Congratulations, Amanda! What a beautiful reflection on your year and on the stories you have been moved to share about the ways humans touch the landscape in love and with care. Your inspiring stories help change the tone of the conversation about whether or not humanity has the will to fix what is being destroyed, a tone that is too often characterized only by helpless anger and grief.
Happy anniversary, dear friend. May your muse continue to pay visits, may the writer’s blessing and curse of forward propulsion continue running through your system, and may your wishing well be filled with the generous support of those who benefit from your truth telling. 🌈
Sierra mountains, Tahoe Lake clarity and condors survival are tips of the iceberg. Water woes and world warming weather events hopefully will change. But only if people will use less instead of more. I’d like to see stars in a night sky. Be wonderful to be able to trust one another and shut off lporch light, and reduce light pollution. There’s really not many places to escape. Desert and mountains, but the most aggravating part is the trash that is left just tossed away in sacred national and state parks even in cities streets. What is this mentality? People want someone else to clean up their mess. Plastic everywhere. Shipped to foreign countries who now don’t want our trash. Waste. What to do? Earth worms work for free to create healthy soil. Every house should have an earthworm bin to consume any thing biodegradable. Life and health of the planet starts at home. Happy birthday 🎈🎂 Amanda.
Words. I have come to think less and less of their effectiveness as communications devices these last few years. For one thing, very few people seem to know what the words they use actually mean.
Have kind words been uttered, my friend? In your case; in this case; I have been dead honest from beginning to end. If that was kind - so be it. Because that’s how we roll. I owe you that.
Thank you, Doug, for your support and engagement. A while back, I followed your Orion article link to a story on Nevada prairies, and that prompted the bison story about American Prairie. I really enjoy how I find ideas from other writers here. Onward!
Congratulations, Amanda, on a year well done! Your strength lies in writing about people working at the local level to improve conditions for specific places, such as Yosemite, and for organisms like condors. Incremental steps towards a better life, where the striving together with others makes it all worthwhile. These are your most popular stories.
You lose those who care about specific places and organisms when you say “climate action is our number one priority for a livable planet.” We beg to differ. Tending places and biodiversity, it feels like you are turning your back on us and ascending into the argumentative academia of catastrophic talk of our actions harming polar bears, melting Greenland, and changing the weather. Telling us to change our ways in confusing, often expensive ways, or there will be consequences.
Environmental legal beagles have curmudgeoned the government into declaring that carbon dioxide is the main cause of climate change. The fact is that carbon dioxide makes up 11% of the atmosphere, while water vapor accounts for 80%. Climate change occurred when we crossed a threshold of removing vegetation and soil, replacing them with hard surfaces and heat islands. Water that once seeped into the ground now runs off to the sea, increasing the atmosphere's energy burden with moisture—stormwater damage rises even as annual rainfall amounts stay the same.
A better story to tell is that of whaling captain William Scoresby at age 21 on the ship Resolute, frozen into the Greenland Sea in 1820. In April, when there was blue water between the bergy bits of sea ice, an open-ended ten-gallon cask made of two-inch-thick fir, “as being a bad conductor of heat,” was lowered into the briny deep. The temperature of water deep below the icy surface waters was so surprising that the cask was cast again and again across two Aprils following two winters frozen in the ice.
"From the fact of the sea near Spitsbergen being usually six or seven degrees warmer at the depth of 100 to 200 fathoms than it is at the surface, it seems not improbable that the water below is a still farther extension of the Gulf Stream, which, on meeting with water near the ice lighter than itself, sinks below the surface, and become a counter under-current." (William Scoresby, page 209.)
Scoresby was also concerned with climate change, writing: “changes of climate to a certain extent, have occurred, within the limits of historical record; these changes have been... considered as the effects of human industry, in draining marshes and lakes, felling woods, and cultivating the earth.” (page 263)
Our actions, which involve removing vegetation and soil from the land, have resulted in increased stormwater that, warmed by flowing over hardscapes and heat islands, enters the sea and forces more warm Atlantic water into the Arctic, thereby opening the Northwest Passage and altering the climate.
If one cannot restore vegetation and soil, placing a potted plant on the step or patio will help to retain rainwater from rushing away and cool the microclimate. Here’s a meaningful way to claim your square of the planet and make it better for us all.
Thanks, Rob. I think people can acknowledge that climate change is a threat to the planet without engaging in catastrophism. Catastrophism is the wrong communication technique, in my opinion. Another point I've often tried to make is that conservation is carbon sequestration (I may just update the article with that point). I'm often reminded by readers about the powers of soil, and have been meaning to write about it for a while. I spent an entire summer counting hyphe in prairie soils at Argonne National Lab in Chicago, to help a senior scientist gauge the carbon sequestration powers of prairies. Turns out, they are pretty powerful. Controlling runoff and erosion are also important issues, I agree. We were focused on those at Lake Tahoe, which is experiencing warming and eutrophication.
