Our April Reading List
New York Times: Go Home to Your ‘Dying’ Hometown
This article explores the personal story of a woman who has come
home to rural Minnesota after a decade of living the urban Portland
life to find that she is a whole lot more important than she thought.
This is a good one to show your kids before they take off for college,
although, they may not fully understand it till years later. Hopefully,
one day they decide to come home too.
Seattle Times: Snake River Dams could Save Salmon and Orcas but Destroy Livelihoods
Governor Inslee’s task force for Puget Sound Orcas recovery has
recently recommended the breaching of the lower four dams on the Snake
River in order to open up historic habitat for Chinook Salmon. This is a
controversial recommendation to say the least, and it is a complicated
subject that everyone should take the initiative to be well informed
on the science and economic impacts of this action. This article is an
opinion piece that offers an important insight into the economic impact
viewpoint held by some who live and work with the Snake River dams on a
daily basis.
Crosscut: He finds humans ‘too unpredictable’- so he studies cougars for a living
This is an interesting interview that is a part of their “I am
STEM” series that tells the origin stories of people in science and
technology. We all take our own path in life and it’s fun to see how
different people make it from point A to point B.
Harvard University: Land Conservation Helps Local Economies Grow
A new study recently published in the Journal Conservation Biology takes
a look at the economic impact of public and private land conservation
in New England over 25 years. This study adds further proof to our
opinion that everyone benefits from land conservation!
New Yorker: How the Little Ice Age Changed History
Starting in the 14th century and lasting for several hundred
years there was a period known as the little ice age. During this time
temperatures dropped by almost four degrees Fahrenheit and the world
started to freeze. The changes in social power structures caused by
this climactic shift are still present to this day and may have played a
part in our current climate predicament.