How the Built Environment Is Damaging Children’s Connection to Nature
Profit-driven urban development has disconnected us—particularly children—from the wilderness. The effects are unhealthy.
Environment featured
The ‘Blue Economy’ Myth: We Have to Stop Thinking the Ocean Can Be Run Like a Business
In the current blue economy paradigm, privatization prioritizes profit above ecosystem health. Water is not viewed as a commodity in this construct, and the buying and selling of oceanic water and aquatic resources would be prioritized over other considerations.
Outrageous Anti-Protest Laws Can’t Silence the Climate Movement
Though also being threatened with increasing penalties under state laws, Americans have somewhat stronger protections under the First Amendment. But how long will dissent continue to enjoy such protections in this country? That largely depends on how we all vote between now and November 5th.
COP16: It’s Wild-West Capitalism Versus Life on Earth
The stakes for our collective future could not be higher, yet many decision-makers are doubling down on destructive policies.
Urban Landscapes in the 21st Century: Can Eco-Cities Tackle Climate Change and Pollution?
While many aspects of city design, participatory municipal governance, or ecological engineering may still be waiting for an integrated urban form, the green corridors, urban forests, and neighborhood communes that have sprung up in the past decade propose concrete, field-tested, and scientifically scrutinized directions for Mumford’s “vaster task” of reviewing our conventional truths about urbanization, prosperity, and civilization.
How mass protest created a breakthrough on the climate crisis in the Netherlands
Creating a trigger event and a moment of the whirlwind — a period in which social movements capture the political spotlight in a country in a major way and shift the terms of public debate — is a rare and important accomplishment.
The First Casualty of Politics is Complexity
The State Lands Commissioner race here in Washington State, USA, is in full swing and I find myself contemplating complexity, in particularly that of the natural world.
AI + synthetic biology: What could possibly go wrong?
Modern humans have come to believe that new technology is better and also benign. The downsides of AI and synthetic biology are already visible. Now, they are being combined.
The Superorganism and the Self
In today’s Frankly, Nate navigates the delicate balance between systems thinking and the profound emotional weight of the realities we face.
Suzanne Simard: “Rooted in Connection: Exploring the Hidden Ties in Earth’s Forests”
In this episode, Nate welcomes forest ecologist Suzanne Simard to explore the forces that shape forest ecosystems, from the critical role of biodiversity in nutrient dispersal among tree species to the worrisome implications of the monoculture and clear-cutting practices common in the timber industry.
Plastic Plastic Everywhere, including in what we drink
Does this plastic orgy simply continue until we’re all reproductively compromised and the problem solves itself? Or is there a solution to the plastic world we’re entombing ourselves in?
PFAS – Poisoned for Eternity? (documentary film review)
The film explores how these synthetic “forever chemicals”–widely used in products such as nonstick cookware, firefighting foams and waterproof clothing–have infiltrated soil, water and everyday products