Yes, acknowledge climate change. However to say climate change is the number one problem is vague. The science is that the lost of Amazon, Congo and Canadian forests are causing the most harm to the world’s hydrological cycle and climate.
Yes, prairies and Lake Tahoe are both awesome places that we care about. Prairie carbon sequestration and lake eutrophication are fascinating topics. When Vice President, Dick Cheney, paid scientists to publish in the top journals that global warming should be called climate change, he turned our attention away from tending the Earth to talk about the atmosphere and greenhouse gases. Please don't say climate change is your number one concern. That feels too impersonal. Bring us back to the familiar, prairies and lakes, and the interesting, counting/measuring/researching hyphe. Please continue to encourage people to take better care of their places. Avoid the 'cc' term, and you'll expand your reader base with people interested in your observations and insights, rather than your politics.
Happy anniversary hope earth creator and writer. Thank you very much for this so nicely illustrated reminder and for your articles. I share your mentioned values and therefore read and learn from your detailed and informative articles.
My daughter, The Writer!
💞💐😁😎
I still have one of your early school essays,
The Pali
from when we lived on Oahu, in Hawaii.
"Live Long and Prosper!"
💪🤙
The wind blows so strong sometimes, it lifts you right off your feet. Hold on tight!
Happy anniversary, eco-pragmatist!
Thank you 😊
It's been awesome to have you in my corner!
Happy one-year of spreading eco pragmatism!! Love your storytelling. So much to learn.
Thank you!
Congratulations, Amanda! What a beautiful reflection on your year and on the stories you have been moved to share about the ways humans touch the landscape in love and with care. Your inspiring stories help change the tone of the conversation about whether or not humanity has the will to fix what is being destroyed, a tone that is too often characterized only by helpless anger and grief.
Thank you, Jennifer. I love the idea of this being a conversation and of changing the tone.
Woohoo! Happy Birthday to you!!! And thanks for giving me Earth Hope.
Thank you so much, other Amanda!
And kudos for embracing the huge change in yours and your family’s life by being and taking care of your mum.
Thank you for your acknowledgment and support, Aida.
Good bye and good Luck.
Happy anniversary to a terrific Substack!
Thanks Paul. It's been great to have found you and your publication here.
Happy anniversary, dear friend. May your muse continue to pay visits, may the writer’s blessing and curse of forward propulsion continue running through your system, and may your wishing well be filled with the generous support of those who benefit from your truth telling. 🌈
Thank you. You've been with me the entire journey.
Lol, true that: blessing and a curse
Sierra mountains, Tahoe Lake clarity and condors survival are tips of the iceberg. Water woes and world warming weather events hopefully will change. But only if people will use less instead of more. I’d like to see stars in a night sky. Be wonderful to be able to trust one another and shut off lporch light, and reduce light pollution. There’s really not many places to escape. Desert and mountains, but the most aggravating part is the trash that is left just tossed away in sacred national and state parks even in cities streets. What is this mentality? People want someone else to clean up their mess. Plastic everywhere. Shipped to foreign countries who now don’t want our trash. Waste. What to do? Earth worms work for free to create healthy soil. Every house should have an earthworm bin to consume any thing biodegradable. Life and health of the planet starts at home. Happy birthday 🎈🎂 Amanda.
Thank you, Richbee. My girl isn't in Girl Scouts anymore, but because we used to pick up trash wherever we camped, she still does it wherever we go. I'm in permanent pursuit of stars. There are still dark skies to be found. Here's a gift for you, if you haven't read it already: https://open.substack.com/pub/earthhope/p/bathing-in-gentle-bugs-at-the-top?r=31a4s5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Congratulations, Amanda. Keep up the important work you are doing
Joanna Macy died Saturday. Amanda Royal is the next turn of that spiral. Watch her work …
Something good for people and the world. Put money where our brains should be, and perhaps more brains will follow …
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/climate/joanna-macy-dead.html
Thank you, Will, for your support and kind words. They have been invaluable.
Words. I have come to think less and less of their effectiveness as communications devices these last few years. For one thing, very few people seem to know what the words they use actually mean.
Have kind words been uttered, my friend? In your case; in this case; I have been dead honest from beginning to end. If that was kind - so be it. Because that’s how we roll. I owe you that.
