Our national economy isn’t making us happy. We don’t want to contribute to global warming, for example, but our economy does and so do we. We don’t want to drink plastic-bottle water, and fill up the sea and cover the land with them, but the tap water tastes bad or we’re traveling or whatever. Many,...Continue Reading
Ah, spring is here, time for serious cleaning of gardens and basements. I’m going to clean Biocitizen of the concept of the “environment,” mainly because, beyond its status as a concept, there is no such thing. What the EPA calls the “environment”—The sum of all external conditions affecting the life, development and survival of an...Continue Reading
Written today in Zipolite, Mexico on the Playa Amor. Yes: wonky, truncated, imperfect—but do please read and comment. Notes for a definition of Field Environmental Philosophy (FEP) Historical and epistemological background— 1) The academic industrial complex has succeeded in graduating several generations who have no “place” and are now suffering from it, economically, politically, aesthetically,...Continue Reading
I posted recently about how the University of Connecticut sited its hazardous waste facility directly on top of its own water supply. UConn promised to move the facility in 2005, but didn’t; and in 2010-11, I was told that the reason it wasn’t moved was because the UConn Police Chief didn’t want it moved for...Continue Reading
Biocitizen School is hiring an energetic, outdoors-loving, ecology-studies (related) major to assist its director in running Our Place Summercamp from 6/16 to 8/08 2014. Our Place is a 5-day, 30 hour, roaming school of environmental philosophy; we take campers to nodes of cultural and natural intensity and investigate them vigorously, joyfully, mentally and physically. The...Continue Reading
Our Place Summercamp is designed to “unplug” your child by bringing them into direct contact with the creatures, geologies, hydrologies and infrastructures of the Nonotuck biome and the Westfield River watershed. For five six-hour days, we roam the valley and the hilltowns, investigating our natural and cultural history with all of our senses, and enjoying...Continue Reading
Our Place Counselor In Training Program Position: A CIT will assist the adult staff for one week of camp (5 6-hour days). This year the staff will consist of the camp director and an ass’t teacher, and the CIT will assume the position of third in command. Much of CIT’s work will involve serving the...Continue Reading
Our Place Scholarship Program 2014 Thanks to the generosity of the Hilltown 6 potters, and of the parents and supporters who attended our Flavors of Nonotuck fundraiser last July at the Lone Wolf Cafe in Amherst, we are able this year to offer 10 scholarships, which fully cover the $300.00 camp tuition. If you would...Continue Reading
As I was saying, while I was earning my PhD at UConn, I learned that its administration was trying to develop water protecting land that was illegal to develop, and falsifying population figures so it could build lots of industrial sprawl without having a sufficient water supply. There was another thing I noticed when I...Continue Reading
Having alienated its local chapters by selling out its name and mission to Clorox in 2008, and through its failure to get neoliberal carbon-trading legislation passed in Congress 2 years later, the Sierra Club has struggled to maintain both its relevance and funding. Cleverly adhering to the EDF “market-based solution” model of actively greenwashing to...Continue Reading
