Many people associate Henry David Thoreau with solitude in the outdoors. But Thoreau understood in the mid-1800s that there was no such thing as nature separate from humans.
Infrastructure systems – roads, water treatment systems, power grid – can’t be built the same ways as in the past. What’s a better roadmap for the future?
2018 brought the announcement of a new geologic age that covers the last 4,200 years. How do scientists divide up Earth’s timeline and what do these demarcations mean?
The Whole Earth Catalog was a blueprint for sustainability that envisioned humans living in balance with nature. Its creative spirit was welcomed in a year riven by war, assassinations and riots.
It’s time to admit the age of pristine nature is over. In its place is humanity and planet-shaping technologies, from gene editing to climate engineering. Earth Day in a Synthetic Age.
Imagine a world ravaged by the fallout from nuclear weapons and the runaway effects of climate change. Congratulations, you’ve just imagined the Plutocene, but let’s hope it doesn’t become a reality.
In late 2015, 200,000 refugees a month were arriving on the Greek island of Lesvos. Tasos Markou went there to photograph their plight - and ended up joining the locals to help the new arrivals.
To better understand and bring under control the new planetary flows that humanity has unleashed, we need to mobilize all the legal resources at your disposal.
Allan and Helaine Shiff Curator of Climate Change, Royal Ontario Museum and Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto