Senior editor Grayson Schaffer was on assignment reporting a story on—coincidentally—tornadoes when this twister hit the Denver airport.

Climate scientists Jason Box and McKenzie Skiles are packing up their ice core drills and heading to Greenland on a crowd-funded expedition.

Drought and climate change have turned western forests into firebombs that go off every summer. Even with new technology, the essential weapon in the fight against flame are the Hotshots, an elite group of wilderness first responders who head straight for the heat.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency is making its long-awaited move to lift federal protections for the gray wolf while focusing more resources on Mexican wolf recovery. But the fate of the species remains unclear.

An incredibly beautiful time-lapse of a forest fire burning out of control in northern New Mexico. May 31, 2013.

Competitive paddler and environmental scientist Kristen Podolak works at the confluence of water and fire as The Nature Conservancy's conservation planner

Cruise lines are big on luxury, with an environmental impact to match. With outdated regulations and uneven cleanup efforts, there may be rough seas ahead for the industry (and the environment).

Long-distance cyclists are photographing roadkill in an effort to help scientists determine how to protect various species. A new app can help you do the same.

Environmentalists gain an unlikely ally

With the number of fracking wells surrounding National Parks skyrocketing, a watchdog group exposes the true extent of their damage to our public lands

Carl Zimmer walks into the woods to find out why these tiny beasts are skyrocketing in number—and outsmarting scientists with every bite

The climate activist was released yesterday after being incarcerated for 21 months

While a federal agency works to remove the grizzly bear from the endangered species list, opening the population to hunting, conservationists worry

Mined, dammed, and sucked dry: The annual list of of the country's most endangered waterways is out—and it isn't pretty.

When the Florida Wildlife Commission offered $1,500 for the most Burmese Pythons caught in the Everglades in a month, they had no idea that almost 1,600 would-be wranglers and a cabal of journalists would flock to the cypress swamps for what turned out to be more of a reality-TV audition than a good ole-fashioned bounty hunt. Now that the dust has settled, what

A new startup presents an energy-harvesting soccer ball that will bring easy electricity to resource-poor communities

Tomorrow, on World Water Day, a new start-up is launching a program that aims to raise $1 billion to improve clean water infrastructure by convincing resorts around the world to stop importing plastic bottles

Desertification is out of control, but there may be a way to stop it

Go see the New York Historical Society's exhibition of John James Audubon's "Audubon's Aviary" or go buy the book. Do it now.

The first of a new Adventure Ethics feature wherein we profile those whose work places them at the intersection of adventure and environmental issues

Rachel Dickinson boards a sailboat with ornithologists for a 10-hour voyage to the most remote island in the Falklands, which is home to more than half a million birds

Metallic mining in Wisconsin used to be tightly regulated. Mining Bill SB 1, signed into law by Scott Walker on Monday, is changing that.

The Patagonia founder dishes on environmental activism and the outdoor apparel industry at a sustainable business conference in San Francisco

Denim. American denim.

As rising waters lap at endangered species' heels, the most effective responses are likely found outside the scope of that landmark legislation

In this chapter from Animal Wise, the latest book from journalist Virginia Morell, the author visits renowned scientist Dr. Irene Pepperberg to explore cognition in parrots, specifically, Alex the African Grey

Though its funding ends next year, the Transit in Parks program is seeking solutions to congested parks and opening federal lands to non-motorized travel

Travis Winn, a 29-year-old river guide based in Kunming, is working to bring people from China’s growing cities out to see the last remaining wild river in the country and, in doing so, martial their support for protecting it from a series of proposed dams

With Jewell, the CEO and president of REI, at the helm of the Department of the Interior, could the industry finally find its green mojo?

When an unidentified hunter took out an alpha wolf that has long been a favorite of park tourists and an important part of ongoing research, he unwittingly drew many once-casual observers into a contentious battle between wildlife management, scientists, and hunting advocates

If it takes off, crowdfunded science could create a platform for more nimble, fast-paced research that isn't bogged down by bureaucracy

Browse hundreds of additional stories, gear reviews, interviews, photo galleries, and more on the environment and the ethics of adventure from the Adventure Ethics archive on Outside Online

Photo: Spatial Information Design Lab The Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University has built an informative and easy-to-use…

The author of The Fear Project (and Saltwater Buddha) shares what he learned about our most primal emotion during the many months he spent training for a go at Mavericks

What an ostrich sounds like. What an ostrich chick in an egg sounds like. Photo: Shutterstock You might know what an…

