Category: Essays

Jason deCaires Taylor's underwater sculpture "Anthropocene." Photograph by Jason deCaires Taylor.

The Anthropocene: The Promise and Pitfalls of an Epochal Idea

Has Homo sapiens become a geological actor altering the conditions of life so forcefully that our impacts are being written into the fossil record? If so, what are the implications for how we imagine human history, ethics, power, and responsibility?

Quantum Computing

What Does Quantum Computing Mean for Conservation?

The rise in new, powerful computing techniques could transform a conservation sector that has grown increasingly reliant on sophisticated modeling and visualization software to make decisions about which places are worth protecting.

Aldo Leopold examining the forest edge

Why Edge Effects?

What’s in a name? Edge effects in the history of ecology, the geography of Wisconsin, and the interdisciplinary values of CHE.