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Nina Munteanu

@aliennextdoor.bsky.social
702 followers 492 following 2.2K posts

I'm an eco-fiction author, limnologist/aquatic ecologist, photographer, instructor at UofT. I explore and celebrate the fractal Natural World from microscopic diatoms and miniature lichens and fungi to the giant cedars and pines of old-growth forests

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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 5h
The vine maples were 'popping' red in the rain yesterday... #vinemaples #maple #trees #autumncolours
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 5h
The club moss ... From giant tree to tiny herb -- a study #clubmoss #evolution #coalswamp #Paleozoic #carboniferous themeaningofwater.com/2024/12/29/c...
themeaningofwater.com
Club Moss: From Giant Tree to Little Plant—A Study & An Evolution
Dendrolycopodium obscurum in a bed of Polytrichum moss of Catchacoma Sphagnum wetland, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) I’ve been visiting Catchacoma old-growth forest and associated wetland for several…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 5h
Nina's boulder -- a moss study... #moss #mosses #study #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2024/06/16/m...
themeaningofwater.com
Moss—A Study of ‘Nina’s Boulder’ in Jackson Creek Old-Growth Forest
“[Mosses] are the most overlooked plants on the planet. But they’re gifts, too. They provide us with another model of how we might live.”Robin Wall Kimmerer Upper slope of creek watershed dominated…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 5h
a rainy misty autumn day in Elgin Park marsh ... #ducks #marsh #autumn
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote "We" long before Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World" ... both riffed off Zamyatin who no one seems to know ... #books #ecofiction #political #dystopia ninamunteanu.me/2023/07/02/b...
ninamunteanu.me
Book Review: A Plea for Nature and ‘Us’—The Novel “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Penguin classics book cover of “We” “We shall break down all walls—to let the green wind blow free from end to end—across the earth.”I-330 in ‘We’ Just last week, I read for…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Equisetum ... horsetail ... from giant tree to wee little thing ... #evolution #horsetail #equisetum themeaningofwater.com/2022/10/02/f...
themeaningofwater.com
Equisetum: From Giant Tree to Little Plant—A Study & An Evolution
Fertile stems of common horsetail in spring, showing stobili with sporangiophores; by the river, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) Some of you may know it as horsetail, a short wiry rough green plant tha…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
When giant insects roamed the earth... #carboniferous #insects #evolution themeaningofwater.com/2023/01/29/t...
themeaningofwater.com
The Age of Oxygen & the Giant Insects
Carboniferous swamp forest landscape (illustration by NTV Tiko Deviant Art) The Carboniferous swamp rainforests of 359-299 million years ago were dominated by giant club mosses (lycopsids such as S…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Why we should stop clearcutting our forests and maintain our #oldgrowth #forests ... #clearcuts #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2021/06/09/t...
themeaningofwater.com
Why We Should Stop Clearcutting — Particularly Old Growth — and Embrace Forest Ecology
Most people hold the misconception that trees are a 100% renewable resource. What’s the problem with clearcutting them? They’ll just grow back, no? It’s like cutting grass…Mow it down and it comes …
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tree plantations are NOT natural ecosystems and therefore don't operate like them ... #trees #ecosystems #treeplantations themeaningofwater.com/2019/11/30/f...
themeaningofwater.com
Forest Plantations Do NOT Create the Natural Forest Ecosystems We Need
We keep seeing on Twitter and Facebook how many nations are pledging to increase their forest cover by planting millions of trees. The Bonn Challenge, a global initiative launched in 2011, calls fo…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How we get tree planting wrong... #trees #treeplanting #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2022/05/08/h...
themeaningofwater.com
How We Get Tree Planting Wrong…
“In the face of impending climate catastrophe, there has been a growing clamor to repopulate the trillions of trees our planet has lost over the centuries,” says  the Guardian. But large-scale tree…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How plants communicate... #plant #communication #biosemiosis themeaningofwater.com/2026/09/27/t...
themeaningofwater.com
The Biosemiotic Communication of Plants
Ornithologists have known for some time that songbirds communicate differently depending on their environment. In an area with relatively few lurking predators, their songs deliver very specific ph…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How the bdelloid rotifer lived for millennia--without sex ... #bdelloid #rotifers #aquatic #invertebrates #evolution themeaningofwater.com/2020/11/08/h...
themeaningofwater.com
How the Bdelloid Rotifer Lived for Millennia—Without Sex
As a child, I always wanted a microscope. I would have collected slimy waters from the scum ponds and murky puddles near my house. I would have brought them home and exposed them to the light of my…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Just a peek at microscopic aquatic life #microscopic #aquatic #life themeaningofwater.com/2015/11/16/w...
