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November is fast approaching, but neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama is talking about the E-word. Our eight experts coach them on how to handle one of the year's most sensitive issues.

A couple of weeks ago, senior editor Abe Streep stopped by my office with a quick question. He'd been editing two stories for this issue—a Dispatches piece on the shuttering of state parks in California (“Access Denied“) and a Natural Intelligence column on the…

Simulated wetland used in silver nanoparticle research at Duke University. Photo: Benjamin Espinasse In recent years, many outdoor apparel manufacturers have embraced a new range of anti-microbial textile coatings that are designed to inhibit the growth of bacterial and fungus that cause odors. Less stinky…

White Marble. Photo: NASA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/Flickr By now you’ve probably heard of Blue Marble, the super hi-res composite image of earth. It’s not the single biggest hi-res…

Burt's Bees cofounder Roxanne Quimby wants to hand the government a new national park in northern Maine—election-year politics and residents' NIMBYism be damned. Brian Kevin investigates the boldest conservation plan in decades.

Midway Atoll is a 2.4-square-mile atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with three islands covering 1,549 acres. It's small, remote, and an essential landing strip for giant seabirds. More than three million of them plop down on the islands every…

AquaBounty salmon, the unreported disaster at a Panama grow-out facility, and the Georgian libertarian who took control of the fish farm and may soon move it outside the watch of the Food & Drug Administration. Meet what could soon be the first GE animal allowed for human consumption.

There is nature in our backyards and our parks; even the green strips running down big avenues like Broadway in New York City contain natural value. By recognizing that we can connect people to nature—and nature to people.

Photo: Kalakutskiy Mikhail/Shutterstock This fall, Hal Herring plans to go backcountry hunting with his son near his Montana home. If they both take an elk, they'll be able to provide the family with enough meat for the following year. But should House…

Did a judge in Florida just put an end to SeaWorld's famous killer whale shows? A ruling issued yesterday may change the way marine amusement parks work forever.

Click on the image for a larger graphic. In what may be no surprise to anyone, the ecological footprint of humans on earth has continued to increase over the last half century. As the population has increased, so has the amount of land and resources needed…

The Environmental Protection Agency just released its long-awaited study of the potential effects of the proposed—and highly controversial—Pebble Mine on Alaska's watershed and famed salmon, but the conclusions, tepid as they are, probably won't please either side

Over the next 50 years, responsible companies are going to be forced to embrace the triple bottom line, or 3P, and consider not just profit, but also the value of their people and the value of our planet

Courtesy of planet–earth.ca On May 10, Gizmodo posted this 122-megapixel picture they call the single highest resolution photo of earth. Not long ago, NASA made…

YVON CHOUINARD, owner and founder of Patagonia, one of �����ԹϺ���'s 50 best places to work, knows a thing or two about doing good business. Here, he shares some of what he's learned.

We're adding chemicals to our land and water supplies, pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and facing the planet's sixth extinction crisis. YVON CHOUINARD, owner and founder of Patagonia, wonders if we've borrowed more from nature than we can ever give back.

Photo: Walter Siegmund/Wikimedia Commons On Saturday, flash flooding on the Seti River destroyed a number of villages in Nepal's Kaski district (near Annapurna), claiming at least 26 lives, according to recent news reports. Around 40 others, however, are still…

Things have gotten crazy violent in the dark, dense forests of California’s Mendocino County, where pot growers from Mexico run elaborate plantations they’ll defend to the death. Damon Tabor saddles up with Sheriff Tom Allman, head of a helicopter-riding, rifle-toting paramilitary strike force determined to take back the woods.

Frank Quan at China Camp Village  Photo: Mary Catherine O'Connor I found Frank Quan at a picnic bench, just off the beach, as the waters of San Pablo Bay lapped gently on the shore. It was an unseasonably warm, windless April afternoon and…

Badlands bison Photo: National Park Service photo archive The Oglala Sioux Tribe may be granted management of the South Unit of Badlands National Park, which would create the country's first tribal national park. The…

Wildfire via Shutterstock  Photo by Jon Beard This summer's wildfire season is already well underway, with tragic repercussions. The Lower North Fork Fire in Colorado last month claimed three lives and many homes. It prompted Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to put a moratorium…

Colin Firth has teamed up with Survival International to call for people to take action against the illegal logging and violence wiping out the remaining few hundred Awá of the Brazilian Amazon. Survival International calls the Awá the “Earth's Most Threatened Tribe.” “The Awá's…

A group of scientists on an expedition for the Far East Russia Orca Project spotted and recorded a video of an adult white killer whale in the waters off of Kamchatka. This is believed to…

Young lion, via Shutterstock  Photographer: Louie Schoeman Last year, the presidents of five African nations made official the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), the largest conservation area to ever be approved. And last month the park was officially…

