Environment Archives

Economics

International Trade Hurts the World’s Poor (With Nitrogen)

A study links developing countries' demand for imported food and clothing to nitrogen compounds that disproportionately harm the world's poor, including some right here in the United States.

Nathan Collins

Environment

This Is What the Fossil Fuel Industry Spilled Into Our Rivers, Towns, and Fields in Just a Year

An explosion in North American fossil fuel extraction has led to a dangerous rise in pipeline spills and oil train derailments.

OnEarth

Environment

The Gowanus Canal’s Beacon of Hope

New York University roboticists are betting that a tiny aquatic machine will inspire the community to care about Brooklyn's neglected Superfund site.

Libby Copeland

Environment

Would You Like Flies With That?

New research suggests obfuscation may be the best way to get Westerners to eat insect-based foods.

Tom Jacobs

Social Justice

The Influential Druid

David Brower has slipped into semi-obscurity over the years, but he deserves a place in the pantheon of environmental heroes.

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

Environment

It’s the End of the Beginning of the End for Coal

The government has suspended new coal leases on federal land. The coal industry may never recover.

Brian Palmer

Environment

The Tiny Robotic Scientist Cleaning Up Brooklyn’s Superfund Site

An early look at a Pacific Standard story that's currently only available to subscribers.

Pacific Standard Staff

Environment

The Markers of the Anthropocene

Humans have altered the Earth so much over the last generation that scientists expect geologists of the future to be able find our signature.

Francie Diep

Environment

Consumers Love Squeezable Plastic Pouches for Food—Too Bad Recyclers Hate Them

Plastic-pouch food packaging is showing up everywhere—except at recycling facilities.

Elizabeth Royte

Environment

What Happens to Ski Resorts Decades After People Abandon Them?

Many ski resorts operate in America's public forests. How they cut their runs can affect how beautifully the forest recovers, should the lodge ever go out of business.

Francie Diep