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A Conversation with Andy Revkin
The Hudson River Valley has yielded some of the great voices of American environmentalism. I speak of American environmentalism not as an ecological ideology, but as a school of critical thought and expression that includes writers, philosophers, artists, advocates and policy wonks. Andy Revkin fits all of these categories.
Future River
The past is always orderly, its path set and unchangeable. The present is chaotic, a landscape of infinite choice where calamity and opportunity lurk at different turns. The future is uncharted and unpredictable—those who claim to own a road map should expect surprises.
Why care about the environment?
Why care about endangered species, for example? Why care if short-nose sturgeon are endangered in the Hudson River, or chimpanzee in central Africa, or bearded vulture in the Pyrenees, or Wilson’s Magnolia in the Sichuan Province of China? Of all theissues that demand our compassion, why care if a species fades silently into memory?
Hudson In Our Own Write
Sal Paradise, Jack Kerouac’s alter ego in On the Road, heads west in July, 1947 after months of poring over maps, and studying the exploits of western pioneers from his home in Paterson, New Jersey. By subway, trolley, and hitched rides, he wends his way trough New York City and Yonkers, up the Hudson to the Bear Mountain Bridge and Route 6, which winds ever west on his road map—“one long red line… that led from the tip of Cape Cod clear to Ely, Nevada.”
Hudson Valley Clean Energy: Saving Money While Saving the World
John Wright and Jeff Irish are in the business of saving the planet. The brothers-in-law co-founded Hudson Valley Clean Energy (HVCE) of Rhinebeck, New York, and they specialize in the design, installment, and service of renewable energy systems.
My brother Jim rescued his first chimpanzees from the infamous beach photographers of Spain, who would dress them in silly clothes and pose them with seaside tourists. The chimps were from Sierra Leone, a former center of the slave trade, where they were captured as babies and their mothers killed by one of the smuggling rings that specialize in such things.
How to join the Treehouse Movement
When I was young, I had a treehouse. It wasn’t in a tree. It was on stilts. But, its proximity to our old maple meant that for almost three seasons of the year I was hidden from view behind a veil of sun-dappled leaves. It was ... one room with a window, a deck, a ladder, a door, and an “Adults Keep Out!” sign. I don’t know if itwas my age or the elevation, but those days my imagination had no fear of heights.
In My Garden • Pansies, Poppies and Peonies: A Rhapsody
Pansies are common as dirt. They come in lots of different colors and they all look like the soft indistinct faces of little children. They are easy to find — they’re at the garden centers or farm stands, and even at the supermarket and big box stores. They are annuals and they are inexpensive. Buy an entire flat of pansies (same color, please) and be profligate with them.
