sources:
Into the Wild, by John Krakauer
The Journal of Chris McCandless
The Wild Truth, by Carine McCandless
Tag: forest
A Climate Warning From the Fertile Crescent
As the Middle East braces for another year of extreme heat, climate change is turning the soil to dust in the landscape that has long been known as the fertile crescent — and water has become a new source of conflict.
Alissa J. Rubin, who covers the Middle East, tells the story of Iraq’s water crisis and what it means for the world.
Guest: Alissa J. Rubin, a senior Middle East correspondent for The New York Times.
Background reading:
From 2023: A climate warning from the cradle of civilization.
LISTEN: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/podcasts/the-daily/climate-change-iraq-middle-east.html
The Sunday Read: ‘The Strange, Post-Partisan Popularity of the Unabomber’
Episode Description
Online, there is a name for the experience of finding sympathy with Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber: Tedpilling. To be Tedpilled means to read Paragraph 1 of Kaczynski’s manifesto, its assertion that the mad dash of technological advancement since the Industrial Revolution has “made life unfulfilling,” “led to widespread psychological suffering” and “inflicted severe damage on the natural world,” and think, Well, sure.
Since Kaczynski’s death by suicide in a federal prison in North Carolina nearly two years ago, the taboo surrounding the figure has been weakening. This is especially true on the right, where pessimism and paranoia about technology — largely the province of the left not long ago — have spread on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to police speech on social media platforms.
Link: https://pca.st/07odumi7
‘All of his guns will do nothing for him’: lefty preppers are taking a different approach to doomsday
Liberals in the US make up about 15% of the prepping scene and their numbers are growing. Their fears differ from their better-known rightwing counterparts – as do their methods
One afternoon in February, hoping to survive the apocalypse or at least avoid finding myself among its earliest victims, I logged on to an online course entitled Ruggedize Your Life: The Basics.
Some of my classmates had activated their cameras. I scrolled through the little windows, noting the alarmed faces, downcast in cold laptop light. There were dozens of us on the call, including a geophysicist, an actor, a retired financial adviser and a civil engineer. We all looked worried, and rightly so. The issue formerly known as climate change was now a polycrisis called climate collapse. H1N1 was busily jumping from birds to cows to people. And with each passing day, as Donald Trump went about gleefully dismantling state capacity, the promise of a competent government response to the next hurricane, wildfire, flood, pandemic, drought, mudslide, heatwave, financial meltdown, hailstorm or other calamity receded further from view.
READ ARTICLE: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/17/preppers-liberals-climate-collapse
What I Found on the 365-Mile Trail of a Lost Folk Hero
The Old Leatherman, a sort of real-life Northeastern Sasquatch, gave me an excuse to step outside my own life.
Sometime in the 1850s or ’60s, at a terrible moment in U.S. history, a strange man seemed to sprout, out of nowhere, into the rocky landscape between New York City and Hartford. The word “strange” hardly captures his strangeness. He was rough and hairy, and he wandered around on back roads, sleeping in caves. Above all, he refused to explain himself. As one newspaper put it: “He is a mystery, and a very greasy and ill-odored one.” Other papers referred to him as “the animal” or (just throwing up their hands) “this uncouth and unkempt ‘What is it?’”
But the strangest thing about the stranger was his suit.
LINK: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/magazine/old-leatherman-walk-new-york-connecticut.html
The Tipping Points of Climate Change — and Where We Stand
We’re nearly halfway through the 2020s, dubbed the most decisive decade for action on climate change. Where exactly do things stand? Climate impact scholar Johan Rockström offers the most up-to-date scientific assessment of the state of the planet and explains what must be done to preserve Earth’s resilience to human pressure.
Ishmael Series
Ishmael Series
Descriptions: https://www.goodreads.com/series/96452-ishmael
Download: https://libgen.rs/fiction/4EE3B6D8E3F84E05A344237F3B8CEB30
‘We were in disbelief’: Antarctica is behaving in a way we’ve never seen before. Can it recover?
Antarctic sea ice has been disappearing over the last several summers. Now, climate scientists are wondering whether it will ever come back.
2023 smashes record for world’s hottest year by huge margin
Rapid reduction in fossil fuel burning urgently needed to preserve liveable conditions, say scientists, as climate damage deepens
2023 “smashed” the record for the hottest year by a huge margin, providing “dramatic testimony” of how much warmer and more dangerous today’s climate is from the cooler one in which human civilization developed.
Link to article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/09/2023-record-world-hottest-climate-fossil-fuel
U.S. Lawyer Arrested After Fatally Shooting 2 Protesters on Camera in Panama
An American lawyer has been arrested in Panama after allegedly shooting two people taking part in an environmental protest Tuesday. Local media reports identified Kenneth Darlington, 77, as a Panama-born U.S. citizen. On Tuesday, he allegedly walked up to a group of protesters blocking the Pan-American Highway in the Chame District and remonstrated with the attendees. He then pulled out a pistol and—in front of a group of journalists reporting on the protest—allegedly opened fire. One victim, Abdiel Díaz Chávez, died at the scene, while another Iván Rodríguez Mendoza, was pronounced dead at a medical facility, according to TVN. Both victims were teachers, the report said, adding that Darlington has been charged with aggravated homicide and illegal possession of firearms.