• photo of oxen and a man with a plow in the tropicsCuba Verde
    Will the long-isolated island’s low-carbon adaptations endure?
    By Bill Weinberg
  • photo of a gold nugget in the palm of a personArc of Desperation
    Venezuela’s decision to open up the Orinoco Belt to mining threatens the Amazon rainforest.
    By Bram Ebus
  • photo of oily mud and waterPachamama’s Blood
    Ecuador’s Sápara people are developing strategies to fend off the dual threats of oil development and climate change.
    By Gleb Raygorodetsky
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Latest News

Safeguarding Mexico’s Sierra Madre Cloud Forest against Logging

Recent trip to region uncovered survival of endemic salamander thought to be extinct

by Roberto Pedraza Ruiz – September 19, 2017

Due to its long evolutionary history, unique micro-climatic conditions, and the extreme luck of having survived millenia human pressure, the Mexican cloud forests represent the best of the American continent’s wild places. These small, oozing green islands lost in the mist of…
> Read more

Beyond Harvey and Irma

The militarization of homeland security and disaster relief in the climate change era

by Michael T. Klare – September 18, 2017

Deployed to the Houston area to assist in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, US military forces hadn’t even completed their assignments when they were hurriedly dispatched to Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands to face Irma, the fiercest hurricane ever recorded…
> Read more

Images from Assateague Island

Ecology and wonder on a barrier island

by Mark Hendricks – September 15, 2017

Assateague Island is a 37-mile-long barrier island located off the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. It stretches to about two miles at its widest and only a quarter mile at its narrowest end. Its very name conjures images of wild horses galloping…
> Read more

Chocolate Industry Drives Devastating Deforestation in Ivory Coast

As global demand for cocoa booms, ‘dirty’ beans from national parks enter big business supply chains

by The Guardian – September 14, 2017

The world’s chocolate industry is driving deforestation on a devastating scale in West Africa, The Guardian can reveal. Cocoa traders who sell to Mars, Nestlé, Mondelez and other big brands buy beans grown illegally inside protected areas in the Ivory Coast, where…
> Read more

How to Teach Your Kids About Zoos

We owe our children honest answers about the morality of animal captivity

by Kenneth Brower – September 13, 2017

On September 6, National Geographic Kids posted a Family Field Guide, "How to Answer Challenging Questions About Animals at the Zoo," by Laura Goertzel, digital director for the magazine. Goertzel was forced to consider the problem of animal captivity when a bobcat called Ollie…
> Read more

Koch Brothers Versus Small Town USA

In Review: Company Town

by Ed Rampell – September 12, 2017

The riveting Company Town is one of the hardest-hitting documentaries ever made about environmental racism in America. It is to the eco-justice movement what Barbara Kopple’s 1976 Best Documentary Academy Award winner Harlan County USA was to class struggle or Al Gore’s…
> Read more

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Voices

Mustafa Ali
The former head of the EPA’s environmental justice office talks openly about why he left the position and how – despite the current political climate – he’s hopeful about the future.
> Read more
Ted Lieu
The California Congressman writes about the power of natural places and the need for robust climate action at the federal level.
> Read more

Current Issue

thumbnail of the cover of the Earth Island Journal

Heavy Metal

The debate about how to reduce use of lead ammunition is heating up in Oregon.
By James Yuskavitch

An Unraveling Web

Along the California coast, a race to save marine mammals from a life-threatening toxin.
By Jeremy Miller

De-Junking Paradise

A province of Vanuatu is turning to local, organic food in an effort to stave off diet-related illness.
By Anna Lappé

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