August 11, 6:30 pm: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingfisher

Check it out from your
local library or find it at these independent local book stores:

Left Bank Books
The Novel Neighbor
Author’s website

Join us in a discussion of the book Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver led by a member or our Board of Directors, Tracy Haag.

“Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive flirtation with a younger man. As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders, and the media. The bewildering emergency draws rural farmers into unexpected acquaintance with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome. As the community lines up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo all she has ever believed.

Flight Behavior takes on one of the most contentious subjects of our time: climate change. With a deft and versatile empathy Kingsolver dissects the motives that drive denial and belief in a precarious world.”  – goodreads.com

Register for the Zoom Event.

Previous Eco-Media Club Events:

One Health One Future

Join us for an engaging discussion of One Health One Future, moderated by the Young Friends of earthday365. The documentary describes how One Health research can help Alaska’s communities address pressing issues, including behavioral, cultural, and spiritual health. One Health, a term coined by veterinarians, recognizes that relationships between humans, animals, and the environment affect the spread of diseases and other maladies. As the concept gains momentum, most recently with the spread of COVID-19, the documentary introduces UAF’s Center for One Health Research to scientists and people worldwide.

Community and Communication: how trees are a template for successful social organization

Trees talk, know family ties, and care for their young? Is this too fantastic to be true? Scientist Suzanne Simard (The University of British Columbia, Canada) and German forester and author Peter Wohlleben have been investigating and observing the communication between trees over decades. And their findings are most astounding.

Using information from the resources listed below, we discussed how science provides us insights into how nature has developed cooperative strategies for surviving and thriving; and how we can do the same.

Read: The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
or
Watch these videos and read these articles on this topic:
Peter Wohlleben on the Hidden Life of Trees (YouTube)
Are Trees Sentient Beings? (article)
Do Trees Talk to Each Other? (article)
How Trees Talk to Each Other (TED talk)

You can watch the film Intelligent Trees on Amazon Prime, Vimeo, or Tubi.

Environmental Racism in St. Louis Report Discussion

“This report was prepared by the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law to assist the following organizations [Action St. Louis, Arch City Defenders, Dutchtown South Community Corporation, and Sierra Club] in educating the St. Louis community about environmental injustices that disproportionately endanger public health for people of color and low-income individuals in St. Louis, and in advocating for systemic changes to remedy these injustices and enhance public health.” – Intro to the report

Book Discussion

Braiding Sweetgrass
Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Check it out from your local library or find it at these independent local book stores:
Left Bank Books
The Novel Neighbor
Author’s website

“As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.” (GoodReads)

Kiss the Ground Film

Released in April 2020, Kiss the Ground is a full-length documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson that sheds light on climate change from a new perspective. A revolutionary group of activists, scientists, farmers, and politicians band together in a global movement of “Regenerative Agriculture” that could not only balance our climate but also replenish our vast water supplies and feed the world.

It is still available for viewing on Netflix!