like light and eye muscle input to the eyes when we are developing our depth perception in early childhood. Input like hormones and other signal chemicals coming...
I saw one at my in-laws place in Wisconsin last summer, on the front walk. It was writhing crazily and literally jumping off the ground. Big, fat, ugly. We stomped on it til it spilled its guts. It had that tell-tale light colored band just behind its head. A Jumping Worm! Jumping worms were...
Despite the US EPA rollback of regulations on numerous pesticides, the evidence is overwhelming that pesticides are causing harm to people and wildlife of all kinds, from the soil creatures that make our soil healthy, to the insects that pollinate our crops, to the birds that sing in our backyards, to our pets that...
