All posts tagged: Conservation

Content connected to environmental conservation.

Humpback Whale Breaching

Beyond Doom and Gloom: Conservation Stories of Hope

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One of the coolest things about the blogging community is connecting with other like-minded individuals. I recently had the honour to guest blog over at Earthninja, a great blog by fellow 2013 Canadian Weblog Award winner Emily Nichol that focuses on conservation, nature, and science communication. While tossing around ideas of things to write about, I found inspiration in an intriguing talk by Dr. Elin Kelsey,  author, environmental educator, Rachel Carson Center fellow, and a past professor who shaped a lot of my interests and writings: In her video, Kelsey speaks about the importance of telling stories of hope and resilience even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Read the Accompanying Post Here Featured Image: Humpback breaching, by Whit Welles

It’s Not (Always) About the Lorax, by Michelle Nijhuis

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“Are there other ways to tell environmental stories? With Christopher Booker’s Seven Basic Plots as a field guide, I’ve been searching for examples of environmental journalism with other-than-tragic narratives — archetypal frameworks that still fit the facts, but startle the reader out of his or her mournful stupor.” (Michelle Nijhuis) Taking a slight breather at the halfway point of the Nausicaa Project, I wanted to share an intriguing article titled It’s Not (Always) About the Lorax by Michelle Nijhuis. She notes too often environmental stories gravitate towards tragedy because it’s the most direct method for expressing the loss or diminishment of nature. But while this approach is honest and powerful, it can leave readers feeling depressed, powerless, and paralyzed. Nijhuis loosely uses Booker’s Seven Basic Plots to highlight a series of well-written narratives that use other approaches to convey environmental understanding. My favourite story listed has to be Alan Rabinowitz’s incredible Wild Eyes, if only because I’ve actually camped in the Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve in Belize. The piece got me thinking about the Ekostories I’ve explored. What …

Emma Marris Rambunctious Garden

Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World

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Several years ago, I spent a month volunteering at Koke’e State Park on Kauai, Hawaii. I was there to enlist in the “war against invasives”, learning to identify and remove plants that threatening to overtake Garden Isle’s native ecosystems. Armed with a machete, a foldup saw, and two squirt bottles of herbicide, a group of us proceeded to take out the primary offenders – fields of kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum), groves of strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum), and towering Australian tree ferns (Cyathea cooperi). The work itself was satisfying, but in the back of my mind there grew a sad realization that our collectives efforts made little difference in the big picture. Vast areas were already covered with dense stands of invasives and were beyond salvaging. We worked triage, investing our energies on areas where gingers and guavas had not yet gained a significant foothold. But I was forced to accept that the ohia lehua and koa dominated forests we worked so hard to protect will eventually be relegated to existence in small and intensely managed …

Escapades in Ecology: Simpsons’ Bart the Mother

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“Hi, I’m Troy McClure. You may remember me from such nature films as “Earwigs, Ew!”, and “Man Versus Nature: The Road to Victory.” The Simpsons started life as a quirky satirical parody of the typical American middle-class family three decades ago and has since become a cultural touchstone for entire generations of viewers. There’s not much the longest running sitcom in US television story hasn’t spoofed and parodied, and that includes humanity’s relationship with nature. Season ten’s Bart the Mother is not the only environmentally themed episode of the series, but it is my personal favourite. As the last episode voiced by the legendary Phil Hartman (RIP), Bart the Mother is not only an intriguing and hilarious story about the consequences of introduced species, but also explores the mentality with which we engage with the world around us.