themeaningofwater.com
Water and Life: Part 1, Microscopic Aquatic Life
Pond Lily (Nymphia odorata), ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) As a child, I always wanted a microscope. I would have collected slimy waters from the scum ponds and murky puddles near my house. I would h…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
#NinaMunteanu talks about water, atmospheric rivers and climate fiction in this interview with Bob Langstaff #interview #climatefiction #water #atmosphericrivers themeaningofwater.com/2021/08/14/n...
themeaningofwater.com
Nina Munteanu Talks Climate Fiction, Water and Atmospheric Rivers on WAMVam Radio
I recently chatted with Bob Langstaff on his morning show on WAMV-am Radio in Amherst, Virginia. We talked about my recent clifi eco-novel “A Diary in the Age of Water”, on how I develo…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Coming home to the Credit River... #CreditRiver #Ontario #rivers #WorldRiversDay themeaningofwater.com/2016/05/03/c...
themeaningofwater.com
Coming Home to the Credit River
When John Stewart of the Mississauga News asked me why I’d featured the Credit River in my book “Water Is…” over the many rivers I’d encountered in my life’s work and travels around the worl…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
When pingos explode ... #pingo #permafrost #climatechange #books #thalweg #ecofiction #climatefiction #Arctic #Tuktoyaktuk ninamunteanu.me/2026/09/27/w...
ninamunteanu.me
When Pingos Explode … ‘Thalweg’
The sleepy village of Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean, NWT (photos by Nina Munteanu) . A few years ago, I travelled to the village Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories on the Arctic Ocean. I wa…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Leading voices in eco-scifi-fiction #scifi #ecofiction #sciencefiction #leadingvoices themeaningofwater.com/2025/08/17/n...
themeaningofwater.com
Nina Munteanu Identified as a Leading Voice in Eco-SciFi Fiction
Inventor/author Kyo Hwang Cho recently identified Nina Munteanu, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jeff VanderMeer, and Richard Powers as Leading Voices in Eco-Science Fiction in an article on the LinkedIn Sky…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Why walking in nature helps me write ... #Nature #walking #onwriting ninamunteanu.me/2019/04/12/h...
ninamunteanu.me
How Walking in Nature Helps Me Write
I don’t often get writer’s block. I just walk out of it into Nature. My favourite place to walk is the forest, along a river. Walking in a forest unclutters my mind and soul. The forest is simple i…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Today, I'm told, is national tree day ... I think every day should be a tree day ... #trees #forests ninamunteanu.me/2023/12/17/l...
ninamunteanu.me
Losing Myself in the Forest Helps Me Find Myself
Rocky trail through ancient eastern hemlock forest, Catchacoma Park, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu) I look forward to my daily walks. I find that walking helps me centre myself. Dependin…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Lead Children" excellent and intriguing Polish TV series on Netflix during #communist industrialization ... #leadpoisoning ninamunteanu.me/2026/03/29/l...
ninamunteanu.me
“Lead Children”: The Heaviness of Poland under Communism
. I recently discovered the Polish TV series Lead Children on Netflix—and pretty much binge-watched it. This gripping 6-episode series follows young Doctor Jolanta Wadowska-Król (played by Joanna K…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
My short story "The Polywater Equation" now out in English on @metastellar.bsky.social ! It was first published in German in "Tales of Science" Go see! ... #shortstories #polywater #water #stories #science #sciencefiction www.metastellar.com/fiction/the-...
metastellar.com
The Polywater Equation
“The Polywater Equation” follows a retired limnologist’s choice to break convention and follow her heart after a series of serious water mishaps (incidents of water turning to ‘jelly’) …
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
On how women scientists navigate the hierarchy of man ... #woman #scientists #androcratic #hierarchy www.realityskimming.com/post/women-o...
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Reposted by Nina Munteanu
Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Notable Canadian eco-fiction authors ... #Canadian #ecofiction #authors
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Reposted by Nina Munteanu
Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian novel "We" came long before Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World": "I usually savour a good novel, but this one compelled me to take it in like an infusion..." ninamunteanu.me/2023/07/02/b...
ninamunteanu.me
Book Review: A Plea for Nature and ‘Us’—The Novel “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Penguin classics book cover of “We” “We shall break down all walls—to let the green wind blow free from end to end—across the earth.”I-330 in ‘We’ Just last week, I read for…
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Reposted by Nina Munteanu
Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Othering in the time of #climatechange -- the AI cult ... #CoryDoctorow #ecofiction #AI #chatGPT #genAI #TheOther #othering ninamunteanu.me/2026/09/20/o...
ninamunteanu.me
‘Othering’ in the Time of Climate Change & The AI Cult
Our current world—under the final shadow of climate calamity and environmental destruction—is steadily polarizing: politically, socially, and environmentally. Wealthy vs. poor. Privileged vs. inden…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Solaris: planet as #character in #story ... #sciencefiction #aliens ninamunteanu.me/2021/11/28/s...
