After Us

Film (Earth Primer #2)

Film (Earth Primer #2)

Photo courtesy of Giacomo Sartori (Earth Primer #1) When I travel around, giving lectures on soil, I ask my listeners—who sometimes are children—how deep it is. In response, some people say a mile or two, others say hundreds of yards. They all imagine it limitless; you can tell by the seriousness in . . .

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War (Earth Primer #1)

War (Earth Primer #1)

Photo courtesy of Giacomo Sartori N.B. With this post, we inaugurate a weekly series penned by the brilliant Italian novelist and soil scientist Giacomo Sartori. We’ll be posting a new column each Friday, so stay tuned! Wars are as unfortunate for the earth as they are for people. The aerial footage from . . .

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Climate Nihilism (and Charles Baudelaire)

Climate Nihilism (and Charles Baudelaire)

“A theory of true civilization.It rests not in gas, nor in steam, nor in table-turning.It rests in the diminution of the traces of original sin.” The table-turning (“tables tournantes”) was that of spiritualist seances, and the apothegm is Charles Baudelaire’s, from My Heart Laid Bare (1897, translation by Rainer J. Hanshe, 2017). What Baudelaire intends . . .

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Westerners Have a Way. . .

Westerners Have a Way. . .

Editor’s note: On March 28, 2022, in Bowker Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the UMass School of Earth & Sustainability, in partnership with the Fine Arts Center and the MFA Program for Poets and Writers convened a unique meeting of artists, climate and social scientists, and activists working at the intersection . . .

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The Last Letter in the Alphabet Of Lies

The Last Letter in the Alphabet Of Lies

Pure fabrication, interpretation, and lies. Where is the line between these different types of distortion of truth? And how deep have we sunk? In Russian, there is a word that suggests there is indeed a distinction: the word “vranio” means something between baloney and untruth, it is used to refer to a . . .

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A Week with Zhadan (7)

A Week with Zhadan (7)

Serhiy Zhadan, reading in Kharkiv, March 21, 2022 Editor’s note: There are many ways to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and to stand for civilization, against barbarism. Over the last seven days, we’ve offered you a poem from Serhiy Zhadan, so that you will think of his words, and of . . .

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A Week with Zhadan (6)

A Week with Zhadan (6)

Serhiy Zhadan, reading in Kharkiv, March 21, 2022 Editor’s note: There are many ways to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and to stand for civilization, against barbarism. For the next seven days, we’ve decided to offer you a poem from Serhiy Zhadan, so that you will think of his words, . . .

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A Week with Zhadan (5)

A Week with Zhadan (5)

Serhiy Zhadan, reading in Kharkiv, March 21, 2022 Editor’s note: There are many ways to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and to stand for civilization, against barbarism. For the next seven days, we’ve decided to offer you a poem from Serhiy Zhadan, so that you will think of his words, . . .

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A Week with Zhadan (4)

A Week with Zhadan (4)

Serhiy Zhadan, reading in Kharkiv, March 21, 2022 Editor’s note: There are many ways to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and to stand for civilization, against barbarism. For the next seven days, we’ve decided to offer you a poem from Serhiy Zhadan, so that you will think of his words, . . .

Read More
A Week with Zhadan (3)

A Week with Zhadan (3)

Serhiy Zhadan, reading in Kharkiv, March 21, 2022 Editor’s note: There are many ways to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and to stand for civilization, against barbarism. For the next seven days, we’ve decided to offer you a poem from Serhiy Zhadan, so that you will think of his words, . . .

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