Acorns revisited

So I've been reading Bringing the Biosphere Home by Mitchell Thomashow for class and thinking about the acorn crisis as described by Carl Schaad on his blog, Blog Hero! and wondered if this was a way for people to discuss the same phenomena from different places. A discussion about acorns in the comments section of a blog could be the jumping off point for a whole exchange of information about each person's area.

Here's a quote from the book:

To interpret the biosphere, I propose a barefoot global change science. Cadres of citizens, schoolchildren, elders -- people from all walks of life -- meet in schools, libraries, parks, and on the Internet, to share stories and data. They pool their observations and expertise so they can track environmental change in their neighborhood. Via electronic communications, they compare data with folks from other places. Professional environmental scientists work regularly with citizen groups and schoolchildren to provide training and guidance. They jointly establish local research projects. Artists draw biospheric murals on the sides of buildings. A special television channel shows global change satellite maps twenty-four hours a day. Every computer is sold with built-in geographic information system software (135).

Thomashow says in the next paragraph, "Perhaps this is a naive dream." It's a groovy dream, I say, and one that can happen, we just have to figure out a way to communicate this idea to people that goes beyond exchanging our folk wisdom about bumper crops of acorns spelling a cold winter, and really, really start observing the changes going on in our little part of the biosphere. That's the gist of Thomashow's message, I think.

Borrowed the photo from MIT Press.