July 19, 2023

A First Wetting with the Coming El Niño in the Galápagos Islands

Markes E. Johnson

Island time includes the normal passage of life functions for a local biota in response to the daily rhythms of sun, moon, and tides as well as to the disruptions caused by big storms or other perturbances under extreme El...

April 14, 2023

25 Must-Read Books for Earth Month 2023

During Earth Month, people worldwide unite to awaken our environmental consciousness and raise awareness of our planet’s health. The books on this list speak to the challenges we face today, including climate change, natural disasters, climate resilience, living and conducting...

April 13, 2023

Five Steps You Can Take to Jump-Start Action on Climate Change

Michael Gunter, Jr.

Climate change. That’s a polarizing phrase in America, one that too often shuts down discussion before it ever begins. Heck, former Florida governor and now sitting U.S. Senator Rick Scott banned state officials from even using the term during his...

April 6, 2023

The Truth About Rising CO₂ and Its Effect on Plant Biology

Lewis H. Ziska

We recognize that the global concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping gasses is rising, that global warming, or climate change, is going to be a consequence. For many people, that consequence is seen through images that have become...

April 5, 2023

Learning from Nature How to Inhabit the Earth

Henry Dicks

Earth Month provides an opportunity not just to raise environmental awareness but also to think more deeply about alternative ways of inhabiting the earth. In my new book, The Biomimicry Revolution: Learning from Nature How to Inhabit the Earth, I...

April 4, 2023

Rob Verchick in Conversation with Robyn Massey About The Octopus in the Parking Garage

In November 2016, Richard Conlin discovered an unexpected guest in his parking garage: an octopus. The photos he took quickly went viral, but to Rob Verchick, a leading climate law scholar and the author of The Octopus in the Parking...

December 9, 2022

Q&A: Kenneth D. Frank in Conversation with Robyn Massey about Sex in City Plants, Animals, Fungi, and More

From the garden in the back of his downtown rowhouse, Kenneth D. Frank observed the cornucopia of organisms that interacted and mated before his eyes. These observations made him wonder: how does the city interfere with these organismal orgies? In...

September 22, 2021

The Presidents’ Dreams

From Chapter Six of Unnatural Disasters
Gonzalo Lizarralde

“If we do this housing properly,” said former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2011, “it will lead to whole new industries being started in Haiti, creating thousands and thousands of new jobs and permanent housing.”1 Clinton was speaking from Zoranjé, a...

December 10, 2020

Five Ideas for a Plastic-Free Holiday Season

Rebecca Prince-Ruiz and Joanna Atherfold Finn

“Plastic Free July inspires me to step up my commitment to reducing single-use plastic in my daily life and on tour.” ~Jack Johnson, musician and Plastic Free Foundation ambassador We’re wrapping up our American Geophysical Union virtual exhibit with a...

December 9, 2020

Q&A: John Mutter on Climate Change Science

“It is rare to find a book that succinctly explains the scientific basis for one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. For anyone looking to learn the foundations of climate science, Mutter’s primer is an excellent jump start....

December 8, 2020

Q&A: Ruth DeFries in Conversation with Bill McKibben on What Would Nature Do?

“DeFries is an excellent writer, using elegant storytelling to offer a hopeful delineation of pathways to a sustainable future. She builds on evolutionary history, the theory of complex adaptive systems, and examples of the emergence of cooperation in biological systems,...

December 7, 2020

Take a Tour of Our AGU Virtual Exhibit Booth with Miranda Martin

The Columbia University Press virtual booth for the American Geophysical Union’s 2020 Fall Meeting is now open! I’m Miranda Martin, the press’s science editor. We may have met at previous events; if not, I hope to have the opportunity to...