Category Archives: Climate Change

The End of Santa? As the North Pole Melts, Kris Kringle's Days Are Numbered

Posted on December 12, 2012 by williamjcobb

So at dinner last night I mentioned to my six-year-old daughter, “You know, as the arctic ice sheet melts, I guess Santa’s North Pole toy factory is going to sink into the sea.” My daughter struck an immediate sad face, … Continue reading →

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While Reading Melanie Challenger's "On Extinction," Life in "The Other Season"

Posted on December 3, 2012 by williamjcobb

So I’ve begun reading Melanie Challenger’s On Extinction, to review for the Dallas Morning News, a timely book when Climate Change is panting its hot breath down our neck like an oily wolf: the weather has been so warm this … Continue reading →

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On Finishing David Quammen's "Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic"

Posted on November 15, 2012 by williamjcobb

So I’ve finished David Quammen’s excellent new book of nonfiction, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, about zoonotic viruses and the danger we face from new pandemics originating in crossover viruses leaping from animals to humans. At 520 … Continue reading →

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On David Quammen's "Spillover," Today's Election, and the Great Horned Owls Beside Me

Posted on November 7, 2012 by williamjcobb

So I’ve been reading David Quammen’s new book, Spillover (2012), on emerging diseases (and particularly zoonotic viruses, a la Ebola, Marburg, HIV, SARS, etc.), and I keep feeling sicker and sicker. It’s like I’m catching Ebola from reading this book. But … Continue reading →

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Peak Oil & Climate Change Loom, While We Keep Our Fingers in Our Ears

Posted on November 4, 2012 by williamjcobb

So Hurricane (or Superstorm) Sandy has put Climate Change back in the headlines, where it will probably disappear after a couple weeks, replaced by something that Kim Kardashian or Lindsay Lohan does or wears. But for now it’s heartening to … Continue reading →

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Reading from "The Bird Saviors" in Santa Fe, at Collected Works Bookstore, Oct 4th, 6-7 pm, & 4,000 miles of the Wild West

Posted on October 1, 2012 by williamjcobb

So for the month of September I’ve driven over 4,000 miles, traveling to Montana and Wyoming for the first three weeks, then finishing off the month with readings from The Bird Saviors in Durango & Boulder, Colorado. I have to … Continue reading →

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Lewis & Clark's Lolo Pass Campsite, 207 years later

Posted on September 17, 2012 by williamjcobb

So I’m traveling in Montana just now, and visited Lolo Pass and the Glade Creek campsite of the Lewis & Clark “Corps of Discovery” almost exactly 207 years after they were there (they passed through on September 13th, 1805, and … Continue reading →

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Teenage Mutant Cannibal ATV Riders & The Coming Megadrought in the West

Posted on August 15, 2012 by williamjcobb

So last weekend I was camping in the Medicine Bow Wilderness Area of southern Wyoming, loving it, my family all alone in a beautiful campground, when the sound of loud motors, screams, dogs barking, and shouting wafted through the forest … Continue reading →

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On Frozen Penises and Rivers Coated With Pelican Feathers: Reading Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage," About the Lewis & Clark trip of 1804-6

Posted on August 9, 2012 by williamjcobb

So I’m heading up to Montana/Wyoming in a month, to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, and to get warmed up for it, I’m reading Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage (1996), which is in some ways a retelling of the Lewis & … Continue reading →

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The Smell of Drought and Feckless Politicians

Posted on August 6, 2012 by williamjcobb

So in this hot-as-hell summer it’s hard to keep up with all the bad news on the Climate Change front, and I can barely bring myself to read ThinkProgress.org lately, good as it is, because the news is just a … Continue reading →

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