Orion Magazine - January-February 2009

PUBLISHER:

M.G.H. Gilliam

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:

H. Emerson Blake

EDITOR:

Jennifer Sahn

EXECUTIVE EDITOR:

Harlan C. Cli=ord

PICTURE EDITOR:

Jason Houston

MANAGING EDITOR:

Tara Rae Miner

SENIOR EDITOR:

George K. Russell

ASSISTANT EDITOR:

Hannah Fries

EDITORIAL INTERN:

Kathleen Yale

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:

Wendell Berry,

Mark Dowie, David James Duncan, David Ehrenfeld, Barbara Kingsolver, Barry Lopez, Scott Russell Sanders, Sandra Steingraber, Ginger Strand, Terry Tempest Williams

CORRESPONDENTS:

Cheryl Perusse Daigle,

William Fox, Peter Friederici, Elizabeth Grossman, Michelle Nijhuis, Lauret Savoy, Seth Zuckerman

CIRCULATION:

Greylock Media, Inc.

DESIGN & PRODUCTION:

www.impressinc.com

STUDIO DIRECTOR:

Hans Teensma

DESIGN DIREC TOR:

Pamela Glaven

DESIGNER:

James McDonald

BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

M.G.H. Gilliam, CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT, Peter P. Blanchard III, Marc Fasteau,

Daniel Imho=, Wendy Tarlow Kaplan, Kathleen Dean Moore, Julia Harte Widdowson

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

H. Emerson Blake

MARKETING DIRECTOR:

Scott Walker

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR:

Madeline B. Cantwell

DEVELOPMENT OFFICER:

Christopher Nye

OFFICE MANAGER AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

:

Karen Gagne

ORION GRASSROOTS NETWORK COORDINATOR:

Erik Ho=ner

OGN INTERN:

Scott Gast

ADVISORY BOARD:

Kenny Ausubel, Spencer

B. Beebe, Wendell Berry, David G. Campbell, Alison Hawthorne Deming, John Elder, Robert Finch, Jane Goodall, Robert Hass, Van Jones, William Kittredge, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Bill McKibben,

W. S. Merwin, Stephanie Mills, Gary Paul Nabhan, Richard Nelson, David Orr, Robert Michael Pyle, Chet Raymo, Steven C. Rockefeller, Pattiann Rogers, George K. Russell, Scott Russell Sanders, Scott Slovic, Annick Smith, Gary Snyder, Kim R. Sta=ord, John Tallmadge, Mitchell Thomashow, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Terry Tempest Williams, Edward O. Wilson, Susan Witt, Ann Zwinger

them >ve great lessons: how the universe began, how life began, how humans began, how literature began, and how mathematics began. My sense is that once children learn the story of evolution, they will be able to better understand ecology and the interconnectedness of all life. Once they’ve learned ecology, they’ll understand the value of biodiversity.

These are vital stories and lessons to tell our children—but most youngsters don’t learn them. If they did, I wonder if we’d have to have that “climate change talk”—or if they could just trust their own observations of a rapidly changing climate, and know that this can’t be good for all the life around them.

Julie Johnston

Pender Island, British Columbia

As a parent of four, I fully appreciate the situation Sandra Steingraber >nds herself in. There are days when I wish we could hide away and shield our family from most of what is happening in the world around us. Given the realities of global climate change and a failing world economy, parents everywhere are hard pressed to >nd much good news to share with their children. Each day, Steingraber’s rocking boat gets closer to ?ipping over. At the moment, we can only hope that each of us — parents, teachers, community leaders—can call on our strength, wisdom, and sheer will to take the small steps necessary to build the momentum we need to steer through this global storm. We can right the ship. In fact, we must right the ship. Our children are counting on us.

Bill Diskin

Charlotte, North Carolina

With all respect to your eloquent “Storm’s Coming” authors, only Carl Sa>na’s essay, “The Moral Climate” (September/October 2008), came close to expressing the moral outrage that is so lacking in the discourse about global

warming. I >nd it strange that so many concerned, ethical, and intelligent people have yet to >nd the muscle and motivation to directly challenge and rebut not just the decadent values of our consumer society but our political leadership. Our creative energy is being wasted on hand-wringing and hopelessness rather than being used in the service of political organizing. We need a movement that will at least attempt to oust those elected policy- and lawmakers who either waver with doubt or stubbornly refuse to rebut the lies and excuses blurring our current energy policies. It is high time all of us come together not in fruitless prayer or disapprobation, but in clear, principled, and undiluted action. We need an Ecology Political Action Committee to rid the body politic of the sloths and replace them with public servants who are willing to >ght for the tough measures that we need in these last few years before the tidal wave of irreversible climate change crushes us.

Lorna Salzman

East Quogue, New York

The beauty of Emily Schadler’s wood
chips (“Wood-Fueled Schools,” September/
October 2008) for fuel is the furnace can
be >red by an auger—no need to get up in
the wee hours and throw logs on the >re.
Wood was my sole source of heat through
twenty-seven Minnesota winters, and I
still get up at four a.m. to >re the stove I no
longer have. But chips or logs, a well man-
aged stand of northern hardwood will pro-
duce a 4x4x8 cord—nearly two tons—of
deadfall wood per acre per year. If a home-
owner has access to as little as seven acres,
he or she should never have to cut a living
tree—except possibly one in the way of
the tractor or pickup. Yes, your stove will
produce CO , but your remaining living
2
trees should clean that up. Zero carbon
footprint? Maybe. Burn here, burn now!