Ethics & Ecologies Reading Group
We read:
- non-fiction about Earth ecologies, with an emphasis on possibilities for preservation and restoration
- fiction about characters faced with questions of ethics and survival in shifting environments on this or other worlds
Everyone is welcome! We’re so open to ideas for future selections.
Note: Reading is good for physical, mental, and cognitive health! This article from the UW says so.
Note: Copyright law allows us to share excerpts of works, so some readings are posted as .pdfs. If you’d like readings in a different file format, or for more information in general, contact Kris Freeman.
Upcoming Meetings & Events
Monday, May 4, 7 PM, 2026
Readings:
When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, and American’s Black Botanical Legacy, by Beronda L. Montgomery, available at Seattle Public Library.
Meetup Location:
- In person: St John United Lutheran Church, 5515 Phinney Ave N. Seattle, CoCreate Space (enter from back parking lot).
- Zoom: On Request
Past Readings and Events:
Monday, March 30, 7 PM, 2026
Readings:
Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and A Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibben, available at Seattle Public Library.
- Here Comes the Sun Excerpt: “4.6 Billion Years On, The Sun is Having a Moment,” The New Yorker, July 9, 2025 (pdf)
- “India’s Quest to Build the World’s Largest Solar Farm” by Meera Subramanian, The New Yorker, April 26, 2023 (pdf)
- “‘We’re not hippies’: why these Iowa farmers swapped pigs for mushrooms,” The Guardian, Feb 19, 2026 (pdf)
- Rocky Mountain Institute : conducts in-depth research on topics including clean energy basics, methane loss from oil and gas operations and climate finance.
- Greenlight America: provides resources to individual lobbying for renewable energy projects in their communities, including a guide on How To Combat Renewable Energy Mis- and Disinformation
- New Jersey building battery farms on former coal sites Inside Climate News, March 27, 2026.
Wednesday, February 11, 7 PM, 2026
Readings:
- Flush: the Remarkable Science of An Unlikely Treasure by Bryn Nelson, available at Seattle Public Library.
- “Man whose gut made its own alcohol gets relief from faecal transplant”, New Scientist, Jan 17, 2026 (pdf)
- “Something’s Poisoning America’s Land. Farmers Fear ‘Forever’ Chemicals,” New York Times, August 31, 2024
- “Remediating soil lead with fish bones“, Environmental Health Perspectives, 2012, 120(1):A20-A21 (pdf)
- Bacteria found to eat forever chemicals — and even some of their toxic byproducts, University at Buffalo news release, January 23, 2025 (pdf).
- For later in 2026: Here Comes the Sun: Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and A Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibben, available at Seattle Public Library.
Thursday, February 19, 6 PM, 2026
Movie Night: Six Inches of Soil Sponsored by the organization Sustainable Ballard, this film will be shown at the Center for Spiritual Living at 2007 NW 61st St, Seattle, 98107. The documentary “tells the inspiring story of young British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food – to heal the soil, our health and provide for local communities.”
Monday, December 8, 2025, 7 PM
Readings:
- Too High and Too Steep by David B. Williams, available at Seattle Public Library.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025, 7 PM
- Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb. Available from Seattle Public Library.
- Article quoting Goldfarb about beavers in the Oct 28 Seattle Times: “Fort Colvile: A part of WA history you may have never even heard of”
Monday, 7 PM, September 29, 2025
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Copies available at Seattle Public Library. The 2024 winner of the Booker Prize has been described as “an eloquent meditation on space and life on our planet through the eyes of six astronauts circling the earth in twenty-four hours.”
Monday, July 14, 2025, 7 PM
Readings:
- Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals & People in America by Dan Flore (Introduction PDF). Copies available at Seattle Public Library and King County Public Library.
- Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods by Danna Staaf (Introduction PDF) Copies available at Seattle Public Library and King County Public Library.
- “Yes, the Octopus Is Smart as Heck. But Why?” New York Times, Nov. 30, 2018. Video of octopus with coconut.
- “Eight Arms to Taste Your Microbiome: Scientists discovered that octopuses use their limbs to sample the microbiomes on the surfaces they touch,” New York Times, June 17, 2025. (PDF)
- “This Octopus’s Other Car Is a Shark: Researchers in New Zealand saw a colorful blob on top of a shark’s head. When they looked closer, they realized it had eight arms.” New York Times, March 20, 2025. Video, Another video
Monday, June 9, 2025, 7 PM
Reading: I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong (PDF of prologue and first chapter). Copies available at Seattle Public Library and King County Public Library.
