The Casual Blog

Tag: Carl Ackerman

November 26, 2025

Some backyard birds, and a few words on our energy policy

Blue jay

Last week I drove down to Clemson, SC, for a nature photography weekend sponsored by the Carolina Nature Photography Association. My main interest was to take some pictures at The Nut House, a marvelous birding oasis created by Carl Ackerman.  It has three blinds where photographers can sit concealed and watch birds come to various tasty attractions.  

The weather was chilly, and the birds were neither uncommon nor numerous.  Still, it was fun to watch those that appeared, as well as the scurrying squirrels and chipmunks.    I also enjoyed meeting some nice CNPA members.

Eastern chipmunk

As usual, it was a bizarre week in Trumpworld, with too many terrible things happening to think carefully about them all.  It was particularly terrible that Trump called for death by hanging of members of Congress who’d pointed out that armed services members should obey the law and the Constitution.  

Who knows how many Trump believers might take this seriously as a call to action?  We learned from the January 6 insurrection that such people exist.  But thankfully there are still responsible Republicans who support free speech and oppose political violence.  May their numbers and their voices increase.

Red-bellied woodpecker

In other news, Trump staged an elaborate fawning tribute to a murderous Saudi Arabian tyrant, Mohammed Bin Salman.  This was, on its face, shameful and disgusting.  Why, I wondered, did he do it? 

In an interesting piece in the NY Times, Noah Shactman proposed some interesting possible explanations.  Shactman says that Trump has long viewed with envy the Persian Gulf petrostates, with their great luck in having lots of oil and their autocracy.  Now, he’s collecting billions in crypto and other business deals from the Middle Eastern autocrats, which is another reason for trying to please them.  

Eastern gray squirrel

On top of all that, or underneath it, is Trump’s view of fossil fuel as a source of power and means of domination.  As a historical matter, this is not crazy; oil and coal powered the major industries of the 20th century.  

But it’s crazy now.  Renewable energy (solar and wind power) have dropped so much in cost that in many places they are now as cheap or cheaper than fossil fuels.  And the CO2 from burning fossil fuels is on course to destroy the world economy and upend human civilization.  

Northern cardinal

As most people now know, climate change is not hypothetical – it’s here.  Average temperatures are hitting new highs, with disasters occurring as predicted – huge storms, floods, fires, droughts, eroding coastlines, along with failing farm systems, economies, and governments.  

Eastern phoebe

But Trump still claims that climate change is a hoax, and that efforts to address it are scams.  He proposes instead to increase the very programs that are root causes of climate change – more burning of coal, oil, and gas – while trying to undermine renewable energy alternatives that would mitigate the catastrophe.  

Yellow-rumped warbler

Through tax breaks and subsidies, Trump has conferred huge windfalls on the oil and gas industries, while the costs of electricity have gone up substantially.  And absent a change in course, there’s worse to come.  A recent study ound that Trump’s energy program, if pursued until 2055, could result in 340,000 premature deaths and $6.7 trillion in additional healthcare and energy costs.  

Chickadee

Somehow Trump’s horrific climate policy is still not high on the public’s discussion agenda.  But that too may be about to change, as climate change hits the housing market.  In a recent piece in the December issue of the Atlantic, Vann R. Newkirk II reports that insurers are pricing in rising climate risks, and so homeowner’s insurance in some areas is becoming prohibitively expensive. 

If insurance becomes too expensive or unavailable, homes become unmarketable.  See also this NY Times report on this same issue. Where homes become unmarketable, a cascade of problems follow – retirements undone, generational wealth eroded, community businesses closed, public services ended, and ghost towns.  

With all the risks we now face, Newkirk reminds us that all is not lost: we may yet wake up and take action. In ringing tones, he finds hope.

[P]erhaps Trump, through his very extremity, has provided a galvanizing opportunity. In his reflexive culture-warrior rejection of climate change, he has backed into a climate policy of his own, and has linked that policy to his power. With his single-minded, bullying determination to reverse course on renewables—which are part of life now for many people of all political stripes—and to dismantle programs people rely on, Trump has essentially taken ownership of any future climate disruptions, and has more firmly connected them to oil and gas. In advancing this climate-accelerationist policy alongside an antidemocratic agenda, he has sealed off fantasies of compromise and raised the political salience of dead zones, where devastation and exclusion go hand in hand. Trump’s intertwining of climate policy and authoritarianism may beget its own countermovement: climate democracy.

Climate democracy would be aided by the gift of simplicity. At present, the only way to ensure that America avoids the future outlined here will be to win back power from its strongman leader, or possibly his successors. The places facing existential climate risks—especially those in the Deep South—are mostly in states that have long been considered politically uncompetitive, where neither party expends much effort or money to gain votes. But they could form a natural climate constituency, outside the normal partisan axis. Poor and middle-class white communities in coastal Alabama, Mexican American neighborhoods in Phoenix, and Black towns in the Mississippi Delta might soon come to regard climate catastrophe as the greatest risk they face, not by way of scientific persuasion, but by way of hard-earned experience. Some of them might form the cornerstone of a new movement.

With the right message, plenty of other people may be persuadable: those upset by higher electric bills, or poorer storm forecasts, or the coziness of Trump with the oil and gas industry, or weather-related disruptions in everyday life. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, Americans learn best from catastrophe, and they will learn that the help they once took for granted after disasters might now be harder to come by. Autocracy takes time to solidify, and building popular support in opposition to it takes time as well. But in the reaction needed to build climate democracy, perhaps heat is a catalyst.

