Writing about the outdoors, environment and the human experience

Land Acknowledgement

I, Don Meredith respectfully acknowledge that I live, write and conduct business on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Quw’utsun (Cowichan) First Nation of the Coast Salish Peoples. My family and I further acknowledge that the Quw’utsun People continue to live on these lands and care for them, and that their relationship with these lands existed thousands of years before the creation of Canada or British Columbia. We are learning much from First Nation Peoples about how to live in harmony with the land.

“Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight”

—Lovers in a Dangerous Time, Bruce Cockburn

New Substack Post

The Age of Willful Ignorance

Refusing to Consider the Evidence

… But many people don’t want to know about science because to do so might make their lives uncomfortable. In other words, they are willfully ignorant of the why and wherefore of what’s happening around them. I used to think these people were a small minority. However, with the election of Trump twice in the United States, it’s obvious they are not. So, the country that used to be a leader in the production of renewable energy and the reduction of fossil-fuel use is now scuttling many renewable energy projects and calling for more drilling for oil and gas and mining of coal.

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As a wildlife biologist, I have worked in the Canadian High Arctic, the boreal forest of northern Alberta and the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Over the course of my work, I came to realize that in the long term good wildlife management was dependent on a concerned and informed public. The problem was that many biologists and wildlife managers were not communicating well with the people upon whom they depend to support their work. I decided to develop myself as a writer and learn effective communication techniques to explain the value and management of our natural resources to the people who make the ultimate, long-term decisions.

My passion and long career with wildlife and the outdoors has allowed me to write and present on the importance of wildlife and wild places and their impact on the well being of individuals and society as a whole.