It can be easy to get discouraged these days. Everywhere we look, there are signs of a struggling planet and, often, it’s difficult to see a clear path to an effectual response. 2022 may well eclipse recent years as the hottest on record. Rainfall has alternated between being absent or violent in Pennsylvania, one of
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In the weeks and months leading up to any election, campaign signs begin to crowd lawns, medians, and planters, and all roads can seem like battleground interstates. The 2020 elections were no different in Philadelphia, with rival campaigns for Senate and House seats, PA Attorney General, PA Auditor General, and State Treasurer adding to the
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They needed somewhere to go. In March 2020, the City of Philadelphia began to disperse the homeless population that had settled around the Pennsylvania Convention Center, citing fears of a COVID-19 outbreak. Then in May, the city cleared the Philadelphia International Airport of its homeless population as well. In total, 51 people were cleared from
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Eager to put the last four years in America’s rear view, President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team have published their first batch of plans for their time in the White House, some of which include exciting news for bicycling, public transit and walking. Pledging to allot federal funding for alternative transportation modes, the Biden
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Some classrooms keep guinea pigs or guppies as pets, but last year at Cook Wissahickon School in Roxborough, sixth-graders tended young freshwater mussels. “The students feed them and then, when they reach a larger stage, the Fairmount Water Works will place them in a creek,” says Jose L. Ramos, a middle-years reading and English language
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The sun is barely above the horizon when we creep between the trees and quietly enter the blind. I load the arrow into the crossbow, looking eagerly out of the mesh window. It’s the first day of my first hunt. I’ve never killed anything and I’m not sure that I can. “I like this spot,”
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I find myself looking in the mirror more these days. I’m noticing the bags under my eyes. I see the lines on my face, telling me that I’m starting to age. The targeted ads that I saw at the beginning of the pandemic were preparing me for this moment. Now that I see my image
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I was stunned twice when, in 2018, I read an essay in The New York Times entitled “A Forest of Ancient Trees, Poisoned by Rising Seas.” The author writes about the 400 and 500 year-old black gum trees along the Delaware Bay in South Jersey doomed by climate change, then proceeds to catalog reports from
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On November 25 a few dozen people stood outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office around the corner from Chinatown to protest the deportation of 23 families, which include 28 children. Two of those families are being held at Berks County Residential Center, ICE’s Philadelphia Field Office, located in Leesport, PA, about 70 miles
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Amidst shots and descriptions of swirling hurricanes, raging fires, and dying ecosystems, the documentary Can We Cool The Planet? begins with the words of climate strategist Jane Long, “We can’t go back, there is no path backwards.” But what if there was? Philadelphia filmmakers Ben Kalina and Jen Schneider, and their team of collaborators from
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Imagination ran wild this year as activists and protesters envisioned a city much different than the one we live in. Philadelphians marched down Broad Street, climbed the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps and gathered at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia, demanding change with chants, signs and determination. Temple University communication professor Jason Del Gandio
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