The Methane Detectives (Undark) — on the mystery of what’s driving the global spike in atmospheric methane levels
Across a Century of Change, the Gift of a Baseline (Breakthroughs) — on the legacy of pioneering California naturalist Joseph Grinnell
The Unfinished Work of Vanu Bose (MIT Technology Review) — on one man’s tireless efforts to bring cell coverage to a billion people
The Slow Death of Ecology’s Birthplace (Undark) — on the cerrado, Brazil’s vast savannah, and its conversion into monocultures
The Power of Peer Pressure (Slate) — why the best lessons in climate diplomacy come from Himalayan villages
China and India’s ‘Crazy Bad’ Smog has Been Masking Global Warming (Quartz) — on the climate-cooling conundrum of sulfate aerosols
E.O Wilson on Saving Half the Earth (Breakthroughs) — the legendary biologist unveils his plan to save half of Earth for non-human life
Pope Francis Would Love the Obscure Theories of This Dead Romanian Economist (Quartz) — on the uncanny resonance of Georgescu-Roegen’s ideas
Accidental Encounters with a Badass 8th Century Buddhist Mystic (Atlas Obscura) — on my recurring visits with Guru Rinpoche
The Carbon That’s Killing India, and How California Can Help (LA Times) — on the health impacts of, and solutions to, black carbon
Skiing Old Trails of the New Deal (New York Times) — on the still-thrilling backcountry ski trails carved by the CCC
A Dangerous Fixation (Slate) — on a hundred years of synthetic nitrogen fixation
India’s Coal Power Plants Kill Tens of Thousands Every Year, Study Says (New York Times) — on the hidden health damages of India’s power sector
Scientists Ask Blunt Question on Everyone’s Mind (Slate) — on scientists freaked out enough about climate change to cross over into activism
Burning Desire (Dartmouth Alumni Magazine) — on a clean cookstove entrepreneur and his breakthrough invention
Kashmir’s Raging Rivers (Slate) — on the prospects for the Indus Waters Treaty and conflict between Pakistan and India in a warming world
A Himalayan Highway, but Only in Winter (New York Times) — on chadar, the ancient trek on a frozen river that’s a lifeline for the people of Zanskar
On the Edge (Dartmouth Alumni Magazine) — on the unlikely skiing opportunities to be found in India’s far northern region of Ladakh
When the Glacier Left (Boston Globe) — on one Himalayan village’s response to the vanishing of their life-sustaining glaciers
The Climate Change Defense (New York Times Magazine) — on a novel use of the necessity defense against carbon-spewing infrastructure