MOTH

Everything that flows from trees and forests—clean air, biodiversity, cooler temperatures, clean water, human health, carbon kept solid and out of atmospheric currency, rain, regional weather patterns, culture, history—is unraveling. If trees are to continue to sustain us and to help us address our apocalyptic mess, we need to pay them more attenti... See more

Old trees should not be stereotyped: they are not all massively tall, thick, moss draped. They can be small, their age revealed in bent posture and scars, in roots that run close to the surface, like the veins that rise on the backs of our hands as our skin thins with time.

Although the annual cycle of early wood, late wood, and dormancy is generally similar in temperate trees, every species has its own fingerprint: a maple and a spruce growing a few feet apart may tell the same story in different colors and textures.

I think that a better understanding of the umvelt of the whale—both in its expressive communications, but also its sensory reality—helps expand our understanding of what environmental suffering and damage is.