Media clowns, ecology, and the grid.

Flew home today from fieldwork in suburban Detroit, more than ever aware of how people have changed the landscape.

I only watch TV when I'm traveling, and caught some coverage of the California fires. Most of the media are no more than clowns, and I mean that in the literal sense--entertainers with no substance.

Here's a photo I took this afternoon between Chicago and Decatur--a typical northern Illinois landscape. There is no nature left. Not one-half a percent of the soil you see here is unturned. You can fly over hours of this in the Midwest. Do these changes effect our climate and ecosystems, the chemistry of runoff? Fisheries? How many gallons of diesel went into the plowing? Lord have mercy, these things are obvious, but watching TV you'd never know.

I'm being unscientific and cynical, but watching the media clowns interview the Bush appointee climate-change-is-a-myth clowns has provoked me.

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