I almost wrote this as part of my Quick Questions series but realized there is nothing quick about this question. I’ll say at the beginning, I’m wondering about what the title asks. I’m not interested in the odds of us going plastic-free. I’m not interested in the politics involved. I’m not interested in whether or…
My favorite book as a kid was A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. I found the book in the library of my elementary school, and the back cover’s mention of black holes, my favorite space object, immediately drew me to it. I must have read that book a hundred times between the 4th…
Climate change is a difficult problem. I almost said intractable, but I’m an optimist. So, difficult will do. One of the reasons it’s so difficult is because of the way people talk about it and write about it. The messaging that surrounds it. And I’m not talking about all the misinformation and outright lies that…
Do you ever have the thought that everything we think we know about something is wrong? It happens to me all the time. It can be disconcerting, but it can also be pretty exhilarating. I couldn’t sleep the other night and I started to think about time. To be more specific, time travel. (Legends of…
In my geographical area, and many others, a few things happen every fall: The leaves fall off the trees, we clean them up, the town collects them, and we are told that we’ve done a bad thing. I’m talking about the annual “Leave the Leaves” campaigns run by the Nation Wildlife Federation and The Audubon…
Climate activists are always talking about renewable sources of energy. Why is that? The danger isn’t running out of fuel. Fossil fuels can last a long, long time. The danger is putting carbon (and other greenhouse gasses) in the air. Are people that afraid of nuclear energy? Should they be?
Does anyone else remember a while ago when they were saying that an easy thing we could do to help mitigate climate change was paint our roads and roofs white? They said that more of the sun’s energy would be reflected back into space, slowing the rate of warming. Whatever happened with that? Why didn’t…
I find myself frustrated lately. I am vaccinated and I continue to wear a mask when I go out in public. I do so for several reasons. One is that my daughter is one of many unvaccinated people (she’s too young), and I would hate to spread COVID to someone who could be seriously hurt…
We got a little over a foot of snow about a week ago. It felt like we got about a foot of rain yesterday. All the snow is gone except for the big piles in parking lots. It seems like that’s the way winter works now. We get some snow, but it doesn’t hang around…
My dad sent me this article. I’ve studied ethics pretty seriously, so he was curious about my opinion. Since I’ve been on the lookout for topics to write about, I figured I should write a post about it. Before I start, I should warn you that I’m no expert on medical ethics. I don’t know…
