Tag Archives: Environment

Hydrocarbons Are Our Dark Satanic Mills

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2021

Blake’s “Jerusalem” can be read as a challenge to oppose the forces of climate change that threaten our beautiful country.

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Poetry Defending Violated Nature

By Robin Bates | Published: May 20, 2021

Romantic poet John Clare would had had strong words about Trumpist attacks on our national parks.

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Despite Trump, the Rivers Kept Speaking

By Robin Bates | Published: October 26, 2020

Jane Hirshfield’s “Fifth Day,” written five days into the Trump administration, capture the president’s war against science and the environment.

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Manifesto for the Earth’s Future

By Robin Bates | Published: April 21, 2020

Wendell Berry’s manifesto of “The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” is worth revisiting on this 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. It captures the spirit of the times.

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Destroying What We Were Given in Trust

By Robin Bates | Published: August 27, 2019

Wednesday After defending Brazil strongman Jair Bolsonaro for his assault on Brazil’s rain forests, Donald Trump is now going after our own, with Alaska’s Tongass National Forest the latest natural treasure on the chopping block. When hearing such dispiriting environmental news, I often turn to Wendell Berry, who is sure to articulate my outrage while […]

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A Season for Miraculous Breakthroughs

By Robin Bates | Published: December 24, 2015

In this Scott Bates poem about Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 American-Soviet rescue operation that liberated three ice-bound gray whales, the possibility for international cooperation to save the planet is imagined. Were he still alive today, my father would be excited by the 2015 Paris climate accord.

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Sir Gawain and Celtic Spirituality

By Robin Bates | Published: October 31, 2015

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” may represent the clash between two strains of Christianity which today we describe as Dominionism and Green Christianity. The 14th century poem definitely comes down on the green side.

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An ABC of Our Attack on the Earth

By Robin Bates | Published: September 3, 2015

In his “ABC of Radical Ecology,” Scott Bates sets forth an alphabet primer for various environmental ills.

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Earth Day: Please Brake for Woolly Bears

By Robin Bates | Published: April 22, 2015

Scott Bates’ Earth Day poem calls for protecting even caterpillars. After all, sometimes they grow up to be Keats’ tiger moths with their “deep damasked wings.”

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