Kathleen Dean Moore

At once joyous and somber, this thoughtful gathering of new and selected essays spans Kathleen Dean Moore's distinguished career as a tireless advocate for environmental activism in the face of climate change. In this meditation on the music of the natural world, Moore celebrates the call of loons, howl of wolves, bellow of whales, laughter of children, and shriek of frogs, even as she warns of the threats against them. Each group of essays moves, as Moore herself has been moved, from celebration to lamentation to bewilderment and finally to the determination to act in defense of wild songs and the creatures who sing them. Music is the shivering urgency and exuberance of life ongoing. In a time of terrible silencing, Moore asks, who will forgive us if we do not save nature's songs?

Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World

Earth's Wild Music

From fabulous feathers on a peacock's tail, and shimmering scales in a mermaid's undersea kingdom, to luscious lace designs and spectacular stained glass windows - there's something for everyone in this book.

The Solace of Nature

Wild Comfort

Even as seas rise against the shores, another great tide is beginning to rise - a tide of outrage against the pillage of the planet, a tide of commitment to justice and human rights, a swelling affirmation of moral responsibility to the future and to Earth's fullness of life. Philosopher and nature essayist Kathleen Dean Moore takes on the essential questions: Why is it wrong to wreck the world? What is our obligation to the future? What is the transformative power of moral resolve? How can clear thinking stand against the lies and illogic that batter the chances for positive change? What are useful answers to the recurring questions of a storm-threatened time - What can anyone do? Is there any hope? And always this: What stories and ideas will lift people who deeply care, inspiring them to move forward with clarity and moral courage?

Toward Clarity & Moral Courage in a Time of Climate Change

Great Tide Rising

At Home in the Natural World

Holdfast

Twenty essays offer observations on rivers, life, love, loss, motherhood, happiness, evolution, and country music

Reflections on Moving Water

Riverwalking

Justice, Mercy, and the Public Interest

Pardons

"An anthology bringing together the testimony of over eighty theologians, religious leaders, scientists, elected officials, business leaders, naturists, activists, and writers to present a diverse and compelling call to honor humans' moral responsibility to the planet in the face of environmental degradation and global climate change"--Provided by publisher.

ethical action for a planet in peril

Moral ground

Do we belong to the Earth or does the Earth belong to us? The question raised by Chief Seathl almost two centuries ago continues to be the defining quandary of the wet, wild rainforests along the shores of the Pacific Northwest. It seethes below the tides of the fictional town of Good River Harbor, a little village pressed against the mountains—homeland to bears, whales, and a few weather–worn families. In Piano Tide, the debut novel by award–winning naturalist, philosopher, activist and author Kathleen Dean Moore, we are introduced to town father Axel Hagerman, who has made a killing in this remote Alaskan harbor by selling off the spruce, the cedar, the herring and halibut. But when he decides to export the water from a salmon stream, he runs head–long into young Nora Montgomery, just arrived on the ferry with her piano and her dog. Nora has burned her bridges in the lower 48, and she aims to disappear into this new homeland, with her piano as her anchor. But when Axel's next business proposition, a bear pit, turns lethal, Nora has to act. The clash, when it comes, is a spectacular and transformative act of resistance.

A Novel

Piano Tide

Can the love reserved for family and friends be extended to a place? “Luminous essays” on nature and environmental stewardship (Booklist). Named one of the Top Ten Northwest Books of the Year by the Oregonian In this book, acclaimed author Kathleen Dean Moore, a winner of the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award for Holdfast, reflects on how deeply the environment is entrenched in the human spirit, despite the notion that nature and humans are somehow separate. Moore’s essays, deeply felt and often funny, make connections in what can appear to be a disconnected world. Written in parable form, her stories of family and friends—of wilderness excursions with her husband and children, camping trips with students, blowing up a dam, her daughter’s arrest for protesting the war in Iraq—affirm an impulse of caring that belies the abstract division of humans from nature, of the sacred from the mundane. Underlying these wonderfully engaging stories is the author’s belief in a new ecological ethic of care, one that expands the idea of community to include the environment, and embraces the land as family. “Stands with the best tradition of nature writing.” —The Oregonian

Making Connections in a Disconnected World

The Pine Island Paradox

Alex Carr Johnson

Teddy Macker

A book of love stories from a combination of new work and work from the Orion archive, that will include both poetry and prose.

Stories of Intimacy and Devotion from Orion

Earthly Love

“ Je crois que la plus belle chose que l’on puisse dire à quelqu’un, c’est ‘Regarde’. Et la position la plus tendre, ce n’est pas une longue étreinte, mais deux personnes se tenant côte à côte, regardant ensemble le monde.” Regarder le monde, c’est regarder les êtres aussi bien que les lieux. Non seulement pour mieux les comprendre et mieux les préserver, mais surtout parce qu’il s’agit de l’un des besoins les plus fondamentaux de l’espèce humaine. Nous n’avons pas seulement besoin du milieu naturel pour notre survie, nous dépendons affectivement de lui. Nous sommes tous liés à lui de mille manières insoupçonnées.

Quand l’observation de la nature et la vie quotidienne nourrissent la réflexion philosophique.

Sur quoi repose le monde

Michael P. Nelson

Moral Ground brings together the testimony of over eighty visionaries—theologians and religious leaders, scientists, elected officials, business leaders, naturalists, activists, and writers—to present a diverse and compelling call to honor our individual and collective moral responsibility to our planet. In the face of environmental degradation and global climate change, scientific knowledge alone does not tell us what we ought to do. The missing premise of the argument and much-needed center piece in the debate to date has been the need for ethical values, moral guidance, and principled reasons for doing the right thing for our planet, its animals, its plants, and its people. Contributors from throughout the world (including North America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe) bring forth a rich variety of heritages and perspectives. Their contributions take many forms, illustrating the rich variety of ways we express our moral beliefs in letters, poems, economic analyses, proclamations, essays, and stories. In the end, their voices affirm why we must move beyond a scientific study and response to embrace an ongoing model of repair and sustainability. These writings demonstrate that scientific analysis and moral conviction can work successfully side-by-side. This is a book that can speak to anyone, regardless of his or her worldview, and that also includes a section devoted to “what next” thinking that helps the reader put the words and ideas into action in their personal lives. Thanks to generous support from numerous landmark organizations, such as the Kendeda Fund and Germeshausen Foundation, the book is just the starting point for a national, and international, discussion that will be carried out in a variety of ways, from online debate to “town hall” meetings, from essay competitions for youth to sermons from pulpits in all denominations. The “Moral Ground movement” will result in a newly discovered, or rediscovered, commitment on a personal and community level to consensus about our ethical obligation to the future.

Kathleen Dean Moore

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