The Owl of Athena awakes from her slumber to view a sea of ominous clouds stretching bleakly across the horizon. As dusk falls she contemplates the current era of human civilization. Her thoughts are tragic, questions abound. Who are the masters of humankind?  Who owns the Earth and all her wildness, order, breath, and water?…

At first glance, Missoula, Montana’s agricultural non-profit, Garden City Harvest, might seem like an ill-advised target for the Animal Liberation Front’s graffiti. By most accounts, Garden City Harvest does some fantastic work in its local community. According to GCH’s website, its mission is “to build community through agriculture by growing food with and for people…

In a PBS segment Oct. 24, Judy Woodruff asked “What will Dakota Access protesters do if final pipeline restrictions are lifted?” Her guest William Brangham, who’s been covering the confrontation for PBS Newshour, elaborates: People don’t exactly know what’s going to happen. If the Army Corps agrees to this last permit and says to the…

I keep thinking I couldn’t be any more repulsed by right-libertarian apologists for big business. And every time, I run across something like William F. Shughart II’s crude apologetic for the Dakota Access Pipeline at the so-called “libertarian” Independent Institute (“Environmentalists’ Questionable Tactics in North Dakota,” Sept. 12). Since the beginning of capitalism, its propagandists…

A recent article in Kentucky’s leading paper, The Lexington Herald Leader, discusses the down-fall of coal in the Bluegrass state. The statistics reported are alarming. Overall, the industry is at a 118-year low as more than 50% of coal jobs have disappeared over the past few years. In a region laden with poverty the hits…

Good old Knoxville, Tennessee — this scruffy little town that I love — will host the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a dismal bureaucracy, on May 26, 2016. BLM is heading to the vibrant, plush Tennessee Theatre in the heart of downtown to take comments on how “public” lands are utilized for coal mining. Specifically, strip mining…

On May 10 West Virginia will hold its presidential primary. Contenders Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have all visited the state looking for working class votes. All three contenders have a vision for the future of West Virginia’s economy. Republican Trump wants to bring back “Clean Coal” and protect industry jobs. Democratic candidates…

For many years, I have encountered repeated references to Wendell Berry, the venerable farmer-sage of Kentucky: novelist, poet, essayist, philosopher and environmental activist. And I lazily assumed his writings to be in the category of things that are Good For You, but probably dull, like stodgy health food. But then I came across The Art…

The first nationally recognized Earth Day was celebrated in the United States on April 22, 1970. Now, 46 years old, the annual event is a world-wide phenomenon celebrated in more than 192 countries. It is a day numerous cultures come together to voice their support for environmental protection. I like a lot about Earth Day….

In their hasty scramble to blame the Flint water crisis on anything — anything at all — other than the regime of Emergency Managers and phony corporate “privatization” that Reason has been promoting for years in Michigan, Reason writers are forming a circular firing squad. Robby Soave, who had previously cheered on the Emergency Manager…

Naomi Klein coined the term “disaster capitalism” to describe what is virtually the only kind of “market reform” that ever takes place in the real world. In the event of collapse or emergency, capitalist elites seize uncontested control of a state and — in collusion with global corporations — force their agenda through without opposition….

C4SS Feed 44 presents Charles Johnson‘s contribution to Part 8 of Markets Not Capitalism: “The Clean Water Act versus Clean Water,” read by Stephanie Murphy and edited by Nick Ford. The levels of invasiveness required by “intellectual property,” in the digital age, cannot be exaggerated. The intrusive DRM embedded in proprietary media, and the draconian…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Mary Ruwart‘s “Aggression and the Environment” read by Stepahnie Murphy and edited by Nick Ford. Whenever people do not pay the full cost of something they use, they have less incentive to conserve. For example, when people pay the same amount of taxes for solid waste disposal whether they recycle or…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Dawie Coetzee‘s “Dieselgate: Why VW Will Come Out Smelling Like Roses” read and edited by Tony Dreher. The last thing VW wants is their customers getting their hands dirty. A clue into VW’s real aspirations is given by the 1999 Audi A2 with its “service panel” in lieu of a conventional…

Details have been emerging this week of a clever trick pulled by Volkswagen in North America. The German-based automaker is alleged to have been using software to cheat EPA emissions tests for millions of its turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engine Volkswagen and Audi cars dating back to 2009. New vehicles pretty much the world over are…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Grant A. Mincy‘s “Sao Paulo: Worthy of Wilderness” read by Thomas J. Webb and edited by Nick Ford. “Sao Paulo is heavily industrialized and mechanized, however, and the financial sector demands sprawl. The city is heavily managed by zoning restrictions, creating spaces of capital, places of poverty and state enclosure. Social classes are…

I recently gave a talk at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee, regarding coal, power and liberty in the Southern Appalachian Bio-Region. This talk is based off of notes from my forthcoming study for The Center for a Stateless Society: Flowers of Darkness: Coal, Power and Liberty in the Southern Appalachian Bio-Region. This serves…

The Everglades are among the last sub-tropical wilderness areas in the United States. Their Floridian air is thick with humidity, but a cool breeze is commonly felt from both the fresh and saltwater systems that spread throughout the landscape. Open prairies provide relief from the dangers of the swamp. A mosaic of forest, from pinelands…

Glen Canyon is one of the great wonders of the American Southwest. The ravine is carved deep, with rugged walls of sandstone and rusted gorges. Rock formations spire towards the sun as cliffs paint the purple horizon and provide space for numerous grottoes and crooked, long trails. Aside from the inspiring geology, Glen Canyon is…

Sao Paulo is one of the great cities of the world. Located in southeastern Brazil, this sprawling metropolis is the most populous city in the country — second in all of the Americas. The state of Sao Paulo is the wealthiest in Brazil and uses its power to influence the nation’s trade, commerce, finance and foreign relations….