John Davis paddling in Congaree National Park. Photo: Susan Baycot Climate change, development, ranching, and oil and gas exploration tend to get a lot of ink when it comes to threats to wildlife in the Western United States. But wildlife corridors are another vital factor,…

On the night of January 11, 2013, during a dive off the Kona coast to view manta rays feeding on plankton, something strange happened. After the divers went down and lit up the water, a bottlenose dolphin slowly swam around them before aproaching…

Depending on where you live, the above video might make you think twice about putting water out for the birds. On January 17, a certain non-profit posted the video on their Facebook page with the following note: “During the drought in Colorado, a…

Noctilucent cloud. Photo: Courtesy of NASA When astronaut Chris Hadfield was asked last week what his favorite photo taken during the first three weeks of a stint on the International…

Here at Raising Rippers, we’re trying to be a little less digital and a little more analog-conscious this year, so it was with some trepidation that we stumbled upon callmehannah.ca, an eco-blog written by a nine-year-old Canadian girl named Hannah Alper. Since launching her site last June,…

Axie Navas takes a look at the controversy behind California's recent ban

Rush hour on Half Dome. Photo: DirectCutter I'll never forget the moment I first glimpsed the iconic Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. It was 2001 and I had recently moved to San Francisco for a job editing…

January through December 2012. Photo: NOAA Last year was the hottest year on record for the contiguous United States since record-keeping began in 1895, according to a Tuesday announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Here's a breakdown…

Planting bulrush in Bayou Sauvage. Photo: Joe Spring It's been seven years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people and leaving molding shambles in its wake. New Orleans is still recovering, in some places more than others. This past May,…

Shark fins. Photo: Elira/Shutterstock In 2000, a graduate student at the Imperial College of London named Shelley Clarke began using shark fin data from the auction houses of Hong Kong and the ports of Taiwan…

Natural gas development has severely fragmented habitat in many parts of the country, including here, in Wyoming. In Part I of this series, Adventure Ethics interviewed Tom Butler, co-author of Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, a…

A mining town in Australia. Photo: Microstock Man/Shutterstock In Part I of this series, Adventure Ethics interviewed Tom Butler, co-author of Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, a new coffee table book by…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q3YYwIsMHzwA cloud-free view from space as acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Satellite (Suomi NPP). Over nine days in April and thirteen days in October 2012, it took 312 satellite orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to get a clear shot of…

A week ago, as the page proofs for this issue started landing on my desk, I found myself staring at the photo that appears on pages 80 and 81. I wasn't mesmerized so much as paralyzed: I was so completely drawn in, it almost seemed like…

James Balog has spent his career pushing the artistic and adventure boundaries of nature photography. For the past five years, he's been capturing the impact of climate change on glaciers, culminating in the powerful film Chasing Ice. What he documented was catastrophic—and should be required viewing for every policymaker on earth.

Bags of oysters. Photo: Orin Zebest It's been a year of important milestones in Marin County, California. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes the Marin Headlands, turned 40. The Golden Gate Bridge hit 75 years. Further north, the…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/dmLYjs0kwncThe 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season in 4 minutes and 28 seconds. Video: NOAA Visualization Lab Today marks the end of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season, one of the busiest and costliest storm seasons in U.S. history. This season…

If she's approved for the job, one of Rice's first tasks will be considering—and potentially approving—the controversial Keystone XL pipeline mega-project that would expand the tar sands industry

On Saturday, November 7, a team of dive guides and guests aboard the 112-foot luxury dive vessel Solmar V went for their first dip of the day near Socorro Island, Mexico, when they spotted a whale shark tangled in a rope. On their second…

In early November, a South African court sentenced a Thai man to 40 years in prison after he pled guilty to organizing illegal rhino poaching activities. The high-profile case of Chumlong Lemtongthai will likely have…

A brief guide to the biggest environmental issue of the 2012 election

On August 1, as the 2012 Summer Olympics were taking place in London, the Cincinnati Zoo released news that an 11-year-old cheetah named Sarah had shattered the 100-meter speed record for a runner. She clocked a time of 5.95 seconds, breaking her own…

Ascending Mount Lenin. Photo: Hari Mix Is Hari Mix a mountaineer with a science habit or a scientist with a mountaineering habit? “I'm not sure,” says the 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Earth Systems Science at Stanford University. “They're definitely related,…

Seaside Heights. Photo: Google/NOAA After Hurricane Gloria damaged the New Jersey coast in 1985, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asked the state’s Department of…

A total eclipse in 1999. Photo: Wikimedia Commons The first total solar eclipse since July 2010 will begin around 3:35 p.m. ET today and last for about two minutes. If you miss it, you won't be able to experience another until March 2015. According to tourism…

