Apologies, Apologies

An unintentional absence

I am so sorry I dropped off the face of the earth. I am still trying to find a balance between my newsletters, my book, my PhD program. I think about this newsletter a lot, but it’s like a snowball— once I don’t post I feel guilty for not posting and then I continue not to post.

My perfectionist tendencies can really work against me, because I often think that each newsletter has to be a perfectly encapsulated essay with everything thought out completely and tied up into a neat little bow. That can’t work with the pace of fires and climate change and ecology.

So, I’m going to share with you some things I’ve been thinking about lately.

• This interview with author Jeff Goodell, who has a new book: The Heat Will Kill You First. The interview helped me understand that we are truly entering into, as Goodell calls it, a new climate regime. There is nowhere truly “safe” from climate change. He also addresses the dangerous feedback cycle of air conditioning, which is something I’ve been thinking about a lot now that I live in a state (Florida) and climate (hot AF) where air conditioning is integral to survival in many ways. Wherever I go, the air conditioning is pumping, and often it’s set to incredibly low temperatures, which seems absurd to me. Not only does it blast icy cold air into buildings, it also blasts hot air into the…already hot air. How did we get here??

• My heart is with Nova Scotia right now. After the intense early fire season the rains came, and many are deeply affected by intense flooding.

• Firefighter pay. While the Forest Service struggles to find wildland firefighters, Cal Fire is all set. Why? Because they pay their firefighters well and give them a better work/life balance. Maybe it’s time for the USFS to take a page out of their playbook?

• This piece in the New Yorker by Rivka Galchen, about bluefin tuna and Karen Pinchin’s book, Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas. I love deep dives into a single subject, object, or animal, because it’s never about one thing. We are all connected to each other.

• This amazing research on fire regimes in Alberta, Canada, which concludes that the “landscape has been shaped by a mixed-severity fire regime with very frequent fire.” Frequencies ranging from 15-40 year intervals, which is much more frequent, they say, than previously imagined. What does this mean? Lower severity fire, more often.

• Water. Right now I’m reading Cadillac Desert, written by Mark Reisner. The book is a deeply researched dive into how dams and irrigation has shaped the western United States. I’ll be writing more about it soon. I also read this deeply investigative piece about how Arizona, more than any other state, creates barriers to prevent indigenous tribes from accessing their fair share of water. The consequences of this are dire, especially because water is a sacred resource for many tribes. Limited access to water is slowing down construction of housing and medical centers. Read about it over at High Country News.

What I want to do.

Here’s what I want to do with this newsletter. Here’s what I hope to do.

• Weekly check-ins.

• A monthly essay.

• News updates.

That’s it. I want to do that. What I want to hear from you, dear reader, is what you want to hear. My next essay is going to be about Longleaf pines here in the south, but I have a lot of ideas moving forward. What to you want to learn about? Where do you want me to dive deep?

I’m interested. Tell me in the comments.

an old school poster for Lassen Volcanic National Park