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In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, policy makers, scientists and global negotiators are gathering to convey an urgent message: The world’s rangelands, which make up about half of Earth’s land surface, are in trouble. But these same lands offer an opportunity. If, collectively, farmers and land users restore rangelands and soils, they can combat drought and preserve a […]

In a matter of days, a dirt pit the size of five football fields appeared next to the weathered headstones of Center Cemetery in Castana, Iowa. The excavation site sits on the edge of the Loess Hills, a 200-mile corridor of craggy bluffs and ridges bordering the Missouri River valley in western Iowa. The hills, […]

by Mark Burton

The way of life of the vast majority of humanity is now wholly dependent on petroleum: in effect we eat it, wear it, get carried around by it, communicate through it, sit on it and medicate ourselves with it.  Oil has the virtue of being a dense and transportable energy source. It is not so difficult to substitute for oil in applications such as electricity generation, although the renewable energy capture systems themselves are made and maintained by burning oil.

The three elected officials who regulate the oil and gas industry in Texas hold an open meeting each month in Austin to vote on matters from pipeline violations to permit renewals. Members of the public can register to speak for up to three minutes at the end of each meeting. People often travel hundreds of […]

One of the nation’s largest environmental groups is challenging the Trump administration’s closure of a leading climate institute, filing a lawsuit Thursday in federal court saying the closure is unlawful. The administration had announced in December that it would dismantle the Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, which conducts advanced climate and weather […]

Nicknamed the “Amazon of the Seas,” the Coral Triangle is the world’s most biologically diverse marine ecosystem. Sink below the surface and you’ll encounter the sound of a vibrant symphony of snapping shrimp, crunching crustaceans and feeding fish.  But then the rhythmic music of life will dissolve into eerie silence, punctured only by the plosive […]

A collaborative project about Chicago’s handling of its massive number of lead water pipes—a public health hazard—has won a reporting award from the National Association of Black Journalists. The “Salute to Excellence” award is the latest in a list of honors for “Lead City,” a series Inside Climate News reported alongside WBEZ and Grist.  The […]

The question the ICFI will not answer

Much of the Left has been debating “Woke 1” recently. Less discussed has been the Right’s own version of wokeness, characterized by censorship, attacks on free speech, and even jailing and deporting critics.

Inspired in part by Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City, a new crop of socialist candidates is campaigning for municipal power across Canada.

America is suffering from a complete breakdown in social life and shared conception of the common good. Some prominent liberals want to keep it that way.

Democratic socialists have a historic opportunity to make socialism a mass politics that wins over millions. We can’t take full advantage of that opportunity without carefully calibrating our rhetoric and demands.

LINZ, Austria—A summer-long series of heatwaves that has been blistering much of Europe since June has turned political. Elected leaders are facing growing scrutiny for their lackluster response to the deadly consequences of climate extremes, even as their parties continue to pursue policies that worsen the crisis.The extreme temperatures, along with drought, have drained rivers, […]

How the Socialist Federation and Greens can avoid Your Party’s mistake

Jewish Voice for Peace protest at Joe Biden’s State of the Union Speech, March 2024. “To be a Jew means always being with the oppressed and never the oppressors.” —Jewish Labor Bund leader Marek Edelman (1919-2009)(1) “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have… Continue reading The Paranoid Style in Pro-Israel Politics

This summer’s water crisis in Puerto Rico is the latest example of the slow violence of the Puerto Rican debt crisis, exacerbated by patterns of remilitarization in the archipelago.

New investigative findings from a Florida sheriff’s office detail the stark conditions of emaciated and dehydrated sloths at a planned tourism attraction where more than 50 of the animals died, including one frothing at the mouth and another that had been lying on the ground for two days, covered in feces.   Even so, the Orange […]

by Jeremy Lent

Approximately fifty citizens’ assemblies now convene worldwide each year, addressing the long-term, complex issues that elected governments are structurally least suited to handle: climate change, urban planning, health policy, infrastructure, and democratic reform itself.

A disturbing New York magazine story on an Andrew Tate devotee’s alleged sex trafficking sheds light on Tate’s entrepreneurial core, red-pill ideology’s brutal gendered hierarchy, and how intrasexual status competition affects male domination.

Policies promoting solar power construction projects in China have contributed to a decline in bird diversity across the country. Those findings, from a study published Thursday in the journal Science, highlight the environmental impacts of large-scale solar developments and suggest ways that policies supporting photovoltaics could be improved in China, which has installed nearly as […]