Environment and Climate

The Death and Life of America’s Waters

From the Great Lakes to the Flint River, we have devastated our waters through negligence, lethargy, and good intentions.

  • Meghan O’Gieblyn

The Seed Vault Flooding Is Only the Start of Our Problems

Biodiversity should be maintained by using it, not by storing it under ice.

  • Jack Heinemann

Queer in Rural America

Many LGBT Americans live in rural places. Their invisibility to the gay rights movement is a problem.

  • Hugh Ryan

Blood in Honduras, Silence in the United States

The U.S. turns a blind eye on the murder of environmentalist Berta Cáceres.

  • Lauren Carasik

Get Carbon Off Campus

A Reply to David G. Victor

  • Benjamin Franta

Carbon on Campus

Does fossil fuel divestment work?

  • David G. Victor

Sign up for our newsletter

The Struggle for Accountability in Flint

Michigan law shields decision-makers from public scrutiny

  • Anna Clark

The New Nature

It is impossible to divorce nature from human influence. Can that influence be democratic?

  • Jedediah Britton-Purdy
with responses from
  • Jo Guldi
  • Jairus Grove
  • Robert Paarlberg
  • Andreas Malm
  • David Keith
  • Anna Tsing
  • Ugo Mattei
  • Vandana Shiva
  • Paul Waldau
  • Roy Scranton

Weaponizing Syria’s Water

For anti-Assad rebels, a southern spring has become a kind of suicide bomb.

  • Alisa Reznick

Toxic Tourism

  • Tom Barry

A Matter of the Skies

More birds appear. Bending against the cold, I watch, name, and name again.

  • Dave Byrne

Who Cares About Climate Change?

Global warmning doesn’t register highly among Americans’ environmental concerns. 

  • Stephen Ansolabehere
  • David M. Konisky

Burning China’s Garbage

Protests against a new waste management system signals a turning point in Chinese environmentalism.

  • Sarah Hill

Architecture in Extremis

Shigeru Ban receives the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Does he deserve it?

  • Stephen Phelan

Eco-Puritans

The urban left’s eco-puritanism takes many forms. 

  • Claude S. Fischer

A Case for Climate Engineering

Keith explores a challenging proposal; climate engineering is no silver bullet.

  • David Keith

The Truth About GMOs

Genetically modified foods are safe for humans and pose no special environmental risk. Yet there are serious policy questions to consider.

  • Pamela Ronald
with responses from
  • Marc Gunther
  • Greg Jaffe
  • Margaret Mellon
  • Rosamond Naylor
  • Robert Paarlberg
  • Nina Fedoroff
  • Tim Burrack
  • Jennie Schmidt
  • Jack Heinemann

Washed Away

Remembering Japan’s tsunami.

  • Stephen Phelan

Troublemakers

Rural Chileans Fight to Keep Dams out of Patagonia

  • Carlota McAllister

What We Know About Climate Change

On the long and fraught history of the climate change debate.

  • Kerry Emanuel

Storms Without Names

Climate Change Wreaking Havoc in Central America

  • Douglas Haynes

The Promise of Ethical Consumption

An Ideas Matter event held at MIT on November 3, 2011

  • Dara O’Rourke
  • Scott Nova
  • Richard Locke
  • Jens Hainmueller

Apocalypse

There are no natural disasters, only social ones.

  • Junot Díaz

Vanishing Point

Few people have heard of Baird’s tapir, and fewer still know anything about them.

  • Niall McCann
trending_flat
Get our newsletter

Vital reading on politics, ideas, and culture to your inbox

A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975

Registered 501(c)(3) organization

Help Us Stay Paywall-Free

Donate

Become a Member

Subscribe