Jason Anthony

6 days ago | jasonanthony.substack.com | Jason Anthony

Hello everyone:I only recently remembered that this week marks four years of the Field Guide. I’ve published more than 200 essays (minus some repeats and weeks off) since Earth Day, 2021, all in a quest to usefully describe the strange world we’re making from the astonishing planet we’re unmaking. I’ve tried to strike a balance between articulating the disrupted world for you and reminding you of how beautiful and wonderful that world is. Thank you all for joining me in this effort.

1 week ago | jasonanthony.substack.com | Jason Anthony |Ian Urbina |Bill Davison |Jonathan D. Tonkin

Hello everyone: This is the second half of my update on deep sea mining for polymetallic nodules. This may seem like an odd and arcane topic, but it couldn’t be more relevant to this moment - in terms of politics, technology, and environmental ethics - as we wrestle with the question of how best to enter the next phase of modern civilization. As always, please remember to scroll past the end of the essay to read some curated Anthropocene news.

2 weeks ago | jasonanthony.substack.com | Jason Anthony

Hello everyone: I first published a version of this essay back in 2021, and provided a short update in 2023. The deep sea mining story has lurked in the news all along, in part because the permitting drama is crawling toward a conclusion, and in part because the environmental and ethical issues remain relevant to other aspects of the renewable energy transition. Now, a recent development has compelled me to rework and update the piece for the current moment.

3 weeks ago | jasonanthony.substack.com | Jason Anthony |Bryan Pfeiffer

Hello everyone:The Field Guide is taking the week off so that I can bring you some good news: My book, The Roast Penguin Chronicles, has just launched from Compass Rose Press. It’s part memoir, part history of the human experience of Antarctica through a “culinary” lens. The book is built from a century of remarkable stories of life on the ice, from the sagas of early exploration up through the 20th century and recent years, including my own near-decade on the ice.

1 month ago | jasonanthony.substack.com | Jason Anthony |Mike Shanahan

Hello everyone:As always, please remember to scroll past the end of the essay to read some curated Anthropocene news. Now on to this week’s writing:Heather and I were stopped short a few days ago, on a long walk through one of our favorite local conservation preserves. The trail was still icy and snowy in places, but where the Sun could reach it had melted or sublimated the snow and revealed the living city of soil and low plants that has been hidden from us for months.