50 results for author: Dan Barth


Reflections on Earth Day

How do you joyously celebrate Earth Day even as the natural world we so rely on, and come together to honor, is in such decline?  That question rose to the surface again and again a couple of weeks ago on April 22nd, the fifty third anniversary of the first Earth Day.  Our own Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson inaugurated this special day in 1970, hoping to draw attention to the environmental mess we were already making of things.  That year twenty million Americans marched in support.  Earth Day was then, and has been ever since, both a celebration of this unique, living planet and a loud call to action in the hope of saving it from ourselves. ...

Join us on Earth Day


Earth Day 2023

Even the most die hard science fiction fan has to admit that Earth, at least in our solar system, is the most exotic destination in the neighborhood.  No where else does such complex life exist, and in such stunning profusion.   By comparison, our companion planets look pretty bland.  It is life in all its diversity that sets our home in this starry universe apart.  How fortunate we all are to share this singular and extravagant gift with one another - something to celebrate, certainly something to protect. Your local Citizen's Climate Lobby Chapter and NAOMI will do just that at 10 o'clock on Saturday, April 22 at Tenth Street Park in ...

Ground Clutter

How we crave that clear, blue sky after what sometimes seems like an eternity of clouds here in the dead of the Wisconsin winter.  Moods brighten as, finally, the awaited sun brushes our winter pines a radiant green, sumac tops flame up and the alfalfa stubble in the field down the road turns from dull tan to flashing gold above the snow.  Most of us are creatures of the day, content and absorbed in life under our heavenly canopy.  But lately I've begun to sense a seductive, day-sky deception afoot here that obscures our fragile reality and in so doing may lead to our undoing.  Does not the outright joy of a bluebird sky festooned with billowing ...

Honor the Earth

Pick a country road, just about any one of them will do.  The one we live on serves the purpose.  I've written about it before, a nice little road, perhaps a little plain, certainly less dramatic than many, and yet real treasures line its sides, both in the ditches and the woods through which it passes.  The jewels that sparkle along the way are many.  Marsh marigolds in spring, emerald green and radiant yellow; summer's marsh milkweed, richly magenta, and bottle gentian dappling our fall colors with brush strokes of indigo.  These are just some of the gems in our roadside garden. Amid this profusion butterflies dance like lithe ballerinas.  ...

The Joys of Conscious Consumption

It probably started with gardening, this evolution from mindless consumption to making shopping choices with an eye towards who and what we are supporting when we open our wallet at the cash register.  Admittedly, I'm not very good at it yet, but I have discovered a few things about conscious consumption worth passing along. This spring's Sierra Club Magazine highlighted the crash and burn impact of large-scale farming.  The focus was on Iowa in general, and the enormous challenge of providing safe water to families in Des Moines in particular.  Between nitrates in Iowa waters from the overuse of fertilizer to grow corn and soybeans, to related ...

Wisconsin’s Fish Are in Hot Water

Wisconsin's Fish are in HOT  WATER! Frank Pratt spent 20 years as a Wisconsin DNR Senior Fisheries Biologist doing research that connected changes in our fish populations to our warming waters.  Hear what he found and what we can and must do to maintain our great Wisconsin fishery. October 18 at 6PM, The Landing, in the Woodson YMCA.     707 N 3rd Street, Wausau            FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Wisconsin’s Fish Are in Hot Water

According to the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts our state has warmed by three degrees Fahrenheit since 1950, and as a result our waters are warming up too.  From our ponds and lakes to our winding rivers and cold, clear, trout streams these warmer temperatures spell trouble for some of our favorite fish.  To learn more about these impacts our local Citizen's Climate Lobby brings retired Senior Fisheries Biologist, Frank Pratt, to town for a discussion of his 45 years worth of research in Northern Wisconsin. If you love fishing you will want to hear what Frank has to say about the changes taking place all over Wisconsin ...

To Be Human

  Like a ripe Touch-Me-Not seed capsule just waiting for a finger to trigger the pop that sends it's precious cargo out into the world, mornings burst with the promise of exploration, new discoveries and grand inventions.  If you don't believe me just watch any young child jump out of bed with a head full of grand ideas, or an aging, retired guy about to head out for his morning walk in the country.  Lord only knows what discoveries might be waiting out there. This delight in novelty and new challenges is what has brought us from our shaky, beginnings in Africa to eight billion of us today, spread out everywhere around the world.  Go the ...

Third Worlding Marathon County (and the Rest of Wisconsin)

Xiomara Castro, the first woman Honduran President, just banned open pit mining in her country because of it's toxic pollution and the consequent health impacts on wildlife and human life.  This marks a huge turning point in a country long exploited for it's natural resources at the expense of everything Hondurans hold dear – especially clean, safe water.  This remarkable turn around happened when the Honduran people got fed up enough to elect political leaders who actually cared more about them than big, usually foreign, mining corporations.  The quest for natural resources in countries like Honduras relies on friendly political leaders, cheap ...