…in the media: On Saturday, July 18th about 75 environmentalists gathered with me to stand up for eucalyptus trees, to challenge popular myths and misconceptions portraying them as, well, killers. We made a daring new TreeSpirit photograph, “Eucalyptus Stand,” to dramatize the harmlessness and vulnerability (to human destruction) of eucalyptus trees which are, despite persistent …
Whenever I show TreeSpirit photographs to a group, I know I’ll get The Question: “Why are all the people naked?” But with this enthusiastic group in San Francisco last week (March 2015), I got a very different first question (I’m paraphrasing): “Why are most of your photos black-and-white, but one was in color?” Way …
I’ve considered myself an environmentalist for decades; a tree, forest and animal lover all my life. But a new documentary film, “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” focuses on the environmental effects of eating meat. It has me looking in the mirror and seeing, painfully, my own hypocrisy, avoidance, and denial. I knew SOME of the many …
Whenever someone learns I’m going on a nude cruise — not to mention making TreeSpirit photographs on them, I usually have to clarify two points. First, that a nude cruise is a special cruise ship vacation chartered for nudists and naturists, and second, that I don’t take photos on board the ship, but at our …
Professor Suzanne Simard, University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry, in a short video by Dan McKinney, on how trees in a forest interact with each other, and other life forms. You can quickly see some of the ideas in James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Despite the lack of pyrotechnics in this video, take note this is …
…but we must try. Try and try. And believe we can anything we put our minds to. I’ve always believed if ingenious workaholic Americans put as much willpower, determination, and effort into developing cleaner alternative fuels as we did in our 1960s Space Race, we could still dig our way out of environmental mess. It …
She’s risking her life on limbs to draw attention to an environmentally destructive highway construction project, “The Willits Bypass.” That’s a 6-mile-long, 2-lane highway. It includes a 1-mile-long 30-foot-tall concrete viaduct. And it will cut right through a valley meadow criss-crossed with streams and a wetlands. Which means The Willits Bypass project will drain and …
British Petroleum (BP oil) pleads GUILTY to 14 CRIMINAL (not negligence) CHARGES in the disastrous Gulf of Mexico spill (link at bottom). Financial reparations are still being calculated and negotiated, but the first fine is $4 billion over five years. My point: this is more proof – as if we need it—that it’s actually cheaper …
One of my missions with TreeSpirit, before and after making compelling photographs, is to continually repeat and share and spread the word that we humans can’t survive without trees. They do so much for us it’s difficult to fully comprehend or appreciate this fact—and because they seem ubiquitous, we often take them for granted. I …
I prefer to focus on the positive, how we’re making progress living more in harmony with nature, rather than focusing on all the harm we’ve done or are doing. Others are better suited to take on that necessary task. But once in a while, I can’t help but help spread awareness of something awful, even …