Passing of the First Argentine Pope

 

When speaking with my students about the legacy of the first Latin American pope -- who was born in Buenos Aires -- I will begin class with this example of music that he loved: the tango.

I thought to do this while listening to a remembrance of Pope Francis by NPR journalist Sylvia Poggioli. I am highlighting it Poggioli's reporting because she speaks specifically about the geographic context of his life story and papacy.

It is just one of several interesting stories about the pope's passing on the April 21 edition of the morning program.

I also recommend a couple of early items about the inevitable political connotations. With 1.4 billion adherents in every part of the earth and of all political persuasions, interactions between politicians and the head of the smallest state and the largest religion are notable. I noticed an interesting article -- with a bit of video -- about his awkwarrd visit with U.S. Vice President Vance, who turned out to be one of the last people to see him alive. The other is a NPR journalist Mary Louise Kelly interviewing former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi about her four visits with Pope Francis over the years.

Nantucket Atheneum

 "As I made many journeys there, I began to speak to the people of the town, and once I walked in merely to attend a lecture at the Atheneum. Nantucket Town was a pleasant plae, with many independent and intelligent women. When men were home from the sea, they were happy to socialize along with their wives. I much liked the gabbiness of the town, for the talk was not mere gossip but of ideas and politics, spiced with the customs and sights from all around the globe."

-- Ahab's Wife or, the Star-Gazer p. 337 (end of chapter 77)

The Coffee Maven prior to a 2007 Atheneum appearance

The passage above is near the middle of Sena Jeter Naslund's 1999 novel, which could be called Moby Dick fan fiction. As with the original novel, it has much to do with New Bedford and Nantucket but also oceans a world away. I am a slow reader and this is something of a slow book. I have enjoyed it as a mood piece over the past several years, during stays at our weekend place that we have dubbed Whaling House. 

I was away from the house and the book for nearly a year as the house was renovated as our full-time home. Now that the dust has literally settled, I have dipped back into this book, savoring a few pages at a time. This is just the kind of novel -- or film -- I enjoy most: rich in texture, characters, and atmosphere. 

I read this passage aloud to my librarian spouse and share it again here because it mentions something we have actually done together. In 2007, we delivered a lecture at the Atheneum. This was very early in my time as a public scholar of coffee, and it was a delight to be ferried over to the island to talk about our travels to the coffeelands of Nicaragua. What better place for a local talk on a global topic? 

I think it was from this experience that I learned that Atheneum usually refers to a private library, but in this case, the Atheneum serves as the public library for Nantucket. (Geographic note: although the Atheneum is in the densely-settled area near the harbor that is considered Nantucket Town, it is the case that Nantucket is a town, a county, and an island -- all occupying the same exact space.)

Our dear friend Nancy had grown up near the Atheneum and was a clerk there for many years. She played a big role in organizing lectures and hosting the speakers at her family's guest house. She also arranged for us to give related presentations at nearby schools, which I describe on my old coffee outreach page. 

The excerpt above mentions a few other things of interest. One is that when it was the global center of the whaling industry, women ran their households and the town. It also was a tiny place with global connections, much as its successor New Bedford became. Travel broadens the mind and globally diverse communities like these are good for the mind.

Which leads to the last point -- conversation is more interesting when we have diverse experiences to share. And it was a casual conversation on a street corner a couple blocks from the Atheneum that made Moby Dick possible. 

Lagniappe

Happy National Library Week to those who celebrate -- which should be all of us. My slow reading of Ahab's Wife brought me to the Atheneum passage on the first day of the 2025 celebration.

I am immensely proud of both librarians in my house. My wife Pamela has worked in every kind of library -- academic, corporate, and public -- both as a professional and as a volunteer. 

Our son Harvey has worked in a few libraries and archives and is now an outstanding student of library science at the University of Rhode Island. He is keenly interested in seeing that everybody has access to libraries. 

Libraries are among the public institutions most directly under attack here in the United States. Our family stands firmly for the freedom to read.

Citizen Science for the Birds

I have been an NPR nerd long enough to have fond memories of listening to Talk of the Nation whenever I had free afternoons, and especially on my way to carpool duty. It was a five-day program similar to Fresh Air,  and probably adjacent on our local schedule. 

