House on Fire

The house where I grew up was perpetually catching on fire. It wasn’t all bad.  Although I fought with my brothers and sisters sometimes, we really had a beautiful family.  Sunday dinner was especially nice.  Dad always asked each of us what we did that week.  If one...

Against IPAT

I recently had a lively conversation with my teenage daughter about our environmental footprint, a concept that she was studying in school.  Like a lot of young people, she is quite concerned about the direction the world is going, about how many planet Earths we...

Asking ourselves questions about race, environmentalism and inspiration

Regular readers of the Deliberative Landscapes Wanderer may see in this post a deviation from the topics I normally cover.  The turmoil unfolding in the United States of America right now seems to have captured the attention of the whole world, including me, and the...

False Dichotomies and Suspicious Phrases in Environment and Development

Trust in God AND tether your camel! In one version of the story behind this Middle Eastern proverb, which is sometimes attributed to the Prophet himself, two Bedouin herders get into an argument, one claiming that reality is harsh and that people have to take care of...

Living Skies, the First Leopard, and Values

Think of a place, a landscape, that is important to you in some way.   Seriously.  Don’t read on until you’ve thought of that place. Ready?  Okay… For me, the first place that comes to mind is a landscape in the Canadian prairies.  Although I grew up in the city,...