Michael Jasny's Blog

About

Bio:: I grew up in an industrialized part of New Jersey, unconcerned about environmental issues (or, indeed, nature) until I read one of John McPhee’s books on geology and had an embarrassingly late conversion experience. I’ve been to law school and graduate school, the latter in English literature, and dabbled in human rights law before coming to NRDC. In the last few years I’ve focused on marine mammal conservation, so my 4-year-old knows A LOT about whales.
Roots in:: The Northeast Corridor, Los Angeles, and Vancouver.
Favorite place:: Lyell Canyon in the Sierras. Also the Gem-Spa newsstand near the corner of 2nd and St. Mark’s in NYC, home to the only legitimate egg cream on the planet.
Why "environmentalism" matters:: Maybe it’s because I work on wildlife issues, but I’m a firm believer in the “biophilia hypothesis”: the idea that we’re hard-wired as a species to care about certain features of the natural world. If you want to save that baby whale, you have to want to protect the oceans, and by protecting the oceans you’re saving the human race as well.

Scientists to Obama: Less Ocean Noise, Please (October 7, 2009)
Hawaii's Resident Whales (September 30, 2009)
Whales and the Knife's Edge (June 12, 2009)
Navy Games (April 9, 2009)
Colbert Weighs In (June 26, 2008)
Sonar and the Supremes (June 24, 2008)
Whales and Oil (June 19, 2008)