I was sad when TotN ended, but glad that it only ended by 80 percent. That is to say, it retained  one day a week of programming. Fridays had been dedicated to fun and informative conversations about science, and Ira Flatow has continued that part under the name Science Friday. A decade or so on, he continues to bring great energy and enthusiasm to conversations with scientists, science educators, and science journalists of many kinds, working at all scales from the subatomic to the galactic. 

I particularly enjoyed his recent conversation about citizen science with Dr. Brooke Bateman and Dr. Janet Ng, who have been involved in the longest-running such project: the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I believe I first learned about the count around the time I moved to Massachusetts, when I noticed local results in a newspaper a couple of days after Christmas. 

Photo: Shutterstock by way of Science Friday

I knew that it was much bigger than that, but it was only from the recent 17-minute segment What Scientists Have Learned From 125 Years Of Bird Counts that I learned how much bigger. The Doctors Ng and Bateman discuss their very different roles in science and policy, along with their very similar roles as two of the 80,000 people who did the actual counting this year. 

They also share the charming story of how this all began and the culture of cooperation and mentoring that has grown with this tradition. Some people have just done this for the first time, while others have been leaders in their local communities for more than 50 years in a row. Everybody is welcome, including people with limited mobility and limited (even zero) expertise. 

I invite readers to listen to the entire discussion for some examples of just what is being gained from the gathering, mapping, and analysis of these avian observations. Some of it is worrisome and some of it encouraging; all of it is fascinating. I will be using it both in my Environmental Geography survey course and in my advanced Land Protection course. The former emphasizes global climate change and the latter local landscape change; each course could use this healthy dose of both. And I am pleased that my good friend Geography Jeff will be using it in his Environmental Planning course at another school.

Lagniappe

Fresh Air with Terry Gross & Tanya Moseley continues to thrive five days a week. I have been listening pretty regularly since before it moved up from WHYY to NPR, and
I am glad that Terry Gross has worked so hard to cultivate a co-host who is allowing her gradually to transition toward a well deserved but as-yet unannounced retirement. 

Dam Expertise

I have been enjoying the work of journalist Ayesha Rascoe since she became host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, and this morning she uttered a phrase that endeared her to me even further.

"Your expertise is in geography," she said in the middle of a conversation about a proposed hydroelectric project in China with professor Mark Giordano, of Georgetown Univerity's Walsh School of Foreign Service. Their brief conversation draws on geography to clarify many of the physic and human implications of China's proposal to build a hydroelectric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River.

Map: Wikipedia

One odd oversight is that they do not. name the river directly, though Professor Giordano does explain several things about its geography that make this project both desirable and problematic, particularly for India and Tibet. In addition to this NPR interview, I recommend a recent BBC report for further background. 

Castorology

When my librarian-in-training son recommended the Ologies podcast, I knew it would be good. After all, I've enjoyed countless hours of NPAD, all starting with his recommendation of the Cuyahoga Falls episode.

Host Alie Ward identifies -- or creates -- the formal name for any area of study about which she is curious and then finds a top (or in many cases the top) expert in that field. The core of each episode is an interview with that expert -- an interview that takes place only after she has done considerable research. This is then augmented by quick asides that she sprinkles throughout the interview and trove of related links on the Ologies web site. 

I cannot remember which was the first Ology episode I heard, though it was probably Pomology (I'll pause while you go have fun with that if you like). The most recent, however, is the title of this post: Castorology, the study of beavers. Yes: beavers, not vegetable oil. 

Pointing my readers (including my Land Protection students) to Ward's interview with naturalist (and castorologist) Rob Rich is the main purpose of this post. As always, she really has identified the perfect interlocutor for this discussion. The discussion ranges widely over the natural history and anatomy of the animal itself to the uses of its fur, tail, and glands to its complicated role in hydrology and landscape ecology. Those little critters get a lot done!

By happy coincidence, while I was still thinking about sharing this episode, BBC decided to rebroadcast a shorter piece featuring beavers, an August 2024 episode of Inside Science entitled Beavers of London. This episode features the 2023 introduction of beavers to Ealing Park in London, where beavers have long been absent. The discussion then turns to a broader discussion of reintroducing species that have disappeared from human-dominated landscapes, in which the organization Rewild My Street is recommended. My understanding of this story was greatly improved by having heard the castorology episode. 

Photo: from my July 2024 Dam Mammals post on this very blog,
in which I comment on two beaver ponds I have visited recently.

