books - Through the sandglass

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

A Reverence for Rivers (2)

Turn on the tap in your kitchen so that it’s running at a typical (if not particularly conservative) rate of around three US gallons per minute. Ensure that you...

January 1, 2016 14 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

January 2016

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

January 1, 2016 12 min read

art books climate_change education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel wildlife

A Reverence for Rivers (1)

From the New York Times: Los Angeles Brown Warns of Drought Disaster; Says ‘Hard Choices’ Face California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. warned here today that drough...

December 1, 2015 8 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Time, Sense, and Landscape

I was delighted (and flattered) to be invited to participate in a multi-disciplinary symposium, held in Winchester in October, titled Chalk: Time, Sense, and La...

December 1, 2015 5 min read

art books climate_change coastal education geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Exporting the desert – you may not want to read this

Among the possible reasons for not reading this might be It seems to be too absurd to be true It’s true, but it’s not a problem You are careful about your blood...

November 1, 2015 12 min read

art books climate_change coastal education geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

November 2015

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

November 1, 2015 11 min read

art books climate_change photography rivers_water sand travel

Sunagoyomi

Sunagoyomi, the sand calendar. Not an hourglass, but a yearglass, the centre piece of the Nima Sand Museum in Japan. Turn it, and one year later the last of its...

September 1, 2015 3 min read

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September 2015

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

September 1, 2015 3 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment history photography sand science wildlife

Behold, Cataglyphis bombycina is an hairy ant

In writing The Desert book, I became acutely aware that, as a humble geologist, my knowledge has profound limitations. I am not a biologist, botanist, ecologist...

August 1, 2015 8 min read

art books climate_change coastal geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

The Missing Sink: Carbon storage in the world’s deserts

Deep-rooted and completely erroneous preconceptions of our planet’s arid lands as sterile bit-players in the great game of the earth’s dynamic systems have long...

August 1, 2015 4 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment history photography sand science wildlife

August 2015

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

August 1, 2015 8 min read

art books coastal education environment history photography sand science travel

A terrible beauty

Images of art and science can be visually stunning at first glance, and then emotionally stunning when the viewer becomes aware of what is depicted. Think micro...

July 1, 2015 4 min read