Will Hawai’i Succeed in Killing Me?

A Weather Forecaster on the Big Island Predicts More Disasters If the State Doesn’t Heed Scientific Warnings

Hawai‘i is a spectacular place—not just visually exciting, but also located above incredible geological forces and beneath amazing atmospheric conditions. As a meteorologist who reports on earth science news, I call the Aloha State home because of the multiple scientific processes that come together here every day to create a true paradise.

The casual joke shared among locals is that we live on an island that is actively trying to kill us. Hawai‘i has a long history of epic natural disasters and will be a home for earthquakes, tsunamis, flash floods, …

by Michael Phillips | September 5, 2023

I’m Indigenous Australian, and I Work for a Mining Company

For Over 20 Years, I’ve Been Trying to Change an Industry That Has Excluded, Displaced, and Exploited Native People

by Adam Lees | August 21, 2023

Being in mining was never part of my plan. As a young boy, I dreamed of becoming a priest with a pilot’s license, living and working in remote …

When American Governors and Moguls Came Together to Prevent Environmental
Catastrophe

A Historic 1908 Conference Transcended Party and Personal Interest for the ‘Common Good’

by Adam M. Sowards | August 17, 2023

At the turn of the 20th century, floods, fires, and waste plagued the United States. Industries burned through resources and blew toxins into the air, with few restrictions. States and …

I’m the Santa Cruz Otter. Why Shouldn’t I Bite Back?

Your Accusations Are Otterly Ridiculous—Humans Are the Real Aggressors on California’s Coast

by AGGRESSIVE SANTA CRUZ OTTER, as told to JOE MATHEWS | July 25, 2023

Who are you to be calling me aggressive?

Yes, I’m the 5-year-old female otter from the waters off Santa Cruz, about whom you’ve been reading scary headlines.

Now, I do sometimes approach …

Is There Such a Thing as a Sustainable Mining Boom?

An Early-20th-Century Copper Company Has Lessons for the Industry Today

by Ángela Vergara | July 20, 2023

In the Western U.S. and the north of Chile, large-scale mining has produced similar landscapes of extraction: open-pit and underground mines, smelter stacks, and large masonry structures. Transportation networks connected …

Could Cannabis Help the American West Solve Its Thorniest Environmental Issues?

A Growing Industry, and an Entire Region, Wrestle with Questions Around Water, Land Use, and Conservation

by Phoebe Parker-Shames | July 5, 2023

The study of cannabis is a personal one for me. Outdoor cannabis production in the rural Western U.S. has its roots in back-to-the-land movements of the 1960s. That’s when counterculture …

environment