My 2nd Memphis Flyer cover story (and unexpected cover photo)

Two years ago, I was only dimly aware that my article might be the cover story for the Earth Day issue of the Memphis Flyer, but when I looked for my article and found myself staring back, it was a bit of a shock. Not that I'm complaining!

EXCERPT (Read the rest of the article here)

The oldest evidence of human activity in Memphis — a spearhead designed to slice through a mastodon’s thick hide — was discarded at Nonconnah Creek 13,000 years ago, behind what is now the Sam’s Club on Winchester. The rain of litter on the creek hasn’t slowed much since then.

The newest evidence of human activity in Memphis is a plastic Sprite bottle. And right now, it’s blowing out of the back of a pickup truck on Bill Morris Parkway. During next week’s thunderstorm, it will be flushed down our storm-water system to join thousands upon thousands of other plastic bottles that migrate down Nonconnah Creek and into McKellar Lake.

I followed another bottle flotilla earlier this month, steering my Coca-Cola-red polyethylene canoe down Nonconnah Creek with local environmental activist Scott Banbury.

(Read the rest of the article here)