Blogs

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a sobering report on the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Two main messages are unmistakable: Antibiotic-resistant disease is no longer a threat looming in the future. The long-predicted threat has now arrived. Ecodemics like outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant disease are largely of our own making. We are not innocent bystanders. We are co-conspirators.

Originally published by Village News, a publication of the community of Cabin John, MD. Wild, undammed rivers make dangerous neighbors. A signboard near the riverbank at one of the National Park entrances offers direct evidence of the Potomac's perils—57 drownings in ten years between Great Falls and Little Falls—about an 11-mile stretch.

In this installment, Publicity Intern Marcelene Sutter underestimates how much certain Islanders enjoy talking about the Oxford comma. I can’t help flinching when hearing friends talk about internships that seem to consist solely of getting coffee and alphabetizing stacks of files, because my experience has been about as far from that as I could possibly imagine. Interning for Island Press is like hitting the jackpot—I found work that I’m passionate about in a setting conducive to learning more about the publishing business while expanding my skill set.

When I was in grade school, my mother was a graduate student in philosophy, and I learned from her about the categorical imperative. What I grasped at that impressionable age was that if you are thinking about doing something, you should imagine that everyone around you, even everyone on earth, will do the same thing. Because if you have the right to do it, then, of course, so does everyone else. I immediately saw that I should not throw my gum wrapper out the car window. If everyone did that the air would be thick, the ground covered, with foil and paper.