Janet Thomas - Writer

Extinction in the Salish Sea

Extinction. It is a word running rampant through the lexicon of these times. From the smallest of insects to the largest of mammals, these days, extinction is defining the horizon for too many forms of life…

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Janet Thomas: We can make a difference

It is the beginning of a New Year. I’m old enough to know that my own life is shaped by the past. The tragedy of the future is that it will be inhabited by our young…

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Orca Whales Dollars and Sense

The Port of Vancouver is slowing down vessels in Haro Strait and studying the impacts of noise and disturbance on the Southern Resident orca whales. The Canadian government is now considering a ban on whale-watching in…

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Turf Times

Standing on one side of the fence and looking into the football field as it filled up with middle-school and high-school students was heart-wrenching. I had to keep myself from sobbing out loud. It was an…

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The Morning After Lasts Ten Thousand Years

Thank you to Boyd Pratt and the San Juan Island Library for hosting Lummi leader, Timothy Ballew Sr. at the Grange last evening. It was two hours of deep history from here on San Juan Island,…

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Welcome to Salish Sea World

I recently attended the Economic Developmental Council luncheon and was thoroughly informed about the global/local impacts of freshwater scarcity by policymaker Rachel Cardone and about the environmental imperative of our regional saltwater industry by maritime expert…

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Janet Thomas: Of Fireworks and Freedom

I just returned home from a few days on the border between northern and southern California. It was hot, smoky and dry. At Hensley Lake, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where the U.S. Army…

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Love Them for Real. Not for Profit

The latest news headlines: A dead baby orca. A grieving mother orca. A pursuing public. Why do we even see photographs in the media of yet another tragedy befalling the endangered Southern Resident orca whales?

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Love Them for Real. Not for Profit

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Love It or Lose It

San Juan Island saved my life. It was in the late 80s; I was in the midst of an active playwriting career when I was commissioned to write two plays for sexual abuse prevention—one, “Truth and…

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Fair Thee Well

Earlier this month I attended the Governor’s SRKW Task Force meeting in Wenatchee. This past week I was at the Orca Relief booth at the San Juan County Fair. Hands down, the county fair was far…

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The Breadth—and Breath—Of It All

Last Tuesday’s SRKW Task Force meeting at the Swinomish Casino and Lodge in Anacortes reflected all the bells and whistles of capitalism vs. life itself. When I arrived at 7:30 in the morning, there was a…

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Janet Thomas: The Sacred and the Grotesque

I am reading a book: “Asking for the Earth—Waking Up to the Spiritual/Ecological Crisis.” It’s a re-read, actually. The book was published in 1995, so I first read it about 20 years ago. It was written…

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Orcatober—A Month in Deep Waters

It started far from the ocean in Park City, Utah, site of the 2018 Future in Review Conference. It was the last day and I was on a panel moderated by Ocean Alliance founder and world-famous…

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