Bill Graham's Blog, page 8

We Humans Need An Ecological Civilization

Human beings must respect Nature, follow its ways and protect it   I came across the term “ecological civilization” when I read an article by Jeremy Lent about the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, proposing the idea of an ecological civilization before his congress. He said: “we, as human beings, must respect nature, follow its ways and […]

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Keeping Nature Connected To Herself

Recently, I wrote an essay that asked whether current environmental conservation strategies are misguided or on target I questioned the two most prominent conservation strategies suggested by the scientific community. I concluded that both strategies failed to address the preservation of Nature’s energy flow. I suggested that both strategies would fail to maintain a healthy […]

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Why Do I Write These Essays?

Life on Earth exists because energy that originates with our sun flows from one creature or plant to another.  This movement of life’s energy takes place because everything is interconnected and interdependent. Nothing in Nature exists in isolation. In order to function as a steward of Nature, one must possess a consciousness of this basic […]

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We Humans Throw Away 40% Of Our Food

Barry Commoner, in one of his four laws of ecology,states:   “Everything Must Go Somewhere.  There is no “waste” in nature, and there is no “away” to which things can be thrown.  Everything, such as wood smoke, nuclear waste, carbon emissions, etc., must go somewhere.”   One of the key characteristics of all creatures in […]

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Nature’s Relationships : Fire Is A Connecting Force

  Fire, to we humans, is a paradox. It is both friend and foe. We need it, yet it can destroy us. In Nature, fire is a positive force. Fire is an important part of forest and grassland ecology. It is a force in Nature that provides new and restored connections. Paradoxically, the destructive nature […]

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Nature’s Relationships : What Is Life ?

If we could surrender to Earth’s intelligence, we would rise up rooted—like trees.” ~ Rainier Maria Rilke   What Is Life ? This is a question with many answers. A dictionary might tell us that life is a distinctive characteristic of a living organism that has he capacity to grow, metabolize, respond to stimuli, adapt, […]

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Great Conservation Stories

  In between the government endorsed wolf killings and the negative environmental impact of off-road ATVs, there are many silent conservation heroes who are making a difference and setting examples for the rest of us.   As I do research for my blog posts, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that all is not […]

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Nature’s Relationships : Fractals and Forests

“Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum. And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on; While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.”                                                                 — Jonathan Swift:  1733 David George Haskell, in […]

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Sanctuaries of Silence

If you have been following my essays over the years, you would be correct if you sensed my passion for silence and solitude.  Indeed, just like the creatures in the forests and the mountains that I visit, I am profoundly adverse to human created noise. Noise can deeply affect my personal ecosystem. But, much more […]

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Conservation Theater: The fallacy of killing animals to promote life.

Many of us who wait in airport security lines have serious doubts about the effectiveness, the benefit, and the actual protection offered by the invasive procedures that we are required to endure. Our doubts become amplified when we read that dangerous and illegal items are regularly smuggled past the inspectors during government sanctioned tests. We […]

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