Alan Lightman, of the physics & creative writing departments at MIT, has published an essay in the NYTs that expresses his fear of “nature” and of dying. It is wonderfully naive, and a perfect example of the collapsing epistemology of industrial capitalism (that MIT has for its entire existence promulgated with brownfield, cancercluster and bankrupt-economy...Continue Reading

Allow me to give you an Earth Day gift I’ve been trying to wrap up ever since I studied under an eminent Thoreau scholar who, in his first lecture, handed it to me—by saying: “For Thoreau, nature was a symbol.” “A symbol of what?” I blurted, admittedly interrupting but…come on: a symbol? “Of God, of...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”m trying to remember where I was. Until I do please let me entertain you with a tale of local color. When my family moved from to Westhampton about eight years ago, one of the first friends we made were our neighbors, Dan and Jessie Krug. We were very lucky to meet them because they...Continue Reading

Biocitizen maxim: “You are more than you have ever been taught.” You are the product of 4 billion years of evolution by natural selection. In other words, you”re not 12 or 65 or 27 or 34 years old. You are the breaking crest of a wave of life, a tsunami of being, generated in deep...Continue Reading

We have admired monarch butterflies for the amazing trans-generational memory they have. This memory is shared by 4 -generations, and it ensures their survival by natural selection as they do a life&death relayrace from Mexico to Canada every year. We have observed that Fukushima meltdowns were caused, not by a tsunami; they were caused by...Continue Reading

There are times —esp. around national elections when we”re surfeited by political mythologies (many of them pathological)— I want to write about the giant subject of what our national creed is, and how our rights derive from nature. SO……. I stand w/Jefferson, who claimed that “freedom is the gift of nature.” Allow me to explain; but...Continue Reading

Harvested arugula today: December 21, 2011. Is it global warming, or is it possible I’m becoming a decent gardener? Or is it the seeds—these plants like growing in winter? Maybe 3 “yeses” have allowed this vivacious pile to grace my cutting board, + one other thing: I love sharing the freedom of free food, &...Continue Reading

We”re in full nectar flow here in the Nonotuck biome—& even a zombie can feel the anima: the “soul, spirit, life, air, breeze, breath.” If you can, stand beneath an apple tree at sunset tonight, down wind. You”ll be enveloped in the sweetness of anima, promise. Close your eyes and breathe. Not only will you...Continue Reading