Grizzly bear hunting? Outrage. Ordinary roads as “the most imminent threat to grizzly habitat today”? Crickets. And other insights from the age of "road ecology," by
@ben_a_goldfarb
|
@theatlantic
Waking up to an unexpectedly large amount of rat love. Thank you, everybody. “The interspecies genocide approach—it’s not effective, it’s never worked. It’s just silly to carry on the way we have been.”
The wolves and I just picked up gold for Best Investigative Article at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Thanks to
#COPAwards
,
@hakaimagazine
, everyone who spoke to me for the story. And to wolves everywhere.
Chatting with library folks about how reading changed in the pandemic, I learned that demand for "self-absorbed genres" was replaced by demand for books about social justice. Give us time and space free from consumer pressures, and we engage with issues larger than ourselves.
15 years ago, Alisa Smith and I wrote a series
@TheTyee
that went on to become our book The 100-Mile Diet. To celebrate, The Tyee is running stories all week on local food, starting with an interview with these kids. (And 65% off on sales of the book...)
It was a joy to write about these strangely hope-inducing whales. This article made better by: editor
@nijhuism
, fact-checker
@itsemilykrieger
, copyeditor Amy Stackhouse, illustrator Gabriel Alcala, and many more behind the scenes
@TheAtlantic
.
Having been asked about this many times, let me say definitively that the takeaway from my latest book is the whole damn thing. Otherwise, why did I bother?
The more I hear about green consumerism, the more I appreciate Hannah Arendt: "A consumers' society cannot possibly know how to take care of a world...the attitude of consumption spells ruin to everything it touches."
Now available in Canada. Who is this book for? Anyone who wonders—even sometimes—if all of us can consume more and more, forever, without laying waste to the planet. Anyone who wonders—even a little bit—if consumerism is really making us happy.
With thx
@randomhouseca
@dieworkwear
Mystified by the argument that fast fashion is friendly to lower incomes. It drives repeat sales through poor quality and faster fashion cycles. It undermines thrifting, handing down, and repairs. It rewards those who can afford disposability and hurts those who can’t.
As a person who writes about things like consumerism and melting glaciers and endangered birds, I often get asked if I'm hopeful. I think I've found my answer in a poem by
@whatwillsuffice
in
@Harpers
: "The light that is off / Is still a light."
Just received my author's copy of the beautiful UK edition by
@TheBodleyHead
. There's nothing fragile about the book, so I assume they're referring to my ego.
30 years ago, the fight to save the last of BC's ancient forests was urgent; now, it's desperate. Does that change the rules of engagement for activists? An important piece by
@zoeyunker
/
@serena_renner
via
@TheTyee
I once read a study that found 88 different seafoods in use by one BC coastal indigenous culture. According to this important story by
@bbrraaeellaa
, most BCers now eat about 5 types. What a striking difference in relationships to place. via
@TheTyee
Feels somehow hopeful that a book about reducing consumption made the podium at the Best in Business Book Awards. Thanks
@SABEW
, and congrats to winning team
@sheeraf
&
@ceciliakang
(An Ugly Truth) and fellow finalist
@lauren_etter
(The Devil's Playbook).
Congrats to SABEW 2021 Best in Business Book Awards finalist
@JB_MacKinnon
on his literary work “The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves,” published by
@eccobooks
. Thanks to
@Investopedia
for being the awards sponsor.
"A well-researched and provocative analysis offering hope and optimism for our future."
@KirkusReviews
gives THE DAY THE WORLD STOPS SHOPPING by
@JB_MacKinnon
a starred review!
I just watched airport security let someone exceed their liquid allowance for a half-full bottle of maple syrup “because it’s so good,” and my faith in humanity is briefly restored.
@slouisepetersen
In daydreams I open a restaurant called Yesterday’s Soup, because yesterday’s is always better than today’s. My partner assures me this is a bad plan.
Congrats to J.B. MacKinnon whose book “The Day the World Stops Shopping,” published by
@eccobooks
, was selected for the shortlist in SABEW’s Best in Business Book Awards!
The modern wolf lives in the world we make for it, one of failing salmon runs, ungulate barrens, wildlife selfies, waterfront homes, and late-night hikers. 🐺
In 2018,
@JB_MacKinnon
won three national awards for this story.
