Owl & Ibis - A Confluence Of Minds

Alice: How long is forever? White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second. - Lewis Carroll Modernity: A historical category marked by the questioning or rejection of tradition; the prioritization of individualism, freedom and formal equality; faith in inevitable social, scientific and technological progress, rationalization and professionalization; a movement from feudalism (or agrarianism) toward capitalism and the market economy, industrialization, urbanization and secularization; the development of the nation-state, representative democracy, public education, etc. - From Wikipedia based on Michel Foucault 1977 This is a detailed continuation of my recent lyrical essay,  “The Fatal Myth of Human Progress.”  It covers the connections between U.S. politics and environmental protection in the late 20 th  Century. It also discusses what actions and supporting stories Humankind must come up with as we near ecological and economic collapse. Losing Earth: The De...

O nce upon a time, long ago, in an ordinary part of space, a small but extraordinary planet gave rise to Life. Among its great variety of living things was an extraordinary animal. T his creature was not physically exceptional among its apelike cousins. But it was unique because it survived and flourished by dominating the planet’s resources. It did so by using its wits to cooperate, and by making and using tools. It was inconceivable to the planet, Earth, or to this unique creature we’ve come to call “human,” that this ape might ever pose a threat to itself and all other life forms on the planet. Humans thought little to nothing about the future. They remembered yesterday but lived in today. H uman survival skills were not always successful, especially in unpredictable weather places such as the Middle East. To avoid starvation in years of drought and food scarcity in this area humans began growing and storing food. They were successful. They also tamed cows, sheep and goat...

Thanks to all those who attended the July 23, 2019 O&I presentation, "The Nile: River of Life and Death in a Time of Climate Change, Part 2 of 2" by yours truly. Great questions and discussion! A link to the presentation's MS Powerpoint slideshow is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WAsyUaqeHnv_4AVDwNltbegVmwSH2xmC/view?usp=sharing Note that there are a number of very recent videos linked on many of the slides. One is an outstanding one-hour 2019 BBC documentary on the Nile, the rest are 5-10 minutes each but very worth watching. The links on the slides are at these symbols (a) at the bottom of selected slides. An asterisk at the upper left indicates a new slide added since Part 1 was presented on July 9, 2019. If your slideshow viewer does not support the fonts properly, attached is a PDF copy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w5ZC7ToCU7VOLTsWTQUFB4niypgPBxo6/view?usp=sharing Finally, here's an excellent unlinked video from...

UPDATE Here's an essay that also urges having hope and taking action in the face of imminent catastrophe: On the Cusp of the Coming 'Perfect Storm' by Dennis Oliver June 27, 2019 ORIGINAL ESSAY I live through the filters of three worldviews – that of a US white male, atheist, liberal progressive; that of an adopted Ugandan for the past 36 years; and that of an anthropologist. I have lived and worked in rural and urban Africa off and on, for extended periods, from 1980 to the present. I have led major grassroots international development assistance programs in Swaziland, Tanzania, and Ghana. I have led refugee resettlement programs in Kenya, and from there visited and worked for extended periods in cities and deep rural areas of over twenty African countries. I have seen hope and despair firsthand in the eyes of Africa’s rural impoverished; seen hope realized and lost in African cities and suburbs; listened to African refugee stories of torturous perse...