All posts tagged: Environment

Content focused on the environment or the idea of environment.

Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will

Published by Isaac Yuen

The first place I ever felt at home in was on an island. My grandparents lived on Cheung Chau, an island ten kilometers southwest of Hong Kong. Literally translated as “long isle”, Cheung Chau is shaped like a dumbbell, its two granite masses joined in the middle by a sandbar. As a child I spent weekends and summers there fishing and swimming, and even now the scent of saltspray and sewage sends me back to that grimy old fishing village. This fondness for islands stayed and deepened. When I moved to Canada and started to read English I found myself drawn to Earthsea, the fantasy archipelago world of Ursula K. Le Guin. On each of her conjured isles laid not only magic and adventure, but moods intrinsic to and defined by geography. I connected to Astowell, last land before the open sea; Gont and its snow-capped peak rising up like a sharp spire; Osskil, raven realm, icebound and alien. Many times I have sailed in my mind to the shores of Selidor at the westernmost edge of the world, that …

Midway: A Message from the Gyre

Published by Isaac Yuen

The trailer for Midway: A Message from the Gyre has been out for a few years now, but I only came across it last week. Even though I was familiar with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and knew about the plight of the albatross on this remote atoll, I was unprepared for Chris Jordan’s unflinching look at death and dying, of chicks bloated with plastics fighting for each breath, at beak and feather and sinew giving way to a grotesque nest of bottle caps and butane lighters, still discernable. It’s hard to watch: Midway is steeped in heartbreak and grief, as with so many environmental tales of our time. It forces us to face the reality of the situation, our complicity in this unfolding tragedy. Yet Jordan’s steadfast focus does not seem to linger on guilt, but rather revolves around awe. Pitching the film as “a love story for our time from the heart of the Pacific”, he also captures these birds in the full flight of life, wayfarers who spend most of their lives soaring …

On Place and Loss: Flyway’s Shells

Published by Isaac Yuen

Regular visitors of Ekostories may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as much over the past few months. It’s not that I’ve run out of things to write about or stories to explore. Actually it’s been the opposite! Over the last little while, I’ve been channeling my energies towards other creative ventures, but they still revolve around the same themes I’ve explored on Ekostories for years – the power of stories; the intersection between science and art; notions of nature; the influence of culture; journeys of identity. Many of those endeavours are starting to come into fruition, so starting today and over upcoming weeks and months, I’ll be unveiling them here, along with new and original essays on beloved tales. First off: I’m excited to announce that Flyway, a fantastic Iowa State University-based journal focused on writing and environment, has published one of my creative shorts, Shells. If you’re looking for poetry, fiction, nonfiction and visual art that “explores the many complicated facets of the word environment – at once rural, urban, and suburban – and its social …

Beyond Hope, by Derrick Jensen

Published by Isaac Yuen

“But what, precisely, is hope? At a talk I gave last spring, someone asked me to define it. I turned the question back on the audience, and here’s the definition we all came up with: hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency; it means you are essentially powerless.” (Derrick Jensen, Beyond Hope)

Escapades in Ecology: Simpsons’ Bart the Mother

Published by Isaac Yuen

“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.