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Goodbye to Cancer Valley: In remembrance of my friend John Soley

John SoleyAfter a long struggle with cancer, my friend Mr. John Soley died at his home in Carbon County, Pa. on Saturday, June 20. He was only 62, which is too young to die of natural causes. But then, neither John nor I believe he got sick from natural causes. We believe he and many […]

Friday music blogging: Deer Tick

One of my happiest musical discoveries of the past year has been Deer Tick, a band originally out of Providence, Rhode Island. The band is sui generis — no description quite works. There’s a definite tinge of backwoods Americana, but also some raggedy low-fi freak folk, a little old-fashioned ’50s rock-and-roll, doo-wop, blues … it […]

KBR, Halliburton sued over war-zone’s toxic burn pits

Confronted with the need to dispose of enormous quantities of war-related trash including batteries, pesticide containers, medical waste and even human body parts, but lacking proper incinerators, private contractors working for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan came up with a simple solution. They burned the trash in big, open pits. But now soldiers, […]

On the passing of Father Thomas Berry, noted ecological thinker

Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest and self-described “Earth scholar,” passed away June 1 in Greensboro, N.C., where he was born in 1914. He was 94 years old. A member of the Passionist order that was founded to teach people how to pray, Berry went on to become an influential eco-theologian — though he preferred to […]

Friday music blogging: Grizzly Bear

If you follow independent music at all, you know that the hype around the new Grizzly Bear album Veckatimest is deafening. It just came out this week and from critical reception (and the reactions of other musicians) you’d think it was the second coming of Pet Sounds. It is pretty good, though. This is one […]

Oceans’ alarm: what the sea is trying to tell us

Recently, I read about a professor at Columbia who teaches a course about the signs of the apocalypse. With the financial collapse and threats of a swine flu pandemic in mind, he told the New Yorker he decided to create the class because “now seemed like a good time.” I don’t know if Professor Taussig’s […]

National River Heroes announced

River Network is a crucial national organization working to build the capacity and effectiveness of grassroots activists and groups that work to improve water quality. This weekend at its annual River Rally in Baltimore, 6 new River Heroes will be named. Here’s your sneak peek: Dr. T. Allan CompFounder and Coordinator of the Appalachian Coal […]

The future of fusion (solar) power

Replacing all of the electricity used in a typical home with photovoltaic panels is presently not cost effective–too expensive. We use too much electricity. The panels cost too much. But there is another way to look at residential solar. Installing just enough panels to offset your refrigerator and dryer can be viewed as a fancy […]

Friday music blogging: Jason Lytle

To tell you the truth I’d like to FMB the new Wilco album again, since it is dominating my brain grape. But that would violate my self-imposed FMB rules, so here’s something new. This is from Jason Lytle, previously the singer for beloved indie stalwarts Grandaddy. That group finally threw in the towel after years […]

Toxic waste from New York river cleanup headed to Texas

In a bit of good news for the environment, work got underway this week to clean up hazardous PCB pollution that General Electric dumped into New York’s Upper Hudson River. But there’s also some bad news — which is that the toxic waste is being sent to a landfill that sits atop the Ogallala Aquifer, […]