"State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules."
--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"neither science nor philosophy is needed to know what one has to do in order to be honest and good, and indeed wise and virtuous."; "judgment...can be confused and deflected from the right direction by a lot of inappropriate and irrelevant considerations."
--Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

"Socrates could never get tenure in a philosophy department today. That Socrates could never get tenure today is an indictment of the system--a reductio ad absurdum--not an indictment of Socrates"

"my hearers always imagine that I myself possess the wisdom which I find wanting in others: but the truth is...the wisdom of men is little or nothing" --Socrates (-470 -- -399)

 "Heidegger has always been the essential philosopher."
—Michael Foucault (1926-1984)

"The most thought-provoking thing about this thought-provoking time is that we’re still not thinking."
—Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)

"Thinking is a lonely business."
—Heidegger to Hannah Arendt in Hannah Arendt (2012)

This New York Times opinion piece, When Philosophy Lost its Way, is a fantastic take on the often-dismal state of contemporary philosophy.

"There was a brief window when philosophy could have replaced religion as the glue of society; but the moment passed. People stopped listening as philosophers focused on debates among themselves."

"Having adopted the same structural form as the sciences, it's no wonder philosophy fell prey to physics envy and feelings of inadequacy. Philosophy adopted the scientific modus operandi of knowledge production, but failed to match the sciences in terms of making progress in describing the world. Much has been made of this inability of philosophy to match the cognitive success of the sciences. But what has passed unnoticed is philosophy's all-too-successful aping of the institutional form of the sciences. We, too, produce research articles. We, too, are judged by the same coin of the realm: peer-reviewed products. We, too, develop sub-specializations far from the comprehension of the person on the street. In all of these ways we are so very 'scientific.'"

I streamed my first ever Facebook Live event last night--a Fireside Chat on Earth Day 2020 focused on the topic: "Which is preferable as an activity (which would you give up if you had to): Fire or Television (including streaming)?"
Watch it here

"Homo erectus appeared, roughly 1.8 million years ago. Until recently, the earliest human hearths were dated to about 250,000 B.C.; last year [2012], however, the discovery of charred bone and primitive stone tools in a cave in South Africa tentatively pushed the time back to roughly one million years ago." (source)

"The overpowering rise of machinery pains and frightens me; it is rolling along like a thunderstorm, slowly, slowly; but it has taken its direction, it will come and strike."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) as Susanne in Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre

“Possibly, in our intuitive perceptions, which may be truer than our science and less impeded by words than our philosophies, we realize the indivisibility of the earth—its soil, mountains, rivers, forests, climate, plants, and animals, and respect it collectively not only as a useful servant but as a living being, vastly less alive than ourselves in degree, but vastly greater than ourselves in time and space...” --Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)

“Why does this strange man go into the wet woods and up the mountain on stormy nights? Why does he walk along on barren peaks or on dangerous mountains?”
--Toyatte (Chilkat)

“It has always seemed to me that while trying to speak to traders and those seeking gold mines that it was like speaking to a person across a broad stream that was running over fast stones and making so loud a noise that scarce a single word could be heard. But now, for the first time, the Indian and the white man are on the same side of the river.”
--Chilkat chief Dan-na-wuk

"I am, alas, destined for a career that distracts me terribly from my studies.”
--Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859)

Alexander longed to live "far away from the so-called intellectuals."

“There was still an instinctive wariness of his brother’s more analytical way of thinking, and ‘the knack that logical reasoning has to kill off the spirit and the imagination’.”
“While [Alexander's brother] was in the process of arranging his life down to the colour of his teapot, Alexander seemed to recoil instinctively against everything conventional and regimented.”

Guru Nanak (1469-1539)

I randomly discovered this quote. I don't know what exactly the founder of Sikhism meant by it, but it's interesting in 3 ways:
1) philosophical and religious debates and arguments about meat consumption are clearly very old,
2) science and technology have blurred the line between animals and plants. Here are 2 obvious examples:
         A) Lab grown meat: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat/
         B) Plant pain response: https://www.pri.org/…/new-research-plant-intelligence-may-f…
3) And we may never know the right answer to some of these questions and a healthy dose of skepticism about the limits of our metaphysical and ethical understanding is a good thing.

Finally, it reminds me of the Nirvana lyric: "it's ok to eat fish because they don't have any feelings" -- a position close to that found in the work of philosopher Peter Singer, which seems to me a bit arbitrary and potentially unknowable (https://www.wbur.org/…/why-its-ok-for-vegans-to-eat-oysters…).

"An eclectic is someone who, trampling underfoot prejudice, tradition, consensus, antiquity, authority — in a word, everything that governs the mind of the common herd — dares to think for himself."
-Denis Diderot (1713-1784)

"Rousseau claimed to be incapable of thinking properly, of composing, creating or finding inspiration except when walking. The mere sight of a desk and chair was enough to make him feel sick and drain him of all courage.”

“Later still he became a sort of outlaw, driven out wherever he went, a leading undesirable, condemned in Paris, in Geneva. His books were publicly burned and he was threatened with jail. People threw stones at him in Moutier.”

From: A Philosophy of Walking - Frederic Gros

The State of Alaska is once again pursuing the Susitna Dam mega-project in interior Alaska. If built, this would be one of the largest dams in the U.S., in one of the most remote regions in the U.S..
https://www.alaskajournal.com/…/state-dusts-look-susitna-wa…

I floated the Susitna's full length in 2012 and 2013 in order to get a firsthand look at what was at stake in the proposal: http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/…/Glaciers-To-The-Sea-Su…
https://chrisdunnonplanetearth.weebly.com/from-glaciers-to-…
I've continued to keep up with the issue, even as I've moved on to other things.

