This month we focus on environmental concerns. Barbara Lloyd McMichael writes a feature article about the “Trinity” Act that would support wildlife protections for America’s Bison, Grizzly Bear and Wolves. For the past six months, we have published Dr. Peter Corning’s series of six linked essays UNITE OR DIE. Dr. Corning describes why climate change is worsening, but he also offers solutions to this growing problem. To read all of Dr. Corning’s linked essays in this six-part series please go to Dr. Corning’s website. Our featured book review, written by Barbara McMichael, covers “The Air They Breathe” by pediatrician Dr. Debra Hendrickson. My essay On Stewardship examines the essence of truth, beauty, and garbage. –Patricia Vaccarino
“Trinity” Act Protects America’s Bison and Other Keystone Species by Barbara Lloyd McMichael For more than a quarter of a century, the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) has been working in the Greater Yellowstone Bioregion to protect the last wild, free-ranging herd of bison in the United States. Although the nearly 3500 square miles of Yellowstone National Park offer some protections, even that expanse is not enough to offer sufficient winter forage for the Park’s herds of deer, elk, moose, and a bison population that ranges between 3,000 and 6,000 animals.
UNITE OR DIE: “A Prescription for Our Global Superorganism” is the final essay in a six-part series by Dr. Peter Corning. He argues that we are on a road to collective self-destruction unless we make a radical course change.
Book Review: “The Air They Breathe” by Dr. Debra Hendrickson. Pediatrician Dr. Debra Hendrickson has written a harrowing narrative about the increase of children who are suffering from the effects of wildfire smoke: heat exhaustion, asthma, and even dangerous new virus outbreaks. The doctor presents heartbreaking case studies of the ways kids have gotten sick due to a metastasizing climate catastrophe caused by humanity’s fossil fuel-burning activities across the planet. – Barbara Lloyd McMichael
Notes From The Road: On Stewardship by Patricia Vaccarino If I can do small acts of stewardship, then maybe I can get to the big picture—taking care of the earth.
Book Review: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass is a meditation on stewardship, defining what is prayerful and actionable, as well as giving us the lessons we need to take care of ourselves and the world around us. – Patricia Vaccarino
Notes From The Road: Where Trees Fall by – Patricia Vaccarino Short Sand Beach, a trail in Oregon’s Oswald West State Park, wends through a forest of old growth trees. Wild and alive for years, some say centuries, the trees do not know when the time will come—to give up life as they have known it.
Book Review: The Road to Character by David Brooks David Brooks takes the reader on a journey to a time when self-sacrifice conjoined with self-effacement created a moral ethos that was the de facto standard for the American culture. He homes-in on the principles of rendering good service, of doing what is good for the community, and paying homage to the greater good. – Patricia Vaccarino