Science
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
video
Biology
The idea that life on Earth originated elsewhere is not as far out as it seems
6 minutes
video
Biology
Flicker through the eclectic beauty and biological diversity of 2,400 leaves
3 minutes
essay
Nature and landscape
Home and the birdsong
In the dark, sylvan villages of medieval England, people named places after the birds that filled the night with music
Michael J Warren
video
Knowledge
Yes, the Inuit have dozens of words for snow – but what does each one mean exactly?
6 minutes
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
essay
Deep time
Mutual entrapment
As Neolithic people transformed prehistoric forests, they stumbled into an ecological trap. Domestication goes both ways
Mette Løvschal
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Producing food while restoring the planet – a glimpse of farming in the future
7 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus
4 minutes
essay
Anthropology
Keeping our options open
Frantic human activity has reduced both cultural and biological diversity. Now we must protect the dwindling alternatives
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
video
The environment
Photographs of rainforests dissolving in acid strike a beautiful note of warning
10 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Experience the dazzling displays that fireflies create when humans are far away
5 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
To renew Yosemite, California should embrace a once-outlawed Indigenous practice
6 minutes
video
Biology
In the jungle of Suriname, Maria Sibylla Merian discovered insect metamorphosis
4 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
essay
Ecology and environmental sciences
Pyrocene Park
Fire is a planetary feature, not a biotic bug. What can we learn from Yosemite’s experiment to restore natural fire?
Stephen J Pyne
video
Evolution
The master-of-disguise creature whose whole life is an elaborate lie
5 minutes
essay
Ecology and environmental sciences
How to restore a savanna
Massive tree-planting programmes have come to substitute for the tradeoffs and complexity of restoring real ecosystems
Francis E (‘Jack’) Putz
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Life in one of Canada’s northernmost villages, where the land is sinking into the sea
24 minutes
essay
Design and fashion
The Waste Age
Recognising that waste is central, not peripheral, to everything we design, make and do is key to transforming the future
Justin McGuirk
essay
Ecology and environmental sciences
Reweaving the wild
Human roads have utterly fragmented the world of wild animals but the engineering to reconnect the pieces is in our grasp
Darryl Jones
video
Biology
Peering into the eerie world of plankton reveals a variety of vital creatures
3 minutes
essay
Oceans and water
Defend the deep
Instead of letting waves of exploitation sweep through the deep ocean, we could choose to protect this vast living realm
Helen Scales