I gave a talk on climate change at the Claremont University Club. A friend made a video of most of the presentation. The link below gives you a chance to watch it. For me, climate change is not merely ominous, but it is the giant of giants in the history of civilization and Earth history. Either people unite and protect themselves, or they are doomed.  Click on the link.  https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=D7mlehiYafc

German pellet factory on fire, Easter 2017, Port Arthur, Texas. Courtesy Annette Mitchell and John Beard.   The scientist and politician in Pope Francis   A few years ago, in 2015, Pope Francis issued an encyclical that sided with the environmentalists fighting polluters. In his  “ LAUDATO SI’ , mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord,”   Pope Francis imitated  Saint Francis of Assisi in praising “our common home,” Mother Earth. In his latest political foray into the controversial climate change / crisis / emergency/ global warming, the Pope is more straightforward and science-based than ever before. He named his October 4, 2023 letter, “ Laudate Deum /  Praise God. ” He addressed this 7,000-word letter to “all people of good will” and he defined the purpose of his apostolic exhortation to highlighting the political and technological complexity of the climate crisis.   With the exception of a few sections at the end dealing with spiritual /...

  Monarch butterfly, Claremont, California. Photo: Evaggelos Vallianatos EPA regulation by court orders   The New York Times  reported  that a judge ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency to do something about its failure to protect the endangered species from the toxic and lethal touch of an unbelievable number of petrochemicals in the armory of farmers. These poisons have been falsely called pesticides. They are synthetic chemicals designed to kill all forms of life. They are biocides.    The New York Times interviewed a senior EPA official who, like a public relations expert, explained the role of pesticides:    “When you think about what a pesticide is, it’s supposed to kill pests,” said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “It is difficult to design a process where it kills only the things it is supposed to kill.”   Of course, this is beside the point. It’s...

  Greek goddess Demeter. Skyphos, 5 th  century BCE. National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photo: George E. Koronaios. Wikipedia Commons.   Demeter searching for Persephone   Demeter, sister of Zeus and one of the most powerful of the gods, lost her daughter Persephone. While searching for her, she took the form of an old homeless woman in the polis of Eleusis near Athens. Queen Metaneira invited Demeter to the palace. The two of them agreed Demeter would take care of Metaneira’s baby boy Demophoon. Demeter fell in love with the baby and tried to make Demophoon immortal. She fed him not milk or human food but ambrosia, food of the gods. In addition, she treated Demophoon with blazing fire without harming him. However, Metaneira secretly watched her baby in the fire and screamed, thus ending Demeter’s metamorphosis of the human baby into an immortal being. Angry Demeter said to Metaneira: “Men are too foolish to predict the good or evil that will affect them in the ...

  Seagrass meadows, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. NOAA. Public Domain.   Seagrass and fish farms   The Institute of Marine Conservation  Archipelagos , a Greek non-profit scientific organization, is sounding the alarm about the state of the marine environment in Greece, especially now that Greece has been under extreme pressure to pay off its ill-gotten debt. The warning is primarily about the fate of Poseidonia sea grass / meadows and fish farms, the latter destroying the sea grass and poisoning the broader marine environment.   In a recent report, the Institute summarized the ecological importance of the grass of Poseidon, saying:   “In our [Mediterranean] sea there are areas with poseidonia meadows, a priceless treasure on a global scale. Poseidon’s grass is the familiar seaweed, which is not a seaweed….  Poseidon’s grass is found only in the Mediterranean Sea and covers less than 0.2% of the global seabed. One hectare of this ancient plan...

I worked for the EPA from 1979 to 2004. I learned a lot about science, America and the natural world. Above all, I realized my ideas did not go very far. Despite my education and enthusiasm for doing good, America was on the path of delusion for superpower status and ignored the right way of life and civilization. Forces of commerce, money-making, had taken over the government and academia and industry. The word and idea and reality of ecology was floating in the air, finding few if any places to take roots.  I explain that and much more in my 2014 book, Poison Spring: In my podcast, I reccount some important history about the idea and reality of the EPA, by far the best political idea of America in the 20th century. If enough Americans discover what is at stake, the agency can be remade / reformed to serve their personal and environmental health. I urge you to listen to the podcast bellow: https://youtu.be/hqvEUUWUxhg

  Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Mt. Parnassos is embracing the sanctuary. Courtesy Wikipedia.   Prologue   I spent June 2023 in Hellas and modern Greece. This is the same country, but with somewhat different civilizations. The difference is in religion. Ancient Greeks were pious towards several gods, which they had invented and gave human form. Eros was the most powerful of those gods, which were forces in the natural world and the Cosmos. Modern Greeks were forced out of those gods and into a one god religion, Christianity.    Ancient Greece, Hellas, is the home of the Argonauts, Homer, the Olympics, Delphi, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, the Parthenon, democracy, Hippocrates, Herodotos, Thucydides, science, Alexander the Great, Euclid, Aristarchos of Samos, Archimedes, the Mouseion (University) and the Library of Alexandria, Hipparchos and the Antikythera Mechanism computer of genius, the astronomer Ptolemy, and the physician Galen.    Modern Greece is ...