NO WORD FOR THUNDER A wise friend of mine, Lee Martin, brought it to my attention recently that the Eskimos, the Inuit, had no word for thunder--they had never experienced it prior to just a few years ago. Without the language to express themselves, the Inuit must surely have trembled in awe in the presence of what some people would most likely regard as a "normal" phenomenon. This event may well have been a harbinger of the seemingly inevitable global warming. The good news, on the face of it, is that language allows us to become familiar with the world and thereby to tame and subdue it according to our needs--alternatively-- merely according to our whims. The frequently unsavory part is that perhaps our words can serve to deaden our awareness of the truly awe-inspiring lying within the mundane, thus making our experience of the world more and more profane--we become rich in words, yet impoverished in our connections with the kindred spirits of the Earth. Thanks to Lee for quickly bringing this issue to my attention So begins the project entitled: No Word for Thunder. Check back for a discussion forum and links to and issues in Philosophical Ecology