Betting the Farm on the Drought By Longreads Feature Farmers like sixth-generation Illinois farmer Ethan Cox can’t wait for policymakers to protect them from climate change. To survive, they have to adapt their operations now, if they can.
Greenland’s Deepening Ecological Grief By Krista Stevens Highlight “We no longer understand it here. We don’t trust it.”
What Does It Mean To Be Moved? By Jennifer Wilson Feature We can all remember a time when the wind touched us when we needed touching, pushed us along when we were unsure.
The Wind Sometimes Feels in Error By Luke O'Neil Feature Each year the balloon strained and strained against its cords.
A Once and Future Beef By Will Meyer Feature Beef is a major culprit of the climate crisis, but if you want to consider beef’s future, then look to its past. The industry’s tactics have not changed as much as you might think.
Can Coastal California Adapt to Climate Change? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Rising sea levels and aggressive erosion could prove to be the greatest crisis modern Californians will ever face.
‘The Underland Is a Deeply Human Realm’: Getting Down with Robert Macfarlane By Tobias Carroll Feature “I thought the underland would be — of all the landscape forms that have drawn me to explore them — the most uninhabited. This proved wildly incorrect.”
Critics: Endgame By Soraya Roberts Feature If there’s no earth, there’s no art. How do you engage in cultural criticism at the end of the world?
The Age of Forever Crises By Linda Kinstler Feature We need to learn how to talk about our irreversible mistakes. Historian Kate Brown says the first step is to resist the Chernobylization of knowledge.
Did One Young Scientist Discover the Paleontology Pot of Gold? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Answers to some of paleontology’s most frustrating questions might lay in the dirt in North Dakota, but can the scientist who discovered them be believed?
The Difficult Case for Assisted Plant Migration By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight To protect them from climate change, concerned citizens are moving clones of California’s ancient sequoias to Oregon in a process known as assisted migration, but should they?
This Month In Books: Botanize Your Past To Save the Future By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter is overflowing with regional fiction, travel writing … and retro-botany.
What the Death of a Glacier Means for Us By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary The death of an iconic California glacier signals the loss of one scientist’s work, the end of an epoch, and possibly the beginning of a new era of mass extinction.
When the Climate Change Story Becomes Your Life Story By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Moving from bustling, expensive Seattle to tiny Ashland, Oregon seemed like an improvement, until the forest fire season began.
Honey Bees, Worker Bees, and the Economic Violence of Land Grabs By Melissa Chadburn Feature Melissa Chadburn challenges her own belief that environmental justice issues are reserved for people of privilege.
Atlantic City Is Really Going Down This Time By Rebecca McCarthy Feature There’s no doubt that Atlantic City is going under. The only question left is: Can an entire city donate its body to science?
Pam Houston on Coming Clean, Climate Change, and ‘Writing Deeply Into the Grasses’ By Kim Steutermann Rogers Feature Pam Houston’s new memoir is an ode to her beloved ranch, but also deals directly with the harrowing moments of childhood abuse that her fictional characters have been living through for years.
The Weather and the Wall By Will Meyer Feature Climate change and the border wall are more connected than you might think.
‘What If We Just Got Out of Nature’s Way?’ By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Instead of building seawalls or raising the land to prepare for rising sea levels, California’s Imperial Beach is considering moving the town a few blocks back from the ocean.
At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side By Adam Boffa Feature Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.
Duet for a Small Porpoise’s Extinction By Kimi Eisele Feature Kimi Eisele contemplates coherence, the near extinction of the vaquita, and the expensive bycatch of being human.
Preserving Human Life Requires Preserving Insect Life By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight While science labors to comprehend the variety and volume of insects on earth, both are declining with disturbing speed, and the ecological consequences are troubling.
‘I’ve Always Been Either Praised or Accused of Ambition’: An Interview with Barbara Kingsolver By Sarah Boon Feature Barbara Kingsolver takes a rigorous, scientific approach to her novels’ subjects — but, as a woman writer, her authority is often challenged.
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things By Michelle Weber Highlight Scientists knew how serious climate change is. Politicians knew. Energy companies knew. The U.S. was ready to act, and then we… didn’t.
Drought In Post-Apartheid Cape Town: An Interview with Eve Fairbanks By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary United in a common struggle, the drought has leveled the racially divided city’s physical and social barriers in profound ways.
Storytelling the Flood: Elizabeth Rush on Empathy and Climate Change By Bradley Babendir Feature In her new book, Elizabeth Rush gives voice to poor communities and communities of color who are the first victims of the rising sea.
Farming a Warming Planet By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Even if rising sea levels flood many coastal cities, California farmers plan to grow food for a living. So what will the future California grow?
This Month in Books: ‘How Do We Stay the Right Distance Apart?’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary At first glance, there’s a pretty stark divide in this month’s books newsletter.
