Nature-lovers (which should include all of us on planet Earth, but strangely does not) breathed a sigh of relief today as we read the news from Nagoya, Japan. After two weeks of negotiations, the nearly 200 nations assembled in Nagoya, Japan, decided set aside more of the Earth's surface as natural preserve. The decision hardly … Continue reading Saving Life-As-We-Know-It
Author: Alan AtKisson
Why J.M. Coetzee may be the greatest living writer in the English language
If you were a novelist committed to writing great novels, in the literary sense, and you won the Nobel Prize, what would do? Coetzee, who won the prize in 2003, keeps writing great novels. I picked up his most recent, Summertime (2009), in an airport bookstore, and started reading it while waiting in line to … Continue reading Why J.M. Coetzee may be the greatest living writer in the English language
Live from Iceland: Joan Davis on “Food for Life”
Here on Iceland, the Balaton Group Meeting is entering its third day. With models of Food Futures still spinning in our heads from yesterday, we are now listening to Joan Davis. Personal reasons kept her home in Switzerland this year, but this meeting's theme touches her "heart-question" as we say in Swedish: organic agriculture. Joan … Continue reading Live from Iceland: Joan Davis on “Food for Life”
Food Futures: Sirens, Warning Lights, and All That
So I'm sitting on a rather large lump of volcanic rock in the North Atlantic ocean - Iceland - at the annual meeting of the Balaton Group. We've already had several days of (truly) mind-boggling presentations on topics related both to the global financial system, and the global food system, and more on that later. … Continue reading Food Futures: Sirens, Warning Lights, and All That
International Buy-a-Qur’an Day
I bought a copy of the Qur'an today. It seemed the best way to register my support to all my Muslim friends in the face of the media circus around this low-minded Florida "pastor," whose behavior is so antithetical from the Christianity I learned as a child (a child in Florida, as it happens). Buying … Continue reading International Buy-a-Qur’an Day
Can a Glass of Orange Juice in Sweden be “Climate Smart”?
Sometimes you just wince. I’m complicit, of course. I bought the juice. I like the juice. And of course, I routinely wonder at the general sustainability of shipping orange juice (and a lot of other stuff) around the planet, using fossil fuels. It doesn’t seem quite right. There are a lot of things that “don’t … Continue reading Can a Glass of Orange Juice in Sweden be “Climate Smart”?
Launching “The Life Thief”
Today I took a dive into the Twitterverse -- the "Twitter Universe," the new online parallel reality of 140-character phrases with their followers, @s, cross-links to Facebook, and a vast number of other particles with strange names and functions that I barely understand. Or actually, don't really understand. The Twitterverse reminds of the science book … Continue reading Launching “The Life Thief”
Recommended: “A Voyage Long and Strange”
As an American living permanently in another country (and having taken dual citizenship here in Sweden), the United States of America looks increasingly strange and wondrous as the years go by. My neighbors talk of a Swedish envy of Americans: "We all want to be Americans, don't we?" said my daughter's playmate's papa the other … Continue reading Recommended: “A Voyage Long and Strange”
Eco-House, Normal House
A Little Weblog Essay about Our New House, and its Various Environmental and Sustainable Features and Benefits This week my family moves into a new house that we have just finished building -- or rather, that the builders have just finished building, financed by the proceeds on the sale of our previous apartment (we sold … Continue reading Eco-House, Normal House
The Earthquake in Copenhagen: Reflections on CoP-15 and its Aftermath
After attending CoP-15 (as a UN Observer, on temporary assignment to the Division for Sustainable Development, though of course I write entirely in my individual capacity), talking to numerous delegates and observers and NGO activists during the event, and reading over a hundred articles on the process and the outcome, I have come to an … Continue reading The Earthquake in Copenhagen: Reflections on CoP-15 and its Aftermath
Alan AtKisson 