#HakaiMagTurns7
Tonight! The planet needs us to stop shopping, the economy needs us to consume more and more. What's the solution? Join me and
@DorothyWoodend
as we dare to discuss "the new elephant in the room." via
@TheTyee
Much talk about fast fashion these days, but I'm even more alarmed by the same model (fast trend cycles + disposability) showing up in areas like housewares, home renos, appliances like ovens and fridges—things many people used to leave unchanged across decades.
We're getting used to climate change breaking weather records. Now, here and there, it shatters them. Huge thanks to everyone who spoke to me for this story, lead editor Tyee Bridge, improver-of-everything
@serena_renner
, & the whole
@HakaiInstitute
crew.
For years now I've hesitated to apply Albrecht's term solastalgia—homesickness for home as you've known it—to myself. This week nothing is familiar. The feel of this place on my skin is like another country, another time.
#AcademicTwitter
In September we asked what book has influenced you the most in your life so far! We had lots of replies & will be sharing each of these books with you! Hopefully they will inspire you too!
#books
@JB_MacKinnon
The Day the World Stops Shopping - J.B. MacKinnon
Went off-grid, returned to find
@AnneCasselman
's inventive (but firmly grounded in science) story about Canada's climate future in
@macleans
. I can't imagine anyone reading this and not learning something new. Something deeply disquieting.
Consuming less might involve a stronger, not a weaker, attachment to our things—so
@TheTyee
wants to hear about your most beloved, long-lasting possession. Mine is this purple fleece.
In a single-subject case study, I have confirmed that checking out all the winners' work will make you feel smart and cool. Much appreciation
@AAASKavli
,
@NautilusMag
.
Happy for my three cow protagonists that their survival-against-all-odds story from
@atavist
will appear in the 2023 Best Science & Nature Writing anthology. Many thanks to guest ed
@carlzimmer
, series ed
@jaimealyse
, publisher
@MarinerBooks
.
Tomorrow at noon: Talking about the world's greatest environmental challenge—consumerism—with one of my heroes,
@Tzeporah
. Anyone, anywhere can join in
@VPL
.
For those who love the NW shore of North America, and dare to suggest it has its own ideas sprung from the place and its peoples, this is a terrific update on cutting-edge coastal science. by Tyee Bridge,
@HakaiInstitute
This Thursday: Talking consumerism and its alternatives with
@DorothyWoodend
, who—like many of us—has a love-hate relationship with it all. Anyone, anywhere, can join us online. via
@TheTyee
As we enter the last month of 2018, our team is already eager to start a new field season in beautiful
#Newfoundland
! Here is one of our highlights for summer 2018 with over a 100 humpback whales and thousands of seabirds feeding on capelin near our study sites off the NE coast!
Glaciers have always been a part of the BC coast—western science and traditional knowledge tell a similar story of a world of ice that slowly gave way to land and life. 🧊
This story by
@JB_MacKinnon
nabbed a 2016 Jack Webster Award.
#HakaiMagTurns7
I grew up in Kamloops, where 215 Indigenous children's graves have been found on the grounds of a former residential school. It's open country, the grounds are highly visible. People must have seen the burials, known of them.
I never heard a word spoken about it.
Holiday season spending in America has increased by nearly 20% per capita since 2012 (inflation adjusted). Do the holidays feel 20% more fun and meaningful? Or did we just add one-fifth more environmental impact and financial stress, and get back...nothing much?
A wonderful, storyful history of conservation’s doers and thinkers. May their dreams inspire. May their flaws keep us humble about the certainties of the present. Happy publication day
@nijhuism
.
In deconsumer culture, oldest and best beats newest and latest.
@TheTyee
asked readers to salute their favourite long-lived things...and got enough replies to launch a series.
I'm giving a freudensprung (see article for translation) that
@Sarah_Gilman
illustrated my latest for
@hakaimagazine
. Don't miss Gilman's homebody rat, mug shot rat, and—yes—freudensprung rat.
I was supposed to be in Boulder receiving an award today, but my flights didn't connect so I'm back home catching up on washing the dishes. Which feels good, but surely not as good. Wish I was there,
@ScienceWriters
! Thanks again!
