Magazine

Katharine Sims, Amherst College; Jonathan Thompson, Harvard University, and Spencer Meyer, Harvard University Protecting land from development provides numerous ecological and social benefits, but many people debate whether it hurts or helps local economies. Some worry that land protection will inhibit economic growth by restricting local resource use or building opportunities. Others counter that land […]

Maywa Montenegro, University of California, Davis; Annie Shattuck, University of California, Berkeley, and Joshua Sbicca, Colorado State University These are difficult times in farm country. Historic spring rains – 600% above average in some places – inundated fields and homes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that this year’s corn and soybean crops will be

Garth Paine, Arizona State University Our hearing tells us of a car approaching from behind, unseen, or a bird in a distant forest. Everything vibrates, and sound passes through and around us all the time. Sound is a critical environmental signifier. Increasingly, we are learning that humans and animals are not the only organisms that

Ann Scarborough Bull, University of California, Santa Barbara and Milton Love, University of California, Santa Barbara Offshore oil and gas drilling has been a contentious issue in California for 50 years, ever since a rig ruptured and spilled 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil off Santa Barbara in 1969. Today it’s spurring a new

Kate O’Neill, University of California, Berkeley Less than two years after China banned most imports of scrap material from abroad, many of its neighbors are following suit. On May 28, 2019, Malaysia’s environment minister announced that the country was sending 3,000 metric tons of contaminated plastic wastes back to their countries of origin, including the

Greg Asner, Arizona State University Earth’s cornucopia of life has evolved over 550 million years. Along the way, five mass extinction events have caused serious setbacks to life on our planet. The fifth, which was caused by a gargantuan meteorite impact along Mexico’s Yucatan coast, changed Earth’s climate, took out the dinosaurs and altered the

David Keith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Christopher R. Knittel, MIT Sloan School of Management A growing number of cities, states and countries aim to dramatically reduce or even eliminate carbon emissions to avert catastrophic levels of climate change. Ideas about how to get this done as soon as possible, including those Democratic lawmakers like

Neil Seldman, Director, Waste to Wealth Initiative, Institute for Local Self-Reliance If you read accounts of recycling in the mass media you may be convinced that recycling is on its deathbed after a 45 year run. Reality is more complex and more encouraging. Recycling is not dying. The recycling movement born in the late 1960’s and joined

Brian Lovett, University of Maryland Insects scuttle, chew and fly through the world around us. Humans rely on them to pollinate plants, prey on insects that we don’t get along with, and to be movers and shakers for Earth’s ecosystems. It’s hard to imagine a world without insects. That’s why news reports in recent months

Heidi Pearson, University of Alaska Southeast As the prospect of catastrophic effects from climate change becomes increasingly likely, a search is on for innovative ways to reduce the risks. One potentially powerful and low-cost strategy is to recognize and protect natural carbon sinks – places and processes that store carbon, keeping it out of Earth’s