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Articles by Curt Stager
COMMENTARY: Black Settlers of the Adirondacks -
By Curt Stager Feb. 24 – What does it mean to be an Adirondacker? The term often evokes images of White lumberjacks, wilderness guides, and hoteliers, but it’s important to remember that Adirondackers come in all colors. In that spirit, the long-overlooked role of Black settlers has recently been woven back into the human story of this region with the aid of local historians including Amy Godine, Hadley Kruczek-Aaron, Don Papson, Sally Svenson, Sandra Weber, and others.
Heart of Darkness: Hiking the Adirondacks at Night
by | June 2023, Recreation Illustration by James Weston Lewis Standing on a shelf of rock looking toward the High Peaks, I realized my mistake. I had no headlamp, no source of light, and the sky was already a bruised shade of purple and red. Shadows crept over the valley below. As I watched, the sun slipped away behind the mountains. I was scared and set off at a run for the trailhead, knowing it was already too late. Dark would find me in the woods unprepared. As I moved, the light dwindled.
How Fireflies Find Love with the Language of Light
by | June 2023, Nature and Environment Photograph from Shutterstock Yellow-green sparks shimmer among shadowy pines overlooking my backyard on the outskirts of Saranac Lake. It is a warm June evening, and the humid air hangs heavy with the fragrance of mountain maple blossoms and last year’s fallen pine needles. More such flashes beckon from the quiet tree-lined road that circles Moody Pond, and I follow.
Finding Your Roots: Thankful Sage Farm School
Photograph by Ben Stechschulte For Nichole Gerding, proprietress of Thankful Sage Farm School, in Willsboro, seasonal planning guides her way of life. From household to homeschooling, work and recreation, Gerding brings 18th- and 19th-century practices and sensibilities into the 21st century. She slows things down and makes space for cyclical routines that inform the lives of her family, her clients and customers, her community and herself.
For the Record: Uncovering the Stories of Black Pioneers
by | February 2023, History During the late 1980s I was visiting a friend in Onchiota, when my companion pointed to a nearby stream and said, “That’s N—r Brook.” The official name was changed to Negro Brook decades ago, but years later it still nagged at me. How did such an offensive label arise in this lily-white corner of northern New York?
Adirondack Life Magazine
For snapping turtles, life continues to emerge as it has for millions of years Baby snapping turtles emerge from soft soilas summer ends and autumn begins. Having avoided being sniffed out and devoured by raccoons, skunks and foxes while still nestled in their eggs, they are now ready to run a gauntlet of gulls, crows and other predators on their way to the nearest lake. Like the season itself, the annual emergence of newborn snappers evokes a bittersweet blend of feelings.
Adirondack Life Article - Up and Coming - Adirondack Life
August 2020 Up and Coming For snapping turtles, life continues to emerge as it has for millions of years by Curt Stager Baby snapping turtles emerge from soft soilas summer ends and autumn begins. Having avoided being sniffed out and devoured by raccoons, skunks and foxes while still nestled in their eggs, they are now ready to run a gauntlet of gulls, crows and other predators on their way to the nearest lake.
Adirondack Life Magazine
Paleoclimatologist Curt Stager explains how ice sheets shaped the Adirondack landscape Imagine an environmental challenge to the Adirondacks harsher than acid rain, invasive species and global warming combined. Imagine something that would not merely damage every lake, forest and meadow but completely crush them, then grind and bury their remains under a mile-thick slab of sealant.
Adirondack Life Article - The Big Chill - Adirondack Life
December 2019 The Big Chill Paleoclimatologist Curt Stager explains how ice sheets shaped the Adirondack landscape by Curt Stager Imagine an environmental challenge to the Adirondacks harsher than acid rain, invasive species and global warming combined. Imagine something that would not merely damage every lake, forest and meadow but completely crush them, then grind and bury their remains under a mile-thick slab of sealant.
Commentary: Climate strike is a much-needed call to action
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 18: Founder of Fridays For Future Greta Thunberg (L) and co-founder of This Is Zero Hour and plaintiff in Piper v. State of Washington Jamie Margolin (R) testify during a House Foreign Affairs Committee Europe, Eurasia, Energy and the Environment Subcommittee and House (Select) Climate Crisis Committee joint hearing September 18, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Curt Stager: What Climate Deniers Get Wrong -
In his recent essay for Adirondack Explorer’s column, “It’s Debatable,” that was later re-published in the Almanack, John Droz presented more than an opinion that wind energy is a bad idea for the Adirondack Park. He also slipped in a mention of the “AGW hypothesis,” meaning that the scientific consensus on “anthropogenic global warming” is mere guesswork.
Opinión | ¿Vivimos un apocalipsis global de los insectos?
¿Estamos en medio de un apocalipsis global de insectos que la mayoría de nosotros no ha percibido? He aquí otro detalle: en el noreste de Estados Unidos se ha reportado un declive de décadas en la población polinizadora de las polillas halcón, pero se desconocen sus causas y consecuencias porque se sabe muy poco sobre la ecología de estos insectos. En días pasados, reunir ese tipo de información habría sido un respetable trabajo de vida para un Linneo, un Humboldt o un Darwin.