ninamunteanu.me
Solaris: Planet as Alien Character in Science Fiction
Kelvin (played by George Clooney) arrives on Solaris in Steven Soderberg’s 2002 film . Some time ago, I participated in an inquiry to name my choice of “Best Alien in Science Fiction,&#…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles ... and 'the other' #books #sciencefiction #Mars #TheOther #RayBradbury #MartianChronicles ninamunteanu.me/2024/09/29/b...
ninamunteanu.me
Book Review: “The Martian Chronicles” & ‘The Other’
Illustration depicting ‘Rocket Summer’ (image from The Black Cat Moan) They came because they were afraid or unafraid, happy or unhappy. There was a reason for each man. They were comin…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Green science fiction and Nina Munteanu's "A Diary in the Age of Water" #climatefiction #green #sciencefiction #ecofiction #speculativefiction ninamunteanu.me/2026/06/07/g...
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Green Science Fiction and Nina Munteanu’s “A Diary in the Age of Water”
I recently encountered Victoria Crozier’s intriguing PhD thesis and ecocritical discourse out of Liverpool John Moores University entitled “The Brave New Worlds of Green Science Fiction…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
When the forest reveals its archetypes... #onwriting #fiction #archetypes #nature #herald #EcologyOfStory #storytelling #ecology #trickster #shapeshifter ninamunteanu.me/2026/07/19/w...
ninamunteanu.me
When the Forest Reveals its Archetypes
It is early spring and I’m walking through one of my favourite woodlands in Ontario’s Carolinian forests. The river that had swollen with snow melt just a week before, now flows with more restraint…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Acknowledging intelligence in nature... #biosemiosis #nature #intelligence #nostoc ninamunteanu.me/2026/08/16/b...
ninamunteanu.me
Biosemiosis: Acknowledging Intelligence in Nature
In my latest eco-fiction novel (Re)Genesis (upcoming), four teenagers in ‘small town’ Ontario discover and unravel a conspiracy by a chemical factory that uses shapeshifting substances for weapon u…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Check out my fun interview with Simon and Susan on Writers to Writers Podcast #authorinterview #interviews #onwriting #Canadian #ecofiction #sciencefiction ninamunteanu.me/2026/08/23/n...
ninamunteanu.me
Nina Munteanu Interview on Writers To Writers Podcast
Nina Munteanu with Simon Rose and Suzanne Lieurance on Writers To Writers Podcast . I was recently interviewed by Simon Rose and Suzanne Lieurance on Episode 4 of Writers To Writers June 2026. We c…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The magic of autumn ... #fallcolours #autumn #equinox #seasons themeaningofwater.com/2022/10/30/t...
themeaningofwater.com
The Magic of Autumn
Hayes Line dressed in fall colours, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu) It’s autumn in the Kawarthas of Ontario. When leaves fall with the bluster of a chill wind, but not before turning into…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
An autumn walk in an Ontario forest #autumn #forest #walking #Ontario themeaningofwater.com/2025/10/05/a...
themeaningofwater.com
An Autumn Walk in an Ontario Forest
Black Locust grove, Trent Forest, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) . It was a late October morning and I had chosen a less walked trail in the Trent Forest. It was a cloudy day that promised rain from t…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"...I found myself inspired by the autumnal light and organic scent in the air. They pulled me into the verge..." #Autumn #fall #equinox themeaningofwater.com/2023/10/29/w...
themeaningofwater.com
Walking the Autumn Verges
Autumn colours in Mark S. Burnham Park, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu) For the past few days, I’d been wandering, entranced, in the various upland forests and forest swamps and mar…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Place as character in literature ... #place #character #literature #onwriting #writers #WritingCommunity ninamunteanu.me/2026/08/02/p...
ninamunteanu.me
Place as Character in Literature
Place ultimately portrays what lies at the heart of a story. Place as character provides an archetype that story characters connect with and navigate in ways that depend on the story’s theme, parti…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Finding the #thalweg ... How neurodivergence can guide us to a sustainable future... #neurodivergence #sustainable #future www.realityskimming.com/post/finding...
realityskimming.com
Finding the Thalweg: How Neurodivergence Can Guide Us to a Sustainable Future
How Neurodivergence Can Guide Us to a Sustainable Future by Nina Munteanu.
