...a friend had picked me up from the Denver airport, and I was half-listening to her talk, tired from the flight. "We've had a lot of code red days lately," she mentions.
"Code red terror?" I ask.
"No, code red air pollution."
"Oh." I slumped back into my seat, and thought: this is it. There's no science-fiction future with a technopolice state or environmental collapse: we're living it, right now. When the government has color codes for the level of fear we're supposed to feel and the toxicity of our air- and the people are used to this- then things have gotten pretty wild.

"...and this can be beautiful."

Faced with (and let's face it) the possibility of a sixth mass extinction, complete with drastic climate change (in our lifetimes), the end of the petroleum age, overpopulation, overfishing, deforestation et cetera-and the potential collapse of our political and economic structures, either due to the ecotastrophe or their inherent flaws ... there's a lot of fuel for fear. But we can take this change as doom or opportunity. Apocalypse-apokalypsis-the lifting of the veil: not a bad thing, really. Let's connect, work together, and make the most of our interesting times.

about the author

i travel around. sometimes i take pictures. often i take notes. i try to give, too, as best i can figure out how. i grew up in an experimental planned community in suburban maryland on a street named Sweet Fern, but over time the city got bought by General Growth Incorporated. i have no fixed address at the moment. i like to walk. sometimes i ride a motorcycle. i've spent too much time with airplanes, and would rather be in a sailboat. usually i feel like i am in a boat that's going nowhere, but i have a pretty good time with it.