Articles by: Jane Braxton Little

Inferno: Climate Disaster Is Turning the Planet into a Tinderbox

Inferno: Climate Disaster Is Turning the Planet into a Tinderbox

Mike Savala’s boots scuffed the edge of a singed patch of forest littered with skinny fingers of burnt ponderosa pine needles. Nearby, an oak seedling sizzled as a yellow-shirted firefighter hit it with a stream of water. Spurts of smoke rose from blackened ground the size of a hockey rink. A 100-foot Ponderosa pine towered overhead. “Third response today,” said[Read More…]

by — 14/12/2022 — Comments are Disabled — Climate Change
From Drought to Deluge on a New Planet

From Drought to Deluge on a New Planet

Those Who Contribute the Least to Climate Change Suffer the Most Greenville, CA — Snow began falling on December 24th, big fluffy flakes that made lace on mittens before melting. Within hours it had coated the ashes, the brick chimneys that the flames had left behind, and the jagged remains of roofs strewn across my burned-out town. White mounds soon[Read More…]

by — 21/03/2022 — Comments are Disabled — Climate Change
A home is engulfed in flames as the Dixie fire rages on in Greenville, California on August 5, 2021. (Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

A Tour Guide to Hell on Earth, Small Town-Style – Climate Change, Up Close and Personal

Half a mile south of what’s left of the old Gold Rush-era town of Greenville, California, Highway 89 climbs steeply in a series of S-turns as familiar to me as my own backyard. From the top of that grade, I’ve sometimes seen bald eagles soaring over the valley that stretches to the base of Keddie Peak, the northernmost mountain in[Read More…]

by — 14/12/2021 — Comments are Disabled — Climate Change
The Dixie Fire Disaster and Me – How I became a climate refugee

The Dixie Fire Disaster and Me – How I became a climate refugee

GREENVILLE, CA — At 10 a.m. on July 22nd, I interviewed a New York University professor about using autonomous robots, drones, and other unmanned devices to suppress structural and wildland fires. I sent the interview to an online transcription service, walked down the steps of my second-floor office and a block to the Greenville post office, where I mailed a[Read More…]

by — 09/09/2021 — Comments are Disabled — Climate Change
A volunteer paints the side of one of the cabins reassembled at the Standing Rock encampment from southwestern Oregon. Photo by Roger Peet.

From Across The Country, Gifts of Tiny Houses Arrive for Standing Rock

Eleven days ago, when Matt Musselwhite pulled into an encampment at Cannon Ball, North Dakota, in a 5-ton flatbed truck, he had no idea how he would unload the three tiny houses he had just hauled 1,500 miles from southwestern Oregon. Almost immediately volunteers emerged from the throngs of mostly Native Americans. Within hours, teams of 10 people were starting[Read More…]

by — 24/11/2016 — Comments are Disabled — Environmental Protection