Tag Archives: environmentalism

Crunchy Cons: The Reread

Posted on July 17, 2025 by smellincoffee

Eleven years ago I stumbled onto a book called Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher. I’d begun moving towards ‘localism’ in my later progressive period (circa 2009 – 2011), and had found unexpected insight in online magazines with some localist-oriented writing … Continue reading →

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Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist

Posted on October 28, 2024 by smellincoffee

Two years ago I read a Wendell Berry collection of essays edited not by Brother Berry himself, but by someone named Paul Kingsnorth. Being the nosy sort that I am, I inquired of Google who Kingsnorth might be, I knew … Continue reading →

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Distracted by Alabama

Posted on January 10, 2024 by smellincoffee

Jim Brown moved to Alabama in the 1970s to teach history at Samford University, and became fascinated by Alabama, both by its wild biodiversity and its people and their folk traditions, from shape-note singing to basket-weaving and herbalism. Distracted by Alabama … Continue reading →

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The Outlaw Ocean

Posted on November 6, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Secret Life of Groceries was a disturbing wake-up call for me last year, exposing as it did how slavery is a core part of the fishing industry that supplies seafood the world around — in which men are trapped … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The Worst Hard Time

Posted on August 23, 2023 by smellincoffee

I first encountered the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the same history book, and images of houses covered by drifts of dust and those of men standing in line looking for relief or work are forever twinned in … Continue reading →

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Adventures with Ed

Posted on January 17, 2023 by smellincoffee

Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey© 2003 Jack Loeffler308 pages “He walked across the desert at least a thousand times,” Tom Russell sang of Abbey in his “Ballad” thereof. Jack Loeffler was with him many of those times, as … Continue reading →

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A Hole in the Wind

Posted on February 17, 2022 by smellincoffee

A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist’s Bicycle Journey Across the United States© 2017 David Goodrich304 pages A Hole in the Wind features a retired climate scientist touring from Delaware to to Oregon, speaking with people along the way … Continue reading →

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Whole Earth Disicpline

Posted on November 8, 2020 by smellincoffee

Whole Earth Disicpline: An Ecopragmatist Approach © 2010 Stewart Brand344 pages Sustainability is context, not a gadget or a single technology. From Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist and creator-editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, comes this fascinating argument that the … Continue reading →

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Tiny houses and zero waste

Posted on November 26, 2019 by smellincoffee

I’ve recently read two books which can be paired together nicely, so that’s what I’m doing.      Enter Tiny House Living and 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste.      In the last few weeks I’ve been watching Tiny House Nation … Continue reading →

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Tip of the Iceberg

Posted on March 29, 2019 by smellincoffee

Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier© 2018 Mark Adams336 pages In 1899, railroad tycoon Edward Harriman organized a multidisciplinary expedition to Alaska, bringing with him some of the best scientists and … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments