Why I paint endangered species as sacred icons
I started painting endangered species the way I once painted saints and angels. Each painting became a kind of prayer and an appeal to our capacity to widen our love and awaken our conscience.
nature
Researchers are finding evidence that fish feel pain. What does that mean for the ethics of seafood?
Fish are often treated as reflex-bound creatures, bodies without minds. Yet, study by study, from anatomy labs to behavioural experiments, mounting evidence to the contrary has emerged.
A magnificent internationale: Building a just world with nature
The magnificent Internationale created by Nature is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new world empire or to build the city in which Nature and humanity dwell together.
How listening can help us respond to a planet in crisis
What does it mean to listen to a planet in crisis? Scholars, scientists and artists are using sound to better understand biodiversity and the climate crisis, while challenging us to reconsider our relationship with the living world.
‘No nature poems, please’: On how we (don’t) talk about nature
It seemed an odd request for a poetry magazine. What stuck with me most, though, was the very notion of a “nature poem.” What is such a thing? How in this age of collapse and dislocation do we define it?
On autumn asters, bumblebees find warmth at season’s end
Sowing flowers in spring may have a surprising effect on the inner lives of bees.
How earth-centered education helps children learn through nature, play, and relationship
An ecological approach to learning uses outdoor play, storytelling, and shared experience to help children develop a kinship worldview — a deep recognition that living and nonliving parts of the Earth are fundamentally connected.
Finding a lever for civilizational transformation
From Indigenous-led governance to worker-owned cooperatives, scattered experiments may offer a blueprint for a pathway out of our global predicament.
When your local reflecting pool or pond turns green with algae, don’t reach for chemicals – nature has better solutions
Trying to kill algae with chemicals is a common response when community ponds or other water features go green. But there are better solutions that cost far less, last longer and carry less risk of harm to pets and wildlife. Rather than battling against nature, these alternatives work with nature for long-term solutions.
In defense of “nature”: why the word still matters in the age of AI
“Nature” is often cast as a word that separates humans from non-humans. But it can also mean something much larger: the universe, the course of things, the great event we live within. It’s a word worth defending.
From Mississippi to Yellowstone: What headwaters teach about designing bioregional funding ecosystems
Imagine what a financial system would do if it behaved like a headwaters system. There would be continual arrival of flows from elsewhere. Resources would pool into local places. Actions would converge in the same direction. And all of it would support the continual emergence and maintenance of life.
Finding hope and purpose in a world in crisis
After years of turning her backyard into a haven for wildlife, the author, Cylvia Hayes, watched the songbirds suddenly disappear. What began as a personal loss became a reflection on eco-grief, ecological decline, and how to find meaning, connection, and hope in a world undergoing profound environmental change.
