Earth Island Journal
@earthislandjournal.bsky.social
A print and online magazine dedicated to thoughtful journalism about the environment and other intersectional issues. Send pitches to submissions@earthisland.org.
The western US is on fire, and the Trump administration is pushing an aggressive “forest-thinning” agenda that could make fire seasons much worse. In the second story of a three-part investigation, Paul Koberstein (@canopyoftitans.bsky.social) shares what's wrong with the Fix Our Forests Act.
Fix Our Forests Act: A Faulty Solution to Wildfire
The Trump administration seems to believe we need to cut down forests to save them from burning.
earthisland.org
France is facing another record wildfire season. Just a year ago, a record fire blazed through the historic Corbières wine region in the southeast. Journalist Christopher Clark visited Corbières last October to investigate the existential threat to the region as well as solutions from the past.
After the Fire
Rethinking the future of France’s historic Corbières wine region.
earthisland.org
Senegal is betting on LNG as a bridge to economic development. But it may be the people of Senegal who pay the price for a risky investment. Local fishers, whose livelihoods are directly threatened by a new BP gas platform in the waters off Saint Louis, are the first in line. From @desmog.com.
“They Want Us Gone”: BP Gas Field Forces Out Senegal’s Fishers
Traditional fishing grounds are off-limits to locals as the government pursues a high-risk gamble on gas, say experts.
earthisland.org
Brooke Anderson (@movementphotog.bsky.social) has spent two decades photographing social movements. “In an attention economy that thrives on distraction and disinformation, I work with communities fighting for justice to make their struggles visible." Read her essay from our Summer 2026 issue.
The Real Art Is Seeing
“I refuse to cede control of the story to those who would wield it against us.”
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Thanks Paul Koberstein (@canopyoftitans.bsky.social) for the important background and science surrounding pyrocumulonimbus ("fire clouds") like the one we just saw in France, and the forest-thinning operations (read: slash piles) that could make matters worse. Edited by @jasondovemark.bsky.social.
Earth Island Journal@earthislandjournal.bsky.social · last wk.“Fire clouds” are in the news as wildfires rage across Canada and Europe — a pyrocumulonimbus storm cloud was just recorded in France for the first time. But our understanding of this phenomenon — and what makes it worse — traces back to California's 2013 Rim Fire. By @canopyoftitans.bsky.social.
“Fire clouds” are in the news as wildfires rage across Canada and Europe — a pyrocumulonimbus storm cloud was just recorded in France for the first time. But our understanding of this phenomenon — and what makes it worse — traces back to California's 2013 Rim Fire. By @canopyoftitans.bsky.social.
The US Forest Service Is Creating Fue…
Slash piles left behind from forest-thinning operations may be helping to generate pyrocumulonimbus fire storms, say researchers.
earthisland.org
For our Summer 2026 issue, Zain Azhar — a dentist and journalist based in Okara, Pakistan — wrote about a surprising impact of extreme heat on the human body: It breaks down human teeth. Azhar's reporting was just featured on @livingonearthradio.bsky.social by @prx.org. Have a listen!
Living on Earth: Extreme Heat and Tooth Decay
The extreme heat that’s becoming far more common in a warming world is now being linked to dental problems. As the body prioritizes sweat for cooling over saliva production, the resulting dry mouth ca...
loe.org
“The new normal: It seems the most apt way of describing a planet ... permanently out of whack." But there’s a real danger in this thinking: acceptance, “the gateway to indifference and inaction.” Today, @jasondovemark.bsky.social takes on "shifting baseline syndrome," the premise of his new book.
Are We At Least as Smart as a Frog in Hot Water?
As the aberrant becomes the ordinary, we can’t let our instinct for adapting lead to climate change acceptance.
earthisland.org
Comprehensive article about the Flamingo Revolution in #Albania published by @earthislandjournal.bsky.social My contribution with focus on the impact of Vlora airport for the eventual alteration & destruction of #Vjosa #Narta ecosystem. @euronatur.bsky.social www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...
