Dressed in mismatched patterns and vibrant colors, my friends and I exited the subway platform into what felt like a parallel universe. Mermaids, everywhere. It was the Coney Island mermaid parade — a New York City tradition of sorts. Every summer solstice, the nutty, nautical side of the city shows…

Perhaps no country on the planet can rival Iceland’s cornucopia of natural wonders. Its harmoniously dichotomous landscape — fiery volcanoes and numbing glaciers, sublime peaks and sunken valleys— now invites tourists and Instagram likes in the millions each year. But before the rest of the world opened its eyes to…

It is often said that nothing — or nobody — can ever be perfect. That is one of humankind’s greatest lies. Everything on this planet, and everything in the universe as we know it, is perfect. It is perfect because it is. Simply. And beautifully. From the tiniest zooplankton to…

Climate change solutions come in two forms: mitigation and adaptation. While many proposed techniques focus on one or the other, some offer the benefit of slowing the global rise in temperature while adapting to now inevitable impacts. One such solution has been around for thousands of years. Forests, farms, and the future Silvopasture, the ancient…

On International Women’s Day, a celebration of a few women who have fought to preserve our natural environment and all who depend on it. Winona LaDuke Winona LaDuke is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, a mission to retrieve 837,000 acres of land for its native owners…

A poem My mind Replete with jittery pests Finds stillness in the oddest Of places Ancient piles of past Bygone bivalves And reefs restrained to records To know they have been here for thousands of years Before me And will remain long after I am gone But I can know neither Only the nonce The now The never-to-be-met-again And so my mind In its benthic bath Lets float away Mistakes that cannot be undone

The forgotten victim of Fyre Festival Last week, two new films documented the rise and fall of the now-infamous Fyre Festival, a failed attempt by entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule to host a luxury music festival in the Bahamas. …

Musician Pharrell Williams has recently taken a Leo-esque foray into climate change advocacy, using his influential platform to call for better protection of the planet. There’s just one problem. Pharell’s songs include what many claim are misogynistic lyrics. And you can’t be pro-environment without also being pro-women. From rhymes to…

smooth, soft-centered sweet-then-sour serpent. will I never learn? rounded, ripened rinded ruler of rues subject of my yearn gilded guise of greenish grains see me as I roam bitter, biting belligerent beauty carry me back home