The Great Lady of Deep Ecology has left us

Joanna, a shining being, even in her absence, becomes more present. This was her final gift—to reveal the ambiguity of being/not-being, the forever fragile home of the deepest grief, the greatest love and the most profound compassion. To live in that ambiguity with the same compassion that flowed from the heart of her being becomes our charge to go forth now.

‘I Didn’t Know I Was Sitting in a Pool of Poison’

In 2016, high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—PFAS—were discovered in Monette’s drinking water well at her home in the upstate New York town of Petersburgh, along with the wells of many of her neighbors. Petersburgh’s municipal water supply was also tainted, as was the Little Hoosic River, where Monette liked to cool off. “I didn’t know I was sitting in a pool of poison,” says Monette, a 68-year-old retired elementary school art teacher who taught at a local school district.