Activist Tim DeChristopher outside of a Salt Lake City courtroom, courtesy of 350.org on Flickr Last October, soon after �����ԹϺ��� published a profile I wrote of Tim DeChristopher, the incarcerated climate activist who…

Watch live streaming video from cornellherons at livestream.com As I write this, I can hear geese and a Belted Kingfisher in the distance and I'm watching a Great Blue Heron sitting over her day-old egg. I'm thousands of miles away from…

Grand Canyon   Photo: Grand Canyon NPS The East Rim of the Grand Canyon, where the Little Colorado River meets the Colorado River, is a remote, quiet area, especially compared to the crowded Southern Rim. But it might not remain that way. The 27,000 square-mile Navajo reservation…

Photo: Flickr/gailf548 A study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows how ecotourists, researchers, and others who are lucky enough to step foot on Antarctica might be leaving more than footprints. Seeds and other plant material hitch-hikes there by way of…

Black bear scavenges at a dump. Photo: Flickr/Mr Emprey As the debate rages over the environmental costs and benefits of oil derived from the tar sands in northern Alberta, wildlife near a major extraction area is already coming out on the losing end.

Wildlife photography’s best new tool rolls. Check out these breathtaking close-ups of lions from Will and Matt Burrad-Lucas.

Photo: Christinamari/Flickr The Bureau of Land Management is in a pickle. And wild horse advocates are fuming. At issue is what the BLM considers unsustainably large herds of wild horses on 26 million acres…

A U.S. Army sergeant launches a UAV. Photo: The U.S. Army Ecologists and conservationists have long and frustrating lists of hurdles that keep them from doing field work. Aside from the wild, dangerous miles between them and the remote regions of the world they need to…

Go here to watch the full film and chat with the filmmaker, Peter McBride, on Thursday night between 6–9 MST.

Watch Peter McBride’s award winning 18-minute film about his three-year journey to paddle, walk, and fly the entire length of the Colorado River. Showing tonight at 8 EST.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Photo: Flickr/advencap It's the kind of story that makes conservationists hopeful. After years of staving off development and raising funds, the Peninsula Open Space Trust purchased 4,000 acres south of San Francisco, called…

The Bureau of Land Management is getting an earful over its tentative approval of a lease to Alton Coal Development LLC, a group of Florida investors that want to expand an existing coal mining operation into public lands close to Bryce Canyon…

National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis spouts off on the infamous bottle ban in Grand Canyon National Park, adapting to climate change, and a new rule that would give Homeland Security power over public land decisions on U.S. borders

In July, 2012, California will close 70 of their State Parks. Heath Hen Films goes from park to park to see what the closures mean for the state. Read more in Joe Spring’s article here.

How did a case about filming the world's most notorious recluse go all the way to New Hampshire's Supreme Court?

By July 1, 2012, California plans to close 70 state parks. Gray Whale Cove State Park, Portola Redwoods State Park, Castle Rock State Park, and 67 other of the state's 278 parks will close. Twenty…

Don’t scoff. The fuzzy notion of socially responsible investing is being replaced by a truly green—and profitable—model.

Here are some filmmakers you can help, if you so desire. Hal Clifford and Jason Houston have begun a documentary project, called Picture the Leviathan, about artist James Prosek's mission to draw the 40 most important fish in the Atlantic Ocean at their actual…

Harold Camping was wrong—twice—about 2011 ushering in the end of days, but the year certainly had its share of environmental catastrophes. Thankfully, there were a few glimmers of hope, as well.

Trip Jennings’ latest film takes on transporting coal across the country to be shipped over seas. For more information on fossil fuel transport, read Abe Streep’s profile of Tim DeChristopher.

Four Colorado transactions that put Tom Chapman on the map

Tomorrow, November 30, is the last day of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season. To mark the occasion, NOAA released a video that condenses the entire six-month, seven-hurricane season into a 4 minute and 42 second video. A few notes on the…

Is working closely with killer whales in a marine park dangerous for trainers? Our reporter travels to a courtroom in Florida to cover the controversial OSHA-SeaWorld hearing, the outcome of which could redefine SeaWorld’s Shamu shows.

Carl Pope, Courtesy of Sierra Club Carl Pope, the current chairman of the Sierra Club, announced he is stepping down to pursue other projects. Pope led the environmental non-profit for much of the…

The best environmental blogs, from one-sided political commentators to prolific aggregators and reporters breaking news.

In late September, a surveyor found a small dead bat lying on the ground at a 6,500-acre wind farm in Pennsylvania, prompting an indefinite shutdown of night operations. With demand for green energy on the rise, is pulling the plug on a wind farm over one dead bat the right call?

Is working closely with killer whales in a marine park dangerous for trainers?

These innovators, charities, non-profits, and scientists are helping to make the world a better place.

David de Rothschild is paddling Brazil’s Xingu River with a totem pole to stop the proposed Belo Monte dam

Our experts break down the science behind five environmental conundrums

The Solyndra solar debacle has some in Congress arguing that government needs to get out of the renewable-power ­business. Don’t tell that to the Marine Corps, the bravest new recruit in the clean-energy revolution.

How does a visionary marine biologist convince brain researchers to help him revolutionize ocean conservation? With lots of hugs, a million blue marbles, and one very unorthodox conference.

Thousands of protesters, including environmentalist Bill McKibben and actor Mark Ruffalo, encircled the White House to voice their opposition to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline

Gage & Gage Productions‘ latest film tracks Tim DeChristopher’s rise to notoriety. Check out this profile by Abe Streep.    …

Here's a video we've already posted on our tumblr (visit it for more videos) and facebook page, but it deserves another call out. Yes, it's 11-minutes long, but it involves a high altitude collision, a life-threatening struggle,…

Last May, while most normal high school students were out breaking curfew or killing time until summer, 17-year-old Alec Loorz from Oak View, California, had other plans: He was suing the federal government for global warming.  His lawsuit is part of a nationwide surge of youth-led litigation, filed in every…

After the story "The Trials of Bidder 70" went to press, �����ԹϺ��� obtained several e-mails, sent between current and former officials with the BLM and the U.S. Attorney’s office, that had been requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

You're ready to act on those good intentions, but how do you know the organizations you're backing deserve your trust? Here are the 30 best—smartly managed groups with transparent financials, efficient spending, and track records of on-the-ground success.

On the ground with an anti-poaching unit working to save the last of Africa’s black rhinos. To see the whole six-part series, narrated by Robert Redford, click to this TV schedule.

Before the Tar Sands protests and before Occupy Wall Street, a young activist named Tim DeChristopher disrupted a federal oil- and gas-lease auction. The act made him a martyr for a newly radicalized environmental movement—and landed him in prison. This is his story.

It’s environmental action month at Raising Rippers! Last week I talked with surf activist Kyle Thiermann about no-brainer ways to lessen your impact on the planet. Now I’m wowed by 17-year old Victor Davila’s plan to use skateboarding to promote environmental justice and reduce inner-city obesity in…

The 76-year-old artist Christo has sunk two decades of work and $11 million into hanging 6 miles of translucent canopies over the Arkansas River. Yet he’s still fighting local opposition and waiting on a decision from the Bureau of Land Management. Will his Over the River project ever go up?

More than a decade ago, Mike Fay’s epic Megatransect walk across Africa spurred the creation of a string of national parks and made him a conservation superstar. So why, after a lifetime of fighting to protect wild places, is he questioning the very foundations of his work? And why is he looking for answers in a cabin in Alaska?

Recording engineer Jeff Rice is on a mission to preserve the sounds of nature. Why? Listening to them might actually make us healthier.

Ok, maybe I'm reporting about the mountain lion that was tranquilized on the University of Colorado campus because I'm an alumni. But come on, a mountain lion on a college campus is kind of amazing, right? (Yes, they come down into Boulder often, but…

Hidden waterfalls? Kayaker Heather Herbeck on what the removal of Washington’s Condit Dam may bring to whitewater paddlers. A film by Andy Maser.

With a new Hollywood movie ­taking aim at birders, Michael ­Roberts steps up to defend his kind

Recently, the argument for the Keystone XL pipeline has been framed as the economy versus the environment. BILL McKIBBEN takes a hard look at the job creation numbers and calculates a different reality—stopping the pipeline could lead to a brighter economic future.

What to do with nearly 42,000 captive mustangs that could be forced off the government dole

A quick look and the outdoor cred and environmental records of the Republican candidates

Located in California's Sequoia National Park, The General Sherman is the largest living single stem tree on Earth. Or at least the largest living single stem tree that we know about. No, it's not the tallest. (That award goes to the Hyperion…

Barking tree frogs, exploding dragonflies, crackling Arctic fjords—these are the top 10 wildest field recordings.

The removal of Glines Canyon Dam has begun on Washington’s Elwha River. Andy Maser Films and American Whitewater give us a look behind the curtain of the world’s biggest dam removal project.

The only thing more varied than photographer Michael Muller’s portfolio—portraits of superstars from Kelly Slater to Lebron James, movie posters for blockbusters like Captain America and Spiderman 3,…

The 5 Gyres Institute sails the world’s oceans to study how plastic impacts ecosystems. Watch their adventures in Plasticized, which will be released by year’s end.

From erosion-resistant reefs to recycled toilet water (gulp), five city strategies freshening up the 21st century