This is Birdnode.

Glen Allbright grew up in a bird lover's paradise in Western Australia,

where the calls of Western Roselas, golden-shouldered parrots,

and gray fan tails gave him a rich sense of place.

But when he saw how coal mining displaced communities,

polluted the air and water, and decimated bird populations,

Glen lacked the words to describe his emotions.

The philosophy of Wickenstein once wrote that the limits of my language

are the limits of my world.

If that's true, then if you create more language, new language,

you actually expand your world.

So, Glen created the concept of solestalgia in 2003

to describe the pain of witnessing environmental harm where you live.

He defines it as the home sickness you have when you're still at home,

and your home is leaving you.

I want to disrupt business as usual,

and the way I'm doing it is with disruptive language.

Glen imagines a possible future era called the symbiocene.

When human activity will once again be fully interconnected

with the ab and flow of the rest of nature,

and therefore cause no more destruction of life on Earth.

He says the massive declines in bird populations are just one sign

...