Lagniappe: 

The Coffee Maven recommends the Coffeeology episode, in which Ward interviews one of the first coffee experts I met, Peter Giuliano. Not only did I meet him in the coffeelands of Matagalpa, but I also first heard of his company from one of the first coffee farmers I ever met. He has also been featured in a couple of the films I show my classes. So pour a cup of free-range coffee and be prepared to percolate some knowledge!

The Solstice Cometh

It was the longest of days; it was the shortest of days.

That is, it will be both this coming Saturday as the Solstice arrives at 9:20 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (0920 zulu), or 4:20 a.m. EST Saturday morning. In preparation, our minister devoted our Sunday service to the upcoming event -- a lengthening of days for us. 

More light is coming!
Image: There is a Day for That

The service highlighted the earth-centered origins of the various festivals of light that are central to so many traditions at this time of year. (Meanwhile, I see my friends in Brazil posting "almost summer" from their beaches!)

As part of our service here at First Parish UU Bridgewater, Pastor Rosemary led us in singing Baltimorean Charlie Murphy's "Light is Returning" and read to us from The Shortest Day, a book for all ages by Susan Cooper and Carson Ellis. The entire service will be available as a recording, but for now I will share video versions I was fortunate to find online.

First, Charlie Murphy performing Light is Returning with Pat Wright and the Total Experience Gospel Choir. 

And then The Shortest Day, as read by Tiffanie St. Clair. 

Lagniappe

I share all of this because I like to include pagan and other earth-centered traditions in my teaching about the seasons, which otherwise focuses on math and physics. Both are important for a rich understanding of geography. I am also sharing this because of connections we are building with the dynamic Geochron maps in our Geography and CASE programs at BSU. 

Stay tuned for more information about community programs around the cardinal and cross-quarter dates. For now I invite you to explore the Geochron web site (especially the animation at the bottom of its home page and the winter solstice page at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. 

Planning for Plant Hardiness

As the world's climate changes generally, the climate of specific places is changing in more particular ways. Even the variability of temperature, precipitation, and the timing of each increases, a more detailed understanding of biogeography is a necessary tool for climate adaptation. 

Journalist Susan Philips at WHYY in Philadelphia provides an excellent example in her recent story Climate Fixers. This five-minute story provides a lot of important insights as it explores the efforts of researchers and fruit growers who are anticipating changes in the regional climate as they plan future crops. This is particularly important in any kind of food (or beverage) production that relies on trees, because the productive years of a tree -- be it apple, peach, coffee, or tea -- begins at least a few years after planting and may continue many years after that.

See interactive map at USDA

The preparations include reliance on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which is familiar to gardeners and landscapers. As often as I have consulted these maps, I did not realize that they are mapping just one variable as a proxy for winter harshness: the average lowest low temperature. 

A ZIP Code search of the map returns a zone rating that can easily be used at nurseries and seed companies. It also provides the average temperature for 2013 and 2023; it is not clear which years go into a given average, but it is something like a trailing ten-year average. 

Philadelphia clearly is experiencing substantial change by this measure, and as the WHYY story indicates, it might soon be in a new category altogether. 

This map is akin to biome maps, though the latter rely on a more complex set of climate metrics. In both cases, the map is pointing to past experience rather than future patterns. Choosing an appropriate period of record is important: it must be both long enough to minimize random fluctuations and recent enough to capture relevant experience.

Progress without Displacement

From the WBUR podcast The Common comes the encouraging story of Upham's Corner, a Boston neighborhood within the bigger Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. A national study suggests that Uphams Corner (the apostrophe has become optional) is achieving what is often an elusive balance: developing economically without displacing it residents or losing its character. That is, it is experiencing improvement without gentrification. 

The podcast episode is a conversation between journalist Darryl C. Murphy and researcher Rohit Acharya of Common Good Labs. The discussion draws on "Reducing poverty without community displacement: Indicators of inclusive prosperity in U.S. neighborhoods," a 2022 study that Acharya wrote with Rhett Morris for the Brookings Institution. 

Photo: Metropolitan Area Planning Council

The conversation is national in scope, but with a rich local example. That part of the conversation draws on "The neighborhood that got it right," a 2023 Boston Globe article by journalist David Scharfenberg. The combination of academic analysis and journalistic storytelling is a great way to explore this important topic. 

