chasing answers newsletter #63

Enjoy the summer, It's all connected, A threat to our national parks

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” - Sam Keen

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Happy Sunday!

Summer is flying by. For our family, summer isn't defined by the seasons but by my daughter's and wife's school and work schedules. Their twelve weeks off school is our summer, and it's already half over. 

It's been great so far, and we'll be doing our best to make the most of the next five weeks. I hope your summer's going great as well, and if not, there's still time to change that. 😀

Now, let's get to some links and a photo.

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It’s All Connected

This article by George Monbiot (whose book, Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet, I recommended last week) summarizes the interconnectedness of our economic system, food supply, and climate change.

It’s short, but he does an excellent job of taking dozens of pages of notes that I have on these topics and cramming all of those thoughts into less than 1,100 words.

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A Threat to Our National Parks

Climate Change is impacting all of the National Parks in the U.S., but none more than Denali National Park in Alaska.

This recent article from the Anchorage Daily News describes some of those impacts. There is a lot of talk in the article regarding the adverse economic effects on local businesses, and I have mixed feelings about this. Sometimes, I feel that monetizing these natural areas is part of the problem, and we should keep these areas as wild and hard to reach as possible. 

On the other hand, the reality is if people can’t easily visit these places and appreciate them, there will be less effort to save them.

The one thing that stood out to me in the article was the drastic temperature change in recent years. In 2014 the average temperatures in the park increased by 4.5F over the 30-year average of 31F. We simply can not sustain that rate of change.

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Photo(s) of the Week

I’m continuing to play around with black and white in my photos. I have always preferred black-and-white photography for everything that’s not wildlife, but I’m finding it’s a little trickier to edit, which is the opposite of what I expected. 

This image shows the sun rising over an old family farm that I often pass on my morning walks.

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I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy