Environment
Archive
Harold Camping was wrong—twice—about 2011 ushering in the end of days, but the year certainly had its share of environmental catastrophes. Thankfully, there were a few glimmers of hope, as well.
Trip Jennings’ latest film takes on transporting coal across the country to be shipped over seas. For more information on fossil fuel transport, read Abe Streep’s profile of Tim DeChristopher.
Tomorrow, November 30, is the last day of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season. To mark the occasion, NOAA released a video that condenses the entire six-month, seven-hurricane season into a 4 minute and 42 second video. A few notes on the…
Is working closely with killer whales in a marine park dangerous for trainers? Our reporter travels to a courtroom in Florida to cover the controversial OSHA-SeaWorld hearing, the outcome of which could redefine SeaWorld’s Shamu shows.
Carl Pope, Courtesy of Sierra Club Carl Pope, the current chairman of the Sierra Club, announced he is stepping down to pursue other projects. Pope led the environmental non-profit for much of the…
The best environmental blogs, from one-sided political commentators to prolific aggregators and reporters breaking news.
In late September, a surveyor found a small dead bat lying on the ground at a 6,500-acre wind farm in Pennsylvania, prompting an indefinite shutdown of night operations. With demand for green energy on the rise, is pulling the plug on a wind farm over one dead bat the right call?
Is working closely with killer whales in a marine park dangerous for trainers?
These innovators, charities, non-profits, and scientists are helping to make the world a better place.
David de Rothschild is paddling Brazil’s Xingu River with a totem pole to stop the proposed Belo Monte dam
The Solyndra solar debacle has some in Congress arguing that government needs to get out of the renewable-power business. Don’t tell that to the Marine Corps, the bravest new recruit in the clean-energy revolution.
How does a visionary marine biologist convince brain researchers to help him revolutionize ocean conservation? With lots of hugs, a million blue marbles, and one very unorthodox conference.
Thousands of protesters, including environmentalist Bill McKibben and actor Mark Ruffalo, encircled the White House to voice their opposition to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline
Last May, while most normal high school students were out breaking curfew or killing time until summer, 17-year-old Alec Loorz from Oak View, California, had other plans: He was suing the federal government for global warming. His lawsuit is part of a nationwide surge of youth-led litigation, filed in every…
Gage & Gage Productions‘ latest film tracks Tim DeChristopher’s rise to notoriety. Check out this profile by Abe Streep. …
Here's a video we've already posted on our tumblr (visit it for more videos) and facebook page, but it deserves another call out. Yes, it's 11-minutes long, but it involves a high altitude collision, a life-threatening struggle,…
After the story "The Trials of Bidder 70" went to press, Outside obtained several e-mails, sent between current and former officials with the BLM and the U.S. Attorney’s office, that had been requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
You're ready to act on those good intentions, but how do you know the organizations you're backing deserve your trust? Here are the 30 best—smartly managed groups with transparent financials, efficient spending, and track records of on-the-ground success.
On the ground with an anti-poaching unit working to save the last of Africa’s black rhinos. To see the whole six-part series, narrated by Robert Redford, click to this TV schedule.
Before the Tar Sands protests and before Occupy Wall Street, a young activist named Tim DeChristopher disrupted a federal oil- and gas-lease auction. The act made him a martyr for a newly radicalized environmental movement—and landed him in prison. This is his story.
It’s environmental action month at Raising Rippers! Last week I talked with surf activist Kyle Thiermann about no-brainer ways to lessen your impact on the planet. Now I’m wowed by 17-year old Victor Davila’s plan to use skateboarding to promote environmental justice and reduce inner-city obesity in…
The 76-year-old artist Christo has sunk two decades of work and $11 million into hanging 6 miles of translucent canopies over the Arkansas River. Yet he’s still fighting local opposition and waiting on a decision from the Bureau of Land Management. Will his Over the River project ever go up?
More than a decade ago, Mike Fay’s epic Megatransect walk across Africa spurred the creation of a string of national parks and made him a conservation superstar. So why, after a lifetime of fighting to protect wild places, is he questioning the very foundations of his work? And why is he looking for answers in a cabin in Alaska?
Recording engineer Jeff Rice is on a mission to preserve the sounds of nature. Why? Listening to them might actually make us healthier.
Ok, maybe I'm reporting about the mountain lion that was tranquilized on the University of Colorado campus because I'm an alumni. But come on, a mountain lion on a college campus is kind of amazing, right? (Yes, they come down into Boulder often, but…
Hidden waterfalls? Kayaker Heather Herbeck on what the removal of Washington’s Condit Dam may bring to whitewater paddlers. A film by Andy Maser.