Photo: Manuel|MC “Leave only footprints” may be the outdoor industry ethos, but Greenpeace says a study it recently conducted revealed troubling indications that the apparel made for outdoor recreation contains persistent chemicals, some of which are…

On Thursday, November 8, at 9:53 a.m., Dylan Grenier took a camera down to Collins Cove in Santa Cruz, California, and recorded discarded drug paraphenalia, a stash of supplies, trash, and a number of people hanging out and sleeping near that scene. Later in…

Last week, the Earth Island Institute feted six young activists at its annual Brower Youth Awards ceremony in San Francisco. Each year, the organization, founded by climber and firebrand David Brower, honors the country’s next generation of environmental leaders who are using creativity…

Sandy passing west of Hispaniola. Photo: NASA Goddard Hurricane Sandy did not hit Haiti directly. It passed to the west, crossing over Cuba. Even so, it dropped roughly 20 inches of rain on…

Hurricane Sandy after landfall. Photo: NASA Goddard A couple of weeks ago, Andrew Revkin celebrated the fifth birthday of his…

Yesterday, Vimeo selected a video called Rockaway Needs Us as a staff pick. It's just the latest video that shows the effects of Sandy, from the recreational to devastation. The shorts range from a…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RhQktHY9aZgA video showing Sandy’s life from October 23 to October 31. It was as a nine-year-old kid in Reading, Pennsylvania, that University of Miami scientist Brian McNoldy developed a fascination with hurricanes. “I think most of us have a storm,” he…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Kate Rawles on her Mexico-to-Canada tour. Photo: Chris Loynes Kate Rawles is an outdoor philosopher. That is a title she coined herself, and it is accurate in more than one way. She spends her professional life thinking about, talking about,…

Photo: PublicDomainPictures I saw my first polar bear of the trip before I even boarded my flight from Chicago to Winnipeg. Submerged in water up to its snout, it stared at me from a World Wildlife Fund poster hanging by the men's bathroom in Concourse F. …

There were no shortage of heroes as Hurricane Sandy made its way from the Caribbean, up along the coast of the southeastern United States, into New Jersey, and then across Pennsylvania. Hospital personnel evacuated patients from at least one facility that lost power. Firemen…

A composite image of Sandy making landfall at night. Photo: NASA/Goddard The death toll from Sandy in the United States has risen to 75, according to the Associated Press.

Here is a view of Sandy's life from above. It was recorded by NASA's GOES-13 Satellite. It begins on October 23, when Tropical Depression 18 morphed into Tropical Storm Sandy. Before that, on October 22, at roughly 11:00 a.m., about 320 miles southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, a hot towering…

NYC, Avenue C at East 6th Street, Oct. 29, 2012. Photo: David Shankbone/Flickr The loss of life and property damage from Superstorm Sandy is still being tallied, but the catastrophe is pointing a spotlight on the need for cities to adapt…

Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy as seen from space Photo: NOAA GOES-13 When Hurricane Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey, around 8 p.m. last night, it lived up to the deadly reputation forecasters feared, and the death toll from the storm has continued to rise…

A pair of polar bears walks across the ice near Churchill. Photo: FloridaStock/Shutterstock The first European to encounter the polar bears of what is now Churchill, Manitoba, was Jens Munk, a Norwegian explorer who wintered on the southern…

Patagonia National Park, under construction. Photo: Eli Steltenpohl “Buying the land was the easy part,” Kristine Tompkins told a packed house during a presentation at the San Francisco Patagonia retail store last week. She was referring to the 2.2 million acres that she and…

Photo: NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr New York, New Jersey, and Maryland are already flooded. Sandy is coming and doesn't look like it'll be another over-hyped New York-centric storm. Record storm surge is expected. Emergency declarations have been signed. Presidential…

Hurricane Sandy expands, taken Sunday, October 28, at 9:00 a.m. Photo: NOAA GOES-13 Satellite As scientists feared late last week, Hurricane Sandy has morphed into…

Left: BLM land open to solar development before 2011; right: BLM's current 17 solar energy zone. Maps: NRDC Wind, solar, geothermal and other so-called green energy sources might not spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but they're far from benign. Ask any bird conservationist…

Bikini Atoll, a tiny ring of islands halfway between Hawaii and Australia, is a world-class diving destination and home to one of the Pacific's last great fishing grounds. So where are all the tourists? Welcome to heaven on earth, where the vestiges of hell lie just below the surface.