In a major homelessness ruling, the Supreme Court holds that cities and municipalities can punish people for sleeping outside, even when they have nowhere else to go.
Baseball fans clear the stands as lightning strikes near the Colorado Rockies’ stadium in 2019.
Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
What really happens when lightning strikes cars, what to do if you’re out in the open or on a beach, and other tips for National Lightning Safety Awareness Week.
‘Meditation,’ by Lei Yixin, near the picnic pavilion in Lake Phalen Regional Park.
City of Saint Paul
Legal precedents hold that criminalizing someone for their status, such as being homeless, is cruel and unusual punishment. But what if that status leads to actions like sleeping in public spaces?
A Harry Potter nightwalk experience at a wildlife sanctuary on the Mornington Peninsula has raised concern for wildlife. Evidence suggests the fears are well-founded.
Volunteers pick up water to deliver to homeless people during a 2021 heat wave.
AP Photo/Nathan Howard
Numerous studies indicate exercise as an effective treatment for people with existing depression and other mental illnesses, and exercising in nature can further improve mental well-being.
The Uphams Corner Food Forest in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood was built on a vacant lot.
Boston Food Forest Coalition
A longtime critic of Atlanta’s BeltLine explains how the popular network of parks has increased inequality in the city and driven out lower-income residents.
Urban green spaces are threatened by growing cities. But research shows the importance of protecting access to nature as housing densification increases.
Red knots stop to feed along the Delaware shore as they migrate from the high Arctic to South America.
Gregory Breese, USFWS/Flickr
Governments, scientists and conservation groups are working to protect 30% of Earth’s land and water for nature by 2030. Two scientists explain why scale matters for reaching that goal.
Physical activity can be an important tool for recovery from the collective trauma experienced and exacerbated throughout the pandemic.
(Shutterstock)
During spring and summer, as more people consider exercising outdoors, a trauma- and violence-informed approach to physical activity can help ensure equity, inclusion, safety and access.
The more new housing a neighbourhood has, the less of the local area is dedicated to green space, which has knock-on effects for wellbeing and the climate crisis.
A new study shows that when free-ranging cats are more than a few blocks from forested areas in cities, such as parks, they’re more likely to prey on rats than on native wildlife.
Wealthy areas of London have better green space provision than the national average.
QQ7/Shutterstock
An environmental health scholar shares four resolutions to improve your relationship with the environment – and its prospects for the future.
Plants are more than background foliage in our busy lives. Our relationship with plants supports human health and well-being in many ways.
(Sarah Elton)
Plants support human health not only in terms of providing food, oxygen and shade. Our relationships with plants facilitate political decisions and actions that support health in the city.
Interstate 980 cuts off West Oakland, Calif., at top, from other Oakland neighborhoods.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images
Two urban policy experts explain why taking down highways that have isolated low-income and minority neighborhoods for decades is an important part of the pending infrastructure bill.