essay
Neuroscience
The melting brain
It’s not just the planet and not just our health – the impact of a warming climate extends deep into our cortical fissures
Clayton Page Aldern
video
Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
video
War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
6 minutes
essay
Politics and government
Governing for the planet
Nation-states are no longer fit for purpose to create a habitable future for humans and nature. Which political system is?
Jonathan S Blake & Nils Gilman
video
Earth science and climate
The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact
22 minutes
essay
Information and communication
Beware climate populism
The most ardent deniers of anthropogenic climate change today will become the climate conspiracy theorists of tomorrow
Ákos Szegőfi
essay
Earth science and climate
When does after begin?
Three earthquakes hit Mexico City on the same date in 1985, 2017 and 2022. The coincidence left the city stranded in time
Lachlan Summers
essay
Palaeontology
The dinosaurs didn’t rule
When we think of changes in Earth’s history as changes of dynasty we miss out on understanding how life really works
Riley Black
essay
Stories and literature
Poet of impermanence
Enheduana is the first known named author. Her poems of strife and upheaval resonate in our own unstable times
Sophus Helle
essay
Earth science and climate
Deep warming
Even if we ‘solve’ global warming, we face an older, slower problem. Waste heat could radically alter Earth’s future
Mark Buchanan
essay
Anthropology
Memories within myth
The stories of oral societies, passed from generation to generation, are more than they seem. They are scientific records
Patrick Nunn
essay
Earth science and climate
The return of silvopasture
This ancient practice, nurturing animals and trees in an ecological system, fights climate change and restores the land
Liz Carlisle & Niki Mazaroli
video
Earth science and climate
A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse
6 minutes
essay
Environmental history
Disturbance
How atomic doomsday experiments, fuelled by Cold War fears, shaped then shook ecologists’ faith in self-healing nature
Laura J Martin
essay
Space exploration
There’s no planet B
The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why
Arwen E Nicholson & Raphaëlle D Haywood
essay
Earth science and climate
Our Earth, shaped by life
Darwin was the first to see that all lifeforms, from worms to corals, transform the planet. What does that mean for us?
Olivia Judson
essay
History of science
A singular scientist
James Lovelock was a visionary whose greatest ideas were made possible by his unshakeable independence
Roger Highfield
essay
Oceans and water
Tomorrow’s corals
A warming planet and acid oceans will radically transform marine ecosystems. How will our beloved reefs survive?
Klaus M Stiefel & James D Reimer
video
The environment
Photographs of rainforests dissolving in acid strike a beautiful note of warning
10 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
To renew Yosemite, California should embrace a once-outlawed Indigenous practice
6 minutes
essay
Earth science and climate
The Antarctic paradox
The most protected place on Earth has become one of the most threatened – and threatening. Can its problems be solved?
Alejandra Mancilla & Peder Roberts
essay
Earth science and climate
A new Earth rises
How did the planet replace the nation-state to become the prime political object of the 21st century?
Erik Isberg
video
Childhood and adolescence
When Paradise, California burned, its teens became instant climate refugees
23 minutes
essay
Archaeology
Poseidon’s wrath
Vanished beneath the waves in 373 BCE, Helike is a byword for thinking about disaster, for ancients and moderns alike
Guy D Middleton