A welcome
There are innumerable blogs on the Internet, and you might be asking yourself, “Why am I reading yet another one”? I feel just about the same writing these lines- why in the world am I wasting my precious little free time doing this?! Maybe I should start with what you won’t find on this site. You won’t find instant, obsessive analysis of political news. I believe most columns worth writing take at least a couple weeks to gestate in the author’s mind before they are ready to be revealed. You won’t find far-reaching proclamations that are fun to read for their breathless enthusiasm. My training as a scientist has made me naturally averse to speculating way beyond the data at hand, although my colleagues should realize that what I write on these pages is far less certain than the scientific manuscripts I write for work.
What you will find, I hope, is thoughtful essays, a couple times a month, on everything from the arts to politics to pop culture to (especially) ecology and environmental science. My model for these mini-columns is the excellent essays by Mario Vargas Llosa and Octavio Paz, to whom I owe a great debt. They both taught me that short essays still have a place in modern literature, as something more than mere opinion pieces, as literature in the finest sense. I am sure my humble skills as a writer won’t approach their work, but I hope to offer something that gets some peoples minds working…
Now, the bigger question (for me): why am I writing? There’s certainly some risk for me professionally- People in the sciences learn to keep their heads out of political fights, do some dry boring technical work, and make a living. And as an ecologist who hopes in the future to collaborate with policymakers, at the national and international levels, even the appearance of being involved in the kooky world of blogs may make me an untouchable. But I’ve frankly decided I don’t care- life is too short for me to limit my mind to the little domain in which I do my scientific work, and I’m determined to find a couple hours a week to devote to this forum. That said, everything on this site is a personal opinion, and in no way reflects my measured expert scientific opinion, nor the opinion of my employers. Hell, in a week it might not even represent my opinion anymore! And, of course, all works on this site are my property, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without citation or a link back.
