A Rebuttal to Mark Lynas’ GMO Reversal – January 11, 2013

GMO critic-turned-booster could be right — and still be wrong

If you want to get your name splattered all over the web, there’s nothing like recanting your once strongly held beliefs. Give a big mea culpa speech telling the world how wrong you have been, and you’ll get far more attention for your auto-rebuttal than you ever received for your original ideas. When it comes to ideological U-turns the media are like moths to a flame. (Never mind that, as Whitman said, “consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.”)

Photo by Mauroof Khaleel/Presidency MaldivesMark Lynas — a British journalist-activist who at least once took direct
action to rip GM trial crops out… more

by: Jason Mark

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The Top Ten Environmental Stories of 2012 – December 25, 2012

From oil to agriculture to wilderness, a rundown of the most important headlines of the year

On the interwebs the year-end “Top Ten” lists and “Best Of” rundowns have become as ritualized a part of the winter solstice season as holiday shopping and putting lights on the house. I’ve been known to suffer from good case of FOMO (ICYMI, that’s “fear-of-missing-out”), so I thought I should compile a list of my own this year. Here’s my take on the environment-related stories from 2012 that are likely to have a lasting impact beyond this calendar year.

 

Superstorm Wallops the Big Apple

Photo by Flickr userspleenessYears from now people will look back on Hurricane Sandy as one of… more

by: Jason Mark

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Help Support Environmental Journalism‏ – December 24, 2012

Dear Friend:

Editing an environmental magazine comes with a few occupational hazards, foremost among them a hyper-awareness of how our political systems aren’t responding quickly enough to the steady breakdown of our ecological systems.

So it’s always a thrill when I receive grateful letters and emails from Earth Island Journal readers who appreciate our in-depth and insightful reporting.

Here’s what Emma from Michigan had to say about our recent cover story on the fracking boom in North Dakota:

“Thanks … for this article, explaining how all of this happened. My sympathies to those who own this land, which was once an outstretched and lovely prairie, and has succumbed to our national… more

by: Jason Mark

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In Defense of Drakes Bay Oyster Company – December 18, 2012

Field Notes from Point Reyes National Seashore

The latest environmental controversy has to do with a small, little animal whose anus passes through the middle of its heart.

Photo by Flickr user lidiadehenPierce Ranch trail at the Point Reyes National Seashore.

For those of you who aren’t molluscologists, I am referring to the oyster (Crassostrea virginica or Crassotrea gigas). And for those who don’t happen to live in the rarified precincts of Marin County, California, I am talking about the long running battle over Drakes Bay Oyster Company, a family-run outfit located at the center of one of our most unique national parks, Point Reyes National Seashore.

Here’s more

by: Jason Mark

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Safeguard Your Health: Save the Climate – December 3, 2012

A focus on public health could be a game-changer for climate change messaging

What will it take to get Americans to care – really care – about global climate change?

Photo courtesy Anoto GroupPeople won’t make climate change a top priority in their lives until they see,
and feel, how weather disruptions are a clear and present danger to their
health and the health of their families.

Some version of that question has bedeviled environmentalists since NASA climatologist James Hansen first warned about the threat of global warming more than 20 years ago. The quest to crack the public apathy around climate change has been the… more

by: Jason Mark

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