- Probiotics: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals
- Probiotics: Fact Sheet for Health Consumers
- Mosquitoes with Wolbachia
- How Fermented Foods May Alter Your Microbiome and Improve Your Health (PDF)
Monday, April 28, 2025, 7 PM
Reading: I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong (PDF of prologue and first chapter). Copies available at Seattle Public Library and King County Public Library.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 7 PM
Reading: The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hanson. Copies available at Seattle Public Library.
- Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? (PDF) New York Times, March 22, 2025
- “Pacific Northwest’s ‘forest gardens’ were deliberately planted by Indigenous people,” Science, April 22, 2021. (PDF)
Monday, February 24, 2025, 7 PM
Reading: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Copies available at Seattle Public Library.
- “TANGLED WEB: An arachnophobe pays homage to the spider,” Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, Feb 17 and 24, 2025 (PDF)
- “Scientists Finally Make Heads of Giant Stingray Tails,”” by Jack Tamisiea, New York Times, Jan 21, 2025 (PDF).
- Interview with Ed Yong, “Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World,” New York Times, Feb. 22, 2025.
- “Field of View of Different Animals” by The Brain Maze: (YouTube)
January 13, 2025, 7 PM
Reading:
- The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, by Zoe Schlanger. Copies available at Seattle Public Library.
- “When They Hear Plants Crying, Moths Make a Decision: A new study suggests that the insects rely on the sounds made by distressed vegetation to guide important reproductive choices,” New York Times, Dec 6, 2024 (PDF)
- “This Is What It Sounds Like When Plants Cry,” New York Times, March 30, 2023 (PDF)
Recordings of plant sounds from this article:
- Heard It From the Grapevine: A recording of a grapevine’s reaction to being cut.
- Feed Me, Seymour: This is the sound of a tomato plant that hasn’t gotten enough water.
- The Wheat Is Growing Thin: This is a recording of wheat that probably wished it lived by the river.
Monday, December 2, 2024, 7 PM
Reading: Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, by Ben Goldfarb.
- “Cascade critter crossings: How I-90 became safer for wildlife, drivers,” Seattle Times March 31, 2024 (URL, PDF), and direct link to wonderful video of wildlife using corridors.
- “The World’s Largest Wildlife Crossing is Finally Standing.. Here is what’s coming next.” LA Times, Oct. 29, 2024. (PDF).
- “How wildlife crossings protect both animals and people.” CBS News, April 21, 2024.
Monday, October 21, 2024, 7 PM
Reading:
- A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (pdf of Introduction and Chapter 1). Multiple copies are available at Seattle Public Library.
- “Earth’s 1st Asteroid Mining Prospector Heads to the Launchpad“, NYT, Feb 23, 2025 (PDF)
- “Can the Human Body Endure a Voyage to Mars?”, The New Yorker, Feb 10, 2025 (PDF).
Monday, September 16, 2024, 7 PM
Reading:
- Chapters 7-13 of An Immense World by Ed Yong (Intro PDF)
- Discussion questions for An Immense World (URL, PDF)
- “New Photo of Australia’s Sand-Swimming Northern Marsupial Mole.” NYT, May 1, 2024 (URL, PDF)
- Interview with Ed Yong, “Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World,” New York Times, Feb. 22, 2025 (PDF)
Monday, June 3, 2024, 7 PM
Reading:
- First 6 chapters of An Immense World by Ed Yong (Intro PDF)
- Discussion questions for An Immense World (URL, PDF)z
- Storing Renewable Energy, One Balloon at a Time, New York Times, April 4, 2024 (URL, PDF)
Monday, April 22, 2024, 7 PM
Reading:
- Tenacious Beasts by Christopher J. Preston (Intro PDF).
- “Cascade critter crossings: How I-90 became safer for wildlife, drivers” Seattle Times March 31, 2024 (URL, PDF), and direct link to wonderful video of wildlife using corridors.
Monday, March 11, 2024, 7 PM
Reading (and Possible Viewing):
- What Your Food Ate by Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery (Intro PDF). The bibliography is available on the book website.
- Presentation by Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery at Seattle Town Hall on YouTube
- “To Labor for the Hive“ by Jamie Liu, illustrations by Stefan Grosse Halbuer
Monday, January 29, 2024, 7 PM
- Our Native Bees: North America’s Endangered Pollinators and the Fight to Save Them by Paige Embry (Intro PDF)
Enhancing Urban and Suburban Landscapes to Protect Pollinators, produced by Oregon State University (URL, PDF). Forty-page brochure with specifics on general principles mentioned in Our Native Bees for providing bee habitat in your yard.