Have been meaning to say that while post-nature writing isn’t new, it really feels like it has arrived with this
@ElizKolbert
book. Captures all the disquieting surreality, with appropriately dark humour. Maybe her best yet?
Many thx
@TheTyee
for having me as guest editor last week for the 15th anniversary of the 100-mile diet. (Note: they did all the work.) The whole package of stories is below...and with that I retreat to my lonesome garret.
Suzanne Crocker and her family took their local-eating experiment to the next level—in Dawson City, Yukon. Watch for the film, "First We Eat." via
@TheTyee
Many defend fast fashion by saying it provides jobs in poorer countries. You might be surprised by how some people in the Bangladesh garment industry feel about that argument. My latest for
@Sierra_Magazine
.
A nice round-up of mostly recent books on rewilding, with The Once and Future World in there as a throwback ("ahead of its time" does sound better than "no one much read it back then").
This very good book is available today. Please buy it. Forget purity, forget irony: buy it. Because in the crazy consumer culture that
@vancouverharris
is challenging, buying books makes their message stronger.
Happy Book Birthday to this little guy. 💜
Feeling tired/proud/elated/nervous/excited/etc. This book was finished during the pandemic and arrives in a world without launch parties. But I've got a tiny parade going on in my heart and you're all invited.
Many books launch with swag or merch these days. Mine didn't, of course...but I can't help but picture a cap emblazoned with Burn the Money, a t-shirt reading Deconsumer, and a shoulder bag that says We May Have to See the Ruins to Know It's Time to Build Something New.
Author
@JohnVaillant
's reasoned and impassioned testimony before Canada's Standing Committee on Natural Resources: The age of oil has given us extraordinary gifts, but must end or render this planet uninhabitable. "Who's stopping us?"
This massive stump is part of a logging blockade the RCMP is attempting to remove today on Vancouver Island. We'll have more updates as soon as our reporter is back in communication.
More photos from yesterday's arrests:
#bcpoli
#FairyCreek
#cdnpoli
Atmospheric rivers have become synonymous with big floods, but I first learned about them amid a summer drought. Turns out "one is just the flip side of the other" on the West Coast, which I explore in my first
@hakaimagazine
feature about embracing rain.
Now available across the USA. Who is this book for? Anyone who feels uneasy about the world going back to full-throttle consumerism. And anyone who doesn't.
Today is publication day for THE DAY THE WORLD STOPS SHOPPING by
@JB_MacKinnon
! Start reading this thought-provoking and surprisingly hopeful new book:
Roll the credits. First and greatest thanks go to my sources. Who knew "cow people" were so amazing? Well, I do now.
Huge thanks also to
@seywarddarby
and
@jonahogles
for taking this on
@atavist
. It's easy to say no to an oddball tale. They said yes.
"We went from consuming to being consumers. It had been one identity among many, but then it became *the* identity." —
@jonjalex
(Thx
@thegooglesmedia
for duly mocking me with this photoshop.)
Want a great nonfiction book to read this fall? I'll be posting some amazing nonfiction books that are on my bookshelf right now. First up is The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves by
@JB_MacKinnon
Today is
#EarthDay2022
we are celebrating with
@JB_MacKinnon
as he discusses his recent book.
We are also announcing the winners of the Countering Consumerism Contest. Check out the top 10 videos in the thread below!
Join us at 5pm MST at
I hear there’s some chatter out there about my book TDTWSS. If you want to include me in your convos, or shoot me a question, I’m here. Be warned that I practice Slow Social Media…
My latest: "If right whales are threatened with extinction, it’s not from a lack of grit. It’s because their home is one of the most human-modified and influenced regions on Earth."
#rewilding
More than a year after an atmospheric river storm led to an off-the-charts flood along the Nicola River, BC, a ranch sign is on its way home. It turned up three rivers and a stretch of ocean away—350 km as the water flows.
"In little more than a century, fish stocks in the North Sea have declined by 99%. For people living today, a grey and exhausted sea is all they know. O.T. Olsen's Atlas of the North Sea's fish species is a reminder of the richness that once was."
This
@arno_kopecky
piece
@TheTyee
is good reporting for divisive times: it starts from the assumption that the people working within our terribly imperfect systems are just that: people.