The world’s most famous gorilla died 18 years ago today. I’m grateful for what he taught me while he lived. Continue reading
Author: mike shanahan
Five vacant niches in the biodiversity blogosphere
As the variety of life diminishes fast all around us the time is right for more bloggers to focus on biodiversity and create a bigger conversation about what its decline means. There are plenty of vacant spaces in the blogosphere left for them to fill.
The best blogs on biodiversity?
Looking for some good blogs about biodiversity? Here are some of my old favourites and some new discoveries. There’s something for everyone here, but I’d like to know your top tips too.
A challenge: To anyone who ever used the phrase “tree-hugger” pejoratively
It was way past midnight in Montreal and on Rue Saint Hubert a blind-drunk man was weaving his way past my friends Marie-Josée and Diego as they waited for a taxi last week.
They told me the next day how the man had staggered up to a large tree and then hugged it intensely for a few seconds before meandering off into the night, unaware that anyone had seen him.
As we laughed about this private nocturnal meeting between man and nature, I thought about the phrase tree-hugger and the way people tend to use it to denigrate anyone who advocates a more sustainable way of living.
People who use the phrase seem to imply that a tree-hugger would value nature ahead of humanity — and that therefore their views are immediately worthless. But nothing could be further from the truth. Continue reading
Environmental or spiritual pollution – which is easiest to fix?
If the massed ranks of the world’s religions practised more of what their prophets preached, our environment would probably be in much better shape.
World’s most notorious wildlife smuggler caught in the act
He’s been called the Kingpin, the Lizard King, the Pablo Escobar of wildlife smuggling. Now the man who ran an illicit multi-million dollar business could be heading to jail — again.
The Song of the Dodo gets my vote
New Scientist magazine wants to know what the most underrated science books (written for a general audience) from the past 50 years are. Tell them your favourites and you could win some of the best science books of 2010. Continue reading
Borneo’s husband-and-wife mountain gods look down on illegal logging
The news that Norway has sold all of its shares in a Malaysian timber company it accuses of illegal logging has brought back memories of one of the best experiences of my life, and of a pair of sad brown eyes I wish I had not seen.
They kill environment journalists, don’t they?
Journalists face many threats for uncovering environmental abuses. Some more solidarity from their safer colleagues around the world would put the media spotlight on a growing problem that nations are obliged to tackle under the Rio Declaration they signed in 1992.
Climate change alters the English language
Remember when “at a glacial pace” described something extremely slow? Remember when the phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees” rang true (unless of course you owned an orchard or a plantation)? Continue reading
Under The Banyan 