But somehow, we never expect simply living in and loving this world to be this hard.


** News of the world environment
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NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 3, 2021
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** Guns, Wombs, and Grief
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“Feels like the NRA et al have won the war on guns, since none of my threads or groups are talking about Michigan at all,” one of my friends wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, a day after a 15-year-old shot and killed four students and injured seven other people, including a teacher, in a suburban Detroit high school.

“The righteous fury is just sadness now … after 22 years of the same cycle,” someone responded.

Indeed. It’s been that kind of a week. And month. And year. So much that we once took for certain — from sending our kids to school without fear, to breathing freely with friends and family, to reproductive choice, to democracy and a livable planet — is now shrouded in uncertainty. Which is why at times it feels that any public expression of grief or outrage at yet another senseless, and preventable, act of violence would be performative at best. Same goes with how many of us, especially women, are feeling right now about yet another legal assault on women’s bodies that we saw play out in the US Supreme Court this week.

Apart from the basic fact that we are all members of society and what happens in the world affects us all, both these issues, as you may know, are of concern to environmentalists as well. Studies have shown that increasing global temperatures will cause a rise in violent crime (see here ([link removed]) and here ([link removed]) ), including gun violence is the US, which currently has at least 330 million guns in circulation. There have been at least 25 mass shootings ([link removed]) in the US this year. Meanwhile, women’s access to reproductive choice, which is also threatened ([link removed]) by climate change, is key at a time when so many young folks are grappling with the question of whether or not to bring new life into a rapidly-warming world.

These aren’t the best of times, and yes, many of us are feeling so stretched thin that even speaking up feels like a huge effort. Perhaps, as author Kathleen Dean Moore wrote in this beautiful essay ([link removed]) , the way forward lies in accepting “sorrow as a last great offering from a desperate world” and then shaping “anguish into something that is fierce enough to stand in defense of all we love too much to lose.”
Maureen Nandini Mitra
Editor, Earth Island Journal

PS: Our new Winter print issue is out. Be sure to check out the online version here ([link removed]) . Support our work by buying ([link removed]) or gifting ([link removed]) a subscription!

Photo: Franck Fauveau ([link removed])
TOP STORIES ()
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** Skullduggery ([link removed])
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The black market for animal skulls is powered by collector demand, which “stems from a long history of our compulsion to collect,” Eric Freedman writes in our Winter print issue cover story. That compulsion is driving some species to the brink of extinction.
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** YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE! ([link removed])
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Earth Island Journal is a nonprofit publication. Our mission is to inform and inspire action. Which is why we rely on readers like you for support. If you believe in the work we do, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Green Journalism Fund ([link removed]) .
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** Wild Plan ([link removed])
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The US Fish and Wildlife Service has deemed the United States’ only population of endangered Mexican gray wolves “not essential” to the survival of the species in the wild. The reasoning: There are enough captive wolves who can be released into the wild later.
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** Garden Guardians ([link removed])
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In the 1960s, New York City residents began transforming abandoned lots into gardens, cutting open the gates, pulling out rubble and trash, and planting vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, and more. In his photo essay, Zachary Schulman shares the images and stories of those who created and sustain these dynamic spaces.
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ICYMI ()
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** She Can Sing, Too ([link removed])
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There are well over 1,000 scientific reports about barn swallow songs, but until 2020, none of them focused on songs by female barn swallows. Why? Because most birdsong researchers have been male, and men are much less likely than women to lead research on female birds.

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** More Field Bia ([link removed]) s ([link removed])
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It wasn’t the harsh sunlight, biting insects, and treacherous rock slopes in the backcountry of Denali National Park that had this transgender paleontology writer questioning how long she could last out there. It was the people.

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