Conservation
It’s been raining for the better part of two weeks where I live in Wisconsin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the grass so decked out in neon green. It’s a sharp contrast to what’s going on in the American West, according to a story from CBS News this morning.
Videos
We know that the world’s forests—boreal, temperate and tropical—play a large role in sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2)—as long as drought, harvesting, insect damage and wildfires don’t overpower them. But we may have another “champion” helping us to combat rising CO2 levels: whales.
Conservation
Most of us who care about the environment, wildlife and our most precious places are familiar with depressing lists, such as the federal Endangered Species List, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) List of World Heritage in…
Conservation
Wednesday, April 22, is Earth Day 2015, the 45th celebration of what started out as a true grassroots movement—the environmental likes of which we haven’t seen since. Last year, on Earth Day 2014, I wrote about Americans’ declining concerns about natural resource issues and the slackening of our environmental laws.
News & More
Suppose we meet for a cup of coffee, and in the course of our conversation, I tell you that 2014 was officially the hottest year on record.
Videos
Almost 10 years ago, in the summer of 2005, I attended an outdoor-writing conference that included a silent auction as part of its activities.
Nature & Wildlife
There has been a lot of good news for endangered and “missing” wildlife lately, which seems like a breath of fresh air amid all the dire headlines about rapid climate change and environmental degradation.
News & More
Words are my business; I’m intrigued by them and the power they have. As an environmental writer, I am particularly interested in the terms we have to describe the natural world: is a particular landscape “inspiring,” or is it more of a “stirring” place?
Travel Tales
Before I took my first trip to Glacier National Park, I had pretty high expectations for one of its most famous features, Going-to-the-Sun Road. I would think that a highway with a name like that would carry me from the Earth into the sky—or at the very least, make me feel that way.
Conservation
Across the United States, more than 715 million acres of wild lands in thousands of holdings are protected, thanks to measures such as the Wilderness Act of 1964.
News & More
At the most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Lima, Peru, in December 2014, more than 190 countries—including the United States—voluntarily agreed to limit carbon emissions in order to keep the world from warming another 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century.
Videos
Norwegian-born Erik the Red was either a great marketer or just a truthful traveler, depending on which stories you choose to believe. Growing up, you probably learned in school that Erik the Red named the world’s largest noncontinental island “Greenland” (Grunland) to entice his neighbors and friends to settle the new country with him.