Happy one year Amanda, you do incredible work here!
Thank you, Doug, for your support and engagement. A while back, I followed your Orion article link to a story on Nevada prairies, and that prompted the bison story about American Prairie. I really enjoy how I find ideas from other writers here. Onward!
Congratulations on the year - love reading your posts and learning about some of the positive stories that are out there.
Super grateful to have you here, Amanda! You're doing great work. Keep it up!
Thank you! Great to find you here as well!
Congratulations, Amanda, on a year well done! Your strength lies in writing about people working at the local level to improve conditions for specific places, such as Yosemite, and for organisms like condors. Incremental steps towards a better life, where the striving together with others makes it all worthwhile. These are your most popular stories.
You lose those who care about specific places and organisms when you say “climate action is our number one priority for a livable planet.” We beg to differ. Tending places and biodiversity, it feels like you are turning your back on us and ascending into the argumentative academia of catastrophic talk of our actions harming polar bears, melting Greenland, and changing the weather. Telling us to change our ways in confusing, often expensive ways, or there will be consequences.
Environmental legal beagles have curmudgeoned the government into declaring that carbon dioxide is the main cause of climate change. The fact is that carbon dioxide makes up 11% of the atmosphere, while water vapor accounts for 80%. Climate change occurred when we crossed a threshold of removing vegetation and soil, replacing them with hard surfaces and heat islands. Water that once seeped into the ground now runs off to the sea, increasing the atmosphere's energy burden with moisture—stormwater damage rises even as annual rainfall amounts stay the same.
A better story to tell is that of whaling captain William Scoresby at age 21 on the ship Resolute, frozen into the Greenland Sea in 1820. In April, when there was blue water between the bergy bits of sea ice, an open-ended ten-gallon cask made of two-inch-thick fir, “as being a bad conductor of heat,” was lowered into the briny deep. The temperature of water deep below the icy surface waters was so surprising that the cask was cast again and again across two Aprils following two winters frozen in the ice.
"From the fact of the sea near Spitsbergen being usually six or seven degrees warmer at the depth of 100 to 200 fathoms than it is at the surface, it seems not improbable that the water below is a still farther extension of the Gulf Stream, which, on meeting with water near the ice lighter than itself, sinks below the surface, and become a counter under-current." (William Scoresby, page 209.)
Scoresby was also concerned with climate change, writing: “changes of climate to a certain extent, have occurred, within the limits of historical record; these changes have been... considered as the effects of human industry, in draining marshes and lakes, felling woods, and cultivating the earth.” (page 263)
Our actions, which involve removing vegetation and soil from the land, have resulted in increased stormwater that, warmed by flowing over hardscapes and heat islands, enters the sea and forces more warm Atlantic water into the Arctic, thereby opening the Northwest Passage and altering the climate.
If one cannot restore vegetation and soil, placing a potted plant on the step or patio will help to retain rainwater from rushing away and cool the microclimate. Here’s a meaningful way to claim your square of the planet and make it better for us all.
Thanks, Rob. I think people can acknowledge that climate change is a threat to the planet without engaging in catastrophism. Catastrophism is the wrong communication technique, in my opinion. Another point I've often tried to make is that conservation is carbon sequestration (I may just update the article with that point). I'm often reminded by readers about the powers of soil, and have been meaning to write about it for a while. I spent an entire summer counting hyphe in prairie soils at Argonne National Lab in Chicago, to help a senior scientist gauge the carbon sequestration powers of prairies. Turns out, they are pretty powerful. Controlling runoff and erosion are also important issues, I agree. We were focused on those at Lake Tahoe, which is experiencing warming and eutrophication.
Yes, acknowledge climate change. However to say climate change is the number one problem is vague. The science is that the lost of Amazon, Congo and Canadian forests are causing the most harm to the world’s hydrological cycle and climate.
Yes, prairies and Lake Tahoe are both awesome places that we care about. Prairie carbon sequestration and lake eutrophication are fascinating topics. When Vice President, Dick Cheney, paid scientists to publish in the top journals that global warming should be called climate change, he turned our attention away from tending the Earth to talk about the atmosphere and greenhouse gases. Please don't say climate change is your number one concern. That feels too impersonal. Bring us back to the familiar, prairies and lakes, and the interesting, counting/measuring/researching hyphe. Please continue to encourage people to take better care of their places. Avoid the 'cc' term, and you'll expand your reader base with people interested in your observations and insights, rather than your politics.
Happy anniversary hope earth creator and writer. Thank you very much for this so nicely illustrated reminder and for your articles. I share your mentioned values and therefore read and learn from your detailed and informative articles.
😊