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Watercolor view of Lower Harlem Valley, a landscape of rocky hills and brushy plants.

War Weary Nature

Environment, British occupation, and The winter of 1779-1780.
A bulldozer juxtapositioned with destroyed buildings and barren land.

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer

From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology can be misused.
Forest of pine trees.

Tree of Peace, Spark of War

The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.
Line of forest fire volunteers in Siberia

A Deranged Pyroscape: How Fires Across the World Have Grown Weirder

Fewer fires are burning worldwide than at any time since antiquity. But in banishing fire from sight, we have made its dangers stranger and less predictable.

Milk Country

The making of Vermont's landscape.
Open air bus and tourists visiting Glacier National Park.

The Secret Life of George Grinnell, One of America's Greatest Conservationists

"Although the lesson of progressivism took a while to sink in, over time Grinnell resolved to do whatever he could to forestall the sundering of his world."

California Burning

Wildfires in the American West are becoming ever more prevalent and destructive. How did we get to this point?

Ancient History of Lyme Disease in North America Revealed with Bacterial Genomes

It turns out that deforestation and suburbanization – not evolution – are to blame for the tick-borne epidemic.
John Muir

John Muir's 1897 Case for Saving America's Forests

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, and avalanches; but he cannot save them from fools—only Uncle Sam can do that."
An aerial view of a forest meeting with a burnt, empty landscape.

Does the U.S. Have a Fire Problem?

Forest fires of 1910 sparked a media-driven fire exclusion policy, which has arguably worsened today's "fire problem."
WTO protestors in 1999.

How Activists Across the Pacific Northwest Planned the 1999 Seattle WTO Protests

Looking back on the environmentalist and anti-globalization movements of the 1990s.
Art installation of cardboard pieces with the Amazon arrow logo, arranged in the shape of a cresting wave.

World in a Box: Cardboard Media and the Geographic Imagination

Cardboard boxes hold a world of meaning that spans from Amazon to the Container Corporation of America.
Forest of redwoods.

The Greatest Act of Greenwashing in American History

A new chronicle of redwood logging exposes how a cadre of wealthy industrialists reaped a fortune in the name of environmentalism.
A plantation worker harvests palm oil fruits in Riau, Indonesia.

The Story of Palm Oil Is a Story About Capitalism

Palm oil is in everything, but it is also enmeshed in global supply chains that rely on brutal working conditions and the destruction of the planet.
Robert F. Kennedy on the presidential campaign trail in 1968.

Beyond GDP: Changing How We Measure Progress is Key to Tackling a World in Crisis

Amid the global threats posed by climate change, energy costs, unemployment and inequality, the need to rethink progress is now an urgent priority.
Picture of the factories that were placed on the St. Lawrence River.

How US Corporations Poisoned This Indigenous Community

These invisible chemicals changed the Mohawk way of life. They’re probably already in you, too.
Painting of swamp with a bird on a branch

Swamps Can Protect Against Climate Change, If We Only Let Them

Wetlands absorb carbon dioxide and buffer the excesses of drought and flood, yet we’ve drained much of this land. Can we learn to love our swamps?
Palm Oil Farm from above

The Irreplaceable: Palm Oil Dependency

Cheap palm oil is part of an interlocking late capitalist system.
In plane sight: Loadmasters look over Tumon Bay, Guam, during Exercise Cope North.

Guam: Resisting Empire at the “Tip of the Spear”

The Pentagon is increasing its forces on the US territory, but Indigenous residents are fighting back.
A forest clearing.

Native People Did Not Use Fire to Shape New England's Landscape

Evidence shows Native Americans in New England lived lightly on the land for thousands of years. Europeans were the first to majorly impact the environment.

How a Movement That Never Killed Anyone Became the FBI’s No. 1 Domestic Terrorism Threat

Behind the scenes, corporate lobbying laid the groundwork for the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of so-called eco-terrorists.
Drawing of a turkey-shaped brown blob on a platter with worried people peering across the table at it.

A Delicious History of “Meatless Meat”

Non-meat proteins have a long history – and are looking more like the necessary food of the future.

The Growing Rift Between Workers and Environmentalists

Members of the working class were once among the environmental movement's best allies. That support has largely disappeared.

Susan Fenimore Cooper, Forgotten Naturalist

Susan Fenimore Cooper is now being recognized as one of the nation's first environmentalists.
Painting of passenger pigeons over farm

They Covered the Sky, and Then...

Perhaps, in ethical terms, it doesn’t matter whether overhunting was or was not the cause of the passenger pigeon’s extinction. Practically speaking, it matters a good deal.
Photograph of two of the original organizers preparing for the first Earth Day (1970). At left, a woman holds up two advertisements for the event. In front, a man stares into the camera (Denis Hayes) while holding a phone.

The Fate of Earth Day

What has gone wrong with the modern environmental movement and its political organizing.

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