Opinion | The Silence of the Bugs (Published 2018)
By Curt Stager Mr. Stager is a professor of natural sciences. May 26, 2018 Credit...Enzo Pérès-Labourdette Fifty-six years after Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” warned of bird die-offs from pesticides, a new biocrisis may be emerging. A study published last fall documented a 76 percent decline in the total seasonal biomass of flying insects netted at 63 locations in Germany over the last three decades. Losses in midsummer, when these insects are most numerous, exceeded 80 percent.
The Deep Time of Walden Pond - Issue 60: Searches - Nautilus
A careful reading of Walden; or, Life in the Woods makes it clear that Thoreau never intended his cabin to be a solitary hermitage, although fans and detractors alike often misunderstand this. It was more an author’s workshop than a fortress of isolation, and throughout his lakeside residency he often visited family and friends in Concord and entertained guests at Walden.
Walden Pond is not as pure as in Thoreau’s time
by Curt Stager and Richard B. Primack “Stop peeing in Walden Pond!" This was the simple headline that many local and international journalists ran after reading our scientific study of the algae found in sediments at the bottom of Walden Pond. How did our detailed analysis of microscopic algae get translated into this lurid headline?Like the rest of the world, Walden Pond is now quite different from what it was 160 years ago, when Henry David Thoreau was walking its shores.
Adirondack Life Table of Contents
July/August 2020 Wish You Were Here Postcards from the lake Ballad of the Barkeater In 1832 Abel Jacob left his belongings on the side of a trail and disappeared into the wilderness to start a new life.
Adirondack Life Article - Caw of the Wild - Adirondack Life
Adirondackers who love ravens and crows are cautiously optimistic. For the most part, life is good for “corvids” (members of the family Corvidae) up here in the North Country, and their numbers and ranges have been swelling in recent decades.
Book review of The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival by Robert Jay Lifton
American psychologist and author Robert Jay Lifton, best known for his pioneering investigations of the causes and psychological impacts of warfare, political violence, and coercive thought reform or brainwashing, has recently focused his attention on a newer existential threat to humanity: climate change. His slim volume, “The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival,” is a personal meditation on public perceptions of climate change and nuclear Armageddon.
Adirondack Life Article - Hidden Heritage - Adirondack Life
There is a fable circulating in these mountains: “The Indians didn’t live up here.” Nevertheless, if you ask almost anyone with a taste for Adirondack history you will likely hear one or more explanations for why the uplands were avoided by Native Americans. It was too cold for them. The soil was too sandy for crops. They were only passing through to hunt.
Sowing Climate Doubt Among Schoolteachers | RealClearPolitics
Sowing Climate Doubt Among Schoolteachers The Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank known for attacking climate science, has been mailing a slim, glossy book to public school teachers throughout the United States. The institute says it plans to send out as many as 200,000 copies, until virtually every science educator in America has oneRead Full Article »
Opinion | Sowing Climate Doubt Among Schoolteachers (Published 2017)
PAUL SMITHS, N.Y. — The Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank known for attacking climate science, has been mailing a slim, glossy book to public school teachers throughout the United States. The institute says it plans to send out as many as 200,000 copies, until virtually every science educator in America has one. The book, “Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming,” presents the false premise that the evidence for human-driven climate change is deeply flawed.
Opinion | What the Muck of Walden Pond Tells Us About Our Planet (Published 2017)
Sunday Opinion|What the Muck of Walden Pond Tells Us About Our Planet https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/opinion/sunday/what-the-muck-of-walden-pond-tells-us-about-our-planet.html Opinion In 1845, Henry David Thoreau repaired to a cabin in the woods beside Walden Pond “to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach.” During the last two years, my students and I have come to that same pond to see what we could learn from the sediments beneath it.
Opinion | Tales of a Warmer Planet (Published 2015)
Opinion Nov. 28, 2015 Credit...Wesley Allsbrook Paul Smiths, N.Y. — IT’S a mistake to think the climatic effects of our carbon emissions will be over within a few decades or centuries. Our intergenerational responsibilities run much deeper into the future. In this new Anthropocene epoch, the “Age of Humans,” we have become so numerous, our technology so powerful, and our lives so interconnected that we are now a force of nature on a geological scale.
The Surprising Ways Your Breath Connects You to the Entire Planet
Breathing is so universal and continuous that it can be easy to forget about—until we can’t do it anymore. Then it becomes symbolic of life itself. We take special note of words that are carried on final breaths, and sometimes we even cherish the physical substance of the breaths themselves. Henry Ford kept a glass test tube of air in his home for many years, and inside the tube was said to be a sample from the last breath of his late friend and fellow inventor Thomas Edison.
Why Most of Your Body Is Younger Than You Are
When you take a sip of water it doesn’t just slake your thirst. It literally becomes you. The water that runs down your gullet will, within minutes and without processing of any kind, become some of the dominant fluid in your veins and your flesh. Most of your blood is simply tap water with cells, salts, and organic molecules floating in it. Some of the rubbery squishiness of your earlobe poured out of a bottle or a can just a short time ago.
You Are Made of Waste
You may think of yourself as a highly refined and sophisticated creature—and you are. But you are also full of discarded, rejected, and recycled atomic elements. Don’t worry, though—so is almost everyone and everything else. Look at one of your fingernails. Carbon makes up half of its mass, and roughly one in eight of those carbon atoms recently emerged from a chimney or a tailpipe. Coal-fired power plants, petroleum-guzzling cars, and kitchen gas stoves release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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