Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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Dazzling and Dangerous: Epidemics, Space Physics, and Settler Understandings of the Aurora Borealis
By Jennifer Fraser and Noah Stemeroff Earlier this year, Explore, a multimedia company that operates the largest live nature camera network on the planet, noticed that one of its livestreams was going viral. The feed in question broadcasts from Churchill, Manitoba. Positioned directly beneath the auroral oval, this camera offers viewers a chance to catch…
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Unsettling Landscapes and Imaginations
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 Tony Weis *All images courtesy of the author I come from the settler-colonial nation of Canada, in a part of southwestern Ontario that…
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Making Tracks: Unsettling Landscapes and Imaginations
By Tony Weis I come from the settler-colonial nation of Canada, in a part of southwestern Ontario that sits upon the traditional territories of the Attawandaron, Anishnaabee, Haudenosaunee, and Leni-Lunaape Peoples. Today, nine First Nations reserves together control just over one percent of all land in southwestern Ontario. The landscape must have been beautiful, and…
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The Birth and Quick Death of Canada’s First Commercial Brewery, 1671–1675
By Matthew Bellamy Few nations are more blessed by nature than Canada when it comes to brewing beer. The vast northern territory has ideal climatic conditions to produce all of the natural ingredients—barley, hops, and fresh water—to manufacture a perfect pint.
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Making Tracks: Alan MacEachern
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. “Albrecht and Alan at the Alte†By Alan MacEachern In retrospect, mine was the least dissolute of dissolute youths. But spending post-undergraduate time…
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@TrapperBud and the History of Northern Canada
By Tina Adcock “Friday. Left Peace River Aug 30 1929 ran on sand bar, had to stay all night, rained to beat heck.†With this tweet, Derryl Murphy began to narrate a family history that would soon gain a much larger audience than tales of this kind usually do. This past November, Derryl, an author…
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Photo of the Week: Shane McCorristine
This photo was taken a few months ago at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre in northern Canada. The sun is currently in a period of solar maximum and Churchill lies directly in the auroral zone, allowing for a series of fantastic displays in February and March. In this photo Shane is standing under the Aurora…
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Living with Zombie Mines
Post by John Sandlos and Arn Keeling Mention the words “zombie mine†and you risk conjuring images of grotesque undead figures lurking in dark abandoned tunnels, more the stuff of movie or video game fantasies than anything to do with mining in the real world. And yet, the idea behind the zombie – that of…