Film Reflection: Wildest Middle East by Animal Planet

After reading What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis and watching Rory Stewart's The Great Game (incredible dual documentaries on imperialism and Afghan independence) on Netflix (the first is also on YouTube), I continued the theme and watched an installment on one of my favorite natural history …

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Keystone Species in a Yellowstone Shell

Keystone species: like a stone bridging the two sides of an arch, once removed the structure crumbles. One of ecologists favorite example in the last twenty years has been the grey wolf. Humans have a long history of destroying ecosystems and obliterating biodiversity. More than likely we've seen the loss of more keystone species than …

Introduction to Soil Science: The Best Way to Put It

Sometimes I read articles and books or watch documentaries and I always wonder what is the best way to translate what I'm learning. I find most of anything in nature and natural sciences (if you care to split those--I don't, but I understand that they sometimes elicit two different concepts) fascinating beyond measure, like concurrent …

Animas River: A History of Mining Contaminations

My family lived in western Colorado for many years, and one of us lived in Cortez in the southwest corner of the state. This is within an hour's drive of Durango and not much farther from Silverton. I love the area. Just about any location on Colorado's western slopes evoke nostalgia and childhood memories. It's easy …

Is Australia a Continent?

This brought up an interesting geography discussion on CPG Grey’s YouTube video. Indeed, what are continents? What this thread elicited were statements on what is conventional in someone’s country. For instance in North America we are taught there are seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. It seems the Aussies, …

Book Reflection: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery (Part II)

Book Review Part I here. Conveniently for me, I had finished Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery, a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, shortly before The New York Times published a relevant article, "Farmers Put Down the Plow for More Productive Soil". This article on modern no-till farming …

Book Reflection: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery (Part I)

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery of the University of Washington was simply a book on a library shelf among four other soil tomes. That was all the library had to offer for my self-education effort for the UN’s International Year of Soils. Fine. The “erosion of civilizations” part suggested something epic. The …

Charles Darwin’s Affair with Earth Worms

(Featured image courtesy of Gilles San Martin, Flickr user.) We always attribute On the Origin of Species as Charles Darwin’s profound accomplishment and stride in advancing scientific thought—to include biology in the context of evolution, specifically.  However, the guy kept busy after his most controversial book. He watched dirt form. I began to read a …

The Value of the Earth

My backyard is a jungle. A Vinca minor and Vinca major jungle. All these periwinkles create a pedestrian hazard where if you shuffle your feet just slightly you will likely lodge your toe under the grounded vines and potentially fall on a prickly rose vine, because I have those too—though “vine” may be a misnomer …

The Nebular Hypothesis for the Origin of the Solar System

It’s always fun to read an older science book and read about the cast of theories scientists have considered through the centuries to describe Earth’s beginnings. I love natural history, and many natural history—or even physical geography—books open with a chapter on Earth system history. 1755, Germany: Last semester I took an ethics class, which …