Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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Tales from Piplantri
“A Fable for Today…” By Vidya Sarveswaran We are just beginning to hear the murmurs of a nervous street. The sky above is like handmade parchment. Powder blue with swirls of crimped clouds. The air is heavy with the cloying smell of equally heavy flowers that attract snakes. But they do not worry about snakes…
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Lives Wasted: Garbage as a Forgotten Dimension of the European “Refugee Crisis”
by Maximilian Feichtner and Theresa Leisgang A deflated rubber boat is washed up on the eastern coast of Chios. Once the waves have buried it under rocks and it becomes even more entangled with seagrass, you will hardly be able to see it. But for tourists strolling along the beach, this isn’t the only reminder…
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The Global Invention of Lager Beer
By Jeffrey Pilcher “Around the World in 80 Beers.” It’s an arresting image of the globalization of beer. This map on the PureTravel website depicts each country according to its bestselling or iconic national brand: from Budweiser in the United States and Corona in Mexico, to Tsingtao in China and Oettinger in Germany.
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Mumbai Deluge 2017: Nowadays Rain Gods Have a New Tool—Plastic Bags!
by Ayushi Dhawan We often do not think twice before buying a plastic bag at a supermarket or a shopping mall. It’s bought because it’s needed and discarded after being used for a short while. How harmful can these everyday practices be to our environment? Mumbai’s recent floods definitely have a story to tell in…
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Making Tracks: Gregg Mitman
In the “Making Tracks” series, RCC fellows and alumni present their experiences in environmental humanities, retracing the paths that led them to the Rachel Carson Center. For more information, please click here. By Gregg Mitman My journey to the Rachel Carson Center began in 1967 in the backseat of a blue Dodge sedan, packed with my…
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Doktorandentag 2017!
Eight new members of the RCC’s doctoral program and two visiting doctoral students presented their projects at the center’s annual “Doktorandentag.” Organized and moderated by members of the program, the format allowed each student to present a *snapshot* of their research followed by a discussion with their peers, doctoral program board members, RCC fellows,…
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Hazardous Cruises: Welcome to Toxic Paradise
by Jonas Stuck The summer is over, but the holiday season hasn’t stopped. Going on vacation is how many people calm down from a hectic work life and enjoy a good time. Cruise ships offer this experience all year round in the most naturally beautiful holiday destinations in the world: from the Arctic Circle or…
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Asia and the Pacific: Environments—Cultures—Histories
Workshop Report (LMU-ChAN Satellite Conference, 3–5 November 2017, Rachel Carson Center, Munich, Germany) by Travis Klingberg (All sketches by Libby Robin) Flood-proof cities. The social costs of waste incineration. Water level changes in the Pearl River Delta. The environmental impact of nineteenth-century Chinese immigration across the Pacific. These are a sample of the topics discussed…
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Toxic Floods: Let’s Talk about the Weather
By Simone M. Müller We’ve probably all been thinking about the weather lately. Our officemates are sneezing, others are coughing, the first one is turning in a sick note. It’s the time of year when weather-related topics start dominating our everyday conversation: the change of the season, the turning of the leaves from deep green…