Downy woodpecker
May 2, 2025

Birding at the Nuthouse, and some benefits of reading

Last week I drove down to Clemson, SC to do some bird photography.  I spent a day and a half at The Nuthouse, where owner Carl Ackerman has created the ultimate backyard birding destination.  There are three blinds for sitting, watching, and photographing birds in different settings.  Carl provides meal worms and other treats for the birds, and there are a lot of them that clearly appreciate it.  

I’d hoped to see lots of migrating songbirds.  Although a good number had come through earlier in the week, my timing wasn’t in alignment with theirs.  But it was really a joy to spend a good block of time with common resident birds.  Even though I was very familiar with all the species that came by, I saw them in new ways – eating, gathering food for the chicks, bathing, and investigating.  I also saw a lot of chipmunks, squirrels, and a groundhog.  

It was both peaceful and exciting.  Giving nature some respectful observation can be spiritually nourishing.  Especially in these fraught times, I take peace and serenity where I can find it. 

I’ve also been getting a lot of pleasure out of revisiting some great literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.  My ability to read and delight in literature, which I cultivated as a young person, went downhill in my middle years, as work and family responsibilities took so much time.  But I’ve got it back!  All it took was some practice.  

I recently finished re-reading the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brian about the British Royal Navy in the early 19th century.  I was once again totally captivated.  O’Brian was a master novelist and also a historian who delved deeply into ancient archives and other sources for his material.  His main characters, officers on British warships, were multi-faceted and engaging, and their adventures were epic.  

I’m now about halfway through David Copperfield.  Charles Dickens said that this was his favorite of his books.  My edition has the ultimate cover blurb:  Leo Tolstoy (a pretty good novelist) said it was the greatest novel by the greatest novelist.  The story has significant autobiographical elements, richly rendered.  There’s a huge canvas, but I’ve been especially struck by Dickens’s respect and sympathy for mentally ill and otherwise struggling people.  If you read this book as a young person, you might want to consider reading it again.  I can almost guarantee you’ll get more out of it the second time.  

Along with literature, I’ve been reading a lot of current journalism.  I used to think most everyone must be doing this, trying to keep abreast of so much rapid change.  An essay in the NY Times by Rob Flaherty this week pointed out that this is quite wrong.  

Today’s culture is no longer a creation of executives in New York City and Los Angeles. Thanks to algorithms and an endless set of media choices, what you see, read and hear is a personalized reflection of your own interests. It’s like a city with a lot of different neighborhoods. . . .So if you don’t care about politics — or more precisely, don’t trust our politics — you don’t have to hear about it at all. A voter can turn on, tune in or opt out.

It was these voters — opt-out voters — who decided the 2024 election. It’s the same voters Democrats are struggling to reach today.

At their core, opt-out voters generally don’t trust politicians or the mainstream media. Many assume the system is rigged, the media is biased and neither party is actually fighting for them.

Flaherty contends that most of those who aren’t in the educated elite get their news from social media and friends, which seems to come at them in friendly random snippets.  He sees the right as much more successful in building alternative communication channels and creating appealing narratives, while Democrats are still trying, not very effectively, to reach the public through traditional media.  He recommends revising this strategy to be more social-media savvy.

This might help, but it also might help to help people improve their reading abilities.  According to a recent report, most Americans read at a 6th grade level or less.  Think about that!  Standardized test results show reading levels of school children getting worse.  College professors report that their students can no longer read as much or as well as they used to.  This all begs the question, how many people just aren’t capable of reading a newspaper with a fair level of comprehension?  

What is the Trump administration doing about all this?  It’s dismantling the Education Department and threatening to cut federal funding for public schools. It’s also attacking universities by threatening them with huge funding cuts and loss of tax-exempt status, and threatening foreign students with deportation.  It has pulled the plug on scientific research in health and the environment.  

Just as worrying, Trump is increasing his attacks on traditional media.  He’s forever inciting his followers against fake news, which is any news he doesn’t like, and insufficiently obsequious journalists.  He’s barring certain journalists from access, bringing baseless lawsuits against journalists, and threatening broadcast licenses.  He’s dismantling Voice of America and this week ordered that federal funding be canceled for NPR and PBS.  

The Trump program seems designed to worsen our illiteracy and ignorance.  Perhaps he’s thinking that by lowering our competence in reading and critical thinking, he’ll reduce our resistance to his domination.  If reliable news sources can be weakened or eliminated, his epic dishonesty may go unexposed. 

There are so many Trumpian disasters-in-progress that it’s hard to keep track of them all.  But there was some good news this week:  Trump’s poll numbers are at historic lows and trending down.  There’s a real chance that the next midterm election will diminish his power, and the next presidential election will allow for a new beginning.  

In the meantime, there are increasing signs of courage and resistance.  Although the natural world hasn’t been at the forefront of the battle, it still has its champions.  Per the NY Times, Trump, continuing his war on nature, recently scuttled the National Nature Assessment.  The Assessment was an effort “ to measure how the nation’s lands, water and wildlife are faring, how they are expected to change, and what that means for people.”  Some 150 scientists and other experts had spent thousands over hours on the project.

But some of those experts are working on continuing their work and publishing it outside of government channels.  They view their work as too important to the country to give up on.

Blessings to those experts, and the other scientists, politicians, educators, lawyers, judges, federal workers, journalists, non-profits, unions, businesspeople, and ordinary folks who are showing courage in this dark moment.  They remind the rest of us that Trumpism is not invincible, but it must be actively resisted.