Hanging on to Hope
“I hold one share in the corporate earth and am uneasy about the management.” — E.B. White, “Sootfall and Fallout,” 1956 Not long after the election, I fell down a 5-foot rock embankment....
Author: Marina Schauffler
No Place Offers an “Escape” from Climate Change
“The man who is often thinking that it is better to be somewhere else than where he is,” Henry David Thoreau wrote, “excommunicates himself.” The same might be said for those who ask, as...
Casting Ballots for the Planet
It’s been a long campaign season, and many of us are ready for a respite from barbed political banter. So let’s take a high-altitude look at what this looming election might mean–for our planet....
Talking about Death
I could see that they were slowly leaving the sphere of TV commercial old age… and moving into the part of old age that was scarier, harder to talk about, and not part of...
Grieving Big Changes along Maine’s Shore
I walk the shore in a place I have known longer than memory stretches. There are wide expanses of rugged beach, a tide-tumbled assortment of small rocks, sand and crushed shells. From afar, it...
An Apple Proposition
“Pick your way through these piles of colorful orbs… and you will get a sense of the many things an apple can be, the many roles it can play in our lives. If there...
The Value of Frugality
A recent skim of the book 365 Ways to Live Cheap! made me realize that, without ever trying, I have mastered the art of being a cheapskate. That long list of tips sounded all...
Hurricanes: Why Worry
As a child, Kerry Emanuel was captivated by thunderstorms–planting himself by windows to watch them. He has followed that meteorological passion through decades of research and teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to...
