Conservation
Here, in the United States, 80% of us live in cities. If you’re in that majority, how do you feel about your wild neighbors, the animals who also live in our urban areas? It’s an important question to ask because your answer has major implications for biodiversity protections, nature conservation and urban planning.
Nature & Wildlife
Oceans pulsate with underwater songs, coral reefs crackle and croak, and the sounds from stars tell us just how far away they are. It seems the whole universe absolutely vibrates with music. Now, science is verifying that notion.
Nature & Wildlife
We know that spending time in nature is good for us, proven by hundreds—perhaps thousands—of scientific studies. But most of what we know about nature and its benefits have come from research focused on how seeing nature affects us.
Nature & Wildlife
Nearly 1,000 birds were killed in Chicago on October 4, 2023, when they collided with an illuminated glass building. Though mass fatalities of this magnitude are rare, light pollution poses a serious—and growing—threat to migrating birds. We need birds.
Nature & Wildlife
Glaciers are tremendous accumulations of snow, compacted by weight and turned to ice. They move with gravity due to their own mass, often carrying rocks and sediment debris with them.
Conservation
Drawing on her life as an Indigenous scientist, author Robin Wall Kimmerer in her now iconic 2015 book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants intertwines the knowledge she gained during her Potawatomi upbringing with the education she later received as a scientist—specifically, a plant biologist.
Nature & Wildlife
When you think of your mother, a warm memory probably pops up of her being there when you needed a hug, lending an ear when you wanted to talk, or standing up for you when you required a hero.
Nature & Wildlife
We human beings have certain basic needs. We must have air, food, water and shelter to survive, according to NASA. If any one of these basic needs is not met, then humans cannot persist. I think the same applies to more-than-human animals, as well.
Nature & Wildlife
It’s just a little more than a month into spring, and I’m already wondering if the summer of 2024 will set a new heat record just as the summer of 2023 did. But, this time, more than setting records and reading dire statistics, I’m thinking about how those temperatures will truly feel to us.
Nature & Wildlife
As someone who cares deeply about the Earth and the natural habitats that it provides, you’ve heard a lot about the 30 x 30 idea—which aims to protect 30% of the planet by 2030—and the similar America the Beautiful plan, with the objective of conserving and restoring 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
Conservation
American writer, conservationist, ecologist, environmentalist, forester, naturalist, philosopher and scientist Aldo Leopold once said that “harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. That is to say, you cannot love game and hate predators … the land is one organism.”
Nature & Wildlife
Next week, I’ll mark another birthday. While I’m grateful for all the ones I’ve been fortunate enough to have so far, how quickly they seem to roll by now is somewhat daunting. That makes me a bit sad. In turn, that has me wondering: at what age are we our happiest?