How a Trump Family-Tied Luxury Resort Sparked Albania’s “Flamingo Revolution”
What started as a fight to protect an ecologically sensitive coastal area has turned into the largest civil protest in the country’s recent history.
earthisland.org
“They’re blatantly breaking the law,” says Michael Garrity, director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, referring to Trump’s Forest Service. “But they can get away with it if no one sues.” Meet the two “combat biologists” who keep suing — and who keep winning — to delay logging on public lands.
The Combat Biologists
As the Trump administration opens millions of acres of public land to logging, two aging conservationists are fighting back — and winning.
earthisland.org
An uprising is underway in Albania, triggered by plans for a massive luxury resort project backed by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in an ecologically delicate protected area of the country’s southern coast called Vjosa-Narta. It's the first serious threat to Prime Minister Edi Rama’s power.
How a Trump Family-Tied Luxury Resort Sparked Albania’s “Flamingo Revolution”
What started as a fight to protect an ecologically sensitive coastal area has turned into the largest civil protest in the country’s recent history.
earthisland.org
In June, President Trump announced plans to put $75 million into a controversial coal export terminal in Oakland, California — injecting new life into the opposition. On @kpfa.org, Terra Verde Co-host and EIJ Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren talks with 2 local advocates about where things stand.
Keeping Coal Out of Oakland
Locals rally once again as President Trump injects cash into a long-contested California export terminal.
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The Indigenous Mohana fishing community has spent centuries living on the waters of Lake Manchar in southern Pakistan. But in just a few decades, the lake’s fragile ecosystem has collapsed. And with that, an entire way of life is slipping away. Guillaume Petermann brings us this visual journey.
People of the Lake
Pakistan’s Mohana fishing community has long depended on Lake Manchar. Now pollution is threatening the ecosystem along with a centuries-old way of life.
earthisland.org
Michael Bond’s new book, Animate: How Animals Shape the Human Mind, dives into the long history of humanity’s connections to, and fascination with, the animal world. And in doing so, it challenges the idea of human exceptionalism, writes Elisa Shoenberger in this summer book review.
Animal Instincts
In Review: Animate
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With glaciers that cool the climate and feed South Asia’s great rivers, biodiversity corridors that link mountain ecosystems, and watersheds that sustain nearly 2 billion people, Nepal is a prime candidate for “debt-for-nature swaps.” Researcher Sahasranshu Dash explains why they're a bad idea.
Nepal’s Glaciers Are Not Collateral
“Debt-for-nature” swaps will do more harm than good for this climate-vulnerable Himalayan nation.
earthisland.org
Last year, the Trump administration shut down Climate.gov, a comprehensive public source of climate science maintained by NOAA. Now, three former NOAA staffers — all women — have crowdsourced funding, rescued key climate resources from the old site, and relaunched it as Climate.us.
Trump dismantled a federal climate website. These women rebuilt it.
After losing their jobs at NOAA, Rebecca Lindsey, her sister and another colleague teamed up to rebuild a pivotal resource the Trump administration took offline.
19thnews.org
The movement to recognize animals, rivers, and entire ecosystems as legal persons is gaining steam. Recently, a small town west of Montreal, Canada, decided to officially recognize trees as individuals with legal rights, including the right to regeneration, natural growth, and, of course, life.
Quebec town recognizes trees as living beings with rights
A small town west of Montreal has decided to officially recognize trees as living beings with rights of their own.
ctvnews.ca
“Donald J. Trump has been obsessed with water, at least the algae-green water in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that he wants to be a beautiful, pristine blue,” writes Tom Engelhardt. “When it comes to the planet he now helps oversee, water is going to be a problem and a half, algae or not.”
Donald J. Trump, Arsonist-in-Chief
As Europe and the East Coast swelter, the president of the United States should be concerned about more than algae.
earthisland.org
Quick reminder that in typical years, extreme heat kills more Americans than all other so-called natural disasters…combined.