Transit-oriented Development

The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) of Massachusetts is hearing a very nuanced case at the intersection (pun intended) of transit policy and housing policy. As the case came before the court, I heard discussions on several local programs; I think the best overview is provided by Darryl C. Murphy and Rob Lane in a recent Radio Boston segment on WBUR.

In short, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA or more commonly "the T") requires the communities it serves to enact zoning regulations that encourage high-density residential development. Since the T serves almost half of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth (we use Pilgrim-era names for everything around here), this was a way for the General Court (i.e., the state legislature) to exert control over questions of land-use that are otherwise the purview of those localities. 

The merits of such requirements are not central to the case before the SJC, in which the town of Milton has refused to enact the regulations dictated by the T. Rather, it seems that by promoting the land-use policy indirectly, the legislature chose the wrong vehicle (again, pun intended) for its goals. 

An interesting facet of this case is that Milton was told it would be subject to certain penalties if it failed to act. As a community, Milton essentially said, "okay" and thought that accepting the penalty would be the end of the matter. It might very well be.  If so, the Judicial Court might be sending the General Court back to the proverbial drawing table.

Helene to Milton

I am not sure how I will conclude this post, but it is beginning as a place to gather a few items to share with my environmental geography class, as I spend the week of Hurricane Milton's landfall away from class. When we gather again, I will want to review a few things from a very eventful week.

A Very Strange Case of Climate Politics

Image: Anderson Design Group
Novella: Robert Louis Stevenson

This literary comparison came to me in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, the second to ravage Florida in as many weeks. I was listening to a briefing on C-SPAN that was led by Gov. Ron DeSantis. He and other officials detailed what was known of the damage, the federal, state, and local responses, and what was to be expected in coming hours and days. They mentioned lessons learned from prior experiences and provided very clear guidance based on those lessons. He exuded competence and compassion throughout the entire briefing. 

In the moment, he seemed to be exactly what Florida needed. But he bears some responsibility for that moment. All of us do to some degree, but he is working deliberately to make climate change more damaging. It makes no sense, because he knows better than anyone what the damage looks like. He has famously prohibited discussion of climate change by state employees. He has also vetoed measures that would have both lesson the state's contribution to climate change and increased the resilience of coastal areas. 

Federal Response

Among the many Federal resources assisting in the hurricane response are the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service, both of which are part of NOAA -- an agency that Project 2025 seeks to privatize. Another important agency, of course, is FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Administration. To his discredit, DeSantis mentioned only the Florida equivalent in his remarks, downplaying its federal counterpart. (Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about this.)

I assume most readers are aware of the Federal agencies mentioned above, but an increasingly important one might be less familiar: the Department of Defense is increasingly dedicated to understanding and responding to the threats posed by climate change and to reducing its own contribution to that change. The point person for those efforts across all branches is Richard Kidd, who currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience. The DoD Climate Portal at WWW.CLIMATE.MIL points to the many facets of this commitment. 

This admittedly bureaucratic response arises from a very clear realization among military planners that coastal bases and other resources are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Moreover, as the largest single consumer of fossil fuels, the U.S. military contributes significantly to those risks. 

How We Survive

Pictured at left is radio host Kai Ryssdal, in a photo taken when he served in the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia in the 1980s. 

I have been listening to him on the program Marketplace for many years. This is essentially the only business and economics program I consider worth listening to. I only learned recently that he has a special interest in the role of the military in climate change, and is in the sixth season of How We Survive, which is a podcast devoted exclusively to this important topic. He suggests that the U.S. military has been devoting some attention to climate change since the 1950s -- before he and I were even born. (We are almost exactly the same age.) 

The Fallout

All of this matters because at the level of national politics, extremists who have been politicizing climate science for a long time are now doing the same with weather science. Some of those who once claimed that humans could not influence climate are claiming that humans are orchestrating weather events. Most notably, Marjorie Taylor Green has claimed that "they" have created recent hurricanes as a political tactic. This rhetoric has been amplified by her party's presidential candidate and has led to ordinary weather forecasters being the brunt of baseless claims and death threats.

For example: Threats against workers in North Carolina 

The tweet referenced above is from MTG 

Meanwhile, Zillow appeals to grownups 

Those who think the Federal response has been lacking should recall Hurricane Maria, when aid was deliberately withheld by then-president Trump. The parallels are striking: I know from personal experience that both Puerto Rico and Western North Carolina are characterized by extremely complex networks of roads and river valleys that make their residents particularly vulnerable to isolation during major storms.