John Muir called them “the greatest of living things.” California’s giant sequoias—also known simply as “the big trees”—have outlived millennia of ecological and cultural change on the west side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. These grand monuments to natural history, which can grow taller than the Statue of Liberty, were full grown when Jesus Christ […]
This is a very special issue of E Magazine. In the magazine’s 10-year history, we have on only one other occasion devoted the entire feature section to a single story. That piece, a cross-country exploration of environmental racism, appeared in 1998. Now we’re doing it again, with an international tour of global warming “hot spots.” […]
© Photo © 2000 Gary Braasch © The Global Warming Debate Is Over. It’s Real, Inexorable, and Headed Our Way In 1995, more than 2,000 scientists from 100 countries reported to the United Nations that our burning of oil, coal and natural gas is changing the Earth’s climate. Five years later, many of the same […]
A Consumer Guide to Music From the Earth Though the haunting and soaring sounds of the deep sea now echo in our consciousness, before the late 1960s human beings knew nothing of this hidden sonic world. It was an underwater microphone that first allowed Roger Payne and Scott McVay to hear the astonishing sounds of […]
Hot Beverages That Are Good for the Earth Shade-grown coffee. Fair-traded tea. Hot cocoa from all-natural ingredients, chai that’s certified organic. Bottoms up, thirsty environmentalist. It’s never been easier to find a hot drink that’s good both for the palate and the planet. And you don’t have to search the world over to find it. […]
No Doubt Autism Is Genetic, But Is the Environment Also Implicated?
Environmental Groups Profit From "Stranded" Inventory The Internet has quickly become an indispensible tool for the environmental movement, offering a cheap and effective way to exchange information and coordinate events among a wide audience. Now, some environmentalists are also seeing the Internet as a way to make money. Portal sites are a starting point for […]
Volunteers Get Dirty on International Organic Farms The flock sits safely in the stable, and the nearby streets are silent. The tranquil evenings of Pradorrey, a village in northwestern Spain, are reward enough for a day spent tending sheep and harvesting grapes, but dinner—perhaps of fried sardines with goat cheese, bread and olive oil—awaits as […]
When the 175-acre Villa Montalvo estate in Saratoga was bequeathed to the state of California in 1930, the owner stipulated that the new park continue nurturing music, art, literature and architecture. One result was the creation, in 1942, of the oldest artists’ residency program west of the Mississippi. In 1998, Villa Montalvo’s board of trustees […]
Ironically, China’s only real dragon—the Chinese alligator—may become extinct in the wild in 2000, otherwise known as the Year of the Dragon. One of only two remaining alligator species in the world, this reptile has the dubious distinction of being the planet’s most endangered species. The Chinese alligator—called “Tu Long” or “earth dragon”—and the mythical […]