With a new Hollywood movie taking aim at birders, Michael Roberts steps up to defend his kind
Recently, the argument for the Keystone XL pipeline has been framed as the economy versus the environment. BILL McKIBBEN takes a hard look at the job creation numbers and calculates a different reality—stopping the pipeline could lead to a brighter economic future.
What to do with nearly 42,000 captive mustangs that could be forced off the government dole
A quick look and the outdoor cred and environmental records of the Republican candidates
Located in California's Sequoia National Park, The General Sherman is the largest living single stem tree on Earth. Or at least the largest living single stem tree that we know about. No, it's not the tallest. (That award goes to the Hyperion…
Barking tree frogs, exploding dragonflies, crackling Arctic fjords—these are the top 10 wildest field recordings.
The removal of Glines Canyon Dam has begun on Washington’s Elwha River. Andy Maser Films and American Whitewater give us a look behind the curtain of the world’s biggest dam removal project.
The only thing more varied than photographer Michael Muller’s portfolio—portraits of superstars from Kelly Slater to Lebron James, movie posters for blockbusters like Captain America and Spiderman 3,…
The 5 Gyres Institute sails the world’s oceans to study how plastic impacts ecosystems. Watch their adventures in Plasticized, which will be released by year’s end.
From erosion-resistant reefs to recycled toilet water (gulp), five city strategies freshening up the 21st century
What does India’s lush Kaziranga National Park have that the rest of the country’s decimated reserves do not? Plenty of tigers, for starters. (The world’s highest density.) Fleets of endangered one-horned rhinos. (More than two-thirds of the remaining population.) And, since last year, a take-no-prisoners antipoaching policy that allows rangers to shoot on sig
Jason McLennan’s supergreen designs could rewrite the rules of sustainability, but critics wonder if they’re practical enough to make a difference.
The storm of the century began as a half-inch blurb on the cover of last Friday’s The New York Times. The photo showed a lifeguard looking out to sea. A red flag flapped behind him, and behind that, were piles of cottony clouds with ominously…
Monster earthquakes are going off all around the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire. Is the West Coast of North America next?* And can you surf a tsunami?** Join us on a footnoted foray into the terrifying world of megaquakes, tidal waves, and the fine art of being your own Jesus. *YES **NO
If a megaquake like the one that hit Japan last March were to strike the U.S., the Pacific Northwest coast would be the likeliest spot. Geologists have their eyes on the Cascadia subduction zone, a 740-mile seam where the Juan de Fuca and North American plates meet. The CSZ has been building up tension for more than 300 years, say some seismologists. If that te
Should Portland have drained its reservoir after a drunk, 21-year-old man peed in it?
Tim DeChristopher, the 29-year-old Utah activist who disrupted a 2008 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil-and-gas auction, received his sentence yesterday: two years in federal prison, three years supervised release, and a $10,000 fine. That’s about what his supporters, who packed the Frank E. Moss U.S. Courthouse in Salt…
Alexis Martinez works with the Loro Parque killer whale Kohana. On December 24, 2009, Martinez was killed by another Loro Parque killer whale called Keto. Click here to read The Killer in the Pool, Tim Zimmerman’s story about killer wale attacks.
On December 24, 2009, a 6,600-pound orca killed trainer Alexis Martínez at a marine park in the Canary Islands. Two months later, trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed by an orca at SeaWorld Orlando. With the OSHA trial on trainer safety at SeaWorld Orlando starting September 19, Tim Zimmermann asks: Should Martínez’s death have served as a warning about the lethal potential of killer whales being trained for our entertainment?
Outside contributor Thayer Walker went down to an out of the ordinary wildlife refuge in Bolivia, where he walked a jaguar on a leash. Watch NPR’s new hit show, Snap Judgment, with host Glynn Washington…
As the Las Conchas fire ravages parts of the Santa Clara Pueblo reservation, Lieutenant Governor Joseph B. Tafoya sits down to talk about the damage
The brief but terrifying history of the Las Conchas forest fire, from flash point to nuclear scare
Picture courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service Summer is fire season in the southwest, and we're getting pounded. This year, half a dozen wildfires have ravaged over 1,300 square miles—an area nearly the size of Rhode Island—in New Mexico and Arizona alone. Two blazes are burning…
On July 30th we reported a story on the dangers of the Las Conchas fire. In that story we mentioned the possiblity that the fire could burn nuclear waste stored in and around Los Alamos National Labs. A 2002 report by the New Mexico Environment Department identified many of the…
IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of the Earth Liberation Front, a group of radical environmentalists, by focusing on the transformation and radicalization of one of its members. ifatreefallsfilm.com…
In January 2001, the Earth Liberation Front burned own the main offices of Superior Lumber in Glendale, Oregon. This exclusive clip examines the after effect of that fire. For more on the movie If a Tree Falls, go to http://www.ifatreefallsfilm.com/…
With shark attacks up 25 percent, 2010 was a terrifying year to be in the water. Scientists say the spike was an anomaly. But there are questions afloat about the practice of chumming, in which cage-diving skippers use a stew of blood and guts to lure the predators in close. JOSHUA HAMMER plunges in at South Africa’s False Bay, epicenter of an industry some cri
On June 26, 2011, a massive blaze, likely triggered by a utility line, swept across New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains. It consumed 43,000 acres in the first day alone. We arrived in nearby Los Alamos, the nation’s premier nuclear research laboratory, the following day. Both the lab and the town of…
Map of Las Conchas It’s been reported a few times that the Las Conchas fire—a 60,000-acres-plus rager currently threatening Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Bandelier National Monument—was probably caused by a…
I've spent too much time in front of the computer, sitting at the minituare aqua-green cafe table that overlooks my block, cold beer in hand, gazing at the Documerica photos that grace the National Archives' Flickr pages. The bright reds and oranges of the desert rocks, the…
Tim DeChristopher has to wait just a little longer to learn his fate. Yesterday, the Justice Department announced that DeChristopher, the Salt Lake City-based activist who disrupted a federal oil and gas auction in December 2008 by bidding $1.8 million on parcels of land in eastern Utah, would be sentenced…
Our panel runs down the challenges, including the unwaveringly white face of adventure media
In 1999, Camille Seaman gave up her seat on a one-hour flight from Oakland to L.A. and scored a round trip ticket anywhere in the world. She chose Alaska. Once there, she decided to walk from a coastal town named Kotzebue across the ice…
A bird's eye view of drilling's effect on the Western landscape.
Here’s a cool behind the scenes video from Murray Fredericks on shooting timelapses in Greenland. Picked up from a Renan Ozturk tweet. –Joe Spring@joespring…
This is the American West--when you're hanging out of a tiny plane with the doors pulled off, holding a 20-pound camera and looking for the truth.
In September 1969, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson developed the idea of Earth Day, a nationwide, grassroots demonstration that would take place in the spring of the following year. Everyone was invited to participate. “The response was electric,” he told Envirolink.com. “It…
Photo by Lauren Ross Photography Gretchen Bleiler has started her own personal crusade to address climate change. She spoke at an environmental conference recently to raise eco-awareness among college students, and she collaborates with her sponsors Oakley and…
Photo by Lauren Ross Photography Presenting the Olympian snowboarder’s advice on how to be green in your daily life. 10. Get a composter and let nature breakdown your compostable trash and use the remains as mulch for your plants. 9. Walk, skateboard, bike, car pool, or use mass…
Beginning April 16th, America's national parks are free. Saturday marks the beginning of National Parks Week, a week-long (April 16-24) celebration of America's 394 national parks, according to the National Park Service. This year's focus is “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” and the role…
Beginning April 16th, America's national parks are free. Saturday marks the beginning of National Parks Week, a week-long (April 16-24) celebration of America's 394 national parks, according to the National Park Service. This year's focus is “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” and the role…
The United States Congress has removed the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List in two states, according the The New York Times. The action sets a new precedent that could introduce political influence…
The United States Congress has removed the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List in two states, according the The New York Times. The action sets a new precedent that could introduce political influence…
Eye Candy TimeLapses – TimeLine bonus 1 from TimeLine on Vimeo. When sessions filming snowboarder Xavier de La Rue are over, cameraman Guido Perrini sets up his gear to get amazing timelapses. Here's a quick collection. Via:…
The Colorado River, Photo by Peter McBride As a boy growing up on a cattle ranch in Colorado, Peter McBride sat on the perfect perch from which to view the effects of water. From his haybine seat…
The Colorado River, Photo by Peter McBride As a boy growing up on a cattle ranch in Colorado, Peter McBride sat on the perfect perch from which to view the effects of water. From his haybine seat…