Ecosystems are stressed. Life’s operating systems are acting out. The signs are there: Carbon-based energy addictions are taking their toll. Who says you can’t change the weather?

The vastness of the American West holds rainforests, deserts, and everything in between, so weather patterns and moisture vary. None­theless, we have been experiencing a historic drought for about a decade in significant parts of the region. As topsoil dries out, microbial dynamics change and native plants either die or move uphill toward cooler temperatures and more moisture. Wildlife that depends on the seeds, nuts, leaves, shade and shelter follows the plants—if it can. 

Plants and animals are usually able to adapt to slow and steady changes in their habitat, but rapid and uncertain seasonal transformations in weather patterns mean that the timing for such basic ecological processes as seed germination, pollination, migration and hibernation is also disrupted. The challenge of adapting to such fundamental changes can be overwhelming.

And if evolving at warp speed isn’t enough, plants, animals, and birds are struggling within previously reduced and fragmented habitats. Wildlife already thrown off the mothership now finds the lifeboats, those remnants of their former habitats, on fire.

by Chip Ward

Ecosystems are stressed. Life’s operating systems are acting out. The signs are there: Carbon-based energy addictions are taking their toll. Who says you can’t change the weather?

The vastness of the American West holds rainforests, deserts, and everything in between, so weather patterns and moisture vary. None­theless, we have been experiencing a historic drought for about a decade in significant parts of the region. As topsoil dries out, microbial dynamics change and native plants either die or move uphill toward cooler temperatures and more moisture. Wildlife that depends on the seeds, nuts, leaves, shade and shelter follows the plants—if it can. Plants and animals are usually able to adapt to slow and steady changes in their habitat, but rapid and uncertain seasonal transformations in weather patterns mean that the timing for such basic ecological processes as seed germination, pollination, migration and hibernation is also disrupted. The challenge of adapting to such fundamental changes can be overwhelming.And if evolving at warp speed isn’t enough, plants, animals, and birds are struggling within previously reduced and fragmented habitats. Wildlife already thrown off the mothership now finds the lifeboats, those remnants of their former habitats, on fire. 

by Chip Ward

When, once again, we come to realize that everything we thought we knew is wrong.

The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico will generate passionate debate. We will critique BP’s profit-saving shortcuts and poor safety record, the Bush-era regulators who were literally in bed with oil corporations. We’ll debate any number of other issues, laws, policies and practices related to the catastrophe…but at the heart of the matter is something much deeper we must get to: If we want to stop our culture’s self-destructive habits and learn sustainable behaviors, if we want to survive our mistakes and thrive tomorrow, then we must shed our hubris and learn to be humble and wise. The age of hubris, a time when all things are knowable, all problems can be fixed and all limits surpassed, is crashing all around us.

by Chip Ward

Resilient thinking for turbulent times.

Shedding a way of life based on limitless growth, the celebration and reward of excess, and deeply ingrained habits of acquisition, consumption and waste is going to be an overwhelming challenge. The culture of ‘faster-bigger-more’ will not yield easily to a new orientation where sustainability is the rule. We are going to need all the expertise we can muster to understand how we have overloaded the carrying capacity of our planet and its ecosystems—and how we can tread from here on with a lighter footprint. Innovations in technology, law, policy and practice are absolutely essential. We must change the goals and rules we live by and create incentives and constraints to shape sustainable behaviors. We need new models.

by Chip Ward

If the Tea Party ruled.

Imagine a land, let's call it Glennbeckistan, where white, patriarchal, religiously zealous patriots hold a super-majority in both houses of the legislature, sit in the governor's mansion, and have a lock on most local governments. States' rights and secession are always on the agenda; gun-ownership trumps all other rights, climate change is considered an insidious socialist conspiracy, and a miscarriage can be investigated as a potential crime. Welcome to Utah.

by Chip Ward

Through mindful posture, we can communicate to others how we should be regarded and treated.

The bones in the spine that determine the position of your neck and head are called the atlas. Like Atlas in Greek mythology who held up the world, this atlas holds up the globe that is your head.

by Chip Ward

In nature, nothing is too big to fail. But "failure" is also the beginning of somthing new. Chip Ward explores ways in which ecological ignorance and economic collapse are intimately connected—and how healing our separation from nature just may be what saves the day.

"Too big to fail." It's been the mantra of our economic meltdown. Although meant to emphasize the overwhelming importance of this bank or that corporation, the phrase also unwittingly expresses a shared delusion that may be at the root of our current crises -both economic and ecological.

by Chip Ward

On Earth Day, we pause to see our place on the planet...and the planet's place in us.

Soil, of course, becomes food if you add a genetic plan (seeds), sunlight and water. As important as that is, food is just one of soil's blessings. Working together, the soil's tiny creatures break down organic matter, store and recycle nutrients vital to plant growth, renew soil fertility, filter and purify water, degrade and detoxify pollutants, and control plant pests and pathogens.

What if the Crown of Creation is a dunce cap? Chip studies the brain chauvinist menu, notes the limits of doing the math and invites us to rethink and re-feel our relationship to the rest of the living world.
by Chip Ward

Deep Ecology and the Commons: A close look at two important books that offer insights for changing our minds and behaviors in the face of troubling times, steering us away from the "abyss of immobilizing despair."
by Chip Ward