Is Puerto Rico a Global Model for Disaster Recovery?

In the Wake of Three Hurricanes—And Centuries of Exploitation—Islanders Turned to One Another for Relief

When Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico on September 18, 2022, the U.S. colony had still not fully recovered from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, in 2017. Collapsed bridges had not been rebuilt, houses still lacked roofs, and most recovery funds had not been distributed.

Fiona’s rains only added to the woes, causing house collapses on the interior part of the island, devastating mudslides, and a widespread power outage that lasted for weeks. There was no drinking water: The Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority failed to acquire power generators before the storm …

by Omar Pérez Figueroa | May 8, 2023

tktk | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

California’s Prop 30 Is So Bad It Might Be Good

The Contest Over the Measure—and Others to Follow—Will Determine Whether the Climate Crisis Can Be Addressed Within the Current System

by Joe Mathews | October 11, 2022

Will the fight against climate change finally force the replacement of California’s broken governing system?

That’s the most interesting question posed by the most interesting measure on this November’s statewide ballot. …

Hike the High Sierra, See the Future Unfold

Science Fiction Writer Kim Stanley Robinson’s Visions of a Changing Climate, and World, Run Through California’s Great Mountain Range

by Joe Mathews | July 12, 2022

Do you want to develop the superpower of seeing decades, even centuries, into the future?

Then start hiking the High Sierra.

That’s the inescapable conclusion of a surprising new memoir from California’s …

The Rural Price Tag of California’s Clean Energy Transition

The State Is Scrambling to Find Places to Store Energy—But Even Renewable Sources Make an Environmental Impact

by Sayd Randle | June 7, 2022

In the spring of 2019, residents of eastern California’s Owens Valley were on the fight. As is usual in that part of the world—where a century of aggressive water extraction …

Can Bureaucracies Be Sustainability Innovators?

How India’s Coal-Dependent Government Has Harnessed Its Power to Build Better and Cleaner

by Talib Jabbar | February 18, 2022

Bureaucracies are often thought of as stiflers of innovation and growth. But the Indian government, one of the biggest bureaucracies in the world, has made some surprising gains in the …

Why Divestment Defeated Apartheid and How It Might Help Beat Climate Change

The Money Didn’t Matter. The Movement Did

by Zeb Larson | February 17, 2022

The environmental activist and writer Bill McKibben estimates that climate divestment—the movement to pressure universities, churches, and other institutions to stop investing in, and thus profiting from, carbon-emitting companies—has removed …

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