Moving to New York

A few days ago we left quiet little Peterborough, taking the train to Pennsylvania Station, New York.  Now we're set up in Greenwich Village, just around the corner from New York University (I'm writing this in a coffee bar on W Houston Street).  We'll be here for three months.

New York contains an endless array of stories about environmental history and the history of science � everything from oysters to the Manhattan Project.  My NYU colleague, Peder Anker (who I must thank for making this visit possible!) designed much of his course on the history of ecology around events in New York.  Earlier this week I gave a class on Cold War Ecology to his students: fun experience, great students.  And over the next 11 weeks I plan to explore as much as I can of the past, present and future New York environment.

There are also so many New York stories about science and policy.  A decade ago I wrote the introductory chapter for Nature's Experts about New York, telling a few short stories about science and the city environment: lead poisoning, the city water supply, transportation planning, and contaminant issues after 9/11.  And there are many more science and policy stories out there on the streets.

(True story: the introduction for Nature's Experts originally discussed the Toronto environment; but my editor suggested that the chapter should be more "universal," less local � focusing on Toronto implied the book would only be about Canada.  So I made it about New York, which belongs to everyone.)

So here's to the next three months of exploring the city and its stories.