Parenthetical.net

From the (Environmental Protection) Agency’s Earth Day history page:
EPA was born in 1970 – a time when rivers caught fire and cities were hidden under dense clouds of smoke. We’ve made remarkable progress since then in protecting human health and safeguarding the natural environment.
Remember 40 years ago, when life was like a science fiction movie? [...]

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I wrote recently about the fact that my mental picture of “apocalypse” is stuck in the Cold War — instantaneous disaster, as opposed to the currently more likely slow(-ish) environmental collapse. I mused about what current YA readers of science fiction will picture, which made me wonder: other than Uglies, what’s being written in [...]

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While cataloging Alas, Babylon, a classic 1959 apocalyptic sci-fi novel by Pat Frank, it occured to me how quaint nuclear holocausts seem to me now. Oh, the Russians bombed us into the Stone Age? How terrifying! We tore our short-sleeved dress shirts, and the girls in the typing pool were vaporized! [...]

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Miriam and Eric’s fabulous science blog The Oyster’s Garter continues my discussion of food politics. Make sure to see my comment, which hopefully clarifies the difference between IDOF and TOD: to wit, IDOF is about personal nutrition/health choices; TOD is about environmental impact.

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I finally finished Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in which he traces four meals – fast food, industrial organic (a la Whole Foods), local organic, and hunted/gathered by himself – from their origins in fields and factory farms to his table. I don’t say this very often – in fact, I’m not sure I’ve [...]

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