My June 11 commentary, "Losing Ground: The Fight to Save the Soil that Feeds Us," focused on the rapid depletion of arable soil, the foundation of our food security.
That’s just one of many environmental issues that have concerned me over the years and about which I’ve wanted to raise awareness through these pages.
But the story doesn’t end with dirt. I’ve also worried about the extinction of species and what that means for our human sustainability and the health of the planet.
I see the health of soil as bound to the insects that till it, the plants that root in it, the animals that feed on those plants and the humans who depend on it all. The extinction crisis is not an isolated phenomenon, but a collection of interconnected threads in a collapsing web of life.
Read the entire commentary on Substack In The Center Lane With Herb Paine →
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Commentator Herb Paine says King Charles III's address to Congress last month was remarkable as an example of civic intelligence and an exhortation to defend democracy. -
Commentator Herb Paine on the troubling revival of capital punishment in the United States and Israel. -
In the midst of all the current social and political disruption, commentator Herb Paine takes a step back and reflect on how we shifted from an age of aspirations to an era of polarization. -
Commentator Herb Paine documents the Trump administration’s continuing campaign on what he calls "a coordinated effort to narrow, sanitize and control the stories Americans encounter about their own culture and history" and offers an "inventory" of the damage already done — and the implications of allowing it to continue. -
Commentator Herb Paine examines a crucial but under-explored dimension of the current moment: How the Jewish community responds ethically when Jewish continuity intersects with political power in Israel.
