J. Reese Voshell, Jr.’s A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America isn’t exactly a new book. Originally published in 2002 and ever since being one of the most popular books available from its publisher, McDonald & Woodward, it is one of those books that anyone who knowns anything about the subject, knows that they […]
For all the books written about rare species, there is something refreshingly comforting when a new book comes along about ones that are delightfully common. Indeed, even the very name of one of the two specie that are the subject of Phil Holland’s recently published “Common & Spotted Sandpipers” implies its common status.
What Pope Francis has set down in this Encyclical is not perfect; as some have already pointed out it leaves out the idea that an ever-expanding global population is ecologically unsustainable even with greater care of the planet. However it is a a more far-reaching statement about the connection between the health of the planet and the health of humanity than I have ever known to have be written by any religious leader of comparable authority. Yes, it is a religious treatise but it is also an environmental one and even – as he draws heavily upon biology, chemistry, ecology, and climatology – a scientific one.