News & Commentary

A Tale of Two Forests: A Tour Through Canada’s Boreal

August 26, 2019 DispatchCanadaCourtney Lindwall

One of the most majestic old-growth forests on earth, Canada’s boreal is becoming a wasteland due to rampant logging.

An Artist Who Finds Uncommon Meaning in Common Trees

August 21, 2019 PerspectivesNew York CityPatrick Rogers

Hugh Hayden’s exquisite wooden sculptures and installations comment on race, immigration, and the American environment.

Are Giraffes Endangered?

August 13, 2019 ExplainerInternational, United States

Conservation scientists say giraffes are headed toward extinction. Now the U.S. government must catch up with the scientific consensus.

That Summer When Climate Change Baked Alaska

August 9, 2019 DispatchAlaskaJeff Turrentine

An Anchorage-based wildlife biologist describes what life is like in our northernmost state—one that’s been dramatically altered by rising temperatures.

Our Land Is Key to Solving the Climate Crisis

August 9, 2019 Latest NewsUnited StatesCourtney Lindwall

Food insecurity, biodiversity collapse, and skyrocketing global temps loom. But a new U.N. report says we have the tools to fix it.

Congress Has Been Treating Our National Parks and Waters Funding Like a Piggy Bank for Decades

July 2, 2019 Latest NewsUnited StatesJeff Turrentine

The 55-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund needs to be kept safe from lawmakers who suddenly find themselves strapped for cash.

Mining Oil Shale Would Be Disastrous to Utah’s Rivers, Climate, and Public Health—but the Trump Administration Wants to Do It Anyway

June 21, 2019 DispatchUtahStarre Vartan

NRDC and other environmental and public health groups are suing to stop an extraction project (the first of its kind in the United States) proposed by the Estonian company Enefit.

U.N. Report: A Million Extinctions and Ecological Collapse Are on the Way

May 13, 2019 Latest NewsUnited StatesCourtney Lindwall

We got ourselves into this mess. It’s high time we got ourselves out of it.

In Hundreds of Vintage Postcards, Americana Meets the Apocalypse

April 23, 2019 PerspectivesUnited StatesPatrick Rogers

David Opdyke’s intricate panorama shows the country’s landscape ravaged by extractive industries and the politics of climate denial.

A Patchwork of Imagery Hints at the Hidden Complexity of the American Prairie

March 27, 2019 PerspectivesUnited StatesClara Chaisson

After years of documenting industrial landscapes, photographer Terry Evans returns to her first muse: North America’s grasslands.

A Journey Through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

March 22, 2019 DispatchArctic, AlaskaClara Chaisson

One of the world’s last pristine wild places is on the front lines of climate change—and threatened by fossil fuel development. These photos speak to why we must fight both.

Army Corps Releases a Slapdash Environmental Review of Alaska’s Pebble Mine

March 1, 2019 Latest NewsAlaskaCourtney Lindwall

But the proposed gold and copper mine’s catastrophic threats to the waterways, salmon, and people of Bristol Bay haven’t changed.

The Fight to Save Plum Island

February 21, 2019 DispatchNew YorkNicole Greenfield

The federal government wants to sell off a wildlife-rich island in Long Island Sound to the highest bidder. No way, say advocates.

The Crazy Snake Worm Invasion You Haven’t Heard About

February 21, 2019 ExplainerUnited StatesJason Bittel

Earthworms may seem harmless, but they have the power to transform some of America’s forests—and not in a good way.

Trump’s Shutdown Is a Snowball Rolling Over the Systems That Protect Americans

January 18, 2019 Latest NewsUnited StatesJeff Turrentine

And every extra day it lasts, the deleterious effects on our national parks, food inspections, and toxic waste cleanups grow bigger (and more difficult to stop).

The Desire to Stop Canadian Tar Sands Transcends Borders

January 10, 2019 NRDC in ActionAlberta, Canada, Nebraska, Chicago, IllinoisNicole Greenfield

For more than a decade, NRDC has worked with indigenous communities in Alberta, U.S.-based grassroots groups, and intergovernmental bodies to halt the expansion of dirty tar sands oil.

In the Pacific Northwest, Testing Out New Wildfire Defenses on the Front Lines

October 30, 2018 DispatchWest, Washington, OregonLora Shinn

Where quick-spreading fires are the “new normal,” some state officials and communities are willing to try whatever it takes to prevent—or better prepare for—the next big blaze.

In Utah, Industry Pounces on What Were, Not Long Ago, Our Public Lands

October 10, 2018 DispatchUtahStarre Vartan

Cobalt mining and other interests lay claim to Grand Staircase–Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments, rankling local communities tied to these lands.

No Man’s Land—Nor Lion’s, Elephant’s, or Rhino’s

October 2, 2018 PerspectivesUnited StatesDavid Best

In photographer Nick Brandt’s landscape installations, the past collides with a dismal present.

Meet the Innu Forester Working to Save Canada’s Boreal Forest

September 28, 2018 DispatchCanadaNicole Greenfield

Valérie Courtois is guiding an indigenous-led conservation strategy for one of the world’s last great forests.