Environment
ArchivePhoto: Egan Snow/Flickr As summer wanes and garden harvests start to dwindle, this news lands with a thud: a recent study performed at Stanford University indicated that eating organic produce doesn’t necessarily mean eating more nutritious produce. If you figured this would…
Once again, Russian President Vladimir Putin has thrown himself into an obscure outdoor adventure. This time he donned a white suit and goggles before taking off in an ultralight to guide six endangered Siberian Cranes through the air. Andrew E. Kramer's…
The story behind the otter-exclusion zone, a stretch of water on the California coast from Point Conception to the Mexican border where otters are barred by Congress from swimming
Grizzly print, and a notebook. Photo: Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation Rachel Carson earned a master's degree in zoology from John Hopkins University and spent most of her career working as a marine biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife…
Fly-by drinking. Photo: Ofer Levy/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 With a wing span of up to five feet, the grey-headed flying fox is the largest bat…
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park. Photo: Ryan Dearth Last year, as part of his Call to Action plan to revise and improve the way our national parks are managed, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis asked a committee of…
Soon after a century-old mill dam was destroyed by flooding, the small creek behind Jeff Opperman's house played host to dozens of steelhead making their way up the Chagrin River. The freshwater scientist with The Nature Conservancy used their arrival as an opportunity to reflect on nature in the age of human domination.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WEe1bVjORN4 The lines, curves, and whorls made by ocean currents in NASA's Perpetual Ocean video look like they were taken straight out of Vincent van Gogh's A Starry Night. All the pretty strokes came courtesy of the space agency's Scientific Visualization Studio, which…
Tropical Storm Isaac, August 28. Photo: NASA The city lights all appear on as Tropical Storm Isaac nears the Gulf Coast in this satellite image taken just after midnight on August 28.
Inside the unsolved killing that has an idyllic lakeside town reeling
Fisherman. Photo: Piotr Wawrzyniuk/Shutterstock Here’s an outdoor recreation stat worth breaking out at the water cooler. One out of every one hundred dollars of all goods and services produced in the United States in 2011 was due to hunting, fishing, and…
Yao Ming in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve. Photo: Kristian Schmidt/WildAid Yao Ming is a giant man, but he paled in comparison to the corpse of the elephant stripped of ivory that lay at his…
Photo: Bradleygee/Flickr One point four million. That's how many cigarette butts volunteers collected during beach clean-up events in the United States in 2008 alone, according to Ocean Conservancy. Think of how many they missed. And consider all the butts you've seen tossed off…
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted and its northern flank collapsed, leading to the largest landslide in U.S. history. Volcanic debris from the explosion, collapse of the flank, and subsequent lahars spread out over roughly 230 square miles. The…
Red means it's the warmest month ever. Photo: NOAA This past July was the hottest month in the recorded history of the lower 48 states. A severe drought and…
The National Resources Defense Council's latest annual “Toxic Power” report contains good news for air quality, namely that toxic air pollution from power plants decreased roughly 19 percent from 2009 to 2010. The improvement came as many plants switched to burning natural gas instead…
Earlier this spring, Google's Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg created a living wind map of the United States. The interactive graphic displays surface wind data from the…
On May 13, 2011, two months after a tsunami had devastated the coast of Japan, professional photographic retoucher Becci Manson headed to the country to volunteer. She traveled there with All Hands to help with the clean up,…
This is a moment that never gets old, especially since it seems every year it is captured in more detail, in slower motion, with just enough explanation. It's a great white shark breaching in the waters off of South Africa to bite a seal dummy, which it spits out…
We all live downstream. Photo: Flickr/Kevin Krejci Next week, tens of thousands of manufacturers, retailers, media and marketers of outdoor gear will convene in Salt Lake City for the Outdoor Retailer (OR) Summer Market. Among them will be many…
Captain Don Voss, marine pollution from a diver's POV. Photos: Marine Cleanup Initiative, Inc. When he returned, wounded, from serving in Vietnam, doctors told Don Voss he wouldn't walk again. But Voss, now a 64-year-old ship captain, turned to swimming as therapy. With more…
Michael Kodas is chasing the ever-growing forest inferno all throughout Colorado
When a YouTube video showing a "big-ass" shark snatching a tasty red drum off the end of a fishing pole went viral last week, Chris Dixon, who lives on the water in the area, wondered if he should be more concerned. He spoke to Arnold Postell, a senior biologist at the South Carolina Aquarium, to find out.
After years of warnings and years of inaction, our forests are on fire and the blaze should only continue to grow.
This illegal deer stand is bigger than most Manhattan studios. Photo: St. Louis County Land and Minerals Dept. Deer hunters wait. They find a good spot in the forest, and they wait. To get a better vantage, they might climb into a tree or build a…
Give money to your favorite environment-protecting non-profit without spending a dime. Clif Bar is inviting outdoor enthusiasts to protect the places we play by sharing photos and stories of our adventures on MeettheMoment.com. (Clif Bar's Meet the Moment is also sponsoring Outside's So There…
Photo: Fremlin/CC 2.0/Flickr Going into 2012 Montana's wolf population exceeded 600. Looking for more ways to keep the population in check, the state's Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) Commission passed new rules on Thursday, July 12, that will allow wolves to be trapped.
World-renowned scientist E.O. Wilson did not take up calculus until he was 32 years old. When he did finally tackle the subject, he sat next to undergraduate students taking his introductory biology class. He uses this anecdote as a way into his five…
To get things between the 740 islands of the Falklands, a lot of flying is needed. Much of it is done by one of the four pilots in the Falkland Islands Government Air Service. Pilot Troyd Bowles delivers everything from tourists to remote lodges to farm animals to remote pastures…
Surveying the beaches in his home state of North Carolina with a world-renowned erosion expert, David Gessner considers the folly of trying to deny what all the sandbags and misguided legislation in the world can never stop: the rising sea
Photo: Shutterstock/Amy Walters Last month, the House of Representatives passed an omnibus bill that would exempt the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from more than 10 important environmental laws, including the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and…
An eyewitness report from the front lines as protests against a massive gold mine provoke violence and retaliation
Colorado's hugely destructive Waldo Canyon fire is still burning and politicians are trying to capitalize on the disaster. Please, knock it off.
For better and (only sometimes) worse, elite athletes are our role models. We admire their discipline and commitment; their strength and skill inspire us to reach higher in our own lives. When I talked to alpinist Hilaree O'Neill last month by cell phone from Everest Base Camp,…
Hui Yu Kim, “Boating Fun” (Atkins’ Young Environmental Photographer of the Year: Under 16 Highly Commended) Don't let the incredibly long and clunky name turn you off: The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management's annual…
Cougar. Photo: Shutterstock Cougars are on the rise in the Midwest. From 1990 to 2008, the number of sightings confirmed by wildlife professionals increased. That's good news for fans of big cats, which were extirpated from most of that area around…
Kaieteur Falls, Guyana. Photo: Wilderness Explorers Newsweek said last week that visiting Guyana should be on your Bucket List. Then USA Today said just about the same thing. We first sang Guyana's praises…
Thirty-five years ago, a national recession and high fuel prices led to the opening of the massive, controversial Trans-Alaska Pipeline System—and a host of problems and pollution that came with it. Sound familiar?
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 Outside'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 Outside 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…
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.
Go here to watch the full film and chat with the filmmaker, Peter McBride, on Thursday night between 6–9 MST.
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?