John McLeod is a climate activist, retired progressive educator, and part-time puppeteer who lives at Story Ranch, a farm wilderness site in northeastern New Mexico, USA.
Grief and Gratitude in a New Mexico Fire As wildfire and floods bring devastation to Calf Canyon and Hermit’s Peak, community steps forward to rebuild lives
Shortly before midnight on May 3, we directly and personally entered the growing multitudes of climate evacuees. Such an event was not unexpected. Our forests had become drier than kiln-finished lumber. If you struck 100 matches and dropped them to the ground, 90 to 94 of them would ignite a fire. Precipitation had become a long-lost friend. The link of a warming climate to such a cataclysmic event was evident throughout the region long before the fire drew its first breath.
The Great Transition We are not at the end, we are in a shift from a system that devoured our Earth to one that can work with Gaia.
Editor’s note: As we first published this story (May 3, 2022), author John McLeod and his family in rural New Mexico were evacuated from their home and farm due to the Hermit’s Peak / Calf Canyon fire that started not far from their home. “This is what Climate Change looks like,” he wrote, “making the […]
Mentoring Our Climate Future What do a WWII combat general, a brilliant nonviolent strategist, a Berkeley poet laureate and a German puppeteer have in common?
As Odysseus prepared to depart to the Trojan War, he left the supervision of his son Telemachus’s education to an old and trusted friend, Mentor. Many of us have had the gift of a mentor or mentors, whose words and deeds coupled with a personal relationship have guided and inspired our lives and our activism […]
The Search For A New Community A look at intentional community in a world who may be calling for a reimagining of collective actions.
Every intellectual had a “draft of a new community in his waistcoat pocket.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson We have reached a new epoch in our planet’s history. Few can look at the increasingly authoritarian tendencies across the globe, the mass stress-fueled migrations, the degradation of the environment, the increasingly chaotic climate, and the fragility of […]
Covid-19 and a new New Deal The coronavirus is opening doors and perceptions at unprecedented rates, making many things possible.
Protecting our Guardians in Oaxaca Celebrating and honoring Native Corn and Indigenous Defenders of Earth’s Biodiversity
It was an unusual Calenda (traditional procession) even for Oaxaca, a city used to these colorful, musical and boisterous parades often led by giant puppets (monos) and a marching band for weddings, quinceañeras, and religious observances. This specific Calenda was dedicated to the protection of the guardians of native corn, to defenders of ecological diversity, […]