Chelsea Green Blog
Nature & Environment
Fungi: All Around and Among Us
Fungi are fundamental to life. As decomposers, they are critical to the formation and sustenance of soils and ecosystems. As endlessly innovative chemists, they devise and secrete enzymes that can break down a vast variety of materials, mitigate bacterial and viral infections, and interact—for better or worse—with the bodies and brains of animals that consume…
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The Evolution of Tools: Rock, Paper, Scissors
We’ve all played Rock, Paper, Scissors; whether it’s to decide who’s goes first, who’s doing the dishes, or simply a way to pass the time– we all know the rules. While it’s a child’s game on the surface level, Nick Kary gleans a deeper meaning to this game of tools. The following excerpt is from Material…
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Year in Review: The Best From 2020
As we look back on the year, we’ve started to take stock of what our community has found most useful. If there’s one thing (or two) we know about our readers, it’s that you love growing food and getting your hands dirty. Take a spin back through our top posts from 2020. Did your favorite…
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Chelsea Green’s Audiobook Gift Guide
We all have one of those people on our gift lists. You know the type: the hardcore hobbyist with very specific taste who is sick of socks and isn’t all that into reading. Lucky for you, some of our most popular (and interesting) books also come in audiobook form! Get your loved-ones the gift of storytelling and knowledge…
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The Energy Consumption Crisis
At the rate humanity is currently burning fossil fuels, we will create an uninhabitable earth long before we run out. So if the pressure of a finite resource doesn’t push us towards a renewable energy revolution, what will? And what will this revolution look like? This is an excerpt from A Small Farm Future by Chris…
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How Loving Labor Leads to a Brighter Future: Sourcing a Solution
Drawing on a vast range of sources from across a multitude of disciplines, A Small Farm Future analyses the complex forces that make societal change inevitable; explains how low-carbon, locally self-reliant agrarian communities and loving labor can empower us to successfully confront these changes head on; and explores the pathways for delivering this vision politically. Challenging…
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What Does a Sustainable Future Look Like?
In a time of looming uncertainties, what would a truly resilient society look like? Farmer and social scientist Chris Smaje argues that organizing society around small-scale farming offers the soundest, most sustainable, and most reasonable response to climate change and other crises of civilization—and will yield humanity’s best chance at survival. The following excerpt is…
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All Hail the Beaver, Mighty Linchpin of the Natural World
Ben Goldfarb and Derek Gow have the conversation you didn’t know you needed. This interview originally appeared on Literary Hub. The beaver — yes, really, the beaver — is Animalia’s most generous member. By building woody dams and engineering ponds, beavers furnish habitat for just about every creature that flies, walks, and swims in North…
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A Man, a Mission, and a Grumpy Beaver
Derek Gow knows a thing or two about beavers; as a farmer-turned-ecologist, he has spent close to 20 years reintroducing beavers to the wilds of Britain. Rewilding is no easy task, a large part of the process includes importing, quarantining, and assisting in the beavers’ reestablishment. And after so many years, Gow has met quite…
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Beavers: A Short History
If you’re not already a “Beaver Nut”, Derek Gow has a couple of reasons you should be: Firstly, land that housed beavers was historically preferred by British settlers for its natural abundance. Secondly, beavers show a lot of love and attention to their very cute babies. Finally, they’re crucial to the well being of our…
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Mesquite: Where There’s Smoke
Gary Paul Nabhan is an internationally celebrated nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He holds the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, where he works with students, faculty, and non-profits to build a more just,…
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A Conversation with Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, author, and activist who has dedicated his life to environmental sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is a member of Ray Anderson’s original EcoDreamTeam. The following is an excerpt from Mid-Course Correction Revisited by Ray C. Anderson and John A. Lanier. It has been…
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Wild Edibles: 5 Tips for Beginner Foragers
Ever spotted a dandelion growing in your backyard and wondered, can I eat that? According to wild plants expert Katrina Blair, the answer is a resounding yes. And there are plenty of other commonly found weeds that fall into this category as well. These nutritious “survival plants”, as she calls them, can be eaten from root…
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6 Books That Bring Hope to Life
Books can bring comfort, happiness, and most important: hope. Let these books fill you with inspirational stories of perseverance, hope, and innovation. Following the collapse of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy, social activist Ruairí McKiernan questions whether he should join the mounting number of emigrants searching for greater opportunity elsewhere. McKiernan embarks on a hitchhiking odyssey…
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A History of Electricity and Its Impact on Planetary and Human Health
The story of the invention and use of electricity has been told before, but never from an environmental point of view. An assumption of safety, and the conviction that electricity has no negative impact on life, are by now so entrenched in the human psyche that new research and testimony by those who’ve been injured…
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The Spirit of Hitching
Gone are the days where you can stick out your thumb to catch a carefree ride. For a long time though, hitchhiking was considered normal and even reasonably safe. Even more, it gave people a chance to connect with strangers, share stories, and spend a bit of time in someone else’s shoes. While the days…
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Enter Biochar: Reduce Your Pet’s Carbon Pawprint
Many carbon-conscious pet owners are aware of the non-recyclable waste that comes with owning a pet. Between kitty litter, puppy pads, and all those plastic dog bags, the waste adds up. Enter biochar. Imagine a world where the puppy pad is so odorless that your dog wants to sleep on it and the kitty litter…
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The 5 Rules of Lean Thinking
Surviving the Future is a story drawn from the fertile ground of the late David Fleming’s extraordinary Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It. That hardback consists of four hundred and four interlinked dictionary entries, inviting readers to choose their own path through its radical vision. Fleming’s long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin…
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The Power of the Mesquite Tree
The miraculous abundance provided by the mesquite tree continues to astound us. It offers a plethora of culinary possibilities. It has the power to cure, to shelter, to elicit profound emotions, and to connect us to our environment and our neighbors in a way we may not have thought about before. The following excerpt is…
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The Man Who Planted Trees Before His Time
Though nature can be a mighty force, it takes great care and a gentle hand to support the growth of the environment–especially trees. Trees are essential for life; they create oxygen and are home to thousands of species, yet we’re experiencing rapid deforestation. It only takes one person to plant one tree in their community…
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Earth Day Reading: 13 Essential Books
This year, people all around the world are celebrating a milestone—the 50th anniversary of this international day of action for our environment. Why not celebrate Earth Day by reading about our great planet? We’ve compiled 13 books to get you started! In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild…
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Seeing the Trees for the Forest
In the opening chapter of Trees of Power, author Akiva Silver sings the praises of tree identification. He first describes the skill as being “as useful to me as reading,” and later promises readers that in learning to discern trees by their bark, twigs, leaves, and silhouettes, “you will be able to read stories in…
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Limits to Growth and the COVID-19 epidemic
It comes to no surprise to anyone that the human population continues to grow, rapidly. However, there is a limit to that growth that we don’t quite know yet. Dennis Meadows, an emeritus professor of systems policy and social science research at the University of New Hampshire, walks us through the connection between population grow/decline…
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A Dictionary for Our Times
How would you define the word “Empowered”? Before you run to the dictionary, we’re not talking about the straight definition; what we mean is, what does it mean to be empowered in today’s society. Read on for short extracts from Lean Logic that speak to these times of crisis. The following is an excerpt from…
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Poplar – The Homemaker
Poplars are some of the fastest-growing trees in the world. They can tolerate the worst conditions and are heavily favored by wildlife. In places where land has been degraded or is falling apart, the poplars can rebuild. They produce tremendous amounts of biomass, feed unbelievable numbers of insects, birds, and mammals, and suck tons of…
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