The climate crisis may at times appear to be happening slowly, but in fact it is happening very quickly -- and has become a true planetary emergency. The Chinese expression for crisis consists of two characters. The first is a symbol for danger; the second is a symbol for opportunity. In order to face down the danger that is stalking the planet and move through it, listeners first have to recognize that they are facing a crisis. So why is it that public leaders seem not to hear such clarion warnings? Are they resisting the truth because they know that the moment they acknowledge it, they will face a moral imperative to act? Is it simply more convenient to ignore the warnings? Perhaps, but inconvenient truths do not go away just because they are not seen. Indeed, when they are not responded to, their significance doesn't diminish; it grows.

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 The Life of the Skies is a genre-bending journey into the meaning of a pursuit born out of the tangled history of industrialization and nature longing. Jonathan Rosen set out on a quest not merely to see birds but to fathom their centrality—historical and literary, spiritual and scientific—to a culture torn between the desire both to conquer and to conserve.

Rosen argues that bird-watching is nothing less than the real national pastime—indeed it is more than that, because the field of play is the earth itself. We are the players and the spectators, and the outcome—since bird and watcher are intimately connected—is literally a matter of life and death.

 

Meeting Location

Mesa Verde Restaurant, 618 Congress Street
 

In this critically acclaimed Maine classic, first published in 1945, Helen Hamlin writes of her adventures teaching school at a remote Maine lumber camp and then of living deep in the Maine wilderness with her game warden husband. Her experiences-from snowbound months in a two-room cabin to sub-zero treks for food to the sheer joy of spring-are a must-read for anyone who loves the untamed nature and wondrous beauty of Maine's north woods and the unique spirit of those who lived there.
In the 1930s, in spite of being warned that remote Churchill Depot was "no place for a woman," the remarkable Helen Hamlin set off at age 20 to teach school at the tiny and isolated lumber camp at the headwaters of the Allagash River. After teaching for one year, she married a game warden and moved even deeper into the wilderness, where she spent her next three years. In her book, Hamlin captures that time in her life, complete with the trappers, foresters, lumbermen, woods folk, wild animals and natural splendor that she found at Umsaskis Lake and then at Nine Mile Bridge on the St. John River.

 

Meeting Location

Thai Taste Restaurant, 571 Congress Street

 

 

Thomas L. Friedman's no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy—both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future.  Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy—which he calls "Geo-Greenism"—is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.

 

Meeting Location

O'Naturals, 83 Exchange Street