Nothing dissolves the ego more easily or more quickly than #darkness, a precious and increasingly rare source of #humility. Grateful to Big Sky Journal for reprinting this #essay, first published @earthislandjournal.bsky.social @earthisland.bsky.social & selected as top-5 pick by @longreads.com.
Outside: Dark Matter - Big Sky Journal
Montanans pride themselves on protecting natural wonders, but very few have considered protecting the dark. The dark, after all, scares us. Not the darkness of a room, perhaps, or even a house. But th...
bigskyjournal.com
“Hearts are forever bound to smaller, more intimate corners of Earth,” writes Michael Engelhard in this ode to the Grand Canyon Lodge, which burned down a year ago. On the eve of the fire’s anniversary, Engelhard reflects on a special place and what’s left when nature breaks the things we build.
The Dragon’s Breath: Lament for a Grand Canyon Icon
Our hearts are forever bound to smaller, more intimate corners of Earth. Their demise can bring home the reality of climate chaos.
earthisland.org
"Eighty percent of Earth is now affected by 'skyglow,' a disarmingly beautiful term for the brightening of the night sky," which can cause entire ecosystems to suffer, writes @tkdano.bsky.social in her latest #BeyondHuman column in the Journal's summer 2026 print issue.
Endless Light
The night sky is endangered. That’s a problem for wildlife.
earthisland.org
Mexico's brewing problem: Big Alcohol has taken over most of the country's mezcal industry, pushing out artisanal businesses and sucking up precious groundwater in arid regions. www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...
Brewing Drought
Mexico’s surge in alcohol production is leaving locals high and dry.
earthisland.org
Bird populations are crashing, due to habitat loss and cats and, of course, climate change. But a major reason is that birds are running out of food, which for many means insects. In his latest "Lookout" column, @jasondovemark.bsky.social learns to love the bugs that feed the birds.
On Birds and Bugs
If we hope to save our feathered friends, we have to give a thought to insects too.
earthisland.org
My latest column for @earthislandjournal.bsky.social: "As a deep ecologist who believes in the intrinsic rights of all species, I should probably value insects in and of themselves. But I should be honest — I love the bugs because they feed the birds." www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...
On Birds and Bugs
If we hope to save our feathered friends, we have to give a thought to insects too.
earthisland.org
From lawsuits against the US government to major corporations such as Coca-Cola, Earth Island Advocates — the legal program of Earth Island Institute (@earthisland.bsky.social) — is known for advancing cases in defense of the planet. Learn more in this summer project report by @serenarenner.com.
Advocates for Earth
Reflecting on the successes and lessons of Earth Island’s legal program.
earthisland.org
Meet Gerhard Schwab, aka “the Beaver God,” who advocates for beavers across Germany’s southeastern state of Bavaria. The furry ecosystem engineers bring broad benefits, but they’re multiplying and butting up against human populations. So what does Schwab do? Export them. By Yannic Rack.
The Beaver God of Bavaria
One man has done more than anyone else to bring beavers back to Europe. Some might find his tactics unorthodox.
earthisland.org
In this episode of Terra Verde @kpfa.org, Earth Island Journal Editor-in-Chief @maureennandinimtra.bsky.social interviews @anniemleonard.bsky.social and @acarothers.bsky.social about why we must continue exercising our fundamental right to peaceful protest, even when it might feel unsafe to do so.
“Being Active in Community Is the Greatest Antidote to Despair”
Annie Leonard and André Carothers on why we need to protect our right to dissent.
earthisland.org
A dentist in Pakistan noticed that a number of his patients who do agricultural work in the central-eastern state of Punjab were suffering from an aggressive form of tooth decay. Climate change and extreme heat, he concluded, were the cause. By Zain Azhar for @earthislandjournal.bsky.social:
When the Heat Steals Your Smile
A dentist documents how extreme heat is turning Pakistani farmworkers’ mouths into hostile environments for their own teeth.
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