Nature & Wildlife
We’re living in an age of great biodiversity loss. And we’re trying to make our way through a worldwide pandemic on top of it. Some days, it seems like life itself on Earth is being wiped out. But there is great reason for hope.
Conservation
Throughout the United States, Native Americans own and/or manage nearly 95 million acres of deserts and forests, grasslands and mountains—much of it in still-intact habitats. That’s 10 million more acres than the National Park Service administers. These extensive holdings make tribes extremely important and significant partners in habitat and wildlife protections.
Asia & The Pacific
When it comes to the world’s waters, I’m more of a river person than a lake person. Rivers always seem to me to be on an urgent mission; they go places. They “run” downstream, “charge” over cliffs—creating thunderous waterfalls—and riffle over boulders to manufacture rapids. Lakes, in my opinion, kind of just stay there.
Videos
There are many delightful and magical myths about the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights. The Inuit of North America interpreted the lights as a ball game—with a walrus head serving as the ball—played by their ancestors.
Conservation
While travel has the potential to positively impact the places visited—infusing money into local economies, supporting local artisans and conservation projects, and promoting understanding across cultures—it also has the capability to destroy the very things we seek to experience and explore.
Asia & The Pacific
New Zealand has always seemed to me to have a wild heart. Despite all of its domestic sheep and introduced birds and plants from Europe, it is still predominantly a place of beguiling beaches, captivating caves, dazzling fjords, gorgeous glaciers, long lakes, magnificent mountains, verdant valleys and active volcanoes.
Travel Tales
Scotland gave me a right punch to the head. And I don’t mean metaphorically. I expected to be awed by its rugged coasts and Iron Age forts. I just didn’t anticipate the real, knock-you-down physicalness of it.
Travel Tips
I recently signed up for Spanish lessons. I’ve been meaning to study Spanish for almost 30 years now, but for some reason, it was always one of those things that fell to the bottom of my priority list. That is, until now. My enrollment in the class was inspired by a trip to Antarctica in March.
News & More
Upon meeting someone new, we usually try to find out two salient facts about the person within the first 30 seconds of being introduced: his or her name and what he or she does for a living. It hasn’t always been that way, of course.