Tuesday, November 28, 2023, 7 PM
- Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake (Intro PDF)
- “Nuclear Waste and Relational Accountability in Indian Country” from The Promise of Multispecies Justice (PDF)
Tuesday, October 10, 2023, 7 PM
The Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard (PDF Intro and Chap. 1)
- The Mother Tree Project
- Ecologists researching the better ways to replant forests after fires, including inoculating the roots of seedlings with fungi Sierra, June 2023
- “Are Trees Talking Underground? For Scientists, Itʼs in Dispute.” (URL, PDF) Article in the New York Times with researchers debating the research on fungal networks described in Finding the Mother Tree
September 11, 2023, 7 PM
The Overstory by Richard Powers (PDF first two chapters)
June 5, 2023, 7 PM
Homewaters by local author David Williams , Chapters 7-10. Presentation by the author at the Museum of History and Industry.
Restoring Kelp and Seagrass
- “Restoring seagrass meadows is one tool that coastal communities can use to address climate change, both by capturing emissions and mitigating their effects” New York Times, May 24, 2023, URL, PDF
- “The Vanishing Forest” The Nature Conservancy, May 26, 2023, URL, PDF
May 8, 2023, 7 PM
Homewaters by local author David Williams , Chapters 1-6.( PDF of Preface and First Chapter)
Other Puget Sound Wonders:
Map showing Seattle shorelines prior to settler development. https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/waterlines/project_map.html
April 10, 2023, 7 PM
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Sections 4-5
- “Braiding Sweetgrass”
- “Burning Sweetgrass”
Interviews with Robin Kimmerer
- “You Don’t Have to Be Complicit in Our Culture of Destruction” New York Times interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer (PDF)
- “Speaking of Nature” by Robin Wall Kimmerer in Orion magazine. Expansion of issues discussed in “Learning the Grammar of Animacy” in Braiding Sweetgrass. (PDF)
February 27, 2023
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Sections 1-3
- “Planting Sweetgrass”
- “Tending Sweetgrass”
- “Picking Sweetgrass”
January 23, 2023
Non-Fiction
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (PDF)
- “Preface”
- “Skywoman Falling”
- “The Council of Pecans”
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard (PDF)
- “Introduction: Connections”
- “Ghosts in the Forest”
- “Hand Fallers”
“Are Trees Talking Underground? For Scientists, Itʼs in Dispute.” (PDF) Article in the New York Times with researchers debating the research on fungal networks described in Finding the Mother Tree and The Hidden Lives of Trees.
Fiction
- “Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds“, from Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (PDF)
- “You’ll Never Believe What Happened is Always a Good Way to Start” from The Truth About Stories by Thomas King (PDF)
November 28, 2022
Short Stories
- “One Easy Trick” by Hiromi Goto from the anthology “Sun Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color”, edited by Nisi Shawl ( PDF)“Vaster than Empires and More Slow” by Ursula Le Guin ( PDF)
- “The Trees Between” by Karyn L. Stecyk from the anthology Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, edited by Phoebe Wagner & Brontë Christopher Wieland ( PDF)
Non-Fiction
- The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How the Communicate by Peter Wohllebe
- “This man has saved more than 2,000 Seattle trees from the clutches of ivy” ( PDF )
October 24, 2022
A Prayer for the Crown Shy [novel] by Becky Chambers
September 26, 2022
A Psalm for the Wild-Built Book [novel] by Becky Chambers
Past Readings: World Theologies and Alternative Universes
July 26, 2022
A Canticle for Leibowitz [novel] by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
February 7, 2022
Dune [novel] by Frank Herbert
November 9, 2021
The Parable of the Talents [novel] by Octavia Butler, sequel to The Parable of the Sower
October 12, 2021
Good Omens [novel] by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Good Omens has also been adapted in a mini-series, available on Amazon Prime and from the Seattle Public Library.
August 3 & September 14, 2021
The Parable of the Sower [novel] by Octavia Butler
July 6, 2021
Wild Seed [novel] by Octavia Butler
June 1, 2021
The Lathe of Heaven [novel] by Ursula LeGuin
May 4, 2021
The Sparrow [novel] by Maria Doria Russell–second half
April 6, 2021
The Sparrow [novel] by Maria Doria Russell–first half
March 2, 2021
- “The Nine Billion Names of God” [short story] by Arthur C. Clarke
https://urbigenous.net/library/nine_billion_names_of_god.html - “The Star” [short story] by Arthur C. Clarke.
https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/TheStar.pdf - The Twilight Zone episode “Star” [14 min, filmed low-budget in 1985]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9ru_P5uIJc&feature=youtu.be
