I’m from Cape Cod, and I’ve never liked it when the ocean is interrupted. I like my view of the ocean to be cut short only by the curve of the earth, not by some meddling chunk of land or anything like that. It’s easier to feel continuous with the ocean if I can see a continuous ocean.

The 130 giant wind turbines proposed for a site six miles off the shore, the power from which would supply 75% of the Cape and Islands’ electricity, would definitely interfere with my oceanic feeling. The fossil fuel-burning power plant in my hometown of Sandwich, which currently supplies almost half of the region’s electrical power, is certainly less conspicuous. I vaguely remember the plant’s smokestack coming into view on each trip to the A&P. I grew up with the belief that it had something to do with Santa Claus, but I never thought much about it.

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As every environmentalist knows, it can be fun to indulge in being superior. There’s that lofty, erudite feeling you have — my lifestyle is more pious than your lifestyle — when you see a fellow citizen doing the wrong thing (whatever that is).

Here’s where I fall into the sin of eco-smugness: …more

Like bottleman, I have recently been under delusions of omnipotence. I am confident the following post is going to inspire a sense of wonder and a passion for biodiversity in everybody who reads it, and the rest of the population by association. Here goes:

I volunteer at the local science museum, and this weekend I was trained in handling the various warm-, cold-, and hot-blooded critters on display in the biology area. I handled it quite well — even when the mouse released a little turd in my palm. (It’s not fair because the animals don’t get trained in handling our handling, or the visitors’ gawking and jerky petting.) So I came in contact with creatures from all walks of life, and it was a delight. Disappointingly, I was not able to take my favorite critter, the axolotl, out of its tank, because it refuses to use its lungs.

The axolotl (ax-uh-LOT-uhl) (Usually I encourage those who suffer from the chronic reader’s disease of silent mispronunciation, and those who say pshaw to the schwa and prefer long vowels wherever possible. But correct pronunciation will be important later.) is a salamander — an amphibian. But it shuns the dual life that gives amphibians their name.

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Yesterday morning I got up and muddled through the morning as usual: turned on the coffee maker, let out the dog, and tried to read the paper as the baby gleefully destroyed the living room. I was grateful when he finally went down for his nap about 11:00 AM. That’s when it dawned on me that I had missed something — I had forgotten to turn on the sun. See, I’ve recently become God!

Or a god of a sort. I’ve created some “closed ecological systems” — ecosystems sealed in bottles — just to see if I could keep a little world “in balance.” Here’s the recipe… …more