Thank you for bringing this wonderful interview to us! I'm a bit over halfway through Nina's book and it delivers on everything she says here! The characters are engaging and real, flawed, passionate, grieving, and hopeful. Her last comment reminded me of something one of my former students said when we held a Town Hall for alumni to speak with current students. At the end, we asked them all the same question, how are you building hope? And Leah answered, "I think we shouldn't underestimate how powerful just having conversations with each other can be, because ideas can spread and that's how change happens. So if this could be the spark, I think that's a great thing."
A great interview, fantastic to be introduced to you both and your work. Looking forward to reading this book, love that you are giving the natural world her voice.
So many gems in this conversation. Totally agree on how essential collective climate conversations are , have participated in and facilitated many over last 15 years. The energy that comes out of honest sharing of feelings and ways to act in response is palpable and bonding. Definitely what keeps me going in climate space. .
YES. The best stories, the ones shared with others, contain truths that speak to us. Spirituality is having faith in something that you need not prove to others. It is a sensibility that everything is interrelated, that there is a complexity to life too tangled to “prove.” There is a oneness to us all.
Science has become our church, with white ropes traded in for black graduation gowns. Those who observe and speak to the survival of the fittest are published in their juried books and held in high regard. Those who observe and talk about animals that cooperate are more fit to survive are dismissed by personal attacks and ostracized.
Beware of who writes the narratives. After the Civil War during Reconstruction, many forests were cleared, and soils were lost. Speaking in the Grange Hall in Rutland, Vermont, George Perkins Marsh pointed out that at the current rate of loss of vegetation and soils, there would soon be insufficient water in the ground for barge traffic in the Erie Canal and New York’s burgeoning economy would collapse. New York acted swiftly, buying nearly 10,000 square miles of Adirondack forests. Barge traffic continues from Albany to Buffalo.
However, the land barons were furious over losing land and profits. When Dick Cheney was Vice President, he directed scientists to publish juried articles arguing to call global warming climate change. Everyone looked to the Heavens for calamity with rising CO2 levels in 11% of the greenhouse gases. The magician’s sleight of hand worked. Today, when the Mississippi River runs low, people shake their fists at the skies and sneer at the neighbors burning too much fossil fuels. The land barons and technology wizards cashed in, and the division of wealth widened.
Worldwide, a 2% increase in vegetation and soils would draw 100 billion tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere and restore atmospheric carbon to 350 parts per million from 420 with more nature around us and more white puffy cumulus clouds above.
Thank you for bringing this wonderful interview to us! I'm a bit over halfway through Nina's book and it delivers on everything she says here! The characters are engaging and real, flawed, passionate, grieving, and hopeful. Her last comment reminded me of something one of my former students said when we held a Town Hall for alumni to speak with current students. At the end, we asked them all the same question, how are you building hope? And Leah answered, "I think we shouldn't underestimate how powerful just having conversations with each other can be, because ideas can spread and that's how change happens. So if this could be the spark, I think that's a great thing."
Thank you, Julie! What a delightful story, and so true.
PS that podcast episode is here: https://www.buildinghopepodcast.com/episodes/episode-6 (Part 2)
A great interview, fantastic to be introduced to you both and your work. Looking forward to reading this book, love that you are giving the natural world her voice.
So many gems in this conversation. Totally agree on how essential collective climate conversations are , have participated in and facilitated many over last 15 years. The energy that comes out of honest sharing of feelings and ways to act in response is palpable and bonding. Definitely what keeps me going in climate space. .
Thank you for this contribution, Sally. "Palpable and bonding" is a moving way to frame it. I look forward to reading your Substack as well.
As you'll see, I couldn't stop re-stacking some of the gems in this interview. Thank you so much Andrea for introducing us to Nina's work!
Thank you for sharing it. It's a joy to spread the words of great works!
Beautiful interview. Congratulations to you both! I look forward to reading "In this ravishing world"
Thank you, Elizabeth! I think you will love the book.
Lovely interconnection of mind and heart, receptivity and initiative, in the questions and the answers. Thanks to both of you.
Thank you for reading, Jana! I so appreciate the clarity with which you reflect on posts.
YES. The best stories, the ones shared with others, contain truths that speak to us. Spirituality is having faith in something that you need not prove to others. It is a sensibility that everything is interrelated, that there is a complexity to life too tangled to “prove.” There is a oneness to us all.
Science has become our church, with white ropes traded in for black graduation gowns. Those who observe and speak to the survival of the fittest are published in their juried books and held in high regard. Those who observe and talk about animals that cooperate are more fit to survive are dismissed by personal attacks and ostracized.
Beware of who writes the narratives. After the Civil War during Reconstruction, many forests were cleared, and soils were lost. Speaking in the Grange Hall in Rutland, Vermont, George Perkins Marsh pointed out that at the current rate of loss of vegetation and soils, there would soon be insufficient water in the ground for barge traffic in the Erie Canal and New York’s burgeoning economy would collapse. New York acted swiftly, buying nearly 10,000 square miles of Adirondack forests. Barge traffic continues from Albany to Buffalo.
However, the land barons were furious over losing land and profits. When Dick Cheney was Vice President, he directed scientists to publish juried articles arguing to call global warming climate change. Everyone looked to the Heavens for calamity with rising CO2 levels in 11% of the greenhouse gases. The magician’s sleight of hand worked. Today, when the Mississippi River runs low, people shake their fists at the skies and sneer at the neighbors burning too much fossil fuels. The land barons and technology wizards cashed in, and the division of wealth widened.
Worldwide, a 2% increase in vegetation and soils would draw 100 billion tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere and restore atmospheric carbon to 350 parts per million from 420 with more nature around us and more white puffy cumulus clouds above.