Ernest Blair Experiment

In the last few days, David Quammen’s name has come to my attention, twice. The first was a podcast, available through Emergence Magazine. The second was from Sandra Barry about an article in Orion magazine. In both cases, they refer to his book, Spillover: animal infections and the next human pandemic. It was published in 2013.

My interest in Quammen’s writing goes back to the mid-’90s. After finishing graduate work in Biogeography, and spending time in Indonesia, I could not resist the Song of the Dodo, with its subtitle, Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. Today, we continue to divide our landscape into islands. For example, consider the continued forestry practices in Nova Scotia.

This Tuesday (March 31st) Heather and I were scheduled to visit grandchildren in Iqaluit. Talking to Andrew (my son) on the weekend, the current procedure for visitors to Nunavut is two weeks quarantine in a designated hotel in Ottawa (or another transit centre) BEFORE travel. If the quarantine is successful, then one can visit. This provides a clear measure of the vulnerability of these Northern communities from the COVID-19 virus.

Today, Heather was noticing the lack of traffic on Highway #201. We were able to hear the songbirds that are arriving back in the Valley. On a beautiful morning, I had to break the silence, by getting the chainsaw out of the garage. There were yard chores — cutting off the larger dead branches from the Apple trees and trimming the silver maple in the front yard before it extends upwards to the Nova Scotia Power lines. The privet hedge contains too many old dead branches at their core.

The end result was a full day outside. If we can use this month of April (normally spent in the North) to clear out the old growth, then we can begin to imagine a larger garden and greater food self-sufficiency. At the same time, we add biomass to the compost pile and additional wood and kindling for the woodshed. This will warm us, sometime, next Winter.

Acknowledgements

Sandra Barry for resurrecting memories of David Quammen’s writing. Heather for sharing both the hard work and dreaming of a different future. Edward Wedler for his weekend blog, as well as his support and good humour.

References

David Quammen, 2013. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic WW Norton & Co.
Emergence Magazine podcast. Shaking the Viral Tree.
Orion Magazine. 17 March 2020. Why David Quammen is nor Surprised.
David Quammen. 1997. The Song of the Dodo. Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. Simon & Schuster.

Over Christmas, we visited my brother’s family in Toronto. While there, I chanced to pick up Jane Jacobs’ book Vital Little Plans. One of the essays centres on a conversation between Janice Stein and Jane Jacobs at the ‘Grazing in the Commons’ conference in Toronto, November 15,2001. It is titled ‘Efficiency and the Commons’. In particular, I appreciated the following exchange.

p 379. Stein:

“I think we need to think about citizenship not just as voting in an election. We need to start thinking about citizenship as a part-time job that we all have. And then ask ourselves.
‘OK, which job am I going to take on?
Am I going to go to work in my local school?
Am I going to go help out in the local clinic?
Am I going to help out with a community issue?
Because it seems to me that’s what crosses that bridge that we build between states and markets.

We know states do some things and markets do others. How do we fit this part-time citizen into our economy ?”

Jacobs:

“I think what you are describing has a great deal in common with art, which has always been a big question mark. Art done for art’s sake is outside of economic life. Artists do need, somehow or other to eat, but that’s not why they do art. They do it because they’re driven to do it. And it’s a gift. And I think that community things are done not for livelihood and not for power. That’s where that work belongs.”

Before heading home from Florida, Edward forwarded this link from The Atlantic.
Anne Applebaum The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff.

Another perspective on the current crisis can be found in Paul Kingsnorth contribution to this week’s Emergence Magazine. The op-ed piece is called Finnegas.

Finally, at the end of the week, Charlie Hunter forwarded a photograph of our St. Patrick’s Day meeting, with the caption ‘You and I received more compliments on our social distancing than on our good looks !’

Reading time should allow us some ‘deep thinking’ about government, capitalism and citizenship. On Sunday morning, CBC The Sunday Edition included interviews with both Robert MacFarlane and Rebecca Solnit, a couple of my favourite authors.

Acknowledgements

Edward Wedler for forwarding The Atlantic link, before heading home to Nova Scotia (now in mandatory self-isolation). Charlie Hunter for the photograph. Heather Stewart for her feedback.

References

Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring(Ed) 2016. Vital Little Plans. The Short Works of Jane Jacobs. Vital Little Plans. Penguin Random House Canada.
Anne Applebaum. The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff. The Atlantic.
Paul Kingsnorth. Emergence Magazine. March 20,2020. Finnegas.