#susitnadam
#alaska

PRESENTING pointless ponderings precisely pertinent per 02022020:
Perhaps palindromes portend positive purpose?
No, nevermind--noon never neutralizes negative news.
Alternatively, absurd alliteration always abhors abject answers...

It is clear that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain ought to be protected as designated Wilderness. I have done my own journey through the Refuge, including through the contested Coastal Plain. Here is a film worth checking out focused on the importance of the area and here is the website of a fellow adventurer and storyteller.

"the warmth of sun on our skin, the stroke of wind, the sound of thunder and rain, the push of rivers and swell of seas, the smell of thawing dirt, the sight of leaves and blossoms unfurling, the pinpricks of light from stars, the intake of breath and thump of heart. These sensations have yielded humankind's perennial images for the ultimate nature of things, imagery that runs through scriptures, folktales, petroglyphs, poems, paintings, and other symbolic expressions the world over" - Scott Russell Sanders

I'm excited to announce that I'll be participating in the American Climber Science Program's 2019 Lhotse/Everest expedition in Nepal this March-June. We will be conducting research in Sagamartha and Makalu Barun National Parks, where we will attempt to summit Lhotse, Everest's slightly shorter 27,940 foot next door neighbor. A separate team will attempt Everest.

Check here for updates, descriptions of our team and our research:
https://www.climberscience.org/blog
https://www.climberscience.org/nepal

I expect it to be the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm looking forward to it. I hope it is a fruitful research project.

Last night, I had the opportunity to see this new film starring photographer James Balog, who was previously featured in Chasing Ice. I highly recommend seeing The Human Element if you have the chance. What I really enjoyed about it is how well it evokes and thus makes palpable and sensual the complexities of the human relationship with nature. James and the filmmakers are able to successfully present complex scientific connections and ideas that are often confined to the language and presentation of scientific abstraction--a step too far removed from our animal senses to move us emotionally and thus to move us to action. The Human Element is thus an important contribution in shaping our future.

This need to ground climate change discussion in the terms of immediate sensation has previously been addressed by David Abram. There is a wonderful segment of the film where James sends a camera attached to a weather balloon into the upper atmosphere to sensorially demonstrate just how thin the earth's atmosphere really is. I found it moving and very akin to the kind of evocation that David Abram seems to suggest is needed. A little ironic perhaps since the mediums of film and photography necessarily mediate our senses. Another instance of philosophical interface is in James's consideration of the element of fire. He notes that the internal combustion engine hid fire from our view and thus disclosed our relationship with it. We too easily forget this dynamic process and thus blindly consume the ancient fossil fuels pulled out of the earth to our great collective detriment. This is a fantastic example of what philosopher Albert Borgmann calls the device paradigm.

Philosophy aside, The Human Element is an entertaining and scientifically engaged presentation of how humans have become an increasingly significant force of nature. It manages all this without being politically divisive or preachy. Interestingly, it is completely focused on the U.S., often on conservative regions of the country that may deny the scientific evidence for climate change. Hopefully, the film will create room for positive engagement with these populations. The U.S. focus is also important as Americans are the highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases on earth, and thus need to make the most changes. One downside in leaving out international examples is that some of the regions where the greatest climate change impacts are occurring, like small island states and low-lying countries, such as Bangladesh, are excluded.

In sum, this is a beautiful film. Please see and share it with others.

"At this moment I can picture Ekok, somewhere out in the wilderness of the North...The wind blows fiercely into her face, and sharp pains tingle in her nose as the frost nips it. It is bitter traveling, and maybe as she stops a moment to get her breath she wonders what all her hardships are for, what good comes from all the suffering and futility and misery of life. But if so it can only be for an instant. Reasons are only for children who have time to dodge actuality with philosophical diversion. Here is snow and wind and freezing in the storm-filled sky. Here is life and the Arctic and the great, instinctive surge to live. She bends her head a little lower and pushes forward once more into the blizzard."
-Bob Marshall, Arctic Village

Like the author of this blog entry, I attended atmospheric scientist Katherine Hayhoe's excellent talk last night on the challenges of communicating climate science in a politically polarized environment. As the author did such an excellent job recapping, I won't repeat the effort here.

Here is her book, which reaches out to an Evangelican Christian audience. It is currently out of print, but used copies are available online. I spoke with her afterwards and she said a second addition is coming out soon. She also produces Global Weirding--a series of short clips that tackle common climate misconceptions.

I agree with her that we need a variety of approaches to communicate the ongoing truth of a changing climate driven primarily by human influences. Her approach is not exactly my own as I don't share in her faith, but I appreciate her excellent scientific work, well-developed presentation, and approachable personality. I also appreciated her openness about what drew her to climate communication, including marrying a climate change denier. I asked a follow-up question about convincing skeptical family members and she affirmed that this is the hardest. This reflects my own experience. All you can do is point people to the right resources regardless of outcome, so I've done my part.

One thing in the presentation that stood out to me was just how polarized our country really has become. Probably we have not been so divided since just before the Civil War. Here is an article that makes just such a comparison and may explain why, though it obviously has it's own political bent.

I've made a few attempts here and there, but my hope is to keep up a semi-consistent blog now.