The Black Birders Who Made White Ornithologists Famous
Nancy Jacobs’ new book uncovers how African birders and vernacular birding knowledge helped build European imperial science.
After the Wind and the Rain: Making Sense of a Record Hurricane Season
Harvey, Irma, Maria. Why has there been so much damage, and what does it mean? A guide for reading helps make sense of disaster.
The Fragile Society We’ve Built from Rocks: A Conversation With Gregory Cushman
Fertilizers, computers, gasoline, and other parts of our everyday lives come from irreplaceable deposits found in the Earth. But how long will they last?
Rural People and Academic Elites Saved Higher Education Once. They Can Do It Again.
Rural resentment is nothing new. When one university reckoned with it a century ago, it convinced farmers that the university worked for them—and improved itself in the process.
Ursula K. Heise Thinks Beyond Melancholy: A Review of “Imagining Extinction”
Extinction stories have a flavor, and it tastes like melancholy. A new book asks what different narratives we could bring to the table.
Ecological Homes: Making Women, Men, and Nature
At the New Alchemy Institute’s bioshelters, green technologies promised social revolution. But women still found themselves stuck with the dishes.
How’d We Get So Cheap? A Conversation with Bryant Simon
The author of “The Hamlet Fire” discusses a deadly blaze at a chicken-processing facility and the logics of cheapness which provided the kindling.
An Environmental Playlist of the Twentieth Century
Take a trip through the twentieth century to explore the development of environmental themes through popular music.
Cottonwoods in Concrete: A Call for Collaborative Survival among Ruins
A forest sprouting from a levee in eastern Washington offers a model for flood management, if only we notice it.
Painting an Empire: Landscapes of Napoleon’s Dreams in Haiti
French landscape painting during the Haitian Revolution lays bare colonial concern for controlling both people and the environment.