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The American Hop-Hornbeam ... a tree study #TreeStudy #Ontario #forests themeaningofwater.com/2023/07/08/a...
themeaningofwater.com
American Hop-Hornbeam—A Tree Study
American Hop-hornbeam trees in Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) The American Hop-hornbeam is such a special tree that it has at least a dozen names. Aside from its Latin name of …
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The bitternut hickory of Jackson Creek #TreeStudy #trees #bitternut #hickory #JacksonCreek #ecology #environment themeaningofwater.com/2024/09/08/t...
themeaningofwater.com
The Bitternut Hickory of Jackson Creek—A Tree Study
Overhanging white cedar trees lean over Jackson Creek, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) One of the gems of the town of Peterborough is Jackson Creek Park, a 4.5-hectare old-growth forest of over 150-yea…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The scandalous poplar... a tree study... #trees #poplar #autumn #treestudy #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2024/10/27/t...
themeaningofwater.com
The Scandalous Poplar: The Red-Leafed Largetooth Aspen–A Tree Study
Trembling Aspen stand in the fall, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) It’s late autumn in the Kawarthas and my boots shuffle through piles of dry leaves on the trail of the swamp forest. Mostly poplar lea…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Scholarly lichen: when a lichen writes... #writing #lichens #scriptlichen #ecology #crustose #lichen #Graphisscripta themeaningofwater.com/2025/04/12/s...
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Scholarly Lichen: When a Lichen Writes…
Graphis scripta on a poplar tree, Trent Forest, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) I’m an ecologist and limnologist (someone who studies water systems). But I’m a writer too. I write novels and short stor…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Catching a shapeshifting lichen ... #lichens #ecology #shapeshifting #environment themeaningofwater.com/2025/08/03/c...
themeaningofwater.com
Catching a Shapeshifting Lichen
How do you catch a shapeshifter?… I write novels, mostly eco-fiction. They’re frequently set in bizarre worlds with shifty characters. The shapeshifter archetype in fiction often seems one th…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It's rough being so beautiful! ... :) #lichen #environment #beauty #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2025/11/02/i...
themeaningofwater.com
It’s Rough Being So Beautiful: The Rough Speckled Shield Lichen
Brilliant deep sea-green Punctelia rudecta lichen amid bristle moss on sugar maple branch, showing lobed thallus, distinct white gas pores (pseudocyphellae), and isidia, Mark S. Burnham Forest, ON …
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Foraging the common cattail ... rather 'uncommon' ... #foraging #wildedibles #ediblewild #cattail #Typha #EuellGibbons themeaningofwater.com/2026/09/20/t...
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The Common Cattail (Typha latifolia)—Foraging
Boardwalk through beaver pond marsh of cattails, Elgin Park, BC (photo by Nina Munteanu) . While marshes are usually avoided by many of us as mosquito-ridden, impossible to walk in places, who does…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Othering in the time of #climatechange -- the AI cult ... #CoryDoctorow #ecofiction #AI #chatGPT #genAI #TheOther #othering ninamunteanu.me/2026/09/20/o...
ninamunteanu.me
‘Othering’ in the Time of Climate Change & The AI Cult
Our current world—under the final shadow of climate calamity and environmental destruction—is steadily polarizing: politically, socially, and environmentally. Wealthy vs. poor. Privileged vs. inden…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian novel "We" came long before Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World": "I usually savour a good novel, but this one compelled me to take it in like an infusion..." ninamunteanu.me/2023/07/02/b...
ninamunteanu.me
Book Review: A Plea for Nature and ‘Us’—The Novel “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Penguin classics book cover of “We” “We shall break down all walls—to let the green wind blow free from end to end—across the earth.”I-330 in ‘We’ Just last week, I read for…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Notable Canadian eco-fiction authors ... #Canadian #ecofiction #authors
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I found this limnologist's treasure a while ago: a meromictic lake. I'd only studied it in university--then I got to actually see one for real! And it was beautiful! #McGinnisLake #meromictic #lakes #limnology #PetroglyphPark #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2020/08/08/a...
themeaningofwater.com
Lake Study: A Meromictic Treasure in Petroglyph Park
Giant white pines rise high above me like columns of a sacred cathedral. Their deep green canopies sway and creak in the breeze as they strain toward the heavens. Below, at my feet, a profusion of …
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Autumn is just around the corner ... #autumn #fall #fallcolours #sugarmaple #Ontario #trees themeaningofwater.com/2022/10/30/t...
themeaningofwater.com
The Magic of Autumn
Hayes Line dressed in fall colours, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu) It’s autumn in the Kawarthas of Ontario. When leaves fall with the bluster of a chill wind, but not before turning into…
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Nina Munteanu @aliennextdoor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Why some people litter and others don't ... #littering #litter #pollution themeaningofwater.com/2023/10/01/w...
themeaningofwater.com
Why Some People Litter and Why Some Don’t…
Piles of garbage discarded into the forest of Rouge Park, ON (Nina Munteanu) As a child, my pet peeve was littering.I was only five years old and I found littering a disgusting habit. I didn’t real…
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